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

ca va (French) - I'm fine/ How are you

Mon ami (French) - my friend

Chapter 30: The Prisoner and her Guard

James glanced quickly at the Parch, he had sent Jude a message asking her how her evaluations went yesterday. She and his mum had been visiting with Alexandre Sabre's mother, Gabrielle, who happened to be one of the best healers in Europe, specialising in cognitive magic.

Whilst the healers at St Mungo's were helpful, Gabrielle was a specialist, and Jude had seasonal progress appointments with her for the past three years. She wanted to trial a new therapy, that she had made especially with Jude in mind, which is why Jude and his mum spent a week up in Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy. Charlus and Alexandre were doing a day trip to retrieve them today. The two men were quite excited to be making the trip up the muggle way, Alexandre being quite fond of cars, something Sirius too shared a passion for. Padfoot was beside himself in excitement at their impromptu driving lesson in Alexandre's silver convertible last night.

Though, you'd never say based on the scowl his best friend now sported.

"You're sure you said 4pm?" Remus asked Sirius cautiously. They were currently in Gare de Lyon, on the magical platform of the Parisian train station. Cecelia Devereaux was expected to arrive from Beauxbatons Academy today, the French school starting their spring vacation a week after Hogwarts. Moony had arrived magically an hour ago, using the international floo station upstairs.

"No, perhaps I said 4am!" Sirius snapped, clearly annoyed. Cecelia was forty-five minutes late.

"Maybe the train's just delayed." James added hopefully, glancing at Remus reassuringly. He didn't want Moony to get more upset than he already was. He and Aiza had broke up, Padfoot relaying the message she sent with them at the end of term, that she would keep his condition a secret but she just couldn't be with him. To add insult to injury, the next morning at breakfast, the witch was sat with Garrick Mulciber.

James could barely contain his disappointment, he didn't know what she saw in the troll, but he really thought Aiza loved Remus, and had encouraged his friend to go against his instincts and give her a chance. Clearly he was wrong to do so.

"Too bad about Wormy." James added, trying to ease the tension. Peter's mother decided against letting him join them in France, based on what happened over Christmas Break, she wasn't exactly in a trusting mood.

"My parents weren't too keen either. I mean, obviously they trust your parents, it's just not the best time to be travelling."

"Probably better here than back home though." James countered, Voldemort had been careful not to do anything outside Great Britain as yet. His dad said it was because the dark lord didn't want to give any of the other countries a reason to join the fight when he hadn't officially gained enough traction on home soil, the ministry was still a stronghold against him, and so was Hogwarts. But his father thought this was precisely why they should get outside help, better to be proactive, and nip things in the bud before they got worst.

Sirius glanced at his pocket watch, and James exchanged raised brows with Remus. They had promised his father that they would head straight to the Sabres' Parisian apartment, which they had made a home base for their French vacation, after picking up Remus and Cece. Sirius and she were going to have an 'intimate' early dinner, and James had asked if they could meet for drinks after, just the boys. His friend wasn't too pleased about this request, seeing as he probably wanted to keep his night open for his 'girlfriend', but James had to tell Remus and Sirius about Jude tonight. Afterall, when they woke up tomorrow morning she'd be with them. Anyway, Sirius had all weekend to spend with Cece…that's if the girl even showed up…

After another thirty minutes of waiting, James ruffled Sirius' hair, "How about we skip dinner, and just do drinks?"

Padfoot smiled, but his eyes were just not in it, "A man after my own heart. Can we take the Metro?"

James shook his head at his friend's fascination with muggle transport, "When in Paris!"

-x-x-x-

"Are you sure it's okay we have this, it looks expensive." Remus muttered, looking down at the bottle of firewhisky that James brought up from Alexandre's cellar.

"Alex said help ourselves to anything, right Baron?" James hiccupped, he had only had three bottles of butterbeer but it must be made stronger over the channel. He helped himself to another slice of pizza.

"Sure, what's the point in having the best alcohol if it just gathers dust on a shelf?" Padfoot gave Baron a side hug at his words, he was, unsurprisingly, a very physically affectionate drunk.

