"We have to go and tell them we can't do it, Remus," Arabella explained in a frantic, nervous whisper. "I'll be terrified... I'll freeze up... throw up, probably..."

"You agreed to it, Bell," Remus looked concerned as his trembling friend tugged at his arm as they passed in the corridor. "It'll look bad if we back out..."

"It'll look even worse if I collapse on stage," Arabella said with an unequivocal tone, her eyes drilling into him. "I can't do it. I can't perform in front of Hogwarts students. I'll..."

"But we rehearse in the Gryffindor Tower," Remus reasoned. "You don't get all panicky then."

"But... that's different. They're not all peering at you, waiting for it all to go horribly and appallingly wrong..."

Remus observed Arabella's sincerely worried expression; it was disconcerting to say the least, considering her usual fearlessness in every situation.

His heart had leapt at the opportunity to finally showcase his and Bell's musical talents; it would grant them both some respect with those who regarded him as a lazy idiot and her as a neurotic know-it-all. He knew their music was commendable, but most of it had never been heard by ears other than their own.

"You really want to do this, don't you?" Arabella realised, her watery eyes portraying her dread.

"Well, yeah," Remus admitted. "I love performing. I thought you did..."

"I do," Bell nodded. "Just when nobody's watching, preferably."

"Well, there's two of us. You've got me to hide behind if it gets too scary."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

Remus played with an idea in his head for a few moments, jumpy with excitement. "Well... what if there were seven of us?"

"Sorry?"

"We'll be a sort of band. Me, you, Sirius, James, Peter, Tina and Lily."

"Yeah, they'll really agree to that, Remus," Bell snorted with sarcasm.

"No, I'm serious. You may not have noticed, but they're pretty good musicians themselves."

"Of course I've bloody noticed," Bell snapped, feeling wounded by an accusation of not paying attention and care to her closest friends.

"Well maybe this is your chance to acknowledge that."

"They know I think they're good!"

"Do they?"

"Yes!"

"Did you know James has taken up bass guitar as well as acoustic guitar now? Did you know Celestina took professional singing lessons over the summer? Did you even know that your best friend Lily has just passed grade four flute with a distinction? Did you?"

Bell frowned with confused amazement; why had her friends never told her all this? She really had no idea that they had taken music so seriously. They were bright people who could probably pick up practically any skill if they tried, with perhaps the exception of Peter who had never quite levelled up. She genuinely believed they had only taken an interest because of her influence, because they felt they had to, to make her satisfied - not because they enjoyed and cherished it like she did. In a way she felt angry with some sort of distorted, misguided jealousy. Instead of being pleased that they all shared a common interest, she felt resentful that music wasn't exclusively her talent any more. Keeping that a secret from her felt like a hurtful betrayal.

Perhaps she should have stayed and talked about it, she considered later. But she didn't. She fled upstairs in a senselessly foul mood.

* * *

She was in her music room again. It would probably be more appropriate for Arabella to call it her contemplation room, because that was what she did most within its safe walls. She had pushed all the furniture to one side and brought out a large, square, purple crash mat so she could practice some of her martial arts. It had been yet another hobby she had taken up, relatively recently, in hope that the combat skills may put her one step ahead of the other hopefuls at Auror College. After all, it was highly likely that an Auror would become separated from his or her wand during conflict; this way she had prepared a reserve defence mechanism. She had chosen to practice jujitsu, a Japanese martial art which involved no weapons and employed holds, throws and deadening blows to overpower the opponent. It was difficult to practice without partner, but her instructor Temmu Chang had taught her a range of exercises to improve her high kicks and strikes. It was quite challenging and required much concentration, which was great for freeing your mind of disconcerting thoughts. Disconcerting thoughts like not wanting to be an Auror. Like the fear of Death Eaters shrouded in the shadows of Hogsmeade. Like the uncertain fate of Ellie Fletcher. Even the ambivalent feelings one might have for Sirius Black.

Jujitsu served the dual purpose of keeping her stamina up, and since events had meant she had missed her Sunday morning jog, Arabella felt she had to make up for it. She was pushing herself to he limit, practically shrieking with effort for every movement. The sweat was streaming off her skin. She was beginning to feel quite dizzy headed; she hadn't eaten all morning, but she didn't link the two things together. She saw the faintness as a sign of weakness, and she wouldn't accept it. Instead of lying down, taking a break and eating something like she should have done, she impelled her tiny body to work even harder. Within minutes she had collapsed into an awkward heap, unconscious and pale.

