The news about Sirius Black being my father had shaken me so badly that I could barely focus on anything other than that. I barely spoke to any of my friends, other than Daphne, and barely touched any of my school work either. I hadn't written my mum back, I couldn't think of anything to say to her after what she had confessed. I was angry at her, angry for telling me over a letter and angry that she didn't tell me earlier the truth about my father. I always believed that he wanted nothing to do with me growing up, but it was clear that he did care for me to some extent, at least for a little while. Daphne had tried her hardest to distract from the fact that I wasn't myself, but it was clear that our friends weren't buying her excuses anymore.

The announcement of the first Hogsmeade visit had Daphne practically jumping for joy, convinced that visiting the village would get me out of my negative headspace. "Come on, Ana. It's the first time we are allowed to go, and I really want to visit Honeydukes."

"You just go." I shrugged her off as we walked through the corridors towards the dungeons. "I don't really feel like going."

Daphne let out a loud sigh. "Will you at least think about it? It's still a couple of days away."

"Fine." I grumbled, mostly just to get her to stop talking about it.

"Yay!" Daphne let out a high pitched squeal that sounded far too close to a sound that Pansy would make. "Now, I've been thinking about this a lot. You know, the Blacks and the Malfoys are linked very heavily though marriage."

"So, what? I'm related to Draco now? Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Well, technically you're not. Remember what I said at the beginning of the year about people being disowned from their families? Well, your dad was removed from the Black family, which means that you aren't technically related to Draco any longer, but you would have been if your dad hadn't been removed."

"Comforting. Not only is my father a crazy, escaped murderer, but he also did something so disappointing to his family that he was removed completely from the bloodline." I rolled my eyes at Daphne and sped up slightly to try and get to the Common Room faster.

Daphne grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop, giving me a serious look. "Ana, I can't even imagine what you are going through, but I just want to let you know that I am here for you if you want to talk."

I felt my gaze soften towards my friend and gave her the first smile I managed to muster in days. "Thank you, Daphne. I'm just still in shock about the whole thing."

"Of course." Daphne looped her arm through mine and continued walking towards the Common Room with me in tow. "At least the other positive thing is that we now know that you are for sure a Half-blood, and it makes sense that you're in Slytherin because the Black's are known to have a very long history in the house."

"Well, there's one mystery solved. Only about a million left to figure out."

In the end, I did decide to go with my friends to Hogsmeade, if only to avoid the question that would no doubt have come my way if I didn't go. Daphne was overjoyed when I told her the news and immediately started planning out the entire day for all of us. Despite the excitement that my friend had towards going to the village, I was still trying to process everything and couldn't help but remain slightly detached from everyone up until the day of.

"I'm surprised you came." Theo nudged me as we all walked from the castle towards the village. "You've been so quiet and not talking to anyone for so long I thought you'd moved on from us."

I let out a soft little laugh, not responding to Theo's comment but instead choosing to keep my head down and continue walking with the group. Daphne, noticing my reluctance to speak, quickly changed the topic to one focused on an essay McGonagall had recently assigned us. I silently followed along as my friends went in and out of different shops, wooing and aweing at the different goodies each place offered. Daphne insisted that we left Honeydukes for last, knowing everyone would spend most of their money there and it would be the one place everyone would enjoy the most.

"Oi, Ana! What do you say you try one of these? I'll pay for it." Theo held up one of the blood-flavoured lollipops that I had seen earlier when we walked in and I scrunched my nose up.

"I'll pass this time." I turned away from the laughing boy and wandered further into the shop. I was lost looking at all of the bright colours and different sweets that were spread out in front of me and didn't even notice when someone walked up beside me until they cleared their throat. "Merlin, Draco you scared me."

I clutched my hand to my chest and glared at my blond friend as he let out a chuckle. "Sorry, I thought you heard me coming." I shook my head in response and looked away, causing him to clear his throat. "Are you alright, Ana? You've been very… Distant the past few days."

I sighed and looked back at my friend. "I… I've just had some very shocking news told to me and I've been trying to process it as best I can." I explained as best as I could without revealing too much.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." I answered right away. I noticed Draco's disappointed look and felt bad for being so short with him. "I don't think I'm ready to talk about it just yet but thank you."

Draco nodded his head and said nothing more on the subject. "Are you planning on buying anything, then?"

"Probably not. I don't really see the point in spending all of my money on sweets, especially when I don't have a lot of money to begin with."

"Well, what's your favourite?" I was glad Draco didn't say anything about my comment on the amount of money I had but confused about his question. "Come on, Ana. What's your favourite sweet?"

