"Damn it!" Amelia cries as she once again fails to change a Wizard's Chest pawn into a Queen. She immediately blushes when she feels the eyes of everyone in the library looking at her. She meets the amused eyes of Regulus Black before she quickly looks at her notes, its common knowledge among the pureblood community that Amelia is subpar when it comes to transfiguration.
"Rough time, Amelia?" Bellatrix coos as she slips into the seat next to her.
"I hate this subject." Amelia groans as she buries her still red face in her arms.
"It's just the swish and flick motion that we learned our fist year." Bellatrix patronizes.
"No shit." Amelia snaps.
"Do you want my help or not?" Bellatrix demands.
Amelia sighs, her pride not allowing her to apologize. "I hate this subject, I've been at this for the past hour."
Bellatrix preens with delight. More than willing to hold her own success over Amelia. Lucky for Amelia the Black girl's affection gets the best of her and she scoots her chair closer, drawing her own wand as she looks over Amelia's notes.
"What have you managed to do?" Bellatrix asks.
"I think I made it into a castle?" Amelia guesses. She had attempted to play Wizard's Chest with Lucius when they were kids and even with Amos their third year when the Hufflepuff House had decided to have a Wizard's Chest Tournament. Amelia was deemed a lost cause within the first five minutes.
"At least it was a useful piece?" Bellatrix attempts to comfort her.
Amelia sighs.
"Let's see what we can do. We can't have a pureblood be incompetent at Transfiguration."
"Thanks Bella."
"Of course."
Sirius Black catches her as she is leaving the library. "Malfoy!" he calls chasing her down the hallway.
Bellatrix immediately intercepts him.
"What do you want, Blood Traitor?" she sneers.
Sirius doesn't draw his wand, but immediately closes the distance between the two of them.
"Merlin's Beard!" Amelia cries as she steps between the two.
"Amelia, how can you defend him? He has disgraced his family, poor Walburga. He is friends with muggleborns and blood traitors." Bellatrix rants.
"Blood traitor or not. Looks like I'm not the only one who has some bad blood on the family tree. How is Andromeda?" Sirius demands egging Bellatrix on.
Bellatrix draws her wand and Sirius mimics her motions.
Amelia turns to Sirius and gives him incredulous look, almost tempted to let Bellatrix hex him.
Almost.
She draws her wand. "Exspelliarmus." she says quickly, taking both of the Black cousin's wands.
"Give me my wand, Amelia." Bellatrix demands as Amelia quickly steps out of hitting distance.
"Come off it, Malfoy." Sirius also glares at her.
"You know that dueling in the hallways is not allowed." Remus says already rubbing his temples as he approaches.
"Stay out of this." Bellatrix snaps turning her wrath on the Griffindor Prefect.
Remus stands his ground. "I'll remind you, Black. I am a Prefect."
Bellatrix's glare turns more deadly, but she remains silent, her black eyes land on Amelia. "Are you going to let him talk to me like this?"
Amelia shrugs. "Both of you are being right gits. So yes."
"Traitor." Bellatrix mutters under her breath.
Amelia bristles at the comment. How dare she call Amelia a traitor when Amelia had just gotten branded, always a reminder that she belongs to Voldemort, she is the opposite of a traitor. "Want to say that again, Bellatrix?" she demands, pink eyes challenging and taking a step forward. "I have your wand after all."
Instead of fury, the other girl looks at Amelia with pride.
"Well, look who's realizing where she belongs." she gives Amelia that same 'Cat in the Canary cage smile.'
Amelia fights back a flinch.
"Godric. Five points from each of your houses." Remus says rolling his eyes.
"Are you serious, Moony?" Sirius demands.
"Last I checked, you were Sirius." Remus replies.
"Amelia put your wand away and give Padfoot and Black their wands."
The blonde girl sighs and returns the cousins their wands.
Sirius snatches his wand from Amelia's outstretched hand. Eyes never leaving Bellatrix.
Bellatrix smiles and embraces Amelia after she returns her wand.
"I'm going to overlook that challenge. Looks like you're finally starting to live up to your namesake. See you soon." she whispers.
Bellatrix disappears down the corridor leading to the dungeons. Leaving Amelia awkwardly standing before Remus and Sirius.
"What was that all about?" Remus demands.
"Black started it." Sirius snaps.
Remus turns his honey colored eyes to Amelia. "Is that right?"
Amelia sighs. "I couldn't tell you which Black bloody started it. Bellatrix drew her wand first if that's what you're asking."
"Bloody hell, who's side are you on, Malfoy?" Sirius demands.
