Amelia had never been more mortified in her entire life.
Staring at her and Theodore together were none other than her godfather and honorary uncle - who, for want of a better word, were simply livid. The two people she had been keeping her relationship a secret from had just caught her and Theo snogging.
The two men were varying shades of red. Sirius was gripping his knuckles and Remus was clearly trying to calm himself down. Not quite knowing what to do, Amelia just looked at her boyfriend, wondering what on earth was in store for them.
When Remus eventually came back down to earth, he all but demanded the two of them to come to his office. Sensing impending doom, they did as he bid, Sirius walking behind them.
Remus all but bashed the door down as he entered. He gestured for them to sit as he drew two chairs up. He and Sirius remained standing in front of them. Amelia was that nervous you would have thought they were being expelled.
"Right," Remus started, trying his hardest not to snap or explode, "how long have you two been dating?"
Theo and Amelia looked to each other, obviously wondering who was going to answer for them. Theo decided to. "S-since j-just before Christmas, sir."
Sirius let out a yelp, and Remus flinched back and twitched. "You mean to tell me you've been dating each other for almost two months?"
Both feeling very sheepish, the young couple nodded, both of their faces looking down.
"You what?" Sirius shrieked.
It was silent again, the two men once again refraining themselves from strangling Theo. Well, at least we ended Valentine's Day with a bang, Amelia thought half ruefully.
Sirius took a deep breath and faced them again. "To think we've been housing you, Theo…"
Amelia's boyfriend gulped audibly, and she'd never seen him look so wide-eyed. Her godfather looked simply livid, and Remus, though he was calming down, still looked fuming. "I'll say this and only this-" Sirius started up again.
"-Sirius" Remus cut in, knowing his friend was probably about to start either a long lecture or start threatening.
"-If you lay a single hand on Amelia, Theodore, it will be the last time you'll have that hand. Understood?" Sirius continued, through gritted teeth as the six-feet tall man loomed in front of Theo.
"I understand." Theo answered weakly.
What followed next was a four minute rant made by Sirius and directed entirely at poor Theo. It was all mostly empty threats and how he'd be keeping an eye on them and that - to make sure that they "did nothing more than kissing". Remus even interrupted a few times when Sirius's 'propositions' were too silly sounding. When all that was said and done, everyone was glad it was finally over with. They were finally allowed to go on their way again. Theo looked scarred for life, and Amelia was halfway there as well.
When the two young lovebirds went on their way out of his office, Remus rounded on Sirius. "Right, that was a bit extreme from you, Sirius."
"Extreme?!" His best friend replied dumbfounded. "My goddaughter has a boyfriend, Remus, and has been all this time since December! They kept that from me!"
"And rightly so, seeing you acted like her actual father!" Remus countered, though he couldn't help but smile. He'd tried so hard not to laugh whilst Sirius was ranting to Theodore.
"And to make matters worse, we stumble upon them snogging in the corridor! Munching each other's faces off! Who knows what else they were planning on doing-"
"-That's enough, Sirius." Remus cut him off firmly, "They're both very sensible young people."
"Sensible? Sensible!" Sirius shrieked, "I don't think you can call snogging sensible!"
Remus face palmed. He couldn't help it - Sirius was being so dramatic. Though he was also protective of Amelia Potter, she was a teenager; plenty of teenagers dated at her age, it was only natural. So long as they were going well about it, he concluded he had no problem with Amelia dating Theo Nott - he even thought they were quite well suited…
"We have to tell Ophelia that her son was caught with Amelia," Sirius said.
"She'll be delighted," Remus smirked, and Sirius glared at him.
"It's not funny!"
"I'm not laughing!"
Sirius huffed and puffed some more. Remus stood up. "Sirius, will you bloody breathe and hear yourself think?"
Padfoot sent him a filthy look before he slumped back down into one of the chairs Theo had sat on previously. The man elected to stare down at his feet like a scorned child. "I know that you're going crazy over the fact that your ward has a boyfriend, but please, you can't force yourself between them. Trust me, if you do that it's only going to end in foul moods all around. Leaving them to their own devices is the best course of action."
Sirius was about to protest, but Remus continued speaking before he could even speak. "If there were any problems to arise in their relationship, you have to make sure that Amelia would trust you enough in order to speak to you about those potential problems. If she doesn't, she would keep it very much bottled up and to herself; like her brother, and she'd just feel worse. If she was ever to console within you in the state you're in right now, you'd go batshit crazy and hex Theo into the next century. That would only end in disaster."
Sirius sighed, and was quiet for a few moments. He was clearly seeing sense in what Remus had just told him. "It's just… I don't want her getting hurt."
"That's only natural, I feel the same." Remus replied.
"I know she can take care of herself, but it's just… strange. I feel like I've got to protect her from everyone. James would have done the same."
Remus's heart panged hearing his deceased best friend's name being spoken again, but he soon chuckled when an image of James acting like a stereotypical protective father whilst intimidating Theo came into his head. "Yeah, he would have - probably more extreme than you."
Sirius barked laughter. "Amelia was his precious princess. He didn't even let baby Neville near her, remember?"
