PLEASE NOTE: I AM NOT THE AUTHOR OF THIS FANFIC. ALL RIGHTS GO TO mental OF HARRYPOTTERFANFICTION. This story was removed from hpff, so I reposted here so that fans could have access to it. I am not mental. From this point on, all content belongs solely to mental.
Chapter 8: Logical Reasoning and Other Thereaputic Measures
The entire common room listened to the door to the girls' seventh slam shut, and then burst into commotion. Rob was looking dazed and confused as he shook off Dorcas, who promptly burst into tears and sprinted for the door. No one noticed – it was too common an occurrence to compete with Ze Meridian's sudden outburst. Slowly, meeting up with Zeke and Allister Wood, who had arrived just in time to catch the action, Rob made his way back over to the fireplace where the Marauders were still seated, shell-shocked. 'So…' James said slowly when the others had sat down.
'So,' Zeke agreed, his voice quiet. 'Seems like summat happened between yesterday and today.'
'I don't think –' Sirius began, but Rob spoke over him: 'What's got into her? Think its that time of the month?' He glanced around for laughs, but was met with only perplexed silence. 'Just joking,' he mumbled, and settled down into the couch.
'What do you think happened to have her go off like that?' Peter asked blankly, eyes on the girl's stairs.
'I think the more important question is, who's going to have a word with her?' Remus said quietly, lips turned down at the corners. 'She's not been herself since breakfast, and frankly I'm worried – someone needs to ask her what's wrong.'
They all looked round for Clive, the obvious choice, but he was nowhere to be seen – still out on his date. They eyed one another speculatively, and slowly all gazes came to rest on Sirius. 'What?' he asked sharply, a pit opening in his stomach.
'Well, aside from Clive, you know her best,' James shrugged. 'I mean, you two have been friendly lately… And you've got the most experience with, er, female problems,' he added, his ears turning pink.
'Eh?' Peter squeaked, looking wide-eyed at Sirius. 'But I thought he was a –'
'Prongs doesn't mean Sirius has "female problems",' Remus explained kindly. 'He just means that Sirius has the most experience with upset members of the opposite sex.'
'Oooooh,' Peter sighed, sounding relieved. 'Right then.'
An upset member of the opposite sex - that pretty much describes Grace, Sirius thought glumly, surprised that he didn't feel much more than a slight pang. Instead he glanced up at the girls dormitory, his mind very much wrapped around the small figure probably collapsed in sobs on a bed. He hated tears – they were worse than terrifying. In fact, they scared him more than large spiders or clowns, and that was saying quite a bit. But it was Ze…and he couldn't help but feel for her. 'Right,' he sighed. 'I'll just go on up, shall I?'
'Good man,' Rob applauded, clapping him on the back as though Sirius were going off to war rather than a dormitory.
'Tell her we're all worried?' Remus added, his eyes clouded with concern.
Sirius, unable to think of anything to say, just nodded and stood. He hated talking with girls. He was horrible at it – completely stuffed it up every time. That had been one of the most appealing things about Grace: she had talked to him, eliminating the incredibly awkward drivel that always seemed to spout out of his mouth when he was faced with a female. But this is Ze – she's not like the others, he reminded himself, taking a bit of courage from the thought as he slipped into a corner and checked for watching eyes. None. Sighing heavily, Sirius cast a hasty disillusionment charm, clamped his wand between his teeth, and morphed into his animagus form. If anyone noticed him disappearing from plain sight, they didn't mention it. Padding as quietly as possible across the rug, Sirius gained the girls' staircase, and without pause trotted up it. So it wasn't difficult to break in. So he wasn't performing great acts of strength and heroism to come to Ze's aid – it was still bloody awful to know what waited for him on the other side of the door. This definitely wasn't what he planned on doing for the evening.
He ought to be playing chess with Remus by the fire, or helping James plot their next great adventure. Instead, he was gnawing on his wand and ignoring the bite of fleas to talk with a girl who, when he finally got to her, might try to rip his head (or other, more important, bits off his anatomy) off. Not comforting. With a canine sigh Sirius paused on the stone landing outside the girls' seventh, and flowed back into human form, making sure he was as far from the stairs as possible. The trick to this was to actually be standing on the stone that formed the doorjamb – only then did the stairs remain solid and silent. That little jewel of information had required a bit of research to work out… but it had been worth it. Retrieving his wand from his mouth and swirling his tongue a bit to get rid of the taste of ebony, he gingerly put his ear to the door. He couldn't hear any telltale sobbing, but more importantly, he couldn't hear anyone moving around inside the room – it was fairly essential that no one see the door open and close of it's own accord. Invisibility was not a guarantee of secrecy.
