((A/N: Whee!!! Chapter six, reporting for duty! Thanks again to all reviewers and 'course to all you fabulous devoted readers! It's always nice to hear a bit of constructive criticism, or just to hear your thoughts on the plot, so don't forget to review!))
((Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in it, but I did just finish re-reading the series!))
The next morning's breakfast was nearly one hundred thousand times worse than Melanie's taunting. There were outbreaks of giggles and teasing from the moment I entered the Great Hall. They escalated throughout the day so that by lunch, no one was trying to hide it anymore. People laughed, and the Slytherins, with my twin Apollo as the only possible exception, laughed loudest of all. Every time I turned a corner, my temper blazed violently, nearly out of control as people laughed and made catcalls at me. By three o'clock, I was relieved that I had detention, even if it was in the dungeons with Slughorn, Slytherin head.
I hiked my way down to the potions classroom, where Slughorn was waiting with a few barrels of violet slug-like things, which were slimy and, slightly disturbingly, moving. I grimaced at the barrels of Lithuanian Vellugs. The Vellugs were poisonous, but the parts of them required for potions were not; this explained why first and second years could not prepare them. However, they were absolutely disgusting, and I was astounded and positively horrified by the unusual size of these particular Vellugs.
Speaking of unusual sizes, the voluminous Professor Slughorn was sitting at his desk, looking entranced as he stared across the room. I followed his gaze, but there was nothing there but the wall; so I shrugged and strode to the professor's desk.
"Good afternoon, Professor."
"Ah, yes, there you are, Ms. Gaunt. Take a seat, take a seat while we wait for Mr. Black."
I automatically gagged, then started coughing. Slughorn gave me a concerned look and began to raise himself from his chair, but I motioned him back and took a seat myself as I recovered. "Bl-Black, sir?" I asked weakly.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Black will be joining us today. Ah, speak of the devil, and he will come! There you are, Mr. Black! Come, come, take a seat!" Sirius grimaced, first at the Vellugs, then at me. I just glared at him as he sat next to me. His scent hit me in a wave seconds later. "Now that both of you are here, I will tell you what you will be doing today. I'm sure that you both noticed these fine specimen of Vellugs, hm?" I nodded and turned my glare to the violet creatures in the barrels. "As I'm sure you've been taught, Vellugs are very toxic; they can kill you if you touch or ingest them. You were both first years once; I'm sure you'll understand when I say that first years are not always the brightest of the lot." A small smile graced Sirius' lips as the three of them considered the trouble that first years could get into. "As such, the pair of you will be working together to dissect them. We need the hearts, the venenum sacs, and the eyes; yes, Ms. Gaunt, the eyes. So hop to it, now! The sooner you finish, the sooner you can leave; mind, do a good job of it! Use your dragon hide gloves, and good lord, Mr. Black, don't try to sneak any away!"
With those final instructions, he exited, to his office I expected.
"Damn," Sirius said after an awkward minute.
"Damn," I agreed.
We sat in immensely uncomfortable silence for a measure of minutes until we both moved to start to work. As I neared the barrel, Sirius went the opposite way, to the wall to look at some strange object floating in a jar. I rolled my eyes at his back, and then almost fainted as the smell of the Vellugs hit me; as it was, I couldn't help but gag and curse again. They smelled like an unsettling amount of dirty gym socks, rotten eggs, and very filthy sewer water. Their slimy hides glinted in the dim torchlight. I was about to pull on my dragon hide gloves when an absurd urge to touch the vile creatures swept through me. The strange voice, which had been missing for a while, resurfaced in my consciousness.
Touch it! The voice hissed. Touch it! Do it now, while Sirius isn't looking...
My hands moved, even though I willed them not to, and my dragon hide gloves fell to the floor. A complete calm filled me the closer I got to the Vellugs. A crazy sense of joy pervaded my mind. My arms were outstretched towards the venomous barrels.
