Without really thinking about it, Roxy bounced lightly on her very own four-poster bed in the Gryffindor tower. Her eyes were fixed upon the window, where sheets of rain repeatedly threw themselves upon its glass, as if attempting to break through. It was almost like a bizarre reversal of her life, which she had spent longing and wishing and hoping to break out. Her wand remained, as it had since she arrived in the Gryffindor tower, between her fingers. Smooth and polished and fresh, it gave her a solid sense of being within the room that seemed so like one of the dreams she had long before Azkaban, back when she dreamed of freedom and magic.

The muffled sounds of students downstairs in the Common Room took a long while to sink into Roxy's senses. She relished hearing their voices, their laughter and their simple, infectious waves of joy. She was grateful for them, those students who knew so little and yet so much about her. She almost craved them; she couldn't get enough of their normality, which was so idiotically abnormal to her.

The wand in her hands was suddenly overwhelmingly tempting to her. Roxy lifted it and relished the feeling; she'd not held a wand for over 5 years and never before in her life had she done so with such a sense of security in what she was doing.

"Avifors!"

Two bluebirds soared upward from the single desk opposite her. They twittered secret messages above Roxy's head and circled each other, in their very own cheery azure escapade. Roxy laughed, but the noise scared her feathered companions, who flew together over to the doorframe and huddled there. They continued to chirp, though in a more reproachful manner to their previous happy songs. Her eyes remained fixed upon them, and a smile was set on her face and her wand still sat in her fingers, satisfied for now.

She was still gazing contentedly at her bluebirds when the door handle twitched. Habitually, she chose to hide.

"Finite Incantatem," she whispered hurriedly, and the bluebirds morphed instantly back into a couple of quills. They dropped to the floor and lay there, motionless and sad. She drew the curtains of the four poster bed and shut out the surrounding room, effectively hiding from whoever it was that was on the other side of the door.

She could tell that several girls had entered by the number of footsteps. Then, there was a sudden commotion and a girl with a high pitched voice whispered.

"Oh my God, she's there, she's there behind her curtains!"

"That doesn't make her deaf, Elvira." A second voice.

"Maybe she's asleep?" And a third.

"Well then lets keep it that way!" Back to Elvira; the first one. Roxy assumed that must be all of them – all her roommates – since there were only four beds in the room.

"You can't just avoid her forever, Elvira. She'll be living with us all year." This was the second voice again. Roxy suddenly wondered what she would ever do about these people; she'd never really spoken to anyone her own age before. She was both terrified and overjoyed that she finally had the chance to not just socialise, but maybe even make friends for the first time in her life. It had been such a long time since she'd spoken to anyone... But just as these thoughts popped into her head, Elvira spoke again.

"She's not going to be here all year Lily, don't be so naive! I heard she's only here to murder somebody again, and of course, they'll send her straight back to Azkaban then."

Roxy's stomach seemed to fill with ice.

"Elvie!" Said was the final, unnamed voice, sounding shocked. "You mustn't say that! Dumbledore would never put the students in danger, you know that."

"Well, you say that Mariella, but what about the Slytherins? How do you explain what they're doing here? They're all destined to be Death Eaters, and you know it."

"Not all of them," Lily said quietly.

"You're not being fair, Elvira –" Mariella reasoned.

"Aren't I?" Elvira was starting to sound slightly hysterical, and with a small wave of revelation, Roxy realised it was because this girl was afraid of her. Elvira; whom she'd never met before, was afraid of sharing the room with her. "You should know what they're like more than anyone, Lily! With all this talk about half-bloods and Mudbloods; just last week that horrible Avery boy tried to curse you! If Potter hadn't jumped in – "

"James Potter!" Lily spat. "I suppose you think he's all the better because he's in Gryffindor and flies around the Quidditch pitch like a selfish troll? Everyone may think that Potter and Black and they're little gang are all that, but I know that they're just horrible, bullying thugs!"

There was a short silence in the room and Roxy got the feeling that that little outburst was quite an unusual happening from this girl.

"And how do you think he got that way?" Elvira almost whispered it.

"What do you mean?" Lily still sounded as if she was fuming.

"Well who does he hang around with?"

"Elvira, stop it, you're being completely ridiculous now –" Mariella began.

"Sirius Black!" At this, Roxy sat up slightly. She knew the Blacks; they were infamous dark wizards. And they used to shop in Lipkins store sometimes... The were good customers. They always bought the finest of merchandise – the most expensive of merchandise... "You know his family! They're all evil; they support You-Know-Who, I know it!"

"Elvira, that's going too far. Now we should all just go to bed and discuss it in the morning, when we're not so tired." Mariella was obviously the most responsible of the three; the authority in her voice was unmistakable. She almost sounded like Professor McGonagall. There was no more arguing between the three girls after this, though there was a considerable amount of tension that hung in the air of the room as the trio changed and got into bed. Roxy noticed that Elvira didn't complain about sleeping in the room with her again, and fell asleep peacefully enough. Eventually, she was fairly certain that all three of the girls were asleep whilst she lay awake, deciding there and then that she would most certainly keep an eye out for Sirius Black tomorrow morning.