A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Things were a bit crazy at my end. This will never happen again, I promise.
To all new Follows and Faves: Thank you for reading my story, it means the whole world to me :)
Also, I hope everyone's well. Things are crazy right now, but I am sure we will fight it off. Stay home, stay safe. LOTS of love.
Chapter 23: Shadow and Light
Unedited...
These were strange times when nothing made sense.
Starting with the fact that girls (INCLUDING THE RAVENCLAWS) were actually falling for Sirius's gagworthy 'I'm-one-half-of-the-Cursed-Pair-and-I-cannot-help-but-feel-only-YOU-can-truly-complete-me' line and agreeing to shack up with him at the drop of a hat.
Secondly, Isabella couldn't understand how Hogwarts was allowed to function so long without Dumbledore and MOST of its other important teachers despite being fully aware of a murderous mad wizard roaming the streets of London. To be fair, she got that this was the most legal action Hogwarts had faced since its inception and damage control was totally necessary, but IT STILL FAILED TO MAKE SENSE. Regulus, Isabella heard, was being represented and backed by Walburga herself, and everyone knows what would happen if Walburga asked for something, so some relief there...
Thirdly, the Magical world had been turned upside-down where everyone kept throwing out words like 'Haden' and 'Ruddy Stone' and 'Cursed Pair' and 'Woldorin' while never actually understanding what all those words really meant, leading to a slew of cooked-up stories and rumours, some even getting published in the Prophet.
And to nobody's surprise, ever since the 'vanish-and-miraculous-reappearance' of the five Gryffindor fifth-years, the atmosphere in the school had suddenly started to resemble the inside of a sputtering, billowing pressure cooker. Arguably, teachers had become awfully (and quite unreasonably) more suspicious of students missing from their seats during classes, even if they were legitimately just taking a leak! No one could loiter around empty corridors anymore simply because they wanted to, and every little interaction with the professors, whether in class or otherwise, always felt like an interrogation of the WORST kind.
"Oh, dear Merlin, what have we done?" grumbled Isabella, just as Professor Abolet took twenty points off Gryffindor just because she thought Alice and Isabella's simultaneous sneeze was code for 'let's-unleash-the-giant-squid-on-the-Slytherins-tonight'!
"Trust me, I regard ourselves mighty lucky considering I had expected them to throw us into Azkaban for what we pulled!" Lily offered shakily.
"Mighty lu — you know what, this was all YOUR fault!" Isabella said grinding her teeth for full measure. "This was all YOUR idea and now I've lost twenty points for Gryffindor for NO fault of mine, d'you know what Tom would do if he found out?!" Isabella wheezed only short of screaming.
"Wh — calm down, Iz, all we have to do is shove Clarissa under his nose! The bloke won't know what hit him!" quipped Mary, flicking her head enough to make her strawberry blonde curls bounce after her only to invite a, "Oh, ha ha, yes, that's an excellent plan, Mare, wonder why they haven't made you the Minister yet?" Isabella shot back with a fake gasp.
The four girls turned back to their shallow bowls, having had NO luck whatsoever at the ink scrying exercise that Abolet had laid down for the class. A torturous half hour later, and after having lost thirty more points for their extremely poor performance in class, the girls walked out determined to do better at DADA at least...
The days seemed to gallop by so quickly in these trying times only a bullet would seem to travel slower, and Isabella was royally falling behind. And now, with Lily back from the Hospital Wing, every tiny little slip during classes was so unnecessarily blown out of proportion (tipping a whole carton of crushed lizard brains when the instructions specifically read 'not a grain more than a pinch' just because of an innocent sneeze DOES NOT QUALIFY AS A 'DISASTER') so much so that she was left with a permanent, bone crushing migraine. And if this made Isabella's already miserable life a living hell, the icing on the cake would have to be the constant smell of rotting onions wafting through the air and following them wherever they went in the form of Snape.
As if having telepathically read her mind, Mary too discovers him at the same time and let out a low gasp. "Good Merlin, is Snape still tailing you?" she asked nudging Lily.
"Huh? What?" sputtered Lily, shaking herself awake and looking over her shoulder. Rolling her eyes long and wide, she let out a sigh. "Yes," replied Lily in a voice of determined calm, except her nose turned a ghastly red at the mention of his name.
