Ok, so if this chapter seems a bit rushed, that's because it is. I had no bridge from the last chapter to the end of this chapter. But enjoy it anyways. I finally got to where I've been trying to get to. YAH =]

XxXxX

Aly paced the common room. She was slowly twirling her wand between her fingers. James entered followed by Peter.

"Hey!" Aly pounced on them.

"Whatever it is, no," James said pushing past her.

"Please," she begged, following after them.

Sirius appeared from the stairway. "What's she working on now?"

"Sirius! Please let me practice on you." Aly turned to face him.

"I still have bruises from being thrown last week on my...special regions," he said rubbing his butt gingerly.

"I'll be more careful. I promise. Plus, there will be no throwing."

They argued for about an hour, but he eventually gave in and, before he knew what was happening, he was being strangled with his own overextended hair.

"Sorry," Aly shrieked.

"That's it!" he yelled. He was on his knees trying to take in as much air as possible. He stood and looked at her. "You are taking this trying to be rough and tough thing too far. Practice on someone else."

"I said I'm sorry," Aly said hurt by his tone.

"Well, sorry isn't always enough. Plus," he was standing now, "What's your big concern about being able to curse people? You already had the crappy boyfriend who slapped you around. Wouldn't this have been more useful about a year ago?"

He was clearly angry and just taking out his frustration on her. If this had been any other day, one that Aly hadn't spent all day alone, being ostracized by all the other girls in the tower (who had taken Lily's side), she might have shrugged these comments off. As it was, they rubbed her the wrong way.

"Shut up, Black," she snapped. "If you don't want to help me, don't. No one's forcing. I'm sure you've got some skank to run off to anyways. Sorry to take up so much of your oh-so precious time." She turned on her heel and left.

She merely brushed past the Marauders on her way to breakfast the next day. Her injuries were still stinging.

She spent the day without talking to anyone and found a book to read while in the library so that she didn't have to spend the evening completely alone. At least some lame mystery novel with a lame detective could keep her company.

She settled into the best couch in the common room as soon as the library closed. She read long into the night, completely emerged in the story.

She was so emerged in her book that she didn't even hear anyone come down the stairs.

"Oh, hey," Sirius said sleepily. He stopped awkwardly at the bottom of the steps. "I was coming to put out the fire. I didn't realize that anyone was down here. I'll leave you be." He turned to leave.

"Wait," Aly called to him. She wasn't sure why she stopped him.

His eyebrows went up as he turned back.

She had no where to go with stopping him so she asked, "Why were you going to put it out? House elves do that every night."

"Not here," he said.

"What do you mean?" She had propped herself up on her knees to face him.

He took a careful step forward. "Fire places freak me out."

Aly raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Why?"

"Don't make fun," he said coming closer. "Once, when I was about 6, somehow, a lit fireplace caught our dining room on fire. I got trapped in my bedroom. So now I have to put out the fire before I go to sleep. I can't sleep if I don't."

She smiled at him, and he returned it. The animosity from earlier seemed to have lifted.

"I promise I'll put it out when I got to bed," she said with a tilt of her head. She returned to facing forward and went back to reading her book.

She figured she had left, but after a very long period of silence, he asked, "Why do you always do that?"

She jumped at his question and looked over her shoulder at him. "Do what?" she asked grumpily. She had been caught up in a suspenseful part of her book, and it scared her when he spoke.

He hesitated, but then jumped over the back of the couch and landed next to her. She felt her glare lifting as he adjusted himself after his jump.

"Do what?" she asked again, this time out of curiosity.

Without looking at her, he said, "That thing with your eyes."

This was not at all what Aly expected to hear him say, and she sat in silence.

He was still fiddling with his shirt when he added, "It's really hard to think when you make that look at me."

"Well," she said, swallowing hard as she thought of something to say, "I'm...sorry?"

He chuckled quietly. "Nothing to be sorry 'bout, Als."

"Well, I don't know what else to say. Mostly because I didn't know that I did anything with my eyes."

He turned to look at her. She examined his face. "Am I doing it now?" she asked scooting closer, trying to remake the look she thought she may have had on her face earlier.

He sat up straight. "No," he told her moving his face closer to examine her eyes.

"Now?" Aly tried a different eye placement.

"No," he said pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Now you're just squinting."

She laughed quietly. "Well, apparently I can't control it."

"That's a good thing," Sirius told her, his hand resting behind her ear. "The entire Y chromosome carrying universe would be at risk if you could control that look."

She rolled her eyes and felt herself leaning into towards him as if by some magnetic force. He seemed to be moving in accordance to it as well.

His nose touched hers and he breathed, "Someone should come barging in at any second."

She smiled for a spilt second before his lips were on hers. Aly felt electricity shot from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

He pulled away, holding her head in both of his hands now. His eyes shimmered in the glow of the depleting fire. He smiled softly and said, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that."

"Well, do it again," Aly said moving up to him.

Their lips moved against each others. When Aly shifted, putting her arms around his neck, and pulled herself up to hoover over him, he pulled away quickly.

"Wha--?"

He had gotten up, and it looked like he was trying to put as much space between them as possible. He stopped by the stairs. His eyes looked black and empty. He licked his lips and said, "Be sure to put that fire out, okay?"

She sunk down onto the couch and stared aimlessly into the fire until it put itself out.

XxXxX

Dun dun dun. Guess you'll just have to wait to find out what that was all about . . .