Of Ice and Interruptions
Sirius hates the robes he is wearing. The collar is so high it practically brushes his chin, and the stiff material chafes his Adam's apple whenever he talks. The black fabric may be plenty loose on his frame, but it still feels suffocating.
His thoughts are interrupted by Remus walking into the living room he is currently sitting in, and he takes in Remus's black robes before flatly saying, "I take it you're ready to go?"
"I am," Remus sighs. He looks up from buttoning the cuffs of his aged robes to add, "In case you've forgotten about him though, we should really wait for our roommate."
"Of course I haven't forgotten about Peter," Sirius replies with a humorless snort of laughter. "He takes forever to get ready, though. Can't he find the place on his own?"
Remus plops down on the couch next to Sirius. "I know funerals put everyone in a bad mood, but be nice. If we leave now then Peter will have to arrive alone —"
"— and everybody knows it's bad luck to arrive at a funeral alone. Yeah, yeah, I know the Wizarding traditions as well as anybody else." Sirius fits a finger inside of his collar and tugs at it, attempting to loosen the grip it has on his neck. From the way Remus is fidgeting with his own robes, he has the feeling that nobody owns funeral robes that fit them well.
After a moment Remus quietly says, "I can't believe we're still not any closer to figuring out who killed Benjy. How can the funeral give anybody closure if we don't even know that?"
"We do know who did it," Sirius replies, clenching his fists. "Everybody knows the Death Eaters did it. We just haven't been able to prove who belongs to the Death Eaters and which one of them carried out the murder."
"At least we succeeded in unmasking Rosier recently," Remus responds, resting his head against the back of the couch.
"Yeah. Fantastic. That's one out of how many dozen?" Sirius says, crossing his arms.
"It's something," Remus sighs again, lolling his head forward. "Didn't you have a mission with McKinnon a couple of days ago trying to prove that Rodolphus Lestrange was a Death Eater? No luck, I take it?"
"No, all that happened was McKinnon and I got into a duel with him. He almost Disapparated with her." Sirius exhales sharply, drumming his fingers against his arm. "If he had succeeded we would have found McKinnon in as many pieces as they found Benjy."
"If he attacked you two, and you know it was him, can't the Order use that somehow? Get him arrested for assault? That would take him off of the streets for a while at least."
"We can't prove who started the duel, and it doesn't help that the Lestranges practically own half the Ministry. It means the Ministry will always side with them," Sirius replies, straining to keep any annoyance from his voice. Just thinking about the Lestranges makes him want to reach for his wand. "The only way we could even get close to touching them is if they went loony and started attacking unarmed civilians in broad daylight."
"Or if we managed to tear off their masks in the middle of a fight," Remus says, but his tone doesn't sound hopeful.
"Even then, they would probably just claim they were under the Imperius curse," Sirius mutters in response. A moment later he yells out, "Peter, hurry up! You can do your make-up another time. We're going to be late."
There is the sound of a door opening, and a second later Peter walks into the room, doing up the last buttons on his robe. "Geez, calm down, I know when the funeral is. We're not going to be late."
Peter is, much to Sirius's surprise, right. When the three of them appear at the cemetery, they are among the first guests there. There is a path of footsteps in the half-melted snow pointing towards the coffin, and Dumbledore and Moody are talking near the podium at the front. James and Lily are sitting together and Peter and Remus, followed by Sirius, slip into the seats next to them. Sirius feels his cheap plastic chair sink into the snow as he sits down, and Remus nods to the front before morosely saying, "I guess they found enough of Benjy for a coffin after all."
Slowly, other people start arriving in groups and pairs. Alice and Frank Longbottom greet Sirius as they take their seats, and the Prewetts — all seven of them — arrive in one massive group. Dorcas and Hestia appear together with a loud pop! while Caradoc and Emmeline slowly walk up to the rows of chairs, having apparently decided to floo together to the closest building and then go on foot. When the funeral is close to starting, there are enough pairs of people appearing that Sirius barely notices Marlene McKinnon arriving alone and silently slipping into the empty seat next to him. He finally nods to her in greeting, and the thought idly brushes his conscious that she looks oddly colorless. After a moment he realizes that she's not wearing the garishly purple eye make-up and offensively red lipstick she normally does.
The cold has already started biting its way past Sirius's wool robes when Dumbledore stands behind the podium and gives a sad smile to the audience. The Headmaster's voice brings a hushed silence as he says, "There is no good way to open a funeral, and especially not for someone as gentle, loving, and dedicated as Benjy Fenwick."
