Hey you all. Now a couple of new ideas came to me, so pretty much ignore all of the hints about this chapter that I gave you in the previous one... some of them will happen and some won't, but nonetheless I am going in a whole new direction with this chapter. I promise you we are getting towards the end of the story here; I expect at the very most five more chapters (but it will probably be like three ish... maybe). I think this is a very exciting chapter as we see the most Sirius/Christine interaction so far. : ) Also, a very important thing is revealed in this chapter. I really hope you like it.

Thanks,

RAB

Previous Chapter:

She is barely in the room before Andrew's lips are on hers, while his hands push her towards the bed. He releases her lips for an instant to take off her clothes and his as she utters a "no" a little to loud Andrew slaps her hard across the cheek, before pushing her onto of the bed, barely noticing the tears that feel down Christine's red cheek.

In the Gryffindor common room, Sirius Black uses the Marauder's map to look for Christine, though he is unable to spot her at all due to the fact the Come and Go room is not on the map. With disappoint and fear on his face, Sirius throws the map across the room as he puts his head into his hands, his thoughts filled with Christine and where she might possibly be.

T R A P P E D

C H A P T E R . T W E L V E : P I E C E S

The little light pouring into the common room reveals how early in the morning it is. 7:00 AM. Nobody sits in the common room, except for one young woman, whose facial expression reveals what she really feels like: shattered pies of glass. Her dirty blonde hair is damp, water dripping from her curls down her back, proving that she just got out of the shower not ten minutes ago. She had needed that shower. She had needed to wash him off of her.

On the coffee table in front of her lies an elegant black rose; every petal in its perfect place; every leave spaced perfectly apart; and every thorn waiting to slice its victim. She stares at it; hating it; wanting so badly to just destroy it. Why would she want this? He gave to her. Why would she want anything that he gave her.

In a swift motion she pulls out her wand and in a barely audible voice she whispers one smooth word and the haunting rose before her bursts into flames.

At the sight of its destruction, she almost smiles, thrilled that it had been so easy to destroy.

A strong emotion comes over her as she wishes she could escape from him as easy as she could set the taunting black rose on fire.

What if she just...

"Hey," a voice says quietly behind. The voice is low and soft, like he is unsure whether or not he should come over and talk with her at all.

Christine Diggory turns around as blue eyes meet grey. She nods her head in greeting, but does not speak at all. What does she have to say to him? He was just going to bother her again about these stupid bruises.

Sirius Black sits down on the couch beside her. He ruffles his hair, before placing his hands on his lap, mirroring Christine's own hand positions. He stares at her hands, while she stares at the ashes on the table, where the rose use to be.

He slowly shifts his grey eyes from her soft, pale hands to look at her even paler face. He decides to take a whole new approach to everything.

In a voice so soft and gentle it sounds more like a blowing wind than a human voice, he asks her, "what does he do to you?"

What would it hurt? What would it hurt if she told him WHAT he did to her? She didn't have to say who it was. She didn't have to tell him that is was one of the people she use to trust the most who was giving her these bruises. She didn't have to tell him that his was her boyfriend of eight months who was raping her. She didn't have to tell him that it was her brother's friend who was causing her to skip meals. She didn't have to tell him that it was someone known of her friends expected that was not allowing her to escape. She could just tell him pieces of the whole story; just pieces of the pain.

She slowly holds out her wrist to him, the bruise blue and purple. He takes her wrist in his right hand as his left hand fingers trace over the fingerprint shaped bruise. His thumb traces small circles on the delicate skin, comforting her in ways she truly needed.

After a minute, she brushes her long hair to the side and shows him the blue and black bruise on her milky white neck. He takes his fingers off her small wrist and moves them to her smooth neck. His thumb traces larger circles, massaging the pain away. He reaches his head closer and lightly blows his warm breath against the bruise. She shivers against the tingling sensation. His gentle touches felt so different from Andrew's harsh, rough ones. Wet tears begin dripping down her cheeks as she remembers the way Andrew touched her last night.

Sirius scouts closer, wrapping his arms around her in comfort. She leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder, feeling th soft, black robe against her small ears. Her warm tears fall and soak his robes, but he doesn't seem to notice nor care.

Slowly she pulls up her shirt ever so slightly and reveals to Sirius the bruise just below her bellybutton. He notices her movement and looks down to see the large bruise of where he can only assume that Andrew had punched her. The bruise is oval shaped, perhaps the size of a snitch and a half. The tips of his fingers run back and forth along the bruise, taking it in, and realizing that this whole situation was worse than he ever suspected.

They sat in silence; she is worried if she spoke she would say too much to him; he is worried his words would stop her from coming further forward about the bruises and other pain she is in.

Shifting away from Sirius slightly, she gently pushed up her skirt to show him the bruise on her right thigh. It was by fair the biggest of the bruises and probably the largest. Sirius' eyes widen when he sees the bruise. He reaches forward to rub it, like he had done with the previous bruises, but right has his fingers grace the bruise, she flinches and jumps away.

