"What the--?!"
Aly pulled away from Sirius, her eyes tightly closed, and cursed.
Sirius' face had lost it's color.
"What the hell is going on?!" James yelled.
Aly looked over her shoulder at James and, to her surprise, Lily, who both looked shocked.
James' face was red as he began to sputter, "Wha,wha,wha?!"
"Dude," Sirius, said without looking at him, "Breathe."
"Don't tell me what to do," James snapped, finding his tongue.
"Well, you're freakin' out," Sirius pointed out.
"I have every right to be freaking out!" James shouted at him.
Sirius snorted in response.
"What the hell is going?" James asked again.
Aly took that as her cue to step in, "Well,"
James held out his hand, the other hand was over his eyes, as he announced, "I can't hear you while your sitting on his lap."
Aly sighed, climbed off of Sirius, and stood. "Like I was saying,"
James cut her off and called out loud towards the ceiling, "Sirius, tell me what is going on."
Aly looked at her boyfriend. He wasn't taking James reaction very well. He stood, and Aly took his hand and squeezed it.
"So," Sirius started, starring down James, "As you can plainly see, we are together now."
James snorted.
"And you better get over your problem," Sirius ordered.
James squinted at him, and said through clenched teeth, "I thought we had talked about this."
"We had," Sirius said back in the same strained voice. It was as if they were trying to have a conversation without anyone else hearing it.
"You were over this."
"I was."
"Then what happened?"
It was Lily who broke up their talk. "How did this happen?" Everyone jumped at the sound of her voice. They had all forgotten she was there.
Aly looked at her and said, "Not sure exactly sure."
"When did this all start?" Lily looked more hurt than anger. James, on the other hand, was still red in the face.
"Well," Aly thought back through the strange trip that had been hers and Sirius' relationship. "Technically, it started 2nd year." She looked up at Sirius for confirmation, and he smiled back at her.
"Puh-lease," James groaned and moved over to Lily. Whispering began between the two of them. They were apparently discussing things, James' hand movements wild, Lily looking very torn.
Aly heard James say something about how Sirius could do better, and Sirius moved over to him to correct him. James held up his index finger which stopped Sirius in place, half between where James and Lily stood and where Aly stood.
Lily seemed to perk up some courage and was arguing with James. They weren't yelling at each other, more like talking aggressively. However, it was enough to suck Aly into one of her spells.
The edges of scene she was watching blurred. She waited for everything to go black, knowing that fighting it was useless, but it never did. Instead, the scene stayed exactly the same, only it's occupants changed. James and Lily seemed to age right before her eyes. They continued to argue but they looked about 10 years older. Aly finally felt her feet lose their hold on the floor and hit the ground with loud bang.
"Ahh," she groaned in pain as her skull hit the floor. She heard feet as Sirius was over her.
"Als," he looked extremely upset.
"I'm fine," Aly mumbled, holding out her hand to be helped up. Sirius didn't take it though.
"What'd you see?" he whispered.
Aly closed her eyes in annoyance and pushed herself up. "Thanks for your concern."
He pulled her to her feet. "I was just asking."
Aly rubbed her head and avoided looking at James and Lily. "I'm going to go to bed."
"Good," James commented venomously.
Sirius sent him a look of disapproval before asking Aly. "Are you sure?"
Aly nodded, but stopped as her head sent shots of pain in protest. "Yes." She headed for the stairs, her soft pillow the only thing on her mind. Sirius grabbed her by the elbow to stop her before she made the climb.
"Are you really ok?" he asked.
She smiled at him, "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow?"
His eyes were soft with concern as he said quietly, "Yeah. Good night." He kissed her on the tip of the nose.
He turned to leave, and Aly suddenly remembered what had her worried earlier. She grabbed him by the shirt, and he turned to look at her.
"Don't," she said almost in a panic.
His eyes questioned her.
"Don't go see him. Not when he's the way he is."
Sirius smiled at her, realizing what she was talking about. "No worries."
"Sirius, please," she pushed.
