scars || sirius black

19 - summer days drifting

The dawn bathed the valley in light as it crept over the horizon, but the only noise in Emmy's ears were that of her bones snapping.

The pain was mind-numbing but over mercifully quickly as she looked around sharply for any sight of her brother who, to her relief, was nowhere to be found.

With a groan and a stretch, she tugged on her clothes and headed back to the cottage through the misty mountain pass. When she arrived back, she realised Remus hadn't returned yet and set about making them breakfast with an ice pack taped to her aching knee, checking the window every so often for any sign of him. She only began to worry when the rest of the village started waking up and moving around at about 10am.

If he was caught stumbling off the mountains, people would get suspicious. The neighbors had already started talking about hearing strange noises at night that sounded a little too different from the braying of the red deer.

Figuring that Remus could simply have travelled too far in his werewolf state, she gave it another hour until she started pacing. This had never happened before. He always got back before her, somehow she always ended up farthest away form the house, so this was out of the ordinary.

As she began to panic, she thought about her options. There was no use going to look for him, he could be anywhere in a fifty mile radius. The village of Waterfleet was isolated for miles, with only two roads going in and out. All that lay around them were cloud-brushing mountains, cascading waterfalls and a whole lot of deer, it would take months to search the whole area.

She had no choice but to go for help. With a fistful of floo powder and a quick flourish, Emmy stumbled into the Potters' living room. James jolted up from the piano and dashed over to her.

"Emmy, what's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked frantically as she got her breath back, checking her for signs of an injury.

"It's Remus, he's not back after the full moon last night. Something's wrong."

"Right, I'll get my parents," he nodded and hurried to the door. He was back within seconds as Euphemia and Fleamont rushed into the room, their faces falling at the sight of Emmy on the verge of tears.

"Oh my dear, what's wrong?"

James spoke up, "Remus is missing, he didn't come back after the full moon last night."

Realisation crossed their feature and Fleamont said,

"Ok, don't worry Emeline, he can't have gone far."

Euphemia slid her wand out of her sleeve and pulled on a jumper.

"James, will you floo to Alastor, Caradoc and Benjy? Tell them to come to Waterfleet. I have a feeling we're going to need some help."

He nodded and disappeared into the fireplace with a grim look over his shoulder.

—————

Ten minutes later the search party arrived outside the cottage in Waterfleet. The three family friends James had been told to find introduced themselves grimly. One was missing an eye and was heavily scarred, who merely nodded in greeting as he trudged past her to Euphemia, but Caradoc and Benjy were more sympathetic, the former offering to take a look at Emmy's knee.

She refused at first, pacing with worry as the others talked but James persuaded her. They sat in the back garden planning their search field as he cleaned it out and applied a healing spell quietly. Sirius arrived through the fire place in the house five minutes later after receiving James' owl, frantic with worry. He immediately pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing her back reassuringly and kissed her cheek quickly before joining the others huddled around the map.