SHE'S ALL THAT ➭ SIRIUS BLACK ❨2❩ ✔︎

ACT FIVE, SCENE FORTY

FONTAINE MANOR

Sirius, Anna-Lee, and Regulus sat around the kitchen table at half past four in the morning, staring down into coffee cups while they waited for the others to arrive.

"Tell me what happened again." Anna-Lee demanded, voice hoarse with exhaustion but still sharp as a tack, accent heavier from tiredness. "From the beginning—what happened to Sage?"

Sirius didn't look up from his coffee cup. "I couldn't sleep, so I went to lay down in Harry's room. Sage was still asleep. When I woke up and went to go back to bed in our room, she was gone. The back door was open, there was blood on the grass, and she was gone." He took a deep, gasping breath. "I already told you everything, Yankee. Several times now. I dunno what else to tell you." He snapped.

Her eyebrows shot up, and she looked at him with fury in her eyes. "You don't get to call me Yankee. Sorry I'm concerned about your wife. I'm just trying to see if there's something that we're missing."

Regulus, also tired and frustrated and just angry, slammed his palms on the table, making the mugs rattle. "Can the both of you shut the bloody hell up? I get it, you're worried. I am too. But there is no reason to be lashing out at each other when we all love Sage and want her to be alright. So you both need to stop yelling at each other so we can get some actual thinking done." His voice shook with a mixture of resentment and fatigue; he was hurting just as much as the two other people at the table.

Before either Sirius or Anna-Lee could reply, Remus, Maia, and Rowan were climbing out of the fireplace, one after the other, until the small group of three had turned into a party of six.

"We got here as soon as we could." Rowan said, immediately tackling Anna-Lee in a hug. "So are we going to murder Bellatrix, or are we going to take down the entirity of the Death Eaters in one night? Either is fine with me."

Sirius sighed, finally looking up. "We've got no proof it was her. I know we all think it was, but what if we're missing something? Someone else who has a vendetta against Sage?" He proposed.

Regulus shook his head and stood up, too anxious to stay seated. "Everyone who has something against her is dead, in prison, or too terrified of her to do anything about it."

"So what do we do?" Maia asked quietly, and she poured herself a cup of coffee. "Do we storm the Lestrange's house and take her back? Do we wait for her to escape on her own? I've got no doubt that she could, but we have no idea where they're keeping her, if she's still alive, or what sort of condition she's in. We know absolutely nothing about anything."

Sirius's face pinched. "If any of you even question the fact that she's still alive and kicking again, I'll kill you. I don't care who you are. You'll be dead in under a minute if you even think that she might be dead." He said, low and practically growling.

Maia shrunk back, expression like a deer caught in headlights. She stayed silent.

Anna-Lee took point when it became clear the rest of them wouldn't step up. "Okay. We have two options—let her handle herself, or we break in and get her. I'm more in favor of option number two, because I know for a fact that Nana Fontaine would kill me herself if we didn't go get Sage."

Looking at the faces before him, Regulus asked, "Any objections?"

The six of them were silent for a moment until Sirius spoke up. "Not us. Me. I should've stopped it in the first place. It should be me to go in and get her. Godric knows she's saved me too many times—it's only right that it should be me. You lot can kill everyone at that house, but it's got to be me. I don't want to hear anything from any of you."

There was no argument or opposition.