Someone To Understand

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and any OCs.

Sirius could not believe that he was kissing Crystal! When he had seen that tear slide down her, already bruised cheek, he could not stop himself from wiping it away, and trying to kiss away any more tears, and then he had been so close to her, and she wasn't pulling away, that he just had to kiss her, show her how much he cared for her, and when she had started to kiss him back with the same searing passion, he could not quite believe what was happening.

To Sirius, kissing Crystal was like touching heaven, it was hot, intense, and passionate, everything he had always known that kiss should be, though it had never been before. It was everything that he had ever thought it would be, and it set his heart beating a thousand miles an hour, it lasted only a second longer, but it left Sirius feeling more alive than he had ever felt in his life, it had been perfect, yet part of him knew that he should not have done it.

"Sorry about that," said Sirius honestly, looking into Crystal's intense blue eyes, still stroking her cheek, "I shouldn't have kissed you, not that I regret it exactly..." he fumbled searching for the right words, "I just know that I shouldn't have done it..." he finished lamely, reluctantly lowering his hand from her cheek.

"No, its alright" said Crystal sincerely, taking a step back from him, holding herself awkwardly, "It wasn't just your fault, I kissed you back, and I shouldn't have done, but you know that, for both our sakes, this can't ever be anything...", she trailed off, determinedly not looking Sirius in the eye.

"Yeah, I know." Sirius answered, looking at the floor, and trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice, he knew that she was right, if their families' found out about this, it would certainly not be pretty, but still, he wanted more kisses like that one, he wanted to talk to her, without fear of being watched, he just wanted her, no matter how much it cost...

Snapping himself out of his depressing day dreams Sirius looked up to see Crystal still standing awkwardly, her arms wrapped around herself to keep herself warm, looking at him with concern apparent on her face, her cheek was swelling badly, and suddenly Sirius remembered what their earlier argument had been about.

"Can't you heal that?" Sirius asked delicately, pointing at the dark purple bruise blooming across Crystal's cheek.

To his surprise, she sighed exasperatedly, and ran her fingers over the huge bruise, wincing at the pain it caused, "That's actually why I came to the library in the first place," she explained irritably, "I was hoping to find a potion or something to heal it, since I can't do magic outside of school."

Feeling guilty for interrupting her from her search, Sirius sighed and asked quietly, "Can I help?". To his immense surprise, at this request Crystal began to laugh, "What's so funny?" asked an extremely puzzled Sirius, waiting for Crystal to get a hold of herself, and tell him. "Well nothing really," answered Crystal seriously, attempting, and failing, to stifle more laughter, "But I should have considered earlier the fact that I'm not going to find anything here." She finished waving her hand at the numerous rows of books in the grand old library, before catching Sirius' blank expression, and explaining, "The Malfoys are more interested in causing injuries than healing them, half of these books are full of dark arts potions and curses, highly illegal most of it!" she laughed again, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement, despite the pain she must have been in.

Sirius was shocked, this girl had one dark sense of humour! But catching on to the humour in the situation himself, he too started laughing, glad to have something to break the tension, which seemed to have sprung up between them since the kiss.

However, for Sirius at least, laughter appeared to have been a bad idea, as it caused his muscles, already aching from where his father had used the Crutacius on him, to spasm in pain, and he could not prevent a grimace of pain from escaping his lips...

XXX

"Looks like I'm not the only one in pain here" thought Crystal sardonically, as she saw Sirius try to prevent himself from crying out in agony, caused by the effect his laughter had had on his already tender muscles. She recognised the after effects, muscle spasms, of the Crutacius immediately, having felt it often enough herself, and even occasionally seen it used on her siblings, since she was a child, and immediately rushed to his side to try and help him into a chair, trying, and failing, not to damage his male ego too badly at being helped by a girl.

Crystal felt bad for Sirius, what ever argument he had had with his parents, was likely to have been caused by her, and she couldn't help but feel responsible, he seemed to be in so much pain.

Crystal knew that the only thing that she could do for Sirius was to get the vial of muscle calming potion from her trunk, which she had made at Hogwarts, in preparation for the inevitable punishments from her parents in the holidays, however, she could not afford to be seen by a member of the family injured, it would show her as weak, so she couldn't go to her room, so what was she going to do?

The solution came to her instantly, house elves! She remembered Gilly the house elf who had showed her her room, had said to call if she needed anything, she was, after all, a member of the family, and, even if she had no power within the family, she could tell a house elf what to do!

