1 September 1971
The hat had chosen and young Sirius Black was happy to comply. Gryffindor, he thought happily as he sat for the first time at the house's table in the Great Hall. It couldn't have landed him farther from Slytherin, could it? Maybe it was a sign of what he'd always felt deep down – he really didn't belong in his family. The so called 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black'. The title itself made him roll his eyes.
Of one thing, Sirius was sure – he already felt like he fit there. In Gryffindor. He actually liked his fellow house-mates, though he had only met a few: the boy with messy black hair he'd sat with on the train whose name he recalled being James; the pretty brunette girl sitting by his side, Mia, who'd been the first to speak to him at the table and seemed rather nice; even those two other boys who'd sat opposite them on the table and he'd only exchanged a few words with so far, Remus and Peter… He was aware that only time would tell which relationships would last and which wouldn't – regardless, he could actually picture himself being happy as a Gryffindor.
His parents… well, they'd be another story. The simple thought of them filled his young mind with insecurities heavy enough to make him lose his appetite, no matter how delicious the feast opposite him looked. 'Upset' couldn't even begin to describe what they would feel when they heard the news. And that was bound to be soon, he thought, seeing as Narcissa was already sending him glares from the Slytherin table as she whispered something in a hushed tone to her older sister, Andromeda, who couldn't look less interested in what she was saying – unlike Narcissa, she gave Sirius an encouraging smile before hissing at her sister to shut up. He'd bet his whole share of the Black fortune that the first thing Cissy would do when she reached her dorm would be writing to his mother with a full report on his sorting into the house of Godric Gryffindor.
As long as he could remember, a very firm theory concerning magical segmentation had always been preached within his family – it could be described as sort of like a pyramid, now that he thought of it. At the top of it, were the oldest pureblood families, his own included, followed by the other purebloods in general but never (never!) the blood-traitors like the Potters or the Weasleys. While the first two made, so to speak, the class of the 'good ones', the third was bumped down to the lowest class of the 'bad ones'. The organization of those 'bad ones' was quite different: there was a level for the half-bloods and then another one that gathered muggles, muggle-borns, blood-traitors, squibs and all those sorts of wizard that they just didn't care for. Gryffindors, he recalled, usually were in the same pool as the latter ones with very few exceptions…
They did have that one coming, Sirius had to admit, especially after his parents had handed him in the previous night a list of the students he 'absolutely had to be acquainted with' and a list of those he wasn't supposed to even acknowledge. He'd been planning to do just the opposite but it seemed being a Gryffindor was an even bigger kick in their arses than doing that. He tried to see that as the bright side of the thing. What will they do? He wondered. Demand he was re-sorted? Show up in the school to make their outrage known? He sure knew he should expect a howler by the following morning as he recalled mentioning to Mia earlier when they'd spoken.
But the slightly twisted pleasure he'd gained from trying to picture their outrage didn't last long. He knew his life at home would be even worse now. Bellatrix would never let him get away with being a Gryffindor without turning his life into a living hell. Could he live with it? Probably. It was just two months a year he had to spend at home, after all. Would it be easy on him? Hell no. Maybe they'd just kick him out, burn him out of the family tree like they'd done to members of earlier generations. He wasn't sure how to feel about that – maybe it was good because he'd be rid of them. But then again he'd have to fend for himself if that happened and he was just eleven, for Merlin's sake. What if they sent him to some creepy orphanage?
The feast passed and his plate remained practically untouched, leading his new colleagues to ask him if something was wrong, to which he responded by saying an upset stomach was the problem. While they seemed convinced enough, the headmaster, who'd noticed his behaviour from the staff table, wasn't.
"Mr. Black, a word please," Albus Dumbledore requested later as the first years were about to be taken to their new dorms for the first time.
Sirius found it odd that the headmaster was addressing him already, yet didn't hesitate in approaching him. After all, if his parents didn't like him at all, he must be a pretty good bloke. But then, it occurred to him – his parents. Had they been so quick to learn about his sorting that they had already contacted the school demanding a re-sorting? During the meal? How did they even hear of it? "P…professor?" he asked as he joined the headmaster near the staff table
"I couldn't help noticing you seemed troubled during your meal," Dumbledore stated in a peaceful tone. "Did you not feel comfortable here at Hogwarts, Mr. Black? Or is it that you don't like the house you were sorted into? I understand most of your family became a part of Slytherin…"
"I'd much rather be where I am," Sirius told him bluntly without any hint of hesitation.
