Game Changer ♠ Remus Lupin

Twelve: Caught in the Middle

Winter was in full swing. Although the snow was undoubtedly lovely in the villages and on the outskirts, it swiftly turned into slush and brown puddles in London, where it soaked my boots and left unsightly stains that took me an extra hour before dinner to remove. I didn't want to bring up the fact that I was still missing my wand, though, as Sirius didn't seem to care at all on a daily basis, so I accepted the doom of my shoes and went out every morning to bring him a paper.

With the Daily Prophet under my arm, I was walking down the stairs to the kitchen when a dish towel fell on me on the last step.

I caught the cloth before it fell to the ground. "I'mma beat you off with a stick one day." I rolled it up in my left hand before throwing it, missing.

"Want me to stand still?" he asked, laughing in my face. "Maybe then you'll hit."

"I'll wait until you're asleep," I threatened him before tossing the newspaper at him with my right, hard enough to knock him in the face if he hadn't grabbed it. Pity.

I went to the kitchen to make us breakfast while Sirius sat at the table, ripping on the rope tied around the newspaper.

"What's in it today?"

He stared at the first page silently, then cleared his throat and started reading aloud, "Mass breakout from Azkaban. Ministry fears Black is a rallying point for old Death Eaters."

"What now?!"

I turned when I heard the pages rustling to check it out for myself. Mugshots of ten Death Eaters, yelling and throwing themselves at the camera. I recognised two of the faces from the family tree painting. Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange.

I pulled back. "What other bullshit have they come up with?"

Sirius filtered the text, reading only the most important bits, sounding quite chaotic. "Ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening ... In the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped ... An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help ... Black ... Would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps ... Rallied around Black as their leader! Ha!"

"And all this without stepping a foot outside this place." I patted him on the shoulder before taking the seat opposite him. "Not bad, Black, I'm impressed."

He waved his hand dismissively and pursed his lips. "Save it. Ten Death Eaters! That's half of the Order."

"I know. We never thought it would be this much." I pushed his bowl over to him. I used too much force, and he was lucky he had good reflexes because otherwise his food would have fallen on the ground. "And it's only the beginning now that Dementors are moving to the bad side."

Sirius held the bowl in one hand and eyed its contents suspiciously. I had no idea what he wanted to find there, but he obviously didn't like what he was seeing. As I was eating my own mouthful, he stared up at me and pointed to his bowl.

"That's food for horses."

"Horses dream of being fed as good as I feed you."

"I can feed myself." He sat back in his chair, stretching his legs out, slamming them into mine. I kicked him in the foot.

"With what, pop tarts you keep hidden in the pantry?" His eyebrows rose, wrinkling his forehead, making him look both shocked and offended that I had discovered his little secret. "Yes, I know of them. Disguising them as rat poison wasn't enough."

He threw his hands up. "Why on earth would you look inside a rat poison box?"

"I caught Kreacher trying to put it away. The ugly bastard knows I hate him around the food," I said, my words coated in venom I've been using less and less lately. "Eat up. I'm trying to compensate for the years you spent in this shitshack." I nodded to the newspaper, which still had screaming faces of the prisoners on the front page.