A/N: Sorry about the long delay in this chapter, I've been so busy lately, that tonight was the first night in ages that I've had time to sit down and write. Read+Review please!
Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter, Nor Do I Own Any Of Said Characters. Just Synthia Gray. Song creds are given to: 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor - Come Take My Hand; I Don't Own That Either.
Chapter 8: Behind Gray Eyes - Come Take My Hand
I know a place
where people not fighting,
with smiling faces around everywhere.
Come take my hand,
I'll show you I'll guide you.
I know this place
it's deep down inside you.
The following weeks for 7th years at Hogwarts, Synthia noticed, were nothing but organized chaos. Everyone was fretting about their N.E.W.T's, professors piled homework upon them, and they had no free time. The only two people among the chaos that were calm in slightest bit were, none other than, Sirius Black and James Potter. Syn had no idea how they managed it. James had Quidditch duties on top of his workload, as he was the Captain of the Gryffindor team; Sirius was one of the Beaters'. It seemed to her that they were slacking off, but when she asked them about it, all they said was that she shouldn't worry.
"Honestly, love," said Sirius. James, Sirius, Syn, Peter, and Remus were walking to lunch from Transfiguration, and he was showing her his 'E' on their latest essay, "I'm passing aren't I?"
She gave him a skeptical look before replying. "Sirius, you're just as reckless as ever! Remus is the only one of you lot that actually studies, and what will happen if you don't do well on your N.E.W.T's, huh? Honestly! You, James, and Peter are always getting in trouble and come on! You need to stu-"
She stopped; Sirius stopped walking and turned around with a devilish grin on his face. He walked over to her and put his hand over her mouth, then jerked his head towards where James was standing. James smirked and walked over to Syn, picked her up bridal style, and muttered, "Silencio".
Syn started screaming silently while James and Sirius roared with laughter, still walking to lunch. Peter looked delighted, glancing back and forth from Sirius to James, while Remus looked disappointed in his friends.
The group of 5 entered the Great Hall to many amused looks. Syn had finally stopped squirming, and was scowling at everyone they passed. They took seats in the middle of the Gryffindor table, and James sat Syn down to Sirius' left, and walked around to sit opposite her.
"Are you going to leave us alone about our study habits now?" he asked.
Oh, the little prat. How I'd love to just watch him fail. I'm going to punch him so hard,Syn thought bitterly.
Syn glared at him, but nodded. Sirius smirked - not knowing what she was planning - then muttered the counter spell.
She opened her mouth, and screeched. James dropped his goblet of pumpkin juice, causing it to spill all over the table; Peter fell off of the table; Sirius immediately put his hands over his ears; and Remus just shook his head, chuckling to himself. Syn stopped, then smirked at Sirius, feeling accomplished.
"Bloody hell, Synthia!" exclaimed James, mopping up the spilled pumpkin juice.
"Oh, get over it, will you?" she replied. Syn turned to Sirius and punched him on the arm. Hard. James sniggered, as Remus gave Syn a thumbs up. Peter was looking at James with admiration.
"Oi! What, I put you down and took that charm off you, didn't I?" Sirius complained, as he was rubbing his shoulder.
"Yes, but you're a right git, you know that?" said Syn, rolling her eyes.
"You love me, you know it," said Sirius, winking at her. She rolled her eyes heavenward, as he helped himself to steak-and-kidney pie, and became oblivious to everything in the world but his food. Syn wasn't all that hungry, as she had quite a large breakfast, so just settled in the seat talking with James about Quidditch. She tried out for the time on the 3rd week, although she didn't make it, she still wished for the Gryffindor team to do well.
"How're your new chasers holding up?" she asked. James looked up at her from his own plate, and released a long sigh. He set down his, now, goblet full of pumpkin juice, then took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, squinting his eyes in a tired fashion.
"Well, I'd be lying if I said they were even half-way decent," said James, putting his glasses back on and looking at her with a pained expression. The only topic James was ever serious about was Quidditch, or Lily, so no one ever joked around about it with James around, "But me being captain and all, I can't let them go and expect to find 2 chasers completely ready for Saturdays' match." He gave her a half-hearted smile, which she returned with a sympathetic one.
"You know, if you ever needed one of the two chasers; I'm here," said Syn, trying to reassure him.
James' face became stern and he shook his head. "I'll be damned if you get on that team. You're an extraordinary chaser, but I'm not taking the risk of you getting hurt falling off your broom or something other."
"I can take care of myself, you know. Plus, with Madam Pomfrey on call, I doubt I'd ever be in any real trouble," she retorted. James shrugged, and returned to eating. Syn smiled lightly and looked towards the entrance to the Great Hall to see a flushed Alice and Lily making a beeline to her. Though she couldn't see it, James' face brightened considerably. Lily and Alice took seats to Syn's right and started trying to gain control over themselves.
