The following day, I didn't speak a word to Dad. He left to go to work and I pretended I didn't see him. All day, as much as I tried not to think about my fight with him, that proved to be quite difficult...

I was in the mood to take my broomstick and just fly around the neighbourhood. I would've asked Mum to put a Disillusionment Charm on me so I wouldn't be seen by any Muggles, but it soon began to rain and my plans were squashed. I settled for sitting on the couch in my living room, reading a book and sipping some tea. It was one of my favourite ways to spend a raining summer day, after all.

In the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. I looked up from my book, sending a questioning glance at Mum—we hadn't been expecting anyone... She went over to the entranceway and opened the door, instantly letting in the sound of rain pouring down from the sky and hitting cement.

I heard a male voice coming from the doorway. Whoever had been at the door was talking to my mother. I listened carefully and I recognized it as Sirius's voice. Why would Sirius be here now?

I got up off the couch, putting my book down on the coffee table and setting my cup of tea on a coaster. I began to make my way towards the front door as well, the words becoming easier to make out the closer I got.

"Is Bianca h-here?" Sirius asked my mum, his voice sounding strange. It was nearly drowned out by the sound of the rain.

"Yes, she's here." Mum stepped aside. "Come in, Sirius, you must be freezing!" she said to him.

I crept towards the entrance, craning my neck to see him. Sirius was standing by the door, his clothes soaking wet. His long, dark hair was dripping water. (Had he been walking in the rain?) His expression was sullen and sad to the point that it became worrisome; the smirk he usually had was erased from his face.

"Hi, Sirius, what are you doing here?" I asked him curiously.

"Can I talk to you?" he croaked, his voice cracking a little bit. Mum tiptoed away carefully, her eyebrows raised.

Immediately, I thought of Regulus. I figured Sirius had found out about us. He had probably seen one of our letters or something... I gulped, guilt enveloping me. He could've been upset that I hadn't told him, or that I had a secret relationship with his brother in the first place, with whom he didn't get along all that much. By this point, I was positive that was what he needed to talk to me about. There wasn't anything else it could possibly have been...

"Er... sure," I said nervously, mentally preparing myself to apologize to him for keeping it a secret. I gestured for him to follow me upstairs.

He took off his muddy shoes and left them at the door, following me up the stairs. A few droplets of water fell from his hair and clothes onto the floor as he walked.

I figured my bedroom was a strange place to talk, and hesitated outside of it. There was nowhere else we could have talked privately, though, so I entered and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. He remained close to my bedroom door, which was wide open. He barely moved. He didn't look around my room as I had expected him to, having never been in here before. His eyes were on me, and he blinked slowly. Then I knew that there was something really wrong.

"What is it?" I asked in a small voice.

I noticed his hands were shaking. He clasped them together to cover it up. "I didn't know who else to go to," he started, his voice still sounding strange and not at all like him. His eyes were glazed over. "You're the only one I want to talk to."

"Sirius, what's wrong?" I said suspiciously.

His face contorted, and then I realized that tears had started dripping from his eyes. I had never seen him cry before, and the reason behind his crying worried me. He let out a strangled sob and put his hand in front of his mouth to muffle the sound.

"Sirius—" I started sympathetically. I walked towards the door, closed it shut and walked back to stand in front of him. He looked down at me, tears streaming down his cheeks. I searched his grey eyes, which were red and puffy. "Tell me what it is."

"I r-ran away t-t-today," he said, his voice thick with emotion. My heart broke at the words and at the way he spoke them. "Got o-on the Knight B-Bus and l-left. I... I j-j-just c-cou-couldn't t-take it anym-m-more. I c-couldn't be th-th-there a-anymore; in that h-house f-f-full of n-noth-thing but bad m-memories."

Normally I was awkward and didn't know what to do or how to comfort someone, but this time I knew exactly what to do. I stepped toward him and wrapped my arms around him, not caring that his clothes were soaked. He was cold and quivering as I held him. He slowly wrapped his arms around me. He held me tighter, seeking the comfort. The horrible sobbing sounds escaping his lips made me want to cry, too.

