October Twilight

October Twilight
Chapter Four
“Grudge Revolving”

May 30th, 1974
4th Year

Dorcas stood in front of the mirror observing her reflection with a small frown pulling down the corners of her mouth. She had tried on at least fifteen different outfits, but she hadn’t liked any of them. The Muggle bellbottom blue jeans and Bohemian sky blue top looked all right, but she wanted to look better than that for her date with Sirius. She had spent an hour in the bathroom charming her hair to lie perfectly and applying make-up.

The reflections of her roommates moved around the dorm throwing on clothes and filling their pockets with Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. She wished she could be as carefree as they were, but she had to impress Sirius Black, and everyone knew how fickle he could be.

“Oh, come on!” Annabel Knight exclaimed, grabbing Dorcas’s arm. “You look perfect, just like you always do. If you don’t hurry, you’re going to be late.”

Dorcas let herself be dragged from the dormitory. The common room was full of fifth- and seventh-years who were skipping the Hogsmeade trip to study for O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. The slightest noise caused a flurry of angrily rustled parchment, and Amos Diggory threatened to hex anyone who disturbed him again.

In the safety of the hallway, the third- and fourth-years broke into excited chatter. The entrance hall was filling up with students looking for their friends from other Houses and younger students leaving the Great Hall after breakfast. Dorcas craned her neck to find Sirius among the throng of students.

“He’s always late,” Lily said, appearing beside Dorcas. “If you leave now, you could avoid him all day.”

Dorcas frowned. “Lily!”

“Dorcas!” the other girl mimicked. “What happened to our code? We swore we’d never date a Marauder! They’re immature, arrogant, obnoxious--”

“I get the point. Maybe we’re wrong. I mean, they did come to the sit-in.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because of ….” She trailed off, glancing around nervously at the crowd of students. “It wasn’t for the cause. It was for one person.”

Dorcas averted her eyes, trying to think of a suitable comeback. She hated it that Lily could think on her feet so well. Before she had to answer, the Marauders appeared on the stairs, and Sirius flashed her a million-Galleon smile.

“Do I look all right?” she asked Lily, with a stupid grin plastered on her lips.

Lily just rolled her eyes again. “Traitor.”

Dorcas watched Lily disappear into the crowd, an amused smile touching her lips. Lily had been even more hostile towards Potter than normal since Dorcas had agreed to go on a date with Sirius. She truly despised them and didn’t hesitate in telling Dorcas so every time they saw one another. Lily’s ranting couldn’t persuade Dorcas, though.

“Ready to go?” Sirius asked.

Dorcas nodded, trying to keep the stupid grin off her face and hoping that her cheeks weren’t red. Not even Filch’s scowl dimmed her good spirits as she and Sirius passed through the front doors. She didn’t even notice the dejected girls sending angry glares in her direction.

“Did you get in trouble for the sit-in?” Sirius questioned.

“Not at all. I was surprised, but Dumbledore seemed really … proud, I guess. He awarded us all points.”

“It really worked too. Professor Clancy resigned.”

Dorcas’s smile faltered. She hadn’t meant for him to lose his job. She just wanted him to change his lessons. Seeing the shock on her face, Sirius continued.

“Bertha Jorkins overhead him talking to Professor Slughorn this morning. Apparently, he wanted Slughorn to take points from you for telling off the Slytherins. He said that he refused to teach students who had usurped his authority or something like that. He handed in his resignation today. Jorkins said we’re sitting our Defense finals with our Heads of House.”

Dorcas was stunned into silence. She was still trying to comprehend what she had done when they entered Hogsmeade Village.

“Where do you want to go first?” Sirius asked.

“Oh! There’s this really good bookshop past the Hog’s Head that not many people know about.”

“A bookstore? You read too much, Meadowes,” Sirius laughed.

The last vestiges of Dorcas’s smile faded. She could hardly believe it, but he’d just called her by her surname, like they were chilly acquaintances instead of on a date.

“Let’s go to Honeyduke’s,” he finished, not even noticing Dorcas’s reaction.

“Uh … sure.”

She followed him into the sweetshop, but her mood wasn’t improved by the crowd of students mulling around the store. Sirius was enthralled by the back wall which held disgusting displays of blood suckers, cockroach clusters, and jelly phlegm.

