THE VEIL

Chapter 6

1st April 1975 – Flour and Paint

"You all set at your end?" Sirius looked into a small hand mirror. The reflection however wasn't his. Looking at Sirius through the mirror grinning from ear to ear, Scruffy black hair, sticking up in places with dark blue eyes twinkling mischievously; James Potter gave Sirius the thumbs up.
"All set. The bell is about to ring so we better scatter before we – Peter not that way!"
James face looked away from the mirror then back again, "Well Peter is now officially proof the sticking charms are working. I'll meet you and Remy at the great hall for dinner"

Sirius and Remus chuckled as James turned the mirror to show another boy with mouse brown hair, trying without success to pull his feet off the ground turning around shouting at James to help free him.
"What I wouldn't give to see Peter when phase two begins" chortled Remus as Sirius pocketed the hand mirror, he snorted in laughter imagining the site. Remus began moving down the corridor, paused after a few steps away realising that Sirius wasn't following. Remus turned to see what had stopped his friend.

A whisper of a wind had ghosted past Sirius's cheek, which made him tingle with anticipation, he turned and following the teasing whisper as it swirled.
"Sirius! What are you doing?" Remus cried as he watched as his friend walked straight onto the sticking charm as he tried to rush towards one of the tapestries opposite, which was billowing seemingly on its own accord. Remus looked at the tapestry as it had started blowing and what appeared to be a seventh year student stumbled out, unable to slow down her feet stopped and she topped over landing on her hands and knees also onto the charmed surface.

Hermione landed hard in the corridor, she was back in Hogwarts. The wind had seemingly tossed her out of the veil with a momentum she couldn't stop. Her hands and knees stung from the impact onto the stone floor, she hissed and tried to pull her hands up but they wouldn't budge.
"What the?"
Hermione struggled again, stopping when she heard a chuckle. Looking up, her eyes found a familiar pair of grey eyes watching her struggles. Sirius. She struggled again to pull up her hands but they would not budge. Hermione looked back at Sirius who appeared to be caught in the same trap, he had his arms crossed casually awaiting patiently. Hermione groaned "Don't tell me, Sticking charm on the whole corridor." Sirius grinned, which faded slightly as Hermione's eyes narrowed, and her back arched as she tried to pull free again.

"Sirius, get me out of this, now!" She growled. Sirius shook his head, giving her a dazzling smile.
"Sorry Princess. We're stuck. If I remove you then it will ruin the whole operation. Don't worry, it's only going to stay in place at least for the next five minutes." He assured her as he checked his watch.
"Wait, you got yourself stuck in your own prank?" she asked him in disbelief.
Sirius shrugged putting his hands into his pockets, "I decided I couldn't leave you. And besides, it gives me a chance to see how well this goes off."
"Sirius," Hermione pleaded, wriggling again against the sticking charm "Let me out of this. I can't get caught by a teacher!"
Hermione tried to pull her hands again from the floor, hissed again in pain.

Remus, also watching the pair, from a charm free part of the corridor, was suddenly struck how much like a spitting cat she was with hackles raised. He looked down the corridor to his escape and sighed; moving towards Sirius to help his friend, muttering "I am really going to regret this"
Remus breathed in and took a step to stand next to his friend onto the charmed floor. Sirius glanced at him raising an eyebrow. Remus shrugged "She looks like she's gonna kill you as soon as the spell lets you go."
He observed as he watched Hermione's back arch again hissing, and growling. Remus could almost picture a tail whipping about behind her. Definitely a cat, he thought amusedly.

"SIRIUS BLACK YOU UNDO THIS RIGHT NOW!" She screamed. Both boys winced. A door down the hall opened and to Hermione's utter shock a younger Minerva McGonagall stepped into the hall to see what the commotion was about. She made it 10 steps down the corridor before her own feet found the sticking charm, nearly falling at the sudden stop of her feet. She looked between the three students, her eyes narrowing at the two boys.

