VICTORY ♛ Sirius Black

Chapter 13: Unify

Eventually, Celia and the rest of the Marauders sulked off. It was clear that their bickering would only get in the way of actual progress. Something Sirius desperately needed after being next to useless for the last month.

They made sure they were alone, and opened the cylinder. Sirius listened intently to the clue, taking in every word and repeating it in his head. Beth at this point was already dreaming the words. 

"You were lying when you said you had figured it out." Sirius concluded, when the voice stopped.

"There isn't anything to figure out." She answered. "It's pretty straight forward."

"I see why you were so desperate to work with me now." He said. "They have five of these clues." 

Beth didn't really feel that she had been so 'desperate' to work with him. But arguing would get them nowhere, and time was already cutting short. "All we can do is hope that this clue is important, the final piece of the puzzle."

"What did it say again?" Sirius asked. "Line by line."

"Pick a door to go looking for." She said. Sirius got up and started pacing down the path. 

"So they'll probably lock the four of us in a room and we have to find the correct door which lets us leave." He brainstormed. "You any good at hexing, Elisabeth?" 

"I've been training." She answered. "And I prefer Beth."

"Right," He looked out of the window. "Say the next line."

That is how they spend the entire day. Beth would say the next line, Sirius would give his thoughts on it. At the end though, they arrived at the same conclusion Beth had arrived at before. If the first door was a dud, they would be screwed.

"We could pretend to fight each other." Sirius offered. "Make it seem like we took each other out, then follow them through the correct door."

"How do I know you won't actually hex me?" Beth asked. Sirius added the line 'I promise I won't hex Beth Batley' to the scroll, to which Beth started laughing. 

"Fair enough." She said. It had gotten dark outside, so it was almost time for them to part ways. Still, a strange feeling in her stomach said she was doing the right thing by trusting Sirius. He had gotten detention plenty for jinxing people, so he must be good at it. If all else fails, perhaps he could make good bait to the other contestants.

"Do you think this alliance will work?" Beth asked before she could stop herself. Sirius leaned back in his chair. His hair was messy from pulling his hand through it so many times when he got stressed out. 

"You're smarter than I thought you were." He said. "Admittedly, our house qualities together do make a powerful duo. Much more powerful than knowledge and kindness anyway."

"Are we going to let the rest of the school know?" She asked. 

"Definitely not." Sirius answered, stretching his arms behind his head. "I don't think I'd be allowed back into the common room if they knew I was working with the enemy." Beth laughed. 

"Yeah, at least you have the redeemable factor of being Regulus' brother." She said. "They might allow me to sleep on the floor." Sirius smile went away at the mention of Regulus' name. 

"I am sorry that he gave it to me." She said, after the silence had stretched on for too long. She eyed the clue, which was laying on the table. "It wasn't right."

Sirius just shrugged. "It wasn't your fault." He just said, not explaining anything else. "I'm just happy that the goblet chose you, not him."

"Goddamn it." Beth said, leaning back in her chair. "It's actually working." Sirius raised one of his brows at her. "The point of the competition is to distract us from what is going outside. It is also to unify us as one school."

"He knew that we would start working together." Sirius finished and also laughed. 

"Luckily for us," Beth got up from her seat and grabbed the enchanted piece of parchment. "We only have to work together for this task. Remind me to curse you when we're done."