"Artemis!" I snapped out of my trance-like state as Sirius reached around me and grabbed my hands with his own. I jerked backwards, away from the barrels, in horror and confusion, only to ram into Sirius and knock the wind out of him. "Son of a—"
"Bitch," I finished for him as cowered against his warm, muscled chest. The feelings of calm and joy were long gone, replaced by terror and fury; I was absolutely sure that I didn't want to kill myself, but for some reason my body kept trying to make me. However, these thoughts were driven out of my mind seconds later when I realized that Sirius was still gripping my hands, his chest pressed firmly against my back. A flush crept up my neck and into my cheeks as I noticed these facts, and my heart and breathing sped up considerably regardless of the fact that I attempted to control them. The fluttery feeling of my stomach was back. I shook my head frantically, striving to rid my brain of these thoughts and succeeding only in bashing our heads together. "Son of a—"
"Bitch," he finished for me. He released my hands as if they burned him and held his head where it had banged against mine. I did the same, clutching the back of my skull as if it were about to fall off. That same silence as before prevailed, albeit quite a bit more uncomfortable, as I turned to face him. He stared at me with a peculiar look on his face, his eyes remained on my face for the duration of approximately five minutes, before they traveled up and down my body, giving me a once over before returning his gray eyes to my face. He had just opened his mouth to say something when Slughorn re-entered the room.
"What's this? Not even started? Come now, come, don't tell me you two big, bad seventh years are afraid a few Vellugs? Let's go now, get to work!"
Sirius continued to stare at me for a few seconds more, and me at him; I wondered if he would say something to Slughorn, but he didn't. Instead, he pulled on his gloves, still gazing steadily at me as I stooped to pick up my own, and we started to work dissecting the poor Vellugs.
A few hours of repulsive dissection later, Sirius still hadn't said a word about the incident. His behavior was confusing me, though I suppose the fact that we hadn't been left alone since then hindered him slightly. Even after we had finished, and were headed back to the common room, smelling of Vellugs, we never had a minute completely to ourselves; someone was always right around the corner. Once we got back to the common room, he looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could get a word out, he was tackled by an anxious looking James, and I was not-so-tackled by an equally anxious looking Mira. I kept wondering if he would tell James, tell McGonagall, tell anyone as the day wore into night and the night turned into Sunday. While everyone but the most laid back of the Gryffindors worked studiously on their homework, Sirius kept shooting me nervous glances, even while Melanie clung to his arm and tried to get him to talk to her. I labored over my Charms book, occasionally sneaking glances at him too, wondering if he would confront me or if I should confront him. Finally, I was so irritated by the fact that I was getting nowhere in my Charms that I slammed the book shut and stormed up the stairs to my dorm, shoved my book into my bag, and went to bed early.
The next morning, everyone seemed very antsy, watching me and Sirius very carefully. James and Lily seemed especially watchful. Finally, Lily decided that she was going to breach the subject, even going so far as to let James sit next to her during the conversation. This gave me the impression that, unlikely as it was, it was a team effort.
"Artemis, is everything okay?"
I just nodded in response.
"Are you sure?" James asked, putting his elbows on the table and leaning forward, only to be hit by Lily for lousy table manners.
I nodded again.
"You and Sirius haven't fought in a while," he stated, giving his best mate a look a ways down the table.
I shrugged. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Well, yes, but..." Lily paused and gave me one of those suspicious looks that made her such a great Head Girl. It was one of those looks that said that she knew you knew she knew you were lying, and if you didn't tell her the truth, you'd end up in a load of trouble. I scowled.
"I'm fine. Really. Nothing's going on, and I don't know why you guys are complaining. Everything will go back to normal when it goes back to normal, so just let it be."
Lily and James both stared, but neither could respond, so James headed off to interrogate Sirius and Lily just ate some more toast.
And just like I predicted, life went back to normal, more or less. Sirius and I began arguing again, much to all our friends' relief.
However, not to my relief, guys started asking me out again. I turned all of them down, but for some reason, the more I turned down, the more asked and the more frustrated I got with them. As my temper began sparking wildly, catching flame to any object within earshot, many guys seemed to take pleasure in stalking me down halls, insisting that I have lunch with them and their friends, or that I go with them on the Hogsmeade trip scheduled for early October, still a ways away. By the next Saturday's detention, this time helping Hagrid tend to the school gardens (which seemed to me a lot better than dissecting Vellugs), I was ready to take off the head of the next boy who happened to ask me a question. Really that was very unfortunate for both Sirius, who was again serving detention with me for some strange reason, and Patton Lexing, who was joining us. Sirius wisely stayed his distance, tending carefully to the large pumpkins that would be used at Halloween under Hagrid's watchful eye; Lexing, however, saw fit to sneak closer and closer to me while he thought I wasn't looking.
