A/N: If you're reading this I want to thank you so much for sticking with me... The chapter is finally here, so now I'm going to pray that you actually like it! It was your reviews that kept me coming back to attempt this story.

The Mystery of Mr Fox

I went to bed that night without really talking to any of my friends. It wasn't just that I was angry at Marlene for throwing herself at Black – even though I hated to admit that I was – I was embarrassed. I had practically stormed off just because he was touching another girl.

Why does it bother you that Sirius Black was flirting with someone else? I asked myself, pulling the covers up over my head to block out the moonlight coming in from the window. I breathed in the slightly claustrophobic warmth and stared sightlessly.

I didn't like the answer to my question: I was jealous.

Somewhere along the line I had actually started to like the attention he was giving me. He must've known it too, which only added to my cheek-burning shame.

He was using me, pretending to like me and then dropping me whenever he felt like it. What was worse, I was actually letting him do it.

I just needed things to go back to how they used to be. Sirius would say something vile to annoy me…and I would do my best to pretend he didn't exist. That was all I needed to do. Pretend he didn't exist and hope he'd go away.

With that thought in mind I drifted into a deep, thankfully dreamless sleep.

.o.

The next morning I made my way to Charms alone. Marlene had already left for class without me, and I knew it either meant she was angry with me about my reaction last night, or thought I was angry with her.

Either way, I walked there with my mind crystal clear; Sirius could only have an effect on me if I let him. If I didn't acknowledge him, then I couldn't notice how hip-achingly handsome he was, and if I didn't talk to him, then he couldn't charm and joke his way back into my good books.

He doesn't exist. He doesn't even exist, I repeated to myself.

I had just set foot on the third floor of the staircase when I heard a hissing noise further on down, as though someone was repressing the urge to shout because they didn't want to be overheard. Craning my head over the side of the staircase's stone bannister, I looked down to see what was going on.

When I saw who it was I had to look again, blinking a couple of times just to check if my eyes were lying to me. There, on the stairs two floors down, were Regulus Black and our fox of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Mison.

Mison looked as good as ever, with his usual slim fitted shirt that he wore instead of the oversized robes like the other teachers. And Regulus looked, well, angry. He had been the one making the odd hissing sound as he tried to shout-whisper at the Professor.

I frowned and leant further over, hovering off the edge of the handrail now in an attempt to hear what was going on.

"Are you threatening me, Regulus?" I heard Professor Mison ask, his tone incredulous. "I really hope not, I would hate to have to tell the Headmaster you've been trying to exercise your family's influence inside the castle walls."

Regulus fumed. "If you know what's good for you, you will do as my parents ask," he said violently. He thrust a small piece of parchment towards the Professor, something that Mison took on reflex.

But when he looked at the paper and read the words scrawled onto it, Mison's body language became instantly defensive.

He shook his head. "No," he said firmly, scrunching it up and dropping it to the floor. "I won't be doing that. What's more, you've now left me no choice but to go to both Dumbledore and your Head of House about your behaviour."

Not allowing Regulus time to reply, he stalked away from the scene leaving him standing there red faced with anger.

Curling his hands into tight fists, Regulus made a strange guttural, growling noise of frustration.

Now that he was alone down there it was as if he finally seemed to sense me watching, and his head darted upwards suddenly, looking in the exact direction that I was in.

Just about managing to duck back in time, I fell backwards onto my hands on the stairs, and I felt the hard floor sting my palms in response.

With my heart thumping, I waited, listening desperately for any signs that he had seen me and was now making his way up. Everything around us was deathly quiet with all of the other students already in class by now.

An excruciatingly slow minute passed and when nothing else happened I let my chest slowly relax and pushed myself quietly to my feet. Hardly daring to look, I slowly poked the very top of my head back over the handrail.

I was extremely relieved to find the area they had been in was empty now. Empty except for the scrunched up piece of parchment that Regulus had tried to give the Professor.

I felt myself torn at the sight of it just lying there. Whatever was on that paper had got a weirdly strong reaction from our usually good-humoured Professor… But what if Regulus was still down there somewhere?

