scars || sirius black

70 - half a soul

There were many things that Sirius remembered about that morning, what Emmy had been trying to tell him the night before was not one of them. He did remember Remus' confused face when he turned up out of the blue and the bitter taste of the cup of coffee they shared as he tried to steady his mind. He remembered the sickening jolt in his stomach as they apparated back to London and then finally his world collapsing at the sight of the blood-stained door left ajar.

Remus strangled cry rang out in his mind every time he thought of that frantic sprint up the stairwell and the door smacking against the wall as he flung it open.

He had screamed her name but the silence that followed was hollowing. They tore through the flat and Sirius kept yelling their names, desperately trying to avoid the truth. He couldn't handle that damn silence.

It was only when Remus broke down crying in the middle of the hall that his voice cracked. His friend rocked shakily as he sobbed on his knees.

"They're dead, Sirius."

"No," he rasped, his mind whirling. "We're going to find them. They can't be far, Remus."

"He's got them, they're gone."

"Listen to me," he yelled, grabbing his friend by the scruff of his collar.

"I need you to be brave, be brave like Emmy is. She needs us. Maeve needs us," his voice cracked as he spoke his daughter's name, his perfect innocent daughter.

Remus had nodded, hands still trembling.

"I'll call the Order."

—————

The room was broiling with pain and fury when the Order gathered in the Tonks' kitchen. People were yelling in frustration and Mad-Eye Moody was roaring instructions as they tried to understand what had happened and what to do next.

James, Lily and Alice had left Frank with Harry and Neville at his mother's heavily fortified house so they could come and help, while Remus and Andromeda sat huddled together, numb with grief. James steadied Sirius as he argued with Moody and Dumbledore, backing up his brother at any opportunity.

It was chaos.

For the fifth time, Sirius recounted everything he remembered from the last 24 hours, losing patience by the second. Dumbledore was desperately trying to pick a moment to question what it was exactly that Emmy had found out the night before at Malfoy Manor but in the midst of Sirius' frenzied panic every moment that passed made it harder to ask.

Moody finally muscled in, magic eye spinning.

"We need to know what Narcissa told her! We need that information, Black," he interrupted.

Sirius' face turned stony.

"Don't you dare ask him that!" Lily exclaimed. "Emmy and Maeve are gone, that's all that matters right now."

"Have you at all considered that it's probably the reason why they're gone?" he argued insistently.

Hestia spoke up then, eye filled with tears.

"She didn't tell either of us," she said, gesturing to Elphias who sat numbly at the kitchen table. "She just wanted to get home to Maeve. Sirius has already told you all he knows, what matter much more now is finding her alive."

Mad-Eye sighed in exasperation but nodded finally and turned back to poring over his maps with Arthur Weasley.

In the days that followed they sent out search parties and raided any know Death-Eater strongholds, but there was simply nothing to be found. They searched day and night, no one slept a wink.