Chapter Eighteen

Early February, Nineteen-Seventy-Eight

Ever since becoming Sirius Black's girlfriend, Davie rarely went anywhere on her own - Sirius, it turned out, was protective to a level that seemed appropriate to his Animagus form; after past incidents, Sirius kept a watchful eye on his girlfriend as though she would at any moment, as he had once put it, 'trip, fall, and land on the wrong end of a Death Eater's wand.'

Today, however, Davie was torn between feeling lonely and relieved to be sitting by herself at a table at the Three Broomsticks for a short while. James, Lily, Remus, and Peter were still at Scrivenshaft's to replace their quills and other supplies, and Sirius had been held up at the castle by Apollyon Pringle after having been caught setting off a Dungbomb near the Slytherin dungeons. This left Davie, sipping on a gillywater and skimming over her Charms textbook, her tan eagle quill tucked into her hair which was gathered into a bun.

"Funny sight, this is. You always hated Charms when we were seeing one another."

Davie looked up and had no words on hand for the particular situation in which she had found herself: facing Romnic Digby. In fact, the pair hadn't spoken at length for a terribly long time, certainly not all year. Moreover, with the events of the past few months and the sort with which she had seen her former beau associating, Davie was unsure of whether or not she wanted to speak with him at all.

"All right, Davie?" he asked hesitantly, walking over and leaning slightly at the table, brushing his sandy-colored hair out of his handsome eyes with the heel of his hand -- Davie recognized this as something that had always been one of his nervous habits.

"Bugger off, Romnic," she replied, looking back down at her book and waving dismissively. "I don't want to--"

"You're doing fine, then?" Romnic asked, overlooking her dismissal and sitting across from her, on the other side of the dark oak table. He leaned across the surface, resting his forearms at the edge. "After --"

Davie scoffed when his voice trailed off -- the simple hesitation was confirmation of what Davie had suspected, that he had been involved in the attacks on Hogsmeade, and even worse, he hardly had the spine to own up to them. "I tried to stop Mulciber as fast as I could, Severus and I both," he said quietly, his eyes darting about shiftily. He was obviously worried, Davie realized, of being seen speaking with her. "I hadn't expected him to use that spell --"

"I'm in one piece still, aren't I?" Davie said, tracing her finger nervously around the edge of her glass. "So your questions are all answered, is that better?"

"You've changed quite a bit since fourth year. Never foresaw you jumping into the fray," Romnic said suddenly; his voice was tight as though he had hiccoughed the words out of his throat. He attempted to laugh when Davie eyed him questioningly. "This -- all this -- is one conversation I never expected to be having you."

"You and I both, Rom," Davie replied, crossing her arms over herself - her distrust, her distaste for him after learning what he'd done, was evident. Davie had still considered him a friend all this time, and he'd managed to keep this from her. She suddenly understood very much how Lily had felt, being betrayed by Severus. "I never expected this from you -- but I suppose I ought to have known better than to trust a Slytherin. No good ever comes of it."

Romnic suddenly looked a bit hurt by Davie's words, and the girl gave a sigh at the doleful expression on his face at her unwillingness to speak with him - Of course he would always be Rom. They had been close for a good while, even after they had dated. They had been friends - though really, they remained that way only because of the fact that Davie's family was of notably Pureblood lineage that Rom's Slytherin colleagues allowed him to get away with it.

"Sirius and the others will be here any moment," Davie said, lifting her gaze from her book and looking Romnic in the eye - he looked tired, though no less handsome, and moreover genuinely concerned about Davie, which surprised her greatly. He seemed to slump back in defeat at the mention of Davie's current boyfriend. He knew that it was Davie's roundabout way of requesting his departure.

"Ah. Right," Romnic said with a huff, standing up from his seat and looking away from Davie. "Well -- Pettigrew told me you were doing just fine but I wanted to see for myself, is all." He paused, then shook his head with a chuckle. "Right, then. Stay out of trouble, little lady."

Davie gave a weak laugh -- 'little lady' had been his nickname for her in the five brief months they had dated in their fourth year. Further review of what he had just said, however, drew something else to Davie's attention.

"Pettigrew? Peter Pettigrew?" she asked. The fact she had spoken up caused Romnic to halt suddenly, almost catching his foot in the throw rug on the floor as he turned around. "Since when does Peter talk to -- to any of you?"

"He, ah--" Romnic paused, as though there was something he wanted to tell Davie. It certainly was unusual for Peter to talk to anyone that James Potter hated, and James Potter most definitely hated Romnic Digby by virtue of his questionable associations. But what he was planning on saying, Davie would never hear, as Romnic quickly looked up and nodded in greeting somewhere behind Davie. "Wotcher, Black."

