The other chosen one

Chapter 7

APOV

When I woke up, it took me a moment to remember what had happened and where I was. I couldn't believe my best friend thought I would hurt Harry! She knew how I felt about him. I found a mirror in my pocket and looked at my reflection. My hair was a mess, my eyes were red and puffy and I had tear stains running down my face. I lowered the mirror and sighed as I leant my head back against the wall, trying to figure out what my next move was. I was about to go back to sleep when I heard footsteps outside.

"Mr Potter?" I heard Professor McGonagall say. Harry? He was here? "Mr Potter! Wake up!"

"Huh?" I heard Harry grunt. "Professor? What time is it?"

"A little after 3. Would you care to explain why you are asleep against the door of my classroom?" I looked around and realised that it was the transfiguration classroom that I ran into.

"Lexi ran in here crying last night. I didn't want to leave her, but she locked the door so I stayed here." He said, making my eyes water. No one had ever done that for me.

"Well, Mr Potter, your loyalty is admirable. But neither of you should be roaming the castle at night!" Professor McGonagall said. "What upset Miss Black so much that she locked herself in a classroom anyway?"

"She and Hermione got into an argument." He said.

"About?"

"I don't know."

"Very well Mr Potter. The second Miss Black leaves that room I want both of you to go back to Gryffindor tower and stay there. Understood?"

"Yes Professor." I heard footsteps as she walked away and felt incredibly guilty. Harry had been sat outside all night because of my argument with Hermione. I got up and opened the door, causing Harry to fall onto his back as he was leaning against it. He looked dazed for a second before he saw me and jumped up, pulling me into a hug. I rested my head against his shoulder as he ran his hand through my hair.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Fine." I replied. He pulled back and looked at me for a second.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." I replied. He dropped it, but I knew he would ask again later.

Xxx

I avoided Hermione for the rest of the holiday. I either slept on the sofa in the common room or in the room of requirement with Jarvis. I found the room when I was looking for somewhere to sleep the night after I slept in the classroom. I was happy when the rest of the school got back as it meant I didn't have to hide as much and I could get back to Wood's ridiculous practices to waste time.

The day after classes started again, Harry and I walked into Uncle Remmy's office to see him sat at his desk waiting for us.

"Harry! Alexis! Are you ready for your lesson?" He asked. Standing up and walking around the desk to meet us. "What I will be teaching you is very advanced magic. It's called the Patromus Charm."

"What does it do?" Harry asked.

"It conjures a Patronus, which acts as a shield between you and the Dementors." He said.

"What does it look like?" I asked.

"Every Patronus is different. It is unique to each wizard who conjures it." He replied. "To perform the charm, you have to think of a memory. The happiest memory you can think of."

I thought back to when Harry kissed me and felt my heart skip a beat. I looked at him and saw him look at me, making me know he was thinking the same thing as me.

"Got one?" He asked, making us nod. "Ok. Focus on that memory and say 'expecto patronum'. Take your wands out and give it a go. Remember to focus on how your memory makes you feel."

I took my wand out of my boot and closed my eyes, thinking about how happy the memory of mine and Harry's kiss made me. I felt my heart soar as I raised my arm. "Expecto patronum!" We called at the same time. I opened my eyes and saw a blue light shoot from my wand, morphing into the shape of a shaggy dog, identical to my dad's animagus form. I looked to the side to see Harry had done the spell as well and had a blue stag stood in front of him.

"Unbelievable." Uncle Remmy whispered as our Patronus' disappeared. "Not many witches or wizards can conjure a Patronus on the first go. While it is still weak, and you are more than likely to hold it for long, that was amazing for a first go! Well done!"

"Professor?" Harry asked, sitting down on the step in the office. "What's under a Dementor's hood?"

"No one knows for sure. A Dementor only lowers its hood to perform a horrific curse." He said.

"What is it?" I asked, sitting next to Harry.

"A Dementor's kiss." I shared a look with Harry at the name. "It's not as pretty as it sounds. The kiss is used to utterly destroy a person. It sucks the soul out of them."

"They-They kill?" Harry asked, astounded.

"Worse. You can exist without your soul, as long as your brain and heart still work. But you have no sense of self. No memories, no anything." He looked at our horrified faces and sighed. "There is no chance of recovering. You'll be an empty shell with no emotions and your soul is lost… forever."

"How can anyone be sentenced to that?" I asked. "It's barbaric."

"It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black." I looked at him in shock as he tried to avoid making eye contact with me. "The ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform the kiss if they find him."

"He deserves it." Harry said, making me look at him in shock.

"No he doesn't." I said, making him frown. "No one deserves that fate. No one."

We walked back to the common room in silence, processing everything we heard, when Neville ran up to us outside of the entrance to the tower.

