Chapter 30: Common sense

Lily glanced out the window as Caradoc and Professor Dumbledore – whom they'd called when her examination of the wards had revealed that someone had, indeed, tried to charm the front door open – finished convincing the Liones that it might be the right moment for them to take an impromptu vacation out of the country. They had grandparents back in Spain, for example, and maybe they'd get more answers out of their second daughter far away from the place she may-or-may-not-but-most-definitely-had-anyway seen her brother murdered.

At least until they knew what they wanted to do, what to tell the Auror Office.

On the matter, Sirius still wasn't back.

Lily wasn't overly worried about him – her husband's best friend knew how to fight, and more importantly could outdo many Death Eaters in terms of viciousness without even using half the dark spells they did – but he was also alone out there and absolutely unafraid of danger. Not unaware, not with a death wish, but still.

Sirius could, potentially, have found a Death Eater and decided to confront them alone.

He also had a bunch of teenagers and pre-teens, a five-year-old and a baby waiting for him – someone still had to fight if they wanted all those children to know a better world, though. Sirius wasn't the kind of person who asked others to do what he could do himself.

No one in the street. No Death Eater, but no Sirius either.

"Miss Evans, you said the one who triggered the wards didn't expect them to exist, right?"

The witch turned back to answer the headmaster.

"They didn't expect any kind of magical protection, no. This is a muggle house, even if two of the children are muggleborns, and Juana doesn't live here anymore, so... But now they know for sure."

Professor Dumbledore nodded pensively.

"Indeed, indeed... Nevertheless, they may now know someone warded the house, but not who did it. As Miss Liones did come for the funerals, they might assume..."

The front door opened suddenly and Lily jumped for her wand – outdone by Caradoc and Juana Liones, and no one saw Albus Dumbledore reach for his own but he still had it in his hand.

It was only Sirius.

With streaks of grass on the white of his shirt, some dirt under his left eye and nasty scratches all over his right hand.

"Rosier, in the trees two streets away. I saw him, he saw me: we saw each other. Chatted. Had a tumble in the grass. Played with fire a little. Then we parted ways, and now I'm expecting a visit if I poked at the right spot."

Lily squinted at him and lowered her wand.

"What do you mean, you expect a visit? Why do you make it sound like a good thing?"

Caradoc intervened before Sirius could elaborate – or, more, likely, answer without saying anything substantial, that sounded more like him.

"Wait, we need to check if it's truly him first. He doesn't look imperiused, but if they had polyjuice on them..."

The wizard wasn't wrong, per se, but Lily didn't need confirmation: no one else than Sirius would act that particular shade of flippant and sarcastic after crossing paths with a Death Eater. Because of that, anyone trying to impersonate Sirius Black would fall off the mark unless they did know him, as they'd assume a more subdued attitude, or maybe bank on anger – something that actually made sense for a normal person.

Someone from his extended family, like Bellatrix Lestrange, might get closer to the mark, but their lack of actual time spent together would still send the impersonation wrong, just enough that you'd wonder – then Lily would have wanted to check.

This, however? This was Sirius down to a tee.

"Do you know anyone else who'd act like that? Because I can assure you no one in their right mind would, and that's the reason it can't be anyone else than Sirius."

The wizard in question snorted.

"Thanks so much, Lily. Anyway, I'm experimenting with some... intel... I got from a personal source, and if I'm right Rosier will come knocking. Might get something out of it, too, so for now I want to see where this is going."

See? Almost nothing viable in that answer. Alright, maybe Lily could admit that apparently, her friend was acting on something he'd learned from the kids – that was the logical assumption, but at the same time she wouldn't be surprised to hear he had an informant stashed somewhere and hadn't told anyone about it – but aside from that?

What kind of intel? What was he doing with it? What results did he expect?

No idea.

Professor Dumbledore gently inserted himself into the conversation:

"Mr Black. Do you mean to say there was a Death Eater here but he is now gone?"

Sirius shrugged with a wince.

"Hmm, sorry about that. I would have kept him around for you to question, but you know how Rosier can be. Extremely busy, always has a prior appointment..."

In other words, the other wizard hadn't wanted to fight bad enough to stay and face Sirius, which was probably a good thing. Aside from the scratches on his hand, Sirius looked unhurt.

