She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER FIFTY

Talking

"You were seen, by no less than seven Muggles!" Professor McGonagall said angrily, brandishing a newspaper at Sirius and myself, as we sat there silently in her office side-by-side, taking the lecture. I, at least, wished to be able to crawl into a hole and die somewhere. Sirius, on the other hand, looked like he was used to this kind of thing.

Professor McGonagall finished lecturing us (and I have to admit that I scarcely heard a word she said) and then ordered us to 'stay' like we were dogs or something (ha, if only he knew) and swept out of her office, closing the door with a slam behind her, which goes to show how annoyed she was with us.

As soon as she was gone, I buried my head in my hands and moaned: "We're doomed. We risked the exposure of our world – McGonagall's gone to get Dumbledore, and he'll tell us that we've been expelled!" I couldn't see any way out of this one. "Expelled!" I added, shaking my head in disbelief.

Sirius' hand found my shoulder, and he said, more calmly than I have ever heard him speak: "Nah, they won't expel you." I looked up at him, and he smirked. "Death Eaters are after your blood, remember?"

I groaned. "Aurgh, don't remind me…but what's that got to do with anything?"

"Hogwarts is the safest place for you at the moment," Sirius said seriously, letting his hand travel from my shoulder, and down my arm until it reached my bandaged up hand, which he took. "What with you getting attacked by Death eaters last term, and Greyback nearly killing you last month," (I winced.) "The teachers aren't gonna let you out of their sight." He said confidently.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Positive."

I gazed sadly at him. "Okay then, maybe they won't expel me…but what about you, Sirius Black?"

He didn't seem to have an answer for that and, as we both stared into each others eyes with trepidation at what was to come, the office door swung open again and Professor McGonagall came back in, accompanied this time by Professor Dumbledore.

My heart began pounding, and I gripped Sirius' hand even tighter.

Dumbledore looked unusually grave, as he sat down in a chair facing us and said: "Please explain why you did this."

Sirius and I began speaking at exactly the same time, in exactly the same tone of voice, and saying the exact same things – starting with how the barrier had somehow sealed itself, and how we'd used the motorcycle to get to Hogwarts, making it sound as if Sirius' himself hadn't bewitched it, and ending with saying that we'd had no choice.

If either teacher was surprised at Sirius and me speaking in perfect unison, they didn't show it. Instead, McGonagall asked us: "Then why did you not send an owl with a letter to us? I believe you have an owl, Miss. Pax."

I looked down at my knees, knowing that the reason that Haphazard (who'd spent most of the ride to Hogwarts perched on my shoulder) didn't handle flying great distances well would sound more like an excuse coming from me but, somehow, when Sirius said it, he made it sound perfectly valid, and I looked at him gratefully.

"Well," McGonagall said after a moment. "I hope you two understand the severity of what you have done – you have endangered not only our kind, but yourselves as well," She glanced at me and I felt myself shrinking underneath her gaze. "So you," And now she looked at Sirius, and his hand tightened around mine. "Mr. Black, will be se…"

But I stood up before she could continue, so fast that I nearly knocked over the small table in front of us, and said: "If you're going to expel Sirius then you're going to have to expel me too! If he goes than I go too!" There. I'd said it. I looked from a shocked Professor Dumbledore to an equally shocked Professor McGonagall, daring them to try and contradict me. Sirius' hand, which was still wrapped around mine, was tightening painfully, but I didn't pay attention to it.

At last, Professor Dumbledore recovered, and spoke. "We will not be expelling either of you today, Miss. Pax."

I blinked. "Come again?"

Dumbledore repeated what he had just said and, so relieved was I, that I sat down quickly, and placed my free hand on my forehead. Sirius gave my other hand a reassuring squeeze, and we looked at Dumbledore.

"But I must impress upon the both of you the seriousness of what you have done." He went on, looking at us both. "I will be writing to both of your families tonight…"

Sirius opened his mouth to speak.

"Yes, Mr. Black, I am referring to your family," Dumbledore said, and I shot Sirius a sympathetic glance, knowing what would come out of this. "Meaning the Blacks. And, of course, Miss. Pax, I will be writing to the Potters regarding your actions. And you will both receive detentions." He added, and Sirius and I exchanged a glance. Maggie and Reginald…what would they say?

