Cecil Under Siege
Sirius was acting strange. Very, very strange. It was now February and I still saw little of him, but that unexplainable strangeness was very obvious nonetheless. He would ask strange questions like whether I still trusted him, or if I was afraid I was more like my family than I thought. He asked seemingly casually whether I thought Lily and James had done the right thing getting married so young, or if I would have accepted James's proposal.
"Of course not," I scoffed.
Sirius looked crestfallen.
"Why on earth would I accept James as a husband?" I chuckled, shaking my head at my ridiculous boyfriend.
He furrowed his brow in irritation. "I meant in Lily's stead."
"Oh, well… They love each other, don't they? I see no reason why she shouldn't have accepted it." I studied Sirius's face suspiciously. "Why? What's going on?"
"Nothing," he said quickly.
"Don't 'nothing' me," I said sternly. "I can see something is bothering you. Out with it."
"No! I mean – I can't say…"
"Is something wrong with Lily or James?" I folded my arms, giving him my best McGonagall-look. He actually cringed. I narrowed my eyes. "Spit it out, young man."
"That's scary," he shuddered. "Don't do that again. Nothing is wrong with James or Lily. But you're sure they've done the right thing by getting married?"
"Yes!" I cried, completely mystified by his behaviour.
"Great," he whispered. "I have to go now." He kissed me hurriedly and walked out of Headquarters.
I went to the kitchen, where Remus was sitting, reading a scroll of some sort. "That friend of yours is getting weirder every day," I stated.
To my surprise the man's face turned red. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he mumbled.
"Yes, you do," I said slowly. "You know exactly what's going on."
"No, I don't," Remus squeaked.
"You're going to tell me right now what's wrong with James and Lily before I make you tell me," I threatened ominously.
"James and Lily?" He blinked. "What are you talking about?" He seemed genuinely confused.
"What in Merlin's name is going on?" I sighed.
"Look, nothing is wrong," Remus answered. "It's just… well, Sirius should tell you. And he will." He nodded encouragingly at me. "Eventually," he added under his breath.
"You boys are way too weird for me," I concluded. "I am leaving now to go to my very normal work where there are no weird people – except my bosses."
Glancing warily at Remus one more time I turned around and left.
He sighed in relief. The bastard.
I found my cousin Aoife at work. Introducing her to my acquaintances was a major success. Putting her and Lana together had been a great idea, but putting her in London in general was even better. My extravagant cousin diverted all attention from me, giving me some air to breathe.
At the moment she was seated on top of Quinn's desk, a cup of tea in her hand. She batted her eyelashes at him.
"Aoife, that's no use," I greeted her dryly. "Quinn plays for the other team."
Quinn burst out laughing. "That doesn't mean I don't enjoy beauty when I see it. Why do you think I hired you?"
I pretended to be deeply offended. "Excuse me? Are you saying you didn't hire me because of my excellent skills?"
"Of course I hired you for your skills!" Quinn exclaimed. "The skill of walking around and looking pretty, of course. You're not doing much else around here."
I glared venomously at my boss, who gave me a toothy grin in response. I did most of the paperwork, enchanted the quills so they wrote the bills, helped Cecil selecting manuscripts, and let myself be dragged along on meetings and excursions and publication parties with Quinn.
Aoife shrugged. "I know he does. Sorry, Quinn, but I'm not interested in you."
"Ditto."
"However," Aoife smiled cunningly, "about that delicious piece of wizard you call your other boss, Niamh…"
I almost dropped my purse. "Cecil?" I gasped.
"Yes?" Cecil asked, walking into the office, his nose as usual buried in parchment. He looked up, giving me an inquiring glance, before returning to the no doubt fascinating parchment.
"Hello, Cecil," Aoife purred.
My poor boss looked up again and his green eyes widened. "Er… hello… er…?"
"Aoife," my cousin said helpfully. "Niamh's cousin, remember?"
Cecil remembered nothing, except the countless languages he spoke. "Of course. Aoife," he mumbled, his eyes dropping. Not to his parchment, however, but to the rest of Aoife. "Yes, I remember."
My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline, when I realised Cecil did, in fact, remember her.
Quinn's grin widened and he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at me. "So…" he began, making Cecil jump. "Did you want to talk to me?"
"No," Cecil said vaguely. Finally he tore his eyes away from Aoife, who was smiling rather smugly. "I mean, yes. Find out if that manuscript we got from the Adlers really is a family heirloom. The manuscript's age is correct, but it uses insular script and didn't the Adlers emigrate from Germany in the nineteenth century?"
