Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the extreme delay in updates - hopefully it will never be that bad again but sometimes things happen - secondly, I'd like to thank everyone who has stuck by me despite my delay in updating and I hope the update is at least somewhat worth the wait. I was very happy every time I got a review and you guys should know I felt terrible that I was unable to update before now.

Now that the apologies are over, again mega thanks for all reviews, I loved receiving each and every one of them and I would appreciate more.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I do not own Harry Potter, I do own my OCs. Those are mine. Everything you recognise from other media sources are probably from those media sources and not owned by me as well.

Chapter 18 – Small Victories

The snow crunched under my feet as I trudged up the path from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts watching absently as my breath ghosted up in front of me while I pulled my trunk behind me. As the trip dragged out I severely regretted my decision to not put on my dragonhide gloves before beginning my little trek, cursing the feeling of the trunk's handle dig into my exposed skin that was suffering a double onslaught from the handle and the frigid outdoor air. I couldn't have been happier when I finally entered Hogwarts' grounds and I was legally allowed to perform magic again. Promptly dropping my trunk, I drew my wand and levitated the large monstrosity so that it was floating a good distance in front of me as I quickened my pace, mentally patting my back at the thought of leaving George at the Manor for Mitsy to drop off at the school later.

Looking up from the frozen grounds of the school, I caught sight of my Head of House, Professor Flitwick standing in the entrance of the school as he waved a wand at the gates beyond my back and there was a resounding clanging from them swinging shut. I smiled, the finality of being back at Hogwarts sending a warm, fuzzy feeling thrumming through my veins.

"Sorry about having you open the gates for me this early professor," I said with a deprecating smile when I was within the diminuitive Professor's hearing range, a light blush creeping along my face – which probably wasn't really noticeable under the bright pink wind-bitten skin, "Something came up and I had to come back early."

"Not to worry," Professor Flitwick responded in his customary squeak, "It wasn't a problem, not for one of my best students."

I was pretty sure that this time my blush was very visible under my bright pink skin while I tried to stutter out a quick thanks, depositing my trunk just inside the doors as I paused to try to get my circulation going again and unwind the Ravenclaw scarf that I had wrapped reasonably tightly around the lower part of my face. Flitwick waved me off and stepped back inside as well, closing the great doors behind us before moving off with a quick goodbye. It wasn't long before a house elf popped up and grabbed my trunk and scarf before moving off again.

"Maree Annabel Teilor! What in Merlin's name are you doing back at school so early?" A loud familiar voice shouted across the entrance hall before I was enfolded in the firm grip of my best friend as I stumbled to regain my balance.

"Well firstly, that bloody hurt Alexa," I answered with a small groan, wrapping my own arms around Alexa before holding her out at arm's length, "Secondly, lovely to see you too and you're totally getting it for that Howler; and thirdly, can't a girl decide she wants to finish her dismal holiday early and return to her school without having her motives questioned?"

"No, no she can't," Alexa replied with a kind of finality, "Why are you back here so early Maree?"

"Well, obviously I missed your wonderful company," I said with a wide smile, "Why else would I want to return so early?"

"Don't even tried to feed me that bull Maree, I know you better than that," Alexa deadpanned as I shrugged in response.

"A girl can always try."

"Maree." Alexa did not sound amused which only served to heighten my amusement in this whole matter, after all, what could be more amusing than annoying your best friend?

I linked my arm through Alexa's and dragged her forcefully in the direction of the kitchens, prattling on as I dragged her along about inane things to several frosty responses ("Geez Lexie, you're way more frosty than the weather outside, can't you take a joke?") and let her deal with the fruit bowl portrait when we came upon it.

As we settled around a small table with a couple of hot chocolates, Alexa leveled her eyes at me over the rim of her steamy mug, letting her glasses fog a little as she gazed steadily at me. I took a small sip, avoiding her eyes expertly as the house elves bustled loudly around us as if to subconsciously help me avoid the conversation I was no doubt about to have with Alexa. It took a long moment of silence before my curly-haired best friend decided she had waited long enough and was ready to set the ball rolling.

