Author's Note

Hello all!

Here is Chapter 24! Hope you like it, and stay tuned. The next chapter will probably be out sometime within the week.

Toodles!

Read, enjoy, review :)

24. Desperation

Twenty minutes later, I had explained everything. Our vandalized bathroom, Jeanette's parents, and finally, my talk with Regulus. Sirius had taken things surprisingly well, I thought. There had been a moment there, when I had first described the dark mark, that his eyes had flashed with anger, his fists had clenched tightly, and he'd looked as if he was about to walk right down to the Slytherin common room and knock some heads. But I had quickly convinced him to listen to the rest of my story, and he had steadily relaxed, although the tension in his shoulders hadn't quite faded.

Now, Sirius leaned back against the wall of his dormitory, where we were sitting on the floor, the rest of the marauders and Lily having not yet joined us. I leaned back too, and after a moment he pulled me close, wrapping an arm around me, tightly, his face unreadable.

"Sirius?" I asked, reaching one hand up to touch his cheek. "Are you okay?"

"Adeline," he sighed. "Please, please promise me you'll never keep something like that from me again."

I sighed too, leaning my head against his shoulder, breathing in the smell of him. It was lovely. "I didn't want you to worry." I whispered. "I didn't think I should—"

"Promise me." He said again, pulling back slightly to look me in the eye, his gaze intense. "Adeline, you have to let me know what's going on. There's nothing more important to me than you're safety."

"Okay," I said, exhaling. "I promise."

I felt like a load had been lifted off of my shoulders the second I said those words. My whole life I had kept everything to myself. I had been taught to listen, never speak, never divulge, and never confide in others.

But now, looking into Sirius's gray-blue eyes and seeing the amount of determination and care that dwelt there, I knew that I finally had someone with whom I could always share. Always confide in. It felt amazing.

Sirius sighed in relief, and then pulled me in for what felt like a bone-crushing hug. "Nothing is more important to me than you, Addy." he whispered, his lips near my ear, tickling slightly. "I mean that."

I smiled, and was about to respond when the remaining three marauders burst through the door, and, as I saw with a sinking heart, they were accompanied by a shaken-looking Lily, her face pale and eyes wide, being supported by Remus and James.

"Christ," Sirius muttered as we both rose immediately, helping Lily sit down on James's bed while Peter brought her a glass of water from the bathroom. "She looks like she needs to go to the hospital wing."

"No," said Remus and Lily in unison. Sirius and I exchanged looks as Lily then proceeded to sip the water, taking a deep breath as James sat down on the bed beside her, rubbing her back soothingly.

Sirius sat down on his own bed, running a hand through his hair and looking at Lily with a concerned and confused look on his face. I considered sitting beside my best friend, to make sure she was all right, but the color was beginning to return to her cheeks, and as I sat down next to Sirius on his bed, I watched her lean into James, looking up at him appreciatively. Evidently she was in good hands.

"Okay then," said Sirius, glancing around, as Remus sat down on the edge of his bed, looking haggard, and Peter collapsed onto a chair in the corner. "What the hell happened to Evans?"

James and Remus exchanged looks, but it was Lily who answered.

"Jeanette Lowry just attacked me."

"I'd just finished talking to Sev," Lily began, her eyes trained on the cup she still held firmly in her hand. "I filled them in already," she added, glancing at me and Sirius, then nodding over to James, Remus, and Peter. "Anyway, he told me what you probably already found out. That Jeanette is being bullied into terrorizing you." She paused for a moment, glancing apologetically at me. "Us."

I nodded once, Sirius's arm tightened around me. "Go on," I told my best friend.

"So, I was walking down one of the back hallways that I patrol during prefect duty sometimes. And all of the sudden, Jeanette stepped out of the shadows, near tears." Lily sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "She had her wand drawn, her hand was shaking…"

"Jeanette?" I asked. She looked terrified, but… determined. "Are you okay?"

Knowing what I now knew about her, my heart went out even more to the blonde girl with the startling eyes. I could only imagine her predicament. Being threatened and bullied by teenage death eaters, maybe not even knowing why you'd been singled out. It had to be terrible.

"L-Lily," she said, now really close to tears. "I'm sorry."