Dumbledore looked happy with his admission. "Oh, I see, then, Mr. Black. You are afraid your family won't accept the house the hat sorted you into."
Can the man read minds? he wondered. The smile he got in return from the headmaster after his unspoken question only led him to believe maybe he could… He nodded faintly, feeling fairly embarrassed and waited for a reaction.
"Why, I'm sure I'll be able to reason with them if necessary, Mr. Black," the older man assured.
"They're not easy to reason with," Sirius warned him almost casually.
"Then we're lucky I'm a patient man. One thing I can assure you, Mr. Black – any student's sorting is definitive. Nobody will be able to take you away from your house once you're in it. I'm afraid your family will have to get used to it – after all, what else can they do?"
"Kick me out?" he spoke without thinking.
The headmaster laughed, making Sirius feel further at ease. It was unusual – when someone laughed at him back home, he tended to feel uncomfortable, so much was the scorn behind it. "Oh, Mr. Black… I'm sure with time you will realize that some things just cause too much scandal for a respectable pureblood family such as yours to wish to deal with. Kicking their eleven-year-old firstborn out of their house is one of those things. I'd say being sorted into Gryffindor is not enough for them to risk it."
That point of view settled Sirius's mind, he had to admit – his mother was mental about keeping the family's image squeaky clean, though her notion of a 'clean image' was pretty different from a regular person's. Apparently, he wouldn't become homeless that night. He thanked Dumbledore for saying that – the bloke did know what he was doing as a teacher at least when it came to reassuring new students. His parents' view of the man was that he was 'too old to think straight' among some other non-flattering nicknames. Funnily enough, now, talking face to face with the man, Sirius couldn't help thinking that he was more sane than most of the people he usually dealt with daily.
"Yes, Mr. Black?" the headmaster asked as if he could once again hear his thoughts.
"Oh… I… it's nothing," he said, embarrassed.
"Oh, I'm sure 'nothing' wouldn't make you so contemplative, would it? Go on and say it, Mr. Black. I won't be offended."
Sirius was silent for a moment, under the headmaster's piercingly curious look and eventually concluded he might as well be honest and just say it. "My parents say you're…" he swallowed hard "… kind of a nutcase. I was just thinking they were wrong. I swear I was."
Dumbledore laughed again as if he'd just heard a good joke and patted his shoulder amicably. "Why, I'm very glad you think so, Mr. Black. You should join your classmates now. They are just about to walk out," he stated, nodding at the Great Hall's door.
Sirius nodded too and did as the headmaster said. As he rejoined the other Gryffindors, he couldn't help thinking that the old man was a hard one to figure out. Yet, he might just be one of the most brilliant people he would ever know.
Present time
Dumbledore was gone.
The thought itself seemed so foreign that, for a moment, as he stared out of the window, Sirius allowed himself to believe it was a joke. Dozens of scenarios crossed his mind in a matter of seconds: himself being wrong and the person falling not being Dumbledore but someone else remarkably similar to him… somebody using polijuice, maybe; an illusion created by the Death Eaters to mess with their heads; Dumbledore having somehow faked the fall and standing right there at the bottom of the tower, gathering himself and heading straight to the fight… but he wasn't. His body was down there, lifeless – at the bottom of the tower, the illumination was good enough for him to recognize it even at a distance, completely unmoving and awkwardly positioned.
Then, the truth was hard to deny: Albus Dumbledore was just as dead as Peter Pettigrew was. So far, three lives had ended at that battle. Likely only one, Wormtail's, would not be missed by any of the sides fighting…
Both were gone and there was little time to deal with the shock of it because if Dumbledore was in that school, despite dead, so would be Harry Potter – Sirius knew well enough the headmaster wouldn't have let Harry out of his sight until they were both somewhere safe. He wasn't sure how long he had spent in his initial disbelieving stupor (One minute? Ten? He couldn't tell – his notion of time passing seemed to have vanished sometime during his chase after Wormtail) but when the realization that Harry was nearby kicked in, everything happened very fast for Sirius.
The Felix guided him once again through the hallways, leaving behind the stage of his last confrontation with the (now dead) traitor and he hoped at every turn and every step that it was leading him to his godson or at least to something that would end up helping him get the boy to safety.
