Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter or The Whitlams
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We stumble into each other's lives and we knock some things over
Try not to make a sound
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"Do you have eyes Black?"
"Of course"
"Might be handy if you used them once in awhile" Ally snapped, snatching her wand and glasses off the ground. Her shoulder was smarting from where his had collided with her own but Ally stubbornly refused to acknowledge it. Sirius was about to make her late, again.
Sirius straightened and handed her the manila folder that had toppled to the ground on impact. "I apologize," Sirius replied coolly, his eyes keenly following her movements as she tugged her cloak back into place.
"Oh you're so sincere" Ally rolled her eyes heaven wards before grabbing the folder with a sweep of her hand. With everything back in her grasp the young woman turned on her heel only to come face to face with the clanging of the elevator doors shutting.
"Unbelievable! You are unbelievable!" Ally whirled round to find the cause of her misfortunes to be leaning casually against the back wall, like he'd been there for years, smirking in a way that made heat rise to her cheeks. And it wasn't because he was looking exceptionally handsome with his hair falling in his eyes like that. 'If he only got it cut once in a while the female population might fair better', Ally thought in disgust.
"It was an accident!" Black exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air as if he had not contributed at all to the fact that she had to now wait for the elevator to go down four floors so he could get off at the Trainee Aurors offices, before heading back up to her own floor. She was already late as it was. Sarkson was going to have her head.
"After the accident has repeated itself four times in the past week, it starts to look a little less like an accident and a little more like sabotage," Ally crossed her arms and remained by the elevator doors, not daring to get any closer incase she did something drastic. And that something could range from slapping him silly to kissing him senseless. She couldn't take any chances.
"You think I'm deliberately making you late and stalling you so that you have to spend an extra two minutes in my company." Sirius raised an eyebrow skeptically and the smirk widened, turning cocky. Because Sirius Black couldn't be anything but cocky, prancing around like a peacock, showing off his colours and out shining everyone around him. Ally's eyes narrowed.
"So that you can effectively torture me and seduce me at the same time, yes."
Sirius's head tilted to the side and the corners of his eyes crinkled. Ally realized her hands were trembling and quickly hid them away in her pockets. It wouldn't do to have Sirius know he could effect her, not after she'd worked so hard to remain indifferent. Well at least to appear that way. Pushing off from the wall he came towards her, slowly, his grey eyes darkening like a storm. Ally fully expected to hear a rumble of thunder.
"Care to come with me to the Three Broomsticks after work, grab a Butterbeer. Everyone is meeting over there."
"No thanks," She replied instantly, her jaw suddenly set.
"Shame," Sirius eyed her thoroughly, his expression unreadable. But his voice was clipped as he spoke further, "you had no problem coming along last week."
"That's because it wasn't you who invited me," Ally said sweetly, enjoying being able to ruffle those perfectly preened feathers.
"If it was Remus who extended the invitation, would you accept?" His tone was icy now, daring her to agree. He should have known not to dare her at all.
"Certainly, there's no one better to spend an evening with" She complied with a bright smile, feeling victorious as Sirius clenched his jaw and his shoulders tensed. Her victory however, was short lived as he suddenly broke into a wide grin and the elevator dinged.
"Well this is me. I'll be seeing you later Ally."
And he left. She did not like how sure he had sounded about meeting again. She did not like it at all. Ally thought she'd beaten him, finally had one over the infamous Sirius Black. But instead she was more flummoxed than when she stepped onto the elevator to find him inside. Again. This game he was playing was getting dangerous. There were going to be casualties.
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Ally walked wearily out of the lecture hall, leaning her head from side to side and smiling softly when she heard a satisfying cracking noise. Rubbing the back of her sore neck she started down the long corridor and felt someone fall into step beside her.
"You picked a bad day to walk in late," Rupert said, laughter in his voice.
"Don't remind me," Ally groaned, closing her eyes at the thought. Sarkson had had her head, and the rest of her. She was surprised she was still standing after the tongue lashing he had given her. The man was death.
"Well it's not like he was talking about anything of importance when you came in. The whole session was a terrible bore in fact."
Ally nodded in agreement. The theory class had been terrible. The subject matter was something to rival one of Binns's lesson and still red in the face from her encounter with Black and the chagrin of her teacher, Ally had retreated to the back and tuned out for the whole hour and a half. It probably wasn't the most intelligent thing to do, the information was probably important. But she had been in no state to absorb anything of the kind. Ally had seen Margo frantically scribbling notes all through the class and knew she would gladly lend them to her. Sometimes Ally really regretted her choice of career. The study and workload was incomprehensibly high. But she supposed that to be a Research Healer you had to know your stuff. You did of course, hold the future of wizardry medicine in your hands. Research Healer's were the scientist of the magical world. They were behind the scenes, making discoveries and finding cures and solutions, paving the way for further knowledge to be uncovered or doing it themselves. Ally thought she must be crazy to think she could handle that. But it suited her. She didn't have the best people skills. She'd much rather be fiddling with potions than dealing with patients.
