God I've missed him. The way he kisses me is so gentle, so smooth, and yet so passionate and rough! I curl my fingers through his shoulder length mop of dark hair and pull him closer still, loving how warm he is.
"So, I'll take that as a 'Yes Sirius, I missed you very much this summer'." he murmurs into my ear before nibbling slightly at my throat.
"Well you'd be wrong." I say quickly, gasping for air. He knows I can't stand it how good it feels when he kisses my neck.
"Oh?" His shoulder vibrates pleasantly when he speaks.
"I missed you way more than 'very much'. Why didn't you owl me after August?"
"Err... My dearest mum confiscated my owl."
"Damn her."
Sirius chuckles and stops kissing me, a change which I protest with a small grunt.
"What? Do you like that or something?"
"I could do that forever, Sirius, you know that."
He chuckles and moves to sit on one of the benches lining the caboose, leaving me on the floor. I switch to a cross-legged position and take the moment to re-memorize his face. Not that I haven't thought about his grey eyes and strong jawline all
summer, but he looks like an angel in the midmorning light that streams through the windows. It illuminates his brown hair and seems to make his eyes sparkle as he smiles. He's the most beautiful person I've ever seen.
"What are you looking at, love?" He asks, sticking his tongue out at me. I giggle and cup his face, ready to pull him down into another kiss.
It's then that I notice his hair had been pushed awkwardly over his forehead. I push it back and then looked away in shock and horror.
"S-Sirius!" I say, looking back to his eyes.
"What is it- oh." He says , his face morphing from joy to confusion to a kind of muted sadness.
On his forehead is a terrible burn in the exact shape of a "B".
"Sirius. Who did this to you?" My voice trembles with coming rage.
"My... Father." He says, hesitant at first and then realizing that I'll find out anyway.
"Why?"
"Well it's a B for blood traitor. He... He found out about your father. He took his wand and burned it right onto my forehead. Hurt like hell, but tried to fix it up a little. No harm, no foul."
"No harm, no foul? This seems pretty harmful to me." I say, getting up and backing a little bit away from him. This is all my fault.
"Ava, calm down." he says, "It probably won't even scar!"
"Calm down? I'm perfectly calm! I'm calm as a cucumber! Maybe if your father would stop using my best friend as a human torch and punching bag I'd be even more calm!" I can feel my heart speeding up like it does every time this happens.
"Ava, let's just go sit with James and Peter. Remus may even be done with his rounds by now! I'm sure Lily will be there!" Sirius says frantically, probably sensing the early symptoms of one of my infamous yelling fits.
Gulping and taking a couple of deep breaths, I nod slowly in agreement.
"There we go, love!" Sirius said, taking my hand and our bags and brooms and dragging me across the divider between the caboose and the rest of the train. Two cars later, I'm feeling normal again.
"OI! BLACK! Where've you been you bastard!" James Potter's big voice filled the car, and I looked to see him hanging out of the compartment like a monkey. I smiled a little as I remembered the first day I met him.
"Hey! Do you know any counter-curses for a Sticky-Foot curse?"
The thirteen year old me jumped nearly ten feet into the air as my quiet meandering through the dark and empty Hogwarts corridors was interrupted by a loud voice coming from above.
"Hello?" I asked quietly, looking around to find the speaker.
"Up here!" stage-whispered the voice, I pointed my lit up wand towards the ceiling and looked up to find a raven-haired, bespectacled thirteen year old boy hanging upside down from it like a monkey. "Do you know any counter-curses for a sticky-foot jinx?"
"What are you doing up there?" I stage-whispered quietly, craning my neck to see more. "We're not allowed out of our dorms after 10, much less on the ceiling! Who are you?"
"Well you're up!"
"I'm Avaline Pholenx.I-I have special permission from Dumbledore! Answer my question you prat!" I whispered up. I knew that I had permission to be up due to my condition... But this kid probably didn't.
"I'm James Potter and if you must know, a certain prefect called Lucius Malfoy lifted me up and stuck me here."
"Malfoy? He's my second cousin. Why'd he do that?"
"I may or may not have dropped a frog into the broom cabinet where he and his girlfriend were making out." said the boy on the ceiling sheepishly.
