Welcome! If you remember way back when, when I first posted this, I think you should be able to qualify for a veteran's discount because it has been a hot minute. But it's just as the summary says - a collection of extra/deleted scenes, snippets, or canon events told from another character's POV from The Clockwork Locket and The Phoenix Ascending.

Enjoy!

I.

Featuring scenes from Chapters 1 & 2 of The Clockwork Locket

JAMES

The Great Hall shimmered with candles and starlight from the enchanted ceiling above as students poured in from the courtyard, their volume filling the large room with swelling sound, and James Potter suddenly felt like he was home again.

He had Remus on his right, and Sirius and Peter had taken the bench across from theirs, watching the Hall fill to capacity as they waited for the Sorting Ceremony to start. James glimpsed a spot of bright red hair amongst the crowd of Gryffindors taking their seats and opened his mouth to shout down to Lily Evans, but Remus grabbed his sleeve and shook his head quickly.

"Not tonight, Prongs," he said. "I'd rather not have to take you to the hospital wing on the first night of term if Evans hexes you."

"But I've thought of the perfect thing to say to her when I saw her again," he protested. "And, secretly, mate, I think she gets off on hexing me—"

Peter pretended to throw up into his empty goblet as Sirius groaned. Remus just shook his head in defeat beside him.

"Really, James, you're making me sick," complained Sirius. "Give up on Evans, would you? You know she's never going to agree to go out with you."

"It's fifth year," James said, waving off his best mate. "I still have two more years to make her fall in love with me, Pads. Don't wring your little heart out."

Sirius only rolled his eyes in response, saying something to Remus and Peter that James tuned out, opting to stare down the table where Evans sat with Marlene McKinnon. She looked tanner, he noted, and the warmth of her skin really brought out the vivid red of her hair. Then he wondered when he became such a lovestruck fool as to notice the different hues in Evans's hair, and he knew that he needed to stop before he did something stupid—again.

Tearing his eyes away from Evans with some difficulty, he glanced at Sirius, only to find his friend gazing intently down the table. James followed his eye, thinking for a brief moment that he was looking at Evans, but instead saw that a dark-haired girl sitting a few seats up from Lily was the focus of his intense stare.

"Already scouting your next bird, Padfoot?" asked James cheekily, grinning when Sirius turned back to him guiltily, as if he were a child caught stealing a biscuit. "Who's she? I forgot her name."

"I did too," Sirius admitted, shrugging. "I helped her with her trunk on the train, though—that's Cassie Alderfair."

He said her name as if it were something sharp and dangerous on his tongue, but realization dawned on James as he glanced back at her, seeing her nodding encouragingly as Alice Fortescue prattled on beside her.

James snorted. "Honestly, I forgot Will Alderfair even had a sister. I don't think I've ever heard her speak. Have you?"

"Who cares if she speaks?" Sirius said darkly. "Her brother's a Death Eater now. Most likely she'll end up being one too. The Alderfairs are an ancient pure-blood family—older than mine. Their purity matters more to them than anything."

"I'm a pure-blood too, you know," said James sarcastically. "I'm perfectly aware of what her family's like."

"What are we talking about?" Peter said, butting into their conversation.

"If your head's small enough to fit in one of the toilets in the third-floor loo," James said without missing a beat. "Wanna try tonight, Pete?"

As Peter protested against having his head stuck down a toilet, James saw Sirius's eyes return to the Alderfair girl, and he stifled a sigh.

One thing was certain about Sirius Black: once his mind was set on something, there was no getting him to stop whatever he was thinking. And James feared that his best mate was going to get a lot more than he bargained for if he thought he could go head-to-head with an Alderfair, even one as invisible as Cassie.

"McGonagall hates us," bemoaned Peter at breakfast the next morning. "Just look at this schedule!"

He waved the timetable in his hands for emphasis, though he kept his voice down, as Professor McGonagall still prowled along the Gryffindor table, handing out student schedules for the term.

"It could be worse," Remus pointed out. "We could have all our lessons with the Slytherins."

"I don't like the look of that new professor," Peter said, ignoring Remus. He gulped. "She seems strict."

"She probably just has something stuck up her ass," said James, sparing the icy witch Dumbledore had introduced the night before as Claudia Carlisle a cursory glance before resuming drowning his waffles in syrup. "What do you think, Pads?"

Sirius wasn't paying attention. His eyes had locked onto Cassie Alderfair again as she looked over her timetable with Fortescue. James reached over and dumped some syrup on his eggs, snapping his fingers.

"Oi, quit staring and let the poor girl be," he said when Sirius scowled, looking at his eggs in disgust. "What's she done to you?"

Sirius didn't answer, only shoveling the syrupy eggs into his mouth and chewing quickly. Remus and Peter looked between them questioningly, but either Sirius didn't notice or didn't want to explain his newfound obsession with their Housemate.

"Are you talking about Cassie Alderfair?" asked Remus, ever the perceptive one.

Peter squinted his eyes beside him, attempting to pick her out amongst the Gryffindors. "Which one's that again?"

"The attractive one with the long dark hair," James said, grinning when Sirius scowled further at his description. "Sirius seems to want a closer look under her clothes, but he's more interested in finding a Dark Mark than anything else."

"It's odd, all right?" Sirius said. "Her brother was a Gryffindor, and now he's a Death Eater. You've all seen the papers—his name is splattered everywhere beside You-Know-Who's! Don't you think it's dodgy? And she's kept a low profile all these years, probably biding her time until she can join up too—"

"That's hardly fair," Remus objected, frowning. "You don't even know her, Sirius."

"I know enough about pure-bloods, and she's one of them," he retorted, just as James caught Alderfair and Fortescue standing up to make their way out of the Great Hall.

To cover up Sirius's none-too-subtle accusations against the very girl walking right by them and to avoid a confrontation, James belched loudly on command, garnering the attention of half the Gryffindor table, who began to laugh loudly at his pleased expression.

"Sorry, everyone," he said with bravado. "Better out than in, eh?"

Everyone laughed again just as Alderfair passed with Fortescue at her side. The two girls cast him disdainful looks, and Sirius leaned over to him, watching Alderfair surreptitiously from the corner of his eye, though a tiny smirk sat on his lips.

"You did that on purpose," he said, flicking his eyes pointedly at Alderfair as she swept past.

James turned and grinned at the dark-haired girl, highly amused when her face turned red in irritation and her pace quickened, leaving Fortescue to jog after her with her much shorter legs.

"You're welcome for saving your skin," he said, shoving his shoulder. "The last thing I need is for you to make another enemy this term."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "She's not an enemy; she's a suspect."

"Whatever you say, mate." James shrugged, though he couldn't resist poking fun at his best mate some more. "If you're going to watch her every move now, though, at least check her out, too. And I thought Evans was fit—"

Sirius seemed to wish that he had never laid eyes on Cassie Alderfair.

This series won't be linear at all, I expect, so if you'd like to request a certain scene/POV/etc., you can always review, shoot me a PM, or send me an ask on Tumblr at booty-boggins.

Thanks for reading! Until next time!