It was Remus's turn to laugh. "You were the same with Dorea. Lily, Alice and Marlene found it hilarious."
The two men chuckled, clearly calmed down from their previous states, and were instead thinking back to happier times. They continued talking, when Remus brought up another valid point. "You're going to have to inevitably do the same for Dorea, you know."
Sirius whipped his head around. "Pardon?"
Oh this'll be good, Remus thought. "Your own daughter will no doubt start dating soon, Padfoot."
Sirius looked mortified. "Not if I can help it."
"Oh come on," Remus threw his hands up, "if Harry starts dating girls I very much doubt you'd stop him. It can't be one rule for him and a different one for the girls."
"That's not fair!" Sirius protested avidly. "Boy's are less likely to get taken advantage of."
Remus sighed. "That's not true. Remember Cruella Bulstrode in our year? She dated boys and leeched them of whatever they had; popularity, money, a good family name… She dated and dumped boys like a normal person changes socks."
A harrumph came from Sirius Black. He was clearly getting tired of this conversation and wanted it to end abruptly and as soon as possible.
Back in Gryffindor common room, Dorea, along with Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat sprawled out on the couches. Valentine's Day was practically over and done with for another year (though it wasn't even dinner time yet, the festivities in Hogsmeade were long done). She had a great day spent almost entirely in Fred's company, where they first went shopping in Hogsmeade and had a lovely lunch in the Three Broomsticks. She hadn't seen Amelia and Theo there, but she expected they were either in the upstairs bit or tucked away in one of the many booths. She'd learned how Harry's date with Cho went, and felt disappointed but hoped they would have no hard feelings for each other.
She was sitting discussing the upcoming Hufflepuff vs Slytherin Quidditch game that was being played on Saturday when she saw Amelia walking through the portrait hole, looking very much wide-eyed. Her godsister said nothing as she sat down next to them.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
It took Amelia a few moments to answer, but when she did, she looked straight at Dorea and said, "Sirius and Remus found out that me and Theo are dating."
The five of them were silent for a few moments, and all shared a look of horror. "Uh oh…" Was all Dorea could really say to that.
"How did they find out? And how did they take it?" Harry asked.
Amelia gulped. "They caught us snogging in an upstairs corridor. Sirius was livid; Remus was too but he was soon pretty calm and seemed fine with it."
Ron let out a low whistle. "I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall when that all went down."
"Sirius proceeded to give Theo a lecture about how he needs to respect me at all times and treat me properly like a good young aristocratic gentleman. Even I felt terrified." Amelia continued. Dorea listened avidly; she knew her father was very protective of her, Harry and Amelia, but she didn't realise the extent of it. She didn't envy Theo at all - being on the end of her father's rant which was probably laced with threats.
That got her thinking… If her dad was to ever stumble across her and Fred kissing… all hell would be raised, probably, and Fred would be cursed into the next generation. She shivered just thinking about it. He cannot find out, she thought, especially not within the next few days or so. She reckoned Sirius would need a lot of time to get used to the idea of Theo and Amelia dating, he would probably need a full few months before he could start contemplating her and Fred. She decided to always keep her wits about her, lest her six feet tall, very scary dad throttle poor Fred.
That Saturday, the Hufflepuff vs Slytherin Quidditch game was upon them. Though Dorea wasn't even playing, she felt that this game would be scintillating to watch: after all, there was a lot at stake - if Slytherin won, they would go into second place in the Quidditch Cup standings and be right behind Gryffindor, however if Hufflepuff won today they would comfortably move into third. Ravenclaw were playing Slytherin next month, and Gryffindor were to play Hufflepuff as well at the start of April. Then all roads lead to the Quidditch Cup final, where the teams in first and second battled it out to win.
That morning, she sat with her Hufflepuff friends, though they were soon joined by Daphne and co. Megan was looking a bit uneasy, which was a bit unusual, as she always looked forward to playing. They were a bit worried when Megan declared she was going to go to the Hospital Wing; but she was soon back. Turns out, she had to be prescribed a Cramp-Easing Concoction - due to the fact she could tell her period cramps were starting. Good thing she's taking it before the match, Dorea thought, would have been a disaster if she couldn't play.
The weather was slightly gusty yet cloudy, yet most people were wrapped up warm - after all, it was February, and in Scotland you could literally experience all four seasons within a day. She couldn't help but get an adrenaline rush as both of the teams walked out onto the pitch. The two captains, Cadwallader and Montague, shook hands (though they looked like they were trying to amputate each other), and soon enough they took to the air. Madam Hooch blew the whistle, threw the quaffle in the air, and the match commenced.
Montague had won the aerial battle for the quaffle, and soon burst forward to instantly try and make it towards Hufflepuff's end. However, he soon ran into a wall; well, a hypothetical wall that consisted of Cadwallader and Zacharias Smith, who stopped him in his tracks. There was a bit of a scuffle as Montague tried to get past them, but not that much confrontation to warrant a foul or a penalty. Pucey and Warrington were soon screaming at Montague to pass the ball to either of them since he wasn't getting anywhere anytime soon, and the Slytherin Captain launched the quaffle… which was promptly caught by the third Hufflepuff Chaser, Bradley. Bradley soon made a mad dash towards Slytherin's end, though Warrington was now hot on his heels, desperate to stop him. Just as Bradley was about to launch it, Crabbe hit a Bludger, which whacked off the end of Bradley's broom and caused him to spin almost uncontrollably and lose grip of the quaffle. Hooch only gave Crabbe a warning, since the bludger hadn't caused Bradley to lose balance.