"What?" I said, shocked. "Jeanette, what are you doing? Did Regulus and his friends tell you to do this?"

"I have to fight you!" she said, tears streaming down her face. "If I don't—If—If—"

"Jeanette," I said, approaching the hysterical girl, my hands outstretched in a non-aggressive stance. "Let me help you. I know that the Slytherins are bullying you. I know they've singled you out. But, I can help. Me, and Adeline, and Remus, and our friends, we can help you—"

"You don't understand!" she hissed, the determination in her eyes flaring up again. She was slighter than me, at least three inches shorter, yet the fear and resolve in her eyes was still frightening. Not to mention the fact that her wand was pointed straight at my throat. "Lily," she said, softly now, and for a moment, I thought maybe she had changed her mind. But her next words made my heart sink. "They'll kill my parents…" she glanced down at her feet, before bringing those astonishing eyes back up to mine. "My adopted parents."

"Jeanette," I said softly. "Tell Dumbledore. He can help you. He can protect—"

"No!" she whispered, but her words still cut me off as though she'd shouted. "He can't." The agony in her voice was heart-breaking. "I'm sorry, Lily."

I reached for my wand and threw myself against the wall just as she sent a jinx in my direction. Within seconds I'd sent one back her way. For almost ten minutes, we dueled in the deserted corridor. She was excellent, but just when I thought I had an opening, I found myself hesitating. I could win the duel, stun her or at least disarm her. But then what? I couldn't leave her, and I couldn't take away her wand. And there was no way I was going to Dumbledore. Jeanette was innocent, it was those filthy death-eaters in Slytherin that were really responsible. And if the threat against Jeanette's adopted parents was real… I shuddered to think.

And so I stopped, thinking that she could stun me and leave me in the corridor. Someone would find me eventually, and I could claim that I had no memory of my attacker.

And so I didn't take the opening, instead leaving myself defenseless, waiting for her to cast her final spell.

The jolt of fear raced through me only when I caught sight of the look in her eyes. Pure desperation. It reminded me of the way Sirius had looked when we had first received word that Adeline was about to become a death eater. The look that meant you would do anything to protect the people you loved.

And so my heart sank once more as Jeanette casted her spell and it wasn't meant to disarm me or paralyze me. "Sectumsempra!"

I felt a searing pain erupt all over my body, and could feel blood begin to trickle out of slashes that had suddenly appeared on my arms and torso. I screamed, falling to my knees. I looked up at Jeanette, who was watching me, looking terrified, as pale as a ghost.

A moment later, she was on her knees in front of me, where I had collapsed to the ground, the searing pain almost causing me to pass out.

She was sobbing heavily, but I could hear her murmuring something, a counter-curse that was almost song-like, her wand pointed at the bleeding wounds.

Slowly the pain started to ebb, the wounds healing, the blood returning to my body, the pain leaving steadily. Finally Jeanette finished, tears streaming down her face, stumbling backwards. "I—I—I—" she stuttered, her hands in her hair, pulling, her eyes wide as she stared at me. I had pulled myself up, shaken but otherwise alright, and was leaning against the wall. "Bloody hell," I muttered.

She just watched me for a minute, her eyes wide and wild. With a last sob, she turned and ran, her footsteps steadily fading. I closed my eyes, slumping against the cool stone of the castle. But soon I heard other footsteps, three sets of them. Fast and getting louder and louder. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, knowing I couldn't take on any other attackers.

I'd never been so happy to hear James's voice. "Lily? Lily! Are you okay?!"

Lily finished telling her story, and we all sat for a moment in stunned silence. James kissed Lily's forehead, brushing her fiery hair back soothingly. I looked over at Remus. His face was drawn, his eyes weary. I knew he cared about Jeanette, and I could only imagine how hard this all was for him.

It was he who finally spoke. "It's getting late, and I think we all—Lily especially—need to rest. We need to talk to Jeanette, and we are going to have to do something about these Slytherins." He sighed. "But right now, we need to sleep."

One by one, we all nodded our agreement. Even James, who looked especially grim, his arm wrapped tightly around Lily and his jaw tight. I stood, ready to help Lily up so we could head back to our dormitory, when Sirius's hand on my arm stopped me.

