ALEX.
"Emm... Hi," so well-known Sirius's voice brought Alex back to reality from her own thoughts. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the biggest heartbreaker in Hogwarts, who had chosen to bother her and not to be with some other girl.
"Hi," Alex simply said and smiled kindly.
"Can I join you?" Sirius asked a little shyly looking at the ground and not Alex.
"Of course," she shifted on the bench making room for Sirius. He sat down but didn't say anything.
"Black, I don't believe that you are here just to sit on this bench with me," Alex smirked, she looked at him, and was surprised to see that Sirius was once again a little bit confused.
"Well," he tried to say something but then paused, "you know that you can call me by my name, you don't have to call me by my surname all the time." She did not believe that this was the reason Sirius was here, but didn't protest.
"Hmm, I'll think about that," Alex pretended to really consider that. "When I decide you will be the first to know," she laughed very quietly and Sirius smiled weak but amused smile. "But I still want to know why you are here?"
"I..." he couldn't manage to find the words, "well..."
"I haven't seen you like this since fifth year when you lot pranked Slytherins at the dinner and couldn't manage to come up quickly with some explanation to McGonagall when she yelled at you like all hell broke loose," she laughed.
"You remember that?" Sirius looked at Alex with genuine surprise on his face.
"Yeah, believe me," she continued to laugh, "I will never forget that beautifully pink tone of their food and Slytherin faces too."
"Yeah, that was a good one," Sirius smiled remembering that, "we got detention for a whole month for that."
Alex looked away still smiling. She looked at the lake, in which sunlight played with little waves, silhouettes from forest was visible in the lake's water. Slowly leaves started to turn in autumn colors. Autumn was approaching; it was Alex's favorite season.
"I wanted to talk to you for a while now," Sirius disturbed Alex's thoughts about autumn leaves.
"I know," she simply stated still looking at the lake, "you have been watching me this past month."
She didn't have to look at him to feel how surprised his face now looked, Alex have noticed his weird behavior a long time ago, but she didn't knew why he was watching her all the time.
"Why do you want to talk to me?" she asked kindly still looking at tree reflections in the water, which made them look like painting.
"I don't understand you," he finally spoke, "can you explain what happened at the beginning of September and why it stopped?"
"Seriously?" Alex finally looked at Sirius now it was her turn to be surprised. Sirius just nodded his head waiting for an answer. "I don't understand what there is not clear for you?"
"You didn't mind me giving you some attention, but then it stopped – why?" Alex was even more surprised now than couple of seconds ago.
"Because you told me yourself that you didn't want me jumping your bones," she answered trying to figure out if she was missing something, "and I did just that."
"Oh, you must have misunderstood me," Sirius said very quietly, "I didn't wanted you "jumping my bones" as you call it, because you are not just a random girl, I like you, I wanted to know you..." he stopped talking when he noticed Alex's face change.
"You like me?!" she almost laughed ironically. "Well that's something," she looked away. Alex did not know what to say, looked like Sirius was waiting for her to say something more.
"I'm sorry," Alex almost whispered looking at her hands in her lap.
"For what?" Sirius did not understand.
"I have a crush on you since the fourth year," her lip corners twitched a little bit almost making a smirk.
"And you have to be sorry for that?" Sirius ran his hand through his hair.
"We cannot hook up, be together or whatever," her smile was sad, "that's what I have to be sorry for." She looked in his beautiful grey eyes.
"You are smart, talented and brave," she said quietly, "and also very handsome, but you are a heartbreaker through and through, and that is what I really don't like about you," he just looked at her, soaking up all her words. "I cannot afford for my heart to be broken right now. I have too many problems already. And also you are not a relationship material because you like using girls too much," sad small smile played on her lips.
"You are who you are and I don't want to change you, I'm not that selfish. I am not going to ask something from you that you are not ready for," she gently brushed her fingers against Sirius's cheek. "If something changes and you want to be in a real relationship not just sleep with me, let me now. Or if I decide that I want my heart to be broken, I'll find you," she leaned in and kissed Sirius's forehead, then she stood up and left, once again leaving Sirius watching her leave.
*
Alex could not believe that she had just told that to Sirius, even now when she was sitting on her bed everything still felt unbelievable. She felt her breath – heavy and fast. Something in this entire situation felt so suspicious. Lily came in the room looking angry as hell.
