The Other Side: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter XL

“Sirius, slow down!” Lana shouted.

            “Why would I slow down?” he asked over his shoulder, “When you want to get somewhere, you want to get there fast, don’t you?”

            “Yes, but I am cursed with short legs, which kind of makes it difficult to keep up,” she said impatiently.

            He groaned and stopped at an archway, turned and waited for Lana and Cedric to reach him. He pointed his wand accusingly at Lana and said, “You’d best stop shouting before I put a Silencing Charm on you. You never know who could be listening.”

            As he turned on his heel and started down another corridor, she asked, “I thought you said the castle was deserted.”

            “I never said that,” he said, “I said that there weren’t any Death Eaters around; that doesn’t mean they won’t show up eventually.” The corridor led into a large courtyard with a stone fountain sitting in the center. Sirius slowed his pace and stopped at the fountain, staring at it as if it was part of a beautiful dream.

            “Sirius?” Lana asked, stepping up beside him. “You okay?”

            “I have so many memories of this place,” he said, his eyes slightly unfocused. “My friends and I… we would sit in this courtyard. Prongs—James—and I would talk, Moony—Remus—would read… and then there was that traitorous slime ball, Peter Pettigrew.” He spat the name with such venom that Lana shuddered. Cedric put his arm around her and she cuddled into him, feeling the heat radiate from his body.

            “Now, now, Siri,” said a high-pitched voice, “You know it’s not polite to talk about people behind their backs.”

            Lana looked at Sirius, who’d gone completely rigid. “Oddly enough, Bellatrix, he did the same to my closest friend… for some reason I don’t really feel obligated to do what’s 'polite' when I could be getting my revenge.”

            “Come now.” A woman stepped into the courtyard from the shadows. She had luscious black hair that spilled down her back in beautiful curls. Her features were sharp and angular, her pale eyes cold. There were three men with her, one behind her, and one on either side. “Be the better man.”

            Sirius’s gaze had locked onto the man behind Bellatrix. “I don’t have to be the better man. Soon there will only be one of us, anyway.”

            The man behind Bellatrix snorted. “Sirius, my old friend. Violence is never the answer.”

            “I’m not really looking for answers,” Sirius said, whipping out his wand, “I’d rather just go with it.”

            The four of them all brought out their own wands, glaring fiercely at Sirius. Cedric let go of Lana to pull out his own wand, and Lana took out James’s.

            Bellatrix, who seemed to notice Lana for the first time, asked, “Who’s your girlfriend, Siri? She’s a little young, don’t you think?”

            Sirius laughed without humor. “You amuse me, Bella.”

            “She looks just like me, when I was her age,” Bellatrix said in a voice that made Lana cringe slightly.

            “Thank God that’s all you have in common,” Cedric hissed, surprising Lana.

            “Never mind this,” the man to the right of Bellatrix growled, “Surrender yourselves now and we won’t have you fed to Nagini.”