Unfortunately, Maddie eventually became an unwanted fixture in our group. Sirius had now been dating her for three months, an all-time record. Accordingly, the rest of us were at an all-time low. The silver lining was that the Marauders were back to hanging out with us all of the time, despite mine and Sirius' rift because they were now privy to the horribleness to whom is Maddie Baker. Even Peter's infatuation ended after she made him carry her bag one day and then magically tied his shoe laces together to make him trip. He had also been standing at the top of a short flight of stairs. Poor Peter had a slight limp for the rest of the week, but Sirius was still dating her. It was beyond infuriating. James was even starting to crack.
"I can't believe he is still with that foul beast!" James said one day as he joined us in the common room.
"Don't you think that might be a bit harsh?" Elodie asked in her more innocent sounding voice.
"Hardly," I replied before James could say anything.
As far as I knew I was leading the 'We Despise Maddie' club. The boys had been against me at first but had slowly come around after the first month. The attack on Peter had been the crux which had sent James wanting to attack her. Remus and Max had had to sit on him to get him to calm down and stay.
"What did she do this time?" Blythe asked sardonically.
We were all already annoyed with whatever it was.
"Sirius and I had plans to practice flying tonight after dinner. So, after I finished I headed down and went to the broom shed to retrieve my firebolt…" James paused awkwardly.
"I change my mind, I don't want to hear this," I replied, feeling embarrassed just looking at James.
"You know, I know Sirius is a player, but there's never been a girl that came between us," James said more seriously.
"Come on James, you had to know this was coming," Remus said, trying to sound reasonable.
"Yea, I guess. But why her? She's just so horrible and whiny and wretched," James went on using synonyms for the word evil.
"Well, we better rest up, we do have an actual practice tomorrow, and we have to be prepared to smother the Ravenclaws," I said probably a little too dramatically.
"Come on Potter," Blythe said, putting her arm around me as we headed towards our dorm.
None of the girls had said anything to me about Sirius since Maddie had entered our lives. I think they may have felt badly for the way things turned out, but part of me was relieved. I hadn't liked the pressure I felt to figure out my feelings for Sirius, and now Maddie was the perfect reason not to. I just wish it wasn't her.
The next day at practice seemed like a test on my nerves, but it wasn't because of the drills. Somehow, Sirius had convinced Indigo to let Maddie watch the practice despite her Ravenclaw status. I wasn't even convinced she wasn't acting as a spy, so the rest of us took to communicating in subtle codes to avoid giving away our strategies. Thankfully, most of us had been playing together for years, and Riley was a quick study.
"You've got this Siri! Beat her out of the sky!" I heard Maddie maliciously shriek from the stands.
I could see Sirius practicing against Blythe and figured Maddie was directing her insult at her. I rolled my eyes and clenched my teeth as I tried to focus on Max speeding towards me. Thankfully, even the distraction didn't stop me from saving Max's diving maneuver and I made the save. No one had made a goal on me yet.
"Should we call it a night?" Indigo asked when the sun started to dip in the sky.
We had obviously been out here for hours and Maddie's whining had gotten louder.
My own stomach started to growl, and I felt confident in my abilities for the game this weekend.
I was the first one to dismount since my patience had grown dangerously thin and that was not pairing well with my hunger. James had already called the balls back into the trunk, so I was carrying it back to the storage shed. Unfortunately, I was pre-occupied and let my guard down. I didn't see them waiting for me.
"Petrificus totalus!" I heard a familiar voice say from behind me.
He had obviously been waiting for me and wasn't alone.
When I fell I went down hard and smacked my shoulder off of the trunk, falling face first.
I could hear Malfoy circling me with his cronies, no doubt Mulciber and Snape. I was angry that I couldn't see them or anticipate their next move.
"Potter thinks she's a natural-born prodigy, doesn't she. Heiress to a family of blood-traitors. It makes me sick," Lucius Malfoy spat from beside me.
He was getting cockier now that Narcissa Black was dating him.
