Chapter 33: Of Spells and Curses
Unedited...
CRACK!
The six of them whizzed to a halt in the dark, eerily deserted lane outside Longbottom Manor...
Isabella, Sirius, James and Frank had their wands firmly gripped in their hands, dreading the worst, while Edward and Alex shakily recovered from their first ever Apparition experience.
Isabella looked up and took in the terrifyingly quiet exterior of the house that towered above them, a quality of sinister innocence oozing from its murky depths.
"D'you think they're still in there? Can we go in?" whispered Sirius to a rattled Frank, but never taking his eyes off the frightfully dark, quiet house.
"Dunno," Frank muttered back. "I don't see any movements though..."
"I don't care, we're not taking any chances," James mumbled wisely and unconsciously stretched his hand out in front of Isabella's Muggle cousins, as if shielding them danger. "We go in assuming a whole battalion's waiting for us," he said, his eyes burning with determination.
"We're going to need reinforcements, then," Sirius said, nodding solemnly. "Ed?" he said, turning to the older boy. "There's a tiny Auror office just above the hill," he said, pointing at tiny hillock under which Longbottom Manor was nestled. "I need you to go there and alert the Aurors. And Al, there are about 10 houses around the hill. You need to get them all evacuated —"
"— Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alex protested at once. "Whoa, I thought we were going to help..."
"This is help," Sirius said.
"No way, I'm staying," Alex said decidedly. "You're mental if you thought I was going to let you lads take care of the attackers by yourselves —"
"— Yeah, you know what? Al's right —"
"They will kill you!" said James and Sirius together, rendering Edward mute at once. "You've NO idea what a wizard with a wand is capable of, Ed," said James severely. "You won't stand a chance."
"He's right, but we do need you lads to alert the neighbourhood, because if the wankers have stooped so low as to attack a defenseless girl, Merlin knows what else they're planning to do tonight," Sirius muttered, looking Alex dead in the eye.
"What the BLOODY are they doing in your house, anyway?" asked James, annoyed.
Frank shrugged lifelessly. "Looking for Ravenclaw's diadem," he said darkly.
At once, Isabella, James and Sirius swung around to see Frank was actually being serious...
He was.
And everything was slowly starting to make sense now.
"Bloody hell," Sirius cursed under his breath.
"And they're ready to do anything to get it... Even kill," Frank said, confirming their suspicions.
Edward, on Isabella's left looked mighty disturbed now. "Blimey, I dunno about this, Sirius," he started, looking torn while Alex looked mutinous to say the least. "I need to be here. As the oldest, I should be the one looking after you lot, not the other way around..."
"You'd be doing exactly that by bringing us help, Ed!" Sirius stressed severely, rendering Edward sigh heavily in frustration.
"Ed, honestly, listen to him," Isabella added.
"Izzy, d'you honestly think I am going to leave you with a bunch of psycho killers teeming in that house?" Edward hissed pointing at the house.
"They're psycho killers with wands!" Isabella stressed. "Ed, you're making it harder than it already is —"
"ALRIGHT! Alright, fine," Edward finally assented, albeit looking consumed with dread and irritation at the same time.
"Great. Get going now," James said.
"Alright! You lot better watch out then. You too, Izzy!" he said feverishly, giving her a quick, albeit anxious, squeeze. "Mate, look after her," he said, giving Sirius a pat on the back.
"With my life, man," Sirius replied, his expression savage.
With one last look at their friends, the two brothers bounded off in trepidation into the dark alley.
A deafening thunder crackled above, making the bunch of them jump up fright.
"Frank, quickly, how many people in there need rescuing?" James asked grimly.
"If we include my parents, Alice's parents, my grandmother and Binky," Frank added bitterly, "six in total."
"Alright, we're moving in," James announced fearfully. "The plan's simple: if we encounter anyone, Sirius, Izzy and I will fight them off and you Frank, will try and Disapparate with as many people as possible, understood?"
Frank merely nodded and wrenched the Invisibility Cloak out of James's hand.
And just as he threw it over himself, out of nowhere, a white streak of a spell hurtled at them at top speed and crashed into the wall, missing Sirius by mere inches.
It took the three of them at least half a second to realise what was happening. Hurriedly scrambling back up to his feet, Sirius shoved James out of the way and screamed, "Prongs, get inside! NOW!" he screamed, and turned around just in time to block a second Stunning Spell charging at him.
And then all hell broke loose!
Everything happened in less than a second's gap: from Isabella's current position, she saw at least four wands lighting up from the windows on the top floor and she knew she'd be able to tackle only two (at max three) of those hexes in one sweep. Before she could zero in on an attack move, however, her instincts took over and she all of leaped to the floor and rolled over just in time as four or five hexes exploded behind her, missing her by a whisker! The attackers were clearly bent on destroying anyone trying to come in!
