Disclaimer: I have nothing cute to say. Oh "puppies!" that was cute. Proceed with reading
XxXxX
Aly was eating breakfast in the Great Hall. With a rustle of cold air, she dropped her spoon into her cereal bowl. Her head snapped towards the door, all the blood leaving her face. The two others eating with her froze as well. Aly wanted to turn back to them, to tell them to leave, quickly, but she couldn't move. She was frozen facing the door. She licked her lips and waited for the worse.
To her relief, Lily was the only person she recognized come through the door. Lily ran up to her though.
"Logan's on his way up," Lily said, glancing at the boys. "He's talking to the Minster of Magic. Any idea why?"
Aly knew Lily had no inkling to what kind of exchange would happen if she hadn't provided that vital information, but she was grateful none the less.
"Well, thanks, Aly," Sirius said standing up and wiping his palms together.
"Yeah. Thanks," Remus said following his lead. The two boys made their way out of the hall. Aly felt a sudden sadness take over.
"Aly," Lily asked impatiently, "Why is Logan talking to the Minster?"
"I dunno," Aly said absentmindedly.
"Well, go find out," Lily said, pushing her forward. Aly stumbled as she got up. She made her way slowly towards the door. She felt like she was spiraling down a giant drain. There was an invisible force pulling her, and she couldn't stop it. She was dreading seeing Logan. All throughout break, she prayed that he wouldn't come back. She didn't want anything bad to happen to him. She just didn't want him to return. Her heart squeezed tightly in terrified anticipation. It was snowing outside so she stopped and waited in the open doorway.
Sure enough, Logan was deep in conversation with the Minster of Magic and her father. He shifted slightly as they talked and his eye caught a quick glance at Aly in the doorway. His signature smile spread hugely across his face. "If you two don't mind, can we put this off until a later date?" she heard him say. "My girl's waiting for me."
Both of the older men turned and looked at the figure of Aly waiting for her boyfriend. Both smiled knowingly.
"Of course," Dumbledore said.
"Ah, young love," the Minister commented as Logan made his way up the rest of the path.
Aly's heart tightened to the point that she thought it was going to burst as Logan came up to her. "You must be freezing," he commented at her.
He planted a warm kiss on her forehead and she realized that she as very cold.
"I've missed you," Logan said looking down at her.
The look in his eyes sent her heart free from its vice grip. She smiled and kissed his cheek. She felt better with him there for some reason.
"I've missed you too." It was only partly a lie, she realized, and she knew it was the appropriate thing to say in response.
"Let's get you inside."
XxXxX
"What is wrong with you?" Aly yelled at Lily.
"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, completely thrown off by Aly's outburst.
"What are you? Logan's spy?"
Lily didn't answer and lowered her eyes.
"Lily!" Aly gasped. Her hands covered her mouth in horror. "You're suppose to be my friend!"
"I am!" Lily responded in agony.
"Then why are you tattling on me to my boyfriend?" Aly snapped, hurt and angry.
Lily studied her hands as she said, "Logan is worried about you. He just wanted me to keep an eye on you. Make sure you're ok when he can't be with you."
Aly sighed. Lily did what she thought was for the best. It didn't take away the feeling of betrayal Aly felt.
Just minutes before, Aly had been yelled at for having one of her t-shirts found in the 4th year boys dormitory. In reality, it had gotten scooped up with blankets as Remus and her cleaned up their mattresses at the end of break. She couldn't explain why it was there because she hadn't told Logan about her spending time with the boys. So she just stood silently and took his yelling.
"Lily, I don't need a babysitter." Aly announced.
"Logan's --" Lily paused.
"Logan's what?" Aly asked impatiently.
"He's jealous."
"What?" Aly couldn't picture him being jealous. Overprotective, yes. But jealous? No.
"Of Sirius. He thinks you like him," Lily explained in a small voice.
Aly snorted.
"And I agree with him," she continued.
"Honestly," Aly said shaking her head.
"Well, Aly, what do you expect me to think?" Lily asked putting her hands on her hips.
"I expect you and Logan to trust me. This isn't trust. This is trickery," Aly explained. "This is worse than what my dad's done."
That one hit Lily where it hurt. She merely frowned at Aly.
"Picture it if the roles were reversed, Lily. What if it was Amos having me track you?"
Lily perked right up. "Amos has been asking you about me?"
Aly rolled her eyes and let Lily go into an in depth conversation with herself about if Amos really liked her liked her or if he just liked her.
Sirius rolled with laughter on Sunday when Aly told him and Remus about it.
"He's jealous of me? Bahahahaha." He held his side and fell out of his chair.
