Author note: Hey, It's me, I'm not dead.

I really never mean to leave so long between chapters but life just sort of took off. I started university, which took up a lot more of my time than I thought it would. Also, this used to be the sole writing project i was working on but it got pushed to one side in favour of my original work.

I never plan to abandon this - it's the first proper piece of writing that I had sat down and started to write when I was 16 and I have many scenes written for the future chapters scribbled in various notes pages.

Updates may be slow and unorganised but I will always come back to this I think - it's actually a great thing to write when i have writers block.

And i love hearing people enjoying this - even if it is just one or two, I will write it for you!

Anyway i hope you enjoy this VERY late chapter!

Hope you are all doing well xx

CW: Injury descriptions but nothing especially graphic i think.

...

Sirius had spent the past two weeks hoping that Ebony would show up but it was never supposed to happen the way it did. She wasn't supposed to show up drenched from the rain at nearly one in the morning and collapse into his arms. If he couldn't have taken her straight from Hogwarts, if it all had to be her choice then he wanted her to have left with her head held high.

Not like this.

"Ebony?" He could feel himself holding her entire body weight - her knees seemed to have given in. Her head was lolling against his shoulder and he could hear her ragged breathing in his ear.

Remus squeezed past him and picked her trunk off of the doorstep, bringing it into the hall and closing the door behind him. "Let's get her dried off and into the warm shall we?" Remus said, his brows knitted together in worry. Sirius nodded. He was glad Moony could always keep a cool head in a crisis, when his own heart was pounding in his chest.

Sirius gently lifted her head off of his shoulder. "Ebony, can you hear me?" She was shivering and her eyes were opening and closing slowly, seemingly failing to focus on anything. He used a hand to wipe some of her wet hair out of her face and froze when it left a red streak on her forehead. He glanced down at his palm in panic. Sure enough, his skin had splotches of red on it. Sirius frowned and pulled her into his chest to look down her back where his hand had been.

There were two slashes in the fabric of her dress - both surrounded by a dark stain.

"Fuck," he muttered and scooped her legs into his other arm and carried her down the hall.

The doorbell and Walburga's cries had awoken the house's residents and now Molly and Arthur stood on the steps with several of their children behind them.

"Who on earth was-" Molly stopped as her eyes fell on Ebony limp in his arms. "Merlin's beard! Who is that?"

"Ebony!"

Her question was answered before Sirius could open his mouth. Ginny pushed her way to the bottom of the stairs. She looked over her friend before casting a panicked look up to Sirius. "What happened?"

"Not entirely sure, though I bet 50 Galleons I could say who it was."

He'd always despised Bella, Rodophus too though not to the same extent.

It didn't matter though - Sirius wanted to kill them both.

"That's not helpful right now," Remus said, though Sirius could see the anger burning behind his eyes.

Sirius carried her through to the sitting room and laid her down gently on the sofa. Ebony stirred a little - burying her face into the cushion and letting out a quiet groan. She brought a hand up to her eyes to block the light and Sirius frowned as he watched her fingers twitch violently.

Arthur ushered the other Weasley children out of the way and Remus, Tonks, Molly and Ginny piled into the room behind him.

"She needs a healer!" Molly cried.

"We can't apparate her to St Mungo's like this!"

"We also sure as hell can't get a healer here," Tonks said.

"I've got an idea," Remus said and then disappeared down the hall. Sirius followed him.

"I'll just be a minute Padfoot," Remus said before saying 'Hogwarts' into the Floo.

He did not know what he had planned, he never did with Moony, but Sirius did not expect Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall to come out from the floo in the kitchen. Both women were in their pyjamas but neither of them seemed to have a trace of fatigue about them. Remus led them to the sitting room but before he could enter Sirius caught his arm.

"You're brilliant moony."

"Being Poppy's favourite does have its perks."

They followed the two women into the room. Pomfrey immediately locked eyes on Ebony and began to observe her state. Ginny was crouched down by the sofa holding her friend's hand, her forehead crumpled in worry and possibly fury.