If I went straight for the note he would know I had been eavesdropping, and something about him was really starting to creep me out, as though he was capable of more than I could have ever imagined; maybe even of doing unspeakably bad things to people who tried to interfere in his business.

Though I obviously did not want to be horribly murdered by the younger Black brother, I knew I couldn't just walk away to my lesson as if nothing had happened now.

Tiptoeing down the stairs on the balls of my feet so as to not make too much noise, I hurried towards the forgotten scrap without even daring to look around me. If I could just reach it before I was spotted.

My eyes blinkered on that one piece of paper, I came to a halt with it resting innocently at my feet, practically winking at me to pick it up.

Not wasting any more time, I bent down to pick it up.

Unravelling with a fizzle of nerves in my chest, I nearly cried out when green light erupted before my eyes and I felt something sharp sting my fingers.

Poof!

I let the useless ashes fall from my hands, my not-so-super sleuthing foiled by a simple identity charm. The paper had automatically burst into a single emerald flame before I could read it.

.o.

When I got to my Charms class I didn't mention what had happened to Lily and Marlene right away. I couldn't, I was too busy apologising to Flitwick for being 20 minutes late. It was lucky that Flitwick seemed to like me, I never would've got away with just a brief chiding in any of my other lessons.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Marauders watching me curiously, obviously wondering what on earth could have made me so late when my friends had managed to arrive on time.

I avoided their gaze, settling into my seat, but it did make me wonder if Sirius knew anything about what his brother, and apparently parents, were planning at the school.

It wasn't like I could ask him. Not without the risk of him luring me back into his world of endless games.

"Everything alright?" Lily asked when Flitwick had set the class to work.

From her other side I watched Marlene get up and head straight over to the four boys, as if she had been waiting for the opportunity since the start of the lesson. She didn't even acknowledge me.

I nodded. "Yeah," I was stalling, waiting for Marlene to be out of earshot, "Actually, no," I confessed once she was far enough away. "I just saw something really weird."

If there was anyone I knew I could trust to tell, it was Lily.

She listened carefully as I told her what I had seen on the staircase, her face a picture of disbelief. "Are you sure that's what you saw?" she asked when I had finally finished.

I had to bite back my initial splurge of impatience at her inability to take my word for it; of course she would have her doubts about what I saw. It was crazy even thinking back to it, a fourth year Slytherin trying to openly intimidate a teacher.

"I'm definite," I told her. "I heard Professor Mison warn Regulus not to threaten him, but Regulus didn't seem to care. It was almost as if he was doing it on someone else's orders, like if he didn't deliver that message to Mison he would've ended up in trouble with someone way scarier than just a teacher."

"But who could be scarier than a teacher?" Lily wondered. "When we're at school they've got the ability to expel us. They could even alert the Ministry if we do something bad enough."

I shook my head slowly, "I think Black's involved in something really bad. In way over his head."

"In over my head with what?" a voice enquired.

We looked up at Sirius stood in front of our desk. To anyone looking over, it would've seemed as though he had just happened to be walking past us at that very moment… except there had been no reason at all for anyone to be wandering around in this lesson.

I shook away the idea that he'd done it as an excuse to talk to me.

"Cheryl was talking about someone else," Lily said quickly.

Sirius looked at her, the expression of mild interest on his face immediately turning into suspicion.

"Someone else with my name?" he asked dryly. "Evans, it's worrying how terrible you are at lying."

"There are lots of people called Black," Lily continued to argue her lost cause.

His focus shifted to me, as if looking for someone who would speak some form of sense to him, but I refused to even look at him, staring instead at the desk.

He thrived on attention, without it he would get bored and move on. At least I hoped he would.

Two hands appeared in front of me as he leaned forwards onto my work space, balancing his weight on the lengths of his forearms. I didn't dare look up into his eyes, which I could tell would be just a few inches away from mine now.

"Are you ignoring me, Cheryl?" he asked in a low voice, with just a tinge of amusement, whether real or not.

I sensed Lily shift awkwardly at my side.

