COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

61. Cokeworth and Ipswich

Wednesday, 25th June 1975

Chachu Rashid had departed a few days ago with his usual affections for herself and Adam. But Madiha couldn't help noticing a stale distance on his side towards her father, who remained genial as usual.

The boys were all gathered at Potter Manor today, since James' one-week punishment was over. Once again, Mrs Black was all too happy to have Sirius out of her sights; she seemed to have taken out the bulk of her disappointment in a series of shouting sessions that Sirius detailed to her, proud of himself for shouting right back.

Madiha, however, was stuck at home still having to serve the rest of her isolation. Adam had chosen this same day to go to Alice's house to see Florean, but despite his attempts to rub it in her face, she was secretly pleased to have him out the way.

Lily of the Valley was humming on the record player, a song Madiha was determined to sing with Lily at some point. She could already imagine how they would sound together, Lily's mellower tones grounding her higher ones — the namesake was just an added bonus.

On the other side of her two-way mirror, the boys were piled into James' room, her silencing charm stopping their chatter from attracting her parents' attention, or Lila's.

"When you think about it... it's not that bad that we couldn't meet up last week," James was saying, "cause Moony was transfor—"

"Keep it down!" Remus' voice hushed in the background.

"— and he would've been too tired then, but now," said James in a loud whisper, "our Moony looks shining, bright and flowery —"

"He actually does look flowery, Dia, remember the daisy Alice put in his hair?"

Without warning, the frame in the mirror shifted from her too-close view of James' chin to Sirius, who was shaking hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I do," grinned Madiha.

Sirius looked beyond the mirror with a smirk, "Well, she put a sticking charm on it."

"Alice would never!"

"It was either her or Marlene," Peter's voice rung out from somewhere in the room, "probably Marlene."

A chair scraped on the other side, "I'm really considering un-forgiving McKinnon..."

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Madiha smiled bracingly, not wanting a continuation of the feud from the train again.

At once, the mirror was turned so she had a clear view of Remus and his tufts of bronze hair, having tugged his seat closer to the side of James' bed.

"I couldn't even use magic to take it off!" he complained to her, gesturing irritably to the still-fresh daisy in his hair. "And my dad's been away for work —"

"Searching for inferi," James cut in with a darker tone, "in Ireland."

Word had spread that Voldemort was using necromancy to build an army of risen dead — Madiha had heard a brief mention of it on the wireless last week before her mother flicked it off when Adam wandered into the kitchen. The Daily Prophet speculated that it explained why a lot of the homeless muggles were disappearing off the streets rather than their bodies being left in the open as before.

Sirius' sombre expression quickly turned to amusement, "Don't piss yourself, Peter, they're not coming after you."

She heard the faint crack of knuckles, but Peter made no response.

"We'll keep you safe, Pete," chuckled James.

"The ministry's working on it apparently," Madiha tried to reassure him, though she wasn't very sure herself, "dad was saying they've sent teams out looking for dark creatures the Death Eaters might've won over."