It was a night I'll never forget.

It was around 10:30. My rounds were almost finished and I was heading back towards the Gryffindor common room. I was a fair distance away, but on my way back nonetheless. I was on the fourth floor passing an empty classroom and a portrait of Glinda the Generous when I heard footsteps behind me.

I was very tired that night. I almost decided to let the troublemaker get away with whatever they were pulling and go to bed. That's about the time I realized the footsteps were running. I paused and put on my best just-go-to-sleep look before turning around to face the late night wanderer.

I was not at all surprised to see Sirius Black sprinting down the corridor. As his tall frame was racing towards me, I crossed my arms over my chest. His sleek, dark hair was in disarray and his stormy gray eyes were watering due to the air whipping past him. His hard-muscled chest was heaving.

I was, however, surprised to see the look of undisguised terror on his face. I was conceited enough to think that spotting me was enough to inspire that look. My mouth opened to tell him off. Before I could get a syllable out however, he shushed me with a gesture and the panic in his eyes was enough to get me to listen to him. If only that once.

With the speed of a Quidditch player, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the deserted classroom. I was in front of. I opened my mouth, intent on asking him what the hell he thought he was doing, yet I found his hand slapped over it. Not ten seconds later I heard a stampede of feet in the hallway outside the door. They ran a little past our door and stopped.

"Where did he go?"

"He can't have run far!"

"Find him!"

I tried to identify the whispers, and after thinking for a few moments I realized Lucious Malfoy, Evan Rosier, and Bellatrix Black were speaking. It sounded as though more were out there. Sirius and I were outnumbered. They would be sure to check this classroom for him sooner or later.

As Rabastan Lestrange hissed, "Maybe he ran in here" I knew I had to think quickly. I scanned the room for any hiding places. Across the room was another door. Usually used by the teacher. If we ran fast enough we might be able to escape.

I snapped my fingers in front of Sirius. When I had his attention, I pointed across to the door. He nodded his approval. I grabbed his hand and we sprinted to the door.

We pulled it shut just as we heard the other door open with a bang. SIrius didn't let go of my hand once we had gotten out though, and was soon pulling me along again. He stopped in front of a tapestry which depicted several small children skipping rope and playing hopscotch.

He pulled back the picture and entered a hole in the wall directly behind it. Before he completely disappeared, he turned around.

"Coming Evans?" he asked.

I thought for a minute. I could either enter a dark secret passageway with Sirius Black, my enemy's best friend, or I could hang around here and wait for a bunch of muggle-hating Slytherins to find me. Easiest decision of my life.

The passageway was long, but after crawling for four or five minutes, we entered a dusty sitting room. The room was small and circular. There was a circular coffee table surrounded by five chairs with little room to move in between.

The walls were bookshelves housing all sorts of volumes not found in the Hogwarts Library. The titles ranged from 100 Excuses for Any Reason to How to be a Teacher's Pet to 7 Tips for Efficient Workingto Where's my Notebook: A Wizard's Guide to Copying Homework.

SIrius chuckled as my mouth dropped open. Was this sort of thing hidden in all of the secret passages? Maybe James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius could show me a few more!

"Are you gonna stand there all day catching flies or take a seat?" Sirius' voice was filled with suppressed laughter.

"Don't laugh at me Black!" I huffed, but sat nonetheless. SIrius took the seat across from me. Neither of wanted to be the first to speak. I stared across the room and him and he looked back at me. He seemed to be bracing himself for something. An agonizingly long silence he spoke.

"Well, I bet you're convinced I don't belong in Gryffindor now." SIrius sighed.

"What? Why would I think that?" I had no clue what that boy was going on about.
"Damn it Lily! Don't play that game! I ran away! I didn't fight back, I was a coward! Gryffindors are supposed to be brave! You saw how scared I was!" SIrius stood up and kicked a chair with all his might.

