Author note: Hope this makes up for the pain that was the last chapter ;)

i really meant to get this up earlier but its been a rather streassault few weeks so thank you for bearing with me.

as always, please let me know what you think!

stay safe and stay smiling everyone :) xx

Ebony cautiously stepped into the cave, her footsteps echoing off the stone walls.

"Sirius?" She called and she heard a squawk. Ebony frowned as a Hippogriff came wandering out of the shadows.

"Easy Buckbeak." Sirius followed the creature and then looked at her, a genuine smile spreading across his lips. "Hello, Ebony."

He looked tired, even more so than he did last time she saw him. His pale body seemed even smaller, his black hair longer and more tangled. It hurt her to see just how fragile he looked.

"Hi," she said, holding out the bag of food she had brought towards him, "thought you might want something other than rubbish."

Sirius took it with a chuckle, which turned into a rather nasty cough. Ebony furrowed her brow but he waved her off.

"I'm fine," he said, a little out of breath, "it just gets a bit dusty in here, that's all." She watched as he opened the bag and surveyed its contents. "That's a lot of bread rolls, I am being spoiled."

"They're the easiest thing to sneak into my pockets."

Sirius settled himself in a rock after throwing some food over to the corner for Buckbeak. "Well-" he smiled, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them- "to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Ebony chewed her lip and kicked at the dust where she stood.

"What's the matter kiddo?"

Ebony looked at him, his eyes still gentle under all of the dirt and age.

"I've messed up," she said, surprised to find her voice shaking, "I've messed up and now I don't know what to do."

Then she found herself spilling everything, how Neville had asked her to the ball and how lovely the night was. She explained how she let it go too far and that Draco had seen them and now she'd ended up very much alone.

It was almost funny, the fact that her only support was the notorious black sheep of the family who also happened to be an escaped convict.

"I can't do this for much longer," she said, feeling just a little better having gotten it all out of her system, "I used to be really good at doing things alone but...but then he showed me that things didn't always have to be like that." She sunk onto a nearby boulder and put her face in her hands. "Now I just don't know what to do."

Sirius looked at her for a moment then smirked. "I think you know exactly what you have to do."

Ebony shook her head, "I don't..."

"You know what you want Ebony, he said, "I can tell. The only thing that's stopping you is fear."

She opened her mouth to respond but found that she had nothing to say.

"You were put in Gryffindor for a reason because you have the strength to survive so much," he continued, "What use is it to get through what you do if you don't let yourself be rewarded with what makes you happy?"

"But they-"

"To hell with them!" He cried and she jumped, "you can't spend your life trying to make other people happy when it makes you so bloody miserable. Trust me, there are enough things in life to hurt you without you inflicting it on yourself."

And for a moment, she saw a flicker of pain in his eyes as he paused, lost in thought. He'd been through a lot, she didn't know most of it but the life of Sirius Black had hardly been straight forward.

"I've been where you are," he said, "pushing away the people I cared about because I was scared not just of my bloody family, but scared that I wasn't enough. Scared that I didn't deserve them."

She hated it, the way he could read her like a book, knew exactly what she felt and what she thought. But at the same time, there was a comfort in it, to be understood without need for explanation.

"What did you do?"

"I followed my heart." He paused for a moment then snorted. "God, I sound so fucking cheesy."

Ebony grinned, "just a little."

"Look, you have been friends with Neville for what? Three or four years?" She nodded. "And mummy and daddy are none the wiser?"

She nodded again.

That in its self was a miracle, though probably helped by the fact that Bellatrix and Rodolphus never really took an interest in their daughter's social life. They probably thought she just didn't have any friends.

"I think this whole thing is because you got a bit freaked out."

To say Ebony had gotten 'freaked out' would be an understatement.

"The thing is kiddo," he continued, "if anyone else saw you two that night then I think it may already be too late, but I also think you would have heard something by now, don't you?"

Ebony thought for a moment. It was true, if anyone else had witnessed what Draco had, then a howler or at least a sternly worded letter surely would've come her way.

"I'm not saying you should snog this boy in the middle of the great hall-" Ebony flushed a deep pink colour - "but I'm saying your friendship shouldn't have to suffer."

"It already has," she said, her chest aching, "and I don't know if he'll want to be my friend after all this."

"Don't be silly-"

"I'm not being silly!" she shouted, startling Sirius and herself. "He laid out all his feelings- that took guts. And what did I do?" Her heart was hammering in her chest. "I threw them back in his face."

Sirius came over and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "Listen to me, feelings don't just disappear overnight." He looked into her eyes. "I know this might be hard for you to understand but despite what you may think, when people love you it takes a lot more than a simple argument to make them leave."

"He doesn't...I mean..."

Love was a big scary word that Ebony wasn't quite sure she fully understood.

They were only fourteen, he didn't love her.

"Now," Sirius said, ignoring her little protest, "all you need to do is tell him the truth. You can't do any more than that. If he really cares, he will listen and he will understand."