Megan and Wayne, she concluded, were simply an unreal Beater duo. The two of them worked together very well, and were always not too far away from the action and thick of things. Despite the fact that Megan was the only girl on the pitch, she was performing very well against her male counterparts. Zach was a good Chaser too, but he seemed to always be frustrated, though he was competitive too.
Soon enough, scoring commenced, with Slytherin drawing first blood. Zacharias shrieked bloody murder at Hufflepuff's Keeper, though he was soon stopped by Madam Hooch. Hufflepuff soon got into a good rhythm though, despite the fact that Slytherin kept blocking them every few seconds. Within half an hour, the score was Hufflepuff 20-40 Slytherin.
Summerby and Malfoy were also zooming around the pitch, hunting the snitch. Summerby was almost too big to be a Seeker - he almost resembled a Beater, for he was pure strength rather than nimbleness. Draco, she hated to admit it, was the better Seeker by far.
An hour into play and it was only getting more brutal. Warrington had been subbed off, injured, after Zacharias barreled into him whilst performing a tackle. The Reserve Chaser called up was none other than Blaise. She was looking forward to watching him play, for she'd never seen him do so before.
Cadwallader and Montague were also getting very provocative towards one another. Hooch even gave a penalty to Hufflepuff when Montague barged into Cadwallader for no apparent reason, which caused the Hufflepuff Captain to dangle from his broom for a few seconds as he lost his seat. The crowd gasped and held its breath as Cadwallader scrambled onto his broom again. Bradley managed to score the penalty shot, making Hufflepuff right behind Slytherin now. Come on Summerby, she thought, catch the Snitch before Malfoy does…
All throughout the match the two Seeker's had been engaged in multiple races to the Golden Snitch, yet it ended fruitlessly as the tiny golden ball always darted off in another direction, causing their hunt to continue.
More foul play ensued - mostly coming from Crabbe and Goyle. The two of them both whacked a Bludger at Megan: big mistake. Megan rounded on both of them and started screeching, which was hilarious as the two Slytherin goons, who always liked to pretend how they were so intimidating, were hurriedly flying away from the raging Megan Jones, almost like animals with their tails between their legs. Wayne was soon their unsuspecting next victim, as they sent a Bludger in his direction instead which whacked off his foot. Everyone seemed to wince at that. Madam Hooch was so fed up she even stopped play for a few moments to sternly remind Crabbe and Goyle to play responsibly and fairly, and that if they did it again they'd be getting sent off.
When play resumed, a small shower of rain graced the grounds of Hogwarts, but virtually nobody was put off - for Quidditch was played in all weathers. She couldn't help but cheer when Blaise started putting a few goals in; he was her friend after all. "He's really quite stylish!" Hermione said from next to her, though she had to strain to hear her.
The game raged on for yet another half an hour: goals being scored left right and centre on both sides. The rain was getting a bit heavier, and Dorea thought she heard a rumble of thunder in the distance but couldn't be too sure - the stands were packed and you could barely hear yourself think.
Everyone braced themselves when Summerby and Malfoy were engaged in yet another race towards the Snitch. It was hard to see exactly where it was in the rain, but judging by the way both boys kept reaching out for it in desperation, she assumed it was mere feet in front of them. The match was well and truly ended when Summerby thrust his hand up in the air, Snitch clearly in hand. The crowd went wild.
"Hufflepuff have saved themselves from being joint-last! What a battle that was between Summerby and Malfoy! Final score: Slytherin 320-470 Hufflepuff!" Lee Jordan said excitedly on the commentating microphone. The stands were almost rocking back and forth, there was that much excitement.
She joined her friends in going down onto the pitch and congratulating the Hufflepuff team. Megan and Wayne looked very damp and worn out, yet were very satisfied. Zacharias just nodded unsmiling when they told him congratulations.
The Slytherin common room that evening was very on-edge. Due to Summerby finally catching the Golden Snitch, Slytherin were now only a very tight second place; Hufflepuff's score had pushed them right up the table. Professor Snape had been a bit livid that the team had lost, however he at least understood there wasn't much else Draco could have done.
"Summerby's a cheat, I just know he is!" Draco Malfoy proclaimed in the common room that night. He was the ringleader of the Slytherin's all sat around the table near the fireplace, discussing every minute of the match. "There's no way his Cleansweep beat my Nimbus 2001!"
Theo was neither happy nor disappointed that they lost - they were still in good standings Cup wise, so he was sure the team wouldn't be disheartened for too long. He sat with Blaise over at another table; since they no longer got on with Crabbe or Goyle.
"Zacharias Smith needs to be banned," Cassius Warrington had added his voice to the discussion. The boy was clutching a bruised shoulder. "He could have sent me plummeting to the ground very easily."
