Chapter 3
They’ve been driving for maybe fifteen minutes when James decides the silence is too much. No one has yet spoken and James only managed to catch Remus’ eye in the rear view mirror once but he couldn’t quite read his thoughts. Marlene has kept her gaze on the road ahead though her fingers twitching near her gun holster tell him that she’s still on alert. James himself has calmed down from the adrenaline rush from before and now sits holding a cloth to the back of his head to stop the bleeding. He had a headache but nothing he thought would last.
On the other hand, the blonde girl towards the front is still losing consciousness by the minute. The man beside her has his eyes closed and his head against her shoulder. James didn’t notice before, but the man's leg is bandaged from his thigh down past his knee and is already soaked through with blood. The girl had a cut down her forehead that had stopped bleeding but had already stained her platinum hair and dripped down her fair skinned face.
On the other side of him is a boy (Reg, as James had heard the stranger say before) and another man that looks strikingly similar to him.
James had given the boy his jacket which had engulfed him. James didn’t know if he was cold or if he appreciated it however since he was still passed out on the other man's lap.
The man had the same black hair as Reg though a bit longer. He looked older too, probably around his own age, James thought.
The man had looked angry at James when he had brought Reg out of the pharmacy, assuming James had been the one to hurt the boy. As if.
Now he just looks worried about him. He has so far only looked up from the other man's face when James reached out to lay his jacket over him. At that moment James was convinced he would tell him off but instead he allowed it, though he did give James a warning look.
He pulls his thoughts away from Reg once again and instead decides to speak.
“I’m James by the way.” He whispers to the man across from him.
“Sirius” Without looking up he mumbles his name in response not seeming interested in socializing.
He clears his throat. “So Remus, what happened to you?”
“I’m more interested in your story actually.” Remus raises an eyebrow looking between him and the unconscious boy.
James sees Sirius finally look up, also interested in knowing the events that led to the current state of the boy in his lap.
The girl has also turned her head slightly towards James, ready to listen. The motion woke the man on her shoulder who startedled a bit before repositioning himself again. He does not however drift back to sleep. Instead, he focuses his eyes on James who can now see the sadness that sits on every feature of the man's face.
James looks at Remus and decides to deal with it now rather than later. He tells the group the story of hiding and running into Reg. He also tells the group how he ran to save him from certain death. As a result, both of them were injured, but they are still alive. Sirius over the course of the retelling, continued to have a protective hold over Reg.
Marlene scoffs, “Something like that would only happen to you Potter. Of course you get to fight and save a pretty boy.”
“What is this, a competition?” Remus laughed as he looked at Marlene. “Who’s hero story is better?”
“Well me and Mary only got to this one,” she points at Sirius, “after the crazy people left.”
“Thanks for that, by the way.” Sirius spoke up. Marlene only nodded in response.
James looks between the two. “Wait, what happened to you guys then?” He asks each one, wanting to hear both sides.
Marlene threw herself into her retelling of events. How they heard Lily’s warning and hid when they heard voices. They came out once one of the people, a girl, left and were walking out when they overheard yelling from a closed door.
At this point in the story, a small voice spoke. “Wait, Sirius what happened to you?” The blonde girl said. Her voice is very fitting for her appearance, James thinks. All light and airy.
Everyone looks at Sirius who looks hesitant to answer but simply says, “Oh, you know, family drama.”
No, James thinks, he doesn’t know. Because if that means what he thinks it means, then his family are the ones that intended to hurt him. James knows that his parents would never do such a thing.
Remus looks intrigued by this answer, so much so that he might ask more but doesn’t.
Marlene continues to say she heard a woman happily exclaiming that she had killed Sirius. Both the girl and the guy that James still doesn’t know the name of, look worriedly at Sirius who simply shrugs.
During the rest of the drive, James learns that Remus was able to hide and make it back to Lily without being seen. He also mentioned hearing four voices, two of which were the two people in the van with them. Remus says that he got out before he saw or heard anyone get hurt so he didn’t know what had happened.
This had drawn attention to the two individuals, who did not seem eager to share. The girl glances around at everyone and her eyes land on James who gives her a large smile.
He pulls his body off the wall of the van and sits up holding his hand in front of her. “I’m James.” He smiles again, “in case you didn’t know that already.”She timidly reaches for his hand and places her own in his. As he shakes it, he notes how cold it is. Without thinking he lets go and crawls to the back to grab a sweatshirt that he believes belongs to Remus and hands it to her.
"Thank you," she says as she grabs the sweatshirt smiling. “My name is Pandora, but you can call me Dora. If you want.”
