A/N: Ok, ladies and gentlemen, this is your last fix until I get back, I'll be off on vacation for a few days. So....You got sex. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her most excellent splendiferous work on this chapter.
Chapter 15: A Step into Darkness
************************Hogwarts***********************************
September 25, 2015
11:15 pm
Anastasia laughed as Nathan slipped out of a concealed passage next to her, and grabbed her around the middle, spinning her into a small alcove, one of thousands, lining the halls of Hogwarts. She bit her lip as she backed all the way into the hidden nook, and pulled Nathan in tight against her. She grinned as she cocked her head to the side, and a flicker of light lit sapphire eyes from the outside in as she pulled his lips down to hers.
She glanced down as she felt his hands on her bum, her skirt pushed up in the back, "We," she sighed, as he lowered his lips to the bare skin of her throat, her hair was pulled back into a thick tail, easing his access. "We..." she murmured as she felt his fingers tangling in the sides of her knickers, "really need to get this round d...done."
"Why, Luv?" he muttered, and slowly worked her tie loose, until it the knot hung halfway down her chest. His eyes held hers, liquid silver in the light from the periodic flickering torches lighting the walls, as he slowly popped the first three buttons of her blouse, pushing the fabric aside until her could see the top of a red lace bra. "If we can't abuse our privileges...who can?"
"That didn't make a bloody bit of sense," Anastasia murmured, she gasped as his fingers crept around her front, and lightly danced across the front of her knickers. "We really can't do this here, Nate..." she objected even though her eyes belied her words. She took a breath as he worked her even further back into the alcove, almost all the way behind a fifteenth-century set of plate armor, when a shriek sounded, cutting across the still of the night.
Nathan glanced at her, and then spun out of her arms, sprinting towards the sound with her on her heels. His wand fell into his hand as he moved, flicking his wrist and catching it on the move, the skill practiced innumerable times. The shriek came again, and then fell silent. He did not look back as he heard her footsteps following behind him.
Nathan stopped as he reached a corner. He held up a hand to her, and poked his head around it, then darted it back.
"There's a open classroom door down there, it was locked when we came through that way," he muttered. She
nodded, and took a breath before she
kicked off her polished uniform shoes, leaving her feet bare...and more importantly silent. She took another breath
before she darted out from the corner, to slide behind a suit of armor about halfway down the hall. She held her wand
around the suit with one hand as she waved Nathan forward.
He ran past her, to stop at the doorway of the open classroom. His head darted around the doorjamb, and pulled it back. "Come on," he mouthed to Anastasia. She sprinted past him, stopped with the soft thump of her back on the stone of the wall. She looked over at him, nodded once and rolled around the doorframe moving to her right as she went in. Nathan slipped in and moved left. She flicked her wand in a circle above her head and the room was instantly bathed in a bright white light from a basketball-sized glowing orb hanging at the ceiling.
"Anna," he snapped from over behind a large Professors' desk. She ran to his side, her heart in her throat at his tone, to find Chastity Turner, a sixth year Gryffindor, crumpled on the floor. Her dark blonde hair was stained with red, and a thin stream of blood ran down her cheek to her ear from her hairline. The sleeve of her Muggle jumper was torn, and she had lost one trainer, exposing a brightly striped sock on her left foot as it stuck out from under the hem of her jeans. "You know her?" Nathan asked as he set a silver jet from his wand to Dumbledore.
Anastasia looked up from where she was checking for a pulse. She sighed softly as she found a strong, if slow one, and looked back up at her boyfriend, "Yeah, she's in Em's year, she's in the room next to Em's...I think she's dating one of Xander's roommates. Her name's Chastity." Nathan nodded and slowly looked around the room. He walked over to a desk set against a wall and knelt down, to pick up her wand. He held it up and Anastasia nodded.
The sound of running feet came from the corridor and a beat later several newcomers crowded into the classroom which was used these days for Advanced Muggle Studies along with a couple of other classes. Dumbledore looked to them, as Madame Pomfrey pushed Anastasia out of her way and started to work on the girl. Dumbledore looked down at Anastasia, she blushed faintly as she realized the state of her uniform, but Dumbledore only twinkled at her for a brief instant before his expression became grave. "Miss Granger?"