"Lily, do you realise how creepy this looks?" said Mary, understandably sounding alarmed.
"What are you yelling at me for, Mare? He won't leave me alone no matter what I tell him!"
"Do you want me to deal with him?" she growled, already starting to fold up her sleeves.
"What, NO!" trilled Lily, distractedly running her fingers through her mane of red hair. "Look, Mare," she started before Mary could even open her mouth, "I know this might sound bollocks to all of you, but no one knows Sev like I do..." she said stopping dead in her tracks and fidgeting with the end of her robes. "He... He's actually a really nice person —"
"— Are you serious?" jumped in Alice, a murderous glare playing in her eyes.
"Yes! Look, I've been thinking a lot about what happened at the party and well, if he says he didn't intend for things to turn out the way it did, I'm going to have to believe him as his best friend."
Isabella's jaw dropped. "Lily, please don't do this..."
"No, Izzy! At least you must understand," Lily simply said and just for a brief second, their eyes locked. And in that instant she knew. She knew that Lily was nearly having an internal breakdown and she knew just how much her support in this matter meant to her. Of course Isabella understood. Lily couldn't exist without Severus by her side... It would render her whole life irrelevant. And even as Mary and Alice exchanged looks of absolute horror and judgment, Isabella nodded reassuringly and mutely slung her hand around Lily's neck, needing no words at all to let her that know she understood.
And that's how Lily and Severus went back to being friends again after she met him post-DADA.
...
With three more essays added to her already burgeoning homework situation, Isabella resignedly made her way to the Great Hall for dinner because she realised this would all be rendered pointless if she accidentally killed herself due to starvation. The second she plopped down next to Lily, however, two large hands grabbed her by the sides and shoved her sideways, making enough space for two large legs to swoop in and settle down.
"SIRIUS!" yelled Isabella and Lily at the same time, only to find him chuckling stupidly to himself.
When the girls continued to stare on looking unimpressed, however, Sirius finally decided to stop stuffing his face and address the problem. "What? D'you mind? I want to sit to beside good ol' Grumpy and you're kinda ruining it!" Sirius called out in Isabella's direction.
"I'm still not talking to you!" said Lily loudly, scowling hard up at him.
Sirius scoffed. "Ha, yeah! I like your confidence, but I also think you're WRONG!" he replied even more loudly, only to invite exasperated rolling-of-the-eyes from the onlookers.
At that moment, Isabella caught Claiborne's eye from across the table and instantaneously knew what she was trying to say: Lily was on the verge of breaking down again. Never before had Isabella seen Lily be this affected by a stupid boy (except Severus, of course) and never before had she watched Sirius try this hard to convince a girl; the idiot had hounded her non-stop for two weeks and counting! Stifling their smirks, the two girls mutely decided to focus on their own plate while leaving Sirius and Lily to battle this one out for themselves.
"You know what, Sirius, I don't have time for this..." huffed Lily and hurriedly stood up, seemingly willing to even abandon her food.
"And you think I do?" he called back indignantly.
"So why DO you do it?!" screamed Lily.
"BECAUSE —! Well, I just DO, alright?!" he roared back. "You know what, we're settling this tonight once and for all!" he said and without waiting for another second, he grabbed a petrified Lily by the hand and started to drag her towards the tiny antechamber behind the High Table.
Isabella and Claiborne exchanged excited-cum-horrified looks before jumping up from their seats and running after the struggling duo.
"Sirius, STOP IT!" shrieked Lily just as they watched Sirius knock open the door and flick his wand to bring the candles alive. "So, start talking!" he yelled, pushing her into the now dimly-lit room. "Honestly, what does it take to earn your damned forgiveness, eh?" they heard him howl back through the open door.
"Just leave me alone!" cried Lily and before they knew it, she had burst into tears then and there. "If I'm such a handful, why do you even WANT to be friends with me?!" she sobbed, her face matching the colour of her hair now.
Isabella immediately leaped forwards, but Claiborne held her back by her robe and mutely shook her head.
Lily's sudden meltdown seemed to have thrown Sirius completely off his game. Quite unsure what he needed to do next to make her stop crying, the six-footer merely stood there, gaping stupidly at the redhead. And sure enough, he whipped around at Isabella with a muted cry for help. What the fuck?! he mouthed desperately.
