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Story Name: Lack of Being A Black
Author: Tor Petty
Rating: Harsher than my Others. PG13 or possibly more.
Synopsis: Before going to Azkaban, Sirius Black was not only proclaimed guardian to little Harry, but he was engaged, as well. Dell, his fiancé was rather heartbroken about his arrest. Thirteen years later, after she's moved on, she recieves the surprise of her life. The story revolves around how she deals with Sirius Black's return.
Send replies via: PMing is fine, or you can reply to the response thread.

By the way, this is my first OC fic. I hope it doesn't turn out to be cliche'. ><

I have to ask you not to reply to this thread because, hopefully, I can continue adding on until the story is completed to my satisfaction.

Thanks!



Mmm, she thought, letting the warm bathwater fall on her bare legs. She had taken the news of James and Lily’s deaths harshly, but she had taken the news of Sirius’s arrest even more so. She sighed.

He had resisted the thought of marriage so fiercely. “Dell,” he would say. “We’re free spirits. Do you really want us to be bound by something as formal as marriage?” She did.

Dell was a free spirit, as Sirius Black had pointed out; probably even more so than he. She was just in love.

He had stood by his decision against marriage, relishing their relationship freedom, for almost two years. He finally gave in, noticing the happiness of James and Lily, and feeling guilty about denying Dell what she wanted.

“What took you so long?” She had joked, looking down on the kneeling Sirius. Then, she kissed him with pride and passion. They had been happy.

But, she never had the chance to enjoy marrying the love of her life. As her pride evaporated with the steam emerging from the faucet, she thought, it’s better that way, Dell. You won’t be thought of as the wife and widow of a mass murderer.

She reached up with her leg, using her foot to nudge the bathtub handle, making the running water cease. No, another voice in her head nagged. Being the former mistress of a mass murderer is so much better.

“Shut up!” Dell screamed, grabbing the soap and throwing it against the wall with blind force. The soap made contact and caused the bathroom to reverberate with unwelcome noise. Startled, she sheepishly looked at it, now broken in half.

She could not believe that Lily and James were dead. She could not believe that Sirius was going to Azkaban. She could not believe that little Peter was gone, as well. She felt miserable as she watched the last droplet fall from the faucet with a ‘kerplunk’.

Dell could not wrap her mind around the fact that Sirius had betrayed James and Lily. James was his best friend!

“But,” she sighed. “Who was closer to them than Sirius Black? Who was their Secret Keeper?”

It made perfect sense. Who better to get to the Potters than Sirius Black?

Dell didn’t want to believe it. She sank lower into the warm water and gave in to her grief. Why did this have to happen to her? Why couldn’t she get married and have a family, and live happily ever after? Dell wiped her nose. She was too young for this sort of thing.

Her friends were dead. Her fiancé was being sent to prison, laughing like a maniac. And little Harry, she added as an afterthought. He’ll be sent to live with muggles. Dell knew that Dumbledore would not let her fulfill her duties as godmother with Voldemort on the loose.

She sat in her bathtub crying. Her eyes filled with regret and remorse. Little did she know, her lover was not a murderer. Little did she know, in thirteen years, she would experience the surprise of a lifetime.

She was delighted to see her once close friend, but was hesitant because this was the first time they had crossed paths in – at least – eleven years. Also, she knew that Remus did not stumble in here by accident. This had something to do with the convict that had just broken out of wizard jail, and Remus wanted to talk to her about it. The conversation could go one of many ways, but she was certain that it would not turn out good.

Dell hurried over to the door, lightly brushing him aside, and flicked the ‘open’ sign to read ‘closed’. She turned to her visitor, not knowing what to expect. Lacking an expression, Dell put her hands on her hips.

“No ‘hello, Remus’?” He inquired, smiling weakly. He was adorned with shabby brown robes, darned many times with a deep maroon fabric. He had donned, over his robes, a light maroon sweater, which was thinning in more than one place.

“Remus!” She exclaimed, foolishly and oddly letting her emotion show. Dell threw her arms around the malnourished man, expressing both her delight regarding his visit and her fresh wave of grief associated with the Sirius situation, and all nostalgia accompanying each of those emotions. He awkwardly patted her back, letting himself be reminded of old times, marauding, Hogwarts, and – though he didn’t care to admit it – Sirius Black.

As they broke apart, Remus commented, “You look amazing, Dell.”

“Remus, you’re sweet, but you’ve never been one for small talk. How’d you find me without my knowledge that you were looking?”

“The sign…” Remus replied, referring to a large, gaudy welcome sign that read ‘Dell’s’ in rainbow colors adorned with a dancing chameleon on top. It had been given to Dell during her first year of business, and had not failed once to attract a customer’s attention.

