I opened my eyes and blinked waiting for my eyes to adjust to the surroundings. It was a bit dark but when my vision adjusted I saw that I was in the dorm. The curtains were shut while a tiny bit of sunlight peeked through them. I tried to get up but couldn't since my legs hurt and well... someone was holding my hand. 

Turning over, I saw that it was Padfoot. He was sleeping uncomfortably on a chair beside my bed, his hand entwined with mine and his head literally askew as his hair fell all about his face. 

"Padfoot," I gently squeezed his hand, "hey, it's morning. Wake up." 

This time his head totally jerked up, "Stupefy!" 

Good thing he wasn't actually holding his wand. I silently laughed, "come on, it's not like a secret alien would be waiting for you to wake up, it's just me. Kat." 

He straightened immediately, "oh... It's morning?" 

I nodded, "8 am to be exact. You're late for breakfast." After a short pause I spoke when I was sure that he was fully awake, "um, Padfoot, can I ask you a question?" He nodded for me to continue. "Uh... Why were you holding my hand?" I managed to ask. 

Okay, to get this straight I actually felt weird asking but didn't you notice by now; I'm extraordinarily curious even about the slightest of things. Whatever. 

He looked down at our entwined hands then laughed, "oh really? I never expected you of all people to ask this?" 

I eyed him with surprise, "honestly I have no idea what you're talking about." 

The mischievous glint was visible in his eyes (as usual and I'm perfectly sure that he's up to something) and a smirk crawled up his features, "well typically because you were being so persistent..." 

For the love of Merlin, whatever you do just don't leave the sentence deliberately incomplete. I raised an eyebrow skeptically, "persistent about what?" 

His smirk widened, "trust me, you don't wanna know." 

Holy freaking broomsticks, what the hell have I done now? "You tell me exactly what happened," I kind of threatened him. Well actually I was dreading it but still its better to know how exactly idiotic I have been rather than spend the whole day wondering what the heck had happened. 

"If only you insist," he remarked. Padfoot, I seriously want to kill you right now. All of a sudden as if he had just remembered something, he asked, "you feeling better now, right? It doesn't hurt that bad, does it?" 

Hurt. Oh yeah. That freaking poltergeist had dropped a chandelier on me last night. Of course. I shook my head, "no, it doesn't. I'm fine." My legs had been neatly bandaged and the pain had also subsided a great deal. 

"Thank God," he breathed out of relief, "you have no idea how much you had scared us. After that chandelier fell on you and you passed out all of us were a hell lot of worried. We couldn't possibly take you to the Hospital Wing and those gashes you had received were quite deep. So we brought you here and we accidentally had to tell some of our house mates what exactly was going on. Moony cleaned the wounds and bandaged you while Lily and Marlene had to sneak out some healing potion from the Hospital Wing right under Madam Pomfrey's nose. You were bleeding quite a lot and for a second I really thought you would die from blood loss. Absolutely terrifying." 

I listened silently observing his reactions. His eyes were concerned and... Well I felt really flattered that he was worried about me. But no distractions please. Back to the current situation. I spoke, "and then?" 

He resumed, "well after that when all of us were quite sure that you'd survive, the rest of them went to their dorms and then... Well I still think you're better off not knowing anything. Just saying that for your own betterment." 

I smacked him in the face with my pillow, "you wasted my entire fifteen minutes just telling me things that were so damn obvious. And if I had been able to walk, I'd gladly push you into the Lake. You tell me what happened afterwards in plain simple English without uselessly beating about the bush." 

He shrugged, "now that you're so dead bent on knowing..." 

I swear I'll rip him apart. Why the hell is he testing my nerves? And to get this straight I have very little patience and a fearfully short temper. He's such an absolute Drama Queen. He should be a Quidditch commentator or the announcer of the House Cup results. 

"Well, you were behaving like a two year old brat," he stated. 

What? If this is a joke, it is really disappointing.  

"I don't believe you," I remarked. Seriously I know he's just making it all up. I mean I was not quite in the state to know whatever had commenced but surely it doesn't mean that I was drunk or something. 

