Chapter 13: Fort of Security

Lexie was eating dinner in the Great Hall waiting for the return of her classmates. The house tables had been put back into place and aside from two seventh year Gryffindors sitting at the other end of the table, she was completely alone.

While Lexie had enjoyed the stillness of the empty castle, she was looking forward to the return of her friends. She missed having company and being alone for long periods of time was starting to get to her.

Lexie looked up when she heard excited chatter enter the hall as students swarmed through the doors and made their way to their house tables. Lexie watched the crowd looking for the boys, but couldn't find them anywhere.

When the last student filtered through the hall, she frowned, where were they? The chance of all of four boys missing the train was unlikely. She looked down the Gryffindor table thinking maybe she had just missed them coming in, but after carefully looking at each face of her housemate, she didn't see them. Deciding that perhaps they had too many sweets on the train and weren't hungry, Lexie decided to try the common room. She quickly stood before the tables could fill with food and made her way towards the Gryffindor tower.

Halfway up one of the staircases Lexie heard whispering and turned around expecting to see a group of friends behind her, however when she turned all she saw was air. Maybe some people had just turned a corner she decided and continued up the staircase. Less than a minute later she heard the sound of shuffling feet, again she turned around to an empty staircase.

"I'm losing my fucking mind," she muttered reaching the top of the stairs to the fifth corridor. Lexie's declaration was followed by a snort and then someone very familiar sounding muttered "Ow, what the hell James."

Lexie knew that voice, after all the late nights they spent talking how could she not? Lexie rolled her eyes before whipping around, "Alrigh-" her words died in her throat when all she saw was an empty corridor. Lexie frowned, she was not imagining things, she was sure of it.

"Okay boys, you've had your fun now come out from whatever statue you're hiding behind."

Still nothing. Fine, if they wouldn't come to her, she would find them Lexie decided. She took two rapid steps in the direction she had heard Sirius' voice, what she was not expecting was to run into something very solid but still very invisible.

As she felt her body start to fall backwards, she desperately tried waving her arms to stop the backwards motion and was amazed when two arms appeared out of thin air and grabbed her wrists.

Lexie stared at the arms with her mouth noiselessly opening and closing before she heard four distinct laughs and was suddenly staring at her four friends who just like the two arms, appeared out of thin air.

"You should see your face Lexie," said James gasping as he tried to control his laughter.

Lexie followed the arms that were still holding and saw they were attached to a grinning Sirius, "What the bloody hell guys? One, where the fuck have you been and two, how the hell did you do that? You better start talking!" she scolded.

James just held up something shiny that looked like liquid silver, Lexie stared at it frowning, "Yeah nice dress James, but right now I really don't give a crap about your new clothing style."

The four boys just smirked, "What? What the fuck are you all smirking at?"

"It's an invisibility cloak Lexie," said Remus.

"Is this some sort of joke?"

"No, the joke was following you and freaking you out, which I'd say we definitely accomplished, wouldn't you agree mates?"

"Definitely," said Peter nodding.

"Allow me to demonstrate," said James in a smug voice as he wrapped the cloak around his body leaving only a floating head.

"Bloody hell James, where'd your body go?" gasped Lexie.

"What part of 'invisibility cloak' did you not understand?" asked Sirius laughing.

Lexie just gaped at James' smirking head, when she finally managed to find her voice again she asked, "Where did you get it? Can I try it?"

"Sure," he said handing it over, Lexie rand her fingers across it and thought it feel like almost like a liquid gliding across her hand. "I got it from my dad for Christmas, he thought I could use it now that I'm at Hogwarts. Apparently my mum didn't agree so he had to wait to give it to me when she wasn't in the room. Pretty cool huh?"

Lexie swept the cloak over her body like James had and looked down at where her body used to be, "Wicked cool," she said before taking it off and handing it back to James.

James scrunched up the cloak and stuffed it inside his robes, "Yeah, just don't tell anyone about it, I don't really want all of Hogwarts knowing."

"Sure," said Lexie as the five continued on their way towards the common room, "So did you all have good Christmases? Thanks for all the gifts by the way, they were all really great," she said smiling.

"Mine was okay, it was just my dad and I but it was nice. Thanks for the books Lexie, I've already started them and they're really interesting despite being muggle books."

