Chapter Eight
January the Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven
"Davie," Lily asked carefully, peering through the curtains of her friend's four-poster bed. Davie looked up from her Charms text calmly. "Are you coming down to the Great Hall for dinner tonight?"
It had been over a month since the incident in Hogsmeade, and still, no one knew what exactly was wrong with Davie. She had been so reclusive after that night - she seemed quite normal when she was around people outside of class, to be fair, but these occasion were notably few and far between. She instead spent insane amounts of time -- even more time than Lily -- studying, obsessing over the classes she would need to become an Auror. The idea of scrawny, wide-eyed, tagalong Davina Maddux being as good an Auror as her parents seemed far-fetched, to say the least. Even Professor McGonagall, their Head of House, looked upon Davie's decision somewhat questioningly.
"It is an admirable profession," McGonagall had told Davie carefully when she had dropped into the Deputy Headmistress's office to inform her about the sudden decision. "And your marks are more than sufficient -- but I was under the impression that you wanted to teach."
"I did," Davie said plainly. "But -- well, now I don't anymore."
"If this is about what happened to Celesta and Emerson --"
"No," Davie said, sounding unsettlingly chipper. "I've just -- done a lot of thinking and I think they'd want me to carry on where they left off."
Unbeknownst to all of them, it had taken hearing the truth from Snape to come to terms with her parents' death, however slowly. It was too difficult to explain to them what the confrontation had consisted of, and though it was probably a Ministry matter, she considered her issues with Severus Snape personal, so she had opted to keep them to herself.
Today, however, she finally felt a little different, a little better, a little more ready to be around everyone.
"Yeah," she said brightly in response to Lily's question, shutting her book and placing down with a 'thud' on her bedside table - when she saw the surprise it elicited from Lily, she laughed, getting out of her bed and repeating herself. "Yeah, I think I will." Davie followed Lily along to the Great Hall, and upon entering, James pointed them out immediately.
"Oh, you're still going here, are you?" Remus joked as Davie sat down. "I'd completely forgotten -- only joking! It's good to see you."
"And the same," she smirked, wrinkling her nose slightly. "Regards to your grandmother - I heard she wasn't feeling well last week."
"Recovered without a hitch, not to worry," Lily answered for Remus with a small grin - it was quite nice to have someone else in on Remus' secret, and Remus found that Lily had been incredibly understanding of the entire thing. In fact, in the past few weeks while Davie had been unreachable, the fact that James had actually done something so -- so responsible -- had contributed to her ability to at least tolerate being around him, even without Davie.
"Could you ask Davie to pass the pumpkin juice?" Sirius asked stiffly from a few spots down the table. "We've only got milk on this end." Everyone besides himself and Davie shared exasperated looks at the two. Though none of them knew what they had argued about in Hogsmeade, it was clear that Sirius' pride was still badly wounded, and with Davie secluding herself, it had only gotten worse. Lily, however, glanced at the other boys with a knowing grin before Professor Dumbledore addressed the students from his place at the head table.
"Good evening -- I hope your classes today have gone well," Dumbledore said, his warm voice magically amplified in the hall. "I'm pleased to inform you that to date, our First Year students have evaded any serious Potions accidents. I wish," he said, aiming a twinkling glance toward James and Sirius in particular, "that I could say the same for some of our older students."
"But no matter," he continued with a chuckle. "On a more positive note, Professor Slughorn would like to congratulate Miss Lily Evans, Gryffindor prefect, for achieving yet another perfect potions practical."
Lily reddened slightly when James whooped and cheered loudly at the mention of her name; Severus, from the Slytherin table, sneered coldly.
"We would also like to warmly extend an invitation to all students fourth year and above to this year's Cupid's Arrow Ball - due to recent events, the staff had not thought it appropriate to continue, but we could not stand to deprive our students of a small bit of enjoyment. Now, I would gladly entice you all to a delicious dinner, and may the hunt of your escorts begin."
Dumbledore clapped his hand, and food appeared on the table - but as expected, many of the students immediately diverted their attention elsewhere.
"Lily, you knew, didn't you?" Davie laughed, nudging her friend with her shoulder. "You knew they wouldn't cancel the dance this year!"
"Well it's not my fault you never gave me the chance to tell you -- Remus already told James as well," Lily shrugged. "The prefects have been working on it for weeks by now."
