A/N: By now, you all should know what I own and what I don't!

Aww! I love getting reviews. I know I never ask for any, and it has nothing to do with my post scheduling, but it helps. All who have reviewed so far, or added me to their favorites and/or alerts, you make my heart smile!

Even though that sounds like it's riddled with cliche.

Oh well.

I have a prediction though, the ended will make all my faithful hearts smile.

Chpt. 10 New Soul

(P.s. DOUBLT DIGITS!)

Monotony became my life. I woke up, opened the store, closed the store and ate in between then. I didn't mind it, either. I had safety; I had knowledge about what I was going to do.

Sure I picked up some hobbies, like my walks about Hogsmeade and reading whenever it was freezing. I developed more tastes for art than I ever have before, and I spent more time with Rosemerta at the pub that I didn't feel as antisocial any more.

The shop did pick up, I had regulars. The girls who knew what they wanted, and who put jewelry on hold for their mothers and aunts for Christmas. And the friends of those girls. Those boyfriends, who came only during Christmas, Valentine's Day and a few random anniversary days, who clearly had no idea what their girlfriends wanted. I gave a simple guide:

Green eyes-purple and gold

Blue eyes-Orange and teal

Brown eyes- Any color really.

Of course the boyfriends who had girlfriends with brown eyes didn't rejoice.

But I felt as if I was playing cupid. And if I was cupid, I couldn't blame someone for my misfortune in that area.

It was almost like Sirius getting sent to jail affected my life positively. We hadn't been seeing each other when he had been sent, but it was almost like the last chance of us together was ended immediately.

I even got used to calling him Paul in my head. Why Paul? I had no idea. But I knew that if I got used to calling him Paul, a name whom I had no connection to what so ever, I'd eventually become numb to him. It wouldn't seem as pathetic to think about him daily by that name. I wouldn't be as lame if I wanted to visit him again, by the name Paul.

Oh yes, I visited him once.

It was about 3 years ago, a night that Rosemerta convinced me to try fw because someone ordered a ton of food or something.

I felt nauseas and brave and got into my head that visiting him would do something for me. I can't really remember all that I thought that night, because I seriously doubt I thought that much at all.

The minute I reached that island, though, I knew that every feeling I had was replaced with dread. Even without the dementors, I would still feel as depressed as ever, it was raining and the dark castle stretched far into the sky with an un-fairy tale style of gothic.

As I walked to the visitor entrance doors, I felt watched and out of place.

"State your name" An invisible voice commanded.

"Te-Agnes Buey" I said, feeling as if using my nickname would bring more disaster than hearing my real one.

"Business?" It asked, without a feeling.

"Visitor" I stated, slightly shaking. A name tag popped in front of me, flashing until I took it and stuck it to my cream trench coat.

The doors slide open, revealing an elevator with one other human being inside. He seemed bored out of his mind, chewing something and clenched something in his hand.

"Where to?" He said not looking at me, but eyeing the d behind me.

"Pa-Siriues Black" I stuttered, feeling more subconscious than what the fw was supposed to do to me.

The worker then eyed me, with the strangest look and hit a button that took us upwards. I couldn't count the floors, but it seemed that the elevator was extremely slow.

The doors opened, the worker turned to me again, popping something out of the bag into his mouth.

"Down the hall, to the right. You have ten minutes"

"The hall" made it seem short, but it was the long walk to coincide with the elevator. The people in the cells varied from the ones that sat bolt upright in their beds staring at nothing, to the ones that were holding onto the bars for dear life, screaming and staring directly at me.

I wanted to walk faster, but it seemed it was impossible to in that place.

I finally rounded the corner, to what seemed like an empty corridor with one cell. The cell was larger than the others, and the screams of the prisoners were slightly muffled. I thought the cell was for the larger prisoners, like giants, and that the elevator man had played a trick on me.

But inside on the bed was Sirius. A gauntly Sirius. A strange Sirius. He was asleep, and it was out of place for this place. I always imagined a hundred of nights of sleeplessness in this place, but he seemed almost peaceful.

I touched the bars; to…well I had no idea what I would have gained by touching them. Maybe it was to get closer. Maybe it was to feel what he felt when he felt trapped. They were cold.

It seemed though the minute I touched the bars, my name tag started to give me shocks to tell me ten minutes were up. That I had wasted most of the time walking. That I was lucky that I hadn't come when Sirius was awake.

When I had gotten back into the elevator (the walk was much faster), the last thing the man asked me was,

"Why did you see him?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out."

Everyone in Hogsmeade was one edge after the news of Sirius Black's escape. Teddy was more shook up than ever before, her monotony was finally unbalanced. She tried to match the worried-ness of Rosemerta, she still hadn't revealed their intimacy and wasn't planning to.

The Hogsmeade people had gone to Dumbledore the day they found out, to see what he and what they should to for protection, Hagrid had joined them, too. Teddy, Rosemerta, and him had made jokes on the way up to the c about how the Ministry might pass out "How to Deal with a Serial Criminal that Escaped Our "Inescapable" Prison" to lighten the mood, but it didn't help the feeling inside.

Teddy didn't feel vulnerable or unsafe, she never really believed Sirius did the crime he was sent away for, but she felt more paranoid and more insecure. Paranoid, incase Sirius tried to talk to her, and insecure incase he didn't.

But amidst this danger that loomed the town, Teddy had no qualms about feeding the hungry dog that loomed too outside of her shop. She'd seen it a few days before, and it seemed that it was her day to feed him.

It looked familiar to her, but Teddy had a ton of dogs when she was little, so she didn't worry too much about it.

Sitting down on the curb, she held out a piece of chicken she had gotten from Rosemerta earlier that day. Reluctantly, the dog took it, not keeping its eyes off of her.

Eerily, she watched the dog watch her. The feeling of familiarity was more and more evident as she stared at the eyes. Those eyes…

Gasping, she sprang up, making the dog lose its eye contact with her.

Suddenly, she felt paranoid, even though everyone in Hogsmeade had glued their shutters and blinds shut, as if not seeing the Black they imagined made them safe.

The dog pawed at her, almost begging her to stay.

Instead she walked to her door, and left it wide open for a confused dog to slowly walk into her store.

Shutting it, she quickly closed the blinds that she rarely did. She didn't think ignorance of his possible presence would do anything. Besides those blinds were terribly ugly and had a glue charm on them.

The dog transformed. And Teddy stared at him.

Teddy stared at him.

And he stared back.

Making it seem like a dream when he grabbed her into a hug.