I knew that Sirius hated his family... I knew that. But I couldn't imagine how he must have been feeling... Saying he hated his parents was one thing, but he had left them forever. Though he pretended not to care about his relationship with his family, often waving it off and making jokes about it, he was truly hurting on the inside. No matter what, they were still his family, and he had to have felt something for them.

"They d-d-don't even care that I'm g-gone. I r-r-really couldn't t-take it anymore," he said. I felt hot tears that weren't my own dripping onto my neck. "The only p-place I c-could go to w-w-was James's. He kn-knows ab-bout everything, b-b-but... b-but I can't r-really t-t-tell him exactly what I'm f-feeling. He isn't g-good at the c-c-comforting th-thing. And I can't j-just... y-you know... c-c-cr-cry in front of h-h-him."

I didn't exactly know what to say. I merely held him tighter. I buried my face in the crook of his neck. My face was pressed against his neck; my lips against the warm skin. There was a huge part of me that was so touched by the fact that he felt that I was one of the only people he could talk to.

My heart broke into shards for the poor boy who always pretended he was fine, even when he wasn't.

"They've d-disowned m-m-me," he said. "Mother's p-probably b-b-burned me off the fa-family t-t-tr-tree by n-now." He tried to force a laugh, but it sounded painful. He sniffled. "I h-hate them... I hate m-m-my p-parents s-so m-mu-much, b-b-because I th-thought that there w-was a ch-chance that maybe, d-d-d-deep down, they l-loved me be-be-because I'm s-st-still their s-s-son... I w-was their s-son."

"Oh, Sirius," I muttered, pained. I didn't know how to help him... how I could take his pain away...

"Nobody ev-ven cares about m-me," he sobbed.

"Sirius, you know that's not true—" I gasped.

He tightened his hold on me, lowering his head to rest it on my shoulder. "All I w-want is a family th-th-that actually cares about me. But no one d-d-does. I h-have n-no one. I've r-realized that I'm c-completely a-a-alone in the w-w-world."

"No," I mumbled, shaking my head. "No, Sirius, you know it's not true. Of course people care about you. Just because you don't have a proper family doesn't mean that other people don't love you. Peter, Remus, James... You have them. And me. You have me, too. You'll always have me. Don't you know how much we care about you? We'll always be here for you. We won't ever leave."

He cried harder. "P-Promise?"

I sighed. "Yes, I promise. I promise we will always be here for you, whenever you need us. We'll be with you forever."

"F-Forever, huh? That's not even p-possible," he said, shaking his head. We were still holding each other tightly.

"Of course it is," I said. I pulled away from the embrace only to place my hand over his heart. I felt it beating against my palm. "It's possible to remain forever... in here." He smiled a sad smile through his tears.

I brushed my hand through his wet hair tenderly, then pulled him into another hug. I wound my arms around his neck, standing on my toes to do so since he was so much taller than I was.

I thought that it was horrible that he had to go through such awful things in life. His family didn't love him. They didn't care about what happened to him, they didn't even want to see him.

"B-Bianca?"

"Yeah?"

"Am I a b-bad p-person?"

I pulled away once again to look at him. "Why on earth would you ask me that?"

"Last year," he said, "you t-told me y-you w-were d-dis-disgusted by me for wh-what I d-did to Snape. Am I a bad person?"

"No," I said truthfully. "No, you're not a bad person. You're a good man, Sirius Black. You shouldn't be afraid to show people certain sides of you."

He gave me the ghost of a smile, his emotions pooling in his stormy eyes.

We sat on my bed until Sirius stopped crying and it stopped raining outside. His head rested on my shoulder, and we were just silent until, after a while, I spoke.

"Would you like to go somewhere?"

"Where did you have in mind?"

"I dunno, there's a park near my house. It's stopped raining and it looks like the sun might come out," I said. "We could go there, just to get fresh air."

He nodded. He was still soaked. We got up and I took his arm, pulling him downstairs with me. "MUM, WE'RE GOING TO THE PARK!" I yelled. I threw a pair of shoes on and Sirius put his own back on.

