AN: I’m not sure exactly how old Bellatrix is supposed to be, so for the purpose of this fic, she is the same age as the Marauders and Co ... it’s just easier that way, so sit back and enjoy it! =D
Part 3: And Be You Blithe And Bonny
Izzie was dawdling down a corridor, not really having much to do considering it was the weekend. Lily and Henrie were in the Library, and “ she smiled at the thought “ James probably wasn’t far behind. Sirius and Peter were eating their dinner late after spending all afternoon in detention. She wondered how Sirius and Henrie had taken being apart for the afternoon “ it was the first time in a while, she thought. All those romantic feelings were getting a little tiresome. It was only because she was tired of being single herself, she realised.
“You’re Isabella, aren’t you?” a leering voice said from behind.
“Izzie,” she corrected. Only one person could call her Isabella without it being weird, and that was her sister. She turned to see who wanted to know, and was surprised to find that it was Severus Snape.
He smiled, and took her hand. “You know,” he said slowly. “You’re the only Gryffindor girl who I could ever stand to be seen with.”
She smiled at this flattery. She had always had some sympathy for Snape. He couldn’t help it that the Marauders chose him to bully a couple years ago. Of course, all that was over now, but still ... she glanced around. There was no one there. I can think of a way to get all this pining out of my system ...
Rodolphus, unbeknownst to Izzie, had been watching this exchange with amusement. He put a note in the beak of the jet black owl on his arm, and it took off down the corridor to find his girlfriend, while he slipped into the shadows once more and disappeared.
Down in the Great Hall, Bellatrix was watching her cousin with contempt. She normally tried to avoid looking at him, but if this was to go as planned ...
The owl, Coal, arrived, and dropped the note onto Bellatrix’s lap. She picked it up. ‘Now. Third Floor.’ Smiling to herself, she stood and made her way over to Sirius and Peter.
“Cousin of mine,” she simpered. “I think I have something to show you.”
“I don’t care,” Sirius replied. “Nothing you can say will interest me.”
“Not even if it involves your precious ...” her lip curled a little, “... Henrie?”
Sirius looked towards Peter, who shrugged. “What about her?” he asked, stiffening his back in automatic defence.
Bellatrix just shook her head. “That’s not how it works. Follow me.”
Not knowing quite what else to do, they stood and followed her out, although made sure their wands were at the ready.
Wondering what she could possibly have to say for herself, Sirius quickened his step, as curiosity began to get the better of him. As he sped up, so did Bella, smiling maliciously to herself.
However, as they neared the corridor on the third floor, she slowed down, and put her finger to her lips. She pointed down towards a couple, making out against a wall.
Snape, who was making himself feel ill just touching this girl, had whipped out his wand behind her back, and pointed it upwards. Her hair shortened a little, and straightened out, causing her to look “ at least from Sirius’s position “ more like her twin than herself.
Sirius felt rage bubbling up inside him “ there were no thoughts running through his head, just shock, anger, hurt and disbelief, all cumulating together to make his stomach churn, and his hands shake. As Remus had pointed out on their first day back, he had always been one to jump to conclusions a little. Words began to creep into his mind like poison. Snape. With Henrie. You should have known. The signs were all there ... Except that they weren’t. Never, never in a million years ... never would you have thought ... and yet ... and yet ...
“I’ll kill him,” Sirius hissed. Peter, almost instinctively, grabbed his arm.
“No. There’s another way,” he said.
Sirius looked towards his friend. “I don’t care. I’ll kill him.”
“But why him?” Bellatrix whispered in his ear. “You never trusted him anyway. It’s not him who betrayed you.”
And with that, she slipped away, satisfied that her job was done.
Meanwhile, the real Henrie, Lily and James were sitting in the Library.
Henrie was frowning in thought at James as she watched him scribbling a way on a piece of paper, crossing things out, and occasionally throwing it away and starting a fresh. Sometimes he would look up to Lily, who was completely unaware of his strange behaviour, and then start writing again. “Why are you even here?” asked Henrie finally, in the nicest way she could, although she already knew the answer “ and it wasn’t the one he was about to give.
