Disclaimer: All characters except for Melanie are not mine! *defeated sigh* J.K. owns them. Also i claim all rights to this plot! :)

Pairings: Sirius/OC, James/Lily, Remus/Tonk, and some others

Ok kiddies this is my first ever fanfic so please bare with me.

And PLEASE review! Flames are welcome I just want some feedback!

Enjoy!

"Thoughts"

The sky was gunmetal grey, as were the streets and the buildings and the water that lined those same dreary streets; just a never ending world devoid of color. The scene looked like an old black and white film, everything thrown in darkness and contrast, people looking more suspicious, shadows more ominous. Yes, the metropolis of London, England was a city of dreary countenance, the nearly constant rains doing an effective job of depleting the radiance of the sun and diminishing any cheerfulness the celestial orb had emitted.

Wind whistled down the winding streets of the city, and as it was late fall, the trees were wilting, the grass shrivelling, and the air turning frigid in the unfortunate pedestrians lungs. Pedestrians like the frantic teen that now tore through the streets of the drenched metropolitan area, curses as well as angry drivers left in her wake.

"Bugger, Bugger, Bugger it ALL!", muttered Melanie Strider, dodging yet another car while she dashed across another street, the irate blare of a horn trailing after her as she doubled her pace. It was just her luck that her alarm clock would break while her parents were gone for the weekend. And it was just her luck that she had told her friends Lily and Remus yesterday to meet her at school today instead of coming to her house as usual. So, because of these stupid blunders, she was now involved in a frantic one man race through early morning London, praying to any and every god listening that she wouldn't miss the underground train to school!

And to make this morning perfect it was drizzling. Not raining, ohh no, just drizzling. Just enough to make her miserable because in her rush to leave she had forgotten her umbrella! Another mistake that served to make her Friday morning all the better because now her favorite T-shirt, dark wash jeans, and Converse were becoming damp and muddy, victims to the cold indifference of drivers and the fates alike. Yes the fates, because for the last sixteen years of Mel's life, they had laughed at her…and laughed…and laughed.

As if to prove some cosmic point, yet another car zoomed down a nameless alleyway, bathing Melanie in a sordid combination of mud, trash, and dirty water. "Oh come on! I know you saw me you bloody arse!", the pissed teen called after the culprit car, red tail lights disappearing in the gloom. Shaking her head both in disgust and in an effort to rid her hair of mud, Mel commenced her race once more, this recent set back just another in a string of disappointments and embarrassments that was her life. Melanie had come to the conclusion long ago that she had to be the most unluckiest person on the face of the earth! Hell, even her friends and family concurred as she was always embarrassing herself with her clumsiness! If the old adage of keep making that face and it will get stuck like that was true, than there was no doubt in her mind that she would be forever be cursed to retain a hue that would make a tomato green with envy.

But the universe wasn't heartless it seemed, for in an effort to make up for her anti-luck, the fates had blessed Melanie with good looks. Standing at an average 5'4, she was slim and lean with semi-long wavy brown hair, a pretty oval face, and bright startling blue eyes.

Eyes that were now narrowed in righteous anger.

The train that Melanie needed to be on in order to make it to school left promptly at 7:30 AM. Which usually wasn't it problem except that it was already 7:20 and she was still blocks away.

"Come on, Come on!", she panted urging herself to go faster, lungs already screaming in protest at the frosty air that was being forced in an out of the sore organs with every laborious gasp. "Shite I'm out of shape.", the brunnete absentmindedly reflected as she skidded around another corner, her backpack smacking harshly against her spine, leaving an already sensitive bruise. "Bloody perfect."

A few eternities later, or that is what it bloody seemed like to the exhausted teen, the station loomed into sight and Melanie was forced to stop a block away due to congested traffic, a symphony of horns rising in the air as tensions escalated in the dim light of the rising sun. Bending over to catch her breath, Mel chanced a glance at her watch, a surge of hope blooming in her heaving chest. "7:28" she panted, wiping the light perspiration from her brow. "I can still make it!"

Waiting for the walk signal and still panting in exertion, Melanie let her gaze roam over her surroundings, her gaze randomly landing on a small alley to her left. What she saw within those shadows, however, froze her blood cold and would serve to change the world as she knew it.

Four men stood silhouetted in the gloom, black shadows in a grey world. Three stood to one side, like a pack of hungry wolves working together to trap their prey, or in this case the other occupant of the narrow passage who leaned with his back against the opposite wall. This would seem innocent enough, and usually Mel would not have thought twice of such a gathering, shrugging it off as some drunk blokes playing around on their way home from a wild night.

She would say that, except that one of the men held a gun, the metal glinting brightly in the sunrise as it aimed straight at the lone man's heart. And by their postures, it didn't seem like anyone was playing around.

"Any last words scum?" sneered the man with the gun, long blood hair fluttering in the stale wind that flowed through the tight space. "Any final endearments you want me to past on to dearest mummy?"

The other's response was to spit in the blonde's face, the gob of saliva tinted red as it slid down the soon to be murderer's cheek. Drawing back in revulsion, face twisting in hatred and disgust, the man clicked the safety off, the small sound alone like a gunshot in itself. "Fine. Go to hell."

Mel's brain was screaming run, every muscle in her froze body aching to carry her away from here but it seems the pathways connecting the two were down at the moment because her feet were cemented to the sidewalk, her gaze to the horrible scene before her.

