) Chapter Four - Quidditch (
It was hopeless.
Bella found herself waking up every night in a cold sweat, entangled in her damp sheets and amazed that she hadn't waken up her roommates.
She was in lust with the very last boy she would have ever expected to notice, with the boy she had once been betrothed to, but whose name she was now forbidden to say.
One week after her duel with Sirius, Bella was having dinner at the Slytherin table, but her mind was across the room at the Gryffindor table. Sirius was the center of attention over there, his grey eyes sparkling as he entertained a group of Gryffindors with a story of one of his many exploits. Potter was throwing in remarks, and glancing at Evans every couple seconds to see if she was watching him.
Bella observed how the students regarded Sirius. The Gryffindors thought Sirius and James were their mascots, even their gods. Students at other tables were watching with a mixture of jealousy and admiration. Even though the Slytherins ignored or mocked Sirius, Bella was becoming aware of undertones of jealousy in their voices that she'd never noticed before. Sirius was respected, and the more she saw that, the more attractive he was to her.
She liked power the power he had. It was very desirable...
"Did you hear the news, Bella?" Andra said, leaning across the table towards her and blocking her view of the object of her thoughts.
"What news?" Bella asked, sipping some juice airily.
"He is going to be playing Seeker in place of Channing at the Gryffindor/Slytherin match-up on Saturday," her brown-haired sister replied.
"Who?" Bella asked, raising her eyebrows in annoyance. Why couldn't Andra just speak plainly?
"Him," Andra said, bobbing her head in the direction of the Gryffindor table. "You know, who Mother said we mustn't speak of…?"
"Oh!" Bella laughed condescendingly. "You mean Sirius. I get it now."
Andra's eyes widened. "You mustn't speak His name!"
"Andra, are we children? No. Mother isn't here, so it's perfectly fine to say his name. What are we supposed to say?"
Narcissa, who had been sitting a little farther down on Andra's side but listening silently, leaned in. "Yeah, Andra, 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' is already taken!" She looked at Bella for approval at her little joke.
"Cissy!" Bella snapped. "Don't speak of the Dark Lord's name so lightly!"
Narcissa's pale face fell. "I—I'm sorry, Bella. It wasn't really his name—"
Andra cut off whatever rebukes Bella would have made by interjecting, "As I was saying, He is going to be playing Seeker, and word is He's pretty good."
Bella let the subject of Voldemort drop. "Yeah, that's what Lestrange keeps harping on us."
"People are saying the only reason Sirius doesn't play the position normally is because he doesn't know how to listen to the Captain and is too distracting for the other members," Andra continued. "You'd better be sure to keep your eye on him, Bella. We can't start out the season with a Gryffindor win."
Ironically, keeping her eye on Sirius was exactly what Bella wanted to do.
The days passed more quickly without Bella staring at the clock, anticipating detentions with Sirius. Now that she had detention with Slughorn, there was nothing to look forward to, so time went back to its normal pace.
McGonagall had simply had enough of Bella and Sirius' antics, so she had assigned Bella to her Head of House even though she knew Slughorn would be easy on her. There was only so much even McGonagall could take, apparently.
Bella had heard that Sirius was assigned to Apollyon Pringle, the caretaker, and was doing menial cleaning tasks for him. She, on the other hand, was doing simple lines while Slughorn pleasantly chatted away with her. It was a waste of time, because she would rather be studying up on Dark Curses or going ahead in homework, but thankfully Slughorn always let her out early.
The weather for Quidditch was perfect that Saturday. The late-September afternoon had only the slightest twinge of cold in it.
As she suited up in the locker room before the match, Lestrange gave them their normal "pep" talk, going right up to each person and sticking his face right into theirs.
"…And Martin!" Lestrange said, looking fierce as he yelled into the face of the other Beater, "I want you to find that bastard Sirius Black and smack that Bludger right into his filthy traitorous face!"
"Yes, Captain!" Martin yelled, getting riled up by Lestrange's army-like yelling.
"Same goes for you, Black!" Lestrange yelled as he passed by.
Bella had never had much taste for his speeches. Lestrange usually left her with little specs of spit on her face after he was done. Very distasteful.
However, she yelled in a half-mocking way, "Ay, ay, sir!"
Lestrange knew how Bella hated his talks, and he ignored her fake enthusiasm. Perhaps it was because she was so good at breaking bones with the force of her Bludgers that he allowed her half-hearted mockery of him. She didn't think on it much, however. As long as Lestrange left her to do her own thing, she was fine.
