Hello! Quick note. I am… very dumb. I was posting a chapter of Trouble Is A Friend and, for whatever reason, I stared directly at the name of this fic and posted it here instead. So I'm giving you chapters now. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

You were here when I wrote this

But the masters and mixes will take too long to finish

To show you

October 19th, 1972

Lily Evans stood behind the couch, hands on hips and so angry that her face nearly matched the deep red of her curls. "James Potter!"

The boy in question jumped so hard that he threw his quill across the room. "Geez, Evans, relax."

"I will not relax!" she snapped, holding up her potions book, which was tearing itself apart. "You did this!"

James exchanged a startled look with Sirius. "Oh no… that was supposed to be Ash's book."

"Fix it!"

"It's okay," Sirius assured her quickly. "Once it finishes ripping itself up, it'll put itself back together."

"No," James whined suddenly. "We don't get a point for this, do we?"

"It wasn't a successful prank," Peter laughed. "You didn't even prank the right person."

"This is ridiculous," Lily glared. "I was trying to do my homework!"

"You can borrow mine," James offered, handing over his potions book. She took it and turned to run up the stairs without another word. "Rude."

"You destroyed her book," Remus told him, sounding bored.

"She didn't even say thank you!"

OoOoOoOoOoOo

October 21st, 1972

Alexia and Sirius stood outside of the Great Hall, peeking around the corner to watch James, Remus, and Peter as they ate their breakfast. Slowly, their clothes changed colors, and Alex pointed her wand at each of them and cast a spell that stuck their clothes to them. When all was said and done, the three boys wore Slytherin robes and had no way of taking them off. Sirius waved his wand at them, and suddenly their skin and hair matched the green of their robes.

When the people around them burst out laughing, they noticed what had happened. Before they could be found out, Alex and Sirius ran up the nearby stairs as fast as they could and raced to the Gryffindor common rooms, where they marked another line under each of their names on the announcement board.

It had been Gideon's idea to put their names on the board when all of Gryffindor had found out what was happening. There were bets being placed, and Alexia was proud to say that she was tied with Sirius both in the bets and on the board. The board could only be marked by each Marauder and only under their names. Each prank had to be reviewed by an outside source - the Prewett twins - before the mark was official.

They'd set up a nice system for their pranks and with school in full swing, they were all taking advantage of it.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

October 31st, 1972

Halloween day was filled with pranks and… detention. They had the day off school and all five Marauders had spent the majority of it in detention after a dramatic prank that lit up the Great Hall during breakfast… literally. Every surface in the place had emitted a bright white light, and Sirius had explained how everyone had died suddenly and that they were in heaven. After taking ten minutes to reverse the spellwork, the five kids were escorted to Dumbledore's office where he gave them a halfhearted speech about not scaring people and then assigned them one single detention for it all.

They were out by lunch, much to McGonagall's disappointment, and they went about their day normally.

Alexia tugged James aside and sat with him in the Room of Requirement for four hours, just feeling the need to be close to her brother on what she'd always known as the anniversary of his death. They spent time muttering to one another about their lives before they met, something they hadn't done much of.

When dinner came and passed, they finally left the room to go back to the common room, where they found a game of truth or dare being played by all of the second year Gryffindor students and Marlene, who was an honorary Gryffindor.

"Padfoot!" James exclaimed, hand on his chest. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"We tried," he huffed. "We couldn't find you anywhere."

"Well, we're joining," he told them firmly, plopping down between Lily and Sirius. Alexia rolled her eyes and sat with Remus, leaning against the wall behind her.

"Okay," Mary said, getting their attention. "Frank, truth or dare?"

"Dare," the boy decided, though he looked uncertain.

Mary's eyes sparkled evilly. "I dare you to speak only in Latin for the next three turns."

"Mary," Lily stared. "None of us know fluent Latin!"

"I know."

Frank let out a sigh. "Bene… Alice, veritatem vel provocatio?"

Alice giggled. "I assume that means truth or dare?" At his nod, she hummed. "Truth."

"Si quis hoc loco semper habuisse, qui esset?"

Alice frowned and Alexia sighed, waving her wand at Frank. "Transferendum." The words he'd just spoken appeared above his head in English. It was a bit confused because of his limited Latin, but the general question came through - if she had to live with one person in the room forever, who would it be?

"Hey!" Mary exclaimed. "That's cheating!"

"Mary, I love you, but we'd get nowhere without translation," Alexia shook her head. "He still has to say it in Latin, so it works. We just don't have to strain to understand."

