Chapter Forty-Two
September the Seventh, Nineteen-Hundred Ninety-Five
"'Wos that?" Sirius asked groggily as he walked down the stairs into the receiving room at Grimmauld Place, glancing around for Davie - she'd insisted the previous night that she had a very important task to fulfill that required her to go alone to Hogsmeade, and Sirius To his surprise, when he woke well into the next evening as he had a tendency of doing since he was locked up in the house, he found Davie curled in her usual armchair, looking quite enthralled in a magazine article - this would not be unusual if not for the fact that she was under nearly the same orders as himself, which were to remain inside. There were no magazine vendors inside this home, Sirius was very much assured. Davie looked up from her copy of the Quibbler, eyes glinting.
"Nicked it on my way back home last night -"
"Nicked it!" Sirius scoffed, kneeling on the ground in front of the chair. "You, Miss Perfect Auror! Miss by the book, you - what the bloody hell is that?" Sirius said, snatching it from her hands when he realized that one of the stories featured on the cover contained his name in the headline.
"There's a woman in here you're bound to love - she truly believes you're innocent," Davie said matter-of-factly, snatching it back and flipping to the particular page which he seemed to be too flustered to find. "This is fascinating. Here," she said, laying it flat and beginning to read the piece to him in an animated, theatrical tone.
"What people don't realize is that Sirius Black is a false name," says Mrs. Purkiss. "The man people believe to be Sirius Black is actually Stubby Boardman, lead singer of the popular singing group the Hob Goblins…"
"What?" Sirius snapped, wrinkling his entire face in confusion as Davie's face reddened brightly in attempts not to laugh. "The woman's absolutely - I don't believe you. Where does she get the ridiculous idea that I-?"
"It's not done yet," Davie said, unable to help her laughter now. "Here, let me finish: Now, Stubby couldn't possibly have committed those crimes, because on the day in question he happened to be enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with me -"
"It doesn't say that - you're joking, give it to -"
"Right here, it says!" Davie laughed, pointing out the particular passage which Sirius had to read in order to even believe. "There you have it, this woman knows you're innocent -"
"She's hideous!" Sirius said, his upper lip curling as he dropped the magazine onto the ground after he glanced a photo on the next page of the story of an older witch winking and waving in a manner quite unbefitting her age. Davie now laughed loudly, shaking her head, and for a brief moment as they both laughed so hard that their eyes were clenched shut, it was easy to imagine that they were back in the Gryffindor common room, with Lily and James in the sofa across from them. It nearly felt right.
When the laughter subsided and the pretending ceased however, a strange quiet settle over them - it was brief, but the same thing seemed to happen frequently in the days that followed their engagement. It was a time of adjusting, of realizing that things were in fact not the same, and there were things that required them to change accordingly. Their friends were gone.
In order to break the tension, Sirius got up and went to the kitchen to find them something to eat. By now, Davie knew that these sudden departures were not so much a sign of anger or anything being wrong between them, but the only way Sirius knew to ease an awkward moment, to allow Davie to think of a way to return things to normalcy. Now, however, he returned with a plate of jam and crackers, took Davie by the wrist, and tugged her to the end of a hallway. Instead of saying anything to her, he picked up a cracker with bright maroon jam and gave it a hearty chuck down the hallway, where Davie heard the faint sound of it hitting something - followed by loud, shrill screaming -
"INFIDELS! DEFACING THE MOST NOBLE HOUSE OF -"
"Sirius!" Davie said in a shrill, scandalized tone, shouting over the woman's voice at the end of the hall - she realized that Sirius had been chucking food at the portrait of his mother, Walburga Black.
"Well, how else are we supposed to entertain ourselves in this bloody hole?" Sirius said with a sneer, throwing another particularly sticky cracker down the hallway and eliciting another round of screams. He gave a hearty guffaw before dipping another cracker in jam and holding it out to Davie, who, instead of throwing it, popped the entire thing into her mouth.
"She's your mum!" Davie protested after swallowing the mouthful. "And she's - well, she's dead! I can't chuck food at a dead woman! Besides, it's wasteful."
"It's not a dead woman, it's a picture of a dead woman!"
"She's your mum!" Davie said, crossing her arms and shaking her head resolutely. "I wouldn't want you chucking anything at my mum -"
"And I wouldn't dream of trying it," Sirius insisted, raising his eyebrows and raising his eyebrows as though there was nothing immature about what he was doing. "Because your mum was a kind, lovely human being. I don't think anyone would say the same about -"
But Sirius' gaze quickly moved away when a small figure appeared at the end of the hall - Kreacher had apparated into the corridor in response to the screaming, and Sirius gave a loud, bark-like noise to get the small house elf's attention.
"Kreacher!" Sirius laughed, waving the small being over - he apparated in front of them with a crack with a grudging expression, glancing over his shoulder at the screaming portrait behind him. "Say hello to your new mistress, Kreacher -"
"Sirius, please, don't make him -"
"Kreacher does not need a new Mistress. Kreacher will not have a new Mistress," he sneered in a voice that was laced with venom, which surprised even Davie. "Kreacher is satisfied to serve the Mistress he already has -"
"Excuse me?" Davie interrupted, sensing something strange and cryptic in the elf's tone; it was something difficult to pick up, and only barely perceptible to Davie, even after over a decade of interrogating experience, but before receiving any answer, Kreacher disappeared with another crack.