Still keeping my eyes on the desk, I repeated the simple truth, "We weren't talking about you." My voice came out cooler than even I had intended, and I knew he would pick up on it straight away.

"This new attitude isn't about yesterday, is it?" he asked, so close I could almost feel his breath on my face. "There's really no need to be jealous of Marlene and Sally, you know I only have eyes for one girl."

I felt sure that he would gift me with a wink of his eye if I looked up.

"You can do whatever you want with whoever you want," I replied, feeling myself get aggravated and trying to keep my voice calm and unbothered.

The bodiless arms in front of me shifted back as he straightened back up. "If that's the way you want it," he drawled, his tone arrogant now.

After he had walked away Lily let out a noisy breath. "I'm starting to think it was easier when you genuinely hated one another. All this pretending not to like each other is exhausting!"

I grimaced at her, "I don't think there's any pretence about it, from either one of us."

She looked at me patronisingly. "Have you seen the way he looks at you lately? Believe me, it is not the look of someone who hates you."

"Well he has a funny way of showing it," I said tiredly, tucking a strand of stray hair behind my ear and starting to copy the notes left for us on the blackboard.

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Oh, you mean by seeking you out every chance he gets, pretending to randomly bump into you when it's obvious to anyone with eyes that it was on purpose. I mean, look at what happened just now," she gestured to the area of my desk that Sirius had just vacated, "he couldn't get any closer to you if he tried."

I finished writing the sentence I was on and looked up at her. "He does it with all the girls."

Instead of giving up at this point and admitting she was wrong she carried on, "If you like him, Cheryl, you should stop pretending you don't," she said, her expression earnest, "I'm telling you this as a friend. I've never seen him act like this with anyone before."

"You've never seen him bully anyone, prank them? Use their weaknesses against them? Pretty sure he does all that with Snape," I said acidly.

"I know the two of you kissed," Lily said. "James told me."

My icy expression froze on my face. "He had no right."

She had the decency to look ashamed.

"What else did James say?" my lips formed the words without my permission.

Lily looked around her, checking if anyone was listening in to our conversation. Everyone was copying attentively from the board or practising with their wand. No one was paying us any attention.

"There was something else, but you have to promise not to tell any of the boys that I told you."

I gave her a look as if to say 'as if'.

Lily readied herself for it, "James told me he cast a charm on the two of you, a few days ago," she confided guiltily.

"What, on me and Sirius?" I asked, confused.

"He did it behind Sirius's back," she clarified. "It was supposed to be some kind of joke - you know how James can be – to make the two of you dream about one another, if you know what I mean…" she let her words trail off meaningfully.

"I know what you mean," I replied quietly, thinking back to the random night I had spent coated in sweat, dreaming explicitly about my former bully. It explained everything.

"But when James admitted what he'd done to Sirius, Sirius said something like 'I should've known it had something to do with you, I wouldn't have enjoyed a dream like that without some kind of spell on me.' Except, the thing is, all James's charm did was put the dream in his head. It didn't force him to enjoy it."

I felt my face burn white-hot at her revelation, my mind racing.

"Safe to say, James found it all hilarious. Did the spell work on you?" she wondered, looking at me curiously.

"No," I lied. But the throbbing rhythm of the spell's dream was etched into my memory even now. It had felt good. Really good. Leaving me with a longing so intense it had almost been unbearable. And the only thing responsible for that had been my own disloyal brain.

.o.

On the way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, I told Lily I'd see her at lunch, grateful I could make the long walk there on my own. I had way too much in my head, it was hard to process it all.

A loud, affected peal of laughter came from behind me and I knew better than to turn around. I could tell it was Marlene just from the obnoxious volume of it, as if she was cultivating the idea that she was so much fun to be around and wanted everyone in a hundred mile radius to know it. I think even the Merpeople in the Great Lake would have heard the echoes of it.

A strong breeze of perfume and aftershave passed me as she and all four Marauders walked past.

"Cheryl," James greeted, likely thanks to my friendship with Lily, and Remus also gave me a brief smile, but there was complete radio silence from Marlene, Sirius and Peter.

