(A/N): Of course, everything belongs to JK Rowling. I wanted to clarify something though: If we consider that James and Lily were born at the beginning of 1960, and that the Hogwarts school year begins September 1st and ends on the first days of June, then the dates I'm using for my flashbacks should be easy to understand :)
3.
Declan Dearborn had the painfully irritating ability to never be around when Faye needed him. He would rarely ever be more than twenty feet away from Vikram Ashanti, his best friend, and his time was normally divided between the Quidditch pitch and the Gryffindor common room. But now, precisely when his sister wanted to talk to him more than anything else, Declan seemed to have disappeared and no one could possibly tell her where to.
Declan Dearborn was incredibly, almost comically tall, even more so than his twin sister Faye, who had a good couple inches on most of her male classmates. Declan Dearborn was also incredibly, almost comically good-looking. The Dearborn twins had not one, but two Veela grandmothers, and therefore possessed that slightly supernatural, ethereal beauty that many found more unsettling than attractive. They had clear, angled features, softly glowing skin as pale as parchment, penetrating green eyes that were almost yellow and soft light brown freckles dusting their face and shoulders. They moved seamlessly, as if constantly dancing with an inborn grace that had granted Declan his wish of becoming a Beater for Gryffindor. The Dearborn twins had not one, but two Veela grandmothers, and therefore had uncommonly short tempers. Faye believed that her long-standing friendship with Marlene Macmillan was thanks to their mutual acceptance of the other's temperamental disposition. The Dearborn twins were easily irritated and sharp-tongued and abrasive when cross. There were many, many people who did not like Faye Dearborn, but somehow Hogwarts remained enthralled with Declan. Perhaps, Faye wondered, it was because half the female student body would murder their pets to lock him up in their trunks and never let him go. Their mysteriously tragic family history did nothing but add to his appeal.
The Dearborns were an exceptionally old pure-blood family – they were exceptionally rich and exceptionally celebrated. They had occupied high posts in the Ministry for centuries and many of their ancestors had been ministers and ambassadors and Warlocks. They lived in a traditional wizarding village, Godric's Hollow, where they rubbed elbows with the likes of the Potters and the McKinnons – and absolutely everyone wanted to rub elbows with the Potters and the McKinnons. Their home, Dearborn Hall, was an architectural marvel, its every wall lined with countless medals for the Order of Merlin and portraits of generations and generations of Dearborn wizards and witches.
Faye Dearborn still wasn't sure how she was going to tell her brother. He would be equally, if not more, as lividly, blindingly furious as she felt at that moment. The thick parchment was carelessly folded in the bottom of her pocket but she could feel it against her body as if it burned. They truly had outdone themselves this time, the bloody idiots.
Faye had been wandering the castle for forty minutes now and her moronic git of a brother was neither in the Hall nor in any of the first floor study rooms, each of which she had searched with scrutiny for Declan's head of coppery hair to no avail. Any other bloody given day she would have asked Sirius to look him up for her, but after such an awful night he was still in his dormitory, asleep. Besides, Faye detested asking Black for things. It would have taken Sirius around three seconds to figure out exactly what was going on and that was absolutely the last thing she needed.
'Oy, Greyroad!' she called when she saw one of Declan's teammates leaning against a rocky pillar in a third floor corridor, chatting up a younger-looking, revealingly-dressed Hufflepuff. 'Have you seen my brother?'
'Said he'd be in the library.' Tom Greyroad answered, flashing her a broad white-teethed smile that seemed to distraught the poor Hufflepuff sleaze. If she had not been as utterly consumed with rage Faye would have found that hilarious.
She could feel her hand twitching as she marched to the library and her whole face burning as if it were on fire. If she had (as she certainly hadn't) allowed herself a few tears, they would have evaporated instantaneously. Six years they had spent at Hogwarts, and not once had Declan gone to the library for longer than it took to take a book out. But now, when their parents were once more being idiotic, heartless bastards, he had decided to go up for a bit of studying. The prick.
Faye found her brother in a far off table near the Charms section, his feet on the table top and a grimy, beat down muggle paperback in his hand while ancient-looking, battered, leather-binded tomes on Astronomy lay amidst a chaos of parchment rolls and his disorganized class notes. A group of giggling fourth year Ravenclaw girls were making a fair mess of pretending not to be ogling him, whispering maniacally and holding their breath every time he turned the pages. Madame Pince, the infamously strict librarian, sent him a sly smile every a couple of minutes and did not appear to have noticed he had his filthy trainers on top one of her beloved mahogany tables.