He gave it thirty seconds, and after no footsteps or other noises, he eased the door open and peeked in. Five beds, arranged in a semi-circle, exactly as they were on the boys' side. Except this room was neat and tidy, and smelled of faintly flowery perfumes and clean laundry. No wonder girls always smelled so nice… But he couldn't allow himself to be distracted, no, not at all. His eyes searched the room, wondering if perhaps she had retreated to the loo, a place even he was hesitant about going. But no, she was here, lying on her bed, a pillow over her face.
At first he thought she must be crying, muffling her sobs with the pillow, but he quickly realised that while she was moving, it wasn't the rhythmic rock or tremble of sobs. It was a spasmodic twitching, accompanied by closed-fist punches to the mattress every so often. Definitely not tears – more like poorly repressed rage. Well, that he could handle – he hoped. Opening the door a trifle wider her slipped inside and shut it carefully behind him. This was not his first time in the girls' dormitory, and he doubted it would be his last – he just prayed that this was the only visit of this nature he ever made. Careful to steer clear of Dorcas's immaculately arranged belongings, he took a few tentative steps towards Ze's bed.
The area surrounding it was a mystery to him - he had never examined it before, despite having burgled the place a time or ten. Those adventures had involved borrowing items of varying degrees of intimacy – most often, Lily Evan's diary. James claimed it was the only way he would ever know how Evans truly felt. Sirius privately felt that Evans' unwavering disapproval ought to be a good indicator, but James never listened. As it was, in all the times he had snuck in to pinch diaries, knickers, and, on one notable occasion, a love letter written by none other than Remus Lupin, Sirius had never invaded the space that definitely belonged to Ze. He simply couldn't bring himself to do it. Ze was an equal, unlike the rest of the girls, and something about her told Sirius that she liked her privacy. So he bypassed her knicker drawer and never bothered looking for a diary. As for love letters, well, he doubted she'd even read them if they were written to her.
He was just close enough now to examine the area around her bed, and wasn't surprised to see that while it was tidier than the area around his own, it was by no means neat. Clothes spilled out of her wardrobe, a tangle of soft t-shirts and worn trousers that she obviously never bothered to sort through. Her bedside table was a dumping ground for the little things that collect in pockets – scraps of parchment, bits of rubbish, a few knuts, a pencil nub. It also supported an alarm clock, an unlit lamp, and what appeared to be an album of photos, the cover of which was a simple frame. Inside it was a picture of Ze and a bloke with blond hair. Judging by Ze's appearance, the photo had been taken relatively recently, and Sirius had to assume that the boy was a muggle, considering the picture wasn't moving. They were wearing sport kits of some sort, shorts and large square shirts, black with white trimming. Mud-splattered, backed by a field of grass, they were caught in motion, throwing themselves at one another, obviously in a fit of joy. Both were laughing, their faces glowing brilliantly. Ze was hurling herself at the boy, one fist raised in victory, the other reaching out to catch him round the shoulders. Neither of her feet were on the ground. The guy was reaching out to catch her, his head thrown back, a wild grin stretching across his face. Sirius could manfully admit that he was quite good–looking, and that he appeared to have Ze's undivided attention. The ecstatic expression on her face drew a faint pang of envy in Sirius's chest.
But more than Ze herself, Sirius wondered what it was like to have anyone look at you like that – with so much joy and light and life inside her, burning her up until all she wanted was to be near you. Wondered what it was like to have Ze be that someone. He was close enough now to see that she wasn't crying at all, that her hands were periodically clenching in time to a seemingly endless flow of muted noise…slowly he realised she was cursing - a long uninterrupted stream of epithets, some of which had him nodding, impressed. She was very creative. And very, very angry. So angry that he seriously contemplated turning tail and fleeing – better to face the rest together than this harridan. But given that she had a very good reason to be cursing…
The only question now was how to approach her. He doubted she wanted to be seen in a twitching fit with a pillow over her face, cursing like a madwoman. Should he clear his throat and hope she wasn't too embarrassed, or should he sneak out and knock on the door to give her a moment to compose herself? Deciding on the door knocking solution, he turned to slip back out, but his foot scuffed the stone and Ze sat straight up, staring beadily around.
