Limitless

Obsidian

We came down hard on the ground outside the threshold to Headquarters. Moody was visibly exhausted with the effort of trying to keep Sirius alive.

I pushed him out the way as quickly as I could so that I could lay Sirius down on the ground. Even though this area was quite secluded, there was still a chance we could be seen so I had to work quickly.

I wasn't sure what to do but the small voice inside me, the one that was so often drowned out by louder rationale or seething fury, said I could do it, and I believed her.

I held my wand tightly thinking that perhaps the same spell I had used on Fabian would work. I had never tried it on an injury so large but it was worth a try.

"Vulnera Sanentur." I muttered, tracing the open wound. I tried not to look at Sirius's ashen skin. It was a miracle that he had lasted this long, I didn't know how long he had left but I needed to focus. I moved the wand, speaking the incantation. I felt power prickle beneath my skin, something I only experienced in the places Sasha had left them. I focused on it, pushing it out of myself and into the spell. My wand reverberated in my hand but I pressed on.

Sirius's skin began to knit itself together and this time it appeared to be holding. My concentration was so absolute that everything in the background disappeared, I heard nothing, saw only the thing my mind had chosen to focus on. Eventually the staccato rhythm of Sirius's breathing stopped and his chest began to rise and fall as it once had. I looked over my work. There was a red scar where the tear had been which looked tremendously painful but there wasn't much more I could do. His clothes were turning dark with his blood already he had been bleeding so long. I looked at his face after inspecting the rest of him. His eyelids flicked open and closed, he was losing consciousness. His lips were blue, the black of his hair a shock against the white of his skin. He has lost too much blood.

"Help me Alastor." I said looking up to find him. He was already standing and beside him stood Dumbledore. I hadn't noticed him arrive. He was looking at me the same way he always appeared to these days, as though he was studying me. I had had just about enough of this.

Moody came over and together we lifted Sirius and began to carry him over the threshold.

On the other side the entire lawn had become a triage for the injured. There were yells and calls but otherwise they seemed to be very much in control of the situation. Remus and James both rushed over to us with much the same pallor as Sirius.

"What took you so long?" James enquired pointedly before he and Remus took Sirius from Moody and I. Marlene took one look at Sirius and her face became the picture of loath.

"This is your fault!" she screamed as she approached me, her first balled around her wand.

"I wouldn't." I said meeting her rage with the coldness. I was still bloated on power, I felt invincible and unreservedly in control.

"He pushed you out the way and you left him to bleed out on the pavement like he's nothing more to you than..."

"I had to neutralize the threat Marlene." I said cutting her off, my voice even and firm.

"No! I saw you! You didn't even check to see if he was alive."

"Of course I did." I said, the insinuation striking a nerve. I knew ordinarily I would have been down on my knees beside him and we probably would have both been killed. "But I made a choice to..." Before I could finish the sentence she had raised her fist and hit me in the nose. My eyes prickled immediately and I felt blood in my throat.

The cold voice inside me was shrieking at the affront and something very strange began to happen. The power I had felt from earlier pushed out from my chest and rippled across my skin. I was aware that my body was experiencing a considerable amount of pain but I was once again removed from it. My sight disappeared for a second or two but came back more quickly than it ever had. I was in control, composed and aware of my surrounding and the threat in front of me.