Chapter 2
Remus arrives the next morning as the sun rises to see Kinglsey and James already waiting. Kingsley most likely wanted to see them off, and James probably didn't even sleep with how excited he was.
For some odd reason, James wants nothing more than to be out in the world. Remus thinks he’s some kind of adrenaline junky, as he’s always the first to dive into action when the time comes.
Much unlike Remus, who actually has some survival instinct, thank you very much.
Despite this, he now finds himself about to put himself in danger once again because James is going. He’d go anywhere for James. He always has ever since he ran away from his foster family to go live with the Potters. James’ family never minded. And when Euphemia and Fleamont Potter died, it was just him and James.
Remus makes his presence known when he opens the door. Kingsley is lecturing James on being cautious, a conversation they seem to have often.
They both look at Remus, who greets them with a small wave.
“Girls aren’t awake yet?” he asks, looking around and noticing it’s only the three of them.
Kingsley points to the large gym door. “They’re starting the cars. We were waiting for you.”
Before Remus can be apologetic, he hears the cars start up and pull around the building.
Remus had chosen the black pickup truck for himself and Marlene to drive as it’s good for transporting large items. It also can tow another vehicle if they find one. James, Lily, and Mary will be taking the van. It’s what Remus and James had used when they had found the school. Since then they’ve gutted the inside allowing for extra room.
“No James, you're not driving.” He interrupts the question that he guarantees was forming in James’ head. He looks over to see him practically pouting.
“I don’t know why you guys never let me drive. I’m a good driver!” James whines.
Kingsley and Remus share a look before narrowing their eyes at James.
“Do I need to remind you of the time you managed to blow up two cars on the last supply run?” Kingsley starts.
“Or the time you ran off the road trying to avoid a bunny and totaled a perfectly good truck.”
“Ok, I get it-”
“Or the time you managed to pop three of four tires while attempting to drive over a curb rather than drive around it.”
James stays quiet after that and Remus laughs as he remembers Kinglsey’s reaction to all the cars James has somehow broken over the last few months. It’s honestly quite impressive if you ask him.
Remus looks over at the cars again and he spots the girls splitting up the weapons based on preference. As he guessed, Lily took the handgun. She says it's the easiest to handle, and better for her as she usually stays on the lookout. Mary quickly fastens two long blades to her back, preferring short-distance combat. She also holsters a gun to her belt. Marlene takes the other handgun and some lightweight throwing knives. Remus isn’t afraid to admit that the girls got incredible aim.
He and James already have their weapons. For Remus, it’s a shotgun that he grabbed from the Potter's house when the world went to shit. James carries a machete that he found buried in a zombie. James thought it was cool and nearly took his hand off when he swung it for the first time but he’s got the hang of it since then.
Lily looks over and catches his eye and smiles. “Remus!” She shouts while jogging over. “Finally you're awake. Are we ready to go?” Glancing at Kingsley while she asks.
“Not quite we’re waiting for -” he's interrupted by Peter who comes running down the hall a bit breathless.
“Sorry I’m late, I couldn't find the bandages.” Peter comes to a stop with his hands on his knees as he catches his breath.
He holds out a backpack which James takes and begins to curiously search through its contents.
“It’s a few first aid items in case of emergency.” He explains. “It should keep you alive long enough to make it back here.”
Peter is the so-called doctor of their group as he was in his third year of medical school before the outbreak. He knows more than anyone here and tries to read all the medical books he can find to help even more.
When he and James found Peter almost five months ago, he was getting attacked by zombies. They took him back to Kingsley who told him he could stay but he insisted on going back to his shelter for his friends. Peter, Lily, Mary, and Marlene have been together since the beginning and with a lot of begging. He managed to convince Kingsley to allow him to take James and Remus to his old shelter and retrieve the girls. After that Peter continued to do all he could to thank Kingsley for his kindness including becoming somewhat of a makeshift doctor.
It isn’t long after Peter hands off the bag that Remus is jumping into the truck with Marlene telling Lily, who is driving the van to follow him.
“Red, come in. Red, do you copy?” Marlene in the seat next to him giggles at her codename for Lily as she checks to make sure their walkies work.
