Chapter 3

Hot…so hot. Why was Sirius so hot? He's not normally this hot in his bed… Sirius rolled over eyes still closed and threw his arm out, only to have it be draped over another person's body. A girl's body… a naked girl's body. Now normally this wouldn't bother Sirius, it's happened to him too many times to count on two hands, but all of those times he had remembered that he was with a girl… or that he'd been drinking at least. There were sometimes when some of his fan girls would climb in his bed in the middle of the night, but he'd always woken up in time to stop them. Sirius slightly opened one eye, without removing his arm, and peeked at the random girl in his bed. He saw through the darkness the most beautiful woman he'd had ever seen. She had long wavy milky brown hair, ivory skin tone; small shoulders, an angelic look on her sleeping face… one hell of an ass, even though the red and gold blanket surrounding them covered that half of her body. The girl shifted a bit snuggling more into Sirius' arm. He almost shut his eyes at the sight of her with no clothes on, but then he saw her bra.

Okay, he thought to himself, at least she isn't completely naked. Now if I could just remember who she is…

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

Clara! This girl, this incredibly beautiful girl, was Clara. His new Slytherin friend, and really she was the only Slytherin worth talking to. How had he missed her after all these years? How had he just walked passed her in the corridors without so much as a second glance? There was something about tis girl that had caught his attention, but why now and not sooner?

While going over these questions in his mind, Sirius' hand involuntarily started moving around her body. At first to her arms, where it stayed a while rubbing up and down in a sort of protective manner, then to her stomach where it just sat barley touching her skin. Then Sirius' hand moved to Clara's waist, his fingertips hovering the slightest bit above her hip. By this time Sirius had propped himself up on one elbow and was staring down at her. He slightly moved his fingers around her waist until he hit a small swollen patch of skin in the form of letters.

A brand? Sirius though. Who the hell would brand her?

Ever so carefully, Sirius sat up and pulled the blanket away from her waist. When he did, his eyes were set on three letters… Initials… T.M.R. they said.

Anger filled Sirius. Clara was branded. Someone had actually taken hot iron and put it to her skin. She had probably screamed and cried and begged them to stop… Who would do something like that to someone like her? Clara was nothing but nice, pure happiness, yet someone thought it was a good idea to hurt her.

"What are you doing, creep?" a small voice interrupted Sirius' thoughts.

He looked up to Clara's face only to be met with the brightest blue eyes he'd had ever seen. They were so blue, they were almost clear and so…so… pretty.

What is wrong with me? Sirius thought to himself, I'm Sirius Black! I don't think girls are beautiful, I think they're shaggable or not shaggable and nothing more!

"Oi, you just going to sit there and stare, Fonzy, or are you going to say something?" Clara smirked at him.

Sirius wanted to say something clever, but instead he said something incredibly stupid. "You're branded."

Clara raised an eyebrow at him. She looked down to where his fingers were and saw the initials. T.M.R. Clara never knew what those letters stood for, but then again she never really thought of asking.

"Oh yeah," she said quietly, "I'm pretty sure my dad did that when I was five or something. It was a while ago, I know that much… Not really sure what they mean, or what name they stand for…huh."

"When you were five?" Sirius hissed sitting all the way up.

"Yeah," Clara shrugged nonchalantly, "Don't worry about it."

"Why do you always say that," Sirius challenged her, "Why is it never something to worry about when someone hurts you? Like last night! You were about to be raped and you told us not to worry, and now I find out that your father branded you when you were fucking five-years-old and it still isn't anything to worry about. Clara I like you, I really do, and even though I've known you for all of a week I feel like we've been together for longer, you know? So please, please, stop saying that you being hurt isn't something to worry about, like you don't matter or something. Because you do matter. A lot."

Clara lay there completely stunned. No one had ever said something like that to her, not even Jenny. She'd always kept things, like her branding and her father beating her to a bloody pulp when he was in a good mood, to herself. Whenever Jenny would find out, sure she would bitch about it, but never had she said anything more whenever Clara said the magic words, "Don't worry about it." Never had Jenny gotten offended and said something like "Please stop saying that." But Sirius had.

