Chapter 22 Unpleasant Encounters

The Gryffindors didn't see Muriel again for two days. She decided to come to breakfast when classes resumed, but was careful to choose a seat far from the marauders. She wasn't looking forward to Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, but was more concerned about Charms with the Slytherins and Divination with the Gryffindors. For the 10th time that morning, she gritted her teeth and told herself she WAS attending classes today. She couldn't afford another day made up entirely of tears.

She had told Sirius about her father's attack and the imperious curse as he walked her back to her common room that night. She'd even told him that Severus had been the one to stop him. But when he asked if Severus had talked to her yet, she'd said no. It bothered her to lie to him, but she just wasn't ready to talk about it. Maybe she never would be.

She had managed to get all her homework for this week done, as well as some major essays and projects, while she was stuck in her room. She walked slowly across the grounds to the greenhouses with Marisa. She'd told her the entire story, and right now, Marisa was the only person Muriel felt comfortable with. They were early, as Muriel had wanted to leave the hall before Sirius came looking for her.

A shriek rang out from greenhouse two and the girls ran forward as a huge plant shattered a pane of glass, leaves snaking outward. They were horrified to see that one leafy arm was dangling Aurora Youngdahl by her ankle. As quickly as she could, Muriel cast a charm that she'd learned as a child. Her wand began to spout blue flame and she turned it on the plant, forcing it to release Aurora, who fell heavily to the ground.

"Someone put an engorgement charm on my plant!" She shrieked, scrambling to her feet. Through the broken glass, Mur and Marisa could see that Aurora's plant took up the entire greenhouse. Muriel heard stifled laughter behind her and saw the marauders fleeing back into the castle. Aurora saw them too.

"Relax, Youngdahl, it was just a prank."

"A prank!? I could have been EATEN!" Muriel and Marisa exchanged a glance. The Hufflepuff was obviously irate. Her fair skin was red and blotchy and her usually immaculate hair was falling all over.

"I'm sure they didn't know anyone was in there," Marisa started to explain.

"I don't CARE if they knew I was in there, that was a rotten thing to do!"

Professor Lowry had arrived, puffing as he skidded to a stop in the snow. He looked furious as Aurora explained what had happened to her plant, but when he turned his eyes accusingly to Muriel and Marisa, Aurora was forced to admit that if it weren't for them, she would probably be compost by now.

The short Professor scratched his bald head and softened his gaze. "Well, ten points to Ravenclaw for each of you for your quick thinking." He turned back to Aurora. "Who would have done such a thing?" he asked. Aurora looked at Muriel, who was staring at the ground. She wasn't going to tell on the boys, and she knew Marisa wouldn't, but they couldn't stop Aurora if she was going to.

"I saw some boys giggling up by the castle, but I don't have any proof who it was," Aurora said finally. Apparently they'd found a hiding place before Professor Lowry had come out of the castle, because he couldn't remember seeing them.

While the Professor shrank the plant back to its natural size, Muriel repaired the broken glass. By now the rest of the class had arrived. They handed in their assignments, but the class was too wound up to get much of anything done. They spent the time listening to Aurora tell the story several times over. The only thing anyone learned was the spell Muriel had used to cut the plant's appendage and free Aurora. Just when they'd exhausted that topic, and Professor Lowry thought he was about to get his class back under control, Aurora caught sight of Muriel's ring, and every girl in the class crowded around her to see it. Needless to say this improved Muriel's mood greatly.

Charms, however, did nothing to help her mood at all. When she and Marisa walked into the classroom, Macnair was glaring at her angrily, something he never did, at least, not to her. He pulled her away from her friend and forced her into the chair beside his. Severus was not in class, and the other Slytherins were looking at Macnair like he was nuts. They knew from experience that you just didn't push Muriel around. But Macnair was her friend, however distant he might be these days, and she let him take the seat beside her without complaint, knowing what this must be about.

"Sev lost the Head Boy position over holiday because he was caught drinking in Hogsmeade. What do you know about it?" Macnair hissed angrily. Mur was shocked more that Severus would get caught than anything. The drinking she could understand.

She forced herself to sound calm. "I wasn't there. I don't know anything."

"You know why he was drinking." The boy was not going to leave it alone, and Muriel wasn't about to explain anything to him. "He must have tried to talk to you and you – "

"Silencio," she whispered, her wand pointing at him under the desk. She spent the rest of the class period ignoring his furious glare. When the bell rang, she gathered up her things. Macnair didn't move. When she was ready to leave, she looked over at him, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Tell him I'm sorry," she whispered, not trusting her voice. His face softened, and he watched her leave the room in haste, shaking his head.

In Divination, shortly before the bell rang, the Gryffindor girls surrounded her desk, led by Lily. Professor Averbeck, who was up for retirement in the next few years, had been continually late all term, which left them plenty of time to fuss over Muriel. When she looked through the crowd and caught Sirius' eye, the corners of her lips turned upward in an unintentional smirk.

That was all the invitation he needed. He jumped up and came over. "So where'd you say you got that again?" he asked, loudly enough to stop the girls' giggling. She smiled up at him as Marisa hastily made room for him at their table. At this moment their professor arrived and the crowd around them quickly took their seats. Sirius and Muriel both thought Divination was a complete waste of time, however each had a good reason for not taking Arithmancy, so they'd stuck with it. It was a relatively easy class, after all.

