November 2nd, 1976

The locker slammed shut.

"Shafiq," Sirius had said, leaning against the locker. "I need a favour."

"I am not throwing the game," she said coldly.

"That's not what I am asking – although it would be very nice," Sirius noted. "No, I need you to keep Regulus from playing."

Eliza spun around on her heels. "Pardon?"

"You heard me," he grumbled.

"What's this got to do with anything?"

"It has to do with everything. You know your captain? Tall big bloke with the bad teeth? I need you to keep him away from my little brother."

"He doesn't need to stop Quidditch for that."

She left the changing room, dragging her broom behind her in a threatening way so that she could keep at arms length. But Sirius would not leave her alone. The ground was icy, as it was this time of the year in the Highlands, which made Eliza aware that her running away from Sirius could lead to her eating grass.

"You don't know what my parents are planning now that he is the heir of the Black family," he said darkly. "Or maybe you do. Do they tell you stuff?

"I don't care about stuff like that," she said through gritted teeth.

"They won't care that you don't care, if you haven't already noticed," Sirius raised an eyebrow, jutting his chin towards her ring finger. "As long as you have that, you're invincible."

"Unfortunately," Eliza mumbled.

"So… is he?" Sirius asked. "Is he one of them?"

Eliza stopped and turned around. She observed him, looking at him shiver without a cloak. He had run out from somewhere to run to the Quidditch pitch just to ask her to do something about his brother. His goonies were not around to see him which meant that she didn't need to worry about getting hexed or jinxed, unlike Snape who still got hexed for existing.

"No," she said honestly. "He isn't. Not yet, but… some say it will happen this Christmas. He might be too young. Not that your parents care about age."

"Of course," Sirius grumbled. "Well, what am I to do."

"Didn't you just ask me to injure your brother?"

"I never said that."

"But it's implied."

"Shafiq, you are inscrutable."

"That's a big word, Black. I'm impressed and would throw a party, but I have study group soon so if you could kindly let me be –" Eliza had tried to move forward, but in her rage she had forgotten that it was slippery. She lost her footing and in an effort to somewhat save herself, accidentally stumbled into Sirius.

"Watch it," he sounded amused. "Or else the Slytherins might think you're in cahoots with the enemy."

Eliza quickly released herself from his grasps, brushing herself off as though the very presence of him was like dirt. She picked up the broom that had fallen on the floor and clutched it in her hands as though it was the only thing that could save her.

She did not think about how her skin stung where their bodies had touched.

"What, no retort? That's no fun," Sirius taunted.

Eliza took a deep breath. "Look, I can't change what is happening. None of us can –"

"Oh yes we can," Sirius interrupted. "We can fight."

"We are 16, if you haven't notice it. We don't know anything about the world out there," Eliza pointed to the horizon beyond the Black Lake.

"You can't hide in Hogwarts forever," Sirius argued. "When you go home for the holidays, they won't give you that satisfaction. I'm surprised that you haven't been indoctrinated."

"I don't plan on going home for the summer, mind you," Eliza used the broomstick to prop herself up. She pursed her lips. Despite Sirius' obvious hatred for Slytherins and anyone he was related to, he cared for his brother. She wracked her brain, thinking of a plan.

"I'll think of something," she said simply. "I'll find a way to…keep him good. If that's what you want."

A look of relief appeared on Sirius' face.

"Don't tell anyone that I talked to you," Sirius said sternly. "Otherwise my reputation is on the line."

"So is mine," Eliza spun around on her heels and hurried along.

*

They searched the castle.

Eliza could not remember anything. She did not remember where her feet took her as her hands were clutched on her wand looking for Sirius. Every single corner was menacing, the ones where no light shone in. She thought about all the secret entries, all those times they had snuck out of the castle into Hogsmeade when they were young. Sirius knew the castle and the grounds of Hogwarts like the back of his hands. The only thing that should have stopped him were the dementors. Would he attack her? Someone who was his old friend? Someone who had loved him even?

Someone shook her.

"Eliza," Minerva had taken off her hat and frowned. For the first time, Eliza realized just how old Minerva was. How many students did Minerva see turn to the dark side in the last war and beyond?

"Are you alright?"