James nods, feeling accomplished and turns to the man. He holds his hand out once again. The man slowly shifts his gaze from his hand, to his face to his friends before reaching out his own hand to shake James’.
“Barty.” is all he says, leaning back into Pandora's side.
James takes this as a win and settles down in his spot. Remus looks at him through the mirror. Remus is constantly astonished by his friend's ability to make people feel comfortable. James beams at Remus who rolls his eyes and reverts back to watching the road.
Marlene is now watching Pandora as she pulls on the sweatshirt, which engulfs her. James sees on her face that she wants to ask what no one else does. James tries to discreetly stop her but she ignores him.
When she does ask, she sits back in her chair and points one of her knives between Barty’s leg and Pandora's head. “What’s this about?” she asks bluntly.
Pandora reaches up to cup her head and Barty just closes his eyes, feigning sleep once again. It didn’t matter that James had been kind, they still weren’t willing to share their whole lives with strangers. Marlene doesn’t look ready to give up, however she is distracted by Remus announcing they’ve arrived.
James looks out of the front window to see the school coming into view and sees Lily’s red hair standing outside the truck waiting.Remus pulls in and he and Marlene get out to move to open the back door.
Remus asked Marlene to help Mary and Lily unload the truck and bring everything inside.
Pandora and Barty begin to move after James gets out. Sirius looks down at the boy in his lap in contemplation as he is still unconscious after that long drive, his concern clear on his face.
Remus then looks at the four newcomers and James. “I need to get Kingsley.” He states.
“Go, talk to him, I’ll stay here.” James replies.
Remus shakes his head. “No, these three need medical attention.” He gestures to Pandora and Barty, both struggling to stay upright. “We have to get them to Peter, then we’ll both head there."
James agrees and he rushes to help Sirius up. They manage to hold Reg between them. Dead weight is easier to carry with two people though it still is a lot of work since they are both already tired.
Remus attempts to remove Barty from Pandora's hold. The man is not in a position to argue as he allows Remus to lead him inside with the rest to follow.
Peter is not difficult to find, already in the makeshift infirmary with Lily restocking items James notices being unpacked from his backpack. On their arrival, they both start clearing beds and chairs for the guests. Remus reassures the four that they are in good hands and sends a look to Peter, who nods, before turning to leave.
Peter's eyes scan the assortment of injuries including James’ head but James waves him off and promises to come to him later to have it looked at. Peter reluctantly agrees and moves to talk to Sirius.
James hesitates before following Remus, though knowing the conversation that awaits him should be sooner rather than later. He prays Kingsley is in a positive mood.
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Do I even want to know how you managed to pick up four new strays?” Kingsley asks before Remus has a chance to close the door. Remus isn't surprised he already knows, Kingsley always does.
“Don’t be mad at Remus King, I take all the blame.” James is quick to defend Remus, which is good, it was James' idea to bring more strangers into their home, not his.
Kingsley looks between the two of them. Remus can never guess what he’s thinking but he assumes nothing pleasant. James looks apologetic but Remus knows he’ll justify his choice and fight Kingsley until he agrees.
When Kingsley does speak, he ignores James’ initial plea and addresses Remus. “What are your thoughts?”
“I think we just let total strangers into the only safe place most of us have had since the world turned to shit.” Remus replies easily. James stares at him offendedly but Remus was only telling the truth. He does, then continues to say truthfully before anyone can respond. “However, three of the individuals were incapacitated or soon would be, and the other seemed harmless enough. I made the choice in the end to take them with us and help.”
James looks back at Kingsley, satisfied with Remus’ claim.
Kingsley however, does not appear to be in the same boat when he just sighs and says, “So, you bring them here. And we help them.” There was no question but he and James nodded in agreement.
“And then what?” There it is. “We help them, and then what? It would be immoral to kick them out and make them simply survive on their own but we also can’t spare the resources to let them take apon leaving.”
“We let them stay." James says as if it’s that easy. Says it as if he doesn’t see exactly why we can’t do that, which he likely doesn’t. Kingsley seems to expect this response and is ready to inform him.
“James, while I admire your compassion, if we ignore the fact that we would need to dramatically increase our supply of almost everything, there’s still the fact that these people could be dangerous. Do we really want to risk our own safety to protect theirs?”
James is silent, taking in what Kingsley said, no doubt trying to come up with a compromise.
Kingsley doesn’t wait. “I think, James, you are clearly the reason we’re in this situation, and I think you should find a way to fix it. If you want these people to stay, then you will face the consequences should they arise. And if you want them to leave, you're the one who has to tell them. This is your fault, as you said. That is all.”
Remus doesn’t even remember the speech he’s been planning after that. He only thinks that he’s glad James took the blame. Kingsley may not be mad but he certainly is serious, as he usually is when it comes to safety.
