) Chapter Five - Seduction (
The world faded away as his lips moved over hers. His tongue moved in her mouth sensuously. She took his bottom lip in-between her teeth and pulled on it teasingly.
It felt like one of her dreams—only better. Because it was real.
Her hands raked through his dark, shaggy hair. His hands slipped up the back of her shirt, caressing the bare skin of her back. They swayed in the locker room, losing their balance as they struggled to touch the other—
"Bella!" a low voice snapped.
Bella blinked, her daydream shattered. She came back to the present and saw that she was in the dungeon for Potions. Slughorn was waddling around the room, examining the students' work. At her table sat Snape and two other Slytherins.
Bella glared at Snape. "What?" she snapped, angry to be disturbed from her thoughts.
"Excuse me for interrupting your nap, but your potion is purple," he said, frowning.
Bella looked in her cauldron and saw that her potion was indeed a bright shade of violet. She swore angrily.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she demanded, grabbing some frog feet in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the potion.
"You need to start paying attention to your classes, Bellatrix," he admonished. He leaned in. "The Dark Lord would be most displeased if he knew how lazy you're becoming!"
"I'm not lazy!" she retorted. "I've just got a lot on my mind."
Snape lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? And what's so important that excuses you from getting a D on your Transfiguration paper?"
Just then, the door to the dungeon opened. Sirius strutted in proudly, ignoring the whispers and jeers from the Slytherins.
Bella's stomach dropped. Ever since their snogging session in the locker room, she had avoided him. She felt the strangest feelings when she was around him: He intimidated her like he never had before, and yet she desperately wanted to be near him. She was unable to concentrate on anything. She would replay the kiss in her mind over and over, and agonized about the significance of a sly look that he might have given her when they passed in the hallway between classes. She desperately wanted to know what he was thinking, but lacked the humility to ask.
"Hello, Mr. Black," Slughorn said jovially. "What can I do for you today?"
Sirius handed him a note. "Professor McGonagall wants to see Bellatrix Black. Sounds urgent."
Bella and Snape glanced at each other in confusion. What in the world would McGonagall want her for?
Slughorn scanned it. "Hm...Very well. Miss Black?"
Bella stood, avoiding Sirius' eyes. "Yes, sir?"
"Mr. Black will take you to Professor McGonagall."
"Yes, sir," she nodded. She stood and went towards Sirius, finally looking at him. Their eyes met, but his expression was unreadable.
"Mr. Snape, please watch over Miss Black's potion."
Sirius turned to the door, and she followed him out of the classroom. Curious murmurs followed them out. Sirius said nothing, but led her away from the classrooms.
"Where are we going?" Bella finally asked. "McGonagall's office is that way."
He turned back look at her. A small smile was on his face. "We're not going to McGonagall."
Her brow furrowed, and her hand drifted toward her wand. "Then where?"
Her smiled at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her into an empty side room. He shut the door behind him.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"This," he said. He pushed her against the stone wall, tilted her chin up with his hand, and kissed her hard.
She was stunned, but quickly regained her wits. She freed her mouth and exclaimed, "You took me out of class to snog?"
He grinned. "Exactly." He leaned in again.
"Wait, wait, wait!"
"Oh, don't pretend to actually be annoyed! I've seen how you've looked at me. You want me," he said matter-of-factly.
"I—um—no! No!" Bella stuttered.
Sirius raised his eyebrows challengingly. He stepped back. "Fine, then. There's the door. You can go back to your boring Potions class."
She stared at him. Of course she didn't want to go back, but she didn't want to admit that she actually liked it—no, loved it—that Sirius had been thinking about her as well, and had skipped his class to save her from her class. An image of her sitting in Potions with only her miserable purple potion and her imagination to keep her company passed through her mind, and she knew there was no way she was leaving Sirius.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his robes, pulling him back against her. "Oh, get over here!"
Bella had never had much interest in romance. She scorned the giggly girls and boasting boys with a passion. Love didn't exist: Only lust and loneliness. If you need someone so you don't feel lonely, you romanticize it by calling it love. If you lust for someone, you also call it love. Love was nothing but an acceptable word to describe human selfishness.
She still believed all of this, yet she found herself becoming the very person she used to hate. Bellatrix Black was becoming a Happy Person against her will. She would try to hide it, but it was hard to conceal the smile that had decided to live on her face permanently.
Her cousin, Sirius Black, was to blame.
The teenagers couldn't get enough of each other. They would sneak out at night, laughing and fumbling around in the dark. They would meet during classes at arranged times, supposedly on bathroom breaks. On Hogsmeade days they would meet in alleys, making up excuses to their friends.
It was an unspoken agreement that it was to be kept a secret. What would their friends say if they suddenly announced that they were seeing someone from the enemy House? And not just the enemy House, but someone as reviled to their respective parties as Bellatrix Black or Sirius Black? It was unthinkable. They were both too proud to endure that kind of scorn.
The first snow fell early that year. Cheer was in the air, especially since there was a rumor that there was to be a Christmas ball that year. Sirius and Potter had enchanted snowballs to fly through the school, following students and smacking them in the face. Apollyon Pringle the caretaker was beside himself trying to catch the snowballs, and students would stop and watch as he leapt after them.
It was on one of these cold days, when the air in the hallways was cold and a new layer of snow was falling outside, when Bella got a note:
Lunch. Our spot.
Bella met Sirius outside their normal place in the upper levels of the castle. Their spot was a deserted storage room that had assorted chairs, desks, and couches in it. It was the perfect room for a couple of teenagers to learn useful "tricks."
