AN 1: So, this is an important chapter in relation to Sian and Kiara's relationship. When thinking about writing this, I thought it would be longer, but this is how it turned out. See bottom for more notes. Enjoy!

Chapter 17

A Talk Between Friends

SIAN

As soon as Kiara and Scrimwazz left the room, the uncomfortable silence that was already there turned as frosty and harsh as the cold, bitter snow that carpeted the grounds outside. As Perdy stared at the ground and Meers, Sarafina and Ferdinand stared between the glaring Dawsons, Simba, Nala, Sarabi, Tanya, Geri, Sam and Kopa and Perdy, Sian was wondering about her cousin's reappearance. She could have turned up at any time she pleased, Sian knew that, but why now? And why did she bring the Minister with her? There had to be a reason for this, that Sian knew; she also knew that she wasn't going to like the answer, but she had to know. So, keeping her breathing steady, Sian looked up at her cousin and began her questioning.

"Why are you here, Perdy?" she asked sharply.

Perdy looked up at Sian then, as did the rest of the Dawsons and their guests, but Sian had her eyes focused on her target.

"What do you mean, "why am I here"?" Perdy answered, slowly and carefully. "There's nothing wrong with me wanting to see my family, is there?"

"No, of course not," said Sian, smiling innocently. "I mean, yes, Christmas is a time for family ... but one doesn't normally invite the Minister for Magic round for Christmas dinner - whether or not the Girl Who Lived is in their home ..."

Those words had an affect on everyone. The Dawson party had all widened their eyes as Sian's words registered in their minds, and Sian saw a flicker of fear in Perdy's eyes. Sian inwardly smiled at this; she knew that Perdy was breaking ... all she had to do was keep pushing.

" ... so there must be a reason," Sian continued, "as to why you and the Minister are here, Perdita. And it's not because you wanted to see us, no, no, no, that's just your motive - or rather, the Minister's motive."

Once again, Sian could feel the silent gasps that stemmed from the people around her, and in that moment, she knew she had won. Perdy even confirmed her suspicions.

"And so what if the Minister needs her, Sian?" said Perdy, glaring at her cousin. "What does it matter - ?"

"It matters, Perdita," said Sian, "because the people you see all around you care a great deal about Kiara, and after all she and her family have suffered from you and your obnoxious Ministry chums last year, claiming to be a liar and a mad delinquent, as well as calling my mother - your aunt - a fool - well, I wouldn't be surprised if Kiara disagreed straightaway to the Minister's plan, whatever it may be."

Perdy stared hard at Sian, as she said, "The Ministry needs her, Sian - "

"Needs her?" said Sian, her patience gone and her temper rising. "Needs her? Perdy, the only thing Kiara needs is a break from the Ministry, more than anything else. As I said before, Kiara and her family have suffered enough at the hands of the Ministry. She is not some possession to be used because she's this beacon of hope for everyone - she's a girl, who just wants to live as normal a life as possible, without having the Ministry and the press breathing down her throat every five minutes.

"And you know what the worst thing about all this is, Perdita?" said Sian, glaring at her cousin. "It's the fact that you are here, being the Minister's puppet because you were close to Kiara, which you had no right to do, Perdita. None whatsoever. You can't just come back here after about a year and a half, not only to use Kiara, but also to not apologise to us - your family - who you hurt and let down a great deal when you walked out that door; for my family opened our doors to you and your sisters when you had nowhere else to go, who took care of you when you were younger when your mother had to work, and who did everything within our power to keep you safe and happy. Because family is everything, Perdita. Without it, we are truly alone."

As Perdy opened her mouth to speak, a very angry-looking Kiara came bursting into the room.

KIARA

I stormed back up to the house, the conversation I had with Scrimwazz swimming in my mind. I could not believe that after everything I had been through with the Ministry last year, that they wanted me to be their poster girl, to smile and say that they were doing a great job, when they were clearly nowhere near to winning this war than the rest of us were! How could they do that to me? What did they think, that after a year of refusing to believe me, of calling me a liar and Crighton an old fool, that I could just welcome them back with open arms and accept their proposal to help them out, despite the fact that we are on the same side? I don't think so!

As I approached the dining room, I heard Sian yelling at Perdy. As I neared the door, I could hear what Sian was saying more clearly to Perdy: about how unfair it was for the Ministry to use me in such a way, about how Perdy had hurt her family, and how she had let them all down. Sian's words touched me, not only because she was standing up for me, but also because I could hear in Sian's voice the pain that had been caused by Perdy leaving. But it was Sian's final words that really struck a cord with me.

