Sirius Choice

Chapter Thirteen: Stumbling

Whimsical Firefly

Author's Note: :meekly begs forgiveness: There's been a lot of stuff happening that's prevented this chapter from being posted, and my deepest apologies. Read on.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters are property of J.K. Rowling.

To Recap: The italics are what happened the first time around – the canon version, if you will. The writing that is normal is what is happening the second time around when Death and the council put Sirius back through the veil into the past.

In the last chapter, we saw that in the 'normal' time, something was going awry with James and Lily, Remus got a job in Knockturn Alley (although as to where…), James Milton finally managed to slip the magic ropes off, and the older Sirius (posing under the alias of 'James Evans') begins to think about Dumbledore's offer of being able to start changing things.

The air that brushed on Lily and James' backs was cold and piercing. Sirius had christened it a 'lazy wind' earlier that day - it couldn't be bothered going around you, going straight through you instead.

James saw Lily shiver beside him and wrapped his arm around her slim shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She smiled slightly up at him and relaxed into his grip.

"The sooner we get out of this air and into the pub, the better," James said, nuzzling her hair as he spoke.

Lily laughed slightly, and nodded. "Too true." Pausing, she then kept talking. "So… when we see the others, do we tell them?"

"Tell them what?" said James in a baffled tone. He felt rather than saw Lily glare at him, and knew that that was most likely the wrong answer to give.

She waved her left hand in front of his face to show the diamond ring sitting on her fourth finger. "You proposed to me last night when you showed up at my flat with flowers, assuming you remember that far back of course?"

James coloured slightly, to Lily's vast amusement. "Of course I remember. How on earth could I forget?". Lily however was still looking up at him with a slightly pensive look on her face, so James leant down to kiss her soundly. "I will never forget that, rest assured, Lily."

Finally she smiled at him, and James relaxed again. "And the answer to your previous question? Of course we tell everyone. I want them to know that you're mine now, and that I love you." This time the arms around Lily's shoulders was decidedly possessive, but after thinking about it, Lily admitted to herself that she rather liked it anyway.

They then walked in to the pub to meet everyone together, James' arm around Lily's shoulders, and Lily's arm around his waist.

It did not escape Remus' attention that James and Lily arrived separately when they organized the get-together at the pub. It also didn't strike him as mere co-incidence that James had come home from Lily's apartment the day before and then locked himself in his room for several hours.

The only conclusion that he could reach was that James had stuffed up (yet again), and that he would have to at least offer to help him fix things up. With a sigh, he pushed golden brown hair out of weary eyes, and absently thought that he should really give it a trim.

"I always wondered what Death warmed up would look like," came a softly lilting voice in his ear.

Remus gave a half-smile at Tess' jibe and turned to face her. Violet eyes looked him over, and then looked back into his eyes. "No really, what on earth have you been doing? You look like hell."

Remus gave his first genuine smile of the evening. "It's nothing, I'm fine." Hopefully, he thought, that will put her off my case. I can't tell her about…well…

Tess simply raised an eyebrow. "You're fine. Hence why your eyes are bloodshot, your skin is pale and edging towards acquiring that no doubt sought after grey tinge, and you have bags under your eyes that I could sleep in." She paused in her speech, not breaking eye contact. "And you're fine."

Remus resisted the urge to look away from her hypnotic violet eyes. Liar's sign, I mustn't do that. "Perhaps a little tired," he conceded, still smiling at her.

Although Tess still didn't look completely satisfied, she let it pass, perhaps sensing that a partial victory was all that she would be able to win off him today. Settling herself in his lap, she patted his cheek with a soft hand. "Get some sleep, then." Tess looked up with a devilish expression on her face. "You could even come and sleep over at my place."

Resting his head on her shoulder, Remus asked mildly "Do you really think we'd get all that much sleeping done?"

Tess' lips pouted thoughtfully. "Probably not, come to think of it. But you'd probably come out of it looking better than you do now."

Remus snorted. "Wouldn't be hard at the moment, would it?"

Tess simply smiled and curled up against him as around the table everyone arrived and began to talk and chatter. Remus watched as she absently reached to her throat and clasped the pendant that rested there. The silver dagger.

You're going to have to tell her the truth someday, even if she hasn't worked it out yet.

Someday. Not yet though.

James Milton walked away from the room. From the woman. From being harassed and snarled at.

Theoretically he could Apparate away, and yet he didn't. He reasoned that it would be better to wait until he was in an area where no one would see him.