Just TALK to her, idiot! Isabella mouthed back violently.
Hyperventilating quite comically, Sirius put out a shaky hand. "Er... Look, Lily..." he began.
Isabella nodded enthusiastically. Very good! she mouthed, grinning widely. This was a golden moment in the history of Hogwarts.
Patting Lily clumsily on the head, Sirius tried to drown out the incessant sobs escaping from his grumpy friend with a weak, "Come on, now, nobody thinks you're a handful —"
"— Oh, yeah? Well, say that to Severus and James and we'll see what they say!" she hiccoughed even as a fat tear trickled down her face. "Both of them hate me —"
"— Well, then, they're both complete arse-fucks!" Sirius exclaimed.
Lily's eyes flew open in surprise, as she watched him fume on the spot all of a sudden.
"One is a total nutjob and the other is a bloody tosser if they don't realise you're all cuckoo only with the ones you give a damn about —"
"Wh —?! I don't 'give a damn' about Potter —!"
"— Yeah, keep saying that to yourself, Evans," he cut her in again. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," he spat out, pocketing his hands hotly. "Anyway, are we done with this stupid fight already?"
Lily looked outraged now. "You can't just... DEMAND me to...!" she sputtered. "Why do you even care so much whether we talk or not, Black?"
"Because I just DO, alright?" Sirius bellowed, finally silencing her. "We just have to be friends, AND THAT IS NOT A REQUEST, Evans!" he yelled, panting profusely. "But if you MUST know," he began before Lily could open her mouth and retaliate, "I have very few people who genuinely care about me and you're one of them," he said, looking her dead in the eye.
Isabella and Claiborne exchanged looks of pure shock, while Lily stood there, completely dumbfounded.
Lily, whose face glistening with tears now, looked up, her lips quivering. "But... You never apologise..." she said smiling and crying at the same time.
Sirius flushed an unidentified shade of red now. Battling internally about whether or not he wanted to embody the image of a 'softie', he tossed and turned around uncomfortably on the spot. "Absolutely..." he finally said, looking her dead in the eye. "You're the kind of person who will learn to walk on water for her friends, would save their life and be their worst nightmare at the same time, have more balls than James to call me a dickhead to my face WHILE fixing up tea to discuss exactly how I ended up being the dickhead in the first place..." he barked out and paused to take a breath. "Basically, you're my constant and practically the only person who can keep me grounded, Evans... I'd be completely lost without you..."
An unexplained emptiness filled up inside Isabella as she watched her childhood best friend beg Lily to take him back...
Lily, though, suddenly looked suspicious. "Oh, my god! I know what this is about...!" she began.
"— This has nothing to do with James, Lily!" he roared, nibbling on his bottom lip. "I'd want you in my life whether you agree to go out with James or not," he said and a dead silence followed that statement.
Lily's eyes had welled up again, only this time they were tears of joy. "You really mean that, don't you?" she asked before she could stop herself.
And stupidly enough, Isabella hoped not to hear his response, as a slow, painful lump formed in the pit of her throat...
Sirius, though, didn't reply immediately and simply stood there in silence for a moment. "I always fancied having a sister growing up, y'know?" he finally said, sounding nothing like his usual arsehole-self at all. Holding onto Claiborne for support, Isabella willed her tears away and watched Sirius finally grow up into a human with a beating heart.
Lily, for her part, was drowning in her own tears now. "Alright, fine," she finally said, pouting peevishly. "You're off the hook," she grinned through her tears, immediately bringing a teasing smile onto Sirius's face.
"Finally!" Sirius scoffed arrogantly, rolling his eyes long and wide, except it was way too evident that he was only trying to win his reputation back as the Bad Boy of Hogwarts. "Time to snog Potato-Face again then, eh?!" he guffawed, earning a playful slap to the side from Lily.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" Isabella called out even as Claiborne burst out laughing next to her.
And it took a second longer for Lily and Sirius to join in as well.
"So, are we cool?" Sirius asked Lily, sounding arrogant and nonchalant once again.
Grinning widely up at him she replied, "Most certainly," and took his hand in a firm handshake.
