Disclaimer: While I'm trying to make this story as canon/authentic as possible, I used some artistic license in this chapter. I reread the books and researched how the First Wizarding War played out, but since the books are mostly about the Second Wizarding War, there are some gaps in the timeline.

I don't know if Voldemort was actually a Fascist (if you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you look up 'fascism' on Wikipedia before reading this chapter), but since I'm a Political Science major, I couldn't help but compare the whole situation to 20th century Europe. If you think I'm totally out of line, please let me know in a review :)

"I gotta roll, can't stand still. Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill. Eyes that shine burning red, dreams of you all through my head." – Led Zeppelin, 1971

Gemma Rawnsley placed her cigarette between her lips and took a long, hard drag. The smoke filled her lungs and after a few seconds, she let out a shaky exhale and finally felt calm.

She didn't normally sprint out of the Great Hall without anyone noticing, but the morning edition of the Daily Prophet had sent her into a tailspin; Aurors had found three murdered Muggles a few Underground stations away from her parents' music hall. Gemma knew her Mum and Dad wished they could have mixed audiences, which worried her. Were these new followers of Lord Voldemort starting to target areas close to the family business because they were more tolerant and accepting of Muggles?

She couldn't be sure.

Gemma abruptly sat down on one of the stone benches in the main outdoor courtyard. She finished the rest of her cigarette, trying to fight off the chilly October air, and started chain smoking when she lit another off the end of her first.

"Bloody hell, Rawnsley!" her best friend Giovanni exclaimed when he finally skidded to a stop. He took several deep breaths and then reached into his pocket to pull out his own packet of cigarettes. He placed one in his mouth and lit the end of it with his wand. Gemma cowered slightly as he exhaled. "You can't scare me like that!"

"I didn't mean to," she retorted softly before taking another drag herself.

"Give us some warning before you bolt next time then," Gio snorted as he sat down next to her. He took another lazy inhale and then placed a hand on her knee to comfort her.

"Today's headline shocked all of us, you know. You're not alone – everyone in the band is wondering if this is a warning for the Blue Note. So you don't have to run away and deal with things on your own. We're here for you."

"Thanks, Gio," she muttered as she squeezed his hand. They smiled at each other and then put their cigarettes back in their mouths.

Although they had never been romantically involved, Gemma knew she would always have a connection with the Italian Seventh Year. He was the first child to show up on their doorstep and immediately began to treat Gemma like a sister when her parents allowed him to move in during his Third Year; he had finally been kicked out of his Muggle parents' house for being a wizard. Gio wanted nothing more than to be a normal magical teenager and Gemma knew her family and the band gave him the sense of stability he craved.

However, Gio gave her stability as well. He was the only one who seemed to understand the burden of being a Seer. Most people thought she was crazy and a wandering spirit reminiscent of the 1960s, but not Gio. He treated her like a human being. Gemma appreciated the way he let her practice her tarot card readings on him, tried to find her the newest Divination novels to educate her and stayed up late into the night to keep her company as she tried to read the stars.

In fact, Gemma didn't know what she would do without him in her life. Even after her many years at Hogwarts, she never had many friends because of her crazy outbursts; she kept most people at a distance. Although she was friends with the rest of the band, she still considered them to be mere acquaintances compared to Gio. He was the one who knew her better than anybody, even her parents.

"And believe me," Gio continued, breaking her out of her thoughts, "no one hates this Voldemort bloke more than I do. Why do you think most of my family left Italy just after the Muggle First World War? I'll tell you: fascism."

"I don't think he's exactly a fascist, Gio," Gemma chuckled, not surprised that the boy was spouting off about politics. "He's not telling everyone that England is the best country in the world, although he does spout that purebloods are racially superior to everyone else."

"Well no, he's not England's biggest fan, per say," Gio responded with an eye roll, "but he is hyper nationalistic about purebloods. He may not think the United Kingdom is the greatest society on earth, but he sure thinks that about the Wizarding World. He wants us to return to our former glory and honor."

"Merlin, did he ever take History of Magic? No one wants to go back to the Middle Ages. Life was so rudimentary back then," Gemma snorted.

"Exactly. But after the Middle Ages and all the witch-hunts, we went into hiding to preserve our numbers. We even switched our government from the Wizard's Council to the Ministry of Magic. But you see in his eyes, we let the Muggles win. Even though the Ministry is completely corrupt and draconian, it's not enough. He wants a violent upheaval and he wants it now. He wants all the power to be in the Ministry's hands, with him at the controls.

