Harry Potter

The Aftermath

Chapter 2

America

October 13, 2017

Marie and Sirius stepped off of a Pan Am Air plane that had traveled from London to New York. They were dressed as muggles.

Marie had on a soft pink long sleeved button down blouse tucked into her soft pink and black plaid calf length skirt, with a matching jacket over her blouse cutting off just be low her bottom so that she had some place to put her wand out of sight and black low heal dress shoes. She had her hair styled sown around her shoulders showing off her face which she had actually had a little makeup on she was also carrying over the shoulder black purse.

Sirius has on a white undershirt and white button down shirt tucked into his black slacks and belt with a black jacket hanging down to his mid thigh left open showing his dark gray vest, finishing off on a pair of black shoes. "This is uncomfortable..." he grumbled as they showed their passports so to the immigration counter to get into the city.

"No worse than being in school again." Marie said with a soft snigger as she glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Move along, next." the man in front of Marie said as he handed her passport back to her.

"Thank you." Marie said pleasantly then moved through then off to the side waiting for Sirius to make his way through as well.

Sirius joined her a few minutes later and they continued through the airport to go out onto the street. "Now where?" he asked as he sighed looking around.

"MACUSA (mah-cooz-ah) of course." Marie whispered over to him looking around the crowd moving about around them one could never be to cautious even in this country Voldemort could have spread his nonsense here.

"Yeah and wheres that?" Sirius asked as he glanced over at her slightly irritated.

Marie shrugged then decided to walk away intent on just walking New York to find the building she was looking for. "Dumbledore did give me some info but with our situation with the war info is hard to come by for the American government. All the info he had was several years old." she noticed a couple stiffen slightly as she walked by talking to Sirius.

"Marie..." Sirius said low when the two began to follow them.

"I saw, lets get out of these bloody muggles." Marie said softly as she looked around curiously but there was no quick escape.

"Just keep walking." Sirius whispered as he leaned down to kiss her cheek lightly chancing a glance out of the corner of his eye to see them still being followed.

"They could be MACUSA, or Voldemort what's your opinion?" Marie whispered as she glanced sideways at Sirius curiously.

"They reacted to Dumbledore, it's hard to tell. Look the area's starting to clear out." Sirius said noticing most of the muggles had managed to catch a cab.

"If it is MACUSA they suck at tailing we could teach them a thing or two." Marie said softly with a smirk and a glint in her eyes that told him she was thinking of doing just that.

"Just get across the street Marie." Sirius said as he looked around noticing a couple of other people advancing on them as well from different directions. "Damn..." he whispered then took Marie's hand and darted across the street noticing the others taking off after them.

"Here we go." Marie said as she noticed a the new people chasing after them drawing wands discreetly coming across the street. Once they were in the dark alley they turned drawing their wands and stood waiting. "Who are you and what do you want?" she demanded as she and Sirius pointed their wands at the pursuers that said they had experience at fighting wizards having put their backs to a wall to keep their enemy from getting to them from the rear.

"Aurors lower your wands." one of the four said as he stepped forward using his own wand tip in an up and down motion.

"You first." Sirius said agitated as he glared at the four in front of them.

"Sirius." Marie said softly to get him to hush. "We are Aurors as well but from the Ministry of Magic in London." she said as she lowered her wand to point at the ground slightly.

"MACUSA Aurors we heard you discussing Dumbledore what brings you here?" the man said as he lowered his wand the same way that Marie had hers down.

"Dumbledore's name gets us chased across the airport then the street." Sirius said irritated and defensive.

"We must make sure all British wizards coming into the United States are not Death Eaters following this Voldemort. We had enough dealing with Grindelwald." the man said raising an eyebrow at Sirius he seemed to be easily angered.

Marie sighed as she shook her head lightly. She placed a hand on Sirius wand arm to get him to calm down. "We are here on Dumbledore's orders to speak with your Magical Congress." she said as she looked over at the Auror across from them.

"About what?" The Auror asked as he tilted his head lightly to the side he knew that the Congress had already told Dumbledore that they wouldn't help him in this war against Voldemort.

"That's between us and your Congress. Sorry we must make sure we aren't talking to Voldemort followers." Marie said as she looked over at the MACUSA Auror curiously.

"You're war is your own we don't want no part of it." one of the Auror's said from the back.

"Bloody hell don't you people understand if Voldemort wins against us guess who he's going after next? You bloody Americans that's who." Sirius said irritated as he shook his head at these American Aurors.

