Chapter 19

"Swish and flick. No, that's far too much flicking, and not nearly enough swishing."

A young boy let out a frustrated sigh, before he unceremoniously plopped himself into the chair to his right. "This is so frustrating."

Ally shushed Lucius as he let out a chuckle. "Come on Sev, you can do this. I know you can, you know you can, so show everyone else that you can. Here, I will show you again, just copy my movements."

Ally once again went through the motions of the first year spell for him, before she turned once again and pointedly stared at him. Standing up with a determined look on his face, Severus quickly copied her precise movements. Smiling at him she pointed towards a book on the table in front of them. "Try that one"

Squaring his shoulders and getting into a readied stance, she watched as he levitated the book about a foot off the table. "Perfect!" she said as she grabbed him into a hug; effectively causing him to lose concentration. Severus himself had tensed up a little at the action, but made no other moves. It had taken a while but he had gotten used to her random affections. The first time she had come up and randomly hugged him he had almost hexed her. In actuality he had thrown a hex, she just happened to be yanked out the way by Lucius.

Actually when they all got over the initial shock of Severus trying to hex her, it started a barrage of questions as to how he knew such a hex. It was one they had just been taught at the end of their fifth year. He had of course gone into a state of blushing and stuttering about how he just found curses, hexes and defensive spells so easy, he had read up on as many as he could get his hands on.

Ally had proceeded to question him about what areas he wasn't doing so well in, and decided right then and there to tutor him. Ironically enough, it was the simple spells that had been giving him trouble. The harder the spell, the easier it was for him. It caused a lot of amusement for Lucius, whom had also taken Severus under his tutelage. She laughed aloud as she remembered the first time he had been doing homework with him.

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"Gah, why do I have to study this stuff? I don't even get the point why we need to study this, it's not like it's actually magic."

Allura looked up from her own studies to see Severus throw his essay down in frustration. Raising an eyebrow she had to hold back a laugh. Setting her own book down on the seat next to her she leaned over and picked up the discarded essay to see what he had done so far. A quick scan showed her that in his small but neat and precise writing he had already written out a decent portion of information about the properties of aconite.

"Potions? You don't understand potions?"

The laughter in her voice had him looking up at her with a glare. "I don't really see the point in learning about potions." The smirk she gave him had him worried.

"I adore potions you know, a great man once taught me all about them. He would tell me about the beauty of a softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through the human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. No foolish wand-waving is going to teach you to bottle fame, brew glory and put a stopper on death."

She found herself cracking a grin as a light seemed to come on in Severus' eyes as he quickly grabbed up his potions book and studying twice as hard as before.

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Time passed relatively quickly, between their studying for the N.E.W.T.S that the teachers decided to get a head start on, and her tutoring and watching over Severus, it was no wonder that she herself hadn't really run into her parents or the rest of the marauders quite yet. Sure they had passed in the halls and of course she saw them at meals, but as far as actual interactions went, they didn't have any. She felt bad that she had next to no reaction to them.

Ally put it down to her lack of true interaction with them. She of course felt something akin to warmth towards Remus Lupin, although she was easily able to amount that towards her interactions with him in her fourth year. The two of them had talked of course, and he was one of the better Defense teachers that she had. However, outside of Remus, she had never truly interacted with any of the other marauders. She had of course heard all about her brothers' interaction with Sirius and Peter in his third year, and they had both made plans to possibly visit him on one of the Hogsmead visits, however with her disappearance that last year had changed that.

So when she happened to be taking some time alone down by the Black lake once again on a Saturday to just think and draw, it was with surprise that she looked up at the laughing that was headed her way. The quartet of boys seemed to see her right around the time she saw them, and their laughter trailed off. She gave them a close study and she could definitely see how everyone told her brother that he looked just like their father. James definitely shared similar features with his future son. They both had the same messy hair, not to mention glasses, however she could definitely see the differences between them. Whereas Harry had always been on the shorter and skinnier side, James was definitely almost as tall as harry was at fourteen, and while he was by no means fat, he didn't have the starved look about him Harry did the first time she met him. She put that towards his lack of food during his early years.

