A/N: For those who are familiar with my work, please note that this story is the extended and full version of Sirius's life at Hogwarts that was described in bits and pieces in my other ongoing story titled, "Harry Potter: A Marauder's Tale." If you're new, thank you for checking this story out, it means a lot me :)
beaniebun: Thank you for your review and follow! You motivate me to keep writing! :)
Forbidden-Love-0776: Thank you for the follow :)
Chapter 2: Parlaying On Black
It felt like even the scoreboard was screaming at them to buck up because, it read Gryffindor - 20 : Slytherin - 170.
The Slytherins were doing it again; they were going hard and they were here with a vengeance! The Bludgers kept flying at her SO OFTEN that, Isabella was almost starting to doubt if, secretly, there were more than two of them being used in this match! The bloodshed in this match was so bad that, Brock Bletchley, the commentator from Ravenclaw, almost termed it as 'The Quidditch Pitch Massacre of 1975!'
Wiping her nose for the hundredth time, she shot after the Quaffle that Pollux Emberpike had thrown high up in the air.
"There he goes and she's falling for it AGAIN! When ever will Williams learn her lesson?!" Brock screamed into the mic.
"One more of that, and you'll never commentate, Bletchley!" came McGonagall's not-so-powerful threat.
Isabella shut the voices out, blew out a long breath and just went for it, believing entirely in herself. Through her peripheral vision, she could see the blood-stained Bludger hurtling after her - no surprise there!
Faster, faster, faster, she kept muttering to herself and zoomed after the red ball.
"Looks like she's going for it after all..." Brock muttered into the mic and the stands visibly held their breath. The Quaffle was racing towards the ground, but she was faster; she stretched her hand out and glanced at the Bludger on her left. In the blink of eye, she grabbed the Quaffle dived upwards, doing a semi-circle spin in the air and missing the Bludger by a whisker! An eruption broke out on the stands as every student that was not Slytherin jumped up to their feet and screamed their lungs out for Isabella to make the loop!
Fierce determination coursed through her body as she sped towards the Gryffindor side on a mission.
"Need a hand with that, sweetheart?!" jeered Radley Grayheart from her right and tried to bump into her, but she ducked and zig-zagged her way through the pitch, avoiding another burly Slytherin Chaser called Gareth Burke and hurtled past the Gryffindor stand.
"MAKE THE GOAL OR I WILL KILL YOU, WILLIAMS!" Lily screamed from the stands, automatically putting a smirk on her face.
"AND SCOOORE!" boomed Brock, making it look like it was the biggest victory in Hogwarts history; in reality though, the score still only was 30:170 so much so that, the Slytherins had practically stopped going after the Quaffle. They reckoned they could beat Gryffindors into submission if all six players, excluding the Seeker, took on the role of Beaters, perhaps!
"There's the Williams we saw earlier! THAT'S what she became famous for! Out-of-the-box flying technique, boys and girls!" yelled Brock, earning loud cheers and applause, mostly from the boys in the three House stands.
Isabella laughed loudly and waved at her friends in the stands before getting back into the game once again. Her eyes searched the skies and found that James had grabbed the Quaffle this time and was fighting off three burly Slytherins, one of them being Lucius Malfoy himself. She watched grudgingly as a second Bludger, hit by Sirius, fire towards the group and thrash Pollux neatly off of his broom, giving James more room to maneuver his way out of their trap.
"GO FOR IT JAMES, go, go, GOOO!" she screamed and raced after him as well, making sure to knock Flynn Abbott off balance as she did.
"WHY YOU HERE?!" yelled an agitated James.
"MORAL SUPPORT!" she yelled back, making him look at her in complete surprise before doubling up in laughter.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins as she and James flew side-by-side towards the goalpost and were almost three-quarters of the way there when a shrill whistle sounded through the grounds, making her heart stop beating in her chest. Shock and fear flashed across James's face too as the two of them swivelled around to see what had happened. A dead silence descended all around them too as the students themselves were unsure who caught the snitch when...
"CLARISSA GOODY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!" bellowed Brock and an outburst of screams drowned James and Isabella's shrieks of happiness! The stands had jumped to their feet again and were howling their throats off in this unexpected turn of events! Confetti flew all around them and, within seconds, James and Isabella were surrounded by their teammates, all rejoicing crazily at their victory. Isabella felt almost numb with excitement as she screamed and screamed and screamed in joy until her eyes watered.
"WE DID IT! WE DID IT! WE BEAT THOSE SLIMY ARSEHOLES!" yelled an almost tearful Thomas Walker and pulled James and Isabella into a tight hug.