"Man, I love the French. Except the women, your women, they're bleeding dementors, they suck the soul right out of you."

The French boy laughed, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, "Ah but then they are so very good at that."

James had to think for a moment as to what Baron meant, and it seemed all the British boys got the joke at the same time and burst out laughing.

The large fireplace glowed a brilliant green and a redhead boy jumped out, "Baron, ca va?"

"Ca va, ca va, Ant!" Baron straightened off the sofa he had been lounging on, "This is Sirius, Remus, James. This is Antoine, mon ami, and we work together!"

"Another auror in training! You definitely need some of this then." Padfoot had been busy pouring them generous amounts of firewhisky, and flicked his wand so that the glasses met their drinkers, "To…fickle females and immutable mates!"

James sighed, downing the glass of whisky, blinking rapidly so as to regain focus, the other boys chuckling at the look on his face. He especially missed Peter at times like these, he was clearly a light-weight in comparison to the others, it was nice to at least be better at handling his liquor than Wormy.

"So, will you lads be joining us tonight?" Antoine had poured himself another glass of firewhisky, clearly playing catch up, amusing himself by using the British term.

"Joining? For?" Padfoot asked eagerly.

"The Arc. I told you about it yesterday, remember your friend Camille mentioned she'd be there," Baron smirked at Sirius, "It's a big annual celebration we have to commemorate the wizards who fought in the Great War." He then snatched the again refilled glass away from Ant because this seamed to be adding fuel to what seemed to be a reckless fire that burned inside his friend.

"Celebrate them?' James asked, astonished, "My grandfather got into a load of trouble for speaking out in favour of helping muggles during the Great War when he was on the Wizengamot. Didn't the International Confederation ban wizard involvement in the end?"

Antoine shrugged, "Sure. But as you will soon see, there's one thing about making a rule, quite another about enforcing it, especially if it's some outside rule that makes no sense."

"Well, it isn't very fair if only some countries have wizard involvement and others didn't." Remus added neutrally, "We had to draw the line somewhere."

"Yes but that's saying a line can be drawn at all. What happens to ze non-magique world effects us, as much as what happens in our world effects them. Are they not our countrymen? If France is at war, we all are at war."

"But-" Remus began but Padfoot cut in,

"As interesting as this debate surely is, can we take it to the Arc?"

"Oh, but we're not meant to leave." James shook his head, "My dad asked us to stay in tonight since he and Alex are away." Also, he needed to tell the boys about Jude.

Remus nodded, while Padfoot frowned, he was in a careless mood, but James knew he had the utmost respect for his father.

"You're right." Sirius sighed, "Who needs distractingly pretty waitresses when I have," He glanced between Remus and James, "the lads!" He laughed, knocking glasses with Antoine who seem to fancy the Britishism.

"You know what, I'll stay too." Baron said, "Someone needs to keep you boys out of trouble."

"Baron!" Antoine groaned, "Lilou is in town, you have to come!"

"Lilou?" Sirius asked interestedly.

"Down!" Baron chided the dark boy, and Remus and James burst out laughing, the French boys not understanding how funny that was, "She's…not…on the market." A conflicted look graced Baron's face, he clearly wanted to see this Lilou, but also be a good host in his father's absence.

"You don't have to stay with us, we'll be fine. We're just hanging out here anyway." James didn't want Baron to miss seeing the girl he obviously fancied. James would hate if he missed a chance at spending time with Lily if they didn't see each other often after Hogwarts.

"How about a compromise!" Antoine slung a hand over his friend's shoulder, "We go for an hour, maybe two, you see Lilou, we see…everyone else." He chuckled, exchanging looks with Padfoot, James supposed these two were wands of the same tree. "Ah come on, it's the Arc! Remember last year…"

Baron, easily convinced by whatever happened last year, looked at James for input, who looked at Sirius and Remus, the boys sporting contrasting expressions on their faces. He thought to how miserable Padfoot had been all evening, he could do with some cheering up.

