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i. CHAPTER ONE

D'ALESSIO & EVANS.
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BRIAR ROSE D'ALESSIO has come to the conclusion (yes, another one) that she is absolutely is cursed, this among many other conclusions have been invading her mind for the past two months. And for the first time in the six years she'd been attending Hogwarts, her life wasn't going according to plan. A main part of that has to do with one excuse of human being known as Sirius fucking Black.

Ever since that imbecile (a selfish one at that) ran away from his family, her parents had taken it upon themselves to recruit her cousin Lucius as her personal bodyguard. Which is why she was now she was sat down in the library - the only place Lucius wouldn't be caught dead sitting in.

          Normally, she would've snuck to the kitchens and feed Flo (the Siamese cat she found abandoned in her second year under the staircases) but as of now she was stuck in the library with no one else but herself and madam Pince, with literally no chance of leaving because the moment she did Lucius would be right behind her.

         It wasn't that she hated Lucius, but he has a tendency of suffocating the person he takes interest in. (No incest intended.) She ran her finger across the book that sat infront of her. "Culinary spells for Wizards" whispering to herself. "Really Briar? you have a house elf at home"

            She stood up to put the book back in it's place, dreading the moment that she had to leave, unaware of the audible groan that left her lips. "Briar dear? Are you quite alright?" Briar turned and faced madam Pince. "Yep, yes, I'm quitest of alrights, mis- prof- madam Pince." Red faced with embarrassment, the teen shoved the book into the vacant space on the shelves and headed to the door.

       Upon leaving Briar let a out breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding, she had only made it a few steps into the corridor when she was greeted with none other than Lucius Malfoy. "Lucius, what a surprise to see you here!"

       Lucius stared her unfazed before a smirk made its way to his face. "Of course Briar, it's not like I haven't picked you up from here for the past three weeks."

         "I was being sarcastic, clearly you haven't caught up with that yet."

           "And you clearly haven't caught up with the idea of socialising."

          Briar scoffed. "You act like that's a bad thing plus I would if you wouldn't keep scaring everyone away."

        "Briar, you can't be friends with those goddamn kitchen Elf's, your lucky I haven't told your parents about this."

         "Like I care, I don't need friends anyway they disappoint me."

                She stared at Lucius who came to a halt behind her, before he burst into a fit of laughter. "Never.. say... that in public again!" He managed to get out in his fit of laughter. Briar stared at him unamused before letting out a tiny laugh.

Moments like this he's not a complete toad. Briar ran her hands up her arms as she waited for Lucius to gather himself.

"Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, I received a letter from father this afternoon." Lucius' tone abruptly changed and Briar quickly turned fully towards him, Abraxas Malfoy wasn't the type father that wrote to his son out of concern for his wellbeing. Her interest now seized, Briar sped up her pace to match Lucius' who was almost down the corridor. "What did uncle Hugh say ?"

"Not much, he was rather curt. It seems him and mother have been considering a betrothal for me, I am turning seventeen soon."

Briar was not surprised. Most of the pureblood students of Lucius's age were already betrothed. With the increasing number of blood traitors in the recent times, finding a pureblood spouse was rather difficult. Most parents wished to be assured that their children would marry well. "Have they found anyone specific or are they still looking ?"

"It's seems they're most likely deciding on Narcissa Black, the Black's are one of the oldest pureblood families left now, of course, their reputation did go down a tad because of that blood traitor - what was his name again? Walburga Black's son?"

"Sirius Black," Briar squeaked. Of course, that scandal had yet to die completely.

Sirius Black had ran away from home, leaving his family in a rather disreputable state, it had all been hushed up but rumors were that Walburga Black had blasted him off the family tree in a fit of anger (Which Briar thought he rightfully deserved). Briar's own parents had been rather offended and humiliated he had been the right age for her (Briar couldn't care any less).

"Yes, muggle-loving filth, anyway, mother and father think Narcissa is nothing like her disgusting cousin but I can't be certain. It's best not to associate ourselves with scandalous families."

Biting her lip, thinking. She has seen Narcissa Black around before and there was nothing particularly scandalous about the girl, she was very pretty (like most of the Black family) and seemed the most tongue-tied of the Black sisters, if anything. "She's in the year below me," she replied to Lucius. "But I'm afraid I've never spoken to her."

"Well, could you ask around, then? I'll approach her myself but I'd like to see what sort of reputation she has among the other Slytherins before I reply to father."

Nodding reluctantly, despite being from one the oldest pureblood families, she'd never managed to make many friends among the pureblood girls, her family had a flawless reputation that surpassed most pureblood families, such as the Lestrange's and the Crabbe's. Many of them tried to stay away from her for that but Briar couldn't blame them for that as she had never really made the effort to be friends with them, she was rather reserved and wrapped up in her own world most of the time - plus she had better things to do than sit around make temporary friends.

"I'll try, Lucius" she assured her cousin. Glancing at the large clock perched up on the wall of the hallway. "Is that all? I have Prefect meeting in a few minutes."