They were in the first floor corridor. It was all clear. Eliza had her hand on the wall trying to catch herself. It was slightly damp from the raining that had happened before.

Why, out of all days of the year, did he have to chose Halloween night?

"I hate Halloween," she let out shakily and took a deep breathe. "It never...agrees with me."

"You were always in the hospital wing on Halloween, weren't you?"

"How did you know that?"

"Well, I may have caught young Black sneaking out to the hospital wing once or twice. Not all shenanigans stayed within on house, Eliza," she seemed amused. "You will be fine on your own for now, will you?"

Eliza nodded. Minerva gave her a small squeeze on the shoulder before running off to the Great Hall to check on the children. The cold air made her feel numb as she gingerly walked down the corridor once more. Once she was sure that it was all good, she walked towards the Great Hall.

But before she could even take another step forward, a pair of hands grabbed her out of a dark corner. She nearly yelped and stabbed the person's foot with the heal of her boot.

"Ouch!"

"Severus Snape!" Eliza exclaimed. "What are you doing ambushing people in empty corridors!"

"That was painful," Snape scowled. Eliza let out an exasperated sound.

"Honestly. What are you doing?" her heart was beating against her chest. She had thought it was someone else.

"Where were you before the feast?" he asked.

"What are you insinuating?" Eliza frowned.

"A mass murderer whom you were linked to before his incarceration gets past a bunch of dementors and into the castle - of course I will be wondering where you were, professor Shafiq."

"I was in Godric's Hollow," she scowled. "You could have asked in a normal way, Severus."

Upon the word Godric's Hallow, Severus face went slack. A lot of comments stayed on her lips, ones that she wanted to yell at him. Yes, unlike some people she visited the dead. Unlike him, who was gallivanting off with the dark lord, she stayed by Lily's side.

But they stayed on her lips, because those were not the things she was thinking. They were the pains and frustrations that accompanied her for 12 years. She knew that Snape had done something that made Albus forgive him, that made him good in his eyes.

But for Eliza, good was not something you are but what you did. And from what she heard from the other house's, he was not a good person towards them.

"I would never help Sirius get into the castle, if that is what you are insinuating. Now if you excuse me -"

She made sure her robes were sitting correctly and took a few steps off into the direction of the Great Hall again, shaking her head in disbelief. Severus called out her name. Annoyed, she turned around.

"What is it?"

"If you need..." he trailed off but shook his head. "If I find out that you or Lupin are helping Black in any way, I'll make sure you'll be sitting on the next train out of Hogwarts, do you understand me?"

"He killed my best friend," Eliza said in a dark tone. "I would not help him get into the castle to kill her son."

As she walked past the entrance, she saw how the dementors were gathered around as though dying to get inside the place. Their hooded skeleton like figures reminded her of will-o-wisps that had the intention to kill you. Even though they weren't close, she felt the coldness creep up her skin.

She checked in on the children in the Great Hall. All of them were sleeping, though she noted a few hushed tones.

Dumbledore dismissed them at around 4 am and told them to go to bed. No one would attack the children while they were in the Great Hall. Lupin's room was still empty when she came back. Perhaps Dumbledore had sent him out onto the grounds.

So much for that drink, she thought sadly as she took of her robes and settled into her pyjamas.

The question of how he broke into the castle in the first place plagued her and repeated itself even in her sleep, which lead to her dreaming of a big black dog walking into Hogwarts and sauntering up to the door.

He was mad, the Fat Lady had said. He wanted to go in.

His wavy hair was matted to his face. Now long and unkempt, a complete difference to how she had known it to be. She imagined him slashing the Fat Lady's portrait and then running off again, disappearing through a hidden door.

There was a niche in the Hogwarts library Eliza liked to hide in. From there, she could oversee the runnings and goings of the place, observe if Madame Pince was on her way to berate people. Here, she was invisible and safe from the tensions in the Slytherin common room.

But sadly, this small place was known by others.

A mop of black hair popped up from behind a shelf, clearing his throat. Eliza quickly hid the Quidditch books away from him.

"Do you mind if I hide out here?" he begrudged. "I have a small fan club and they won't let me study."

