About
halfway through the journey, a girl their own age fell into their
compartment. She was a Ravenclaw, but she was unfamiliar. She
had…interesting hair, to say the least. 'Probably dyed' He
thought as he looked at her interestedly. It was like lynx fur,
complete with the markings. She had pretty, innocent hazel eyes which
seemed strangely familiar to all the four boys. 'Hmm…nice figure
too…' he thought vaguely.
"Sorry…I got pushed. "
She said self-consciously, picking herself up again and walking
out.
All four marauders looked out of the compartment. Nearby was
Severus Snape. Sirius and James advanced on him.
"'Sup,
Snivelly? Haven't been bullying any new girls already, have we? "
Sirius said, looking for any excuse to hex Snape.
"No, just
showing a bloodtraitor brat where her place is. "
"Tsk…honestly,
Snivellus, I don't need any help at attracting more girls, you
should know that by now." Sirius said sleekly, then turned to
James, "How shall we educate Severino today ? You choose. "
"How
about leaving him alone? " A female voice said from behind him.
He felt a wand poking him between the shoulder blades, so he relaxed
his wand arm to his side, and turned his head to look at the owner of
the wand. It was the girl from earlier.
"Why hello there,
darling…what's your name? Better be something decent. " He
said in what he thought was a smooth manner, smiled at her, and
turned to face her properly. 'Oh yeah, I've still got it…' He
thought. The girl remained unimpressed.
"Still picking on
Snape, Black? Seems you haven't grown up at all since first year. "
She said silkly, raising an eyebrow.
'Huh? How come she knows my
name? …She's probably already heard of me…what can I say ? The
ladies love me. ' He thought smugly.
He raised his eyebrows at
her, "Excuse me? One, I was sticking up for you; two, it's
obvious i have grown up, sweetie…"
"I can take care of
myself. " She turned to walk away.
"Allegra? "
Someone called from a nearby compartment. Lily Evans came from behind
James, walking towards the girl. By now, Snape had long
gone. Remus and Peter looked curiously out of the
compartment.
"Lily…is that you? " The girl's eyes
widened. With that, they hugged like sisters. Sirius glanced at James
quizzically. James rolled his eyes Sirius. Sirius suddenly got why
the girl was so familiar.
"Legs? " He said, slightly
open-mouthed. Lily and Allegra began to walk away.
"Finally
it dawns on him. " Allegra called over her shoulder. Soon, the
girls were long gone.
"It's alright, you can breathe now,
she's gone. " James rolled his eyes (yet again) at his
gobsmacked friend. They both made their way back to their
compartment. Five minutes went by, and yet Sirius still hadn't said
anything. James noticed the abnormality of this, and tried to start a
conversation (or rather, to confess his newlyfound love for a certain
person).
"Well, she looks…different."He said
slyly.
"As in hot? Yes, she is smouldering. " Sirius
suddenly said.
Remus and James exchanged significant
looks.
"Sirius…remember first year? Remember how you
constantly teased her? I doubt she's forgotten that. "Remus
told him truthfully. Sirius' face fell.
"…but that was in
first year, ok? We've both grown up a lot since then…"
Sirius started, but was interrupted by James.
"Well, you'll
have to prove it to her that you have. I'm sorry, Padfoot, but I
agree with Moony on this one. "
"Did you see his
face? He looked like he'd been slapped! " Lily burst out
laughing as soon as they got into Lily's compartment.
" I
know…if you didn't turn up I would have ! " Allegra smiled.
She'd miss Lily, her only proper friend since she moved to a
different school after her first year.
"So, how come you've
escaped from Beauxbatons? " Lily asked. It was because of her
father's anger at Allegra making friends with muggleborns that he
sent her there.
"He's dead. Died last summer. It turns out
my mum had secretly left me some money behind, so I left home, got my
own place and arranged to come here instead. " Allegra answered.
Her father wasn't the nicest of men. Then again, neither were her
family- they were pure-blood obsessed maniacs and disliked Allegra a
lot for many reasons. "It's lucky, seeing as I'd have had to
married that guy he set me up with since I was born, last summer. "
She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"That's a bonus, I
guess…getting married as soon as you come of age is a bit harsh.
"Lily said sympathetically. She couldn't imagine her parents
marrying her off to a stranger like that.
"Yeah…I think the
last time I saw the guy was went I was four. " She rolled her
eyes, trying to forget the name of the guy, "So, is Potter still
madly in love with you? "
Lily smiled, "It's been that
long? Well, yes. "
"Have you revised your opinion of
him? "
"Ally! You make it sound like he's a book !"
