Hiya, I know there was a slight delay in this chapter, and I apolgize for it! Jane Eyre can be a bit distracting ( I adore Mr Rochester!!! - and dont tell me that he's evil - i havent got to that bit yet, my friend kinda ruined that bit for me :P ) anyway, enjoy this chapter!!! another one will be up soon!!!

Never Again

Ella

I don't know what came over me when he wraps his arms around me: I start sobbing which soon turns to crying. He only rubs my back, and holds me closer. A few minutes, I step back, wipe my tears, and apologize for what I had unintentionally made him suffer.

Holding my hands in his, he smiles at him – his large, warm, toothy grin. "Don't worry about me now; I'm fine, thanks to you." He said it without a hint of anger or resentment. "But tell me, now that you know that my feelings were real – would you go out with me?"

My smile falters, and I withdraw my hand from his. "Sirius, I am flattered that you would choose me of all people to be your focus of attention, and I am deeply sorry but I can not return those feelings. At least, not yet."

Even his grin freezes and then slowly diminishes to a small polite smile. It hurt me to take him out of one suffering and put him through another.

"I'm sorry." I say again, before turning and leaving the dorm to seek some refuge in my own dorm.

Sirius

I hugged her – something that I have wished to do for ages, and have been granted now at such sensitive a moment. I feel her tremble against me in sobs, and then I can feel her tears soak through my robes and touch my skin, like an acid causing a flower to wither and die in great agony. I want to comfort her, and find that the only thing that I can do is hug her tighter, bring her closer. I rub her back to tell her that there's nothing to worry about: I am fine. Then she draws herself away from me, though I want her to stay as she was – in my arms.

I grin at her, thinking that she has changed her opinion of me, and that by agonising over my condition, she has grown to like me more. I hold her hand still, which is some consolation.

"Don't worry about me now; I'm fine thanks to you." I smile warmly at her, "But tell me, would you go out with me?" Instantly, she withdraws her hands, and a strange uncomfortable look now frames her face. I don't want to think about it, but I know what she is going to say; after all, I have heard it many times before: her sentence is no stranger to me, and neither is the crushing defeat that follows it.

"Sirius, I am flattered that you would choose me of all people to be your focus of attention, and I am deeply sorry but I can not return those feelings. At least, not yet." She says. Though I don't want to appear any different, I can feel my grin shrinking away into a cold, polite smile.

I gulp back the pain that this blow caused. She apologizes again, and rushes out of the room. At length, when I have regained my composure, I head out of the dorm as well. I see my friends pacing in the common room. I look at them, and my heart fills with joy once again – these are the people who will never disappoint me, who will always be by my side.

I look wishfully at the staircase that leads to the girls' dorm, and crushing my feeling and emotions away, I resolve never to think of her again.

I turn to James and hug me, glad to be back on two feet again instead of two, and to be able to use my arms.