MORALITY ⟶ Angelina Johnson [1]

Chapter Forty-Eight

[Chapter Forty-Eight]

Saros stared at the man as if he had gone completely insane at the time, still clutching the bag of food close to him in case the dog returned to snatch it up. He had yet to put two and two together when it came to associating the dog disappearing and the man suddenly appearing, but that was mostly due to shock. The fact that the stranger was suddenly claiming that they were family, cousins no less threw Saros for a loop and he couldn't help but just sit there on the ground staring up with a vacant expression.

But a sense of familiarity washed over Saros for a few moments as well, as if he had seen the man before, but he didn't know from where. There was nothing about the man that looked anywhere near healthy, whether it was tattered and dirty grey robes he wore, to his long matted hair and he appeared sickly thin. However, there was something about the stranger's eyes that made Saros wonder where he had seen them before and finally, it clicked in his mind.

Sirius Black.

How could he forget the face that had covered the front of the Daily Prophet for months on end when it came to his escape from Azkaban. All throughout the term last year, dementors had covered Hogwarts in hopes of finding the fugitive, but he was never found and after a while, it seemed people just stopped caring, even though Sirius had been accused of multiple murders. Saros remembered that after the Daily Prophet announced the escape, his mother had warned Saros and Draco to be careful when it came to walking the castle grounds freely and that's when she gave a further explanation.

Sirius was their mother's cousin and thus, in relation to them, to Sirius, Saros and Draco were his first cousins once removed, like Tonks. But Saros had been relatively confused at the time, even if he didn't question it. Because if Sirius had worked for the Dark Lord, under the presumptions that he betrayed the side he was fighting, would they be more welcoming to him at the time? His mother had written it off that Sirius was dangerous, people who went to Azkaban often lost their minds and they didn't wish to be associated with such.

However, knowing that his mother and father had lied to him about other things, Saros had to wonder, what was Sirius' real story?

"You're not supposed to be here," Saros told him, " the Ministry is looking for you to lock you back up and put you away in Azkaban."

"And they're doing a fine job, aren't they?" Sirius grinned, revealing a row of unsightly yellow teeth.

"What do you want?" Saros questioned. "You can't have this food, it's not for you-"

"Oh, but it is," Sirius replied casually, " that's why Andy told you to leave it at the corner of Dervish and Banges so I could come to pick it up. But I'm guessing she left out a very key detail as to who was coming for it."

Saros felt like he was going to be sick to his stomach, mainly because he didn't know what to think at the time. Surely, Aunt Andromeda wouldn't put him in danger and she didn't seem like the type that associated with mass murderers. But it was all very confusing and a family reunion was not something Saros wanted or needed at that very moment. At the very least they could have eased into it, perhaps waiting until the Easter holidays to go down the route of shocking introductions.