A voice clicks back a confirmation and all at once, both vehicles start up and begin the long trip ahead of them.
———————————————————
It’s been a while since Regulus had left the safety of his family's mansion. Actually, it’s been a while for any of them.
Regulus looks around as two vans pull up to the main entrance. The fountain that stands in the middle of the brick driveway now runs dry and is cracking, threatening to fall if given the right push. The driveway itself is also in ruins and the lawn around the house is overgrown. Obviously, due to the state of the world, landscaping isn’t a thing. Though Regulus thinks his parents tried to keep up appearances, at least at first.
He glances at his brother who has been keeping an eye on Barty, waiting for the moment that he snaps and he needs to intervene again. Barty looks as if he hasn’t slept and Regulus suspects he and Evan were saying their goodbyes all night. When he went to see them first thing this morning they were both already awake with red-rimmed eyes.
Regulus said his goodbyes to Dorcas who was putting up a strong exterior as always, though he could see the fear behind her eyes. He doesn’t blame her. She promised Barty she would look out for Evan, whether that eased his conscience or not is still unclear.
Pandora zoned out when Dorcas went to say bye to her. She nearly jumped out of her skin despite Dorcas standing right in front of her. Regulus isn’t surprised though as she’s been the least exposed to the world since coming to live with them.
Now, the four who were chosen to leave stand waiting for the ok to load into the back of one of the vans. Dorcas and Evan have been led away by Narcissa and Lucius.
They, fortunately, don't have to wait much longer as Alecto comes bounding over to them. “You are with me and Amycus, the other four ride together.” She states, gesturing to the open door of the closest van. “Hurry up, before we make you.”
That is all she says before turning on her heel and racing her brother to the driver’s side. Regulus can’t see who wins as he looks to Sirius who only sighs before moving to help Pandora in.
It doesn’t escape Regulus’ notice that they were given the van with no windows, likely so they can’t see where they’re going. Also how by taking away two of their friends, they’ve been made outnumbered.
He does not like this situation.
Once in they all sit in the dark back of the van and feel as the ground begins to move signaling they’ve left.
Regulus can hear the Carrows speaking from the front but he can’t see them. He takes this opportunity to finally speak about their predicament.
“They know.”
“How would they know?” Barty is quick to snap back and Regulus shushes him so they aren't overheard.
“I honestly don’t know,” he admits before continuing, “but somehow they do, and this is definitely not just a supply run. Think about it, they're separating us and putting us in a position where we don’t know where we're going. They also have yet to give us weapons despite us about to go into a land of the literal dead.”
Barty gets pale upon hearing this and his mind is only on Evan and what his parents could be doing to him while they're gone.
Pandora remains quiet, though not shocked as if she has already come to that conclusion.
Sirius is also quiet, which is alarming to Regulus as his brother is never short on witty replies and general conversation. Now he simply looks at the ground between his shoes.
Regulus taps his foot with his own. “Nothing to add?” He asks.
Sirius doesn’t look up when he says, “Only that we should have left months ago.”
“We weren’t ready and you know that.”
“We were never going to be ready Reg, that’s the thing.” They’ve had this conversation before and that's why Regulus knows what he’s going to say next. “How do you prepare to escape your crazy family and their crazy followers and run away into a zombie world? You can’t, so you just do. Right after the Carrows and their little insane prodigies showed up we should have left, you, me, Barty, Evan, and Pandora.” He looks at everyone as he says it.
“What about Dorcas?”
“She wasn’t there yet and she would never know the difference, neither would we.”
Some part of Regulus knows that he’s right. When Sirius came up with the idea to leave and asked Regulus if he and his friends would, he knew he should have said yes.
Instead, he let fear and whatever small love he had for his parents convince Sirius to wait. Wait until they had a better opportunity, wait until they had supplies, wait until they could properly make preparations. It never happened though. Often Sirius would bring it up, or sometimes it was Barty and Evan, on occasion Dorcas would come back from a run with his cousin and ask. But every time Regulus stopped them, convinced them to wait a bit longer. But now it’s too late, they know, and they’re punishing his friends for his actions.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now does it?” He whispers.
Sure, it doesn’t matter that because of him, his parents figured out their plans. It doesn’t even matter how they know.
