Chapter 4: Dreams and Nicknames
"You're late" said the harsh voice that Lexie had quickly come to fear. Lexie glanced at the tall blonde woman on the couch, her stomach clenching when she saw the cold look in the woman's blue eyes.
"I got detention." Lexie replied having learned it was better to just be honest and not bother with excuses. The woman's lips formed a cruel sneer, "I don't want excuses girl, when I told you to be home everyday by 3 I meant it."
"It wasn't an-" suddenly the woman had stood and Lexie found herself taking a timid step back. She hated how afraid she was, she should be braver than the cowering girl she had turned in to. Lexie didn't even feel the pain from the slap, she had already gotten used to them.
"What did I say about excuses girl? Kitchen. Laundry." When Lexie didn't move immediately the icy blue eyes narrowed. "GO! NOW!" Lexie quickly made her way to the end of the hallway and hauled the laundry basket to the washer in the kitchen and hastily tossed everything. When she turned around she met those icy eyes again, this time sparkling with hidden malice. Lexie tried to control her heartbeat, but she knew what was coming. Pain. Expecting the worst Lexie braced herself against the counter and waited, when nothing happened she looked up almost quizzically at the expression she had come to fear more than the woman who wore it.
"We're going to a party" the cold voice told her.
Lexie frowned, this was definitely different. She was normally left behind to do the washing and clean up whenever there was a party.
"Did you hear me girl? Or have you lost the ability to speak? Go find something that won't embarrass me and let's go. Take the punch bowl, let's go, move!"
Lexie scampered down the hall to her dingy bedroom to try and scrap up something to wear. She didn't have much to choose from since she only had what few clothes the orphanage had given her. She dug out an old navy jumper and her best pair of jeans, at least they were only frayed at the bottoms and the knees were still intact. Lexie quickly dressed not exactly sure what was going on, combed out her lackluster hair and tossed on her plain black flats. This would have to do. She quickly made her way back to the kitchen and grabbed the crystal punch bowl from the cabinets. The icy blues eyes still watching her, still glittering with hatred. Lexie stood in front of her not sure what she should do.
"Let's go. Move."
Lexie obeyed and quickly made her way to the door and stepped out into the concrete hallway. The apartment complex was about as cheerful as Lexie's situation. The cold eyes followed her as she carefully held the punch bowl to her chest and made her way to the stairs, also concrete. Lexie clutched the bowl harder, there would be a murder should she drop it.
Just as Lexie took a step forward to begin her way down the stairs she felt a sharp shove from behind her. Lexie gasped and tried to keep her balance without dropping the bowl, but like everything else in her life, gravity was against her. Before Lexie could comprehend the situation, she was toppling down the stairs, her only thoughts swirling in her head were of the punch bowl and trying to prevent it from breaking. Lexie felt pain radiating through her limbs and gasped as she felt her whole world spin completely out of control quite literally.
She must have blacked out because when she opened her eyes she was at the bottom of the first landing. The first thing she registered was that her whole body felt like it was on fire, everything from her palms to her chest was radiating with pain. Lexie gritted her teeth trying to somehow manage the pain. She looked down and found her eyes immediately filling with tears, the punch bowl had not made the fall, the evidence being the delicate shards now piercing her flesh and causing the concrete around her to glitter. If Lexie wasn't so terrified she might have appreciated the rainbows being casted onto the walls from the millions of prisms that were scattered around her bleeding body.
Lexie felt a sharp pain at the crown of her head and found her whole body shaking with fear as she looked up into those icy blue eyes. Eyes that didn't need words to express their murderous intent.
Lexie woke with a start. She hadn't dreamt of Celine since she had escaped the horrible place that had been assigned as "home" and she tried to stop the shakes that were reverberating through her body.
Lexie raised herself to a sitting position and pressed her hands against her eyes willing herself not to cry. She was at Hogwarts. She was safe. There's no Celine anymore. Deciding that she should try to calm herself down further before attempting sleep again Lexie swung her legs over the side of her bed and crept to the bathroom. She splashed some water on her face and patted it dry before creeping down the staircase to the common room. The room had been deserted but the fire was still going and Lexie sat on the floor in front of the hot flames using them to comfort her.
"What are you doing down here?" asked a voice behind her.