Sure enough, Sirius had walked in through the door and immediately caught sight of Romnic Digby hovering around his girlfriend. He immediately nudged past brusquely and sat in the seat Romnic had erstwhile occupied. In response to the fair-haired boy's greeting, he gave a careless grunt and nod.

"I'll be going," Romnic Digby said, clearing his throat and hurrying out the door, leaving Davie with a very annoyed Sirius Black.

"'Wos he doing over here?" Sirius asked suspiciously, pushing Davie's glass of gillywater out of the way, scratching across the table a bit.

"He was just worrying about me, after -- well, you know," Davie said dismissively, immediately pulling her glass back towards her in defiance. "D'you know that Wormtail's been talking to him about us? He knows we don't trust that lot, why would --"

"Worrying about you -- not really Dingbat's job anymore, is it?" Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. Davie huffed in concession, taking a sip from her gillywater and reclining a bit in her chair. "He was probably trying to get information out of you about --"

"Are you even listening?" Davie interrupted, lowering her glass with a loud clink and leaning across the table towards Sirius. "Isn't Peter always with us? When does he have time to go speak with --"

"We're not talking about Wormtail --"

"I'm talking about Wormtail!" Davie said in a low, frustrated tone. Sirius, however, would hear nothing of anything else except for why Romnic Digby was suddenly so concerned about his girlfriend.

"I don't suppose you recall that he tried to kill your friends," Sirius said sourly, drumming his fingers impatiently on the surface of the table. "Honorable intentions, Davie, but honestly, do you need to forgive everyone? Do you need to be on good terms with everyone?"

"It would be nice," Davie said airily, crossing her arms. "I don't think we need to fight over this, he was simply checking up on me --"

"He doesn't need to check up on my girlfriend. D'you think Mary Macdonald would entertain her ex-boyfriends checking up on her if I was dating her?"

"I don't doubt it!" Davie retorted with a derisive chuckle. "Honestly, if you'd like to see for yourself, you're more than welcome --"

"Would I be getting like this if I wanted to break things off with you?" Sirius said in exasperation, grabbing the glass of gillywater and slamming it slightly on the opposite side of the table. "Honestly, Davie! I'm only getting like this because --"

"Getting like what?" Davie interrupted, her expression slightly going impish rather than infuriated. "Jealous? Sirius Black --"

"Again with this," Sirius said, rolling his eyes, though well-humored this time. "I told you already - I never get jealous."

It would seem for the time being that the pair of them were doing fine for the rest of the day - after meeting up with the others, they spent the remainder of the Hogsmeade trip getting along quite well. By the time they had boarded the carriages back to the school, Davie was back to using Sirius as a backrest as was her habit, and Sirius had his arm draped lazily over her shoulders, tossing the contents of a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into the air and catching them in his mouth.

"You play a good game of fetch, Padfoot," Davie laughed, pelting him with a popcorn-flavoured bean as they walked into past the portrait of the Fat Lady and entered the Gryffindor Common Room; Sirius ducked, and the bean skittered to the floor. "Here have another!"

Davie raised her arm to chuck a curiously colored bean at Sirius when she noticed a dark auburn barn owl swoop in through the nearby window - she hadn't noticed it approaching, considering it was already dark outside. She paused when the owl landed on the table in front of her, turning its big yellow eyes toward her and giving a series of hoots.

"For me?" Davie asked, leaning over near the school owl and untying the letter from its leg. Undoing the green string, she unrolled the letter just as the others settled into a sort of semi-circle around her.

Davie,

We need to speak to one another about the incident at Hogsmeade last year. It's urgent.

Greenhouse Three. Come alone.

Rom

Davie blinked unsurely at the letter - it was clearly written in Romnic Digby's hand, as she had often commented on his remarkably neat penmanship ever since they were young -- a Slytherin trait, she jokingly called it.

"I think you know better than to respond to vague invitations you receive via owl post," James said, reaching over and plucking the parchment out of Davie's hands gently. "For all we know, they're all playing another trick on us -- first Snape tries to roast us, maybe now Digby's going to try and drown you. Or throw you off the top of a tree --"

"Well, I'm curious," Davie said defiantly, though she directed her response towards her boyfriend more than anyone. "If you're all so worried then you can come along, can't you?"

