The Boggart

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The letters Harry sent to his godparents were, with each passing day, more alarming. It was mainly because of this that both Petunia and Sirius had supported the boy when he decided to create Dumbledore's Army. The former headmaster was still on the run, with no news to anyone, and the atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier, both within and outside the walls of Hogwarts.

Sirius was uneasy in Grimmauld Place and shared with Petunia his fears that it would all end up repeating itself, after all, he himself had founded a dueling club with James when he was just a little older than Harry. Petunia was just as terrified as the marauder, but she stood her ground because she knew that, of the two of them, she was the more rational and emotionally stable person.

The marauder was having nightmares again and had days when he was so down he looked like he had returned to Azkaban. Sirius was frustrated, feeling powerless, and Petunia consoled him, saying that he had the most important role of all: he was the one who provided Harry with a house, a real home. A place where he was loved, where he would be happy. The year was nearing its end and soon the three of them would be reunited. They could even rethink the fact that Harry would return to Hogwarts the following year. Harry would be safe, they would be safe.

"Harry will never agree to this", Petunia commented as she stirred the pot on the cooker. Sirius had just shared with her the idea of not sending their godson back to school the following year.

"Well, he might change his mind, things are getting more dangerous", Sirius explained. The marauder tapped his fingertips anxiously against the table which, as time went on, he came to like thanks to the guests who occupied it and filled the house with laughter. "He's just a child!"

Petunia stopped stirring the pot and turned to her fiancé. She walked over to him and threw her arms around the man's neck. Sirius immediately turned to her and wrapped her around her waist, fitting her between his legs.

"You were a kid too" Petunia commented fondly. "You, me, Lily, James... And that didn't stop you and James from founding that dueling group"

"Godric, what have I turned into?" the man grumbled. "Suddenly I've turned into an adult, a sort of worried father. Young Sirius would be disappointed".

"I think he would be proud", Petunia smiled at him. The man smiled back and captured her lips.

"So am I doing well at this father thing?" he asked playfully, his lips still pressed against hers. Petunia simply mumbled an 'uhum'. "What do you say we train for our own? The making them part, I mean"

Petunia let out a laugh, which was cut short by a sigh when Sirius pulled her close until she was sitting on his lap, one leg on either side of his body.

The long-forgotten pot ended up drying the sauce that Petunia had earlier prepared as the woman, lying on the kitchen table with the skirt of her dress raised to her waist, welcomed Sirius inside her. The man entwined his fingers in hers and devoured her mouth as he moved in and out of the woman. She moaned and sighed in between the low giggles that escaped her lips.

Sirius cleaned the pot as soon as they were done and set about making dinner for the two of them. The woman set the table and they even decided to light some candles, which the marauder levitated around the kitchen using his wand. The two ate chatting animatedly, until the moment Sirius found himself beset by the melancholy that plagued him time and again.

"Sirius?", Petunia called out to him, hesitantly. The naughty man blinked several times before turning to her. "I wanted to talk to you about something".

"Whatever you want, my goddess" Sirius replied, taking her hand in his and smiling gallantly at his soon to be wife.

"I went into Regulus' room the other day" she said, and the marauder immediately felt the muscles in his neck and jaw twitch. "I was exploring the house, going into rooms I hadn't known about, I didn't know that..."

"Tuny" he interrupted her. "I'm not angry with you. I will never be angry with you. This is your house, and you can come and go wherever you want" he replied in a sweet voice, despite his wiry body. Petunia sighed with relief. The two were silent for a few seconds.

"He was just a child too" the woman finally blurted out. Sirius frowned.

"He was a Death Eater" he replied seriously. "He was rotten like all the rest of my family".

"I don't think that's true" Petunia pointed out.

"Tuny..." Sirius sighed wearily, as if he had debated this subject countless times before.

"He was Harry's age when... When you showed up at our house", Petunia replied. "Baby, your father did that to you and... Ever since I walked into your brother's room I've been wondering if he didn't do the same to him". Sirius snorted.