When he reached the seventh floor, he saw it was a mess of destruction. They hadn't been kidding when they said that was where the battle had been the hottest – the signs of it were clear: pieces of decorative armor spread everywhere, large bits of stone missing from the walls and cluttered all over the floors, curtains turned to ashes from having caught fire at some point… Apart from the signs of destruction it had left behind, the battle seemed to be reaching an end with only a single duel still taking place there on the corridor as far as Sirius could see: that one was featuring the Weasley twins fighting together against a Death Eater that was easily twice their size – the fact that there were two of them against him seemed to even things out. All in all, the situation looked handled, so Sirius decided to move on from there, heading to the sixth floor, then – there was no time to waste.
When he reached the nearest stairs, he looked down through the well formed between the staircases mostly to check if there was any sign of the battle having moved down to the lower floors, which didn't seem to be the case. Instead, before he had a chance to resume heading to the sixth floor, he saw a familiar flash of long red hair going down the stairs at the bottom, near the third or second floor, apparently heading to the castle's exit – it must be Ginny, he concluded, though he couldn't imagine why she was running down there apparently on her own. He didn't have the time to figure it out either, he thought, hoping the Felix Felicis would be enough to keep his godson's girlfriend protected during whatever she was going to do.
Heading to the sixth floor at some point while following the Felix Felicis's whispers, Sirius saw himself on the same hallway where some time ago he'd nearly coincidently saved Moony from being hit with Rowle's Killing Curse. Neither Remus or Tonks seemed to be there at the moment.
Instead, he spotted Bill and Charlie Weasley engaged in a duel each a few yards away, as well as Ron and Hermione, also close, managing to dodge with finesse the last curses aimed towards them by the Carrows who seemed to be retreating and finally… He felt something shifting inside him as he saw her and nearly smirked, pleased at the chance to take a hit at her. It was Bellatrix.
She stood near a doorway on the opposite side of the hallway, ready to leave with the others. By the time she saw him from the corner of her eye, it was too late for her to even try and attack him without risking being blown to pieces as his curse was already making its way to her. This time, he hadn't hesitated as had happened in the previous year. "Reducto!" he'd shouted loudly a fragment of a second earlier, aiming his wand towards his most detested cousin.
She managed to escape the curse itself by a few inches – he'd had a feeling she would from the angle he'd cast it. That was exactly why he hadn't used a stunner: unlike the Reductor Curse, stunners didn't cause an explosion and one of those was exactly what he wanted. Because while Bellatrix might have been quick enough to escape the curse itself, the impact of it blowing up part of the nearest wall, as well as a considerable amount of shrapnel that it released, sent her flying a few feet, hitting the floor violently before she was showered with the debris. It wasn't even close to how long she'd sent Mia flying but he wasn't about to waste his freedom by using dark magic to blow her apart. He'd gone through that dilemma with Wormtail already and the decision would be the same. The reducto-induced explosion was enough payback. For starters, of course.
Starters were all he got, though, as all of a sudden everything turned pitch black. For a moment, he thought he'd gone blind and wondered if he's been hit by some sort of spell without noticing it – the Felix wouldn't allow that, would it? He'd followed its feelings and whispers religiously! But soon he realized he wasn't the only one in the dark as he heard Charlie loudly cursing and calling them cowards for doing such a lame escape with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. For the second time this bloody night, Sirius added in his mind.
By the time the darkness dissipated, a couple of minutes later, all Death Eaters (Bellatrix included, probably carried by one of the others since he was positive he'd injured her wnough for it to be a while before she could make such a fast escape) were gone from the hallway and Merlin knew how far they might have gone already.
"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath. At least that group of Death Eaters – Bellatrix, her brother-in-law, Rabastan, the Carrows and Yaxley, he recalled – was surely way beyond their reach now, even though Bill and Charlie didn't waste time before leaving on a pale attempt to still find and catch them…
"You two okay?" Sirius managed to ask Ron and Hermione when they approached him.
Ron was the one to nod. "They missed every time they tried to curse us," he stated. "Did Izzy give you the Felix?"
Sirius nodded. "Yeah, she did. Not quite the effect I'd expected, though." Felix or not, that day was not going great for him. First Wormtail had escaped being captured by offing himself, now Bellatrix had escaped with her pals! Didn't sound like much luck to him…
"Well, the potion isn't widely used in battle-scenes with so many unexpected dangerous situations, not to mention that it doesn't always make things happen in the most obvious way…" Hermione explained quickly. "I'm sure if you look at the big picture, you'll see you were pretty lucky today. I mean, all three of us have been in the middle of a violent battle and none of us got a single scratch."
