A/N: This chapter is based on my current song of the day, Skyscraper, by Demi Lovato. It's not the point in time Jenny's in at this moment, more of a promise of where she thinks she ought to be. IDK. You'll see. I've actually been to counseling, but it's been a while, so bear with me. Hope my little project works out!

Jenny woke up early for her appointment on Saturday morning, hoping not to run into anyone. Of course, just like every other time she didn't want to be seen, Sirius was there. He had a knack for being where he shouldn't be, and a knack for driving Jenny crazy.

"JV, what in Merlin's name are you doing up so early?" he said from the couch as she tried to sneak through the common room.

"I've got a thing," she said pathetically. "And I'm actually going to be late."

"What sort of thing?" he said suspiciously, getting up and blocking her path.

"It's an important thing, now just get out of my way and I promise we'll have a good ice cream chat later, all right?"

His eyes brightened visibly at the mention of their ice cream chats, their tradition when they were kids when they would spend afternoons gorging on ice cream and talking about anything and everything that occurred to them. It was a multi-hour extravaganza and they hadn't done one since they were twelve.

"You mean it?" he said softly.

"Every word," she sighed. "But I really am late. Promise. Find me after lunch and we'll do the best ice cream chat ever."

He got right out of her way and let her rush out of the common room, running to the classroom on the third floor that Dumbledore had told her would be the meeting place for her appointments. She pushed the door open to find not one, but two men waiting for her in the dusty desks. Professor Dumbledore and his twinkling blue eyes were standing there.

"Miss Avery," he said softly, "cutting a bit close, are we?"

"I'm sorry, Professor," she said honestly. "I did try to be on time, but I was held up."

"No matter, Miss Avery," he said cheerily. "This is Healer Wronski."

"Wronski?" she said, eyes wide. "You mean like–"

"Yes, the Quidditch play was named for my great uncle," he said dismissively, waving the awe in her voice away with his hand and then gesturing her to sit down with a genial smile. "Thank you, Albus, I think she and I will be fine from here."

Professor Dumbledore nodded, leaving Jenny to sit down across from this kindly man, not exactly old, but certainly not young. His eyes were nearly as kind as Dumbledore's, a honey-brown very near the shade of Remus's eyes, but his hair was a golden blond.

"Now," he said kindly, "as Professor Dumbledore said, I'm Healer Wronski, but you can call me Elias. I specialize in Psychological Healing. I retired from St. Mungo's about three years ago, and I am working with you as a favor to Albus. He knows I'm as discrete as they come. Tell me about yourself, dear, so we have somewhere to start from."

She blinked. Tell him about herself? What sort of a prompt is that?

"Well," she said, "I'm Jenny Avery. It's short for Jeneva, not Jennifer. All my friends call me Jenny, sometimes Jen, and my best friend in the whole world calls me JV when no one else is around." She was babbling. What a horrible way to start something so official. Babbling. "I have four older brothers and two younger sisters. I'm in Gryffindor."

He nodded.

"Tell me a bit about why you think you're here."

Wasn't that obvious? Surely Professor Dumbledore had told him why she was there.

"Professor Dumbledore is worried about my scars."

"Tell me a bit about these scars."

"Like what?"

"Anything you think is relevant."

What did she think was relevant? So many things she could tell him, truth, half-truth, and flat-out lies.

"And you'll tell Dumbledore about what I say?"

He shook his head seriously and said, "No, anything you say is strictly between me and you. I can't tell anyone unless I feel you are in immediate danger from yourself or that you are about to cause immediate danger to someone else. If I feel you are in immediate danger from someone else, I might also say something, but we can discuss this all on a case-by-case basis. I don't like having to intervene. I want to help give you the tools to solve your problems without me."

Jenny blinked. He wouldn't tell anyone… He wanted to know what she thought of things… Where had he been her whole life?

"They're not accidents," she said cautiously. "But I don't want to talk about how I got them."

"I understand," he said kindly. "Do you talk to anyone about them?"

"No, not really."

"Not really?"

"Well, I have a friend who has similar scars. We don't really talk about them, but we know."

Elias Wronski nodded thoughtfully and said, "Obviously, you don't have to, but it might be helpful to talk over each of your scars with this friend. It might help you sort through some of the issues surrounding them. It's good to talk about things like this, even if it's to yourself. Saying it out loud puts it into perspective, and if you don't feel comfortable saying it to me, there may be someone in your life already who you can discuss these things with. It's healthy. I want you to know, however, that there isn't any reason you should feel uncomfortable to talk to me, but it's perfectly all right if you do."

She nodded, feeling incredibly glad that she decided to have the ice cream chat with Sirius later, spur of the moment though it had been.

"Could you tell me a bit about your family?"

