Three in the morning.
It was three in the morning.
This simple fact allows us to articulate that it is totally implausible to expect anyone to be up at this hour. And this knowledge alone was how she had known he would be.
Someone had convinced Sirius to go back home- to the Potter's- hours before, and he was stuck on a sofa in the garage, kicking himself for losing his focus that day. If he could've just kept a lid on his temper, he could've asked the Shadow Man what happened next, to Alex, to him.
He didn't care about the bigger picture. The way things were going, he might not get a chance to even glimpse it, never mind eat olives and sip wine patronisingly as he viewed it in a local gallery fifty years from now.
But even he couldn't fight against human biology, and his eyes felt the strain with every minute they stayed open. The sofa felt so inviting, and-
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Sirius shot upright.
That sound, if you are unaware, is the noise a garage door makes if someone is knocking on it.
Rubbing his eyes, Sirius reached for the latch at the base of the sheet of metal. His heart was pounding for some unknown reason, the feeling you get when you think you're alone and then someone speaks.
He meant to catch the door as it swung upwards, but his exhausted eyes found the figure on his doorstep, and he couldn't quite get his arm to move.
CRASH!
The whole room shuddered with the impact of the metal slamming against the ceiling.
"Alex?" Sirius asked before he could stop himself.
In the low light, and in the clothes he had borrowed from Remus that had belonged to her, she really did still look like the girl who stood on Logan Mitchell's rooftop with him and set off Filibuster Fireworks at the advancing Death Eaters.
She pulled a face, "Not Alex. The other one."
"Right." Sirius blinked, mentally slapping himself, "How did you get out of your cell?"
"Am I not supposed to be able to do that?" New asked curiously, "Sorry, still so much to learn."
"What are you doing here?" Sirius felt suddenly angry, "You said it yourself, you aren't her. Why the hell are you beating down my door at three in the morning?"
New studied him with narrowed eyes for a moment, "What are we?"
"Excuse me?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.
"They took me in for a Psyche." New explained, "There were all these pictures of people I- Alex- knew. And I knew all the words for them. Logan Mitchell was my friend. Micah was my brother. Remus was my werewolf sire."
Sirius leaned against the side of the garage and crossed his arms, "So? I expect a mental examination is the standard for someone who murders four people and then goes out for lunch."
"They showed me a picture of you."
"Yeah, well, I knew Alex." Sirius dismissed, "Still waiting for the 'wow' factor in this story. Maybe you should've come up with a catchier opening paragraph."
"We weren't a word."
He paused, "What?"
"You weren't her friend." It seemed almost like New was stumbling through her sentences. He'd never heard her do that before. It made her seem more like Alex. He hated it, "Or her brother. You weren't family. And I can't- I thought I understood everything she did, but I still don't understand what you were."
Sirius snorted in dark amusement, "Well, that makes two of us."
"I think I'm starting to." New revealed unexpectedly.
He shuffled his arms, "Oh?"
"The red-haired one was right." She seemed to be almost talking to herself, "Months ago, she was right. Fear lets the other thing seep in around the edges- things that make you weak, like attachment and other... Emotions."
"What's your point?" He demanded, "She was plenty attached to her friends."
"But there's a word for that. So I understand it. But you." She frowned at him again, like she was a six year old trying to figure out an A Level question, "You aren't a word, you're an emotion."
Sirius took a long time to digest that, "I'm... Did Alex say that?"
New ignored him, "I know that now, which means I have to accept that emotions exist. And I can't... That's the only way for me to understand you, which means I have to feel it."
"You what?" Sirius had a startled expression on.
"Can you stop it?" New asked desperately, "Can you cut it out or... Or something?"
Sirius felt his eyebrows tug downward, "I mean, I'm not an expert or anything, but I'd say that's not how it works."
"Okay. Okay." New stepped back, and Sirius had to appreciate her ability to take things in her stride, "Then stay out of my way. I can't have an emotion getting in the middle of this. There's too much to do."
New turned. Sirius almost fell off the wall in his haste to stand properly. He knew, in that moment, that if he let her go now, he'd never see her again. And even if there was supposedly no Alex in there, the idea of losing this person was something he couldn't quite face yet.
"Wait! Wait!" Sirius grabbed her arm, spinning the girl around and kissing her. She pushed him off almost instantly.
She spat on the floor, glaring at him in horror, "What in the hell are you doing?"
Sirius realised his mistake almost instantly.
"I'm sorry, I-" He stuttered, "It worked in the movies."
"Not in the Superhero ones."
She pushed his hand off her arm and walked away. Never listen to movies, unless they're superhero movies. He had said that to Alex.
"Hey! Alex!" He called after her. She turned around. A smiled slowly spilt his face, "You responded. She's in there. She's almost back."
"Do you want her to come back?"
Sirius took a moment to breath as he stepped towards her cautiously, "What do you mean?"
"You didn't want her. I remember." New relayed, "She was going to lose everything. All the people she needed. So she went to Mr Greasy Hair and got her potion and drank it and became me."
Sirius swallowed thickly, "That's not what happened."
"Sorry to disappoint, Dog Boy." New smiled slightly, that unsettling smile that was so foreign on Alex's face, "I'm her. I know what happened."
"I wasn't talking to you." Sirius snapped, before softening his tone, "That's not what happened, Alex, I promise. I want you back. I need you back. We all do. Including the entire world. So no pressure or anything, but I'd really appreciate a sudden self revelation moment that pops you back into control."
