Chapter 4
Sirius
Contrary to popular belief, it could be said that Sirius Black does not take to change very well. Yeah, he was known to cause enough pranks that campers wonder if maybe he was misclaimed and was actually a son of Hermes or could be accused of running away from home at young age of eight without a dollar to his name. You could even argue that he runs into battles without a thought in his head besides “please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die”. But you see, in each of those instances Sirius did have a plan, even if sometimes that plan was to wing it. More importantly, the most important common denominator in all of his endeavors since he was eleven years old was that he had James Potter with him every step of the way. Hens the current and ongoing breakdown/panic attack that he has had for the past four months since James disappeared overnight.
When James first disappeared, many of the campers assumed he left early for home. It would make sense as he was scheduled to return back home to Martha’s Vineyard later that morning anyways, but Sirius knew better. Sirius knew that James Potter is the epitome of light reincarnate. Where Sirius makes mistakes, James fixes them. Where Sirius would ruin the whole world for those he loved, James would save both. And where Sirius would leave his brother behind, leave without a goodbye, James never would. It was because of this that Sirius knew that something was deeply wrong. Starting that morning when James did not show up to Zeus’ cabin when he said he would, Sirius tore through the camping looking for him. He went through all of the cabins, searched through the forbidden forest (ignore the name as campers are literally forced into the forest for capture the flag; I know, makes no sense to Sirius either), and even got the courage to ask the Naiads (who absolutely DESPISE Sirius due to his flirtations and only agreed to talk to him once he explained James was missing) in the Black Lake if they had seen him. But not a soul, nymph, or naiad had seen him.
As hours turned into days and days turned into months, Sirius could only lose more and more of a grasp on reality. It would be an understatement to say that Sirius is handling James’ disappearance well. Having barely eaten and slept even less over the last four months, Sirius feared that he was reaching a breaking point. As each day passed, he could only think that there may be no getting James back. That it was too late, that Sirius was too late. It wouldn’t be the first time, Sirius often thought darkly, before clearing pushing those thoughts back into a box in the crevice of his mind, only ever truly opening in the depths of his nightmares.
Months passed and seasons changed, before suddenly it was December 1st. Sirius spent this day as he did each day before, following a lead on James. Today Dumbledore had received notice from the camp’s friendly half-giant, Hagrid, that a boy of about 18 with a smell of an immense power appeared suddenly at his school. Hagrid, one of the newest employees of the camp, had already found two demigods, and was waiting till Christmas break to bring them to camp. However, with news of this new demigod, Dumbledore wanted the demigods to be extracted immediately. Sirius, at the time that Dumbledore was receiving this news, had a visit from a not-so friendly face. Hera, the toad-faced goddess herself, came and interrupted the few hours of beauty sleep Sirius had been able to get recently, only to inform him very vaguely that he would “find answers in Arcadia”. If Sirius wasn’t too desperate to get any sort of answers for James’ disappearance, he would have swiped off the smirk off of her face before she could utter “Hem, hem” again.
Alas, Sirius is desperate, so here he is flying on his motorbike besides the extraction team so far north that it feels like he’s going to the freaking North Pole. Luckily Frank and Alice were on duty today for the extraction team, so he chats to them from time to time. Despite all his complaining about the long flight, Sirius really does enjoy being in the air. It took him along time to get this far. Despite being the son of the sky god, Sirius up until the age of about 15 was terrified of heights, the air, and especially of falling. He remembers when he was little and his little br- someone would jump off anything insight, Sirius would fret and worry like a mother hen. He was always worrying back then. Sirius didn’t really do that anymore, at least until the beginning of this past August. Now though, Sirius spends a lot of time on his flying motorbike. He first got over his fear of flying when James forced him to fly with him on his pet Pegasus, Nimbus, and came to love flying when his dad gave him his motorbike for his 16th birthday. Zeus had said that he had wanted to gift Sirius a chariot, but Zeus did always have a soft spot for his only living mortal son.
Sirius could feel the change in the air as they neared Cadillac Mountain. The sun was beginning to rise, but they could barely see it as a heavy mist surrounded the national park. Luckily, Hagrid was quite tall, and Sirius and the others were able to park next to him fairly easily. However, they landed on the mountain just in time to see a tall, brunette boy be hurtled off the mountain by an anemoi thuellai. Before Sirius could even process the information, he jumped out of the motorbike and hurtled himself off of the mountain as well.
