Sugar & Spice

*Sirius's Point of View

Tammie turned in my arms so that we were facing each other from a distance of about half a foot in the darkness. We stared into each other's eyes in horror.

"Is it really such a good idea to do this now?" Bella said, sounding very uncomfortable. "We have a Hogsmeade weekend in a few days – we could go then." My heart sank and I felt awful for her, and furious that I couldn't help her. They were sneaking out to do Death Eater business.

"She makes a very good point, Lucius," My nose wrinkled in disgust. Snivellus.

A bunch of people spoke up then, arguing in low voices, and I couldn't immediately place them.

"Who are they?" Tammie mouthed.

"Snape and my cousin Bella," I whispered, knowing she wouldn't know who I was talking about.

"Quiet!" A voice hissed outside. Malfoy, I realised, before my heart jumped into my mouth and I could swear it stopped beating. "Did you hear that?"

I jumped into action, pulling Tammie into me so hard her breath whooshed out and whipped the invisibility cloak out of my pocket, wrapping it around us.

I'd barely managed to conceal us before the tapestry was ripped open and I saw Snape's suspicious face glaring around the tiny space. Tammie wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, and buried her face in my neck under the cloak. I could feel her hot breath against my neck and her shaking body pressed against me in a way I couldn't ignore.

Even though we were in a very serious situation I was still very aware of her. Call it the damned hormones, or whatever you like, but I was distinctly aware that she was pressing against me. I struggled to calm my breathing.

Snape withdrew his head, obviously satisfied, and let the tapestry fall back into place. The whole group moved away, walking quickly until we couldn't hear them anymore.

It was a good two minutes until either of us could breathe properly. Tammie seemed to defrost first and hastily stepped away from me, clasping her hands together.

"They were Death Eaters," She breathed, sounding spooked. I nodded. She was going to say something else, but I held my hand up.

"I think this is a topic best discussed in the safety of the common room."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I watched Tammie with a genuine smile on my face as she settled herself on the couch, moving the cushions so that they were positioned most comfortably around her body. She was just so... endearing. I could watch her all day.

"Black?" I jolted out of my thoughtful stupor as the heat rose in my cheeks, realising I'd probably looked like a complete dolt staring at her the way I was. It took me another split second to remember why we were even here at two in the morning.

I perched myself cautiously on the edge of the couch and crossed my arms, surveying her seriously now, and giving her my full attention.

I noticed that she blushed then, and I immediately opened my mouth to ask why, but figuring she might not appreciate it I bit my tongue and waited for her questions. When a couple of minutes had passed and she didn't ask me any I decided to speak up.

"How do you know what a Death Eater is?" I asked her, trying to catch her eye. There were some witches and wizards out there who didn't know who He was, but for a pure-blood like me it was impossible not to. So I must admit, I was curious.

She looked up at me and stared straight into my eyes with an intensity which made me want to shy away. Before I could do anything other than blink though, she'd looked down and started fiddling with the hem of her skirt. I noticed that this was a habit of hers.

"What was that?" I asked, sitting down on the actual couch now, concerned. It took me a moment to figure out what the feeling was, because truthfully... I'd never felt particularly interested in girls' feelings, unless it was directly linked to me. Sexually.

I was shocked to find that I actually liked the change.

This feeling of concern intensified further when she started biting her lip and gave a tiny sniff. Before I could stop myself I'd put my finger under her chin and tilted her face up to mine.

My heart clenched. Her eyes and nose were red and I could see she was trying her very hardest not to cry because her bottom lip was trembling. She was trying to look anywhere but at me at that moment.

The depth of the emotion she was showing in my presence startled me, but what really took me by surprise most was what I felt in response. I was actually upset that she was upset.

"Talk to me, Tammie," I implored as quietly and gently as I could.

*Rosie's Point of View

As soon as he asked me that question, too many horrifying memories were brought to mind and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I desperately looked down at my lap to hide my tears, but he saw. He tilted my chin up so he could see my face and I felt a rush of warmth course through my whole body at his expression.

"Talk to me, Tammie." His soft expression and words gave me such a warm tingly feeling that I almost told him - almost - but I couldn't. I couldn't tell him exactly how disfunctional my family was.

I'd known for some time that my father was a Death Eater, and I'd had to come to grips with it a long time ago. Tom, however...it had only been four months since I'd walked in when he'd just come out of the shower and seen his Dark Mark. No matter what he said about it just being a 'drunken tattoo', I knew. He was a Death Eater too.

The reason I was so very upset was because I knew he already wanted out, but there was no way that could happen. You can't just up and leave the Dark Lord.

It's life-time service or death. And that meant that one day what was left of my family would die.

I jerked my chin out of Black's grip and stood up. I heard him sigh, but I couldn't see his expression because I was pointedly looking down at my feet. He sighed again and leaned back into the cushions.

"Thank you for getting me out of trouble back there," I said, hating the fact that my voice broke. "Goodnight, Black."

I turned and ran to the girls' staircase as he shot up off the sofa.

"Tammie!" He called, but I'd already started crying in earnest. I sprinted as fast as I could up to my dormitory and jumped into bed, fully clothed. I curled the blankets around me like a cacoon and placed my pillow over my head.

I had many hours full of sleepless dreams and by the time I finally fell fully asleep the sun had already risen.