A/N: So, as I promised: chapter 6! Thanks to ILikeComps, Doclover, futureauthor62, and leafstone for their reviews on chapter 5, I hope you'll enjoy chap 6 just as much!
Chapter 6
Unsurprisingly, Gryffindor won the game, though the other seeker was also very good. There was a scary moment, though, when three hooded shapes walked onto the field, but it didn't get any colder, and I still felt cheery, so it couldn't be dementors, but Harry didn't know that. When he noticed them, he simply pulled his wand out of his shirt – I really needed to get him a wand holster – and cast a perfect patronus, my throat closed up a little as I realized it was a big stag. Harry didn't bother watching it chase off the would-be dementors, though, but went straight for the snitch. As madam Hooch whistled the end of the match, I was screaming as loudly as any student.
Remus and I ran down to the field almost the moment Harry's fingers closed around the fluttering golden ball, and got there only a little after most of the Gryffindor house. I forced myself through the crowd and pulled the star of the hour into a hug.
"Bloody good flying, Harry, I think I want to forfeit our match over the summer, there's no way I can beat that, especially not if you fly on that broom!" I said, smiling broadly. Harry grinned back, but was soon engulfed in cheering Gryffindors again. Somehow Remus made it through and managed to tell Harry about his patronus, and show him that it had only been a prank played by some Slytherins – I noticed the blonde was one of them and made a mental note to ask someone who that was.
After that, the Gryffindors quickly made their way to the tower, cheering and shouting all the way. Ron's older twin brothers soon brought in food and drink that they had no doubt gotten from the elves in the kitchens.
The students didn't seem to mind – or notice – that I was at the party, probably since I was drinking and having fun right along with them. It lasted until well after midnight, when McGonagall came to break it up. I hid behind a couch so she wouldn't see me. After she left, I sat down on the couch. Harry bid me a good night, and I realized I should probably make my way over to Remus' chambers. But first, I'd just close my eyes for one second.
/*/
I awoke with a start as someone screamed. I was instantly awake and jumped to my feet. My eyes were drawn to movement on the stairs to the boy's dormitories. A man was rushing down, a man that, even in the dim light of the dying fire, I would recognise in an instant.
"Sirius?" I breathed, stepping into his path. He stopped instantly.
"Emmers? But you're dead…" he whispered, almost to himself. I felt a stab of annoyance as he used my old nickname.
My eyes flickered to the stairway he'd just descended, that scream had definitely been a teenage boy. "If you've hurt one hair on his head, I will find you and kill you myself!" For some strange reason, I was whispering.
He half-smiled at me. "You're definitely real, my imagination isn't that good." We could hear footsteps on the stairs now, and Sirius tried to sidestep me, but I wouldn't let him. "I'm sorry, Emmers," he said, and before I could do anything else, he'd decked me in the face and had scampered out of the portrait hole.
He hadn't hit me hard enough to knock me out, but it had knocked me off my feet, and it bloody well hurt! I let out a long stream of obscenities, most of which, I was ashamed to admit, I'd learned from the man who had just hit me.
"Emma?" a familiar voice said, confusion lacing his voice. I looked up. A pair of green eyes met mine.
"Harry!" I got to my feet, ignoring the stared the rest of Gryffindor gave me. "Are you alright?" I asked worriedly, quickly checking him over.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said, eyeing my jaw. Great, I probably had a bruise already. "Ron says he saw Sirius Black," he said, his gaze sweeping over the common room.
"I know, who do you think decked me?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "'Decked you'?"
"So I picked up some slang in America, will you get off my case?"
A redhead I thought must be another one of Ron's brothers stepped forward. "Don't you think we should alert someone? Sirius Black was in the castle! In our dorms! The professors might still be able to catch him!" he declared.
"You can go get McGonagall if you'd like, but there's no use. Black knows this castle better than anyone, by now he's probably out of the castle's wards and has apparated to safety," I said, and looked Harry over again. "You're sure you're not hurt?"
"Now really, enough's enough!" Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around. I hoped that if I didn't turn around she wouldn't notice me; I wasn't that tall, after all.
"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
Ah, so that was the other redhead's name. "I certainly didn't authorize this," he said, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just about to tell them all to get back to bed. My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"
'Oh, so now all of a sudden it was a nightmare? Why is he completely ignoring what I said earlier?' I thought to myself, but still resisted the urge to turn around.
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "Professor, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how-" she started, but I interrupted her.
"I saw him too, professor, he hit me square in the jaw before running off. He's long gone by now."