"YES WE DID!" yelled back an ecstatic Isabella from under Thomas's embrace when the stands went "Williams! Williams! Williams!"
Before she could unwind herself from James and Thomas's heavy arms, however, the rest of the team joined them and, Sirius nearly jumped on top of James, his face permanently sporting the biggest smile Isabella had ever seen.
"We did it!" he shrieked right into James's face while Clarrisa and Oliver were busy losing their heads over the victory next to Isabella. "Oh, and, I made sure I screamed as many insults as I could possibly muster at those blockheads before I got here!" he grinned happily and looked eagerly at his teammates, as if that was somehow contributing towards national pride.
Everyone laughed and exchanged exasperated glances with each other, except James, who gasped for full measure. "You're the brother I never had!" he gushed, staring dreamily at Sirius's stupid grin and cracked up a little more than he should have; well, at least someone gets Sirius, eh?
The next several minutes was spent merely celebrating their victory with the mad crowd around them, most of them determined to stay on and rip their throats off only till werewolves came a-calling! In fact, more than the Gryffindors, it was the Ravenclaws who were jubilant at Slytherin's crush in today's match after their tragic loss two Sundays ago. Isabella, along with the rest of her team, took three victory laps around the large stadium, hi-fiving and fist-bumping students on their way. Before long, the euphoria touched a new level when, several students resorted to stealing brooms from the pitch basement and joining the team in the air, doing somersaults and 'wind-whipping' like deranged hooligans...
It was truly one of the best times she's had in all these five years at Hogwarts. Never before, was Isabella this famous or celebrated in this school till this second. In fact, not many had even cared for her as much till she ruined the Hufflepuffs last weekend with eight scores. And in all honesty, it felt mighty good to finally be noticed and respected at some level...
When Isabella had first come to Hogwarts, she was a chubby and bushy-haired girl, perhaps slightly too overweight for her age as well; as if that wasn't enough for her to get bullied in the corridors, she found it very difficult at first to keep up in her studies too, having been raised in a Muggle household all her life till that point. Alone and friendless and having to deal with extreme bullying at such a young age had made her retreat into a shell until her second year, when she and Lily became friends.
Lily. Bless her. Lily, Isabella realized, does not make friends fast; she takes her time to assess them, study them and get used to them before finally letting them inside her close ring. But, once she imprints on someone, there's no holding her back.
Smiling to herself, she saw her crazy friends jumping up and down in the stands and asking her to hurry up and meet them below already! Hugging Clarissa goodbye, she descended to the ground, still giddy from happiness.
"You know, a Snitch shouldn't be worth a hundred and fifty points, it's unfair!" someone called out, making her whirl around.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't feel so strongly had Abbott caught it first, I'm sure," she replied, raising an eyebrow at Lucius Malfoy, who leaned lazily at the entrance with his broom perched up, as if waiting for her. "I must say, though, that was nowhere near the 'Fair Game' station today," she said, jerking her head at the Quidditch pitch.
"You know how we are," he smiled, shrugging apologetically. Grinning to himself, he ambled towards her. "Good game," he said and put his hand out which she caught in a firm pound-shake.
"You too," she said, releasing his hand and fist-bumping it, grinning at his forlorn expression. She could tell that he was happy for her but was also heart-broken at their loss all at the same time. "So, what plans now? What do Slytherins usually do after losing a game, which, of course, is a very, very rare scenario?" she asked cheekily.
"Well, for starters, we exert all our energies in snarling and sneering at anything and everything till we get bored," he said, rolling his eyes as if that was the undeniable universal truth. "And then, we'd try and crash into the Gryffindor Common Room just to rile the boys up and get them to duel with us, perhaps," he guffawed, cracking up towards the end. Isabella laughed too as the two of them made their way out of the Quidditch pitch. "It's the only thing we know to do well, in all honesty," he mused sarcastically.
"Apparently!" laughed Isabella, making air quotes with her hands. "Anyway, if there really is going to be a gang war-ish duel in the dead of the night, I want in!" she grinned, skipping on the spot with excitement.
"Absolutely not," Lucius replied most solemnly. "How's your nose now, though? Is it still bleeding?" he asked, changing the subject effortlessly.
"It's not bleeding as much but, it's going to be a while before it's restored to full working condition, thanks to Emberpike!" she spat out, as anger seared through her veins instantly. She hated the Slytherin team, with the sole exception of Lucius. She and Lucius had been friends since third year when they shared a desk in Potions one day. Professor Slughorn had given the students the task of concocting the common remedial potion for scars and wounds and, Lucius had been so good at it that Isabella had asked him to teach it to her after class that same day. And they have been good friends ever since.