"Okay Maree," Alexa began as she set her mug aside to cool a bit as a small elf placed a plate of biscuits between us and disappeared into the crowd, "What's the real reason that you're back so early?"

My mug clinked against the wooden table as I set it next to the biscuits and took one. I chewed slowly as I contemplated my response before setting my half-eaten biscuit on the edge of the plate and met Alexa's eyes with a small smile.

"Well, I figured it was better to be back at Hogwarts before my father and his wife haul arse back from Burma or America or wherever the hell they've gone this time and try to kill me," I said quietly with a small shrug.

Alexa's brow furrowed as I avoided her eyes again, sipping at my drink to avoid having to elaborate on my statement as Alexa slowly thought it through before opening up her enquiry again.

"Maree…" Alexa began slowly, trying to draw my eyes back to hers – and succeeding in a marvellously short amount of time, damn best friend of mine, "What on Earth did you do?"

"Well, basically I… you see... I may have... falsifiedasignatureonamarriagecontractthatmyparent swantedmetosignandthereforemadeitinvalid," I muttered, slurring my words together and flushing lightly. The curly-haired brunette blinked once before tilting her head to the side with a slightly amused look on her face.

"Come again?"

I took a deep breath and met my best friend's eyes carefully with a blush as I repeated myself in a slightly louder voice. "I falsified a signature on a marriage contract that my parents wanted me to sign and therefore made it invalid…"

There was a long moment of silence between us as I looked away again and fiddled idly with the handle of the mug as Alexa took a moment to process what I had said. The moment everything clicked in Alexa's mind, she let out an amused snort and I glanced up at her with the side of my lip twitching. All it took was for our eyes to meet before we both burst into raucous laughter, bending over as the peals of giggles and undignified snorts (most of which came from me) as we shared in my small moment of triumph against my father and step-mother. It was a long time before we managed to collect ourselves and died down to the occasional giggle or chuckle.

"You are so dead the next time they see you," Alexa stated, before the situation crashed on her and she sobered up, "Oh dear, Maree, what are you gonna do this summer? I'd offer you a place to stay but-"

"Calm down Lexie," I chuckled, "I've got it covered. While I was stuck at home alone I spent a lot of time reading, and I came up with a solution. As of the age of sixteen, a minor is allowed to seek legal emancipation from their guardians and attain any inheritances that have been placed upon them – provided that the inheritance is coming directly from someone who is classified as deceased. It was all in the set of Ministry laws and by-laws."

"And where the heck did you get a copy of the Ministry's laws and by-laws?" Alexa asked sceptically, a twinge of hope underlying her tone.

I raised an eyebrow at Alexa as I smiled indulgently, "I was at Ravenclaw Manor, you didn't honestly think there wouldn't be a self-updating book of Ministry laws and by-laws, did you?" Alexa remained silent and I giggled, "That's adorable. For the record, the Ravenclaw family liked to have books on everything, just in case you doubt the source of my knowledge again."

Alexa, looking properly chastised, shrugged with a small smile, "Just had to be sure."

"So anyway, all I have to do is wait until the fourteenth of March, file the right papers with the Ministry, and then you'll be eating lunch with the new Lady Maree Annabel Teilor-Ravenclaw," I finished with a smirk and a shrug, sipping at my drink again, vaguely noting that it had refilled itself while I wasn't looking.

Handy little things house-elves are.

There was a long period of companionable silence while we both drank our hot drinks, glad when a helpful elf left a bag of marshmallows on the table nearby so that we could enjoy those along with our biscuits.

"So…" Alexa began, cutting into the silence once more, "Who was the contract with, anyway? Don't think I didn't notice you leaving that little bit out."

"Maybe I left it out 'cause it wasn't important," I replied with a shrug, avoiding eye contact.

