Crashing
“Go.” Remus snapped his head towards Sirius before breaking off into a rushed sprint. Sirius followed close behind, hearing his shoes smack the ground underneath him. He fought not to trip over himself pushing past the bathroom door back into reality. Where people were conversing normally, enjoying the weather and newly hung holiday decorations. Remus didn’t seem to have noticed, squeezing through all of them, turning his head every couple of seconds, and washing with relief when his eyes found Sirius.
There was no sight of the janitor, but he hadn’t even gotten a good look at the guy. He could be anyone. Blood was rushing through the back of Sirius’ neck, burning him. What was stopping the Death Eaters from foreseeing their plan and loading the crowds with their workers. Sirius felt the world closing and life flashing before his eyes as he shoved Remus, forcing him to put those long legs to work no matter how tired. Out of Rockefeller Center and back onto the streets, they kept their pace. Not stopping for cars honking or the people yelling. They had to get back to the apartment. When they did reach the ninth floor he banged on the door with all his force.
James answered with a deep furrow in his thick brows. “Hey what-”
Squeezing past, Sirius rushed inside, dragging Remus by the collar. “Get the others. We have to go.” He says more breathless than he would have cared for.
“What?” James’ confusion seeps further, and Remus is there latching onto his shoulders. Begging for their eyes to lock. Sirius is not giving in.
“This isn’t safe.” His breath stiffles as Sirius tries to regulate it. “We are in way over our heads!”
At the scream, Regulus trails out his room, eyes flying over the blocking. Landing on James with a fixation and a question. James shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and Sirius could feel his grip loosening.
“They know we’re onto them. They know where we live. They know what we're planning. What’s stopping them from drilling a hole into the walls and killing us right now, one by one. Or setting the whole building on fire!” Sirius may have begun to ramble.
The grip on his shoulder tightened and Remus nudged him simultaneously harshly and gently. “You need to calm down. We can take them.”
“No we can’t. We can’t. We- we…” His voice broke off as blots started to fill his vision.
One hand moved to his scalp, holding his head in place, while the other tapped at his cheek. “Sirius, look at me. Look at me.”
“What is happening?” Regulus raised his voice in the background, but Sirius couldn’t hear it. He wouldn’t.
Instead he pushed Remus off of him, demanding the fury to come back into his eyes. “You do this.” He pointed accusingly. “You just have to go investigate. You just have to be a part of this.”
Thankfully Remus didn’t want to soothe him anymore. “How long are we going to keep having this conversation? People’s lives are at risk! My life is at risk, and you expect me to do nothing? Because they’re scary? I’m not scared. You are.”
“Of course I’m scared.” He shoved him again, causing James’ arms to pull him back. “They can and will kill us, and we’re being stupid. We are trapped in a corner.”
“We were already in that corner without all of this!” Remus raised his chin, eyes going dark. “If you want to talk about strategy, then talk. But I’m not gonna fucking sit here and listen to you whine about being scared.”
Sirius launched himself to attack Remus, but now both James and Regulus were holding him back. He kicked and yelled until they let go. Collapsing on the floor with a sob. “I can’t do this anymore. I want out.”
That was the last that he remembers.
Sirius had fainted.
At Remus’ doing no less. Because maybe he did get carried away. Maybe he shouldn’t be so aggressive all the time. Especially with James and Regulus looking at him like he just ripped out his heart and was still holding it in his hands.
“We leave tomorrow.” Was all Remus said. Leaving to call the girls.
He didn’t know where they could go, but the rate they were going wasn’t sustainable and Remus should’ve noticed. Seen the signs. But he didn’t. He never did.
Everyone reluctantly called their jobs and put in a leave of absence. Except Regulus, who called Barty to take over the duties of Grimmauld Place until further notice.
In the preparation of leaving, Sirius had remained knocked out. It had been days since he got any real sleep, not that he would admit it to anyone. Every morning he’d smile not too wide that it pierced his cracked lips and ask how Remus slept. With eyes low and heavy, and not a wink of sleep behind them. Lily checked his pulse every once and a while to make sure he was still breathing, but it could be days before he woke.
