Chapter 10 ~ Dueling Again
As Muriel lay in bed, watching sunlight creep through the window, she looked back on all the things that had happened since Halloween, and smiled. Lily had been spotted with James several times, although neither of them would admit that they were going out. James had been frustrated when Lily went to the first Hogsmeade weekend with Kyle, but he seemed to have shaken it off as Christmas drew nearer.
Muriel's first Quidditch match had gone extremely well. Even though beater had not been the position she wanted, she was pretty good at it. She'd knocked the Slytherin seeker off his broom at the perfect moment, securing a Ravenclaw win. Sirius was going around telling everyone that she learned it all from him, which had earned him several nasty hexes from Severus about which Muriel had wisely chosen not to comment.
She was still concerned about Severus. He hadn't said what he planned to do for Christmas, although she'd done everything but beg him to stay at the castle. She rarely saw him at all, which was probably for the best, as she spent most of her free time with Sirius. Severus knew she'd had a date for the Halloween dance, but even his own housemates wouldn't tell him who it was. He had too much pride to pester them about it, so he settled for keeping his ears open. He'd heard that she'd dance with both Lupin and Black, but he knew she and Lupin were friends, and she always seemed to end up getting stuck with Black somehow. It was becoming a very interesting puzzle.
Muriel was spending so much time with Sirius that she got sent to detention twice for things the marauders had done. She was surprised that she hadn't had more, considering all the crazy pranks they'd pulled. She smiled as she remembered walking down the hallway and watching the suits of armor bobbing like corks near the ceiling, as they sang Christmas carols mournfully. Ever since the night they hid from Peeves in Myrtle's bathroom Sirius had been back to his old self, although a bit more restrained. He never mentioned Severus. When she brought it up he usually just listened with an indulgent expression and then changed the subject.
The other girls in her room were up now, and busily packing their trunks. Muriel thought she'd go down with everyone else and try to catch Severus, so she dressed quickly and tossed on her school robes.
Severus groaned when he saw her coming, though he was pleased to see that she didn't have a trunk with her. At least he'd managed to keep her from wanting to come home with him. He'd done his best to avoid her since their last Hogsmeade visit, when she'd pestered him continually about not going home. But his mother had written to ask him to come. She'd been alone since September, when his father had gone into hiding, and he couldn't let her down. He carefully closed off his mind as Muriel approached, but he could see the tears starting in her eyes and knew it wouldn't make much difference.
"You're going, then, Sev?" she asked quietly. He nodded and moved the trunk at his feet away from the doors a bit. He was sure she was about to ask him to stay, and wasn't looking forward to the scene that would probably ensue.
To his surprise, she just handed him something. "A friend of mine charmed these for us. I want you to contact me the minute it's over. I won't try to contact you, I'm not sure I could stand a repeat of that conversation." He nodded again, not sure what to say to her. He wondered who she knew that was able to charm mirrors. Lily Evans, maybe, or Black? He narrowed his eyes as he thought about this, but pushed the name out of his mind. Muriel would never hang out with Black, he'd been tormenting her since before their 1st year. Still, there weren't many people at Hogwarts who could do magic at that level.
"See you, then," he said quietly. He resisted the urge to hug her, and enchanted his trunk to float instead.
"Be careful, Sev, and tell your mother I'm sorry I couldn't make it." She knew how lonely his mother must be, not that her husband had been good company. But Mrs. Snape loved Severus and as much as she wanted him to stay here where he was safe, she knew that an angry Dark Lord showing up at his house to find his mother alone was more than Severus could bear. She waved shortly and ran back up the stairs before her tears could start in earnest.
Sirius stood on the stairs above and watched, as Muriel gave Snape the mirror Lily had charmed. He didn't follow her when she ran back toward her dormitory, but watched, instead, as Snape unwrapped the mirror, then put it in his pocket. He wondered if Snape would give in and become a Death Eater. At the beginning of the year he'd been jealous of how much Muriel worried over Snape, but he was beginning to realize that with him walking into this kind of danger it was hard NOT to worry about him.
Sirius headed back to Gryffindor tower. He still had to wrap Muriel's present. He'd found a beautiful necklace in Hogsmeade, and since Muriel always went with Severus, he had been free to purchase it without her seeing. James had made fun of him, but Sirius was pretty sure he'd gone back there later in the day to buy something for Lily.
Sirius was surprised to see Remus staring at the fire in the common room when he got back. "Thought you were going home."
"Me too, but it turns out the full moon is the last day of the holidays and Mum didn't want to make a special trip to bring me back." Remus looked ruefully at his friend and tried to smile.