"Fine! But we have to get back before dad!" Maybe he'd have some time to pull them aside at this party and have a conversation about Jude.

Sirius ran to their room to fix his hair, whilst Remus shook his head, "You spoil him."

"Look if we don't take him for a walk before bed, he is just going to pee on the carpet." Moony failed to stifle his laughter while the French boys looked at them curiously, obviously guessing that this was a weird English joke since they didn't know about Sirius' ability to transform into a large dog at his leisure.

-x-x-x-

Aiza stared at the large portrait, taking in the stern features. The woman was striking, dark hair falling in tight ringlets about her pale face, eyes so black you couldn't tell where the pupils started. One could almost call her beautiful, but she had a face so expressionless the compliment would be wasted on her.

"Legend has it that she never once laughed." Aiza's body seized at the voice, she was hoping to get some privacy, so she had snuck out of the drawing room and had wandered off to a deserted corridor, which perhaps was not her smartest idea.

She sucked in a breath when she realised who it was, as he came to stand next to her. Aiza was merely a guest at this wedding, so impolite it may be of her sneaking away, but Rodolphus Lestrange was the groom, it was quite passed rude of him to be stepping away at his own celebration.

"Perhaps your great grandfather was not a very funny man."

Lestrange chuckled, his grey eyes steady on the portrait of his great grandmother, Cecelia Lestrange, "Undoubtedly. But, surely one should not rely on the marital bond to derive all of one's amusement."

Aiza refrained from rolling her eyes, the man was not even married a day but he was already joking about being 'amused' outside of his marriage. "Of course one could think that, when one has the privilege of being amused elsewhere. Some of us are not so lucky to be humoured by any but the keeper of our keys."

Aiza could feel Lestrange's eyes on her now, and she knew she was being much too chatty, "Hmmm. I wonder who has it worse then, the prison guard destined to always fall short, for how could one person deliver on being king, jester, advisor, chamberlain…knight in shining amor, or the prisoner destined to be well fed but never amused, well loved but never rich, well counselled but never satisfied."

"I concede a guard has his fare share of pressure, but surely this sad contest can only ever be won by the prisoner." Aiza had turned to Lestrange and he had done the same, weighing each other in a deep stare.

"Well, I suppose it very much depends on the prison in question, not everyone is so fortunate to have a key to allow the prospect of escape. And perhaps some prisons are so lovely one may never want to take flight from it."

Aiza narrowed her eyes, "I suspect, the two of us, destined to be on different sides of these bars, shall never agree."

Rodolphus grinned, "Au contraire Miss Shafiq, I quite agree with you on that."

"Well those are words that I never thought slip off your tongue, cousin." Aiza turned to find a girl around her age walk towards them. She was as tall as Aiza, but lanky where she herself was willowy, her dark hair falling in straight lines and her brown eyes bright. She smiled, and it made her plain face quite pretty, "I see you are admiring my namesake." She tilted her head at the portrait, and without taking her eyes off it as she spoke, "Rod, your wife is looking for you."

"And so my sentence begins." Rodolphus muttered, nodding his head at Aiza as he made his way back to the wedding party.

"You know they say she's never laughed before." Aiza sighed at the girl's comment, not wanting to be rude but not feeling like another tête-à-tête about the unsmiling woman. "Why would you name your child after someone like that?"

The girl, who she assumed was named Cecelia, had such a sad look on her face, that Aiza struggled to think of something that might shift her mood, "Well, there are perks to even that - you'll never get wrinkles."

Cecilia laughed, and it was a pleasant sound. Aiza found that she quite liked the girl, she was different to any of the others she was forced to interact with at the wedding - not that there were many. For reasons Garrick didn't know, Bellatrix and Rodolphus' wedding was brought forward. Garrick thought it might have to do with the rumours that Andromeda Black had run off with a muggle-born, that the Blacks' were working overtime keeping it a secret, and it was far safer to lock the Lestrange heir down before word got out.

"Who were you named after, Miss Shafiq, was it?"

