Hello! Apologies if this is late again, I just can't seem to concentrate or find the time lately. I've finished my Christmas exams though, so now all I have to do is hide the report card form my parents when it comes. Eeep!
Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a Happy New Year to all! Hope you had a great time and ate lots of yummy turkey (I know I did!).
So, here is Chapter 28 of Damage Control, hope you like it and don't forget to review and give your opinion on it
Sirius' POV
The Welcome Feast was awkward to say the least. Lily spent it glaring furiously at James, and if looks could kill he'd have been six feet under halfway through Dumbledore's speech. James just sort of sat there next to me poking awkwardly at his roast potatoes, probably praying that the presence of every single teacher in the school would be enough to prevent Lily from turning him into a giant tentacle. I spent most of the feast trying to stop glancing over at where Lissa sat, a few people away from Lily, who was seated directly opposite James for maximum glaring potential. Lissa was staring determinedly at the mashed potatoes Emmeline had piled on her plate, occasionally stabbing at the cooling food with her fork as though it had done her a personal wrong. I looked over at her again as she stared at her plate. Her cheeks were flushed slightly and her eyes were narrowed darkly- I knew her well enough to tell that she was angry, and that only served to make me angry. What did Lissa have to be angry about?
Sure she had plenty to be sad about- her parents were dead, her brother and cousin would probably be joining them soon enough the way things were going, she had been tortured brutally, she had been threatened by high-ranking Death Eaters, and she had been told that if she made any of this public she would be in Azkaban faster than she could say 'whoops'. However, she had nothing to be angry about. I certainly did.
The second the feast was over James was on his feet, legging it in the direction of the doors to the Entrance Hall, his final destination most likely being under his bed with seventeen different protection wards cast on our dormitory to keep out the fearsome wrath of Lily Evans. Remus gave Peter a significant look and the smaller boy scurried off after James, while Remus stayed with me, taking me by the elbow and dragging me through the crowd. "C'mon Pads, you look like hell. If you want to talk to anyone, you can do it tomorrow after a bit of sleep."
Remus was clearly referring to Lissa, but I pretended not to have gotten that. I was still conflicted about her: I was almost sure that I still loved her, but she had broken both my trust and my heart like it had been nothing, and that hurt too much to ignore. Moony dragged me up the stairs, through the Common Room and shoved me into the bathroom in our dormitory, yelling at me through the door to get ready for bed. I brushed my teeth quickly and pulled off my shirt, jumper, pants, socks and shoes, leaving the bathroom and getting into bed in just my boxers. It wasn't until my head touched the pillow that I realized just how tired I was. Moony was right, the whole situation with Lissa could wait a few hours while I slept- she would still be there in the morning- honestly, I'd be surprised if McGonagall didn't get her own subtle revenge for all of these high-speed chases towards the end of last term and simply ward Lissa into her dormitory until morning as a preventative measure. She'd tried that with us once (we'd jumped out the window on James' broom, and promptly realized why a maximum weight limit existed).
"G'night guys," Peter called softly from his bed. "Night," Remus answered, voice muffled slightly by his mountain of pillows. I grunted my goodnight as well, and my eyes were almost closed when we heard a fourth voice a few seconds later. "Goodnight." It was James, huddled under his bed in his pajamas and a spare Quidditch goalie helmet. A light shimmering revealed his protective wards, and I smile din spite of myself. The poor boy looked terrified. I drifted off to sleep slowly, safety and familiarity settling around me like a safety blanket. I was finally home.
Lissa's POV
The first few days of the new term were agony, complete hell on earth. We were in seventh year now, which meant NEWTs, a fact that McGonagall reminded us off no less than twenty times a class. Lily and Mary had already made up study schedules, and enforced them brutally with savage curses threatened if we didn't go to the library with them to study. The Marauders were another issue. Remus and Peter were constantly glancing from me to Sirius and from Lily to Potter as if they thought the two of us girls would explode, and they always looked a little afraid. Whenever James felt safe enough or whenever Lily wasn't around, he shot me looks ranging from disappointment to curiosity to anger. Sirius just ignored me, apart from the occasional glance in my direction before quickly looking away again.