* * *

It was the middle of Sunday afternoon, a time Sirius tended never to like. He was laden with that familiar dispirited feeling that the weekend was almost over and tomorrow it would be back to the torture chambers, or classrooms as the teachers/torturers called them. This Sunday afternoon was particularly tedious after such an eventful and strange weekend. He paced aimlessly around the castle, feeling frustrated and gloomy. He'd lost the chance of getting on the Quidditch team and his girlfriend in the space of a day, and now he just felt confused by his bizarre but also quite pleasant encounters with Arabella.

On his way up to the West Tower, we brushed shoulders with Celestina, who had finally given up pining away in the dormitories. "Jerk," she had muttered under her breath, probably privately hoping he would retaliate, they would argue and in some roundabout way Sirius would end up apologising. That's the way Tina's mind worked - weirdly. Her nose twitched in irritation when he ignored her.

He was feeling sincerely guilty about the whole Celestina thing now; he realised he had handled it badly, and kissing Celestina's best friend on the same day of their break-up didn't help to ease the remorse. Despite that he still sensed a little obliging curiosity inside himself; he'd never imagined Arabella to be so passionate and exciting. He'd been so busy being horrid to her he supposed he had always viewed her as this one-dimensional pantomime villain character. He'd got her painfully wrong, like so much else this weekend.

"Arabella! Arabella! I'm sorry about what I said, it was mean and thoughtless. I'm sorry! Please let me in!"

Strange, pondered Sirius. Had he just seen Remus thumping a wall, apologising to Arabella? It had been a long while since Sirius had bothered to say sorry for anything, but he was pretty sure banging on stone bricks didn't work...

"Moony?" Sirius turned around. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"Arabella's in there," Remus signalled towards the wall. "I don't think she's talking to me."

"Arabella's in the wall?... Oh, wait! Is that the little madam's secret hide-away?"

"Oh, bugger," Remus sighed heavily. "She's never going to forgive me now I've virtually told you where her music room is."

"Don't worry about it, Moony, it's not like I'd ever want to go in there!" Sirius sniggered, a little too much for his statement to be believable. Remus regarded Sirius suspiciously. "You alright, Sirius?"

"Fine!" Sirius blurted, twitching like a bundle of nerves.

"Where were you this morning? I couldn't find you anywhere."

"What is this?! The bloody Spanish Inquisition?!" Sirius exclaimed cantankerously.

Remus chose to ignore his friend's strange behaviour, being far too troubled over the fact that he couldn't find Arabella anywhere. He had checked the Gryffindor Common Room, the Great Hall, the Quidditch stands, he asked Lily to check the girls' dormitory and bathroom... he'd paced around the corridors for almost an hour, hoping to bump in to her. She had to be in the music room.

Why was she being so touchy over this issue and refusing to speak to him? It wasn't like they'd had a massive fight, but then again it didn't usually take that much to tick off Bell...

Remus rapped on the wall again with the side of his clenched fist. "Come on, Bell!" he called. "Please let me in! Don't be like this!"

"You could always hot-wire the magic password," Sirius suggested casually.

"You know, like hot-wiring a Muggle car. The principals are the same, except you use a variation on the Allohomora spell."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Probably," Sirius said breezily. "Leo taught me how to do it, and he knows loads of cool illegal spells. Not Dark magic, of course, just stuff the Ministry thinks is too useful to be allowed... so, do you want me to do it?"

"Hang on... BELL! If you don't open up, We're going to hot-wire the password and get in anyway!"

There was no reply. Remus gave Sirius a nod of acknowledgement.

"Okay, I'm going to need your help because the walls here are pretty thick," Sirius said. "You just point your wand at the space in the wall and chant Allohomora Chaudus. Got that?"

Together they raised their wands. They began to chant, the tips of their wands glowing red hot. Soon the broad bricks of the concealed opening began to glow with the same searing intensity, giving the impression that they were about to explode.

"Now run!" Sirius yelled. Remus didn't need telling twice. They marginally escaped the flaming flying debris as the wall ruptured spectacularly.

"Oh, bloody hell, Sirius," Remus moaned, as he spurted water from the end of his wand to stifle the flames from a smouldering tapestry. "You didn't tell me the damn spell would re-enact the Blitz, for crying out loud. McGonagall will hang, draw and quarter us if she finds out..."

Remus' concerns were soon diverted when he saw Arabella's limp body lying motionless on the ground. "Bell!" he yelped desperately, but she didn't stir.

Remus was paralysed with dread, his brain telling him to rush to Arabella's side but some how his muscles didn't get the message.

Sirius dashed over and knelt by Arabella, checking her vital signs and keeping his cool. "She's got a pulse and she's breathing," he said, sighing with relief. "She must have fainted because it doesn't look like she's banged her head. Her face is red hot though. I think she's got a fever."

