Wallflower

Chapter Twenty-Four: Vows and Promises

PLEASE READ A/N AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

The next three months were hell for the Marauders. Aside from Sirius' and Adelaide's honeymoon to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the United States where they rented out a log cabin for two weeks (Sirius was intrigued by all the muggle artifacts, and Adelaide calmly spent two hours explaining how a television works), it seemed that they were surrounded by death.

The news of Caryn's death didn't reach them until they returned, and they had already missed the funeral. Her parents (the snotty pricks they were) were simply told that there was a gas leak in her apartment that killed her. In reality, it was the work of the killing curse. There was no doubt in Adelaide's mind that Annalisa had something, if not everything, to do with Caryn's death. Sirius remained silent for the most part, but he agreed with her reasoning.

Unfortunately, Annalisa had a viable alibi stating that she was at her long-time boyfriend's house, and Mulciber was more then willing to save her skin. Sirius had a hard time keeping quiet about that, when it was well known within the order that Mulciber was a death eater. But the authorities believed him, as expected, and all charges were dropped and they simply named Lord Voldemort as the murderer.

Everything seemed to calm down when Adelaide and Sirius went to visit Remus in mid august, only to find that he was out with Peter already. They left a note, and before they even had a chance to apparate death eaters swarmed in on them. Adelaide fought off Bellatrix, who seemed delighted at the chance to smite her baby cousins wife, but almost died in the attempt. Sirius and Adelaide managed to escape with their lives and minor scrapes before they got a floo call from James, asking if they were alright. They had also been under attack, and it seemed the only two who weren't were Remus and Peter.

The rest of the month died with very small events, such as the death of fellow Order member Elise Barnes. The rest of her family, save her youngest brother, who had been staying the night at a friends, and her elder sister, who had moved out two months prior, had been found dead the next morning. October came around and Adelaide found herself at school, and this time Sirius was also gone most of the day for Auror training. She came home about thirty minutes earlier then him, and made sure to spend as much time as possible together, doing almost everything with each other.

The entire Wizarding world was living in a state of fear. No one knew who would die next, and people were getting married younger and younger, the youngest being seventeen. People would randomly check up on their friends, just to make sure that they weren't gone, or worse, dead. There was constant unease, and it was even affecting the children to young to understand.

The end of the month came, and for the first time in a while Sirius and Adelaide managed to pull away from each other and spend a holiday with their friends. They were spending Halloween and James and Lily's, and they invited only Remus and Peter (who turned the offer down glumly saying something about working late, though none of them knew he had a job).

They arrived at eight o'clock, and Lily opened the door with her trademark smile, and for the first time in a long while, their worries faded away and they felt as if they were back at Hogwarts with their friends.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" Lily said happily, taking them both into a large hug, "I feel like we haven't seen each other in ages!"

"Ditto," Adelaide laughed, with Sirius agreeing with a smile. They hurried in, closing the door quietly behind them, and made their way to the Living Room where James and Remus were already lounging on the couch, laughing hysterically at something.

"Sirius! Adelaide!" James said as he spotted them. He was smiling, and the two could tell he had had a bit to drink already, "It's been months!"

"Actually, you flooed last week," Sirius said with a grin, accepting James' hug with a laugh, "But you've always had a short memory; I wouldn't be surprised if you forget that you just greeted us." James grinned.

"Sirius! It's been weeks!" he joked, hugging him again. Adelaide giggled behind her hand before hugging Remus, who was laughing at James and Sirius' antics.

"It's good to see you looking so lively," Adelaide said as she pulled away, "Now all you need is to get married."

"Shouldn't he get a girlfriend first?" James asked patting her on the back. She just grinned.

"Whatever floats your boat," she said. James tilted his head.

"Technically water," he answered, "but doesn't it float on any liquid? Technically, I could float my boat on milk, or coffee, or pumpkin juice…"

"You complicate things," Lily said blandly, a slight smile curving on the corner of her lips, "You should stop thinking before your head explodes."

"That has been known to happen," James said sarcastically. Lily shrugged and pulled Adelaide to the kitchen.

"I made the recipe you gave me, I need your opinion on it…"

And then all hell broke loose.

The door was burst down, and the others immediately grabbed their wands with fierce determination. James was suddenly very sober, and the recipe was the last thing on anyones mind.

"You know what they say about the calm before the storm," Sirius said grimly. None of them recognized the death eaters, save for one, and he immediately began to duel Adelaide.

"I believe that I have some revenge to extract," Mulciber sneered angrily, his eyes gleaming predatorily. Adelaide was confused for a split second, before she put things together.

"If Annalisa was pregnant she shouldn't have come," she said blandly, dodging as he sent a curse her way. Mulciber barked out a laugh.

"As if that would stop any death eater," he said in an acidic voice, "but honestly," he put up a shield and deflected her curse, causing her to dart to the left to avoid it, "I can't help but think how disgusting you are. Using the Cruciatus Curse on a pregnant woman?" he tutted and sent a spell towards her, which she barely avoided, "Rather coarse, isn't it? Just like your mother was. I heard she killed her best friend."