Sirius looked a little better than he had at the end of last year and the brief period I'd seen him over the summer. Maybe it was that he was eating or sleeping better, maybe it was that a stressful situation had been defused without a body count, but he had more color in his cheeks and the shadows under his eyes had all but vanished. He didn't look happy, not by any means, but he no longer looked like he was being killed slowly from the inside. He looked…better, I supposed, more stable. Sirius would be alright.
I would be too. I wasn't the happiest either, but I had my friends and I was alive. Lily, Mary and Wade kept me busy studying, and Marley, Emm and Alice had brought me along to prank some of the less friendly/non-Death Eater-y students. Fabian and Gideon had written three times already, and Marley, Emm and Alice received lengthy letters almost daily from Benjy, Ian and Frank. I didn't have much spare times to feel sorry for myself, and that was good. Quidditch would start up soon enough as well, and if James didn't kick me off the team I would have that to keep me occupied as well, with the added benefit of getting to creep on Sirius.
I tried to keep as busy as possible, even going so far as to sign up to tutor first years to keep myself distracted from the burning regret from, oh…everything I'd done for the last six months, with the added benefit of helping me get a job someday if the Ministry hadn't blacklisted me already. First year tutoring was set to start sometime in the next few days, so at least I'd be able to avoid 'study circle' sessions in the Common Room or library with most of the rest of seventh year (no Slytherins allowed- at least according to the giant banner Potter brought every day). Sirius even showed up to a few of them, although Remus probably dragged him and Potter to most of them, as if it wasn't already hard enough trying not to notice him ignoring me in all of our classes. He always sat as far away from me as possible, never looking my way. It hurt, but I understood. Had Sirius done even half of what I'd done to him, I would have killed him.
"Excuse me, Ms Crawford." I dropped my forkful of scrambled eggs (onto Lily's lap, much to her displeasure) and turned around to face McGonagall. "Yes, Professor?" She scanned the piece of parchment she was holding briefly. Her eyebrows rose in surprise and her lips pursed in a tight smile. "I have your…tutoring schedule here, Ms Crawford. I must say I was most surprised when I found your name down on my tutoring list. Ms MacDonald and Ms Evans I had expected, but you…" I couldn't stop the amused smirk that spread across my face when McGonagall trailed off and regarded me with a suspicious look. A few seats away, I heard Alice snort into her porridge, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Emmeline and Marlene were scarlet with suppressed laughter.
"Yes, Professor?," I prompted in a helpful tone. McGonagall's eyes narrowed in a way that clearly displayed that she wasn't quite buying my attempt at playing the model student. "I'm not exactly sure why it is you chose to tutor the younger students, Ms Crawford," Professor McGonagall said stiffly, "I wasn't exactly under the impression that you particularly liked the younger students, or got along very well with them."
I kept up my 'helpful student' façade, smiling politely at McGonagall while subtly kicking at a giggling Lily and Alice's shins, the only ones I could reach. "Why ever so, Professor?" This time it was Emmeline who snorted. I flicked my wand behind my back under the table, muttering a quick spell under my breath. Suddenly Emmeline was face planting in her bowl of porridge, gasping and spluttering as oats and honey ran down her face. "Well screw you then, Liss," Emm hissed as she stood up to leave and clean her face to the sounds of half the table's laughter. McGonagall cleared her throat and Emmeline started, having somehow managed to forget the teacher's presence.
"Pardon me, Ms Vance, but what was that you said to Ms Crawford a moment ago?" Emmeline shot a poisonous glare at me, silently promising me a painful death later, before looking at McGonagall with what looked like a painfully sweet smile. "Just telling her how happy I was for her to get this chance. You know, tutoring the kids and all that stuff," she forced out from between gritted teeth. I almost laughed, it was so ridiculous, but it was genuinely Emmeline's best effort at respecting authority figures. McGonagall smiled tightly and nodded, dismissing Emmeline, who practically left skid marks on the Hall floor. McGonagall turned back to me.