"Harry! Lexi! Do you know the password?" He asked, making us frown.

"It's the same as it was this morning." I said.

"I know, but I got Sir Cadegon to give me all of the passwords for this week and I lost the piece of paper I wrote it on." He said, clearly distressed.

"Come on Neville. Let's just go to bed and worry about it in the morning." Harry said as the three of us walked into the common room.

HPOV

That night, I lay in bed examining the Marauder's map. I heard Ron mumble something about giant spiders in his sleep before continuing his snoring. I froze when I saw a new name appear on the map and quickly grabbed my shoes and wand, running quietly down to the common room.

"Harry?" I jumped when I saw Lexi curled up on the sofa reading the book she got for Christmas, Jarvis next to her with his head on her knee.

"Lexi? What are you doing down here?" I asked.

"What I've been doing since Christmas. What are you doing with the map?" She asked, putting her book down and standing up, making Jarvis grumble at the loss of his pillow. She grabbed the map before I could say anything and froze, her eyes widening. "Peter Pettigrew? But… He's dead!"

"I know. That's where I'm going. I have to know if this is real." I started walking away but Lexi grabbed my hand and followed. We ran down the stairs and along the corridors to where Pettigrew's name was. We could hear a strange shuffling, but couldn't see anything. I looked back at the map to see Pettigrew's name go through a wall, making me look at Lexi with a frown, knowing she saw it too.

"Maybe he's a ghost?" She suggested.

"Ghosts don't show up on the map." I replied. I looked back down, only to see another name heading towards us. "Mischief managed." I whispered, pulling Lexi so that we were against the wall, regretting not bringing the cloak. We were silent for a moment before a light appeared in front of us, the person on the other end glaring at us.

"Mr Potter. Miss Black." Snape drawled. "Out for a late night stroll are we?"

"Harry was sleep walking. I was trying to get him back to the tower when he woke up." Lexi lied.

"And how would you know if he was sleep walking? I am sure that the two of you don't share a dorm." He hissed.

"I fell asleep in the common room and he woke me up when he came down the stairs." She replied, her voice cool and level.

"Turn out your pockets." He snapped. Lexi pulled her wand out of hers and I pulled the blank map out of mine. "What is that?" He asked, pointing his wand at the map.

"Spare parchment." I said, my voice slightly strained.

"Reveal your secrets." He said, making his wand touch the map. Words appeared and I felt my heart sink slightly. "Read it." He said, handing the map to Lexi.

"Messer Moony would like present his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs that he keeps his abnormally large nose out of other people's business." She said, her eyes wide as my mouth opened in shock, looking over to see that she was reading word for word. "Messer Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor. Messer Prongs agrees and would like to add that professor Snape is an ugly git."

"Why you-"

"Professor Snape. What appears to be the problem?" I turned to see Professor Lupin walking up to us, making Lexi stiffen.

"I found this on them." He said, snatching the map off of Lexi and passing it to Lupin. "It is obviously filled with dark magic."

"Dark magic? My, this only looks like a piece of parchment meant to insult whoever tries to read it. A Zonko product no doubt." He replied, looking at us with a hard stare.

"You would know all about them, wouldn't you Lupin?" Snape hissed, glaring openly at the DADA professor, who continued to watch Lexi and I.

"Professor, I would appreciate if you kept our past in the past." Lupin snapped, his voice so low I could only just hear it. "Harry, Alexis, can I have a word with the two of you?"

We followed him to his office in silence, Lexi occasionally tugging on the hem of her shirt. We got to his office where he threw the map onto his desk and spun to face us with a hard stare. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Filch years ago. And yes, I know it is a map. I have no idea how it came into your possession, however, I am astounded that you did not turn it in immediately. Do you know how much damage this map could do in the hands of Sirius Black?" He sighed, leaning against the edge of his desk. "I am not going to punish you, but I want the both of you to return to your dormitories now. And I will be making sure that you do."

We silently walked back to the tower, trying to be quiet. "What now?" I asked as we reached the portrait, giving Sir Cadagon the password.

"I don't know. But something is not right about any of this." She replied. We walked into the common room to see Jarvis still asleep on the sofa. We said good night before I climbed the stairs to my dorm, all the while wondering how Professor Lupin knew what the map was.

APOV

The next morning, we filled Ron in on what happened over breakfast.

"Pettigrew? Really?" He asked, his mouth full of bacon.

"Yeah. But it couldn't really be him. I mean, he went through a wall!" Harry said.

"Lexi?" I turned to see Hermione stood behind me, wringing her hands together. "Can I talk to you?" I sighed, but stood up anyway and followed her out of the hall and into an empty classroom. "Lexi, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you of being like him. I was just upset that you didn't tell me." She said, lowering her head.

