fatal love

Chapter 7

It was a week later that Sirius first read about an attack in the Prophet. It was near the back of the paper, just before the sports section, and very short.

Yesterday, five muggles, three of which were children, died in a house fire on a council estate in Birmingham. Although Muggle papers blamed faulty wiring, Aurors were spotted at the scene. When asked what they were doing there, a representative for The Department of Magical Law Enforcement responded "no comment". With anti-muggle sentiment growing stronger in Wizarding society, this is the third mysterious attack on muggles since November 1970. With no public response from the Ministry of Magic, we will let our readers decide if these are isolated incidents, or co-ordinated attacks.

Sirius looked around the Great Hall. Dumbledore was missing from the Professors' table, and the Professors all looked uneasy. However, most of the students seemed unaware anything was amiss. He looked to the Slytherin table, and saw Malfoy, with the Prophet open in front of him. He was laughing.

"What's up with you?" James asked. "You look like you wanna kill someone."

Sirius handed James the paper. "Read that," he said.

James scanned the article quickly. "That's awful," he said. "I wouldn't worry though. Probably just some lone nutter they'll catch within a week."

"It's not," Sirius growled. "It's way bigger than that."

Remus and Peter were now listening earnestly.

"What do you mean?" asked James. "It says there's been, what, three incidents in about a year and half. The Prophet's probably just being dramatic to sell more copies."

"You're wrong," Sirius whispered angrily. "Look, Andy was telling me over Christmas there's this guy, a blood supremacist, who's been gathering the support of the old pureblood families. He started in 1970, and now he's got some real power!"

"That can't be true," argued James. "We'd have heard about someone like that."

"The Ministry's covering it up - they know he's dangerous. Andy said a war was coming."

"Are you sure?" asked Pete nervously.

"Of course I'm bloody sure!" exclaimed Sirius. "I grew up around these families, I'm a member of one. And I know how quickly they'd sign up to anyone like this if they thought they'd win!"

James looked at Sirius pityingly. Merlin, Sirius hated reminding James who his family was. "Well, they're wrong," he said. "If what you're saying is true, that there is someone behind this, then we'll win."

"I hope you're right, Potter," Sirius said gloomily.

Sirius felt angry the rest of the day. Everyone was acting like everything was fine, and nothing had happened. In fact, most people didn't even realise anything had happened. He felt like he was the only one watching what was happening, while people around him complained about boyfriends and girlfriends and overdue essays. He couldn't sit still in any of his lessons. Someone should be doing something - he should be doing something. But he was stuck in Hogwarts, learning things he already knew. His temper finally boiled over when he saw Narcissa. He'd gone to the Owlery, to send a letter to Andromeda, to find Narcissa there.

"Hello Sirius," she said politely.

"Are you still dating Malfoy?" he asked bluntly.

Narcissa looked confused. "I am," she replied, "why?"

"I saw him today," he said. "Laughing at those dead muggles."

"How do you know that's what he was laughing at?" Narcissa asked sharply.