Crimson Ink

Brain Bandage

Last Time:

"Your cover has been blown! Activate the ruins on the wall and get here now!" Quirinus paled as the floo lost all glow ... they lost connection completely ...

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"No!" Quirinus snapped and slammed his fists on the fireplace floor.

Tom's eyes narrowed, "What happened? Where's Peter?"

"We lost him back in Hogwarts ... if I had to guess I'd say he left the wards to apparate to Aunty Bella." Harry said before looking at Tom with a heartbroken look in his eyes. "Tom-"

"There's no time to explain!" Quirinus yelled and raced out of the manor. Everyone, Alecto, Amycus, Tom, Harry, Lucius and Vesta, agreed and left the protective wards to apparate to Quirinus' family home. When they arrived they found the entire home up in flames. "Bella!" His scream was only answered by the fire that consumed the house, which exploded sending a scorched briefcase flying through the air where it landed next to a man who was gaping at the fire. "You!"

The dark haired man just stared at the flames in shock, "I didn't mean to ... something must've gone wrong. Wait, Albus said to use it if something happened-"

"Albus ..." Quirinus tackled the very skinny man, who was looking for something in his pockets,to the ground and started punching him hard in the face. Something flew out of Sirius' hand and skipped along the ground. "You fucking idiot! This is your fault! You brought Dumbledore into this and it got my family killed!"

"Quirinus! Stop!"

Recognizing the voice as Peter's he froze with a fist covered in blood in mid air and looked over his shoulder, "Bells ..." Quirinus gasped in pure relief as he saw Bellatrix and Peter climbing out of the briefcase. He smiled happily at seeing his soulmate safe and sound. Bellatrix, however, first walked past her relieved lover to kick Sirius' head as he got up, effectively knocking her cousin out cold. Only then did she grab Quirinus by the collar and dragged him into a kiss. "I thought I lost you." Quirinus said as he held her tight.

Tom looked down at the unconscious bloodied man and his eyes narrowed, "Sirius Black. Let's all get back to the Malfoy manor and try to figure out what's going on."

Peter, sporting a few burns, was held tightly by Narcissa as he looked at Tom, "There's a lot to discuss. Someone grab that idiot and the briefcase."

Lucius sighed as he went over to the briefcase, "I'll get this." He said as he reached down to shut the normal looking case. With a glance he noticed there was a ladder going down into the supposedly normal briefcase and into a room filled with plants. The greenhouse, it seems, was tucked away safely and thankfully it seemed there was no damage. It and Bellatrix's safety may be the only positives to this horrible day.

"I have this idiot." Quirinus said as he grabbed Sirius Black's ankle and dragged him over. He paused only for a moment to pick up whatever flew out of the fool's hand. He noticed the runes on it looked familiar and suspected that was a portkey.

"So that's him." Harry commented as he glanced down at the man he knew was his godfather.

Right after Narcissa took full custody of Harry the goblins found his parents' wills and found that the Secret keeper wasn't written down. Without the evidence most thought would be there the goblins contacted Narcissa. Once everyone made sure her custody wasn't going to be affected Gringotts called for a trial and on after Sirius was released. Narcissa told Harry that Sirius was highly unstable from his years in Azkaban and he was going to be taking months of therapy before meeting him.

Unfortunately, Sirius disappeared not long before his first appointment with a mind healer. The man hasn't been seen since, but Peter was positive Sirius tried to break into the Gryffindor tower one night. Several students were panicking at the sight of the Fat lady's shredded portrait when they woke up one morning, but Dumbledore claimed it was a prank and the culprits were being punished. It was too dark that night so none of the portraits saw anything and there wasn't another incident so no one, except Peter, thought much of it. Neither theory was proved because no one learned who the pranksters were and Peter couldn't find a trace of Sirius anywhere so it was forgotten.