scars || sirius black

44 - white Christmas

"Impedimenta!"

"Stupefy!"

Dumbledore had to dodge one of Alice's confringos bouncing off a wall inches from his face. Momentarily distracted, Emmy hit her with a petrificus totalus that send her tumbling into a desk.

In the brief silence that followed she heard Dory yell, "Take cover!" before Marlene shot a bombarda maxima straight for Emmy. She skittered away and flicked a reducto jinx under her arm at the only opponent left standing. So went a volley of spells blasting twice a second until the two were left cackling with laughter five minutes later, clutching their sides as Marlene hung upside down from a chandelier.

Dumbledore was staring open mouthed, but after a second cleared his throat and smiled.

"I think that will be more than sufficient for my lesson, thank you but truly I'm very impressed. I've never seen such expertise in anyone your age before," he rambled as they grinned brightly at him and helped move the desks back from where they'd been blasted across the room.

Emmy was struck by the memory of duelling with Bellatrix Black who had been taught to fight before she could even read and the way Sirius knew every dark spell in the syllabus before the teacher taught them about it. They were second nature to him, as much a part of his vocabulary as lumos.

How many lost childhoods would this war take before it was over?

—————

The nights were getting darker and snow dusted the tops of the mountains more and more every day until it lay all around them several foot deep.

On the last weekend before the Christmas holidays Emmy met Hestia in the Three Broomsticks. It was blowing a gale as she hurried inside, breathing on her hands to warm them up.

Hearing Hestia call her name, she squeezed through the crowds to find her friend sitting by the fire and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"How're you doing?" she asked as they pulled away, searching her eyes.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine. What about you, how's school going?"

"Well... you know," Emmy snorted as she unwrapped the scarf from around her neck and tugged off her mittens. "As you good as you can expect."

"I get it," she smiled sympathetically.

They chatted for what seemed like hours fuelled by an endless stream of hot butterbeer.

"And how's Sirius?" Hestia asked.

"I don't speak to him a lot to be honest."

"What?" she exclaimed. "You two were practically inseparable last year, you were perfect together!"

"It's... complicated. We broke up"

"What happened?"

Emmy grimaced, "We just grew up, I guess. His family... well, they made it impossible."

Hestia reached out and squeezed her hand, "I'm sorry."

"He fought it for a while, but I think he understands it's the best for both of us now. It was never going to work."

"And did you not fight it?"

Emmy looked up with tear-stained cheeks. Hestia inhaled sharply and brought her into a tight hug. It was dark outside now and the pub was much quieter. She was glad for the folk band playing next to the bar for drowning out her quivering voice.

"If something happened to him... I don't think I could ever forgive myself."

"I understand," murmured Hestia. "And for all it matters, I think what you did was so strong, and so brave."