"That's why he has so many spies there. This Lord Voldemort is building an army Gemma, mark my words. He's starting to use his so-called 'Death Eaters' to carry out his will, but he's got bigger plans. He wants to take over the Ministry and then take over all of Wizarding Europe – possible the world after that. And he wants all the Muggles to die."

"So much for my cheerful morning," Gemma muttered.

"Oh come off it, you can't be ignorant about what's going on," Gio replied as he tapped the end of his cigarette to the side.

"Watch me."

"I know you don't mean that – I've known you for a long time. You always know what's going on so you can be prepared. When the chips are down, you have a tendency to fly away and disappear rather than stay and deal with something in the moment," he finally said before taking another inhale. Gemma frowned. "You're a gypsy soul. I get that. All I'm saying is that you better not skip out on us when push comes to shove. You may be the best at hide and seek, but we will find you whether you like it or not. Just accept it."

He laughed and ruffled her hair playfully. Gemma's grimace turned into a smile and she shoved him back. They jostled and laughed for several minutes; their joyous energy added to her coffee and nicotine buzz and she felt her fingers involuntarily quiver. After feeling a bit off the rails, but not really caring, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a gillyweed joint.

"You think we'll get caught?" she asked with a grin as she handed it to Gio.

"It's still breakfast," he replied before putting it between his lips. "No one in their right mind would be out here patrolling. But here's a Concealment Charm, just in case."

After he cast the charm to make it look and smell like a cigarette, they both giggled and began to pass the joint back and forth. Gemma felt her headache start to slowly fade away as the gillyweed began to have its desired effect. She tried not to smoke this early in the morning because it always made her extremely tired in the afternoon, but she hadn't slept a wink the night before. She was hyped up and on edge and convinced herself that she was not waking and baking because she'd never actually gone to bed.

Her dreams had been too intense for her to sleep.

The Hufflepuff tapped the joint off towards the side and then put it back in her mouth. As she inhaled, she tried not to think of a certain Gryffindor and the visions of him that had danced through in her head for the past couple of nights. Suddenly, she felt dizzy and sick to her stomach and handed the joint back to Gio.

"Here, take it. I don't want anymore."

"Gemma," Gio warned as he took a drag, "you never turn down a smoke. Something's up and if you don't tell me, I won't bring you anymore gillyweed."

"Well if you're going to threaten me that way," she sighed as she reached out and took the disguised cigarette from his hands, "I guess I don't have a choice." She inhaled and sucked up her exhale from her mouth into her nose. After expelling a large stream of smoke, she handed the object back to him. "I've been having some bad dreams lately. I can't sleep."

"Spill," said Gio. She smiled at him appreciatively.

"Every night I have these dreams and they are always different versions of the same theme," Gemma began. "I'm stuck in some foreign place and then I see this large black dog. He's not a cute, cuddly dog, though. He's mean and he's menacing. He scares me. I start to run away, usually into another foreign world entirely, but he keeps following me. As hard as I try, I can never get away from him.

"I think I know who the dog is at this point – he's Sirius. I just don't get why I'm scared of him. He's never done anything nasty towards me. It's perfect, we're unattached. We shag and then leave. That's it. He doesn't know much about me, I don't know much about him. Well other than the school gossip I've picked up on over the years."

Gio began to chuckle softly and when she raised an eyebrow at him, his laughter grew in volume. He grabbed the joint from her hands and then inhaled while slapping his knee.

"You may be a Seer, but you are horrible at seeing what's directly in front of you," he finally coughed out as he exhaled. "You fancy him and you're fighting it."

"Excuse me?"

"You're running away from the dog in your dreams because you're running away from Sirius in real life. Have you ever tried turning around and petting the animal chasing you in your dreams?" Gemma scowled. "No? That's what I thought. You won't show Sirius any affection because you're too scared to accept that you fancy someone and he could actually make you happy."

"Me? Happy? With Sirius Black?" Gemma guffawed when he handed the joint back to her. She jokingly inspected it before taking a puff and exhaling. "Are we smoking the same thing here? He wants me for my sexuality, not my personality. That boy snogs more girls than anyone at this school."

"Not lately," Gio responded in a singsong voice.

"Giovanni Costa," Gemma warned, "you better not be taking the piss."

"I'm not. He doesn't have eyes for anyone else but you, love," he said as he put an arm around her shoulders. "Many girls have tried to tempt him, but he isn't wavering. He's only been snogging you for the past month."

She shrugged her shoulders, releasing herself from Gio's half hug, and rubbed her eyes as she processed the new information. While she hadn't been with anyone else either, she expected Sirius to see other girls; with his aristocratic, debonair looks, he was born to play the field. Their relationship was supposed to be unattached and infrequent. Instead, Gemma realized that both of them were getting in over their heads. She couldn't stop dreaming about their connection and apparently he couldn't either.

