Disclaimer: not mine, JKR is queen

Hey guys! So, i'm moving to university and there's going to be some major upheaval in my life and that's going to make updating pretty tricky for a while! Enjoy the chapters while you can!

Oh, and this chapter is essentially all Dany and Sirius, and you'll pretty quickly see why I opted out of Lily and James this time.

Read and Review,

Love, Essie

I got all I need when I got you and I
I look around me, and see a sweet life
I'm stuck in the dark but you're my flashlight
You're getting me, getting me through the night
Can't stop my heart when you shinin' in my eyes
Can't lie, it's a sweet life
I'm stuck in the dark but you're my flashlight
You're getting me, getting me through the night

~Flashlight, Jessie J

Dany was having a wonderful day up until she heard a shrill voice from behind where she was leaned against the beech tree. Kenzie had finally lost her patience with her boyfriend talking to people that weren't her. Normally, they were all pretty good at ignoring the two-week "girlfriends" but this one really got under her skin; she didn't know why. Maybe it was the voice, maybe it was the attitude, or maybe it was the definitive amount of crazy that Kenzie Levitt possessed in her short body. No matter what it was, she was positive that it wasn't just her that saw it; Lily had agreed with her on every count and Marlene and Alice had refused to hang out with them today purely out of fear of having to see Kenzie, which said enough on its own. As a matter of fact, she was pretty sure that the only one that didn't see it was Sirius; all he saw was her short skirt and lipstick, she thought dryly.

Kenzie sat down on top of her boyfriend's lap and Lily glanced at Dany as if to ask if she was seeing this right. Dany shrugged at her as their conversation came to an immediate halt at her appearance.

"Dan, did I tell you about the time Petunia accidentally called Vernon 'sugar lips' in front of my parents?" Lily said suddenly. Dany snorted completely ungracefully, unable to stop herself. Everyone looked at her.

"You've got to be kidding me. That's disgusting. Never repeat that if I have a full stomach or bladder Lillian. I will either retch or pee and I can never tell which." She laughed. "You've got to tell me more about the world's biggest hot mess. Ah, I've missed hearing this. Break was at a good time, I need my fix of the Vernon/Petunia love story."

"Alright, so we had him over for dinner, gross right? But anyways we were all eating dinner, mom made double of everything because of his uh, weight, and they were talking about how serious their relationship was or whatever and instead of saying that Vernon had his own apartment, she said Sugar Lips had his own apartment. Mom accidentally snorted her wine out her nose and I think my dad broke a rib trying not to laugh, honestly." Lily laughed and Dany started laughing so hard that she started to tear up and soon James started to laugh hysterically too. Sirius chuckled and Kenzie looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"I need to stay at your house more, Lils. Really, all I get at home is my brother hosing me down with water every morning to wake me up. Then I chase him through the house trying to get him back and then Mom yells at me for drenching the furniture that 'has been in this family for generations and is worth more than most people's houses' and then Dad laughs and usually splashes Rae from behind when he's too busy watching Mom yell at me." Dany said and Lily laughed.

"Sounds like your family; honestly you all are some goofy people to be running the Wizarding World." Sirius said and James nodded in agreement.

"We like to have fun. When the world is looking to you for leadership, you have to bring your own levity to the situation." She said with a shrug. It was true; not many people these days came into the Minister's house with good news or a funny story, not like before the war. All that walked through their door was death and sadness recently.

"So does your family do, like, arranged marriages or something to make sure you're married to someone 'worthy' of the name?" Kenzie said and Dany had to fight incredibly hard not to roll her eyes and slap the other girl. It wasn't a completely stupid question because some of the older families did arrange to keep the blood pure, like Sirius' did, but she heard the undeniably bitchy tone towards the end. She decided to answer the question as if she had missed the tone of it.

"Oh no way. We marry who and when we want; no one tells us who to marry. Well sometimes a parent tries to intervene but always ends up with the parent being ignored. My family marries for love, not duty." Dany said and Kenzie, for some reason, looked rather put out by that information. Dany glanced at Lily who seemed just as confused as to why she seemed to not like that.

"Oh…that's lovely." She said tightly and Lily suddenly stood up.

"Hey Dan, we should probably head in. You said you had to write your folks today, right?" Lily said and Dany nodded, playing along.

"Yeah…I should probably go do that before it gets much later. We'll see you all later." She said and the two girls walked off, leaving poor James alone with the couple; Dany felt rather bad about that but there wasn't really much she could do for him. She just was glad that Lily had come up with something to get them out. They were inside the castle walking in a comfortable silence when Lily interrupted it.

"This one hates you too." She said and Dany rolled her eyes.

"What gave it away?" She said dryly. "Besides, that's a two way street. She's not exactly my favorite either. And I still think she's bat-shit crazy."

"Oh, she's totally nuts. I just hope that when they split, it's clean. I have a feeling she could come back and be real vengeful. She's stalker material." Lily said and Dany nodded in agreement.

"Yeah…we have to deal with those girls enough as it is. I liked Angie, I was sad about that one actually. She'll be missed." Dany responded and Lily nodded sadly.

"She'll be missed. She also didn't say 'like' every other word so that was a bonus." Lily laughed and Dany chuckled.

"It's really horrible isn't it? I want you to hit me if I ever start doing that. Hit me hard, Lily Evans." Dany said seriously.

"It's sad that she's so bad that we have to make promises to hit each other if we ever start acting like her." Lily said and Dany nodded.

"It really is—oh shit." She said suddenly and felt her stomach drop to her feet. Lily turned around to see what Dany had seen.

"Oh shit." Lily echoed. It was Kenzie, and from the look on her face, she had heard them. She was with Sirius and James so she didn't have free reign to start screaming or pulling their hair; she knew that if she did her relationship would be over very, very quickly. It was widely known by girls that Sirius wouldn't take any shit where his friends were concerned.

The most unnerving part of Kenzie hearing her conversation with Lily was that nothing happened. The rest of the school year passed, granted it was only about a week and a half, and nothing happened. No hair-loss potion in the shampoo, no fights, and no bitchy comments or rumors. Nothing happened and that was almost worse. Almost being the key word in that sentence. And nothing continued to happen on the Hogwarts Express. Dany, Lily, Alice, Marlene, James, Frank, Remus, Sirius, Peter, and (unfortunately) Kenzie were squeezed into a compartment and while it was quite cramped, no one really seemed to mind except for Kenzie. She didn't look very happy at having to be pressed up to people she didn't particularly like for five hours. Lily said she had overheard Sirius and her talking before they had boarded and he had apparently plainly said that he was sitting with his friends and she could come if she wanted. She had apparently wanted to because here she was, sitting between Sirius and Marlene looking like she wanted to die.

Dany was directly across from Sirius and was half-sitting on Lily because of the lack of space. She idly watched her talk to him and he would respond with little to no enthusiasm. Typical of his relationships. She thought it was strange that she seemed so clingy to someone a year younger than her but dismissed it. He was a cute kid, she probably didn't care that he was younger, she thought.