The youngest Weasley struck Sirius as someone not to mess with.

McGonagall seemed to briefly freeze by the sofa - her eyes widening in disbelief. Molly then brushed past her with a bowl of water and a cloth which seemed to knock her out of her small trance.

"Out!" Minerva snapped into action began to shoo the rest of them from the room. "Let the poor girl have some dignity!"

Arthur, Tonks and Bill were gathered back in the hall - the other Weasley children on the stairs.

"Poppy is looking at her," Minerva said, "She's in good hands."

Arthur gestured an arm towards the kitchen and she followed along with Tonks and Bill, leaving Sirius and Remus by the closed living room door.

"You okay Padfoot?"

"She's a kid. She's a fucking kid!"

Sirius' brain was running at a hundred miles an hour. It was one thing to worry that it may happen, it was another to see it. He should've never let her go back there. He should've said 'fuck it' to everyone's talk of it being her choice.

He knew better than anyone what his family was capable of. He should have protected her.

That had been him once, only a year or so older than her. He'd been the beaten-up kid bleeding out on someone else's sofa. He'd had to admit that his own mother despised him enough to think it right. He'd been the one to lose his whole family in one night, with one decision.

He wouldn't wish that pain on anyone else.

"Padfoot?"

"Where did we put the firewhiskey?"

...

Ginny's heart was racing. All she kept thinking back to was the brief conversations she'd had with Ebony about her family. The bruises she'd seen on her neck once - as well as the others that she'd had that had been brushed off as clumsiness. Ginny cursed herself for not realising earlier. Ebony wasn't nearly as clumsy as all her injuries would seem to have suggested

And there was also the way she was adamant that her parents could never find out about Neville.

This is what she'd been scared of.

"Ginny, keep her talking as best you can," Madam Pomfrey commanded. Ginny didn't want to look at what her mum and Pomfrey were doing, she didn't want to know the extent of Ebony's pain.

She could see enough of it on her face.

Ginny gently stroked her finger down Ebony's cheek, careful to avoid the bruise around her eye. "Hey." Her friend's eyes fluttered open a little. "Given us all a fright you have."

Ebony sighed softly, wincing as something was prodded or poked by the other two women in the room. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about," She replied gently. Ebony had turned up bleeding and all she could seem to do was apologise.

"I...I don't..." Ebony was exhausted and every movement or word seemed to require more effort than she had left. "Don't want to... go back."

"There's not a bloody chance of that happening, don't you worry." Ginny glanced over at her mum, who seemed to want to scold her for her language but then seemed to decide that it wasn't really the time.

"Don't want to...him." Her words were almost slurred and most of Ebony's sentence was too quiet to hear.

"What was that?"

"Don't want to... get ...married."

Ginny laughed. "Don't think you have to worry about that for a while yet!"

Ebony let out a murmur of disagreement and Ginny frowned.

"Ginny," Madam Pomfrey said. "I want you to see if Ebony can recall any spells that might have been cast - some of these injuries are not healing as they should."

"Ebony, can you remember any spells from tonight? Any at all?"

Her friend shifted on the sofa and brought her arms back up to her face - her fingers were still twitching. "Tired." Ginny gave her a pitying look. Ebony certainly looked as though she'd been dragged to hell and back. She was sure that there was nothing she wanted more than a good nap.

"Me too, you got me out of bed!" Ebony let out what could almost be recognised as a laugh. "So the quicker you tell me, the quicker we can all sleep." Ebony hissed and Pomfrey muttered an apology.

"Diffindo, that one stings like a bitch." Her voice was so quiet that Ginny needed to relay her reply - though she decided to omit the last part.

"Anything else?"

"Stinging..."

"Okay, Is that it?" Ginny hoped to Godric that it was.

"Cru...Cru...o."

"What was that?"

"Cruc...io."

Ginny froze and looked over at her mum whose horrified expression matched her own.

Surely not.

"Explains her twitching fingers," Pomfrey said grimly. "Ebony, do you remember how many times? Was it more than once?"