He ignored the part of his mind that said it was because he wanted to stay with the blonde woman, and that by walking he was delaying his return to the real world and his loss of her.

Not that there was a loss, of course.

His feet kept walking of their own accord down the stairs, his hand reaching for the banister to balance himself out of habit.

Off the stairs, through the eatery, towards the door.

It was when his right foot was through the threshold of the door when he heard the scream. He remained standing at the threshold, half of him in and half of him out. The scream was feminine and very, very familiar. After all, he'd been hearing it for the past two months non-stop, hadn't he?

The girl! She's in trouble?

The part of himself that maintained a distance from her snarled that it wasn't any of his concern.

James Milton, however, did not appear to be listening as he raced back up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Long ebony hair was thrown out of furious eyes, as Sirius ducked and rolled to avoid the curse. Throwing a Stunner at the man who had thrown the curse at him, he spun around, wand at the ready.

Adrenalin pumping through his veins Sirius grinned. This was life! This was what it meant to be an Auror. The nightly free-for-all matches were used to get potential Aurors used to fending off spells from all directions – hence why he was here, instead of at the pub with his friends. So far, most of the class was down, and only him and two others were still standing. Narrowing his eyes to make out who they were, Sirius was able to make out Amanda and the Longbottom's lad. Frank, that was it.

The feral grin spread, if possible, wider.

He charged over and hurled a curse at Frank. Amanda who had tensed as he had come over, relaxed slightly. That was when the curse veered suddenly away from Frank and straight through her lax shield.

The impact of the spell alone was enough to throw her back into the wall and land heavily.

However, to Sirius' surprise, she didn't stay down. Instead she got up, and, casting a quick refreshing charm on herself, began to throw curses and jinxes at him and Frank both with a renewed vigour.

The rest of the class who were by now out of the game, gathered around to watch. A small, uncontrolled part of Sirius' brain had to admit that Amanda did look rather spectacular at the moment. Long hair whirling around her shoulders, blue eyes so vibrant that they seemed to crackle with magical energy, and she never stopped moving. Her body constantly contorted and moved and swayed to the rhythms of her spells.

He found it hypnotic almost. So much so that his own shield grew weaker without him noticing.

"Petrificus Totalus"

Sirius froze in mid-spell, unable to move. Amanda's triumphant smirk told him who she thought had won, and given that he was currently paralysed, he doubted that he would be able to prove her otherwise.

With him now out of the way, Sirius watched as Amanda went on to attack a thoroughly bewildered Frank, who seemed to be wondering what he had done to deserve this. After they traded curses and hexes, it became apparent once more that they were rather evenly matched, with neither Amanda nor Frank being able to gain the upper hand.

Finally, Amanda appeared to tire of this and tackled Frank bodily, landing heavily on his chest. Sirius watched as she scrambled up and straddled Frank's chest, her wand pressing into his throat. "Do you surrender?" she asked in a silky voice.

Frank looked as though he was attempting to work out a way that he could strike back at her, and seemingly finding none, collapsed backwards and nodded weakly.

The Auror who had been supervising blew the whistle to declare victory, and in an amplified voice announced to all the trainee's that Amanda had won the exercise. A mass Finite Incantantem was cast over the group, and other trainee's like Sirius who had been unable to move suddenly regained feeling and movement in their limbs.

Pulling himself upright, Sirius walked over towards Frank who had his head in his hands. "Not to worry, mate," said Sirius in what might have been construed as a soothing tone. Raising his voice slightly so some of the people near by could hear, he continued. "Just remember that she always likes to be on top – especially in bed. I speak from experience mate, I mean to say –"

Sirius was cut off abruptly by an irate Amanda. "You… you bloody bastard! You unspeakable worthless bit of pond-scum. You horrid, immature, overgrown prat! How on earth could you say something like that?" Sirius merely congratulated himself on his talent at annoying stuck-up bints like Amanda, but slowed slightly in his congratulations to himself when he realised that there were tears in her eyes.

"Why is it that whenever I do anything that's worthy of praise and I'm happy you always have to come up and ruin it all for me?" Neither of the two noticed the crowd that their argument was gathering, the air seemed to simply crackle with the electricity between them. "Haven't you done enough? Or do you have no idea what you're so called innocent jibing does to people?"

Sirius looked into teary blue eyes and wondered what she was talking about. Perhaps his eyes conveyed that he didn't know what she was talking about as she began to shake her head, her eyes never moving from his face. "You have no idea at all, do you?" she questioned softly. Sirius kept his face blank and impassive.

