Unseen Tears
Sirius sat up silently in his bed. James' snores, Remus' rustling and Peter's snuffling told him he was the only one still awake.
His heart beating fast, he held his breath as he slipped his shoes on and darted towards the door, praying to Merlin that the others wouldn't waken while he was away.
The Common Room was silent but for the crackling of the welcoming fire; however Sirius had no time for that. He cast a glance around the red and gold that was to be his house colours for the next 7 years and his stomach clenched.
He couldn't get rid of the ringing in his ears that had started as the Sorting Hat shouted that one word…
"Gryffindor!" cried the Hat and there was complete silence from the students.
"NO!" shrieked a 6th year and a girl with dark eyes, dark hair and a horrified scowl on her face stood in protest amidst a sea of green and silver.
Her eyes blazed with a passionate fury as she looked upon her little cousin.
"He's a Slytherin!" she screamed as her gaze fixed upon him.
Holding out her hand to the 11 year old, she simpered lovingly, "Come here Sirius, come to your rightful place. That's it boy, come to me now Sirius, where you belong"
There were mutters from all around and Sirius was torn, his mind telling him to go to the Lions but his heart pushing his body towards those inky eyes that held his own.
"Miss Black, sit down" crowed Professor McGonagall sternly.
"BUT HE'S A SLYTHERIN!" screamed his cousin, louder than before.
"BELLATRIX BLACK, TAKE YOUR SEAT!" roared the woman even louder than the obstinate teen. "Mr Black take you seat in your rightful place" warned McGonagall coolly.
"Traitor!" yelled Bella coldly and her insults set off a stream from all the green and silver clad students, cruel words hidden among hisses as he took a seat where the Transfiguration teacher had told him to go to, a blush rising up his face as he sat among the cheering Gryffindors.
He looked up and the hatred in Bellatrix's eyes burned through him, more painfully than every other look he received.
Sirius crept along the corridor, his breathing shallow and catching in his chest from the cold until he came to the classroom he sought.
At a glance it seemed empty, but in the corner, amidst the shadows there was a figure sat curled, waiting for him.
"Sirius" she murmured softly, and the boy ran to her arms, squeezing his eyes shut as she wrapped her arms around him, kissing the crown of his head lovingly.
"Oh Bella" he stammered into her stomach.
"Please…Sirius, j-just ask Dumbledore…I-I'm s-sure he'll let you ch-change House"
The girl's voice was heavy, thick with emotion and desperation.
At her words Sirius backed away a step. "No Bella" he said firmly. Tears leaked from Bellatrix's eyes as she surveyed him with hopeless despair.
"It's the only way Sirius. You can only be safe as long as you're a Slytherin."
Sirius clenched his fists. "But I don't want to be safe…I want to be happy. You made your choice Bell, I made mine. You've gone one way and I've gone another. I'm not backing down, can't you join us? This isn't you Bella; you aren't cut out to be like my parents. There's a heart in you, I know there is, and I've seen it. Please Bella, come with me."
Bellatrix let out a wail of pain and her knees hit the floor with a thud.
"You know I can't do that, I'm too far in. Please, I just want to keep you safe. I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you, my darling cousin."
Sirius knelt by her side and took her hand. "You can't protect me anymore Bella, you're going to be a Death Eater by Christmas, we'll be enemies," but Bella shook her head fervently.
"You will never be my enemy ok? It doesn't matter, whatever happens you're still my cousin Sirius and I will always protect you, nothing will happen to you while I'm around to stop it"
But the young boy had more logic than his older cousin, who was desperately clinging onto that last seed of hope.
"No Bellatrix, you'd be killed for that. Pretty soon, once I'm older, not only will be against each other…we'll be fighting each other. When the war breaks out, who knows what will happen,"
The sixteen year old grabbed the boy around the face and kissed his cheek in a sisterly fashion. Her eyes were still flowing with tears and her lips trembled with heartbroken sobs.
"I swear to you Sirius Orion Black, I would never hurt you, I never could hurt you. I have no true brothers Sirius, but you are the closest I have. I love you more dearly than my sisters. Nothing shall harm you that I can prevent."
The boy was crying now, his chest shook with the effort to hold the weeping in long enough to speak.
"You can't make promises like that anymore Bella; you don't know what ones you can keep."
There were the sounds of very faint footsteps from down the corridor and Bella stood abruptly, pulling Sirius with her.
As they ran, she fiddled with something at her neck and by the time they were at the steps that Sirius would have to ascend, while Bella would have to descend, she had removed a thick chain from her neck. It's hard, smooth material told him it was glazed with a diamond lacquer that made it indestructible.
She kissed it, before placing it around his neck and holding him tightly in a last embrace.
