I Need To Go Home
Sirius smirked.
“Uncle Alphard was a badass.”
Orion sighed heavily.
“Do you think you could watch your language a bit more?”
Sirius shook his head and turned to the others.
“Questions?”
Minerva nodded.
“I don’t want to sound heartless, but I was expecting a bit more violence. From your grandfather.”
For a moment, everyone just stared at her. Then Sirius burst out laughing.
“I knew there was a reason why you were my favorite teacher. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. To be honest, I expected more violence too. And I think that there would have been more if not for uncle Alphard. As I said, he was very powerful.”
Harry frowned.
“You keep saying was.”
A sad expression appeared on Sirius’ face. Remus put a hand on his elbow and squeezed slightly.
“He’s dead.”
“How did he die?”
Sirius turned to Ron.
“Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I don’t know which ones. There was a big raid. He might’ve been powerful, but he was old and was getting sick. He didn’t react as fast as he would have when he was younger. As was said, my grandmother’s death took a part of him away. He was devastated. Marlene made him a bit happier but, with time, he started losing his will to live.”
Remus jerked away from him, almost as if he suddenly got burned.
“Marlene was staying with Alphard?!”
Sirius frowned, before he suddenly seemed to realize what was wrong. He got a guilty look on his face and lowered his head a bit.
“Um. She never left, you know. With her parents. That was the official version to keep her safe. She moved in with uncle Alphard. He kept her safe.”
Hermione leaned forwards a bit.
“Sirius. Who is Marlene?”
Harry and Ron nodded. They were wondering too. Arthur and Molly, who knew a little bit, were looking at Sirius with curiosity. He took a deep breath, before he answered in a quiet voice.
“Marlene and me were together. We… We actually got engaged, but decided to break it off. For everyone’s best. We decided that we were going to wait. Until things calmed down. Until the war was won. Now I’m starting to regret waiting.”
Remus shook his head.
“So she didn’t die with her parents?”
Sirius closed his eyes.
“No. The attack was the same day, but she wasn’t there. When they figured out that she wasn’t living there, they attacked uncle’s house.”
Molly frowned.
“Who knew? About where Marlene really stayed.”
It seemed that Sirius was thinking about it really hard, before he answered:
“James and Lily. Me.”
He paused for a moment. When he spoke up again, his voice was hesitant.
“Bella.”
All the adult’s eyes widened.
“Bellatrix?! You told Bellatrix?!”
Sirius’ shoulders lowered and he seemed to shrink back into himself at Molly’s sharp voice. But then he glanced back to Orion and straightened up again.
“Remember that Bella wasn’t always the way she is now. She’s been through things that you will never understand. So, yeah. I told her. And I know that she isn’t the one who told them.”
He frowned.
“I know it. She wouldn’t do that.”
There was a finality in his voice that told the others that there was no idea in trying to argue with him anymore. Snape seemed thoughtful, before he suddenly asked:
“Why were they after her? From what I remember, McKinnon never actively went against the Dark Lord.”
Sirius let his head fall forwards and his eyes closed.
“No. I… I slipped up. It was all my fault.”
Remus moved a bit closer to him, sudden understanding appearing in his eyes.
“Is that why you…?”
The animagi nodded.
“Yeah. I just wanted to keep her safe. You all knew the risks. You were in the Order. But she wanted to be outside all this. I… I wanted her to be safe.”
Remus’ eyes were sad.
“There is more to this, isn’t it?”
Sirius nodded again.
“Yeah. You’ll see it. I don’t want to talk about it. I can’t.”
He waved his hand in the general direction of the wall and another memory appeared, forcing them to watch.
Sirius was on the couch in the Potter Mansion when James came running in, Charles following him at a slower pace. The young Potter frowned when he noticed the book Sirius was balancing on his legs.
“Come on, Siri. It’s summer vacation. Stop reading.”
Charles rolled his eyes.
“Personally I think it’s good that Sirius is readying himself for school. You could try to take example from him.”
James looked horrified. Charles smiled at that and walked closer to the couch. But his smile turned into a deep frown when he noticed the title on the book.
“Sirius. Why are you reading Extremely Difficult Transfiguration? That’s a book you read if you want extra credits in seventh year.”
Sirius shrugged.
“I know. But I’ve already read all the schoolbooks. So I thought that I could as well go into the more advanced magic now.”
James snorted.
“More advanced? Dude, you could do wandless, wordless magic before you even came to Hogwarts. What could be more advanced than that?”
The Black seemed to think about it for a moment, before he shrugged.
“I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s somewhere there.”
With a determined move, Charles pulled the book out of Sirius’ hands. The boy turned to him with eyes wide open, a slight look of fear in them. Seeing that, Charles froze. Just then, Dorea walked inside. She took in the situation in seconds and smiled softly.
“Boys, why don’t you go outside? You can take the brooms out to the back. Play some quidditch. It’s a beautiful day. You can sit down with your homework tonight. I’ll help you with it and explain if there is something you don’t understand.”
Sirius nodded quickly and positively fled the room. James exchanged a glance with his mother, before he ran after him. He caught up to him in the garden outside and pulled him into a sideways hug.
“You alright, mate?”
Sirius nodded, but then shook his head.
“No, I… For a moment I thought your dad might…”
James frowned.
“Might what? Wait. No. You thought that dad might… hit you?”
Sirius closed his eyes and nodded.
“I just… This is so messed up.”
James sighed.
“Sirius. Dad would never hurt you. He’s not that kind of man. I swear. He’ll never hurt you.”
Sirius opened his eyes.
“How can you know?”
The other boy smiled.
“I know. Trust me.”
And then, wanting to drag Sirius’ attention from that, he asked:
“So, what were you reading about?”
Sirius frowned.
“I’m not sure. I was reading up on voluntary and involuntary transformation. There is something called animagi. Humans that can turn into animals. But they don’t exactly write much about it. Just that it’s extremely advanced and that it takes much time. And that you have to register with the ministry. And that…”
He cut himself off in the middle of the sentence and it was clear that he had gotten an idea.
“James. I need to go home.”
James, who had looked a bit bored when Sirius was talking about the animagi, suddenly got a shocked expression.
“What? You want to go home?”
Sirius nodded.
“Yeah. Right now. Can you tell your parents? And floo my things. I’ll write to you.”
And he rushed inside again. He ran over to the fireplace in the hall and threw the floo powder into it.
“Grimmauld Place nr 12.”
And he jumped into the green flames just as James was coming into the hall. The boy stared at the flames for a few seconds before he took off towards the living room.
“Mom! Dad!”