Hi everyone, I'm back with another chapter. This one is almost as long as chapter 10, but not as intense though. It's still important for the story of course and I hope you like it and wants to continue reading because there are loads and loads of ideas spinning around in my head right now for the future!

Thanks as always for story alerts/favoritings and reviews, it's sooo fun to get these and it gives me more motivation to write! :)

Happy reading!

Chapter 11. The great loss

When you are happy, the time goes on in what you think is a faster way than usual. That is of course not true, but I have never felt the time fly away this fast ever in my life, and I guess that means that I am happy. Happier than I have ever been before.

A lot had happened in these weeks that had passed lately. Sirius, James, Remus and Peter had welcomed me with open arms, and they were the only ones I hanged out with these days. Event though I did not support or took any part in their constant prank- and troublemaking, or were constantly near them, which I was not because I needed my 'lonertime', it still gave me a sort of higher status. Others wanted to befriend me now, but only because I was 'popular', which was kind of tragic to me and actually sometimes got me wondering if I really was that boring. But I was not popular to everyone, of course. The female population did not fancy me the slightest, because they all believed in the bad rumors someone spread about me, and also because they thought I had stealen their most precious jewel, which was, of course, not true. There was nothing more than pure friendship between me and Sirius, and it would not grow to anything else either.

"Are you all prepared for tomorrow, then?", Remus asked as we sat in the Great Hall having supper.

"What happens tomorrow?", James asked with a confused expression, and I made a facepalm because of his unstructured way of being.

"Our projects, James. You know, those that we're supposed to have worked on for two months now... Does it ring a bell?", Sirius asked sarcasticly. James lit up for a second before he immediately went pale.

"Oh god, don't tell me you've not even started", I said and looked at him reproachingly.

"No, no, we've started, it's just... It hasen't went on too well for me and Adrian...-", he began but was interrupted by Sirius.

"You're not finished? Come on, James! Have you picked each others noses the whole time or what?"

"Easy for you to say, you've had Izzie! Adrian isn't much help!"

"Well, it's actually Sirius who's helped me most of the time...", I said, and felt a bit embarrassed by the announcement.

"Yeah, but... You're pretty, so I fully understand why Sirius has been so eager to work on this with you. Adrian's just boring. I mean he doesn't even like Quidditch!"

We all laughed at James' desperate face, and it made the corner of his mouth to twitch a little.

"You actually have a point, mate", Sirius said with a bit satisfied smile and I blushed a little even though I did not know if 'the point' was my prettiness or Adrians lack of Quidditch interest. The conversation turned not so surprisingly on to Quidditch after that and I stopped listening and just concentrated on eating. When I was done, I told them I would go to the library and they greeted me good bye half-heartedly before tirelessly continue talking about those precious balls and brooms of theirs.

'Boys', I thought as I walked out of the Great Hall and headed to the library. I was going to write an essay about thestrals, but I really needed to look up a few things to get the facts right.

Half an hour later I had written down everything that I needed and went to put the book back in the bookshelf where it belonged, closest to the restricted section. I was just about to turn around to walk to the door when someone bumped right into me. I looked at the person in the dunkle light and saw a familiar face, or at least, that was what I thought for a few seconds.

"Hey, Sirius, what are you do-...", I began, but then I really focused my eyes on him. He was definately not Sirius, but his younger brother, Regulus.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you. And I'm not Sirius", he informed me.

"No, no, of course you're not him. It's a bit dark around here so I had a blind moment", I said and gave him a small smile.

"Yeah, I understand", he said, looking all neutral. We looked at each other for a few seconds, but it felt really weird to see those grey eyes so emotionless. His brother always made some kind of feeling visible through them. I decided to give Regulus a simple nod and then walk away because I did not really know what more to say.

As I walked in the corridor I pulled up the thick sleeve of my robe and looked at my watch. It was already 07:40 pm and I was supposed to meet up with Sirius at 08:00, so I decided to go straight to the classroom and wait for him there. I tried to walk as slowly as I could, but way too soon I was stopping in front of the door to the Transfiguration classroom. I guessed that the door was open already, but when I pulled the knob the door refused to move, which made me let go of it and take a step back with a confused mind. Professor McGonagall had known that we were going to borrow the room today too, and she said she would leave it open when only Sirius and I had heard her. I decided to try again, but the door did not move this time either so I put my ear against the wooden surface, trying to hear if someone was inside. But not even the loudest noise could break through these massive doors. I put my back against the stone wall beside it and was just about to sink down to the floor when the the unlocking sound came from the left. I got away from the wall and turned around to face the person who I hoped would come out, but nothing more happened. It got me a bit irritated and I knocked hard on the door with my fist a few times as I shouted "Hello?" and hoped that the little rascal on the inside would be brave enough to come out and face me. Then suddenly, the door clicked and opened slowly and a pale but familiar face peeped out from the small door run.

