An explosion. Shouting. Screaming. Smoke. So much smoke. It was everywhere. It was all you could smell. He had done that. He had done that. Actually, done it. He had thought about it, very briefly, and then he had done it.
He hadn't known that he was capable of such a thing but here he was. He had done it.
His hand stung and he could feel warm, wet blood slip down it. It was probably going to stain his robes but that didn't matter right now.
Nothing mattered. Not really. Not anymore. Except for this need to not be caught. He had to get away. Get away. And the only way to do that was to not be seen. Be too small to be seen.
Frank smiled as Alice beamed at Neville. This was his first Samhain dinner. Last year he couldn't eat food, he still drank only milk so today was a pretty big one. And it looked like he really liked the meal.
Normally Frank didn't enjoy watching Neville try and feed himself, it was just so messy and very little food actually made its way into his mouth. The elves fed him which kept him as clean as possible and got the proper amount of food in his stomach. Much more appropriate. That and he usually ate earlier than he and Alice, he was quite young, after all, and had to go to bed much earlier than they would.
But today was a Sabbat. Family was supposed to come together for a Sabbat so that's what they were doing. And he was glad they were doing it. Had he said that already?
Alice nudged him and he turned to her, just about managing to tear his eyes away from Neville.
"Your food will go cold," she said with a smile.
Frank looked down at his plate. His fork was still in his hand but it hadn't speared anything. Well, he'd taken a bite of his roast beef but Neville had distracted him after that.
He scooped up a forkful of mashed potatoes and winced as they hit his tongue. Oh, cold potatoes were not a pleasant thing to have in your mouth. Yuck. Alice covered her mouth with her hand, an unladylike snort escaping her.
That sound never failed to make him happy. It was the noise of unfiltered humour from his wife. It made her eyes sparkle and her mouth actually stretched out into a grin instead of those practiced movements that had been drummed into her since birth. He just wished that it happened more often. It made him warm in all sorts of ways.
In fact... he looked down at his plate of suddenly unappetizing food.
"You done?" He asked hopefully.
She looked down at her nearly empty plate, gave him a cheeky look before scooping up another forkful saying nothing. She did that for several more bites while he just waited. And no, he was no longer in the mood for his own food. It was all cold now anyway. And had already had some, he was fine. There were more pressing matters anyway.
He made am impatient noise and he swore that Alice's next bites were slower just to spite him but finally she set her fork down and delicately dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.
"I'm finished." She announced.
Frank didn't waste any time. He held out his hand for hers and they both rose from the table.
"Shall we?" He asked, almost mischievously.
Sirius didn't know what was happening to him. He was out of control. Not shouting or fighting or anything like that. All of those emotions would be perfectly normal reactions to what he had just witnessed. To what he had just seen.
Peter. Peter. Peter. It had been Peter. Peter. Wormtail. It had to have been. Why else had he reacted like that? Had he thought that Sirius knew? He hadn't known. He had just wanted to know if Peter was okay. That's why he had been chasing him. But Peter hadn't known that. And then he did his.
He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it. Had this all really just happened? His emotions and thoughts were all over the place. He didn't know how to react.
He did know that he wasn't reacting normally. Oh no, there was no anger or grief or shock or amazement. No shouting or raging or crying. None of those. He was laughing. Laughing. He was laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing. And he couldn't seem to stop. Because if he stopped, he didn't know what would happen. He literally didn't have the capacity to process everything that had just happened. Especially what had just happened in front of him. His mind wouldn't let him. So, he laughed.
What else was he supposed to do? Cry? He couldn't do that. He didn't know how to do that. Not right now. Anger? Yeah, look where that had got him. So, laughter it was.
A lot of laughter. The kind of laughter that turned maniacal before turning into gasps because you didn't breathe properly. And the breath laughter started again, making the cycle go on and on.
But it was out of control. Had he already mentioned that? Was he going crazy? This was certainly enough to make someone lose it. It felt like his grasp on reality was slipping away. Actually, it was, there was no feeling about it. He was laughing and laughing and he really couldn't bring himself to care anything about it. That was a sign of madness, wasn't it?
