little miss black

-123-

Cass hummed softly as she absently plaited Sirius' hair. They were sitting in the common room — well Cass was sitting, Sirius was lying with his head in her lap — waiting for everyone to come back. James, Lily, Remus and Alice were doing their patrols, Peter and Dorcas were at the library and Marlene was... who knows where.

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked softly. Cass blinked a few times.

"Hmmm? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She said. A small smile flitted over Sirius' face.

"Cass, I've known you since you were born, I can tell when something's up." He said. "What is it?"

"Nothing, I swear." Cass said. Sirius raised his eyebrows, sitting up abruptly and turning to face her. "Hey! I wasn't done that braid."

"I'm serious Cass-"

"Oh I know." Cass said, smirking as Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Fine then, siriusly what's the matter?"

"I'm just stressed about N.E.W.Ts." Cass lied. She had hoped Sirius hadn't noticed her strange behaviour for the last few weeks — avoiding even looking at the Slytherin table, and barely spending any time, scratch that, spending no time with Grace.

"I refer you back to my previous point Cass, I can read you like a book." Sirius said.

Cass opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the portrait hole swinging open, Lily and James half carrying Marlene into the common room. Cass shot to her feet, moving off of the sofa so they could lay her down there. Marlene had blood around her mouth, a gash on her chest, and bruises on her face. She groaned as James put her down.

"What the hell happened?" Cass asked, immediately starting to tend to Marlenes chest . "Sirius, go get the first aid kit off of the wall."

Dorcas and Peter came in, Peter trying to console a distraught Dorcas. Dorcas sobbed harder at the sight of her girlfriend on the couch. She too had a blossoming bruise on her cheek.

"Dorcas..." Marlene murmured, her eyes fluttering open. "Where's Dorcas?"

"I'm right here baby." Dorcas said, hastily wiping her tears away. She sat down next to Cass on the floor, taking Marlenes hand.

"What happened to you two?" Sirius asked, watching anxiously as Cass muttered some healing spells.

"Mulciber happened." Peter said darkly.

"What do you mean mulciber happened?" Cass asked sharply. Marlene yelped as Cass dabbed some salve onto where she had healed the gash. "Sorry Marls."

"S'fine." Marlene mumbled, tightening her grip on Dorcas' hand.

"We found them, not just Mulciber, practically beating Marlene up. Peter was unconscious and Dorcas was being held by two of them. James and I stunned them all and reported them to McGonagall." Lily said.

"Fuck." Cass said. She gently applied some healing balm to the bruises on Marlene.

"Marls met us after the library, Peter forgot a book so ran back to get it. We... got heated shall we say, and then Mulciber comes around the corner with all his mates, obviously having a problem with it because we're girls." Dorcas said. She took a shaky breath. "We obviously sprang apart because we're not out as a couple, and then..."

"And then they started shouting stuff at us." Marlene said, propping herself up on the pillows. She glanced over at James who was pacing angrily, and then at Lily who was chewing her nails on the armchair, and then to Peter who was looking a mixture between guilty and angry. "Dorcas said something angry and then one of them hit her. So I lost it, hexed one of them and then they came back at me."