When he was finally right next to me, Patton said, "Hey, Gaunt."
I slowly turned to look at him, noticing vaguely that both Hagrid and Sirius were watching me with fearful looks. Patton, though, had a cocky grin on his face. I gave him a warning look, trying to tell him that I wasn't in the mood for crap, but he didn't take the hint. "Yes, Lexing?" I growled.
"Need any help?"
"No." His smile faltered slightly, but it returned within seconds. I returned my attention to the weeds that I was currently picking, attempting to ignore him.
"Well, you know," he muttered, leaning closer to me so that our arms and legs touched, "I'm a very good gardener... because I have a nice," he moved his hand up my leg, "gentle," he moved it to the small of my back and leaned closer again, "touch." His lips brushed against my ear and I snapped, landing a solid punch on his nose. I shook my hand from the shock of the impact, realizing that Patton's nose was now bleeding and slightly crooked.
Oops?
***~~~***
Sirius watched as Artemis struck Lexing with a solid blow, leaving the boy's nose visibly broken. Sirius stared in awe as, in a weird sort of slow motion, Lexing stumbled backwards, tripping over some tangled vines and falling on his bum while cradling his busted nose.
Sirius was impressed. And perhaps surprised that Artemis had never turned her great strength on him, especially since he was usually the source of her irritation. Sirius was also very pleased that Lexing had finally gotten a bit of what he deserved. In fact, he almost wished that he'd been the one to deliver the blow. He may have used the guy to get back at Artemis, but he rather despised him. Maybe he'd hit Lexing later.
Hagrid rushed to Lexing's side, commanding him to lower his hands so that Hagrid could assess the damage. Meanwhile, Artemis had returned to her work, squatting in the dirt and weeding the bean patch; she completely ignored the happenings around her. Once again, Sirius was impressed. Her flaring temper, he thought, was quite remarkable and utterly unpredictable. She would snap and kill someone, and then she would seem completely calm, as if nothing had happened. For some reason, Sirius was beginning to find her attitude... attractive.
He shook his head frantically, and noticed that Lexing had lowered his hands after much coaxing from Hagrid.
"Broken. Come on then, Mr. Lexing, off to the hospital wing with yeh. Madam Pomfrey will fix yeh up in no time." He looked back at Sirius and Artemis. "Yeh two keep working. When I come back, I want this garden weedless, yeh understand?" He and Lexing headed over the grounds towards the front door, leaving Sirius alone with Artemis for the first time in a week.
"Hey, Gaunt?" Sirius said, eager to say what he had to before someone else interrupted their private conversation, though he was still a little dazzled by the previous events. He'd wanted to talk to her all week, but he hadn't had a chance because classmates and teachers always surrounded them. Now that he had her alone, he had his chance.
Artemis didn't even look up. She looked as if she was concentrating only on her weeding, but she obviously wasn't; her hands had stopped and she now sat stone still. Sirius sighed and crept closer, though not within striking distance. Unlike Lexing, he learned from mistakes. If Artemis was in a bad mood, he had no intention of having his own nose broken.
"Gaunt? We need to talk about something." Still no response. Sirius glared at the impassive woman before him. Something told him that she was trying to bring him closer to her, probably so that she could hit him. Even though he knew it was most likely a trap, Sirius took a few more steps and came to a stop about a foot away from her figure. He knelt down, watching carefully for any sign that she was about to launch a surprise attack. When no such sign was given, he relaxed slightly on his haunches. "You listening? We need to talk about... what happened last week."
Slowly, Artemis turned her face up to him. "What about it?" she asked in a dull tone. Sirius was caught off guard; he had expected her to deny that anything had happened, to deny that she had tried to do herself in. The lack of any emotion or refutation surprised him. He took a minute to collect himself before continuing.