"Uh…" I glanced around me and my sight settled on the array of Sugar Quills. "I suppose Sugar Quills."

"Which one?"

"I quite like the apple ones, and the strawberry as well." I turned back to Draco and raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

Draco said nothing as he took a step towards the sweets and plucked two of the apple flavoured ones and two of the strawberry ones, shooting me a wink as he walked past me towards the back of the shop. He pulled out a few galleons from his pocket and handed it to the witch standing behind the counter before turning back and coming to stand in front of me. He handed me one of each of the two flavours and pocketed the other two.

"Draco?"

"What a coincidence, my two favourite flavours are the same as yours." He shrugged. "I think the words you are looking for are 'thank you'."

I rolled my eyes at my friend but couldn't hold back the smile that snuck its way onto my face. "Thank you. You didn't have to buy these for me."

"You're right, but I wanted to. Maybe some sugar will bring you out of whatever state of shock you are in."

I felt my cheeks heat up unintentionally and I quickly looked towards the ground, not being able to meet Draco's striking grey eyes at the moment. I had barely talked to anyone for nearly two weeks and I figured they would have just given up even trying to get me speak to them again, but there was Draco, buying me sweets and not pushing me to speak about anything I didn't want to speak about. Daphne had tried her hardest in that time to try and get me to smile, even just a little, and she hadn't succeeded in that task. I barely spoke to Draco for more than ten minutes and he managed to get me to smile and to forget about everything to do with my father.

"Ana! Ana! An-oh." Daphne came to a sudden stop, eyeing me and Draco funnily. It wasn't until that moment that I realized just how close Draco and I were standing and quickly took a step back from the boy. Draco seemed to notice my sudden movement and a slight frown fell onto his face, but he quickly hid it with a look of indifference towards Daphne. "I was just going to say, it's getting late and we thought we would head back to the castle."

"Right." I glanced outside the window and noticed how the sky had already started to darken from the time we entered the shop until that moment. "We should probably head back then. Dinner will probably be served soon."

Daphne led the way out of the shop with her arm looped through Pansy's, the two of them practically skipping down the path. "I reckon they already ate nearly half of the candy they just bought by the way they're acting." Draco whispered to me and I let out a genuine laugh, something that hadn't happen since I got the news.

The two of us fell a bit behind the group and chatted quietly to each other the whole way back to the castle. As we were nearing the Great Hall, I started to slow a bit and fidget with the sleeve of the jumper I had on.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked, slowing down his own pace to match mine.

"I just wanted to say thank you." I admitted, quiet enough that just he would hear. "I know I haven't been the greatest friend that past little bit, and I'm being very secretive with everything, but you haven't pushed me to say anything and you managed to make me forget about all of it for a while. So, thank you."

Draco seemed shocked but simply nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Don't worry about it."

I smiled at him and before I could even think about what I was doing, I quickly pulled him into a hug. I pulled away before he even had time to react and thanked him once more. I turned and made my way into the Great Hall taking a spot beside Daphne and starting to put food onto my plate, noticing that it took Draco a couple of moments to join us. Once we were back in the Common Room after dinner, we barely had anytime to put our things away before Snape's voice rang through the entire Common Room, informing us that we all needed to meet in the main area.

"Sirius Black has been spotted in the castle by one of the portraits. Everyone is to go to the Great Hall at once."

My blood ran cold and I was grateful that I was leaning on one of the couches already because I felt my legs give out from under me. Daphne was at my side in an instant and quickly pulled me up, so I was leaning against her. I could hear her whispering to me, but I didn't have any idea as to what she was saying, I just let her lead me with the rest of the Slytherins to the Great Hall. There were small beds laid all over the floor and we were instructed to find one to sleep on for the night. Daphne pulled me so I was in between her and Draco along one of the walls.

"Ana, everything is going to be alright." I finally started to listen to what my friend was saying to me. "He's not going to hurt you, I'm sure he doesn't even know you're here."

"And what if he does?" I spat at my friend in a violent whisper. "The man murdered people, Daphne, what's to say he won't try to hunt down and kill his won daughter?"

Daphne was speechless, completely unable to even think of a response to me that would squish my fears. I turned away from the girl and laid down in the bed I had taken, hoping that it would save me from speaking to anyone, but I had forgotten that Draco was on the other side of me. He raised an eyebrow, clearly noticing that I was upset about something. I shook my head at him and he visibly sighed but looked away, giving me my privacy. I didn't sleep a wink that night, too petrified of what could've possibly happened to me if I let my guard down for even one second.