"Never take it off, while you have this, you have my promise, and the heart you say I have…goodbye cousin, my dear Sirius."
*
Sirius knelt by James' body, sobs shaking his entire frame. Losing control, after so long, he collapsed with his head on his best friend's chest as he wept for the Potter family that was completely torn apart.
There was a rustle behind him and he did not turn; until that is, he heard the gasp and even by that incoherent sound, he knew who was next to him.
His heard swivelled round and he saw tears filling her inky eyes and spilling onto her pale face.
In a violent, hasty movement his hand snatched to his neck and he ripped off the chain that hung there and flung it at her, a wail escaping his lips as he did so.
She bent down to take it and her face was full of regret as she observed her little cousin screaming in agony over the death of a blood traitor and his mudblood wife.
"I just want to protect you Sirius"
Her voice was small and pathetic, but full of emotion as she trembled under his icy glare.
Disgusted, he turned away, gazing instead into the empty face of James Potter.
There was a clink as something dropped next to him, followed by a pop as his cousin disapparated into the mournful night.
Looking down, he saw the chain left for him on the muddy floor.
Reluctantly, due to nothing more than the bonds between family, he reclaimed the precious item, and placed it back around his neck.
*
Sirius trotted down the dark foreboding corridor, with reluctance he slipped through the metal bars into a different cell to the one he only just escaped from.
Sat in a corner was a woman with dark matted hair and sunken eyes; a deranged version of the once beautiful Bellatrix Lestrange née Black. She gave a derisive laugh as she saw the dog pad his way up to her and ran her hand through his dirty fur,
"What have you done Sirius?" she asked in a hoarse whisper.
In a flicker of movement he melted back into a human form and pressed his forehead to hers. Tears began to prick his eyes again as he thought of last time he had seen her, on the 31st of October 1981.
"Oh God Bella, why did it turn out like this?" he sobbed and she kissed his cheek before pushing him away, a droplet of salty tears pushing it's way down her grubby cheek.
"I don't know Sirius, it just did. We can't change who we are."
He shook his head, falling onto the floor with exhaustion and rubbing his jaw.
"I'm sorry Bella,"
"Don't be," she warned him fervently. Her eyes were cold and stern as she surveyed him with piercing scrutiny. She licked her chapped lips and ran a hand through her dregs of hair, blinking tiredly.
"You were so convinced I had a heart Sirius. Well you were wrong, I don't care. You think I'm human? I won't lie to you, my beliefs are still the same; I'm glad Potter and his mudblood are dead, I'm happy knowing the world is rid of them. The only reason I hated their loss was it hurt you, nothing more than the fact it put my little cousin in pain." Sirius' eyes burned at the harsh mention of his best friend and the cruel context she put it in. He couldn't accept that they were gone; he couldn't accept Bellatrix didn't really care.
"Sirius, I don't know why I care about a filthy blood traitor like yourself, I should hate your guts but…I guess…you always believed in me, in this so called heart of mine. Well you're wrong, but my promise will hold, it will see us both through Azkaban and through the war that will come soon; make no mistake."
She pressed her hand to the chain he still wore and gave it a gentle pull to remind of its existence before shoving his chest gently.
She watched as the only relation she truly cared about summoned what little energy he had and transformed into a dog that looked more innocent than a puppy with his sad chocolate eyes and drooping tail.
She watched as he slid between the bars, he was so thin he didn't need to hold his breath and her cry filled the night as he left her sight.
*
There was a panicked happiness in Bella's face as she battled Sirius with a passionate fury. His eyes were blazing, as were her own and her wand whipped through the air with flourishes and fancy twirls.
She was almost enjoying herself; this was easy, all she had to do was make it look as if she was really trying to kill him and all the while badly aiming her spells to perfection. There was a glint of humour in her snarls that none but he could notice and his own silver orbs were sparkling as he knew she wouldn't kill him.
But that was when it happened.
He saw the spell speed accidentally straight for his chest and he knew he wouldn't be able to dodge it. His hand went straight to his neck and he wrenched it away with ferocity, flicking his wrist out to throw something at his cousin as the laugh died in his throat and he slid past the fluttering veil that was to be his end.
Bellatrix gave a scream of anguish that she converted into glee at the last second, praying no-one had noticed. Instinctively she grabbed the flying object and felt her body shatter as the diamond coated chain, the indestructible object, broke in her hands. Her laugh of bitter hysteria, she prayed, could be mistaken for joy.
She felt the image of her cousin fading away burn her eyes and knew it would be all she would see from then on.
It would haunt her even beyond death, the sight of Sirius toppling through that veil, because of her.
The chain had broken…just like her promise.
Please review and tell me what you think, I always loved the idea Bella loved Sirius really. What about you?