He licked his lips. "I have to go." The look in Aly's eyes made him explain. "I can't let James get to the other two without me there."
Aly realized what he was saying about James was right, but it didn't ease her concern about the werewolf that would be there.
"Aly, go to sleep. Feel better. I'll see you tomorrow."
Aly nodded and went up the stairs. Lily followed not far behind her.
"Aly," she said simply.
Aly was laying down on her bed, not bothering to change.
"Yeah?" she mumbled.
"I still don't understand--"
Aly propped herself up on her elbow and asked, "Can we talk about this tomorrow?"
Lily looked hurt, but nodded.
Aly feel back onto her pillow and waited for sleep to come. However, it was restless when it came, filled with images of bodies surrounding a werewolf somewhere in the forbidden forest.
XxXxX
The next morning, Aly's head felt no better. She headed to breakfast alone and found Hagrid standing in the front hall, wringing his hat between his hands.
"Hey, Hagrid," Aly greeted him.
Hagrid smiled at her, but it was clearly forced.
"What's going on?" Aly asked cautiously. She knew from experience that Hagrid looking uncomfortable usually lead to something unpleasant, like when he decided to try to raise Glumbumbles for their fluid and ended up knocking himself out for 3 days.
"Got a favor to ask ya," he said shyly.
"Ok."
"Can ya watch Fang for me? Just for a lil bit. Got important business to take care of. On orders of Dumbledore." He puffed out his chest proudly but continued to stare down at Aly unsure of her answer.
"Is that it?" Aly asked, expecting much worse.
"Yea. Wat ya expect?" he asked.
Aly just shook her head and told him, "I'd be happy to watch him for you."
"Aly, you're the best. 'E only needs to be taken out 3 times a day, but 'e likes it if ya let 'im wander into the forest a lil. 'E likes to test 'is boundaries. But don't let 'im wander too far."
"I won't," Aly promised. "When do you expect you'll be back?"
Hagrid didn't meet her eyes as he told her, "Dunno. Couple days, I suppose."
Aly didn't believe him, but bid him a good day before going in to eat breakfast. She ate very little, the throbbing still pulsating throughout the back of her head. She finally gave up trying to stomach breakfast, threw down her spoon, and went to see the nurse before her first class.
"What did you do?" the nurse asked shining her lit up wand wand into her eyes.
"I fell backwards," Aly said trying to blink away the spots left by the light.
The nurse tapped her foot, holding Aly's wrist between her fingers, and watching her watch. Aly had only seen these type of things done on medical shows she'd seen at Lily's house. It brought on a sudden bout of sadness as she recalled that one of Mrs. Evans' favorite soap opera's was about a hospital.
Aly sadness quickly turned to anger as she saw her father enter the hospital wing. That explained why the nurse was doing the strange muggle things; she had been stalling.
"Good morning, Alyson," he greeted her with his usual smile.
Aly frowned at him.
"What brings you here this fine day?" he asked.
Aly's frowned deepened as she said, "I fell."
"Fell?" his eyebrows went up. "What caused this fall?"
Aly flinched at the nurse probed the back of her head with her fingertips.
"I lost my balance," Aly said through clenched teeth.
"What did you fall onto?" the nurse asked her.
Aly turned to face her, thankful to have an excuse to not looking at the headmaster, "The common room floor."
"Of which common room?" she asked, writing something down.
"Why should that matter?" Aly asked suspiciously.
"Well, it matters a great bit. The Hufflepuff and the Slytherin rooms both have harder floors. The Ravenclaw room has lots of carpet and the Gryffindor tower has lots of throw rugs on hardwood. So, it is with good reason I ask which room," she explained patiently.
Aly, having never though about that, answered, "Gryffindor."
The nurse nodded and asked, "Did anyone see you fall?"
"Why?" Aly was getting aggravated by the question.
"They would be able to give me some answers you couldn't supply," the nurse said calmly.
"Like what?"
"Aly," Dumbledore cut her off, "The questions are to help figure out what is wrong with you."
