Thanks a lot to those who reviewed. The things mentioned at the end of the previous chapter will be coming, just not quite yet. Hopefully you enjoy this one all the same. It might end on a slight cliff-hanger. Sorry about that.

Hope you're all staying safe and well x

I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good

The more I thought about it, the more grateful I was that Sirius's confession in the Owlery had meant nothing.

It meant we really could just forget all about it.

And it wasn't like I'd ever actually wanted him as my boyfriend. Can you even imagine what dating Sirius Black would actually be like? A horror story worthy of the Muggle film 'The Exorcist'.

Except I'd probably be the one with the revolving head and projectile puking after putting up with all of his crap.

Once Charms had finished, I made my way towards the DADA classroom.

Despite Military being officially gone for good, I still felt a bit apprehensive about it. As if I would get there and find he had somehow returned to the role like nothing had happened.

I'd already started to hear whispers about what had happened to Professor Mison as I walked through the school.

I wasn't sure how so many people seemed to know about it, but I guessed it only took one person's visit to the hospital wing and Military's immediate disappearance for students to start putting two and two together.

For now though, it seemed like they were putting two and two together and making five. There were some really random theories flying around.

I'd overheard one fourth year Gryffindor girl telling her friends that Professor Military had been the Dark Lord himself in disguise, and he'd had Professor Mison stored in a trunk in his office, feeding him nothing but pea and ham soup.

"Apparently Mison had to transfigure himself into a Flobberworm to escape through the trunk's keyhole!" the girl shout-whispered as I squeezed through her small audience blocking the way. Her face was practically lit up with the excitement of it all.

Most importantly, nobody seemed to have a clue who had actually found him.

.o.

Adjusting my still unfamiliarly shorter hair in advance of seeing Jesse again for the first time since my little rage-cut, I readied myself to enter the DADA classroom.

The first place my eyes went to was the Professor's desk at the front of the class. It was still empty, and thankfully was definitely Military-less.

The next place my focus moved to was my usual table. The one Military had put Jesse and me at right at the beginning of his tirade. The same one that Military had then moved Jesse away from when he'd decided we were getting too comfortable.

That's why it came as a mild surprise to find Jesse sitting back there again waiting for me. When I got closer, he gave me an uncertain smile, baring just a sliver of his white teeth.

"Wow," he said as I sat down next to him, his grin broadening. "That's quite a difference."

He leaned back to look at me properly, his hands resting on his legs.

"Different?" I repeated.

"You look..." he paused as if trying to think of the right words, "...beautiful. Even more beautiful," he corrected quickly.

He laughed at my expression before lifting his hand to stroke the lengths. "Very sexy," he affirmed.

I moved my head to nudge him off, "Be serious."

He pulled his hand away, still looking amused. "Who says I'm not?"

Somewhere inside my chest gave a nervous squirm.

He leaned forwards on the desk as I got my quill and ink pot ready.

"Talking of extremely serious circumstances," he continued, "I waited for over an hour in the library yesterday evening."

Though the smile was still on his face, I could see it was fading.

I paused with my hand still on the ink pot lid, my mind racing.

"We were supposed to meet," I remembered suddenly, my eyes darting to his in a wordless apology.

He gave me a bleak look. "You forgot?"

I cursed myself. Yes. I'd completely forgotten.

Even if he'd heard anything about what had happened to Professor Mison, there was no way he would connect me to it in any way.

I deliberated for a second, unsure whether or not to tell him the truth of where I'd been.

McGonagall hadn't explicitly told us we couldn't tell anyone, and I'd already told my friends everything that had happened in that horrible dungeon room.

If anyone deserved to know what had gone on, it was Jesse. I didn't want him to think I'd stood him up, or that he wasn't important enough to remember.

With that in mind, and with one eye on the door to make sure there were still no Professor coming in to take over the lesson, I gave him an abbreviated version of what had happened using the dull chatter of the other students in the room as protection against anyone overhearing.

At first he looked at me like he wasn't sure what to believe, but that changed as I went on, explaining how it had felt to truly believe I would never get to escape that place. It actually felt kind of cathartic talking to him about it.

