I didn't get any reviews on my last chapter, but I thought that I'll post one more chapter before I decide if I should continue. I 3 reviews. Also, Remus is in the next chapter!
She awoke to an unpleasant musty smell and dozens of people screaming; some close, some off in the distance. She sat up and opened her eyes, she immediately clutched her head in her hands, she had a pounding headache. As Alexis looked around, she realized was in a small dark room, made of grey stone bricks. It was depressing here, it almost felt like there was nothing in the world but loneliness and pain. She squeaked as she noticed a man staring at her.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," A voice said softly. "My name's Sirius," it was the same man from the strange trial, Alexis realized that this was either the longest, most realistic dream ever, or she had gone insane. Judging by the screaming she heard outside the barred door, she wasn't the only one.
"I've gone crazy, haven't I?" She muttered sadly, convinced that she was actually sitting in a padded room somewhere. "This is too long to be a dream." She sighed miserably and brought her knees up to her chest again, she was suddenly aware that she was seated on the world's most uncomfortable bed.
"You haven't gone crazy," He sighed and looked at the young woman, as though he was already exasperated by her. "Don't worry too much, you'll be back home in five or so hours." She looked to the man, remembering that they had said that he was her father.
"I'm Alexis," she introduced herself, deciding that if she was crazy, she might as well go along with it. "That old guy said that you were," She bit her lip, unsure of her own words, but she pressed on. "you were my father.. Is that true?" It was Sirius's turn to look sad, he sighed and ran a hand through his unkempt hair.
"If it's a lie they're very persistent about it, expecting me to teach you about magic when I've been locked up here for nearly twelve years." Alexis was dumbfounded, she could barley imagine living in this dank place for a month, let alone twelve years. "Besides, you have the look of a Black." Sirius smiled a bit at her, showing off his yellowed teeth, it was a bit frightening.
"I do?" She looked down at herself, wondering what qualities made her look like a Black. She turned back up to Sirius. "So.. What should I call you then?" Alexis wasn't sure on the etiquette of meeting a parent for he first time and felt a touch awkward.
"Sirius is fine," he leaned back against the wall behind him, he was seated on the floor. "Do you know why your mother never told me about you?" Sirius was actually fuming as he asked the young woman the question that had been plaguing him since he got back to the prison, but he tried to sound casual. The fact that he had an adult child was staggering, he was only thirty six himself. He knew what had happened though.
Being the rebel that he was in his youth, he had often ventured into the muggle world. He was only fourteen or so at the time, but he had made a potion to appear older. He had gotten into quite a bit of trouble when he was caught, but not before he had a chance to seduce a few woman. He had bragged to no end to his friends back at school, not even once thinking that there might be an actual consequence to his actions. Now he was looking at the consequence herself.
"She never told me about you either," the young woman shrugged her shoulders, she had asked herself the same question before, many many times. "It doesn't surprise me though, she never really thought ahead, or cared to.." she shrugged again, already used to the facts. Sirius slammed a fist on the ground before he could stop himself, making Alexis jump.
"This is insane, I deserved to know that I had a daughter before now." He growled out, angry at the situation. Alexis scooted back away from him, he was scary when angry, his worn looks only adding to the intimidating look. He looked at the frightened young woman and sighed heavily. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized. "This is just a lot to take in."
"Yeah, I know," she nodded her head, agreeing completely with the statement. They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound was the screams of others echoing through the halls. Alexis saw a shadow glide down the hall and shivered. "It's scary here," Alexis mumbled, holding her knees tighter. "How come you were sent here?"
"It's a long story," Sirius sighed dejectedly. "But to sum it all up, I was framed for killing my best friends." Alexis didn't know why, but she believed him, though she had no reason to trust him. Maybe it was the way that he said it, she would almost feel the sadness oozing from him, or maybe she didn't want to think she was sitting with a murderer.
"Oh," was all she could say. Her stomach growled loudly and Alexis laughed embarrassedly. "Guess I'm hungry."
"Sorry, nothing really to eat here," Sirius stood up and stretched, for the first time Alexis realized that he was quiet tall. "Nothing that you would really want to eat anyways."
