Something About You (Adam + Sierra)

[Derek Alsbrow]

Derek was in Hogsmeade, near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This was apparently where his brother lived. The past few days had been a blur, but he remembered them clearly. Over a course of the past three and a half years since his graduation from Durmstrang, he had been saving up his money to get enough to go to Hogwarts to find his apparent brother and sister. Derek knew nothing of what either of them looked like, since he had been abandoned as a baby and brought up by David Alsbrow, his guardian and the man who had sent him to Durmstrang. Since he had heard about his siblings and the inheritance his parents had left after they’d been sent to Azkaban, Derek was determined to make the trip to Hogwarts, to find his brother and sister. It wouldn’t be a pleasant meeting, he was sure of that. But he had a right to part of the inheritance, as he was originally born a Greene. He may have taken on the Alsbrow name from David, but that man wasn’t his father. Of course, neither was his real father. Neither of them had put much time or effort into him to make sure his life went smoothly. David had done his best, but at this point it seemed all he was after was revenge, as Derek was. Derek didn’t need someone hanging onto him like David had a tendency to do. It was hard enough leaving Charles at his shop, after the years he had worked there after graduation.

As Derek walked the solemn, cold streets, he looked in the windows of some of the small shops. Practically anything you needed was in this little town. Up by Durmstrang they didn’t have anything even remotely this nice, save for Surgan’s and a few other places, but Surgan’s was the only one within walking distance from the school. The wind gusted it a bit, and he tightened his muggle jacket a bit closer around his body. Where could his brother be? He didn’t know the man at all, much less knowing where he spent his days. All he really knew was that he taught at Hogwarts nearby. It would be somewhat of a difficult journey to find the two of them, he had decided this on his trip. Derek felt inside his pocket, feeling the soft wood of his wand, knowing that if he needed to, he had an arsenal of spells to take down his brother as soon as he saw him. But that wasn’t his plan. His plan wasn’t close to that at all. The initial plan in Derek’s mind consisted of stalking his brother and sister, finding out their every day routine, getting to know them and listening in on conversations, but never letting himself been seen or known. It would take some time. This wouldn’t be something that would happen in a matter of days. A few weeks would suffice, even if his anger for his brother would build during that time. All the better, he thought. It would make the confrontation and battle between the two even sweeter.

The Three Broomsticks. This was the place that Derek was passing. He stopped slightly, realizing that the place was nearly empty, save for the workers in the back and a couple towards the front. A younger girl, and a man about his age, maybe slightly younger. He squinted his eyes slightly, realizing that the man looked a bit like himself. What was this? Was he simply looking at the window and seeing his own reflection? No, that was impossible, since the other figure was laughing and talking with the girl and facing a different direction. The man was also more clean shaven than Derek, along with less hair on his scalp than Derek. Could be just a coincidence, but Derek wasn’t about to put anything past his brother. Concealing spells, face altering spells, anything could be used as trickery. What if his brother knew that Derek was around and looking for him? Something could have set him off, maybe even David had sent an owl to warn his siblings. It wasn’t likely, but he decided to go into the place and get something small, just to observe for a bit, and rule out this couple. Derek walked into the pub and ordered a drink, something tame. He didn’t need anything strong that night to kill brain cells. He sat down diagonally from them, with his eye on the man, still not knowing what exactly was pushing him towards the two. He listened intently as the man laughed with the girl and talked on.

[Sierra Greene S6]

"Shut up!" Sierra shouted, shoving Adam away with both hands. He was twice her size, barely budging even when she used all of her strength against him. He simply laughed at her, but she didn't care. Lately it had been a rare sight to see Adam happy. His smile had almost become extinct over the past few months. As their laughter died down, they came to the entrance of the Three Broomsticks, and Sierra walked in while Adam held the door for her. Quickly, she found their usual spot at the bar and pulled two menus out for both of them even though they had the menu memorized by now.

"I do not flirt in class, and even if I did, I'd make sure it wasn't during your class," she said, finishing up their argument from before. "Plus, apparently you don't notice all the girls who sit in class with ga-ga eyes looking at you. I have to control my laughter every day when I look at the front row. Didn't you ever notice that it's the same girls? Becca, Rachel, Anne, and Tabitha?" Sierra gave Adam a taunting look as though to suggest he had no room to talk now.

The barista came and took their order: a turkey sandwich for Sierra (with a side of macaroni salad) and a grilled chicken breast for Adam with his usual beans and rice on the side. Sierra turned to her brother, and then took a sip from her water. She loved the fact that the stools were swivel seats so that she could easily turn one way and then the other. "So, rumour has it that you and Professor Granger have been spending a lot of time together..."

