In her dream, she saw Lipkin again.

Roxy's eyes snapped open, only to be greeted with complete darkness. Her new roommates were all sound asleep – their loud, even breathing told her that much. With shaking fingers, she wiped sweat from her forehead before she sat up.

Roxy couldn't remember exactly what happened; but in any case, she knew that it was a bad dream and she knew Lipkin was in it. These kinds of bad dreams came to her often – she couldn't decide whether it was worse to see Lipkin in her mind's eye, or the dementors of Azkaban... She blinked, hard, several times, trying to get the image of his grey, wrinkled face out of her mind. Heavy wind from outside rattled the window and Roxy tried to concentrate on that, rather than her dream. The shadowed curtains disappeared behind her eyelids as she settled herself back onto her fluffy pillow.

How did I ever get stuck with a horrible little muggle like you snooping around my shop? Get out of my sight!

Roxette screwed up her eyes, as if somehow that would get the memory out of her head. But once a thought had started, it was very difficult to stop it.

Didn't you hear me? You insolent little bitch, I told you to GET AWAY –

And with that, Roxy decided that midnight was an excellent time to read up on potions theory.

Her fingers were shaking yet more violently as she threw the covers off herself and drew the curtains of her four poster bed. In fact, she found that when she stood, her entire body was shivering. But she didn't stop to think about it. She swung upon the lid of her trunk and pulled out her potions book, before heading downstairs to the common room.

Roxy hadn't had the chance to take in the common room when she passed through it earlier; Professor McGonagall had hurried her to her dormitory without allowing for any hesitation to take in the sights.

It was an unusual place, really. Even with the fireplace dead, the room was welcoming and homely – the armchairs were inviting; worn out but insanely comfortable, which Roxette discovered as she settled down into the one closest to the now cold fireplace.

She tucked her feet up on the cushion and took a moment to peer out of the window; she saw icicles and frost on the exterior sill and the sky threatened a storm. But what did it matter? She had more important, more complex things to distract herself with now.

"Lumos."

So Roxy sat in the early hours of the morning, alone in the common room, reading up on veritaserum.


"I don't know why we do this every time," Sirius muttered. "I think I'm going to explode."

Their rate of movement was ridiculously snail-like. The four of them were nearly crawling in order for the invisibility cloak to cover them fully, and due to the tumultuous amounts of food they'd just consumed; the awkward conditions were made even more uncomfortable than they would be ordinarily.

"Oh, Sirius. You're made of stronger stuff than that aren't you?" Remus poked him playfully. "As a matter of fact, I quite fancy seconds."

It had become a Marauder tradition to pay a visit to the house elves in the kitchen the night after a feast. The miniature army of elves were exceedingly happy to accommodate them and there was always more than enough leftover food to go around.

"Says you," Sirius said irritably. Then, with a wink and a grin, he turned, with some difficulty, to his friend "For some strange reason, you always seem to have the appetite of a ravenous beast."

Remus shot him a dark look.

"Fiddlesticks."

They came to a halt upon reaching the portrait of the fat lady, who, upon hearing the password from apparently thin air, rolled her eyes and grudgingly revealed the entrance to the common room.

James threw of the invisibility cloak the moment they were in.

"What time is it?"

Remus glanced at his watch. "It's... Just gone three in the morning. Maybe we should head to our room."

"Such a killjoy." Despite his dismissive comment, James yawned. "Ah, come on then."

With a series of moans and grunts of approval, the Marauders approached the staircase to the boys' dormitories – slowly. They'd only gotten halfway across the common room before Peter's hands shot up to his face to cover a quiet, high pitched squeal of shock that grabbed his friends' attention. His eyes were wide and his face was pale; he was gazing, with an almost comical look of horror, over at the armchair by the fireplace.

Roxy sat, with her legs tucked under her, potions book forgotten on the floor below her protruding knees and her wand, still lit, was snuggled underneath a pale, bony hand. She was fast asleep.

"Well would you look at that..." James said in a hushed voice. The four of them were in utter contrast with each other; Peter was terrified, James was curious beyond measure, Remus was entirely uneasy and Sirius had an evil grin on his face as he crept up behind Peter.

"She's just waiting for you, Peter. Wants to test out just how good she is with the Unforgivables after such a long time in Azkaban!"

Peter, apparently, was dumb with fright. He gawped at Sirius with even wider eyes, who only snickered quietly. Remus oversaw this behaviour with a disapproving eye. It seemed extremely unfair to him the way that they were talking about this girl; especially since she was sleeping peacefully only a couple of metres away. He raised an eyebrow as Sirius wound Peter up further and further, before turning to look at the girl who was making all this fuss.

"James!" He hissed, sudden panic rising in his stomach.

James was standing directly in front of Roxy's chair, crouched down to look at her face. "Get away from her!"

"But Remus," he whispered. "Look at her."

James was staring intently at the sleeping girl, his brow knit and his mouth slightly agape. He squinted as he gazed at her and leaned forward a fraction. He tilted his head; examining her thoroughly.

Peter was shifting his weight from one foot to another anxiously, spluttering at a ridiculous speed; "I don't think you should, we should go upstairs, what if she wakes up?"

Remus, from his post at the very bottom of the stairs, was utterly perplexed. "Look at wha – Sirius!"

It was too late. Sirius had bounded forward to join James. With a growl of frustration, Remus crept toward them, with the intention of dragging them both away, but the moment he saw Roxy's face, he froze, completely taken aback.

She was skinny. So skinny; her cheekbones jutted out of her face in an unnatural fashion, pushing against abnormally pale skin. Her hair was long and unkempt; it looked old and damaged which contrasted so much with her face; she looked younger than she should've been – there were fewer lines on her face than there would be on a regular girl of her age. But the most unusual, disturbing thing was her eyes. Her face may have been young, but her eyes were shadowed, sunken. It was almost as if she had two large, painful black eyes.

"What if she wakes up?" Peter remained where he was. He seemed to be glued to the spot.

"We should go to bed," Remus breathed. Staring at girls while they slept was hardly a pastime he wanted to get into.

"But, Christ, is that what Azkaban does to people?" James murmured. He bent down lower still until he was practically nose to nose with her.

"I, I don't think – I don't think you should do that!" Peter's voice was now intolerably shrill; James straightened himself and opened his mouth in order to throw an insult at Peter that would shut him up, but he was interrupted before he got the chance because as it turned out, Peter was right.

Reflexively, Roxy flung out her leg, which caught James in the side of the chest, leaving him winded. He fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath. It only took a split second before there was a glowing wand in his face. In a matter of seconds, the four teenagers were in a standoff – Roxy's wand hovered inches from James's nose. Sirius had quickly drawn his and pointed it at the side of Roxette's head, while Remus, unsure of what to do, with his hand clenched in a fist around his wand in his pocket. He kept his eyes focussed intensely on Roxette – who was so tense he wasn't completely unsure whether she really intended to curse James or not.