Hiding Bruises

Hiding Bruises- Chapter 12- The Dirty Details

I was now lying on my face on the floor and couldn’t move, which wasn’t very helpful in my situation.

“Oh, you got her here quickly!” I heard Bella squeal from above my head, I heard her clapping her hands in excitement.

“Well, she came part of the way to meat us Bella,” snarled Avery, I had a feeling he was intensely creeped-out by Bella’s morbid excitement.

“Well, ain’t that considerate?” I heard footsteps and then Bella spoke again, closer to me now. “Why is my guest lying on the floor like that? That’s not very polite, now is it? Let her up!” Avery muttered something and it must have been the reversal spell because I felt my limbs relax.

I tried to not move but I really needed to stretch so I flexed my body and pushed up from the ground, tensed the whole time for the first bout or curses. But none came. I stood up and looked at the four Slytherins surrounding me. Bella grinned at me, she has a horrible smile; it’s nearly scarier then her glare.

“Hi Tina, why didn’t you come see me yesterday?” Bella asked, the same manic grin still plastered on her face.

I tried to not talk but I couldn’t help it, “I went to the Owlery, but you weren’t there.”

Bella’s eyes suddenly became slits, “Oh really?” she came closer. “Did you even look, Tina? Did you bother to take a quick search around to find me? No. You didn’t. And if you had,” she paused for a second, “you wouldn’t have found me anyway! Ha! Do you want to know why? Because I was hiding!”

“Why?” I asked, so surprised I couldn’t contain my curiosity.

Bella’s face lit up again at my obvious intrigue, “Because, Tin my friend, because I am sly. I have got bored of just hurting you, knowing that you’ll never tell anyone or complain, knowing that when I hurt you, it’ll only ever be you hurting.” I didn’t really understand what Bella was talking about, she speaks in such a confusing way, and I think she enjoys the fact that no one ever really knows what she’s trying to say. “And,” she continued, “I knew that Sirius went to the Owlery at 12:30 every first day of the term. He writes to his parents, I don’t know why he bothers though, they hate him; his even mum likes me better then she does him.” Bella hooted to show how much this fact pleased her. Well that made sense at least; I had heard Sirius say his mum was a crazy bitch.

I leaned on one of the benches near me, staring at Bella, dreading that for once, I may have interpreted her words correctly, “But what has that got to do with me?”

She sat down on the bench I was leaning against and took my hand, forcing me to sit too, “Well Tina, since I saw you two dancing together at the ball and since I’m such a good friend of yours… I’ve decided to set you up!” Bella bit her bottom lip like an excited child waiting to see what her parents’ thought of a surprise she made for them. I hated to think what kind of surprise was waiting for me next.

I shook my head slowly, “I don’t understand.”

“Well, of course you don’t!” Bella laughed at me and got up, “I haven’t told you yet! Be patient, can’t you?” She shook her head and tuted at me, she rolled her eyes at the others. All the boys looked very confused, bored and uninterested. “It’s going to be so romantic. He’ll fall in love with you, you won’t mean to but you will too. I’ll carry on doing what I’ve always done, you’ll go crying to him and he’ll get so angry at me that he’ll challenge me. Then I can kill him.” Her eyes were sparkling insanely as she said this last sentence.

I was stumped, I just stared at her, mouth wide open, ‘K…K…Kill?” I stuttered, eyes wide.

“Aww, don’t worry,” she said, then she leaned down closer to me and whispered in my ear, “ you can wear black at the funeral.”

I jumped away from her in an involuntary movement. She laughed, and walked away, towards the door. “Come on boys,” she said, her voice hard.

“What?” said Mulciber, “but we ain’t even done anything to her yet.”

She glared at him, “and you’re not going to this time. Tina has to look her best tomorrow, she’s got someone to impress now, and he won’t fall in love if she’s limping around like an old granny.” All three of the boys looked thoroughly disappointed, but they weren’t going to argue with Bella. Not when she was acting this crazy.

