Author's Note: I'm not entirely positive how I'm cranking these chapters out so fast. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm sick as a dog and I'm stuck with nothing but a laptop to entertain me, but that's just a guess.
"Are you sure you're ready to face potions?" Lily whispered quietly to Delilah as they neared the classroom. She nodded with an unsure expression on her face.
"How dare he?" Delilah muttered. "This is my turf! He can't just do that!"
"I'll do you," Sirius said jokingly from behind them.
"So not the time, Sirius!" Delilah snapped at him, turning around and giving him a mouthful of her hair. He spluttered as she yanked the door of the dungeons open and strode in. Lily laughed at the expression on her face.
"Someone's in trouble," Lily teased, walking into the dungeons and fixing her coldest glare on the new student teacher.
"What's with the super glare at my evil cousin?"
"He's your evil cousin. That's why I'm glaring at him. Duh."
"Oh, right." Sirius then moved to sit beside James on the other side of the room, while Lily took her seat between Delilah and Loraina.
"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this," Delilah murmured to herself over and over.
"Breathe, sweetie, breathe," Lily soothed, rubbing circles on her back.
"Today we're going to let our marvelous student teacher direct the lesson, just so I can get a feel of his style under my belt," Slughorn boomed. Lily and Delilah exchanged an annoyed look as Sirius punched James on the arm and both boys laughed at Slughorn's awkward sentence.
Sirius was having quite a good time glaring at his cousin, grinding his teeth so loudly that the Slytherin girl in front of him kept looking back at him with annoyance. James was looking cautiously between the two, and restrained him when Orion shot a smoldering, flirtatious look at Delilah.
"I don't know what's going on with my bloody cousin and Delilah, but it's going to end," Sirius ground out.
"Of course, mate," James said to placate his friend.
"Pay attention, Mr. Black, Mr. Potter," Orion snapped at them, giving a satisfied smirk to Sirius, who took a steadying breath in. "As I was saying, we will be brewing the Draught of Living Death today, which is a very advanced potion. If anyone needs help, do not hesitate to ask."
James and Sirius set about their work on the potion, all the while watching Orion out of the corner of their eyes, particularly when he approached the girls' table. Remus perked up at this as well, and kept careful eyes upon Delilah in particular. Orion swept up the table and stood behind her, breathing upon her neck. She shifted uncomfortably.
"You do realize that you're advertising our one sided relationship to the entire class, right?" Delilah seethed. "And that you're going to get fired."
"No, I won't," Orion assured. "I promise. You won't get rid of me that easy."
"I wish I could."
"Stay away from her, Black," Lily suddenly snapped, turning to him with eyes alight with rage. "I've put up with the mess you leave every time you come in and out of her life. Now stay out!"
"Tsk, tsk, Miss Evans. Talking to a teacher like that," he said loudly, so that everyone could hear. The Slytherins snickered while James gripped the desk so hard his knuckles turned white. Orion then whispered to Lily, so only she could hear, "And a mudblood to boot. I can't wait to tell my master about you. I'm sure he'll be just delighted to meet you."
Lily didn't even flinch. She met his eyes with her own and smirked at him. "Looking forward to meet the man who's made you his bitch," Lily whispered back, venom laced in her words. Orion's blue eyes became even colder as he surveyed the redhead.
"It appears I have my hands full with your little friend here," Orion said to Delilah, still murmuring.
"Two of her "little friends", actually," Loraina growled quietly, appearing beside Lily. "Now I would apprciate it if you would teach the bloody class."
Orion clenched his jaw and turned around, sweeping the classroom. The girls got started on their complex potion and thanked Lily's skill in the subject when they did exceptionally well on it. While they worked dilligently, quietly discussing Orion and his threats, Orion descended upon the Marauders.
"You might want to keep your woman in check, Potter," Orion said mock amicably. "She's about to have a not so pleasant meeting with my business associates."
"Stay away from them, Orion," Sirius grunted.
"Aw, my dear cousin, don't tell me you want my sloppy left overs?" Orion mocked. "Delilah will be ruined when I'm done with her."
"You're already done with her, Orion," Sirius growled. "Stay away from her, or else."
"What are you gonna do? Attack me with your little gang? I've got the Dark Arts and the dark creatures on my side, Sirius. You don't stand a chance."
"Really? Because we've got quite a bit of our force on our side," Remus interjected. "Like werewolves. And, I don't know...maybe the greatest wizard that's ever lived! Now go teach your stupid class."
