CHAPTER ONE: What Do You Think?

Holly Maywater was a sixth year Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a particularly quiet student who had few friends and was not often seen in the company of anyone, or even in the common rooms at all. She couldn't be said to be a disagreeable or unattractive girl with her beautiful copper curls that hung gracefully down her back and framed her face. Her eyes were a radiant blue and her build was just slightly stocky.

Holly tended to spend her afternoons and evenings in the company of her textbooks and, to her amazement during second year (when this habit begun) spent the late nights in the company of the singularly most sought after wizard in Hogwarts – Sirius Black. Holly and Sirius had become acquaintances through being the self-dubbed 'Insomniacs of Gryffindor'. The two would sit in front of the fire late at night and talk about anything that came to mind until they were tired enough to go to sleep. It was a silent agreement not to ask why the other couldn't sleep.

Holly enjoyed her late evenings with Sirius. They seemed to always cheer each other up. However, Holly did not always get on with Sirius' friends. This was because Peter Pettigrew had taken a dislike to her as far back as her first year. In fact all of Holly's most noticeable traits had something to do with Pettigrew. These included: quietness, lack of trust in others, lack of self-esteem and the over abundance of jeans and t-shirts in her wardrobe.

Holly was now sitting on the grass outside Hogwarts castle peering up at the night sky. She never really saw anything new, but Holly often wondered that if she found something new, maybe she would be accepted at Hogwarts. Either way, Holly thought that the night sky was the most beautiful and mystical thing in the world.

On the other side of the grounds, Sirius Black, Gryffindor beater and one quarter of the infamous Marauders, had just broken up with his latest girlfriend and decided that since he managed to do it without the girl wailing her heart out he deserved a nice moonlit stroll to clear his head. Sirius was what your typical girl dreamed about. The bad boy, the mystery, the rebel. He was tall and well built, had shoulder length black wavy hair and piercing gray eyes.

As Sirius walked across the grounds in the moonlight, taking note of the phase the moon was in; he noticed a lone figure sitting on the grass looking up at the sky. As he got closer he realized that it was Holly Maywater. He trudged over and sat down next to her trying to figure out what she was looking for in the clear, crisp night sky.

Holly felt someone sit down beside her. There was no mistaking the scent of that cologne – it was Sirius. She could feel his gaze on her and so, to break the silence she said dryly and without turning her head,

"How did that one take it?"

Letting out a small laugh at how well this shy girl had come to know him, he answered,

"Well, she didn't cry…or slap me, so I'd say she took it rather well. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Looking for new constellations." Was the only answer he got. Deciding that he probably wouldn't understand anyway, he said,

"Have I ever told you that you are very weird?"

After he had said this Sirius hoped that she wouldn't get angry or upset. He knew that she often felt left out from the populous of the school. But, much to his relief she only stood and answered jovially,

"Everyday, Sirius, everyday."

He escorted her back to Gyffindor tower and upon entering the common room they said goodnight quietly and he rejoined the other Marauders, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, who were lounging around the fire talking about Lily Evans…well, James was talking about Lily and everyone else was pretending to be listening whilst zoning out entirely.

Before sitting down he noticed that, as always, Holly went straight up to her dormitory without talking to anyone else. He silently wished that Lily and her best friend, Natalie West, would try harder to befriend the girl, but what can you do?

The rest of the night passed quite uneventfully and calmly, if you don't include James tuning Peter's hair fluro-green and he, Remus and Sirius forgetting to tell him about it.

The next morning Holly woke up early and decided to go downstairs and read by the fire for a while. There wouldn't be many people there and she could avoid Pettigrew…or so she thought.

As she entered the common room she quickly spotted them. Peter Pettigrew and James Potter sitting in front of the fire. Cursing herself for not putting on her jeans and t-shirt and coming downstairs in her wife-beater and pajama pants she decided that Pettigrew and Potter could go to hell. She sat down on a couch and began to read, only looking up when she heard Pettigrew's voice say,

"Love the PJ's, Maywater, maybe you could loan then to Natalie sometime. They would look way better on her…less rolls."

