A/N: Enjoy!

Chapter 38

Showing Off

I felt whole and strong. For a whole second of my life I didn't feel alone and I felt like Sirius was on my side, I was blushing and laughing and beating the hell out of the bane of my life all at the same time. I didn't think I had ever been happier all at once then I did with my toes wiggling against the carpeted floor stiff and stained with my own dried blood with my more or less my only surviving flesh and blood trying to wipe me off the face of the earth. Maybe I was mad, insane, crazy, all of those words which just sounded to me like a broken record. The Beatles continued to sing in the background and just as my insides seem to stutter and squirm against some sort of restrictive cave, like the tar net was back. Just as the light I was using to hold off Lucius stuttered disconcertingly as it illuminated the manic grin on my Uncles face and my heart began to pound with the eventual arrival of gut wrenching panic Sirius had his hand wrapped firmly around my wrist and I turned to him.

"Stop showing off love, let's get out of here." my chest heaved as my head span and my eyes closed for a moment as I inhaled slowly before nodding as I released a shaky breath in the dim light of the hall way. Sirius's eyebrows pressed together and I liked to think it was with concern because, well it would be nice, wouldn't it?

"Ruducto." I followed the shot from the end of Sirius's wand with my moderately unfocused eyes and I heard the curse of outrage from the other end of the hall as the roof released a cloud of dust and a crack split the ceiling. I watched confusedly as the split began to move up along the ceiling and clouds of flaked paint and pieces of plaster fluttered to the floor until a great groan seemed to come from somewhere far off in the house and creaked over us with the pressure. I looked straight a head. Lucius stared from his end of the hall. Icy eyes mad, lengthy light hair in disarray, broad build pinned perfectly into his tailored black robes. The caned sheath of his wand held in his right hand. His eye bored into mine and Sirius tugged on my wrist as I was transfixed. The cage pressing in on the power running up my middle seemed to convulse and although it really only happened in a heart beat and the roof came down and the crack in its structure reached as far as where Sirius and I stood. Whatever he was yelling became more urgent I could hear my heart beat in my head and the music seemed to warble on in the back ground. The contentment, the safety and the assuredness from the moment before seemed to fall out my shoes. Pressing my lips together I pointed my wand at Lucius and tried to shoot him away, it was fear. I was afraid. I shot him with more than I had, like a cornered animal. I didn't want to crumble and even though I could of just turned and run I couldn't leave with the fear, I couldn't leave feeling desperate.

The light seemed to slip around the edges of the net and out toward my wand but as it flew into the Ash wood in my hand it stopped as my fingers sprung open reflexively. My hand stung and my wand landed on the floor with a soft thud. I looked down at it as another second on the clock ticked by. I saw Sirius sweep down and scoop up my wand and I was pulled by the wrist to start running down the hall after Sirius. My legs moved below my cooperatively for once but I was detached. Pound pound pound, my heart, my footsteps, my head and my hand. My fingers curled in and out around themselves as I felt the absence of my wand, I felt something so very absent but as shot after shot of adrenalin ran through me it was like I had no time to think about it. To worry about it. The only thing I could see in my head were icy eyes, I scowled against the image as the walls collapsed in around Sirius and I.

We were in a kitchen and I turned to see Sirius talking to me. No wonder he looked so dashing, he had really nice shapes to all his face and he was wearing these nice black trousers that fit him really well. He looked at me and I smiled at him. He just continued to look worried but he had really nice eyes. I opened my mouth to say so but I was interrupted by the floor which was very suddenly right beside my face. I frowned at the musty carpet, it flew away from me quickly and I found myself thrown over the bothersome mans right shoulder.

"You know Sirius, in case you were wondering, these trousers fit equally well from the back." I felt him heave a sigh as I giggled lightly;

"You know what? You really know how to pick your moments." I responded with an upside down shrug as Sirius began to run us through the house.

I was set down on a mouldering moss green love seat a minute later as Sirius passed me my wand;

"Can you sit here and keep an eye on your wand in case you decide you want to function again for me love?" his sharp eyes searched my clouded ones meaningfully for a moment and I wondered what he was looking for. Deciding he might just need some support I scanned my brain for motivational titbits since I was apparently incapacitated by something or other;

"Even though I am apparently incapacitated by something or other Sirius, I have scanned my brain for motivational titbits and I want you to know that you are…" I pouted my lips out as I stared him down for a minute; "a real winner!" he looked at me in what seemed to be genuine shock for a moment with a slack mouth and everything before running his hand through his hair and pulling my wand from my hand; I felt my bottom lip move outward and moved it back in as it was uncouth,

"Thanks Jude, I think I might hold onto this for the time being though okay?" there was a crash by the door as Lucius smashed into the room.

He sent a hex toward Sirius which Sirius quickly deflected as he stood in front of me. I pressed my mouth into a line, I felt really nice. Like his protectiveness really showed that he cared. Spells smashed off all different parts of the room as Sirius and Lucius took shots at each other and yelled ridicule at each other. I wondered what was going to happen but my perception seemed to become less and less lucid, I felt woozy, from my woozy point of view it went a little like this;

"Aha you filthy scum you can't hide from Lucius Malfoy look at my hair." and then there were some explosions and Sirius was like; well firstly he looked really good and then he was like;

"You don't know what you are talking about you puffter;" he actually said that word and I laughed so much I almost fell of the chair. Lucius got caught on the shoulder by one of Sirius's shots and then I said;

"That's what you get when you come looking for trouble!" and then Lucius caught me with a spell put me in so much pain I almost passed out, then everything really kicked off. My back snapped into an S-bend and my bones felt all ripped up and my throat was torn and the pain of it was so unbearable. I screamed and clawed at the floor below me. My whole body felt like it was burning, I was on fire and I was going to melt and choke and die.

When I woke up I was by a lake, I lay on a coat over a pebble beach. The sky was blue with light white clouds, the shine disagreed with my eyes a little but my body felt so shaken and used that I couldn't complain, or I wouldn't as long I was lying down. I could smell copper and I knew it to be the deposits in the lake. I wondered why I hadn't reflected on that fact the last time I had been in a lake.

My first truly lucid non-bleary thought that I had had in who knows how long was the unfortunate realisation of what I had spent the better remembered parts of my not so lucid time saying and doing and just generally;

"Uuuugh." I moaned; a finger pressed over mouth and a little hiss followed up beside me;

"Too early Love." he mumbled drowsily and I nodded. He had a point and I quickly drifted back to sleep.

A/N: thanks for reading,

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