Chapter 62 - Disintegrates
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A month later, the summer was coming to an end. Lily and James had been on a honeymoon for the past month, really getting everything out of it. Izzie was afraid telling Remus about her engagement, but he couldn't be happier, he hugged her tight for twenty minutes. Regulus laughed his arse off when they told them she was the one who asked Sirius. Remus and Regulus wanted to help plan the whole thing, but they didn't want anything big. They just needed their closest friends to be there. But the one thing they did do, which was essential to the wedding is, of course, the cake tasting.
It was the last day of August, Izzie and Sirius just came out of a bakery in Diagon Alley. Sirius was carrying a box with several samples for the others to try.
"You got a little something." Izzie chuckled, wiping the frosting from the corner of his mouth before she leaned in for a kiss. "Which one is your favourite?"
"I really like the chocolate fudge."
"I noticed; you had three slices." She grinned. "It reminds me of when we went to the kitchens and shared the chocolate cake, do you remember?"
Sirius hummed. "Our non-date." He grinned. "And look at us now." He curled his free arm around her waist.
"Yeah, look at us now. Engaged and all." She smiled before kissing him again. She couldn't get enough of his lips. "We should get to the jewellery shop; the ring should be ready by now."
"Then I can show you off to the world." He whispered as they started walking through the busy street. They met a few people from school, some from Reg's year, others from their year. Sirius was telling every one of them they were engaged, making her blush the whole time.
"I talked to James about it before, but I was wondering -" She started looking up at him. His arm was thrown around her shoulder tucking her close against him. "What is your first memory of me?"
"My very first?" He asked, she could see the wheels turning inside his head. Then a crooked grin appeared on his face. "Do you remember -"
Sirius couldn't finish his sentence because suddenly she was being ripped out of his arms. Sirius dropped the box of cake samples and tried to grab her hand.
"SIRIUS!" She screamed as her father and her uncle bounded her hands on her back and broke her wand. She was powerless but still she tried to kick, push, scream her way out of there, back to Sirius. Her fiancé had his wand drawn; his eyes frightened.
"Let her go now! Or I swear you will regret it." Sirius voice was ice, it was dangerous, and he was speaking the truth.
"She will never marry you! She will never do anything else again." Her father sneered while her uncle cackled as he pulled her head back. She saw Sirius draw his wand back, already muttering a spell but before it could hit them, they had disappeared.
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"REMUS!" Sirius cried as he apparated home, his knees crashing to the floor. There were hurried footsteps before the others all appeared in front of him. They fell to their knees in front of him.
"Sirius? What's wrong? What happened?" Remus asked, his voice frantic. He saw him look around, his voice broke when he said. "Where is Izzie?"
"Her father and uncle just appeared in Diagon alley; they grabbed her out of my arms before I knew what was happening. They took her!"
"No, no, no." Regulus was shaking all over. "We escaped! We were free."
"The Aurors-" James said.
"They are informed, they are already searching for her. I lost her again, Remus."
Remus wrapped his arms around him, tears falling from everyone's eyes. "You - you don't know that. They will find her, they must find her."
"Her father, he said, she will never marry me, she will never do anything else again."
Remus let go of him, falling on his bum, shock all over his face. They all fell silent as fear started to fill them even more. What were they going to do to her. What if they won't find her in time? What if-
"It's all my fault. It's because she's engaged to me."
"No." James wrapped his arms around him. "You - you don't know that. They could have been planning that for months."
"I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill all of them." Regulus fumed, he was pacing behind the others. Sirius looked up at him, his face was blank from emotions, but his eyes were filled with tears. This Regulus – is a dangerous Regulus. Remus must've noticed too, because he said, though his voice trembled.
"Let's not panic. The chances are big that the Aurors will find her and put her father and uncle to trial." He said, but he sounded unsure. Regulus glared at Remus, a look he had never seen towards Moony. Moony looked to James. "Can we – can we talk to the Aurors? I want to know the plan of action and want to be kept informed."
"Yeah." His voice shook. Lily was silent, her eyes cast to the floor as tears dripped down. "I'll go talk to them."
"We should all go. I need to give them my testimony anyway." James helped Lily and Sirius from the floor. None of them trusted themself to apparate to the ministry, so they used the floo. Reg was the last one to get in, his eyes fixed on the picture of Halloween months ago.
"I will find you, Isabelle. Even if it's the last thing I do."
