Chapter 14:

It was daybreak when Sirius came back through the Portrait Hole. The common room was quiet; most people had crashed out there and were strewed out all over the floor.

'Sirius!' Lily called, still awake with James.

She took in his sunken appearance, the worried look in his eyes and the way his hair was messed up in all directions as if he had been pulling at it in stress.

'Has Alina come back?' he asked urgently, looking hopeful.

'No…' she replied, looking concerned 'why? What happened?'

Sirius let out a loud groan of frustration and covered his face with his hands.

'Padfoot you alright mate?'

Sirius didn't bother answering; he just turned straight around and went back out of the Portrait hole.

All night he had been wandering around Hogwarts in search for Alina. He felt physically sick thinking of her being alone after what she had just told him. Why had he frozen? The question had been running through his head all night. Why hadn't he just pulled her close, shown her that everything was all right?

It horrified him that she had kept such a secret. Had lived with it hanging over her and had no one to talk to. Well, he was not going to let that happen anymore. He felt his pace quickening despite the aching protests of his feet, and found himself walking towards the grounds. Looking out towards the woods Sirius' eyebrows shot up in amazement as it suddenly dawned on him. He knew exactly where she was. Making off in a jog, he ran in the direction of Hagrid's hut.

The morning was freezing. A thick layer of snow covered the grounds, making everything exceedingly bright. The cold air was biting at Sirius' skin, and causing his hair to stand on end. Yet Sirius did not even notice the cold, he did not feel himself shivering, the numbness of his fingers; because he was looking at the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, and that in itself was enough to keep him warm.

The first thing he saw was the shimmering white coat of the mother unicorn, lying in the snow, her coat shimmering in the morning sun. Yet what made it so beautiful, was the mass of blonde hair spread onto the unicorns back, the tiny body curled up next to it amongst the shining gold foals, and the tranquil expression on Alina's face as she slept.

'S'amazing that is'

Hagrid's voice made Sirius jump violently and he turned to see Hagrid's grinning face.

'What is?'

'Since they've been born the closes' that unicorn has let me near the babies is the edge of the paddock! And there's Alina curled up as if she's one of 'em!'

Sirius watched in thoughtful silence. Hagrid was right of course. He knew himself that it was incredibly rare to get near a Unicorn, yet alone a new mother.

'So why do they like her so much?' he spoke out loud.

'That there's the question ain' it! Although Dumbledore 'as his theories…'

'What?' Sirius asked.

Hagrid's face turned an impressive shade of red, and Sirius watched as he shifted his feet, mumbling something incoherent under his breath.

'Dumbledore has theories about what Hagrid?' Sirius pressed.

Hagrid grew even more uncomfortable, looking around as if for an escape route.

'Go' ta get goin' I'm needed at the castle!' he stated unconvincingly, immediately heading off at a fast pace.

Sirius watched him go, his mind whirling; just what did Hagrid nearly say?

A low whiney jolted Sirius' attention back to Alina. He smiled as the baby Unicorns awoke, each nudging at Alina as if begging for her attention. He watched as her brow frowned slightly as she was disturbed, the way a slight shiver ran through her as her body became aware of how cold it was. He was fascinated with the tiniest details in her expression, how at the nudging of the foals her frown faded and was replaced by a small smile. Her eyes were still closed.

'Good morning beautiful' she mumbled, reaching out and stroking the closest foal.

'Good morning' Sirius replied.

He had to fight off a smile as he saw Alina nearly jump out of her skin, the way her eyes flung open and she climbed quickly and clumsily to her feet.

'How – how long have you been there?' she asked, folding her arms defensively.

'Quite a while sleeping beauty…you snore you know' he told her conversationally.

'I do not!' she replied indignantly, her face growing red.

She looked at him stubbornly for a moment, trying to feel angry, but her face betrayed her, a smile played at her lips and eventually she gave in to it.

'That's better' he said softly, and climbed the fence into the paddock.

'So do you want to talk about last night?' Sirius asked softly.

They were both sitting on the fence, smothered in a large fur blanket Sirius managed to scavenge from Hagrid's hut.

'I…erm'

'It's okay if you don't…it's just you took off on me and we didn't-'

'Yeah, I'm sorry about that!' Alina interrupted quickly.

Sirius frowned, and looked deeply at her expression; he could see the internal struggle within her. The way she was trying to open up, yet was automatically keeping things in. he shook his head in disbelief.

