"---and down at the races this past Saturday I saw the most magnificent horse, chestnut with a gold--yes, Miss Reynolds, what is the problem?" A very irritated Sirius Black asked tersely.

"Oh nothing." The aforementioned Aislinn said sweetly. "I was just hoping you wouldn't mind moving your infuriatingly large head out of my way."

"Excuse me?" He asked icily. "I rather believe that it's your abnormally loud mouth that's interrupting our conversation." He gestured towards the tall and very handsome black haired man standing in front of him.

"A conversation about horses is worth interrupting." She shot back witheringly. "I sincerely doubt that Mister Potter was unhappy to have it stopped."

"Oh really?" He snarled.

"Really." She growled, standing up to face him. They were standing nose to nose, her in a pale peach dress, cut just low enough to reveal a bit of cleavage, and he in the suit and vest appropriate for Almacks. With her dark brown hair and flashing purple eyes she seemed much taller than her rather measly 5'4 stature, while he, slouched as he was, seemed to be around 5'9, where, in reality, he was almost six feet tall.

"Aislinn." Emma said sharply. "Sit down! You're causing a scene."

As if finally realizing where exactly she was, Aislinn took a quick glance around and blushed furiously at the curious looks being darted their way. "You'll pay for this, Black." She hissed under her breath, grabbing a corner of her dress with a hand, intending to sweep away to the other side of the dance hall.

Unfortunately, he grabbed her wrist, effectively impairing her plan to dramatically leave. "And why on earth should I pay?" He snapped. "You're the one who insulted me!"

"Padfoot." James sighed. "Leave it. You don't want to get booted out like last week."

"I was simply a little over-intoxicated." Sirius said stiffly, drawing himself up straight. "They had no right to throw me out."

"I rather think that if a patron of Almack's started singing and dancing the waltz with a wine bottle, while steadily removing the clothes he had on, they would throw him out as fast as they could." A voice came mildly from behind them.

"Remus!" Aislinn said with relief. "Finally. Tell this idiot to let go of my wrist."

Remus simply looked at him, and Sirius dropped it as if he had been burned.

"Now." Aislinn said haughtily. "If you two gentleman will excuse us, we must be going."

As they moved towards the dance floor, she heard Sirius mutter, "That was actually rather rude."

"Well," Remus said, amused. "She wasn't wrong."

"Moony..."

Hiding her giggle behind her matching peach fan, Aislinn turned to her friends, the beautiful belle of society, Miss Emma Samuels and Miss Jodi Evans, the richest young lady in London. "I think that went rather well, don't you?"

Emma rolled her eyes and snapped, "You know perfectly well that did not go well! Aislinn, when will you learn that these encounters with Black will never lead to anything good?"

"Oh please," She sniffed. "I learned that quite a while ago."

"Then why do you even bother?" Emma cried exasperatedly. "I mean," She said, lowering her voice after glancing around. "He's a worthless idiot, we all know that."

Jodi blinked her large brown eyes up at the both of them, her voice sweet and innocent. "Yes, Aislinn, I agree with her. I suggest we just avoid him in the future." She told them earnestly.

Stifling a sound of annoyance, Aislinn threw her fan down on the nearest velvet covered chair. "I know, I know. Will you both stop nagging?"

After a quick glance around, Emma daintily picked up her skirts and settled gracefully in a chair. "We're not nagging. We're trying to save your marriage prospects. Which, at this point, do not look good, no matter how much you might deny it."

"Oh yes, that is true." Jodi nodded, plopping down in a chair herself.

With an infuriated sigh, Aislinn also took her place in the middle of the two and leaned back, not bothering to place her dance card in front of her, as tradition dictated. She narrowed her eyes as she caught sight of Black already in the middle of a dance with a beautiful black-haired girl, who certainly couldn't be more than fifteen.

In fact, Aislinn knew quite well her marriage prospects weren't doing too well. While Emma might have had, in reality, quite a temper, and Jodi her messy streak, Aislinn was simply a hotpot of undesirable traits. For one, while Emma might have been able to hide her temper in order to land a good match, Aislinn had no such luck. Her temper burst out of her whenever it felt like it, and when it did, it really was somewhat deadly. Another problem was perhaps, her biting tongue. That was another thing she absolutely couldn't control, no matter how much her mother told her off for it.

However, the one quality of hers that practically decimated her hopes for a good marriage were something that was visible no matter how hard anyone tried: her freckles. She was cursed with them, it was true. They weren't large, or extraordinarily bright, by any means, but they were there, and no matter how much she stayed out of the sun, and how much pure white cream she slathered over her face, those dratted spots just wouldn't disappear. And since fair, creamy skin was one of the things wanted for every girl of marriageable age, she knew perfectly well that she was doomed.

However, that didn't mean she was just going to sit down and accept her fate.

There was a very good chance that her older sister, Mary, was going to end up a spinster, and Aislinn had no intentions of there being two old maids in the Reynolds household.

"Would you like to dance?" A handomse blond man bowed low to Emma.

She smiled prettily up at him, all signs of a scowl disappearing. "Why yes, I would love to." She daintily placed her perfectly manicured hand in his and he led her away, to dance the promenade.

Within another few moments, Jodi was also scooped up by a suitor and Aislinn was left alone...again.

With a sigh, she looked around and realized that there was no man in Almack's who was willing to give this particular dance to her.

So, to save her pride, she carefully climbed to her feet, unconsciously brushing at her skirts and made her way to the door of Almacks. Signaling to her mother, she swept out the door and fetched her coat from the boy in charge of the coat room. Dropping an extra coin into his hand, she nodded for him to call the carriage.

In another moment her mother joined her, shaking off warm goodbyes from her numerous friends. "Ready to leave already, dear?" Her mother asked sarcastically. "It's only been an hour or so."

Ignoring her completely, Aislinn climbed into the carriage with the help of their footman, shivering slightly in the cold night air. Once inside, she wrapped her coat around her tightly and stared out the window as the carriage jolted into movement, rattling over the cobblestones.

And as the starry night reflected in her purple eyes, she wondered and worried, as she did every moment of her life, about what was to happen next.

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Lol, so I know it's not a GREAT beginning, but hey, I needed to get a lot of the formalities in. :) I really really hope that you guys will review, because, like I have said numerous times, I LIVE OFF OF THEM. :D

So please read and review!

Fanta-Faerie