Lucius shook his head, motioning for her to not turn to the left wing that led to the prefects room. "I'm not done yet - father mentioned something else in the letter, concerning you."

She frowned. "Me?"

"Yes, apparently he's been speaking to your mother about your prospects, you were betrothed to that Black boy by now but after his disgusting behavior, he's no longer an option."

Briar rolled her eyes, she didn't know how anyone did it see it coming, from the moment she met Sirius, he had always been lenient on breaking the rules and making sure he had no association to his family, so when the news broke out that he had ran away, Briar was anything but surprised, if anything she was disgusted at how someone could be so selfish and ungrateful to leave a family that loves and cares for them.

Lucius' disgusted expression mirrored her own as he finished, "He has brother but Regulus is far too young for you, they're in a rather tight spot about what to do. You'll be graduating next year and it may become quite the gossip of your not betrothed by the time your eighteen. So they've asked me to keep an eye out at school in case any boy from a respectable family an interest in you."

"Lucius, it's far too soon to be considering something like-"

"Listen to me, they've asked me to take responsibility and I shall. Now be honest with me -Briar, have you courted any boys from our house? Or has anyone ever approached you?"

Briar sniggered "No."

Lucius nodded "Well, perhaps you should start making an effort. Do you know Evan Rosier? He's a rather quiet boy but I think you'll like him, shall I speak to him for you?"

A horrified look passed her face "No! Lucius, really - please don't speak to anyone. I'll -I'll manage myself."

A slight smile made its way to his lips as he raised an eyebrow, "Are you certain, Briar? You don't speak to people to be honest, you come of as rather mean."

"I'll be fine." Suppressing as grimace, "Could we discuss this afterwards? I'm late for my prefect meeting."

"I suppose. Go on then."

Before Lucius could finish his sentence, Briar had already made halfway down the left wing. Making several turns through the school, she stopped in front of the prefects room tucking her platinum blonde hair into her crown braid before knocking on the wooden door and walking in. "Briar! We were wondering when you were coming?"

        Giving Marcus Zabini a tight lipped smile, "I was on the other end of the school." She took a seat beside her fellow Slytherin prefect Kieran Sewlyn who gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Both Marcus & Layla sat down at the head of the table and started to discuss the incident of the tickle powder that was put into Filch's clothes, Briar immediately rolled her eyes, she knew exactly who's done it, infact it would be an insult not to think that James Potter and his minions had done it.

"It's James and his friends, I mean, we all know it's them." Gaia Liddemore pointed out the obvious, resulting in a mumbling of agreements and a few head nods between them.

"Right well, we'll look into that, in the mean time since Lupin had injured his leg last Wednesday, Layla and I decided to re-do the Prefect detention schedules."

Everyone suddenly looked more awake as they turned to pay attention, all hoping to end up with their previous partners (if Briar was to be honest, all of them were hoping not to end up with one of the Slytherins, not that she cared in the first place.)

"Lovegood and Liddemore."

"Harris and Lennon."

"Edwards and Sewlyn."

Now that Keiran was chosen Briar was dreading who she was going to end up with. (you'd think that Zabini would pull thought for his house mates and pair them together, but of course things never went the way Briar wanted them to.)

"D'Alessio and Evans."

"WHAT?!" Briar and Lily had both stood up. "I don't want-" Lily started as Briar turned to glare at her, the ginger returned the gesture.

Both Marcus and Layla stood between the two girls before Layla let out a slight cough that didn't faze the two girls out of their glaring contest. "If everyone is done, the meeting is dismissed."

The prefect room was empty within seconds (Briar would of laughed at how humorous it looked but it clearly wasn't the time.) apart from the exception of Briar and Lily, who were both red faced from anger.

A few seconds had passed and the blonde decided to have a go at the girl opposite her."You've got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know? Just there." Briar pointed to Evans' nose and left swiftly.

It wasn't that she hated Lily Evans (that's definitely a lie, by the way.) Briar wasn't sure why, from her first year Lily seemed to dislike her. Briar had since tried to ignore her which was quite hard to do since Lily Evans had a bold presence that was hard to miss.

This year was not going well.

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Sirius Black ran a hand through this messy dark hair as he stared at the bubbling cauldron in front of him, "I hate Potions, I can't believe you convinced me to take this class for NEWTS."

James Potter smiled at his best friend while cheerfully chopping up a handful of ugly roots, he added them to their cauldron with a flourish as it hissed. "Don't be so down, Padfoot! Potions is a wonderful subject, you'll thank me later when you become a successful Auror."

"Bullshit. The only reason you took this class is because Lily Evans is in it." Sirius nodded towards a ginger sitting a few rows away concentrating intently on her own potion, it was rather humorous how James had chosen their seats to be positioned to have a perfect view of her. 'I'm telling you, mate, she hates you."