Aiza just realised she hadn't introduced herself, "Aiza. And I wasn't named after anybody, my father's family came to Britain from the middle east about a century ago but they've kept the linguistic naming conventions. My father says its a name given to someone who is to yield respect, which is ironic coming from him."

She must have overindulged on champagne, this was the second stranger she was being loose tongued with.

"Ah, we must not be too harsh on our fathers. They are, after all, mere men." Cecelia joked, "Also, I think your name quite suits you."

Aiza offered a small smile to the compliment, and voiced a question she had when Cecelia mentioned being a cousin to the Lestranges, "I didn't know Roland Lestrange had any siblings?"

"He doesn't. Oh, you're wondering how Rod and I are cousins! Through his mother, and my own, they were cousins."

Aiza noticed the use of the word 'were', and she knew that Rhea Lestrange was unfortunately alive and well, so Cecelia's mother must be dead.

The girl walked down the corridor, staring at the many portraits, "Here she is. Mother."

Aiza followed her, stopping at a portrait of three women. They were almost like the Black sisters, in that they were so unalike. Aiza could make out Rhea Lestrange, she stood in the centre, her blonde hair in a stringent bun, much like the girl with jet black hair on her right, whilst the girl on her left wore her long, thick, bronze hair down. Aiza had been drawn to the woman on the left, even though she bordered the edge of the picture, Rhea clearly being the focus, but the woman was eye catching at every feature.

"That's her." Cecelia pointed to her mother, who was the black haired woman, "Vinda Rosier. Do you think we look much alike?"

Aiza tore her eyes away from the woman on the left to take in the features of Vinda Rosier. If Aiza was to be honest, her mother was much more beautiful than Cecelia, who looked a bit mouse-ish, whilst her mother was bold blue-green eyes with full lips. But, she suspected this was not the time for honesty, "Quite, you have her nose!"

Cecelia shrugged, perhaps seeing through the lie, "I suppose it's better I take after my dad. What he lacks in looks he more than makes up for in larks. I honestly don't even know how those two came to be." She sighed, "I suppose it's sort of like you and Mulciber."

Aiza wasn't expecting such a forthright turn of the conversation to her, and she bristled, and grew suspicious. How stupid of her to be so friendly with a perfect stranger, especially a Lestrange, even if not by name.

Aiza didn't respond, not wanting to comment on her 'relationship' with Garrick, it was a complete farce and he had stayed true to his word that it would only be for public graces so that Malfoy would be convinced that they were indeed together. Its why she had to accompany him to Bellatrix and Rodolphus' wedding all the way in France.

"I don't mean any offence. I just noticed that you're both quite different, but that's not a bad thing. I myself am seeing someone quite dissimilar to me, someone I didn't think I'd much fancy at first but have grown to be quite fond of." The girl smiled, lifting her features into prettiness once more, "Must be something special in that Highland water."

"Pardon?"

"Well, your Hogwarts boys are quite charismatic. The boys at Beauxbatons have their charms of course, and they're very physically appealing, but they lack the wit and mischief your British boys seem to have an endless supply of."

"Are you dating someone from Hogwarts, then?" Aiza couldn't help growing curious, she only knew of one Hogwarts boy that was dating a Beauxbatons girl and she'd thought Black would combust if he knew that his girlfriend was cousins with the Lestranges.

"Well I don't know if I'd call it dating, it's very new."

"And here's our clucking hens!" Aiza took a deep calming breath at the voice. There were few people that could get on her nerves quite like Rabastan Lestrange. The girls turned to find a group of boys walking down the corridor. She noticed the pale blonde hair and tried her best to ignore it. "Your cock was missing you." The boy said, passing a glance to Garrick who scowled at the boy, whilst Malfoy hit him upside the head.

"Apologies, ladies. It would appear that Rabastan needs a refresher course on etiquette along with the one on hygiene dear Rhea had to bestow upon him yesterday."

Cecelia laughed politely but Aiza couldn't make herself acknowledge Malfoy's words, Garrick had placed a reassuring arm about her shoulder. "Sorry I was gone longer than expected, I see you've kept yourself entertained." Garrick glanced at Cecelia, and Aiza nodded.

