Author's Note: For this chapter and the prologue, I own only Alex and anything else that you don't recognize. If you haven't figured that out by now, I'm sorry...

Chapter 1 Nightmares

Alex sat at the breakfast table that fine July morning looking like she had barely slept all night. In truth, that was just what happened. Alex's nights were plagued by vivid dreams of the scene she had witnessed during the end of her fourth year at school, which involved the rising of the most evil man of all time.

Alex Ratcliff, or really Black, was no ordinary girl of almost-fifteen. She had jet-black hair, tan skin, and stormy grey eyes that, when she was extremely angry, would contain little dancing flames of fury. She went to a school for witches and wizards because Alex was, in fact, a witch. However what made her special was the scar on her upper-right arm, which was in the shape of a lightning bolt. Alex had gotten this when she was barely a year old when Lord Voldemort had come to her mother's hiding place and tried to kill her. Both Alex and Harry, whose family was living there at the time, had survived with nothing but a scar while Voldemort had lost his powers.

But now, he had returned stronger than ever and was waiting to take over the entire Wizarding world. Alex had witnessed this through a strong connection with Harry and was still haunted by it in her dreams. Lately, though, her father kept appearing in the graveyard scene and slowly, the dreams were changing from the graveyard to long corridors.

Alex's father was the notorious, and wrongly accused, mass-murder Sirius Black. He and her mother had been in school together and had married in secret. Her father wanted it to be kept that way so Alex would not have to deal with those who believed the lie. Only Alex's closest circle of friends, and Snape, knew the truth.

And yet, as Alex put four pieces of bread into the toaster, she began to wonder if her friends were even around. No one but Harry and Sirius answered her letters and Harry told her that both Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger weren't responding to him either. Alex thought this weird because she and Hermione were best friends. So why wasn't she answering any of her letters? Sure, she got the occasional, "We're fine, don't worry. We just don't want our owls getting intercepted", but that was about it.

"Good morning Alex!" called Uncle Monty as he entered the kitchen all smiles. He was Alex's guardian since she was five years old. He stopped when he saw her pale face and dark circles, and frowned. "Another bad night?"

"It wasn't terrible," she shrugged as she placed their breakfast on the table. Ever since Alex was able to use the stove, she had been making breakfast for her uncle and herself. Uncle Monty was not a very skilled chef.

"Are you sure you're up for shopping today, Alex?" her uncle asked, his frown deepening, "You look exhausted."

"I've been looking forward to this all week!" said Alex eagerly, "I'm fine, honestly."

She finished her breakfast and ran up to her room, closing the door and leaning against it as she looked around. Her room had a bed in the middle against the right wall with a bedside table on one side and her closet on the other. Across from that was her desk where a sleeping midnight black owl sat. That was Monty, Alex's pet owl. Lying on the desk was an unopened letter from her neighbor, and school companion, Draco Malfoy.

Smiling, she went over and opened it. Over the last year, she and Draco had gotten to know each other and had become good friends. He really wasn't a bad person, his father just put a lot of pressure on him to be the "perfect Slytherin".

Dear Alex,

I loved your story about that dog chasing away those annoying boys! I need to meet this dog of yours! Things are all right here, Father's worried about raids and has been working extra hard to store things he'd rather the Ministry not find. He hasn't anything to worry about anyway, have you seen the Prophet? There's nothing about what you saw last year. Somehow they've managed to keep that mum, probably the Minister and a lot of gold. Do you get the Prophet? If I were you, I wouldn't, it's all a load of garbage now that someone's messing with freedom of the press. Write to me soon, this place is driving me insane!

Your friend,

Draco

Alex shook her head. Her uncle got the Daily Prophet everyday, but was considering canceling his subscription. Apparently, the authors were slipping in mean comments about Harry wherever they could find room. There was nothing about Alex yet, but she wouldn't be surprised if it came out in the news soon. The population of Hogwarts had only found out the beginning of last year that Alex and her family had been with the Potters the night of Voldemort's downfall, so it would take some time for the information to creep up to the higher powers, become verified, and printed.

An idea popped into Alex's head and she quickly grabbed a sheet of parchment, a quill, and an ink bottle, writing the following down hurriedly.

Dear Draco,

My friend and I will be in town today, do you think you could get away for a couple of hours and "accidentally" run into me? I haven't seen you in two months! Send word back with your owl and I hope to see you there.

Your friend,

Alex

After writing this, Alex wrote a message to Harry. She didn't tell her guardian about the dream last night but she was still worried about her friend. What had happened with the dementors? She opened Monty's cage and scratched the owl on the top of his head.