With her heart pounding against her chest, she turned around and saw James still by their side, thrashing the windows single-handedly.
"James! GET. INSIDE. NOW!" Isabella screamed at an adamant James who was dead-set on helping Sirius and Isabella out here. "We CAN handle these morons!" she yelled once more, groping for her wand in the darkness.
"Oh, ALRIGHT!" James spat out wistfully, ducking from a spell and hurtling towards the house.
Frank was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had already slipped in?
"Izzy, GET UP! THERE ARE TOO MANY OF THEM AND TOO FEW OF US!" Sirius yelled over his shoulders, as he scrambled back up and randomly lashed out curses to keep the attackers distracted.
"Yes, I figured as much!" Isabella ground out and took aim, before flogging the windows with jinxes. "Impedimenta! IMPEDIMENTA!" she screamed with all her might, even as the Death Eaters hammered the alley with more curses and hexes, and the light bulbs hanging above exploded and crashed and shattered to pieces. Sirius and Isabella were swiftly running out of time.
"Slow them down to buy us time, Sirius!" Isabella screamed, indicating that he should alternate his curses with 'Impedimenta' every now and then.
"NOTED!" she heard Sirius bellow from her right even as she blocked three curses that hurtled at her in extremely quick succession.
"'The fuck are you waiting for? Kill them already, Rowle!" a young male voice rang through the air as he lashed another deadly blasting curse at the door but Isabella blocked it, neat as a pin. She was shook at her own skill, and her attackers seemed to feel the same way too. In a second, though, they recovered and started battering her once more, but she was ready this time and lashed back with equal force...
"IS JAMES IN?" Isabella shrieked over and above the screeches of hexes crashing around her.
"I THINK SO!" came Sirius's answer, as he destroyed a blasting curse aimed at him, causing an explosion mid-air!
"IS THAT LONGBOTTOM? OH, WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YEH ALL NIGHT, LADDIE!" came the delirious scream of another rather burly wizard from inside the house, sending raw chills up Isabella's spine. "SHOW YERSELF BEFORE WE KILL THE REST O' YER FOLKS!" he bellowed, barraging Sirius and Isabella blast after blast with curses.
Isabella and Sirius worked like robots as they got mowed down with hexes streaking after them from every direction. And all Isabella could ever do was block and block and block at lightening speed until her wand shuddered under the pressure.
There were clearly more than six Death Eaters in the house probably waiting for Frank to return and Isabella knew James and Frank alone would not be able to handle them all by themselves.
"Sirius, we need to go in too!" she bellowed out of the blue, before grabbing hold of his hand and hauled him towards the large gate.
"CONFRINGO!" Sirius screamed, before (surprisingly) allowing her to drag him closer to the large wall outside Longbottom Manor.
The pair of them slammed their backs against the wall and crouched behind the massive creeper lining the gate, quivering in fear.
"WHERE'D Y'ALL GO? WE WAS ONLY NOW STARTING TER HAVE SOME FUN!" the burly wizard cackled from above, making Isabella's stomach jolt painfully.
"Okay, baby, keep them distracted while I slip in first, yeah?" Sirius said giving her a furtive look, and Isabella quickly nodded. "Yes, alright, go, go, go!" she whispered, and quickly jumped back up to her feet while Sirius crouched his way towards the gate.
Waiting till she saw him disappear completely through the entrance, Isabella shook off her nerves before leaping out of her hiding place and throwing an Aqua Eructo straight into the burly wizard's face, making him lunge backwards and fall with a massive Thud! However, no sooner had the spell left her wand than she received a thunderstorm of counter curses that were nearly ten times more powerful! Isabella's hand was now moving as swift as an arrow as the rhythm of the four-to-one duel skyrocketed, making it more mind-numbing than ever before!
'Protego! Protego! Impedimenta! PROTEGO! Langlock! Protegooo!' was all that was running in her mind as she advanced on them, making them back away from the windows and into the depths of the darkness beyond. However, it was getting more and more difficult to keep up with the speed because the attackers were slowly starting to gain in on Isabella, making it crucial for her to go on the offence right away.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" she finally screamed when she saw a second's window, and the wand from the attacker closest to her flew high in the air and landed behind her.
YES! ONE DOWN! she thought to herself.
"SHOW ME YOUR FACE, YOU COWARD!" came a sudden roar from above, and Isabella instantly knew it was Rowle, the Death Eater's voice. "I'LL BURN YOU TO THE GROUND!" he bellowed.
Sounds of cutlery crashing and window panes smashing reached her ears from afar, making her stomach twist painfully. "Oh, Sirius, please be careful," she whispered to herself, now ducking back behind the large creeper next to the gate. "Merlin, what am I doing? I must go in too!" she said through clenched teeth and jumped back into the moonlit lane.