Ebony just closed her eyes and did not respond. Madam Pomfrey waved at Ginny to budge over and knelt in her place. She lightly stroked Ebony's hair. "I'm so sorry but I need you to stay awake for just a little while longer okay?" Ebony groaned and seemed to reluctantly pry her eyes open. "Good, well done. Now does anywhere else especially hurt?"

Ebony lifted her right arm a little and then dropped it back over her stomach, as if she didn't even have the strength to move it more than a few centimetres. Her forearm had been hastily wrapped in what looked like a pair of tights. Ginny watched Madam Pomfrey lift it towards her and then paused as her hand came away from the fabric stained red. Ginny felt her mum squeeze her shoulder, she knew that all she was imagining was what it would be like if Ginny was the one on the sofa.

Madam Pomfrey carefully began unwinding the tights from Ebony's forearm. When they were off, Ebony's skin was a pool of crimson with some cuts visible underneath.

Her mum passed Madam Pomfrey a cloth and she began to gently soak up the blood.

Then her breath hitched.

"Oh my..."

Ginny leaned to see what had drawn such a reaction from the usual stone-faced matron.

Then she quickly wished she hadn't.

Brutally carved into the soft pale skin of Ebony's forearm was a word.

Bloodtraitor.

...

Sirius stood up quickly as Madam Pomfrey came into the kitchen to join them about an hour later. Arthur had sent the rest of his children back to bed apart from Bill, who had been chatting away with Tonks.

"She's asleep now," Poppy said. "Molly is just putting Ginny to bed, the poor girl is rather shaken by the whole thing."

"A drink Poppy?" Remus asked.

"Something strong please."

"What's the damage?" Sirius asked, his heart pounding in his chest.

"There were several surface injuries - bruises, cuts. She has also got a decent amount of alcohol in her system which may partly explain her drowsiness." She sat down at the table across from them all, taking a glass from Remus. "There is also evidence of the cruciatus curse." Tonk dropped her glass on the floor. Arthur let out a slow breath. Sirius clenched his jaw.

They would pay for it.

"Though the worst was the wound on her arm." Sirius watched the usual steel-faced matron grip her glass tightly. "It seems that a knife was used to carve the word 'bloodtraitor' into her skin."

"Jesus." Remus sunk back into his chair.

"Fucking hell."

"Merlin."

Sirius was grabbing his wand and starting towards the door. They would pay, they would fucking pay.

"Sirius," Remus warned. He didn't care, he hadn't had so much anger flow through his veins for a while.

"I'm going to kill them," He said through gritted teeth. Sirius tried to exit the kitchen but his friend moved in front of him.

"Pads, I know-"

"I'm already convicted for murder so I may as well commit some."

"Padfoot stop." Remus grabbed him by both shoulders. "This isn't going to help anyone. It's happened and the only person who needs you right now is Ebony." Remus' eyes softened. "She needs someone who understands what she's going through."

Sirius stood breathing heavily until his anger dissolved.

"We can figure something out," Remus said gently, "but she needs you, here."

Moony was right as always.

"I'm going to go check on her."

"Ok, but I think-" Remus snatched the wand out of his hand- "I'll have this."

"Hey! Don't you trust me?"

Remus' mouth quirked into a smile. "Absolutely not."

...

There was a lamp on in the corner of the living room casting a warm glow into the room when Sirius crept in.

Ebony was in a pair of Ginny's pyjamas and was sleeping soundly on the sofa, her pale face bruised and screwed up.

He blinked quickly - trying to rid his eyes of their trickery. It wasn't him on that sofa, that small scared boy was long gone.

He was scared of what events had led to the night's ending. It could've been anything, small or big. He knew how tempers could be set off with the smallest step out of line. The dress she'd arrived in suggested that there had been a party which did not bode well - they never seemed to end well.

He kneeled in front of her, eyeing the bandage on her arm with pure hatred.

He stroked a hair off her face and gently kissed her forehead. She sighed sleepily.

"I'm sorry kiddo."