Chapter 2 ~ Dueling Lessons
Mrs. Black was sitting alone at the kitchen table when Muriel awoke and went downstairs. She had been away most of the night and had missed dinner. "Regalus mentioned that we had company." Muriel was a bit startled to find herself alone with Mrs. Black, but recovered quickly and thanked her graciously for allowing her to stay.
"Papa and I really appreciate you letting me stay with you last night. He's been very busy." She felt uncomfortable under Mrs. Black's hard, dark eyes. She was also acutely aware that Mrs. Black was excellent at Occlumency.
"Yes, I expect the ministry will have their hands full for quite some time. Coffee?" Mrs. Black got up suddenly and poured them each a cup, then returned to the table.
"Thank you." Muriel knew she'd better broach the subject now. "Mrs. Black? My father contacted me last night." She saw the knowing grin on the older woman's face and set her mug down. This woman knew about her father! Well, that explained why she was being so pleasant. Muriel smiled back, knowing she could use this information.
"I'm sure you're aware that he's not going to be available much this summer. He suggested that you might be willing to let me stay here, as a favor to him." Now Mrs. Black was smiling in earnest. She was glad that the girl knew the real reason that her father would be busy for the rest of the summer.
"Of course, my dear. We'd be glad to have you stay. Perhaps you could give my sons some dueling lessons. As I'm sure you've noticed, our home is well protected from the Ministry's magic detecting charms."
Mur bit back a smirk. Apparently Regalus had told his mother about the duel at the end of last year. "Yes, Mrs. Black. But I don't think - "
Mrs. Black cut her off. "If you're staying the summer, you'd best call me Mum." She stood suddenly, and smiled at the girl before leaving.
'Perhaps this is just what we need to get Sirius to see reason,' she thought to herself as she headed upstairs. 'After all, what better way to bring him back into the family than to set this pretty young daughter of a Death Eater on him?'
By the time Sirius came downstairs, Muriel was already sitting on the back porch watching the muggles on either side of the fence chatting to one another. To them, she knew, there was no yard between them. They couldn't see her or hear her. It was unnerving. "What did you say to my mother?" he asked as he opened the door to join her. "She was downright pleasant to me a moment ago!" Muriel looked up at him with a worried expression, and told him all about her father's request and how his mother had responded. She was a little amused at the sudden wave of anxiety that she felt from him when he understood that she'd be staying with them for the next 3 weeks.
"Well, if she knows about your dad, then she's probably counting on you to make a dark wizard out of me." he laughed nervously and she smiled. "She's been very disappointed in my tendency toward harmless pranks."
"Harmless pranks!" Muriel exclaimed. "Didn't you mention to her about sending Severus to meet Remus at the full moon?"
Sirius looked at the ground. "I'm not proud of that." He spoke quietly.
She snorted forcefully, and he looked up again. "I imagine not. Especially since Severus would likely have killed Remus to save himself. He's perfectly capable of it you know." From the look on his face it seemed that this hadn't occurred to Sirius at all. "Potter must have realized it, that's why he went after him. There aren't many curses that work on werewolves, Sirius, but there are a few and Sev knows what they are."
They fell silent. Sirius was beside himself. The fact was that he hadn't considered that Severus might be a danger to Remus. He'd thought, after the long talk he'd had with Dumbledore, that he understood where to draw the line with his pranks. But obviously he still hadn't thought it through entirely if he missed something that was so obvious to Muriel.
He was just wondering how he could change the topic of conversation when she did it for him. "Why did you invite me here, Black?" He groaned inwardly. The only other thing he really wasn't prepared to discuss. "Your reputation precedes you," she continued. "You've dated every other girl in my dormitory, after all," she paused, then continued a little more forcefully. "We've spent the last 5 years at Hogwarts hexing each other in the hallways and all the sudden you want me to come to dinner? Why?" Her gray eyes were fixing him with a piercing stare, but he met them anyway.
"Why did you agree to come?" he asked quietly. He seemed so utterly different from the boy he was at school. She'd spent a good deal of time last year comforting her friend Marisa when she'd caught him kissing someone else, and he had only laughed. 'Why AM I here?' she asked herself suddenly.
The answer came to her in a sudden wave of understanding. It was what she felt from him. His range of emotion was so like what she'd come to cherish from Severus. So like what she'd lost when Sev learned Occlumency. But she couldn't tell that to Sirius. She wasn't even sure she was ready to admit it to herself.
"Well," she answered slowly, choosing her words carefully and not meeting his eyes, "any girl would be flattered to have your attention." He looked away from her quickly, and she could see that he was turning a bit red. "But that isn't why I agreed to come." She took a deep breath. He was staring out into the yard. It struck her as odd that she suddenly wasn't feeling anything from him until she realized that he was feeling precisely as confused as she was. Their emotions matched so well that she couldn't tell the difference.
