SIRIUS.
Sirius was sitting in the Hogwarts Express and looking through the window, outside on the platform 9 ¾ was standing a girl, who was casually pressing against a lamppost; her arms were in her pockets. She looked over the crowd, looked like she was not expecting someone, but in that case she would not been standing on the platform, she would have already been on the train. The girl's name was Alex Watson, she was a Gryffindor the same as Sirius Black.
They both was in the same year, but Sirius knew about Alex as much as the next person. He knew that she was independent, joyful and trustworthy girl, but on the other hand, she was also a one big mystery to everyone, especially to boys. Sirius has heard wild rumors about Alex from other boys about how she treats them and how wild she is in bed. However, he thought that Alex possessed quite amount of charisma and that made her special in his eyes.
Even now, she was just standing, but positive energy was radiating from her. With her calm honey brown eyes, she looked in the distance as if she truly was not expecting anyone or anything. She was beautiful. Maybe not the most beautiful girl in the school, but definitely beautiful. Alex had unique hair color – dark brown hair with lighter brown highlights. Looked like it was her natural hair color, but Sirius was not sure, because this combination was so unnatural.
"Hey, Prongs!" Sirius called to James.
"Yes?" indifferently answered James.
"Does Watson ever had a boyfriend?" seriously asked Sirius.
"Well... Now that you ask me, I can't remember," thoughtfully said James. "Want her for yourself?" with a grin asked James.
"How did you guessed?" sarcastically asked Sirius, but in his sarcasm was some part of truth.
"How could I forget that you are completely unpredictable?" James laughed.
"I think that she could be spicy catch," thoughtfully said Sirius who was looking outside the window and studying Alex.
James looked outside the window and in a very dreamful voice said, "She is an angel! She looks, thinks and speaks like an angel!"
"Prongs, are you alright? Were your obsession with Evans go?"
"You idiot! I am talking about Lily!" James was offended.
Sirius also looked once again outside the window and saw that Lily Evans just had appeared on the platform. She went straight to Alex, they were best friends, and they hugged and then stepped on the train.
"If you continue like this than this carriage will not need window washing," Sirius was smirking. James was looking at Lily with his forehead pressed to the glass and with his mouth wide open.
"Over the summer she has become more gorgeous, did you notice?" dreamy James asked Sirius.
"If you say so," Sirius responded lazily. At that moment, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew came in the carriage.
"Hey, guys!" Remus shouted. "What's up?"
"Prongs almost drowned in his own saliva looking at Evans," simply stated Sirius.
"Doesn't surprise me," Remus laughed.
It was 11 o'clock and train began its journey to Hogwarts. Remus went to prefect carriage. Remaining Marauders talked about their summer holiday and tried to come up with some cool trick to start the new school year.
After some time Marauders heard weird noises coming from somewhere near, sounded like someone was fighting. However, they were here, who had courage to get into trouble without asking them to join? Suddenly Sirius heard glass breaking and a loud thud. It sounded like someone has just fallen to the ground.
"You pureblood scum, how dare you touch me! I am not surprised that your brain is below your belt! You think so highly of yourself that you are sure that you can get any girl you like. Haven't you ever thought that flobberworm is more handsome than you are?" Sirius heard Alex shouting in the corridor.
He poked his head out the door, James and Peter did the same. He was very surprised when he saw his own brother lying on the floor. Carpet was soaked with blood and there was some glass all around.
"What's happening?" Sirius asked completely stepping out in corridor. He looked at Alex and his brother with suspicion.
"Nothing that I can't handle," Alex said with coldness in her voice.
Students who came out of their carriages to check what was going on, now was returning back with surprised and shocked looks on their faces. Nobody had ever seen Alex like this. She looked calm, but her eyes looked dangerous, her voice was full of threats.
"I haven't done with you, you mudblood bitch!" Regulus spat and got up on his feet to leave.
Alex and Marauders was standing in the corridor. They did not say a word. Sirius looked at Alex, who looked pissed. Just a moment ago, he thought of her as so joyful. Lily and Remus hurried down towards them, they too looked worried and a little bit confused.
"What happened?" Lily asked all business.
"Black tried to harass me, see he thought that he could force me to have sex with him," calmly said Alex, it was like magic – she was all-calm now.
