The Tree of Blacks (English version)

Dreams, Maps, Treasures

When she saw the brown-haired, dishevelled Gryffindor standing in front of her, Alya rose from the cold, damp ground, greeting him with a disapproving look.

"About bloody time, Potter! Being on time is not definitely your strong suit," complained the maiden, approaching James, who shook his head sneeringly.

"Tell the truth, Black, you've been dying to see me!" he teased her, playfully.

But the girl didn't retort. In fact, Potter had hit the nail on the head. It was true that Alya was looking forward to meeting him again and, more importantly, to briefing him on the latest events she had witnessed in the Slytherin common room the night before.

Caught up in a rush of enthusiasm, Alya shook off her heavy mask of rigid haughtiness and threw herself into James' arms, kissing him ardently.

For a long, intense minute, they both enjoyed the moist contact of their lips, the sensual meeting of their tongues, which could not help but seek each other impatiently.

It was Alya who broke off the kiss, leaving James momentarily bewildered, his hands still lost in her soft raven hair.

"I have news", announced Alya, in a smiling whisper. "I'm done with Nott", she added without preamble, keeping her grey irises firmly focused on James' pointed face, to catch every single nuance of the boy's reaction.

Potter's eyes instantly lit up and his mouth widened into a victorious smile.

"Great! Good shot, Black!" he congratulated, enthusiastically. "Tell me all about it."

Alya told James about the insomnia that had struck her the night before and how it had led her to the sordid spectacle that was taking place on the wooden surface of the table in the Slytherin library.

The Gryffindor, incredulous and a little scandalised, squinted his eyes.

"By all the Pluffes! You've caught Nott together with that jolly goose Travers!" he exclaimed, with a vague hint of unease in his voice.

"Between her legs, if I have to be honest," Alya pointed out simply, embarrassing James even more.

"I knew that the common room of you Slytherins was a place of sin and perdition!" commented the Gryffindor, appealing to all his irony.

Alya glowered at him in annoyance.

"Anyway, it's a betrayal in the fullest sense of the word, and this has allowed me to leave Maynard without affecting my honour. After all, I should be grateful to Philippa for facilitating me to end the engagement", Alya observed, with icy satisfaction.

"A break-up in style", commented James sarcastically. "How did your mates take the news?"

"They don't know yet. I imagine Nott has intimated to Philippa to keep her mouth shut and is working out how to keep the matter secret for as long as possible. That would be a scandal! But someone already suspects something. Today Philippa did nothing but trot around me all day, begging for my forgiveness. Which of course I was very careful not to grant her. And it didn't go unnoticed,' Alya explained, giving herself airs of a proud noblewoman.

"You are ruthless", sneered James, amused by the whole thing.

"In a few days the news will be on everyone's lips. But I wanted to break the news to you in person. I wanted you to be the first to know." concluded Alya, shooting the Gryffindor a complicit look.

"News that makes me more than happy..." said James, drawing Alya back to him. "You know, Black, I had reached the end of my rope. I don't know how much longer I'd have been able to hold back the urge to lunge at that Nott hottie and hang him somewhere in the middle of a corridor", he admitted, with an oblique smirk.