Still own nothing but the plot. And Dani. Hopefully, this will answer some questions.
Dani eyed her surroundings suspiciously, afraid of what might be lurking in the shadows just out of her sight. Jumping slightly when a loud pop came from her right, she gave Sirius a sideways glance as if to ask what took him so long.
"Wanted to make sure all of you arrived safely," he responded to her look. "In case I had to bring anything along with me."
"Your concern is deeply felt," she said dryly, starting to walk down the old, worn dirt road towards the rising moon. It was bright, slightly orange from its angle in the atmosphere, and almost full. "How's Remus been doing with, you know?"
Catching up to her side, Sirius shrugged, "Gets a little hairy once and a while but Snivellus keeps Wolfsbane Potion made up so it's fine." He chuckled slightly, "Although I don't think Buckbeak likes the company very much. He's touchy like that."
Nodding, she smiled slightly but quickly tripped over a rut in the road and turned her attention there, not wanting to catch a face full of dirt before the night was over.
"Do you remember when I told you? You know, about the four of us?"
"Of course," she replied quietly.
"I thought you'd either faint right out or think I was a nutter."
"Well I thought it might have been the latter until you had the gumption to transform right there on the spot. I would have thought I was dreaming too but you knocked me over with your big paws and licked my face relentlessly—," she stopped short, her cheeks burning ferociously.
"Oh yeah," he blushed as well, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. "Forgot about that."
They continued walking in nervous silence, not completely uncomfortable but loaded with enough intense memories to keep Danielle's cheeks sufficiently flushed. The moon rose higher in the sky, paling as it did, finally turning a ghostly white before either spoke again.
"Dani? Where are we going?"
"A little place up the way. I wasn't certain of its exact location, that's why we had to apparate so far away."
"What's at this 'little place'?"
"Hopefully some answers," she responded, catching the side of her foot in a rut and plunging towards the ground.
Quickly, Sirius wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her to him, keeping her from falling. Her hair, he noticed, which was adequately tickling his nose, still smelled like peaches and was as soft as one too. He was amazed at how easily she still fit in his arms. Her hands were like fire resting on his forearms, which he noticed she was in no hurry to move. He murmured, "As light as always on your feet, I see."
"Guess so," she said, Sirius detecting a smile in her voice. "Thank you and everything, but you can let go now. You're arms are rubbing against my scales and it's worse than a rug burn."
Loosening his grip, amused greatly by her comment, he let her slip from his arms and they continued walking again. "Oh right. From the cross-breeding Polyjuice Potion. How did you ever find a Siren to get a bit of?"
"Well she's a half-breed. Half Selkie, half Siren. Her mother was a Siren that left the clan when she was young. Met a Selkie and fell in love. Dumbledore met them not long after that and asked the Selkies at Hogwarts to let them in the clan and a few years later, their daughter was born."
"So when you went to the Sirens, what did you tell them?"
"That I refused the ways of the Selkies and wished to return to my mother's roots. I thought they were going to kill me at any moment. But then the Chieftain's son, Mariasimur, took pity on me and it was fine after that."
"Took a liking to you is probably more accurate," he mumbled under his breath.
"Shh shh," she whispered. "We're here."
Standing on her tiptoes, Danielle peered over the hedges to the house that had been the object of their search and was now the thing of their boredom. Sirius, who had grown tired of waiting, was sitting on a nearby stump, charming the lightning bugs to perform synchronized dances, the last grouping looking vaguely like a large dog. Danielle wished that whoever was in the bottom left room would go to sleep or ideally leave before she had to watch another trick from Sirius' performing bugs.
Growing impatient, Dani toed off her shoes and began to pace the fifteen feet in front of Sirius. She had to step over his legs a few times for him to get the hint that he needed to pull them in. It helped her focus, made her less anxious, and kept her mind away from bad memories.
"Stop your incessant pacing woman. You're making me nervous."
"Can't. If I do, my thoughts will get the better of me."
"That sounds intriguing. Care to elaborate?"
She completed a few more laps before replying, "To not happy times. I think we both have those in our past."
He nodded absentmindedly, turning his attention to the necklace she was playing with. "That's nice."
"Thank you. It was a gift from the chieftain's son for my birthday."
"Oh? Getting jewelry for your birthday? That's serious. I take it, it was a happy one then?"
