Sirius had never before in his life had the urge to cry. Now he was fighting off tears with everything he had. He stared at the damaged motorcycle and tried to collect his thoughts. He had used magic. He had used magic on Evelyn. He had gotten a warning and if he performed anything else, he would be expelled. Then what would he do? He couldn't stay home that was for certain. He apparently couldn't make it in the muggle world if he couldn't even build or drive a motorcycle right. And the way Evelyn's mother had looked at him, like she knew he was all wrong.
Evelyn. The thought made the tears come dangerously close to forming. She left. He couldn't interpret what she was thinking. He thought of all that could have happened, if she had seen the owl or him performing the spell. Or worse yet, if she had been hurt. He had the most awful feeling, that he'd never see her again. He couldn't shake it.
He looked down at the bike again and saw that there wasn't much damage. A few dents and scratches but it should probably still run properly. He saw something silver hanging from the handlebar. It was a chain with a small horse pendant on it and he knew that it was Evelyn's. He pocketed it carefully and told himself that he'd give it to her when he saw her again, if he ever saw her again.
Evelyn walked towards Sirius with a lump in her throat. The words her mother had said about Evelyn being distracted by him were rolling around her head. Evelyn had been thinking it but now that the words had been spoken, they floated in the atmosphere, forcing Evelyn to make a decision. It was as if a switch had been flipped, how quickly the things that had made Sirius charming or mysterious were suddenly foreign and disturbing. Maybe she was better off without him. He came swimming into view, bent over his bike, the setting sun reflected off him and he seemed to shine.
The lump in Evelyn's throat disappeared. She paused and her lungs seemed to deflate, losing all oxygen. She couldn't do it. She couldn't break things off with him. Why had she listened to her mother. Why had she let the things her mother said creep under her skin? Tears swam in Evelyn's eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. She had never had so many conflicting emotions, so much inner-turmoil and she knew she couldn't handle much more.
Sirius looked up to see Evelyn standing there with tears in her eyes, her hair a mess, and one knee of her jeans was torn open. He dropped the parchment he had been rereading onto the bike which lay forgotten and broken at his feet, he jumped over it and rushed towards Evelyn then he paused, hesitating. Why was she looking at him like that?
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"No," Evelyn answered honestly. "I'm here because I was going to tell you that I can't see you anymore. That this," She said, gesturing to him and the damaged bike, '"is over."
"Oh," Sirius said unable to look at her.
"But then I walked over here and you're you and you look like that and I can't." Evelyn took a deep breath. "I can't do it. I don't want to. I don't care what my mum says and I don't care about accidents...and...and I will not, can notdo it."
"So now what?" Sirius asked still not able to look at her.
Evelyn took a step forward, reaching her hand out and lightly grazing the wound on Sirius's arm. It wasn't deep nor was it bleeding anymore. Evelyn wiped away a few flecks of dried blood. Sirius finally looked at her as he flinched slightly from her touch.
"Now," She whispered. "Now we figure out what we're going to do,"
As she said this, her hand slid down his arm and into his hand. Sirius looked at their entwined fingers and was moving his gaze back towards his face when he saw something else, just beyond her, that made him drop her hand.
"Get out of here now. Leave!" Sirius said suddenly and urgently.
"What? You mean you don't want to work things out or-"
"Evelyn, please. Run. Leave." Sirius said, beginning to push her slightly, behind him, out of sight, anywhere but here.
"What are you doing?" Evelyn asked angrily. She was infuriated at the way he was pushing her and annoyed at his lack of explanation.
"Protecting you. Please, just-"
"Protecting me?" Evelyn asked with a raised voice. "From what? I'm perfectly capable of-"
"I know you can protect yourself," Sirius roared. Normally her stubborn bravery was endearing but not now. "But there's a time and a place for-" He glanced towards the figures approaching again.
"What do you keep looking at?" Evelyn asked in irritation. She looked and saw a woman, both beautiful and terrifying, followed closely by a teenager who looked a lot like Sirius, and was wearing the same worried expression as him.
"Who are they?" Evelyn asked, suddenly aware of how tense and nervous Sirius was.
"Go. Please," Sirius croaked as Evelyn gazed at him steadily. She seemed to understand finally but as soon as she did, the woman said:
"Hello cousin." She was now right next to them. "Why you're bleeding. You aren't so weak that a little muggle did this to you, are you?" She sneered.
Sirius tried to match the haughty tone of his relative: "No muggle could touch me."
"Not even this one?" Bellatrix asked moving increasingly closer to Evelyn. "According to your brother, there was a lot of touching." On the last word, Bellatrix extended a finger and ran it across Evelyn's cheek. Evelyn flinched away from her touch and said:
"Don't you dare lay a finger on me!"
