Chapter 25: Breaks Over!

I sighed and he held the note for me to take now, his eyes showing his worry. "There's nothing to worry about Sirius. This note is from a long time ago. She's been gone for a while." "But won't people wonder how you went to see your dead mother?" "No one knows she's dead." I said simply and tucked the note back into my bag. "How is that possible?" I patted the bed beside me and he took a seat with me.

"Sirius, this was after graduating from Hogwarts. After we all got together and celebrated, I went home to tell my mother of what I had accomplished. I found her dead body in our home. She had killed herself, because she couldn't live without my father. She spent her whole life searching for a man that left us behind. I told her she was stupid and it was useless to care about a man that didn't care about us. I never truly had a mother or father because she wasn't a mother. I love her because she is and will always be my mother, but I have mourned her death long ago. This note means nothing."

"So why did you keep it all these years, Phoebe?" I shrugged, explaining, "Maybe I wanted to believe she could have been a good mother if things were different. Maybe it was the last thing she gave me. I'm not sure. Maybe I just miss her sometimes, wondering about what might have been. But it doesn't matter." I balled my fists and shook my head. "I don't want to talk about her anymore. I don't want to think about her, and him. I don't want to be reminded of him everyday. It's just the past and I want it gone!" I felt my emotions raging inside me and I punched my arm out, busting through the rotting wall.

I exhaled deeply, feeling the memories just fade into the background as I pulled my hand out of the wall and see it bleeding. A single drop of blood dripped off my finger and onto the ground. It splattered and I was brought back to when I was staring into the snow. "Phoebe, your hand!" Sirius quickly took it in his and ripped a shirt from my bag and wrapped it up as I continued to stare. He got down on his knees and looked up at me. "Hey, I'm sorry I asked so much. I just wanted to know about your life. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

I knew I was being ridiculous but it was getting more and more difficult to hide my past from him. It was tearing at me, I wanted him to know, but knew he wouldn't be able to forgive me for hiding such a secret. I chewed my lip until he made me stop and kissed me. "Phoebe, please, just relax, just be here with me." I nodded, knowing I would have to leave tonight. We spent the day talking about good memories of James and Lily, of school days and trouble we used to get in. Sirius didn't want to talk about his imprisonment and I didn't want to talk about my family anymore.

When night was beginning to fall, Sirius followed me back, carrying my bag for me. We were just under the willow, I was about to go topside when his hands pulled me back into the dark. "My sweet Phoebe, this past holiday break has been the best time of my life…truly. I wish it didn't have to end, I wish I could hold you in my arms for the rest of time." I smiled and brushed some dirt off of his cheek as he leaned into my touch. "Sirius, we will be together very soon. I will come to you when I have information." I gave him a simple kiss, but he grabbed me and pressed hard against me.

We were broke apart, we were both panting a bit and our cheeks were flushed. His eyes brightly shining in the dark as I gave him a grin. "Oh, what am I going to do about you?" I ran my hand through his hair, pulling out some twigs with it. "I will be watching you, Phoebe, if you need me." "I do believe I can handle a few teenagers, Sirius. I handled a few back in the day as well." his face went from happy to grim in a moment and he took a step away from me. "Phoebe, please do me a favor. Stay away from Harry and his friends." I blinked, unsure of why he would want me to stay away from them. He didn't give me a chance to question him as he handed me my bag and gave me a hug.

He waved and disappeared into the dark tunnel, leaving me alone. I sighed, I loved him and he infuriated me to no end. I peeked out and saw only darkness as I climbed out, dodging the limbs of the willow. I made it back to my room without running into anyone and when I undid the charms and entered, Rain was waiting for me right outside the window. She knew I unspelled the charms and entered, going toward her perch and looking at me.

I gave her a treat and stroked her for a while, wondering what Sirius could have meant by telling me to stay away from Harry and the others. He was hiding something from me, but I couldn't say much, because I was hiding something from him too. I sighed and took a nice hot shower, washing away all the dirt and dust from the shack. I climbed into bed, knowing tomorrow was going to be a interesting day, knowing what I know now. Everybody would still be searching for mass murderer, Sirius Black…and I would be doing all I could to keep them from finding him.

I woke up the following morning and dressed in old flowing dress that belonged to my mother, it was a deep violet color that complimented my eyes and fell to the floor. Made of silk, it hugged my curves and had a slight cut into my chest area, showing just a bit of my cleavage. The sleeves came down to my elbows, so I pulled a robe on also, feeling the cold already from outside the window, where I had just let Rain out. I pulled my hair up, pinning it with a lace satin bow barrette snood hairclip.

