Chapter Forty-Three

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?"

Davie was unable to abstain from grinning a bit at the joy in both Harry and Sirius' voices when Sirius was finally able to reach Harry over the fireplace. Out of reverence towards the bond that the two shared, Davie kept a respectful distance, listening to what she could manage from behind Sirius over the crackle of the flame. However, when the conversation began to take a more delicate turn, Davie's ears seemed to perk up cautiously.

"I was thinking," Sirius said in what Davie was very sure was a hopeful, expectant tone - one that he used right when he was about to suggest something that should not be done by any means. "We got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could -"

"NO!"

The response seemed to have come at Sirius from all sides - from Harry and Hermione at one end, and Davie from the other, and briefly, Sirius wheeled around to glance at his fiancee with his forehead wrinkled in annoyance. As Sirius made to argue and protest with the refusal, Davie finally nudged her way into view of the teenagers in the Gryffindor common room

"Listen, Harry, you'll want to lay low with Umbridge while you can," she insisted. "I've met the woman - only in passing when she was starting at the Ministry and - Sirius, would you give me a moment?" Davie squealed as Sirius nudged her out of the way, looking a bit surly.

"It was just an idea, you know," Sirius interrupted before Davie was able to finish her warning about Umbridge. "Thought you might like to get together -"

Davie groaned and backed away from the fireplace as Sirius abruptly ended the conversation with Harry then moved to the armchair, propping his feet up on the table and crossing his arms, reaching out for a bottle of firewhiskey that he stowed underneath the chair for times that he felt a bit less than chipper. Davie rolled her eyes and snatched it out of his hands.

"He's only looking out for your best interests -"

"That's my job, isn't it?" Sirius growled in annoyance as Davie held the bottle out of his reach. "And of course you'd say so."

"What's that ought to mean?"

"Your idea of errands!" Sirius retorted with a derisive snort. "Running off in the dead of night to see Snivellus and nick a couple of magazines to keep yourself occupied! It must be pleasant, being able to run off and do as you please -"

"You act as though I went to see him on a social call!"

"You act as though it couldn't have waited until he came here! He does so at least once a week -"

"This is useless," Davie huffed, giving the bottle a hard slam down on the table and making to walk away. She wheeled around the armchairs, past Sirius, and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Sirius glared at the door for a moment before reaching out and swiping the bottle off the table, opening it and taking a swig. However, when the door did not open again to reveal a calmer, less angry Davie, Sirius seemed quite perturbed.

A part of him actually ached for the fights they used to have, where they'd be angry for a few moments, perhaps throw things at one another, and emerge laughing at ridiculous they had been. He did not very much enjoy what being adults had done to them, and he wasn't sure how he would be able to stand it. He couldn't stand being this way with his Davie for the rest of his life.

He was visibly startled when, in the midst of his thoughts, the bedroom door was flung open once again and Davie stormed out into the room again.

"Phineas just came by," she said flatly, referring to the portrait of the former Hogwarts headmaster. "Remus and Kingsley are on their way, they need my help with something."

"Your help?" Sirius asked, his forehead wrinkling again, standing and crossing his arms questioningly. "They want you to - to go out there again? For what?"

"My guess is as good as yours, Sirius," Davie snapped irately. "I was telling you out of courtesy."

"Why don't you just refuse?" Sirius barked, throwing up his arms in exasperation. "Maybe none of them worry about keeping you safe - no one outside of here knows for sure that you're back and it would be nice to keep it that way."

"No one knows I'm back?" Davie repeated shrilly, clapping a hand to her forehead and looking upward. "So you think they just happened to wander into my old house when we were there? I need to get back out in the open, I need to come up with an excuse, or they'll have a reason to track me down, and if they find me, they find you! You think I'm not afraid?" she said, her face going red - she was clearly distraught, and the sight of her this way: vulnerable, upset, and trying with great fervor to put on a brave face, was quite familiar to Sirius. Letting out a long exhalation, Sirius stepped forward and placed his hands on Davie's shoulders, who stared at him questioningly, but gently let her arms fall to her sides.

"The only reason I do any of this is to keep the people important to me safe, and whether or not you choose to believe it, you're at the top of that list," Davie said in a tight voice. "Despite the fact that you're - you're insufferably difficult and I'm often tempted to chuck heavy objects at you -"

"Tempted? It's rare that you manage to resist that temptation."

"If you weren't constantly egging me on when I'm angry -"

"I don't egg you on, for Merlin's sake! You think I'm going to just stand around and say nothing when you're going completely -"

But completely what, Sirius would not be able to say as the door to the house on Grimmauld Place was flung open, and Remus Lupin walked in with the tall and dark Kingsley Shacklebolt - Davie and Kingsley had always been friendly with one another in Davie's earlier days as an Auror, and she greeted him with a small wave.

"You look well," he said in his polite, accented tone. Remus, however, eyed Davie and Sirius appraisingly, as he could tell very well that they'd entered in the middle of a particularly bad row.

"Dumbledore needs you somewhere for the Order this evening - it's terribly short notice, but I'm not sure if you've seen the Daily Prophet. They say that they're suspecting Sirius is in London, and we need to clear the link between the two of you -"

"Right. Because it's not as if she and I are engaged or anything," Sirius said sourly before his eyes snapped over to Kingsley. "Shouldn't you be the one to clean up this mess? Since you're the head of the Task Force assigned to catching me, I had assumed that you'd be on the inside, throwing them off -"

"And I've kept my credibility all this time in the Ministry because I haven't been obvious about it," Kingsley explained calmly. "But the fact that the Death Eaters have spotted Davie is a danger to my maintaining closeness to the Ministry - if they reveal that information before I can, they'll suspect something."