James shook his head, a lopsided grin on his face. "She's warming up to me, trust me. Do you know she called me 'James' instead of 'Potter' the other day? She'll be mine soon enough."

"Hmph. Well, it's fine for you. I unfortunately, don't see any other pretty girls in this class, they're all in Divination, I should have taken that instead," Sirius muttered under his breath.

James gave him a look of disbelief, "You wouldn't have survived a day with Professor Trewlany and of course, there are pretty girls in this class. Take um.. Poppy Thomas, she's fit."

Sirius scoffed "I dated her already. Last year, remember? Didn't turn out too well."

James nodded and looked around, there really was a lack of pretty girls in the class. Other than Lily and Poppy, the only girl that was worth looking at was Briar D'Alessio but she was a Slytherin so she didn't count but that didn't stop James from opening his mouth.

Sirius, however, interrupted him, "If you suggest D'Alessio, I'll smack you again, she's a Slytherin."

James shrugged. "But she's decent-looking, worth a shot. She's actually quite pretty if she didn't look so much like Malfoy."

Sirius shook his head. "That's honestly not the problem. I was almost betrothed to her last summer. That was before they decided I was a blood traitor, my dearest mother thought she's be the perfect daughter-in-law. Pretty, silent and obedient."

James made a face. "Eugh. Glad you got out of that, eh?"

"You have no idea."

The bell rang for the end of class and James hurried to quickly pour his unfinished potion into a vial, they hadn't had enough time to finish it but a quick glance at Lily Evans's perfect potion told him that they'd clearly gone wrong, somewhere, while James went up to Slughorn's desk to submit the vial, Sirius leaned back casually in his seat and watched Briar D'alessio.

They'd met several times when they during the summer of fifth year, Sirius didn't talk to her much, even then Sirius couldn't deny that she was quite fit. But she'd always been quiet and the few times that she spent at his house with her family consisted of her following Lucius Malfoy around like a puppy. He admitted to himself that he'd never really disliked her; it was just that she was always with her pompous cousin.

During their time at Hogwarts, they both of them realized that there was no chance of ever being friends. Sirius had spoken to her once or twice in their first year simply because she was a familiar face among many unknown people but after that neither had glanced at the other. (Until last summer.)

They were different people, leading different lives, connected only by the fact that their parents wanted to get them hitched someday. Sirius felt bile rising in his throat at the thought of being married to some obedient, submissive pureblood girl.

"Oi, Sirius! Come on, I don't want to miss lunch!" James yelled at him, Sirius nodded quickly gathering his things and rushing out of the potions classroom with his friend.

When the two boys reached the Great Hall, they found the others were already stuffing their faces at the Gryffindor table, actually, it was Peter that was stuffing his face. Remus was attempting to eat while reading a large textbook propped up in front of his plate.

"Oi, Moony! Stop being such a bookworm, can't you study later?" James demanded. He tried to grab the book from him but Remus swatted his hand away and took it back simply.

"No, I can't. I've got a transfiguration test next class."

Sirius grabbed the book from Remus' unwilling hands and placed under him resulting in Remus flipping him off under the table. They began filling up their plates when a girl appeared beside them, her hands on her hips.

"Potter, you've got a bit of explaining to do."

James' smile widened and he whirled around to face Briar D'Alessio, her platinum hair was tied and she had her blue eyes narrowed at him.

"D'Alessio! What a pleasant surprise!" James greeted overly enthusiastic. "Coming to give us detention again?"

Briar glared at him. "You bet I have, I see you've been bullying Severus again."

Sirius and James exchanged an innocent look.

"Snivellus? No, haven't been near him lately. Who would tell you that?"

"None of your business who told me Potter! The point is your bullying him again."

"Listen, D'alessio," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Let's talk about these little accusations you're making. It appears you misunderstood the situation, you see dear Snivellus and we were-"

"I misunderstood nothing, Black." Briar replied firmly. Her blue eyes were staring straight at him, cold and piercing. "You and your friends were torturing Severus Snape, the only reason I didn't interfere myself at the time was because you already had a Prefect with you, Remus Lupin should have stopped your behavior himself."

Sirius looked a little startled at her coldness, and Remus dropped head down in slight shame but James merely gave her a disbelieving look. "Look I don't-."

Briar snapped. "You are incorrigible, James Potter. You disgust me and you can be certain I'll report this to Professor Dumbledore."

Briar paused for a few moments, shooting Sirius a long disgusted look and then she walked away towards the Slytherin table.

"Do you suppose we'll get detention, then?" Peter asked gloomily, once she was gone. James shrugged, picking at his food with a scowl on his face.

"Since when have D'alessio and Snape been friends?" James demanded, "rather unexpected, that, isn't it?"

Sirius shrugged. "Don't know, Prongs; they're rather similar, uptight and crazy about rules, both of them. I'm not surprised that they get along."

James frowned. "I don't like it."

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hi, that's the first chapter up I haven't edited it so tell me if I have any mistakes, anyway tell me what you think!
sel <33