"Oh, fine," she grinned, shrugging and reaching to grab herself a turkey leg. While her attention was elsewhere, Lily caught James' eye and nodded towards Davie. James nodded in repsonse, then smoothly turned to Sirius.
"So, Padfoot," leaning in front of him on the table and nudging him in the ribs; he gave a grunt of annoyance at being distracted from his dinner. "What's keeping you?"
"Fraid I'm not following," Sirius said blankly, shoving a spoonful of roasted carrots into his mouth without even looking up. James rolled his eyes.
"You heard Dumbledore. The dance --"
"Right. You asked Evans yet??"
"Don't worry about me," James said, rolling his eyes yet again at his friend's hard-headedness. "The question is, when are you going to ask Davie?"
"I'm not," Sirius said before taking another bite of his vegetables, taking his sweet time chewing.
"Am I hearing correctly?" Remus chuckled, leaning across the table and tapping his fork on the side of his plate. "Sirius Black? Giving up? Am I going to have to ask her again --"
"Try it, Moony," Sirius said in a low whisper, raising his eyebrows in a mock-threat. "And I'll shave off your eyebrows in your sleep - who ever heard of a wolf without eyebrows --"
"Then ask her," Remus said, rolling his eyes - Sirius wondered why everyone insisted on doing that every time he spoke about Davie lately. "Honestly, she's sitting a few seats away from you and you still --"
"You want me to be shot down in front of everyone, is that it?" Sirius asked, laughing incredulously. "Now, Mary Macdonald, there's a girl who won't refuse--"
"Scared?" James asked with a smirk. This clearly sent Sirius singing a different tune - never, never in a hundred centuries, would he allow anyone to think he was scared of anyone, especially not a girl. With a determined frown, he got up and plopped lazily down in the empty seat next to Davie.
"Oh, look!" Lily said loudly, pointing at a random spot by the door. "Someone's brought in a package of Filibuster's Fireworks, I'm going to -- to go give them detention! Prefect, you know -- I, ah -- g'bye!"
Sirius eyed Lily strangely as she quite hurriedly got up and walked away, and Davie turned to face him.
"Alright, ah -- I'll make this quick so you can refuse and I can get back to my dinner," Sirius said quickly; even just speaking with her, it was evident that his ego was still stinging quite badly. Davie, however, did not look nearly as awkward, drumming slightly on the table with the hilt of her spoon. "D'you wanna go to the dance with me?"
"Alright."
"Thought so. Sorry to waste your -- hold on," Sirius said, doing a very blatant double-take at Davie, who had just ruined his very evidently rehearsed response to a seemingly inevitable refusal. "Davie, are you feeling quite right? You recognize who you're talking to, don't you --"
"Are you trying to give me a chance to change my mind?" Davie laughed, giving Sirius' shoulder a light shove after taking a small bite of the bread pudding on her plate. "Didn't you want me to stop being bashful about being seen with you?"
"Davie, I could kiss you --"
"Don't push it," she said, holding up a finger warningly, though her smile remained on her face. "I'd love to go with you, though."
"And I'd love for you to go with me as well," Sirius grinned haughtily. He looked up at James and shot a wink in his friend's direction before turning back to Davie. James then looked up at the doorway until catching Lily's eye -- she had been trying to blend into a group of fourth years playing Exploding Snap -- and gave a thumbs-up signal.
***
February the Fourteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven
"You're going with James?" Davie asked in a shrill squeal as she and Lily were getting ready for the dance. "James Potter? Lily, is there something you aren't telling me? Is he your boyfriend?"
"Is Sirius yours?" Lily said, her voice dipping in playful sarcasm, and Davie fell quickly quiet. Lily dropped it immediately, of course, knowing full well that if she pushed Davie to admit anything about Sirius, it would give her free reign to do the same - not, Lily added to herself, that there was anything to admit. Needless to say, it was difficult for either to reconcile the fact that they were being escorted to a dance by a boy they had erstwhile loathed, and so, neither really tried to do it.
Meanwhile, outside, the boys had already taken up waiting for their respective dates, taking up the lazy red suede chaises situated in front of the fireplace. Remus had left just moments earlier to meet up with his date the Ravenclaw prefect in their year, and even Peter had managed to procure a date simply by riding on the others' coattails: a chubby but altogether not-unpleasant-looking Hufflepuff girl by the name of Heidi Popplefig.
