Chapter 6 – Sirius to the Rescue!
Disclaimer: We do not own anything that belongs to J. K. Rowling!
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"And you're sure Florence is ok apart from the fact that she's unconscious?" Heather asked frantically.
Dumbledore nodded but his eyes were still worried. "But that doesn't make her quite well yet, Heather. She needs to wake up and she hasn't done that yet."
Heather frowned. "And Snape?" she asked reluctantly. "How is he?"
"Not good." The headmaster's own frown increased. "He's not taking it well."
"I wouldn't expect that he would..."
"How are you, Heather?" Dumbledore asked, changing the subject.
"I'll do, sir. Don't you worry about me," Heather smiled wobblily. "As long as you are doing everything in your power for Florence, I'll be fine."
Dumbledore nodded. "We're doing our best."
"Thank you."
Heather backed away from the fire and the conversation. It was about time she had the fireplace cleaned, she thought but groaned when she realised that it, once again, came back to money.
Florence's condition hadn't changed since the day of the final, no matter how much everyone had tried to kid themselves. It had been a week since then and Heather was beginning to think that they would never revive her.
She stood up and brushed down her robes restlessly. Time for work, I think. She picked up her wand and walked out of the door, locking it carefully behind her with her annoying muggle keys.
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"Hello, mate!" Mark dashed over to where Sirius was standing, leaning against a lamppost.
"Hello," Sirius drawled, grinning. "You know, you could get fired for this."
"Well..." Mark shrugged carelessly. "Who needs this poxy job, anyway?" he said rhetorically.
"OK, then. If you're sure..."
"Sure as the sun sets in the east, mate!" Mark said grinning.
"Err... the sun sets in the west," Sirius corrected, slightly worried now.
"Whatever... Come on!" Mark beckoned.
Sirius found himself in a large, white building absolutely crammed full with people. He could just see Mark's tall haircut above the crowd and followed it.
"Phew! It's always like that first thing in the morning and now that Voldemort has been dispatched again... there's a hell of a lot of paperwork to do, if you know what I mean!" Mark wiped the back of his hand across his forehead.
Sirius nodded. "So, Experimental Charms is on the next floor?"
"Not bloody likely! It's on the 126th floor." Mark started towards an elevator and Sirius, slightly confused by all the events, but trying not to show it, followed him.
Once they had got inside, the lift took them, via magic of course, to the 126th floor in a matter of seconds. The lift doors opened to show Murray standing restlessly, obviously waiting for them.
"You'd better go back, Sirius. Cassius Chetwin is on the warpath," he said worriedly but Mark shook his head.
"S'not gonna work, Murray. He's coming to see Heather and there's nothing you can do to stop him. Ain't that right, Sirius?" Mark nudged Sirius with his elbow.
"Well..." Sirius' brow furrowed worriedly. "Who's this Chetwin fellow?"
"Our boss," Murray said wincing. "Nasty piece of work."
Mark shook his head. "He's nothing to worry about. Heather's in the lab, isn't she?"
Murray nodded slowly but exchanged a look with Sirius. "You don't want to cross him..." he managed before Mark dragged him into the elevator.
"We're just going to grab some 'supplies' and doughnuts! We'll be back in half an hour, ok?"
Sirius nodded but the elevator doors were closing before he remembered something. "Where are the..." he yelled. "...labs?"
Sighing, he looked back at the maze of corridors and shrugged. He'd gotten out of Azkaban; surely he could find a laboratory in one small floor.
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"Aaah, Heather, my love. There you are!" Cassius Chetwin strolled casually over to Heather after licking his hand and running it through his sparse, greying hair. He leant behind her and slapped her rear, something that made her seriously consider, not for the first time, one of the Unforgivable Curses.
"Yes. I'm here," she said with gritted teeth and a grimace. "What would you like, sir?"
"I'm a bit parched. Maybe you could better your skills and go and make me a coffee. How about it, sweetheart?"