"Know what?"

Amanda's eyes narrowed and she began to walk towards him, wand at the ready. "If you truly have no idea what you do to people then I suggest you try this."

"Oh?" queried Sirius raising a cool eyebrow.

"Oh, indeed," said Amanda, a dead glint in her eyes. "Personalis Memento Perditionis." She said softly, and a dark red mist swirled out of her wand to cocoon Sirius. Giving a satisfied nod, she then proceeded to walk away from Sirius and the audience, hips swaying as she walked.

However no one's eyes were on her, or her hips. Everyone's attention was focused on Sirius, whose dark red cocoon had taken him up into the air where he was now screaming his lungs out.

Remus and Tess were walking away from the pub, hand-in-hand, when they heard heavy foot-falls behind them. Remus turned around just as James collided with them and sent all three of them crashing into the snow.

Tess was the first to recover. "James Potter! What on earth are you doing?" James gave a sheepish laugh and ruffled his hair as he realised that both Remus and Tess would quite cheerfully commit murder right now, and the victim would be him.

"Um… seeing if I could walk back with you two?" James asked with a hopeful puppy-dog expression that he must have learnt off Sirius. Remus sighed, and nodded getting up and offering a gloved hand to both Tess and James.

Pulling them both upright, he waited patiently as Tess brushed herself off, all the while glaring daggers at James. "Why aren't you with Lily, anyway?" she asked crossly.

Remus watched as James expression went from sheepish to down-right miserable. "She… doesn't appear to like me that much right at the moment."

Tess' expression softened marginally. "Pardon?"

"She hates me."

Remus choked back an inappropriate laugh. In answer to James look, he finally said, "Well, at least if nothing else you should be used to it."

James rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down, giving out the impression of an overgrown two year who had just been rather hard-done by.

Tess on the other hand appeared to be more curious. "Why does she hate you now though? I mean, she was crazy about you when we graduated…" Tess paused, with an amused expression on her face. "Alright James, what did you do?"

"I don't know. As far as I know, nothing. I even went as far as going to her apartment with flowers yesterday to apologize for whatever it was that I've done, but it didn't seem to…work. You know?"

Tess nodded consideringly. "Maybe there isn't anything actually wrong?" offered Remus.

James pulled a face and shook his head. "No, she's been acting…stand-offish since we graduated."

"Ah…James it might seem inappropriate for me to ask, but did you…ah…" Remus paused, trying to find the correct words, and shooting desperate looks to Tess who seemed lost in thought.

"Did I ah what, Moony?"

"Did you…ah… well, try to force her to do anything on graduation night?"

James looked confused for a moment, and then his eyes widened in horror as he realised what Remus was implying. "No, of course not.. I'd never.. I…not to her… not to anyone…that's… bloody hell Moony, how could you even ask me that? I'm not Sirius!" exclaimed an outraged James. "And even with Sirius, he's not forcing them, because they'll come running to him."

Tess had apparently come out of her personal daydream long enough to hear the last part of that conversation. Erupting into peals of laughter, she finally managed to gasp out "Bad…images..."

James shot her a darkling look and then looked expectantly back at Remus. "Well?" he asked hopefully.

Remus shrugged. "Basically, it will probably boil down to something you said or did on Graduation night." Tess nodded.

James looked thoughtful. "Well, there wasn't anything, I mean we talked for awhile, and we had the speeches, and she was sitting on my lap and I proposed and -"

"Wait-wait-wait-wait!" interrupted Tess. "You proposed? How come we haven't heard anything of this?"

"Because…she didn't say yes?" offered James. Remus nodded as though that made sense.

Tess's face seemed to be drawn with concentration. "Think about it James – what did you say, exactly, and what did she say in response?"

"Ah… I asked her to marry me, and she said she'd tell me when I was sober," said James. "That was it, more or less."

Remus shrugged. "While not the ideal circumstances, I can't really see anything wrong there, mate, maybe she's in the middle of-"

"Finish that sentence and you will lose vital body parts," said Tess in a no-nonsense manner to Remus. "As for you James – you proposed to Lily while you were drunk?"

James coughed into his fist. "Uh… yeah. Is that bad?"

"Very bad. What did you say the next day then, when she was meant to tell you her answer?"

"She didn't. I didn't mention it either."