"Do you know why I didn't tell you?" I asked, making her look up in question. "Because you never asked. I answered questions about what he was like and what I remembered about him, but no one ever asked who he was. I can't exactly say 'By the way, you know Sirius Black? The guy who's trying to kill Harry? He's my Dad' Can I?"

"I know. I've thought a lot about it and realised that there was never really a good time for you to tell us." She said. "I trust you Lexi. Please be my friend again."

"I'll have to think about it." I said, making her face fall before I laughed. "I'm kidding! Give me a hug already!" She beamed and threw her arms around me. "Now let's go, I'm starving!" She laughed, but walked back to the hall with me, our arms linked as we chatted.

Just as I was about to sit down, Uncle Remmy walked up to us. "Alexis, can I talk to you in my office?" He asked, making my face fall.

"Now?" He nodded. "But… Food!" I whined. I heard Ron, Harry and Hermione trying to hide their laughter, but he only raised an eyebrow. "Fine." I huffed before grabbing a handful of bacon and munching on it as I walked.

"Lexi, why did you not tell me about the map?" He asked as we sat down in his office.

"We weren't doing anything with it. Oh, and it was the twins who had it." I said, making him laugh. "Why didn't you tell me that Dad is Harry's Godfather?"

"Is this what you wanted to talk to be about?" He asked, making me nod. "I didn't think it was important. How did you find out anyway?"

"Overheard a conversation." I said, making him look at me in disbelief. "I also heard about Pettigrew. They found a finger? That's it?"

"Yes. According to the initial report, he was blasted into bits, the biggest bit being a finger." He said, making me frown.

"If my Dad killed him, there would be more left than a finger." I said, standing up. "That reminds me, I think your map is broken."

"Why?"

"I saw Pettigrew's name on it last night. That's why we were out. We were looking for him." I said before leaving the room.

HPOV

A few nights later

I fell onto my bed in exhaustion. Hermione had us in the library for hours looking for information for Hagrid, but we couldn't find anything useful. I fell asleep quickly, dreaming about Lexi. We were dancing in a meadow, the sun making the brown in her hair stand out. We were leaning in to kiss….

"AAAHHHHHH!" I sat bolt upright, falling to the floor as Ron's scream woke me. I heard a door close as I untangled myself from the sheets, looking at Dean and Seamus who had their wands raised. I looked at Ron's bed to see the curtains on one side ripped, Ron sat up in the centre of the bed, his face paler than usual.

"What's going on?" Dean asked.

"It was him! Sirius Black! With a knife!" Ron yelled, making us freeze.

"WHAT?" We shouted, Neville looking scared.

"Here! Now! He slashed the curtains!"

We all shared a look before running out of the room and down the stairs. We got to the common room, only to find it completely empty.

"What's going on?" I turned to see Lexi and Hermione running down the stairs, a few others following while some looked down from the balcony overlooking the common room.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Seamus asked as some boys from other years made their way down the stairs to see what the disturbance was.

"I'm telling you I saw him!" Ron yelled.

"What's all this yelling?" A sleepy Fred asked as he and George walked up to the 5 boys in the centre of the room.

"Everyone back to bed." Percy ordered as he pushed his way in front of everyone.

"Perce!" Ron shouted to his brother. Lexi and Hermione walked over to us, standing next to me and Dean. "Sirius Black was in our room with a knife!" The room went silent and still as Ron's words sank in.

"Don't be silly." Percy said, his eyes wide. "You were dreaming."

"What is going on in here?" We turned to see Professor McGonagall storm in through the portrait door, her hair loose around her shoulders and her dressing gown wrapped tightly around her body. "Percy! I expected better of you."

"I was just trying to get everyone back into bed." He said. "Ron had a nightmare."

"It wasn't a dream!" He snapped. "Sirius Black was in our room with a knife! He slashed the curtains on my bed!" McGonagall froze, her eyes widening.

"Preposterous. How could he even get in here Mr Weasely?" She asked, her voice nervous.

"Ask him!" Ron pointed to the back of Sir Cadagon's portrait.

McGonagall opened the door and faced the knight. "Sir Cadegon. Did you let Sirius Black in here?" She asked.

"Sure did." He replied. There was a collective gasp as McGonagall staggered back slightly. I noticed Lexi and Mione share a look, but thought nothing of it.

"What? Why?" She asked, stunned.

"He had the password. Had all of them on a piece of paper." He replied

Professor McGonagall stepped back into the room, her face pale and her eyes hard. "Which foolish person wrote down all of the passwords on a piece of paper and left them lying around?" She asked, her voice deadly quiet. The room was silent as Neville's hand slowly rose.

Here you go guys! Hope this is alright for you.

Thanks for reading

Emma