It was several minutes later, when the four of them were back at the long table that Isabella finally managed to look Sirius in the eye and say, "So erm..." she began, "That was nice, what you did back there," she said, beaming up at him, except it seemed to make him grin teasingly into her face.
"Well, I'd be a lot nicer to you, if that's what you were 'actually' wondering..." he chuckled silently, looking straight into her soul and making her turn a wild shade of crimson in the face.
She met his eyes with an unusual sense of confidence. "Really?" she asked coyly.
It was a whisper meant only for him.
Laughing for full measure now, he wrapped his hand around and drew her endearingly close to him. "Golly, you're mighty cute, you know that?" he hummed, making her blush even more.
Isabella, who had spent her share of diffidence for the day, scoffed dryly. "I've given you something to laugh about for a decade now, haven't I?" she said, shaking him off her whilst battling a burning in her chest.
"Are you kidding me?" Sirius sniggered teasingly, drawing even closer to her as she forlornly tried to look away. Forcing her face towards him with his hand, he held her in place and regarded her for a second. "You've given me the biggest compliment of my life, baby," he whisper-growled in her ear, sending a raw shiver up her spine.
...
Three days later, a sudden buzz had broken out around the castle and rumour had it that all the missing staff of Hogwarts, along with Regulus, would be returning to school around mid-day. And even if Isabella initially shrugged it off as a false alarm, a new announcement went up in the Great Hall during breakfast calling students of all Houses to assemble back here by one o'clock sharp for a 'feast' that had her second-guessing herself.
And sure enough, at a quarter to one, it was a sea of pointed black hats, as everyone flocked down to the marble staircase for the feast, and if everyone was being honest, to finally breathe a sigh of relief that Dumbledore would be back soon.
"Ah! There's my girl!" came the slow drawl of someone pushing right behind her and before she could even turn around to greet him, Lucius had pulled her into a tight bear hug from the back. Isabella, who was grinning from ear to ear, noticed Narcissa Black cast them dirty looks from two meters away and felt a guilty sense of pride that SHE too was able to get the ladies jealous. "You know what any of this is about?" he whispered in her ear, his hands still wrapped her waist.
"No clue, whatsoever, Lord Malfoy," she replied honestly. "And Lucius, are you sure you want to let the entire Snake population know you like spending time with a certain Lioness?!" she said, one hand pointing at herself and the other pointing at the herd of green spewing out of the circular entrance to the dungeons.
Giving his classmates a furtive look, he proceeded to whisper a very sarcastic, "Yeah, do I look like I care?" making her roar with laughter once again. "So, where's your girl tribe?" he asked casually.
"Oh, Clay was coming with Remus and Peter and Lily is right over there," she said pointing a little ahead of them, right when Ted Farley decided to sneer in his usual irascible way. "Oh, great! Now we're rubbing shoulders with these filthy Mudbloods?" he rasped, glaring specifically down at the tiny frame of Lily.
Lucius looked up at once and narrowed his eyes.
Isabella was stranded between Lucius and a bunch of Ravenclaws and was nowhere near Lily to take control of the situation which was why when Mulciber scoffed and said, "Like that's a problem! You can still make the most of it, y'know," and started massaging a pair of invisible melons in his hand, her jaw dropped to the floor in shock and indignation!
Several students who were watching Mulciber continue to molest himself broke into a roar of laughter, meanly pointing at a shocked Lily. It was evident that by now the whole school had heard about what had happened during Slughorn's party several weeks ago.
And just when Isabella thought Lily was going to bawl her eyes out for the second time that week, something amazing happened—she SLAPPED him! The sound of her hand crashing onto the side of his face was so loud that it rendered the whole Hall mute for a whole minute in surprise.
Shock and disbelief (and eventually anger) washed over the boys' faces as Lily stared them down as if ready to unleash the wolves on them!
"I will use my wand the next time," said Lily quietly, her face blazing like the sun, while Mulciber continued to glare down at her with murder in his eyes.
As if suddenly waking up from a reverie, the crowd snapped awake and broke out into loud murmurs once more and Isabella was forced into the Great Hall.