"We were finishing our rounds a corridor over when we heard her...or someone, I guess scream. By the time we got here, there was no one else here."
Dumbledore nodded and turned to Poppy, Anastasia took the time to button at least one button, enough to hide the color of her bra, finishing just as her Head of House, and his wife, who had been comfortably sitting in his lap reading a text when the call arrived, came in on the run. Parvati instantly went over to see if she could help Poppy, while Neville went to Dumbledore and the Heads. "Filius is not in the castle, Albus, now that I think about it, I think that he said that it being a Friday he had to go to London and was going to stay until Sunday," Neville explained.
"Yes," Dumbledore replied, slightly preoccupied as he watched Parvati conjure a stretcher and levitate the girl onto it. "He did mention that to me." The stretcher floated past him with the pair of Healers in attendance, and he took Chastity's wand from Nathan. A touch of his wand to hers, and a small, blue half bubble appeared in the air before it vanished with a faint pop. "She seems to have last cast a Protego," Dumbledore mentioned softly before he looked to the Heads. "I think that we have this in hand, at least for now, you may return to your dorm now...Miss Granger, if you can contact Mr. Kirkpatrick, and tell him that he does not need to worry, Miss Turner is under Madame Pomfrey's exceptional care."
Anastasia nodded, and grabbed Nathan's hand, pulling him along with her. He started to say something as they stepped out, until she elbowed him discretely. They moved down the hall, stopping for a second for her to grab her shoes, before they continued on down the hall. Anastasia looked back before touching a very slightly jutting stone and stepping into the passage that appeared with a faint grinding sound. She stopped Nathan from speaking with a glance, and flicked her wand around her. A shimmering cone appeared, walling them in, and Anastasia let out a breath that she had been unconsciously holding.
"We need to contact Hermione," she said quickly, "something is wrong."
"Just 'cause there was a girl hurt...Not everything is a great overarching evil, Anna," he objected with a shrug. "It could have been some random Slytherin trying to Jinx her, and she fell and hit her head, it happens."
"Do you actually believe that?" she growled, dropping one hand to her hip and looking up at him with a dark look dancing in the corner of her eyes. He sighed and shook his head, and she gave him a smile, leaning up to kiss his cheek. "We need to get a message to Hermione, we should be alright if we use the mirrors in secure mode."
***************************Hogwarts*****************************
September 26, 2015
1:30 pm
Hermione watched with a thoughtful expression on her face as a dozen black blurs shot overhead, and then scattered as the Gryffindor team settled into their practice regimen. Emilia snapped past the stand, directly in pursuit of a small, golden ball, and Hermione turned from the scene towards Harry who was watching his daughter as she snap-rolled to the right to avoid a Bludger and dove almost straight down after the Snitch. She vanished into the trench surrounding the Pitch and Harry looked back to Hermione.
There's something going on, Harry, she said softly, even though defensive wards surrounded them, established reflexively as she sat, and that their mental communication was impervious beyond any sane measure. I know that Dumbledore said that he was looking into it...but I...
I know, Mione, he replied, and looked over at her as she stood and moved to sit next to him, his arm went around her automatically, and felt her tiny flinch as she watched a Bludger glance off Sirius's leg. Down on the grass of the pitch, Harriet reacted much more visibly, lifting both of her hands to her face as she gasped, taking a step forward towards the northern set of hoops and stopping as he waved. Harry grinned over at Hermione and she punched his arm, grinning all the while. Her grin faded slightly, and Harry leaned over to kiss the top of her head. Still thinking Christmas?
Yeah, she replied almost absently, I guess...though he is your son, he is pretty blind.
Thanks, dear, Harry sighed, and she giggled in the back of his head. We should trust Dumbledore to take care of it, Hermione.
I know you, Harry, I know that you don't believe that...She looked over as the Weasley twins, Virginia and fulfilling the cosmic obligation of yet another generation of Weasleys to knock a small iron ball back and forth, flew overhead, and shot towards Sirius hovering near the hoops.
Yeah...I don't, he admitted, I'd like too...but I'm not eleven anymore. Hermione nodded, and reached up to pick at his hair, watching her fingers as they fixed his collar, where it had twisted under itself. Do you want to stay to talk to the kids?
Nah, let's just go, I guess, we can be back in a second if needed.
