Six
While Sirius looked at the newspaper that morning he experienced a feeling of déjà vu. A little more than ten years ago, he had gone through similar situations, with the difference that at that time, he was younger and more arrogant and he had not suffered the worst years of his life. However, he still felt the same impulse inside that called him to do something; the same anger ran him up and down.
He dropped the pages he was reading and clenched his fists without realizing it. Erin did see it and started to wonder what he was reading.
"Something has happened?" She said raising her voice.
Sirius didn't take his eyes off the newspaper while answering.
"There has been an attack in a muggle town. Six dead and three injured." He paused and almost murmured. "Two were children."
Erin had paled. Sirius got up with the newspaper in his hands to show her while he was still talking.
"They say it was a fire." Then he shook his head. "Anyone would know it's a lie."
Death Eaters, Erin thought. Her eyes flew quickly to the news, searching for the name of the town. Her heart was cramped. She let out a big sigh when she saw that she didn't know the place where it had happened.
"My grandparents are Muggles." She explained to Sirius. It may have seemed strange to him that she was relieved. It was not her family but Erin felt as hurt as if it had been hers. "My father is the only one in the family who does magic."
Sirius nodded, still with the Prophet in his hands and frowning.
Erin looked away for a moment. Kingsley had not warned him, nor any of her partners. Now she was in the Order and yet nobody warned her of anything. She felt disappointed and frustrated, stuck in that house where there was nothing she could do to help anyone. She looked back at Sirius. He didn't look like the kind of man who hid while someone needed help.
"We must go." Erin said. "I want to know what happened."
Sirius stared back, and watched as the girl's eyes gleamed. He hadn't heard her speak so decisively so far. She hadn't even doubted or said that she had to go, she was the Auror anyway, but she had included Sirius immediately.
We must go.
Neither of them hesitated.
The sidewalk tiles were as black as Sirius's shoes. They were still cleaning the street around the houses that had burned but the ash was difficult to wash away.
They had been pretty fast, Erin and Sirius, although they had appeared outside of the town.
Erin had moved closer to one of the houses along with a group of people watching, surely more Muggle neighbours. Sirius stayed behind, seeing how the sidewalks watered and returned to their original colour. A police tape surrounded the area, waving in the wind.
Sirius was having a hard time not thinking about James and Lily. After so many years, so many long nights with the moment repeating itself in his head, the scene would never be erased from his mind. Unlike what had happened before, those Muggles were side effects of a fight that wasn't theirs. Sirius was furious again because what the Death Eaters had intended was exactly that: kill innocents to scare them and make them angry. And they had succeeded. Two houses were reduced to nothing; all that remained was ash and part of the foundations. There were no more houses around until a couple of streets to the right, so the area was deserted.
Sirius moved forward to look for Erin, who seemed to be talking to a woman. As he approached he realized they were indeed talking. The woman couldn't be more than forty years old and held a handkerchief while gesturing with her hands.
"It was very fast." That was the first thing Sirius heard. "About half past eleven someone saw the smoke and approached. A couple of hours later everything had burned."
Erin observed the woman with a serious face although she turned a moment to look briefly at Sirius. He was wondering what Erin had asked the woman to tell her that. The woman wiped her tears with her handkerchief and blinked a couple of times while her gaze went from Sirius to Erin.
"I've never seen you in town." Beside her, Erin tensed a little. "Are you journalists?"
"No." Erin replied quickly. "This is my cousin. Our great uncle lives here alone, you know? We were afraid it had been him."
Sirius was surprised to see how the lie flowed so naturally from Erin's mouth. Her voice had trembled a little but the woman seemed so distressed that she hadn't even noticed. Still, they had been close.
"A tragedy." Sirius spoke for the first time. He didn't have to lie. "Those poor children ..."
The woman nodded vehemently while Erin had her eyes fixed on the house.
"It must've been the lightning." The woman commented.
"The lightning?" Sirius asked.
"Yes." She answered. "At eight o'clock my children went to bed. The sky was so dark that it seemed that a storm was coming. I heard a thunder but in the end it didn't rain."
Sirius knew exactly what he was referring to and looked for Erin, although she seemed to be focused on other things. What the woman told him afterwards only confirmed it.
"It was so strange. My little boy even said that there seemed to be a huge skull in the sky. I did not think so ... but anyway, you know kids have a big imagination."
Sirius nodded a little. The child had a lot of imagination as his mother said or he'd witnessed the mark of the Death Eaters appearing.
"I hope your uncle is well." The woman said. "Goodbye."
She turned to go to the sidewalk opposite and Sirius muttered a goodbye. It was more than clear that this was the work of Voldemort's men. He met with Erin in front of the second house, just as destroyed as the first one. Erin didn't look good. Judging by the way she squeezed her lips and her brows furrowed with sadness, the girl must've been thinking about what would've happened if that had been her family. Or maybe she had some worse thoughts; maybe she believed they could be the next.
"What do you think?" He asked, referring to what had happened.
"It was what we thought. It's very likely they used incendio." She answered lowering her voice. "A normal fire does not consume a brick house so quickly."
Sirius nodded, wishing it hadn't happened. They hadn't published anything in the Prophet about what had happened to the victims but he didn't want to imagine it.
They both left the village and returned to the same place where they had appeared to return to Grimmauld Place. Neither of them said a word until after they appeared. There was nothing pleasant to talk about.
It was Erin who broke the silence, already inside Sirius' house. The first thing she had done hadd been to drink a glass of water and she still had it in her hands while she thought. Sirius sat in the lounge chair. He wasn't tired, but the incident had reminded him of things he didn't want to think about.
"I should visit my grandparents." Erin said a few meters away from him, while she put the glass down. It seemed more like a thought she had said out loud. "Soon."
Sirius swallowed. He knew well why she'd said it and sadly, it was true.
"You were that scared the first time?"
Now she had talked directly to Sirius. Erin moved to sit in front of him and Sirius almost didn't even have to think about it.
"Yes."
He remembered what it was like to fall directly into a war when they had just finished their studies, all the separations, the need to hide and all the distrust they had felt about anyone.
"How old are you?" Sirius asked, realizing that she might be the same age as him in the first war. "Twenty one?"
Erin nodded while looking at him. Sirius thought she had seemed older all morning, acting so serious. Actually, Erin was no little girl anymore.
"I was scared to death with your age." And with the same age they put me in Azkaban, he fell silent. "And I still am now, with that I can't help you."
It was true, perhaps he was no longer afraid of what might happen to him but he was terrified to think about what could happen to Harry. The war was panic, confusion and fear and that would never change.
Erin hadn't changed her face full of worry even though Sirius hadn't intended to disturb her any more than she already was.
"I'm not good at comforting anyone." He recognised. "I wish I could tell you that this will be over soon."
She smiled a little and got up ready to go up to her room. They would have to make sure it ended as quickly as possible.
A bit short but I'm finally catching up. Thank you to everyone that has followed or put this story in their favourites.
I'd love to hear your opinion, good or bad, comments are welcomed!