SHE'S ALL THAT ➭ SIRIUS BLACK ❨2❩ ✔︎

ACT FIVE, SCENE FORTY ONE

THE DUNGEON

A hot, fiery shard of pain was stabbing Sage Fontaine-Black right between the eyes, over her heart, and every other place on her body that had nerves.

Every inch of her body burned to the point that she couldn't even open her eyes.

She knew the effects of the Cruciatus Curse well. It hadn't been her favorite to use, back in the day—she'd much prefered the wordless spell that made the body rot from the inside out—but she'd used it enough to know the effects it had had on her victims. She'd just never had it used on her.

So she sat with her eyes closed, head tilted down and chin resting on her chest, and she listened to the sounds of the room and beyond it.

Footsteps, coughing, breathing. Sounds she'd hear in any place, any room. But the people in this house, this building, weren't normal people. They were people who either wanted her dead or didn't care if she lived.

Every sound, however silent, sent another sharp, stabbing pain to every limb.

And then there was shouting that nearly tore her in two, crashing and cursing that threatened to fracture her right down the middle.

That was the final straw, and with a scream, she felt something leave her, some wave of power that took all of her pain and fear, everything she'd tried so hard to hold in for the past hours she'd been chained to the chair, with it.

The explosion that followed was deafening, and her ears were ringing as she felt the chains loosen to the point that she could slip out from their confinement.

Her first instinct when she felt hands on her bare arms was to jerk away from the contact. She would have screamed, but her throat was raw and she didn't have the energy to even open her mouth.

"You wanna tell me how you managed to obliterate a cinderblock wall without a wand?"

Sage's heart lurched at the familiar, well-loved voice. She leaned into the touch. "Sirius?" She croaked, voice breaking.

She heard him laugh, felt his callused fingertips brush over her cheeks. "Yeah, baby. It's me. Open your eyes for me, will you? C'mon, let me see those eyes."

He was being gentle with her, she realized with what felt like a punch to the gut. He wasn't treating her like the hardened murderer who she had turned into after the war; he was treating her like the woman who had been tortured for hours on end and needed compassion for once.

She opened her eyes and found her husband smiling at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. He looked more worried than she was comfortable with, and she had to wonder what she looked like for him to look so distressed.

"Can you walk?" He asked shortly, focused on her instead of turning around to catch a glimpse of the action behind him.

She gnawed on her lip. "Did you come by yourself? Sirius, if you came by yourself, there's no bloody way we'll make it out alive. We won't make it out." She said, voice rising an octave.

Instead of an answer, he stayed silent for a moment, still looking at her but listening intently for voices.

And one rose above the clamor and chaos outside the small dungeon cell, one with an American accent, lilting through a southern cadence: "C'mon, Black, we have exactly thirty seconds to get out of here before the whole place blows!"

Sage's eyebrows shot up, sending a dull pain into her skull. "You roped Yankee into this? And what does she mean, the whole place is going to blow?" Then she paused, the answer dawning on her. "Rowan. She's armed every room of this blasted house, hasn't she?"

Sirius grinned, wrapping one careful arm around her back and the other under her knees. "She's kind of wicked when it comes to pyrotechnics. And fist-fighting." He said, apologizing quietly when she hissed in pain at the feeling of being lifted off of her feet.

She closed her eyes.

"Oh, Merlin, is she alright?" Maia's voice, weary but strong, said, and Sage felt a soft hand on her shoulder.

Sage flinched, and she heard Maia sigh. "Come on, we really have to leave now. Everyone's waiting for us outside."

Sage passed out sometime between leaving the tiny cell and arriving back at Fontaine Manor, but the sound of an explosion rattled her bones, even in her state of unconscious.

i forgot to post until now sorry besties