Anika didn't speak to Bertram Aubrey again, no matter how hard he tried to get her to forgive him.

"If a boy was buying me this much chocolate I'd forgive him," Marlene stated two days after the incident as the girls sat in Mary, Lily and Anika's dormitory surrounded by boxes of chocolates that Bertram had sent Anika coupled with apology notes.

"Well you would," Lily said, "the way to your heart is through food, Anika however has every reason to never speak to the biggot again."

Anika smiled slightly, "thank you Lils."

Anika had found it was difficult to trust any of her friends since Bertram had been who she trusted most and he had seen her as less than human the whole time. However, Anika squashed these feelings down and told herself that she had no reason not to trust her friends who had stood by her for her entire five years at Hogwarts thus far.

"Well Marls you can have as much of the chocolate as you want, I'm not touching any of it," Anika said, "besides I have my first night of detention tonight, which I should get going to."

She got to her feet and handed the stack of chocolate boxes which had been resting on the end of her bed to Marlene, whose eyes lit up.

"Don't jinx Sirius and earn yourself any more detentions," Lily said, "he's insufferable."

Anika laughed lightly and made her way down the stairs to the girl's dormitory into the Gryffindor common room. It just so happened that at the same time, Sirius Black had bade the rest of the Marauders goodbye and made his way to the common room as well, meaning that the two silently fell into step together on their way to the trophy room.

"Don't listen to a thing that that twat Aubrey says," Sirus broke the silence a few minutes into their walk, "the rest of us don't believe that."

Anika was surprised that Sirus said this, the two had never been close but she had always remembered the tender moment of friendship they had shared in their early years at Hogwarts behind the tapestry when Sirius had sat with her whilst she cried about the trial.

But they were both sixteen now and hadn't really spoken one on one since that moment. Anika knew from overhearing discussions between Sirius and his friends that he hadn't had the easiest time in the last few years, what with his family being open supporters of Voldemort and trying to manipulate Sirius into taking the same route, it seemed that the boy had all but moved in with the Potters for school holidays. He also had a few more wounds than he had had when they had started at Hogwarts, his knuckles were scarred and he had a long thin scar along one side of his neck.

"Thank you," said Anika, not knowing how else to respond to the boy's statement.

"He was lucky to have you not the other way around," Sirus stated adamantly. Anika blinked and smiled at the boy.

They lapsed back into silence for the rest of the walk and didn't speak again until after Filtch had left them alone in the trophy room with strict instruction to use no magic to clean the trophies and having confiscated both of their wands, placing them in a charmed box which would not release their wands until their cleaning for the evening was complete.

"Why so quiet then Flamel," Sirius asked as he set a now clean medal for Magical Merit which had been awarded many years ago to another member of the Black family.

"I have decided if I am forced to spend a whole week's worth of evenings here with you I will endure it in silence," Anika stated, polishing another Magical Merit medal on a shelf above the one Sirius had just finished.

"Well I think that's going to be boring," Sirius stated.

"Perhaps."

Sirius made it his mission to engage her in conversation, and reluctantly Anika found herself enjoying the night's detention far more than she had expected, well as much as she could enjoy a night of polishing trophies.

Sirius made for good company and made her laugh more than she had laughed in quite some time and she left the detention tentatively looking forward to the next day's detention.

*

The next detention went quite the same as the first and Anika found herself at her third night's detention gossiping with Sirius about James' hopeless crush on Lily.

"It's not like he even tries to be subtle." Anika said, "He asks her out every time we go to Hogsmeade."

"He's persistent," Sirius shrugged, "the man knows what he wants."

"Well, Lily doesn't want him back so maybe get him to dial it back a few notches."

"Get your wands and leave," Flitch had entered the trophy room and Anika was shocked that three hours had passed without her even noticing. Anika grabbed her wand from the now open box and waited for Sirius to grab his before the pair set off in the direction of Gryffindor Common Room.

"I'm going to have to leave you here fair witch," Sirius said in an overly dramatic voice, "I have some extremely important business to attend to."

"Oh?" Anika looked at the boy.

"I'll see you in detention tomorrow." Sirius grinned, before taking a turn down a corridor which would lead him towards the entrance hall.

Anika was sure she shouldn't follow him, surely he was meeting James, Remus and Peter to cause some mischief that she didn't want to know about, but she couldn't help herself from being curious about where Sirius was going. Once he was far enough away, Anika followed him on tiptoe, hiding behind statues and in alcoves to prevent him from noticing her.

Sirius made his way through the dark corridors of Hogwarts towards the entrance hall. Anika wondered vaguely if the boys were planning a prank that would come to fruition at breakfast, but Sirius passed through the entrance hall and out of the closed double doors which lead to the grounds. He closed them behind him and Anika waited several moments before opening the doors just enough for her to slip through the crack and then closed them tight behind her too.

She looked around, not seeing Sirius anywhere, but instead spotting a large black dog bounding across the grounds towards where the whooping willow rested in the grounds. The light of the full moon hung across the grounds as Anika silently made her way further into the grounds in an attempt to spot where Sirius had disappeared to.