Unconditionally |1| Sirius black

31

"Broke up? Meaning you were together?" Lily asked Arabella as the three girls rode the carriage to Hogwarts.

"Yep."

"Oh my god!" Marlene said rushing over to hug the girl. "I mean what did you expect it's Sirius Black and he doesn't stay with girls for m-"

"I broke up with him Marlene." Arabella said turning to face her blonde friend.

"Oh- oh sorry I didn't-"

"It's alright... I probably would have guessed the same."

"You broke up with him?" Lily asked again. "Why?"

"Just some uh... personal reasons. You can't tell anyone about this. Not the boys, no one in the school, especially not James." Arabella said.

"Why not?" Marlene asked.

"Do you have any idea how badly James would react if he found out?!"

"Ohhh I get it." Lily said putting two and two together, "you broke up with him because of James. You knew if you dated during school he would find out and be furious."

"Bingo." Arabella said signing sadly and leaning back on the back of her seat.

"So you didn't want to-"

"Of course I didn't want to. He was the best thing that ever happened to me." Arabella said leaning forward again and putting her head on her hands.

"Aw... wait I'm not the best thing that ever happened to you- never mind." Marlene said.

A small laugh escaped Arabella's mouth. "You two are the second sorry."

"Damn... I thought it was hoes before bros but I guess not." Marlene said looking down in fake disappointment.

The three girls laughed together for the rest of the carriage ride, Lily and Marlene had taken her mind off of Sirius for as long as they could.

There was only so much they could do at dinner though. The whole time Arabella's eyes kept falling to Sirius, and every time they did Marlene elbowed her in the gut.

"Ok will you stop that!" Arabella yelled quietly.

"If you stop staring at him sure." Marlene said giving her a smile.

"I can't help it, he looks depressed." Arabella said looking over at him again, of course she was stabbed by Marlene's elbow as a result.

"Oh yea he looks depressed." Lily said looking at the boy. He was laughing along with his friends, but the three girls could see right through his laugh, especially Arabella. "He doesn't really seem like he wants to be here, which is weird considering the amount of girls he has around him right now."

Arabella's eyes snapped to the girls that were throwing themselves onto the boy. She hadn't noticed them yet, she had been to distracted by his hidden pain. She couldn't stop the feeling of jealousy from flowing through her as she watched the pretty Gryffindor girls throw themselves on Sirius.

She turned away from the sight and stabbed one of her potato's violently. Her friends watched her with saddened faces, they could see how much she liked Sirius and wished that the two could be together.

"Look Bella, we'll get your mind off of him tonight at the New Year Masquerade Ball ok?" Lily said reassuring her.

"mhm" Arabella murmured in response.

"Come on lets go get ready." Marlene said grabbing Arabella's hand after Dumbledore had dismissed everyone.

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Lily zipped up Arabella's scarlet red dress, which matched her mask perfectly. Lily's cream dress fit her perfectly, and Marlene's green dress flowed behind her beautifully. The three girls checked over them selves over once again before making their way to the door.

"I don't think I'm up for this today." Arabella said worried about how she was having a hard time controlling whos mind she could read.

"Hush." Lily said pushing Arabella forward.

As the three girls walked into the party Arabella struggled to stop herself from hearing the thoughts of everyone in the great hall.

"What's wrong?" Marlene asked after Lily went off to meet her other friends.

"I uh... just a headache." She said squinting her eyes and trying to concentrate on something.

"Will you be ok if I go meet up with Louis?" Marlene asked her friend.

"Yea of course go ahead." Arabella said smiling at her friend. Marlene smiled back at her before taking off towards a group of Ravenclaw boys.

Arabella walked around the great hall admiring all the beautiful dresses, masks, and decorations that she could see, yet no matter how hard she tried her classmates thoughts continued to make their way into her mind. She walked quickly out of the great hall and made her way to the girls bathroom where she hoped she could focus her mind away from the thoughts.

As she reached the bathroom she slid down the wall, pulled her knees to her chest, and dropped her head into her hands. Her fingers dug into her head as she tried to control her powers... it was seemingly useless so even try. Tears escaped her eyes as she head several peoples thoughts, thoughts of not being good enough, thoughts of heart break, and thoughts of everyone that was hurting. Why couldn't she control it? Have you ever heard every single persons thoughts? It was as if they were all trying to get her, get her attention to somehow be heard by someone. There was nothing she could do to stop them. No matter how hard she tried to focus on something she couldn't block them out. She focused on her dress, the feeling, the color, everything but it didn't help.

"Bella?" She heard a very familiar voice say from the doorway. "Bella are you ok?" He said again.

Sirius walked quickly to her side as soon as he saw her sitting on the ground. "Bella what is it? What's wrong?"

"I can hear everything." She said through her tears. "Everyone's thoughts I-I cant block them-"

"Bella look at me." Sirius said in a calming voice. She didn't look up, she was too busy trying to cover her ears hoping that would magically stop the pain, "Bella please look at me."

She looked up at him, desperate for him to help her somehow. "Focus on me, focus on my voice." he said grabbing her hand, "focus on my touch." Sirius said remembering what Arabella had told him about her lessons with Queenie.

She looked into his eyes and tried her hardest to focus on them, as she looked into them all she could hear were his thoughts. His thoughts were scrambled, he had thoughts of hope and of hurt, and both were caused by this moment right now.

"All I feel is you." Arabella said focusing on everything about him, successfully blocking out his heartbreaking thoughts. He did it. He saved her.

Sirius toke her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing it softly causing her to sigh and turn away.

"Sirius-" She started.

"Please don't say anything." He said gripping her hand desperately. "Arabella I really believe we can do this, and if you don't want James to know I understand, and I still think we can do it."

"Sirius I-" she started, but stopped as she realized how bad the past day had been without him.

"We can do this in secret." he pleaded. "I have it all planned out! Tonight we have all to ourselves.  We can do whatever we want where ever we want, and tomorrow Peter said he would keep James in the room by asking where babies come from so that will gives us a few hours! Then Thursday we can-"

Arabella placed her lips on his to shut him up quickly. "I'm sorry."