Sure enough, Sirius would never have allowed Davie to go alone anyway -- Remus and Peter agreed to keep watch by the window of the common room, considering the fact that four nearly-eighteen-year-old Marauders and Lily Evans would have a terrible time trying to fit underneath James' Invisibility Cloak. Meanwhile, James, Sirius, and Lily followed behind Davie to make sure she wouldn't run into any unexpected surprises, the way she often did.

They made it out of the Entrance Hall and onto the grounds -- Davie ducked behind a planter box briefly at the sight of light still in Hagrid's hut at the edge of the grounds, but quickly gathered the gall to scurry past and reach the greenhouses.

Romnic had no doubt, Davie mused, chosen Greenhouse three because it was in the precise center of all the greenhouses, meaning it was far easier to hide. The only thing Davie could note about the location at present, however, was that it was disconcertingly quiet. Romnic was always a consummate gentleman to her, and a gentleman did not keep a lady waiting -- had he not been the one who requested their meeting?

Davie crossed her arms and took a few steps forward in the space in front of Greenhouse Three -- her foot landed on something that rolled and caused her to stumble so that she had to stick her hand out to brace herself against the supply shed. Crouching down slightly, her forehead crinkled at the realization that it was a wand on the ground. It mostly belonged to one of the first years. Possibly a Muggleborn that still had not gotten the hang of carrying a wand all the time - Davie remembered the days well, back when even Lily had to occasionally be reminded to pick her wand up from her bedside table before going to class.

Further examination, however, yielded that it was made of oak, and bore a Slytherin crest on one face of its hilt, and a monogram reading 'RD' on the other. And then she noticed the sensation of the wood beneath her other hand.

It was dark out already, and so, difficult to see anything with much clarity, but Davie's stomach immediately seemed to drop when she glanced at the surface of her hand. Her pale skin was glazed with something dark and sticky. Blood.

"Rom?!" Davie called out, wheeling around and looking around in the darkness. At the sight of Davie's panic, her friends came out from under the cloak, running over to her. "Romnic, come out here now, this isn't funny!"

"Someone's been hurt -- I'll call Dumbledore," Lily said in panic, looking down at Davie's hand then sprinting back toward the school as the boys continued looking around warily, making sure no one was lingering around waiting to attack them. All was quiet here. Whatever had happened, had happened a good while before they had arrived.

Davie could not tell how long it took for Professor Dumbledore to arrive on the scene -- seconds, or minutes, or perhaps seconds on the minute -- but her gaze was glued to her hand. They all assured her that they could not know for sure at the moment, but she was convinced that this was Romnic's blood.

"He was -- he was going to tell me something about what happened at Hogsmeade, he was only trying to help me," Davie said, shaking her head. "He told me he'd been worried about me --"

"Davie, we don't know what really happened to him," Lily said, gripping her friend's shoulder gently as Dumbledore gestured for them all to go back inside. "We can't jump to conclusions, for all we know, he might just have never come out, or sent someone else, or --"

"It must have been Avery -- Avery didn't want him to tell," Davie said quickly. This, after all, was something she would never put past him. It was something she would quite honestly expect from any of them. "I should have let him say what he wanted to say, Rom was so nervous when he spoke to me at Hogsmeade --"

"Maybe he was nervous because he was trying to chat up someone else's girlfriend --"

"Sirius," Davie hissed angrily. "You can't be sensitive at all, can you?"

Davie could not sleep for that entire night. She couldn't finish the last five inches of her Charms essay, and she certainly could not stomach breakfast the next morning when Professor Dumbledore made the announcement from his seat at the High Table that a student had gone missing, and that in light of this, the upcoming dance for the upperclassmen was cancelled. Davie glared across the room at the Slytherin table - was it just her, or did Avery and his lot not even seem concerned that one of their friends was missing?

"Shouldn't they be more bothered by all of this?" Davie asked in frustration as they all filed out of the Great Hall and towards their respective classrooms. "But they were just sitting there eating as though --"

"It's breakfast," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "What else is someone supposed to do at breakfast? Honestly, Davie, you act as though your boyfriend is the one who's gone missing but in case you've gone blind, I'm still right here."

