A Sliver of Change | S. Black

Part 2: Chapter 48

Part 2:

Chapter 48 –

March 19th, 1979

Lia sighed as she sat in the armchair of her and Sirius' room, laying her book down to stare at the form in bed in front of her.

It had been more than two weeks since they found out about Regulus' death, and Lia had thought that Sirius would become a mess. Blame himself for everything, but he did exactly the opposite. After his nap that day, he had woken up a new person and didn't speak once about his brother's death other than to tell her that he wanted a quiet ceremony with just the two of them.

She was surprised to see that he was okay after the news and did exactly as he asked. She knew that they would never get the chance to bury his body, so instead she had taken the two of them to the lake around the Manor and lit a candle in honor of the person that they both knew Regulus was. It was an intimate goodbye and she felt herself feeling much better after doing it, after getting a chance to say goodbye to the boy that she cared for.

She had hoped that Sirius would take that time to talk to her about how he was feeling, but instead he had used her to distract himself from the pain and the two ended up spending the night naked at the edge of the lake.

It was like that almost every time Lia mentioned Regulus to him, he would distract her so he wouldn't have to talk about his feelings and Lia was getting tired of it. She understood that losing his brother was hard for him, especially not being able to know how he died or getting to say goodbye, but all she wanted was for him to talk to her.

To trust in her that she wouldn't judge him and say anything to hurt him, but that she would listen to what he had to say.

She was tired of him smiling and acting as if his life hadn't changed. Tired of him continuing the same routine he had and lying to their friends that he was fine. Lia knew that he wasn't fine, and she was going to make sure that he admitted it to himself before the day was over.

Or at least talked to her about it.

So, she had decided to sit there reading her book until he had woken up from his nap. She was going to do it before, but Gideon had told her that they had a long day at work and that they both needed some rest. She thought she could at least give Sirius that courtesy since she wasn't going to when he woke up.

Even Lia herself had opened up to Lily about what happened to her with Tiberius during their mission, and despite hating the sympathy that she was given, she admitted that she felt much better after talking it through with her best friend. She just wanted Sirius to feel the same emotional relief that she did.

She shook her head as she diverted her attention from his sleeping form back to her book, and her mind roamed back to what Dumbledore had told her before the news of Regulus.

She had asked him again only days ago if he had figured out what horcruxes were and the professor was still resistant to giving her the full truth. He had told her that it was Voldemort's plan to help him win this war, but he wasn't exactly sure what horcruxes were or how they could help him.

Lia was frustrated after that and decided to do her own research, but she was having trouble finding any sort of information on it. She had thought about asking Lily for help, seeing as the girl was a walking library but she didn't want to bring anyone into it yet, instead using her time to carefully find out information herself.

So far, she only knew that it was important. Important enough that Dumbledore had tasked them on a dangerous mission to receive the parchment. And even though she had done copious amounts of research already; she was still set on finding out what they meant.