Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 28

James hadn't realized how much he missed his friend until his anger had cooled down a little. He also didn't realize how much he had hurt Sirius until he actually looked.

It was fairly obvious. He didn't smile nearly as much as before, and it was easy to see the pain in his eyes.

He should have been looking up at the stars, but couldn't help watch his former friend and his new friend.

"I need you here. I won't let you jump." She said, hugging him tightly. He froze.

Things had changed so quickly. It seemed like yesterday they were practically brothers, best friends. Now they didn't even look at each other, and apparently Sirius wanted to kill himself.

It would have been easy to say that wasn't his fault, but who was he to blame, really?

It was terrifying how everything had fallen apart. But how was he supposed to fix them? He couldn't just go up and apologize after five months, could he?

Ruby had pretty much given up on Potter and Pettigrew forgiving Black, and was just about ready to go force them to apologize to her friend. She could literally feel him giving up on both them and himself, and she wouldn't let him die. She knew his promise wouldn't hold long.

"Come on, Theus. You have a Quidditch game coming up." She said, dragging him towards the pitch. "Amaris told me it's against Hufflepuff." Maybe flying would lift his spirits.

Well, it seemed to work. A grin covered his features as soon as he kicked off the ground and Ruby could feel him getting happier, only for it to suddenly plummet when the Gryffindor quidditch team walked into the pitch.

Ruby could feel her anger bubbling up and knew she'd have to spend longer than usual attacking dummies that night. Their emotions had developed into a pattern. When Sirius was sad and full of self-hatred, Ruby was angry and worried. When he was happy, she was anxious and happy, but it never seemed to last long.

The grass died under her feet as she jogged down to where Sirius was landing.

"What's wrong with Black?" She heard one of the players ask another.

"No clue. He's been off since spring break. Potter, what's wrong with your friend?"

"There's nothing wrong with him." She heard Potter mumble.

Sirius started walking away.

"Wait." Potter called after him and he froze. "Padfoot, wait." Sirius turned around slowly, not believing his ears. "I need to talk to you."

Sirius didn't say anything, but his pained expression made Ruby want to kill Potter. The grass was dying in an ever growing circle around her.

"I'm ... sorry about how I've been treating you. It wasn't right." Ruby could feel the spark of hope growing in her friend's chest until he suddenly snuffed it out. "And about what happened,... can we just put it behind us?"

"Do you really mean that?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"I do. I really missed you. Can we get the Marauders back together?" Sirius just hugged him.

"No Marauders." Ruby glared at Potter. "Unless all the Marauders apologize to Severus, and promise never to bother him again." Potter visibly cringed.

"Why should we listen you?" Potter narrowed his eyes at her.

"You'll have to do it. I kind of owe her a lot."