Sirius swallows. He didn't know Benjy particularly well, but he always had the impression that Benjy was nice enough, and – looking around at how well-attended the funeral is – it certainly seems that Benjy was well-liked. In the distance, Sirius spots two more people walking in the direction of the funeral. Neither of them are wearing black, though, and he decides that they must be going somewhere else.
Sirius returns his attention to Dumbledore as the wizard begins recounting the positive impact that Benjy has had on everyone around him. There are several muffled sobs from the audience as Dumbledore's eulogy comes to an end, and he continues, "Dorcas will do us — and Benjy — the honor of providing the next eulogy. Dorcas had the good fortune of knowing Benjy since their first year at Hogwarts together and —"
"Is this the Fenwick funeral?" a woman's commanding drawl interrupts from the back. Just the sound of the voice is enough to make Sirius's sad ruminations abruptly disappear and instead transform into lava flowing through his veins. Fighting the urge to immediately draw his wand, he leaps to his feet, turning to face the woman.
"You!"
"Hello, my dear cousin," Bellatrix replies in a mockingly sweet tone. She lightly touches the shoulder of the man standing next to her and continues in the same tone, "Rodolphus and I were looking for the Fenwick funeral. We wished to, ah, offer our condolences."
The entire audience is regarding the two Lestranges with expressions varying from horror to rage. Everyone knows the Lestranges are suspected Death Eaters, and it is clear they are not there with good intentions. Sirius feels as though he is about to break something – preferably Bellatrix – when James yells, "You two aren't welcome here. Leave before we make you."
Bellatrix clucks her tongue before turning to Sirius. "Little cousin, your friends are awfully…slow…aren't they? Rodolphus and I can be anywhere we like here — this cemetery is public property. Why, as a matter of fact —" Bellatrix begins strolling towards the coffin at the front of the audience, and everyone present seems to tense in unison. She stops when there is barely more than a foot separating her and the coffin and, lazily turning back to face Sirius, continues — "We could choose to sit right here, and there isn't a thing you could legally do about it."
"There are a lot of things we could do about it," James spits.
"You seem to be implying you could curse us. I suppose you could…" Bellatrix fixes James with a condescending smile, before allowing her gaze to drift across the audience. "Perhaps you noticed, though? There are several Aurors in attendance at this funeral. If they didn't arrest you for cursing us — well. Maybe you never learned that attacking someone is a crime, but it is. If the Aurors didn't arrest you, nothing could be a clearer sign of favoritism and corruption. Just a quick owl to my contacts at the Ministry and that Auror would be promptly fired."
Sirius is nearly shaking with fury, when Moody stands up and gravely says, "She's right, Potter. If anybody attacks her, and it's not out of self-defense, I'll have to arrest them. It's the law."
"Why thank you, Mr. Moody," Bellatrix says smugly. "I suppose we'll take our seats now."
"Hold up, Missy!" Moody barks. "That applies to you, too. Attack anybody and it's a well-placed handcuff charm for you."
"Me? You think I'm capable of such violence? How outrageous," she replies lightly, taking the empty seat directly in front of Sirius and gesturing for Rodolphus to take the seat in front of McKinnon.
For a moment Sirius is speechless. He doesn't know why the Lestranges are here, but the thought of them and all their pure blood supremacy interrupting what should be a respectful funeral makes him start daydreaming about driving his wand into the back of Bellatrix's skull. Sirius does not even notice that Dumbledore has awkwardly attempted to recommence the eulogies until Remus yanks Sirius back down to a sitting position and whispers that they need to control themselves.
As Dumbledore continues talking, Sirius can hear Bellatrix melodramatically sigh to Rodolphus, "I must admit, I was hoping for a warmer welcome. Here we're gracing everyone with our presence, and what thanks do we get? Threats of violence! Unacceptable."
Sirius hisses into Remus's ear, "They're not even wearing black. They look like they went out and bought the most outlandishly colourful robes in existence just for this funeral."
Most everybody in the audience looks upset to some degree, but it is McKinnon, sitting next to Sirius, who catches his eye. She is gripping her chair so tightly that her knuckles are turning white, and her stony, unblinking gaze is fixed on the back of Rodolphus's head. The way McKinnon is leaning forward in her chair is such that if she moved just a few more inches forward she would violently headbutt Rodolphus in the back of the head. From the expression on her face, Sirius swears she's considering it.
