Scars and Bruises

Bittersweet

And at that moment James Potter kissed Lily Evans in front of everyone. Remus could not believe what was happening, he waited for the world to end because that could be the only explanation for this madness. It was possible to cut the silence with the knife when their lips drew away.

"Fine, I'll go out with you on one, little innocent date," Lily quietly mumbled. James opened his mouth to say something, but then Lily Evans kissed James Potter.

Remus was afraid that he would go deaf from the noise that overcame the common room. People yelled and cheered, and clapped their hands. Sirius was up on his feet and yelled like a maniac, Alex sat very still and with an open mouth stared at Lily and James, and it looked like Peter could cry. People all around just was happy about two of them, after all this bickering this was like a breath of fresh air. What the hell just happened?

*

It was Friday evening before Christmas ball, they all had eaten dinner and now they were walking back to the common room. The castle was decorated in Christmas ornaments and finally there was some snow outside.

Remus looked at James and Lily, they walked in front of everybody, and James's hand was wrapped around Lily's waist. Since Lily agreed to go out with him, they were officially together. Alex and Sirius followed them, they just walked beside each other, but Remus noticed that their palms touched from time to time, Remus smiled. Nevertheless, it looked like Peter was not noticing anything that happened around him; he just walked with his eyes glued to the floor.

"Miss Watson," they were stopped by professor McGonagall who hurried towards them, "Wait up, I need to talk to you." Everybody froze, because the last time when professor McGonagall needed to speak with Alex, she delivered very bad news.

"What's happened professor?" Alex asked nervously and stepped towards the professor.

"Nothing serious, no need to worry," McGonagall answered, "Please come to my office, we will not be disturbed there." Alex just quickly looked back at her friends and followed professor down the corridor.

ALEX.

She was nervous because once again there was a feeling that something bad had happened. Alex patiently sat in McGonagall's office and waited for the news that someone else has died. She bit her lip; no, she did not wanted to hear that kind of news.

Professor McGonagall looked through a pile of parchments until she found what she was looking for. She placed the parchment in front of her and started to study it. After a while she looked up at Alex.

"I see that you have signed up to stay in Hogwarts at Christmas," Alex didn't understood how it was related to anything.

"Yes, professor," she answered, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand..."

"Today I received a letter that Monday is the reading to your aunt's last will and testament," Alex was surprised. "Your presence is mandatory, so you will leave to London together with the rest of the students on Sunday."

Alex looked at her hands who was folded in her lap, she had forgotten about the last will and testament. Alex felt a knot in her chest because memories from the week in France came back running.

"Miss Watson?" McGonagall asked, Alex realized that she wasn't listening for a while.

"I'm sorry," Alex returned to reality.

"I just wanted to know, if you will manage to get to France from London?"

"Yes, professor," she nodded; traveling from the Leaky Cauldron to France was way too familiar.