All was dark in the Slytherin Common Room. The lights were all unlit except for a single candle held by fourth year Narcissa Black. It mattered not that the clock read three, and she did not care that her eyes were feeling sore. Words weighted heavily on her chest, and they needed to spill over her. Quill and parchment in hand, by the candlelight, young Cissa began.

I see your face in dim hallway lights.

I watch your friends cause stupid fights

With students in the house of my own.

Why is it we part as we grow?

Why do you see me and turn away?

Your heart is dark not unlike my day.

I see no sunshine; my soul burns.

I miss you and our secret words.

Do you bear no simple want

For what we had to come upfront?

Do you not miss me, not at all?

Would you want to catch me if I were to fall?

A simple feeling burns my heart,

One that sets the rest apart.

My dear, I miss you like no other.

My cousin, Sirius; I miss my brother.

Pleased with the written, Cissa sighed. It felt good to get the weight off of her chest, even if he didn't see the note. He never would see it, she decided. What if her parents -or worse, Bella- found out that she hadn't just gone on like he had never existed? After all, her sixteen-year-old cousin had been disowned. He wasn't supposed to mean anything to her now.

But he did.

Shaking her head, Cissa held her paper over her candle to make it catch. Once it was caught, she dropped it in the fireplace to burn itself out. As she watched the flames dance, she felt a tear run down her pale cheek. Quickly, she wiped it off. She could not cry. She was a Black. She had to be strong.