'Hello?' Sirius stood stock-still. 'Who's there?' she asked after a moment. Sirius attempted to back away, but was foiled by Dorcas's trunk. A loud thumping arose as he tried to stay standing, and Ze leapt off her bed, drawing her wand. 'It's obvious someone's here, so…reveal yourself or I'll start hexing everything I can reach.'
Despite the fact that it was clear she had no idea where he was, Sirius didn't doubt that she would manage to hit him long before he got to the door. And he had wanted to talk to her anyway – maybe this was the best. Slowly he raised his wand and drew off the disillusionment charm, returning to normal visibility. 'Er…sorry?' he offered when she just stared at him.
Her eyes were dark, and he could swear over-bright, but she remained impassive. Finally, turning her back and moving towards her bed, she said 'if you're here to steal knickers, take them and get out.'
'I'm actually here to talk to you,' he said very quietly, stepping after her.
Her shoulders stiffened. 'I'm not in any mood to be patronised.'
'I'm not here to patronise you,' he promised. 'I'm here to see if you're alright.' There was something about the cast of her shoulders, so slight and narrow now that she had shed her sweatshirt, that brought back the memory of how fragile she had felt when they collided. At his words her shoulders jerked, then hunched slightly, and she raised a hand to rub the back of her neck.
'I'm fine,' she finally said, not turning to look at him.
'Good,' he said softly, taking a step closer. 'Hope you don't mind me sneaking up – we were worried.' She snorted derisively, and he frowned. 'We were – honestly. Your speech gave Mo- Remus grey hairs.' She didn't chuckle at this, and he rolled his eyes at himself. You're pathetic mate – just give it up now. But he couldn't stop his treacherous mouth from opening, from more ridiculous things spilling out. 'And James is actually looking serious and Rob, well, Rob is being Rob, but what can you expect?'
'What can you expect indeed,' she muttered darkly, and moved back towards her bed. 'You can let them know I'm alright,' she said, not quite over her shoulder. 'I'm not planning on killing any of you in your sleep, although the thought is tempting.'
'I know,' he replied ruefully without thinking. 'I'd have murdered us all this morning at the breakfast table, if I were you.'
This did have her turning to look at him, her head tilted slightly to the side. 'Why?'
He just stared at her, suddenly back on familiar ground and not nervous at all. 'Because we were being right stupid gits – Rob especially. Running around in your – in your –'
'Bra,' she supplied, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
'Right, that's the one – anyway, it wasn't very mature, not to mention dead embarrassing – for both of you. But I don't really think Rob can be humiliated, so it was really just you…' he trailed off, and looked up at her, black hair hanging over his eyes in an expression that was all the more captivating because it was completely uncalculated. 'I'm sorry,' he added softly. 'I really am.'
This was the moment in the conversation when Grace would have struck a pose, doing her best impression of a martyr, and shed loads of pretty, silvery tears. But Ze was not Grace, not by a long ways, and instead of bursting into tears, she just sighed. 'Thanks,' she said quietly. 'That means quite a lot.' And then she sank down onto the bed, pulled her knees up tailor style, and hugged her pillow. She looked vaguely dissatisfied, and so very…forlorn. That was the word he wanted – forlorn, as though someone had just told her the world would never be right again.
'Are you –' he stopped himself. She was very obviously not "okay", and he wanted to kick himself for being such a prat. 'You're not right,' he finally blurted out, unable to stop himself. 'You haven't been for a few days – something's eating at you. What is it? Its not Clive,' he added when she gave him an odd look. 'Or, its not just Clive – something's going on with you.' She puffed out her cheeks slightly and expelled a breath. You haven't got to tell me or anything – not if you don't want to – but, er, I'd like to know…'
She eyed him for a moment, as though trying to decide, and then she lifted one shoulder in a shrug. 'I dunno,' she sighed. 'I've been a bit off lately, I guess – I just – ' she broke off, chewing on her lip. 'It's never bothered me before, not like it has been since start of term, you know? For so long it didn't matter how you lot treated me, and I'm not trying to say that I don't fancy you as friends anymore, because that's not it at all I just –' This time the sigh was more of a frustrated groan, and Sirius found himself sitting on the bed opposite her, not quite sure how he'd got there. 'It's like it just went tits up, all of a sudden,' she continued. 'Like I just woke up – except that it isn't, I dunno Sirius, I don't know how to explain it.'
