A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter! I spent Thursday-Friday at a friend's. Anyways, I'd like to begin by saying a HUGE thank you to the person that added this story to a Community just on June 26. I love you with my whole heart :3 Also, big love to the people who have alerted/favourited this story. I'm glad you all like it! :)


Rachel had been engrossed in studying and schoolwork for a whole week. She had only stopped to eat and sleep. Other than that, it had been straight ahead, full on working. She despised it, but it was something that had to be done.

Most of the reason Rachel wanted to do well for her last year was because she wanted to be eligible for Auror training. From the moment she learned about the wizarding world from her father (only a short time after her mother had left), Rachel had dreamt of fighting the 'bad guys' just like in the cartoons she watched. Being an Auror was her dream.

It seemed that her friends, however, were indirectly trying to interfere with that dream.

Rachel looked over to Marlene, Lily, Emmeline, and Dorcas with annoyance. Mary was in the library with Alice, but the four Rachel was studying with hadn't stopped bothering her all day for some reason.

"What is it?" Rachel snapped, clearly annoyed.

Marlene crossed her arms. "Is there something you want to tell us?"

"Yeah," Rachel began. "Shut up so I can study. They're not called Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests for nothing, you know?"

Marlene rolled her eyes. "That's not what I was talking about," she said. "Is there anything that's happening in your life that you want to tell us about?"

"Yeah, there is, actually," Rachel started. "My dad cancelled our trip to France this summer because of all the Death Eater attacks. Bloody annoying."

"Are you kidding me?" Marlene asked with a glare.

"Leave her alone," Lily said. "She thinks she can hide it from us, but we already know."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Rachel exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, we're talking about you and Black!" Marlene exclaimed. "You're snogging him, aren't you?"

Rachel frowned. "Yeah, what of it?"

Her friends raised their eyebrows at her.

"What?"

"You didn't even tell us!" Lily suddenly exclaimed.

"I didn't?" Rachel asked. She shrugged and turned back to her work. "Slipped my mind, I suppose."

"Slipped your—" Marlene paused and took a deep breath. "You're supposed to tell your friends when you're shagging a sex god."

"First of all, we're not shagging," Rachel said. "Second of all I'm not a slag; I'm not going to go around bragging about it."

"Sirius Black isn't shagging," Emmeline stated. "That's new."

"I have more important things to worry about," Rachel muttered, her eyes already back on her work.

She wasn't lying when she said that she had more important things to worry about. There was always the small matter of watching her own back. There had been more and more small attacks on the Muggle-born students and the Slytherins were less than kind to anyone that was against… whatever it was they believed in.

So it was almost definite that she had more important things to worry about.


Rachel wasn't sure how long she had been sitting in that armchair in the common room studying, but it was a long time. From what she could remember, she had been there the whole day and only now, long past midnight, was she realizing that she would need to go to bed.

Truth be told, Rachel didn't need to bury herself in all of this work. She could easily qualify for Auror training even if she kept going as she had been at the beginning of the school year. But the workload was an excuse to avoid talking or thinking about all of the anti-Muggle things going on.

Rachel's heart skipped two beats and her eyes widened when she felt someone's hands on her shoulder. She calmed down considerably when she realized that someone was Sirius. Rachel was too tired to use the 'I have work' excuse as she felt Sirius's breath on her neck.

"Maybe you should go to bed," Sirius suggested quietly, his breath tickling Rachel's ear. "You've been working all day."

"That I have," Rachel muttered in response. With a sigh, she threw her books in her book bag and reluctantly stood up from the armchair. When she looked up, she noticed Sirius's worried stare. "What?" she asked.

"Are you all right?" he replied.

"Yeah, but usually one doesn't answer a question with a question," Rachel said with a small smirk. She swung her book bag over her shoulder and gave a sigh.

"You're going to work yourself to death," Sirius commented.

"Nah, I'll be fine," Rachel replied. "And even if I do, it's better than letting the Slytherins get me."

"That's stupid, they can't get you," Sirius said. "You're too smart for them, especially if you keep stuffing books up your nose."

Rachel laughed. "See? The studying is helping. Calm down."

Rachel turned on her heel and trudged upstairs, where she fell on her bed and immediately fell asleep.


It must've been well past midnight and Rachel still hadn't left the library. She had removed her Disillusionment Charm the moment Madame Pince left and lit a lantern to review her work for the millionth time and read up on Dark magic. Rachel was researching Dark mostly because she knew this was what she'd be going against after graduation as part of the Order. She wanted to be up to speed.

From her seat at an isolated library table, Rachel heard a soft thud, like a book falling. She quickly looked up and had her hand on her wand. The moment she saw the light of the other person's wand, Rachel stood up and aimed her own wand. She was only slightly surprised when she saw who she was dealing with.

"Severus, Regulus," Rachel greeted curtly. Regulus was the one holding the wand. Rachel and Regulus both kept their wands aimed. Snape stood behind Regulus quietly. "Lovely evening, isn't it?"

"You're not going to talk your way out of this one, Mudblood," Regulus spat.

"Oh, I don't need to," Rachel said calmly and quietly. "You've already failed." Noticing Regulus's gaze slightly falter, Rachel went on. "You see, you had the perfect opportunity when I couldn't see you," Rachel stated. "Not only would you have succeeded, but I would never know who attacked me."

"Just do it, Regulus," Severus hissed to the younger boy. "Are you scared? You heard what Malfoy said."

