Believe

Chapter; Thirty Seven

Year Five

Over the next few weeks, Harry and Alice spent a lot of time together.

The two were either just by themselves, with Sirius-person, or with Ron and Hermione. But the last one was usually very strained and odd because Harry was still annoyed with them because he didn't get much information out of them over summer. He had forgiven Alice because she had known about as much as he had.

At least Harry had gotten off, and was coming back to Hogwarts. Alice wouldn't like to know if he hadn't been able to come back. School would be horrible without him.

Although Alice did notice that Harry was acting very strange, very different. It seemed the she was the only one able to stand with his strangely angsty behavior that made other people take a cautious step away from him in fear.

Alice had also taken her time to spend time with Sirius – her father- she could now officially say the name in her head. She had never said it out loud though, and Alice figured she never would, unless one day she slipped.

She had been calling him that more and more often in her head after all. She had found that the two not only looked scarily alike, but acted scarily alike. Alice finally had her questions from first year answered.

Alice hadn't really wanted to push – but she had anyway, well. She asked him and sometimes, when he felt up to it they would talk about Alice's mother and his adventures with Harry's dad – James. This was how Alice learnt that she had her father was very alike and that she would have loved Harry's dad if he was still alive.

Honestly, she was naming her first born James, in hopes he did half the things that Sirius had told them about.

However, this didn't stop Alice from randomly being dragged into the twin's pranks when they caused them, or being dragged into being blamed for them. Really, it wasn't fair that every one automatically blamed her for all the pranks being played. Everyone seemed to forget that there were other pranksters in the house.

Like for instance once when Fred and George had fed Ron a plate of cookies that also had some sort of potion in it that changed him into a giant ass bird – a yellow one at that too. Once Hermione had figured out that the milk on the counter had the antidote, Ron had immediately blamed Alice.

He had been claiming that she was looking bored earlier in the day, so it had to be her who had done it. Alice hadn't known she had had such a reputation for playing pranks – she had been bored, but alas it hadn't been her who had done that. She would of – if she'd thought of it that is.

Before long everyone received their letters from Hogwarts, and there were special surprises inside of Ron's and Hermione's ones. They had both been made Gryffindor prefects. This completely ruined Alice's mood, now she had two prefect friends and knowing Hermione she would take her duty seriously. And that was something that Alice could not let stand by.

But unfortunately, Harry had a differing reason of why he was sour about the Prefect status. Yes, he was happy for them both, but Alice could tell that he had expected to be, and wanted to be the Gryffindor male prefect.

This made Alice cringe in horror as well. Harry had always and probably would always be her favorite partner in crime; he wouldn't still be if he was a prefect.

She was losing all her partners in mischief making.

Although, Cedric had more than once gotten her off the hook, using his prefect status… This thought made Alice sad again, instead of hysterical and her shoulders dropped, but that didn't stop her from hearing the conversation between Tonks and Harry.

"I was never a prefect myself. My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities," she told Harry. Alice could hear a smirk in her voice.

"Like what?" Harry asked, curious.

"Like the ability to behave myself," she answered causally, causing Harry to burst out laughing.

~37~

And then, finally it was time for school. Alice was excited to get back to school but she could feel the dread form in the pit of her stomach. She loved magic and her school but after last year… Her memories at home were hard enough, think about at school where it all happened? Alice tried not to act any different, and she succeeded for the most part, but there were still tiny little things that made her sad.

They were walking across to platform nine and three quarters, somehow this had been dubbed a mission. Nearly everyone was there, for Harry's safety, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who looked after their kids, Tonks, Lupin, and Mad-Eye who looked after Harry, Hermione and Alice.

However, as they headed down one of the ramps, a familiar scruffy black dog trotted up beside Harry and Alice, much to Mad-Eye's disappointment.

"Padfoot! Are you barking mad? You'll blow the entire operation!" Moody growled, trying desperately to keep his voice down.

Alice had to fight the urge to roll her eyes, really. What kind of secret operation had an auror, famous ex-auror and a werewolf? Really a dog wouldn't hurt - perhaps.

Nevertheless, Sirius ran past them and down into one of the waiting rooms that was deserted at the moment. Harry looked at Alice before a smile twitched on the corners of his mouth, clearly excited to see Sirius-person-dad, one last time before we left for Hogwarts.

Once the group reached the waiting rooms Sirius was in, Harry ran to the door immediately, only to stop when he looked back as if he were looking for something. He seemed to have found it when his eyes stopped on Alice, which caused his smiled to return.

"Come on, Alice. He probably wants to see you, too," Harry called, gesturing for Alice to follow him, and she did as she was told too. She didn't want to annoy a happy Harry, and to be honest? She did want to see her… dad, before she went back to school.

Alice walked in behind Harry, being careful to shut the door right behind her before she turned to look at Sirius, who stood in the corner of the room smiling at the both of them.

"Sirius, what are you doing here? If somebody sees you-"

"Well, I had to see the both of you off, didn't I?" Sirius interrupted, not fooled, he knew better than anyone that Harry was happy that he was there. "What's life without a little risk?"

"Well, we'd rather not see you shut back in Azkaban," Harry muttered, slightly annoyed but his smile saying a different story.

"Oh don't worry about me," Sirius smiled. "Anyway, I wanted you to have this." Sirius pulled out what looked like a sheet of parchment from his jacket pocket and handed it over to Harry, who opened it.

It was a picture, curious, Alice slowly creped foreword to look over his shoulder; it was a group of people.

"The original Order of the Phoenix," Sirius explained before pointing to a woman on the picture. "Marlene KcKinnon. She was killed two weeks after this was taken. Voldemort wiped out her entire family," Then he pointed to a couple near the center of the photo. "Frank and Alice Longbottom."

"Neville's parents," Alice whispered as she looked down at the happy couple.

"They suffered a fate worse than death, if you ask me," Sirius sighed. "It's been 14 years. And still a day doesn't go by I don't miss your dad, Harry," Sirius sighed before he turned to Alice. "Or wish I had more time with your mum," he said with a sad smile.

"Do you really think there's going to be a war, Sirius?" Harry asked after a very long moment.

Sirius thought about it for a moment before he nodded. "It feels like it did before."

Harry slowly nodded, turned back to the photo, folded it up and handed it to Sirius.

"You keep it," Sirius said, pushing it back towards Harry. "Anyway, I suppose you're the young ones now," he said as he smiled.

"Does that mean," Alice began innocently. "That you're the old people now?"

Harry laughed, Sirius pouted.

"Hey! I'm not old yet, still got a few years left in me," Sirius said slightly put out.

"Oh of course you are – there, there. Its okay you know… To be old, have a cain, you know wrinkles are in now."

Alice felt a hand hit her on the back of the head, this caused her to grin. This was what she needed – she needed to be constantly distracting herself.

"Okay, enough jokes at my expense," He said with a wide grin indicating to Alice that he wasn't annoyed at all. "Time to go to Hogwarts kiddies!"

"Good bye Sirius," Harry said happily but one could tell that he didn't want to go. Not just yet anyway.

"Have fun Harry, Alice," He said throwing another grin her way.

"See ya, dad," The last word slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. It didn't help that she clamped her hand over her mouth ten seconds later. She hadn't meant to say that, it was all because she had been calling him that in her head, damn it.