She stared at me. "But that's impossible, how could he have gotten in here?"
I shrugged. "Ask the portrait."
After questioning, Sir Cadogan informed us that Sirius Black had indeed entered, and that he'd had the passwords of the entire week, written down on a piece of paper.
"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. A pudgy boy, who looked to be about Harry's age, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.
McGonagall glowered at him, and the boy seemed to be trying to sink into the floor, so I took pity on him. Standing in front of him, I turned her attention back to me.
"Shouldn't you be informing professor Dumbledore there's a murderer on the loose in his castle?" I suggested, hoping she didn't think I was being too impolite.
She agreed, however, and turned to leave, but stopped in front of the portrait hole. "You should get Poppy to look at that," she said, indicating my jaw.
I grimaced. "Can't you do it?"
She rolled her eyes. "Honestly! You're a grown woman by now, there's no reason to be afraid of hospitals!" she said, throwing her arms up.
"But I don't like them," I mock-whined, and pouted to complete the picture.
"You'd think you'd have gotten over that fear after almost fifteen years."
"It's all James' fault, he ruined me at a young age."
She smiled wryly at me. "Still blaming things on your big brother, I see?"
"Always," I replied, grinning back.
She left after putting a light healing charm on my jaw, and I promised to say with the Gryffindors and not let any of them leave.
I tried to persuade some of them to leave, but, since that didn't work, I asked if anyone wanted to play a game of exploding snap. Ron was still a bit too shaken, but Harry and some of his classmates could tell what I was doing and played a game with me.
Eventually, a bunch of first years fell asleep on the couches while a tournament of exploding snap was going on. I'd even persuaded Percy to be the score-keeper.
They were just forgetting the horrible events of the night, and really getting into the game, when McGonagall came back – it was close to dawn by then – and informed everyone that the search of the castle and the grounds hadn't turned up anything. She left, advising us all to get some sleep, but we stayed where we were, a little stunned.
"I know this is a really bad moment to say this, but…" I subtly flicked my wand at the scoreboard, "I think I won."
Heads snapped to the board and a pair of outraged voices cried: "Oy! We were in the lead!"
"Yeah, you were way at bottom!"
"Cheater," someone shouted, the laugh in her voice was clearly heard.
Harry threw a pillow at me.
Needless to say, none of us slept anymore that night.
/*/
I remained in the castle for the next few days – if Sirius could still get into the castle, there was no way I was leaving Harry. The security was tightened to a ridiculous level, and the worst part was that I knew it wouldn't help, and I was still strangely reluctant to say anything about it. Neville was banned from going to Hogsmeade for the foreseeable future, though I'd tried to talk McGonagall out of it. At least I managed to get her to reduce the number of detentions to one. Harry was sulking because he'd also been forbidden to go (not by me, I didn't think it would be likely that Sirius would attack in broad daylight with all those people around).
I was talking to Moony about it on the day of the Hogsmeade weekend. We were simply walking through the castle, enjoying the quiet now that all the third years and up were gone.
"Do you think we should tell anyone?" I asked, referring to both Sirius' animagus form and the passageways out of the castle.
Remus frowned. "I don't know… I've been debating that question ever since he broke in the first time. I honestly didn't think he'd try to get in here, too many people."
"You know how he was, he loved a challenge…" I said, thinking back to the carefree Sirius Black I'd known all those years ago. Remus seemed to be contemplating the same thing.
"Yes, I remember. I remember being that way myself a few years ago… People change."
I raised an eyebrow. "No you haven't, you became a teacher for god's sake, what's more challenging than that?" I joked, hoping to lift the mood.
He smiled, and I considered it a victory. "I really did miss your company, Emma. It was… lonely, with everyone gone…"
I smiled sadly. "Biggest regret, right there," I said, poking him lightly in the chest. "If I could've let you know, I would've, but I wasn't sure if you'd tell Dumbledore," I admitted.
"It's alright, Emma, I understand."
I was about to reply when the blonde Slytherin – Draco Malfoy, I now knew – came running through the doors of the entrance hall and went straight down to stairs to the dungeons. A second later, his goonies followed, far more out of breath than their leader.
"What do you reckon that's all about?" I asked, not waiting for an answer as I followed them into the dungeons. They arrived at Snape's office, and I could just make out the name 'Potter' and 'Hogsmeade' before it became obvious they were about to go out to find him. Remus and I sprinted back down the hallway and ran up the stairs to the entrance hall, where we split up without even having to discuss it. I really hoped I'd find Harry first.
A/N: I'll update again tomorrow! Review!