“Do you think Pete would try this if I told him it was cherry flavored?” Sirius asked, holding up a blood sucker.

Dorcas couldn’t believe anyone, even Peter Pettigrew, would be that stupid.

“Probably,” he said, answering his own question. “You want something?”

“I’ll just take some Unbreakable Jawbreakers,” she replied, eyeing the lollipop warily.

At the register, Sirius dropped enough candy onto the counter to fill a large bag. The clerk smiled kindly at him, her rosy cheeks puffing up as she glanced between Sirius and Dorcas.

“I was wondering where the fourth Marauder had gone. Anything else?”

“Some Unbreakable Jawbreakers,” Sirius answered.

While the witch dug a handful out of the nearly empty jar behind the counter, Dorcas searched through her pockets for the eleven knuts it cost for a handful of the candy. Sirius wrapped his fingers around her wrist before she could pull out the coins.

“Beautiful girls shouldn’t have to pay for anything on a date.”

Dorcas was surprised for a moment, but the meaning of his words sunk in quickly. Her stupid grin returned, and she felt heat rising in her cheeks. She looked down and nervously tucked her hair behind her ears. She regretted it immediately, because she couldn’t hide her red cheeks anymore.

They left Honeyduke’s and walked up the street, gazing at their favorite shops, but not going inside. Just before they reached the Three Broomsticks, Sirius reached over and clasped Dorcas’s hand in his own. She reddened even more as she squeezed his hand in return. Sirius looked over at her, also grinning, but in a very different way. If she had been herself, she would have called it a cocky smile.

“You’ve such a beautiful smile,” he said, leaning in closer.

Full of giddiness, Dorcas actually giggled in response and brought her free hand up to cover her mouth. “Thank you.”

“We should go somewhere quieter,” he said, steering the path away from the Three Broomsticks.

They walked down the street hand-in-hand in the general direction of the Shrieking Shack. Dorcas hoped that wasn’t where he planned on taking her. She had no desire to see the ramshackle house. She knew it wasn’t haunted, but it seemed taboo to stare at it like it was some kind of tourist attraction when she knew what it was really used for.

Luckily, Sirius steered her around a corner, away from the Shrieking Shack. He pulled open the door of a small café hidden between Waltz and Schmitz bookshop and Gram Toile’s bakery. The whole place was decorated to resemble a field full of spring flowers with vibrant wallpaper and plastic bees buzzing around the ceiling. The sign above the café read: Madam Puddifoot’s.

Dorcas felt her cheeks grow hot again as she took a seat near the picture window. Before and after Hogsmeade weekends, the older girls were always giggling and gossiping about the coffee shop.

Dorcas was perched on the edge of her chair, all logical thought frozen with indecision. She could bolt and ruin all chances of a second date with Sirius, or she could let him kiss her in public. Her cheeks grew redder as she thought about it. Of course she wanted to kiss Sirius, every girl wanted that. It was the public part that she didn’t like. Come Monday morning, every girl fifth-year and below would be whispering about her behind her back.

While her brain was frozen, Sirius had ordered them coffees. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her back against the booth bench, grinning roguishly the whole time. Dorcas thought he had a good idea of her innocence and seemed to rather enjoy making her uncomfortable. She relaxed against his arm, determined not to always be the goody-two-shoes that Hufflepuffs were so often labeled as.

She tensed slightly as Sirius leaned in closer. She knew he would kiss her sooner or later, but she really had hoped it was later, after she’d had more time to think about her reaction. As it was, she found herself lost in his fathomless gray eyes. Quite unexpectedly, she leaned in too. She drew in a sharp breath as their lips touched, shocked at herself. She snapped her eyes shut, trying to forget about the people who were probably watching and already gossiping. The kiss was much wetter and more awkward than she had envisioned her first kiss being, but she couldn’t deny that Sirius knew what he was doing.

The thoughts swirling around her head stopped abruptly as she felt Sirius’s hand drifting away from her shoulder. For a moment, she wondered what he was doing. Then she felt his fingers brush against her chest, just inches away from her breast. She shoved him hard, nearly pushing him out of his chair.

