Disclaimer: Yeah...not mine. Sorry.
You guys, I'M BACK! Yeah, I know it's been like six months, but I am so incredibly sorry, I have university apps coming due and I swear that I've had more meltdowns in the last three weeks than i have had in the rest of my life combined, which is still no excuse.
So...let's just chalk this all up to writer's block and get on with the story, alrighty?
Read, review, and enjoy,
Stars.
NATALIA POV
The following Friday, the day of the Gala Jerry had asked us to attend, is as hectic as the day of the Halloween Ball, and we're back in the Heads' Dorm, even after the um, incident with Pounce the cat. And just as I had done then, I manage to get about half way ready then leave, after having to duck a tube of mascara being tossed mercilessly by Lily because it kept clumping. I quietly make my way down the stairs into the common room, but this time I don't hesitate before knocking on the boy's door. I open it and immediately slam it shut again, after producing a sound I didn't know I could make until just now. Remus appears next to me, having just come up the stairs. I glance at him and say,
"Sirius is naked. You should know." Remus looked at me and chuckles,
"Well at least you didn't walk in on—you did didn't you?" I put a hand over my eyes and nod.
"It's been scalded into my retinas." Hey, Nat. I'm decent, if you want to come in. "Well, apparently he just put clothes on. Or so he says." I slowly open the door and peek through my fingers to see that he at least has pants on. I remove my hand from my eyes and lean against the wall.
"So…Nat. I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone make a sound quite like that in my entire life." I blush against my will and Remus chuckles again, "Nah, Moony, you have no idea. It was like this combine of a squeak, a squeal, and the sound of pure panic. It was hilarious and shockingly girly." I roll my eyes,
"Well, I am a girl. That may come as a shock to some of you, but it's true." Remus rolls his eyes and says,
"Well, I'm going to grab a shower, so try not to get naked again, Pads." He disappears and I sit on James' bed, crossing my legs in front of me.
"Hiding from the girls again?" I nod.
"Yeah, it's like a repeat of Halloween, I swear. Just try not to get part of your soul tampered with this time, alright?" he chuckles and nods,
"I'll do my best. Any nut job cousins I should know about?" I laugh too and shake my head,
"Nah, I think you've met them all. Besides, you've met Jerry and managed not to kill him, so we should be in the clear." I stand up to leave but turn around, "One more thing, you know that it's Muggle formalwear, right?" He nods and I turn to leave, only to hear,
"Oh, and Nat? It's pretty hard to forget that you're a girl in that outfit…or lack thereof." I glance down and realize that I'm in a pair of pajama shorts and a bra. Oops. I roll my eyes to the door and say,
"Pervert." Before leaving. I walk back up to Lily's room and open the door cautiously. It's much calmer than before, probably because Lynn isn't going, which eliminates an extra layer of stress due to her aversion to formalwear, and she's still hiding somewhere far away from the primping until her detention with her aunt. Lily is finishing up her make-up and Carrie is doing her hair. I sit down on the bed and say,
"I just accidentally walked in on Sirius."
"Yeah, so?" Care mutters.
"Naked." I add. And the curling iron drops out of her hand and Lily's hand falls away from where it was putting eyeliner on.
"What?" They both say simultaneously.
"Yeah…it was super awkward, to say the least." Lily grins at me in the mirror,
"Like what you saw?" I feel my face go red and Carrie laughs,
"I'll take that as a yes. Nat, you should start getting ready, we need to be there in like an hour." I nod and go to finish up my make-up, after Lily finishes with the eyeliner that I ruined with my announcement.
Forty-five minutes later we are putting wands in purses and heels on feet. I look at my friends and smile. We look pretty damn good. Lily had opted for a strappy blue dress that goes to above her knees and that doesn't clash with her hair (which is a feat on its own), Carrie picked flowing, white, tunic dress that was about the same length, and I had pulled out a strapless black dress that, according to Lils, was flattering ("that itty-bitty waistline though") that clung to my legs, only making it about halfway down my thighs. I found my pride and joy, my birthday gift to myself, my Louboutin platform heels, which were so extravagantly expensive we just don't talk about it. I'm actually a little tall in them too, which is just an added bonus. Lily whistles.
"Damn girl. Those shoes are gorgeous. I'm jealous." Carrie laughs and agrees and I smile.
"Aw, shucks. I'm just flattered. Careful though. I'll get an ego like one Sirius Black if you keep going." They both laugh and we all debate for a second about who should go down first. Once we hear Jamie yell,
"Come on you three, we're not getting any younger!" Lily grins and says she'll go first,
"Hey, someone's gotta be there to catch Nat if she falls down in those shoes." She vanishes and I say to Care,
"I'll go. I want to see Remus' reaction." I wink at her and as I go down the stairs I focus on my feet to prevent tripping, but when I hit ground, I see Lily and James looking so perfect in a corner talking, that my heart gives an uncomfortable squeeze. My little girl is all grown up. I move out of the way of the stairs and as I pass Remus I say,
"She's beautiful." He smiles at me and I'm assuming Carrie is visible now, because I completely loose his attention in 1 second flat after the smile. They hug and I smile again. Correction: both of my little girls are grown up.