"Shall we retire for the night?" Aiza couldn't wait to get to their room, there was a rumour that the Dark Lord himself was at the wedding, thankfully this was just gossip. Aiza thought she'd feign illness if he did actually show up, but Garrick promised her that he wouldn't be at the ceremony. It would be astonishing if he were, surely he was too busy with his megalomaniacal schemes to attend such events.

Garrick's blue eyes dulled slightly and he stepped closer to Aiza so as to not be overheard, and she glanced at the rest of their party but they had been distracted by Cecelia, "I actually have to go out for a bit, with the boys. I'll probably be back late so don't worry about staying up."

She narrowed her eyes at him, not that she minded him going out with his friends, she preferred it if anything, having the room to herself for a few hours would be a kindness, but she didn't expect him to be put out to that extent, he was already sleeping on that terrible conjured bed.

"Well it doesn't have to be just the boys, Aiza should join. It's a party, I'm sure she'll like it!" Lucius clearly had only been pretending to talk to Cecelia, something Garrick must have been somewhat aware of seeing how he phrased his previous statement, even if he were overheard their cover would still be upheld.

"Yes!" Rabastan added, "Only change into something sluttier. Nothing attracts birds like other hot birds! Coming Cece?"

Cecelia shook her head, "I'm exhausted, I'm sure Aiza is too. You know we don't just wake up looking this good."

Aiza appreciated the girl's effort to help her get out of attending this party.

"Well I don't know about that, my favourite look is your bedhead. But I know you said you did have a bit of a headache, has that gotten better." Garrick innocently kissed her forehead in a show of affection and gave her a good excuse.

"Well that's what headache tonics are for." Lucius pushed. Aiza had to stop herself from glaring at him, why on earth was he forcing this.

"You lot ready?" Regulus Black had stepped into the corridor, followed by Rodolphus, who looked bored and unbothered.

He can't possibly also be going for this party? It was his wedding night.

"Aiza just needs a few minutes to change, and we can head out."

"Shafiq's coming?" Regulus' voice sounded a tad high pitch. He clearly didn't want Aiza at the party.

"Of course, what kind of doting girlfriend would send her lover off alone to such an event."

"Cissy isn't coming." Regulus' words landed more like a statement than a question but Lucius responded.

"Narcissa and I are nothing as tawdry as boyfriend and girlfriend, no offence." He glanced at Garrick who didn't respond, his blue eyes taking in one of the paintings as his hands got tighter about Aiza's shoulder.

Lucius had made it clear that Aiza should want to join, and if she didn't he doubted the legitimacy of their relationship. Which was ridiculous seeing as Aiza never minded Remus going out with just his guy friends, she trusted him completely, and any healthy relationship should have that, but clearly Lucius Malfoy had other definitions of what constitutes healthy.

"Oh stop with the pout, we'll be back in time for you to get all the beauty sleep you don't need." Lucius drawled at her and it sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine. Perhaps avoiding him for the past two days was not how to play this, he clearly wanted to see first hand just whether Garrick was telling the truth about them dating. This was all some horrible game to him.

She excused herself to change out of her evening gown, not entirely sure what kind of party they were going to and just choosing anything out of her trunk to throw on. When she had rejoined them, Bellatrix and Wilfreda Wilkes had joined their group.

Bellatrix gave Aiza an annoyed glance, "Who invited you?"

"I did, Bella. Play nice." Lucius playfully patted the top of Bellatrix's head and the girl looked close to hexing him.

This was so odd, who celebrates their wedding night going to a party with a bunch of your friends. If that had been Aiza and Remus' wedding, she'd have him in the bedroom as soon as the bonds were cast.

She didn't have much time to contemplate weird Snake habits, as it was already her turn to step into the fireplace. She glanced at Garrick, who gave her an apologetic look.

She sighed and stepped in, not at all excited at what was waiting for her on the other side.

A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Do let me know what you think of it!

Have a lovely week ahead!

Kalina