Chapter Fourteen

December the Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven

"Sirius, we can't skive off of Potions, what about -"

"C'mon," Sirius laughed, tugging Davie Maddux out of the school building, across the grounds, darting around to avoid being caught. The petite girl put up a bit of struggle, attempting to yank her wrist away to no avail. Sirius merely chuckled in response, shaking his head as he and Davie made their way past the lake. "Just one class, it won't kill you. We'll only be a few minutes, on my honor."

Davie hesitated; she certainly didn't feel comfortable missing class. She always felt as though she had to exert so much extra effort to be worthy of being best friend to Lily Evans, who happened to be Head Girl. Sleeping in class on occasion was a vice for which Davie was apt to excuse herself- she often stayed awake much later than the others in the tower trying to cram a few extra chapters of studying in - but skiving off completely, her conscience would not often allow. However, considering she had been spending so much time with Sirius lately, and Sirius thought they would be able to get away with it…

"Oh, alright," Davie laughed, and Sirius tugged her off to an isolated alcove between Greenhouse Five and the Herbology supply shed. Teenagers, it appeared, would be teenagers.

"So," he laughed huskily, shifting Davie so that she was leaning against the wall of the supply shed; the space was so small that Davie had nowhere else to put her arms except on his shoulders. Sirius certainly did not mind the proximity in the slightest. "I've finally gone and done it. I've corrupted you. The Head Girl's best friend -"

"- and the Head Boy's best friend -"

"- snogging behind the greenhouses."

Davie laughed quietly, raising an eyebrow. "We're not snogging, Sirius."

"Bollocks, you're right!" Sirius said, snapping his fingers, feigning surprise and realization - Davie, in response, gave him a playful pinch in the stomach. He grinned down at his girlfriend, glancing suggestively at her lips. "That should be remedied immediately."

Davie was growing quite accustomed to kissing Sirius Black, and he was rather good at it. Perhaps it was from experience, she would sometimes muse to herself, but she didn't consider it an issue of much importance. She couldn't think ill of him, considering she had spent a good portion of the past few years unwilling to be publicly seen with him; what else was to be expected of a teenage boy? She reached out, loosening the tie of his uniform somewhat clumsily, nestling into the curve of his neck as he moved his hands over her waist.

"I think this is far more educational that Slughorn's class," Sirius laughed throatily. "Completely worth skiving off of class if you ask me."

Davie squealed comically when Sirius grazed her neck with his teeth, faintly marking her pale skin, He chuckled when she pushed him backwards in surprise.

"Sirius!" she yelped, laughing as she playfully evaded his attempts to kiss her again. "You can't keep doing that -"

"You're a witch, and a damn good one," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure you can cover them up. Now -"

"Well, well."

Both Sirius and Davie looked up in surprise at the sound of wheezing, stiff voice, and Davie turned a bright shade of scarlet at the sight of the caretaker, Apollyon Pringle. The two teenagers were consequently too riled up to even come up with a believable excuse; Sirius had stammered something about looking for shovels to harvest bobotubers, and Davie had said mentioned something about running errands for Hagrid.

Eventually, however, both simply had to accept a ten-point deduction from Mr. Pringle and tromp abashedly back to the castle. When they arrived in the Entrance Hall, however, Sirius caught sight of Severus Snape, standing with his arms crossed by a suit of armor with an expression of cold glee. Davie went red in the face when she realized that Snape had clearly seen them on their way out, had told Apollyon Pringle that he'd spotted them skipping their classes. However, while Davie was overcome with embarrassment, Sirius' grey eyes glinted with a very different sort of emotion.

"Snape," He hissed - he had as of late, for Davie's sake, made what was in his mind a valiant attempt not to call him Snivellus. His hand twitched, moving slowly toward where he had his wand stowed in his pocket "That slimy -"

"Sirius," Davie said in a placating tone, giving his itching wand arm a sharp tug as they watched Snape turn the corner, disappearing into the Great Hall. "Just drop it - can't do anything about it now." Sirius snarled resignedly, wrinkling his nose and baring his teeth a bit, which led Davie to jokingly point out that perhaps he was taking his Animagus form a bit too much to heart.