"He means my mum, obviously," Sirius said dismissively, despite the fact that Davie did not look entirely convinced. "He's always been a bit unstable in the head. All house elves are, I think - too close to the master's shoe polish all day, the lack of fresh air could be a part of it."
Davie, however, was still not too sure. Sirius gave a dismissive hack of a laugh and began to tug her over.
"Come on, then - since we're getting married, you might as well meet mum. We'll make it quick and painless," Sirius said with a mischievous grin. Davie knew that there was little good to come of this, considering that all through their youth, Sirius had taken particular mirth in making his mother angry - something, it appeared, could not be stopped, even by her death. She was about to protest when she heard the loud screeching almost directly in front of her - it was too late.
"MUDBLOOD FILTH! LOATHSOME SCOURGE TO THE -"
"Oh, get stuffed, mum!" Sirius bellowed loudly. "Is that any way to greet your future daughter-in-law?"
"Sirius, I don't think -"
"INFIDEL! BLOOD TRAITOR! NO SON OF MINE -"
"Walburga Black," Sirius said in a loud, theatric voice. "Meet Davina Astrid Maddux."
And at that, the woman in the portrait fell silent. For a moment, she scrutinized Davie terribly - from beneath her dark, pilled cotton jumper, Davie felt her skin prickle under the gaze, even if it did not even technically come from a person. "Maddux? Merlin be damned!" She barked in a strange, recognizant tone. "Come closer."
Davie glanced at Sirius, who looked equally surprised, before taking a small step forward.
"Who are you to Apollo Maddux?"
"Grampy?" Davie asked, her brow creasing deeply, and this reaction seemed to intrigue Sirius' mother even more. Memories flashed across Davie's mind of an old man bouncing her on his knee when she was tiny. Her grandfather, before he passed away, was always the one to watch young Davie when her parents were called away by the Ministry - while he himself had once worked at the Ministry, he had retired when he'd reached a ripe old age and taken up a leisurely job at Honeydukes to keep himself active, and this was what had sparked Davie's well-known love for fudge. "Apollo Excelsis Maddux is my grandfather - my father's father -"
"Your father is Ephraim."
"Emerson." Davie corrected carefully. "Uncle Ephraim never had any children. Died in a dragon-taming exhibition."
"Emerson Odin Maddux. Married a good Pureblood witch as well." Walburga Black said in a dusty, appraising tone. "Celesta Hera of the House of Everknoll - a bloodline to rival the Malfoys, even the most Noble House of Black. What interest have you in my older son?"
"I've known him since we were in school," she replied simply, giving Sirius a sidelong glance as though asking him to intervene before she had to speak to this woman for any extended period of time - Davie, needless to say, found Walburga Black's familiarity with her ancestry a bit disconcerting.
"He is an embarrassment. I have," Walburga said with a slight sneer in Sirius' direction, "another son -"
"Shove it, mum, Regulus is dead!" Sirius roared, chucking another cracker at the portrait from close range before taking Davie by the arm and yanking her abruptly back to the receiving room. He settled into Davie's usual chair, and she sat on the armrest next to him.
"I thought you were joking. That woman is insane," Davie said in a conspiratorial whisper, running a hand through her hair in disbelief, pausing to give her scalp a brisk massage as though she felt she'd hit her head. "She's not even alive and she's still completely -"
"Smitten with you, by the looks of it," Sirius said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "But she is mad. Why do you think I never introduced you? She may have not put me out of the house if she knew I was courting the - the spawn of the most pure houses of Maddux and Everknoll," Sirius guffawed, earning a pained expression from his fiancee. "I reckon if she were alive, she'd have invited you to live in our home, spend every waking moment with her -"
"And do what, exactly?" Davie asked in a comically fearful tone that Sirius couldn't help continue laughing at. "Have tea? Bake a Victoria sandwich cake? Mangle baby puffskeins over a couple of cold gillywaters?"
Davie groaned, sitting on the small table in front of Sirius' chair, and her expression shifted from being quite funny, to suddenly quite grave. Davie had always been aware of the fact that she was a Pureblood - it was hard to avoid knowing such things in the magical community. However, she was not entirely sure how to handle it when others made a disproportionately big deal of it. She and Sirius were among the purest of the Purebloods. If the world did not change, would their children feel the same way about the way other wizards reacted to them?
"You're worried what people will think - they'll think you and I are just like my mum," Sirius said with a knowing, lopsided grin as he reached out and tipped Davie's chin upward to jostle her from her thoughts, which were growing a bit too deep for his liking. "I know. I've thought it too. But being your own person doesn't always mean doing the opposite of what you're told. Sometimes, it's doing what others tell you, but for your own reasons. Two Purebloods don't always need to get married solely for the fact that they're Purebloods."