'But you're angry with us?'
She flopped backward onto the bed, mumbled something under her breath, and then sat back up again. 'It's more complicated than that,' she explained slowly. 'It's like I'm angry with – something bigger. I'm angry with whoever made up the rule that girls can't be mad about sport, and I'm angry with the bastard who said its males against females and I'm angry with – with – with society for saying that I can't be who I am and be a girl. It's bollocks!' She paused, staring hard at her pillow before looking up at him, her eyes losing none of their intensity. 'So its not really you, yeah? It's…you in the…bigger sense. Like you're the people that are making me angry, but its not really your fault?'
Sirius wasn't quite sure he saw – at least, not completely. He had a feeling that there was an internal monologue running through Ze's head that would enlighten him though, so he nodded. 'A bit,' he allowed. 'Like you're angry with us because we're the, er, manifestations of the problem – but you can't really have fixed it until you've taken on the whole world. Or something,' he added, feeling that he hadn't made a very sound point.
But she was nodding. 'Yeah, it's like that. It's that – well, okay, I've always been like this, see, and my best mate from home is a muggle and we've always been together, for as long as I can remember. And we play football – that's muggle sport, well, the best muggle sport – and when we started we were too little for anyone to notice that I wasn't a boy. I had short hair and all, and my Dad didn't care that I wasn't a boy like the rest, he just knew I loved to play, so me and Jacko – that's my friend – we just did it. And I never got close to any of the girls my age because they were always in doing stuff I didn't care about, so I just, I dunno – I never noticed. And it went on, just like that, when I got to Hogwarts.
I met you lot, quidditch, Clive – he's not Jacko, but he's still a guy – and I didn't even know how to talk to people like Serena and Grace. And Lily, well, she's just different. And Dorcas… bugger. But I didn't know how to make friends with them – it was like I'd missed all the- the training and wotnot, and there's nothing I can do about it now because it's too late.'
'So you want to be friends with them?' Sirius asked, now completely confused.
This earned another sigh, and he grimaced faintly. 'No – it just – I want to make a point, but I'm not sure how because I can't precisely explain it to myself – '
'Right well, just, I dunno, talk until you make sense,' he suggested, settling back against the bedpost and folding his arms behind his head.
She stared at him. 'Are you joking?'
For the first time in what felt like hours, he smiled. 'Course not – I'm being understanding. Besides, this is loads better than watching James and Rob play "pass the hag".' It was an attempt to cheer her up and it worked: she snorted with laughter and leant back.
'You don't have to sit up here,' she said after a moment. 'This can hardly be –'
'Oi,' he said, nudging her leg with his foot, 'if I didn't want to be sitting here, I wouldn't be. Tell me what's bothering you, and we'll sort it out.'
'Right…' She thought for a few minutes, and he just sat, thinking about the fact that this conversation was requiring more mental energy than half the things he discussed in the boys' seventh. Well, unless they were planning a prank… But still, it was nice to puzzle over something that didn't involve homework or dosing the Slytherins' with Confounding Elixir. And Ze was loads easier to talk to than any other girl he knew, even when she wasn't making sense. Which was rare, he realised – he'd never got the impression that she was saying one thing and meaning another, which was often the case with…other girls of his acquaintance.
'Okay,' she said suddenly, 'okay, I think I can explain it.'
He jerked himself out of his reverie and nodded. 'Right, let's have it then.'
She settled back and met his eyes, her own narrowed slightly and very concentrated. 'It's a bit like this: for a long time, we were all the same. We thought about quidditch, muddled through homework, played pranks, all that stuff. And then, one day, you lot looked around and said "oi – there's girls!" and suddenly there was this whole part of your lives that I couldn't really be a part of. But it didn't register then – I'd noticed boys loads of times before, so I thought "right, girls," and just kept on. And you kept on, and it never bothered me to hear you talk about them, and it never bothered you to talk about them in front of me – like I was just one of the blokes. Which was fine, because in a way I am just one of the blokes.
No one noticed I was different – not you, and not other people, and so while you were off with girls, and comparing notes as it were, I was realising that I wasn't quite comfortable listening to you anymore. Not about that, at least. Because I couldn't relate, see, I hadn't got the same sort of experience, because no one noticed me. And I didn't try to make them notice – I was content just being the way I was. So it sort of built up, slow and in the back of my head, and I ignored it, and then those stupid Hufflepuff's flirted with me, and then Rob at breakfast, and that tosspot Richard Marlowe – I just – snapped.'
