Sugar & Spice

*Rosie's Point of View

Soon it was the last day of the Christmas holidays. Black and I had spent our days alternately playing wizards chess, having snowball fights and lounging in the common room, catching up on homework (on my part, of course - he seemed to be above such menial matters) and reading.

Black and I trudged our way back into the castle for dinner, making a quick detour to Gryffindor Tower to get ourselves dried off and warm after being out in the snow before we made our way down to the Great Hall.

All through dinner I didn't see Red, and there were only four other students staying at the castle; two first-year Ravenclaws who looked very small at the long Ravenclaw table, one seventh-year Hufflepuff I vaguely recognized, and of course…a Slytherin from our year.

Severus Snape to be precise.

"Slimy git," Black muttered darkly, and I rolled my eyes in response, taking my seat next to him at the Gryffindor table and pulling a huge bowl of goulash towards me, ladling it out with relish and then grabbing some fluffy white bread rolls to go with it, absolutely ravenous. I felt somebody's eyes on me.

"Wha'?" I asked Black, chewing and then swallowing, suddenly conscious of the fact that I was eating like a pig. He shook his head, smiling as he forked slices of roast beef onto his plate.

"Nothing – it's just refreshing to see a girl eating properly. Most of the girls around here seem to have an aversion to food," He said, rolling his eyes and I smiled genuinely in response.

"I suppose you're going to be refreshed rather frequently then, because you'll never see me starve myself," I said, taking a huge bite of my bread roll as if to prove my point.

Less than ten minutes later we had finished and had our pudding, so we made our way back to the common room, having nothing better to do.

"Hey!" Black said suddenly, startling me out of my ponderings over what I was going to do about 'The Red Situation' as I liked to think of it as; I knew whatever we had going couldn't continue. "Why don't we go into Hogsmeade?"

I laughed heartily, the sound carrying all the way down the dark corridor and echoing back.

"Yes, because last time was so amazing," I said sarcastically. I took a moment to admire how wide and warm his answering smile was, and nearly didn't catch what he said.

"No problem…next time I won't say no," He said, knowing I would understand what he was getting at. And then he winked!

I was very very thankful for the fact that the halls were so dark, because I felt my cheeks flare in response.

"In your dreams," I muttered darkly. Black took my arm, grinning down at me good-naturedly.

"Shall we?" He asked, waiting for an answer. I thought about it for a second and then nodded. It would be good to get away from the castle for a little while.

As we had before, we raced each other there, and this time I didn't make a fuss as he hoisted me up into the rump of the one-eyed witch. I landed in the dust and spat dirt out of my mouth, rolling out the way just as Black landed next to me.

We stood up, not bothering to brush ourselves off, knowing that as we walked, more dust would be kicked up anyways.

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked curiously, glancing sideways at him. He was staring ahead of him, obviously thinking about something. He didn't answer for a moment, obvious completing his thought process before looking back at me.

"Wherever you want to go – I'm sure Honeydukes is still open, and then there's the Three Broomsticks, the Hog's Head…whatever, I don't mind."

"Honeydukes for sure," I said immediately, coaxing a grin from him.

"Chocolate?"

"Absolutely," I said, laughing as he pulled a funny face at me.

"Then to Honeydukes we go." He announced loudly and pompously as I smiled.

I was struck then, by how much I'd changed since coming to Hogwarts. I hadn't been accustomed to being near people, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near Black, thinking he was a self-absorbed, arrogant little so-and-so. But now, here I was, smiling and talking to him, and, to my surprise, actually having fun.

Somebody pinch me… I thought.

Just as we came to the bottom of 'the endless stair' as I liked to think of it as, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't a bad thing. Not at all.

We sneaked into the basement of Honeydukes and made a mad dash for the shop upstairs, thankfully not getting caught. No less than half an hour later we exited the shop, our pockets stuffed full of chocolate and other assorted goodies.

I was unwrapping a chocolate frog when Black suddenly grabbed me and dragged me into the shadows before I could even say anything, covering my mouth with his hand.

I looked up at him with alarmed eyes and he shushed me before taking his hand away.

He pointed down the street to the where the outskirts of Hogsmeade were just visible.

Where there hadn't been anybody before there were now close to a dozen black-cloaked figures gliding smoothly towards us. The sight was deeply unnverving.

"Have they seen us?" I whispered up at Black, knowing that the people (and I was now pretty sure I knew what they were) wouldn't be able to hear me, but giving in to my urge to be quiet anyways.