"Sure Remus, hey when you're done with them do you mind if I borrow them?"

"You gave Remus muggle books you've never read?" interrupted James.

"No, I read them it was just a long time ago and I was too young to understand everything. I'd like to read them again if that's okay."

"Sure Lexie," said Remus smiling.

"How about you Pete? How was your Christmas?"

Peter looked up, he was still pretty shy around the group, but was slowly opening up, "It was okay I guess. My aunt's a real loon but luckily she didn't bother me much, I just sort of hung around her old house though since she wouldn't let me go anywhere. Thanks for the sweets, they were a lifesaver since she only knows how to cook creamed corn and toast."

They all scrunched up their faces in disgust.

"Oh, that's kind of a bummer, well at least you're back here at Hogwarts right?"

Peter just gave an eager nod. After a few minutes James blurted out, "What so you aren't going to ask me about my holiday?"

Lexie laughed before looking at James, "Oh yes, so the most important and brilliant James Potter, how was your holiday?"

"Excellent, mum cooked enough for an army as usual and dad and I played around on brooms, you know you all should have come it would have been even better."

The four just shrugged, the topic was a bit worn down for them to say anything back.

Lexie noticed Sirius looking more sullen than usual but decided to wait until later before talking to him, she knew he would probably stay up late in the common room that night, he tended to do that on nights when he was troubled.

"Domi adsum," Lexie said when they reached the Fat Lady who welcomed them back before swinging aside so they could climb through.

The five made their way over to the vacant couches by the fireplace, Lexie sunk into the couch next to Sirius while Peter and Remus took another and James chose to sprawl out across one of the armchairs.

"So Lexie, how was Christmas at good old Hoggy Warty Hogwarts?" asked James.

Lexie smiled, "It was good, I spent a lot of time with Frank in the library or playing games."

"Who's Frank? Your invisible friend?"

"No James that would be you. He's in Hufflepuff; we actually have Herbology with him. He's the one Professor Sprout is always doting on, he's really nice though even though he is a little obsessed with plants."

"So are you two dating or something?"

Lexie regarded James with an amused expression, "Why? Would that bother you?"

However this time Sirius squealed sounding a little on the feminine side, "Is that a yes?"

She laughed at their expressions, "No we're not dating, I'm only eleven remember? He's just fun to hang out with, like you guys!"

"You're seriously comparing us to a Puff?" said James incredulously.

Lexie scoffed, "What may I ask is wrong with the Hufflepuffs?"

"Nothing," muttered James, "Most of them are just ponces is all."

"Well I think that's being very judgmental James, you know the same could be said for Gryffindors being too rash."

"Nothing wrong with that," James retaliated, "Just like the Slytherins are a bunch of pureblooded wackos with too much inbreeding, no offense Sirius"

Sirius just shrugged, "None taken, don't forget slimy and selfish though."

Lexie sighed, "I don't get why everyone can't just get along. Disliking someone for their House is really immature."

"Lex trust me on this, there's a reason everyone hates Slytherin, they're all the same."

"Well I happen to disagree and I'm also tired of this conversation. Anyone want to play Wizard's Chess? I've been practicing over break with Frank. Well, I guess you wouldn't call it practicing since that would imply I actually improved, but still…" she said trailing off.

"I'll play with you," said Remus who had been completely silent until that moment "Let me go grab my set upstairs."

When Remus returned everyone else had returned from dinner but the group of friends paid no attention to the chaos of the common room, as they were content catching up with each other.

Remus once again mercilessly slaughtered Lexie at Chess while the three other boys watched and James laughed at her lack of tactics during the game. This led to Lexie challenging James to do better and while he managed to do much better than Lexie, he still lost to Remus.

After a few hours they decided to head off to bed and Lexie waved the boys goodnight as she headed up to her own dormitory. After changing into her pajamas Lexie remembered how quiet Sirius had been during the first couple hours and remembered her decision to see if he would be in the common room after everyone else had gone to bed.

Lexie held off sleeping for a couple hours waiting until her dorm mates were asleep and was certain everyone would have deserted the common room before carefully crawling out of bed and down the stairs.

Sure enough, as predicted, Sirius was sitting on the couch also in his pajamas staring into the fire. She wondered how often he did this, as it seemed like every time she came down late he was always in the exact same position.