Lily shook her head at her friend in a good-natured way.
"Well,
you know what they say, you can't judge a book by its' cover. "
"He's tolerable, I guess. Which is good seeing as he's
head boy, and I'll have to spend lots of time planning events etc.
"
"Well, that's an improvement. " Allegra
smiled. Was Lily beginning to like James?
"What happened to
your hair? Did you dye it?"
"No, it turned this way. You
know how I told you when I was six, I hid from my family in a muggle
zoo? "
"And you transformed into a lynx? How could I
not. It's interesting that your hair is similar to the animal you
tranformed into…" Lily mused.
"Yeah, I know."
Allegra shifted uncomfortably.
"It suits you. It's
different in a cool way."
"Mmm…I prefer it to how it
used to be, y'know, that mousey colour? " Allegra pulled a
face.
"Well, you've certainly been noticed already…"
Lily smiled mysteriously.
"What do you mean? "
"You
haven't noticed the way that Black's been looking at you? "
"He's
probably thinking of the next way to humiliate me, Lils."
"No…I
am not blind, Al. The way his eyes were moving across your body, it
was liking he was mentally undressing you. " Lily stated grimly.
"Urgh…Lily…that's gross. " Allegra grimaced,
trying to stop the hundreds of wrong mental images from flooding her
brain.
"That's boys for you, babydoll. Looks like he thinks
you're this week's new fling. "
"Well, he can think
again. I still don't forget first year. "
"I know,
honey. But I can think of one thing that can cheer us up…chocolate!
" Lily said, whipping a big bar of Cadbury's chocolate out of
her rucksack.
"Cadbury's…where have you been hiding for
the last 5 lonely years of my life! " Allegra exclaimed before
digging in to her half of the chocolate.
By Friday that week, it was common knowledge that Sirius Black's new prey was Allegra Moore. Allegra soon got pretty tired of girls who used to refuse to be her potion partner now coming up to her in break and gushing about pointless stuff that always seemed to be about the one thing that was irritating her the most- Sirius Black. Sirius, on the other hand, was either seen in the library (Madam Pince almost died of shock when he was actually reading a book, not making out with some Hufflepuff.) or casually bumping into Allegra in between classes. By the end of the week, he couldn't get why she wasn't making out with him and frequent intervals in the broom cupboard.
"Something's wrong with me, Moony, I feel…weird. Ill
maybe. " Sirius groaned, collapsing on his bed.
"Is it
girl-related?" Remus asked, Sirius nodded, "Maybe you
should give her some space and try to get to know her properly?
Allegra doesn't seem the type of girl who will fall for anyone
easily. "
"I know, I have known her since we were four,
Moony. I met her then because our parents were planning an arranged
marriage for us, being the disturbed people they are, for Merlin's
sake. "
Flashback
"Sirius, please try to behave yourself at the Moores' house. " A hassled Walburga Black scolded her oldest son, while combing baby Regulus' hair. Her husband rolled his eyes at her nagging. The four year old remained unbothered about his mother's moaning, and continued to play with his favourite toy, a little black motorbike.
Sirius was bored. His mother was gossiping with
some other ladies, and his father was deep in conversation with Mr.
Moore, the host of the dinner party. As both his parents were
ignoring him, he decided to explore this strange and new house. His
older cousins were playing with their dolls in another room, but they
shooed him away. There were a variety of people in most of the other
rooms, and Sirius decided there and then that he was hungry, and
decided to find the kitchen. Eventually, he found it. There were half
a dozen house elves hard at work, and a girl about his own age
struggling to wash up dishes.
"What are you doing ? " He
asked curiously. She dropped the plate she was washing, and it
crashing to the ground, shattering into pieces. They could hear
raised voices and footsteps fast approaching nearby.
"Why
did you do that ? Now Daddy will punish me further. " She said,
close to tears, as she tried to collect the pieces of plate scattered
across the floor, but resulted in cutting her hands instead.
End flashback
"Earth calling Padfoot on all known
frequencies? Hello? " Remus' voice brought Sirius back to
reality with a sudden jolt.
"Huh? What? "
"Well,
what do you want with her? Are you just after another meaningless
fling or what? "
"I don't know…I can't describe
how I feel, but I know it's not a stupid thing that'll be over in
a week. "
"You used to be like that about Tania. "
"That
was before she two-timed on me with my brother! I mean it, Moony, I
like Legs more than that. "
"Yeah, I know. But she's
probably still sore about first year…you hurt her badly, Padfoot. I
think you ought to give her space. Try to get to know her better."
Sirius nodded in silent thanks, lost in thought once more.
