Keira wandered back to common rooms from the kitchens, finishing off the muffin the elves had eagerly given her. It was twelve pm, but she was still hungry.

Oh, well. Thank god for her fast metabolism.

The common room was empty. Sirius wasn't there. Probably shagging. The thought didn't bother her as much as it used to. She'd managed to shut down her feelings as best as she could. She was good at that. Blocking everything she didn't likeout. Was it healthy? Probably not, but it was her way with dealing with things, and for now it had worked out just fine.

Keirasank into her favorite armchair, staring at the crackling fireplace. She loved watching the dancing flames.

A tapping at the window bought back from her stupor.

Wait. Wasn't that her Aunt Marie's owl? She never sent her anything. It was probably from Lucy then, her ten year old sister.

Opening the card slowly, she took a deep breath and started reading.

Keira

I am writing to you because I don't know if aunt Marie cared enough to tell you. Her and Samuel are getting married next June. I know. Terrible.

Although I'm not sure why you hate Samuel all that much; I don't like him either, but I at least pretend I do.I stay away from him when I can, though, as you told me to.

Missing you a lot, when are you going to come visit? Aunt Marie is very strict and never lets me leave home much. She also never lets me read or talk in Italian,which I obviouslyfind says a respectable young woman doesn't need to know Italian, and is set on teaching me Latin and improving my is getting on my nerves these days.

Write back as soon as you can! Love you!

Lucy

Keira felt like a weight had dropped on her shoulders. Fuck. Samuel was now going to live in their house. She couldn't go back now, not after what had happened last time she'd seen him.

And now Lucy was going to be left alone with them? She'd manage, she was sure of that.

Where would she live now? She couldn't go back, she couldn't. Would she have to get her own flat? Aunt Marie wouldn't help, she never gave a shit about her.

Keira's mind was made up. She wasn't going back. She'd be getting her own flat as soon as possible. She had some money left from her mum, she could start off whith that.. And then?

She stood up. She was starting to feel overwhelmed, she needed to calm down before..

Fuck, get me out of here

She needed some air. She climbed out of the portrait and made towards the astronomy tower.

The astronomy tower is nice, she thought vaguely. The stars are pretty. Just you and the stars. Good to calm down.

But when she got there, there already was someone there. Fuck. She new that person. She turned around to leave, but then thought better of it and sat down with him.

"Hey, Sirius" she said.

"Hey"

She turned to him. He looked preoccupied with something. His face looked lifeless, even more so than it had the past week. But he still made the effort to talk to her.

"You ok?" He asked, taking in her sad face.

"Are you?" Keira replied, avoiding the question.

"Hell no" he muttered darkly, turning his head to look at the stars again. He took a swig from a bottle of firewhisky.

"There's your answer then" she said, taking a swig too after he offered her the bottle.

They satin silence for a while, steadily drinking. A day before, there would be no chance of Keira drinking with Sirius. She wouldn't want to get drunk and lose control with only him. Not that she was worried he would do something, just worried of what she would do. But now she couldn't care less. She was just trying to numb everything for now, and deal with it tommorow.

Keira, as it turned out, was a great drinking buddy, Sirius noticed. He'd never seen her as much of a drinker, but judging by the wayshe drank her alcohol, he was obviously wrong.

"So. What happened?" Keira asked, breaking the comfortable silence. They were both slightly tipsy now, and were on their way to drunk by the rate they were going.

Sirius sighed.

"I'll tell you if you tell me" he said.

"Deal" Keira replied, not breaking eye contact. Drinking made her less nervous.

"Well, around two weeks back, I started receiving letters from my lovely mother" he said, his voice not even angry, just tired, defeated.

"She was, apart from her threats, hinting something about my brother, Regulus, moving on to "bigger and better things".

I had an idea of what she was talking about, but decided not to do anything about it" he took a deep breath.

"well, she was right. I cornered Regulus today. He's a death eater"

Keira took a sharp intake of breath at the news, but didn't say anything. She knew he didn't want her sympathy. Instead, she leant into Sirius and took his hand. His hands were warm against her cold ones.

After a bit Sirius broke the silence.

"Your turn"

Keira pondered her response. She wanted to tell him what had happened, without revealing certain points of her life. Kinda difficult really.

"Ok, so. My aunts getting married to a death eater. AndI'm leaving home" she hoped he wouldn't notice how they were connected, that she was leaving her aunts house, not her parents, who were dead.

"Shit. Well, join the club. I ran away too" Sirius said, flashing her a ghost of a smile.

"Well, it's not just that. The guys a death eater, but he's also a pervert. He tried to rape me. Stopped him, of course, but I can't do anything about it, because my aunt would never believe me. I just told my sister to stay away from him. Didn't tell her why though. The kid probably thinks I have a wierd grudge towards him."

Sirius put his arm around Keira. Her story was pretty vague but with the alcohol he wasn't his usual sharp self.

"Well, our lives kinda suck, don't they" he said, and Keira laughed. He liked her laugh. It lit up her sad golden eyes.

"Idon't even know how to get my own fucking apartment" Keira commented, and they laughed again, properly. With the influence of alcohol, yes, but they both felt better.

The rest of the night was a blur; a lot of drinking and laughing. He couldn't really remember much from that point.

Sirius woke up in the common room sofa. When had he gotten here? He felt a warm weight on top of him. Keira was sleeping next to him with her head laying in his the fuck? Then the lastnights memories returned,along with a splitting headache. It was six in the morning. They had around two hours to start classes, at least. But he had no hangover tonic left.

Should he wake Keira up? But she looked so peaceful, sleeping .Their clothes were still on. They hadn't shagged. He didn't know weather to be relieved or realized how vulnerable Keira looked at the moment. She usually reminded him of a cat with its claws constantly out, in case anything bad came her way.

He felt slightly unsettled by what shehad told himlast night. The way she said it, like it wasn't that big of deal. As if she was saying oh well, I've gone through worse. As if in response, Keira moved slightly, and her shirt moved up a bit, revealing the end of a scar.

He realized how little he knew her. How little anyone knew her probably. She still hasn't told her why she was leaving home. Probably something to do with her aunt. But why leave her parents?

Sirius shook Keira lightly to wake her up. He felt fond towards her now.

She opened her eyes slowly. Then, taking in her surroundings, she jumped. " what the-" her eyes fell on the empty firewhisky bottles. " oh"

Sirius smirked. He liked seeing her flustered. "Do you have some hangover tonic?"

Keira blinked. " what? Oh, yeah I'll- I'll go get it" and she got up and went through her bag. She threw him one. And took hers quickly, before leaving going to the girls rooms quickly. Clearly, they weren't to talk about what had happened last night.

This was kinda long, but I enjoyed writing it. Expect more of the marauders and Keira's friends.

Review please?