'I've been looking for you for hours.' Faye sniggered. She rested both her hands on the table with a loud thud that made Madame Pince look up from her filing and frown sternly. All the giggling girls stopped giggling to shoot her disapproving glares.
'I'm here.' Declan said without looking up at her. Faye reached out and pulled the book out of his grasp, shutting it close. She pulled out a chair and took a seat.
'I so observed.' she said curtly. The librarian shushed her indignantly, so Faye continued in a dry, harsh whisper. 'Mum has written to us – and it's fucking rubbish.'
Declan cocked an eyebrow. Faye could swear she heard a girl swoon and it took all of her and some more not to hex her into oblivion. 'What?' he asked.
'They are throwing a ball.' she informed. 'For Max.'
Now all the girls in Ravenclaw robes were doing their absolute best to listen in to their conversation, so Faye flicked her wand hurriedly and muttered Muffliato. Severus Snape was a stalking freak, but his little cunning spells came in very handy then and again.
Declan furrowed his brows so tightly they became one. 'Why?' he asked. His noncommittal smirk had turned into a contracted grimace and he had hunched over to Faye so that their heads were almost touching. This close, their faces looked almost identical.
'It's a bloody memorial, Dec. They want to celebrate Max's braveness or some codswallop like that.'
'Max's braveness? Is it brave to die because your parents are sodding stupid?' Declan hissed. His knuckles where white around the edge of the table and his eyes were blazing murderously. Declan's anger made Faye feel better in some twisted, sick way.
'That's not all.' Faye whispered. Her usually low voice was now hoarse as gravel. 'They are turning the whole thing into a bloody anti-You-Know-Who rally – like Max was some sort of fighting martyr or some shite. The whole stupid thing is so Caradoc it disgusts me.'
'What are the Potters saying about this?' her brother asked. He had not blinked since the first time she mentioned Max, and his handsomely square jaw was so tightly clenched it looked as if it could break.
'Mum says they don't think it's a good idea, but that she and Caradoc are hoping to convince them. They can't do a sodding thing without Audra Potter, you know, they never can.'
Declan nodded shortly and rested his folded arms atop one of the books on the table. Faye waited for him to say something, but remained quiet when he didn't. She wanted him to be enraged, as hurt and as violently blindsided as she was, to promise her they weren't going to let this happen, that they would not let their parents do this to their brother Max.
'Do you remember the day he left?' Declan said abruptly. Faye was surprised.
'Yes. Do you?'
'Yes. It was a few days after he finished Hogwarts.' Declan nodded. It had been years since they had talked about this, she realised. Max's face was covering every square inch of her mind like a propaganda poster now. Her brother's eyes, yellow and green, so much like hers and Declan's, were staring at her with unperturbed fixation from every corner of her now spinning head. 'I was in the Grey Room, right next to Father's study, and I heard the whole thing.'
She considered reaching out her hand to hold his but decided wisely against it. Dearborns weren't much for physical comforting. She waited for Declan to go on.
'They were screaming a lot. Maximillian told Father that he was being a self-righteous numpty, that it was correct to fight and do the right bloody thing but that he was being arrogant and careless and that we – you and I – we were going to get the blow for it.' his voice quavered and the silence around them became insufferably uncomfortable. 'He talked about Father's interview with the Prophet and how it was reckless and stupid to say You-Know-Who was nothing more than a narcissistic maniac. Max said he was underestimating him and that he was putting us all in danger by acting as if our family was not threatened. Caradoc said Max was a cheeky know-it-all and that if he did not want to stand up to evil like the rest of the family, then he could go.'
And Max had left alright. Until the day he was found murdered in his London townhouse, a poisonous Dark Mark hovering about the scene, Agatha and Caradoc Dearborn did not see their son again.
'I'm not going to go.' blurted Declan. 'I'm not going to play the happy family. I'm done with them.'
'Do you think they actually had to talk to each other to plan this thing out, or did Mum just send Father's secretary an owl?' Faye asked, and she saw with delight that the sides of Declan's lips were twitching minimally upwards.
'Oh, imagine that. "Dear Mildred, please do tell my husband we have not done anything remarkably dim-witted this past month and it's high time we be undeniable fools again. Do ask for suggestions."'
'"Perhaps something cruel and tactless. We might even fuck up our remaining kids for good if we try hard enough!"' Faye was smiling now, and Declan even let out a short ghost of a laugh.
