A few months later, in the Easter time, Elizabeth was put in detention for hexing James Potter after hearing he had once again attacked her brother. She had planned it all and it would have been the perfect crime if Professor McGonagall hadn't been walking by to sort out Peeves the poltergeist. She had berated Elizabeth in front of anybody who was passing by and gave her three days' worth of detention, along with stripping her of fifty house points. On the first night she had been forced to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing without magic and on the second, she was ordered to re-organise the potion ingredients for Professor Slughorn, making sure they were catalogued in alphabetical order. Elizabeth had had not idea just how many ingredients the professor had collected until she opened that storeroom and wept inside when she found out. On the third and final night, she traipsed to Professor McGonagall's office to learn of her new punishment.
She opened the door to Professor McGonagall's office and was surprised to see another person in there, shamefaced and with his hands in his pockets. Sirius Black.
"Ah, Miss Snape," Professor McGonagall said, looking up from her desk as Elizabeth walked in. "Mr Black will be joining you in your detention tonight, as he thought it would be funny to flood the boys bathroom by destroying three of the pipes. Very amusing, I'm sure."
"Oh, come on, Professor," Sirius joked, his mouth twitching. "You can't fault my Reductor curse. It was almost perfect."
Professor McGonagall looked at him over her glasses, which were perched on the edge of her bony nose, clearly unamused. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Sirius' confidence and cursed the situation. Why was she being forced to spend an entire night with him?
"What are we going to be doing, Professor?" she asked quietly and waited for an answer as Professor McGonagall finished writing on a piece of parchment.
"You will accompanying Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest," the professor replied, finally putting down her quill.
"What are we doing in the forest?" Sirius asked and Elizabeth was annoyed to hear a tone of assurance in his voice.
"Hagrid needs help collecting Bowtruckles for Professor Kettleburn's next class," Professor McGonagall replied, gesturing towards the door, signalling that they should leave.
Professor McGonagall led them down the castle, to where they met Hagrid on the outskirts of the forest. He was holding a bucket in his large hand and a large crossbow on his back, but Elizabeth was relieved to see a friendly smile under his thick beard as they approached.
"Here yer are, Professor," he said, greeting them. "I'll take over from here."
"Thank you, Hagrid," Professor McGonagall said, pulling her cloak further around herself as the bitter wind whistled through the trees. "I need both of them back at the castle by eight."
"Tomorrow morning?" Elizabeth asked rather quickly, and Professor McGonagall nodded, glancing at her watch.
"I must get back," she said. "Miss Snape, Mr Black, behave yourselves. I'll see you in the morning."
With that, she turned on her heel and marched back up to the castle, leaving Elizabeth and Sirius with Hagrid.
"So… Bowtruckles?" Elizabeth said, clearing her throat and looking towards the forest. "How do we catch them?"
"Offer them these," Hagrid replied, pulling out three small wooden boxes from his coat and giving both Elizabeth and Sirius one each. "Wood lice. Yer can distrac' a Bowtruckle with wood lice long enough to grab them."
Elizabeth nodded her head in understanding and looked towards the forest again. It seemed so dark and scary in there, and Elizabeth had heard plenty of rumours about the creatures that inhabited it, but refused to lose face in front of Sirius. However, he seemed to notice her swallowing hard.
"Don't worry, Snape, I'll protect you," he joked and Elizabeth threw him a dirty look.
"Let's just get this over with," she said and followed Hagrid into the forest.
Elizabeth and Sirius soon learnt that it wasn't capturing Bowtruckles that was the difficult part; they were easily distracted. The hard part was finding them. They were about the size of a human hand and their appearance, which looked similar to bark and twigs, camouflaged them well into the trees. Both of them also sustained several cuts on their fingers when trying to get the creatures into the bucket, as their twig-like fingers were sharp and if the Bowtruckle felt threatened by either of them, it lashed out. Sirius soon learnt his lesson when messing around with one of them, and received a deep gash on his lower arm.
"Serves you right," Elizabeth chuckled as she delicately dropped one of the spiky creatures into Hagrid's bucket. "You shouldn't frighten them."