Professor Dumbledore nodded and turned back towards the Liones family.

"I believe your vacation abroad is strongly needed, then. Take the time, be with your family in these trying circumstances, decide what you want next. We'll handle any excuse you may need for your muggle life, work, school. Miss Liones, Juana, I know you've been in between jobs, maybe this would be the occasion to reevaluate your career opportunities?"

The young witch – a bit older than Lily and Sirius, but not by much – looked like she hadn't even thought about her professional situation in days, which was understandable.

The headmaster, Lily mused, didn't believe Juana Liones would truly spend the next days pondering her career, not when her younger brother had almost certainly been murdered by a Death Eater and the rest of her family might be targeted further. This was, however, both a gentle reminder that life must go on and one more excuse for the Liones to take some time abroad. Somewhere safer.

The Liones parents shared a glance – the mother's arm around their second daughter's shoulders tightening reassuringly – and Lily could already tell: they would go, if only to get away from the people who'd killed their son and might still do the same to their remaining children. It might take a few more words, a handful of hours to reach a decision, but they would go.

She could, then, focus back on Sirius and his scratched hand – Professor Dumbledore and Caradoc would do the rest.

"What did he do to you?"

The wizard squinted at her for a moment – evaluating something, but Lily didn't know what. For all that she'd come to appreciate Sirius Black over the years – after a few false starts that were to be blamed on him, on Severus and on her in different ways – for all that she did know him, the witch couldn't pretend his thought process had become less nebulous to her. She could manage to guess, perhaps, what was going on in his head if she had the time and enough knowledge of the situation at hand, but it was never easy, fast or intuitive.

Sirius Black's mind, to Lily Potter, was far from easy to read.

Take her husband as a counter-example. James, while very different from Lily on many points, wasn't too hard to understand, now that Lily had made the effort to get to know him. Before, back when she'd still thought him to be an ass – when he'd been one, at least sometimes – Lily hadn't wanted to wonder, hadn't wanted to try and understand – hadn't wanted to risk figuring out why so many people, not just James Potter and Sirius Black, disliked her oldest friend. She'd been unwilling to look deeper, and thus hadn't understood.

If she'd looked, she would have been surprised. She still wouldn't have agreed with everything James had done to Severus, she might not have been impressed with his attitude for all that, but she could have been willing to talk it out, to try and make him – them, not just James, not just Sirius – see that nothing of what they were doing to each other was right or fair, that there were other ways.

Lily, though, had been a child, a teenager. She hadn't looked, because she'd had no reason to, because she'd been busy enough being herself and learning about magic and dealing with Severus and trying to grow up, because it was easy to judge in hindsight but not so much when everything was in the process of happening.

The point was, while she didn't always agree with her husband or his view of the world, she could easily put herself in his shoes and understand what was going on in his head, even if most of the time she'd find those shoes ill-fitting and unnatural.

Sirius, on the other hand? Lily wouldn't be able to find his damn shoes if Voldemort himself was threatening her life, let alone put them on. When she wanted to try her hand at seeing things through Sirius' eyes, she had to make the shoes from scratch, hope they were a good enough copy of the originals, and then try and put them on – always with the risk that she'd gotten something wrong.

Eventually, Sirius snorted and waved his scratched fingers uncaringly.

"Please, Rosier didn't touch me. Or, not on purpose, tumbling in the grass aside. I did that myself."

Lily's eyebrows rose – and her eyes flickered between the wizard's face and his right hand, fingers scraped and palm full of dried red dots.

...He might have come to the conclusion that, as there was no way for him to pretend nothing had happened, the next logical statement to keep her from worrying was to claim the Death Eater hadn't done any of the damage, even if that meant admitting to being reckless.

Or, what Lily would consider reckless – Sirius probably didn't see it that way, but he was aware enough of her point of view on the matter. The worst of it? It was working. Lily could hear the annoyance in her own voice, as she stared at him:

"What did you do to yourself?"

The wizard shrugged.

"Had to get to Rosier fast if I didn't want him to disappear, so I apparated by a high wall and grabbed the top before gravity could do me in. Of course, sudden movements, rough wall, I scratched myself a bit. It's nothing, really. Barely hurts anymore."

"Barely hurts anymore!"

Sirius gave her a side look.

