Crickets chirped outside the tent as Sirius turned on his side and gazed across the cramped space. Wiping the sleep out of his eyes, he stared at the form that lay on the next bed. Marlene lay on her stomach with her pillow in a death grip underneath her head. Brows furrowed and a frown on her elegant face, she continued to murmur in her sleep. What she was dreaming about, Sirius did not know, but he hoped that it had something to do with how to get into the Repository.
It had been two days since their first visit to the libraries and still they had not figured out how to get the required documents in order to gain access to the ‘original’ manuscript. Muggles and their infernal rules, thought Sirius as he leaned up and punched his pillow.
“You know, that pillow didn’t do anything to you.”
Damn, he must have woke Marlene.
“Yeah, well, it’s not cooperating much, so I think it deserved it. Sorry for waking you up, McKinnon.”
Sirius still hadn’t been able to bring himself to call her ‘Marlene’ for fear of slipping and calling her ‘Mary’ again by accident. She sure seemed like a Mary to him.
Marlene stretched, arching her back as she yawned. “It’s m’kay,” she said as she collapsed back onto the bed, her honey-blonde hair falling across her face as she turned on her side to face him. “What’s keeping you up?”
Sirius’ frown deepened. “It’s nothing really, just thinking about how we are going to be able to set up an appointment to get into the Repository.”
“Well, we’ve got the IDs already; I charmed the ones we borrowed to show our pictures and descriptions, so that’s been taken care of.”
“When did you do that?”
“While you were sleeping,” Marlene blushingly replied. “I hope you don’t mind, you just looked so tired. You haven’t been sleeping well these last few nights.”
Her observation was fact but it surprised Sirius that she would pay so much attention to his habits. He hadn’t really noticed it before now. Had she been evaluating him all this time? Sirius coyly looked at her, uncertain of this new revelation and how to proceed.
“So, have you thought about how we are going to set up the appointment? Do you think they will want to know why we have to see the original?”
“Hmm... what?” Sirius shook himself out of his thoughts. “Oh, yeah. I think we’ll have to just surprise the guards at the Repository, Confund them or something. I’m not too thrilled with the circumstances that could produce but it’s probably our only shot.”
With that, they fell into an awkward silence that, for Sirius, finally led into a fitful slumber.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Sirius. Sirius, follow me,” she says and Sirius smiles. The girl twirls and her honey blonde locks play on the breeze. Giggling, she turns back to Sirius and then turns again, disappearing into thin air.
Nymphish laughter surrounds the air around Sirius. “Where did you go?” Sirius cries frantically, his arms grasping at the air in front of him
“I’m right here,” replies the girl twirling back into his sight, brushing Sirius’ fingertips, her golden eyes alight with playfulness. “Quickly, come on.” She tugs at his shirt collar...
Sirius fell out of bed and in an attempt to jump up in his tangled sheets, he fell again. “Wha-what happened?” he asked through a stifled yawn.
“Your moaning woke me up,” Marlene giggled.
“Moaning? I wasn’t moaning!”
“You most certainly were!”
“Well, if that’s the case, I’m not the only one that moans in my sleep. You were doing the same earlier. Dreaming about me, were you, McKinnon?” Sirius playfully nudged her by the arm, throwing a roguish wink her way.
Jumping up, Marlene blushed, “It’s about time we should be getting up anyway. We need to get over to the Repository today and copy the Manuscript. I’ll meet you outside once I’m dressed.”
Did she just dismiss me? Well, that’s a first, thought Sirius. “Alright, McKinnon, pretty yourself up for me and I’ll see you in a bit,” Sirius replied wickedly. Throwing another cheeky wink in her direction, he ducked out of the tent.
An hour or two later they stood in front of the Santry Book Repository in North Dublin. The sheer size of the building made Sirius doubtful that they would find the manuscript any time today. This could take weeks, he thought.
“Come on,” urged Marlene as she tugged at his jacket. “We had best go in instead of standing here with our mouths gaping.”
Silently Sirius followed her through the double doors and into a well decorated reception area.
“Excuse me, sir. How do you do this mornin’? We are looking for a manuscript and thought that you might be able to help us.” Sirius looked around cheerfully, noticing the two corridors on either side of the desk and knowing that what they sought would be down one of them.