Sirius rather wanted to ask her about the flirting Hufflepuff's and Richard Marlowe, but decided not to interrupt. She had a faraway look, and it was clear that this was helping, so he just let her go on.
'I am a girl – a normal, ordinary girl. But no one can see me that way, because that would mean that everything they think about girls would be wrong. You can't see me as a bird because then, somehow, I'd be separate but equal – you'd have to admit that girls aren't indecipherable because you'd never had any trouble deciphering me. It wouldn't be boys versus girls, it would people you understood and people you didn't. It's not that I'm so different, it's just that everyone wants us all to be the same – girls like this and boys like that, and me in the middle, which is nowhere.' Sirius was puzzling this out, afraid to admit that it made sense, and knowing that he didn't quite understand anyway. And then Ze finished it off with: 'And it all goes back to sex.'
'Er, what was that last bit?'
'Sex,' she repeated, as though this were perfectly obvious. 'Not that everyone is doing it, really - just that everyone obsesses over it. Honestly – you do. It's all you lot talk about, and its all these nutters,' she gestured around to indicate her dorm-mates, 'talk about, and everyone – even the third years – sit round and giggle over. And there's nothing wrong with that – it's normal. Hormones and all that rubbish. Girls get it a bit earlier, so they start wanting boyfriends, because that's the first step, and then boys notice and they start wanting to snog in broom cupboards because that's the first step – but really what everyone's thinking about is sex, they're just reacting to it the way they've always been told they would. Girls are supposed to be "good" and shy and hold out and boys are supposed to be pervy and gagging for it. So everyone acts the way they're supposed to, and if you're a bit different – if you're like me, or Dorcas – you get written out of the order because you're holding everyone else up.'
Still not precisely clear on how they'd got from mistaken gender to sexual awakening, Sirius did know that he had no idea what to say about it, so he just went with, 'I'm not sure how Dorcas fits in.'
'She's odd – she's more concerned with rules and school than she is with anything else. She doesn't want a boyfriend – well, I don't think she wants one – and so no one else really understands why she acts the way she does. I'm not saying she's right,' Ze hastened to add, 'she's definitely not easy to live with, but just because she's a bit behind everyone else in the mad dash for carnal exploration doesn't mean she's not ahead in some other areas.'
Sirius arched a brow: he was beginning to see the point. 'So where do you fit in with all of this?'
She smiled ruefully. 'Nowhere. That's the problem. In a way I'm like Dorcas – I'm more interested in sport than having it off in the Astronomy tower. But Dorcas is an openly acknowledged female. I haven't even got that. All my friends are guys, and I adore you, but you've relegated me to this place where I'm not really anything – I'm not a girl, because then you'd have to rate me, and I'm not a boy, because I can't share the changing room. I don't want to date you because I know you too well, and I don't want to be friends with this lot,' again she gestured to the dormitory at large, 'because I don't understand them. I'm a mutant – who I am mentally and who I am physically don't match up with either group.'
'You're not a mutant,' he automatically replied.
'Well no, I haven't got three arms or a second nose or anything, but you see my point.'
He nodded slowly. 'Yeah, I think I do. I'm still a bit foggy on some of the particulars, but I understand what you're saying. It's rather disturbing,' he added, frowning. 'I'd never thought of it that way, but I think you've got the right of it. How'd you come up with that, anyway?' he asked suddenly, struck by how clever – and how frankly insightful – she was. He'd never have dissected it like that, mostly because it had never occurred to him to try.
She just shrugged. 'When you're looking in on everything, it makes a bit more sense,' she explained. 'I've got an ear in both worlds, as it were – I'm always with you, and I have to live with them. You hear things. I'd never tried to put it in words before toady though,' she added. 'Before it was just taking up space in my head.'
'Well I think it's brilliant. Now who is Richard Marlowe?'
Her face instantly darkened. 'Asshole,' she mumbled, her hands curling into fists. Sirius noted that her left knuckles were red and slightly swollen, and his stomach tightened. 'He's a Ravenclaw,' Ze was saying, 'sixth year. You'll remember his brother – played beater for their side until he left school.' Sirius nodded, remembering a tall, faintly good-looking boy with a smarmy smile. 'I was in…a bit of a strop when I went down to the village this morning – wasn't watching where I was going and just ploughed right into him – Richard, that is. He said he recognised me, and then called his friend over – seems they'd had a bet on whether or not Gryffindor's side had a girl playing chaser.'