"Sirius it doesn't do any good to argue with them here in the street." Marie said as she looked over at him wondering if he was going to do something stupid.

"Put your wands away or we will have no choice but to arrest you." the Auror said hoping they wouldn't cause any trouble he was sympathetic to their cause and he didn't blame them for trying to come for help.

"Sirius we are on their turf and outnumbered. They are MACUSA, they can take us to where we need to go." Marie said softly as she flipped her wand in her hand lightly then put it back in the pocket she had sewn into the inside of her jacket.

"Fine." Sirius almost growled out as he returned his wand to a similar pocket in his jacket. "You lot have a lot to be desired for following people." he said and raised an eyebrow at them wondering if they would react to his bait.

"I'm sure we've not been in a wizarding war fighting the greatest dark wizard since Grindelwald." The Auror said as he put his wand away as well.

"I don't believe the term great should ever be applied to Voldemort. He's a sadistic murder that's all." Marie said as she glared over at the man in front of them.

"My apologies miss..." the man said as he looked up at her curiously.

"Marie Willis." Marie said simply as she stood their ready to draw her wand again if needed.

"I didn't mean he was a great person Miss Willis just that he is the greatest threat to the Wizarding kind since Grindelwald." The Auror said sincerely as he looked at her curiously. "And your name?" he asked curiously looking over at Sirius.

"Sirius Black." Sirius said as he locked eyes with the MACUSA Auror.

"And you are?" Marie asked curiously.

"Ah yes. I'm Jacob Williams. And these are my associates. "Jeremiah Waters, Cathrin Smith, and James Carter." Jacob the one who had bee doing almost all of the talking so far. He looked at Marie curiously she had looked away from him over to the ground by the wall of the building beside them sadly.

"Marie you know that name's really common." Sirius said softly as he reached over and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder with a soft smile forgetting his anger at these arrogant Americans quickly.

"What name?" Jacob asked curiously wondering what the problem was now motioning the others to make their way back to their posts.

"Jacob..." Marie said so softly that he couldn't hear her.

"Yours." Sirius said and sighed as he looked over at Jacob to see the confusion. "Her brother and parents were murdered by Death Eaters a couple weeks ago. Jacob was her brother he was going to graduate from Hogwarts this coming school year." he said as he pulled Marie over to him into a tight hug.

"Just refer to me a Mr. Williams if that make you more comfortable Miss Willis." Jacob said looking at her sympathetically there was nothing else he could do. "I'll take you to meet make an appointment to meet with the Congress." he said then turned and made his way out of the alley.

"Come along Marie." Sirius said softly as he pushed her back gently putting a finger under her chin to make her look up at him. It broke his heart to see her so sad. She smiled softly up at him and nodded motioning down the alley for him to start following Jacob.

They followed Jacob to a building in which he said something to the door man then ushered them in through the door in front of him. "This way keep up please." he said making his way purposefully across the floor. He took them up to the head of the Aurors office and introduced them as British Ministry Aurors Willis and Black here to meet with the Congress. He also introduced the head of the department as Jeffery Gaddis.

"Unfortunately the Congress is extremely busy. Do you have a place to stay while I find a time for you to meet with them?" the head of the Magical Law Enforcement Jeffery Gaddis said as he looked between the two curiously. They didn't seem like typical British wizards. They had managed to look like decent Non-Magi, his experience was most British wizards were very eccentric when it came to dressing like non-magical folk.

"Not yet." Sirius said as he looked over at the head of the department curiously. For people who didn't want anything to do with 'their war' they seemed helpful so far.

"Ah well not to far from here we have a set of apartments that we allow foreign representatives to stay while they wait for a meeting. You are more then welcome to stay there or to find your own place. I have no idea what the Congress is working on or when they can squeeze you in to their full schedule." he said looking between the two curiously.

Marie and Sirius looked at each other then she shrugged lightly. "Not a bad offer thank you, we'll take you up on that." she said with a soft smile on her face.

"Very well I'll have Mr. Williams here escort you there. I must ask that you remain patient and cause no trouble while you are here in New York." Jeffery said as he reached out and shook hands with Sirius then Marie.

"Us cause trouble? Wouldn't happen." Marie said with a bright smile on her face and he eyed her curiously wondering if she was trying to joke or if they usually ended up causing mayhem where ever they go.