Bellatrix let out an awful laugh: "The muggle speaks to me as if we're equals!"
"Stop calling me that!" Evelyn said facing Bellatrix, standing tall but still smaller then the other woman.
"Sirius, she's brave!" Bellatrix said in mock admiration.
Sirius's attention had been momentarily diverted. He had been staring at Regulus after Bellatrix mentioned "brother." Sirius's angry incredulous stare was challenged by Regulus's unreadable face, his eyes never quite reaching Sirius's eyes. Sirius could not believe that of all people, his brother was the one who had caused all this. The boy was a fool but now Sirius focused on his cousin. She had taken out her wand.
"Well let's see how brave she is against this."
Before Sirius could say anything, Regulus croaked out: "No!"
Bellatrix turned to him in surprise and said: "No?"
"No," His voice was shaking and full of uncertainty. He looked at Sirius and continued: "No, you shouldn't even bother wasting your time or energy on...on," Regulus looked at Evelyn for only a fraction of a second. "It." He concluded.
"You are aware that if your fool of a brother continues on this path, he will besmirch the Black family name. Unless you want little half-blood nieces and nephews."
During this exchange, Sirius and Evelyn had moved closer together. Sirius stood in front of her slightly with his hand grasping his pocket. He was in a state of great inner-turmoil. He couldn't use magic or else he'd get expelled. What was he going to do?
"What are they talking about?" Evelyn barely whispered from behind Sirius. She had no idea what they meant about half-bloods or muggles or why the wooden stick she was holding seemed to scare the two boys so much. Evelyn wondered why this woman seemed to hate her in the first place.
Regulus thought of an argument: "What Sirius does is his own decision. There are still plenty of us who uphold the honor of what it means to be a Black. And we shouldn't waste our honor on simple matters such as some useless muggle." His voice was haughty, he meant what he said. He didn't care for Muggles but that didn't mean that he wanted something horrible to happen to Evelyn. He shot a look to Sirius who seemed to understand that Regulus was trying to help the situation.
Sirius moved his hand that had been reaching for his wand back towards Evelyn and it grazed her wrist.
"Run," He breathed, suddenly reminded of the first night he saw Evelyn. He had been attacking the man and she had just stood there until he barked at her, thinking run.
Evelyn thought of this moment too. How she had been confronted by danger and had stood there stupidly but that dog had saved her and now there was Sirius. She backed slowly just a step or two, before turning around and sprinting. She hadn't made it very far before her legs seemed to turn into nothing beneath her and she fell hard. The woman was laughing, the hand with the stick outstretched towards her. Evelyn tried to stand but couldn't.
Sirius was picking himself up after being thrown back by Bellatrix when he had physically tried to stop her since he couldn't magically do so.
"Like she could get away! Sirius, you've spent too much with blood-traitors and muggles. You forget how much power magic gives you. Care for me to remind you?"
"No!" Sirius shouted.
"And what do you think, Muggle? Want to find out how much more power our magic gives us?"
"You're crazy. That doesn't make you powerful at all, that just makes you-" But before Evelyn could finish, the woman said: "Crucio" and Evelyn felt a pain beyond anything she could ever imagine. And she was falling to the ground but she was already on the ground and she thought she heard voices...The pain stopped but she still felt it throughout her body.
When she opened her eyes, Sirius was kneeling down beside her. Evelyn was disorientated, confused, weak.
"What's happening?" She asked. She looked at Bellatrix and just saw pure evil. "What is she?"
Bellatrix laughed her terrible laugh. "Yes Sirius. Tell her what I am. Tell her what you are. We have magic. Powerful magic of the purest sort. Magic that allows me to do this: Crucio!"
But Evelyn had been prepared for it this time. And though the pain was unbearable she stayed conscious, aware as the pain flowed through her, her mouth open in a scream, tears running down her face.
"STOP!" Sirius bellowed, his wand pointed at Bellatrix but still not using it.
"Afraid to use it in front of your little girlfriend? Scared to see how she'd react?"
Evelyn did not know what was happening but she did know that the stick the woman was holding was the cause to all the pain. And Sirius had one too. He was capable of doing the same thing. He could stop his cousin and he wasn't. She looked at him terrified and Sirius caught her eye. He knew she was scared of him.
Bellatrix aimed her wand at Evelyn yet again.
"Bellatrix, no." Regulus said. "If you kill her then things will just get sloppy." This was more then he could stand. It was the first time he had seen the Cruciatus Curse performed and it was just awful.
On the word "kill" Evelyn let out a little whimper. "Help me, Sirius." She breathed and with the little energy she had, she reached for his hand.
