A/N: Sorry this is late, I forgot that Sunday was meant to be my posting day! Hope you're all enjoying the fresh start that 2020 has brought? I just stayed in and played boardgames, not gonna lie, and it was perfect :)


Chapter Three

A cold wind caused Sirius to shiver unexpectedly as he walked down to the Quidditch pitch where James was prepping for tryouts. It hadn't really dawned on him until now that they were in October already as for him, the last few weeks of September passed in a blur of House parties, Quidditch practice, and secret escapades with his friends. He had spotted Aurelia sitting on a bench overlooking the lake as soon as he'd entered the grounds, and had chosen to take the longest possible route to avoid her. They hadn't shared any further conversation since their spat after Transfiguration and Aurelia seemed to be trying her hardest to keep her distance from him. His stomach lurched at the thought of the encounter, the same aspect had been replaying in his mind whenever there was an opportunity, and had decided to focus on the look on her face when he'd told her he was happy he left. He didn't really mean it, or at least not in the way he'd implied it, and felt more guilty each time he mulled it over.

He looked over at her now. She was alone again, something that had become quite frequent recently. He wasn't entirely sure where his brother was, but his absence only highlighted how few friends Aurelia had. He wondered if it had always been that way or if it was a new development but after giving it more thought than could be considered normal, it seemed it was more of her own doing than anything else. She appeared to try and sit away from the main crowds during mealtimes, and when she was forced to sit with her peers she barely said a word and left as quickly as possible.

He squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what she was bent over, and soon saw it was a letter of some sort. Her posture was bent, defeated, a state he recognised all too well as he must have often looked like that after being berated by one of his parents for something entirely trivial and unreasonable. It reminded him, with an unwelcome pang of regret, of something that had happened earlier that summer, something that had briefly opened his eyes to how unaware he was of anyone's troubles bar his own.

He was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading down the servants' entrance to the kitchen. He'd watched Aurelia be summoned down there by her uncle, Benedict Avery, and felt an instant sense if unease. Anything involving Aurelia's uncle was always bad.

"-not good enough, Aurelia!" He arrived in time to hear the end of Mr Avery's scalding.

"Now now, Benedict, I hardly think Aurelia is misrepresenting you." Sirius was surprised to hear his father's voice and wondered briefly who else was down there.

"The boy won't even dance with her, Orion. People are talking!" Mr Avery bit back.

He could practically hear Orion's inner sigh as he spoke to the other Mr Avery in a tone of forced patience. "What about you, Rufus, what do you make of this?"

There was a slight shuffling sound and then the voice of Aurelia's father could be heard. "What? What's that?"

"Your daughter," Orion reminded pointedly, "and my son. Benedict is concerned that Sirius hasn't taken to her enough."

"Sirius?" Rufus asked distractedly. "Wonderful boy, yes. Very proud you must be, Orion, very proud."

Orion said nothing in response, his silence saying more to Sirius of his father's feelings for him than any words could.

"I think mum wanted to see you, Dad," Aurelia could be heard saying. "She's in the main hall."

"Very good." Rufus responded, and Sirius heard his footsteps grow quieter as he took the main entrance out of the kitchen.

A few more moments of painful silence continued until Mr Avery finally rounded on Aurelia again. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself, girl, have I not warned you enough?"

Sirius felt infinitely sorry for Aurelia in that moment, having been subject to such unreasonable arguments in the past. "He doesn't like dancing!" Aurelia cried out in response.

What happened next was enough to send Sirius flying out from his hiding place and down into the kitchen. A loud smack and resulting thud could be heard, followed by a shriek of pain from Aurelia.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Sirius roared, furious. He marched straight over to where Aurelia was cradling the back of her head, having been smacked and sent hurtling backwards into the wall under the force of Mr Avery's strength. "Aurelia," he said through gritted teeth, "go upstairs now."

She looked up at him, wiped the tears that had trickled down her face, and shook her head.

"Go!" He ordered, pointing to the stairs, livid. She gave him a pleading look, undoubtedly worried for what was going to happen when she left, but reluctantly obeyed.

All three men watched her leave tensely. As soon as Sirius was satisfied that she was far enough away that she wouldn't overhear, he flipped around and used his momentum to get a grip on Mr Avery's robes, shoving him backwards. "Don't you ever fucking touch her again!" He raged. He was seventeen, soon to be eighteen in the first term of seventh year, and now a good match for Mr Avery in terms of strength.

Mr Avery leered back at him, taunting, "So you do want the girl then."

"Sirius, let him go!" Orion barked behind him.

For once, Sirius actually listened to him. He released Avery's robes and spat on the floor next to him before exercising the most restraint he'd ever been able to muster and storming out of the kitchen, Avery's smug face burning into the back of his head.