"It's Romnic," Davie explained in exasperation. Glancing around, Davie tugged Sirius into an alcove behind a tapestry and lit the end of her wand. She certainly didn't want to have this conversation with him in the middle of the corridor while everyone was on their way to class. "You know who I'm talking about? The first boy I ever dated? The first boy I ever kissed --"

"I had no idea he was so memorable for you --"

"Are you really going to get jealous over this, Sirius?" Davie asked, eyes glimmering angrily and struggling to keep her voice down. "It's not enough for you that I'm with you now? You have to be the only person in my life that matters? Doesn't matter that Rom's been a good friend to me --"

"A good Death Eater friend," Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. Great chums you both have been lately. That's certainly the type I'd like to cozy up to as well. Are you going to do that when you're an Auror too? Working undercover --"

"I'm not allowed to be affected at all for the fact that someone I've been close to for a long time could be dead, Sirius?" Davie asked in a dangerously calm, cold voice. "I'm not allowed to feel terrible that he was out there to help me find out what had happened? Forget that I dated him for a moment, I'm not allowed to care that one of my friends could be dead because of me?"

Sirius' jaw clenched visibly on one side - he hated when Davie was correct, or when she had a point at all, if it meant he was the one in the wrong. He understood what she was saying but Merlin be damned, he loathed the fact that she was so concerned about someone that wasn't him. It wasn't even so much that he was angry at her -- but for his entire life…

"D'you wish I was more like him? More Slytherin-like?" Sirius asked, feigning nonchalance. "Just like my mum and brother? Just wishing I would be more of a Slytherin, stop letting everyone down --"

"What are you on about?" Davie asked in exasperation. "This isn't about you Sirius --"

"You would've dated me earlier if I was more like Rom, wouldn't you?" he continued. "Because you're just as bad as my mother! Disappointed in me -- bloody hell, I'm sure my mom would swap me for Romnic Digby any hour of the day as well!"

"I'm not swapping you for anyone, Sirius!" Davie said, reaching out and grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking her to face him. "And he's not more important to me than you are, I just didn't think I was expected to choose! I didn't think you needed my constant, undivided attention just to convince your ego that you're more important to me!"

"Sure! I'm more important when I'm the one who's spent two years pursuing you when you were too embarrassed to even be mistaken as my girlfriend! Everyone's humiliated by me!" Sirius said with a harsh laugh. Davie groaned, tilting her head back and clenching her eyes shut momentarily to keep from rolling them.

"Is this even about me, Sirius?" Davie asked, shaking her head at him. "Is this about me or is this about you? You and your mother?" She raised her hand and began moving the tapestry out of the way to leave and go to class when Sirius reached out, grabbing her gently by the forearm, pulling he back in. Davie sighed, glancing back at Sirius tiredly as she allowed the tapestry fall back over the entrance to the alcove.

"Davie," he said, torn between remorse and exasperation - it simply seemed that the closer they drew to graduation, the more strained things seemed to be getting between them. "Alright. Alright, it's not anything you did." Sirius groaned, pushing his hair from his face - he actually seemed to be sweating a bit as though he'd had to run a marathon to arrive at the decision to even talk about this. "But you have to admit -- from where I'm standing --"

"In a hole in the wall behind a tapestry --"

"Now who's interrupting?" Sirius harrumphed sourly. "Anyway, you have to admit - after my own mother sent me packing for not being Slytherin enough to be a Black, it's not exactly music to my ears to hear my girlfriend bawling her eyes out over a Slytherin as well --"

"I'm not bawling, I'm just worried!" Davie retorted, trying to restrain her obvious frustration. "It has nothing to do with him being a Slytherin. He happens to be a Slytherin, and I liked him a lot at one point. I love you, right now."

The side of Sirius' mouth quirked up, and he almost smiled. "So, ah -- if Digby never turns up again?"

Davie grimaced and exhaled quietly, silenced for a moment before shrugging. "I'll be sad. I may cry a bit. I'll miss him," she said honestly. "But if I don't lose you then I haven't come out too shabby, have I?"

Sirius chuckled, tipping the bottom of Davie's chin playfully with the side of his knuckle. "Not too shabby at all, I'd say. I'm quite a catch."

***

A/N's

And another chapter down! I've been much more busy lately, so the updates aren't quite as fast as usual. School is insane lately, and I wanted to make sure I had time to respond the way I always do.

To Padfoot'sPixie, sadly, for the most part, this is going to follow the book - meaning at some point, you'll be seeing Sirius in Azkaban, and how Davie responds to it. That's where everything goes nuts.

To dancingqueensillystring, Sirius and Davie will end up together one way or another, but I don't want to ruin too much for you all. But the simple answer to your question is yes. It's actually in the chapter I'm working on proofreading right now - which is not going to be the next chapter, but rather, a few chapters down the road.

Also thanks to x romantica, and MissChristinaBlack, for subscribing!v Hope you're enjoying!

Look for another update in a matter of days, and hope that my schedule allows me to be more frequent with this! Cheers!