"Righ', yer can stop now," Hagrid said happily, checking the amount of Bowtruckles that were in his bucket. Elizabeth brushed tree specks off her hands and looked around, squinting in the morning sun. She guessed that it might be around five in the morning. If they left now, she would be able to have three hours sleep before having to get up for Charms class. She idly glanced around the forest, but froze when something caught her eye behind a nearby tree. She felt Hagrid also tense up, but Sirius hadn't noticed. He was too busy mopping up his cut with the sleeve of his jacket to notice anything was wrong.
"Black, shut up," Elizabeth whispered as Hagrid moved toward the tree, which was concealing a large shape. Sirius looked at her, his mouth open as though ready to argue, but one look at the stern expression on Elizabeth's face stopped him. He followed her gaze and became very still, spotting the hidden shape.
"Who's there?" Hagrid called out as Sirius moved closer to Elizabeth, protectively standing in front of her. There was a loud growling sound and two yellow eyes appeared from behind the tree; the body was still hidden in the shadows.
"Elizabeth, get back to the castle," Sirius whispered but Elizabeth shook her head, grabbing Sirius' hand tightly as she watched Hagrid get nearer to the creature.
"I'm armed," Hagrid called out, slowly pulling out the crossbow. "Go now and I won' hur' yer."
There was another loud growl and the creature stepped out from the shadows, its huge eyes blinking only once as it slowly watched them. It was an enormous wolf, with matted black fur and dirty yellow teeth that it bared at them, a deep growl rising in its throat.
"Elizabeth, leave now," Sirius urged but Elizabeth stayed firm, squeezing his hand to reassure him that she was fine. The wolf seemed to be watching them, not focusing on Hagrid or the crossbow. It edged forward and both Sirius and Elizabeth took an automatic step back, still holding on to the other's hand. They shared a glance, their scared eyes meeting for a second when suddenly –
"Oomph!"
Elizabeth fell to the ground in pain, her right arm throbbing as something cut into it. She heard the swish of the arrow as Hagrid fired the crossbow at the wolf, the high pitched cry of the animal, the heavy padding on the forest floor as it ran away…
"Elizabeth!"
Sirius rushed to her side, resting her on his lap. Elizabeth felt faint as she struggled to look at her arm, wondering why it hurt so much. It was covered in a dark red substance that was pouring down her skin and she could just make out several puncture marks.
"It bit me!" she whispered, clutching her wound. She felt sick as more blood gushed out of the cut.
"Hagrid, help her!" Sirius called out, but he sounded so far away. Elizabeth tried to look up at him but everything was going dark. She tried to clutch Sirius' hand but she couldn't find it. Her head was drooping, and her eyes felt heavy as she saw a large figure loom over her, and strong arms lifted her up…
"… And, it was an ordinary wolf, right? Not a werewolf? Only it bit her."
"I'm well aware of that, Mr Snape, and yes, it was an ordinary wolf. Your sister will be fine."
"Sev, she's right. Are we allowed to stay with her until she wakes up?"
"As long as you go to your lessons and don't disturb Miss Snape."
"I bet this was all Black's fault. I knew from the moment I found out Lexi was having detention with him that something would happen to her. I bet he thought this was really funny."
"You don't know that, Sev. Hagrid said they were attacked by a wolf who was protecting her cubs."
"Lily, Black is into practical jokes, which means that he probably set this up this whole thing –"
"Sev! I know I'm not his number one fan but are you seriously suggesting that Sirius Black would try and get Lizzie killed?"
"Sirius helped me," Elizabeth mumbled, opening her eyes and bringing Lily and Severus' conversation to an end. She blinked up at them and saw a smile break out of Lily's face as she pulled Elizabeth into a hug.
"Oh, Lizzie, thank Merlin that you're all right!" she breathed, releasing Elizabeth and grinning broadly. "We heard this morning that you'd been attacked and it was by a wolf and Hagrid carried you up here –"
"Lily, stop," Elizabeth smirked, lifting herself up into a sitting position and rubbing her arm. It had a faint scar on it, but it apart from that, it looked completely healed.