"Could be," Sirius said with a smirk, stopping in his tracks. "D'you think you could scratch my fleas for me?"

"Not in public, Sirius!" Davie beamed, giving his arm a playful pinch, and the two burst into a fit of very childlike laughter. Two girls in the Great Hall peered out from their table, seething with jealousy at Davina Maddux for being the object of Sirius' attention; while they doubted this would be a lasting sort of romance, she was certainly the only one he had ever focused on for this long and even that was enough of a reason to dislike her.

"Can you believe her?" one of the girls hissed, a bit louder than she needed to. "I wonder what sort of Love Potion she's come up with for him. It must be something strong, I find it hard to believe that Sirius Black is so arse-over-elbows for her, she's nothing special."

Davie gave a chest-heaving sigh, turning red in the face for a second time in only the past few minutes - why did she have to attract this sort of attention all the time? She glanced at a nearby suit of armor, wondering if she ought to just hop inside and hide until people forgot about her. Forever, possibly.

"Don't let them get to you," Sirius said, brow furrowing slightly. "We both know -"

"I'm fine!" Davie interrupted, forcing a smile onto her face. Sirius had known Davie long enough, however, to know when her smile was completely fake. He groaned a bit, stepping in front of her once they had cleared out of the view from the Great Hall, and blocked her path, grabbing her gently by the arm.

"Is it this again? You don't want anyone looking at you?" he asked, slightly exasperated. "I thought you didn't care what other people thought -"

"I said I was fine!" Davie said in a shrill whisper, tossing her arms out to the side. Sirius rolled his eyes in resignation and gestured for her to pass; there was simply no arguing with her when she was like this, and after going out for a little over a month now, he knew better than to try unless he wanted leaves sprouting from his ears. Davie had gotten to be quite good at hexing, and terribly creative at that. He could only be glad that she hadn't started coming up with hexes when they still hated one another, or he'd had spent more time in the infirmary than in his classes.

"Alright, alright," Sirius said, following behind her. "Well, are we still going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"I don't know, maybe you're too embarrassed to be seen with me."

"Well, it's a bit late to be secretive about it now, isn't it?" Davie added with a laughed, finally turning around to face Sirius and grabbing his hand. "Tomorrow. It's a date -"

"- to Madam Puddifoot's."

"No." Davie said resolutely, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows at Sirius. "I'll vomit, I swear to you, and you'll never hear the end of it. You'll never get me to set foot in that ghastly place. Never."

"Why not?" Sirius asked with a laugh. All the other girls seemed to find the tea shop rather quaint. In fact, many of his other girlfriends had insisted upon going there on a first date. This often contributed to the reasons why there was never a second, and while it was a source of the utmost relief that Davie had such a distaste for it, her reaction at the suggestion never ceased to amuse. In the eyes of Sirius Black, this was one of the very things that made Davie Maddux absolutely bloody perfect.

"Hard lines, mate," James laughed when Sirius recounted his and Davie's story about being caught by Apollyon Pringle the previous day. Today, the entire group had gathered in the Three Broomsticks for lunch instead of sitting outside in the snow. "Snivelly's out to get us both, it seems. S'wot the Room of Requirement is for -"

"James!" Lily squealed, swatting her boyfriend on the arm. "Really, you don't need to tell everyone -"

"You've been using the Room of Requirement! And to think, I was ashamed!" Davie laughed, looking immensely relieved, leaning against Sirius as she took another gulp of her gillywater.

"Why are you drinking that?" Sirius asked, rolling his eyes. "You should've ordered a butterbeer or a mead, you're only going to complain about how cold you are once we get back outside."

"- anyway," Davie laughed, waving off Sirius' chiding. "Pringle was just out to get us. We were only, you know, talking -"

"Ten points each for talking! I believe that's the first time I've heard that one," Remus laughed, leaning across the table and clinking a fork against Davie's glass. "What were you two talking about that required such privacy?"

