Written In the Stars | s.b |

FIFTY-NINE

Sirius made his way up the stairs to the astronomy tower seeing Ariah sitting on the edge, her feet crossed under herself. Sirius rubbed his hands on his slacks before walking closer to Ariah.

"Dylan won," he said, startling Ariah. She looked back at Sirius before looking forward again. "Somehow she jinxed the Great Hall entrance so that when he ran through it, it turned into an invisible barrier that he smacked right into. It also jinxed his face to have a giant purple streak across it.... quite iconic."

Ariah nodded. "Wish I could have seen it. What do we all have to do?"

"She'll declare it at tomorrow's meeting," Sirius said, moving to sit beside Ariah.

"Cool," Ariah said. "Do you want to talk yet?"

"Me?" Sirius asked, pointing at himself. "I have nothing to talk about."

Ariah rolled her eyes. "Why won't you just open up to me, Sirius? We promised to do this the right way and that includes being open about our emotions!"

Sirius was taken back. Both at her tone and her confrontation. He wasn't sure where she was even coming from. "Are you.... are you honestly upset with me right now?"

"Yes!" She stood to her feet, crossing her arms over her chest. "You don't want me to "intrude" on your emotions and thoughts by using my powers — which, by the way, are way harder to just 'turn off' then everyone makes it seem! I feel everyone's emotions!"

"Then don't turn them off when we're together!" Sirius shouted, standing to his own feet. "I said that once, when I was twelve! If you want to know how I'm feeling so bad, then just... read my emotions!"

"It's not just about that, Sirius," Ariah exclaimed. "You don't talk to me! We use to talk about everything - every bump in the night and every bad day and now you're shutting me out! I just want you to let me in, Sirius."

"Well you don't talk to me either!" Sirius pointed out. "I found out today, from Meeka that you've been experiencing night terrors! So don't come after me for not being honest when you've been hiding night terrors and panic attacks from me!"

"You...you haven't asked, Sirius," Ariah said, her voice lowered and despite her words, not a trace of accusation followed her tone.

He relaxed his stance, stepping back on his heel a bit. "What..?"

"You.... You haven't asked... So I haven't brought it up because.... I know that you'll just blame yourself and I-I don't want you to shoulder that type of responsibility. I thought.... I thought they would just — stop. But they haven't...."

"I—I'm sorry, Ariah," Sirius said. "I — I suppose I've.... been in another world lately and didn't think...." He sighed. "I didn't think.... ballocks I've been an arse of a boyfriend..."

"Hey, no you haven't," Ariah said, stepping forward to grab his hand. "We just.... both suck at communication and we need to work on it. You're an amazing boyfriend, Sirius. And I love you."

Sirius sighed, leaning his cheek on Ariah's hand, which had cupped itself around his cheek. "I miss Regulus.... And — I'm worried I drove him further into our parent's grasp.... I'm just so worried about him and..... scared..... scared of the future now that You-Know-Who is at full power and..... scared that my family will hurt you and force me back.... I don't know what to do, Ariah...."

"I'm scared too," Ariah confessed. "But when I'm with you, I feel safe in the sense that I know, together, we can overcome anything — I mean.... look at what we've overcome so far together."

Sirius nodded, wiping a stray tear. "I'm sorry I wasn't open with you before. I'm kind of bad at confronting emotions..."

"Aren't we all?" Ariah asked with a chuckle. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my nightmares. I just thought you would start to feel guilty again and I didn't want to put that pressure on you."

"Never worry about putting pressure on me," Sirius said. "You're no burden to me Ariah. And if you ever find yourself dreading to sleep, there's a secret passage marked on the map that leads from the Gryffindor common room to the Hufflepuff common room — Meeka found it and has it memorized, as well."

He winked causing Ariah to chuckle. "So that's where she goes some nights!"

Sirius nodded, wrapping his arms tightly around Ariah's waist, pulling her closer to his body. "That's where she is most nights."

"Ooooh," Ariah cooed, draping her arms around his neck. "Two prefects breaking some major rules here."

"I know, they're kind of out shining us in the rule breaking category right now," Sirius said.

Ariah gasped. "Well we have to fix that."

Sirius smirked, leaning in closer. "Agreed," he whispered, before closing the gap between the two, kissing Ariah softly.

"Silence!" Dylan boomed as she sat on the 'throne' in the room of requirement. "As you're queen for the next year, I have thought carefully about what to make you all do. It is my decree that all you losers must act like your animagi selves for one minute. Those of you who aren't animagi will act like monkey's -- Remus you're still to act like a wolf."

"So only I am acting like a monkey?" Lily asked. "This seems highly unfair - I vote we impeach!"

"We can't," Remus muttered. "It's the Day of Pranks rule number one, remember."

Dylan smirked. "Exactly. Now, I'm feeling.... hungry like a wolf."

Everyone groaned before going on all fours. The room became overcome with barks, howls, squeaks, grunts, chirps and whatever sound James thought sounded like a deer.

"Beautiful," Dylan said with a large smile. "Just as it should be."