"Why are you so fixated on your hair today?"
Aly ignored Lily's question as she twisted and wrapped one of her curls around her finger. It bounced out when she let it go and ended up right back where it had started. Aly growled at it and yanked at it.
"Honestly, Aly," Lily sighed, exasperatedly, "Your hair looks the same, everyday. Your hair doesn't change, ever. Can we just go?"
"Lily," Aly sighed, deciding she was right about her hair. "Today is different. It shouldn't be, but it is. Everyone will be looking at me."
"Everyone always looks at you," Lily mumbled, sounding almost bitter.
Aly turned puzzled eyes on her. "I just mean your the headmaster's daughter. People know who you are. They always look." She smiled at her, but Aly felt like her best friend wasn't telling her something. However, she followed Lily out of the room.
"Everything will be fine, Aly," Lily said reassuringly. "I'll be there and, probably, Sirius." Aly swatted at her.
"Faith, Lily. Have it." They made their way down the stairs. Aly felt silly, but she ducked behind Lily as they found the bottom. To her relief, Sirius was leaning against the back of a couch waiting for them. He stood and made his way over.
"Mornin', ladies," he greeted with a smile and a tap of his imaginary hat.
"Hey," Lily greeted. Aly merely smiled.
Lily examined the inaudible exchange happening between the two and left them alone.
Sirius moved forward and asked Aly, "How are you today?"
"Good," Aly said smiling at him.
James appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Sirius and him shared a glance, and Sirius turned to Aly, "Give me a minute."
Aly nodded, and Sirius jogged over to James. They walked out of the common room together. Aly watched him go, smile still intact. It was strange knowing that they were allowed to have an exchange however they wanted now. It was almost freeing. Maybe this would be a good thing.
"Skank," a passing girl snarled. Ok, maybe not.
Aly's smile fell. "Fan-freakin-tastic," she mumbled. She made her way out the portrait hole. Lily was waiting for her.
"What's wrong?" she asked upon seeing Aly's face.
Aly took a deep breath and told her, "It's begun."
XxXxX
The days that followed were enough to drive Aly to the breaking point. She had to put up with a variety of terrible things. The girls calling her foul names. "They're just jealous," Lily reassured her. The boys seemed to think she was easy, and took to trying to corner her. Luckily, Sirius stayed close and scared them as soon as he saw. Her talk with James had apparently done what she had wanted it to do. He and Sirius had made up. However, he still wasn't being nice to her. She tried to keep her feelings about him quite for Sirius' sake.
And the teachers were a whole other story. Most seemed to approve, Slughorn especially. He taught them how to make a mild love potion the first class they had with him. He kept coming over to her and saying things like, "Not that you need it," or "For those not lucky enough to already have a special someone." Other teachers were not as happy, mostly those close to Dumbledore. Flitwick separated Aly and Sirius who weren't even sitting together by putting them in opposite corners of the room. McGonagall was unnecessarily harsh to Sirius and tried to give Aly a "mother-daughter" talk after class. Aly escaped thanks to a spell gone awry attacking a student in the back of the classroom.
Aly's nerves were on edge the entire week. Her biggest concern and constant source of paranoia was her father's reaction. She didn't see him at all for a week.
On Sunday night, she finished eating dinner with Lily when she noticed Remus and Peter eating without their other two compadres. Aly left Lily were she was and went to investigate the missing Marauders. "Where's Sirius and James?" she asked.
Peter shook his head quickly. Remus, however, looked at her and said, "I can't tell you. However, if you were to take a walk through the dungeons, say near the Slytherin common room,who's to say what you might find."
She smiled and ran off. Sure enough, they were outside of the common room entrance. "Hold it right there," she ordered from down the hallway.
"Aww, man," Sirius groaned, "Caught."
"Stop what you're doing right now," she snapped at James who hadn't lowered his wand.
"Make me," he harped.
She crossed her arms over her chest. Sirius looked at her face and knew that she wasn't budging. "Dude," he rubbed the back of his neck, "Let's just--"
"No," James said. "I'm dealing with this couple thing,"
"Hardly," Aly snorted.
"Buuttt, I'm not giving up on these types of things."
Sirius looked back and forth between the two most important people in his life.
Before he could say anything, Professor Stevens voice found them, "Caught ya!" His cape bellowed out as he marched down the hallway. "Finally, follow me," he grabbed each boy by the collar, "You too, Miss Dumbledore."
Aly couldn't believe it when she had found herself in her father's office, with Sirius. She was just trying to keep Sirius from getting in trouble and had put them in even worse. The two professors talked to each other for a moment and then Dumbledore sent Stevens on his way.