Jenny frowned looked down at her fingers. Her family. What a topic.

"What would you like to know?"

"As much as you're willing to tell me. Take your time."

"Well, my father is very… I mean he's quite… Well, I don't really know how to talk about my father. My mother is… Well, she looks to my father a lot. And she's very well liked, I suppose. And I have a brother named Andrew, and he's a scholar. He works at translating runes. He's very good at it; if you have any interest in runes, you've probably read his work. And David, he's Head Boy. He's very… well, he takes after my father. And then there's the twins, Geoff and Greg. They play Quidditch. They're very good. And there's Melissa. She's a whore." I covered my mouth instinctively in shock, horrified that I had let that slip out, but he simply chuckled and waved for me to continue. "Um, well, she's a lot like David and my father. And then there's Celia. She's my favorite. She's in Ravenclaw. All the rest of them are Slytherins."

"Were your parents disappointed when you were placed in Gryffindor?"

Remembering the day she received the cold letter from her father, the day she began her first summer as a Gryffindor, the curse her father shot at her, he hatred in her brother's eyes… Disappointed didn't begin to cover it.

"Yes," she said softly, keeping her face empty of emotion, as her mother had taught her. "Very."

"Tell me about your friends. Anything you'd like."

"My first friend ever was Sirius Black," she whispered, "and he's been my very best friend ever since. We got into trouble together as children, sometimes with James Potter, and we were Sorted into Gryffindor together. We share everything, even friends, so when he became friends with Remus and Peter, so did I. When I became friends with Lily, Marlene, Anna, and Dorcas, he tried to become friends with them, too. Of course, that was easier said than done, as Lily hates him, but he made his best effort. And second year, when Tien became a Gryffindor, we both latched onto her." She grinned softly. "They're in love, they just haven't really figured it out yet. Just like James and Lily. I mean, James knows he's in love with Lily, but she's adamant that he's scum. I'll give them a couple of years before they figure it out."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"N-no," she muttered, wincing at the thought of Remus. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"My parents."

"They told you that you can't date?"

"N-not exactly. I can't date certain people. Nobody in Gryffindor, nobody who's not to their standards. They have their choices for me, but it's no one I want to be anywhere near, so I just don't date."

"But you want to," he said with a little smile.

"More than anything," she breathed before she could stop herself. Well, it was the truth. There was nothing she wanted more than to be with Remus, but that could never happen. "But I can't."

"So, is the one you're in love with Remus or Peter?" he said sharply, scribbling notes at lightning speed.

Jenny raised her eyes to his in surprise. How had he known?

"I've been doing this a lot of years, Jenny," Elias said kindly. "The look on your face said it all. So, tell me about him."

"Remus is…" she sighed, trying to think of words to do him justice. "He's the kindest, smartest, sweetest boy I've ever met. He can be goofy when he's with the other Marauders, but when we're working on a project or something, he's just the nicest, most considerate person. Oh, I just can't think of any words that really explain."

Elias smiled sadly.

"He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

Jenny thought for a moment. Of course he did. Remus meant so much to her, but Sirius was the world to her. He was the only person who could understand, who could be there for her through anything.

"I suppose he does," she whispered.

They talked about her friends, and she told him all sorts of stories from their first few years at school: pranks the boys had played, Quidditch matches, the time Lily completely lost her head and dumped a full tray of pudding on James's head during dinner. They were laughing and enjoying her stories so much that they both nearly lost track of time. However, Elias checked his pocket watch, frowned slightly, and said, "Well, Jenny, it looks like you'd better get going if you want to try to make lunch. I'll try to be better about watching the time next week. I've certainly enjoyed this time, and I hope you've found it helpful. Remember what I said. Talk to someone."

Jenny nodded, thanked him, and hurried off down to the Great Hall. She was nearly at the marble staircase when she heard someone at the bottom yell, "There you are!"

Sirius broke out of the circle of Marauders at the foot of the staircase and rushed up to where Jenny was standing, trying not to look at Remus, who was so clearly watching her.

"I've been looking everywhere for you! Lunch is over, it's time to stuff ourselves with ice cream and talk like the world is ending!"

He had a broad grin on his face, but it fell a little when he saw her expression at those last words. Neither mentioned it, though, and Jenny simply frowned and said, "But I haven't even had lunch yet."

"So have them put some biscuits in your ice cream," Sirius said with a shrug, leading her off to the kitchens. "There's flour in biscuits, there's flour in bread. That's practically a breakfast food!"

She didn't bother trying to argue with him or fight it, knowing nothing would stop Sirius now that she had set him inadvertently on a mission. They reached the portrait of the fruit bowl, he tickled the pear, and it swung forward to reveal the kitchens, bustling with busy house-elves, as always.

