Disclaimer: The OC's in this plot as well as fragements of the plot were created by me. The story title comes from a song of the same name by Taylor Swift, I do not claim ownership to it. Everything else belongs to the amazing J.K Rowling. Thank you for reading.
Sirius felt like kicking something. No, that was an understatement. He felt like set the entirety of Hogwarts alight and standing out the front while he watched it burnt...Maybe that was too far. He’d rather just stick that stupid Ravenclaw in a room and torture him until he couldn’t even remember his own name...
“Plotting Peakes’ death yet?” Peter cut his trail of thought off and Sirius turned to glare at him. The latter plopped on his bed and pulled out a letter he’d been sent by his mother a few days previous.
“Shut up Wormtail” he spat and Peter chuckled slightly, placing the letter back on his bedside table.
“I knew you’d be pissed off” he said with a sing song voice, Sirius ignored him completely. “You wanna talk Padfoot?” he whispered, staring over at his friend solemnly.
“First Shelena turns up and then she asks for Peakes, I mean PEAKES! Out of everyone” Peter jumped slightly as his friend threw the book on Animagi he’d previously been reading to the floor with a thump.
“Padfoot...You broke up with-” Sirius turned to glare at Peter which caused him to shut up immediately. Sirius could be more than scary when he wanted to. “Sirius, I’m sorry but you did. You can’t just expect her to forget that, she’s moving on now”
“She can’t” he whispered, dropping back onto his bed and bringing his hands to his face.
“Why not?” Peter asked, moving to sit next to his friend. Sirius sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
“I didn’t want to break up with her Wormtail” He revealed, sighing slightly as he pulled on parts of his hair. Peter frowned in response, place one hand on his friend’s shoulder to try and comfort him.
Peter wasn’t great at comforting people, sometimes he just made it worse for people by opening his mouth but the other three Marauders had been there for him and he was absolutely determined to be there for them. Shelena had never particularly cared for him, in fact she was by far her least favourite Marauder. This had upset him for years, but eventually he had given up on the prospect of ever getting higher on that list. It wasn’t worth it. Since then, he’d made sure that his friends would never be hurt by Millen again.
“Why did you do it then Padfoot?” He asked, trying to be as tactful about it as he possibly could. His friend looked up and stared at him and for a moment Peter thought he was about to get screamed at, but Sirius only let his gaze fall back to the floor.
“Shelena” He whispered and Peter frowned, what was he going on about? “Shelena was there, she was at James’ that night” Sirius took a deep breath; his voice had become shaky in the middle of his sentence. “I got so angry with her, you know how she makes me get and then Coralie appeared and...” He took another deep breath, “I hate myself for it Wormtail”
“It’ll get better, I promise Padfoot” He whispered, unsure of what else he was supposed to say to get his friend to calm down.
“She’ll never get back with me” Sirius said so quietly that Peter literally had to strain his ear to hear, the tone his friend used had broken his heart.
“That’s not true” He added, staring his friend directly in the eyes. Sirius however kept his gaze stuck to the floor. “Everything is possible Padfoot, just believe in yourself” Peter sighed softly, patting his friend on the shoulder once more before he headed back down to the common room to help James and Remus clean up.
Coralie stared up at the roof of the hospital wing for what felt like the millionth time, and she had only been counting since she had finished breakfast. She’d woken up at that moment at about seven to find Madam Pomfrey standing over her with some potions that the young healer had told her would help with the pain, at that time Coralie had wondered what pain she was talking about...but now, now she understood.
In fact, Coralie would go as far to say that she had never experienced more pain than she had at that exact moment. Every single inch of her body hurt and some parts even felt like they were on fire, yet no matter how much ice or cooling potion Madam Pomfrey they didn’t feel any better. She was considering asking for another Dreamless Sleep potion- as it was the only way Coralie could escape her pain when Nathaniel made his way into the hospital wing.
“Hey you” He grinned, placing a kiss on her forehead which would have made Coralie’s toes tingle if she hadn’t been in so much pain. Coralie wasn’t sure exactly when Nathaniel had decided that he would start kissing her cheek and/or forehead, but at the same time Coralie wasn’t sure whether she enjoyed it or not.
“Hi” She said weakly, her ribs beginning to sting slightly as she spoke though she point blank refused to voice her complaints.
“How are you feeling?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows slightly and his pulled a chair up beside her bed. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, a sharp pain crossing her back as she did causing her to wince slightly. “Did Madam Pomfrey work out what you drank yet?”
“Not yet, she says it would have been something really strong though to work so quickly” Nathaniel nodded in agreement, before he began to rack his mind for poisons that worked quickly- the only ones he could think of were muggle and Madam Pomfrey had said that they had definitely been magical. And so, he was back to where he started...nowhere.
“I’ve been thinking Cors” He started, she sent him a teasing look and he didn’t have to be a mind reader to be able to work out what she wanted to say. “What if that drink wasn’t made for you?” Coralie raised her eyebrow at him slightly; she bit down on her lip.
“Who do you think it was made for then?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to flick through who had been at the party and whether she could think of anyone who wanted them gone, but no one instantly came to mind.
