Take what you want steal my pride

Build me up or cut me down to size

Shut me out but I'll just scream

I'm only one voice in a million

But you ain't taking that from me

-Natasha Bedingfield-

He tapped his foot, running his hand through his hair, like he'd often teased James for doing. There was this nagging feeling, and he could not get over it. Why did he care what Dirk Cresswell could be lying about? He was just this speck that Mary was dating at the time. He was nothing. But Sirius still cared, because for some stupid fucking reason he thought it could connect back with her and it gripped him.

So, though he would never admit and he felt like it was the lowest thing he'd done in a great minute. It wasn't an obsession he had. It was that he had a fixation with discovering what the big mystery was. He remembered the fear on her face and once his rage had dropped away, once he had gotten away from his own hurt, he couldn't escape the idea that something was happening to her. Even if he couldn't do anything about it, he just…he needed to know.

In his animagus form, he followed Dirk when he knew he wasn't meant to meet Mary. It was when everyone else was at dinner; he headed towards the defense classroom, and peeked in to see who he was meeting. Maybe if it was no one important than he could stop this. Stop being suspicious and just shag a fifth year or something. This was the last pathetic straw. He was Sirius Black, one of the most popular blokes at Hogwarts. This wasn't him. If this lead nowhere he had to give it up. He had to let her go.

"Were you followed?" Professor McKinnon asked him.

"I don't think so. I'm not the type of person that would get followed." Dirk said. "Where is she?"

He cleared his throat, and Sirius couldn't hear what he said, so he took a chance.

He used his nose to slowly crack the door open and then when neither of the men noticed the noise he slipped into the back row.

"I don't like the idea of using my baby sister as bait." He said uneasily leaning back on his desk.

"I don't like this much either, but I trust her. I think she knows what she's doing." Dirk said.

"I hope so. But just," McKinnon handed Dirk something. "Let me know if she needs anything."

Dirk nodded, "Will do."

That was it; she was up to something incredibly stupid. Sirius followed Dirk out but he turned back into a human, and pulled out the map that he'd knicked from Remus's desk. Then he searched for her name and was relieved to see her name and find that she was alone and near by.

He charged to the kitchens, strutted inside and stood in front of her. She was sitting there, reading the seventh year book on Transfiguration with a box of strawberries next to her. She was wearing sweats. Marlene McKinnon never wore sweats. He was caught of guard. For a few minutes he stood there until she glanced up from her book for a moment and saw him standing there.

"…Black?" She stood up, her face scrunched up in confusion.

She gasped and reached for her wand, her fingers flexing and trembling with effort but missing it by just a few spare inches.

"What are you going to do now?" He growled at her. "Why are you being used for bait?"

"What are you talking…." Marlene stopped and curled her lips furiously, "Have you been spying on me?"

"No." He said defiantly.

Marlene stood up and grabbed him by his collar to yank him down to her height. "Listen, you pain in my ass. I get that you don't trust me. I get that you are constantly under the impression that I'm going to do something to hurt you and your little pack of freaks. But let me get one-thing straight with you. I'm not your girlfriend and I never was. I don't answer to you, nor will I ever. So I don't owe you an explanation…I don't owe you shit."

Sirius scoffed. "Has it ever occurred to you that I'm making sure you stay alive?"

"That, is my job you neanderthal! NOT YOURS!" Marlene growled at him. "What is wrong with you? You are the love-them-and-leave-them type! Why aren't you leaving?! Why don't you ever leave?! Are you aware that you are supposed to not care about me?!"

"I don't care. I'm just-"

"You're just, what?! WHAT?!"

Sirius sucked in a breath, his jaw thinning, "You are infuriating."

"Yeah?! SO ARE YOU!"

They were inches a part, her hand was still locked around the coarse fabric of his undershirt, her teeth were clenched, their skin was flushed bright pink and both of their fists were balled. Her eyes traveled across his face, noticing every flicker, every bated breath that was leaving his stupid perfect mouth.

"You. Can't. Be. Here." Marlene hissed, "You can't be near me."

"I don't care. I don't care what I'm supposed to do. Or what's good for me."

Marlene hung her head, a sigh on her lips. "You never do."

"I don't change."

"You already did."

He furrowed his eyebrows and he glanced down at the hand still clamped on his shirt.

Marlene released him, straightened up and cleared her throat. "You should go."

Sirius's jaw locked, he crossed his arms and said, "Why won't you just tell me what you're doing?"

"Because it's not your problem." Marlene cleared her throat, "I'm not your problem…I can save myself."