He bent down, and I could feel his breath on my ear.
"You and that brainless idiot of a brother you have will lose everything to the Dark Lord, and then you will kneel before us all," he whispered in his slimy voice.
I wanted to vomit. His concentration was also wavering since I could feel my body starting to relax. The second the spell broke I was on my feet with my wand drawn. The adrenaline was covering the pain as I stared Malfoy down. Mulciber and Snape were loitering behind him with their wands drawn towards me.
"You are simply outnumbered Adeline," he said my name with the cunning smoothness of a snake.
"And you are a coward," I retorted coolly.
His reverence was shaken slightly as the smirk fell from his face.
"I think you ought to be taken down a notch Malfoy. Narcissa sure seems to have brought you through the ranks that you surely couldn't have done alone" I continued, aiming towards his delicate ego.
His expression was now turned as he pointed his wand glaringly towards me.
"You are being baited Lucius," Snape said knowingly.
I could see Severus' withering expression pointed towards me, along with his wand.
He was standing off to the left side and I turned my attention to him instead of Malfoy. I knew Snape probably posed the biggest threat.
But, our interlocked glare was interrupted when Snape was thrown backwards by an invisible force. Obviously, the team had caught up.
Malfoy and Mulciber took the moment of confusion to run around the back of the stands, undetected by the others, while Snape was rendered immobile by Sirius.
"Attacking girls when they're all alone now, Snivellus?" Sirius scathed at Snape.
I had never seen him this angry before.
Blythe and Riley were already by my side, making sure I was okay while I watched Sirius go after Snape with James at his side.
I stepped over to intervene before either of them did something offensive enough to get themselves expelled.
"It wasn't him," I said decisively, already standing in between Snape and the boys.
"What are you talking about Addie, did you hit your head?" James asked skeptically.
I scoffed. "No, I did not hit my head, it was my shoulder actually. And Malfoy is the one who attacked me. Snape just followed," I explained pointedly.
"That's no better!" Sirius retorted, leaving his wand aimed over my shoulder at Snape.
"Stand down Sirius," I said evenly, staring him right in the eyes.
He shook his head angrily, but finally lowered his wand. James followed suit.
"You're going to stand up for this Death Eater, Ly?" Sirius asked maliciously.
"Of course not, idiot. I'm standing up for you, so you don't get expelled," I said evenly again.
Sirius laughed sardonically and went off in the other direction, probably to let off some steam.
Snape disappeared, probably to go catch up with the other two cowards.
"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" Blythe asked as she came back up beside me.
"No, I think I'm just going to clean up, I'll meet you back up at the school," I said before leaving to go to the changeroom.
The hot shower felt wonderful on my aching shoulder and helped to clear my head. Maddie's annoyance was a mere blip in comparison to the other events of the night. It didn't bode well either that the younger students were acting more brashly and were now apparently singling lone students out to attack. Or at least me. Lucius Malfoy was your typical pure-blood nutter who craved the power of status. He had been recently betrothed to Narcissa Black which seemed idiotic and revolting. However, arranged marriages were typical amongst the pure blood families and explains why the gene pool is so limited. The name Potter is also discredited amongst these families, which is why James and I are often targeted. But this seemed like a new turn. Bellatrix and the Carrows are notoriously known for their random attacks, but not underlings like Malfoy. Things were obviously changing outside the walls of Hogwarts. I wondered if I should write home and discuss it with mum and dad, but they would probably worry too much about it.
I came out of the changeroom twenty minutes later and stopped just outside the door. The dusk lighting provided cover while I listened to the four fifth years talk amongst themselves in the middle of the pitch.
"So, our usual meeting outside the Whomping Willow tomorrow night?" Sirius asked aloud.
"Of course Padfoot, have you calmed down enough to head in for dinner?" James asked meaningfully.
"Yea, I'm good. I just wanted to clarify that we are meeting beneath the new tree under the full moon tomorrow night," Sirius said again, rather narratively.