Lexie crept up behind him as quietly as her feet permitted and when she was right behind him she grabbed his shoulder and yelled, "Boo."

Sirius jumped at least a foot off the couch, but when he saw it was just Lexie his shoulders relaxed and his surprised face scowled at her, "I was about to hex you Lex, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

Lexie grinned, "Yeah right, as if you even have your wand with you."

Sirius opened his mouth to reply but closed it when he realized that she had a point. After she had situated herself back on the couch next to him, he turned towards her, "So what are you doing up? You only come down here on occasion and it's always because something's bothering you, what was it this time?"

Lexie shrugged, "You mostly, I wanted to make sure you were okay after spending Christmas at your home. From your letter you sounded a little… unhappy" she finished with a frown.

Sirius stared back into the fire and gave a muted shrug but not before Lexie caught the sad look in his eyes, she recognized that look since it was the same look she had seen in her eyes when she lived with Celine. It was the look of realization she had gotten when she had realized that nobody loved her or wanted her around.

Lexie reached out and squeezed Sirius' shoulder, "Sirius, please talk to me."

"There's not much to say really," he said in a thick voice, a result of him trying to swallow his emotion, a trick he had unfortunately learned from his upbringing, "They were mad, they yelled, nothing I hadn't heard before. Mostly how much of a disappointment I was and how I was such an awful role model for not just my little brother but for the whole bloody family and how I should start acting more like them. I stayed in my room most the holiday after the first night."

Sirius' shoulders dropped and Lexie could practically feel the despair wafting off him and extracting the warmth from the fire.

Lexie bit her lip, she had no idea what to say to him, sure she had her fair share of problems and disappointments, but not once had she ever been truly comforted and wasn't sure what would make him feel better.

Lexie thought back to the cold days in the orphanage, the days when the despair seemed too much to bear and tried to remember how she overcame it. Recalling a cold, wet day several months after first arriving at the orphanage Lexie remembered how the other kids dealt with feeling unwanted and forgotten. With that idea in her head, the only idea she had as a way to make Sirius feel better, Lexie jumped up from the couch, which caused Sirius to jerk his head towards her sudden movement.

Lexie spun herself around searching the common room for what she needed, however her search proved that the items she was looking for were not there. Sirius was still looking at her with a hesitant expression; almost as if she were a scared animal, he was too afraid that he had driven her away with his depression.

Before he could open his mouth, Lexie blurted out, "I'll be right back, stay there and don't even think about moving, I know something that will make this better," before she darted back up to the girl's dormitories.

Sirius watched her sprint out of the room and frowned, he knew Lexie to be quite odd at times, but she had never just run away from him, or anyone for that matter.

In less than five minutes he could hear her shuffling back down the steps. Sirius watched, his expression becoming more curious, as he watched her reappear. At least he assumed it was her, for her arms were loaded with blankets and pillows which were piled too high to see her face, she looked as if she had taken her entire bed in her arms.

"Uh, Lex, what in Merlin's name are you doing? Has someone Imperiused you?"

"Has someone what?" she questioned, her voiced muffled from all the blankets.

"It's a spell that makes you do whatever someone wants," he said trying to get a look at her face, if he could see her eyes maybe something in them would give it away if she had been cursed or not.

Lexie dropped the pile of bedding on the floor next to the couch, "Now why would you think someone did that?"

Sirius looked at her critically, "Because you're acting really weird. Should I start asking you questions that only the real Lexie would know?"

Lexie snorted, "Don't be daft Sirius, of course it's me. Now that we have the proper supplies, let the fun begin!"

Sirius just looked at her with his eyebrows raised, "And do tell fake-Lexie, what exactly are we doing that's so fun?"

Lexie rolled her eyes dramatically, "Okay one, I am real-Lexie. Two, isn't it obvious?"

Sirius looked down at her bedding before looking at her again with one eyebrow raised, "Uhm… no."

Lexie shot Sirius a pointed look, "We're building blanket forts of course!" Lexie had expected some sort of reaction from Sirius, him jumping up excitedly and grabbing some of her bedding was preferable, but any reaction would have satisfied her. What she was expecting was for him to merely look at her like she was completely crazy. "What is wrong with you?"

