The Dog and the Duckling//Blackinnon

Late August 1980

Sirius had gotten quite bored of looking at the same old peeling wallpaper in the little parlor room at the Leaky. It had very likely never been a thing of beauty; 40 years or so in, it was practically offensive to his eyes. Or maybe he'd just spent too much time there recently. He had an unconfirmed, but in his opinion, a very plausible theory that he was afflicted with a mild allergy to routine.

Since he had no particular magic to work on with Marlene for the day, he suggested they work on paperwork at a little muggle library that he knew of. They even served tea, done the muggle way. It was quaint and a nicer way to spend the afternoon than wishing he'd learned a spell to set wallpaper on fire without harming anything else.

They'd need to wrap up soon. The glass ceiling revealed the light of an orange-red sun that was near setting. The pair made haste of finishing their assessment of the discrepancies in the files The Order held on a wizard called Igor Karkaroff. Sirius looked up from the stack of papers and noticed that a little grey tabby cat was pawing at the closest window.

"Something's wrong, Marlene. That's Minerva outside."

"...Professor McGonagall? That cat? Oh hey. That's her alright. I wouldn't have recognized her but it is. What on earth is she doing here?"

Down in the pit of his stomach he knew it had to be something terrible. It was never anything good. Not like this.

"She wouldn't have come here if it wasn't important. I could be called out on a mission. There could be an attack. You should go home to your family. I have to deal with this. We'll talk later."

"I'll go if you want me to, but I want to stay with you. See what's wrong. I want to help."

Marlene had joined the order before the conventional time frame precisely because she wanted to help. She was as scared as all the other students in her year but she saw nothing useful in lying in wait. Waiting to enlist wouldn't stop her from being targeted. She was at risk and so was everyone she cared about. Learning to protect herself and allying herself with the Order seemed the logical thing to do. She cared about the world and wanted to put every effort she could muster into saving it from falling into the hands of a dark wizard. If not her, then who?

"Come on outside then, we need to see what McGonagall has to say and then you can decide what you're going to do."

They made their way outside to follow McGonagall. The little tabby hurried into a back alleyway where her phasing back into her human form would go unseen and undisturbed. Both Sirius and Marlene felt sick with worry. There was no one who was safe. Just about everyone they knew and loved could be in imminent danger, if they weren't already dead.

"Sirius...Miss McKinnon. I'm sorry I had to interrupt your work like this. Dumbledore sent me to be the bearer of bad news. Sirius, there's been reports of the death of your brother Regulus."

Minerva put a hand on Sirius's shoulder. This boy had been one of her Gryffindors just a few short years ago. He raised more than his share of hell but she loved him nonetheless, in her way. She'd been as shocked as everyone else when the hat sat atop the Black child's head and called out Gryffindor. Poor little thing had stood frozen in terror until she urged him to the Gryffindor table with a kind hand on his shoulder, just like now.

"I suppose I should have known." Sirius's voice was barely above a whisper. He stared off into space. His immediate reaction was shame. How could he have been so stupid to not prepare himself for this? This was his lot in life and he shouldn't have felt the rush of pain so acutely.

"I don't know Regulus's reasons for defecting... but it's possible that he had some good left in him. I'm so sorry my boy."

Sirius nodded because he didn't know what to say.