The air outside was humid. We walked out the door, stepping on the wet street and running over puddles as we made our way to the park near my house. There was a playground, and I went straight for the swings. Even though they were wet from all the rain, I sat down anyway. Sirius didn't mind, either, because his clothes were already sopping. He was walking like he didn't care where he was going. He was lost in his own thoughts.

I thought this was a better place to talk since no one would be here after the downpour we'd just had, so I swayed slightly on my swing, watching the sun emerge from behind the clouds.

"How did you get here?" I pressed. I thought that he needed to talk more.

"I told James I needed some time to think, so I left his house and took the Knight Bus again... only this time, I ended up getting off about a block away from your house. I walked the rest of the way in the rain."

Again, we fell into a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, until he broke it.

"Regulus tried to stop me," said Sirius. "He saw me with my trunk packed, just about to walk out the door, and he tried to talk me out of it. He's probably the only person in that house who even remotely cares... He just doesn't understand it because he has always been the favourite son. If he were in my place, he would know... Now he hates me, but if he really cared about me, he wouldn't have tried to stop me from doing the only thing that I could do to escape the misery."

Now that all of this had happened, it would be impossible to tell Sirius about my relationship with Regulus... Before, they had hated each other, but they had still been brothers. I sensed there was something that broke inside of Sirius when he left that house, and all he felt towards his brother anymore was emptiness.

"How has your summer been?" Sirius wheezed.

I looked at the ground. I had wanted to confide in someone about what had happened with Dad, so maybe this was my chance. Besides, Sirius had confided so much in me... maybe I could do the same.

"I got into a huge argument with my dad yesterday."

"What? Why?" he demanded, looking at me.

I sighed. "He doesn't want me to be an Auror."

"Are you kidding?" Sirius asked, baffled. "That's one of the best jobs, and if a person is good enough to be one, they don't just turn it down. Why would he say that?"

"I don't know. We were just at the table, talking about when I'd get my O.W.L. results... He asked me if I knew what I wanted to do, so I told him that I wanted to be an Auror. I've told him before; it wasn't the first time he was hearing this. I've been telling my parents that's what I wanted to do since first year. I guess my dad wasn't listening to me before, or he didn't believe me. He thinks I'm absolutely ridiculous for thinking I can do it."

"What?" Sirius said again. "Isn't he a Muggle? Are you sure he even knows what it is?"

"Oh, he knows," I said. "I've also been explaining what it is to him since I was in the first year. He says that it isn't an ideal job for when I have a family, because I would never be around... It's just because I'm a girl. Oh, and he also said, and I'm quoting him on this, 'You're a little girl, you can't fight—'"

He gaped at me. "There's no one I know who can duel better than you. No one. You even beat Professor Blitherworth last year..."

"I know," I said, frowning. "I don't know anyone who can duel better than me either."

"I can't believe your dad would say that to you... He really has no idea."

"Sirius, it's because I'm a girl, like I said. I hate the way people think... 'Oh, stupid girl, don't become an Auror, you'll ruin your pretty face and then no one will marry you.' Because that's all life is about, for women at least... getting married and having children so their daughters can get married and have children, and only the men get to go out and do something with their lives... and so the cycle never ends... I don't care what my father has to say, I will become an Auror. I will be head of the Auror Office and I'll catch so many Dark wizards and save so many people, and I will be the greatest Auror of all time."

There was determination in my eyes, and as soon as I said those words, I knew I would make them true.

"I believe you," Sirius whispered.

"Thank you." I turned my head to give him a tight smile. "Why doesn't my dad?"

"He should."

I groaned, looking out at the sky. I furrowed my eyebrows. "Sometimes, I just hate him so much..."

"Bianca," said Sirius softly, grabbing my arm. I was forced to look at him; his eyes were sad as he continued speaking. "Don't say that. You don't mean it."

"I don't know if I do."

"You don't," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I'm talking about this, but you actually have real problems and not stupid ones..."

"Bianca," he said again. "Don't think that. You can keep telling me these things. At least it makes me feel like someone needs me."