Blood was pounding in her ears, but not from the nervous adrenaline that had made her giddy all day. She was seeing red, and this time Black was going to pay for it. He was looking up at her with wide eyes and his jaw was slack. His reaction only made her more furious. Lily had been right. He was a complete scoundrel.

“You bastard!” Dorcas shrieked. Several of the kissing couples broke apart, looking around curiously. “We’re not even forty-five minutes into our first date!”

She was so angry that she couldn’t form coherent thoughts. Black was staring at her, his jaw working silently. Frustrated at herself and the situation, Dorcas spun on her heels and marched out of the café.

As she stormed through the streets of Hogsmeade, her schoolmates stepped out of the way, but as soon as she passed, they began whispering curiously. It was rare to see Dorcas Meadowes stomping around with flushed cheeks and a dark scowl. She had been out of character twice in as many days, first staging the sit-in against werewolf segregation and now storming through Hogsmeade.

“Dorcas! Dorcas! … Dorcas!”

Lily grabbed her best friend by the elbow, panting slightly as she forced Dorcas to stop walking. She had seen Dorcas leave Madam Puddifoot’s and had chased her to High Street, knowing that Black had done something to upset her.

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Dorcas yelled, spinning around.

Lily stepped backwards, shocked at Dorcas’s uncharacteristic vehemence. In their four years as friend, Dorcas had never yelled at her, even when they were fighting.

“Fine. You don’t have to. We can just walk around until you want to.”

Lily knew her too well. In a few minutes, Dorcas would be spilling all the details of the sordid affair. Sighing in defeat, she nodded and fell into step beside Lily. They walked past the busy Three Broomsticks, towards Zonko’s Joke Shop. Dorcas popped a yellow lemon-flavored Unbreakable Jawbreaker into her mouth and silently handed Lily a cherry-flavored candy.

“He tried to feel me up,” Dorcas said suddenly.

Lily almost choked on the jawbreaker in her mouth. “You’re kidding!”

“Unfortunately, I’m not. He’s a horrible date, too! He called me by my surname.” Lily nodded sympathetically. “He made fun of me for wanting to go to a bookshop.” Lily was scowling by that time. “And he used one of those stupid lines about how beautiful my smile is.”

“I don’t mean to be a pain, but I did warn you. You can’t trust Marauders, except Remus. They’re superficial and arrogant. If you weren’t pretty, Dorcas, Black wouldn’t have thought twice about asking you out. He doesn’t care that you’re brilliant or that you’re empathetic. He just wants a pretty face to look at.”

Dorcas sighed. “I know. I just didn’t want to believe it. It’s just … argh! Why can’t any boy other than Remus care about our personalities?”

“Because they’re boys! Remus is special. We’ll never find another one like him, I’m afraid.”

Dorcas couldn’t help but grin. “Let’s make a deal,” she began. Lily perked up, always ready to hear one of Dorcas’s ideas. “If we get old--”

“How old?”

“I don’t know, like … twenty-two.” Lily nodded in agreement. “And we still haven’t found the perfect man to date, we’ll share Remus.”

Lily laughed. “Does Remus get a say in the matter?”

“No.”

The redhead laughed harder, nodding her consent. “Deal.”

They continued down the street, giggling and picking through a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans while on their way to Waltz and Schmitz bookshop. It was their tradition to browse through the used bookstore every Hogsmeade weekend, usually as soon as they arrived in the village. At the intersection between High Street and Stile Street, Dorcas stopped abruptly, the smile sliding off of her face.

Lily followed her line of sight to Zonko’s. Black and Potter were walking out of the store and enthusiastically inspecting a box full of some item that rattled and squeaked while Pettigrew stood a few feet away, eyeing the box warily. Remus was trailing behind them, his brow furrowed and his jaw set.

“I asked you what you did to her!” Remus demanded.

Black cast an annoyed look over his shoulder. “Nothing she didn’t want me to do.”

Lily sucked in her breath, turning to gage Dorcas’s reaction. Rarely had she seen her best friend so enraged. Dorcas fumbled for the pocket of her Muggle jeans and whipped out her wand. Lily barely had time to jump out of the way before Dorcas cast the hex.

“Remanius!”

