Someone To Understand

Sirius awoke early the next morning to the dawn light shining into his eyes through the open hangings of the four-poster bed. Before suddenly snapping his eyes open and going rigid, he knew that he never left his hangings open, so what was going on?

Looking down to see a head of shiny ebony curls lying on his chest, the owner sleeping peacefully, draped across his chest, her legs entwined with his, the night before suddenly came flooding back to him, going up to Crystal's room, lying on the bed next to her, holding her tightly, in silent understanding, as tears slid down her porcelain cheeks, watching as she fell asleep, pulling the soft purple velvet comforter over both of them, to keep them warm, and finally falling asleep himself, with his head buried in her soft rose scented hair...

Sirius closed his eyes again, trying desperately not to move and wake Crystal, he knew what her reaction to this situation would be, he understood, people like them never showed weakness, it was an unwritten rule, that she had broken last night, and she would now simply get up, and pretend that this had never happened, embarrassed at her show of weakness.

Sirius himself never wanted this moment to end, sure he had had girls in his arms before, but not like this, he respected Crystal as a person, she was so strong and passionate, she, like him stood up for her friends, and though humiliating, Sirius had to admit, that that stunt in the Great Hall, had distinctly impressed him, and he could tell that no matter how hard things got with her family, she would not give up, and someday she would escape them, she gave him hope that maybe he could do the same, and that he was not alone in this struggle.

He looked down and tried to memorise every detail, how the sunlight glinting on her hair brought out the red steaks in it, and made it look like there were flames dancing in it as it cascaded in unruly curls over the pillow, how her soft red lips curved into a smile as she snuggled ever closer into his chest, how even when he, out of respect for her, tried to edge away, she unconsciously pulled him closer, placing her soft curvy body flush up against himself. He closed his eyes and could not help a small contented sigh from escaping his lips, he wouldn't mind waking up to this every day...

"WAIT", Sirius's mind screeched inwardly, as his body again went rigid from shock, "Did I Sirius Alexander Black just say that I wanted to wake up every day to the same girl!", he questioned inwardly, "Where the hell did that come from?", he wondered quietly, though he knew exactly where it had come from. Crystal was like no-one else in the world, she understood him and he respected her, more than that, he was infatuated with her, she was on his mind 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she was even there when he closed his eyes, and when he thought of not seeing her, his heart broke. But he couldn't LOVE her, that would be just too inconvenient, they were both already marked by their families, and surely no relationship was worth that much trouble, though even as he thought it the words did not ring true when used to describe a relationship with the exquisite Crystal.

XXX

Crystal awoke that morning, some time after Sirius, to a pair of strong muscled arms wrapped around her waist. Groggily she snuggled deeper into the warm welcoming arms before snapping awake when she realised that there should not be someone in her bed with her. "But wait", she thought tentatively, "Why am I still in my dress robes?". Realising what had happened Crystal flushed with embarrassment, she had started crying when Sirius wrapped his arms around her! And here she was snuggled into the arms of the great womaniser Sirius Black, his arms around her waist, her head resting on his hard muscled chest, enabling her to listen to his strong, soothing heartbeat,, their bodies flush up against each other, and their legs tangled together. Worse still, she did not actually mind this particular position, she just felt so right, so safe in his arms, she wouldn't mind waking up to this every morning...

She mentally slapped herself for the last comment, this was, after all, Sirius Black, he was not to be trusted, he broke girls' hearts for fun and cared nothing for the consequences, he was arrogant and self righteous, wrong for her in every way, including family, but yet she knew that he understood her, and despite her better judgement, and internal protestations to the contrary, she trusted him, maybe even loved him.

However she knew that she could not love him, she had been through this before, and no matter how much they had in common, it would be worth more than either of their lives were worth if their families ever found out...

Snapping herself out of her internal reverie, and regretfully, tearing her self away from Sirius, leaving the warmth of his strong arms, she climbed determinedly out of bed, surprising Sirius, and successfully shaking him out of his day dreaming state. Without turning to look at him, Crystal grabbed her wash bag and a change of clothes, and hurried in to the bathroom, she was horribly embarrassed about what had happened, and at that moment she didn't think that she could bear looking at Sirius with the knowledge of how vulnerable she must have seemed to him last night. Sinking to the floor in the corner of the huge marble en suite bathroom she sighed, putting her head in her hands, and thought disgustedly about how she had acted last night, like she had needed Sirius, the way girls she laughed at seemed to 'need' a guy. Getting up, she looked at herself in the mirror determinedly and realised that for both their sakes, she could not afford to do that again, and hoping to wash away her fears, she stepped into the shower and turned the water on as hard and hot as she could stand.

