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xvii. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ABRAXAS MALFOY.
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"WHAT IS WRONG WITH everyone?" Briar asked, as she walked out of Charms with Gemma the next morning. Mulciber had been the third Slytherin today to glare at her like she murdered his father, and Briar couldn't fathom what was going on. She'd never spoken to him in her life!

"Hm?" Gemma asked, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, you mean the dark looks? Well, I suppose you might as well know. Bellatrix has been spreading some... unflattering things about you. Something to do with how you betrayed the entire house or some crap like that. Don't worry. Anybody with sense knows to take Bellatrix Black with a pinch of salt."

"I didn't betray the house!" Briar snapped, annoyed. "And I'm tired of the glares. I told Professor Dumbledore what I saw. What, she didn't think I was going to lie for her, did she? Like she's made my life any easier over the past few years."

Gemma frowned. "No, but she'll probably make it a lot more difficult now. Bellatrix enjoys holding grudges. It's one of her favorite hobbies; comes right after hexing innocent first years."

Briar sighed, exasperated. She had enough to think about without having all her housemates turned against her. What was their problem, anyway? Slytherins were never big on loyalty; they did what they had to do to get what they wanted. Backstabbing and betrayals were a common consequence of that.

"Ow!" Briar hissed, as a large seventh-year Slytherin rammed into her, hard. Briar dropped her bag and her books, papers flying around everywhere. She turned to glare at him, but he simply gave her a smile and was gone. "Bloody arse."

Gemma frowned, looking at the mess that Briar's bag and ink bottles had created on the floor. "That's going to take a while to clean up..."

Briar shrugged, bending down to pick up her things. "It's all right, you go ahead. I have a free period now anyway, I don't want to make you late to your class."

"Are you sure?"

Briar nodded, and Gemma left. She started to gather her things, and stuff them back into her bag. An arm shot out in front of her, and handed her a sheaf of paper. Glancing up, she met the eyes of Sirius Black.

"Out of the Hospital Wing already?" she asked him, taking the parchment, gratefully. Sirius waved his wand, and some of the sheets which had flown away due to the wind came back.

"You sound disappointed."

Briar smiled. "I'm not. I was just wondering. How are your friends?"

Sirius shrugged, picking up a broken ink bottle. "James is fine, Peter should be back by this afternoon, he was hurt the worst of us all. I suppose Snivellus thought he was an easy target. No chance the little git got expelled, is there?"

Briar sighed. "Well, I saw him in class earlier, so no, I don't think he did. Somebody said something about Dumbledore writing home to his parents. I really don't know what happened. I doubt it's anything too serious, though. Lucius plans to back him up."

Sirius looked shocked. "He practically cursed his leg off!"

"Well, it seems that apparently Slytherins don't tell on each other anymore. I failed to receive the memo, otherwise I might have prevented myself from facing Bellatrix Black's wrath," Briar muttered irritably, gathering the last of her things. She held up a sheaf of papers that were covered in spilt ink and frowned down at them.

Sirius smiled, slightly. "So that bloke did shove you on purpose, then? Are those papers any important?"

Briar nodded, waving her wand at them and murmuring a few spells under her breath. The extra ink siphoned off, but there were still blots all over the pages. She shoved them in her bag, anyway. "I spent all night writing these up. Can't you just do something stupid so that Bellatrix forgets about me and spends her time plotting your murder instead?"

"Excuse me? I spent all night in the Hospital Wing because of her. Do you have any idea how painful those beds are? Stiff as a board, my back's been aching all morning."

Briar rolled her eyes. "Sounds horrendous."

" Then again, I've never managed to do something stupid enough to make my entire house hate me."

Briar scoffed at him. "Pardon? This stupid thing I did saved your arse, or you'd be sitting with Bellatrix in detention right now!"

"All right, all right, it was a joke! Don't take everything so bloody seriously!"

A head of familiar platinum blonde hair caught Briar's eye over Sirius's shoulder, and she glanced down the full corridor, trying to see who it was. Lucius couldn't have gotten out of the Hospital Wing already, could he? Madame Pomfrey had said that he would need another two or three days in there at least. The head disappeared, and then Briar saw it again, before another bunch of students blocked it once more.

That wasn't Lucius.

"You need to go," Briar insisted, turning to Sirius. He frowned, looking somewhat bewildered.

"What?"

"Leave! Now, Black!"

"You're not angry, are you?' Sirius asked, looking surprised. "Bloody hell, Rosie, it was just a joke-"

Briar turned around, and saw that Abraxas Malfoy had come into sight. He was walking towards her, but Briar couldn't tell if he'd seen her or not. Lowering her voice, she gave Sirius a meaningful look.

"Listen to me. It's not that. Just please walk in the direction you're facing, and don't turn your head around, whatever you do, okay? I'll explain later, just go."

