Chapter 33

LB

Draco hadn't spoken up at Buckbeak's trial. He had tried to reason with his father again, but that evil git Lucius had smacked him on the jaw with his cane, leaving a large bruise. I was surprised it wasn't broken with how it looked. The Hippogriff was sentenced to death. I was walking out as Loki, trying to search for Scabbers when I heard Draco laugh. Oh no! That's his pretentious and evil laugh. I thought to myself, and when I rounded the large stones on the field, I saw him standing with Crabbe and Goyle. Damn it! I thought he had cut lose from them.

"Look at him blubber!" Draco's taunted, his dumb bodyguards snickered. "Have you ever seen something so pathetic!"

From my position I saw Hermione walk towards Draco, her eyes glaring at my cousin and then. SMACK! She had punched him on the nose, hard! My mouth dropped open, but then I closed it again. He had it coming. I knew Draco was being questioned by his fellow Slytherins due to him studying with Potter in the library. The Slytherins didn't care that I was there too, just Harry. They only saw Harry. Two rivals sitting together amicably. And I knew he was going to try to save his reputation. I saw the three Slytherins run away, and I heard Hermione say.

"That felt good."

Ron and Harry came into view as they stepped up next to Hermione. Harry checked on her hand before his gaze flickered to me. Harry opened his mouth to say something to Ron and Hermione, and he turned to them for a second. By the time he looked back, I was already gone. Harry tried to spot me in the grass but no such luck. Ron and Hermione looked from each other to Harry curiously.

"Let's get to class." He shook his head, and the three walked back inside the castle.

LB

The easter holidays weren't for relaxing. It was hours and hours of studying. I tried to divide my time between the Gryffindor common room, the Slytherin common room, or neutral ground like the library. Safe to say, Harry and Draco had not studied together since that fateful day. The night that Hermione had punched Draco, I walked in the common room with Emmett and sat down next to Draco with a smirk worthy of a Slytherin.

"You're getting too good at that." Draco said, pointing at my smirk. I shrugged as I looked at the two bruises on his face. "I presume you know what happened? Weasley babbled, didn't he?"

"I wouldn't know. I had front row seats, actually." I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the laughter that bubbled up. "You deserved this one, you know." I said pointing to his nose.

"I know." He sighed, leaning back against the couch as he closed his eyes.

"I have bruise paste. I can take care of your jaw, but I don't think you deserve it for your nose."

"I'm sorry, okay." He groaned.

"Are you really?" I asked, and Draco lifted his head to look at me. He looked around and saw that we were alone. Emmett was getting his books from his dorm.

"I am. It's just with my father, and the gossip about studying in close proximity to Potter."

"I know. But you shouldn't care what people say about who you hang out with. Your father." I sighed. "That's a different story, but you shouldn't stoop to his level." I grabbed the bruising paste from my bag and handed it over just as Emmett appeared back in the common room.

"Thank you." Draco gave a small but honest smile.

LB

It was the end of easter break and I was sitting in the tower late that night. Hermione was sitting to my right at a table filled with books. I patted the twins' legs, who were situated on either side of me and walked towards the younger girl.

"Hey, Hermione." My voice soft because I've seen how she can react when you interrupt her.

"Oh, hey Alec." She rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't really have to time to-"

"'S okay." I said as I sat down across from her. "I know you help Ron and Harry a lot. But sometimes you need to learn to ask for help too. Give me potions and DADA. I'll go over them first. Those are my best subjects." I winked at her. First it looked like she was about to protest before she let out a breath of relief, and a grateful smile appeared on her lips. She handed over the parchments and I took the quill from my hair and started to read them over. Half an hour later, I had checked on her potions, DADA and transfiguration essays. I looked up to see the heavy bags under her eyes. "Go to bed, Hermione."

"No, I need to finish-"

"No, you need sleep. Without sleep, nothing is going to stick up there." I chuckled as I pointed at her head. "Come find me in the library after dinner, I'll go over your other things, and we can study together."

"Don't you have your own OWL's to study for?" She asked as she started pushing her books in her bag.

