Sorry everyone, I noticed a mistake and went to change it, and accidentally deleted the chapter instead of updating it! I hope to have the next chapter out very soon though

A cloud of mist obscured Marlene's vision. She ran through the crystallised grass, and as she released another breath, the cloud floated out in front of her yet again. Breathing through the build-up of a stitch in her side she waved to the lone tentacle rising out of the black lake in greeting. Letting the cool autumn morning air wash over her as she took her last lap around the grounds she took up a sprint, letting her frustration from the night before fuel her. As she passed the beech tree signifying her run would soon be over, she sucked in a deep breath before releasing it all at once in utter exasperation as a lone figure with frustratingly dark brown messy hair came running down the hill and started running along-side her.

"What are you here for Black?" Marlene spat out

"Well.." Sirius smirked "I can see why you weren't put in Ravenclaw sweetheart. I am obviously not here to study in these running clothes now am I?"

"You know what I mean Black. Of all the time and place you coincidently start running beside me"

"Must be fate" Sirius said nonchalantly

"Whatever" Marlene muttered and picked up her pace hoping to leave him behind

Sirius however merely smirked and sped up until he was level with her again

"You really are looking for a cursing Black" Marlene glared over at him

"Well…" Sirius exclaimed as if in deep thought "I cannot think of anything I have done to deserve such a thing" he furrowed his eyebrows at her, the small glint in his eye mocking. "This morning I have gotten out of bed, undressed, put on some running gear to have a peaceful run down by the refreshing scene of the black lake and had the pleasure of seeing you… only to be interrogated upon arrival"

Marlene scoffed with a mock bow, "oh Sirius, may I offer my sincerest apologies for my appalling manners before. Let me make up for it, and let you continue your run in peace."

With that remark she stopped to a halt and walked back up to the path they had passed moments before and trekked back up to the entrance. Only looking back she told herself to check that he was not following her, she saw his back stock still, staring at the lake with his right hand rustling his hair, his posture tense. Looking up to the sky he appeared to take a deep breath before slowly jogging along the grass and disappeared around a corner behind the castle.

…

Marlene dragged herself up the grand staircase trying to ignore the fact Sirius was trying to make up for trying to control her last night. "Like I would forgive him that easily. Didn't even apologise" Marlene muttered as she waited for the next staircase to swing around to her. Too preoccupied with her own thoughts she neglected to notice another pair of feet coming up from behind her. "Aw, have you and little boy Black had another argument?"

Marlene spun round. Emma Vanity – chaser for the Slytherin quidditch team – stood on the step below her, sneering.

"What's it to you Vanity?"

"Nothing at all I assure you, don't make me laugh. You are very welcome to bloodtraitors."

Marlene clenched her jaw

"Anyway, that's not why I'm here. I have a message from Lucinda"

"Oh yeah?" she crossed her arms "and what has the snake queen sent her rat here to say?"

Vanity scowled, before stepping right up to Marlene's face, their noses touching "this."

Without a pause she grabbed Marlene by the arms and shoved her backwards off the staircase. Marlene fell through open air before landing with a crunch. Blood filled her mouth and she realised upon landing she had bitten her tongue. Whimpering she rolled onto her back cutting off a scream as electric pain shot up her leg and back. Looking up through the staircases there was no sight of Vanity; no one to help her. Marlene scoffed and immediately regretted it as a fresh round pain took her breath away from her – it wasn't like Vanity would be one to help her anyway – being that she was the one who had pushed her off the bloody staircase.

"McKinnon?"

I dragged by eyes to the side to see Regulus Black stalking towards me. I groaned, just what I needed – another Black.

"Alright?" I forced out

"You look like crap" he crouched over me. I immediately categorised their difference in looks. Opposed to Sirius' infuriating shoulder length locks, Regulus had his coal black hair in a shorter cut on top of his head which gave me the opportunity to see his expression as he leant over me "what happened?"

"Oh, just the usual" I grit my teeth in a smile "my enemies want me dead"

"Enemies?" A frown formed across his forehead

"Quidditch enemies." I state and his expression relaxes, which in turn makes my eyebrows rise

"You have many real enemies?" I ask, and he scoffs as if the question was stupid, but his eyes glint.