"I…" Clara had no idea what to say. What Sirius just told her made her insides a nervous reck, so she said the first thing that came into her head. "I… like stuffed animals."

Sirius just stared at her confusion all over his face.

Clara sat up and continued. "I really like stuffed animals, and my favorite color is red which has nothing to do with Gryffindor house, which happens to be my favorite house. I like it because it reminds me of the word 'Passion', which is not my favorite word. My favorite word is 'Running' because it means so many different things. I mean you could be running to something, from something, to or from someone, to the rest of your life or your first love, to happiness or pain, to memories, to…to…anything really."

Sirius continued to stare at her, making her even more nervous.

"Um… my favorite kind of weather is stormy because the rain sounds like a lullaby. I hate tea; I think it's the worst thing I've ever had to drink in my life. I'll take coffee or pumpkin juice any day. I love muggle things like their music and movies and books… Er… I share unnecessary things about myself when I get nervous. I can play the piano, guitar, violin, flute, and I sing a bit. Um, I love painting. It clams me down when I'm angry or sad or just feel like loosing it…"

"Clara…"

"Chocolate is my favorite kind of snack. I've never had a boy who just wanted to be with me without wanting to have nothing but sex all the time-"

"Clara."

"I smile all the time, even when I'm upset, because it makes Jen Jen feel better. I-"

"Clara!"

Sirius' voice snapped Clara out of her nervous ranting.

"Yeah?" she asked, eyes down refusing to look at him.

"For Merlin's sake clam down. I didn't mean to make you nervous or anything. Jesus, breath!"

Clara hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath. She gasped a little as her lungs filled up with air.

"Sorry," she said.

Sirius laughed. "Don't be. It pleases me to know I can still make a girl nervous."

Clara was going to stick her tongue out at him and tell him off but the curtain of his bed was pulled all the way back to revile a tall dark haired girl with brown eyes and small boobs on the other side. She looked furious, and her eyes were red so she must have been crying.

"Kelly," Sirius said a little shocked.

"Who the hell is she?" this Kelly girl screeched.

"Whassgoinon?" came the drowsy voice of James from behind the drapes of his own bed. He poked his head out surveyed the scene and then decided the safest place was back underneath his own covers.

"Kelly listen-" Sirius tried.

"So this is your new slut, Sirius?" Kelly yelled. "You broke up with me for someone like her? I mean you could have at least broken up with me for someone better! She looks like nothing but a cheap whore!"

Clara laughed which seemed to make Kelly even angrier.

"Something funny bitch?!"

Clara just laughed even harder. "Oh, Merlin! I wish I had a camera to capture this lovely momment-"

SMACK! Kelly slapped Clara.

There was silence in the room. The rest of the Gryffindor boys (Frank Longbottom and Dean Patrick made the room complete) had come from their beds to watch the catfight.

"Don't you dare talk to me you filthy slut!" Kelly yelled in Clara's face, which was still turned the way Kelly's hand had moved it. "If you do it again I'll challenge you to a duel! Understand?"

Ever so slowly Clara lighted her fingertips to touch the stinging sensation that was her cheek. The last woman who had slapped Clara was her nanny when she was nine. After a yelling match the woman had thought that raising her hand to Clara was a good idea. The woman disappeared for three weeks and then came back completely lobotomized.

"I accept." Clara said, turning her face to stare at the crazy girl, with a smile on her lips.

"Excuse me?" Kelly said not fully understanding what she had just heard.

"Are you deft as well as stupid?" Clara sneered, "I said I accept your challenge. In fact I'll even go easy on you, I won't even use my wand."

The seven other people in the room stared at Clara in astonishment. Not only was she agreeing to fight a girl she had never met before, but she was agreeing to fight without her wand.

Kelly smirked. "You think you'll win without your wand?"

