Chapter 38:

"He didn't give you any advice?" Hermione asked.

"You mean besides the fact that as my friend he should forgive me?" Skylar asked sighing. They were sitting at a table in the common room after dinner, Skylar was researching for Hagrid's case for Hippogriffs, having finished Snape's essay on Undetectable potions with Hermione's guidance. The two girls had been going to visit Hagrid as often as they could to help him out with his case for Buckbeak.

Hermione sighed. She had extensive amounts of work around her, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes as she tried to keep on top of her workload, it seemed like it was beginning to pile up. Hermione had a bad habit of snapping at people when they interrupted her. The only one who she took pity on was Skylar, as with Harry not happy with her, she couldn't sit with them. Luckily for Hermione, Skylar was a legilimens and could easily tell when Hermione was available to be interrupted.

"Hermione, are you going to be all right, that looks like a lot…" Skylar mumbled, looking over her load.

"I can manage."

"I don't know if you can…" Skylar said. "It's only been two days of term and already your load is increasing."

"I just need to work harder."

"I don't know if that's the solution." Skylar sighed, but she knew there was no point trying to convince the bushy-haired girl. She was stressing out already, and Skylar had seen that the Time-turner was taking its toll as well.

Skylar looked around the common room and to Ron and Harry by the fireplace. Harry was to have his first lesson with Remus on Thursday, Skylar was ultimately curious as to what was going to be learnt, she loved learning new things.

"I'm just going to go to the library." Skylar said to Hermione. The girl only nodded, not looking up, as Skylar got up from her spot and walked towards the door. She glanced at Harry, catching his eye as he saw her go, before she dropped her gaze with a frown.

What was she to do? She didn't deserve to be forgiven.

"Sky, wait!" The girl stopped in the corridor and turned around in surprise. Harry was hurrying down the corridor towards her.

"Harry…" She looked at him surprised.

Harry stopped before her, taking a breath and then paused. He opened his mouth to speak but it occurred to him he didn't know what to say.

Skylar frowned. It wasn't him who needed to say anything, she was the one at fault here. "I'm sorry." She said. "I had no right to keep from you the truth." She admitted.

Harry looked at her, he paused for a minute, after all, he trusted Sky, more than he trusted Ron, or even Hermione, she reacted and said what and how he needed, wanted. And yet, she hadn't done the same back, she hadn't trusted him, or confided in him, like he could with her. And worse, he hadn't even noticed she'd been keeping this all to herself all this time.

He mulled over his thoughts for a moment, unsure where to start in response. "You said people didn't tell me because they were worried I'd run off after him."

"Yeah well, if you're anything like your dad was, apparently he was headstrong and impulsive sometimes too." Skylar mumbled. "But another reason I didn't tell you, was because I didn't want to." She admitted. Harry looked confused. "I didn't want to tell you something so awful. I didn't want to be the one to tell you something so heartbreaking. I don't have any excuses for the secrets I've kept, and I don't expect you to forgive me." She admitted.

Harry was silent for a moment. He was mad at Skylar, regardless of her reasons, but there was also the part of him that hated that he couldn't talk to her anymore. And it annoyed him even more that she understood that and didn't try to argue about it.

Skylar didn't force him to talk to her, she didn't expect to be forgiven.

"I don't expect forgiveness, but at least don't go running off to find Black, he'll find you before you can find him." She muttered.

And that was what annoyed him, they had all been right. "As much as I want to blame you, I was planning on doing exactly what everyone feared I would." Harry admitted sourly. "I'm also annoyed I didn't notice you holding it in, after I found out, and I knew you knew, I realised the signs had been there, your secret talks with your parents, the way you said things, some looks on your faces, especially when Black was mentioned. But I didn't even acknowledge that."

Skylar's forehead furrowed in utter surprise. "You're… you're mad because…?"

"Because you wouldn't talk to me, or couldn't, yet you let me offload when I needed to." He said. "And for not telling me." He added obviously. He sighed, "And I'm sorry for that."

Skylar took a breath. "You technically did ask, in the Leaky Cauldron." She muttered. "And I couldn't bring myself to admit it to you. Nor could I bring myself to go against everyone else, who told me to keep my mouth shut." She frowned mumbling.

