Professor Sprout smiled at her class. "Welcome back, all of you. I hope you had a good Christmas." She started hunting around for something. "Hmmm, now where did I put that roll?"
While she was occupied with this, she didn't notice Draco and Alexas creep in and sit down casually as if they'd been there the whole time.
Adrian waved at Alexas and motioned to her that he'd saved her a seat, but to his surprise, she mouthed, "that's okay" and gave him the thumbs up.
It took him a while to process this, but when it did hit him, it hit hard. He'd just been blown off for Draco Malfoy. Malfoy of all people! He spent the rest of the class sneaking glances at them. They actually seemed to be having fun, because whenever he looked they seemed to be whispering to each other and giggling. This was just too much. What could have happened in two weeks for them to be like this?
Later that day, Draco and Alexas, not being able to think of anything else to do, were sitting in the library. Alexas was flipping a sickle up and catching it. "Call it." She said.
"Heads."
She looked at it. "Right again. You have some uncanny skill at this." She tilted her chair back and rested her head on the wall. "I am so mind-numbingly bored right now."
"What do you wanna do?" he asked. But she only shrugged. Draco got a devious look in his eye. "What about pulling a prank on Cliffard? I owe him at least one."
She laughed. "If you owe him one, you owe me way more."
"I tell you what, you help me I'll wipe the slate clean. Fancy being an accomplice to the crime?"
"Deal. Now," she said, grinning evilly, "what we need first is…"
"Hey Cliff," Alexas said casually, "I forgot to give this to you. It was supposed to be part of your Christmas present, but I forgot about it." She tossed him a prefect badge.
From across the room Draco yelled. "That's my badge! Give it back right now or else you'll regret it!"
"Really?" Cliff said. "And why is that?"
"Oh, no reason." He replied casually as Cliff's robes suddenly turned into a pink ballerina's tutu. "Just that." He laughed. "That's not even my badge." He pulled out his real badge, putting it back to its rightful place on his robes.
Cliff stood up slowly and the whole room tensed, expecting a fight. But instead, Cliff seized Draco's hand and shook it vigorously. "Well done! You have bested the master!" He leaned in close and whispered, "You have no idea what you've just done, do you?" Then he smiled again. "You just wait till I think of something." He waggled a finger under Draco's nose. "Then you'll be sorry." He marched off huffily, dragging Adrian behind him as he went.
Alexas watched this display, laughing. That had done its job in relieving the boredom. But something was nagging at her. She could feel deep grief coming from Hermione, Ron and Harry. She walked over to them cautiously and touched Hermione on the shoulder to get her attention. "I'm sorry."
Hermione was very puzzled by this. "What for?"
"For your loss. You must have cared a lot for them. If it's not too rude to ask, who was it?"
Hermione looked at Harry asking him silently for his permission. He shrugged as if to say he didn't mind. So she told Alexas. "It was Sirius Black. He was Harry's godfather."
Alexas looked like she'd been punched. "What?" she said disbelievingly. "That can't be true."
"Do you think we'd lie about something like that!" Harry snapped angrily.
But she had no reply. She only ran off out of the common room.
"She's crazy that one." Ron said.
Draco followed her out into the corridor where she was standing with her head against the wall, muttering one phrase over and over. "He can't be dead."
"Alexas? Are you okay?"
She spun around to face him. "No I'm not okay! Just leave me alone!" She pushed Draco down and sped off down the corridor.
He eventually found her sitting in the astronomy tower, tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"My father." She sobbed. "My father is dead."
"What? How do you know that?"
She looked at him sadly. "Sirius Black was my father. I never even got to meet him and… and now I never will." She turned back to the grounds. "And I'm going to have to tell my mother." She whispered.
Draco didn't know what to say. There was nothing he could think of that would make this any better. So he just wrapped his fingers around hers in an effort to comfort her.
She smiled at him weakly through the tears. "Thanks."