ink - sirius black

grey and healing

tw: violence

December 26, 1977
12:59 am
Potter Manor

"AND YOU LET HER JUST LEAVE?!" Euphemia shouted, one of the very few times she had ever raised her voice with Sirius when she wasn't teasing. "AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS NOW?!"

"I DIDN'T JUST LET HER LEAVE!" Sirius yelled back, and Fleamont's eyes narrowed. "I TRIED TO MAKE HER STAY, BUT IT'S NOT LIKE I'M GOING TO PHYSICALLY FORCE HER TO-"

"Already broke her damn finger by grabbing her hand too hard," James muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Wouldn't be too shocking-"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Mia yelled, gaze darting across all three men in the room before it settled firmly on Sirius. "IS THAT SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE-"

"IT WAS AN COMPLETE ACCIDENT!" Black shouted, glaring at James, who just looked away. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT HER AT ALL, AND I FEEL AWFUL ABOUT IT, HONESTLY."

"We're going to talk about that later when you've calmed down and we figure out if she's safe,'' Euphemia said in a warning tone, then turning away from Sirius. "Do we have any idea where she could have gone?"

"I dunno, I mean, you seem to know more than we do," James said. "Where did you and Regulus go? What was that piece of paper? I saw you recognize it, so please don't say or act like you didn't. What's going on here?"

Euphemia sighed deeply, rubbing her forehead. She knew there was no point in denying it.

They were two very smart boys, they would figure it out eventually. She would rather the blow come simply and clean from her rather than messily and painful from multiple sources that might lead them astray.

"You know that secretive mission with the spy I mentioned earlier tonight?" she asked, and they both nodded. "Well, apparently that spy was Anneliese."

James and Sirius both stared blankly at her for a solid ten seconds before their minds started to actually process her words.

"But.. she's not a part of the Order," James said slowly, rubbing his head in an identical motion to his mother moments earlier. "So.. no. They can't just force her to do that, not A. They'd have to have like.. like kidnapped her or something- oh. Oh shit."

"Wait, let me get this straight," Sirius said, blinking several times. "Anneliese went down to the Black Lake, was literally kidnapped by the Order, decided to stay and do the mission, somehow infiltrated a pureblood ball based on what she and Reggie were wearing, was stabbed by Bellatrix, then managed to save my brother too? And get the information?"

There were a few moments of silence while Euphemia turned these words over in her head.

"Yes," she said simply with a nod. "Yes, that seems to cover the basic picture."

Black sat down heavily on a barstool at the kitchen island, propping his elbows up on the wood countertop and holding his head in his hands while he tried to process this.

"Can we just get back to where she is?" James asked, adjusting his glasses out of nervous habit. "That's just a lot of information that I don't feel like going through right now. Or ever."

"She said something about going back to people who cared about her," Sirius said, looking back up and resting his chin on his split knuckles from punching the mirror. "So she thinks the people who kidnapped her care about her. Lovely."

"There are dozens of good members of the Order," Fleamont said, and Euphemia nodded in agreement. "I'm sure that she's in very safe hands with whoever was chosen to take her in, especially if she wanted to get back to them."