Harry grabbed her and they vanished, with none of the kids the wiser.
***************************Somewhere Else******************************
Luna sighed and sat down heavily in front of a smoking cauldron. She buried her head in her hands and sobbed softly, exhaustedly as the green potion continued to bubble. She scooted back against the wall of the dark, round room hidden at the base of Gryffindor Tower, the same room, a universe and seventeen years away, in which Hermione had destroyed the Horcrux contained in Ravenclaw's staff. In this world, in the one where one more pair of deaths among so many had crushed her soul, Hermione had just taken Harry's sword and cleaved the staff in two.
Luna slowly brought her knees up, and hugged them to her chest, not feeling or ignoring the cold stone on the back of her legs, courtesy of the uniform skirt she had slipped on this morning in a bit of whimsy. That and she had been treated to Ron's eyes going blank and she had gotten a giggle at him running into a doorway, at the sight of the blue-trimmed black wool covering her bum. She took a slow breath, as she felt Ron's presence approaching, and a soft rumble came from her left.
He stepped through an archway into the room, and stopped, looking around for his wife. Ron watched the cauldron bubble for a bit, watching the silvery vapor as it wavered and hissed as it hit the flickering torches lining the walls. He looked at the silvery cauldron, inscribed with glowing blue runes that they had recovered from a cache, known only to them, as they knew where they had hidden it in the other universe. He sighed helplessly as he found her looking up at him, her silver eyes glistening.
"R...Ronnie," she whispered, her voice broken. She watched him as he walked over to her and slid down the wall next to her. She rolled over, crawling onto his lap, and slowly burying her head in his chest. "I...can't do it...I...I'm soo tired, Ron." Ron's arms slowly wrapped around her, as he kissed the side of her head, and started to murmur in her ear. "I...I'm not smart enough...I need Hermione here, Ronald. I need my sister, Ronnie..."
He rocked her slowly as he petted her hair, letting his fingers slowly run down her spine, and back up. "You are just as smart as she is, Luna. You're brilliant, luv..." Luna shook her head forcefully without lifting it from his chest. "Yes, you are, Luna...you are the smartest...most beautiful woman here...Harriet was giving you a run for your Galleons, I admit, but you sent her to the babysitters..." Luna choked a laugh, before she snorted a quiet sob, and snuggled even more tightly into his chest.
She pulled back enough to look up at him. She slowly lifted her left hand, and stroked his cheek almost absently. Luna's gaze went vacant as she felt his stubble under her fingertips, "Ronald?" He nodded, as she continued to brush her fingers along his cheek. "After we get back...I know that we don't know what we'll do, but can we..."
"Sure," Ron smiled and bent down and kissed her, "As soon as we get home, we can get right back on that...little interrupted task." One of his hands slipped down, running along her bare thigh, "Do you want to practice?"
"Yes, silly boy, why do you think I didn't wear knickers."
Ron laughed, "I thought it was because they attracted Dorraghows?"
"No, silly, why would Hermione's Patronus come after my knickers?" She reached up and chucked him on the nose, "Especially since she knows I don't wear them half the time." She reached down and ran her fingers down his chest, before she looked up at him, and held his gaze for an instant. She smiled softly at something and nodded, before leaning up to meet his lips. Luna sighed as she let her tongue dance with his, and her eyes fall almost closed, not blocking out the wash of color that she saw when she looked towards Ron.
"Harriet was such a pretty baby," Luna mentioned, she opened her eyes and looked over Ron's shoulder. Her eyes went vacant for a beat, and she just smiled, "Blue is pretty, isn't it, Ronnie?" Ron just nodded, not quite understanding what she was saying even after nearly eighteen years of being married, or as close to it as not to matter. Luna reached down to her leg, and grabbed her wand from the sheath riding there, flicking it at her belly, Inconceivious. She moaned faintly, her eyelids flickering as the heat of the charm flushed along her nerves, before she shakily replaced the wand into its sheath. Luna rolled upright and brought the back of her left hand to her lips. She kissed the glowing stone of the Ravenclaw ring, and she and Ron vanished in a rush of wind and a fall of light.