"I swear Kat," he held his hands up in surrender, "at first I thought Lily had given you the wrong potion. You were actually behaving like a kid complaining about not being able to play Hide and Seek and what's more; I also had to lull you to sleep. And I'm awfully bad at singing lullabies. That's the only thing I literally suck at. And that was why I was holding your hand. Because you said you were scared of a creepy monster in the closet. Believe me you must have given your parents a really hard time when you were younger." 

Parents...? I don't even remember if I had spent any time with my real parents. I immediately regained my composure. Surely I do not want him of all people to discover that. "I still don't believe a word you said," I stated firmly with a certain resoluteness in my voice. You could say it was sort of an effort to mask my feelings. 

"You can ask James if you like," he replied. How on Earth does James come in between all this? 

"And was he also helping you in babysitting me? Braiding my hair or fetching me chocolate frogs for instance?" I asked. 

"Of course not. I saved him the trouble," he answered, "but he was extremely worried. We were considering of sending you off to St Mungo's for a while." 

St Mungo's? The Wizarding Hospital for Magical Maladies or something? No, thank you very much. I'm better off not being sent to another place where crazy people are hoarded in. I mean I've had literally enough of asylums. 

Right on cue, the door opened and Prongs stepped in. Okay I do admit, even if Padfoot is joking, he really knows how to pull it off seriously. 

"What's with the long face?" James asked cheerfully, "have you lost your teddy bear or something?" 

Teddy bear? Maybe he wasn't joking at all. I swear I sometimes get freaked out when James and Padfoot start talking in their eye language. I mean, they can keep up whole conversations without saying a single word just by looking each other in the eyes and expressing their thoughts by either raising their eyebrows or some such sort. And that's what's going on now. 

"Oh yeah," James finally turned to me, "so that monster didn't scare you anymore, did it?" 

What the heck? "I don't know what you mean," I stated plainly. 

Padfoot joined in, "well and what about that lullaby I spent hours on last night? It was really tiring and I didn't even get as much as a thank you." 

But I don't freaking remember anything! 

"Both of you are joking," well basically that's what I hope. 

"Not at all," Prongs remarked, "we are quite sure we heard you right when you mentioned lollipops and Barbie dolls." 

And how do you know that, James? As far as I know, he's a pureblood and like I once mentioned before being a pureblood alone is explanation enough. 

Hey, wait a second. Did he just say Barbie dolls? But I never had any Barbie dolls, not even any sort of dolls. So... I guess I was getting embarrassed about something that wasn't even necessary. 

Seeing my slight smile, they did get a bit troubled. 

"Why are you smiling?" Padfoot asked, "we were more of expecting you to eat us alive or roar down on us or some such sort." 

I'm smiling because I've guessed your game, idiot. Okay not exactly an idiot. But of course who the hell gave him the idea to make me feel embarrassed this early in the morning without even having breakfast. 

"Haha very funny Padfoot now quit the act," I was still smiling. 

"What act?" James tried to even things out. 

"I never had any dolls, you idiots," I stated actually getting fun from their facial expressions now, "so how could I tell you about something that didn't even exist in my life?" 

Prongs slapped his hand on his head as if deeply disappointed, "and I was so looking forward to teasing you about it for the whole day." 

I smirked, "better luck next time."

***

The whole day, Padfoot bunked classes. And I was feeling quite guilty that it was due to me. I mean, I felt bad that he was compromising his studies all due to taking care of an entirely responsible and self independent fourteen years old. Okay, well who am I kidding, I was hurt so there but that doesn't mean that I'd need a babysitter 24/7. 

But it wasn't exactly a babysitting sort of thing. I mean, he taught me how to play Wizarding Chess (all the pieces on it literally moved all by themselves; I'm really looking forward on surprising Fred and George that now I can play it as well as they can, to get it straight that had refused to teach me the art of Chess and kept boasting about how they were the best chess players around), we talked about all the awesome pranks we could pull off at winter break, I told him a bit about my twin brothers and their amazing inventions and he told me a little about his hobbies (drawing, painting sketching; art to be more precise, I know it's a bit unbelievable). 

