A/N:  Here it is! Wow, all of a sudden I'm on chapter 16! Well … read and review!!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize, or of course the Beatles!!!

Chapter 16: The Morning After

"Shhh, it's ok," Sirius said, though he thought it sounded stupid. How was it ok, when her parents were dead? "You're ok."

"Sirius, I don't want them to be dead, I want them here," she sobbed.

"I know," he said, stroking her hair. He was doing his best to stay calm, but he was in shock, too.

"I don't want to be alone!" Lena said. Sirius held her even tighter.

"You're not alone, you've got me," he said. "I'm here." She began to shiver. He tried to lie her down, but she didn't seem to want to let go of him. He lay back, still holding her, and pulled the covers over her.

After about an hour, Lena cried herself to sleep. Sirius was still numb with shock. How could they both be dead? What was going to happen to her now? Eventually, he, too, fell asleep.

He woke at about six a.m., Lena was crying in her sleep. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her until she calmed down. He hated to see her like this; she was his best friend aswell as his girlfriend. And she was hurt now. She'd never be the same again. All he could think about was that he never wanted anyone to do this to her again. He felt powerless, as though he couldn't do anything to help her. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.

And then it hit him.

He loved her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, to protect her.

He was only seventeen, but he knew. He wasn't going to tell her yet; she had enough on her mind as it is, without him dropping this bombshell on her. All she needed to know right now was that he was there for her. She snuggled closer to him. He drifted back to sleep again. It hardly seemed like a second before …

"Wow, it's a miracle, Padfoot isn't awake before us for once," Sirius heard James say. "Let's wake him up and call him lazy." James opened Sirius' hangings and his jaw dropped. Remus' head appeared over his shoulder.

"Well, that explains why he needed a lie-in. did she keep you up long last night?" Remus asked suggestively.

"It's not like that—" Sirius started.

"Really?" James asked. "Can you think of any other reasons as to why your girlfriend is snuggled up to you in bed?"

"Yes," Sirius replied. "She came in at about 2 o'clock this morning, in hysterics. Her parents are dead." The smiles disappeared from his friend's faces.

"What?" James said, shocked.

"How?" Remus wanted to know.

"I don't know how. James, if I'm right, she got a letter`. She didn't bring it with her; will you go check her room? I want to know what happened," Sirius said. "Tell Lily and the others, too."

James headed up the girl's staircase. He didn't think until he reached their dorm that the girls might be awake. Or changing. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Lily's bare back. He blushed and reminded himself that he was here to help Lena. He averted his eyes. Lily whipped around, pulling a tee shirt over her head as she did. Her eyes bugged when she saw James.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed. "The girls will be awake any minute now, and I'm changing by the way. If you're going to do things like this, then there's no point –" she ranted in a whisper. "Where are you going?" she asked. James was heading to Lena's bed, in search of the letter. He didn't think he could find the words to tell anyone what had happened … he found the letter on the floor by the bed, and glanced at it. Wordlessly, he handed it to Lily.

"What's this?" she asked, puzzled.

"Read it," he told her, slumping onto Lena's unmade bed. Lily unfolded the letter.

Dear Ms White,

We regret to inform you that at 12:45 am, on the 11th October 1977, unidentified Death Eaters entered the premises of number 63, Egemund Drive, Wainscotting, Dorset, and performed the Avada Kedavra curse on one Helen White, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, and her husband, Matthew White, Muggle …

Lily gasped.

\"Where is she?" she asked quickly. "With Sirius," James told her. "Nothing happened, she came in crying earlier this morning. He asked me to come for the letter …"

"We'll come back with you," she said. "Ally, Kim," she shouted, "wake up. C'mon, we've got to go see Lena, something's happened.

"What?" Ally asked groggily.

"Her parents were murdered," Lily replied. The girls sat bolt upright at this, and, scrambling out of bed, hurriedly grabbed dressing gowns. Lily was just heading to the door when James cleared his throat.

"What?" Lily asked.

"You might want to – erm—get dressed," he suggested.  She glanced down at her clothes.

"Oh, yeah," she said, blushing.

"Well, I'll meet you in the common room," he said, leaving quickly. He flopped onto the squashy armchair beside the cold fireplace. He didn't know what to do, or how to act ...The portrait hole opened and James glanced up absently, and then almost fell out of the chair.

Albus Dumbledore had just entered the common room. James was flabbergasted. He had never heard of Dumbledore visiting the common room before …

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," the headmaster said.

"Good morning, sir," James replied, still wondering what on earth he was doing there …

*****

Lena stirred, and smelt something wonderful ... warm … she moved closer ... what was it? …

Sirius felt her moving closer, and saw her brow furrowing. He touched hr head.

"Lee, it's me, Sirius," he told her. She froze, trying to work out where she was. If the thing she was wrapped around was Sirius … then she must be in his bed … and that meant …

"Is it true?" she asked him, in a groggy whisper. He longed to kiss her and tell her that it wasn't, that it had all been a dream, but …

""Yes," he said. She sat up quickly.

"I'd better go," she said.

"Are you sure?" he asked, she nodded, but didn't move. "I'll come," he offered, swinging his legs from under the covers. He took her hand ands they headed out the door. She was glad that he was there, her instincts were telling her not to let go of his hand, ever. She stepped into the common room, and her jaw dropped.

Dumbledore was standing in the centre of the room, and Lily, Ally, Kim and James were sitting around, looking confused and shocked. Sirius dropped her hand. Dumbledore cleared his throat and six pairs of eyes shot in his direction.

"Ms, white, could you come to see me after you've finished breakfast?" he asked. Lena nodded. "The password to my office is 'Barley Sugar." He nodded to the group, and left the room. Lena felt tears prickling hr eyes. She ran up the girl's stairs, followed closely behind by Sirius.