"This way." Jacob said as he motioned the two of them back the way they had came. He directed them two blocks away and up to a set of apartments opening up one for them. "Do you want two different ones or just the one?" he asked curiously as he let them go into the apartment first.

"One is fine." Sirius said as he looked around curiously.

"Look I have a question for you. What are you going to do once you catch this Voldemort?" Jacob asked curiously.

"Well if we take him alive he'll go to prison. If not he'll be dead. The latter doesn't bother me in the least to tell the truth." Marie said as she looked back at Jacob curiously wondering what made him ask that question.

"I heard you Brits put your awful wizards into a prison but didn't know if you had any other punishment for the extreme cases." Jacob said with a shrug at the look Marie was giving him.

"And we've heard of your death sentences. In our current situation I can't say it's wrong, before this war I didn't agree with it though." Marie said with a shrug. She would gladly use the worst of the three unforgivable curses on Voldemort if she could get close enough to do it.

"War changed your opinion then?" Jacob asked curiously as he looked at Sirius who had stopped and turned to hear her answer as well.

"In Voldemort and his Death Eaters case yes. In the normal every day criminal no." Marie said as she looked away from Jacob making sure to look away from Sirius as well. "Anyway thank you for showing us around." she said then walked away over to the window looking out over the city.

"Of Course you're welcome. Have a good night." Jacob said taking that as the end of the conversation and left closing the door behind him.

Sirius did the normal enchantments that they had at home here in this apartment. When he was done he turned and looked at Marie curiously. "America seems interesting." he said as he walked over to her to look outside.

Marie nodded lightly then used her wand to change into her normal attire. "It's nice to be able to look out windows again." she said softly as she continued to look out over the city.

"I suppose, it's a little unnerving too." Sirius said doing the same. These muggle clothes seemed irritating to him for some reason. "We'll get him Marie, he'll pay for his crimes." he said comfortingly as he put his arm around her protectively pulling her against his side as they looked out over the growing city.

"It would be nice to know what it's like for us to live in peace." Marie said softly as she laid her head against his shoulder comfortably. "I wonder how different it is to live here in America?" she said thinking out loud.

"You planning to move here away from our friends?" Sirius asked curiously as he looked down at her slightly shocked.

"No of course not, just a question they are at peace where as we've been fighting a war. Grass is always greener on the other side, till you get there. Right?"

"Right." Sirius said with a soft smile just before he leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. "Come on we had a long flight lets get some rest." he said turning her away from the window to go to the bedroom he had found.

"Hang on." Marie said and freed herself from his arms so she could pull the curtains closed. "Old habits." she said with a smile when she turned back around and grabbed his hand to let him lead the way.

Sirius laughed lightly and shook his head. "Old habits." he agreed then walked through the living room by the kitchen/dining area into a small hallway that led into the master bedroom and bathroom.

As they walked through the apartment Marie took in for the first time the way it was decorated. The living room was a dull gray wall color with brown carpet and a huge burnt yellow sectional couch and a wooden coffee table in front of it. There were a few decorations on the walls largest was a clock like the sun that took up most of the wall above the far section of the couch then next was a painting on the closest side of the couch of the New York skyline in the 30's.

The dinning area was next with a metal rectangle table to seat four with a burnt yellow top and chairs sitting on a brown linoleum flooring that carried through to the small kitchen of brown cabinets white counters and burn yellow sinks and other appliances. The hallway was back to brown carpet and dull gray walls.

The bedroom was a far cry away from the rest of the apartment the bedding was a bright fire engine red with the carpet being stripped dull gray, brown, burnt yellow with a thin stripe of bright red trying to tie it all together. The walls being a dull gray again. The curtains were a burnt yellow pulled closed already. The bathroom had brown carpet, brown cabinets, the hanging towels and shower curtain were made of the same striped colors as the carpet in the bedroom, burnt yellow toilet, shower, and sink. The mirror above the sink was a large metal sun shaped surround with a medium sized mirror in the middle.

"Apparently these used to be muggle apartments. I guess in large growing city like this it's hard to find hiding places like our Diagon Alley in London." Marie said as she looked back at Sirius curiously.

"This country is still evolving and growing they're not as old as the Ministry of Magic I recon they have to adapt with and around the muggles." Sirius said with a slight shrug as he began getting ready for bed.

AN: 1970's decor was awful sorry...these are descriptions of actual

pictures I came across while googling 1978 apartments.