Fifth Year VI.
Angelina, Alicia, Rhea, Fred and George were walking up the stairs to their common room. They had just left the Great Hall after the feast. Katie was with her friends somewhere and Lee was searching for his tarantula because...well, it ran off. The twins wanted to tell the news to Ron immediately but Rhea convinced them not to. It was enough that she had the feeling that Lee's tarantula was watching her behind every corner.
"I can't wait to dig into my sweets." Alicia cheered, practically jumping up the stairs. It was unbelievable how they have just left the Great Hall with all the food imaginable and Alicia was already craving sweets. Angelina rolled her eyes. Not supporting Alicia's idea of getting a sugar rush this late.
"Don't eat too much of that. You know how that ends." The tall dark-skinned girl warned in an almost mother-like tone. The Prefect in her fully showing on the surface of her tough girl exterior.
"Keep your wig on ma. I know my sweets." Alicia dismissed causing Angelina to groan. Rhea just chuckled at her two friends. She was keeping especially close to girls these past few days. Just trying to maintain some distance between her and Fred ever since she figured out how she was feeling. She wasn't ready for anyone else to know. She even made Edmund promise that he wouldn't say a thing. Since she herself wasn't yet on terms with the newly labelled feelings.
"What's this about?" George asked. In front of the group, at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, a huge group formed. Students not moving inside like usual. Instead, they were standing there in the limited space. Just whispering to each other. Even the portraits looked quite disturbed.
"I think we're about to find out," Fred stated just as there was the voice of their older brother heard.
"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, as he tried to push his way through the crowd unsuccessfully. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password...excuse me, I'm Head Boy..." He stopped standing next to Rhea not being able to get further because everyone seemed to be ignoring him. The gasps and worried whispers were getting on Rhea's nerves. She wasn't as tall as other students. And jumping was just out of question in this small space. So she had only one option.
"MOVE IT!" For such a small girl she had a voice so loud and strong that the crowd in front of her parted almost immediately. A deafening silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. Everyone just staring, not knowing whether to be worried about the situation or that Rhea would kick their ass. "Thank you." She said much quieter and sweeter now. Walking to the front effortlessly.
"I want to be like that," Ginny muttered to herself watching Rhea with amazement. Taking note of every single movement the older girl made. What if she did something awesome again? Ginny needed to be prepared.
Fred and George snickered at bewildered expression of Percy. The poor lad could be trying all he wants and he still doesn't get his way.
"See that's how it's done Perce," Fred said teasingly between laughs. The oldest school attending Weasley just frowned and followed behind Rhea to the front. Rhea stood flabbergasted in front of the portrait. The issue was very noticeable. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor, great chunks of it had been torn away completely.
"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick." Percy ordered, luckily this time someone listened even without Rhea having to step in. A few short moments later Dumbledore arrived. He didn't spend much time observing the ruined portrait before turning to Professor McGonagall who also arrived at the scene along with Lupin and Snape.
"We need to find her," Dumbledore said. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady." Before Professor McGonagall could even as much as nod a new voice was added to the conversation.
"You'll be lucky!" a cackling voice sounded from over Rhea's head. It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry. And one of his favourite pass time activities was pulling on Rhea's hair for some reason. That's why she was holding onto her ponytail, trying to cover it from the Poltergeist. She even broke her promise to distance herself from Fred and went as far as covering next to him for protection. She hated when Peeves touched her hair. He always tangled them so it was almost impossible to unravel them.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked calmly, and for some reason, Peeves' grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead, he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.
"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said way too happily for saying such awful things. That Poltergeist really had no shame. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore's voice was quiet while she asked. Probably already had his suspicions but not wanting to alert the group of students that were waiting to see what was going to happen.
"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. His voice was definitely not as subtle as Dumbledore's so the whole mob of people could hear him. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."
Rhea's eyes widened. She felt like the name itself was haunting her for some reason. Always appearing right when she felt like her life was getting back on normal tracks. She was indeed sick of it. But it was about to get much worse.
***
Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused. Rhea's group of friends was standing by the wall, just trying to process the whole situation and not get in a fight with the Slytherins that were muttering about this whole being the fault of Gryffindors.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."