"What happened? I thought you planned to study all day in library?" Alex was curious.
"Yeah, I thought so too, but then Potter showed up and bugged me all the time," she threw her bag on the bed and sat down still pissed. "I thought that he grew up a little bit over the summer, well at least Head Boy and Girl meetings went fine, but no he just needed to show up at the library and bug me." Lily looked angry and disappointed at the same time.
Alex had her own suspicions that Lily actually fancied James, but his childishness was the reason she never said yes to his attempts to ask her out on the date.
"Guys will be guys right?" Alex muttered not knowing what to say, because she actually wanted to name all the reasons why Lily should be together with James.
"Don't even start," Lily rolled her eyes. "All day is ruined now."
Alex was amused how simply Lily's day could be ruined – just by messing with her plans. But all people are different so she did not judge too harshly.
"Maybe tomorrow we can study together?" Alex asked hopefully, "if weather is going to this nice as today, we could do it by the lake. I think that we need to use every nice day that we can get before it starts to rain all the time." Lily looked a little bit better; she even smiled a little.
"Okay," she agreed. "Hey, looks like your morning wasn't that good either," Lily said studying Alex.
"Oh, yeah..." she slowly answered. "I told Black all my thoughts about him and the fact that I fancy him," she said guilty biting her lip.
Lily shot a hand over her mouth in surprise. "NO!" she gasped.
"Well, of course I told him that there is no chance for him and me, because I'm not planning on being just one of many in his used girls little black book."
"Bloody hell," Lily gasped again, "How did he reacted?"
"Looked like he was shocked, but all and all didn't looked like I have shattered all his hopes and dreams," she shrugged, "because there are bunch of girls in Hogwarts who are ready to make all his desires come true."
"I think this is for the best – someone who could say no to him," Lily cheerfully said. Alex smiled hoping that this will end like that – her saying no to Sirius Black.
REMUS.
Lily and Alex sat on the blanket by the lake and studied, Remus went straight to them when he exited the castle and plopped on the blanket beside them.
"Hello girls!" he shouted. "Do you mind me joining you?" he laughed, because he was already here and now asked silly and rhetorical questions.
"It's Sunday and you are not with Marauders to plan your next grand prank? Is this world ending?" Alex put her hand over her chests and pretended to be shocked. Lily and Remus started laughing.
"Well, it was so tiring to be around so... um, childish people," Remus unwillingly admitted. Alex looked at Remus and raised her eyebrow, but he was already reading his magic history book.
"And you are saying that you are not childish?" Lily asked.
"I would like to think that I am the least childish of them all," he smirked.
"Then why you are not making them grow up?" Lily was not ready to stop interrogating Remus.
"Because believe it or not but they are not listening to me," Remus signed, "even though I am also one of the smartest ones." Everybody started to laugh.
"Actually we were studying before you interrupted us," Alex said judgingly looking at Remus.
"I will not bother you," Remus said, "I want to study a little bit too." And he returned to his book, Lily continued to write her charms essay and Alex flipped through her books.
Most of the afternoon they studied, sometimes Remus asked for some other books to read, because he wasn't planning on spending so much time here down by the lake.
Dinnertime was approaching and Remus got bored. He put down his book and looked at Alex. She tried to master some kind of spell but she tried to do that wordlessly. Remus was amazed by Alex's skills because she managed the spell just after a couple tries. Remus knew that she was very capable witch.
He kept looking at Alex and smiled. Remus had never met anyone like Alex, probably because there was no one like Alex. He thought that he was the only one who knew about her the most, but he was not sure, maybe Lily knew as much.
Remus looked at Lily who now was filling in her astronomy maps. James is going to be the luckiest guy when Lily agrees to go on a date with him. Lily was so sweet and kind, everybody knew that. But sometimes James's obsession with her was ridiculous, but Remus was sure that their love will be epic. And he was sure that they will end up together, there was no doubt about that.
"Girls, can we please go to dinner?" Remus pleaded with puppy dog eyes, which made them all laugh.
"Fine," Alex answered, "I'm starting to feel hungry too."
They gathered their stuff, Remus helped girls with blanket and they went inside. They were already eating when Marauders came in the Great Hall. Remus had completely forgotten why he did not want to spend the day with them, but seeing Sirius everything returned to his memory.