XXX

Despite his prediction of Crystal acting exactly the way she had done, Sirius was still slightly stunned by the way she had leapt out of bed, grabbed some clothes and then torn out of the room, like she was allergic to him, he groaned, irritated with himself, and raking a hand through his slightly mussed elegant black hair, he realised that he should have left earlier, before she awoke and freaked out, however, at the time, he just could not bring himself to leave her, not when she looked so enticing, and vulnerable.

Angry with himself, Sirius too reluctantly crawled out of the soft warm bed, he could now hear running water in the bathroom and knew that Crystal was in the shower, but he couldn't stay, it was now nearly 7:30, breakfast was at 8:00, and the whole house would be waking soon, he could not afford to wait and be caught in Crystal's room. Logically Sirius also realised that the reason Crystal had left in such a hurry, was because she was embarrassed, and therefore she would need some space, and would not appreciate him waiting for her in the room, not after last night...

So Sirius, for once in his life, did the logical thing, he left her a note, which read;

Dear Crystal,

I know that you're embarrassed about last night, but don't be, it isn't good to keep emotions like that bottled up, and I understand how you're feeling, like you said before, we have the same problem, so I get it. Anyway, please don't try and avoid me, you're the only person in this house that I can stand right now, I won't survive the whole holiday here without you! I don't regret anything about last night, and you shouldn't either, I'm here if you ever need to talk,

All my love,

Sirius

"Remus would be proud", Sirius thought happily, "I told her how I feel, that I'll be there for her, and I respected her feeling by leaving, Merlin I'm turning into a girl!" he exclaimed silently to himself.

Sirius then carefully turned the key in Crystal's door, and crept out into the dimly lit corridor, before attempting to try and find his way back to his room in the West Wing of the house, through the maze of long stone floored passages. It took him 20 minutes to find his way back to his room, and not a moment too soon either, as, as soon as his door was safely closed Sirius began to hear voices in the corridors, it was nearly 8:00, and people were clearly starting to head down stairs for breakfast.

Irritated that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, Sirius quickly showered and brushed his teeth, before changing into some elegant midnight blue dress robes, with silver etchings, muggle clothes, were obviously strictly out of bounds, in a house full of pure blood fanatics, taking one final look in the mirror, to fix his hair, he quickly left the room at 7:55, not intending to draw attention to himself, by being late for breakfast with his delightful family.

He arrived to find the table half full, and, seeing Crystal already seated at the far end, as far away from the other children their age as possible, decided there and then to join her, regardless of the consequences. She was wearing soft purple velvet dress robes in flowing material, and her hair was loose about her face, and still slightly damp from the shower, whilst the same silver and sapphire Maycomb family crest necklace, glinted around her throat and sapphire drop earrings, glittered at her ears, she locked lovely, regal, a true aristocrat, as, unknowingly, did he, they were each, after all, born and bred to play these parts.

As he approached, she looked up from her cereal, seemingly sensing his gaze, and gave him a swift weak smile, before turning to listen to an older woman, who looked remarkably like her, and appeared to be berating her for something. Sirius was indignant on her behalf, what right did that woman, even if she was her mother, have to tell Crystal what to do? Again, Crystal, seeming to sense his thoughts, looked up, and shot him a warning look, telling him, that there was nothing that he could do to help her, so, he should, just stay out of it. For once in his life Sirius actually listened to someone else, and, for the time being at least, he did nothing, shocked that Crystal could have that effect on him. He turned slowly, and as inconspicuously as possible, sensibly placed himself a few seats away from Crystal, where he was joined, much to his consternation, by his idiot brother Regulus...

XXX

Crystal, upon sensing Sirius' gaze as he entered the dining room, despite the events of last night, could not help shooting him a weak smile, she had appreciated the letter that he had left her this morning, normally such a thing would have irritated her, but coming from someone she knew understood, it didn't seem quite so bad, however she was still angry with herself for falling apart like that, and was not quite ready to talk to him again, yet, so she planned to spend the rest of the holiday avoiding him.

Snapping herself out of her internal musings Crystal turned back to her mother, who was lecturing her, about everything that she had done wrong last night, chancing another look at Sirius, she knew immediately what he was thinking, he was angry on her behalf, and, unless she did something, pretty quickly, he would end up getting involved in the conversation, and cause a scene, realising this all in a split second, Crystal carefully shot him a warning look, inwardly praying that he was still thinking clearly enough to catch her meaning and back off. She was angry with him for that, she had, after all, told him before that she did not need a knight in shining armour, she could take care of herself, and the last thing she needed right now, was for him to bulldoze in with his stupid Gryffindor courage, causing a scene and making her life more difficult than it already was.

