Chapter 68 - Rockstar
OoO
Sirius and the others all arrived at the back entrance of Lily's concert that Saturday. James had his arm wrapped around Lily, and Harry had his hand clasped around a very excited Hermione. Every time Sirius shot him a wink, he turned bright red. But teasing Harry was just a way to keep his mind off Izzie. With every step closer to the building, the more nauseous he felt. It wasn't just about seeing her again, but it was like eighty percent the reason, the other twenty percent was Cor. He heard her talking about him a few days ago when they all were at James and Lily's home. He knew it was unfair thinking like that, but it felt like she had replaced him. He wiped his hands on his jeans for the twentieth time. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Remus spoke to the bouncer.
"I'm sorry, I can't find any Lupin on here." He said skimming through the list, flipping the pages over.
"That's not possible." Remus said, searching his pockets for the ticket. "Cassie Sable handed me this ticket herself." He pulled out the ticket and Sirius could feel her magic on it.
"Oh!" The bouncer waved his wand over the ticket and his eyes widened even more. "It got her magical signature on it." He looked at the group. "She very rarely gives tickets out like this. She mostly does this to really sick kids, sometimes they don't have long."
"Make-a-wish." Lily and Hermione said quietly.
The bouncer eyed Harry and Hermione and he instinctively took a step closer to them. "Are you two sick?"
"No." They chimed.
"We're old friends." Remus said. The bouncer eyed the group and the ticket again before he opened the door.
"You must mean something special to her then." He said as they started walking, they all followed him closely. Sirius passed an open door which was filled with clothes. "Years ago, a young fan of hers was bitten by a werewolf. He wanted to end his life, he was only fifteen." Sirius saw Remus shoulder tense. "Without miss Sable, he would've done it. She had read about a philanthropist who made wolfsbane available and free for every werewolf. I – I think his name was Black something, he had a funny first name though."
"Sirius Black?" James offered with a toothy grin.
"Yeah, that's him, funny name." The others all smirked. "I believe she even wrote him a letter thanking him, because the wolfsbane saved a young boy's life." Sirius stopped breathing for a moment, and the others all looked at him, but the bouncer just kept going. "Miss Sable adjusted her schedule so she could be with him the first months on the full moon. She made sure he could still attend school and be with his friends. Even now, years later, the boy is in his twenties by now, they still meet up regularly. Miss Sable is truly one of a kind." The others couldn't disagree with that.
"Marco, I've told you, it's just Cassie." Izzie smiled as they stepped in the room. "You call my brother by his first name."
Sirius heard the bouncer vaguely saying about the two of them going to a bar together, but it was all lost to him because Izzie literally took his breath away. She was wearing skinny black jeans with a few rips in it, underneath ankle boots with a high heel. She was wearing a faded AC/DC shirt under her leather jacket. Her long brown hair was in a high ponytail.
"Breathe, Uncle Siri." Harry nudged him and winked. Sirius was the one that blushed now and quickly averted his eyes.
"Where is Reg- Roan?" Remus asked glancing around the room.
"He's preparing." She chuckled. "He's a bit superstitious. And he needs me for the last part otherwise our show 'will suck'." She rolled her eyes but there was so much love in it. "So, why don't you all make yourself comfortable, sit down, eat and drink something. Marco will bring you out to the stage when we're doing the sound test." She disappeared in the hallway.
Sirius began to slowly walk around the room, looking at a guitar case that was plastered with photographs. A lot of them were with Reg, a few with Cor and then with different people. Movie stars, singers, athletes. She looked like a rockstar in every one of them. After fifteen minutes, Cor, the fiancé walked in. Before he could spot him, he muttered to Remus that he needed the loo and slipped out of the room. He walked a little aimlessly through the hallways, a door every two or three meters.
"Isabelle, I love you and you're my sister." He heard Reg's voice coming from a door that was ajar. He froze in place. "But you're making this too hard on yourself."
"I love him, Reg. So much. And it's not fair to him. I can't do this to him." He heard her voice shake. "He is my fiancé." Sirius heard enough, he couldn't hear her talk about how much she loved another, he needed to get away. He quickly made his way back to the others.
OoO
Twenty minutes later, Marco escorted them to the main stage. It was a bigger stage than last week, the whole auditorium was bigger. Regulus and Izzie were sitting at a piano. Reg was dressed in the same fashion as Izzie, his hair made extra curly. James needed to pinch Remus before drool dripped down his mouth. Regulus was tuning the piano and the microphone attached to it, Izzie was sitting on the piano, one leg crossed over the other as her fingers went over the guitar strings. Her whole attention was on the guitar and nothing else.
"Wow, she really is a rockstar." Lily gasped.
"Wait until you see her show, mum! It's amazing!" Harry beamed as he looked over the stage. "Her Patronus -" Sirius stiffened. "It's the same one as Uncle Siri-" Harry's beaming smile fell when he saw the look he gave him. "She has a song about you, mum." He said quickly, but the others were all looking at him. What none of them noticed was that Cor was standing not too far behind them, holding a speaker in his hands and overheard everything.
