Chapter Thirteen

November the Third, Ninety-Seventy-Seven

It had not taken long at all after pulling the trick with the Room of Requirement for Lily and James to emerge as boyfriend and girlfriend - when they arrived back in the common room beaming like idiots, hands clasped, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Davie immediately started whooping and cheering. If anyone had failed to notice their entrance at first, by the time they had even reached the other side of the room there was certainly no one unaware of the fact that James Potter and Lily Evans - seventh years, Head Boy and Head Girl - were an item. And quite frankly, in the months that followed they were probably the happiest, most smitten couple the school had seen, something for which their friends had no shame in taking credit.

Very soon, however, Lily and James felt that now their relationship was official, there was a favor that badly needed repaying. They sat together on the common room couch one night - Davie had needed to go to the infirmary after catching a bit of a cold, and though she reminded them all was perfectly capable of going down to the infirmary and asking for a Pepper-up Potion on her own, Sirius had insisted upon accompanying her. As the pair had left the common room with Sirius attempting to support Davie as though she'd injured herself in some way, and Davie swatting him away insisting it was completely unnecessary, James craned his neck to stare out the door after them.

"I have an idea --"

"James, they're a bit more complicated than we are, and a great deal more stubborn," Lily said knowingly. "We can't just shut them up in a supply closet and hope for the best - they'd sooner blast their way out than own up to anything."

"I know," James said, looking slightly disappointed. Lily leaned against him, and he played idly with her hair as he thought. "They'll never admit anything without a direct confrontation --"

"An argument, you mean."

"Precisely," James said with a smirk before leaning over and placing a kiss on Lily's forehead. "I'm going to require the assistance of my beautiful, brilliant girlfriend, though - this could be a bit messy."

***

The next morning, James and Sirius had left early for Quidditch practice - James, being captain of the Gryffindor team, had taken Sirius on as Beater in their final year - leaving Remus and Peter with the girls before class.

"Oh, dear!" Lily said with an exaggerated gasp - she had never been one for lying. She gestured toward the table just as they were on their way out of the common room. "It looks like Sirius left his Transfiguration book --"

"That's fine," Davie said, waving her hand dismissively and continuing across the common room. "I'll just share mine --"

"No!" Lily said quickly, picking up the book, glancing pleadingly at Remus, who was also in on what Lily and James had planned. "I -- well, I don't think --"

"Don't be silly, Davie," Remus said matter-of-factly, reaching over and taking the book out of Lily's hands when he saw how much trouble she was having trying to manipulate her best friend into anything; it was simply against her nature. "Sirius is never going to learn any responsibility if you're always there to cover up for him. Here, you bring it to -- whoops!"

The book slipped out of his hands, landing open-faced on the floor and revealing a folded pink sheet of paper. Unable to help herself, Davie bent down and picked up the book and the carnation-colored stationery separately, unfolding the note with one hand - it smelled faintly of floral perfume, a scent so saccharine that Davie thought she'd become nauseous if she had to smell it for long. In Davie's opinion, it smelled very much like a homeless person trying to cover up the fact that they had not bathed in any decent amount of time.

"Dearest Sirius," she read aloud shamelessly; Remus and Lily looked at one another, then looked at Peter with a shushing signal when they noticed his confused expression. "I had a -- a wonderful time this summer. Can't wait to -- brilliant!" Davie said, crumpling the note and tossing it into the nearby fireplace. She stormed off so quickly, the others hardly were able to catch up with her before she reached Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"G'morning, Sirius," she said stiffly, standing across the desk from him and looking frigidly calm. "You forgot something upstairs."

"Ah -- thanks," he said, shooting her a grin and commencing to move his things from the seat next to him; lately, she had been amiable enough with him to even sit with him in class on occasion. "Dunno what I'd do without you, Davie. Here, sit -- McGonagall never marks you tardy but you wouldn't want to --"

She glared briefly at him - he hadn't the slightest idea why, he'd been at Quidditch practice all morning, so there was no way he might have said something nasty to her this early - and slammed the book harshly down on his desk, storming to the other end of the classroom, refusing to even speak a single word to him for the entire class period. Two hours later the clock chimed, signaling the end of class. Davie, who usually waited for everyone else so they as a group would drop Lily and James off at Arithmancy before heading back to the common room, immediately stood up and made a beeline for the exit; Puzzled, Sirius weaved his way around the desks, following Davie out of the classroom despite her obvious attempts at avoiding him.

"Someone spit in your cereal this morning?" he asked, prodding Davie lightly in the back. She swatted his hand away. Sirius thought they would walk off to the Common Room for their free period they way they always did. Lily and James glanced at one another, then decided to follow the pair in case things did not go quite as they had planned, or at least to watch the show a bit before needing to continue to Arithmancy.

"Davie!" Sirius called out, still trying to shove all of his things into his book bag while he was walking, nearly running into a suit of armor between looking down at his bag and up at Davie. He quickly realized they were not going at all in the same direction as usual when he saw Davie walk straight out the doors of the Entrance Hall, out onto the grounds. "What are you so --"

"Would you go away?!" Davie said shrilly, wheeling around to face Sirius as they neared the more open spaces of the grounds; Davie was clearly angry and prepared for a fight, as she dug her heels into the slightly damp ground. "Or are you going to tell me about what lucky girl you showed a 'wonderful time' this summer? Since we're such good friends now --"

"What are you --"

"Just shut up!" Davie interrupted. "You're the on always going on about how I --"

"Even if there was a girl this summer, what's it to you?" Sirius said in a tone that Davie could not tell was a bluff, his voice raising in volume to match Davie's as he started taking longer strides to catch up with her. Her legs were far shorter than his, but, Sirius noted, she must have been determined to keep away from him. "You didn't even speak to me for the entire summer! It's not as if you --"