"Would you like me to call a house elf to fetch Madame Pomfrey?"

"Firstly" I groan "house elves should not be forced to do your bidding – a decent witch or wizard would offer to go and find Madame Pomfrey themselves" Regulus raises his eyebrow "secondly" I sigh "why are you trying to help me?"

Regulus quirks an eyebrow and smiles, "oh purely for selfish reasons. You see, you look quite bad and if I am caught leaving you without finding help, I would be severely reprimanded"

Marlene grins, despite the quickly increasing throbbing in her right knee "I doubt anyone would know"

"Whatever. I know what it feels like to be hurt and alone, so accept my help before I change my mind"

"Okay" I whisper

"Can you stand up?" he asks reaching behind my shoulders to help me sit

I scream as pain ricochets throughout my body and a shout from behind startles Regulus into dropping my back, and my head hits the ground

"What the hell are you doing to her?" I hear Sirius shout furiously as he sprints up the steps sweating from his run

Regulus smirks "I wasn't doing anything to her, brother"

Sirius continues forward and grabs Regulus by the collar and shoves him against the banister.

"You better start talking right now…" he spits out

Regulus' face turns stony cold "no. You left our house remember? I don't have to tell you anything"

Sirius looks like he's about to say something else before he notices me still lying on the ground and crouches down beside me, his expression now panicked and grabs my hand "let's get you up to the hospital wing"

My gaze flickers to Regulus who is staring daggers at Sirius' back. "No Black. I think I'll enlist your brothers help, he was doing quite well before you arrived"

Regulus starts "what makes you think I want to help…"

I cut him off "because you will. I'm still annoyed at your brother so I would greatly appreciate it if you would help me to Madame Pomphrey's"

Sirius glares at me and I raise an eyebrow "fine" he says and backs away with his hands up

A stretcher appears beside me as Regulus mutters "Wingardium Leviosa" and I feel myself lift off the ground, onto the canvas, and start up the stairs towards the hospital wing

It isn't until we reach the doors and Regulus knocks for the nurse that I realise Sirius never left us. He leans down to my ear "we'll talk later"

I pointedly avoid his gaze and he breaths heavily through his nose before walking away from us just as the door swings open

"Oh heavens girl! What happened to you?" I finally let my eyes drift close as Madame Pomfrey bids Regulus to leave and levitates me onto a bed.

…

Victoire released a huge breath as she rolled onto her back for what felt like the hundredth time. Ever since yesterday's note from Mulciber, she felt as if someone had tied a rope around her waist and thrown her off a cliff to stay suspended in mid-air. She could have only had a few minutes sleep that night, the rest of the time spent tossing and turning all whilst trying not to wake any of the other girls. Finally deciding she couldn't remain in bed any longer she silently slipped her feet onto the carpet and wrapped the knitted blanket from her bed around her shoulders. Upon reaching the last step of the dormitory staircase Victoire slowed. Teddy sat in an armchair next to the dim glow of the dying embers left in the fireplace, head in his hands. Without speaking she continued her path towards the sofa next to him and for a few minutes they sat in silence.

Teddy finally lifted his head slightly and Victoire glanced at the dark circles beneath his eyes before looking back towards the window again. With her gaze fixed upon the spider web outside blowing gently in the wind she spoke softly

"I suppose we should try and avoid Hagrid for the time that we are here"

Teddy's eyes widened "I'd completely forgotten he works here in this timeline"

"We've interfered in too many timelines as it is, no matter how nice it might be to see a familiar face"

Teddy dipped his head in agreement, his lips pursed and head stubbornly aimed anywhere but towards her

"Look" Victoire sighed tiredly "about Mulciber…"

That made Teddy's head snap up sharply, fire in his eyes "yes, about Mulciber" he laughed sardonically, and stood up moving closer to the sofa his arms a tight band across his chest "Victoire what on earth were you thinking? No, wait you can't have been thinking because the Victoire I know would show a lot more common sense than going anywhere near a deatheater"

"Excuse me?" Victoire stood up her hands on her hips "I showed no common sense? Last I checked the boy in front of me is the last person to understand what constitutes any kind of sense. Remember who you're talking to – I know about all your escapades at Hogwarts, most notably the time you turned yourself into Madame Pince to sneak into the restricted section only to be caught by Professor McGonagall"