Black doubled over, clutching his stomach as an invisible fist punched him in the gut. With watering eyes, he searched for the source of the hex. Dorcas was pleased that he looked stunned to see she had cast the spell, but the surprise faded from his face when the invisible fist hit him again, this time on the nose.

Lily was laughing uncontrollably. Dorcas prided herself on defensive spells, and the Boxing Hex was a specialty reserved for people who truly had some punishment coming, usually her younger brother. Dorcas walked away with her head held high while her hex continued to pummel Black.

*~*~*

December 25th, 1978

The sun had barely risen over the horizon when Dorcas left her house. Snow had piled on the window ledge overnight, fogging up the inside of the glass and brightly reflecting the pink morning sun. Wrapped in a heavy cloak, a scarf, woolen mittens, and hat, Dorcas stepped into the mound of snow on the front steps. Using her wand, she melted a path to the front gates.

As she passed her father’s bedroom window, she paused, wondering if she’d made the right decision. He wouldn’t wake for several more hours, and when he did, he would find the house empty save for the house-elf. It was too late to change her mind, but she wondered if she shouldn’t have pressed him harder.

A rift had grown between them since her mother’s and Calliope’s deaths and it had only widened since Dorcas joined the Order. When Darius sent word that he was staying at Hogwarts to attend the Yule Ball, her father had announced that he would be working on Christmas. Without any further consideration, she had volunteered to work Christmas as well. There was no point in depriving some other Order member of seeing their family when she didn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with.

At the front gates, she Disapparated after casting the wards. Next moment, she was standing in Hogsmeade just outside Honeydukes. The windows all along the street were dark, save for the apartments above the stores where many of the owners lived. She walked past her favorite shops without glancing at the festive decorations. She wasn’t in a very celebratory mood.

Dorcas arrived at the Hog’s Head at precisely six o’clock, as she had been told to do. The owner, an aging man with grisly gray hair and beard, was waiting behind the bar. She had been told that this man was Dumbledore’s brother, but she could scarcely believe it. Dumbledore was the greatest wizard alive, and this barkeep looked one step away from vagabond.

“Upstairs,” the man growled.

Not wanting to anger the already cranky man, she mounted the stairs without knowing who or what she was going to find there. The second floor of the bar wasn’t any nicer than the first. Layers of dust coated the picture frames and the floor looked as though it had never been swept, much less mopped. She waited for a few minutes, being careful not to touch anything. The whole place was a Healer’s worst nightmare.

Finally, the sound of creaking stairs reached her ears. She had done a lot of work for the Order in the two months she’d been a member, but standing guard was not one of those jobs. She didn’t know what to expect, other than a long day.

“You’ve never looked so out of place,” Black laughed.

Dorcas tried to laugh, but the filth all around her was making her queasy. For the past semester, she’d been washing her hands at least twenty times a day.

“What exactly are we doing today?” she asked.

“We’re sitting on the roof. Unless Death Eaters show up, then we’re dueling.”

He pulled a silvery Invisibility cloak out of his robes and motioned Dorcas to come closer. She reached out and let the material slide through her invisible fingers.

“Where did you get this?” she asked, amazed. She had only ever read about them.

“Borrowed it from James, but Moody has two that he lends to the Order.”

“So that’s how you guys snuck around the castle without getting caught!”

“Partly,” Sirius said, grinning. “Come on, Emmeline and Dedalus are waiting for us.”

Sirius pulled open the door leading to the roof and threw the cloak over the both of them. It was hard to climb stairs under the cloak because Dorcas and Sirius were both so tall, but they managed to get onto the roof and sit without exposing their feet.

“Thanks,” a disembodied male voice said. The door opened and shut once more, seemingly of its own volition, leaving Sirius and Dorcas alone.

“Happy Christmas,” Sirius said, pulling two bottles of butterbeer out of his robes.

Dorcas grinned and pulled a handful of Unbreakable Jawbreakers from her pockets. “Happy Christmas.”

It was a strange few hours, huddled under the Invisibility cloak with Black, sucking on candy and sipping butterbeer. The Cushioning Charms kept the slush on the rooftop away from their clothes, but the lightly falling snow piled on top of the cloak so quickly that there was no point in brushing it off.

“So, what makes Sirius Black volunteer to work on Christmas day?” Dorcas asked, casting Replenishing Charms on their butterbeers.