"I said GO AWAY!" Davie yelled, drawing her wand on Sirius as they neared the middle of the grounds, near the edge of the lake. They were lucky nearly everyone would be in class or en route at the moment, as the commotion seemed to be drawing the attention even of the giant squid. Sirius could have sworn he saw the shadow of an abnormally large tentacle moving under the water. "Get away from me, or I'll --"

"You'll what? Hex me? Go on! Hex away, then!" Sirius retorted, throwing his arms out dramatically, though this move would prove be a mistake on his part, as Davie did precisely as she was told, tossing a hex in his direction. Sirius only just jumped out of the way, and the hex took a bit out of a nearby tree - the three would recover, but Sirius noted with a gulp that had she blown a hole in his arm, it would be much harder to repair.

"Oh dear," Lily said with a grimacing, quite tempted to hide behind James in case Davie started hurling hexes in other directions. "This… is not the result I was hoping for."

"Nonsense. That's just the way they are," James said, looking as nonchalant as if they had been a pair of toddlers playing a game of leapfrog. More than nonchalant, he actually looked slightly pleased with the way this was going, as though he knew something that Lily didn't. "This is a good sign, Lils. Trust me."

"You're on the juice, aren't you? Got into a bottle of firewhiskey this morning," Sirius continued to yell at Davie, looking as though he was about to pull out his hair; Davie still had her wand drawn on him. "Because you're not making any bloody sense --"

"You go around acting like you fancy me so much when you're seeing Merlin knows who, and I'm the one who isn't making sense?!" Davie yelled, her voice cracking slightly from overuse. "Who is it? Mary Macdonald? Merlin knows she's willing, any time, any place --"

"You don't want to be my girlfriend, so why are you --"

"YOU NEVER ASKED ME!"

At this, Sirius was struck absolutely dumb - she was angry that he had never actually asked her to be his girlfriend? She had wanted him to ask? Sirius could not for the life of him figure out how he was supposed to have figured it out, Davie had never shown any problem with the fact that they weren't a couple before. She had always seemed to have an aversion to it, in fact.

Neither would really later remember who actually initiated, but before either had even really cooled off or thought things through, they were drawn together very much like magnets, kissing quite fiercely -- it was quite lucky for them that Apollyon Pringle very rarely patrolled what students were doing outside unless alerted to do so, because they continued on in quite the same manner for so long that Lily and James, with one last triumphant glance, had to leave for class.

Davie and Sirius only separated at the sound of Fang barking from Hagrid's hut a bit of a way off - they quickly jumped apart and waved with large, flushed grins when Hagrid peered out of his window. Then, smoothing out their now rumpled clothes, they turned awkwardly back to face one another.

"So," Sirius began, scratching the back of his neck "Do you --"

"I, ah -- I didn't hit you with that hex, did I?" Davie stammered nervously. "I really didn't --"

"I'm fine," Sirius laughed. "Now, stop changing the subject." He moved closer and placed his hands on Davie's shoulders. "But a bit tired, come to think of it. Are we going to continue yelling and hexing one another, or are you going to be my girlfriend already?"

At first, Davie paused, looking directly at Sirius in total silence - had there not been a growing autumn breeze making the grounds pleasantly chilly, Sirius was sure that he would be covered in sweat, though he wasn't sure why; he had never worried about being turned down by any girl in the school, many of whom were much more popular than Davina Maddux. Still, Sirius felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach as he thought of all the possible ways she could shoot him down… 'You must be insane!', 'Never in a hundred lifetimes.', 'You must be joking.', 'Never --'

"Alright."

Sirius froze, blinking incredulously and sure that he had to be hearing things. "C-come again?"

"Sirius Black," Davie laughed, grabbing him playfully by the collar and yanking him a bit closer. "Are you trying to give me a chance to change my mind?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius beamed, dipping in to kiss her again.

When they walked into the Great Hall for lunch later that day, looking slightly disheveled, beaming widely with Sirius' arm wrapped around Davie's shoulders, her head resting comfortably against , James grinned and leaned over to give Lily a playful kiss.

"We're brilliant - you should consider being a Marauder full-time."

Lily looked at James his her eyebrows raised. "I think all of that lying made me break a sweat," she admitted, looking scandalized. "It took me nearly an hour to pen a note in writing Davie wouldn't recognize."

"You?" Davie said, picking up on the conversation and scurrying over, though she was still tightly holding Sirius' hand, tugging him over; glances at the pair came from up and down not only the Gryffindor table, but from a fair few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well. Davie glanced over at her friend, looking absolutely dumbfounded. Lily simply grinned sheepishly.

"Well," she said, with a hint of mischief in her voice that had clearly come from hanging around James Potter a bit too much as of late, "it was the least I could do, don't you think?

***

A/N's

Ta-dah! My early Valentine's Day gift of sorts to all of my readers -- Davie and Sirius are finally an item, and…Lily played a prank! And as a bit of an Easter Egg (though most of you probably won't care) the date on this chapter does have a significance. Lily and James are plotting about this on the third of November, and the plan takes shape the next day, making it the fourth -- November fourth is the date way back in 2005 when I started dating the man who would become my husband. I think that counts as self-insertion, but I couldn't help myself on this one. Anyway -- about time, right? Considering their first kiss was in chapter four. Nine chapters to make it official!

In upcoming chapters, we will still have teenage-fluff, for a good while, but there's also going to be more action - I'm not the best of action writers, but I'm going to give it a shot! That chapter will be up sometime after Valentine's Day whilst I massage it and try to get the action scenes a little more clean. Until then, cheers!