And IMMEDIATELY, she saw a flurry of wands lighting up in the dark windows above, and in the blink of eye, she lashed out a counter-spell that blocked all four curses at once! Pounding them with everything she had, Isabella thrashed out spell after spell and break-neck speed as she inched towards the open gate, her three-on-one duel slowly getting out control now.
Blast! BLAST! BLAAAST!
The rain of spells didn't quite stop. She was slipping… Push on, Izzy! Power through! she screamed at herself, but she felt her hand slow down on its own accord. It was almost numb and at the point of breaking off from her body now.
Just then...
"James! NOOO!" Sirius's voice ripped through the air, making her heart nearly leap out of her ribs!
And that split-second's distraction was enough to make her attacker slam her with a Full Body-Bind Curse!
Time nearly stopped as Isabella watched the curse advance from the tip of her attacker's wand. Everything was moving in slow motion, and little pieces of debris scraped past her face and hand. She was willing her mind to think of a blocking curse but none came to her. Her brain completely shut down and she felt herself finally give up.
CRASH!
The spell RAMMED into her, making her get thrown off her feet, and go flying up in the air, her body arching backwards before painfully landing on the ground, several feet into the dingy alley.
Her heart nearly exploded in panic as she realised what had just happened.
"HA! DEALT WITH THAT ONE!" she heard Rowle scoffing from above.
Puffing and blowing, Isabella tried getting back up to her feet, but she couldn't even move a finger! Screaming internally, she willed her body to break the curse and tear out of this invisible fabric binding her, but nothing she did, no matter how hard she tried, she remained still as a stone, frozen on the spot.
And from where she lay, she could tell that her wand was at least two feet away from her, making her nearly dissolve into tears of helplessness.
She didn't know what was going on.
Or where everyone was.
Or WHAT James and Sirius were doing inside!
Or if Frank had AT ALL managed to rescue his family members.
Or if Edward and Alex were still ALIVE!
HOW COULD SHE HAVE LET THEM DOWN THIS WAY?
Kicking herself (figuratively), she continued to stare blankly up at the trees, even as fat tears streamed down her face.
You. Are. USELESS! she screamed at herself.
She should be IN THERE helping her friends out, NOT take a picnic that involved staring up at the BLOODY SKY!
And for the next several minutes — or it might have been three FUCKING long years! — all Isabella could ever hear were, "Confringo!" and "Relashio!" and "Expelliarmus! EXPERLLIARMUS!" emanating from inside, driving her mad with rage.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS IZZY?" she suddenly heard Frank's distant screams.
"I DON'T KNOW, BUT SHE BETTER NOT BE DEAD!" Sirius screamed back, making her wish she'd actually just drop dead.
And suddenly, an explosion as big as a nuclear bomb resounded from beyond the house, making her jump up in fright.
What the hell was going on?
Her eyes moved rapidly in panic, rendering her dizzy...
Oh, everyone better be safe. Everyone better safe! she pleaded, her brain now going through multiple implosions.
"GET OUT OF HERE, James! I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" she heard Sirius's screams coming from inside the house, and a second later, she heard a whoosh! followed by a random broom streaking through the night sky.
Before she knew what was happening, suddenly the night sky lit up, with several dozen black hooded figures exploding to life in black smoke, Apparating from every direction.
What the bloody hell is GOING ON? she screamed to herself, dazedly watching the spectacle pan out in front her. And the longer she remained lying under this beech tree, the more convinced she got about not making it alive out of here tonight...
Because someone was going to discover her at some point, and the probability of that 'someone' being a Death Eater was far, far greater.
"BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND, YAXLEY!" roared a particularly gruff sounding Death Eater from atop Frank's balcony, and sure enough, a roaring, billowing noise resounded around her and the quiet dark night burst into light, as a large flame shot up to the sky, filling it up with blinding hot fire.
"Augmenti!" she heard Sirius yell, followed by the groan of the wrought iron gate being thrown open.
"Augmenti! AUGMENTI!" he continued to scream, splashing the place with jets of water before bolting out into the alley.
And if there was one thing Isabella was thankful for, if it was even possible, the fires that the Death Eaters had cast flooded the dark alley with light, making sure even aliens from outer space could spot her now!
As if he had been dunked into a tub of ice-cold water, Sirius made a dash for her, muttering the counter-spell as he did, and crashed to the ground next to her.
"Izzy! Oh, thank Merlin, you're alive!" he screamed, even as the curse around her shattered, making her muscles jump back to life.
"Oh, Sirius, I'm sorry! I'm SO SORRY!" Isabella screamed back.
"FUCK IT, you're alive! That's all I care about. Le's fucking get out of here!" Sirius yelled and only then did she realise Sirius was holding a broom in his hand. Without another word, she grabbed her wand off the ground and jumped on to the broom behind him. With a powerful thrust, he kicked off the ground and the pair of them shot up into the night sky like a bullet, leaving an ablaze little village behind them.