All he wishes is that Sirius doesn’t resent him for his choice. And he desperately hopes Barty doesn’t blame him for what may happen to Evan. But most of all, he prays his actions don't cost his friends their lives.
“I should have left without you.” This is the last thing Sirius mutters before they all are left to their silence, all with their internal battles.
———————————————————
“Ok, Lily, you’re on the lookout. Marlene and Mary, you two start with the first shop across the lot. James will check out the pharmacy and I will handle the two smaller ones. Got it?”
Remus directs everyone to their destination and they all nod in agreement.
“Good. You all have a walkie so if you need anything just call. Remember to be careful.” He looks at James when he says this, “collect anything you think is needed but try and be quick about it, we want to be home by dark.”
Efficiency is not really James' thing as he will often get too distracted looking around an entire building before he finds anything actually useful.
James suspects this is why he was tasked with searching the pharmacy. Most probably anything inside will be useful, so even if James gets distracted, he’ll still be helping.
When he walks in, he sees that the place isn’t in the worst condition.
He first looks for any kind of pain medication which is always useful when you're fighting death every other day.
Upon seeing a stash hidden behind a desk he grabs his walkie.
“Yo, I hit the jackpot in here.” He exclaimed excitedly.
A reply comes from Mary. “That’s great mate, load it up.”
And he does. He loads everything into the empty backpack he brought and goes to search the rest of the aisles.
By the time he reaches the back he’s collected bandages and first aid materials as well as some other remedial products. He also threw in some toiletries because, hey, just because they live at the end of the world doesn’t mean they have to smell like it.
In the back is where they keep the prescription medications behind a locked metal door. As James is making a plan on how to break in he hears Lily’s quiet voice crack over his walkie.
“Guys, two white vans just pulled into the lot. A group of maybe 10 people.”
James has to hold the speaker up to his ear to hear the next part.
“They're going into the shops.”
Remus’ voice sounds as even and unbothered as always when he cuts in and says, “Nobody panic. Just hide and stay out of sight until they leave.”
James is looking around for a place to hide when he hears voices coming closer to the entrance.
He bolts through the nearest door removing his machete from his belt and weighing it in his hands. Fighting a human is a lot different from fighting a zombie, especially when that human most likely has a gun.
Ever hear that saying don’t bring a knife to a gunfight, well, James certainly hasn’t.
He hears some shuffling around and noises of frustration as they don’t find anything, likely because it’s all already in James’ backpack.
James naively thinks that maybe whoever is behind the door will leave because there’s nothing left.
The voices suddenly become more muted and the sound of items being moved around stops so James presses his ear to the door to listen.
“Well, since there’s nothing here, I guess we can just skip to the fun part.” the guy says.
“What are you talking about?” Another voice comes, much softer than the other.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know.” the first guy again, “I’ll give you a head start… go.”
Footsteps suddenly grow closer to James and he prepares to fight.
The door is thrown open and James steps up to swing.
Instantly he is met with a gun pointed at his head.
He looks at the person in front of him. A boy barely younger than him. James is all of a sudden frozen in his movement, only able to stare wide-eyed at the prettiest person he’s seen before and after the apocalypse.
Despite his still youthful features, he has an icy look in his eyes that seems to be calculating his moves two maybe three in advance.
The steely eyes move from James’ face to his machete and he lifts his eyebrow in question.
“You planning to kill me with that?”
James wants to laugh at the posh accent the boy has but he is again reminded that against a gun, his odds are low.
Still, he shrugs one shoulder.
“Haven’t decided yet,” he attempts to play it cool and looks at the gun still held between them, “you?”
The boy seems to contemplate this before he tilts his head and firmly aims the gun.
The motion made his curls fall over his forehead and into his eyes making James unable to worry about how close he is to death but rather how badly he wants to push the hair back into place.
Having one of the most beautiful boys he’s ever seen, holding him at gunpoint isn’t necessary James’ idea of a good time, however, he can 100% say it is not the worst.
For a moment they’re both standing still, the boy still firmly set on shooting James if he moves, and James firmly set on watching the way his eyes twitch when the hair continues to crowd them.
The moment is broken when they hear a gunshot ring through the pharmacy.