Because he couldn't believe what had just happened. Of all the things to happen he would never, ever think that this would happen. Who would ever think that this would happen? Peter? James? Lily? Harry? Rylli? No. He never really thought it would happen. Oh, of course, he knew that there were real risks. Real danger. The Potter had to go into hiding and there was no joking around about that. But once that happened did Sirius really think that it would end badly? No, he hadn't. It never even crossed his mind. Not really.
And now it had ended badly. Not even badly. It had ended the worst way possible. And Sirius didn't know how to react or what was happening anymore. He felt tugs and pulls like his body didn't know what it was doing but he couldn't bring himself to care.
There was talking. A lot of talking. All around him. Even some shouting. And the smell of smoke. So much smoke. It burned. It burned his ears and his nose and his throat. Could smoke burn ears? That's what it felt like. Acrid and sharp and burning. Was there even smoke? Where were all these voices coming from? The world was moving all around him and he wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. Was it all just in his head? More talking. More moving. What was happening? His throat hurt. His head hurt. His heart hurt. Yet, he was still laughing. And laughing. And laughing.
He just couldn't stop. Didn't want to stop. Because stopping meant that he had to deal with things. He had to deal with what was in front of him. Behind him? Beside him? He wasn't sure. It was something near him anyway. Reality. That was it. He would have to deal with reality and he didn't want to do that.
Never. He never wanted to do that. Because reality meant that James and Lily were no longer in it. And that couldn't be right. Could it? There was just no way. No way.
His world briefly went dark and it felt like something was pushing, pushing, pushing against his chest. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. He tried to suck in air, which finally stopped him from laughing.
Then all of a sudden it was all over and he didn't feel constricted. The weight lifted from his chest and he could breathe again. Deep breaths.
He only got two in before he was pushing forward and fell to the floor. The hard floor. Where was he? There was a rattling and screeching noise of metal on metal.
Turning around he saw bars. Bars?
What just happened?
"Oh, you made it!" Dora said happily as swung Teddy onto her hip.
Remus beamed at them as he took in the sight in front of him. Teddy was dressed in a tiny wizard's hat - a muggle one with stars and moons all over it - and matching cape. His little wizard was a little wizard. And he was so glad to be able to see it. He had honestly thought he was going to miss it for a while there. But he hadn't. He was here. He was here even though it was late. It was late but Teddy was awake and looking particularly adorable.
"I did," he said happily.
He had just had to get a report to Albus and then make an appearance in Knockturn Alley, make sure a few specific people saw him. Thankfully, they had all showed up pretty early and he hadn't had to talk to them. Just make his presence known and then leave. Pretty easy and quick when things actually worked out for him. Which they did this time. So now he was home and he had never been so glad.
Especially when Dora gave him a kiss and smiled against him. He liked her smile. Loved it even.
"I'm so glad," she said quietly.
"As am I."
The stood there, leaning against each other, just soaking each other up. They didn't do enough of that.
The moment was, of course, ruined by Teddy taking off his hat and waving it at them. The tip caught him in the chin before flicking Dora in the face.
"Ouch!" They both said at the same time.
Both of them instinctively touched where it hurt, Dora almost dropping Teddy in the process. That combined with the funny noise his parent made made Teddy laugh.
"Toddlers are cruel, cruel people," Dora grumbled, rubbing her chin.
Remus couldn't help but chuckle as he rubbed at his eye. It was throbbing something horrible and he currently couldn't see anything out of it as it was filled with tears. Ouch.
"You, okay?" She asked.
"I'm good. Might only have one good eye for a while, though."
Dora laughed at that.
"You trying to take us all out?" She asked Teddy, bouncing him slightly.
"Yes!" He declared happily.
"I think he sounds smug about that," she said to Remus.
"He might be better than-"
Remus' next words died in his throat as he saw something glowing heading towards them.
"Remus, Remus," Dora said, giving him a poke in the chest in an attempt to get his attention. "What were you saying."
He shook his head and wordlessly pointed in front of him, over her shoulder. She frowned at him in confusion before turning around. And then she gasped just as he realised whose glowing thing that was. Patronus. Merlin, it was a Patronus not a glowing thing. What was he, Teddy's age? The most important thing was that it was a Phoenix Patronus fluttering down in front of him. Dumbledore's Patronus. Which couldn't mean anything good. There was nothing scheduled. No Order Meeting. No discussion. Nothing. Which left only news. News that Dumbledore felt like he had to deliver.
