Warning - there is swearing in this chapter so if any of you have a problem with it then sorry in advance. Also if any of you are younger readers, from now and onward into seventh year this fic will slowly get a bit darker. Thanks for reading! :)
Al decided not to show Harry the photo she'd uncovered, mainly because she had no idea for sure who the people were. But also because he seemed to be a little bit mad at her - presumably too much time spent with Ron and Hermione.
Soon enough the first Hogsmeade weekend rolled around and Al headed down into the village with Daphne, Theo, and Draco. It was a beautiful afternoon so all the windows of the quaint little cottages sparkled in the sunlight. First off they went to the sweetshop, honeydukes, which blew Al's mind. Not only were there hundreds on new sweets to try, but they also had all sorts of bizarre magical effects. "Look at these ones!" she exclaimed, dragging her friends over to something called 'fizzing whizbees'.
"Have you never seen them before?" Theo said, biting into some taster fudge that was being handed out.
"Er..." Al didn't know what to say. She hadn't known Daphne and Theo for as long as she'd known Draco, and didn't know if they could be trusted.
"Her parents are really strict," Draco answered for her with an encouraging smile towards her.
"Yeah, they don't really let me eat many sweets," she piped up. This was a complete lie - her Ma and Pa gave her anything she wanted. If she didn't have any self control she'd be morbidly overweight by now.
"Well in that case..." Theo said with a grin. The four of them spent the good part of an hour picking out various sweets for Al to try. From the pick and mix and little boxes of fudge flies and peppermint toads. Al wasn't sure if they could carry it all.
After they left honeydukes, Daphne led the way to one of the larger buildings - a pub called, The Three Broomsticks. Inside it was absolutely rammed with students from different years. Daphne and Theo shoved through the crowds with the sweets to a free table they'd spotted, while Draco led the way to the bar. "Four butterbeers," Draco ordered.
"Please," Al added with a smile, which the barmaid returned. Draco rolled his eyes at her, "manners cost nothing," she reminded him with a little shove. The barmaid returned with four mugs of golden frothy liquid that smelled like syrup.
"Two galleons, four sickles please lovlies," she said, plonking the tray down in front of them.
Draco started digging in his pockets, but Al stopped him, "I'll get these."
"OK," he said taking the tray and carrying it over to Daphne and Theo.
Just as she'd handed over her money, one of the older students stood next to her turned around, "That told him," he said with a smile. He was stood with two other students and was much taller than her. All three of them looked strong and quite intimidating.
"Sorry?" she replied, turning to face him.
"Malfoy," he continued, furrowing his brow, "he was being a little shit and you put him in his place."
"Draco's my friend," she told the group.
The other two boys snickered into their mead, "You're fiery," one of them said with raised eyebrows.
The guy she was talking to smiled, "Alright," he said, taking a sip of his own pint, "Just trying to be nice," and he turned around to talk to his friends again.
Al wandered over to her group, who'd been watching her, and noticed they'd spread all the sweets out to try, "What did they want?" Daphne asked her as she sat down.
"Oh, er... They were just saying I didn't look old enough to be taking Hogsmeade visits," she lied, sipping the butterbeer. She smiled as it filled her with warm.
"Gryffindor seventh years," Theo told her, "Aka massively full of themselves."
"OK, well no worries," she said with a smile, "let's eat these sweets!"
*****
Al yawned as she headed back to the common room with her friends. She'd just been at the Halloween feast, so naturally she had a very full belly and was ready for a nice early night. Just as they passed the toilet, she spoke to Draco, "I'm just going to nip to the loo - meet you in the common room." He nodded and continued his conversation with Theo as Al left the swarm of Slytherins.
After she was done, she headed down to the common room as promised. But when she arrived, something seemed off. She said the password to get in, and the wall parted to reveal a completely empty common room - there weren't even any of the regular older years snogging. How odd.
She shrugged it off and headed to her dorm, but when she opened the door, that was empty too. Something was definitely not right. She decided to knock on one of the older years' doors and ask for a prefect, but none of them answered either. Where was everyone? She headed back to the common room to see if anyone else had arrived, but she was sorely disappointed.
Grabbing her wand from her pocket, Al ventured back into the corridors to find someone else. She was just heading along the first floor history corridor, when someone called out behind her, "Al!" She whipped round to see Lupin striding towards her, panic in his eyes, "What are you doing? Why aren't you with the others?" He had his wand out too, and was very on edge.
"I don't know where anyone is, Professor!" she told him, unable to feel fully relieved that she'd found someone, "My common room was empty! What's going on?"
He paused for a moment, "Sirius Black has been spotted in the castle," he finally said and Al's stomach dropped.
"Is Harry okay? Did they find him yet?" she asked, the recent relief gone too soon.
"Harry's fine," Lupin promised, placing a hand on her shoulder and steering her back along the corridor, "Let's get you to the others."
It was then that Al remembered the picture she'd found that she'd been carrying around with her, "Professor...I-I need to show you something," she said, digging it out her pocket. They stopped walking and she unfolded it and peered at it. She was about to hand it over, when she gasped, having finally realised who the boy reading the book was. He was the spit of Lupin. He had the same nose and eyes - even the same scars. So he knew whether Black was an animagus or not.
The trusting feeling Al had had before was now gone. "Yes?" Lupin asked expectantly. Al tucked the picture away, making sure she had a firm hold of her wand.
"Just a letter from my parents," she lied, "My Pa's not very well and my Ma said I should tell someone at school."
Lupin looked at her suspiciously and Al's palms began to sweat as she gripped her wand even tighter. Finally he spoke, "Ah. Thank you for letting me know. I hope he gets well soon." He smiled and led the way to the Great Hall, but Al didn't once take her eyes off his wand hand.