October Twilight

October Twilight
Chapter Eleven
“A Questionable Solution”

September 9th, 1971
1st Year

The first week of school seemed to fly by. Between finding their way around the castle, classes, homework, and making new friends, the first-years were quite busy. Even Dorcas, whose entire family had gone to Hogwarts, was confused by the changing staircases and hidden passages. If it hadn’t been for the Fat Friar, Dorcas and her roommates would have missed breakfast every morning.

The morning routine was the only thing that remained constant the entire week. Dorcas always woke up to find Annabel perched on the edge of her bed already dressed and looking like she was afraid she’d miss something important. She barely said five sentences a day, but she’d clung to Dorcas for the same reason that Lily had searched for her every morning after breakfast: they were Muggle-borns and floundering in the magical world they had been thrust into.

On Friday morning, it took the girls an exceptionally long time to find Lily after breakfast. When she finally showed up in the entrance hall, Annabel was in a near panic. Herbology started at nine o’clock and that only gave them ten minutes to find the right greenhouse.

James Potter, who Dorcas knew well from her childhood, and Sirius Black came strolling out of the Great Hall just as the girls were heading for the front doors. They didn’t seem at all perturbed about the time.

“We found a shortcut to the greenhouses,” Potter announced.

Dorcas narrowed her eyes at him. “You’ve had time to explore the castle already?”

Potter nodded. “Loads of time, like after curfew.”

Dorcas opened her mouth to scold him, but Annabel threw out her arm, knocking the wind out of her friend. She and Lily were both nervous about getting to class on time, and unlike Dorcas, didn’t know that the greenhouses were out the front doors and fifty feet to the left. They each grabbed one of Dorcas’s arms and pulled her down the corridor after Potter and Black.

For the next ten minutes, Potter and Dorcas bickered.

“This isn’t the right way! It can’t be. If you’d just go out the front doors—”

“You’re such a hopeless girl,” Potter muttered. “You’ve no sense of direction.”

“Why, yes, Potter, I am a girl. Merlin, you are stupid. And if we’re talking about hopeless, you’re such a typical boy that you haven’t even thought to ask a portrait for directions!”

Black cast Lily and Annabel an easy going smile. He nodded to Potter and Dorcas.

“How long until they realize they’ve led us past Morrigan the Mad four times?”

Dorcas noticed with a start that Morrigan was glaring at them reproachfully as they walked past her portrait again. Black waved at her, something she apparently did not find funny, because she made a sound like “humph” and left her portrait frame to visit her neighbor. Only when the bell rang a moment later did the students realize the time.

“See!” Dorcas yelled. “We’re late for Herbology now!”

“Don’t yell at me!” Potter shouted back.

Lily and Annabel walked ahead of their classmates, determined to arrive in class as soon as possible. Dorcas and Potter weren’t bickering anymore, but they seemed especially nervous about something. The girls knew why a minute later. A copper colored tabby cat slinked around the corner. It stared at them suspiciously for a moment before scampering off around the corner again.

“It’s Handel, Filch’s cat,” Black said.

“Run,” Potter instructed.

Lily and Annabel, not sure why they were running from a cat, why Potter knew they should, or how they were ever to explain such extreme tardiness, tried to ask questions while running. Potter led them down hidden passage ways, through doors, and up staircases before halting in front of a locked door. Dorcas bent over, placing her hands on her knees. There was a stitch in her side, and she was heaving for breath.

Potter had had no idea where he was running, Dorcas surmised. Nothing around them looked familiar at all. They were standing across from a tapestry of a wizard being clubbed by ballet dancing trolls, but there were no other reference points.

“We’ll split up,” Potter instructed. “Sirius and I can go look this way, you three go that way.”

Lily hurried off down the hallway, Annabel trailing behind her. Dorcas was very suspicious about splitting up. They were liable to end up on different sides of the castles with one wrong turn into a hidden passage. Lily led them up and down the hallway, leaning over the banister a few times to look below.

“No clue,” she sighed. “Let’s go see if James or Sirius found anything.”

