Busses are Officially My Least Favorite Mode of Transportation
Honestly, Sirius didn’t exactly understand why they couldn't just drive to LA, James was good enough not to get pulled over, and being dropped off at a bus station by his French teacher certainly wasn’t what he’d had in mind when they started their quest.
“Three tickets to Columbus Ohio please,” James grinned at the old man behind the counter who eyed the group warily. Nevertheless, he clicked a few keys on his laptop and three tickets were spit out from the printer next to him.
“That’ll be $16.54,” James nodded and pulled out a $20 bill from his fanny pack. “What’s got you kids headed that way?” The man asked as he fumbled with change in the register.
“We’re going to visit our grandfather,” Lily replied with a smile, and Sirius nodded along. Had they actually been going to see Sirius’ grandfather he would have jumped out of the bus… Pollux was a nightmare, he was always telling Sirius how if he was in charge of him then Sirius would have been in the hospital each time he got expelled, and he was always being a dick to Regulus.
“Well then have fun I suppose,” the older man shrugged and Sirius gave an awkward wave of appreciation before following his friends toward the bus stop.
“What station are we at?” Sirius bounced nervously on the balls of his feet as Lily pulled the tickets from her pocket.
“207,” she read, “we’ve got like half an hour until we leave if you want to get food?”
“Ooo,” James grinned and looked around at the stores in the terminal. “McDonald's?”
Sirius grinned, it was like James could read his mind, “Yes!”
Lily sighed and shrugged, “Yeah alright.”
The three got in line and started chatting about their journey, “so where exactly does one find the underworld?”
“Oh,” Lily dug into the pocket of her jean jacket and pulled out a slip of paper, “D…O.A records.” she took a moment to decipher the letters. “That’s what Minerva wrote down for us anyway.”
“Sick,” Sirius nodded, “so we’ve just got to make it to LA, seems easy.”
“Sirius!” James and Lily chorused.
“Don’t jinx it dude,” James scolded and Sirius put his hands up in surrender.
“You’re right, it’ll probably be the hardest most dangerous, and awful thing we’ve ever had to face.”
The pair groaned and Lily scrubbed her face with her hands, “We’ll be lucky to get to Columbus by morning, and then we find a bus to St. Louis.”
“Lily Evans, have I ever told you I love you?” James smirked.
“Many times yes,” she rolled her eyes in response and stepped up to the counter to order. “Hi there, can I get a McDouble, a side of fries, and a large hot chocolate please?”
The man at the counter grunted and worked to put the order into his screen, Lily moved aside and James ordered a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, fries, and an Oreo McFlurry, and then moved over for Sirius to order.
“Uh, I’ll get the 6-piece chicken nugget happy meal, please? With a sweet tea as well please,” he smiled awkwardly as the man continued in his silence and put in the rest of their order.
“Will that be all?”
The three nodded and Lily handed over the money, as their food was cooked the group stood in the corner of the restaurant looking around at the people walking by.
There weren’t a lot of people at the terminal that late at night, but a few people were wandering the halls. Sirius noticed a few men in nice suits on the phone and assumed they had to work late and were fighting with their wives about not being able to come home and put ‘Billy’ and ‘Emily’ to sleep.
Sirius liked to create stories about people when he was bored, he loved making them seem more important than they actually were, the middle-aged woman waiting across the hall from them with the orange backpack. She was a lawyer waiting for a bus to Michigan where she’d fight for the freedom of someone who was framed for murder; she had to dress in slobby clothes because people were trying to stop her from getting to Michigan and she couldn’t get caught. A man passed wearing an expensive-looking suit, he had on an earpiece and was mumbling something about deadlines as he played Tetris on his phone, he would beat the world record for playing Tetris one day and finally be able to quit his boring desk job; he’d fly to Australia and meet the woman of his dreams before settling down and having three kids: Juniper, Kody, and Eva.