He found himself out of breath as he reentered the main hall and took a second to calm down before approaching Aurelia from where she was standing with a small group of his relatives. "Excuse us, Uncle Alphard, this is Aurelia's favourite dance."

Aurelia span around in surprise but had no time to digest Sirius' words before he was leading her onto the dance floor for the waltz. Many eyes were upon them as they span around the room in perfect step and Sirius was reminded of why he hated dancing - but he would do it for her. As the song drew to a close, he bowed fluidly and took her hands in his, brushing a kiss against her knuckles whilst looking intently into her light blue eyes. He drew her closer to him and whispered into her ear, "I'm sorry," before pulling her into the next dance.

His feet had carried him on the familiar path to the Quidditch pitch and, awakening from his musings, he took in his surroundings to see James wrestling with one of the bludgers. He took a breath, reminding himself that it was pointless to dwell on a friendship that was now null and void, and jogged over to James to lend a hand.


A few days later, Sirius was leaning casually against the wall outside of his Transfiguration classroom, listening to his housemate Mary Macdonald chatter about the upcoming Hogsmede weekend in the second week of October. Despite trying to pay attention and look interested, he couldn't help but get distracted when he saw his brother and Aurelia making their way down the hall.

"Reg, I'm slipping! Hold me higher!" Aurelia whined. Regulus grumbled at her request but hoisted her higher up his back anyway; he had lost a bet to Aurelia and had to pay the price by carrying her to each of her lessons for the rest of the week.

"Perhaps if you weren't such a lump you wouldn't keep slipping down!"

Aurelia pouted as she jumped off his back when they reached the classroom. "Hey! I'm not that heavy!"

"Lia, you've had pancakes for breakfast every day this week, you are that heavy," Regulus stated, straight faced.

"It was not every day," Aurelia protested, "I didn't have them on Wednesday!"

Regulus just laughed and planted a kiss on her cheek, "I'm just kidding, you're perfect. I'd better get to Potions though, Slughorn bullied me into going to one of his cocktail parties last time I was late. See you in a bit."

Apparently Sirius wasn't the only one watching the interaction, Emmett Mulciber seemed to be surveying them with worrying interest and just as Regulus fled to his Potions class, Mulciber closed in. "You shouldn't allow Black to kiss you like that, Aurelia. What would your cousin think?"

Aurelia appeared not to react to Mulciber's veiled threat, but Sirius saw the slightest widening in her eyes that betrayed what she was really feeling at the mention of her cousin. Magnus Avery was on a mission to be just like his father, he'd graduated Hogwarts the previous year and had made no secret of the fact that he planned to join the Death Eaters one day very soon.

"Magnus wouldn't think anything. Regulus and I have been friends for a very long time, there's nothing in it," she snapped.

Mulciber's eyes flashed dangerously at her tone but to her credit Aurelia held her ground. "And what about what impression it gives me, Aurelia, or have you forgotten our little agreement?"

"Agreement?" Her previously irritated tone giving way to uncertainty.

A grotesquely gleeful smile contorted Mulciber's horse-like features. "Oh no, you're not telling me," he began through disbelieving cackles, "you're not telling me that Daddy dearest hasn't shared this with you?"

Aurelia sighed irritably, not keen to play his game. "Shared what, Emmett?"

"Sirius?" Mary tapped her foot impatiently, the sound preventing any further eavesdropping. "Have you even been listening?"

"What? Oh, sorry Mary, I'm just a bit tired. What were you saying?" He responded flatly, still trying to hone in on the Slytherins' conversation.

The blonde sighed and muttered that it didn't matter before stalking off to take her seat in the classroom.

"What was that about Padfoot?" James asked incredulously. "Mary's hot!" Lily, who had been a foot or so away waiting to enter the classroom behind the small queue that had formed, went red, and for a fraction of a second actually looked a bit jealous.

Sirius' brow furrowed as he looked at James in utter confusion. "I thought you were into Evans?"

He noticed Lily's ears go red from behind and nodded to James, who grinned knowingly. "No, Mary was just trying to ask you out you idiot!"

"Was she?" Sirius looked over James' shoulder to get a view of Mary, it looked as though she'd made a special effort today, her hair was neatly curled and tied back with a red ribbon and it seemed as though she'd spelled her uniform to fit more tightly than normal.

"I'll talk to her later," Sirius announced with a wink, before taking his seat next to Aurelia in the classroom.


McGonagall spent the first twenty minutes explaining the theory behind transfiguring twigs into utensils and then set everybody to work. As always in the practical part of Transfiguration, the noise level in the classroom was rather high and Sirius, after successfully turning his first twig into a fish fork, decided it was safe to speak to Aurelia without being overheard.

