Author note:
Apologies for the cliffhanger in the last chapter - that was quite mean!
A slightly shorter chapter this time but I promise a new one should be coming fairly soon, the way things worked out I felt that the next part needed its own chapter.
As usual, hope you enjoy and feel free to review and let me know what you think.
Hope you are all well and having a lovely day/night xx
Ebony turned slowly on her heel, her grip tightening on the bag strap hanging across her body. She came face to face with the gaunt-faced man as he slid out of the shadows. His skin was grey and seemed to hang off his skeleton as though it were a shirt that was too big for him. He had matted black hair that hung limply on his shoulders.
.
"You're ..."
"Sirius Black, yep." He said nonchalantly. Ebony couldn't quite believe what was happening. Her heart was hammering in her ears. She pulled her wand from her pocket, pointing the tip at his throat. He lazily put his hands up in surrender. "Hey hey, no need to get violent."
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast you into a million pieces right now."
"For starters, I don't think you know how to do that."
"Try me." She said, trying to keep her voice steady. Ebony really hoped he didn't push any more because he was right, she had absolutely no idea how to do that.
"Fair enough," he took a step closer. She continued to glare at him, her arm steady. "If I told you I'm not the murderer that everyone thinks I am, would that be a good enough reason?."
"No!" Ebony could quite believe what she was hearing, "because that's obviously bullshit."
He laughed. "Come on, trust me. One bloodtraitor to another."
She furrowed her brow. "What makes you think you can call me that?"
"A Lestrange in Gryffindor." He indicated the red and gold scarf around her neck. Heat rose in her cheeks "I bet Bella was thrilled." He said.
"How do you know she's my mother?"
"I guessed."A satisfied smile spread across his lips. "You look awfully similar, aside from the fact that you lack a certain murderous fire in your eyes." Ebony snickered. What the hell was she doing, standing and laughing with SIRIUS BLACK? But there was something nagging at her, in the back of her head. She always thought there was something off about the whole thing and now here he was, in the flesh, telling her he didn't do it.
"You know, we're not too different you and I ."
"Aside from, you know, the whole MURDERER THING!" She kept her wand pointed firmly at his throat
"Calm down cousin," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"YOU TRIED TO KILL RON!"
"I didn't"
"What the fuck were you fucking doing then?!."
"It's a long story, I'm afraid you're just going to have to trust me."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
He laughed. " I see you get your language from your dear mother." He crossed his arms across his chest and leant against the cave wall, clearly not feeling the slightest bit threatened. "How is the old bitch?"
"Still a bitch."
"No change there then."
"So I just have to trust you do I?"
Sirius smirked and raised his eyebrows. "If you truly thought I was a murderer you would've left the second I revealed myself. The fact that you are still standing here talking to me suggests you think otherwise."
Ebony opened her mouth but closed it again. He was right, she could've run out the second she got there but she didn't. She had stayed to listen to him because a part of her wanted him to be innocent, wanted to believe that there was someone in her family that didn't turn out to be a complete psycho.
"Where'd the dog go?" Sirius grinned again and the next thing she knew the large black dog was stood where he had been. She gave an involuntary gasp. "Impressive." She said a small smile on her lips. Sirius returned to his human form and gave a low bow which made her giggle.
"Why thank you." He said with a wink. She laughed again shaking her head.
"So it's true," she said, "Sirius Black is one for dramatics."
"Indeed the legends are true." He said, still grinning. "How rude of me, I have yet to ask your name."
"Ebony." She said still trying to figure out why the fuck she seemed to be having a civilised conversation with a criminal on the run."Sorry but I'm still not sure why you got me to follow you here."
"I told you," he said. "I figured that a Lestrange in Gryffindor was someone I could persuade not to turn me in on the spot and honestly I just wanted someone to talk to, it's been a while."
"Really?" He just shrugged. "You're not going to try and get me to help you or anything?"
"I don't want to get you into trouble, I expect you get enough of that at home."
