The very next day Sirius broke up with Marlene. Ethel secretly thought he went too soft on her, he didn't do it in public or scream that she was cheating whore. Not that Ethel supported that kind of violent language… Nope, not at all. Marlene, being a little diva, had decided to make a scene out of crying her eyes out. A scene that had resulted in Lily reprimanding James for hanging out with Sirius and poor James, who had finally gotten past her calling him 'an arrogant toerag' and moved on to a simple passive aggressive 'Potter', had in return become angry at Sirius for 'playing around with Mckinnon and thereby destroy his fragile relation to Lily Evans. Ethel though didn't give a flying fuck about Marlene or James, she just wanted to make sure that she could maintain her friendships with both Lily and Sirius. It was going to be complicated since Lily had gone from barely tolerating Sirius to abhorring the man in a matter of seconds.

She would have to try really hard but she supposed it would be worth it in the end. All of her life she'd never had any friends except Lily, and then she met Sirius. He wasn't perfect, well he was pretty much made out of imperfections but he had his moments. And, most importantly of all, he had wanted to be her friend. Not Lily's, not Alice's or Marlene's. Hers. No, Ethel was not ready to lose a friend, she had way to few already.

It was with this thought in mind she made her way across the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table. Lily and Alice were busy smothering Marlene in pity so she decided that her talk with the redhead would have to wait for a little while and instead went over to the Marauders.

Peter was as usual quite oblivious to his surroundings and busy concentrating on his breakfast, she never really liked him but Sirius said he was cool so she just accepted his presence for what it was. James stole a glance at Lily every other second, perhaps he was hoping she would look at him too. Tough luck. Remus, being the most perceptive of the boys, was sending Sirius some questioning looks. Talking about Remus, he really looked bad today, had he catches the flu or something?

Ethel's thoughts quickly blew away from Remus when she saw Sirius' body hunched over a bowl of oatmeal. He eyes were empty and filled with unshed tears and he mechanically used the spoon in his hand to move the clumpy mass from his plate to his mouth. She surprised everyone by sitting down next to him.

Now, if one knew Ethel Lestrange one would know that she avoided attention at all costs. Sitting with the Marauders was definitely classified as attention bringing. Ethel knew she would regret it big time at a later date when she heard someone whisper about them but at the moment she just couldn't bring herself to care.

"Siri," she removed the spoon from his hand and put his rough hand between hers. Even then his hand was still too big for her to cover, mainly because of Ethel's poor height. As a 5'2 17-year-old she wasn't really a skyscraper.

"It's going to be alright."

At this Sirius grimaced a gesture Ethel supposed was his attempt at a smile: A feeble substitute for his usual 100-watt smile.

She squeezed his hand and filled her plate with eggs and bacon. After a while, Sirius himself began eating again.

.

.

James had, finally, realised that something was wrong with his friend. This wasn't how he usually behaved when he had just broken up with a girl. Normally he would already be talking about what girl he was going to chase after next. This Padfoot was different, his eyes held none of their usual spark and he hadn't spoken a word since they sat down.

"Hey, mate… Are you, okay?"

"Yeah, just a bit tired and all."

James knitted his brows trying to figure out why Sirius wouldn't answer him. Well, Sirius had answered him but his voice had been so dull as if all the colour had been sucked out of it. James sent a questioning glance at, was it Ethel? He really didn't know the girl all that well put she had become a stable part of Padfoot's life during the last couple of months. James honestly didn't understand why, she didn't really fit into the stereotype; tall and slender with long luscious hair, that Sirius usually dated. The girl's features actually reminded him a lot of Sirius own features, just more 'womanish'? Yeah, that was definitely the word he was looking for… not. But in all seriousness: The girl was pretty, but he had seen prettier girls, and she was polite, but he had met more poised witches. She was also timid, and that was, in James' eyes, a big no-go when one was to be friends with Sirius Orion Black: He was simply to outgoing for timidness.

The girl sent him a look that clearly said I-will-talk-to-you-about-this-later. James nodded to show that he had understood her message. She sent him a small smile before returning to eating her breakfast.

James heard a cough, probably from Moony, and was reminded that it was going to be full moon soon.

.

.