"I know what's wrong with me," Aly snapped at him, "I have a headache because I fell backwards in the Gryffindor common room last night. Who was there? James Potter, Lily Evans, and Sirius Black. I got up right after I fell and went to bed. I woke up this morning so clearly it isn't a life threatening ailment. So can you please give me something to stop the throbbing so I can go to class?"
The nurse scribbled all of this down and disappeared.
"Was that so hard?" Dumbledore asked still smiling at her.
"What is your problem?" Aly snapped. "Are you having everyone in the castle trail me?"
Dumbledore looked very amused. "I figured you would have caught on to this before now."
Aly felt her anger swell to a bursting point, and she jumped up. "I'd ask you to stop but you won't. So, I'll tell you this, shove off. Leave me alone. And stop trying to control every part of my life!"
She stormed out of the room, completely ignoring the fact that she forgot the potion for her head.
She slammed her book bag down on her desk as she took her seat in Slughorn's class, which had already started. Lily had pulled her seat up next to Melanie and Mary's cauldron. Slughorn came over to give her instructions. "You can join up with someone," he advised.
But Aly shook her head. "I work better alone."
XxXxX
Aly collapsed onto a couch after class that day. Her head still hurt, and, on top of that, so did her hands. Fang took a little to eagerly to the forest, and Aly's hands paid the price as she held onto his leash for dear life.
She wanted desperately to go back to the nurse, but didn't want to deal with the possibility of seeing her dad again. If Lily wasn't avoiding her, she would've asked her for help, but Aly was pretty sure she was still upset about the Sirius thing.
So, she laid on the couch and waited. She figured eventually a numbing would take over, and she would just have to wait it out until it did.
She heard someone come over to her, and the voice that greeted her was not the deep male voice she had hoped for. Instead it was high pitched and giggly. Aly opened her eyes and saw Mary standing over. "Can we talk to you?" she asked. Aly heard Melanie giggle with her so she must've been close as well.
"'Bout what?" Aly grumbled.
She watched as Mary turned to look at Melanie, both girls giggled, and Mary turned back and said, "Logan."
Aly sat up a little to quickly than she should've, and she grabbed her head as she gasped, "What?"
"Look," Mary said impatiently, "I know he's your ex-boyfriend or whatever, but he's hot. And I need details."
Aly stared at her for a few seconds and before she could form an answer to give, Sirius walked into the common room, and, suddenly, the two girls attention was no longer on Aly.
Aly watched as the two girls scurried over to him and a flurry of eye lashes and giggling overwhelmed her boyfriend. She rolled her eyes at the scene and fell back onto the couch. She closed her eyes, but her ears kept a very close listen in on what was going on across the room. Mostly the girls wanted to know if Sirius had any plans for later. He shrugged them off and made his way over to her. The two girls followed him over.
"How are you feeling?" Sirius asked her.
"I'm fine," Aly told him, very aware of the two girls standing near them.
Sirius looked up at the girls who were standing behind the couch listening eagerly. "Do you need something?" he barked.
The two girls were taken back by this sudden outburst of anger. They both quickly shook there heads.
Sirius calculate quickly and told them, "Let me finish up here with Aly, and I'll meet you in the library in about 5 minutes."
"Both of us?" Mary squealed.
"Sure," Sirius said with a wink.
Both girls giggled and scurried out of the room.
"What would you do with both of them?" Aly asked not able to phantom why that prospect would be exciting to anyone.
Sirius ignored her question and asked again, "How are you feeling?"
It didn't escape Aly's notice that he ignored her, but answered, "I said I'm fine." She closed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.
"You looked awfully mad this morning."
"I went to the nurse," she started, but he cut her off.
"Why?"
Aly licked her upper lip and said, "My head."
"What?" His eyes were swimming with worry.
"It still hurts, but that wasn't why I was mad."
"Did the nurse give you something? For your head, I mean."
"She was going to til my dad showed up," Aly said bleakly.
She heard him breathe an "Oh."
