After freaking out and smashing stuff after my friends telling me that the Whomping Willow broke my broom, it was a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school.
But Floppy was almost beside himself with glee at Gryffindor's defeat. He had finally taken off his bandages, and celebrated having the full use of both arms again by doing spirited imitations of me falling off my broom. He spent much of our next Potions class doing Dementor imitations across the dungeon; Ron finally cracked, flinging a large, slippery crocodile heart at Floppy, which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points from Gryffindor. But it was so worth it to see Floppy's face!
After DADA one day, Professor Lupin kept Harry and I after class, and we chatted about the Dementors. According to him, we're not weak, we've just had horrors in our past that the Dementors bring up and that's why we faint.
"When they get near us -" Harry started.
"- We can hear Voldemort murdering our mum." I finished.
Lupin made a sudden motion with his arms as though he'd made to grip our shoulders, but thought better of it.
"And I can hear...I can hear Tom Riddle too..." I said bitterly.
Lupin looked determined. "I can help you two defend yourselves against them so you won't ever have to hear those - those things again."
And so we made arrangements for Anti-Dementor lessons.
~~~
For revenge for the 'comments' Fred and George made about what we were doing that night in the Great Hall, Terry had come up with an excellent idea.
Do the exact same I did to Zabini. I was a bit uneasy about this, as I didn't want to cheat on my boyfriend again, even though it wasn't really cheating - neither was it with Zabini, as Terry knew and accepted it.
He was the one who came up with the idea in the first place!
So I hid some Ecstasy under my tongue and entered the common room, Terry tailing me. I saw Fred heading up the staircase to the boy's dorms. I smirked and followed him.
When he reached our room, I hurried up to him.
"Hey, Red." I said casually.
"S'up, Softpaw?" He grinned.
"I heard that you think I'm hot." I said. Technically, I did - when I read his mind when his twin took that picture.
"How did you know?" Fred sniggered.
It was just like him to just outright say it, not even try to deny it!
"I have my sources." I moved closer to him. "What do you say we forget Hopper and have a little snog?"
"Softpaw! What's gotten into you!" Fred laughed. "Hopper's my best friend, why would -"
Fuck, of course. None of the Insurgents would betray another member. Looks like I'll have to Confund him...
"Confundo!" I hissed at him. He had a dazed look on now. Yes!
"So, whaddya say?" I winked at him.
"Yeah." Fred said dazedly.
I grabbed the front of his robes and yanked his face down to mine. Our lips met, and I pushed the drugs through to his mouth. I laughed and drew away.
"But Softpaw, come back -!" He called after me with a vague expression on his face as I darted into the toilets with Terry, and we watched him lose grip of reality.
After finding George, who had gone to fetch a book from the library for him and Fred, and pushing the drugs into his mouth too, both the twins were now high.
But what Terry didn't know was that I saved some Ecstasy. I put it under my tongue again and yanked him down to my level in an empty classroom.
He pushed me down on a desk and hovered over me, hooking his long arms under my butt, my hands wrapping around his forearms, him gently biting on my bottom lip asking for entrance.
I granted it, and pushed the drugs through his mouth and down his throat. I laughed into his mouth.
"What are you laughing about?" Terry muttered against my lips.
I just laughed again and lightly bit his lip.
"Oh shit, you didn't -?"
"I did indeed." I giggled into his mouth.
"Oh no." Terry seemed to accept his fate. I just laughed at him.
~~~
In Hogsmeade (Harry sneaked out with us) we went to The Three Broomsticks, the Insurgents, Draco, Ron, and Hermione accompanying us.
A sudden breeze ruffled my hair. The door of The Three Broomsticks had opened.
Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had entered the pub in a flurry of snowflakes, shortly followed by Hagrid, who was deep in conversation with Cornelius Fudge.
In an instant, Ron and Hermione had put their hands on top of Harry's head, the Insurgents on mine, and they forced us off our stools and under the table.
They sat at the table next to ours. Then I saw another pair of feet and heard a woman's voice.
"A small Gillywater -"
"Mine." Professor McGonagall's voice said.
"Four pints of mulled mead -"
"Ta, Rosmerta." Hagrid said.