"So are we taking bets on whether or not the Petunia/Vernon love saga will reach the pinnacle of love this year? Do you think he's going to pop the question?" Dany asked Lily and she grinned.

"Maybe. I think we should bet. Guys! How do you all feel about a bet on whether Vernon's gonna propose?" She asked the compartment at large and everyone agreed, Kenzie said nothing.

"Alright, what does everyone think?" James said. "Remus?"

"Yep."

"Peter?"

"No way."

"Frank?"

"Eh, what the hell? Sure."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah he seems like the marriage type." Kenzie didn't look impressed with that answer or the fact that her boyfriend looked incredibly grossed out by the thought of marriage. That threw a red flag for Dany, who thought it was awfully early to care about marriage.

"Marlene?"

"Nah, who would marry Petunia? No offense Lily." Lily shook her head; she didn't seem to be offended. The rest of the group laughed.

"Dany?"

"Hell yes. And Lillian I expect to be your plus one to the nuptials. Sorry that your brother-in-law is going to be a boring, blubbery, bland buffoon."

"I appreciate the alliteration, Dan." Lily said and Dany grinned. James ignored them.

"Lily?"

"I hope not. But it does seem to be the 'polite' and 'respectable' thing to do, so I say yes."

"Alice?"

"No, I hope that she'll take a leaf out of her sister's book, pull her head out of her ass, and realize she doesn't need a man."

"What about you James?" Dany asked and he shrugged.

"Of course he's going to propose if she's anything like her sister." He said, clearly not thinking that through. Everyone stared. "That wasn't supposed to come out of my mouth. Sorry Lily." He said quickly, realizing that he had said that out loud. Lily ducked her head and Dany saw her blush due to how close the two girls were sitting.

"Aw, it's so cute!" Dany yelled loudly and everyone laughed. "Don't ever change, James." She said. A couple hours passed with conversation and James almost lost his eyebrows at least three times during an Exploding Snap championship with Sirius and Remus. The girls passed this time watching and painting each other's fingernails crazy colors. About a half hour outside of London, the argument started. Kenzie wanted Sirius to meet her parents and Sirius didn't want to. Everyone else in the compartment severely wished that there was space under their seats to crawl into.

"I'm just saying that if you're going to date me, you should at least know my parents."

"Kenzie, I don't really make that good of an impression on parents…I don't know if that's a good idea." He argued and she seemed incensed.

"Bullshit! I'd be willing to bet that everyone's parents in this room like you. Seriously, do any of you have parents that don't like him?" Alice, Marlene, and Lily raised their hands.

"Our parents don't know him, so please disregard this part of the compartment." Lily said and then Kenzie's eyes moved to Dany.

"What about you, Masters? Your family like him?" Dany's eyes widened. She did not want to be in the middle of this. She looked at both of them and then shook her head slowly.

"My mom and brother don't." She said and Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" He said and she nodded. He sounded mildly hurt but still unsurprised. Rhaegar didn't make it a big secret that he didn't like the Black heir's friendship with his baby sister.

"Yeah, they don't really like that we're friends…I think it's because of your parents, I'm not sure. My dad thinks you're great though." She added on at the end.

"Oh, hey Daniel's coming in with the save." He said and Dany nodded and Kenzie threw her hands up.

"Will you stop talking to her for a bloody second?" She snapped at her boyfriend. "I know she's riveting but seriously we're having a serious, legitimate discussion; so pay attention to what I'm saying." Sirius looked taken aback. People had been telling him since he started dating her that she had to potential to be crazy and he had ignored them all thus far; Dany thought that he had been wrong to do so because she truly looked deranged.

"You have to understand that my family doesn't give me a lot of time for meeting people on the platform. I usually say hey to James' folks then split because that's all I have time for before they take me home." He said and the distaste for the word 'home' was written all over his voice. Dany felt for him; she couldn't imagine hating the place you had to leave Hogwarts for every summer. Kenzie looked apprehensive but couldn't find anywhere to argue with that logic. Suddenly the train started to slow and they looked up to see the platform quickly approaching. They all tried to stand up and collect their things, which proved to be a task in and of itself in the tight compartment. Once everyone's things were off the overhead rack, they opened the compartment door. Sirius practically ran off of the train after quickly saying goodbye to all of them; Tasha tried to start a snogging session and he had to wave her off. The guys slapped him on the back and he hugged the girls. "Write me," he whispered in Dany's ear and she nodded quickly before he let her go and vanished into the crowd.

"That was…strange." James said once Kenzie had walked off to find her own parents. "He usually doesn't run off like that. Maybe he wants to keep us away from his folks or something." the rest of the group shrugged; they had long ago given up on trying to discern Sirius' reasoning behind the things he did regarding his family. "Anyways, I see my parents. See you all later." He said and then Dany saw her brother.

"I see Rae, I gotta go. See you all over summer sometime." She said and they all waved as she walked towards her brother.

Sirius had run as soon as he had felt the train stop. They couldn't see him near them. If his parents saw him near Dany, they'd freak out. They wouldn't just freak out, they'd try to get their hands on her. Never mind that abducting the Minister's daughter, who was beloved by most people in Wizarding England, was probably punishable by life in Azkaban or the Dementors' Kiss; the only thing that matters was tormenting their son as much as possible. It was just extra motivation to leave as soon as possible that Kenzie wanted him to meet her parents. He was going to miss them; summers were always the hardest. He could usually convince his parents to give him a week at the Potter's place but that was a hard won battle every year. He suspected that they allowed it because they were sick of him being in the house all of the time, a constant reminder of the stain he was on their family name or something.

"Sirius. I see you've bothered to be on time for once." His father said and his mother stared for a moment before speaking.

"I see you've survived. Who on Earth fixed that…problem you had?" She said, clearly referring to the gaping chest wound he'd had last time he'd seen them (he had spent Spring Break at James' without their knowledge).

"It healed on its own. I'm rather hard to kill. Besides, you two aren't getting rid of me that easily." He said cheerily, making a point of omitting that Dany had healed it on the train, just as Regulus appeared from saying farewell to his own friends. The attention immediately shifted to the younger, better, son and Sirius was off the hook for now.

They Apparated home and almost immediately Sirius was tossed into his room. Thankfully his owl was there so at least he could communicate with the outside world. His room looked the exact same as it had the day he had left for Hogwarts after New Years. There were old shirts that no longer fit covered with blood everywhere. He vaguely remembered trying to stop the bleeding with them. The bathroom connected to his room was a mess as well, a first-aid kit that James had gotten him as a (kind of) joke for Christmas one year was open on the counter and bandages were strewn all over the floor. God he had been hurt; he probably would have died if his friends hadn't called him on being injured. He cleared off the bloody remnants of his emergency (shitty) self-first aid and sat down on his bed, rubbing where the scars were that had caused all of this. It was going to be a long ass summer.

Letters were the only solace from the complete solitary confinement he was in. The first one came a week into break.

