Chapter Thirty

Changing the Blame

Spring was in the air. The grass was green, the sky was blue…it was a perfectly warm day fit with birds singing and flowers blooming. Perfect setting for everything to be just and peaceful, right?

Wrong.

Apparently, word had gotten out that I'd spent Christmas Break with three of the four most sought after guys in the school. Rumor had it that not only had I spent a night with one of the four (Gary), creating a whole different story, if you catch my meaning, but also, despite James' and Lily's steady relationship, that I had, oh, and still was, having an affair with all the other three (Sirius, James, and Remus). At the same time.

So where did that put me? In the Hospital Wing. Almost every. Freakin. Day.

One thing I had learned, girls can be dangerous when they're lovesick. I can't even walk in the hallways without getting hexed and cursed left and right. It wasn't that I was bad at magic, because you could ask any of my friends and they'd tell you I was one hell of a duelist. No, the really sucky thing was that I can't do anything about it because of my one track ticket to Azkaban. Lucky me.

So, to say the least, my patience these days is wearing thin. That's why when the Marauders came and sat next to us by the Black Lake, I can't be blamed for laughing at Sirius' beat-up look. Can I?

"Ha-ha. Yeah, you would laugh," Sirius grumbled, laying back on the grass.

"What happened to you?" Lily asked. James put an arm around her.

"Well," James said. "There isn't just females at work here."

"Huh?" Tonks said.

"Let's just say that some of the male brains function slower," Remus said, grinning.

"I'm gonna say it again: huh?" Tonks repeated.

"Nike has admirers too, which we all knew already," James said. "It took 'em awhile to put two and two together…but they get it now." Tonks and Lily burst out laughing.

"And they figured Sirius is the prime suspect?" Lily managed to get out.

"But of course," James said. "They know I only have eyes for you. And Remus…has eyes for someone else and they see that they're close like siblings. They know Napier's not a man-whore and respects girls, especially Nike, so that left open only one."

"I am not a man-whore!" Sirius growled, while Lily and Tonks smirked.

"You know, I don't have it in me to feel sorry for you," I said.

Sirius opened his eyes and met mine. "And why not? I feel sorry for you."

"Because you can defend yourself and get back at them. I, however, can not because I happen to want to live a free life," I said simply.

"You're wrong there," he said. James and Remus snickered. Tonks raised an eyebrow at Remus.

"Well…since Nike was suffering and it's basically all because of him, he's gotta take it how she's taking it," Remus explained.

"Hence why I have his wand," James said, smiling widely as he waved it back in forth.

"Nice," Tonks said, nodding her head in approval. "That's perfect."

"Which is why I'm afraid to play in the match tomorrow," Sirius said. "No telling what would happen or where I'll end up."

I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by shrill, high pitched, annoying laughter. We all turned and saw a gaggle of girls, all smiling and twirling their hair flirtatiously.

"Idiots," Lily muttered.

"You know what? I'm tired of this," Sirius said, sitting up next to me.

"Me too," I agreed, looking anywhere but at the girls.
Sirius grinned mischievously. "You want to really tick them off?"

"Sure. How?"

"Like this." He leaned forward, put his hands on my shoulders, and kissed me. Again. But this time, I wasn't completely stunned, because not even a second later, I found myself kissing him back.

"What. The. Hell?" Tonks shrieked, but I barely heard her. He was so insistent… And then it dawned on me that I was snogging Sirius Black. I pulled away and shoved him over.

"I agree with Tonks!" I yelled.

"You said you wanted to make them mad, so I showed you," he said simply. "And look, it worked." He was right. The girls were fuming, along with their mouths opened unattractively in disbelief of what they'd witnessed.

"You know, I think that was a bad idea to do that in front of them," Sirius mused. "I think I just made it worse for you."

One of the girls, a petite artificial blonde with dull brown eyes came over and loomed above us, her hands on her hips, glaring at me.

I met her gaze evenly and I stood up, towering above her. This was one of my usual attackers; Theresa McFarland, a sixth year Hufflepuff who seemingly thought she was irresistible.

"Good afternoon Theresa," I said in a mocking friendly tone.

"You'd say that wouldn't you?" she spat. "Why don't you just leave him alone instead of throwing yourself on him? He doesn't want you."

"I—"

"Actually," Sirius interrupted my protests. He stood up and put an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. "I do want her, and I don't care if she 'throws herself at me'. She's my girlfriend; so quite frankly, she can do whatever she wants to me. But I suggest you back off before I take her problems into my own hands." Theresa's eyes widened and she looked at me for any indication he was lying.

