Harry came back the next day, found Sirius and Sirius picked up the story...

It was their third year at Hogwarts now, and coming back you could see changes in people, some, like Lily, had been strained by deaths in the family and others – well - mainly girls – had changed. Emma was one of these people. She had curves, in all the right places, but they were eye-catching and made her already head-turning figure – if possible in Sirius' eyes – more beautiful.

She was bubbly and happy, and in being so, lifted Lily's grief-stricken soul into a much happier place.

However, Emma was soon to experience the mind-numbing grief that Lily was having now. It happened mid-year, three weeks before Christmas and two and a half weeks before the annual Christmas ball. The Marauders, as they had become known were sitting with Emma and Lily, all except Sirius, who was off in a broom closet snogging a random chick he'd picked up. Only James knew the real reason Sirius had become a womanizer, it was because he thought he didn't have a chance with Emma so whenever he felt longing for her he would take a girl and use it on the random, he didn't even know their names half the time, he'd confessed to James one night when James had got all depressed about Lily rejecting him again.

Emma was enjoying her bacon and eggs, and telling a hilarious story about her brother and an echidna when she was interrupted by her kookaburra, Katniss landing beside her and nibbling her bacon.

"OI! Katniss! That's gross! Oh, it's from mummy and daddy, what do they say?" She let out a little pained moan, and then struggled internally with whatever had been written on the message. At that point Sirius lolloping into the Great Hall and over to them, proclaiming,

"Well, that was fun." Emma, never, ever gave any inclination that she liked Sirius or disliked his many girlfriends so it was a surprise to everyone when she swung around and yelled,

"NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SNOGGING SESSIONS YOU FOUL, DISGUSTING, DESPICABLE BEAST!" And then she king-hit him and knocked him out. Sirius fell to the ground, unconscious and soon a very distraught Emma collapsed beside him murmuring over and over onto his chest,

"He's dead… He's Dead, my little boy, he's dead." Lily thought she was talking about Sirius and tried to tell her that no, he wasn't dead. But she seemed inconsolable, beyond help and drowning in her endless misery. She suddenly looked up at Lily, tears streaking down her face in a steady stream. To all the boys observing this little seen – including Remus but not James – thought it made her really attractive, enhancing the big blue eyes she had. She looked at Lily and tipped her head back, wailing,

"He's dead; I can't believe he's dead!" She shot off, running and sobbing as she went. James was the first to recover from the shock of seeing Emma knock Sirius out. Muttering an incantation, he levitated Sirius and jogging slowly down the corridors to the Hospital Wing.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at Sirius and muttered, "Enervate." And he opened his eyes. James jumped up and hugged him, squealing like an overexcited school girl.

"He'll have to stay during the day but you can be released after the last lesson today."

"Oh! My Brother! You're alive!" He squealed. Sirius' eyes focused on Lily standing a few paces back with an amused expression on her face, watching James. However, she quickly felt his eyes on her; she quickly noticed how his eyes reflected worry and concern. James released him from the man hug he had been encasing Sirius in. He looked at Sirius' expression for one second and said,

"Bro, I know what you are thinking, I don't know where she is, she took off crying and we haven't seen her since." Sirius looked up; he knew where she would be because he knew her better than anyone. He also knew where she would be. But he would have to wait until this afternoon before getting her.

After being released from the hospital wing by Madam Pomfrey, he raced to the kitchens, yelling for his friends to find Lily and Molly Splatch and then to meet him in the common room in an hour. He bent down and tickled the orange, as it was back then, and as he walked in he noticed that the house elves where giving one corner of the room a huge berth. He walked forward and he saw why, blonde hair tumbling down to the floor, a young woman – as she was now – sat screaming silently, tears streaming down her face and rocking back and forth. A slim elf appeared at Sirius' side, glancing at Emma who had her eyes firmly shut, seeing only whatever horrors that she alone could see. The elf looked at her and whispered,

"Master Sirius? No Master Potter?"

"No, not today, thanks Betty. How long has she been here?" Sirius gestured to Emma as he spoke.

"About 5 hours, Master Sirius. Do you want to talk to her?"

"Yes I will Betty." Sirius walked over to her, picked Emma up and placed her gently into his lap.

"Em, what's wrong honey?"

"He's dead, I should have been there, I might have saved him."

"Who darling, who is dead?"

