VICTORY ♛ Sirius Black

Chapter 15: Tea

Beth did not sleep at all that night. She could not stop thinking about all the people who doubted the alliance. Which were a lot of people.

Her gut feeling told her she was doing the right thing. Her mind was still on the fence about it, and all her friends and family told her to betray him on the first occasion. All she could hope for was that Sirius had better friends than she did.

In her dreams, she followed Sirius around a maze. He kept telling her to look straight ahead. "Don't look back." He urged her on, grabbing her hand and leading her further in. The hedges on either side of her had faces in it. First, it was Celia, then followed Regulus and even Slughorn made an appearance.

The further they went, the scarier the faces became. Her father's eyes followed her, burning holes into her hand. Then came their neighbour, Mr Bornhix, a known Deatheater. "Just a little further." Sirius would tell her. "Almost there."

Beth never got to see what was at the end. She woke up covered in sweat, with Celia by her side. "Did you dream of her again?" She asked on a comforting tone. Beth shook her head and sat up straight. Her hand instinctively wrapped around her necklace. The sky was grey outside, it was the day of the first task.

Overall, she may have gotten two hours of sleep. She certainly looked it. Celia managed to go back to bed, but Beth was wide awake. She left the dorm behind her and headed for an early breakfast. She knew the task would be held at noon, so she had plenty of time to get ready. Though there really wasn't much else to do. 

There were some students already in the Great Hall, most of them looked like they had a rough night as well. She was also not the first champion in the hall, she wasn't even the second. Both Kaeley and Cephas were already up. There was no point in hiding the alliances anymore, so Kaeley had sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

Both of them smirked at Beth as they noticed her standing in the door opening. They had been waiting to spill the tea, to let the school know of their alliance. 

"Morning." Sirius appeared beside her. "Looks like none of us slept then. Good, I thought I'd be the only one."

Cephas looked like he had understood what happened, while Kaeley was still in the blue about it. Though they had never even touched before, Sirius wrapped his arm around Beth in a side hug. The look on the young Hufflepuff's face was absolutely priceless.

"Imagine if you hadn't listened in on them." Sirius said as the two walked over to the Gryffindor table. 

"We'd be done for." Beth answered. Kaeley and Cephas were speaking in fast whispers to each other. Where Kaeley still looked dead surprised, Cephas was angry. One of his advantages for working with her had just exploded right in front of his eyes. 

Beth sat next to Sirius for breakfast. There was no point in talking things over again, they had done so a million times already. Besides, they could never be sure who was listening in.