We were just talking about books and fictional characters (he said he had absolutely adored all of Moony's novels), when suddenly an idea struck me. "I can totally see you in a fictional novel though," I remarked. 

He straightened as if interested, "and what role would I fit in?" 

So easy to guess, "a bad boy lead. Isn't it obvious? You'd play the part extremely well with those long hair and gray eyes. Y'know the leather jacket motorcycle loving kind of guys? Even your name has that touch to it. Black. Mr Black. I wouldn't be surprised if a Muggleborn here who loved writing came up with a whole novel based off on you. It could be one of those thriller dark novels involving the mafia or some such stuff. Personally I think it'd be a bestseller." 

His smirk widened and his gray eyes sparked with mischief again, "so I suppose this is your way of appreciating my good looks and charm." 

What? Absolutely no way. "No, it's not like that," I tried to hold my ground but failed. 

"Oh come on," his voice had that playful yet flirtatious tone again, "accept it. I told you before that no girl is immune to me." 

I rolled my eyes sarcastically, "why are you so full of yourself?" 

He laughed, "well, to be honest, that's one thing that has come down to me in inheritance. All the Blacks are very full of themselves. You've just met me and trust me it's nothing when compared to the rest of my family. My cousin sisters for instance. You won't ever hear the end of it." 

Cousin sisters? Interesting. 

"There's Bella for instance," he resumed, "if you can put up with her then there can be only two possible assumptions: either you're totally insane or you really have a strong liking for monsters." 

That made me laugh. "Is she pretty?" I asked. 

He shrugged, "yeah sort of. In a rather *Hell may care* kind of way. At first I used to think we'd get along very well both being rule breakers and sorta messy and all. We also shared the same idiosyncrasies like never combing our hair, talking loudly, arguing on nearly everything; you get the point. But she's one of those blood status obsessed people (oh well who am I kidding; my whole family belongs to that group of the Wizarding population). But yeah so we had our differences. And after I got sorted in Gryffindor, every Summer Break she considers it her personal duty to make my life a living hell. As if she has taken an oath from the Devil or something." 

Okay... She must be really nasty then. "Are all of your cousin sisters like that?" 

Don't look at me like Professor McGonagall does whenever she's giving us a nice little talk on manners and stuff (you get the point, me and the twins do mess up with McGonagall more than twice a day but she's really nice); I was simply curious. God, I so miss those days when I was in my own time era. No offense meant though, everyone here is completely marvellous but... Whatever. 

He shook his head, "they're all different in their own ways. Cissy recently got married. She's not that outspoken as Bella but she makes sure that I know of her dislike towards me. Missy Cissy Prissy Perfectly Proper. The sanest of them all is Andy. She knows how to have fun, crack jokes and prank and she also respects other people's opinions. But our family (being the highly intellectual people that they are known and acclaimed for) disowned her because she ran off with a Muggleborn and got married. I write to her often and I also visited her last Summer Break. She's doing well and quite happy with her life. And you know she also has a daughter Dora. Her name's really long but I prefer calling her Dora.  I never forget to remind Andy how lucky she is to be out of that hellhole which is known as the Noble House of Black." 

His voice had suddenly turned bitter and I could easily conclude that he had developed a strong hatred towards his family. I know that if I said something advisable to him regarding his family he would just retaliate and it would only make matters worse. 

"Tell you what, one day I'll get disowned too," he mumbled looking out the window at the clear blue sky, "they have kicked me out of the house so what's more to expect? But the best part of it all is that I live with James now. His parents are really very nice. They treat me like their own son. Its almost like finding a family I never had." 

However hard he may try to conceal it, but I knew he was sad at the prospect of being hated by his own family, being kicked out and all. I never had any idea that he would be undergoing through such a lot. 

He straightened, "oh well I don't know why I was boring you with my pathetic life story. Let's talk about those Hydraulic Pistons you were telling me about." 

I nodded. We left the topic there and he listened eagerly to all the Muggle inventions I knew about. But I knew that even if now he had managed to change the subject and pretended as if he didn't honestly care about his family still I had a feeling that deep down inside there were some intense feelings of regret and torn hatred buried that might erupt sooner than he thinks.

***