"Little Charlie."

"Who's he?"

"My two year old half-brother." Her voice broke several times as she said this.

After 30 minutes of coaxing, Sirius managed to get Emma standing up but she seemed incapable of moving or forming clear thoughts other than what she kept murmuring. Maybe Lily would know what to do. Sirius sighed; they weren't going to get to the common room before 7th year at this rate. Instead, he scooped her up bridal style and carried her there. As he gave the password, 'Mandrakes' to the fat lady, Remus appeared at his side, took one glance at the sobbing, rocking form buried into Sirius' chest and said,

"I'll go get some of my chocolate, it cheers me up."

And, with that he disappeared up to the 3rd year boy's dormitory. Sirius gently placed Emma on the couch and sat beside her. Lily came into the common room, followed by 5th year Molly Splatch. Molly's red hair was her trade-mark, if you saw flaming red hair; you knew it was either her or her long-time boyfriend, Arthur Weasley. Molly was well-known for her motherly outlook on life and everyone younger than her. She glanced at Emma and said,

"Lily you try and get her to talk about it, and her friends too." This was said with a glance at Sirius and James, Remus and Peter who were just coming down from their dormitory. "I'll go get some tea." With that, she departed. Lily sat herself down beside Emma and stroked her back.

"Em, darling, what happened?" At her friends call she came out of her grief, for just a second.

"He's dead, Lily." Sirius could see a flitter of frustration pass over Lily's face at Emma's words, but she continued.

"How do you know? You might be wrong." Emma gazed up into Lily's emerald eyes and then shook her head.

"Here." She croaked handing Lily and scrunched up piece of parchment. Lily smoothed it out and read it out for Sirius, James, Remus and Peter to hear:

My Darling daughter,

I know I haven't written in a long time – trust me I have been trying to write but life is busy these days. I regret though, to have to write to you with such bad news. Little Jimmy has passed on. He was killed by Death Eaters. I know, I should have been more careful, but we were at a park and he ran off and I tried to follow and when I found him I saw him dead and a well-known Death-Eater walking off. As much as it pains me to say, don't come home for the funeral, it's not worth the risk – I couldn't live if you died, too.

Mum xo

Lily looked up from the letter.

"It came this morning at breakfast didn't it?"

Emma nodded.

"Yes, it did." She looked at the bruising now covering the left side of Sirius' face.

"Oh, Siri, I'm so sorry, I lost it for a moment and I… I… well…" She was lost for words. Normally, Sirius hated being called Siri but it seemed to fall from her lips so naturally and perfectly that he let her call him that. James noticed it too and shot him a smirk. Emma rested her head softly on Sirius' shoulder and fell asleep, tears leaking slowly from under her eyelids, eventually stopping as she slept on. Remus munched on the chocolate he had brought down for Emma and gave out the rest of the bar.

Molly had since reappeared with food and tea but had drunk the tea and told them to eat the food when she awoke again.

3 days later…

Emma, although she wasn't exactly crying the entire time, everyone could tell she wasn't ok; she was quiet, withdrawn and depressed. The only time she showed her former self was when Sirius charmed James' boxers to have teddy bears on them and then made his pants see-through. It had made her giggle and giggle. Only the next day did she become her quite withdrawn self.

Sirius realised that he could keep her happy if he gave her laughter, and that's why the Marauders had started pranking, to keep Emma from losing her will to live.

A later that day, Emma and Lily disappeared into Hogsmeade (everyone was going that day except the Marauders who were planning a massive prank). The girls came back into the common room laughing at what Emma was acting about, falling over. They collapsed into giggles on the sofa in front of the fire, three bags apiece lying in front of them.

Sirius and James walked over to the girls rather nervously.

"Will you girls go with us to the Christmas Ball?"

Emma and Lily looked up at them. Lily replied haughtily

"No." Emma looked nervous, too.

"As… As friends, right?" Sirius felt his heart sinking as she uttered those words.

"Sure, why not?" He tried to make his voice sound cheerful. Neither of them knew that it caused pain for both of them, to just go as friends but weren't sure if the other felt it.

The night of the Ball…

Emma came racing down the girls' dormitory steps and raced into the boys to find them placing exploding snap, already dressed and waiting to go. Lily was going with Remus and James was going with a really pretty Ravenclaw. Emma was dressed in nothing but a dressing gown and chucked Remus and Sirius ties.

