I've been neglecting this story in favour of my other works as well as my personal assignments, so I figured that I'd squeeze this chapter in while I had some time on my hands.

More to Lose

After discovering that the rogue dog on the Hogwarts grounds was Sirius Black, Ursa was doing her best to keep her eyes open for any sign of that rotten rat. It unnerved Ursa to think that a murderer and servant of You-Know-Who could be roaming the walls of Hogwarts, and she wanted to be able to sleep soundly without worrying about that blasted rat. Ursa had decided to stick with her initial decision not to tell Hermione about her run-in with Sirius, since she didn't expect Hermione to be able to keep that a secret along with everything else.

While keeping her eyes open for that damn rat, Ursa was also working tirelessly on Buckbeak's appeal. It was only weeks away, so while the rest of Hogwarts was buzzing with anticipation about the final Quidditch match of the year between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Ursa was fretting over Buckbeak's appeal. While Hermione was still being snubbed by her friends, Ursa was more than willing to work with her in public, ignoring the looks that they received when Hermione would sit with Ursa in the Great Hall.

One night, they had opted to meet in a private classroom so that they could discuss the appeal. Hermione had somehow managed to get permission from McGonagall for them to be out past curfew so long as they did not cause any problem. As Ursa roamed through the empty corridors to find a classroom, she could have sworn that she had certain… noises coming from one of the classrooms. And by noises, they weren't noises that one would want to hear. Against her better judgement, Ursa carefully pushed to door open, only to be greeted by a horrific sight that burned her eyes as they were.

"Marcus Flint! For Merlin's sake, show some decency!" Ursa shrieked.

"Why do you have to be such a stick in the mud, Malfoy?" Marcus muttered.

"Why do you have to be doing… this in a classroom of all places! Why not a broom closet?" Ursa demanded, her hand still shielding her eyes.

"Well, there's not much room to do stuff in a broom closet," Marcus remarked. "And you can free your eyes. I'm decent."

"That's debatable," Ursa muttered as she removed her hand from her eyes, with her eyes locking on an embarrassed looking Oliver Wood. "Wood, fancy seeing you here."

"Malfoy," he acknowledged her.

"Now, as much as I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, I would like to just know… when," Ursa said.

"It's a recent development," Marcus stated.

"How recent?" Ursa wondered.

Marcus shrugged, "Like, two weeks?"

"And you were going to tell me this when?" Ursa drawled.

"Why are you so interested in my sex life anyways? That's kinda weird," Marcus remarked.

Ursa rolled her eyes, "Oh please. I am only 'interested' as you say since your bizarre infatuation with Oliver Wood has been a distraction to your studies so I must say that I am pleased that you finally got your act together and… got in his pants."

"What does she know about this?" Oliver hissed.

"Everything, cause she's a know-it-all swot who took it upon herself to meddle with my life," Marcus replied.

"Oh, don't look like a dear caught in headlights, Wood. I'm not going to tell anyone if that's what you're worried about. I realise how important your antagonistic reputations are to both of you," Ursa stated.

"Good, now if you'll just let us get back to where we were," Marcus drawled.

"Oh, no you don't. I will not let you two ruin the sanctuary of the classrooms. You will leave and head back to your common rooms before you force me to draw my hand and dock points because I will," Ursa said.

"Guess we'll have to finish this off another night," Marcus muttered.

"I don't think you will. Any spare time that you have away from Quidditch should be spent studying so that you don't have to repeat your seventh year again, not shagging your rival captain," Ursa ordered.

"Fine!" Marcus snapped. "Who made you the boss of the world?"

"I'm a prefect which is close enough," Ursa quipped. "Now leave. Separately."

"Later then," Oliver muttered as he left.

Ursa crossed her arms and glared at Marcus once Oliver left. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing you won't yell at me for," Marcus commented.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner! I've seen you like four times in the past two weeks!" Ursa exclaimed.

"Hey, I like to have some privacy," Marcus argued.

"Yet you chose to shag Oliver in a public classroom?" Ursa stated.

"It's for the thrill of it," Marcus said. "And it's not like we were 'shagging' as you put it. Of course you wouldn't understand because the only action you get is from your pencil."

"Hey!" Ursa cried. "Now, you're in luck that I have a previous engagement that I need to attend to so I will leave you be for now and interrogate you at another time."

