Passion Dies

Chapter 12

Jareth's POV

Jareth ran into the Astronomy Tower, panting hard, and sat on the floor.

"Took you long enough," he heard Sirius say sarcastically from behind him.

"I-I'm sorry, I was talking to Leona about... stuff... I lost track of time," Jareth said, still catching his breath. Sirius shrugged.

"Alright."

"So, uh, why did you want to meet me here?" Jareth asked curious to find out what he was questioning. Sirius sighed.

"Jareth... If it wasn't obvious," he said, chuckling, "I fancy you... quite a lot, actually. And I want to be with you."

"Oh," Jareth said, somewhat shocked. This was not how he expected this to go.

"So, I wanted to ask... What do you want? Out of this," Sirius gestured to himself and Jareth.

"What are your feelings for me? If you even have any..."

"I want you," Jareth said, immediately blushing and rethinking his choice of words. Sirius smirked. "OH MERLIN, that sounded bad I uh..."

"Well, you can't tell me that's not what you meant," Sirius said, winking.

"SIRIUS," Jareth said, exasperated. He sighed. "I want to be with you."

"I want to be with you," Sirius agreed. Jareth smiled. Sirius walked over and sat next to him, leaning his head on Jareth's shoulder, staring outside at the stars. "Wait until we tell the others," Sirius said with a smile. Jareth sat up, staring at Sirius.

"'Tell the others'? Sirius, we can't tell the others. Do you know how dangerous that is? Think about it, Siri. There's no way. We need to keep this between us," Jareth said. Sirius looked at him, confusion and annoyance across his face.

"Jareth, these are our best mates we're talking about. We can't hide this from them," he said, sounding almost angry. "Aren't you happy about this? Don't you want to be happy in public?"

"Of course I'm happy, Sirius. I'm ecstatic, but I'm... I'm scared, okay? This isn't a very approving, accepting world and I don't want either of us to be mocked, or, or worse, hurt. I would love to be public but we can't. It's too dangerous," Jareth said. Sirius laughed darkly.

"Come on, Jareth, live a little! What do you think I'm doing? I almost died this summer, mate. You're saying this is dangerous? Ha!"

Jareth glared at him.

"This isn't a game, Sirius. We could die, you know. There are so many things that could happen," he said.

"We'll be fine. Don't you trust me?" Sirius said, taking Jareth's hand. Jareth pulled it away.

"You know what, no. I don't. You get into trouble daily, you have almost died multiple times, and you only care about yourself," Jareth said angrily. Sirius was fuming.

"Say it again, Potter. Say I don't care about anyone but myself. I would die for you and the rest of our friends in a heartbeat. So say it again. Tell me that I don't care."

"Why are you so bloody stubborn?!" Jareth yelled, tears filling his eyes.

"Don't you see how much I want to be with you? How much I want to be seen with you out in public, being a cute, sweet couple like all of the others? But we can't. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Well, I've already been hurt enough tonight to have the highest pain tolerance in the world," Sirius said bitterly, standing. Tears started trickling down Jareth's cheeks.

"Sirius... Sirius, please," Jareth practically begged. "Can't we just keep this private?"

"There's nothing to keep private, Jareth." With that, Sirius walked down the stairs, leaving Jareth alone in the Tower with his thoughts. He cried himself to sleep that night, to be woken up by an unexpected person the next morning.