As soon she freed herself from the bone-crushing clutches of the mob, she hurried towards Lily (closely followed by Lucius) and nodded amazedly, her eyes still oozing respect and admiration for her best friend. "Exactly! EXACTLY how you deal with knobheads like him! I'm so proud of you, Lil!" she yelled, throwing her hand across her shoulder and giving her a good shake.
"There's the bitch!" called out Lisa Fawley, another HORRIBLE excuse of a witch from Slytherin, a year above them. "You make sure she pays by BLOOD for what she did to Sebastian, Malfoy!" she barked, still nursing the side of her boyfriend's face. In all honesty, it was quite nauseating to look at.
Lucius, though, merely graced her with a fantastic sneer. "Piss off, Fawley," he muttered. "Merlin, I hate my own kind," he added before ushering Lily and Isabella towards their own table.
"Er... What are you doing?" Isabella asked timidly, surveying the curious stares they were already garnering from the audience.
"Making sure you two make it back to your table safely," he replied curtly.
Lily and Isabella exchanged glances of awe. "Wow, pretty sure this is the FARTHEST a Snake has ever travelled in the history of the Great Hall!" joked Isabella as they crossed the Ravenclaws.
Lucius snorted. "Funnily enough, you might be right about that, Williams," he replied with a smirk as the three of them continued to push through the horde towards the other end of the hall. As soon as they saw Claiborne waving frantically at them from around the middle of the long table, Lucius nodded curtly and turned to face the girls. "Okay, I'm not saying he didn't deserve that. I'm just saying you might be in deep, deep trouble," he breathed angst-ridden, looking especially at Lily.
"Yeah, well, he can try what he wants —! Lily began hotly.
"— Trust me, you do not want that, Evans," Lucius spoke in his most solemn voice. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone, let alone you two," he muttered, looking very distracted. "Never wander off alone in the corridors for the next few months, mind you... Who knows what he's planning and whom he proposes to use to avenge himself," he continued to rant away under his breath. "Just remember, if you ever feel something's amiss going forward, if you feel even the slightest tinge of anxiety while you're within these walls, call me or anyone else around you that you trust, because Mulciber is vile like that... He preys on his targets in ghastly ways," he said, bringing a worried frown on Lily's face.
"Really?" Isabella asked, all of a sudden feeling a dread in the pit of her stomach. "Lue, you make it sound like we're in the midst of a murderer or something —"
Lucius scoffed. "Who knows? He might just be one... Bella, the Mulcibers are some of the most vile and hateful people to ever walk the earth and even Purebloods would think twice to stand up those foul creatures." But when he saw her gripped with immeasurable fear all of a sudden, he held her face and drew reassuringly close to her. "That's not to say you're unsafe when I'm around, obviously! All I'm saying is, from this second on, keep your eyes open, all the time," he muttered, looking deeply into her eyes.
And a strange kind of tingling was taking over her whole body like a storm, as she drowned entirely into his large, silver eyes.
She was so mesmerised in the moment, that she didn't even notice Lily blushing on the side for the pair of them.
"I'm just glad you two have each other," Lucius muttered, making her crash land back to earth once again, except, he had still broken eye-contact with her. Rubbing her face lightly, he gave her a grim shake of promise, before turning to smile at Lily, leaving Isabella melting in his wake. "Anyway, I better get back now," he said, his disquiet returning.
"Yes, the teachers seem to be settling in fast as well," Lily's voice drifted towards from under a well. "Go on, then. Also, thanks a million, Malfoy!"
Lucius grinned. "Don't worry about it," he smiled. "And I'll see you soon, yeah?" he added with a slight chuckle, and before Isabella even knew what was happening, time had slowed down to a near standstill as she saw him stoop down and close the distance between them entirely. Without a second thought, he had tilted her face upwards, blocking out the lights from the candles above and making her whole world spin nauseatingly on its side... She seemed to have no control over her body, almost as if she had surrendered to him and this moment all but completely... Because, before she could even process the weight of the sudden proximity between them, before she could even shake off the wild butterflies that had gone berserk in her stomach, before she could even steady the pounding in her chest, he had turned her face around and pressed a long, stomach-churning, bone-crushing, most breath-taking kiss on her cheek. A wave of arousal streaked through, as every sense within her seemed to have come alive and exploded through the pores of her skin, so much that, she almost wanted him to take her entirely into his world and kiss her giddy until she screams out in exhilaration
What Isabella didn't know, was that, the whole thing had happened in a flash of a second, and that he was already nodding at a practically melting Lily on the side. "S'long, then!" he announced cheerfully and, just like that, he had stormed off towards his own table on the other end of the large hall, leaving Isabella heaving for air and gaping after him.