"So," he started casually, noticing Aurelia tense at the sound of his voice, "you and Mulciber? Has that been going on long?"

"It's not going on at all," she said stiffly, poking at a twig and sighing when nothing happened. "At least not yet," she added under her breath.

Sirius glanced at her, she was looking down at the desk and biting the inside of her cheek, signs he recognised from many years of observing her as worry and apprehension.

"Here," Sirius said, and acting on impulse, placed his hand over her wand hand and moved it in the correct pattern to transfigure the twig. Sure enough it promptly changed into a spoon and Sirius removed his hand quickly.

"That was unnecessary," she said coolly.

He looked at her sharply, taken aback. "A simple thank you would be sufficient," he retorted, her coldness offending him more deeply than he could've anticipated.

"Well you can kiss that idea goodbye, Black." She snapped. "Shouldn't be hard, you've had plenty of practice."

He felt the heat rising in his face. He'd been worrying that he'd gone too far last time for nothing, she was as difficult as ever. "You could've come with me."

She finally looked him in the face and his stomach turned, he'd never seen her so mad. "And you could've stayed."

He scoffed, his eyes rolling disbelievingly. "No, I couldn't. Look, I'm not expecting you to be decent about this but at the very least you can have some basic manners."

"Manners?" Aurelia half-shouted back, livid. "How about fuck off!"

"Miss Avery!" McGonagall barked from the front of the class, her livid expression mirroring Aurelia's, though for a very different reason. "I will not tolerate such language in my classroom, 20 points from Slytherin and I will see you for detention next Saturday!"

"But Black was goading me Professor!" Aurelia protested hotly.

McGonagall turned her challenging stare to Sirius. "Is that true Mr Black?"

"I was hardly goading her, she was being an ungrateful little-"

"BLACK!" McGonagall interrupted. "I strongly recommend that you do not finish that sentence! Might I remind you that you are final year students - this is no way to behave! I will not tell you again."

Knowing that any further argument would see him miss the Hogsmede weekend as well as Aurelia, Sirius sank back in his chair. They spent the rest of the lesson in deadly silence; Sirius violently transfiguring twigs into knives or other potentially lethal objects, while Aurelia continued poking at the twigs with her wand half-heartedly.


"Looked like Avery was giving you a hard time today mate," James said over dinner.

Sirius rolled his eyes in agreement and poured himself another glass of pumpkin juice. "Yeah she can be difficult when she wants to be."

"Seems to be getting on fine with your brother though," he mused, gesturing to the Slytherin table where Aurelia was resting her head against Regulus' shoulder and smiling as he whispered things in her ear.

"They're just friends," he said shortly. He stabbed his fork into a sausage with much more force than he'd intended, resulting in a speculative glance from Remus – something that only served to irritate him further.

"I'm going to the common room," Sirius announced, abandoning his food and hurling his bag over his shoulder.

He didn't even wait for his friends to finish asking why he was suddenly in a bad mood before he had turned on his heel and marched from the Great Hall.

Once again his mind seemed to want to play on any moment of vulnerability he experienced, but rather than reciting memories it instead began to conjure up wild images of Aurelia and Mulciber. The current image was of them getting close, kissing; then escalating to inside a bedroom, Aurelia biting her lip as she pulled at the fastening of her dress and Mulciber-

"Take your clothes off!" Sirius stopped in his tracks; he could have sworn that the actual Mulciber and not just the one in his imagination had just shouted the command from around the corner.

He walked cautiously to the source of the sound and stopped, horrified by what he saw. Mulciber and a crowd of other Slytherins were laughing grotesquely at Mary as she started undressing herself for their entertainment.

He wondered what had gotten into her for a minute before he saw Mulciber's wand pointing at her and the glazed appearance to her eyes. Mulciber was using the Imperius Curse against her.

"OI!" He shouted, wand out and ready to fight, not once considering that he was vastly outnumbered by a large group of Slytherins who were all rumoured to be involved with the dark arts.

Mulciber grinned savagely at him. "Want to join our little show, Black?"

"Impedimenta!" Sirius' spell hit Mulciber squarely in his chest, sending him flying backwards and into a wall. The other Slytherins leaped into action instantly, sending spells flying in Sirius' direction.

Luckily, the duel was loud enough to attract the attention of several students and teachers and was quickly stopped before it got out of hand, no one was hurt seriously and a friend of Mary's rushed her away. Still, Sirius lay awake that night, picturing Aurelia forced into a relationship or even a marriage with Mulciber, and all the horrific things that would likely come with it.


A/N: I'd really like to hear how you're finding this fic so far, so please leave a review and let me know. The best part of posting a new story is hearing the feedback (good and bad, all is helpful!), and it really helps me to understand what to improve on as I'm going along.

See you on Sunday!