Disclaimer: I really really really don't own Harry Potter. But I really really really want to!!!

The train clambered along its newly cleaned tracks. Jessica and Alyssa sat side-by-side but faced each other talking a lot and laughing joyously. Alyssa looked out the window and saw that the sun was now set and the snow was falling slower than when they had left.

Sirius and James came back into the compartment with sweets overflowing in their arms. They dumped their loads onto the ground and Wormtail practically ransacked the pile. Both Alyssa and Jessica smiled while Sirius and James slightly scoffed. Remus was sitting next to Alyssa, reading a book.

They all knew that the train was going to come to a halt and soon they all decided to change out of their stuffy school robes and into more comfortable muggle clothes. Jessica was in her classic ripped up light blue jeans, with low tops but this time, she had a Gryffindor sweater on like Alyssa. Alyssa, on the other hand, was wearing her black jeans and classic running shoes. Sirius wore his jeans and black boots with a t-shirt. James had his hair all rustled up and a sweater on with a pair of jeans.

Jessica grabbed her coat as the train lurched to a stop. When most of the students were off the train, the pack decided to leave. Jessica gave James a hug goodbye and a small golden box as a present. He in turn gave her a soft, yet surprisingly neatly wrapped present.

When Sirius grabbed her hand, the three of them walked away. Alyssa spotted Regulus hugging a woman in black dress robes with black wavy hair.

"There's mom." She said not in anger or in joy.

"Wonderful." Sirius said in sarcasm. The three of them walked over to her, Jessica clasped the collar of her jacket around her neck to not only ward off the cold but to also hide as much colors of Gryffindor as possible.

"Hello Alyssa honey!" She hugged her only daughter tightly, then turned to Sirius, and said with as much ice in her voice as possible, "Sirius." She didn't say anything else to him but she did turn to Jessica and smiled at her, "So this must be her." She shook Jessica's hand in a delicate way, almost as if she was disgusted with her. "And what might your name be?"

"Jessica, Jessica Potter." Suddenly, there was a small tick that curled the corner of her lip up slightly, and then back down almost as quickly as it had came.

"Potter? You mean like the Gryffindor Potter's?" Jessica nodded and smiled.

"That's exactly right!" Jessica's disposition was a lot friendlier than Mrs. Black's. She was a mysterious woman and Jessica knew that she had to be very careful around her.

As they got up to the illustrious home on Grimmauld Place, Jessica thought of how much nicer it might have been if she just went home with James. Mrs. Black had seemed to go out of her way to make Jessica feel small. She ended up making her feel as if there was nothing to her and that she was never to be good enough to carry her family name.

As they entered the home, a house elf came uncalled to the front door, grabbing his "Mistress'" coat. He bowed so low that his nose had touched the floor. He also grabbed Alyssa and Regulus' coats as well. He didn't, however, dare to touch either Jessica or Sirius' coat. Kreacher grabbed Regulus' and Alyssa's trunks and with a loud crack, he was upstairs. Jessica and Sirius started ascending the staircase when his mother said,

"Uh, you do realize she is not permitted to stay in the same room as you! She can have the room across the hall from you, though."

"Yes mother." Sirius scoffed out. The two went all the way to the fourth landing, which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't have to drag up fifty pound suitcases. Once they got off the stairs, Jessica noticed that there were only two doorways, both facing each other. Sirius opened his bedroom door and invited her in. "Sorry about my mom. She was never very excepting to people from any other house other than Slytherin in this house." Jessica just smiled at him,

"It's a step up from being ignored!" She walked in, abandoning her suitcase in the hallway. She took off her coat and gazed around his room, there were pictures of half dressed muggle women everywhere. She tried not to laugh at the nerve of Sirius for doing what he did to his room.

"I want you to take my room, okay?" He went to move her trunk into the room. She stopped him and said,

"No, it's okay! I can take whatever your mom gives me."

"You have no idea what you're going to get yourself into if you actually take that room!" He tried to take her trunk once more. She grabbed his hand and said,

"Don't test me Sirius. I can handle myself!" She gave him a sweet kiss on the lips and then looked at him while smiling. He ended up just dropping the end of her trunk and pulled her into a passionate kiss. After about 10 minutes of this, they heard some one running up the stairs. They broke apart and Jessica acted like she was looking at his pictures in his room, Sirius just casually leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms.

Regulus came bolting into the room, knocking down Sirius. Jessica turned around and rushed to help him up while Regulus snickered.