Ally was knocked from her thoughts by a paper plane whizzing past her nose and smacking into Rupert's upper arm. The man started in surprise and bent to carefully retrieve the crumpled parchment.
"It's for you," He said, reading the wing. He held it out for her to take. Scrunching up her nose like she always did when she was puzzled, Ally plucked it gently from his grasp and unfolded it gingerly. And a slow grin spread across her face.
"What is it?" Rupert questioned curiously.
"An invitation to go to the Three Broomsticks," Ally glanced up at him, dark eyes twinkling.
"Who from?"
"A man worth spending the evening with," Her grin widened and she pushed her glasses up on top of her head. This would drive him around the bend, she knew it. "I'll be seeing you later Rupert," Ally said brightly before waving and leaving her friend standing in the hallway, thoroughly confused.
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Arriving at the Apparition point in Hogsmeade, Ally caught herself just in time, her shoes slipping in the slushy snow.
"Oh bugger," Ally moaned as she took in the saturated hem of her coat.
"You never were all that careful with yourself," An amused voice floated from the shadows behind her and the brunette spun, almost ending up on the ground again. Remus emerged from the darkness, a warm smile on his face and Ally heaved a sigh of relief. Thank Merlin it wasn't a self assured smirk that was greeting her now.
"You aren't clumsy or accident prone, well maybe a little accident prone but really, you just don't look out for yourself" Remus's smile widened some more, showing all his teeth and his face look remarkably younger in the yellow glow of the street lamp "I remember, sixth year, walking down the fifth floor corridor. You were walking backwards so you could face me, complaining quite passionately about the misuse of the broom cupboard outside Ravenclaw's Common Room. You didn't see the staircase and you didn't hear my warnings and then…" Remus rotated his index fingers around each other, demonstrating the way she had descended the stairs, "broke your left arm in two places and had some nasty bruises even I was in awe of. Madame Pomfrey fixed you up in no time but I think she was getting quite sick of the sight of you in her hospital beds."
Ally's giggle rang out in the crisp winter air and she stepped forward, throwing her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. "I wasn't there that often," She muttered sheepishly, her eyes reverting to the ground.
"You were there more than me and I made monthly visits," Remus affirmed, holding her by her shoulders at arms length and arching an eyebrow.
"Half the time those visits were caused by your charming friends," Ally glared at him and pushed against his shoulder, though the corner of her lips were twitching.
"That's because you reacted so well. You yelled back at them, they loved it."
Ally huffed but her companion knew she wasn't being serious. Remus had plenty of experience with the Ravenclaw pretending to be annoyed. Their whole relationship started out from annoyance. There was this one table in the library. Both had discovered it and both had taken claim to it. It was situated out of sight from Pince's hawk eye. A window next to it let in the winter sun, warming you and making everything that much brighter, and in the summer you could open it to a sweeping breeze that made studying quite pleasant. And it was close enough to all the needed books that you wouldn't destroy your back lugging a pile from the shelves. Pity both of them wanted it. They fought over it for about a month before grudgingly agreeing to share it. Turns out they didn't have that many things to dislike about the other and took to doing most of their studying at that table, with the other person present.
"What are you doing loitering around here anyway," Ally asked him as they started to walk through the half melted snow.
"Didn't like the idea of you walking through Hogsmeade by yourself," Remus stated, trying to appear nonchalant with his hands pushed deep into his pockets.
Ally stared at him, her breath misting in the air in great puffs. "What, walking two hundred meters down a lit street. I can take care of myself Mr Lupin"
All she received was a sidelong glance and Ally quickly looked to the ground. She was no fool and was in no way naïve to the state of things in their world. It was a dangerous time, the darkness slowly creeping across until it engulfed everything. Ally wasn't in the Order but she knew about it, knew it was a resistance. Her brother had told her as much when he joined but that was all she knew. Ally had an inkling that Remus was also a member, which meant Black and Potter would be to, and if he was in deep enough to know that it wasn't wise to walk two minutes to the pub alone, then there was something to worry about.
"You alright, Remus?" Ally asked quietly, sending a glance his way before focusing forward again. She could make out the silhouettes of people in the pub window now. It looked busy, not overcrowded, but warm and welcoming.
"Course. I'm always alright," Remus tried to reassure her with a half smile but knew he couldn't hide the trace of sadness in it. He wouldn't be able to fool the girl that had always read him so well. "Just taking everything day by day, you know"
Ally nodded and left it at that. She figured it would be hard, nothing in life had ever been easy for Remus and it always made her ache a little. That someone so deserving and gentle, couldn't have the best in life. Ally swallowed slowly. "Thanks," she muttered and smiled softly as he held the door open for her, walking into a wave of noise and warmth.