Aly turned her head to look at him and studied his face. He squirmed under her intent gaze over his person. "What?" he finally asked.
"I don't see any scratches or marks or anything."
"Why would I have any of those?"
Aly mind was still running wild as scene to scene of him being mutilated by a werewolf ran through it. "Didn't you go see Remus last night?"
He looked peeved by this questions and asked, "How do you even know about Remus?"
Aly rolled her eyes, and he patronized her by saying, "You really need to stop doing that. Your eyes are gonna get stuck like that."
Aly stuck her tongue out at him and answered his question, "I don't see what the big deal is. I've known about Remus since 2nd year."
"2nd year?!" He was as shocked as Remus had been.
"Why do people seem to think I don't notice things?" Aly asked exasperated.
"You clearly don't notice everything," Sirius commented offhandedly. "Or else you'd know why I don't have any scratches."
"What?!" This had sparked Aly's attention, and, again, she sat up way too quickly than she should have. Her hand flew to her forehead as she leaned forward trying to stop the spinning. She mumbled to herself, "Way too much excitement for one day."
"What does that mean?" Sirius asked leaning to the side to look at her face.
She looked at him between curtains of curls and explained, "Before you came in, Mary and Melanie wanted to know info on Logan. He's apparently hot now."
It was Sirius' turn to roll him eyes.
"You can't do it if I can't," Aly said pushing her hair back to see him as she scolded him.
He, in return, stuck out his tongue.
Aly wrinkled her nose in response and groaned as a throb went through her head.
"Alright," he stood quickly.
Aly glanced at him. "What?"
"Lay down. I'll be back."
She frowned at his back as he disappeared. She sat staring at the portrait hole waiting for his return. To her displeasure, it was James and Peter who were next to enter the common room. James stopped and stared back at her. Peter looked at James oddly. He seemed to not know what was going on. Aly really wished she had heard what had happened after she had gone to bed last night.
Sirius returned and found James and Aly still staring each other down. He brushed past James and handed Aly a small vile of pinkish fluid. "Drink this," he directed, sitting down on the coffee table again.
Aly pulled her eye sight off of James, took it and gulped it down without question. Within seconds, she felt the pain in her head disappear. She looked at Sirius, "Thanks."
"I went to Slughorn. No dad necessary."
Aly smiled grateful that he understood her concern and aggravation with involving her father. She looked at him as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Can we talk?"
"Aren't we already?" he asked with a smile.
"Privately," she stressed, her eyes wandering over to James who had taken his seat at the Marauder's table with Peter.
Sirius saw where her eyes were and nodded. He offered his hand to help her up and she suggested, "We can go to Hagrid's. I have to let Fang out anyways."
Again, he nodded and they walked silently through the castle.
Once outside, Aly started in on her questions without preamble. "What happened with James last night?"
"Nothing," Sirius said, shoving his hands into his pockets, his shoulders going up stiffly.
"Really?" Aly asked skeptically, hopping into footprints already left by other student in the snow.
"He kept quiet. We haven't talked about it since."
This struck Aly as odd, but she kept on with her questions. "Why do you call each other Padfoot and Prongs?"
He smiled wryly, "Just nicknames."
"What do they stand for?"
Sirius seemed to struggle before telling her, "I'm Padfoot. James is Prongs. Then there's Wormtail and Mooney. I'll leave it to you to figure who is who." He was joking with her even though she could clearly see that he was upset.
They had reached the small hut that Hagrid resided in, and, as Aly opened the door, Fang bounded at them and took Sirius down. Aly clasped his leash onto him as Sirius served as a distraction. Fang, with only a small tug from Aly, headed for the forest, and Sirius came up and took the leash from her. He managed to control the huge boarhound better than Aly could.
Sirius was deep in his own head when Aly told him, "You should fix things with him."
"I know," he said. "It's just not that easy." He moved his head to show that he was trying to rearrange and sort out his thoughts. "There's a history that can't just be forgotten over night with him."
