It seemed like the perfect Hogsmeade trip, but then, things are never as they seem. The girls were dragging Remus and Sirius from Honeydukes with large bags of purchased sweets, leading them to the Three Brooksticks for butterbeer. Lily was just coming out of the post office and she smiled and waved at them.

"Hey, Remus, Decima, Gwen, Black!"

Sirius snorted.

"So I'm the only one without a first name, now? You've even started calling James by his first name, Lily. Or should I say Evans?"

Lily just shook her head and looked at the sizable Honeydukes bags. Her eyes widened.

"Someone's hungry," she said with a smirk. "Please tell me you're up to sharing?"

"Sorry, Lily," said Decima loftily, wrapping her arm around Sirius's waist. "There's only one thing I won't share with anyone in the world, including Sirius, and that's chocolate. Same goes for Gwen."

"What was that?" said Sirius, his ears perking up.

"What was what, love?" said Decima, frowning.

"Shh," said Remus looking around the street warily. It was filled with students rushing from place to place. James and Peter came out of the Three Broomsticks to join them, looking around with equally wary faces.

"CiCi," whispered Sirius, "take Lily and GiGi into the Three Broomsticks. Get yourselves some butterbeer. We'll meet you inside, okay?"

"Sirius," she said with a frown. "What's wrong? Why won't you come in with us?"

"Decima, just do what I say," he growled, but before she had a chance to respond, a curse came at them from the shadows of an alley and he pushed her to the ground. Students began to scatter everywhere, screaming and rushing toward buildings.

"Come and play," said a voice from the shadows. It was a woman. She could hear Sirius spit his cousin's name. Bellatrix was in the alley, and Decima was sure she wasn't alone.

Shielding her body as they crawled, Sirius got her inside the Three Broomsticks, Peter shoving Lily and Gwen in after her. James and Remus were already rushing around, ushering students into buildings and looking for a teacher. The Marauders were in their element.

When the streets were cleared, they stood, back to back in a circle, wands out and ready for attack. A flash of blue shot at Sirius, and he deflected it, sending Stunning Spells in the direction it had come from. Green came at Remus and he put up a quick shield charm. Decima knew what that shade of green meant. If he had been a half a second slower, he would be dead. Gwen grasped her arm anxiously.

The battle went on for what seemed like forever. They couldn't make it to a building for their own safety without putting themselves at risk of attack so they just stood there, back to back, on defensive, looking incredibly alert.

"They're so brave," tittered a girl nearby. The entire bar was crowding at the window for a closer look.

"That look on Sirius's face is so sexy. Stoic."

Decima wanted to vomit. These girls were looking at the boys who were risking their lives for the safety of everyone else and talking about them as though they were modeling underwear. It was disgusting.

Finally, the teachers arrived, including Professor Dumbledore, and the attacks on the Marauders halted incredibly abruptly. Dumbledore ushered them into the post office and had the staff look around for the perpetrators of the attack, but after a half an hour it was clear that they were no longer in the village and the staff escorted the students back up to the school.

"Sirius," said Decima, rushing over to him as he came out of the post office. "Are you okay?"

He nodded and kissed her forehead, taking her hand and leading her off to the castle.

"I'm fine," he mumbled. "Let's get out of here, CiCi."

"Sirius," she said, softly and carefully, "that was Bellatrix, wasn't it?"

He tensed, not looking at her, but she could feel his fingers tighten around her hand and knew she was right. Sirius was in a horrible mood, and she wasn't sure what he would do. She wasn't sure what he was capable of. She had seen him at his lowest, having his mother using him as a punching bag, and he had certainly not looked it then, but she knew he was strong, powerful, and dangerous, just like his father. Decima inwardly shuddered and hoped she wouldn't have to see the extent of his wrath.

However, Decima didn't directly experience the full extent of his wrath, but the indirect hurt worse, she decided, for the way in which Sirius decided to take out his emotions cut her to her very core. Decima saw Sirius Black (she knew it was him) shagging a Gryffindor fourth year that afternoon and her heart shattered into a million little pieces. When she talked to Remus, he didn't even bother trying to deny it. Sirius had cheated on her.

There had to be some way for her to get back at him, she thought as she sat on the floor of the common room, reduced to staring at a rug while the Marauders did their Transfiguration homework by the fire. There had to be a way to make him hurt as much as he had just hurt her. There had to be something she could do, someone she could shag… Someone lonely and desperate enough to agree to shag a taken woman. Someone who Sirius would be furious about her shagging.

Ah, yes, she thought, looking up at the Marauders. He'd do nicely.

The 'he' in question was James, who was sitting in an armchair, scowling at a textbook that was resting on the arm of a chair. She put on her best smile and glided over to the fire, winking at Gwen, who had taken to shooting her with worried looks at every possible moment since Sirius's betrayal that afternoon, obviously knowing that Decima would do something stupid. And she did. She slid onto James's lap as though it were the most natural thing in the world and he was so shocked that he didn't even push her off.