"I want you to tell me why you were trying to kill yourself." Once again, the lack of emotion in her expression frightened Sirius; however, her response frightened him even more.
"I don't know." Yet again, Sirius was thrown off track.
"You don't know?" he asked skeptically. Artemis just shrugged. "How can you not know? How can you just—" He stopped mid-sentence, too confused by her answer to carry on. He looked at her motionless hands to rid himself of the sight of her expressionless face. The hands made it worse though, because they brought the memory of the previous Saturday and reminded him of how perfectly Artemis had felt wrapped in his arms. His heart rate quickened, and he quickly returned his gaze to her sharp blue eyes.
Artemis took advantage of his silence to ask her own question. "Have you told anyone else?" Sirius shook his head slowly. "Are you going to?"
Sirius grimaced. "You know, everyone thinks you're depressed. James and Lily are worried sick about you, and so is everyone else. You've got people to talk to if—"
"I'm not depressed," she snapped. "I'm just... confused. I don't know right now, but when I figure it out and if you need to know about it, I'll tell you. I don't know why the hell everyone has to nag me. I don't... it's just none of their business." She stood up and turned away; she walked over to the pumpkins that Sirius had just left. Sirius followed behind, though he kept his distance.
"It is their business. They care about you, and they don't want you to... they want you to be safe."
"So are you going to tell them?" Sirius grimaced again. He knew that he should tell someone, but for some reason he got the feeling that he should keep it to himself. He hadn't told anyone and he had no intention of telling anyone, but was it wise to tell that to someone who, regardless of what she said, was possibly depressed and suicidal? He ignored the question again, and Artemis seemed to realize that he wasn't going to answer. She shook her head at him in emphatic exasperation and examined the pumpkins.
"You miss Quidditch, don't you." It was a statement of fact, and they both knew it. Sirius felt guilt tickling his chest as she slowly nodded. They were both silent for a time, during which Artemis knelt down next to the pumpkins and began stroking them quietly, brushing dirt from the sides and giving them disapproving looks.
"He's been using magic on these..."
"The first game is in October," he interrupted suddenly, giving Artemis' back and rear end a quick look over, as they were currently the only things he could see of her, or so he argued to himself. "We'll probably lose."
"Well, now, where's you're cocky attitude gone, Black?" Artemis asked, straightening, folding her arms, and giving him a raised-eyebrow look. "Piffle can't be that bad."
Sirius shrugged. "Don't get too big a head, Gaunt. We're just not as good a team."
"Too much testosterone," Artemis said matter-of-factly. She moved on in the garden to where Hagrid was growing lettuce.
"That's not—" he paused. "Well, maybe," he admitted after a minute. Artemis smiled. "You're a way better chaser than him though." Sirius paused again, realizing he'd just given her a compliment. Her smiled widened a little, but other than that there was no sign that she'd noticed the compliment. "We wish you'd come back."
She snorted at him and he glared at her. "Please; if everyone wanted me back, I'd be back."
"Well... James and Wes and I want you back. That's half the team, so technically..."
Artemis gave him a suspicious look. "Right. I'll believe you when James tells me I'm back on the team. Until then, you'll have to deal with Piffle. Good luck," she said a bit sarcastically, with a sunny smile. She left the lettuce for the potatoes, leaving Sirius staring after her in a perpetual state of confusion.
Hours later, after dinner had been eaten and everyone was in the common room relaxing, Sirius was still confused. James and Remus were playing wizard chess, looking bored out of their minds while Peter watched in fascination as Remus' knight destroyed one of James' rooks. James cursed and looked at Sirius, who was sitting in the chair next to him and staring at the chessboard as if he was in a trance.
"See any good moves, mate?" James asked, giving him a concerned look. "You seem out of it. Those detentions getting to you?"
Sirius jerked as if he'd been shocked, looking at James with a flabbergasted look. "What?" he asked, scratching the back of his head to emphasize his question. Remus joined James in shooting Sirius anxious expressions.
"Everything all right, Pads?" Remus asked, even as he prodded his queen towards James' queen. "You seem out of sorts."