"You forget she never realised it was me" Teddy smirked leaning forward slightly

"Oh yes, you escaped completely unscathed didn't you?" Victoire replied her eyes holding faux ignorance

Teddy's eyes narrowed "who told you?" his tone significantly lower

"None of your business, all you need to worry about is how you are going to remove the memory of McGonagall discussing a Wicked Witch's Romance novel with you for half an hour" mirth melted the wrinkles away that had slowly been building on her forehead

Teddy growled jokingly before a frown etched its way onto his face once again. "Don't try to distract me. I'm still annoyed with you."

"Sorry"

"Why did you stand up to him? You know what he is capable of. For all we know he could be the person behind the explosion that killed Fred!"

Victoire froze and the colour from her face leaked away. Without a word she stepped away from Teddy and walked to the window her gaze once again brought back to the web built up in the corner outside, although a spider was now also struggling in the wind.

"Tori" Teddy called gently, regret laced his voice

"Don't" she spun round, her throat burned. "I thought I was your best friend, and not even a close acquaintance would say something that horrible"

Despite the sorrowful look on his face Teddy still shook his head. "No, I say that because I am your best friend. You need to understand the threat that Mulciber poses"

Victoire charged up to him till their toes were touching, her head tilted upwards to see his face "I fu…" Victoire looked away releasing a breath of air furiously "I am very well aware of the threat that surrounds Mulciber and any of the deatheaters at Hogwarts. You do not get to lecture me because I chose to try and protect Mary in spite of that fact"

Teddy stared at Victoire's reddened face, his tongue biting his cheek

"What's more, didn't it cross your mind that we might be the very people capable of standing up to him?"

Teddy shook his head, his forehead wrinkling in confusion

"We know all his tricks. All the spells and defence work we learnt growing up was all in response to the war. The adults in our life knew everything about fighting the death eaters after the battle 1998 and thus we know the how to deflect and defeat the spells people like Mulciber are only just now coming up with"

"How do you know the defence work we did is related to any of the death eaters here currently?"

Victoire swallowed thickly, her eyes averted "Mulciber might have used the curse with the ropes on me in charms"

"What?" Teddy's jaw was clenched when he caught my chin and made me look towards him "and what happened after he cast it?"

I sucked on my back tooth before admitting "I removed the ropes immediately and he is now suspicious as he and one other are the only people to know the spell in this timeline"

Teddy let go of my chin and ran his hands through his hair "for Merlin's sake Tori"

Heat flamed my face "what was I supposed to do, let him keep me tied up?"

"You should never have even let yourself be in that situation"

"Don't raise your voice at me" I breath, my own voice rising

"You're making it damn hard to keep level headed when you make yourself a shiny new toy to Mulciber – how on earth are you going to stay out of his interest now?"

"You know, I am getting really tired of your 'I know what's best act'. Of course in hind sight I should have excused myself before the class even started when I knew I was sitting next to him. But I didn't and that's that"

Teddy stared at the staircase "look at me dammit!" I shove his shoulder and he hardly even rolls onto his heels, but his head turns towards me just as I'm about to shove him again and he catches my wrist in one hand. My breath hitches, and before I know what I'm doing I raise my other hand, which he quickly captures in his left. I try to tug my wrists away but his grip is firm. My gaze raises to meet his like a magnetic pull and the crease between his eyes gives me something to focus on to avoid his intense stare. His face comes gradually closer and I find myself becoming more and more cross eyed until finally I have no choice but to let our eyes meet. Our heads freeze a hands-width away from each other and uncertainty fills my stomach. Luckily Sirius chose that moment to burst through the common room door causing Teddy and I to jump apart and I have my hands to myself again, my heart and stomach calm down now we are no longer touching.

Sirius huffed, his expression stormy, before charging on towards the dormitory steps appearing to barely have even noticed our presence.

I walk past Teddy, my shoulder catching his and he lunges to take my hand, spinning me back around

"Don't" I plead through my teeth

Teddy's eyes implore me to stay, but I pull my hand and he lets me slip from his grasp. Releasing a breath quietly, I turn around and head back up the staircase.