"I'm not asking if you needed saving. I'm asking if you need help."

She tossed her bag over her shoulder and shook her head. "Black, you have your own shit. I'm not dragging you into mine."

He laughed, rubbing his lips together, "Fine, forget it. Forget I offered. Forget I ever said anything. In fact forget I exist, it seems to be your favorite hobby."

"If I could forget you I would have already."

She hadn't meant to say it, but whenever she was within five feet of Sirius Black she couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut. And he couldn't keep his hands to himself when he was within a mile of her. He took a stride forward, grabbed her by the back of his waist and he kissed her. It firm, and full of everything he'd been repressing and ignoring for the past month. Marlene sighed into his lips, and gripped his shoulders possessively. They didn't seem to have an ounce of sense between them, but Marlene's conscience came back and reared its ugly head.

Marlene pulled back, her blue eyes open and full of apprehension. "We have to stop."

"And yet we never do."

Her voice lowered and she said earnestly, "Sirius, you have to stay away from me."

"Give me one real reason why I should."

"Because it could get me killed if you don't."

His face darkened and he looked away from her.

"I'm not keeping you away for fun. We were playing a dangerous game you and I and now I'm involved in something with bigger stakes that you can't get wrapped up in."

"Just tell me why. Tell why and I'll stop." Sirius said quietly, "I'll never come near you again. Just…I can't walk away without knowing you'll be okay."

Marlene hesitated before gently cupping his face and turning it towards her. "I will take care of myself. You just take care of you. Hang out with your friends and just be you. I'll be fine. Just…please stop doing this to yourself, okay?"

"Okay… I'll," He lingered for a moment before continuing, "stay out of it."

"Thank you."

Carefully, and slowly, Marlene reached up on her tiptoes and left a warm, soft kiss on the surface of his lips. It was quite unlike any other kiss she'd ever given him because they were always kisses that lead somewhere else. It was loving and tender but it wasn't full of passion and desperation. This was a kiss that stopped everything. This was the one kiss she'd tried to give him but never could. It was a kiss goodbye.

Her fingers traced his stubble-lined jaw for a second longer than necessary, before dropping her heels to the floor and shifting away from him. He didn't look at her the first time she broke things off with him, but this time he did. Sirius didn't know if it was just because he was masochistic, but he needed to see her eyes when she did it. Last time he didn't know if she cried or had any expression at all, this time he saw everything and he knew that no amount of words would fix the problems between them.

Straightening up, Sirius took a breath and then he said, "Bye, McKinnon."

"Bye, Black."

She walked out the door, and he sat down in the seat she had been sitting in when he had arrived. The pain was still there, but now it wasn't suffocating. It was bearable and the longer he sat, the better it settled in on him.

When he finally stood up, the house elves offered him a cookie and he strutted out of the kitchens nibbling on it.

Bravery was not Marlene's strong suit; or rather she preferred to not think it was. Bravery was too strongly leaked to recklessness and stupidity in her head for her to think it was a positive trait. After all, the brave hardly ever think of the consequences of their actions because then they would probably not execute the task if they thoroughly thought it through.

This was something she had entirely and completely thought through, but still her pulse was quick and her hands trembled at her sides.

Gathering her strength, Marlene sat down next to Lestrange at lunch like she had ever other day that month. No one spoke to her or even noticed her presence and for some reason that gave her a jolt of energy. She took the engagement ring, the ring that he had oh-so-generously given her three days before and placed it on the table next to his plate.

At first he noticed nothing. He merely continued eating with an indifferent expression on his face, but the shine from the large ring caught his eye three bites into his salad.

"Why isn't that on your finger?"

"I put it on, but it didn't really fit me."

"Then send it to get it expanded for your large fingers." He said roughly, "Get it off the table."

Marlene smirked, "Oh I didn't mean the size. I meant I'm not accepting it."

He swallowed harshly, his green eyes turning onto her. "Excuse me?"

"I believe you heard me." She said in a neutral tone, aware that though no one was listening to them, it would change the minute his blood pressure rose to the rage it was headed towards.

"McKinnon," He spat her name like it belonged to the bastard of the town drunk. "I believe we have talked about this."

"Not to my satisfaction. See. I don't want to marry you, and I just gave you back the ring so I have no other affiliations with you, as you remember I never did sign the marriage contract when we had dinner with your parents last. So therefore our union is broken."