Well fine, I thought irritably, I know where I stand.

Watching the back of their heads as they walked a few metres in front of me, I noticed Sirius oddly keeping a step behind the rest of the group and I thought again of the dream I now knew we'd both had, a part of me wondering if he'd experienced the exact same one.

The thought of it sent me spiralling into another weird flashback; still able to clearly see the sweat glistening on his bare chest as he'd led on top of me, both of us breathing hard, strands of his dark hair falling across his face, his grey eyes black with -

As if he could read my mind, he turned his head to look in my direction and our eyes met for a split second. I broke away first, pretending to look into my bag for something.

Well this whole 'ignore Sirius' thing is going swimmingly so far, I thought, trying to calm my galloping pulse.

.o.

I stepped into Defense Against the Dark Arts looking forward to having my mood lifted by the light-hearted teaching of Professor Mison, but instead I came face to face with a cropped-haired balding man in his late fifties. His belt groaned at me under the weight of his gut.

"Name?" he ordered as I made my way in, his voice more similar to a bark than anything human.

"Cheryl," I replied, feeling unnerved by the way his intense blue eyes glared at me, surrounded by what looked like permanent bloodshot.

"Cheryl what?" he demanded, as if his need for my surname should have been obvious.

"Morland."

It was like I'd accidently walked into an armed forces enlistment, not the DADA classroom. The new teacher drew his wand down a clipboard held in his hand, his painful looking eyes searching with a stern efficiency.

When his wand halted on the paper, he gave the clipboard a rap, "Morland, Cheryl." He had found me on the registration list. "Next to Mederos."

Professor Military, as I inwardly nicknamed him, jabbed his arm out towards a boy called Jesse Mederos and then stared me down with impatient expectation.

I moved towards the seat without really seeing where I was going.

Professor Mison was really gone. I had seen Regulus threaten him only an hour or two before, and now he was gone.

Just what had been on that scrap of parchment that Regulus had tried to give him? I felt sure it would've provided answers as to what was going on.

When I reluctantly approached my new seating partner, the part-Spanish Ravenclaw Jesse Mederos, he watched me expressionlessly, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking of the fact we'd been forced together like that.

With the surname McKinnon, my usual seating partner Marlene had been placed on the next table along, but for once I was grateful to be away from her.

As I lowered myself onto the stool next to Jesse's, I was reminded of the very first time I had seen him on our first day of school. We had shared the same small boat during our journey across the Great Lake, two whole years before puberty had struck me and the Marauders' bullying had started.

Jesse had been in charge of holding the lantern at the side of the boat, and with the light from the flame glowing across his tanned features, my eleven year old self had developed a crush on him faster than you could say Hinkypunk.

Of course, after we'd arrived at the school and were Sorted into different houses that crush had been abruptly cut short.

I hadn't really had much to do with him since; students from different Houses just didn't really mingle with one another that much, even when they shared a class. But now, thanks to the substitute, here we were. Thrust unwillingly back into each other's orbit by an alphabetic seating plan.

"Is Professor Mison okay?" A small Gryffindor called Julie dared to ask Professor Military what we had all been thinking.

When Military's blue and red eyes landed on her, it soon became clear that her innocent question was a huge mistake.

After a frightening pause during which he glowered furiously, he finally said, "That is no concern of yours. What is your concern is turning to page 69 and copying from the book I have given you."

Lifting his chunky finger, he jabbed it repeatedly down onto the copy of the book sat on his desk as if to demonstrate.

"In silence!"

Understandably, Julie looked visibly upset.

Military's reaction made me worry more than ever about Professor Mison's safety. If there was an innocent reason for his absence, surely the substitute wouldn't have been so cagey about it?

"Shall I do it?" Jesse asked me, breaking our silence. His voice still had the ever so slightly accented lilt that I'd noticed on our first day. When I looked at him he gestured to our shared textbook and I gave him a nod.

Sliding his fingers into the book, he flipped it open, scanning the page numbers quickly. Having found the one we needed, he went to place the book back down in the middle of our working areas.

