UnExpected

Chapter 11

"Have you gone completely mad?!"

"What? I just –"

"Do you know how dangerous it was pulling a stunt like that?!"

"I know, but –"

"After you've been told time and time again!"

"Joyce, I –"

"Do you ever THINK, Sirius?!"

She arrived before they had, and was waiting expectantly in the entryway, foot tapping and arms crossed. The moment he had stepped foot into the house she demanded he change back from pour paws to two legs and ripped right into him.

"Yeah, I do think!" he shot out, not taking the attack lying down. "I think about how everyone can just come and go as they please while I'm stuck inside this wretched house! But I don't expect you to understand that!"

"This isn't about understanding. This is about you being reckless! This isn't like when you were younger and started to rebel against everything! Lives are at stake here!"

"I know perfectly well what's at stake!"

"Do you? Because you're sure acting as if you don't."

"How would you know how I'm acting? Don't pretend that you know me. You haven't been around the past few years!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that a lot of things have changed, Joyce, I'm not the same kid you knew back then. Maybe you don't really know me anymore."

Joyce was sure he didn't mean it that way, but it felt like a slap in the face nonetheless. His words stung and she lowered her eyes, unable to bear looking at him anymore.

"You're right, I probably don't," she admitted softly. Joyce raised her eyes from the floor once again and peered into his gray ones. "Maybe I never did." And with a pop she was gone.

Sirius wanted to throw something, hit something, scream at the top of his lungs. The hurt in her eyes didn't help with his anger, it just directed back toward himself. Merlin, what he wouldn't give for a firewhiskey right about now. Sirius clenched his fists as he grumbled lowly under his breath, with certain rude words, and trumped up the stairs. To enclose himself in a dimly lit room with a bottle of whatever he could find.

"Well, that was...uncomfortable," Remus commented, the group still lingering in the hall.

"Do you think they knew we were here?" Tonks asked sarcastically. Except the whole lot ignored her, mostly due to the loud screaming that had started as soon as Joyce let out the first yell.

"Come on, we better get those curtains shut," Mad-Eye ordered, already heading to Mrs. Black's portrait.

"You'd think her screeching would've been enough to catch their attention," Mrs. Weasley muttered heading up the stairway.

"I just hope Buffy's having better luck," Remus mumbled to himself, as he followed Moody up the stairs to stop the screeching that would surely cause his ears to bleed any second now.

*****

It was warm and friendly – of course that only applied to the furniture.

They had stopped whatever they were doing and watched, or glared more precisely, as Buffy entered the room. They seemed to be gathered to one side, Harry standing in the middle. His face heavy with anger, and when Buffy saw one of the kids holding the Daily Prophet she figured out why. The morons believed the idiotic paper, and knowing that piece of information, she looked at the gathering more clearly. They had ambushed him. Beaten him to a corner as they pounced with their, no doubt, stupid opinions about his so-called lies. Fortunately for Harry, Buffy chose that very moment to waltz in. Giving him a much-needed distraction at her expense.