A few hours later, Elizabeth was laying in her dormitory, reading a rather large book of deadly potions in preparation of her exam the next day. She didn't want to study in the common room as she knew Sirius would be there, and she wasn't in the mood to fight with him about Severus. Sighing heavily, she turned the dusty page, her eyes glazing over. She yawned, wondering what time it was, just as the dormitory door opened.
"Elizabeth?" Paige said, coming in with a smirk on her face. Rubbing her tired eyes, Elizabeth looked up from her book, hoping for an excuse to stop studying.
"What is it?"
"Sirius is downstairs and wants to talk to you," Paige said, throwing her backpack onto her bed and brushing her hair out of her face. "And, he's threatening to start firing Reductor spells up the staircase if you don't go down."
"I'd like to see that," Elizabeth snorted, returning to her book. She had already mastered three of the complicated potions that she was sure were going to come up on the exam; Draught of Peace, Strengthening Solution and Invigoration Draught, but she felt she should go over them, just in case.
"Add powdered moonstone until the potion turns green," she quietly read off the page. "Stir until the potion turns blue. Add powdered moonstone until the potion turns purple. Allow to simmer until the potion turns pink. Add syrup of hellebore until the potion –"
BOOM!
Elizabeth looked up from the book as smoke seeped in under the door.
"What was that?" she asked, getting up from the bed and opening the door, revealing the staircase with small pieces of rubble dropping down from the ceiling. There was a small hole in the brickwork with scorch marks surrounding it.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Sirius stuck to his word," Paige chuckled, just as a blue light flew like shrapnel into the wall, causing both girls to duck just in time. "Elizabeth, for both our sakes," Paige said, shaking rubble out of her hair, "just go and sort things out with your boyfriend."
Clenching her teeth, Elizabeth wrapped her dressing gown further round her and stormed down the staircase, ducking as two more blue lights soared past her. When she reached the common room, Sirius was stood waiting for her, his wand held up, a hopeful grin on his face.
"What do you want?" Elizabeth demanded and Sirius' smile faltered slightly.
"I wanted to apologise," he said slowly, lowering his wand.
"Have you apologised to Severus?" Elizabeth asked and Sirius paused, a guilty expression shooting across his face. "That means no."
"Beth, wait!" Sirius implored as Elizabeth started to turn back towards the staircase. "I really am sorry. James and I shouldn't have picked on Sna – your brother."
"Did he provoke you in anyway?" Elizabeth asked, putting her hands on her hips, already knowing the answer. Sirius didn't reply. "So you attacked him for no reason."
"Beth, you've got to understand," Sirius said, trying to take her hands, but Elizabeth pulled away, refusing to be charmed. "Listen, James and I are never going to get along with your brother. It's just never going to happen."
"That doesn't mean that you pick on him, does it?" Elizabeth said sharply. "I mean, Seraphina doesn't exactly like me at the minute, but you don't see her hexing me every chance she gets."
"Why doesn't Sera like you?" Sirius asked, his brow furrowing.
"Because of you," Elizabeth said impatiently, "and don't change the subject. I asked you to leave Severus alone, for me. I've already nearly been made to choose between you and Lily. Don't add my brother to the mix."
"Beth, I'm sorry," Sirius said earnestly, taking hold of her hands. "We shouldn't have done it, and from now on, you come first. I will only ever attack your brother if he starts a fight."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and Sirius smirked.
"Oh, come on," he said, pulling her close. "You can't expect me not to defend myself, can you?"
"Hmph."
Elizabeth turned around to see that Lily had approached them, her arms folded. She didn't look impressed.
"I see that you've managed to charm your way back into Lizzie's good books," she said to Sirius, her voice full of frost. "Severus didn't deserve what you did, Black."
"Oh, come on, Evans," Sirius said, astonished. "You're still defending him after what he called you. If he didn't deserve it when we started, he certainly did by the end."
"Sirius," Elizabeth warned, nipping his hand gently with her fingernail. Sirius glanced at her and sighed, holding his hands up in surrender.
"I'm not saying anything," he said grumpily, but he put his arm around Elizabeth again, squeezing her shoulder softly. Lily scowled again but before she could find something else to scold Sirius with, Mary Marshall came bounding up to them, an evil grin wide on her face.
"Hey, Evans," she smirked, prodding Lily in the arm. "Your freakish Slytherin friend is outside the portrait hole. He's all ready to camp outside unless you go and talk to him."
Lily furrowed her brow, her eyes darting over to the portrait hole.
"I see that both you and Severus have a liking for the dramatics when it comes to getting a girl's attention," Elizabeth hissed to Sirius and both she and Lily went to the portrait hole, opening it to reveal a very sorry looking Severus, his face shining with faded tears.
"I'm sorry," he said as the two girls climbed out.
"I'm not interested," Lily replied, folding her arms and scowling. She seemed to be doing that a lot recently.
"I'm sorry!"
"Save your breath," Lily sighed. "We only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."
"I was," Severus said, nodding his head vigorously. "I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just –"
"Slipped out?" Lily asked viciously. Severus looked shameful. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"
Elizabeth froze. Death Eaters? You-Know-Who? What exactly had Severus been up to? Without being in the same house, Elizabeth couldn't keep a close eye on her brother's activities, but even she didn't think that Severus would want to join You-Know-Who's followers.
Severus opened his mouth at Lily's accusation, but it was obviously true, as he didn't deny it.
"I can't pretend anymore," Lily said. "You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."
"No – listen, I didn't mean –"
"– to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"
Severus opened his mouth to retort but it seemed as though Lily had had enough. She gave him a scornful look and retreated back into the Gryffindor common room. Elizabeth glanced at her brother and saw that his face had fallen. She felt an obligation to try and explain Lily's anger.
"Severus, you can't blame her," she said, unfolding her arms. "What you did was –"
"Oh, just shut up, Lexi!" Severus snarled, his eyes still on the portrait of the Fat Lady.
Elizabeth blinked.
"Fine!" she snapped, giving up with trying to help him. She spun around and climbed back through the portrait hole, seething with anger. All she had ever done was try to help Severus and this was how he repaid her? Elizabeth stormed through the common room, kicking an empty table as she passed. Sirius was sat by the fire with James and looked up as the table clattered back to the ground.
"What did he do?" he asked, getting up and stopping her from running back to her bed. "What did Snape do?"
"What makes you think that Severus did anything?" Elizabeth asked defiantly, but she allowed Sirius to lead her to the sofa, which James very quickly vacated. She sat down very heavily on one of the cushions and bit her lip, resisting the very strong urge to shout back through the portrait hole.
"Beth, both you and Evans went to speak to your brother," Sirius said softly and Elizabeth smiled to herself, as the compassion in his voice was something only she was allowed to hear, "and both of you came back in here, full of anger. Now, that means you're either mad at each other or Snape, and I'm really hoping that it's the latter."
Elizabeth smirked slightly and sighed, glancing back towards the portrait hole.
"Lily has broken ties with him," she said quietly. "I mean, she won't tolerate you and James picking on him, and nor will I, but she's no longer friends with him."
Elizabeth swore she saw a look of triumph in Sirius' face, but a second later, the beautiful compassion returned to his eyes. He put an arm around her and kissed her softly, playing with her fingers.
"Beth, I know what it's like to not get along with your brother, remember?" he whispered in her ear and she nodded, closing her eyes as tiredness hit her like a brick.