the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 16: confide

Every time the door of the Room of Requirement would open, Esmeralda's heart sped up in hopes to see Sirius entering, but it was never him. She had no idea how long it had been since the last time she saw the handsome Gryffindor, but from all the people constantly coming in and out of the Room of Requirement, Esmeralda figured it had been weeks.

Even when Sirius visited her, people would stumble across the Room of Requirement and look at their desire in the Mirror when he wasn't there. Like most witches and wizards that found the Mirror, they came back constantly to look at themselves with their desire. It was always the same, they either saw themselves having a future with their significant other or see themselves surrounded by fame, power, and money. It impressed Esmeralda how stupid people were since most of them thought that it showed the future.

She felt alone, of course, but she was also worried about Sirius. The longest time they had been away from each other had been summer vacation, and that felt shorter than this.

The truth was that Sirius felt too embarrassed to visit Esmeralda. He had been disowned by his family and was a mess. He could hide it from everybody else, but he knew that he would break down as soon as he saw her honey brown eyes looking into his. He tried to distract himself and not think about Esmeralda with whatever he could, mainly girls. James knew that he was going through a difficult time, so he didn't question him or suggest that he go speak to Esmeralda.

"What's wrong with Padfoot ?" Peter asked one morning.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so Sirius was sitting with the girl he would be taking to town that day. Today he had gone for a Ravenclaw.

"What do you mean ?" James asked a bit too quick, "He's perfectly fine."

"Wormtail's right," Remus said, "Ever since we came back from break he hasn't been the same."

James gulped nervously as he looked up to see his best friend on the opposite side of the Great Hall as he planted a kiss on the Ravenclaw girl's cheek. He knew that it wasn't his place to tell Remus and Peter about Sirius leaving his family and moving in with him, but he also knew he couldn't keep the secret for much longer.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," he replied looking back at his breakfast, "Padfoot is perfectly fine."

Remus and Peter decided to drop the subject after that, although Remus did not completely forget about it. Over the past couple of weeks he had noticed how Sirius had not used the Marauder's Map to sneak out of their dorm at night like he used to. He was also present to all of his classes and was even seen during free periods with them or with a random girl by his side. Although he enjoyed his friend's company, Remus knew that something was wrong.

Lily walked into the Great Hall by herself and walked directly to where Remus was sitting. She sat beside him and began to fill her plate with food. Without saying anything she began to eat her breakfast at an alarming rate.

"Damn, Evans," Remus said, "Would you slow down ? You're going to choke."

She shot him a glare and went back to eating her breakfast. Remus looked at James trying to get a reaction out of him, but his gaze wasn't on the beautiful red-haired Gryffindor, but on his best friend leaving the Great Hall with the Ravenclaw.

"Excuse me," he said as he stood up without acknowledging Lily and followed Sirius out of the Great Hall. Peter left immediately after to go after James.

Lily was still devouring her breakfast ferociously.

"Are you okay ?" Remus asked her.

"Do I look okay ?" she snapped with her mouth full of food.