"Ah, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey said briskly, walking out of her office with a block of chocolate. She handed it to Lily to hold and checked Elizabeth's forehead and scar before smiling briefly. "You seem perfectly fine, Miss Snape. Eat this chocolate and you can go."
"What time is it?" Elizabeth asked as Madam Pomfrey left. She glanced out of the window and saw that it was sunny outside.
"Twelve o' clock," Lily replied, handing over a chunk of chocolate, which Elizabeth happily popped into her mouth. She gently lifted herself out of bed, chewing the chocolate.
"Good, just in time for lunch," she said.
In the Great Hall, everyone was tucking into the delicious food that lay out in front of them and Elizabeth was eager to join them. She and Lily sat down at the Gryffindor bench and grabbed a lot of the food near them; having just eaten chocolate, it suddenly struck Elizabeth how hungry she was.
"I don't think anyone would guess that you just spent seven hours in the hospital wing," Lily giggled as Elizabeth tore a strip of chicken off of its leg. She smirked and chewed, trying to retain her dignity as some of the chicken fell out of her mouth.
"Hey, Elizabeth," a familiar voice said from behind her and Elizabeth swung around, her mouth still filled with food, to see Sirius standing behind her. He was smiling broadly, as though relieved to see her. Swallowing incredibly hard, so much so that it brought tears to her eyes, Elizabeth smiled at him. "I see you're out of the hospital wing."
"With only a small scar to prove our wild story," Elizabeth joked, holding out her right arm to show him the faded mark. His eyes widened slightly but he smiled again, glancing at Lily, who Elizabeth was sure was wearing a disapproving expression.
"I'm glad you're all right," he said, grinning again and walked away, in the direction of the large door leading to the corridor outside. Elizabeth turned back to Lily, who was indeed wearing a small frown.
"Oh, come on, Lily," Elizabeth scolded, taking a sip of her orange juice. "No matter what you think of him, he did help me."
Lily simply raised an eyebrow and went back to her lunch, not saying anything. Elizabeth toyed with her food, suddenly no longer hungry. It struck her that Sirius had tried to save her the previous night, ordering her back to the castle so she would be safe. If he had been in on the wolf attack, like Severus suggested, then he wouldn't have tried to make her leave. And, how would he have been able to get a wolf to attack her anyway? No, Sirius had tried to help her. It was almost as if he cared about her –
"Where are you going?" Lily asked as Elizabeth suddenly got to her feet.
"I'll be back in a minute."
Elizabeth rushed out of the Great Hall, away from all of the eating students and into the corridor, searching the crowd of passers-by for Sirius. She spotted him by the Grand Staircase and was about to approach him when she saw someone else rushing over in his direction.
"Hey!"
Puffy-eyed and red faced, Seraphina threw her arms around Sirius, kissing his face repeatedly.
"Sera, let go!"
Sirius firmly pushed Sera away and Elizabeth saw that embarrassment had twisted on Sera's face as her advances were rejected. She blew her hair away from her face and placed her hands on her hips.
"Why didn't you tell me about the attack last night?" she demanded crossly, her perfect eyebrow arching in annoyance. "I found out from Paige that you and Elizabeth were in the forest and a wolf attacked you both –"
"It didn't attack me, only Elizabeth," Sirius said impatiently. "It bit her. I thought she was your friend, so why haven't you asked about her?"
"This is Elizabeth we're talking about," Seraphina laughed harshly. "She has dozens of people looking out for her, she doesn't need to add me to her list of devotees."
Sirius gave a bark-like laugh but it was clear that he didn't find Seraphina's comment funny. He edged around her and walked away, only stopping when he saw Elizabeth lurking in the entrance to the Great Hall. Seraphina swung around to say something to Sirius but froze when she also spotted Elizabeth.
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Elizabeth said, smiling weakly. "Sirius, have you got a minute?"
Sirius' eyes lit up at her request and he nodded eagerly, ignoring the angry stares he was receiving from Seraphina.
"I thought we were going to the common room?" she tried to say, her voice going suddenly low and husky. Elizabeth knew that she wasn't used to boys ignoring her and was turning on her charms in an attempt to lure Sirius back to her. It was surprising to see that it didn't work.