"You could've died," he said when I'd finished.

Having relayed the story a few times by this point, I found his reaction pretty much standard. Nobody seemed to be impressed with what we'd managed, at least not to start with. More shocked that we'd been stupid enough to put ourselves in such a dangerous situation.

And maybe they were right.

I didn't really mention Sirius too often in this version though. I felt a bit weird talking about him with Jesse. Like, guilty somehow.

Still, Jesse did bring up a valid point that I hadn't really considered before; why had Sirius been coming out of the common room just at the right moment when he should've been at dinner.

The funny thing was, Jesse wasn't at all suspicious of the way I'd happened to bump into him at exactly the right time. He'd only mentioned it to say how lucky it was that I'd literally run into someone who could help me.

It just made me think back to a comment Marlene had made when I'd told her how Sirius first came to be involved. She'd muttered something about how convenient it was for him to have been there.

When I refocused on Jesse, I could see him just watching my mental process in silence.

He put his hand on my thigh. "You know I am here for you if you need me, don't you?" he asked, his expression full of concern. "Although, admittedly, I probably would have advised we go straight to a teacher if I had been there last night."

"The sensible option, then?" I tried to joke.

"The Ravenclaw option," he replied honestly.

My eyes wandered behind his head briefly, and it was only then that I realised there was something different about the room.

"Where's Marlene?" I wondered aloud.

Jesse looked around distractedly. "Late, perhaps?" he shrugged.

Just then, the classroom door opened and this time all the students went quiet.

Jesse and I looked around in time to see a woman who looked to be in her early thirties entering the classroom, dressed in fancy-looking robes. Definitely not Marlene.

"Quieten down please," she said as she entered the already completely silent classroom. "I am Professor Shahrivar, and as you may have already guessed will be acting as your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher until Professor Mison is ready to retake his position."

She adjusted the dark blue chiffon scarf around her neck and wrote her name on the board before turning back around to look at us all, chalk still in hand as if primed for emergency note-taking.

"I understand that some of you might have questions about why I am needed here today, as well as the departure of not one, but two Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors so far this year.

"So, in the spirit of achieving full concentration on what we are about to study, I am willing to devote the first five minutes to answering as many of your queries as I can, to the best of my ability. Though you may come to find I know as little as any of you," she added.

All at once nearly all of the hands in the class shot up.

Professor Shahrivar's eyebrows lifted as she took in all of the eager faces.

"Perhaps I'd better get comfortable then?" she said, lowering herself into her seat.

.o.

As the students asked their questions, it became obvious that the class was split into two teams; one half wanting to find out what had happened to Mison and how he'd ended up in the hospital wing, and the other half more interested in why Professor Military had suddenly left the castle.

The new Professor had been right about one thing at least; the 'question time' definitely lasted more than five minutes. In the end, it was probably more like half an hour while she let everyone get everything off their chest.

Not that I was complaining about not doing work. Plus, it was kind of interesting to hear people's speculations while Jesse and I knew the truth.

Most people seemed to have guessed Military had done something bad, though judging from his past behaviour since he'd been at Hogwarts it didn't exactly take much imagination.

Professor Shahrivar herself either genuinely didn't know the full story, or had been told not to say too much, because she was being really careful not to give detailed answers and to let the gossiping students do all of the work. Pretty clever, really.

.o.

By the time the lesson was over, we'd only just started to look at the correct casting movements behind the Cave Inimicum defensive charm, literally translated as 'beware of the enemy'.

"The new Professor seems nice, no?" Jesse said to me as we headed out.

"She does," I agreed. Almost as good as Mison himself, though I was still looking forward to having him come back to teach us.

"I was thinking we could perhaps try again this evening, meeting up in the library," Jesse said, "As long there aren't any other professors in mortal danger that you know of?"

He gave me a playful smile.

"Sounds good," I agreed.

"Half past 7?"

"I'll be there," I promised.

I opened the classroom door for us to leave and found myself halting in place before I could take a step out.

"What's going on?" Jesse asked as he collided with my back, looking over my head to see what was up.