The fact that he looked so similar put a smile on her face as she looked at the others. Peter was shorter and mousey in a way that from what she was told he would never truly grow out of. His brown hair covered his head, and his larger stomach definitely reminded her of Harry's descriptions of a young Dudley Dursley. She couldn't quite fathom how he got along so well with the others, when she remembered Severus telling her that Peter had always hero-worshiped her father and Sirius.

Glancing over once again towards the boy she had met last summer, though only in passing and never actually truly introduced, she could definitely see the resemblance to Sirius Black and Bellatrix. There was no doubt in her mind that this boy was related to Cissa either, as they both shared similar features. Their eyes being where she saw it the most. Remus on the other hand, whom she had glanced to definitely looked like a younger version of the man she knew.

Ally waited for a moment as the boys took her in, before recognition came over Sirius' face. He nodded his head towards her and started speaking to James. "I know her, that's Narcissa's friend. Wouldn't shut up about her all summer long, Abby I think."

"Ally, actually." She said to them as she set aside her drawing and stood up. "And you would be Sirius, your sister has told me about you. It's nice to finally meet you." She said.

James frowned at her as she spoke. "You're awful nice for a Slytherin." He said warily.

A grin covered her face. "And you're not very trusting for a Gryffindor. Aren't you all about trust and goodness?"

James gave her a funny look before Remus stepped forward and extended a hand. "Remus Lupin, nice to meet you."

Smiling she took his hand and shook it. "Allura Bryant, friends call me Ally." She said ignoring an indignant cry of "Remy!" coming from behind him. He nodded and introduced the others to her. Nodding at each in turn as none of the others were stepping forward, Ally sat down after the introductions were done and picked her sketchpad back up. Remus and the others walked the rest of the way to the edge of the lake and started up a conversation again. Not paying too much attention, she made the finishing touches to her picture and started in on a new one. She lost track of time and was almost done with her newest drawing, only to look up as a shadow covered the light she was using.

Looking up, Ally could only watch as James Potter stared down at her picture. "Why are you drawing a picture of us?" he asked suspiciously.

Blushing, she quickly covered it with her first picture, one of the black lake. "I'm sorry, bad habit of mine, I draw what's around me." Looking over at the other marauders, she pulled out the picture she had drawn, and handed it to James. "Here, you can keep it."

She watched as he slowly took it from her and really looked at it. As he was examining the picture, she started packing up her things, just as she was putting the last of her items away in the bag she had brought with her, James spoke up. "You're really good, you know that?"

Looking up, she smiled fondly, "Thank you." She stood up as the other three came over at his call. He handed the picture over to Sirius and seemed to look her over again. She smiled as she finally spoke up. "Well, it was nice to meet you boys, I guess I will see you around." She turned to leave and caught sight of Severus Snape and Lily Evans walking towards them. She knew the moment the two caught sight of them as Severus all but stopped in his tracks and became very tense.

Lily looked back as Severus just as James caught sight of them. "Sev?"

"Look who came to play. It's Snivellus." Taunted James. Sirius and Peter laughed, as Lily took hold of Severus' arm and whispered something to him. The two started to turn away when Sirius spoke up.

"Snivellus is running away, should we teach him never to turn his back on us James?" She watched as Severus tensed up. James nodded, and the two boys raised their wands. Remus started to protest, and the two ignored him, missing Ally whipping out her wand. She cast a quick 'expeliarmus' on the two of them and caught their wands. The two boys turned furious eyes on her.

"Give us back our wands!" James growled at her.

She gave him a blank stare. "Are you going to attack Severus if I do?" She glanced over to see that Lily and Severus had turned and stopped when she had disarmed the two boys, a quick jerk of her head, had Severus taking hold of Lily's arm and running off towards the castle. She gave James and Sirius a look as they started towards her.

It was Sirius who spoke first. "Can't say as I would go for Snivellus right now, but it sure looks like you want us to go after you."

"Guys.." started Remus, before he was quickly cut off by Sirius.

"Remus, don't. She just took our wands, I'd say she is all but asking for it."

Rolling her eyes, she turned towards Sirius. "Is that not what you would have done to Severus? Take his wand and do who knows what to him?"

"That's different!" cried out Peter, whom up until now had been all but silent. Looking over at him, she frowned as she saw him pointing his wand at her.

