GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Fifteen: Words Fail)

This was it.

Sirius was going to tell her.

He was.

Any second now.

He was just going to get up and go over there.

Hello, Miss Fawley, I would just like to mention that dog that keeps following you around? Yeah, that's me. Also, I would like you to trust me enough to tell me what the hell is up with you because I honestly do not understand.

Right now.

Right.

Now.

The girl in question was definitely making the task itself more difficult by hanging upside down from the ceiling and pulling faces at Gideon Prewett.

It was really rather unfair. Almost as if the universe was trying to stop him from saying those words out loud to Alex. Sirius thought that he should probably listen to the universe, just this once. Maybe it was finally making some sense.

No. No.

That was what his family would do: Hide behind the lies and the secrets, manipulate until the end, cling to that last remnant of what they wanted for as long as possible, and damn whoever was hurt along the way. Sirius would not be that.

"Oi! Fawley!" Sirius called, before he thought better of it.

Alex Fawley, at that moment, had her legs looped over the edges of the sturdy little chandelier that hung from the roof of the Gryffindor Common Room (It had to be sturdy- the weekly rounds of Truth or Dare were a time honoured tradition that the heads of house had never been oblivious to). At the sound of her name being called, she kicked the roof so that she spun in a slow circle to face Sirius. Her hair was an upside-down shock of mousey brown-ness that was slightly lighter at the roots. 

"Oi!" She scrunched up her face, mimicking his rough tone, "Black!"

Sirius swallowed, "Pancakes?"

"Oh yeah." Alex scrunched up her face, "I said pancakes on Tuesday, didn't I? I can be weird sometimes."

She dropped to the ground with a crack that Sirius didn't like, only to bounce back upwards again almost immediately, as if she hadn't felt the pain at all. He stared at her for a moment.

"Well?" She raised her eyebrows, and bobbed a bow, extending her arm, "What d'you say, Asshole? Suddenly too good for me?"

Sirius looked at her arm. It seemed almost like a betrayal to his Alex to take it. He rolled his eyes and stalked past her, towards the portrait hole. Alex followed him, and when he looked over, he could see her imitating his scowl, drawing sniggers from the surrounding Gryffindors. Sirius' dark expression only worsened, which of course had the proportional effect on the hoots of laughter originating from his classmates. 

They were halfway down the stairs before he spoke, "What's up with you?"

"Me?" She barked an incredulous laugh, almost missing the step as the staircase moved. Sirius' arm shot out by reflex to catch her. She didn't seem to notice, even as Sirius withdrew that same arm rather rapidly, "I've never been better mate. Top of the world, I am."

"But something changed." Sirius countered stubbornly, "You sure as hell weren't all daredevilly a couple of weeks ago."

"Nope." Alex confirmed happily. Sirius waited for an elaboration, "Awful, aren't I?"

Sirius nodded thoughtfully, "I hate to agree, but I'm team old Alex."

"Nah, she was even worse." The girl swung herself around a suit of armour, "She couldn't even talk without... without stuttering every... every other word. And she sure as hell wouldn't go outside without extreme levels of peer pressure."