Snake Charmer | Sirius Black

Chapter 3

Her sisters keeper

Sirius never slept, he lay awake thinking about that damn night when they danced to that damn song and she wore that goddamn dress.

And then she looked at him and when their eyes met he froze. For a moment his mouth moved and she thought he might say something, as much as Fox denied it to herself she longed for him to say something, literally anything. But all it turned out to be was a scowl and in one swift movement he rolled his body over and shoved remus's socked feet off his pillow.

Disappointment filled Fox's body, and her diseased mind began to wander, wander to places she never wanted it to wander to again, back to that night when she had arrived at the Potter Manor.

She didn't know what time it was not that she cared. All she knew was it was now or never, if they stayed they'd be killed. Father knew everything and father was not a man you crossed twice, even worse was the dark lord knew it to.

Fox gripped the hand of her older sister and pulled her along. Xena Finnagin had always thought of herself as her sisters keeper but when it actually came down to it Xena couldn't even keep herself.
Xena didn't have the gall to do what had to be done.

But Fox did.

They ran as fast as though could knowing damn well the lords men were on their tails. The port key was just up ahead, an old fallen down tire swing Xena had charmed and was praying it worked. If not they were fucked.

Fox had never apparated further than a couple hundred meters and Xena could never get the hang of apparating with anyone more than just herself.

They were meters from were the port key was meant to be when the curse hit Xena and Xena hit the floor, pain numbed everyone of her senses and exploded in her body. The scream was enough to bring a grown man to his knees but it set Fox alive, she threw hex after hex at the men closing in on her and her sister and screamed at the writhing girl to wake up.

Damn in Xena just wake up!

Another hex flew past Fox's head knocking her of balance. She dropped to a crouch and grabbed Xena hand as the men were rapidly closing around them. Fox was so panicked she almost didn't notice how cold Her sisters pale hand was. Or how the blonde had fallen completely silently still. Almost being the key word. Her mind just wouldn't let her believe it yet.

Fox used all the strength her exhausted body could muster. Dragging her very dead sister closer to the port key and grabbed a hold of the old tyre. Feeling a heavy yank on her arms which were wrapped around Xena the body was ripped away from her just as the world turned to soup.

Fox had used a port key before so the feeling of her body turning inside out was not an unfamiliar feeling even if it had been she wouldn't have noticed. She didn't feel the wet grass of the potters front yard seeping through the knees of her jeans. She barely felt the tip of  Kingsley Shacklebolts wand pressed against her temple then her ribs as she was pulled to her feet and escorted inside the the manor. As the adrenaline wore off the blonde was slammed with a tsunami sized wave of emotion so large she couldn't make sense of a single thing, the only thing the blond could focus on was the pain of her hoarse throat that ached from screaming, screaming for her dead sister, screaming for her mother who had surely been killed by now too and screaming at the man who had killed them.

But as quickly as the emotion had hit her it went quiet and as she sat opposite Dumbledore with Fleamont Pottor at her side Fox Finnagin didn't feel a fucking thing.

"Xena is dead"

"I'm aware Fox"

"The dark Lord Is going to kill me he won't stop Albus, I took something from him and he wants it back I can feel it"

Little did Dumbledore know Fox meant that quite literally. It was the only thing she could feel. She was cursed, linked with dark magic to a piece of parchment which sat on her fathers desk and as he scribbled furiously on it damning her to hell and every venomous word carved its place onto her skin.

TRAITOR

It was a scar carved with such dark hatred that it could not be removed.

After telling Albus Dumbledore everything she had learnt in the last 2 months of summer, Fox stepped out of the study and into a dark hallway. she'd not visited the Pottor manor since she was a kid the last time her father had allowed Fox's mum to contact her older sister, Euphemia. Blood soaked the white shirt she wore under her thick cape and it stuck her back as she pulled it off  sure that's she was alone.

"Oh darling"

Fox whipped her body around making eye contact with Eumphemia Pottor. The wrinkled women ushered Fox into a large sitting room with a blazing fire shooing away her husband, Kingsley and a few mean fox didn't recognise but assumed to be from the order. Her aunt sat her down and pulled out a medical kit.

"Magic doesn't work to clean these wounds and only time will heal them my darling, he did the same thing to your mother"

Fox couldn't even bring herself to wince as she pulled her shirt over her head, the fabric pulling out of the sticky wounds the metallicy smell of fresh blood hung thick in the air.

She sat on a foot stool covering her bare chest with her arms, and trying to keep the vomit that threatened to spill out at bay.

What the fuck have I done? It was the only thought in her head. Spying on her own family? Betraying her own blood?

What the fuck have I done?

•••

The girl awoke with a start, flying up from the bed clutching her chest. Eyes darting wildly around the dorm, but it was empty.

"Cousin"

Tangled blonde hair whipped her face as her head snapped towards the bathroom. There stood James in full school uniform, messy hair, and crooked glasses holding a toothbrush in his mouth.

"You gave us quit a fright last night young lady, unacceptable behaviour honestly" he scolded her like a child.

"Lily had the elves retrieve you a set of uniform" he pointed to the base of remus's bed. Fox's eyes followed his finger to were a neatly folded uniform sat.

"Everyone else is at breakfast, class starts in 20, best get moving" with that he threw his toothbrush over his shoulder, wiped his toothpastey spit onto the back of his hand and skipped out the door. Fox's mouth sat agape as she leant forward and looked round the door to the bathroom, making eye contact with James's toothbrush laying uselessly on the ground.