"Reggie was the perfect pure blood son, my father never laid a finger on him" the man stubbornly reply. Petunia shook her head slowly in the negative. "Why this sudden interest?"

"Because we're going to war again, just like last time. And Harry is only fifteen!", Petunia explained, a little out of patience for the marauder's hardheadedness. "Fifteen years old, Sirius. The age your brother was when you left home. You left because they wanted to force you to be a Death Eater. What if they did the same thing to him?"

"Impossible" Sirius replied promptly, but he couldn't help but get a flea behind his ear.

"Not everyone is brave enough like you to go out, baby", the woman sighed.

"I thought I was inconsequential", he replied stubbornly, which ended up eliciting a low chuckle from Petunia.

"In your case it's pretty much the same thing".

After the two fell silent again, Sirius thought hard about what Petunia had said about Regulus and felt his chest heavy. What if she was right? The marauder was plagued by the feeling that he had abandoned his brother. So that night, while the blonde was sound asleep in bed, Sirius put on a dressing gown and walked across the hall, opened the long-closed door, and entered the room.

Slytherin flags took up much of the wall and were dusty, making the room darker than he remembered. The bed, even after years, was well made, spotless. The marauder figured Kreacher was responsible for it. Looking around, Sirius came to the painful conclusion that Petunia was right. Regulus was just a boy. He was a sweet, shy, and extremely intelligent boy. He could remember that, even after being drawn into Gryffindor, his relationship with his brother remained good.

It was true that Orion had never laid a finger on Regulus, but not for the reasons the man had given Petunia earlier. Orion never laid a finger on Regulus because Sirius always took the blame. He could remember now that he stopped to think. He recalled countless occasions when he'd wedged himself between his father and brother to take his place. The two of them were friends, confidants. They were truly brothers. Things only went downhill when Sirius reached his teens and, with all the rebelliousness of his age coupled with his hatred of his family's twisted values, he ended up pulling away from his youngest.

Yes, Sirius had pull away, not Regulus. And then that fateful night happened, and Sirius abandoned Grimmauld Place, leaving Regulus behind. Now, with the years gone by and all the suffering he had been subjected to in Azkaban, he could see that the hypothesis that his brother had been marked by Voldemort to please and, in a way, protect his family, was not so absurd. In fact, it made perfect sense.

Sirius walked over to his brother's bed and sat there for long hours, staring into nothingness as his head machine-gunned him with memories. He cried, and when he returned to his own room, he hugged Petunia tightly and slept with his face tucked in her hair, embraced by the comfort that the woman's scent brought him.

.

The weeks that followed were better than the ones before. Petunia and Sirius spent much of their time together in the studio he had set up for her. The woman had taken his advice and started practicing her writing. She scribbled sheets and sheets of paper, some she crumpled up and threw into the fireplace, others she stared at with watery eyes for long minutes before carefully putting them away in her drawer.

And Sirius watched everything over the book he pretended to read. He tried to pay attention to the reading but watching Petunia in her creative process was much more interesting. His chest filled with pride, and he caught himself thinking how lucky he was to have her in his life, to the fact that she loved him as much as he loved her.

And it was driven by that feeling that Sirius forced Kreacher to discreetly leave Grimmauld Place, giving strict orders for the elf not to stray from the path, not to make himself seen or speak to anyone, to take a letter to a nearby publisher. He had filled an envelope with some of his girl's writings, and a few days later the reply arrived. Petunia leapt with joy when she received, thanks to Sirius, an invitation to write some short stories for a book that would be published.

That night, the couple and Remus - who had returned from yet another mission - celebrated by cooking a large lasagna together, drinking three bottles of wine and listening to Sirius' old muggle records on the record player Arthur had gifted the marauder for Christmas. The Weasley had found the object in a small muggle thrift shop on his way to the Ministry.