"Mom said that dinner will be ready in 30 minutes." He turned to leave but turned back and said, "Oh and it's a formal dinner so you better dress nicely or mom will kick you out on your poor ass!" Sirius looked really offended at that, "And I'm talking to Jess, not you Sirius." Sirius lunged at his brother when he tripped over his own school trunk. Jessica grabbed his arm and somehow stopped him from falling. Regulus let out a cackle and ran downstairs. A few floors below, they could hear him slam his door.

"I apologize for my brothers rude comments." He said standing up and brushing his clothes off. He hugged her gently, but she giggled.

"It's alright! I've heard worse said about me before!"

"I really wish that you didn't let these things happen to yourself all the time." He said, but she kept smiling, she looked threw the door way and her smile faded. "What is it?" He turned around then went out the door, her trunk was gone!

"Did you see if your brother took it?" Sirius shook his head no. She was panicking now because all she had owned was in that trunk. Sirius looked at her then smiled,

"I have a back up plan!" And after saying that, he ran to his trunk and popped it open. "James had given me your REAL Christmas present because he knew something might happen to the one he gave it to .you!" He rushed over and handed it to her. She unwrapped it and it unfolded towards the ground.

What she saw made her jaw drop, it was a black dress that had a lower cut front and a much lower cut back, and it had spaghetti straps also. She gulped slightly, wondering how in the world she'd ever be able to pull off wearing something so, well, adult. She looked at Sirius whose mouth was gapped open and drooling. He snapped back and handed her shoes to go with it.

"Remember, only 30 minutes to get ready. I think it's actually only 25 now." Jessica nodded and opened the door to her room. When she went in, she barely saw anything, it was pitch black and, luckily, she found the gas lamp. She turned it and the room sprang into life, which wasn't really hard seeing as the room was a lot smaller than her room at her house. Her bed was less than 5 inches off of the ground and against the wall. The wall parallel to that was only about 5 feet away. Thankfully, there was a window straight across from where she stood now, but it was missing one out of four small window panes and she could feel the breeze coming threw with a bit of snow. She finally understood why Sirius wanted to switch rooms with her, but she didn't complain.

After about 25 minutes, she was as ready as she'd ever be. It wouldn't have taken her so long if there was more room for her. She started down the staircase and towards the dining room where she could here a bit of chatter. She had figured that there were more people there aside from the children and Mrs. Black. She walked slowly, trying to not fall or freak out.

When she opened the dining room door, all eyes were on her. Respected members of the Ministry of Magic, and even Lucius Malfoy and his mother and father were there. She could see that all of the men's mouths were gaped open and Alyssa was smiling triumphantly. Mrs. Black frowned in disgust, then downed the rest of her wine. What they saw was not the same girl from school.

She stood, now, at an impressive 5'9'', but was still shorter than Regulus, Sirius, and Lucius. She was wearing the black dress her brother had bought and it had fit perfectly without needing to alter it with magic. It was cut to show off a bit of cleavage, but not enough to make her get the reputation of a whore, and it was cut well down her back as well. She had on black pumps that had a small black bow at the back of her heel. She walked over to the empty seat between Alyssa and Sirius and Sirius sprang to his feet. He pulled her chair out and she sat down and he pushed the chair in very delicately.

After dinner, the group was laughing and enjoying themselves, listening to interesting stories about ministry blunders and about plans to stop the war between the centaurs and wizarding community. When Jessica threw out ideas about how to stop them, the ministry workers listened. Some of them noted that she was a bright young girl and that she would make a valuable member of the ministry and even a possibly great Minister of Magic. Mrs. Black was furious at this point, but no one but Jessica, Alyssa and Sirius could tell. At one point, Lucius looked angry with the compliments she was being given, so he tried to tarnish her name, which Mrs. Black didn't protest.

"I forgot to ask you something, Jessica." Jessica looked away from the ministry worker she was chatting with. "How are you feeling after what happened to you this afternoon?" Her face turned a little white, but she didn't let her smile fade.

"I'm feeling better, thank you for asking!" Someone asked him what he meant by this and he perked up, realizing that she was about to fall from grace.