Dell choked a laugh, but returned somber, tapping the latest edition of the wizarding newspaper with her index finger.

“He hasn’t,” Remus started, pausing to lower his voice. “…contacted you, has he?”

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who had the nagging suspicion about the convict’s motives. “No, Remus. I’ve not received word from him. And, believe me, I’d be the first to report him to the Ministry if he did.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Remus replied. “A wise choice,” he hastily added, noticing her expression.

“I would like to be notified, as well,” Remus simply continued.

“Why?” Dell suddenly demanded. “What are you going to do, Remus? Catch him yourself? Avenge James? What?!”

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied monotonously, but with a trace of earnest. “Just tell me, alright?”

“Where can I send my owl?” She replied nastily, sliding the newspaper across her desktop and glaring menacingly at him.

“I’m teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year at Hogwarts,” Remus responded, ignoring her tone. Not liking the conversation’s outcome, he turned to leave.

At the last moment, Dell felt guilty for the attitude she had just given her once very close friend. “Wait!” Dell pleaded. “Are you sure you don’t want to grab a drink at the Leaky Cauldron?”

September first came and went, and Remus Lupin was as happy as ever while teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

It was a slightly chilly afternoon, and the castle was almost empty because all the older students were in Hogsmeade.

‘Professor Lupin’ enjoyed the stillness, but he much preferred the subtle chatter as his class was learning something new. Silence could not compare to that sound – or feeling. He finally had a job he was good at, and enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that his lycanthropy did not threaten his chance of keeping it. The only thing that was less than perfect for him at Hogwarts was the presence of Severus Snape.

Snape had not gotten over his teenage grudge. But, Remus could not complain; Snape was nice enough to fix the Wolfsbane Potion for him every so often. They could be civil to each other, and being in the castle at the same time on a daily basis without incident proved that fact.

A sharp rap on the door interrupted Remus’s thoughts. He looked up from his papers to see Dell standing in the doorway to his office.

“Well, Professor, are you going to invite me in?” She asked, eyebrow poised.

“Oh,” he said, getting up to draw her a chair. “Come in. Please sit down.”

“Thanks,” she replied, still standing.

Remus looked at her. He had never really looked at her, as she had been Sirius’s girl, this way in all the time he’d known her.

At this moment, he took the sight of her in like a sponge. She was tall for a woman – 5’9” or 5’10”, at least. Remus could appreciate that, standing at a respectable 5’11”. He supposed that it gave her some intimidation power… except with Sirius Black who stood a humbling six foot or so.

Dell’s legs went, Remus surmised, all the way up. She was slender and graceful, and her straight black hair fell below her shoulders. She had a thin face with a petite nose and lips that always sported her infamous pseudo-smile. Freckles, small and inconspicuous, dotted across her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were green. They weren’t vibrant and carefree and powerful like Lily’s had been, but dark, mysterious, and awe-inspiring. Her hands tugged at her pockets and her hips swayed when she moved. Surely, if she didn’t sit down, Remus felt like he would go mad!

“So,” he said, snapping out of his reverie and nodding toward the chair. “What brings you here? Surely it’s not…” he trailed off.

“Of course not!” Dell assured him quickly, taking an obvious note of his demeanor before (finally) sitting. “I just came… to see you.”

“Oh,” Remus replied, as stumped as a schoolboy dunce. He raised his eyebrows.

“Well, Dumbledore invited me to the castle. He wanted to speak to me about Sirius,” she explained. “I noticed that the castle was empty, so I came to see my favorite teacher.”

Remus laughed. “Okay, Dell.”

“No! Seriously!” Dell exclaimed, her eyes widening. “Anyway, would you like to grab a drink with me in Hogsmeade?”

Remus was about to accept, God only knows how much he wanted to, before realizing something. “I’m afraid that I’m waiting for a certain potion,” he said carefully, putting emphasis on the last word.

Dell grimaced. “Aw, I’m sorry Remus. I hope all goes okay this week.”

“I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Well, I guess I better get going, then,” she finished, standing up and stretching.

“No, wait. Let me at least walk you out,” Remus replied, also getting up.

***

After walking Dell out of the castle, Remus was making his way back to his office, where he would await the Potions Master.

On his way back, however, he ran into James Potter. No! he scolded himself. Harry. Harry Potter.

“Good afternoon, Harry,” Remus stated airily, forgetting about his mistake.

“Good afternoon, Professor,” Harry replied glumly.

“Hermione and Ron out at Hogsmeade?” Remus surmised.

“Yeah.”

“Right,” Remus replied cheerfully, ignoring Harry’s surly mood. “Why don’t you grab a cup of tea in my office? I just received our new creature, and – don’t worry – I use teabags. I daresay you’ve had enough of the leaves?” Word travels fast in this school.