Pleased with her own brilliance, but angry at not thinking of it earlier, Crystal called out Gilly's name, and tried not to jump as the small bug eyed creature, wearing a tea cosy suddenly materialised in front of her with a 'POP', before bowing and asking 'what she could do for little Mistress'.

Crystal hurriedly explained to the creature, that she needed her to bring a vial of pink liquid from the trunk in her room, and also, if she could, remembering her own injury, find a balm or potion in the house that could heal bruises. With a sudden squeak of, "Tis Gilly's pleasure little Mistress" the house elf disappeared with another 'POP', to begin its task.

Remembering her charge, Crystal turned to see a still grimacing Sirius, staring, with amusement, at the spot where the house elf had disappeared before saying quietly, "I hate house elves!" and leaning back into the chair tiredly.

"What do you mean you hate house elves?", asked Crystal incredulously, "I mean, sure they can be a little overly perky sometimes but they're sweet!" declared Crystal, scandalised at the thought that Sirius disliked such innocent creatures, that put up so graciously with being enslaved, and often tortured by, wizards, "Besides that one is going to help us!" she finished logically.

"I suppose you're right." Began Sirius testily, "But I defy even you to find Kreacher cute."

"Keacher?" questioned Crystal curiously.

"Yeah, Kreacher," said Sirius, looking extremely irritated and raking a hand through his hair, which Crystal noticed he always seemed to do when he was anxious, "He's my family's house elf, and one creepy little rodent, I'm telling you..."

"Oh, OK." Said Crystal, it made sense to her that Sirius would not be overly fond of anything that reminded him of a home he hated, it didn't make him right, but it did make him human, and she could see where he was coming from it.

Before the uncomfortable silence stretched on any longer, Gilly the house elf returned with a 'POP' bringing with her a vial of pink calming potion, and a pot of green bruise healing balm, which she presented to Crystal before vanishing again with a 'POP'.

"I told you she'd help us!" exclaimed Crystal triumphantly showing Sirius the two objects.

"Great," exclaimed Sirius sarcastically, "but what exactly did she bring us?"

"OH!" exclaimed Crystal, laughing nervously, "I forget to tell you! This," she said pointing at the pink vial of potion, "is a muscle calming potion, its for you, and should stop the muscle spasms caused by the Crutacius Curse," upon seeing his surprised expression she explained further, "yes I know what's wrong with you," muttering quietly under her breath, "been there done that." Before continuing with her explanation of the other object, "And this I hope, is a bruise healing balm." She said, handing him the vial and indicating for him to drink it, before, opening the foul smelling balm pot and applying the balm liberally to her horribly bruised cheek and, her, still swollen, ankle.

The effect of the balm was instantaneous, and, on the bruise on Crystal's cheek, there was a brief tingling sensation before it began to feel as though her cheek was deflating, and before she knew it the bruise was completely gone, leaving only flawless pale skin, the same, fortunately, occurred simultaneously with her ankle.

Smiling Crystal then looked towards Sirius, who still had not touched the potion, and was looking at it suspiciously, as though it might poison him, if he drank it.

Trying not to laugh at his suspicious expression, Crystal explained that she had brewed the potion herself at school, so there was really no chance that it was going to poison him, unless of course he didn't trust her. At this statement Sirius grinned at her sheepishly, before pulling the stopper out of the vial, and downing its contents, in one fluid movement.

Crystal was pleased to note, that after only a few seconds, Sirius' pain seemed to materially lessen, until within five minutes he seemed completely healthy again. Thanking her shyly, Sirius then squeezed her hand swiftly, and started to leave the room, reading Crystal's mood, and realising that she, most likely, wanted her sanctuary back so that she could think.

XXX

As soon as he had left the library the wheels in Sirius' head began to turn at a furious pace, as he wandered aimlessly through the house, eventually finding himself in the grounds, wearing only thin dress robes, in the frosty December morning, not that he noticed the cold. He spent all day in the grounds, allowing his thoughts to sweep him away, not even noticing when he missed lunch.

He had a lot to think about. He had actually kissed Crystal, something he had wanted to do since the first day he had ever seen her, though he knew that he shouldn't have done it, their lives were definitely complicated enough without having a dangerous relationship, which would need to be kept secret from even their closest friends.

He was happy that Crystal had been so concerned when he had been in pain, and that she had been caring enough to help him, even getting him a potion to ease the symptoms, though he could not help but feel ashamed that he had shown weakness in front of her, apparently old habits died hard, and he did not like the idea of appearing weak to her.