Aly rolled her eyes at him much like she had at Lily but for a much different purpose.
Remus smiled at the spectacle Sirius made but nudged him with his toe. "You need to keep it down."
"Oh ho ho," Sirius said as he tried to calm himself. He propped himself up on one elbow to look at Aly. "So, where are you?"
"Huh?"
"Where does, he, think you are right now?" Sirius explained. "I know you didn't tell him that you were hiding out in the Astronomy tower with the two of us. So where are you?"
Aly smiled. Her plan was genius in her opinion. "With my dad," she said with a wicked smile.
Her meetings with her dad were public knowledge. What wasn't spread around was that she hadn't been to one in forever. Aly knew that Lily studied in the library on Sunday night. So she told Logan and Lily she was with her dad (neither one would ever think to question it), and she offhandedly told James where Lily studied every Sunday. So, she was free of her overprotective boyfriend, her snooping best friend, and her least favorite Marauders (Peter tagged along with James as his own personal cheerleader).
"Bout time he turned out to be useful for ya, huh?" Sirius said getting back into his seat.
Aly smiled and Remus frowned.
"Well," Remus said, "I don't like that you're lying, but I am glad that you finally found time to fit us into your schedule."
"Me too," Aly said with all her heart.
XxXxX
"So, Logan. What's with all the ministry chat?"
Aly was eating, or pretending to eat, at lunch one Saturday afternoon with Logan and Lily. She hated that they were in cahoots. She always felt ganged up on. She was grateful, for her sanity's sake, that the next day was Sunday and that meant she'd get to spend an hour with Sirius and Remus.
Logan puffed his chest out and said, "Well, since you asked," he sent an unfriendly look at Aly. She still hadn't bothered to ask him about his chat with the Minister of Magic his first day back from break. Mostly because she was sure she didn't really care.
"I am the student liaison for Hogwarts within the ministry. I get to attend important meetings and hearings and other important ministry things like that."
"Wow." Lily was obviously impressed. "What do you think, Aly? Isn't that great?"
Aly lifted her fork and spun it around in the air to show just how high her enthusiasm was.
Logan looked at her, his eyes set hard. "What is wrong with you?"
Aly merely put her fork back into her noodles and spun it around trying to capture them all. Logan's fist hit the table and Lily's drink spilt over.
Aly showed no sign of even hearing. She even went as far as to yawn as Lily tried to mop up her drink.
Logan got up and stormed out of the hall.
Lily stopped trying to clean and stared at Aly. "Shouldn't you go after him?"
Aly just shrugged, still staring at her plate.
"Aly!" Lily said sharply.
She finally looked up and knew as soon as she saw the look on Lily's face that she wasn't going to drop this.
"Ugh. Fine." Aly made her way after Logan. She found his fuming in the entrance hall.
"Look, Logan. I'm sorry."
He had her by the wrist. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as usual. In fact, as far as Aly could tell, he wasn't grasping onto her with any of his strength.
"Did I do something?" he asked.
"What?" Aly was confused. This wasn't how these things went. He was in her face, but he wasn't yelling. He was holding onto her, but he wasn't hurting her. It had been since before Christmas since they had had a fight, but Aly was sure it wasn't suppose to be going like this.
"Did I do something to upset you? Or make you mad at me?" He looked intense but not in a scary way.
"No. Why?" Aly asked, devoid of any emotion.
"You're distant. Something's wrong. Is it us?" He was clearly upset.
Aly thought about it. Was something wrong between them? Well, she knew without hesitation that that was a yes. But was she ready to end it right then and there? She opened her mouth the speak, and it hit her.
The same old feeling: a black, tunnel sucking her in, taking away her air, drowning her.
"Aly?" she heard far away. Next thing she felt was a cold grip on her arm. And she came back. It was a slower process than blacking out and waking up, but she didn't fall all the way in. He had pulled her out. He had saved her.
She was helped to a sitting position and everything made its way back into focus.
"How did you do that?" she asked, feeling more foggy than she had ever felt.
"Do what?" his eyes were on her, studying her. He looked almost afraid of her.
She shook her head to dismiss it.
"You didn't eat anything. You should eat something. That would make it so that won't happen again." He was talking mostly to himself.
"You're right." She held out her arms, "Help me up?"
He hesitantly pulled her up to her feet.
He had stopped it. How had he done that? Her mind was spinning from the almost pass out and the questions she couldn't answer.
He seemed very unsure of what to do with her and not in a caring way.
"Don't just stand there," she snapped. "Say something!"
"Are, are you alright?" he asked.
She shrugged.
"I'm taking you to the hospital wing."