Sirius still looked confused, but followed her instructions, walking down the corridor without turning around. Briar quickly sat down on a bench nearby and pulled out a sheet of parchment, pretending to engrossed in reading it.

"Briar!"

Briar glanced up, feigning surprise at seeing her uncle. He was a tall and rather intimidating man, with the trademark Malfoy hair matching her own and a permanent frown on his face. She smiled at him, and prayed that he hadn't seen Sirius. "Uncle Abraxas! Have you been to the Hospital Wing? Madame Pomfrey said that Lucius was doing much better."

Her uncle nodded, without a hint of a smile. "Yes, I've been to see him. I also spoke to your Headmaster about letting that Snape boy off easy. Lucius tells me he's a very clever young man who shows a lot of promise."

Briar frowned. Promise? For what exactly, to become a Death Eater? She ignored the comment. "Oh."

Abraxas Malfoy nodded. "Well, I should be going, urgent work at the Ministry. Your father sends his love, he's in France at the moment."

"Oh. Thank you."

Abraxas Malfoy nodded curtly, before turning around and walking away. Briar was unsurprised. He was a man of very few words, not one for idle conversation. She let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding and waited for his figure to disappear, before picking up her bag and walking down the corridor.

Sirius Black was waiting for her at the end, leaning casually against the wall. He pushed himself off it when he saw her, and raised his eyebrows. "Was that Malfoy's Dad? Looks like he has a stick up his arse."

Briar smiled. "That's Uncle Abraxas, yes. And he always looks like that."

"Came to check on his son, did he?"

Briar nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry I made you leave, it's just that he probably knows about the whole issue that happened before, and..."

Sirius interrupted her. "You don't want to go to Beauxbatons. Understood, you don't need to apologize. But I only saw him once before, and I was much younger. I doubt he knew what I looked like, anyway."

"That's a relief."

Sirius nodded, and they both stood in silence for a few seconds. Briar suddenly felt awkward, and unsure what to say.

"Um, well. I should go," she said finally. "I'll see you in Potions, I guess."

"Of course. I don't suppose you've got Prefect duties tonight?"

"Yes, I do. Why?"

Sirius grinned. "Maybe I'll stop by."

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Briar sat alone at the dinner table that evening, parchment spread all around her while she tried to eat at the same time. Layla Frey, the Head Girl, was a seventh-year Gryffindor girl who enjoyed the benefits of her position, while delegating the work to others. Briar usually ended up doing most of her work, mainly because she had a difficult time saying no.

          She was currently drawing up the timetable that had been followed for the last four months, for the nighttime Prefect duties. It was a long and boring task, which Briar had already done the previous night, before that Slytherin smacked into her and spilled ink all over it.

          Briar sighed, as her quill scratched on the paper. Most prefects stuck to the schedule they were given, but occasionally one or two would be unable to take the duty and they'd switch days with someone else. Layla was one of them, Briar noticed, along with Remus Lupin. In fact, he seemed to switch duties with someone almost every month.

           Briar frowned, as she noticed a small pattern start to appear. Remus Lupin had exchanged duties with one of the Ravenclaw Prefects on the 15th of September. Then he was entirely regular in his schedule, all the way up until the 14th of October. He'd asked her to take up his duties that night, because he wasn't feeling well. Briar remembered that he had looked rather pale while asking her about it, and she'd agreed immediately.

          There was nothing in the month of November, because he hadn't been assigned a duty in the first two weeks at all. But once again, on the 13th of December, somebody else had taken up Lupin's duty. The coincidence was too striking to be true, yet Briar could see no explanation. How was he unable to take up duties exactly every 29 days?

         There was a loud bang from the end of her table, and Briar jumped. She put down the sandwich she'd been holding, and turned to look at the commotion.

         "Bloody hell! It's my skin, what's wrong with my skin?" a loud voice bellowed. Briar realized that the sound was coming from Rookwood, the large seventh-year who'd banged into her that morning. He was staring down at his hands, which were slowly turning a dark emerald green. He tried desperately to wipe off the color, but it only spread further up his arm. Small stripes of silver were beginning to appear as well.

         Most of the students from the other houses were laughing, and Briar couldn't help it either. It seemed that somebody had decided to turn Rookwood's skin the color of his house. Rookwood jumped around in horror as the green and silver stain reached his neck. "Stop it! Damn it, stop it! Who's doing this?"

         Briar had a sneaking suspicion, and she glanced at the Gryffindor table to see that she was right. While most of the students were laughing obviously, only James Potter and Sirius Black were trying to hide their smiles. She watched them until she caught Sirius's gaze. He gave her a cheeky grin and slowly pressed a finger to his lips. Briar rolled her eyes, but she couldn't resist a giggle.

           Maybe Sirius Black was capable of being sweet.

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