"Their Keeper sure left a lot to be desired." Graham Montague said in something of a sly tone, causing the circle of people to chuckle.
"Did you hear that stupid Megan girl?" Millicent Bulstrode piped up, looking to Crabbe and Goyle, "why was she screaming at you two?
"She kicked off because we sent a Bludger towards her. Big deal." Goyle said in mockery.
"Yeah, must be on the rag." Crabbe nodded, causing Millicent, Pansy and their gaggle of girl friends to giggle.
Daphne and Tracey soon meandered over to sit with Theo and Blaise. "They do realise we can hear them, right?" Tracey said quietly as they sat down.
Blaise had chuckled. "Leave them to it, I say. I suppose if we listen, it'll give us good gossip."
After a few moments, the four of them got their Astronomy work out, as they had it on Monday and there was homework due for that day. They were comparing where they had plotted Uranus on their star charts when they overheard some more talking from over at the main table.
"When do we play Ravenclaw anyway?" Adrian Pucey had asked loudly.
"March 23rd." Montague answered.
"Should be an easy match - for me, anyway. Chang still rides a Comet Two-Ninety and has the audacity to think she'll be able to win the match." Draco spoke. Pansy giggled.
"Comet Two-Ninety's?" Millicient had shrieked in a slight fit of laughter. "They're almost older than all of us!"
"If Chang ever wants to be taken seriously she needs a new broom, for starters." Bletchley snickered.
"Silly cow that she is," Pansy muttered, "it's like she wants Ravenclaw to lose!"
"Since when was money the answer to every success?" Daphne whispered so that only the four of them could hear. Tracey chuckled.
Adrian Pucey's posh accent was soon heard once again. "I don't know about you, but I found it pretty hot when Megan Jones was angry."
"Adrian!" some random sixth year girl exclaimed in something akin to disbelief.
"Pucey, mate, her family are blood-traitors!" Crabbe said in slight disgust.
"That may be so," Pucey just shrugged, "but she is a nice thing to look at nonetheless. I'd totally-"
Theo couldn't make out the rest. Just so - he knew that Adrian Pucey had a slight old-fashioned outlook on life, and that included the female population. He guessed that Pucey had either just objectified Megan in some way or commented how... hot and bothered he'd gotten looking at her during the match. That seemed to be so, as Warrington made a likewise comment regarding both Cho Chang and Skye Parkin. "Creeps." Was all Theo muttered. If they even mention Amelia in their little discussion… Theo would go rampant on them, totally flip, if they talked about his girlfriend in a derogatory way.
"Totally." Daphne agreed. "We best warn all the female Quidditch players in school that certain ponces might be chatting them up in the future."
Trying to get back to work, all Theo could bloody hear was multiple people saying things such as:
"Awww come on mate, she's minging!"
"Angelina Johnson? Really, Draco?"
"I'll bet you ten Galleons that I can ask Megan Jones out."
On Monday morning, there seemed to be a bit of a flurry at breakfast. Harry wondered just why: bt then was greeted to the best possible headline on the front of Hermione's Daily Prophet:
"DAILY PROPHET OVERHAUL - EDITORS AND REPORTERS SACKED AS MINISTER BONES DELIVERS PROMISE OF NEWSPAPER TAKEDOWN"
Susan had been telling the truth; her aunt truly was going through with the idea of sacking Rita Skeeter and all her cronies. Harry felt elated; he could probably now read that newspaper and not have to worry about his name being sneaked in somewhere - which meant the smear campaign against him was well and truly quashed. Doing further reading, a whole lot of people had been sacked or fired - everyone from the Political Editor's to Culture Correspondence.
"Finally!" Ron had exclaimed when he finally came down and read it.
"She's had it coming a long time," Hermione looked victorious.
Harry had a thought. "Where's Madam Bones going to get all these new employees from?"
Amelia looked up. "Well, all they have to be is decent and report real news, so surely that won't be too difficult to find."
He supposed that was true. Still, he couldn't get over how delighted he felt looking at the photograph of Rita Skeeter getting sacked, which was adorning half the front page. Her hair, usually so perfectly curled and cropped short, looked a straggly mess. The woman's makeup was streaming down her face as well, clearly upset over losing her job.
That school week passed in much the same fashion; Harry had his Occlumency lesson on Tuesday, which had gone absolutely terribly. Snape had barked at him, claiming he knew fine well that Harry hadn't been clearing his mind before sleep every night. Madam Pomfrey's Healing lessons, held every fortnight, were also progressing at a good rate. They now could all heal bruises, cuts, aches and pains, so they moved on to cover how to diagnose both internal and external problems. That was quite easy, as there was already a quite advanced diagnostic spell in circulation, yet they all gave it a good go and it was very straightforward. The Junior DA were progressing very nicely; though the first and second years were taking a bit longer in regards to duelling dummies, they were getting the hang of it very quickly.
The one subject he was beginning to fall a bit behind in was Arithmancy - he almost regretted taking it. Professor Vector was a brilliant teacher and all, but he just wasn't understanding the content as well as he should be at this stage. He made a mental note to enlist the help of either Susan or Anthony at some point - Susan had really helped him out with the previous topic, and Anthony was… well, Anthony Goldstein was something of a whizz kid.
