Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter 24: From Calm into Chaos

The winds of the chilly spring evening raged through the stone tower room and Aiza fastened her cloak tighter about her neck, huffing in impatient annoyance for what seemed like the tenth time.

"You always were an impatient little minx." She spun around, a ready glare on her face at the voice, not even letting Garrick properly enter the room, which was inconveniently situated at the top of the Astronomy Tower. It was small, practically a glorified empty broom cupboard, and a popular make-out spot, which made Aiza all the more nervous that Garrick instructed her to meet him here. "Champagne?"

Aiza's brown eyes narrowed into a glare as Garrick conjured a bottle of champagne accompanied by two long stemmed glasses, as well as a tray of food which had two prepared plates atop it, his icy blue eyes danced with amusement as he poured her a glass and floated it over with a small flick of his wand, entertained by her discomfort, "Would you put the poor thing out of its misery and drink up."

She looked at the filled glass of golden fizz hovering at her shoulder and plucked it up, but rather than tilt it to her lips she instead tossed it across the room where it shattered with a pleasing smash.

Garrick's only response was an amused raised brow, "I'm a whisky man myself, but I recall you have quite a liking for-"

"Let's get one thing straight Garrick." She straightened her back and captured his icy stare as she cut him off, "You don't get to make demands on me anymore! Perhaps the last few months of constantly ignoring every single one of your letters has not been clear enough a message. Stay. Away." He smirked, leaning against the frame of the door silently. "And before you start making threats, save your breath because you have no hold on me anymore."

His jaw constricted the slightest nudge at that, and he straightened off the wall and Aiza tightened her grip on the wand in her pocket, "You told Lupin?"

His voice lost its previous aggravatingly humorous tone, and she couldn't help smirking at the small victory. "No, but I will tell him. Tonight. I'm telling him everything."

He was silent for three more heartbeats and then stepped back, gesturing for her to exit, "Well, don't let me keep you."

She remained still as a statue, choosing to refrain from movement rather than hover in indecision which she despised.

What was he playing at?

Was this some mind game? Was this his way of making her doubt her decision of telling Remus everything? She couldn't take it anymore, having Garrick around was like a ticking time bomb and she hated that he knew that he owned her. That he looked at her as if he could play her like a puppet, that anybody but Remus had some sort of claim on her.

Every time Garrick and Remus were in the same room Aiza felt as if her very skin was being peeled back and she was about to be exposed.

She never felt so insecure yet safe at the same time.

For as much as Garrick wanted to harm her, Remus would protect her…

Wouldn't he?

He was a forgiving man.

Wasn't he?

She took a small breath and walked briskly to the door; she was giving him exactly what he wanted.

Doubt.

And she was tired of being his puppet.

"It wasn't a demand."

She stopped at the exit, his voice soft yet his close proximity making it audible, "What?"

"The letter. Asking you here. Asking. It was a request."

She couldn't help letting out a disbelieving scoff, "Requesting? Since when do you request things of me?"

Aiza was unsure if he would answer but at the same time she didn't want to turn around and face him, but after a further moment of silence he spoke, "When I learnt the difference between wanting something, and needing something."

She turned, her hair whipping about behind her, "Is that what you think! You think that you need me…"

His eyes were downcast, staring at the golden liquid in the glass that he held limply within his right palm, "Do you remember when we first met?"

Her only answer was a glare, she didn't know why she didn't just walk out after the way he treated her, but something rooted her to the spot.

"Well, let me refresh your memory." He placed his glass down and held out his hand and she stared at it as if it might strike out and bite her like a snake, "I promise it's just a hand."

She bristled and folded her arms together in response and he smiled, letting his hand fall down, "Follow me."

He turned and stepped out, making his way into the main Tower room. It was large and circular, with three exits. One which was the stairs leading down to the rest of the castle, and the other two were the balconies. They had Astronomy class outside on the South facing balcony. The wind was harsher here and it blew her cloak open, but she didn't fasten it, walking with him to the North facing balcony.

He stopped a few steps away from the banister and Aiza had to steady herself so as to not get flustered by the wind. Garrick stayed close to her, but she didn't protest, for if he was the slightest bit further away she would not hear a word he said.

"There." He pointed off in the distance and she squinted, "Do you see that tree? Up on the hill?"

She did see it. Of course... She had completely forgotten.

"The Whomping Willow. It's fairly new, it wasn't here in my first year. It was late Autumn in your first year and you were rolling around in the fallen leaves."

Aiza's lips tightened; she remembered being mortified when Garrick caught her playing with leaves like a little jungle girl. In truth, she missed home terribly and lying there in the fallen leaves reminded her of lazy days looking up at the sky on their grounds at home.

