Love Potion Slip

Love Potion Slip – A Marauder’s Era Fic.

Chapter 6 – The Duel.

Jayne awoke to find her hand clamped between two strong, warm ones.

‘Sirius.’ She smiled and turned to face him. He had fallen asleep with his head lying next to her hand. With her free and she stroked his unruly hair. To her surprise, he almost purred under her ministrations.

“Hmmm, that feels good,” he muttered. Jayne laughed. Sirius was glad to hear it.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked, one eyebrow cocked.

“You. When I was stroking your hair, you were, well….. purring. Is there something you’re not telling me?” she asked.

“Erm….., yeah. But you can’t tell anyone.”

“Ok,” she replied with a quick nod.

“Alright…., here goes,” Sirius took a deep breath, “I’m an Animagus. My form is a big, shaggy black dog.”

“That explains a lot,” chuckled Jayne. She lifted one of his hands to her lips and placed a kiss on the back of it. Sirius cupped her chin with the lifted hand and moved in to kiss her properly, but was disturbed by Madam Pomfrey and Lily Evans coming to help Jayne get ready for the duel. Sirius instead opted for a hug and a quick peck on the cheek.

“Meet me at the Ivy Curtain after the duel,” whispered Jayne as they held the embrace before also placing a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“Wow!”

“What?” Jayne asked Lily, looking puzzled.

“I never thought I would see the day when Sirius gave a rat’s arse about anybody except James and Remus,” Lily said with a sly smile.

“Well Miss Newman, I hope you don’t see this wing again anytime soon,” Madam Pomfrey said as she folded away the screen. Jayne was soon dressed, thankfully pain free, just with a few aches here and there, but they fuelled her in readiness for the duel. The aches were the constant reminder of why the duel was taking place. Jayne wouldn’t have had the strength to go through with it if she didn’t feel anything.

“Ready?” Lily asked as they stopped outside the doors to the Great Hall. Inside the pain could hear the hum od hundreds of voices, all waiting for the duel to begin. Jayne merely nodded, not trusting her voice right at that moment.

They entered to find the House tables now gone and one large platform in the middle of the room. In the middle of the platform stood Professor Flitwick, Lucius and Professor Slughorn, who was still holding the boy back from running. He had tried to escape during the night through the Floo Network, only to end up in the Headmaster’s office. He had spent the remainder of the night in there and then frog marched into the Great Hall in the morning to wait for his fated duel with Jayne. He was looking at his feet and no where else as he did feel shame for that one moment, even more than he did the night before. As Jayne climbed the steps of the platform, Professor Flitwick was telling both duellers the rules.

“If you in particular Mr Malfoy were to use any of the Unforgivables, the duel will be ended and Miss Newman declared the winner by disqualification. The first near fatal blow will be the winning move. Any questions? Good. Please take your places.” Lucius was escorted to one end of the platform while Jayne walked freely to the other.

“On my count. One, two, three, begin!” cried the tiny Professor from his now elevated position over the platform. Knowing Lucius’ passion for the Dark Arts, Jayne cast Protego Totalum, which was extremely effective against the Incarceous Charm he had just sent her way. Most of the battle was spent with Jayne mainly casting protective and defensive spells until she saw an opening. She silently cast Deprimo. Its force completed knocked Lucius backwards and had him gasping for breath.

Despite him now possibly having broken ribs, he got up and sent a Stinging Hex over to Jayne, who dodged out of the way just in time. She span on her heel to cast back at Lucius Avis, quickly followed by Oppugno. A flock of angry birds made a beeline for Lucius, who cowered beneath their pecking. He managed to get rid of them before rushing forward, intent on getting his hands around Jayne’s neck.

Jayne quickly cast Aresto Momentum, causing Lucius to slow down. As he neared, she cast the Jelly-Fingers Curse combined with the Jelly-Leg Jinx AND the Jelly-Brain Jinx. Lucius ended up sat with his legs in a tangle under him as he tried to reach his fallen wand, sticking his tongue out in concentration. As the jinxes wore off, Lucius felt more and more angry towards Jayne.

‘How can I be getting beaten by a mere girl? And to add insult to injury, Father is here,’ Lucius moaned internally as he looked over to where Abraxas Malfoy was standing. Abraxas nodded slightly. At this encouraging nod, Lucius leapt at Jayne, who was caught unaware. Both of them landed awkwardly but it was Jayne to cast first. With her wand pointed straight at Lucius’ ‘jewels’, she sent him flying with the Stupefy Spell. He landed badly, one leg under his body. When Professor Slughorn checked on him, he rose the red flag he was carrying. That was it, the duel was over and Jayne had won.

“I’ll be watching you my dear. Closely watching,” sneered Abraxas who drifted over to his unconscious son, who was now being seen to by Madam Pomfrey. The Hall erupted with cheers and whistles. Jayne was whisked away from the descending crowd by someone who had grabbed her hand the moment Professor Flitwick had declared the match over. It was Sirius. Instead of heading to the Ivy Curtain, he led her to the base of the Whomping Willow. She looked at him puzzled.

“Trust me,” he said as he used a fallen branch to poke at a knot on the trunk that stopped the branches from waving or attacking them.
“How did you know how to do that?”

“This tree was planted when we first started in first year, if not before because of Remus. This is where he comes to transform. He’s a werewolf,” Sirius informed Jayne, who just nodded and followed blindly.

‘Now his being an Animagus makes sense. He transforms to keep Remus company during his transformation.’ They walked hunch backed for almost an hour before entering a very shabby looking hallway. Its wallpaper looked as if a large cat had been clawing against it. There were broken chairs and table parts everywhere. Jayne could only imagine the pain Remus went through each and every month.

“And I complain about stomach cramps,” she sighed to herself.

“This way,” Sirius said, waking her from her thoughts as he held out a hand. As Jayne put her trust in him, Sirius began to climb the rickety stairs. He had come down earlier, to ‘set the mood’. In the gloom Jayne could just about see rose petals leading up the stairs and then at the top into a room where it looked as if a fire was glowing.