For some unknown reason, Sirius was waiting outside of the classroom.

I tried to gather myself quickly.

"Nothing," I said to Jesse, restarting my feet again.

Previously looking in the opposite direction, Sirius turned to face us just as we got nearer.

"Alright, Morland?" he said to me as I went past. His eyes met with Jesse's and he gave him a short nod.

Again with the Morland.

Torn between wanting to just get Jesse out of the area, and wanting to know why on earth Sirius was waiting outside a class he must've known I was in, I finally couldn't resist my curiosity.

"How come you're here?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice casual.

Sirius glanced towards the DADA door. "Wanted to see who the new Defence professor is. Make sure Saunderson hasn't come back to haunt us."

I breathed a small laugh. "No, he's definitely gone," I confirmed.

"Sirius, isn't it?" Jesse said from behind me, coming to stand at my side and putting a hand on my lower back.

Sirius glanced at Jesse's arm tucked behind me before moving his focus to his face.

"Depends who's asking," he replied in a way that it was impossible to tell if he was being serious or not.

I was glad when Jesse seemed to take it as joke at least.

"I wanted to thank you for helping my girlfriend out last night," he said in his usual good-natured way. "It means a lot to me knowing she has friends like you looking out for her."

Sirius gave a close-lipped smile in reply and I could tell he was caught off-guard by Jesse's pleasantness. "Pleasure's all mine," he replied.

Jesse peered from Sirius to me, and I tried not to look at him in case my face gave away my discomfit. But avoiding Jesse's gaze seemed to make things worse.

He gave me a curious look. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I said a little too brightly, "Everything's fine. I think it's all just catching up with me. We should probably go anyway, we're going to end up late for next lesson if we're not careful."

Jesse nodded. "Yes. Sure."

With one last look at Sirius, he held his hand out for me to take and we walked away.

Luckily for me he didn't say anymore about it once we were alone, moving on to tell me that he'd sent a letter to his parents asking if he could come with us all to Peter's cabin.

And apparently they'd been absolutely fine with it.

So that was brilliant news.

Just...fantastic...

.o.

Jesse and I spent around an hour and a half in the library together that evening. Though we really did make a valiant attempt to study, most of it was admittedly spent whispering and laughing together as quietly as possible whenever the librarian was distracted.

Once I'd finally finished my Herbology homework, I prised myself away from him and headed back towards my common room, leaving him to carry on working.

"Hello Cheryl."

Despite the apparently friendly greeting, there was a slightly snarky edge to it.

"Regulus," I stated when I turned around and found him over by the great hall, having been too focused on where I was going to notice him.

I stopped in the entrance hall and waited for him to approach me, catching me before I could make my way up the staircase.

The last time I had spoken to him was when he'd finally told me about Military's plan, right before it all kicked off.

I couldn't help but think of the way he had refused to help me, even if he had kept good on his promise to take Mary to the hospital wing.

"You managed to survive then?" he commented as he came to stand in front of me. "Heard you and my brother saved the day together. It warmed my heart to hear it. Really."

He took in my appearance with a slight smirk. "And you still found the time for a haircut. How...impressive."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I don't want anything. If anything I thought you might be interested to hear what's going to happen now thanks to your interference. But where to start?" he pretended to think. "I suppose I could tell you what's happened to Professor Saunderson...or to call him by his proper name, Rookwood?"

"I know what happened to him," I replied.

The fact that I already knew about Military's capture outside of the school seemed to take the wind out of his sails.

"You do?" he asked doubtfully.

"He was caught and put in Azkaban."

For some reason, the knowing look in Regulus's eyes returned and he laughed lightly.

"In that case, since you already know so much, I suppose you've also already heard about Mulciber and Avery?"

Even though they were supposed to be his friends, he talked about them with a complete lack of emotion.

"They were caught too," I shrugged, "So I suppose they've been expelled or something."

"You're correct on that, at least," he relented. "Just as well really, I don't think they'd be too happy to hear about my disloyalty. Though I'd never admit it to then, of course."

"What about you?" I asked, genuinely interested.

