The vision
What followed was a scene that Sirius didn’t really understand as he was dragged by Julieta and Agustín in the dining room in what was clearly a whole family argument in Spanish.
The Madrigals all started to shout together in Spanish too quickly for Sirius to follow, so he imagined that Julieta wanted him there to interject at some point and say something to help them.
Sirius wasn’t sure what was the point of him being there, but he was under the impression that Julieta was sort of projecting her need for Bruno onto him. Since she couldn’t have her brother there right now, she was getting attached to the closest thing, his boyfriend.
Even if he didn’t understand what was being said, Sirius, forgotten by the Colombian family arguing in front of him, did understand that at one point the Madam was berating Agustín for his actions.
“You should have told me the moment you saw that vision! Think of the family!”
Sirius stopped peeling the fruit in his hand. Since the dinner had been cut short and he didn’t understand what was being said while they were all arguing with each other too fast for him, forgetting that he was there, he’d taken the closest knife, one of Julieta’s kitchen knives, and started peeling a fruit.
He looked up to see Agustín rise to his full height looking proud and challenging in the face of his domineering mother-in-law.
“I was thinking of my daughter!”
Julieta hadn’t spoken yet, but Sirius could see that she was fighting her gentle nature now that she had to speak for her daughter. She was so much like Bruno that Sirius was surprised he hadn’t understood earlier that they were siblings.
“Pepa, calm down!”
Sirius blinked, turning to Pepa, who was sitting on the steps of the stairs, a cloud over her head and snow and wind going around the room as Félix tried to clear the snow from her with a hat.
“I’m doing my best!” Pepa cried.
“Yes!” Félix defended his wife, glaring at his mother-in-law.
“You’re lucky it’s not a hurricane!” Pepa said hotly.
“Mamá, you’ve always been too hard on Mirabel –” Julieta started, taking strength from the others' righteous rage.
“Look around!” the Madam said, “We must protect our family! Our Encanto! We cannot lose our home!”
Sirius felt all his muscles tense up at those words and the familiar sensation of rage bubbling up in his stomach.
Julieta finally remembered he was there, sitting at the table with the kitchen knife in one hand and a peeled fruit that had been squeezed with such strength that it had exploded in Sirius’s other hand. The glasses and dishes were all shaking with an ominous rattling sound, and it wasn’t because of the cracks. With everyone shouting over one another, no one had noticed the glasses and the dishes, but Julieta had witnessed his powers earlier that day and his temper when he’d heard the family talk about Bruno and immediately connected the dots when the glasses were rattling so much close to Sirius’s glowering face.
Their eyes met and his rage was softened by her gentle pleading.
That was until the front door of the house opened.
“Señora, perdón,” a distinguished older man with a yellow ruana took off his hat and placed it on his own stomach in a deferential greeting to the Madrigal matriarch, “The people in town are getting anxious about the magic. They want to talk to you.”
The Madam took her shawl.
“Mirabel was in that vision for a reason,” she said with finality, “Find her.”
“No.”
They all turned to Sirius, who was a sight to behold with his hand dirty with exploded fruit and the other hand full of the kitchen knife.
“Excuse me?” the Madam sneered still in her angry state over the situation, “What do you mean, no?”
She didn’t seem to understand the situation because Julieta, Pepa and their husbands all stared at their friendly guest, scared of the sudden change in demeanour. It was the first time they truly doubted their choice to let a stranger into their home.
Sirius really looked menacing with his face so contorted with rage as he turned the knife in his hand, and they all jumped when he stuck it in the closest cutting board. He stood and walked to tower over the Madam, and they all waited for him to strike the Madrigal matriarch, Agustín and Félix stepping forward to stop him should he do something like that.
“Sirius!” Julieta jumped forward and grabbed his wrist, barely avoiding dirtying herself with fruit juice. Sirius glanced at her and she looked at him pleadingly, then shook her head.
Sirius stood in front of the old woman only a moment longer, staring her down, before he walked to the door. He looked straight at the older gentleman and snarled, “Fuck off.”
The door slammed in the face of the people intruding on the Madrigals’ argument. No one, not even Sirius, noticed that the door slammed on its own, Casita making her stance known.
“Señor Black!” the Madam cried in shock, “What kind of manners –”
Sirius stared at her and the words died on her lips. Everyone could feel the rage radiating off him and clearly manners were all that was keeping him from exploding.