"What?!" exclaimed Lily. "And you dare to stand here?" now she turned to Sirius, "Do you have any shame? Get out of here before I hex you into next century!" Oh, Evans. Sirius sometimes got why James liked her so much.
"Lily, not..." Alex tried to calm down her.
"And you are protecting him? He tried to rape you!" Lily was outraged.
"Lily, stop! It was Regulus Black not Sirius," her voice was still calm, it looked like she even enjoyed this misunderstanding.
"Ah," Lily blushed crimson.
"I forgive you Evans," arrogantly said Sirius. Lily glanced at him quite angrily and then looked at Alex.
"Are you okay?" softly asked Lily.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I broke his nose. He suffered more than I did," she said with a smile.
"You broke his nose?" James exclaimed completely not believing Alex's words.
"Yes," mumbled Alex. "Let's go inside the carriage," suggested Alex, and so they went.
"Looked cool," James could not contain his excitement and Alex just laughed very quietly. Sirius could not agree more – that was amazing.
Many hours later, there was silence in the carriage because almost everyone was asleep. Lily and Remus went back to their prefect carriage, but Marauders stayed with Alex. They wanted to make sure that she was safe. Although Sirius knew that Remus was friends with Alex, and it would be unfair if they just would left Alex alone after all that.
Alex head was pressing against the glass and she was sleeping. Sirius was sitting in front of her and watcher her. Being so close to her, he noticed that Alex's arms were covered in small scars. One big scar started just above elbow and continued up her arm disappearing under her T-shirt sleeve. He was very surprised; he did not believe that Alex did this to herself. And he couldn't imagine someone else doing that to her.
Scars. They did not suit her. Alex was so joyful and energetic; she was a good person, source of happiness to anyone. Then why? He looked at her neck; there was two unhealed and very deep scars. He could not see them before because her hair was covering them, but now he saw them very clearly. Breath caught in his lungs.
Sirius looked outside the window thinking about what he saw. Alex was very strong person and he knew that. It was impossible that she was cutting herself. No, not possible. But the scars...
Alex slowly woke up and smiled so sincerely; in the smile was not a trace of pain or sorrow. It was full of positivity, nothing bad. Sirius smiled back.
"I'll go change," she said and left.
"Guys!" Sirius tried to wake everyone up.
"What?" James mumbled.
"Time to get changed, we are almost there."
"If you say so," James was happy hearing the news.
They changed into their school robes and when the train stopped, they got out. Remus joined their friends on the platform.
"Home sweet home," James's voice was full of mischief.
Marauders started to laugh and went to seek out an empty carriage.
ALEX.
Beginning of the year feast was the same as always, first years were sorted into houses, Dumbledore made his speech and then the most delicious feast ever. Alex was done with her dinner and now she waited for desserts. She looked at the ceiling and smiled. Couple of students looked at her funny but she did not mind.
James approached her after the dinner. "I want to congratulate you again on breaking Regulus's nose," James said proudly. They both looked at the Slytherin table, his nose was already healed, but Alex heard that he had told Madame Pomfrey that he tripped and broke his nose by himself.
"Thank you, James," Alex smiled.
"I don't want to offend you, but you don't look like someone who could break someone's nose," said James with caution looking up and down at Alex.
"I'm not offended" Alex was amused. She knew very well that she did not look strong, she was quite short and not that muscular at all.
"Can we go?" Lily asked from behind Alex.
"Sure," Alex turned and they walked out of the Great Hall. They both were shocked that James did not even try to ask Lily out on the date. They casually talked about upcoming school year, when Alex felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Remus.
"Hi! Lily, can I borrow her for a moment?" Remus asked with pleading eyes.
"Do I have a choice?" Lily smiled and left without even wanting to hear the answer.
"I just wanted to ask you how's your wild life going?" Remus asked with a light smirk on his lips.
"Great, I still keep fighting," Alex answered, "And you?"
"Couldn't be better," Remus said truthfully.
"That's good," Alex sighed and then hugged Remus. They together went to the common room talking about their most exciting summer events.
"What was that?" Lily was very curious when Alex entered the bedroom.
"What was what?" Alex was completely oblivious about Lily's question.
