Cats and Dogs

“You… Wanted to see me, Professor?” I asked, a slight trembling in my voice. His office - to say the least - was wicked. There were old books everywhere, and different kind of trinkets all over the place, and covering the walls were photo’s of the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses.

“Ah, Amilia,” Dumbledore beckoned, looking up at me from above his moon-shaped spectacles from behind his desk. “Come, sit.” he gestured to the seat in front of his desk and I quickly did as I was told. “I saw from my window what happened-”

“I know, I’m so sorry! I know that attacking students is against the rules, but he was going to pull down his trousers! And him just being hung by his ankles was embarrassment enough, and even if I knew what they were planning on doing, I swear, I would have stopped them earlier in a more subtle way-!”

“Amilia! Amilia, please,” he gestured his hands in a calming manner, his blue eyes were warm and seemed to have a certain twinkle to them. “I believe you.”

“You do?” I asked, in shock, my head tilting slightly.

He smiled, “Yes, the reason I called you up here was-”

“To expel me? I know, even if I was doing it with good intentions, I still broke a rule-”

“Amilia, please, let me finish.” he said, calming my nerves again and I nodded. “The reason I called you here was to ask you: Why?”

I raised an eyebrow and shook my head slightly, “What? Why?” he nodded, “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think I quite get your question.” I said with honesty.

“I want to know why you stood up against your new friends to help someone who wasn’t your friend, even if it meant breaking your friendship forever,” I paled.

“Breaking my friendship forever? Do you really think they’re that mad?” I sighed and took a deep breath, “Well, sir,” I began, “I know I’m they’re friend… but I know the difference from right, and wrong, Professor,” he nodded for me to continue. “And what they were doing was wrong, so I had to make a choice; set them straight, or go along with them. Professor, I take friendship very seriously,”

“Ah, so I’ve heard,” he said referring to the talk I had with McGonagall and my face reddened in slight embarrassment.

“So, she told you,” I mumbled. “Well, sir, there is a motto I live by, and I put it into action a few moments ago.”

“And what is that motto?” he asked, leaning forward slightly.

I smiled, “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”

A smile appeared onto his face and he leaned back and mumbled something that sounded like: “Beautiful, I should use that sometime…”

“Professor?” I asked, wondering what was going through his mind.

“You’re dismissed.” he stated gently with a smile.

I grinned, “Really? No detention?”

“No, not today. Though, I can not speak for the other days… You seem to have a knack for getting yourself into trouble. Have a wonderful evening.” he smiled once more and I got up at left his office and made my way to the Gryffindor Tower.

“Shut up! This is all your fault, James!” Lily yelled as I entered the Common Room. I barely caught her in tears, running up the stairs to the Girls Dorm.

“What happened?” I asked as I looked at the Marauders.

Sirius looked up at me and stood up and then turned and began to make his way to the boy’s dorm, but stopped and turned back, “Severus call Lily a repulsive mud blood.” he then made his way up the stairs.

I looked at James and he looked livid and then ran up the stairs. I sighed and a few seconds after there was yelling and James came running down the stairs with a piece of parchment in his hands. “James! Stop!” Sirius yelled as James ran out of the Common Room with Sirius on his heels. “He’s got the map!” he yelled and Peter and Remus shot up from their seats and ran after them. I bit my lip and then turned on my heel and ran after them.

They were a little ways ahead of me as we ran down the halls, “Amilia!” I quickly stopped, my converse making a squeaking noise on the ground. I turned back and saw Lily running towards me.

“Lily?!” She caught up to me, and was taking deep breathes.

“I heard - yelling,” she took a deep breath.

“Yeah, James is pissed, I don’t know what’s going on - listen, Lily, I swear to you, I had no idea -”

“I know,” she said, a faint smile on her lips, “I figured it out when you knocked Sirius on is arse! That was amazing, Amilia,” we laughed and jumped slightly when we heard yelling and booming.

“Come on!” we quickly ran towards the noises and stopped when we saw James and Severus dueling.

“Get him, James!” Sirius yelled.

“James! Stop it-!”

