11 May 1997

A couple of weeks passed since Mia and Harry's reconciliation after the Horcrux situation and, so far, that time had been rather eventless in terms of Death Eater attacks or other sorts of trouble, leaving the Order mostly inactive and worried about the meaning of that eventlessness.

Following the conflict with the Blacks concerning his omission of the Horcruxes, Dumbledore seemed have decided to give them an update on it every once or twice a week mentioning anything he had or not found about that matter. Though lately she'd been holding sort of a grudge against the headmaster, barely acknowledging him with anything other than a polite nod, Mia felt thankful for that since, well, it helped keeping them aware of what was going on. She knew it was sort of a way for Dumbledore to relieve his conscience. But it still helped a little.

The day of the eleventh of May dawned calmly and also remained calm until the time when Sirius and Mia arrived home around two o'clock in the afternoon after teaching their classes of a day and having lunch out in Muggle London. The house was empty when they got there: Gabe and Lulu were taking little Mary, Alex and his friend Darcy to the Muggle zoo and weren't supposed to come back for a few hours and Kreacher was… well, they simply had no idea where he was.

"I don't know. Maybe he went out to get groceries for dinner or something," Mia told her husband when he asked her about the house-elf's whereabouts while they climbed up the stairs, headed to the living room. "You know he mostly stays out of the way when the kids aren't around."

A grin covered her husband's face as he heard her response. "Hum, good," he said. "That is good."

Mia spun around as they reached the first floor and narrowed her eyes at him. "I know that tone," she warned him.

He forced an innocent look on his face, then. "What tone, love?"

"The one you used when you said 'good'. Don't pretend you don't know what it is, Sirius Orion Black," she said.

The innocent look remained on its place even as he approached her and rubbed his knuckles softly on her cheek in a gentle caress. "I'm sorry, love, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Lie. "Maybe you'll have to enlighten me." But he didn't even give her a chance to do it. At least not in a verbal way. Instead, he leaned further and crushed her lips with his.

Mia convinced herself it was mostly out of instinct that she responded immediately. Nothing to do with the fact that she couldn't resist that damn handsome bloke that was kissing her who happened to be married to her. Who was all hers. "I knew that was your 'I see a good opportunity to shag you in the horizon' look," she mumbled in a rough voice

"Is that a problem?" he asked her with a charming look, softly pushing her into the living room, where she dumped the bag she was carrying on a chair.

Well, being Sirius the eager bloke, it was her duty to give him a bit of a fight by acting as the reluctant one. So, Mia let out a worried sigh. "I wouldn't want you to think I'm the sort of girl that just jumps on a guy without some romantic gesture to build up to it," she whispered teasingly. "It's the least he can do, isn't it?"

"Hey, I recall us having a pretty romantic lunch less than an hour ago," he told her.

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "We ate a hamburger sandwich and chips at some Muggle food-chain restaurant, Sirius, that's hardly considered a romantic lunch," she pointed out. She wasn't sure if he really thought of it as a romantic gesture of if he was using it as an excuse. But knowing him, her money would be on the second – Sirius simply wasn't that dense, was he?

He gave her a grin, pulling her. "But love," he said, faking extreme innocence, "we shared a dose of chips and one of those chocolate Saturday ice creams or whatever they're called. I just don't do that with every girl. Plus, it's the company that counts, right? Anyway, Muggles seem to like that burger stuff a lot – I imagined it might be nice for us to try it. Wasn't that bad, was it?" He kissed her lips again and gave her a charming smile. "I promise I'll work on something better next time."

That last part, she knew, he meant. She smiled even though all that time she'd known that a special meal or something didn't matter all that much. Not really. Just as long as he was there, those things didn't really matter. "You're lucky I find you so wildly attractive, Mr. Black," she whispered reaching with her lips closer to his ear.

He grinned. "You're rather easy in the eyes too," Sirius told her as she pulled back a little, just enough so their lips were now around a quarter inch apart. "So? Sofa?" He nodded at the piece of furniture a few feet away.

"Hum, there's nobody else in the hou…" He didn't let her finish, not resisting kissing her again. They edged closer to the sofa, their lips impossibly remaining together. How they didn't fall down, knocked something over or stepped on each other's feet, so entranced they were in the kissing part, was a mystery – the fact was that there neither causalities nor wounded by the time reached down for the sofa, still taking a seating position. But before they got any further, the sound of tapping on the window startled them.

"Ignore it," he mumbled, seeing an owl through the corner of his eye.

