The Other Side: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter X

"What do you mean, that was it?"

            Sirius was leaning on the wall behind him, examining his nails and wearing a bored expression. "There is no army. We're just a group of people who take in refugees. That's why this is called the Refuge. Not the Base Camp, or FortPhoenix, the Refuge. We don't fight anymore."

            "So you've just given up, then?" Lana was incredulous. "You've decided this is a battle not worth winning?"

            "No." Sirius sounded aggravated, but he didn't look at her. "No, we've decided that there's no point in getting any more of us killed because we can't understand that we've lost this battle."

            "That's no reason to stop trying! Why not get a rebellion started? Find as many wizards as you can who want to help and overthrow this Dark Lord guy?"

            "Because, if I were to pull five wizards aside, one of them would be all for it. Three of them wouldn't give a damn. And the last one would run off and tell a Death Eater, and wind up getting the entire city destroyed."

            Lana stared at him. That's no reason to ever give up. The words were on her lips, ready to be spoken, but she couldn't seem to make them come out.

            Sirius grimaced and shook his head. "How old are you, anyway? Seventeen?"

            She nodded.

            "You're too young to understand. You weren't there the first time. Sure, you can say a couple inspiring words and get hundreds, even thousands of wizards to back you up and be ready for battle. But when your only hope of winning dies right before your eyes, you need to just understand that it's over; because he says so. He won. We didn't. End of story."

            "But why is it the end of the story?" Lana asked, "Why can't there be a sequel?"

            Sirius chuckled. "You talk as if you think your words have any meaning to the people out there. You're just a muggle. No one will listen to you. That's just the way it is. Get used to it, kiddo." At that he turned around and walked down the hallway into the dining room again, as Andromeda was coming out.           

            "Did he show you the entire house already?" she asked, surprised.

            Lana laughed. "If the kitchen is the entire house."

            Andromeda smiled and rolled her eyes. "That man... he's forty and he acts like he's still a teenager."

            "He's worse than a teenager," Regulus said as he walked down a grand staircase at the other end of the hall, across from the dining room. "He makes them look bad."

            "He can hear you," Sirius growled from the dining room, "He may be drunk, but he has ears, you know."

            "Kreacher has ears as well," said a low, gravelly voice. "Kreacher heard glass breaking."

            "It's over there, Kreacher," Regulus said, pointing in front of the portrait of Walburga, which was still covered by the curtains.

            "Oh!" the little voice cried, and a small animal raced out from behind him. It was short with large, bat-like ears and huge eyes. It was wearing nothing but a rag to cover itself, and its skin was wrinkled and leathery.

            "What is that?" Lana asked. It looked like a horrible version of the elf-like thing on the golden fountain she'd seen at the Ministry before everything had been suddenly switched.