It was on the way to the Black’s lake house in Dorcas’ car that he finally did open his eyes. Softly as ever.
“Hey.” Remus whispered, pushing back the hair from his face.
Sirius was crumpled on the floor of the back seat between his legs, head rested on his knee. He squeezed his eyes tightly, forcing the sleep away. “Mmhh.” He hummed back.
“Everything alright?”
“Where are we?"
Remus knew he was in a car full of people, one of which being Sirius’ brother, but he couldn’t fight the sickle sweetness. “We’re going someplace safe, I promise.”
Sirius shook his head against his leg, burying his face deeper, and leaning into the touch of Remus’ hand now in his hair. “Thank you.” He mumbled under his breath, drifting back to sleep.
He wanted to nurture this moment, and care for it, as it felt monumental, but life had other plans. In a split of a second, all the passengers in the car are taken aback and jolted forward, with a loud pop from within the car.
A tire had popped. Sending the car spinning, and crashing into a landpost.
Luckily driving speeds in New York City are never enough to bring serious damage in an accident, but all of them were hit nonetheless. Airbags popping, scratching Dorcas and Marlene. Sirius and Regulus hitting the backs of their heads with blunt force. Lily, who was sitting in the middle, was banged by the center console. Remus hit the seat in front of him, crushing Sirius. And James would’ve done the same to Regulus on the other side, but was bruised by the landings of Mary who was sitting on top of him.
It was all a blur.
Blood and hazy vision.
The second Remus could get real footing in his senses, he began to haul out everyone in the car.
He may have been disoriented, but this was so obviously the work of the Death Eaters. They could’ve even let them leave in peace.
Peeling off of Sirius in their painfully tangled position, and opened the door and guided him outside.
A pedestrian had walked up to them at this point to ask if they were alright, but Remus only ignored them, not being able to listen anyway.
Allowing Sirius to cradle into himself on the floor, Remus went back to wrangle the rest, while the pedestrian had started to become frantic.
James and Mary were the first to snap back into things, rubbing their wet eyes into consciousness.
There was still so much to do, and four of them that they didn’t know if they were alright. Remus began to wish Lily was able to help, because she would know what to do. Remus only knew how to make situations worse.
Sirens began to blare, and his blood ran cold.
They knew the police were interconnected to the Death Eaters, and they did not need anymore attention, much less the prospect of losing their battle in jail.
Opening the driver's door, Remus and James began to pull out an unresponsive Dorcas, and Remus hysterically cried. “We have to go! Dorcas, listen to me. We have to go!”
She never said anything back.
Mary had begun to pull Marlene out from the passenger side, James went back in for Lily, and Sirius sobered at the sounds of the sirens dragging a groggy but cognitive Regulus out of the car. Remus adjusted his weight carrying Dorcas, and they all set foot to leave the car, in favor of whatever alleyway they could get themselves into.
Once far enough from the scene, James began to yell. “FUCK!”
Someone tried to shush him, but it was no use. James was at a breaking point. Dry heaving onto Lily’s body.
“What do we even do?” Mary asked horridly. Because Remus had an idea of what they could do, but it would get their hands dirty. I think we crossed that line a long time ago.
In the end, Remus called an uber for the size of eight on the edge of the city. It wasn’t a long walk considering they had driven the majority of it. When the uber came and hauntingly scanned the crowd, already putting his car in drive, Remus seized the driver’s head through the open window and banged it against the wheel harshly, until he had passed out.
Of course when the driver came to, he would report Remus to the police. Officially making him a wanted criminal, but he just didn’t see a way around it. At least this way, they could put distance from them and the Death Eaters.
The car ride was heavy and dramatic. Long silences broken by chest pumping and tears. Blood staining the interior, while Sirius canceled the trip on the driver's phone, deleting the history of it.
Looking over, Remus found Sirius’ blank eyes. They were sorrowful and full of fear, but meeting Remus’ there was a level of understanding.
In for a penny, in for a pound.