"I think I should be asking you that, Lexie did you hit your head over the holidays or something?"

"What? No, why the hell would you think that?"

"Because you aren't making any sense. You're supposed to be cheering me up, not uttering gibberish and carrying around your bedding."

"What in bloody hell do you think I'm trying to do? It's not my fault you've completely failed to recognize the magical healing qualities of a good blanket fort!"

"No need to get so emotional," he said calmly, "And you should know that even though this is a magic castle, the blankets don't really have magical powers or anything."

Lexie sighed loudly before falling face first on the pile of blankets and pillows.

"Uh, Lex, you okay down there?"

"Muff oddy phamtafic."

"Could you repeat that in a language I can understand?" he asked sliding on the floor next to her sprawled out figure.

Lexie didn't move so he moved on to his favorite tactic in getting her attention.

Sirius poked her arm, "Lexxxxx, oh Lexxxxx" he crooned.

Lexie tried to shrug him off but he just poked harder and moved his face towards her before blowing into her ear.

Before Sirius had realized what had happened, Lexie had grabbed one of the pillows next to her head and swung it at him hitting him in the side of the head.

"You just wrote your own death wish!" he said right before he grabbed some of her bedding and tossed it over her head so she couldn't see before tackling her.

Lexie's warm laughter could be heard through the blankets as she rolled around trying to free herself from the confines of the blanket. When she finally managed to free her head Sirius' own laughter joined hers and he grinned at her hair which was even more knotted than usual and stuck up in multiple directions.

"Nice hair Lex," he said smirking while running his hand along the edges causing it to stand up even more from all the static, "You look kind of like James now."

As a way to retaliate, Lexie tossed another pillow at him, which he managed to catch before it hit him and smirked at her, "You throw like a girl."

Lexie snorted, "Well good thing that considering I am a girl."

Sirius grinned, "Well I couldn't tell from your face Lex."

Lexie opened her mouth in shock, "Are you calling me ugly Siri?"

Sirius momentarily scowled at the nickname before quipping, "Now that you mention it…"

"Well… then you look like a girl!"

"Original Lex, really original."

"Arse," she grumbled pulling one of the blankets towards her and wrapping it around herself before burrowing into it until the only thing that could be seen was her hair sticking up.

Sirius laughed again but Lexie ignored him, "Oh come on Lex, I didn't mean any of that."

Still nothing.

Sirius crept towards her planning to tackle her again but Lexie knew him well enough by now to expect it and before he reached her she had flipped down the blanket and yelled "Attack!" before lunged forward and trying to tackle him. Sadly, Lexie was a lot smaller than Sirius and he was merely pushed backwards. However, during her attack the top of her head hit him square in the nose.

"Owwww, bloody hell Lex, you've killed me!" he gasped in pain while clutching his nose which had begun leaking blood.

"Oh fuck, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed in return and searched the area around her for something that might help stem the red flow. Not wanting to use her bedding, Lexie reverted back to apologizing, "Sirius I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it I swear. Tilt your head back and I'll go find something."

"Youf killed meh," he said doing as she said while pinching his nostrils shut to try and stop the flow, "I'm gonna bleed the deafth."

"Don't be such an overdramatic girl," said Lexie searching the common room for something to stop the blood and coming up with only a spare bit of parchment. Lexie handed him the parchment. Sirius held it up with his free hand, "Whad am I suppost to do wifth this, write meh, will?"

"Err, that's all I can find" Lexie muttered embarrassed for thinking that would be sufficient, I'll go grab a towel or something, just stay here."

Sirius removed his hand from his nose, "I think it's stopping," he said twitching his nose trying to get rid of the numbness that had been a result of having his nose pinched.

"Ugh, you have blood all over your face Sirius."

"Well whose fault is that?" he grumbled trying to wipe his face on his sleeve.

"Ew, gross Sirius, you're getting it everywhere. You better not get it on my bedding."

"You deserve it," he muttered sitting so his back was against one of the armchairs.

Lexie looked away ashamed, "I am really sorry," she whispered.

Sirius noticed her sudden lack of cheer that had been present before and felt a little remorse, he was after all okay and the injury was certainly not life threatening. "Whatever, it's fine Lexie, just try not to decapitate me next time, I'm rather fond of my head."