Tess threw her hands up into the air with frustration. "No wonder she's acting like she is then. James, you are an idiot!" James opened his mouth to protest the last statement, and closed it again when Remus elbowed him in the ribs. "First you go and propose while drunk, which makes it look like you don't really care, and then you don't mention it to her the next day, which would have made it look like you didn't remember and that you didn't care."

James and Remus were both looking at Tess strangely. Finally Remus managed to ask, "Girls actually…care about stuff like that?"

"Of course," answered Tess loftily, giving him a superior look.

"And that's why Lily's angry with me?" asked James hopefully?

"Most probably. Now, you should go and apologize."

James looked at her. "Apologize…now?"

"As soon as possible," Tess told him, straight-faced.

"So… you won't mind if I leave you to go and apologize to Lily? She should be back at her flat by now."

Remus suddenly realized what Tess was trying to do and joined in. "Of course not Prongs, we'll understand. I mean, you love her."

"Yeah…" agreed James with a distant look on his face before turning around and nearly sprinting back in the direction that Lily's flat was in.

Remus and Tess traded amused glances. "Well, that was ridiculously simple, wasn't it?" asked Remus.

Tess laughed and linked her arm through Remus'. "Shall we go home?"

"We shall."

"Albus, I do hope I'm not disturbing you, but the man you said to keep an eye out for – James Evans? He's here to see you, and he says it's rather urgent," came Minerva McGonagall's crisp tones.

Dumbledore nodded. "Send him up, Minerva."

A few moments later, a tall man with long black hair filled with grey streaks entered the room, grey-blue eyes looking around before finally coming to rest upon Dumbledore. The corner of the mouth tweaked up into a smile. "Good afternoon Albus… may I call you Albus?"

"Certainly, Sirius," said Dumbledore, watching as the younger man flinched slightly at being called his own name, before settling down on a seat.

"I take it you considered what we talked about then?" Upon receiving a nod, Dumbledore continued. "What decision did you reach?"

Sirius was silent for awhile before finally speaking. "There were a lot of deaths – a lot of them could have been avoided if only we'd known they were coming, or if we had known in advance that they were traps laid by Voldemort."

Dumbledore remained silent, simply listening as Sirius talked. "Silly mistakes, trusting people who shouldn't have been trusted. It could have all so easily been avoided." Sirius paused, taking a deep breath.

"There are three key things that shouldn't have happened, though. There was a raid done by trainee Aurors at York in the middle of December. It was a trap, and it shouldn't have happened, so many people died needlessly. James and Lily need to be protected using the Fidelius Charm, and their secret keeper will have to be either me….well, the younger me, or you. Finally, Alice and Frank need to be protected with the Fidelius Charm as well. I don't think you need to be as careful about who their secret keepers are."

Sirius looked firmly into Dumbledore's burning blue eyes. "Most importantly – make sure that James and Lily, along with Alice and Frank, stay safe. Nothing in the world is going to be more important."

Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you…Sirius. I will keep that firmly in mind. If there is anything else?"

"I'll let you know," said Sirius curtly, getting out of his chair. "Just remember to do as I say."

And with that, he turned and left Dumbledore's office, his cloak swirling around him despite the lack of wind.

Leaning back in his chair, the old headmaster steepled his fingers and thought.

The scream seemed endless as James Milton ran up the stairs, and in some ways, it gave him hope. As long as she screamed, he knew she was still alive.

When he reached the door, it was locked shut. His blue eyes glowed as his hand gripped the door knob and turned it, and the door opened smoothly and quietly.

He was taken aback at the sight that greeted him – ten Death Eaters were gathered around the girl and levitating her, whilst spells that would harm her, but not kill her were being thrown from every direction. Even from the doorway, James could see quite clearly that her arm was broken, and her fair skin was cut and bleeding in many different places.

"No," he muttered near silently, fury building in him. None of the Death Eaters were aware of his presence, and thus none of them saw the glowing blue eyes of the Mind Mage. James wasn't sure what he did afterwards, but a moment later all of the surrounding Death Eaters were collapsed on the floor, and James was quickly crossing the room to gather up the barely conscious girl into his arms.

Despite the cuts and gashes over her face, she was beautiful. Quickly shaking such thoughts out of his head, he murmured that she'd be fine and Apparated to Diagon Alley.

Before he did so however, he was dimly aware that she had curled in towards him and that a delicate hand now clutched his robes, and that the small unthinking gesture pleased him far more than was probably proper.