To Crystal's immense shock, Sirius actually appeared to listen to her, and promptly sat down, at a sensible distance, a few seats away from her. Inwardly she was puzzled, though her face, carefully impassive, as always, did not betray this emotion, had Sirius Black actually just listened to someone other than himself? Trying hard not to shrug, Crystal quickly dismissed all thoughts of Sirius from her head, she could not afford not to listen to her mother, and if she was caught being inattentive again, she knew that the ramifications of such action, would not be at all pleasant.

However unbeknownst to Crystal, her whole silent conversation with Sirius, had been noticed by none other than her brute of an older brother Marius, he had been watching Crystal's conversation with their mother intently, making note of all the things that he would have to punish Crystal for, when, he had noticed, for the second time in two days, his sister's strange behaviour towards the 'white sheep of the Black family', he was not happy about the situation at all...

XXX

Sirius, at first, did not notice Regulus' approach, and was therefore shocked, when the brother he never talked to, except to insult, plopped himself down in the elegant chair next to him, he could not imagine what Regulus could possibly have to say to him, but he knew that it could not be anything good...

Wearily deciding that he might as well make the first move Sirius started the conversation, "What do you want Regulus? I would have thought you'd be sitting over there," Sirius said curiously, gesturing over to the other side of the table, where Marius, Violet and Abigail were sitting, conversing in ominous whispers.

"Well dear brother..." began Regulus silkily.

"Forget the 'dear brother' crap Regulus, what do you want?" Sirius interrupted angrily, feeling in no mood to play his usual obligatory mind games with his obnoxious younger brother.

"Well since you put it that way..." began Regulus evilly, "I just thought I should tell you, that we'll be watching you and her, so you had better not try anything" hinted Regulus maliciously, seemingly pleased to have finally got one over on his 'invincible' older brother.

"Regulus what the hell are you babbling about?", questioned Sirius, seemingly unfazed by the conversation, though his heart was beating fit to burst through his chest at any moment, what did Regulus know about him and Crystal, surely he had not seen that much last night? Did Marius know as well? "You are making even less sense than usual, a feat I didn't think possible before now..." began Sirius, shooting his bother a menacing stare, which clearly told him to leave.

"Now, now Sirius," started Regulus silkily, retaining his confident demeanour, despite Sirius' implied threat, he was of course used to such threats, "Don't hex the messenger," he stated, grinning insanely as he saw Sirius eyes flicker involuntarily towards the group on the opposite side of the table, just in time to see Marius give him a jaunty little wave and a truly evil smirk, "After all, there are no Marauders to back you up here..." he stated confidently, allowing the truth of his words to sink in before continuing, "So you would be wise not to upset us, unless you want to end up on our list, like someone else we all know.", finished Regulus coolly, allowing his eyes to settle on Crystal for a brief moment before turning back to look into his brother's, clearly angry, stormy grey eyes, with his own cold slate coloured eyes before slowly getting up from his chair, and moving away to join his friends.

Sirius was inwardly fuming, he knew that he had allowed Regulus to win that argument far too easily, but what could he do? As his brother had so helpfully pointed out to him, he had no friends to back him up here, and he could not even do magic outside of school, if they chose to attack him, he would be completely at their mercies and would not even be able to tell anyone, as the adults would be on the side of Marius and his goons.

Sirius suddenly realised what it must have always been like for Crystal, she could not possibly defend herself against three siblings, even with magic, and never had anyone that she could tell, anyone to protect her. Sirius himself had been lucky, although his parents could be brutal, their influence did not extend to Hogwarts, and he only had one younger sibling, so even if Regulus did attempt to attack him, which happened sometimes, Sirius usually had the upper hand in a fight, and always had back up, in the form of the Marauders, who he knew that he could trust to be there no matter what, even if he didn't always tell them everything. Gryffindors also always stuck together, so even if he hadn't had the Marauders support, he knew that he could rely on anyone else in his house to help, should he need, or want it, Crystal on the other hand, did not have anyone to stick up for her. Ravenclaws, although not cowards, like Slytherins, rarely did anything for anyone, unless they could see the direct benefit to themselves, and Sirius knew, from his observations of Crystal before the holidays, that aside from Sienna, who would not understand, or prove to be very effective in a duel, Crystal had hardly any other close friends, or people that she could rely on in an emergency. For once in his life, Sirius Black actually felt lucky, to have the life that he did...