"You don't think this is all a prank, do you, Prongs?" Sirius asked, kicking his feet up and feigning nonchalance, though the fact that for the past five minutes he had been fidgeting with the collar of his navy blue dress robes was a dead giveaway. "They aren't going to just stand us up --"
"Lily wouldn't do that. Dunno about Davie, though," James laughed, though the humor of the statement was presently lost on Sirius, who tugged on the edge of his collar even more.
"I hate dress robes," he grumbled lamely, shaking his head. "They always feel so -- oy! Are you even --" Sirius paused when he saw that James' gaze was directed to the top of the staircase, where Lily had emerged by herself from the girls' dormitory. James beamed like an idiot as she descended in a heather-grey set of chiffon dress robes that draped elegantly over one shoulder; her outstanding auburn hair was twisted neatly at the nape of her neck.
"G'luck, mate," James beamed, clapping Sirius on the back and leaving him at the chairs to offer Lily his arm, still grinning like an idiot. When James left, shooting his best friend a haughty wink at what he felt was a spectacular turn of luck, Sirius expected Davie to follow immediately after Lily -- she often did so, in all their years going to school together, after all. However, after a few seconds without her arrival, Sirius had very quickly taken to shuffling back and forth a bit. The two minutes that followed felt like two hours for Sirius, who was impatient enough to begin with. Had Davie already shimmied out the window and gone to meet a different escort? Was she --
The creak of the door hinge upstairs made Sirius nearly break his neck turning around to see Davie finally emerge. Briefly, Sirius wasn't even sure he was looking at the right girl. As of late, Davie had looked so weary and frazzled and tired - and understandably so - that it felt almost surreal to see her looking so fresh and nearly glowing, clad in a set of periwinkle blue dress robes that fell lightly over her shoulders, dipping low on her back so that her shoulder blades were directly brushed by her long, dark hair.
"Sorry!" she said bashfully, trotting down the stairs to meet Sirius, who had quite eagerly walked over. "I was missing an earring, I must have dropped it under the bed -- I just left it behind when I couldn't find it," she said with an embarrassed laugh. Sirius grinned easily - thankfully, underneath the pretty robes, she was still the same Davie.
"Well," he said with slight hesitation, clearing his throat and trying to keep his attention focused on her face and not the newly visible expanse of ivory skin on her shoulders and back. "Better late than never, I suppose," he chuckled, then began fidgeting around in his pockets, pulling out a small fabric pouch. "Ah, here --"
From out of the pouch, he pulled out a necklace - a delicate chain attached to a jewel pendant of a snowflake that shimmered unlike anything that Davie, coming from a family of sufficient but overall modest means, had honestly ever seen.
"Didn't steal it or anything," Sirius felt the need to explain. "Bought it with the money mum put in my vault before cutting me off. I understand if you don't want to wear it or --"
"I -- I will," she said, slightly awkward. "Wear it, I mean."
"You're sure?" Sirius asked tentatively. "I mean, I know you don't want people staring, and --"
"Let them," Davie said, allotting Sirius a genuine smile - and by the look on his face, she couldn't have made him any happier than with those words. He beamed when Davie allowed him to fasten the clasp of the necklace onto her. "It's really beautiful, thank y--" her voice hitched slightly as the ends of his fingertips brushed the nape of her neck, and his smile ever so briefly turned into a smirk.
"And look at you!" Davie laughed, recovering quickly as she took a step away from Sirius. "We match wonderfully, look at us," she said, gesturing at his dress robes, then spinning around herself - it was, however, not completely by coincidence that Sirius had procured robes to compliment Davie's. He'd done a bit of flirting with Mary Macdonald a week beforehand in order to get the girl to peek into Davie's trunk and let him know the color of her robes.
"Shall we, then?" Sirius asked, offering his arm. When Davie accepted his arm, he finally felt himself breathing with some ease. As they approached the Great Hall, however, Sirius was well aware of the attention they were drawing as a pair, and he worried momentarily that she would change her mind and run off. That, he mused, would be a crying shame considering how wonderful she looked tonight - better, even, than when he had first seen her dolled up to attend the dance with Romnic. In fact, in his biased opinion, she looked even better when she was on his arm than with the Dingbat.