Remus looked at Lily and Alice with one eyebrow raised. "What's happened to you two?"
Sharing a glance between the two, Alice burst out laughing, and Lily's face turned a bright shade of red; almost the same color as her hair. At that, everyone turned to look at them.
"Well," Alice started, still giggling, "Me and dear Lily over here were walking to lunch when we got out of Divination, and we heard some noises coming from a nearby broom cupboard, so naturally, our curiosity got the better of us. You want to know what was in there?"
Sirius, already having gained a grin and a mischievous glint in his eyes, nodded his head eagerly. The rest of them just smiled and continued looking at Alice waiting for her to go one. Instead, Lily answered.
"I've always said that what happens in the bedroom, should stay in the bedroom. Well, apparently, not everyone shares that opinion. We opened the door and there was Andrew Conner with his girlfriend. Isn't he your new chaser, James?"
James looked shocked, not about finding that his chaser was shagging his girlfriend in a broom cupboard, but the fact that Lily had not used his surname when addressing him, but his first; which he'd been trying to get her to do for years.
"Yes, Lily," he paused, squinting one eye closed seeing if she'd do something, which she didn't, so he continued, "He is. I think I'll be having a chat with him at practice tonight."
Everyone was laughing at James' team chaser's stupidity, but when the bell rang, they all jumped up with smiles on their faces and headed off to class. Them having a free period after lunch, they headed to the Gryffindor common room.
-o0o0oo0o0o0o-
Back in the common room, James and Peter were playing Exploding Snap; Lily and Remus were in a discussion about Transfiguration; Alice was taking a nap upstairs in the Girls Dorm room, and Syn and Sirius were lounging on the couch by the fire. No one was in the mood to do their homework yet, so they were just relaxing, something Lily was extremely grateful for, as she was over-working herself, in Syn's opinion.
Syn started to lay in Sirius' lap, giving in to the feeling of taking a nap. He began to absentmindedly play with her hair, causing her to become even more drowsy. She fell asleep after about 5 minutes of this, having the most peculiar dream.
She was walking along the side of the lake on the Hogwarts grounds on a full moon. She looked up into the night sky and thought it was absolutely beautiful. Sitting down on the edge of the lake, she dipped her toes in the cold water. A howl was heard in the distance, making her turn her head towards the noise. To her, it sounded like that of a werewolf. She stood-up from the side of the lake, and started running into the Forbidden Forest, where she heard the sound. After walking a distance, where she was sure was the heart of the forest, she saw a pair of gleaming yellow eyes in the darkness to her left. She turned and began, slowly, making her way to the eyes. The yellow eyes started moving closer, and a werewolf came bounding towards her. She could feel her heart beat quicken, and her legs carrying her across the forest floor. Knowing that the beast was chasing her, was terrifying. She became so frightened, that she tripped on a large tree root. She thought she was surely done for, when the werewolf was right on top of her, she could feel its' hot breath against her throat, and she released a small whimper. Out of nowhere, it seemed, a beautiful, gallant stag came out of a clearing and shoved the werewolf off with his prongs. The werewolf growled and bared its sharp teeth, then took off in the forest. The stag came running back towards Syn, and to her shock, became the man she knew as her cousin, James.
"Synthia! Go!" He screamed.
"James-!"
"NOW!" he roared. She jumped up and began running to the castle, looking over her shoulder, seeing James become the stag once more and bolting off after the werewolf.
'Syn, wake-up!' She heard, far off in the distance. She started re-gaining consciousness, but kept coming back to the Forbidden Forest, calling after James.
"James- come back..!" she all but screamed.
James was sitting by her side holding her hand and trying to wake her up. Lily was shaking her hard now, trying to make Syn stop screaming, as Lily was almost in tears.
"Synthia!" she cried. Syn's eyes fluttered open, she felt her forehead damp with sweat. James pulled his cousin up in a rib-crushing hug, causing Syn to give a bewildered look to all of her friends. He let her go and then Lily did the same. Sirius was sitting next to James looking terrified, while Remus was standing next to Lily, on the other side of the couch. Peter looking as he was about to wet himself, kneeling next to Sirius.
"What, the bloody hell, are you crowding around me for?" she asked, still utterly bewildered.
Lily looked at her friend with such sadness, it looked as if Syn was on her deathbed.
"You've been screaming for the past 10 minutes," answered Sirius, barely above a whisper. She looked towards him, and saw his eyes filled with concern. If Syn hadn't seen his lips move, she wouldn't have known who said it.