Regulus's eyes sparked. "Well, you see, that's a very good question. And one I was particularly concerned with when I was summoned to McGonagall's office last night and interrogated by both her and the idiot Slughorn."

He peered around us with the same lazy haughtiness I recognised from Sirius.

"The thing is, they didn't seem to know very much about my involvement at all. Apart from the fact that I'd very altruistically told you where they were hiding the missing Professor."

I shuffled on my feet as he examined me.

"Why didn't you tell them about my involvement?" he asked, coming straight to the point now.

"Shouldn't you be grateful I didn't?" I demanded.

"I would be. If I didn't now feel like I owed you some kind of favour. I don't like owing people, Cheryl."

"I don't want anything from you."

"Do you really expect me to believe it was done as some sort of gift out of the kindness of your heart? Or is there more to it perhaps?" he said thoughtfully.

"Maybe I just didn't feel like it was fair for you to expelled with the other two when you weren't even involved with anything they were doing."

"That's one theory," he acknowledged. "Or, maybe you did it because you knew no matter how much Sirius pretends to despise me, he would never look at you in quite the same way if he found out you were the reason his poor baby brother was kicked out of school with nothing left to do but turn to the 'dark side'," he spoke the last words like he was telling a ghost story.

"He doesn't pretend to despise you," I argued. "If anything he's worried about you."

Regulus smirked again. "Interesting choice of response," he remarked. "Well, you can tell him from me that he needn't worry," he said, "because I most definitely will not become a Death Eater. Not until at least seventh year," he added smugly.

"Funny," I replied, unimpressed.

Regulus sighed. "Anyway, I suppose I've wasted enough time standing here talking to the likes of you. Best be off, things to do, people to brutally murder and all that."

He flashed me a sly grin.

"Hold on," I said. "There's something else I wanted to ask you."

"How I achieve such effortless poise and refinement? It just comes naturally, I'm afraid. A Pureblood trait. You wouldn't understand."

"Who was it pretending to be Professor Mison outside of his office while he was missing? " I asked, ignoring his amusement at his own joke.

Whoever it was had been disguised to look like him and it was giving me the creeps not knowing, especially since I'd been alone with them.

Regulus raised a brow. "Ah yes, you were getting far too nosy for your own good, if I remember rightly. Not a very wise thing to do; particularly if you're going to snitch to your mother about it in a letter."

My blood ran cold, knowing for definite now that I had been targeted, and that anything could have happened to me that day outside Mison's office if I had refused to let it drop and walk away.

"I don't know for certain which one of them drew the short straw and had to drink Mison 'jus' unfortunately," he said. "But if I were to guess, I would say it was likely Rookwood himself. He doesn't strike me as the sort to trust either of the halfwits Mulciber or Avery to do it."

I wasn't sure if finding out who it had been that day made things better or worse.

.o.

"Hey," I said as I finally approached the small group gathered on a cluster of armchairs at the side of the common room.

Right in the middle of Dorcas, Lily and Sally was James, all on his own for once and seemingly only too happy with being the focus of attention.

I heard his usual call of "Chezza," amongst my friends' voices.

At least he hadn't reverted back to my surname like we were enemies again.

"Where's Marlene?" I asked as I balanced on the arm of Dorcas's plush green armchair.

Lily frowned at me. "We thought she was with you."

"No," I replied.

Everyone looked at one another.

"She wasn't in Defence class," I remembered. "Haven't seen her all day."

"Nor have we..." Sally said.

A seed of worry planted in the back of my mind and started to sprout there.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"She wasn't at dinner either, was she?" Dorcas said slowly.

Marlene was always skiving lessons and doing whatever she wanted. But with what had happened with Military, my nerves were still on edge, like I was waiting for something else bad to happen.

"Do you think we should tell a Professor...?" Dorcas asked, echoing my fear.

"Seems a bit early for that," Sally said.

"What then?" Lily asked.

"We could try looking around for her?" Dorcas suggested.

"Knowing Marlene she could be anywhere, and the castle is a big place," Lily said doubtfully.

"It would take all night," I agreed, knowing first-hand now just how endless Hogwarts and its grounds seemed when you were trying to find someone.