“I've had it with children paying for the mistakes of adults!” Sirius jerked away from her and turned to Julieta, who was the closest to him, “Talk to your mother.”
Julieta nodded hastily.
Sirius snatched his shoulder away from Agustín’s grasp and crossed the room with two long strides, completely ignoring Félix and Pepa who were still sitting on the stairs, gaping at him.
Camilo was peeking through the door, and he gulped with the same expression as his mother when Sirius caught sight of him and barked, “Come along, boy.”
“Ah, s-sí.”
Pepa and Félix tensed, truly scared by Sirius’s expression to be calm enough to let their son leave with the man, but in striking contrast with his boiling temper, Sirius put a hand on Camilo’s shoulder and led him away.
“Señor Sirius?”
Sirius felt the tension leave his shoulders when he heard Camilo’s voice so hesitant.
He saw much of himself in the teenager.
Where in Mirabel he saw his own desperate need to please his family and his loved ones and the continuing disappointment of not meeting expectations, in Camilo he saw his own teenage years making all sorts of trouble with his friends. That was probably why he wanted to connect with the boy, but he didn’t at the same time: he wanted to relive his golden years, but Camilo wasn’t James, and yet his happy-go-lucky attitude was a constant reminder of his best friend.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Camilo asked him, his face showing all his worry.
“I am not sure,” Sirius said, “And even if I was, it wouldn’t be my place to say.”
They stopped walking in front of the boy’s bedroom, and Camilo sighed.
“Why couldn’t Bruno leave us alone?”
Sirius blinked at Camilo, who looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“What?”
“Mami's brother,” Camilo said, unaware that Sirius knew Bruno, “Why couldn't Bruno leave us alone?”
"Why would you think your uncle had anything to do with this?"
“He’s always been causing trouble,” Camilo said, “You’re not from around here, so you don’t know but he went around cursing people with his visions,” he paused and took Sirius’s silence as the man listening, “He ruined Mami and Papi’s wedding and went on causing trouble for the family and now it turns out he cursed us all. And he even used Mirabel to –”
The rage was back. His hand was itching to just slap the boy for speaking about his Seer that way. It took all of Sirius’s willpower to remember that Camilo was just a boy and a boy who didn’t see what his words were doing to Sirius at that.
Bruno himself had told him that he didn’t mind Camilo’s antics, because his nephew had grown around horrid drivel installed in him by the people around him. Sirius was very familiar with children spouting nonsense drilled into them by adults. Even if Camilo wasn’t shapeshifting now Sirius could suddenly see him as a boy he hadn’t seen for almost two decades. A boy with high cheekbones and a haughty expression —
“Camilo, it’s not polite to speak like that to a guest!”
Sirius was so, so relieved for the interruption.
They both turned to see Dolores, who looked dishevelled, as if she’d caught Camilo’s words and had run to them to avoid upsetting Sirius. Her eyes were puffy as if she’d been crying and Sirius’s rage vanished immediately when he realised that clearly she had, and she’d rushed to help him out before he lost it on her brother.
Dolores looked apologetically at Sirius and ushered her brother in his bedroom. Camilo looked like he wanted to fight his sister on her instructions but he complied when he saw her upset. She told him they would call him when he was needed and he nodded, defeated, as she closed the door to his room.
Sirius watched her as she sighed and leaned against the door forehead first.
“Little princess, what was that at dinner?”
“Hm!” Dolores squeaked and turned to him, her eyes shining with unshed tears again, “Lo siento, I panicked. I didn’t mean to make everything more difficult for Tío’s return, honest! I knew there had been a vision but I didn’t know Tío foresaw the destruction of Casita. And then the dinner was happening and – and –”
Sirius sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose, “And that Mariano bloke, you’re in love with him and he’s getting engaged to your cousin.”
“Hm!” Dolores squeaked again, jumping to attention. Clearly no one knew she was in love with Mariano, “How – how did you know?”
“Oh, please!” Sirius scoffed, “It’s clear to anyone who has a pair of functioning eyes! I’m surprised no one noticed! Though I suppose it’s easy not to notice what you don’t want to notice… such as the little flower girl not wanting to get married to that bloke at all.”
“QUE!?”
It was the loudest he’d heard Dolores speak at all. Sirius figured that with the gift of super-hearing one’s own voice was the first nuisance, so it made sense for Dolores to be really quiet all the time.