"...That's what I said."

Lily didn't even know what to say, except to parrot her friend's obvious lack of common sense – or was it self-awareness? she could never tell, with him, but usually he did show more common sense when it was about other people – and she'd already done that, so.

She just put her hands through her hair for a moment, then sighed.

"Alright... Just... Drop by the house, have Peter take a look at your hand. Just because it's not grave, it doesn't mean you ought to let it go untreated."

Sirius, unsurprisingly, didn't seem willing to cooperate.

"It's scratched, not poisoned! And I'm not even bleeding anymore."

The way Lily glared at him was, perhaps, unkind – but also deserved.

"Peter learned odds and bits of healing magic so that you guys don't have to go around bleeding your guts out after a fight, you could try to respect that. He's not quite a professional, but he can do basics now and your hand is right up his alley. Go on and show him you trust and accept his aid."

There Sirius squirmed: Lily had gotten it right. He still didn't think it necessary, but mentioning Peter's efforts – Peter, who had a hard time finding something he could do to help, something his friends didn't already do better than him, Peter, who often faded in the background because he wasn't as vibrant as James, as efficient as Sirius, as thoughtful as Remus – had him falter.

Giving Peter evidence that they were taking his efforts into account, that he could be useful and they knew it – Sirius could see why it was important.

"...Peter has better things to do, I'm sure..."

"You told him to stay at our house and wait exactly for that reason, and besides..."

Lily didn't finish her sentence, and Sirius had the feeling she'd made a choice for herself – one he was directly involved in. What the witch did was reach for the two-way mirror he'd left to Caradoc.

It was probably too late to dissuade her, then, and Sirius didn't feel that strongly on the matter to actually try and get in her way. Right now, all he wanted was to speak to Dumbledore about his situation – as soon as the old wizard would be done with the Liones – and then go to bed, because he had to get up early tomorrow and it was already thirty past ten. If he stopped by the Potters' on the way back, then it might take another hour or so before he actually got to bed...

"James Potter."

James' face blinked at them from across the glass.

"Hey, is something the matter? Nothing went wrong?"

"No, it's alright, Sirius just came back. But, could you ask Peter to come? Sirius hurt himself a bit, nothing dangerous but he could do with a patching-up."

James' image shuffled around, looking for something.

The following conversation between both spouses was regularly interrupted by their friends.

"Peter! Did you hear? And what do you mean, Sirius got hurt?"

"Sure, no need to scream, I'm going..."

"I'm fine, thank you! No need to make a mess of this."

"Your best friend with the fried brain hurt himself, didn't even need a Death Eater to do the job for him. He went and apparated on top of a wall or something, on purpose, knowing full well how that could end. You know, typical Sirius recklessness."

"James, where did your cloak hanger disappear off to? My potions are in my cloak and I can't find the damn thing!"

"Sometimes it hides behind the pantry's door! ...So did it work or did he just get hurt, then?"

"Who almost caught a Death Eater today? Neither of you, so kindly let it go!"

"Found it! Tell Lily I'll be there in a minute."

"You heard, Lily Love?"

"Of course I did. And yes, Sirius did find a Death Eater, but he still did something inconsiderate."

"As long as I'm alive, relatively well and bringing back results, none of it counts as inconsiderate. Also, I did consider the risks, and I decided they were worth the possible outcomes. That's not being reckless, that's accepting nothing is ever entirely safe, and..."

The small bell hanging unnaturally still from a green ribbon by the door rang thrice.

Lily looked out the window: it was Peter.

Caradoc went to open the door – not without giving the younger members of the Order, James included, an amused look for their little spat – and Peter came into the house. You could see he wasn't quite at ease, now that he'd left the Potters' and stood in someone else's house. Both Sirius and Lily glanced at the Liones, suddenly reminded of the owners – they'd been exchanging barbs right in the middle of their living room. Not that anyone had started shouting, but still.

Before they could determine if they'd gone a bit too far – considering the situation – Peter was by Sirius' side, surveying him from head to toe in search of wounds. Their friend scowled the moment he saw the scratches running down the side of Sirius' thumb and across his palm.

"What did you do?"

"Not you too..."

Peter took hold of the offending hand to show it to its owner.

"That's not the effect of a spell, that's an honest-to-Merlin scrape job and you know it."

