Chapter 6. The talk

"Good evening, Mr Lestrange. I was starting to believe you had lost your way.", a familiar voice said, coming from behind. We quickly turned around and saw Professor Dumbledore standing ten meters away. I felt my stiff body calming down slightly when I saw the familiar face. He gave us a small nod and then looked at Mr Lestrange again.

"Please follow me to my office."

"It was a pleasure to meet you both.", Mr Lestrange said and bowed a little before he went after Dumbledore. We stood there, in the middle of the corridor, watching them disappear into the darkness again. Then I faced Sirius, with a thousand questions in my head.

"Come, we can talk when we're at a safer place.", he said, looking around us before he dragged me with him.

"Wait a minute, I want to go after them.", I said, fighting back. He stopped and looked at me as if I were stupid.

"What? No, you're not going there.", he said, and I had never heard him sound so serious before.

"Why not? I'm curious."

"I don't care if you're curious or not, that guy wants to kill you. Come on!"

"Wants to- ... What? What are you talking about? Sirius?"

But Sirius did not answer me. He still held my hand and began to drag me with him once again, but this time even more determined than before. I had no chance. He did not stop until we were in the common room, which was empty because it was very late. Then he released his hand from mine and it took a minute before he finally faced me, still looking super-serious.

"He could have killed you, right at the spot.", he said, his voice low and cold.

"I- ...I don't understand. Who was he? What did he do here?", I asked him carefully, frowning a bit.

"He's a death eater, okay? He hates muggles. He wants to kill them and everyone who's related to them." Sirius looked at me, his anger growing for every second passing. "Some of them don't even care if they live or die, and then it would be worth sacrificing their own life to take you down."

I did not know if I was more scared of his words or him. I could not get a single word out of my mouth, and he must have noticed my face expression, which would probably show how I felt because he slowly calmed down, pulling his fingers through his dark hair. He sat down on the nearest couch with his head in his hands. I stood a few meters away from that couch, hesitating, but decided to sit down at the end of it, leaving as big space as possible between us.

"Do you think he would have known that I was... If you hadn't lied about my name...?", I almost whispered, looking at him. Sirius' eyes were looking straight ahead, at nothing in particular.

"I don't know. Just wanted to be on the safe side.", he answered and looked at me, with his deep grey eyes. I felt as if he could see straight through me, that it was not harder to do that then look through the air before him. I swallowed loudly.

"Thank you.", I said, glancing at him a bit shyly.

"For what?", he asked, looking a bit confused.

"Saving my life, I guess."

He chuckled, and if I did not mistake myself, he did blush a bit too.

The sudden change of words was followed by an awkward silence before Sirius broke it.

"So... Are your parents... Muggles?", He asked, hesitating a bit before saying the last word.

"Er, no. Or, my mum is. My dad is a wizard, but he is muggleborn though.", I answered and a smile tried to reach my lips when I thought of my parents, but did not entirely break through. Sirius nodded at my answer, and after this it went silent again, but not as awkward as before. My mind was going on over speed though, and I thought about Mr Lestrange, and why he had recognized Sirius. Did they know each other, and then, why would Sirius hang out with such people? He did not really seem to like him at all.

"Sirius...", I began, but was not sure how to continue. He looked at me, curious to hear the rest. I cleared my throat, a bit nervous. "H-how did Mr Lestrange know who you were?"

"He's a friend of my parents."

"But why do they...-"

"-Hang out with such a dickhead?", he ended the sentence for me. "Because they're dickheads themselves."

I was getting really chocked by what he had just said, and did not know what to add after that. I saw the anger starting to build up in him again and regretting that I brought up the subject. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if he was going to say something, but did not know how.

"Don't think I'm like them, 'cause I'm not. And I will never be.", he said finally, growling a bit in the end.

"I don't.", I said, reaching out my hand towards him, but stopped on the way and put it down on the space between us. I was not sure of what I was doing really, and definitely not sure how he would react if I had done something else with it.

"Good.", he said, putting his hand right next to mine, our fingertips were slightly touching. A shock went through me from my fingers, and I was confused and kind of glad when they did not last there, because he was preparing to stand up. "Maybe we should go to bed now, it's quite late, or should I say early?"

I looked at my watch, and got another chock. It was 01:30 am. I rose and we stood face to face, looking at each other.

"Er, yeah, thanks again. For helping me with the conjuring spell, and... You know.", I said, suddenly feeling very shy. He smiled at me and scratched his temple as I stumbled on the words in a try to say something understandable.

"Yeah, no problem. But we probably have to train a bit more on the spells, so don't thank me for that yet.", he said and winked at me. I smiled as an answer, looking down on the floor between our feet.

"Well, good night, then.", he said and I met his gaze one last time. I got a strange feeling in my stomach and started to blush unwillingly.

"Good night.", I mumbled and we turned to walk up to our dormitories. We both climbed slowly, step after step, with heavy legs until we hit the last one. Then we looked at each other and fell into a laugh that lasted even after we had separated. I had to stop for a second to get myself together, before I came into the small room that I shared with Ally and two other girls. They were all sleeping of course, and it was really dark, only the half moon was shining through the window above my bed. I managed to get to the bed were I sat down and struggled to get my clothes off. When I laid back and my head hit the pillow, I almost fell asleep at once. I just got a quick glance in my mind of a person with almost black, long and wild hair and my lips formed a smile in the dark. I shook my head, feeling a bit silly. But when I fell more and more asleep, the smile still lingered on my lips.