During the morning interval on Thursday, he had in fact decided to just ask Anthony, as Harry had just had double Arithmancy and was more stumped than ever. His Ravenclaw friend agreed to help him avidly. "We could go to the Room of Requirement this weekend before DA?" The boy had suggested,
"That would be great!" Harry nodded. "I still do not understand why Personality Number's are hurting my head so much."
Anthony chuckled, "It's actually not that bad, I have a really good method I use to go about it. I'll show it to you on Saturday."
Looking forward to that, he went to Charms in a far better mood, knowing he was now going to get some help with that regard. When the bell for lunch rang, he felt optimistic for his upcoming study session with his brainy friend - he really hoped he was going to get Arithmancy nailed down.
Dorea entered the Room and made a beeline for the two clocks. She set the Room or Requirement time to its usual half of the actual time, and took a seat. She never really liked messing about with time, especially since she knew just how severe the consequences were if she somehow went back in time and changed events, but McGonagall ensured her that no matter how much time she spent in the Room, as long as the timer was set at a quarter, she could spend as much time in there as she so wished.
She picked up the heavy book on wand lore and once she located the bookmark she used, carried on from where she left off from the last time. Dorea never got tired learning about all the little details involved with wands, and occasionally took her own out of her robe and just stared at it admiringly.
She even loved the chapter on the wand core, and how there were so many different cores used out there, not just your traditional dragon heartstring and unicorn tail hairs. The most powerful wand in existence - The Elder Wand, had a Thestral tail hair core, which Dorea smiled at, imagining a wand maker who had not witnessed death trying to extract one. A wizard called Cadogan once had a wand which contained a troll's whisker as its core - Dorea couldn't understand how that would make a wand powerful, as troll's were lumbering and lazy but strong. The great Salazar Slytherin even had a Basilisk horn for his core - now that sounded deadly.
After reading an interesting paragraph on kneazle whiskers and Kelpie hair being used as cores, Dorea heard the door open, and Harry entered.
"Hey, Dorea, thought I'd find you here." He grinned at her.
"You know me so well, my dear godbrother." Dorea smiled back.
"What's that you're reading?" Harry came over and sat next to her.
"A book on wand lore." Dorea showed him the cover.
"Is it interesting? I've never really thought of reading up about wands."
"To me it is, yeah." Dorea then ranted. "I just find it fascinating how no wand is the same. Every wizard has their own distinctive wand, and that just makes me want to learn so much more about the things, y'know what I mean?"
Harry laughed. "You look so much like Sirius when you rant about things you like."
"Speaking of Dad, where is he anyway?"
"He had lunch and then went back up to his living quarters. He probably has a class to prepare for." Harry then yawned.
"How are you so tired?" Dorea chuckled.
"I think my workload is taking a toll on me," Harry really did look tired. "The teachers just give us homework practically everyday, not realising we're already jam-packed with it as we are, and some of us have other things to be doing. I wish they'd calm down. It's only February, our exams aren't till June."
"I think this room also messes with your sleeping pattern," Dorea pondered. "I'm always knackered when I spend hours in here with the clock set working through all my work and revising, but then obviously I know that outside the Room, time is normal, which messes with me, as I then go to classes and dinner half-asleep."
"Yeah, me and Amelia have both noticed that too. Maybe we need to restrict how many times we come in here? It may do us and our concentration levels the world of good." Harry said.
Dorea nodded. "What have we got after lunch?"
"Defence and then double Potions. It feels so weird that I'm excited for Potions now. Spending all summer actually teaching myself it rather than the greasy gits laughable way of teaching has made me realise that I am good at it." Harry answered.
"Amen to that," Dorea replied. "It's always a laugh seeing the git's face when we do our potions perfectly - he can't believe it, and he doesn't know how it's possible."
"Oh god, that reminds me, DA tomorrow night."
"How did you almost forget?! You're our leader for crying out loud!" Dorea burst out laughing.
"Thank Merlin I did remember, or else everyone would turn up and wonder where I am and then rip my head off the next day." Harry laughed.
"What have you got planned? Anything new?"
"I'm wanting all of us to focus more on the casting of the spells, and our reaction speeds, so I might have us do little mock-duels starting with minor jinxes and charms to get us going." Harry explained.
"Oh I'm so going to duel you and Amelia, I'll beat you both." Dorea joked.
"Hey, I'm the one who duelled Voldemort! You have no chance!" Harry laughed, and in that moment Dorea felt a real sibling love for Harry - they actually felt like proper brother and sister.
Dorea then looked over at the clocks, and realised that they had ten minutes before the bell rang to signal that they would have to head to Defence fifth period.
"Will we just go now and find Amelia, Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked. Dorea nodded, and marked the page she was on in the wand lore book, got her bag and stood up. She stopped the timer and then walked out the Room with Harry.
They coincidentally ran into the other 3 on the staircase, along with Daphne, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. Dorea couldn't help but grin at the inter-house unity - it all wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for her and her god siblings.