"I just don't understand how you can sit with him after what he did to Marlene!"

Lily and Ethel were having a heated debate or a heated monologue… The so-called conversation mostly consisted of Lily denouncing Ethel's friendship with Sirius Black and Ethel's standard reply; 'if you say so, Lils', a reply Lily was growing tired of by the minute.

"If you say so, Lils," a monotone voice replied to her statement.

"I dare you, Ethel Lestrange, to say that one more time." Lily knew she was a bit too worked up for her own good, but at the moment she was seeing red. How come Ethel couldn't muster up just an ounce of sympathy for Marlene?

"If you say so, Lils."

"You are unbelievable Lestrange," Lily threw her hands up towards the sky in disbelief, "I can't, I can't even! I need a bit of time alone, okay?"

Lily regretted her words immediately as she saw the hurt in Ethel's eyes.

"Okay, Lily…"

The smaller girl left Lily feeling guilty as she ran down the hallway. Lily sighed, she didn't want to be on bad terms with Ethel but she was so angry at Black right now. She just didn't understand why Ethel had chosen him over her and Marlene in this argument. It was completely beyond her grasp, Ethel had seen Marlene crying and she knew Sirius Black was a heartless bastard but she had still sat down next to him a breakfast.

Well, no matter how terrible she felt she had to get to charms now…

.

.

"Come on Siri, help me with this!"

Ethel's cry for help brought Sirius out of his state of nothingness. The small girl was trying to carry a bag of dragon dung across the room, she was waddling and seemed dangerously fragile underneath the bag. He hurriedly snatched the bag from her grasp.

"You should have called me earlier, you are too small for such physical work."

The raven haired girl pouted, "but I did call you Siri, you just didn't hear me."

"Sorry," and Sirius was sorry. He just hadn't been feeling like himself today, something was just missing. Ethel glared at him, "yeah, sorry."

He just rolled his eyes and carried the fertiliser over to their workspace. They both pulled on their dragon hide gloves and began the tiring work of fertilising the venomous tentacle that they were growing. The physical work allowed Sirius to forget everything except for his task. As the plant tried to strangle him he let out a colourful combination of swear words before using a severing charm to free himself. This made the girl beside him giggle a little

"Not funny," he sneered.

"You wouldn't know funny if it hit you in the face."

"I would so."

"Would not.

"Would, I totally wo- eep!" Sirius sent another severing charm at the plant that had grabbed his left wrist this time.

Ethel sighed, "I suppose we have to concentrate on providing the ferocious plant nutrients so that it can grow bigger and better kill us…"

"Oh joy," Sirius added.

After class they went to the Great Hall for lunch, here Ethel split with Sirius to go eat at the Ravenclaw table. It was a quiet affair. No one really spoke to her but she got some curious glances from a couple of the girls. Probably had something to do with her being seen together with Sirius.

.

.

"Now tell me what is wrong with Sirius," James demanded and looked at the girl. He was proud to say that he had found out her name was indeed Ethel, not so proud of the admonishing glare Remus had given him when he had asked what her name was…

"He's heartbroken."

This shocked James. Heartbroken? Padfoot? those two didn't go together, they were like dog and cat, water and oil.

"Are you sure? He is Sirius, you know. The player, the heartbreaker, th-"

"Yeah, I know James, but just try to look at him! Can't you see that he's crushed by this breakup? They were together for a long time, a month I think."

James snorted, "a month isn't a long time."

"It is James, judged by Sirius standards it is."

She was right he realised, it was a long time for Sirius. It just didn't make any sense.

"If Padfoot wants to be together with Marlene why did he break up with her then?"

Ethel bit her lips as if contemplating whether or not to tell him something.

"Look, you have to talk with him about that yourself. Just, just be gentle with him, okay? Siri might seem tough skinned but I understand him a lot better than he thinks, and he rarely let anyone in like he did with Mckinnon."

James nodded, more than a little hurt that Padfoot apparently had gone to this girl with his problems instead of him and the other Marauders. 'Look, you have to talk with him about that yourself.' Her words were haunting him and he couldn't help but feel selfish, wasn't he supposed to be happy that Sirius had at least entrusted someone with his secrets?