We both saw the misplaced ink pot too late.

As the heavy book cover fell on top of it, it toppled over allowing the dark ink inside to spill quickly over the desk and all over our parchment.

Jesse let out a low curse word. "Sorry," he murmured quickly, glancing from the mess all over my parchment up to me.

"It's fine," I muttered distractedly.

We both reached for our wands at the same time and uttered the cleaning spell in unison.

An unsure grin appeared on his face.

"At least it's gone before he could see," he commented, gesturing over to the substitute now seated at the front of the class, his intense gaze still scanning the room over the top of his wireless glasses.

I forced myself to smile. "Thank Merlin," I replied quietly.

"You were in my boat on our first day here, weren't you?" he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting at the memory.

"You remember that?" I asked, taken aback by it. There was a very good reason that I remembered him all these years later, but I very much doubted it was the same reason for Jesse's recollection.

"Of course," he affirmed in the same low voice. "Cheryl, isn't it?"

Before I could truly allow myself to feel the thrill of having Jesse Mederos know exactly who I was, a dark shadow loomed over our desk and interrupted our short conversation.

"Something to share with the class?" Professor Military asked us loudly, placing his knuckles down on our table.

In the stillness of the room it made us both start, and all of the students turned towards us, including Marlene.

"No, sir," Jesse replied, keeping his voice steady.

"Quite sure?" Military demanded, looking between us.

He waited for us to answer then slammed his hand down hard on the desk in front of us, like a silverback gorilla securing dominance over his troop.

"Good," he snarled. "Now get on with your work or you can see me in detention."

After that, we all ended up sitting in complete silence for the remainder of the hour and a half, and mine and Jesse's conversation was long since forgotten.

At the end of the lesson I was grateful just to leave and started to toss my things carelessly into my bag, but Military wasn't finished with us.

"Take one and pass it around," he ordered, handing a wad of worksheets to a Ravenclaw at the front of the class. "This is your homework," he stated, "You will fill it in and present it to me at the start of the next lesson."

"Great," I heard Jesse mutter sarcastically under his breath. He looked up at me as he buckled his bag up, "Guess we can look forward to having Professor Gilipollas for a while then," he said, nodding towards him.

I didn't know what the Spanish word gilipollas meant, but I very much doubted it was a compliment.

Marlene passed the worksheets along to Jesse and when he took one he frowned.

"What is it?" I asked, taking the rest of them off his hands and giving them to the next table along. When I looked down at the sheet, I instantly saw what had made Jesse pull a face.

Before I could say anything, Marlene beat me to it, calling the Professor's name.

"Professor Saunderson!" she shouted over the noise of the other students packing up to leave.

Military's eyes scanned the room to see who was calling him. "Yes?" he demanded when he saw Marlene.

"I didn't think anti-Muggle pictures were allowed in Hogwarts," she said, pointing at the worksheet we had been given.

At the bottom of the parchment was an image of a young wizard in full, regal dress robes, pictured tall and strong. Next to him was a sickly looking man, dressed in what was obviously Muggle clothing. The question above it asked for five reasons why magical folk were superior to Muggles.

There was no doubt about it, it was anti-Muggle propaganda. I couldn't quite believe it. Just who was this Professor Military? Was this something to do with what Regulus wanted our DADA Professor Mison to do?

Had Mison quit because of it?

"What is your name young lady?" Military asked, his eyes burning into her.

"Marlene McKinnon," she replied, confidently as ever.

"McKinnon," he repeated, thinking on it for a second. "Yes, I know your family. Your father is good purebred stock. Let me offer you a bit of advice, Ms McKinnon, and I will say this only once. In future it would be wise for you to do your homework as requested and keep your mouth shut."

There was a murmur of shock around the class at what he'd said. No Professor had ever talked to Marlene like that before, most of them encouraged students to ask questions if they didn't understand something.

And for once in her life, she was left speechless by it.

With two efficient clicks of the locks on his suitcase, Professor Military rose from his desk and marched out of the room.

After saying a cursory bye to Jesse, I made my way towards the door and purposefully caught Marlene's eye on the way past, sharing a look of disbelief that it was really happening.