Two things happen in the second that follows.
One, the boy in front of him drops his gun in shock and sprints out of the back door, presumably leading outside.
And two, the gunshot seemed to be enough to alert a few zombies that were behind an employee-only door. Unfortunately for James this door doesn’t have a lock mechanism and is now being pushed open.
Three zombies in uniforms burst out of the door and head straight for James who is quick to start swinging. He's making sure to go for the head and ensure they die, for good which doesn’t take much energy on his part. He finishes the job with a big swing nearly taking the last zombie's head clean off its body.
Rather than wait around much longer, he pockets the fallen gun before also running out the back door.
What he sees when he steps back into the bright light of the back lot is a man standing over a still body.
“Don’t worry Reg,” the man picks up a large rock and brings it over his head, “I'll tell your parents it was an accident.”
He goes to slam to rock down on the boys, no, Reg's head, and James instinctively runs to protect him.
He barrels straight into the man and sends them rolling away.
James forgets he has weapons as they begin to wrestle. Both landing punches and kicks on each other fighting for a lead.
The mystery man gets it when James leans back enough for him to put his foot on James’ chest. He gives a strong push with his legs and sends James flying back into a large metal trash bin.
He doesn’t even give James time to refocus his eyes before he is crawling over and grabbing his head, slamming it against the bin.
Satisfied with his work, he leaves James disoriented and slumped over.
He walks back over to Reg who is still on the ground, though a bit more conscious as he looks at James with wide eyes.
The man crouches in next to Reg and then grabs his shoulders, pulling him into a sitting position.
He smiles a very unkind smile looking Reg in the face as he winds up connecting his fist rather loudly to his face.
The man then stands up and through his blurred and spotting vision, James can see him retreating back around the building.
———————————————————
Sirius remains quiet the rest of the long drive.
He and his friends, per Bellatrix’s request, are separated. Regulus is to go to the pharmacy with Amycus, Sirius feels slightly better that he’s at least with the nicer of the two siblings. Rodolphus and Alecto get paired with Barty and Pandora to search the smaller shops. This unfortunately then leaves Sirius with Bellatrix as Mulciber and Avery are left to watch the cars.
Reluctantly, they’re all handed guns, though, with only one round of bullets each. Better than nothing he supposes.
Bellatrix leads him away and Sirius looks back to catch Regulus’ eye who is already looking at him.
‘Stay safe.’ he tries to say.
‘I will.’
Sirius turns back to follow Bellatrix who is a few steps ahead of him on their way to the furthest shop in the plaza.
“So,” he looks up at his cousin who is smirking as she walks backward facing Sirius as she talks, “how are you enjoying your time out of the house?”
“Oh, I’m loving it. Having so much fun.” He’s unable to keep the sarcasm out of his tone.
“I knew you would. After all, why else would you want to run away so badly.” Sirius looks up at this, not expecting Bellatrix to bring up the obvious reason he and his friends were dragged here.
“You have no idea what you're talking about.” He won’t deny it, but he also won’t play into her games.
“I would be happy to leave you here.”
“Bella-”
“I won’t tell, I promise.” She’s taunting him and he’s sick of it.
“I won’t leave Regulus,” he says with a hint of annoyance, “Let’s just get on with this, yeah?”
Bellatrix smiles, then laughs before opening the door to the shop. “As you wish.”
They split up and work their way front to back, combing through all the aisles. The building seems to be some sort of hardware store, or at least it was. Now it’s mostly broken shelves with items thrown all over the floor.
The fact that the items are intact yet the place is still a mess, leads Sirius to believe that the undead have been through here. He makes a note to be extra cautious around corners.
In one aisle near the back, consisting of wood and other large building materials, he spots something on the ground that catches the light from the window. Curious, he goes to it and sees that it’s throwing a knife and picking it up, he notices the lack of rust corroding the metal. Indicating that it hasn't been here long.
As his brain works to think about what that would mean, he hears footsteps fast approaching. Assuming it’s Bellatrix, he stuffs the knife into his jacket not wanting to share this new weapon with his cousin.
“There you are!” she exclaimed as she came to a stop in front of him as if she didn’t know where he was, it’s not a big store after all. “I need you to check something for me.”