They bounced once off a soft bed, in their hidden bedroom atop one of the great towers of Hogwarts, as a vortex of colored light spat them out. Luna fell to the side and rolled across the dark blue comforter and off, having successfully stood up to the invasion of orange into their bedroom, and came to her feet at the side of the bed. She held Ron's gaze as he rolled to his side and propped his head on one hand. She toed off the silver and blue trainers she had chosen because she liked the shimmer of the silver laces. Luna balanced on one leg, then the other, as she pulled off short white socks with embroidered cavorting weasels.
Luna's face sharpened, her attention seeming to gather from a hundred sidereal universes, to focus on Ron and he swallowed heavily. Small fingers, each nail painted a different color slowly unbuttoned her shirt, pulling it free of her skirt. She shrugged it off, leaving her in only her skirt. She shivered slightly as the cool air hit her chest, and she brought her hands up, cupping her breasts as silver eyes glinted, taking on a light of their own. Ron moaned as she ran the palms of her hands over her nipples, gasping as they tightened even further. "P...please, Luv..." Ron sputtered.
She smiled very slightly, and reached down and back. She touched a hidden catch and her skirt fell away, leaving her bare to his eyes. Luna slowly crawled forward onto the bed, pausing to push him onto his back before she maneuvered to hang over him on all fours. Luna lowered her head, pressing her lips to his, before she started to drop tiny kisses down the side of his face. She nuzzled his cheek for a bit, before she continued on, working her way down until she reached the neck of his shirt.
Luna kissed down the center of his chest, and paused as she reached a button. Ron squirmed as her teeth and tongue worked, and the button slipped back through the hole. She shook her head hard, sending bright locks out of her eyes. She looked up, holding his eyes with hers, as she undid another button, and then a second and a third. Luna reached the last button and pulled his shirt from his jeans, peeling it back and slipping it from his shoulders.
"I love you, Ronald," Luna said quietly, her voice steady. She sat up, straddling his hip, and rocked against him, smirking as she felt him straining against the fabric of his jeans. She stopped moving as her fingers traced thin scars lining his side. "How much do you love me?" she added in a small, almost childlike voice. She dropped her eyes from his, watching as the skin of his abdomen jumped at her touch.
Ron almost sighed, before reaching up and pulling her down, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her chest to his. "More and more every day, Luna," he muttered in her ear. She giggled as he let one hand come down to knead her arse. He let his fingers trail up, to tap lightly on her coccyx.
She squirmed down, taking one of his nipples between her teeth. "We can do that later, if you want, Ronald," she breathed against his skin, flicking the tip of her tongue to soothe the abraded skin. She kissed the skin directly over his heart, feeling the beat of his heart on her lips, before she sat up, and watched her own fingers as they worked the button of his jeans. She pulled his wand from a pocket in the leg of his jeans and leaned forward, giggling as her breast fell across Ron's face and he kissed it almost reflexively, as she slid the wand under their pillows.
Luna sat up and twisted, looking back towards his feet, "I don't care if you shag with your boots on, my King, but isn't it hard to get your jeans off..." She giggled as Ron hurriedly toed off his boots. They fell to the floor at the end of the bed with a loud thump, and she gripped the waist of his jeans and slowly peeled them down his legs, taking the boxers with her. She paused as his erection sprang free, to kiss the very tip, and laughed as he bucked up towards her, before she finished removing his jeans.
A quiet crash came from the corner of their room as Pigwidgeon ran into a window. Ron snorted as the bird shook its head, before taking to the sky and flying erratically out a cracked open window. Luna smiled crookedly as she stalked back up the bed on hands and knees, and lowered herself to rub against him, purring softly under her breath. "You know, Ronald," she breathed, dragging out his name as she rocked on him faster, until he stopped her movements with his hands on her hips. She pouted faintly, "I don't want to be walking, really in the morning...in fact; I don't think that we need to leave this bed until Monday."
"What about that potion?"
"It'll keep," she whispered, "I need you, Ron, please."
He kissed her, "You know you never have to ask me for that."
"I like to be polite," she whispered and sighed softly as he started to pet down along her spine. Ron tightened his arm around her and rolled them over, unconsciously careful of her. She smiled up beatifically at him, and leaned into his hand as he cupped the side of her head.
