Thanks for the reivews! All - what was it? - one of them? Yeah. I was hoping for more... but whatever. Just tell me what ya think!
Chapter Two
The last in the classroom, the Marauders took seats towards the back, whispering about their plans for the evening. Sirius took a quick glance around the room, looking for the girl. He found her quickly - sitting by herself on the back row, staring into nothingness.
Sirius turned back just in time to catch the heat for roaming eyes again.
"I swear... I just don't understand...." James said wonderingly, gazing in the girl's direction, then meeting eyes with Sirius and grinning.
"Prongs... lay off," Remus said, before Sirius could say anything. "Does he make fun of you when you get all weird around Evans?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" James said mockingly.
"What? I don't make fun of you!" Sirius declared. James looked at him. "Well... okay, maybe once-"
"See, Moony? He admits it!" James said with mild satisfaction.
"Hey! I only made fun of you when you first told me about it. I haven't since then!" Sirius defended.
"Oh, just shut up, you all," interjected Peter, in a low voice, clearly trying to end the argument. "Julienne's about to start class."
In truth, their teacher was out in the corridor, telling off Peeves the Poltergeist for throwing dung bombs at a first year.
"Look who it is!" Sirius got really excited, and pointed at the door. "Snivellus! Late for class! Ha!"
James grinned, then pulled out his wand. Sirius followed suit.
Severus Snape had just snuck in, hoping the teacher didn't notice him to be late.
"Snivellus! You're late!" Sirius called, just before sending him a hex that knocked him over in a back flip. The Gryffindor portion of the class roared with laughter, while a few Slytherins smirked at the scene.
Snape struggled to regain his composure. James looked to the front of the class casually and caught a glare from the very person he was looking for. He jumped slightly and ruffled his already overly messy hair before innocently turning back around and pulling Sirius down by the sleeve of his robes. Madame Julienne then walked in the door.
Sirius turned to glance around the room while Madame Julienne disappeared in one of the massive drawers in her desk. He found her again, and simply stared for a moment.
Rae had ignored the situation at hand. The Marauders were always like this. It wasn't like she couldn't catch them at it any other day.
She was suddenly uncomfortable. The feeling that somebody was watching her sank in, and she raised her gray eyes, only to meet the deep black ones of Sirius Black.
They held each other's gaze until Madame Julienne's voice broke through the silence.
"Mr. Black! Would you kindly tell us what you're looking at that is so distracting you from this lesson?"
Sirius jerked back around, blinking and saying the first thing that came to mind.
"A fly!"
Madame Julienne looked at him rather skeptically before shaking her head and muttering something inaudible. The rest of the class sniggered, and Sirius realized how stupid he had sounded.
James was biting back laughter with all he had, his face screwed up and his mouth sealed shut, trying to suppress it. He finally threw his head forward on the desk, after several seconds of getting nowhere fast, and buried his face in his bag. All that was to be seen was a pair of reddening ears and a mass of black hair.
Sirius lobbed him in the back of the head as soon as Madame Julienne had turned her back, which only succeeded in making James laugh harder.
"Ouch!" he mouthed at Sirius, holding his hand over the back of his head, but not all together looking like he was in pain. Madame Julienne stood back up and glared at James momentarily for seeming so entertained.
Remus shot a calming spell at James, hoping to shut him up. This resulted in a rather dazed look overcoming his victim's features, though he still giggled a bit stupidly.
Madame Julienne rolled her eyes, sighed, and shook her head again before starting class.
Saturday morning dawned cold and frostbitten, with the first signs of snow floating lazily through the sky. The Marauders were, of course, already up at 8:30. They sat in the common room planning out the next outing to the kitchens. Well, it would actually only be Sirius and James, seeing as Remus would be out that night for the full moon, and Peter would be staying behind to cover for them.
"It'll have to be after midnight, I'm telling you!" Remus declared. James had been refusing to leave after twelve.
"But Filch will be making his rounds of the ground floor at twelve! He'll catch us!"
"Which is exactly why you should leave after midnight!" Remus said, a bit exasperated with him. "And besides," he added as an afterthought, "when have you and Sirius ever gotten caught before when you're by yourselves?"
James thought for a second. "Well... yeah. Now that you mention it...."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Of course we haven't! And I was thinking that Filch went off to bed at two on Sunday mornings. He'll at least be somewhere above the fifth floor, won't he?"
James grinned. "I forgot about that! Well, well, Mr. Black," he said in a mock teacher voice. "You have exceeded my expectations!"