Sirius,

It's been a week home and I hope you're okay. James said he hasn't heard anything from you but he's too proud to actually bother to write first, so here I am writing first. "I'm too manly to act concerned. Of course I'm actually concerned but it demeans my masculinity to write first. If he writes and needs help, I'll do everything I can," he says. Bleeding idiot my Godbrother is, I tell you. Things are okay here, Rae is just as stuck up as always and I think it might actually be getting worse (if that's possible). If Dumbledore names him Head Boy, he'll be absolutely insufferable. I'm moving in with Lily when that happens (if it happens, which I'm hoping it doesn't with everything I have).

Speaking of Lily, can you believe what James said on the train? Lily's face was so red; you should have seen it! It clashed with her hair horribly, honestly. I think that they're the real deal. I can't wait to be making a speech at their wedding. I'm sure I'll be a great Maid-of-Honor.

Anyways, write back and if anything goes too sideways, let me know. Help is never far away. Stay safe.

Love,

Dany

James,

Dan wrote me and I'm going to be the lesser man and write you first. Here I am, and I'm alive so we can all breathe a little easier. I'm just stuck in my room 24/7 which kind of sucks ass but it's definitely been worse before so I'm not complaining too badly. I have to be honest though, I'm getting kind of sick of seeing my own face; it's the only one I see anymore. Even Kreacher would be a welcome interruption…actually I take that back. I hate that bloody elf.

Anyways, I hope that all's well with your folks and I'm sure your parents are sick with how much they miss me (we all know that I'm their favorite) but tell them that it's okay because I'm still kicking and it's going to take more than my parents to take me out.

Tell your parents to take care.

Sirius

Sirius,

I know I normally don't write you during summer but after Winter Break we're all a little worried and I couldn't help myself. Anyways, how's your summer been so far? James is becoming more and more insufferable as time passes. I know Dany theorized that he's gay for you and after spending the weekend at hers and seeing how he whined about you not being there, I believe her. I think you made Potter jump teams, so congratulations on that (and I'd like to personally thank you for diverting his attentions from me).

I know we're not as close as you and James or you and Dany but if you ever need a hand up or someone to talk to, I'm always here. I can't mend wounds or anything but I hear that I'm a good listener. We all worry and no one likes seeing you leave the platform with your parents. Please remember that no matter how much it feels like you're alone and no one cares, we're all waiting across England and Scotland hoping that you're okay. And don't kid yourself, if Dany or James could find a reason to knock the door down to your parents' house, drag them out by their hair into the street, and beat them bloody, they would. Keep in touch.

Lots of Love,

Lily

Dany,

I know it took me a little while to write back but everything's pretty good here, nothing too horrible. And nothing that would make you throw a quill, if you get my meaning. I'm so bored that I'm actually considering doing my work for school. McGonagall would be so proud of me. Except I think I'm just going to read a two-year-old edition of the Daily Prophet, you know before everything was completely depressing and the world hadn't gone to shit. I really need to subscribe or something because I have no idea what's going on in the world.

I'm really hoping that Dumbledore doesn't name Rhaegar Head Boy purely because our days of sneaking out are absolutely over if he does; he knows you so well that we'll be getting busted 100% of the time, even with the cloak. Maybe your dad will convince Dumbledore to not make him Head Boy. One can hope, I suppose. And Lily and James are destined to happen. You need to keep me up to date (relatively) on what stupidity James is doing over the summer because he won't tell me anything incriminating about himself.

I hope you and your parents are safe and healthy.

Sirius

Sirius,

It's good to hear from you man! Everything here is good and my parents admitted that they like you more (which is kind of depressing actually). And I'm sorry about the solitary, man. That's brutal but hey, at least you're in your room and not somewhere else. I mean I've never seen your room but I'm assuming that it's better than a dungeon or something. You said you were sick of your own face so I sent some pictures along in the envelope. Go ahead and keep them, there are duplicates everywhere in this house. Speaking of that, do you think you could convince your parents to let you off your leash for a week in July? The 21st to the 28th, I'm thinking. And if you really want, you can invite Kenzie. You just have to promise not to have sex in my house because that will scar me, my parents, and our house elf from now until forever. I don't know if you get the news, but the war's getting worse, like a lot worse. None of us like having you in that place, so close to those bastard Death Eaters, but there's nothing we can do right now. Write me back with your answer about visiting.

Hang in there,

James

Sirius looked in the envelope and, sure enough, there was a small stack of pictures. He pulled them out and started flipping through them. There were a lot of pictures of James and Dany; he supposed that he had taken these over summer because there were only one or two of everyone else. There was one of Dany lying on her stomach in the grass outside reading, only to look up to smile and wave at the camera and another of her in a bikini lying on her back, eyes closed. She apparently didn't know that a picture of her had been taken; in the background part of her gorgeous house was visible. There were a few of James' parents and there was one that someone had clearly taken in secret of James dancing around his room in his boxers and some socks. He guessed that it had been Dany or Charlie that had taken it. James apparently had decided that he would willingly embarrass himself for a good laugh. It worked because Sirius started laughing in the empty room; it made him feel a little insane. Now he had to ask his parents about leaving the house in a week. He tried to open the door and when it didn't budge, he knocked. He felt nuts, knocking on his locked bedroom door, from the inside. Kreacher appeared.

"What?"

"I need to talk to one of my parents; either one, it doesn't matter." He told the elf and to his surprise, Kreacher nodded and vanished with a pop. Minutes later, his father opened the door to his room.

"What do you want Sirius?" He asked. Sirius was rather glad that Kreacher had gotten his father. He was much more even-tempered than his mother.

"Um, James wrote me and he wanted to know if—"

"You want to visit the Potters. When and for how long?" He father asked, clearly bored.

"From the 21st to the 28th this month. So I'd be there for a week." Sirius responded.

"I'll have to speak to your mother on this. She won't like it but it does keep suspicion away from the family." He said. "You'll have your answer in a few hours." His father said and left the room. Sirius nodded and another owl came to the window. He opened the window and realized it was Dany's owl. There was no envelope just a folded up piece of paper, which automatically smelled of trouble.

Someone tried to kill Dad. He's in St. Mungo's and I'm leaving now with Mom and Rae. He hasn't woken up since it happened. If you have a chance (and I know it's almost impossible because of your family so I don't even know why I'm asking) I really could use you with me right now.

He barely recognized her handwriting it was so shaky. He flipped over the paper and wrote back.

James wants me over this coming Monday, the 21st, so I'll be out of the house. I'll come as soon as I can. Hang in there for a few days Dan.

He gave it back to the owl, which flew off immediately. He watched it go and tried to wrap his head around the fact that right now, the Minister was in the hospital, possibly dying. The same man he had sat next to at New Years and the same man that had said that he was sure they'd meet again soon. He was comatose.

Orion Black picked then to open the door again with his answer.

"You can go. But we're watching you Floo there, you hear? No tricks." He said and Sirius nodded. Once his father left he wrote James.

James,

They said I could come over but I kind of have something to do instead. Would it be cool if I Flooed to your place and then Flooed again somewhere else? I don't need them knowing where I'm going.

Sirius

A day later his response came. It was one sentence long.