Davie looked up with an incredulous smile - while Sirius was far from brainless, such introspective wisdom was far from normal coming from him. A part of her knew it was optimistic to even think a day would come that their children could ever be out in the open without having the Ministry breathing down their necks, but it was something to hold onto. Davie moved and squeezed into the space left in the armchair next to Sirius, nestling into his side with a sigh.
"In deep thought again," Sirius said with a chuckle, running his hand over the back of Davie's long, dark hair. "Woman, what in Merlin's name am I going to do with you?"
Davie gave a slight harrumph and was about to protest when Hedwig came swooping it - the snowy white owl had by now learned how the latches on the upstairs window worked so she could come inside without being let in. She quickly dropped a letter onto Sirius lap which was labeled 'Snuffles' before swooping out to return to Hogwarts.
Sirius hurried to open it, with Davie reading eagerly over his shoulder.
Dear Snuffles,
Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible. I'm really glad it's the weekend.
We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge -
"I knew there was no good to come of it," Davie muttered, her expression turning grave. "I knew there would be something wrong with that woman being alone with Harry."
-We're all missing our biggest friend, and we hope he'll be back soon.
Please write back quickly.
Best,
Harry (1)
Sirius first looked up at Davie, forehead wrinkling. "What do you mean, you knew there was no good to come of it?" he asked. "You knew about this Umbridge woman -"
"Severus told me she's been keeping Harry in detention last night, but he didn't let me come up to the school to see," Davie said simply, snatching the letter from Sirius' hand and glancing it over to examine it. "You don't think Harry's put a Rearranging Charm on this letter, do you?" she asked, pulling out her wand from her pocket. "Maybe he's mentioned something more."
"No - Harry doesn't usually do that sort of thing when he writes. It is what it is," Sirius said haughtily, his tone going slightly sour at the mention of Snape, and the fact that he and Davie knew something about Harry which he himself did not. "I need to write him back -"
"We don't have an owl, and we can't get our hands on one that won't be traced," Davie chided, sounding very much like herself now. "Besides, there's - well, there's more that you ought to know."
With a doleful expression, Davie reached into the pocket of her traveling cloak, which was lain messily on the other armchair, and pulled up a tightly folded copy of the Daily Prophet, the previous date's evening edition. She opened it to a particular page and held it out to Sirius, but now with the same childlike glee with which she had shown him the story in the Quibbler.
"The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer - is currently hiding in London." Sirius read aloud in a tight voice. "Brilliant. I'll never be out of here now."
"I'll bet my life it was Lucius," Davie said gravely. "The day on the platform when you brought Harry - the Deatheaters' appearing that night at my parents' house -"
"Snape saw us while we went to the school. Snape knew we were able to change into our younger selves, and he happened to be the one there to save us. Snape knew I'd accompany Harry to King's Cross." Sirius sneered. "Or are you going to defend him again and say it couldn't possibly be him?"
"I don't think it could be," Davie affirmed, sitting up straight and crossing her arms defiantly. "And it won't do us any good to argue about it right now. We need to get in touch with Harry, and it's going to take something very risky."
She stood up and walked over to the fireplace, picking up a burl jar and lifting the lid and checking to contents for their quality after having remained in Grimmauld Place for Merlin knew how long. After she was convinced that it was still in proper condition, she nodded, holding it out to Sirius. "Firetalking is the only option we have at the moment. Do a brief check every hour. We need to speak with Harry."
A/N's
(1) Lifted directly from Order of the Phoenix
Just a quick note, in the coming chapters, there will be a few passages that are lifted and paraphrased from Order of the Phoenix, except of course rewritten to have Davie in them. The story won 't be limited to what we see in OOTP however, so please stay tuned!
May I just say that I am elated that my readers have stuck around despite my absence? To Rock'xanne, I'm delighted beyond belief that my characters come off as real. I'm trying my best to develop of my characters and give them a realistic set of thoughts and feelings given their situation. To amrawo, I'm glad to see your reviews!
To AddictedToPotter, your review had me scared for a moment when it started off "So this story in general is sort of depressing" - but I'm very glad you like it anyway! I'll admit, it's not the most feel-good story with how it's turned out, but let me just assure you (and all my readers) that while the ending is far from happily ever after, things do come together in the end well enough. Also, in response to your critique of DH Part One - I agree with you completely! I do think there could have been a lot more about the Grindlewald backstory, and more about how Book-Harry has some idea about more of the Horcruxes. And your reference to the dance scene and the nods to Harry/Hermione actually give me a brilliant segue to something I wanted to bring up!
Some chapters back, I mentioned wanting to write another story with Davie and Sirius' child which would be AU, assuming that Davie had said yes when Sirius first proposed to her. I am actually in the process of starting it, except that the plot bunny because a bit more AU than I had first planned, in which the child plays the role of the Hermione-character in the trio, and Hermione has a different fate in the story which Ron/Hermione shippers will still like. I do want some feedback from you guys, however, if this story is something you guys would like me to post for you guys to read, or if it should remain my private little unpublished project. Feedback is of course appreciated!
Thank you also to WalkingEnigma, galita, and Ellipse27 for subscribing!
The next few of chapters will be a lot of exposition and minor foreshadowing. Hopefully this chapter finds you all well, and I hope to see feedback from everyone! Cheers!