"Mr Black. Mr Lupin. Would you care to explain yourselves?" She asked. Hermione's head whipped back around to stare at the sandy blonde haired boy standing next to Sirius. Remus winked at her as Sirius responded to their Head of Gryffindor.
"Well Professor, it would appear that someone has put a sticking charm onto the corridor, we were merely trying to get to class when we discovered ourselves to be stuck."
Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared, "Is that so? And you do not know who placed a sticking charm on the ground?"
Sirius smiled devilishly at the professor. However he didn't have further opportunity to answer as the bell rang and students immediately began filling the hall, walking right into the sticking charm on the floor and apparently on the wall as well. Hermione mortified for being stuck in such a situation growled, "You better run extremely fast Black. When I get out of here I-"

Her threat was cut off as phase two of their prank came into effect. On the ceiling were floating hundreds and hundreds of water bombs coloured red, green, yellow and blue. The water bombs whizzed around the students the coloured balloons hitting students of each house. Red for Griffindor, Green for Slytherin, Yellow for Hufflepuff and blue for Ravenclaw. The balloons exploded on impact covering the victims in coloured paint. As soon as the first balloons had hit the sticking charm faded and the corridors were filled with students running every direction to try and avoid getting hit.

As soon as the sticking charm unstuck, Sirius dashed forward to help Hermione up grabbing her hand. Giving her a look of apology pulled her away from where Professor McGonagall still stood, wand out trying blocking the balloons that threatened to hit her. Sirius and Hermione weaved through the squealing students, towards a passage Remus was waiting at, his wand out deflecting balloons, directing them towards students running past. Hermione had been hit on the back by one already when she was getting to her feet. Sirius's Head was coated in blue as a Ravenclaw was hit as he dashed past them. Hermione and Sirius ducked into the passage slipping past Remus, who followed quickly behind moving away from the mess. They came out into another corridor, which appeared to have also had a similar episode as the one they had come from, except this was full of dense coloured clouds of flour dust hanging in the air.

Hermione had to admire their genius and the effort involved. Fred and George would have been impressed she thought, a pang of sorrow shooting through her, causing her to stumble. Sirius still holding her hand, kept her from falling again as he pulled her into an empty classroom, checking it was clear of students before Remus shut the door and locking it to prevent anyone randomly coming in. All three of them were covered in red paint and splatters of other colours that had hit nearby students, as well as a coating of coloured flour that had stuck to the wet paint. Remus started sniggering, "You should have seen Professor McGonagall's face as she copped a balloon to the back of her head."
Sirius chortled "Having Minnie caught in the charm was the pièce de résistance."

Hermione turned away grumbling also not please she had fallen straight into it like a fly in a trap. Pulling out her wand began reciting cleaning spells on herself to remove the muck from her skin clothes and hair, listening as the two congratulated themselves for a prank well played. Sirius updated James through the hand mirror. Satisfied that she was now clean again, she cleaned the bag she carried and making sure the contents were clean, dropping it onto a desk and leaned back against it with her arms watching the two young teens.

She cleared her throat and the boys head shot up at her, realising that she was still in the room. Sirius grinned sheepishly, pocketing the mirror. Hermione merely raised an eye brow at them. The boys glanced at each other briefly before Remus took a breath and stepped forward holding out his hand, "Remus Lupin, at your service."
Hermione gave a small smile at the sandy blonde haired boy with light brown eyes, faint scars across his face, she took his hand.
"Hermione." She replied, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Remus."
Remus grinned at her bringing her hand to his lips, "The pleasure is mine"

Behind them Sirius snorted, "He wishes," as he began feeling his hair pulling his hand away in horror of the amount of paint in his hair.
"No! My beautiful hair!" He cried.
"Is he always this dramatic?" Hermione asked Remus as he pulled out his own wand out began idly cleaning himself off as Hermione had done.
Remus snorted, "No, normally he is much worse."