"Now, as I was saying, Ms Crawford, I never realized just how fond of the younger students you truly were. Of course, it was difficult to come to that conclusion when you and your friends attacked a group of first year boys on the train with paint last week, or when you were involved in hanging the entire first year Slytherin class from the rafters of the Great Hall last year. Also, Ms Crawford, the faculty is well aware that it is you who is informing Peeves on the routes the first years take to classes every year. Do not think that it goes unnoticed."
I winced inwardly. Dammit, I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass. "Well you see, Professor, that was really nothing but a big misunderstanding…," I tried, figuring that it was at least worth a shot. "Ahem, bullshit," Marley coughed. McGonagall's eyes flickered over to her before she turned back to me with a resigned sigh. "Look, Ms Crawford, take your schedule and turn up at the assigned room at the assigned time." She turned away for a moment, her spectacles slipping down slightly as she pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. Then she was back, staring hard at me. I may or may not have gulped.
"Don't make me regret allowing you to do this, Ms Crawford," were her final words, before she thrust the schedule at me and strode off back to the staff table. The instant McGonagall was out of earshot, Mary, Marley, Lily and Alice burst out into fits of laughter. I was laughing too, until I checked the schedule that was.
"EIGHT TONIGHT? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" "Detention, Ms Crawford!," McGonagall called out almost gleefully from the staff table. I turned back to my scrambled eggs depressively.
§ § § §
Eight o'clock came far too quickly, and schedule in hand, I made for the library. I was definitely more than a little late, but I was sure that my tutoring partner would forgive me. I didn't know who my partner was yet, only that it wasn't Lily or Mary. Mary had been partnered up with Nate Abbot from Ravenclaw, Wade's friend. McGonagall had personally removed Lily from rotation this year due to her Head Girl duties, although she had put up one hell of a fight. With my luck, I'd probably get one of the Slytherins. Shuddering at the thought of having to spend hours every evening with someone like Evan Rosier (who had been shooting me menacing little smirks since last Christmas), I walked through the aisles of the library, making for the stacks at the back where the tutoring session was to take place.
When I caught sight of my tutoring partner, leaning casually against a tall stack of old books in front of a small crowd of noisy kids, I decided instantly that I'd rather have Rosier. I was about to slip back into the aisle I'd walked out of when my partner flicked his wand at the kids, quieting them instantly to their shock. Without turning around, my partner spoke, twirling his wand through his long fingers in a way that was both achingly familiar and unbearably annoying.
"Well hello there, Lissa," Sirius Black drawled lazily, tense shoulders betraying his true feelings. "A little late, aren't you?" It took everything I had not to hit him with a curse between the shoulder blades. Was the boy fucking psychic or what? "No Lissa, I'm no Seer," he said in the same lazy tone, "You're just the clumsiest person I know." I gritted my teeth, hissing furiously before taking a deep breath to calm down. And you're the most irritating bastard I know. I flicked my wand at the amused looking kids, lifting Sirius' silencing charm. "Let's just get on with this, shall we?," I hissed through gritted teeth. Sirius smirked, and my hand ached to slap him. I groaned inwardly. This is going to be a long evening. Bloody McGonagall, she knew well what she was doing when she put us together, so she'll have only herself to blame if we burn down the library.
§ § § §
I looked down at the faces of the five children that I had been put in charge of. Sirius had taken the other five, much to their delight. Most of my children seemed almost afraid of me, the mad girl whose reputation (especially with first years, then there was the whole thing with dodging McGonagall and refusing to leave the Room of Requirement last year) preceded her. They probably thought that I was a raving lunatic.