'You're sorry? For what? I'm the one who completely froze! I reacted completely wrong…I was just shocked Alli, and angry that someone had done that too you…does anyone else know?'

Alina just shook her head.

'Not even Lily? Or your family?'

Sirius watched as a flicker of…what was it? Pain? Sadness?...washed over her face.

'No, you're the only one. And that's how it's going to stay' she told him in a strong voice. Her tone close to being threatening.

'Okay…' he didn't know how to react to her. Should he be sympathetic? Comforting? To him it seemed as if she wanted him to never mention it again.

'You really are a closed book aren't you?' he asked her, the wonder difficult to hide in his voice.

She smiled 'I know' she said softly, briefly glancing up at him.

'But I'm glad you told me anyway…I want to know everything about you Alli.'

She blinked at his statement. Looking uncomfortable under the intensity of his gaze.

'That's the problem' he heard her mutter. 'Just don't push okay?'

He nodded.

They stayed silent for a while. His arm wrapped around her under the warmth of the blanket. Her head resting on his shoulder. And as they watched the young unicorns running around in bounds of ecstatic energy, Sirius felt that he could join them.

When Sirius and Alina entered the common room later that morning, hand in hand, both looking extremely tired but content, the sound of cheering caused them to freeze in surprise.

They came face to face with most of the Gryffindor 7th years, sprawled out all over the place, looking extremely hung over, but all grinning in delight.

'Wha-?' Alina shook her head in confusion, glancing up at Sirius for an explanation. He just merely shrugged and carried on grinning, pulling her close to him.

'FINALLY!' someone yelled and everyone laughed.

James came over and patted Sirius on the back. 'Well done Prongs!' he yelled and leant closer, lowering his tone.

'Alice saw you both walking back to the castle, and naturally, she told the whole common room…I think some of them are a little high still'

They followed James back to their usual seats by the fire, and Alina felt her heart lift as she realised her place was now with Sirius.

As she curled up to him, her feet being warmed by the fire, and her head on his chest, feeling the increasing pace of his heart rate she felt alight with happiness. And as they laughed with everyone Alina realised just how natural being like this felt. As if it was always meant to be. As natural as breathing.

'…so I thought if we all worked out revision schedules we could help eachoth-'

The sound of shouts and yelps from just along the corridor broke off Polly's speech about NEWT preparation. They all looked curiously as something barging through the crowd of people leaving their lessons was causing paper to go flying, people to push themselves hard against the wall and shouts of surprise to occur.

'What's the matter?' Lily asked someone in surprise, who came running down the corridor looking terrified.

But Lily's question didn't need to be answered, at that moment a large, shaggy, black dog came into sight, emerging from the crowd of students. It let out a loud bark and came charging towards the four girls. Alice let out a scream and jumped back, away from the beast, and Alina merely laughed.

'Hello boy' she called playfully, acknowledging the dog's mood and immediately knowing it wasn't going to cause harm.

It stopped in front of her wagging its tail and letting out another loud bark.

'Hey you' she bent down to stroke him, and at the same time, as she loosened her grip on her bag, the dog snatched it with its mouth and backed quickly away from her.

'Hey!' she called out in surprise 'give that back!'

The dog was wagging his tail madly moving towards her and then running back quickly, teasing her, asking her to play.

She lunged towards him. And then he was off. Sprinting down the corridors like a Tasmanian devil, not worrying who he was barging into or knocking out of his way. Out of instinct Alina immediately ran after him, not able to feel annoyance, just amusement at the strange situation.

She ran out of the castle, leaving many people confused and amazed at the sight, and followed the dog through the grounds and towards the forest.

As soon as she reached the forest she stopped, looking around for any sight of the dog, but he was gone. She groaned out loud, suddenly realising how much important work had been in that bag.

'Looking for this?'

A familiar voice, full of amusement, came from amongst the trees, and Sirius Black emerged, holding her bag.

'How did you?...Where's the…what happened to?...' Alina gave up trying to put it together and just looked questioningly at Sirius, her hands on her hips.

He laughed at her demanding expression and put her bag on the floor.

Alina gaped as Sirius' body suddenly changed, she watched as he grew smaller, furrier, longer and with a tail. She watched in amazement as her boyfriend was suddenly replaced by the dog who took her bag.