"Of course it's important," Alexa exclaimed, waving her hands wildly to try to get her message across, "It can't have been that bad. Who was it, a Malfoy?" I shook my head, avoiding direct eye contact like the plague. "A Lestrange?" More head shaking before Alexa looked like a bolt of lightning had struck her down.

"Don't tell me it was Siri-"

"Maree! You're back!"

Both our heads whirled towards the door as a couple of brunette blurs zipped across the room and I was sent tumbling to the floor with the weight of two bodies holding me down. I coughed, wiggling as the brunette blurs proceeded to hug the life out of me with my best friend sitting above them laughing.

"Uh, Alex, Gracie… the hell?"

There was a long moment where the two girls on top of me just laid there before they pulled away with wide grins on their faces. I tried to pull myself up but was unsuccessful as my chair was robbed and my upper body was pushed back down onto the floor, I was exceptionally happy that I'd decided to wear jeans.

"Guys…" I whined, wriggling about on the floor, "Let me up, please."

Finally, Alexis lifted her foot, smirking down at me as I scrambled to my feet, brushing down my clothes of non-existent dust. I pulled up an extra chair, reclaiming my mug of hot chocolate as a couple of house-elves showed up with a mug each for Alexis and Grace.

"So…" I trailed off, glancing between my newly arrived friends, "What was that for?"

"That," Grace said as she took a sip of her hot chocolate before shooting me a smug look over the rim, "Was for coming back to Hogwarts early and not telling us."

"And for then proceeding to have a hot chocolate date in the kitchen and not telling us," Alexis added with a small shrug and a dark smile my way, "Expect more revenge at a later date."

"So, what did we miss?" Grace asked as she looked between me and Alexa, an eyebrow raised in inquiry.

Alexa shrugged with an evil smile, "Oh, y'know, the usual for Maree; avoiding giving direct answers, aiming to get killed by her family, and hiding in the kitchens drinking hot chocolate."

I stuck my tongue out at my best friend before taking a large bite out of a biscuit to get rid of the option of answering questions which turned out to not be as wise an idea as I thought. For whilst the solution stopped me from answering questions, it also stopped me from being able to defend myself.

"So what'd she do to upset her parents this time?" Alexis asked, smirking conspiratorially with Alexa and Grace as I avoided direct eye contact with any of them.

"Oh, let me guess!" Grace yelled, throwing her hand in the air like an excited kid on their first day of school, "She messed up all their clothes in their wardrobe."

"Nah, that's too small for Maree," Alexis disagreed, shaking her head in disappointment, "She probably rigged something on the front door so that when they came home they ended up with cakes thrown in their faces or something…" Alexis trailed off with a thoughtful look. "We are so doing that to the Gryffindor common room or Great Hall or something now. It's a thing. This is happening. It's going in the book."

"Nah guys," Alexa sighed with a sad look on her face, whilst Alexis pulled her notebook from the folds of her robes and jotted down her idea, "You both got it wrong… they raided her room and found a stash of muggle pornography."

I choked.

"Alexa Madeline Piper! Where the hell did that come from?" I shrieked after I managed to clear the biscuit from my system and found my three closest friends collapsed against each other and heaving with laughter. A deep red blush crept up my neck and across my face as I tried to splutter some response to Alexa's statement while my friends all laughed at my expense. It was several, long minutes before the others calmed down enough to talk again.

"So what really happened?" Grace asked between giggles as she wiped her eyes, "What's gonna get our darling Maree slaughtered this time?"

"If you must know," I grumbled with a scowl at the girls, "I falsified a signature on a marriage contract."

It was Alexis' turn to choke.

"Oh shit," Alexis said in a breathless voice, her eyes wide, "Your parents aren't the only ones who are gonna be coming after you 'Ree."

"Obviously," I scoffed, crossing my arms defensively and turning my head away from Alexis, "I'm well aware that I'm in major trouble but I don't even care. No-one's forcing me into a marriage with someone I don't even care for."