I smiled sweetly at her, and just to sell it out, I put my arm around Sirius and whispered just loud enough for her to hear, "Let's go somewhere more private, shall we?" Theresa huffed and stomped off, taking her group with her.

"What place do you have in mind, then?" Sirius asked.

I punched his arm (making sure it would leave a bruise) and said, "Don't ever do that again without telling me first."

"I'm sorry. Kind of," he said, smiling cockily. I couldn't shake the feeling that he'd liked it. Hell, if I was going to be honest, I liked it. But I would never admit that to anyone.

"You should be fully sorry!"

"Nah, kind of works fine for me. I think we did a good job."

"K, well, now that they're gone can I ask you two something?" James asked. We turned around to take in all of their shocked faces.

"Um, sure…" I said.

"How come you two didn't tell us?" Tonks yelled, unable to keep herself contained.

"Screw that!" James said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Sirius asked innocently.

"You two are—"

"No!" I exclaimed, interrupting Lily.

"Really?" Remus asked.

"Yes! I don't even like him like that!"

"That's not what it looked like," James said, grinning devilishly. "You sure seemed to respond to him when he snogged you. It's almost like you two have done it before." He seemed to think about what he said. "Well, not done it, but kissed."

"Did not! I mean, have not! Urg! You know what I mean!" I denied. But I could tell they didn't believe me. Stupid blush. You betray me.

"M'just telling you what I saw," James said.

"What's your excuse Black?" Tonks asked. "You started it." If Sirius was uncomfortable, he didn't show it. I almost thought he was going to tell them about our first kiss, but I was relieved, for some reason, when he didn't.

"Acting," he said simply. There was silence, and then all of our friends (including Peter!) burst out laughing.
Sirius glanced at me. "Did you spike their morning drink?"

"No. Did you?"

"No."

"Mate, I don't think that was 'acting'," Remus said. Sirius turned just a little bit red.

"Aye Moony. Looked like way more than that," James said. "I mean, did you see his face when she kissed him back? I thought he was going to faint!"

"Oh. Ha-ha," Sirius said. "Like I said; acting. My feelings are the exact same as hers for me." They all exchanged amused glances.

"You guys think that then," Lily said. "So, Sirius solved Nike's problem…now what about Sirius'?"

"Oh! And how long are you two going to keep up this 'act'?" Tonks asked.

"It ends right here," I said. "And I'm going to go fix his problem right now. See you guys later." I walked off towards the Quidditch field.

"Aren't they some friends," Sirius huffed when he caught up to me. "Not believing us like that."

"That's just typical," I replied, keeping my eyes averted. "But listen to me, Black. Stop kissing me."

He gave me puppy-dog eyes. "Aww…why?"

I lifted my fist, glaring, and he held up his hands, taking a step back. "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry! No more kissing you unless you say it's okay." He rolled his eyes. "So…what'cha gonna do to get me out of this mess?"

"Probably the same thing you did."
He smirked. "Oh, so soon already? Really, I have no problem snogging in front of people, so pucker up, baby—"

"Can it," I snapped, punching him. "I wasn't talking about the snogging part. I mean the telling them off part."

"Oh. Well I'll overlook my disappointment if the attacks will stop."

"How long have they been doing it to you?" I asked sympathetically.

"Since the last time I saw you."

"Wh-what?" I stuttered. And all the sympathy evaporated. "You mean to tell me that I went through this the whole time we've been back, and you just now decided to help me out? And you went through this for a little over an hour, and you expect me to help you now?"

"Umm…"

"I don't understand you Sirius Black," I sighed.

"Most females don't." I ignored him and looked up in the sky to watch the guys attempting to play Quidditch. However, there were some familiar faces, like Derek and Almaert Finlay.

"So what are you going to do?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied, frowning. "I don't know if I should just talk to them, make a statement, or make them mad."

"I like choices two and three," he said, grinning.

"You would. Which is why, since I'm currently mad at you, I'll go with choice one." Taking my wand out, I muttered, "Accio broom." Seconds later a broom came zooming out of the Quidditch equipment shed. I hopped on it and flew up to the guys. Derek was the first to see me.

"Hey Nike!"

"Hi!" I replied cheerily.

"You wanna play?" Finlay asked.

"No, not right now, thanks. I actually wanted to question you guys about my friend down there." We all looked down to see Sirius casually standing there with his hands in his pockets.

"Black?" Finlay asked. "What bout 'im?"