She relaxed back into the bedspread, and Ron swallowed heavily as he took in sight she presented, the faintly glowing silvery-grey eyes half-hooded as they looked back up at him, centered in a halo of golden hair. Luna stretched wantonly, lifting her arms above her head, after eighteen years, knowing quite well the effect she had on him. "Did I ever tell you thank you?" Ron said, quietly.
"For what?"
"Just thanks...for giving me Harriet..." he smirked faintly and kissed her, "for putting up with me, I'm not..."
"Shut up, Ron," Luna replied, "you are too, I wouldn't be anywhere but here."
"But I got you stuck here, if you hadn't been with me-"
"I would have died, if I wasn't with you. I need you, I don't remember when I didn't any longer." She looked down his torso, and back up to his eyes, "But if you insist on thanking me, I rather think that you should be about it."
She giggled as he kissed her, rolling all the way on top of her, and started to run his fingers along her side. She sighed, letting her eyes slip slowly closed as his fingers started to rub along the side of a breast, then up, slowly stroking along a nipple. She arched up, pressing her chest to him, as he started to work his lips down, and took the other in his lips. "Look at me," he commanded quietly, letting his hand continue down to lightly stroke the side of her hip.
Ron waited as she opened her eyes, and trailed his fingers over her hip, and across, trailing down to her center even as her legs fell open automatically. Ron smirked as he slowly stroked her, "You seem rather ready for this, luv." She gasped as he slid a pair of fingers into her, and rocked against his hand, already trying to move.
She started to move more insistently, even as she reached down and grabbed his hand with both of hers. Luna muttered something unrecognizable, probably his name, as she buried her head in his neck. A soft whimpering sound came from her lips and Ron grinned faintly, as she moved his hand faster. Ron continued to stroke her, moving faster and faster as she moved against his hand.
Luna gasped loudly as the colors in the room swirled and spun as she arched up from her bed. She shuddered, muttering Ron's name reverently as she continued to writhe on the bed. She only distantly noticed Ron's hand move away, as fire crashed along her nerves, "Oh, God," she sputtered as Ron moved up and slid into her, before she even finished coming down.
He groaned at the feeling of her contracting around him, and kept still until she stopped reacting, and met his eyes. Ron cradled her face between his hands as he leaned in and kissed her, and started to move. She kissed him again, her fingers trailing down his back as they moved together, in a rhythm perfected by almost two decades of practice.
Luna started to moan, her voice strained as she blinked sudden beads of sweat from her eyes. Ron dropped his lips to her neck, nuzzling her neck as he moved faster. She let her eyes slip almost closed as she felt a liquid pool of warmth start to gather in her belly again. She wrapped her legs behind his back, locking her ankles with his and urged him on as her hands slipped up to tangle in damp ginger hair.
Ron panted quietly in her ear, as the bed creaked beneath them, their movements becoming more and more frantic. He pulled back, leaning up on his hands, holding her eyes as they started to glow brighter, the silver light shimmering in them, and spilling across his face. He dropped his lips to her throat and slowly followed a rivulet of moisture down her neck and into the valley between her breasts.
He lifted his head back to her lips, and kissed her, even as he felt his stomach begin to tighten and a tingling gathering at the base of his spine. He let his hand reached down between them, and rest on her belly, tracing the faint line of her abs, feeling them quiver under his touch. "Roonniiee," Luna gasped, and he kissed her, letting his hand trace lower, to touch her were they were joined. She screamed into his mouth as she arched upwards, and came undone.
Ron cried out as he felt her magic intertwine with his own, bringing them together. Just for an instant he felt the fire racing along another set of nerves, before he let loose, being pulled along as much by the brief intertwining of their souls as by the feeling of her milking him. She cooed quietly as she felt the additional warmth fill her, and Ron collapsed on top of her, covering her completely.
Luna languidly stoked his back as he rested his face in the crook of her neck. She closed her eyes contently as Ron's heartbeat slowed, feeling it through his lips that were pressed to her pulse. She almost cried as Ron slipped out of her, and rolled over onto his back, and looked over at her. "I love you," Ron said simply and she smiled back at him, even as she knew her eyes were damp.
