Sirius raced down the vast halls of Grimmauld Place, his eight year old heart racing. He slowed down enough to catch his breath. He had to get away. He had to. But Sirius knew there was no escaping-
"SIRI!" His six year old cousin, Narcissa, attacked him from behind, wrapping her pale arms around him excitedly. Her blonde hair flew into Sirius's eyes, momentarily blinding him.
"Cissy! Stop! I can't breath!" Sirius cried out, positive that his cousin had broken some ribs.
Narcissa burrowed her head into the nape of Sirius's neck. She breathed loudly. "I missed you, Siri! I missed you so much!"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's only been a month or two."
"Might as well've been forever." She replied, her voice muffled.
Sirius removed her from his neck to give her a proper hug. She was a tall six year old, coming up to his nose. He wrapped his arms around her, and she squeezed him with enthusiasm.
"I missed you too, Cissy."
Narcissa gave him a wide tooth grin. "I thought you would. Now come on. Mummy's letting us play chess. We have to go now. She could change her mind!"
Sirius giggled at the speed of Cissy's speech. She took his hand and pulled him towards one of the many sitting rooms. Sirius followed her for a little while, and then stopped abruptly.
Narcissa fell down, not expecting the sudden stop. "Ouch! Siri, that really hurt."
Sirius ignored the crocodile tears in her eyes and the quiver of her bottom lip. Anybody else would've succumbed to Narcissa's pout, but Sirius knew better.
"Narcissa, where's Bella?" He asked slowly, realising for the first time that his other cousin was absent.
Narcissa's pout fell from her face at the sound of her name. Sirius only ever called her by her full name when he was concerned.
"She came in a while before Mummy and I did, I think. That's what your mum said. I haven't seen her though. Now come on!"
Sirius planted his feet firmly into the ground as Narcissa yanked on his arm. "I haven't seen her."
Narcissa furrowed her eyes in confusion. "She's been at your house. How have you not seen her?"
Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. I don't remember her coming through the Floo. Come on, Cissy, let's go find her."
Narcissa shook her head furiously, her blonde hair swishing back and forth. "No, we can't. Mummy's never gonna let us play again. Come on, Siri." She was resorting to whining. Unfortunately, Sirius was no longer paying attention to her.
"You go ahead, Cissy. I'll go look for her."
Narcissa pouted once again. "It'll be no FUN without you."
Sirius gave her a hug. "Well, I don't think it'll be fun without Bella. I'll find her."
Narcissa's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Okay. But you owe me an one of the extras for your mum's biscuits."
"Promise!" Sirius said over his shoulder, rushing down the hallway.
As Sirius walked though the halls, he thought about his cousin's recent behaviour. She was always withdrawn whenever he and Regulus would visit, no matter what they did. She smiled a lot less, and her laughs were even scarcer. Sirius had once walked in on her crying.
Sirius hadn't been searching for long when he heard murmuring behind the door of one of the guest bedrooms. He strained his ears to listen even further.
"...head...no...Reggie...can't..."
Sirius frowned. The voice sounded like Bella. He knocked, and the murmuring stopped suddenly.
"Bella?" He knocked five more times before continuing.
"Do you wanna play some chess? Aunty wants us all to play. I haven't seen you in a while, but the last time I did, you looked...far away. Cissy and I are waiting, probably Reggie, too. Mummy even made biscuits! Are gonna play some chess with us? It doesn't have to chess, if you want." Sirius knew he was rambling, but he missed his younger cousin.
"Go away, Sirius!" Bella's voice growled at him.
Sirius looked down sadly. "Ok. Bye."
With that, he walked away with his feet dragging, his spirits low. He wasn't in the mood for chess anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"GRYFFINDOR WINS! 180-60!" Remus's amplified voice blared through the stands.
Sirius and James flew down to the ground with the rest of the team, all of them patting James on the back. As the two walked to the changing rooms, Sirius lunged at James and wrapped his arms around his neck.
"You little prodigy!" He rubbed his knuckles across James's already messy hair.
"Geroff, you git!" James protested, laughing loudly.
"No. What do you think you're doing, showing me up?" Sirius joked, still give James a noogie.
"You won't need to worry about me 'showing you up' if you keep messing up my hair." James finally pulled away from Sirius's iron grip, trying to flatten his hair out.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "James, think about what you just said. There is no way your hair could get any messier."
James stuck out his tongue.
"Real mature, James."
"Hush you."
Sirius and James quickly changed back into their robes, and met up with Remus, Peter, and Lily.
"That was amazing, Prongs!" Peter squealed, his eyes bright.
"Thanks, Peter. That was great spectating, Moony." James smacked Remus on the shoulder.
Remus smiled through a wince. "Thanks. Sirius got some good hits in there. Near the end of the game, I thought your bat was going to break. You hit the Bludger like it stole something from you."
"Alright, alright. Everybody gets a gold sticker. I get it." Lily chuckled, making her way towards James.
"That was great, James." She said, kissing him on the mouth, to which he responded wholeheartedly.
Remus, Peter, and Sirius wolf whistled. When James and Lily separated, they both simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"Jealous much?" James said, looping an arm around Lily's waist.
"Nope. I'm waiting for my turn." Sirius smirked.
James paled as everyone silently sniggered behind their hands.
"Sirius! Hush!" Lily stage whispered. "He might hear you."