After a stunned silence, Harry chuckled and accepted.

***

“What is it?” Harry asked, peering at the creature behind the glass.

“It’s a grindylow,” Remus replied, watching the creature brandish a thin-fingered fist. “The trick is to loosen its grip. Don’t be intimidated; after the kappas, this guy will be easy.”

Harry sipped his tea silently for a moment, and looked up at Professor Lupin.

“Why didn’t you let me fight the boggart?” Harry questioned, breaking the quiet.

Remus’s brow furrowed as he thought back to the lesson. “I thought that answer would be obvious, Harry. I assumed that the thing you most feared would be Lord Voldemort. I didn’t think it appropriate for a former dark wizard to materialize in the classroom and make everybody panic.”

“Well,” Harry said uncertainly. “I did think of Voldemort… at first. But… the dementor…”

“Oh,” Remus said softly, surveying Harry’s expression. “I’m rather impressed at y–”

At that moment, there was a sharp rap at Remus’s office door. “Come in,” Remus said absently.

The door opened, and Professor Snape walked in with a smoking goblet cradled precariously in his arms.

“Ah, Potter,” Snape said softly, setting the goblet on the desk and looking suspiciously at the pair of them. “And Lupin. Here is the potion you requested; I made a whole cauldronful if you need more.”

“Thank you, Severus,” Remus said politely, nodding at the other professor.

“Don’t mention it,” Snape replied, beckoning out of the room.

Remus pulled a very sour face before downing the liquid within the goblet, much to Harry’s surprise and horror.

Rendezvous In The Mountains

It was all a dream, Dell told herself, refusing to open her eyes. But, if it had been a dream, what would explain the fact that she was laying on a hard floor? Her back ached something terrible.

Dell finally gave in to opening her eyes and looking around, but she immediately closed them again. What she saw had been too horrifying to take in: she was bound and gagged, and left lying against a small boulder at the base of Hogsmeade’s nearest mountain. And all of that, Dell surmised, had been performed with her wand.

After a moment, she noticed a foul odor. In fact, it wasn’t just an odor, but a stench. Black’s breath tickled her right shoulder. Dell tried to groan, but her voice was trapped behind the gauze in her mouth.

Black – that was his name now. She could no longer refer to him by his first – could sense her discomfort as if he had read her mind.

“I’ll take it out if you promise not to scream,” he croaked, unused to speaking.

Dell opened her eyes, this time to witness Black’s jagged shark-like teeth grimacing at her. Teeth you once ran your tongue over… a voice inside her head sneered. She banished it without a second thought.

“Well? What say you?” Black asked, putting his wasted arm on his knee. “Can I trust you not to scream?”

Dell quickly nodded and Black helped the gauze out of her mouth.

Scream? He’ll kill me if I scream! He’ll kill me anyway! Dell opened her mouth to do it, but Black was too quick for her. He raised her wand and croacked, “Silencio!” before she had gotten the sound out.

The charm was badly performed, however, as Black had not yet earned the right to use her wand. She was still left with the ability to whisper.

“I thought you had more honor than that, Dell,” Sirius said softly.

“That’s not a lot, coming from you. I thought you had more honor than betraying your friends. Guess we were both wrong about eachother,” Dell retorted in a menacing whisper.

“You haven’t changed a bit over the years,” Black said softly, his eyes roaming over Dell in all her entirety. “Except… maybe you’re colder.”

“You haven’t changed since I last saw you, either,” Dell whispered. “Except you’re kind of uglier.”

“Definitely colder,” Black replied, with a sad, little smile. Then, his eyes conveyed something a little more urgent. “There’s something I must tell you.”

“Yeah? Other than the formerly neglected-to-mention fact that you’re a Death Eater?”

“I’m not a Death Eater,” Black insisted.

“I see. I can play this game, too. I’m not a woman,” Dell replied sardonically, unable to keep her voice steady.

“Dell, don’t do this to me. I had nothing but your best interests at heart,” he pleaded.

“Don’t do this to you? I’m not the one who betrayed his best friends and left his fiancé all alone to face the rumors that her husband-to-be was in cahoots with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! And now you’re telling me that it was all in my BEST INTERESTS?”

“I didn’t say that. Sure, I as good as killed Lily and James, but I would never betray them.”

“Oh? And how does that work, you liar? A technicality? It’s going to take a Confundus Charm to make me believe the likes of you!”

As rude as she was letting on, Dell was torn apart. Inside the man before her – raggedy, thin, wasted, and dirty – had once been a man she’d loved. She wanted to believe him, whatever he was trying to say, but the hurt of twelve years previous still stung her heart and bowels. Since, she wouldn’t have even gone to his trial had he been given one.