I'll get rid of Kenzie for you.

The day he was supposed to leave came so incredibly slow that he thought that he was going to lose his mind at around 2 in the morning the day he was Flooing to the Potter's. He waited until a fairly respectable time, 8 in the morning, until he knocked on his door again. Kreacher appeared and pointed him down the hall. Sirius grabbed his bag of clothes and slung it over his shoulder and followed the house elf down to the kitchen, where his parents were standing.

"They want you there at 8 in the morning?" His mother asked skeptically.

"I only get a week; might as well make it count." He said with a shrug. She seemed to not really care and gestured towards the fireplace. They watched him as if they were waiting for something that wasn't James' house come out of his mouth. True to his word, he Flooed to the Potter residence. He was spit out in their living room and wrote them a quick note: Thanks for letting me use your Floo, and then climbed back in and Flooed to St. Mungo's. He appeared in the lobby and there were several rather intimidating Aurors sitting about; he recognized the look on their faces, they were on the job. He'd been in St. Mungo's before and they definitely hadn't been there the first time. One of them was Alastor Moody. He walked over and carefully spoke to him.

"You're Alastor Moody?" He asked the man.

"I am. Who's asking?"

"You're Rhaegar's Godfather." He said, not answering his question; the Auror wouldn't probably be very responsive when he heard his name. A woman walked over to them; she seemed to be in her forties, clearly younger than Moody, who he supposed was her partner. She was looking at him critically and vaguely reminded Sirius of Dorea Potter.

"How do you know that, boy?" Moody asked, not so kindly.

"I know his sister. I'm a friend of Dany's. She asked me to come." he said, still trying to avoid his name.

"Well does her friend have a name?" He asked and Sirius winced. Damn.

"Sirius Black." He said and Moody's eyebrows rose.

"Do you think I'm an idiot? I'm not going to let a Black in to see the Minister of Magic or his daughter." He snapped. Suddenly, the woman next to him stepped in.

"You said Sirius Black?" She asked and he nodded. "It's fine, Alastor. James has talked about him; they're friends. I'm sure that she wants to see him."

"Florence…" Sirius recognized her name too. He vaguely thought that she was Rhaegar's Godmother.

"I don't want to hear this crap right now Alastor Moody, Daniel's my friend too so don't pretend he isn't. I want to protect him and his family as much as you do, but if anyone could use a friend right now, it's his daughter. That poor girl's father is barely alive; don't you deny her the right to have someone who cares about her with her." Florence snapped at him.

"We'll let her decide that…go get her." Moody said gruffly. Sirius discerned that his main concern was Daniel and not his daughter. She was protected enough in here but the Minister had to be hidden from everyone that wasn't definitively a friend of the family's. A few minutes passed and Moody continued to stand there and stare at him like he wanted to disembowel him. Finally, his gaze moved to behind Sirius.

"Sirius?" He heard a soft voice say; he shouldn't have been able to hear that from across the relatively noisy waiting room, but he could pick that voice out of a crowd of 300 if he had to. He turned around and saw Dany. She looked like she'd run the gauntlet. She continued to walk towards him and Moody.

"Danilynn, this boy—"

"Enough Alastor, I know who he is." She said bluntly, harshly even, and the closer she got, the worse she looked. Dirty hair, bloodshot eyes, dark marks under her eyes, he suspected that she hadn't changed clothes since she got here either. She looked like she had gained about 10 years and lost about 10 pounds. Moody fell silent. So fast he almost missed it happening, she flung herself into his arms with a single, dry sob, his bag of clothes dropping to the ground. He hugged her back and she started to cling onto him so hard he could feel her nails digging into his back. It kind of hurt.

"It's okay, Dan…alright why don't we take this somewhere…less public?" he said gently and she let go and nodded, realizing that everyone in the lobby was staring.

"Yeah, come on." She said and he quickly picked up his stuff before letting her lead him through security the likes of which he'd never seen before. They left Moody standing where Sirius had met him. They were in the elevator when he asked the question he'd been putting off thinking about for days.

"What happened?"

"I—I don't know much. No one will tell me any details so I've had to listen through doors and do a lot of guesswork, all I know for sure is that whoever it was went the Muggle route. They must have been going for poetic irony or something."

"They shot him?" he asked, disbelievingly. She nodded.

"Yeah, thankfully Purebloods are horrible shots so they missed, barely. I overheard the Healer say that another inch to the left and the bullet would have hit his heart. He has a collapsed lung as it is. Not to mention the cracked head from falling backwards from the impact." She said and she leaned into his shoulder.

"That's awful. How's he doing? I know you said he was still out in your letter but…" She shook her head.

"He still hasn't woken up. Mom's been here on and off and Rae has been trying to keep everything in line at the Ministry because Mom's gone too much to actually do her job. He's only seventeen; he shouldn't be doing that. But it might be permanent." She said and started to truly sob into his shirt. He was shocked; she had teared up a little on the train but it was nothing like this. This was the sound of pure agony. He had no idea what to do so he just stood there until the elevator came to a stop. She let go of him and tried to get herself under control as she continued to walk down the hall until she reached a door. She pushed it open to reveal a hospital room of proportions he had never seen before. Rhea Masters was sitting in a chair next to her husband's head and Rhaegar wasn't there. Sirius remembered what Dany had said about him trying to manage the Ministry. Rhea looked up.

"Danilynn Charlotte, what are you thinking—?"

"Shut up, Mother. Just shut up." The younger woman snapped and her mother fell silent.

"I'm really sorry that your family has had this happen to it, Lady Rhea. You don't deserve this, any of it." He said quietly. It was a sign of respect; even though the family insisted on first names only, the people ignored this and put titles in front of their names. Rhea waved a hand.

"Thank you, Sirius. You might as well stay; maybe my daughter will be less insufferable with you here." She said tiredly. Dany sat down on a couch opposite her mother, on the other side of her father's hospital bed. Sirius sat down next to her and she leaned on him. Rhea cleared her throat.

"I think I'll go and try to find some tea, maybe it will help me sleep…" She trailed off and Sirius saw her look at her husband like she was afraid that something was going to happen in the brief time she was away.

"I can go to find something if you want to stay with him." Sirius said suddenly, not sure where that had come from. She smiled a little and he was instantly very glad he had offered. "Thank you." She said softly and for the first time since meeting her, Sirius saw a bit of her daughter in Rhea Masters.

Dany couldn't tell if Sirius getting her mother coffee was an attempt to placate her mother or was a genuine gesture. She suspected it was genuine but she wasn't really sure. Her people skills were kind of shit right now. Because her dad might be dying. He was in a hospital bed with a gaping hole in his chest and a collapsed left lung and a cracked head. He might be dying. She had been here for nine long days. The first time she had left the room was when Florence had come in to get her because Sirius was here. She hadn't asked him how he had pulled off getting here; she had a feeling that she didn't want to know.