She of course had no idea that she was lying underneath the Whomping Willow, and she might have been gravely injured if Garrick didn't pull her away just as the tree made its first attack. It caught him hard on the shoulder though and he still had the scar.

At times that scar was the only things that kept her sane… when they'd had to be intimate, she'd just stare at it and wonder where that boy was…

The boy who saved her rather than blackmailed and tortured her…

"If you're trying to remind me that I owe you a life debt, I'd like to remind you that I owe you no such thing. When the tree started moving, I was going to stand up and leave and if it hit me, I wouldn't have died, I would have been injured, so in truth you just-"

"That was the day I knew I wanted you."

Aiza stopped as his eyes were blue flames on her, that sickening exposed feeling washing over her and she felt colder than even the harsh winds allowed.

"I was only twelve and I knew it as much as I wanted a Zephyr 500 that Christmas, or that I wanted to play for the Tornadoes when I grew up. I wanted you one day."

"I'm not a broomstick Garrick. Or some childish ambition. I'm a person, a person you treated like…" Bile rose in her throat as she recalled the late-night owls demanding her presence, the instructions on how she dress, the lingerie he made her parade in… she shivered with disgust.

"I adored you."

Her eyes widened, "You blackmailed me."

"Only because I wanted you so badly. That I needed you, Aiza! That I loved you. I loved you for the longest time and that was the only way to get you to love me."

She stepped back, "Love? Garrick…that is not love!"

"I suppose you're an expert on the matter now. I see you with him, you know. I watch you. Smile and laugh and look at him in the way you should have looked at me."

Aiza had heard enough. She turned to leave but stopped when he gripped her hand. She pushed him off ferociously, "Do not touch me!"

He raised his hands quickly in a gesture of surrender, his dark hair sticking up as the wind ravaged both their scalps. "I was wrong. I know that now. I just didn't know how else to… how else to get you."

"To get me?" She shook her head, exasperated, "I'm not a thing Garrick." She felt as if she was talking to a child, repeating the same thing over and over again. "I only came here to tell you to leave me alone. Please. I'm with Remus."

He lowered his hands and his smirk fell, an air of utter seriousness falling across his face, "Lupin's no good for you."

"And you are?"

"At least you can be yourself when you're with me." He stepped closer and she stepped back, but he didn't raise his hands to stop her. "Things are changing. Times are changing. You run around with Lupin and his friends, stay over at the Potters, hang out with Evans and the sort… Aiza they're going to drag you into something that you don't want to be dragged into."

"You don't know what I want!"

"I know you better than you think I do. You don't want to fight."

She grit her teeth, he was right. She didn't want to fight. She hated Lord Voldemort and she disagreed with him gravely but… fighting…

She didn't plan on actively fighting him…

If things got worse the most sensible thing to do would be to leave…

"Nobody would force me to fight. My friends are very different to yours."

He scoffed, "If you don't fight, what would your precious Remus think of you?"

She hated that he could pull up her fears just like that. She knew Remus wouldn't run away, and she couldn't possibly leave him…

But she wasn't like Lily and Marlene… she wasn't a good duellist… if she walked into a fight, she'd walk to her death… would Remus be okay with that?

"You're overestimating the Dark Lord… Dumbledore will defeat him. This won't turn into some war."

"Oh Aiza." His face softened and she stepped back again, "It will. And you are no warrior."

Before she could defend herself, a cackle ripped through the air and she whipped around, frozen with shock at the cold voice.

"Stay here." Garrick muttered and entered the central circular room. He stood in the middle, his ears pricked for voices. It was probably just some couple, this place was a notorious make out spot, what with the small alcoves and hidden rooms, not to mention that Professor Akita placed silencing charms on his rooms downstairs so that he could sleep through the day undisturbed.

The cackle sounded again… that definitely was not a lover's giggle.

His blue eyes flickered to the corridor they had emerged from, and he walked towards it. She ignored his instruction and followed, further down the corridor to a larger room that students kept away from as it was the usual haunting spot of the Bloody Baron.

Nothing killed the mood like the sight of that pale apparition covered in blood and lamenting at the top of his lungs.

Aiza stopped at the entrance and gasped sighting just that, a pale figure, covered in blood… but it wasn't the Baron.

"Jude!" She screeched and rushed forward, her eyes taking in only the girl that was cowering on the floor, drenched from head to toe in the sticky red fluid. "Jude!"