“Isabela doesn’t want to marry Mariano?”
Sirius was quiet for a while, gaping at Dolores.
“What do you people talk about all day?”
“How – did she tell you?”
Sirius frowned, looking shocked that even Dolores didn’t know, “I know that look in her eyes,” he told the girl, “My family had the habit of arranged marriage too.”
Dolores nodded her head in understanding. She looked anywhere but at Sirius and finally folded her hand in her lap, “If – if Isa really doesn’t want to marry him – maybe she decided to go along with it… because Abuela and Mariano’s mother kept hinting at it… Dios mio, are we that far gone?”
Sirius shrugged, “Well, from what I see all of you do have shitty communication skills,” he said, “Which is very telling when this observation comes from me. Though I suppose a lack of communication would have worked better in my family. I’m lucky I don’t have to communicate with my family anymore,” he hesitated when he saw her eyes shining with tears again, “But I do think that things can be remedied, you know.”
Dolores smiled hesitantly at him, “De Verdad?”
“If you all started talking to one another…”
Sirius watched Dolores’s smile turn fond, “I did always like Tío Bruno best because he listened to me.”
Sirius smiled back at her, “Did you?”
“He was always the one to say things how they were. I never saw the point of sugar coating things either. We shared that, Tío Bruno and I, maybe because of our gifts? Because they make us know things? I don’t know...”
“Bruno mentioned that,” Sirius said, “It means a lot to him.”
Dolores opened her mouth to answer but suddenly her eyes widened even more and she put a finger in front of her mouth, “Hm!” she squeaked, “Mirabel is with Tío!”
Sirius blinked, “She is?”
Dolores was concentrating on listening to her relatives’ hushed conversation within the walls. She suddenly looked crestfallen, “Oh, Tío…”
“What?”
“He left to protect Mirabel, like Tía Julieta said,” said Dolores, “Mirabel’s future was undecided – and I –”
Sirius tensed, he really wasn’t good at comforting people in his own opinion. He panicked and patted her shoulder awkwardly like he’d done earlier with Julieta.
He walked back to Camilo’s room and called for the boy, who looked rightfully upset at being called again when he’d been dismissed just a few minutes earlier but he immediately rushed to his sister when he saw her crying and nodded in agreement when Sirius told him not to force her to tell him what was wrong. As Sirius understood it from Julieta, Camilo was an expert at comforting people.
Reassured that the boy was going to take care of his sister, Sirius paused on the landing, glancing at the painting that hid the secret passage to Bruno’s room in the walls. He really wanted to go to him, perhaps he could help him pack his things, though Bruno shouldn’t have much of a problem, since Sirius had charmed a bag Julieta had found lying around earlier so that Bruno could put all of his things in there.
He grinned at the memory of Bruno’s amazed face when Sirius had managed to put the entirety of Bruno’s rat labyrinth inside. He was curious about it and would have asked a thousand questions if they had the time. He did ask a lot of questions in the short time they had together before Sirius left him to gather his things, because they agreed with Julieta that they couldn’t disappear if they were not to raise suspicion.
Someone tugged on his clothes and Sirius turned to see little Antonio look up at him.
“Oh, hello, little man,” Sirius smiled at the boy.
“Can you come with me?” asked Antonio, “The rats told me Mirabel is with Tío Bruno in the walls. Parce says you’re mates with Tío Bruno and the rats say he’s very nice but he and Mirabel need help so I want to help and Parce is coming but Mami always says I shouldn’t go anywhere I don’t know without an adult if I can. Can you come with me?”
“I see,” Sirius said, “Your mum is right, of course. I can come with you.”
Perfect, an excuse to go see Bruno if Sirius ever needed one.
They paused just a moment to check that no one was coming, and Sirius opened the passage in the walls, letting Antonio and Parce the jaguar through first.
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked the little boy.
“Yeah!” Antonio chirped with a bright smile.
Bless children, Sirius smiled back at Antonio and pulled his wand, lighting it up with a swift movement. Antonio beamed, his face full of childish wonder, “That’s so cool!” he grinned, “You have a gift like us!?”
“Not exactly,” Sirius said, “But I am a wizard.”
“Un mago?”
They looked so not alike since the boy had taken after his father but at that moment, Antonio looked very much like Bruno. He was obviously the child’s uncle.
“Yes.”
“Like in stories?”
Sirius blinked, “I don’t know much about stories, sorry, but I suppose…”
“Can you show me other magic?”