"She seems quite excited", Remus commented, throwing himself against the armchair. The three of them had already had dinner and drinks, and Petunia announced that she had work to do. She hurried up the stairs smiling to herself, leaving the two downstairs. The men made their way to the living room and lit the fireplace. Even with spring, everyone liked to keep the house warm with the fire.

"She is", Sirius replied with a smile on his lips. "She hasn't left the studio since yesterday".

"You look happy", the werewolf commented, smiling at his friend.

"I am" the marauder replied, took a sip of his Fire Whisky and dropped the glass on the table next to the armchair he was sitting in. He chuckled to himself. "I'm getting married, Moony! Can you imagine? After fifteen years! I'm going to marry the most perfect woman in the world".

"When are you two planning to get married, anyway?", Remus questioned, curious. He wanted to be present at the moment of the wedding and feared that Dumbledore would send him away on just the appointed date.

"In the summer, so Molly can help me. I've already started planting some lilies in the garden, but I'm just not good at it!", Sirius complained. "By the summer I can get everything perfect and then everyone can come".

"I'm really very happy for you, Pads", Remus smiled sincerely. Sirius reciprocated, and threw himself back, stretched his legs and crossed his feet on an ottoman.

"One day you'll have all that too".

"I rather doubt that", Remus sighed, and Sirius rolled his eyes. "What? Who would want to marry a werewolf?"

"I can think of one person" Sirius sneered, and Remus frowned. "Oh, Moony, are you going to pretend you don't notice?"

"I do notice" the werewolf sighed and dropped his glass on another side table. The man leaned forward, propped his elbows on his knees and hid his face between his hands. "I notice, and that's the worst!"

"Do you have feelings for her?", the Black questioned, curious.

"I don't know, I..." Remus replied without daring to look at his friend, "I feel something, I can't name it. But I feel this... connection? From the moment I first saw her".

"You think she's your mate?", Sirius asked, frowning at his thick black eyebrows, which created a shadow over his grey eyes. Remus threw himself back and snorted.

"That's a bullshite, Pads" the former teacher complained. "There's no such thing as a mate. I've never met any werewolf who actually had one. It's all rumour".

Sirius smiled mischievously and played with the ends of his own hair, which fell loosely over his eyes.

"That's a relief" the marauder said, and the werewolf stared at him in disbelief. "So Nymphadora is free to fuck some distant cousin".

Remus felt a growl form in his chest, and he gripped the arms of the armchair so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His eyes, once green, turned yellow. Sirius grinned from ear to ear.

"I think the mystery is solved" the marauder teased.

"You do the same when it comes to Petunia!", Remus accused.

"Of course I do!" Sirius shrugged. "There is only one bond as strong as the bond of mates..."

"The bond of soul mates" Remus concluded and picked up his glass, taking another sip of his drink. "But Tuny is not a witch".

"So what?", Sirius asked seriously. "I don't need a mark on my body, I don't need my magic to blend with hers, I don't need a spell. What I feel for her... Moony, what I feel for her is strong, it's pure, it's pure... magic. I love her more than anyone is capable of loving another person".

Remus knew that Sirius was right. It would be too preposterous to think that only wizards could have soul mates, when in truth, this was something much bigger than the magic they practiced with their wands. Sirius and Petunia were the only people - magical or otherwise - that Remus had seen keep such a strong feeling alive even with the years apart, even with all the problems, with all the sadness and suffering. And so the werewolf just propped himself against the armchair, his face propped against his palm, and watched for hours as his friend talked about Petunia with a silly grin on his face.

.

As the summer drew nearer, Petunia and Sirius grew more and more anxious. Molly and Arthur had appeared a few times carrying large boxes with decorations, tablecloths and recipe books. The matriarch had taught Sirius to plant and the garden was already almost completely covered with lilies. Remus came and went, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by Moody and Tonks. The latter always with pink cheeks and hair.