"How did I let it get this far? What the fuck do I do now?" she groaned as she buried her face in her hands.

"Live a little!" Gio answered with a grin. "So you finally fancy someone! Why does that have to be a bad thing? For Merlin's sake, you've got Sirius Black, one of Hogwarts' most sought after blokes, on a leash … and even if you won't admit it, I know he makes you happy. He's got you bloody singing to yourself again! Do you know how long it's been since I've heard you use your pipes? Ages."

Gemma took a deep breath, realizing that he was completely right, and felt a huge weight fall onto her shoulders. She tried to pass the joint back to him. He looked at the dwindling roll and waved his hands in front of him.

"No, I'm done with that. You need it more than I do. Now I have to go eat something or my stomach is going to eat its own lining. I'll see you back at the Hufflepuff table."

"Suit yourself," Gemma muttered in response and then put the joint back into her mouth. As she took a very large puff, she waved to Gio as he walked back into the Castle; the sound of his footsteps faded and Gemma was alone once again. She tried to block her friend's words out of her head, but couldn't help but question her flighty thoughts. Why was she so scared to be emotionally intimate with Sirius? She shared everything with Gio and they got along perfectly well.

A small gust of wind blew across her skin and she squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to fight off the cold. When the burst of weather subsided, she took another drag, watched the smoke swirl upwards, and realized that Sirius Black scared her because he was unpredictable. Gio offered her comfort and stability while Sirius presented the exact opposite.

Sirius was daring and inconsistent. She never approached him and always reasoned that he only seeked her out because he wanted to get lucky, nothing more. That's what males like him did. However, he didn't fit her stereotypical mold. Sirius liked to show up out of nowhere and playfully pull her into a broom cupboard, wink to her from across the Great Hall, and even surprise her with a red rose just because it was Monday. She'd never met anyone like him before. Every time they met, Gemma couldn't help but feel an intense connection between them and up until now, refused to acknowledge its implications.

But Gio's prodding ripped apart her excuses. Her feelings were raw and out in the open and she immediately felt the extreme urge to run around the Quidditch pitch to get rid of the butterflies in her stomach. She quickly smashed the burning object under her black flats and poised herself to bolt when she heard footsteps.

"Gemma!"

She whipped around and saw Sirius standing at the entrance of the courtyard. Another cold breeze softly pushed a few stands of his long black hair into his face and he shoved them away as he jogged over towards her. Gemma felt the butterflies intensify.

"I saw your friends in the Great Hall, but I didn't see you. They said you'd be out here - can I bum a cigarette?"

His loaded question hung in the air as she gazed into his bright grey eyes; the air whooshed out of her lungs and she felt dumbfounded. She hadn't seen him in a week and all of her emotional frustration from earlier immediately transformed into sexual desire. She grabbed his robes and pulled him towards her. Her actions caught him off guard, but he yielded when she began to kiss him hungrily. Gemma let her hands run through his locks as he wrapped his arms around her.

"There's an abandoned classroom on the First Floor not far from here," she said breathlessly as his lips grazed the soft skin on her neck.

"I know the one."

"Let's go. Now."

He threw her a sly grin, grabbed her hand, and led her back into the Castle. Her fears melted away and she began to giggle incessantly as they roamed the halls to look for the private spot. When they finally found their makeshift paradise, Sirius placed Gemma on one the old desks and began to delicately kiss her neck again as his hands roamed under her jumper. She tipped back her head and moaned appreciatively.

The Hufflepuff decided to take Gio's advice and lived a little before her first lesson of the day. As the pair began to straighten out their school robes, she felt her fingers tremble as she saw Sirius humming and grinning like a madman.

"Stupid Gio," she muttered to herself as she ran her fingers through her hair to get rid of the kinks. "He just had to fuck with me today."

"What's that, dear?" Sirius asked, raising one of his brows as he began to tighten his red Gryffindor tie.

"Nothing," Gemma responded softly. He knelt down to tie his shoes and Gemma felt the earlier butterflies return; she gripped onto the desk next to her. Sirius didn't notice her slip and instead focused his attention to his other shoe. She took the opportunity to quickly sneak out the door and reasoned that Gio's insight didn't change anything.

Her relationship with Sirius was purely sexual and nothing more - at least that's what she kept telling herself as she nervously lit up another cigarette.

Author's note: So a lot of important information in this chapter even though not much happened! Gemma is a Seer, Voldy's on the warpath, and Sirius is becoming a one-woman man. Will Gemma's abilities predict her future – or someone else's? Stay tuned kids.

Any favorite quotes in the story so far?