He waited a beat, chest pounding with the belief that she would find a way back to herself.
Even New looked like she expected something to happen.
A lone crisp packet tumbled across the backyard and was promptly plucked out of the air and eaten by a gnome.
A Nestle van trundled along the road at the end of the drive, headlights blaring and radio screaming out the lyrics to Highway to Hell by AC/DC.
And the expression on the face of the girl in front of him was still as unfamiliar as a map of the world before the first ice age.
"In your own defence," New speculated after the most amount of pause her curiosity was willing to give, "I'd say it wasn't for lack of effort."
Sirius had his face screwed up in frustration, "Where is she?"
New's expression became suddenly distant, like she was looking at something just beyond his line of sight.
"She's tired. She's been fighting for a long time. I think," New added, a slow smile spreading over her face, "I think I won."
Of course it would be now. Of course. Because that was how the Shadow Man and possibly Maria Fawley planned it. The cards were stacked against him from the beginning. There would always be a version of this where he lost, and they had all the pokey sticks and cheat codes they had needed to move the pieces into place. All of this, everything him and Alex had been through, fought for, laughed and lied and loved for:
They had never stood a chance.
He laughed darkly.
"What?" New cocked her head at him.
"It's just, I've never thought about it." Sirius explained, "Being a pawn in Wizard Chess is a pretty shit roll of the dice."
"I'm not a pawn."
"You have no idea."
New opened her mouth to respond, but she never got the chance.
A blast of red light streaked across the darkness and hit Sirius square on the chest. An expression of shock flitted his face in the brief second for he fell forwards, landing face-first in a pile of manure that New could've sworn hadn't been there a second before.
"Well," New observed his fallen form, "If that's how you want end a conversation-"
"Hey!" A voice called out of the darkness, "Back up! Back away!"
Curiously, New surveyed the surrounding darkness, lips quirking up at the corners at the arrival of a figure, cloaked all in black with their wand raised, "Regulas Black. Is that a Dark Mark I see? I'm sensing a Scar-from-Lion-King moment. Mind if I get the popcorn?"
"Alex." Regulas seemed surprised at her tone, but steadied his wand hand nonetheless, "Don't try to fight me."
"Does it look like that's what I'm doing?" New smirked, gesturing to the heap of angst and gelled hair that was Sirius Black, "Not exactly a prize collector's item, is he?"
Regulas frowned, "I don't understand."
"It appears, Younger Black," New enunciated clearly, "That you weren't the only one hiding an inner monster."
Regulas' frown deepened, "I don't understand. You were meant to be together. You were meant to care."
"Meant to." New pulled a face, "I hate that word. Very restrictive, don't you think?"
"It was the prophecy." Regulas maintained stubbornly.
New had begun to turn away, losing interest. Now, however, her eyebrow raised at the younger version of Sirius Black, "Go on. I'm listening."
"What happened to you?" Regulas asked, confusion printed all over the face that he had not yet learnt to don with a mask.
New smiled, "That does appear to be the question of the year. Go. Take your older mistake. Do whatever you have to. But I will want answers eventually, Black. And you don't want to make it difficult for me to find them, I promise you."
And this time, she really did begin to walk away, not quite far enough that she missed it, the sign of them leaving, the brothers who would tear each other apart unwillingly for what they believed in.
Crack!
All of that ridiculous human honour, loyalty and trust. What had it amounted to in the end? She found herself, for once, proud of her body's former occupant. Alex would never have done that to Micah.
She paused for a second to ponder this connection. A strange kind of strength for Alex to have- the strength not to do something. New had never understood it herself. It came from somewhere different to the little part of Fawley's mind that she had made her home.
Curious. But not what she needed to know now.
"Fawley?" New asked out loud, "While I may have many assets that you fail to possess, patience is not one of them."
I'm here, arsehole. A small voice at the back of her mind muttered, What do you want?
"A throne, a country and enough Nerf machine guns to equip every toddler in England with." New answered readily, "But those can wait. Did you hear that delightful conversation?"
What? The one where you basically told Sirius Black I liked him or the one where his brother did a Judas?
"You petty people and your attachments." New hung a left, letting the body steer itself, "You might regret me letting you out of your cage."
What do you want? Alex Fawley asked again grouchily, sounding like she had just been woken from a nap.
New spotted the glaring lights of a bus station in the distance, "The prophecy. Did you hear what little Judas said?"
'Meant' to. Alex confirmed, I thought you wouldn't like that.
"I don't like being controlled. That's why I switched you to the passenger seat." New ground through her teeth, "So we're going to find out what this fate situation is, and we're going to shut it down, understand? I want everything you know on the prophecy."
This time, I want something too.
New rolled her eyes, "I'll smoke some weed and switch you to the addiction centres for an hour or two, alright?"
You know that's not it.
New scoffed, "It's not going to happen."
The Order has already noticed we're missing. Aurors all over the country will be looking for us. You need Regulas Black. I want to save the other one. It's not a tough trade.
"And what's your bargaining chip?" New inquired.
We have nothing at the moment. We're operating on stealth. If we're going after Death Eaters, we're gonna need something more than that.
New kicked an empty coke can across the pavement, "I'm assuming you have a way around our little issue."
If she had a face, Alex would've smiled, I know a guy.