Someone To Understand

Disclaimer: In case you didn't know, I own nothing but the plot and OCs.

Irritated by his friends' violent reactions Sirius patiently waited for them to regain a hold on themselves before asking, "What the bloody hell was that all about?". To his shock this only seemed to make them laugh harder until finally, after several minutes of hysterical laughter, on the parts of James Peter and Remus, James finally answered him. "I can't believe that you are arrogant enough to think that every girl in the school is looking to nail you!", James laughed excitedly, "Even I'm not that arrogant!", he finished sniggering.

"Well you're also not that good looking, unlike me...", exclaimed Sirius, indignant at his best friend's reaction and spoiling for a fight.

Remus, seemingly sensing an argument quickly stepped in, "Calm down Padfoot", he urged, "James was only kidding, you know that..."

"Yeah,", interrupted Peter, "you guys shouldn't be fighting about some dumb girl!" he told exclaimed sensibly.

"He's right," interrupted James, "Sorry", he mumbled quietly to Sirius.

"Yeah I know," muttered Sirius, seemingly satisfied that his friend was no longer laughing at him, sometimes James just didn't understand, he paused for a second and then continued cautiously, so as not to arouse suspicion, "I just wish I knew who she was..."

"What, so you can work on her?", questioned James laughing, completely missing Sirius' cautious manner.

"No," answered Sirius truthfully, "I was just curious..." he trailed off, as though it were a comment of no importance.

XXX

Remus meanwhile had raised an eyebrow at Sirius, caught by his friend's curious manner, he was not fooled by Sirius' act. "Well where is she?", he questioned thoughtfully, hoping to catch a glimpse of this mystery girl, who had Sirius so worked up.

"Over there," answered Sirius nonchalantly pointing vaguely at the Ravenclaw table, "Next to Sienna with a book."

Remus obediently looked over to the spot Sirius had mentioned and was shocked to find himself staring at Crystal Maycomb, a Ravenclaw 5th year, and Sienna's best friend. Head buried into a book she was clearly oblivious to the attention she was receiving.

Remus was positively stunned, sure Crystal was quite possibly the most gorgeous girl in school but she was quiet and bookish, not exactly Sirius's type, she never spoke to anyone unless she absolutely had to.

Sirius, noticing his shocked gaze quietly asked Remus if he knew who she was, ignoring James and Peter's intense conversation about Sirius falling for a 'bookworm'.

Not wanting to disappoint his friend, Remus quickly answered that yes, he knew her, and that she was in fact Sienna's best friend, whom he met often in the library. He paused before daring to say her name, realising that as a pure blood, and almost a Slytherin Sirius was likely to cut all ties with Crystal, that or make her life hell, as he did to Snape, simply to spite his family, so taking a deep breath to steady his nerves he answered Sirius' question, "Her name," he said dramatically, "is Crystal Maycomb."

XXX

That night Sienna dragged Crystal out of dinner after barely five minutes to 'help' her change for her date with Sirius. Normally Crystal would not have tolerated such treatment from Sienna but, seeing Sienna's nervous face had been all it took to convince her to go along with her, if only to help her try to calm down.

Herself, Crystal could not see why Sienna would possibly be so nervous about a silly date, and having never dated herself she could offer little practical advice to her so, she simply satisfied herself by helping Sienna to pick out, the perfect outfit.

It took them almost two hours but finally Sienna was ready for her date, her hair was fixed, her makeup was done and she looked stunning. From Crystal's point of view it was too much trouble to go to for simply seeing Sirius bloody Black, but as long a Sienna was happy she would keep her mouth shut, she only prayed that Sirius would not break her sweet friend's heart, Sienna could, after all, be terribly naive at times.

Sighing with concern Crystal watched Sienna leave the Ravenclaw Common Room at ten minutes to seven, her date with Sirius was at seven, and Sienna was determined not to arrive late. Crystal had decided earlier in the day that if Sienna was going to be out all evening then Crystal herself should take advantage of her absence and go to the library to get some work done, so, barely five minutes after Sienna left, Crystal herself, left the Common Room...

XXX

Still surprised at the way that Remus had reacted to the girl, Crystal, Sirius strode out Gryffindor Tower at seven to meet Sienna in the Entrance Hall. He couldn't understand why his friend had reacted like that to her name, he didn't know what to think, the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember from where. Shrugging off his suspicions Sirius arrived to see Sienna already waiting for him by the door, clad in some tight fitting, low slung bell bottom jeans and a figure hugging green tee shirt with her shoulder length auburn hair loose around her shoulders, she looked lovely.

He smiled cockily at her, and offering his arm seductively he took her off down the corridor. Tonight was going to be a great night!

XXX

Arriving in the Library at seven at night, Crystal had hoped to find it empty, however unfortunately fate was not on her side, and after barely five minutes of silent working, her thoughts were interrupted by a voice that made her blood run cold...

"All alone little sister?" hissed her older brother Marius nastily.

"So it would appear." agreed Crystal coldly not daring to look up from her work quite yet, she had been fearing a confrontation with Marius since the Marauders start of term prank this morning, but she still silently prayed that he would get bored and leave. It was not to be...

"What's the matter Crystal?" questioned a far too sympathetic masculine voice, very similar to one she had heard earlier... "Has your blood traitor friend gone and ditched you for my treacherous brother?" Regulus Black finished, sneering nastily. He was a Slytherin in her year and brother to Sirius Black, but he was also another pure blood fanatic, and good friends with her older brother Marius and her sisters Violet and Abigail. This was definitely not good.