She knew she looked like hell, but it had been really obvious on Sirius' face when she had walked into the lobby to get him. Because of its white color, her hair had to be washed everyday or it became dingy and gross. It had been nine days since she'd changed clothes, showered, washed her hair, brushed her teeth, been home, or slept in her own bed; she barely slept or ate as it was. And she felt the strain staying here was putting on her body but she couldn't leave, not without thinking that something was going to happen to her dad in the time she was gone.

"Out of all of your friends, why him?" Her mother asked, disrupting her thoughts.

"I don't know…I guess he was the only one that really made sense. The girls would sit around feeling bad for me and throwing me a 'poor Dany, her life's so hard' party, which is something that I don't want. James would be beside himself and not much use to anyone really and I'm not that close to any of the other guys." She said with a shrug. Her mother looked at her.

"You don't want pity, you want comfort." She said to her daughter. "You want someone to tell you that it'll be alright. You want to be able to believe in the person just enough to take it on faith." Dany nodded.

"I do."

"I can't give you that."

"You're a horrible liar. And you're my mother, you're required to tell me that everything's okay so I don't think that it counts." Dany said hollowly and her mother nodded in agreement.

"We'll be seeing Sirius Black's true colors; nothing really brings it out of you like an extended hospital stay." Her mother said and Dany found it rather disturbing that she knew that. Sirius walked back in and handed her mother a cup of coffee and he did the same for Dany. She smiled a little.

"Thanks." She said as he sat down next to her. She felt kind of bad because she was pretty sure she smelled to some extent. To his credit, he was taking this all pretty well; sitting in a hospital room with her family was probably kind of strange for him. Dany took the time to scrutinize him. He didn't look bad, just kind of tired and slightly worn out. He definitely looked healthier than he had last time he had shown up from an extended stay with his parents. Her mother drank her coffee. Dany sniffed it and wrinkled her nose. She didn't like coffee to begin with and the fact it was hospital coffee added an extra level of gross onto the drink. But she needed it to stay awake so she drank it. "How's James?" She asked him quietly.

"I don't know, I haven't seen him since school got out. You've probably seen him more recently than I have." He said and she raised her eyebrows. She could have sworn that James had said he was going to be at the Potter's sometime this summer.

"I thought you were staying there for a while this summer." She said and he shrugged.

"I was supposed to this week but then this girl I know wrote me to say that her dad was in the hospital and she wanted me to come stay with her. It kind of sounded a little more important than playing Quidditch with James and his dad for a week." He said and she felt kind of bad for trashing his break from his parents. "Why isn't he here, by the way? I would have thought that he would be beside himself." Sirius said and Dany bit her lip.

"He doesn't know. Actually no one knows outside of our family except Moody, Florence, my Dad's secretary, Dorea, Charlie, and you." She told him quietly. She didn't know how he was going to take that.

"What about the Aurors out in the lobby?"

"They don't know who they're protecting; Moody gave them orders and they're following them. No one knows because we're hiding the fact that he's injured. Dorea and Charlie have been sneaking Rae in and out of the Ministry and he's been doing as little as possible to get by from inside Dad's office. No one knows it's him except Dad's secretary. She executes everything for him. Mom goes in when she can, if someone needs to make a public appearance." Dany said. Sirius looked at her, mildly impressed.

"Damn, that's some back-up plan. The public will never know, will they?" Dany shook her head.

"They have to think that we're strong, that we're unbreakable. It's the only way to keep morale up. They can't know that the leader of their side of the war is currently…like this." Her mother said suddenly, gesturing to her husband. Dany saw how miserable she looked; Dany couldn't imagine being in that kind of pain. He was her father, but her mother had been the one to fall in love with him and now the man she had spent her life with, built a family with and fathered her children was lying in a bed and no one was sure that he was going to ever wake up. Sirius nodded.

"I understand. It's horrible that it's come to this level of secrecy; this is just tragic. Out of everyone I know your family deserves this the least. My parents deserve this." He said and Dany was pretty sure he hadn't meant to say the last part out loud. Thankfully, he had said it quietly although Dany was pretty sure her mother had heard anyways. She always said that Mom ears were like bat ears; they heard everything. Her mother regarded him quietly and Dany could see that she was slowly changing her opinion on him.

"I should probably go for a bit, just to make sure Rhaegar hasn't burned down generations of work in the Ministry overnight. Will you be okay on your own for a bit, Dan?" She asked and Dany nodded.

"I'm not alone, Mom." She reminded her softly and her mother nodded.

"I'll be back soon." She said and left the room. Sirius looked at her sadly.

"How are you?" He asked. It was the first time in all nine days that someone had bothered to ask how she was doing and not her father. She felt her eyes start to well up.

"How honest of an answer do you want? And you should know that I'm essentially tears on legs at this point." She said. He smiled a little.

"As honest as you want to be. And noted. By the way, is there a reason that you're sitting as far away as possible from me?" He asked and she looked down and saw that she was squished into one side of the couch.

"Oh, yeah I'm pretty sure I smell and don't really want to subject you to that. It's okay with my mom because she subjects me to rabbit food when I'm home. That and she birthed me. But you haven't done anything wrong so I'm over here." She said and felt her cheeks warm up a little.

"I don't really care if you smell, Dan, which you don't because you already tackled me downstairs. But seriously, how are you holding up?" He asked and she scooted towards him, now that the fact she didn't smell horrible was established.

"I'm awful. I'm scared and tired and all I do is sit here hoping he'll wake up except he never does." She was really starting to cry now. "Why doesn't he wake up?" She heard herself ask through hiccupping sobs. "I don't care if he's Minister; that's what they're all worried about, you know. What if the Minister dies? What will we do? I don't care about that. I don't care at all. I just want my Daddy back." She whispered through her tears. "Is that too much to ask? I just want him back." She stopped talking but put her head down into her hands and continued to cry. She didn't even bother to be embarrassed. She felt him put a hand on her back and it occurred to her for the first time that he had probably never seen anyone really cry. His parents wouldn't have and guys certainly didn't cry like this. He probably didn't know how to make it stop. Not like she blamed him. She didn't know how to make it stop, let alone him.

"Okay, come here." He said and pulled her towards him. She willingly sat on his lap and continued to cry straight onto his shirt. And the tears just kept coming; she didn't know where all the water was coming from. She would have thought that she would have run out at some point, but apparently not because she couldn't stop the tears.

"Why didn't I see this? Why do I keep seeing useless shit and not this? I should have seen this instead of some damn door." She heard herself say and she realized just how true that was; she was mad that the universe had been showing her the number four over and over and not her father's attempted assassination. She could have warned him. They sat like that for a while, until Dany stopped crying because her body just couldn't come up with the water to keep the waterworks coming. She realized how she was sitting for the first time. She was in his lap, her head pressed into his shoulder, and his hands were on her back, rubbing up and down in an attempt to calm her down.

"Dan?" He asked softly from above her.

"Yeah?" She said quietly and her voice broke from the strain that had just been on her body from the sobbing.

"When was the last time you slept?" He asked.

"Too long." She whispered into his shoulder, still not moving. She felt one of his hands leave her back for a second before returning.

"Why don't you try to sleep? You'll probably feel better when you wake up." He said. She looked up at him.