"Have you tried at all to keep me out of your head?" She knew the answer already. He had made no effort to shut her off. She'd thought once she explained it on the train that he, like Remus, would at least TRY to keep her from "poking around," as Severus liked to call it. Everyone who'd ever learned of her ability had made an effort to block her. In Maverick's case it had been feeble, but she'd felt it. In Malfoy's case, it had been perfect. She was still wondering how he'd found out. Maybe Severus had told him.
"No," he answered, quietly. He'd heard the argument she and Snape had on the train and he wasn't about to repeat that slimy git's mistakes. As he thought about this he heard Muriel snort and looked up to see her chuckling into her fist. Some of the tension in his stomach eased a bit, and he laughed a little too.
"Come on," she said, pushing her chair back as she stood. "You need to learn to cast a different shield charm." They spent the morning and half the afternoon dueling in the back yard, careful not to let any curses be deflected over the fence.
The days went by quickly as Sirius and Muriel dueled. She showed him every charm, hex and jinx she'd ever found in a book, but it didn't take him long to ask the obvious question. "What about all those curses you threw at me last year?" He must have asked the same question twelve different ways, and by the end of two weeks she was still coming up with new ways to avoid answering. Today she was lucky. Her owl, Gypsy, arrived with several letters and deposited them on top of Sirius' head with a screech before landing on the fence behind him.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, as Muriel laughed.
"Accio letters," was her only response. The letters flew from the ground to her hand. "Let's take a break. I'm sure one of these is from Sev, and I'd better write him back as quickly as I can." Sirius scowled and nodded, not noticing that his ear was a good deal too high on his head. She laughed quietly as she followed him upstairs to the drawing room.
She finally performed the counter curse after Regalus came out of his room and stared interestedly at Sirius. "That's a real improvement. Are you thinking of leaving it like that?" He sniggered wickedly and went back into his room.
Sirius threw himself onto the couch as Muriel sat down at a highly polished desk and opened a bottle of ink. She opened her book list from Hogwarts and handed Sirius his. "Looks like we'll have to head over to Diagon Alley pretty soon." Sirius didn't answer. He wasn't sure he wanted to think about Diagon Alley. They'd be sure to meet up with the rest of the marauders there, and he was a little concerned that Muriel's friendship would crumble to dust when faced with James' rather aggressive personality.
Muriel wisely chose to ignore that thought. It was a valid worry that she shared. Instead, she opened the letter from Severus. "Ack!" she exclaimed. She put her forefinger in her mouth and looked at Sirius. "Stinging hex," she said thickly. She pulled the letter out carefully and pointed it away from her as she opened it. Nothing happened.
"M -
Are you well? Send your location by return owl and I'll pick you up. Mother says you can stay with us. I've been awaiting an owl from you for some time. My father is away. Stop sucking your finger.
–Severus"
"Not a very warm character is he?" Sirius asked, his head just over her shoulder. Muriel jumped.
"What? Oh, this is pleasant, for Sev." She was a little embarrassed, actually, that Sirius had read it. He removed himself to the couch again. Whether he realized it or not, Severus was extremely worried that she wasn't at home. He'd obviously already figured out that she wasn't with Aunt Rosa. She pulled out a clean piece of parchment and wrote back.
"S -
All is well here. Father has already arranged for me to stay the summer. Hope your OWL results were satisfactory. See you on the train.
–Muriel"
'Now that is going to have him in a rage, but it's the best I can do,' she thought to herself, sealing the envelope and throwing it at Gypsy, who had stationed herself at the open window. The bird spread her wings and launched across the room, catching the envelope easily. She headed back out the window as Muriel called, "Don't wait around for a response!"
Muriel looked back down at the last letter. It wasn't for her. "Looks like this is from Potter," she said, tossing it into Sirius' lap. He sat up with a start and ripped it open.
"I wonder where Gypsy got it?" A goofy grin spread across his face. "That lousy git thinks he beat me on OWLS with his pathetic 7. Two of them weren't even E's!" Muriel smiled faintly. That sounded more like the Sirius she'd known at Hogwarts. He lowered the parchment to look at her. "I got 8, but none of them was lower than Exceeds Expectations."
"That really is astounding, since I didn't even know you studied."
"How'd you do, then?" He shot back, unwilling to be teased about something he really thought was a miracle to begin with.
"9 OWLs if you count Arithmancy, and acceptances to all the NEWT programs I applied for." She didn't bother to mention that she'd taken her Arithmancy OWL years ago. It sounded better to say she'd beat him.
Sirius chucked the paper at her and headed for the door. "Well, come on, enough letters. I'm starving."
