[1] JAMES POTTER VICTIM SUPPORT CLUB ━ Sirius Black

08. Thank You

EIGHT THANK YOU

"I think I'm gonna call it quits with Maeve," Victor hears as he's walking down the hallway between classes. The second he realizes who is talking and more importantly, the subject matter containing his best friend and her relationship, he darts behind a pillar to eavesdrop.

"Well, why're you gonna go and do that?" he hears a voice that has got to be James ask with bewilderment in his tone. "You two are just about the worst lovebirds I've ever seen and I've seen Lils and me."

"Don't get me started on you and Lily," Remus contributes with a bored tone. "Sirius, why do you want to break up with Maeve?"

He feels bad for eavesdropping, really, he does. However, if his best and only friend is about to get dumped while she has absolutely no idea, he deserves to know about it. So, he lingers on the conversation, hanging onto every single word.

Sirius sighs deeply, hesitating as his voice lowers. Victor leans in as far as he can while still staying behind his pillar of cover. "She's been, like, asking me about my family and what we do because I think... I think she wants to get involved."

"Like in the creepy deatheater shit?" Peter's voice pipes up, much louder than it should have been and judging by the smack that came after it seemed as if he had slapped a hand over his mouth. Repeating in a lower voice, he says, "Sorry. Like in the creepy deatheater shit?"

"Yes," Sirius whisper-yells, sounding irritated. "I come to Hogwarts to get away from my family. I mean, I don't even go home for breaks because they hate me so much but she thinks she can use me as a way to weasel her way into the favor of that idiotic Voldemort guy that my parents are obsessed with. It just, I don't know, it's making me insecure. Like, what if this was the only reason she was with me in the first place?"

There's a heavy silence that seems to fall between the group and Victor breathes a heavy sigh. He had no idea what Sirius's family was involved in and judging by the way he spoke about it and the way he had seemed to struggle so hard to separate himself from it, there was no way it could be anything good. He tried to picture his best friend, his only real friends besides William and even that was kind of a stretch, being anything along the lines of evil. They were Gryffindors for Merlin's sake. They were supposed to be heroes not... whatever else was going on that Victor had made a point to turn a blind eye to.

The silence carries on for too long and among the mix of footsteps, he assumes the group of four have moved onto whatever class they have next. Victor takes a deep breath and steps away from the pillar just in time to see the four of them walking away. Still, he can see Sirius turn his head to look back, a dark look in his eyes as his gaze crosses Victor's. There's a mutual understanding between the two of them.

This "mutual understanding" is how Victor finds himself pulled into an empty classroom as he's walking back from dinner and shoved against a door to keep it closed. If it were not for the threatening look in Sirius's eyes, he would have thought that he was flirting.

"Have you told Maeve what you heard?" Sirius asks and the fluctuation in his tone tells everything Victor needs to know. He isn't threatening him, he's scared.

Frantically, Victor shakes his head. He wanted to, at first. He almost did. He was all ready and everything, but something just... stopped him. Sirius would not have these fears unfounded; he was likely one of the least insecure people Victor had ever met and if he truly believed Maeve was getting into something dark, Victor would be a fool not to believe him.

"Are you lying?" Victor shakes his head once more. "Okay, okay, okay. Sorry, I just... when I realized you had heard I assumed you would tell Maeve and all hell would break loose if you did, I just know."

"I just want to know why," he finally speaks now that he's caught his breath. Sirius has turned away from him now, running a hand through his long dark hair. "What has she said or done that makes you think this?"

"I caught her speaking to Regulus," Sirius sighs after a moment. "She had been asking me about it and I thought it was just curiosity so I brushed it off, telling her that I don't know what they're into because my own family hasn't spoken to me for months and likely never will again, and then... then I saw her at breakfast standing by the Slytherin table. Talking to my bloody brother who won't even talk to me. I could have broken up with her then and there, I was right bloody pissed."

Everything about the boy's body language and voice tells Victor that he is, in fact, still incredibly pissed. So, Victor chooses to approach this as normally and casually as he can and trying to ignore the fact that he is directly going against the feelings of his best friend. "So break up with her. I mean it. If she's getting involved in something dark, something to do with your family and whatever's going on, end it. I don't... I don't think Maeve is the type to use anyone, not like this, but if she's going down this path..."

Sirius turns to face him, their eyes meeting. "She hasn't mentioned any of this to you?"

"Absolutely nothing," he says and he means it. This is the first he's heard of sweet Maeve getting involved in anything like this and he's trying so hard to pretend it isn't absolutely devastating. Still, he keeps his brave face on. He won't break, not in front of Sirius. "Fucking nothing."

The other is still angry, they both are. The tension fills the room, thick enough to be suffocating. Then, Sirius reaches for him. A hand wraps around his arm and he's being pulled into a hug. A hug. From Sirius Black. The tension in the room melts as Victor hugs him back.

Then, quietly whispered into the space between his shoulder and his neck he hears words that are all too meek for the man saying them. A quiet, "Thank you."