It was on a certain afternoon when Sirius was dedicating himself to the garden - an activity that he came to love - that Petunia decided to carry some boxes alone to her studio. The place, besides being a great environment for writing, had become her personal atelier for the wedding arrangements. The woman went up the stairs, passed Walburga's still-silenced portrait and did not miss the opportunity to show her tongue to the witch, who widened her eyes and tried to scream, but was prevented by the silver tape.

As soon as she dropped the boxes on a table in the studio, she heard a low noise, as if someone was mumbling something and, curious, followed the sound. She eventually found Kreacher inside a room by himself, a room she had entered before but given little thought to. There was only a desk in the center of the room with a small box on top, nothing that drew much attention. The woman darted into the room and the elf, looking startled, turned to her.

"Mudblood, staining with filth my lady's house" the creature muttered, glaring at her angrily. "Bella should have killed mudblood, oh, she should have... The mudblood and the ungrateful son of my lady, who doesn't deserve the family he has".

"Why do you hate me so much?", Petunia asked.

"The filthy little woman dare talk to Kreacher, she dares..." the elf muttered as if he was talking to someone Petunia couldn't see, which caused a shiver to run down her spine. "Kreacher will show her, it will".

And then the elf pointed his finger at the desk drawer, which began to shake and jiggle, as if something wanted to break free from inside. The door, previously open, closed with a bang and Kreacher, with a snap of his fingers, disappeared.

Petunia ran to the door and saw that it was locked. She heard the sound of the drawer opening with a creak, and a very bad feeling took over her chest. Clinging to what little courage she still had, she turned towards the center of the room, and spotted her biggest nightmare.

"You'll learn", a voice she knew echoed through the room.

Vernon was standing in the middle of the room, and he looked much scarier than she remembered. The man stared at her with a devilish grin and rested his fingers on his belt buckle. The woman's eyes widened and she turned to the door.

"Let me out!", Petunia screamed as she slammed her closed fists against the door. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck shivering, and a bad feeling that something awful was going to happen if she didn't get out of there immediately. Turning her face just enough, she saw Vernon still standing, opening his belt as he stared at her with angry eyes. Thick tears began to stream from her face and the woman's heart crashed painfully against her chest.

"I'll teach you to behave!", Vernon exclaimed.

Rationally, Petunia knew that Vernon was not there, that it was impossible. She was in Grimmauld Place and the man could not even see the house, let alone enter it. However, any rationality eluded the woman the moment she saw her ex-husband standing in the middle of that macabre room. Petunia heard hurried footsteps outside.

"Tuny! Tuny!", Sirius shouted from the other side of the door, pounding heavily on the door, trying to open it. "Get away from the door!" he warned, and the woman, even though she was trembling with fear at Vernon's figure, obeyed and stepped away from the door.

The man tried a series of spells he knew, and only after great difficulty he manage to enter the room. However, the door slammed shut just behind his back, leaving him stuck there with her. Sirius wasted no time in catching sight of Vernon, who was smiling in a way that revealed his dirty intentions and threw himself in front of the woman protectively. He spread his arms and held his wand firmly in his right hand. Petunia was just behind him, crying and gripping the bar of his shirt tightly.

As soon as Sirius stood right in front of Petunia's ex-husband, the man, who was actually a boggart, transfigured. Long black hair sprouted from his previously bald head, his nose snorted, his belly shrank, and the eyes - oh, the eyes - turned ashen and popped out of their sockets. Sirius knew that look. It was the look that denoted the madness of his family. It was the look belonging to the vilest creature in the entire Black family tree. In front of Sirius, stood Bellatrix.

The witch smiled and pointed her wand at Petunia and the marauder, even though he knew it was a boggart, was unable to react at first. His greatest fear was right in front of him, and he found himself unable to react.

"I should have finished the job, don't you think, cousin?", Bellatrix's shrill voice echoed through the room. "I should have killed her! You filthy mudblood mistress! I should have tortured her until she begged me to kill her!"

Sirius felt his heart beating hard and, taking a deep breath, he pointed his wand at the creature. His hand was shaking, and he had to use more strength than it would take to hold the piece of oak.