Still shaking, she wrapped her hands around him feeling the wind slashing her skin, her hair whipped back off her face.
"Sirius!" Isabella yelled, suddenly realising she was forgetting something supremely important. "Are James and Frank okay?" she screamed, over above the sound of the defeaning wind. "And, OH MY GOD, WHAT ABOUT ED AND AL? SIRIUS, PLEASE TELL ME WE DID NOT LEAVE THEM BEHIND!" she shrieked, overcome with horror.
Sirius, though, merely graced her with a look and seemed to teeter on the edge of disbelief and incredulity, as if he couldn't believe she thought he'd ever let something happen to her cousins, before zooming into the night.
But just as she started to think they were out of danger, she realised, with another pang of terror, that at least a dozen more brooms had risen to the sky around them, hurtling towards them as if on a hunt!
"Confringo! CONFRINGO!" Isabella screamed, pointing in the general direction of a couple of Death Eaters behind them, even as green streaks of spells blazed past them from every direction.
"HOLD ON, IZZY!" Sirius screamed, even as he swerved and dived, managing to completely flip Isabella's world over. For a split second, she didn't even know where she was, as Sirius expertly flew them in near vertical circles towards the earth. Holding on to dear life and screaming for the heavens, all Isabella could possibly do was hang on to her wand and her dear life!
And just when Isabella thought they were going to crash head-on, Sirius turned the broom upward so sharply that it took several of the Death Eaters chasing after them completely by surprise! With mind-numbing horror, Isabella saw three Death Eaters plunge straight to their deaths, their bodies shattering to pieces before her eyes.
And her world tipped over entirely...
A strange fear crept her spine, paralysing her entirely...
Shocked and frozen in place, everything around her from that second on became muted. She heard nothing, she saw nothing, she felt nothing... She didn't know if she still held on to her wand; she didn't know if her hands were still securely wrapped around Sirius's waist; she even didn't care anymore if more Death Eaters were chasing after them, because she had gone numb all over.
The scene kept playing in her mind over and over again.
And she finally understood what Death meant...
The actual reality of it.
That that could easily have been her or Sirius or James or Frank or Ed or Al.
"Izzy, you alright?" Sirius asked quietly, looking over his shoulder.
Isabella only then realised that she had sunk in to him entirely, her face feverishly resting on his back. Still stunned, she made no attempt to get up, the wind billowing in her ears.
"Sirius, those wizards —"
"— Awh, fuck..." she heard him mutter to himself, as if his WORST nightmare had just been realised.
"They... They just... We... Sirius, they just..." she muttered weakly, crushing him even more in the process.
"Izzy, don't do that," Sirius muttered.
Giving her another nervous look, he tensely knotted his fingers with hers and pulled her closer to him.
"— I know," he said again, holding her hand close to his chest. "I know and I'm sorry... I had to get rid of them somehow..." he said, sounding slightly mortified himself. "Blimey, I wish you hadn't seen that..." he muttered, drowning in exhaustion and guilt now. "Merlin, I'm sorry..." he repeated, even as a thick blanket of gloom fell over them.
The two of them sped through the sky in silence, still holding on to each other.
And from what Isabella could tell, the Death Eaters had suddenly disappeared. No one was chasing them anymore. Perhaps, they realised neither of them were Frank Longbottom, the boy they were looking for? She didn't know. She didn't care. She simply wanted to get back home...
On and on they flew for the next forty minutes, whizzing past town after town, even as the night sky went from midnight blue to deep indigo. After what felt like forever, Isabella noticed a familiar terrain come into view as they flew over thickly populated Muggle towns. With a sigh of relief, she realised Sirius was lowering the broom as they neared their neighbourhood in Islington.
Looking down, even from almost a hundred feet off the ground, she could tell that something was wrong.
Her heart started to beat with excitement again when she noticed a clump of people crowding around her front yard.
Some wearing pointy hats...
"'The fuck now?" Sirius muttered as he zoomed towards the ground.
But just as Sirius swerved the broom around, Isabella observed, with a stab of panic, that half her room had disappeared, leaving a large gaping hole in the place where her attic ought to have been.
"What the fuck's happened here?" Sirius said, as they hit the ground.
Both of them leaped off the broom and dashed towards the house past several important-looking Ministry wizards chatting outside the house.
The pair of them burst inside, and for a split second were taken completely aback, because it suddenly looked like a sixty-foot tall Merlin had thrown up inside Isabella's living room; it was unrecognisable to the say the least as more witches and wizards thronged the house, all speaking in hushed voices.