When she looked like she was going to argue more, Emmaline put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Seriously, love. Let it go."

"Marlene," Alice decided firmly. "Can we move on?"

"Oh, I'm touched," Marlene smirked.

The game continued on for another half hour before it got to Sirius, who would end the game.

"Sirius," Marlene grinned. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare. I'm no wimp."

"I dare you to kiss Alex on the mouth."

Sirius hesitated and glanced at James, who looked horrified. "That's my best mate's sister, Marls."

"I know."

Sirius scooted over to sit anxiously across from Alexia, who only looked annoyed. "Sorry, kitten."

"Get it over with," she requested. He nodded and leaned in slowly, hoping that something would stop them before their lips touched. Nothing did, and his lips brushed against hers softly for only a moment. Still, in that moment, there was a spark that came to life inside not only him but inside Alexia as well. A string tugged at both of them until it was tight against each of their souls.

Sirius scrambled back and stared at her with wide, terrified eyes. "Ash?"

She looked back for only a moment before she got to her feet and rushed out of the common room without a word. Everyone was silent for a moment before James smacked Sirius. "You scared her!"

"Well, that was no fun," Marlene whined.

"It's getting late, anyway," Lily sighed. "James, do you wanna go look for her together?"

"Yeah," he nodded, helping her to her feet. The pair made their way out of the common room, leaving the mood of the game dead.

As everyone got to their feet, Sirius rushed up to his dorm and began pacing, fighting the panic that was rising in his chest. He was only alone for barely a minute before Remus closed and locked the door behind him.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded. "She's terrified!"

Sirius spun around to look at his friend. "We ignited a soul bond, Moony."

"Oh, shit."

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?" he shouted, throwing his hands up as he let out some more of his frustration and fear. "We're thirteen!"

"She's an adult," Remus reminded him. "Just… wait until she gets back to the future?"

Sirius paused. "You know?"

"You don't know I know?"

"Oh, thank Merlin," he sagged in relief. "I can't have a soul bond with her, Remus, even in the future."

"Why? You'll both be adults!"

"But I'm dead."

Remus's breath caught. His friend was dead. His friend was dead and Alexia hadn't told him.

"She's trying to change it," he continued. "But I'm not sure it'll work. I don't even think I have enough information to change it, Moony. I took a Vow but I don't… I don't know."

"So you just need to learn more about it. Does she have more she can tell you?"

"Well, apparently, she saw it."

Suddenly, Remus understood why Alexia occasionally got sad when looking at Sirius. Not only had he died, but she'd watched him die. "Maybe… maybe we should ask to see the memory."

"I don't wanna watch myself die!"

"It's not on my bucket list either, Sirius, but apparently we need to."

Sirius sighed, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes. "It's not just that."

"Then what is it?"

"It's my family," he admitted. "How I was raised. I don't want her to be stuck with such… darkness."

"You can't decide who your soulmate is, Pads," Remus said with little sympathy. "And from what she's told me and what I've noticed, she's seen plenty of darkness. Maybe you need each other."

"Let's just… we'll get the memory tomorrow. I don't want to deal with the bond right now."

"I don't think it's a good idea to put it off."

"I don't really care."

"Fine. Just the memory. But you'll have to deal with it sometime, Sirius."

"I know."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

November 5th, 1972

Alexia had been avoiding Sirius ever since their kiss. It had been admittedly harder than she'd expected. He'd actively been seeking her out, and it had surprised her. Since she'd known him, he'd always avoided hard conversations. She remembered once asking him about Regulus after finding his bedroom and he'd claimed he needed to clean his bathroom. She'd been so surprised that she'd actually laughed.

The library was no longer safe as he'd come looking for her there many times, which just left the Room of Requirement as her only hideout. She'd spent the entire day there and had only left to sneak out to the kitchens for food, which had been nerve-wracking, to say the least. Logically she understood she couldn't avoid him forever, nor could she hide away for much longer. She needed a change of clothes and a shower, and she could only get those in her dorm.

At 9:30 she made her way back to the Gryffindor common room where, as she suspected, she ran into Sirius. Remus was with him, looking sick and anxious. She put her bag on the table and sat down, waiting for what she'd been avoiding. She gave a spare thought to the fact that Sirius must've told Remus, but she didn't have enough energy to care.

"Hey, Alex," Remus greeted, sitting down next to her. She bumped his shoulder quietly as Sirius came to stand in front of her, wringing his hands together. "We have a big favor to ask you."

Lexi looked at him, confused. "You do?"

"Yeah. So… Sirius told me that you told him he dies."

"Oh."