Mrs. Black was sitting alone at the kitchen table when Muriel awoke and went downstairs. She had been away most of the night and had missed dinner. "Regalus mentioned that we had company." Muriel was a bit startled to find herself alone with Mrs. Black, but recovered quickly and thanked her graciously for allowing her to stay.
"Papa and I really appreciate you letting me stay with you last night. He's been very busy." She felt uncomfortable under Mrs. Black's hard, dark eyes. She was also acutely aware that Mrs. Black was excellent at Occlumency.
"Yes, I expect the ministry will have their hands full for quite some time. Coffee?" Mrs. Black got up suddenly and poured them each a cup, then returned to the table.
"Thank you." Muriel knew she'd better broach the subject now. "Mrs. Black? My father contacted me last night." She saw the knowing grin on the older woman's face and set her mug down. This woman knew about her father! Well, that explained why she was being so pleasant. Muriel smiled back, knowing she could use this information.
"I'm sure you're aware that he's not going to be available much this summer. He suggested that you might be willing to let me stay here, as a favor to him." Now Mrs. Black was smiling in earnest. She was glad that the girl knew the real reason that her father would be busy for the rest of the summer.
"Of course, my dear. We'd be glad to have you stay. Perhaps you could give my sons some dueling lessons. As I'm sure you've noticed, our home is well protected from the Ministry's magic detecting charms."
Mur bit back a smirk. Apparently Regalus had told his mother about the duel at the end of last year. "Yes, Mrs. Black. But I don't think - "
Mrs. Black cut her off. "If you're staying the summer, you'd best call me Mum." She stood suddenly, and smiled at the girl before leaving.
'Perhaps this is just what we need to get Sirius to see reason,' she thought to herself as she headed upstairs. 'After all, what better way to bring him back into the family than to set this pretty young daughter of a Death Eater on him?'
By the time Sirius came downstairs, Muriel was already sitting on the back porch watching the muggles on either side of the fence chatting to one another. To them, she knew, there was no yard between them. They couldn't see her or hear her. It was unnerving. "What did you say to my mother?" he asked as he opened the door to join her. "She was downright pleasant to me a moment ago!" Muriel looked up at him with a worried expression, and told him all about her father's request and how his mother had responded. She was a little amused at the sudden wave of anxiety that she felt from him when he understood that she'd be staying with them for the next 3 weeks.
"Well, if she knows about your dad, then she's probably counting on you to make a dark wizard out of me." he laughed nervously and she smiled. "She's been very disappointed in my tendency toward harmless pranks."
"Harmless pranks!" Muriel exclaimed. "Didn't you mention to her about sending Severus to meet Remus at the full moon?"
Sirius looked at the ground. "I'm not proud of that." He spoke quietly.
She snorted forcefully, and he looked up again. "I imagine not. Especially since Severus would likely have killed Remus to save himself. He's perfectly capable of it you know." From the look on his face it seemed that this hadn't occurred to Sirius at all. "Potter must have realized it, that's why he went after him. There aren't many curses that work on werewolves, Sirius, but there are a few and Sev knows what they are."
They fell silent. Sirius was beside himself. The fact was that he hadn't considered that Severus might be a danger to Remus. He'd thought, after the long talk he'd had with Dumbledore, that he understood where to draw the line with his pranks. But obviously he still hadn't thought it through entirely if he missed something that was so obvious to Muriel.
He was just wondering how he could change the topic of conversation when she did it for him. "Why did you invite me here, Black?" He groaned inwardly. The only other thing he really wasn't prepared to discuss. "Your reputation precedes you," she continued. "You've dated every other girl in my dormitory, after all," she paused, then continued a little more forcefully. "We've spent the last 5 years at Hogwarts hexing each other in the hallways and all the sudden you want me to come to dinner? Why?" Her gray eyes were fixing him with a piercing stare, but he met them anyway.
"Why did you agree to come?" he asked quietly. He seemed so utterly different from the boy he was at school. She'd spent a good deal of time last year comforting her friend Marisa when she'd caught him kissing someone else, and he had only laughed. 'Why AM I here?' she asked herself suddenly.
The answer came to her in a sudden wave of understanding. It was what she felt from him. His range of emotion was so like what she'd come to cherish from Severus. So like what she'd lost when Sev learned Occlumency. But she couldn't tell that to Sirius. She wasn't even sure she was ready to admit it to herself.
"Well," she answered slowly, choosing her words carefully and not meeting his eyes, "any girl would be flattered to have your attention." He looked away from her quickly, and she could see that he was turning a bit red. "But that isn't why I agreed to come." She took a deep breath. He was staring out into the yard. It struck her as odd that she suddenly wasn't feeling anything from him until she realized that he was feeling precisely as confused as she was. Their emotions matched so well that she couldn't tell the difference.
