GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Thirty Eight: Remeant)

Remeant: Coming back, returning.

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"Fawley, c'mon. Pick up. C'mon."

Remus watched Sirius Black sympathetically as his friend prepared to deliver his fifth answerphone message of the hour. Almost all of the others had gone now, after a stern telling off from the group of aurors to never be so reckless again. It was just Remus, Sirius and James in the Potter's garage, the frozen screen from the episode of Sherlock Sirius had been watching before they had gone out still stuck on the TV's giant flatscreen monitor. 

As James was currently out of the room 'explaining himself' to his parents, Remus took it upon himself to head the task of removing Sirius Black from the stage of denial that he was stuck in.

Again the three tones marking that no one was picking up sounded, this time with the added message 'Inbox full' in a too-posh English accent. With a frustrated sound, Sirius threw his phone at a cushion, and looked around for something else to break.

"Padfoot." Remus began awkwardly, "Mate. You know what the aurors said."

"That nothing could survive the fire." Sirius repeated almost angrily, "Yeah, I know. And I also know Alex. She's alive. And her brother's alive. And she probably saved her parents as well in a dashing rescue on thestralback."

Remus looked at his hands. He still hadn't computed the fact that Alex Fawley was gone, and his mind filed it away under 'accept when Padfoot has'. His friend needed to come first at the minute, "She would have appeared somewhere by now."

"It's only been a day." Sirius responded indignantly, "She's probably just... Catching up on an episode of Doctor Who, or... Or taking some pictures or something."

Remus tried to keep the sympathy out of his features, "Mate..."

"No. No." Sirius stood up again, "No, I know what you're going to say, and I don't care. We just need to figure out where Alex would go."

The door opened and James, features unusually solemn, stepped back into the room. He didn't even say anything as he dropped onto the sofa next to Remus. What was there to say, really? Alex Fawley, quiet little camera girl, was dead. She had seemed so small, so insignificant at the start of the year. It's a horrible word to use for a person; 'insignificant', but that's exactly what she had been. Another boring face that formed part of the wall of noise that laughed at the Marauder's exploits from the side-lines. Never changing the world. Never even shifting a leaf.

But Alex Fawley's existence had brushed against their own and, however little they had noticed it at the time, altered the pattern of their lives. She wasn't just Camera Girl anymore, she was Alex Fawley, more than a name and a face, more than 'The Girl From The Train', more than a responsibility or Sirius's random crush. She was their friend.

Someone was probably telling Logan right now.

"She wouldn't go to school." Sirius was saying, striding backwards and forwards in front of the coffee table. James' face as he watched Sirius was unreadably sad, "She had some pictures in her wardrobe... Um," Sirius hit his head, "Sunsets and sunrises and... Um, Nottingham and London... That's it!"

"What is?" Remus asked gently.

Sirius grinned excitedly, but there was something cracked around the edges, "She's at home."

James leaned forwards slowly, resting his arms on his knees, "I think the aurors have already checked there, mate-"

"No, not then." Sirius fired off randomly, "She would have hidden then, but... There has to be secret tunnels or something. Under the house. Yeah, a place that old always has secret tunnels, right?"