SHE'S ALL THAT ➭ SIRIUS BLACK ❨2❩ ✔︎

ACT FIVE, SCENE TEN

HOGWARTS GROUNDS

Sage was pissed. She'd Apparated into a puddle, soaking her new Versace boots, and the icing on the cake was that the carriages to and from Hogsmeade had stopped running by that time of night. So she'd had to walk all the way from the village to Hogwarts.

She hadn't been back to Hogwarts in fifteen years, and seeing the castle loom in the distance made a strange, foreign emotion bloom in her chest. Something like longing, missing the times when she was able to run around the castle with her best friends, Lily and James, and years before that, her brother, without a worry or thought of war or Voldemort in general.

She shook herself out of thoughts of the past, years that she would never get back, no matter how hard she tried, and she turned towards the Shrieking Shack, where Sirius most likely would end up.

As she made her way across the grounds, Sage's heart stopped when she saw Harry and Hermione chasing after Ron, who was being dragged by a large black dog.

"Motherfucker." She grumbled, chasing after her godson and his friends and the idiotic man she loved.

She followed them to the Whomping Willow, watching as Harry and Hermione were, for lack of a better word, whomped, by the tree's branches.

"Aunt Sage!" Harry shouted, once he'd spotted the woman standing on the grounds, trying to find a way to get to the trunk of the tree. "Aunt Sage, help!" His voice went up an octave as he whipped by.

Minutes later, Sage had managed to wriggle her way under the tree's deadly branches and had ducked under every possible injury. She finally reached the trunk and pressed a steady hand to the knot of wood at its base, and she watched as the branches came to a dead halt, her godson and his best friend still dangling precariously from a high altitude.

"Stay still, you two." Sage yelled up to them, wand raised to help them down.

Harry, who normally would have run right to his godmother, stood indifferently by Hermione's side from the minute his feet hit the ground.

"What's your issue?" Sage asked him, looking at the boy with furrowed eyebrows.

He didn't meet her eyes, instead stomping towards the doorway in the trunk of the Whomping Willow.

"You hid everything from me. How my parents died, who got them killed, everything about Sirius Black." Harry grumbled. "You could have told me. I could've handled it. But you just kept your secrets instead."

Her expression softened, and she reached out for him, but he evaded her touch. "Don't. I'm not ready to talk about it." He said.

Well, she thought. At least I raised him with enough emotional intelligence to set boundaries.

She led the two children deeper into the pathway under the tree, following the marks in the dirt where the large black dog had dragged Ron away.

She wasn't sure what she would say when she saw Sirius again, after months of not hearing a single word from him. She wasn't even sure if she'd say anything. All she knew was that he deserved a crisp slap in the face for tormenting Hogwarts and their godson.

She pushed the creaky door that led to the main room of the Shrieking Shack open, stepping quietly over the threshold, and found Ron Weasley collapsed on a musty, threadbare bed, clutching at his leg.

"Ron!" Hermione Granger exclaimed. "You're alright!"

Ron nodded, grimmacing.

Sage grit her teeth. "Where's the dog?" She asked flatly, looking around the tiny room where she'd coached Remus Lupin through a full moon or two, years and years ago.