The cold wasn't too bad with the wind gone, so, Aly stopped and leaned against a tree. "What history?"
Fang tried to take Sirius deeper into the woods, but Sirius planted his feet and made a strange noise at the dog, and Fang pulled him no further.
"You know what I'm talking about," Sirius told her.
Aly's face told him that she didn't.
"2nd year? The lake?"
"Well, I know about that," Aly said, hurt by his angry tone.
"You know what that started."
Aly's oblivious look forced him to expand, "Kaylynn. Ellen. Meaghan. Carla. Etc. etc."
Aly's brow creased in confusion. What did these girls have to do with her? "I don't see--"
Sirius' patience had apparently snapped. "It's because of you! All of it!" he yelled. "I would've never if you hadn't."
"Hadn't what?" She stood up off of the tree, her eyes blazing with fury.
She sputtered in coherent syllables before yelling,"Brainfart!"
Aly felt anger rip through her. She stalked over and snatched the leash from his hand. Fang, who had lain down and had taken up whining, jumped up happily and followed her.
"Aly," Sirius called after her, realizing he had made a big mistake in his choice of words. She ignored him, feeling so hot that she wouldn't have been surprised if steam had shot out of her ears. She lead Fang back to into the house and got him a bone from the cupboard which she slammed shut. He began to whine at the noise but it turned into barking as Aly closed the front door behind her so hard the windows on the small hut shook.
"Aly," Sirius tried again, standing in the snow. Aly moved past him and headed back towards the castle. How dare blamed her for his years of hussying himself around!
"Will you listen to me?!"
She turned on her heel and came face to face with him. He jumped back in surprise. He hadn't expected her to stop.
"What other misguided decisions are you going to blame me for?"
His anger flared up in response to that and he yell back at her, "Do you honestly think that I struck out with the intention of becoming what I've become?! Do you think that I was ready for that to happen to me? And, yes, as a matter of fact, I will blame you for my 'misguided decisions.' I wanted you. Every girl I passed along was just a way to ease the pain. And just for your information, it never worked."
Aly felt her heart flutter. He was admitting something he probably swore to himself he'd never say aloud. He had wanted her. But why hadn't he just said something?
"And then," he continued, extreme hatred filling every word, "You hooked up with that prat, Logan," he spat the word and Aly's jaw quivered despite herself, "And I had to watch you lose yourself and take his shit. He made you distance yourself from me, and then he hurt you. I was about ready to kill him and I would've too. He's lucky to still be alive to be wasting oxygen." His eyes blazed with a hatred Aly had never seen before.
But something raged inside of her, and she set her jaw with quite a bit of will power and snapped, "You're the one who always said we couldn't be together."
"Because I got caught up in my life style. I was never good enough for you, seeing what I come from, and then I became this man whore,"
"You're not," she interrupted.
He waved his hand to dismiss her comment, "The point is I became even less worthy." He looked up at her, his voice softening, "And now here you are. Telling me that you think I'm worthy. And I don't know what to do cause I still don't deserve you. And James won't let me keep you cause of all the pain not having you caused me."
"I didn't know." Her heart swelled painfully.
"Alyson," Sirius said. Even though it was the first time she had ever really heard him use her full first name, she wouldn't, or couldn't, meet his eyes.
"Look at me please."
She did, feeling as if he had placed a huge weight on her shoulders.
"All of that is in the past," he told her, and with a small smile said, "I've got you now. And that's all that matters. I can let the past be the past. James is just going to take sometime."
"Is that what his problem with me is?"
Sirius smiled sadly at her observation. "He has always unfairly blamed you for any mood I've ever been in. Not to say that you didn't actually cause many of them."
Aly lowered her eyes and processed this. "Is this why you two quit talking in 3rd year? Because of me?"
Sirius shrugged. "I always knew that you were special. From the first time I met you."
"We were eleven," Aly argued.
"So?" he said, "I knew you were special. I just couldn't put my finger on what it was."
"Do you know now what it is?" Aly was intrigued.
"Because your my other half."