After the talk, the whole team was pumped up and ready to destroy some Gryffindor ass. Bella was the only calm one, thinking about ways she could mix up her strategy and technique this game. She hated to be predictable.
The teams flew onto the field to cheers and jeers—mostly jeers.
Bella smirked as she circled the field with her team, bat in hand. She knew the other Houses loved to hate the Slytherins because the Slytherins were good, fierce, and played to win. Bella was known for being especially vicious, not caring at all if someone was in the hospital ward for weeks after being hit with one of her Bludgers. In fact, it was her goal: if someone on the other side wasn't in the hospital by the end of the game, she'd be disappointed.
What a shame that Sirius will be in the hospital wing where I can't watch him, she thought with sardonic amusement.
The players took their places around the center of the pitch, ready for the game to start. Sirius was floating high above them in the Gryffindor Seeker's spot, looking mightily handsome with the breeze blowing through his dark hair. When she looked up at him, she was saw he had been watching her. He winked at her flirtatiously and looked down at the referee, the Hufflepuff Head of House, Professor Squalk.
Squalk was an elderly man who was almost bald and had huge, owl-like eyes. He had bad eye-sight, so it was easy to avoid penalties around him.
He blew the whistle, and game-play started.
Potter, the Chaser for Gryffindor, quickly obtained the Quaffle and scored with little difficulty. That started off what turned out to be a bad game for Slytherin. In half an hour, the score was 80 to 20 for Gryffindor.
It wasn't for a lack of enthusiasm that Slytherin was losing. In fact, they were extremely brutal and had injured many of the players on the other team, setting off rounds of resounding boos around the stadium; it was because they were focusing too much on being rough, and not enough on the actual game. When the score reach 100 to 30, Lestrange called a time-out.
"Listen!" he roared to the huddled team, "All we need to do is stop them from scoring and have Ward get the Snitch now!"
"It's that simple, is it?" Bella snarled, frustrated. She'd been off the whole game and hadn't had a solid, bone-crushing hit yet.
"Black, Martin, you've got to step up and focus on Sirius Black. He cannot get near the Snitch, got it?" Lestrange continued. "Unless you have a chance to stop someone from scoring, you need to keep an eye on Sirius Black. Better to keep the game going than to lose!"
The game restarted, and Bella focused harder than ever. She chased a Bludger and hit it hard in Sirius' direction; he barely dodged it.
"You'll have to work harder than that if you wanna hit me, Bella!" Sirius taunted her as he leveled out on his broomstick.
She gritted her teeth. When the other Bludger was in her vicinity, she whacked it towards him again, this time harder. It didn't get close to him, however, because he had suddenly darted off.
Ward had been watching Sirius and was already racing in the same direction. They'd both spotted the Snitch, which was hovering near the stands on the side of the Gryffindor goalpost.
Bella raced towards the first Bludger desperately; she just had to stop Sirius from getting the Snitch first, whether by hitting him or deterring him. The game rested on it! She lunged for the Bludger and beat it back straight at Sirius, who was slightly ahead of Ward as they raced towards the Snitch.
As if in slow motion, the well-hit Bludger raced towards Sirius. If he didn't veer off course, it was on track to crash right into his head. Bella, the closest player to the action, saw that he had no idea it was near him. The rest of the game had stopped, and everyone was hovering anxiously and watching the race. The crowd roared as the Seekers battled it out, Sirius slightly ahead of Ward. Some of Sirius' team-mates called out warnings to him, but he was too focused to hear them, his eyes firmly on the Snitch.
Bella held her breath as she watched the Bludger fly towards Sirius. At best, it would seriously injure him. At worst...he would never ever bother Bella again.
It was mere feet from him when she heard someone nearby yell: "Sirius—look out!"
Sirius heard, and veered away from the spot where he would have collided with the Bludger. That allowed Ward the chance to surge forward and grab the Snitch—just before the Bludger blasted him in the stomach. Ward fell to the ground, Snitch still in hand, as the crowd roared with delight and anger.
Bella looked around to see who had called out Sirius' name in such an alarmed voice.
No one was near.
Bella looked to Sirius, who had rounded about and was now floating meters in front of her. He was facing her and looking her in the eyes with the most peculiar expression on his face. His mouth was slightly ajar, and his eyes were wide.