Clara rolled her eyes. "I think I'd win without my wand, blindfolded, and both hands tied behind my back."

"Well you sure are a cocky little bitch aren't you?"

"I have a right to be."

"Sure you do. After dinner tonight. You and me. Winner gets to go on a date with Sirius."

Clara snorted. "I'm not doing this for him, you daft cow. Sirius and I are nothing to each other. No, I'm doing this because you seem to be in need of someone to put you in your rightful place, which is at the bottom of my shoe. The fact that you think you can raise your hand to me and not face the consequences really pisses me off. Therefore I accept your duel. We'll meet in the entrance hall so make sure you have your second before dinner."

"Oh I will." Kelly said. And with that the dark haired girl walked out the room.

"Clara Marie Hathaway! You hold still this instant!"

"But Jen Jen it hurts!"
"Oh for fuck sake- it's a damn cold pack that I haven't even touched you with yet."

"'Yet' being the key word there. Just the thought of it hurts."

"The only thing that's going to hurt you is me if you don't hold still."

The four Marauders watched the two girls argue with amusement. After Kelly left Sirius sent Peter to go get Jenny, who was already walking down the corridor to Gryffindor to yell at Clara for staying there. When Peter told her what happened, Jenny laughed and conjured a pack of ice to put on Clara's face.

"It should help with the swelling." Remus said as he brought a damp rag out of the boy's bathroom.

"I can't believe you got bitch slapped…" Jenny said to Clara with a smirk on her face as she took the rag from Remus.

"I can't believe I had enough control to not kill the bitch right then and there." Clara said.

"But you accepted her challenge, which is basically you sentencing her to death."

"Kelly is one of the best dullest I know," Sirius said.

Jenny looked at him and laughed. "Maybe, but Clara is more powerful than anyone in this school-ow!"

Jenny rubbed her arm where Clara had pinched it. Hard.

"What does that mean?" James asked.

"Nothing," Clara said. "Nothing to worry your pretty little heads about it, boys."

"Clara," Sirius said in a warning voice, "I thought we talked about this whole 'Don't worry about it,' business."

"You talked about what?" Remus asked.

"Oh just the fact that Clara thinks that her being hurt by anyone is nothing to be upset about."

"That's crazy," James said. "You know that right?"

"Well that's me." Clara stuck her tongue out at him, "One big ball of crazy."

She pushed Jenny's hands away from her face and stood up of the bed she was sitting on and started jumping up and down. "In fact, James, I am so crazy I just don't know how to contain myself."

Clara jumped off the end of the bed and flung Sirius' trunk open. She threw clothing after clothing on the floor behind her until she found his Quidditch jersey. Clara then pulled the jersey over her head and skipped out the room without another word to any of the other people staring at her. Even though Sirius only got a glimpse of her, he couldn't help but like the way Clara looked in his jersey. It hung a few inches above her knees, showing off her legs and made her look like the sexiest girl in all of Hogwarts.

"We should probably go get her," Jenny said.

"Why," replied Remus.

"She's planning on doing something stupid."

"How do you know?"

"Because."

And with that Jenny got up and walked out the room.

Clara, who was now in the hallway and in nothing but a Gryffindor Quidditch jersey, was getting some very interesting stares from other students.

"Skip, skip, skippadydoo! Skip, skip, skipadydoo," She sang at the top of her lungs.

She passed a few fourth year Hufflepuff girls and stopped.

"Hey, chicas! Guess what I just heard!" she said all excitedly and hushed.

The girls all looked at each other with very uncertain looks on they're faces. "What?" one of them asked.

"Sirius Black and James Potter are gay for each other!"

The girls gasped. "They are not!"

Clara smiled wickedly. "Oh they so are. I spent the night in their room last night and they slept in the same bed."

"No!" the girls said at the same time.

"You should have heard the noises coming from behind the curtains! It was like I was in the middle of a porno."

"What's a porno?" one of the girls asked.