Looking around, Isabella noticed Lily and Claiborne sitting quietly on the ottoman, looking shell shocked, but that wasn't the weird part. Isabella didn't understand why Mr. Potter was sat talking in hushed voices with her father, or how Mary and Edgar had gotten here, or why Remus and Peter looked like they'd had just seen the inside of a dragon's mouth...
That was not all. Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Potter too could be spotted looking beyond petrified...
With another leap of excitement, she realised Dumbledore and McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey too were among the guests, sipping tea and seemingly in deep conversation with a few other witches and wizards in her parents' bedroom at the far end of her living room.
Bloody hell...
"Oh! Thank GOD! There she is! There's Izzy! Richard, she's here! She's okay!" came Mrs. Williams' wails from the kitchen, making everyone in the room jump up with a start. Mrs. Williams stormed through the door and threw her arms around Isabella, sobbing for good measure now.
"Mother! Wh... What's going on?" Isabella said, patting her gently on the back.
"Where'd you go, Izzy? How could you not tell us you were leaving? It was the middle of the night!" Mrs. Williams cried, her relief already dissipating and soon getting replaced with anger.
"Mrs. Williams, please, it wasn't her fault," Sirius cut in, his tone bearing a mixture of fear and guilt. "It was my stupidity, I —"
"— IT WAS STUPID!" cried out Mrs. Williams.
Several people looked up in alarm.
And Isabella gaped in disbelief. It had been several years since she had heard Sirius address her mother that way, and her mother had NEVER spoken to him like that ever...
"We could have lost ALL of you tonight because of both of your stupidity, Sirius —"
"— Mother, please! It would've been too late if we didn't go —"
"— Be quiet, Izzy!" Mrs. Williams screamed, making everyone in the room, all the uninvited guests too, to awkwardly freeze on the spot. "You almost put ALL of our lives in danger, including Angela and poor Ed and Al! You've got some explaining to do with your aunt! That's right! She's on her way here too!" she yelled, her eyes blazing with rage.
"Mother, what happened? Why is half my room missing?"
"Because we were attacked!" Mrs. William screamed, literally knocking the breath out of her (and Sirius). "Flying people... shiny masks... big pointy wands... Thought I was having a nightmare!" she yelled visibly shaking now.
"Oh my god!" Isabella yelped, her hands flying to cover face. "What did you... How did you... Is Angela alright?" she stuttered.
"We were saved because of Angela!" sobbed Mrs. Williams, having a public meltdown now. "And now she's getting treated now and it's all YOUR FAULT!" she yelled, and Isabella's heart stopped beating altogether.
"Lizzy, settle down," said Mr. Williams quietly, coming to stand behind his wife, but her mother looked unstirred. Still crying and still glaring daggers in her direction, she shrugged her husband's hand off her shoulder and mutely bustled back into the kitchen to make more tea for the guests.
"Saved by Angela?" whispered Sirius, looking just as befuddled as she was.
Her head was swimming now. She had no idea what was going on, neither did she CARE, because something terrible had happened to Angela and it was all because of her!
Just then...
CRACK!
Sirius and Isabella (and everyone in the room) swung around and saw the silhouettes of three tall boys appearing hurtling towards them.
With a sigh of relief, Isabella dashed forwards and ran straight into the hands of Alex and Edward, while Sirius met with Frank on the side.
"Good you're back, I was so worried," she muttered, looking up at the two boys grinning stupidly down at thier cousin.
"Mate, where's James, tell me everything," Sirius said to Frank.
But Frank wasn't looking at him anymore. "In a minute, Pads," he muttered before saying, "Professor..."
Isabella turned around and realised she was now standing face-to-face with Dumbledore towering at the door of her living room. McGonagall though, who was standing right behind Dumbledore too, sported a look rather similar to that of Mrs. Williams, her lips pursed to the point of them being mere slits now.
"In here," she said, her mouth hardly moving.
As though tugged by an invisible rope, Sirius, Isabella and Frank jumped forwards, following their professors into Isabella's parents' room. "All of you," she added to Edgar, Mary, Remus and Peter, startling them as well.
"Gentlemen, could you give us the room, please?" asked Dumbledore, smiling politely at the company gathered around her parents' bed.
Exchanging looks of utter surprise and (possibly) muttering profanities under their breath, the bunch of pointy-hatted wizards reluctantly rose from their seats and filed out of the room, not forgetting to cast dirty looks at Dumbledore as they did.
Sirius and Frank too returned the favour by glaring a little too enthusiastically for words at the poor wizards before getting inside.
"Professor —" Sirius started at once.
"Wait your turn, Mr. Black!" McGonagall barked before sweeping down one of the high backed chairs by the bed.
"Please sit down," said Dumbledore, ignoring the Deputy Headmistress and pointing at a few chairs bunched near the window, and waited for everyone to settle down. Isabella sat between Sirius and Frank, her mind still very far away.