“I think it might have been made, for me” He said unsurely, watching her reaction closely. At first she frowned but her expression quickly turned to a humorous one.
“And who exactly would be poisoning you Nate?” She asked, her eyes widening slightly. “I mean, I know you are a Ravenclaw and all but we Gryffindors aren’t that hostile towards other houses” Nathaniel only shook his head at this statement and stared her directly in the eyes.
“I’ve got an idea on who it might have been” Coralie motioned for him to continue and so he took a deep breath, “I think it was Black” Coralie blinked a couple of times at this.
“Sirius?” She choked out, the weakness in her voice had returned.
“Yes, Cors. Everyone knows that he still fancies you, after what happened with Millen he probably sees me as a threat or something” Coralie stared at him oddly; she was almost waiting for him to break into laughter or something and exclaim that he was joking.
“Sirius wouldn’t try to poison you Nate, that’s stupid. The two of you may not get along but still, he wouldn’t go that far” Nathaniel laughed bitterly this time.
“Just think about it Coralie” He said, standing up and making his way out of the Hospital Wing as her Gryffindor friends made their way in. Coralie made sure to note the hostile glare between Nathaniel and Sirius as they passed each other. Would Sirius really have gone that far to get her back?
“Hey, you okay?” Alice asked, furrowing her eyebrows tightly as they all watched Coralie stare blankly at the door.
“Yeah” She whispered, snapping her attention back to her friends though she found herself keeping an eye on Sirius. She hated Nathaniel for mentioning it because now, she’d never be able to keep the thought out of her head.
Marcelle placed the high stack of books she had picked from the shelves onto the little table she had set up in the library over a year ago now. Coralie and Angus had returned to Hogwarts and were being swamped with their homework while Jacob had returned to his job in a local muggle cafe while he waited for his ‘big musical break’ and Violet had gone back to taking art lessons and so finally, she had time to do a little studying of her own.
With a sigh, she realised she’d been in for a full week of nothing but studying old books but she was determined to do it. The curse had been on her mind ever since Coralie had left and due to the fact the curse mentioned two families, she realised there would be no way to break it without the second family and that would require some serious snooping.
She thought about getting in contact with her step-mother as she was the one to inform Marcelle of the curse in the first place but she would have much rather poke her own eyes out with forks that have a conversation with that dreadful woman. At this thought, she opened the first book, titled ‘Arbre Généalogique’ and began to skim through the pages.
As far as she knew, the curse begun with one Sylvie Green in the late 1700’s and so that was where she begun. She’d always envied her ex-husbands side of the family for the history they had, they could trace their ancestors back for twelve generations which led back to the French Revolution. And there, in the eleventh generation was Sylvie Green, her husband Abel and her three children, Albert, Cybil and Romane. Romane was the first girl- the first one in the family line to ever suffer from the curse.
If there was any hope of finding this other family or anything about the curse whatsoever, it was going to be from studying Romane’s life. Pushing the first book to the side, while making some to keep the page with Romane’s name open, she picked up the second book. The diary of Sylvie Green, she knew Coralie had read a few pages of the diary and she had discovered a few things about Sylvie’s life, but Marcelle knew exactly what to look for and she knew it was in there.
Dear Journal,
My dearest Romane has fallen ill once again; she can hardly walk or speak this time. I fear this may be the last time I’ll ever see her. It breaks my heart; I am not ready to say another goodbye to someone before their time. Henri says we should find the Tasse’s again, says that everything that is happening to do with Romane has something to do with those words mother said before she burnt- I do not understand how he remembers them when I have tried so hard to forget them. I am scared, I haven’t seen Edouard or Richaud since they left France, will they even remember me?
Sylvie Green.
Marcelle let out a sigh of relief an hour later, she had finally found a piece that mentioned another family- she had read enough entries to know of the deep love Sylvie had for her daughter- one that made Marcelle’s heart pang to have all of her children safe and with her for every hour of the day no matter how unfair it would be to them, but finally- She had names- Edouard and Richaud Tasse, she was finally one step closer to finding the second family.
After her Gryffindor friends had finally decided to let her sleep, Coralie had promptly dozed off- finding herself to be more tired than she had originally thought she was, it wasn’t until she heard an ear pitching scream that she awoke from her slumber. She managed to rub the sleep out of her eyes before the Hospital wing was filled with another scream.
“Bloody hell, stop it!” A voice screeched, then there were a few loud bangs and crashes before Coralie finally realised who the voice belonged to.
“Sarah?” She asked, staring at the mess of limbs that was now at the bottom of her bed. “And Tyler? I should have known”
“I was just proving to Sarah that I could scream like a girl” Tyler said matter of factly, as if Coralie wouldn’t be able to tell him off because of it.
“Yeah, Tyler?” Sarah started, and as Tyler turned to face her she whacked him over the head a couple of times. “I never asked you to prove it”
“She lies” Tyler said simply, turning back to Coralie as he rubbed his head solemnly. Coralie couldn’t help but laugh at her two friends’ antics though it pained both of her sides to do so, she could always trust Sarah and Tyler to make her laugh when no one else could.