Sirius took a drink and gazed at the mountains in the distance. “You first.”

She hesitated, not expecting the sudden turn around.

“If you’re going to ask, be ready to answer.”

Dorcas shrugged. “Fair enough. Well, Darius decided to stay at Hogwarts this year, and my dad had to work.”

“What does he do again?”

“He’s a Hit Wizard.”

Sirius paused with his butterbeer halfway to his lips. He glanced sidelong at Dorcas, but turned away too late. She saw the knowing look he had sent in her direction. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair.

“I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news, but Hit Wizards have all holidays off unless something really important happens. The Aurors have to pick up the slack.”

Dorcas looked down at her hands. It wasn’t entirely unexpected news. Some part of her remembered that her father had always been home on holidays. Maybe she just wanted to believe that he was working instead of avoiding her.

“You don’t look surprised,” Sirius observed.

“Not really. Things haven’t been the same since my mom and sister died. I thought living at home would help my dad, but it hasn’t. It’s only gotten worse.” Dorcas swallowed thickly, willing herself not to start crying. “Your turn.”

“All right. I haven’t lived at home since before seventh-year, and I don’t intend to ever go back to that house or my family. James is spending Christmas with Lily, and I didn’t want to intrude.”

“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“I could say the same.”

Dorcas looked away from Black, feeling very nosy for asking. She should have been able to guess, knowing that the Blacks were pureblood elitists and Sirius was not, but she hadn’t ever cared to pay attention to him before.

“That’s what you meant when you said we’ve all lost family in one way or another.” He nodded. “That’s awful, I’m sorry.”

“So you’ve said.” He was smiling, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Dorcas wondered how many times she’d seen that smile and overlooked the sadness it covered up. He plucked another jawbreaker from the pile lying in the snow between them, once again gazing at the distant mountains. Dorcas raised her bottle of butterbeer.

“To being proud blood traitors!”

Black looked at her again, this time genuinely smiling. He raised his butterbeer and they tapped the bottles against each other. Dorcas nearly choked on a mouthful of butterbeer when she saw Black draining the entire bottle.

“Better be careful or you won’t have anything left to replenish,” she laughed.

Sirius lowered the bottle. “In the name of having more to drink, I’ll stop. That was the best toast I’ve ever drank to.”

Other than the conversation on the roof of the Hog’s Head, the village was silent on Christmas day. All of the shops were closed and the owners with their families. Occasionally, a resident would appear in a front lawn to let the dogs out or a small group of children would make snowmen. Further away, students at Hogwarts ice-skated on the lake and had snowball fights. The Quidditch pitch was only a speck on the horizon, but figures flying on broomsticks were clearly visible against bright blue sky.

“Even James didn’t make us practice over Christmas holiday,” Sirius said, shaking his head.

“They’re having a Yule Ball this year, so the whole team is probably there. What do you want to bet it’s Gryffindor?”

“What makes you think the new Captain’s practice schedule can be any worse than James’s?”

Dorcas grinned proudly. “He’s my brother. He told me all about the grueling practices and the horrible try-outs this year.”

“Darius? Yeah, he’ll be a good Captain. It’s hard for Seekers to keep an eye on the game and the Snitch, though. He’ll need strong Chasers …”

Black rambled on about Quidditch for at least half an hour before realizing that Dorcas hadn’t said anything.

“Don’t you like Quidditch?”

“Sure.”

Sirius looked scandalized. “Sure? That’s all you can say? Sure?”

“Well, I don’t really understand it. I mean, I watched all the games, but there are so many balls and rules. It’s more fun just to sit with friends. That’s why Hufflepuff-Gryffindor matches weren’t ever that interesting. I couldn’t sit with Lily and Remus.”

“But, but …,” Sirius sputtered. “You’ve got to be kidding! Hufflepuff had one of the strongest teams when we were at school. They even beat us two years in a row, when Amos Diggory was Captain.”

“Yeah, and I was proud and celebrated afterwards in the common room, but winning doesn’t mean I’ll understand the game.”

Sirius turned his attention back to the flying figures, looking completely baffled that Dorcas didn’t love Quidditch.