She could have slapped him, but she smiled genteelly at her lecherous boss and went to find a house elf, muttering under her breath. "I'm a first-class researcher, not some lackey! The revolting old git!"
Thinking seriously about transfiguring some owl droppings into sugar lumps for him, she carried the coffee up to his office and slammed it down on his desk, causing it to spill a little. Without another word, she marched out, down to the research lab and got on with some real work.
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Sirius turned and looked down the way he'd come. "Uh..." It was like being in a house of mirrors, he thought in annoyance. Why couldn't they just design Ministry buildings normally instead of making them into huge mazes?
His brow furrowed, he continued along the corridor.
"Can I help you?" A girlish voice echoed through the corridor from behind him and he sighed in relief. He turned around to see a girl of barely twenty behind him, looking at him with curious eyes through silver glasses.
"Uncle Sirius? What are you doing here?" she said happily and gave him a quick hug.
"Hello, Deanna. I should be asking you what you are doing here."
She smiled. "I'm doing a job exchange with another girl for a week. You didn't forget I worked at the Ministry did you?" Deanna asked suspiciously.
"No, no, of course not!"
Deanna gave him a dubious look. "And you are here because?"
"I'm visiting someone… well, I'm trying to." He looked around him again in confusion.
"Don't tell me you're lost?!" Deanna gave a peal of laughter and Sirius scowled.
"Not exactly…" Sirius began and she arched one black eyebrow. "Yes," he admitted. "Are you going to give me a hand?"
"Where are you going?"
Sirius paused. "To a lab?"
Deanna rolled her eyes. "Well, that's helpful!"
"Deanna…" he growled.
"Ok, ok. The labs are this way." Deanna started walking down the corridor and Sirius fell in step beside her.
"So, how's your mother?"
"Mum's fine. So are dad, Tatiana and Esme."
"Great."
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Heather fiddled with her wand aimlessly, trying to twirl it between two fingers like a baton. She was distracted and generally bored with her work at the moment: no new ideas had arisen and so she and her colleagues were carrying on with the same old stuff.
Hearing the door close behind her, she called a welcome to Mark, who must have returned from fetching some supplies from down the road. "Did you pick up some doughnuts like I asked, Mark?"
Strong arms wound around her waist and she jerked back. "What are you doing...?" She turned around in the man's embrace and looked straight into Sirius' gleaming blue eyes. "Sirius? What are you doing in here? You're not allowed!"
His face took on the expression of the guilty schoolboy that she remembered. "I have my methods," he shrugged. "Who's Mark?" He pretended that he hadn't met with her colleagues, as it would most probably get them into trouble.
Heather grinned inwardly but kept a straight face. "Oh, just someone. We've been lovers for a long time. In fact, we've done it in that cupboard near on three hundred times!"
"Bollocks," was Sirius' reply. "And for lying to me, you deserve extreme punishment!" He held her tightly and moved in for the kill.
"Heather? Are you in here, my darling?"
Heather panickedly pushed her hands up against Sirius' chest as she heard her boss' voice echo down the corridor.
"In here!" She pushed Sirius into the store cupboard and he wiggled his eyebrows at her before she shut the door on his amused face. "I never knew you were so kinky!" she heard him say.
Sighing with relief, she leaned against the door as Cassius Chetwin strolled through the door.
"Ahh, there you are! What are you up to, my princess?" He licked one of his hands and smoothed down his grey hair over his balding head.
Heather shuddered inwardly. He was vile, but she really needed this job.
"Err... just carrying on with the same research from yesterday, sir."
Cassius nodded and scanned his eyes over the lab. "Where are Anwyl and Lyle?"
"Murray and Mark have gone out to get some more supplies."
"Hmmm... so we're alone then, princess." Chetwin moved towards her in a predatory way and Heather sidestepped until there was a work-surface between them. "Don't be scared, my dear. I'm not going to hurt you..."
Chetwin moved swiftly for a balding lecher and he got around the table faster than she could escape. Grabbing her elbow, he steered her closer to him so they were touching more than she would ever want to touch him. She cringed and Chetwin, seeing the expression, leered evilly. "I've been wanting to do this for so long..."
