Open Wounds (Sirius Black)

Missing Truth

As I sat watching Sirius Black, the boy I once loved, leave with his horrid mother and pathetic brother, it felt like a cruel twist of fate, reminiscent of that night when we had broken up. My heart ached as I watched him walk away, the dark, tousled hair that I used to run my fingers through disappearing into the distance.

I was so lost in thought that I hadn't realized my mother had been trying to get my attention. Her concerned voice finally broke through my reverie.

"Dessa?" Mother repeated, her voice filled with worry.

I snapped back to reality. "I'm sorry, what?" I mumbled, still lost in the past.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concern etched across her face. "You've barely touched your food."

Glancing down at the plate in front of me, I realized that she was right. My untouched dinner sat there, the untouched vegetables, the cooling gravy. I had been so lost in the whirlpool of memories that I hadn't even taken a single bite. It was as though time had frozen, and I was stuck in the past, reliving the pain of our breakup. Little did my mother know, this pain was intertwined with secrets she couldn't begin to fathom.

Excusing myself from the dinner table, I mumbled an excuse about feeling unwell, though my mother's worried expression didn't lessen. She'd always been perceptive, and I knew she could tell something was amiss.

Once upstairs in my room, I tried to focus on something other than Sirius. I needed to put my energy into the task at hand - finding Kas. Remus had promised to help, and we had agreed to meet on July fifth. It was a plan that gave me hope and something to look forward to.

Leaning against the door of my room, I sighed heavily, closing my eyes in an attempt to clear my thoughts. But Sirius, his laughter, his touch, his anger, all of it seemed to consume my mind these days.

My gaze wandered around the room, searching for a distraction. That's when I noticed it - an envelope on my nightstand. It wasn't there before, and the mere sight of it sent a shiver down my spine. The front was blank, but when I turned it over, my heart pounded as I saw the strange symbols that had appeared on the doors of Hogwarts during Christmas and in the book about the Blacks and Markus that I had discovered in the library.

My curiosity mixed with a deep sense of unease as I gently picked up the envelope. What did this mean? Who could have left it for me? My mind raced with possibilities, and I couldn't resist the urge to unseal it and see what was inside.

As I opened the envelope, my heart raced with anticipation, hoping against hope that the message was from Kas. The words on the page sent a whirlwind of emotions surging through me.

"Dessa,

I know what happened at the Shrieking Shack, something you might never forgive me for. I need you to understand that I didn't want to attack you. I cared about you so much, but Regulus, he had me under his control. I've been working on something, discovering things recently about the Dark Lord. My father has been acting strangely, delving into dark magic. I needed to find out for sure what was going on, and in the process, I uncovered something I can't speak of in this letter. It's why I had to leave Hogwarts.

Over the past couple of months, my mother and I have been working tirelessly to expose those with evil intentions. I need to see you, Dessa. I miss you, and we need to talk. Meet me in the Leaky Cauldron on July fifth. If you agree to go, please leave your response on the windowsill tonight.

Kas"

My mind raced, and my heart was a tempest of emotions. This was the first sign, the first communication from Kas in months. He wanted to meet, and the urgency in his letter was palpable. But the questions swirled in my mind. What had he discovered about the Dark Lord? What had his father been involved in? And most importantly, did he still care for me as much as I did for him?