"Alright then," McGonagall started, wistfully pulling out a large scroll of parchment and a quill. "Go on, enlighten us," she gritted out, making the children flinch. "What. Happened?" she spat out.
"Professor, we were just upstairs in Izzy's room!"
"Yeah, minding our own business!"
"We swear we weren't up to any mischief —"
"— Yeah! Frank just appeared out of nowhere!"
"— Yeah, it was his fault!"
"HEY?"
"Slow down," Dumbledore cut them, holding up a finger, and the three boys hushed up. "Frank?" he said, looking at him through his half-moon glasses. "Tell us what happened at Longbottom Manor."
"Professor, we had no warning," Frank began. "They all just came out of nowhere... We were having dinner and Binky had just gone inside to bring us the desserts when I heard a loud Crack! followed by Binky's screeches... I immediately knew something was up and ran into the kitchens to find my elf bleeding on the floor and..." he stopped, as his breath hitched in his throat. "I bent down to check on her but heard more screams from the dining room! I dashed outside to find Alice, mother and my grandmother unconscious on the floor! My father was fighting off the Death Eaters in the hall and one of the Death Eaters had dragged Mrs. Parker into one of the upper floors. I-I didn't know what to do, I couldn't think straight so I grabbed my wand and Apparated here with Alice..."
"Why here, Mr. Longbottom?" asked McGonagall, her quill scratching away non-stop on its own accord.
"Because I knew Sirius and James were spending their holidays here at Izzy's, professor."
McGonagall dangerously raised a brow at him. "Tell me, Mr. Longbottom. You're entering your seventh year this year, correct?" she bit out.
Frank went pale all over. "Er... Y-Yes, that would be a-acurate, professor..."
"And you've JUST been made Head Boy, am I right?" McGonagall asked, her lips thinner than ever now.
Frank nodded robotically. "That, also, is correct..."
"As Head Boy, we expect the highest standards of leadership and responsibility. From that standpoint, I'm curious to know if you honestly thought this was the 'best' course of action? Mr. Longbottom?" she asked, eyeing him dangerously.
Frank had practically stopped breathing now.
"Er... Wh-I... Professor, in my defence, these boys a-a-are... Well, they're the best... They were my best bet —"
"— You decided into crash into a Muggle household and sought the help of a bunch of underage witches and wizards to fend off an army of Death Eaters when your uncle, Mr. Algie Longbottom, lived a mere ten miles away?" she screamed, nearly getting off her chair in rage.
Frank looked like he'd dissolve into thin air under her death gaze. "L-L-Like I said, professor. I-I-I wasn't — couldn't — think straight in that s-situation!"
"You have ANY idea the kind of trouble you've brought upon yourself and your friends, Mr. Longbottom?" McGonagall spat out.
"Er... Y-Yeah, I... I see that you've been asked to t-take... notes?"
"EXACTLY!" McGonagall yelled, and her quill scratched away more vigorously than ever.
Unfortunately, Isabella's patience had run out by now. Ignoring McGonagall and her glares, she turned to Frank. "Where's James?" she asked restlessly.
"Oh I sent him to St. Mungo's to watch over my family while I brought Ed and Al here," Frank replied. "Oh good," Isabella replied. "And how did you lot get here?" she asked Mary, Edgar, Remus and Peter.
"I snuck into Black's house and stole a can of Floo powder," Claiborne said, still looking very white in the face.
"Whoa! What? Did you — Did you really?" guffawed Sirius, looking beyond impressed.
"I did. I brought Remus and Mary first, and Peter brought Edgar here too 'just in case' —"
"— And a massive help I was, wasn't I!" Edgar grinned and, to Isabella's utter horror, had the balls to hi-five a delighted-looking Remus and Peter on the side while McGonagall continued to hawk-eye them.
"How's Alice?" asked James.
"Recovering quite well, actually," Claiborne replied. "She's upstairs with Madam Pomfrey."
That reminded Isabella.
"What happened here?" she asked.
"Well! Aren't we all just enjoying ourselves in our little kitty party!" McGonagall spat out scathingly, making everyone crash land back to earth.
"Minerva, these children handled the situation a lot better than most grown wizards could even dream of," Dumbledore said quietly. "If anything, I am only appreciative of their efforts."
"But Albus —"
"— Not this time, Minerva," Dumbledore merely said, making her gape back in shock. Giving the children another look of complete disbelief, the old professor sank back into her chair, glowering more than ever.
"Professor, what happened here? What's happened to Angela?" Isabella asked numbly.
And for the first time that night, Dumbledore face suddenly pale.
"Well," Lily started before he could speak. "Around an hour after you lot left, we suddenly heard noises downstairs. Actually we thought you'd returned and ran out only to realise... well..." she stuttered, trying to wipe out the images flashing before her. "It was first time I looked into a Death Eater's face, so I screamed..."
