The Troubles of Being in Love With Sirius Black Chapter 18: The Great Escape, a harry potter fanfic

AN: There is no excuse and there are no words to express how sorry I am to you guys. I can't believe how long it has taken me to get this out. I deeply apologize. I will be going a way for a week but I'm going to work as hard as I can to get the next chapter out soon. Again my apologies. Love Always, padfootqueen.

PS.- IF YOU DID NOT READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AND YOU ARE A SERIOUS READER OF MY STORY, GO BACK AND READ IT!

Sirius Black was annoyed. He was many hours away from Hogwarts and all he felt like doing was curling up on the couch in front of the fire with his girlfriend and being surrounded by his friends. But instead he was sitting at his kitchen table at the ungodly hour of 7:30 in the morning with his family. He quickly finished his breakfast of two pieces of toast and left to go to his bedroom.

Sirius was not eating well at all. He even knew it. He wasn't doing it on purpose or anything. But couldn't seem to bring himself to eat. Every time he ate, he got this sickly feeling. He didn't know why.

Actually that wasn't entirely the truth. He had somewhat of an idea. His stomach problems could have something to do with the five hard punches his father had delivered to his stomach two nights ago, because ever since then he couldn't eat very much of anything. In all truth, that wasn't even the worst of the hitting that occurred over Christmas break.

He couldn't take this house anymore. He was getting delirious of walking up and down the same hallways all the time and staring at the same spot on the wall just next to his mother's head when she started yelling at him. But he had to get through this day and the next morning and then finally he would be back at Hogwarts. Praise Merlin!

The day passed as slow as if it was ten years instead of just a day. Finally it was dinner and all Sirius could do was pray he wouldn't get beaten so badly tonight.

That night Sirius ate barely anything. He knew he should eat but he couldn't do it. First, he was nervous. The only thing Sirius had ever been afraid of was his father. In truth, his father terrified him worst then any other human could. Screw Voldemort and his followers, yes, they were a freaky, but the only thing that could chill his blood was his father. Sirius had only had the guts to tell one person this and that was James. And that was because back in their first year they had sworn to each other that they would keep no secrets from each other. Second, he really wasn't hungry. He knew it wasn't normal, but what could he do? Was he sick? Did he have one of those eating disorders people have sometimes? He knew if he ate anything he wouldn't throw it up, he ruled the eating disorders out, but the question of his eating problems still reminded. He was getting thinner, he could feel it. He didn't want people to notice this. Especially not his friends. It would freak them out to the extreme level. He didn't feel like doing that to them. Besides, his friends had problems of there own. Remus had his werewolf problems which was enough for him. Quinn was practically taking care of Remus after the last full moon had left him extremely weak. James was, well, James. He had a new problem every day. Lily, Emma and Bethany were friends but he wasn't exactly close with them. As for Cory, she and James would probably be there first to notice. That was bad. He couldn't let Cory notice. She would freak. He knew it. And also, Cory had a whole lot of problems herself. She had those reoccurring dreams that Sirius had no idea what were about. He really had to find out more about his girlfriend. More them his parents at least. A shiver passed through Sirius' body. It still freaked Sirius out that his father could find stuff out so easily about Cory. Cory absolutely had problems that she needed help with and Sirius wanted to be the person to help her. He knew that he was being a hypocrite about this situation and he, for the first time in a long time, felt himself smile. He wanted to help Cory with her problems and Cory would want to help him with his but he knew he wouldn't let her. Merlin, I'm a head case. Sirius laughed in his head about how incredibly odd he was but then stopped when he noticed something. His mother. Shit. She had started yelling at him. Sirius had become very good at ignoring his mother and used his skill then to tune about whatever she was yelling about this time. He would start to think about all the good things in his life and completely ignore her.

"….how could you? Honestly…."

James. His best friend, someone who he trusted beyond anyone else.

"….you have to learn ….stop being so useless!"

Remus and Quinn. Two of his absolute closest friends. Sirius smiled on the inside as he thought of how great they were together.