One Slytherin sat at the edge of the table, his little pinched face closed off as he stared calmly into middle distance. Two Hufflepuffs, a girl and a boy, sat beside him on the bench. The girl giggled constantly and played with her blond pigtails, and the boy smiled shyly at the Slytherin boy, who was pointedly ignoring him. My last two tutoring charges were two boys who seemed friendly enough with each other, a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor. The Ravenclaw was the lanky sort, bony and long-limbed with multiple freckles and wild curly strawberry blond hair. He had an infectious smirk, and despite his age, which made him irritating to me by default, I found him almost likeable. The Gryffindor boy was his polar opposite- small, pale and scrawny with longish floppy dark brown hair that fell into his eyes that were so dark they were almost black, complete with the occasional fleck of gold. He had a serious expression, but the corner of his lip was raised slightly in a small smile as his Ravenclaw friend waved his arms about enthusiastically as he told a story.
Finished getting a good look at my charges, I slammed my hands on our table to get the little brats' attention. The Slytherin just looked bored, but both the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaw jumped in their seats. The Gryffindor boy didn't move, and I could feel his little dark eyes boring into the side of my skull. It was an almost unnerving situation. This boy was obviously not your average first year.
"So," I began with a painted-on smile, "I thought we should all introduce ourselves, since we're going to be working together. Now, although you all seem to know this already, my name is Lissa Crawford. So, names and maybe a little about yourself if you want, starting with…you," I said, pointing at the little Slytherin kid.
The boy straightened up and swept his blond fringe out of his eyes. "My name's Apollo Greengrass," he said calmly and politely, "I'm from Kent, a Pureblood, and I'm obviously in Slytherin," he finished up with a smile, gesturing to his uniform badge and green and silver scarf. I nodded at Apollo with a smile, he seemed friendly enough for a Slytherin Pureblood. A decent enough kid, if a little standoffish. The Hufflepuff boy was next, and he smiled earnestly at everyone at the table, adjusting his coke-bottle glasses before beginning. "I'm Alan Lancaster," he stuttered nervously, "I'm in Hufflepuff, and I'm a Muggleborn."
Next up was the Hufflepuff girl, who twirled her pigtails sweetly before beginning. "I'm Casey Lewis," she said in an irritatingly high voice. I glimpsed Apollo wince delicately out of the corner of my eye, and instantly decided that I liked the kid. "I'm in Hufflepuff, and I'm a Half-Blood. My brother Patrick's in the year below you, Lissa," she finished with a sweet smile. I returned it, trying to hold of a grimace at the mere mention of that idiot, Patrick Lewis. That annoying Hufflepuff just grated on my nerves, pure and simple, and there was no mistaking that this was his sister. Just perfect. "And you?," I said with forced cheerfulness, prompting the Ravenclaw boy who gave me a wide smile. I could have sworn I heard Apollo snort, but when I turned to glance at him suspiciously he was the picture of innocence, fiddling sweetly with a lose green strand on his scarf.
The Ravenclaw boy was starting with his introduction. "My name's Louis Fawley, Pureblood as far as I know. That's what mum says anyway. I'm in Ravenclaw, and I like, love Quidditch!" Everyone laughed, even me, Apollo and the serious-looking Gryffindor boy. "Well Louis, maybe I'll be playing against you next year," I said with a wink, slowly starting to almost like these kids. "Now," I said with a sharp clap, "Last one."
We all turned to the Gryffindor boy, and the corner of his mouth turned up into a crooked smile. "My name's Bard, of Gryffindor. I'm fond enough of Quidditch myself, and I'm a Pureblood, much is the pity. I live with Louis' family, he's my cousin- my parents died a while ago," Bard stated simply. He brushed back a piece of long chestnut brown hair from his forehead, winced, and let it fall back over his brow. I glimpsed a dark black bruise, and my stomach twisted. "That's sad about your parents," Casey said with the fakest smile I'd ever seen, "But you never did give us your last name, Bard of Gryffindor. Why did you parents name you Bard anyways?" Geez, for a Hufflepuff and an eleven-year-old she sure was a bit of a bitch.
