Bedlam and Broomsticks
A/N: It's been a while, but I hope you enjoy this. Btw, I love you all. I've never had more than 200 reviews for a story before. This is totally epic. :)
Love and Scars
After her friends had all stepped back, smiling, Izzy hugged Sirius, tears in the corners of her eyes, wondering what she should say to the statement she'd heard Sirius make before she'd opened her eyes. James nudged Sirius, sending him sprawling him over the bed. "So, Sirius?"
"What Prongs?" Sirius asked crossly, turning away from his girlfriend unwillingly.
"Don't you want to tell our Isabella something?" Remus added suggestively.
Sirius turned back, and cupped Izzy's face in his hands. "I – Isabella. I l-"
"I heard you," Izzy whispered, clutching his wrist.
"That's cool," Sirius chuckled. "Just interrupt my adoring declaration, why don't you?"
"Sorry," Izzy laughed. "Continue, please."
Sirius turned around at the friends staring avidly at the unfolding scene. "Do you mind?"
"Oh."
"Sorry."
"We saw you the first time," Alice commented.
"Hmph," Izzy cleared her throat.
"Oh, right." They all turned away and pretended to be engrossed in something else.
"Isabella, Izzy, Belle, love," Sirius began. "I love you. And I want you to know that."
Izzy sighed and pulled his face to hers. "I love you too Sirius."
He kissed her gently, and the group of friends had all turned back. "Aw." They sighed in unison and James grinned. "Doesn't Belle mean beautiful in French?"
"Dunno mate," Sirius responded, smoothing Izzy's hair down her back, turning to face James. "But this is my Belle, for sure."
James furrowed. "Who knew you could be such a cute bastard?"
"Not me," Izzy laughed, crossing her legs and letting Alice cuddle in on her other side.
"Alice!" Sirius protested. "Ruin a moment."
"My specialty," she laughed, pushing him gently in the arm.
Izzy sat with her friends for a while, talking and laughing, Sirius sitting with her on the bed, legs kicked up next to hers, tucked under his arm. Izzy successfully managed to avoid the topic of who hurt her and how it happened for a few minutes, until the Prewett boys burst in. "Izzy!" The two boys yelled, skidding to a stop at the end of her bed. They couldn't stop rambling for a few seconds.
"We shouldn't have left you alone!"
"We're sorry!"
"What happened?"
"Are you alright?"
"I should be asking you that!" Izzy clucked like an over-protective mother, beckoning the boys closer and looking at the black eyes and cuts the boys had on their faces, probing them gently with her cool fingers.
"We're fine!" Fabian brushed her off, wincing as her finger brushed a cut.
"This has something to do with what happened, doesn't it?" Sirius sat back. "Come on Izzy. I told you I loved you. You tell me what happened."
Izzy paled. "You can't use that as a bargaining chip."
"Even so!" Sirius protested. "You can't keep this from me." He looked around the room. "Who knows? Go on, I know some of you do!"
And like they were in school, Fabian, Gideon and Remus raised their hands ashamedly, heads bowed. Izzy bunched up her hospital gown and sat, elbows on knees, embarrassedly. "Sirius, I …"
He stood, throwing up his hands, embarrassed that his girlfriend who he'd just told he loved, in front of anyone, had confided in three of his closest friends, yet not him. "Tell me why Izzy! Why them, and not me?"
"Sirius, don't!" Izzy said, a pained expression on her face.
"Tell. Me."
"No. I cant."
"Cant or don't want to?" The tension radiating from the couple was so intense that James actually wanted to leave the room.
"Should we …?" He began, gesturing towards the door.
"No!" Izzy and Sirius barked.
"Just tell me Izzy! It was an Unforgivable Curse! Why are you trying to protect the bastards that tired to kill you?"
"Because," Izzy said, tears running down her face. "Because," she sobbed. "It was your brother."
Sirius sat heavily down on a wooden chair. "Wh-what?"
Izzy looked incapable of speaking so Fabian and Gideon took over. "We saw her at the dance," Fabian said.
"Regulus and Bellatrix were hassling her," Gideon told Sirius.
"We tried to protect her, Sirius," Fabian promised.
"We went with her everywhere."
"Yeah, everywhere!" Gideon reinforced.
"Except the library," Fabian agonised. "And we shouldn't have left her, but …"
Sirius held up a hand. "It's alright. My brother's, well …"
Remus sighed. "I knew too. I wanted her to tell you, but …"
"Yeah," Izzy said, tears drying. "I know everyone thought I should tell him, but it's harder than you think."
"Why did," Sirius' mouth twisted into a grimace, "My brother, hurt you?"
"He wants you," Izzy paused. "To stop dating a half-blood, and to be a 'Black.'" She used air-quotation marks.
Sirius shook his head disgustedly. "I have to go and have a chat to my little brother."
Once he'd left, Izzy dropped her head in her hands. "Oh. I've fucked everything up. Again."
Lily stepped forward. "Iz," She said softly.
"Thanks Lily," Izzy said. "But I'd really like to be alone."
