DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts or any of the characters used. This story is in no way affiliated with the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling so don't compare it with her work.

Thanks BlackLadyofDoom for reviewing. I know I said I'd post the last chappie after Scotland but I'm going today so HAH!

Alexei Noire xXx :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Fourteen: Tainted Love~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"With four hundred and eighty six points, Hufflepuff house come fourth," Dumbledore declared to the school.

There was sparse applause around the hall and a few pats on the back amongst the Hufflepuffs. Sirius gave Andromeda and Dominique a jaunty smile over to their table.

"In third place we have Gryffindor with four hundred and ninety points," he continued.

Sirius clapped with the rest dolefully - Narcissa shot him a poisonous glare that turned his blood to ice, and Lestrange gave him a wink - surely he WAS gay.

"In second place we have Slytherin with five hundred and eight points," Dumbledore droned on.

There was an explosion of applause from the Slytherin table, and Sirius watched as Bellatrix kissed Lestrange on the lips, and for some reason he felt a pang of jealousy when he did.

"And finally in first place we have the mighty Ravenclaw with a total of five hundred and fifteen points, making them the undisputed champions of the House Cup!"

The Ravenclaw table erupted with cheers and rants, some of the younger students began to dance foolishly in their seats and others banged their goblets in triumph.

Sirius clapped feebly and without emotion - there was no way Gryffindor could have won anyway, Slytherin house may be rife with the most wicked people of tomorrow, but damn they were clever...

"Cheer up Padfoot," James said with a smirk, "It's not like it was your fault we lost."

Sirius exhaled noisily and stared down at his plate. Something was eating him from inside - perhaps the depression was coming back, though he sincerely hoped not. But whatever was wrong with him, he knew that there was an unsettlingly vacant feeling inside him which caused his chest to seem very heavy particularly in the region of his heart.

The Gryffindors laughed and joked boisterously in end-of-term's spirits but Sirius could not even eat, just pushing his food round his plate like Narcissa would. He kept glancing over to the Slytherin table - the root of his emptiness and confusion.

_____________________________________________________________________

"You all ready and packed?" Remus asked James and Sirius.

"Yep..." James said from his bed, "Oh no my Cloak!"

Sirius was stuffing the last of his unpacked robes into his trunk, the time had come for him to return to Grimmauld Place and for a whole two months he would have to suffer under the rule of his mother.

"God, I hate my mother so much," Sirius breathed.

No one else in the dormitory seemed to have noticed his interjection and carried on packing.

Sirius turned round and saw Peter enter then leave immediately. Remus gave the two and wave and walked out of the dormitory.

It was just Sirius and James now left in the dormitory - and this was the perfect chance for Sirius to tie up the loose end that had been following him ever since THAT night.

"Jay," Sirius began, "Can we talk?"

James turned to face him and sighed. He sat down on his trunk and folded his arms, with his eyes on Sirius.

"It's about...it's about, you know...," Sirius continued, "Th-that night that we...erm..."

"Kissed?" James guessed gravely.

Sirius nodded and collapsed onto his own trunk.

"What about it?" James asked, as if they were bringing the subject of a dead relative back up.

Sirius sat up, "Look, the Hogwarts Express leaves soon, so tell me now - did it mean anything?"

James heaved a very long sigh and stood up.

"Yeah, I suppose it did," he replied, "I mean I guess I do have feelings for you deep down, but I doubt it's anything more than hormones. That night, Sirius, I wanted you - I REALLY wanted you, you know?"

Sirius scoffed angrily.

"Don't do this to me," he said without looking up at James.

"No you don't understand," James said, grabbing Sirius by shoulders and shaking him slightly, "It was just a once off - I just wanted to straighten something out about myself, and that night really did answer my question, and I know that I really do like Evans."

Sirius smiled and pulled his friend down into a hug.

"Good to hear it, Jay," Sirius muttered over his shoulder, "Because a thing like that could have severely tarnished our friendship, and I could never live with that."

They pulled apart and James pointed his head to the door.

"Come on, don't want to miss the train back home do you?" he asked jovially.

"I think I do, actually," Sirius laughed, "I mean Grimmauld Place is like torture to me, but I have a plan up my sleeve this holiday, Jay."

They began walking down the stairs into the deserted Common Room.

"Really? What's that then?" he asked.

