A/N: If you want to know where this story came from, read my Montage of Sirius. Also, if you're over there and see another one you like and want to see a full story for, let me know! I'd be happy to oblige! I also take story requests, so if there's a pairing or scenario you're dying for, let me know. I won't promise I'll do it, but if I think I can make a convincing story of it, you bet I'll make it!

This was made under the influence of Headstrong by Trapt. Hoorah for music. In this story, each chapter will be written under the influence of a particular song, and the whole story is, of course, based on Sanctus Real's I'm Not Alright. Cheers.

Jenny wasn't going to let her friends see her tears. She looked back at her family, her mother and father, her siblings Cecilia, David, Andrew, Gregory, Geoffrey, and Melissa. Jenny, or rather, Jeneva Violetta Avery was going into her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she was her family's greatest disappointment. The twins, Greg and Geoff were sixth years, and they were in Slytherin. Melissa was a third year, and she was in Slytherin. David was a seventh year, Head Boy, and a Slytherin. Andrew had graduated two years ago, and he was a Slytherin. Cecilia was starting this year. Jenny was a Gryffindor. And because of that, she was her family's greatest disappointment.

Every year, when she went home for the summer, she received beatings for any and all trouble she had managed to get in during the year, she received a beating for every friend she had who was unacceptable to her family's standards, she received a beating for every class she wasn't the top of, and she received an extra beating because she was a Gryffindor, just for good measure. This year, that extra beating was given to her just hours before coming to King's Cross station, and she still could feel the stinging skin, the gash on her arm that was covered by the long-sleeved black shirt she had changed into, the fabric sticking conspicuously in the congealed blood it concealed. She wiped her face on her other sleeve and dragged her trunk to the scarlet steam engine before her, attempting to pull it up the steps single-handedly.

Thankfully, her friends James and Remus spotted her on their way up the train and took the burden off her hands.

"Thanks," she muttered. "I'd better go and find Lily."

"Oi, Avery!" called the familiar voice of Sirius Black. Her heart did a weird fluttery thing. Sirius had that effect over the entire female population, except, perhaps, Lily Evans. She spun around to face him.

"Yes, Black?"

"Where are you off to?" he said with a smirk. "Avoiding the Marauders? I thought you would have missed us after a full summer away!"

Jenny rolled her eyes and said, "Not at all, Black. On the contrary, I'm wishing I had longer away. Now, I must be off or the girls will think something ate me. Nice badge, Remus," she said, noting the prefects badge pinned to his chest as she turned to go, causing him to turn light pink and mumble his gratitude at her noticing.

Sirius grabbed her arm, naturally, right were the wound was and she gasped, hoping he didn't notice her pained reaction, and pulled her arm free. He frowned.

"What was that, Avery?"

"N-nothing!"

His eyes narrowed and darkened, backing her against the wall of the corridor.

"I just grabbed your left forearm and you backed away like I'd hurt you and you're trying to tell me it's nothing?"

She blinked. Left forearm? What did that have to do with anything?

Oh, the mark.

"It's not that, Sirius," she said, a little hurt he would think such a thing about her. "I just burned myself this morning."

"Well, then you won't mind if I take a look," he said, holding her against the compartment and working her sleeve up to her elbow. He gasped. "Bloody hell, Avery, what did you do to yourself?"

He had cried out quite loudly, and people poked their heads around compartment doors to see what the fuss was all about.

"Sirius, please," she whimpered.

"No, what the hell happened to your arm, Jenny," he said, his eyes full of concern. "Clearly, this did not result from an accident in your morning routine!"

"What happened to your leg last fall?" she shot back, citing the limp he had for the first month of school the year before. His eyes narrowed again, but before he had a chance to say anything in return, David's face appeared over his shoulder, sneering.

"It's her punishment, Black, and it's none of your business how she got it. Now move along, you're blocking the corridor." Sirius shot David a glare and Jenny bit her lip, avoiding her brother's eyes as she turned to walk to the back of the train, Sirius following her. "And Black," said David, "keep your hands off my sister if you know what's good for you."

Jenny pushed past Sirius, hoping there wouldn't be some sort of a fight, but not having the heart to stick around and find out. She wanted to find the compartment with the other girls her age and fast. It was at the very end of the train.