All thoughts of our stupid non-feud over Sirius forgotten, she got up quickly from her seat and followed me out the door.

"What the hell just happened?" she said as we made our way down the corridor. She held up her worksheet, "And what in the name of all that is holy is this piece of shi-" There was a loud ripping noise as she tore it in half and threw it to the floor.

"Marlene!" I cried, looking back at it getting trampled on behind us. "What are you going to say when he asks for it next lesson?"

"I'm not going to say anything," she stated, "Because he's going to be fired. There's no way Dumbledore will let that git carry on teaching when he finds out he's been spreading wizard superiority crap."

It was strange that our Headmaster had allowed it to happen at all, but now that I thought about it I hadn't seen him in his usual seat at the head of the dinner table in a while.

"So what do you think's happened to Professor Mison?"

The sudden voice at my side made us both jump, and we looked up to find Jesse's attractive face set in a thoughtfully serious expression. His warm eyes searched mine, a shade of brown that reminded me of Honeydukes chocolate. He knew something wasn't right just the same as we did.

"I'm not sure," I replied, taken aback that he had come to talk to us, "But I don't think it's anything good."

Jesse gave a murmur of agreement.

"Maybe we should go to Professor Dumbledore about it?" he asked, looking again at me for an answer.

"Uh, aren't you going to introduce us?" Marlene cut in, her eyes widening at me for having the nerve to keep him to myself.

"Jesse, this is Marlene," I said robotically.

He gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"Anyway, I have to go," I said quickly, making the most of the distraction. "I'll see you two later."

I pretended not to notice the look of disappointment in Jesse's eyes as I left him with her, and I was too distracted to even attempt to understand it. I needed to find Lily and tell her about our new substitute DADA teacher.

The whole situation was already giving me a gnawing feeling of dread in my gut, as if something bad was going to go down at Hogwarts. Or maybe already had?

.o.

Spending most of the short fifteen minute break trekking over to the greenhouses for Herbology, I checked my timetable.

'Greenhouse 5.'

As soon as I walked in I spotted Lily's cheerful face looking over at me. James was sat next to her in my usual seat, smiling about a joke they must've just shared. When he saw me coming over he got up.

"Alright Chez," he said as I sat down on the seat he had just left. It was creepily warm.

"She doesn't like being called Chez," Lily corrected him.

James walked around to put an arm over her shoulders. "Oh, what does she like to be called then?"

"She doesn't mind just Cheryl," I told him at the same time as Lily said, "You could call her Chel like we sometimes do."

"Chel it is," James replied, shooting me a mischievous grin.

Dropping his arm from her shoulders, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading back over to his own seat. Sirius was already sat there waiting for him looking supremely fed up, his head resting on his hand.

I raised my eyebrows at Lily. "Everything still going well, I take it?" I asked, not having the heart to ruin her good mood with the news that Sirius's brother might have actually murdered the DADA teacher.

As if waiting for the question her mouth quickly spread into a warm smile. "We took a walk around the lake during our free period and he gave me his cloak to wear because I was a tiny bit chilly," she said. "And he was only wearing a short sleeved shirt underneath."

She gave a small contented sigh, "I just can't believe how sweet he can be. I don't understand how I've never seen this side of him before."

"I'm not sure if it was actually ever there to see before," I replied honestly.

There was a bustling noise just outside the room and Professor Sprout entered the class holding a plant pot covered in a glass cloche at arm's length, bopping the door closed with her backside.

"Students, if you could please put your goggles and dragon hide gloves on, today we will be dealing with a very dangerous specimen indeed," she stated importantly.

We did as we were told as she placed the dome carefully on the table at the front of the room. Within the protective glass sat a dark red plant, its many limbs moving fluidly like octopus arms. At the very centre the leaves seemed to be naturally positioned to resemble a human face.

In the blink of an eye, Sprout had removed the cover and called "Diffindo!"

