Hi!! I'm sorry it's taken so long, but my computer had problems and needs to see a psychiatrist really... it deleted some of my chapters and I had to re-write them, annoyingly, but here's Chapter Twenty-Seven, and I hope no one has died from waiting for the outcoe of the last installment's cliff-hanger!! (I think that thinking's a little bit too optimistic for my writing...!) Hope you enjoy it! x x x Thank you, as ever, for all the brilliant reviews, I'm so pleased that my meandering story is being so well-received! Okay, now you can read - this chappie's quite long, but exciting! No, actually it's not very... Oh, just read it!
Chapter Twenty-Seven: An Unhappy Lot
James, Sarah and Peter crept along the corridors underneath the Invisibility Cloak, trying to keep as quite as possible. This was hard, as Peter, who as the shortest was in the middle, kept treading on the others' feet. Just as James kept himself from swearing about yet another bruised toe, his ears pricked and he threw an arm out in front of Peter and Sarah for them to stop.
"I thought I heard something," he whispered. "Might be Filch, or a teacher."
They listened hard for a few seconds, but heard nothing. James nodded for them to carry on. They were near the entrance to the Astronomy Tower now; it was only a few doors away on this corridor.
Suddenly a green streak of light came at them out of a dark room on the right. It hit Peter in the stomach, knocking him backwards against the wall, and the Cloak pulled James and Sarah with him. They fell to the floor in a jumble of limbs and Cloak, but James was on his feet immediately, wand out ready and peering in the torchlight to see who the attacker was.
Severus Snape stepped into the light, his usual sneer even more exaggerated today. On James' left, out of another room, came Sirius' huge cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. James looked from one to the other uneasily; he was used to bad feeling from the Slytherins, but this seemed a bit too extreme.
James glanced quickly down at Peter. Sarah was kneeling next to him, checking he was okay. He had hit his head hard on the wall and his breathing was shallow, but his eyes were open in his pale face. Sarah, seeing Bellatrix and Snape above her, quickly stood and got her wand out, too, standing next to James.
"What's this about, Snape?" James asked warily, whilst keeping an eye on Bellatrix.
"It's nothing that concerns you, Potter," he replied through curled lips. "You would do well to leave now – for once keep your nose out of other people's business."
"Where's Adriana?" Sarah asked, her voice giving away only a slight quaver.
"Don't worry about your Gryffindor friend," Bellatrix said in her deep, unfeminine voice. "Severus has warned you once; we'll give you one last chance to leave unharmed."
James and Sarah exchanged the smallest of glances before James said with a short laugh, "We're not going anywhere."
"Fine," Bellatrix smiled humourlessly and started twirling her wand faster and faster, making them feel even more uneasy, until she suddenly pointed her wand and shouted "Rictusempra!"
This spell hit James and he cannoned into the wall; Sarah screamed as he hit the floor, but luckily kept her wits about her, because Snape was looking devious.
He raised his wand to her and cried, "Stupefy!" but she dove to the ground just in time. The red streak of light shot over her and James' heads as she gasped "Tarantallegra!" and aimed her wand up at Snape. The spell hit him and his feet started to move uncontrollably; he was jerking around in a frenzied tap-dance.
Sarah looked sideways at James and was horrified to see that Bellatrix's spell had knocked him unconscious. She looked back at the two Slytherins and saw Snape still jumping around and Bellatrix coming menacingly towards her. She jumped to her feet and at that moment Snape managed to point his wand in the right direction and send another stunning spell her way.
Sarah shouted "Protego!", the shield charm, and sent the red spell right back at him. His legs stopped moving immediately and he slumped to the ground. Sarah stared at his still body for a second, but didn't have time to dwell on what she'd done, for she realised Bellatrix was still there, grinning evilly. Sarah didn't see how she could beat the seventh-year Slytherin on her own; for she was alone now. She looked around for something that could help her, and thought of the first spell that came to mind.
"Expelliarmus!"
Bellatrix snarled with rage as he wand spun threw the air out of her grip and she went to retrieve it. From behind her, Sarah heard footsteps and her heart lifted in one moment. She turned to see Professor McGonagall hurrying towards her, and she ran to meet the teacher.
"Professor, thank god," Sarah breathed in relief. "We were attacked, by –"
She turned again, pointing, but the corridor was occupied only by the three motionless forms of Peter, James and Snape now. Bellatrix had gone, taking her wand with her.
Meanwhile Bethan wasn't having a happy evening, either. She'd gone down to the Entrance Hall to meet Marley, as they had arranged to earlier in the day, but ended up waiting for at least half an hour for him to appear. When he did, it was out of an empty room off the huge hall.
Bethan had just got up from where she'd been sitting on the marble steps waiting, ready to give up and go back to the common room. She walked angrily over to where he was standing, looking not the least bit sorry.
"Where have you been?" she asked. "I've been waiting for ages!"
"Again, please?" was his reply, as he put his arms around her waist.
Bethan frowned even further. "We were supposed to meet here, remember, where've you been?"
Marley gave an impish smile. "I was resting." But at that moment the door of the room he'd just came out of opened again and someone else came out – a girl, whom Bethan recognised from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. It was Laura Fodden, Marley's fellow Beater.
When she saw Marley and Bethan standing there, she stopped, looking shocked at first, but then smiled. "Oh, hi, Bethan," she said, "Sorry if we kept you waiting – me and Marley were just discussing some Quidditch details." She went past them up the marble staircase, then turned and said, "See you later, Marley."