Lily Evans, Mary MacDonald, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Anna Knight were settling into their compartment, passing around magazines, and chatting about their summer adventures. Anna and Mary were exchanging makeup, Mary bringing in the best of the Muggle world, Anna bringing the best of magical makeup. Lily had a shining prefect's badge on her chest and Jenny smiled at the sight of it.

"You and Remus, then," said Jenny brightly. "Good to see McGonagall's a decent judge of character."

"But Remus is a Marauder!" gasped Marlene. "Surely he's got too many detentions to be a prefect!"

"With that logic," said Dorcas dryly, "there would be no male Gryffindor fifth year prefect. The Prewett twins have racked up just as many detentions as the Marauders."

The girls all giggled. Sirius Black was amazingly beautiful, but the Prewett twins weren't far off the mark from his perfection.

"Well," said Anna decisively, examining the lipstick Mary had handed her in a compact, "you'll have to tell us who's got it from the other houses."

"Naturally," said Lily with a smile. "I'll be back soon, ladies!"

With that, the other five girls settled in, flipping through magazines lazily and enjoying themselves. Just when everyone had gotten comfortable, the door to the compartment opened and Sirius Black's head poked in.

"Hello, ladies," he said with a wink, which earned him several approving giggles. "I'm here to borrow Miss Avery for a moment. Hope you all don't mind."

"I mind," said Jenny with a frown.

"Too bad," he hissed, grabbing her arm (the right one, this time, and deliberately), "you're needed."

He yanked her out into the compartment and pointed down the corridor to a group of third year boys who were picking mercilessly on a pair of first-year girls. She recognized the Slytherin emblem on the robes of the boys, and she recognized the girls as her sister Cecilia and her friend Lysandra Rosier. Jenny sighed and followed him over to the commotion.

"Excuse me," said Sirius sharply. "What do you think you're doing?"

The Slytherin boys looked around at him, still tugging on the hair of Cecilia Avery. Jenny bit her lip. The corners of the mouth of the boy who appeared to be in charge curled upward at Sirius, smirking haughtily.

"Nothing that concerns you," he sneered.

Jenny blinked. Did a child just speak to Sirius like that? This kid wasn't even at puberty yet, and he just sneered at one of the kings of Hogwarts. Could be gutsy, but she supposed it was more likely that he had a death wish.

"See that girl there?" said Jenny, equally haughtily. "That happens to be my sister, so it is our business."

"Wow," said a sneering voice from further up the corridor. She looked up to see Greg and Geoff standing there, arms crossed, surveying the scene with amusement.

"Since when did Celia's well-being concern Black?" drawled Geoff.

"Or are you and the blood traitor screwing, little sister?" drawled Greg.

Sirius growled.

"It would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it?" said Geoff smoothly, ignoring Sirius.

"Two blood traitors in one bed," said Greg with a smirk. "It must reek."

"Leave it alone, boys," said Melissa's shrill voice. "She's just checking on Celia, she is still family, after all, until Mum and Dad decide otherwise."

Sirius blinked, and looked over at Jenny, who was carefully avoiding his eyes. In truth, she didn't have the energy for this. It had to be some kind of nightmare. Who had everyone in their life pick on them at once? Any second now her Mum and Dad were going to mysteriously appear from nowhere and begin beating her for everyone to see.

"Are you all right, Celia?" said Jenny softly. The little blonde nodded and Jenny nodded back, turning to go back to her compartment, but Sirius grabbed her arm (upper arm this time, deliberately), and held her there.

"Apologize to Jenny," he growled at her brothers.

Melissa laughed haughtily.

"Watch your tongue, Black. You're really not in the position to be making demands of anyone, about to be disowned any day now," she smirked. "If Jenny knew what was good for her, she would associate with the proper people, learn to mind her own business, and date someone she ought to be proud to marry, like Yaxley." Melissa's blue eyes burned with malice. "And if you knew what was good for you, Black," she added in a seductive tone, "you'd know that there are better catches than her to be dragging around to broom closets."

"Find a better target, Melissa," sniffed Greg. "He's not worth the time of day."

"She's not getting an apology," said Geoff softly, "until she learns the right of things."

"Just forget it, Sirius," muttered Jenny, wanting nothing more than to get away from her family. If there was any justice in the world, Cecilia would be sorted into Ravenclaw and that would be the end of it. She wouldn't be the family dartboard anymore. Either they'd pick on both of them, or they'd be forced to stop picking on either one altogether. Sirius let her go and walked back to the end of the train with her, but he didn't take his eyes off her brothers as they went.