“Dell,” he repeated urgently, running his hands through his filthy mop of hair. “If I could tell no one but you, I would be somewhat satisfied if you, at least, knew the truth. You… and maybe Harry.”

“Don’t speak of Harry! Don’t let his name even grace your tongue! Not after what you did to Lily and James!”

“I may be responsible for their deaths,” Black continued over her. “But I did not kill them.”

“Yeah, because the Dark Lord did it or you,” Dell muttered.

“I’m innocent – of killing Lily and james, and of killing Peter, and of mass murder. To prove it to you, I’m going to let you free. Unharmed.”

Before Dell could open her mough to argue, Black mumbled, “Petrificus Totalus. She was, at once, stiff.

“Did I not say I was no Death Eater?” Sirius said firmly. “See? Unharmed. I must be on my way, but I will owl someone at the castle to come and perform the counterjinx,” Black explained, removing her from the now useless bonds.

“Here,” he continued, laying her wand on her chest. He delicately folded Dell’s hands over it, pausing only to rearrange a stray lock of hair from her face.

Black let his hand wander across the skin on her cheek. If Dell could have shuddered, she would have, but she could only blankly stare up at him.

“Goodbye, Dell. I hope we will be able to meet again… on better terms, next time.”

Dell wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. She wanted to hit him, right then, but she couldn’t. And, most of all, she wanted to cry… But she couldn’t.

The day following had been quite rough for Dell indeed. She had had to speak to Dumbledore and a horrible woman named Skeeter.

Her former headmaster had been sympathetic, first asking her if she was okay regarding the whole ordeal. He was understanding about the fact that Dell had no desire of seeing him ever again. Dumbledore had even apologized for asking her to the castle, even though it was entirely Dell’s fault for staying out so late.

Rita Skeeter was not so amazing. As a journalist on her rise to fame, it was expected of her to be one of the top writer of the Daily Prophet, covering the paper’s top gossip stories. As such a renowned witch, Rita Skeeter was incredibly conceited.

Dell made sure to give her honest story, but the woman kept twisting Dell’s words. Dell was even accused of still harboring feelings for Black, as Skeeter found their former engagement scandalous. By the end, Dell had lost her temper and taken Skeeter’s acid quill and snapped it in half. After the highly affronted journalist stalked off, Dell contacted the Daily Prophet a second time to speak with a more respectable writer.

The article appeared in the wizarding paper not long after with a simple title that read ‘Sirius Black Sighted in Hogsmeade.’

Dell was relieved to find that the entire article was written by the second journalist (Rita had not been allowed to touch it), and nowhere within it mentioned Dell’s former relationship with the convict.

As much as speaking with the journalists drained her, Dell had found that some of the stress that had been built up alleviated with finishing this task. She had to dread it no longer, after all, because it was finished.

That night in bed, however, Dell began fretting about Harry’s safety at Hogwarts. If he is anything like James was, Dell mused. There is no way he is safe behind the walls of the castle. She alone, after all, knew how clever Sirius Black really was. Well, she and the other surviving marauder.

Thinking about Remus made her mind relax because she knew that he would do everything in his power to keep Harry safe. But what about the week of the full moon?

All this on and off worrying surely can’t be healthy for my current mental state, Dell told herself.

She threw off the covers, got up out of her bed, and made herself some tea with honey.

Once the kettle was done, Dell sat down at her table – a metal two-seater painted white with a pair of matching café chaires quipped with 50s style red cushions – and began sipping her tea. A mental image of Black’s cracked smile floated behind her eyes, and she involuntarily began thinking about what he had said to her in the mountains.

”Sure, I as good as killed them, but I would never betray them.”

“If I could tell no one but you, I would be somewhat satisfied if you, at least, knew the truth. You… and maybe Harry…

Black’s voice echoed through her mind. As she mulled over everything he said, she realized – everything fit, all else confirmed his guilt.

Everything except those two things, Dell. They don’t make sense, that nasty voice in her head pointed out.

“No,” she vocalized, setting her cup on the table with a ‘c***k!’ “He said those things to mislead me. He betrayed Lily and James; it’s been over and done with for more than a decade. If Remus doesn’t believe he’s innocent, neither do I.”

Ah, but he was so consistent So intent on showing you what really happened.

“I know what happened! I don’t believe him! Shut up! He’s consistent because he’s crazy!”

Tap-tap.

Dell looked around. There was a scruffy brown owl at her window. She abandoned the argument she was having with herself to let it in.

The owl dropped the letter on her kitchen counter and cocked its head.

“Oh fine, you,” Dell tsked before digging some ‘Eeylops Owl Treat’ out of her storage cupboard.

When the owl received its bounty, it flew off out the window.

Dell unfolded the note:

I… well… just wanting to check up on you; see if you’re feeling okay. Umm, not good with words today – sorry for the fumbling.

R