“I’m sorry, but you should have filled out a call slip and the manuscript, if available for viewing, would have been delivered to your reading room of choice.” With that the dark haired young man went back to reading his book.
“Erm... sir, the manuscript we are seeking is of valued importance and probably wouldn’t be available for viewing in that manner. I wouldn’t imagine they would let bare hands touch such an antiquity,” Marlene began as she leaned onto the desk top, catching the man’s attention. “You see, what we are looking for is the Book of Leinster, and we’ve been told that its location is here,” she pouted. “Do you think you could help me with that?”
Sirius had to hand it to her. She played the part of a meek mouse but she certainly knew how to seduce someone. He’d have to remember that for later.
Silently he slipped his wand out from under the jacket of his sleeve and cast the Confundus Charm on the poor bloke. As the man’s eyes slid out and back in focus, Sirius produced two small sheets of paper out of thin air and handed them to him. “Besides, we do have the call slips. We just thought it would be best to view that particular text here.”
“Hmm... yes, we do house that volume here. I’ll need to see your IDs of course,” said the young man without skipping a beat.
As Marlene fumbled through her bag, Sirius pulled out a contraption that she had called a ‘wallet’ and handed it to the desk man, who in turn gave him a sceptical look before pulling out the ID Marlene had charmed. He gave it a once-over, as well as Marlene’s, and handed them back to their respective parties. “If you’ll follow me.”
Many hallways and several flights of stairs later, Marlene and Sirius stood in a room surrounded by old leaves of parchments, both bound and loose.
“Here it is. Now, if you would please,” said the young man setting down several stacks of parchment and holding up two pairs of gloves.
With that, Marlene and Sirius were left alone to search the texts for themselves. Marlene set straight to work, carefully flipping through page after page of manuscript.
“Sirius! Sirius, wake up! I’ve found it!”
“Found wha’?” Sirius groggily asked staring at Marlene’s exuberant face through blurry eyes.
“Lebor Gabála Érenn ! What else?” With that she smacked him on the back of the head thoroughly waking him up.
Bouncing with excitement, Marlene grabbed her bag and extracted a large stack of parchment with which to copy the manuscript on to. “Okay, so now all we have to do is copy each page and then we’ll be done! Oh! We can go celebrate after! I’m sure there’s a lovely pub somewhere in this town. Of course they probably don’t carry Firewhisk-“
“Marlene! Just copy the text and let’s get on with it,” Sirius interrupted grinning lopsidedly.
Blushing, Marlene began the incantation, slowly moving her wand along each line of text on the first page of the manuscipt and reciting Descriptum Omnifera. Turning she placed her wand on one of the blank pieces of parchment they had brought and began to make squigly movements as though writing while reciting a similar incantation that had an altogether different effect than the first, Rescriptum Omnifera.
Sirius watched her do this for the first several pages alone and then once he felt he had the hang of it tried his own hand at it. This received a warm smile from Marlene, though she still averted her eyes away from his. With both of them hard at work, the task lasted barely thirty minutes.
“That’s it, the last page! Now we’ll need to get back to the tent so that I can take a look at the wording and see if we can find the hidden enchantments that Salazar left. It shouldn’t take to long to translate.”
“You know, you really are something, McKinnon. I would have never thought you had it in you to flirt with that poor bloke the way you did. You’ve got a few more tricks up your sleeve like that, don’t you?” Sirius teased nudging her shoulder as they exited the building.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sirius,” she giggled, though she still had the forethought to look a bit shocked at the allegation.
As they turned into the nearest alleyway, Sirius felt something brush against his left shoulder. Turning to see what it was, he heard a small whimper simultaneously from the other direction, where Marlene stood.
“McKinnon, what’s the matter? You needn’t play the meek mouse just no-” Sirius had begun to say as he turned back to her, but the sight that greeted him stopped him dead in his tracks and he reached for his wand.
“I wouldn’t be doin’ that if I were you, Black,” warned the husky voice of Marlene’s attacker.
The man, Travers was his name, held her from behind no more than two arms length from where Sirius stood with a dagger at her throat. “You wouldn’t want me to slip and cut her pretty little neck now would you?”
Sirius, contemplating his next move, stared at the edge of the blade as it glistened threateningly against Marlene’s alabaster throat.