Once they had all walked out and I thought Bella was about to go, she spun round suddenly and shot me her ice-cold glare, “you better play the part, because if he doesn’t fall for you because you’re in a strop with me, I will not be pleased. Act cut.” She ordered.

I stared straight forward, wondering what to do, and she stormed out before I had made up my mind. I shook my head, this was not good: this was shit. Just when I thought things might be starting to turn ok, Bella goes and lets me in on her evil plans, and now I’ll feel terrible if I go along with them, like I really really want to.

I walked out the classroom and to my relief Bella and the others had disappeared. I started on my way back to Gryffindor tower, keeping my head down. The whole time I was just thinking about how much I hated Bella, she used me and abused me and played her stupid little mind games with me. And now, she wasn’t complete doing it just to me, she was going to drag others into it.

I was a pawn in her chess game, she was the black queen and Sirius the white king, and I was just there to draw him out of safety and put him in her firing line. But what colour pawn was I? Who’s side was I on? Well, I was against Bella obviously, wasn’t I? So why was I letting Sirius get check-mated? Shouldn’t I tell him about her plan? Oh yeah I thought to myself, how cool would I seem? ‘Bella wants you to fall in love with me so she can hurt me to get to you, so she can eventually kill you.’ I couldn’t say that to him, I just couldn’t, but why not? I shouldn’t care what he thought of me; I should want him not to like me, so he couldn’t get hurt. I should, but I didn’t.

While I’d been thinking all this, my feet had taken me back to the Gryffindor common room. I sighed, took a deep breath, told the fat lady the password and stepped inside.

*********

3rd Person

Remus stepped into the common room; Sirius was the first to see him enter (the other two were sat facing away from the entrance hole.) Sirius waved and called out to him, Remus smiled half-heartedly and waved back at his friend.

He went over to sit with the three of them, and slumped down on the empty chair next to them all. “Hey,” he said in greeting.

James raised his eyebrows, “what’s up mate?”

“Still feel terrible from the other night,” he told them, and paused, “and I just saw that Tina girl you were telling me about.”

Sirius relaxed form straightened as he physically tensed up in his chair.

“What happened?” asked James, glancing over at his other friend tentatively.

“Well I was just walking along ‘cause Madam Pomfrey had let me out of the hospital wing and I see this girl sitting looking out of the window towards the forbidden forest, with the window wide open. I couldn’t see her face but I saw her back tense as she looked out, then it sort of relaxed and started drooping forward. It thought she was going to fall out of the window, I swear.”

“What happened?” asked Sirius, still completely tense.

“Well I ran over and pulled her away didn’t I?” Sirius relaxed a little as he learned this fact, “She screamed when she hit the floor, so I guess I pulled her back a bit roughly, but, I mean, she was going to fall!” He looked around at his friends as though he needed to gain their approval, which he felt like he did.

“Did she say anything to you?” Sirius asked him.

Remus shrugged, “not really, she just walked away toward the main hall and came here. It’s weird we’ve never noticed her before now, don’t you think?” He added, trying to change the subject. He failed.

“You saved her life,” said Peter, stating the obvious, “you saved her life.” He said again, incredulous.

“Why do you keep repeating it like that?” James asked irritably, glancing over at Sirius as he said it.

“’Cause he saved her life!” Peter looked exasperated when none of them reacted, “I mean,” he struggled with what to say, “girl’s love that!” All three of the others turned to glare at him, “b…but it’s true.” He said defensively. James punched him in the ribs, “ow!” Peter exclaimed.

“Shut it,” James hissed. Sirius was staring straight ahead, his mouth pressed into a hard line. Remus was staring at Sirius, he glanced over a James and saw he was also looking at Sirius. Remus sent a pleading look at James, he was the only one who could normally deal with Sirius when he was this annoyed. James shrugged, he didn’t know what to do. Remus looked uncomfortable, then he leaned towards Sirius and asked quietly, “You really like her don’t you, Sirius?”

Sirius looked like he was about to answer but he got cut off when Lily walked over, closely followed by Emmeline. “Hey” she greeted them all and smiled.

“Hi Lily flower!” James smiled like an idiot, even more pleased to see her then normal.