"I don't know Holmes, you look pretty grown up, too." I turn around and roll my eyes at Sirius.
"Get out of my head. What were you looking for anyways? My totally boring daydreams and thoughts?" he shrugs.
"Eh, they're not that boring." I whack him over the head.
"Well, thanks, I guess." He winks at me and I check the time, "Hey, guys, we better get going." I say to the room at large and everyone looks around like, "oh yeah, we have somewhere to be". We all leave the Heads' Dorm and Lily and James hold hands and so do Remus and Carrie, which left me feeling oddly alone and very much the odd one out, even though I was walking next to Sirius, who also was dateless. We are making our way towards Dumbledore's office when he suddenly says,
"You shouldn't sell yourself short, especially now that you're not. Not short, you know." I laugh but still scowl at him, but I don't have to completely look up to see eye-to-eye with him. Only a little.
"Hey, what did I say about getting out of my head?" He shrugs,
"I wasn't in your head. What you're thinking is all over your face. You really need to get a handle on that eventually."
"Oh. Well that's reassuring." I remark sarcastically.
"That's what I'm here for. Besides, all that comparison stuff girls do is such crap. You all look way too different to even try." I glance at him curiously, "What? I'm not blind or an idiot. And sometimes your thoughts are just really loud." His voice drops down to a whisper, "and before you start getting all moody about Lily's skin, I happen to know that she totally envies your rack." I feel myself blush and raise an eyebrow, "What? I'm nosy and she's thought about it before." A thought suddenly occurs to me,
"Can you pick up on people's dreams?" he shrugs,
"It's only happened once or twice, but yeah, I guess. You have to know the person pretty well, but it's possible. Rare, but not out of the question." I nod and am about to ask if he's ever eavesdropped on any of us but I take that very opportunity to trip. Before I can completely face plant, Sirius grabs me by the arm and pulls me back up, setting me back on my feet. He drops my arm and I adjust my dress as I laugh and say,
"Thanks. I really appreciate not having a broken face." He grins and retorts,
"That's what I'm here for, Holmes. Besides, you're much cuter without blood on your face." I snort and he laughs at the sound, "You just snorted. You realize that, right?" I roll my eyes as we arrive at Dumbledore's office. Lily says the password and we all walk in. Remus helps Carrie over the slight incline through the portrait hole, which I think is maybe the cutest thing ever. Once we all finally make it to the Headmaster's office he smiles at all of us and says,
"Ladies, you all look beautiful, and boys, I haven't seen any of you so cleaned up since, well quite honestly, ever." We laugh and Sirius looks affronted. James and Remus just laugh and acknowledge the truth in the statement "yes, well, this is your portkey, so hold on tight." He hands us a water goblet and we all put a finger on it, "5…4…3…2…now." There is a violent yanking and we soon are quite literally dropped off at our destination. I look around and discover that James, Sirius, and I are the only ones to land on our feet, something I'm pretty proud of in these shoes. James and Sirius help up Lily and Care, while Remus pulls himself to his feet. Everyone brushes off their clothes and we all exchange a glance before leaving the small room that we had arrived in. We emerge in a beautiful ballroom, full of people all dressed similarly to us. Lily and James smile at each other and they go off to dance, with Remus and Care hot on their heels, leaving Sirius and me alone.
"I should probably go find Jerry, let him know that we're all here. You can come if you promise not to start a fight. He's middle-aged." Sirius laughs and nods,
"I think I can manage that, Nat." We walk around for a few minutes until I spot the back of Jerry, speaking to a woman I don't recognize. I catch his eye and he says something to her, a parting comment I guess, and moves towards us. He smiles once he reaches us and I hug him gently,
"Hey, Jerry."
"Ah, little Natalia! It's good to see you, child. Tell me, which one is this?" Sirius, who had been watching people idly pass, zones back in on the conversation at this comment.
"Uh, Jerry, this is Sirius Black. Sirius, this is Jerry Collins. Please play nice, Sirius." He raises an eyebrow,
"I always play nice, Holmes. Your words wound me."
"What about the time tha—" I start to reel off times Sirius hadn't exactly been tactful when he rescinds.
"Okay, I take it back. I play nice most of the time." I laugh and raise an eyebrow at Jerry like 'what did I tell you? He's hard to deal with'. The older man smiles and simply says,
"I must go, but I'm glad to see that you're all here. Please, enjoy yourselves, and don't go to wild, we do have benefactors here." I grin and promise to keep the boys on a short leash as he leaves.
