Disclaimers: same apply for all chapters. I don't own anything.
"What do you mean?" He asked yanking on her arm, bringing her tight to his side as a vicious curse fizzled on the ground where her feet once had been.
"It's the only way out of here," she cried, pulling away from his side and running towards the lake. Sirius held tight to her hand, though, afraid she might do something stupid to try to make the prophesy come true. He was not going to let that happen.
Reaching the water's edge, she gave him a reassuring look and squeezed his hand for good measure. When he squeezed back, her courage was mustered and she felt that she could do anything. Her all-powerful high was squashed however as she was forced to jump backwards as a green spell sizzled at her feet. There were still some things that even her adrenaline, or holding his hand, couldn't save her from. And then the letter from Dumbledore burned her memory and she ached with knowing what awaited her by the end of the mission. A lump filled her throat and her heart sank to her toes. She had to tell him. "Sirius, I've got to tell—."
Jerking her to his side again, he ducked as a shower of red sparks filled the air to his right. They were running out of options and the Death Eaters were getting closer. He had to get Danielle out of there. "Tell me later, love! Right now, I'm trying to keep you safe!"
And with that, he plunged into the freezing water, pulling Dani in beside him.
Under the surface of the water, their roles reversed and Danielle took control, kicking as hard and fast as she could to the bottom of the lake. The rainbow of curses and charms breaking up in the water overhead cast eerie colors on the foreign landscape around them, making the unknown all the more peculiar. Still, she kicked as hard as she could, slowed, though only slightly, by Sirius and the satchel still flung across her shoulder. The English lake was large and deep, and looked nothing like the Mediterranean Sea that she had called home for so many months. Additionally, the more northern lake wasn't nearly as warm as the tropical waters of the sea and she had to bite her lip against the iciness. With some effort she pulled herself and Sirius through the forest of lake grasses and weeds, reaching the bed of the lake a short time later.
Once there, she took her first chance to turn and see if any of the Death Eaters were following them. Thankfully, the waters were clear of human forms but a few random sea creatures had poked out of their hovels to see what the chaos was about.
"Sirius," Danielle said in Mermish, "look."
But when she turned to her partner, she saw pure panic in his eyes. Ripping his hand from hers, he clawed at the water around him, trying to gain any upward momentum he could. His air had run out long ago; he was suffocating and could do nothing about it.
Grabbing his belt, Danielle pulled Sirius to her and did the first thing that she could think to do: she breathed for him. His eyes widened as panic faded into realization and trust while his lungs filled with life sustaining air. Pulling away from him she smiled, saying in Mermish, "Let's stay away from the surface, shall we?"
He responded by grabbing her by the shoulders and crushing her mouth with his. Somehow, Danielle didn't think he was demanding air. But she breathed for him again, letting it last perhaps longer than it needed to, pulling away only when her mind told her they needed to keep moving.
Reluctantly, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him away, grabbing her wand and pointing it at his head. "I'm sorry, Sirius," she offered, knowing he couldn't respond, "but you'll only slow me down."
Confusion clouded his eyes and he recoiled from Danielle, unsure of what she was going to do. With a complicated swish of her wand, he watch, or rather felt, as a bubble formed around his head, presenting him with a constant, fresh supply of air.
Grinning wickedly, she said, "I still have gills from the human to non-human Polyjuice Potion, I guess. I didn't even think about it. This will make things easier." She grabbed his hand and kicked as hard as she could to propel them away from the house and any Death Eaters that figured out how to follow them. Her teeth were chattering at this point, cold from nerves and the water temperature, but she couldn't let that get to her.
Not knowing how long it had been, but realizing he was frozen to the core, Sirius squeezed her hand to get Danielle's attention. Dani turned to him, her skin strangely white, her lips tinted ever so slightly blue. Pulling her through the water to him, he wrapped his arms around her and, feeling her body shivering against his, rubbed her back through her robes. He had to get her out of the frigid water he decided and, with a sputtering of bubbles, he apparated them out of the lake to a forest floor he was greatly familiar with and popped his Bubble-Head Charm.
He rolled onto his back, only able to go so far for she was laying on his arm still. Being in the open once more, he didn't realize how claustrophobic the water had made him and he gulped air greedily trying to shake the memory. Danielle was still quivering next to him; her back shaking against his trapped arm and a real fear gripped him that the cold had been too much for her. He decided, to keep her with him, he would keep her talking. "I've come close to dying by a lake too many times in my life," he said breathlessly, "Thank you for saving me."