“Uh, order for Lily?” The girl behind the counter called out, Lily stepped forward and took the large bag and drink holder from the girl.
“Thank you,” James and Sirius smiled and waved at the two employees before exiting the building and strolling down the halls trying to find their station.
☪
Hours later the bus was cruising down the highway, Lily and James were sleeping against one another and Sirius was leaning up against the window watching the world whizz by. He missed Regulus more than anything, and without his friends to distract him Sirius’ heart was sunken. He’d always promised himself he’d be there for his baby brother, no matter what Regulus would always be there, but now he wasn’t… Regulus was probably locked away in some dungeon in fucking hell, scared and alone and thinking his brother had abandoned him. Leaving Regulus had to be the thing Sirius was most scared of, they were a team, a pair, they weren't just brothers they were best friends.
When Sirius had first met James, Regulus had been scared. Not because James was mean or intimidating in any way but because he was scared Sirius had found a brother he liked more. He’d spent that entire night with Regulus in his room watching movies and eating junk food like they did when they were small. He promised him that no matter who came into his life they would never take Regulus’ place, and since then Regulus had been getting more comfortable with Sirius having close friends. But Regulus hadn’t gone out of his way to make his friends. He had Pandora - who he’d known since preschool - she was just about the sweetest kid Sirius had ever met, but Regulus was Regulus… he was awkward and shy, and yet Pandora never teased him for it, never once turned her back on him… Sirius had.
Now Sirius was racing across the country, he was terrified and nauseous every time he thought about it. He had all these new people in his life who were counting on him, Marlene, and Dorcas; Narcissa, Andromeda, and Bellatrix; Remus… They all needed him to prevent the war, and to keep the peace between Poseidon and Zeus, they needed him to return the bolt that was stolen, and Sirius had no idea how he was going to do it.
The worst part about it was that Sirius didn’t even really give a fuck about the war or the bolt, he just wanted his baby brother to come home.
The world outside the window started to slow down and Sirius noticed they were getting off the highway. Quite frankly he was kinda ticked off that they had to stop and pick up more people, it was four in the morning by now and Sirius really just wanted to get to Ohio (a thought he never expected to have).
As they got off the highway and came to a stop at a scabby bus stop right off the highway the light sparked to life and Sirius was blinded for a moment, next thing he knew three ladies were boarding the bus and Sirius’ heart stopped in its tracks.
They were the spitting image of
“Shit,” Sirius grumbled, looking over at how peaceful Lily and James looked beside him. Maybe if the furies didn’t see him?
Sirius ducked, crawling under the seats in front of him just as the three old ladies would have passed his row. He took a breath, relieved that they seemed to be moving past his friends, still in search of Sirius on board. The lights went back down as the bus started to move once again, Sirius sat on the floor of the bus, leaning up against the wall to stay hidden from the fates, but like most things in his life, the plan didn’t go well.
One of the women sniffled, Sirius watched their feet cautiously under the seat, hoping they’d just move on and sit in the back. But of course, they didn’t. Something must’ve tipped the old bats off because they turned back to Lily and James, sniffing the air around them… Sirius took an annoyed breath and fished his pen-sword out of his pocket just in case.
Sirius was pretty sure he pissed off the luck god at some point because just as he thought maybe the ladies were moving on once again a screech echoed through the carriage.
James and Lily shot up and James’ eyes went wide.
“Shit! Lils,” he panicked, fumbling with his bag for an arrow as Lily whipped out a dagger from inside her denim jacket. “Where’s Sirius?”
“I’m a little busy here James!” Lily groaned.
“Right yeah,” James pulled out an arrow and the two began fighting the two old ladies back to back, taking jabs at them and trying their best to stay away from their claws and fangs.
Sirius gripped riptide and slid out into the isle of the bus, before rushing up to the front and tapping the driver - who was immersed in whatever sub-par music was playing through his headphones.
Sirius tapped the man urgently, and he pulled his earbuds out before acknowledging Sirius.