"You know, I'm shocked they found enough of Fenwick to even need a coffin," Bellatrix says loudly, and Sirius sees an amused smirk on her features as she turns to Rodolphus. "I suppose an open casket funeral is out of the question, though."
Sirius feels bile begin to rise in the back of his throat, and he croaks into Remus's ear. "They killed Benjy. I'm sure of it. They killed Benjy, and now they're here as part of their sick little game to see the aftermath."
Remus swallows and shifts his gaze to the Lestranges. He finally whispers back in a strained voice, "You heard Moody, we can't do anything. Not yet, anyway. If we do, we'll be arrested."
Sirius begins vividly imagining what it would be like to wrap his hands around Bellatrix's throat. He is only torn from his reverie by the feeling of a hand on his wrist, and he is momentarily baffled to see McKinnon placing her wand in his hand. Her fingers are warm as she wraps his fingers around the wand, and before he can say anything she holds a finger to her lips in a shush motion. A moment later, she stands and begins walking towards the front.
Dorcas, now part way through her eulogy, stutters and falls silent as she and everyone else notice that McKinnon is standing directly in front of the Lestranges.
For several moments there are no words. All Sirius can hear is the sound of his heartbeat as he wonders what on earth McKinnon is planning to do. Then —
"How many people do you think will attend your funerals?" McKinnon says loudly, her voice shaking with controlled anger.
Bellatrix stands, her upper lip curling as she bares her teeth. "Are you threatening us, girl?"
"Everybody dies eventually. How many people are going to attend your funeral?" McKinnon turns away from Bellatrix, facing Rodolphus. "Or your funeral?"
Sirius feels his heart start to beat faster, and he clutches McKinnon's wand in his hand more tightly. If she was planning to berate the Lestranges, why the hell did she hand Sirius her sole method of defending herself?
"More people than will attend your funeral," Bellatrix sneers.
"I meant people who aren't paid. You can both throw around your money all you like, but some day people are going to realize what's hiding underneath," McKinnon replies, clenching a fist
"If you are referring to the fact that we donate large sums of our hard-earned money to charitable causes and the Ministry, we do so out of the goodness of our hearts." Bellatrix draws herself up to her full height, stepping closer to McKinnon as she continues in a hiss, "You can try to besmirch our reputation all you like, but everyone who matters will know you are nothing but a foolish girl spouting ill-founded slander."
"It's impressive how many people seem to accept the pristine reputation you've set up for yourselves," McKinnon replies evenly. "The saintly Lestranges, only interested in the good of Wizarding kind. People take your money and then don't notice when you push the Death Eater agenda. Because surely the Lestranges with all of their wealth and class can't be interested in the same sort of things those brutes are?"
Bellatrix is looking at McKinnon. Her jaw is set and there is a glint to her eyes that makes the hair on the back of Sirius's neck stand up. Every muscle in Sirius's body is tensed, and he is torn between leaping to his feet to defend McKinnon and worrying that any sudden movement he makes might set off Bellatrix.
McKinnon continues, her voice raising, "Eventually people will figure it out. They'll realize that by day you pretend to be an upstanding citizen, but by night you're a monster who dresses up in a mask and murders Muggleborns. They'll realize that you're nothing. That you're lower than pond scum. That you're lower than all of the Muggleborns you despise."
Bellatrix's fingers twitch, as though itching for a wand. Her fiery gaze is unblinkingly fixed on McKinnon, and there is rage etched into every line on her face.
"Bella…" Rodolphus stands, and there is a hint of warning to his voice. He lightly touches her shoulder, but she shrugs his hand away.
When Bellatrix speaks to McKinnon next, her voice is dangerously quiet, and every syllable is sharply articulated. "You said everybody dies eventually. Some people die sooner than others, though, don't they?"
"Yeah, and hopefully that person will be you," McKinnon retorts. "I'm looking forward to the day that I, in all of my Muggleborn glory, can dance on your grave."
Sirius leaps to his feet, realizing what McKinnon is about to do a second before she does it.
A second later, McKinnon spits in Bellatrix's face.
There is a shriek of fury from Bellatrix, a flash of light, and a cry of pain from McKinnon as her form crumples to the ground. Sirius draws his wand, and he can see Remus and James leap to their feet and draw their wands as Rodolphus draws his.