"Lena – wait," he called, running through the door. Lena was standing near the edge of her bed, her face in her hands.

In the corner, Adele and Sophie lay awake, delighted at the prospect of witnessing Lena and Sirius' first argument. They exchanged excited looks between their partly open hangings …

"It'll be ok," Sirius was saying.

"How?" Lena replied, it sounded like she was crying. "First … last night, now Dumbledore's caught me coming down from your room in my pyjamas, holding your hand …" there was a silence, during which Adele and Sophie presumed that he was hugging her … this was much, much juicier than a fight …

"Why don't you get dressed, we'll go have breakfast, and I'll come with you when you go to see him," Sirius suggested.

"Ok," Lena said. "Thanks," she called to him, as his footsteps drew closer to the door. "For last night."

"I wasn't great," he replied awkwardly.

"You were brilliant," she assured him.

"Well … see you in a bit, eh?" he said, and Lena must have nodded, because thy heard two doors closing, presumably the bathroom and dormitory doors.

Adele and Sophie sat up, fully clothed, from where they'd jumped into bed when they heard Sirius and Lena running up the stairs. They hurried out to tell someone what they'd just heard …

*****

Sirius gathered everyone in the boy's dorm, and grabbed the letter from James. He read it quickly, and gulped.

"But … why?" he asked no-one in particular.

"How is she?" Lily wanted to know.

"I don't think she knows what to do," he told her.

"What do we do?" Kim wondered. Lily shrugged.

"Just be there, I suppose," she said. Sirius nodded.

"Starting now," he said. "She'll be down soon." So they all filed down the stairs again, into the common room, where other students were beginning to appear.

"Morning, Sirius," Derek Hart (Sirius' fellow beater) greeted him, grinning broadly.

"Morning," Sirius replied distractedly, staring at the foot of the girl's staircase. "Has Lena been down yet\?" he asked. Derek's grin widened.

"No," he replied. "Can't wait to see her again, eh?"

"What?" Sirius asked absently.

"After last night," Derek went on. This immediately grabbed Sirius' attention.

"What?" he asked urgently.

"Well, you slept with he, didn't you?" Derek said, grinning still.

"WHA – where did you hear that?" he asked quickly.

"It's going around," Derek said. "Why, didn't you?"

"No!" Sirius said. "Who told you?"

"Wait," Lily put in. "Did you talk to Lena in our dorm, earlier?" she asked. He nodded. "Sophie and Adele," she went on. Sirius clapped his hand to his forehead.

"Shit!" he said angrily. "We talked about – well, we didn't mention details, but I can see how they got the wrong end of the stick – the whole school'll know by now."

"We can't let her go to0 the hall," James said. "This is just w2hat she doesn't need right now."

"I'll run and get some toast," Kim volunteered.

"Yeah, then Lily and I will take her to an empty classroom," Sirius said. "You lot tell as many people as you can that it isn't true," he went on to the others. "And the first to come across Adele and Sophie gets to do whatever they can to shut them up." everyone except for him and Lily took off. When Lena appeared, they bundled her into an empty classroom. She didn't protest, she seemed to be in a daze.

"We're going to eat breakfast here," Lily explained. "I'll go let Kim know where we are … I won't be long." Lena nodded, leaning her head on Sirius' shoulder.

Lily was heading towards the Great hall in search of Kim, when she heard someone calling her name. Spinning around, she saw that James had cornered Adele and Sophie.

"Lily," Sophie called. Lily took out her wand and walked over to them.

"Lily, please, let me do something to them," James pleaded, worried that Lily would make him leave them alone.

"No, Lily, please, we didn't do anything," Adele whimpered.

"What do you reckon?" Lily asked James. "Silencing Charms?" James grinned.

"Excellent idea," he said. "On three?" She nodded. "One, two, three—"

"Silencio."

"Maybe you'll think twice before spreading evil, nasty, vicious rumors again," James said. Adele mouthed soundlessly.

"Have you any idea what you've done to Lena?" Lily continued. "Her parents died last night, and now the entire school is talking about her." The girls looked stunned.

"You should've gotten you're facts straight before you went blabbing," James went on.

"And even if it was true, you had no right to eavesdrop, let alone tell everyone what you heard," Lily added. "Let's go, James," she went on, and they walked away.

"Lily!" Kim called from down the corridor, holding a plate of toast and a teapot. Lily smiled at James and ran to take the food.

Back in the classroom, Sirius was cradling Lena as she stared into space.

"I brought toast," Lily said.

"Thanks," Lena replied, but didn't move. She was actually glad they brought her here … she didn't think she'd have been able to handle the hall …Numbly, she sat up and took a slice of toast. Lily conjured some cups and poured her some tea. Lena held it, and took a small bite from her toast, though she didn't feel like eating.

"I'd better go to Dumbledore's," she said after a few more minutes of staring into space.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat more?" Lily asked. Lena shook her head.

"I'd better get this out of the way," she said, and tears filled her eyes. "What if he expels me?" she asked. "Where will I go? I don't have a home …"

"Don't say that," Sirius said. "You do."

"You can stay at ours," Lily said, shooting Sirius a quizzical look. "But you won't be expelled, Dumbledore wouldn't do that. And if it was about this morning, he'd have called Sirius in, too, wouldn't he?" Lena thought about it. "C'mon, let's go." They each took one of her hands and walked to the gargoyle outside Dumbledore's office.

"We'll be right here," Lily, promised, before Lena said the password and stepped onto the revolving staircase.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Not the longest chapter, but it was either stop it here or have it reach about 15 pages long … more soon, I promise!!

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