It made Sirius feel even better when instead of her running off, her grip on his forearm tightened when Davie realized the looks she was receiving.
"Come on," Sirius said, leaning close to her ear and speaking quietly to avoid embarrassing her. "Once we get inside and find the others you don't even need to pay them any mind."
"Alright," Davie said with a nervous smile, still looking slightly uneasy at the attention. "C'mon, let's -- ouch!"
Davie wheeled around as much as she could while still link onto Sirius' arm; her smile immediately turned to a glare when she realized that Severus had grabbed her arm, tugging her backwards jerkily.
"I'd like to speak with you, Maddux. I'd --"
"Out of basic courtesy for the fact that I'm her escort," Sirius interrupted, awkwardly giving Davie another tug back towards him so that Davie looked like a gussied up sort of rag doll. "I think anything you have to say --"
"What do you know about courtesy, Black --"
"Sirius, I'm fine," Davie said resignedly, glancing at the door to the hall, being policed by Apollyon Pringle. "Just tell him I'm going to be following in a moment. I won't be late." Sirius glared briefly at the slime ball who had the audacity to borrow his date from him, then nodded, walking towards the Great Hall. Davie, meanwhile, crossed her arms, eyeing Snape with the utmost scrutiny
"Could we step outside?" Snape said stiffly, and Davie hesitantly obliged, following him out to the stairs right outside the Entrance Hall. "I just wanted to say that I was --"
"Sorry? That's what you brought me out here to say? Sorry? Since when do Death Eaters apologize for anything?" Davie asked with light but still venomous condescension. "Well, I'm still an orphan who's going to spend the summer with my Squib of a great-uncle who collects aquarium fish for a living." She gave a weak laugh, swiping her hand over her forehead. "So, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that I forgive you. But I've accepted it. What more is there to do anyway?" Davie paced downwards a few steps before turning back to face Snape.
"You know, when you started acting strange around me, I thought it was because you fancied me -- not because you killed my parents. Talk about getting signals crossed, hm?" she joked frailly. "And you know what else? I don't even think of you in that way. Not at all. But when I thought maybe you did, I actually -- you know what? Never mind --"
"Had a laugh, did you?" Snape sneered, not even sure why this conversation was getting a rise out of him. "Sat down to a butterbeer with Potter and Black about --"
"You think you know me so well, don't you? Because all I am is Lily's best friend, everyone knows everything about me!" retorted in a shrill voice - in the back of her mind she noticed that this was a tone of voice she really had only used on Sirius. "I thought for the tiniest instant that if you'd asked me I'd have maybe, maybe said yes!"
"You think I'm as thick as your friends, don't you?" Snape snarled. "You may have deluded yourself into thinking yourself so desirable that a no one such as myself could not help but be enthralled by your feminine wiles. But don't be mistaken, I don't give a damn about you, Maddux - you or anyone. You know nothing about me, and if you'd been in that building, Merlin knows I'd have killed you too. And you have Sirius Black wrapped around your little finger. You expect me to believe --"
"I thought you were intelligent and interesting! I thought you had depth!" Davie laughed, gesticulating almost uncontrollably with her arms and frankly looking slightly insane. "But Severus, with the sorts of secrets you're keeping, that's more depth than I expected."
Severus was practically stupefied when he saw that Davie's eyes were tearing up, as if, Severus mused, she actually cared what he said to her. Shaking her head, she stalked back up the stairs and into the school, knocking past Severus sharply. Severus, however, could not bring himself to move. Up until then, he had never really thought much of Davina Maddux, one way or another. She simply, in his mind, was nothing special. He certainly did not particularly care for her, not in any way that compared to the deep-seated desire he had for her best friend - he certainly had no right to call Lily his best friend anymore.
But Davie had always been around, had never been horrible to him the way others were. She was certainly not his first choice, but she respected him, had even admired him, treated him with dignity, and now even she regarded him with the utmost loathing.
***
"I don't like this," Sirius said irritably, swirling his glass of pumpkin juice as he stood around with Lily and James, waiting for Davie to arrive in the Great Hall. "D'you see, Prongs? Snivelly grabbed her. Merlin, if I hadn't sworn I wouldn't give people any extra reason to stare, they'd be staring at his severed --"
"Sirius, shush, you'll only humiliate yourself." Lily chided. "Look, she's coming now, don't make her feel any worse."