Lexie rolled her eyes but gave a small smile, "More like your face, you aren't that handsome Sirius."

"Hmpf, is that how you treat someone who was just gravely wounded?"

Lexie couldn't help the snort that escaped her, "Oh yeah, you're a modern day war hero."

"If that was your apology, I refuse to accept it."

"No that wasn't my apology you dolt, I already apologized! Multiple times!"

Sirius just crossed his arms over his chest and looked away with a pout.

"Spoiled much? Okay I'm sorry for injuring you Sirius."

"Not accepted," he said trying to hold back a grin since he was having way too much fun making Lexie beg for forgiveness.

Lexie seemed to know what he was going through and crept up to him flinging her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder, "Oh please Most Honorable Sirius Black, won't you forgive me?"

Sirius couldn't hold back his laugh as he shoved her off him, "Fine I forgive you, just don't hug me again, remember I can't chance getting your girl disease. Now what about this blanket thing you wanted to do before you assaulted me?"

Lexie grinned and bounded up from the ground grabbing a blanket and skillfully flinging it over the couch and one of the armchairs creating a makeshift roof. "Ta da!"

"Uhm, yeah I don't see why that is so great."

"Oh come on, just go with it. It will get better, here help me make it bigger."

Sirius let out an exaggerated groan before he removed himself from the floor and helped Lexie add to the "fort" occasionally suggesting ideas to make it sturdier. When all of her bedding had been used Lexie smiled and crawled into the fort grabbing some pillows and propping up her head while she lay down. Sirius followed and lay down so his head was near her feet.

After a few minutes of silence where the only noise was from the crackling fire Sirius mumbled, "I still don't get it. How is this supposed to make me feel better?"

Lexie had been slowly drifting off and mumbled sleepily, "It's supposed to make you feel safe."

Sirius frowned at her odd answer, "Does it make you feel safe?"

Lexie opened her eyes and looked back at the red canopy, "Yeah, it does."

"Can I ask you something Lex?"

"Shoot."

"When was the last time you made a blanket fort and why?"

Lexie nibbled her bottom lip and Sirius was almost sure she wasn't going to answer when she hadn't said anything after a few minutes before he heard he soft voice.

"It was raining and I remember it was really cold. It was that sort of wet cold that just seeps in your bones and no matter how many socks you put on your feet are still like ice and I could hear the soft drizzling of the rain and it just reminded me how cold I was. It was just one of those days where you don't really want to get out of bed, you just want to stay there all day. I had just had a pretty bad day a few days prior and I guess I was still caught up on it or maybe I was just feeling a little sad and pitying myself. Well, the uh-" Lexie paused not knowing what to say about the kids at the orphanage and bit her lip before plowing forward, "My brothers disturbed my thoughts wanting to build a fort because they were bored, so I helped gather all the blankets around the house and that's what we did for the rest of the day."

Lexie smiled at the thought of their giant blanket fort, which had later infuriated Mrs. Tobias, "And you know the best part?"

"What's that?" whispered Sirius.

"By the end of the day I had forgotten about why I was sad in the first place and I just felt sort of warm and safe under all the blankets with my uh- brothers lying around me giggling and making silly jokes. I guess it went from this awful rainy day to one that wasn't so awful."

Sirius was quiet for a few minutes, "I didn't know you had brothers. You never mentioned them."

"Oh uh, well I guess it never came up did it? They don't know I'm a witch."

"Yeah, that makes sense," he trailed off, "I have a brother too you know, Regulus."

"I didn't know that. How old is he?"

"Three years younger than me, so uhm, eight now. How many brothers do you have?"

Lexie bit her lip, she hated lying but she just wasn't ready to tell Sirius everything and said the first number that came into her head "Six."

Sirius whistled, "Wow, I couldn't imagine having that many."

"It's not so bad, there's always someone to play with, although sometimes that's annoying, but I guess it's better than being lonely all the time."

"I suppose," said Sirius drifting off the heat from the fire making him drowsy.

Lexie closed her eyes and felt Sirius' legs shift beside her as he adjusted in his sleep. Lexie allowed herself to bask in the security of the blanket fort just as she had on that rainy day and she smiled to herself before she too drifted off.