They both stiffened as it flew in front of them. Instinctively, Remus reached for Dora's hand.
"Stand by" Dumbledore's voice came from the silvery phoenix. "I have news."
It then dissolved into nothingness, leaving nothing behind. He and Dora stood there and stared at the empty space.
Teddy broke the moment by saying something, Remus wasn't sure what, and then poking him in the cheek.
"Ow!" He said indignantly, frowning at him. "Not nice."
"No nice," Teddy echoed, probably not meaning a word of it.
"News?" Dora hissed. "All of that just to tell us he has news?"
Chryssie scrunched up her eyes, refusing to open them, unsure what woke her up but extremely annoyed that it had done so. This was the first time in weeks she didn't have a night shift and now she was being woken up? It better not be Severus. Because she was going to be very, very, very annoyed of it was her fiancé. He knew better. No, wait, there was a body next to her. Severus was still beside her.
Urgh. Why had he turned on the lights? It was far too bright for this time of night. She rolled over onto her front and stuck her head under her pillow. That fixed it. Somewhat. Even though she could kind of tell that the light was still there. It would be enough for her to get back to sleep. She hoped.
She was too tired to even figure out what it was. Probably someone outside being stupid. There was no screaming or explosions so it wasn't an attack therefore, she really didn't care.
"Chryssie, turn off the lights," Sev groaned, pulling his pillow over his own head.
Before she could tell him anything, Dumbledore's voice came from the in front of them.
Wait. Dumbledore's voice?
[xxxxxx]
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG
Marlene frowned and rolled out of bed. She thought that she was actually going to fall asleep for a moment there. Cassie had been fussy for an absolute age before falling asleep and then Sirius hadn't come home yet from wherever he had raced off to which meant that she had to be extra alert when it came to Cassie until she fell asleep because she could now get into all sorts of mischief. Then, of course, as soon as she could get into bed (I.e., when Cassie finally fell asleep) she couldn't get comfortable. And then the blankets were too warm but it was too cold to go without them. Once she got all that sorted out, she had actually started to drift off only for this stupid banging on the door.
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG
She heard a whimper from Cassie's room and she cursed. Whoever was at the door better not have woken her up or Marlene was going to make them get her back to sleep.
She wrenched open the door with an absolutely murderous look on her face, ready to give whoever was there a right telling off. Only for whatever it was she was about to say die on her lips.
Hit Wizards. Those were Hit Wizard uniforms. Two sets of them. She meant there were two of them. Men. Hit Wizards. Look, she wasn't completely awake yet.
"Auror McKinnon?"
Marlene frowned at the extremely serious faces of the Hit Wizards in front of her. This wasn't going to be good.
"Yes?"
Hit Wizards at your door was never a good thing. But particularly if you were an Auror. What had happened? And was she really going to have to leave? Sirius wasn't here and she had no clue who she was supposed to drop Cassie off with. It was late at night and she was pretty sure that Chryssie didn't have a night shift. She couldn't bring Cassie with her to wherever the Hit Wizards needed her. She refused to think of the other reason Hit Wizards might be at her door. Nope. Her mind wasn't going to go there.
"Are you Auror McKinnon?"
"Yes, that's why I said yes," she said in exasperation.
She knew that the Auror Department had an ongoing joke about how thick Hit Wizards could be but did this pair really need to embody it? So quickly too, they had barely got two sentences out.
She really wasn't in the mood for this. She was tired and she didn't know where Sirius was and Cassie was starting to get cranky. Had she mentioned that she was tired? Whatever it was they wanted to say they better do it quickly or she really wouldn't be responsible for her actions.
Why did they keep on looking at each other like they needed permission from the other to talk? They just had to say whatever they needed to say already. What was going on? They were making her nervous and it probably wasn't even anything that she should be getting nervous about. Did Hit Wizards go through any sensitivity training at all? Could they not read people? Could they not tell that she was very, very annoyed?
Finally, one of them spoke. It was slowly and carefully which was annoying. But she was finding everything annoying right now. They just had to hurry up.
"There's been... an incident. May we come in?"
She gave them a long look, trying to see of their faces would give anything away. They didn't.
Wordlessly, she took a step back and pulled the door open further.
"Come in."