'Thanks, Faye. You aren't such a rubbish sister every once in a while.' Declan sent her a teasing smile, and began to collect his books from the table. The tomes stacked themselves up into the air and, neatly piled, began to flutter around Declan's shoulder, waiting for him to get up and leave.
'Don't get sentimental now, Declan Wilfred. You are an absolute rubbish brother.' she said with mocking curtness. She got up, turned around on her heel and strode off. She felt so much better.
He took her by the arm the second he saw her walking by herself and dragged her into one of the unused classrooms at the very end of the corridor leading away from the library. The door whined as he closed it behind them and he placed his folded arm above her head, his other hand reaching for her soft cheek. He leaned forward to kiss her but she shook his arms off her before he was close enough to shut up her protesting squeaks the way he intended to.
'Black, don't.' she muttered. Her face was flushed and Sirius observed it suited her. There were few things, however, that didn't.
'Give me a good reason why not to.' he shot back, once again leaping forwards towards her face. She turned her head around and his lips met her hair.
'I didn't sleep a wink. I happened to be worried last night, you know.' she shook her head fiercely when she saw the delighted surprise in Sirius's face. 'Not about you of course, you incomprehensible troll. It was just raining too hard and I was worried something bad might happen.'
'I'm fine, Dearborn, no need to get your knickers in a twist.' he called and Faye shot him one of those deathly glares that used to have a terrifying effect on him, but that he had grown accustomed to over the past few months. 'It was a hard one, though. Bad weather makes it worse for Moony, I suppose. He's more violent when it rains like that.'
'Oh. Is he alright now?' Faye asked, unnerved. Sirius admired the incredible talent she had to act as if she couldn't care less about the things that mattered the most to her and valued immensely that she did not use it around him any longer – except for those few occasions he did his best not to think about and worked so hard to ignore. He had noticed how she had been uncharacteristically kind to Remus on the last few days leading up to his first full moon of the term. He found that sweet.
'Yes, he is. We all went up to see him this morning before we went to bed. James was afraid he had got hurt, you know. He was fine luckily, but James still rambled about how it was his entire fault, even though Remus was fine.'
'James does that.' Faye agreed. She looked older than she was. That was only one of the things that Sirius liked about her: next to Faye, most of the girls in their year looked like lanky ten-year-olds – even Dorcas, and Sirius Black had always had a soft spot for Dork-arse Meadowes.
'It is lovely that you were worried, Dearborn, love.' Sirius teased, and stepped out of her reach before she could smack him silly. Faye liked doing that very much.
'As I've already mentioned, you half-witted dog, I wasn't worried about you. If anything, I was worried my toy might get broken.' she said jokingly, flickering one of her arched, light brows.
'I find the idea of being your toy astonishingly appealing, Faye Berenice. I might even overlook the fact that you have an embarrassing middle name and continue with this secret society of ours.' he said, putting his arms around her. He felt relieved she didn't pull him off this time.
'Your bloody middle name is Orion, Black.' she said, pulling a disgusted face. 'It's like your parents hated you even before you were born.'
'They probably did.' Sirius chuckled. 'Now, Dearborn, we've chatted long enough. Do keep in mind the objective of the aforementioned secret society. Care to do what we're here to do?'
'Why, Sirius Orion, of course.' she said, and she kissed him before he could see it coming.
May 31st, 1976
He had told James and the lads he needed a run, grabbed the Cloak and the Map and made his way hurriedly out of the castle, so quickly he almost ran into Lily Evans and Eugenius Mortlake as they made their rounds around the corridors. It was barely a couple of hours after the feast which marked the end of the school year but his clothes were already folded and his books tucked away inside his trunk in preparation for the train ride that would take them all home the next morning.
James knew what it was all about, of course—James always seemed to know what was happening to each of them—so he let him go with a dry nod and questioning eyes. Prongs was still utterly nonplussed about what had happened with Evans and Snape earlier that day by the Lake, so even if he had had any intention to interfere he had lacked the drive to do so. Remus had stared at him in a quizzing fashion, but Remus always seemed to find reasons to stare at people in a quizzing fashion so this did not worry Sirius much. Remus had learnt with time not to expect explanations. Peter hadn't quite realised he had left the dormitory – he was battling against his Care of Magical Creatures textbook, which refused to be locked away in Peter's trunk and had already attempted to eat his hand off twice.