Sirius, James and Peter sat across them. Remus studied Sirius and realized that his mood has not gone better. All morning Sirius had been moody and grumpy, and nobody understood why. It was complicated by the fact that Sirius refused to talk about that. Now he ate his potatoes and time to time glanced very angrily at Alex. Right, so it was connected with Alex, that wasn't good.
Then Remus looked at James, who acted as if he was annoyed by something. There could be two reasons for that, first, Sirius's grumpy attitude today, and second, detention which he got yesterday because James managed to make a fuss at library. Only explanation for detention was that James again tried to impress Lily. Obviously, he did not succeed. Poor James, such a clever guy but still a moron.
They ate dinner in silence, which was unbelievable. Remus started to think and realized that a lot of time in this term Marauders spent in silence. That wasn't normal, something was wrong, but what has changed?
After dinner, they went to the bedroom. Remus was the last one to enter, he slammed the door shut, and everyone jumped and looked at him. Remus looked at Sirius and spoke very gravely and angrily.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You act like a complete arsehole."
Everybody looked at each other, because Remus usually wasn't the one who started fights or provocations.
"Nothing," said Sirius.
"Nothing?! Nothing my ass! You are grumpy for a long time now. What is happening?"
"Nothing, leave me alone," Sirius snapped back. Now he looked pissed, but Remus did not planned on stopping. He knew that this needs to be sorted out.
"No, I will not leave you alone, tell me what's wrong."
"She ditched me," Sirius yelled. "Happy? Now leave me alone!"
"So this is the reason you act so terribly? Just get over it, not the first, not the last girl in your life."
"This time it's different," Sirius was angry and Remus saw that in his face.
"Why?" Remus wanted to provoke Sirius even more.
"Because I really like her."
"Oh, you poor soul, Alex ditched you, boo-hoo. There are thousands of girls in this world."
"Don't you dare..."
"And what are you – famous womanizer Sirius Black – going to do? Are you going to hide in the corner and lick your wounds while your heart stops to bleed?"
"Moony!" it was James who tried to calm down Remus.
"And what reason did she gave you when she ditched you?" Remus was in his zone and did not listen to anyone.
"She doesn't like me because I just use girls for my pleasure."
"And how is she wrong?"
"This time it's different."
"Because this time you have found the girl who you especially want to use?"
"Shut up!" Sirius yelled.
This time Remus did as told. He did not wanted to admit, but Remus really wanted to keep Sirius away from Alex. It was such a terrible thing to think about his best friend but Remus couldn't help himself. Alex deserved something better than Sirius, because he really could not be in relationship even if his life depended on that.
"You fight like old married couple," James spoke.
"SHUT UP!" this time both Sirius and Remus yelled at James.
Remus noticed that after all this yelling in the following days mood between then got a lot lighter. Sirius was not in such a bad mood or he hid it very well. Remus was not sure, but hoped for the best.
ALEX.
It was the first visit to Hogsmeade this year. Hogsmeade was one of the Alex's favorite places on Earth, that's why every visit she waited with impatience. In addition, it was already autumn – her favorite season. Forest around Hogwarts was dressed in colorful autumn leaves and air smelled like earth and coldness. Alex sat on her bed and smiled like silly, she woke up in, not typical for her, great mood.
"Lils!" she shouted and threw a pillow on still asleep Lily. "Today is Hogsmeade!"
Lily just turned to other side and mumbled something that sounded a lot like "Ten more minutes". Alex jumped off the bed and went to bathroom to take a shower. She really felt good today, Alex decided to use this amazing mood and spoil herself a little bit.
She stepped out of the shower and started to think what she could do today. Alex returned to bedroom and saw that all the girls was up now and she cheerfully shouted, "Amazing day isn't it?" Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy; Alex just smiled. "Better not to throw it away!" She winked at Lily.
"Someone's in a good mood," Lily laughed.
"Exactly, and that's why this day is going to be amazing," she smiled her big and warm smile and turned to closet to figure out what to wear.
While she was going through all the clothes she have, Alex couldn't not think about her aunt Radella who bought every piece of clothing she had. Alex called her aunt, but actually, Radella was her grandfather's sister and also only person in her family who liked her. Especially after all that had happened.
