All eyes in the potions classroom were on Sirius after the door slammed behind Circe's. It wasn't until, after a stunned moment of silence, Professor Smyth cleared his throat audibly and sternly told everyone to "Get back to work" that the inquiring glances were lowered. Sirius glanced behind him and caught James's eye. James mouthed the question "What was that all about?" and Sirius, unable to tell James the whole truth and nothing but the truth just shrugged and went back to his work, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Double potions seemed to last forever and when the class finally ended Sirius rushed up to the Gryffindor Common Room, desperate to talk things out with Circe. And while he felt horrible that she was angry with him, he couldn't help but feel a bit happy. If Circe was this upset than it must mean that she cared about him, more than just a little.

When he stopped at the Portrait of the Fat Lady and attempted to get into the Gryffindor Tower Adriana and Lily caught up with him. He turned to look at them with an annoyed glance but didn't say anything. He'd be damned if he'd let them take up his chance to talk with Circe.

"Black," Adriana nodded to him in response and arched a brow. The three than walked into the room without another word and all headed towards the stair case to the girls dormitory. And while Adriana and Lily began to walk up the stairs Sirius stopped and scowled darkly. Adriana turned, halfway up the stairs, and looked at him, a cocky expression on her face. "Not coming?"

"You bloody well know I can't," Sirius replied scathingly. He realized belatedly that they were his only chance and he softened his mood a bit. "Could you guys at least tell her that I'm here and I need to talk to her?"

Lily - who had never really liked Sirius because she was friends with James and she hated James - spoke up, "And why should we? You seem to be the reason she's mad."

His eyes narrowed and he kept the anger out of his voice carefully, "Could you please just let her know I am down here?"

Lily opened her mouth to speak again when Adriana cut her off. "We'll tell her Black but I doubt she'll have anything to say to you just yet." She didn't say the words to be mean, she was just telling him the truth and Sirius knew that but the words still hurt. He nodded and as they turned and finished their way up the stairs he walked over and took a seat on the couch, in front of the fire.

After a half hour he hear foot steps on the stairs and jerked his head in the direction of the girls' dormitory, his eyes searching for a glimpse of Circe, whom he was sure was coming down the stairs. He stared for a moment before someone finally came into view.

Adriana walked alone down the stairs and when she reached the bottom and caught his eye she shot him a pitying look. He turned his gaze back to the fireplace as she made her way over and took the seat next to him on the couch. "So," she said, stretching her arms out in front of her.

"Is she alright?" Sirius asked quietly, for once not caring if everyone found out about them, just so long as things worked out.

Adriana sighed in response, and after a moments hesitation which Sirius assumed was used to find the right words she spoke. "Circe is pretty angry with you. I told her that you wanted to talk and she … well, she doesn't want to talk to you."

Sirius felt a ripping feeling deep in his chest where his heart used to be before Circe had broken it to pieces, but tried to ignore it. He took a deep breath and turned his head to face Adriana, "Did she tell you why she's mad at me?"

"No, she just called you a bunch of names. I figure if she had wanted to enlighten Lily and I, she would have." Despite her words Sirius could tell that Adriana was dying to know the reason, so he decided to accommodate her.

"She's mad at me because I slept with Fiona." It was the simplest explanation and Sirius didn't want to go over the entire events of the last year so it would have to suffice.

Adriana slapped her knee. "I knew it!" Sirius looked at her, a confused expression clouding his features and Adriana explained. "Well, I didn't know about you and Fiona – which by the way is disgusting – but I knew something was going on between you two! I just didn't know what."

"And I'm not going to tell you what." Sirius replied with a self-deprecating smile. So, he and Circe hadn't been as good at hiding what was going on as they had thought. But of course that came as no surprise to him; their friends were all quite smart.

Adriana raised an eyebrow and leaned back on the couch, shifting so that she faced him more fully. "Fine. I can accept that."

"Good," Sirius laughed at the expression on her face. He had no doubt that Adriana was going to run and harass Remus for information about this as soon as they finished talking.

"Can I just ask you one thing?" Adriana asked this timidly and Sirius felt a bit apprehensive at first but nodded anyway. "It makes sense to me that she would be jealous about Fiona, but why would she have gotten so mad? I've never seen her so upset before."

Sirius stared. "I don't get it either. I mean, she has no right to get so mad at me when she's doing the exact same thing."

"What do you mean?" Adriana asked, confused.

"I mean that she expects me to fawn all over her and play the saint while she goes and screws Seamus Malloy. It's disgusting and if she-"

"I don't know where you get your information Black, but she hasn't slept with Seamus." Adriana spoke soberly and Sirius instantly froze.

"She said she was," he said, his voice quiet as he began to retreat into thought.

Adriana was Circe's best friend, and if she said that Circe wasn't sleeping with Seamus than he believed her. After all, Adriana and Lily knew all about Circe's relationship with Seamus, Circe would have told them if she had had sex with him.

But on the flip side another part of his mind kept telling him that the girls didn't know that he and Circe were sleeping together, so obviously they didn't know everything.

He wasn't completely sure, but it seemed that Adriana could read his thoughts and he was startled as he felt her hand on his arm. "Trust me Black, if she had ever even considered having sex with Malloy she would have told us."

Sirius opened his mouth to reply when he was interrupted by the sound of the Common Room Door opening. James, Remus, and Peter all bounded in and walked over to where Sirius and Adriana were sitting.

"You missed class." James said with a smirk, although it wasn't clear whether he was talking to Sirius, Adriana, or both.

"It was a crisis." Adriana said, smiling up at Remus as he took a seat next to her, sliding his arm across the back of the couch and around her.

"A crisis that involves my girlfriend and the schools worst ladies man alone in a room together?" Remus said playfully.