Alexis sent me a long look, brushing her ashy-brown hair behind her ear and out of her face. Grace was glancing between us, her chocolate-brown ponytail flying from side-to-side behind her with each twitch of her head finally settling on the Slytherin in our group as Alexis posed her next question.

"So… who was the contract with?"

I mumbled a response before taking another big bite out of a biscuit. Unfortunately my mumbled response wasn't low enough, as Alexis went paler than normal with her jaw dropped open.

"Tell me you're joking!" Alexis spluttered, shooting away from the table and shooting me an incredulous look. When I made no move to correct her assumption, Alexis paled even further, becoming an almost sickly colour as she started up a long line of expletives under her breath.

"What?" Alexa asked, looking between us, "How bad is it? Alex? Maree?"

"She falsified a signature on a marriage contract to Regulus Black," Alexis said in a low voice, the shocked look never leaving her face, "Merlin Maree, if I knew you were suicidal I would have pushed you off the Astronomy Tower myself."

Alexa let out a long sigh as Grace inhaled sharply.

"You really don't do things halfway do you Maree? Of all the pureblood families to mess with to spite your parents, you had to pick the pureblood family didn't you?" Alexa leaned her elbows on the table and began rubbing her temples as she continued in a mumble, "So now that only makes ninety-nine percent of the Wizarding World that want to kill you. If someone tries to murder you in your sleep I'm not even going to stop them because you just bring this down on yourself."

Fiddling with the hem of my coat, I couldn't bring myself to look at any friends as I felt their stares on my hunched form. There was a long moment where Alexis and Alexa muttered about my suicidal tendencies in great detail – with several expletives directed my way on Alexis' part – before Grace cut into the low noise abruptly.

"Do you mean to tell me that you had Sirius and his family over at your house?"

The room froze as the idea dawned on both of the other two girls in the room and they sent dark looks my way as I gave a small nod. There was another long moment of silence before someone snorted and the girls broke out in snickers as they shared evil looks over my head. Grace propped her elbow on the table and leaned into her palm, a devious smile being shot my way as Alexis reclaimed her seat and mimicked Grace's position.

"So, did you manage to corner loverboy under the mistletoe? Share any romantic moments? Came on Maree, details, details; you can't leave us hanging like this," Grace demanded as the flush crept up my cheeks again causing Grace to snicker at the look on my face.

"Since when do you want gossip about Sirius Black?" I deflected, scowling at my friends even as the flush rose up my cheeks.

"Since it involves you, 'Ree," Alexis responded, smiling with mischief written in her eyes, "Now come on, details, details."

"Since when do you call me 'Ree?" I asked, furrowing my brows at the slightly shorter brunette.

"Since just now, now stop avoiding the question."

Letting out a long sigh, I muttered a bunch of expletives under my breath before scowling back at my friends. "Well, the Blacks came over, we had dinner, talked about all sorts of lovely pureblood things, Sirius kissed me, we chilled in the library, and I falsified my signature on a marriage contract. See, nothing to fuss about, boring stuff reall-"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Rewind like two three dot points and freeze," Grace exclaimed, her mouth wide open, "Sirius kissed you? Like, on the lips?"

"No Grace, on my arse, where did you think?" I grouched sarcastically, folding my arms tighter and pouting a little, "Y'know, I don't remember us ever being this girly before. Can we go back to the good old days? Where we just discussed pranks and things, y'know? Let's plan a prank guys."

"Oh no, we're talking about your love life now," Grace cut in, her smile widening immensely, "At this present moment that's far more interesting. So… how was the kiss?"

I began to splutter, my complexion slowly growing redder until I could almost resemble a tomato as Grace began to giggle in a seriously high-pitched, girly way.

"…It was nice," I admitted quietly before biting my lip and Alexis crowed in joy.

"I knew you'd fall for him! You now owe me two galleons." Alexis held her hand out to me and I scowled.

"I did not say I had fallen for him," I growled, "Just because I can appreciate a bloke's kissing skills does not mean that I have fallen for them."