"I don't think so. Well, I fucking hope not," He added as an after-thought, leaning down to speak directly into my ear.

I watched as the few villagers of Hogsmeade nearby scattered, obviously intimidated as the group of hooded witches and wizards swept down the long street and out of sight.

Black sighed with obvious relief once they were gone and I looked at him shrewdly.

"Why exactly are you so worried? I mean, yes, they're Death Eaters, but –" He sighed again and cut me off.

"It's a lot more complicated than that, Tammie. Come on, let's go in the Three Broomsticks, and I'll explain it a bit more," He said, taking off and motioning for me to follow him.

As had happened the last time (and first, for me), as soon as we stepped foot in the pub we were engulfed by pipe smoke, the combined smell of butterbeer and mead, and warmth. I shivered delicately, getting the chill off.

I weaved my way through the tables and customers and found an empty table in the corner. I sat down and watched Black as he talked to Rosmerta, occasionally waving his hand in my direction.

When Rosmerta saw me she flashed me a warm smile and waved cheerfully; I grinned and returned it. She was really growing on me.

"So," I started, the second Black sat down with two bottles of butterbeer. He huffed irritably before he looked up and leaned forward, placing his clasped hands on top of the table and gazing down at me intensely.

"OK, as you've probably guessed, a large portion of my family are Death Eaters," He obviously really didn't want to tell me this, but I was curious. I nodded. "Right, so that means that my closest family - that's my brother Regulus and my cousin Bella - can't be seen being nice to me, because I'm the family 'blood traitor in the making'. So basically, I try to stay out of their way when they're on 'business'. I keep trying to think of a way I can get them out, but I can't," He suddenly pounded his fist on the table, spilling some of our butterbeer in the process. "Sorry," He muttered, wiping it away with his sleeve.

I nodded once more, staring at the grain of the wooden table underneath my bottle as if it was suddenly the most fascinating thing in the world.

"My brother's a Death Eater," I blurted. He raised his eyebrows slightly but didn't comment, just watched me. "So is my father. He's treated me like shit since I was little; that's why I was so surprised when Dumbledore gave me that message from him. I also can't think of a way to get my brother out – I think he's new to it and I'm sure he already knows he wants out."

I sighed heavily and placed my head down on my arms, fighting back the urge to cry or do anything else that could be construed as weak. I supposed that talking about it was bringing up all the things I didn't want to think about.

Like maybe that he was dead, or dying or that the Death Eaters could be closing in on him right that moment as we drank our butterbeer. He could even have been hiding out in some dirty, crime-ridden district of muggle London, scavenging from bins for all I knew.

I rubbed my cheeks to compose myself and looked up at him, changing the topic.

"I know Bella – Bellatrix Black, right?" He nodded and I didn't say anything else about that. My experience with Bellatrix had been minimal but she always seemed to be looking over her shoulder, like she was spooked about something; now I understood. "Well, seems to me like both our families are royally fucked," I stated bluntly, taking a few deep gulps of my butterbeer as he laughed darkly.

"Suppose you could say that, yeah."

We sat in silence, each of us watching people around us for a while; in addition to witches and wizards there were dwarves, and numerous hooded figures sitting in corners. I avoided looking at them, not wanting to attract trouble. Merlin knew I'd had more than my share lately.

I looked towards the door as it opened, bringing in a gust of wintery air as it did so, and smiled.

It was Hagrid. He ordered from the bar, receiving a warm welcome from Rosmerta before he turned to the pub at large, obviously looking for a place to sit. Black and I waved him over. I saw him shake his head, grinning, and make his way over, having a little bit of trouble squeezing through some of the tighter aisles.

"Well 'ello Rosie – Sirius," He greeted, sitting down at our table. "Wha're yeh doing here?" He asked, taking on the tone of a teacher although I could see his friendly black eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Oh you know – raising hell, pranking unsuspecting innocents...just the usual." Black replied, laughing his bark-like laugh. I looked between them.

"How do you two know each other?" I asked curiously. Hagrid grunted.

"Pranked me in third year din 'e, li'l begger. Turned me pumpkins inta tomatoes until I made 'im and Potter turn them back. Good bit of magic though, tha' was," He added reminiscently, looking off into nowhere as he remembered the incident. I stifled a giggle and looked to Black who shrugged, grinning.

"What can I say? People like me," He whispered while Hagrid still wasn't paying attention. I poked him in the ribs. I bet he hadn't even felt it.