Sirius gave a curt nod, grasped her hand and said: "I won't let her hurt you anymore." He'd have to use his Animagus ability. Maybe it would startle Bellatrix and he could knock her down and break her wand. Just as he was about to, Bellatrix said:
"No, I won't kill her. I have a better idea. I'm just so touched by how much they seem to care about eachother. Imagine if one of them couldn't remember the other. Now I'll never see the muggle again so it won't nearly be as much fun to watch her pine over someone who doesn't even know her name. Which means," Bellatrix smiled a cruel smile and pointed her wand at Evelyn:
"OBLIVIATE!"
Evelyn's eyes slid out of focus and her mind went blank. An almost peaceful emptying. She felt nothing, she knew nothing.
"No." Sirius said staring at his cousin and then to Evelyn and then back again.
"Let's see. What she would erase and what should we keep? You never met this boy. You have no idea who he is. There is no Sirius Black." Evelyn's unfocused eyes were now looking at Bellatrix but they were blank, emotionless.
"Evelyn," Sirius pleaded and her eyes looked blankly at him. "Fight it. You can fight it."
"Who are you?" She asked in a dull voice.
"And what did Regulus say? You play some instrument? Not anymore. And you're no longer brave. In fact, you're passive, easily controlled, powerless just like all muggles. That's the person you are. Forget the person you were. And none of this ever happened."
Evelyn nodded with a stupid, simple grin on her face.
"Evelyn," Sirius croaked.
She looked at him and giggled: "How do you know my name?"
"Leave." Bellatrix said coldly. "Go home."
Evelyn stood up obediently but then looked around confused before choosing a direction and walking. It was the wrong one.
"Evelyn," Sirius said again and caught up with her reaching his arms out but she just looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"Sorry but what's your name?"
Sirius turned to Bellatrix and said: "Take it back. Put her right again."
"This has been a fun visit but I think it's time for me to leave. You were right, Regulus, killing her would have been sloppy. This was much more enjoyable. Thanks for the idea and tell your parents goodbye." And with that, she turned on the spot and disapparated.
Evelyn stared at the spot where the woman disappeared, her eyes still oddly blank. She shook her head and began to walk again, unsure of where she was going.
"This is all your fault!" Sirius said rounding on Regulus.
"I didn't know she was going to do that!"
"She's ruined." Sirius said his voice shaking.
"But, isn't it not so bad?"
"Not so bad?" Sirius growled. "She doesn't know who I am! She doesn't know who she is!"
"But she could have been murdered! Isn't this maybe for the best? It's not like she knew what you were. It couldn't have gone very much further."
Sirius shook his head in disbelief. He started towards Grimmauld place, one final hope in mind. His parents didn't approve but he was their son, wouldn't they help him if they could? If they saw how much this mattered to him?
"Mum!" Sirius panted as he stumbled into the front door. "You have to fix it."
"Fix what?" Mrs. Black asked stiffly, her eyes looking puffy and red.
"Bellatrix performed a memory charm on a muggle. You have to put her right, make her remember."
"I will do no such thing. I do not care for muggles or their memories," Mrs. Black said standing stiffly, looking affronted.
"Then do it for me." Sirius pleaded.
"For you? But you're a pureblood you shouldn't care either. Sirius, it is time you learned-"
'Learned what?" Sirius yelled. "That I hate the lot of you? That you don't give a damn about me or what I believe? That I'm leaving this place and never coming back? Because I've learned that already."
"Le-Leave?" Mrs. Black stuttered, her haughty composure suddenly broken.
"I'm running away and I'm not coming back. You'll never see me again."
"Run away? You'll be disowned, disinherited. I'll...take you off the family tree."
Sirius let out a bitter laugh: "Fine by me. I don't want to be a part of this awful family."
"You're choosing a muggle over your own family?" There was the unmistakeable sound of hurt in her voice.
Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "I don't have a muggle to choose anymore. And I don't have a family either since you won't help."
Sirius turned up the stairs and went to his room. He haphazardly threw some of his possessions into his school trunk. He went to stuff something into his pocket when he felt the outline of a thin silver chain. He took out Evelyn's bracelet and stared at it. He couldn't give it back to her, he couldn't stand seeing her like that. The way she had looked at him, terrified and worse yet, the way she had looked at him, not knowing who he was. She had never looked at him as a stranger before, even the first night they talked. He slipped the bracelet back into his pocket and with these thoughts in mind, he closed his trunk and marched out of the door, leaving his family forever.
Author's Note: Yes, I know I left with a terrible cliffhanger then took a couple of weeks to update. Sorry about that. But can you blame me? I was delaying putting off this chapter. So dear reader, do you hate me now? What do you think will happen next? Do you think there is a next? Let me know! And as always thank you ever so much for reading and reviewing!