Mia tried to do so at first. Still, the tapping continued, in an increasingly bugging fashion, becoming incessant. It was just bloody annoying! "It could be important," Mia said finally, pulling away as she felt something tightening within her chest. Could be just an Owl with an annoying personality. Could be news, good or bad… "I gotta check," she said, standing up.

Sirius groaned, leaning against the back of the sofa and sighing as a pout took over his face – if anyone saw him at that moment, they'd say he looked just like a kid who'd been stolen his favourite piece of sweet. A really pretty one, he thought as he observed his wife rushing to the window, even if her hair a mess of knots thanks to his roaming hands and her face awfully flushed from the kissing. Why was it that, between Lulu, their younger kids wailing or bloody owls delivering messages they ended up interrupted so many times?

She glared at the wretched bird. "This had better be important," she told the owl under her breath while she untied the little roll of parchment from its leg. With its mission accomplished, the owl flew away just as Mia was unrolling the small note. Small but enough to sour her mood even further… "Oh, not again," she mumbled.

Sirius stood up from the sofa as soon as he heard the words, expecting the worse. "What is it?" he asked even before having the chance to look over her shoulder and read the words written on the note.

"McGonagall is fetching us to Hogwarts right now because Harry is in trouble. 'In a disciplinary sense of the word', according to her," Mia said, huffing and crumpling the paper into a ball in irritation and throwing it straight out of the window without thinking. "Is somebody kidding me? More trouble? It's like we bought season tickets for the whole bloody trouble league!"

"Well, at least if it's in a disciplinary sense, he's probably not in trouble in a… life or death sense," Sirius pointed out, feeling a hint of relief bursting within his chest. "And, let's face it, it's probably another one of Snape's tantrums, since he's had hundreds of them already in this school-year alone."

Mia laughed sarcastically. "Well, that's just mind-settling. And McGonagall wouldn't have us called if it wasn't serious." She sighed and looked up at him. "Looks like we'll have to leave our plans for later."

He raised an eyebrow. "You seem pretty upset for someone who was being so difficult at first."

"Oh, shut up," she mumbled, huffing and getting the shoes she had discarded at some point in order to put them back on so they could leave.

They ended up using the floo connection to Mia's office, as usual, and didn't have to take a long stretch of corridors and more corridors in order to reach McGonagall's since it was relatively close to Mia's.

As they were about to turn around the corner and reaching the hallway that led to the deputy headmistress's office, they started hearing the echo of voices that at some point they recognized as Snape and McGonagall's – they must be discussing something right outside of the latter's office, Mia concluded. Before they took the final step that would make them visible to the other two, Sirius stopped and motioned to make his wife do the same – they couldn't waste that chance to gather a little information from the conversation and avoid being caught by surprise…

"…and I demand you take an action about this, Minerva. Potter can't get away with this!" they heard Snape saying in a stern tone.

"See? I told you it was one of Snape's fits," Sirius whispered to his wife, who sighed in return. Those were happening way too often.

McGonagall's voice followed Snape's. "Severus, I will not take any action until Potter's guardians are here. Since you are so keen on defending Mr. Malfoy's side and Mrs. Malfoy is on her way here as well, I imagine it's only fair Potter has a cheering crowd too. And I would advise you to quit making demands."

It seemed the discussion was ended there since neither Snape tried to reply nor McGonagall continued. Seeing no use in eavesdropping anymore, Mia turned to her husband, signalling for them to just resume heading to McGonagall's office. He shrugged in return and followed her closely.

Snape was the first to see them, stiffening just as soon as he did and mumbling something under his breath that, even though they couldn't hear it, appeared to be an insult. McGonagall turned as well a couple of seconds later and sighed when she saw them.

"Mia, Sirius, I'm sorry I ruined your afternoon but I thought you ought to be called for this," McGonagall told them.

"It's fine," Mia told her. "What happened? What did Harry do?"

"Your troublemaker of a godson…" Snape started, more than glad to put things in those terms.

"We'll leave it for him to explain," McGonagall interrupted, motioning towards her office's door, which she opened. "If you'd accompany me…" she requested.

They came in to see Harry and Malfoy with their backs turned to them sitting opposite McGonagall's desk, their chairs around five feet away from each other like they were being kept apart. Filch was also inside, pacing as he held his precious cat, Mrs. Norris and petting her – he seemed to be in charge of keeping them from jumping at each other's throats.

"Thank you for your help, Argus. You're free to go," McGonagall dismissed the caretaker, who appeared not to happy with it – likely, Sirius thought, the creep had been hoping to get a chance to whip at least one of the culprits, so to speak.

It was only when both Harry and Malfoy turned around to check who had came in that Sirius and Mia noticed the poor state they were in.

