Dueling in the Dark
"So where are you taking me?" Róisín asked as Sirius led her down the laneway and rounded a corner.
"Well, since the Auror Department would be closed by now and we can't practice there, I'm taking you to the next best spot - there's a beach out by Southend-On-Sea that I know is very secluded and it'll be dark by the time we get there," he replied, approaching a large motorbike parked by the side of the road.
"This is yours?" Róisín asked, admiring the bike.
"The very same!" Sirius said proudly as he sat in the driver's seat. He reached into the sidecar and pulled out a black helmet, inviting Róisín to sit in the sidecar. "I got her about three years ago after I moved out from home."
Róisín found a second helmet in the footwell of the sidecar and strapped it on her head.
"Isn't the traffic going to be bad at this hour?" she asked, anxiously glancing at the long queue of cars moving in slow procession on the rind.
"That isn't something we're going to have to worry about," Sirius said with a grin. Róisín gave him a confused look and he just winked.
Sirius drove them out to the outskirts of London where the traffic was much quieter and, once he found an empty stretch of road, he called to Róisín, "Hold on tight now!"
"What?!" she shouted back, straining her voice over the wind and the engine roar. "You're already going the limit!"
"What?!" Sirius called as he pressed the accelerator harder, pushing them well past the speed limit. Róisín felt a sick feeling in her stomach as the wheels of the motorbike began to slowly lift from the ground. She closed her eyes, bracing for the bike to hit a car or a pedestrian, but it didn't. Instead, she felt the ground give way underneath them and a great whoosh of air from above, as if the bike had just taken flight... But that couldn't be possible, could it?
Róisín slowly opened her eyes and gasped as she saw the street beneath them get smaller and smaller as they gradually climbed higher and higher into the black sky.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was just no way that this was possible.
"Why didn't you tell me you have a flying bike?!" she shouted. Sirius just laughed and pressed the accelerator again, shooting the bike further into the sky. Eventually, they reached a plateau and the engine began to soften as the bike stopped climbing. Róisín looked over the side again and marveled at the beauty of the London skyline from above. Thousands of tiny pin pricks of yellow, white, and red lights all clustered around the black meandering River Thames, each light representing a car which was no bigger than a pin hole, or a house which was no bigger than an ant.
Sirius turned off the engine and allowed the bike to glide by its magic alone while he studied a compass under the moonlight.
"So... are you going to tell me how you came to possess a flying motorbike?" Róisín asked.
Sirius grinned widely. "I won it in an auction and enchanted it with the help of one of my cousins, Arthur. He has a - propensity - shall we say - for enchanting Muggle vehicles and making them fly."
"Okay, but... why a motorbike?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I am totally obsessed with Muggle stuff - I love their music, I love their culture, I love talking to them and meeting them. Much to the distaste of my family, I'll tell you."
He glanced at Róisín, who gave him a confused look. "Do you know anything about the Black family?"
She shook her head.
Sirius looked back to the compass and corrected their course.
"The 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black'," he began, in a mocking voice, "is one of the twenty-eight pureblood families in Britain. They're dark, through and through. All Slytherins back as far as you can count. Insufferable, the lot of them. So I moved out as soon as I had the chance... Well," he grinned at Róisín, "moved out isn't the right word. I ran away when I was sixteen and stayed with James' family until I found my own place in London."
"I'm guessing you weren't your family's biggest fan?" Róisín asked.
"That's one way to put it!" Sirius replied. "No, I wasn't, and neither were they mine. They were Slytherin, I was Gryffindor; they hated Muggles, I love them; they turned dark - especially my brother..."
He trailed off, as if realising he had said too much, and awkwardly looked back to his compass.
"Anyway," he coughed, "I don't talk to any of them anymore, suffice it to say. But hey, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my family drama."
"It's okay - we all have our family baggage," Róisín replied. Sirius just smiled softly and then restarted the engine.
"We're not far off Southend now," he said as he turned the bike handles to the right and braked, beginning to lower the bike to the ground. Róisín looked out over the side again and watched as the city of Southend-On-Sea came closer and closer, the little pin pricks of yellow light gradually growing larger and larger until they became car headlights and street lamps and bedroom windows. Sirius veered the bike away from the city and towards the black ocean, which began to engulf Róisín's vision as they quickly approached.
"Brace yourself!" Sirius shouted over the roar of the engine. "Landing on sand is always bumpy!"
Finally, the town disappeared behind a massive cliffside and the bike made contact with the sandy beach, throwing out a great cloud of sand behind it as it sped across the ground. Róisín held tighter onto the sides of the sidecar, afraid that her seat belt would give way. Sirius kept breaking gently until the bike eventually reached a slow stop right in front of a large boulder.
"Good thing the brakes work," he laughed. Róisín, who felt slightly sick, was not amused.
She dragged herself out of the sidecar, feeling thoroughly shaken up from the difficult landing. She unclipped her helmet and took around her surroundings. They had found themselves on a huge, flat beach facing the English Channel on one side and a giant cliff on the other side. As Sirius had promised, this place was, indeed, pitch black and perfect for practicing Dueling in the Dark. The only light was provided by the soft shimmer of the moon on the water.