As Laura's footsteps died away, Bethan looked up at Marley, utterly furious. She stepped away from him. "You bastard, how dare you!" she screamed, lashing out with her fists at his sturdy chest.
Marley laughed, adding further to her rage. He grabbed her fists and stayed them. "Come on, Bethan – you heard her, we were just discussing Quidditch!"
"Don't give me that shit!" she cried as she wrenched her hands from his grip. "The Quidditch season's fucking over and you're cheating on me with a girl so thick she can't even get her cover story straight!" Bethan didn't wait for a reply but ran away up the steps, trying to blink away the tears that came to her eyes.
Marley followed her and caught her arm, forcing her to face him. "Bethan, please," he said, and the annoying smirk had vanished from his face now. "I'm sorry, it was an accident."
"Accident my deep blue eyes," she muttered furiously.
"Would you listen to me? I love you, Bethan. Please – forgive me this terrible mistake, and then I might begin to forgive myself."
Bethan couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What absolute crap! You think I want to still be with you, when I've seen the way you've thrown aside Laura, and me – you have no respect for either of us! You're using her for sex... I don't know what you were using me for."
"I'm not using you, I love you."
"Shut up!" she screamed, stepping away again. "You don't know anything about love!"
"Just a little bit, around the edges," he admitted, smiling slightly and taking a step towards her, closing the gap she had made.
"So you just want to forget about this?" she asked.
"Gladly, please."
Bethan glared at him, making sure he got no closer to her. "Forget! How can you expect me to – when you've been screwing that girl behind my back!"
"Just enough to keep the milk from going sour," he grinned, unable to stop himself. "Bethan, I love you, but a man can't live on bread, he needs some crumpet."
Revolted, Bethan turned away again to leave. "You're disgusting," she spat. "I can't believe you've tried to describe this situation with some horrible metaphor. It's degrading to everyone involved." She turned around again to look at him as she repeated, "I never want to see you again."
She ran down the corridor, heading back to the common room. After a while she stopped, feeling exhausted, and leant against the wall; she closed her eyes and at last let the tears fall freely. She felt so furious, with herself and Marley, and embarrassed that she's let him string her along. Sirius had been right all along about him... but thinking of Sirius made her feel even more miserable.
Wiping her eyes, she carried on walking, wishing she were already in bed in Gryffindor Tower. All she wanted to do was go to sleep, and never wake up. The torches along the corridor guttered with a cold night wind and she shivered. From down the corridor she heard a quiet voice.
"Did we have to leave him like that?" it asked, sounding nervous and timid.
"It was necessary, and besides, our Lord wouldn't appreciate you feeling such passion for his enemies, Regulus," another voice replied. Bethan recognised this As Lucius Malfoy, and she knew Regulus was Sirius' brother. She tensed, and drew back against the wall.
Another voice spoke. "That's right, Lucius, and he's not dead, anyway – if that makes you feel better, Regulus. But this is not our main concern... Our Lord will be most pleased with us if we bring him some valuable news of Hogwarts and its leaders."
That was Adriana, and Bethan felt even more confused upon hearing her voice. She shivered again as she heard Lucius' cold voice again.
"You assume you know about the Lord's plans, Adriana? This is most pretentious of you."
"The Lord loves me, and I love him. I have nothing to fear," was Adriana's reply.
Lucius laughed nastily. "He hates love, and neither knows or wants anything to do with the weakest of emotions. You should not deceive yourself, girl."
Bethan backed down the corridor slowly as she this comment brought back her recent painful conversation with Marley. She realised Adriana and the two Slytherins would be walking towards her, and, not wanting to be seen by them, turned quickly around, ready to retrace her footsteps and take a different route to the common room. She saw two more dark figures heading her way from the other direction, and squinted through the torchlight to see who they were. When she recognised them, she ran forwards and threw herself upon the nearest of the two.
"Remus!" she cried into his shoulder. She tried to say more, but the tears really came now, and Remus shot Sirius a puzzled look over her head.
"Bethan? What's wrong?" he asked, holding her tight while Sirius put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It's Marley!" she managed to answer, and Sirius' fingers convulsively tightened on her arm. "He's been cheating on me with some Ravenclaw tart!"
"WHAT?!" Sirius exploded, but then they heard the footsteps of Adriana and the others heading their way. Thinking quickly, he opened a door next to them and ushered Remus and Bethan inside, quietly closing it behind them.
"It's Adriana," Bethan whispered through her tears. "I heard her talking to you brother, Sirius, and Lucius Malfoy." She told them everything she'd heard, and they hurriedly explained to her everything they knew – or assumed – was going on.
"And I was Adriana's friend!" Bethan said, outraged. In her emotional state, her eyes filled once again.
"We all were," Remus said soothingly, as he wiped away the tears with his thumb. He looked at Sirius. "What shall we do now?"
Sirius waited a few seconds, biting his lip as he thought. "I'm going to follow them," he said finally, and raised a hand to stop Remus interrupting. "No – you two go up to the Tower to look for Harlem, and James and the others."
Remus and Bethan looked worried still.
"I'll be fine," Sirius told them confidently. "I'm just going to see what they're up to." He went to Bethan, tenderness in his eyes. "Angel, I'm sorry about Marley. But you're better off without him, anyway." He kissed her lightly on the forehead and, turning, quickly left the room, getting his wand out ready.