He couldn't deny she had a point. In the previous year at the Department of Mysteries, practically everyone had gotten injured in some way, which he definitely wasn't the case at the moment. Bella couldn't say the same. Even if she'd escaped, he'd at least gotten a chance to leave a mark on her with that little flight… he hoped every bruise and every break would sting like the bitch she was for weeks and give her a little bit of that payback he wanted her to get so much. Later, he might think that, in essence, the Felix had done its job too in Wormtail's case too, though at the moment he found his fate harder to sawllow. Faced with that, he changed the subject. "So, the Death Eaters… what made them start to retreat? Doesn't sound like them to leave us without causing major injuries…"
Hermione sighed. "I know. They just started retreating a few minutes ago. Someone shouted 'it's done' and they started backing off and getting ready to leave. Can't tell what they meant with that massage, though."
Sirius had a feeling he could. Dumbledore, he thought. Killing him must have been what the Death Eaters had come to the school for, their master's orders. Mission accomplished: get the hell out like the bloody cowards they were. He couldn't bring himself to explain that to the others, though – it was hard enough to believe in his head that the leader of their movement was gone, much less saying it out loud. "Have you seen Harry?" he managed to ask instead.
It was a relief when Ron nodded. "He passed here running about fifteen minutes ago. He was chasing after Snape and Malfoy."
There was an angry pause, then. "Snape?"
"He was really fighting on their side the whole time," Hermione announced in an angry, yet resigned tone. "Stunned Professor Flitwick right under our noses too."
He pressed his lips together and his hands closed into fists. The double faced son of a bitch. He'd known it. He'd never trusted the bastard and he'd always had a feeling that doing it would only lead them to being kicked badly on the arse at some point. How right had he been? Just thinking Dumbledore had trusted him all that time… "And Harry was chasing him? Alone?" he asked, feeling the weight of fear within him.
"Yeah," Ron replied before pausing. "I mean, no. Tonks went after him to make sure he wouldn't… you know, get killed. It was like he was possessed. Barely stopped to say anything – only took the time to stun some bloke who was trying to curse the wits out of Ginny. She went looking for him a few minutes ago when the Death Eaters started to retreat. It was impossible to get through them before."
"I saw her going," Sirius told them shortly, motioning to walk away – Harry must be downstairs if Ginny was heading there. He vaguely remembered Izzy mentioning the redhead had the Marauders map with her, so she would know…. "You guys should go somewhere safe… the Hospital Wing is probably reachable now – the Order can handle the rest if the fight. I'll go looking for Harry."
They were tired enough of the fight to simply nod without arguing, heading in opposite directions from Sirius as he sped away, heading downstairs.
That time, the only presence of Death Eaters he was able to note was the one of the unconscious and tied up ones, around half a dozen, that a couple of Aurors was keeping an eye on, somewhere on the fifth floor. Down at the third one, he ran into Bill and Charlie again and didn't need more than their faces to know that, as expected, they hadn't been able to catch up with the group they'd been chasing.
More and more stairs followed. They seemed endless, he thought. He just wanted to reach the bottom of them… When he did and reached the entrance hall, he saw a group of students being guided upstairs by Porfessor Sprout, all of them emerging from the door that he remembered leading to the corridor where both the kitchens and the Hufflepuff dorms were located. He made a mental note to go look for Mia there later, after he'd located Harry.
He didn't need to go further than the castle's main doors to spot him. Right outside, Harry was walking towards the castlewith Ginny by his side and Tonks led the way several yards in front of them. While the eyes of the former two were dry, Tonks's were red and watery. It occurred to Sirius that he'd seen her injured, he'd seen her sad and even miserable, back when Remus had been rejecting her. He'd never seen her crying, though. The possible meaning of it scared him.
He stood unmoving, waiting as she approached before asking anything. "Remus?"
She shook her head. "'t's not him," she said, her voice muffled. "He's with Hagrid outside, helping him moving the bo…" She gulped. "Dumbledore. He's dead."
He nodded soberly. "I know."
She wiped the tears with the sleeve of her shirt. "I need to go warn Kingsley and Moody… McGonagall too. She has to reset the school wards to her command. She'd the headmistress now." She took a breath and gripped her own hips with her hands. "Right. Harry's pretty shaken up. Talk to him." And with that, she was gone.