"Uhhh….," Clara said rubbing the back of her neck, "Never mind."

A sudden idea popped into her head and she gasped. Clara ran all the way to the Slytherin common room and up the stair to her dormitory. She grabbed her record player, that over the years she has tinkered with magic so it would play at Hogwarts. After she was done with sorting through her albums and picking the right song, she then took off to the great hall. When she got there everyone who was still eating his or her morning breakfast looked up at her. She ran down the tables and got to Albus Dumbledore's chair.

"Hi professor," She said as she set the record player down in front of him.

"Hello Miss Hathaway," the headmaster said back to her with a humorous look on his face. Over the years Dumbledore has come to enjoy the craziness that is Clara Hathaway, just as he's come to enjoy the pranks set by the Marauders.

"Would you like to dance with me?" Clara asked him.

"Ah, yes." He said, his eyes twinkling, "I do believe I would quite enjoy that."

Dumbledore stood up and walked around the table just in time for Clara to take her wand (that she's earlier hid in her knickers) and turn the music on with a flick.

The entire great hall filled with drums and saxophones.

"Come on baby! Let's do the twist!"

Clara grabbed both of Dumbledore's hand and started twisting them back and forth making the aged man move his hips as well.

"Take me by my little hands and go like this!"

Clara took the headmasters arms and pulled them in so their chest were together and then pushed out so they were far apart.

"Daddy is sleepin' and mamma ain't around."

Dumbledore took Clara's right hand and twirled her around and around. Each time she caught the looks of the other students. Some were blue in the face with laughter; some were envious to the scene in front of them; other just didn't find it funny at all. They thought the evil Slytherin girl was mocking the kind old headmaster.

"Come one, little miss, and do the twist!"

Clara let go of Dumbledore and turned to the students just in time to see Jenny, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walk in. The four boys were completely astonished at Clara, but they could not deny that seeing the headmaster dance was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

"Come on baby! Let's do the twist!"

Clara started to move just one leg back and forth while making her hand do the same just above her knee. Dumbledore chuckled and did the same.

Come on baby! Let's do the twist!

Clara started to move both her legs at the same time and turned around, squatting while still moving, just to stand back up with her back to the now laughing Jenny. Jenny just couldn't take watching Albus Dumbledore do the same thing and not laugh.

"Take me by my little hand!"

Clara and Dumbledore twisted their hips fast so it made it seem like they were shaking their bums, which got even more laughs.

"And go like this!

Both Clara and Dumbledore turned just the top parts of their bodies around, nodded their heads and then started twisting just one of their legs again.

When the song was over the students clapped and cheered as well as the teachers. Clara turned to Dumbledore and held out her hand with a huge smile on her face. Dumbledore took and shook it firmly, smiling himself.

"Sir I must say, you are by far the greatest dancing headmaster this school has ever seen."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "You're quite good yourself, Miss Hathaway."

"That's all I ever I ever wanted to hear from you, sir," Clara fake sniffed and wiped and invisible tear from her face.

Suddenly there was a very loud SMACK in the Great Hall, followed by a loud, "OPH!"

Clara turned and saw the two girls she had talked to earlier had slapped Sirius and -pushed James to the ground. The laughter died down a bit as the rest of the students watched.

"I loved you, Sirius Black!" screamed one of the girls, "How dare you! You could have at least told people to prevent heartache."

"Uhhh…" Sirius said to the girl, "Told you what exactly?"

"Erm, professor?" Clara whispered to Dumbledore.

"Yes?"

"Is there like a back door or anything?"

"Ah, yes." Dumbledore pointed to the right of them," There happens to be one right there."

"Clara told you that we were WHAT?" James yelled.

"And that would be my cue to leave." Said Clara as she ran to the door Dumbledore had pointed out.

"Get back here!" she could hear Sirius scream behind her.

She threw the door open and stared running. Again.

How long was she supposed to wait? I mean honestly this Kelly girl was the one who wanted to fight in the first place.