"STOP!" Moody's yell echoes across the crowd, and with a loud bang! Sirius feels his wand torn from his hand. The spell seems to effect everybody in the vicinity, for the wands of Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Remus and James also fall to the ground.
McKinnon shakily pulls herself into a standing position, and Sirius is relieved to see that she is still in one piece. Her right cheek is bleeding profusely, dripping blood onto her robes and covering her hands with red as she tries to staunch the source, but she is otherwise uninjured.
Rodolphus is hissing something in Bellatrix's ear as Moody approaches, and the grizzly Auror growls, "I thought I told you that if you cursed anybody I would arrest you for assault."
"Anybody with eyes could see this girl was about to attack me. It was obviously self-defense," Bellatrix retorts, but there is a hint of nervousness to her voice as she pockets her and Rodolphus's wands.
McKinnon starts laughing, a humorless, high-pitched sound. She pulls her robes' pockets inside out before saying, "I couldn't have been about to attack her if I wanted to. I'm unarmed - I gave my wand to Sirius."
"Not self-defense, then," Moody says, turning back towards Bellatrix. His scarred face twitches into a gnarled smile as he continues, "As you said, not arresting somebody for cursing somebody would be a sign of 'favoritism and corruption', so I'll need to arrest you."
"That won't be necessary," Bellatrix says hurriedly. Finally regaining her composure, she adds in a falsely sweet voice, "I'll go talk with my contacts at the Ministry, and everything will be straightened out."
She takes a step backwards, and Sirius barely hears Moody's cry of "Don't you dare —" before Bellatrix takes Rodolphus's hand. With a loud crack! the two Lestranges Disapparate, and Moody is left pointing his wand at thin air.
Moody loudly swears. "We'll get her. I'll put out a warrant for her arrest, and we can watch her try and talk her way out of it."
"We better get her," James says hotly, leaning down to pick up his wand.
Moody turns to McKinnon, finally pocketing his wand with a jerky movement. "We need to get you to a healer."
"Is — is it bad?" McKinnon mumbles, holding a hand to her face.
"Nothing St. Mungo's can't fix. Come on, kiddo." He grabs her arm and the two of them Disapparate.
There are a few moments of stunned silence as the members of the audience look at each other. Sirius and Remus hastily pick up their wands, while Dumbledore stands and says, "Dorcas, would you like to continue your lovely speech about Benjy?"
Dorcas, still standing behind the podium, stiffly nods. After several minutes, Sirius's heart rate finally returns to normal, and he starts listening to Dorcas's words. Several more of Benjy's friends and classmates speak, and it is only when the funeral is over that Sirius realizes he still has McKinnon's wand. Quickly bidding everyone goodbye, he is soon at the front desk of St. Mungo's.
He finds McKinnon in a small waiting room near the back of the clinic. The dismally grey room smells like soap, and McKinnon is the only person there, sitting in one of the simple wooden chairs near the corner. There is a large purple bandage covering the entirety of her right cheek, and Sirius silently thinks that she looks paler than normal.
"Hell of a family you have, Black," she says coolly as he walks towards her.
Sirius has half a mind to suddenly spin on his heel and leave, taking his wand with her. Instead he stands in front of her and spits, "I didn't choose my family. I've done every damned thing I can to get as far away from them as possible."
She crosses her arms and stretches her legs out in front of her. "I know, Black. Relax. I'm just being an arsehole."
Sirius crosses his own arms and starts to learn against the wall, his anger at the reminder of his family slowly leaking out of him. Only a trace of annoyance left to his voice, he says, "That bandage on your face is almost the same color as the radioactive eye make-up you normally wear."
"It's not radioactive, it's just a bright shade of violet. If you knew anything about fashion or pop culture you would know bright colors have been in the last few years." McKinnon glances up and down his frame. "Although given you are simultaneously swimming in and being strangled by your robes, I doubt you care much about fashion."
Sirius frowns and, deciding to not dignify her comment with a response, says, "Why are you still here if they already slapped a bandage on your face? Do you like waiting rooms that much?"
"The bandage has a healing salve in it. I have to let it sit for two hours and then let the healer evaluate whether they need to use more of the salve," she replies, a crease to her forehead. Lightly touching the bandage with her fingertips, she continues, "Why are you here?"
He holds her wand out, hilt first. "You forgot this in all of the commotion."
She takes it from his outstretched arm and pockets it. "Thanks. Do you think it did anything?"