Róisín looked over at Sirius, who she could hardly see in the dim light. As if realising the same fact, he pointed his wand skyward and murmured a spell to create a small, floating orb of light which followed him as he began walking away from the bike, followed by Róisín.
"So," Sirius said, choosing a spot a few yards away from the bike, "you want to learn how to duel like a professional Auror. Let's begin with what you know already."
"Well, obviously, I know all the basics you learn in school," Róisín began. "I've been taught how to observe all the niceties of a formal duel. During my Auror training in Dublin, we were taught dueling but with only a very limited few spells - we didn't cover any of the jinxes and hexes that the others have been learning with your department for the past few weeks."
"Would you prefer to practice some jinxes and hexes on a dummy for now or would you like to practice duel?" Sirius asked.
"Let's go for the dummy. Let me get good at the jinxes and hexes first," Róisín replied.
"My thoughts exactly," Sirius said, and bent down to pick up a rock from the ground. He motioned for Róisín to stand next to him, which she did. He threw the rock a short distance from them and made it transfigure in mid air into a human-sized dummy, complete with arms and legs.
"How did you do that?" Róisín gasped in amazement.
Sirius shrugged. "Transfiguration is one of my many talents. Now, which jinx or hex would you like to start with?"
Róisín hesitated, trying to mentally picture the list she had made while watching the class practice from the sidelines.
"I have a question," she said, and Sirius nodded. "Don't take this the wrong way, but... I don't understand why we're being taught jinxes and hexes in the first place. I mean - I really don't want to say a bad word about the scholarship - but they seem sort of... childish? Don't you think?"
Sirius smiled and bopped his head to the side.
"Yes, they are somewhat childish, I'll give you that. But they're damn effective. See, not everyone is good at throwing curses out there - some folks are just better at jinxes and hexes. I'm assuming that the dueling you've been taught has been very - don't take this the wrong way - stuffy and pretentious?"
"Stuffy and pretentious?" Róisín gawped.
Sirius laughed out loud. "Look, this was a common problem with your classmates during the lessons you missed. Here, in the British Auror Department, we like to get creative with our dueling and really make use of every trick in the book. If you only know how to curse your opponent, then you can bet that they know every counter-curse as well, and that they'll quickly outmatch you. But if you throw in a few - as you say - childish jinxes and hexes in there, then you can really take them off guard. In the times we live in, it's more important than ever that the Aurors we train can be prepared for anything that may come their way."
"What do you mean?" Róisín asked.
Sirius paused, and sighed, and said, "Well... I'm sure that you know that we're fighting a war at the moment."
This was true. That was also the main reason Róisín chose to come to Britain for her training instead of another country. She had heard whispers of the war from abroad and had not been able to contain her curiosity, and a selfish part of her knew that training in a warzone would put her ahead of the game, so she had gladly accepted the position. But since her arrival, no one had spoken to her about the war. She hadn't yet made many friends in the Auror Department (because they always looked too busy and too stressed for chitchat) and she had had a broken foot for the past six weeks, so she hadn't been able to socialise outside of her class, who didn't know much about the war to begin with.
She explained this to Sirius and he replied, "Well, the reason that the other Aurors teaching your class won't mention it is because they don't want to risk information about the war getting leaked. So, for obvious reasons, there's not a lot I can tell you about it either."
"So why did the British Auror Office accept trainees in the first place?" Róisín asked.
Sirius hesitated, and said slowly, "You've heard that there's jobs up for grabs at the end of the programme, right?" - Róisín nodded - "Well, we are losing Aurors every few weeks because of this war, and we need to keep recruitment up. I know it sounds awful when I say it out loud-"
"No, not at all!" Róisín reassured him. "That's very understandable, and - if I'm honest, because you've been so honest with me - this is a big part of the reason why I chose to come here for my training abroad. I wanted experience in an active warzone which I could bring back with me to Ireland."
"That's very smart of you," Sirius replied. "My career path has been similar, to be honest. Obviously I graduated from Hogwarts in '78 and we've been fighting this war since '70, so I also trained during a war - same for James - and both of us would tell you that you just can't beat experience in the field. Well, to be fair, they cut the training short to get more recruits, but still."
"Hey - you're clearly very talented, even if you trained for less time than normal," Róisín replied with a smile.
"Why, thank you," Sirius said and took a theatrical bow, making Róisín chuckle. He glanced back up at her and it looked for a moment as if his smile faltered in the dim light. "So... you think you'll go back to Ireland after finishing the programme?"
"I'm a home-bird." Róisín shrugged. "Ireland is my home."
Sirius nodded, looking down at the ground for a moment. Róisín opened her mouth to speak but he looked quickly back up and said, "Let's get started on those jinxes, then!"
0o0o0o
"No, no, you're not saying it right-"
"What's the spell again?!"
"Tarantallegra," Sirius said.
Róisín gave him a blank stare.
"Say it again?" she asked. "Slower!"
"Ta-RON-ta-LEG-gra," Sirius replied, enunciating every syllable clearly.