"I do, but I'll manage." I winked at her. I stood up with her and placed my hands on her shoulder. "Meet me there, yeah?"

"Yeah." She nodded and stepped past me. Before she went up the stairs, she looked over her shoulder. "Thanks, Alec."

"Sleep well, Hermione." I smiled at the bushy haired girl.

When she had gone up the stairs, I dropped back between the twins and let my head fall in George's lap, yawning.

"That was nice of you." George said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. He had been doing that a lot. It was something that he didn't do with other girls. Was this his way of showing he liked me, liked me?

"She's overexerting herself. She's going to burn out, if she doesn't take a break."

"Sounds like someone I know." Fred said and he patted his lap with a grin. "Feet up."

"Uhm, I don't think your girlfriend would appreciate that." I said looking over the back of the couch. The twins followed my gaze, until they saw the girl in the back of the common room glaring at us.

"Not my girlfriend. She wanted it though." He shrugged and pulled my feet up onto his lap without asking again.

"Why not? She seems nice, if she'd stop glaring." I smiled as George chuckled.

"Not my type." He shrugged. Fred was lazily rubbing his thumb on my calf while George was stroking his fingers through my hair, the combination of the two was lulling me to sleep.

"I need to get back." I said sleepily, not even sounding remotely convincing. I looked up to see George. His eyes were already on me with a sweet smile on his lips.

"Just rest for a bit. We'll wake you up later."

"Are you sure? Do I need to move?"

"Don't you dare!" The twins said in unison. "We're comfortable right here." George said softly, still stroking my hair.

"Okay." My voice barely a whisper as my eyes closed. I snuggled into George chest and fell asleep with George's hand in my hair and Fred's hand on my ankle, still rubbing circles on my calf slowly.

LB

The twins' birthday was something to behold. The day was filled with good natured pranks and foolishness. Even I, who had been spared so far, wasn't so lucky on April first. It was something sweet really. Just some conjured up birds, who followed me around for the day. And when I began to get a headache, I cast a silencing charm around the birds. But that didn't work, of course not, we're speaking of the twins. I put a Muffliato charm around me, but I saw that the birds were starting to bother the other students. With a quick Expulso the blue feathered birds blew up, falling silent at last. The class cheered when the silence returned. But at the end of the day, the twins pouted that I blew up their little birds.

The night before the final quidditch match, I sneaked out of the chambers. Remus was snoring slightly in his own bedroom as I turned into Loki and headed out of the room. When I reached the front doors, Crookshanks came bounding down the stairs, and the two of us walked outside into the night. We walked over the empty, dark grounds. It was silent, not even a slight brush of wind to rattle the leaves on the trees. We walked over to the edge of the forest and sat down. My eyes searched between the dark trees, a shadow here and there before a large black shadow walked out from the forest. Padfoot, the large black dog, towered over me and Crookshanks. With one last look behind me, I followed the pair into the woods.

"Where are we going?" I hissed at Black.

"To my hide out."

"I thought you were hiding out in the Shrieking Shack."

The black dog shook his head. "Only when I meet you."

"So, why the forest now?" I asked and Black suddenly stopped in front of me. He stared behind me, and I turned to look. Black floating cloaks were flying over the castle grounds, even from here you could see more and more coming. "Let's go then."

By the time we reached his hide out, the sun was already starting to set. Black's hide out was just a large hollow tree. The tree was big enough to fit five adult men, and I was about to turn when Black stopped me with a growl. I looked up to him.

"No, too many dementors nearby." His voice raspy and I nodded. I had an invisible bag slung around my waist and I tossed it over with my mouth, letting food fall to the sand. Black's eyes shot up from the food to me. "You brought me something to eat?"

"Have you looked at yourself? You need it." I said as I went to stand guard at the entrance. "Eat, then we'll discuss." I could feel Sirius Black's eyes on me, before I heard him munch on the food I snuck out of the castle. "It's the final today." I said as I saw the sun rise.

"Does Harry play?"

"Like you don't know." I snorted and adjusted me stance so I could watch Black and the entrance. Crookshanks trotted over and sat between my front paws. "I know you send the firebolt."