"Let's go Padfoot, I think you took a bludger to the head," Remus joined in before the four boys walked off towards the castle.
I waited a few minutes to follow and was still puzzled by the way Sirius was acting. Little did I know, I wasn't the only one listening to the boys' conversation.
XXX
The following night I was tossing in my bed. The ominous conversation I had heard Sirius tell the others was stuck in my head. I knew it was a full moon, and Remus was presumably being a wolf somewhere, but I had to confirm my suspicions. I was almost positive these new nicknames had to do with animals, and that would impossibly mean that the other three boys were illegal animagi.
The girls were all asleep when I slipped out of the dormitory and headed down the stairs. I had snuck out hundreds of times, but this was the first time I ever felt nervous. Obviously, I knew this was unbelievably risky, but a small part of me wondered if Sirius' bizarre conversation had been for my benefit. I mean, they had known I was in the change room, so maybe he wanted to tell me without the others finding out.
I skillfully snuck out of the castle and stopped just outside the front door. I waited for my eyes to adjust and lifted my ear to listen for any suspicious noises. I couldn't hear any howling though. After I could see relatively well, I started across the lawn, towards the new tree they had only planted a few years ago. I had thought it was a very dangerous thing to plant at a school, especially since it had almost killed Davey Gudgeon last year.
The looming tree came into view and I stopped short at a surprising scene. A distant howl stilled my blood as I looked on with horror as Severus Snape approached a secret-looking hole in the ground. I could see James running after him and finally grabbing him by the shoulder before he could go any further. It appeared the tree was frozen and whatever had let out that horrible noise was at the other end of the hole Snape had been headed towards. James and Snape were now having a frantic discussion, but I couldn't hear the specifics. It was then that I realized Sirius was only fifty yards in front of me, watching the hole thing unravel. Except he wasn't horror-stricken like I was. I could see the amusement in the way he stood. Then it clicked together. Sirius hadn't said those things out loud for my benefit, it had been for Snape's.
My blood was now roiling as I stared at Sirius with contempt.
Before I knew what I was doing my feet were leading me straight towards Sirius who still hadn't seen me in the dark.
"Sirius Orion Black!" I shouted.
The figure in front of me quickly turned around and stared at me with a mixture of surprise and horror.
"Adeline why are you here?" he asked incredulously.
I could hear his panic.
"He could have died!" I shouted, ignoring his aimless stuttering.
"Were you trying to get him killed? Were you trying to murder him?!" I knew my voice was shrill by this point and I could hardly contain my fury.
"Addie, you need to leave. I need to get you out of here," he said worriedly, unfazed by my yelling.
"So I'm good enough to save? You have the decent sense to take me away from Remus, but you send Snape with an open invitation?" I continued maliciously.
"Remus?" he stopped. "How do you know about Remus?" he asked, panic now evident across his entire body.
"Adeline! Why in the name of Merlin are you here?" James asked as he approached, pulling Snape behind him.
"Nevermind that! Get inside." James ordered severely.
There was no room for objection.
"You are despicable!" I shouted one last time at Sirius before turning on my heel and booking it back into the castle.
I ran all the way back up to my dorm and barricaded myself under the blankets. My chest was aching, and I realized I was having trouble breathing. I had never been so furious in my entire life. How was it possible for Sirius to be so reckless and cruel? James had had to save Snape's life tonight because of Sirius' idiocy. It was unforgiveable.
There was a flood of hot tears running down my face as I tried to stifle my sobs. I felt like I didn't even know Sirius anymore. Dating a vindictive bitch like Maddie and now adding attempted homicide to that list. How was I ever supposed to forgive his recklessness, it had no bounds. What if James hadn't been there to step in? Then what? Sirius would be headed to Azkaban right now with a one-way ticket and Remus would be at the very least exposed.
And now they knew that she somehow knew his secret. Addie did not get a lot of sleep that night and spent most of it trying not to hyperventilate. She had absolutely no idea what to do in the morning.