THE LOST DOG ' s. black

[26] the aftermath

   RIGHT now, the air was thick with tension, the kind that made it almost impossible to focus on anything except the constant barrage of curses, explosions, and shouts around us. But somehow, through all the chaos, I could still hear Sirius’s voice. And it was infuriating.

“Oi! Did you see that one? Right in the gut! Think I might have actually broken something!” Sirius’s voice rang out, too loud and too smug for the situation we were in.

I spun around, narrowing my eyes at him as he dodged a curse and flicked his wand to send a Death Eater flying. “Sirius, can you please focus?” I snapped, already irritated by his ridiculous antics.

He flashed me a grin, that annoying, carefree smirk of his that I knew too well. “Focus? What do you think I’m doing, Eloise? I’m doing fine here.”

I watched as he taunted another Death Eater, effortlessly dodging a curse and sending back a well-aimed one that sent the man sprawling. The smugness on his face was infuriating. “You’re not in some bloody duel, Sirius. We’re fighting for our lives here!” I shouted, trying to make him take things seriously.

“I am serious, sweetheart.” He raised an eyebrow, his grin widening. “You just can’t appreciate the art of battle, can you?”

I didn’t know what was worse: the fact that he was cracking jokes in the middle of a fight or the fact that he was actually landing hits left and right while doing it. It was like he was treating the whole thing like some game, like it wasn’t as real as it was. But it was real. And the more I watched him prance around, the more I realized that his cocky demeanor was starting to annoy me even more.

“Stop it,” I muttered under my breath, more to myself than anyone else.

Sirius, ever the show-off, winked at me over his shoulder. “I can’t stop when I’m on fire, darling.”

I rolled my eyes, watching him narrowly dodge another curse from a Death Eater he wasn’t even paying attention to. He was too busy performing for the imaginary crowd that only he could see. But the more I watched him, the more I realized—he was doing it on purpose.

“Cut the theatrics,” I grumbled, slashing my wand at another group of Death Eaters that had come at us from the left. The fight was getting messier. Blood, dust, and debris were everywhere. And it felt like the whole room was closing in on us.

Sirius dodged another curse with a flip, landing with a flourish. “You’re just jealous you can’t do a backflip, aren’t you?”

I shot him a glare. “I don’t need to do backflips to win a fight,” I muttered. “Just focus!”

He grinned at me as if I’d said something absolutely ridiculous. “Yeah, yeah, Eloise. But I have to admit, I do look good doing this.”

Before I could retort, another curse came flying at me. Without thinking, I raised my wand and deflected it, but the force of it pushed me back a step. The momentary loss of balance made me want to growl in frustration. I wasn’t about to let that happen again, not when Sirius was still prancing around like it was some kind of joke.

"Not gonna lie, that was a pretty nice deflection," he called out as if it were the most casual thing in the world, not even breaking a sweat.

I was so done with him. “If you don’t stop cracking jokes, I swear I’ll hex you myself.”

“You’d miss me too much,” he shot back, chuckling. “And besides, you know you can’t resist my charm.”

I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the fact that he was somehow getting under my skin even more now. “Sirius—”