I giggled in spite of myself. The thought of Lucius and Narcissa being interrupted by a slimy green frog was just too much.
"Yeah, yeah I get it. I'm funny. Can you get me down now?" James said, exasperated and probably tired of being stuck on the ceiling.
"Hold on. I know a counter curse… but you're kind of like 20 feet off the floor."
"Then levitate me once I fall! What kind of a witch are you anyway? A stupid Hufflepuff I'd bet."
"Hey! Hufflepuffs aren't stupid! And I'm in Gryffindor."
"Really? Me too! Can you get me down now?"
"Whatever. Unstick-glutinous!" I muttered, causing Potter's feet to begin to unstick slowly. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I said quickly, but nothing happened.
"Umm… I don't mean to sound rude, but I'm kind of about to fall here!" he said frantically. I looked to see his hands already unstuck and him hanging now like a bat.
"Shit." I muttered, panicky. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Nothing again.
"Avaline!" James was now hanging by one foot, which was slipping fast. Any second now, he would fall.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA! STUPID BLOODY WAND!" I shouted, referencing my wand which was actually my grandfather's, pushed down on me by my mother.
"AVALINE!" Yelled James, who was now rapidly falling.
"NO!" I yelled,experiencing a terrible sense of déjà Vu."WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"
James was yanked back into the air, but my heart was still beating.
"James?" I called,"Are you alright?"
"Yeah! I'm… Great!" I heard coming from the now slowly descending figure.
As soon as his feet reached the ground, I dropped my no good wand and ran to hug him before the anger that was sure to follow my major screw up.
"Sorry I couldn't get the spell to work! Please don't hurt me! I'm really just so sorry!" I pleaded, and I realized that I had begun to cry. This situation was just too familiar, too recent.
"Hey! It's okay Avaline. We all have trouble with magic sometimes!" He said, much to my surprise. He pulled me close enough for me to realize that he smelled kind of like a pine tree. He was also considerably taller than me.
"It-it's m-my grandfather's wand! I-it d-doesn't work right f-for me! I'm so sorry Timothy!"
"What year are you? And who's Timothy?"
I realized my mistake quickly.
"I'm a fourth year. Timothy is... Someone who you remind me of." I lied.
"I'm a fourth year too, don't worry about it. Here, I'll walk you back to the common room, or wherever you were headed."
"I was headed to the divination room, but the common room sounds good too."
"Alright then Avaline."
"Earth to Ava!" Calls James, snapping me out of my reverie.
"What?" I ask, realizing that I'm still standing outside the compartment even though Sirius has already gone in.
"You okay Lady Pholenx?" he asks mockingly. His favorite activity besides flirting with Lily is making fun of my title.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just remembering." I say with a small smile, taking my usual place across from Lily and leaning onto Sirius' chest.
"So who here thinks that Snivellus is finally going to dissolve into a grease puddle this year?"
"UGH James stop being so MEAN!"
And so began the usual bandy on the way to my home.
The rest of the ride passed quickly. Everybody elsechanged into their robes halfway through, and Remus finally finished his prefect shift. He brought his best friend Emma along, and a sudden shortage of seats forced me to remain in Sirius' lap for
/an hour or two. Not that I minded that one bit.
Once we arrived at the Hogsmeade station, we all chose the same thestral-drawn carriage, although my boyfriend's pointed glares kept him and I alone inside rather than on top with Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Emma, and Xenophilius Lovegood.
"So how's my best girl really doing?" Sirius whispers in my ear once the carriage doors have shut.
"Much better now that I know you're okay." I say truthfully, cuddling up beside him. It's not terribly cold outside, but his warmth furthers my sense of security anyway.
Suddenly, I blink and I am in a dark corridor.
/-|-
The dark walls were slimy, and the place smelled like rot and blood. I watched as if I were in a pensieve as a man ran past me, dragging a woman with him.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!" screamed a terrible female voice from down the corridor. I turned and saw a version of Sirius' cousin Bellatrix Lestrange who looked at least 25 pointing her wand at the running pair."CRUCIO!"
A flash of green light signaled that a spell had been fired at the two, but it missed.