Lily looked annoyed and rolled her eyes at his reaction, but a smile pulled at her lips. She ignored it and shook her head, “I was wondering if any of you guys had seen Tina? You know, the one who shared our dorm.” She looked hesitant as to whether they would even know her.

“Yes actually, Remus saw her just a moment ago, outside the port hole,” James told her.

Lily looked surprised that he hadn’t simply asked who she was; James wasn’t one to notice others. She looked at him curiously for a second but then concentrated on Remus instead, “did she seem alright to you?”

Remus shrugged, he didn’t really want to talk about Tina, not in front of Sirius anyway.

“It’s just she didn’t seem too well this morning…” Lily said, hoping for a reaction.

“’Cause of her fall” Sirius said.

“What? What fall?” Lily asked, confused

“She fell down the stairs,” said Sirius, feeling unsure of himself, after all, she had been acting a bit strange when she’s told him that, “that’s what she told me anyway.”

“She didn’t say anything about it to me, “ Lily said, then he eyes sharpened, “when did she tell you that?” she asked, in an accusatory manner.

“Today, in the Owlery, round 12:30” Sirius told her, “we just bumped into each other there, we weren’t like meeting or anything…” he trailed of.

Lily raised her eyebrows but didn’t push the subject, she looked round at the four boys and none of them added any more information. “I didn’t know you guys were friends with her.” She said, probing them for information.

“We aren’t, Lily flower, not really,” said James chirpily, “but then, any friend of yours is a friend of mine.” He said, grinning at her.

She snorted at him, “Like any of my friends would have such bad taste, that they would be friends with you” She said, and walked away.

Once she was gone Emmeline looked at the boys apologetically, “Sorry guys.”

“It’s fine,” James said, “don’t worry about it Em.”

“We never really used to talk to Tina, but since the ball Lily’s been making a real effort with her. I think she feels bad for ignoring her like everyone else.” Emmeline smiled at her four friends.

“Yeah, we didn’t really know who she was either, until the ball, and today…” James said absentmindedly.

“What happened today?” Emmeline asked, looking curious now.

Remus and James both glanced at Sirius but he just shook his head a tiny bit and James said, “We’ll tell you another time, Em. Don’t want Lily thinking you have ‘bad taste’, you might not be able to get the inside scoop for us anymore.” He winked at her.

She laughed, “Ok, yeah, true. You better tell me though.” Then she walked away and followed Lily up to the girls dormitories.

The four sat their for a while in complete silence, Sirius staring dreamily into the fire, James speculating about Sirius’ feelings for Tina, and that half smile he’d seen pulling at Lily’s lips. Remus was looking out of the window at the dark night and Peter was tentatively trying to pick his nose without the others noticing.

“Well,” said Remus breaking the silence and looking around, Peter’s hand dropped quickly down to his side, “I think I’m gonna go up now, I’m all tired out.” Remus told them.

“I’ll go with you,” Peter jumped up quickly, not wishing to be left on his own with the brooding Sirius and agitated James.

Remus stood, “you two coming up?” he asked them, not particularly wanting to be left alone with the ridiculous Peter.

James looked at Sirius, who said, “No, I’ll come up later.”

“Yeah, me too,” said James and as the others walked away he called, “see you in a bit guys.” Remus raised a weary hand in goodbye and Peter waved enthusiastically as he turned up the stairs to their dorm.

Once they had started up Peter suddenly said, “Damn, I need to do my transfiguration homework for tomorrow, I’ll go back down, see you Remus.”

He made to turn but Remus’ hand shot out and grabbed him by the shoulder, “you can do it in the morning Peter.” Peter looked shocked, Remus usually said never to put work off. “Those two need to talk, James is the only one who can get the truth out of Sirius” Remus said simply and pulled a surprised and slightly perturbed Peter up after him.

Downstairs Sirius had leaned forward and was now sitting with his head in his hands. “What’s up mate?” James asked, seriously worried, he’d never seen his friend like this before.

“It’s that girl, I can’t get her out of my head, her smile, her voice, the way she kisses…” he trailed of dreamily.