Aunt Radella had taught Alex many useful things about femininity and life in general. Aunt was the most beautiful woman Alex knew, and it didn't matter that she was already very old. Alex's aunt also was the most positive and kindest of all human beings.
Alex was not girly girl because she liked to wear torn jeans and T-shirts, but sometimes she liked to pamper herself up. And in days like these aunt's advices came in handy.
Aunt Radella was very rich because some time ago she was very well-known and recognized fashion designer in France. Now all of Alex's clothes were made only from the best materials. She couldn't decide what to wear, so she turned away from the closet and decided to do her hair and make-up.
Alex looked at her tired face; big smile was still plastered on her lips. She took her wand and used very small and innocent spell to make her blue circles beneath her eyes look smaller. Completely she did not erase them because as aunt Radella says – every imperfection makes you perfect.
Alex took her make-up bag and applied a small amount of cosmetics, just a tad of foundation, blush and mascara. Her make-up was simple but it suited her features very well. Then she grabbed Sleekeazy's hair potion and started to apply it to her hair, today she wanted to have pin straight hair instead of her usually a bit wavy ones.
Finally she had to decide what to wear, almost all of her clothes was black because black was her favorite color and it never goes out of style. Finally, she took out of closet high wasted black pants, black knee high boots, dark green silk blouse and black cashmere cardigan and got dressed.
She stepped in front of the mirror and looked at herself. Everything that was on her made her figure more pronounced. She thanked aunt Radella because today she also felt beautiful, and that was a rare feeling for Alex.
"Wow," Lily gasped exiting bathroom, "I did not knew you have a date today."
"I don't" Alex smirked. "Is it that unbelievable that a girl can look good without a reason?"
"No, and it shouldn't be," Lily agreed.
When Lily was ready, they went to breakfast. Alex sat at the table and made herself a plate to eat when Marauders appeared in the Great Hall. She continued to listen to Lily's monologue about this year's syllabus and did not even noticed Marauders approaching to them.
"Good mor-ning," Remus tone changed mid-sentence and that caught Alex's attention. She looked up and smiled her most charming smile; she met Remus's truly surprised eyes. He just stood there and stared at her, even his mouth was a little ajar.
James stopped next to Remus, James nervously ruffled his hair and greeted them, "Good morning," but his eyes were fixated on Lily.
"Hi, Lily," he said softly, looked like Lily could not decide if she wanted to answer him.
Sirius who was looking in a completely different direction bumped into them and almost lost his balance. "Oi, why are you standing here like trees in the forest?" he asked very angrily, but then he looked at Alex and almost fell for real.
"Good morning guys," Alex said still smiling her most charming smile. She understood that she really looked good, because she wasn't expecting such a reaction from them. Sirius shamelessly stared at her blouse's neckline, true it was maybe a little bit too deep but it wasn't vulgar.
"I hope this day for you will be as brilliant as this morning is for me," she kindly said, smiled at them one last time and returned to her breakfast. She heard Remus urging the rest of them to go and sit down; they did so, only Sirius couple of times glanced over his shoulder before they sat.
Lily escorted them with her eyes, then she turned to Alex and asked once again, "There really is nothing between you and Remus?" this happened once in a while, when Lily asked something like this, and Alex's answer was always the same.
"No, just friends as usual," she smiled. "But turns out that girl cannot look good without everyone looking at her like a piece of meat," she laughed and continued to eat her breakfast.
After breakfast, they went back to tower to get coats and leave for Hogsmeade. Alex and Lily ran into Marauders by the portrait hole, girls was trying to leave but they were returning from breakfast. Remus grabbed Alex by the elbow and almost whispering said to her, "You do realize that all of the Great Hall looked at your ass when you were leaving," Remus smirked, "even girls."
"Great," she said simply, "but now my ass is covered by the coat, I'm not going to make any problems for anyone!" she stuck her tongue out and left. Climbing out of the portrait hole she heard Sirius trying and failing not to laugh.
Day turned out very wonderfully. Alex and Lily walked through Hogsmeade and did a little shopping, and now they walked to The Three Broomsticks to have some butterbeer. Their hands were filled with bags, which contained sweets from Honeydukes, some knick-knacks from Zonko's Joke shop, some clothes and jewelry from local boutiques and some books from bookstore.
They entered The Three Broomsticks and went to the bar to order drinks. "I will go and look for a table," Lily announced and disappeared in a crowd. Alex paid for the drinks and started to look for Lily, finally she noticed her in the corner by the window.
