Chapter Ten

A/N: Thank you to Marisa McGonagall Black and kittyhawk09 for reviewing the last chapter.

The first meeting of the first years with their older mentors was scheduled for that evening. The students could meet wherever they wanted, to discuss schoolwork and anything else that was bothering them, and Professor McGonagall would be checking up on them, to see how they were getting on. Most students had chosen to meet in the common room, or the library, but, in a show of unorthodox behaviour that was typical of him, Sirius had decided upon meeting Annie in the Quidditch stands.

The moon was high in the sky that night, casting an ethereal glow across the stands. The light was almost strong enough that the young girl would not need her wand to see where she was going, but she had the strip of wood illuminated nonetheless, the warmth of the glow soothing her slightly in the face of the darkness.

Despite the fact that her first impressions of her mentor were not good at all, the blonde found herself sighing with relief when she saw that the fourth year had arrived before her. She had not fancied sitting alone in the huge outdoor space, as some of the ghosts at Hogwarts could be cruel and she did not fancy being on the receiving end of one of Peeves' pranks. 'At least with Black around, he won't dare to pull a prank.' she reasoned with herself. 'Not after the time he got those chains charmed to his chest, so that he was stuck in the dungeons for three days.'

"Evening, Annie." the young man greeted, flashing her a charming smile, one which did not quite reach his eyes, the child noticed. Almost as if he had something to hide.

"Evening." she responded, suddenly painfully aware of the fact that she did not know the forename of her new mentor, and that she could hardly be rude enough to address him by his surname, as so many of the boys in the older years seemed to do to each other. Trying to minimise his awareness of her embarrassment, Annie averted her gaze to the floorboards that made up the stands, but this technique did not last for long, as he spoke before the blush on her cheeks had had a chance to fully manifest itself.

"My name is Sirius, by the way." he told her, and she disguised her vague sigh of relief that he had answered her unspoken question, asking another one inside her head almost immediately, which she was amazed to find he also answered with the same amount of speed. "You're so transparent you might as well be the Grey Lady."

"Oh." she squeaked, her cheeks reddening a little once again. She could not remember feeling so embarrassed in all of her life, and waited for the inevitable joke that would follow his statement, as it had done so many of her mother's back in the Common Room, on the night she had discovered Black, as she had known him as then, would be her mentor. However, the joke did not come, and when she looked up at him, she saw that the smile on his face was affectionate, not mocking. In truth, she did not know which one she would have prefered. Yes, she hated to be mocked, but to see that Sirius was being nice to her was more than a little unnerving.

"So, how are you settling in?" he asked lamely, trying to start a conversation. The quiet resumed again the moment the words were out, and Annie made no immediate attempt to respond. After all, she did not particularly want to answer, and doubted that her mentor cared to know either.

"It's alright, I guess." she sighed eventually, but her tone was completely void of interest.

"Have you made any friends yet?" Sirius continued to press, and his interest seemed to have increased a little.

"No." she responded, quite bluntly, though she had not wanted to be rude. She was quite sensitive about the fact that she spent the majority of her time alone, bar the time she spent with her mother, probably too sensitive about it, in fact. However, she immediately felt a little guilty. After all, Sirius had meant well.

"And have you heard anything from your family?" he continued. This question was easier to answer, although she knew that she had to be careful what she said. It was a secret that her mother was a professor at their school, and she was aware that both of them would prefer that it remained that way.

"I saw my mother recently. She came to see me." Annie answered truthfully. She was not lying to him, technically; she was just avoiding certain details, such as the fact that her mother was their Head of House. "I don't have anyone else. Just her."

"I wish I had no one." Sirius told her, and the girl paused slightly. She had not expected for him to say something to her as openly as this, when she had only learnt his name a matter of minutes earlier. She listened intently as he continued. "I hate my family. My parents hate me, and my brother has always been better than I am in their eyes. I get on well with my cousin, Andromeda, and her sister, Bellatrix, hates me. There was another sister too, Narcissa... I never knew what happened to her."

Suddenly, an alarm bell rang in the child's mind. She recognised that name. She had heard it somewhere before, she was sure of it, but she had no idea where from. She could have heard it, shouted in the street, read it in a newspaper, seen a portrait somewhere within the many corridors of the Hogwarts Castle, but she recognised it from somewhere, and somehow, it seemed important to her.

Once Annie had gone, Sirius sat alone in the Quidditch stands, pondering the discovery he had made. It was her, he was sure of it now. Anastasia Selwyn was Narcissa.

A/N: Please review!