The three girls hurried back to the tapestry. Potter and Black were already there, looking equally lost. Then, as Annabel joined her classmates, a door appeared in the opposite wall.

“What the …?” she exclaimed, jumping back from the wall.

Dorcas was about to suggest that they just go down the stairs and see where that led when Black opened the mysterious door. He and Potter edged inside, their eyes wide and jaws slightly slack. Lily went in next, a mischievous glint in her eye. Dorcas followed them, curiosity finally overcoming her more practical side.

Shelves stocked and overflowing lined every wall. Some held books, others contained jars of candy, and still others were filled with odd magical gadgets. Potter and Black worked their way around the room slowly, stopping occasionally to experiment with an item on the shelf. Annabel headed straight for the candy jars and began stuffing her pockets with the sweets. Lily had gravitated towards a bookshelf and was thumbing through a fat, leather bound book entitled Famous Muggle-born Wizards of the 16th Century .

A loud popping noise shortly preceded a cloud of chalky dust rising out of Black’s hand. When the dust cleared, Black and Potter were shoving boxes of chalk into their knapsacks.

“This is everything we need to have a great year!” Black declared.

Suddenly, the door of the mysterious room crashed against the wall, causing the five students to jump in surprise.

“Ha! Didn’t think I’d find you, eh?” Filch growled, eyeing them suspiciously. He glanced around the room, frowning. “Come on, you’re coming straight to Professor McGonagall’s office. Hope you enjoyed your first and last week at Hogwarts, truants.”

Annabel and Lily trudged behind Filch, their heads hung and shoulders drooping. Black and Potter lagged behind, purposely trying to upset Filch, but Dorcas kept up with the caretaker. Only the girls seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. On their way to Professor McGonagall’s office, the bell rang again, signaling the end of the class. They had completely missed their very first Herbology class.

Filch led them into the Transfiguration professor’s office, triumphantly announcing that he had caught the students on the seventh floor raiding a supply closet. Professor McGonagall looked shocked and angry. She rounded on the students, cheeks flushed and lips pressed into a thin line.

They were going to be expelled, Dorcas knew it.

“Well,” Professor McGonagall huffed. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“We didn’t raid any closet,” Black replied, shooting a nasty look at Filch.

“Proof’s in his bag, Professor,” Filch insisted.

“Hand it over, Mr. Black,” Professor McGonagall ordered, holding out her hand.

She shuffled through Black’s bag, removing about twenty boxes of chalk. With raised eyebrows, she glanced at him, clearly thinking that he was mad. Potter’s bag too produced about the same amount of chalk boxes. Annabel got away with taking the candy, even after Filch objected. The professor insisted that Hogwarts supply closets were not stocked with sweets.

McGonagall glanced at the stack of chalk boxes on her desk before turning back to the students. Apparently, she thought stealing chalk wasn’t worth punishment because she dismissed Filch’s theft charges.

“Anything to say for your truant behavior?” she asked.

“We were lost,” Lily began, but Filch cut her off.

“Rubbish! They were in the Defense corridor, not ten steps from Morrigan’s portrait! They were late for class and ran from Handel.”

Mr. Filch stroked his cat’s head proudly. The tabby hissed at Black when he looked at it.

“We weren’t running from you,” Potter defended. “We were running to class. We took a wrong turn into a secret passage way.”

Professor McGonagall’s features softened slightly at this defense.

“First year students cannot be expected to know every turn in the castle,” she stated. “However, you have forced my hand. You have missed your entire Herbology class. I have no choice in the matter. Five points will be taken from each of you. Miss Knight, Miss Meadowes, you will to see Professor Sprout immediately after your lessons today.”

The first-years filed out of the Transfiguration professor’s office. Lily, Potter, and Black headed up the next staircase for their Charms class while Annabel and Dorcas took the stairs down for their Potions class.

“Lucky were didn’t get detention,” Annabel sighed.

“Lucky? Lucky! I’m going to kill Potter the next time I see him! Well, at least Gryffindor lost more points than Hufflepuff.”