It was times like this that his little box in his mind rattled, and he realized what all of the fuss was about with being able to fly. Sirius spread out his arms and clasped onto the other boy as the storm spirit popped away into the mist. As he wrapped his arms around the boy and lifted them up to the top of the cliff, Sirius could only think about the fact that the boy must be part banshee with how loud he screamed. It wasn’t till they reached the top that they reached the top that Sirius was able to process anything else, and his mind when straight to James.
Sirius may or may not have blacked out for the next several minutes, and the next thing he knew he was being dragged off the newcomer by Frank. Now it was Sirius who was screaming, and he was vaguely aware that he was yelling on the top of his lungs “Where is he?” From his peripheral vision, Sirius could see two girls come to stand defensively in front of the boy with Hagrid trying to talk them down. Alice on the other hand, was walking towards Sirius, with Frank still holding his arms back.
“Sirius what the hell is the matter with you?” Alice asked, her brown eyes furious. “The whole point is to make them feel safe, not attack them at first sight.”
“She told me he’d be here,” Sirius croaked, his tears finally coming out. Sirius hadn’t cried, not since the day James went missing. With James gone, Sirius had slowly returned to his old self, angry and unyielding, but never crying. At his words, Frank finally started to loosen his grip up, feeling now that Sirius was not a threat. Alice immediately embraced him, always knowing how best to fix things. It seems as a daughter of Hephaestus, Alice knew not only how to fix steel and machines, but also people. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Sirius has found himself several times these past few months seeking her out for comfort.
“Err,” Frank started, “We should probably go check on the newbies.” Frank on the other hand, could tell you the emotions of any plant in the vicinity, but was less versed in people. However, he had the heart of gold and was fiercely loyal. Sirius conceded and followed Frank and Alice towards the other demigods. As they approached, it seemed as Hagrid was quickly giving the typical rundown of “yes, one of your parents is a god”, “no, you are not immortal”, and “sorry, we basically are kidnapping you for your own safety”. Strangely, these conversations normally went fairly smoothly as demigods encounter much weirder experiences throughout their lives than a half-giant explaining that they are a thing of myths. Hagrid was just getting to the part that the best conclusion that has been come up for keeping demigods safe is a summer camp in the suburbs of New York City when the male demigod locked eyes with Sirius.
While extremely disappointed that this demigod is not James, Sirius could not help but feel intrigued. The demigod was tall, with brown eyes and brown hair, and had scars littering his body. He was cool in the quiet, nonchalant type of way, and held confidence that came off as well-earned. He wore a tattered jeans and a purple shirt with worn out lettering on it. Sirius was trying to make out the letters when a deep voice rang out.
“And who the hell are you?” the other boy asked with a stern look on his face. Sirius blushed slightly in his glare, realizing that he may have gone slightly overboard as he saw light bruises forming at the boy’s throat from Sirius’ grip.
With all the swag and confidence he could muster, Sirius replied, “Sirius Black, son of Zeus,” as he reached out a hand. The other boy merely glanced down at his outstretched hand and back at his eyes before replying, “Son of Zeus, huh, does that give you the right to go strangely random strangers?”
Sirius dropped his hand quickly before running it through his hair.
“Yeah, about that, I’m sorry. A friend of mine is missing, and well I haven’t been dealing with it well. We should probably get you three back to camp before Dumbledore has my head off. We’ve spent too much time in the open anyways for my taste.”
Despite the other boy’s obvious distaste for Sirius, he apparently didn’t trust him to let one of the girls ride with Sirius back to camp on his motorbike. That along with the fact with the addition of Hagrid, only four of the demigods could fit on the chariot, left Sirius to fly back to camp with the brown-haired demigod seated behind him. Sirius tried to focus his attention on the path in front of him as he was guiding the others through the air, but his mind kept on wondering to the pressure of the other boy’s hands around his waist. It was because of these thoughts that he almost missed the camp. Luckily, however, Frank’s voice rang out.
“Welcome to Camp Hogwarts.”