"I'm going to move out!" Sirius declared, "I've found a place that I need to look over a few more times, but it's perfect. Oh James, I'm going to be free! It'll be just like the time that Miss Honey escaped the treacherous rule of the Trunchbull!"

"Who?" James asked, befuddled.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "You haven't been doing all your Muggle Studies research have you?"

When they reached the portrait hole, the exasperated face of Lily Evans met them.

"Where have you two been?" she asked angrily, "The train's going to leave in no less than twenty minutes, and I find you here talking nonchalantly! Now come on!"

Sirius and James exchanged meaningful glances and followed Lily down to the grounds from whence they would be seated in the horseless carriages to Hogsmeade Station.

_____________________________________________________________________

The train ride had begun with a lot of opening and trying sweets between James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Andromeda and Dominique. Martyn Mitochondria had come in to join them after a few minutes because all the people in his year were playing the most juvenile games, and Martyn decided he was above their petty childishness.

Sirius and Andromeda had kept their promises to their friends and explained all about the Black Challenge. Most of them listened avidly, but Peter scoffed the whole way through the tale - and only shut up when Andromeda brandished the letters she had received both at the start of term and on Boxing Day. This answered a lot of questions for the Marauders - the reason that Sirius borrowed James' Invisibility Cloak, why he had wrestled Moony, Narcissa's Beau, the Halloween Ouija, Sirius' broken leg, how Sirius had materialized in Professor Aquinas' class, why Mary-Anne Capulet was tortured and why there seemed to be a lot of unexpected fires wherever Andromeda went.

For the next few minutes, the group played a Muggle game that Martyn explained to them called 'Go Fish'.

"Go fish!" Remus yelled.

"Lupin, if you're going to yell that every time you put a card down, then maybe you shouldn't play at all," Dominique said.

Remus blushed and hid his face behind his cards.

"I think I'll go get another drink," Sirius declared to the group, getting up and stretching widely.

He made his way through the numerous students and strode off up to the front of the Hogwart's Express, but only a few paces there; he met the onerous presence of Rodolphus Lestrange and his perfect teeth, the arrogant face of Lucius Malfoy and slimy locks of greasy black hair belonging to Severus Snape.

In front of the three boys stood the most formidable and bitchy of them all - Bellatrix.

"Oh look what the cat chewed on, spat at, defecated on and dragged in," Bellatrix spat harshly.

Sirius rolled his eyes but still stood resolute.

"Move aside, bitch," he said angrily, "Oh and you three Stooges can clear off and all!"

The boys all laughed loudly and pretended to be terrified. Bellatrix stood still, smiling menacingly with her alabaster white teeth.

"D'you want us to tear him limb by limb, Bell?" Malfoy asked.

"Leave his face," Lestrange snarled, "We don't want to ruin a pretty one like that."

Sirius bit down on his lip angrily.

"I say we curse him all at once," Snape said with a short laugh.

Bellatrix walked nearer to Sirius and spun round sharply to face her peers.

"No," she said through her black lipsticked mouth, "Leave him to me, boys. After I'm done with him, he won't be able to walk."

Lestrange looked sulky, "But I really want to touch him!"

Everyone stared at him unusually, but the boys shrugged and walked away into the compartments ahead. Bellatrix shut the compartment doors after them and grinned with her Gothic smile.

"Is this going to be a repeat of our previous duel?" Sirius asked exasperatedly.

Bellatrix caught sight of him pulling out his wand and walked closer still.

"Put that away," she whispered sweetly.

"Oh come on!" Sirius cried, "I can stand you, you know!"

Bellatrix edged closer until she was stood right in front of her handsome cousin. She had not gotten her wand out, and Sirius was wondering whether she had it up her sleeve or down her robes. But before he could think anymore on this issue, Bellatrix slipped her claw-like hands round Sirius' neck and pulled him close into a kiss.

Sirius stood stunned, his lips not reciprocating the kiss. But, then he felt his chest swelling up with emotion - the emptiness he had felt was slowly disappearing, and now he longed for Bellatrix, he wanted her badly, his lips locked themselves tightly around hers and he dropped his wand as he pulled his arms around his cousin's waist and deepened the kiss.

They pulled apart, and stared at one another for a few moments breathlessly. Bellatrix smiled, with a sweet smile unlike the menacing ones she habitually wore. After a crucial moment, Sirius pulled his cousin back into another, more intense kiss. He lapped at her tongue hungrily, and passed his fingers through her gorgeous black hair, whilst she caressed his charcoal hair with her slender fingers with painted-black nails, messing it up.

