Someone To Understand
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and any OCs.
Well le manchot du destin, here you go, presenting the "new Sirius" and the Marauders reactions to him, enjoy!
The day finally came, when to both Sirius and Crystal's immense relief, it was time to return to Hogwarts. The hellish Christmas holiday was finally over, and it was time to return to the friends, that they had both been prevented, by their families from writing to during the duration of the holiday, the world where Sirius and Crystal had seemed to exist alone together had shattered, and it was finally time to return to reality, the question was, would Crystal and Sirius stay as 'almost' friends at Hogwarts, or would they return to being enemies?
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From the moment that the James and the other Marauders met Sirius on the Hogwarts express, he knew that something was wrong, Padfoot was being far too quiet, not to mention distant.
James knew that normally when Sirius was forced home for the holidays, and not allowed to write to his friends, he usually came back louder and more exuberant than before, though whether it was to make up for lost time, or mask what he was feeling James was not sure, what he did know however, was that this new, pensive Sirius was not one who's company he particularly enjoyed, he needed to find out what was wrong with his friend, and fast!
James observed Sirius carefully during the journey, watching as he made half hearted attempts at conversation with the other Marauders, his eyes constantly flickering towards the door, as if he was expecting someone to walk through it, though who this could be James desperately wanted to know. He did not talk at all of the holidays, though this was by no means unusual, the other Marauders had learnt a long time ago, that Sirius did not like to talk about, or think about his home life, and they respected his wishes about the matter, though often they wished that he felt secure enough to tell them what was so horrible at home.
James could not think what could have possibly caused a change this big in his friend, and, from Moony's worried glances at Sirius, he could tell that he was not the only one who was concerned about him. However, all thoughts of Sirius were soon wiped from his mind, when none other than the luscious Lily Evans and her friends, Rose Parker, Maya Goldberg and Louise Wilkes, walked into the compartment, apparently coming in to talk to him and his friends. Smiling at his good luck, James Potter walked over to welcome them, a hand flying nervously to ruffle his already very messy hair.
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Sirius had been sitting, trying to prevent himself from becoming lost in his thoughts again, and thus getting the Marauders even more concerned than they already were about him, as he knew that James and Remus, already knew that something was up with him, when in walked four girls that, he would, normally, have been happy to see, if, for once in his life, he hadn't wanted to just be on his own with his thoughts.
Strangely Sirius found himself wishing that he was still at Malfoy Manor with Crystal, she would easily have been able to read his mood, and would gladly have left him to himself for a while, allowing him time to sort out his jumbled thoughts, she always seemed to know just what he was thinking, she understood him, explanations were never necessary, she just knew. He found himself, already, missing Crystal dreadfully, and he could not help the thought "Why isn't she here?" from bouncing around his head, though he knew logically, that they could not be seen together.
Sirius was so busy going off at a tangent in his thoughts, that he did not even acknowledge the presence of the four new arrivals, say hello, or really enquire about their holidays, even when he had managed to snap himself, somewhat, out of his earlier dreamlike state. Lily, Louise and Maya were unfazed by this turn of events, obviously realising that he had something on his mind, Rose however was a different matter altogether.
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Rose Parker was livid, it had taken her the better part of three quarters of an hour to convince Lily and Maya to visit the Marauders, Louise did not count, as she had not taken any convincing at all, not that Rose had wanted her to come, and now that she was here, finally with Sirius for the first time in two weeks, he was completely ignoring her!
What exactly had happened in the last two weeks that had so effectively captured Sirius' attention? At least Rose could comfort herself that he could not possibly be thinking about that Ravenclaw bitch Crystal Maycomb, after all, he could not have spent all holiday thinking about her, and there was no way he could have seen her outside of school, was there?
Rose spent the rest of the train ride, trying, unsuccessfully to capture Sirius' attention, trying desperately to prove to herself, that she was still in with a chance of winning his heart, with little success in the endeavour.
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Crystal also found herself somewhat distracted on the train ride to Hogwarts, she could not stop wondering what Sirius was doing, and had to forcibly stop herself from fazing out in the middle of her conversation with Sienna. Fortunately Sienna did not really seem to notice, and when, when Mandy Corner and Patricia Boot entered the compartment, she began gossiping with them, it was much more easy for Crystal to drift off into her thoughts unnoticed, as she never usually joined in with their conversations anyway, finding them far too boy-centric to be interesting, so nobody was suspicious that she said nothing.
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At the welcome feast that evening, Sirius could not stop himself from looking over to the Ravenclaw table every few minutes, and watching Crystal talking, and laughing with Sienna, and when she finally looked up, and locked eyes with him, giving him a small warm smile, he could not prevent a goofy grin sliding across his face in reply.