"Hello, Sir and Miss!" cried a little house-elf at their feet. "What would Sir and Miss be liking today?"

"Can we get some ice cream, please," said Sirius eagerly. "Lots of it. And we'd like to eat it here, so we can have more. And a tray of those biscuits we had at lunch today."

The elves scurried off to gather up the things he had just requested and he looked at her expectantly. For a moment, Jenny wasn't sure she really wanted to do this anymore, but it was too late now. She opened her mouth, and everything poured out.

Sirius just listened as she told him everything, every time her father had hit her, the time when Andrew had to pull David off her when she was thirteen because she had lost so much blood that she nearly died. That knife… those scars would never go away. She told him about all of her broken, improperly healed bones, the time Melissa bit her in front of everyone just because Jenny had had the nerve to disagree on something simple. No one had said a word.

"And then," she gasped, finally realizing that tears were rolling down her cheeks and wondering when those had appeared, "that gash this fall…"

"What was that about?" he said softly, his face stone as they slowly consumed their ice cream. It had all liquefied at this point, but they slurped it off spoons anyway.

"Celia came to me about being Sorted," Jenny sighed. "She was asking if they would hurt her like me if she wasn't in Slytherin, asking if she would have a choice, what would happen to her… She was so scared. But that means their tactics worked. She took my 'failure' as an example."

Sirius shook his head.

"It can't have worked, because she's not a Slytherin. The Hat would have given her the option, if she had seemed desperate, if she had asked. It did that for me."

"Stupid Hat," she hissed. "It's what got us into this mess in the first place."

They both knew that was a displacement of responsibility, but neither said so out loud. It felt better to blame someone else for their rebellion, for their pain.

"Do you think they will?" Sirius whispered, stirring his liquid ice cream. "Do you think they'll do to Celia what was done to us?"

She pursed her lips and looked up at him, frowning slightly. Neither of them needed to say a word to that: As much as they wanted to believe it wouldn't happen, Celia would be beaten, maybe once, maybe more, probably until she screamed for mercy. That was how it was at the Avery household, and the Black household, and the Nott's, and anywhere else there had ever been a blood traitor in the mix of children, the bad blood in the offspring.

"If this keeps up," Sirius sighed, "neither of us is going to make it to N.E.W.T.s. As much as I'd love an excuse to not sit those, I'd rather it wasn't my being six feet under."

"What are we supposed to do?" she said bitterly, slurping more ice cream. "Give in?"

"No," he growled, a hard expression on his face as he stabbed his spoon into the puddle of melted ice cream on the bottom of his bowl. "We run away when it gets too bad."

"Run away?" she mused. "Run away… it sounds like a grand adventure." She licked her spoon thoughtfully. "Where would we go?"

"The Potters would put us up in a heartbeat," Sirius said. "They'd protect us until we were able to band together and protect ourselves."

"We can't rely on the Potters, you know," she said seriously. "We'd need to find a way to become financially stable. I could quit school… get a job… Oh, don't look at me like that, Sirius, you know we'd be written out of everything the second we made a move like that! We'd have nothing!"

"You think too much, JV," he sighed. "C'mon, just think of what it would be like, sleeping at night without their roof over your head, dating whomever you wanted, knowing you could eat breakfast without being switched for putting your elbow on the table because you were tired and you forgot. And you never did tell me how they got that gash in your arm."

Jenny shook her head, licking her spoon once more before saying, "It was David and Dad. Some sort of knife that was lying around the kitchen, I don't know, I didn't particularly care to look at what it was. Dad held me down while David did it, deeper, I think, than Dad had expected, but he seemed pleased just the same. At least it wasn't a dull blade," she said with an ironic snort of humorless laughter. "At least it was incredibly sharp, whatever it was. Dad transfigured the chunk of bloody flesh into an egg, fried it, and made me eat it for breakfast."

Sirius looked as though he was going to be sick.

"Promise me," he whispered, "the next time they do this to you, you'll get out? You'll write me, and you'll go to the Potter's, and if you can't leave, I'll come get you and we'll run together, okay?"

Jenny didn't want to make that promise. She didn't want to say a word because although running away was a grand adventure, she knew she wouldn't have the strength to leave Celia all alone. Sirius was always the one who wanted to live grand adventures, anyway. Jenny just wanted to survive.

But she lied to him. She smiled, nodded, and said she would. He would find out it was a lie later, of course, after she was hurt again, but she would make some sort of excuse later. Celia needed her or that it wasn't that bad… she knew nothing would happen. It would all be lies. Any time could be the last; any time could be the one she didn't recover from.

But for now, all Jenny wanted was to finish an ice cream date with the only person in the whole world who could possibly understand what it felt like, the only one the whole world who cared enough to make her promise, even though the both knew, deep down, that it was a lie.