Chapter 11: Good Intuition

Brenna ran full speed up the grounds toward the castle. Completely aware that Sirius was pretty far behind, she slowed her pace to an eventual stop on top of a hill waiting for her new friend. Taking deep breaths to regulate her heart rate Brenna pressed two fingers to her neck just beneath her jaw line, checking her pulse to make sure that she was still in peak physical shape, feeling the rapid beats for a few seconds until they slowed to the normal resting heart rate. Panting Sirius ran up to her stopping and bending over his hands resting on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

"Alright there, Black?" She asked chuckling slightly as Sirius returned to a standing position trying to get his breathing under control waving her off.

"Oh yeah…I'm good…damn you're fast." Once again Brenna laughed and smiled causing Sirius' stomach to flutter unexplainably.

"Yeah, well let's go to the stupid Hospital Wing…unless of course you would like to forego that completely pointless part and just go to Breakfast?" Sirius shook his head at her.

"Nice try, Templar, you're not getting out of this."

"But I'll let you and your mates sit with us…"

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Because I know for a fact that you love annoying people and denying social boundaries plus Potter will freak when he finds out you turned down a chance for him to sit with his Lily Flower for the Hospital Wing."

"Okay, 1 I don't like annoying Evans enough to compromise my chance of seeing you squirm in the Hospital Wing and 2 you could never make that happen."

"Sirius Black, how could you take pleasure from seeing one of your friends in an uncomfortable situation?" She said with mock outrage. "And for your information I don't squirm…I merely don't like Hospitals, there's no point in going if you don't have to. So if you're going to make me go let's get this over with before I change my mind and decide lighting your socks on fire is a much more appealing option."

"The things you say are really quite morbid…and creepy." He said looking at her warily. Brenna just rolled her eyes.

"You don't get it, but my friends would, there's a story behind pretty much everything 'morbid' I say." She said using air quotes for emphasis as the two began walking up to the Hospital Wing.

"There's a story behind you lighting someone's socks on fire?" Sirius asked raising a sceptical eyebrow.

"Well not me, but Cyrus. He really didn't want to go to this place in the town by our house, but one of our friends was pressuring him a lot, so Cy accidently lit his socks on fire and we didn't go into town we went down to the river instead…don't worry we put the guy out. It was pretty funny though." Sirius just shook his head a bemused smile on his face as they rounded the final corner to the Hospital Wing.

Sirius pushed open the door a little too hard causing it to crash into a trolley that held medical supplies with a loud bang that caused the medi-witch to come running an exasperated look on her face as soon as she saw Sirius.

"Mister Black you can not just coming barging in here disrupting my patients! Now what happened, who's injured?" She demanded, obviously Sirius had done that before.

"Brenna dislocated her ankle." He said shrugging off her little yell.

"Oh my dear, Mister Black help her over here." She said gesturing frantically to an empty bed. Sirius offered to take Brenna's hand but she waved it off since her ankle was completely fine and walked over to the bed Sirius following.

"Madam, really I'm fine…"

"Elevate your ankle, let me see, dislocated limbs can be very painful would you like a pain potion?"

"No I'm fine really-"

"I'll be right back I'm going to get a brace for you're ankle." Madam Pomfrey scurried away to one of the cabinets near the office.

"I definitely should've lit those socks on fire." Brenna mumbled to Sirius grinned cheekily at her like a little kid who was caught in a fib. And in a few moments Madam Pomfrey returned with a brace and various other unnecessary things.

"Madam Pomfrey her ankle's already back in…"

"Back in? You popped your ankle back in?" She asked looking at Brenna with wide eyes.

"Well Sirius did-"

"Mister Black, why didn't you bring her up here? You could've seriously injured her! You are not a trained Healer, Mister Black!"

"Well I kind of forced him to, but then he forced me to come up here because he thought he did it wrong or something even though I explained that if I can run around, my ankle is fine."

"You popped your ankle back in…didn't it hurt, it's a painful process and you did it without pain potion." The healer still looked at Brenna with wide eyes, shaking her head slowly.

"Yeah, well could you just maybe tell Sirius that he was an idiot for making me come up here so I can go eat?"

