Chapter 36:

Author's note: Sorry it took so long for this guys, I was planning *evil villain laugh* I'll probably update twice a weekend if I don't have anything on, so stay tuned.

The train ride back to Hogwarts was bloody eventful to say the least, and eventful was putting it nicely.

No one could believe that James Potter had finally gotten the Lily Evans to go out with him. And he hadn't used one of the unforgivable curses to get her to. Or so some people believed. A lot of the student body was currently split between believing that they were dating or betting that they would break up.

And then the thing that shocked everyone the most was the fact that Rosie Hunter was officially dating Sirius Black.

Most of the students had known it was coming for a while, but no one actually expected the pair to give in to their emotions. A lot of them had bet that they'd never give in and the sexual tension around them would soon grow so unbearable that they would stop their friendship all together.

But that hadn't happened and to say the least, a whole lot of the male population on the Hogwarts Express, was walking around sulking.

The only thing that kept all of them remotely sane was bombarding Sirius for detail after detail.

And let's just say, a few of them were sulking over a few other reasons.

Like what?

Well…possibly a few broken jaws and noses, but no one could ask such degrading questions to Sirius Black about his girlfriend.

Rosie just sighed and shook her head, tapping her foot as she looked out the window, taking in the scenery she'd longed for for so long.

But she couldn't shake the feeling of unease from her body and she couldn't help noticing that the hairs on her arms up. That definitely wasn't normal.

Usually she felt at ease on the Hogwarts express, but today it was different, like something extremely big would soon happen.

Everyone else seemed extremely fine, well…not everyone.

Remus was lost in the world of a book, content to be excluded from all the provocative questions and flyaway fists.

Lily and James were happy enough with playing exploding snap, which Lily was extremely bad at as she lost almost every game. Glad for the distraction, Rosie joked that the only reason she kept Lily around was because she was bloody terrible at a large portion of wizard's games.

And Sirius, well he was being Sirius. He spent a large majority of the time sketching drawings of motorcycles, though no one could see them but Rosie from her vantage point.

"What are you up to, Black?" She asked cheekily as she pulled the parchment out from under him so she could see it better.

Immediately, Sirius tried to snatch it back but Rosie just stood up on the chair, knowing he couldn't get to her from there. Well, merely hoping that he couldn't. But he could.

He grabbed her around her legs and threw her over her shoulder, Rosie giving a slight scream as her head banged into his back. She was fine for a few moments, it was only Sirius, and anyhow, until she noticed there was blood on the back of his shirt. Lifting a hand, she wiped the back of it across her nose and noticed a long smear of blood.

Blood.

Rosie Hunter couldn't stand the sight of blood. It made her feel physically sick and the world started to spin furiously until she blacked out.

When she woke up again, she felt her head pillowed on someone's lap, most likely Sirius'. Rosie felt slightly better but she felt slightly far-off and creeped out at the dream she'd had.

It had been in accordance to her arm, the scarred one. She could see a mass of images and faces, faces that she couldn't possibly understand why they were in that mess.

She'd calmed down somewhat before she opened her eyes and met the concerned stare of Sirius.
"Heya, Red. How're you feeling?"

Giving him a weak smile, Rosie pushed herself up into a sitting position, feeling slightly better.

Until she saw his face.

Not knowing why exactly, she screamed and scrambled back on the seat until her back was firmly pressed against the window.

"Don't touch me. Please don't touch me!"

Confusion crossed everyone as they took in one of the strongest woman they knew, cowering in the corner. Sirius moved so that he was kneeling beside her and gently grasped her chin in his hand, turning it to face him.

Rosie flinched slightly as he came into her line of sight and tried to pry Sirius' fingers from her chin.
"Let go. Let go, please! He'll do it again. He'll hurt me again."

Feeling like he'd been stung, Sirius jerked his hand away from his girlfriend and gave Lily a helpless look.

Gesturing with her hands that she didn't know what to do either, she sighed and took a step towards her best friend, her emerald green eyes surveying the whole scene.

It wasn't usual for Rosie to act like this. She never acted like that but something; something had done something to make a little bit inside her snap. And snap it had. But what was happening? Who was scaring her?

James looked as helpless as Lily but he squatted down by Rosie and started to whisper to her, words that were muffled against her dark mane of hair. Her replies were the same, desperate and scared out of his wits.

"Please get rid of him! Get him out! He'll do it again, James! Don't make it happen again."

With a soft sigh, James gave Sirius a look and jerked his head in the direction of the door, strongly believing that Rosie was freaking out due to something that included Sirius.

So, feeling extremely hurt and rejected, Sirius left the room and was about to close the door until he heard Rosie cry out again.

"NO! Now he will hurt me! He's scared of Sirius and James together. So scared…" Sirius bolted back into the compartment and stared around the room, finally taking in that one particular person was missing and had been for a long while.

"Where's Peter?"

His question went unnoticed and unanswered as everyone was still fussing over the girl, who seemed to have calmed significantly.

Sirius was about to ask again when the train stopped with a lurch and the ceiling was blown in.