Part Three: Escape From the Leaky Cauldron
Sirius couldn't get enough of Delilah. After they finished the first time, they talked for a bit, keeping their distance on the small bed so that no skin touched skin.
"You're sure they're gone? You saw them with your own eyes?"
"Yes," he said evenly. It seemed surreal, still. "And Snape tried to kill me."
"He thought you killed Lily," she justified.
"He killed Lily! And James! And he would've killed Harry and me to cover it up-."
She stopped him by kissing him. Delilah didn't want to argue about Severus, and talking about Lily and James was making her sad. In a second she was sliding one leg over his to straddle his hips. He welcomed her warmth against him. One hand hooked under her thigh to lift her so he could tug the blankets out from between them. Modesty always seemed to fade at the prospect of sex. Pausing a moment, he retrieved another condom from the jeans tossed onto the floor and rolled it on.
He watched as she lowered herself onto him, stretching and squirming and whimpering when he filled her all the way, hitting extreme spots; so deep that he reached the end of her depths and touched her barrier. And she was still sore, but the occasional ache of muscles that had never been used pulled her back into the moment, kept her mind from wandering to recent horrid events.
They moved together that way for a long while. He rocked his hips against her, sitting up to taste her breasts again. And Delilah pushed herself up and down, slowly at first, then harder, with desperation, needing a climax for the clearness of mind that came with it.
And after they finished, again they talked a little.
This time, he wrapped an arm around her. Her head rested on his chest, but they were both facing the ceiling so it wasn't as if she were nuzzling into him romantically, or out of need.
"When we clear your name what's going to happen with Harry?"
"If," he corrected.
"So what? Joint custody?"
He huffed the short laugh she loved. "Joint custody. Like that boy needs any more instability in his life."
"Well that leaves you out of the parenting thing."
That time he didn't chuckle. It seemed a very intense thought, to suddenly be parenting your best friend's child. He slid out of the bed in a quick motion, turned back to her and hooked both hands behind her knees, dragging her toward him. He lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and scrabbled to hold herself up, keeping tight to his slender body as he carried her to one of the wooden beams that protruded vertically in the middle of the room.
For a minute he just plunged his tongue into her mouth desperately, grinding his length against her still sopping passage and delighting in the moans that echoed into his mouth. Then he dropped her legs so she could stand, half a head shorter than him. He dropped to his knees. One hand reached out to sift through the clothes for yet another condom. Delilah wondered what kind of man carried so many condoms around on a day-to-day basis, remembered their school days and brushed off thoughts of dozens of women. Besides that, his other hand pushed her legs open and crept to her slit. His fingertips skimmed along her clitoris and again spread wetness around.
His mouth replaced the fingers a second later, just for another taste. She hissed and let her head fall back. Then without warning, he spun her around to face away from him. His tongue trailed up her left thigh, then his hands were grabbing her hips roughly, and as he stood he pulled her back against him, then he flattened her against the beam again, pinning her so his erection pressed against her ass.
The thud as she connected with the beam made her heart flutter, that and the rough hands with the exciting position worked a moan out of her. He took her from behind.
They sank onto the bed, this time though he had turned her to face him and they each laid on their sides. He had one arm draped over her, to wrap around, holding her body close against his.
"So what is all this?" she asked.
"I don't know. What do you think?"
Delilah inhaled slowly. Sirius felt her chest expand and graze his lightly, then she was nestling closer to him. She said, "I think this feels pretty good. And since I don't want you to feel easy, I'll take you out to dinner sometime."
"Fine by me."
"Maybe tonight."
Half the day had wasted away.
"Sure."
"Let me ask you something... do you regret the way you treated Severus in school?"
"I'd have regret the second I did it, but I'd always do it again." The tone of his voice was low and she could tell it was genuine; which, coming from Sirius felt a little terrifying.
Delilah was shaking slightly, on the cusp of something impossible. "Why?"
"I don't know."
It wasn't a satisfactory answer. She sat up, pulling the covers up to her chest. "What do you mean, you don't know!? You just saw someone defenseless and your first instinct -it was just in your nature- to cause them pain!?"
He pushed himself up to her level and tried to kiss her to draw them away from the conversation. But she shoved him away with a hand flat against his smooth chest.
