15. White lights, news and Bread

6th year boy's dormitory, Hogwarts

Sirius' POV:

Flashes of white light consumed the room- and the bits of the dark walls that I could see swam violently.

People were screaming but I couldn't tell who it was. The ends of my vision were blurry but I could make out a girl tied at the corner of the room, her dark hair contrasting the white light in the room.

A strong hand pushed my cheeks together painfully and pulled my face up to look at its owner. Dad. He was yelling something, but I couldn't hear. I was focused on the girl across the room.

The white light intensified and I was thrown across the room. My back hit the wall, but I couldn't feel anything. My vision zeroed in on the girl, who had looked up in horror.

Emilia.

I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Her eyes were transfixed on me and I told her to leave, to run, but my voice wasn't working. She remained frozen, looking at me with a bone-chilling expression.

And just like that, the white light hit her, and she fell limp on the floor. I looked to the right, where the beam had come from. Mum.

The light faded, and the walls turned red, blood red. I dragged myself to her, screaming, yelling, but the room was as quiet as could be. Her blood soaked my hands, my clothes, but I didn't care. My lungs burned, my body hurt, I was suddenly feeling every feeling at once as I moved over to her.

The feelings left as quickly as they'd come when I caught a look of-

I woke up with a start, the image of her bloody face imprinted behind my eyelids. It was pitch dark- I couldn't see a thing. But before panic could set in, my eyes adjusted and I could see that I was in the dorm. The boys were all asleep.

Panting loudly, I got out of bed and tied up my sweaty hair the best I could- seeing as my fingers were trembling. I walked into the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water.

I came back out and sat on my bed again, trying to collect my breath and my thoughts. But the silence in the room was piercing and the dark made me feel like the walls were closing in on me. So, I put on a shirt and stumbled down to the common room.

Love is like a flame; it burns you when it's hot

Love hurts, Ooh, ooh, love hurts

Nazareth sang from somewhere in the room. Emilia was sitting by the window, her head bent, and her back to me. I sat down by the stairs to catch my breath. She was fine.

"You like Nazareth?" I asked her a little while later.

She yelped, turning around quickly, caught unawares.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her eyes wide. "It's 3 am."

"I could ask you the same thing," I said.

"I couldn't sleep. So, I came down here to read. The girls put out the lights so," she said, holding up her book.

I nodded.

"Are you okay? You look out of it."

I shrugged. She didn't seem to buy it, but she didn't press. Just turned back to her book.

The song clicked off, and the opening notes to Baby I'm-A Want You started. I grinned. The words, the glow of the common room and the warmth of her presence made me giddy.

You're the only one I care enough to hurt about, I sang along.

She looked at me, surprised.

"You sing?"

"I'm pure-blood, don't we all sing?"

She smiled, "I know a bit of piano, but I gave it up pretty quickly. I prefer to draw anyways."

Your loving and affection, givin' me direction.

I stood up from my place on the stairs, and walked over to her, hand outstretched. "You must've had waltz lessons too."

She smiled and took my hand, placing the other on my shoulder.

Lately I've been praying, that you'll always be here stayin' beside me. We started swaying to the beat. She was a pretty good dancer. When I told her so, she said,

"I got personal lessons from Mum. She loves dancing and Dad is so whipped that he'll do anything she says. And you're pretty good too."

I smiled and spun her around.

When she came back, I said, "Will you be there for the Quidditch game the day after? I heard we owe you for the Beater, so."

"I always come to the games. Gryffindor pride and all that."

"Come for me," I said.

Her eyes widened, her cheeks warmed up and she burst out laughing. I frowned, but then realised she'd caught out the double-meaning of my words.

"Shit, I did not mean that," I laughed with her.

She did the nose scrunched up thing she always does. I smiled at her.

"Well, I- okay what?" she started, but deviated.

"What?"

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"I-" I spun her around again. "You do this thing with your nose." I mimicked it, and she started giggling. "See? You're laughing too."

We were quiet for a while, just enjoying the words of the song.

"I'll be there," she said, quietly.

I smiled.

Ooh, it took so long to find you, baby.

Baby, I'm- a want you, baby, I'm- a need you.

The next day, I went down for breakfast a little later than usual. But when I did reach, the Great Hall was dead silent, save for some murmurs.

"What is going on?" I whispered to Remus when I reached them. He silently handed me The Daily Prophet.

Nine muggles and eight wizards killed in Northern London, several more injured

"It's the Death Eaters," Remus whispered in my ear, saving me the effort of reading the whole article. "They struck in broad daylight. Melanie's brother was one of the killed."

"What?" I asked him in horror.

He nodded. "She's in McGonagall's office now. But she found out right in front of us. It was horrifying."

I let out a breath through my mouth. "Shit."

You-know-who'd been getting stronger, for a long time now. His attacks began five years ago, but they were few and far in between. He had been waiting, building up power and arsenal and a following. It was projected that they would increase when Jerkins retired as Minister, and they had, but it was never this drastic.

My dear family probably had a hand in this. For the first time since start of term, I dared a glance at the Slytherin table. It was mostly empty, save for a few first and second years.

I looked at James, seeing as he was unusually quiet about this. His plate was left untouched, which was fair, I didn't feel like eating either. He seemed to be staring at something to his left, and he looked upset.

"Are you alright, mate?" I asked him.

When he didn't answer, I followed his gaze to see what he was looking at. Emilia.

When she caught my gaze, she froze. A second later, she was out of her seat and down the hall.

Without another thought, I got up and followed her.