Shaking her head slightly she casually flicked her wand and shot him with a burst of water drenching him, but also washing the paint and flour from him. Yelling at the shock of cold water he staggered back to try and escape the freezing blast of water. Remus burst out laughing again at the bedraggled site of his friend. Sirius however stood wand now out, growled. He didn't have a chance to retaliate as Hermione flicked her wand again at him, this time a gust of warm air flowed out like a hairdryer drying him off. His hair had a windblown appearance. Remus was clutching his stomach gasping for air. He had never seen a witch actually best him, until now. His humour of it faded quickly as his friend had his mirror back out trying without luck to smooth his hair, becoming more and more distressed when his hair refused to cooperate.

"I think you should undo what you did or Sirius might break" Remus spoke quietly to Hermione. Hermione was also watching him with growing concern at how quickly his emotions changed, pointed her wand and flicked it again, smoothing his hair and straightened his clothes, creases disappearing. The tension that was building in Sirius left as he glanced at himself in the mirror checking for loose hairs then down his clothes for creases. Sighing he was back to his well-groomed self.

Hermione looked questioningly at Remus who shook his head once at her, putting his hands in his pockets and stepping away towards the door. She frowned again. The moods of Sirius, changed quickly. One minute enjoying a well-played prank, the next minute rushing into a state of panic at his appearance before swiftly fading to a calm and charismatic teen. Hermione looked away, blinking back tears, her heart squeezing her at the pain that still lurked behind his mask.

"I reckon it's safe to go to dinner. Everything seems to have disappeared now." Remus announced, peeking out of the door.
Sirius stepped forward and offered her his arm. "Milady,"
Hermione, grabbed her bag and accepted his hand, blinking away the tears that threatened. Remus opened the door wider for the pair, bowing at them both.
"Such gentlemen," she mused, a small smile lighting across her face.

The three of them stepped out of the corridor and the coloured clouds had indeed disappeared. They made their way to the great hall, occasionally spotting a student still coated with paint, or dust, and in some cases what she could only guess as slime. Sirius launched into a detailed outline of what their prank involved as they walked. Hermione was definitely impressed with the work and dedication the boys put in it.

The great hall wasn't very full, as many students had to go and clean themselves off before having dinner. Some students, ignored the choice to wash and were eating at the tables, brightly coloured. They joined the Griffindor table, sitting opposite two other boys. Sirius made introductions, "Hermione, this is Peter and James." He gestured to the mouse brown haired boy and another boy that Hermione recognised instantly she had gasped, staring at him. "Gentlemen, this is Hermione."
James's cheeks reddened slightly under the direct scrutiny, and ran a hand through his hair, "Nice to meet you" he mumbled.

The boy next to him sprayed his pumpkin juice, and began choking on it. Hermione wrenched her eyes away from James and turned to the other boy. Peter was quite a lot shorter than his other three friends, who were in turn a good head taller than Hermione herself. He also was covered head to toe in a combination of paint and flour. James started to pat his friends back to help him recover grimacing a little as paint stuck to his hand.
"This- this is your Princess H?" Peter gasped, him now staring at Hermione. James head whipped back around to look her over again, nodding as if coming to a conclusion he mused, "His sketches are surprisingly accurate – Ow!"
Sirius had kicked James under the table. Hermione raised a brow, turning to look questioningly at Sirius. Sirius shrugged indifferently at the scrutiny, "I get bored and I draw."

Remus who was filling his plate with steak added, "He draws every chance he can, and his muse is always the same." Remus looked pointedly at Hermione as he cut into his steak taking a bite, amusement showing in his eyes as Hermione's cheeks tinged pink. Hermione choosing not to respond began helping herself to the shepherds pie, taking a bite of food, trying without success to keep her eyes lowered as she kept frequently cast glances towards James, baffled at how identical he was to his son at the same age. Except for the eyes. James had deep blue eyes. James seemed to have caught her enough times looking his way that he sighed and stood on his chair turning around around slowly for the inspection. "Am I that much of a specimen?" He asked aloud.