"So," he said looking them over. "Who's going to tell me what's going on?" His eyes rested on Aly, who was sitting between the two boys.
"I had nothing to do with whatever these two were up to. I was just trying to stop them," Aly told him.
"Way to just throw us end the bus," James snarled.
"Well, it's true," Aly rebutted.
"I don't care," James spat back, "You're still a tattle tale. We wouldn't have even gotten caught if you weren't there."
"I wouldn't have had to stop you if you used some common sense once in a while,"
"Enough," Dumbledore stopped them. "Alyson, were you there?"
"Yes," James barked.
"Now who's the tattle tale?" Aly retorted.
"Then," Dumbledore spoke loudly over them, "You are just as guilty as the other two."
Aly sulked after he said this.
"You will each serve a weeks worth of detentions for the pranks pulled on the Slytherin common room over the past two weeks."
Aly's jaw dropped. A week? For trying to stop them? "But, but, but I didn't do anything!"
Her father looked at her. "Can you prove it?"
"Yes," she looked at Sirius, "Tell him. Tell him I wasn't with you. That I was only trying to stop you."
"You can't ask him!" James exclaimed. "He'll lie to protect you!"
Aly's head snapped around to face this preposterous boy. "What is there to lie about?"
"I'm just saying, you don't bite the hand that feeds you. He's gonna say what he needs to say to keep you in the sack." As soon as he said this, the room went deadly silent. Even Fawkes was quiet. Aly's jaw would've hit the floor if it were possible. Sirius' face was the same, but Aly didn't see it. She was starring hard at James. Her eyes burning holes in his face.
Dumbledore cleared his voice uncomfortably. Angry tears were welling in her eyes. She closed them and breathed deep. In and out. In and out. She focused on her breathing. She heard Sirius' voice in her ear, "Let's go."
She stood and followed the two boys out the room. Once outside the office, Aly looked to Sirius but saw red flash before her eyes.
"Aly! Stop it!" Sirius was next to her. "Let go! Please!"
His hands were in hers. He pulled her back. She hadn't realized that she was fighting against him. "Leave him be, Als."
James was rubbing his face. "Calm down," Sirius told her.
She sat on the floor, trying to regain herself. She couldn't believe it. She had attacked James. She had snapped. It shouldn't have been a surprise, but she would have thought she was strong enough to control herself.
She stood. She had to leave this place. She shouldn't be around James. Or Sirius. She had attacked his best friend after all. What if she attacked someone else? She definitely had to get away from people. She turned and started off, tears burning her eyes.
She tried to breathe deep. She heard nothing as she passed the student making their way back to their respective common rooms except for the rush of blood to her ears. She found herself in the kitchens without her knowledge. She sat down in front of the fireplace and cried. She questioned all that had happened as she sat there.
How had she become so emotional? Why was James being such as ass? Why did he announce what he had to her father? Especially with it not being true! And most importantly, how did she lose control and attack James?
She sighed and picked at some of the ash in the hearth. Tipsy came stomping up to her.
"What are you doing here, Alyson?" she demanded in her high pitched voice.
Aly merely looked at her.
"Get up," Tipsy demanded.
"Why?" Aly said with a shrug. "So, I can go out and hurt more people?"
"Hurt people?" Tipsy squeaked. "Silly girl, you did what needed to be done. Knock that boy down a peg or two!"
Aly was shocked. First because the incident had found it's way to the kitchens already. Second because Tipsy thought it was good thing.
"Brat got what he deserved. Walking around like he rules the castle. Coming in here like he can control us," Tipsy was mumbling angrily at herself. She turned her oversized eyes at Aly and ordered, "Get up. Now. Go back and do not let this boy with the over inflated head bother you. You did everyone a favor. If you hit him again, at least finish the job this time."
A smile cracked Aly's face. Being told to kill James in such a high, squeaky voice was too funny for it's own good. "Thank you, Tipsy." She stood, wiped the tears off of her face, brushed the ash off of her hands onto her pants, and left the kitchen. Tipsy was right. James got what he deserved.
She headed back to the common room. There was one detail that weighed on her mind though, how would Sirius react to her after what had happened? Not that he could pass that much judgement, Aly thought. After all, he had punched James as well.
She gave the password to a sour faced Fat Lady. Lily was waiting for her with more O.W.L. notes. Lily gasped and dropped her papers, letting them fly everywhere.
"What happened?"
How on earth does Lily already know? Aly thought. "James," she mumbled.
"He did this?" Lily asked inspecting her eyes. Aly should've spent more time letting the puffiness of her crying go down before coming back.
The Marauder's entered the common room. Another flash of red went across Aly's eyes, this time it was Lily. James was on the ground yelling as Lily pounded on him.