"Lame," Aly said with an eye roll, thinking he was joking. Apparently, he wasn't.
He snapped angrily, "I said stop that. You are unbelievable." He was clearly very upset with her response. "I open up and tell you something very personal and revealing and you make some snarky comment and roll your eyes." He ran his fingers through his hair, cursed, and walked away from her.
Aly felt her insides twist. She hadn't meant to upset him. Aly looked off away from Sirius, unable to handle the feelings she had when she put her eyes on him. The forest looked pretty in the soft light of dusk. She stared at it for a moment, and something occurred to her. Something she could share with him, something that would make her just as vulnerable as he had been.
She took off into the snowy evening.
He must've heard her move because he asked, "Where are you going?" When she didn't respond, he called angrily after her, "Aly, come back here."
When she kept her path straight towards the the forest, he came running up behind her so fast she was unaware of how he had caught up. He took hold of her shoulders, "We can't just go wandering into the forest. At night. Alone." He shook her gently as he as he said this.
Aly raised her chin in defiance. "Don't you trust me?"
Sirius wavered only slightly, "I trust you, just not the things in there."
"Not so brave without your boyfriends are you?" Aly mocked. This worked exactly as Aly had hoped.
"I'm plenty brave. I'm just worried about you," he said defensively.
"I can take care of myself, thank you very much." She set off again.
She passed him and thought she heard him whisper, "But you don't have to anymore," before he followed her. He tried to keep a very close hold on her, but she moved ahead of him, just out of his reach. She pushed though the trees that where weighted down with snow.
"Aly," she heard him whine, sounding more like his usual self.
She stopped in the clearing. She hadn't been here in so long. Not since . . . her heart sunk. Not since she had brought Logan here. She cursed herself in her head over and over. Why would she bring Sirius here when she had shared this with Logan? He was bound to be hurt by that.
She turned to look at him. He wore almost the same look of confusion that Logan had, and Aly's heart sank even deeper. He walked around the stone, examining it as it glowed. "What is this?"
"A moonstone," she said downtrodden.
"Really?" his eyebrows went up. "How'd it get here?"
Aly felt her spirits perk a little at his interest in it. "Dunno."
"Did you find it?" he asked, holding his hand over the stone, careful not to touch it.
"No," Aly said softly, "My mom did."
This grabbed his attention, and he turned his head to look at her. "Your mom?"
"Yeah."
"And you're sharing it with me?" he asked unsure.
"I wanted to give something back," she explained. "To show you something very special to me."
He turned back to the stone and announced, "They have one of these in the Department of Mysteries." This was not what Aly had expected him to say.
"Yah," she said slowly, "It's part of this one."
"Wow." He looked amazed.
Aly looked at it as well, letting herself get caught up in the swirling patterns of the ancient rock. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked him, not taking her eyes off of it.
"Yeah," he commented softly, not looking at the rock, but, rather, at her.
She looked up and caught his eye. He turned away quickly, almost shyly, and asked, "How does it do that? The colors--"
"The full moon doesn't just change Remus, you know," Aly said with a small smile.
Sirius' head shot up towards the sky.
"Three days right?" Aly asked him. He looked at her in wonder. "I'd never ask Remus about it, but I bet the moon effects him for three days."
Sirius nodded, his mind calculating.
"The full moon," Aly explained, trying to to get his attention back, "Makes the colors swirl. Normally, it's just whitish. That's why it's moonstone. My mom thought it had some sort of healing power. She came here a lot when she was pregnant."
Aly had moved towards him as she said this and was right next to him as he asked, "How do you know?"
"She kept journals about the cycle of the stone," she explained. "Do you want to touch it?"
He looked thrown off by this question. Aly nodded encouragingly, "It's alright. Go ahead. Touch it."
He did as instructed, and the stone's color swirled before turning red.
"You're distracted," Aly announced.
"Why do you say that?"
"The stone knows," she said smiling at the expression on his face, "You can't hide things from it. Red means your distracted. Blue means your head is clear. Green is happy."
