Chapter Thirty Seven
September the First, Nineteen Hundred Ninety-Five
"So make sure you remember," Davie nagged. "The instant you start to feel any different, speak up and we need to go straight back to Grimmauld Place."
Faux-teenaged Davie and Sirius had taken a very complicated route to their destination upon Davie's insistence in order to avoid being traced. They had first transfigured their clothing into large, oversized traveling clothes in order to get them to Diagon Alley, where they could use magic more freely. They then slipped off into an alleyway and Apparated into the Shrieking Shack, just outside of Hogsmeade once they were sure that they appeared in every way to be teenagers again - the instant they arrived, Davie had drawn her wand and transfigured their dingy clothes into crisp, new Hogwarts uniforms, complete with Gryffindor badges and trimming on their robes.
"Bloody hell, I'd forgotten I used to walk around with bare legs like this all the time," Davie said, looking down at her legs in the pleated skirt - she'd forgotten that she'd once been especially vane about her legs, and now, she felt fourteen again - she tugged at the hem as though it would somehow make it longer, taking awkward steps as though a single whisp of wind would make the difference in retaining her dignity. Sirius, however, glanced Davie up and down; he had not forgotten for an instant. This was the way he remembered her, and being like this - being young and spontaneous - made it only more difficult to constantly remind himself that she was no longer his.
"Come on, we still have time to get to the carriages - we've only just beaten the Hogwarts Express. We can't stay long. Neither of us is technically supposed to be seen, no matter what age," Davie said, grabbing Sirius by the wrist and practically dragging him away. They practically sprinted out of the Shrieking Shack, across the abandoned High Street, and into the throng of students at Hogsmeade Station.
"I can't find them," Davie said, only now recalling how it felt to wade through a sea of students. "We'll need to catch up with them in the Great Hall - find us a carriage with some second years, they won't ask many questions about not recognizing us."
"Yeah, sure, whatever you -"
And Sirius froze.
As they approached one of the carriages, he blinked in surprise at the sight of the ugly, skeletal creatures that somewhat resembled half dead, emaciated horses which pulled the carriages which, to his eyes, had always moved on their own when they had been students. He knew, of course, that they were thestrals - creatures that could only be seen by people who had witnessed death - but it did prepare him to actually be able to see them now.
"You too, then," Davie asked, and Sirius did not even have to turn around. He could hear the sad smile in her voice. It was even more a testament to how much things had changed in the past fifteen years. They hadn't yet been able to see the thestrals, even when they were in the Auror. They hadn't actually watched anyone die, even if some among them were dead. They had always somehow managed to evade it. But Sirius had seen people die in cells across from him in Azkaban, people receiving the Dementor's Kiss and wasting away to nothing. Davie had watched people cursed irreversibly by Dark Wizards take their last breaths. She had seen Dark Wizards in Bulgaria choose death over evading capture.
Sirius shuddered slightly as he climbed in to the carriage, extending a hand to assist Davie, who now accepted without question. Suddenly, it didn't matter who they were in the carriage with - they attempt to fill in their roles as students, all the while trying not to look at the thestrals.
However, once the carriages arrived and allowed the students to disembark at the steps of Hogwarts, both of them seemed to let out a long-held breath of relief. Hogwarts looked very much the same - the lake, the lawn, Hagrid's hut, and on the far end of the grounds, the greenhouses. Unable to help himself - it seemed that along with an eighteen year old body, he also seemed to have regained his very lax sense of self-control - Sirius nudged Davie with his elbow and chuckled.
"You remember those Greenhouses, don't you?" he asked huskily, an impish grin spreading across his face. "The time Apollyon Pringle caught us running out from behind the greenhouses so we wouldn't be late for Potions? And you accidentally put on my tie in stead of yours? It was so long, it practically went down to your knees, I can't believe you don't remember -"
Davie's face went bright red at the memory of their youthful trysts behind the greenhouses, and for a brief moment, she looked as though she would punch Sirius right in the nose, but instead, she turned on her heel and tromped off up the stairs. Sirius grinned victoriously, however, at the fact that for a split second just as she was turning away, he caught a grin creeping onto her face. Of course she would smile, Sirius thought proudly. Those were among some of their best memories of their simplest times, what reason was there not to smile?
Sirius and Davie walked side-by-side into the Great Hall with the other students and immediately spotted Harry with Ron and Hermione. They hurried over, sitting across the table from Harry without explanation - they could pass for students, and hopefully would not be asked too many questions by other students. Sirius leaned across the table right in front of Harry and chuckled, "Oy, Potter, could you pass the pumpkin juice?"