"No, answer me."
"I don't know," he breathed. "Maybe. Maybe it's in my nature to hurt people. Or maybe my mother would have loved to have Snape as a son, he was a Slytherin, he was calm, he was dignified. Maybe I thought I was going to marry Lily my first year and I hoped he'd kill himself. Maybe I just didn't like the way he looked at me, like he knew I was skin deep." Sirius had fallen back to lay on the bed, and he looked at her, waiting for judgment. "Are you leaving?"
Her eyes scanned the room. The pile of clothes, her kicked off sneakers. She settled back into the bed, facing him. The least she could do, she thought, was be a fraction as honest as he'd been.
"No. I've been in love with you since school, I don't think I'm leaving." She felt herself shaking faintly. It was very genuine, and she laughed suddenly to break the tension. "Except for that one day I was in love with Remus. How mean of Lily." The tears spilled and he pulled her in close, enclosing her tightly in his arms. "That's not true, I take it back," she said. "She wanted to help."
"With all the love potions flying around those days, I thought James or Remus gave me one for you, but they didn't."
More shocking, genuine words that seemed foreign, coming from him. He'd thought he'd been given a love potion. He hadn't been. Real emotions, he really cared about her.
"You're scaring me," she admitted.
It seemed to make him remember something. "Why are you the way you are?"
He didn't need to explain. Delilah was a shut-in, too good, too pure, too quiet. "My parents."
"What are they like?"
"They're swell," she snapped, "I hate them."
"Alright. So you have all your issues... how did you join the Order?"
"Dumbledore asked me. Lily and James and Remus were all in it, so I... conquered some anxieties. And really, I was never afraid of dying."
"Ever wanted to?"
The question was disturbingly blunt. Without dwelling, she answered honestly, "Yes. You?"
He gave a slight nod.
"We're more similar than I thought."
"I have to find Peter. Or find what's left of him."
"Don't be cruel," she snapped, and sat up on the bed, pulling the sheets along with her to cover her tiny body as she collected her clothes.
"You don't have to come," he said, "Maybe it would be better if you stayed here."
"Not happening."
She slid her jeans on, suddenly shy again. With one hand she clutched the sheets to her chest, sliding on her bra and then wiggling into her shirt one arm at a time. Sirius dressed, and was pulling on the ragged strips of fabric that made up his shirt when Delilah sighed.
"Come here."
She waved her wand silently, and the rips knitted back together. He was reminded briefly of possibly the only nice thing his brother had ever done for him; before he'd gone to Hogwarts and been sorted into Gryffindor and the family had shut him out. Regulus had fixed a tear in the knee of his pants, probably only because it was bad for everyone when mother started yelling. When he pulled on his jacket and she saw them there, too, she murmured, "Jesus, what did this?"
"Sectum Sempra, I believe."
Delilah frowned. "Severus did this?"
"Indeed he did. He also used the Cruciatus Curse on me and nearly brought the whole house down over our heads."
She slipped on her sneakers without untying them. She couldn't look at Sirius as she said, "Not that it justifies what he did, but he loved Lily more than his own life. He didn't kill them."
"People change when facing Voldemort."
"Just trust me," she pleaded, grabbing his hand as he tried to move by her for the door. "I'm as sure that he didn't kill them as I am that you didn't kill them."
Looking back at her, he softened visibly. "Fine, he wasn't the one. Let's go."
And moving to the back door of the room, which would lead to rickety steps down into the streets of Diagon Alley, Sirius paused a moment. "How're you feeling?"
"Pleasantly sore," she answered without missing a beat.
He smiled for an instant, but the silence between them was broken by a sudden call from out in the hall, beyond the front door.
"Sirius Black! You are wanted for questioning by the Ministry of Magic, in connection with the deaths of Lily and James Potter! We have the building surrounded, please come out with your hands up!"
Sirius swore under his breath. He moved to the window that overlooked the back alley and peered between rungs of the blinds. When Delilah tried to follow his lead, he caught her arms and ushered her back to the bed, sitting her down.
"Wait."