Harry was already stepping in with Ginny when Sirius turned back to them. His expression numb and lost and the redhead gave Sirius a concerned look as soon as her eyes met his.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asked his godson.
"Yeah… no. I dunno" Harry mumbled, his tone almost disoriented – he seemed exhausted, Sirius noted. And had plenty of cuts, scratches and bruises, probably resulting from both his adventure outside of school and the battle itself – had he even taken the Felix? "Dumbledore is…"
"I know. I saw him falling," Sirius interrupted him – he didn't bother to mention he'd just seen Wormtail fall into his death too. It didn't seem fitting at the moment.
"Oh," his godson said faintly.
"Maybe you should sit down," Ginny suggested in concern, guiding her boyfriend to a nearby stone bench. She didn't like at all how pale he looked, how shaken he sounded. She had no doubt he's get past it – Harry always did. But seeing him like that put a heavy weight in her heart, made her hate everyone that caused him such pain.
"He was already gone when he fell, though…" Harry added, his hands gripping the edge of the bench as he spoke. When he looked up at Sirius's eyes, he didn't seem disoriented anymore. Just tired. And angry. And grieving. "Snape killed him. I saw it." He said that through his teeth, nearly in a whisper even though Ginny and Sirius were the only ones close enough to hear what he said.
His godfather froze – that was beyond the worst kind of betrayal he'd imagined coming from Snape. "What?" he asked in disbelief.
"He didn't stand a chance," Harry continued, looking down at his hands now – at how Ginny's own hands joined his, warming them when he hadn't even realized how cold they felt. It helped a little, though, at the same time, didn't change a thing. "He was unarmed and weakened by a potion he had to drink… He wasted his last chance at using his wand before Malfoy came and disarmed him to make sure he and the other Death Eaters wouldn't spot me up there in the Astronomy tower with him – immobilized me under the invisibility cloak." His eyes fell to the cloak that was now resting on Ginny's lap but quickly looked away, remembering those long moments he'd spent watching, unable to act… "Dumbledore had been asking me to fetch Snape to help him like he was his… most trustworthy friend or something. But when he came…" he stopped talking, sighing instead as Ginny gripped his hand.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to him softly.
Meanwhile, Sirius was still in disbelief. That seemed to be a recurrent feeling for him that day… One thing was Snape betraying the Order for the Death Eaters… taking their side, whatever. It wasn't like he hadn't been expecting it. But killing the man that had for so long put his faith on him? Given him the life he'd had for the past fifteen years… He might have always detested Snape with a passion but that was a whole new level of cruelty that he had never attributed to the guy. The simple thought disgusted him.
"He's the Half Blood prince," Harry recalled, his voice strained with a hint of anger, making Sirius look back at him suddenly. His face looked to have regained a bit of colour already, though he seemed just as exhausted through the expression of resentment on his face.
"Who?" Ginny asked, worried.
"Snape," he said, spitting the word like it was a curse.
"How do you know?" Sirius asked.
"That spell for enemies in the book… Sectumsempra…" He turned to Ginny, then. "I used it… or tried to. I just wanted him punished for what he'd done and it came to my mind… I know I'd promised I wouldn't use any spell from the book that I didn't know already…"
She shook her head. "Don't be stupid. You were in the middle of a battle – neither I nor anyone will blame you for using that spell under the circumstances."
Harry nodded, then and Sirius spoke.
"So, he recognized the spell?" he asked.
"Yes – he even managed to escape it. Then, he started yelling, asking how I dared to use the spell he'd created himself against him… that he was the Half-Blood Prince." Just thinking of it made him want to set the book on fire, just as he wanted its old owner to suffer the same fate. "It's always him, isn't it? He's the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore's murderer, the one who heard the prophecy…"
Before Sirius could even ask about what he meant about the prophecy, he heard rushed steps behind him followed by his wife's voice calling for Harry. By the time he turned around, she was rushing towards them, hugging Harry, who'd gotten up at some point, very tightly as soon as she reached him.
"Thank Merlin you're back," she said before pulling away, her eyes watery, yet not dripping tears as she stepped back. "We were transporting the injured from the Hufflepuff's dorms to the Hospital Wing when Tonks ran into us and told me you were here. I had to come. How are you feeling? Did you get hurt?" Mia examined him with her eyes from head to toe as she fired the questions.
"Only a few cuts and scrapes. Nothing serious," he replied shortly, his tone still lower than usual.