"Yeah." She stopped and rested her right foot on top of her left. "To make up for past ones that weren't so happy."
March 20, 1977
Dani watched as the three friends ran out of the Great Hall, no doubt in search of the fourth Marauder who was always in trouble of some sort. She'd have to ask Sirius later as to why they were always bailing him out. Titling her head to the upper most windows, she smiled as owls fluttered in, bringing with them parcels and post.
Three owls landed before her, carrying with them letters from home and friends and a package from her Grams in Italy. She quickly opened the one from her Mum and smiled as she scanned the birthday greetings. But her thoughts fell short as she heard the excited shrieks of a girl down the row, huddled with other girls from her year.
"I can't believe he sent me a letter! I mean, I always knew he liked me; he always smiles at me in the hallways, but I thought he was dating someone."
"Yeah," one of the giddy girl's friends supplied. "Dani, I thought. Maybe you should ask her Daphne? Wouldn't that be good?"
"Why? He obviously sent me this note! Imagine! Me and Sirius Black!"
Danielle felt as if she were going to be sick to her stomach. More than felt, knew. She hurried from the Great Hall, her bag flung over her shoulder, and she dashed down to the lake as fast as she could. Maybe there she could collect her thoughts away from the prying eyes of others.
What had just happened? Had she lost her mind? Maybe it was all some horrible nightmare that she wasn't waking up from. But there was that piercing ache at the bottom of her heart that told her she was deathly awake.
"If you insist on intruding on my private time, you could at least have the decency to breathe quietly," came a cold chastisement from her left. She turned to Snape and almost burst out in tears. "Whatever is the matter? For I know you won't leave without my asking. Let's speed things along then, shall we?"
"Why on earth would you care why I'm upset?"
"Despite what those around you might say, I'm not completely inhuman, I suppose."
She almost laughed. "Those around me? They're such excellent characters themselves."
"Yes. Well, I could have told you you were wasting your time with him."
She stepped closer to him and kneeled beside him. "And why would you have?"
He turned his eyes back to his book and wrote a few notes in the margin. "No one should be plagued by such a subhuman as Black. Especially one with your level of intelligence."
"A compliment? Never knew you had it in you. Why are you being so nice?"
"Like I said, I was hoping you'd leave me alone. So are we finished?"
"That's the Snape I know." She pulled out her Charms book and randomly opened it.
"You're not leaving."
"How astute. Look, we obviously don't mind being in each other's company and I've decided I don't want to be alone so just deal with it."
"He's done something hasn't he? Why should you be any different? Just another mark on his list. I promise, one day I'll seek my reven--."
"Snape, just drop it. You can't whip up a potion out here but I sure as Merlin can charm you into a mate for the Giant Squid and I don't mean a chum kind of mate either."
She let it rest at that and turned her eyes to her book, her attention a million miles away. She was hurt. Too hurt to go to Sirius to ask him about the note. How long had he been seeing girls behind her back? And what would it be like to confront him and have him just shrug off their relationship as just another of his many conquests?
It hurt. Tears filled her eyes and escaped, running down her cheeks and dropping onto her robes. She wiped at them with her knuckles and sighed; she hated when people made her cry.
Unexpectedly, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. "Snape? Can I ask a favor?"
"I suppose."
"Don't hex me," she murmured as she leaned over and placed her lips on his. It wasn't entirely horrible, but the tears didn't stop staining her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into an embrace. Whispering softly, she explained, "You want revenge on Sirius, I'm your girl."
"Danielle?"
Her eyes focused on his but she still didn't seem all there.
"What are you thinking about?"
She shook off his question and peered over the hedges again, hoping that the house had changed in some degree. Sadly, it hadn't. The faint glow of something in the bottom left room still illuminated the moving figure inside.
Frustrated, Danielle collapsed cross legged onto the cold ground and pulled her book from her satchel, thumbing to a specific page. The bright moon overhead was more than enough light for her to read by and she scanned the pages as if in her favorite chair at home.
"Why are you carrying that book around?"
"Research."
"What could you possible need to research?
"The Sirens."
"But you just spent several months with them."
"True, but I'm trying to process everything they told me."
"And what was that? You still haven't told me what answers we're looking for."
She looked up from her book and involuntarily shuddered, "We're looking for You-Know-Who."
Thank you for reading :)