"Blue for Sirius and green of Remus. We're colouring co-ordinating. See you in an hour!" And with that she shot off.

Two hours later Sirius and Remus were waiting for Emma and Lily, James had already left to meet his date there. Movement at the girls' dormitory brought Sirius and Remus' attention there. Lily stepped out first and man, did she look incredible, she was wearing an off-the-shoulders emerald green dress which finished just above her knees at the front and finished on the ground at the back. Remus straightened and took hold of Lily's proffered hand. She wore emerald dangly earrings and a simple silver bracelet on her wrist. Emma came next and every person in the common room stopped and stared at her. Her dress was dark blue, enhancing her blue eyes and her hair, piled on her head in a messy bun with two slivers framing her face seemed to glow brighter than usual. Her dress was one-shouldered and gave the impression that it was a crinkly bandage that had been wrapped around her body multiple times, finish mid-thigh on her left side and at her feet on her right side. On her feet she wore dainty strapped silver high heels that made her only half a head shorter than Sirius who was 6-foot-3. Her ears bore massive silver hooped earrings. She tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and they set off to the ball.

On the way Emma was talking about how amazing Christmas would be if everyone from the Marauders, her, Lily and their friends Alice &Frank were to stay at Hogwarts. Occasionally with the input of Lily or Remus, the conversation was soon just between Emma and Sirius. As they reached the Great Hall, every head turned to look at the new arrivals, all the boys gaping openly at Emma and the girls' glaring at Emma for looking so good. The first of the slow dances was struck up by the band and Sirius took Emma by the hand and led her onto the dance floor. As the swirled and twirled together Sirius murmured to her,

"You look amazing." She blushed.

"You look rather dashing yourself." Sirius grinned and spun Emma way and then spun her back. The night continued in a happy way, each song ending and a new one starting as every got a new partner, Emma had no shortage of those. She danced with Remus, James, Peter, Frank and many others, making each look like professional dancers.

Sirius looked up, Emma was dancing with a dark haired Slytherin sixth year and from her face she wasn't enjoying it. She was leaning back, trying to get away, his hands sliding past her waist and muttering something. Her whole face contoured with pain at whatever venomous insult he had hurled at her. Sirius strode over.

"Would you mind if I stole Emma for this dance?" Emma turned towards him, looking thankful.

"Nah, mate, we were just leaving to find a broom closet, weren't we hon?" He grabbed her wrist. She whimpered.

"Let her go." If possible the grip on Emma's wrist tightened.

"No." There was a loud crack as Emma tore away from him, snapping her little wrist. The Slytherin glanced at her and snarled, stalking off. Emma's wrist was plainly broken. He put his hand on the small of her back to guide her to the hospital wing, but she collapsed bodily into his chest as he did so. Pulling her upright he could see she was in shock and just needed to sit down for the moment. He led her to their friends and sat her down, conjuring a glass of water as he did so. Seeing Emma like this brought an avalanche of questions from their friends

"What happened –"

"Did it hurt – "

"Who did – "

"Are you ok – "

"Was it that Slytherin –"

"Gonna report him –"

"You've got to go to the Hospital Wing –"

"Terrence's his name –"

"What a git –"

"You should –"

"Revenge –"

Emma took no notice of the flurry of suggestions and questions. She took the glass of water Sirius gave her and tipped it over her head. Shaking her hair like a dog, she muttered an incantation and she was dry again, her eyes looking more focused than they were 5 minutes ago. The hand that was broken lay useless in her lap, very painfully she raised it up to look at it and she said,

"Hold the hand straight out please, Sirius." He did so, stopping when she winced in pain.

"No, hold it out completely straight, it needs to be straight so it doesn't set crooked." Holding it out straight, Sirius watched her face pale as she raised her wand.

"Episkey." The wrist snapped back into place but she gave a little cry of pain. Then she looked at the wrist again,

"Fereunvate." Bandages wrapped around her wrist and a brace appeared on her forearm.

The couple's slow dance came on and everyone walked on the floor with their partners. Emma and Sirius walked on, Sirius' arms snaking a round Emma's waist and Emma's hands clasped together behind his neck, the one in the brace sitting out stiffly, they rocked back and forth gently for some minutes, not saying anything just gazing at each other and smiling softly. As the song finished, Sirius led Emma out into the night, passing James and another female in an embrace.