“Maybe later. We have to help Mirabel and Bruno, right?”
“Oh, yeah!”
They made their way through the dark hallways behind the walls, Antonio leading the way on Parce’s back and Sirius behind him, his wand hand high making light.
Now that he’d been in Bruno’s room in the walls it wasn’t difficult to find his way to the small door and this time it was even easier because they heard a bang and Mirabel’s voice.
“You wish you could have seen more, so see more! Have another vision!”
Sirius blinked and shared a look with Antonio.
“No, no, see, I don’t do visions anymore –”
“But you could!” Mirabel seemed relentless even in the face of Bruno’s hesitation.
“But I won’t!”
“You can’t say ‘the weight of the world is on your shoulders, the end’! If our fate’s up to me, me says ‘have another vision’!”
As they stopped in front of the open door, Sirius and Antonio saw Bruno fall on the floor with a yelp and immediately jump to his feet, “Look, even if I wanted to, which I don’t, you wrecked my vision cave, which is a problem because I need a big open space!”
“We’ll find one!”
Sirius snorted, Mirabel really was stubborn.
“Where?” Bruno asked, still trying and failing to fight his niece on this.
“Use my room.”
It took Sirius a moment to notice that Bruno and Mirabel had turned to him and, most importantly, Antonio.
“The rats told me everything,” Antonio said with a calmness and maturity way past his five years of age and yet so appropriate for his age, “Don’t eat those,” he reprimanded Parce the jaguar.
“Our family needs help,” Mirabel told her uncle, getting her chance now that she could, “And you need to get out of here.”
Bruno looked around his mostly barren room, now that most of his things were already in the bag Julieta had provided him with and Sirius had charmed for him. Oh, well, he was leaving anyway. And it wasn’t because he was a sucker for his nieces and nephews.
Sirius met Bruno’s eyes and smiled, giving him a wave, knowing what it meant to Bruno to have the chance to speak to Antonio. Bruno saw him and gave him a smile. Neither Antonio nor Mirabel noticed because the girl immediately went to introduce them, “This is Sirius Black, he’s staying with us.”
“I know,” Bruno replied, his eyes still wistfully on Sirius.
“Oh,” said Mirabel, looking from one to the other, “Ah, you probably saw him through the walls, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Bruno replied vaguely, “That’s it…”
“They know each other,” Antonio informed Mirabel, “Parce said they’re friends.”
“Friends?” Mirabel repeated, looking from one to the other adult, “Really?”
“Friends,” echoed Sirius, sharing a knowing look with Bruno, “Yeah, let’s go with that…”
Bruno snorted and took a deep sigh, “Alright, fine, I’ll do the stupid vision,” he relented as if the mere presence of Antonio and Sirius had made him change his mind, “Come on, let’s go.”
Mirabel and Antonio left the room first, obeying Bruno’s gentle waving them out and filing out of the door. Their uncle stepped after them, pausing just enough to reach for Sirius’s hand, who immediately reached back.
“You have everything?”
Bruno glanced towards Mirabel following Antonio and Parce ahead of them. He looked back to the room that had been his home for the last ten years and took a deep breath. He crossed his fingers, threw a handful of salt behind his shoulder, heaved his bag over his shoulder and held his breath while passing through the door.
“Bruno.”
When he looked up Sirius was staring at him with a fond look in his eyes.
“It’s going to be alright.”
“Estás seguro?”
Sirius glanced towards Mirabel and Antonio, but the two cousins were deep in conversation and paid them no mind as they turned around the corner. Sirius smirked and stole a kiss on Bruno’s forehead. Bruno’s lips curled upwards as Sirius discreetly encircled his shoulders with his arm, “Do you trust me, love?”
“I do, mi cariño,” Bruno said and Sirius squeezed his shoulders before pushing him forward, a step closer to his return to the family. “Though I do think you’re an incurable optimist.”
Sirius grinned, “Huh, I am, aren’t I? When you’ve been in Azkaban everything is an improvement, I suppose,” his face darkened and Bruno’s smile faltered, worrying that he’d made Sirius sad thinking about his prison stay, but Sirius shuddered the thoughts of the prison away and he beamed at Bruno again, “And I do think it works in our favour, since you’re such a pessimist. You’d get along great with my friend Remus.”
“This is the one who is not exactly an Animagus, right?”