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The next two weeks were excruciating for the group. The Aurors hadn't found anything on where she could be. They had torn the house of her father and uncle upside down but there wasn't any trace. Not that Regulus thought there was going to be, they were smart enough not to go back to their houses. They kept them in the loop on their process and planning, but nothing ever came of it. None of them were working right now, they couldn't. But James and Sirius volunteered to help in their search because they couldn't just sit idly by. But with each passing day, Sirius was falling more and more into a deep depression. And there was nothing anyone could do, not without any news from Isabelle. James, Remus and Regulus all switched to sleeping with Sirius, otherwise he wouldn't sleep at all. The nights, he and Remus slept together, they cried themselves to sleep, clutching to each other into the night.
After two weeks, Regulus gave up on the Auror department. They weren't going to find her. Remus was still asleep next to him, he kissed him slowly before writing a note.
I'm going to talk to my parents. I know they know. I'll be back in a few hours, I love you."
He placed the note on his pillow before walking quietly out of the house. He apparated right on the doorstep. He lifted his hand to knock, but the door creaked open slowly. He raised his wand as he walked inside the house. He thought he was ready for an attack, but suddenly he was wrapped in thick heavy cords before an expelliarmus knocked his wand out of his hand. His father appeared from the shadow, his heel pounded on his wand making it snap in two.
"Where is she? I know you know!"
"We do know." His mother appeared on the stairs, an evil grin on her face. "We planned this for ages, boy. We knew you would come for her. And we will gladly let you reunite with her!" An evil laugh escaped her as she pointed her wand at him. Then the world went black.
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Izzie's gone, Regulus's gone. His family was gone. Sirius couldn't take it anymore, he needed to find them, now! He ignored the Aurors as he started to walk out the room where they were discussing the next plan of action. Remus has been stuck to his bed for a month now, since Regulus disappeared on him too. He was losing hope, just like him. He apparated to knockturn alley. Creepy, dark wizards roamed around here. It wasn't like the Aurors didn't check there, but they were too kind in Sirius's eyes. He knew they would never speak out against one of the most powerful dark wizards. Sirius needed to try it his way, with fear and pain. He was walking around as Padfoot at first, listening intently to whispered conversations in the dark alley.
His anger flared up with a spark of hope when he saw Izzie's uncle sneaking around the alley. He transformed back, wand already in his hand and shoved him against the wall, the tip of his wand already digging into his flesh.
"Where. Is. She?!"
He looked amused; he started laughing in his face. "You will never find them again. They are long gone, Black." He wheezed between his laughter. "Give up."
"Never! Tell me!" He kept on laughing, making Sirius feel enraged. "I told you, you would regret it. This is for everything you ever done to her." He said with an icy voice at the laughing man. Without any regret or compassion, he lowered his wand until it rested over his heart. "Reducto." The man's eyes widened, as his heart started to disintegrate, leaving only a pile of dust inside. He let him go, he fell to the ground with distant, open eyes before he turned his back to him and walked away.
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"You did what?" James's face was pale. Sirius had come home after and told the others everything he had done. "Why did you do that? You could have brought him in, we could've-"
"He wasn't going to say anything." Sirius snapped. "If you saw him, you would understand."
"He deserved what he got." Lily said in a monotonous voice. James eyes nearly fell out of sockets from shock.
"Lily-"
"They are right." Remus interrupted. "He was never going to say anything. He was never going to lead us to them, he would just have laughed and send us on a goose chase." Remus looked tired and pale, his cheeks were hollowed from the lack of food the past months. "Thank you, Pads. I -" He breathed in deep. "If it was me who found him, I would've done the same." He stood up from his seat. "I'm going to bed."
"We can't let anyone know you did this, Padfoot. They will throw you in jail."
"There wasn't anyone around. I'm not going to say anything, are you?" He challenged.
"Of- of course, not." He whispered.
"Okay, then." He said before he sauntered out of the room.
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Years passed and still they hadn't heard anything, hadn't found anything. A few months after Sirius killed Izzie's uncle, her father was arrested and send to Azkaban. But he didn't say anything either, just like his brother, he was just laughing, his eyes crazy. His laughter filled the prison walls into the night. After four years, Sirius parents died. He didn't give them a funeral, he didn't go to greet them. He just felt relieved to be rid of them.
It took years after their disappearance before he was ready to give them a funeral, to finally say his goodbyes. He, Remus and Lily fell into a depression after her father went to Azkaban. Lily climbed out of it because she got pregnant. But Remus and Sirius were stuck in it for years. And when they finally started to get better, they still had their dark days, where they would just crawl into bed for a few days and didn't come out. It was usually his godson that got him out of it. Making him want to exist again.