"Remus?", I said, feeling very surprised and confused to find him there. He found my face and looked a bit chocked too at my appearence.

"Izzie! Oh, hi! What are you doing here?", he said, glancing around in the empty corridor as if to make sure no one had noticed him from where he was.

"I was done in the library earlier than expected, so I decided to come here and save Sirius the waiting for once", I said and tried to get a sneak around him into the door, just to see if Sirius and the others were there too.

"That sounds nice of you, but this is kind of a bad time, at this moment...", he began, as if he tried to come up with an excuse to get me away, but at the same time not be rude.

"Okay...", I said thoughtfully. "You're doing guy stuff in there right now, that's why I'm not invited?"

"Kind of, yeah", he said and laughed a little. I smiled at him.

"Well, I understand the fact that I'm not a guy and I'll wait outside until I maybe have grown a beard or something, then I'll try to get in again.", I said and made a salute which made remus laugh even more.

"We're done soon, and I doubt that you would be able to grow a beard even if we kept going for a year or two."

We laughed together, me a bit half-hearted, before Remus closed and locked the door again and I sat down next to it against the wall. It actually stung a bit in me to not be a part of these kind of things, but at the same time I knew fully that boys needed to do their own things sometimes, without the presence of a girl. But they were good at holding time, because when the clock turned 08:00 I heard the door click once again and they all came out. They looked satified but also tired, and James yawned big as if he wanted to demonstrate it. He, Peter and Remus walked on through the corridor back to the tower, and I raised up to get into the classroom finally. Sirius shut the door behind me and I waited for him to come up to the front where I was. I looked up at him, because he was so silent, but there was a satified smile playing on his lips.

"Have you come up with a great mischief?", I asked, trying to not sound too interested. He did not answer directly, but his smile widened a lot.

"Kind of", he finally said and I raised my eyebrows, but he showed no signs that he would continue, so I quickly gave up my curiosity.

"Well then, let's try get this right instead, shall we?"

Our last training rehearsal went on well but Sirius was not really present at all during the time, even though he made his part flawless as usual. It kind of disturbed me. He seemed to be a bit numbed in a way.

"Is something wrong?", I asked as we went back to the Gryffindor tower when we were done.

"No", he answered and looked at me, slightly surprised. "Why?"

"I don't know, you're not acting like yourself so I just wondered...", I said and shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired, that's all", he said as we went into the commonroom.

"Then maybe you should go to bed early today, 'cause people may think you've becomed a zombie!", I joked as I went to the fireplace where the others sat.

"Oh, come on! It's not that bad!", Sirius groaned and I laughed as I dropped my bag on the floor and sat down at the cozy couch. Next to me, Peter was already sleeping in an armchair. I looked the other way and saw James blankly staring into the fire. I picked up my book an opened it as Sirius lay down next to me, putting his head on my lap to fit into the, for him, small space that remained. He did not really manage it, because his feet was sticking out over the edge. I thoughtlessly made my fingers play with his a bit wavy, black hair as I started to read my book, and I heard Sirius let out a big sigh. I smiled to myself.

"Is the book good?", he mumbled to me with a dark, soft voice.

"Yes."

"What's it about?"

"It's about two people who are really close to each other, but they don't realize that they actually loves one another until they have to separate completely for 20 years."

"That sounds kinda tragic, why do you wanna read about that?"

"I...", I began but did not really know what to answer. "I don't know. Maybe it makes me realize how lucky I am myself, not having to deal with that."

Sirius chuckled and I smiled at the sound. That suddenly reminded me of someone who maybe was not even able to chuckle at all.

"Uhm, Sirius?"

"That's me."

"I met your brother today."

He quickly got up from where he was lying and looked at me intensely, which scared me a little.

"Where?", he asked with a dark voice, but this time it did not sound soft and relaxed.

"In the library", I answered, still a bit surprised by his sudden mood change.

"Why was he there?"

"How should I know?"

"Did he do something to you?"

"No! Why would he?"

"You never know with him", he said as he calmed down a bit as he leaned back to the couch and put his head on my lap again. I was about to tell him how similar they were at the outside, but I forced myself to keep it inside because of his sudden, unfriendly reaction.

I began to read again, and after a while, I started to hear a silent snoring from below and looked down to see Sirius sleeping peacefully. A smile spread over my lips as I looked up again, and catched Remus glancing at us. He smirked at me before returning to his own book. I could not stop the small chuckle from escaping my body, and I felt my cheeks turn reddish. It maybe was not worth denying it anymore, though some people had already noticed, but I desperately did not want to destroy what we had now. Because if it was not going to be better, I did not want to lose what I already had.