"If I told you, I might have to kill you. Highly confidential," Davie beamed, yanking her glass away across the table and placing it on a coaster next to Sirius' butterbeer. "Honestly, Remus, I -"

But what Davie said, they would not find out. Before she could finish, there was a distant bang - Davie flinched immediately, and Sirius reflexively grabbed her hand. No one considered it an overreaction that Davie was taken aback by such sounds in Hogsmeade, it had happened just the previous year after all. It certainly would not have been the first time it had marked something bad happening. However, this time, instead of cowering, she began shoving Sirius to get out of the cushioned chair of their booth.

"Come on, come on, let's go!" she insisted as they all stood up from their chairs, filing outside behind the other inhabitants of the Three Broomsticks to see what the noise was. No one else, however, seemed to want to wander off and investigate, instead coalescing in the middle of the High Street buzzing loudly about what the sound possibly could have been.

"We're being attacked again! Help!" came a shrill scream belonging to a freckled third-year girl, and instead of doing anything productive, everyone began doing what young people often do in times of crisis - they began compacting into an even tighter group, giving various exclamations of panic. Lily, James, and the others had to shove and squeeze against the flow of people to try and get to a clear space, namely a very leaky cobblestone alley behind the Three Broomsticks, where they all waited for a few moments until they had all arrived.

"It came from somewhere behind the tree line," Lily said in a low voice, gesturing into the distance - Davie recognized that location from the previous incident in the village, but said nothing. Lily looked at her best friend resolutely. "We should go, come on -"

"No, you're not going," James said, holding Lily back gently, but at the idea of being stopped simply because she was a girl, Lily glared, grabbing Davie by the wrist. The two girls darted away, and the four exasperated boys could do nothing except chase after them.

"It sounded like it came from here," Lily panted, still running with Davie alongside her.

"There's a clearing up ahead," Davie nodded. "We might be able to - ah!"

Davie squealed as she felt her foot catch on something on the ground, causing her to fall forward, but when she looked down to see what it had been, she saw nothing. Her fall, however, had given the boys enough of a chance to catch up, just as Davie pulled her wand out of her pocket, pointing it at the approximate location of where she had tripped.

"Revellio!"

After a small jet of light emitted from her wand, it seemed to hit an empty space, until with a flurry of sparks, a large rock appeared in a patch of ground that appeared flattened and trodden on.

"A rock?" Sirius asked as he walked over, pulling Davie up to her feet. "What prat would take the trouble to hide a rock? As if someone would be interested in stealing it. Say we crack it open and see if there are a few galleons hidden inside -"

"Maybe someone playing a practical joke," Davie said matter-of-factly. "Not like you've done that before have you -"

"No, I don't think so," Lily said, brow furrowing. She pointed her wand at the rock, and with a flourish, moved it out of the way to reveal a small hole in the ground that housed a pile of dark fabric.

"Robes," James said in concern. "What would they be -"

"They're Slytherin robes," Sirius said distastefully as he pulled one set out of the hole pinched between his fingers to show them to the others while making as little physical contact with them as possible; there must have been five or six sets still remaining in the hole, all bearing Slytherin crests. "Merlin knows how long they've been here -"

"Not long." Davie pointed out, yanking the robes from Sirius' hand and eyeing it critically, pinching the fabric with her fingers and squinting at it, looking a bit like a detective. "Look, the creases from folding aren't very deep, and there's not much dirt on them. These have been worn recently."

It appeared that Remus was about to speak up when from the surrounding trees, there came a strange sound, sort of a clicking noise that echoed in the grove of trees around them - was it clapping?

"Good show, children. Very clever," came a familiar voice that all of them recognized but couldn't immediately place. A dark-hooded figure in a mask stepped into the clearing, clapping its gloved hands; he was soon joined by five others, surrounding the lot of them in the clearing.

"Get behind me," James said to Lily, but she glared defiantly, her green eyes glinting as she drew her wand, stepping away from where James had directed her to stand. "Lily, would you get out of here?"

"Don't do anything stupid," Sirius murmured, trying to grab Davie by the arm and move her backwards as well, but she yanked herself out of his reach; her eyes narrowed at him slightly at the idea of having to stand behind him while this was all happening.