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow at DADA," she said, as she noticed her friends hopp-skip-jumping their way towards her.
Lucius merely nodded and gave her a cursory hug before adding, "And I sincerely hope Potter lands on his face, doing a mini stage-dive in your Common Room tonight," making her grin even more. Giving her one more long look, he winked and headed down towards the castle.
Still smiling, she turned around to see where her friends were, only to get knocked down to the ground as four VERY heavy bodies slammed into her, squealing and screaming like it's nobody's business.
...
"You know, I might not know much about Quidditch nor am I that drawn to it..."
"...you're the worst, Lily!" Mary exclaimed, baffled at the thought that someone could dislike Quidditch.
Lily rolled her eyes. "As I was saying, even for a person like me, I very much appreciated watching them BURN today!" she said, emphasizing on that word harder than Isabella ever knew was possible.
Isabella was lying down on her bed, while the rest of the girls got ready for the secret victory party that the Gryffindor Quidditch team was throwing in the Common Room in thirty minutes. Grinning broadly at Lily's angry red face, she winked at Alice and Claiborne, immediately alerting them. "You know, I think all of London would've heard you screaming bloody murder from the stands too?" she asked, making the rest of her dorm burst out laughing. "You should come and watch me play all the matches from now on! It's quite a pleasure having you on the stands!" she said, unable to hold her grin back.
"Yes, plus have you noticed just how clueless James gets every time she comes to watch?!" Claiborne Jones cooed, grinning pointedly in Isabella's direction.
Lily blushed a little, but continued to comb her dazzling red hair, pretending to not be a part of this discussion one bit.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all saw that, obviously!" Mary chimed in. "He scored all of, what, ten goals in the last match against the Puffs? And today, it was two! TWO!" she said and held two of her fingers right in front of Lily's face for emphasis.
"Mary, stop it!" she exclaimed, pushing her hand away from her nose while the rest of the dorm roared in laughter. "If he's that stupid, then I'd honestly merely worry for him, is all!" she said, shrugging vigorously and shredding her hair to pieces with her brush. "Secondly, I refuse to believe that he's in love with me just because he makes all those sly innuendos every now and then...!"
"...who said anything about 'love?'" Isabella cut in, looking around in fake surprise at the rest of the girls, making Lily blush even more.
"And THIRDLY!" Lily spat out, making her jump up in her bed, "why are you still in your Quidditch robes?! You need to change into something brilliant, come on!" she said, holding her by the hand and dragging her out of bed. "No, no, no, Lily, the team is throwing this party for all of you, me being in my robes in basically the point!" Isabella grumbled, but she knew this was an uphill battle that she'd never win.
"You're my best friend and I will not allow you to look like a slob in your own party!" she stressed and pushed her in front of the mirror while Claiborne, the prettiest and the daintiest of them all, took the liberty of rummaging through Isabella's trunk to look for a suitable outfit.
"I must say though, I quite ADORE muggles clothes!" she said, holding up one of her most favorite bottle green, silk blouses ever. It was nearly as short as a crop top that curved up on the sides and helps to accentuate her long legs, making her look taller. "And let me see... We're going to pair this with a pair of..." she said, still ripping her trunk apart until she found what she looking for, "black pant suits, yes! We have a winner!" she said, beaming at the rest of them.
"Excellent choice! And I have the perfect emerald-green earrings to go with that as well!" said Lily, smacking her hands excitedly.
"Finally! She's not a lost cause after all!" Mary sniggered and plopped down next to Isabella in front of the mirror too. "She's our Star Chaser and the boys would, very likely, be expecting quite a sight tonight!" she said, gazing dreamily at her friend, who found it very hard not to roll her eyes.
"That's almost near impossible..."
"Stop it, Izzy, you need to look the part!" Claiborne mock-chided, knowing fully well that she was treading dangerous territory right now. Isabella graced Claiborne with her most 'Oh-I-Am-SO-Going-To-Get-Back-At-You-For-That' look, making her laugh even more.
"When did the focus turn on me?!" Isabella asked, amazed at Lily's tact.
It took Isabella all of ten minutes to wash up, change, brush her long brown hair and stand by the door, waiting for her girlfriends to join her. Looking at herself in the mirror, she had to admit, she looked pretty good tonight.
...
Walking down the stairs towards the Common Room, Isabella realized that the party had already started and was going in full swing as other sixth and seventh year girls trudged back and forth from their dorms to the Common Room, sporting impressive outfits themselves. Her stomach did a little squirm as she neared the landing of the stairs while Lily and the rest of them trudged on confidently ahead of her.