Alexa, Alexis, and Grace all shared a look before they came to a decisive conclusion. "Denial."

"I have not fallen for him!" I objected loudly, standing up abruptly and knocking my chair over.

"Sure, sure," Alexa appeased, "But when you've finished lying to yourself, you're still gonna have to pay Alex those two galleons."

"As my best friend, isn't it a legal obligation to be on my side or something," I grumbled.

"Was that in your book of Ministry laws?" Alexa asked sarcastically, "'Cause the way I see it is, as your best friend, it's my legal obligation to tell you when you're being stupid and should just hand over the money."

Grace interjected at that point, waving her hand to dismiss any further conversation on that tangent and turned back to me, a cat-like grin stretched her face in a way that made me worry for my well-being.

"So, since he kissed you, are you two finally gonna quit pussy-footing around and just go out already?" Grace asked with a small tilt of her head.

I stalled before blanching and swallowing nervously. "Well, actually, I would assume that Sirius is rather pissed at me at the moment."

"Was your kissing that terrible?"

"No my kissing was not- how do you even jump to that conclusion?" I said incredulously, furrowing my brows in Grace's direction and spreading my arms in question, "No, it's more to do with the fact that I caught Sirius storming out of the Manor after I 'signed' the contract. I think he thought I signed it or something, though I've written him a letter explaining it a little, I still think he'll be upsetfor some reason..."

Alexa deadpanned and slapped a hand against her forehead as she muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like, "I can't believe you're really that dense Maree." Whilst Alexis and Grace shared looks before gazing back at me again as I sat down once more.

"So, what did you sign the contract with anyway?" Alexis asked curiously.

I smirked. "Well…"

Meanwhile at Potter Manor

Sirius groaned as bright sunlight streamed into the room and tried to bury his face in the pillow. It wasn't long before the warm sanctity of his blanket was ripped away from him and his skin was exposed to the frigid winter air. Sirius sat up abruptly and glared at the messy-haired demon that had stolen his source of warmth so suddenly. The subject of his ire however didn't seem to care as he perched himself on the end of the bed and looked to Sirius expectantly through his wire-rimmed glasses.

"Well Pads, you promised me an explanation this morning and seeing as you have roughly-" here the demon at the end of his bed checked his watch before looking back to him, "An hour left until it's no longer morning, I think you should start talking."

"You, James Potter, are a complete arse," Sirius growled, flinging his pillow at his fellow Gryffindor's head. James laughed as he ducked out of the way of the projectile and grinned roguishly at his best friend.

"Come now Sirius, don't be like that," James said with a slight whine in his voice, "After I answered your crazy mirror call at one in the morning and let you in out of the goodness of my heart you promised that you would explain in the morning. It is now the morning and you got some explaining to do."

Sirius sighed, conceding defeat to his best friend before climbing out of bed and pulling open his trunk, digging for some clothes as he related the events of the previous day over his shoulder. The messy-haired Gryffindor stayed silent for the entire story, watching Sirius pull on a pair of baggy jeans and a fitted black t-shirt as the story went on.

"-And now, the girl I've been chasing all year is betrothed to my baby brother while I'm left looking like an idiot," Sirius concluded with a heavy sigh.

There was a long moment of silence where neither of the boys said anything before Sirius looked over at James in worry, wondering what had his friend so silent. Suddenly the spectacled boy blurted out, "So you finally got to kiss her then?"

Sirius deadpanned, pausing in finger-combing his hair and staring at his best friend with a blank face. He sighed a bit and shook his head. "Really James, of all things, that's the part that you focus on? Not the fact that she's now engaged to my little brother even though she knows I've been chasing her, but the fact that I finally got to kiss her?"

"Was it worth it?" James asked, eyeing Sirius in a knowing way and Sirius sighed looking away.

"Definitely," Sirius answered then rubbed at his cheek as he felt a twinge in remembrance, "The slapping part of it kinda sucked though."