"Then you started yelling for me," said James, looking worried. "What were you screaming for? Did you have a nightmare? Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing? I can skip class and take you-"
"James, I'm okay. It was just a dream. But, I think I'm gonna skip Potions today. I don't want to be around so many people just yet," said Syn, "When does class start?"
Remus looked tense and replied. "It starts in 10 minutes, but we can can stay if you want, I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone, as do the rest of us, I'm sure."
"No, no, you lot go to class. I'm not letting you get into trouble for skipping, when I'm fine."
"Whatever. But someone is staying with you," said Lily, still looking concerned.
"No, it's fin-"
"I'll stay," said James, beginning to sit on the other end of the couch.
"No. James, you're failing Potions. I'm not letting you fail," said Syn, sternly.
"I'll stay," said Sirius, after a moments silence, "I've gotten an A to a O on all of our papers so far. I don't care if I miss one class."
James nodded showing his approval. "Make sure she stays awake, and if she falls asleep, take her directly to the hospital wing," he said.
Remus, Peter, Lily, and James all began packing their things in their bags and started walking towards the portrait hole when a sleepy looking Alice came walking down the steps with her hair in a messy ponytail, and her book bag thrown over her shoulder. She wiped her eyes with her hands and looked up at the tense faces of her friends.
"Did I miss something?" she asked confusedly.
James face broke into a grin, and shook his head. Lily grabbed her friend by the forearm and pushed her through the portrait hole, with James, Remus, and Peter closely behind. They left and Sirius turned in his seat to face Syn, who was staring into the fireplace, now sitting up, with a look of deep concentration on her face.
"Was I really screaming?" said Syn, not tearing her gaze away from the roaring flames.
"You were," he replied. Sirius looked at her and saw her nod her head in understanding. After a few minutes of comfortable a comfortable silence, Sirius asked the question that Syn was waiting to come.
"So, what happened while you were sleeping?" he asked, making her leave her thoughts for the moment.
"Not one for tact, you are," Syn looked at Sirius and saw him smile and shake his head. "You won't tell James? He'll think I've lost it.. although I'm not sure he ever even thought I had it.." she said, getting a good chuckle out of it.
"I swear, I won't tell James."
"Good, okay. I was outside on the grounds by the lake, and it was a full moon.." she began, and told Sirius about her dream, how scared she felt when the werewolf was on top of her, how shocked she was seeing James turn into a stag, and vice versa. Sirius just stared at her with a blank look on his face, the entire time. His eyes though, Syn noticed, were full of worry.
He stayed silent for a few minutes after she finished, with Syn waiting for a response. She finally sighed, stood up and started walking towards the portrait hole, when he finally said something.
"James isn't an animagus, if that's what you're thinking. He would've told me," he said, getting up and walking over to her. She have him a skeptical look. What he was saying seemed a tad bit too forced, for her liking.
"I know that, Sirius. Besides, it was just a dream. It's not like there's actually a werewolf running around the grounds," she said, laughing.
He gave a forced, nervous laugh, that she didn't notice. "Where are you going?"
She looked at Sirius, grinned and grabbed his hand, making his stomach do a jolt. Syn led him out of the Common Room, and through the castle, until they reached the Entrance Hall. Sirius stopped, and turned her around, making her fall. Right before she hit the floor, Sirius caught her with one hand around the small of her back, and the other on the back of her head. Syn felt the color rising in her cheeks as she stood-up and balanced herself, trying to stop herself from blushing.
"I want to take a walk, and you told James you'd stay with me, so you have to take a walk with me," said Syn, turning and walking out of the large oak doors. Sirius shook his head and followed her.
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-
After taking a walk around the lake for a few hours, being rained out and soaked to the bone, Syn and Sirius decided to return inside. They cast drying charms on themselves, and automatically felt better. Dinner had just started, and the pair didn't feel like eating with the rest of the students, so Sirius came up with a plan.
"Follow me," he said, taking her down an unfamiliar corridor, left of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall. They walked down the corridor for a few minutes, passing paintings of sleeping wizards, and many of brightly colored fruit. Sirius stopped abruptly, causing Syn to bump into him.
"Sorry," she mumbled. He turned around and smiled at her. She looked at the painting they were standing in front of: it was a gigantic, and had a silver bowl of fruit in it. Sunny yellow banana's, blood red apples, vivid purple grapes, and a single bright green pear. Sirius leaned forward and ticked the green pear, as if waiting for something to happen. Syn thought he'd lost his mind, until the pear started giggling, and turned into a green door-handle. He turned around and looked quite pleased with himself.
"Ta-da!" He said. That knee-weakening smile, that girls always melted over, never leaving his face. She laughed, and he reached for the handle, pulling it open and waited for her to walk in.
"Ladies first," said Sirius, holding out his hand to help her in.
