Love and Loss ~ Marauders Era~

Chapter 51

 "How have you been?" Noelle asked Peter staring at him intensely, she was so angry with him, but she couldn't attack right away. She needed to know why he had done this to her, to Sirius. He had taken her heart from her chest and crushed it beneath his foot like a bug, it seemed 100 times more painful to know that Peter had done it. Little Peter who had always been around, had always been her friend. He betrayed them in the most painful way possible.

"I've b-been okay." Peter stammered nervously, anxiety filling his gut under the angry stare of Noelle.

"You've been gone lately. Where have you been?" Noelle questioned, her tone of voice making it seem more like an interrogation instead of a friendly conversation.

"J-just busy." Peter answered vaguely, avoiding eye contact with Noelle at any cost. He looked behind her, he stared at his hands, he blatantly turned around and looked out of the kitchen to avoid looking at her.

"Busy? With what? What could possibly be more important than defeating Voldemort Peter?" Noelle leaned forward, her words were as sharp as the pain still present in her chest from the recent loss of her child.

"J-just t-things." Peter was becoming increasingly paranoid at the interrogation, he could sense the rage flowing off of her like heat from a fire. Noelle could feel herself getting more and more enraged at his pretense of innocence. She looked at his left arm, which was lying on the kitchen table. She became furious as she thought about what he did to her and grabbed his arm, yanking up his sleeve to reveal the dark mark resting on his wrist, the longer she looked at it she noticed it started slithering. Peter yanked his arm away and winced in pain as he held the mark to his chest.

"You-you work for him! You betrayed us!" Noelle yelled, tears filling her eyes as her suspicions were confirmed. He had killed her baby, he had made an attempt at her life and killed her baby in the process. "After all we've been through you betrayed us!" Noelle backed away from Peter, not in fear, but in disgust "You pretended to be my friend, and you poisoned me. You're a fucking coward Peter."

"No!" He suddenly screamed, his face becoming wrathful at her words, "I am not a coward! You are! Hiding behind the Order like it's some kind of shield! I had the courage to side with the winning side! I am not a coward!" Peter's chest was heaving in anger, his eyes were unrecognizable. He was no longer the Peter Noelle once knew, he was no longer her friend.

"Who are you trying to convince?" Noelle asked as she reached for her wand as sneakily as possible, if she could get the first hit in she would win, she knew she could beat him. Peter sighed and ran his hands through his hair tensely, Noelle quickly brandished her wand while he was distracted and shot a spell at him. It hit him square in the chest and he flew backward, smashing a hole in the wall as he impacted.

Noelle let out a sigh of relief when he didn't get back up, she had at least knocked him out for the time being. "I've got to get out of here." She whispered to herself in a panic as she started toward the front door. Noelle quickly stepped over Peter and took one more step before her ankle was grabbed, he yanked his arm back with her leg in hand. Noelle fell forward and made the mistake of trying to catch herself, she let out an agonizing yell as she felt her arm break underneath her.

Noelle cradled her arm as she sobbed, she used her good arm to try and pull herself from Peter. She kicked at Peter's hands as they pulled her backwards "Help me! Someone help me please!" She was desperately screaming as he pulled at her, her wand was out of reach, her arm was broken, she had no way to defend herself.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Peter screamed, pointing his wand directly at her throat as he scanned their surroundings in case anyone heard her cries for help. Noelle fell silent as Peter looked down at her, her lips were quivering.

"Why'd you do it?" She whimpered, needing to know what they had done to deserve this betrayal. "What did we do wrong?"

Peter's face softened, and for a second Noelle saw the Peter she knew. His wand lowered in surprise, Noelle took the opportunity and kicked his arm. Making him drop his wand, almost immediately he brought his fist down hard on her nose. She cried out as she felt her nose break, blood flowing down her face like a waterfall. He picked his wand up and stared down at her angrily "Any last words?"

"Don't kill him, please don't kill Sirius." Noelle sobbed, there was blood in her mouth and in her eyes, her arm was in excruciating pain, and all she could think about was Sirius. She wanted him to be safe, for him to live on and get over them. Maybe not right away, but eventually he could move on and fall in love again and have the family he always wanted.

"I'll leave him with his life." Peter confirmed, nodding his head slightly in agreement.

"Thank you. Thank you." Noelle sobbed out, terrified of dying but glad at least Sirius would get to live.

"Avada Kedavra" And with that, the story of Noelle Black came to an end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Noelle!" Sirius shouted, sobs leaving him as he walked into his house, tears streaming down his face as he saw the image of his best friends body lying dead on the floor. His entire chest hurt, he couldn't imagine his life without James and Lily, but at least he had Noelle. At least he would always have Noelle.

Sirius stumbled into the kitchen, his eyes blurry as he stepped through the doorway. A crack was heard, he felt something break under his foot. Sirius bent to look at what it was, it was Noelle's wand, just lying on the floor. "Noelle?! Doll where are you?!" Sirius shouted in a panic, he stepped forward and that's when he saw it. Her feet, just her feet, the table blocked anything else "No." Sirius fell forward onto his knees, scrambling towards his wife's body. "No no no no." He cried out over and over as he gathered Noelle in his arms.

"No you can't leave me please don't leave me." He whimpered as he shook her lifeless body "Please don't do this to me." Sirius let out loud, painful cries as he held her body. It felt like hours until he finally quieted his sobs to whimpers.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take, my sunshine away." Sirius sang quietly to her, remembering all the times she would sing that to him when he couldn't sleep, or how she would hum it when she was cooking. "I love you so damn much Noelle. You told me you'd be waiting for me when I came back, I thought you'd be here on the couch with a mug of coffee and a book. I thought i'd be able to kiss you again, and we'd go upstairs and cuddle until we fell asleep. I didn't think i'd never be able to kiss you again." Tears were steadily falling down his face as he took in how his wife looked in her final moments.

There were tear stains on her cheeks, and her lips were set in a grimace, even in death she managed to keep that look on her face. Her eyes were still open, and the beautiful color was now dull and lifeless, but he couldn't bring himself to close her eyes. He knew if he did, he would never be able to see them again. The thought made his whole chest shake in pain as he once again began to sob.

He looked down at his wife one last time, kissing her lightly before setting her down and standing. His legs were shaking, and his eyes were blurry, and it felt like his chest was going to collapse under the pressure it felt. But he was angry, he was beyond enraged. Peter had done this, and he was going to pay.