"What are you...?"
"Heard that boy say something about a Boggart turning into mummy and daddy"
"So what if it did?" She said shrugging, heat rising in her cheeks.
"How bad is it?" He asked, suddenly sounding a lot more serious.
Ebony laughed properly then, a small roar of laughter that made her eyes water. "Are you kidding me? I don't talk to my best friend about this sort of thing," she said, wiping her eyes, " what makes you think I'm going have this conversation with an escaped criminal in a cave?"
"Ooo she's stubborn." He replied with a smirk.
"I think it's more to do with the fact I don't know you."
"Oh I'm hurt," he said, clutching his chest. She rolled her eyes.
"You said you know my parents," he nodded. "Use your imagination."
"Not great then?."
"You can say that again." She said, smiling. She finally lowered her wand. "Well, it's been strange talking to you but I don't want to keep Neville waiting."
"Was he the Longbottom they were talking about?"
She frowned. "Yes."
"I thought the name rang a bell." She continued to stare at him. "Frank and Alice were my friends before your darling mother and father got to them." She looked at her feet. She often forgot what they'd actually done to Neville's parents. Honestly, it still surprised her that he wanted to even be near her. "Funny pair you two, does mumsie know about him? Or her prat of a husband perhaps?"
"What do you think?" She said, crossing her arms.
"You playing a dangerous game dear cousin."
"Thank you I am well aware of that," Sirius smirked again. "And for the record, my father is far more bearable than my mother, trust me."
"I can see that being the case, Bella always was a bit off the wall even as a child," he said with a snort. "How come Neville didn't come with you then?"
"It was his list of passwords you stole. He's in massive trouble ."
"Give him my apologies."
" I won't but thanks anyway." She heard Sirius laugh as she turned away. She made to leave but stopped and faced him again. "By the way."
"What?"
"Don't make me regret trusting you."
"You have my word." He said, placing his hand on his heart. She turned to leave again.
"Oh and Sirius?"
"Hmm?"
"I always thought there was something off about the whole thing. I always thought maybe you didn't do it.".
She watched as something washed over his face but she couldn't quite work out what it was.
"Thank you, Ebony." He said, his voice suddenly much softer, genuine. "Be careful out there kiddo."
She gave him a nod and left.
...
Ebony stumbled out of the cave in somewhat of a daze, her heart still very much pounding in her chest. She let out a shaky breath that she didn't know she was holding. What the hell had just happed? She had stood and had a chat with Sirius Back. She had laughed with Sirius Black. The notion of it was so ridiculous it was almost enough to make her laugh out loud.
He was rather like she imagined, funny and charismatic. She'd heard few stories about him but those that she had were enough to give an insight into how mischievous and bold he was as a child. There was still a certain twinkle in his sunken eyes.
Azkaban had definitely taken its toll on his body, he was a shell of the man he once was. But then he smirked and suddenly his face seemed to become far more familiar and she could still see parts of the young boy she had seen in the rare portraits that hadn't been burned by Walburga.
She pulled her cloak tighter around her chest. If you truly thought I was a murderer you would've left the second I revealed myself. The fact that you are still standing here talking to me suggests you think otherwise. His words still rung in her head. He had a point, she had stayed despite that fact that he was an apparent murderer. The truth was that something in her gut made her stay. She wanted to believe that the most notorious black sheep of the family had turned out to be a decent human being. It gave her a shred of hope that maybe, just maybe she would become something better too.
She spent the walk up to the castle debating what to do. She would definitely send an owl down with some food at least once if she could, he looked like he hadn't eaten well in a long time. She wouldn't tell anyone, her gut was telling her to trust him. She figured that he knew what he was doing.
The only problem was Neville. Part of her wanted to tell him, they were both trying to get better at not hiding things ( which was pretty much a one-sided effort to get her to open up to him, an effort which really wasn't going very far.) but the other part of her realised how bloody insane she would sound if she said it out loud. 'Oh, by the way, Neville, I followed the dog into a cave and then he turned into Sirius Black and we had a nice chat.'