"I'm sorry," he whispers to her in a voice clearly displaying his concern. He sits quietly, watching her, worried he might do something to frighten her further.

She stares at the bruise on her thigh, saying nothing, touching nothing, just staring at the ugly, old bruise. She still has tears on her cheeks, but she has stopped crying.

"What else does he do to you?" Sirius asks as his eyes follow her gaze to her own thigh. His handles fiddle with his robes, displaying his nervousness.

She tears her eyes away from the dark purple bruise and meets his eyes for the first time since he has come over to her on the couch. She opens her mouth and closes it quickly, not quite sure how she should answer his question. How much is she suppose to tell him? Is she suppose to tell a boy she hardly knows all about her pain? Finally, she just whispers, "he hurts me."

For an instant he just stares at her, surprised she has spoken to him at all. He feels the need to smile that she has come forward enough to talk to him about it, but can't smile because of what he knows has happened to Christine. "How?" Sirius' voice is serious and straightforward. His grey eyes stare at Christine's, but her gaze is elsewhere.

She looks out the window and sees an owl flying away from the castle, probably a student writing home to their family, telling them all about their latest adventures at Hogwarts.

How much exactly is she suppose to tell him? Of course it is almost nice to tell someone about what Andrew has done to her, to even admit that there is a problem, but what would Andrew do if he found out? Would he hurt her for simply showing someone her bruises? Would he hurt her, even if she denied that it was him who was hurting her. Would her nightmares only get worse?

Why couldn't she tell Amos? Or Lily? Or Emilie? Or Alice? Why couldn't she tell the one's she trusted the most? Why could she not believe them when they claim that they can help her, that they can make the bruises stop for good?

What if they could?

What if they could help her? What if she could really escape from all of this by simply whispering one simply word to someone? She could just tell them 'Andrew' and maybe, maybe everything could be okay. Maybe she could be strong, by sticking up for herself, by letting someone else help her with her problems. Maybe her brother could help her. Maybe her friends could help her.

Maybe Sirius could help her.

"He forces me..." she begins, testing her voice. Maybe she isn't quite ready to say WHO it is, but perhaps if she just gave in an tells Sirius WHAT he does.

But then again, does she really WANT anyone to know that she was being raped? Does she really want someone to know that not only was she getting bruises from him, but he was also forcing her to sleep with him? Is she really ready to tell...

"What does he force you to do?" Sirius asks, cutting off her train of thought, though he is almost positive he knows what Christine was being forced to do. His hand reaches forward and gently rubs against the bruise on her wrist. His fingers just barely touch her skin, giving her the feeling of a tickling sensation.

"He forces me to..." she pauses, surprised that she is actually going to tell him. Could it really get much worse than this? Could Andrew really hurt her more than he already is? "He forces me to sleep... to sleep with... with him," she manages to get out between sobs. She can't believe she just told him that.

Sirius nods his head ever so slightly before pulling the troubled girl close to him and into a hug. Delicately, he wipes her tears away, soothing her and the pain. "I won't ever let him touch you again," he promises, whispering in her ear.

How wonderful it would be if that could be true. Sirius wouldn't be able to stop Andrew anymore than Christine could.

"Just tell me who it is, Christine. Just tell me his name and everything will be better. I can't stop him, I can't beat the crap out of him if you don't tell me who it is. Just give me a name and it will all be over," he continues his promises, wiping the tears that still feel out of her eyes and gently rubbing circles on her thin wrist. His hand reaches up to smooth her curls as he watches for her to tell him who has been hurting her.

"No," Christine pulls away, looking at him unsurely. "No, " she repeats, harder and more powerful than before. "No, I can't tell you. I've already told you too much," she whispers this time, her hand looking down at the bruise on her wrist, where Sirius' long, tan fingers had been only moments before. Without saying another word, she gets off the couch, and quickly races up the stares, as if if he looked at her again, she would confess everything else to him.

Sirius stares at the seat Christine had been sitting in. "Damn," he mutters, knowing how close he had been to getting the truth. What is he suppose to do now? How could he help her? How could he keep his promises if he didn't even know which jerk he had to go beat up?

A thought dawns on him. He knows what he could do.

Hurriedly, Sirius stands up, grabs some parchment and a quill out of his bag, scribbles down a few words and races to the owlery.

He passes his friends as he races down the corridors, but is in too much of a hurry to even mutter a quick 'hello.'

"Sirius," James calls to him. "Sirius!" he tries again. "SIRIUS!" But Sirius says nothing as he takes a turn and disappears from James' sight.

When he reaches the cold, damp owlery, he locates the first owl he sees (a brown tawny one), ties the note to its long, scaly legs and practically throws it out of the window before heading to the one place he rarely goes.

