GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Forty Five: The Beginning)

"Okay, so the short rundown- Padfoot fucked up."

Sirius glared at James over the table. The group they had assembled was a rough patchwork of people- The Marauders, Lily and Marlene, Logan Mitchell and Micha Fawley. Not one of them dared crack a joke beneath the wave of tension. The male members of the group had been forced to catch the girls up on various factors surrounding Alex's 'condition' or, as James referred to it, her 'furry little problem'.

"Alex has been missing for twenty three days." Sirius spoke up, feeling the attention snap to him like a rubber band scorching his palm with whiplash, "Which is especially shit, because tomorrow is the first full moon since she was taken."

And there had been a string of murders in London, seemingly random and unrelated to the death eaters. Which meant Alex, as a pureblood, was still under threat.

"We don't know that she was taken." Marlene chipped in, "You did just kind of tell her she wasn't good enough."

"Alex wouldn't run away." Sirius pulled a face, "Okay, well she did, but it was more a dramatic exit than, you know, and exit exit. She left her camera."

The others didn't seem convinced. It was, surprisingly, Logan who came to Sirius' support, "Everyone she trusts is in this room. She wouldn't go it alone. Either one of us knows where she is, or Alex is stuck somewhere."

The group eyed each other uncomfortably. None of them liked the idea that someone among them could be lying.

"That's not entirely true." Everyone turned to Remus Lupin. His hands were wrapped around a mug of coffee, head bent low with the strain that the day before a full moon always brought, "She trusts Snape."

Oh, great. The one thing that can actually make this worse. Snivellous.

There was a brief moment of silence before Lily spoke up, "You think she would go to Severus?"

"I think it's the best idea we've got." Remus sounded unusually serious.

"Okay," Lily said, nodding, "Then me, Micah and I'm assuming Black because he looks like he's about to explode something with his mind, will go follow that up."

Sirius looked up, and dropped Lily a small nod. He'd been trying not to let any of that mixed cocktail of guilt and lingering anger show, although he feared that most of the time it just made him look like a puppet being jerked about on a string. Having something to do other than unsuccessfully trying to contact Dumbledore, who had been MIA for a while, and returning to the wreck of the Fawley House every night was a welcome change.

Marlene was clearly not happy about being left out, "Then I get Mitchell and Lupin. We'll go check out some of the places in her pictures, open forests, farmland, someplace you're least likely to hurt someone."

"Her photo albums got destroyed in the fire." James pointed out.

Marlene rolled her eyes, "You're the one who said she left her camera. SIM card. The pictures don't just disappear once you've taken them, you know."

"Actually, I said that." Sirius volunteered.

She pulled a face, "I thought you and Potter were just the same consciousness downloaded into separate bodies."

"That actually sounds awesome." James contributed enthusiastically.

Remus Lupin rolled his eyes and stood up, "I'm leaving. I don't care if any of you lot come with me, but I have a friend to look for and not long before the sun goes down."

As pointedly as he could manage on his shaky legs, Remus swept from the room, leaving the others to scramble after him.

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