"So you're going to throw Davie to the wolves to save face in the Ministry?"

"Would you let them finish?" Davie interrupted, raising her eyebrows chidingly at Sirius. "How am I supposed to help?" she asked, turning towards Remus and Kingsley.

"There's a Ministry gala tonight - a congratulatory supper for the successes of Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts," Remus began. "Which we can be thankful for, since if she's away from the school for an evening, that's one evening that Harry doesn't have detention with her. She's been appointed to the High Inquisitorship -"

"The Inky-what?" Davie said, shaking her head as her brow furrowed. "I've never heard of -"

"Suffice it to say," Kingsley said stoically, "that it is a very big opportunity to make Harry's life and all of our jobs much more difficult."

"And what good will me showing myself there do?"

"You're going to go with Kingsley," Remus added carefully, knowing that Sirius would not be particularly fond of this idea once it was explained. "To save Kingsley's credibility and protect Padfoot's whereabouts, we need to nip the hearsay about you in the bud."

Davie hesitated and glanced at Sirius, whose jaw was clenched so tightly that Davie was concerned he would shatter his teeth. She reached over and placed a hand on his forearm. "Sirius," she began in an even, careful tone. 'Sirius, don't -"

But Sirius, it appeared, had already put two and two together and was highly displeased with the fact that it still was equal to four. He pulled his arm away from Davie and stomped forward toward Remus. "You're not honestly suggesting that my fiancee be introduced to the Wizarding world as - as -"

"I'm not suggesting anything Sirius, these are Dumbledore's directions," Remus explained, holding his hands up placatingly. "I knew you wouldn't like this."

"Did you really, Moony? Where'd you get that idea?"

"Sirius," Davie interrupted, pulling him back gently. "Does it really matter to you if the Ministry and a bunch of Death Eaters think I'm involved with Kingsley? These are the same people who think you should be in Azkaban -"

"Fine then!" Sirius snapped, looking quite disgusted. "If you want to go -"

"Why do you need to make it look like I'm the one who wants to do this?" Davie yelped in exasperation. "I'm still part of the Order, and this is something that Dumbledore needs me to do!"

"How convenient!"

"I'll keep and eye on her," Kingsley interrupted, stepping closer to the pair. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Except for the fact that you get to have an entire night pretending you're involved with my betrothed, you mean?" Sirius snarled sardonically. "Of course, anything for the Order, right? It's not as if Davie's a smart, attractive, charming woman, Merlin, no -"

"Sirius, enough," Davie said in a stoic tone that somehow managed to hush him. She had raised her wand and tapped it to the top of her head, muttering an incantation as her shoddy nightshirt transfigured itself into a dark blue pair of dress robes, a modest but elegant set that fell in a sheer capelet over her shoulders. She held up her wand again, and conjured up two items - a pearl brooch and a mirror.

"Take this," Davie said, grabbing Sirius' hand and placing the compact mirror into his palm before fastening the brooch to the front of her robes. "Everything I hear, everything I do, everyone I speak to - you'll see all of it. There will be no funny business and I'll stay as briefly as humanly possible in order to cover our tracks."

Davie cleared her throat and started towards the door when Sirius stepped forward, took a hold onto Davie's forearm, pulled her back firmly, and gave her a long, sound kiss without any protest from Remus, who was going to stay with Sirius, or from Kingsley, who merely stood close to the door, ready to depart.

"You know I worry. Those Death Eaters are charmers, the whole lot of them," Sirius joked, brushing the back of his knuckle over Davie's pale cheek. "We wouldn't want you to trip, fall, and -"

"Land on the wrong end of a Death Eater's wand," Davie said with a smirk that Sirius could not help but mirror, musing how they had not realized how dirty the phrase sounded when Sirius used to say it to her all the time at Hogwarts. Remus grinned genuinely, seeing his two remaining best friends, even if only briefly, so much like their old selves. He reached out and clapped a hand onto Sirius' shoulder, signaling that Davie and Kingsley had to leave.

"Nothing happens to her. Your word, King," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows at the man in the doorway and extending his hand. Kingsley nodded, reaching out and shaking his hand firmly to confirm that a promise was made.

"You have it."

Sirius gave a forced grin which shifted quickly to a grimace as Kingsley and Davie strode out the door and into the night. Turning slowly on his heel, Sirius looked back at his only remaining companion in the house for the evening besides Kreacher.

"If she comes back with so much as a hangnail, Moony," Sirius said slowly, jabbing his index finger into the air for emphasis. "I'm going to kill him."

A/N's

Your eyes do not deceive you - I'm back! I want to first of all thank all of you for being so supportive and checking up on me. I'm doing a lot better now, though still dealing with some of the aftermath of the accident, and juggling school along with a job. I'm working on the story, however, and I should finally have more time on my hands, and more energy. Fingers crossed! This chapter is a bit clumsy because I'm trying to get my feet wet again, but if you have stuck with me all the way, I thank you.

Just to keep you guys from getting discouraged, Sirius and Davie are still going to be married, I'll give you that much hope for them. that should be coming up in a few chapters. Thank you again for anyone who's still here!

Cheers!