"You're just going to let them walk all over you like that?" he demanded when they reached the very back of the train.

"They've been doing it for years," she shot back, glaring at him. "And for your information, I wouldn't screw my sister if I were you, I'm fairly certain she's got diseases, and she doesn't even think you're cute, she just wants to trap you into marrying her so she can get the Black fortune."

Sirius frowned.

"Good to know. Wasn't really planning on it anyway."

"I'll see you around, then," she muttered, turning to her own compartment and going inside before he could say another word.

"What did Sirius want?" said Marlene, and she and Mary giggled.

"Someone was picking on my sister," said Jenny. "He wanted to make sure I knew about it and helped me resolve it."

"Sirius gave a damn about your sister?" said Anna, frowning. "That doesn't sound like him."

"Of course it does," said Jenny with a hollow laugh. "It was Celia, not Melissa, and she was being picked on by Slytherins. Sirius would take any excuse to throw a hex at a Slytherin."

The girls passed the rest of the train ride with magazines, gossip, and a quick game of Exploding Snap, which was made quick because Anna announced that she'd rather keep her eyebrows than win a "stupid card game."

Once they finally arrived at Hogsmeade, the girls filed off the train and made their way over to the carriages, climbing into the nearest one and closing the door, not wanting any random second year rejects wandering into their carriage.

They made their way to the Great Hall through the crowd of people and sat down together at Gryffindor's long table. Waiting for them was Gryffindor fourth year, Tien Vo, one of Jenny's favorite people. The sweet-looking little Vietnamese girl was Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and had quite the biting personality.

"Hey guys!" she said, a big smile on her face. "I see you've got the badge, Evans! Nice one!"

Lily smiled and thanked her. Jenny always thought it was funny when Tien called Lily 'Evans', something she had somewhat of a habit of from being around the Marauders so often. In fact, the Marauder's fan girls considered Tien Vo enemy number one, not because she had actually done anything, but because she was suspected of sleeping with all of them (minus Peter, of course), either individually, or in some sort of crazed Marauder orgy. Tien preferred the latter story, and did nothing to dispel the rumors. She and the Marauders even publicly flirted, purposefully to set off the fan girls' jealousy.

The fact of the matter was, Tien Vo was a virgin. She hadn't even been kissed, except for on the cheek, and only from the Marauder's when they were putting on a show for the jealous masses. She admitted to Jenny that she had a crush on Sirius (who didn't?), but the boys looked at her as a sister, and that's how she looked at James and Remus.

"I suppose Remus has got the other?"

"Yeah," said Jenny. "This Sorting better be the shortest thing ever because I'm starving!"

Professor Slughorn announced the beginning of the Sorting, unrolled his parchment containing the names of all the tiny, anxious first years lined up to be Sorted.

"Abrams, Demelza!"

"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat, and the Ravenclaw table erupted in cheers.

"Abrams, Shane!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Jenny looked over to where her siblings were sitting in a bunch, obviously hoping to eagerly welcome their sister into the fold, having saved a seat for her between the twins. They clapped, welcoming the Abrams boy next to them.

"Avery, Cecilia!"

The hat took a while as Celia sat underneath it, and Jenny could almost feel the anxious tension between her siblings. The hat hadn't taken this long with any of the Avery's, and Jenny's had been the shortest of all. It was clear she hadn't belonged in Slytherin. There was clearly some sort of debate going on with Celia, and even from across the Great Hall, Jenny could see Megan's eyes glowing with anxious fury.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Jenny grinned, clapping wildly, but Cecilia, rather than looking pleased to have been Sorted, looked positively terrified as she went to join her new House, shooting an anxious look at the Slytherin table before setting in next to Demelza Abrams. Jenny looked down the table at Sirius, who was watching her with a look of pity. They knew they would be spending their year watching out for Celia.

"Mitchell, Laverna!" was Sorted into Hufflepuff as Jenny watched her sister begin to make friends at the table. By the time "Whitaker, Derek!" was heading for the Ravenclaw table, Jenny could feel her stomach growling, and "Wilkie, Carlyn!" was then Sorted into Gryffindor, which required vigorous clapping, as did all Gryffindor recruits. "Womack, Zackery!" scurried off to the Slytherin table, and with that, the Sorting was over, and Professor Dumbledore stood, said a small bit of nonsense, to the wild applause of the older students, and the food appeared on the sparkling gold plates. About time, too.