"We're still - hold on, who are -"
Harry paused, staring at the two unfamiliar figures who appeared only a year or two older than them. He'd never seen them before, but according to their robes, they were in Gryffindor. They ought to have been here, he ought to have known them, but he was sure he had not seen them in all his years here.
And then, something clicked. Harry remembered the photo that he had seen of the old Order, remembered how young and handsome his godfather had been. It had only been in a photo but -
"Is that you?" Harry asked incredulously, not daring the risk of saying Sirius' name out loud. By now, he had nudged Hermione and kicked Ron under the table, and they leaned across the table conspiratorially, staring at the pair.
"Miss Maddux?" Hermione asked, brow furrowing. "How did you -"
"A bit of charms work I whipped up - I'm sure you could do the same," Davie said with a knowing grin. "We can't stay long, we just wanted to make sure you lot got here safe, reacquaint ourselves with the school -"
"See there," Sirius muttered under his breath, slinging his arm over Davie comfortably the way he had down many times before when they were students. Harry and the others blinked in surprise at the fact that instead of recoiling, she leaned casually into his shoulder as he nodded at a point across the room, the Slytherin table. "The blonde boy - that's Cousin Cissy's son, Draco. If we'd have gotten married, he'd have been your nephew."
"Well, it's good to know that my decision reaped something good, he looks like an absolutely horrid boy," Davie said with a slight snort, which caused Sirius, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all to begin laughing, though they clapped their hands over their mouths to keep from drawing attention to their group at the table.
"If my mum were alive, she'd insist we marry our firstborn daughter off to him -"
"But - inbreeding! That's disgusting!" Hermione huffed in a hushed tone, but to her surprise, Davie did not appear to share the same reaction.
"It's not even that," Davie said, reaching towards the candy dish in the middle of the table and unwrapping a foil-wrapped piece of fudge. "Considering Pureblood Wizards have survived for years without any major deformities - bloody hell, Sirius, the Madduxes go nearly as far back as the Blacks, I'm sure even we're related somehow. If the Malfoy boy wasn't so horrid, there'd be no issue, but -"
"But he's horrid," Harry confirmed - he still seemed a bit cross after recent events, but managed a smile. Davie pointed at him and nodded in agreement.
Sirius and Davie basked in the next few minutes, listening to Dumbledore address the students - it was pleasant to feel like they were teenagers again. Sirius, especially, allowed himself to be immersed in the illusion - Harry was not Harry. Harry was James. However, when a frog-like woman by the name of Dolores Umbridge took the stage, Davie blinked, pointing at the stage as inconspicuously as possible.
"I remember her - when I tried working at the Ministry, she was only an assistant, what is she -"
But before she could finish, something else caught her attention that genuinely made her chill - a few seats away from Umbridge at the High Table, Severus Snape was staring directly at her and Sirius. He would no doubt recognize them - Davie had not even thought to consider his presence here. She grabbed Sirius' arm sharply.
"We need to leave - now," she hissed urgently in his ear, yanking him closer. She herself had no desire to leave either. It felt good, to be back in a familiar place, in her eighteen-year-old body, with Sirius next to her - but it did not change the fact that things were now very, very different. "Snape is looking -"
"Since when have we ever let Snivellus ruin our fun?" Sirius chuckled jovially, and Davie rolled her eyes - Sirius reverted so easily back to his old way of haughty nonchalance, she ought to have known she couldn't drag him away so easily. To make things even worse, with a broad, toothy grin, he raised his hand - and waved.
"Sirius!" Davie hissed, yanking him up hard to his feet, and with surprising strength, she pulled him out of the Great Hall. Once they had left through the large doors and found themselves in the school corridors, however, Sirius took the lead, pulling Davie around through the familiar halls which he still knew like the back of his hand until he reached the statue of the hump-backed witch. Glancing around carefully, they opened the passageway and clambered into the hole in the statue.
In the dark passageway that led to the Honeydukes basement, Davie and Sirius paused to catch their breath, assured that no one else would have left the feast to follow them for the time being. Once they emerged through the secret door in the basement of the candy shoppe, Davie clapped a hand over her chest, crouched over slightly. Sirius, on the other hand, began laughing uncontrollably - Davie eyed him, looking completely scandalized.
"That was - augh!" Sirius laughed, unable to even formulate a complete sentence. "Look at you - same as ever, always worried about getting caught -"
"This was dangerous!" Davie said shrilly, wide-eyed at Sirius' reaction to the entire situation. "I can't believe that you managed to talk me into this."