They were silent for a moment avoiding each other's gazes, before Harry sucked in a breath.

"For the best apparently. I want to find Black, and make him pay."

"How?" Skylar asked, already knowing the answer.

Harry didn't respond, because he didn't know how he was going to do it, and he knew, she knew that.

"I just can't believe someone caused the screams I hear whenever the dementors are near. My mother's screams… someone who was close to her." Harry muttered. He walked past the girl and she watched him before following as he looked at the ground. "After I found out about it all, I went to the photographs Hagrid collected for me, he was in there, in the wedding photo." He confessed, "He was completely different to the wanted photos, I never recognised the similarities until I was looking for them."

"Azkaban changes people." Skylar mumbled.

"But it didn't change him, he's not affected." Harry sneered.

Skylar took a breath. "I don't think that's entirely true." She said thinking. Of course Sirius had been able to escape due to being an animagus, how that helped she didn't know, but it was how he was hiding in the school grounds without the dementors getting him so…

Harry turned to her, a questioning look on his face and Skylar took a breath, trying to think how to explain her thoughts. "I don't know if he's unaffected, after all, he's hiding from them isn't he?" she offered, "Maybe he just has something in him he can hold onto?" Maybe being an animal allows him to hold onto his humanity? Wasn't that a little backwards.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, the dementors take away all your happy memories, Hagrid said you forget who you are through all your tragic memories. Black must have found something that wasn't happy to keep him, himself. Something the dementors couldn't take."

"What?" Harry asked.

"That I don't know." She mumbled. "But he was in Azkaban for twelve years, if he was unaffected for all that time, why did he only now escape? It's not like there's any more news of You-Know-Who or anything to give him determination."

Harry was quiet for a while as they walked through the corridors.

"Harry, I really am sorry for keeping quiet. The last thing I wanted was to hurt you." She confessed with a frown.

"Sky, can I ask you something?" Harry asked, stopping and turning to her. She nodded. "Promise you wont keep anything like that from me again."

Skylar looked at him before she dropped her gaze. Could she make that promise? She really wanted to be able to.

She thought about it carefully before speaking. "Harry I promise not to keep anything about your family from you again, no matter what anyone wants me to do." She said. She paused, awkwardly and worried, steeling to continue her honestly. "And, while we're on the subject, there's probably something else I should tell you… about the grim." She said. What was she doing keeping this a secret? Sirius Black was after Harry and he'd seen him more times than she could count, he needed to be careful, and for that, he needed to know what he was looking for. He had to look out.

"The grim?" He asked confused, what did that have to do with his family, or Sirius Black?

Skylar nodded. "I know why you keep seeing it." She confessed and Harry looked confused.

"Sky!" The two turned to see Stephen walking towards them, he had another guy with him, one Skylar was sure she recognised.

"Stephen." She said. He smiled as he walked towards them, glancing at Harry. His timing was terrible. Skylar ignored that and, with a slight shake of the head to remove the previous air, she glanced from Stephen to Harry. "Uh, Harry, have you met Stephen Cornfoot?"

"Not officially." Harry mumbled.

"He's in my Ancient Runes class, and has been helping me out."

Stephen smiled. "Hi." He said to Harry.

Harry didn't respond.

"Who's your friend?" Skylar asked, "I know I know your name." She said to him.

"Oliver Rivers." He responded, holding his hand out. Skylar took it, shaking it.

"You off to the library Skylar?" Stephen asked.

"Uh, I was actually." She admitted, glancing at Harry.

"I'll see you back in the common room Sky." He said before turning back. She watched him go. She frowned in disappointment, reaching out slightly towards him and opening her mouth to stop him. No, he couldn't leave, she had been on a role! She couldn't force words to work and in her frustration she closed her mouth and balled her fist annoyed. There went her chance! And she didn't even know if this had cleared the air between them!

Stephen watched Skylar as she watched Harry.

"Are you all right…?" He asked, noticing her distraught and annoyed expression.

She grit her teeth before she turned to Stephen, her expression become completely neutral. He looked a bit surprise for a moment at the cover she plastered on her face so quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine." She shrugged, "Are you two also heading to the library?"

"We were heading back actually." Oliver said.

