Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

26 | NOTHING

The next morning Phoenix was the first to wake up, which hadn't happened that often in the past weeks, since her powers seemed to be taking up quite a lot of energy, which lead her friends to complain about difficulties getting her out of bed in the morning on more than one occasion. Realising she wouldn't be able to sleep again after turning from her stomach to her side several times, she got out of bed and took a shower before going off to the Entrance Hall to wait for Sirius.

The night before she had been in denial about her brother being able to do such a thing to a girl but now she couldn't get passed the fact that it was apparently exact that kind of thing he would do - and it made the anger burn like fire in her blood. If there was one Slytherin characteristic she definitely had it was the fact that the friends closest to her were like family. And nobody ever hurt a member of said family, not even if that person was related to her by blood.

So she sat on one of the steps of the stairs every Gryffindor would have to walk down to get to the Great Hall. On one hand she wanted to get over with it as quickly as possible, screaming all the things she disliked about her brother straight into his face, but on the other hand she didn't really know how. She had no clue how to word her thoughts.

But soon students started to file into the Great Hall for breakfast before they had to go to their classes and with them her brother came in sight. His best friend James, a rather tall boy with dark curly hair, seemed to be telling him a joke he apparently expected Sirius to laugh about, but he didn't. He simply stared blankly at the floor in front of him, his hands shoved into the pockets of his dark trousers. He didn't even appear to notice his sister standing in his way until he nearly crushed into her. Sirius mumbled something under his breath before slightly lifting his gaze, still looking down at her since she was quite a bit shorter.

As soon as he realised it was his sister stopping him he opened his mouth to speak but Phoenix did something, which surprised both of them equally. She slapped him right on the cheek. She watched Sirius' eyes widen in shock while she resisted the urge to clap a hand over her mouth. Immediately regret washed over her but it disappeared when she remembered how Dawn had cried herself to sleep the night before.

She swallowed, hoping her voice wouldn't give away how unsure she was about the situation as she spoke.

"How could you? She trusted you," she spat. "But you had to act in exact that way everybody told you would, although you assured me you would never intentionally hurt a girl like that. How could I believe you?"

"Because it is the truth." He answered, touching his cheek where she had slapped him. "Look, I'm not going to fight with you, Phoenix."

He pushed past her, obviously intending to catch up with his friends who were waiting by the entrance of the Great Hall but Phoenix grabbed his sleeve.

"No, you won't just walk away like that. You can't do whatever you want, whenever you want and keep running away from the consequences of your doing. Eventually it will catch up on you."

Sirius turned back around, his eyes slightly narrowed. "I don't run. There's simply no reason to justify myself in front of my younger sister. I don't need anybody replacing mother by scolding me - especially if it's none of their business."

His words felt like needles. Phoenix didn't know if he had intended to hurt her by comparing her with their mother, but he definitely did. She didn't hate her like Sirius did, but she remembered very clearly how cruel she had been towards him and being compared to that was awful. Somehow his words only pushed only pushed her anger.

"It is my business because you had to choose my best friend for this stupid joke of yours." She told him, trying to keep her voice down as she didn't want everybody to listen to them, although she really was angry at him.

Sirius rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"It was only a dance and a kiss. Nothing to get slapped for."

"Are you really that oblivious?"

"I didn't want to hurt Dawn, okay? I know what I did was a stupid idea, but it was never my intention to hurt her."

Phoenix pressed her hands to her temples to calm herself down.

"You didn't just hurt her," she let him know. "Dawn is though. She would get over it."

"But-" Sirius wanted to interject but his sister silenced him by shaking her head.

"Thanks to your joke she lost everything. She trusted you and was willing to sacrifice her status and family for you but you turned on her. She stands with nothing. No family, no money and no place where she could go."

She saw his grey eyes widen in realisation.

"She doesn't have a James. Perhaps she could stay at Maureen's for some time but all of her other friends have families with strict pureblood beliefs to which they have to live up."

She didn't get an answer. Sirius simply stared at her, his lips slightly parted in shock, but it was enough for her to realise that he really hadn't thought of these kind of consequences. Still, it didn't justify his actions. Even if he had only hurt Dawn, it would have been wrong.

"I do think you deserved to be slapped," she remarked before turning around to go looking for her friends in the Great Hall.

Phoenix spotted Maureen and Dawn sitting in their usual seats at the Slytherin table, the boys nowhere in sight. She quickly approached them, sitting down next to Dawn, whose eyes seemed to sadden as she must have caught sight of Sirius entering the Great Hall only seconds later.

"Where have you been?" She immediately questioned her best friend, while Maureen followed Sirius with her eyes narrowed as he made his way to the Gryffindor table at the other side of the room.

Phoenix put a slice of bread on her plate, shrugging.

"I took care of it."

Maureen pushed her fork into her beacon with so much force it that created a horrible screeching sound on the plate beneath it. "In my opinion we should throw him off the astronomy tower and hide his corpse in the forbidden forest. It would make life a whole lot easier."