Suddenly, her hand flew to her mouth in realization: it was she who had called out his name!
Her face reddened in embarrassment and confusion. Why in the world had she done that? She was very attracted to him, yes, but that didn't mean she actually cared about him! She certainly cared more about winning a game of Quidditch than she did for him! He was just a lust object to get her through the night!
Bella became aware that she had been staring at him back as these thoughts had been racing through her mind. To recover, she flipped her thick black hair over her shoulder and floated down to the ground to celebrate with her teammates. She didn't look back up at him again, but she could feel his eyes following her the whole time.
But it could have been her imagination.
"Good job, Black!" Lestrange said as they folded up their Quidditch robes. He and Bella were the last players to leave the Slytherin locker room. "You really saved the day."
"I know," she said haughtily.
No one else had heard her call out to Sirius—the crowd had been too loud—and she was the savior of the game for allowing Ward to grab the Snitch. She'd been basking in the post-game praises for an hour, and she loved every second of it.
He looked over at her sideways, not sure if she was trying to be funny. She looked at him and grinned, a rare sight on her face. It looked unnatural on her, but very becoming.
Lestrange's face melted into a smile, and he shook his head as he headed out. "You're really something, Black. I'm gonna go check on Ward in the hospital wing. You wanna come?"
"In a bit," she replied, and he left.
She smiled as she continued sorting the equipment that she'd removed. After a moment, she looked up. She sensed something—someone was in the room. The air rippled a ways in front of her.
"Show yourself," she ordered whomever it was lurking around. She wasn't terribly frightened, but all the same, her hand slipped toward her wand...
A male voice muttered an incantation, and the body of Sirius formed three meters in front of her out of thin air. He had been disillusioned. He stared at her in the same manner he had just after she'd called out his name during the game.
She scoffed and started to turn away. "What do you want?"
"You should smile more."
She looked back at him. "Pardon me?"
He stepped forward, eyes locked with hers. "You're gorgeous when you smile. You should do it more often."
For perhaps the first time in her life, Bella truly had no reply. She knew she was a relatively attractive young woman, but she couldn't remember a time that someone had ever said something so blunt—and complimentary—to her face.
"Uhh…" she said dumbly, staring at him as he continued forward. It didn't occur to her to thank him. She couldn't even think of anything cruel to say, which was also a first for her.
He stopped close to her, too close. She stood rooted on the spot, both from pride and simply because her mind was blank. All she could do was stare up at him and wait.
"You called my name," he said.
There was no cockiness. Just Sirius looking at her with those eyes. This was a different Sirius than the one who'd grabbed her and kissed her earlier, at least it seemed so. Maybe this one had just been hidden underneath all along.
"Did I?" she asked, staring up at him.
Her heart was thumping in her chest. He was so close, and unlike the time he had invaded her personal space in the hospital wing, this time was thrilling...and a little bit scary. This was supposed to happen in her dreams, not in real life!
She hadn't realized he was this much taller than her, for she was a tall girl herself. But he was leaning in, looking at her lips, taking his time with his reply….
Bella's breath was becoming shorter, and her mind was a blank. All she could think about was how much she wanted to kiss those handsome lips….
"You did," he stated with a small smile.
It was as if his reply had opened the floodgates, because she could no longer control herself. She grabbed the back of his neck, blurted breathlessly, "Many apologies!" and pressed her lips against his.
She kissed him hard, and he didn't pull away. One of his arms looped around and gripped her lower back. He was a very good kisser, and she allowed her mind to shut down and simply feel the sensation of his warm lips…his tongue…
In a flash, she came to her senses: she, Bellatrix Black, was kissing the pompous Sirius Black, the very same one who had rudely grabbed her in the kitchen. She couldn't throw herself at him like every other girl in the school did!
She jerked back, using the hand that had grabbed him to push his chest away from her.
"What is it?"
"I—can't—" she said haltingly, shaking her head as she stared up at him. His eyes were so entrancing even now.
"Why not?" he said, closing the space between them and looping his arms around her waist.
"I refuse to be another one of your conquests!"
"You certainly aren't," he smiled, squeezing her waist against his stomach.
She eyed him warily, allowing a half-smile to grow on her face. He watched her expression, and a smile grew on his face as well.
"All right then," she grinned, feeling flirty and attractive for the first time in her life. "You win, Sirius."
She was about to kiss him again, but she hesitated, her lips brushing against his as she said: "This time."