"What if—?"

"If he even breathes too loud, I'll wake you up, okay? Try and get some rest. You're not doing anyone any good running yourself into the ground." He said gently and she nodded.

"Hey Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I stay here? I'm tired of feeling so alone." She said quietly.

"Yeah, you can stay. Just move off me for a second so I can get the circulation to my legs going again. When I sat down originally I wasn't planning on having you on me." He said and she moved off of him so he could stand. She realized that his shirt had taken a noticeable hit where she had been crying and she felt her cheeks heat up again.

"Sorry about the shirt." She said, somewhat embarrassed. He looked down.

"What? Oh, don't worry about it. It's just water, it'll dry." He said and then sat down again, this time looking like he was thinking about how he was going to place his limbs. "Alright, I'm good. Come here." He said and she sat back down where she had been. "Now get some sleep. I'll get you up if he stirs or wakes up but I'm going to let you sleep if your mom comes back, alright?" She nodded and a few minutes later, she finally fell asleep for the first time in far too long.

Dany opened her eyes and realized that she had been sleeping sitting up. The next thing she noticed was that it was getting dark out and her mother had come back and was restlessly sleeping in the same chair she had been in. Then she noticed that she was still sitting on top of Sirius, who appeared not to have moved since she had fallen asleep, and she had a blanket on top of her. She moved a little and he looked down at her from where he was reading a book, which he was holding at a weird angle to avoid her head. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders.

"What time is it?" She asked as she yawned.

"Almost seven." He said as he put the book down. "How do you feel? That doesn't look terribly comfortable to me but I'm not sleep deprived." He said and she slowly moved her joints. Sure enough, they were sore and when she tried to stand up her back and stomach hurt, probably from the crying, she thought. She brought the blanket with her, keeping it wrapped around her to keep the chill of the hospital at bay; she wondered who had gotten it for her.

"Yeah, my back and neck aren't really thanking me right now, but oh well I guess…when did she get back?" Dany whispered as she sat down next to Sirius.

"About two or three hours after you fell asleep. You were out a good nine hours. You should have seen her face when she walked in and you were passed out on my lap. It was a mix of shock and relief probably because you were sleeping, and she didn't look too thrilled but that's probably because she doesn't like me." He whispered back.

"I think that might change after this…what did she say?"

"She asked if my legs hurt yet. When I said yes she asked if I was going to wake you up or move you. When I said no she laughed and said that men were all the same. No clue what she meant by that, just by the way. Oh and she handed me this book for something to do." He said and gestured to the book.

"Wow, you got her to laugh? Sirius Black you are a person of rare talent. No one can do that except Dad; maybe me or Rae if we're particularly hilarious that day." She said with a small laugh of her own. She was taken aback for a second; that was the first time she had laughed since her mom had burst into her room and told her that they were all leaving for St. Mungo's now. She smiled a little and decided that she had made the very correct choice of writing Sirius instead of Lily.

Sirius had been in the hospital with Dany and her mom for five days when Rhea started pushing Dany to go home for a night to take a shower, eat real food, and sleep somewhere that wasn't Sirius' lap (which was where she slept now).

"Danilynn, I just really think that you should consider going home for a night. This isn't healthy for you to be here all the time like you have been." Rhea was telling her daughter. Sirius agreed with her privately but said nothing; this wasn't his family and it wasn't his place to add his opinion.

"I'm fine. Besides, what if he wakes up and I'm not here?" Dany argued and Sirius also thought that was a good point.

"Your father wouldn't like that you're doing this to yourself; he would tell you to take care of yourself before worrying about him." Rhea said and Sirius thought that she made an airtight argument. That's exactly what Daniel Masters would say if he were in any condition to be talking at the moment. "Look, it's five now; why don't you go home just for the rest of the day and tonight? Come back tomorrow morning. Besides, the Healers don't think he's going to be waking up within the next two days. He'll still be here when you come back." Her mother said persuasively. She made a good case. "Take Sirius with you; he looks like he could use a shower and a good night's sleep in a bed, without you sitting on him." Dany looked at him and he tried to look impassive. He was pretty sure he failed because he wanted to cry at the thought of a shower.

"I don't know…" Dany said.

"You've been here for two weeks straight, Dan. Give yourself a break." Her mom said and Dany finally relented.

"Alright, we'll go. But if anything happens, send someone to get me. I'm not joking Mother." She said and Rhea looked relieved. Sirius was worried about his friend too. She looked thin, too thin, and stretched; she looked so much older than fourteen, almost fifteen. Her hair was verging on grey it was so dirty and she had yet to change clothes, not to mention that she muttered in her sleep every night. She was going to kill herself through neglect if she didn't pull herself together. He was pretty sure he had never seen someone become so undone.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Honey. Take good care of my daughter, Sirius." Rhea said and Sirius nodded.

"I won't let her do anything stupid, well stupider than usual." He said and Dany rolled her eyes.

"Cute. Really, that's so flattering; this must be how you get all of those girlfriends." She said and he shook his head.

"Nah, I can be charming if I want." He said and she didn't look convinced.

"I'll go get Alastor, he'll apparate you both home." Rhea said and left the room to go find the Auror, who Sirius hadn't seen since he had walked into the hospital originally.

"I'm sorry I'm keeping you here. You should be at James' place having fun." She said softly. "I didn't mean to dump my problems on your doorstep." He wrapped an arm around her and she leaned into his shoulder.

"Oh, don't worry about it; I chose to come here and I chose to stay. Besides, I think your mom is starting to like me." He said and she laughed.

"She better like you after this or I'll have her head for being ungrateful. Too bad Rae isn't here; you'd probably convince him…maybe." She said with a smile. And Sirius smiled back, just as Rhea returned with Alastor Moody.

Sirius saw his eyes go to the hospital bed. Sirius had forgotten that he was Daniel's firstborn's Godfather; seeing the Auror look at the man in the bed, he didn't doubt that they were friends, verging on family. He felt a pang of sympathy for the man. He walked towards the bed and stared at his face.

"Bloody idiot. I always told him to be more careful; and now he's laid up because I couldn't do my job. I am so sorry, both of you." He said suddenly to Dany and Rhea. Both of them shook their heads.

"It's not your fault, Alastor. There was nothing you could have done for him that you didn't do." Rhea told him softly and put a hand on his arm.

"I was always the one that was supposed to be hurt. It was my job to protect him. I should have stepped in front of him; that should have been me. It was always supposed to be me to go first." He said and Rhea slapped him across the face, hard. He didn't do anything in response and Dany and Sirius were both too shocked to react. No wonder he had been so pissed when Sirius had tried to convince him to let him back to see Dany; he wasn't just protecting his charge he was protecting family.

"Don't you ever say that Alastor Moody. Our family has lost enough as it is so don't you dare put that thought in my head. Not now, not ever. If you do, so help me I'll put the fear of God into you." She snapped and Sirius saw what Dany had meant when she had said that her mother was the only one who could put her dad in his place when they were kids. The woman was as fierce as her daughter.

"Mom!" Dany yelled. "What the hell?" She said.