Black, Hagrid and I talked for close to an hour before Hagrid moved off to sit with some of his friends.

"Should we go?" I asked looking at my watch: 9:45. "If we get caught after curfew we'll be in big trouble," I added, making him smirk.

"Since exactly when have I minded trouble?" He asked, but downed the rest of his third butterbeer and stood. I'd long since finished my fourth drink and mimicked his action with my fifth. I'd decided to try mead for the first time; I realised this might have been a mistake because when I stood, I swayed ever so slightly. Black's hand shot out to steady me.

"Again?" His voice above me sounded amused. Then he added with a wicked grin, "You know Tammie, if you want to kiss me you don't need to get drunk."

"Shut up. I'm fine," I muttered, and then had this mad urge to laugh. He hid his smile by turning away and leading me around the tables to the door.

"Bye, Rosmerta!" He called loudly over all the chatter as I waved to her.

The cold air was like a slap in the face as we stepped outside.

"Oh, shit," I said, as I rubbed my arms, already shivering. I refused Black's offer of his warm woollen jumper three times, and we passed by Honeydukes in the hopes that it would be open. To our delight, it was – at least the passage under Hogwarts was warmer than outside.

We waited until the owner of the shop had his back turned and then dashed down the stairs to the basement, jumping down the trapdoor before he could hear us and come looking.

On the walk back to Hogwarts I realised something: I was alone, with Black, and he wasn't even trying to take advantage of me or anything. He was just walking alongside me, making jokes or talking with me. Obviously my previous impression of Black had been quite wrong, because he was almost nothing like I'd thought he was. He caught me staring at him and glanced at me sideways.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" He joked. "Or is it just because I'm so devilishly handsome?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I rolled my eyes. The butterflies in my stomach didn't seem to want to disperse though.

"No! I was just thinking, that's all."

"Heaven forbid," He muttered under his breath, smirking. I elbowed him in the stomach, satisfied when I received a muffled wheeze in response, even if that was just for my benefit.

"Sorry?" I asked, grinning in spite of myself.

"Nothing! Nothing," We both laughed as we came to the bottom of the slope down into the passage.

"Oh here we go," I said resignedly. We would have to climb up the shoot, the part I hated the most about the secret tunnel (after the stairs, of course). "After you, Black."

"Only because you want to look at my bum," He said girlishly.

"Get on with it, Black," I said, smirking in the darkness. He rolled his eyes, and started climbing. I followed him with a bit more difficulty, and by the time I emerged into the corridor I knew I was covered in smudges of soot and mud. Black laughed when he saw me and I looked him over; spotless, of course.

"Git," I muttered darkly, starting for the common room. Black lengthened his stride to catch up with me.

"You know we have another session tomorrow?" He asked, referring to our tutoring.

"Yes?" I asked, curious as to what he was getting at.

"Oh, nothing! I just…just wanted to remind you," He said. I looked at him shrewdly, wondering what was with the strange behaviour, but I didn't push it.

We were turning the corner onto the corridor with the portrait of the fat lady when I heard a small noise behind us. We swung around to see what it was, but there was nothing there. I shrugged, turning back around, but Black's eyebrows furrowed; he looked disturbed.

I heard a whistling sound rush by my ear and then suddenly there was a smoking hole in the wall next to where my head had been a second before.

We whirled around and whipped out our wands.

"Are you some kind of magnet for trouble?" Black hissed under his breath as I pulled him into a doorway in case we needed shelter.

"No more so than you," I shot back, peaking my head around the corner and pulling it back immediately as another curse flew by. "Damn! What the hell's going on? You think it's Snape?"

"Don't ask me! I don't know," He whispered, cautiously looking around the corner. "Stupefy!" He shouted suddenly, obviously having seen somebody. There was a muffled 'oof!' before we heard the sound of somebody falling.

"Do you think there's more?"

"Nah – I have a feeling he was the only one... Shit, I'm going to pay for that one – it's Malfoy," I walked out of the shelter of our doorway and looked a little bit down the corner, seeing a shock of white-blonde hair on the floor.

"Asshole," I spat, my face twisting. "Let's just leave him there. I hope he'll get in trouble when a teacher finally finds him."

We ran to the end of the corridor and got into the common room quickly, before anything else could happen.

"I'm going to bed," I said tiredly. "Too much drama," Black smiled and settled himself in a chair next to the fire, my cat immediately joining him.

I smiled and went up the stairs to my dorm, still smiling even as I pushed open the door and saw Red sitting there.