"Don't worry, mate. If I told my mother I was coming home for the holidays, she'd probably hide the house!" Mrs. Black had said nothing about Christmas this year, probably because Lord Voldemort wasn't going to be there, and couldn't get offended when people didn't show up. Sirius grinned at his friend. "Come on, let's go find Mur. I want to see how you duel!" Remus, who'd been glad for company a minute ago, was a little apprehensive about dueling with Muriel, but agreed. They made their way down to the Great Hall to find that breakfast was still being served. Muriel walked in a few minutes later with red, puffy eyes, but a pleasant smile.
"Hi Remus! Black didn't tell me you were staying." She sat down next to Sirius and poured herself some water. When no one answered her, she looked up again. "So, what are you two doing today?"
"I thought it'd be funny to watch you and Moony duel," Sirius answered immediately, in spite of the sound kick he received from the other side of the table. Muriel looked at Remus, who had turned a bit green in spite of himself. She winked.
"I've sworn off dueling with anyone who doesn't already know shield charms. It's too much like bullying." Remus tried and failed to stifle his laughter, and Muriel grinned at her plate of food. Sirius, however, scowled, knowing she was baiting him.
"Moony knows shield charms anyway." He mumbled. Remus, after all, was the one who paid attention in class. Surely he'd picked up shield charms somewhere.
Remus nodded, feeling a little better about the idea. "I know a few. We'd better go and get extra cloaks, though. I'll meet you outside in an hour." He grabbed one last biscuit from the table and headed off, thinking that maybe Christmas at Hogwarts wasn't going to be so bad after all.
The snow was unusually thick this year, but an hour later Muriel and Sirius plowed their way through it to meet Remus, who was already standing with his wand out. "Have you had enough time to look up curses then?" Muriel inquired politely, smirking.
Remus smiled slightly and inclined his head as he waited for her to join him. That's exactly how he'd spent the time.
Sirius wiped the snow off a bench and sat down, looking amused. By the time Muriel ran over to help Remus up off the ground, Sirius, who had hardly moved, was nearly frozen. She'd stuck with curses they all knew, and won fair and square, but she felt bad for knocking him silly with that last one. He'd hit her with a few good hexes too, though. When they joined Sirius on the bench, he held her by the chin with one hand to look at the scrape on her cheek. Remus had managed once to throw her backwards and her face had grazed the side of the empty water fountain. "I can fix that," he said solemnly. A moment later the scrape was gone, but Muriel had twigs sprouting out of her head in place of hair.
She shrieked as the boys laughed at her and pulled her wand out again. Sirius had a difficult time blocking her curses, since every time he looked at her he started laughing again. It was a long time before either of them landed a curse. She finally hit him with a bat bogey hex and told him he'd be spending Christmas with the flying rodents if he didn't fix her hair.
"I can't see you, how can I cast the spell?" he yelled, swiping at the bats fluttering around his face. In a moment they were gone.
"Cease fire?" Muriel asked. He nodded and picked his wand up out of the snow. He cast the counter curse and the twigs became hair again, which stood out for a moment, then fell down around her face. He stared at her a minute before Remus coughed and they both looked around.
"Just about lunch time," he said. "If you two are done trying to hex each other, let's go get some hot chocolate."
They sat at the Gryffindor table, since the Great Hall was practically deserted, laughing about their duels and planning what they'd do the rest of the holiday. "You're both really good, you know," Muriel told them. "I've been dueling with Papa and Sev since I was 8, and you managed to hold your own, when you weren't too busy laughing to think," she added. She fell silent, then, as Sirius and Remus chatted on. 'Papa and Sev. I sure hope you're okay,' she thought to herself. Remus insisted that they at least try to get some of their homework done, so they spent the afternoon in the library, working on star charts and Potions essays.
The next day was Christmas Eve. When they met for breakfast in the Great Hall, they were astounded to see that huge evergreen trees had appeared overnight. Professor Flitwick was supervising the tree decorations, so they offered to help. It took most of the morning to decorate all four trees, but they had a wonderful time. Sirius was glad to see Remus laughing and enjoying himself. He'd been afraid that his friend would spend Christmas being upset about his parents. They'd stayed up late last night, thinking up pranks for the next term, planning the last night of holidays, and talking about everything that had happened this year. Without Prongs, they decided to just stay in the Shrieking Shack for the full moon. Sirius wasn't sure that he could control Moony on his own, but he WAS sure that he was going to keep his friend company.
When the decorations were complete they stood back and admired their work. Unmeltable icicles hung from the branches of one tree. Muriel had turned each one a different color, and Remus knew a trick to make them glow. There were only so many live fairies to be had, after all.