Ron slipped up to the head of the bed, settling more securely on the pillows. He slipped his wand fully back underneath them, momentarily grateful that his brilliant, if eccentric, wife had long ago placed numerous strengthening and reinforcing charms on it. Luna crawled up, to wrap her limbs around him, tangling her legs with his, and draping her upper body across his. She blinked, and her eyes faded slightly, becoming merely ethereal, before she closed them, and breathed deeply of their mingled scent. Without opening her eyes, she could see the tangled web of their magic, as intertwined as anything she could remember ever seeing around Harry and Hermione.
"I told you if you gave me enough time," Luna breathed, and he nodded, only half listening, as content to feel her torso pressing into his as the skittering dance of magic along his nerves. Or perhaps the sensations were the same. Her head tucked into the space under his chin that was made for it, and she shivered slightly as her damp hair lay against her spine. Ron tightened his arms around her, drawing a blanket to cover them with a vague gesture. While they together or separately would never be as powerful as their siblings by choice, they were much, much more powerful than they had been separately. "I want to go home, Ron...I want my baby back...and Hermione owes me half a box of Honeydukes' Select...she ate all of my last box."
"I'm sure she'll get you a whole case, my Queen," Ron replied tolerantly, not laughing at her, never laughing at her ever again if he could help it.
"She better," Luna said almost petulantly and rolled a bit more on her stomach. She felt long fingers lightly tracing her ribs under the blanket, and relaxed into Ron. She stared at a droplet of moisture slowly evaporating from his chest; "Hermione told me once that some people, think they have to take a shower immediately after...that seems rather odd..." Ron only smiled at the inherent thought, of Luna calling anything or anyone odd, "Why would they do that, Ronnie?"
"I don't know, Luna," Ron whispered, bending his head and kissing the top of her head. "I rather like this. Though if you want, I'd be glad to explore that shower with you."
"Maybe later," she smiled and brought her right hand up to cushion her cheek, while her left fished around under the blanket until she found Ron's. She twisted their fingers together, "We are going home, Ronnie...going home and going to have some decent chocolate."
"Yeah, I believe we are."
**********************Gryffindor Tower*********************************
September 30, 2015
12:30 am
Emilia slipped silently down the stairs from the girl's half of the tower, more as a matter of habit and practice than from any particular desire to be utterly stealthy. In that vein, she had not even bothered to don her invisibility cloak that was hidden in a keyed to her secret compartment in her trunk, the same one that held her sword. It was a closely guarded secret that Emilia left her room every night after the rest of her roommates had dropped off, or in the case of Cassie, staggered in, and went to the boys dorms to be with her bondmate.
So of course everyone in Gryffindor house knew.
No one cared frankly. Ever since the days of her parents, during the dark days where the occupants of the tower knew damn well that the next sunrise might be their last, it was an unofficial tradition, that providing that no one else complained, that their significant others might spend the night with them. It was also a tradition, ironclad in its own way, that this was not a privilege that was to be squandered with a casual fling, and that you better damn well be at least of the age of consent, before you admitted, that you had taken that step.
Emilia yawned faintly, covering her mouth with her hands automatically as she stepped from the stairs onto the cold stone floors of the common room. She started towards the stairs leading up to the boys' rooms, when she looked over to the fire at some unknown instinct to find, sitting staring at the low flames, a head of hair as dark as her own, and closely resembling a owl's nest after a four day bender. A mass of pure white fur was sitting on the couch next to him, with a large, furry head covering his lap.
Emilia altered her course, sending a quick thought to Xander, and dropped into a comfortable armchair facing the couch, where her own eyes slowly looked up at her. Emilia looked at Sirius for a beat, noting the dark bags under his eyes, and the vague look haunting them. She caught the look that Gaheris gave her, moving just his eyes to meet hers, before he licked his lips and pushed into the hand that was continually, unthinkingly scratching his ears. "Alright there, Sirius?" she asked, "Why aren't you asleep, don't you have Defense first thing in the morning?"
"Can't sleep," he replied in a monosyllabic tone. He sighed and continued to pet Harriet's Familiar, who Emilia had not noticed was gone from the foot of Harriet's bed, though she had not looked. Sirius looked down and let his hands run along the Familiar's fur, concentrating utterly on the task.
Emilia frowned slightly, nibbling on her lower lip for a moment, "Why?" Sirius shrugged, and looked back down. She glanced up towards the staircase leading to the boys' rooms, and then back to Sirius.