"Good evening, boys, and GiGi," she said, her eyes not leaving James's the whole time.

"Hey, CiCi," said Gwen nervously. "How are you feeling?"

Decima almost smirked, but she didn't. She wanted to be seductive, and James's eyes stayed glued to hers in rapturous shock as she adjusted her seating, making sure to grind her backside right into his groin. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated. This was going to be way too easy.

James wasn't a virgin, she knew, but he had been a good boy for the whole year, trying very, very hard to get Lily's attention in the best way possible and he hadn't slept with anyone. Decima was sure there was a lot of pent up frustration that his hand just couldn't cure, and she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Want something, Potter?" flicking her tongue casually against the shell of his ear as she spoke. He very nearly whimpered.

Remus and Gwen were looking on worriedly. Decima knew she was being stupid. She knew she would regret this in the morning, but right now, she didn't care. Sirius would pay, and James was such an easy target.

"Follow me," she whispered, trailing her tongue along his ear, which caused him to actually whimper, and he followed her without a second thought as she took her hand and led him upstairs to his bed. Suddenly, all her post-trauma trepidation was gone and replaced with her drive for revenge.

It was not good sex.

There wasn't anything wrong with James, exactly. She was sure that under more normal circumstances (relatively speaking, of course, because under normal circumstances, she never would have shagged James), it would have been perfectly satisfactory. But Decima found it less than wonderful for several reasons. The first of which was the fact that James was so sexually frustrated that he was hard in about a half a second and came about five minutes later. Sure, they had a brief second round that lasted a little longer, but still, it was like shagging a thirteen-year-old.

The second reason, of course, was Sirius. Not only was she mentally comparing James in every way to Sirius, and nobody could match up to that benchmark, but she also was thinking of Sirius's betrayal and possible reactions to her and James's betrayal the entire time. It's hard to get off on guilt like that. But she was sure it would be worth it.

After the second round, they laid there, staring at the ceiling, naked on James's bed, thinking over what they had just done.

"Shit," said James.

"Yup," said Decima.

"I didn't just do that," said James, panicked.

"No, you really just did," she said.

"No, no, no, I can't have. Sirius'll kill me. I'll kill me. What will Lily think?"

Decima sighed and sat up, looking down at the boy she had just shagged.

"Look, James, Sirius won't kill you. It was my fault. I took advantage of you completely and if he wants to blame anyone, it'll have to be me. And Lily won't think any less of you because I don't think she can think any less of you than she already does."

James groaned.

"Thanks for the completely lame pep talk. So what are we going to do when Sirius finds out? Shouldn't we have a plan or something?"

But it was too late for that, because Sirius was already bursting into the room, clearly having just been informed of their treachery by Remus and Gwen, and he looked ready to kill. He was furious. Decima couldn't help but notice how much he looked like his father in that moment. She flinched.

"JAMES!" he roared. "What the hell?"

"Okay," said James, freaking out, "I can explain." They stared at him. "Okay, I can't explain," he broke down, looking as though he wanted to jump out of the window with shame.

"James, get dressed and get out, I'll explain," said Decima. "It's not your fault anyway."

James gave her a grateful look and began pulling his clothes back on with incredible speed, rushing out of the room as soon as his pants were on and pulling his shirt on as he went. When they heard him fall down the stairs, Sirius turned to Decima.

"What the hell just happened?"

She frowned at him, giving him a look that ought to have killed him, yet somehow didn't. She pulled on her clothes as she spoke and then got up and crossed the room to face him.

"What happened is you cheated on me. Don't try to lie about it, Sirius, Remus all but confirmed it when he didn't answer my questions, and I walked in on it. So I got back at you as best as I could, and you know, I don't even feel bad because you deserved it. You're just like your goddamn father."

That did it. Suddenly, Decima was on the floor.

Decima hadn't fully realized that his fist had hit her jaw until she felt the sting of the contact. Sirius's angry eyes became wide with shock as he opened his hand and eyed the red mark on her face.

"Oh my god," he whispered. "What did I just do?"

She couldn't meet his eyes, so her gaze fell to his knees and began to vainly attempt to fight the tears forming in her eyes. But as she was avoiding her own tears, a strange sound wafted down to her. Sirius was crying. He collapsed on the floor next to her.

"I'm so sorry, Decima," he whispered croakily. "I don't' even know what just happened. What made me so angry?"

"W-we were fighting," Decima sniffed. "I c-compared you to your father. I shouldn't have. I'm s-sorry."

"Don't apologize," Sirius said tiredly. "This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault. You were right. What kind of man hits the girl he just cheated on?" He gave a humorless laugh. "My father's that kind of man. I guess I am too. I don't' know how you can stay in the same room with me."