"Or could it be a crisis that involves Circe Bloom?" James asked, staring at Sirius in the eyes, and the look James was giving him told Sirius that he knew exactly what the crisis was about.

Everyone sat there in silence, all eyes on Sirius as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. After a moment he stood up and mumbled a quick goodbye saying that he was going for a walk. When he reached the door he heard Remus say something inaudible and Adriana reply, "I think we should just let him be alone."


After an hour wandering around the grounds Sirius finally settled on a spot where he could be alone and thing and for four hours he sat under the tree by the lake, his hands wrapped around his knees as he stared out at the water, turning the events of the last year over and over in his mind. It was still light out, even though it was almost eight, but the summer months made daylight last longer. Year six was almost over which meant only one thing to Sirius, he had spent the last year pining after a girl who tortured him with her harshness. What a waste of his second to last year of school, he thought.

He was startled suddenly from his thoughts at the sound of a voice. "Thought you could use some company," Adriana said as she sat next to him.

"Did you, and why would you think that?" Sirius said, trying to keep the bitterness that his thoughts had left him with out of his voice.

Adriana shrugged and after a moments silence spoke. "I'm not going to say that I know how you're feeling, because I don't. What I am going to say is that, even though she's acting horribly, Circe does really care about you. She doesn't have to say it, her actions speak for themselves."

Sirius nodded, grateful for her words, but still wishing he could be alone. He had already realized that Circe cared about him, but he was no longer sure that that was enough to fix everything between them. Some things just weren't supposed to happen and he was beginning to think that he and Circe were one of those things.

"But I didn't come down here to tell you that. I came because I had to tell you something important, something that I know you can do something about because I know that you really care about Circe. She's about to make a really big mistake-"

"What kind of mistake?" Sirius cut Adriana off urgently.

Adriana sighed. "Just be patient will you? This is really hard for me because on the one hand I'm betraying one of my best friend's trust, but on the other hand you're my friend too and I really think you should know about this."

"If it's this important you should just tell me Finn," Sirius said, now feeling nervous about what he was about to hear. What could Circe be planning?

"She's going to sleep with Malloy. Tonight." Sirius felt the words like a blow to his stomach and stared at Adriana in shock. "And she's only doing it to get back at you, which is a big mistake."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sirius ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, turning his head to once again look out on the lake.

Adriana was shocked and she grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn and look at her. "Because you have to stop her!"

"How do you expect me to do that when nothing I say matters to her?" Sirius replied bitterly, jerking his arm away but still looking at Adriana.

She stared at him in disbelief and an annoyed look crossed her face. "Are you thick, Black? Obviously what you do matters to her or she wouldn't be doing this in the first place! Can't you see that she cares about you? And I won't pretend to know what's gone on with the two of you in the last year because I don't, but I know that something happened and that something is important. Are you just going to throw all that away?"

Sirius stood up, angry. He was angry at Adriana for acting as if she had a clue, and he was angry at Circe for jerking him along like a puppet on a string for the last year. "No, you don't know what went on over the last year, because if you did than you would know that there is nothing to throw away. I've made what I feel clear to Circe, but she just doesn't care. And I'll be damned if I let myself be strung along any longer." He turned away from the staggered look on Adriana's face and walked swiftly back to the school, not stopping his stride until he was in Gryffindor tower and lying back sulkily on his own bed. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop himself from thinking over what Adriana had said.


Two o'clock that morning Sirius finally gave in and admitted to himself that he couldn't sleep. He had tossed and turned in his bed for hours, his thoughts constantly veering to images of Circe and Seamus. With a groan he got up out of his bed and walked over to the dresser where he quietly grabbed a piece of parchment and than sat back down.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Sirius whispered quietly as images began to appear on the Marauders' Map. He studied it quietly, listening to the sounds of his friends as the slept, reassuring himself that they were all still asleep. When he finally found what he had been looking for he breathed a sigh of relief. The little dot that marked Circe Bloom was still in her dormitory, and the dot remained still. He began to scan the rest of the map.

Sirius felt a stab of anxiety when he saw another small dot on the map, moving swiftly down a staircase and into the corridors. Seamus Malloy was on the move. Sirius tried to rationalize this, tried to think of a reason that Seamus would be out of his dorm so late at night when his eyes were drawn back to Circe's dot. It was moving now and Sirius didn't waste any time as he leapt out of his bed and ran down the stairs.

He reached the bottom steps just as Circe was at the door to the common room. She must have sensed his presence because she turned around and stared at him, shocked.

"Don't do it," he said, an intent look in his eyes as he locked gazes with her.

Circe stiffened but did not move. "I don't know what you're talking about," the words were meant to sound aloof but they came out in a shaky whisper. Sirius walked forward until he was standing just in front of her.

"Circe … just … please don't do it." He pleaded with her, feeling sick at the thought that she was about to be with someone else.

Her features softened and they stared at each other in silence for a moment. The moment died too soon and Circe suddenly looked away. "This isn't any of your business Black."

Sirius felt as if he had been punched, but he didn't say anything, only stared at her. Circe, who had raised her hand back up to the door knob, stopped moving and looked back at him, obviously waiting for him to try to stop her again. He didn't.

Sirius took a step back, without another word and just watched her as she stood still.

Circe swallowed hard, looking as if tears were about to fall from her eyes at any second, and than opened the door and walked out, closing it quietly behind her.

He ran a hand through his hair, blinking back the tears which had become all to familiar to him. He was left standing there, alone in the common room, knowing that something catastrophic was about to happen and that nothing between him and Circe would ever be the same again. Left with the knowledge that he had just lost her …

A/N: This note is for those of you reading Broken. I haven't updated that story yet because there are some major spoilers for this story in that one and I want this story caught up to the other one before I update. And thank you to everyone who reviewed!!