"Hey guys!" She called them. The group smiled at them all.
"Oh Dorea, you ought to know, Blaise was eyeing you up like mad in Charms." Daphne grinned and linked arms with her. She had grown close to the oldest Greengrass sister.
"He's always staring at me, I sometimes feel as if he's staring into my soul." She replied, giggling.
During Defence, Remus had them doing revision of Dark creatures. He had brought along live demonstrations as well; he had a small tank filled with a snake, another one containing a Ghoul, and a final one with a Pixie inside it. For once, that period was spent mostly writing, though they did have time at the end to start discussing how to deal with each creature. Remus declared that their homework task - for tomorrow, was to research how to deal with the creatures and how to dispose of them in the safest way possible. Dorea didn't think that would be too hard - she recalled seeing somewhere in the textbook a section on everything regarding Dark creatures, so hoped there would be some information there. Sooner than they liked, fifth period was over and done with, and to finish the day they had double Potion's.
The group talked amongst themselves as they made their way to the dungeon classroom and waited outside of it, talking about anything and everything. Dorea, Amelia and Daphne were talking about the latest Muggle Studies essay Professor Burbage had set for tomorrow when the other members of the class appeared - most notably Pansy Parkinson and her gang.
"Oh God, not her," Daphne grimaced and turned away so that she wasn't facing Pansy any longer.
"What is it? I thought you were quite friendly with her." Amelia asked in a hushed voice, as Millicent Bulstrode was giving their group a look.
"Not anymore, I got to the girls dorm last night and they were all gathered on Pansy's bed, but they stopped talking when I entered. I thought nothing of it, and went to join them, but that cow Millicent virtually told me to fuck off." Daphne whispered.
Dorea was shocked. "How dare she!"
Hermione also shot a very nasty glare in the direction of Parkinson and her gang.
"I then asked them what the hell was up, and Pansy goes off her head at me - calling me a Slytherin traitor and how I should just move in with the Gryffindor's. I asked her why the hell it was such a problem that I was making friends amongst the other 3 houses and all she could come up with was that it was an embarrassment and disgrace. I just put up an invisible barrier around my bed so that they couldn't sabotage me, pulled the curtains around me and stayed there the whole night."
"There's a space at our table, you can come to our bench if you want?" Hermione offered.
Daphne Greengrass looked as though she could kiss Hermione. "Oh Merlin, thanks so much for that, Hermione, I would have thrown myself off the Astronomy tower if you hadn't. There's no way I'm sitting with them."
It was then that the classroom door opened, and Professor Snape told them to enter. The girls went to their table, whilst Harry and the boys went to the one directly opposite. Daphne gladly settled down into the seat beside Hermione.
Snape was about to explain that day's lesson, when he noticed that Daphne was not sitting in her usual spot. "Miss Greengrass, why are you not seated in your normal seat?"
Daphne was about to answer, but Pansy got there first. "She's not one of us anymore. She's not welcome."
Dorea was mortified on Daphne's behalf that Parkinson had said that out loud, embarrassing her in front of the whole O.W.L class. Snape looked between the Slytherin girls and Daphne as if he was watching a tennis rally, before simply saying "very well."
Dorea couldn't help but smirk at Harry and Amelia when Snape said that in the lesson they were to make an Invigoration Draught again, a potion they were very familiar with as they had brewed it countless times over the summer. Snape projected the ingredients and instructions on the board before telling them to get started.
She didn't even have to look at the instructions. Well, she did occasionally just for reminders, but that was it. Soon, her potion was at a simmering stage, whilst everyone else's bar Harry and Amelia's were still having ingredients added to them.
Snape was making his way around the classroom, starting off at his dear beloved Slytherin's. Dorea grinned when she saw that Pansy's potion was overflowing and letting off a stench, but glared when Snape didn't even bat an eyelid, and muttered something to his wand which fixed her potion. Millicent Bulstrode ladled some of hers up, to see what on earth was going on with it, and hers had the consistency of a mixture of porridge and cement. Snape didn't seem to mind, however, and fixed hers as well. If that was a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff's potion, he'd be giving them two weeks detention. Dorea thought with contempt.
Snape eventually wandered over to their desk, where Hermione had just sat down as hers was now at the simmering stage.
"Why are all you girls sitting down?" Snape asked.
"We're waiting for it to simmer, sir." Daphne answered, as if it was the most obvious answer ever.
"And what if it starts sprouting flames?" Snape hissed.
"It won't, as we've clearly done everything correctly thus far." Dorea answered.
"I will have no cheek from you, Miss Black, five points from Gryffindor." Snape snapped. Dorea glared at him when he finally turned away and headed to Malfoy's desk.
"That was so unfair!" Amelia whispered. "Look, Crabbe's been sat down ever since the first step, but watch, Greasy Git won't say anything to him."
"Millicent's potion looked like something you would never feed a dog, and yet he fixed it for her. If that was Neville's he'd embarrass him in front of the class." Hermione also said in a hushed voice.
Neville, who was seated back-to-back with Dorea, then turned to whisper. "Mines is going really well," he seemed very pleased. "Harry just quietly tells me what to do and it all works. Snape can't believe that a potion is actually working for me for once in my life, he took five points off me though."