"I'll find out," Quinn promised, unfazed by Cecil's seemingly endless knowledge of details no one else remembered.
"Right," Cecil said, running a hand through his black curls. He glanced at Aoife. "I'll be downstairs if you need me." He turned around and left, his nose back in his parchment.
"Aoife," I admonished my cousin. "You're scaring him."
"I was hoping I was doing something else to him," she replied naughtily.
"My office," I ordered threateningly. Aoife slid of Quinn's desk with a chuckle and followed me.
"What are you doing?" I asked as soon as she had closed the door.
"That boss of yours is a fascinating man," she answered. "Very sexy, in a professor sort of way."
I stared at her.
"What? He is."
Sexy was not how I saw, or wanted to see, my boss. "I have to protect Cecil. He's not around women very often."
"He sees you every day."
"But I don't try to seduce him!"
"He's a grown man," Aoife insisted.
"Oh, very well," I sighed. "Do what you want. But don't come crying to me when he forgets your name or your very existence, or when your father kills you when he finds out."
"In that case, I'll just come and haunt you."
"I'll persuade him to let you live and put you in that convent!"
"Hah! Then I'll persuade Evan to ditch that cow Sophie and pursue you again!"
I gasped. "Don't you dare!"
Aoife grinned widely and waved goodbye with her fingers. "Bye, cousin. Enjoy your work."
She sashayed out of my office. I couldn't help but chuckle. Aoife had the entire pureblood society in an uproar. She flirted with anything male, married or not. It was perfect. She didn't do anything indecent – barely – but everybody talked about her instead of me. Stubbornness was a family trait and I knew that once she was intent on something, nothing would discourage her.
Poor Cecil.
Indeed, Aoife visited me a lot at work and always managed to throw Cecil off balance with a seductive smile or a glimpse of skin. Really, the man paid little attention to his parchment anymore when my cousin was around. And so it was on a Wednesday afternoon that I found them going at it in his office. I slowly closed the door again, trying to rid my mind of the image of two bodies tightly wrapped around each other.
Shuddering slightly, I walked back to my office, the papers I wanted Cecil to sign clutched under my arm. Quinn snorted with laughter when he saw my face.
"You could have warned me," I muttered.
"And deny myself the pleasure of your facial expression? I think not." Quinn chuckled. "Who would have thought good old Cecil hid such a body under those awful robes?"
"Thank you, Quinn, for ruining my attempt to exorcise the unwanted mental images," I groaned, ignoring Quinn's fit of laughter.
I don't think I have to point out that work was exceedingly awkward that day. Aoife entered my office, looking very pleased with herself.
"Cousin," I chuckled. "Do you know that cat who ate the canary? If you grew some whiskers, you'd be it."
Aoife burst out laughing. "You don't mind me cancelling our dinner tonight, do you?"
"Not at all. Just be gentle with Cecil," I answered dryly.
Immediately after she left, I sent my Patronus to Sirius saying that I was free that night. He told me to meet me at Headquarters. Hidden under a large hat and a shawl, I Apparated there after work, hurrying inside. I looked in the living room and my jaw dropped. He had transfigured it into a dining room. A small table was set, candles were lit, and… it was empty.
Wondering what Sirius was up to, I went in search of him. I found him almost immediately in the kitchen. He stood with his back to me, his sleeves rolled up, his hair dishevelled, his hands on his hips, and having an animated conversation with the hob. Leaning against the doorpost, I watched him.
"Honestly, how hard can it be?" Sirius grumbled. "I'm a bloody wizard. This is all Remus's fault, you know. He should have taught me how to cook."
He drew his wand from his back pocket, as usual. I was glad to see he still had both buttocks. It would be a shame if he lost one, I thought, leering at the tall wizard in front of me.
Aiming at the hob, Sirius mumbled a charm and managed to get it to heat itself. "Hah!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Sirius Black, chef extraordinaire!"
I bit on my hand to muffle my laughter.
After tucking his hair behind his ears, Sirius Summoned a cookbook to him. He ran his index finger down the recipe, chewing his lip. "Done… Done… Chopped it all up… Done… Shit! Where are the bloody asparagus?" Frantically he looked around and froze when he saw me standing in the doorway. "How long have you been there?" he asked, blushing beet-red.
"Oh, long enough," I laughed. "Do you need a hand?"
