Disclaimer: Not mine at all.


Toralyn

There was another rose on my pillow when I got up to my room that night. Lily glanced up at me from behind her book as I put it on my bedside table with the other four. "I almost got pricked with that one," she said.

I smiled flopping back on my bed. "One rose a day. . . . Maybe he'll take a break for the weekend."

Lily sat up, swinging her feet to the floor. "What is it with you two anyway?"

"There's nothing with us," I said, pulling a pillow over my head. "He just – won't leave me alone."

"Well . . . I don't know; maybe you should just talk to him.

I looked over into the eyes that were so much like mine but only for a second so she wouldn't see the similarities. I talked to Lily because it was so weird finally getting to meet her after hearing about her so much. She was a lot funnier than I thought she'd be. And plus there was really no escaping it after Sirius kept making her bring me the roses.

"You're crazy," I said, looking back up at my canopy.

"Am I? It seems that Black continually bugs you because you ignore him. Maybe if you talk to him, he'll eventually leave you alone. All guys love a good chase, but if you take it away from them. . . ."

"Won't work. I spoke to him in potions on Monday, and he pretty much told me that he wouldn't leave me alone."

"Oh." Lily flopped back on her own bed. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe Black actually likes you?"

"After two weeks?"

"Stranger things have happened. Plus, you're new. Something exciting."

"You make me sound like a book." We both laughed for a moment (same sense of humor, I guess).

"And I do realize that it's Black but," Lily continued, "I've never seen him so serious about a girl before."

"Define serious," I said. "No pun intended."

"Of course. . . . . Well, I've 'known' Sirius since first year and I've seen girls fall over themselves just because he looked at them. I've watched girls get their hearts broken because Sirius Black didn't know their name. In all matter of speaking, he could have any girl that he wanted in this entire school. . . ."

"Gee, lily, is this your way of giving me a pep talk?"

"I'm not finished. This year, suddenly and randomly, here you come along, pretty, different, and you don't want him. Of course it's going to spike his interest and after a while, he becomes more and more fascinated until he realizes he might like you."

I looked over to Lily who was staring up at her own canopy. "And you figured that out from five roses?"

"Six if you count the one he tried to give you last week. Maybe you should give him a chance, as much as I hate to say it. It could be worse, I suppose. You could have gone after James."

I shivered slightly. Okay that was just gross. "There's a flaw in your theory."

"What?"

"I'm not pretty."

There was a pause and the next thing I knew, lily was pulling me out of my bed (causing me to fall) and towards the wall length mirror behind our door. "What are you doing?"

"I'm proving you wrong because my theory is right," she said, pushing me in front of the mirror. "I'm not pretty, honestly. . . . Well just undo this ponytail . . . fluff it up a bit . . . and there."

She put her hands on my shoulders grinning. I could see bits and pieces of myself in here as we stood thee. We were the same height, about 5'5", the height we would stay for most likely the rest of forever. We both wore our hair long, about halfway down our backs, and we had the same nose and lips structure. And of course our eyes were the same though more shaped like James'. But there were very subtle differences too, like hair color (duh), skin tone, her freckles, my almost big ears. . . . It was nice to see that I didn't completely and totally look like her.

Lily giggled suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just – Well, we look like we could be related you know. Almost like sisters. . . . . It's really subtle, hardly noticible at first glance. . . . . But I like your eyes more."

"My eyes?" I thought we had the same eyes?

"Yeah . . . see? You've got tons of specks of gold in your eyes."

For the first time I took a moment to actually look at myself. My eyes were different; darker and I could just make out the gold. But the fact that my eyes were different seemed to make my whole appearance different. My hair was wavier than hers and a little longer, I was just a tad bit shorter, my nose just a little bit small, my lips just a little bit wider. . . . .

All my life I was told I was a spitting image of Lily but maybe they had been wrong. I've always wanted people to see me, Tory Potter. Funny that it was the person they said I looked like who noticed it.

I smiled.

"See?" Lily said. "You're very pretty Toralyn."


Sirius

It was late that Friday evening and James, Remus, Peter, and I were sitting in the comfy chairs by the fire like we normally did. Except today they were laughing at me.

Because for the first time since third year, I didn't have a date to Hogsmeade.

It's not that I didn't want a date or that people (girls) haven't asked me but I kind of had my eye on someone else.

As if she had heard my thoughts, Toralyn appeared on the stairs next to Lily, both of them laughing like the best of friends. She had her hair down again, something she hadn't done since I had first seen her, and she looked incredible as it waved around her face.

I know before I couldn't stop thinking about how much she looked like James and Lily but now, all lit up like she was with that smile, I couldn't find any similarities and it didn't matter.

Toralyn was just really pretty.

I watched for a moment as she and Lily moved to the other side of the Common room, ready to do homework, I guess. Lily glanced over to me before looking down and muttering something. Toralyn stood up straight and I could tell they were arguing very briefly before she spun around and starting walking – walking in my direction.

My three friends stopped talking, looking up as I was at this new girl. She stopped next to my chair, blushing fiercely. "Hello . . . Sirius," she said, not exactly looking me in the eye but looking sort of at my left ear.

"Er, hey," I said, getting to my feet. Her gaze shifted to my shoulder.

"So I know we haven't exactly gotten off to the best of starts since I've been here and I've only known you for two weeks, if you even want to call it that and I understand I've been a bit of a . . . a bit mean and everything but I really do like the roses and I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow."

By the end of her speech, her cheeks and ears were almost completely red. I was still in such shock that I could hardly respond. "Er, uh, yeah, er, sure."

"Great." She turned and walked away back to Lily who was smiling.

I sat back down in my chair, grinning at my friends. "So boys, did you learn anything?"

Peter snorted. "Yeah. Some girls are just completely confusing."


A/N: So don't forget to vote. I hope you like it.