He went red. “Um ... I, uh ... I need to ... study?”
Henrie smirked. “Right. Okay. You know, I need to find something in the ... uh ... that aisle all the way over there.”
“Henrie,” Lily growled under her breath, catching her friends arm. “Henrie, don’t go, don’t leave me, Henrie, Henrie!” It was too late.
James still looked rather red. “Um ... I supposed you worked out that I’m not actually here to study. See, I was ... I was trying to write you a ... a ... a poem.” He hung his head.
Lily, meanwhile, was so shocked that she forgot to be embarrassed. “You can write?” she asked.
“Apparently not,” he muttered, staring downwards at the mess of scribbling and crossing out.
“Can I see?”
“I’d rather you “” she took the parchment from in front of him without waiting for an answer, “... didn’t.”
The
She
And quickly
I want to make her dream come
I want
I can’t get away from those eyes.
Lily smiled. “It’s beautiful,” she said, and her throat seemed to close up.
“It’s utter crap,” he muttered.
“That too,” she giggled, and then stopped to meet his gaze.
“I can’t get away from those eyes,” he whispered under his breath.
Henrie, who was hiding behind a bookshelf, but watching everything very carefully, punched the air in victory. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a gaggle of First Year girls staring up at her.
“What?” she asked.
They seemed star struck. “Are you going out with Sirius Black?” one of them asked.
She smiled. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
A girl with tight blonde curls sniffed. “What makes you so special?”
Henrie frowned. “If you’re going to be like that, you can shove off, midgets.”
The girls scattered.
Much later on that day, the Marauders, the twins and Lily were sitting in their favourite armchairs. The atmosphere was a strange one. Lily and James were awkwardly happy. Sirius and Peter were sitting there brooding and glowering at anyone who laughed, or smiled, or showed any sign of happiness at all. Izzie was riddled with guilt about what had happened with Snape, because she knew her friends all hated him, and what they would think if they found out. Remus and Henrie were just confused.
“Look, Sirius,” Henrie began, leaning forwards. “What’s wrong?”
“Yeah, guys,” chipped in Remus. “What’s with all the glaring?”
“What’s with all the glaring?” repeated Sirius. “What’s with all the glaring?”
“That’s what he said,” Izzie replied, irritably. “What’s with all the “”
“How about betrayal? How about thinking you trust someone and finding out that she’s no different to anyone else, she’s just another stupid, trashy wretch who takes your feelings for granted and then just rips them up right under your nose, laughing at you all the while behind your back, but pretending to be so pretty and innocent when you’re around. Pretending to be concerned with how you feel?”
“Sirius,” Henrie said slowly. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t act all naïve!” he yelled. “I saw you! With him! Your boyfriend, your buddy, your bit on the side!”
“What are you talking about? You’re my boyfriend,” she said, laughing nervously.
“Oh yeah? Well, you wouldn’t think it, would you, if you go around snogging Snape all over the place!”
As her twin sister screeched at Sirius to take it back, that it wasn’t true, Izzie felt crushed. It was all her fault. All her fault. What had she done? How had she let it happen? Why did she have to be such an idiot when it came to a guy’s flattery? She was about to stop them fighting, to confess, when Sirius, Peter, and even James left in disgust, as Henrie sobbed hysterically, the whole of the Common Room staring at her.
“Oi!” Lily snapped at them all. “What do you think this is, a show? Get lost back to your own lives, or you’re all in detention!”
They got lost back to their own lives.
“Oh, Henrie,” Lily whispered. “What was that all about?”
“I don’t know!” she sobbed. “Why would he think that? I’ve never given him any reason to “ I’ve always “ I thought “ oh Merlin, Isabella, I thought we were happy!” She threw herself at her sister, who could do nothing but hold her, rocking her slowly, staring sadly at Lily over the top of her head.
“You know,” Remus mused. “I’ve always said that Sirius jumps to conclusions too easily. This could be another incident of that. After all, this basically has trick written all over it.”