"Isn't your reputation on the line?" Eliza reputed what he had told her, but nodded to the empty seat. He dropped the huge dictionary on the table and began to set up. Seeing as she wasn't privy on him seeing the new Slytherin training plan, she ended up picking up a book of Muggle Studies.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything more.

Eliza was highly aware that Sirius was sitting across from her. He ruffled the pages of his textbook before confronting the parchment as his quill scratched against it. His head was propped up with his arm, a visible sigh escaping him every once in a while. He hadn't been lying when he said that he was there to study and do his homework. Sirius browsed the dictionary often enough to look for a word before going back to his piece of paper.

"Could you come over here for a second?" Sirius asked. "I need you to look at something."

The little skin that wasn't covered on her arm brushed Sirius' arm and leg as she sat next to him – that didn't happen with other people, her brain rang an alarm. Normal people move away. Normal people had a nice 0,5 cm space between each other in this setting.

Eliza looked down at the very messy writing on the parchment. Ancient Runes had them translating classical Egyptian. It wasn't something that Eliza found particularly hard. It was a semitic language and the Shafiq family came from Egypt. It was among the many languages her mother taught her as a witch, way before she learnt English.

Had they not been in the library, she would have laughed. It was an honest mistake, but nevertheless it was a great sentence.

"She won't give birth to the name of eternity?" Eliza read out quietly.

"Well yeah," Sirius shrugged. "rn is name, innit?"

"I'll give you a second option," Eliza had covered the hieroglyphs in their books and slowly revealed it as she read it. "nn msj=s r nHH."

She had emphasised the pause between the r and nHH, turning what Sirius thought as name into grammatical components.

"Oh come off it!" He dropped his quill. The ink splattered across the parchment. "How come you can do this so well?"

"Sh!" Eliza looked around. She didn't need Madame Pince kicking her out of the library. He lowered his head and moved his hand to another part of the homework.

"And this one?"

She looked at it for a bit. "The sentence doesn't have an agent, so you'll need to use 'one' to construct the sentence." He scratched it out and re-wrote it. Once Eliza had given him the ok, he rolled it up and put it back in his bag.

"Thank goodness you were here. Professor Babbling would have had my head on a pike."

"You? Fail? Highly unlikely. You are the best student she has. You would try to charm the pants of professor Babbling - she just hates me."

Eliza stood up and was about to go back to her initial task when she felt a hand around her wrist that stopped her in her track. She looked down to see Sirius looking up at her, a starry look in his eyes.

"Do you really think that?" he asked in a soft voice.

Eliza swallowed hard.

"I think," she looked away. What was now hidden felt like an accident waiting to happen. What if people came around the corner and saw the two of them? "I think you have the freedom to get what you want when you want it. I can't afford to do it."

Eliza thought of the girls that would look Sirius' way, wondering if he would look back at them, even if just a glimpse. Eliza was no better sometimes, but that was a satisfaction that he would not get. Sirius Black may never know that he was the object of her desires.

Sirius nodded towards the Muggle Studies book.

"I know your secret," he whispered. "It's safe with me."

He let go of her wrist, his eyes lingering on her. She packed up her things, gave him a curt smile, before racing on. It didn't matter to her that her exit had been loud enough to wake a dragon. What she needed was to get away before her façade crumbled completely.

*

When Eliza awoke the next morning, there were dried tear stains on her face. It was a Sunday. She trudged up to the Headmaster's office where the broken portrait of the Fat Lady rested for her to restore.

"I'm afraid repairo won't do it," Dumbledore said honestly. "It has to be done with muggle methods."

"I can hardly say I'm an art conservationist and I am a little bit rusty."

"But you are a healer," Dumbledore's eyes glinted. "Surely you know how to sew skin together."

"That is true," she traced the knife slash. "It won't take long."

When she left the office, she had made an effort to sort out for Remus. As always, he was in his office preparing for his lessons.

"You're alright, Moony?" she asked. Remus looked up from his reading and he faltered.

"You look terrible."

"A bit, yeah," she walked in and sat across from him. "The elephant in the room, I presume."

Remus leaned back against his chair. "I keep thinking… I wonder if I should tell Dumbledore."

"Tell him what?"

"That Sirius is an animagus," Remus elaborated. "I think that's how he's been escaping."

