Dysfunctional

42 - The Cruciatus

Saturday, March 15

The first thing Sirius heard when he came to was a crackling fire in front of him. He opened his eyes and found himself very warm and lying on the couch in an unfamiliar house with a strange feeling of déjà vu. He tried to sit up only to find his forearm heavily bandaged and sore.

A flash of lightning illuminated the sparsely furnished living room through the window and a clap of thunder followed soon after. He noticed his cloak was draped on a wooden chair near the fireplace. Rain was lashing against the window panes, and Sirius felt his stomach rumble when the delicious smell of baked bread wafted through the air.

He looked at his hand and tried to flex it experimentally but then hissed when a sharp pain ran through his forearm.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't sure if I should mend them. I might botch it up."

Sirius looked up to find Hestia standing on the threshold that connected the living room to what appeared to be the dining area. She was in a simple dress; her hair was undone and dishevelled and she was holding a parchment and a quill in ink-stained hands. She looked very unlike the prim Hestia in her sharp robes that he knew of. A niggling suspicion entered his mind.

He searched for his wand in his pockets with his uninjured hand and found it missing.

"Your wand is on the table near the fire. It was soaked in the rain, so I left it to dry."

Sirius immediately took hold of it and pointed it at Hestia, who looked at him exasperatedly. "Oh, come now!"

Sirius refused to back down. "Where were we before you brought me here?"

"Elphias Doge's house," said Hestia blithely. "And before that we were at that old tavern in Upper Flagley."

Sirius lowered his wand, satisfied. "But what happened? Why aren't we at Headquarters?"

Hestia put down her parchment and quill on the chest of drawers beside her and took a seat on the opposite couch. "I thought Travers was going to lunge at me and I didn't want to take him along for the ride to Grimmauld Place. So I Disapparated to my home instead."

"That's not very clever," said Sirius critically. "What if you brought him here to your house?"

"I panicked," shot back Hestia though her cheeks turned pink in faint embarrassment. "This was the first place I could think of."

"You need to shake them off by Apparating to a neutral location first if someone gets hold of you. We should teach this in the next Order meeting to the new recruits," added Sirius as an afterthought.

"Thank goodness for your presence of mind then," said Hestia dryly. "That Impedimenta slowed Travers down before he could get to us."

"What about Doge and Mad-Eye?" asked Sirius.

"They're at Headquarters and doing alright," reassured Hestia. "I sent a Patronus to Mad-Eye as soon as we got here."

Sirius nodded and looked back at his bandaged forearm. "You don't reckon you can mend this, do you?"

Hestia looked apologetic. "I know the spell, but I haven't ever had the need to use it."