"Why don't you head on up to bed, Em?" Sirius said, catching her look towards the rooms. He looked back towards his sister and his eyes flared as a thin finger of thought brushed across his consciousness. "Don't," he snapped, as he glared at his sister, "Stay out of my mind, Emilia."
"What's wrong, Sirius?" she asked, quietly, he opened his mouth to growl an annoyed rejoinder, "I bloody well know it's not nothing...Har...I've been worried, I know that you haven't been sleeping not since...oh, bloody hell-" She covered her eyes for a moment, "You should talk to Mum or Dad, Sirius."
"I'm fine, Em, I don't need their help."
"Sirius..."
"I couldn't take it, Em, I puked, right in front of Mum," Sirius replied desperately, his eyes hollow as he looked over at her. Gaheris whined softly and lifted his head, his eyes soft as he bumped Sirius' stomach with his head. Sirius scratched his ears, even as he shook his head towards his sister, watching as she visibly worked over his words. "You didn't even slow down, I heard from some of the ones watching from the windows, you just did what you needed to..."
Emilia slipped from the chair, kneeling on the floor closer to her brother, any possible trace of humor gone. She reached up to grab Sirius' hands, "Is that what you think, Sirius? I...uh...I froze, Rain had to snap me out of it, when Xander got hit...And I crawled in his lap and cried for at least a half hour before he could get me to sleep, that first time, when Harriet and I got hit in Diagon Alley."
"Do you see them, Em, when you sleep...I keep seeing that first one, he was coming for me, or maybe Harriet, and he just fell away, there was red, and he fell away..." Emilia nodded, as he pulled off his glasses with one hand and scrubbed at his eyes with the other. He looked up and gave her a faint smile, "I'd be nice if I had someone to snuggle up with," he teased, faintly.
Emilia smirked as she stood, and ruffled his hair, dodging a half-hearted swing towards her midsection, "I'll ask, but I'm not sure that Xander swings that way." Sirius mocked laughter, and she let her smile fade, "How bad are they, Sirius?" I wish you did have someone to cling to, brother...or rather that you'd just ask; I have a feeling that's all it'd take. I can't do it for you; I would if I could, she thought silently.
He closed his eyes and sat his glasses on the small end table set at one end of the couch. He squinted slightly at her, staring at her with naked emerald orbs. Emilia swallowed as the impact of his full gaze, not filtered through plastic like normal, hit her. "When they come," Sirius said quietly, "they usually start the same as that night...spells coming from the darkness, getting rushed...but then they change...I miss with that swing, and he hits Justin, then I turn and that one gets Harriet...I...I see the flash, this wall of green fills everything...and I see her on the ground. She looks up, and there's nothing there, just...nothing, and she asks me 'Why didn't you save me?' I usually just wake up then, and I can't go to sleep after, I'm afraid to go to sleep after..."
"You need to try, maybe a Dreamless Sleep Potion?"
"So I can run from my problems, Em?" he retorted quickly. She bit her lip, not responding and he shrugged, "Sorry." Sirius glanced up and back, and then back at Emilia, "Why don't you go on up to bed, sis, I'll be alright..." she gave him a look that had to have been inherited from her mother, "I promise that I will kip off soon...and I'll talk to Mum or Dad, alright?" She nodded and patted his shoulder before heading off to climb the stairs to the boys' rooms. She only looked back once, to find him once again looking at the fire, still petting Harriet's Familiar.
***************************Hogwarts*********************************
October 2, 2015
7:20 am
Minerva McGonagall frowned heavily as she watched the youngest Potter slip into the Great Hall, yawning and staggering slightly. She paused in her reflections as a Ravenclaw with dark brown hair, whom she had a more than passing familiarity with through several detentions and disciplinary sessions due to Naomi's rather loose interpretation of fraternization rules. Or at least her seeming disregard for them. McGonagall had been at this school for decades; she knew quite well what went on behind closed broom closet doors, in empty classrooms, atop the Astronomy Tower, and even behind the closed hangings of four posters. She knew that Emilia, for example, had spent perhaps a week's worth of nights, total, in her own bed this term, but she was not about to say a word about it, at least they were discrete.
And she rather thought that the pair had earned it.
