CHAPTER .7

BOOM!

Roxanne felt as though the floor underneath her was split in two, and it took all her strength to keep from falling in-between the cracks.

"What is happening?!" she heard Sirius yell.

The earth seemed to have turned upside down, in a split moment.

Roxanne held on to her chair until she lost feel in her fingers and was afraid she couldn't hold on for any longer.

Then it all turned back to normal.

For a moment it was quite, the room was only filled with the sounds of the teenagers' loud breaths.

Then the first and immediate shock worn out.

"What was that?!"

"Did you feel it?!"

James turned to Roxanne. "You alright?"

"Where's Dumbledore?" she asked, looking around.

The man disappeared, and they four were alone in the office.

Sirius cursed, feeling frusterated.

"No idea. Come on; let's go join the rest of the students they probably know more…" Remus said, looking rather taken aback completely by the entire situation. "They should be in the great hall."

They agreed and left Dumbledore's office.

"The great hall is right ahead." James told Roxanne.

"You do know I lived in this castle for seven years right?"

"Oh right, sorry about that." James said, looking weirded out a little.

"Yeah, it's a bit confusing." Sirius agreed.

After a few quite steps Sirius broke the silence.

"Do you think it was an attack?" he asked quietly.

Roxanne didn't think he knew how to speak quietly.

James shrugged. "I hope no one was hurt." He sounded worried.

They went on in silence, speeding up every few steps.

Roxanne slowly realized what sounded strange to her in all of this; they all seemed taken aback by this supposed attack, but none of them looked too surprised by having the school attacked. Also, there seemed to be no need to mention who it was that was attacking the school; that seemed obvious as well.

She was at a time where the Wizarding world was at war, and Voldmort was not only alive, but in his full strength.

This was the peak of the first war.

Roxanne was born six years after the end of the second war. All she knew was peace, and a world of ruins people kept trying to fix. But not war.

For once she was glad to have come here alone; she didn't want to think of her little brother or any of her little cousins here with her- this place was dangerous.

They were close enough to hear voices now, and though the words were not at all understandable, the panic in them was very clear to Roxanne.

They started at a run towards the Entrance Hall, where the entire student body seemed to have gathered; from afar they already managed to see that the main doors were shut close.

"James!"

They all turned towards the female voice, and Roxanne felt her breath knocked out of her; she saw a long and beautiful ginger hair, straight with a small wave near the end, a tall slender body, and big, hypnotizing, emerald green eyes.

She felt a surge of relief, without understanding why, as she looked at those eyes. But it quickly disappeared as the girl spoke again; for a moment she thought she was looking at Uncle Harry, and that was why she felt everything was going to be alright.

But it wasn't Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, Head Auror, The-Chosen-One, her Uncle, that she saw, it was his dead teenage mother.

Her hair reminded Roxanne so much of her cousin Lily, but the eyes she only ever saw on two other people- Uncle Harry and Albus.

"Lily! Are you alright?!" James ran to where she was and we followed.

Lily Evans seemed out of breath and a small cut was on her cheek. "I'm fine, I'm so glad to see you guys are okay! Most of the students are alright and accounted for, but… well some are missing." She said hesitatingly, looking at Sirius with a pleading look.

"It wouldn't be us per chance would it? Bec-" Remus' brow crinkled.

Lily shakes her head. "Not just you, although I should go and tell McGonagall you guys are here. It's some Slytherins…we think they may have escaped and joined the dark forces, but it's not confirmed." she looked Sirius in the eyes, who was looking mortified, and nothing like himself.

"Regulus is among them."


"WHERE IS HE? I'M GOING TO DRAG THE IDIOT BACK BY THE HAIRS IF I HAVE TO!" Sirius raged on, while Remus and James restrained him and Lily went to tell McGonagall they were alright.

"Sirius if it's true-" Remus tried.

"IF? IF? THERE'S NO 'IF' WHEN DEALING WITH MY STUPID BROTHER…"

"Must run in the family…" James mumbled and Sirius shot him a savaged glare.

"Look we don't know if it's really true! And if it is…well it was his choice Padfoot…there's nothing you can do anymore." James told his friend truthfully, knowing it wasn't what he wanted to hear, but what he needed to hear.

