Trouble [S.B]

34

Noelle Moon was gone the next morning.

There were still a few days left of classes, but mostly all they had were assignments she left the night prior. Right after Sirius went to Madame Pomfrey to fix his broken hand, he went back to his common room, but he forgot that James had seen Noelle running away from their room and had also seen him going after her. James Potter had only looked menacing three times in his life. Once when Sirius had hurt Noelle back in fourth year, when Snivellus called Lily a mudblood and now. For some reason no one was in the common room when he made his way back, only James sitting in the love seat. 

The conversation they had was one that Sirius didn't wish to remember, but that was all he could think about as he stared at the ceiling in The Room of Requirement. That and how much he'd fucked up with Noelle.

None of his friends were talking to him and Noelle was gone. She didn't stay for their Secret Santa exchange, but she did leave her presents. She was supposed to gift the person she got, but she decided she wanted to give something to everyone. Even Sirius.

Sirius was worried with what would happen once his school year was over. James and him had talked about getting a flat, just the two of them. But looking at how things had progressed he doubted he and James would be on speaking terms anytime soon. Yes, James saw him as a brother, but Noelle was his little sister. And James put his little sister above everything.

He realized, as the days passed and he was in his lonesome in The Room of Requirement, that Noelle was right. She was almost always right, but when she said she wished he'd hate her to make it easier she was undoubtedly right. He could feel anger and hatred pooling in his belly at the thought of her. He could feel himself hate everything she stood for. He hated her because she made his friends turn their back on him. All because of her. 

He spent the rest of his days of winter break doing this. Hating her.

It was the day of the Welcoming Feast when he saw his brother again. He hadn't seen his excuse of a brother since their fight the past month, but seeing him again made the fury in his belly to spill over. But he could control himself and he would if he wanted James back. Regulus had other things in mind.

As everyone left The Great Hall Regulus approached his lackadaisical brother and pushed him. Everyone around stopped to watch the encounter, because Hogwarts loved drama. Regulus didn't wait for his brother to come out of his daze as he punched him in the face. Sirius' head went back at the impact and he brought his hand to his nose, only to find blood  there. He looked back at his traitorous brother and lunged.

The professors found the two of them rolling in the ground as everyone else watched. McGonagall was the one to break them up and take them to the Headmaster with Slughorn trailing behind her as Flitwick sent everyone else to their commonrooms. They got a month's worth of detention, a broken nose, broken fingers and swollen eyes.

After that, time passed by in a blur. Sirius never saw Noelle, but she was still at Hogwarts. She had talked to Slughorn and asked him to change her class hours to not be in the same classes as Sirius, but she didn't tell him that. Noelle had become numb to everything. She would monotonously go about her day. Get up, eat, go to classes, study, shower, sleep and repeat. Noelle would flee whenever James was close and she avoided Lily like the plague as well. She had also been avoiding Regulus too but he managed to wedge himself into her life again. It was hard, Merlin was it hard to know that your best friend sought to kill those who she loved so she begged him to put up excuses so he never had to go on such a mission. He promised he'd try his best.

It was all Noelle could take for now.

The ravenette knew she couldn't keep hiding forever and that soon she'd have to talk to her friends, but she didn't have the mind or energy to do so. After everything with Sirius went down she left the castle, it had been hard to convince her parents and Slughorn but she did it. It was even harder to not break down as soon as Arnold and Eliza picked her up at Kingscross. But she melted as soon as she was in their arms.