James roared with laughter at his best friend's misfortune, collapsing backwards onto the bed when there was a knock on the door to the bedroom. Making a vague noise to let the person know they could enter, James tried to collect himself as the door swung open. The Gryffindor boys looked together to see the tall, aristocratic form of James' mother. Her dark, greying hair was pulled back in an elegant twist and a set of scarlet robes swished around her body and down to her ankles gracefully.

Mrs Potter smiled at the two boys in greeting, brushing an imaginary piece of lint off the shoulder of her robes. "Good morning boys. It's lovely to see you again Sirius darling, even if it was on exceptionally short notice." Sirius flushed and tried to stutter an apology but Mrs Potter waved it off kindly, "Not to worry dear, you know we love to have you."

"I thought you were working this morning mum," James said, smiling at his mother while his brows furrowed slightly in confusion, "Shouldn't you still be at Ministry?"

"I've just popped home for my lunch break darling, I heard the funniest story and I thought you boys would appreciate the havoc that's been going on the legal forms and documents section of the Ministry this morning," Mrs Potter replied with a small giggle, sweeping across the room and sitting daintily on the edge of the bed, for an older lady, Mrs Potter walked with all the grace and vanity of a young lady of a noble house whilst still retaining the proper dignity for a woman of her age.

Leaning against the wall, Sirius slid down until he was sitting cross-legged on the floor in preparation for the story, facing the Potters on the bed. James faced his mother with the wide-eyed look of a much younger boy settling in for a bedtime story and Mrs Potter smiled down at her son indulgently, ruffling his hair and chuckling as he let out an indignant squawk.

"So, anyway, a few of the officials who work in the legal forms and documents department this morning showed up and found a few new forms and documents that had been submitted whilst they had the day off yesterday and among these forms was a betrothal contract drawn up for between two of the noble houses," Mrs Potter began, before giggling slightly, "Well, as my friend Vivienne tells it, the person in charge of that document was about to file the contract when he looked it over and snorted quite loudly considering they are a generally silent filing division, so naturally he drew a lot of attention.

"It wasn't long until the contract was floating between all the workers and the office was in raucous laughter. Vivienne nearly collapsed in laughter when she saw it. The poor worker had to send out letters to the two families involved in the contract. It seems that where the young lady involved in the contract was supposed to sign her name, she had written in precise calligraphy 'Not Bloody Likely'," Mrs Potter finished, bursting into a peal of giggles as a quiet tapping sounded from the window.

Sirius got up from the floor and crossed the room to open the window for a young barn owl which hopped in and held his leg out. Looking the owl over carefully, Sirius removed the envelope where his name was printed in a vaguely familiar hand.

"Which families were involved mum?" James asked as Sirius pried the seal on the letter open carefully, pulling out a small piece of folded parchment and flicking it open.

He glanced the letter over quickly before looking to Mrs Potter in astonishment as she chuckled, "I believe the young lady was the heir of Ravenclaw if I heard the rumours correctly and the other family was… I can't seem to recall-"

"The Blacks, Regulus," Sirius muttered, looking back down at the letter he'd just been handed. James looked over at his best friend.

"You say something, mate?"

"Hmmm?" Sirius hummed absently in question, meeting his friend's eyes for a moment, "Oh, the other person in the contract, it was Regulus."

He blanked out as he looked down at the letter once more, reading it over in his head silently:

Merry Christmas Sirius!

I'm sorry that this present was a bit delayed, but I just couldn't figure out what to get you and that buggering best friend of yours was no help at all. Hope he likes that broomstick service kit, it'll be the last present he gets from me, the unhelpful git.

Sorry I dashed out of the room on you tonight (or last night I guess depending on when you get this) but I kinda put a falsified signature on that contract and didn't want to be in the room when everyone found out, hopefully I'll be back at Hogwarts before they're informed.

Suckers.

Hope you like your present, I wanted to name him Fluffy McTufttail but Alexa nixed that idea so he is now just plain Bilbo, but we call him Bill for short. Be nice, he seems a friendly sort.

From,

Maree