She rounded the corner and smiled when she saw Sirius leaning against the wall. He was conjuring more snowballs. They hovered in front of his wand.
He grinned and made a sharp movement with his wand, sending them towards her. She laughed, diving to the side and whipping out her wand. The snowballs went zooming back towards him.
"Hey!" he hollered.
He ducked to the side, but she sent them after him again, giggling.
"Don't start something you can't finish!" she taunted.
"All right, you asked for it!" he said.
He conjured more snowballs and shot them at her. She tried to avoid them, but one hit her on the side of her face. She shot the rest back at him. She conjured more as they went, sending a whole barrage at him. One by one they hit him, showering snow on the floor.
Suddenly, Bella stopped, hearing a noise. She turned away and looked behind her where the corridor turned right.
A snowball hit her in the face, and Sirius laughed. She put her hand to her lips and tiptoed to look around the corner.
Her eyes widened: Pringle was coming down the corridor, attracted by the noise.
She looked at Sirius with alarm and mouthed, "Pringle!"
Sirius rushed over, grabbed her hand, and said, "Follow me!"
They ran down the corridor, hoping that they could get around the corner before Pringle saw them. He must have seen their backs for the quickest of seconds, because they heard him yell, "Hey!" just when they rounded the corner.
They ran as fast as they could. Bella wasn't paying attention to where they were going. Sirius stopped suddenly, and she almost crashed into him.
"In here!" he whispered, pointing to a door. He held it open for her to duck in, and then quickly followed her, shutting it and locking it with his wand.
Bella looked around, breathing hard. It was a dusty, deserted classroom with an old skeleton handing precariously from the ceiling.
"This classroom doesn't look like it's been used in a century," she said. "I hope you know your way back, because I sure as hell don't."
He had his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He shook his head. "Don't worry about that." He stood up and grinned. "Think old Pringle has any idea it's us?"
She shrugged. "Didn't see our faces. I doubt he'd ever suspect that we'd be together."
"You're right about that! All the same, we'd better stay in here until lunch is over so we don't get caught."
She sauntered over to him. "Then we'd better take advantage of the free time…"
She kissed him softly. He grabbed the sides of her head and kissed her back, a little harder. She staggered to the side to catch her balance.
They had kissed countless times, but this time was different. They had experimented, but had never gone the full way. It was always on their minds, but it had been a torturous game to see how long they could hold out…how close they could get without actually doing the deed.
Now neither of them was the least bit interested in tempting the other into asking for the whole deal this time. They were of one mind. They weren't teasing each other; they weren't laughing. They were gripping each other, reaching under clothing. Some uncontrollable force was driving them.
The sound of a desk scraping on the ground interrupted their heavy breathing as Bella's behind connected with it. Sirius steadied the desk with one of his hands, and with the other he gripped her backside and lifted her onto it. She wrapped her legs around him and undid the clasp to his cape. It fell to the ground behind him.
Bella's heart was pounding, and her mouth was slack as Sirius kissed her neck. Though the air was chilly, she was desperate to remove her cape, which she did clumsily.
She took his hand and placed it over the buttons of her shirt. He pulled back and looked her in the eye, cheeks red and panting for breath.
"Take it off already," she smirked.
He slowly unbuttoned it, staring at her body. He reached under her collar and ran his hands down her bare arms, pushing the shirt off as he went.
At any other time, Bella might have felt self-conscious. Right now, she didn't care.
Sirius was suddenly kissing her again, running his hands all over her—her arms, her shoulders, her bra, under her skirt and up her thighs...
Small, involuntary gasps that escaped from Bella's open mouth let him know what he was doing right. Like any girl, she had experimented alone, but with him was infinitely better. She had no idea that it was possible to feel this way.
This was deliciously wrong. It was completely against what her mother would have wished. Of all the people to be her "first," Sirius would be the very bottom of Druella's list—below the bottom. He wouldn't have been allowed on the list if he was the last male on earth!
Bella was no longer willing to let Sirius have the control anymore. With a flip of her wand, Sirius was laying on his back on the cool stone floor. He was winded at first, but grinned as she strolled over and straddled his stomach. She removed his shirt, and had the pleasant view of his tight, heaving chest. She kissed him saucily on the lips, and then teased him by running her tongue down his chest….
Soon his pants were gone as well. He pushed her off of him and rolled on top of her, stretching her arms straight above her head and interlocking his fingers with hers.
She breathed into his neck, licking his shoulder. "Now, Sirius…now!"
He happily obliged, reaching under her skirt to remove her undergarments. She gasped when he entered her, trying to understand the new sensation. Their bodies rubbed as they writhed on the cold floor. Sirius grabbed his wand and murmured a spell, to which Bella emitted a raw, guttural sound.
Before long, Bella and Sirius were laying side-by-side on the ground, staring up at the skeleton on the ceiling, their breath slowing down. Bella felt tired but content. The cold ground was an interesting contrast against her damp bare body; now neither of them were wearing anything but their socks and shoes. It would have been a comical sight if anyone else had entered, but it was the furthest thing from their minds.
They tilted their heads to look at each other. Neither wanted to be the first to react, but Bella couldn't help it. She smiled in her haughty way.
"That was good," she said.
"Of course—what did you expect?"
She didn't answer, merely grinned.
He smiled back.
They looked away from each other and stared at the ceiling.
Sirius' hand inched towards hers. His fingers intertwined with hers and squeezed.
Strangely, at that little gesture, Bella felt closer to Sirius than she ever had before. And she had never felt so goddamn happy in her life.