“It was a good adventure, though, wasn’t it? I wonder what that room was all about. Are there many magical rooms like that?”

“Now that you mention it, no, there aren’t.” Dorcas glanced over her shoulder in the general direction of the Room of Requirement. “But I don’t like adventures.”

*~*~*

May, 1979

Dorcas stood at the window, peering out into the heavy mist pressing against the glass. Not for the first time, she sighed and paced the length of the room again. A small pink duffle bag lay beside the door and a traveling cloak hung from the coat rack above it. The fire in the hearth had been extinguished and all the charmed lamps turned off. Shadowy darkness spread over the flat, half hiding Dorcas’s face as she turned again towards the window.

She was less concerned with the weather than with the hundred unanswerable questions hounding her. She couldn’t even sit still, because her only release from the frustration was movement.

A week ago, she and Sirius had been eating lunch in the Ministry cafeteria when Moody had approached them with a message from Dumbledore: they were needed at headquarters that night. The Headmaster had asked them to undertake a secret and highly dangerous mission for the Order, which they had agreed to do immediately.

For the last week, Dorcas hadn’t given much thought to the mission itself, but to her involvement in it. Going to Greece and locating some witch Dumbledore thought was important wouldn’t be that difficult. What caused her suspicion was that Dumbledore had asked she and Sirius to go.

On the one hand, she was the only member of the Order who spoke Greek and knew the magical locations in Greece well, having spent many summers there. However, an advanced Translation Charm could have solved that problem—with unsuspecting Muggles anyway. With Lily and Potter—no, she had to call him James now—on their honeymoon in France and Remus still occupied with the werewolves in northern Scotland, Dumbledore’s choices were somewhat limited, but surely Moody and Healer Bones would have gone if asked.

Instead, Dumbledore had assigned the task to Dorcas and Sirius, the two Order members not everyone trusted. She had discussed this with Sirius a hundred times in the past week, but he had shrugged it off and told her she was holding a grudge. Maybe she was, but the fact remained that Dumbledore had asked her to join the Order four months after her classmates, lectured her repeatedly about using Occlumency, as if she had forgotten how much damage she could cause, and had refused to give her important tasks since she used Legilimency on Snape.

On top of all this, there was the fact that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was looking for her. According to the Order spies, Dorcas was now a priority of the Dark Lord’s. He had given orders for her capture and promised torture beyond tolerance to any Death Eater who injured or killed her. Dorcas had been marked.

And now, in this volatile situation, Dumbledore was asking her to go on a mission that would take her into the heart of the magical world, to Greece, the place where Dark magicians had honed their skills and created their spells.

As if her physical well-being wasn’t enough of a distraction, there was the matter of spending an indefinite amount of time alone with Sirius. Dumbledore had already placed the wards on them that made both Sirius and Dorcas Untraceable. For however long it took to find this witch in Greece, Sirius would be her only companion. Not even the post owls could find them until the wards were lifted.

She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Ever since Lily and James’s wedding, she’d been preoccupied with his behavior. All the signs led to one conclusion that she was not willing to accept. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t believe Sirius felt something for her. He obviously did, to have offered his friendship in her time of need. It was that she wasn’t comfortable with her feelings towards him.

For so long, she had defined him by his actions only. Now that she knew a deeper side of Sirius, she couldn’t so easily justify the conclusion that he was arrogant, insolent, and generally a nuisance. He was arrogant, but by no means insolent, and she genuinely enjoyed his company.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and saved her from having to dwell on these uncomfortable emotions. She let Sirius in and shut the door against the unnaturally cold wind stirring the dementors’ mist.

“What, no tongue lashing for being late?” Sirius quipped, tossing his bag next to Dorcas’s. “That’s a first.”

“You’re late?” she asked, turning to look at the clock. He was indeed forty minutes late.

His smile slipped and he hunched his shoulders to look into Dorcas’s down turned eyes. “You all right?”