"Nat. You have a bruise on your arm." I look up at him in confusion,
"What? How did that even happen?" I look down at my arm and I suddenly understand how it had gotten there. When Sirius had grabbed me to keep me from landing on my nose earlier tonight, he had grabbed a little too hard. A handprint is starting to become visible just below my shoulder.
"Is that from…I'm sorry." I shrug as comprehension dawns on him too.
"Eh, no worries. At least I don't have a broken nose to match. That's going to look lovely for the next few weeks. But no harm done." He quietly pulls out his wand and taps the bruise and it fades almost immediately, "You're really healing me way too much. Must say something about my lifestyle."
"Just your shitty taste in men."
"Like I chose to be harassed by Mulciber and Avery? Yeah not really my idea of an ideal man, either of them." He looks annoyed momentarily then says,
"Speaking of them, have they given you any crap lately?" I shake my head slowly, thinking, trying to remember, by coming up with nothing.
"No, I haven't heard from them in weeks, thank God. Why?" he looks like he's going to say something but decides not to, "Oh, come on. How bad could it be?" He opens his mouth again to reply but something over my shoulder catches his eye.
"Is that Mulciber?" I turn around and sure enough, it is. He's with his parents, like that's any sort of consolation whatsoever. He's also staring right at me. Or maybe at Sirius. I can't really tell from this distance. I turn back around to face Sirius, firmly turning my back to him.
"Unfortunately, I do believe so. You know you never said what pissed you off so much that day in Potions?" He laughs hollowly,
"Which time?"
"The day I gave Mulciber pink eye and you mouthed off to Sluggy." He raises his eyebrows and says,
"It's gross. You don't need to hear it. I feel violated for you just thinking about it, to be honest. Oh, God they're coming this way." I turn my head to look over my shoulder and they most definitely are heading this way. Damn. Serafina Mulciber looks like her son, but a woman, which I find infinitely disturbing. I move towards Sirius and he wraps an arm around me and pulls me behind him without saying a word and keeps his arm there, keeping me close and relatively out of the line of fire.
"Sirius."
"Serafina, I'd say it's a pleasure, but it's really not." I raise an eyebrow, mildly entertained.
"That's no way to speak to your superiors, Black. If you even still have claim to the name." He smirks and I watch with mild interest, trying to ignore Mulciber's increasingly lustful gaze trained on my face and, um, other parts of my body, "Besides, I'm not here to speak to you, but to the young woman behind you. Let go of her Black, blood like hers is too pure to be associated with Blood Traitors like you." I glance at him with a look that says "don't you dare throw me to the wolves Sirius Black". Sirius neither says anything nor removes his arm, which I can feel is slowly starting to shake. I slowly inch closer to him and he tightens his grip on my waist. She smiles at me and I look back at her, expressionless, "So, tell me Natalia, what would you like to do after you leave Hogwarts?" I tell her the truth, with a smile.
"Auror. Someone has to put Voldemort back in his place, after all." Sirius tries to hide his laugh in a cough as I feel his arm loosen slightly around my waist. The Mulciber family doesn't bother to hide their mortification.
"You dare speak his name?"
"Of course. There's nothing to fear in a name. It's just a word. This whole 'you-know-who' business always seemed rather stupid to me, personally. Besides, it's not as if he's anything that special."
"There has never been a man like him." Mulciber says as he continues to stare at my chest greedily, which apparently Sirius notices at the same time I do because his arm tightens again, pulling me closer, so close that I can feel his heartbeat jumping through his shirt, directly behind my shoulder blade. I ignore his gaze, but answer his statement.
"There have always been men like him. And there always will be, because at the end of the day, everybody wants to rule the world. But the sad truth is, you can't rule out of fear, not forever. Eventually, the people will rebel because their hatred will overcome their fear." Mrs. Mulciber looks horrified.
"You insolent little bitch. Come, she's no match for you." I raise an eyebrow as they leave and mutter,
"I could have told you that months ago, Sweetheart." Sirius doesn't look amused.
"What you said, it's true, but they don't like to hear it. That could bite you in the ass someday." I shrug.
"Hey, if I'm going to Hell, I'm going honest. Sorry." I turn to face him and end up inches away from his face. His arm doesn't move, either, "Sirius…you can probably let me go. I think danger has passed"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry." He drops his arm and takes a step back from me and I suddenly have my own breathing space again. Just then, Lils comes up to both of us,
"Hey, guys, dinner." I grin at her and we walk off together to find seats at a table with out best friends.