At sundown, the Hogwarts students retreated into the castle, presumably to get ready for the Yule Ball. Sitting on the roof under an Invisibility cloak all day had taken its toll on Black and Dorcas. They were both stiff, and the abundant amount of sugar in their systems from the Unbreakable Jawbreakers was making them fidgety. They should have been exhausted after fifteen hours on duty, but instead they were both wide awake and full of adrenaline. At nine o’clock, the rooftop door creaked open again.

“Hey, we need the cloak,” Potter’s voice hissed.

While Dorcas shoved the remaining jawbreakers back into her pocket, Black waved his wand deftly and vanished the butterbeer bottles. Potter and Lily were waiting at the bottom of the stairwell, both looking tired, but happy nonetheless.

“What’s put you in such a good mood?” Dorcas asked Lily.

The redhead glanced over her shoulder at Potter and Black who were drying the Invisibility cloak with their wand tips. She smiled widely, but shook her head.

“I’ll tell you later. Meet me tomorrow?”

“All right,” Dorcas agreed, seeing no other way of wheedling out the information.

James and Lily ascended the stairs under the Invisibility cloak a few minutes later, once again leaving Dorcas and Black alone. Dorcas had to admit that spending the whole day with Black hadn’t been as bad as she had imagined it would be. Then again, they had been getting along better for the past few months.

Hogsmeade was silent except for the occasional hooting owl or barking dog. All of the families were in their houses, cleaning up after a day of festivities and presents. With sugar pumping in her system and full of pent up energy, Dorcas didn’t want to return home to sleepy Hampshire village. Her father would be home already (if he had left at all), and she would prefer to keep her distance at least until she figured out how she felt about his lying to her about working on Christmas.

“I’m starving,” Black moaned, eyeing Gram Toile’s Bakery.

“Me too. Too much sugar. Do you have food in your kitchen?”

Sirius thought hard, his brow furrowing as he tried to remember when he last bought groceries. Dorcas almost laughed. He looked so cute when he was concentrating. She physically shook her head when she realized what she had just been thinking. The last time she allowed herself to be captivated by Black’s good looks, she’d been subjected to a horrible day in Hogsmeade. They were civil with one another, but they were by no means friends, and she certainly wasn’t interested in dating him ever again.

“I think so, yeah. A little bit. Probably,” he answered.

“I can work with that. I’ll make us something.”

Black’s eyebrow rose dramatically. “Wait, wait, wait. You can cook?”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “I am half Greek,” she added, as if that explained everything.

Black hesitated. “The last time you willingly spent time with me, I recall a rather painful Boxing Hex.”

Dorcas was caught off guard by the reference to their one and only date. She was surprised that he even remembered that day given the reputation for being a playboy that he had earned during their fifth-year. It also wasn’t like him to bring up a situation in which he had been rejected and hexed into the hospital wing.

“Don’t try to feel me up and I won’t be forced to hex you,” Dorcas said, grinning.

Black smiled roguishly and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything, Dorcas spun around and began walking down the street. Once again, her mouth had moved faster than her brain. She had just flirted with Black, and nothing encouraged his arrogant side to come out more than unintentional flirting.

“Oi, Meadowes! Are you going to make me dinner or not?”

Dorcas was debating between facing her father and putting up with Black. Now that she had awoken the sleeping monster, he wasn’t likely to leave her alone.

“Yeah. Where do you live?”

“In London. It’s not too far from the storefront entrance to St. Mungo’s.”

Dorcas turned sharply and appeared in front of the derelict department store front that concealed the entrance to St. Mungo’s. She was grateful that Black lived somewhere close to a familiar area. She would have rather gone home and faced her father than hold his hand for Side Along Apparation. Black appeared beside her a moment later, a small pop accompanying his arrival.

His flat wasn’t far from where Dorcas had lived over the summer. She glazed longingly that the black windows of the apartment complex as they passed. She had been seriously considering moving back to London for a few weeks. Seeing her flat sitting empty only made the desire grow.

Black’s flat was as dirty and disorganized as Dorcas feared it would be. Empty butterbeer bottles, half-full glasses of fizzy drinks, crisps bags, and dirty dishes were scattered all over the drawing room. Down the hallway that presumably led to the bathroom and bedroom, clothes were piled knee-high between the doors. There seemed to be an exceptionally large amount of black fur all over the furniture, but no animal anywhere in the flat.