"Well, don't let me stop you." Skylar smiled, giving a small wave, before she moved off past the two.

"Sky, wait," Stephen patted Oliver's arm before he hurried off after the girl. "Hey, are you sure you're all right?" Stephen asked as he followed her.

"I finally got to talk to Harry, apologise." She shrugged.

"And?"

"And we talked, I don't know if the kink's gone but." She said simply.

"Right…" he mumbled with a nod. "Would you like a hand in the Library?"

"It's not for homework."

"Needed a homework break?"

"It's frustrating watching Hermione what with all the work she has to do."

"How's she doing it? I've heard people say she's been in like two classes at the same time?" Stephen said, his forehead furrowed.

"No one can be at two places at once." Skylar said simply.

"So, she's not taking classes at the same time?"

"Well, her schedule has several classes scheduled at the same time." Skylar shrugged.

"How is that possible?"

"She talked to Professor McGonagall about it, they figured something out."

Stephen was eyeing Skylar. "You're telling me the legilimens doesn't know?" He rose an eyebrow doubtingly.

"Even if I did, Hermione hasn't told even us as her friends, it's clearly not something anyone's supposed to know about and so, whether I knew or not, I wouldn't divulge." She stated.

"I feel like you do know."

"Well, hold out and maybe you'll be able to figure it out yourself." Skylar offered.

"It kind of seems like you're still upset?"

"I'm not upset." She said simply. But she was, because Stephen had interrupted an important conversation with Harry, he'd broken her conversation and taken her chance to admit the biggest secret ever. Now she was going to have to brace herself to admit it all over again. And she knew she'd have to, Harry wasn't likely to forget this conversation.

And true he hadn't, he was still questioning how Skylar could know why he was seeing the Grim as he moved back to the common room. But there was another question he needed answered, something he hadn't realised until now.

"Hey Ron," the boy was still sitting by the fire in the common room as Harry approached him.

"What you run off for?" He asked annoyed.

"Do you know Stephen Cornfoot?" He asked Ron, ignoring the red-head's question and earning a confused look.

"Who?" Ron questioned.

"A Ravenclaw."

"No?" Ron muttered unsurely. "Why?"

"He seems to be friends with Skylar." Harry mumbled.

"With Skylar?" But Ron paused. "Oh… wait…" he muttered, a thoughtful look on his face. "I think I do know him. Well, not personally."

Harry rose an eyebrow with expectation.

"Yeah, when we came back from our first Hogsmeade trip, he helped her carry her bags. Hermione said he fancied Skylar."

Harry was silent for a moment. "Does that mean they're friends?"

"Dunno, I haven't seen them spending time together since… but then I haven't seen Skylar much." He grumbled annoyed, turning to give Hermione a glare.

"It wasn't her fault." Harry mumbled. Ron turned to look surprised.

"I thought you were mad because she held things from us, and didn't warn us Hermione was going to have the Firebolt confiscated and stripped down!"

"That wasn't Skylar's fault. She was right, what would we have done if we had been warned?" Harry asked.

"Well, what about her hiding what Sirius Black did?" Ron lowered his voice as he said it.

"I'm mad she didn't tell me." Harry nodded, "But would you have told me something like that?"

Ron huffed, he didn't have an answer.

"Hey, Harry, have you seen Sky?" Nick had appeared at the boys side.

"She just left, said she was going to the library." Harry admitted. "Why?"

"Dad responded to her last letter," he said, holding it up. "Mitchum brought it to me."

"What was her last letter about?" Harry wondered.

"Dad spent the whole of first term telling her to keep the truth from you, she told dad that you knew."

"What for?" Ron grumbled.

"She was worried that Harry would run off and wanted dad to be aware." He shrugged. Harry turned his face away, embarrassed, so everyone really was worried about that.

"And yet, despite all that, she instigated you and the twins giving Harry the means to run off." Ron said.

"Skylar just wanted to do something nice for Harry." Nick shrugged. "You've known her for how long Ron? You know she just wants to make her friends smile." Ron blushed at being caught out. "If you're going to condemn her for protecting those smiles, then you shouldn't be her friend in the first place." The boy scolded the two boys, surprising them, before Nick turned and left the common room to find his sister.

"Ouch." Ron muttered. "Talk about protective older brother."