"No, she's right Danilynn. Now's not the time. I'm sorry Rhea. You don't need to hear that." He said and Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"It's fine. Just…take them home. Please." She said and waved a hand. She was tired and they all saw it. He nodded and grabbed both of their hands.

"Hold on." He said gruffly and they Apparated with a crack. They appeared on the front step of Dany's house. He recognized it from the New Years party. He had never seen the inside of the house when it wasn't redecorated for the party. He had never actually seen where Dany lived. "I need to get back to the hospital. Dan, I'm sorry about what I said…you don't need to hear things like that right now." Moody said. Dany shrugged.

"No, it's fine, really. Besides, Mom just backhanded you and that's punishment enough. Thank you for not trying to hide everything from me like everyone else is." She said softly and hugged the older man quickly. He hugged her back before letting her go to shake Sirius' hand.

"You take care of her Sirius Black, you hear me? You protect her." Sirius nodded.

"I'm right here you know." She said dryly. She was ignored and Moody Apparated away again, leaving them standing there in silence.

"This place is beautiful." He said softly, looking around. There were trees around the edges of the clearing the house was in and it was bright and airy.

"Thanks, I was really fortunate to grow up here. Come on, let's get inside." She said and opened the front door. The inside was just as beautiful as the outside and the house was just as light and elegant as the family that had lived in it for as long as anyone could remember. There were windows everywhere and hardwood floors ran through the house and there was a lofted ceiling. The entrance was flooded with natural light, and in the room adjacent to the entryway, Sirius saw a piano. He felt dirty in the clean, bright home. Even Dany looked dingy and out of place in her own home, in her current state.

"Nice house, Dan." He said and she smiled.

"Thanks. So the basement, my parents' room, and my dad's study are all off-limits but other than that, the place is yours." She said with a gesture around.

"Do you play piano?" He asked suddenly. She glanced at him, surprised. She started to walk towards the piano and sat on the bench, looking at the papers on the stand.

"Yeah, a little. My dad taught me when I was a little kid. He's the real musician in the house though. He writes, plays, he can even kind of sing; I mean his voice is slightly better than average but I remember thinking that it was the best sound in the world when I was like five." She said with a smile. He smiled absently, thinking about a little girl with white hair sitting next to her dad on the piano bench listening to him sing.

"What is all of this?" He asked gesturing to the papers. Her face suddenly turned red.

"Oh, um they're songs. Most of them are my dad's." She said. She looked like she was going to say something else but stopped herself.

"Most of them?" He asked and she looked like she was on the verge of telling him to mind his own business.

"Um, yeah some are mine too…" She said awkwardly. He raised an eyebrow; he hadn't had her pegged as a songwriter.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously. And I don't really tell anybody that so don't repeat it." She added on quickly. "Like no one knows; that's something I've managed to keep James from knowing since I was practically born." She said and he nodded.

"Alright, alright I won't tell anyone. Promise…what could all of those be about? Not to be nosy, but I'm being nosy." He said and she smiled a little.

"I'm not really sure…everything I guess? I never really do anything with any of it; I can't sing. At least I don't think I can. Rae says I can but I think he's just trying to get me to embarrass myself publicly." She said with a laugh, absently fingering the piano keys as if she was playing.

"You can't be that bad." He said and she laughed.

"That's what you think…I'm going to go shower. You can find something to do or just chill in my room; I don't really care which." She said.

"Your house kind of scares me so I think I'll just sit in your room and not touch anything." He said and she laughed as she started to walk up the stairs.

"Anything you break we can fix…and you think my house is scary? What about yours? Somehow I can't imagine it being warm and homey." She said and he shrugged.

"It's not at all…it's dark and kind of cramped. It's a townhouse sort of."

"In London?" She asked, apparently making the connection. He nodded.

"Yeah, in London. Living in the city isn't all its talked up to be, believe me. If it is, I wouldn't know because I'm not really allowed to leave the house." He said as she paused at a door.

"So you have to promise that you won't go looking for my underwear." She said with a grin.

"You have my word. No searching for bras and panties allowed." He said and she opened the door. Her room was lovely. It was large, large enough to accommodate her queen bed, desk and chair, dresser, closet, and a piano. Everything was white, except for the black piano. She had managed to fit a baby grand piano into her room comfortably. "You only play 'a little'?" He said and she smiled.

"Alright maybe more than a little. I'm going to go shower so look around, sit down, do whatever. Just no panties." She said and vanished into a room he assumed was her bathroom. After a second he heard the water start running and he looked around. This room was seriously massive. It could absolutely make a large sitting room. He looked at the strings of pictures that were strung up with clothespins.

There were a lot of her and Lily laughing in places he didn't recognize; he assumed it was either the Evans residence or a different part of Dany's house. He also saw a few pictures of her and James from when they were little kids, probably about eight or so. James looked the same, just shorter, and Dany had a head full of white ringlets instead of the long waves she had now. There were several pictures of her and her father at different stages of her life; Daniel with his little girl on his shoulders, then a picture of them at the platform, Dany clearly being sent off for her First Year at Hogwarts, and then a picture of them dancing near the piano in their pajamas. It was adorable. He saw his face in a few of the pictures too, which mildly surprised him. He remembered taking the pictures but had never really made the connection that she'd have them. His eyes left the pictures and drifted over to the glass doors that led out to a balcony. He glanced at the bathroom door, where water was still audibly running and opened the doors to the balcony curiously. The view was beautiful from her second floor room. It was so perfect that he could literally hear the birds chirping.

"Sirius? Could you do me a favor and just stare out the window for like five minutes? I forgot to bring clothes in with me." He heard her say and he did his best to not think about the fact that she was naked in the adjacent room.

"Sure, no problem. I'm out on your balcony." He said and he heard the door open and he tried really hard to concentrate on the nice, wholesome, wildlife and not on the fact that she was like five feet away, dripping wet, and completely naked. There were sounds of movement behind him and he had to fight the urge to turn around and get a look.

"One more second…sorry about this, I didn't really think that through…" She said and he nodded and made a noncommittal sound so he could guarantee that he didn't say something completely sexual. "Alright, I'm decent." She said and he turned around and she was clothed. She was in a tank top and sweatpants and her hair was up in a bun on top of her head but despite the baggy pants and the obvious age of the shirt, she looked the healthiest she had since Sirius had walked into St. Mungo's five days earlier. She looked about a thousand times better than she had but she was still much skinnier than she had been when summer had started. "I didn't realize that this was such a provocative outfit." She smirked and he realized that he had blatantly staring at her.

"Oh no, I was just deciding if you looked emaciated; I can't decide if you've effectively starved yourself or not." He said and she looked mildly self-conscious.

"Eating hasn't really been on my list of priorities lately. I didn't realize that I'd lost so much." She said. "You can go ahead and use the shower if you want. Feel free to use the shampoo." She waved a hand towards the bathroom. "Just don't forget to bring your clothes with you." She said wryly and tossed him the bag he had brought with him from his house the day he had left. He caught it and laughed before walking into the bathroom.