Sirius nodded, his face darkening again as they followed in Mirabel and Antonio’s footsteps, “He’s the only one left of my friends.”
Bruno hesitated, “How – how come?”
“The war,” Sirius replied curtly.
Bruno waited for him to go on but Sirius didn’t speak, his eyes downcast. The last thing he wanted was to make Sirius uncomfortable. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it and changed his mind, “Let’s think of one thing at a time,” he said, and Sirius’s eyes shot up to look at him, though Bruno avoided them in favour of stepping forward, pulling Sirius with him, “Let’s see about that vision for now.”
Sirius didn’t follow right away. Bruno turned to him again when he was met with resistance. Sirius hesitated, then squeezed the hand Bruno was holding, “I want to tell you, I promise.”
“Sirius, está bien, you don’t have to tell me at all if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Sirius stopped walking and faced Bruno, “No, I want you to know everything about me.”
Bruno cupped his face with his hand, “And I want to know everything about you, mi vida,” he agreed, “But not if it makes you upset. We have time.”
Sirius leaned in his touch, his lips curving upwards in a soft smile, “We do, don’t we?”
“We do.”
They both marvelled at the back and forth in reassuring one another between them. One moment Sirius was comforting him, and the next Bruno was the one reassuring Sirius.
They joined Mirabel and Antonio just in front of the passageway. Bruno’s niece and nephew looked between them, then shared a look, catching the melancholic atmosphere. But there were other things to worry about, so Mirabel and Antonio shrugged and moved on to the task ahead in the way typical of children.
Outside, a search party for Mirabel had been dispatched and Julieta, Pepa, Félix, Agustín and Camilo were searching for the young girl.
“Wait,” Sirius said, holding up his hand to stop Mirabel and Bruno from emerging from the passageway, “Antonio, stay with me. You two, stay still.”
“What?” Mirabel asked but Sirius tapped both her head and Bruno’s head with his wand, and they felt as if someone had opened an egg on their heads and the yolk was dripping down.
“Cool!” Antonio beamed.
Mirabel and Bruno blinked at one another and gasped when they saw that they both were perfectly camouflaged. Their bodies were not invisible; they had simply taken on the exact colour and texture of the wall behind them. They seemed to have become a human chameleon in a way Camilo couldn’t.
They blinked at one another again then turned to blink at Sirius in wonder, “Disillusionment Charm,” he explained, “Temporary in this case.”
“How –?” Mirabel started.
“It’s better that we leave the explanations about my magic to a later date,” Sirius said quickly, “Let’s go.”
But of course a stubborn thing like Mirabel couldn’t be moved before she had her explanation, “Sirius is a wizard, he ended up here years ago, a little after you and Camilo were born, we became – friends…” Bruno hesitated as he and Sirius shared a look, both cringing at the word, “… but he didn’t know I was here when he came here,” Bruno explained quickly, knowing it was the fastest way to go on with their day, “Oh, and your Mamá knows about him.”
“And Dolores,” Sirius added.
“And Dolores.”
“And Agustín.”
“And – Agustín too? Really?”
Sirius shrugged, “We didn’t have a choice,” he told Bruno, “He thought I was hitting on his wife,” he couldn’t help the grin on his face as he added, “I had to explain that Julieta is not the Madrigal for me.”
Even with the Disillusionment Charm in place, he could see Bruno’s flattered blush and still Mirabel and Antonio didn’t have any idea of what was really going on between their weird uncle and their odd house guest. God, they were all so innocent.
They ran to Antonio’s room and hid in there.
Once the magical door was closed behind them, they all leaned against it, sighing in relief. Antonio, still riding Parce the jaguar, watched in wonder and excitement as Sirius lifted the Disillusionment Charm from Bruno and Mirabel.
Bruno stepped a little further into the room, looking around in amazement at the new room, though he was used to the magic rooms.
“It’s a beautiful room,” he told Antonio.
“Yeah,” the boy beamed, “It’s the best.”
Antonio’s smile was infectious and Bruno smiled back, “I promise I don’t mean any harm,” he assured his nephew, though it didn’t seem that Antonio feared him much, “Do you know who I am?”
“I know!” Antonio said cheerfully, “You’re my Tío, like Tío Agustín but more like Tía Julieta! Mami and Papi say we’re not supposed to talk about you, but the rats told me about you!”