"Oh, so you're following Malfoy's orders, are you?" Rachel inquired. Regulus's grip tightened. Rachel could tell he was uncertain. "And who exactly are you trying to win over?"

"I don't need to tell you anything," Regulus hissed.

"No, by all means, don't," Rachel said. "Although, I do recommend lowering your wand."

"That's not going to happen," Regulus replied.

"Then you bloody well better do something with it, since you've got it out and all," Rachel spat back.

"Regulus, if you don't do it, I will," Severus hissed to the younger Slytherin.

"She's mine. Malfoy told me to do this, not you," Regulus replied venomously.

"Snape wouldn't be able to do it anyway, would he, Regulus?" Rachel interrupted. Regulus's head shot back up to focus on Rachel. "Besides, it was Malfoy, of all people, that told you to choose a random 'Mudblood' and hex them. Because he knew you'd be able to do it."

"Not just any Mudblood!" Regulus suddenly exclaimed. "He trusts me more than that!"

"Does he?" Rachel inquired. "I doubt it, Black."

Rachel noticed Severus's eyes narrow at her, as if he was trying to figure out what she was playing at. Let him be suspicious, I don't care, Rachel thought to herself. I've already got Regulus dancing in my palms.

"He didn't just say any Mudblood," Regulus hissed toward Rachel resentfully. "He thinks I'm better than that. He told me to go after you specifically."

"Oh, and why's that?" Rachel went on. "Have I got a bounty on my head?"

"Because you're my brother's Mudblood girlfriend," Regulus replied proudly. "Malfoy wants to see how devoted I am to the Dark Lord."

"Are you stupid?" Severus hissed towards Regulus. "Why would you tell her all that?"

"Because he is stupid," Rachel cut in. "But you're not. I bet Malfoy ordered you to go after Lily, didn't he? You found a way out, am I right?"

"Stop playing games, Fredricks!" Snape exclaimed angrily. He turned to Regulus and ordered once more, "Just do it and let's leave."

"I'll stop playing games when you lot stop being twats," Rachel said. With a quick nonverbal spell, the two Slytherins were disarmed and their shoes were glued to the floor. Rachel quickly picked up her bag and stepped up to Regulus.

"You listen here, Black," Rachel said in a threatening voice. "You mess with me one more time, you'll wish you were never born. Clear?" She turned to Snape. "That goes for you too, you inconsiderate twat." Rachel turned to leave, but then she paused and turned towards Snape one more time. "You really hurt her, and no one gets away with hurting my friends."

With that final word, Rachel turned and sped out of the library and up to the Gryffindor common room. The seventh year girl decided that she had a little too much action for the night. Sleep would be good.


Finally, NEWTs had ended. The examinations truly were nastily exhausting and left Rachel feeling like she ran five marathons in a day. Nevertheless, they were truly over and she no longer had to bury her head in her books all day. All that was left now was anxiously waiting for the test results to get owled to her and for that letter from the Ministry accepting her into the Auror program. Rachel had decided that she would much rather change up her life for the next two weeks of waiting so she wouldn't pull her hair out.

One of the things that changed was that she more commonly found herself waking up in Sirius's bed.

Her friends didn't ask her about it and it really didn't need saying. Rachel was rather glad that Dorcas wasn't on her case.

Rachel was also rather happy that it was a Saturday.

It must've been nearly noon when Rachel felt herself slowly slip from the dream world and wake up. The setting she was greeted with was unfamiliar. The bed felt more crowded, but in a close and cozy way. She felt Sirius's arm wrapped tightly around her waist and as he felt her stirring awake, he pulled her closer to him and kissed her cheek.

"Morning," he mumbled into her hair. "And how'd you end up here?"

"Oh, you charmer. I bet you say that to all the women," Rachel replied sarcastically, a smirk visible on her face. She felt Sirius breathe out a laugh.

Sirius pulled Rachel so she was on top of him. Rachel rested her chin on his chest and smiled at him. Rachel gave a sigh, however, as she felt the weight of the last month of school really hit her.

"Something the matter?" Sirius asked.

Rachel turned her gaze to him and gave him a reassuring smile. "No, everything's fine."

Everything was fine. That one encounter with Regulus and Severus was still eating at her though. She hadn't told Sirius and she didn't plan to. He would only go and start a fight with his brother and although the Slytherin prat deserved it, Rachel didn't want to have Sirius dealing with family issues again. Besides, she was alive, unharmed, and perfectly fine. She only hoped that something like that would never happen again.

"Good," Sirius replied with a smile. "Ready for the end-of-the-year game tomorrow?"

The end-of-the-year game. It was one last, completely pointless Quidditch game against Slytherin that didn't count for anything. It was a tradition between the houses to have this one last Quidditch game for only the seventh years, purely to display to people how much Gryffindors and Slytherins truly hated each other. It was after curfew and only the students knew about it. The referees were always a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff. No professors whatsoever.

Truth be told, there was usually blood.

"Should be fun," Rachel said. "I've never actually had a concussion before."

"I'll be on those Slytherins like mad. They're not getting our Seeker," Sirius said.

"Yeah, all right then tough guy. You watch your own back," Rachel replied with a laugh.

And as the two of them tackled each other, Rachel couldn't help but think that things were finally looking up.


I hope you all liked it! So, I'm not sure if I'll finish this before I leave for vacation, but I am currently working on a way to get in an update when I'm in the States. Cross your fingers, everybody!

-Grammar/spelling?
-What do you think the next big event will be (aside from the Quidditch game, of course)?
-Favourite line?

Thanks for reading!