"….such a mistake…..completely stupid….a disgrace…."

Cory. Her smile. Her laugh. Her odd handwriting. The way her lips were perfect. How her hands fit perfectly in his.

Finally she stopped. Sirius got up from the table looked around at his completely fucked up family and left. Why did things always have to be messed up? Why did everything have to be such hell all the time? Why did his parents hate him so much! Nothing ever made any sense!

Sirius was fuming. He was angry at his parents. At himself for letting himself be affected by them. Just angry in general. He had finally had enough. The peace that his friends had brought him left completely now and was just replaced by his extreme fury.

Sirius had to get out of this house. If he wanted to His brain started to formulate a plan that was looking faultless. He would go back to Hogwarts tonight. By way of floo he would go to the Room of Requirement. No one would be using it at the hour he planned to leave. Well hopefully no one. With the happy thought of leaving, Sirius started to pack. Roughly he threw robes, books, parchment, everything, into his trunk. Finally he was all packed and he headed down stairs. He went to living and as he grabbed the floo powder just as his parents came into the room.

"What are you doing!" His mother screeched anger contorting her face. Sirius didn't even stop he just looked up and shook his head. Did honestly not know he was trying to leave.

But obviously his father caught onto what he was doing and spoke. "Get away from there now Sirius." His father said in a low cold voice that sent a familiar chill through Sirius' blood.

"No." Sirius said gathering his courage. With renewed confidence he continued, "I'm leaving. I'm going back to Hogwarts early, don't ask how I am but I am and you don't need to know. So till summer holiday, goodbye." Sirius then in a louder voice said, "Room of Requirement, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

He threw the powder in and was gone.

Sirius landed on the floor of the Room of Requirement with a loud thump. Coughing up some soot, he started dust himself off. He stood up and looked around, Sirius was wondering what the room would give him. A true smile spread across his face. He was in the room that was given to him when he and Cory had come here for the first time. Sirius set his stuff down and moved towards the bed. He didn't realize just how tried he was till then. He considered going back to the common room seeing Cory, but what if someone who knew he went home for the holidays saw him? He could get into a whole lot of trouble. Which normally he didn't care about, but the thought that maybe he would be sent back to his parents made him make his final decision of just staying in the room of requirement for the night.

Sirius peeled back the sheets and slide under them into their welcoming warmth. Within seconds, Sirius Black was asleep feeling much more content then he had when he started the day.

Sweat poured out of her body. Her hands were shaking. She gripped the covers and held onto them like a leaf on a tree. Outside snow was falling heavily. The wind was whistling and was causing the trees in the Forbidden Forest to blow in every which direction. Cory couldn't catch her breath. Air left her in short little spurts and then re-entered raggedly. Thousands of things were rushing through her head. Her dream kept repeating in her head over and over again like a song on repeat. Certain parts of the dream were more dominant then others. They were the ones that caused her to shake uncontrollably on her bed. Flashes of them ran through her head and she shook even more.

The waves.

The faces.

The gates.

The dementors.

Sirius.

She shivered even more. Why was he there? It didn't seem right. Thinking back on it, Sirius looked older. Was this just a dream? Was it one of her insecurities coming through to her in dream form? Even though Cordelia had on all her covers, she still shivered profusely. A cold that she had only ever felt once was spreading through her rapidly. It went through her veins freezing them and causing an icy eruption in her chest. She felt as though she had been kept under freezing water for a long period of time and she was just released.

Cordelia was anxious. She had never had such a feeling of confusion and cold in her before. She had had the cold before, but not the confusion. More cold water dropped over her, the only time she had ever felt this cold was when her parents died and those men carried her away. Her knees came to her chest and she bent forward gripping her hair in frustration. She never could remember what those men looked like. Only robes and a warm comforting embrace as she was lifted from the floor into a man's safe arms. Then a soft voice whispering in her ear hushing her and telling her that it was okay. Somehow that it would be.