The girl's eyes opened, a considerable effort considered the blood seemed to coat her like a second skin and Aiza fell to the floor in front of her, afraid to touch her, unsure where the bleeding was coming from… there was so much… so much… her stomach twisted…

"Oh, relax Shafiq, it's just pig's blood." She glanced up at the face of Rabastan Lestrange, he leaned against a wall near the door, his familiar smoking pipe hanging from his lips.

"Centaur blood actually. I don't know where you expect me to find a pig in the Dark Forest." Walden MacNair chirped from one corner in pride.

Bellatrix Black cackled, the sound that caught their attention earlier, she stood in the centre of the room, closest to Aiza and Jude.

Aiza rose to her feet, uncomfortable with the vulnerability her former position allowed, and glared at Bellatrix as she in turn glared at MacNair, "I told you to get me human blood."

MacNair's face fell, scared at upsetting Bellatrix, "Well… I asked at the Hogsmeade apothecary but you need a permission slip to get human blood and she looked at me right fishy knowing I'm a Hogwarts student and we don't use blood-"

"Then be inventive you damned idiot. There's a whole bloody school full of human blood." She sniffed and turned to Lestrange, "This proves nothing."

"What's going on?" Garrick who'd been a mere spectator for the past few moments took the pipe from Rabastan and leaned against the wall nonchalantly.

Rabastan smirked, his dark eyes brimming with amusement, "Well this is what happens when you spend your morning rolling around with naughty little Gryffindors and not paying attention to your best friends. Bella and I have bet, you see."

Garrick rolled his eyes, "When don't you two have a bet? What is it this time?"

"Well Bella's got it into her head that Devon here is a vampire."

"Half-vampire." Bellatrix rolled her eyes and nodded to the corner where Wilfreda Wilkes sat filing her nails with her wand. "Willie heard it from some Gryffindors herself."

"You're mental." Aiza's voice was raspy from the confusion, but at least she had reclaimed it from her stunned silence. She straightened her back as Bellatrix Black smiled at her. "Jude's not half-vampire."

"Isn't she?" Wilfreda Wilkes' nasally voice retorted, "Why'd you think she doesn't speak! It's to hide her fangs!"

"And dumping blood on her is going to prove she's a vampire…how?" Garrick questioned in a bored tone.

"It's supposed to drive her crazy with blood lust!" Rabastan laughed and Bellatrix shot a spell at his pipe, and it blew up.

"Laugh all you want, but we'll see whose laughing later on when I win. Walden." MacNair hastened forward at Bellatrix's command, pushing Aiza out of the way.

"What are you doing! Get away from her!" Aiza snapped but MacNair ignored her and gripped Jude by the arm and yanked her up. Aiza stepped forward, her fingers on her wand but what could she do?

She was surrounded by Snakes.

Walden took a flask out of his dirty shirt pocket and pushed it at Jude's lips and the girl rejected it, but the boy forced the neck of the flask passed her lips and tilted it back.

Bellatrix cackled as tears leaked from Jude's eyes and Aiza ran forward in a sudden surge of bravery, pushing MacNair to the floor and the silver flask fell with a clang, Jude following with, a foul smelling liquid spurting from her lips in gushes. She was on her knees coughing and Aiza conjured some water, "What did you give her!"

"Garlic juice." Bellatrix tilted her head and pondered at the slight girl, "Ha, she is having a reaction to it."

Rabastan pushed off the wall and sighed, "Have you ever seen anybody not react to garlic juice? Look, she's not breaking out or anything. She's not part-vampire. I win."

"Well not all part vampires are allergic to garlic juice." Wilfreda shrugged, "I think the only way to know is to see her teeth. She can't hide her fangs."

"She could with a glamour charm." Rabastan pondered and Bellatrix cackled once again.

"Look at her, if she was using a glamour charm her face wouldn't look so ghastly. I know how we can have a look see."

Bellatrix turned her wand on Jude and before Aiza could even part her lips to stop her, the red jet of light fell on the meagre girl, "Crucio."

And in one horrific second Jude was on her back, her eyes rolling to the back of her sockets as her whole body began to tremble…

In complete and utter silence…

"Stop it!" Aiza screamed, but all Bellatrix did was laugh.

"And who is going to make me?" Bellatrix cocked a brow at her, and Aiza's fist trembled over her wand.

She couldn't fight Bellatrix…

She wasn't strong enough…

The sound of brass on stone caught their attention and Sirius Black was suddenly framed in the entrance, his ink pot clanging across the floor as a half-written parchment fell from his left hand as a quill floated down from his right.

Aiza had never been so happy to see her fellow sixth year in her entire life and her heartbeat physically calmed as his dark eyes swept the room, landing on Jude in simmering calculation.