"And that's what woke your parents," Claiborne said. "And before we knew it, they had burst into your room..."
"Oh my god..." Isabella whispered, imagining the scene. "And Angela was with you two in that room..." she said, shuddering fearfully.
Lily and Claiborne nodded.
"We tried to fight them off as much as we could, Izzy," Lily started, her voice shaking guiltily. "But there were too many of them..."
"And I had to keep Alice safe too!" added Claiborne.
"And?" asked Isabella, bracing herself for the worst.
Angela got hit. She definitely got hit... Merlin, what if she'd been hit by the Killing Curse? she thought dreadfully to herself.
"Well," Dumbledore spoke instead, making everyone turn towards their headmaster. "Angela saw that her friends and family were in danger," he paused, giving Isabella a look that suggested that she ought to take whatever he was going to take with a very brave heart, "so she... protected them... with her own..." he paused, as if searching for the right words, "Magic."
Isabella blinked, while Sirius shot her a look of complete bewilderment.
"What?" Isabella started. "Magic?" she repeated.
Dumbledore, though, merely adjusted his half-moon glasses and sat up straighter in his chair, before continuing. "Izzy, Magic runs in your family. It's why you became a witch. And more often than not, when one sibling begins to manifest signs of this gift, the other would have the same too, if not in the same measure," he said, pausing to take a sip of his tea. "In most cases, the other siblings could end up being a Squib and the family might never realise this and continue to live on as Muggles. In Angela's case, however," he paused, still taking every precaution to say the right thing, "well, nobody knows why this happens, nor are there any conclusive studies on whom this could happen to..." he continued, "but sometimes, very rarely, the other child could become what is known as an 'Obscurial'."
"A what?" asked Sirius and Isabella together.
"An Obscurial. It's when a young witch or wizard develops a sort of dark parasitical magical force, known as an Obscurus, as a result of their magic being suppressed through psychological or physical abuse... Now," Dumbledore said, before Isabella could even begin to panic, "I've seen a few Obscurials in my day, and I can assure you, that Angela's condition is fully curable..."
"But..." Sirius started, looking just as alarmed. "What does an Obscurus do?"
"Well, for the most part it remains dormant and has not been known to cause any harm to its host body... However, very rarely, it tends to come out whenever the child feels threatened, or triggered in some way, and when it does, it destroys everything in its path," said Dumbledore. "It's what helped Angela and her family today."
Everyone in the room were rendered absolutely dumbfounded.
"H-How did this happen? How did she become — that?" asked Isabella.
"It's hard to tell, Izzy. Could've been anything, any suppressed emotions that she may have experienced growing up," said Dumbledore. "However, I might have a theory and that is, well," he paused to grace Isabella with an apologetic look. "Well, if you ask me, I might say that the child felt terribly lonely watching you, Sirius and Regulus going to Hogwarts, while she had to continue in her Muggle school... Perhaps she yearned to be a witch far too much and, when you first left to Hogwarts, she was merely six years old... The trauma might have been too much for the little child to handle rationally..."
And an irrational feeling of guilt crashed into Isabella.
"This is mad," Sirius whispered, burying his face in his hands next to her.
"It was the scariest thing I ever saw —"
"— Clay!" Lily nudged her hard in the ribs.
"Anyway, I think we've heard enough, eh, Minerva?" Dumbledore said, lightly clapping his hands and turning to face his absolutely seditious colleague. "I suggest the lot of you head to bed at once. You've had a long night and I do not wish to keep you any longer. We've set up tents outside in the garden for all of us," he chatted away merrily and stood up, indicating that the meeting indeed was over.
Everyone stood up thanked their professors before they re-entered the hostile living room of the Williamses.
"I am toast," Frank declared and wordlessly headed towards the main door.
"Wait for me," Remus called out cheerfully and followed him out while Peter broke off to meet with the Potters and give them reassurance about their son.
Isabella, whose head was still spinning with information, suddenly felt someone tug at her hand and drag her towards the stairs.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Come with me," Sirius muttered and the pair of them surreptitiously stomped up the stairs, away from all the chaos in the living room.
Still holding her hand, he led them into Angela's empty room and shut the door behind them.
"What's going on?" asked Isabella.
"Nothing, I just wanted to give you a hug," Sirius said and threw his arms around her waist, before she could even respond.
Time stopped...
And Isabella's heart skipped a beat, while her brain shut down completely for the second time that night...
In fact it took her two seconds to realise Sirius wasn't indeed joking...
And in spite of herself, she felt a warmth spread through her.
"Wow," she said before she could stop herself.
"I can't even imagine what you must be going through right now," she heard him mutter in her ear. "First the Death Eaters and now this..." he mumbled apologetically. "Promise me though... You won't blame yourself for anything," he said, rocking her gently.