Still focused on her dream Lexie jumped and turned to see Sirius sitting on an armchair in the corner, she breathed a sigh of relief. After her heart had calmed slightly she answered "Couldn't sleep, you?"
Sirius shrugged, "Something like that."
Lexie nodded, for some reason the dream had left her feeling awkward in front of Sirius. The comfortable banter that had taken place on the train and at dinner had dissipated and for the first time at Hogwarts Lexie felt like maybe she wasn't supposed to be here. She turned back to the fire and debated whether she should just head back upstairs. Sirius' voice interrupted her thoughts "I'm worried about tomorrow."
Lexie turned slightly, Sirius' eyebrows were knitted together and he looked troubled. Lexie wasn't expecting someone like Sirius to be worried about school, but she didn't exactly know him well and the expression on his face made her feel like she should offer some form of comfort. She moved closer to the chair Sirius was sitting in and sat on the couch next to him.
"I'm sure it will be fine, school is school wherever you are really" Lexie paused remembering that this wasn't exactly an ordinary school and opened her mouth to try and come up with something else to say but was interrupted, "I'm not worried about classes. I'm worried-" Sirius paused debating with himself whether he should continue, "I'm worried about being in Gryffindor."
Remembering the sorting hat's song Lexie laughed at the irony causing Sirius' frown to deepen, "Sorry" she said noticing his peeved expression, "it's just kind of ironic, you being in Gryffindor and being afraid of being in Gryffindor. I mean we're supposed to be brave or something right? Not that I'm brave either," she added more to herself thinking of all the times she had flinched or fluttered like a leaf while Celine abused her.
Lexie looked up to see Sirius with a small smile gracing his face, "I guess it is kind of funny," he replied. "Tell you what, how about we begin acting like true Gryffindors then and stop being sissies."
Lexie smiled back and reached out her hand, "Deal, I will not be a sissy Gryffindor if you won't."
Sirius looked at her hand with his eyebrows raised, "Yeah, I don't think I want your girl germs, but okay, it's a deal."
Lexie scowled and her eyes filled with amusement, "What's that I heard? You're afraid of my hand? Wow Sirius, you know you're even more of a coward than I thought."
Sirius scowled and grabbed her hand shaking it hard "No, I am not."
Lexie grinned, "Plus, you touched me earlier so you're practically immune to me now anyways."
Sirius grumbled, "Yeah whatever, I'm going to bed," and he stood up and made his way towards the staircase Lexie assumed led to the boy's dormitories. Before climbing the steps her turned back to look at Lexie who was staring into the fire again, "Thanks Lexie."
Lexie turned back towards Sirius, "For what? My brilliance?"
Sirius didn't smile this time at her cockiness but instead looked at her with a more relaxed expression and shrugged, "For showing me what it's like to be in Gryffindor. Really, thanks for cheering me up."
Lexie shrugged and watched as Sirius made his way up the stairs not sure why their brief conversation made him so grateful. Lexie stood up and stretched deciding she should try to get some sleep before classes the next day. She sighed and also climbed up the stairs to her respective dormitory where she collapsed into bed.
In what felt like only a couple minutes Lexie felt someone gently nudge her awake. She cracked open her eyes trying to adjust to the light now streaming into the room and looked up blearily at the girl with the full head of red hair.
"You should get ready for breakfast soon, the other girls have already left and there's some boys down in the common room asking where you are," the girl said in a kind voice.
Lexie slowly sat up and stretched, rolling her shoulders and trying to take in the unfamiliar settings. She looked back up at the red head, this was the same girl who she had seen the night before and recognized from a couple of her dreams.
"Sorry, who are you again?"
The girl looked a little taken aback but gave Lexie a kind smile before extending her hand, "Lily, Lily Evans. You're Alexandria right?"
Lexie gently took Lily's hand, "Lexie actually. Thanks for uh, waking me. I probably would have slept right through half the day if you hadn't."
"It's no problem, plus those boys were trying to figure out how to get up the stairs so I thought it best I did it before they caused any more trouble. Are you friends with them then?"
"I met them on the train" said Lexie changing her clothes from the previous day to new ones and grabbing her discarded robes and shoes from the floor.
"Oh. Well they seem, um, lively" Lily said a little hesitant, afraid to tell Lexie that she really thought they were just very immature. Of course what eleven year old boys weren't?
Lexie laughed, "I'm sure they can be, if I know anything about boys they love to get into trouble."
