Chapter 2:
Adalia woke the next morning with a groan and a hand slapping the alarm
clock next to her bed that was wailing rather loudly. She yawned sleepily
and clambered out of bed and into the bathroom where she surveyed herself
in the long mirror above a sink. Her hair was tossed about wildly atop her
head. She grabbed a brush and was starting to detangle it when Jamie walked
in. They greeted each other pleasantly and then went on with their daily
morning routine of trying to make themselves look presentable.
At breakfast that morning, the Great Hall was extremely loud and talkative
as usual. Jamie and Adalia found their seats at the Ravenclaw table as
usual. Adalia was seated between Jamie and a boy named Jarad Madlain who
smiled at her as she sat down. She returned the smile slightly and then
looked behind her at the Slytherin table. As usual, Lucius Malfoy had a
large group of Slytherins sitting around admiring him and laughing way to
hard at his jokes. She looked forward again through the Hufflepuff table
where she spotted Lily who didn't seem to be talking much to the people
around her. Instead she was scooting some hash browns around her plate and
glancing up every few moments. About half way down the table sat James, who
was ruffling up his hair as usual, Sirius, who looked completely cool and
gorgeous as usual, and two other boys who she recognized to be Remus Lupin
and Peter Pettigrew. Obviously Adalia didn't realize how long she had been
staring at them because Sirius looked up from his plate at her then
whispered something to James who turned around. Adalia looked back down
before he had turned all the way around, her face blushing, in what she
guessed, a crimson red. She gathered up her things and headed out of the
Great hall.
Adalia headed for the library. It was a Saturday so she decided that she
would spend a little time there as she normally did on the weekends. She
found a seat on a medium sized couch and sat down pulling out a few books,
some parchment, a quill, and some ink. At least this would be a good chance
to catch up on some essays and other homework. The door opened to the
library again and there were muffled voices. She was so used to this now
that she didn't even look up to see who it was. If it was someone she knew
then they would say hi.
"Is someone sitting here," a soft and smooth voice asked. She looked up
very slightly to see who it was and in doing so had to stiffen a gasp. It
was Sirius. What was he doing in a library? She spotted Remus sitting down
in the chair next to the couch in the corner of her eye and James sitting
in the chair next to Remus.
"Nope." She merely stated and moved her books from the couch to the floor
in front of her.
"Thanks." He said sitting down, his hand brushing against her leg very
slightly as he did so. Adalia began to blush again but hid it behind her
book. Sirius seemed a little edgy in his seat and began shifting slightly.
Adalia glanced up at him and saw him looking at her. His dark eyes were
intoxicating to look into. She gulped and quickly looked back down and
noticed him shift slightly in his seat again. She tapped her quill on the
side of her book, now not being able to concentrate on the words on the
page. Sirius took out a book from his bag, some parchment and ink, and then
sighed.
"Hey Prongs, Moony, you have an extra quill?" he asked in a hushed voice to
them. Adalia glanced up and saw the two other boys shaking her head. Adalia
went searching through her bag and pulled out a spare quill and handed it
to him. He looked at her for a moment and then took the quill.
"Thanks." He said with a half smile that made his laugh lines appear on his
face making his face light up for a moment. Adalia smiled and shrugged and
then went back to staring blankly at her book. After about ten minutes she
gave up and packed up her things. Giving Sirius one last glance she headed
out of the library and back to the Ravenclaw common room.
She found a seat next to Jamie on the couch in hopes that Jamie had, had
more luck on the homework than she had. Luckily Jamie was in a good mood
and while she hadn't done the homework yet, she was willing to help Adalia
with Muggle Studies. Looking through her backpack, the book was no where in
sight. Adalia groaned. She must have left the book in the library.
Adalia excused herself and walked back out of the common room and down the
halls. She wasn't, however, watching much where she was going and as she
walked around a corner, slammed into someone much taller than her. This
sent her falling backward. Her eyes blurred slightly from her contacts
coming out of place. Luckily something caught her in mid fall. She stood
back up and rubbed her eyes muttering apologies but abruptly stopped once
getting a clearer vision of the boy. He had a slight grin on his face.
"You alright?" Sirius asked as Adalia's face flushed.
