Pensieve - Wolfstar Fanfiction

32

It took thirty minutes for the teenager to get down into the basement. Thirty. Unbelievable, how careful he had to be not to wake anyone up. Unfair even.
It was pitch-black in there.
"Lumos."
Sirius' voice was barely audible, trembling in the freezing and dirty air, like a whisper in the wind. But it was enough for the spell to work, and the dark wand that he had picked up fron his sleeve created just enough light for the boy to see where he was going.
He didn't really know what he was looking for in the basement. The walls were made of stone, something wet was dripping down from them. Sirius had been afraid of the cellar for almost all of his life. He had gone there only when absolutely necessary, like when his mum had commanded him to fetch a jar of beetroots or something when she was cooking, or when he had plaid hide and seek with Regulus when their parents were out of town. The best hiding spots were in the boiler room.
Sirius moved his wand up and down every corner of the boiler room pantry before finding the little metallic box that held all the keys. It was open, because who would really ever need them apart from Kreacher?
It was a pain that Orion was such a control freak. The man couldn't stand the idea of anyone snooping arond in his office, so he had magic prooven the locks. It would be too easy if he hadn't, Sirius tought, but then again, nothing ever came easy in 12 Grimmauld Place.
All of the curious looking little keys were hand labeled by the house elf. Sirius ran his fingers trough them many times before finding the right pair.
"Master's study" and "pensieve" labelled keys in hand, in the fading light of the charm he had used, Sirius stumbled his way to the corner of the basement kitchen to grab a pair of dusty bottles, then back up the narrow cellar stairs to the elf heads in the ground floor hallway.

It was dead silent as he looked around. Nobody else was awake. Not even Kreacher, thank god. He took that one right that'd lead him to the hallway past the formal dining room, bare feet freezing cold on the creaking floorboards. And then finally, he was there. Standing in front of the most terifying room of the house. He had entered that door for only three or four times in his life, Orion's study had always been an area out of his reach. Nowdays, as he was the family disappointment, he couldn't enter at all. Ever. The last time he had been inside was five years ago before his sorting.

His fingers were trembling harder, as he took the key from his pocket. It was big and heavy, made out of silver with little green gems on it. "Master's study", it said.
He moved slowly, pushing the key into it's hole. His heart was throbbing rabidly, he could barely breathe. Weird how just a room can cause all that fear inside a person.
And then he twisted the key. It clicked, and with just a gentle push the door started to open.
It was dark inside of the room, the big window was covered with a huge dark green curtain. The air smelled like expencive cigars and fancy firewhisky. Sirius just stared at it all. He couldn't believe it was all happening. And the fear of someone waking up had just multiplied.
"Lumos."
Sirius' voice was even more silent than the last time. More silent than a light breeze of wind. Yet it sounded like a loud echoing yell.
His wand sprouted with tender white light. He took a step in, it felt a bit like all time had stopped as he was inside of the office. Like the air wasn't moving, like he couldn't breathe or even move himself. Like he was in a completely different world.

He saw the pensieve pool from behind the glass doors of it's vitrine. It was round and made of silver, little gemstones and runes carved on it's sides.

Sirius took three sneaking steps, holding his breath in terror.
Any second Orion could wake up. He didn't really even think of the punishment that'd follow if he got caught, but the failure of his plan.
He needed to bottle those memories.