Bejeweled

In the morning, Bellatrix borrowed a set of clothes from Lily and Remus helped her sneak back out of Gryffindor tower. He offered to walk her down to the Great Hall or even Slytherin, but she said she wanted a little time to herself, so he went back up to his dorm. 

He was not expecting what he walked back into. 

Sirius was pacing back and forth across the floor like he had a personal problem with it, storming one way and then back the other. James was almost pleading with him to just say what the hell was wrong, and Peter was sitting on his bed with the curtains half closed, almost hiding from the clearly distressed Padfoot. 

Remus raised an eyebrow. “What did I miss?” he asked cautiously. 

Three sets of eyes snapped to him, breaking the previous moment. After a beat, Sirius let out a loud groan and threw himself dramatically backwards onto his bed. “The worst thing possible!” he answered. 

“You’re worryin’ me, mate,” James frowned. “Last night you basically disappear, miss a whole party, and now this. What happened? Detention for life for fighting with Snape-“ Sirius practically flinched and let out a swear when heard the name, “or something?” 

“So it is something to do with Snape,” Remus gathered. 

“Yes!” Sirius huffed. “Yes it’s something to do with Severus fucking Snape! Happy?” 

Remus had to try not to groan this time. 

“What did you do?” James sighed. 

“I…” Sirius began. He stopped, took a deep breath, balled his fists and put them over tightly shut eyes, and then finally gritted out something none of them could understand. 

James, Remus, and Peter shared a confused look. 

“What was that?” James asked. 

“I bloody snogged him!” Sirius burst out, loud and clear, sitting straight up and holding his arms out to his sides. “What the fuck is wrong with me?!” 

The other three shared a very different look, one of completely bafflement. They couldn’t have heard him correctly that time either, right? 

“….you’re going to have to explain,” Remus said calmly. It was a fake calm, but he thought the tone was still what he was going for. 

“I don’t know! You saw me drag him out of the dance. Ended up in some classroom. We were arguing, really arguing, and then…we weren’t,” Sirius lost steam as he spoke, ending up laying back on his bed with his hands covering his eyes again, as if he couldn’t see then he couldn’t remember. 

No one said anything for a long moment, not knowing what to say. Sirius snogged Snape of all people? Not that Remus had a problem with him, but Sirius definitely did. Suddenly he and Bellatrix weren’t the strangest thing that had happened in the school the previous night. 

“Well,” James finally broke the silence, “do you want it to happen again?” he asked thoughtfully. 

“No!” Sirius burst out. Then added, quieter, “I don’t know. Maybe? I’ve lost my bloody mind.” 

“What happened afterwards? You two kissed and then what?” Remus asked. 

Sirius sighed, taking his hands off his eyes, but keeping them trained up at the ceiling. “We broke apart and both kinda…realized what had happened. So we just…ran. Or I did, I was closer to the door. I just ran up here and went to bed.” 

“So you didn’t say anything at all? Neither of you?” James followed up. 

“Nope, not a word,” Sirius answered. 

Remus nodded. “Then you’re probably good to pretend it never happened until you decide what you want to do for sure.” 

“And…if I decide…?” Sirius let the question linger, like he couldn’t bear to actually say the words out loud. 

“Then send him a note asking to discuss it somewhere privately,” Remus answered. “If he shows up, which isn’t a guarantee, just be honest.” 

“And charming,” Peter contributed. 

“Right, and charming,” Remus agreed. 

James laughed. “Well, would you look at that. Moony gets a girlfriend and suddenly he’s Mr. Romantic Advice.” 

Remus just rolled his eyes. 

~ 

When Bellatrix got back to her room, only one person was there and it wasn’t any of the girls from her year. Instead, Cissy was seated on Bella’s own bed, back ramrod straight, with a particular selection of belongings spread out next to her. Bella’s collection of muggle records. Accusation oozed from every detail of the tableau. 

“So what,” Narcissa’s tone was empty, “this is what you betrayed me for? This and that boy?” 

Bellatrix let out a sigh. “I didn’t betray you, Cissy. Nothing has to change. We can still be sisters, Mom and Dad never have to know.” 

“No!” Narcissa snapped. “This isn’t about them, this is about you and me. You promised me you’d never leave me, and now look what you’ve done!” 

“And I fully intend to keep my promise!” Bella insisted. “I’m not leaving you.” 

Narcissa scoffed. “No, just everything our entire family stands for.” 

“So? Do you really care that much about blood purity? So much that you’d disown me for not caring about it anymore?” 

“Don’t put this on me!” Narcissa stood up, one finger pointing at the ground. Bella thought she saw her sister’s body shaking. “You are the one doing this! You are the one that’s leaving me! Stop acting like we can just keep it to ourselves; like everything is going to be alright. It’s not! You and I both know damn well we can’t pretend like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.” 

“Mom and Dad won’t be a problem for long! It won’t matter. You can still marry Lucius and have your pureblood match. We can both live our lives how we want and still be sisters,” Bella pleaded, stepping towards Cissy. 

Narcissa tilted her head, leaning back almost imperceptibly. “What do you mean they won’t…” she trailed off for a moment, and then her eyes hardened even more. “What did you do?!” 

Bella drew herself to her full height, shoulders back. “What I had to. For all three of us.” 

Narcissa shook her head as angry tears sprang to her eyes that she held back. She looked like she wanted to say something and then decided against it before she simply marched past Bellatrix and out the door.