Sirius & Eliza ▼ Sirius Black Love Story

EIGHTEEN

The Daily Prophet came out a day later, with my face plastered on the front. I was already getting a lot of stares in the corridors and this, just intensified them. The Slytherins were furious that it was a muggleborn who was the Hogwarts champion and because of that, I ended up staying way from large crowds and watching where I stepped. The Slytherins weren't as bad as James and Sirius when it came to pranking but that didn't stop them from shooting spells down the hall and trying to trip me when I passed. 

It had happened again on Friday while I was walking to third period charms. All of a sudden I was hoisted up in the air as though an invisible hook was holding up my ankle. Thank god I decided to wear slacks instead of the usual skirt today. Although, I had worn a loose shirt and now my exposed midriff to the, rather packed, charms corridor. My books and bag clattered to the floor and I gave a startled gasp. All around me, Slytherins howled with laughter. I rolled my eyes. 

"Ha, ha, very funny. Now put me down, unless you all want to end up with ugly, little, flapping boogers all over your faces?" I say sweetly and reach for my wand, which was still securely in my back pocket. 

"Liberacorpus!" I heard a voice say from behind me. Then, I was flying back to the ground, I let out a scream and closed my eyes, waiting for the impact. But it never came, instead I landed on something soft and squishy. 

"Ow..." Someone groaned from underneath me. I opened my eyes and lifted my head to see that I had landed on Sirius. I laughed. 

"Sorry Sirius!" I giggled as James helped me up. James must have been the one that let me down and I guess Sirius was set with the job of catching me.

"It's OK." he wheezed and I held out my hand. He took it and I pulled him onto his feet. I gathered my bag; shoved my books in and turned to the Slytherins. I saw Snape, Nott, Malfoy and Regulus, Sirius' brother. Without warning, I shot a non-verbal Bat-Bogey Hex at Nott, whose face turned into a disgusting sight; it was full of flapping wings and boogers. 

"Petrificus Totalus!" I called out and pointed my wand at Malfoy, who's limbs locked and he fell to the ground. 

"Expelliarmus!" I stated and Regulus' wand flew out of him hand and into mine. I was just about to stun Snape but m now he knew what I was doing and had prepared himself against my attack. 

 "Petrificus Totalus!" He cried, but I blocked it with a lazy flick of my wrist. He tried again and again, I blocked it by using the incantation, Protego. I had to admit that Severus Snape was a very good dueling partner . I was just about to try and stun him once more when he yelled out a curse I had never heard of.  

"Sectumsempra!" 

Immediately gashes appeared on my arms, legs, torso, blood was seeping through my white shirt and it was all making me very woozy. I fell to my knees and looked up. Snape looked shocked as if he didn't know what to think of the situation. 

"Stupefy." I called out feebly as I slumped back. James and Sirius rushed to my side and took out their wands, trying to stop the bleeding. By now I was just about ready to past out. 

"Renervate! Dueling in the corridors! Both of you know that that is strictly forbidden! Detention for both of you and I will be taking ten points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor! I expected more from the Hogwarts Champion! Oh!" Professor McGonagall had come storming down the hall, after coming out of Professor Flitwick's classroom. But when she saw the state that I was in, and I was bleeding quite badly now, she changed her angry expression. 

"Let's get you to the Hospital Wing, Miss Evans. Mr Black, Mr Potter, if you could please bring Miss Evans to Madam Pomfrey, and quite quickly too." She told them and Sirius and James took one arm each, slung it over a shoulder and helped me to the Hospital Wing. This reminded me a lot of what happened last year, just after the Quidditch match match between James and I, back when Sirius and I weren't friends. 

"Hey, doesn't this feel like déjà vu?" I joke to Sirius.

"Oh, stop it." 

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Madam Pomfrey patched my wounds up in no time but made me stay the rest of the day, taking blood replenishing potions every hour. I was still feeling kind of weak when my sister  and the best of the Gryffindor girls came to say hello. 

"I can not believe you were dueling in the corridor!" Lily said immediately after asking if I was alright. I rolled my eyes at that.

"Never mind that! I can't believe you beat four Slytherins in a duel! And two of them were in seventh year!" Marlene exclaimed with a look of awe. I smiled. 

"Well, not completely. Snape did get me, that greasy git." I said coldly, everyone laughed. Now that Snape and Lily were no longer friends, no one really cared about what someone called him. He was the one that had done a bad thing and now he had lost the only real friend he ever had. 

"Oh! I almost forgot! Professor Dumbledore wanted me to give this to you." Julia said and held out a scroll to me. It was tightly bound and held together by a purple ribbon. It looked pretty official and was probably something to do with the tournament. I would open it later, I decided. Anyways, I was suppose to do this by myself, so I set it aside. 

"And here is all your homework." Kaitlyn gave me a stack of notes and textbooks, as well as instructions on what I had to do and when they were due.

"Thanks, just what I wanted to spend my weekend doing. Charms homework and," I looked at the textbook lying next to me, "Potions." I groaned. 

"Have fun!" Adara said as they all stood up.

"Where are you all going?" I asked as they started walking out. Alice turned around with a smile. 

"We are going down for dinner. Have fun eating hospital food!" She laughed and they all filed out of the wing.

"Bring me back some treacle tart!" I called after them and all I heard were distant laughs. I signed and looked at the scroll to my right. I grabbed it and pulled at the ribbon. It fell onto my lap and I unrolled the parchment.

Dear Miss Eliza Evans, 

They guard what is neither friend or foe, 

they wont either come or go, 

so get what you need back,

 or they will have attacked.

We look forward to seeing how you preform November 24,

Eugenia Jenkins.

This must have been the clue that the judges were talking about. It was November third which meant that in twenty one days time I would be stepping out in front of three schools to preform against the other champions. All I had was a dreary old clue that made no sense and a gut feeling to go with.