James seems confused by Kingsley's stern instructions and also by himself. Remus knows that James would always face his own consequences but letting others down on purpose, that is a foreign concept to him.
There isn’t room left for any other discussion so Remus moves to usher James out.
Before he shuts the door, he locks eyes with Kingsley who simply nods once before turning to the window, leaving Remus to speculate about the gesture's meaning and leave.
———————————————————
Sirius is exhausted. To put it simply,
This has been one of the longest days of his life and it's still light out. The only problem is all of his friends are sleeping including Regulus and he can’t bring himself to leave them defenseless.
That being said. He’s really fucking tired.
The only other conscious person left in the room besides him was a man even shorter than himself with dirty blonde hair. He introduced himself as Peter when they arrived and informed him that he was the closest thing to a doctor they would get. Earlier there was a woman with short red hair and a child that clung to her legs, also with fiery red hair. Sirius thought her name was Molly, but he was too preoccupied to have a conversation. She helped Peter as much as she could but has since left with the promise to bring food.
Peter seems like a likable enough bloke, if not a bit timid. He’s been quiet thus far, giving Sirius space to simply think.
If he’s being honest, the events of today weren’t surprising. They were actually a long time coming. While Sirius isn’t exactly upset to be away from his parents and his deranged relatives, he is mad at the means his family took to get here. If there’s one thing he knows for certain, it’s that they were all meant to die.
Sirius thinks about his friends, both the ones here with him and the ones they were forced to leave behind, their ‘collateral’. They were all meant to die, and yes technically it’s a miracle they're not, but he knows this won’t come without consequences.
Thinking about the last couple of months, with the arrival of Evan and Barty, and then Pandora, and lastly the addition of Dorcas, Sirius pieces together what brought them to this moment.
He remembers the late night meetings held with Evan and Barty, making plans to convince Regulus of their plan to escape.
He remembers conspiring with Dorcas to memorize routes and gather supplies when she sets out with the others.
He remembers the long conversations with Regulus that always ended in silence. Sirius tried tirelessly to convince him to leave and Regulus would adamantly claim that they were safe. Really Sirius knows he was just scared of what his parents would do if they found out. Sirius was too of course but he’s always been more rebellious.
All of these instances, all evidence of their betrayal (as their parents would describe it at least). At what point they were discovered, Sirius doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care. He thinks they definitely have more pressing matters at this moment. Namely the array of injuries Peter has now finished attending to.
When Sirius pulls out of his thoughts, he glances at Peter, who is taking notes and looking through different medications. When he stares, Peter looks back and Sirius catches his gaze. This appears to startle Peter though he quickly recovers and shrugs out of his bloodied jacket to make his way to Sirius.
Sirius asks, "What's the verdict Doc?" in an attempt to ease the tension. It does the trick, and Peter cracks a one-sided smile.
“First of all, I am not a doctor.” He corrects. "Fortunately no one is going to die." Peter says, though Sirius knows it's not as simple as that. “Unfortunately your friend Barty has been shot in the thigh. Luckily the bullet exited no problem and it doesn’t look like it hit the bone. Still he lost enough blood before he was brought here and with the injury to the muscle it’s likely for it to be about 6 months before he’s fully healed.”
“Six months?” This is the only thing that Sirius really heard and understood.
“He should be back to conscious health in a couple weeks at most and he should have slight function in his leg after one or two months but for full strength and mobility six or more months is a safe estimate.”
Sirius nods, thinking about how Barty will take the news. Though Sirius trusts Peter's judgment over his own, he knows Barty won’t. He chooses to shift the focus rather than express this thought. “What about my brother?"
Peter winces, not happy with the information he’s about to share, Sirius suspects.
“Well,” he starts “It’s clear he’s had a large amount of head trauma and while this isn’t exactly a severe issue, the fact that he's been unconscious for over three hours is concerning.” He pauses to let Sirius digest his words before he says, “I’ve done all I can so far by examining his current state and bandaging his external wounds and I’m afraid I can’t do much else until he wakes.”
Sirius feels numb as he just nods again, a signal for Peter to leave him to his thoughts once again. Peter smiles sympathetically and turns back to organizing the newly acquired supplies.
Sirius can’t help but wish he and Regulus could swap places. Regulus, the only one of the six that was against leaving and stayed loyal to his parents for years despite their actions. Sirius knows he’s not dead, or even on the brink of it, but seeing him unconscious like this makes him wish it were him instead. The irony of the most rebellious and defiant Sirius Black being the only one unharmed doesn’t escape him. He keeps watching his brother as if it will wake him up and make everything okay. He can only wait.