The Last Gryffindor (Sirius Black)

Sequel Ch VI

If Elijah somehow found himself on the receiving end of an unfortunate cauldron explosion in his Potion's class next week, well, it was a good thing I believed in happy "coincidences", even if he didn't. So long as I didn't get caught, a coincidence it would remain.

"I'll go left with Justin and—" Elijah began, although he never got the chance to finish the thought.

Maellie, my evidently very hard of hearing friend, flew into view just as he began to turn towards her down the leftward path that would have led towards the carriages. She raised a white knuckled fist, and before anyone could process her sudden arrival, she slammed it up into his nose.

"Oops," she said, eyes blazing as she watched him fall back into a thin layer of snow. "My bad. How did that happen?"

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded only after finally processing her unexpected arrival. I scrambled to get between her and the men I'd let pass under the false assumptions she'd be out of their reach.

"What does it look like? If you weren't going to get him back, then obviously I had to do it for you."

"What the hell are you doing here?" I clarified.

Whether they recognised her or not, two of the others seemed to decide it didn't matter who she was if she was throwing punches and surged closer, though not before I stunned them from behind, knocking over their stiff bodies to get to Elijah, who had recovered from his initial shock. Still on the ground with one palm gingerly hovering over his broken nose, I got there in time to kick his other hand away from where he'd taken hold of Maellie's ankle and, using her precarious balance against her, jerked her off her heeled feet. When his bloody face contorted with rage at my interference and he reached instead for his wand, I took no chances. I swung my leg in a steep arch and brought it hurtling into his stomach. He collapsed with a pained grunt onto his back.

"Protego," I glanced up in time to watch Maellie, despite not yet having regained her footing, deflect a spell back at its conjuror, effectively knocking him out of the playing field, leaving two others. We could handle two. Easily.

And we would, after I dealt with Elijah, of course, which I anticipated doing with great pleasure. Again, his hand inched towards his wand, so I stomped it into place without changing expression, and kept my foot there, crushing his fingers into the freezing sleet, gradually increasing my
pressure and hoping it hurt.

I didn't enjoy starting fights, and I didn't even care to participate in the ones brought to me, dismissing them as a waste of effort. I had nothing to prove to anyone, but when I did finally get serious I wasn't the merciful sort.

My other shoe I brought to graze over Elijah's neck, not quite hard enough to impair his breathing. Yet. But it was threatening enough that has eyes widened, anger replaced with fear and he tried to choke out some plea, one I wasn't inclined to listen to, all things considered. It smothered into a wheeze beneath the sole of my black dragon hide boot and my blank warning stare.

"What were you going to do when you caught her?" I asked lowly, looking first to Elijah and then to the remaining combatants. Half of a duel is dependent on who gets their wand out first, but we were long past that point, four wands out and aimed steadily everyone else. Luckily, in a situation where we all had mutually assured distraction should another attempt to attack, I still had the upper hand, because if any of the others chose to attack, they could not know what I'd be willing to do to Elijah in retaliation, who had no means of defending himself. He was an easy hostage prone to my whimsy. And my lacking mercy. Wand aimed to attack at any provocation, I offered Maellie a hand, which she took, also not waving her wand away from them as she rose to her feet again. "I don't particularly mind being hit a time or two, but what I do mind is when six men gang up on my best friend. It hardly seems fair."

"She started it!" one objected.

"Oh dear," I said. "I must have accidentally looked like I cared."

The other broke in with, "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Maybe that's true. You found it anyway. Searched it out, even."

The sound of steps alerted us to approaching witnesses, accompanied closely by voices. My lips pressed into a thin line as I remembered the teachers we passed on the way here, Hagrid and my own headmistress, who no doubt heard all the commotion and were rushing to investigate. Though I wasn't quite through with Elijah and his pals, Maellie and I had little choice in the matter. We needed to leave. Immediately.

"It's fortunate for you," I continued at length, "that it's time for us to go. Maellie?"

"You don't need to tell me twice," she replied, and then sprinted deftly backwards down the path she'd leapt out of to assault Elijah, her dress trailing behind her.

"You forget, this is the second time I told you run," I said mostly to myself, because Merlin knew she wouldn't listen.

With great reluctance, I removed my heel from Elijah's throat, resisting the urge to kick him again in the side as a parting gift. I kept my wand oscillating between all three until I completely fell out of view, by which point I kicked up the pace. We hurtled through the gardens, Maellie doing remarkably well in those damnable heels. After all was said and done and we were returned to the comfort of the carriage, I thought about convincing her to toss them into the hearth fire. 

Finally, we emerged by the green houses, laughing through the adrenaline at such a perilously close call.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked without any real bite. "What was the point of me trying to hold them off if you were just going to stick around? Why did we run in the first place if you were just going to turn around and clobber him?"

She snorted. "What the hell is wrong with me? At least as much as is wrong with you, I reckon, for suggesting you stay behind by yourself at all. Elijah hit you and you acted like he insulted your cooking. Someone had to get him back, and, like I said before, obviously it wasn't going to be you."

She planted her hands on her hips and shot me a look that implied I was being the ridiculous one.

"Like my wonderful parents, I have a strict non-violence policy," I deadpanned. "I wouldn't dare to do harm to another soul."

Maellie seemed to miss a step. She glancing over at me sidelong, contemplative and debating how much to say. "I thought... I thought you didn't know your parents."

Well, if I was ever going to tell anyone, it would be her. "I don't. Not personally, at least."

Baby steps. One day I would be willing to say more, I hoped.

Maellie was quick to whip out the air quotes. "'Not personally'. How delightfully vague. Do you know them 'impersonally', then? Are they famous or something?"

I knew by her tone she was being sarcastic, but she truthfully wasn't far off. "Infamous, maybe," I said, my earlier laughter taking on a bitter edge.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Now isn't the time for that conversation." I bumped her good-naturedly with my shoulder, shivering slightly after the innocent contact. Because of the cold. Yes, simply because we were half frozen in clothes suited for the weather somewhere in the tropics. No other reason. "We need to get back to the carriages before you manage to get me into more trouble for the night."

Maellie, however, appeared unaffected, her mock-offended grin infectious. "Let's make one thing clear: you volunteered. No one forced you to go anywhere or do anything!"

"Trouble?" The sound of an unexpected voice radiating out of the darkened path behind us, so cold and monotone, sent my heart hurtling up onto my throat. How he crept up so quietly I had no idea, and it unnerved me, though not as much as the man himself, now that I knew more about him. "What sort of... trouble?"

A/N
So there should theoretically be 2-3 chapters left. Fair warning.