"Because family is everything, Perdita. Without it, we are truly alone."

I let out a small gasp once Sian had said that, because I realised that she was right: family was indeed important, because it was everything, and hearing Sian say those words made me realise just how important family was to Sian. But it also made me realise something else, something that had always been there, but had just made itself clear in my mind, shattering through the walls at the back of my brain with such force that it hit me like an epiphany: Sian's family and mine were one, and I had every right to protect them, just as Sian had. I then felt angry at Perdy for choosing the stupid Ministry over her own family, and that gave me the courage to do what I did next. So, mustering up every ounce of courage I possessed, I held my head up high and marched back into the dining room, bursting through the doors.

The Dawsons, my parents, my grandmothers, Kopa, Meers, Joey and his family, Sam, Ferdinand, Tanya and Geri were all staring cautiously between Sian, who was glaring at Perdy, who was looking at Sian with a mingled expression of self-righteousness and fear. And seeing how self-righteous Perdy looked only made me angrier.

"How dare you, Perdy!" I yelled. Perdy turned to look at me, as did everyone else, but I kept my eyes fixed on Perdy's. "How dare you come over here, pretending you wanted to see your family, just so the Minister for Magic could persuade me to be their mascot?"

There was a collective gasp from the Dawson party at this, apart from Sian, who said sharply, "I knew it!" Perdy, however, kept her eyes on mine, eyes which had sharpened slightly.

"I'm only doing what's right by the Ministry, Kiara," she said, "and if you had any respect at all - "

"Respect? Ha! You're one to talk, Perdita!" said Sian angrily. "Putting your own ambition before your family again, I see. This is exactly what I was talking about before. You're pathetic, Perdita, and you have no right to be here right now. Besides, your job is done. Now, there's only one thing I want you to do now, Perdita ..." Sian then walked slowly and carefully towards Perdy, her eyes never lingering off her cousin's face, before she shrieked "GET OUT!" so loudly that we all jumped back in shock, Perdy included, trying her best to avoid Sian's terrifying, livid stare.

After a few moments, Mr Dawson walked over to Sian and put a hand on her shoulder, looked at Perdy and said in a voice that was just as hard as his eyes, "You heard my daughter."

Perdy glanced around, but seeing the hardened glares from everyone around her, she turned on her heel and strode from the room. We waited a few moments and then, once we heard the distant sound of the front door slamming, we started moving again.

"Who wants pudding?" said Mr Dawson, as everyone moved back to the table - everyone except Sian who, unnoticed by anyone except myself, made for the door. I had lost my appetite by this point, and I knew that something was wrong with Sian, so I followed her, wanting to see what I could do to help.

I followed her out of the room, down the stairs, along a corridor, around a corner, up the spiral staircase and to the door that was by a set of three stairs, on top of which was a landing which split into two different directions, which led to (as I later found out) Crighton and Mr Dawson's studies, which both had staircases leading to the master bedroom above. I knew the door that Sian had just entered was Sian's room, the only room in Dawson Manor I had never entered, which was mainly because, as the Dawsons told me, no one entered Sian's room, no matter if she was in there or not.

This thought did make me feel nervous, but I knew that Sian needed a friend, so I pushed my nervous thoughts aside, strode to Sian's door and, after taking a deep breath, I knocked.

For a moment, there was silence. Then I heard a choked voice say, "Who is it?"

I let out a soft sigh of relief that Sian had not told me to go away, before I answered, "It's me. Can I come in?"

I received no answer, but the door did open to reveal Sian, her eyes overly bright and angry. After she looked past me to see whether anyone had followed, Sian looked at me, nodded, and moved to sit down on her bed as I entered the room, closing the door behind me.

I was immediately blinded by the aqua blue and dark purple colour spectrum of the room, but once I got past this and I began to see her room more, I was surprised by what I found in there. A CD player stood on a shelf near her bed, with three long columns of CDs stacked behind it by the wall. Posters of musical such as Wicked, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music and Mamma Mia! to name a few were stuck on the walls, and there were also framed photographs of nature on there, too, from two deer on a rocky mountaintop overlooking the forest below, to a waterfall flowing into a distant stream. On one of her windowsills, Sian had a silver orchid stood beautifully in the weak winter sun. But what surprised me most about Sian's room was her desk, for covering almost every inch of it were pictures of her family.

