A/N: Hello. I hope you enjoy my new story. Please feel free to review.

25 September 1980

It was certain. She was a dead woman. There was no other term she could use to describe it. Ariella idly wondered how it could have come to this, how she could have gone from having everything to having nothing at all. Nothing but the bitter memories and the heartache that came with them.

The young witch squared her shoulders against the cold, clasping the ends of her cloak tighter around herself. She looked back at the manor she had called home one final time before she moved forwards into the black night. She knew they would come for her, and that when they did, it wouldn't be to change her mind. No, that ship had sailed.

She wished she could say her leaving was because she loved him, because she was going to make a better life with him and find happiness. But she wasn't. Oh Ariella loved him alright, but now she was sure that it was unrequited. Sirius's inability to move past his anger rendered their friendship and their relationship null and void. Ariella doubted she would ever see him again. She doubted she would live long enough to see him forgive her.

Once a safe distance away from her ancestral home, the blonde drew her hood over her face and disapparated with a crack, landing on the doorsteps of the last person who would expect her. With a sense of urgency she raised her fist and knocked on the plain wooden door. The door was soon ripped of its hinges by a frustrated, annoyed and irate Snape.

"Sev," she whispered his name without hesitation. "Sev please, I need your help." She added as she waited for her lost friend to recognize your voice. A cruel sneer was a permanent fixture on his face these days and it saddened Ariella to know she had some part in his pain.

"Ari?" The wizard questioned. With a nod, she pulled her hood down and revealed her tear and mascara stained face, to the boy she had once known. Sending a silent prayer to Merlin, she hoped that the man in front of her still had enough innocence in him to want to help her. Thunder boomed in the distance and behind her the sky illuminated with the flash of lightning. The climate even wanted it's fair share in her desperation it seemed.

Upon recognizing her and taking note of her appearance, Severus moved away from the door, gesturing that she should enter. Timidly she did so, knowing that it had been two years since she had seen her best friend, and that their last words were not pleasantries.

When he closed the door Severus turned on her and she met his dark and questioning gaze. They had always been able to communicate silently, neither needing many words to express their feeling to the other. Ariella knew from his expression that Severus was upset at seeing her but worried all the same.

"If I had anywhere else to go, I wouldn't trouble you. I know we are not close anymore," she began.

"And whose fault is that?" He spat.

"I know. I know, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry that you turned your back on me or sorry that I was right?" Severus asked her hotly.

"Both," she whispered, fresh tears forming in her eyes. Severus sighed and pulled out a chair for her.

"But that isn't why you came I suppose." He muttered. Moving away he walked into the kitchenette of his small cottage and put a kettle on for tea.

"No its not," she admitted.

"What happened Ari?" Her friend asked, slipping into the familiarity of her nickname.

"I left home. By morning I'll be disowned." Arielle made the confession with a heavy heart.

"What? Why?" Severus burst out. "Don't you know how dangerous that is? For you especially?"

"I do know. Believe me, I do. Sev, I just couldn't pretend anymore. You know I never believed as they did." Severus paced in agitation.

"Yes but Ari, now you have a target painted on your back, they will be looking for you. And why, just so you could avoid the arranged marriage you didn't want? So that you could be with Black? It's not like the mutt was any good for you anyway!" Severus ranted.

"No, It's because they were going to make me take the mark," Arielle hissed. The ranting stopped abruptly.

"They were not just going to make you take the mark were they?" he finally asked. She averted her gaze. Severus wasn't having it, and crossed the room in a frenzy, towering over and lifting her chin to stare into her eyes.

"Legilimens." He was inside her thoughts before she could even blink. A rush of her memories unfolded before him. She tried to think of anything but what he was looking for her but she never was any good at occlumency.

Severus saw the argument between Sirius and Arielle, the former's accusations of the latter's being unfaithful. He saw the drunken kiss Arielle had shared with her betrothed, Rabastan, the cause for the fight between her and Sirius. Severus saw the horror on her face when her elder brother, and guardian, informed her that she would not only be marrying Rabastan, but that she would be taking the dark mark. He dug deeper knowing she was hiding something. Finding it, he discovered that the main reason she had left her home was because she had informed by Voldemort himself that she should have the honor of providing him an heir, thus the need to speed up her wedding so that she wasn't disgraced by becoming pregnant before marriage. He relived her sobbing as she realized that she would die one way or another. Either she would be found-out inside a circle of enemies or she would die running, fighting for her beliefs. As suddenly as he entered her mind, Severus withdrew. Arielle was no longer capable of holding back her tears.

Severus understood after his invasion of her memories why his old friend was so scared. He couldn't imagine her predicament. In fact, he was always envious of it. She was privileged, had the right blood and the right connections, was a part of the right house and was rich. She had a good family and he didn't. Ariella was always the one who was destined to be something, the perfect little princess. But she never wanted any of it and he knew how terrifying having a child of the man she knew to be a monster was to her. He empathized with her decision to run. However, he felt a loss all the same, the loss of the girl who had everything whose shadow he lived in. She may have been born to be society's darling but one thing he knew now was that Ariella Selwyn was nobody's princess anymore. In her hour of need and her last resort she had come to him. What else could he do but help her?

"Okay," he groaned. "I'll help you."

"Thank you Sev," she whispered before she flung her arms around him.