VICTORY ♛ Sirius Black

Chapter 20: Friends

Beth woke up a day later in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey had ordered bed rest for the young girl. She could overhear the headmaster getting an earful about what the competition did to the students. Madam Pomfrey had already treated the same amount of jinxed students in this week than she had all throughout last year. Beth's condition was also brought up, apparently she had been too overworked by preparing for the tournament. It seemed like she had not slept properly in weeks, so Beth gladly took the opportunity to sleep in but most importantly: to hide.

She hadn't won. She had come in second, a proper disgrace to her house and to her family name. To make matters worse, now that the first task had been completed the Daily Prophet was all over the tournament. Their favourite topic was the unlikely alliances which had been forged. One particularly nasty article proposed the idea of love. Unsocial little Elisabeth Batley fell in love with the schools most popular boy and used him to get to second place. 

Beth wasn't in love with Sirius. She hadn't even seen Sirius since he drank the potion. The only visitor Beth wanted to see was Celia, who seemed to be the only supporter she had left. Celia had even brought her chocolate frogs and told her she was proud to be her best friend, while Beth was still struggling through the disappointment. 

She should never have put her name in. 

It was her final night of getting to hide away in the hospital wing. Tomorrow she would have to attend classes again. She would have to face the Ravenclaw students. 

Celia had already warned Beth that the Ravenclaw students now reigned supreme over the castle. They were walking around like kings, while most Hufflepuffs now travelled in packs with their heads down. Beth wanted to know how Gryffindor was feeling, one Gryffindor in particular, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. Celia might start to think the lovey-dovey articles were true. 

The hospital wing was quiet. Beth was the only students who needed to stay overnight today. Her bed was in the far corner, directly underneath one of the tall windows. She could not fall asleep, not with her head busy worrying about tomorrow. 

And then she heard a noise. 

At first, she thought it must be Madam Pomfrey checking in to see if Beth was asleep, but there was something odd about the footsteps. She could hear the door creak open, followed by silence. A few steps landed on the stone floor before she heard the door close again. Whoever it was, it sounded like he or she was trying to be quiet.

She heard the footsteps come closer and closer, until she could no longer deny the fact that they were here for her. She opened her eyes.

Sirius Black was standing at her bedside. He jumped up by her sudden movement, while she flinched away by his sudden presence. "Wha-" Beth started, but Sirius shushed her. 

"Quiet." He whispered. "I think she is asleep, but she'll wake up if we talk loudly."

"What are you doing here?" Beth whispered at him and sat up in the creaky hospital bed. 

Sirius wasn't entirely sure of that himself. He didn't know how he wanted to word it, he just knew he had to say it. "Dumbledore is telling the next clue tomorrow." He sat down on the edge of the bed, as far away from her as possible. "Which means that the tournament will come back in full swing."

Beth had heard about that. She half assumed Dumbledore only waited with telling them the clue to give her a fair chance too. Still, she had hoped for at least a few more days of rest. 

"I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate what you did." He whispered. Beth could tell he was trying to dance around the subject, but as much as she had slept she still felt too tired to really be able to question it. "My guess is that tomorrow people will go back to jinxing each other in the hallways and bad-mouthing us. I just... I just wanted to let you know that I am not behind it."

It was quiet for a few moments as Beth collected her thoughts. Sirius took the time to look at her, to really look at her. The moonlight illuminated her hair but cast dark shadows on her face. She looked... Tired, worn out. He couldn't really blame her for that. 

 "I won't tell anyone to jinx you," Beth whispered back. "But this alliance stopped in the last task. We can't work together for the second one."

Beth liked working with Sirius, she really did. The repercussions were just not worth it. Sirius was a nice guy, far nicer than Cephas or Kaeley, but she was a Slytherin. Slytherins and Gryffindors could not be friends.