Holly felt that familiar twist in her stomach as she raised herself from the couch and ran up the stairs towards her dorm.

Sirius was just wandering down the stairs to meet up with James and Peter when he was almost knocked over by a retreating, pajama-clad Holly. Grabbing her shoulders to steady her and him he playfully said,

"Nice PJ's, Hol."

At this Holly ran up the stairs and slammed the door to her dorm room behind her. As she stormed around the room getting dressed she furiously thought,

'I thought he was different; obviously he's just like they all say he is. Just like that git Pettigrew. I am never going to speak to any of the stupid Marauders again!'

She did just that. Ignored the lot of them. She even ignored Remus in the library one day when all he said was "hello". She felt slightly guilty about that, but it was his own fault for being friends with a bunch of insensitive gits.

About a month after the incident in the common room, Holly wandered through the portrait hole after a late study session in the library only to be faced with an empty Gryffindor common room all except for a single figure with long dark hair sitting, brooding in front of a dying fire. As she passed him Sirius grabbed her wrist to stop her. All she did was look at his hand on her small wrist. After an uncomfortable silence he asked her why she hadn't spoken to him in a month. She didn't know what to say.

"Why would he care if I'm dead or alive, let alone talking to him?' she thought to herself, however, she answered,

"I don't know what you're talking about, Black. Let go of me. I want to go to bed."

Sirius was shocked. He had obviously done something to make her angry with him, but what he didn't know. 'And since when has she called me 'Black'? That names is usually reserved for Slytherins, ex-girlfriends, and Evans.' thought Sirius. He gathered all his courage to get to the bottom of this. He would usually just ignore the whole issue if it was outside the Marauders, but for some reason he couldn't. He finally said,

"What's wrong, Holly? Please tell me what I've done. Even just slap me, or scream at me, but don't ignore me, please, Hol. I'm worried about you."

Sirius' tough exterior faltered as he spoke. He was truly worried about his hermit-like friend. Quite to his surprise, she remained calm and quietly said,

"Don't lie to either of us, Sirius. We both know how you and your friends think of me."

Still Sirius held onto the young girl. Yet now there was a question burned to the back of his mind, 'How do I think about her?' As soon as that thought appeared he could not help but ask her,

"How do I think of you, Holly?"

"I'll tell you what, Black, go and ask Pettigrew what he thinks of me. I will guarantee that you will agree with him. Besides how else would someone like you think about someone like me? If, by some odd chance, you don't agree with your friends, you are completely mad, because, believe me, everything they say is true."

As Holly's eyes began to tear up Sirius let go of her arm and allowed her to run up away just as her eyes had been pleading him to do. Sirius then immediately bounded up the stairs to the seventh-year boys dorm. He walked straight over to Peter's bed, drew the curtains and shook the sleeping boy awake.

"Wormtail. Wormtail, mate. Wake up. I need your help."

"What's the problem, Padfoot? It's one in the morning!"

The small, slightly pudgy boy with thin blonde hair and blue eyes looked up at his friend with slight irritation.

"What do you think of Hol?" Asked Sirius.

Quite to Sirius' annoyance Peter answered,

"What's 'Hol'?"

"'Who's Hol.' Hol is a person, Wormtail. Holly Maywater. What do you think of her?"

"Well, what's there to think about Maywater? I mean she's not really anything to think about, is she? Actually, she's not really anything at all."

Sirius was staring at Peter in disbelief. Holly had told him that he would agree with Peter and if he didn't he should. At last Sirius snapped out of his shock.

"Wormtail?"

"Hmm?"

"You're wrong."

And with that, young Mr. Black went to bed leaving a bewildered Peter sitting on his bed wondering why Sirius had just asked him about MAYWATER!

A/N: This is my first fic, so please review and tell me what you think. Hopefully I can update in a few days.