"And you asked him to take a Vow. Thing is, Ash, he can't uphold that Vow without more information."

She blinked. "You want me to tell you what happened exactly?"

"We'd like if you could show us," Remus corrected. "I know it's a lot to ask, but if we want to keep him alive…"

"No, yeah," she nodded, shifting to sit up straighter. "But I don't know how to show you both at once."

"It's possible… for us both to cast Legilimens," Sirius spoke up. "We'd both see it."

"Okay."

The boys exchanged a glance and Sirius took a minute to teach his friend the spell before they both sat in front of her and cast it at the same time. The memory began playing immediately.

The boys watched as she fought Lucius and was captured by Dolohov. Neither of them missed the way he kissed her neck or the creepy words he whispered to her. Both Hermione and Dolohov were distracted by Sirius dueling his twisted cousin. When the red light of the stunner hit Sirius's chest, he fell back into the Veil. Alexia let the memory continue to show Remus the way he'd held Harry back from chasing his godfather in before she kicked them from her mind.

"Holy shit," Sirius breathed. Remus nodded along.

"Who was that… who ran after him?" the werewolf asked cautiously.

"That was Harry," she said slowly, frowning. "He's James's son. Sirius was his godfather."

"Where the hell was James?" Sirius demanded.

"He was fighting somewhere else," she lied. "Anyway, the most important thing is that you don't get hit by that stunner, okay?"

"Alex," Remus said softly, grabbing her hand. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered, her voice shaking. The memory hurt even more since she knew Sirius was apparently her bond mate- her soulmate. "Do you guys have any other questions?"

"What the hell was Dolohov doing?" Sirius asked sharply. She looked up in surprise.

"I don't… really know. In another memory from right before I arrived in the past, he called me Alexia. And we know he knows me. He's got some sort of obsession with me… he's attacked me many times. He almost killed me once. Remus, you actually saved me. I owe you a life debt."

"You don't- I didn't- I haven't- n-no," Remus sputtered, managing to make Alexia smile slightly.

"I owe you a life debt in 1998. Don't worry, Moony, I know you won't use it for anything untoward." Remus blushed and her smile grew, especially because she knew he had Tonks to look forward to. "Is that all? I'd like to get to bed."

"Yeah," Remus agreed. "Me too. Goodnight, Ash."

"Night, Remus."

She watched him make his way up the stairs and then grabbed her bag and turned to go up to her dorm. Sirius's hand grabbed her wrist, and she turned around to look at him. He seemed to be struggling with what to say, and she waited patiently.

"Lexi… are we okay?"

"We're okay," she agreed. "We don't… things are complicated, okay? And we're young - you're young - so we just don't need to worry about it for now."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

"We can talk about it when we're older or when I get back to my time."

"But we're still… friends? We're all good?"

"All good," she promised, giving him a smile. "I promise."

"Okay. Goodnight, kitten."

"Goodnight, Padfoot."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

November 16th, 1972

The friend group returned to normal soon after the conversation in the common room, and they were back to talking and laughing as if nothing had changed.

But Alexia did have one other rather large problem that was leading her to avoid a different friend. It wasn't until she found herself in her dorm with Lily and Emmaline that she broke down and asked for advice.

"Geez, Lexi, what's wrong with you?" Emmaline asked with a raised eyebrow. She turned to her friend and saw Lily looking at her in worry as well.

"What do you guys think of boys?"

Lily blushed, but Emmaline grinned wickedly. "I think Remus is rather fit, don't you?"

"Ew!" she shook her head quickly. "Ew, no, not Remus."

"I don't know about boys," Lily tried, though her blush told the truth.

"Lily likes James."

Alexia's eyes widened. "Oh my god. Really?"

"Sometimes," her friend confirmed before frowning. "Other times he's just such a prat. He's mostly okay with you. He turns into such a good, kind person with you."

"Yeah, that's Jamie," Lexi sighed. "I think he likes you, too."

"Why do you ask?" Lily wondered, shifting the topic away from her own crush.

"I don't know. Aren't we a bit young to be worrying about boys?"

"You're thirteen," Emmaline reasoned. "So am I. I think it's a perfectly good age to begin worrying about boys or girls. Who are you worried about?"

Alexia paused. "Lucius." Two sets of squealing and three minutes later and she was given a moment to speak again. "Relax! It's not like he likes me or anything. I can't help it. It's just… a harmless crush."

"Oh, he definitely likes you," Emmaline nodded quickly. "Did your parents give you lessons on courting?"

"Just a couple quick ones, mostly because they think it's outdated. Why?"