“SECTUMSEMPRA!!!”

Lily let out a blood curdling scream and my eyes widened in terror when cuts and slashed appeared all over James’ body and face. Blood began to spew out of the gashes; his clothes began to turn dark crimson, blood ran down his face and he slowly fell to his knees, and then fell to his side.

“James!” Lily screamed as she ran over to him and quickly fell to her hands and knees by his sides.

My body was shaking with fear and I slowly walked closer to the scene before me.

“Help!” Lily screamed as tears pored down her beautiful face. “Someone! Help!”

Remus and Peter quickly ran to go get help; at least that’s what I think they said. I stood over James and then slowly pulled out my wand and lowered it to a cut across his face and said, “Episkey.” The cut on his face began to heal and I moved to another cut, “Episkey,” I said again and the cut began to heal and I continued to heal more cuts. “I’ve healed the cuts as best as I could, but the slashes are much too deep - I can’t fix those.”

“Oh dear!” Madam Pomfrey said as she, Remus, Peter, Dumbledore, and McGonagall raced down the hall. Remus and Peter were carrying a gurney. “Hurry! Boys, help me put him on the gurney!” She insisted, and Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Madam Pomfrey put him on the gurney. They quickly ran off with Lily running along side, holding James’ hand.

I turned and saw Severus staring blankly at Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore as they were speaking to him about what happened, and what was going to happen.

“Professors,” I found myself saying. McGonagall stopped mid-sentence and they turned to me.

“Yes?” Dumbledore asked.

“May… I speak to Severus?” I asked, taking a step forward.

They looked at each other momentarily and then turned back to me and nodded and walked a few paces away and continued talking to each other. I walked over to Severus with my hands held together. He was looking at me with a worried, pale face, “I-I’m s-sorry- I didn’t mean to do that to- him.” he said shakily.

I nodded wordlessly, “She’ll hate me… I know she will.” he whispered.

“If you love her,” I finally said, “you’ll... let her hate you.” I said slowly.

He looked at me with wide, confused eyes, “W-what?”

“I know, it sounds horrible - but, it’s best for her… Just let her go, Severus…” I whispered.

“I don’t want to let her go.” he said lowly, sadness and sorrow in his voice.

“Of course you don’t, but you must…” I insisted.

He gaze fell to the ground and we stayed silent for a moment, the only thing that could be heard was the Professor’s light chatter. He finally looked back up at me, his black eyes clouded with mixed emotions - mostly pain. He nodded wordlessly and then turned back and slowly walked over to the Professor’s and I then ran to the Hospital Wing to see how James was doing.

“How is he?” I asked Lily who was in tears and was standing outside the doors to the Hospital Wing. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her in comfort.

“He’s alive,” she finally said, pulling back to look me in the face. “Madam Pomfrey said he’ll live, but he still has some healing to do… I’ll never forgive him,” she said, referring to Severus. She was shaking her head, “Never… he took things… way too far… I know James picked on him a lot… but James would have never done that to him.” she looked sick and anguished.

I nodded, “Where are the boys?” I asked.

“In there… I couldn’t look at him… He looked awful.” she whispered and lowered her head.

I nodded, “I’m going to go check on him, I’ll be right back, okay?” she nodded slightly and I walked past Lily and slowly opened the doors and crept in, closing the doors behind me. “Hey, guys.” I whispered when I walked over to the small group that was huddled around James who was sleeping on a bed.

Sirius looked up at me, “Hey,” he stood up and walked over to me, “can we talk?”

I pursed my lips momentarily and then nodded and we walked across the room. “What?”

“I just wanted to say… You were right,” I smiled and he glared, “sort of,” he added quickly and I pouted slightly and he smiled and shortly became serious, “Look, we are bullies, I guess… but we’ve never got on with Snivilly-”

“Severus.” I corrected and he rolled his eyes.

“Right, we’ve never got on with him, and every year we’ve taken it to a new level… I’m sorry I called you a git.” he mumbled the last part and he averted his eyes.

I smiled lightly, “Apology excepted.” I patted him on the shoulder and turned to walk away when he grabbed my shoulder and forcefully turned me around.