Sirius shook Bell's arm gently, and gradually she began to move and open her eyes. Her head was pounding like a tumultuous thunderstorm had erupted inside it; she tried to stand up but she flopped back down again, exhausted by the effort exerted on her aching muscles.

"I think we'd better take you to the hospital wing," echoed a loud, heavy voice that make her ears ring.

"No... no... I hate that place..." Bell muttered inaudibly, but she was incapable of putting up much of a fight and Sirius took her in his arms and carried her out of the gaping hole in the wall.

"I-is she gonna be okay?" Remus' voice quivered.

"Yeah, I should think so," Sirius assured his shaken friend. "At least we have an excuse for blowing the wall up now - it was a medical emergency. We'll be heroes - fifteen points for Gryffindor apiece I should think if old Dumbledore values his niece's life at all... of course, when the girls ask us what happened, we can tell them that you had to give Bell CPR and you saved her life..."

Remus couldn't take on Sirius' light-hearted attitude. He wondered what might have happened if he'd found Bell in that state all by himself; he wouldn't have had the first clue as to what to do. Sirius had taken the situation all in his stride, taking control and doing all the right things under pressure, like he wasn't frightened at all. Amazing, really...

Bell spent most of the next couple of days asleep in the hospital wing, recovering from the mental and physical strain she'd already managed to land herself with after just a week back at school. Her friends took it in turns to keep her company, even when she was sleeping, and she was sent lots of chocolates and cards from well-wishers. It wasn't until the following Saturday when she felt truly aware of everything again, and started to worry about the lessons she'd missed.

"I can't believe I let myself get sick," she moaned to Lily and Celestina that afternoon, as she perched on the end of the bed in her night-gown. "It's embarrassing. What if the Ministry gets wind of this? My chances of getting into Auror college will be severely impaired -"

"Bell, will you calm down, please?" Lily said gently. "It was getting stressed like this that made you ill in the first place. I'm sure even Aurors get sick every now and then; they're human too, you know."

"But think of all the work I've missed," Bell despaired.

"It's six days, not six years, honey!" Celestina laughed. "You did have us all worried, though. Sirius told us how you stopped breathing and he couldn't find a heart beat. You could have died, Bell. He saved your life," she added with a sense of reflected triumph.

I might have known Sirius would be the one to stop me taking the easy way out, Arabella thought bitterly. Even with her relationship with Sirius being a little more complicated than sheer hatred now, she still refused to see the goodness in him. She intended to abhor him for all eternity.

"I want you to give me all the work I've missed," said Bell. "I'll do it all this weekend."

"You certainly will not," Lily refused point-blank. "You're staying in bed until Monday - Madam Pomfrey says so, and I totally agree."

"What?" Bell was flabbergasted. "But I'm fine!"

"You're paler than Nearly Headless Nick, Bell," Celestina joked.

Arabella stood up and twirled in her night gown. "There's nothing wrong with me!"

"Get back into bed!" sounded the disgruntled voice of Madam Pomfrey, who was mixing Sleeping Potions at the other end of the other end of the hospital wing. "I'll not have you having a relapse, Arabella!"

There was no messing with Madam Pomfrey, Arabella had learned from living in the castle for so long. With a reluctant grumble, she climbed under the blankets and scowled.

"Trust you to complain about spending two days in bed like its some kind of torture," Celestina giggled.

"It bloody well is torture," Arabella moaned.

"I brought you a couple of books to muse through," Lily said.

"Ooh," Arabella perked up. "A Standard Book of Spells (Grade Six)? Or Unravelling Ancient Runes?"

"No, I brought you some Muggle novels to read," said Lily. "These are two of my favourites... Pride and Prejudice, and Vanity Fair. You may not understand all the Muggle stuff in it, but I think you'll still enjoy the story..."

Arabella didn't seem convinced, but accepted the books any way in hope of catching up on her Muggle Studies work from them in some way.

"I hear you passed with a distinction," Arabella said, the tiniest bit of resentment evident in her restrained tone, only discernible to the trained ear.

"Passed what?"

"Your flute exam. Congratulations."

"Oh, well, thank-you," Lily muttered, blushing.

"We'll have to play together some time."

"... What, you mean it?"

"Sure."

"Well... great!" Lily beamed with relief; she had been afraid to tell Bell of her achievement, mainly because she supposed grade four didn't sound that extraordinary to an exquisite musician like Arabella, and Bell would somehow belittle her accomplishment. Lily had only been playing for two years and had progressed immensely since Arabella had last heard her play.

"Well, we'll let you get reading," Lily said. "We'll come again in an hour or two, OK?"

"Alright," Arabella nodded, and waved from her bed as they left the room.