All or Nothing (A Sirius Black Story)

⭒Chapter 8: Friends? Friends. ⭒

IT WAS FRIDAY, a full week after the party and Isabelle had done everything in her power to avoid Sirius Black. Of course, she was thankful and she obviously trusted him a lot more, but it was different now. A strange sensation lived inside of her, engulfing her every feeling, flipping every thought and playing with her heart. It was weird because when she thought of Black, Isabelle didn't want to walk away. She didn't want to ignore him. She didn't want to be away from him and that's what scared her so much.

Everything had changed.

Enough was enough. It had been seven full days and Isabelle knew they had to talk. "Come on! Are you a Gryffindor on not?" Isabelle thought determinedly to herself before rushing out of charms among the flurry of students, pushing and shoving to get in front and beat the Marauders to the fruit-filled painting, blocking the entrance to the kitchen where they regularly convened for snacks inbetween lessons.

Just as she had suspected, Black, whose last lesson was the closest to the kitchen, turned the corner towards her; Isabelle saw a look of bewilderment flash across his face which he quickly masked with a neutral expression.

"Why hello Little Miss Laurent. To what do I owe this pleasure?" His cold voice matches his neutral expression; neither of them were exactly rude but they didn't exactly feel like a warm cup of butter beer either.

Inhaling deeply to calm her nerves, Isabelle answered calmly, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for ignoring you. I'm sorry for pushing you away. I'm sorry that we always fight. Most of all, I'm sorry that I always acted like you were a... a..." Isabelle faulted as she tried to come up with the perfect words to describe her feelings. She was putting it all on the line for this.

"A dirty thestral's ass!"

"Great. What a perfect way to describe the person you're meant to be apologising to." Isabelle thought, mentally kicking herself.

After what seemed like a lifetime of silence, Isabelle said awkwardly, "I'm done now. You can talk." The girl had no idea what Sirius was feeling; his face was unreadable. Was he about to laugh? Shout? Cry even? But no. What he said next came out in an even tone which Izzy had never heard him use before.

"Number one. Never apologise for things that you don't have to say sorry for. It was mostly me after all. Two, take as much space and time as you need, after what happened, it's valid. And three..."
Isabelle had never heard Sirius Black talk so maturely before.
"Number three is that you should never say 'dirty thestral's ass' ever again!"

At that, his face broke into a grin causing Isabelle to relax.
Everything was fine.
As Sirius pulled the girl into a hug, which felt strangely natural to the pair, she whispered in his ear "Are my insults really that bad?"
Chuckling he replied "No. You're- I mean they're perfect."

"Friends?"

"Friends."

The next morning:

Isabelle woke up in a better mood than she remembered ever feeling recently. It was a Saturday morning, 7:00am so not many people were up, but Sirius had asked her last night, in which they had stayed up late catching up about their lives and previous Hogwarts adventures, to meet him next to the lake. Slipping out of her pyjamas and into a comfortable tank top and sweatpants, hair in a loose ponytail, Isabelle crept out of the dorm, careful not to wake her sleeping roommates, who surprisingly were still fast asleep despite Marlene's loud snores.

As she approached the lake, Isabelle wished nothing more than to have her camera, from the muggle world, here to take a picture of the puzzling, yet hilarious, sight before her.

Sirius Black stood wearing a strange combination of witch robes, a pointed hat and glasses, strongly resembling Professor McGonagall, and a muggle karate black belt tied around his forehead. "Chop chop Miss Laurent! You shall not be late on your first class!" Sirius shouted from the edge of the lake in a very poor, squeaky impression of McGonagall's voice.

"What on Earth is happening?" Said Isabelle gasping for breath from laughing.

Replying enthusiastically, Sirius explained that a couple of weeks prior to today, he James, Remus and Peter had managed to watch a muggle film about Karate on a TV in a room called "The Room of Requirement" which was new to Isabelle. This had then inspired Black to teach Isabelle some his wisdom, especially since the incident had occurred and they were much closer now.

However, after many practice moves, all hand-to-hand combat, no wands allowed, Sirius decided to fake attack Isabelle, severely underestimating her abilities.

Apparently trying to be menacing, Black attempted to sneak up on the girl, totally oblivious that she was completely aware of where he was and what he was doing while trying not to laugh. As the boy got close to her, he ran the short distance, accompanied with and ear piercing screech all the while before being swiftly hit in the back of the knees and pushed into the cold water.

"AGHHHH IT'S THE SQUID!" Sirius screamed as he frantically paddled back to land, Isabelle collapsed in the ground, hysterically laughing. In that very same moment, an echoing voice boomed from down the winding path towards the lake. "BLACK! COME HERE THIS INSTANT!" Professor McGonagall came running down the grass, tartan pyjamas billowing behind her, appearing to have noticed that a now soaking Sirius was the culprit, so proudly wearing an assortment of her own clothes.

"Oops. That appears to be my grand exit. Until we meet again my fair lady!" Sirius swept into a deep bow in front of a still laughing Isabelle before running quite literally for him life.
"YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST MINNIE!"

And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

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Hi everyone! Thank you so much for reading! I've been so busy recently and then I had some major writer's block but now I'm active again and eager to post regularly! As always, comments and votes are much appreciated! My messages are also open for feedback, recommendations or just to lend a hand or listen to whatever you need. I believe in you! <3