Marauder's Love

The Fireplace

"Hi," Sirius said with a chuckle.

"Hi," other voices said.

"How're things?" Sirius questions.

"Not that good," Harry's voice made me look up trying to catch a glimpse in the flames. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams-"

"-or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius finishes. There was silence and I couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demands.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius says, I knew that man was grinning. "The Hog's Head, I ask you..."

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione says in a defensive tone. "That's always packed with people-"

"-which means you'd have been harder to overhear," Sirius says. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" Harry demands. Quite demanding, huh?

"Mundungus, of course," Sirius says and then laughs. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus? What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" Sirius said impatiently. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"Surprising enough," I scoff louder than I thought.

"Would you knock it off-" Sirius throws a look over his shoulder trying not to break the connection?

"If he would have done his job in the first place-"

"I'm still being followed?" Harry asks angrily, cutting off our bickering.

"Don't act surprised, Harry," I speak up even though he couldn't see me. "You are in danger and the first thing you do over the weekend is to organize an illegal defense group."

"She has a point," Sirius mumbles.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" Ron asks, sounding disappointed. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately-"

I let out a laugh.

"Anyway... First of all, Ron- I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?"

"She says on no account whatever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of you and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would write all of this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"Nice memory there, darling," I tell Sirius.

"Thanks, love," Sirius chuckles.

"On duty doing what?" Ron asks.

"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order. So, it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me too."

"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" Ron muttered.

"Me? Certainly not!" Sirius says. "I think it's an excellent idea!"

"You do?" Harry speaks up.

"Of course I do!" Sirius says. "Do you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"

"But- last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks-" Harry starts.

"Which is true-" I try to point out but Sirius out spoke me.

"Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" Sirius says impatiently. "This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"

I roll my eyes at this point having enough of this conversation. I stand from my seat on the top of the table, I hop off the bench heading straight for the cabinet where we had hidden the Fire Whiskey that someone had brought over but forgot to take back. I pour myself a cup and downed it quickly, shivering as it went down but that didn't stop me from downing another. They kept talking as I rubbed my face suddenly feeling hot from the drinking.

"Oh..." Sirius said, making me turn to him see him frowning to himself. My eyes widen when I see something shaped like a fat hand with rings on the fingers grabbing at the air as if to grab something or someone's head... I let out a shriek as I ran and slammed myself into Sirius making us tumble onto the floor. 

"Sarah-" he starts with an enraged voice but when he turned back to the fireplace there was still the hand groping at the air.

"Aguamenti!" I snap as I wave my wand, sending water from the tip to put on the flames. The only noise in the room was our panting, I slowly rise from the floor to stand on my feet feeling what's bound to be bruising from when I hit Sirius.

"I could have handled myself," he growls, making me turn to see him glaring up at me.

"Are you mad? I saved you from being caught by that evil woman! I think a thank you is in order," I seeth.

"You people think I need your help! I escaped from Azkaban on my own!"

"You people? These people have kept the Ministry from finding you!"

"I would have been fine on my own! I made it a year by myself, didn't I? I could do just fine out there on my own," he roars as he stands on his feet.

"And what about me?" I growl. "Where I am in your little adventure, hmm? Or were you going to leave me again?"

"Sarah-" he whispers but it was already too late as I stomped up the stairs to his bedroom.

"You can sleep on the sofa," I snap when I hear his footsteps following me up the stairs. Once I made up the stairs, I quickly head to the room knowing he was right behind.

"Sarah!" he shouted my name but I didn't pay him any mind as I slammed the door in his face.