2. A welcome introduction

That night was more of the same, Prongs and Moony either drooled over their girlfriends or spent any free moments discussing how wonderful they were, while Wormtail listened - the happy gooseberry. Sirius sank into an advanced state of boredom. The common room was as loud as ever, the flickering flames in the grate tonight were only an illusion, conjured to give the room the same happy fire lit glow as usual, even when the weather was too hot for real flames. The main volume of noise tonight came from a group of 4th years who were practicing stunning spells by the stairs to the girls dormitory, and the air had a sickly sweet smell caused by the excessive amount of honeysuckle pollen one 2nd year had put in his flexibility potion. Sirius could already have told him it wouldn't work when he actually tried to use it, but he wasn't in the mood to correct anyone else's homework tonight, not after spending the last 30 mins correcting Peter's, something James used to do before he started drooling.

Everything tonight was normal. Yet, bored didn't cover it. By 9.30 Sirius' brain had turned to half set concrete, and he felt it was in danger of turning entirely solid if he remained in the room any longer.

"I'm going out", he half yelled this statement down the table they had been occupying all night.......and no one noticed. Not one of the 5 noticed when he climbed the steps to the tower, or looked up from their conversations when he returned, carrying James' invisibility cloak under his arm, and exited through the portrait hole. In fact no one noticed his absence until they all went to bed and found he wasn't their room, but by that time Sirius wasn't anything close to bored.

Walking through the grounds in the light of a moon a week past full, his temper seemed to sooth. Which was ironic really, when he considered that the moonlight also gave one of the most even-tempered men he'd ever known fangs, a thick fur pelt and made him act like a bear with a sore head. Without really knowing why he walked there his feet took him towards the forbidden forest. The un-seasonal weather from that morning remained, but the huge black thunder clouds on the horizon were a sign that it was about to break into a spectacular storm.

As he looked up ahead Sirius saw someone being chased through the small copse of trees on the edge of the forest. Not wanting to interrupt some guy's fun with his girlfriend, Sirius was turning to walk to the lake side when he saw the moonlight hit the green streaks in the girl's hair, and quickly realized that it was not one boy chasing her, but three. He broke into a fast, but quiet, sprint towards the trees, despairing of how unfit he had gotten in the months since quitting Pendon.

Upon entering the copse, the scene he found before him disgusted him. The moon light fell in clear beams across the girls face, but shadows hid two of her captors, the third, however, was clearly visible. No matter how fast she had run, Alijanna had eventually been caught by her three Slytherin pursuers. The two in the shadows were now having great difficulty pinning her to a tree, and had had to resort to holding a great handful of her hair so tight in each of their fists that if she moved too much it would be ripped from her scalp. The third, Sirius' little brother, Regulus, was currently trying to move in for a kiss, but not having much luck , as she aimed a kick right at his balls every time he came within 5 steps of her. She had spirit all right.

Though he felt his temper rise uncontrollably, Sirius even remembered to take off his ring incase he broke his finger when he hit his brother, before advancing into the clearing, leaning nonchalantly against a tree and quipping

"Why is it little brother, that I always have to give you lessons to improve your manners? Let her got will you, she's too much for you to handle".

His entrance brought a look of pole-axed shock to Regulus' chubby face and his two, very thick, minions were so surprised that they released their hold on her hair, if not on the rest of her. Sirius wondered about her not fighting them off. It wasn't until she made a slight "after you" gesture with her hand that he realized she was being polite: by Nythan rules, as he had made the first challenge he got to throw the first punch.

He wasn't quite ready to yet, however. "Give him time to back off", he thought.

This had apparently been a waste of time, as Regulus replied "as you're no longer my brother, I no longer have to listen to any of your 'advice'". Then he lunged at Sirius, fists aimed for a strong punch to the bridge of the nose, which Sirius dodged easily, the attack had been obvious. As Regulus sailed past him Sirius gave him one good blow to the back of the head which sent him sprawling, he didn't get up. Satisfied that his brother wouldn't return to the fight, Sirius focused his attention on dealing with the other two, only to find his help wouldn't be required.

One was crawling towards Regulus, whimpering and murmuring about "pretty psycho bitches who can't take a joke"; while the other was in no condition to fight due to his heavily bleeding nose.

Alijanna surveyed them for a moment, then turned, looked Sirius up and down, nodded once, then walked back towards the castle.

"Hey" he called after her, "don't I get a thank you".

"What for?" she returned, combing her hair back into place with her fingers.

"Oh, I donno, saving you maybe"

"You saved me the exertion have having to beat up all three at once" she replied, laughing, "and quite frankly I could have done with the exercise. Goodnight". With that she kept walking and was soon out of view.