"MAYONNAISE... MAYO-N-AISE... MAYO... mayonnaise..."

"Are you ready?"

"It's... a sauce?"

Nik looked up at Neville with an uncertain expression. His dirty blonde hair was flopping into his face, but it didn't hide his creased brows as he read the back of the flash card.

"Correct."

Nikita threw her hands into the air. "Finally, why are there so many M words?"

Neville shrugged shyly, "I dunno, it's a sound we make a lot?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hmmmmmm,"

A laugh escaped her throat before she could stop it, and Neville's concentrated face flushed red from embarrassment.

"What noise is that?"

"A thinking one,"

"It's so odd! I wonder why we make it,"

Nikita looked up when Neville failed to answer, and saw his eye's focused on something over her shoulder. She turned to see a young girl standing there, with black curly hair and a skin tone to match her own.

"Why hello, can we help you?"

"My name's Romilda, Romilda Vane," The first year said pointedly.

"Nice to meet you?" Nik was understandably baffled.

Neville cleared his throat, "She uh, she has the last name as you Nik,"

She paused, then shrugged. "Cool!"

Romilda let out a small breath of air, "Do you know my dad, Patrick?"

"Nope!" Nikita replied cheerfully, "Okay, so the next word is ketchup. Ketch- up. Ketch-"

"What about my mum?" Romilda pressed on.

"Probaly not, I mean, I don't even know my own."

"Are you retarded or something?"

Neville's face twisted, "You're not supposed to say retarded, it's unkind to the mentally disabled."

Romilda looked slightly abashed at being told off by the older boy, and her cheeks flushed red. Nik furrowed her brows. "It's not the first time I've been asked that. The collective magical communitys lack of understanding is getting worrying at this point, if I were ever minister I think I would- oh look a bird!"

"What kind?" Neville asked, just as excited as he turned to look out the window.

"Blue! And it's got a green chest!"

"Look at it's feathers!"

"Won't get anything out of them now," Romilda jumped as George walked over. "They've seen something shiny. So innocent and pure, those two. Not gonna lie, they're two of my favourite people right now."

"R-right," She stumbled out.

"Run along, little one." George said, shooing her. "I'm trying to enjoy this. Fred's gonna set off a firework in a minute and I wanna see their reactions,"

***

"And then it went BOOM and Neville felll off his chair,"

Sirius laughed as Nik re-enacted her reaction to seeing a firework for the first time. "Sound's fun, goddess."

"It was. But it scared the bird, it flew off and made funny noises with it's beak."

"Nikita, have you spoken to Harry?"

Nik paused with a frown at Sirius's question. "No... why? You- you broke out to come see me, right? And protect me?"

"And protect Harry. You're gonna have to share me on that one." Sirius said with a gentle smile.

"Oh. I- Oh."

"Don't worry," He quickly reassured, "I'm still here for you too. He's just my main concern."

Nik smiled but her thoughts got dark. Of course he was here for Harry. How could she have been so silly, Harry was the the chosen one and she was just the forgotten child that had been thrown away by her parents.

It's funny how adamant she had been at the beginning of the year that Sirius was gonna save her. Save her from her nightmares, save her from her insecurities and save her own pure niaveness.

She should have remembered what she realised the year before. The only person she could ever truly rely on to protect herself was herself. Relying on others wasn't healthy and it certainly wasn't going to help her. George and Hermione were her friends, sure. But did she even truly know what friends meant? It wasn't guardians, that's for sure.

That's when it hit her.

The thing she was looking for.

It was a parent.

She could view Sirius as her father all she wanted, but he wasn't. He didn't see her like a daughter. He didn't protect her like a daughter. Things were much different now they weren't in Azkaban. There were probaly a hundred people more he cared for more then Nikita.

He was Nikita's number one, but she wasn't his.

***

A/N

Long time no see. Short chap today chaps.