Decreed - Sirius Black

September 1976

It was supper time. After Dorcas woke Eleanor up, she hurried down stairs to the common room, promising she'd wait while she made her self look like she hadn't been asleep. The thing is Eleanor hadn't even made it to out the restroom when she heard the yelling from downstairs. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have cared, but she recognized the voices. Or rather, she recognized the one that tried to calm her down the night before. Marlene's. So she had to be sure she was okay, which is why she hurried downstairs.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" She heard, when she finally entered the room.

There were a couple of first year looking a bit scared at the far end of the room, a couple of fifth years looked unbothered while they did their homework, which gave Eleanor the impression that this was a common occurrence. What she didn't expect was to find the blonde arguing with Sirius Black.

"I do, Marlene. I honestly do, and I don't understand why you won't admit it to yourself!"

"Shut up!"

"No! We're going to settle this. We're going to make things right."

"Why? Because you want to go screw around without being labeled a cheater?" Marlene yelled, and immediately Eleanor could tell that she regretted it. Especially when she looked over at Sirius who looked more than hurt.

"Marlene!" Dorcas scolded her all while moving to her side, attempting to comfort her, but Marlene quickly shrugged her off and stormed out of the common room and up to the dorms. Sirius on the other hand, he simply took a seat on the couch that was near him. He was worried, that much was obvious, but from the way his leg was bouncing, Eleanor could tell there were a lot of things running through his head.

"Dorcas?" Eleanor finally spoke.

"Ellie, hi. Are you feeling more energized?"

Eleanor ignored her and was more focused on the smile that she was forcing while her eyes were growing watery by the second. "Are you okay?"

"I am great, you don't have to worry about me. I - I'm going to take a walk. I'll see you at supper, yeah?"

"Of course." Eleanor nodded giving the dark skinned girl room to leave the room. As soon as she was gone, she looked back at the long haired male to find he was already looking in her direction. "You alright?" Eleanor beat him to the question, which took him by surprise. He expected she would try to avoid conversation, that she would leave, especially after their conversation yesterday, but she stayed.

"I'm fine." Sirius responded still starring at her, or rather admiring her. Really he was mostly confused as to why she stayed, why she didn't try to go comfort Dorcas or better yet, Marlene- they are practically beat friends now.

"Sirius-" Eleanor knew he was hiding his feelings.

"Can you not tell the others about this?" He fianlly looked away from her and starred down at his hands ashamed with himself. " I would really appreciate that."

"Of course." Eleanor promised.

"Thank you, Nori." He quickly sent her a small smile and went to move past her, making his way out of the common room.

As soon as he was gone, Eleanor looked back in the direction Marlene had gone. She could hear the screaming. The throwing of things, which is why she hurried up the stairs to her dorm. She wasn't surprised when she saw the door was locked, but a quick spell fixed that.

By the time she made it in, Marlene was no where to be found. Eleanor assumed she hid under her bed but there was no sign of that being possible since her trunk was still sitting there.