Chapter Five: Communication

Chapter Five: Communication

So here it is folks! Chapter Five. Thanks to all those who have reviewed!

Jonathan, Terence, and Alexander, the remaining three Black children, had not vanished. In fact, they had recently bought a home near Hogwarts. They had not been in contact with anyone over the years; Dumbledore simply hadn't allowed it. He had said it was safer if no one from their family knew where they were. The three were now beginning to resent not being able to communicate with Kit, Kevin and Sirius. They had heard from the Daily Prophet that two children were on the run, and that they looked exactly like Sirius Black. That would have to be Kit and Kevin.

Right now, the brothers were gathered in the living room in front of a roaring fire. Terence, now twenty-three was eating an apple and reading copy of the Daily Prophet. Alex, the third oldest at twenty-one was bothering fifteen-year-old Jonathan, the only Black in the household still attending Hogwarts, as he wrote out his Potions essay. For a while everything continued peacefully. Then Alex poked Jonathan in the back of the head one too many times.

"Alexander! Would you please stop it!" Jonathan roared, throwing down his quill. His sudden outburst caused Terence to choke on his apple and fall out of his armchair.

" God, Jon! Could you be more inconsiderate?" Terence growled, getting off of the floor.

"It wasn't me, it was Alex," the nineteen year old complained, looking around for his older brother, who had conveniently disappeared from the scene of the crime.

"Humph," retorted Terence, opening his newspaper again. Just then his eyes found a new headline, one he hadn't seen before. "Azkaban Dementors Still in Fury over Missing Children" it read. Beneath the headline were two pictures, one of Kit, and the other of Kevin. "Hey, you guys! Katrina and Kevin are in the paper!" exclaimed Terence, waving the Prophet around.

"Give me that!" said Alex, returning to the living room and flopping down in front of the fire. "Hey! He wasn't lying! They're right here."

"Really?" asked Jonathan, grabbing the paper, confirming it was them. After doing this he pulled out a clean piece of parchment, slightly bigger than the rest and began scratching away.

"Should we look for them?" asked Terence, holding out his hand for the paper.

"I dunno. It could be a good idea, but we don't know where-Just what is so funny Alexander?" Jon asked.

"'The dementors want the ten-year old girl, Katrina Black, sister of the infamous Sirius Black, for setting their head boss on fire. If the dementors find the girl before the ministry, the consequences could be deadly.' They're making such a big deal over nothing!" exclaimed Alex, still laughing. " I can just see the dementor."

" Does it have pictures?" asked Jonathan enthusiastically, looking over Alex's shoulder.

" I don't know. Let's check." A few minutes later both young men were laughing hilariously at the photos on page A13, and the living room of the Black house was once again at peace.

********************************

Meanwhile, several hundred miles away, Kevin and Kit had just begun their journey, stopping briefly to buy a paper, and now Kevin was exclaiming over the same article his siblings were, only with a different reaction.

"Kit! Kit! This is terrible! The ministry now knows what we look like, they're looking for us, and they have news on what we did before. That idiot Sirius promised he wouldn't tell!"

"Maybe he didn't tell for the sake of the ministry, maybe he wanted Terence and Alex and Jonathan to know where we are and to look for us," retorted his calm and cool younger sister as they flew high above the ground. Kit never showed her anger. When she was mad, she turned icy cold and extremely calm.

" I guess you could be right. In that case, our brother isn't as stupid as I thought he was." Kevin said thoughtfully. Then he brightened. "Come on! I'll race you to that cloud bank!" The sky was soon filled with happy cheers of the two racers.

***********************************

The Black family weren't the ones people looking at that particular article. Severus Snape, the Potions master at Hogwarts, was reading it too, lying on his bed in the castle dungeons.

" Highly interesting. Black's siblings escape from one of the most powerful prisons ever, without a trace. There must be some unaccounted blood in that family," he decided. " I'd better look into it. Dumbledore's not going to care; I know that for sure." Flopping back on his pillows, he fell asleep with a contented grin.

*********************************

It took two weeks, but finally Kit had convinced Kevin to send their siblings a letter.

"I suppose this will work," said Kit with a frown, reading the letter through.

"What do you mean 'you suppose'? I just spent half an hour getting it right." Kevin replied, snatching the letter back and rereading it.

" It's fine, it's fine," said Kit hurriedly, not wanting to make her brother angry so high above the ground.

"Good. Come on Scorpio, stand still!" Kevin concentrated on tying his letter to his owl. "All right then. Find Terence, Jonathan, and Alexander. Go on now!" he said, lifting his arm. Together the youngest Black children watched as their letter flew off into the night.

******************************

Remus stood at his large bay window, watching Azkaban slowly begin to vanish into the night.

" Oh, Sirius. Whatever happened to you? Why did you have to go to the Dark side?" he mentally asked his friend, wishing Sirius could respond.

He wondered briefly what Sirius was doing. Remus sighed and turned away. I really shouldn't have left those children on their own, he realized. Perhaps it's not too late. I'll look for them at first light.

*********************************

Jonathan was the only one up in the Black home. Everyone else had gone to bed awhile ago, yet the stubborn young man refused to sleep until he had finished all of his work. He looked up when he heard a slight tapping on the window.

"What's this?" he asked opening the window and allowing Scorpio to come in. "A letter?" Gently Jonathan picked it up and lit the lamp. Settling down in his chair, he began to read.

Dear Jonathan, Terence, Alexander,

In case you are wondering, this is Katrina and Kevin. We wanted to know where you are and how you are all doing. We are fine. Sirius sent us to go to Hogwarts to see Dumbledore; maybe you could meet us there? Then again, maybe you are too busy. We could maybe arrange something. Also, we're currently rather homeless, do you guys have a place where we can stay? It's getting to be rather cold, as it is December, and it would be nice to see you all again. I suppose we'll hear from you soon, if this owl is as reliable as the seller told us.

Yours Truly,

Kevin and Katrina

Jonathan grabbed a quill and parchment, swiftly writing out his reply:

Dear Kevin and Katrina,

We'd love having you guys come to live with us. Jonathan is still at Hogwarts, and if I remember correctly, both of you need to go. We live pretty close to the school, so it should be fairly easy for you guys to attend. Send us an owl if you guys are near a giant castle.

With love from your older brothers,

Jonathan, Terence, Alex

Smiling, Jonathan attached the letter and sent Scorpio off. Then he went to rouse his brothers.

********************************

Sirius paced his cell for the eightieth time, wondering how his younger siblings were doing. He hadn't had any word from any of them, but he knew the Death Eaters knew something.

"Hey! Evan Lestranger! Hey! Pay attention man!" Sirius yelled, hammering on the bars of his cell door.

The ex-Death Eater looked up, but said nothing.

"Well, I don't know you too well, but you know my younger siblings. You know? Those two thin, black haired kids in the papers. Yeah?" Sirius asked, miming every word out. " Okay. Those two kids you used to teach curses to? Remember them? Yeahdo you know where they might have gone?"

The Death Eater said nothing. Finally he spoke in raspy voice. "They always wanted to go find their other brothers who they said they'd barely met. They were always talking about some Lupin guy, and telling me stories about that old school, Hogwarts."

" They told you all that? They never talked to me about anything like that." Sirius replied, slightly hurt. The Death Eater laughed and fell silent, grinning softly and falling asleep. Sirius sighed and stared out his window. So his siblings were probably okay, he thought with a smile. Remus would take care of them. He knew that for sure.

And as always, please review!!!