Chapter 6- Angel in Disguise
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except Charolette and her family, the rest are owned by JK Rowling
(Angel in Disguise is a song by Brandy)
The next day Charolette woke up to see a woman standing at her window, gazing out at the lake.
"The lake sure is beautiful, isn't it Charolette?" the woman said.
Charolette almost choked and stood up immediately.
"What are you doing here Maggie? How did you get in?"
"I told the house elves I was a friend of yours. They let me in without hesitating. Stupid creatures those elves..." Maggie said with disdain.
She turned to face Charolette now, grinning the same evil grin Charolette had seen the day she left.
"How dare you just barge i here!" Charolette said finally, walking up to her sister and glaring at her.
"Oh Charolette, please, I couldn't let you slip out that easily. I figured I'd offer you a position in the Death Eaters again, since you ran out on the idea before. I just thought that maybe you'd thought it through and changed your mind..." Maggie played with the curtains for a moment, then turned to face Charolette again.
"I would never reconsider that offer...your fucking insane Maggie, I don't know you anymore! Then again I never really knew you at all, did I?" Charolette began to walk out of the room to change when Maggie grabbed her arm.
"Now you listen to me Charolette, your against bad odds here. Either you join or we'll have no choice but to kill you."
"Well then kill me! I don't give a damn!" Then she remembered Emma...and Sirius.
"Oh, and leave your precious little girl behind? She'd be in my care and she'd trust me with anything! I'd make her a death eater faster then you could come back from the grave to haunt me!"
Charolette grew red with fury and shoved her sister into the wall.
"You fucking bitch! Get out of here! NOW!"
"As you wish, Char." And with that, Maggie disapparated out of the room.
~*~
Sirius decided to take a run in the morning air to clear his mind of what had happened the night before. He wanted her, and at the same time knew it to be impossible for them to be together because he was on the run and could never give her what she needed.
As he stepped out of the castle and headed into the gardens, he was about to transform into his dog form when he noticed Charolette sitting on a bench, absentmindedly picking the petals off roses and ignoring a very angry garden elf who was yelling at her.
Sirius walked over to her and laughed when he noticed a dozen rose stems lying on the ground at her feet and a cluster of petals lying in her lap.
"What's going on, Charolette?" he said as he sat down next to her, staring at her blank expression as she busily tore apart a white rose.
She stopped, and looked at her hands. A single tear fell down her cheek.
"Whenever I felt stressed or upset about something I would go out on the balcony of my apartment and pick the petals off roses...it seemed to always help me clear my mind and calm down."
She began to pick the last petal off the rose stem and then threw the stem on the ground. The garden elf gave up and walked away, grunting to himself about his hard work being ruined by a stressed out witch.
Before she could pick up another rose, Sirius grabbed her hand and held it close to his lips, kissing it softly.
"Tell me what bothers you, I hate to see you this way."
"My sister showed up in my bedroom this morning..." Charolette said softly, staring at her hands.
Sirius looked at her confused. She'd never mentioned having a sister before. "Is that bad?"
"My sister is a death eater, she's pressuring me to join and said that if I didn't she would kill me..."
Sirius looked at her in disbelief. "What did you say to make her go away?"
"I just said for her to go away, that I didn't care if I died..." she paused, another tear streaking down her face. "Then she said that when I died, she would teach Emma to be a death eater...she would encourage Emma to join the dark side...I couldn't have that...I panicked."
Sirius looked deeply troubled now.
"I'm so sorry...you shouldn't worry so much, I'm here for you...I'll protect you," he said softly as he kissed the palm of her hand.
Charolette looked at him with sad eyes, then stood up and walked over to a small rose bush with different colored roses on it. She picked two white roses and one blood red rose, then walked back and stood in front of Sirius.
She bent down so their faces were even and placed the first white rose in his hand.
"There's something I want to give you...to thank you..." Charolette said slowly. "I used to work for a florist, he showed me this...I thought I'd show you..."
"This rose represents trust." She laid the second white rose into his palm, keeping her eyes on his.
"This rose represents respect." She then paused and looked into his eyes, letting her own well with tears. Then she laid the blood red rose into his open hand.
"And this rose...represents love and friendship." Charolette closed his hand around the roses and then brought his hand up to her lips and kissed it softly, then got up and walked back into the castle, leaving Sirius behind to deal with the garden elf who was now grumpily sweeping up petals.
~*~
Charolette fell back in the big white arm chair in her room and conjured up a fire. Closing her eyes she took in the warmth of the flames. She opened her eyes again and conjured up hot chocolate, setting it on the small table by the chair.
Standing up, Charolette waved her wand and hundreds of candles appeared in midair, covering the room in light. She waved her wand again and a holographic image of her and Sirius dancing began to dance across through the candles. She laid back in the chair and waved her wand again, letting music fill the room. The song was 'Forever' by Mariah Carey.
She relaxed and watched the dancing hologram sweep through the candles. 'Oh Sirius...' she thought to herself sadly. The song ended after a few minutes and Charolette heard a knock at her door.
She finished her hot chocolate and stopped the hologram and got rid of all the candles with one sweep of her wand.