Telling the truth was one of many things that Ebony was not very good at. It was pretty much always easier to lie, or just not tell the whole truth. The whole truth was usually messy and complicated and required patience and explanation.

But at this point, Ebony knew that she owed Neville some form of the truth.

"I know that won't be easy." As always Sirius managed to know exactly what she was thinking. "Us Blacks are very good at building walls around ourselves. At some point though, someone special comes along and you just have to let them in. You've got to let them in before it's too late."

Once again his eyes glossed over and it was almost as if Ebony could see his mind wandering, returning to memories that perhaps it hadn't seen in a while.

He shook his head out of his thoughts and nodded towards her chest.

"You got bravery in there kiddo, use it"

She just smiled and then he pulled her into a hug. It caught her off guard and she took a second to adjust. He was far bonier than Neville so it was slightly uncomfortable but at the same time, it was nice, almost like a father hugging her.

Her father had never held her. Not like that.

She sniffed a little and pushed the thought to the back of her head, she had more important things to think about right now.

Ebony pulled away and smiled back at Sirius.

"Thank you."

He smirked, "Anytime. I've collected a lot of wisdom over the years, had a nice long time to sit and sort through it all."

Ebony laughed. Only Sirius Black could make a twelve-year sentence in Azkaban sound almost relaxing.

"Go get him, Ebony."

She blushed and gave him one last smile as she left.

Ebony had some serious apologies to make.

...

Ebony stopped just outside the door to the greenhouse, hanging back so he couldn't see her.

She'd come straight from Hogsmeade, knowing full well that if she waited any longer to talk to him then she'd lose the burst of courage that Sirius had given her.

Neville had on the light brown woolly jumper that he usually wore when he was gardening out of class times. It was rather big, even on him, and Ebony just melted at the sight of him in it.

She watched his lips moving, knowing that he was murmuring to himself and the plants as he worked.

He was so kind and gentle and genuine.

How could she have pushed him away?

Ebony took a deep breath and slowly walked in. He didn't notice her at first, it wasn't until he walked over to the other bench to grab a pot that she appeared in his eye-line.

"Hi," she said with a small smile.

The pot slipped out of his fingers and fell to the floor with a smash.

Neville stared at the remains of the pot and then back up at her, a look of pure shock on his face.

"Um...I err," she continued, both of them ignoring the shattered pot on the floor. "I think I have an apology to make."

Neville didn't move.

"I got scared," she said, "I got really scared and I made some decisions that maybe weren't the best...for anyone."

For a brief moment, she could've sworn that she saw a smile on his lips.

"The thing is-" she swallowed- "You make me happy Neville. You make me laugh and you make me smile. You make me feel safe, like when I'm in your arms nothing bad could ever happen."

Ebony found that telling the truth wasn't always as scary as she thought.

It was almost sort of freeing.

"I'm not sure that I've ever really felt safe anywhere. Except with you."

She walked towards him and gently took his hand, not caring that it was rather covered in soil.

"You are my bit of kindness in an often cruel world-" Ebony looked into his eyes, surprised to find them rather watery - "and I don't want to let go of you just yet."

Neville still hadn't said a word but he squeezed her hand.

"So maybe we can't officially be a 'thing', maybe we have some things to figure out but, at the very least, I'd quite like my best friend back." She smiled hopefully, "if you'll have me?"

Neville suddenly grinned and pulled her into a hug.

"You don't get rid of me that easily, Ebbie"

And for the first time in three weeks, everything felt right.

...

"The crisis has been averted!" Pomona Sprout cried as she made her way over to where Minerva was sat in the staff room, a pile of marking on her lap.

"Who was it then?" she said, looking at her friend over the top of her glasses.

"I'm sorry?"

"Who broke into the potions cupboard?" Clearly, the two witches were not talking about the same thing.

"Oh, I've no idea Minerva," Pomona replied, sinking into the armchair next to her, " but our two favourite students have made up." She smiled widely. "I saw them hugging in Greenhouse two."

"I don't have favourites Pomona," Minerva muttered, knowing that deep down there were definitely students that she was far more fond of than others but no one else needed to know that.

"Well Neville is one of my favourites, that's no secret, and we both know you have a soft spot for that Lestrange girl."

Minerva just sighed and shook her head, a smile managing to creep onto her lips.

She had to admit that she was glad. For reasons unknown to her, Ebony and Neville had both been in terrible moods since Christmas and weren't talking, Neville had been far more clumsy than usual and Ebony had just looked ill and tired. Minerva had enough to worry about with the tournament without her students' well-being going down the drain.

"That's one less thing to worry about I suppose."

...

Ebony left Neville in the greenhouse to clean up and hurried up to Gryffindor tower. It was late afternoon and groups of students were straggling back from Hogsmeade, spirits high and cheeks rosy from the cold January wind.

As she entered the portrait hole she noticed a certain redhead sitting over by the fire with a quidditch magazine propped up against her knees.

