Too Little Too Late

Chapter 14 | Edited

They spent the whole day in the room of requirement, completely disregarding what the teachers would say ("This is your NEWT year, you can't just be off gallivanting around the castle, picking and choosing which days you come to lessons!") and what their friends would say ("You spent a whole day with Black? I thought you hated him!", "Wow she let you spent a whole day with her? I hope you didn't fuck it up."). Sirius thought that he would forever remember the expression on Layla's face when he first showed her how to make the door appear. It mirrored the expression of a muggleborn when first exposed to magic, and made him fully appreciate how wonderful and continually surprising magic could be. Sirius also just liked that way that Layla's face looked, regardless of her expression.

"Hmmm how about mince pies? It is almost Christmas after all." Layla suggested when Sirius had asked her what she wanted to eat. Having spent almost half the day there already they were planning on skipping lunch and just staying in the room together. Therefore, Sirius called a house elf named Dinky and asked for a plate of mince pies and some cottage pie for the two of them, with pumpkin juice. Once the food had arrived they began their 'getting to know each other game' again.

"What job are you aiming for after Hogwarts?" Layla asked, taking a bite of her mince pie.

"I've always wanted to be an auror, but especially in these times." Neither mentioned the Ravenclaw second year (muggleborn) who had been found dead in her home with her family over the early Christmas break, but both knew that the other was thinking about him.

"That's really honourable Sirius. If the war were not a thing I would probably want to be a professor, but with everything going on I'll have to do something to help the war effort. Maybe a healer. I'm not talented enough to be an auror. But hey, I'm glad that there's going to be someone I trust out there with me." Layla replied. Sirius' face lit up with the knowledge that Layla trusted him. He tried to downplay it. Layla was slightly confused, having not realised that she had admitted her trust in Sirius (even if she was being honest).

"Maybe you'll get to be a professor after the war." Sirius suggested.

"Yeah... maybe."

There was a silence, more comfortable than the one that they had shared earlier.

"What's your relationship with your family like? You must know how awful mine is." Sirius asked.

"It.. they were great and I had the best relationship that you could possible have with them. My father was a muggle who's sister was a muggleborn, best friends with my mum. They met through her, and my dad had been exposed to magic from a young age due to my auntie. I was their only child so they always gave me a lot of love and attention. I wouldn't have swapped them for the world." Layla replied slowly, beginning to fall into her memories.

Sirius pondered this for a few moments. "Why are you using the past tense?" He asked slowly, not wanting to upset Layla if his assumptions were correct.

"They were murdered last summer by death eaters." She stated quietly, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Sirius gasped a quiet 'oh' as his suspicions were confirmed.

"I'm so sorry Layla."

"It's okay. Actually, no it's not. It's not okay at all, and that is why I am determined to help end this war." Layla said determinedly, looking at Sirius. "More and more families will be torn apart. There will be more children left without parents from this war, but we need to make sure that we reduce the damage as much as we can."