And he dropped flat near the front door, and slid a knife from his pants pocket, using it to pop a small circle of wood lose in the floorboards. Delilah figured they had to be right over the tavern, and she heard him swear again.
"Too many that way. The alley looks clear but I'm sure there are others."
"Can you apparate?"
"Won't risk it, I'm exhausted. You should get out of here, you're not involved."
"I'm not strong enough to apparate."
"You can fly, then."
"No. What are we gonna do?"
His bewilderment as he heard the term 'we' was precious.
"Oh, please," Delilah hissed. "Get over yourself, I'm not letting them take you, you won't ever come back."
"You don't know that. There are laws-."
"No. Crouch dismissed right to trial by jury, he's letting Aurors use the unforgivable curses, it's madness trying to round up all of Voldemort's followers. At the very least you'll be kept and tortured and the trail on Peter will grow cold." His face drained of color at what she was saying; the memory of the Cruciatus curse still made him flinch. "And at the worst, they'll send you straight to Azkaban."
He had to find his voice. "You're staying here."
"No, I'm not," she said firmly. "We're walking away from this, together, and we're going to find Peter, together."
"YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE!" came an abrasive call from near the end of the hall. The ministry agents were creeping closer, closing in.
Sirius fell to his knees where he'd sat Delilah on the bed.
"If you help me, it is a crime!" he whispered furiously. "Do you understand that!? We'll have to fight them just to get out, we'll be on the run!"
"As far as everyone else is concerned, you're guilty. You're not, so if they put you away for this, my conscience... -and Lily and James don't get justice. Don't argue, we're out of time."
He bit his tongue and waved for her to follow, then peaked out the blinds.
"THIRTY SECONDS! COME OUT, NOW, OR WE'RE COMING IN!"
"Three," Sirius murmured, "-stay close to me, if I get bogged down, keep going-, two, one-."
He flung open the back door and they both careened out onto the rickety landing. Sirius jerked Delilah to the side just as a spell, a flash of white light zipped by and collided with the wall past where she'd been standing. It exploded outward with a bang and knocked them both over the railing of the stairs, so they hit the ground hard a moment later.
The room had flooded with ministry agents behind them, who were thrown back as well by the blast.
A formally dressed redhead, a little robust and growing red in the ears, twitching in his wand hand, had thrown the spell. He crept out from the alley and aimed at Sirius, voice quivering. "S-stay right there."
The unfortunate ministry agent hadn't noticed Delilah, knocked a few feet further away and clutching her wand -fourteen and a half inches of rowan, phoenix feather core- She couldn't hear over the ringing, but her lips formed the word, "Stupefy!" and the redhead stumbled before falling flat.
More agents were pouring out of the room. Some had singed clothes that still smoked faintly. Another emerged from behind a stack of crates at ground level, and flicked her wand. Sirius swept his around and it deflected the burst of blue like it had hit glass, ricocheting to strike the owner. She fell back.
A dozen wands lifted on the stairs, lips began to form words. Sirius covered under one arm. Delilah was lying at the bottom of the steps. She placed a sharp kick to the support beam in the corner and pain rattled along her leg up to the knee, but the beam snapped and the entire structure went toppling. The ministry agents were thrown, clutching for the rails and losing their concentration.
Delilah rolled away just as the stairs crashed into the ground where she'd been, and a dozen people were scattered, slamming hard into the dirt.
"Delilah!" a voice called, which she hardly heard over the throbbing of her eardrums.
But she looked up as she stumbled to her feat, hissing in pain as her left leg collapsed. She fell right into Sirius, who held her up and slipped an arm around her. For a second they were both looking straight into the face of Remus Lupin, the first on his feet and with his wand raised, but not acting. He seemed unsure, he couldn't believe he was seeing them together.
"Remus-," Delilah started to say, but Sirius dragged her away, and they ran with her limping on one leg, leaning on him for support. They headed for an empty alley, moving past the woman who'd been knocked out by her own spell, and Sirius toppled a stack of crates of empty bottles, blocking the path.
A host of spells shot after them, and he turned to block them, though one made it past and a tie synched together her hands. She kept hold of her wand, though Sirius had let go of her for a second and she crumbled on her broken leg.