"We can talk in here," Sirius said, pointing at the door of an empty classroom and Elizabeth nodded, leading the way. As she reached the door, she quickly turned back to see Seraphina marching away, steam positively hissing out of her ears.
"What did you want to talk about?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes full of hope.
"I just wanted to say thanks for last night," Elizabeth said softly, smiling at him. "And, I'm also sorry."
"Sorry? For what?"
"Ever since I met you, I didn't like you because of how you treated my brother. I thought you were a bully because you liked to hex other students and you do sometimes seem like an arrogant, idiotic –"
"Hey, I thought you were apologising!" Sirius laughed and Elizabeth stopped, realising that she had veered off course.
"Oh, yeah," she giggled. "I mean, I'm sorry I didn't change my opinion of you until last night. I should have seen that you are actually a nice guy. Or, at least you can be."
"I can be?" Sirius asked, cocking his head to one side.
"Well, you still need to reign in your love of performing magic on others, especially when your number one target is my brother," Elizabeth replied, smirking. "But, you looked after me last night so clearly you're a decent guy."
"I'm glad you think so," Sirius laughed, flicking his hair out of his eyes.
"I do," Elizabeth said softly and Sirius smiled at her. "But, if you really want us to be friends, then you need to leave Severus alone. I mean, I know he's a Slytherin, and you guys have some sort of territorial thing about Slytherins, but he isn't a bad person. Not all Slytherins are bad."
Sirius suddenly went tense and sighed heavily, running his hand through his dark hair. Elizabeth watched him for a second, confused at his change in attitude.
"Are you thinking about your family?" she asked quietly. Sirius sighed again and nodded.
"That's why I know that most Slytherins are bad, Elizabeth," he said gravelly. "My parents are filled with pure-blood mania and my cousins hate anybody is a half-blood or less. They enjoy inflicting pain and knows more curses than most people in the world. And, they're certainly followers of Voldemort."
Elizabeth flinched violently before she could stop herself. Eileen had taught her that You-Know-Who was a wizard to be feared and saying his name was definitely something to avoid.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that," Sirius apologised quickly. "I just don't think his name should be feared, that's all."
"Well, my mother's family all fear him," Elizabeth said, looking at her feet. It struck her that although she knew about his family's traditions and the fact that they were all sorted into Slytherin, she had never revealed her heritage.
"Why, are they all in Hufflepuff or something?" Sirius chuckled darkly, but stopped when Elizabeth didn't smile back.
"No, in Slytherin, actually," she replied harshly. "I'm the first Gryffindor for at least two hundred years, as far as I know. My mother wasn't exactly pleased when she found out, but she was more bothered with dealing with my father, so she didn't argue with me too much."
Sirius looked at her, not with pity, but with understanding and Elizabeth smiled gratefully.
"My point is that, like I shouldn't have judged you, you shouldn't judge Severus. You and I both came from Slytherin based families and yet we ended up in Gryffindor. Many people probably thought we would go the same way as our families and we didn't, so Severus could do the same thing. You just need to get to know him, all right? I mean, would Lily be friends with him if he was a –"
However, she was cut off as Sirius quickly pulled her close and kissed her softly, stroking her hair with his hands. Elizabeth pulled away, shocked.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"I wanted you to shut up about your brother," Sirius grinned, although behind his eyes, Elizabeth could see he was hurt. "The only way I could do that was by kissing you."
"Wow, you really think that every girl in this school is irresistible to your charms, don't you?" Elizabeth said, shaking with anger. "You think you can just kiss me and I'll melt?"
"Hang on!" Sirius said loudly. "You were the one who wanted to talk to me in private. You practically told me you wanted to be friends –"
"Yes, friends, not your new snogging buddy!" Elizabeth protested, growing red in the face. "I'm not Seraphina, you know."
"I'm well aware of that, that's why I like you and not her, you idiot!"
"What do you mean, you 'like me'? You have never shown the slightest bit of interest in me! You've been too busy with your long line of devoted fans."
Sirius paused, seemingly deliberating his answer.