No, she decided. She would keep this to herself, just to see how the whole situation played out.
...
Ebony had barely got out of the portrait hole when She was ambushed by her friend.
"Hey, you're back!" Neville crossed the common room and flung his arms around her neck. "I missed you." He mumbled. She laughed and pulled away to look him in the face.
"Neville, I was gone for two hours at the most."
"So?" She snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Well," she said, pulling the honeydukes sweets out of her bag, "What should we do first?"
She just grinned as she watched Neville's face light up.
...
"You know I always thought I was bad at chess," Neville said while his queen smashed her king off the board, "then I played against you."
"Oh piss off." She grumbled. They were on their fourth match of the afternoon and she was yet to come even close to winning.
"Language, there are children around." He said, letting out a dramatic gasp. The common room was mainly full with first and second years who were enjoying the lack of older students, most of whom were still in Hogsmeade.
Ebony just flicked his queen off the board."Let's play something else."
"Exploding snap?"
"Sure, gives me a chance to win at something." She watched as he disappeared up to his dorm to get the cards. Her head was still swirling of the events of the last few hours and honestly, she was exhausted. She stared out the window, watching the tops of the trees sway in the wind and replaying the events of the afternoon in her head.
"You alright?" Ebony didn't even hear Neville come back.
"Yeah," she said, snapping out of her daze and smiling perhaps a little too wide. "Why wouldn't I be?"
He sat down opposite her, wearing his 'concerned' face which Ebony was not a fan of. "Did something happen?"
"Hmm?" She said arching her eyebrow.
"You seem distracted."
"Oh," she said, flushing. "Yeah, ...just had a run-in with Draco and his friends. They were being pricks, as per."
It was true. Though the whole run-in with Sirius was still messing with her head, Goyle's words were still stinging. 'I think your Boggart would beg to differ.' To be honest she hadn't really thought about the Boggart incident since it had happened.
She had always been scared of her parents, her relationship with them was never good but had gotten considerably more tense as she got older. Neither of them seemed to be a fan of the fact that she was growing up and forming her own opinions, specifically that she didn't think that muggles and muggleborns were the scum of the earth. She had started putting up more of a fight, wouldn't always take what they said sitting down, and they despised it. The fact that they were her biggest fear was embarrassing. Surely there had to be something else that she was more scared of. Surely.
"I don't get him," Neville said, dealing out the cards, "you're his cousin you think he'd be nice to you."
"It's complicated," she said, sighing and picking at her sleeve. "We used to be close when we were younger." They were almost inseparable when they were little. The Malfoys were round the manor a lot and she and Draco had spent countless hours hiding from the house elves and sneaking sweets from the kitchen. The number of visits dwindled as they grew older, Lucius was moving up in the ministry and her parents didn't agree with it, the ministry was full of 'mud blood loving traitors' as they so eloquently put it. Then her sorting happened and suddenly the Malfoys didn't want their son hanging around her anymore, least not in public. " but then I officially became the family embarrassment."
"Still."
She just shrugged. "His dad puts a lot of pressure on him and stuff."
"Are his parents anything like yours?"
"Merlin no," she said, almost laughing at the idea, "his father can be a little intense but they both completely adore him. He is very much a spoilt brat in more ways than one." She smiled, "I guess I got lucky with the psycho parents."
They fell silent. Then Neville moved next to her and threw his arm around her shoulders.
"We can be family embarrassments together."
Ebony just smiled and leant her head on his shoulder. She breathed in the musky smell of his jumper and sighed. She would never let her parents take him away from her. No one made her feel happy or safe as he did. He was the greatest friend she could ask for. No matter how many times she questioned whether she deserved him, he made it all the more clear that he was going nowhere.
She wrapped her arms around his waist.
He was her best friend and he was all she needed.