The Christmas Eve feast was really stunning. So few students had stayed for the holidays that Sirius, Muriel and Remus ate with the teachers, and a few other students at one table. It was a rather noisy group until Professor Dumbledore, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation, looked down the table to Muriel and inquired about her father. The table went silent.
"I haven't heard from him for some time. He warned me that he might be busy this year," she said warily. Sirius and Remus exchanged a meaningful glance, but didn't know what they could say to help her. Muriel knew that Dumbledore was aware that she'd spent half the summer with the Blacks, since her book list had arrived there. He was looking at her now over the top of his glasses.
"I also have not received an owl from your father lately," he said gravely, as though he had regularly corresponded with him before. The entire table was listening now, and Muriel could feel her face growing hot. She wondered just how often her father was sending owls to Dumbledore. Surely not often, since Riddle would be furious if Mr. Deesia did any such thing.
"Severus said he would check on him for me, while he's home," Muriel replied. Dumbledore nodded.
"Yes, and how is young Mr. Snape feeling? I understand he was under the weather earlier this year." Muriel had the same sinking sensation that she'd experienced talking to Voldemort, and knew her eyes were widening in spite of ever effort to appear unconcerned. Dumbledore, she was now sure, knew all about what had occurred in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius chose this moment to spill his pumpkin juice spectacularly over his and Muriel's robes and plates. Muriel knew an opportunity when she saw one, and gave a little shriek, jumping up from the table. Sirius stood too.
"Excuse me!" she exclaimed, and ran out of the hall to change her robes. Sirius followed her as Remus tried to sop up the mess with his napkin, looking disgusted to hide his grin. Dumbledore's eyes followed them out.
"Thanks!" she said breathlessly as they raced up the stairs. When they reached the Ravenclaw portrait hole, she turned to him, still dripping orange liquid. "I think I'll just turn in for the night. I don't want to go back down to the feast."
Sirius was disappointed, but he didn't want to be questioned by Dumbledore either. "Me neither. See you, then."
" 'Night," she replied. She hesitated only a moment, then stood on tiptoe and planted a quick kiss on his lips before disappearing behind the portrait to Ravenclaw tower. Sirius grinned widely all the way back to his dorm room. It was silly, really, but that was the first time she'd ever kissed him, though he'd kissed her several times. And for some reason it had made him unaccountably happy.
As Muriel lay in bed, watching sunlight creep through the window, she looked back on all the things that had happened since Halloween, and smiled. Lily had been spotted with James several times, although neither of them would admit that they were going out. James had been frustrated when Lily went to the first Hogsmeade weekend with Kyle, but he seemed to have shaken it off as Christmas drew nearer.
Muriel's first Quidditch match had gone extremely well. Even though beater had not been the position she wanted, she was pretty good at it. She'd knocked the Slytherin seeker off his broom at the perfect moment, securing a Ravenclaw win. Sirius was going around telling everyone that she learned it all from him, which had earned him several nasty hexes from Severus about which Muriel had wisely chosen not to comment.
She was still concerned about Severus. He hadn't said what he planned to do for Christmas, although she'd done everything but beg him to stay at the castle. She rarely saw him at all, which was probably for the best, as she spent most of her free time with Sirius. Severus knew she'd had a date for the Halloween dance, but even his own housemates wouldn't tell him who it was. He had too much pride to pester them about it, so he settled for keeping his ears open. He'd heard that she'd dance with both Lupin and Black, but he knew she and Lupin were friends, and she always seemed to end up getting stuck with Black somehow. It was becoming a very interesting puzzle.
Muriel was spending so much time with Sirius that she got sent to detention twice for things the marauders had done. She was surprised that she hadn't had more, considering all the crazy pranks they'd pulled. She smiled as she remembered walking down the hallway and watching the suits of armor bobbing like corks near the ceiling, as they sang Christmas carols mournfully. Ever since the night they hid from Peeves in Myrtle's bathroom Sirius had been back to his old self, although a bit more restrained. He never mentioned Severus. When she brought it up he usually just listened with an indulgent expression and then changed the subject.
The other girls in her room were up now, and busily packing their trunks. Muriel thought she'd go down with everyone else and try to catch Severus, so she dressed quickly and tossed on her school robes.
Severus groaned when he saw her coming, though he was pleased to see that she didn't have a trunk with her. At least he'd managed to keep her from wanting to come home with him. He'd done his best to avoid her since their last Hogsmeade visit, when she'd pestered him continually about not going home. But his mother had written to ask him to come. She'd been alone since September, when his father had gone into hiding, and he couldn't let her down. He carefully closed off his mind as Muriel approached, but he could see the tears starting in her eyes and knew it wouldn't make much difference.