"Because he's definitely in the beginning steps of courting."

She stared in shock at her friend. "What?"

"He compliments you, he carries your books, he offered to take you for hot cocoa over break, and I'll bet you anything he bought you a Christmas present."

"I bought him a Christmas present last year! It's just a present, Emma."

"No, she's right," Lily nodded along. "It was in that book your mum gave me. He likes you!"

"But… I've got this… thing with Sirius," she sighed. "You guys can't say anything to anyone, especially Jamie."

"We promise!"

"When Marls dared Sirius to kiss me… it ignited a soul bond," she told them. The pair stared at her with wide eyes and she nodded. "We agreed to just live our lives however we will for now, but doesn't it make dating anyone else sort of… pointless? Besides, Lucius and I could never be together for that long, anyway. He has to court and marry the perfect pureblood princess, and I'm a blood traitor."

"I hate that term," Emmaline scowled. "I don't think it's pointless, though. Do you want to go through life having only been in a single relationship, just because you know that's where you'll end up? You'll miss the entire journey if you focus only on the end destination."

"She has a good point," Lily agreed. "I say go for it. It's not like you have to marry him."

"Maybe," she sighed. "I want to focus on making sure Sirius and I are okay for now. Maybe if I still feel this way next year, we can go to Hogsmeade together."

"What's Hogsmeade?" Lily wondered.

The girls set into explaining as they finished their nighttime routines and as Alexia laid in bed before falling asleep, she found she felt a million times better about the entire situation.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

December 13th, 1972

Regulus was on his way to the Great Hall when it happened. Two fourth year Gryffindor boys cornered him and began hexing him. They gave no reason for the treatment and he assumed it was simply because of his House. He was fumbling for his wand when both boys froze in place before falling to the ground with a thud. He looked up to find a very angry Alexia standing with her wand out in front of her and her hair sparking like mad.

"From my own House," she huffed angrily as she paced over to them. When she got there, she cast another spell, and the two turned near invisible. She shoved them into a nearby alcove before finally turning to Regulus, who was still looking at her in surprise. "Regulus. I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?"

"I can handle a few hexes," he said, a bit defensive. He was never very good at being taken care of or worried about.

"I don't doubt it," she agreed. "So can I. But that doesn't mean I don't like to get them healed as soon as possible. Are you hurt?"

He nodded and tilted his head to the sight to show her where they'd burned him a bit, as well as singing off some of his hair. She winced but brought her wand up to quickly heal the burn. "Thank you."

"I can even out your hair, too," she offered. "I've given a few haircuts before."

"How bad is it?"

"A bit obvious," she admitted.

He sighed. "If it's not a bother, thank you."

She nodded and carefully removed the strip of leather he used to pull his hair back and began trimming the hair to be even. When she finished, she tied the hair back up for him. "There you go."

"Thank you," he bowed his head. "What are you doing down here?"

"Oh, I had some extra credit for Slughorn I forgot to turn in," she rolled her eyes. "I'm here to sweet talk him into taking it."

"You are in his Slug Club," Regulus pointed out. "I'm sure he won't mind."

"Here's hoping," she shrugged. "Are you alright? You can come with me if you'd like."

"Sure," he agreed, sparing a glance at the boys. "What have you done to them?"

"It's a modified stunner," she waved him off. "It'll wear off in two hours, then their only problem is finding a teacher to take off the disillusionment."

"Merlin," he let out a short, startled laugh as if he didn't do it often.

Alexia winked at him and turned to head to the potions room where Regulus watched her talk with Slughorn. The old man accepted her obvious lie easily and took the roll of parchment to grade. When she came back over to him, he walked with her quietly for a long minute. They were heading to the Great Hall and were nearby when he spoke again.

"How are you doing in potions?"

"Well, actually," she grinned at him. "Severus and Lucius have been a big help. I actually understand it much better than I expected to."

"May I ask you a question?" he requested suddenly. She paused to look at him.

"Sure."

"Why are you so nice to us?" he took a second to organize his thoughts as the question had come out in a bit of a rush. "What I mean to ask is why don't you buy into the rivalry? My own brother doesn't talk to me much anymore just because I'm in Slytherin."

"My mum was a Slytherin," she frowned at him. "And I almost was, too. I'd have gone there but I didn't want to be separated from Jamie, so I threatened the hat and it put me in Gryffindor. You, Lucius, Severus, you're all just people, kids, just like me. It's ridiculous to write you all off just because you wear a green tie Monday to Friday. You're my friends, Regulus. I really couldn't care less what House you're in. And I'd like to make it clear that Sirius is just an idiot and he's really rather caught up in his own thing right now. I'm sure he doesn't mean to ignore you."