"Well, well." Remus clapped his hands, trying to redirect everyone's attention. Regulus and Izzie finally looked up from their instruments. "Here are our two favourite rockstars."
Izzie's eyes lit up as she saw Hermione. She hopped off the piano and walked over with a beaming smile. "Hermione Granger, I'm so sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. My brother needed my help."
"You - you know my name?" Her brown eyes sparkled.
"Oh, yes. Harry can't stop talking about you." She winked at him. Harry turned red and muttered something under his breath. Hermione was sporting a pretty impressive blush herself.
"Can I – Can I have a picture with you?" She held up a disposable muggle camera.
Izzie looked over her shoulder to Reg. "How cute is she?"
"Very." Regulus grinned. Sirius still found it weird he was smiling that much.
"Of course, you can have a picture." She handed the camera over to James and tugged the young kids under her arms. "Roan, let's go."
"I don't like pictures." He scrunched up his nose and crossed his arms over his chest, just like the old Regulus.
"It's for the kids."
"Yeah, for the kids." The others chimed with a pout. Regulus rolled his eyes but took his place next to Hermione, placing his hand on Izzie's back. "Say cheese." James called out.
OoO
The show was amazing. They stayed backstage, so they could see everything up close. Sirius's whole body tingled from her magic. It was literally breath-taking. Lily and Remus had tears in their eyes from the lyrics. But she didn't do the Patronus, maybe because she got her memories back it wasn't that easy anymore. After a deafening applause, they walked from the stage beaming. Izzie jumped on Reg's back as they talked. But they couldn't hear them, the applause was still too loud.
"Let's go to the after-party!" Regulus laughed when they were close enough.
"We got you something." Regulus said when they ushered them to an empty room behind the party. Once the door was closed, it was suddenly dead quiet. They couldn't hear the noise from the room next door. They sat down at a round table and Regulus started pushing a box to every one of them.
Their eyes widened when they opened the box. "It's already charged, and I put all of our numbers in it. So, when we leave next week, we can stay in contact." Izzie explained as James flipped the phone open.
"When do you leave exactly?" Remus asked, he hasn't even opened the box. His eyes flittered between Reg and Izzie.
Izzie looked away when she said. "Tuesday."
"Tuesday." They breathed out, their faces fell.
"No, no depressing things tonight." Regulus shook his head. "Try out your phones."
Izzie was watching Sirius fumble with the phone. While the others all started pushing the buttons on the phone, Izzie slid to Sirius's side. "Hi."
"Hi." He looked up at her without a smile, a part of her heart broke from that look. Like she was just another random person that walked by. No, even a random person would've gotten a smile from the bachelor Sirius Black.
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Uhm, yeah sure." He nodded pushing himself up from his seat. They ignored the others as they slipped into another room. Izzie was waving her hand, casting charms to give them privacy. "What's up-" His sentence was interrupted when Izzie slammed into him. Her arms curling around his neck. He still smelled of leather and rain, it just made her cling onto him harder. His hand went around her waist while the other cradled her head. "Izzie -"
"Just, give me a minute." She whispered against his neck. She could feel him shiver against her. So, they stood there, just holding on for a long time. When Izzie didn't look like she would break apart anytime soon, he said.
"Izzie -"
"Sirius." She pulled back, their faces inches apart. Their breaths mixed together. "I-"
"Izzie, don't." He looked down.
"I still love you." She said barely above a whisper. Sirius still didn't look at her, his eyes fixed on the floor. "But it's all -"
"I said don't." He unwrapped her arms from his neck and stepped back. He hated himself from hurting her, but it would be better in the long run. "You have a fiancé. You're happy with him, you love him."
Tears were brimming her eyes and Sirius's heart broke into a million pieces. "Sirius -"
"It's been too long, Izzie. I – I don't love you anymore."
"You don't love me anymore." She repeated in a whisper. Tears were rolling down her cheeks now. "Of course, you don't." She turned around and focussed on her breathing. "I just wanted to thank you about the wolfsbane. I didn't know it was you, but – thank you." She said before sweeping out the room without looking back. The moment she opened the door, the music and talking reached his ears. Sirius charged forward and looked around the room filled with people. His eyes scanned the room until he could find her, she was standing in front of Cor.
"Cassie, love, are you okay?" Cor asked once he saw the state she was in. He cupped her cheek and looked at her worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm good." She nodded and offered him a small smile. "Can we go home? I'm tired."
"Sure." He leaned down and kissed her softly before they apparated from the spot. Sirius was still leaning against the doorframe, looking at the spot they disappeared from. This was for the best. She was happy before; she'll be happy again. It was the right choice. But why did it feel like it was one of the worst decisions of his life?
