Professor Dumbledore's office was somewhere that the girl in front of his desk had never wanted to find herself.
Of course, the individual in question couldn't exactly be said to be the same one who formed that initial philosophy all those years ago. She was colder, tougher, and a hell of a lot more scared.
"Miss Fawley," The Professor said, "I suppose a 'welcome back' is in order."
"Thank you, sir." The girl responded stiffly. There was a sort of distance between her and the world, like everything was happening behind a screen. Which was perhaps why she wasn't as bothered by her current situation as she might otherwise have been.
Dumbledore observed her for a moment, "The young Mr Black has already quite passionately explained what happened earlier today, but there are several gaps-"
"You want to know why I'm still alive." The girl interrupted.
He smiled slightly, "Do forgive me. I seem to be resorting to drivel as a substitute for speech in my more advanced age. Yes, to put it simply."
"I don't know how it happened," The girl said, "But here I am."
"Are you?" Dumbledore asked, "I'm still inclined to wonder which of you survived."
"To be perfectly honest, Professor," she responded, "I don't really care. I'm alive. I didn't really expect to be alive. I'm quite happy with being alive. I can't be bothered to defend my alive-ness to you right now."
Dumbledore continued to watch her over the rim of his half moon spectacles, "What, might I inquire, physically happened from your perspective?"
She tipped her head back, tiredness restricting her capacity for manners, "Bellatrix tried to kill me. I passed out. It was embarrassing. When I woke up, the voice in my head was gone."
"I think," He started cautiously, "From my limited observation, that the curse was confused by the prospect of two entities in one body. A killing curse works by turning off the mind rather than the body. And I think the other person occupying the space metaphorically stepped in front of you."
"Maybe." She sat forwards, "But I have another question. Because you knew, didn't you? About the prophecy, about all of it. And you let it happen."
Professor Dumbledore's response was simple, "I did."
"Why the hell would you do that?" She demanded.
"Because you are not as weak as you think you are. Because I saw that you could stand alone." He said evenly, "And because I believed it was the best thing for the wizarding world."
All she could bring herself to do for a solid thirty seconds was stare at the wizened old man before stating, "Heck of a teacher, aren't you?"
"I admit I am not what most consider to be orthodox." Dumbledore acknowledged.
She got to her feet, "Yeah, well, I won't be coming back to Hogwarts. So goodbye."
"If there is anything I can do to accommodate you to this new life, then please let me know." The headmaster offered.
"You know what? Yeah, there is something. This whole prophecy thing, because I know Maria Fawley said I wouldn't be the last kid." She leaned over the desk for a moment and looked him dead in the eyes, "Do better for the next one."
He seemed to take this in, nodding slowly, "I'll certainly try my best, Miss Fawley."
{===}
"I thought I'd find you here."
Sirius started upwards at the sound of that familiar voice. He twisted slightly to see Alex, hands in the pockets of her jeans, half smile playing around her lips as she strolled towards him. The forest stretched out in front of the little alcove around the side of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He pulled two butterbeers out of the inside of his robe, "I thought you'd find me here."
Alex sat down on the grass, legs crossed under herself, and took the bottle from his hands, "New's gone. The potion is really... It's gone."
"I know." Sirius glanced at the ground, "I can see it in your face."
"The world looks so small." Alex said, "That's what it feels like, I'm just left with this tiny little world and I live smack dab in the centre. I don't get to play the comic relief character in my own life anymore."
Sirius looked at her, "Is that better?"
"I don't know." Alex replied honestly, "But I can feel everything again. Everyone I... Everyone New killed, and my parents... I never really took the time to- to process. All those people. They're all gone."
"I know."
Alex stared down at her hands, that were wrapped around the butterbeer, "And I don't know who to blame."
"Typical bloody northerner." Sirius smiled slightly, "Do you need to blame someone?"
She pondered it for a minute, "I think so."
"Why?" Sirius asked with such a straightforwardness that Alex wondered for a moment what would have happened if she'd just left him in that cell.
"Because otherwise it's my fault." She answered.
"Okay, so it's your fault." Sirius allowed, "So go out there and spend every day making it up to them by being happy and kicking the shit out of some Death Eaters and living a long and full life."
Alex made a frustrated noise, "It's not that simple."
"It really is." Sirius argued simply.
"It's not."
"Is."
"Not."
"Is."
The corner of Alex's mouth twitched again for just a moment, "Not."
"See?" Sirius pointed triumphantly at her lips, "That's a smile right there. Keep hold of that. You aren't going to have a whole lot of them for a while. You've gotta make the ones you get count."
"Like right now?" Alex asked, curious as to what kind of response she would get.
Sirius just looked at her, "Is right now important?"
Her eyebrows furrowed in thought, "Feels like it."
"It doesn't matter, really." Sirius decided, "Smile when it's not important. Smile when everything's falling apart. Smile the whole bloody time."
"Why?"
"It pisses people off," Was the answer that Alex should have expected of that weird Gryffindor who had wormed his way into her life, "And that's what you do. Also... It looks good on you."
