Chapter Twelve

Remember Who You're Dealing With

I lay upon my bed, still wearing my dress. I did not remember getting home, or falling asleep, but I must have done. My eyes opened slowly as I heard Severus open the door and come in.

"Alysia?" he asked, clearly worried. The memory of what had happened the previous night came flooding back. With a sob, I leapt into my brother's arms, crying hard into his shoulder.

"Hush. It's alright," he whispered soothingly. After several minutes, I pulled away slowly.

"I've spoken to Dumbledore about it," Severus told me grimly. "I told him last night, after you went to sleep. I didn't think you would be up to reliving it yourself." I gave him a grateful smile.

I hardly left the house again for months. Once or twice a week, Voldemort called on us. His arrival always startled me and set me off again; mostly because every time I saw him, I could not stop thinking about his reaction when Severus and Lucius had told him what Sirius had done. It had been a scary thing to witness; almost as scary as Sirius' reaction had been when I told him about Severus Imperiusing me. When Severus went back to Hogwarts after the holidays were over, Narcissa Malfoy came to stay with me.

I mostly occupied myself with reading. Narcissa took care of most of the housework for me, which meant I had a great deal of free time on my hands. If I got bored with reading, I generally took a short nap. One day, however, I plucked up enough courage to ask Narcissa a question.

"Narcissa?" I asked. She looked up at me kindly.

"What is it, Alysia?" she responded. I hesitated.

"You have noticed that the Dark Lord seems to view me in a favourable light, I daresay," I began. Narcissa nodded. I sighed.

"No doubt you are aware that I was blatantly disloyal during my years in Azkaban. I denounced him regularly, as your sister Bellatrix will happily point out. Yet the Dark Lord has seemingly welcomed me back with open arms. He has not once questioned my loyalty since my return, as I am sure he did with Severus, and even Lucius. Do you have any idea why that might be?" I asked. Narcissa smiled knowingly at me.

"If truth be told, Alysia, I do not think the Dark Lord minds whether you are loyal to him or not; a rare occurrence, you understand. As to why that is, I'm afraid I know even less than you do," she told me.

With a tiny smile, I looked back down at my book. I found it impossible to concentrate, though. I must have read the same line at least ten times. Finally, I snapped the book shut and marched upstairs to my room. I returned a few minutes later, ready to go out.

"Alysia!" Narcissa exclaimed.

"I'm going out for a while. I just need some time to clear my head, and it might do me good to get out of this wretched house for a few hours," I mumbled. Narcissa nodded slowly.

"Stay safe, Alysia. Your brother would probably kill me very slowly and painfully if something bad happened to you," she said sternly. I smiled slightly and made my way out the door.

I thought I could hear someone calling my name as I gazed numbly in a shop window. Without looking to see who it was, I turned and marched away. I could hear whomever it was still calling me as my footsteps quickened and finally I broke into a run. The person caught up with me and spun me around roughly to face them.

"You'll stand still and listen to me when I'm talking to you, you little bitch!" Sirius snarled. I turned my face away angrily.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, shoving my discarded engagement ring in my face. I looked up sharply.

"Funny, even a Squib could have worked that one out, Sirius. It means I do not want to marry you any more," I replied coldly.

"You can't honestly say that you'd rather have that Lestrange freak than me!" he snarled.

"Is that what this is about?" I shrieked hysterically. "You don't appear to have realised, Sirius, but you attacked me; don't you dare interrupt!" I ordered as Sirius opened his mouth to protest.

"As I was saying, you attacked me, at a private party, in front of an enormous crowd of guests! You bloody scared me half to death, Sirius, and you really believe that I would continue to be hopelessly in love with you after that?" I demanded.

"I get the picture, Alysia! You're dumping me for that low-life scumbag!" Sirius said scathingly.

"Sirius, once and for all, there is absolutely NOTHING going on between Rabastan and me! We are FRIENDS!" I yelled. "Now, if you don't mind, I didn't go out for the first time in months only to be hounded by an obsessive, jealous, controlling jerk!" I added as I turned on my heel and walked away.

"You'll regret this, Alysia!" he shouted after me. I spun around and glared at him.

