A/N: Written as a gift fic for Sam. Sophie (our headmistress) of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry decided to call a little group of voluteers together to write some gift fics for Sam since her beloved dog died a few dass ago.

Sam, I hope you like this and I'm really sorry for your loss.

Our little secret

Trees whizzed by on the roadside. Lily watched them through the small window of their car. Letting out a deep sigh she looked over at her sister who sat next to her on the backseats of their familiy's car. Petunia had copied her motion of watching the landscape outside whizz by. The older girl sat there, her head resting in the palm of her hand, making no noise at all. Lily knew that she was angry at their parents. Angry for forcing them to move away from their friends, their home, from everything the two sisters had knewn. The younger sister was angry at them too. But what was she to do? It was her parents decicion to send her and Petunia to their aunt, who lived in the countryside. It was for 'health reasons' as her parents claimed. Both girls knew it was just an excuse for the real reason, which the two adults hid very well from their kids.

They had already driven throught the land for a few hours and it took them even a few more to arrive. Their aunts house (actually the woman was the aunt of their mother, so technically their grandaunt) was a nice old building in a smaller village somewhere in a rural area of the British isles. It was surrounded by a deep rich forest with huge trees, whose leaves reached from all sorts of different colours of green. Their grandaunt was a nice old lady, who came running out of the house imediately upon their arrival to greet them. They said goodbye to their parents and waved at them until their car dissapeared out of their sight.

"Come on, let's get you two inside. You must be hungry. I have a pie in the oven, it should be ready soon." they followed their grandaunt inside.

Lily imediately decided that she liked their new home. It was old. One could clearly see that the furniture and the decorations were some decades old and certainly not modern. But it looked nice and comfy.

"Aunt Rose, do you have a telephone here?" she looked at her sister who had asked the question. She already knew what the older girl needed it for. Petunia was the one who complained the most about the move. The reason: her boyfriend Vernon Dursley. Lily could never understand why she liked that guy. He was fat, ugly and not very intelligent. She couldn't tell what her sister saw in him.

"No, unfortunately not dear. But our neighbours have one. I can show you the way there tomorrow if you need a phone that urgently." replied her aunt.

The two girls got settled in, ate and spent some time talking to their aunt. Over the course off the next days they explored the surroundings and got to know new friends. The more time they spent there the more intrigued Lily became with the surrounding forest. She had gone wandering off into the lighter part of the forest on a few occasions, but she had yet to go deeper inside off it. And right now she had gotten into a very deep part of it.

Mighty trees stood around her and she reached palces that very few humans had seen until now. Astonished she stopped in a area where the trees grew lighter. Sunlight filtered through the open spaces between the leaves of the trees leaving wonderful, beautiful patterns on the forest floor.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Lily nearly jumped at the voice and looked around to find a young teen, around her age standing there between the trees. At his side stood a big black dog. Grandaunt Rose would probably say something about it being a bad omen.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"No problem. You didn't...okay you did maybe a little. But it's okay. I was just surprised to see someone out there, that's all"

The boy came walking over until he stood a few feet away from her "I was a little surprised too. Not a lot of people come here" the boy mad a pause, "hey I know you. You're the new girl here in the village. Lily, right? Lily..." he asked fishing for a last name

"Lily Evans. Right. I'm new here. My parents sent me and my sister to live with our grandaunt. Said we needed a little bit more fresh air and a natural enviroment" she paused, "what's your name?"

"I'm Regulus. Regulus Black. My family has a holiday home here. Ohh, and this is Padfoot, my dog. My parents gave him to me..to...look out for me, whenever they would be away or I would be in the forest" the boy explained.

Lily talked with the strange boy for the next hour or so. Something seemed familiar about him. His last name, his hair, his posture and overall looks. They all reminded her of someone she once knew. Though she couldn't place it quite yet.

"Ohh, look at the time I have to go now. But I'll be back tomorrow, okay? Same spot, same time, okay?" and without waiting for an answer he was gone.

The next day Lily came. And also the following days. Everytime she and Regulus would meet in the forest in the same spot at the same time. Sometimes they would meet earlier and walk around the area. Sometimes they would just sit in the same spot and talk. Through everything, Lily could never get rid of the feeling that thee was something familiar about Regulus. Something she knew.

It came to here one day, when he told her about his past. She had asked why he always seemed to be so attched to the dog. He never let the animal ran to far ahead of them when they walked and took care that he always laid by their side when they just sat there. A sad look had crossed his face and she had almost regretted asking, but still he told her.

"My parents actually gave this dog to me after...my brother died. They thought, maybe it would help me get over it. I think you knew my brother. His name was Sirius"

And then she knew. Knew why the boy's name had seemed so familiar. Of course she had known Sirius Black. The playboy of the school. He was the same age as her and had gone to the same boarding school she had. Lily had even dated one of his friends when they were in fifth year. Much to the dismay of her former friend Severus, who had always loved her and probably still did. She also knew how his brother had died. There was an attack on her school, by a terrorist oragnisation called 'The Death Eaters'. A lot of kids were killed. Even Lily's best friend Marlene McKinnon. She remebered that after it happend many parents took their kids off the school. So did her's.

"I'm so sorry for your loss. I never knew you...Sirius never talked much about his family. He mentioned a brother, but...never his name..."

"Really? Seems like him. He hated our parents. They were too strict for him, too old fashioned he used to say. But we always got along. We were the best of friends before he got to that boarding school. He...we always wanted a dog. A big, black one just like this. Sirius said he wanted to name him Padfoot. It's a stupid name for a dog, I know, but to seven year old him and six year old me, it seemed logical..."

Lily let him talk and talk. He had never told her so much about his family background before. Actually no one had ever told her that much about this topic than him, not even James. Regulus probably felt relieved, the poor kid seemed like he had no one else to talk about this. Not even his parents. Laying an arm around his shoulder she gave him a one sided hug.

"Hey, do you want to go out to the village sometimes? We could start to meet there from now on instead of the forest. Would that be nice?"

He looked at her "Yes, yes that would be a great idea. We could go to my house now. From there you can almost directly go into the village center."

"Sounds nice. Let's go"

And so she followed him through the forest and towards his home.