"D-de-death Eaters," Peter stammered, pulling out his own wand but clearly not sure of what exactly he was going to do. He looked clearly more terrified than any of the rest of them - while Lily and Davie showed complete aversion to hiding behind anyone, Peter would have gladly taken the offer for a place to hide and allow this entire confrontation to simply pass him by, as everyone knew that Peter Pettigrew possessed absolutely no talent as far as dueling went. The hooded figures around them all laughed at the chubby, shaking boy.

"Is this who we're going to be exerting our efforts on?" said the first Death Eater to appear in the clearing. It did not seem at all coincidental that suddenly, the wintry wind that had been present for the entire day seemed to have gone still, silencing even the rustling of fallen leaves. "A couple of bookworms and their boyfriends?"

"No one sent us," Davie hissed angrily, a tone of voice with which her friends were thoroughly unfamiliar - she seemed to be overflowing with absolute anger and loathing and determination. "No one needs to send us to do their dirty work, you useless, mindless -"

"Pellera Maxima!"

In a flash of deep purple light, Davie was catapulted backwards, hitting a nearby tree and falling forward onto the ground. She groaned, clutching her arm tightly, writhing in pain before even trying to get to her feet.

"I suggest," the Death Eater said with a dark laugh, starting to circle around the group with his wand drawn and ready, "that you take your leave and allow us to have our fun, before -"

"FLAGRATE!"

"Padfoot, no!" James said, holding out his hand to try and stop his friend, but a long whip of fire was already slicing through the air, skimming the front of the lead Death Eater's robes. Immediately, a flurry of hexes began flying through the air, just as Davie was struggling to push herself to her feet.

The group of Gryffindors was equally matched by the Death Eaters in number, but clearly not in experience in dueling. Sirius almost immediately suffered a large cut above his eyebrow, and Remus had to dive to the side to avoid losing an arm to one of the Death Eater's hexes.

Davie, now finally standing but holding her wand a bit awkwardly in her left hand rather than her right due to her fall, was clumsily hurling hexes toward the Death Eater that was creeping towards her.

"Davie, leg it, would you?" Sirius yelled over his shoulder, preoccupied by his duel with another Death Eater. "Get out of here!"

Davie, however, didn't even look at him. She refused to budge as the much taller Death Eater stalked towards her. She shakily raised her wand, and yelled, "Expelli-"

"CRUCIO!"

The scene seemed to freeze as Davie let out a loud, shrill shriek - her muscles moved involuntarily, her eyes were clenched shut excruciatingly - every vein in her body seemed to be pumping through with acid, her nerves were on fire - no one was stopping it, too awestruck at seeing an Unforgivable Curse performed on someone for the first time. Davie felt her vision starting to fade into blackness in response to the excruciating pain before she heard two male voices yell a disarming spell at her attacker - but the voices didn't belong to Sirius, or James, or Remus, or even Peter.

"You fool!" Davie heard one of the familiar voices hiss angrily, just as she dropped weakly to her knees. "Not - that - spell! We'll be seen!"

The Death Eaters immediately broke into a run, and Davie vaguely felt a hand on her back before she crumpled completely, her eyes fluttering shut.

A/N's

And there's me, dabbling in some action scenes - don't worry, Davie isn't dead! She's just been manhandled pretty badly. Cookies to anyone who can figure out the two who saved her - it's not too hard, if you've been reading a bit closely.

Thanks to Rugglet for subscribing! Also to hootieootieootie for their reviews. Hopefully my action scene didn't let you down! And to cherryblossom2revenger, I noticed you like the fluffy scenes! Tee-hee - the chapters are going to get a bit dramatic and serious now, since we're getting into the real world, and the Wizarding War and whatnot - but I will always try and make room for sweetness and fluff!

Also to *cassie*, thank you for your constructive criticism - I'm trying my best to make Davie seem as real as possible, and to me at least, real girls are worried about not standing out enough, because they aren't extraordinary, or haven't found what they're extraordinary at. Also - I personally get really annoyed trying to write in first person perspective, it's just hard to do for me. Thank you for helping me improve as a writer!

At the rate this story is going… it appears that it might hit fifty chapters, unless I shave it down and take out some of the events I had written in. Any objections to a really long story? Feedback is always appreciated! Cheers!