A visceral sigh escaped her. "Sirius, you heard Dumbledore," Isabella said burying her face in his shoulder and blinking back tears, her voice shaking uncontrollably. "I mean, I am literally the worst big sister ever! Sirius, I didn't even realise I was doing this to her! I mean, HOW could I have been so blind —?"
"Dooon't... I thought I just asked you not to do that," Sirius chided, rubbing her bracingly. "It's not your fault, Izzy. Angela... is not your fault..." he declared, enunciating every word to drive his point through her skull. "You didn't choose for any of this, goddammit... You didn't choose to be a witch, you didn't consciously choose your life to be this way, so stop it, alright?" he muttered, even as a wave of gratitude crashed into her.
The guilt was nearly consuming her alive, but somehow, suddenly, everything seemed to hurt just a little less.
And the fact that Sirius was here, giving her this reassurance was enough to melt away all her worries.
Graciously, she got up on her toes and hugged him back.
"This close to giving you a kiss," Isabella muttered jokingly.
Sirius smirked at once. "Oh, I wouldn't mind that," he said at once, his lips curling into a wide grin against her neck, and Isabella only wound her hands tighter around him.
"You're honestly the nicest person on earth, Sirius," Isabella said, giving him a good squeeze before pulling back. "You're not one bit the 'bad boy' that you've built yourself up to seem, you know?" she said, smiling slyly.
"Oi! Don't touch that, it's my rep!" Sirius retorted, looking positively bothered now. "Took me years to perfect it, you know?" he added with a wink, making her roll her eyes dispassionately.
"You're mental," Isabella declared, regarding him fondly, his stormy grey eyes sinking into her hazel ones. "What would I ever do without you?"
"Well... Sneak into Borgin and Burkes, perhaps?" Sirius suggested cheekily, making her break into a wide grin.
And soon enough, they pair of them ended up laughing for full measure.
Smiling back, he looked into her face and sighed. "Merlin, you're beautiful," he said, his hands still wrapped around her.
"Don't... Sirius, don't do that," Isabella muttered, instantly wiping the smile off his face.
He frowned and mutely raised an exasperated brow. "Why not?"
"Because," Isabella said, pausing to give him a look that suggested that the answer was obvious. "I'll end up... Circling back. You know..."
Sirius scowled even more now. "So what?" he asked, making her blush scarlet all of a sudden. "So what if you circle back? You're circling back to me! You'd be with ME, Izzy... What are you so afraid of...?"
"Sirius, we've been down that road," Isabella said, albeit secretly loving the closeness between them right now. "And we know how that ends... You want something and I want something else," she said, gulping nervously. "And I don't think I can survive falling apart one more time..."
And Sirius's face fell.
In all honesty, Isabella, too, was a mere heartbeat away from crashing her lips on to his...
Silence fell, and the only thing that could be heard at all was the thumping of her heart and the padding of their feet against the carpet as the pair rocked about in each other's arms.
"I've gotten into a lot of trouble this year, haven't I?" Isabella suddenly said, looking back at her unusually tumultuous fifth-year.
"You mean, you finally had a life?" Sirius guffawed, recovering immediately. "Yeah! I think so!" he said grinning into her face.
"No wonder Mother thinks I ought to stay away from you," Isabella smirked.
"Don't get cute!" Sirius scoffed pettishly. "She still LOVES me," he declared, sporting a petulantly rebellious expression.
"That's true," Isabella conceded, shrugging impassively. "More than me sometimes."
"ALWAYS!" Sirius shouted, making her dissolve into giggles in spite of herself.
Looking out the window, she realised it was almost morning already.
"By the way," she started, feeling her face get warm once again, "did you mean that?"
"Mean what?"
"What you said to Ed earlier tonight?"
Sirius frowned.
"What'd I tell him?"
Isabella hesitated, feeling the blood flood to her cheeks this time.
"Ed asked you to... keep an eye on me and... you said —"
"— 'With my life'?" Sirius finished her sentence and looked into her eyes. "Of course, I meant that," he said quietly, winding his hands more protectively around her for emphasis.
And Isabella was rendered absolutely speechless for a few seconds, because for the first time in months, she found herself falling for the boy all over again... And falling hard...
Falling into an abyss though, because he didn't want her the way she wanted him...
"You're a work of art, Sirius."
"That's the second time you're telling me that, and I really am, aren't I?" Sirius guffawed, screwing up his face to display his best side ever, making her dissolve into laughter once again. Sighing heavily, he suddenly looked ruminative. "Fuck, this is going to be so hard," he whispered, their noses almost rubbing against each other now.
"What is?" Isabella breathed, willing herself to stay put.
"That I want you so bad, but can't have you..." he muttered and Isabella's heart almost shattered to a thousand pieces.
Isabella didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. Neither needed to say anything to know what the other was thinking...