TW: mentions of abuse

Georgia walked with Sirius out to the garden, sitting down with him on the same stone bench that she had sat on with Remus previously. "Are you okay?" She asked Sirius quietly, although she was fairly certain that he most definitely was not okay.

"I just don't understand what they're doing here." Sirius was gripping Georgia's hand tightly, but she didn't complain about his iron grip on her hand, she knew that he was deeply rattled by what had just happened. "They haven't come any other time, so why would they come now?"

"I don't know Sirius, I'm so sorry." Georgia murmured. She felt bad that she couldn't really do anything to comfort him.

"It's not your fault, I'm just sorry about what my mother said to you."

"It's not your fault, Sirius. It's fine, I've dealt with people like her before." She squeezed his hand comfortingly. "Don't worry about your mother, she doesn't know what she's talking about, she just likes to think that she's better than everyone else. I know that her words hurt you, but you need to make her think that they don't affect you. Trust me, Sirius, I'm speaking from experience."

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked in a puzzled tone, and Georgia sighed softly as she looked down at their intertwined fingers. "I...I haven't been completely honest with you." She said. "My...my life at home isn't the greatest. It's downright horrible actually. My family hates the fact that I'm a witch." Now that she was finally telling someone, the words just came pouring out of her, and she didn't know if she could stop even if she wanted to. "My father, he beats me whenever I go home for the summer. I never go home for Christmas, all of my Christmases since first year have been spent at the castle. I would spend my summers at the castle too if I could."

"Georgia..." Sirius didn't know what to say, he'd had no idea that her home life was this horrible. "I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

"It's not something that I really wanted you guys knowing. I guess that I let my pride get in the way, I didn't want you guys feeling sorry for me."

"Georgia...we could have tried to help you."

"It's not like there's anything that you can do about it." Georgia pointed out. "You can't make him change his ways or stop what he's doing."

"I could hex him." Sirius muttered. "I bet that one Bat Bogey Hex and he'll be changing his tune."

Georgia laughed softly. "I don't think that's a good idea, you'd get into a lot of trouble for hexing a Muggle. I appreciate the sentiment though."

"We should probably get back inside." Sirius sighed, and Georgia nodded. The two stood up, and Georgia reluctantly noticed that Sirius had released his grip on her hand. They walked back into the ballroom, and she noticed with relief that the Blacks had left.

Euphemia immediately made her way over to them. "Are you alright Sirius?" She asked him, and Sirius nodded his head. "Yes Mrs. Potter, I'm fine. I apologize for my mother's behavior tonight."

"There's a reason why I never invite her to these things." Euphemia muttered under her breath. "She looks for drama everywhere that she can. Is she like this at home too?"

"Worse."

Euphemia shook her head. "I'm sorry that the night was ruined you two."

"I still had a lovely time." Georgia assured her. "And there's still guests here, so the night isn't done yet."

Music was playing, a slow song. Couples were dancing, and Georgia smiled as she watched Remus dancing with a blonde girl. Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turned to see Sirius bowing to her. "May I have this dance?" He asked her, a smile on his face as he stretched his hand out to her.

Georgia giggled before taking his hand. "You may." She told him and Sirius led her onto the dance floor.

"Georgia..." Sirius bit his lip as they danced, one of his hands settling on her waist. "Look, about what you heard on the train...I'm sorry, what I said about you, I didn't mean it-"

"I get it." Georgia shook her head. "You were probably just trying to get the others to back off of you. You and I are best friends, it would be weird if we were to date."

"Yeah." Sirius chuckled a bit. "How weird would that be, right? Almost as weird as you and James being together."

Georgia gagged at that. "Oh Merlin, I can't get that image out of my mind. Thanks for that."

Sirius laughed. "Is it safe to say that I scarred you?"

"For life."

Two weeks after they got back to school, Sirius started to date Marlene McKinnon. People called them the power couple of Hogwarts, and every time that Georgia saw them together, her heart broke a little bit more.

"You should have told him how you felt about him at the Ball." Remus told her. The two were sitting in the dorm, studying for an upcoming DADA test. Sirius was off with Marlene somewhere, and James and Peter were doing Godric only knew what. To be honest, Georgia probably didn't want to know what it was that the two of them were getting up to.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Georgia stated as she flipped the page of her textbook.

"Georgia, I see the way that you look at Sirius whenever he's with Marlene. It physically hurts you to see the two of them together. You like Sirius, but you won't admit it to anyone, including yourself."

"Remus, the only feelings that I have for Sirius are platonic ones. We're close friends, and that's all that we're ever going to be so you might as well drop it, alright?" Georgia's voice got a bit stern, and Remus fell silent.

Georgia sighed, closing her book. "Look, Remus, I'm sorry, okay? I just...I don't see any point in talking about it. It doesn't matter what I might feel towards Sirius, because he quite clearly doesn't feel anything towards me, not romantically anyway. Besides, he and Marlene are a lot alike, I'm sure that she'll be good for him."

"She is a lot like him, which is exactly why he shouldn't be with her." Remus retorted, and Georgia raised an eyebrow at the sassy tone in his voice. "Um...okay?"

"Georgia, she lets him do whatever he wants, he needs someone that isn't afraid to rein him in when his antics start to get out of hand. Why do you think that they keep me around? I'm the brains of the group, I'm the one that has to try and talk some sense into them when their pranks could wind up seriously hurting someone. James and Sirius don't think before they do something, and Peter is too timid to try and go against them, so he just goes along for the ride. You and I, we're the only ones that can talk any sense into them."

"James calls you the dad of the group for a reason." Georgia pointed out. "Look Rem, I get what you're trying to do here, and I appreciate it, but you might as well forget the idea of Sirius and I ever being together, we simply aren't compatible."

The tone in her voice said that the matter was closed, and Georgia turned back to her work, although it was quite some time before she was able to get Sirius Black out of her head.