Sirius sighed and explained – again – what had happened. Peter listened as he dabbed at the scratches with essence of dittany, watching the small wounds resorb until there was only a red tint to the skin under the dried blood.

Peter, Sirius noted, didn't look very happy with his retelling of the night's achievements, but unlike Lily he also wasn't telling him he'd been wrong or foolish. He'd take it.

"Thanks, I guess. You didn't need to come, but thanks."

Something like a small smile, hesitant and perhaps a bit ill-at-ease, twitched on Peter's lips.

"You never need help with anything, except when you're severely injured and then you make it sound like it's just a twisted ankle. I... I can do this, at least. Even if it's only for scratches."

Peter shook his head and let go of Sirius' hand with a shrug.

"Here. It might be tender for a while, but the scrapes themselves are gone. Try not to do it again."

Sirius' answering smile was thin: he didn't do dangerous things just for the sake of it – mostly – but if something was worth it, if the danger was the best way to get where he wanted to be...

"Thanks, Peter."

A pat on the back, and Sirius was glancing over at Dumbledore, who'd sat in an armchair by the other window. Caradoc was heading their way, too.

"The headmaster offered to stay here until one of the others can come and watch over the Liones. Just long enough for them to get everything ready for that vacation. They should be gone by next afternoon, if everything goes well."

"Ah... Well, if you guys don't mind... I need to have a word with Old-&-Wise. About... Everything. Then I need to go to bed, so. Don't wait for me, alright?"

Caradoc frowned, while Lily and Peter shared a look.

"You'll tell us the verdict, right? Floo-call, preferably."

"...And here I was planning to write you guys a letter and send it by the muggle post service."

Peter snorted. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Don't be a smartass."

"Goodnight, Sirius."

The three of them left, and Sirius watched the front door closing for a second before he headed for the old wizard – who'd started perusing a biking magazine that had been left on the low table. A look at Emilio Liones – rotund, the kind of person that a full day tired a bit too much – and Sirius was almost certain it was Manuel's.

It must have been left there for more than two weeks, now.

The headmaster looked up a moment before Sirius could speak and make his presence known:

"Ah, Sirius. I did suppose you'd want to talk sooner or later. To begin with, yes, I did get your letter concerning the children and their school studies. I have a few ideas, and I intend to be at the Ministry tomorrow, as soon as the Department of Magical Education opens. You should receive an owl from them within the week, and if not I'll contact you myself."

"...Thanks. I was thinking, maybe exceptional exams? Something to roughly determine their level in each class. Lily and Remus are willing to help, too, especially in Nashira's case."

Dumbledore smiled slightly.

"Good, good... Maybe that experience will decide Remus to look for further work in teaching, as he always wanted to do. Who knows, your friend might hold the job of DADA professor one day."

Sirius didn't comment – he had his own thoughts on the matter, and Remus knew them already.

"I... There's also the fact that I won't have as much... time... for myself. Or for the Order."

The old wizard seemed neither surprised nor displeased.

"You have more responsibilities, now. Focusing on your children and your job at the Auror Office is expected. In fact, I'd find it disappointing if you put one or the other on the back burner. We are fighting this for the sake of society and everyone in it, our families included, and we do not need an incompetent auror just to have that same person doing overtime with the Order of the Phoenix."

"Right. Still, I'd like to help in some ways, no matter what. I can't... do surveillance like I used to, but if someone needs help, I'm still here."

Dumbledore watched him curiously for a while, and Sirius couldn't help but think the old wizard was taking this relatively well, considering the small nature of the Order.

Then again, they worked on the assumption of volunteer work. Keeping people trapped when they lost their will to commit might just get them killed – or worse, get whoever they were supposed to work with or protect killed, too.

The headmaster nodded slowly – thinking, obviously, but about what?

"I see. And I suppose you will keep investigating a few potential leads, too, seeing how you've just baited Evan Rosier with something you've certainly learned from one of the children?"

Sirius winced.

"They may have... mentioned a few things. Contradictory things, sometimes, and I can't say it will all pan out, but..."

"You think it is worth looking into."

"Essentially, yes."

"Then I'll let you do that, Sirius. Do not forget to ask for help from your friends or the rest of the Order if you need to, and please, be careful."