"Look, you made it clear from our first day that you hated me. And, apart from Lily Evans, who I am not allowed to go near because of James, you were the only girl in our year that didn't appear to like me. I didn't think anything of it, until I realised it actually made me notice you more. The way you would argue with me and you could never be persuaded to change your mind once it was made up."
"It's not my fault I'm stubborn," Elizabeth muttered, refusing to allow Sirius to charm her.
"I like it," Sirius continued, smiling. Elizabeth's mouth twitched as she fought back a smirk. "Elizabeth, you're not like most girls. You don't pander to other people's egos, and you certainly wouldn't stray from your opinions just because someone told you to. You're clever and funny, and I know that you're loyal to everybody that you care about, if defending your brother is anything to go by." Sirius paused and then smirked. "And, your good looks certainly helped."
Elizabeth couldn't hide her smirk this time, but still didn't meet his gaze. She played with her robe, collecting her thoughts. Was he being truthful, or was he just trying to seduce the one girl he couldn't have?
Over the next few weeks, Elizabeth struggled with her sudden feelings for Sirius. Everything that bugged her about him was suddenly likable. Her words had certainly seemed to have an effect on him, as he no longer hexed random students, or if he was doing, he was managing to keep it a secret. She decided that if she was going to deal with her feelings, she needed to confront someone she knew would be aware how Sirius really felt.
"Remus, can I have a word?"
Remus jumped at being addressed, almost startled at Elizabeth's presence.
"Is everything all right?" he asked her as they both entered the library. Elizabeth nodded her head, sitting down at a nearby desk and waiting for Remus to be seated next to her.
"I just wanted to ask you a question," she said quietly, making sure that Madam Pince wasn't anywhere near. "It's about Sirius."
Remus' jaw muscle twitched slightly at the mention of his best friend's name and he struggled to hide a smirk.
"What about him?" he asked innocently, grabbing a textbook out of his bag as a means of obscuring his face. However, Elizabeth wasn't fooled.
"How does he feel about me?" she asked bluntly, not wanting to beat about the bush. Remus paused with his hand hovered over the book that fell out of his hand at Elizabeth's words.
"How do you mean?" he asked, suddenly appearing tired. "What has he said?"
"He said that he likes me," Elizabeth said, ignoring the burning feeling in her cheeks. "But, I don't know whether he's lying or not."
"Why would he lie to you?" Remus asked, surprised at the question. Elizabeth ran her hand through her hair and sighed, unsure how to explain the annoying niggle in the back of her mind. Remus watched her squirm and leaned forward, keeping his voice low. "Elizabeth, when Sirius confides in someone, he doesn't lie. Don't let on that I said anything because he will kill me, but I think you should know, because what with James fawning over Lily and Sirius not being able to focus unless the conversation is about you, I'm going insane. Sirius told me that you caught his attention the first day you met because you were clever, bossy-yet-kind and extremely beautiful. And, believe me when I tell you that for the past five years, he has attempted to tell you how he feels."
"Five years?" Elizabeth whispered in surprise and Remus nodded. "But, he dated other girls."
"Only because he's arrogant and liked female attention," Remus laughed affectionately. "He couldn't ignore the many contestants lining up to be his girlfriend. But, didn't you ask yourself why his relationships never lasted more than a week? Even with Seraphina, one of the most persistent and prettiest girls in the school, he didn't last more than two days because you found out. He felt like he was betraying you."
"I never noticed," Elizabeth muttered, half to herself. "I was always so busy hating him because of the pranks he and James would pull on Severus, and Lily has never liked him and…"
"And, things are still tough at home?" Remus finished for her, and Elizabeth looked at him; his dark eyes were filled with concern. She knew that Remus would keep quiet about anything she said, most likely because he himself was hiding a secret…
Elizabeth and Lily had both been told by Severus that Remus would leave the castle once a month and was smuggled into the foot of the Whomping Willow with the help of Madam Pomfrey. It struck Elizabeth as odd, so she did a little digging and worked out that Remus always got ill around a full moon, most likely making him a werewolf. Despite being a little shocked at this, she couldn't help but listen to the tug of her heart, reminding her that Remus was her friend and she cared about him.