An ear-splitting party raged on in the Common Room: Gryffindor House banners were sprawled across the walls, a red Quaffle stood on a pedestal in the center of the room, confetti flew everywhere, Butterbeer stalls lined one end of the room, loud Muggle music blared through the speakers and the students seemed to have gone berserk over the victory. James and Sirius were, predictably, at the epicenter of the party, pouring a bunch of boys a whole tub of Butterbeer. Looking around though, Isabella noticed that the rest of her team were still donning their Quidditch robes, making her want to kick herself for having let Lily talk her into changing!
"I told you so!" she growled in Lily's ear, which she merely waved off and as said, "I don't recall any of us chanting any of their names in today's match, so you're allowed!" she yelled back over the noise of the music. "Besides, why are you hiding behind me? Grow a pair and enjoy your party, Williams! We won because of you! Come now, dance with me!" she yelled and merely bobbed her head up and down howling, "Woo-Hoo! Woo-Hoo!" a little more enthusiastically than Isabella would have preferred, making her bury her face in her hands in embarrassment.
Exchanging a worried glance with Claiborne she announced, "And that's even before any Butterbeer has entered her system!" making Alice and Claiborne roar in Lily's direction. "Just another reason why our friend here is so precious!" said Mary and threw her arm around Lily's shoulder as the five of them made their way to the other end of the room where the couches were placed.
"OKAY, it's Oath-Taking time! Where's my team?!" howled a slightly tipsy Thomas. Lily raised her eyebrows at Isabella as if she couldn't be prouder while Mary and Alice raised their hands and bowed down to their Quidditch Queen, making her push them off grudgingly. Waving her friends goodbye, Isabella hopped over to the centre of the room as the rest of them arrived as well. A wave of excitement descended upon the Common Room as every House-mate present there eagerly jumped up and surrounded their heroes while they took their sacred oath match-after-match. Isabella could hardly keep herself from grinning broadly at how serious everyone takes this silly tradition of theirs. Clarissa, who stood next to her, seemed to share very similar emotions too; rolling her eyes at Sirius's solemn expression, she threw her hand around Isabella's shoulder and waited, while Thomas prepared his mental speech.
He solemnly put his hand out, and his team stacked their hands on top of his starting with James followed by Victor, Simon, Clarissa, Brian, Oliver, Isabella and (she didn't time this well at all!) Sirius. Sirius's hand slammed so hard on top of hers, she almost winced in pain, but he merely winked at her and chuckled mischievously before turning towards his Captain (Isabella suddenly was very aware of the warmth of Sirius's hand on hers, sending a weird kind of tingle in her stomach).
"Now, everyone knows I make terrible speeches..." Thomas hummed with his eyes still closed, already sparking laughter all around them, "but it is the House's tradition that generations of GREAT Captains have upheld to this day..."
"...all hail, Lycorus Avery!" yelled the handsome Ryan Evantrap, a sixth-year student, speaking of the former Gryffindor Captain and ex-Hogwarts student who had started this tradition six years ago.
"Hear, hear!" several students muttered, followed by a wave of grins resounded all around her.
"The seven of us walked on to the pitch today without the slightest clue that we shall embarrass ourselves THIS MUCH in front of the whole school," Thomas continued in his mystical voice, triggering a roar of laughter and applause from everyone, "but we're thick-skinned, and none of us give a rat's arse about our reputation as long as we simply win!" he said shrugging apologetically, inviting another round of loud cheers and applause from the students.
"Especially if it's against Slytherin!" growled Robert Mathews from the crowd, making several boys growl in admission, James, Oliver and Sirius included.
"Also, I wish to express how much I like Robert's line of thought here!" Thomas declared, pointing enthusiastically in his direction. "Get as shameless as you possibly can against Slytherin till the end of time, people, because they are not WORTH IT!" he exclaimed, and Isabella burst out laughing. Several students around her had doubled up in peals of laughter at the fierce expression on Thomas's face.
"Best Captain ever!" said Sirius, thumping Thomas's back.
"And so, in conclusion, since I feel the effects of my Butterbeer wearing off, I pledge to the House of Gryffindor, that we shall try and not be such an embarrassment again for the rest of the season..."
"...but there's no telling with Gryffindor, SO WE TAKE THAT PLEDGE BACK!" howled James, causing the whole room to explode with laughter. Isabella was in splits so much that she almost collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach for full measure. From the corner of her eye, she saw Lily and the girls losing their heads over the speech too.