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just brooding over the same things we’ve been talking about for a week.” She tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced around the flat to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. “Well, we should get going.”

Sirius watched her closely as she moved over to the bags. He opened his mouth, but shut it just as quickly and watched as she flicked her wand at the bags and they disappeared.

“Transmigration Charm?” he asked. “Impressive. I missed that one on the practical NEWT.”

They left the flat a few minutes later and headed down to the street to where Sirius had parked his motorbike. Dumbledore had insisted that they travel in as non-magical way as possible, because all magic left traces, even if the wizards were Untraceable. He had agreed that the motorbike would be good enough, as long as they didn’t fly it until they were out of the country.

“I made some adjustments,” Sirius commented, mounting the bike. “She can go a hundred and seventy-five now.” He patted the motorbike lovingly, like it was a pet rather than a flying vehicle.

“Greece is still quite far away,” Dorcas laughed.

“Lucky I put a Relocation Charm on her too, isn’t it?”

“Ingenious, as always, Sirius! But Relocation Charms on large objects only work for up to three hundred kilometers even when cast by the most powerful wizard.”

Sirius peered over his shoulder, frowning playfully. “You can never let someone know more than you, can you?” He flipped his wand and the motorbike roared to life.

“I have to make up for all those years of coming in fourth to the Gryffindorks’ grades.”

Sirius made a sound halfway between a laugh and a shout. “Fourth place you were. Accept it and be awed by my amazing magical abilities.”

They sped through the streets of London, the Relocation Charm working wonders through the traffic. In what seemed like mere minutes, they were tearing past the cliffs of Dover. Sirius pressed the flight button, and they soared above the English Channel.

Dorcas closed her eyes and let the wind whip through her hair. As they crossed into France, the mist evaporated and the air warmed. The dread that had been weighing on Dorcas for days, the result of the breeding dementors, lifted and she let out a joyful whoop that was lost on the rushing wind. The troubles of the British wizarding world seemed to vanish so high above the clouds, and she was taken back to a time when life had been all about having fun.

Sirius landed the bike twice that day, once in Luxembourg and once in Venice, for meals and to stretch their legs. Dorcas was truly impressed with the charms he’d placed on the motorbike.

In Venice, they found a small villa hotel surrounding an outdoor eatery in the courtyard. The Muggle owner, who spoke neither English nor Greek, found himself suddenly understanding his two English guests and accepting their payment in the form of gold coins.

“Nice work,” Sirius muttered. “You realize you’re going to have to keep Confunding him or he’ll want Muggle money.”

Dorcas only laughed as she pushed open the door to the hotel room. She wasn’t worried about violating wizarding regulations. It felt so wonderful to be out of Britain and away from the war. Besides, she had given the man more than enough Galleons to cover the cost.

The room was small, but had a balcony facing south. The warm breeze carried the smell of salt water from the Adriatic Sea. It reminded her of childhood summers in Greece and walks on the beach with her grandmother. The Aegean was more turbulent than the Adriatic, but the crashing waves still sounded like heavenly music from happier times.

“You look happy to be on your way home,” Sirius mentioned, stretching out on the bed closest to the door.

Dorcas opened her eyes slowly, her smile slipping away. “Greece isn’t really my home, not anymore. I’ve always called home wherever my family is, and there’s no one left in Greece.”

“I know what you mean.”

She looked up sharply. “I thought you didn’t see your family anymore.”

“Family’s what you make it. Right now, my family is on their honeymoon in France and hiding out in Scotland and standing guard in Somerset.”

“Oh.” Dorcas shifted uncomfortably.

She was forcefully reminded of a day late in January when she’d gone to Godric’s Hollow, intent on warning James about his future. He hadn’t listened to her, and she had made a vow to tell someone who would protect Lily and James at all costs.

“I should have known you and James were like brothers.”

“Oh, we’re not like brothers. We are brothers.”