"Yes! Remus gave me this recipe, saying it was easy. Smug bastard."
I took the cookbook from him and stared doubtfully at the recipe. "Er…"
"This part is easy," Sirius said, pointing a long finger at the instructions that said to cook the pasta in slightly salted boiled water. "You take off your coat. I've already opened a bottle of wine."
Sirius managed to get the pasta cooking. "So, in seven minutes I have to add the asparagus to it. Now where did I put them?"
I sat myself on the kitchen table and watched him frown over the cookbook again, trying to work out how he was supposed to make the sauce. He must have figured it out, because a moment later he was stirring in a saucepan, adding ingredients every now and then. When he was finished he checked the cookbook again. "Stop staring at me and make yourself useful," he told me.
I grinned. "I like what I see."
Sirius raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at me. "Do you now?"
"Yes, but alas, you have not a minute to spare. You find that book more interesting than me."
"You're one to talk. I'm not the one gushing about some book I've read all the time." He put the cookbook aside and crossed the little distance to where I was sitting. "I haven't even given you a proper greeting, have I?"
His hands rubbed my thighs. I spread my knees to let him stand between them. Sirius took the glass of wine from me and slowly put it on the table, leaning deliberately closer to me to do so, knowing exactly what effect he had on me.
"Wretched man," I breathed. His hands trailed to my hips and pulled me closer to him.
"Hi," he said. "How are you?" Not waiting for my answer, he kissed me languidly. Sighing contently, I let him play with my lips and tongue, rousing needs in me that he would have to quench later, until a particular smell began to fill my nose.
"FUCK!" Sirius snapped, pulling away from me.
"My thoughts exactly," I grinned, but Sirius paid no attention to me anymore. He grabbed the saucepan and placed it on a cold ring on the hob.
"Don't forget the asparagus," I said helpfully. Sirius threw me a death glare.
In the end, dinner wasn't so bad. We had very little sauce to go with the – overcooked – pasta and asparagus, but the salad was great and so was the bread. Sirius even managed to charm the dishes into washing themselves and so we sat relaxed at the table.
He listened to my description of Aoife and Cecil with a far-off look in his eyes. "And then purple and green flamingos appeared out of nowhere and began to sing Christmas carols. In February, can you imagine?" I concluded.
"Hmm, very strange," Sirius agreed vaguely.
"Sirius?"
He blinked. "What?"
"You okay?"
"Yeah, fine."
"Alright…"
He fell back into his musings. I leaned against the back of my chair and picked up my glass of wine. He would come out with it eventually. And knowing Sirius, it probably wouldn't take too long. I sipped my wine and waited.
"I…er… have to tell you something," Sirius said suddenly. "Well, ask really."
"Hmm?" I replied.
"I've been thinking… I know it's sudden, and probably not the smartest thing to do, and you probably don't expect this of me at all, but it's just that any moment something could happen to either of us, and I love you, and I don't want to regret anything later, and…"
"Sirius?" I interrupted him confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Right." He stuffed his hand in his pocket and began to play with whatever he had taken from it under the table. "What I'm trying to say is…" Sirius paused and took a deep breath. "I want you to marry me."
"What?" I blinked.
"Marry. Me."
I stared at him. "You want to marry me?"
"Yes." He placed the object he'd been holding on the table. A small velvet box, almost too small for his hands.
"But…" I began, placing my hand over his when he opened the box, "I can't even wear your ring. Sirius, you can't marry me, the Ministry would receive the marriage contract, and you can't use false names, because that would make the marriage not lawful…"
"No, you see, I've got it all worked out," Sirius hurried to say. "If we do a Muggle wedding, the Ministry won't find out. And it's not about the ring. I mean it's nice, with the whole never-ending love thing, but I don't need a ring to tell me that and I don't need a sign that shows me you're my wife. I just want to marry you."
I was speechless.
Sirius got up from his chair and walked around the table. I swallowed and blinked frantically when he sank to one knee. "So…" he asked hesitantly, taking my hand in his. "Will you do it? Will you marry me?"
"Y – Y – Yes," I stuttered and threw myself off my chair into his arms. "Of course I'll marry you!"
We tumbled onto the floor. Sirius laughed elatedly, crushing me against him. He rolled me over and covered me with his body. Tenderly I brushed his hair from his face.
"Well now, future Mrs. Black," Sirius said pompously. "You know what I'm going to do?"
"Do tell me, future Mr. Carden," I grinned.
"I am going to kiss you senseless."