"Yes of course, let's take a look." Madam Pomfrey slipped Brenna's shoe off and unwrapped her ankle gentle checking its mobility before rewrapping it and helping her with her shoe.

"Well it seems that your ankle is fine though I would advise that you take it easy for a while and Mister Black was right to insist that you come up here to get your ankle checked out. In future, please come here first, if you had not set your ankle properly you could have been very seriously injured. But for now you may go, keep your ankle wrapped at least for the next two days and do not strain yourself." Madam Pomfrey advised standing up. "And Mister Black, when you inevitably return please try not to destroy my hospital wing." She said looking at him pointedly before hurrying off to the other side of the wing.

"See I told you I was fine." Brenna said smirking slightly at him.

"Yeah well better to be safe than sorry" He said with a half smile as she hopped off the bed, careful not to 'strain' her ankle.

"Life's too short for Hospital Wings, Sirius, especially when you don't even need to go."

"There's no harm in taking care of yourself, Brenna, it's the smart thing to do."

"Yes, yes, don't take risks, blah, blah, blah. Please leave the lecturing to my brother; he's had much more practice. Well, have fun with your Marauder friends." She said as they reached the doors to the Great Hall where the majority of students were eating breakfast.

"You're not going to eat with us?"

"No, no there's something I need to do." She did as Sirius frowned in confusion.

"What?" Sirius, who was facing Brenna, didn't notice Cyrus walk up behind him, a half smile on the Slytherin's face.

"Black," He said smirking as Sirius spun around in shock. "Bit jumpy, isn't he Bren?" Sirius scowled at the Slytherin who spoke with a clearly mocking tone of voice.

"Cyrus, let's go." Brenna said with a warning tone to her voice which immediately made Cyrus drop his patronising persona. "I'll see you later Sirius." Brenna moved away from Sirius and closer to her brother signalling to both boys that she was ready to leave.

Cyrus nodded but before leaving, he leaned closer to Sirius, hissing a warning to him.

"Stay away from her Black; she doesn't need your crap." Cyrus had never before looked so menacing to Sirius. His dark eyes and hair were cold and threatening and the symbolic Slytherin robes did little to quell that impression.

Without waiting for Sirius to respond, knowing that the former Black family heir would get the message, Cyrus turned from him and walked away with Brenna who gave a small smile as a good-bye. Though she didn't comment or anything of the sort, Sirius got the distinct impression that she knew what Cyrus had told him. It seemed to Sirius that Brenna was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, maybe even more capable than her slightly older brother, but she didn't object and that meant that she didn't have a problem with what Cyrus had said. Frowning at the unforeseen events that disrupted what had promised to be an exceptional morning, Sirius turned and walked over to the Gryffindor table where his fellow Marauders were eating, probably wondering where he had been.

Brenna and Cyrus walked silently out the front doors of the castle and onto the grounds. Brenna had, of course, heard her brother telling Sirius to back off, and she could've objected to it, but frankly, she didn't feel the need. Brenna knew that Cyrus trusted her to take care of herself, hell she was the best witch their age and far better than most adults, and everyone who knew who she really was didn't question that. If anyone else had been the one to imply to another person that she was incapable of handling things herself there would have been a major issue that most likely ended with some kind of pain for the offending party. But this was her big brother, and really he was helping her.

Brenna did not date. It was an undisputed fact to anyone that knew her. Her lifestyle, the constant training, the responsibility she bore and the power she held made it unfeasible and pointless. Brenna had a purpose in life, she knew what she needed to do and what she wanted to do, and nothing would get in her way. She had a duty and that came before dating boys. Not to mention the fact that pretty much all the boys (and girls) back home are intimidated by her and not one would dare ask her out for the rejection would be humiliating enough but the inevitable punishment for objectifying her was a lesson no one needed first hand.

Brenna knew that because she was a girl she was seen as weaker, just a cute little thing to look at and maybe shag. She was not taken very seriously by people (aka men) who just met her. They tended to flirt with her, make derogatory comments towards females and generally think of her as nothing more than a piece of meat. That was their biggest mistake.