All was calm for two seconds.

And then it was chaos.

Aiza screamed and pulled Jude out of the way as a blast of red light aimed at Bellatrix soared to her, just as Sirius side stepped Walden MacNair's purple beamed attack.

"Leave him!" Bellatrix screeched and let the shield charm she had erected fall, with a saccharine smile, "He's mine." Her next spell was a thin silver streak that left a small crater in the wall that Sirius was in front of not a moment ago, the boy had dropped to the floor to deflect it.

"Get out of here!" He shouted as he tossed his next curse and Aiza didn't have to be told twice.

"Come on!" Aiza dragged Jude to her feet and plastered herself against the wall just as Walden MacNair stepped into her path.

"Uh huh. Not so fa-"He's brutish face glazed over and suddenly he folded to the floor unconscious. Aiza glanced around and caught Garrick's blue-eyed stare, he winked inconspicuously and gestured with the most microscopic of notions to the exit.

Yet again not needing any further persuasion, Aiza pulled Jude and ran for the exit, pushing through just as Wilfreda Wilkes shot after them. Aiza sped up, not wanting to fight the Snakes but Jude was wriggling against her hold, she appeared to want to go back. "Jude, stop! We have to get out of here!"

When Wilfreda caught up to them in the central circular room, Aiza reacted in a surprising way and flung her fist into the girl's face.

"What the fuck!" Wilfreda moaned, "What'd you do that for! Just get out of the way so I can get out of here before those two kill each other and everyone around them."

Aiza stiffened… so Wilfreda wasn't following them to attack?

Oh well the tramp deserved it anyway.

Wilfreda pushed past them just as Jude slipped out of Aiza's hold and made for the direction of the duel.

"What are you doing!" Aiza shouted and grabbed the girl uncomfortably about her bloody shoulder, Godric the stench of blood and garlic only just hit her. Jude however ignored her and made to go pass but Aiza stood her ground, easy to do considering she was much stronger than the slight girl.

Aiza felt something push at her back and turned to find a huge protégo charm erected in front of them, the purple spell from Bellatrix's wand rebounding off it and smirching the opposite wall. The duel had left the smaller room and entered the central room, Bellatrix took advantage of Sirius' distraction with protecting them with a shield charm and shot a yellow jet that had him yelp in pain and clutch his right shoulder.

Jude dashed forward but Sirius' eyes were dark and commanding, "GET OUT! NOW!"

The girl didn't listen and ran towards him, just as the shield charm faded and Aiza watched as Bellatrix recast the purple spell and it headed straight for Jude. Aiza acted on instinct and pushed the girl out of its way but unfortunately the spell caught Aiza on her abdomen.

Aiza patted at her stomach as she doubled over, it was like there was a searing fire but no flames, the shocked feminine scream drew her attention from her own pain though as Bellatrix Black was tossed ten feet into the air and flung right into the North facing balcony that she and Garrick stood on moments ago.

Sirius sped after Bellatrix, ready to get his counterattack just as Rabastan Lestrange raised his wand, but Aiza was paradoxically faster in her pain, "Expelliarmus!"

The wand whizzed out of his hand as the boy turned to her with an unreadable stare, and for a moment she thought he would come across the room and physically attack her and she straightened up, ready to defend herself, but he stayed where he was, staring at her in a way that grated on her very skin.

Jude dashed passed her towards the balcony and Aiza didn't stop her, more like couldn't stop her as the pain in her abdomen suddenly throbbed and she doubled over. Still clutching her side, she followed the slight girl out onto the balcony, "Jude-"

"GET OUT OF HERE AIZA!" She nodded at Sirius' instruction, just as his distraction yet again got him a deep cut, now on his chest, that seeped out like a scarlet map.

Aiza grabbed Jude's hand, they were hurting Sirius more by just being here, but a powerful vibration stopped her from latching onto the girl's wrist, as if a momentary invisible force seemed to push off the girl and before she knew it, Aiza was whipped into the air and hit the balcony wall in a deafening thud.

She groaned, now the pain emanating from her back and front, was that Jude?

Did Jude just attack her?

"Bella!" She groaned to her feet just as Rabastan and Garrick ran onto the balcony, but it wasn't them that had shouted the girl's name.

It was Sirius…

Sirius who was currently flat against the balustrade of the balcony, half his body hanging over in an unnatural way… and Bellatrix was nowhere to be seen.

Did… did… did the spell Jude use to push away Aiza off her, also push Bellatrix over the balcony?

Rabastan rushed forward just as Sirius took a great heave and fell backwards, Bellatrix flinging over the balustrade and falling on top of him with a thud.