It was big enough to accommodate the needs of a teenage girl and it was obvious that the countertop got a lot of use, judging by the amount of cosmetics on it. Sirius inspected the wall-to-wall mirror above the counter and realized that she had written on it in what looked like red lipstick and it appeared that it had been there for a while. It said you are beautiful in loopy cursive. Sirius thought that over as he pulled off his nasty clothes and started to run the water. He couldn't tell if she had put it there as a self-affirmation thing or not. He stepped under the hot water and wanted to cry it felt so good. Then he realized that it was all of Dany's stuff in here. There were bottles and sponges and a comb and a razor splayed about. He looked at the bottles in search of shampoo. Shaving cream? No. Conditioner? Not that either. Finally he found the shampoo and smelled it experimentally; it smelled good he thought to himself. His mind slipped back to the mirror. Was it there to keep her self-esteem up? He couldn't really see her having to remind herself that she was beautiful. It was on the damn mirror, she could see for herself and didn't need a reminder if she was looking at her own face. Did he just call her beautiful? He couldn't remember ever identifying a girl as beautiful in his life. Girls were pretty, they were hot, they were cute, and they were sexy, but he had yet to come across one that he could comfortably call beautiful. He had yet to think that any one of his girlfriends had something that was more than skin-deep. But he had undeniably just called her beautiful. Sirius got out of the shower and found his clothes and quickly got dressed. He shoved his dirty clothes in the bag and walked back out into Dany's room.

She was sitting at the piano; quietly playing around with the notes, occasionally scribbling something on the paper she had on the stand. She looked up when he opened the door and put her quill down.

"Hey. You look like you feel better." She said with a smile. He nodded.

"Yeah, I forgot how much I missed showering. I saw the graffiti on the mirror…what's up with that?" he asked and she looked embarrassed.

"You saw that? Oh, I just keep it there to remind myself to be kinder to, well, myself. Being a teenage girl's hard enough as it is…I don't want to let myself hate the way I look on top of it. The gossip columns don't exactly help either." She said quietly. He thought it was ridiculous that she, or anyone else, could hate the way that she looked, but was distracted by the last sentence.

"What do you mean?" He asked and she smiled wryly.

"I take it you don't bother reading Witch Weekly or the gossip in the back of the Prophet?" He shook his head. She stood up and reached under her bed. She pulled out a newspaper and flipped to a page. She handed it to him. There was a legitimate column discussing whether or not she was overweight. It was dated as last month, right after they came home from school.

"That's disgusting. What the hell is this?" He said and she shrugged.

"That's the price I pay for all of this." She said and gestured around. "The name, the position, the family, it all comes with a price: unrelenting scrutiny. Even my birth made headlines. You'd think that you'd get used to it, but you never get used to strangers judging you. It hurts just as much now as it did the first time." She said and Sirius was honestly revolted by the fact that people really got their rocks off on publically shaming and judging a fourteen-year-old girl on her weight.

"Dan…not to accidentally hit on you or anything, but you're really a pretty girl, even if you don't see it. It takes someone special to rock that hair." He said and she smiled.

"Thanks…How about something to eat? I make a pretty mean grilled cheese." She said, changing the subject.

"Sure, as long as it's not from St. Mungo's I'll take it." He said and followed her out of her room. As they walked back downstairs, he thought that she looked like she belonged here now that she was clean and seemed to be as bright as the house was. She walked into another room and saw it was the kitchen. It was as large and as lovely as the rest of the house. She started rummaging around and started the grilled cheese.

"So, I think my mom is starting to warm up to you." She said and he raised an eyebrow.

"I still can't tell if she's just chronically depressed right now and needs help or is actually starting to like me." He said and she laughed as she flipped the sandwiches on the stovetop.

"Aw, you're being hard on yourself. Don't think that anyone will forget what you've done for our family. We're a lot of things but forgetful isn't one of them. Mom has a memory like a bloody elephant." She said. Sirius didn't doubt it. "Have you heard from Kenzie?" She asked, suddenly changing subjects again. Sirius started at the question; he had honestly forgotten about his girlfriend in light of the past week.

"No, I haven't heard from her since school ended…she was supposed to come over to James' but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how he got rid of her when she got there but I guess he did somehow." He said with a shrug. "She's probably pissed that I bailed last second. You know James might be pissed too, now that I think about it." He said thoughtfully.

"I doubt James will be pissed at you. He can't stay mad at you, you have to know that by now." She said with a smile as she put the sandwiches on plates. She handed him one and they sat at the kitchen table.

"I live in a constant state of thinking that everyone is one the verge of hating me. It comes with being the black sheep of the family." He said half-jokingly. She tilted her head.

"If you're a black sheep in a dark family, does that make you the white sheep?" She asked with a small smile. He thought about it.

"Does it?"

"I think it does." She said decisively. Sirius ate his grilled cheese, thinking that over.

"Oh my god, this is incredible. What did you do to this sandwich?" He asked with his mouth full. She laughed at his face.

"I don't know…I just make it how my mom taught me to. It might be the butter, I'm not sure." She said with a shrug. "You might just be really sick of hospital food." She added on and Sirius nodded. He was really sick of shitty coffee and lukewarm meals.

"That definitely could be…but seriously I think everything might be better when someone else makes it for you." he said and she laughed.

"You sound like my brother. He's such a brat; Mom dotes on him so much. She still made him special dinners when he was like eleven." She said and Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

"And you're not spoiled?" He asked, still smiling, and she instantly looked like she had regretted what she had said.

"I know we all look like we're ridiculously spoiled compared to what you live with on holiday. And you're right to think so. Don't think I don't know how fortunate I am to have a family that loves me. I know not everyone is so lucky." She said and Sirius was rather surprised. He hadn't been thinking about that at all and had meant it as a joke referring to her father's obvious preference for her over his son.

"Oh, yeah…well I'm pretty sure almost everyone has it better than me in the parental department so don't feel bad. Besides, I wouldn't wish my parents on my worst enemy." He said and she looked sad. Sympathetic was a good word for it, he decided.

"You're a good person despite their best efforts to make you otherwise, Sirius. Don't let anyone convince you of anything different." She said softly before picking up both of their plates and putting them in the sink. "We should probably go to bed. It's dark out." She said and Sirius looked out the window to see that it was truly night out.

"Yeah, can you point me in the direction of a guest room? I'd really like to sleep in a position that isn't upright." He said and she looked uncomfortable.

"Sorry about that…I didn't mean for that to happen…more than once." She said and he shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like you're living in a world of comfort on my lap." He said and it was true; there was no way she was very comfortable sleeping how she did; but at least she slept which, according to her mother, was an improvement.

"True. Come on, I'll find you a room with a view." She said with a smile. He followed her back upstairs and she stopped at a door. "This should do it. I'm two doors that way on the right if you need me." She said.

"Thanks Dan." He said and she smiled.

"Goodnight Sirius." She said and walked down the hall and vanished into her room. He opened the door to the guest room and true to form, it was lovely. He crawled into bed and almost immediately fell asleep.