"Riddikkulus!", Sirius shouted, and the creature skittered through the air, turning into a large black mass. The marauder muttered another incantation and led the black mass into a box, locked it up, and tossed it into a corner of the room. He turned to Petunia, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

The woman threw herself at the man and took him in a tight hug. Sirius pressed her tightly against himself and buried his nose in the blonde strands. He kissed her on the head half a dozen times.

"It's okay, it's okay, love" he murmured, and the woman sank her face against his chest. "It was a boggart. Do you remember Molly found one in the summer? That one must have stayed behind".

"I was so scared!", Petunia whispered, and the naughty man kissed her hair.

"I know, I know" he whispered back. "I won't let anything happen to you, ever".

"Kreacher locked me in here" the woman confessed. At that moment, she couldn't bring herself to care about the possibility of Sirius choking the elf. She was scared, her heart was beating fast and her breathing was failing. She clung to Sirius as if he were her oxygen tank, sank her nose against the tattoo that escaped from the collar of the shirt he wore and inhaled his scent, the scent that conveyed her safety.

"That bastard!", Sirius growled, and Petunia pulled her face away just enough to face him in the grey eyes, which were angry. The man was pissed, and his eyes were almost as mad as his cousin's. The woman held his face between her palms and forced him to look at her. The eyes took on a fond tone. As if a storm had dissipated and the sky had cleared, revealing a full, silvery moon.

Sirius held her wrists and lovingly stroked the woman's fists with his thumbs. He realised that she had bruised her hands by slamming them against the door and frowned. Petunia noticed and gathered her hands together, moving to rub a cut that had opened on her left hand with her right thumb. The marauder took her hands in his again and brought them to his lips, depositing two tender kisses, one on each of her hands.

"Come love, I'll clean this up for you" and then I'll kill that elf, he meant to conclude.

Sirius pointed his wand at the door and opened it again. He led Petunia down a few flights of stairs until they reached the room the two shared, their bedroom. The man led her to the bed and sat down beside her. He took one of her hands at a time and, with his wand, closed the cuts there.

"I've gotten pretty good at nursing wounds since that night I showed up at your house" Sirius commented. Petunia smiled at him. "The worst and best night of my life".

"Best?" the woman questioned, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course!", Sirius exclaimed. "That night I fell in love with you. I didn't know it already, of course. But I still remember how sad I felt when you said you wanted to study in the States".

"You said it was unfair," Petunia recalled, and Sirius smiled at her. The grey eyes shrouded by the few wrinkles warmed the woman's heart.

"It was. I had barely met you and I felt like I was about to lose you" he repeated what he had said that night so many years ago. The woman leaned forward and glued her lips to his.

The two heard a loud noise coming from downstairs and jumped out of their seats, getting to their feet. Sirius gripped his wand tightly and, with his free hand, held Petunia by the hand.

"What is that damned elf doing now?", Sirius grumbled.

The marauder stepped out in front, being closely followed by Petunia. The two went down the flights of stairs and reached the living room, where the fireplace housed huge blue flames, which danced and made a weird sound. As the two of them got closer, the flames grew brighter and leapt out of the fireplace, flying all over the room. At one point, the flames took the shape of a beautiful bird, which Sirius immediately recognised. It was a phoenix.

"Harry's at the Ministry. It's an ambush" Dumbledore's voice left the bird's lungs, and the patronus shattered into thin air.

Petunia and Sirius stared at each other wide-eyed, and the woman knew what the man would do. She didn't even have the courage to ask him to stay, because she knew that if it was the other way around, she would do the same too. Petunia only had time to hug the marauder tightly, kiss him on the lips, and ask him to return home safe and sound with Harry. And then Sirius pointed his wand at the fireplace and grabbed an obscene amount of dust from a jar beside the sofa. He walked over to the fireplace, threw the dust against the floor and roared, his deep voice echoing throughout the house. "Ministry of Magic!".