Crystal remained silent, she didn't rust herself to answer his comment without angering the group surrounding her further,( she knew it was a group without even looking, because where Regulus and Marius were, Abigail, Violet, Severus Snape and Lucilla Parkinson were sure to be.), she was a good dueller and one person she could handle, but when the odds were six to one, it was better to keep her head down. Besides, even if she did win she would be sure to pay for it later, so she kept her gaze instead, unblinkingly on her homework.

"What's the matter Crys, cat got your tongue?", spat Abgail testily, she was clearly still angry from the prank this morning and out for revenge against Crystal. However it was her presence that hurt Crystal the most, the twins, Marius and Violet had always hated her but her younger sister Abbie had always been much sweeter than them, at one time she and Crystal had even been quite close, but now they would never be anything but enemies, and it hurt her more than she would ever let anyone know that this was the case.

Realising that they weren't going to leave without doing something, Crystal decided to bite the bullet, and looked up bravely. She saw exactly what she had expected to see, Severus Snape, Regulus Black and Marius were grouped together sneering at her and looking threatening, whilst the girls Violet, Abigail and Lucilla Parkinson were conversing in hushed whispers, "Probably about what they're were going to do to me." Crystal thought darkly.

As though a signal had been sounded Marius approached her again whilst Violet hurriedly scampered off, probably to check that the librarian, Madam Pince, didn't see what was happening.

Marius began, as usual, by saying how Crystal had once again brought shame on her family, and that if she would only act more appropriately and join them then all would be forgiven, before suddenly launching multiple dark spells and curses at her whilst the other laughed and egged him on.

Although Crystal had been expecting the attack, it did not prepare her for the pain, and she soon found herself down on her knees crying out in agony, if she were being objective, she could have said that this pain was nothing compared to the Crutacius curse that her parents were so fond of using on her, but it was hard to be objective when you were in that much pain. The remaining people then took turns to curse her whilst, presumably, Violet kept watch for Madam Pince, and kept up a silencing charm around the area.

After perhaps half an hour of curses being thrown Marius was apparently satisfied and left saying quietly to the blood soaked Crystal, "Next time you'll think twice about embarrassing Slytheins."

Despite her condition, lying in a blood soaked pile on the floor Crystal could not control her anger and asked him bitingly what exactly she had done as EVERYONE knew that it was the Marauders who had staged the prank and not her, after all, what possible reason could she have had for pissing him off when she knew this would be the consequence of doing so. In anger at her outburst Marius lashed out at her again before promptly turning and swishing out of the library with his smirking friends.

Angry at her own stupidity, for actually questioning a psycho like Marius, Crystal gingerly picked herself up off the ground and began to inspect the damage that Marius and the others had done to her. It was not good, that last hex had undoubtedly broken a rib and on top of that she was covered in multiple gashes, burns and bruises, it would take hours for a novice like her to fix this mess...

She had determined the first time that this had ever happened that she would never go to Madam Pomfrey with her injuries, the well meaning school nurse would ask far too many questions that she couldn't answer and if she ever did find out who was doing this to her, her siblings would be punished for their actions, and, if this happened, when she got home her parents would beat her so badly that they would make one of Marius' little 'sessions' look like a tea party in comparison. No, she could definitely not take the risk of anyone finding out, and that included keeping this from Sienna.

Crystal knew that Sienna, who was close to her own family, would not understand why Crystal was treated the way she by hers was and why she felt the need to keep silent about it. Sienna not being from an aristocratic pure blood family would not even be able to fully comprehend the world of dinner parties and shady familial alliances that Crystal came from and what it meant to these people for Crystal not to be a Slytherin. No one could possibly understand if they hadn't experienced it, and Crystal was not going to explain it to them, she wanted no-one's pity, she just wanted a way out.

Crystal realised, at an early age, that if she told anyone about her family, they would not believe her, her family was far too influential to allow such un savoury information about them to get very far, and she couldn't leave on her own, she had no where to go and no money, and she was not by nature a trusting person so she would not rely on anyone else for things. Her only hope, her way out, was to wait until she came of age at 17 and inherited a small amount of money left to her from her grandmother, with it she could start a new life, but for now she would have to wait.

Crystal sighed angrily snapping herself out of her reverie and getting back to the job at hand, healing her wounds. She was still angry with the Marauders for causing this, but there was, as usual, nothing she could do, so she would just have to get on with fixing herself up, and get over it. Fortunately Crystal did have some skill at healing, her grandmother Desralda had been descended from a long line of Celtic healers and had secretly taught Crystal the skill as well as the language of her ancestors, without the knowledge of Crystal's disapproving parents, so Crystal was quite adept at fixing small cuts and bruises, though the broken rib might prove to be a bit more of a challenge.

It took Crystal close to four hours to fix herself up enough to leave the library, though she was still in pain, she was now out well past curfew, as it was nearly midnight. The library had been closed for hours and she had to carefully sneak back to Ravenclaw tower being sure to avoid the evil school caretaker Pringle, surprisingly though, when she reached the dormitory she had found that Sienna was still not back from her date with Sirius...

Just want to say thank you, to hannahbanana616 and An Anti-Sheep Cheese Muffin (I'm so honoured that you put my story on your favourites list!), for being my first reviewers, it means a lot! XXXXXX