"What were you doing outside, for Merlin's sake? And where is Dumbledore? Wasn't he supposed to be with you?"
Her question was answered with heavy silence from both Sirius, Ginny and Harry. Again, the latter looked down, facing his sneakers absently.
Sirius was the first to speak, afterwards, placing a hand on his godson's shoulder. "Look, how about you and Ginny head up to the Gryffindor tower? Mia and I will drop by later to check on you, okay?" He didn't really feel like putting the kid through explaining the whole thing to Mia all over again – they would ask him for the full story later… or rather in the following day. The kid had already been shaken enough for a day, after all.
Harry looked up and nodded. "Okay."
"Come on," Ginny urged him, pulling him by the arm to walk with her. When they were about to reach the main staircase, she wrapped her own arm around his back and rested her head on his shoulder, hoping the closeness of the gesture would bring him some comfort at least.
As soon as the pair disappeared up the stairs, Mia turned to her husband, her eyes showing fear. "What's wrong with Dumbledore? Why isn't he with Harry?"
He bit his lower lip before speaking – it was still heard to say it out loud. "Mia… he's gone."
"Gone?" she asked, frowning in confusion. "He had to leave again? Didn't he just come back?"
He shook his head – deep down, he knew she wouldn't even consider he might be dead until he said it bluntly. "Love, he's gone… as in dead."
Silence came and she just stared right into his eyes, waiting for him to laugh and tell her it was some sort of sick joke he'd picked up somewhere or to do just anything that would prove him wrong. He didn't. "No," she mumbled. "No… shut up, Sirius, that's ridiculous! Dumbledore cannot be…" She found herself unable to say the word. "He's Dumbledore!" She very nearly laughed at the idea.
"It's not a joke," he assured her.
"It's impossible!" she replied.
He closed his eyes for a moment and huffed. "Mia, listen to me. Harry saw it happening," he told her, knowing it would make an impact on her. "He stood there at the astronomy tower, completely immobilized by Dumbledore himself under his invisibility cloak and watched as Snape killed him. I saw Dumbledore falling from up there afterwards. He's gone, Mia, whether you believe it or not."
"No, that's…" She stopped herself, taking one step back away from him and covering her mouth with the back of her hand like she was feeling sick. "Oh… oh Merlin," she whispered, looking her husband in the eyes again, feeling numb. "Snape did…" She closed her eyes and shook her head like she was trying to process so many thought at the same time that they were making her dizzy. "Harry saw it?" she asked as soon as her eyes were back open. "The whole thing?"
Sirius nodded. "That's why he'd so shaken up." He took a breath, then. "I think so. Merlin, Mia…"
She stopped him before he could refer to it again – she couldn't think of it. Not now. It was too much. "Has anyone else been killed?"
He sighed. "From our side, nobody else that I'm aware of was. From theirs… at least two. Gibbon and…" he gritted his teeth, "and Wormtail."
Her mouth opened, forming a perfect 'O' but she didn't speak for several seconds. So many thoughts followed that statement, one of which terrified her to the core. She had to ask. "Did you…?"
He didn't need her to finish the question to give her an answer – he'd been expecting it, in fact. He was glad he could deny it truthfully, at least. "He did it to himself. Took a flight out of a window – didn't like the idea of spending the rest of his life with the Dementors. Who does?"
Feeling a hint of pain behind his voice, she took a step in his direction and rested her hand on his arm, intending to give him any words of comfort she could think of. Nothing came. Her head was a mess, her emotions likewise – it formed a whirlwind that she just wished she could stop. Too much at the same time, too close to driving her mad. She could only hope he had interpreted the slight grasp of her hand around his arm and a little sign of support as the words wouldn't come.
He reached for her hand in return, grasping it too, which confirmed her hopes. It didn't help much bit with the hurricane of emotions going through her mind but at least she knew they were on the same page.
"We should go… check on Harry," she said absently a few seconds later.
Sirius nodded, feeling equally poor in terms of words. "We should."
And without another word to clear the air or to ease each other's minds, they walked together through the signs of destruction left by the battle towards the Gryffindor tower. Neither of them was really feeling like themselves at the moment.
A/N: Back from a surprise vacation in the south of Spain very refreshed... Sorry for the delay bit I hadn't been expecting it. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter - it wasn't as fast-paced as the last one but, well, it was needed. Feedback is very welcome! Review!