SIRIUS POV
Truth be told, I knew Mulciber and his family were there the minute we walked in the door. I don't say anything out of hopes that we could somehow avoid him all night, but clearly my hopes are dashed pretty quickly. During dinner, I have a hard time not replaying what had just happened. Like the actual verbal conversation wasn't bad enough, Mulciber's thoughts, yet again, had been out of control. He wants her, like really, really badly. So badly he can barely stand it. During that whole conversation, he wasn't directing his thoughts at me, but rather like when someone screams in a room, you still hear it, even if its not directed at you. It had been strange, having my own thoughts, but then Mulciber's thoughts leaking in too, making my head a slightly confusing place. That was something that had never happened before. When they had approached, Nat had all but crawled under my skin she had gotten so close, which didn't bother me at all, and was actually welcome, but Mulciber and his feelings of jealously, but also sick pleasure that she fears him, were not welcome at all.
"Sirius? You okay?" I glace up from where I had been playing with my potatoes to look at Nat, who was sitting between Evans, who is happily chatting to Prongs, and me. I smile at her a little and say,
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just spaced out for a second." She shrugs and takes a bite of her food,
"I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"Was everyone you grew up with that horrible?" she wrinkles her nose in distaste and I laugh once.
"Oh yeah. It really was horrible. Everyone was always trying to pawn their daughters off on the families that had sons. My parents had received like nine propositions for an arranged marriage between they found out I was a boy and the time I was born. They turned them all down, thank God."
"Seriously? Why'd they do that?" She raises an eyebrow curiously,
"Because 'no one is good enough for a Black, except a Black'." I quote at her and she chokes on some asparagus.
"Does that mean—cough—that—"
"That my parents are related? Yeah, first cousins, actually."
"Ew."
"You have no idea." The rest of dinner passes with quiet conversation and Yin manages to laugh so hard that water comes out her nose, but other than that, it is completely uneventful. Plates are cleared away and music starts up again, this time slower than the music that was playing before dinner. Moony and Yin go off to dance almost immediately and Nat and Evans excuse themselves to use the restroom. James and I both idly watch them leave. Once they're out of sight my brother turns to me and says,
"I saw Mulciber here."
"Yeah, I know. I was with Nat earlier tonight and we all had a nice little chat, with his mom."
"And how did that go?"
"About how you'd expect, honestly. Mulciber had his usual creepy stare on and his mom tried to hook poor Nat up with him. But then she told her off, which was simultaneously amazing and a really poor decision on her part. They won't forget how she behaved. Mulciber will be out for blood when we get back to school." I shrug, "I'm not really surprised that she said what she did. She's lost too much in this war already." James nods and looks at me keenly, "What? Do I have something in my teeth, or what?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
"James Potter, don't make me take a look under the hood."
"Don't you dare go peeking in my head, Black." I laugh then say,
"Alright, alright, but seriously why are you staring. It's a little creepy, mate." He shrugs,
"Nothing much. You've grown up is all." I laugh but that reminds me of something.
"On a pretty unrelated note, do me a favor and tell your sister at she's pretty more often or something because her self-esteem issues can get pretty loud sometimes, if you know what I mean." Prongs looks confused.
"Why would I have to tell her that? She's beautiful, she should know that unless she's blind."
"Yeah, I mean I know that your sister's beautiful but girls just don't see shit like that. They all just assume that they're the ugly ducking of the group. So anyways, help a brother out here." James grins,
"You can tell her yourself." And with that, gets up to lead Lily off to dance, who has just returned with Nat, who I'm assuming is standing out of my line of sight. She sits down next to me and smiles,
"You were saying?" I wave a hand,
"Oh, nothing. James and me were just talking about his little sister who thinks she isn't pretty at all, even though she's actually pretty beautiful." I clamp my mouth shut. She looks at me like I've lost my mind. Maybe I have. She smiles softly and stands up,
"Thanks, but there's no bet anymore. You don't have to pretend." She squeezes my shoulder on her way by and grabs Yin and Evans off the dance floor for a minute. I idly watch her say something to both of them and Yin throws her hands up I the air and Lily starts to rub her temples. Yin just shrugs and walks away with something that looks like a "I have no idea what to say, Lily this is your problem" kind of gesture. I watch Nat say something else to Lily and she argues back forcefully. Nat shakes her head at something and Evans waves a hand and I catch the words, "brother…dance" and Nat vanishes onto the dance floor presumably to find James. Evans, on the other hand comes over to me and sits down next to me.
"Uh, Evans."
"Black, we need to talk. As we all know, Natalia over there has some problems with her own self-worth. She hides it pretty well but come on, let's get real. Do us all a favor and ask her out already. Like for real."
"Evans…"
"Shut up, Sirius," She gets up to leave, but turns around, "Oh, and I shouldn't have to say it but if you hurt—"
What? If I hurt her you'll kill me?" She smirks,
"No. She will." I glace over at where Nat is dancing with her brother and I laugh,
"I don't doubt it, Evans."