"Oh my god, I need to sit down!" Lily squeaked, fanning her hot face and beaming at Isabella as if she was the luckiest girl alive to have a boy like Lucius as her friend. "Dunno about you, but I found that... supremely cute..." she yelped, except Isabella wasn't even listening to her anymore. She simply stood there, rooted and frozen on the spot, quite unable to comprehend everything that had happened — and everything she was feeling...
What was that about? she thought to herself as the two of them took their seats opposite Claiborne and the boys.
"Ah, young love..." murmured the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick, who had been watching the exchange mournfully from the sides. "What I'd do to feel the rush of blood in my veins again," he said, looking down at his own hands and making his head nearly roll of his neck.
Isabella scoffed. "For Merlin's sake, we're just friends!" she hissed his into face, before plopping down next to Lily still feeling an odd fluttering in her stomach.
The Great Hall was beautifully decorated with thousands and thousands of asphodel flowers hanging about the ceiling along with the floating candles while the sides of the high walls were lined with light pink streamers. Her mind was racing even as she sat, so much so that she missed witnessing the antechambers behind the High Table burst open followed by the trickling in of their absconding professors.
"Look, Dumbledore's back! Dumbledore's back!" Lily squealed while tugging at Isabella's hand, jerking her back to reality. "Oh, I missed him. Wonder what this is all about!" she continued even as Hagrid stood up to welcome back McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Slughorn and Dumbledore.
Excited chatter filled the room, with many students even craning their necks to get a better look at their teachers. Isabella's eyes immediately searched for Sirius and found him sitting among the seventh-years, chewing on his bottom lip as if he was nervous.
Dumbledore, as always, stood tall and was smiling ever so kindly while the rest of the teachers took their seats on their table.
The girls watched Dumbledore whisper something in Sprout's ear before straightening up one more time, making the buzz of chatter cease at once.
"So!" started Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "A feast in the middle of the year!" he said, holding his hands wide open and seeing each of them in the eye. "As rare as this may be, it was quite well-deserved, I must say, seeing as the staff of Hogwarts have won us all the legal battle against the Ministry. After an arduous five-week absence from the school, we have returned... with victory in our hands!" he smiled, and at once a light cheer went up from the student body. Isabella's eyes fell on the Slytherin table and found most of them simply rolling their eyes or mouthing profanities in Dumbledore's direction.
"There is a lot I would like to say to you all today, some of which would continue to get classified as an old wives' tale while others remain as true as an arrow to its aim." Everyone seemed to sit a bit straighter now, gripped by whatever Dumbledore was about reveal. "And if we were to start with the truth, it is this: that there is a new Dark Lord on the rise."
A frightful whisper swept the Great Hall. Even Isabella shivered slightly. Because as much as everyone was aware of it, the fact that it got put into words like this on a forum in front of thousands of children in a school made it seem somewhat more dangerous than what it really was. People were staring at each other in disbelief. Dumbledore, however, looked perfectly calm as he watched them mutter themselves into silence.
"Another fact is that, this Lord Voldemort —"
Another panicked murmur ripped through the hall at the mention of his name.
"— has a band of followers who are growing in numbers even as we speak. And this Dark Wizard cares about nothing but his rise to power... Even if it means using young children as his pawns to run his errands," Dumbledore's eyes were suddenly blazing. Isabella saw Sirius hang his head in angst at once and couldn't wait to hear the rest.