Alex raised her eyebrows, taking a long swig, "Is that right?"
Sirius grinned, but there was something far off about his expression, "My cousin sounded like she was telling you my whole life story when I got there."
"She was definitely trying." Alex laughed hollowly.
"So, what?" Sirius had his sarcastic voice on, "You didn't want to hear my full autobiography?"
"Oh, I do." Alex grinned, "But I like the way you tell it."
Sirius nodded in acknowledgement, "Smooth."
"I'm proud of myself for that one." Alex admitted, "Why don't you tell me what's up and then we can get back to being two repressive arsehole teenagers drinking alcohol on school property?"
"It's so hot when you manage to be both insulting and self deprecating." Sirius informed her.
Alex's grin widened, and she leant her head on his shoulder, "Stop avoiding the subject, Snuffles, or I'll tell Potter's parents you have fleas."
"When I ran away to Prongs', I thought it would get better." Sirius said, in that different kind of voice he only got out with her, "I thought we'd just go fight the bad guys and that was it. I didn't think some of the things I'd have to do... Leaving you to take Nymphy home didn't feel like I was doing the right thing. It felt super wrong."
Alex was no longer sure which of them was propping which up, "I hate real life. Don't you hate real life? It sucks. Sorry. Go on."
"And then when I saw Bella," His tone suddenly grew harsher, "And you with that wand, my first thought was that that couldn't be hers, because there's no way she would let you get that close. And I was right. We're still the same. I'm still a Black."
"Of course you are." Alex said, "Because you aren't a robot. You can't just beep boop change setting into something different. And to be honest, Bellatrix is super smart. There's nothing wrong with being super smart. It's how you use the super smartness to become either Thanos or Iron Man."
"I just..." He made a frustrated noise, "I thought I would feel better, but I don't. It's like I'm an imposter in the world of the Good Guys."
"Trust me, I've been there." She remarked darkly.
Sirius sighed, "And how the hell did you snap yourself out of it?"
"I don't actually know." She admitted.
"Helpful."
"Look, there are days where you're going to hate yourself, and think you're not good enough, and they are going to suck." She said, eyes shining, "And you aren't going to want to ask for help, because of some illogical reason that will seem logical at the time. And working around that will be like trying to walk through a brick wall."
"You're really pumping up the reassurance train here." He muttered.
"That's the point." Alex stressed, "Saying 'it's fine now' would be lying to you. It's not. This isn't some last-page shit, this is reality. And reality just goes on and on forever, even when your story finishes, and you will never get a chance to read the last page."
"Seriously." Sirius remarked in a not-at-all-meta way, "I feel way better."
"What you need is someone to remind you that you saved their life, over and over again, in more ways than one." Alex reached out tentatively and took his hand. Even though there was a layer of dirt and grime separating their palms, Sirius could still feel the warmth of her skin, "You saved me, Snuffles."
Sirius huffed a surprised laugh, "I was really ready for a moment there, and then you went and called me that."
"Aw, really?" Alex lifted her head and rested her chin on his shoulder to look at him, smiling slightly, "I think it's cute."
Sirius craned his neck to return her eye contact, "I'll make a note to use it more often, then."
"Hmmm." Alex's smile turned sweet, "When you try and do that with your head, you get a double chin."
He snorted, fiddling with her fingers where they interlocked with his own, "You aren't coming back to school next year."
She bit her lip and glanced away, "No."
"What are you going to do?" He asked.
"I don't know." Alex admitted, "I could be anything."
Sirius nudged her with his elbow, "Superhero."
"Ninja."
"Exorcist."
"Holistic detective."
"The person that writes Fortune Cookies."
"Photographer."
"Nah, you'd be rubbish at that one." Sirius' smile died as he watched her laugh, "I'm not going to see you again for a while, am I?"
Alex shrugged, "I don't know. But I want to. See you, I mean."
Sirius scoffed again, "Am I supposed to be impressed by your fancy words, Fawley?"
"Could you?" She asked earnestly, "It would really help with what I'm going to do next."
He pulled back slightly, almost as if he'd misheard, "And what's that?"
Alex felt the weight of the moment like something on her stomach. She lifted her head, looped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.
And for a second, the briefest of instances- and maybe it was just the whisper of a tree nymph on the wind- the whole world stopped for a second, and took a breath, and said 'You know what? Let's maybe not be an arsehole today.'
It was the most magical thing that had happened at that school in a long time.
{===}
A/N
Ladies, Gentlemen and variations thereupon,
I humbly welcome you to the end of Good Dog.
There will be an epilogue that will be up at some point this week, but this is the official finish line that Alex and Sirius (and also me, but I imagine myself giving up physical activity in favour of a mobility scooter to perform the race) and you have crossed. This has been over a year of my life and, to those who have been there since day one, thank you for your patience. Every comment means a lot, even the ones that contradict the other ones.
Mischief Managed,
BecauseBecky