"Ta-ron-ta-leg-ra," Róisín echoed slowly.
"Tarantallegra," Sirius said.
"Tarantallegra."
"No - no - ta-RON-tallegra."
"Oh, for God's sake!" Róisín snapped. "That's what I'm saying!"
"No, you're saying ta-RAN-tallegra. It's ta-RON - with an 'O'," Sirius said, making an 'O' shape with his fingers.
"Tarantallegra," Róisín said.
"There you go!" Sirius clapped, delighted. "Now, for the hand movement. You have to sort of make the shape of two dancing legs with your wand tip."
He prompted Róisín to take her wand out from her pocket and point it at the dummy standing several yards away.
"So first your wand goes across," he began, pointing his finger at the dummy, and Róisín tried to follow, "as if you're drawing a little foot - and then up, across, down, and then back across again for the other foot."
"Across - up - across - down - across," Róisín murmured as she slowly replicated Sirius' hand. The dummy's feet twitched feebly.
"Add a little bend to the first leg, as if its knee was bent," Sirius said.
"That makes no sense at all," Róisín sighed. "Look, I'm not going to get it - can we just move on to the next one?"
"You'll get it - just give it one more go," Sirius said encouragingly.
Róisín huffed and pointed her wand back at the dummy and repeated the spell, causing its shins to wobble.
Sirius took a step closer. "May I?" he asked, reaching out to cup Róisín's wand hand. She gave him a short nod and he wrapped his fingers softly around her hand, pointing it to the dummy again.
"You say the incantation and I'll do the movement, alright?"
Róisín suddenly became aware of how close he was standing to her. His breath tickled the back of her neck as he spoke, his voice noticeably softer. His hand felt so warm to the touch, contrasting the chilly sea air.
"Alright?" Sirius repeated.
"Sorry - yes - Tarantallegra," Róisín said as Sirius moved her hand in the right direction. The dummy's legs shimmied but didn't exactly dance.
"Are you focusing?" Sirius asked. "You need to have intent to cast this spell, just like any other."
"Sorry - sorry - let me try again," Róisín replied. It would be easier if you weren't hopelessly attractive and also breathing on my neck, she thought. Feeling her cheeks get hot, she felt suddenly grateful for the dim light.
She cleared her head as much as possible and focused her attention and energy on picturing the dummy dancing like a madman. Only when she felt her heart slow back down again did she slowly murmur, "Tarantallegra."
Sirius moved her hand in unison and the dummy finally burst into life, its legs kicking and thrashing about as if it was really dancing.
"Merlin!" Róisín yelped in delight. "I did it!"
"You certainly did - well done!" Sirius cheered. Róisín beamed up at him and his smiling eyes met hers for a moment, causing the butterflies in her stomach to make a swift return. Dammit, she thought. His eyes look so darn pretty when he smiles.
0o0o0o
Sirius walked Róisín back to her front door and waited until she was safely inside.
"Lots of scary dancing dummies around here," he joked. Róisín laughed softly, causing Sirius to smile.
"Thank you for tonight," she said, before closing the door and then pressing her back against it, feeling the butterflies return to her belly. This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
"Cynthia!" she called, kicking off her shoes. "I am officially obsessed!" she threw off her jacket and strode into the kitchen. "I can't even begin to describe to you-"
She stopped, spotting Amelia on the sofa with a large glass of wine in her hand. Cynthia appeared from around the corner, shooting Neasa a confused look.
"Go on!" she said, joining Amelia on the couch.
"I - uh - nevermind," Róisín stammered. She looked at Amelia, who smiled brightly.
"I'm glad you're here!" Amelia said.
"Yes, we need your help," Cynthia added, motioning for Róisín to join them. She hesitantly sat down in an armchair opposite them.
"What's up?" she asked.
"You're friendly with Sirius Black, aren't you?" Amelia asked.
Róisín felt her throat tighten.
"Um... not really," she lied. "I mean-"
"What does he like? What does he do in his spare time?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"She has a bit of a crush on him," Cynthia laughed. "It feels like every girl in the class does!"
Róisín felt her cheeks grow hot, jealousy rising inside her.
"I honestly wouldn't know," she said airily.
"He's just so dreamy," Amelia giggled. "He looks so cute in those long, velvet coats and - Merlin - I just want to run my hands through his hair, you know? All I know is that he likes that Muggle band - what are they called - ANNA? ADDA?"
"ABBA," Róisín said.
"That's the one - I don't even know where to begin with Muggle stuff," Amelia said dismissively. "You're Muggleborn, aren't you? Could you help a girl out?"
"I really don't know Sirius that well," Róisín replied with a frosty tone.
"Because we've been talking, like, a lot," Amelia continued, taking out a pocket mirror. As she checked her lipstick, Róisín shot Cynthia a dark glare, and Cynthia looked suddenly apologetic. "I just can't figure him out! We've been flirting - like - seriously, but I'm getting tired of waiting for him to make a move. Should I just make one myself?"
"I don't know," Róisín said firmly, getting up from her chair. She made some excuse about being tired and hurried away to her room, her stomach still twisted in knots as she collapsed onto her bed into a ball.