"What on Earth…?" Mia mumbled staring at Harry's split and swollen lip that definitely matched with Malfoy's swollen eye. "You got yourself into a fight, for Merlin's sake?"

"It wasn't me who started it!" Harry replied to her. "Malfoy was!"

"I did not!" Malfoy replied, lying. "Potter jumped out of nowhere and started throwing curses at me! He's mad!"

"That's bogus! If anyone is mad, it's you! Must be from spending so much time in the Room of Requirement plotting stuff! Conspiracy is bad for sanity – just look at your master!"

"Enough!" McGonagall shouted at both of them. "I will not have a childish fight between two nearly off-age wizards inside my own office! Each one of you, Potter and Malfoy, will speak at his own time. There will be no interrupti…"

"My baby!" The horrified cry came just as Narcissa Malfoy walked in with the same superior fashion she seemed to be such a fan of. Her cold blue eyes darted to Sirius, taking a fraction of second to 'greet' her cousin with a glare, and then at Harry, who was terrifyingly reminded of a basilisk's eyes just as soon as saw the way she looked – at least her eyes didn't have the same powers to kill or he'd have dropped dead. "How dare you attack my son?"

"Narcissa, please, calm down," McGonagall intervened as she moved to stand behind her desk, facing the two young boys.

"How am I supposed to calm down when that filthy half-blood troublemaker attacked my Draco?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "When will you realize that blood-status insults are losing their charms? And what tells you it wasn't your sweet beloved Draco that attacked Harry, Cissy?"

"How dare you?" she shouted, outraged. "Unlike your hand-me-down brat, my Draco had a prime upbringing…"

"First of all, the only thing that's hand-me-down in this room is your bitchiness that came straight from Bella when she decided being a maniac was better than being a bitch!" Sirius replied. "Second of all, prime upbringing? Let's face it, being raised by a hag like you would hardly give him a decent set of morals."

The way his cousin's mouth opened, it seemed like she was about to shout. Yet, McGonagall beat her to it. "That will be enough! Insulting and cursing in front of students?" Her eyes were blazing and for a moment it seemed like she wanted to strangle them both. "That is unacceptable. Now, either both of you mind your language or I'll begin to think that calling you to intervene in this matter was my mistake!"

Both Sirius and Narcissa's response was based in silence. He glanced down at Mia, trying to figure if she was also angry at him, seeing as he'd failed in controlling this tongue – who could blame him? – and was surprised to see her giving him an approving nod. Harry seemed to be enjoying the show quite much, shooting him a quick smile.

"As I was going to do before this pitiful show started," McGonagall started, shooting another glare at Sirius and then at Narcissa, "I'll leave it up to Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter to give you the full story."

"I think Malfoy should be the one to start," Snape suggested in a bland tone. "After all, he seems to be the one who was attacked…"

"That's a lie!" Harry yelled.

"Five points from Gryffindor for interrupting a teacher!" the head of the Slytherin house said.

Mia gave him a look that clearly said 'Oh, really?' "Five points to Gryffindor for successfully correcting a teacher's mistake," she said. "Two can play at that game."

"There will be no point-giving or point-taking in this room until this matter is solved!" McGonagall yelled at both of them. "Have all of you regressed to the mental age of five? Don't make me go fetch the headmaster!" She said that last part, aware that Dumbledore was, once again, running his own errands, whatever they were, outside the school. "Malfoy, give your side of the story and be done with it."

The blonde boy shrugged. "I was in the Bathroom minding my own business before Potter came in and started throwing curses at me. That's all I have to say."

Harry gritted his teeth and shook his head. What use was it to shout 'liar' again when nobody seemed to be interested?

"I want that rascal expelled!" Narcissa shouted, then.

"We still haven't heard Potter's version," McGonagall told her before turning to face Harry. "Well?"

Finally they were letting him give his account of the events. He gave a quick glance to Sirius and Mia, who nodded at him, urging him to speak. "I saw Malfoy's…" He paused. He couldn't say Malfoy's dot – then he'd have to explain about the Marauder's Map and he didn't want that – they'd take it away. No, he'd make up that part. "I was heading back to the Common Room and happened to see Malfoy going into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on his own and found it odd since it's a girl's bathroom. So, I followed him there and he was having this… deep conversation with Moaning Myrtle all weepy and everything!"

"I was not crying like some… pansy, Potter!" Malfoy yelled, offended and embarrassed at the same tine.

"Oh, yes, you …"

"Gentlemen!" McGonagall called loudly, her patience reaching its limits, making them both go very quiet. "Mr. Malfoy, you've already had your chance to speak, so be quiet now. Potter, continue."