"Well, you and Remus?" Lily said.
"Me and Remus?" Alex raised her eyebrow and looked at Lily.
"If you'll keep answering to my questions with other questions, this is not going to be a conversation," Lily sounded a little bit pissed.
"Lils, you know it very well that Remus is my friend and nothing more. Yes, he is nice, smart and even handsome, but there is nothing between us. And there never will be, and there is a reason for it," Alex calmly explained while she was looking for her pajamas.
Lily did not ask anything else. After couple of minutes when they were ready to go to sleep a knock on the door interrupted them. All the girls in the bedroom looked very surprised. Lily opened the door. There stood very pretty girl with dark hair and blue eyes, which was full of tears.
"Can... can I speak... to Alex, please?" she was sobbing.
Lily turned to Alex and said very quietly, "For you Alex."
Alex went to the door and looked at the girl. "Come; let's go talk to the common room." Then she closed the door, all the girls in the bedroom knew about what that conversation will be.
They sat on the couch in front of the fire. Girl's name was Kelly; she was a fifth year Gryffindor. She cried her eyes out without managing to tell a word, but Alex knew that it all was Sirius Black's fault.
"I hope I'm not bothering you?" Kelly suddenly asked.
"No, you are not bothering me. It is obvious that you need some shoulder to cry on. I have no idea why you chose me but it doesn't matter," Alex said very calmly. She really did not know why other girls trusted her, because it was very often that she needed to hear out sobbing girls who's hearts was broken by no one else than Sirius.
"If you don't want to talk about it..." Alex really did not want to stress out Kelly even more than necessary.
"Sirius..." whispered Kelly.
"I know what you are going to say next, he dumped you right?"
"Yes, he used me and then dumped me. We were in the fourth floor broom closet; everything was nice. I was so happy that he asked me for a walk after the dinner, and then he pushed me into closet and started kissing. Bet then he pushed me away and looked at me with a surprise on his face, and that was not the good kind of expression. And then he left without saying a word."
"Don't worry, everything is going to be fine, please don't cry. You do not have to shed all those tears. You are going to find much better guy for yourself," Alex voice was sweet.
"But it felt like he was disgusted with me, like I wasn't what he was expecting, it was so weird," a little bit louder sobbed Kelly.
"It is not your fault that he cannot see how charming you are. He thinks that girls are just things he can use to get pleasure for himself. He is interested only in the body. He does not care if the girl is smart, interesting, funny, smartass of naïve. He is only interested in looks, and that is what interests him the most now. Maybe someday there will be a girl who will take him by surprise and he will fall in love with personality not just body. But that will happen only when he will grow up. Kelly, do not regret anything, everything will be okay. I will walk you to your room; after some sleep you will feel better."
After that Alex got up and walked the girl to her room, they said their goodbyes and Alex watched how she disappeared behind the door. Sleep was not on the menu this evening for Alex, and that was not any surprise. Insomnia was haunting Alex for a couple of years now. Usually she slept only couple of hours in night. She liked to read and wonder around the school at nights. And that's why her feet carried her out of the common room this night.
SIRIUS.
Sirius felt that James was watching him, it was James's "I know that something's wrong" look, and Sirius could not stand that look, because that meant that Sirius was not capable to hide something from James.
"Maybe you want to tell me something?" after a long pause of silence, James asked the question.
"What?" if he played dumb there is possibility that he would not have to answer James's question.
"Padfoot, I haven't seen you so confused like ever. Something's wrong and I want to know what."
"I can't stop thinking about her," finally Sirius caved in. He knew that James would not just drop it, despite the fact that Sirius did not wanted to talk about it.
"I know the feeling," James smiled, "but this kind of things usually don't happen to you. Who is she?"
"Alex Watson," Sirius simply answered. James whistled very loudly, but Remus finally took his eyes off the book and very seriously looked at Sirius. Silence fell in the room for a moment, but then Sirius ended it.
"She is so different. Alex is the first girl, which I like because of her personality, and that is so weird. I usually do not see girls like her. And it is scary that almost nobody knows anything about her. She is one big mystery and I am scared of that," Sirius said thoughtfully.
"You and scared?" James asked in disbelieve.