Transfiguration was, unfortunately, the first lesson of the day. Though I was quite calm, as soon as I entered the classroom I got butterflies in my stomach. I was not really scared if I screwd up for myself, but screwing up for Sirius, who was splendid at this was absolutely frightening. I tried to focus on something else, and saw Robert sitting down a few meters before me. I hurried forward to him.

"Hi!", I said and pat his shoulder. He turned and lit up when he saw me.

"Hi, there! You seem to be in a good mood today", he said and smiled at me.

"Yeah, but it's just because of my nervousness", I informed him and he laughed.

"Okay, that sounds sane", he said and as he raised one eyebrow I felt an arm being placed around my waist.

"Hello, Robbie", said a soft, deep voice from behind me. Robert nodded as an answer and I looked up at Sirius who raised his eyebrows and made a superior smile. I snorted and gave Robert an excusive look before following Sirius to an empty table. We sat down and I looked at him. He was keeping himself busy with pulling out his wand and investigate it and I rolled my eyes at him as he glanced up at me.

"What?", he asked and looked innocent, but I could see the sparkle in his eyes.

"Why are you doing that?", I asked and put my chin in my hand, looking directly at him so that he could not get away with anything.

"I don't understand what you're talking about, Iz", he said and put his own chin in his own hand and looked back at me.

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

"I may have heard it before, yes."

As soon as he had said that, professor McGonagall stormed into the room in a way she usually did not. She seemed stressed out as she looked around and cleared her throat.

"Class dismissed!", she said loudly so that everyone could hear. But she did not have to make herself further understood, because everyone shouted, clapped their hands and rose from their chairs to walk out of the classroom. Sirius and I smiled widely at each other and got ready to stand up when McGonagall came up to us.

"Miss Whitlock", she said and I looked up into her worried face. "You need to follow me to the headmaster's office immediately."

I glanced quickly at Sirius, who looked as surprised as I did, before I nodded at the professor and got up from where I sat and followed her out. I heard someone hurrying behind me and felt Sirius hand on my shoulder.

"I'm coming with you", he murmured next to my ear and I gave him a thankful glance.

"I'm afraid you can't, Mr Black", professor McGonagall said as she turned around to face us.

"Why?", he asked a bit stubbornly.

"Because this concerns only Miss Whitlock", McGonagall said with a beginning of irritation in her tone.

"I'll follow you to the door."

"Well, I guess I can't forbid you from doing that. Come on, now. Hurry!"

We went to the first floor and I almost had to run to keep up with McGonagall's rushing pace. Sirius on the other hand had long legs and no problem to keep up, and he chuckled at me. I hit his arm lightly and he stopped laughing, but the grin stayed on for the whole time. He may have been a bit disturbing, but I was glad he was with me. I was very nervous for what was coming up and too soon we reached the stairs from which you entered professor Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall turned to face us again and looked from me to Sirius before she spoke.

"Don't wait here, Mr Black. I'm afraid this will take a while."

"I'm in no hurry today", he said lightly and leaned at the wall beside and winked at me.

"You don't have to stay", I said, but he did not move from the spot. "Well, I'll see you later, then."

"See ya."

I got up at the first step with McGonagall and it brought us up to the door and she knocked at it. We heard a silent answer from the inside that told us to step in and she opened the door and lead me in. I had never been at Dumbledore's office before, and it was a lot of interesting things to look at in there, but I was interrupted by the headmaster himself.

"Welcome to my office, Miss Whitlock", he said with a calm voice and I turned around to the right and saw him sitting behind his desk with his hands clasped together. He always had a kind of ingenious facial expression, but today it was gone. That reminded me of the fact that I did not know why I was here, and Dumbledore made a gesture for me to sit down in front of him. I slowly walked forward and carefully sat down in the big chair he had offered for me.

"You must wonder why you are here this morning", he said and I nodded. I heard McGonagall as she came up and stood behind me. I looked from one to the other with a curious and a bit worried expression. The situation started to feel uncomfortable.

"What's happened?", I asked, to both of them and Dumbledore sighed heavily.

"Your father, John Whitlock...", he began and I felt the panic growing inside me, and when professor McGonagall lay her hand on my shoulder the pressure was too much.

"What's happened to him? Answer me!", I shrieked at them with a broken voice.

"He passed away in the evening yesterday.", Dumbledore said and looked sadly at me. I closed my eyes in chock.

It felt like someone ripped me apart from the inside, the whole room started to spin in every possible direction when I opened my eyes again. Everything went blurry, and then suddenly, it all blackened before me.