"Have you tried at all to keep me out of your head?" She knew the answer already. He had made no effort to shut her off. She'd thought once she explained it on the train that he, like Remus, would at least TRY to keep her from "poking around," as Severus liked to call it. Everyone who'd ever learned of her ability had made an effort to block her. In Maverick's case it had been feeble, but she'd felt it. In Malfoy's case, it had been perfect. She was still wondering how he'd found out. Maybe Severus had told him.
"No," he answered, quietly. He'd heard the argument she and Snape had on the train and he wasn't about to repeat that slimy git's mistakes. As he thought about this he heard Muriel snort and looked up to see her chuckling into her fist. Some of the tension in his stomach eased a bit, and he laughed a little too.
"Come on," she said, pushing her chair back as she stood. "You need to learn to cast a different shield charm." They spent the morning and half the afternoon dueling in the back yard, careful not to let any curses be deflected over the fence.
The days went by quickly as Sirius and Muriel dueled. She showed him every charm, hex and jinx she'd ever found in a book, but it didn't take him long to ask the obvious question. "What about all those curses you threw at me last year?" He must have asked the same question twelve different ways, and by the end of two weeks she was still coming up with new ways to avoid answering. Today she was lucky. Her owl, Gypsy, arrived with several letters and deposited them on top of Sirius' head with a screech before landing on the fence behind him.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, as Muriel laughed.
"Accio letters," was her only response. The letters flew from the ground to her hand. "Let's take a break. I'm sure one of these is from Sev, and I'd better write him back as quickly as I can." Sirius scowled and nodded, not noticing that his ear was a good deal too high on his head. She laughed quietly as she followed him upstairs to the drawing room.
She finally performed the counter curse after Regalus came out of his room and stared interestedly at Sirius. "That's a real improvement. Are you thinking of leaving it like that?" He sniggered wickedly and went back into his room.
Sirius threw himself onto the couch as Muriel sat down at a highly polished desk and opened a bottle of ink. She opened her book list from Hogwarts and handed Sirius his. "Looks like we'll have to head over to Diagon Alley pretty soon." Sirius didn't answer. He wasn't sure he wanted to think about Diagon Alley. They'd be sure to meet up with the rest of the marauders there, and he was a little concerned that Muriel's friendship would crumble to dust when faced with James' rather aggressive personality.
Muriel wisely chose to ignore that thought. It was a valid worry that she shared. Instead, she opened the letter from Severus. "Ack!" she exclaimed. She put her forefinger in her mouth and looked at Sirius. "Stinging hex," she said thickly. She pulled the letter out carefully and pointed it away from her as she opened it. Nothing happened.
"M -
Are you well? Send your location by return owl and I'll pick you up. Mother says you can stay with us. I've been awaiting an owl from you for some time. My father is away. Stop sucking your finger.
–Severus"
"Not a very warm character is he?" Sirius asked, his head just over her shoulder. Muriel jumped.
"What? Oh, this is pleasant, for Sev." She was a little embarrassed, actually, that Sirius had read it. He removed himself to the couch again. Whether he realized it or not, Severus was extremely worried that she wasn't at home. He'd obviously already figured out that she wasn't with Aunt Rosa. She pulled out a clean piece of parchment and wrote back.
"S -
All is well here. Father has already arranged for me to stay the summer. Hope your OWL results were satisfactory. See you on the train.
–Muriel"
'Now that is going to have him in a rage, but it's the best I can do,' she thought to herself, sealing the envelope and throwing it at Gypsy, who had stationed herself at the open window. The bird spread her wings and launched across the room, catching the envelope easily. She headed back out the window as Muriel called, "Don't wait around for a response!"
Muriel looked back down at the last letter. It wasn't for her. "Looks like this is from Potter," she said, tossing it into Sirius' lap. He sat up with a start and ripped it open.
"I wonder where Gypsy got it?" A goofy grin spread across his face. "That lousy git thinks he beat me on OWLS with his pathetic 7. Two of them weren't even E's!" Muriel smiled faintly. That sounded more like the Sirius she'd known at Hogwarts. He lowered the parchment to look at her. "I got 8, but none of them was lower than Exceeds Expectations."
"That really is astounding, since I didn't even know you studied."
"How'd you do, then?" He shot back, unwilling to be teased about something he really thought was a miracle to begin with.
"9 OWLs if you count Arithmancy, and acceptances to all the NEWT programs I applied for." She didn't bother to mention that she'd taken her Arithmancy OWL years ago. It sounded better to say she'd beat him.
Sirius chucked the paper at her and headed for the door. "Well, come on, enough letters. I'm starving."