Disclaimer: Don't own a thing apart from Raisa
Getting Through To You: Chapter 7
All things considered, Dumbledore hadn't actually been much help.
Sirius understood that the guy wasn't a miracle worker, but he was still expecting at least SOMETHING – at least SOME sign that there might be just a tiny bit of hope. Instead all he had received were a series of increasingly senseless platitudes and enough cough drops to fill a small wheelbarrow...
****
"Mr Black," greeted Dumbledore with a smile. "This is a most pleasant surprise."
"Sir," nodded Sirius back, slightly disconcerted that for the first time in a long while someone seemed to be genuinely happy to see him.
"Cough drop?" offered the Headmaster, proffering a bowl in Sirius' general direction. Sirius didn't have a cough and even if he had done he would have wanted to luxuriate in the physical pain rather than cure it, but he took a cough drop regardless and tried to make it look as though the small sweet was something he had been wishing and hoping for for a very long time. (Albus Dumbledore had a certain amount of the James Potter magnetism about him.)
"You know really shouldn't have stolen the book, Sirius," Dumbledore piped up. "How do you expect to continue holding the moral high ground if you resort to petty thievery?"
Sirius spluttered, almost choking on his cough drop. "Wha-? How? How did you know?"
"I know everything," Dumbledore announced, tapping his nose with a long index finger.
"Well then what do I do?" Sirius murmured. "How do I break the prophecy? How do I make it not come true?"
Dumbledore stared at Sirius over the top of his spectacles. "That's a lot of questions for one man to answer."
Sirius frowned, trying not to get frustrated with someone who was essentially a very nice old man. "Yes, I suppose it is," he breathed through clenched teeth.
Dumbledore sat silent behind his desk for a few moments as though mulling over some amazingly profound observation and then opened his mouth in order to voice said amazing observation: "Would you like another cough drop?"
Despite his best attempts to remain controlled Sirius kicked the desk in anger. "I'd like an answer," he countered sharply.
"Has it ever occurred to you that the prophecy is not meant to be broken?" Dumbledore asked, apparently not in the least bit perturbed by the fact that one of his students about to undergo a transformation on par with that of the Incredible Hulk. "If you want it hard enough then it will happen," the wise one continued, satisfied that he had once again managed to impart some great and useful wisdom.
"Thank you, Professor," Sirius spat, launching himself up from his seat and towards the door, intent on never again asking the advice of anyone ever again unless they
"Oh, and one more thing, Mr Black?" Sirius turned round so sharply that he was almost struck by whiplash.
"I would recommend reading the rest of the book."
****
And to top off having such a useless headmaster, it seemed that his brother had also decided to start following him around. Regulus evidently thought he was being very stealthy and sneaky but the truth was that Sirius' erstwhile younger brother could not be stealthy even wearing rubber soled shoes. Some people were quite content to be landed with a shadow but unless his was small, dark haired and went by the name Raisa then he did not want to know.
Either Regulus was just taking 'things to do when you are bored' to a whole new level or he was up to something.
Actually to put it more clearly, his mother was up to something...