“What?” he demanded impatiently.
“I need you to pull the bus over,” Sirius glanced back at James and Lily sparing with the furies, one of them caught sight of Sirius and made a move at him, luckily (for once) James caught the fury in its side and the creature shrieked and began to dissolve into dust. It made it a few more feet toward Sirius and the others on the bus simply looked up unconcerned and went back to their phones or trashy magazines.
“Why would I do that?” The bus driver asked, taking his eyes away from the road entirely - which gave Sirius yet another reason to become nervous.
“That-” Sirius almost shouted, gesturing toward his friends who were struggling with the monsters just a few feet behind them.
“Look kid I don’t know why you’ve got an issue but just sit down and ignore it, I’m not going to stop,” the man shook his head and grumbled as he shoved his earbuds back into his ears.
“Ah fuck!” Sirius shot his head around and saw James had been knocked over and Lily was at odds end with the other fury. SIirus’ heart rose in his throat and looked between his friends and the steering wheel of the bus, it was insane - but then again most of what had been happening lately was insane.
Sirius didn’t think again when he saw the fury going in at James, attempting to claw his face off. He jumped at the wheel of the bus and yanked it toward the right, causing the vehicle to swerve and skid into the ditch of the side of the highway.
People screamed and Sirius himself was launched into the doors of the bus - which was now on its side - he could see the furies start to get up and collect themselves, starting to look for James and Lily once again. Sirius gripped his pen and uncapped it confidently, unaware of just how long it was he also cut the seat in front of him open which caused worn-out stuffing to tumble out…
“Lils! Get everyone out of here, I’ll take care of our furry little problem,” he smirked at his own pun and attempted to twirl his sword around in his hand (which was not exactly successful, in fact almost dropped it).
“Got it! James cover for me,” Lily nodded, wiping the blood from her forehead and helping people from their seats toward the emergency exit on the ceiling of the bus.
“Looking for me?” Sirius taunted, gaining his footing and facing the monsters.
The two remaining figures turned to him and growled, “Siriussss Blackkkkk,” one of them hissed. “We meet again…”
“Hello Ms. Carrow,” Sirius rolled his eyes, recognizing the high-pitched angry voice anywhere. “Miss me?”
The creature shrieked in laughter and she stepped forward, “You’re dead.” Then she lunged, her counterpart at her heels and Sirius - unknowing how exactly to deal with close contact combat - yelled and swung his sword out wildly. The first two swings were easily missed by the monsters, and Sirius led them further back on the bus to allow his friends more space to help people free themselves. Sirius seemed to have found his footing by the time he swung his sword the third time, he made contact with Ms. Carrow's arm and she growled and snapped at him.
The other took a lunge at Sirius and he managed to get her in the chest with his blade, it was covered with a strange black ooze as she screamed and burst into a golden dust.
“Just you and me Carrow,” Sirius smirked, “ready to die again?”
Just as she made a move a foul-smelling liquid came falling down on the pair, they both took a step back in shock and Sirius looked up to see Lily reaching into the bus to help him out.
“Let's go! James is about to blow her back to the underworld!” She called to him frantically, he grabbed her arm and hauled himself out of the metal coffin. Ms. Carrow began to crawl out after him when James ran forward with a lighter, screaming, of course, he threw the flame onto Ms. Carrow (Who Sirius now knew was covered in gasoline) and she burst into flames and screamed.
“Okay now run,” Lily grabbed both boys by the arm and began sprinting away from the burning bus, away from the crowd of people who were gathered on the side of the road. The trio threw themselves into the woods just as an explosion rang through the air and Sirius watched their bus go up in smoke.
“Uh guys,” Sirius panted out of breath from running, “We just exploded a bus.” Lily nodded, leaning over and taking a few deep breaths. “That was being attacked by demon triplet math teachers,” James grinned, leaning against a tree and clutching his bow. “What is happening?!”