Roxanne stayed quiet, she was in the background of the conversation and she didn't mind- she knew she didn't belong here anyway. But something clicked in her head; so they were talking about Regulus, Sirius Black's brother, the one who died stealing one of the horcruxs…

She remembered her Uncle telling her something about him once-

"I wish my godfather was alive a little longer. Just so he could find out the truth of Regulus' actions and how he died. He would have been proud.

He spend all his life detesting his entire family and their ways, and was disappointed in his little brother for being like the same of the family. I'm sure he was disappointed because he knew his brother wasn't cruel enough to be alongside Voldemort, but like many of the others, he was stupid and closed his eyes to the truth of how far Voldemort was willing to go, and fallowed him anyway. Then got scared and got himself killed.

Sirius probably thought he was a bad brother, for not being able to stop him, to warn him in time…

He will never know that he was the reason why Regulus probably decided to fight Voldemort at the end of his young life."

The shouts around her brought her back to the present (well technically the past).

Sirius seemed to have calmed down a little, but still looked upset.

Lily was back and seemed to have been giving the guys a round-down of what happened when they weren't here.

"-so the prefects helped evacuate the younger kids and taking account of all the students while the teachers fought, though me and some other prefects and seventh years helped in the fighting too, but then Dumbledore arrived and told the teachers to lead all the students inside and lock the doors. Most fled once they saw him but he's not back yet for some reason."

Roxanne ignored the voice in her head saying she will regret interfering, and went over to where Sirius was standing quietly, looking depressed.

"Hey." Awesome start, nothing lame about that.

He didn't' even grace that with a response.

"Look, I don't really know, well, anything of what's going on here. I may know a few stories, but this is real life, and real people."

He looked at her and she saw him realizing that she may understand a little.

She shrugged. "He's your brother. Ignore what people tell you, what you think he did, or didn't do. Believe in the little brother you know you have, and have faith he'll be strong enough to come out when most needed. My little brother is also an idiot, in a different way, but still an idiot. I just trust in myself and that I know him well enough to say that in a difficult situation he'll make the right choice, as hard as it may be. You know your brother, and you know what kind of person he is deep down. Don't let Voldemort take that from you." Feeling as though she said enough she was about to give him back his space when he whispered,

"I'm trying…but this time I just don't see how… I can't keep defending him."

She shrugged again. "That's your job. He's your little brother."

"Probably rounding them up and throwing them into Azkaban. This is Dumbledore we're talking about! He's probably angry they attacked the students. No one can win against Dumbledore." James said with confidence, but then seemed to remember something and paled, glancing at Roxanne.

'Yeah…did he forget I told him Dumbledore has like 20 more years to live?'

Lily followed his look and saw Roxanne, and looked at her with alarm. "Who are you?"

"Oh, eehhh… this is an exchange student. From Beauxbatons." Remus said quickly, knowing Lily was alarmed because she didn't recognize her.

"Oh." She let out a relived breath. "Nice to meet you. I'm sorry we have to meet like this but I'm Lily Evans, Head Girl. You can come to me with any questions if you like."

"Thanks. Roxanne… Weasbly."

"Where have you boys been?!" a yell boomed over the rest of the noise, stopping their conversation.

They saw Professor Slughorn (Roxanne had no idea who that was-big jelly-belly-man, was the first thing that came to mind as she saw him).

"Lost in a secret hallway?! What madness is this?! Have you any idea how worried we have all been in this current situation, and I wasn't even able to find half of my third years!" he went on, spluttering spit on his students.

They all looked at Sirius who rose high and tried to spot each of the third years.

And there he was, right in the middle, somehow the closest to Slughorn and looking the guiltiest.

Sirius felt a great heavy loud coming off his chest, as James gave him a pat on the shoulder.

Regulus might have felt the eyes on him because he looked up towards where they all stood and his eyes widened when he met his brother's eyes.

He made no acknowledgment and turned away quickly.

However Roxanne caught the boy nodding slightly to Professor Slughorn's tie.

Sirius smirked and ruffled his hair with his hand. Then turned around and addressed Lily. "See Evans! Just like I told you, don't know what you were on, my idiot brother isn't half as cool enough to pull something like that!"

Lily didn't seem offended, just rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever you say Black."

CRACK!

The giant doors creaked open.

Dumbledore stood right in the middle of the open doors.

- END CH. 7-

A\N: thanks all for reading, sorry for the wait :)