"Good luck finding me then," Marcus remarked as he left the room.

"We are so talking about this later!" Ursa called after him.

Once Ursa had got over the initial shock of catching Marcus and Oliver in that… compromising position, she couldn't help but smirk to herself with satisfaction. The only thing that was really surprising was that Marcus had actually done something about his little crush, since Ursa had expected him to just leave Hogwarts without ever doing anything about it. Nevertheless, he had proven her wrong and Ursa was just glad that it meant she wouldn't have to put up with him mooning over Oliver anymore.

Since Ursa really didn't want to be in the same room where those two had been borderline shagging in only moments ago, she quickly left to go find Hermione so that they could get started. It didn't take her long to find Hermione only a few hallways away.

"Ursa, there you are! I've been looking for you," Hermione stated.

"Yeah, sorry," Ursa apologised awkwardly. "I got… distracted on the way over."

"Are you okay? You're looking rather… disturbed," Hermione commented.

Ursa sighed, "Considering I just caught the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch captains almost shagging in a classroom, I'd say I'm feeling quite disturbed."

Hermione gaped at her. "You mean… Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood?"

"Yeah, I was surprised too. But hey, I guess stranger things have happened than inter-house relationships, am I right?" Ursa remarked. "And um, you wouldn't mind keeping that a secret, would you? I've been sworn to secrecy by Flint."

"Um, okay?" Hermione replied.

"Now, let's get back to the issue at hand here," Ursa stated.

"It's just wrong," Hermione commented.

"I know. We have to find a way to save Buckbeak," Ursa said.

"No, I mean… Flint and Wood," Hermione shuddered.

Ursa narrowed her eyes, "I didn't think that you would be against homosexuality, Minnie."

"I'm not," Hermione insisted. "It's just…. Flint and Wood. The thought of those two together, doing that in a classroom, nonetheless, is outrageous! Not to mention, the activity itself is indecent."

"I guess when you put it that way," Ursa chuckled.

"Please don't tell me that you've ever done that in a classroom," Hermione recoiled.

Ursa scoffed, "Of course not. Firstly, I wouldn't be able to look at a classroom the same way again after engaging in such activities. Though, it I was to do that I would do it somewhere I wouldn't be caught foolishly like Flint and Wood just were. Then again, it's not like there'd be any other places for them to shag like rabbits since they're supposed to be a secret. They could always use the Quidditch rooms, though."

"Ursa!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's just…. Wrong and I cannot believe that you, as a Ravenclaw Prefect, would even consider partaking in such activities."

Ursa rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on, Hermione. Remember, I do come from a line of Slytherins, so I do have a little of that sneakiness in me. But I can assure you that I would never deflower a classroom in such a way. A broom closet, perhaps. But never a classroom."

"Then I guess I can accept that," Hermione mumbled.

With their attention diverted from Ursa's discovery of Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood, their focus was back on Buckbeak where it belonged. Buckbeak's trial was just over two weeks away, and they were running out of time to come up with a defence to spare the innocent creature. At least now Ursa knew what had been keeping Marcus so distracted in their last few study sessions.

~*•°•*~

It was only a few days before Buckbeak's execution when Ursa saw Marcus again. True to his word, he had avoided her since she caught him practically shagging Oliver. There was also the fact that the final Quidditch match of the year was the highly anticipated showdown between Gryffindor and Slytherin that had him less than focused on his studies. Gryffindor had won, and Ursa had heard that Marcus was in a depressed hole, but she was relentless and finally managed to track Marcus down so she could interrogate him.

"You have some explaining to do," Ursa stated as they sat down in their usual spot behind the Quidditch stands.

"Do I have to?" Marcus grumbled.

"Yes," Ursa insisted. "Though, I must say that you don't look as depressed as your teammates are making you out to be."

"Well, I did have Wood to cheer me up after that loss if you know what I mean," Marcus replied as he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Ursa groaned, "I don't even want to know what you mean. But wait, it's only been like what, a month? How can you go from fist fights with Oliver to shagging him in the span of a month?"

"Well, if you must know, the night of the Quidditch final was the first time we 'shagged' as you put it. It's not like we were even doing that much that night you so rudely barged in on us. You're just a prude," Marcus explained.