Sirius fell to his knees and threw his hands up into the air dramatically. "Alas! We've been discovered, my love."
"Get up, you dirty hound." James, who had figured out he was being teased, yanked Sirius up to his feet.
"Yow! Strong grip. Careful, Lily, this one's feisty." Sirius muttered, rubbing his arm.
"I'm well aware of that, Sirius." Lily said, not taking her green eyes off James.
"Yech. Too much information. Come on, you lot, Gryffindor's throwing a party for our triumph over Slytherin!" Peter exclaimed, already turned around and running to the Gryffindor common room.
James and Lily laughed as Remus rolled his eyes. Sirius, however, had stopped paying attention to the scene.
"Come on, we better make sure he doesn't consume too much alcohol." Remus said breezily. "Wouldn't want him turning into a rat again."
"He can take care of himself." James said, pulling Lily close to him. She giggled.
Remus pulled James from Lily. "Just think about that: a seventh year Animagus, alcohol, and Gryffindor girls. He's doomed."
James sighed. "Alright. Come along, Lily, Sirius."
Lily joined the two, and the three of them started walking, too absorbed in thoughts of partying to realise that a certain shaggy haired boy was missing.
Sirius hadn't been sure how long he had been looking at the girls changing rooms. He wasn't sure when he started walking towards them either. He faintly realised it would be his first time going near the girls changing room without sexual intentions.
"...one hand, I'll get to follow him. On the other hand..." Sirius knew he wasn't hearing things. The voice in the locker room was most definitely Bella. He knew she was talking to herself; she would never be some open with anybody but herself.
Sirius took at deep breath before knocking on the door labelled, GIRLS CHANGING ROOM.
"Bella? Do you wanna come to the party? It's in my common room. Even though my friends think your "bad", I just know their wrong. Please prove me right. I thought you played great today. You're a great Chaser. You got quite a few of them in...anyway. Do you wanna come to the party? We don't have to go to the party. It's just-" Sirius knew he was rambling. He found that he did that when he was nervous.
"My name is Bellatrix. Leave, Sirius Black." Bella's voice was cold and bitter, nothing like what Sirius was used to.
"Ok. Bye." Sirius walked away with his head down, his feet dragging. He wasn't in the mood for a party anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Five minutes." The prison guard said. Sirius nodded, and walked into the biggest wizarding prison in the world: Azkaban.
"Thank you." Sirius said solemnly.
The guard grunted.
Sirius walked down the dark, cold hallways, using a Point-Me spell to help him find his goal. He was supposed to be finished paperwork with James at Auror headquarters. He had gotten special permission from Head Auror Moody to come to Azkaban on one condition: he came alone. Sirius had been reluctant to agree to those terms, but in the end, the urge to visit become too strong.
He tried not to think about Narcissa. It would just make him even more depressed. Narcissa had married a lying git, Lucius. The last he had heard, they had been expecting a child. The child was to be born around the same time Lily's was. He had visited once, but he and Lucius had gotten into a fight over blood status. What had saddened Sirius the most about that visit had been that Narcissa had stood silently as her husband and her cousin fought each other. Cissy Black would've fought fiercely, no matter what side she were on. But Narcissa Malfoy? Dead in the eyes, and dead in energy.
"Still, Cissy would kill me if she knew what I were doing." Sirius muttered as he approached the cell he had been looking for.
The cell was, in a word, guarded. As if the thick iron bars weren't enough, the front of the cell glowed with orange light. An extreme locking charm, mixed with a shocking curse. Sirius couldn't even see into the rest of the cell; darkness covered it like a blanket.
"Who's there?" A scratchy voice sounded through the room.
"Bel-"
"I'm not Bella anymore. I'm one with him." Sirius could hear the crazed smile on her face.
"Bella, it's me."
Bella paused. "Haven't been called that in years. Where did Bella go? Drifted away, I bet." Bella's voice was hushed, insane.
"Bella, just listen to me. I'm-"
"Probably went away with Cissy, Siri, and Reggie, I think." That made Sirius stop. "Everyone's gone. All gone."
"What are you-"
"Siri is Sirius Black, the blood traitor. Cissy is Narcissa Malfoy, the disloyal servant. And Reggie is Regulus Black, the missing." Sirius was silent. "And Bella. No, no, no. Bella is Bellatrix, the perfect blooded, unflawed, completely loyal follower. That's what Bella's become."
"Bellatrix, Bella. It's the same thing." Sirius said exasperated.
"Bella was innocent. Bella knew nothing. Bella didn't know about what mattered. Bella pranced through life like it was a game. Bellatrix is ready. Bellatrix knows all she needs to know. Bellatrix stomps on those who are not strong enough to realise that life is what it is."
The hallway was silent for a while. And then: "Why did you come, Sirius Black?"
Sirius took a shaky breath. "Bella. I know you're in there. The family doesn't know where you've been. I've really missed you, and I'm pulling through, really. Just let me in. I know that I can help you. Cissy does too. What else can we do?" Sirius rambled, knowing he was nervous.
Silence.
Sirius wasn't surprised when he felt tears rolling down his cheeks. "Please come back." He whispered. "It doesn't have to be right now. I miss you. And I love you."
Sirius turned and walked away, his face crumbling.
If he had stayed just a little longer, he would've seen that Bella had tears streaming down her face, with her arms wrapped around her body to try to keep out the cold that was eating her up from inside and out.