Dorcas gazed at him silently, all of her joy gone as she realized the real tragedy of what she had witnessed in her visions. She hadn’t only watched two people die; she had also watched one man lose half of his family. She looked away quickly, blinking back the tears. She knew what that felt like, and she couldn’t let it happen. This was her last chance. If Sirius wouldn’t listen to her, no one could change the future.

“Sirius, there’s something I have to tell you. You probably won’t want to hear it, but I’m begging you to listen anyway.”

He climbed off the bed and moved over to Dorcas. When he saw the tears clouding her eyes, he nodded silently. She motioned to the chairs on the balcony, indicating that he should be sitting while she talked. As she explained the visions to him, the seriousness on his face deepened and became fear, horror, and finally grief. He dropped his head into his hands as she finished, unable to look at her any longer, but she saw the wetness in his eyes.

“The fact is,” Dorcas finished, wiping the tears from her own cheeks, “I don’t know James that well, and Lily doesn’t trust me, not totally, anyway. When the time comes, they’re going to turn to you. I can only tell you what will happen if events unfold according to the course Lily and James have chosen now. If you can make them change something, even one decision, their entire future can be different.”

A dead weight settled into Dorcas’s chest. She had expected the burden to lighten after sharing it with someone else, but she only felt selfish. She knew how painful it was to carry around the secrets of the future. Whether they came true or not was inconsequential, because the fear of what might happen was always enough to overwhelm and terrorize the one who thought about it too much. For the first time in her life, she had pushed the burden onto someone else.

“Please don’t hate me for telling you this,” she whispered.

When Sirius looked up his eyes were dry, but his skin was pale and clammy. “I could never hate you.”

But his answer didn’t do anything to lessen her self-loathing. Yet, she knew she had done the right thing. She would never forgive herself for it, but it had been right.

Sharing a room with Sirius hadn’t been as bad as Dorcas assumed it would be. As much as she would have preferred her own hotel room, it just wasn’t safe to be alone and Untraceable on such an important mission. Sirius spent as long in the bathroom as Dorcas did and had entirely too much fun playing with the electric light switch, but his antics only made her laugh. Even his cocky grin wasn’t so difficult to bear away from the war.

Dorcas’s good mood didn’t last much longer than the night, however. Most of the next day would be spent flying over the Adriatic Sea and Greece. Their first destination was Athens, as Dorcas was most familiar with that city. Greece was a beautiful country with a rich history and culture, but there was a darker side also. From Egypt, wizards had brought magic to Greece, and it was there that Dark magic was created. Even in the 1970’s some areas of the country were too dangerous for young witches and wizards. It was most likely that Dorcas and Sirius would have to travel to those same locations Simon and Petra Meadowes had forbidden their daughter to visit during her childhood.

“Do you know why we’ve been sent?” Dorcas asked, over breakfast.

Sirius shook his head. “I can only guess.”

“It just doesn’t make sense!” she cried. “Dumbledore tells us there’s some witch called Aradia somewhere in Greece, but he won’t tell us why we have to find her, what to say to her, or if we should bring her home! If she’s really that important, then why wasn’t he specific? Why isn’t he coming himself?”

“It’s not safe for Dumbledore to leave the country, you know that. He leaves Britain for a day and that’s it. Voldemort will destroy Hogwarts and the Ministry.”

Dorcas leaned back in her chair. A dull ache was forming behind her eyes the more she thought about these unanswerable questions. She rubbed her temples wearily.

“Yeah, I know. Still, why us?”

“You’re asking the wrong person, Dorcas. I know you want answers now, but you’re not going to get them. Dumbledore said we would know what to do when we found Aradia. You’ll get your answers then. Let’s go to Greece, find this witch, and go home.”

“I can’t help but think that it’s not going to work like that.”

Sirius froze, his fork full of eggs suspended in mid-air. “You … think that? Or you know that?”

Dorcas dropped her head into her hands and growled in frustration. “I think it’s just a thought, but then it’s also intuition, and you know what that means with me.” She looked up at Sirius again. “I don’t know. What I do know is that we’re burning daylight. We need to be in Athens before nightfall.”

