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Title: Last Days of Silence

Summary: When there's nothing else left to burn you have to set yourself on fire. AU one-shots depicting the twisted tales of two lovers destined to meet each other. Sirius/Ginny

Disclaimer: I only own the plot.

Author's Note: So these are a collection of one-shot, mostly AU's, that I either feel I can't do a whole story about or have no desire to do a full story about. These are about my loves, Sirius and Ginny, and will be centered around them the whole time. Enjoy at your own risk!

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A Human Man

"You're a vampire," she said bluntly, her eyes narrowing as she took in his form.

He didn't react to her statement, except for a flickering of his eyes as they met hers. When Ginny had been younger, when she had read that dreaded diary in her father's office and grew knowledge of a world that before had only lived in her nightmares, she had imagined vampires to be different from what they really are. She hadn't expected a human man, handsome and clever and angry, to be before her. A demon had been what her mind usually conjured, ghostly and haunted and… evil. Perhaps he was all those things, this Sirius Black.

But it was hard for her to believe that when she watched his chest lift and fall with each breath. He had been human once, if she were to believe what that diary said. He had been human and likely hadn't wished to become what he was. Or had he?

Ginny tilted her head, wondering if he was going to contradict what she had said or not. Finally, after a long stretch of silence, Mister Lupin stepped forward. He cleared his throat, opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and shook his head.

"Remus you mustn't fret."

Sirius Black finally spoke.

The words sent a chill down her back, as if someone had dropped ice down her dress. Goosebumps scattered across her skin and her breathing hitched. It was odd, to say the least, that simply his voice could cause such a reaction. It was deep yet light, a teasing edge to every word. Sirius Black lifted his thumb to his mouth and bit it gently as he studied her.

For some reason he seemed just as fascinated with her as she was with him.

"And why is that, Sirius?" Mister Lupin said.

Ginny drug her eyes away from the vampire to look at Mister Lupin. He was worried, his hands twisting in front of him. Was he always this nervous? Or had the very sight of her sent him into a panic, one he had yet to escape?

"We can't send her out into the darkness," said the vampire. "So she'll be staying the night. When morning light breaks she can make her decision."

She turned her attention back to Sirius Black.

"There is no decision to make," Ginny stated, crossing her arms over her chest. "My parents are missing. They've been taken. And my father told me to come to you. I'm not leaving till we find them."

But when both men refused to speak fear began to bloom in Ginny's chest, fear that had not presented itself till now. What if they didn't help her? What if her father had been wrong? There were so many questions unanswered, so many doubts coming forth that before she never would have thought of. Why would her father send her to a vampire for help if, and Ginny still had trouble believing how true this was, a vampire was the one to kidnap her parents? What would she do in the morning if they decided not to help her?

Her brothers were spread across the globe. Any letter would take ages to find them, even if she were to write to them right away. They would take too long to come to the rescue. And, either way, her father had sent her to Sirius Black. After being thrown in the shadows, to knit and sew and cook with her mother, her father was finally entrusting her with something he'd normally only look to her brothers for… not only was it his life but also his secrets.

Secrets that these two men- that Mister Lupin and the vampire knew about. They knew her father. They could help her find her father and mother, she knew that deep in her heart. But they could certainly turn her away.

The fear grew inside of her and her mouth went dry.

"You cannot make me leave," she cried out, her thoughts becoming the course of action she was now positive they would choose. "I will not leave."

Mister Lupin's eyebrows perked and Ginny realized how childish she sounded. She breathed out through her mouth as her cheeks colored.

"Of course not," Sirius Black said after a stretch of silence.

He was as still as a statue and she wondered if he were even speaking for the muscles on his face didn't seem to move, his mouth barely parted to let out his thoughts.

"Show her to her room, Remus. I'll see if Lily left any extra garments that Miss Weasley could perhaps wear during her stay here."

Ginny's eyebrows rose in surprise and she ran her hands over her large, worn dress. She fought the humiliation that came with what the vampire said, instead picking up her bag that sat beside her and turning to Mister Lupin.

He looked uneasy but nodded.

"I can take that-"

"No, thank you, sir, I can handle this just fine."

Once again Mister Lupin's mouth dropped open. She watched him glance at Sirius Black, who for the first time smiled. It was sharp and white and at the sight of it an odd sensation rolled through her body. When she'd think of it later in bed she'd convince herself it was fear from the sight of something so human being done by a creature of the night.

But in that moment she knew it was because she had never seen a sight so beautiful before. And she knew that despite her parents being kidnapped by the lord of the vampires, despite being thrown into this world of darkness that she had been ignorant of before, despite traveling to London to find two men she had never heard of, that by seeing Sirius Black smile nothing would ever be the same in her life again.