Sirius had waited until he was on the edge of the Forest to remove the Cloak, which was beginning to be too short for him. He had walked up to a tree he knew very well, had hung the cloak from one of its boughs and placed the Map and his wand on a nicely hidden hole in its trunk.
The second he had felt his four strong, muscular legs touch the ground he had broken into a fast, feverish sprint. As he ran, the lurking doubts that were nagging at him were almost banished. He felt the ground disappearing for seconds beneath him, the wind ruffling through his long, black fur and could only phantom the exhaustion his human body would feel from this mad form of exercise, but he didn't care. The speed and the strain kept him from thinking.
He ran with no direction for what felt like hours around the Forest, jumping the ancient roots from tall, powerful trees that crisscrossed the earth like slithering snakes. It was a slightly hot night and the new moon cast its blue, haunting light around the clearings and hollows, creating dark, enormous shadows all around him. The Forest was immersed in a deep, unsettling silence only broken by the sound of his trodding on dry twigs and rustling leaves. The earth was cool but the air had the deliciously warm touch of one of the first nights of summer.
At one point, after what seemed like days of moving without pause, the trees around him became less thick and he was able again to see the stars above him. The moon was high in the night sky and Sirius thought it should be close to midnight by now. His hound eyes, used to seeing in the darkness, could decipher the edge of the Black Lake in the distance. He approached it without thinking.
Years later, in his rotten cell in Azkaban, Sirius would be visited a million times and again by the vision that now met his eyes. The need to end Peter Pettigrew, the mind-clouding grief for James and Lily and the overwhelming, unquenchable need to see their son Harry, his godson, would only be interrupted by the soothing memory of that night.
A figure was standing in the water of the Black Lake, a few yards away from its bank. It was a woman, Sirius now saw, and she was naked. The water went up to her waist and her milky, freckled skin appeared blue in the moonlight. Her dampen hair reached the middle of her back and she was brushing her fingers through it as if the obvious coldness of the Lake could not reach her pale body.
Sirius stood there, unable to move, his uncomfortable gaze never leaving the enchanting silhouette whose face he still had not seen. She might be a Veela, Sirius thought; Remus had talked about Veelas many times. The girl was walking around the Lake now, her face towards the tree against which Sirius sat, but she didn't waddle like people normally do when submerged but moved with gracious, carefree ease as though the waters parted to let her through. It took a minute for Sirius to realise that she was coming out of the Lake.
'Black.' said Faye Dearborn once she reached the grassy banks. She did not even try to cover her very naked body and her features appeared unfazed as if there was a perfectly sensible reason for his obviously unexpected presence.
Sirius was baffled to realise that he had shifted back and was paralysed by the idea that he had done so in front of Faye Dearborn. He was terrified to catch on that had not noticed the change in his form.
'Why were you a dog right before I came out?' she asked with unabashed curiosity. Her voice was slightly low and raspy but he could swear he had never heard a sound more drawing.
'I'm an Animagus.' answered Sirius without thinking. Faye said nothing and her eyes remained unchanged. They both stood in immobile silence for a moment.
'Why are you here?' she asked unfalteringly.
'I think I want to leave my parents' house.' said Sirius calmly. 'I was thinking about it – or trying to stop thinking about it, actually.'
'My father says your family thinks muggle-borns are the filth in his shoe.' Faye crossed her arms across her chest, the first one to move. He noticed there were Goosebumps along her arms and neck.
'Your father is right.' said Sirius coolly. 'What are you doing naked in the Lake?'
Faye smiled eerily. 'I do not want to go back to my parents' house.'
'It's bloody freezing.' he said. He took his school cloak off his shoulders and handed it to her.
'Don't be ridiculous, Black.' she said, casting his extended hand a distrustful look. 'I did not walk out of Hogwarts starch naked.'
She picked up her wand from a rock to her left and flicked it once. A bunch of twigs and wet, decomposing leaves transfigured back to her night gown and cloak. She swished the wand around herself next, drying her hair and skin. Sirius felt sorry the pearly beads of water were no longer adorning her white shoulders. He also felt deeply ashamed of contemplating such things as "pearly beads of water".
As if he wasn't standing there, she threw the black silk, long-sleeved nightgown over herself and put on grey woollen slippers. She tightened the silver fasting of her Hogwarts-crested cloak and shot him a stern look as she pulled the hood over her pale blonde hair.
'Are you coming back to the castle?' she asked impatiently. 'Or do you need some more time to wail and sob about Mummy and Daddy being bad, Dark wizards?'
And that is when he kissed her.