She stopped for a moment, suddenly feeling rather nervous, perhaps even more so than she had with Neville. Ginny could be rather scary and Ebony had been, to put it lightly, a bit of a bitch.

'Well here goes nothing,' she thought and made her way over.

She sat on the edge of the opposite armchair, eyeing her friend anxiously. Ginny either didn't see her or was purposely ignoring her.

Ebony cleared her throat and slid a chocolate frog across the table and Ginny finally looked up.

"What's this?" She asked and Ebony offered a smile.

"I call it an 'I'm sorry for being a bit of a bitch' chocolate frog."

Ginny kept a straight face as she opened it up and took a bite. Ebony's leg was rapidly bouncing as she watched.

Ginny took another bite and looked at her friend thoughtfully.

Then she grinned.

"Apology accepted."

Ebony let out a huge sigh of relief. "You had me scared for a second there."

Ginny just laughed, popping the rest of the chocolate into her mouth.

"I never got a peace offering." Ebony turned around to see Neville coming over.

"Well," she said as he sat on the arm of the chair, "I was hoping my heartfelt words would be enough. Also, I didn't intially set out with the intention of buying chocolate to make apologies so only had enough money in my pocket for one."

She looked up at him and he just grinned.

Merlin, she'd missed that smile.

"Alright, I forgive you."

Ginny on the other hand looked rather taken aback. "Do my eyes deceive me or are you two talking again?"

They both looked at each other then back at Ginny.

"Your eyes do not deceive you, Ebony no longer runs off when I come within a mile of her," Neville said and Ebony blushed, putting her face in her hands.

"Oh don't, I feel really bad about it."

Neville and Ginny both laughed.

"I may have forgiven you, doesn't mean that I won't still tease you about it," Ginny said with a smirk.

"That's fair I suppose."

...

Ebony and Neville were still in the common room long after the last few students had gone up to bed. They had three weeks of not talking to make up for.

They were both curled up on the sofa, both wrapped in one of the blankets that were laying on various items of furniture.

"Safe to say this has been the worst few weeks of my life."

"I'm sorry," Ebony mumbled.

"Are you ever going to stop apologising?"

"Are you not mad at me?" She asked, gnawing on the knuckle of her thumb.

"I don't think I could ever stay mad at you for very long," Neville replied with a chuckle. "Besides, who's to say I wouldn't have done the same thing if I was in your shoes?"

She smiled gratefully.

Making up with her friends had actually been a lot easier than she'd first thought. Ebony was under the impression that she'd been a huge twat and they would both be rather angry.

But honestly, neither of them seemed remotely bothered, they were just glad she'd come to her senses.

"The thing I don't get," Neville said, "is why you thought that I wouldn't get hurt by you staying away from me?"

Ebony just shrugged, not looking at him, "I don't know, I just thought you'd go find someone else to be friends with then you'd be alright. Things would be less...complicated."

Neville scoffed in disbelief and Ebony looked at him, confused.

"Do you really think you that replaceable to me?"

Yes.

Yes, she did.

"Did you ever stop to think that I need you too?" He said, "I don't feel half as stupid or half as useless when I'm with you. When I ramble about Herbology I feel like you actually listen, I feel like you care."

"I do care," she said quietly, "I love listening to you talk about the things you like because-" she paused for a moment, looking at Neville and smiling -" because when you do, your eyes light up and you move your hands around a lot and I don't know, seeing you so happy, makes me happy."

Ebony was now realising the fatal flaw in her plan: the fact that Neville cared about her as much as she did about him. She knew that they were friends, and then of course there was all the stuff he'd said the night they kissed but Ebony had never actually taken the time to stop and process the fact that the boy sat next to her deeply, deeply cared about her.

Neville slid over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. Ebony tucked her feet under herself and leant her head on his shoulder.

"So," he said, leaning his head on top of hers, "what are we?

Ebony sighed. "I don't know."

"What about two people who everyone thinks are just really good friends but they know that they kissed and maybe feel a little bit more than that but they've just got to see where life goes before they can properly be anything more?"

Ebony looked up, "you've thought about this a lot haven't you?"

Neville blushed and smiled guiltily, "I may have spent three weeks thinking of all the ways I could get my best friend back."

"I'm sorry that it can't be simple."

"Hey," Neville said, lifting his head and bringing his hand slowly up to her cheek, "none of this is your fault. I don't want to hear you apologise."

"I'm sor - okay," she said, leaning into his hand.

"Kiss or no kiss," he said, blushing a deeper shade of pink, "you mean a lot to me."

"You mean a lot to me too."

Ebony sighed happily and settled her head back on his shoulder.

Maybe everything would be okay after all.

...

For the following weeks, to the rest of Hogwarts, Ebony and Neville were the same as they always had been. But to each other, their 'friendship' was now stolen kisses in empty corridors and staying up in the common room to the first rays of sunlight, just to be alone.

To imagine what they could be if things were different.