Chapter 3: Sirius in Trouble
“Wrackspurt.” The Gryffindor portrait swung forward and Lily entered. Inside, she found Sirius and Yves engaged in a game of Wizard’s Chess. Yves was smiling as her queen smashed one of Sirius’s bishops into pieces.
“No fair, you cheat!” he proclaimed. “I can’t believe I am losing to a girl...”
“Well start believing, bucko. Your turn.”
Lily sat down next to Yves. “I can see lots of work is going on here,” she grinned. “Professor Honour’s essay is in for tomorrow you know.”
“We’ve done it already,” Yves said.
“Really?”
Sirius smiled. “It appears this one is a bad influence on me. People might start thinking I actually enjoy doing my homework early.”
The trio laughed as James strolled in with a broomstick on his shoulder.
“Sirius! Where were you at training?”
Sirius ducked as James hurtled his bag at him. “Sorry,” he said, “my work is more important, you know.”
James slouched down next to him. “If you think for a moment I believe that, then you’re not giving me much credit as your best friend, now are you?”
Sirius shrugged.
“Well never mind. It just means we didn’t have our best Beater. Carolina is alright but she doesn’t have the uncontrollable and unending supply of energy that you do.”
“Is that the Fifth Year girl who fancies you, James?” Sirius inquired, smiling.
“She does not! She’s a friendly person who just likes smiling-“
“Oh and normal ‘friendly’ people like stroking your arm, do they?”
“And laughing hysterically at your jokes,” Lily said.
“Which really aren’t funny,” Sirius pointed out.
“Hey now wait a minute! My Hippogriff joke is a cracker!” James cried, feigning offence.
At that moment, Remus descended down the Boys’ Dormitory staircase. “Dinner time, guys. Man, I’m hungry.”
The boys headed off to dinner, and Yves turned to look at Lily. “Well now, that wasn’t torture, was it?”
“What wasn’t?
“Talking to Potter! You managed it perfectly well just then.”
Lily smiled. “Well, that’s because he wasn’t showing off or playing stupid pranks. It’s only then that he gets on my nerves.”
Yves looked like she was going to pursue the topic further, but thought the better of it. “Remus is right, dinner time!” she said.
***
Later that night, Sirius awoke to find both James and Peter out of their beds. Peter was known to spend all night in the laundry room trying to sort out his 'wet sheets', but James never left for a night-time stroll without Sirius.
He groped around in the dark under James’s bed for his friend’s invisibility cloak, but found it missing. He must have gone out of the building, he thought. Tempting as it was to wake Remus to help him find James, he looked so peaceful and there were only a few nights until the next full moon. He needed his sleep.
Sirius crept downstairs, stuffing his wand into his dressingown as he went. He had half a mind to throttle James for leaving without him. And more importantly, for taking the Marauder’s Map with him. It would be much harder to locate him this way, and if James didn’t want to be found, he could tell when Sirius was approaching.
So close to the full moon, the sky was light and so lit Sirius’s way. He reached a junction and was deciding which way to go when he heard far-off voices. Someone was angrily whispering. Sirius reached for his wand and held it in front of him. “Lumos,” he muttered, as his wand lit up for extra light along the windowless corridor, but more for his own peace of mind.
He followed the whispering, but before he got close enough to decipher its source, he heard hurried footsteps coming from somewhere behind him. Sirius panicked, and in his haste, hrew open the nearest door to him, shutting it quietely behinf him.
The footsteps grew louder, and Sirius distinctly heard a cat miaow. "Filch," he thought to himself. Why was it that whenever he was out of bed, Filch and his stinking cat were on his case? But Sirius wasn't a Marauder for nothing. That old man had never once got round to catching him... yet.
Filch spoke. "It's alright, my sweet. Those nasty Fourth Years will hang for this. We don't need to catch them at it. These dungbombs will go straight to the Headmaster tomorrow morning. He can't ignore evidence, can he, my precious?"
Filch's footsteps echoed away back in the direction he had come from. Sirius let out a sigh of relief. How many people were out of bed tonight?
He opened the dorr a crack and listened intentely. The whispering had stopped. Whoever it was must have heard Filch approaching. While Sirius was disappointed at not finding out if it was James, he told himself it was most likely those Fourth Year rebels. He left the classroom and started off back in the direction he had come.
The whispering started again.
Sirius stopped, turned around. He followed the sound of the voices; there were two now, the second was high-pitched and almost familiar. They led him round another corner, at which point Sirius breathed “Nox” and put his wand back in his pocket.
He felt his way along the wall, making sure to count every door frame his hand went over on the way: Three...Four...Five...the voices were in the next room. He stopped, and listened.
“The Dark Lord will know, you can count on that,” came the first angry voice. “He prizes those who obey him above all others. Make no mistake. Do I make myself clear?”
There followed a deadly silence in which Sirius could make out the sound of a mouse scuttling along the corridor floor.
“I said-“
“Yes.” It was Peter.
Sirius took a step backwards in shock, as the first voice uttered, “Good, good. Because if I find out, you know what will happen...” Sirius heard a whimper. “No....no please.”
Sirius reached for his wand again, and threw open the classroom door. “Stop!” he yelled, pointing his wand at the throat of the attacker.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” the voice said. Sirius stepped forward and saw his cousin sneering at him.
“Bella! What the hell are you doing? Let him go!” Bella was pointing her wand at Peter, who was dangling several feet off the floor. “Let him go now!”
“Or what?” Bella quizzed. “You’ll hand me over to Dumbledore? Will I get put in detention? Ha! You have no idea, cousin, what you are letting yourself into. Go and run off back to bed like a good boy. Peter will join you shortly.”
“Lay off the rubbish, Bella. He’s just an innocent fool and you know it.”
Bella flicked her wand away from Peter, and he fell in a heap on the floor. She pointed it at Sirius instead. “I mean business. You had better keep put of my way, fool, for your own sake. I don’t like hurting family members, but you betrayed the Black bloodline the moment you shook hands with Mudbloods. Your name won’t protect you forever that way. Join me and you might still be in with a chance.”
“I made my choice a long time ago.”
“Then there is nothing I can do to save you. We part here. Go.”
Sirius stood still for a moment, wondering how to react. Bella’s wand was still determinedly pointed in his face, and Peter was not moving, although he was still whimpering. Silence shook the room, but still Bella refused to move.
Eventually Sirius lowered his wand. “C’mon Peter, let’s get out of here.” He dragged his friend up by the elbow and led him away out of the room.
Peter turned at the last moment to take one last glance at Bella, whose wand was still pointed in their direction.
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: This chapter does stray from James/Lily but it all comes good in the end! I hope you like it, please keep the comments coming!