"You do not even know her, you do not even know what she is like," Remus said at the same time when James asked his question.
"Yes," Sirius claimed, and then he stormed out of the boy's bedroom leaving his friends very confused. He just did not wanted to talk to them tonight.
Sirius walked through the school hallways not noticing where his feet was carrying him. He did not understand why so suddenly he could not stop thinking about Alex. He really did not wanted to believe that it was only because she over the summer got all the curves in all the right places.
He realized that he was standing in front of the entrance to the kitchens; he tickled the pear and entered. It was late, but still an elf hurried to him and asked what he wanted. Sirius chose hot chocolate. He sat by the one of the tables and sipped his chocolate full of determination to clear up his thoughts and feelings, because nothing was as it used to be and he did not like it at all.
After a while he felt that he is not alone, he was sure he heard a sound by the doors. There was someone there.
"Who's there?" he asked without a hesitation.
Alex came out of the shadows and sat across from him. "Feeling sleepless?" she asked calmly and smiled a very nice smile.
"You could say so," Sirius did not know what to say. "And you?"
"You could say so," she smirked. All her attention was on the burning candle, which floated above the table, she did not even looked at Sirius.
However, Sirius looked at Alex. Genuine smile splatted across his face. How ironic – when he wanted to be alone and sort through his thoughts he was forced to face his problem. And, oh, yeah, her body was really transformed in this summer, he didn't even realize that he had started to smirk.
"Found anything interesting to look at?" suddenly she turned to Sirius. Now it was clear that she was watching him all the time.
"No, nothing," he looked a little bit ashamed, but he was still smiling. Alex did not believe his words.
"Interesting," Alex said quietly, she once again was not looking at Sirius.
"What?" he started to feel a little bit nervous, while Alex stretched out her arms and did not hurry to answer him.
"You are not with a girl tonight because you usually are, especially in the evenings," Alex said simply. Light from the candle played in her eyes, now she looked wild.
He was very surprised about what Alex just said. He did not say anything; he could not. Suddenly he was lost for words.
"Oh, no, you have already dumped her, right?" Alex leaned over the table and looked straight into Sirius's grey eyes.
"Why do you say that?" Sirius thought that nobody knew about Kelly.
"Because I know that," Alex said seriously, "Black, most of the girls whose hearts you have broken come to me and tell me what an awful monster you are. And Kelly wasn't an exception."
Sirius did not know that Alex was the one to whom everyone turned for comfort. He felt guilty. He looked into her eyes; he found disbelief and misunderstanding in them.
In that moment, all the rumors about Alex rushed through his mind. He was sure that she never had a boyfriend, but still she must have had some suitors. Sirius realized that he wanted to kiss Alex right know, but Kelly's situation changed everything.
Suddenly Alex stood up, straightened her pajamas and said sadly, "Well good night then." She smiled at him very shortly but sadly and then she was gone.
Minute after Alex left Sirius exited the kitchens; he wanted to find Alex. He hoped that she went back to common room. Turning on the fourth floor corridor he spotted her, he picked up a pace and caught up to her. Sirius put a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes?" she smiled very sweetly turning to him. That smile was so out of place because she just confessed to him that she was the psychologist of all the dumped girls.
"I just forgot to say good night."
"Now you have said it."
Sirius's arm was still on her shoulder. He looked in her beautiful honey brown eyes. Sirius stepped closer; he felt that Alex was a little bit nervous. Before he could change his mind and realize that he would probably regret it, he leaned in and kissed Alex.
Touch between their lips was soft and long, Sirius was ready to break the kiss but then he felt that Alex wanted to continue. He was surprised when Alex ran her hands over his chests. He licked her lips and the kiss became more passionate and intense. He pulled her closer; his hands slowly disappeared under her T-shirt. Her skin was so soft.
He grabbed Alex; she moaned a little bit but did not broke the kiss. Sirius did not wanted to let her go and tried to pull her even closer to his body. She moaned again and pulled back breaking all that was between them.
"It would be better if I go," she whispered and rushed away. Sirius looked at his hand and found that his fingers were covered in blood. While they were kissing, he thought that he scraped something on her back. Was it possible that the scars, which he saw on the train, were not the only ones on her body?