GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Forty: The Servant of Lord Voldemort)

"Oh." She said, before she really had the chance to stop herself.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at her, "Oh? What does that mean?"

"That we're going to be late and I don't even know if there's a closing time to where we're going." Alex rolled her eyes and dragged Sirius into the fireplace, trying not to focus on how she could feel every tug on where they made contact.

Sirius followed her, though she could see his eyes jumping to where their fingers interlocked every now and then, "Oh, there most certainly is a closing time, and I said I'd have you there by fifteen minutes ago but it took me about half an hour of staring at your door before I went in."

"Why?" Alex couldn't help the confusion that pulsed through her that was something different to the other kinds of confusion she had felt before. I mean, she assumed she was confused, it made about as much sense as anything else.

Sirius ignored her question, charred wood cracking beneath his feet as he turned to face her fully, lifting her hand a little higher between them, "Look, I know you aren't dealing with all of this in the most healthy way possible, even though I'm not quite sure how that is. As much as you hate it, I like to think I've gotten to know you quite well, Fawley. And I know you overthink things, and some days you just need to ignore your problems."

"Why are you telling me this?" Alex narrowed her eyes at Sirius Black.

"Because I need you to understand why this is happening when this happens." Sirius said, looking more earnest and more- if you'll excuse the pun- serious than Alex thought she had ever seen him. He threw the floo powder at the hearth beneath them and a brilliant green flame ignited all around them, reflected in Sirius' clear eyes, "Diagon Alley!"

Alex let go of Sirius somewhere in the tumble of chimneys and choking soot. Eventually, she tumbled out of a fire and onto a set of creaking wooden floorboards that she was sure she could have gotten splinters from just looking at. She coughed, her own pale hands that supported her on the floor hovering dizzyingly in front of her face. 

"Urgh." She groaned, blinking tiredly. She had not been emotionally prepared for this when she woke up this morning. Not that she had been sleeping in the first place. Or was completely sure it was 'morning'.

"Alex!" A small, red haired blur suddenly engulfed Alex in a hug. She staggered backwards for a moment in shock before awkwardly patting Lily Evans on the back. She looked up. She recognised this space, the half cobwebbed stools against the worn-looking, homely bar. Tables that looked like they had come from a thousand different car boot sales in a hundred different countries were scattered about the place like someone had tossed them.

There was another puff of smoke, and Sirius Black emerged, coughing, into the Leaky Cauldron. Alex craned her neck around over Lily's head and shot him a questioning expression, which was when she noticed that both Marlene McKinnon and Remus Lupin had joined the gang. That's right. It was a gang now.

"What's going on?" Alex asked, sounding a little hollow. 

"Shopping!" Sirius announced, "Or whatever it is girls do for hours."

Marlene turned her entire body towards Sirius, "Do I even need to say anything?"

Sirius shook his head apologetically, "No. Okay. Sexism noted. Statement retracted."

Alex couldn't help a small smile. From the expression on Marlene's face, this was a regular occurrence. Despite everything, it humanised Sirius Black a little. And, despite everything, a reminder that he wasn't the omnipotent presence he pretended to be.

Lily disentangled herself far too quickly, almost elbowing Alex in the face in the process, "We are going to have far too many butterbeers and talk about photography and the benefits of not engaging in drug use and Surgeon Why."

"Doctor Who." Marlene corrected her friend.

"Nerdy crap." Lily amended herself, finally taking a breath that was somehow perfectly melded with a challenging expression that she aimed towards Alex.

"Okay," Alex couldn't help but rise to the bait, "Doctor Who absolutely is nerdy crap. It's the best goddamn nerdy crap in the universe and I will fight you. Verbally. Because you're way better at duelling than me and you barely knew enough about the show to make that obviously intentionally wrong naming mistake."

"It's like she can see right through us, Mar." Lily shook her head sadly.

A smile twitched the corner of Marlene's mouth, but she gave Alex a meaningful expression, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Alex followed her dorm-mate over to the corner, confusion not quite making its way through the potion's effects, "What's up?"

"I thought you might like to know," Marlene said in a hush voice, "The Shadow Man is being sent to solitary. He's not going to Azkaban."

Alex nodded, "Right?"

"They still don't know how he knew we'd be making a hit that night." Marlene added, watching Alex's face carefully for any sign of a reaction.

Alex shrugged, familiar numbness stealing through her chest, "He set it up that way."

"Well, okay then." Marlene rolled her eyes, "We don't know how the Death Eaters broke in to the Fawley House, what with all your protections."

She had to admit, that still caught on Alex's mind, no matter how much she tried to move past it, "It's weird. Only someone who's been there should be able to get in."

"Freaking confusing." Marlene agreed.

"Is this just a thing where we say our feelings?" Alex asked, eager to change the course of the conversation, "Because currently 'intense craving for Butterbeer' sums me up quite nicely."

"What are we on about?" Lily popped back into the conversation.

Alex prepared to answer her, "Well-"

"No. Shush." Marlene covered her mouth with one hand, "Quiet. Silence in the library."

Slowly, Alex moved the other girl's palm away from her mouth with pinched fingers, "I would like to request an emotion change to confusion?"

"You can't tell Lily your secrets." Marlene explained with a shrug, "There is exactly a seventy four percent chance that she will spill. She can't help it."

Alex couldn't help the spark of amusement, "That's an extremely precise percentage."

"There has been a lot of data to work with." Marlene informed her darkly. Lily, meanwhile, had decided to employ the most sulky expression she could manage, her pout deepening with every line.

Alex felt a little sorry for her ginger friend, "She didn't tell about my, you know, potion thing."

"A frankly statistically unlikely anomaly." Marlene informed her.

"Hey, I didn't tell you guys about Potter taking me to Hogsmeade." Lily announced, having apparently decided that sulking was getting her nowhere, "And I lied to you about what I was doing that day so I could bunk off and go last minute."

"Lying to me isn't a good thing, Lils." Marlene reminded her friend, though she didn't seem to be overly bothered.

"Also," Alex added carefully, "You do realise that you just spilled that secret so it totally doesn't count anymore?"

"Damnit. I was set up for failure. And I never fail." She squinted at them suspiciously, "How long have you two been planning this?"

Alex exchanged a look with Marlene before sighing deliberately, "Well, damn. Now I want to say months because then it would seem like we had this totally elaborate hoax that we knew would work."

"But in reality it's just good timing and your inability to remain serious after the smallest drop of alcohol enters your system." Marlene gestured to the butterbeer in Lily's hand with her eyebrows. 

"Lucky." Lily muttered.

Alex smiled, and it was forced, and completely pantomime play for the sake of blending in with the curious little species known as the 'human race', but for the first time, Alex caught herself wishing it were real, and thinking for just a moment that maybe she shouldn't have taken her potion today.

But a moment was all it was, because the nothing was there to welcome her back into the cool welcoming shade when the regret started building in her chest.