Shaking her head, she gave a look of incredulity. "How so?"

"Put down your wand Peter," started Remus before he was once again cut off.

"Come on Peter, Disarm her." Cut in James.

The five of them seemed to be at an impasse for what seemed like forever as Peter seemed to try and work up the courage to attack her, while James and Sirius egged him on, and Remus tried to calm everyone down. Ally herself simply kept her mouth shut, and a firm grip on all three wands, hers in her right hand and the other two in the left. While she did have her wand ready, she kept her instinct to point her wand back in check and kept it lowered, thought she never once let her guard down. Peter seemed to make up his mind to finally send a spell her way when a voice called out, startling them all.

"Lower your wand." Ally closed her eyes, and held the two wands out to the side for the newcomer to see. Her eyes quickly opened at the next words. "I said, lower your wand."

Peter hadn't taken his eyes off of her, though the other three boys were looking to the side, where the voice was coming from warily. "I'll not say it again boy, you'll already be losing ten points for disobeying a prefect, don't make me add detention to that list as well."

She watched the smaller boy glare off to the side as he lowered his wand. Putting her wand away, she turned the other wands around and held them out to Remus Lupin. "I trust you will return them after they have calmed down Remus." The other boy stepped forward and took them with a nod, and as she handed them over she spoke softly so only he could hear. "I am sorry, I never meant to cause a fight."

Remus looked her in the eye, before smiling at her, and speaking just as softly as she had. "I know, I'm sorry as well."

She watched as the boys stalked off she looked down and saw the picture she had drawn of them on the ground. With a sad smile, she walked over and picked it up and put it in her bag. After taking a deep breath she looked behind her at Tom, whom had yet to move. "I get the feeling Sev came and got you." She said more than asked. At his nod of affirmation, she smiled at him fondly. "Thank you for your help."

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a strange look. "And why may I ask did you need help against one first-year?"

She burst out laughing and took his arm in hers and started back up towards the castle. "It's not so much that I needed help; I could have easily disarmed him as well, and you know it." She pondered over her answer for a moment before continuing. "They were going to do something to Severus, who's only fault in this matter was having showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. So I took their wands from them to prevent the attack. If I turned around and attacked them while unable to defend themselves, it would make me a hypocrite."

"So you'd let them attack you instead?"

"I had little doubt that if it came down to it I could easily subdue the boy. I wanted to see if he was actually going to attack me." Tom smirked at her and shook his head.

"Far too trusting." He mumbled as they walked through the doors into the castle. She ignored him and the two of them walked in companionable silence the rest of the way to their common room.

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"I just don't get it Cissa. I mean, I knew that dad never lied to me about how awful my father was to him, but I always figured that his animosity towards him meant he was exaggerating just how bad it really was. I mean I hate to say it, but James is a brat."

Narcissa whom was sitting on the bed beside Ally in their dorm, looked at her with concern. "I hope you won't hate your parents simply because of a misunderstanding."

Ally shook her head. "Of course not. But I certainly have a better understanding of my dad. I know that they are young, and while they should certainly know better, I think I messed up my only real chance at befriending them, and therefore getting a chance to know them."

Narcissa stood up and looked down at Ally and gave her a playful shove. "You still have the chance to meet your mother. You said it yourself, she is friends with Severus. Don't give up on that chance. Come on, we should head to dinner, we're late and the others will wonder where we are."

The two girls headed to the Great Hall for dinner, brushing off Lucius and Tom's questioning looks at their late arrival. The four of them were chatting about their homework that had been assigned and the upcoming holidays, when young Severus made an appearance. Sitting down across the table from them, next to Nott, whom gave him a glance before going back to his conversation with Francesca. Ally looked up and smiled at him. "Good Evening Sev, what brings you to this side of the table? Last I saw, you tended to stick down with your first year friends when in the Great Hall; Rosier, Mulciber, Avery and the others right?" she asked to no one in particular, though she did look to Tom for confirmation.

Severus nodded in agreement, though he remained quiet. Tom and Ally looked at each other in confusion before looking back at Severus. The boy remained silent long enough that Tom was getting ready to start back up with their earlier conversation when Severus finally spoke. "You didn't need to fight the Gryffindor's earlier." He coughed a bit at her look of confusion. "That's not to say that I don't appreciate it, because I do, but why would you do it?"