He laid down his fork and pushed his plate away. “All right. But, Dorcas, you’re using Occlumency, right? This is going to get dangerous ….”

Dorcas tried to smile. “I know, but honestly, I don’t think Occlumency can help me anymore. You-Know-Who is looking for me and my mental defenses against his Legilimency are going to be as effective as a first-year casting an Unforgivable.”

“Don’t get fatalistic!” Sirius hissed.

“It’s hard not to when you’re a Seer. You tend to believe what you See is real, whether it is or not.”

Dorcas dropped a few Galleons onto the table, thanked the owner for the meal, and headed towards the sidewalk where Sirius had parked the motorbike.

“That might explain your personality,” Sirius said, following her.

“Beg pardon?”

“You’re so damn sure about everything!”

Dorcas laughed hollowly. “If you only knew ….”

The flight to Athens was much less enjoyable than the first half of the journey. Flying during the day meant they had to stay above the clouds where the Mediterranean sun burned and the harsh wind stung their skin. As most of the flight was over the Adriatic Sea, there were no places to stop and rest until they arrived in Greece.

Another thirteen hours later, Sirius landed the motorbike well outside the city limits of Athens. On one side of the motorway, towering cliffs with scattered olive trees reared high into the sky and on the other side, rugged waves crashed against the sea wall. Dorcas breathed in the humid air and gazed at the rocky terrain, glad to be back in Greece and guilty that she was enjoying it without Darius.

She came to her senses a moment later, remembering something very crucial about Greece.

“The other side of the road! Get on the other side of the road!”

Sirius peered over his shoulder and shouted, “Why?”

She took one arm from its place around his waist and gestured frantically at an oncoming car. “Greek Muggles drive on the other side!” Sirius swerved just in time to miss the vehicle, but the Muggles inside barely noticed. “They also drive very recklessly,” she added.

He laughed in response. “I think I like Greek Muggles.”

Dorcas directed Sirius to stop at a hotel ten minutes later. Her Greek was a little rusty, but she paid for a room without a hitch. She had exchanged some Galleons for Greek bank notes at Gringotts before leaving Britain and had practiced counting it.

“So, what’s the plan?” Sirius asked, flopping onto the bed nearest the door.

Dorcas waved her wand in a complicated pattern and their bags appeared from thin air. She tossed Sirius’s to him. “We check the magical places.”

“Won’t that be … ah, pointless? I mean, any foreign witch important enough for Dumbledore to want to know about is going to be even more famous in her own country, don’t you think? She’s probably made herself Untraceable.”

“All magic leaves traces even if the witch is Untraceable,” Dorcas replied, reciting the Charms lesson from memory.

“You think if Dumbledore made himself Untraceable we’d be able to find him?”

Dorcas stopped sorting through her bag. She turned to look at Sirius. “Okay, so … This is going to be harder than I thought.” She plopped onto the bed next to him. “Any ideas?”

“Nope.”

“Well that was helpful, thanks.”

Sirius grinned at her. “When in doubt, one must all always ask the same question.” He paused dramatically. “What would Lily do?”


Dorcas laughed despite herself and shoved his shoulder playfully. “Seriously, though …” A strange expression crossed her face and Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.

“I knew you’d do it eventually. Continue.”

“Right,” she said, shaking her head. “Any viable ideas?”

“There has to be some way to find her otherwise Dumbledore wouldn’t have sent us. What type of magic is strong enough to counter a powerful Untraceable Charm?”

They sat in silence for several minutes just staring at one another. “Oh come on!” Dorcas cried. “You must have covered this in Auror training!”

Sirius raised one eyebrow. “Must I have? Tell me, if I came to you with an infected bite and refused to tell you what bit me, could you heal me?” She huffed at him, which only made him grin wider. “There must be some kind of magic that everyone is susceptible to. We just have to figure—”

“That’s it! Remember what Dumbledore said at our--my--first Order meeting in October? Even the bravest are defenseless against certain types of magic. Nobody can hide from the future.”

