Author's Note

Chapter 4 is ready! I'm sure you'll all be very excited to read Adeline's first real conversation with the wonderful, GLORIOUS Sirius Black.

Also, thank you again SOO much to everyone that has reviewed! It means a lot and its nice to know that there are people out there actually reading my work! It's so exciting! Thank you again!

And I encourage you to check out my profile, because I put some more pictures up for Lily, and who she reminds me of in real life. It's the totally gorgeous super model Katerina Martinovska!

So yep, that's it for now!

Read, enjoy, review! :) :)

Disclaimer: I don't own HP!

4. Questioning

"We're going to be starting things off a bit differently this year." said Professor Lark as he strode to the front of the classroom, all business. "Duels are the most effective way for me to observe your individual abilities, so that I can get a sense of your current skill level."

Most of the class cheered. I smiled slightly to myself. Winning a duel couldn't be too hard, and I was sure that father would be proud to hear that I had won my very first one at Hogwarts.

"Stick to basic hexes and jinxes, shields are encouraged, and if anything, try to stun or disarm your opponent! I'd rather not send anyone up to the hospital wing on the first day of class! Alright then, I'll pair you up randomly and we can start."

I gripped my wand tightly as I stood twenty feet away from Lily Evans, adrenaline coursing through my veins. Of all the people I could have been paired with, she would have been my last choice. One day had passed and I already had a rival.

"Begin," said Professor Lark, bringing me back to the present, and the room exploded with flying curses and shouted spells.

Two minutes in, it was increasingly evident that Lily Evans and I were extremely well-matched in everything academic, and dueling was no exception. We sent hex after hex towards each other, though none hit their mark as each time the receiver of the spell would block it with a shield or dodge it entirely.

And so it went for ten more minutes, as the other students steadily finished their own duels and stood off to the side, until we were the only two left.

Everyone was watching, and we were both tiring fast. Any moment, I knew one of us would slip up, and it would all be over. I just couldn't let the mistake be mine.

"Stupefy!" I shouted, putting everything I had into the spell, intent on ending this exhausting duel once and for all. However, Lily threw up a shield just in the nick of time, sending my own spell blasting back towards me.

The power of it sent me staggering backwards, and that turned out to be all the opportunity that Lily needed.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried, the spell shooting out of her wand like a rocket. It hit me with a huge amount of force, sending me flying off of my already unsteady feet and onto my back 4 meters behind me, my wand flying out of my hand and into Lily's at the same time.

The class exploded into applause as Lily jogged over to me, giving me back my wand and offering a hand to help me up. I sat there for a second as the clapping died down, my heart in the pit of my stomach. I had failed, yet again. An experience I was beginning to get horribly familiar with.

"So Villori loses to a muggle-born. Ironic, that is." I heard a Slytherin say behind me as I got back onto my feet, ignoring Lily's outstretched hand.

"Oh I'm so glad Lily won!" said a Ravenclaw girl to her friend. "Someone needed to show that Adeline girl that blood has nothing to do with ability!"

"Not so high and mighty now, eh Villori?" A Slytherin guy called to me from across the room as the rest of the class packed away their things, waiting for class to be dismissed. "Is it a big hit to your ego, getting blown straight onto your arse by a muggle-born?"

I suddenly felt frozen in the center of the room as my brain made since of these comments.

Lily Evans was a muggle-born?

I had just lost a duel to a muggle-born?

What the hell was going on?

I shoved past Gryffindors, Slytherins, and Ravenclaws alike, desperate to get out of that god-awful classroom. Desperate to make sense of the day's events.

I stumbled into the hallway without looking back and sunk onto the floor, my head in my hands. Suddenly everything was too much, and nothing made sense.

I had been humiliated twice in one day. And despite my pure blood and my lineage and my standing, I had not only proven myself to be inferior in ability to another person, but that other person happened to be a mud-blood? A filthy muggle-born, a member of a group of people whom I had been told since I was small that I was superior to in every way, especially in terms of magical ability?

Nothing made sense. I was a Villori. I should be the one with the admirers. I should be the one with the victories. I should be the one with the power.

I was suddenly angry. Angry at Hogwarts for putting me in Gryffindor. Angry at my father for sending me here in the first place and then abandoning me. Angry at Lily for being a muggle-born but still coming out on top. Angry at myself for allowing any of this to happen.

I was about to stand just as someone came around the corner and spotted me. Oh great, would I be reprimanded for leaving class? Was this just one more thing to add to my never-ending list of failures?

"Oi, Villori!" called a voice. A voice I recognized, and probably the last voice I wanted to hear.

"Get away from me, Black." I said, reaching for my wand, desperate to be alone. I didn't care anymore about what rules I broke or who I disappointed. My life had gone from perfect to shambles in 24 hours. A detention, even expulsion, wouldn't change anything at this point.