Clara stood in the shadows of the entrance hall staring down at her nails. She hadn't moved an inch since saying goodnight to the Marauders. Of course they wanted to watch but Jenny wouldn't let them, a good thing too, they could get hurt and Clara would not be okay with that.

Footsteps made Clara's head whip around. Kelly was approaching. Alone.

"I thought I told you to bring a second," Clara smirked steeping out of the shadows.

The Kelly girl didn't say anything, just stared at her.

"Oi," Clara said snapping her finger in front of the girl's face, "Earth to what's your face! Are we doing this or not?"

Kelly's gaze went down to her shoes and she shook her head no.

"No?" Clara said in confusion, "Why the hell not? I thought you wanted to win your date with Sirius."

"They told me what you did to her," Kelly whispered.

Clara was suddenly filled with so many emotions. Anger, regret, fear, sadness… anger.

"Who told you what," Clara said in the calmest voice she could muster up through all of the thoughts flowing through her head.

"Your Slytherin friends told me what you did to your mother."

"Who?"

"Your Slytherin friends."
"Yes, but who exactly?"

"Your friends from Slytherin."

"I get that part! Give me names."

"Dolohov, Malfoy, Rosier, the Carrow twins, Lestrange, Snape-"

Clara ignored the rest of the names. She turned and stalked towards the Slytherin common room.

How dare they! Just because she was the subject of a conversation at one of their 'Death Eater' meetings, does not mean they have the right to around and spread that information to the student population! That kind of information in the wrong hands could…. Oh who was she kidding? That information was already in the wrong hands. Voldemort knew it for fucks sake. Clara snapped the password at the painting in front of her common room and walked in. She could see all the boys Kelly had mentioned huddled in one of the corners.

Clara walked up to them. "Just who the fuck do you guys think you are!" she yelled.

The whole of the common room went silent. Jenny, who was studying with Regulus Black, stood up ready to pull Clara back at a moments notice.

"Hathaway…" Rosier said nervously, "How are you tonight."

"How many fucking times do I need to tell you all to leave me alone? Was once not good enough? Would you like me to say to where it'll stick?"

The group of boys flinched.

"Hathaway," Snape said, "What are you-"

"And you!" Clara rounded on him; "We've gone all of these years without saying so much as three word to each other, and now all of a sudden you think you have the right to intervene in my life? What do you think your precious little Evens would think if I told her why you're really ignoring her?"

Snape's eyes narrowed.

"How do you think she would react if I told her all the things you've been saying about her? How you've been calling her a- what was it you said- 'filthy little Mudblood'?"

Snape shot out of his seat and reached for hi wand. Big mistake.

With a flick of her hand, Severus Snape went flying through the common room and right into a wall on the other side. His body hit the floor and was motionless. The other students all ran screaming to their rooms where they locked themselves in, in hopes that Clara Hathaway was scared of wood.

Clara turned to the rest of the group of boys who now had looks of terror on their faces.

"This is your first and last warning," Clara said with enough venom to kill a Basilisk, "If you don't say out of my way, if you mess with my friends, if you put yourselves in the middle of my business, if you do anything that evolves me in any way, I will fucking kill you. Do we understand ourselves?"

The boys stared at Clara with shock and scared expressions. It had been years since they had seen her this mad.

"I said do you understand?" She yelled.

The boys all nodded.

"Good," said Clara. She turned to Jenny who was still standing there with Regulus Black staring. "Jen Jen, are you going to be much longer?"

Jenny smiled a little and shook her head. "No, I just finished."

"Oh goody!" Clara grinned, "Let's go to bed then. I'm beat."

She then turned to the Slytherin boys and smiled sweetly. "Goodnight boys. Sweet dreams."

She grabbed Jenny's hand and the two girls walked up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.

Hey everyone! So I forgot to leave notes in the other chapters, but I'm here now. So yeah… tell me what you think, give me you critiques, yadda yadda. Thank you ever so much for reading!

~Aggie~