Fred rolled his eyes at the stuck-up attitude of his brother. He couldn't believe that he was left here closed in the Great Hall with Slytherins and with his older brother who had the privilege of bossing him around. Not that it ever did anything to Fred.
Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags. "Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him. The whole Great Hall was buzzing. Gryffindors explaining to the other houses what exactly happened.
"Uh, guys, Katie and I will be right back. I want to introduce her to Harvey O'Brien from Hufflepuff, save us some sleeping bags." She called over her shoulder while dragging Katie over to the group of Hufflepuff boys.
"Ugh, Ali, I don't want to." Rhea and Angelina just chuckled. This was an ordinary occurrence. Alicia for some reason set herself a goal to get Katie a boyfriend. And she has been introducing Katie to so many boys that the whole of Hogwarts must know the two by now. Not that they didn't know them before. Alicia was a part of the Quidditch team and just their group of friends was quite popular around the whole school.
"Hey ladies, could you grab a spot for us as well?" Fred asked. Mainly looking down at Rhea who was using all her might to not show a single emotion out of line when looking into those dazzling brown eyes.
"Why?" Angelina asked sassily, crossing her arms over her chest. George stepped towards them, leaning closer to whisper to them.
"Lee said he finally found his tarantula and that it was crawling in the direction where Ron is setting his sleeping bag so we are just waiting for the..."
"AHHHH!" Before George could finish his sentence a yell was heard from the other side of the hall. "Get it off! Get it off!" Rhea recognised the voice as Ron's spider voice. Unusually high pitched and frightened. Yes, he must have found the tarantula.
"All right you two go." Rhea dismissed the two twins who were looking like they were missing out on a lifetime opportunity. The two gingers were gone in a matter of seconds leaving Angelina and Rhea to grab all seven sleeping bags for their group. Once they dragged them towards their selected corner with a little stop where they almost killed one another when they were beating one another with the sleeping bags. With messed up hair and a good mood, they began to prepare their place for sleeping, until intruders decided to come over.
"Hey, Gryffindorks..." The two girls looked up from their work to see the two Slytherin girls. Their auburn hair was tied in high ponytails. Looking like clones standing next to each other. Antlia and Carina Frey. The most annoying girls that Rhea has ever met. Stuck up pureblood witches that think that they are better than everyone else just because of their family status. Black had already had one nasty encounter with them and was hoping that they learned their lesson. But it looks like they were just irremediably stupid.
The two girls despised Rhea just as much as she despised them. There was never a good relationship between them. Rhea was fed up with the twins always bullying everyone and the twins thought that Rhea was putting shame on the name Black since it used to be a strictly pureblooded family.
"How about you pick up your ruddy things and pack them up somewhere else?" Antlia asked with an ear-piercing high voice. Her voice could be compared to Peeves if it wasn't worse even.
"Why would we do that? We were here first." Angelina stated, looking at the two Slytherin girls with a serious expression.
"Well, we decided we want to be here so chop, chop," Carina said clapping her hands to get the two Gryffindors to move. Rhea decided to just stay quiet. Remembering her promise to McGonagall that she wouldn't start a fight with the two.
"You know since it's Black's fault all of this is happening," Antlia said. Rhea didn't even look at her, rather just stayed silent, setting up the sleeping bags. Knowing that if she would as much as spare a glance at the two they would provoke her into action. And that wouldn't end very well. "You not talking to us Black? What? Ashamed about daddy?" Rhea swallowed thickly. As if trying to gulp all the bitterness she felt towards the two identical girls. But she still had those few chosen words on the tip of her tongue just waiting for that nudge to trigger her to spit profanities. "Are you afraid he'll come here and get you?"
"Or maybe she is covering for him," Carina suggested getting both Slytherins to laugh loudly. It was a miracle that there wasn't a huge crowd around them already. So far everyone was more invested in setting their sleeping arrangements rather than watching petty fights.
"I think you two shouldn't be talking, given the history your family has," Angelina said warningly, trying to defend her friend. But Rhea was already past the line where she wanted to keep civil in the presence of the two spawns of evil.