"Also," McGonagall said, looking sternly at both Sirius and I. "There is the matter of…" But I knew what she was about to say, and I interrupted her.

"Professor, when Siri…us and I…did what we did, term hadn't really started yet," I said quickly. "So Gryffindor shouldn't really lose any points for that, right?" 'Not to mention that there aren't any points to dock…' I thought.

Sirius squeezed my hand again.

McGonagall looked at me. She seemed to be debating what I had just said. Then she nodded. "Alright then, I won't dock any points from Gryffindor. But your detentions will be severe."

They wouldn't be nearly as severe as detentions with Professor Umbridge, or during The Deathly Hallows…still, I wondered what they would be, and whether we'd get double or separate ones.

***

They wouldn't let us go down to the feast, probably knowing that Sirius had always had full boasting rights within Hogwarts, so Sirius and I sat up there in McGonagall's office and had our dinner, after which we would go up to the hospital wing and I could – finally – lose the bandages.

"I thought we'd had it." I said, taking a bite of sandwich.

"Told you we'd be okay," Sirius said. "When will you ever learn to listen to me, Emmy?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What!? If you'd listened to me back at the station, then we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"We also wouldn't be here right now," Sirius pointed out, as he took a swig of pumpkin juice from a silver goblet. "I mean, think about it – we're here, nothing happened, we haven't been expelled, and all we have are detentions, which are nothing to worry about. We didn't even lose any points for Gryffindor."

I sighed. "You make a valid point…but I still don't know why the barrier sealed itself…d'ya think it could've been Death Eaters?"

Sirius looked uncomfortable. "I don't know…but, anyway, the fact is we're safe now, and I have an idea of how we could liven things up a bit more around here…"

"Oh no!" I cut him off. "No way Siri, no more trouble, or else they will expel us!"

Sirius laughed. "Okay, okay, calm down. Keep your bandages on."

And I grinned too. "Not for very much longer." I replied.

***

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey." I called to her, as Sirius and I left the hospital wing, and my arms were finally free of the bandages. Now the only souvenir I had left of Greyback's attack was a cut on my stomach, hopefully not from his teeth. I didn't want to end up like Bill Weasley.

Sirius and I went out into the corridor and turned left, heading toward the Grand Staircase, holding hands, but then I stopped. "Hey, listen…do you hear that?"

Sirius looked at me. "Hear what?"

I stood motionless, staring at a wall. "Nothing," I said, finally. "It's stopped, whatever it is." 'I'm paranoid, and I know why…' I realised.

"No, wait, I hear something too…" Sirius said suddenly.

We both stopped and looked toward a wall, which suddenly vanished and Peter and James burst out of the fake wall.

"Brilliant guys!" James said, his face beaming from behind his glasses. "But you should've told me you were gonna do it, I could've found a way to come with ya!"

"P-people will be talking about it for y-years!" Peter stammered, his eyes full of admiration. "Arriving by flying motorcycle."

"Ah, well, I pride myself in keeping things interesting around here." Sirius said, un-modestly. "Seen Moony?"

"Yeah," James said, his grin fading a little. "He's…well, you'll see." He said, and we began to tread the familiar path to the Gryffindor Tower.

Along the way, I wondered what was wrong with Remus, and the only conclusion I could come to was that he'd been worried about me. I hummed Platinum under my breath, and tried to control said breathing. I couldn't wait to see Remus again!

We reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and then we all stopped, because we didn't know the password.

"It'd better not be 'wattlebird'." I muttered.

"Where is Moony when you need him?" James rolled his hazel eyes. "Or, better yet – Evans."

"Come on," Sirius said to the Fat Lady. "You know who we are…"

"How do I know you're not Slytherins in disguise?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at Sirius. "You could be that other Black…the Slytherin one..."

Sirius looked outraged.

"Uh, because he doesn't look like an ugly git." James said. "And neither do the rest of us…"

"I will not allow you entry into this common room until you tell me what the password is, and that is final." The Fat Lady said. "Hence the reason why we have a password in the first place…"

"Not fair," I muttered. "The Ravenclaw's don't have a password."

"Really?" Sirius was standing behind me, with his arms around me. I could tell that he was still annoyed at being associated with Regulus. "Then what do they have?"