"You're going, then, Sev?" she asked quietly. He nodded and moved the trunk at his feet away from the doors a bit. He was sure she was about to ask him to stay, and wasn't looking forward to the scene that would probably ensue.
To his surprise, she just handed him something. "A friend of mine charmed these for us. I want you to contact me the minute it's over. I won't try to contact you, I'm not sure I could stand a repeat of that conversation." He nodded again, not sure what to say to her. He wondered who she knew that was able to charm mirrors. Lily Evans, maybe, or Black? He narrowed his eyes as he thought about this, but pushed the name out of his mind. Muriel would never hang out with Black, he'd been tormenting her since before their 1st year. Still, there weren't many people at Hogwarts who could do magic at that level.
"See you, then," he said quietly. He resisted the urge to hug her, and enchanted his trunk to float instead.
"Be careful, Sev, and tell your mother I'm sorry I couldn't make it." She knew how lonely his mother must be, not that her husband had been good company. But Mrs. Snape loved Severus and as much as she wanted him to stay here where he was safe, she knew that an angry Dark Lord showing up at his house to find his mother alone was more than Severus could bear. She waved shortly and ran back up the stairs before her tears could start in earnest.
Sirius stood on the stairs above and watched, as Muriel gave Snape the mirror Lily had charmed. He didn't follow her when she ran back toward her dormitory, but watched, instead, as Snape unwrapped the mirror, then put it in his pocket. He wondered if Snape would give in and become a Death Eater. At the beginning of the year he'd been jealous of how much Muriel worried over Snape, but he was beginning to realize that with him walking into this kind of danger it was hard NOT to worry about him.
Sirius headed back to Gryffindor tower. He still had to wrap Muriel's present. He'd found a beautiful necklace in Hogsmeade, and since Muriel always went with Severus, he had been free to purchase it without her seeing. James had made fun of him, but Sirius was pretty sure he'd gone back there later in the day to buy something for Lily.
Sirius was surprised to see Remus staring at the fire in the common room when he got back. "Thought you were going home."
"Me too, but it turns out the full moon is the last day of the holidays and Mum didn't want to make a special trip to bring me back." Remus looked ruefully at his friend and tried to smile.
"Don't worry, mate. If I told my mother I was coming home for the holidays, she'd probably hide the house!" Mrs. Black had said nothing about Christmas this year, probably because Lord Voldemort wasn't going to be there, and couldn't get offended when people didn't show up. Sirius grinned at his friend. "Come on, let's go find Mur. I want to see how you duel!" Remus, who'd been glad for company a minute ago, was a little apprehensive about dueling with Muriel, but agreed. They made their way down to the Great Hall to find that breakfast was still being served. Muriel walked in a few minutes later with red, puffy eyes, but a pleasant smile.
"Hi Remus! Black didn't tell me you were staying." She sat down next to Sirius and poured herself some water. When no one answered her, she looked up again. "So, what are you two doing today?"
"I thought it'd be funny to watch you and Moony duel," Sirius answered immediately, in spite of the sound kick he received from the other side of the table. Muriel looked at Remus, who had turned a bit green in spite of himself. She winked.
"I've sworn off dueling with anyone who doesn't already know shield charms. It's too much like bullying." Remus tried and failed to stifle his laughter, and Muriel grinned at her plate of food. Sirius, however, scowled, knowing she was baiting him.
"Moony knows shield charms anyway." He mumbled. Remus, after all, was the one who paid attention in class. Surely he'd picked up shield charms somewhere.
Remus nodded, feeling a little better about the idea. "I know a few. We'd better go and get extra cloaks, though. I'll meet you outside in an hour." He grabbed one last biscuit from the table and headed off, thinking that maybe Christmas at Hogwarts wasn't going to be so bad after all.
The snow was unusually thick this year, but an hour later Muriel and Sirius plowed their way through it to meet Remus, who was already standing with his wand out. "Have you had enough time to look up curses then?" Muriel inquired politely, smirking.
Remus smiled slightly and inclined his head as he waited for her to join him. That's exactly how he'd spent the time.
Sirius wiped the snow off a bench and sat down, looking amused. By the time Muriel ran over to help Remus up off the ground, Sirius, who had hardly moved, was nearly frozen. She'd stuck with curses they all knew, and won fair and square, but she felt bad for knocking him silly with that last one. He'd hit her with a few good hexes too, though. When they joined Sirius on the bench, he held her by the chin with one hand to look at the scrape on her cheek. Remus had managed once to throw her backwards and her face had grazed the side of the empty water fountain. "I can fix that," he said solemnly. A moment later the scrape was gone, but Muriel had twigs sprouting out of her head in place of hair.
