The Attack
“Oi! Padfoot! Get up! They’re coming!” Remus was shaking Sirius so aggressively it felt like his arm might pop off.
“Eh?” Sirius groaned, lifting his head and feeling the unpleasant pull of dried spit on his lips. “Who’s coming?”
“I don’t know!” Remus’s voice was taut with distress. “But there’s a lot of them, and they’re angry. I can taste it.”
Sirius blinked, his sleep-fogged brain struggling to process. Taste it? Since when could Moony taste people’s feelings? But the look in Remus’s eyes was enough to jolt him fully awake.
Without another word, Sirius shifted into his Animagus form, his heightened senses taking in the approaching storm.
“Shit,” he muttered as he transformed back, his face mirroring Remus’s grim expression.
BANG!
The door burst open, sending shards of wood flying, and Sirius’s thoughts spiraled into chaos:
shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITFUCK
Then he saw him.
“Reggie?” Sirius squinted, bewildered. “Reggie. What the hell are you—”
A flash of bright red zipped past Remus, missing him by no more than a hair. Literally, two hairs.
Sirius’s stomach dropped. His confusion burned away, replaced by cold, unfiltered rage.
OH NO HE FUCKING DIDN’T.
“REGULUS BLACK!” He shouted, cringing at his uncanny impression of his mother, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?”
“Bit slow on the uptake, are we brother?” Regulus said coolly.
Bit slow on the–?
Too late.
Sirius heard the all-too-familiar insane laugh of his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange.
“WHAT THE FUCK.” was all he could say.
Mulcibur shot another curse, this time at the bed that James and Lily occupied. This time, the curse was lime green.
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK
“JAMES!” he screamed, voice hoarse.
“Padfoo-” he heard coming from the bed, before the groan that obviously meant that Lily was encountering a hangover.
“Of all the bloody times…” Remus muttered, then Regulus aimed yet another hex at Remus, who quickly deflected it.
“Lost some practice, have you?” Remus said, obviously trying to make Regulus angry.
Sirius glanced at the door again. His deranged cousin stood there, smiling with twisted glee.
“Still fighting for them, are we, Sirius?” Bellatrix cooed, her tone dripping with mockery.
“Still fighting for them, are we, Bella?” Sirius shot back, pitching his voice into a ludicrously high imitation of hers.
“MOTHERFUCK—!” she shrieked, firing a curse so fast Sirius barely ducked in time.
“BLOODY FUCK, JAMES, GET OUT HERE!” Sirius roared, his gaze darting to the still-drawn bed curtains.
“ON IT!” James yelled back, followed by the sound of hurried movement.