“Thank you for coming to visit me guys” She said with a smile and while Sarah and Tyler smiled back straight away, another well aimed smack on the back of his head quickly got rid of Tyler’s.
“I told him we should let you sleep but you know what he’s like, never listens to a word anyone says” She rolled her eyes but was still smiling widely at the other two. Coralie figured it was nice for Sarah, she knew she didn’t get along with the Ravenclaw girls because she was friends with Tyler, though Coralie found it extremely amazing that Sarah remained friends with said boy. Therefore, Sarah didn’t really have many friends that were girls or were sane, completely unlike Tyler.
“It’s fine, It’s nice to be able to talk to people actually” Coralie sighed slightly, moving her left arm slightly so it wasn’t burning her stomach when it felt like it had been set on fire every five or so minutes. “Other people have come to visit but they’ve been so wrapped up with who did this that I would have preferred to be alone”
“Don’t worry, we won’t ask if you don’t want to talk about it. Just remember that we are here if you need us” Sarah smiled, taking the seat next to Coralie while Tyler pulled one up from another bed. The three of them talked for a while, about nothing in particular really but Coralie found it refreshing to not have to worry about who had put her in the Hospital Wing and why. Eventually, the two of them had to leave to head to dinner but promised to come back and visit her the very next day.
She was just getting herself ready for her own dinner- which meant basically shuffling up in her bed slightly and trying not to be sick in the process, when the Hospital Wing door flew open once more. As Coralie was the only one in the Hospital Wing at that point, she figured the guest must have been for her but she couldn’t think of anyone else who wanted to come and see her, Angus had popped in and told her that he would be back to visit tomorrow as did almost everyone else she knew. Suddenly, whoever had come into the wing had lifted Coralie up in her bed so that she could see them properly.
“Shelena?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly at the sight in front of her. “What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to visit” She smirked in reply, taking the seat beside her bed that Sarah had been sitting only a few moments ago. “It’s been hard to try and get you alone all day; you’ve had people visiting you every hour”
“What do you want?” Coralie asked forcefully, the pain was still strong inside her chest when she spoke but she was still determined to ignore it.
“I just came to warn you” Shelena started, before pausing for a moment to look around the empty Hospital wing.
“Warn me about what exactly?” Coralie snapped in reply instantly. She didn’t like to play games with Shelena, she didn’t like to play games full stop.
“Maybe you should start paying more attention to what you drink Bennett” she commented coldly, raising her eyebrows in a teasing way. “Maybe next time Peakes won’t be around to save you” Coralie could feel herself paling slightly, it made sense now- Shelena had been the one to mess with her drink. It was no secret that Shelena wanted Coralie gone and that was why Coralie felt so dumb when she realised it- it was right in front of her all along.
“You can give up now Shelena, I don’t want Sirius. He’s all yours” Coralie said, her eyes pleading with Shelena to leave her alone.
“Touching” Shelena smirked, rolling her eyes and pursing her lips together. “The thing is Bennett. It never mattered if you didn’t want Sirius, it only matters if he wants you and until that goes away, I’m always going to be watching you” she turned on her heel and began to walk out of Hospital wing, Coralie found herself being lost for words before finally she was able to scream out.
“Tell him then” The words came spilling out of her mouth before she could stop them- they’d obviously caught the other girl’s attention as she spun around immediately. “Tell him I don’t want him; tell him I’m with Nathaniel now. I’ll back you up” Shelena pursed her lips together again before nodding once; she disappeared out of the Hospital wing without saying another word.
Coralie let out a sigh, leaning her head back against the pillow. She felt like rolling over and suffocating herself because of her actions. What the hell had she just done? It was true, she didn't want Sirius anymore but she knew Sirius certainly didn't want Shelena. He would have rather gone to Azkaban. He was going to find out- she knew Shelena wouldn't wait a single moment to go and tell him especially considering how much she loved making people's lives hell.
There was always the example of her poisoning Coralie, wasn't there? Coralie grinded her teeth together slightly, she couldn't believe that she'd completely forgotten about how much Shelena wanted her gone. It wasn't overly surprising that she would have down something like that; in fact it was very much in character for Shelena.
She couldn't believe that the thought hadn't even crossed her mind once- it should have been the first thing she thought of, after all Leo and Shelena were practically the same. It should have been obvious but instead Coralie had been worrying about having someone else out there to get her or as Nathaniel believed, the drink being made for him. But no, only in a perfect world would something like that not be made out for Coralie.
She needed to tell Nathaniel, before he went and did something he'd regret like confront Sirius about it or something. That was going to end terribly. Yet, Coralie was stuck in the Hospital Wing with no way to contact him. It would be dinner for everyone at that moment therefore no one would visit until later tonight, if not then in the morning. Nathaniel could have done something by then.
Authors Note: First things first, ‘Arbre Généalogique’ means Family Tree in French. Secondly, I have decided to now update every Monday and Friday so that I can finish off this story a little quicker. So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will see you Friday.
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