Laughter a few places down turned their attention. "As if Potter! There are better specimens floating in jars in Slughorn's classroom than you!" retorted a girl with eerily familiar green eyes and long straight red hair.
"Sure Evans, you haven't been able to take your eyes off my body since first day." People around them sniggered and laughed. The two continued to bicker until a Professor she did not recognise came over berating James for standing in such a precarious position.

Ignoring the display, Sirius nudged Hermione and whispered "Still wanna be my girlfriend?"
Hermione wasn't the only one that choked on her food. Remus was struggling for air, with a piece of steak now stuck in his throat. Sirius hit is friend's back and the meat dislodged falling out of his mouth onto his plate, Remus gasping in a lung full of air. Sirius turned back to Hermione for her answer. She looked him up and down with a quizzical brow.

"Still too young." She said primly and took a sip of pumpkin juice avoiding looking at the boys who were staring at her open mouthed, Peter with a spoonful half way to his mouth, the contents dripping into his lap. James recovered first "Ah Sirius, seems like we're both doomed to not get their girl." He sighed dramatically, looking back down the table towards the red head who was talking animatedly with the girl next to her. The tension in her shoulders how much she was striving to ignore James and his friends.

"Gentlemen, I believe we should be going now." Peter putting his fork down nodding towards the head table as Professor McGonagall walked through a door behind the head table and moved to speak to the headmaster.
"Right you are Petey," Sirius stood and offered his hand to Hermione.
"I think we might split up, to avoid whole group capture." Nodding at his friends.
"Good evening good sirs, we will join you in the common room shortly." His friends stood and moved to sit at alternate house tables, talking to others, waiting for Sirius to escape first.

He led Hermione out of the great hall, however instead of heading to the stairs; he walked her out the front doors and out into the grounds. They walked towards the lake in comfortable silence. The moon, at waning gibbous, cast just enough light to show the path outline.
"I usually come out to walk in the evenings, it helps me think" Sirius spoke to the darkness, breaking the silence. They stopped at the bank of the lake, the moon's half-light reflecting on the inky black surface.

Sirius stared into the darkness, not quite able to turn to look at Hermione as he asked quietly, "I know you think I'm not old enough to date you, but, can you tell me how you keep falling into my life?"
Hermione looked down at her hands then into the blackness. Memories like a movie reel flashed across her vision. She knew he would ask, he had already once before. He also was incredibly intelligent and perceptive. As she took a breath to speak Dumbledore's words came back to her 'Mysterious thing time. Powerful, and when meddled with, dangerous.'

Sirius turned to gaze at her at her intake of breath. Her features highlighted in the moonlight. Her brow was furrowed as she weighed her words before speaking them into the night. Her hair fell down her shoulders in a cascade of chaotic curls. Tentatively he took her hand clasping his fingers around her, drawing her gaze onto him for a moment before looking down.
"It is almost impossible to tell you at all. The risk is too great." She said sadly, "All I can tell you is that in saving someone's life, I ended up falling into a veil." She took a deep breath as the emotions within her threatened to overwhelm her.
"I still do not quite understand how I have ended up here, except that maybe I was never meant to have saved them." A tear leaked from her eye. Saying it aloud, she felt the weight of the truth.

The wind twisting around them carried her words to whisper about them. Sirius wiped her cheek.
"Do you regret it? Saving their life?" He asked her hand still on her cheek. Hermione looked into his eyes, like molten silver, she felt like they penetrated to her soul.
"No" she whispered. "Never." The wind swirling around them as the whispering threaded through them, gently pulling at their hair. The moon disappeared behind a cloud darkening the ground to almost pitch blackness as the wind whipped around them faster.

"Was it me that you saved?" He asked the darkness. The moon reappeared casting light across the lake and upon a single soul standing on the lake. His question unanswered as the whispering wind faded across the lake. Sirius smiled bitterly.
"Alas my fairy princess, you are a such a mystery."
He turned and trudged back up to the castle. His head and heart in turmoil.