"Please, Sirius," she whispered, all anger at him suddenly vanished, "I know what you're going to say, and I'm begging you not to leave me. You don't really want to."

"God, Decima, is your sense of self-worth really that low? I'm turning into the very person that ruined you!"

"But this is all we know, isn't it?" she sighed. "You're behaving how you were raised and I'm behaving the way I was raised. But you know, we're different. We're already better than our parents because you feel sorry and I'm forgiving you not because I have to, but because I love you, and because I know it was a reflex you didn't mean. Now that I know what sets you off, we can avoid this in the future. But please don't blame yourself and give up, because I know you love me and I think we can change together."

Sirius gave a bitter sort of laugh.

"You're really something else. What makes you think we're so capable of change?"

"Because," whispered Decima, "after everything that's happened, after everything we've been through, I'm not ready to give up on us because of a few relatively negligible mistakes. Maybe it's because I'm crazy, or maybe it's because you're all I've got left, but I love you and I don't want to let you push me away."

They stared at each other for a moment as though measuring each other with their eyes. Then, suddenly, Sirius gently and sweetly pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss.

"But if you sleep with James again," he growled, "I'll kill you both."

"I'd expect nothing less," she laughed.

He frowned for a moment. Then he moved the hair out of her eyes and kissed her nose.

"I know there's no excuses for me cheating on you," he whispered, "but can I at least explain? It won't make it better, but I think we're already even on that count, anyway."

Decima sighed and nodded.

"If I ever even think about sleeping with James again, take me to the hospital wing because I've obviously gone outside my right mind."

Sirius chuckled and lifted her carefully off the floor, depositing her gently onto his bed.

"That bad, eh?"

"You have no idea," she moaned.

"No, you're right, I don't," he whispered, crawling into the bed next to her and wrapping his arms around her. "James and I have never shagged. I'm guessing that's an experience I ought to avoid?"

It took her a moment to process these words, but then Decima smacked his chest hard and he laughed.

"Sirius Black, if you so much as think of shagging James, I'll kill you both. That's disgusting!"

"I'll take that as a yes, then, love. Don't worry, I won't ask for details. I don't want to know." His expression darkened. "But as to my cheating on you, I know it's completely inexcusable, but I needed something to take out all my aggression and stress on, and I usually would use sex. The problem was, love, I didn't want to push you after having sent you to the hospital wing too many times over this. I didn't think it was time. So I thought if I just did it with someone else and hid it from you, we'd both be at least partially happy." He shook his head and avoided her eyes. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Exceptionally," Decima agreed, nuzzling her chin into his chest. "But I've already forgiven you a hundred times over, and there's no more to talk about."

"Wait," said Sirius, sitting up with a gleam in his eye that wasn't unfamiliar, but certainly felt more than slightly out of place. Hello, Sirius Black's lust gleam. Haven't seen you in a while, how've you been? How was that other woman? Even in her head, it sounded ridiculous.

"What?"

"Does this mean you're okay now?"

"What does that even mean, Sirius?"

"You just slept with James. Does this mean you're okay?"

He was right. She had just had sexual intimate contact without having a bizarre flashback or feelings of extreme fear. She wasn't in the hospital wing. Hell, there was even a round two. However, there had also been rage, fury, and revenge running through her veins, coursing through her body, seeping out her pores. Maybe that negated all the other effects?

"I don't know."

Is there a polite way to say, "When I was shagging your best friend I was thinking of how much I wanted to slit your throat"? Decima thought not, so she left it alone.

"Well," said Sirius, looking down at his sheets and then sheepishly up into her eyes. She couldn't help herself. That eager, almost innocent look was just too damn adorable.

"You want to try, don't you?"

He nodded, embarrassed.

"I've missed you, love," he whispered. "If you want to stop, say so and we will, I promise, no matter how far we get. I'll deal with it. I just want to try. I want to get all the James funk off you," he said with his nose crinkled, "because right now I can smell him on you and it's kind of weirding me out."

There was no way not to laugh at that, so Decima gave in and laughed.

"It's not funny! Now I know the kind of trauma we inflicted on him when he though we were shagging in his bed! Smells can do strange things to a person, you know!"

"I don't think it was smells," said Decima, "more the idea of knowing what had happened."

"Either way," said Sirius with a grin that was a far more familiar sight on his face than his previous sheepish expression, "I want you, if you'll let me have you."

"Haven't had too much sex today?" she joked.

"Decima, love, there is no such thing as too much sex, as you well know," he said, kissing her neck affectionately.

"Well, then," she said with a fake reluctant sigh. "I suppose we'll just have to try it.

"Best thing I've heard all day," he said with a grin, closing the curtains around them, lust burning brightly in his eyes.