"Did they bring my bag here?" She asked, tilting her head to gaze up at him. He nodded and pointed to the end of the bed where her tattered purse sat. "Awesome," she said with a smile. Alexis sat on the edge of the bed and rummaged through her purse, before she pulled out a candy bar. It was a plain Milk Chocolate bar, she held it out to the man in front of her. "Wanna share?" She thought that he was much too thin.
"Sure," he felt like he should say no and let the girl eat her candy, but Sirius hadn't had anything resembling normal food in twelve years, let alone chocolate. He sat down on on the edge of the bed next to Alexis and she handed him the entire bar, after breaking off a small piece for herself. "Come on, take more then that," he said, shaking his head.
"I'll get another later," Alexis said, munching on the piece of chocolate. Sirius sighed and smiled ruefully at the young woman before taking a bite of the candy as well, he was reminded of Moony and how he always seemed to have chocolate. "So you're a.. wizard?" Alexis tried to keep her voice from sounding skeptical, but failed.
"Yes, though this cell has charms and wards on it, so I can't show you any magic," Sirius was already halfway done the candy. "I am suppose to teach you about magic and how to control it without using magic at all," he gave a short bitter laugh, he didn't know what they expected him to teach the girl in these conditions. He finished the chocolate and wiped his hands on the already dirty pants he was wearing. "I guess my advice would be to not lose your temper, since that's how you ended up blowing up that muggle." Alexis giggled, and Sirius smirked a bit.
"What's transfiguration?" She tilted her head to a side. "Is it turning stuff into other stuff? That's what it sounded like when that old guy was yelling." Sirius laughed at the way the young woman spoke of the Minister, she definitely sounded like a yankee.
"You're right, transfiguration is magic which changes one object into another. You can even change inanimate objects into animate ones and vice versa," Sirius explained, sounding calmer then he had before. "It also includes animagus transfiguration, which is a human changing to an animal shape, while still retaining their mental capacities." He was glad that the dementors seemed to be staying away while the girl was there, he guessed that there was someone making sure they didn't get too close.
"Everyone can do that?" Alexis didn't know why she would want to change into an animal.
"No," Sirius chuckled. "Most people are fine with basic transfiguration magic, but it's rare that a witch or wizard is able to take an animagus form." He wondered if he should tell her that he was able to, but decided that he didn't want to scare the girl. "It seems that you may have a talent for transfiguration, like I did."
"You think? I don't even know what I did." She was doubtful that she was even capable of replicating what had happend.
"Most witches and wizards start their magical training at age eleven, and the majority of magic requires the use of wands," Sirius could hardly believe that he was explaining magic to an adult, things that every child knew before they even started their magic training. He felt angry again at the fact that his child was left to be raised as a muggle and knew nothing of his world, even if he had been locked away from it for years. He wondered about her upbringing, it would have to have been a very different one from his own. He almost chuckled as he realized that the young woman would be the hier to the Black fortune. His mother would surely love that, a half-blood the head of the perviously pure-blood line.
"Ah," Alexis remembered the men waving sticks at her. "When those guys were pointing.. well I guess they were wands, but I thought that they were just sticks.. I thought that they were just weirdos."
"Be very carful when someone is pointing a wand at you, it never leads anywhere good," Sirius said gravely, trying to impress onto the girl to listen. Alexis frowned slightly and nodded her head.
"So why would people want to change into an animal?" She asked, jumping backwards in the conversation.
"So that's what caught your interest?" he chuckled, knowing that she was unaware of the irony. He was able to change form in the cell, the only magic he was able to do, but he didn't want to frighten her. He usually changed form when the dementors came around, so he wasn't as affected by them. Sirius hoped again that the guards would keep them away while Alexis was there.
"Yeah, is it fun or is there another reason? Can it be any animal?" She thought about what it would be like to be a bird, that might be fun, she decided.
"I suppose it could be fun," Sirius was smirking at the girl, remembering the good times he had in his youth when he was in his animal form. "And no, it can only be one animal, usually the animal has something in common with the person's personality."