"You two are not pretty enough to be this stupid, ladies," Rhea muttered finally turning towards the two girls that hid their offended faces behind matching smirks. Just so they won't show any weakness.
"Aw, why so hostile, Black? Did we hit the nerve there?" Antlia and Carina had one nasty habit. One that Fred and George also performed every single day. But coming from them it didn't sound quite as annoying. They talked simultaneously and finished each other sentences.
"Is daddy's little girl uneasy when we're talking about her psychotic father?" Rhea was ready to whip her wand out of her pocket. In her mind, she no longer cared that McGonagall would possibly leave her in detention for the rest of the year. She didn't even care if she would be expelled. All that mattered was getting the Frey twins to shut their ugly mouths up. But Angelina wasn't as careless. She held Rhea's hand down before she could even lift her wand.
"Rhea come on. Remember they are not worth it." Angelina told her, holding her hand down firmly. But Rhea was already in amok.
"One more word about my father and I'll..."
"You what? Start crying?" Antlia taunted loudly, gaining a few curious students' attention.
"Come on Black give us an excuse." Carina pulled out her wand, closely followed by her sister. The two wore confident smirks on their faces.
"Don't be fools you two," Angelina scoffed, not pleased to be seeing their wands pulled out. She was a Prefect this will just make her a bad name if her friend kills someone whilst duelling. Rhea chuckled darkly, shaking her head.
"Oh, they can't help it, Ange. It's a habit by now."
"Rhea!" Angelina scolded her friend.
"Scared Black?" Carina asked tilting her head to the side a teasing pout on her dark red lips. The shade of her dark lipstick glowed on her pale snow-like skin. It looked rather disgusting. But no one had enough nerve to tell her that.
"Want to run to your ginger goons for protection?" This was enough for Rhea to react she broke free from Angelina raising her wand in the air and pointing right at the face of the younger one of the twins. The girl went visibly pale all of a sudden when she noticed the raging fire in Rhea's eyes. Angelina had to pull the wand out of Rhea's hand so she wouldn't use it.
"Rhea stop, McGonagall told you not to duel on the school grounds." Angelina reminded her of the head of their house who certainly wouldn't be happy with the situation. Of course, she would have some sort of understanding towards her student but wouldn't let it slip past this time.
"Is she afraid little runt would get hurt?" Antlia gained all of a sudden all her confidence back. It was easy to be brave when there wasn't a wand pointed at your face. Rhea huffed in anger, trying to once again walk past Angelina who was blocking her way. The dark-skinned girl was doing everything she could to prevent the fight like a right prefect. It was quite surprising none of the other prefects or even the Head Boy and Head Girl didn't notice the argument yet.
"More like worried about you ending up in Hospital Wing." Rhea barked angrily, her usually pale eyes now dark and full of raw rage. "I could take you both down with my eyes closed and it still would be unfair to you." The twins seemed unfazed by the threat. Fully believing Angelina was capable of keeping Rhea from attacking them.
"Too bad we won't see that show. Since you are a coward." Carina said with a smirk. Antlia woke up and chose stupidity that day since she teasingly took a step closer. Stopping just a step away from Angelina. Her blue eyes stared straight at Rhea, a teasing smirk playing on her thin lips.
"Full of barks, no bites. Stupid worthless mutt." Antlia spat out insults one after the other and Rhea finally snapped. She pushed Angelina out of her way, not caring whether she had her wand or not as she stood in Antlia and punched her square in the face. A sickening crunch echoed through the whole Great Hall.
"Was that enough of a bite?" Rhea asked tauntingly. Taking so much satisfaction in watching the blood pour out of Antlia's nose. That was before Carina joined in on the fight pushing Rhea. A huge fight erupted. With screams and yells of pain as the three girls fought with each other.
"Bloody hell," Angelina muttered, feeling helpless in the situation since she wasn't able to stop it.
It wasn't too long into the fight when a huge crowd gathered around the fighting girls. Many people were enjoying it, first years being scared and Prefects not knowing what to do in the situation. Someone had sent for Percy a few minutes ago. The boy was never there when he was needed. Fred and George were just returning from teasing Ron. Poor lad almost got a heart attack when he got personally introduced to Lee's tarantula. They were trying to find their friends. Wondering where they had set their spot for the night.