The spiny plant was left stunned as one of its arms was severed, falling with a gentle plop to the desk. Before it could react, Professor Sprout had replaced the cover. It writhed angrily inside, its human-like mouth contorting as though it was shouting wordlessly at her.

She held up the severed arm to show us. "The Venomous Tentacula. Its poison can prove fatal, but the leaves, seeds and juice are worth a pretty penny for those brave enough to retrieve them."

Pointing her wand at the now inanimate plant tentacle, she chopped it into a dozen spiky pieces and sent one whizzing over to each of our desks.

"I would like you all to spend the lesson extracting the juice," she called. "But!" she added, "do not let it touch your skin. Unless, of course, you wish to spend the rest of the term in the Hospital Wing, in which case please do go ahead," she finished cheerfully.

.o.

"Thought you might want to know Sirius has been staring at you since the start of the lesson," Lily said as she uncorked the conical flask for me to put the poison into.

I fumbled with the very tips of my dragon hide gloves, trying to work a pipette to extract the juice. The gloves were far too oversized for the task.

"Yeah?" I replied disinterestedly. I wasn't going to get into this with her again.

Lily's eyes bored into me, humorously magnified behind the thick goggles.

"You might also want to know that he's coming over," she stated.

This time my eyes shot up.

She was right, he had left his desk, heading purposefully for us.

"Mr Black," Sprout exclaimed suddenly, "have I not been explicit enough about the potency of the Tentacula venom?"

The professor's voice made him stop in his tracks, and he glanced back at her like he had no idea what she was on about.

"Your eyes, Mr Black," she said, pointing to her own and widening them at him, "I would suggest you swallow your pride and wear your goggles like the rest of the students if you wish to keep your sight intact!"

Rather than wearing them the way they were intended, he had pushed the eyewear up onto the top of his head so that his hair fell perfectly around them, making them look more like a stylish accessory than a protective measure.

Without saying a word he reached up with one hand and pulled them down, letting them flick backwards over his eyes.

Turning back, he gave her a look that said 'happy?'

"Good boy," Sprout said, "Now be a dear and sit down."

At first it seemed like he was genuinely considering the idea of ignoring her last instruction and continuing to our table regardless, eventually he seemed to think better of it, re-taking his seat with an air of impatience.

"Lucky," Lily muttered to me, amused at my close shave with Black related awkwardness.

Allowing myself a glimpse over at him, I could see now that she had been right, he really was openly staring at me, like he was purposefully trying to initiate eye contact.

It was almost as if there was something else he wanted to say to me, but couldn't seem to get the chance.

I tried not to linger on the thought. I had already made it clear to him I wasn't interested anymore. There wasn't anything left to say.

.o.

"That Tentacula juice has burnt right through the arm of my uniform," Lily lamented as we made our way out of the greenhouses after the lesson. She tutted, "I'll have to pop to Madam Malkin's in Hogsmeade this weekend."

"Be glad it wasn't your bare skin," I noted, double checking my own uniform for any scorch marks.

When I was sure no-one was looking I pulled her through the smaller exit of the pavilion and back into the Charms corridor, with most of the other students dispersing in the other direction towards the Great Hall for lunch. She looked back at me questioningly with one of her fingers still poked in a singe hole.

"Remember what I told you this morning, about what I saw on the stairs," I started.

"Regulus apparently threatening the DADA teacher," she confirmed, extracting her finger from her cloak and looking at me curiously.

I put a quietening finger to my lips, checking again if anyone was around. "Well I think I was right to be worried, because Professor Mison didn't turn up in lesson today."

Lily's eyes narrowed, and I could tell I'd got her full attention now, "Are you serious?"

"Yes," I replied. "And that was bad enough, but look at this," reaching in the front pocket of my bag I pulled out the homework worksheet Professor Military had given us and gave it to her.

I saw her eyes shift from the offensive picture on it to the question we were all supposed to answer.

"Give five reasons wizards are superior to Muggles," she read aloud. Her gaze flicked upwards. "This is some really dangerous stuff," she said immediately, "We have to go to Professor Dumbledore."

As much as the Headmaster's grand presence unnerved me, I found I had to agree with her.