𝖈𝖆𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖈𝖎𝖔𝖚𝖘

chapter six

On the final night at Gulches, before her return to hogwarts, Elizabeth and a few of the other girls planned on having a night out in town.

Newcastle was known for its night life, especially the clubs and bars, and the girls weren't strangers to stumbling home at three in the morning together, drunk out of their minds.

Elizabeth, Hannah, Amy and Molly all decided they would dress up, do their hair and makeup, have prinks together at Gulches in Molly and Amy's room, and then head out.

All four of them had managed to secure a fake ID, so all of them would be allowed into the clubs, Elizabeth was called Georgia Green for the night, and was now 18. Hannah became Millie Grayson, also 18, which wasn't much of a stretch as she was already 17. Amy became Amy Dale, which was appreciated, as the girl was a bit thick, so it would be handy to keep the same first name, and she was 19, not too hard to pretend as a 16 year old, and Molly went out as herself, the only 18 year old in the group thus far.

The girls had started off trying to make cocktails in the little kitchen in Gulches, but their supplies were limited to coke and water, and they didn't want to bother wasting money scrounging mixers, so they necked a few mouthfuls of vodka each, passing the bottle around them, and headed out.

The girls bounced from clubs to bars and back, flirting with men at bars to avoid having to buy drinks, going to the toilets in pairs and protecting each other's drinks with their lives.

As much as they could be wild and reckless, they weren't stupid, they knew they had to be cautious sometimes and if they left their drink somewhere they just accepted - though reluctantly - that they couldn't drink it anymore, and they'd have to source another one.

After the pre drink vodka, a few unknown things, three sex on the beaches, and two double shot coke and rums, it was fairly safe to say that Elizabeth was absolutely hammered.

The girl was slurring her words and could barely stay on her feet as her friends attempted to guide her home through the busy streets. With it being a Saturday night, town was packed, bustling with all types of people, making it even harder to navigate their way back.

The other girls weren't as drunk as Elizabeth, shockingly, it was normally all of them supporting each other and they tripped on their way home.

But this time, having seen the way Elizabeth was necking drinks, Molly knew something was up, so she and the other girls laid back on the drinks for once, so they could watch their friend.

There was three tell tale signs that Elizabeth was going to have a rough night:

- vodka : vodka was her poison of choice, always, and the girls knew that when she was feeling anything other than content, she would neck it till she passed out, not always in her own bed too.

- ecstasy : she wasn't a stranger to that either, and she was ridiculously good at finding a source of dealer in a club, and even better at flirting her way into a few free pills. She was insane on drugs, the girls knew something was wrong this summer, unable to pinpoint it, but as they watched her take a little packet of pills off of a local dealer in the club, grinning, they knew they'd have to carry her home.

- boys : Elizabeth used strangers to make her feel things, the girls were fully nonjudgmental as they had often found themselves waking in a bed that wasn't in Gulches, but Elizabeth was younger than all of them. Though she was still a virgin, it didn't mean she didn't get up to her own fair share of mischief when she wanted to.

Those three signs had played out in front of her friends eyes that night, and from experience, they knew it was best not to interfere or question her, let her get mortal, carry her home, and ask her about it after she's chucked up in the morning.

So that's exactly what the girls did.

They managed to drag her along the backstreets back to Gulches, stumbling as they struggled with the girl who couldn't even walk, giggling away as her friends huffed and puffed.

Elizabeth was currently hanging over the shoulders of Molly and Amy, laughing at nothing as the world span around her.

Her speech was ridiculously slurred to the point that her friends weren't even trying to comprehend what she was saying any longer, they were just desperate to get her home and safe.

"Doggie?" Elizabeth questioned, peering over her shoulder at the black dog that seemed to be failing them, "doggie!"

Her friends sighed in sync, spinning around, surprised to actually see a dog standing before them, they had assumed it was whatever she had taken doing the talking.

"Well would you look at that," Amy smiled, "Lizzie's not hallucinating."

"For once," Molly snorted, ruffling the girls hair, "gunna tell us why you're off your face hun?"

Elizabeth only laughed again, shaking her head as she dropped out of the supportive arms of her friends, thumping onto the path to sit alongside the dog she spotted.

"Cute," she slurred, hugging the dog close to her, "whaz 'is na?"

"Doesn't have a collar," Molly sighed, "cmon Lizzie, we better get back before anyone notices we've snuck out again, don't fancy a bollocking."

"No!" she huffed, "doggie!"

"Fucks sake Liz," Hannah grumbled, "it's a stray, it could give you nits!"

"Ticks," Molly corrected, "but she's right, we can't take it with us."

"Ye' wu can!"

"No we can't!"

"Please!" the drunken girl whined, clinging onto the dog still, "he's cute!"

"For fucks sake!" Hannah huffed, "We're gunna have to bring the manky thing, she'll not leave it and I wanna go to bed."

"We can convince her to leave it!" Amy replied.

"Oh yeah?" Hannah argued, "Remember Timmy the tabby cat? She brought that home when she was drunk, she wouldn't let the thing go before we realised it had fucking tuberculosis!"

"All right point proven," Molly grumbled, "pick her up and the dog can follow."

The girls all helped to scoop their friend off of the ground, the dog following behind happily, tail wagging as it viewed the girl before it's eyes.

Sirius was over the moon, his daughter had just hugged him. Granted, she was high as a kite and thought he was just a stray, but it was still a hug, and he was revelling in the glory of it.

When Elizabeth had tumbled into bed that night, the room span around her and the lights and noise outside swirled around her head in a flurry of hallucinations.

She clung onto the dog curled up next to her, as they slept under the covers together, Lizzie with her dress and makeup still on, hangover steadily creeping it's way in as morning dawned around them.

Sirius slept soundly for the first time since he had escaped Azkaban, laying alongside his child for the first time in twelve years.

He chose not to think of the stench of alcohol that surrounded her, or her friends conversation about her drug taking and the concerning reasons behind him - though a storm of guilt churned in his stomach at the possibility of the cause being himself - and he most definitely did not want to think about the empty cigarette packets in her bin that indicated a habit that he had sorely missed in his time in prison.

It was hardly fair that his daughter got to smoke when the reason he had stopped was for her.

But he supposed a lot of things in their lives were unfair, truth be told.

The pair of them slept side by side, in blissful naivety, Lizzie unaware that it was her father that slept beside her, and Sirius blissfully content without the knowledge of the trauma built up inside of the child he lay beside.

They say ignorance truly is bliss.

And you'd believe it if you saw the peaceful expressions that dawned the Black's faces as they slept side by side, both dreaming of a world where they had a stable and happy family.

But sometimes ignorance cannot be held forever, bundled up secrets split at the seams, and havoc is wrecked when they come spilling out.