"Oh um, yea. Sorry about that. Wasn't looking where I was going." She said
nervously realizing his arm was still around her waist slightly. He just
seemed to be aware of this too and took it off. Adalia knelt down to pick
up her books that were scattered about the floor along with several papers
of hers. Sirius bent down to help her.
"Oh by the way you left your book in the library along with that quill you
let me borrow." He said calmly as they finished picking up the books and
Adalia was stuffing it all back into her bag. Sirius took out a medium
sized book along with a quill and handed them to her.
"Thank." She said stuffing them also into her bag which was now weighing
heavily on her shoulders like bricks.
"Need any help with that?" he asked he asked while taking her bag.
"No that's alright I'm fine." Adalia said reaching back for her bag. Sirius
put the bag on his other shoulder and smirked.
"I insist. For letting me borrow you quill." He began and without giving
Adalia a chance to respond he went on by saying "So where are you off to?"
She sighed and looked back down the way she had come.
"Back to the common room I suppose. Just came out to get my book back." She
said and began to walk back towards the ravenclaw common room with Sirius
at her side. Without thinking she blurted out "What were you doing last
night?" Great! Nice work Adalia. She thought to herself right after she had
said the words. Sirius stopped dead in his tracks. When she looked at him
he had a look of terror on his face.
"What do you mean?" he asked cautiously. There was no getting out of it now
and she knew it.
"I mean I saw you last night at the whomping willow. You and your friends.
What were you doing and how are you animagi?" she asked looking him
straight in the eye. He just stared at her as though she had just slapped
him in the face.
"We.Uhh." he began, "Were just going outside for a while. And as for the
animagi thing.please don't tell anyone. No one knows and.well.no one was
supposed to find out." He said with a pleading look she had never seen
before in all the five years she had been at Hogwarts. He was always the
overconfident gorgeous leader who overlooked all of the girls, including
her, who stared longingly at him. But this, this made him look even more
gorgeous than before. No. Now was not the time to think of that.
"Alright I won't. But I want to know what's going on." She said a little
more persistent this time. He hesitated for a moment and then his face
softened to its normal calm and cool self.
"Well I can't promise you anything but ill take you to someone who might be
able to explain it better than me. It's not my place." He said and motioned
for her to follow him. They walked quite a ways in silence until they
reached a large portrait of a fat lady. It was the entrance to the
Gryffindor common room. Sirius gave Adalia a look. She could take a hint.
She covered her ears with her hands and waited as Sirius whispered the
password to the fat lady. They both stepped inside and felt an instant
warmth pass over.
She had known the Gryffindor common room would be nice but not THIS nice.
It has a roaring fire in the center, large comfortable looking couches and
enormous fluffy chairs. It had red and gold decorations all around the
room in beautiful patterns. Luckily there were only a few people there and
didn't seem to notice her come in. It was very rare for a student to enter
a common room that was not there own and she hadn't planned on doing it
tonight or ever. In fact she was starting to wish she hadn't said anything.
This wasn't going to be good.
"Remus."Sirius began walking over to a cute boy who seemed to into the
books on his lap that he hadn't heard Sirius calling his name. Sirius waved
a hand over Remus's face which looked irritably up from his books. The
irritation changed to confusion when he saw Adalia standing there in her
Ravenclaw robes. He immediately got up as if sensing something was wrong.
They exchanged glances of which Adalia couldn't decipher. Just then, James
walked down from the boy's dorm and ruffled up his hair. Sirius and Remus
turned and motioned James over who looked at Adalia curiously then looked
back at Sirius and Remus.
"We need to go somewhere private. I know just the place." Sirius said and
they all followed him out of the common room. Adalia gulped. This was
definitely big. They walked down the hallways in silence until they came to
a halt at the end of a second floor hallway. Sirius seemed to just start
pacing muttering to himself for a moment and then out of no where a door
appeared in the wall. Adalia guessed it was better to ask about this later.
He opened the door and they walked in. The room looked comfortable with a
couch and two chairs seated in front of a roaring fire along with a snack
table and drink table. Adalia sat herself down on the couch. Her stomach
was doing flips as the other three sat down as well. Sirius sat next to her
on the couch. Remus seemed slightly rigid while James seemed rather laid
back.
"Ok well lets start off by just getting it out in the open," Sirius began
and paused as if trying to find the right words to say, "Remember last
night when I thought I saw someone watching us from the window?"