In amongst all of our chatter, James was sitting very quietly, keeping himself to himself. A little too quietly, in fact.

"James?" Lily seemed to notice at the same time as me.

James looked at her with innocent wide eyes. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen her?" she asked, her green eyes narrowing at him.

He took a second before answering, "No."

"You're lying," Sally observed immediately. "Is she with one of the boys again?"

She didn't need to say his name for us all to know she was talking about Sirius.

"No!" James replied again.

"James," Lily warned.

"She isn't, I swear it," he said. "They're up in the boys Dorm. I have no clue where Marl is."

Sally looked at him sceptically.

"I'll take you all up to see them for yourself if you don't believe me," James stated, starting to get up.

I cast Lily a furtive look.

"It's fine, we believe you," she said, touching his arm.

"Why do you look so suspicious then?" Sally asked him as he settled back down.

We all put our focus on him, waiting for his answer.

"Merlin, you lot don't give up do you?" he grumbled.

"James!" Lily cried, losing patience.

"Alright, alright. I might have a way you can find her, that's all."

"That's all?" Sally said sarcastically.

"How?" Lily asked.

"I have a map," James replied. "Of the castle. Me and the boys made it a few years ago. It tells you where everyone is."

"Every single person in Hogwarts?" I asked.

"Yeah," James replied like it was nothing.

Lily looked at him gobsmacked. "You've never told me about that," she said indignantly.

He shrugged. "It never came up in conversation."

"And what kind of conversation would involve me asking if you had a map that shows you exactly where everyone is in the castle at any given time?" Lily asked.

"Sounds a bit stalkerish to me," Sally noted.

"Why don't I just go and get it," James said, knowing he was fighting a losing battle.

"And hurry up!" Sally called after him, prompting James to turn around and give her a two fingered hand gesture.

.o.

When James came down from the boys dormitory five minutes later, his hands were empty.

"Where is it then?" Sally asked.

"Patience, child," he said pretentiously. Taking one his large hands, he stuffed it down inside the front of his trousers.

When he pulled his hand back up his fingers were wrapped around a large, rolled-up scroll.

"What?" he said, looking around at our disgusted faces. "I had to sneak it past the boys somehow."

"Did you have to make it so we wouldn't want to touch it with a barge pole though?" Sally said with a grimace.

"This is an extremely sacred part of Marauder lore," James said indignantly, "I hope you know how privileged you all are that I'm even letting you see it."

"Marlene's missing, James," Lily reminded him seriously, and a shred of guilt flashed across his face.

"I know, I know," he said placatingly. "Here, let's take it out of here, away from everyone."

Once we were all outside the common room and James had been convinced that there was absolutely no one around, he unravelled the scroll like it was a hallowed relic.

It felt like there should be a golden light coming from it and a chorus of herald angels.

"It's blank," Sally said bluntly, looking at it unimpressed.

We all stared at it over his shoulders. She was right. There wasn't a mark on it.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he muttered, tapping it once with his wand.

All at once, threads of ink began to swirl across the paper. They gathered in blotchy formations until they gradually became more defined, turning into scrawled writing and impressively detailed pictures.

I peered at the countless names moving across the map, their tiny footprints leaving temporary marks as they went.

I could see Professor Mison and Mary's name both stationary in the room labelled the Hospital Wing, and just like James had said; Sirius, Remus and Peter were all shown to be up in the boys' dormitory.

"How did you make this?" I asked, marvelling at it.

"Knowledge, time and a lot of patience," James listed off. "And the Homonculous charm, obviously."

"Obviously..." I muttered.

I had to hand it to them; their skills were all well beyond most of the people in our year, if not the school. The professors included.

It was such a waste that they went around acting like a bunch of prats most of the time.

I scanned the moving names trying to find Marlene's, but Dorcas shouted out before I could spot it.

"She's there!"

She reached around James's arm and pointed at an area alarmingly close to the Forbidden Forest.

I felt my gut wrench. She wasn't moving.

"There's someone else with her," Lily frowned.

Sure enough there was another dot right next to hers, almost indistinguishable.

Who could it be?! Any guesses?