"You came up with this all on your own!" Sirius retorted. "I don't recall ever saying 'oh, Davie! Turn us into teenagers so we can go back to Hogwarts!' so unless -"
"I wouldn't have thought of it if not for you!" Davie replied, gesticulating widely with her arms. "I was completely fine staying in that house and doing as I was told, it was only because of you -"
"That's how it's always been, hasn't it? All because of me…"
Suddenly, Sirius' tone was not argumentative, but suddenly very somber, so much that even Davie lost her ability to argue with him. He took a few steps closer to her, and Davie blinked unsurely, her knees shaking slightly. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook his head slowly.
"I can only hope you'll forgive me," he said coarsely. "But we're here. We're here. I have to -"
And instead of finishing his sentence, his leaned forward, pressing his lips to Davie's.
Better sense dictated that Davie should have shoved him aside and given him a fierce rebuke for the fact the he allowed the Anti-Aging charm upon the both of them go to his head - but in truth, all of this was getting to her as well. Her knees still shook, now even worse - Sirius felt the quavering and without breaking the kiss, gently backed her petite form against the wall to hold her up. Davie wrapped her arms around his neck, breaking the kiss and burying her head in the curve of his shoulder.
"You remember this place," she said quietly, not looking up so that her voice was slightly muffled, and Sirius froze as well, though he did not release her, still holding her against the wall. He hadn't realized where they were until Davie had brought it up. He had not even realized he'd brought her straight to the site of their first kiss. "I suppose, well - I suppose it's only natural we'd be drawn here. It's a reflex, you see," she stammered. "We're retracing -"
"Would you stop trying to make sense of everything?" Sirius asked quietly, chuckling throatily. "This is like trying to have a conversation with a textbook."
Davie was struck briefly speechless, recalling how Sirius had said the exact same thing when they were fifteen years old, twenty years ago. It had been twenty years since then, since they had been bickering teenagers that could be nowhere near one another, and twenty years since the kiss in this very same place managed to change everything between them. How, then, did everything feel so much the same?
Satisfied with the lack of protest on Davie's part, Sirius leaned over and kissed her again - he smiled when he as he snaked his arms around her waist, her fingertips pressed into the back of his neck the way she had always done when they were young. This was precisely he wanted, for things to feel the same as they once had, and somehow now, after he had last all hope of the possibility, it was coming true. He had been just as sure as Davie that all of this was over, but now he was face with the very real possibility that it did not have to be.
"I love you," he said throatily, breaking the kiss briefly before he could even remember his promise not to dwell on this again.
"I love you too," Davie replied - she added no conditions to the statement, no arguments, no rebukes. She simply said it - Sirius felt an almost explosive warmth throat his body, and he began to kiss her with more urgency, drawing their bodies closer to one another, basking in the familiarity of having the soft curves of her petite form meshing warmly against him.
However, in the midst of this kiss, almost simultaneously Sirius and Davie felt an unpleasant sensation, almost like something tugging away under their skin - they quickly pulled apart and looked at each other, realizing that after twelve surreal hours of returning to their youth, their time was up.
"We need to go back. We need to leave, now," Davie grimaced urgently as the sensation slowly but steadily intensified into something that was almost pain. She grabbed Sirius' forearm and tugged. "Can you Apparate?"
"Don't worry," he nodded, brow furrowed - truly, he did not want to return to Grimmauld Place, but at this point, he was very abruptly faced with the fact that it could not be avoided. "I'll get us back."
A/N's
I've managed to update before my birthday! The night before to be exact, so come tomorrow, and come the next update I will be twenty-one! I've gotten a lot of feedback since the last chapter, and having the same happen on this chapter would be one of the best presents I could ask for.
I hope you guys won't hate me too much for skewing some details of what's in the books, hopefully I didn't get too carried away in taking artistic license.
Thank you to AYNIL, SilverWolf77, Chigu, chloe94, , Cici Linne, Priyu0624, AddictedToPotterAndProudOfIt, and Miorochi for favoriting and subscribing.
And for review responses: amrawo and Wateranddarkness666, I'm you liked the Davie/Harry interaction, there will be more to come, especially after some of the more traumatic events hit. To CC, your review put an enormous grin on my face. I love knowing that people find my characters well-developed, I've put a lot of work into over the course of writing fanfiction. Thank you also to AddictedToPotterAndProudOfIt and Priyu0624 for reviewing. I hope to hear from you guys again!
The next couple of chapters that I have written will be some of the more dramatic bits of the story, in which Sirius and Davie make a breakthrough, and more details of what happened while Sirius was imprisoned will be revealed. I hope to have those up for you guys soon. Until next time, cheers!