It was the second day of classes and Allegra was already bored. Though perhaps that wasn't because it was Tuesday morning and she had spent the whole of Monday night completing the homework set on her first day. It was possibly because she had been stuck at school for four days already and had been forced to put up with Sirius Black for longer than she had for the past two months.

She glanced at the clock as she rooted around in her trunk for her tights. It was ten to eight, meaning she had five minutes to get to breakfast or Lily would get severely annoyed, and no one wanted that. The red head had an interesting ability to disguise her temper until provoked by anything Allegra did. Anything included small things, big things and things that made absolutely no sense to anyone but Lily.

She sighed, pulled on her tights and made her way out of the door. There was one terrible thing about being a seventh year. In order to get to the dormitory the girls had to brave seven flights of stairs. At least they had a great view, especially when the seventh year boys forgot to shut their blinds.

Allegra reached the bottom of the stairs, revelling in the fact that she was the last seventh year to leave for breakfast. Being a slow dresser meant she was able to benefit from a lack of people in the common room. She grabbed a headband she had left on the table the night before, pushed it onto her head and assessed her reflection in the mirror.

With one final glance at her overall appearance she left the common room, following the corridors down to the great hall, where students were enjoying their breakfast and trying to finish last minute homework without their teachers seeing them.

She spotted her year on the Gryffindor table, debating whether or not she should sit next to Lily or Remus, noting that Sirius was opposite Remus. Going with her best friend she plonked herself down, grabbing the last croissant as she mumbled hello to her friends. Lily raised her eyebrow as she continued to eat her toast, taking in her friends slightly dishevelled appearance. She noted the headband shoved unceremoniously onto her head, the lack of mascara and the ladder in her tights, which grew every time her leg moved.

Allegra glanced up at Lily, watching her friends eyes roam over her appearance. She hated this ritual, Lily would make note of the things wrong with her before pulling her to the nearest bathroom to correct the faults. She was about to point Lily back in the direction of the food when she noticed the post arrive.

The owls swooped towards their owners, several dive bombing the tables, hitting bowls and sending food flying. Allegra watched as her father's owl made its way to the Gryffindor table.

"That's strange, Dad never sends me letters." She reached over to the owl's leg and removed the letter attached. She rolled it open.

'Dear Allegra.

It is with great sadness that I write to you today. Last night your mother passed away. It was quite sudden, though as you well know came after a long time of suffering. The funeral is this Saturday and I hope that you will attend, alongside your aunt. Your siblings are making their way in so all shall be in attendance. I'm sure your mother would have not wanted you to feel too alone, so please feel free to bring support along.

Dad'

Allegra re-read the letter, scarcely believing the contents, before letting out a sob and dropping the parchment. Lily grabbed the letter from the table, understanding her friend's distress as she read it. She put the paper down and hugged Allegra tightly. Allegra, despite letting out a small sob, was sat dumbstruck. She didn't move for about two minutes, didn't cry or even speak. She glanced up at the high table, noticing McGonagall's face change as she read the letter that had just been delivered. Allegra stood up slowly, not taking in the confused looks she was receiving from her friends. The only thing that was running through her head was the thought that her mother was gone.

She moved away from the Gryffindor table, heading up to where her aunt was sat, head in hands. It crossed Allegra's mind that the teacher sat in front of her had just lost her sister. Constance and Minerva had been like best friends over the years, and now Minerva was faced with the news of her sister's death. Allegra didn't want to consider what she would feel like if she lost one of her sisters, she was too busy dealing with the current loss.

Climbing the small set of steps she approached the teachers table. Minerva looked up, glancing into the emotionless face of her niece. Allegra reached her hand out to her aunt. The older woman smiled, almost gratefully, at the outreached hand before placing her own hand on top of it.

"If you want, Allegra, you may take the day off. I will not be taking the day off from teaching, but my attendance is more valuable than yours today. However it is your choice."

"I'll go to classes, there's no point in skipping. Mum wouldn't be very happy if I failed my exams because of her."

Minerva nodded, allowing her niece to bid farewell and walk back to her seat. Once back at the table Allegra picked up her bag and turned to Lily, blanking the other teens who had just been informed by Lily of what happened.

"I'm going to go change my tights and re do my makeup and then I'll see you in charms." Allegra left the hall, not allowing herself to let her mind wander from anything but where her clean tights were. If she thought about anything else she wouldn't be able to control her emotions, which would allow her to do the unthinkable, let others know how she was feeling.

After the long trek up the stairs she found herself in the dormitory. She knelt at her trunk, moving items of clothing around as she searched for a clean, intact pair of tights. Locating a black pair at the bottom she sat down and pulled them on. Two minutes later she stood peering at her reflection in the mirror. Allegra sighed as she ran a brush through her hair and swept it up into a ponytail. Finally she re-applied her makeup, making sure she didn't stab herself in the eye with the mascara wand.

Just as she turned to leave the bedroom the door burst open, revealing the other four occupants of the room. Allegra watched as they all rushed over to their beds, searching for school books and quills. Angelica threw the contents of her trunk across her bed in search for her charms notes, watched silently by Lily who abhorred mess. Alice and Seraphina began to argue about who the bottle of ink on the desk belonged to. Allegra shook her head, not really wanting to get involved with any of their morning traditions. She picked up the bag she had dropped when they had entered the room and left the dormitory.