Sirius is tempted to reply that her wand did do some impressive somersaults while she was gone, but he suspects she is not asking about her wand. She is probably asking about the scene she caused at the funeral, and he drops into one of the empty seats next to her before responding. "I don't know. You're right that the Lestranges have a reputation for being nothing but wealth and class, so showing the world that Bellatrix has a violent streak can't hurt. Maybe people will start thinking about what the Lestranges are trying to accomplish with their money, instead of letting it do all of its work behind the scenes."
"I hope so."
After a moment, Sirius sharply adds, "For all the good you might have done, though, I still think you're an idiot. Bellatrix has probably killed people for lesser slights than what you did."
McKinnon swallows and continues looking straight in front of her, before finally raising one of her shoulders in a shrug.
Sirius glances around the waiting room again as silence falls. There are no paintings or photos hung on the monotone grey walls, and even the magazines tossed onto the tables seem to have a grey tint to them. There is a grating creaking sound as McKinnon leans back on the back two legs of her chair, and Sirius glances at her out of the corner of his eye. "Where's Moody?"
"He went off to file the arrest warrant for Bellatrix," she replies. Her eyes are wide and unblinking as she continues, "I don't think she'll actually be arrested. I hope she will, but I think she'll find enough people to throw money at that the whole situation will eventually disappear."
Sirius slouches in his chair. "I think the only way Bellatrix will ever be arrested is if she's caught in the middle of casting an Unforgiveable. Even then, it'll probably need to be on somebody famous like an Auror."
Another silence falls, and Sirius is trying to ignore the stench of soap in the room when McKinnon suddenly blurts out, "I didn't care about Bellatrix. I wanted to get Rodolphus arrested. I didn't think it would work, so my other goal was to get the Lestranges' reputation to take a beating, but I wanted to get him arrested."
Sirius turns to look at her, momentarily surprised by the outburst. She is shifting in her seat, as though wishing she hadn't spoken, and he dryly replies, "I don't think you could have chosen wrong when trying to get one of them arrested. They're both more than deserving of being shipped off to Azkaban."
"You and I dueled Rodolphus two days ago, and I don't think he even recognized me today," she says, pulling her crossed arms closer to herself. She bitterly finishes, "Apparently I'm just another unmemorable, faceless Muggleborn who needs to be exterminated."
Sirius flatly replies, "I remember that duel. At least we both got away uninjured."
"He almost Disapparated me to Never Never Land, or wherever the hell the Death Eaters keep their hideout," she says, an edge to her voice. "But today when I tried to provoke him and Bellatrix, Bellatrix kept taking the bait instead of him."
Sirius swallows, uncertain what to say. "We'll get them arrested eventually — both of them."
There are several moments of silence as McKinnon shifts her weight in her chair. A second later, Sirius can almost see a switch flip in her head as she sits up straighter and flatly adds, "I should hope we manage to get them arrested. Bellatrix ruined my robes. I'm never going to be able to get all of the blood out."
He vaguely wonders if McKinnon actually cares that much about her robes or if she's only pretending to, and he sharply exhales, "They're funeral robes. I'm sure you can find some at the second-hand store."
McKinnon continues as though he hasn't spoken, "And I'm not going to be able to wear my favorite colour of eye shadow anymore because of Bellatrix. Whenever I see it in all of its bright violet glory I'll just think of the color of the bandage I'm wearing right now."
Sirius leans back in his seat, stretching his legs in front of him. After a moment he sighs, "How much longer until your bandage is finished healing you?"
"About an hour." She looks at him out of the corner of her eye. "I won't die of boredom if you leave, you know. I don't need you to babysit me."
"I'm not babysitting you," Sirius retorts. "I'm just…staying."
McKinnon is silently watching him, her eyes suspiciously narrowed. "Why?"
Somehow 'Hell if I know' doesn't seem like a sufficient response, so instead he sarcastically replies, "Because you fulfilled my life-long dream of spitting in Bellatrix's face and I want to hear all of the details."
For a moment McKinnon is silent, and then the corner of her mouth turns up in a smile. "I suppose that's as good of a reason as any."
Sirius finds himself returning the smile, and for a moment he doesn't mind the dismal greyness of the waiting room as they continue sitting side-by-side.
…
A/N: Many, many thanks to Sable Supernova for beta-reading! Also, if anyone is particularly curious, the duel between Sirius&Marlene and Rodolphus is detailed in my one-shot "The Color of Melted Snow" (although I wrote that piece a few years ago, so the writing style is a bit different).