Disclaimer: not mine.

Dedication: to all the Veterans. Without them I couldn't write this. I couldn't say what I want to say or believe what I want to believe. Freedom isn't free.

XxXxX

Aly's hand drug along the smooth stone wall of the castle. The chill the school emitted, especially in the dungeons, was always very comforting to Aly for some reason. She sometimes even caught herself half-wishing she was a Slytherin simply for their cold, dark common room. It seemed like years since Lennox's funeral. It reality it had been a week.

Her talk with Sirius still played very vividly in her mind. He had pulled her off into a deserted classroom and insisted they talk. He wanted to form a friendship between them. One with no awkwardness or anything. She agreed to it, although at the time she didn't really know what she was agreeing to. Then he had let her then pour out her soul to him. Every bit of information she had taken in over the course of discovering Lennox's death and what followed, she told him about. There was just something about him that made her trust him.

Now, one week later, they were friends. Aly didn't really know what that constituted along the lines of buddy-to-buddy talks and activities, but as she continued her walk, she didn't really care. Sirius never really asked for anything from her, ever. She was usually the one talking when they came in contact.

She turned a corner and found herself face to face with Severus Snape.

"Oh, sorry," she yelped as she jumped with surprise.

He didn't look too happy and brushed past her. Further down the hall she heard noises. As she moved closer, she heard that it was laughter. Sirius' laughter.

She continued down the hall, her walk turning into a jog, and saw a group of people standing around and Sirius was in the middle. James was standing next to him and Peter was stand off in the back. Remus was no were to be found, but Aly figured it was near a full moon.

"What are you doing?" she called out and instantly the group parted and Aly was left facing Sirius and James.

"Nothing," Sirius replied coolly. "What's it to you?"

Aly looked at him and he looked back at her. Their glares seemed to intensify as the continued to stare. "What are you doing?" Aly asked again, this time through clenched teeth.

"If it was your business, I'd tell you. But seeing as it's not, I'm going to say bug off."

Aly didn't understand what was going on with Sirius. He had wanted to be friends and now he was acting like a total jerk. She let out a huff and strode away.

"Tell your daddy I say hi, Dumbledore!" he yelled after her.

Her anger swelled when she turned a corner leading up to the common room and saw her father conversing with a large group of teachers.

Her face curled into a grime expression and when her father turned and saw her he frowned.

"Hello, Alyson," he greeted.

"Father," she replied snippily and brushed past him.

She hadn't gotten very far when she let out a scream of shock. Professor

Binns, the History of Magic teacher, was floating in front of her. He blinked down at her, not at all startled by her scream. In fact, he looked as if he hadn't even heard it. This came to no surprise to Aly since he always acted that way, but the fact that he was a pearly white figure terrified her.

He floated straight through her. It felt like her blood had suddenly run cold.

"Oh, hello," he said finally seeing her.

She just stared at him. He continued to float on, straight past the other teachers.

Aly walked back over to her father and asked, "What the--?"

"Professor Binns died in his sleep last night," Dumbledore explained. "And as usual, when it came time to rise for class, he did. Only he left his body behind."

Aly's eyes went wide and a strange smile crept onto her face as she watched her history professor float around the corner.

"It's funny."

Aly turned to look at her father, "Last night I was talking to him and he said he was dead tired. I guess he was right."

Aly laughed at this and Dumbledore chuckled. The teachers, not having listened to their conversation, looked at them in astonishment. Aly let out a sigh and turned in the direction of the common room again. "I'll see you later."

Dumbledore looked at her. "Next Sunday, I think."

Snapping her head around, she looked at him. He smiled and she nodded and left.

XxXxX

As 6pm rolled around, Aly felt a pang of guilt as she settled herself into a big squishy arm chair by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Lily, after looking at her watch, looked at Aly and said, "Um, Al, it's 6."

Aly chose to ignore this fact and snuggled deeper into the chair.

Lily kept making noises as Aly sat through her weekly meeting with her father.

6:05 . . . cough

6:10 . . . clearing of her throat

6:15 . . . "humph"

At 6:20, Sirius and James entered the common room. James had become a very popular spectrum in Hogwarts due to his Quidditch skills. He had a small group of followers who basically followed him around the school. Peter seemed to be James' head cheerleader.