"Well, I'd gotten word that some of the male population at this school has kinda gotten all bent out of shape because of a nonexistent relationship between us."

Finlay glanced at Derek, who was trying to look cool and collected, and then back at me.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, Nike, okay?" he said.

"I'm listening," I said.

"Well, one of your fellow Gryffindors had told us that he'd been using and abusing you. And by the looks of you lately and how often you're in the Hospital Wing, the rest of us thought it was true. And it isn't right for that to happen to you."

"I appreciate your guys' concern, but Sirius isn't doing either of those things. And, I can take care of myself, just not with magic while we're in school."
Finlay looked relieved. "Well I'm glad to hear that. Black isn't a bad guy, anyways, I guess. So, you sure you don't want to play?"

"No, I've got other things to do. Besides, I can't let you or the Ravenclaws in on my secrets if we're gonna play you both this week," I said, grinning wickedly.

"You Gryffindors," he laughed. "Some of you are smart."

"And don't you forget it!" I said, and then I flew back to Sirius.

"That was quick," Sirius remarked as I sent the broom back to the shed.

"Yep. But there's one more thing we have to do," I said.

"What?" he asked.

"Put your arm around me and then we're going to walk away at a slow pace." He looked surprised, but he did as I said. With his arm casually slung across my shoulders, we started to walk away.

"May I ask why?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah. I'm taking the blame off your shoulders and putting it on someone else's."

"Whose?"

"You'll see. Three…two…one…" I heard someone curse and I sensed something coming (with a feeling of dread) towards us. I shoved Sirius out of the way and I felt like I was being stabbed with something and whipped multiple times. My legs felt like lead, and I fell to the ground, which was covered with…blood?

"Derek Farr! What the hell did you do?" Finlay yelled.

"Nike? Oh gods, that's a lot of blood," Sirius said, his scared expression coming into my narrow line of vision.

"Ow," I said stupidly, touching my back.

"Hold on," he said. "I'm gonna take you to the Hospital Wing." He picked me up carefully, and then yelled over his shoulder, "One of you run ahead and tell Madam Ashton what has happened!"

"S'not so bad," I muttered. "I'm sure I've been through worse."

"You mean to tell me you've had your whole back torn to shreds before?" He shook his head angrily. "Why didn't you let me take it?"
I coughed. "Well…the blame's all on Derek now—"

"If this was the cost I would've gladly taken whatever they threw at me!"

"Don't interrupt me," I snapped weakly. My head was starting to feel light and my vision was swimming. To say the least; I felt like crap. "I didn't think he would've used a spell that bad."

"Hey, we're almost there," Sirius said, worry seeping into his words. If I had to make a guess…I would say I looked pretty bad for him to be freaked out this bad. But it was just a guess.

"Don't…die…or anything," he said quietly.
I chuckled, and then coughed. "Yeah, right. Me, die like this? Not gonna happen, Padfoot. You're stuck with me, sorry."

"Oh good heavens!" shrieked the Healer. "I didn't think it was this bad! Mr. Black, bring her in here." The light dimmed some and we were in the all-too-familiar Hospital Wing.

"Lay her down on her front so I can see all of her back," the Healer instructed in a concerned voice. Sirius complied and turned my head so I wouldn't suffocate. He crouched so he could look at me.

"You'll be fine. Madam Ashton can fix up anything, I would know," he said, trying to assure me. "I won't leave you until you're ready to leave. That way you're not alone."

"Thanks," I told him. He took my hand and squeezed it softly.

"Oh this is bad," the Healer muttered to herself, making me think the situation was worse than I had thought. "Mr. Black, can you help me clean this up? I've already stopped the bleeding, but I think it might be infected, and I can't use magic."
Sirius paled, which was saying something since he was almost as tan as me. "Yes ma'am." He got up and the Healer gave him instructions. Something was gently placed on my back in two different places, and it stung pretty badly. The pain was horrible, actually. And I was used to pain, I'd become accustomed to it…so…

And then I couldn't take it anymore. With a gasp, I blacked out.

A/N: Oh no! Nike's gonna die! Psh! Yeah right! Not yet, she won't! *cues evil laughter* I never did like Derek anyways...I'll be so happy when I get rid of him for this little stunt.

Anyways...it just seems like Sirius can't keep his hands (actually, more correctly, his lips) off of Nike! Man, is somebody lovestruck, or what? ;)

Okey-dokey! So lemme know what you thought! R&R guys! Or else no more chappys! And we're getting REALLY close to the end, so don't fail me now!

Nike