Don't Cry...
She was crying.
Sirius stood there, in the middle of the noisy laughing Great Hall, stunned as he looked at Bridgette. There was a steady flow of tears falling down her...er...green face and her green hair was covering and absorbing some of it. Sirius thought that this was going absolutely all wrong. He expected to Bridgette to retaliate, to fight back, to take onto herself the revenge that he felt he would received and suffer from.
But no...Sirius was almost cursing out loud. She actually decided to be a bloody girl and bloody cry.
A few seconds on, the noise in the Great Hall was slowly subsiding and many were starting to realize that Bridgette was crying. They all turned, almost simultaneously, to Sirius, as if they would be able to see why Bridgette cried and not cursed him into the next decade.
Sirius didn't know himself why she was crying, but he was trying to plead his case with the looks he was giving her. He tried to look pleading, hopefully, he thought, that his looks would mean to Bridgette that he wanted her to curse him into the next century, if it would only stop her from crying.
It didn't seem to work. Bridgette's sobs were only getting stronger, and her head was now bowing down in shame, and most probably Sirius thought in pain. He sighed inwardly and groaned. Why did she have to cry? Why the bloody hell did she have to cry? He didn't mean for her to cry. He didn't want her to cry. The last thing that he wanted to happen in this world was to make her cry. Why did it have to be her? Why not Amber, or Hazel or even Mandy? He didn't care for them. But the one girl that he actually made cry was the one girl that he actually cared about.
Sirius sighed. Bloody hell.
Finally, it seemed that Bridgette was able to gain back the control of her legs and she dashed out the Great Hall, hitting Sirius on the shoulder as she sobbed all the way out. He could feel that his robes were a little wet from her tears and he turned to watch the sad, crying figure as she disappeared to Merlin knows where.
In one smooth motion, the entire Great Hall turned to Sirius. Dumbledore had a look of disappointment on his face. James, a look of concern. The same was for Remus. Lily, however, looked livid.
When he sat back down, Lily let him have it.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING BLACK! SHE'S CRYING AND IT'S ALL THANKS TO YOU! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!"
"No, I am not bloody happy," he mumbled, glaring at his plate.
"Why did you have to make him cry, Padfoot?" asked Remus exasperatedly.
Sirius glared at him. "I didn't mean for her to cry." he snapped at Remus. Can't they see that this is killing him? "The last thing that I wanted was for her to cry."
"You seemed pretty pleased with yourself when she cried, Black," glowered Lily.
Sirius took all the control he had in him to not shout at Lily, but he did manage to give her a very reproving glare. "I didn't mean for her to cry, you know," he said, gritting his teeth and reminding himself that Lily was James' girlfriend, and that he would kill him if he managed to lay a finger on Lily. "I didn't even know the girl could cry."
"Well, she can, and she bloody showed you that!" said Lily, storming out of the Great Hall, undoubtedly to look for Bridgette.
Sirius sighed. This was just not his day.
James looked at him. "I know you didn't mean it Padfoot," he said, "but you gotta understand, Bridgette's been having a terrible week."
Sirius looked at him, a wondering look spread across his face. "How would you know?"
Remus stared at him. "It was on the paper this morning, Padfoot. Her parents have been attacked by dark wizards." he sounded like Sirius should've seen this coming.
"WHAT!"
James nodded grimly. He understood how this goes. His father is an auror too. "It's too early to tell if they're gonna survive. Her dad's been hurt pretty badly, and they're both in critical condition."
"But-but-I-I-d-di-didn't know!" stammered Sirius, groaning as he thought that he deserved a good punching right then and there. He buried his head on the table, pounding it repeatedly with his fist. Why doesn't he read the paper? Why?
Remus pointedly looked at him, and said in a disapproving tone, "You never even bothered to find out, did you, Padfoot?"
Sirius glared at him. "Spare me the lecture, Moony, I have to go." With that, he left the Great Hall, determined one way or another, he will find Bridgette and make her forgive him.
Sirius was panting as he went out onto the grounds. He had looked everywhere: the Astronomy Tower, The north Tower, every bloody classroom, Filch's office, the broom closets, the staff room, even entered all the girl's bathroom, and still there were no signs of her. He went to the Quidditch Pitch and there was no sign that she was there. Besides, she hated Quidditch, he knew that, but she loved the forest. So he went there. But still there was no sign of her. He asked Hagrid, and he got a good telling too about not making girls cry. Finally, after cracking his brain for five minutes, he remembered Bridgette's favorite place in the entire school: the Lake.
