Afraid || Sirius Black [1]

91

When morning came around, Madison stayed sleeping in, Lily and Marlene left her to it been as it was a Saturday. They quickly got dressed and made their way to the common room where the boys were, surprisingly, up early. However, it was clear as to why they were. They were smirking. That meant they were planning.

The two girls shared a look, both taking a deep breath before interrupting Sirius barking with laughter. "Um, Sirius, can Marlene and I have a word, please?" Asked Lily, gripping Marlene's hand who stood behind her.

Sirius nodded and patted James' knee, standing up and following the two girls to another corner of the common room. "What do I owe the pleasure, ladies?" He asked smirking.

Lily squeezed Marlene's hand tighter before saying, "It's Madison. We think she may be suffering in silence."

Sirius' joking manner turned dark rather quickly, his eyebrows furrowing and his eyes glinting with worry. "What do you mean?" He asked. "What makes you say that?"

It was Marlene's turn to speak. "She has a nightmare last night, we woke up and it was clear she wasn't seeing straight, we believe she only could make out our hair, she called Lily Mattei, she was crying saying how sorry she was, how she should have helped and other ways of blaming herself. Then she called me Edvardus, apologising for not helping Mattei and other things-"

"-We think she isn't coping and that she is hiding it. We know Maddie, she can hide things easily when it comes to things like this. She is sensitive, we know that, but sometimes she does a damn sight well at hiding things." Lily added.

Sirius stood taking in every word. He tried to play his conversations and time spent with his girlfriend over and over in his head and couldn't see any sign of her being upset and not coping. "I don't see it...but that doesn't mean I think you are wrong. After all, you two have dealt with Maddie for longer than I have, you have grown up with her more than I have. What do you suggest we do? I say we get the boys or at least M-Remus involved. He's known her longer than any of us."

"I agree about Remus, however, I think we should get a professor. McGonagall has stressed about how we can talk to her about anything."

"Yeah, but Marls, she isn't going to open up to Professor McGonagall like she is in veritaserum, no matter how much she respects and trusts her. If she can't open up to us, she isn't going to want to talk to a Professor."

"Then what we you going to do?" Piped up James from the sofa.

"We?" Exclaimed Lily, "You aren't involved, Potter, stop ear-wagging!" She snapped.

James sat up, pushing his glasses up his nose and stared at the girl, "I'll have you know Evans, Madison is just as much a friend of ours as she is yours. If something is wrong we aren't going to sit here and do nothing!" Nobody's had ever heard James talk to Lily in a tone like he had. It shocked everyone but it worked.

Lily didn't like to say it but, "I guess you're right." She sighed, "Remus, will you talk to her? You've known her longer."

Remus placed his foot back on the floor after tying his lace. He looked tired, the full moon approaching in the next week. "It doesn't matter who has known her longer. Yes, I may have, and yes, I may know things that known of you have any clue about but that doesn't mean she'll tell me what is up, if there is anything going on. We all know Maddie still, despite everyone telling her it isn't her fault, still blames herself. That's obvious. None of us know that feeling. Not one. None of us have witnessed our best friend dying, or anyone dying-"

"I used to watch my mother die everyday, she never seemed alive at all-"

"Not the time!" Marlene hissed at Sirius, smacking the back of his head, his hair lulling into his face. "Get a haircut you mop!" She added.

Remus cleated his throat, rubbing his eyes in annoyance. "Just listen to me. No one here has witnessed someone dying!"

"You've said that. Is there anyway you can elaborate?" James asked his friend.

Peter smiled, " I get what you're saying...I think. We all know of someone who has!"

Remus nodded at his friend.

"Moaning Myrtle?" Suggested Marlene.

"No!" Cried Peter, "that American boy from the tournament! Daniel Caniff! Now, he may not have known Mattei like Maddie did but he was there when Mattei died, in their arms, literally!"

"So we need some way of getting Daniel and Madison to talk?" Clarified Lily.

"Exactly." Claimed Remus, who turned to Peter, "Thank you Pete, for actually understanding what I was getting at."

Peter grinned at the boy, which reminded him of a small child seeming so very innocent with his head tipped to the side.

"I think she has written to him a few times." Claimed Marlene, "like to ask him how he was. After all, death isn't the most pleasant thing to witness, is it?"

"Why don't we owl him first, explain to him what is going on. He may not wish to talk about it anymore. I know I wouldn't." Said James. The group gave him a look. "What? It's true! Like Marlene said, death isn't nice, so witnessing it isn't going to be a topic of choice. You don't go up someone and say, 'Hi my name is blah-dee-blah and I have seen death, do you want me to tell you about it. I'll go into extra detail!' Do you?"

"No because that's sound psychopathic, Prongs. Like absolute weirdo psychopathic. Worse than my cousin Bellatrix!" Sirius stated shaking his head.

"Well what do you suggest, oh wise one?" James retorted crossing his arms across his chest.

Sirius went to pounce on him but was stopped by Lily who stood in his way. "Stop!" She shouted, "how about we just talk to her, just the, one, two, tree, four, five, six? I think it's six, it's too early. Just us lot. None of the others. We don't want everyone getting involved, it's bad enough the amount of us that do have this feeling."

"Sounds like a plan to me, Evans."