Flashes of her parents death and it's aftermath pulled through her mind. Faces of the people at the hospital where she was bought to have a check over before going to the foster care agency. The woman at the desk of the agency that had a smile on her face. Then her first foster family. All the others followed, each one worse then the previous.

She couldn't keep doing this. This breaking down and thinking about the past. In the last couple of months, she had been thinking more and more about the past. It wasn't going to do any good. Her parents were dead. Voldemort killed them. Her foster parents were awful to her and made her feel like shit everyday and she couldn't undo time to change them. Now the Vanes were dead. Voldemort killed another group of people that were associated with her. She couldn't do anything about it. The past was in the past and the sooner she could just relax and accept things, she could be better. But there was one nagging thought that never left her mind. Voldemort went after the Vanes that were close to me, what if he went after other people that were close to me? What if he went after Lily? Or Sirius? Or James? Bethany? Remus? Flo? Emma? Cory's eyes that had been stilly starting to droop down because of sleep snapped open. She could not lose her friends. Scratch that, she would not lose her friends. They were all she had. They were, in many ways, her family. Cory shivered at the thought of living with out them. Besides Lily, she had only met them all four months ago and was already close with them. The thought of losing them scarred her more them even facing Voldemort himself.

Cordelia needed to relax. She could not go getting all paranoid, that wasn't going to help her. She was strong and could do anything. She could do this.

Cory had until five o'clock in the afternoon to wait until. She had until five o'clock to wait for her best friend, boyfriend and closest friends to finally come back.. Lily was supposed to come back sooner but she couldn't because her parents took her and her sister to their house in Scotland for Christmas as a surprise. Also going with the Evans' on this little vacation was Lily's sisters boyfriend Vernon. As Lily described him in her last letter, he was an over grown pig with an equal obsession with what people thought as Petunia. Cory had never been too fond of Petunia personally. But then again neither had Lily. Whenever it was family visitors day at camp, Petunia would always act as if she was too good for them and the camp. Her nose would hang up in the air and would screech at the sight of any bug or animal. Merlin, Cory hated Petunia. And apparently, Lily hated Vernon. This was not boding well. Lily loved the Christmas holidays, and if Petunia's fat new boyfriend ruined them, she would be the extreme of upset. Cordelia could already imagine the screaming rants she would have to listen to when Lily came back to school. There would most likely be a whole lot of stomping, raving and pounding of fists into pillows.

Yet, Cory couldn't help but think about how lucky Lily really was. She had parents that adored her in every which way. It wasn't even her family that Cory was most envious of, but the one thing that almost everyone had and Cory had always desired for; a home. People always said, "Oh, I'll probably just go home." Or, "I was home last night and….". Cory never could say that because she never had a home. Sure, there were all her foster homes, but she never felt any of the proper characteristics of a home in those places. Never warmth, love, or safety. Always fear, hate and depression. When people went home for the holidays or whenever, they always came back with stories about people like crazy Aunt Phoebe and her cats who is still high of the incense she smoked in her hippy days or the comical Uncle Ned who always had a joke ready at any time. Cory wanted that. She wanted a huge family that would notice if she wasn't at a party or if she didn't eat enough. Though most of all, she just wanted a home. A place she could go and she would know she was safe. A place where she could always go. Somewhere where there was just someone who cared for her and cared whether she came home that night or not. Someone who would be there when she came back. A home.

It could be anything. An apartment with a dog. A mansion filled with people. A little cottage with a man she loved.

Would she ever find that place? A place where she could be her self. A place where it didn't matter if she wasn't in the best mood or if she was dressed in paint splattered sweats. A place of her own. If she ever got one she wouldn't know till the rest of her life played out, but till then she could at least think about one.

9:00 in the morning

Right side. Uncomfortable. Laying on stomach. Flips over. Covers fall. Flies forward and grabs them. Proceeds to throw them over head. Burrowing deep, finally Sirius Black realizes that he is awake and won't be getting back to sleep again.

Cordelia Ash exits the Great Hall after her breakfast. One Lucius Malfoy follows behind. Cordelia feels his presence then feels her breakfast starting to come back up.