On the bottom stair she hesitated, her eyes finding yet another mirror. On the other side of the common room a group of lads made their way down the boy's staircase. Trailing slightly slower behind his friends was Remus, shaking his head as James and Sirius tripped over each other in an effort to get down the steps. He looked up, catching Allegra's eye. She smiled slightly, suddenly grateful that she had a nice quiet boyfriend. The pair met in the middle of the room, Allegra grabbing onto his proffered hand, knowing that she would need his support throughout the day. Tuesday was one of those unfortunate days, with Allegra having to sit though an entire day full of classes.

She let Remus lead her out of the common room, letting her surroundings wash over her as she avoided thinking about anything. Of course things never go to plan and she found herself thinking about Maria. Her sister was due to have her seventh child any day now and had hoped that her mother would be there. Even if she was just there to look after the children, it would have comforted Maria to know that her mum was there. Constance had also looked forward to the birth of her seventeenth grandchild, a grandchild she would never be able to hold in her arms. Allegra stopped dead as they reached the charms classroom. Remus, noticing the halt turned to look at her.

"Are you ok?"

She paused for a second, trying to work out if she should enter the classroom or if she would do well to run back to the common room. Her question was answered as Sirius Black appeared, ushering the couple into the room.

She sat next to Lily, taking out her charms book and settling down to stare at the desk in front of her. Across the room Sirius and James began their daily Quidditch debate with two members of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, who shared the NEWT charms class with the six Gryffindors, three Ravenclaws and Narcissa Black. Narcissa tried to get Allegra's attention, succeeding as the girl glanced up into her friends face. The pair shared a look, before Allegra sent a note detailing the information she had received over to the blonde.

A quick scan of the note offered Narcissa everything she needed to know and she was about to reply when Flitwick walked in. Allegra was secretly glad the teacher had walked in at that moment, as it gave her time to gather her emotions together after admitting the truth to her friend.

The class began in its usual way, allowing Allegra to get lost in the lesson and to ignore all the thoughts flying around her head. However she lost that ability ten minutes into the lesson, when the snake Sirius was trying to charm broke free, heading straight for a petrified Lily. The class erupted into chattering as Sirius and James helped Flitwick to wrestle the snake back into a cage. The situation with the snake brought it back to Allegra, who had just been thinking how amused her mother would be to hear about the event. Unlike before she was no longer able to hold her emotions in. she began to sob uncontrollably, shocking Lily, who had never seen her friend act in such a way. At once the six girls in the class rushed over to where Allegra sat, not helping the situation at all. With one wave of his wand Flitwick silenced the class and asked Lily to help Allegra back to the common room, as clearly she was in no state to learn today.

The two girls left the classroom quickly, with Lily trying to stop the other girl from crying. They reached the common room, where the redhead ushered her friend onto the sofa. Allegra lay down, letting the tears flow as she watched the fire. She didn't feel the need to hold in her emotions, why should she? Everyone naturally assumed she would break down at some point, why deny them the pleasure of seeing her in tears.

She barely noticed Lily leaving the room, choosing instead to drift off. Every now and again she woke up, watching as the other students moved in and out of the room, some sitting in the armchairs nearby. Remus sat watching Allegra for an hour during one of his frees.

When she finally woke up properly the sun had nearly set. A glance at the clock told her it was just after dinner. She sat up, wondering where her friends were just as the portrait swung open. Lily stepped in first, a covered plate of food in her hands, whilst she argued with Alice about the other girl's habit of leaving toothpaste all over the female bathroom. The pair stopped at the sofa, placing the plate in front of Allegra.

"Here I brought you some food, we decided that we could have you starve to death. Well Sirius seemed to think you'd survive on two ham paste sandwiches, but I think we argued our point well."

"Why what did you get me? Three ham sarnies?" Allegra took the cover off the plate, suddenly grateful for her friends as she revealed lamb chops with a side dish of vegetables. She dug into the food, not noticing her friends gather in the chairs around her.

Twenty minutes later she had finished her meal and sat back, watching the other teenagers around her. Remus was reading a book, whilst Alice and Frank shared the armchair next to him. Lily and Seraphina had taken up a game of exploding snap, watched by a sleepy looking Angelica and nervous Peter. On the other side to Remus sat James and Sirius, who were whispering about something whilst stabbing at what appeared to be a map.

Sirius glanced up, catching Allegra's eye. He raised his eyebrow, holding her steady gaze. She wasn't one to be put off, over the years she had more trouble with the boy than just staring contests. Finally he shifted his gaze back to whatever they were working on in the corner.

Allegra realized that as much as they resisted their friendship would always grow slightly. Over the holidays they had seen more of each other than usual, especially after Allegra had invited the whole gang up to hers for three days. It was possibly the fact that her best friend was now going out with his best friend, plus she had been with Remus for quite a while now. The past few weeks had offered a new side of Sirius, a funnier side. One that she didn't want to punch. It helped that he detested Snape as much as she did at the moment, though for slightly different reasons.

"Yo, Leggy, bedtime?" Lily poked her friend in the side with her quill. Allegra glanced at Lily, before nodding and getting up from her chair. The clock now read half ten, the accepted curfew in Gryffindor.

She followed Lily and Alice up to the dormitory after pausing to kiss Remus goodnight. After brushing her teeth and locating her pyjamas she crawled into bed, hoping that today's events would wind into her memory, becoming less prominent in the morning.