When they had eaten their fill and Dumbledore said his bit, they were dismissed to bed, and Sirius cornered Jenny and Tien on the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Password's 'Aria'," he muttered. "Remus's just told me."

"Thanks," said Tien with a winning smile.

"How do you think your little sister's holding up, Avery?" said Sirius, looking genuinely worried. Jenny shrugged and sighed.

"I don't know, Sirius, I'm sure you remembered about how well I held up after being Sorted."

"There wasn't an example then, though," said Sirius. "You were a trailblazer. You set this path for her."

"And you saw my arm," snapped Jenny. "So did she. You really think she wants to turn out like me? You want that path for her? Because I don't!"

"Well, it's better than having her spouting pureblood supremacy nonsense because she doesn't want to be beaten!" he snarled back.

"Really, Sirius? Do you really think we're any better off than our siblings?" Jenny fought back tears. "I'm a living meat puzzle, and you're a walking bruise. It won't do us any good being on the right of things ideologically if we don't live to seventeen!"

Sirius just frowned.

"What exactly happened with your arm, Jen?" he whispered. "Why did they do that to you?"

Jenny just shook her head.

"C'mon, Jen, they're not here," he whispered, his eyes full of knowingness that she both despised and found comfort in. If there was anyone on earth who could understand the hell of her home life, it was Sirius Black.

"I was just talking to Celia. She was all worried about the Sorting and I didn't even say anything bad. I just said that I would love her no matter where she ended up, and Dan overheard and… well… between him and my father I didn't stand a chance."

Sirius nodded sadly.

"We're fairly well screwed, aren't we, Jenny?"

"Sirius Orion Black," she whispered, "if we make it out of this school alive, promise me something?"

"Anything," he whispered back with a small smile on his face, "Jeneva Augusta Avery."

She smirked sadly and said, "You'll marry Tien someday?"

"Wh-what?" he stuttered. "Why?"

"Because she loves you, Sirius," said Jenny with a sigh, "and I suspect you've got feelings for her too, you just haven't thought about them yet because she's the Marauders' favorite toy. Someday, the Marauders will have to grow up and live independent lives, and when that day comes, don't overlook her because of your childhood gang. Okay?"

Sirius gave her a thoughtful look.

"Fine," he whispered, "only if you promise me something."

"Okay," she said.

"Don't push Remus away because of your family."

Jenny blinked.

"Push him away? When have I ever pushed Remus away? The boy avoids me like crazy!"

"And you know why," growled Sirius. "It's that stupid condition and you know he feels unworthy, but Jenny, he loves you. He really, really loves you."

"Sirius, you know I can't…"

"Bollocks, Jen," he hissed. "Don't you dare say you can't date a Gryffindor, or a werewolf for that matter. Don't you dare. You can do whatever the hell you want, and I know you want him so stop being so stubbornly afraid of them!"

"What part of living meat puzzle did you not understand?" she said, raising her eyebrow.

"I'll protect you," he said softly. "I'll take you away from them, where they can't hurt you."

Jenny shook her head.

"Sirius," she said, "as much as I appreciate your stubbornness and your ego in thinking you could actually pull that off, I can't run away. Even if I'm not at home, at school, they're everywhere. And When Dan leaves next year I'll still have Melissa and the twins… I can't rock the boat more than I already have to. For Celia's sake."

Sirius nodded and bit his lip, looking around and frowning.

"Wasn't Tien with us a minute ago?"

Jenny just shrugged.

"Yeah, I think so, but she probably go bored of talking about me being a living meat puzzle and took off. She'll be in the common room."

"Lead on, then, Jenny," said Sirius with a smirk.

A/N: Jenny's baby sister Cecilia is nicknamed Celia, in honor of lizzystone's story Behind the Old Door, which is excellent, btw. If you enjoy Marauder Era Sirius smut as much as I do, you'll love this well written piece of magic. And while you're at it, check out her other story, It All Started in the Shower, which is a post-war necromancy extravaganza, and also happens to be complete, which is always nice.

Hope you guys enjoyed this! More soon!