“Oh,” Bruno said, his voice clearly hurt by Antonio’s innocent remark reminding him of how his own sister made his name a taboo, “They did?”
“Yeah!” Antonio insisted, “They said you’re nice and they love you a lot!”
“Oh.”
Sirius snorted at Bruno’s eloquent speech. He was obviously emotional about finally getting to speak with Antonio in person instead of just catching glimpses of the boy through the walls.
Sirius couldn’t fathom how Bruno had done it for ten years, it had been hard enough for Sirius to have Harry think he was a mass-murderer and try to attack him in a wrongly directed rage, he couldn’t imagine watching Harry grow up through the walls with people only talking shit about him to his godson, if he was mentioned at all.
He supposed, had Regulus lived to have children that was what he’d have ended up being, the disgraced uncle who didn’t care about the family.
Sirius wasn’t sure what he hated the most, the reality of his brother having died at eighteen hating him, or the thought of his imaginary niece or nephew hating on their estranged uncle just because their father and relatives said so. It was depressing enough to think about, he really had no idea how Bruno did it.
Antonio guided them in the clearing most of the people at the party had danced in the night before.
Sirius followed suit and stood a little away to avoid disturbing and to watch Bruno do his thing. He was actually quite interested. Maybe even a little aroused? Perhaps because Bruno was using magic, making him and Sirius even closer as they now had even more in common?
Despite his reticence and obvious anxiety at the prospect of using his gift, despite keeping his kind though nervous attitude, Bruno’s stance changed, now reeking with the confidence of years and years of practice looking into the future. He’d been doing so since he was Antonio’s age, after all, even if he had stopped for a decade.
“We might want to hurry,” said Mirabel, who was on her knees, in the middle of the sand circle Bruno was carefully tracing after having placed his niece there.
“You can’t hurry the future!” Bruno said with a nervous laugh as he finished putting everything in order.
He sent away a capybara and several other stray animals indulging in their curiosity over what the new human was doing in their habitat and sat heavily on the ground, legs crossed, in front of the four small mounds of sand on which he’d placed a few leaves – oh, that’s where the sandalwood came from.
“What if I show you something worse?” Bruno asked Mirabel, “If I see something you don’t like you’re gonna be ‘oh Bruno makes bad things happen, oh he’s creepy and his vision killed my goldfish’.”
Sirius, who had tensed at the anxiety in Bruno’s voice to which he’d already become used to, had wanted to just step into the circle of sand and wrap his Seer in his arms to calm him down but his rage started bubbling in the pit of his stomach again. What was he hearing right now? Had someone blamed Bruno for the death of a – goldfish? Seriously?
Bless sweet Mirabel, though, who spoke before Sirius’s anger could take over, “I don’t think you make bad things happen,” she said gently, “Sometimes, family weirdos just get a bad rep. You can do this.”
Sirius didn’t exactly like that Mirabel had just implied that her uncle was a ‘weirdo’. By Bruno’s blank expression, he’d caught Mirabel’s opinion of him too anyway but neither of them had the chance to say anything, because Antonio stepped forward and offered Bruno the small stuffed jaguar Mirabel had made him for his birthday.
Sirius had found Antonio’s pride in telling him that his cousin made the plush toy by herself extremely adorable – this family really had a lot to learn from this little boy.
Bruno automatically accepted the plushy but he glanced up in bewilderment at his nephew, who looked rather smug, “For the nerves.”
Sirius snorted and Parce the jaguar took Antonio on his back again while giving an encouraging grumble to Bruno. They went back to stand with Sirius.
“I can do this,” Bruno said probably more to himself than to the rest of them because they were all surer than him that he could do this, “I can do this, I can do this,” he took a handful of salt from his pocket.
Mirabel frowned solemnly, ready to see her uncle’s power and wondering what the salt was about – but he just threw it over his shoulder. She then glanced at her cousin and Sirius standing just outside of the circle, “Can’t they see too?”
Sirius blinked, then looked back at Bruno, who considered him and Antonio for a moment, “You know, Mirabel’s right, it would be best if you see too,” he told them, “Especially you, Sirius, your magic is different from ours, maybe your perspective can help.”
Sirius shrugged, “Well, I only have a basic understanding of Divination but sure,” he looked down at Antonio, “Do you want to see?”
“Sí!” Antonio beamed. Bless children and their excitement. They both carefully stepped over the circle of sand Bruno had traced on Antonio’s room floor and joined the other two, “What’s Divination?” Antonio asked Bruno.