"Would you believe that I didn't view it as fighting your battle for you?" at his blank stare she continued. "Sev, I would have done that for anyone. I don't like someone attacking an unarmed or unaware opponent. As much as you may hate me for this, I would have done the same to you if it had been the other way around." Before he could get huffy at her, she quickly cut him off. "That's not to say that if they then attacked you while unarmed, that I wouldn't turn around and disarm them or protect you. My point is that I didn't do it because I didn't think you could have handled yourself in a fair fight, but that they were going behind your back to do it rather than being brave enough to do it to your face."

Severus looked at her for a long moment before nodding his understanding. He said his goodbyes and went back to join his friends for dessert. Everyone was finishing up their meals when a noise seemed to catch everyone's attention. Standing up at the head table was the Headmaster. Dumbledore waited until it had quieted down to start speaking.

"I know you are all aware of the upcoming holidays. To those of you whom were paying attention at the end of our previous year together, you may remember my mentioning some activities involving the Christmas break. Namely, a Yule Ball for those fourth year and up." At his words, chatter broke out over the hall, though it quieted down as soon as he cleared his throat to get the attention back on him. "Those who decide to stay will of course be welcome, and for the students who go home, you will be missed."

Ally tuned out the rest of Dumbledore's speech as she thought about the upcoming dance. She hated dancing. She was terrible at it, and hated the idea of sitting around being bored out of her mind or standing around awkwardly hoping no one asked to dance with her. Not to mention that she only knew three boys enough that they would ask her, and of those three, only Tom was single. She figured he was in the same boat as her as far as not knowing how to dance, considering their similar pasts. Neither had really had a chance to learn how to dance, or any reason to as far as she could see. Despite their lack of skills needed to join the dancing, he didn't seem the type to enjoy that kind of thing.

She was pulled out of her inner thoughts by the movement around her. Looking around she saw everyone was heading out the door. Getting up, she joined the others on their trek to the common room. They had barely made it out of the Great Hall when Lucius had stopped, and looked at Narcissa. Cissa stopped when she figured out that the others had stopped. Turning around she gave them all a strange look, until her eyes settled on Lucius.

Taking a hold of her hand, he lifted it to his lips and kissed it before a smile took over his face. "Cissa darling, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Yule Ball?"

A wide smile covered her face as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Of course!" she replied before giving him a swift kiss on the cheek.

Ally chuckled as she heard Francesca sigh at the scene before them. Adrian, not being one to be outdone, quickly swooped in on her and spun her in a circle until she was wrapped in his arms with her back to his chest. "And how about you love, will you join me at the dance?" Francesca didn't verbally respond so much as she nodded and kissed him on the cheek as well.

Ally watched the scene before her unfold, standing awkwardly off to the side. Looking off to the side she watched as Tom seemed to be looking anywhere that wasn't in her direction. Rolling her eyes, she turned and started heading once again towards the common room. Within seconds, she heard footsteps following quickly behind her.

Minutes later saw them inside the common room chatting with one another. Ally listened intently to the two girls plan out their dresses and makeup for the dance, adding her input where needed. Before they knew it, it was time for bed, and the group found themselves packing up their things. Ally looked up as she realized she was the only one left in the common room. Quickly heading towards her shared dorm, she was stopped by a hand on her wrist right outside the door to her room.

Looking to the side, she found herself face to face with Tom. She watched captivated as he lifted her wrist once again to his lips. Her breath left her as he stared her in the eyes while his mouth lingered on her pulse. She could see the mischievous light in his eyes as he opened the door to her rooms and let her go. "Good night Ally."

She opened her mouth to reply when a voice from the room startled her. "Who's there? Ally? Get in and shut the door."

When she glanced back to wish Tom a good night as well, she was faced with no one there. Frowning she looked all around, before turning back to her room and shutting the door behind her, and leaning her back against it. After taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and blushed. Four pairs of eyes were staring at her in amusement. She headed to her bed and flopped down on her back. Ignoring the questioning stares, she quickly got up and changed before getting back into bed and falling into a swift sleep.