"A cherry syrup and soda with ice and umbrella -"
"Mmm!" Professor Flitwick said.
"So you'll be the redcurrant rum, Minister."
"Thank you, Rosmerta, m'dear." Fudge said. "Lovely to see you again, I must say. Have one yourself, won't you? Come and join us..."
"Well, thank you very much, Minister. What brings you to this neck of the woods?"
"What else, m'dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween?"
"I did hear a rumour." Madam Rosmerta admitted.
"Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?" Professor McGonagall said exasperatedly.
"Do you think Black's still in the area, Minister?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.
"I'm sure of it." Fudge said shortly.
They talked a bit about the Dementors, then Professor McGonagall murmured, "You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta. Do you remember who his best friend was?"
"Naturally." Madam Rosmerta said with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here - ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!"
Harry dropped his tankard with a loud clunk. Ron kicked him. Of course I knew that they were friends, both part of the Marauders, including Professor Lupin there. But I only remembered their little book when Madam Rosmerta said that. I gasped, and Fred kicked me this time.
"Precisely." Professor McGonagall said. "Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course - exceptionally bright, in fact - but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers -"
"I dunno, the Weasley twins, Terry Boot, and of course James's daughter herself, Daisy Potter, could give 'em a run for their money." Hagrid chuckled at the same time McGonagall said, "Actually..."
"Yes." She said. "It's like them four all over again."
"You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!" Professor Flitwick chimed in. "Inseparable!"
"Of course they were." Fudge said. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was his best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to the twins. Daisy and Harry have no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment them."
"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.
"Worse even than that, m'dear..." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew that You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."
He explained what a Fidelius Charm was. It sounded complicated.
"So Black was the Potters' Secret Keeper?" Madam Rosmerta whispered.
"Naturally." Professor McGonagall said, and Harry and I glanced at each other, thinking of our inside joke. "James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself...and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret Keeper himself."
"He suspected Black?" Madam Rosmerta gasped.
"He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements." Professor McGonagall said darkly. "Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who."
"But James Potter insisted on using Black?"
"He did." Fudge said heavily. "And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed -"
"Black betrayed them?" Madam Rosmerta breathed.
"He did indeed. Black was tired of his double agent role, he was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Daisy and Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His Master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colours as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it -"
"Filthy, stinkin' turncoat!" Hagrid said, so loudly that half the bar went quiet.
"Shh!" Professor McGonagall said.
"I met him!" Hagrid growled. "I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued the twins from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! Jus' got 'em outta the ruins, poor little things, with a great slash across each of their foreheads, an' their parents dead...an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. I didn' know he'd bin Lily an' James's Secret Keeper. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' You-Know-Who's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!" Hagrid roared.
"Hagrid, please!" Professor McGonagall said. "Keep your voice down!"
"How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James? It was You-Know-Who he cared abou'! An' then he says, 'Give the twins ter me, Hagrid, I'm their godfather, I'll look after 'em -' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said the twins were ter go ter their aunt and uncle's. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get 'em there. 'I won't need it any more.' he says. I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he'd bin the Potters' Secret Keeper. Black knew he was goin' ter have ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o' hours before the Ministry was after him. But what if I'd given Daisy an' Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd've pitched them off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friend's kids! But when a wizard goes over ter the dark side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to 'em any more..."
I thought about that last line. Harry, Terry, Fred, George, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Dudley, Amy, Suzanne, Shannon, and more...I'd keep that in mind if Voldemort tries to possess me again. Because all these people matter to me.
A long silence followed Hagrid's story. Then Madam Rosmerta said with some satisfaction, "But he didn't manage to disappear, did he? The Ministry of Magic caught up with him next day!"
"Alas, if only we had." Fudge said bitterly. "It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew - another of the Potters' friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potters' Secret Keeper, he went after Black himself."
"Pettigrew...that fat little boy who was always tagging around after them at Hogwarts?" Madam Rosmerta said.
"Hero-worshipped Black and Potter." Professor McGonagall said. "Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I - how I regret that now..." She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold.
"There, now, Minerva." Fudge said kindly. They chatted a bit more, then left.
"Daisy? Harry?"
The Insurgents', Draco's, Ron's, and Hermione's faces appeared under the table, lost for words.