"What's happening there?" Fred asked seeing the huge mob of people, chanting about something. Colin Creevey passed by them, in a rush to retrieve his camera. Probably wanting to capture the memorable moment.
"Hey, Colin...what's going on there?" George asked the younger boy who didn't even look back at them when answering in out of breath voice.
"Some girls are fighting." Both twins looked at one another, excited smiles attached to their lips as they hurried towards the commotion. Thanks to their height it was easy for them to see through the crowd but at first, it was hard to identify who was the main attraction there. It was just a blur of hair and screams.
"Who is fighting?" Fred asked, eager for some action finally. Until he noticed Rhea in the fight, pinning Antlia to the ground with her knee and pulling on Carina's hair. "Oh shit, we're fighting." He said quickly, pushing his way through the crowd and getting towards Rhea. He literally had to pry Rhea off of the girls. Holding the girl up in the air while she trashed in his arms trying to get back to beating the girls. She was clearly winning back there.
"Let me go!"
"No!"
"I want them to be sorry!"
"They already are a sorry excuse for witches so you have to calm down before you kill someone," Fred stated calmly, deciding to carry Rhea away from everyone at least until they clear out the field by taking the two girls away. Rhea was still trashing in his arms.
Saying how much she hated him for this. And how the girls deserved it. She was screaming and yelling. It was as if she was not even herself. Fred finally let her down when they were in the abandoned corner with no one else around in earshot. Rhea had a murderous look on her face when he finally released her. Long thin cuts from the long nails of the Frey girls. A little bruise was already forming on her jawline.
Fred couldn't help but frown at the state of her. She was still beautiful but the cuts and bruises truly weren't something that he wished to see on her. It was enough that they were always beaten up after the Quidditch games. And the glare she was sending him would have been intimidating if he was in the mood to joke about it. But now it was serious. If McGonagall or any other Professor would come and seen them fighting Rhea would have been expelled. And he couldn't have that.
"What was that about?" He asked sternly, looking straight into her eyes.
"That was none of your business," Rhea growled back, not averting her eyes from the intense stare battle that they seemed to start between each other. None of them blinked or avoided eye contact. Just waiting for who will break first.
"It very well was since it involved you," Fred stated simply, his brown eyes glued to her green ones.
"They were provoking me."
"What a fine reason to strike them with a punch." The ginger retorted, sarcasm practically dripping from his words. Rhea's eyes were burning from the intense staredown. She was sure to give in soon and Fred knew it. That's why he had a victorious smirk already attached to his lips. It was a mere second later that Rhea blinked with a groan. "I win." Fred cheered, straightening his posture.
"You didn't have to just pick me up and carry me away, you know?" Rhea asked, bummed after the loss.
"I act first and ask questions later." The tall ginger stated triumphantly, realising what he had said a few moments later. "But I would never punch anyone without thinking about it first." Rhea just huffed, hissing slightly when she touched one of the cuts on her face. He couldn't help but reach his arm over, taking her hand away from her own face and gently replacing her hand with his. Stroking caringly over the bruised skin of his best friend.
Even if the cuts were littering her delicate frame her skin still appeared so soft to the touch. As always it was icy due to Rhea's poor regulation, but never the less it was perfect. The time seemed to freeze as he just stared into her beautiful eyes that once again had a shade of light green with specks of grey in them. It seemed like a beautiful moment, one that caused butterflies to appear in Rhea's stomach. Her skin erupted with small fireworks everywhere Fred's hand came in contact with her.
"You know you're going to get in trouble for what happened," Fred said quietly whilst still caressing her delicate skin.
"Maybe no one will notice..." Rhea shrugged, not wanting to think about what might happen in the future especially now when she was enjoying the moment of pure bliss.
"Maybe..."
"MISS BLACK!" The roaring voice of Professor McGonagall shook the whole Great Hall. She must have arrived at the room noticing the quite beaten up Slytherins. Rhea hissed at the sound of her last name, running her tongue over her teeth in annoyance.
"Or not."