(A/N): Hey Guys! Eightieth chapter, yay! I hope you like it, it's less angst-y.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Leo, Elaine, Shari, Nicholai, Mia and Brooke.

Elaine

We were worried about Leo.

We all were, but Lily, Remus and I more so, seeing as we were closer to him than the others. Remus and I were especially worried, knowing exactly what Leo was like, and how down he had been on himself lately.

"I've never known Leo to be so... cold." Lily murmured, and the others nodded in agreement while Remus and I stared at them.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked, and Lily glanced over at him from her position on the single plush chair by the fire.

"Well... he yelled, and the tone of voice he used when he said..." She swallowed delicately, obviously thinking back, not being able to say it, but we understood.

"He's done it before." I told her off-handedly, and they lifted their heads to look at us.

"He has?" Remus and I nodded.

"He goes off on a tangent of self-loathing about every two days." I explained, raising an eyebrow when they still stared. "He doesn't do that around you?" Okay, now I was confused.

"No. I mean, he's secretive but he doesn't... he doesn't hate himself... does he?" Lily asked quietly, timidly, unsure of herself now that I had mentioned it.

"Well..." Remus and I trailed off, glancing at each other.

"He kind of points out imaginary faults, and tries to tell us that he doesn't deserve to have us as friends." Remus explained, and I nodded.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Except for the part where he called himself a monster, that is.

"Imaginary faults?" James asked quietly, and Sirius' eyebrows lowered as if confused.

"Like he's trying to get attention?" Remus and I shook our heads quickly, and furiously.

"No!" We cried, and the others in the Gryffindor common room stared at us for a second before returning to whatever they had been doing previously.

"More like he really does think he has these... faults," I glanced at Remus, unsure if they were really faults, to be honest. "But we can't see what the hell he's talking about so..." I trailed off, lifting a hand in the air as if to say, 'What are you going to do?'

"So...why does Leo only do this around you guys?" Remus and I glanced at each other before shrugging.

"We don't-" Peter cut us off.

"And don't say you don't know." We sighed before looking back up at them.

"We know why, but we can't tell you." Lily opened her mouth to protest. "No, we can't. We won't betray his trust Lily, Merlin knows he can only trust a few people as it is." Lily looked sad, and I realised what I had implied.

"No, Lily, I didn't mean it like that! Leo considers you just as, or even more important, than us, that's why he won't tell you." She looked up, confused and relieved.

"How does that work?" James asked seriously, running a hand through his hair as part of a nervous habit.

"Well, Leo considers you his best friend Lily, you were his first friend as well. He didn't tell you, because he doesn't want to lose you." I explained, and seeing they were still confused, Remus took over.

"He has this absurd thing where he thinks if you found out you'd yell at him and call him names, and ditch him." As in, she'd call him a monster, or a freak, and then avoid him like the plague because of what he is.

"So, why'd he tell you?" We glanced at each other.

"Well, because I'm a werewolf, and Leo already knew that and Elaine..." Remus started before looking to me, not actually sure.

"I don't know why he told me, probably because I was his first friend who didn't have a secret," I paused for a second. "Or, well, that he didn't know had a secret." I amended before continuing. "And he wasn't so afraid of losing." Lily smiled at me lightly, and I saluted.

"Leo has a lot of secrets." I stated, which they were all too aware of. "Some even you don't know Remus." I told him, and they all raised their eyebrows at me.

"So, why do you know?" I shrugged, standing up and heading for the girls dorm.

"Circumstance." I meant about the fact that Remus didn't know about Leo's- or my- parental abuse, and he wasn't going to.

"What circumstance?" I paused at the bottom of the stares to look over my shoulder at them.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I then headed upstairs to bed.

An hour after everyone else had gone to sleep, I crawled out of my bed, and over to the window. I don't know what made me do it, but something inside me forced me out of my bed and over to the window.

I stared out over the grounds, to the Forbidden forest, the Black lake, the Owlery, I could see everything.

Including the figure of a lone person making their way across the grass. I stared down at them for a few seconds, knowing exactly who I was looking at.

"Leo..." I whispered, and I saw his head lift, as if he had heard me, before it shook and he lowered his chin to the ground once more.

Had he heard me?

It wasn't impossible, was it? I mean, he was half-vampire, they have heightened senses.

He could have heard me. Then again, I was seven floors up, and whispering.

There was no way he could have heard me, right?

Either way, I quickly but quietly exited the girls dorm, padding down the stairs on my bare feet, clad only in my long nightshirt.

Gryffindor colours, scarlet mainly, with gold trim on the end of the sleeves and around the neck. It came down past my knees, and I sat on the plush red couch in the middle of the common room, waiting for him to come in.

My eyelids started to droop, and I tried to fight it, but the exhaustion took over me, and soon, I was in a deep sleep.

The next morning I woke up on the same couch, but with a pillow beneath my head and a sheet cast over me.

Leo.

(A/N): So, what did you think?

Aw, after all that angst, I present you with a little Eleo.

Please review and/or check out my other stories!