"Someone get her off of me!" James yelled.
Sirius, however, had his arm held out, holding Remus and Peter in place. He was staring hard at Aly.
"I can't hit a girl!" James announced.
"What the hell happened to you?" Sirius asked Aly. His chest was rising and falling unsteadily.
Aly's eyes went big at his tone, but pointed at James. She hadn't expected Sirius to be so upset by her crying.
Sirius' jaw moved to the side. He grabbed Lily by the waist, pulled her up, and handed her to Remus, who took to holding her back. Sirius proceeded to pull James up, who began to dust himself off as Sirius pulled back his fist and punched him across the face. He fell back onto the floor.
James let out a string of curse words.
Sirius looked ready to hit him again. Aly ran over and took his fist in her hands and held him back. "What is going on?"
He looked at her, "You said he did this to you." His eyeballs bulged slightly.
"Yeah, but…" Aly suddenly caught on to the fact that she was missing something. She turned and went over to fireplace. The frame of the picture above it was silver, and she saw her reflection. It looked like she had two black eyes.
She bit her lip as she turned to face them. "There's been a bit of miscommunication," she said. She took her tshirt and rubbed at her eyes. She felt so dumb. She should never had rubbed her eyes with dirty hands.
Sirius look relieved and pulled James up again. "You didn't hit her?
"I just said, 'I can't hit a girl,'" James told him.
"Sorry, dude," Sirius told him, "I thought…"
"It's ok," James said tentatively, "She's your girl." He hesitated, shrugged, and held out his hand. Sirius shook his hand.
Aly and Lily shared a glance. "Boys," Lily said with an eye roll before heading back over to her notes. Aly thought to follow her, knowing that more studying was inevitable, but she looked to Sirius first. He was studying her. A smile touched his lips as their eyes met. He moved away from his friends and closer to her. "You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
He sighed and twisted his mouth to the side. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. After...what James said to your dad."
Aly shrugged. She realized by the look in Sirius' eyes that he needed more from her than that. "I don't really have much to say on the whole thing. It was just hard to hear what I've known everyone is thinking."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked roughly. Aly seemed to have unintentionally hit a soft spot.
"Just that everyone seems to think that I'm…" Aly searched for the lease painful of words and finally settled on, "Easy."
Sirius frowned hard at her. "That's not fair."
"What's not?"
"That you get labelled as 'easy' because your with me."
Aly shrugged and smiled at his naiveté. "That's what it's like to be a girl. Lots of labels. Always."
He seems to ponder this as she looked over her shoulder at Lily who was flapping her papers at her violently. "I better go before Lily has an aneurism," she told Sirius with a small laugh at her friend. Sirius, still looking very uncharacteristically serious, smiled as well at the frantic figure Lily made.
"Alright," he told her. "Breakfast tomorrow?"
"Only if Lily ever lets me go to sleep," Aly joked. Without thinking about it, she gave him a kiss on the check.
"Ewwww!" James and Peter groaned while Remus smiled at them.
"Shut up!" Sirius yelled at them, playfulness in his voice.
Aly found her way over to Lily who was already set with her fresh round of questions.
XxXxX
"This is so unfair!" Aly proclaimed, slamming her book shut.
"What's wrong?"
Aly sent an angry look at her "husband" as he leaned lazily against the wall their desk was against staring at the ceiling. She felt like hitting him. However, she resisted the urge.
"My family sucks," Aly mumbled and glared at her book.
"You still aren't done with that stupid family tree yet?" He look disappointed in her.
"You're one to talk," Aly said defensively, "Where's your tree?"
He pulled a scroll out of his bag and presented it. She glared at it as well. They were suppose to be combining their trees today, and she felt better about not having hers done because she figured Sirius' wasn't done.
"Ok, question: why is it that you are the only one here with a talking family history book, and you're the only one without a completed tree?"
Aly raised her eyebrows in confusion and looked at her book. It certainly never talked to her before.
"Your dad, Aly," he said with a shake of his head, "He can probably tell you all about your family." He looked at her, surprised she hadn't thought of this on her own.
"You know I don't talk to him unless it's absolutely necessary. Life or death," she added for effect.
Sirius didn't look impressed. "This is for school, Aly. And I actually figured he'd come to you and offer his help."
"Well, he didn't," Aly mumbled.
She sighed and went to pull her book towards her to reopen it and try to find more of her hidden family members in it. However, it disappeared before she could. Sirius was holding it up over his head. Aly, not finding his act funny, took her foot and kicked his chair, which was leaning back on it's hind two legs. He toppled over, and the book skidded out of his hand. Being in the back of the room, the book hit the wall and opened. Aly jumped after it. However, Sirius toppled on top her. Aly let out an "uhf" as she felt her air leave her lungs. He managed to get the book back and found his seat and huddled protectively over the book.
