Chapter 21:

A/N: Hello people! So, I'm here again, hope you like it! This starts just where it left off last chapter. I don't really like it, but they're twelve, they can't know how to confort each other and act maturely, you know, they kind of have to deal with it, if that makes any sense. I wanted to thank Gingerawesomeness, Jimmielee and Emilie Caite for reviewing, and everyone who follows and reads this story, I love you!

Disclaimer: I've noticed that I forgot to write these in the last few chapters, so sorry about that. So HARRY POTTER IS NOT MINE, IT'S J.K ROWLING'S. Now that that's done with, lets proceed to the next chapter.

"Life doesn't get easier, we just become stronger"

Chapter 21:

Val's POV

I turned around suddenly, trying to wipe away the tears dicreetly. It didn't go too well. It was Sirius. And I was screwed.

"What's wrong?"

And now I had to get out of it, one way or another.

"Uhhh nothing. I'm just... you know, it was a very emotional song and you know, I got very emotional too, and then I started crying. I am a preadolescent, you know, all the hormones were just acting up but really, nothing's wrong, you don't have to worry at all, seriously it's just..."

He cut my rant off with a sceptical look. He obviously knew I was lying.

"Okay, that was a lie. What are you doing here?"

He slumped down on the sofa beside me.

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"Same."

My friendship with Sirius wasn't the same as with James. James and I talked a lot, we screamed, we would normally behave crazily. With Sirius it was more making fun of each other, playful banter, it was a... comfortable friendship.

We sat next to each other for a while, until I thought of something. Of course. Sirius was worried about his brother.

As comfortable as our friendship was, I had never really talked to him about serious problems. I didn't really know what to say. So I probably said the most clichéd thing ever.

"Want to talk about it?"

He furrowed his brow in response. So I pushed him harder. It was another stupid thing to do. I knew that he wasn't the most patient person ever, and it wasn't the best thing to say, but I said it anyways.

"Is it about your brother?"

He was abviously either too tired or too sad to be angry, as he nodded slowly, not taking his eyes away from the fireplace. I cautiously touched his arm.

"What are you so worried about?"

This seemed to take him back to reality, as he looked me in the eyes. I could see he was doubting wether or not to tell me, so I looked at him as honestly as posible.

"I know you have problems at home Sirius, but maybe telling someone will help you."

With one last dubious look and a deep breath, he launched into the story. He told me everything. How his brother always followed him around, how his parents treated their house-elves, how his mother had treated him during the summer, how afraid he was that his brother would become like them. He started slowly, unsurely, but soon was talking about everything, opening up to me, and I suddenly realized that Sirius wasn't the average twelve year old. He was so much more than that, underneath.

When he finished, I was hugging him tight, and sobbing into his shirt. I knew that I shouldn't have been the one crying, I had to be the one comforting him, staying strong, but I was so terribly sad for him, so all I did was scoot closer to him, and somehow try to tell him without words how sorry I was that he had to go through that. In the end, he was the one comforting me.

"Don't worry, Val. I have you now, youguys now, I don't need my family."

That made me feel even worse.

"I'm so sorry Sirius, I shouldn't be the one who's moping around. Lets go down to the kitchens."

So I silently ran up the boys staircase, went into their dorm, ignoring Peter's loud snores, and grabbed James' Invisibility Cloak, which he always kept under his bed.

I ran down the stairs again, and covered the two of us. I led him to the kitchens, trying to cheer him up on the way. Slowly, he started getting more cheerful, and by the time we got to the kitchens, he was already teasing me, like he always did.

When we got to the kitchens, we were immeadeately surrounded by house elves. I asked them for my normal order. So twenty seconds later they came back with two cartons of ice-cream and a box of cookies.

"You guys are the BEST!" I said smiling brightly at them before jumping onto the counter and handing Sirius one of the cartons, and opening the other one. Grabbing some cookies, I proceeded to devour everything.

I swallowed and looked at Sirius, who was staring at me open-mouthed.

"It's rude to stare."

He kept staring, eyes moving from the already half-empty carton to my spoon.

"Why aren't you eating?"

He finally opened his mouth.

"Aren't girls supposed to care about their weight?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Well, boys aren't, so you can start eating."

He obeyed, digging into the ice-cream hungrily. I followed suit, and continued attacking mine. I suddenly pictured us in the start of seventh year, sitting in exactly the same place, and I turned to Sirius.

"Hey, we should make this a tradition."

He nodded silently, mouth still full, and I shrugged before attacking my ice-cream again. After a while, he was the one who interrupted.

"What were you crying about earlier?"

It was my turn to have doubts. He had told me all his problems but still, I had never been comfortable with talking about mine. I looked at him again.

"If I tell you, you're gonna have to handle some more crying."

He grinned at that.

"I have faith in myself."

"Fine." I sighed, resigned to my fate. "But I'll tell you in the Common Room."

He nodded, seemingly happy with that awnswer, and kept eating., and we soon went back to our nonsense talk.

When we reached the Common Room, having woken up a very grumpy Fat Lady, we sat down in the couch again and I started telling him my story.

As I had warned, I was soon crying again, while Sirius tried his best to comfort me. When I finished talking, I sighed deeply and, wiping the tears from my eyes, I faced Sirius again.

"Sorry for being such a cry-baby." I sniffed.

His eyes were full of sadness for me, as he hugged me close. Still, telling him had somehow made it much better. I had never told the girls as much as him. I had given them the general idea, and I knew I could trust them, but I felt more comfortable with telling Sirius. Maybe because he had some very big problems of his own.

We sat there in silence for a while, until I asked him if he ever talked to the boys about his family.

"No, I never really have. I'm really bad at talking about feelings and all of that."

"Isn't it a bit late?" I asked suddenly.

He glanced at the clock and nodded.

"It's one AM."

"We should go to sleep."

"We should."

"We have clases tomorrow."

"We do."

"We're very lazy."

"We are. But we're awesome."

"That's true." I laughed softly as we both got up, and hugged him one more time. "Thanks a lot Sirius, you really helped me."

He hugged me back, just as tighlty. "You too Val, you too."

I went up to my dorm, where I collapsed into my bed and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

A/N: Hope you liked it and pllllleeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssse eeeee review!