Harry gulped as the deputy headmistress looked with narrowed eyes at them both. "Oh, I… er… Malfoy," he said, sending a glare at his school-enemy as he spoke, "was weeping in the bathroom and when he saw me there, he started throwing curses at me. I escaped a few and so did he – it went on for a while like that. That is, until he started saying the incantation for the Cruciatus Curse." There was a general gasp as soon as he said that and he continued before being interrupted. "I managed to disarm him first and that's when we started… punching each other… I'm not sure who threw the first punch, though…"

"Wait, what?" Mia asked in horror, staring at Harry. "He tried to use what curse?"

"I did not!" Malfoy lied

"My son did no such thing!" Narcissa yelled, taking a threatening step in Harry's direction as her son sat on his chair with his arms crossed and a pout on his face as if he was throwing a fit. The blonde woman was stopped by Snape, though, who lifted his arm to create a barrier between her and Harry even before Sirius and Mia had the chance to take a step towards her. Narcissa looked at the former Potions Master, irritated at having been stopped and he shook his head.

"Don't make a show, Narcissa," he told her firmly before turning to Harry himself and cleared his throat. "That is very interesting, Potter," Snape said in a low tone. "But do you have any proof for those accusations?"

"Oh, and Malfoy has for his?" Sirius replied, leaning against the wall of the office, only a few feet away from their godson.

"I was there! I saw it! I heard it!" Harry told Snape and, on the chair next to him, Malfoy seemed to go even paler than he usually was. "I can show my memories in a pensieve, can't I? If you Professor McGonagall gives me my wand back and tells me how to get them out…"

"Pensieve memories can be altered!"

"By a sixteen-year-old?" Sirius asked, laughing mockingly. "Well, that would be a feat since I'm thirty-seven and I can't do that myself. Why don't you go grease your hair some more and leave the thinking to the big kids?"

"Sirius!" McGonagall shouted, her left eye apparently twitching at how angry she was. "There are students in the room! If you want to go and trade childish insults, take it outside! And as for proving what happened," she turned to Harry, "Potter, you are making very serious accusations involving an unforgivable curse that could give Mr. Malfoy several years of prison-time. However, accusations aren't enough to prove it and your pensieve memories won't be enough to do so as well, I'm afraid."

"They were enough to free me!" Sirius replied.

"Unfortunately," Narcissa mumbled under her breath.

"Oh, bite me, would you?" he replied explosively.

"That was a different case," McGonagall explained, interrupting the squabble. "There were two sources of memories at first, Potter and Miss Granger, that later were joined by Mr. Weasley and Mr. Lupin – it would be impossible to allege that so many people, especially being three of them third-year students, had tempered with their memories or that all of them had misunderstood the situation…" She sighed and shook her head, forcing herself to move on from that matter. "As for the punishment for fighting," McGonagall started, "both of you will serve a week of two-hour detentions at five sharp starting tomorrow. Potter, I'll arrange for you to serve yours with Professor Slughorn," she said, making Harry groan – it wasn't that he didn't like Slughorn. It was just that the guy could be pushy sometimes…

"Minerva," Snape intervened immediately, "may I suggest Potter serves those days of detention with me instead?"

"Yes, you may but it won't change my mind," the older teacher told him. "Potter will be serving those detentions with Horace. Period. As for you, Mr. Malfoy, you will be spending your detentions with me."

"This is an outrage!" Narcissa shouted. "Detention! My Draco…"

"Your Draco took part in a fight that I am inclined to believe he was the one to start," McGonagall told her former student, "thus, he received exactly the same number of hours in detention as Potter did. And if I ever find proof that Mr. Malfoy did indeed try to use an unforgivable, I'm afraid detention will be the least of his problems."

Narcissa's usually sickly pale complexion became red with anger, so incredibly red that it contrasted heavily with her blonde hair. "This school is going more and more downhill every year. I'm leaving. Draco, walk me to the gates."

McGonagall didn't protest at her rather rude exit and Malfoy got up, not before sending a half-angry, half-threatening look at Harry, following his mother outside.

"Excuse me," Snape said. "I need to have a word with Mrs. Malfoy." And with that he left as well, leaving Sirius and Mia alone in the office along with McGonagall and Harry.

Mia was pursing her lips in frustration but tried to keep her mouth shut. Sirius was the first to notice her tension and McGonagall was quick to follow him.