He follows her to a storage closet in a hallway all the way to the back.
“I heard a noise and want you to check it out.”
Sirius looks at her with his brows furrowed and very confused.
“Why can’t you?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“What makes you think I do?”
Her voice darkens and she grabs his collar. “Listen, Black, go in there or I will kill you, I don’t care what your parents say.”
He contemplates his choices. He knows very well that Bellatrix will not hesitate to kill him. But he also knows that whatever is in the room that is pushing her to make him go in instead is also not good.
He really doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of killing him though.
“You know you're a Black too right?” he mutters as he pushes her off and goes to open the door before she can get another word in.
Unsurprisingly, the inside is dark.
What is surprising is that the room appears to be empty. Sirius doesn’t hear any movement and can’t see anything that could be a danger.
“There’s nothing in here. It’s practically empty.” He calls as he looks around once more before going to leave.
As he reaches the door he spots Bellatrix standing in his way.
“What?” is all he can manage to get out before a fist collides with his throat making him fumble back a bit.
Bellatrix takes the opportunity to grab his gun and shoot something in the corner. She then slams the door and Sirius can hear her maniacal laughter.
“I’ve got you now cousin!” She screams in glee and Sirius imagines her bouncing around as she says. “I’ve killed Sirius Black! I did it!”
Sirius is very confused as he usually is with his cousin's antics but now he is confused as to how this equals her killing him. Yes, being locked in a room isn’t good per se, but technically he is still alive.
At least that is what he thinks until he hears groaning from the corner, the same corner that Bellatrix shot seemingly for no reason.
Sirius’ first instinct is to run so he tries the door, rattling the knob and using all his strength to attempt to force it open which doesn’t work.
Ok, so yeah maybe he is about to die.
The zombie comes closer to the light of the window. It’s missing an arm and is walking far worse than the other undead he’s encountered.
Sirius thinks this should be an easy kill. If it weren’t for the fact that he was still catching his breath from being punched in the throat and that his gun was taken.
As the zombie continues his pursuit, Sirius remembers the knife he shoved in his sleeve and pulls it out.
Not wanting to risk close-range combat he attempts to throw the knife as hard as he can.
It doesn’t work.
Apparently, throwing a throwing knife is harder than it sounds, who knew?
Frantically searching around for anything else that could help, he picks up a piece of discarded wood and with all the courage he can, he finishes the distance between him and the zombie and takes a big swing.
The zombie jerks to the side but is otherwise unaffected, going right back to slowly attacking him.
Several unsuccessful swings later resulting in nothing but his exhaustion, Sirius starts doing what he does best, making noise. He bangs on the door again with pleas of ‘help’ and just general screaming to try and get someone’s attention.
Maybe Regulus went back to look for him. He thinks. Unless they tried to kill him too. His brain uselessly supplies.
But Reg is strong, he’ll survive, and he’ll come back for him. Hopefully.
He grabs the knife and wood again and crawls back to the door, still avoiding the zombie who is also seemingly getting tired as well.
He continues sitting with his back against the door and yelling while keeping the zombie at arm's length until the door swings open making Sirius fall back and scramble to his feet.
Rather than being met with Regulus’ face, he is met with the faces of two women both eyeing him with suspicion and worry.
The one closest to him seems to be more hostile and is strapped with two long blades that he is glad weren’t instantly at his neck. Instead, she has a gun pointing right between his eyebrows, looking for any sign he might attack.
The other, a blond who is clearly more hesitant to kill him though looks very capable of it.
He drops the wood that was still tightly gripped in his hand and runs his hands through his hair, a nervous habit.
“Uh, hi?”
The two only look at him, not willing to reply. Though, thankfully, saving him from awkward silence is his zombie friend who decides to make his presence known by stumbling through the door.
In a second the blond girl has thrown a knife directly into his forehead, effectively killing him.
“You make that look way too easy.” Sirius laughs at this realization. “I guess this is yours then.”
He holds the blade to her which she is quick to grab.
“Who are you?” The one with the gun, still aimed at his head mind you, says.
“Names Sirius. Sirius Black.” He replies holding his hand out for a handshake which goes ignored.