Aly stared at the back of his head and decided to take a more playful approach. She walked up behind him and ran her hands down his shoulders and over his arms. She felt him stiffen straight up but he had his arms still tightly clutching the book. She ran her nose against his ear and whispered, "So, maybe later, you and me, we could, you know…" She felt goose bumps explode on his neck. With this distraction working, Aly grabbed the book. "Yes!" she exclaimed in triumph.
He looked very sour at her. "Tease."
Aly turned in anger. "Take that back."
"No," he stated, crossing his arms. "It's true."
"Ass," Aly stated.
"That's true too." He made a move for the book. Aly moved out of the way.
He took her under the arms and tickled. Aly burst out laughing and tripped over her own feet. He held her down and continued to tickle her. It seemed to be less about the book and more about tickling at this point.
Aly's eyes started to water from her laughter. However, she managed to hear a toe tapping near her head. She looked up and saw McGonagall staring angrily down at them.
"Sorry, Professor," Sirius said standing up.
Aly tried to calm herself down and took Sirius' hand that he offered. "Sorry, Professor."
McGonagall shook her head but said nothing. She moved away from them. There were lots of eyes on them. Neither of them seemed to notice. Sirius went back to leaning against the wall and staring and the ceiling. A coy smile on his face. Aly opened her book again and began looking for her long lost Uncle Hywel.
XxXxX
The O.W.L.s had snuck up on Aly quicker than she had anticipated. She soon found herself sleep deprived, quizzing Lily or being quizzed almost every waking hour of the day, and missing Sirius. According to Lily, here was no time for boys when the O.W.L.s where only a week away.
Aly was relieved when they finally arrived. She was ready to have them over with. She flew through the Potions, Astronomy, and Defense Against the Dark Arts exams with flying colors, and felt confident about the rest. Lily had her study so much that Aly had taken to chanting Charms in her sleep so she even felt okay about that one. She took to enjoying the rest of her afternoon after her DADA exam because all she had left was her Transfiguration exam. She was sure she'd get an "O" on it.
She was lounging by the lake, her toes dipped in the water, enjoying the sun. She heard a commotion and saw James and Sirius harassing Snape. She heaved a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked not taking her eyes off of her Transfiguration book.
"They're after Snape again," Aly told her, shielding her eyes from the sun and watching the progress. She knew her presence in the situation would only cause more problems. James hadn't quite forgiven her for roughing him up and was still iffy about how he felt about the relationship.
Lily snapped her book shut. "I'll handle this." Aly watched as she headed over to the trees. Before Lily got there, Snape was upside down with his underwear showing. Aly groaned inwardly, and turned back so she couldn't see what was going on. She heard a thud and the standard yellings of James after Lily.
Lily was red in the face when she took a seat next to Aly. She was clearly fuming over something.
"What's wrong?" Aly asked.
"He," she stuttered, "He called me, called me a, a mudblood," she whispered the final word.
Aly felt stunned. "Who? James?"
"No," Lily snapped, tears welling in her eyes, "Snape." She spat the name with the same venom Sirius and James usually did.
"Oh," Aly shrugged, "What's the big deal? He is a Slytherin after all." What Aly thought would be some comfort to Lily only made her cry harder. She got up and left Aly sitting there.
That night Lily seemed to still be upset. She was sitting on her bed, having moved from sadness to anger, and Aly sat watching her. "Aren't you going to tell me what's wrong?"
Lily didn't look up from her book, but replied, "'Bout what?"
"'Bout why you're so upset."
"I'm not." Lily still didn't look up.
Aly opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Mary came bursting into the room. "Snape is waiting outside for you. He say's he's gonna come in if you don't come out."
Lily grunted and stormed out of the room.
"What's up with that?" Mary asked, and Aly just shrugged.
Lily returned a few minutes later looking even more upset.
Aly let her sit for a few minutes before observing, "You're friends with Snape."
Lily sniffled.
"That explains why you disappear with no explanation. And why you always defend him. And now he's called you a mudblood." Aly was surprised she had missed the signs to all of this before.
"He was my best friend before coming here," Lily told her. "But he's not my friend anymore."
"Oh, Lils, he slipped. If he's your friend, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by…"
"He's slipping into the dark arts, Aly. He has been for a while. Now this, and well, we just can't be friends anymore." Lily said this with a sad finality to her voice.
Aly moved to sit down next to her, and Lily leaned her head on Aly's shoulder and cried.