"Potter, would you mind standing outside for a couple of minutes while I have a word with your godmother?" the teacher asked. It was not that she was trying to keep some sort of secret – it was just that she had a feeling she knew what Mia was going to say and her response, well, wouldn't just be something appropriate to say in front of a student…

Harry gave her a nod and motioned to stand up, heading to the door. To his surprise, though, Sirius did the same. "I'll keep him some company," his godfather told the deputy headmistress, figuring Mia could tell him whatever was spoken in there later – he just wasn't about to leave Harry alone outside the office when an angry Narcissa might still be out there ready to throw her anger at someone…

McGonagall nodded before the two of them exited. Then, she turned to look at Mia. "Alright, Mia, let it out. I know you want to."

She really, really did want to, Mia thought as she sat on the chair Harry had formerly occupied. "So, Malfoy tries to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry and he just walks away with a pat on the head, the same days of detention as Harry and a 'don't do it again'?" Mia asked, a hint of accusation behind her voice.

"Believe me, Mia, no one is more horrified that I that a student in this school would ever try to use an unforgivable on a fellow student – even more horrified that I am inclined to believe Harry was speaking the truth." If there was one thing she was sure of, was that Harry Potter wouldn't lie about something like that. "Yet, an attempt on something is a matter hard to prove even with pensieve memories, Amelia. We might send them to the aurors but the fact that Malfoy is an underage wizard wouldn't leave them inclined to believe Harry's memory. Odds were they would say he had misunderstood the incantation."

"Can't Moaning Myrtle say something? I know she's a ghost but…"

"But if I know her well, Myrtle would have ran just as soon as a fight broke out. She probably didn't hear a thing. I'll try to find her and ask her, though," McGonagall promised. "As for the detention, I know it seems unfair they got the same number of days but my choice to have Harry spending those hours with Horace wasn't random."

"What do you mean?" Mia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How many times do you recall Horace monitoring a detention? In your days as a student or now?" McGonagall asked.

Mia's face took a thoughtful look. Now that she mentioned it… "Never," she said. "I have no memory at all of him doing that."

"Exactly," the deputy headmistress said. "And that happens because Horace, well, has an… unorthodox way of handling detentions. Especially when the one serving it is one of his favourites, which is Harry's case."

"I don't understand," Mia said, confused.

"Well, I only recall him monitoring detentions in my first year teaching in this school – that would be Dumbledore's first year as a headmaster too – and let's just say that once he organized a small tea party to be held at the exact time of the detention so the 'poor boy who was serving it' wouldn't get bored." McGonagall sighed and shook her head. "Horace is very fond of Harry, as you know, and having him spending detention with your godson was the most I could do to make it easier on him…"

"So, you really believe him? When he said Malfoy started the fight and tried to use…?"

The other teacher sighed. "Mr. Malfoy hardly ever refrains himself from showing his nasty personality to anyone in this school. I'm afraid in my mind I could picture him doing any of the things your godson said. Besides," she added, "Harry's explanation for the fight was more extensive than his, not to mention more believable, as much as I find it hard to imagine Draco Malfoy crying over anything." The older woman sighed. "Mia, I'm telling you most of this as a fellow teacher and even as a friend. So, I'll ask you that when you talk to Harry you don't go much further than telling him I'm inclined to believe his side more easily than Malfoy's and that a detention with Horace won't be very hard to handle."

Mia nodded. "Of course. I… thank you, Minerva. For owling us before dealing with this on your own."

McGonagall nodded. "It seemed only fair. Severus went running to Narcissa as soon as he heard of what happened and, as it looked like the two of them were about to take Mr. Malfoy's side. It was only fair Harry had two people on there on his side if I wanted to remain neutral."

Mia nodded again and stood up. "Well, I think I should go, then. Sirius and Harry are waiting for me."

"Of course," the deputy headmistress replied as they started shaking hands. "And don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Malfoy to make sure he doesn't try anything."

"If anything happens…"

"… you'll be summoned right away," McGonagall promised, giving Mia a final nod before the younger woman turned around and headed to the door.

As soon as she opened it, Mia was surprised to find a furious Narcissa Malfoy just storming away from where her husband and Harry stood. Looked like the show had actually been resumed outside in her absence. Pity she hadn't been there to witness it.

A/N: *sigh* Late again. Sorry. I was going to post this last night but then i closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep with my laptop on my lap. I get home pretty exhausted all the time now after spending all day carrying boxes of museum stuff (I'm interning at a museum, yeah) up and down, cataloguing, serving everyone above me in the work food-chain coffee and more Anyway, this chapter was getting big, really big (6,5k words), so I had to split it in two parts because there was still plenty to write. Next half would involve the half-blood-prince revelation to Sirius and Mia... Anyway, since it's halfway done, I'm hoping next week there won't be any delays. Feedback is so very welcome. Review!