"No problem," she replied quietly as if on the verge of falling asleep. "Likewise."
He turned back to her and watched her breathing slowly, her eyes open and scanning the night sky. It seemed to have been nothing to her, being in the freezing cold water for so long. But he could feel her shivering, had seen her teeth chattering when he wrapped his arms around her, the fear that lingered behind her eyes, even if she could breathe in the water. He wanted to forget what they had just been through. Wanted to make the moment as light as possible. He pushed matted hair away from her face and she closed her eyes to his warm touch, turning her head slightly against the palm of his hand. Grinning, he said simply, "Blue ribbons."
"What?" Opening her eyes, she found Sirius lingering over her, long, dark brown clumps of hair tickling her nose and cheek.
"You wore them in your hair on graduation day. The ones I gave you. Don't deny it," he commanded softly offering her a mischievous half-grin.
"You were there."
"With bells on. But somehow, I don't think that was a question."
Smiling, she closed her eyes again and sighed, "I just thought it was the excitement of the day. But there was that extra special feeling. The one where the hairs on the back of my neck would stand on end and my heart would race. I didn't want to give myself false hope, though. The way things happened. The way we parted. I couldn't convince my thoughts that my heart was telling me something important."
Licking his lips, he ran his free hand through his wet hair, pulling it away from her face and out of his. She wrinkled her nose as drips of cold water kissed her cheeks and eyelids but was content to stay that way forever if she could. Opening her eyes, she found Sirius was watching her, studying her.
Clearing his throat, he brushed the back of his hand across her now rosy skin and began quietly, "I've had a lot of time to fill in my days with thoughts, good or bad, and you know what I mostly thought about? Those five wonderful months that we spent together as a couple. Our first kiss. Our second and third and fourth. Our last kiss."
"So you only thought about us kissing?"
He laughed, "Well, Merlin knows we did enough of it to sustain any man's memories. But there were other things I thought about. It didn't take long for me to have every detail emblazoned on my brain. The Guards, they couldn't enjoy my happiness much after that. My memories became fact, like the fact that I was innocent. They couldn't take that away from me." He shuttered at the memory of the Dementors, something that Danielle couldn't ever understand but was willing to listen to him whenever he needed; she ran a finger down his cheek to tell him it was okay to stop if he needed to. But he continued, "And then I would start to think what it would have been like; if you had answered that owl, if you hadn't been seeing Snape behind my back, how our lives would have changed. But there's no sense in that now. What's in the past is in the past."
"I never got an owl," she stated quietly.
"What?" He pulled away and sat up, slipping his arm out from under her a little more harshly than he would have liked but still, he had to for fear that his anger may overtook him. "Sure you did. It was years ago. You probably don't even remember."
Rubbing her face as if waking up from a fifteen year slumber, she responded, "No, Sirius. I never received an owl from you. I would have remembered."
"I sent it. I solemnly swear." He paused and chortled a bit. "But, I addressed it 'Gracie.'"
"Gracie," she whispered the name, savoring the memory. Sitting up she pulled out the book that she had been reading earlier and opened the front cover. "Sirius, I never got a note. I kept all--," her breath caught in her throat and her face fell, "oh! I'm such an idiot! She started boasting about how you had sent her a love letter! I should have known! Why didn't I remember! Oh, Sirius, if I had only known! We could have—you might not have—."
Resting his hands on her shoulders he requested, "Dani, you're going to have to catch me up. What are you talking about?"
"Grace. Daphne. Everard." The words hit like stones being dropped in the pit of her stomach.
"I have no idea who that is."
"She was a fifth year Ravenclaw when you were a seventh year. She went by Daphne but all her mail was addressed to 'Grace.' The owl must have gotten confused."
"Bloody hell." He breathed slowly out through his nose, shaking his head slightly. "Helluva mistake for it to make."
Flipping absentmindedly through the pages of the tome, a difficult task since most of the sheets were clinging to one another she, quietly, murmured, "A mistake that broke my heart into a million pieces."
Scoffing, he stood and leaned against a nearby tree. He didn't trust her, not with what she had done to him. Voicing his thoughts, he replied, "Well you recovered quickly. I saw you with Snape that afternoon."
"Revenge only; he wanted to embarrass you and I wanted to hurt you as much as you hurt me—as much as I thought you hurt me; we made a pact..." trailing off, she bit her lip and let her tears fall.
He knelt beside her and rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "Hey hey hey, don't cry love."