And then he was back, a broad grin on his face.

'Ta da!' he laughed, waving his hands dramatically. For a moment Alina just gaped at him in surprise, and then caught check on herself.

'So…so that's how you do it!'

'Do what?' he asked, laughing at the expression on her face.

'How you can be with Remus on a full moon and only get scratches!'

Now it was Sirius' turn to look shocked. His mouth gaping as he looked at her in wonder, he shook his head, looking as if it was the first time he had ever seen her clearly.

'What?' she asked confused.

'Y-You know about Remus?' he blurted.

'Yes, I thought I made that obvious…you know, just before Christmas…'

'Well we did wonder about that, but we assumed you meant about him being ill…not…you know his furry little problem'

Alina burst out in laughter.

'Furry little problem? You are such an idiot you know that? So why did you steal my bag then? To show me your little trick?' she asked, changing the subject.

'Partly…but mainly because I wanted to do this…'

He closed up the gap between them until their bodies were pressed closely together, he ran his fingers through her hair and held the back of her head, leading her towards him. The kiss was passionate. They clung to one another, feeling boiling hot despite the cold, their hearts punching against their rib cages.

When they broke apart they were out of breath, and both extremely flushed. Both of their eyes were bright with delight and happiness and Alina giggled lightly as Sirius threw his arm around her casually.

'You're something else Sirius Black' she told him.

'I know! I'm a dog!' he grinned, and both laughing they made their way back up to the castle.

'Alina? Could I talk to you for a minute?'

Alina looked up from her book in concern at the sound of the nervousness in Remus' voice.

'Of course' she told him, rising immediately and following him into a quiet corner of the common room.

'Muffliato' he whispered, preventing anyone from listening in to their conversation.

'Remus…are you okay?' she asked, genuinely concerned. Up close she saw how pale he looked, the deep set bags under his eyes, and the way his forehead had small crease lines in it as if he was suffering a headache.

'Yeah…yeah...' he muttered distractedly, looking unsure how to begin.

The cause for Remus' appearance became obvious as she quickly worked out the dates and realised the new moon was in two days.

'Before you went home at Christmas…you said…about the new moon…and Sirius said, you knew…you knew about-' Alina stayed quiet as she watched Remus stumble over his words, looking extremely worried.

'-about your furry little problem?' she added softly, attempting to help him out.

At her words Remus' head jerked up, an expression of agony on his face.

'Remus! What's wrong! Are you hurting?' she asked in panic as she saw the look on his face. Instinctively she reached out to touch his arm, and in shock she watched as he jerked away.

'You don't have to do that Alina' he told her miserably.

'Do what?' she blinked in confusion.

'Be nice'

Alina froze as understanding flooded through her. He thought that she would despise him, hate him for what he was.

'Remus, I've known you're a Werewolf since third year' she told him gently, reaching out and firmly taking his hand.

'How?' he asked, looking surprised and a little in awe that she had kept it a secret, even to him, that she had known.

'I – I can sense things about people…I know it sounds odd, but I get a vibe off a person if I concentrate on them. I don't normally pay attention, concentrate on it because It's probably me being ridiculous…but…well' she paused, feeling uncomfortable about whether she would offend him with what she was going to say.

'Well what?' he asked, sounding desperate to know.

'I began to notice, that around the full moon, when you were sick…your state of mind…the vibe you gave off…it was kind of like an animals.'

She looked up at him, worried, but was relieved to see his face full of amazement.

'How do you do that?' he asked her, looking slightly more relaxed.

'I don't know' she whispered, despite being aware that no one could possibly hear her.

'I've always been able to do it…get feelings about people, what their mind is on…nothing clear though, just a sense of good or bad I guess? But with animals…I really connect, it's strange.'

Remus just nodded.

'Maybe you've got something different in you? Some kind of magic?' he suggested.

'Maybe' she shrugged. 'But you can keep that to yourself okay?'

'Sure…and Alli…thanks…for being so understanding' he said awkwardly.

'It's okay…Remus, I would never turn on you for what you are…and you know what? I don't think I'm the only one…'

'I can't tell Polly' he sighed, and Alina raised her eyebrows questioningly. 'I know she might accept it…but…but I can't risk losing her Alli…I just can't'

For a moment they stayed in silence, and Alina squeezed his hand and smiled at him.

'I understand Remus…I really, really do.'