Chapter 7

In the weeks following the deaths in the Evans family, I began to see why people referred to this period as one of the darkest in wizarding history. Apart from myself, and Sirius I don't think I knew anyone who hadn't lost a family member. I knew no one to lose, and whilst Sirius's parents weren't directly in league with Voldemort, we all knew that they were loyal to the ideology he promoted.

Walking into the common room Hermione saw Lily, Remus and Peter crowded round James on one of the large sofas. Looking about she failed to see Sirius, so she made her way up to the boys dormitories. As she had hoped it was empty.

Making her way over to the table in the corner she picked up the familiar looking piece of parchment. Looking around to check she was still alone, she said the familiar code, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.".

Scanning the map, she saw the dot labelled 'Sirius Black' in the owlery. Running out of the room, remembering to clear the map first she made her way up to the room. Entering she saw Sirius standing by one of the many windows looking out over the lake.

"Siri." She broke into his thoughts.

"Alright Mi." He returned not looking round.

"You Ok?" She inquired, she knew he wasn't going to make this easy for her.

"Shouldn't you be asking James that?" came the soft reply.

"Just because they were James's parents, doesn't mean you can't be hurt as well." She retorted.

He turned to face her finally. She saw silent tears streaming down his face. "When I heard to news this morning, I wished more than anything that it had been my parents, not them. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Of course not. It just means you loved them." She looked hard at him, seeing he wasn't convinced. "At home, my home before I came here." She began.

The expression on Sirius's face changed for the first time, he was interested, she had never really talked about her past before. Continuing softly she said, "There was this man, I first met him when I was about seven, from then I saw him every week up until I was nine, then it was twice a week, all day Saturday and Sunday. In the holidays it would be four or five times, sometimes seven.

"That was up until I went to Thargows. I still wrote to him twice a week or so, and saw him in the holidays, everyday. I think its fair to say I was closer to him that I was to most of my family." She looked up painfully, "In May he had a heart attack. Then when I went back in the summer, he was in an accident. He didn't want to go to hospital, he knew he wouldn't come out if he went in. He was right. I remember going home after I found out, I told my Mum and Dad, but no one else. All I know is I would be out driving, or sitting in my room and I would start crying, wishing it had been someone else, anyone else."

Sirius walked over to the crying girl, "This is the first time you have told anyone?" He asked, but the both knew his question didn't need an answer. Standing there in the owlery holding each other, both knowing the other understood something of the pain they each felt, neither spoke.

Finally Sirius broke the silence. "Mi." He asked pulling back slightly and looking down. "What do you believe happens when you die?"

"When I think of him, I like to think we will be together, all the people we loved when we die. In my fifth year, I got into a spot of trouble, me Harry, Ron and some others. We went to the Ministry, in the Department of Mysteries. There, there is this veil, someone I loved fell through it. No one knows where it leads, some think it goes to a state of limbo, some thinks it is just the door way to the afterlife, either way, I hope when I die I go where ever that veil leads, because he is another person I would like to see again."

"You have lost to many people you love Mi. I wont leave you." Sirius stated.

"You are in no position to make that promise Siri." Hermione replied evenly, knowing that he would leave her, not once but twice, and she would do everything she could to keep him near her.

After the death of James's parents me and Sirius became very close, two people united in grief they we didn't feel we could show. Sirius because he didn't want to make things any harder on James, and me because I was grieving for one of my best friends in this time, and a muggle who the others didn't even know existed, yet did at this time. How could you explain that to someone?

At first me and Sirius just talked of our losses, confiding in each other things we would tell no one else, never asking questions, just listening. Then our talk shifted, as we both began to come to terms with our pain, I began to talk more of my time, telling Sirius of Ron, Harry, Ginny and Luna. He was particularly interested in Fred and George, we could talk for hours about various pranks we had both pulled or seen pulled.

I can't put my finger on exactly when it happened, we didn't ever put a name on our relationship, times were to dark to put stress on the comfort we found in each other by trying to label it. But somewhere along the line me and Sirius became, what some would class as, an item.

A/N: This chapter is very personal to me, as I lost someone very close to me just under a year ago. This is my form of closure and dealing with that loss, and so took a lot to write, I am pleased however that I have done so. The man I wrote about was a very close friend of mine and because of this I ask that any reviews of this chapter do not ask of the relevance to this to the plot, I needed to do this, and I finally feel ready to post this chapter.

Charlatan

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