Sirius and Bellatrix felt their libidos taking off and wished to be in one another's arms forever. Sparks went off, Fireworks exploded and cannons blasted as these two star crossed lovers embraced from the same fatal loins as the other.

Finally, after what seemed like the eternal kiss, the two adolescents broke apart their beautiful connection and stared at one another lovingly. Sirius had wrapped his arms round Bellatrix, and she rested her head on his chest affectionately.

"W-What just happened there?" Sirius whispered roughly.

Bellatrix looked up at her cousin and smiled.

"I just, needed to do that," she said, "At least once in my life, because you know, Sirius - I love you."

Sirius froze and stood rooted on the spot, as if he had been glued there and left to grow like an oak tree. He could feel unseen emotion rising to the top, from the depths of his heart, and sudden realisation that of which even surprised Sirius.

He looked down into Bellatrix's eyes and breathed in a resolute and veracious voice, "I love you too, Bellatrix."

She smiled widely, and tears appeared in the corners of her pretty eyes and she hugged Sirius tightly. Sirius felt utter peace within himself, and felt all depression alleviating from his body which now felt numb with emotion - she was the only one who could truly understand him, she had been through what he had and she was the one for him, his Soul mate.

Suddenly, there was a scratching sound from behind, and the two released each other from their grip immediately. Bellatrix sighed and looked back up at Sirius, who almost passed out with what he saw in her eyes - as if it was a reflection, a mere glint in her eyes, he saw the onerous figure of a cloaked skeleton with a large scythe in one hand and an hourglass in the other - Death.

"You killed him yet?" Snape asked uninterestedly.

Sirius choked slightly and picked up his wand abruptly, running out of the compartment back to his friends.

"Hey Padfoot!" James said smiling, sitting next to Lily Evans and her friend Jenny DeLonge, "What kept you?"

Sirius did not reply, but sat down wordlessly beside Martyn, who was now teaching Remus and Dominique the rudimentary rules of Snap.

"You okay?" Andromeda asked, looking over to him from beside Dominique, "You look a bit flushed."

"I-I'm okay," Sirius croaked, looking down at the wooden surface of the table in front.

The rest of the journey passed with a lot cheering, joking and laughter, with Sirius finding himself feigning happiness with the rest, but all the time thinking about that glint in Bellatrix's eyes.

He suddenly remembered that there was a glint in Martyn's eyes too after he'd performed a curse on Bellatrix - and he now knew what the glint was. It was a forewarning which had Bellatrix with the glint in her eyes - but why was it in Martyn's eyes? Was it because he had been subject to her wrath? Or because he was innocent, and the answers of the Universe were said to lie in the eyes of the Innocent. Sirius just did not know.

When the train had arrived at Platform Nine and Three Quarters, James took Sirius aside and told him about something unusual he had witnessed.

"I'd dropped one of Martyn's cards and I saw a small glint in Wormtail's eyes - it looked a lot like...well like DEATH."

Sirius froze solid and gawped at his friend.

"But it was probably nothing," James added brusquely, "Oh there's my folks - HEY DAD!"

Sirius looked over and saw James' parents standing ready with a trolley, smiling jovially. Over in the corner was HIS mother, who looked like a drowned hag - she was talking to a very tall man with a thin brown moustache, and neat brown hair who could not have been anyone else but Rodolphus Lestrange's father.

Thus, Sirius walked reluctantly over to his banshee of a mother, with the burning prospect of his own place away from her abuse. But the glint in Bellatrix's eyes was also gnawing at the back of his mind too - and he would understand it someday, particularly that day in the Department of Mysteries years later when he would meet his end by the doing of Bellatrix.

Hence, in the same way, James would understand the glint in Peter's eye on that fateful night upon which Lord Voldemort would enter the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow - all because of Peter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to all those who reviewed, this was a fun story to write and now I intend to write different fics too. Also, there is a possibility of a Black Magick 2, which will take place in Sirius' Seventh Year, but I need to come up with a plot first.

Plus, if you wish to see the following character depictions (as drawings): Lord Azazel, Belltrix Black, Rodolphus Lestrange, Tripp Cava, Martyn Mitochondria, Dominique and the Black Room, then email me at alilestrange@hotmail.com

THANKS!

Alexei Noire xXx :D ( 2003