"Sirius! Stop! kicking the furniture will gain you nothing. Sit down and we will discuss this rationally."I told him firmly and he seemed to listen because he sat down and looked at me expectantly. "I see nothing wrong with what you did. If you had tried to retaliate outnumbered like you were, you would have been seriously hurt. That would have been stupid, not brave. Also, in case you didn't notice, as soon as I realized you were running away, I was running right alongside you. Does that make me a coward? Abso-bloody-lutely not. As for you being scared, what's wrong with that? Even Gryffindors are scared once in awhile. Alice, for example is terrified of hags. When we went into the Hog's Head last weekend, she saw one and ran the other direction. Does that mean she doesn't belong in Gryffindor?" I looked at him waiting for his answer.

"No," he said, "Alice is one of the bravest people I know! Of course she belongs with the lions. But I'm-"

"No buts," I cut him off, "You are a Gryffindor tired and true. No if, ands, or buts about it."

Sirius seemed to consider this for a moment, before smiling. "Thanks, Lily. That means a lot to me."

"Any day." I told him. "if you don't want to answer this it's fine. But, why were the Slytherins chasing you in the first place?" I was curious as to what possessed the high-and-mighty purebloods to participate in a chase.

This was apparently the wrong thing to say. Sirius tensed up and his eyes hardened. "That's none of your concern Evans." He said icily.

I was a little hurt by his sudden rejection. But then again, I barely knew him. I decided to try once more. "Look Sirius, it's not like I'm gonna tell anyone. Who would I even tell? Plus, a lot of times it helps to talk about it."I tried to communicate with my eyes that he could trust me.

I guess my green eyes were loud and clear because Sirius told me his tale.

"You know how my family is all in Slytherin and into the whole 'purebloods are supreme' crap, right?" I nodded because this was common knowledge.

"Well, ever since I was little, they've wanted me to be like them. By some miracle, it turned out that I never really believed the crap they fed me. So, the Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor. No one in my family really liked that. They would find me in the halls and would... do... err things. And I usually ended up in trouble for them. James and Remus and Peter were worried how I got so many detentions, but I told them to let it be and they did. But, I think they knew the Slytherins were doing something.

"That was until a year ago. They stopped harassing me and I thought it was over. I stopped worrying and spent more time thinking about other things. Then, about four months ago, they started finding me again. Asking me to join this weird organization. The Death Eaters. Apparently they are a cult that follows this guy who won't let anyone say his name. They all get together to torture and kill muggles."

"That's horrible!" I exclaimed.

"Tell me about it." He muttered. "It's just; I can't seem to catch a break!" Sirius started to break down and I could tell this was very stressful for him. He started to speak very fast and ramble. I could catch phrases such as "Trying to get away" "Can never escape" "As long as I can remember" and "Why me?" Then he looked at me.

I'll never forget the look on his face. This was a Sirius Black that very few ever got to see. In fact, I think James Potter and myself were the only people alive who had ever seen Sirius this way. His face was lined, making him look like an old man, but his eyes looked like a toddler who was lost and had nowhere to go. He looked confused, abandoned and lonely. But most of all he looked desperate. He looked at me with gray eyes full of pain and whispered hoarsely, "Help me Lily."

He was so broken and so vulnerable at that moment that I didn't know what to do. I sat there and looked at him as he stared at me begging me with his eyes. I found that I couldn't look away. I did the only thing that I could have done; I went over to his chair and hugged him.

Sirius stiffened and it occurred to me that he had never been hugged. It was then and there that I vowed to help him with whatever he needed. eventually he relaxed into the embrace. when I let go Sirius looked composed again. Although his eyes were a little puffy, I pretended not to notice.

"SIrius, if you ever need someone to talk to, just know I'm always available to be kidnapped and dragged down here." I told him.

He smiled at my obvious attempt to lighten the mood. "So, Lily does this mean we're friends now?" he asked uncertainly.

"Think of us as... Shadow Friends." I told him.

A/N: Hello there readers! I've been hit with a case of writer's block, and I'm having trouble with some of my other stories. This has been in progress for a while and I wanted to finish it off. So here's a little summer treat from moi, Elizabeth! Anyways, look my poll on my profile. Oh, and please Review, but that's a given.