Heather closed her eyes, knowing that she would have to give in or lose her job. There was no option.
"It's a shame you won't ever be doing it then." She heard Sirius' voice and opened her eyes. She had forgotten, in her panic, that she had hidden him in the cupboard.
"Sirius...no!" Heather could only watch as Sirius dragged her boss away from her and held him above the floor by the neck of his robes.
Heather moved over to Sirius to grab at his arm. "What are you doing?! Put him down!" Although relieved at his intervention, Heather was intensely aware of the fact that he was losing her job for her.
Sirius looked down at her and she could see exactly how angry he was in the tightness of his jaw and the furious gleam in his eyes.
"Put him down, Sirius," she pleaded and he slowly lowered his arm, setting Chetwin back on the floor. The older man loosened his collar and rubbed his neck. He looked like an enraged goblin and Heather felt her heart sink.
"You're fired, missy! I'll make sure that you never get work in this country again!" He pointed at Heather, ferociously. "And you." He turned to Sirius. "GET OUT BEFORE I SET THE AURORS ON YOU!!!"
"She won't need to work in this country, you little git. She's moving to England with me."
Heather gasped in shock.
"With you? Why would she want to live with an overgrown mess of a wizard with no money and no prospects? A murderer-" Chetwin didn't get time to finish as Sirius' fist connected with his face, knocking him out. He slumped to the floor and Sirius stood over him, rubbing his fist.
"You deserved that, you son of a-"
"Sirius! How could you? What am I going to do?" Heather sank down to the floor. "What am I going to do?" she whispered and put her hands over her eyes, trying to stop the tears.
Sirius sank to his knees next to her and dragged her into his arms. He stroked her hair gently, with tenderness that belied his earlier anger.
"You can move to England, with me. Like I said."
Heather looked up at him, her blue eyes bright with tears. "It's not that easy. I can't pick up and leave; I have commitments, responsibilities."
Sirius raised one eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Well, my home for starters, my friends..." Heather looked back down again.
"And...?"
She sighed. "...my debts."
"Debts? Well, I'm sure I can sort them out. How much do you owe?"
Heather reluctantly named a figure that included more than enough galleons for a half a year's good pay. Sirius frowned. "How did this happen? How..." He saw the expression on her face and stopped. "Who was he?"
Heather shook her head. "Don't, Sirius. Just don't ask now."
To her surprise, he just nodded and got to his feet, pulling her with him. "Let's get out of here, eh? Come on." He grabbed her coat from the rack in the cupboard and took her out of the building.
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"Heather? Oh my-" Mark Anwyl entered the lab, his arms loaded with supply boxes; a pack of doughnuts rested on top. Murray entered slightly behind but was treated to the sight of Mark's back as he stopped in the doorway.
"Mark, move." Murray ordered but his colleague paid no attention.
Mark's eyes took in the messy room and the sight of his boss slumped against a work surface in the centre of the room, obviously knocked out. "Oh, bugger."
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Authors' Notes:
Hello! Thanks for all your lovely reviews.
Special thanks to:
sapphireskies: Nope, Voldemort should be well and truly dead (hopefully!) now. He's not really involved in this story (cos I hate him!), he's more in 'Wrongs', our main story (the rest are like lead offs from that).
Drachenaugen: I'm glad you like my Sirius and Heather. I'm definitely sure (but that's cos I'm the writer!) that Heather hasn't seen the last of Sirius' kisses and that Heather has a few tricks up her sleeve for him!
Hopeful Writer: You saucy thing! I hadn't even thought of the connotations of that last statement! Thanks for telling me though, cos Martha is always making fun of a certain scene in chapter 3 of 'Wrongs' that I wrote without thinking (hint: involves Snape in the toilet!). Oh and sorry, a fortnight is two weeks.
And everyone else who reviewed!
Please keep reading.
Love,
Martha and Squirrel.
xxx.