"He took five points from me just for saying the truth." Dorea shrugged. They stopped talking then, as Snape had finished his round of the class and was now standing at his desk facing them all.
"Your potions should come off the heat in five minutes, as they take ten minutes to cool down before they can be bottled. There is twenty five minutes left of this class, and make it count." Snape called out.
Doing a quick survey, everyone was either standing or sat waiting for their potion to simmer. Seamus had seemed to battle his way through his potion and not get his head blown up once, and Dean was looking very relaxed. None looked as chilled out as Harry, though.
At the desk in front of her, Blaise Zabini turned around and caught her eye. He pretended that he was going to put some spare ingredients back, but then he stopped by.
"Yours looks good." He grinned.
She couldn't help but blush slightly. "Thanks. How is yours looking?"
"As good as it can be at this stage. Oh, Granger, turn your cauldron heat up to 4, I find it simmers it better. Consistency becomes smoother, y'know. Less residue as well." Blaise casually offered. Hermione looked mildly surprised.
"Thanks for that advice, Blaise." Hermione gave him a small smile.
"No problemo." He just shrugged.
Dorea felt a bit of pride swell within her then. At the start of this school year, Blaise Zabini wouldn't even think of making eye contact with muggleborns, but now he seemed very chilled out talking to whoever he wanted. She continually told Harry how great the Defence Association was, but she realised she had to thank him for all the friendships he had helped create too.
"I better get back, or else poor Theo will be lost and the lab will go up in flames." He whispered, before casually walking back to his station, a spring in his step.
Daphne grinned at her. "He fancies you."
"I know, Daph, all too well."
She just laughed. "I think he forgets you have a boyfriend at times, he seems to think that he does go out with you."
"Your cauldrons should come off the heat now. Any later and the consequences may be disastrous." Snape all but snarled from the front of the room.
Everyone's cauldrons now off the heat, they started to tidy up. Dorea reached down and pulled her bag up from the floor, placing her scales and potions textbook into it. She then got a flask and cork ready so that she could just ladle her potion into it.
When the whole class had ladled their potion into the tubes, put their names on it and placed them on Snape's desk, the man looked very riddled about something.
"That was quite a difficult and fiddly potion you all just concocted, and for that reason there's a likely chance it will come up in your practical O.W.L exam. I will mark your potions based on the marking procedures for O.W.L Potions." He then paused. "Could the Gryffindor's in this class please remain behind when the bell goes? There's something I need to speak to you all about."
The Gryffindor's then all exchanged looks. Why were they getting held back but the Slytherin's weren't?
When the bell rang, Daphne left their table and said she would keep seats for them at the Slytherin table, which they nodded at. Once Snape was certain that everyone bar the Gryffindor's had left, he rounded on them.
"So, I have growing concerns about some members of this class." He walked amongst them. "Longbottom, how is it that you've improved oh so rapidly in this class? You've gone from Dreadful's to Poor's, Poor's to Acceptable's, and I have a feeling that the potion you've just sampled for me will reluctantly be getting an Exceeds Expectations. Sooner or later you might just get an Outstanding. How have you done it?" Snape demanded. Poor Neville looked frightened for his life.
"Erm, my Nan gave me a few Potions books at Christmas. Erm, well, she gave me books for mostly all my subjects, bar Herbology-"
"-Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe that by reading a book, you've gone from almost no marks to good marks?" Snape snapped.
"W-well, I do take time to properly read the instructions and-"
"-And what about you, Saint Potter?" Snape then rounded on Harry, who gulped. Amelia tensed.
"I sort of do the same as Neville, sir, in that I take my time-"
"-You were two steps ahead of everyone else today, Potter. You're implying that everyone else must've gone at a slug's pace."
"No! I did take time at first, but I worked faster to save myself more time." Harry insisted.
"You two were also blazing ahead of the others." Snape now turned to Dorea and Amelia. "Even Miss Granger couldn't keep up. What do you two have to say?"
"The same as Harry." Amelia simply said.
"Oh forget it." Snape snapped, causing the Gryffindor's to look startled. "I will not believe that my Slytherin's have mostly all been overtaken by a bunch of dunderhead Gryffindor's. If I find that any of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are also scoring higher than them, someone may just find themselves in big trouble. Is that clear?" Snape sneered.
Everyone gulped and nodded.
"Good. Now get out."
The Gryffindor fifth years didn't need a second reminder. They burst out the class, and started having hushed discussions. "I can't believe him." Harry raged.
"What a biased toerag," Parvati grumbled.
"I bet someone in Slytherin tipped him off," Ron agreed. "And I'm willing to bet it was Pansy and her gang, I saw her talking to him and smirking at us."
"What if he knows?" Harry had leaned in to Dorea. "What if he knows of the Potions Lab at Black Manor?"
She couldn't help but consider that possibility. "During your Occlumency lessons, has he ever seen memories of you there, or of Black Manor in general?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
"We should be fine, then. I think maybe we could work a bit slower though, because he is definitely getting suspicious." She added. Harry nodded, and he told Amelia too.
