Rory Potter, the Girl Who Lived

Sirius Black

I return to the Gryffindor common room early the next morning, wearing Draco's Slytherin sweater. I manage to sneak up the stairs to the girls dormitories before anyone else wakes up and slip into bed so it looks as though I've been there the whole night. After an extra hour of sleep, Hermione accidentally wakes me up by bustling around the dorm, gathering up her homework. Stretching, I sit up, and notice that Parvati and Lavender are gone.

          "Hey, 'Mione, where'd Parvati and Lavender go?" I yawn.

          "They left. Its the first day on the holidays, Rory," she responds, gathering up her quills and ink as I swing my legs over the side of my bed.

          Vaguely, I remember that I'm wearing nothing but panties under Draco's sweater, then decide that I don't particularly care. Hermione and I change in the same room frequently, so its not like she hasn't seen my legs and arse before.

          "If you wanna get dressed, I'm going down to the common room to do homework. I think Ron's already there," Hermione says.

          "I'll be down in a bit," I tell her, ambling over to my dresser.

          Ten minutes later, I'm fully awake and dressed. I decide not to do my work now, and instead pick up Ivy, who's now grown into a beautiful young tabby, and bring her down to the common room to join my friends.

          I find Ron sitting in an armchair by the fire, eating Honeydukes sweets, and Hermione next to him with her homework spread across 3 tables. I curl up next in the chair on the other side of the fire and plop Ivy in my lap.

          "Morning Ron," I say cheerily, waving.

          "Morning Rory. Want a Peppermint Toad?" he asks, waving the brightly wrapped candy at me.

          "Oooo yes, please," I grin, and Ron tosses it to me. "Thanks Ron."

          I unwrap the candy and toss the paper packaging into the fire, absentmindedly stroking Ivy as I pop the Peppermint Toad into my mouth.

          "Is Harry up yet?" I ask, wondering how he's doing after all that we overheard yesterday.

          "I dunno," Ron tells me, unwrapping another candy.

          "I don't think so," Hermione says, looking up from her Charms book. "He probably didn't get to sleep until late last night."

          "I wouldn't think so either, considering what we overheard yesterday," I reply.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Harry, you - you look terrible."

          Ron's sudden voice snaps me awake from my dozing sleep in the chair. I jump, nearly upsetting an also sleeping Ivy. She meows indignantly, but settles back down when I stop moving.

          "Where is everyone?" my twin asks, looking around at the common room: empty besides the four of us.

          "Gone! It's the first day of the holidays, remember?" says Ron, watching Harry closely. "It's nearly lunchtime; I was going to come and wake you up in a minute."

          Harry steps over Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, who's sprawled like a large ginger rug in front of the fire and slumps into a chair next to me.

          "You really don't look well, you know," I tell him, peering anxiously into his face.

          "I'm fine," Harry says, just a bit sharply.

          "Harry, listen. You too, Rory," Hermione says, exchanging a look with Ron that tells me they talked about the coming words while I was asleep, "you must really be upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn't go doing anything stupid."