Forcefully pushing his arms away, she climbed to her feet and angrily wiped the tears from her cheeks, turning her back to him. Rising, he walked over to her and debated about touching her shoulder. Instead, he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "If you were only acting like you hated me, I'm sure you really despised me in the months to come. All those girls."
Shaking her head, she swallowed against the ache in her throat caused by unshed tears. "I only hated myself. And that I loved someone that only counted me as another notch on his bedpost."
Grabbing her shoulders, he spun her around. "Dani, no. I've never thought of you like that nor did I ever want anyone else to either. I love you."
She pursed her lips and then opened her mouth. Quickly she closed it but then tried again. Feeling like a fish, she couldn't help but feel self-conscious as he began grinning at her and she decided to turn the attention back to him. "You say that like you still mean it."
"Gracie, you were the first person I ever loved, you have to know that." He stopped and shifted his weight from foot to foot. He wasn't used to sharing so much and he felt like he needed to offer an explanation. "Because you were you and because of how you treated me and--."
"I didn't do anything," she interrupted. Tucking a clump of hair behind her ear, she exhaled slowly to calm her heart and said softly, "All I have ever done is love you for you."
"That's all I needed. Someone who didn't judge me as a slacker or playboy or anything else. Someone who liked me, tail and all."
She chuckled and wiped at her cheeks with her knuckles.
He continued, "You kept Moony's secret. Mine and James'. That was a lot. We almost had to make you an honorary Marauder you and I were so inseparable. Your mere memory got me through some of the most horrendous nightmares in the world. Of course I still love you. I always have and always will."
Clearing her throat, she said rather lamely, "Well, I'm glad that I did what I did then."
"What's that? Become one of those girls that hung all over me?"
She shoved him playfully and let her hand linger on his chest where his school crest once was and now a darker shade of gray stood out. Danielle had noticed that he preferred his modified school robes to the new ones Lupin had found for him at Madam Malkin's but she never bothered to ask him why. But she knew she could probably guess if given the chance; she would deduce that he would cling to a time that he was happy, that he had friends, that he was loved.
Catching some of the material between her forefinger and thumb, she, feeling insecure, watched as the material rolled back and forth between her fingers. "Love me, hunh? Like Harry or Lupin or Tonks?"
His laughter came out in loud barks.
"Are you laughing at me Black?"
He placed a knuckle under her chin and tilted her face so he could look squarely in her eyes. The same sparkle was still there, her eyebrow still arched with the promise of laughter. "I wasn't thinking about any of them for the past seventeen years. What do you think?"
"I think we've got a lot to make up for," she offered but then her sweet comment of love was replaced by a devilish grin. "I think we should go. They're probably expecting us."
"Let them," he urged, wrapping his arms around her waist.
She pushed against his chest playfully and whispered before he could stop her, "I love y—." But just as before, 17 years earlier, she couldn't finish her thought for he already had his lips crushing hers.
It was an action he still couldn't resist.
She pushed away from him and giggled, "That brings back fond memories. I still think you kept me out of the game so James could catch that bloody Snitch and Gryffindor could win the game." Extracting her wand, she performed a quick hot air charm, drying them completely from head to toe.
Sirius protested slightly with a noise in his throat.
"I promise, we'll snuggle later."
"Back to understanding me better than yourself, I see." Her laughter filled the night air but there was something more to it, hidden under the amusement. There was something she was keeping from him that he wasn't going to like. He had to keep her mind on him. On their future. If not, he knew he would lose her to whatever she was thinking about and, sadly, he knew who that was. His ears perked as a wolf cried in the distance. "Ah. One of my old friends. I spent a lot of time here after I escaped from Azkaban. That place was horrible. It's good that my future looks promising."
"Tell them Sirius. Tell them I fought hard."
She was leaving him. He knew it. That's what she was hiding from him. It would have amazed him how well he knew her once again if he wasn't frightened stiff that he would never see her again. "Tell them yourself."
"Part of the reason you love me is that I'm stubborn."
"No. I love you in spite of that."
"Come on. You know me. I can't rest with a score to settle."
"Don't do this to me."
They stood staring at each other, communicating what words couldn't say.
She walked over to him and leaned against him, her arms tucked between them once he wrapped his arms around her. "Keep breakfast warm for me." She placed a kiss on his lips before apparating from his arms.
He sighed and went to pick up the book she had been carrying with her. His mind was completely filled with Danielle now, much like during his time in Azkaban. "If you don't come back to me, I'm never going to forgive you."