The other Marauders of course, immediately noticed Sirius's strange behaviour, and James soon began demanding to know, why Sirius was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Sirius, not having answer for this, decided that his friends deserved to know at least some of the truth about his holiday, and explained to them quickly, in hushed whispers about the family get together, and how he had been forced into spending time with Crystal, obviously omitting all details pertaining to Sirius' and Crystal's treatment by their families, but leaving in the fact that he and Crystal were now friends.
The Marauders were shocked, to say the least at Sirius' revelations, having previously believed that Crystal hated him, as well as the fact that Sirius Black could never just be friends with a girl, however, for the most part, they took the news well, realising that it did somewhat explain Sirius weird behaviour, if somehow, this strange girl, had managed to get under his skin.
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However the Marauders were not the only ones to notice Sirius' bizarre exchange with Crystal at the Ravenclaw table, Rose Parker had also been watching the whole display with disbelief. "Why on earth" thought Rose sensibly, "would Sirius be watching her? And why would he react so violently to a simple smile from her?" she wondered inwardly, desperately wanting to voice her thoughts to her friends, but deciding to wait until later, in a more private environment to do it.
Rose could not believe that Sirius was still thinking about Crystal, sure, he got crushes all the time, but they never lasted this long, and Sirius never lost control, the way he had done just then, when Crystal had smiled at him. Rose was worried, very worried, Crystal was serious competition, and Rose had underestimated her once, it was not going to happen again...
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Over on the Ravenclaw table, Crystal had to physically restrain herself from laughing at the goofy smile on Sirius' face, the situation forcibly reminding her of the day she had first really met him, when Sienna had had a similar reaction to one of his smiles, it was quite ironic really that Sirius was finding himself in the same situation that he usually caused in girls, not to mention terribly funny.
Trying to compose her features, Crystal turned back to her conversation with Sienna about Christmas, though her mind was elsewhere, it was over at the Gryffindor table with Sirius...
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School started up again, the same as always, with lessons Quidditch practices, detentions and pranks on Slytherins for Sirius. He tried to be as he had previously been, and to some extent, he succeeded, though he quickly fell back into his bad old habit of watching Crystal at meal times, though now at least, she would look back, and share smiles with him, however they rarely talked, it just wasn't safe to do so, and this saddened Sirius greatly, as he found himself horribly missing her company, as a friend, but also as something more...
At night Sirius' mind would drift back to the holiday, and the way it had felt, to hold Crystal in his arms, to wake up next to her, to kiss her, he wanted so much to feel that again, it was the best feeling in the world, and, worse still, one that he wasn't sure he would ever get to feel again. He wished desperately that things weren't so complicated for him and Crystal, and that they could just be together, but it wasn't possible, so he would just have to comfort himself with the ghost of her touch.
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Unbeknownst to Sirius, Crystal felt the same, she missed him terribly, dreaming of him at night, longing for him by day, and trying desperately to hide the fact from everyone around her. Marius would kill her if he knew what she felt for Sirius, her parents would disown her and she could not tell Sienna, a girl that Sirius had so publicly used and dumped, she was also still not entirely sure that she could trust Sirius, he was, after all, a player, someone not to be trusted, was he really worth all of this trouble? She spent more and more time pondering what to do but could still come to no conclusions.
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Several weeks after they had arrived back at school, Sirius was walking during the lunch hour, about the grounds with the Marauders and several girls from their year, Maya, Lily, Louise and Rose, discussing that morning's prank on the Slytherins, when he saw a most alarming scene taking place, only a relatively short distance in front of him.
It was Crystal, and she seemed to be involved in a losing battle with several Slytherins, Marius, Violet, Abigail, Regulus, Snape and, Lucilla Parkinson. She had already been knocked to the ground, and Sirius could hear her calling out in pain from where he was standing.
In that moment Sirius' blood boiled, and he took off at a run towards Crystal and the people attacking her, the other Marauders following closely at his heels. Shooting off several successive spells, his friends doing the same, between them the Marauders managed to disarm and incapacitate all of the Slytherins.
Angry at being interrupted and so easily disarmed by the Marauders, Marius was in a vicious mood, "What the hell do you think you're doing interrupting a family matter?" he demanded brusquely, glaring at Sirius with his cold blue eyes, which also flickered every few seconds to glare at Remus, the person who had disarmed him, and who was presently holding his wand.
"Well," began Sirius angrily, "when I see someone being beaten up, and out numbered, by a group of thugs which include members of their own family I tend to get upset!" hissed Sirius sarcastically, surveying the whole group with extreme distaste.
"Funny that you don't seem to share this concern when you're part of the group of thugs doing the beating up!" hissed Snape nastily, from where he was lying, motionless under James' wand, whilst James himself also gripped Snape's own wand in his other hand, having disarmed him earlier.