How did these things spread so quickly, Adam thought. Surely the armoured suits must have been notorious for letting these things slip. "If happening to be in the professors' lounge at the same time each morning constitutes as spending a lot of time together, then I guess we're guilty," he said with a layer of sarcasm. "I guess that means that you and Stephen Donahue are spending a lot of time together too. I mean, you have lunch with him every day." Adam flashed a triumphant glance toward Sierra. They had become increasingly good at this whole sibling annoyance thing.

"Ew, that hardly counts," Sierra said, setting her water down and swiveling back to face forward. "Stephen Donahue is weird, and I sit as far away from him as possible," she reasoned. "Plus, I wasn't the one spreading the rumours about you and Granger. I simply heard them."

"That's Professor Granger to you," he corrected her.

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes again. "She's still not as pretty as Dixie." Sierra knew she was touching a nerve, but she couldn't help it. Despite trying to be there for Adam in his hard time, she still blamed him for Dixie leaving. "Then again, she's not as bad as Rae." Sierra shivered. Something about Raelee Gray set her on edge, and she was happy that Adam's life no longer included that woman. Even if she had almost been the cause of Adam's death, he had still somehow seen something in her, though Sierra would never understand that one.

[Derek Alsbrow]

Derek simply observed, taking a generous sip from his drink. The barista came over asking if he wanted anything to eat, and he wasn’t sure he was going to be around for very long yet, depending on if this couple that had just walked in was indeed his siblings or not. They quickly found their seats, which seemed to show Derek that they frequented this restaurant often. He made a mental note to visit the Hogsmeade establishment again, in case they happened to show up again. Of course, it wouldn’t matter if these weren’t the people he was looking for. The man look strikingly like Derek, which intrigued him. The man had shorter hair than Derek did, and no facial hair to speak of, as it seem he kept himself quite well groomed. That wasn’t to say that Derek didn’t keep himself groomed. He just had a different sense of the term “groomed”. Not like it mattered. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone. That woman from London, what had her name been? Annie? Derek couldn’t remember at the moment. But he hadn’t tried to impress her that night in the bar. All he had done was intended to make easy conversation and things had escalated. Before his mind went further, he shook it away, because the couple across from him was continuing their conversation.

They were speaking about the man’s class, obviously he was some sort of teacher. The girl ordered, and then he ordered his own food, and then the girl faced him again, speaking about another professor at the school. Granger, was it? That name sounded familiar. The story of The Boy Who Lived had indeed reached all corners of the wizarding world, including Durmstrang, and in his days at the school, he had heard of Harry Potter and his exploits. Was this Professor Granger the same Hermione Granger, Potter’s childhood friend from Hogwarts? Even if the couple in the restaurant weren’t his long lost siblings, this would definitely be a good conversation to overhear. Derek also took notice in the change of tone of the man, as he seemed to get slightly defensive. Obviously the two were not a couple. Likely brother and sister, and even closer to being prime suspects in his search for his siblings. The look of the man kept haunting Derek, especially since it looked like he was looking into a mirror as he eyed the two from behind his glass of alcohol. He took another generous sip, not caring about the burning sensation, and listened again. The man turned the conversation to a boy named Stephen, who apparently the girl was spending quite a bit of time with. Oh, young ones and their relationships.

It reminded Derek of the limited time he had at Durmstrang and how he had been in only a few relationships that had really gone nowhere. The relationships had started out strong, and while he was happy for a time, that’s all it had ever ended up being with those girls at Durmstrang. They were great for a time. The longest was one towards his final year at the school, and things had pretty much not worked out, and ended as quickly as they had started. Relationships were things Derek didn’t focus on, because all they ever did was make him remember times in his life that he didn’t want to remember, or make him think about things and possibly regret decisions. Derek, as a man now, didn’t regret anything. Just like he didn’t regret what happened with the woman in London that night, he didn’t regret coming to this restaurant and stalking this obvious brother and sister duo in front of him. His attention then switched back to the conversation they were having, as the girl was corrected. She made a comment that the professor wasn’t as pretty as someone named Dixie. Then mentioned someone named Rae. The names rang no bells in Derek’s consciousness, but he knew to keep a mental note of names in case they came up again at all. Derek continued to keep his lazy gaze on the two as they talked, signaling the waitress to come over to refill and take his order.