Excerpt from one of the last chapters in my huge 3-part, 140-something chapter Black Cousins/Marauders fic I've been working on for 8 years (And have no idea when I'll publish 🫣). It's a Nobleflower and (TW for Wolfstar diehards) a Blackinnon fic, very Cissa and Sirius-centric, with emphasis on the cousins' dynamics, as I feel that is quite neglected sometimes (ESPECIALLY between Narcissa and Sirius) 😋x. (Also dw there is some unspoken Wolfstar angst and tension, but it's just never been my ship-- no hate)
Bella is placed a few cells over from him. For the first week, she croons through the days, proclaiming her lord will return, doubling down and preaching her loyalty and belief in him. A month in, she cries for him, calling for his power and rescue of her. It’s pathetic and unnerving. Bellatrix Black would scoff at such behaviour. Bellatrix Lestrange lives and breathes for Voldemort.
It’s two months before she acknowledges his presence.
She’s threatening the wizarding guards who are inspecting the floor, telling them in great detail how she would bring about their ends. She mentions the fate of some Muggle family she’d slain, and Sirius hears himself snarling, “For Merlin’s sake, Bella, shut up!”
He’s surprised when she actually falls silent, and the guards show their thanks by hissing at him to be quiet.
It’s an hour later that he hears a raspy, “Siri?”
He stops himself from answering, curling onto his cot under his grimy scrap of a blanket.
He hears her laugh, as if delighted, and he grits his teeth. She sounds too familiar. This loon with his blood.
“Siri!” she sings, “I forgot you’d be here too!” She cackles, “They think you betrayed all your little friends! How ridiculous, these idiots are ruling our world! You bring pride to the Black name, even if it’s false. Wormtail is not even respectable enough to be blamed for his own crimes!”
Sirius shivered with fury towards Peter all over again, “Didn’t realise you were cosying up to half-bloods now, Bella.”
There is still mirth in her voice when she scoffs, “He was a means to an end, and he was most useful. But don’t worry, I wish him dead too. It’s his shoddy information on the Potter's that led to the Dark Lord’s disappearance.”
“You mean his defeat?” He asks boredly.
Bella snarls now, “The Dark Lord was not defeated! He will return!”
Sirius ignores her, staring at the wall of his damp, stone cage.
“You must be really mad, Siri! He ratted on your friends, framed you… tortured and killed your girlfriend and unborn daughter.”
He was on his feet in a blink, the bars rattled as he spat, “Don’t you dare mention Marlene, you sick bitch!”
Bellatrix tuts, “Unbecoming Muggle language, Siri! I was quite surprised that you shacked up with a Pureblood, blood-traitor though she was. I thought you’d try and besmirch the Black name with a mudblood or filthy Muggle! I did like your Marlene; she hardly begged, and sneered at Wormtail until the end. She was smart enough to know I wouldn’t harm her after finding out she was pregnant with Black progeny. But the Rat was all too happy to step in when asked! Don’t fret, her last words were to you.”
The hate boiling in his veins made him nauseous. Sirius threw up all over the floor to the soundtrack of Bellatrix’s laughter. He tuned her out as she continued to jeer at him, chatting as if they were just catching up. He just shivered, staring at the puddle of his own sick.
“Oh, how I missed you, Siri!”
Somehow, this was the same girl who had played with him, had helped him learn to fly, though as far as Sirius Black was concerned, his cousin Bella was dead.
Along with pretty much everyone else he cared about.