'Oh bollocks,' Sirius murmured, knowing where this was going.
'I said yes – me, and he laughed. Said I couldn't be a girl, said I was taking the piss, had a joke going with his friend. I didn't take it well,' she added, jaw working, clearly still bitter. 'Told him I wasn't lying, he said bollocks and shoved me – put his hands right on my chest –'
'What?!' Sirius all but bellowed, sitting forward, already plotting ways to beat the stuffing out of the younger boy.
'Pipe down,' she ordered, 'We don't want the whole house knowing you're up here. He didn't do it on purpose,' she added. 'He honestly thought it was a joke – of course, I wasn't feeling so funny, so I punched him in the face.'
Sirius grinned. 'Well done you.'
She smiled back for a moment, but the expression faded quickly. 'Course, when I got back to school McGonagall had already heard – called me up to her office to tell me off, and then I had to explain. Think I took about ten years off her life, though, when I told her what had really happened.'
'Too right you did,' Sirius sniggered. 'Wait until James hears –' he broke off when Ze winced. 'Er, should I not tell him then?'
'No, no, it's not that,' she said quickly. 'I just…well, they're angry with me, aren't they?' she asked softly, glancing up at him, twisting the duvet in her fingers. 'The rest, I mean – I shouted at them – I was a right stroppy cow, too.'
'Well, yeah,' he allowed, 'but they're not angry. They're just…worried. Rems wanted me to pass that on – the rest too. They were surprised, is all – you never shout. Well, off the pitch,' he amended, and was rewarded with a small smile. 'Wot's the matter?'
'I just…I know its stupid, but who will I sit with if they're angry with me? It's not like I've got loads of friends, and I can't just look at them and try to explain –what would I say? "Treat me like a girl, or else?"' She shook her head. 'That's bollocks.'
'Oh, I think they got the message,' Sirius replied. 'About you being a girl, I mean. The whole school will have, by now. And you don't have to explain – not completely, if you don't want to.'
'Of course I want to,' she frowned. 'What's the point in saying something if you're not going to make it clear? And it will change things – you know, with the team. Probably not for the better, either. I don't want to be responsible for that.'
'Well, I think you already are. Look, if you're unhappy, you have the right to say something about it. And we're your friends, so it's our responsibility to try and sort it out, whatever it might be.' She was eyeing him quizzically, and he floundered a bit, trying to find the right words. 'This is going to sound ridiculous, but we, er, care about you – you know, and, um, we'll work it out, right? You're important Ze – I just want you to be happy.'
She eyed him for a moment, and then her face split into a grin, the sort that lights an entire person up, until she glowed with it. 'Aren't you the dog's bollocks – that was positively sweet Sirius. Didn't know you had it in you.' Sirius felt himself blush, and it was her turn to nudge his leg with her foot. 'I'm just taking the piss – but it was nice of you to say, and I appreciate it.'
'Right, well, don't go telling Rob,' he mumbled, half-joking.
'Please,' Ze snorted, 'what was that with him snogging Dorcas, anyway?'
'Pass the hag,' Sirius replied. 'Sixth round he lost – he had to kiss whoever came through the portrait hole next.'
Ze shook her head. 'Amusing, but pretty horrible – I'd bet money that that was Dorcas's first kiss.'
Sirius winced. 'Rob? Blech. Never thought I'd say it, but I feel sorry for her.'
Ze laughed, her brows dancing. 'I dunno – he's well fit – I wouldn't mind –'
'Don't even say it,' he threatened, laughing.
Something sounded on the stairs and they both froze. 'Might be a good time for you to hide,' Ze said wisely, and thumped him on the top of the head with her wand.
Sirius looked down to see nothing but a streaky afterglow where his body ought to be. 'Right – meet you in the common room for dinner?' he whispered, easing off the bed and moving as quietly as possible.
Ze nodded once as the door swung open behind him, Lily and Grace filing through, chatting. 'Right,' she breathed, and he slipped away, hurrying across the room to slide through the door as it swung shut. He passed within a foot of Grace and she never even lifted her head.
It wasn't until Sirius was transforming into a dog that he realised he hadn't noticed Grace either.
A/N
thanks so much for reading - a review would be much appreciated!
