Once more, I took longer then I should have on this chapter...

Enjoy!

3 Chapter 10: Filling in the Pages

Rumors of what had happened with Alexis's Boggart spread through Hogwarts like wild fire. Only the Slytherins didn't seem to have wild and crazy stories to why the Ministry's past Number one Unmentionable, Tomas McPherson, who had committed a crime so great it had never released to the public (though rumors of what he had done were spreading too), had been Alexis's Boggart. All the rumors didn't bother Alexis as much as she thought they would but the lack of rumors from the Slytherins made her very suspicious. The conversation she had listened in on during Charms hadn't helped and neither had the fact that Marcus Flint, a seventh year Slytherin, had been giving her strange looks but Alexis thought that might have more to do with Quidditch. After all, Flint was the Slytherin Quidditch team Captain while Alexis was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team.

So when Flint confronted her in the corridor on her way to dinner, Alexis hadn't been prepared for a conversation.

"Hello, Hex," said Flint, causing Alexis to nearly get whiplash from how fast she had turned around. "Did I scare you?"

"What do you want, Flint?" Alexis sneered. It had been a very stressful week thanks to all the rumors spreading about her and the last thing she wanted to do was deal with someone like Flint. "Going to ask me to take it easy on you next Quidditch match?"

If Alexis was trying to piss him off, she had succeeded.

"What's your real name, Hex?" growled Flint.

Alexis froze in her place.

"Alexis McPherson," she breathed.

"Really?" Flint snorted, "I think you're lying. See, my father works with this fellow, Lestrange, Octanius Lestrange. Father said you told him you were adopted."

"So? what if I am?"

"Nothing really. The McPherson's are a respectable Pureblood Family, and are very unlikely to adopt anyone with tainted blood. They're only flaw is that black sheep marrying the mad ex-Auror's sister. The irony that their spawn would go dark..."

"What are you getting at, Flint?" Alexis barked. She had become all to aware that it was just her and Flint in the corridor. Everyone else must have already made it to dinner.

"What are your adopted parents name?"

Alexis didn't answer. Flint grinned.

"As stupid as you Gryffindorks think I am, I'm not an idiot, Hex. I can put two and two together. If that crazy, scarface man is your 'uncle' then it's quite simple who raised you."

Grinning wickedly, the seventh year Slytherin took a step towards Alexis, who was already backed against the wall. Neither of them were expecting what happened next.

"Get away from her, you big ogre."

At the end of the corridor, with his wand already in his hand and pointing at Flint, was Ron Weasley. Even more surprising was who was standing to his left.

"Since when do you work with blood traitors, Draco?" sneered Flint. "Or is this a one time deal?"

"Yes, Marcus, a one time deal, just like your mother and that Mug-"

"Don't speak as if I'm beneath you!" shouted Flint.

Draco shouted right back, "You are beneath me- beneath all of us! Especially Alexis and even Weasel. Now go."

With a death glare just below Basilisk worthy, Marcus Flint stalked away.

"You've got it from here, Weasel," growled Draco, once Flint had disappeared towards the dungeons. "You better hope she forgives you."

Nodding politely to Alexis, Draco made his own departure, leaving Alexis and Ron alone in the corridor. There was a long pause before either could speak.

"Did you and Draco just-"

"Yeah," said Ron, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "We were sorta talking about you a little bit ago."

"Oh?" said Alexis coldly. She still was hurt from how Ron had been treating her since school started. "What about?"

Ron looked at Alexis strangely. It was as if he was trying to say something without words which Alexis realized was exactly what he was trying to do. Slowly, she pushed into his thoughts.

'You know what we were talking about,' Ron thought loudly. Alexis giggled.

"You don't have to yell," she teased, earning a sheepish grin and a blush from Ron.

"Sorry."

There was another pause but this one was broken by the two Gryffindors hugging each other.

"I'm sorry," said Ron. "I shouldn't have acted that way."

"No, I'm sorry," said Alexis. "I should have told you sooner. You must have felt rather betrayed when I told you-"

"No Hex, it's not your fault," said Ron, cutting Alexis off. "I was pig headed. You're my friend and like Harry and Hermione, you're my best friend. I promise I won't abandon you ever again. I'm really, really sorry."

'Hex,' sang McPherson.

Alexis groaned.