"What?" the owl murmured tiredly.

"Can you take this to Draco for me and then go to Harry?" she whispered.

"All right, I'm going!" Monty said with a yawn, took the letter in his beak, and flew away.

Alex smiled as her bird disappeared and got ready for the day. She slipped on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt with "The Beatles" written on the front, and some sneakers. She went into the bathroom and pulled her long hair back in a pony-tail. She was just making sure she looked presentable when there was a knock on the door and Uncle Monty went to get it.

"Alex, it's Erin!" he called.

"Be down in a minute!" she replied and rushed into her room to grab a purse and some money. As she searching her room for the bag Erin had given her a few Christmases ago, Draco's owl flew back in and placed a letter on the desk before leaving again. She opened it and as she eyes scanned quickly over the written words, she grinned and ran down the stairs where Erin was waiting.

"Ready yet, slow poke?" she asked and grabbed Alex's arm, "Thanks Mr. Montgomery, we'll be back around three."

"Have fun girls and be careful!" he called after them as they ran down the hill and towards the village.

The village below Alex's house was small but beautiful with the rolling green hills as a backdrop for thatched roofs and stone homes. As the girls went down the main street, they went into a few shops. Alex finally managed to drag Erin into the bookstore after visiting five different clothing stores.

"How did I know you'd get me into here?" said Erin with a laugh as Alex ran her finger down the backs of the books.

"Oh come on Erin," said Alex in a sarcastically angry voice, "How many stores do you force me in? And do I ever complain? Not once!"

"I know you do when I'm out of earshot," said Erin with a laugh as she pulled down a random book and skimmed the pages.

"Gosh Erin, I had no idea you liked Dickens," said Alex with a smile.

"Didn't she write those weird poems?"

"That's Dickinson, Erin," said Alex with a roll of her eyes as she pulled down books, "And they're not weird. You just think they are."

"Whatever, same thing."

Alex was just about to explain there was a huge difference between Dickens and Dickinson when someone taped her on the shoulder. She turned and saw Draco Malfoy standing before her with a playful smile in his face. He had done a pretty good job of dressing like a Muggle for being pure-blood. He had on a pair of baggy jeans and a black T-shirt with sneakers.

When she had first met Draco, she remembered him looking sick and pinched looking. Now he was barely taller than her and twice as broad, although he still had a sickly look in his face. Alex grinned widely and embraced him like a brother.

"There you are!" she said happily as she put down her large pile of books, "I'm so glad you could get away! Erin, this is Draco, he's a friend of mine from school. Draco, this is Erin, one of my best friends."

"It's nice to finally meet you," said Draco as they shook hands, "I've heard a lot

about you from Alex."

"Yes, I could say the same about you too," said Erin with a side-long glance at Alex, "She wouldn't shut up about you!"

"Really?" said Draco with a chuckle, smiling at Alex.

"Yeah, I was telling her all about how much of a prat you used to be," said Alex with a roll of her eyes, "Now let me pay for these and let's get going!"

"You mean," said Erin with wide-eyes, "You're gonna buy all of those books?"

"Yeah, I think these should last until I go back to school," said Alex, taking the books as she tried to carry them all. Draco took some off the top and they went to the counter.

"Alex," Erin whispered, "Isn't that the boy from four years ago that watched us while we were snowboarding?"

"That's him," Alex said with a smile, "Amazing how much people change, huh?"

"I'll say," said Erin with a sly smile, "He's not that bad looking. So…when are you two going out?"

"Erin!" said Alex, turning bright red and slapping her friend on the shoulder, "We're just friends, that's it! Now come on, hold these while I pay."

Once the books were bagged, Alex, Erin, and Draco continued wondering around the village. Alex pointed out the major sights to Draco as they walked. Erin managed to drag them into another clothing store and was showing Draco what Muggle teenage boys wore.

"And you could wear this hat with those…oh God! Alex, hide me!" Erin said suddenly and hid behind a rack of clothes.

"From who?" Alex asked confused. Erin pointed to the front of the store where a good-looking boy was looking where Erin had been with a frown on his face, "Him? Why? He's cute!"

"That's the boy I like!" Erin hissed from behind the rack, "I can't let him see me here, I'm not presentable!"

Alex rolled her eyes. Erin thought wearing sneakers made you not presentable to a boy. Draco was watching the girls' exchange with humor.

"I hate to break up the chat," he said with laughter in his voice, "But that guy's coming over here right now. So I'd run now if you want a head start."

Alex shot Draco a warning look as the boy came over to their rack. He had blonde hair that hung in his hazel eyes and was just as tall as Alex was.

