The Ever Secret Diary of Sirius Black

Chapter 24: Bloody Sixth Year

Sirius started his descent down the steps as James stared after him, his eyes raging with his own breed of anger. "James?" he repeated back with insult, "we're so formal now? What the hell is this, we're best mates, sappy as that may be, but you've got an obligation to tell me what the hell is going on in your pea brain and I've got an obligation to hear it!"

Sirius halted in place, turning to look up at his friend with a weariness shining in his gray eyes. "Things are going to have to change, don't you see that? I've got a sadistic family who wants my head and the head of anyone I'm remotely close to. I told you what I saw in the forest last month, the threats are real. I can't bother with this sixth year bullshit, there's an expression and it goes 'shit just got real,' well, shit just got real!"

"So it did!" James cried out, "it doesn't mean you have to pretend you don't have anyone that's willing to stick it out with you, you don't need to pretend you're so goddamn alone, because Moony would agree, that's bullshit."

Sirius' chest was heaving with visible anguish, his breath slowing as he managed to calm himself, James' words changing something in his eyes, a softer kind of acceptance. He nodded after a few ponderous moments, mumbling quietly, "I'm sorry I called Wiggy ugly."

Lily was waiting for James in the Gryffindor Common Room, a sight Remus could tell Sirius still had trouble getting used to. No one was really sure how it had happened, Lily's return after the death of her parents had rendered a sort of impenetrable magnetism between herself and mop-top Potter. James had proven himself a more sympathetic supporter than anyone could have imagined and Lily had somehow softened to allow it. If they weren't a couple yet, they were bound to be, and Sirius could not stomach it this particular afternoon, what with an unpleasant letter, and his own love life plummeting into extinction. One step in the Common Room and an analysis of his prospects, he resigned to release James to his romanticism. Casting him an encouraging smirk, he waved James off to join his fair maiden. It was all for the best, Sirius knew he'd be better suited out where he could think. He didn't even think anyone would notice, the Potter/Evans duo seemed the current Gryffindor distraction and he could live with that for a little while.

He thought about morphing to all-fours as he strolled out into the cool spring air, the rain subsiding bleakly to reveal a murky afternoon sky, mirrored broodingly in the placid glassy lake. Being Padfoot would make things easy, but he needed to be Sirius now. The dismal weather keeping the student body locked up in the warmth of their Common Rooms, Sirius was able to reflect undisturbed by the lakeside, his feet crossed under him as he watched ripples pool from the loose stones he flicked gently into the water.

"Bloody sixth year…" he mumbled under his breath, staring off at a nearby rock mindlessly.

It was an odd shape for a rock, holey and unusually large in comparison to the smooth fist-sized cobbles that scattered the shallow bank. He blinked, once, twice, what was that sticking out from below one of the crags? He rose to his feet, hunched slightly as he pushed back a bristle of slick stubby reeds to reveal someone's lakeside hiding nook. Wedged into it were a set little yellow socks, most likely a girl's, two dirt smeared black flats, and most curious of all, a pair of thick, black horn-rimmed glasses. Sirius pulled them out with wide eyes, mouthing the only word he could think of.

"Elise."

He looked around wildly, stupidly under rocks as though she'd shrunk in size, swearing bitterly as he whizzed about in place. What the hell was this? He thought to leave the items where he found them, but this development was too queer to leave well alone. His eyes shined brightly as he considered that his dog form would allow him to sniff out the mystery and he was about to make the furtive trek into the forest to make the transformation when something red flashed just outside his periphery. He glanced behind him, a smile creeping to his lips, the chase a pleasant and familiar thing in his dog form. Just as he'd expected the little red fox stood but a body length away from him, her brown eyes narrowed with inquisitive inspection. She was funnier now that he was in his human form, small for a fox, a lighter brown than red with long silky pointed ears. He almost laughed out-loud, but before he knew it something distinctly "un-funny" happened. She charged at him, unable to react in time, he barely realized what had happened… he was unharmed, but the horn-rimmed glasses in his hand had been yanked from his grasp and off scampered the fox, merely a swishing tail with Elise's spectacles clamped between her teeth.

The diary lurched Remus back into the present, blinking at the page with curiosity. That was it? He flipped forward and back, there was only one entry left for Sirius' sixth year and it told the reader very little…

March 22nd, 6th Year:

Every bloke wants a fox in the metaphorical sense, but I'm not sure how I feel at the prospect of literally having one.

-S

Remus swelled with annoyance, if anything Sirius' diary had been carelessly haphazard and lazily updated, if at all, a sixth year of ups and downs, of this and that, and all the teen angst a reader could ask for, but something was missing… Questions still burned from the past and with the smallest little smile, Remus turned the page to find Sirius' familiar blotchy script,

"September 1st, 7th Year."

The End

…for now

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Look for The Not-so Secret Diary of Sirius Black: Year 7 in a fanfiction forum near you! -Amalynne