The Three Broomsticks was her favorite place in whole Hogsmeade. Alex sat down and looked over the crowd; there was students from school, local people, and some teachers. Two tables over sat the Marauders, but Sirius was nowhere to be found.
And then she saw him, on the other side of the pub he was eating Megan's face off. They acted like they were the only ones in here. Alex felt surprised just for a moment; she hoped that this evening it wouldn't be Megan who knocked on her door. But no, this wasn't the first time when Sirius used Megan, and he had dumped her a couple of times, bet never Megan tried to find some support in Alex for that like most of the girls did. Without even knowing, Alex chuckled.
"Why are you laughing?" Lily asked and curiously looked over the pub to spot Sirius and Megan.
"Sirius and Megan," Alex said simply. "That poor girl is living many years in constant heartbreak just to be Sirius's toy for couple of minutes."
"Maybe they are together," Lily suggested.
"Doubt it," Alex shook her head. "I don't believe that Sirius can be together with someone."
"But you fancy him?" Lily knew all about Alex and Sirius but still approached this subject with caution.
"Just as the next girl, but I want to be happy not to be used," Alex was frank. "He is good looking I can't deny it but I'm not sure if it's worth it."
"But if you were the one to change infamous womanizer Sirius Black?" Lily asked half-jokingly.
"Bullocks," Alex started to laugh, "There is no point in changing someone if they don't want to do that. It always ends too badly."
"But if he wants to change but doesn't even know it?" Lily suggested.
"I am ready to bet on ten galleons that Sirius Black will not find the girl who will be the reason for him wanting to change until the end of this school year," Alex started to feel amused.
"Fine, let's bet," Lily stretched out her arm.
"Fine," Alex took it and shook it.
They stayed at The Three Broomsticks until the time they needed to leave to get back in time for dinner. Alex and Lily left the pub and started to walk back to school.
"Hey, Watson," Alex heard not pleasant voice behind her back. She turned and saw a bunch of Slytherins with Regulus Black in the front. "I haven't revenged my broken nose yet," he shouted. Alex was so done with him holding grudges.
"Piss off!" she yelled. Today was too good of a day for fight. Girls continued to walk towards school, but after a moment Alex felt that someone pulled her hair and she fell on her back. Over her was standing some Slytherin girl which name Alex could not remember.
"Nobody allowed you to leave," she hissed, Alex tried to get up on her feet.
"Come let's go Lily," Alex tried to get away from here.
"You are not going anywhere," Regulus approached Alex, "before I can do something to you about you breaking my nose."
"I will go and you will leave me alone," Alex said way too calmly for this situation. She turned to leave, but Regulus grabbed her by the arm, without thinking Alex turned and pushed him, he hit the ground hard.
Alex was furious. This was wonderful day, but no, some asshole needed to spoil it. Why it did always happened? She looked at Slytherins, waiting for someone to attack, looked like nothing is going to happen nevertheless some of them were holding wands in their hands.
Alex looked down at Regulus, he tried to get up and get his wand out of the robes.
"Expelliarmus," she heard someone shout from behind. Alex turned and saw Marauders; James was the one with the wand.
"It isn't polite to pick on others Regulus," James said in very calm voice.
"You mean like this?" And Alex felt that Regulus pushed her, she again hit the ground. She heard that curses were flying over her head and Lily helped her to stand up.
Eventually she got up and felt someone putting a hand on her shoulder, instinctively she raised her elbow with all her strength and felt it collide with something, there was a loud crack. She turned and there he was – Sirius was holding his nose, blood seeped through his fingers.
"Bloody hell Watson, I just wanted to check if you are alright," he shouted. Alex was in shock, she did not expected that it would be Sirius behind her.
"I am so sorry," she pleaded, "I thought you were some Slytherin," she stepped closer to Sirius begging with her eyes for forgiveness.
Still curses flew left and right, she heard Lily's voice of reason when she tried to calm down the fight. It sounded like nobody was listening to her.
And then she felt it – punch to her back, not your typical punch. Alex knew immediately that some random curse had hit her. It reverberated through her body, everything went cloudy, she couldn't see clearly. Alex thought that somebody was shouting her name, but she was unconscious before her body hit the ground once again today.