"I'm not on anyone's side, Black." Amelia replies fighting to keep her calm, still irked about Bellatrix's comment about being a traitor.
"You certainly made sure to put the blame on me!"
"You were partially to blame!" Amelia exclaims.
"I bloody hell was not!"
"You bloody hell were too!" she raises her voice and brushes a strand of hair from her face.
"Amelia just said that Bellatrix drew he wand first." Remus says tiredly. "She started it. But I am sure that your smart ass mouth didn't help the situation."
"I'm surrounded by traitors!" Sirius cries as he turns and storms away.
Amelia runs her hands through her hair, this is the second time she'd been called a traitor in less than 5 minutes. Although if Sirius and Remus knew the truth, she would be a traitor. "Well damn."
Remus laughs and places a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "He'll cool down. He never wants to take accountability when it comes to battles with the other purebloods, he seems to think that because of his escape from the Black family that he is never at fault."
Amelia gives him a weak smile, knowing exactly how Sirius feels.
A silence falls between the two.
"I'm actually kind of glad that you told me that both of them started it. It's about time Sirius realizes how much trouble his mouth can get him in."
Amelia chuckles slightly. "Thanks, Remus."
He gives her a warm smile.
She looks down and notices the watch on his wrist. She grabs his hand unashamedly and looks at the face of the watch. "Is that the time?!" she demands quickly.
Remus takes his arm back, a blush appearing on his face. "Actually my watch is about five minutes slow, a prank that Wormtail pulled. Not a very good one, but one that has managed to get me in trouble since classes started. Fucking Prongs won't tell me the counter curse and of course Wormtail doesn't remember it."
"Shit. I need to go, I'm going to be late for practice and Diggory is turning into a slave driver. Thanks again!" she calls over her shoulder as she runs down the hallway towards the front doors.
"What was that about?" Sirius demands as Moony climbs through the portrait hole and into the common room.
"What was what about?" Moony demands.
"Taking away my bloody points. Just so you know, they're your points too." Sirius crosses his arms.
"You had your wand drawn and were about to hex Bellatrix."
"And that's a bad thing? You know she started it."
"And Amelia and I finished it."
"Why would she give me up like that?" Sirius sighs dropping dramatically onto the couch.
"She didn't give you up, she told the truth. It's your big mouth that's the problem." Moony says.
"Did Padfoot's silver tongue turn to lead?" Wormtail asks as he plops down next to Sirius.
Sirius scoffs. "My ability to charm women will never go away. It was my bloody cousin."
"Who? Narcissa?" Wormtail asks.
"No you idiot. Bellatrix."
"So what'd you do, or better yet say?" Frank Longbottom asks from the chair opposite the trio.
"Didn't anyone says it's rude to eavesdrop?" Sirius snaps.
"You are certainly making a big enough scene, it's hard not to." Frank replies with a shrug.
"Well. I was going to go talk to Amelia, but that bitch Bellatrix intercepted. Then she called me a blood traitor and that I brought shame to the family name. So I said that she has no right to say that i'm the only side of the family that's not clean, Andromeda left too. Then she draws her wand and I draw mine and then before I know it, Malfoy has both of our wands. Then Moony shows up and takes away points." Sirius makes sure to give his friend a glare.
"Moony took away points?" Prongs demands walking down the stairs from the Boy's Dormitory.
"He took away points from me!" Sirius exclaims.
"Wow. You must've been a right git to get Moony to turn on his own band of brothers." Prongs sighs.
"Fuck you, Prongs. You weren't even there!"
"No. Fuck you, Padfoot. Loosing house points over some type of argument with your bloody cousin." Prongs answers.
Sirius opens his mouth to respond "You're just saying that to get on Evans's good side."
James glares at him. The bespectacled boy is about to open his mouth to respond, but is quickly interrupted.
"We can prank her later. Besides we have more important things to take care of." Wormtail says as Moony silently slips past Prongs and in the direction of the boys dormitory.
Sirius rolls his eyes. "What could be so important?"
James and Peter exchange incredulous glances. "Do you know where Moony is?" Prongs hints.
"Yeah, he just went up to the dorms." Sirius growls.
Wormtail sighs. "Try again. You know what day it is, right?"
"It's Tuesday."
"Merlin's Beard, and you three say I'm the slow one." Wormtail exclaims.
"Think really hard, Padfoot." Prongs encourages.
Sirius sighs, running through he memories about what could be so important. Talking to Amelia Malfoy is always at the top of his list these days. Then there were events that involved his friends; like being a best mate to Prongs when he gets rejected by Lily, helping Wormtail with his potions homework, dealing with Moony's furry little problem.
"Bloody hell, that's tonight!"