I took a brush and did a light gold streak on my eyelids and finished with a quick swipe of eyeliner before grabbing my wand and heading out my room. The halls were already filled with students, I made my way through them and to my classroom. My students filed in soon after, taking their seats and waiting for me to begin the lesson. I didn't have anything planned as I was so caught up with Sirius, so I just conjured some medium sized stones on each of the desks.

"Today, we will be moving from water to earth. The goal today is use Elemental magic to break the rock in front of you into 7 small pebbles. I will show you how now." I conjured a large boulder beside me, that way that everyone would be able to see. "There are no words, only the feeling and the pull of the magic deep inside that is able to use Elemental magic like this. There are no shortcuts, no cheats. This magic is dangerous and very difficult to learn. As I stated at the beginning of the year, many will not be able to do it. Today is the test of that, if you are unable to do anything to the rocks, then Elemental magic will be too difficult for you to learn, if not impossible."

There were several murmurs and looks throughout the class, but I silenced them and made them look back at me. "Nothing will come of it if you do not at least try it. Give it your all and you have nothing to regret. I have faith in you all. Now, pay attention and watch." I side-stepped to stand behind the boulder, barely able to be seen by the students. "First, think about the earth. The dirt as it glides through your fingers, the way it feels against your palm, smoothness or roughness. It is unmovable in some forms and in others, completely at our wills."

I ran my hand along the rock, feeling the different shapes, the dips and the bulges in it. I continued speaking, telling the class what I was feeling when I touched the boulder. "Closing your eyes, I want you to use you other senses to imagine the rock in your mind. Once you have image of it, then you just dig deep, down to your roots, feeling the earth deep inside of yourself. Pull that feeling up, it is a part of you and all you need is to begin it to the surface and you can do the unbelievable."

I paused in my lecture to do as I had stated, I felt deep and instead of my usual image of the earth deep down, Sirius's face came to me. He was in a canyon, his hands running along the side, pieces of earth crumbling under his touch. He continued toward me, his hands easily, but gently, eroding the earth as he smiled and came closer. When he reached me, his earth filled hands reached out and pressed against my body. I felt the earth gliding between his hands and my body. It was so amazing that I gasped and jumped back to the classroom.

The students were all staring at me, their eyes filled with amazement. I looked at the boulder that I was supposed to be turning into pebbles, but instead there was nothing left, only dirt. I had crushed the boulder into nothing, I looked and saw all the rocks that was on the desks were gone as well, just small piles of rock dust. I blinked a few times before laughing, making them all look at me in confusion. "I see I am still on vacation. I was unable to control the power I had pulled up because I got caught up in the process. This is what can happen if you don't have the control to use this type of magic."

I cleared my mind and throat before conjuring up more rocks on there desk. I demonstrated again, only this time I kept focused and did it perfectly, though it was hard to not imagine the same thing. I told them to try it now, explaining that they didn't need a deep pull of power for such rocks, but a few pulled too much and it was dust again. There was a few that just couldn't get the hang of it and I took them aside for additional testing. I tried one on one tests with other elements and a couple was able to do it with others. "This is just the type of magic that is easily pulled from you."

I called the class to attention and addressed them all, "Today there was several that were unable to use Earth Elemental Magic, however that doesn't mean that Elemental magic is unusable to you. Within the next month, I will be doing more one on one testing to see if there is a different Elemental magic that would be useful to you. I will then divide the classes into the different Elements, then rotate the elements so each class will have more time to work on elements more difficult for themselves. Class dismissed."

I sighed and sat down by the window, why did Sirius come into my mind and throw it off like that. Was I that distracted by him? Did he have a power over me that I couldn't control? I ran the questions through my mind as I stared off, enjoying my free period. Remus came by and told me about Harry's first lesson with a Boggart. "Phoebe, do you have any experience with a Patronus Charm?" I nodded and pulled out my wand, silently casting the spell and the light shown bright from the tip of my wand.

"You wouldn't mind coming to the next lesson and assisting me would you? I feel he may do better if you were there also." I shrugged, I didn't see how my presence would change anything, but he didn't want to take no for an answer. "Fine, I will. Was there any news of Sirius while I was away?" I asked, wanting to know if he was seen when he left me at the shack. "No one has spoke about him since the last news we had. It is as if he has disappeared, perhaps it is for the best. Maybe he has given up on going after Harry."

I nodded, not really saying anything so that I didn't let slip that I had seen him. "Nope, the shrieking shack was the only news over the break. There was more ghosts seen out the windows." I perked up and asked for more information on that. "People were seeing a ghostly woman in the windows, she apparently screams at anyone who gets too close. There saying she was a widow that lived there and was murdered by her lover, now she just warns people of dangers of love, I guess. That's what people in Hogsmead are saying." I nodded, hiding a smile.