“You’re probably right,” Lily said, while Izzie kept quiet. “What should we do?”
Remus thought for a moment. “If Henrie just stays out of the way for a while ...”
“And what?” Lily cut in, “Wears a bag over her head every class she has with him? Which, by the way, is all of them?”
“Just keeps a low profile. Izzie “”
Izzie looked up, alarmed. “What?” she demanded. Remus looked confused at the panic in her voice, but didn’t comment.
“You could just make sure that you stick with her at all times. Really give them all the message that says ‘touch her and you die.’ You know?”
Izzie shrugged. “I can do that.” It would, at least, take her mind off her guilt.
“And, Lily, you do the same. Although you could also try and get James on your side, since you’ve buddied up and everything.”
“We haven’t “”
“Not the time, Lily,” Remus said, smiling to himself. She sulked for a moment, until another thought crossed her mind.
“And you, Oh Great Organiser? What will you do?”
Remus thought for a moment. “Well, I do have a talent for nonentity. I could follow Snape for a while, try and find out what’s going on. In fact ... Lily, if you could get James on our side, I would be able to follow them very easily ...”
Lily snorted, and said light-heartedly, “What, because James will act like a prick to distract them?”
Remus laughed. “There are some things about James you may find surprising, you know.”
“His talent for prickability?” Lily asked, laughing. “No, Remus, that stopped surprising me a long time ago. In fact, I’ve come to accept, and even embrace it. Well. Not quite.”
Even Henrie, wiping the tears from her eyes, was forced to laugh.
“So,” began Remus, grinning, as he and James stood cramped together under the invisibility cloak outside the Slytherin Common Room early on Sunday morning the next day. “How exactly did Lily persuade you that Henrie was innocent?”
“Well,” James mumbled, flustered. “She was very ... she can be quite ... if she wants to be ... very persuasive ... I mean, obviously I had the upper hand ...”
“Obviously,” Remus repeated, trying not to fall over, laughing.
“Shut up, Moony, it’s none of your business anyway.”
“Right. Okay. If you say so.”
“Stop looking at me like that!”
“Wait,” Remus whispered, holding his hand up. The two boys leaned forwards, as the entrance opened. As Snape came out “ along with Sirius’s younger brother by about two years “ they exchanged triumphant, excited glances, and set off behind them.
“So, what do you think there’ll be for Breakfast this morning?” asked Regulus. Snape looked at him disdainfully, and the two continued to walk forwards in silence, James and Remus not far behind.
It was halfway to the Great Hall when Snape said, “Hey, you’ll never guess how I spent yesterday afternoon ...”
James looked at Remus, who nodded, and they tried to get even closer.
“Um ... I don’t know.”
“Well, you know your brother’s girlfriend ...”
“That Henrietta girl?”
“Let’s just say they won’t be so sickeningly happy together anymore.”
Regulus gasped, in his annoying little boy way. “I knew it wouldn’t last! What happened?”
“Well, I “”
“Severus!” barked a chilling female voice, and Snape stopped talking. As if from nowhere, Bellatrix slid into view, curling herself around Snape, and saying into his ear quietly, “You wouldn’t be boasting about your latest adventure to this little boy, would you?”
Snape nearly choked in his hurry to say, “Not at all! What do you take me for?”
Bella stepped back, and sneered, nastily. “An idiot.” She smiled sweetly again. “Do you have a problem with that?” she simpered, before slipping away again into the growing crowd.
Snape stood for a moment, looking flustered, then bowed his head and followed the crowd into the Great Hall.
Remus and James stood, still concealed by the Cloak, and unaware of the various people bumping into them.
“I think we need to bring him in for questioning,” James said.
“I heartily agree.”
“How are we going to do that without anyone noticing?”
Remus thought for a moment. “A really, really big lasso?”
“This is serious, Remus!” James protested. Remus nodded.
“Okay, okay. Don’t worry. I have the perfect plan ...”
AN: Dun dun dun! =D Hope you’re enjoying it, please review!