Serena Black || 𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂

The hours after

• Sirius Black •

„Only the dead
have seen the end of war."

"Remus, you and Tonks had one job to do. One bloody task!" Sirius shouted so unmistakably that several Muggles in the diner, where they had settled down after the recent events, turned round to face them. But he didn't care at that moment.

His friend looked down in shame, his face contorted in pain as if the mere memory of his negligence was tormenting him. For once, even his usually bright cousin didn't say anything about it.

Serena, however, had winced and dropped the chips she had been nibbling on for over ten minutes. It was amazing how much such a tiny wound could bleed, but one of her friends was still wiping the dried blood from her neck. "It's not their fault," she finally replied somewhat meekly.

"What on Merlin's beard were you thinking?" He may have been a little too rough with her, but he had never been known for being able to control his temper. Especially not in a situation like this.

She kept quiet and Sirius wished she wouldn't. He wished that he wouldn't just be punished by those present with pure oppressive silence, as if his words meant absolutely nothing. Admittedly, he hadn't often been the person to expect such a stern scolding in the past, but perhaps this was exactly the moment to start.

"She saved us," Harry suddenly interjected, seemingly trying to calm his temper. "Bellatrix's curse... it would have hit one of us for sure."

But Sirius didn't want to calm down just yet, because he still had a bone to pick with his godson. "Harry, when I tell you to leave, you do it and don't make the same mistake as someone before you."

"I didn't want Bellatrix to carry out her threat," he contradicted defiantly, reminding Sirius of James more than ever at that moment. He couldn't help it, but often enough he found himself imagining having his best friend back, "I wanted to help you."

"And if you two don't stop it, I'm more likely to die of a heart attack than actually get cursed," he muttered.

"Looks like someone's learnt common sense after all." Molly Weasley stood at her table, her face ashen, and began to pull her two youngest children and her husband into a hug so tight it was as if she wanted to suffocate all three of them.

The shock was still written deep in the faces of all the teenagers, after all, each of them had witnessed Voldemort making his first public appearance in a long time. This made the whole situation much more real even for Sirius, for whom it hadn't been the first time he'd encountered the dark wizard. He found it hard to enjoy the fact that he was no longer held responsible for his actions. He was officially a free man again.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Serena's brown eyes on him questioningly before he turned to her. He realised that his mind had gradually calmed down again and wondered what had caused it. Perhaps it had been the sight of the Weasley family, whose members were just glad they were all alive.

Sirius sat back down in his seat and had probably missed the moment when he had risen from it. Sighing, he turned to his daughter, who was still looking at him questioningly. "What did Elijah Hall mean by my blood not being so impure?"

"I don't know," he confessed and ran his fingers through his hair, a little exhausted. He didn't want to realise that this man had saved her life and it probably didn't change anything. After all, he will not have acted out of the goodness of his heart and this family had always been a little strange anyway, "Unless Katherine has kept it from me all these years that she is a witch."

Behind the door next to their table, there was a sudden plop and before either of them could draw their wands in alarm, the twins stumbled out. Their mum, however, was less enthusiastic about their appearance at first, before she hugged them both, grumbling, "Someone could have seen you!"

"We missed you too, Mum," grinned the redheads, whose hair contrasted sharply with the poisonous green scaly cloaks they wore.

"What's that supposed to be?" Ron finally asked the question that most of those present had probably been asking themselves and pointed at the unusual material. But Sirius had recognised the texture of the fabric immediately, as his father himself had once been fond of boasting about his wealth. Even if his choice of colour had been less garish.

"Finest dragon skin, brother," one of them finally replied, tugging at his expensive cloak with a certain pride on his freckled face, "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves to nothing else."

Mrs Weasley had pursed her lips, but seemed to prefer to keep her comment to herself as the twins sat down next to Sirius. "Heard Rina had a bit of a romp."

"What Death Eaters did you teach the ins and outs?" Fred asked with a grin, while Sirius merely gave them a warning look. "Don't encourage her."

"So it wasn't so good?" grinned George, before taking in a sharp intake of breath and probably only now realising the still bleeding tear on her neck. "What happened?"

Sirius thought he could make out something like "forgot my wand" in his daughter's embarrassed mumbling, although he doubted it would have made any difference. "That looks worse than it actually is. It doesn't hurt any more. It's just a scratch," Serena added with a faint smile, which he didn't buy.

She was right, it was theoretically just a scratch, but millimetres could have cost her her life. He would never have been able to reconcile that with himself, because he still saw in her the little baby from back then, smiling back at him from the photo. Far too delicate and fragile for this cruel world.

In Harry, he saw James instead, his best friend, his brother. He had never been able to avoid it and he couldn't remember the times Remus, even Molly, had been in his ear about not seeing him for what he was not. It was different with Harry, he had to be pushed out of the nest so that he could learn to fly. Even if these words had come from Dumbledore's mouth.

So much could have gone wrong that night, and yet some of the people at the table had small smiles on their faces and the shock in their eyes had been replaced by a faint glow as Fred and George talked about their new shop. Today's shock was fading, while the next one was already on its way, Sirius knew. But he was alive, just like everyone else at this table, and that mattered more to him at this moment than worrying about what was soon to come.

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Only three more chapters until the third book is wrapped and I'm so excited to start with year six!

I might post the last chapters in the next days ❤️