Flashes of bodies and blood, gore and screams sped through Mel's mind, every image from every movie or TV show merging into one horror filled cinematic piece. "This can not happening! This is not happening!", Mel told herself. She was just some girl. A sixteen year old who went to school and hung out with her two best friends every other spare second she had. She wasn't some…hero. However, denial only went so far and the last stop was when the blonde took his stance and placed his finger on the trigger. "Bloody fucking hell! I'm about to witness a murder!", was the only coherent thing Mel could think, fear and disbelief making her numb and stupid. But it seems that murder was some sort of primal trigger, because the next thing she knew, Melanie found herself in motion.

Not fully understanding what she was doing, the previously winded teen charged into the alley, a part of her screaming at her to stop unless she wanted that bullet in her own skin. But that warning was lost in a surge of pure adrenaline and instinct, the combination enabling Mel as she used all her might to shove a dumpster that had been resting at the lip of the alley towards the three men, catching them all by surprise as the slick metal slammed into them and pinned them to the grey brick wall behind them. Still truly unaware of what was happening, Melanie reached out and blindly grabbed the fourth man by the hand and yanked him out of the alley, sprinting across the still crowded street as the shouts of the three men followed after her, quickly drowned out by the renewed screams of car horns.

"Fuck, fuck , fuck!", she screamed mentally, fear finally catching up of her as her actions did, its sharp claws digging into her chest until she was sure she was having some kind of cardiac arrest. Frantically glancing around the station she had just stumbled into, terror filled blue eyes at last alighted on a departing train. "Yes!" Relief beginning to filter through her haze of horror, Mel yanked the young man across the platform and unto the train, pushing him into the first available seat. Like electricity, adrenaline kept Melanie upright, a current of terror as the potent endorphins spiralling through her bones made her heart race and her knees shake. "Please go, go, go!" she begged the train, the image of the wicked looking gun and the three thugs swimming in her mind. Wonder of all wonders, it seems the gods were listening, for in the next instant the doors closed with a hiss, filthy, smudged glass barring her from the platform.

And not a moment too soon for just as the train began to roll forward, Mel saw the three men from the alley dart across the platform, one even looking right at the train she was on. Fortunately, however, the train took off and the danger the men presented disappeared as Mel rounded the tunnel and sped off into the darkness.

As the adrenaline drained from her body, like the water from a bath, used and now unneeded, Mel's legs gave out and she slumped into the closest seat. Putting her pounding head into her trembling hands, her mind came fully back online, waking with a wrathful vengeance. "What the HELL did I just do?" she shrieked within the confines of her mind.

"Well, you almost died for one. And two, you saved someone else from doing so.", some random rational portion of her mind supplied. At the reminder that she wasn't alone in her great escape, Melanie shook her damp hair off her face and slowly looked across the aisle at the man she just saved, almost afraid at what she would find.

He was tall. That was the first thing she noticed as his legs nearly reached her in his slumped position. He also wore faded dark jeans, black boots, and a maroon T-shirt.

But these details paled in comparison to what she noticed next.

All of his exposed skin was bloody and bruised and judging from the spreading dark stains on his chest and the awkward way he sat, the covered parts of his body faired no better. Her gaze traveled upwards, taking inventory as she went along. He had semi-long black hair which was damp and hung in his face and finely chiseled features. But those features were distorted due to the black eye, split lip, bloody nose, and large gash on his forehead, pale skin smeared all manners of red, blue, and black.

And yet…he was still handsome, amazingly so. The unconscious observation made Melanie blush scarlet, the hue spreading down her neck "Oi idiot! You almost bloody died and your taking a fancy to this bloke?"

Embarrassed, Mel was about to turn away when she noticed something that made her groan in disbelief and almost pain. He was unconscious. "What am I supposed to do with an unconscious, bleeding, bloke?"

"Shit!", she actually hissed out loud, running still shaking fingers through her tangled and wet hair. "Can this day get any worse?"

Looking at her watch, Mel saw it was already 7:50. She then glanced at the wounded stranger, thoughts whirling through her head at the speed of light.

She couldn't just abandon him, he could die. An idea blossomed in her mind. "I'll just take him to the nearest hospital." she thought triumphantly. But the feeling quickly died as she chanced the stranger another glance. Melanie knew that he probably wouldn't want to be taken to the hospital due to the shadiness of his injuries. A shiver of fear slid down her spine as her eyes roved over his bloodied form. "Besides those men could be waiting at near by hospitals waiting to finish him off!"

"Bugger! I guess I'll just have to take him home then."

Then a thought hit her. She couldn't take the train home because the guys from the alley could be waiting at the station. So that meant that she would have to get off at the next stop, haul herself and the stranger up to the street, (which was a challenge because he was twice her size!) hail a cab, and drive home!

"Son of a bitch.", she cursed loudly, then flushed as she realized she was shouting profanities in public. Lifting her head to see who was watching her, Melanie was shocked to find and empty car gazing back. "What the bloody hell….?"

Getting up, Mel moved to the front of the car and looked at the map and a second later, she wished she hadn't. "Oh bugger it all to HELL!", was the hissed expletive as irritation and anger joined with her lingering fear to create a volatile cocktail of emotions.

Melanie, in her desperation to get away from the blokes with the gun, had jumped on the closest departing train. Unfortunately, that same train brought them to the very outskirts of London.

Which happened to be miles and miles away from her home.

And to top it all off, the last stop coming up.

So here Melanie Strider was: wet, miles away from home with a wounded stranger, skipping school to help said stranger, her life mostly likely in danger for doing this, and she was going to have to spend all her hard earned money just to get them home!

A world weary sigh worked its way out of Mel's lungs and passed her lips.

Oh the fates were having a riot.

Good? Bad? I should never write again?

Please tell me what you think