"Sorry," Davie said, stepping up next to Sirius and, to his surprise, immediately taking his arm, holding firmly as though she actually needed his support as she stood. Just this act moved him to immediately face her. "I didn't mean to take so --"
"You've been crying?" he asked suspiciously, leaning dotingly over her. "Snivelly made you cry? Where'd he crawl off to? I'll hex him to --"
"Sirius, I'm sure there's an explanation," Lily interrupted sharply. "Sniv -- I mean, Severus would never --"
"It's nothing," Davie said in a short, very final-sounding tone, though Sirius looked nowhere close to being appeased by this. "Can we not argue? Sirius -- please," she tugged a bit on his arm, but he continued darting his head around, trying to spot Snape in the corridors. Davie thought for a moment, then added, "Sirius, let's dance, yeah?"
That, it would appear, was so unexpected from Davie that Sirius was distracted from the conversation at hand. Grinning a little goofily, he took Davie's hand and brought her towards the dance floor, placing his pumpkin juice down.
As it would turn out, Sirius Black was a bit of a clumsy dancer, though this did not deter Davie from dancing with him in the slightest. In fact, she found it slightly refreshing that Sirius Black was actually bad at something - Merlin knew, Davie mused, that he had nearly everything else.
"Careful," Davie laughed, holding his hands and mirroring his somewhat silly rocking motions that looked a bit like unpolished swing dancing. "You might take an eye out carrying on this way."
"You don't really mind, do you?" Sirius laughed haughtily, putting his arms around Davie's waist and dropping her into a clumsy sort of dip. The intention, however, was not lost as Davie wrapped her arms around his neck. Indeed, everyone seemed to be staring at them--
--and Davie, quite frankly, did not care in the least.
"Well," James said, spotting them on the dance floor where he was dancing rather tamely with Lily, didn't seem to terribly mind being at the dance with Potter. "They look happy - I daresay we've succeeded."
"We make a good team, Potter, but don't go spreading the word around," Lily assented calmly.
"Hm," James nodded nonchalantly, though he was inwardly rejoicing. It would appear that more than one Marauder had come closer to the girl of their dreams tonight.
***
"You sure everything's alright?" Sirius asked in a muffled voice - by now, the music played in the hall had shifted to slow music, to which Davie's sore feet were endlessly thankful; more than half of the couples in attendance had retired for the evening. Davie's head was rested placidly on Sirius' shoulder, her body swaying close to his. "Because -- Snivellus might still be sneaking around somewhere, I could still --"
"Sirius," she chided, squeezing his shoulder. "Let's not talk about -- about that, alright? I'm fine -- I'm having a wonderful time, and I don't want to ruin it by talking about him."
"Fine by me," Sirius chuckled throatily, contentedly resting his head against hers. Even considering they had been in a hot, crowded room for hours, she smelled… pleasant. Like cinnamon sugar and clean linens, he mused, though if Davie had known that she was being associated with laundry and a pastry topping, she would have perhaps been not entirely pleased. Not thinking much at all, Sirius leaned over and brushed his lips against Davie's temple. "I'm glad you got over yourself enough to come with me tonight."
"And I'm quite glad you got over yourself enough to ask me," Davie laughed quietly. "Even though almost all of the girls in the room have been staring at me like they want to kill me now. I swear, you mark my words -- tomorrow morning before I even get to Slughorn's classroom, ten hexes, straight in the face."
"Well," Sirius said, looking upward and feigning deep thought - Davie pulled back and looked at him curiously. "If your safety is compromised, I could walk you to class - every class, if necessary --"
"That's boyfriend stuff!" Davie interrupted with an incredulous laugh. "That's not where things are with us, is it?"
"No," Sirius said stiffly, forcing a smile onto his face, though inwardly he felt as though Davie had just kicked him in the stomach. "No, I suppose it isn't."
***
A/N's
Poor Sirius! One step forward, two steps back!
To xc1016, thank you for favoriting the story and I hope you continue reading! And thanks noshbucket1018 for all your reviews, and taking the time to send them all at once! Please keep them coming!
I also noticed at the top of some of my chapters, the chapter numbers were wrong, so I went through and fixed them. That's all the notes I have for now! Cheers!