She shrieked as the boys laughed at her and pulled her wand out again. Sirius had a difficult time blocking her curses, since every time he looked at her he started laughing again. It was a long time before either of them landed a curse. She finally hit him with a bat bogey hex and told him he'd be spending Christmas with the flying rodents if he didn't fix her hair.
"I can't see you, how can I cast the spell?" he yelled, swiping at the bats fluttering around his face. In a moment they were gone.
"Cease fire?" Muriel asked. He nodded and picked his wand up out of the snow. He cast the counter curse and the twigs became hair again, which stood out for a moment, then fell down around her face. He stared at her a minute before Remus coughed and they both looked around.
"Just about lunch time," he said. "If you two are done trying to hex each other, let's go get some hot chocolate."
They sat at the Gryffindor table, since the Great Hall was practically deserted, laughing about their duels and planning what they'd do the rest of the holiday. "You're both really good, you know," Muriel told them. "I've been dueling with Papa and Sev since I was 8, and you managed to hold your own, when you weren't too busy laughing to think," she added. She fell silent, then, as Sirius and Remus chatted on. 'Papa and Sev. I sure hope you're okay,' she thought to herself. Remus insisted that they at least try to get some of their homework done, so they spent the afternoon in the library, working on star charts and Potions essays.
The next day was Christmas Eve. When they met for breakfast in the Great Hall, they were astounded to see that huge evergreen trees had appeared overnight. Professor Flitwick was supervising the tree decorations, so they offered to help. It took most of the morning to decorate all four trees, but they had a wonderful time. Sirius was glad to see Remus laughing and enjoying himself. He'd been afraid that his friend would spend Christmas being upset about his parents. They'd stayed up late last night, thinking up pranks for the next term, planning the last night of holidays, and talking about everything that had happened this year. Without Prongs, they decided to just stay in the Shrieking Shack for the full moon. Sirius wasn't sure that he could control Moony on his own, but he WAS sure that he was going to keep his friend company.
When the decorations were complete they stood back and admired their work. Unmeltable icicles hung from the branches of one tree. Muriel had turned each one a different color, and Remus knew a trick to make them glow. There were only so many live fairies to be had, after all.
The Christmas Eve feast was really stunning. So few students had stayed for the holidays that Sirius, Muriel and Remus ate with the teachers, and a few other students at one table. It was a rather noisy group until Professor Dumbledore, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation, looked down the table to Muriel and inquired about her father. The table went silent.
"I haven't heard from him for some time. He warned me that he might be busy this year," she said warily. Sirius and Remus exchanged a meaningful glance, but didn't know what they could say to help her. Muriel knew that Dumbledore was aware that she'd spent half the summer with the Blacks, since her book list had arrived there. He was looking at her now over the top of his glasses.
"I also have not received an owl from your father lately," he said gravely, as though he had regularly corresponded with him before. The entire table was listening now, and Muriel could feel her face growing hot. She wondered just how often her father was sending owls to Dumbledore. Surely not often, since Riddle would be furious if Mr. Deesia did any such thing.
"Severus said he would check on him for me, while he's home," Muriel replied. Dumbledore nodded.
"Yes, and how is young Mr. Snape feeling? I understand he was under the weather earlier this year." Muriel had the same sinking sensation that she'd experienced talking to Voldemort, and knew her eyes were widening in spite of ever effort to appear unconcerned. Dumbledore, she was now sure, knew all about what had occurred in the Shrieking Shack. Sirius chose this moment to spill his pumpkin juice spectacularly over his and Muriel's robes and plates. Muriel knew an opportunity when she saw one, and gave a little shriek, jumping up from the table. Sirius stood too.
"Excuse me!" she exclaimed, and ran out of the hall to change her robes. Sirius followed her as Remus tried to sop up the mess with his napkin, looking disgusted to hide his grin. Dumbledore's eyes followed them out.
"Thanks!" she said breathlessly as they raced up the stairs. When they reached the Ravenclaw portrait hole, she turned to him, still dripping orange liquid. "I think I'll just turn in for the night. I don't want to go back down to the feast."
Sirius was disappointed, but he didn't want to be questioned by Dumbledore either. "Me neither. See you, then."
" 'Night," she replied. She hesitated only a moment, then stood on tiptoe and planted a quick kiss on his lips before disappearing behind the portrait to Ravenclaw tower. Sirius grinned widely all the way back to his dorm room. It was silly, really, but that was the first time she'd ever kissed him, though he'd kissed her several times. And for some reason it had made him unaccountably happy.