"You don't honestly think that he's going to go after Lily, do you?" James said nervously, dumping in some scarab beetles.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Sirius said candidly.
"That's reassuring," Remus said sarcastically.
"Sorry," Sirius replied, "just being honest."
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"What was with you and Orion?" Sirius said, pulling Delilah away from the crowd after class. "And be honest this time, Delilah."
"Look," Delilah said tiredly. "You know that song I sang to you? I wrote that about none other than Orion himself. That girl was me. It wasn't based off of some story. Your cousin is a horrible man, Sirius, and he's come here to break me. If you don't stay away from me, he's coming after you, too."
"I'll kill him," Sirius said heatedly. "He's not to go near you. Especially not out of class."
"No, Sirius, you don't understand," Delilah pleaded. "Just...please,distance yourself from me. At least where he can see. I don't want him to hurt you."
"He can't hurt me, Delilah."
"Yes, he can!" she exclaimed desperately. "Please, Sirius!"
"No," Sirius refused. "I'm not going to hide from him. Delilah, you don't have to worry about him. I'll protect you."
"Sirius, I'm in too deep," Delilah half-whispered, her voice soft yet full of desperation. "I can't go back now. No one can protect me from him. I made some stupid decisions, two years ago. There's nothing I can do."
"Yes, there is!" Sirius declared. He took her by the shoulders and looked her square in the eye. "If you can honestly tell me that you want him to stay away from you, that you don't have any feelings for him, I can help you. Just let me try. I swear to you, I can prove you wrong!"
"Sirius, I would give anything to get him to go away," Delilah said in all seriousness and honesty. "I'll give you a chance, okay? But if he causes you so much as a paper cut, we will pretend to be enemies outside of our inner circle, in the privacy of the Heads dorm."
"Agreed," Sirius breathed, pulling her to him in a hug. "Now c'mere. I'm scared for you."
"Me too," she mumbled. "Me too."
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"Lily!" James panted the next day after running after her. She was heading to Care of Magical Creatures, and James sprinted to catch up to her. "Look, I wanted to talk to you again about Orion."
"If people don't stop talking about that stupid, bloody, child molestor, I am going to FREAK OUT!" Lily screamed. A first year who had been innocently walking by screeched at the top of her lungs and ran, screaming, in the opposite direction. James looked at the redhead with raised eyebrows and she smiled shiftily at him.
"You okay there, Lil?" he teased.
"I'm sorry. Sirius just won't shut up about him, and Delilah won't stop talking about how scared she is that Orion is going to go after Sirius. Then, all the other girls think that Orion is the biggest hunksicle since sliced bread, so we've got to pretend like we agree. It's starting to get incredibly stressful. And it's only been a day!" Lily ranted.
"Gotcha," James nodded, hoisting his bag on his shoulder. "Most of the guys hate him because he's making all of their girlfriends go all googly eyed and the like."
"I'd think so," Lily agreed. "What did you want to say about him?"
"It's nothing," James shrugged. "I just wanted to warn you to stay away from him."
"Like I needed that memo," Lily snorted. James blushed slightly.
"I know, I know, I'm being overprotective."
"No, that's okay," Lily rushed to say. "It's good, really. I need people to look out for me. Sometimes my temper gets the best of me, and I get on the bad side of the wrong people."
"I've noticed."
"Shut up, Pothead. Now let's go harvest some Weaselbee eggs."
"Hey! I resent that nickname!" James said, rushing to keep up with the fast moving girl.
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"I have an idea!" Loraina mumbled to Delilah during Care of Magical Creatures. They were kneeling in the rather large nest of a rather huge and rather bitter Weaselbee, which was a five foot long, two foot tall weasel with yellow and black stripes.
"What is it?"
"Orion will be at least slightly put off if you get a new boyfriend. Even a fake one will do."
"Who would do it though?"
"I'll do you!" Sirius eagerly put in, sticking his head in between the two girls. Instead of the smack he had been expecting, Delilah turned to him with a mysteriously plotting look on her face.
"Say, Sirius..."
Author's Note: I think I'm going a little bit overboard with Orion's evilness, but it just sort of happens, and I choose to go with the flow rather then fight it. I can tell I'm going to have fun with him, even if he is a monster. I'm still eager to get the couples together, and I've got a pretty good idea for Delilah and Sirius. Remus and Loraina and Lily and James are gonna have to wait, but hopefully not too long. Most likely, Lily and James will get together first. If everyone could tell me when they feel they'll be ready to have the couples actually be couples, that would be great. I don't want to jump the gun or anything.