As they gazed at the sky, Emma turned to Sirius,

"Siri, thanks for saving me from Terrence." He grinned at her.

"Any time, love."

As they turned to go inside, they found their feet stuck to the ground. Sirius glanced up and saw the mistletoe he and James had invented, you couldn't move unless you kissed, but it could be a kiss on the cheek or a full on snog. Emma didn't know this. She followed his gaze and her eyes widened when she saw the mistletoe. Biting her lip, she grinned at Sirius. Sirius leaned in slowly, hands on her waist. Emma caressed his cheek with her broken hand and slipped the other onto the nape of his neck. His lips met hers and it wasn't like all the rumours of the wild, passionate snogging girls had reported they had done with Sirius, oh no, it was gentle, soft and sweet, very sweet. The moment their lips touched, their feet were free but they were oblivious to that fact. It lasted nearly 5 minutes when they broke apart. Sirius was surprised to see tears sparkling Emma's eyes. She turned heel and walked off quickly, not saying anything and exiting the Great Hall.

Staring bemusedly after her, Sirius didn't moved, he felt thoroughly confused – why was she crying? Was it something he'd done? Had he hurt her during the kiss? He walked slowly like a sleep walker over to where Lily was sitting, nibbling on a quiche. She looked up as he approached and saw the misery written on his face like a book.

"What happened Siri?"

"Don't call me Siri. I… I kissed Emma under the mistletoe." Lily gasped.

"Oh! How romantic! And?" she prompted.

"Well, when we finished she was crying and then she left – Lils, I don't know what was wrong!" Sirius cried in anguish.

"I'm going to find her and bring her back to explain herself." And with that Lily strode out of the Great Hall, a determined look in her face. Not ten minutes later Lily appeared carrying two silver shoes. She threw them into Sirius' lap.

"Severing Charm, looks like she wanted to get away fast." Lily said shortly.

"But… why?" Lily bit her lip.

"I spoke with her, very briefly. She thinks that you think of that kiss of yours was nothing – it meant nothing." Sirius looked confused.

"Why would she care if it meant nothing?" Lily looked at Sirius strangely.

"If you don't know by now Siri, then I'm not going to explain." She said rather shortly, putting emphasis on Siri. With that she took Remus by the hand and lead him onto the dance floor for the last dance of the evening.

Emma's POV

As I leaned back from the kiss I saw his smirk, the kiss, which I dreamed about meant nothing to him! Tears threatened to spill over but I held them in. I turned and it was all I could do not to race from the Hall. Once I got past the huge doors, the tears spilt, I couldn't see anything and as I severed the straps on my heels, I realised I couldn't see and y hand was shaking. Discarding the heels, I ran.

Lily knew me well, too well, she found me.

"Em, what happened lovely?"

"The… git – it meant nothing to him – I thought it would, it felt so real." Tears over flowed and I realised that Lily – Merlin watch over her- had left me to cry by myself. It's not that I'm unsocial, but I never – well hardly ever – cry so when I do, it consumes me.

As I made my way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, I vaguely realised that someone was following me. I turned, warily to nearly run into the Slytherin who'd been threatening me whilst we'd been dancing. I was properly scared now. His massive hands grasped my shoulders and shoved hard into the brick wall. It hurt my head and I felt the hot, sticky feeling as blood seeped from my skull. Thick, sausage-like fingers seized my throat, squeezing my throat slowly and painfully. I focused for the first time since leaving the Great Hall to see Terrence's leering face inches from mine.

"Where's your bodyguard?" Panic rippled through me and my hands clawing at his got more desperate.

"Follows you like some kind of dog doesn't he?" Black started to claw at the edge of my vision.

"All wanted was one dance and a kiss, but the prat got jealous didn't he?"

"Had…a…fight…why…did…you…follow…me?" I barely managed to get the words out.

"I want revenge, darl, the only way your boyfriend will get the message is if I hurt you." The black haze was nearly covering my sight, only his face was clear, breathing was so hard.

"Not…my…boyfriend…" I fumbled for my wand, it was in one of the bandage wraps of my brace. I grabbed it and was about to hex the git into oblivion when –

"uh-uh lovely. Expelliarmus! No, by a could love and just…" My wand was lying 3 feet away and I was losing conscious fast. He let go at the last moment and the world turned sideways as I fell. Then the world went black…

End of Emma's POV

The next morning…

Lily flew up the boys dormitory stairs and raced into their room.