"Just remember who you're dealing with, Black!" I shouted in reply, before stalking off.

I felt nauseous as I struggled to regain my balance. With a sigh, I spotted the Hog's Head and made my way towards it. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see Severus sitting at a table by the dusty window, his head bent over a large pile of parchment. I slowly made my way over to him and saw that he was actually marking a pile of essays.

"Do you always work so hard on your days off?" I asked, faintly amused. Severus looked up sharply.

"Alysia! You startled me! Why aren't you at home?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I just needed to get out of the house for a bit," I murmured as I sat down across from him. With an awkward smile, Severus bent his head over his marking again.

"Oh come on, Severus! You haven't seen me for weeks, we happen to run into each other when you conveniently have an afternoon off, and you honestly would prefer to continue working?" I asked. Severus ignored me.

"Well, at least let me help you with that," I muttered as I made a playful grab at the pile. Severus looked up at me, the corner of his lips twitching slightly.

"I don't think so, Alysia. You might make a mistake, and cause me a great deal of embarrassment," he replied slyly.

"Just because I didn't get an 'O' in my Potions N.E.W.T like you did does not make me a complete dunce on the subject," I declared. "You didn't do so great in History of Magic, despite it being incredibly easy, yet you hardly ever hear me harp on about that!"

Severus pretended to be offended. With a quiet 'humpf' he bent back over his paperwork.

"Severus?" I asked. No response. I knew he was only mucking around. "Severus, look at me!"

"Not until you apologise," Severus muttered. I sighed.

"Alright, you win. I'm sorry Severus. You are an undisputed genius at Potions, Charms and Defensive Magic, and I can never hope to match your prodigious skill and knowledge. Happy?" He looked up, a broad grin on his face.

"Apology accepted, Angelique," he teased.

"Don't! Call! Me! Angelique!" I retorted crossly, slapping my brother hard with every syllable.

"Ouch! That hurt!" he protested, rubbing his arm. I grinned triumphantly.

"You should know better than to call me that name, Severus. Or have you forgotten the time I used that Tongue-Tying hex on you?" I asked sweetly. Severus grimaced.

"No, I haven't forgotten, Alysia, especially as you did so less than two minutes after I had taught you how to cast it," he groaned. I giggled.

"Why are you in such a good mood, Alysia?" Severus asked me suspiciously. That wiped the smile off my face!

"I can't win with you, can I?" I exclaimed, exasperated. "If I'm in a foul mood, you get angry at me, even though it's normally your fault anyway, and if I'm in a good mood, you get suspicious!"

"Given that the last time I saw you this pleased you had just cursed me, I think I have every right to be concerned," he replied in a business-like tone. I rolled my eyes and poked my tongue out at him.

"Well?" he demanded. I allowed a cheeky grin to slowly form on my face.

"Let's just say I met a rather pathetic dog earlier," I told him. Severus looked concerned.

"What happened?" he demanded, frowning. I giggled.

"You really won't believe this! He actually thought that the only reason I ditched him was that I was apparently so desperate to go out with Rabastan instead! Honestly, if I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I would never have believed he could be so thick!" I replied, laughing so hard that my sides began to ache. Severus raised an eyebrow.

"And what was your response to that?" he asked.

With an amused grin, I replied, "I gave him just a hint of a reminder of that notorious temper of mine. Oh, don't fret, Severus; I didn't hex him!" I added hastily as Severus bit his lip anxiously. "As much as I really wanted to. Nah, I just yelled at him a bit and told him to get lost."

Hmm. I initially wasn't sure whether to include this Chapter. At first, it just felt like it didn't fit. Eventually, though, I decided to ignore the annoying little voice in my head that told me not to bother with it. I hope I made the right decision :P

BTW: Haven't had many votes about which House Alysia would be in, yet. At the moment, it's tied between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Please go to my profile and vote in the poll. It isn't often I let others have a say in the plot of my stories, so, I beg you, savour the opportunity and take advantage. ;)

Next Chapter: Alysia is confused about how she sees her relationship with Severus as well as with Rabastan Lestrange, and we start to learn the full story of Alysia's arrest and subsequent trial.