After confiding in Remus that her mother and father's rows were getting increasingly more violent (Eileen was getting old and sloppy with her magic so she could no longer control her husband, and Tobias was just getting angrier), Elizabeth rushed off to find Sirius, to tell him that she believed him.
However, despite her teenage anxiety over her feelings for Sirius Black, Elizabeth also had to focus on her O.W.L.s, as it had occurred to her at the beginning of the year that if she truly wanted to leave her home in Spinner's End, she needed to get good grades in her exams. She and Lily spent almost every night in the library, testing each other about facts that they struggled to remember reading, pouring over passages that they had missed, on the off chance a question came up on it. Later, whenever the girls went to bed, Elizabeth would wait for Lily's breathing to slow down and would then silently creep downstairs to the common room, where Sirius would be waiting for her.
"Come here, I want to show you something," Sirius said, pulling her hand as soon as she reached the bottom step. "Now, stand there, and whatever happens, don't yell."
"Excuse me?" Elizabeth giggled, confused as Sirius went over to the portrait hole and stood still. He grinned wickedly and waved, winking. And, then suddenly, his limbs started moving at an incredible rate, and before Elizabeth had time to blink, Sirius was gone and a large black dog was still in his place, its tail wagging eagerly.
Elizabeth let out a low whistle, trying to register what had just happened.
"Sirius?" she whispered to the dog, who wagged its tail again and licked her hand. "Oh my Merlin. You're an Animagus?" The tail wagged again. "All right, can you change back now please? I can't have a conversation with a dog."
The dog let out a quiet bark and in a second transformed back into a man, grinning from ear to ear.
"So, what do you think?" he asked, obviously under the impression he had just given Elizabeth a treat.
"You can turn yourself into an Animagus?" she asked and Sirius nodded, his grin fading a little. Clearly Elizabeth's reaction wasn't the one he had been expecting.
"So can James and Peter," he explained happily. "James can turn into a stag and Peter can turn into a rat."
"But, why?" Elizabeth asked, thinking back to everything she had learned about Animagi in Professor McGonagall's class. "How did you even manage to do it – it's so dangerous! If it had gone wrong –"
"It didn't, though," Sirius said, taking hold of her hands and squeezing slightly. Elizabeth paused, as more thoughts flew around her head. Sirius seemed so pleased with his new ability that she felt almost mean lecturing him about the dangerous implications he could have faced.
"Why only James and Peter?" she asked as a sudden thought pierced her brain. Sirius looked at her in surprise so she tried to explain herself. "You said that James and Peter are Animagi, but you didn't mention Remus. Why not?"
Sirius struggled to answer and as his eyes darted around the room, Elizabeth widened her eyes in understanding.
"You know, don't you?" she whispered. "You know about Remus' condition! That's why you boys turned yourselves into Animagi – you can keep him company!"
"Wait, you know too?" Sirius asked, astonished. "Did Remus tell you?"
"Of course not," Elizabeth snorted. "You know Remus; he keeps to himself. Lily and I worked it out in our third year. How long have you known?"
"Since our second year –" Sirius began to say but stopped short, staying incredibly still. "Beth, do you still not want anyone to know about us yet?"
Although confused at the question, Elizabeth shook her head apologetically. If Lily and Severus found out about her relationship with 'the enemy', she would no doubt face some awkward questions and probably some shouting on Lily's part. She was about to ask why Sirius had changed what he was saying when she noticed he had his eyebrows raised at the girls' staircase. Somebody was coming down.
"Sirius!" Elizabeth pleaded and he nodded, kissing her hurriedly and rushing off up the boys' staircase, silent with every step. Elizabeth jumped onto the sofa and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep as the intruder entered the common room. There was silence for a few seconds and then –
"Lizzie!"
Elizabeth flickered her eyes as she adjusted her vision, yawning in the hope of convincing Lily she really had been asleep.
"What are you doing down here?" Lily asked as Elizabeth sat up. "You came up to bed with me. Why did you come back down?"
"Last minute revision," Elizabeth lied, glancing at the textbook that was resting on the coffee table near her. "I'm not prepared for the History of Magic exam tomorrow."
"Lizzie, you'll be fine," Lily assured her and Elizabeth smiled her gratitude.