“Woah!” said James, holding up his hands, “no need to tell me the dirty details.” He paused for thought, “When did you kiss?” he asked.

“Today, in the Owlery.”

James wasn’t surprised by how fast this kiss had happened; Sirius had been known to go through over three girls in one day. “So, are you gonna ask her out?” he questioned uncertainly, after all it did seem like the obvious thing to do.

“I don’t know, I want to but,” Sirius paused as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say, “this feels different, different from all the other times. She’s different, different from all the other girls.” Sirius stopped but James simply waited for his friend to elaborate. “With all the others it was easy, easy to just confidently waltz up to them and ask them out and stuff. But with Tina, I don’t know, it’s like, it’s like, I’m scared.” He finished, his own eyes widening as if he had only just realized that what he said was true.

“Scared of what?” asked James.

Sirius took his head from his hands and looked up at his friend “Of rejection” he answered.

James looked surprised, “but any girl could reject you mate.” He told Sirius.

Sirius looked up at him and raised one eyebrow, “please, I’m Sirius Black, I have my own fan club.” Sirius wasn’t being obnoxious, it was just the truth; no girl in the school would pass a chance to go on a date with him. Except maybe one…

James thought about this for a second and then nodded in agreement, “but you’ve kissed right? So why would she say no?”

Sirius shook his head, “I don’t know, and that’s what’s killing me. With every other girl I have known there is no reason they would turn me down, with her I’m not so sure.”

“Just ask her, see what she says” James was getting worried about Sirius now, he had never really got this wound up about a girl before.

“But what if she says no?” asked Sirius. Then he thought of something and his head shot up, “Lily rejects you all the time, how do you cope?”

James blushed slightly and shrugged, “I dunno, I guess I’m just used to it,” and for a second he stared dismally into the fire just as Sirius had been before, then he shook himself and smiled, “plus, I know one day she’ll succumb to my manly charms and say yes.”

Sirius chuckled but didn’t look completely satisfied, “I’m not used to it at all though…” he said quietly to himself.

James got up, “I’m going up now Sirius, don’t worry too much about this girl by the way, you’ve never been like this before” he said as he stood.

“I’ll be up in a bit,” said Sirius.

James shrugged and walked away, he didn’t like his friend being this bothered about something and he wanted to talk longer, but he couldn’t take any more talk of Lily and the many rejections he had got from her. “Just ask her tomorrow” he called to his friend as he went up the stairs.

Once James was gone Sirius sat there for a while pondering his parting words, should he ask her tomorrow? He wanted to so much but, he couldn’t bring himself to speak the words, and he knew it. He was too scared, and he hated to admit it. He would tell no one but James, and he knew James wouldn’t tell anyone either, after all he did no plenty of dirt on his best friend that he could dig up if needs be.

It had never been like this before, he’d never had to hide his feelings in fear of them getting hurt. If he’d fancied a girl, he’d just gone up to her and asker her out, and she’d said yes, with a huge smile on her face. And later, he’d dumped her like all the rest. That was how Sirius Black worked, always had.

It wasn’t like that this time though, it was different, she was different. She might say no, but it wasn’t just the uncertainty that was getting to him, he’d asked out girls before who’s feelings he hadn’t been sure of. He hadn’t been nervous then, but maybe that was because he wouldn’t really of minded if they’d said no.

He put his head in his hands and groaned, he wasn’t up to thinking about all this feelings shit. He liked his life simple; he liked to know what was going on, to be the one holding the cards.

He got up from his seat by the fire and walked over to the stairs, there he paused just for a second, then went up to bed.

As he disappeared round the corner of the stairs, a girl sneaked inside. As she crossed the common room she thought she heard footsteps on the stairs, she paused for a second, listening. When she didn’t hear anything else she walked over to the stairway and disappeared up to the girls dorm for another restless night.

Sirius, halfway up the stairs, heard someone down below, he paused, wondering whether or not to go down and see who it was. His curiosity got the better of him but when he peaked around the corner there was no one there, he sighed, thinking he must have imagined the noise and went up to his dorm for another sleepless night.