Everyone filed out past her, dejectedly. Everyone except the Prewett twins, sitting on the end of her bed, grinning. "Boys," she said tiredly. "I'm not in the mood. I've been hit by an Unforgivable, my head's pounding, my hospital gown has a slit right up the back that is almost pornographic and my boyfriend's gone to start a family feud over me. I don't need this right now."
"Well," Fabian said.
"Technically we're injured," Gideon pointed at his eye.
"So we can stay," Fabian finished.
"Wanna talk about it?" Gideon asked casually.
Izzy groaned, pulling the covers over her head. "I'm going to sleep! Or die!"
"We'll be waiting!" They sang in unison, far too cheerful for her liking.
"My fucking family!" Sirius cursed to himself, storming down the stairs and bursting through the Great Hall doors. "Bellatrix! Regulus!" He bellowed, marching over, pulling his wand from his robes and letting it dangle loosely from his hands.
Regulus stood, smiling smoothly like the sewer rat he was, hair much the same as Sirius', robes carelessly open. "Brother," he greeted appreciatively. "Nice of you to join the sane."
"Don't call me brother," Sirius threatened, lifting his wand and pointing viciously. Bellatrix giggled wildly. "And I don't know who you think is sane, but it's not her!" He added.
Bellatrix pouted. "Cousin, please. Love and harmony, boys, love and harmony."
Sirius growled, frustrated. "What the fuck is with our family?" He asked. The blonde, fair narcissi Black sat a ways down the table, staring at her twisting hands. "Hi Cissy," he greeted.
"Hello," she greeted quietly, lifting a hand, not willing to openly choose Sirius over her relatives, especially seeing as she was in Slytherin, yet not wanting to disregard her Slytherin mates who she had to spend every day with.
Sirius didn't mind his cousin Narcissa Black. She was quiet, and Lucius Malfoy had for some reason taken a liking to her, but he didn't believe she was all bad, unlike her psychotic sister. "What do you want?" Bellatrix squealed.
"I want to know why my brother Crucio'ed my girlfriend." Sirius asked through gritted teeth. "Classy move, by the way, Reg."
Regulus grinned, baring white straight teeth. "You'll have to ask Bella about that one."
Sirius turned on his curly haired cousin. "You." He accused bluntly.
"Me." She laughed. "Come on Siri, the scummy half-blood deserved it. I know you like to chase tail, but try to keep it pureblood, if you will."
"Shut up." Sirius commanded, looking as if he was trying not to kill Bellatrix with his bare hands.
Baiting, Bellatrix continued. "You are a Black, I'm sure Slytherin girls would over look –"
"Shut up." Sirius said again. "I love Izzy and she loves me. I'm never going to be as Slytherin as you want me to be, and I will never succumb to your creepy psychopathic idea of 'pureblood royalty.' So just fuck off and leave me alone."
Bellatrix stepped forward as sparks shot from Sirius' wand warningly, singing a hole in Bellatrix's cloak. "And don't come near my girlfriend." He added sharply, storming off.
Regulus looked flushed. "Father will hear about this!" He yelled pompously.
"That's right," Sirius waved him off as he swept along the table. "Go crying to Daddy!" At the end of the table, he looked back. "Bye Cissy!" He called, waving
Bellatrix rushed over to Narcissa, reprimanding her while fiddling with the small singed hole in her cloak.
Once Sirius had calmed down, (he'd spent the entire day of classes smoking and throwing things off the Astronomy Tower) he steeled himself and went back to the Hospital Wing, wondering if he and Izzy should just both apologise to each other and move on. If that was even possible now.
Yet when he arrived, Izzy was asleep, curled around the embarrassingly garish blue stuffed toy that Sirius and James had conjured up here for her.
He sat heavily down in a chair and watched her chest rise and fall with each breath, a large mysterious scar running from one shoulder to her hip, visible through the slit in her nightgown. He sighed. What should he do? He loved this girl, very much, but what if Regulus and Bellatrix didn't let up? What if once she got out into the world she was targeted because of Sirius the Turncoat? Was he that selfish that he would foolishly endanger her life because he liked having her around?
Would it be better to simply let her go and live a happy normal life away from all his dramas? Let her go and play Quidditch, be friends with James, maybe go back to dating Alan Green? In no danger of being killed by Sirius' wacky relatives?
Who was he kidding? Sirius was a selfish man, clearly. And Alan Green was a dick, who he hated so that wasn't going to happen. He dropped his head into his hands. When had life gotten so hard? When had it stopped being parties, Firewhiskey and girls? When had it become so real?
Izzy rolled towards him and stretched out flexibly, elongating her limbs, sighing contentedly. She opened one eye and stared blearily at him. "No injuries?" She asked sleepily, half in what she imagined was a dream.
"None." Sirius said, trying to keep his tone light, spreading his arms. Yet, he added silently.
Izzy smiled, eyes closed, pushing her hair off her forehead. He crawled on to the bed with her, and ran his hand down the raised scar on her back. "What's that?" He asked quietly.
"Nothing," Izzy mumbled as she fell asleep again, hand going slack in Sirius' hand. Sirius stroked her hair back from her face and quit kidding himself. He couldn't let this girl go, even if he'd wanted to.
Like? Love perhaps? I made Narcissa sort of neutral because of the whole nice to Harry thing in the last movie. She can't be ALL bad, right?