In contrast, the dining room was spotless, if only because it had never been used. In the kitchen the cabinet doors were all opened, some revealing tin cans of soup or boxes of cookies, but most were empty. Dorcas could only imagine that the dirty dishes in the drawing room had once been stored in there.

A quick search of the icebox confirmed what Dorcas had suspected since she entered the flat. Black’s food supply consisted of a pint of sour milk, a block of moldy cheese, and no less than thirty bottles of butterbeer. Dorcas was an amazing cook, being taught by her Greek mother and grandmother, but even she couldn’t whip up a meal with thirty bottles of butterbeer, some canned soup, and bags of cookies.

As Dorcas glanced around, she couldn’t help but laugh. She had always heard that bachelors lived off take-away curry, but she hadn’t actually been inside a bachelor’s flat.

“What’s so funny?” Black asked, stepping around the icebox and into the kitchen, perhaps for the first time in weeks.

“You’re a mess, that’s what.”

Black studied the barren cupboards and nearly empty icebox. “I haven’t been home much.”

Dorcas laughed again, her melodic voice filling up the room. “If you say so. The Leaky Cauldron is always open. Our best bet for getting fed is to go there.”

Black hesitated. He seemed to want to say something, but thought better of it. Dorcas knew what he was thinking without asking. Nobody went to Diagon Alley except for quick trips, and they always shopped in packs. Since the second raid, a number of shops had closed altogether. Thinking about Diagon Alley ultimately led to thinking about her mother and Calliope, and that wasn’t something she wanted to dredge up on Christmas day.

“Or,” Dorcas said, her good humor gone. “We can get take away.”

They opted for the latter option. It was nearing ten-thirty on Christmas day, but Dorcas knew of a good restaurant in London owned by her Uncle Jon’s Muggle brother-in-law. As Dorcas explained all of this, Black stared at her in disbelief and wonder.

“Uncle Jon is my mum’s half-brother. His dad is a Muggle, but he’s a wizard. He married my Aunt Margot, who is a Muggle, but her younger brother is a Muggle-born wizard. It’s her older brother who owns the restaurant. My great-uncle Orion, who is my dad’s uncle, works there because he’s a Squib.

“Now, my dad’s family is another story altogether. They’re all wizards, except for my Aunt Alice, who is a witch, but her parents wouldn’t let her go Hogwarts, so she’s learned to live without magic ….”

Dorcas trailed off, realizing that she was rambling. She hurriedly finished writing the order and attached it to Black’s tawny owl. Her Aunt Margot loved receiving and sending orders by owl, although very few customers of Hellas Greek Family Restaurant knew about the owl-order service. When she looked at Black again, he was smiling at her.

“That’s amazing. It really is. Your family is purebloods, but you’ve accepted your Muggle and Squib relatives.”

Dorcas cocked her head to one side, surveying Black closely. He seemed genuinely surprised and happy that the Meadowes family was accepting. The reason why dawned on her a moment later. The Black family was elitist. In her childhood, Dorcas had made friends with tons of kids who later became her classmates at Hogwarts. She only just realized that none of her friends had been placed in Slytherin. Her parents had been very selective of who she met and made friends with. Or perhaps it had happened the other way around.

“We haven’t always,” she admitted. “It’s only my grandmother on my mum’s side that started the tradition when she married a Muggle after my grandfather died. My dad’s family still isn’t very open-minded.”

“Not being open-minded is something entirely different than banishing Squibs and blood traitors,” Black replied, a very ugly look on his face.

Dorcas felt her happy, chatting mood deflate instantly. The holidays were always harder without family. She dreaded letting melancholy settle in. Rather remarkably, she and Black had spent an enjoyable day together. Determined not to let it end on such a sour note, she brought the topic around to something they had in common while they waited for their food.

“Remus is coming down to London tomorrow.”

“Yeah, he told me. I’m meeting James, Pete, and Remus tomorrow afternoon.”

Reuniting the Marauders didn’t seem to brighten his mood at all. Dorcas couldn’t help but wonder at that. They had been as thick as thieves at Hogwarts. She hadn’t imagined anything could come between the four friends.