"Excuse me," he said politely, "But did you happen to see a girl over here?"

"Erin," Alex said, looking down, "There's a guy here for you. I'll look for my charm but thanks for trying."

Her friend sent her a death stare and rose up from the rack, smiling nervously. Alex led Draco away from the two others, giving them space. As they sat in a corner in silence, Alex let out a gigantic yawn as she tried to cover it.

"You all right Alex?" Draco asked with a frown, "You look really tired."

"I'm fine," she said, putting on a smile, "Shopping always makes me tired." Draco gave her a raised eyebrow look and Alex sighed, "I keep having nightmares about that night. It's kinda hard to sleep when you know all you're going to dream about is the most evil being in the world returning to life."

Draco sighed and put an arm around his friend's shoulder, saying, "I wish I could help with that. Do you take Sleeping Draughts?"

"I do when I really need to sleep," said Alex, "But my uncle doesn't want me to take them all the time. He says they can become addictive if you take them too often." She decided not to tell Draco that her dreams weren't all about the graveyard anymore. Now they were mostly her searching for her father, but he didn't know her father was alive and well…not to mention the wrongly convicted murderer of both Muggles and wizards. People still believed that Sirius had killed all those Muggles, but it was really his old school friend Peter Pettigrew.

Erin found them and said it was about time they headed home. Her face was flushed and Alex gave her a raised eyebrow look. They walked up the hill in silence and, as Erin went down her street, Alex called after her.

"Call me Erin! You didn't think you'd get away for me wanting all the details, did you?"

Erin just smiled shyly and continued her way. Alex and Draco continued walking on up. Once they reached the rusty gates of the Malfoy Mansion, they stopped.

"Thanks for coming, Draco," said Alex happily, "It was great seeing you again."

"I had a really fun time," he said, smiling, "So I'll see you on the train then?"

Alex nodded and waved good-bye. That evening, Alex set all her books into piles of what she would read first. She stayed up as late as she could, reading until her eyelids closed, taking her to the dark world of her dreams.

…...

Alex was running down corridor after corridor. She went left, then right, then left again. She had memorized this path, having done it several times before. The hallways were dark except for torches burning dimly as she ran. Finally, she stopped and listened. Voices were coming from the door right in front of her that was ajar. Quietly as possible, she peeked through the opening and gasped with fright.

Her father was bound in a chair as three dementors stood around him, their breath coming out raggedly. Alex burst into the room with her wand held high. She wasn't going to let them take her father away! Just as she was about to say the spell as she formed a happy memory, her wand was ripped from her hand. She looked and saw the Minister of Magic holding her wand, grinning evilly.

"No, I have waited years to do this and you won't stop me!" he said with a cold laugh.

"He's innocent!" Alex screamed as the dementors closed in further, "You're making a terrible mistake!"

She went to run at the minister, but tight hands were holding her back. She struggled with all her might against the hands, but they were too strong for her. She turned to see who was holding her back and saw, to her horror, Snape's face looking triumphant.

"Say good-bye to your father!" he said and laughed, soon joined by the minister and a high, cold laugh that made Alex's blood run cold.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

She fell to her knees, feeling the cold, hopeless feeling dementors brought as someone said her name again and again.

"Alex! Alex! Alex!"

"ALEX!"

She awoke with a start and sat up in her bed. Looking around, she saw three people in her room. One was her uncle, the other was a woman she had never seen before, and the other was Professor Remus Lupin.

Author's Note: What do you think? Pretty good for a first chapter? It has a lot of stuff going on and a lot will be explained throughout the book. Also, Alex's dreams are extremely important throughout the book so pay special attention to them. They're rather frequent in this story.

Are you calling me crazy: Sorry I didn't answer your reviews at the last chapter. I figured I'd wait and do them all together like this! I'm glad that you liked the graveyard scene from a different POV. I figured that everyone knows how Harry saw things and that it would be cool to read a different take on it. I wanted Alex's return to her body to still be full of suspense so I decided to have her in with Moody. Plus, Crouch Jr. would've wanted to keep her somewhere secret before he had her killed so I put her with Moody. I'm glad you liked it! And yes, Sirius is definitely very proud of his little girl. You'll get to see a few father-daughter moments in this book so it'll be fun reading those. I'm so excited that we're working on the same book now! :D You keep up the good work as well!

Thank you to those who decided to continue on to the fifth book! You won't regret it, I swear. It'll be a roller-coaster ride, but I promise it'll be a fun one. Please take the time to review and let me know what you thought of the chapters. Make this poor writer's day just a little bit brighter! :D