Shy- a Neville Longbottom fanfic (Slow Updates)

Chapter Sixteen

Carefully, they made their way towards the Whomping Willow.

Neville was holding on to Darcy's hand firmly. He didn't know what made him more nervous, the fact that they were going after a dog how went through a deadly tree, or the fact that the deadly tree might hurt Darcy.

He stopped which made Darcy turn around.

"What's wrong Nev?" She asked "it's ok if you don't want to go" she took a deep breath and looked him straight in his eyes.

In that moment, Neville knew he had to let his Griffindor spirit show. His expression was one of determination as he said "No Darcy, let's go".

Darcy was smiling widely, even though they were in danger at the moment.

She interlaced their fingers, making Neville blush.

The branches of the tree looked as if someone had used petrificus totalus on it.

"Tree," Neville whispered to one of the branches "I know how it feels"

They quickly passed the branches towards the place where they saw the dog disappear.

"Ready Alice?" Darcy joked to which Neville gave her a confused face. "Its a muggle story, i'll explain it later"

They carefully made their way through the dark scary hole, their hearts were beating quickly and they could only hear each other's heavy breathing.

It seemed like an eternity as they made their way through the dark tunnel.

Neville was in front, he was the first one to reach

"Darcy look!"  He whispered once he was standing firmly in the floor. "It's as if it were a passageway out if Hogwarts!"

"But where??" She asked as she looked around, it was dark, and you could barely make out that it was very torn apart.

"Hogsmeade to be exact" a deep voice called making both teenagers jump and get closer to each other, looking around for the source of the voice.

A shadow slowly appeared from a dark corner, he took a few steps and stopped when the light hit only half of his face.

Neville automatically placed himself in front of Darcy protectively.

"Who are you?" Neville called fiercely towards him.

"Ok ok. Let's calm down here" he said placing his hands in front of him in defence. "You remind me of your father... Always so protective and brave"

"You knew my father?" Neville called out a bit more calmer.

"Yes, good man he was...well is" the man said. Neville cringed slightly.

Darcy inspectioned him closely. The man wasn't that tidy to start with, he had long messy hair and his clothes weren't in the best conditions.

"But you haven't told us who you are" Darcy reminded him, making him chuckle.

"You, young lady, have the same aditude as your mother!" His smile was warm as he said this "before I tell you who I am, please promise me you won't be scared"

This, actually, scared them a bit more.

He took a step forward and both of them opened their eyes like saucers.

"Sirius..."

"Black!!"

They both started slowly backing away.

"Please sir..." Darcy said, her tone full of fear "please don't do anything to us"

Sirius's eyes held a bit of sadness and he sighed.

"I won't do anything, I promise, I just wanted to thank you." He said and turned around, heading for the simple bed in the other corner to sit down.

"What!?" Darcy asked incredulously.

Sirius took another deep sigh.

Suddenly, without warning, the man before them, turned into thier furry friend.

Darcy and Neville were at loss of words.

The dog barked gently, a sound they were familiar with, but it felt totally different now that they knew to whom it belonged.

Darcy was the first to react and approached him slowly.

When she was standing less then a meter away from the bed, Back transformed back to his human form and sat there with sad smile.

"Mr. Black-" Darcy started.

"Please, call me Sirius"

"S-Sirius, can I ask you a question?" Darcy asked while Neville just viewed from afar. "Why do you want to kill Harry?"

"Darcy" he said and took a deep breath, "there are many things that I would need to tell you, and I don't know if you will believe me"

Darcy turned to look at Neville over her shoulder and motioned him over.

Once he was next to her, she took his hand and nodded with confidence.

"Yes, we will believe you"