“Hey,” he said slightly angry, “I think you owe me an apology, for, oh, I don’t know, attacking me!”

I laughed, “Ah, no. If I hadn’t done that you would have gone through with it…” I smiled smugly, “and plus, it felt really good.” I was grinning and he was glaring. “I mean, man, you went flying!”

“You caught me off guard! If I would have known you were going to do that, I would have had you on the ground first!” he crossed his arms over his chest.

I let out a laugh, “Oh, please! If you were ready I would have had you running away with your tail between your legs!”

He glared down at me and opened his mouth, “Sirius!” Remus called, “he’s waking up!”

Sirius shut his mouth and ran over to James, “I’ll go get Lily,” I said running to the door. I quickly opened it and poked my head out, “Lily,” she looked over at me, “he’s awake.”

We quickly walked in and she ran over to his bed side. “James,” she said breathlessly.

“Lily?” he asked as he looked over at her. He grinned, “Hi Lily-Flower!”

“Are you alright?” Lily asked.

“Come on, lets give them some space,” Remus said and I nodded as we left the Hospital Wing and went up to the Gryffindor Tower.

“Hey, you wanna’ go get some Butter Beer from the kitchen?” Sirius whispered to me as Remus and Peter chatted amongst themselves a few yards a head of us.

I sighed and then shrugged, “Sure, why not?” I opened my mouth to call Remus and Peter when Sirius’ hand quickly covered my mouth.

“Just us,” He stated and then quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me down another hall leading away from Remus and Peter.

I pulled loose from his grasp but still continued to walk with him, “Why just us?” I asked, though I kind of already knew the answer.

Sirius looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a knowing look, “Like you don’t know.” He admitted.

I sighed and soon we entered the kitchen, “Alright, I’ll wake the house elves-“

“No! Poor things work all day and then you want to wake them up from their slumber to just get us some Butter Beer, which we can get our selves?” I pushed Sirius out of the way and began to look through the cabinets in search for the Butter Beer and Sirius just hopped up and sat on a counter and began to fidget with something in his pocket. “Ah, here they are!” I pulled out the pre-packaged Butter Beer and turned around and gave one to Sirius.

“Here,” he pulled out his wand and waved it and the non-twistable caps flew off. He grinned, “Cheers!” I rolled my eyes and we began to drink. “Bleh, it’s warm, mind fetching some frozen mugs from the chiller?”
I rolled my eyes and put my Butter Beer down, “Yes,” I bowed, “Your Majesty.” I said with sarcasm and then went in search for the mugs.

After a few more moments I found them and went back to Sirius who had a small smile on his face and was shaking his leg anxiously. He grabbed the mug and pored the Butter Beer into his glass and began to drink it as I did the same.

After I was done drinking all the Butter Beer I felt a warm sensation in me and I couldn’t help but smile and I looked up at Sirius who smiled charmingly causing me to blush fervently. His eyes widened and he grinned and then cleared his throat, “Uh, well, we better head to the dorm before we get caught…”

I nodded in agreement and we began to walk quietly to the Gryffindor Tower, both of us sharing sweet side glances the whole way there.

Once we entered the Common Room, Sirius walked over to the stairs and was staring at me with smoldering eyes and I walked over to him. “You seem… different.” I whispered and then took a few more steps until we were a mere few inches from each other.

“W-what do y-you mean?” he asked, a bit shakily. He then quickly cleared his throat and said with more confidence, “What do you mean?”

I smiled sweetly, “I don’t know,” Why did I never realize before how incredible Sirius was? He’s so dashing, sexy, confident, funny, and- “I love you, Sirius.” I said surely.

His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but I quickly threw my arms around his neck and brought his lips down on mine. We both kissed for a short while before Sirius pulled back, “Wait-“

“There’s a Hogsmeade fieldtrip this Friday,” I began confidently, “Wanna’ go?”

He frowned slightly, “Are you asking me out?”

I smiled and shrugged, “I guess you’re not really an alpha.” I poked his noise, winked, and then walked up the stairs, “Goodnight, Sirius.”