"I'm glad to be your friend," he decided, smiling at her. She nodded firmly and took his arm and walked with him into the Great Hall, talking quietly together. When they finally separated, she took her seat next to Sirius and James, who had watched her make her way in. Dinner was nearly finished and the Hall was, for the most part, empty.

"What were you talking to him for?" Sirius hissed. Alexia raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your brother? The terrified first year that I just saved from being hexed by fourth years? My friend?"

"He was being hexed?" he asked her, startled. She nodded.

"I stunned them and helped him clean up. It's why we were late. Why are you avoiding him, Sirius? He's your brother."

"You never want to avoid James?" he defended and she shrugged.

"Not really, no."

"Okay, but you didn't exactly grow up with him," he pointed out. "Did you have any siblings before?"

"Nope."

"See, you wouldn't understand," Sirius said firmly as if he'd won.

"I really want to know," she pushed. "Why are you avoiding him? It's not like he hasn't noticed. It's upsetting him. He even mentioned it to me."

"I don't know, Ash," Sirius deflated. "He had a whole year with our mother alone. I have no clue the things she might've told him. I don't want him to call me a blood traitor or anything."

"Sirius, that's ridiculous," she scoffed. "He hasn't called me a blood traitor. In fact, he just called me his friend. Go talk to your damn brother."

Sirius just made a face at her and turned back to his food. She stuck her tongue out at him and ate her meal silently, angry with her friend for avoiding his lonely brother.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

December 20th, 1972

The library was quiet per usual, but much more abandoned. Finals were over for the term, and that meant that class was over as well. Most students were preparing to go home for the holidays or spending time with their friends. Alexia, however, was in the library with her friends, digging through all the books on memory manipulation that Dorea could find to send to her. She'd even gone to her vaults where she'd kept many of the books she'd taken from the Black library in Black Manor.

Severus, Lucius, and Regulus were all keeping her company while she worked, slowly and painstakingly digging through the mountain of books she wanted to finish reading before the end of the school year.

"What is she doing?" Regulus whispered to Lucius, who looked up from his own book - a biography of the last Headmaster that he'd grabbed with no real intention to read.

"I'm never quite certain, but she definitely has some sort of goal," he shrugged. "Alexia, why do you need this many books on memory manipulation?"

She looked up with wide eyes as she processed his question and shook herself. "Research."

"Yes, Alex, but for what?" Severus laughed a little, pulling her book from her hands. "A lot of this is concepts far beyond even NEWT level."

"Okay," she sat back with a frown. "Consider this. Someone is tortured until they lose their mind. They're still alive, but there's not much there anymore. If we got to them ahead of time, is there a way to preserve what's there if we know we cannot prevent the torture?"

"Occlumency," Regulus answered easily. "It's not just for protecting your mind from invasion, it can also hold things. I've heard of people that witnessed horrible things locking away their memories like that."

Alexia's eyes sharpened on him hopefully, her goal shifting for a moment. "Wait, What? Really? You can- you can do that? How?"

"Well, it takes work," he admitted. "Sometimes there's trauma, and when there's trauma, memories latch onto it tightly, so someone would have to carefully break them apart."

"Why can't you just tuck it away without doing that?"

"Because then… have you heard of PTSD?"

She frowned in surprise. "Yes, actually. How do you know of it?"

"Mu Uncle Alphard used to take Sirius and I to a public library," he said. "I found the human brain very interesting."

"Huh."

"Anyways, if you just tucked away the memory without removing it from the trauma, you'd still have the reactions that it causes but no way of knowing how or why or how to deal with it."

"So doing this, do you forget what happened?"

"No," he disagreed thoughtfully. "I think it's more like you remember it, but you don't care as much."

Alexia nodded slowly. "And how would you go about doing this again?"

"You'd need someone else to do it for you. If you tried doing it, you could damage not only the bad memories but all of your other memories as well."

She tried not to show her disappointment. "Right. Well… what about my initial question?"

"Oh, of course," he shook himself, thinking back. "Well, it would take time. You would create rooms, essentially, in their minds and they'd have to put their memories inside, sort of like a backup for the general Occlumency shields."

"Huh," she nodded slowly. "Thank you, Reg."

Regulus tilted his head at her. "This isn't hypothetical, is it?"

She ignored him and went back to reading. At his irritated sigh, Severus nodded.

"You'll get used to it."

OoOoOoOoOoOo