Brenna was incredibly intelligent and sharp tongued. She never hesitated to say what she really thought and if someone dared toe the line of objectification she would prove to them that she was smarter, stronger and over all better than them. For her, it didn't matter if they were the Minister for Magic himself, if you put her down she'll trample you into the ground. This was something everyone learned eventually, some experienced it, some witnessed it.

Cyrus was not suggesting that Brenna needed protection; he was making sure that Sirius didn't get any idiotic ideas about Brenna and that for, Sirius' sake, he treated her with respect. He was also being the 'over protective Slytherin brother' so the blokes around Hogwarts would know to leave her alone. It was a 'go near my little sister and I'll slit your throat' kind of message that most guys would not underestimate coming from the intimidating new Slytherin.

This way, it would hopefully stop boys from asking her out or flirting with her, making Brenna's life easier as she wouldn't have to constantly reign in her temper to keep from lashing out at the perverted boys in the school.

When Cyrus and Brenna had walked far enough from the school and lingering people, they stopped, satisfied by the amount of privacy.

"So does ickle Brenna finally have a crush?" Cyrus taunted playfully.

"Cy, if you know what's good for you, you'll make the health conscious choice and shut up. Besides, Sirius is a friend-sort of. He dislocated my ankle this morning." Brenna said casually as Cyrus snorted at the report.

"Mavey'll be pleased his record's still intact, though I'm sure you'll not hear the end of how you're replacing Atomos." Cyrus said making reference to their unit (and group of friends) from back home.

"Oh please, Atomos is Atomos for a reason; we're together till the end. That would be why we use the Greek word for 'indivisible', something you know very well. Now what's going on?" Cyrus nodded; this was classic Brenna, all business.

"The first Hogsmeade trip is coming up in a week or so and from what I gather some of the Slytherins are getting a bit more aggressive and antsy especially with those Gryffindors, the Marauders. It seems that something might be coming up, Bren. I don't know what, not yet, but the more vocal Slytherins, like Malfoy and the Blacks, are just itching to pull something on a Muggle born, and you can bet it'll be dangerous. They're getting tired of the Marauders showing them up so they should probably take a little break from pranking them or some Muggle-borns are going to end up at Mungo's." He reported accustomed to the lack of emotion and response on Brenna's face as she contemplated their next course of action and potential targets.

"I doubt they'll listen without knowing why and who we really are. You know, Potter's like in love with a Muggle born Gryffindor, Lily Evans, the Slytherins might target her if this about the Marauders, if it's about showing support for Voldemort though, we've got a lot more to worry about."

"Yeah, well, they don't trust very easily, with good reason I suppose, so I'll have to curse a few Muggle borns and Gryffindors then hopefully we'll get a bit more information. They actually don't talk about Voldemort but it's clear that they support him. You're staying close to the Gryffindors, alright?"

"Very trusting group, nice enough, though sometimes they're a bit naïve and oblivious to the war. The Marauders, I'd have to say, are the most anti-Voldemort and anti-Slytherin. Potter and Black are pure bloods and blood traitors of course, the other two, Pettigrew and Lupin are half though I haven't met Pettigrew yet. Of all the Gryffindors, they've got the best intuition. Black and Potter know there's something I'm not telling them and I quote 'they're not going to drop it'. They're actually not bad duellers for their age and are all quite gifted with magic, except Pettigrew, he's just a disaster. Black, Potter and Lupin might end up being our allies here if it comes to that." Cyrus nodded his head taking in the information that his twin had told him.

"We should head back in to breakfast, classes will be starting soon." Cyrus said as the two began to walk back toward the castle, both very aware of the students that were watching them, something that seemed to happen often. It was almost as though people thought that watching the new kids was just as fascinating as watching a Quidditch Match. As they neared the doors to the castle Cyrus whispered to Brenna. "I'll keep you updated, Bren. Write to the others would you; I sent Vulcan to get some stuff from them and he's not back yet."

"Alright, I'll send Nirvana and tell the guys to send Vulcan back. You really should keep a better watch on your owl, Cy." Brenna said bemusement plain in her voice.

"Yeah well I've got to get going, see you later Brenna."

"Bye, Cyrus." Brenna replied shaking her head at her brother as he walked off toward the Slytherin table in the Great Hall.