Sirius shook his head. "Just thinking." He looked back at the board, where Remus' queen was demolishing James'.
"About?" James inquired, retaliating by destroying Remus' rook with his bishop.
"Nothing," Sirius lied. James smiled as Remus destroyed his king.
"So, Artemis, then." Sirius scowled at him.
"Checkmate," Remus muttered as Peter cheered.
"I was just thinking about Quidditch."
"So, Artemis, then," James repeated. Sirius was about to make a scathing remark when he saw a flash of sleek brown hair and brown eyes shining with evil crimson light.
"Shit, I'm out of here!" he yelped, jumping up and near running towards the boys' staircase as Melanie appeared by his chair.
"Where's Sirius going?" she asked James. Her eyes sparkled with tears as they stalked Sirius to the stairs.
"He's tired," James muttered, only now noticing that he'd lost the game and giving the board a disappointed look.
"And sick," Remus added.
"Tired and sick," Pete put in.
Melanie pouted, her brown eyes, which had absolutely no crimson in them, turning towards Artemis as she searched for someone to blame for Sirius' disappearance. "I see."
She left the boys to their own devices, which actually meant left them to clean up their game and follow Sirius up to their dormitory, where Jon and Wes were giving Sirius alarmed looks as he paced back and forth, nearly stomping holes through the floor. As Sirius' fellow Marauders entered the room, the other two boys turned their questioning looks to them.
"Melanie Jordan," James said, heading with his injured chess set to his trunk, where he tossed his pieces carelessly into it. Jon just nodded in response, but Wes burst out laughing.
"I don't get you, Sirius! The hottest girl in Gryffindor wants to go out with you, and you're hiding from her!" Both Sirius and James glared at him scathingly.
"She is not the hottest girl in Gryffindor," they said simultaneously.
"Right, sorry. The hottest girl in Hogwarts wants to go out with you." James growled a little.
"She is not—"
"Yeah, yeah, Lily's the hottest," he complied quickly. "What I mean is, Sirius has one of the hottest girls in history trailing him and he doesn't want her!" James continued to grumble, but he didn't respond. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"She might be hot, but she's annoying and clingy and dependent. I tried going out with her, remember? I hated every minute of it." Sirius scowled as Wes started mimicking him.
"Sirius, I swear, if you were any more picky when it came to girls, I'd think you had no interest in them. That one's too stupid; that one's too clingy! That one's too fat; that one's too skinny! Just pick one, mate. It's not that hard!"
"Shut up, Wes," Jon said, glaring at his best friend. "You've dated as many girls as he has." The two began to bicker, a usual occurrence in the boys' seventh dorm. The Marauders rolled their eyes as one.
"So what were you going to say about Artemis, Sirius?"
Instant silence. Sirius glared at James. "I said Quidditch, James, not Artemis."
"Same thing."
"No it isn't! Quidditch involves broomsticks and balls and hoops and... James!" James smiled in amusement. Sirius' face grew warm. "If your mind's going to be in the gutter, keep Artemis and me out of it, or at least separate!" James got a dreamy look on his face. "James!"
James rolled his eyes at his best mate, doing a belly flop onto his four-poster. "But Sirius, you know you—"
"I was going to say that we should put Artemis back on the team!" Sirius yelled over James' accusation. Another silence ensued as the guys all stared at Sirius in shock.
"But Sirius," Wes declared finally, "you're the one who wanted her off most."
"Yeah, well, we need her. Piffle is a terrible, ball-hogging git. She's a good teammate. We're gonna lose without her, and we all know it." When no one replied, Sirius swallowed and continued. "I'm willing to give up my pride if it means we'll win our first match."
The other five boys nodded in agreement, but still no one said anything. Sirius rolled his eyes and jumped onto his own bed. Finally James replied.
"We'll have to have a team vote again." Sirius nodded. "You'll have to un-convince Silvia, Terry, and Mike that Artemis is evil. They're still afraid that she's gonna attack them in their beds."
"We weren't that gullible in our younger years, were we?" Sirius asked, shaking his head at the appalling stupidity of the younger teammates.
"I wasn't," Jon said, "but I can't say the same for you five."
Sirius threw his pillow at him.