"Shut up!" Adelaide spat, hurtling a Conjunctivitis Curse towards him. It hit him dead on and his eyes swelled shut. That didn't stop him though, and he began to randomly hurtle a variety of spells, almost hitting Remus and James several times. Adelaide curse, and took the opportunity and hit him with a stunner, causing him to crumple to the floor. The witch battling Sirius sent the animagus hurtling backwards with a quick spell and grabbed onto Mulciber before apparating away.

"Sirius!" Adelaide called.

"I'm alright!" he returned, before standing by James against the toad-like death eater who needed much, much better teeth. Adelaide hesitantly turned her back to them and Joined Lily, who was already beating the tar out of a shabby looking death eater that was otherwise farley attractive. Remus took out the death eater he was battling, and the other two noted the depletion of numbers. They grabbed on to their partner and quickly apparated away, leaving the others panting and glaring expectantly at the door. They stood there for five minutes before they slowly began to relax. James made quick work and grabbed the floo powder before sticking his head in after calling out Dumbledore's Office. He quickly explained what happened, and when he pulled out he turned grimly to his friend.

"Dumbledore thinks there may be a spy in the order," he said shortly. "The Longbottom's have also been attacked tonight." Lily grabbed on to Adelaide's arm tightly.

"Who?" she whispered, James shook his head, and sighed.

"I don't know," he said truthfully, "Dumbledore's planning on flooing the members he trusts indefinitely and questioning them. We were instructed not to trust anyone."

For a second, Adelaide's mind slipped to the note Annalisa left her, and she pushed away the guilt before trying to remember what they said.

But James had just said not to trust anyone. Didn't the note mention something about trust? She was positive that it mentioned Peter at least once. Her mind linked it together, but she bit her tongue to keep silent. Peter was trustworthy, despite their differences. She'd look at the notes closer when she got home. Right now was not the time to spring ideas.

She spent the next week analyzing the notes. She easily picked out 'Don't Trust Peter', but she kept searching for some other message. She stuck by her belief that Peter was trustworthy. And she wasn't wavering in the belief. She placed all their differences aside and analyzed what she knew of him, and that was that he was loyal to his friends and loved them as his own family. He wouldn't do that.

But it seemed that no matter how many times she repeated that to herself, she kept doubting everything.

-

"Adelaide, it's New Years; you need to relax," Sirius said as he watched her stare at the slip of paper, "You're going to strain your eyes, and then you'll need glasses all the time."

"I look perfectly fine in my glasses," she murmured with a small smile, She tucked the note back into her bedside drawer and turned to smile at Sirius, "There. Now what?"

"Well, Mrs. Black," he said slowly, his lip twitching up, "I think that you should come and lay down with your husband. Then we can find some other way to…entertain ourselves."

"We could play exploding snap," she said with fake enthusiasm, clapping her hands together, "That's the best idea you've ever had!" Sirius snorted and she smiled before flopping down on the bed and turning her head to watch him in amusement. He propped himself up on his elbow and ran his fingertips along the waist of her jeans. He smirked before positioning himself over her and trailing his hands down her thighs.

"Well," he murmured, his breath caressing her face, "as much as I enjoy a game of exploding snap, I can think of several other things we could do, each definitely more fun then exploding snap."

"Trade chocolate frog cards?" she joked with mock interest, "You know I've never been a fan of those things." Sirius chuckled under his breath before he began to trail kisses down her neck. She moaned slightly as he met the junction of her shoulder and her neck, and he slowly began to kiss the spot, before sucking on her neck. He threaded her hands into his hair with a sigh.

"I think," he murmured as he trailed his lips further down, "That you should stop guessing and let me show you what I had in mind." She gasped in a breath as he began to move his hand up her shirt.

"I think that's a brilliant idea," she murmured breathlessly. HE chuckled, and brought his lips back to hers in a ferocious kiss that sent chills down her spine, just as always.

All thoughts of the note were pushed to the back of her mind as they quickly shut the door in order to keep a certain overprotective house elf out.

-

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all things concerning belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Adelaide Vicknair, Vanessa Wolfe, Caryn Gree, Elise Barnes, Madeline Vicknair, Annalisa Bertucci, Professor Sicily and Jean Vicknair.

A/N: blech. I want to move on to the sequel, which has been cut down from about 40 chapters to circa 18. I know, that's a big jump, but I was having a few difficulties wrapping my head around the whole thing. I mean, I want it to be as cannon as possible with (SPOLIER) Sirius living and all (END SPOILER) but then I had to stretch out the books to several chapters, but THEN I decided that I could group as much of one book as I could into one chapter, despite the length. THEN I questioned that, and I'm so completely confused. I want to be as accurate as possible, and I don't know how you guys would react if I skipped over entire years or not.

So, please tell me what you think on the skipping thing, because I think the sequel will be more difficult to write. I'm even thinking of grouping it together with this now and just changing the header to indicate it's another story. BLECH!!!! I HATE CONFUSION AND INDECISION!

…and I just noticed. James, Remus, Sirius. They all end with S, so if you want their name to be plural (or whatev) you have to do s' at the end instead of 's. Peter is the only one different. OMG. IT WAS A SIGN!

I was going to make it longer, but then the next chapter would be shorter, and I really want your response to the above idea. So please respond!!!!! Even if it's an IDC, it helps!!!!

Yours Truely;
B.E.N.

P.S.: Only three more chapters left in wallflower, as it stands right now.