Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

18 June, 1996 - Messenger

"How did that even happen though?" Lavinia asked for the umpteenth time.

Sirius just shrugged, as he had every other time she'd asked it. "Don't look at me. The lazy beast rarely even stands up when I feed him."

Lavinia frowned, shaking her head as they exited the attic, leaving a sleeping and lightly bandaged Buckbeak behind them. "He really belongs somewhere with more space you know," she pointed out lightly. Which wasn't the point, really, but it was true. "You'd have thought we'd have heard when it happened," she mused after a moment, unable to depart from the topic at hand as she waited as Sirius closed the door behind him

Again, Sirius merely shrugged, shaking his head. "Maybe we were sleeping," he offered, though he didn't sound particularly convinced. Lavinia wasn't either. Any sort of commotion that would have caused Buckbeak to break bones would surely have woken them up. She might have bothered to say as much, too, but she could tell from his expression that Sirius already knew that plenty well.

So Lavinia merely sighed. "It doesn't make sense, that's for sure," she muttered, her voice almost a whisper as they passed by the portrait of Walburga Black.

"Could someone else have done it to him?" Sirius suggested, sounding both worried and rather as though he was grasping at straws. Because he was and they both knew it. First of all, no one who could possibly have entered this house would ever injure Buckbeak. And second, even if someone with ill intentions did somehow manage to get in - a wildly unlikely and rather terrifying prospect in and of itself - why bother hurting a hippogriff of all things? If they'd managed to enter the house, surely their target would have been either Sirius or Lavinia? They had only left the house empty a few times and even then, why would an intruder announce that someone could get in if they didn't do any real damage along the way?

Lavinia huffed, frustrated by the lack of explanation as she stepped into the kitchen. Which was boiling hot. Lavinia felt her brows raise at the sudden heat. It didn't take long to find the source of it, of course, but rather than letting her brows drop, Lavinia merely knitted them together.

"Did you set the fire when we went upstairs?" she asked curiously. "I thought we'd agreed not to since the boiler already makes this place sweltering."

Sirius frowned for a moment, glancing her way with a rather odd look on his face. "I didn't set it," he told her with a slight shake of his head. "I thought you did."

Lavinia shook her head slowly, something suspicious and uncomfortable tugging at the edge of her mind. She stared at the fire for another long moment before brushing it off. She needed to stop letting such silly little things get to her. Merlin knew she spent too much time worrying these days and she didn't need to start fussing just because the fire was lit.

Shaking herself slightly, Lavinia pulled out her wand and vanished the flames from the hearth before heading to poke her nose in the pantry in search of ideas for dinner. She hummed vaguely to herself, finding nothing much appetizing.

"Damn," she muttered, pulling her head out. "I really should have gone to the store today."

Sirius, who had apparently come to stand behind her, made a noncommittal noise, apparently as unenthused by their options as she was. "Well, we could always -"

But what they could do, Lavinia never did find out. A flash of light washed past them and Lavinia and Sirius whirled as one, wands drawn and pointing into the kitchen. Lavinia felt her heart in her throat, her breath too fast and panicky and it took her a long moment to realize that the light was not a threat but a patronus.

Sirius, who had already lowered his wand, slid a comforting arm around her, apparently plenty aware of the all too terrified and utterly illogical thoughts running through her head.