She almost growled under her breath, and stood, only to force herself back to her seat with an effort as Jamillia stood and sauntered over to the Gryffindor Table. Sirius sat down heavily across from Elliot and Robert, and the pair of them started talking to him about, if McGonagall interpreted the hand gestures right, Quidditch, most likely the upcoming game with Hufflepuff the next weekend.
Sirius served himself from the dishes around him, and poured a glass of juice, along with a mug of coffee, that he downed quickly, forcing himself awake with a shudder. He looked around slowly, frowning slightly as he did not find any of the sixth year girls there. He had wanted to talk to his sister to see if she wanted to send anything along with his letter to their grandparents via Natasha. Roger and Jane had secure mirrors, of course, but they got a kick out of finding an owl waiting for them along with their toast and bacon.
"Hi, Sirius," a purring voice muttered from somewhere near his right shoulder. He closed his eyes for a single heartbeat, before looking up and back. He nodded, and watched as Naomi bent down slightly as she sat on the bench at the Ravenclaw table across from him, giving him a look down her artfully unbuttoned shirt. He missed the faint scowl that crossed her lips as he held his gaze to her eyes, totally ignoring the flash of dark red knickers revealed when she crossed her legs and uncrossed them, seemingly absently. "I was wondering if you guys were practicing today...you are much better to watch than our team," she asked, her voice laced with just a trace of huskiness.
"Yeah, at three," Sirius replied, shrugging, "It's just a practice though, nothing much to see really."
"There's you...you are rather good with a broom..." Naomi smirked, her gaze rather soft, with her eyes once again looking rather huge in her face. "You could be a pro, you know, Siri..."
"Maybe," he agreed, more to try to move the conversation along than anything. He could feel his friends sniggering behind him, but neither one moved to intercede. Very possibly because both of them were enjoying the show. "I need to..." Sirius did not quite what he needed to do, other than he needed to do it.
"I'll see you around then, Sirius," Naomi replied, standing and tugging on the hem of her skirt slightly. She smiled at him, and moved off, heading towards the doors to the rest of the castle. Sirius sighed as he returned to his breakfast, yawning slightly as he pulled his glasses off and scrubbed tiredly at his eyes.
"You could have said something," Sirius muttered, not looking at his friends.
"I don't know why," Robert said, not quite hiding the laugh that threatened to spill forth. "You could take her out for a ride, Sirius, I'm sure she's got...certain skills." Elliot looked over with a faint glare but did not comment. "She wants you," Robert went on, smirking, "I don't know why..."
Sirius sighed and dropped his head, shaking quickly, "I'm not interested..."
"I know she's not..."
"Shut it," Sirius snapped and looked around quickly. He sighed, "Just drop it..." He scrutinized Robert, "Would you? You are the...player here."
"No," Robert grinned and leaned back slightly, bracing his hands behind his head, "But I have prospects, my good friend." Elliot rolled his eyes, as Robert smiled hugely and waved to a tiny blonde in Ravenclaw colors. She stopped and said something to her friends, part of a group of at least six, all of whom were giving the three Gryffindors searching looks. They giggled and she waved at Robert, leaning back against the Ravenclaw table as she waited. "See you later, mates," Robert said cheerfully and walked over to her.
Sirius turned and watched as Robert leaned in and muttered something in her ear. She laughed quietly and looked down and away, shyly. Sirius sighed and turned back to Elliot. "Why is it that I only attract the slags?" he asked almost plaintively, and shrugged, reconsidering slightly, "Or at least the ones who, I'm not sure even know my first name...."
Elliot looked at him for a long moment; he glanced up as he felt Abigail enter into the Great Hall. He waved at her, and she grinned from near the doors and started over to them, her hair changing from a mid-back, night-black fall of hair, to alternating streaks of red and gold. Her hair started to braid itself into two-colored braids as Elliot looked back to Sirius, "You are daft; you know that right?" Elliot stood and greeted his tiny girlfriend, hugging her to his side and bending down to kiss the top of her head. "I'll see you later, Sirius." Elliot announced, not explaining his pronouncement, as he took Abby's overloaded book bag from her, and slung it over his own shoulder, receiving a blinding smile from her in thanks as they walked off.
A/N: There you go, the darkness has slipped in through the windows.