Suddenly, the woman stopped and spun to face Bellatrix.
"ALICE! NO!" the man cried as he spun around, and I noticed something terrifying. The woman was a 21 year old version of my best friend, Alice Burkes. The man was… my god... Frank Longbottom.
"STUPEFY!" Bellatrix called, and Frank fell. "As for you, bitch...CRUCIO!"
I screamed as Alice began to writhe on the floor like a dying insect. Her screams and cries echoed in the corridor.
"Avaline! Ava!" I heard, and I felt that someone was shaking me.
/-|-
I snap back to reality, where I'm curled up and shaking in Sirius' lap.
"A-alice!" I say quietly.
"Shh, shh, it's alright! It isn't real, Ava!" he says, stroking my hair to try and relax me.
"It was real, it was!" I cry, "Alice and Frank... Alice!"
It is then that Sirius decides to remind me of the reason I fell in love with him last year.
"Shh, shh." He soothes, "I'm real. Alice and Frank are fine. You're fine."
I begin to relax, and within two minutes I'm completely calm, if not shaken. I focus on my breathing, and his breathing and the sound of our friends above us.
"Better?" He asks.
"Yes. How bad was I?" I reply, moving off of his lap and across the carriage to face him before we arrive at the castle.
"You were fine. You shook and screamed a little, but I've seen you have worse visions." He explains, "I put a charm on the carriage so that the others couldn't hear."
I nod in approval.
"How long has it been since you read?" He asks nervously, referring to my frequent visits to the divination room. The deal with the Sight is that the more I read, the less I get unwanted visions.
"Too long. You know how my mum is."
"How about tonight we, go to the divination room and then sneak down to the room of requirement for some catching up?"
I roll my eyes. Catching up indeed.
"I mean it!" He protests. "We'll play some music, get a couple of butterbeers and just talk!"
"Right, because that's always what's on your mind. Talking." I tease, elbowing him lightly in the side despite the heavy feeling my vision has left me with.
"Pleeeaase?" he says, pulling off the puppy eyes look perfectly. "It'll make you feel better!"
"Fine." I relent with a grin, "Pick me up at 9 in the common room."
/-|-
The rest of the night passed quickly for me. I sat in between Alice and Sirius during the feast, trying to convince myself that both she and the awkward boy across from her were alive and well. They were eating yorkshire pudding, not being tortured by
/Sirius' nutty cousin.
Afterwards I followed her and Emma to our dorm room,deciding for the sixth year in a row not to organize my belongings in my trunk as they did. That kind of cleanliness reminds me too much of my mother's house, where I have to keep everything perfect.
/Instead, I sit on the edge of my bed and smile, enjoying the feeling of having people again. I find myself watching Alice more than usual, pulling her over to my bed once she finishes her unpacking.
"Hey darling" she says, snuggling up to my chest. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Ally." I reply, "I've just missed you, that's all."
"Okay… Have you been up to the divination room lately?" she asks quietly, so that the other two girls can't hear.
"No. I was thinking about going tonight with Sirius." I say, checking my watch. "Speaking of which, I should probably get going. It's almost 9 and I have a feeling that I should read at 9:30."
"Okay. Don't stay out too late with you-know-who. Little Miss Prefect over there might kill you." she muses, gesturing to a busy Lily Evans.
"What?" Lily asks innocently.
"Nothing, love." Says Alice.
I chuckle and grab my wand.
"I love you, Alice." I call back as I head down to the common room.
/
"You're late!" calls James from the couch. Sirius is next to him, and Remus sits in the armchair across. None of them look up at me as I come closer.
"By what? 5 minutes? That's a bit extreme, Prongs." I tease, circling to the other side of the couch.
"Late is late dear Lady Pholenx." Remus adds from behind his book.
"I'm afraid you've broken your dear Padfoot's heart." says Sirius solemnly.
"Okay then, I'll go and roam around the gloriously versatile room of requirement all alone." I say, stroking his thick brown hair. "Hope I don't run into one of your cousins. Or that charming Hufflepuff seeker, Amos Diggory."
"Alright point taken." he relents grumpily, huffing as he gets up. "But one day woman, I won't wait for you."
