Chapter 11

There were times when Ari Black believed that she just might be the luckiest girl on earth. The first day of her third year in attendance at Hogwarts was definitely one of those days.

She awoke smiling, happy to begin a new day. Happy to be alive and well. Hell, she was happy to be Ari Black. Languidly, she arched her back, stretching, then yawned loudly, before hopping out of bed. Humming to herself, she gathered her toiletry items, and entered the bathroom.

Grinning at her reflection in the mirror, Ari said aloud, "I look good even when I've just woken up." and awarded herself with a lewd wink before brushing her teeth and showering.

Humming her way back into the dorm room she shared with the other Gryffindor girls from her year, Ari used a bit of magic she had picked up over the summer to dry her hair rapidly.

Hugging herself, Ari practically bristled with happiness and excitement. She felt like a ray of light. If she didn't keep holding herself together, she might segment into a million tiny pieces that would bounce off in every direction. It was an entertaining thought, and she held onto it for a moment.

Of course, Ari may have loved herself a bit too much, but she could see reality. No matter how wealthy her family was, or how influential; no matter how popular she was, or how beautiful, she would not be happy. Not truly happy… Not just from that. Although Ari could never give any of those things up at the place she was in life now. She was not particularly selfish or stingy, or even very egotistical. It was all she had ever known, and she was very used to her niche in life. Still… Even at age 13, she knew that things like that, the material things, were not what was important. At age 13, she could not identify what was truly important.

But she thought she might have a bit of an idea…

Sirius Black woke up early that morning, an event that was very unusual for him. The whole day seemed to hold the feel of Christmas. No presents though, he thought sorrowfully.

Climbing out of bed, Sirius stretched his arms over his head, wondering if he ought to cut his hair. He chuckled a bit. "Jaguar wouldn't like that," he said to himself, not minding that there were other boys in the room. They were all asleep. Eh, who cared what Jaguar thought of his hair? At worst, she would be a bit disdainful, the way she always was when someone didn't take her advice. Sirius remembered when James had cut his hair unexpectedly a few years back, and Jaguar had altogether stopped talking to him for a long time. How long was it? It could have been months. Suddenly, Sirius wondered if Jaguar had acted the way she had during this summer, back then. His mouth went a bit dry, and he decided that he didn't want to think about things like that.

Sirius' thoughts were interrupted by a voice asking, "Who's Jaguar?"

Turning toward the boy in the bed across the room, next to James', Sirius' eyes widened just a bit in curiousity.

"You don't know who Jag is?"

Sirius could not recall ever being asked that question. Everyone he had ever known had seemed to know who Jaguar Brazil was. Besides the fact that her aunt was famous, Jaguar herself seemed to attract people to her like moths to light.

The tall boy looked at the chubby boy in the bed. Peter was his name, or so Sirius thought. He wasn't sure enough about it to chance calling him by it, though. He opened his mouth to explain who Jaguar was, when he heard a knock at the door.

"I hope no one's naked!" a familiar female voice called out loudly. Jaguar Brazil walked into the room, grinning mischievously.

The boy who might have been called Peter hastily moved to cover his blue teddy bear patterned pajamas with his blanket.

"This is Jaguar," said Sirius. "She's my best friend."

Jaguar stopped beside him and smiled sweetly. "Now, now," she said gamely. "Let us not make James and Remus too jealous, eh?"

"Hullo, Jaguar," Peter said quietly, not looking at her eyes.

Jag flipped her hair back, looking over at him. It only too her a moment to recall his name. "Hello to you, Peter," she greeted. "Siri!" She turned back to her friend. "I was in the shower, and I was thinking, we should go explore the grounds! We've a good hour and a half before breakfast starts, but I simply couldn't sleep."

James, in the bed across the room from Remus, and nearest to the door, sat up and grinned at the brown haired boy.

"She was thinking about Sirius in the shower," he said, winking.

Jaguar shook her head. "When I said 'we', I meant the four of us, dummy!"

Remus cracked a smile, although he was looking a bit pale and down today. "She was thinking about all of us in the shower."

"You guys are so funny," Jaguar said, pretending to laugh. "Just hilarious, you are! Now I know why I'm friends with you. Really—" She looked at Peter. "I pity you. You'll have to live with them for the next seven years."

Not knowing what to say, Peter settled on a shrug.

Jag smiled. "They're always cracking jokes like that." She shook her head. "It's because I'm the girl. I'm so sweet and innocent. They—"

She was interrupted by a pillow hitting her on the side of the head. Whirling around, Jaguar saw Sirius making gagging faces at her.

Eyes blazing, she warned, "Run."

Sirius grabbed his bag of toilet things and walked into the bathroom adjoined to the room in which the boys slept. Over his shoulder, he threw another pillow, which Jaguar easily caught.

"You guys get up too," Jaguar ordered. "And—oh!" And afterthought seemed to have occurred to her. "Peter, would you like to come with us?"

Normally she wouldn't have asked, but she was in a good mood. Besides, she was in a new school. It was the perfect time to be making new friends. Normally, Jaguar would have expected most everyone to be as social as she was, or nearly so. If he wanted to accompany her, he would surely have asked.

Peter declined politely, and Jaguar smiled. "Maybe some other time, then?"

Remus and James filed out of the room and could be heard climbing the stairs to the top of Gryffindor Tower.

Jag walked to the door, before turning back to holler, "Siri, I'll be in the Common Room, k?" Someone in another room yelled for her to shut up, and she giggled and tiptoed away.

Sitting on a couch in front of the completely unnecessary fire in the Common Room, Jaguar glanced at her mysterious watch, which was personalized to match her personal vital signs, and could only be read by Jaguar, and presumably by Nivea, who had made it.

Jaguar was still unsure of how to think about her aunt, after all that had happened during the summer. Yes, she still loved Nivea Cortez with all of her heart. And of course, she knew that Nivea just wanted to protect her… And she was probably overreacting about everything anyway, because she had been so sick. It would be stupid to even bring things like that up with Nivea. The woman was so stressed out all the time anyhow. Besides, Jaguar would prefer to simply block the memories from her mind, and never think of them again.

It was 6:37 AM. Breakfast was set to begin at eight o'clock. Jaguar was not sure how she knew that. She supposed that someone must have told her. She just couldn't remember who exactly. The boys would not be done getting dressed until around seven o'clock.

So, because there was nothing else to do, Jag fetched some parchment and wrote some letters home.

Dear Monica and Katrine,

Hogwarts is prettier inside than I ever imagined. I haven't gone to any classes yet, so I don't know if they're hard. I hope not. Katrine: the Sorting Ceremony was awful. Luckily, only 12 students died. The nurse here says that most of my taste buds will grow back eventually. And being permanently colour-blind won't be too bad, I can tell already. But I made it through, so you can congratulate me. And I would do it again, because I got into Gryffindor! I just know it'll be marvelous! Oh, Sirius and James, and Remus, and Jasmine Asriel, and Lily are all in Gryffindor as well. I will write again soon.

Love,

JB

Dear Nivea,

So far, Hogwarts seems wonderful, although I haven't seen much of it yet. I'm a Gryffindor. I will write again when I have some extra time.

Sincerely,

Jaguar

Briefly, Jaguar wondered if she had come off as a bit distant, and decided that she didn't really care. Maybe she wouldn't mail it… Nivea surely had more important things to do than read letters from her niece. Like cover up more murders.

No. Stop thinking like that! Why so noble all of a sudden? Jaguar wanted to put the thoughts out of her head. It wasn't murder! I was a little girl, and I didn't know what I was doing. It was self-defense. She shook her head to clear it, and put her quill away.