"That doesn't bother you? I mean, it's just I wouldn't ever want to get into trouble."
Lexie shrugged, she had definitely gotten into trouble before, at least this time she didn't have to worry about being beaten for it. Lexie ran her fingers through her hair and headed to the bathrooms to clean up a little shouting back to Lily, "You don't have to wait up if you don't want to, I'm sure you're just as hungry as me, no need for my lateness to make you late too."
Lily took that as her cue to leave, Lexie seemed perfectly content going down with the boys and didn't seem to be as thrilled on talking to her. Lily found that behavior odd, she didn't really know of any eleven year old girl who would prefer the company of boys, but she had grown up with a sister and didn't really know any better.
"She'll be down soon," she said to the boys at the bottom of the stairs before exiting out the portrait hole. Lily felt a little unwelcome in their already formed friendship and went to find the other girls from the dorm deciding they were probably better company anyways.
Lexie was about to skip down the stairs when she noticed the gleaming handrail and let a wicked smile cross her face, there was no Mrs. Tobias to yell at her here.
Lexie tested it out, seemed sturdy enough, and with a whoop she pushed herself away from the wall and found herself hurdling towards the bottom. Lexie laughed the entire way down, the banister at the orphanage was not nearly as polished as this one and she actually felt her hair fly behind her as she picked up speed.
What she didn't anticipate were the three boys close to the stairs waiting for her and she bowled right into Remus falling across his lap as he hit the floor.
"Ow, what the – Lexie what in Merlin's name are you doing?" he asked rubbing his side trying to dislodge the girls bony elbows from his ribs.
Lexie was laughing even harder and jumped up trying to pull Remus with her, "Owwww, Lexie, that's my arm attached to me if you don't mind."
"Oops, sorry Remie, didn't see you there. Guess we're even then huh?"
Remus got to his feet still rubbing his side, Lexie sure was bony.
"Remie?" asked Sirius who was standing with James watching the whole situation with a smirk on his face.
Lexie glanced at Sirius not sure if she should bring up last night and shrugged, "Sure why not, and you can be Siri and James can be Jamsie."
James looked appalled, "What's wrong with our original names? Jamsie sounds like a girl's name," he said with his face contorted with disgust.
Lexie shrugged again, "Nothing it's just, who wouldn't want a nickname?"
"Yeah then what's yours then?" Sirius asked.
"I already have one silly. Remember, Lexie is already short for Alexandria."
Sirius shook his head, "How much do I have to pay you not to call me Siri?"
Lexie grinned, "A couple chocolate frogs a day should do."
Sirius laughed, "Deal."
"Hey," James whined, "I don't want a nickname either."
Lexie huffed, "Fine no nicknames. Jeez, here I thought I was just trying to make you feel special. Guess I should go now since my input is clearly not wanted," and she stalked to the portrait hole wondering if the boys would take her outburst seriously. Lexie found herself completely lost once she had stepped out into the corridor. She definitely did not remember how to get back to the Great Hall from here.
"Completely lost without us?" James asked from behind her with a smirk on his face, "I'll show you the way to the Great Hall if you drop the nicknames."
Lexie rolled her eyes, "I was just joking, I would never call you something if you didn't like it. Didn't you realize how much I hate my full name? Honestly James" she said shaking her head.
"I hate to break up yet another nickname battle, but you realize breakfast doesn't last forever and we still need our timetable right?" said Remus politely.
"Oh fine Remie, lead the way James."
"I thought you said you were going to drop the nicknames?" Remus asked scowling.
Lexie smiled at him, "Well let's see, Sirius is giving me chocolate, James is leading me to the Great Hall, and you are-" she paused, "Oh that's right, you aren't doing anything for me so until then you're still going to be Remie to me!"
"What if I showed you to the Great Hall before James?"
"What? Not fair, that was my deal with Lexie! You can't steal it, some friend you are!" James protested.
"Not if I show her first!" declared Remus grabbing Lexie's arm and dragging her to the direction of the Great Hall. Not about to be outdone, James grabbed Lexie's other arm and began tugging her faster.
Soon James and Remus were trying to outrun each other while Lexie, not wanting to be dragged behind them, ran alongside them, her laughter echoing though the hallway at their silliness. At least they appeared completely unfazed by her "girl germs."