He had also discovered that Crystal's parents, like his own, often used the Crutacius on her as a form of discipline, something which he had suspected before, but not been able to confirm until she had recognised his symptoms. He was so angry with them and Marius, how could they treat Crystal that way? But what made it even more frustrating was the fact that he could do nothing about it, knowing that if he did all he would do, is make matters worse.

Sirius was so frustrated with his life, with the rules he was forced to abide by, no matter how distasteful he found them. He hated being a Black, and as always his jealousy of James' seemingly perfect home life was there. He didn't understand why he was condemned to such a miserable existence, like Crystal, whilst people like James seemed to be always happy, always getting what they wanted, not that he wanted to deny James this, he just wished that his own life were different, so that for once, he could actually do things the way that he wanted to, and have the life of love and security that he so longed for, instead of the life of cold ritual and formality that he had. He laughed when he realised that there were some people at Hogwarts, who wanted to be like him, popular, and have his life, he laughed at the thought, if they actually wanted to be like him then they were fools! He was utterly trapped!

To his anger, just after lunch, Sirius found his thoughts interrupted by Marius, the last person he particularly wanted to see, and a guy who he would have loved to kill, for what he had done to Crystal.

For once Marius was alone, an easy target, but Sirius surprised himself by keeping his cool, as Marius began, once again, to warn him off his little sister, Sirius just tuned him out, knowing that if he listened, he was likely to do something drastic, and fearing, if he did, the repercussions of his actions, so he simply made a few obligatory nasty remarks, and left the older boy as fast as possible, before he lost control and punched him.

XXX

Crystal was surprised when Sirius had seemed to read her so well and had left her to her thoughts in the library, though she was grateful to have some time to gather her thoughts.

She knew logically that she shouldn't have responded to his kiss earlier, but it was difficult for her not to, it just felt so right, it was like fire works, how she had heard a kiss should be, but had never felt before.

Crystal knew that she should not trust Sirius, but earlier he had been so upset when he had seen her in pain, he had wanted to protect her, and as patronising as that had been, she was flattered by his concern for her welfare, though logically she knew that had he done anything it would have only made her life more difficult. She was also upset to find that where his parents were concerned, they were about as caring towards him as her's were towards her, and, though she had guessed this already, surprisingly, the thought made her angry, after all, she reasoned, no one deserved to be treated like that, so all she was feeling was friendly concern, wasn't she?

Crystal however, unlike Sirius did put in appearance at lunch, fearing the consequences if she didn't, and quickly noticing Sirius absence, she couldn't help but wonder where he was, and if he had had another run in with his parents or Marius.

XXX

For the rest of the holiday Crystal and Sirius danced around each other, often talking to each other in the library, catching each other's eyes at dinner, and talking when they thought that non-one was watching them, it was difficult, and in the two week Christmas holiday both suffered a great deal, both physically, and mentally at the hands of their families, but, unlike before when neither had anyone to talk to, or understand, they now each had someone to turn to, to hold them, to listen to them as they poured their heart's out, and to heal their wounds when necessary.

Christmas and New Year had come and gone, in a swirl of parties and meaningless formalities, Crystal and Sirius had secretly exchanged gifts, during a midnight session in the library, and now, thanks to Crystal's gift, they could communicate with each other secretly, using quills which were keyed to write in ink only visible to a person that the author programmed them to, whilst allowing anyone else to see only a boring letter of no importance, whilst Sirius gave Crystal a bracelet, which he explained, was keyed to the Black family crest medallion, which his parents forced him to wear, and which would automatically alert him should her life ever be in danger. Crystal was pleased with his gift, though she couldn't help but think that he was more likely to get himself into a life-threatening situation, than she was, and even if she ever found herself in one, perhaps he would not be the best person to have around, however, she did appreciate the gesture, even if she didn't entirely agree with his assessment of the situation, as, she could, after all, take care of herself.

To Crystal's relief Sirius no longer exploded with anger every time he saw her hurt, he was still angry, but he dealt with it by helping and comforting her, instead of trying to seek foolhardy revenge on Marius or her parents, which he now realised would only make the situation worse. Each of them longed to help the other but both now realised that it was up to the other to save themselves, and all they could really do for each other was, offer comfort, and wait for the time when they came of age and would be free from their families' forever. They had settled into a pattern of helping each other, and understanding, but doing nothing that could be used as proof linking them together, a pattern that they each now, secretly, hoped to continue at Hogwarts.

Thank you to Vanessa-Black and Wood for your lovely review (and thanks for all the reviews I've got for previous chapters, they really encourage me!) and thanks to everyone who put me on author alert, I'm sooo honoured!

And to everyone else reading, please review, good or bad I want to know what you think!

Thanks! XXXXXXX