They all seemed to show Sian and her brothers and sisters in their younger years, all smiling and happy, but two stood out above all the others: the first one was of all the Dawsons, including the youngest Dawson brother, Max, and their parents, all of them standing beside a riverbank on a beautiful summer's day, all of them wet and muddy, but unmistakeably happy. The second was just of Sian and her mother when Sian was very young, sitting on her mother's lap, and both mother and daughter were gazing at each other with happiness and love.

"That was taken when I was four years old," came Sian's voice. Four years old? Wow! It was very hard for me to imagine a four-year-old Sian Dawson. Something must have shown on my face as to what I was thinking, for Sian chuckled and said, "I know it's hard to believe, Kiara, but I was a child once, just like everyone else."

I looked at her then. She was smiling gently at me, but the smile did not reach her eyes, which were still overly-bright and angry. Something was troubling her, that much was clear, for why else would Sian have left the way she did? I was determined to find out what was wrong, but I was going to be gentle about it, so I started off by saying, "Are you OK?"

Sian heaved a heavy sigh and said, "No, I'm not." I waited for her to continue, and after about a minute she said, "I'm absolutely appalled at how Perdy has treated her family - our family. How she can just turn her backs on us like that, and act like we don't matter. I thought she was better than that. Clearly I was mistaken," she added bitterly, looking away from me.

"Why have Perdy's actions affected you so, Sian?" I asked her. When she looked up at me, her eyes questioning, I elaborated, "I mean, I get why you want Perdy to be there for her family because of the war, but there has to be more to it than that. You can confide in me, Sian. I won't tell a soul, I swear."

Sian studied me long and hard for a few moments, before she nodded and said, "You're right, there is a reason why Perdy's words affected me. Sit down," she nodded to the chair by her desk, "and I shall explain why."

I crossed to the chair by her desk, sat down and waited. I looked at Sian patiently, waiting for her to begin. When she looked at me, her eyes seemed to be burning with a fierce intensity that I had never seen there before. She then began to speak.

"You can ask anyone in my family, Kiara, of what my number one priority is, and all of them - my mother, my father, Chris, Chrissie, Tanya, Geri, all of them - and they will all tell you that my number one priority is my family."

I thought this was an odd way for the discussion to begin, but I did not interrupt, for I knew there was more to this than Sian was letting on. And she was right.

"My parents always told me," she said, "that your family is the most important thing in your life, and those who are in it you put before anything else, before yourself, before your job, before your very life, in fact. And that you'd do anything to protect them. Including giving your very life for them."

"You'd really give your life for your family?" I asked.

"In a heartbeat, if that was the case!" Sian said fiercely. "I'm well aware of the dangers of war, Kiara, and if it comes to it I will make that sacrifice even for Perdy, even though she's very anti-family at the moment, but that's entirely beside the point."

I looked at Sian, surprised. I had never heard her speak this fiercely about anything before, not when she had stood up to Triphorm in our third year, not even when she talked about starting our own Defence Against the Dark Arts group in our fifth year.

"You seem to have given this a fair deal of thought, Sian," I told her.

"Well, anyone would have, Kiara, if they had been through what I've been through!" she said.

Suddenly, she gasped, shocked, and lowered her head, afraid that she had said too much. I was shocked too, for I never thought she would say something like that. Sian had always been different to every other person I had known, but I couldn't help but wonder in that moment why that was. I didn't push her, though. I remained patient, knowing that she would tell me when she was ready. I didn't have to wait long.

She looked up at me after a few minutes, the expression on her face pained, as she began, "When I was a little girl, I was cursed by a witch - who or how or when or where doesn't matter - and ever since that day, my life changed for ever, for everything that I have done since that day has been to protect my family. Everything I've done, and everything that I will ever do has all been for them. And if anything ever happened to them ..." She couldn't continue as the pain on her face increased, and she covered her face in her hands, but I understood what she was trying to say.

"You don't know what you'd do if you lost them, do you?" I asked.

Sian raised her head again and shook it. "No, I don't. And if something did happen to any of them ... then I think that my parents would hate me."

I was shocked by Sian's words, for I did not believe them to be true. "How can you believe that to be true, Sian?"

