"Virginia, please, just put the potion down and listen to me for one minute."
If Virginia hadn't been so distraught she would have realized that Sirius Black, prankster extraordinaire, womanizer and Gryffindor god, was crying. Sirius Black was kneeling at her feet, crying over her knees and begging her not to take the potion that would lower her inhibitions so that she could jump off the Astronomy Tower. If she had been in her right mind, she would have appreciated his bizarre departure from character.
As it was, Virginia Ramsay was utterly distraught. How she got to that point did not matter. It was incredibly irrelevant to the story.
She did, however, take the vial from her lips and look at Sirius.
"You have exactly one minute," she said. "Go."
His eyes widened with hope.
"Virginia, if you come down to Gryffindor Tower with me and toss that potion, you've got friends and a boyfriend who love you. Things will hurt for a while, but you'll get through the month, you'll finish your exams, and you'll spend the summer in girly bliss doing girly things with Evans. And it might hurt for a long time. You might spend weeks wishing you hadn't let me talk you out of it. I know you don't want to hear this right now, but it will get better. It might take weeks, and it might take years, but it will happen.
"But if you decide to drink that potion, I'll have to go back to Gryffindor Tower and explain to all those people who love you so much that you're not coming back because you couldn't hold on for them; you weren't strong enough to fake the smile until it became real because you just couldn't hold it in place and didn't want us to see you as weak. But I promise you, Virginia, that pain you'll cause them, it won't go away. They'll always wonder if there was something they could have done, or some way they could have kept you alive. They might even blame themselves.
"Virginia," he whispered, "just hold on, please. Hold on for Moony and Evans and MacDonald and everyone who cares about you."
She looked into those gray eyes, swimming in tears and felt incredibly selfish. Sirius was right, her friends depended on her. Remus... She had made them all promises. With a sharp nod, Virginia handed Sirius the vial.
Not taking his eyes from her, Sirius stood, took the vial, and held it over the rail of the Astronomy Tower. With blank eyes and a visible swallow, he released it, neither of them watching it disappear into the darkness below them.
"C'mon," he whispered, offering her his hand. "I won't say a word if you don't. It'll be our little secret."