"Children as pure and innocent such as yourselves tend to believe anyone who tells you they care about you and thus, stand to be easily manipulated... Influenced and controlled to do bad things, the consequences of which young minds wouldn't even be aware of. The Dark Arts may excite some of you," he paused to look over at the Slytherin table just for a split second, "but the one who plays with fire ultimately would always be the one to end up getting burned. Which is why I would like to take this opportunity to ask each of you to believe in the Light no matter who tries to tell you otherwise, to have faith in the process even if it may inconvenience you in the short run and be reassured that no matter what, the Magical world will stay strong whatsoever, that truth will always triumph and that we do not, and will NEVER need, an autocrat—"
A rumble of gasps erupted from the other end of the hall and Isabella saw several Slytherins stir uncomfortably in their seats, shaking their heads vehemently at Dumbledore's ideas. Dumbledore, however, merely smiled.
"— There is an announcement about somebody else that all of you have seen less of in the past several weeks," Dumbledore continued, as if the growing unrest in the hall did not exist. "I wish to not get into the details but simply let you all know that Mr. Regulus Black was acquitted of all crimes and charges laid upon by the Ministry and will, starting Monday, resume school as per usual."
A loud cheer broke out across the hall with a couple of whistles and howls ensuing from the Slytherin table.
"As for the falsehoods, well," he spoke again, "the Four Hidden Kingdoms will continue to remain a myth —" Isabella and Lily exchanged awkward glances "— the supposed Founders' Heirlooms are a figment of imagination of an ol' wizard and we will never know if the Hadens existed at all," he smiled, his eyes twinkling brilliantly in the candlelight. "Which brings us to the legend of the Cursed Pair. As tempting as it would seem to believe in such a thing, I'm afraid, this too is a falsehood."
Isabella noticed several female heads from across Houses swivel around specifically to find Sirius in his corner on the Gryffindor table, making her snort internally.
Lightly clapping his hands he continued. "Now that all announcements are out of the way, I have just two words to say to you," Dumbledore said, smiling broadly at Sirius's red face, "Tuck in."
Lily swung her head towards Isabella sporting a rather shocked expression on her face. "Did Dumbledore just blatantly lie about everything?!" she whisper-yelled, making sure only the three of them could hear her.
"Of course! You don't want all hell to break loose, do you?" came Claiborne's voice of reason.
"But this is wrong!"
"That would have been wrong too!" Claiborne hissed back, silencing Lily entirely. "On the contrary, I'm shocked that he trusts us this much with this information, imagine the mayhem this could lead to if shared with the wrong lot!"
"Clay has a point," Isabella nodded, even as the table filled with mountains and mountains of food around them.
Lily still looked unconvinced. "This is not right."
"It's not wrong either, Lil," Claiborne said before attacking her food.
"So, er... Are you and Severus back to normal?" Isabella asked as she realised she had suddenly fallen quiet.
"Oh, yes, yes we are!" gushed Lily, beaming down at her friends. "He was so touched that I had finally decided to put it behind me and apologised and apologised for the whole thing. It broke my heart... I — I know you two don't think too much of him but —"
"— Lily, our opinion of him doesn't matter one bit!" Claiborne said fiercely. "We'd back you up no matter what you decide, so drop it, alright?"
"You're the best, Clay!" Lily said. "Anyway, I agreed to spend a whole afternoon with him this weekend so that we can catch up on everything that has happened these past few weeks. He has arranged for a picnic by the lake!" she announced happily. "It finally feels like we're back to how we used to be growing up in Spinner's End," she sighed, only, she didn't notice Isabella and Claiborne exchanging worried glances.
The feast was sumptuous; the hall echoed with talk, laughter, and the clatter of knives and forks—all was great except something had shifted in Isabella. She realised she kept glancing at the Slytherin table more often than usual and, for the first time ever, she almost always locked eyes with Lucius Malfoy.
...
The Gryffindor team's third and final match for the season was drawing close and Thomas was working the players extra hard. With Clarissa and Isabella not seeing eye-to-eye anymore, the entire team's game had taken huge hit and it worried Isabella a lot. It was clearly driving James and Thomas nuts to the point of going berserk and acting like headless monkeys on the field!
Sadly, there was no solace post practice as well. Because of Lily's stupid 'no-copying' rule, Isabella had given up sleep entirely and worked tirelessly well beyond three o'clock almost everyday — and she was ready to collapse.
Frustrated and exhausted beyond words, she threw her textbooks, parchments and quills into her backpack, stormed into the chilly evening and hiked up the grounds to the cosy little hut that stood in the midst of the pumpkin patch. One look at the thin smoke emanating from the chimney told her that Hagrid wasn't home yet. Huffing internally she walked up to brick house anyway, pushed open the door and flocked down his massive table. Something about the earthiness of the hut made her relax right away and put her recent musings behind her.
