Chapter 2: Dance in the Rain
Summary: Thirteen yeaars ago, nothing could have seperated them. Now everything has changed. What is the price of love? Impersonation is a dangerous game, especially in love. Continuation on Snowlily's, Sirius/Arabella, end of GoF, AU.
Disclaimer: The prologue belongs to the awesome, the wonderful, the beautiful Snowlily, as well as the ideas and majority of this chapter and the next one. All the characters belong to JK.
Notes: Things that happened in OotP are happening inexplicably early, such as the Lestranges being free (oops). Oh well. Author's priveleges and all that, right?
The doorbell rang.
Arabella was silent, and the whole house seemed very still, holding its breath as it waited for what would happen. She didn't have to get up to know who it was. And she didn't have to get her wand to know how to kill him. The doorbell rang again, and this time Arabella pushed the sheets aside and slipped quietly out of bed, picking up her wand from the bedside table. She looked like a madwoman, hair splayed behind her, wand in hand, creeping through her own house, but she didn't care. Her mind was focused on one thing. At the front door, she straightened and stared at it. Worlessly, she opened it.
It was raining.
He stood there, staring at her, suddenly quiet. The silence was broken only by the rain. They stared into each other's eyes, wordlessly, wands at their sides. Arabella simply stood there, her mind in turmoil, wanting to break down and cry, but at the same time, she was calm. He makes me calm...
No, he did anything but. She stared past him, and lightning flashed, and she remembered. She remembered every dream she had ever had where he killed her, where he tortured her, where she did nothing. "I bet you think this is funny," she said quietly.
"What?" Sirius asked, his face shocked, but Arabella ignored him. Her voice was soft, deadly, calm.
"I bet you thought it was funny." She stepped closer to him, facing him. He was taller than she by inches. "I bet you thought it was just so funny, me loving you. I bet you laughed when you betrayed them, and I bet you thought it was so funny when I said I'd marry you, didn't you? You thought you'd break me, thought you'd mock me. You thought I'd be nothing. Is it funny now?"
There was silence, and Sirius's face was filled with horror. Oh, God, Arabella. What had he done...? What happened to her?
"Well, guess what," she said, her voice still soft. "You were wrong. You wrecked my life. Happy? But I'm not broken. You will never break me. I didn't need you. I don't. And I'm going to kill you."
Raising her wand, she pointed it at his chest. Sirius stared at her, and his eyes widened. In a flash of lightning, he looked into her eyes and saw lightning flashing, saw pain flickering, saw anguish, saw tears. "Will you really kill me?" he asked quietly. "For something I didn't do?"
"You'd like me to believe that, wouldn't you?" Arabella spat at him, her eyes filled with loathing and anger, tears spilling out of them. Her words were hot and fast. "You'd like me to believe that you didn't do it, anything to make me believe? Well I'm not buying it! Too many damned times you told me you loved me, too many times you laughed at me and told me it was a lie!"
She shoved her wand harder at his chest. They were both standing in the rain now, rain trickling down her cheeks, mingling with tears. "Do you even know what you did to me?" she snarled. "What you put me through? Because of you, I've never been able to sing. I've never been able to stand out in the rain because of that damned time you took me dancing!"
She was frustrated, now. She looked like a child, angry and upset, tears trickling down her face in a temper tantrum. "I've never been able to love anyone because you had my heart in your damned pocket!"
Sirius felt a shiver go down his spine and he was very still. "And what did you do with mine?" he asked softly. "What did you do with my heart the thirteen years I was in Azkaban?"
Arabella's eyes widened; he had caught her off guard. "I never stopped loving you," he said softly. "Do you know the first memory I got back outside of Azkaban? It was raining. Guess."
Arabella stood very still. "The dance," she whispered unwillingly.
"I was outside the fortress, transformed, and it started to rain as I jumped in the water to swim back to mainland. The first thing I remembered was holding you in the rain. And it made me cry."
Arabella's face was crumpling rapidly, her wand shaking. "Because I loved you."