Taken aback by the familiarity with which the little boy was addressing him, the uncle he’d been told nothing about, Bruno hesitated and implored Sirius to help him with his eyes. Sirius snorted but a moment later he took pity on him, “Divination is the art of seeing into the future,” he explained.
“Really?” Antonio said excitedly and turned to Bruno again, “So you do Divination? Mirabel said you see into the future! That’s so cool!”
“Er – yeah,” Bruno said with a nervous grin, but he was so overwhelmed by the whole situation that even Mirabel took in his discomfort and hurried them all again, “Yeah!” Bruno agreed with her, taking the chance to change the subject and avoiding looking in Antonio’s confused eyes, “Let’s do this!” he held out his hands, “You might wanna hold on!”
Mirabel took his left and Sirius took his right, Antonio held hands with both of them, and Bruno took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
When he opened them, Sirius’s eyes widened. They were glowing green, and Sirius was instantly entranced by them. It was like looking straight in the vortex of time and Sirius was surprised to find that that was probably the case. He felt that if Bruno looked at him with those eyes his very soul would be bare for him to look at.
Sirius was so taken by his glowing eyes that he almost missed the wind activating the sand, which glowed just as emerald green like Bruno’s eyes and rose in a sandstorm and created a dome over them all.
Sirius looked up in awe, this was so different from all that he knew but also incredibly powerful. He was even more convinced that it was familial magic, because it felt incredibly powerful indeed but also so close – practically identical – to the feeling he’d felt when he’d seen any of the Madrigals (and especially Julieta and Pepa) use their own gifts. The closest thing in power he’d felt had been Antonio’s door forming and Pepa’s hurricane that first day.
Suddenly all kinds of images started flashing like emerald clouds in the sandstorm.
The windowsill where the Madrigal’s magical candle stood cracked, and the candle fell.
A giant crack snaked its way through the town till the mountain, splitting it in two.
Felix grabbed Antonio before what looked like a door fell on him.
Her expression solemn, Mirabel stood in front of the Casita, the magical house completely covered in cracks. The cracks came and went and came and went.
“It’s just the same thing!” Bruno shouted, curling on himself, overwhelmed with what he was seeing, “I gotta stop!”
“NO!” Mirabel begged, “I need to know which way it goes! There’s gotta be an answer! Something we’re not seeing!”
“You’re looking at the same thing that I am!” Bruno replied and Antonio squeezed Sirius’s hand even more, scared by what he was seeing, “If there was anything else, I –”
“THERE!”
Sirius’s head snapped up at the same time as Bruno and Antonio. Indeed, a flicker of golden appeared in the sandstorm.
“Mariposa!” Bruno cried, “Sigue a la mariposa!”
They all looked on, following the golden butterfly with their eyes.
The golden butterfly landed on a plant.
“Where is that?” Mirabel asked.
A big bear-like dog was obviously agitated and pulled its ears back, barely held back by Camilo.
Sirius flinched and felt Bruno squeeze his hand. He’d recognised his Animagus form too.
Bruno offered something squared to someone about his height, sporting glasses.
A tall, thin, tired-looking man with short hair and scars on his face turned to face them and smiled kindly at them.
Sirius blinked, “Moony?”
“It’s all out of order!” Bruno cried just as baffled as them.
The candle on the windowsill burned brighter, so Sirius agreed with Bruno, everything was out of order. Mirabel appeared next to the candle, looking at it.
“The candle!” Bruno shouted, “The candle’s getting brighter! I think you’re going to help the candle!”
“How?!”
“Ah – there – there’s someone with you!” Bruno cried, “And – and you – you fight her!”
“WHAT?”
“Wait, no, no! Is that a hug?”
Sirius was surprised that he, like Bruno, found it difficult to tell the difference. Then it hit him. His first experiences in affection in over a decade had been that quick hug with Remus in the Shrieking Shack over a month ago and those quick, sweet moments with Bruno earlier.
“Am I fighting or hugging?”
“An embrace! An embrace!” Bruno screamed, “To make the candle brighter you have to embrace her!”
“Embrace who?”
“Oh, almost there!”
“Who is it?”
“Almost there – oh! Oh! I got it!”
A woman flicked her hair over her shoulder, giving a sweet smile.
Sirius cringed. Uh-oh. Mirabel gaped in offence.
“ISABELA!?”