The two girls look at each other before the blonde grabs a walkie-talkie and says “Remus, we found one.”
A deep voice, presumably Remus comes over the speaker, “Name?”
“Sirius Black.”
There chatter over the small device before “He’s good.”
The walkie shut down and the two look back up at Sirius who did not pick up any of that conversation.
“You can come with us.” Gun girl says as she holsters her gun.
“How do I know you won’t kill me?”
The blonde scoffs as she yanks her knife from the now-dead, undead’s head.
“Please, if we wanted to kill you, Sirius Black,” she stretches out his name as she runs her blade along his jaw. “We would have already.”
Sirius only stands there shocked as they begin to walk away leaving him to run to catch up.
As they leave the building he sees two cars with people outside, not his people. No, it seems his people left.
In the middle of the small group he sees a girl with platinum hair, he knows that hair.
Sirius takes off running until he reaches the group, and sees Pandora in the bed of a truck. Her hand clutched her head which seemed to be bleeding. Next to her is Barty who is wincing in pain as another girl that he doesn’t recognize with bright red hair bandages his leg.
“What happened?” he asks, looking between his two friends' injuries.
“Probably the same thing that happened to you.” Barty snaps. “We were tricked, all of us.”
Sirius runs his hands through his hair again. Barty likely can’t walk and Pandora looks as if she might pass out at any moment. They can’t get home like this.
Wait.
“Where’s Regulus?”
“He hasn’t come out yet.” Pandora whispers, not quite wanting to tell him.
Sirius glances around at everyone around him. They’re outnumbered three to four though it’s clear he’s the only one in any condition to fight or run.
One person in particular that he didn’t see before seems unbothered as he just gazes around the parking lot, spending a lot of time looking at one building, in particular, the pharmacy. Without thinking Sirius walks up to him and nudges his shoulder.
“Hey, have you seen my brother?”
The man turns to him. “What?”
“My brother, you're looking at the building that he went into, you must know something.” Ok so it’s not the best logic but he’s beginning to panic a bit.
The man looks back at the pharmacy, “I haven’t seen your brother. Sorry.”
Sirius does not have the patience right now to be dismissed.
He nudges his shoulder again this time keeping his hand there and his grip tight. “Look mate, if you know where he is, just tell me. Even if he-” he hesitates at the thought, “even if he’s dead.”
His pulse quickens when his wrist is yanked away and held with great force.
It’s at this moment that he notices how tall the other man is, definitely well over six feet. He'd probably be aroused if he wasn’t about to get his ass kicked, actually, no he’s still very much attracted to this.
“Look, mate,” The man grits out. “My friend was in there and also hasn’t come out yet. I don’t know who your brother is and honestly, I don’t care.”
He lets go of Sirius’ wrist and goes back to watching the building for signs of life. Sirius joins him.
“I’m Sirius, by the way.”
“I heard.”
“You’re Remus.”
“Yup.”
“Got a last name?”
“Nope.”
“Cool.”
So much for the small talk he thinks.
———————————————————
Remus is debating going into the pharmacy.
James should be out by now and isn’t picking up his walkie.
Mary and Marlene can keep the peace if he leaves, this is assuming the three people they are helping try anything which is unlikely seeing as two are injured and the other is unarmed.
Speaking of, the man next to him, Sirius, is just standing there.
He keeps brushing his hair out of his face and glancing at Remus.
He does think that if he went in to look, Sirius would follow to look for his brother. Honestly, he’s surprised he hasn't run in already with how aggressive he was just moments ago. Remus wouldn’t stop him if he did want to go in, though, he supposes the man understands the danger going in may lead to since they aren’t sure what happened yet.
Lily continues to aid the two injured people, who at this point look like they’re fighting to stay awake and not be so vulnerable around strangers. Remus can't blame them, seeing as they were just attacked they most likely are not going to trust so easily.
Marlene and Mary are talking quietly and he notices their hands never leave their weapons, always on alert.
Remus pulls his attention back to the pharmacy doorway when he feels the man next to him stiffen.
Limping out of the door is James who looks exhausted. He’s not alone. Across his shoulder is the arm of a boy who looks vaguely like Sirius and Remus deduces that this is probably his brother. His brother who is unconscious and currently being dragged along by James who may be seconds away from collapsing himself.