"No," she argued, but he pulled her up into his arms and was off.
"Logan--" she whined, "Put me down."
Her head hurt too bad. Her eyes wouldn't come completely back into focus. Her eyelids were too heavy. She didn't see her arrival at the hospital wing.
XxXxX
Aly opened her eyes. It was dark. A figure moved in the dark. She went to scream, but a hand slipped over her mouth.
"God, Aly. Wake everyone up, why don't'cha?"
The voice, and she'd never admit it but the smell as well, told her it was Sirius.
"What are you doing here?" she growled. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"I had to come see this crazy, possessed woman everyone's been talking about."
"What?!"
"That's what your boyfriend's been telling people anyways."
She huffed out her nose. Logan was going to pay for spread such lies about her.
"I figured you had," he waved his hand around, "one of your things."
"Yeah," she mumbled.
"I just wanted to check on you," he told her.
"Liar," she grumbled. "You just wanna know what I saw."
His teeth reflected the moon light around them, and she knew he was smiling.
"So...?"
"So what?" she snapped.
"What did you see?" He sat down on her bed, "Anything good?"
"Nope."
"Nothing good? Or . . . What?"
"Nothing. I saw nothing," and with that her rant began, "It started. Logan grabbed me. I pulled out of it. He brought me here. I feel asleep. He thinks I'm crazy and is telling everyone I am. So now I'm the possessed, crazy lady, or whatever it was that you called me." She flopped back onto her pillows.
"Nothing? Really? How'd that happen?"
"I don't know."
Sirius looked irked about this. Aly didn't know why or what to say to him.
"Is there anything you need from me?" he finally asked.
"What?" Aly could tell he was just saying what he thought was appropriate to say in that moment.
He didn't answer. Both sat quietly for awhile. Finally, she heard him mumble, "He made it stop."
"Yes he did," she answered blankly.
He jumped, obviously not aware of the fact that he said that aloud.
"It's bugging me too," Aly said trying to comfort him.
He turned to look at her. It was very hard for Aly to make out his expression without the reflection of the moon on it.
"How?"
Aly shrugged.
"Was it--- Maybe it was --- Could it---" he stuttered, talking to himself.
Aly cut him off, "It's driving me crazy too, but it's not giving you a headache, is it?"
"Sorry. I've just seen it before. It's not something that can be stopped."
Aly nodded and froze. "What was that?"
Sirius sat very still. "Foot steps."
Aly looked towards the door.
"Crap," was all she heard before the door opened and she realized that Sirius had disappeared somewhere. She prayed he had James' invisible cloak.
The light streamed in as Aly's curiosity over took her. Just who was wandering into the hospital wing at this hour and for what was intriguing. She crossed her fingers that it was something that would eclipse her own episode from earlier.
She slumped, her shoulder dropping, as she realized that it was her father and Logan.
She pursed her lips together and scowled.
"Alyson," her father said, flicking on the lights, "You're awake."
She flinched from the sudden light and covered her eyes.
Logan was by her side when she squinted them open, taking the spot the Sirius had just vacated.
She heard the wing door start to click, barely open, and then quickly close. She heaved a huge, silent sigh of relief.
"Aly," Logan took her hand, "Are you okay?"
She wanted to wretch her hand from his grasp, but she realized that she wasn't suppose to know that he was telling that she was crazy.
"I'm fine," she said as nicely as she could.
"Logan came to my office to see if he could speak to me about what happened," Dumbledore explained. "He was worried about you and wanted to come make sure you were okay. You've been out for a while." He made direct eye contact with her as he said, "He cares about you. He worries about you because he loves you." Aly knew as he said this that he knew someone, who couldn't be seen, had already been to visit her.
Aly merely stared back at him.
"I'm fine. I haven't eaten anything in about, what, 3 days now? My blood sugar must've hit rock bottom. That's normal for anyone, right?"
Logan seemed to blush a profuse amount. He must've just realized what lies he was spreading. Aly took advantage of this, "What's wrong, Logan? Why are you blushing so badly?"
His eyes narrowed on her.
"Why is my not eating upsetting you? I mean, my dad certainly wouldn't blame you for that. So what's with the blush?"
His hand tightened around hers.
"I've just been worried," Logan told her through clenched teeth.
"Well, I'm going to go back to sleep and tomorrow will be a better day." She pulled up his hand and kissed it.
"Yes, it will." He squeezed her hand to the point of pain, but he smiled at her as he said, "Tomorrow I have something special planned. Tomorrow, you are all mine."
Aly felt her heart flicker as she realized that she wasn't going to get to see Sirius. Or Remus.
XxXxX
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