"What they have is a really smart door handle that asks them really smart question that require answers only a Ravenclaw could ever think up," I said. "Like 'which came first, the phoenix or the flame?' and 'where do Vanished objects go?'."

James and Peter were staring at me in shock.

"How the hell does someone figure that out?" James asked, at the same time Peter asked: "What are the answers to them?"

And a voice replied: "A circle has no beginning. And into nonbeing, which is to say, everything."

"Evans!" James exclaimed, as Lily Evans came trotting toward us, her face a mixture of welcoming and anger.

Ignoring James, she stopped in front of me and Sirius, and said: "Emma, Sirius – are you alright?"

I nodded. "Does the whole school know about how we arrived?"

She nodded grimly. "Yes. They couldn't stop talking about it at the feast, Dumbledore was really disappointed."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know…we only got detentions though…"

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"But we probably deserved the cat-o-nine-tails!" I said quickly.

Lily's expression changed. "What? No, of course you didn't!" She said to me.

"Oh, and I suppose I did?" Sirius muttered.

"Too right you did!" Lily snapped. "But…oh, never mind. Wattlebird." She said, and the portrait opened to my spluttering in disbelief.

***

Everyone in the common room was really impressed with us, congratulating me and Sirius and pretty much saying what Peter had said about how people would remember this.

Somehow, I managed to realise that Remus was not in the common room and, concerned, I stole my way across the common room and up the staircase, heading toward the boys dorms.

I stopped at a door that now said 'Sixth Year Boys' and knocked on it gently. "Remus?" I asked, and pushed the door open.

The Marauder's dorm hadn't changed that much except, now, I noticed that the fifth bed had been made up, which meant that someone, 'like me', had transferred to Hogwarts.

Remus was sitting on his bed, staring out the window, but he looked over when I came in, and his eyes, which had looked almost dead, now lit up in recognition.

I stood there, as the door closed softly behind me, my hand pressed to my mouth because I had never seen Remus' eyes look so hollow before.

"Remus..?"

"I was worried about you." He said simply, standing up and facing me.

I went flying across the room, he opened his arms and I flung myself into them, wrapping my own arms around his neck as our lips met together in a kiss. He lifted me up as the strength of our kiss deepened, and I realised that I hadn't been able to talk to him alone since he'd found me injured that night, and I had so much to talk to him about, about Bonds and what ours could mean, and about how strange I felt.

Mostly, I felt like I needed to be with him, and he obviously felt the same way, or else he wouldn't be kissing me like this.

And…the reason why we couldn't tell Sirius or anybody…there had to be a reason why we could both continue to lie about it to everyone else.

I just didn't know the reason and, at that moment, I didn't care, because I was wrapped up in Remus' arms, and we were kissing.

Suddenly, at the sound of footsteps on the stairs, we broke apart, and a feeling of guilt immediately tore through my heart as Sirius entered the room, and Remus and I were standing on opposite sides of it, with me inconspicuously trying to smooth down my skirt, which had gotten a little rumpled in mine and Remus' enthusiasm.

There was something about the look that was exchanged between Remus and Sirius that made me feel uneasy, and I said: "I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted…big day, y'know…" I yawned, and checked the gold and silver pocket watch with the stag picture on it that hangs around my neck. Nine o'clock. And lessons started tomorrow.

Remus and Sirius both stopped giving each other that strange look, and both of them smiled at me.

"Goodnight White Fang." Remus said to me.

I smiled back. "G'night Moony." By some unspoken agreement, these were no longer nicknames with me and Remus…more like pet names.

Sirius crossed the room and wrapped me up in a hug, that felt different from Remus' hug, but not in a bad way. He gave me a kiss. "Goodnight, Emmy."

"Night Siri." I said, smiling at him and then leaving the dorm room quickly, not able to shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

Not just with the boys…but something was wrong at Hogwarts, too.

On my way out to the girls dorm, I nearly ran into someone. He had shoulder-length light brown hair and friendly blue eyes, and introduced himself as the transfer student, Louis Bickley.

I hoped he'd forgive me for my short introduction, but I really was tired, and I fell asleep in my clothes, into a sleep to deep to let my worries take the form of nightmares.