"No. You both should sleep in here tonight. It's not safe for you two to be in your dormitory alone." He said, his eyes telling me he was completely serious.

James quickly agreed. "Lily, Sirius is right. You two can sleep in our beds. We'll take the floor."

While part of me wanted to protest, the fact was that I was too physically and mentally exhausted to put up much of a fight. Which is how I found myself, twenty minutes later, in one of Sirius's old Chudley Cannon's t-shirts and a pair of long pajama-pants, under the covers of Sirius's bed while Sirius himself kissed me goodnight and then proceeded to turn off the lights and climb into his own make-shift bed on the ground, all the rest of the marauders and Lily already in their respective spaces.

I laid there, breathing deeply the smell of Sirius, which was clean and kind of grassy and sweet at the same time. Listening hard, I could hear Peter and James's snores, and Lily and Remus's soft breathing. I couldn't sleep though. The stress of the day had shaken me out of the safe, protected little bubble that I had been living in for the last day or so, and reminded me that everything was real. And terrifying.

I needed Sirius.

I sat up, pulling the curtains back slightly from the bed and peering over the side. Sure enough, Sirius was lying with his hands behind his head, his bright eyes shining in the moonlight that was filtering in from the nearby window and trained directly on me.

"Hi," I whispered in the dark.

"Hi," he whispered back. The air around us tingled.

Finally I sighed, and let out a slightly nervous laugh. "Get up here."

He didn't need to be told twice, promptly getting up from the floor and climbing onto the bed beside me, casting a silencing spell around the perimeter of the bed. I held the covers up for him and he slid under them, pulling me down with him so our legs were tangled together beneath the blankets, my head on his shoulder, my arms wrapped around his wide chest. He kissed my temple as I shifted, snuggling up even closer to him. It was the most comfortable I had been in a very long time.

"Can't sleep?" he asked, looking at me through the darkness.

"Partially. I also feel a million times better when I'm close to you." I admitted, blushing slightly, even though there was no one to see it. I looked up at him through my lashes and saw him smile, his brilliantly white teeth visible even through the dimness.

"That makes me feel rather wonderful." He said. There was silence for a moment, and I could tell he was trying to decide whether or not he should tell me something. Finally the words left his mouth, albeit hesitantly. "There was a terrible moment there, when I saw you with your hand on Regulus's arm in the corridor there, that I thought you were cheating on me with my brother. And it was one of the worst moments of my life."

His words hung in the air for a moment. While a small part of me was upset that he had jumped to that conclusion, I was glad he had told me, and I could see why he had thought that.

"I would never, could never, cheat on you." I said quietly. I turned so I was facing him, supporting myself with my elbows. I felt his arm immediately wrap around my back, rubbing small circles there. An affectionate gesture. I smiled, despite the tumultuousness of the day and the constant strain of the current situation. I was happy. Even if all hell was breaking loose around us, Sirius and I still had each other. It was more than enough to be happy about.

"I could never cheat on you either." He told me, his eyes intense and never leaving mine. "The very thought is just…" he shook his head, lost for words.

Words weren't needed anyway. I leaned down slowly, closing the gap between us, tasting the minty flavor of spearmint toothpaste on his lips.

The thought crossed my mind that I needed him closer at the very same moment that he turned us over, pressing me against the bed, our kiss deepening slightly. My hands knotted in his dark hair as he traced those same small circles on my hips where his hands were resting.

We broke apart, both of us breathing hard. He rested his forehead against mine, looking down at me with those gorgeous eyes. And then he was kissing my forehead, my cheek, my jaw, and my neck. He got down to the spot where my neck meets my shoulder, leaving an open-mouthed kiss there that made me gasp. I felt him smile against my skin, then his lips returned to my mouth, picking up right where we had left off.

It was Sirius who finally broke the kiss, quite a while later, stretching up to press his lips to my forehead, gently, sweetly, and then laying down beside me. I sighed contentedly, still breathing hard, and laid my head on his shoulder, snuggling close.

There was a few minutes of silence before he turned his head slightly and spoke. "Night, love. Sleep well, yeah?" he whispered into my hair.

"I will. Good night." I muttered into his shoulder, already well on my way to peaceful dreams.