Paisley Higgs | (Sirius Black)

Chapter 12- I'm Terrifying

TW: Mentions of past assault.

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"Are you sure it's okay we're up here?" I asked as Sirius helped me climb over a pile of strange rubble on the venues balcony. They were right to rope the place off, it looked as if an explosion had gone off. What must have been nice seating was nothing but splintered wood and charred fabric.

"Absolutely not," Sirius chuckled. "We'll get kicked out for sure if they find us."

I froze. Sirius sighed. "But they're not going to find us. Security has more important things to worry about."

I frowned, but followed after him all the same. "What's with all this mess anyways?" I asked.

Sirius didn't answer, climbing around one last pile of rubble towards four, perfectly in-tact, red velvet, theatre seats by the edge of the balcony. After helping me over (which was a real challenge since I kept losing my footing, clinging to his arms to keep from falling on my butt), he hopped into one of the seats and patted the one at his side.

I let out a breath of relief. No more urban hiking.

Stubby Boardman and his band, The Hobgoblins, had just taken the stage and strummed out a dramatic E chord. The tiny witches and wizards below us all whooped and hollered. I smiled. Concerts weren't so scary this far away.

"You never answered me," I said, looking over at Sirius. He had been staring at me.

"I know. I was trying figure out how to explain without freaking you out."

I sighed and slumped back in my chair and looked out at the crowd. "You know, I'm not that big of a wimp. I can handle a scary story."

"There was a death eater attack early last summer."

I sat up and stared at him. He was studying my face, probably trying to gage how much I was freaking out.

"Really?" I asked.

"Really."

"Were you here when they—"

He shook his head and looked away, readjusting in his own seat. "No, we were supposed to go, but Peter got dragon pox last minute, so we bailed to be with him."

I stayed quiet, looking around at the charred rubble. My dad was an auror, I'd heard plenty about Death Eaters, read the news articles of attacks and rising number of blood purity radicals. But seeing the outcome with my own eyes...

I wanted to ask what happened, if anyone got hurt— if anyone he knew got hurt, but all that came out was— "Why are all the other chairs rubble when these are perfectly fine?"

Sirius let out a surprised laugh and stretched his arms over the backs of the seats, admiring them. "Remus wanted to bring a date up here a while after it happened," he snickered. "So James and I fixed a few up for him. There's actually few more in the back that we used to spy on him."

I blushed as I laughed. So these were intended for dates? I was so relieved to get away from the crowd I hadn't thought about the fact that I was going off all alone with a boy I hardly knew. But this wasn't a date, was it? Not a real one, anyways...

"I doubt he appreciated you spying,."

Sirius barked a laugh. "Oh, he was properly furious. It was brilliant."

Stubby started playing one of his hit songs, 'Don't hex my heart'. "I sure hope he got his revenge on you two," I smiled, shaking my head.

"No worries, he's since spied on James at least twice."