Tess lay awake listening to the soft, even breathing of Remus beside her, and wriggled closer. The arm that Remus had wrapped possessively around her waist curled tighter still, and she now feel his warm breath on the back of her neck as he moved closer still.

She reached up to hold her pendant before realising that she had taken it off earlier. She didn't want to hurt Remus again like she had on graduation night. Closing her eyes, Tess attempted to fake sleep, but her mind wasn't quite ready to go into that state just yet.

She knew he was a werewolf – it all fitted and made so much sense…but she couldn't tell him just yet. What if there was a small chance that he wasn't a werewolf? What if him not being able to handle the touch of silver on bare skin and being sick once a month were entirely unrelated and he wasn't a werewolf?

And if he was a werewolf…why hadn't he told her?

Tess sighed. No, he was a werewolf. That was why he had been going to the Forbidden Forest that night, and had been injured when she had been in the infirmary the next morning. No other explanation fitted, and loath as she was to admit it, she was in love with a werewolf.

But he didn't feel beastly against her. Moving slightly, she felt her skin rub up against his, and his body react to the movement in spite of itself. He didn't feel any different, he didn't act any different, except perhaps that he was more understanding and intelligent compared to other males his age.

Where was the monster that he was meant to be?

"What do we do?"

"I don't know… Oh, dear Merlin I hope he's okay."

"What did she do to him?"

All the while Sirius kept on screaming in his dark red cocoon whilst the class gathered round and looked at him.

Even the instructors were at a loss of what to do, when suddenly, Sirius abruptly stopped screaming, and the dark red cocoon began to unravel.

The class stepped back as the Auror in charge rushed towards him. "Mr. Black? Mr. Black?"

Blank eyes turned towards her, and stayed trained on her face.

"Mr. Black, are you in full possession of your wits?"

"Last time I checked," said Sirius, his voice hoarse and his breath slightly heavy. Suddenly he sat up and dry-retched.

Rocking backwards and forwards slightly, he managed to stand up on shaky legs. "I'm fine…I'm fine," he muttered, although if it was to reassure himself or everyone else, no one knew.

Turning, he walked away from the rest of the group, leaving the majority to wonder what in Merlin's name had just occurred.

Author's Notes: So yes, a million apologies for how long it's taken me to get this chapter posted. Senior year of schooling, a beta moving across the country, a grandmother getting seriously ill and being hopitalised permanently, and me being quite ill as well have all contributed to the delay.

Blueslusher48: Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying it and that there weren't many (if any) mistakes spotted in it. Thanks!

Sweet 16 Movie Buff: LMAO! Oh, how your reviews make me laugh…I hope you get this chapter as soon as it's posted, and that you enjoyed it. James Milton is still going to be doing a bit of running around yet – Things are only just starting to get a bit hairy for him. Keep reading and reviewing – it makes me very, very happy…

Perenelle: You write such lovely long reviews… I can't reply to it here, I'm going to e-mail you a reply when I have time. Soon hopefully. Thanks for all the feedback!

Amalynne O'hara: Wow – thanks, if you want to add SC to your C2 archive, go right ahead, it sounds great! I'm glad you're liking the story, and hope you keep reading as it goes on.

Gigifanfic: :blushes: thanks, I'm glad you like the concept and ideas behind the story, I hope you do manage to keep reading until the end.

Elven Dagger: Sometimes it gets tricky, but I have most of the story nutted out already. I can't tell you what Sirius did to ensure that Edana survived the raid on the Potter's house. It hasn't been mentioned yet, and it becomes a rather important plot point later on in the story… So it would be a shame to spoil the suspense and tell you now, wouldn't it? ;) Ditto for the 'two Padfoots' conundrum – you'll just have to keep on reading it. On the other hand though – I'd forgotten that they learn about Thestrals in Fifth Year, but I'll excuse myself for doing that by saying Sirius doesn't really strike me as the type who'd pay that much attention in class anyway.

rosepetal13: Um… oops. Oh well, there you go – Sirius made some choices this chapter, and there'll hopefully be more soon.

PS: On the revelry/revery – I blame that one on James. I did send that chapter to him for beta-ing…;) (sorry James…). As for Sirius and Edana escaping – there are two Sirius's in the story, the older one who got put back through the veil, and the younger one who's currently living in that timeline. Sorry if you got confused by it. James and Lily didn't know that Sirius and Edana both escaped at that stage. Thanks!

Finally – Please, please review and let me know how the story is going so far. Thanks!