One moment of sensory overload followed, where all Aiza could do was experience her pain, hear every one of their breathing, feel the sting of her own hair whipping her face in the strong wind and watch as Bellatrix Black lay atop Sirius in absolute stillness.

"Bella." Rabastan seemed to snap out of it and moved to the girl, but she straightened off of Sirius and was on her feet just as Rabastan now turned his attention to Sirius, who was still with his back on the floor.

Rabastan raised his wand.

"Stop." Bellatrix placed her hand atop the Snake's chest, "We should leave whilst we have the upper hand."

Rabastan looked as if he'd very much like to strike his wand down anyway, and Aiza was surprised that he had lowered it gently at the girl's request, just as Sirius straightened off the floor, "Upper hand?" He coughed out, "Jude kicked your arse and you call that the upper hand?"

Bellatrix turned and smirked at her cousin, "No, I call that attempted murder. So, you speak one word of this, and I'll have my father here so fast, that no amount of Dumbledore's muggle loving drivel will be able to convince the Board of Governors to allow that filth to stay on in this school." Bellatrix tossed her head at Jude in reference and Sirius' face blackened. "Daddy has so been waiting to come within cursing distance of you. Oh, and don't get me started on Aunt Walburga." She cackled, "Your father had to confiscate all her poisons, lest another one snuck its way into your porridge. Oops, I wasn't supposed to say anything about that botched first attempt. Regulus just got a bit chicken in the last minute, but don't worry." She turned and walked to the door, pulling Rabastan along with her, "I'm working on it. After all, one needs a chicken's egg to breed a Basilisk."

She turned, bent and picked up her wand which must have fallen down when Jude pushed her, and walked away, the rest of the Snakes following after. Aiza felt the pain in her abdomen pulse once again, but walked towards Sirius whose shirt was almost as bloody as Jude's.

Jude had reached him first and she watched as she stared at the blood-soaked shirt as if in a trance.

Sirius smirked, "No need to look so Sirius, just a scratch." He narrowed his eyes, perusing her person doubtfully, "Are you sure that's not your blood."

The girl didn't respond so Aiza made to answer but all that came out was a whimper, and Sirius' eyes snapped to her as he seemed to recall her existence, "Let me see."

Aiza let Sirius lift her shirt up and examine her abdomen, he touched the reddened skin, and she gasped in pain, "It's a very slight burn, but we better take you to the wing-"

"No!" Aiza pulled her shirt down, "No, if we go to the wing then they'll want to know what happened-"

"And we'll tell them." Sirius mopped a bit of sweat off his brow as he stared at her sternly, "They attacked Jude! We're going to Dumbledore."

"But Bellatrix just said-"

"You think I care for her threats! They can try and dump a vat of poison down my throat, but it won't make me shut up about this!"

"Then what about Jude!" Aiza shouted and pointed at the girl, "She'll get expelled. You know how much weight your family holds in the Board of Governors and Dumbledore will have little to no choice." Aiza was only partly worried about that, what she truly was worried about was explaining why she had been up here in the first place to Remus…

Well… she was just going to tell him the truth.

All the truth.

Her back ached and she clutched it, to be honest, she didn't quite fancy getting on the bad side of the Slytherins, and them telling Dumbledore was going to open an ugly battle between the two already rival houses.

"Come on Aiza." Sirius put an arm carefully about her and raised his hand before she can protest, "Relax, we won't tell Dumbledore about this. But don't think for a second that means that those bastards won't be punished for what they did. But I'm still taking you down to the Hospital Wing, don't worry about telling Pomfrey anything, she'll ask twice, and you don't answer, she won't ask a third. The burn is minor, an hour of paste will probably sort it out."

"What about Jude?" They glanced at the silent girl.

"I'll take care of her." Sirius pulled Aiza closer, and she let him take most of her weight. She didn't know how but she was suddenly exhausted and they walked away from the balcony.

Aiza had turned around and glanced to the spot Garrick had shown her in the distance, the Whomping Willow was dancing in the wind. She felt as if those very branches had wracked her body today, but this time there was no Garrick to save her.

This time there was no need for Garrick to save her.

She had her lions to do that now.

A/N: Hi Guys! So sorry about the long wait for the update, trust that I got to writing as soon as I possibly could. It's about my favourite part of the day, when I do get a chance to do so.

Anyway, I know I left you guys with a cliffie in the last chapter, and that will be explained in the next, which is written, just needs to be edited. This chapter coming before the Azura Carmichael explanation just makes sense, story flow wise.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed! Please drop a review, it makes my day : )

Have a good one,

Kalina