Subpoena

“RON!” Hermione shrieked, pushing herself out of the chair she’d been sitting in and rushing to Luna’s side. “RONALD.”

Hermione ripped the blankets off of Luna madly, breath catching at the sight before her. Everything was soaked, from blood and fluid and Merlin knew what else. The pregnant witch could have been lifeless. The only sign she was not was her tormented face. Hermione heard the door burst open behind her as Ron ran into the study. 

“Mione what-“ he stopped, eyes catching his wife’s state. “Fuck! What’s happened?” Ron shoved past his childhood friend and placed his hands on Luna’s shoulders, then her belly, clearly at a loss of what to do.

“I don’t know! Sirius did something and- we have to get her to Mungo’s!”

“We can’t move her Hermione, she’s bleeding out!”

“Then wheel the bed with her!”

“We aren’t connected to floo! Sacred house, remember? Fuck!” Ron roared, stepping back from the bedside and kicking a chair over. 

“Lift the apparition wards,” Hermione said hurriedly, tying her hair up, “Go get your mother. And a home heeler. I’ll stop the blood. TOOLEY-“ she cried

The elf appeared with a crack, eyes widening at the situation he’d stepped into.

“Help me,” Hermione cried desperately, “We’ve got to stop the labor.”

“Those babes be dying, Missus Hermione. Tooley sees the magic leaving,” the elf’s voice shook over Ron’s panicked protest, “There’s no stopping. They needs be getting out.”

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Luna had doubled over, clutching her stomach and screaming. Blood began to pool around her feet as she sobbed. This was no longer Sirius’ memory.  He knelt to help the witch, to stop the bleeding, to do something, but his motion was met with another scream.

“GET. US. OU-“ her plea was interrupted by a sudden stream of blood flowing from her mouth. 

The cell disappeared from around Sirius as he was yanked backwards by a frigid storm of wind. When he’d stopped moving, he was surrounded by darkness. Not the kind of darkness one would expect from a midnight stroll, but the type one would meet while staring into the deepest corner of the sea. There was nothing around him now, yet somehow that nothingness was able to suffocate him more than his cell in Azkaban had.

“Luna!” He attempted to call out. His voice was muffled, as though he were screaming into a pillow. There was an intense pressure growing on the inside of his skull that made his ears ring and eyes water. Six crimson balls of light appeared before him, their hue and brightness growing with each pound against his brain. The feeling began to overwhelm his senses; the burden of the noise, of the light, of the pressure made his knees buckle beneath him. Sirius felt that if he had to carry it for another moment it would explode from his navel; that his insides would splatter against the darkness surrounding him and that even then, even after his ruin, the gravity of it all would not cease. He would have to carry this even beyond death. 

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“Can we get her onto her knees Miss?” 

“She’s unresponsive. I’m not wanting to do any more magic than I have to.” Hermione replied quickly, approaching the end of Luna’s bed and rolling up the sleeves of her jumper. 

“What magic can we’s do Miss?” Tooley looked up at Hermione, the tips of his large ears trembling. 

Hermione bit her lip, raising her wand to Luna’s abdomen with a shaking hand. 

“Saepe sanguinem.”

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Sirius clutched his hands to his head and kneeled to the earth. He wanted nothing more than to disappear from existence. He wouldn’t have minded having never lived at all if it meant he could escape what was happening to him now. The wisps grew brighter still, drawing nearer to him as the pressure increased. It felt as though his skull would split in two. He screamed, the sound only adding to his pain. 

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“Saepe sanguinem!” Hermione cried for a third time, perspiration dripping from her brow and hair flying from her bun wildly. 

“It’s time, Miss! We must get thems out now!”

Hermione grimaced, ripping the tunic of the still-unconscious witch in a single motion. She pressed the tip of her wand to the woman’s protruding abdomen gently, beads of sweat prickling the back of her neck. She faltered for only a moment.

Forgive me Luna, Hermione pleaded silently, a fresh wave of fear and nausea washing over her. 

“Segmentum.”

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He was on the ground now, trying desperately to shield his eyes, his ears, any part of him from the pounding. His throat constricted, so tight breathing was an impossible feat. Truly this was the end; the once formidable Gryffindor cowered before it. Crimson beams made their way through his clenched eyelids. Sirius removed a hand from his head, reaching towards its source, his final attempt to greet death like an old friend-

And then the pain stopped.

The pressure receded, starting from his toes and moving up his body until his head felt light once more. The tightness around his throat loosened and he sat up, gasping for air. He opened his eyes slowly, mentally preparing to see what the afterlife would hold for him. He hoped for Regulus. For Marlene. For James.

Instead- where six red wisps had just been- a faint, single blue orb bobbed before him. Sirius nodded his head and titled it slightly. The light seemed to replicate his movement before being swallowed by the surrounding darkness. 

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Hermione sat on a twin bed in the guest room. The blinds had been tightly shut, not just here, but in every part of Pervell Manor. The stillness of the air was interrupted by a rap at her door.

“Come in,” Hermione called, not bothering to look up. The sound of creaking hinges and shuffling sneakers brought Ginny sitting at the foot of her bed. The red haired witch reached to grasp her friend’s hand, neither girl so much as breathing.

“It isn’t your fault, you know,” Ginny said at length. When Hermione didn’t respond, she continued.

“You did the best you could. Ron doesn’t blame you- the fact someone even made it out alive is a ruddy miracle. If it were anyone else in the study that night we would have lost all three of them.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that your brother has to bury his family,” Hermione said flatly. “Doesn’t change the fact that Luna’s gone. Doesn’t change the fact a child died because of me.”

“Hermione, you’re not a heeler-“

“If I didn’t ask for her to help Black none of this would have happened!” Hermione cried, tears falling down her cheeks. Sparks shot from her wand on the bedside table. 

Ginny sighed, stood, and turned to leave. Hermione curled in on herself, tucking her knees under her chin and wrapping her arms around her shins. Ginny paused by the doorway, glancing back at her friend.

“He named the girl.” She said softly

Hermione’s puffy eyes met Ginny’s.

“What is it?”

“Ádalyne”

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