"Oh, why thank you, kind sir." She smiled and stepped in. She walked in and saw at least two dozen house elves walking around with trays upon trays of food around. One extremely tiny house walked over to Sirius and bowed so deep, that its' nose touched the floor. When he stood-up, Syn saw that he was wearing a green sweater that was far too large for him, and socks that came up way past his knees. He looked fairly young for a house elf, as his skin didn't look wrinkled as most of the other ones, but could tell that he'd been working there a long time.
"Hello, Mister Black, sir! Can we get you anything, sir? Oh, sir, and you is bringing someone with you, sir!" said the house elf, clearly happy that Sirius and Syn were in the kitchens.
"'Ello Behry, this is Synthia," said Sirius, pointing from Behry to Syn, "Syn, this is Behry." He pointed from Syn to Behry.
Syn smiled at the elf and stuck her hand out to shake it. "Hello, Behry."
The elf wailed suddenly, very loudly, startling many of the other elves. His enormous eyes became glossy and he smiled a smile so wide, it looked like it was stretching from ear to ear.
"You is kind, miss, very kind. We is appreciating it, we is. Anything, we could help you with, miss, just ask, and we is glad to help, miss," he said and turned to Sirius.
"Erm- Could we possibly have steak-and-kidney pie, pumpkin juice, and some bread rolls?" He asked timidly, as so Behry wouldn't burst into tears again.
"Gladly, sir! Pardon me, miss!" he squeaked, running past Synthia to start making their food. Sirius started walking towards a table in the corner close to the door, it had four seats round it, and Syn had a sneaking suspicion that she now knew where the Marauders' sometimes went in the middle of the night now. He sat down and motioned for her to follow; she obliged with a smirk.
After she sat down next to him she turned and looked at him. "Are they always this willing to please?"
Sirius chuckled and looked at all of the bustling elves. "Yeah, elves are happy to serve to humans. They've been doing for so long I s'pose. I thought you had a house elf, like James? You know, being pureblood and all."
She shook her head and made a sour face, gaining one of Sirius' classic bark-like laughs. "My mum never understood why people used house elves, when you could do it just fine yourself. She thinks people have become just lazy. And I quite agree. I've never let James' elf do any of my things when I go over there. I don't like it."
Sirius smiled and nodded his head. "Good to know. Ah, here comes the food now."
Behry came running over with a pitched of pumpkin juice, a basket full of steaming rolls, and freshly made steak-and-kidney pie. He smiled at Syn and Sirius before saying a quick 'Thank You' and running back off somewhere in the kitchen. They both smiled at each other and began helping themselves to the food.
Syn lay in sat in her bed that night, as did Lily in her own, talking about that day, and what's been going on: basically girl time. They were facing each other and just talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Laughing, and getting angry, too. It was only 11, but Syn was exhausted. She'd told Lily about her dream only just minutes before because while she told James, Remus, Peter, and Alice about what she'd dreamt, Lily was patrolling the corridors around the castle.
Lily scowled when Syn told her about the part of James changing from, and turning into, the stag. "I wouldn't put it past Potter to become an unregistered Animagus. Prat like him-"
Syn not wanting to listen to another of Lily's rants about her cousin and best friend, sighed. "Lily, honestly, stop. It was just a dream, so It's not real. I'm getting tired of this, as is everyone else. You two have been at it like cats and dogs since our 2nd Year," Lily furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to retaliate, but Syn held her hand up, making Lily close her mouth and scowl. "I'm not done. He might be an arrogant prat, yes, I know, but you can't say his hearts not in the right place. He asks you out way too much, he can be an immature berk, I'm aware of it, but he loves you Lily. And you won't even give him the time of day. He cares about you in a way I've never thought possible for him, and you just shoot him down. Lily, it breaks his heart. That's all I'm going to say, but please, be more civil to him. He can be the sweetest guy you've ever met, because that's the James I know. You'll learn to love him, if you just gave him a chance. Goodnight, Lily." She shut the hangings around her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, and fell asleep in seconds.
Lily, on the otherhand, stared dumbfounded at the spot where Syn had been sitting only seconds before. She left the hangings open and got under her convers, turning on her side and thinkning about what Syn had just said. She replayed them over in her head until she'd memorized every word. Was she really that bad to Pot- No, James now, she thought, Starting tomorrow. I'm going to act different. Get to know the James that Sirius, Synthia, Remus, and everyone else love. She smiled into her pillow, and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Thanks for reading! Woot, woot to the longest chapter yet! The part with Lily and Syn is very important, so I just had to throw it in.Well, Read and Review please! It makes me feel so much better about my story, and make me want to continue, not only for myself, but you guys as well.
Much love!
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