"What color are you?" he asked. She came up next to him and put her hand right next to his. The stone turned a deep purple and shocked them both. They both pulled back in pain.
Aly look at him before looking back at the stone. "It's never done that before." She placed her hand on the stone, alone this time. "Well, yeah, it's brown."
"What's that mean?" he asked as he went very still. If it was at all possible, Aly would've sworn she saw his ears perk as well.
"Puzzled," she explained. "Which makes sense since I have no idea why it did that." She walked around the stone. "Maybe it's because two people were touching it. I don't think there has ever been two hands on it from two different people at the same time." She was talking more to herself than to him. "My mom never brought anyone here. I don't even think my dad knows about this place. The only time there were two people here was when I brought Logan, and he certainly didn't feel a need to touch the stone." Aly bit down on her cheek as she contemplated this strange situation.
"You brought Logan here?" Sirius asked, not really paying any attention to her, his body still stiff and alert.
"Yes," she said, studying him. "It was daylight though. No magical colors or anything. He didn't even really care about the stone. He just wanted to ---" Aly stopped short remembering that with Logan the stone was more of a thing to be leaned against than a thing to be observed.
"We should go," Sirius announced.
"I'm sorry," Aly said quickly, coming over to him. "I hadn't meant to bring you somewhere I had taken Logan. It's just this is important to me and I wanted to share it wit--"
He had placed a finger over her mouth. "We'll come back."
She smiled, "Really? You don't care about the whole Log---"
"We'll come back," he announced, "When it's safer."
"Safer?" she asked as he pulled her back through the trees. The harsh wind had returned, blowing snow at them, off of the ground, from all directions. He was dragging her towards the school as quickly as he could, but Aly's legs were shorted than his and slowed them down.
"You're hurting me!" she exclaimed as his tight grip cut off blood flow to her fingers.
"You're gonna feel a whole hell of a lot more pain if you don't hurry up," he barked. He began to mutter to himself, "Knew we should've left earlier. Knew it!"
A breeze fluttered through a near by tree and then the air stood still, silent. The event that happened next happened so quickly Aly wasn't even sure if what she saw was real. She thought she saw the Whomping Willow stand completely still. Which would never happen. The tree had been planted right before she started school so she didn't really know much about it. Except, she knew that it would savagely beat anything or anyone who got near it. So she thought she was seeing things as it came to a complete stop.
She felt Sirius suddenly let go of her. She looked to see why he had suddenly quite being so overprotective. However, he was no where to be seen. Aly heard a bark and then a terrible roar that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
She turned in horror to see a full sized werewolf coming at her. It was suddenly tackled by a large, black dog. Aly watched the two wrestle. She wanted to run, but her feet were frozen in place.
A deer appeared near the scene. It began to clomp it's hooves angrily, as if it were yelling at Aly, but she still couldn't move.
The dog was thrown, and a loud whimper excavated from it. The wolf continued at her. She was, without a doubt, it's target.
Suddenly, sense returned to her, and she shot an angry spell at it. It caused the beast to be pushed back and stunned slightly, but it came charging back at her.
She thought for sure that she was going to die and felt a sudden ping of pity for Remus. He was going to be so upset when he found out he had accidentally killed her. Her feet went up from under her, and she closed her eyes as she waited for death. However, the thing that had knocked her down had large, soft paws. The dog had knocked her back and was now standing protectively in front of her. It's teeth was bared and it lunged.
Aly rolled over and took off running. However, with a snarl and rip, she felt a searing pain in her back, and she fell flat on her stomach. There was a snarling, a cracking, and a whooshing of the wind.
Aly rolled onto her back, letting the snow ease the pain. She saw the Whomping Willow come back to life. It was the only sound she could hear, but suddenly, without warning, Sirius was standing over her. His hair was disheveled and his face pale white.
"Oh god," she heard him moan as he picked her up. He sounded very far away. He carried her inside. Aly had so many questions, but none would form. The only one that reached her lips was, "What?"