Bard smiled stiffly, and it looked like it took him a great effort. "My parents named me Bard because it was my mother's favorite book." Casey waited for more, but she was waiting in vain. Bard was clearly finished, looking up at me absently with his arms folded on the table, his expression closed. I couldn't blame the kid, actually I felt an odd affinity towards the little orphaned boy. We had both lost our parents, and we both obviously had low tolerances for people like Casey. I was, however, more than a little curious about him. Why wouldn't he give his last name, where did he get that horrible looking bruise? I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. You're here to tutor him, not to embarrass the poor kid. You can always ask around later, kid with a name like Bard isn't exactly going to blend into the woodwork.
"Now, let's start with some History of Magic, a subject most of you use as naptime, if I'm correct?" Alan, Casey and Louis blushed slightly, and Apollo and Bard stared absently at the tabletop, but not one of them denied it. I smirked, picking up the first year textbook I'd been provided with from the table. "So, Goblin Wars. How about we start with Ulric the Ugly and the Goblin Uprising, that's always hard…"
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT SLYTHERIN! MY FAMILY ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF PURE EVIL, CONNIVING—" Sirius was on his feet, roaring and screaming like a lunatic at a bored looking Slytherin boy who bore a startling resemblance to the Carrow siblings Alecto and Amicus, and their cousin Atticus, the Death Eater DJ had killed a few months back. Still, the boy was no more than eleven, despite looking like a right little piece of work, and Sirius looked like he might murder him. Sighing, I sent a silencing spell Sirius' way. His words cut off immediately. Clutching his throat, he whipped his head furiously from side to side, looking for the culprit.
It didn't take much to figure out that it had been me, given that most of my table was laughing raucously despite their audible attempts at muffling it. Lift it, his scissoring hand movements said. Smirking, I shook my head. Face scarlet with rage, Sirius stormed out of the library. When I heard his angry roar by the door to the library a few seconds later, I guessed that Sirius had remembered that he was a wizard with a wand of his own. The first years seemed to realize that the tutoring session was over, and most of them cleared out pretty quickly, the sneering Carrow look-alike in the lead
"Stupid idiot," I hissed, glaring after him. "I know, right?" I whipped round, I'd thought that everyone had gone. Louis Fawley and Bard were still seated at the table, Bard leaning back in his chair with an insolent smirk that was shockingly familiar, dark eyes gleaming with a hard look that was also familiar. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut, for some reason, looking into those dark eyes that I now realized were a very familiar grey color. Sirius and Regulus Black's eyes.
I raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly would you know that, kid? I'm his ex-girlfriend so I know all too well, but what exactly are you to Sirius Black?" Bard's smirk grew, and his eyes flashed. I caught another glimpse of the dark bruise on his temple as he flicked his hair out of his eyes haughtily. "His cousin," he stated simply, watching me carefully for a response. I snorted, turning to Louis. "Well, Fawley, you never told me Sirius was your brother!"
Bard grunted, displeased. The little shit. "My cousin on my father's side," he drawled. With that tone of voice, I didn't doubt it, but I didn't know how Sirius could have a cousin and not say anything. I knew that he disliked his family, but that was only because he'd ranted about them often, and although he'd never mentioned Bard, he gotten to every other family member including the Lestrange's House Elf. I decided to humor the kid, but I was also curious. This kid could be anybody from Sirius' baby brother to Bellatrix Lestrange's illegitimate child, and the Blacks were a topic I was interested in for multiple reasons.
"So, Bard, whose your father then?," I asked. Louis stared out into middle distance, not seeming at all surprised by the direction his tutoring session was taking. The kid probably knew everything, so if I couldn't get it out of Bard I could always go after Fawley. Bard crooked an eyebrow. Then a cold, scared look flickered over his face, and his expression closed like a shutter in a gale. "No one," he hissed, jumping to his feet, "No one." He grabbed Louis Fawley by the arm and dragged him form the library, empty school satchels flying out behind them like parachutes as Bard ran, their schoolbooks left piled on the table. I sighed and left the library.