Sirius stood up and knocked James over the side of the couch, then proceeded towards the portrait hole. "Are you three coming?"
James stood up, rubbing his backside. "Yeah. What was that for?" He shot Sirius a glare.
"Not my fault," Sirius said airily, prancing towards the door and swinging his hips in a sort of girly walk. "You shouldn't have been sitting on the arm!" He turned around and batted his eyelashes and giggled - a very good impression of what girls did when they saw James in the hallway.
James couldn't help but crack a grin at his best friend. He could always make a joke about someone or something.
He, Remus, and Peter followed Sirius out the portrait hole and down the quite deserted corridor towards breakfast.
Rae sat in the Entrance Hall on the top step, just out of reach of the softly falling snow. There was a good two inches on the ground already.
She took another bite of the buttered toast in her hand, and looked behind her to see if she was still alone. The oak doors remained closed, and she kept her solitude.
It was normality for her to rise early. Back at home, waking up early was the only way to be alone. Her father always stayed up late at night, and he usually had friends over drinking and watching rugby. He was, after all, a muggle.
Her mother had been a witch, but died two years before she was accepted into Hogwarts at the hands of Voldemort himself. Rae sighed. She had always been very close to her mother, but when she was killed, she seemed to have gone into an everlasting depression. That's where the black clothing had come in.
And the music - she had gotten that from her father. She looked down at the letters across her shirt that read Skydawg. The memory of the night she had gotten it was both beautiful and terrifying.
Rae closed her eyes and thought back to the night her father had announced that he was taking her to see the legendary Gregg and Duane Allman in London.
A nine-year-old girl with long raven hair and stormy gray eyes entered the kitchen looking for her father. She saw him walk in the back door and ran into his open arms for a hug. His full auburn beard tickled her when he kissed her forehead.
"Guess what?" He was kneeling down in front of her, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"What?" she asked, curiosity and wonderment filling her young voice.
"You and I are going to London tonight, Rae!" His eyes sparkled with excitement. "Guess who we're going to be seeing?"
The little girl's grin faltered as she struggled to think whom it was they might be seeing that far away. "Um... I dunno, Daddy. Who?"
"Skydawg!"
Rae's face broke into a grin that easily passed her eyes. A laugh rang out through the kitchen. "Oh, Daddy! Really?"
He nodded, hugging her tightly. Ever since Rae had been seven years old, she had always begged her father to play his Skydawg record. He didn't know what she loved so much about it, but the music definitely touched her.
Around midnight, Rae and her father had pulled into the driveway in his '68 Camero. Yawning, the raven-haired girl stepped out of the car with her father and waited as he unlocked the door.
The house was dark and silent - something unusual for the Orion household. The radio was always heard playing from the top of the fireplace, and her mother was always heard singing to it. Not tonight.
Rae stepped into the living room and flipped the switch. As soon as she did, however, she wished dearly that she hadn't.
Her mother was in her favorite chair, the chair they had left her in several hours ago. Only, she was slumped over to the side, her book in her left hand, and her wand out in her right. She looked as though somebody had shoved her roughly back into it.
Rae's breath caught in her chest. Her hand flew up to her throat, feeling around, expecting a hand to be there, obstructing her breathing. Nothing.
She coughed twice, and inhaled sharply before choking. Her father rushed into the room, looking around, and found her kneeling on the ground, silent tears running mercilessly down her cheeks.
"Rae? What's wrong? What is it?" He dropped down beside her and cupped her cheeks in his hands, pulling her face up to look at his.
She lifted her small hand and touched her father's bearded face, as if to see if he was real. Then she pointed at her mother.
Robbie Orion turned around, wondering if what he was about to see was really as bad as the feeling that had formed in the pit of his stomach. But found that it was worse.
He let go of Rae and stood up, shaking. Crossing the room in three strides, he lifted his wife's head into his hands, wet from his daughter's tears.
"Sarah.... No. Wake up!" he whispered, caressing her face. "Come on, honey! Say something. Anything."
But he got no answer.
A single tear came down her left cheek. Rae brushed it away furiously. Why was that memory still there? Why couldn't it have left her, as so many other things had done?
Rae stood up and threw her toast out into the snow. She could feel more tears forming behind her eyes, and tried to blink them away.
The door seemed to weigh a ton, as she pulled on it with all her might. It finally gave, and she heard the cracking of ice on the handle as it swung open. She bowed her head down and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, trying to hide the tears she knew were there for the world to see. But she didn't see the world.