Sirius was proud of himself for knowing everything he knew about her, for there she was all curled up into a ball, alone. Her hair was back to its long strawberry blond color and her face should be back to her normal fair complexion and green eyes. No doubt, Lily reversed all his hexes on her. As he neared her, he groaned as he heard that she was still snobbing and sniffing. He felt angry at himself. Why? Why did he have to make her cry? It could have been anyone else...
"Er...Bridge?" he said tentatively.
"Go away." said her muffled voice.
"Bridge, I really need to talk to you." said Sirius pleadingly.
"Go away." she answered, a little stronger now, but still not looking at him. "I don't want to talk to you."
"Bridge, please, I'm begging, pleading with you to talk to me," said Sirius, going down on his knees. "Look at me, I'm down on my knees, begging you to talk to me."
Sirius thought that he saw Bridgette's head turn slightly to look at him, to check if he really was down on his knees. When she turned away from him she said nothing.
"Please, Bridge?"
"What do you want?" she mumbled.
Sirius stood up and proceeded to sit next to her. He looked at her, but she didn't look back. Her eyes were puffy and red and her face was wet with tears and her nose was red too. Sirius thought that she looked absolutely adorable with the red nose, even if her eyes were red from crying.
"What do you want?" she asked again, looking out into the lake.
"To apologize," he said, looking out at the lake too and gulped. He was not used to apologizing. "I didn't mean to hurt you, or to make you cry."
"You just did."
Sirius nodded, not looking at her. "I know. I knew I went over the line. Way over the line. I didn't know what happened to your parents, and I'm really, really sorry about that too, I didn't know that you were going through such a hard time. If I had known, I wouldn't have -"
"I know, Sirius," she said, turning to him. "I know."
Sirius turned to her as well, a pleading look on his face. "I really didn't mean to make you cry." he said, "It sucks that it had to be you. If it was any other girl, I wouldn't have minded as much. But it was you, Bridgette. The girl that rescued me every summer from my house and my parents and my brother that freaky little house elf. You, who always teased me about my hair one second and defend my hair from others who teased me about it the next. You, my one and only friend for fifteen years. Bridgette.
"My Bridgette."
She smiled, and then sniffed, and then brand new tears fell from her eyes.
Sirius was startles as she buried her head in his face. "Hey, hey," he said worriedly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry again, please don't cry...don't cry...I hate it when you cry..."
"It's not you Sirius," she sniffed. "Mum and D-Dad, th-they're really h-hurt, and I-I-I d-d-don't know if they'll ev-ever be better..." she sobbed even harder now.
Sirius hugged her and rubbed her back softly. "Shh, shh, Bridge," he said, "they're going to be fine. Come on, now Bridge, they'll be fine. Please don't cry..."
"But what if they won't be okay?" she sobbed, looking at him. Sirius doubted whether she could see him at all through the tears in her eyes. "I don't want to lose them!"
"Then you won't," assured Sirius, though he had no basis on what would happen to her parents. "They're going to get well, and you'll stop crying.."
"But what if-"
"If the worst thing happens, what makes you think that you'll be all alone?" said Sirius raising her face, and wiping the tears from it. "You'll have me, Lily, Prongs and Moony with you. We won't abandon you."
"But I don't-"
"And you won't," said Sirius hugging her tightly. "I can't promise, but I'll help you get through this. I won't abandon you, Bridge, you know that. Just please stop crying. I hate it when you cry."
Bridgette looked at him her face still tear stricken. "Why?" she sniffed.
"It makes me feel so helpless, like I can't do anything about it. I want to do something about it, I really do." he looked at her straight in the eye. "I'll do anything in this world if it makes sure that not a tear would ever drop from your eyes."
Bridgette smiled her face genuine smile since dinner.
Sirius smiled back at her. "Your parents are going to be fine," he said, hugging her again, "I can feel it."
When they broke apart, Bridgette did something that she swore to his face she would never do even if her life depended on it.
She kissed him.
Sirius, though shocked at first, kissed back, and when they broke apart, Bridgette hugged him again.
"Thanks, Siri," she mumbled, her face buried in his chest. "For everything."
Sirius realized how serious the situation was, but he couldn't help but grin. "Anytime, Bridge."
"Aww," said James, watching the scene from the gates, "don't they just look so happy together."
"I hate to admit it," said Lily, "but yeah, they do." She was smiling at James, who smiled back.
Remus stared at the two of them, but said nothing. "I think that they deserve each other," he said, "it could only boil down to that."
"C'mon," said James, "let's leave the two lovebirds in peace. We can tease them tomorrow, Moony."
With that, James, Lily and Remus left for the Common Room, leaving two people at the best (and for about a minute there, worst) time of their lives.