"Because I've always been their protector, Kiara," Sian snapped. "I'm more of a mother to my siblings than our own mother is, which is not to say that my mother is not a good mother, because she is, but still. Anyhoo, you have no idea how much my parents rely on me, Kiara. It was always me who took care of them when we were younger, not my mother and father, for they were both working. It was worth it, thought," Sian added, as a smile traversed her lips, and a faraway look came over her, "for whenever my father came home, and he saw us all smiling and happy and safe, he would turn to me and smile with pride in his eyes, as if to say, "good job"."

We fell silent again. I could tell that Sian was still holding some things back, but I would not push her, for I knew that she would explain herself when she was ready. But something struck me when she was talking ... something that made me remember something from a few years ago ...

"In our third year, when Meers set up that obstacle course for our Defence Against the Dark Arts exam when you said that you saw Professor Darbus fail you, that wasn't your true answer, was it?"

Sian looked up, surprised. "You knew that I was lying?"

She didn't say it in an accusatory tone, but I was still nervous about how she'd react. Eventually, though, I nodded, and Sian sighed and said, "You're right, I lied. I didn't see Professor Darbus telling me I'd failed everything (although that is a fear of mine) ... what I saw were my parents, my brothers, my sisters and you all dead before me ... and I ... I was all alone ... so alone ..."

And then Sian broke down completely; she put her head in her hands and wept. At last I knew what Sian's greatest fear was, and I did feel sorry for her. I wanted her to know that she wasn't alone, so I got up off the chair, sat next to her on the bed and held her as she cried.

Once she had calmed down, she said, "Thank you, Kiara. I'm glad to have someone I can talk to about this."

"No problem," I said. "And for what it's worth, no matter if you were around if something were to happen with someone in your family or not, I know for a fact that your parents will not blame you."

"How can you be so sure?" Sian asked, her expression sceptical.

"Because if they love you like you say they do - like I know they do - then they will appreciate all that you've done for them and will still love you, no matter what."

"Thanks, Kiara." Sian then frowned, looked at me and said, "When did you suddenly get so wise?"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "I think you may have been a bad influence on me."

Sian started laughing, a good, honest laugh that made me laugh with her, and I was happy that I made Sian laugh, never mind smile. Then there came a knock at the door that made us jump, for both Sian and I had forgotten about everyone else in the house, but we were both quick to recover.

"Come in," Sian said.

The door opened to reveal Mr Dawson and Kopa, both of whom were carrying trays that had two plates of chocolate log on, accompanied by two little jugs of custard and two goblets of pumpkin juice each. Sian and I looked at the two men in the doorway in surprise.

"Dad? Kopa? What are you two doing here?"

"Well," said Mr Dawson, "we all noticed that you two had left the table, and we were all worried about you, so we decided to come and give you girls some dessert." Mr Dawson and Kopa placed the trays on the space on Sian's desk, before Mr Dawson turned to Sian, looked at her properly and said, "Are you all right, love? I know that was tough for you back there."

Sian nodded and said, "It was tough, Dad, but Kiara's been a big help. We've talked and I feel much better." We smiled at each other, and then turned to face Mr Dawson, who looked surprised, then smiled, his eyes sparkling.

"Well, I'm glad you're all right, Sian," Mr Dawson said, coming over, holding his firstborn tightly and kissing her on top of the head. When he let go of her, he looked at me, and flashed me a look filled with gratitude and understanding before he left. Kopa then hugged Sian, and when he let go of her he looked at me, his eyes smiling, before he too left, closing the door behind him with a soft snap.

Sian then looked at me and said, "Well, I think we'd best eat, don't you?"

I nodded, and as Sian went to get my dessert tray first, I revelled in how far Sian and I had come since our first meeting, for in that moment I felt a shift in our friendship, and I felt that we had grown closer as friends that night, and I was only too grateful that she had decided not to yell at me or slam a door in my face, as I knew, that five years ago, she would have done.

AN 2: This has got to be one of the chapters I enjoyed writing the most. I knew this chapter had to happen now. The reason I wrote this was for two reasons: not only do we get to see Sian as a person with feelings more than before, but we also get to hear a bit more about the mysterious history in her past, which is important for the next book. I also wanted to have a nice friendship building chapter between Kiara and Sian, and I thought that this was the perfect place to do so. Also, the reason I made Sian be more of a person - more human - than a robot (admit it, you've thought it), is because of what happens to her at the end of this book, which will carry on to the next book. I hope you've all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I have writing it. See you next Wednesday.