“Reg! What did you do?” Sirius yells pointing at James.
Remus only has a second to wrap his arms around the man’s torso, using his height to his advantage as he pulls him off the ground holding him from trying to kill James.
“James didn’t do anything,” Remus says in his ear. “Now chill out before I do something to you.”
This causes Sirius to go limp in his arms, that didn’t take much.
He drops the man who catches himself and breaks out into a sprint, this time at his brother.
Remus goes to James who looks relieved to not have to carry dead weight any longer and wraps him in a hug.
“Remus, are you ok?” James pulls away to eye Remus for any injuries.
“Am I ok? James, you’re bleeding. What happened?”
“Nothing I’m fine,” he glanced at Sirius, who’s now holding his limp brother in his arms, “I'll tell you on the way back. We should get going.”
Remus only nods and helps James to the van, the two others following close behind.
“What are we going to do?” Mary asks as she sees another stranger come over with them.
James' reply is almost instant. “We’re taking them with us.”
“James, their strangers.” Marlene points out.
“So were you at one point.” Everyone who knows James is taken aback at his tone. James is not one to get hostile.
“James,” Remus looks at his friend and tries to convey what he’s thinking with his eyes alone.
“No, Remus. Three of them are injured to the point where they can’t even walk on their own. And this one,” he gestures to Sirius, “looks unarmed and harmless. Who are we if we don’t at least offer to try and help them.”
Lily stands then and comes to James' side.
“He’s right, Remus. If we leave them here they’re definitely going to die. Kingsley would want us to help.” Of course she plays the Kingsley card. Everyone in their shelter owes their lives in some way to Kingsley Shacklebolt. Remus promised Shacklebolt he would take care of them, but he knows Lily’s right.
Remus looks around at the group of people around him and then looks to the sky as he sighs. It’s getting later and later and the longer they sit here debating this the worse it is for all of them.
He looks to Mary and Marlene who are clearly upset with the situation and he understands their hesitation to trust these people. He knows where they stand and he knows that from one perspective they are right. Then he looks at James and Lily, his closest friends who both have too big of hearts for this messed up world. He also knows where they stand and that from their perspective, they are also right. Lastly, he looks at the four strangers, injured, unarmed, and vulnerable.
He lets out a long breath of air as he makes his decision, knowing that either way, someone will be mad.
“If they want to come, they can. But they need to decide fast.”
Mary and Marlene don’t look happy but they trust Remus and his choices. Lily nods at him and James mouths ‘thank you’.
Sirius brings his brother to where the other two are sitting. Remus can only pick up bits of their muttered conversation.
“Sirius, we have to go back.” the one with the injured leg says. “I can’t leave him there.”
“Barty none of you can walk and we don’t have a car. What other choice do we have?”
The small blonde girl places her arm around the one Remus guesses is Barty and tries to do what Remus thinks is comforting him when she says. “We’ll figure something out. We’ll get both of them back. Regulus will figure something out.”
The man, Barty, tries to move but his leg restricts him quite significantly. With tired eyes brimming with tears he looks at Sirius again.
Sirius saw something in his face, defeat maybe, and turned to look Remus directly in the eye.
“Ok, we’ll come.”
Remus wastes no time splitting everyone up once again. He drives the van with Marlene and James, and the four newcomers stay in the back. Lily and Mary take the truck.
They load everything they’ve managed to gather into the bed of the truck and they all help to move everyone into the back of the van.
James helps the blonde girl to sit on a blanket cushion he made near the front and he beams at her thanks. Next is Barty who has to be seated in a way that allows his leg to stretch out.
Last in are Sirius and Regulus who sit opposite James in the back of the van. Sirius lays his brother’s head on his lap to keep it from bouncing as the vehicles start to move.
Remus looks in the rearview mirror and sees James shrugging out of his denim jacket, which Remus has only seen him without when he sleeps. He carefully lays it over Regulus’ torso, ignoring Sirius’ protective glare.
Oh. It now makes sense why James was so adamant to let them come with us.
Remus looks back at James through the mirror and shakes his head fondly. Of course, his best friend would fall for the first pretty boy he sees even during the apocalypse.