"Well, she apparently decided to go wandering out in the midst of a snow storm, and nearly died from being out there so long!" Most of the women gasped and some of them looked at her, she continued to smile and said,

"Yes, it's true. But you know, it's usually a great tactic to relieve stress! But I just have to learn that it isn't always the smartest to do in the middle of winter!" Many people laughed. She glared at Lucius with a smile. Some one raised their crystal goblet and said,

"Let's make a toast; to great friends, great food, and many more years of this wonderful hospitality!" Everyone was about to agree when someone else from the ministry raised theirs and said,

"And to the bright future of the Ministry, seeing as we have such wonders as Jessica her to help us!" Now everyone raised their goblets and said,

"CHEERS!" The unforgettable joy filled the room once more. But as the wee hours of the morning started coming, people bid everyone else goodbye with warm hugs and friendly kisses. Many people gave Jessica their business card, telling her to keep in touch if she ever wanted a job at the Ministry with them. Jessica and Sirius decided to help clean up and when they were almost done, he kissed her cheek commenting on things like how wonderful she was, but Jessica wasn't really listening because Mrs. Black was glaring at her. When they were done, they both tried to leave for the stairs, but Mrs. Black politely said,

"Jessica honey, may I please have a word with you?" Jessica nodded but Sirius looked nervous. She walked away from him and he walked up the stairs, anticipating her arrival. Mrs. Black got right down to business; forcefully she grabbed her arms and squeezed tightly, "Listen here! If you don't stop what you're doing, by bewitching MY friends with your fake charm and such, than I will make sure you won't see your way back to Hogwarts!" Jessica looked pissed then questioned,

"Is that a threat?"

"Make of it as you will, but be warned, your presence is not entirely welcomed in this house, and I DO have the authority to throw you out!" Jessica smirked.

"Then do it." Mrs. Black let her go and backed away a little, "That's what a thought." She left for the stairs and stopped on one of the first few steps. "Oh and by the way," Mrs. Black looked over to her from her perplexed state, "I expect my stuff back in my room by morning, or I'm going to raise hell."

"Is that a threat?" Smirked Mrs. Black, trying to mock her, but Jessica got the last word in by saying,

"Make of it as you will, but be warned, I am not a force to be reckoned with." Her smirk faded and Jessica went back upstairs, not mentioning any of the conversation to Sirius.

The entire break was filled with animosity and anger that was being passed between both Mrs. Black and Jessica equally. None of the other inhabitants bothered either of them while they had their evil staring contests, but Jessica had then devised a plan to break up with Sirius because of this, as cruel as it may seem.

When the break was drawing to an end, they were fighting more and more and to Mrs. Black's pleasure as well. It was over some small and dumb things as well, such as the way Sirius said something or the way Jessica picked up her glass. Mrs. Black's disposition had become more like Jessica's the day they met and Jessica's was more like hers.

When they finally had to leave, Mrs. Black and Jessica acted as friendly as possible, but there was an obvious thick wall of tension between them. They did hug each other goodbye as if there was an obvious disease that they both had and neither wanted to catch. When they were on the train, Jessica hugged James tightly and thanked him for the dress; he also thanked her for his brand new pair of glasses.

When they sat together, there was more obvious tension in the compartment that even prevented Remus from reading his book. Sirius and Jessica tried to avoid eye contact with each other. But suddenly, something set them off, and they argued worse than they did during the winter break. By the time the sweets trolley came around, Jessica had left, and the relationship was broken. Sirius was fuming and basically yelled at the woman pushing the sweets trolley. Jessica was pacing the halls and got to the end of the train without really noticing it. She swung open a compartment door and ended up slamming it shut, no one was in the compartment with her, but she started pacing around again, back and fourth.

Suddenly, she screamed at the top of her lungs which was muffled by the closed compartment doors, the boy in the compartment next to hers, who was also alone, dropped his book and grabbed a small box, and rushed into her compartment.

"Jess, what's wrong?" Tears were pouring down her cheeks; she turned to him as he closed the sliding door.

"Severus…I…." She had no idea what to say, but she did hug him tightly around the neck. He hugged her back around her waist, and rubbed her back.

"Don't worry; I'll wait until you're ready." They sat down next to each other as she pushed away her tears. He handed her the box and whispered to her, "Happy Belated Christmas." She sniffled and opened it. She took out a golden necklace and smiled. It had Potions flask as a charm and she laughed a little, she turned to him and asked him,

"How did you know I love Potions?" They both laughed a little. "But seriously, how did you know that I wanted to pursue a career in Potions?" He smiled at her and said,

"I can tell in the way you do your Potions work." They sat together and chatted the entire ride to school. When they got to school, they decided to walk together. She thought that she was going be able to live a great school life; even if more than half the female population hated her when they found out she dated Sirius.

But she still had a strange feeling that something was wrong….

END

That's all I have to say, sorry it was so long! Well, another chapter will come soon. This might actually be one of the last chapters!!! gasp I know!!

-Jessi