Time Astral | Sirius Black

13||The Snake

December 5th, 1995

Sirius woke up a little after midnight to Phineas Nigellus' shrieking.

Or more like bored drawling which was converted into yelling once Sirius' sorry arse won't wake up. He'd immediately gotten up, gotten in his day clothes again and had ran down just when a crack of a portkey came from his basement kitchen.

He hurried towards the group, unshaven and messy, having slept on the chaise while looking through the scrapbook again. He'd wanted to see her once more, he'd wanted to see her 'once more' for months now.

"What's going on?" He offered his hand to Ginny.

"Ask Harry." said Fred.

"It was – " He grimaced. "I had a – a kind of – vision – "

Then Harry begun retelling what he'd seen. The snake, the biting, Arthur. The Weasley kids were white as snow, and the three except Ron were giving him accusatory glances.

He felt anger rise in his veins, why was it Harry's fault? Had he not told them, Arthur might not even be alive!

"Is Mum here?" Fred turned to Sirius.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet." Sirius shrugged. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's getting Molly know now."

"We've got to go to St. Mungo's." Ginny announced. "Sirius, could you lend us cloaks or anything?"

Sirius gaped, shaking his head. "You can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!"

"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," said Fred mulishly, "he's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?"

"What does that matter?" asked George.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" said Sirius angrily. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

Ginny chimed in, "Somebody else could have told us. . . . We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry . . ."

"Like who?" said Sirius impatiently. "Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's —"

"We don't care about the dumb Order!" shouted Fred.

"It's our dad dying we're talking about!" yelled George.

"Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" said Sirius furiously in his turn. "This is how it is — this is why you're not in the Order — you don't understand — there are things worth dying for!"

"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" bellowed Fred. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

He really, really wished Alasia was here. He hated teenagers. But then, if Charlus or Dorea were hurt...would he have sat patiently? That was the only thing that kept Sirius calm at that moment.

"I know it's hard, but we've all got to act as though we don't know anything yet. We've got to stay put, at least until we hear from your mother, all right?"

The three glared but sat down and Sirius finally breathed. "That's right, come on, let's all . . . let's all have a drink while we're waiting. Accio Butterbeer!"