"You alright?" he whispered.

"I feel a lot better now," she said, still smiling. "Aurora didn't tell on you, you know. You're lucky I went down early. She really could have been eaten by that plant!" She couldn't help but chuckle, however, remembering that the plants had no teeth, and Aurora could have been pulled out up to an hour later without sustaining any real damage. She wondered briefly if Sirius had known that when he hatched the plan.

"Oh, they'd have found her a few minutes later, and she'd have been fine!" He took her hand and spent the rest of the class with his head on the desk, looking at her through half-closed eyes. Muriel tried to ignore her fiancé's thoughts, but provocative images kept flitting through her head, and she knew they weren't her own. She grinned down at her quill as she took notes.

Muriel was alarmed to find that the teachers were assigning still MORE homework this term than last. As a result, she and the marauders were to be found nearly every evening in the library. She was thankful to discover that James was decent at Potions, since she had to pass it with at least an E to be accepted into Auror training. She and Remus often sat comparing their mediocre essays to his and hoping he was right, since they didn't have time to look up the answers because of all their other homework. This continued until the end of January, when Mur accidentally picked up Sirius' essay instead.

She noticed at once that it was at least half again as long as it needed to be. "Whose is this?" she asked.

"It's mine!" He grabbed the essay and stuffed it into his bag hastily and went back to reading. Muriel, who'd managed to read part of it, was startled, and narrowed her eyes at him.

"You've been holding out on us!" She nudged Remus. "He's been letting us check our work against James' when he knew he was acing the class!"

Remus snorted. "Sirius is NOT acing Potions!" He looked to his friend to explain.

"Well, I do really well on the homework, but most of the grade is based on the actual potions we make, and I have such a fondness for destruction that mine tend to explode." He grinned sheepishly.

"More because you don't pay attention than because you don't know the correct procedures, obviously." She laughed, then. "Come on, fork it over," she said, holding out her hand and laughing. He passed the essay back to her as Lily joined them.

"Hogsmeade trip next weekend," she exclaimed, holding up a sheet of parchment. "I've got to go put this up, but I thought you'd want to know." She ran back out, heading towards Gryffindor tower. Sirius and James exchanged a glance before James got up to follow her. He had been given Severus' badge shortly after Christmas, and Muriel figured he was supposed to be helping her with Head Boy and Head Girl duties.

"Great!" Muriel was still looking at Sirius' essay as she spoke. "If I'm not mistaken, you two are overdue for a trip to Zonko's anyway." Sirius cleared his throat and she looked up.

"Maybe you and Remus could pick me up some more fireworks. James and I were hoping to use the time to pack up the pieces of my bike and bring it back to the school so I could finish it before the end of the year. I think his parents are getting sick of having it scattered all over the garage." Remus got a funny look on his face, and so did Muriel.

"What are you hiding?" she asked immediately. Sirius winced. Occlumency was hard, and protecting bits of information without her noticing was getting more and more difficult.

"A secret that isn't mine to tell," he answered mysteriously. To his relief, she laughed.

"Oh, I suppose everyone's entitled to one." She went back to the essay, making corrections to her own as she went. The essay was every bit as good as what Severus would have written, she couldn't help but notice.

She'd done her best in the last month not to think about what had happened. He hadn't so much as looked at her, and the rest of Slytherin house was treating her very coldly as well. She'd heard one or two of them whispering, "Blood traitor," as she walked by. She responded by hexing them the next time she saw them, but no one had been able to prove it was her. They had said the same thing when she'd first been sorted into Ravenclaw, but back then Severus had cursed them all until they stopped. She couldn't blame him if he let them say it now. For all she knew, that's how he felt too.

On the night of the full moon she sat alone in the library, thinking about Severus as her eyes stared uncomprehendingly at her Divination book. Macnair had sent her an owl not long ago and asked to meet up with her. Of course, he couldn't very well risk Severus seeing him, so he'd suggested the greenhouses. All he'd told her was that his friend missed her desperately. What could she say? She knew now that he wasn't going to be content with friendship, and that's all she could offer him. Macnair had left angry.

She was surprised out of her thoughts when Jolina Avery sat down delicately at her table and cleared her throat. Muriel narrowed her eyes at the sight of the younger girl's self-satisfied smirk. An instant later, she threw her book hard onto the desk, hearing the thoughts behind what Jolina was about to say. She was already bristling, even before the Slytherin spoke.

Jolina looked up smugly as Madam Pince clucked at them, then turned back to Muriel. "He was fantastic, you know. Pity you chose wrong," she whispered wickedly. She got up gingerly and made her way toward the door. Muriel managed to cast the necessary spell at her back before she dissolved into tears and ran from the library, leaving her books behind.

Jolina approached Muriel several times in the next few months. All she did was stand in front of her and smirk, but Muriel knew why she was there. She took care to always cast the charm that was necessary to keep her best mate out of trouble, marveling at Jolina's stupidity for thinking she wouldn't.

Several times Sirius found her crying quietly in the library after these encounters, but she wouldn't tell him what was wrong. Once Severus had come in, but he'd left again as soon as he saw her. She didn't think he'd even noticed she was crying, but from that day on, she never shed another tear over it.