"Guys, guys, have you seen Emma?" Sirius was still clearly disgruntled from last night.

"Bloody hell Lily-flower, it's 7 in the morning, it's a weekend and if we had why would she be in here." Remus raised his head.

"Why do you want to know Lily?" Remus asked kindly.

"She hasn't come back from last night, her bed hasn't been slept in!" Lily wailed. James was awake now.

"Lily, she probably fell asleep somewhere when she was erm… doing whatever she was doing."

"Maybe, but when I came back into the Great Hall to talk to Sirius, I saw Terrence walking in the direction I'd come from to see Emma." Sirius sat bolt upright.

"That git?!" he gasped, "Do you think he was going after her?" Lily bit her lip.

"I…don't know, but I think we need to find her to make sure she is ok."

Sirius looked pleading at James who muttered,

"Ok, fine. Lily you have to promise to never repeat to anyone what you see next." Well, that made Lily incredibly nervous, expecting something hugely dangerous or illegal, she was surprised when James pulled out a square piece of old parchment. James muttered something and suddenly a map was on the page. He found Emma's name, and pointed to it.

"See? She's right there, asleep, which is what I want to be doing."

"Or unconscious because when I saw her, she was here." Lily pointed some 30 metres down the corridor. James waved his hand dismissively.

"She probably was walking back and fell asleep on the way." Lily snorted derisively.

"Yes, she was walking and fell asleep on the way, sure James."

"Lily, we'll go check because you are so pessimistic and you'll annoy us the entire day if we don't. Now, leave us so we can get dressed and we'll meet you in the common room in ten minutes."

Lily dashed from the boys' room and raced into hers, taking her wand as she scrambled to get dressed and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans. She met the boys in the common room and they set off, James hunched over the map.

"She's not moving." Noted Sirius.

"No, she's not, but if you are unconscious, you'd hardly move would you?" Lily said.

"Sleeping, you wouldn't move if you were sleeping." James reiterated.

Three floors and seven corridors later, they arrived on the seldom used 8th floor, 5th corridor. It was, unsurprisingly, deserted. They could see a figure in a dark blue dress sprawled on the floor halfway along the corridor.

"See?" said James triumphant. Lily was sure that Emma wasn't lying right to be asleep. Lily walked along the corridor to Emma and noticed immediately that her breathing was quick and shallow gasps. She bent down and shook Emma's shoulder roughly, noticing a patchwork of dark blue bruises blossoming on her skin.

"Emma. Emma wake up. EMMA!" The blonde didn't respond, she didn't even open her eyes, merely groaning.

"SIRIUS! JAMES! REMUS! GET DOWN HERE AT ONCE SOMETHING'S REALLY WRONG!" The boys, to their credit sprinted down and didn't ask any questions. Sirius was planning to go into medicine when he left school so he began to search her for injuries.

"That's a broken leg… five, six, no seven ribs broken and – bloody hell!" He had lifted her head to find a massive puddle of blood on the ground, the back of her head and down the back of her dress.

"Remus, run to Mistress Pomfrey, tell her we have a bad one. James, conjure and stretcher, I'll levitate her onto it. Lily, grab her wand and stay back."

They did as he bid and 20 minutes later they arrived at the Hospital Wing with a stretcher in tow. Mistress Pomfrey was last years' graduate and had begun work at Hogwarts almost immediately. She placed Emma on a prepared bed and examined her with her wand.

"Hmmm, you were right Sirius, broken leg, eight broken ribs, fractured lungs, bruises on her upper arms and severe damage to her lungs, jugular and throat. Oh, and extreme blood loss, it bad."

"How bad?" Lily leaned forward to her the verdict.

"To be extremely blunt, she spent the night in Limbo."

"Limbo?" Sirius had been listening but hadn't come across this word before.

"Between life and death, she spent the entire night fighting to live, and if you guys hadn't come she might of died."

Everyone drew a collective gasp. That was a horrible thought.

"Come back at about five o'clock this afternoon and she'll be able to go back to the common room with you."

They left the Hospital Wing in a stunned silence, no one daring to say anything. Just as Remus closed the Hospital Wing door, ear piercing screams ripped through the air. Emma's screams.