"Don't you dare say it," she snapped confusing Ron for a moment.

"McPherson?" he asked.

"Yep," said Alexis, exaggerating the letter p. "He told me you'd come around. I didn't really believe him."

Alexis added the last part with a shameful head bow, however, Ron only laughed.

"I never thought I'd have a friend as weird as you," he teased.

Alexis stuck her tongue out at him and Ron swatted at her arm which Alexis returned playfully. The two walked to the Great Hall for dinner as if the past two weeks had never happened.

.

It was almost a month since Alexis and Ron had made-up. Alexis and Ron's friendship seemed to have blossomed because of it much to Alexis's delight. The two were almost as close as Alexis and Harry. Unfortunately, not everything was going so well for Alexis. Quidditch practice had started up again and Alexis felt for the first time the undeniable pressure to win.

Oliver Wood was a burly seventeen-year-old, now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He was the Gryffindor Quidditch captain and in Harry's opinion, the only human being ever to be as equally excited as Alexis when it came to Quidditch. In fact, in some cases, he even seemed to surpass her enthusiasm.

On the first practice of the season, Alexis and Harry joined the rest of their teammates in the locker room, watching carefully as the nervous but determined Oliver Wood paced in front of them.

"This is our last chance - my last chance - to win the Quidditch Cup," he told them, striding up and down in front of them. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it."

"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world - injuries - then the tournament getting called off last year." Wood swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat. Alexis shifted nervously, remembering it had been technically her fault the tournament had been called off. "But we also know we've got the best - ruddy - team - in - the - school," he said, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "We've got three superb Chasers."

Wood pointed at Alexis, Alicia Spinner, and Angelina Johnson.

"We've got two unbeatable Beaters."

"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," said Fred and George together, pretending to blush.

"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Wood rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. "And me," he added as an afterthought.

"We think you're very good too, Oliver," said George.

"Spanking good Keeper," said Fred.

"The best," added Alexis, making Wood grin proudly.

"The point is," Wood went on, resuming his pacing, "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag - not to mention last year, with Hex up there with the Quaffle. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..."

The look on Wood's face made Alexis fill up with guilt.

"Don't worry, Ollie Boy," said Alexis. "We're going to win this year."

"Yeah, Oliver, this year's our year," said Fred.

"We'll do it, Oliver!" said Angelina.

"Definitely," said Harry.

Quidditch, however, was not what had gotten Alexis into her discombobulated state. That had been because of her detention with Snape. Only two days before Halloween, and the first Hogsmead trip, Snape told Alexis she would be serving detention with him that evening. Dreading the idea of cleaning cauldrons all evening, Alexis made her way to the dungeons slowly. When she arrived, however, she was surprised to discover only one cauldron waiting for her.

"You will be assisting me in preparing a potion," said Snape.

Alexis couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at him. She decided to pull a Mad-Eye.

"What was the first thing you said to me?" she asked slowly. Snape scowled at her.

"Don't test me McPherson," he growled at her.

"Sorry, sir," said Alexis, nonetheless rolling up her sleeves to begin preparing the potion. "But asking for my assistance in potion, or anything for that matter, is very out of character of you... sir."

"That's a point from Gryffindor for your lip."

'Yep, it's still Snape,' Alexis thought to herself. McPherson laughed at her and for a brief moment Alexis thought she saw Snape's lip twitch, though in a smile or a scowl she didn't know (or care).

"What potion are we making sir?" she asked, finally approaching the already lit cauldron.

"You're in sixth year potion, Miss McPherson. Use your brain, if you have one of your own, and tell me."

Alexis fought back a scowl (and a few choice words) aimed towards Snape before examining the ingredients laid out before her. There was a great deal of them but one particular told her all she needed to know- wolfsbane.

They were going to make a Wolfsbane Potion, an innovative and complex potion that relieves, but does not cure, the symptoms of lycanthropy. It was extremely dangerous if made incorrectly, seeing that it's main ingredient was aconite (another name for wolfsbane and monkshood) and it's a very poisonous substance, and needed at least two people to make it. That didn't bother Alexis, what bothered her was the fact that the Wolfsbane Potion was only used by werewolves, seeing that it was fatal to pure humans.

"Are you a werewolf, Sna- professor?" asked Alexis. Snape scowled once more at the amount of excitement in Alexis's voice.