Lestrange faced her, his eyes flashing. "Do you have any idea how stupid-"

"Let's get one thing correct," Marlene cut him off, "I'm not stupid. I'd be underselling myself to say I'm twice as smart as you are. Like how I discovered how you tried to swindle my father to give you my dowry and when he wouldn't do it before the marriage you looked into how much of my inheritance you could get your slimly little hands on. But see, now there's nothing that entitles you to my money or anything I own."

"If you die, and no one knows about it, then I still get everything."

Marlene snorted, "Oh honey, you don't read do you? I have to sign that contract in order for you to automatically be my next of kin. Also, just to take the edge off of that lovely option, I have no money for you to take anyway. There's not a single galleon in my bank account. So you could kill me, but there would be no benefits, only the chance that you could get caught, charged and sent to Azkaban for the rest of your miserable days."

"You couldn't have moved all of that money-"

"But I did."

"You have to go to Gringotts to make a withdrawal. You've never left the castle without me." He growled.

Marlene shook her head. "No. All you need is someone with the key. So it didn't actually require me leaving at all. It was rather simple really…"

"I'm going to-"

"What? Kill me? If you do that, I have several letters in your handwriting in one of my sibling's possession in which you threaten my life. I'm going to guess that if something happens to me, since my brother is an Auror, there's not a place within a thousand miles you can hide to get away from that."

He straightened up. "I don't have to kill you to kill you."

"If you put as much as a single mark on my body, I guarantee you my brother, that rather large man at the staff table will know about it… My sister is long gone, you have nothing more on me. You're done."

His throat clenched while he calculated a loophole she had missed. "I have your step-mother. She will never let you do this."

Marlene leaned forward. "Well, her and my father seem to be vacationing in Australia at the moment and I suggest they put a no-owl spell on themselves so they would have a true vacation no hassle from his work or things like that. They should be gone for a month or so. They haven't had a vacation in years, you see but they won the trip out of the blue last week, what are the chances? And they just had to take up on it."

"Your friends, your little boyfriend."

"Dirk and Alice are surrounded by Gryffindor's around the clock and," She laughed, "I would pay good money to see you try and out-duel Sirius. It's the one thing he's an expert at…Well one of the two things…"

Marlene cleared her throat with a shrug, "So Lestrange. I do believe our business is done here. I'd wish you luck, but

"Your brother-in law." He stated, making her stop in her tracks. "I'm sure he will love to know where you are."

She turned and scoffed, "Go ahead, tell him."

"This isn't over."

"Why do men always say that?" She said strolling back over to him. "What do you all think? That you have control over everything and everyone? Let me let you in on one final lesson; it's over when, I say it's over. And Lestrange, any lock you had on me, is over."

He stood up, and she didn't run, she didn't duck, she just stood there, perfect posture, with a precise poised look in her eyes.

His skin was red, and his jaw was ticking in fury, his hand wrapped around his wand so tightly his knuckles were bright white.

Marlene said, "Go ahead, hit me. Hex me. You probably know as little about the wand as the tiny one in your trousers."

By then not only was the whole Slytherin table was alert and paying close attention to their conversation, but nearly everyone in the hall was as well. She could see the gears in his brain turning but the twitching and clenching of the muscles around his temple, but she refused to be afraid. She wasn't going to shudder or quiver in front of him. He was just a man, a man who tried his hand at chess thinking she was an inferior creature, a little girl, who would be easily defeated. Lestrange had thought, just like every man like him that fear was the ultimate way to cripple an enemy. If he cut off everything from her, isolated her and took away anything that made her happy, he thought she would fall apart and stay down, submissive and never strong enough to get up again. That's why he forced her to quit Quidditch when there was absolutely nothing damning to him from her playing.

But he underestimated her. Fear was supposed to keep her in place and if she had slipped out of line he thought he would be able to catch it like he had been able to with Sirius. He didn't anticipated that she could be this strategic or prepared. It had become quite clear to him that she had rendered him without options. He could strike her, or attack her when no one was around, but she had a safety net. So what could he really do without bringing hell down on himself?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Marlene took a step forward, her four-inch heel tapping on the floor, and then another, and then another until she could see the splashes of coal twisted in his green eyes.

"You don't own me anymore. You can't control me. You. Have. Lost."

Staring at him for a few seconds, she looked him dead in the eye waiting for him to say something, anything to refute it, she was ready for a fight and completely and entirely willing to get into it. All he had to do was start it. But he broke eye contact with a deep scowl on his face.

And she said, "That's what I thought." Then she puffed out her chest and she strutted over to the Ravenclaw table.