Sirius came striding over at the sight of Aly. He gave her a, "Hey, Als," and sat down on the table in front of her.

She glared at him.

"What?!" he exclaimed.

Aly sat up quickly. "Don't you what me. You know exactly what I'm mad at you about."

Sirius seemed to decide to play innocent. "No, I don't know. And frankly, I'm hurt you'd accuse me of something I so obviously didn't do."

"'Tell your daddy I say hi, Dumbledore'," Aly mimicked.

"Ok, 1) I don't talk like that and 2) oh, I forgot about that."

"Well, fruit flies don't have very long attention spans do they?"

"Are you comparing me to a small insect?"

"Yes, I believe I am."

They were both sitting up straight and looked on the ready to pounce.

"I have to go." Aly stood up so fast that it startled Sirius and he fell backwards of the table. "I'll be back," she told Lily who was watching her and Sirius.

"Ok," she said smiling at Aly, glad that for once one of their fights wasn't going to end with something caught on fire or Aly storming off crying.

Aly wondered around the school for a while. She passed the Ravenclaw tower and one of the prefects told her off for being there. She wondered back down towards the dungeons. She passed a group of boys, Slytherin she noted, huddled together, whispering. As she approached one of the boys nudged the blonde boy in the middle. All of their heads shoot up and they all glared at her. She recognized a few of them. Snape was there and Lucius Malfoy and his two best friends Crabbe and Goyle. There were a few other people she couldn't place a name with.

"What are you doing here?" Malfoy growled.

"I can be here if I want. It's not your hallway." Aly snarled back. She didn't like the way this boy talked to her.

"I suppose not. Soon, but not yet." He turned toward the wall in front of him, he gave the password, Parselmouth, and went into the common room.

The others filed in after him. Only Snape remained. He was watching Aly through curtains of oily hair.

"He does realize that he just gave me the password to your common room, doesn't he?" she questioned him.

Snape shrugged and with one last look at Aly, he turned and went into the common room.

Aly continued upwards, back towards to the Great Hall. The doors were open when she got there. The hall was filled with the cold January air. A light out in the grass caught her attention. She tried to follow it without moving, but it disappeared and, her curiosity taking over, followed it out the door.

At the sight of her silhouette in the lit door frame, it stopped moving. There was whispering and shuffling and Aly realized what it was. The light suddenly went out and Aly called out, "James Michael Potter, you come back here now!"

There was a noise of surprise and a sound of bodies falling to the ground and a loud moan of pain. There was no more sound of movement and Aly, suddenly doubt her suspicion, called out again, "I'm going to see my father. I mean it." She turned, "Ok, I'm going now." As she started back into the hall, something warm caught her arm. James' head appeared next to her.

"Don't please. He said I'd get benched if I got sent to his office again." He was breathing heavily having sprinted across the lawn. He was sweating even though it was only about 27 degrees outside.

Aly saw over his shoulder Sirius and Peter pulling themselves off of the ground and brushing some snow off of themselves.

"What are you doing?" she asked cautiously, afraid of what the answer may be.

He shrugged and it was then that Aly noticed the full moon and it connected in her head. "Oh, James, you really shouldn't go out there now. It's not safe. He's not safe."

James eyes went wide. "Who's 'he'?" he asked trying to sound as if he didn't know what was going on, but not pulling it off very well.

"I don't know," Aly said playing along.

James smiled and turned to leave. "Please, don't" Aly called out again.

James just winked over his shoulder at her. When he reached the other two boys, Aly saw Sirius question him and look at her. With that she lifted her chin high in the air, turned on her heel, and strode back intro the castle.

It hit her just how cold it was outside. She decided against going to see her father. Her only thought was of getting up into her nice warm bed. The events of tonight could wait until tomorrow she thought with a yawn. Yes, wait until tomorrow.

XxXxX

Look, another one! To make up for having to wait so long for the last one. To also make up for the long time for the next one. Yes, a warning, it may be a while for the next chapter. Well, just have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading. Review for me, please.