"Another point, McPherson," he sneered.

'He looks more like a vampire to me,' whispered McPherson.

Alexis turned away from Snape and pretended to be reorganizing the ingredients so he wouldn't see her smiling. They worked for the next three hours in complete, utter(and in Alexis, awkward), silence. When the potion turned a faint blue and smoked, Snape made a grunting noise before telling Alexis they were done.

"That will be all McPherson," he said sharply, expecting her to leave. Alexis, however, did not move. "Well? What are you waiting for? You're supposed to be in you Common Room in five minutes."

Alexis shrugged her shoulders.

'As if being caught out of the Common Room after hours would be a new thing,' she thought to herself.

'Being caught would be, Hex,' corrected McPherson.

Somehow Alexis avoided her need to roll her eyes at McPherson's words before speaking to Snape.

"Why did we make a full batch of Wolfsbane, sir?" she asked as nicely as she possible could.

"The Headmaster asked me to," Snape state simply before kicking Alexis out of his classroom. She ran to the Gryffindor Tower, her mind racing as she did.

Wolfsbane was a very expensive ingredient so Alexis knew she and Snape had not been wasting their time making it. That meant it was going to be used. The question was, by whom? Dumbledore had asked Snape to make it but no matter how much suspicion that brought to him, Alexis found it very difficult to believe that Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the century, was a werewolf. That meant it was someone Dumbledore knew.

"I need to find a book on lycanthropy," Alexis muttered aloud, slightly out of breath as she reached the seventh floor. "Someone here is a werewolf, and I'm going to find out who."

The grin on Alexis's face as she entered the Common Room seemed out of place for someone who had just returned from a detention with Snape but Alexis didn't care. She had a werewolf to discover.

So not the greatest makeup scene but I never did like people getting back together :P I wished I wasn't so jumpy this chapter but I had a lot to get into it at once so sorry guys. Again, I apologize for making you wait for this nonsense but I hope the next chapter makes up for it. School starts tomorrow so that's why I've been so busy and probably still will be until November.

Anyway, for each of my lovely reviewers...

Emily Is Me: Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the chapters you were catching up on

Phoenixfelicis07: Firstly- I'm glad you like Trelawney's prediction.

Secondly- Alexis hadn't had Remus teach her DADA class yet. She has him on Friday that was Thursday.

Thirdly: You have no idea how much I love making those parallels! I see Hex as the What-if-Sirius-had-been-a-girl when I write about her. I like having her be a smartass while still being a loyal to the point of vengeful best friend. I promise you, even if Sirius isn't Hex's father, not that I'm saying he is or isn't, you're going to see their similarities (Remus sure as hell will)

As for the Boggart, I'm glad you agree it was traumatizing. As for the creepy younger Hex, that was more out of a request from my sister. One of our other choices for Hex's Boggart was a younger Hex going insane with blood on her hands (it was more detailed then that but not as good so we didn't use it).

So, Thanks for the Review!

Kuroi-Akuma-no-Okami: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I'm sorry if this one didn't reach it's standard. I shall make up for it in the next chapter!

Luna the HP fan: I'm glad you knew what the Boggart was going to be! Yes, the Molly scene in OotP helped me a little in making it but like you said death wasn't something Alexis feared (seeing a friend die yes, but seeing them dead isn't as traumatizing) so I twisted a little of her dream from her first year in there.

As for the Snape scene, I'm happy to know you found it as funny as I did and don't worry, Trelawney will be back with her ever so 'helpful' predictions

Now the hard part... My Boggart

It took a really, really, really long time to figure this one out. I thought dying of old age, drowning, watching my love ones die/get tortured, and being alone before finally deciding it was the Dark. Funny, I know, but I don't mean like in your room at night dark or even in a cave where no light can reach you, I mean the darkness that is deafening, the kind were you can't hear anything but your own heartbeat. The kind of darkness were you could walk aimlessly for miles and never reach a wall to lean against. So, my Boggart can't exactly take that shape but I'm absolutely terrified of complete darkness in a very open if not endless room where I can't hear anything but my heartbeat. Just the idea of it freaks me out but because I don't think Boggarts could take that shape it would have to be watching love ones die/get tortured

Anyway... Now that I've announced my true fear to the internet, I'm gonna ask you lovelies for some reviews!

DCF