"Actually, Potter here, has a point!" guffawed Thomas, finally wiping the mock-solemn expression off of his face. "Anyway, I could not have asked for a better team, and I wish I get to captain the six of you till last breath here at Hogwarts!" he exclaimed, ending it on the most dramatic note ever. The team high-fived each other as per tradition before calling off the conference while the students went berserk with laughter, still reveling in their funny Captain's insane speech. Isabella, who was also laughing hard, wiped her eyes and got up to join her friends when she caught Lily's eye, who signalled to her to get them all Butterbeers before she got to them. Giving her a thumbs up, Isabella turned around and walked towards the stalls.
"Williams, right?" someone said, tapping her on the shoulder. She turned around and was surprised to see Ryan Evantrap standing there, smiling confidently down at her.
"Er, yes, hi!" she said, waving nervously back at him.
"Hi, I'm Ryan, a year above you," he said, giving his hand for her to shake.
"Yeah, I think pretty much everyone in this room would know you," she grinned back politely as he turned a slight shade of pink around the ears. "It's nice to finally be able to talk to you, though."
"Ah, no, the pleasure's entirely mine!" he laughed nervously, making her wonder why. "Er, anyway, I er... Just thought I'd say hi... to you, I mean... Thought we could... er... I hoped that we can be friends?" he asked, scratching the back of his head and looking at her expectantly.
"Um, sure, I'd like that very much..." she said, mildly surprised at the conversation. "So, I hope you're going to stick around a little while more?"
"I'm going to be here all night!" he laughed. "Anyway, er... It was nice talking to you..."
"Same here," she smiled and turned around to fill up a few mugs for her friends (from the corner of her eye, though, she thought she saw him smacking his own in frustration as he made his way back to where his friends sat).
"Hey, Evans!" she suddenly heard Sirius's voice boom out of nowhere, making her turn around. "Why don't you join James here in the party? He really misses you!" he called out cheekily and a whole bunch of boys wolf-whistled from around James (James blushed instantly, but looked expectantly over at Lily all the same).
Lily rolled her eyes at him. "We've discussed this, Black!" Isabella saw her yelling her response back to Sirius from the other side of the room. "I'm not taking you up the on offer until you confess about your feelings for Williams!" she raised eyebrow and flashed a smug smile making Sirius's face go blank temporarily. All the colour from Isabella's face drained as she watched this very public exchange of dialogue between Sirius and Lily. Sirius, for his part, couldn't believe that she had said that out loud in front of the entire gang as well.
A mingled look of surprise and shock washed over the faces of the boys around him as they roared even more loudly this time; James, who seemed MOST shocked at her statement, thumped him hard on the back and said, "Having them hots for the Star Chaser now, eh?" and the rest of the group cackled after him.
"What, NO! NOOO!" Sirius said, finding it difficult to find the right words. "Come on, James, HER?" he said, looking incredulously at James and the boys.
"Of course!" yelled Lily, teasingly. "Why else would you save the Quaffle that won today's match... Wait a minute, wasn't it scored by Isabella...?" she asked, her eyes twinkling. Sirius positively went red in the face now and ran his hand through his hair with a defensive grin.
"That was ju... That was nothing!" he said, smiling defensively at the boys who were looking expectantly in his direction, not buying a word of what he's saying. "Oh that's just great," he exclaimed, realizing how pointless his explanation was. "Honestly, Evans? Can't thank you enough for that, really," he said, giving her a playful death glare. "But if you must know," he said to the boys, who were now sniggering uncontrollably behind him, "I was just very emotional about this win against Slytherin! It's got NOTHING to do with Izzy...?!" he said, shaking his incredulously and scrunching up his eyebrows in pretend-disgust.
"Right, yeah of course," said James, trying very hard to keep a straight face. "You don't feel ANYTHING for 'Izzy' obviously!" said James, quite unable to control the facial muscles that were threatening to tear the skin right out of his skull.
Sirius hung his head in exasperation before playfully pushing James's face away from him. He grinned at the boys before saying, "James honestly, me and her? NEVER happening, why would you even think that?!" he said shaking his head in disgust. Still grinning, he turned around to get some more Butterbeer and stopped short in his tracks: Isabella stood there looking wide-eyed at him. Her face had lost all its color and she looked as white as a ghost as his remark slowly seeped through the pores of her brain.
The rest of the boys behind him burst out laughing while Sirius continued to gape back at her, his face growing paler and paler by the second. Isabella merely raised an eyebrow at him and bit her lip in an attempt to control herself.
"Nice, Sirius," she said, scathingly as hurt crossed her eyes. "I feel precious," she said blinking back tears before whipping around and dashing towards the dorms.
"Izzy, wait!" he called out and leaped in front to try and reach for her, but she jerked away from him and disappeared up the stairs.