"As if!" James and Remus say at once, causing Sirius to blush and drag me out of the common room by my wrist.
"You kids be careful!" James calls after us. "Don't do anything I would do!"
/-|-
"Alright, you know the drill." I warn, opening the trapdoor below the divination room. Divination isn't usually taught at Hogwarts due to a lack of students actually wanting to take the class. Dumbledore only keeps the room around so that I can use it.
"Of course. You aren't yourself in there, so my job is to get you back after a while." He says, gesturing for me to climb the ladder.
"But not until I'm done with whatever trance I go into." I remind, obliging his request.
"Babe, we've done this before. Have you forgotten how I got you to fall in love with me after the locker room incident?" He teases, following me closely into the tent-like room.
"Pfft! That was not how!" I exclaimed, "I hated you for at least two weeks after that."
"Right… You were just playing hard to get." He teased.
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:
It's storming outside of the divination room. The thunder crashes outside, but that's nothing compared to what was in my crystal ball.
In it, I could see crashing waves around a large stone house.
There was a boy inside, with three muggles. This boy had clearly seen great suffering. Before I could identify the young wizard, my view switched to a massive prison-like structure on an equally stormy sea. There was a man in there who is innocent. I found myself completely terrified. He was innocent and something terrible was going to happen. I had to stop it! How could I stop it! Before I could find out who it was, my body was shaken by an outside force. I woke up from my vision screaming and crying. I instinctively leaned backwards, not particularly caring who had saved me from that terrible Seeing. I cried into my savior's shirt, soaking it with my tears. Whoever it was stroked my back, helping me to regain my senses. A minute later, I realized what was happening with a jolt. My body became stiff with fear as I glanced upwards to identify whoever was holding me. Much to my surprise, it was none other than Sirius Black.
"Black?" I said in a questioning tone. "Pardon my rudeness, but what the bloody hell are you doing up here?"
"Umm… At the moment I'm helping you." He said nervously.
I could feel my heart speeding up. My blood pressure was rising and my cheeks flushed red. How the hell did he get up here? He was NOT invited into my private life!
"Avaline?" He said, as I jumped up from the floor, where he had apparently joined me.
"You need to leave. Now!" I said hotly, waving my wand over the crystal ball to return it to its blank state. "I don't know how you figured out I was here, or why you decided to join me, but you are certainly not invited."
"Avaline, please don't push me out." He said, getting to his feet. "I was only worried about you."
My heart made a very inconvenient fluttering motion in my chest. I realized that I had my wand pointed straight at his chest.
"How the hell did you even know that I was up here?" I asked, with all of the false calm of the eye of a hurricane.
"I… I heard Alice Burkes talking to you about it." I almost felt bad for the sod, he seemed so scared.
"So you decided to come and make fun of me?" I accused, accidentally shooting angry red sparks at the ceiling.
"No!" He shouted. "I was curious! So I followed you here!"
"How charming!" I yelled.
"Shut up! Let me talk! I was actually about to leave when you started screaming your head off! I was scared that something happened, and so I climbed up to help you! I called your name but you were in some sort of trance! Your eyes were glowing! Then you stopped screaming and started crying. I shook your shoulders and your eyes stopped glowing and- STOP POINTING YOUR WAND AT ME!"
"I'll point my wand at whomever I want! You think that just because we made out once, you're suddenly my lover or something? That you're entitled to my secrets and have a responsibility to 'save me' whenever you see fit?"
"Well… Yeah!" Sirius shouted, stepping towards me. "Avaline, I don't know a lot about you… But I have this funny feeling that we need each other. Tell me that you don't think so too!"
"I-" I started, but I couldn't deny it. Somehow this idiot was right, but I'd be damned if I let him bully me into confessing before I wanted to. "I have to leave. Get out of my way."
:.:.:.:.:.:.
"Ava, you were climbing?" Sirius says, jolting me back to the present. "You know this whole flashback thing is really weird to the rest of us. Like I get that the Sight makes you do it, but still. Freaky."
"Shut up." I say, opening the trapdoor. "See you in 15minutes."
"See you in 15minutes."
"Hey... I love you."
"I love you too."
AN/ I love reviews!