"Oh.." Alexis thought about it for a moment. "If I tried that I'd probably be something gross, with my luck.. like a bug, eww." She shivered a bit, not wanting to be a bug. Sirius let out a barking laugh at the girl.
"I've never heard of anyone becoming a bug," he said between laughing. "But you have to register to become an animagus, and it's quite difficult. You may turn into the animal, only to forget you were ever human.." He stopped laughing and Alexis nodded her head.
"Kay, no changing into animals.. unless I want to be a bug." Alexis grinned and Sirius just shook his head at her. "So if I want to change something into something else, what would I do?"
"Magic requires a wand to be consistant usually, and sometimes you also need to say something, an incantation, usually something along the lines of verto, that means, I turn," Sirius watched the young woman as she fiddled with on of her muggle devices from her bag.
"Verto," She repeated after him, memorizing it. Alexis looked up from her cell phone, which had no reception here. "I'm too old to be learning these things aren't I?" Sirius didn't know what to say, he had been thinking that, but didn't want to discourage her. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, trying to find the right way to put it. "That's what I thought," she sighed, taking his response as a yes. "It's ok, I guess I just feel kind of silly." She had grown up believing that magic was just in fairy-tails and for children, and she could tell that in this world even children knew more then her about magic.
"I understand," Sirius tried to think of something else they could talk about until it was time for Alexis to go. "Why don't you tell me what you do in the muggle world?" He suggested.
"I'm not really doing anything at the moment, my mother died a year ago, and I've been living on the inheritance and life insurance payoff," Alexis knew a lot of people thought that she should be doing more, but she enjoyed working on small projects on her own.
"I'm sorry to hear about your mother," Alexis just smiled sadly.
"It's fine, we hadn't spoke since I was seventeen anyway. We didn't really get along.." Sirius could relate with her on that issue. He had never gotten along with his mother as well. "My life's kinda boring, what did you do before you were here, Sirius?"
"I was fighting a war, one that I'm sure you'll learn all about soon enough, with the rest of the Marauders. It's not really a pleasant story, or one that I'd like to talk about," he said coldly, Alexis felt a bit rejected.
"What's a Marauder?" She asked, unsure if she should even bother. Sirius noticed her withdraw and forced a smile onto his face.
"Well, that is something I can talk about," he said lightly, as light as he could get, Alexis smiled a bit.
They talked for hours, passing the time and getting to know each other. Not much else was said about magic, even though that was the reason the young woman was there. Sirius figured they would have time to talk about that later. He spoke about his time at Hogwarts, as one of the Marauders; he mentioned James, Remus, and Peter, though he didn't dwell too long on Peter. Alexis seemed interested in his old stories and Sirius was glad to have someone to talk to.
"Old Moony is still around," Sirius told the young woman, who was sitting with her back against the wall next to the bed. She already knew that Remus's nickname was Moony, and that the other two of her father's friends were dead. "Though I guess he'd be Uncle Moony to you." Alexis giggled, she didn't have any aunts or uncles growing up, and the idea of calling anyone uncle at her age seemed hilarious.
"I would totally call him that," she laughed. Sirius smirked at her, he hoped that Moony would be able to meet his daughter. An idea came to him as he thought about Moony and he decided to look into it when Alexis left. There was a sharp knock on the door before it opened to reveal a guard, he eyed Sirius suspiciously.
"Miss Fisher, I've been instructed to escort you back to your home," he said, looking to the young woman. She looked to Sirius, who nodded, she stood up. She grabbed her bag and brushed the wrinkles from her clothes.
"Bye, Sirius.." she paused a moment. "I'm glad I got to meet you finally." She gave him a shy smile. He stood up as well and smiled at the girl, it looked like he might hug her, but he stopped and just clapped her on the back.
"I'll see you in a few days, Alexis," it was all he could think to say to the daughter he had just met. She just gave him a lopsided grin and nodded her head, he honestly didn't know why she would be happy about coming back to this place. He watched as the young woman walked out of the room, still limping slightly, and sighed when he was alone again. He made his way back to the hard cot and lay down, trying to go to sleep.