"How?" He asked just before he bit into an apple.

"I just do." I turned to look outside. "He's a seeker, pretty good one too."

"Just like his dad." His voice was proud with a tinge of sadness. I didn't look at him, I couldn't. I now knew he wasn't a murderer, but he still left my mum, he left me. It looked like he only cared for Harry. I felt his stare on me again as I looked over to the forest that was starting to wake. The silence was deafening, only the sound of Black eating filled the hollow of the tree. "I'm still curious why you decided to help me."

"Me too." I said quietly as I saw something move in the forest. I shuffled back further in the tree as a dementor past me, sending a slight shiver over me. When I was sure the dementor was gone I turned back to him. "He's gone. I didn't feel like I normally would, meeting a dementor."

"It's because of your Animagus form." I frowned, not quite understanding. "That's how I escaped Azkaban. Dementors feed on your emotions and feelings, and when you're in your Animagus form they are not so complex as in your human form. So, the influence of a dementor is weaker."

I didn't say anything as I took in this new information. Was that why Oscar wanted me to turn into Loki in the train? I turned back to Black. "How did you know that Pettigrew was at Hogwarts?"

"I recognized him in the paper. The Weasley family went to Egypt when they won money from Galleon drawn. The young boy, Ron, was holding him in the picture. That was when I knew where to find him." The silence filled the tree again. "How is Professor Lupin doing?"

"Why do you keep asking about him?" I shot him a glare.

"He was of my best friends." His said looking to the ground.

"He's a good teacher." I said without giving him anything more.

"And?"

"What, and?" I snapped. "He's my teacher, I don't know him. I'm not even sure I should talk about Harry."

"Why not? He is my godson."

I held back a scoff. "You may not be a mass murderer, but that doesn't mean you're a good guy."

"What gives you the expression that I'm a bad guy?" He asked a little shocked, but I didn't look at him. I looked down at Crookshanks, who was zigzagging between my paws.

My first reaction was to say, my mum. But I held back. "Does the name Severus Snape ring a bell?"

"I don't know what you heard-"

"I heard enough. And no, not only Snape's side." I added quickly. "Was there another specific reason you wanted to meet, because I want to be back in the castle before the celebrations."

"A plan for Wormtail."

"That's hard since he's still missing. I thought I could find him by smell, but I don't have anything to use. I haven't had the opportunity to go up the boys' dormitories."

Padfoot barked out a laugh, and I looked to him with a white raised eyebrow. "You can get in the boys' dorms without even trying. Any guy would go up with you." I was a bit cringe worthy to hear him say that, about his daughter, but he didn't know who I was, did he? If he'd ever find out, I would like to see the look on his face when he thinks back to this moment.

"Be that as it may. I'm seeing someone. Not a Gryffindor." I added.

"A Hufflepuff? No? A Ravenclaw." I stayed silent. "No!" He laughed. "You're seeing a Slytherin! What does your friends say about it?"

"They know I'm not one for putting people in boxes. They don't spend time together, but they're happy for me."

"Never took you for one to go into a snake's lair."

"As you don't know me, I'm not really bothered by it."

He was silent for a minute, taking me in again. Then suddenly. "What's that?" He asked, nudging his snout to my leg. I frowned as I looked down the paw he was looking at. In the middle of my front paw, I saw that my tattoo was inked in my white fur. The black lines of the heart obvious for me, but not for someone else. Huh.

"Must be dirt from walking around the forest. And since we have no plan -" I said, turning to leave.

"Wait." I turned to see Padfoot pick something up with his snout and threw a piece of blanket my way. "Pettigrew slept on this; I can smell him." He growled at the blanket. "But I can't seem to find a trace of him. I don't know why. Maybe you have more luck being a wolf."

"I'll try." I picked up the blanket and stuffed it in my little satchel. "You. Stay. Here."

"Yes, ma'am." He saluted with his dirty black paw. "Thanks for the food." He said, but I didn't turn around. I walked out of the tree and Crookshanks flanked me on my right, leading me back out of the large forest.