Quite suddenly, an image flashed behind her eyes accompanied but an unpleasantly familiar sharp stab of pain.

The Grim was bounding across the field outside of Hogsmeade, and yet it could not be the Grim because it was barking, almost gleefully like a pet dog welcoming home its master.

Dorcas blinked several times, sweeping the image from her mind. When the room around her stopped spinning, her eyes focused on a clump of black fur on the sofa.

For a moment, she feared that she had used her ability without meaning to. The black fur was the same as the dog’s … or was it really a dog? But her Occlumency defenses were rock solid. It was more like a latent premonition had been lurking in her brain without her knowing it and only just decided to make itself known.

“You okay?” Black questioned, looking into her eyes like a Healer checking a shock patient.

“Strange,” Dorcas laughed. “Too much sugar and not enough solid food, I guess. And if you’re going to check for abnormally dilated pupils, you need to light the end of your wand.”

Black looked away, almost seeming abashed that she knew he had been concerned. The delivery owl chose that moment to tap its beak against the window. Black let it in and took the brown bag from its talons. The bird fluttered onto Dorcas’s knee and held out his leg for her to remove the letter attached.

While Black laid the food out on the table, Dorcas read the short note from her aunt and uncle wanting to know why she couldn’t have just heated up some left over Christmas turkey and demanding to know why she hadn’t come to the Christmas gathering. She tucked the note into her pocket, wondering exactly how she was going to explain the situation to her mother’s family.

“What is this?” Black asked, crinkling up his nose.

“It’s a salad,” she laughed, taking the large plastic bowl and grabbing a fork. “I ordered you the chicken Mediterranean. It’s more like the food you’re used to.”

“Does all Greek food smell so bad?” When Black opened the container holding his meal, he added, “Never mind. I know the answer.”

“No, it’s good! Just try it.”

Reluctantly, and digging around the olives and peppers, Black speared a piece of the chicken and shoved it into his mouth. He looked pleasantly surprised.

“Aunt Margot is the best cook in our family, and that is her specialty.”

They ate their meals in compatible silence, both too hungry for small talk between bites. After he was done, Black popped one of the complimentary breath mints into his mouth, commenting on the common sense of including the peppermint candies.

“How clever,” Dorcas sassed, also taking a peppermint. “I swear, I don’t know how you scored better than me in Astronomy.”

“How do you know I did?”

Dorcas’s cheeks reddened slightly as she realized what she’d just said. Since Black was going to get it out of her one way or another, she decided to answer.

“I checked.”

Black raised his eyebrows and indicated that he wanted a more specific answer.

“At the end of each term, I looked in the grade books of all our professors. A simple Revelation Charm can do wonders on a book halfway across the room.”

Black looked stunned. “I don’t believe it! Model student Dorcas Meadowes was looking into the private records of her fellow students? How is that you never got a detention in seven years?”

“I didn’t get caught.”

“Maybe you’ve got more mischief maker in you than I ever imagined.”

Dorcas grinned brightly. Normally, she would have been appalled at the label, but coming from Black, it was a compliment. She and Lily had got up to a lot of mischief during their school years, not nearly like the Marauders, but enough to have fun.

Before she knew what was happening, Black’s lips were pressed against hers. Not having expected the kiss, she reacted as she always did when a man kissed her. Her eyes slipped closed, and she breathed in the calming smell of peppermint and aftershave as the kiss deepened.

A moment later, her eyes snapped open, the reality of the situation kicking in. More disgusted at herself than at Black, she pulled away and jumped off the sofa. She gestured wildly at the drawing room while her jaw moved soundlessly.

“What’s the matter?” Black asked.

Dorcas let out an incoherent cry. “You! You’re the matter! When are you going to learn? What reason did I give you to think that I wanted you to kiss me?”

He blinked a few times, as if her words weren’t English. “I thought it was rather obvious that you wanted me.”

Dorcas had pulled her wand out before she even realized it. Black seemed to be rethinking his answer as he eyed the strip of wood warily. Dorcas could barely string together a cohesive sentence in her rage.

“You--! Don’t--! Stay away from me!”

With that, she spun around and marched out of the flat. She didn’t see Black slump forward and bury his face in his hands.