The Marauders: Padfoot

"You Can't Save Me From This One."

It was ten to seven and I was pacing the floor of our dorm room.

"Seren stop." Lily said, her eyes fixated on a book. She was still looking for a way to find out whether or not the dog was an animagus.

"I can't." I groaned.

She looked up at me.

"Why did I agree to this?"

"Go. It'll be good for you."

I stopped pacing and looked at her.

"Besides, it's almost seven and if you pace any more you're going to wear a hole through the floor." She laughed, her eyes returning to her book.

I huffed before heading out of the door.

I was almost at the room of requirement when I remembered I forgot my wand.

I began to run back to the room of requirement. I turned a corner and bumped into someone.

"Watch where you're going!" A girl with long blonde hair from Hufflepuff shouted.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, edging around her before continuing to run.

I made it back at the room of requirement at ten past seven.

"You're late blondie." He said, without turning around.

"I... Forgot... My... Wand." I said, taking deep breaths between each word as my lungs tried to fill back up with oxygen.

He laughed a little before turning around, wand in hand.

So we were doing dueling?

"We're dueling?" I asked, in confusion.

"No, we're going to practice patronuses again."

My smile dropped. I hadn't been able to do it last time, and every time I had practiced since.

"I've been practicing. I just don't think I have a happy enough memory." I frowned.

He smiled softly at me.

"What memory do you think of?" I asked.

His smile dropped.

"I'm sorry, that was nosy of me. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." I said, my cheeks flushing as I stared down at the ground.

"No, it's okay." He smiled. "I think of the first time the Potter's took me in, how they let me stay with them this Summer, they let their home become mine. They're my real family." He said, smiling softly to himself.

"Wow." I said quietly. I didn't have anything like that. Of course, I could try to think of my parents. But I had done that before, and it hadn't worked. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my parents, but I just didn't have any particularly strong memories. I had tried the time we had gone to the zoo together, and the time we went camping, but none of them had worked.

"Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm not good enough."

"Don't say that, of course you are! We just haven't found the right memory yet."

After an hour of trying different memories and techniques, I was exhausted.

I slumped down onto the stage.

"I'm never going to do it." I complained, running my

"Of course you are, it's not easy you know, it's going to take time and practise." He said, sitting down in front of me.

"What's your patronus? Can you show me?" I asked.

"Tell you what, let's make a deal." He said, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

I nodded.

"I'll only show you my patronus, after you cast one." He said, watching me closely.

"But you know I want to, I'm trying, I really am!" I exclaimed.

"I know, it's just an incentive."

"Okay." I mumbled, looking down at my watch.

He frowned.

"What's the time?" He asked.

"Ten past eight." I replied.

He swore and stood up.

"What? What is it?" I asked, pushing myself to my feet.

"I was supposed to meet someone at eight." He groaned, tugging on his hair.

"It's okay, I'm sure they won't mind you being late." I reassured him.

"Sorry to cut this short but I'd better go." He said, pacing back and forth.

"It's okay, I don't think I could have done much more anyway." I said, tucking my wand into my pocket.

"You should go on ahead." He said, as we left the room of requirement.

"Can't I walk with you?" I asked, a little confused.

He sighed and nibbled his lip.

"Of course you can."

We began to walk before someone ran up to us out of nowhere. It was the blonde girl from Hufflepuff who I had bumped into earlier.

"There you are!" She shouted, latching herself onto Sirius, her arms wrapping around him as she pressed her lips to his.

I froze. What was happening.

They pulled apart and he looked at me, a strange expression on his eyes.

"Ser-"

I shook my head, breaking him off, before running.

I ran along the corridor. I ran down steps. I almost fell as my legs shook underneath me. I didn't stop until I had reached my favorite tree.

I started sobbing uncontrollably. It hadn't worked. I had fallen for Sirius Black.

I wrapped my arms around myself and screamed into the darkness.

He knew what he had been doing. Saving me from that boy, helping me, giving me lessons, holding my hand while I cried.

He knew. It was so cunning and so sneaky that I hadn't seen it coming.

I felt my heart shatter into a million and one pieces. How had I let this happen?

I felt something wet on my hand. I looked up and there was Snuffles.

I broke down again.

"You can't save me from this one." I sobbed as he sat there, watching me.

I ripped my wand out of pocket. Anger and sadness and regret, so many emotions filled me. Maybe this would be enough.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" I screamed, letting my emotions fill my heart, and travel down through my arm, through my hand, through the wand, and through the air. They burst into a bright white light, which erupted into the shape of a swan, gliding upon the air and across the lake, dancing upon the waves, before disappearing.

I stared after it in disbelief before breaking down again.

It hadn't been a happy memory, it had been heartbreak that had formed my patronus.

Somehow I must have fallen asleep, it could have been minutes, or hours later, that Lily, James, Remus and Peter were standing above me, shaking me awake. Sirius was nowhere to be found.

My teeth chattered and I could no longer feel my limbs, my eyes barely opening before closing again.

Somehow in the back of my consciousness I remembered being lifted, carried away, before falling into darkness completely.