Chapter One: Vision Of Black
Lucille Bones stood on the edge of the wall, first gazing at the velvety black sky, then looking down at the frightfully far below ground. She was at the courtyard on the West Tower and there was no one here but herself...or until that moment. She heard the beating of large wings and quickly stepped off the wall and hid behind an arch. To her complete surprise, she peeked around the edge of the arch to see Harry Potter and a girl from one of her Muggle Studies classes, Hermione Granger, with the hippogriff that the Malfoy boy had caused such a commotion about, and...Sirius Black. Lucille held back the scream begging to slip past her pale pink lips, but she was more intrigued than scared of the man she saw in front of her. She'd been in her third year when Sirius Black and his gang was in their seventh, but she remembered how good looking he was back then...every girl, including the third years like herself had aspired to be with him, silly as it may have seemed for a third year. Even now, Sirius was still as handsome as ever, and she blushed at her thoughts. Lucille couldn't believe that Sirius was a criminal. She'd seen how close James Potter and Sirius had been in school, there must have been some mistake. And there was no way that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger would help a criminal. Lucille tried to hear what the threesome was talking about, but she couldn't hear a single word. She moved slightly, hoping to be able to hear better, but quickly shifted out of sight as she saw Sirius glance in her direction. Lucille could only hope and pray that he'd not seen her, but as she braved a second glance, she'd seen that he was now seated on the hippogriff and Harry and Hermione were watching as Sirius left, flying far into the distance. Lucille waited until the two ran past her down the stairs. She breathed a sigh of relief and pushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes. She was alone again, as she wandered about the courtyard, lonely as usual. The silence seemed to grow louder and louder, until she finally heard the clatter of claws on the stoned floor. Lucille twisted about, her round blue eyes widening in fright. What if Sirius had come back? She swore he'd seen her, after all. Glancing around, she saw nothing and relaxed letting out a sigh. A moment too soon, unfortunately, she found as she felt a large, rough hand grasp her around the neck and a knife at her throat, right under the left side of her jaw.
"Don't scream," growled a low voice, and he half turned her around to face him.