An hour or so later, she heard something huffing and puffing and padding its way up the hill on all fours. And before she knew it, the tiny head of an adorable black puppy hurrying towards her having picked up her scent.
"Fang!" she squealed, jumping up to her feet and scooping him up in her arms even as Fang tried to lick the skin off her face. "Aww, yes I missed you too, I missed you terribly too!" she cooed through gritted teeth. "Where's Hagrid? Should we go find Hagrid?" she asked him, still cuddling him in her hands.
"Wha'choo doin' here, Izzy?" growled Hagrid, smiling widely down at her.
"Hi, Hagrid!" she called back, settling back down in her chair with Fang on her lap. "Oh, nothing, I just wanted to be away from all the chaos just for a few hours. And also since I hadn't visited you in the longest time, I thought I might just pop in!" she said, even as he set down his massive tree-like spade. "I hope you don't mind..."
Hagrid waved her off with his large, dustbin-lid sized hands. "O' course! Yer welcome here anytime, yer know tha'!" he said, and immediately bustled around to make her some tea. "So tell me..." he said, placing the kettle between them and pouring her a whole jar of steaming hot tea. "Why are you really here...?" he asked, sitting back in his high-backed chair himself.
"What do you mean, I just told you —"
"— C'mon Izzy, yer have that frown on yer face and that ough' ter mean on'y one thing," he said, wagging an enormous finger at her while taking a swig off his bucket-sized cup. "Wha' is it this time? Is it Black all over again —"
"— What? No! It's not about him this time," she confessed, sinking back in her chair while Fang continued to slobber all over her. "Black and I have actually shaken it off, if you can believe it," she said rolling her eyes. "No, it's about Lucius —"
"— Malfoy?" growled Hagrid, looking alarmed at the very least. "Izzy, I've warned yer too many times abou' this boy —!"
"— HE DIDN'T ATTACK ME, HAGRID!" she howled hurriedly before Hagrid started imagining the worst.
Fang leapt off her lap and settled down by the fire, chewing on his bone.
Hagrid turned a brilliant shade of magenta and scowled petulantly at her before taking another massive gulp of tea. "Well, I'm ne'er trusting him around yer, that's fer sure," he declared, making her roll her eyes at him.
"He's one of my best friends, and I love him dearly... Except... Oh, well, I think I'm just overthinking this whole thing!" she exclaimed, rubbing her face in frustration.
Hagrid frowned suspiciously down at her. "Di' somethin' happen?" he asked, putting his tea pot down.
Sighing exasperatedly she decided to tell him even though it sounded really stupid now that she was putting them down in words. "He pecked my cheek the other day..." she said and flinched at how silly it sounded even to her.
Hagrid, however, chose to react in a whole other way. Shaking his shaggy head, he looked her down most unforgivingly. "I knew i'. 'Tis wha' I've bin tryna tell yer all along, Izzy. Yer don' know about them Purebloods, wha' they're capable of. Do yer even know wha' Abraxas Mafloy'd do if he found out —?"
"— Find out what? Nothing's even happened and nothing's probably EVER going to happen! For all you know, I've just eaten my own brain over nothing —!"
"No yer HAVEN'T!" he said stiffly, now looking like a giant grizzly bear.
Isabella sat back, chewing on her lips and hating the whole idea of taking this to Hagrid.
"'Tis unfortunate, I know. Purebloods and Muggle-borns shouldn' have ter stay away from each other like this, bu' it is wha' it is, Izzy... Them Purebloods can' be trusted," said Hagrid after a moment's silence. "The two o' you can never be friends in this day and age, tha's for sure."
"So, what do you suggest I do?"
"Don' trust him jus' yet. The Malfoys aren' the type ter be nice ter someone outside their kind unless they stand ter gain somethin' from it."
Isabella decided she wasn't going to argue with him any longer and dropped the topic entirely. She knew Lucius more than anyone and she trusted him with her whole life and Hagrid didn't need to know that.
The two of them chatted away well into the night until it was time to say goodbye.