Sirius didn't seem fazed as he leaned against the opposite wall, eyeing me and my wand held in my left hand almost curiously. "What, you going to hex me?" he asked, as if it was funny.

"Yes, unless you leave." I said, glaring at him from my sitting position on the floor.

He chuckled, although I was quite serious. "You're an odd bird Villori."

My grip on the wand tightened. I didn't like the way he was laughing at me. "Yeah, why is that?"

He nodded at me, a smirk still on his face. "Well, here you are, sitting on the ground, all kinds of angry. You just stormed out of a classroom after being knocked flat on your arse by Evans, which has happened to practically everyone in our year, yet you are the only one seriously upset about it. A day ago, you were much too dignified to do so much as speak to anyone in this school, as brainwashed as you are with all the pure-blood supremacist crap your Dark Lord-worshiping parents have put in your head all these years, and now here you are, sitting like a kicked puppy on the floor, ready to hex me into next year."

I stared at Sirius, who was smiling at me smugly after that little speech. I felt the anger in me bubble up once again and in hardly longer than a second I had crossed the hallway with a few long strides, pushed Sirius back against the stone wall, and placed the tip of my wand at his throat.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" I growled, angrier than I had ever been before in my life, sick and tired of the ridicule that had followed me everywhere I went since I had come to this damned school, and especially fed up with Sirius Black and his mocking grin.

He didn't seem so mocking now though, as he stared at me, his gray-blue eyes searching mine. He seemed shocked, actually. "Aren't you just full of surprises?" he said, his eyes now lingering on my wand, which I hadn't moved from his neck.

I ignored him, my eyes blazing with fury. "Look here, Black." I said scathingly. "I'm a Villori, and you damn-well better treat me with respect. I don't care if you are a pure-blood, you're no better than a filthy muggle if you ask me, the way you go about hanging around with Evans and Potter and all the rest of the mud-bloods in Gryffindor." I shoved him away from me and backed up, keeping my wand raised. I was more than a little surprised at his nerve when he gave a cynical laugh, making no move to grab his own wand.

"Bloody hell, Addy! Listen to yourself! Talking about all this blood-rubbish like it has anything to do with ability! Evans's parents are muggles and she just hexed you straight across the room a few minutes ago! Blood doesn't matter!" he was shouting now, his handsome face contorted with anger and frustration as he addressed me in the empty hallway, striding forward until he was a few feet away from me.

"Of course it matters, Black!" I shouted back, "It's everything! I don't understand you! Your childhood was just like mine, yet you turn your back on everything our parents believe in!"

"Because its crap! All of it! Blood has nothing to do with ability or character or anything! Damn it Villori, don't you see? Your family is killing innocent, kind people, for absolutely no reason! Do you think Lily should die because she's a muggle-born? She's a good person! A brilliant witch! Do you want your parents to kill her? That's their mission! How can you believe in something like that?" he was breathing heavily, a foot away from me, his face flushed with anger.

I stood there, his words sinking in. I had never thought of it that way. I had been taught all my life that muggle-borns were the scum of wizarding society, and that their removal would be an improvement to our world.

But the thought of my parents, or one of my brothers, killing Lily, who had been nothing but nice to me, despite the animosity I had felt towards her… was that what was really going on?

Sirius seemed to be watching me carefully for my response. "You were put in Gryffindor for a reason." He said, quietly, his anger starting to fade. "I know you were. Just because your name's Villori doesn't mean you have to be one of them."

That comment stuck. I backed away from Sirius, leaning against the wall heavily. Now it was my turn to laugh, but not from amusement. The noise was odd to my own ears. I sounded half-crazed, and I felt it too, as I stared at Sirius with wide eyes. "There's the heart of it, Black. My parents hate me. They've all but disowned me. I may not be a Villori for much longer as it is." I said, thinking back to my father's letter and the disgust that had all but emanated from the words on the paper.

His eyes narrowed. "Would that be such a bad thing?" he asked, quietly.

I could tell I was at a turning point. I thought of Lily again, dead by my father's hands. The countless other people that would no doubt be murdered by my family's and Voldemort's orders. It was, in essence, the dark side.

But I thought of my pride to be part of such a powerful family. The respect I had been treated with by every pureblood who I came into contact with. The proud gaze of my father as I sat by his side during dinner, his favorite treasure.

And I just didn't know. I looked up at Sirius, who was still watching me, his eyes imploring. For some reason I didn't understand, Sirius wanted me on his side. The light side.

But I found myself in an area of gray. While part of me was desperate for my family's approval and the pride and standing that went with it, the thought of Lily dead once again left me feeling weak.

I gave Sirius a final glance as I started backing away down the hall, just as people started filing out of their classrooms, the hallway suddenly becoming a sea of students. "I don't know," I whispered softly, before turning around, losing myself in the crowd.