( )

Amos Diggory is playing a pick up game of quidditch with some of his friends on the pitch. Flying high on his broom he quickly catches the quaffle that Michael Thomas throws at him, before chasing to score on his friend Andrew.

"Good shot," Andrew calls friendly to Amos, his face holding an unusually smug look for someone who has just been scored on. Andrew throws the quaffle to one of his chasers, Charlie Thomas, as the game continues.

Alexander Walker, Amos, and Michael waste no time in stealing the ball from Charlie, before tossing it back and forth and heading to the goal for another shot. Not ten seconds later, Michael's shot is blocked by Andrew, before Andrew throws the ball to his teammate, Emilie Thomas.

Emilie holds the ball for thirty or so seconds before handing it off to Joshua Daily, who throws it back to her as she approaches the goal. Wasting no time, she throws the ball forcefully into one of the hoops and displays a grin as she watches it go in, tying up the score, again.

The goalie, Jacob Moore, fetches the ball and tosses to Amos. Right as Amos begins heading towards the goal, a brown tawny owl comes into view. He stops in middle air, clutching the quaffle to his side as he realizes the owl must be meant for him as the owl sticks out his leg. Looking around him, he sees his nearest teammate, Michael, passes him the ball, and reaches out to accept the letter from the owl.

"What's that?" Michael asks, as he sees the reason Amo's chucked the ball at him. "Isn't it kind of an odd time to receive mail?" he continues, holding the quaffle in one hand, tightly, so nobody on the opposing team would try and take it.

"I don't know, I guess it is..." but he stops as his eyes read the letter:

Diggory,

Meet me in the library as soon as you can.

It's about Christine.

-Sirius Black

Sirius? What could Sirius be doing sending him a letter? And what would he know about Christine?

Deciding that those questions are unimportant, Amos quickly directs his broom to the library windows and flies there as fast as he can.

Looking around the library frantically, he sees Sirius sitting in a secluded section. Sirius isn't reading a book, like one might expect out of a library visitor, but rather he is drumming his fingernails on the table and looking around, waiting to spot Amos.

Amos speedily makes his way over to the author of the letter he had received moments before. He rushingly sits down in the seat across from Sirius and ask, "what do you know?" His voice is rushed and eager.

Sirius stops drumming against the table and looks into Amos' eyes; eyes that are nearly identical to Christine's. "I was talking with Christine before I came here," he begins, slowly, choosing the right words to get across what he needs to. How exactly are you suppose to tell a boy that his sister is not only getting bruises, but also being raped by some psycho guy, who may very well be her boyfriend.

"And?" Amos asks in a voice that was anything but patient.

"I got her to talk to me, a little. She would not tell me who it was that was hurting her, but she still showed me all of her bruises. Diggory she must have had four of them. One on her wrist, her stomach, her thigh, her neck..." he trails off, his voice revealing the horror he had seen not thirty minutes before.

"And she has another one on her upper arm," Amos mumbles, but Sirius hears him. "Did she say anything about the bruises? Did she say anything else? Are you sure she didn't hint or even say who it was that is hurting her? What else..."

Sirius cuts him off. "He's going farther than just the bruises..." Sirius voice trails off for a moment as Amos stares at him in shock.

"I know she doesn't eat that much; I know she is terrified of him; I know he is threatening her. What else can he do to her?" Amos' voice is soft with hints of anger and frustrations.

"He rapes her."

"She told you that?" Amos cries out, torn between the facts that someone was actually doing that to her and that she told Black before she told him.

"Yes," Sirius says simply, his voice pained.

Amos bangs his fists hard on the table in front of him, pushes the chair back and stands up. How is someone doing this to his sister? How is this happening to her? Why won't she talk to him? Why can't she tell him who the son of a bitch is so that he can go and beat the crap out of him? His face is full of anger and pain as he imagines the fear Teeny must be feeling. "I'm going to find out who he is and I am going to kill him," Amos says, looking down at the still sitting Sirius Black. "You don't... you don't know... you don't know who is... who is hurting her, do you?" Amos struggles to ask.

"I don't know for sure," Sirius says as Amos drops his head in sadness. "But I might have an idea..."

Amos' head perks up as Sirius' words. "Who?" he asks, quietly, his voice revealing hints of hopefulness.

"Andrew Gibbons."

So? What do you think? I know, I know, a little cliffie at the end, but it was the perfect place to end it. Now I wonder how Amos will react to hearing Sirius accuse one of his best friends? Hmm. I am so happy to say there was quite a bit of Sirius/Christine interaction in this chapter AND Christine at least decides to admit somethings about what is happening to her. We are getting near the end of the story, but there is still some very important events that are yet to happen. Let me know what you think of the story so far. Wow 12 chapters, over 33,000 words! I'm pretty proud of that; this is my longest story I have ever written (and hopefully will be the first of many...)

Thanks and happy reading,
RAB