Sirius was silent for a moment. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but he couldn’t find any flaw with the plan. “All right … Find her.”

She chuckled softly. “It doesn’t work like that. At least, not for me. I could try tarot cards or reading tea leaves, but those usually only work if the person is sitting with me.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You mean all that crap Almida taught us wasn’t a hoax? It can actually work?”

Dorcas frowned deeply. “It wasn’t crap! Professor Almida was a very good teacher! You just don’t have the Sight, so you thought she was a loon. Granted, she’s not as good as …” Dorcas cleared her throat. “Anyway, I think our best bet--”

“She’s not as good as who?”

“--is to visit some magical places. I can try to focus on the short term at each location and see if she shows up at all,” she continued.

“You were going to say she’s not as good as you are.”

“I think we should start with the islands. They’re the most remote, but aren’t nearly as Dark as some other places.” She turned to her bags, resolutely ignoring Sirius.

“I knew you weren’t as pious as you always pretended to be.”

“Crete is almost a certainty for anyone trying to hide. Everyone is so worried about the politics of the Muggle population on the island that wizards walk around in broad daylight casting spells and no one notices.”

“Yeah, you know how good you are. And to think, all these years you lectured me about being arrogant,” Sirius laughed, lounging back on a pile of pillows.

Next thing he knew, he was hanging upside down by his ankle and staring into Dorcas’s angry face.

“Do not compare my behavior to yours at Hogwarts. There is a huge difference between acknowledging one’s abilities and flaunting them just for the hell of it.”

She lifted her wand and he fell to the floor. Sirius watched her stomp across the room and begin throwing her pajamas onto the bed.

“You really hated me, didn’t you?”

“Of course I didn’t. If I had, I would have never given you a second chance. I hated the way you wasted your popularity and talent.”

Sirius pushed himself up from the floor and crossed the room. When he flopped onto the bed, her neatly arranged toiletries went flying.

“But I didn’t.” She looked up sharply, splotches of color appearing on her cheeks. “I joined A.W.E., didn’t I?” He sighed lightly. “You used to know about something else I did with my extraordinary magical talent.”

“The thing I Saw in fifth-year but can’t remember?” Sirius nodded. “Still aren’t going to give me a hint?” He shook his head. “But you promise it wasn’t a waste?”

“Marauder’s honor.”

Her expression softened somewhat. “Any way to corroborate your story?”

“Moony, Wormtail, and Prongs,” he replied, a sparkle in his eyes.

“I know why you call Remus Moony,” she said, grinning. “I predicted it in third-year. And I remember that I used Legilimency on you and Saw James with an antler.” Sirius looked disconcerted to hear this, but she continued, gauging his reaction closely. “I just wonder what hex you used on poor Peter for him to be called Wormtail.”

She knew she was way off the mark when he relaxed. She cursed lightly and grabbed her pajamas from the floor.

“Fine. Don’t tell me. And as punishment, I’m taking the first shower and using all the hot water.”

She disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Sirius laughing raucously. “I’m a wizard! I’ll just charm the water.”

Dorcas popped her head out of the room and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Really mature.”

“You’re one to talk,” she called. “When I’m finished, I’m putting an Uncharmable Charm on the showerhead!”

Sirius raced to the bathroom door. “That’s not fair! I’ve never pulled a prank on you!”

The door flew open. Dorcas tried to look serious, but she was giggling so much that she couldn’t manage to wipe the smile off her face.

“Oh really? I recall a Muggle light bulb that floated above my head for a whole week until Professor Flitwick figured out the countercharm. Then there was a cleverly concealed concoction that turned my hair--”

“So you admit it was clever!”

Dorcas paused in mid-sentence, her mouth wide open. He put one finger under her chin and pushed her jaw closed. For a moment, Dorcas thought he was going to kiss her. His fingers brushed her cheek, and she leaned into his touch. Next moment, he had backed away. Dorcas watched him move across the room, not for the first time noticing how handsome he was. She retreated into the bathroom, her feelings towards Sirius clearer than she would have preferred.