"What's stopping you?"

"His trust that I broke," Remus looked out the small window. It overlooked the Black lake where the giant squid was bathing in the cool air. "What do you reckon?"

No.

"I saw him," Eliza said curtly, forcing the words across her lips. Remus' eyes widened.

"What?"

"Back when he first broke out. I was working home from work. I felt watched, but did nothing. I thought a dog was watching me. The next day I found out he'd broken out."

"You could have died."

"But I didn't," Eliza pointed out. "He had every chance to break into my house. It was barely protected. And what's worse… Harry lives nearby. He could have killed Harry, but he didn't."

"Maybe he didn't know."

"I doubt it. Sirius knows where Petunia lives," she played with her ring. "Something just doesn't feel right."

"And what would that be?"

She took a deep breath.

"Do you know how hot fire must be to burn something to ash?"

Remus shrugged. "500 degrees Celsius, give or take."

Eliza shook her head. "More. Around a thousand degrees. The bones we found were white, which means they were calcified. And it takes at least 2 hours before it turns to ash. I've seen dragon burns, things that were bitten off. I've seen lacerations, blisters, all sorts of injuries during the war. I know how mishaps happened. Did you know I was there in the aftermath?"

Remus knew where she was going. He held out a hand.

"Eliza, you –"

"No, let me say this once," she clenched her fist. "He broke in to the tower on a night where no one was in Gryffindor tower. He was in Little Whinging and had the chance to kill but didn't."

"We found a finger, Eliza," Remus clenched his fist. "Please –"

"A finger and nothing else. I saw the other bodies. There were at least chunks."

"He was close to the blast."

"With ONE finger that did not look like the other chunks of other people we found."

"It's a technicality."

Eliza got more impatient by the second.

"That night. We were in the same apartment. He had gone to check up on Pettigrew, he told me that much. Then he never came back."

"He was guilty."

The memory of Regulus rang in her brain.

"He hated Death Eaters."

"But he was the secret keeper!" Remus explained. "It doesn't make sense unless there was switch, but he would have told us, wouldn't he?"

She pressed her lips. "That's the thing. I don't think he would. He didn't trust me nor you."

"Why wouldn't he trust you?"

"For one," Eliza held up the hand that had the ring on it. "I was engaged to his brother."

"Sirius was not daft to think that you became a Death Eater then," Remus argued. "Besides, Regulus died."

"Still," she sighed. "He can be prideful."

"I don't want to fight with you about this," Remus sounded tired. He ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair. It was littered with grey hairs.

"Listen. He got away again. We'll live with that. We keep Harry safe, we go on. And maybe, when he is caught, we'll find it out."

"They won't let him speak if they do," the Daily Prophet had said it. Sirius would get the kiss of the dementor when he is found.

They ignored the 3rd of November and the next time the topic of Sirius came up, it he first Quidditch match of the season was against Hufflepuff. It should have been against Slytherin. But as it turned out Malfoy's boy was still too injured to play – "Allegedly," Poppy had said – so they had changed the game plan.

As a teacher, Eliza was not allowed to play favourites. As a Quidditch fan with a slight bias, Eliza was rooting for Gryffindor. She sat next to professor McGonagall during the match and watched in an amused look as Lee Jordan commentated the game.

There was a short lull in the game in which her eyes roamed the stadium. The sea of scarlet red and emerald green, the bulks of gold and silver. Two opposing colours that complemented each other well.

And then her eyes landed on a big black dog, sitting in the stands, watching the game.

Aw yeah, dropping snippets of the past like a murder mystery. There will be a bigger time jump to Christmas in the next one because the first half of PoA is slow and we'll get more family background story stuff for Eliza along with some Harry and Remus bonding.

Fun fact: In the 2016 iteration I made her engaged to Gideon Prewett but *slams table* where's the drama in that?

The classical Egyptian sentence that is mentioned here IS an actual sentence that I had to translate as I study Ancient Civilisations and do have experience with ancient languages. The translation that Sirius has in the flashback is a true story where all of us mistook rn for the noun ren (Name) instead of r (a preposition) and the n as part of the work for eternity. The actual sentence translates to "she won't give birth forever".