Arabella finally reached her limit. She crumpled inward, collapsing into Sirius's arms, her sobs shaking her entire body, thirteen years worth of bottled up pain and anguish pouring out of her, and Sirius held her gently in the pouring rain. She cried, her body shaking, unable to speak as she clung to Sirius as if he were her last link to life. Sirius laid his cheek on Arabella's hair, feeling his own guilt and sorrow well up inside of him. He left her to this...
He watched the crying girl, his heart aching. "I'm sorry," he whispered, holding her gently until she could not cry anymore.
Malfoy gave a silent sigh of relief. "We have found him, my Lord," he said, careful to keep his voice silent of all emotion. Voldemort turned to look at Malfoy, and he gave a curt nod.
"Finally."
Malfoy flinched at both the tone and the memory of what had happened to him for 'dwadling' before. "He is at Figg's House," he said quickly. "Our informants found them at her house earlier tonight, about midnight. They're probably still there."
"I do not trust you farther than I can see you, Malfoy," Voldemort said curtly, and Malfoy flinched. "But I will let you do this. Get a crew in there and capture them. If you cannot capture Black, bring me Figg, but I want both of them alive. The Lestranges will interrogate them once you returh. I trust your imbecility does not prevent you from doing just this much?" he asked icily, and Malfoy bowed his head, sweating under his hood as those red eyes lit upon him.
"We will capture them, my lord, and we will bring them back," he said, gibbering, barely knowing what he was saying. "We will not fail you in this, we will bring Black here to you--" he cut off as Voldemort waved a hand to silence him. His eyes were soft and dangerous.
"Stop gibbering, Malfoy. I want Black and I want to know what he knows. Go. Bring him here."
Malfoy bowed and turned, nearly running out of the room. Crabbe was outside the door, and he turned to him sharply. "Go and bring Avery and Nott," Malfoy said sharply. "Move!"
Crabbe ran off and Malfoy clenched his teeth. He hated it; the cringing, the groveling, the fear that constantly seemed to be in him. He was not a man who was easily cowed, but the Dark Lord did it with such humiliating ease that it made Malfoy clench his teeth. Someday, he thought viciously, but the thought was cut off.
"Why so tense, Lucius?" a voice behind him breathed, and he stiffened automatically, cold replacing the warmth of anger inside him. He turneda round and faced Bellatrix Lestrange. She had flourished out of Azkaban and looked almost healthy; her hair was full and thick again, her figure filled out, dark and sensous as ever; only her gray eyes showed the hollowness of years in Azkaban.
"I don't have time for this," Malfoy said, taking a step backwards. "I have to capture Black and Figg...or did you not hear, Bella?" he asked, trying to sound cruel and sneering. It was something he did quite well. But it did not affect Bellatrix--it never had. She always had seemed amused by his pathetic attempts to cow her and scorned him for it.
"I heard," she said, her full lips curving in a secretive smile that sent shivers down Malfoy's back. "Then you'd better, hadn't you?"
Malfoy backed away slowly, his eyes never leaving Bellatrix. Her smile widened as he left, and she threw back her head and laughed, alone in the empty hallway as Malfoy turned and fled. Arabella Figg; her ancient adversary, such as it were. They could be twins; both with long, black silky hair, gray eyes, same skin tone, same figure, probably the same shoe size, if it came to that. Arabella had impersonated her in the past; she wasn't called the Mistress of Disguise for nothing, and Bellatrix had never made the mistake of underestimating her enemy. The fact that Arabella could fool even other Death Eaters did not surpriser her either; they were all fools and imbeciles.
It was an intricate dance, with two interchangeable partners. The only thing that seperated them was the intent of their souls. Bella and Bella. That was what they had been called.
For they had been friends, once. Very long ago. People had called them twins, sisters, and that was when they had begun the great impersonation game, exchanging lives with the other when they were only five years old. And they had grown apart, yet still changed lives, changed sides, danced in and out of the darkness and the light until things blurred on either side. Until thirteen years ago.
Bella smiled. Now, the game was to begin again.