At dinner, as they were sitting down with their friends, Ron had noticed that Sirius wasn't at the staff table. Dorea shook that off, as not everybody finished classes exactly on time, so deduced that her father was probably just finishing up with a class. After all, the Astronomy classroom was quite a hefty climb and took a good few minutes to get to and from, so he was probably just coming as they spoke.
"Good work today, guys!" Sirius said in praise as the bell rang to signal the end of the period. "Don't forget your homework on Lunar phases for Tuesday!" He said to the group of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sixth year students as they eagerly got up to leave. Half the class nodded, whereas the others were just jostling to get out and get down to dinner. He couldn't blame them, really - lunch had almost been four hours ago, they were bound to be hungry.
He stayed behind a bit as he elected to tidy up his classroom a bit. Though he'd been a teacher since the start of term, Sirius still found it very strange he was even a Professor. Though the kids were great most of the time, he still had to remind himself that this was an education establishment and that he was expected to be professional. He didn't take that many liberties - though on occasion he would let his classes finish ten minutes earlier and he was quite lenient with homework due dates, depending on the situation. Though he was pretty fun, he did take his classes seriously too. Small, harmless pranks he let slip too, but he couldn't abide disrespect or non-triers. He really cared about the kids wellbeing too; if he sensed that a particular year group were shouldering a lot of work (for example, the seventh years, who had been busy with their mock NEWTs the past few weeks), he would let the class decide if they wanted to spend the period studying whatever they wanted themselves or doing Astronomy work. It wasn't that much of a bother if they didn't want to do Astronomy that period at all; he'd been a student once, and free periods were times to get your own goals and targets met. For that, he could tell the older students were grateful he gave them time to themselves.
Tucking the last chair into its desk, he got his folder of work tucked away in its cabinet and levitated all the papers he had to mark back down to his office. He detested marking at the best of times, though it had to be done regardless. He was almost done marking the mock NEWT exams that he had made himself, he just needed a few more to do.
Just as he took his cloak off to go down to dinner, he noticed the letter he had received that morning sat on his desk. It was from Proteus Nott, who had wanted Theo to Floo over and see him one weekend (that little trip, however, would have to be arranged beforehand as not many students had the chance to use Floo networks at Hogwarts for obvious reasons). He reminded himself to send a response off as soon as possible - he wanted Theo and Proteus to really catch up on lost time.
A thought came to him then - what if he just went now? Proteus had enclosed within the letter his address, so Sirius could quite literally just Floo over right now. Though he didn't know if Proteus would be at his own job, he could always leave a note. The man had a wife as well; maybe she would be at home? He didn't know if they had house elves, but if he saw one he could easily get it to tell its master he'd arrived.
"Should I really go over right now?" Sirius thought out loud. It was dinner time, but he intended to only go over for a flying visit. If all else failed, he would easily just get one of the Hogwarts house elves to send some food to his quarters. Remus would probably wonder where on earth he'd gone, but he would tell him once he got back. He was sure the kids wouldn't worry too much either. To be safe, he drafted up a letter and stuck it to the outside of his door in case they came enquiring.
"Proteus did say to pop over anytime…" He said to himself.
With that, he made towards the Floo fireplace in his office. Grabbing a handful of powder, he adjusted himself multiple times so that he fit. Let's just hope there's somebody at home, at least. He thought.
Sirius took a breath, and said clearly the address of Proteus Nott, "Baldrine House, Isle of Man!"
Within moments he was transported through the Floo Network and found himself in what he assumed was Proteus's living room or lounge. He couldn't really see for a few moments as small grains of the powder had somehow gotten into his eyes as he was transporting. When he could see again, he was definitely not prepared for the sight that welcomed him.
In front of him was a medium-sized dining room table, and seating at it was a very alarmed looking Proteus and a woman who Sirius assumed was his wife. There was another place at the table with a plate of hot food occupying it, yet there was nobody seated at it. They must've gone to the toilet or something.
"Sirius!" Proteus said in welcome, yet he looked very on edge.
"Sorry I didn't warn you I was coming," Sirius started saying, "you said to pop over anytime… which I've just gathered you probably didn't mean literally."
"O-oh, no, it's fine, it's just-"
"Proteus, who is this?" The woman asked, looking at her husband.
"Rosaline, my dear, this is Sirius Black. He is housing my nephew." Proteus gestured, and Sirius nodded at the woman in welcome, who did the same, now looking less uncertain.
"I just wanted to discuss the letter you sent, regarding a weekend you could come visit young Theo." Sirius said.
"O-oh, yes well…"
The dining room door was opened, and entered the third occupant of the house. "I heard someone arrive." The man, whoever it was, had his back turned to them as he was shutting the dining room door over again.
When the young man turned around, Sirius finally saw his face.
Oh my god, he thought to himself.
When the person looked straight at him, Sirius's heart almost fell through the floor. He felt himself go cold, and frozen. He thought this was some sick prank; there was no way this was happening.
Why, you might ask?
Well, standing in the dining room of Proteus Nott's house was none other than someone who Sirius thought dead for years.
His brother, Regulus.