"Shut up Snivellus!" hissed James furiously, "This is a completely different situation." he stated confidently, though Sirius could not help but secretly admit that Snape might just have a point.
"Come on guys, let's go," began Violet cautiously, picking herself up off the ground, as the 'impedimentia' spell she had been put under wore off, "they're not worth the trouble!", she finished angrily, helping Lucilla, Regulus and her sister up off the ground and watching as James and Remus handed Snape and Marius their wands back, before shooting Crystal one last filthy look and leaving with the rest of her group.
"We'll be watching you Black!" snapped Marius furiously, as he turned to leave with his friends, shooting his sister a disgusted look as Lily helped her to her feet, and saying to her "If you insist on spending all your time with blood traitors and mudbloods," he said looking pointedly at Lily and the Marauders, "then we'll be forced to treat you like one! Take care little sister!" he finished menacingly, before striding boldly away.
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Crystal was momentarily still and silent after her brother left, her face was pale, there was a gash across one cheek, and she was clearly still in shock from the attack, but she herself shocked everyone by snapping out of it, and turning to Lily and the Marauders and apologising, "I'm sorry," she began quietly, "Marius had no right to call you those things," then turning to Lily she continued comfortingly, ignoring the stunned looks of those around her, who could not believe that she was comforting someone else after what had just happened to her, "I hope you don't tar us all with the same brush just because he is a bigoted idiot, not all pure bloods are like that."
"It's alright," stated Lily reasonably, "you didn't call me a mudblood, and you can't control your brother's actions. I also wouldn't tar you with the same brush as him because he clearly wouldn't have attacked you if you shared the same views." She explained, gazing at Crystal with sympathy, though fortunately not pity, "But why did he attack you?" asked Lily quietly, staring intently at Crystal.
"That's what I'd like to know." interrupted James, staring at Crystal with a curious mix of pity and exasperation.
"You wouldn't understand." Stated Crystal simply, she knew they wouldn't get it and she was not going to waste her time trying to explain it to them, their lives were simply worlds apart, they couldn't possibly ever know what it was like for her, she was more concerned with how Sirius was taking this, and chancing a look at him, she saw him staring at her, clearly not listening to the conversation, an inscrutable expression on his handsome face.
Seeming to snap out of his thoughts Sirius' looked into Crystal's eyes, his stormy grey eyes flickering dangerously with passion and anger, "Why didn't you tell me that it had started again?" he asked quietly, a dangerous edge to his would be calm voice, effectively silencing all other conversations between the Marauders and the girls.
Crystal sighed with irritation, ignoring the others and gazing solely at Sirius, she replied calmly, "And what would you have done if I had told you Sirius, rushed off and done something rash again like last time? There was nothing you could have done to stop it, so you didn't need to know.", at this comment Sirius sighed and ran his hands through his long black hair, realising that what she said was probably true, and determinedly not looking her in the eye, neither of them noticing the shocked expressions of the other people listening to this conversation. "I didn't want you to do anything stupid, the consequences would be too great for both of us if you did, and like I said before I don't need you to be my night in shining armour, I can take care of myself." She exclaimed gazing into his eyes fiercely.
"Because it really looked that way from where I was standing!" replied Sirius sarcastically, loosing his temper with this whole situation.
"Well I can hold my own in a duel" began Crystal angrily, "but when the odds are six to one fighting back isn't always such a great idea, as it tends to just make them angrier! Sometimes it is better to do nothing and just walk away Sirius, though I don't expect you to understand that!" she spat, turning to walk off in the direction of the school when Sirius unexpectedly grabbed her wrist and forced her back to look at him.
"You can't run from them forever Crystal." He said quietly, looking deeply into her blue eyes, and surprising her with the intensity of his gaze, and his words...
"I know." She answered him simply, "neither can you," she said, smiling sadly at him, and staring back at him with the same passionate intensity as him, "But I'm not ready to face them just yet." She said, her words laced with meaning that she knew only he would grasp, and her eyes filled with painful mixture of hope and despair. They stayed that way for several moments, locked in each other's eyes, speaking without words, simply silently understanding each other, and ignoring the presence of everyone else in the area.
After a few seconds longer Crystal wrenched herself away from Sirius' gaze, and loosening herself from his grip she began to walk away from him, before he called back to her and said simply, "What will you do the next time this happens?"
"Simple," she answered him smiling, "I'll survive." she said before taking another few steps to pick up her fallen wand and school bag, and muttering a well placed 'healaris', she promptly healed the gash on her cheek and strode determinedly off, leaving a stunned group of Marauders, and 6th year girls to ponder what the hell had just happened...
Please review, I would like to know what you think, constructive criticism is always welcome! Also as I'm away this weekend don't expect any updates till at least Sunday, sorry about that, but I do have a social life, even if you don't think so by the rate at which I update fan fiction!
Thanks! XXXXXXXX