He caught her hands, still bound, and wished he hadn't lost his knife. He looped her arms around his neck, supporting her again so they were very close together, and started off again at a jog.
"Sirius!"
Remus alone had clambered up the mess of broken wood and glass at the start of the alley, and he slid down the other side, stopping in a defensive position with his hands bloodied.
Sirius aimed his wand as well. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know what to believe, you were the one we agreed upon for Lily and James." His voice was ragged, his eyes were red. It all seemed to be gnawing at him, and if Delilah didn't know better she'd think he was fighting a full moon.
"We're going to find Peter," Sirius said quickly, "we changed him to the secret keeper, I don't know what went wrong, yet."
"I can't let you go. After this it's killing, not capture, you need to come with me. If you're innocent, trust in Dumbledore and the ministry-."
"I won't see a trial, Remus." His voice had gone quiet, his face had tightened into focus. "Trust me, trust Delilah. Let us go."
"You shouldn't have dragged her into this."
When Remus hesitated for another second, and another figure began to clamber up the mess of glass and splinters, Sirius flicked his wand and Remus stopped the spell with a sweep of his arm. His face softened, and he dropped into the shadows of a side alley.
They turned and limped away, making it out onto the main street unperturbed. Well-dressed and shabby-looking witches and wizards alike were walking the streets of Diagon Alley, though many had taken notice of the loud explosion and gathered outside on the curb by the Leaky Cauldron. Eyes turned to the two limping people who came from the alley where the explosion had happened. A wild commotion came from behind the building, but as of yet they were the only ones to make it out of the alley.
"Stop right there!" One brave woman yelled, pointing her wand.
"Expelliarmus!" Delilah said.
The wand shot into the air, to the tune of a hundred gasps and a startled cry.
From behind them, a cold voice echoed the command and her own wand slipped out of her grasp. They wheeled around. Sirius threw a disarming spell at the same moment as Snape did, and they collided meaninglessly in the air. For a second there was silence and dread squeezed Delilah's stomach. The crowd behind gave a cheer, for Snape.
"Well look at this," he said, much more quickly than usual. "A dangerous criminal, and what looks to be his hostage-."
Delilah struggled at the tie around her wrists, then hissed, "I'm not a hostage. He's not a criminal."
"The ministry wants you for questioning, Black. I offered my services especially for this."
Sirius said nothing.
Delilah changed her tone, pleading now. "Severus, please, trust me. I want to find the person who killed her, too-."
"You have. You're just too blind to see it."
"Severus," she murmured, "Please. You have to believe me."
A sharp blast cleared away the rubble of glass and wood that blocked the only way out to them. The ministry was coming.
"Fly away," Sirius hissed at her. "I'll follow."
"No-!" she started, but it was too late.
He threw a spell that she didn't hear and Snape did the same. They each blocked and shot another, and while Snape advanced with cold murder in his eyes, blocking with another sweeping motion, Sirius jumped to the side, falling against the brick of a secondhand shop.
He had let Delilah go. She had no choice but to do as he said, and with a loud POP she transformed into a little blue bird with a brilliant orange breast, and was fluttering over the heads of the gasping crowd, watching.
The men had each thrown another spell, but were fairly evenly matched and neither landed a blow. Sirius flicked his wand out and back, casting the disarming spell, "Expelliarmus!"
Snape blocked it, but missed when Sirius flicked his wand again, silently, and his opponent's wand shot up into the air. Gasps from the crowd. Seeing his opportunity, Sirius righted himself, though it was a struggle to stand on his own, and licked his lips.
The kingfisher floating above the crowd chirped shrilly.
Sirius sighed, summoned Delilah's wand where it had fallen to the ground, then waved his own and the vines creeping up a tavern's walls to one side of the street lunged out, enclosing on Snape's wrists and around his center. They dragged him in and soon he was a cocoon of furled, black robes, struggling furiously.
The crowd began to break apart and several people charged forward with their wands. The agents came streaming from the alleyway behind the Leaky Cauldron. Everything seemed to slow for a second. Sirius sent a shot of red sparks out of his wand, which was enough to buy him a moment as the ministry agents flinched.
Sirius was gone when they looked again, and the first to make it to the alley saw no one standing there; only a large, black dog padding away.