Sirius' POV
"McGonagall put you with who?" I grunted angrily, punching my pillow yet again, spraying loose feathers all over the dormitory floor before I turned back to my friends, breathing heavily. Wormy and Moony looked shell-shocked, and Prongs' jaw was on the floor. "Yes, Prongs," I said in an answer to James' question, breathing hard, "McGonagall put me on tutoring rotation with Lissa, and she won't change it, I asked already on my way up." I was calmer now, but the white-hot throbbing pain in my knuckles reminded me that I hadn't been quite as calm earlier when I'd punched the wall outside my year head's office. I was pretty sure that I'd left a bloody smear on her wall, not that I cared.
"That's not even the worst part," I groaned, sinking onto Wormy's bed with my head in my hands. After several minutes of slightly confused silence, Moony spoke up, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder. "So what is the worst part, Pads?"
"There's this kid," I answered, "Andrew Carrow, those Death Eaters' cousin. He was mocking me, spewing all sorts of shit about how I'm a blood traitor whose shaming the name of Black. Acting so damn superior, nose in the air. Merlin, he looked just like Bella used to when she used try and convince me to see the error of my ways. Jumped up little shit!"
I felt the mattress dip on either side as Moony and Prongs sat down on either side of me and slung an arm each over my shoulders, and a warm weight against my shins told me that Wormy was at my feet. He patted me gently on the knee. "It'll be okay, Padfoot. Sure he's only a first year, he doesn't know shit about you or your family, only what he's been fed by his blood supremacist parents. It doesn't matter what he says- you're worth a hundred of every member of your family, 'cept your cousin Andy of course," James said reassuringly, squeezing my shoulder. "Yeah Padfoot, Prongs is right. That kid doesn't know anything about you. We do, and you're an awesome person," Moony said calmly.
"You can always curse him, Pads," Wormy chimed in cheerfully from next to my legs. We all laughed at that, Wormtail, Moony and Prongs eagerly suggesting ideas for curses I could use on Andrew Carrow. As my friends chattered excitedly, my mind wandered, my thoughts eventually sticking where they always did- on Lissa Crawford.
She had looked tired, with dark circles under her eyes, and sad too. She seemed annoyed with me- I hadn't missed the feel of her angry glare boring into my shoulder blades from behind when she's first walked into the library, stumbling and knocking off of every stack in the room on the way. I supposed that I had been a bit of a bastard lately, but as far as I was concerned I had plenty of excuses.
It didn't take half an hour for Wormy and Prongs to fall asleep where they sat, and like the good friends we were Moony and I levitated them to their beds before slipping into our own. Silence enveloped the dormitory, leaving me alone to my thoughts, none of which were pleasant. Memories of Lissa (a constant plague recently), thoughts of my 'family', the image of young Andrew Carrow with his eleven-year-old lip twisted into an ugly sneer. What was the world coming to, that children believed such vile things? If people like Andrew Carrow were part of the future of the Wizarding world, I had no doubt that we would all crash and burn.
"Pads, you still awake?," Moony called softly. "Yeah," I responded in a whisper. "Since you're going to be stuck with Lissa for the rest of the tutoring, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to talk to her, work things out a little. Things can't really get much worse for the two of you anyway, can they?" Moony made a good point- the only way was up for Lissa and I, even if that made ignoring each other more civilly. "Maybe, Moony, thanks. G'night," I called softly. "'Night Padfoot, 'night." I drifted off to sleep slowly, listening to the sounds of my friends' breathing. I dreamt of rivers of blood and tears, where everyone I knew lay dead at the feet of masked men and women in dark cloaks until only I was left, alone. Alone with the bodies of my dead friends, Andrew Carrow rising above me with the same ugly sneer from the library. Behind him, I heard Bella laugh cruelly, then everything went black.
So…thoughts? What do you think of Bard- does he remind you of Sirius or Regulus? How do you see Lissa and Sirius getting on at future tutoring sessions? Leave me a review if you can please, I'd love to get some feedback on how you think the story is going, and everyone loves reviews! Thanks for reading