"Oh, forgive me not thinking to knock in a classroom when it's past curfew and there shouldn't have been anyone in there to begin with!" Ursa exclaimed.

"Well, sneaking around is the only way Wood and I can get up to anything," Marcus said.

"So just tell me how it happened," Ursa stated.

"Well, it was after the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw match. Wood was pissed at me for trying to 'sabotage' Potter," Marcus started.

"That's exactly what you were doing," Ursa interjected.

Marcus glared at her, "Anyways, he was just going on about how I'm always trying to sabotage him and about how much of a jerk I am."

"Ouch. That must not have been nice to hear," Ursa remarked.

"It wasn't," Marcus admitted. "So, me being the impulsive idiot that I am said something along the lines of 'maybe I'm such a jerk to you because I'm into you.' And that was it."

"How did he react?" Ursa wondered.

"He was… flabbergasted. Didn't say anything for a few minutes while I was debating if I should just run, but I didn't. Then he just snogged the shit out of me," Marcus replied.

"And so your wet dreams became a reality," Ursa commented.

"My wet dreams didn't become a reality until the Quidditch final, thank you very much," Marcus snapped.

Ursa rolled her eyes, "So, you've snogged and you've shagged. Now what?"

Marcus shrugged, "Wood's gonna try out for Puddlemere at the end of the year while I'm going for Montrose. I think we're just gonna see where it goes. It's not anything serious at the moment."

"I don't know, I'd consider shagging to be pretty serious," Ursa remarked.

"I'm only going to go for Montrose if I can get the fuck out of this place," Marcus grumbled.

"Which you will," Ursa insisted. "Now, we can stop gossiping about Oliver Wood and put our focus back to what really matters here: getting you to graduate."

"Salazar be with me," Marcus muttered.

And so, Ursa went back to giving Marcus a crash course about everything he'd need to have a basic understanding of in order to pass his N.E.W.T.s. Although Ursa had heard of people repeating their seventh year before, she doesn't think that she's heard of anyone doing it three times, so she wasn't going to let Marcus do that.

"So, what's the deal with you and Granger?" Marcus asked.

"What do you mean?" Ursa said.

"The whole Hippogriff nonsense. Your twat of a brother has done nothing but complain about you 'fraternising with the enemy' in the common room. It's exhausting to put up with," Marcus replied.

"Yeah, well, since Draco is so determined to be a bigoted asshole and stand by while an innocent creature gets slaughtered because of him, I'm going to do everything I can to save Buckbeak," Ursa proclaimed.

"But do you really think you're going to do that?" Marcus wondered.

"No," Ursa sighed. "I know that I'm probably fighting a lost cause and that the execution will probably go ahead as planned. But I'm not going to give up on Buckbeak. It won't be over until the executioner swings."

"For what it's worth, I hope you get your way. It's funny when your little shit of a brother doesn't get what he wants," Marcus snickered.

"Even if it means putting up with his whining and complaining?" Ursa asked.

Marcus nodded. "Even with that."

Despite Ursa's best attempts to remain hopeful, she knew that the chances of sparing Buckbeak were slim, but Ursa just wasn't willing to break that news to Hermione since she knew how much the younger girl cared for the poor creature. So in the days leading up to the appeal, Ursa worked tirelessly with Hermione and never voiced her doubts about the cause that they were fighting for.

So when Ursa received a letter from her mother informing her that Buckbeak's appeal had failed, she was not surprised, but still devastated, nonetheless. Ursa didn't think that she'd ever been as mad and disappointed at her brother and father than when she read the later that almost broke her heart. As Ursa read that letter, she couldn't help but think of the only words of advice that she remembered her father had ever said to her and how true they felt now.

One of these days, Ursa, that heart of yours is going to get you into trouble. You always have more to lose the more you care.

And Ursa's bleeding heart was definitely hurting now so as much as it pained her to admit it, her father had been right about that. Now, Ursa had to break the news to Hermione who she knew wouldn't take it any better than she did.

So Flintwood lives on, yay! As for Buckbeak, well… we all know how that turns out. I'm actually writing a separate Flintwood piece along with my other stories and assessment work cause I just love punishing myself so look out or that if you stan rare pairings like Flintwood. Next chapter will mark the end of PoA before I move on to the GoF but I'm considering making a major plot change for that year which I'll ask you guys for your thoughts on next chapter.