If You Leave Me Now // Marauders

Chapter Eighty-Three

CW-mentions of violence, death, torture, suicidal ideation

November 2nd, 1981 York Road, London, England

It took two days of non-stop searching for Sirius to locate Peter Pettigrew. Peter stood silently at the opposite end of the muggle street, not caring that the locals were giving him a funny look. Sirius, already driven mad by grief, anger, and lack of sleep, called loudly, "Peter Pettigrew! The fucking rat and I finally meet again!"

Peter, once again, didn't bother to respond. Almost as if he were waiting for something.

It was when Sirius took two more steps forward that Peter's eyes widened, and he pointed at him and began to wail loudly, "James and Lily, Sirius! How could you? You're the reason they're dead!"

Hearing the words out loud were too much for him, and Sirius drew his wand and pointed it at Peter. Within a flash, almost as if it were planned, an explosion engulfed the area around Peter, blowing out storefront windows and killing any muggle within the perimeter of the blast.

Sirius was knocked to his feet, his ears ringing from the loud and unexpected blast and his head now pounding. His vision was blurred, and the world seemed spin as he laid on the cement. There were alarms blaring from the blasted apart storefronts, flames flickering on the outside of his vision. He pulled himself into a sitting position, wiping away the blood that was running down his forehead from a slice across his eyebrow.

And then Sirius started to laugh.

He laughed until tears started falling down his face, and he found that he couldn't stop laughing.

He had been fooled. He trusted the person that just put his family in the ground. And to top it all, Evangeline knew. She knew for years and they never believed her. She was dead, and so were James and Lily. Marlene. Dorcas.

It was all over.

There were muggles sobbing and screaming for their loved ones that had been blown to pieces by the blast, and some of them were now looking at Sirius in fear. In truth, he hadn't known where the blast came form. All he hoped was that Peter was dead. He prayed to anyone who would listen to his pleas that Peter Pettigrew was dead.

And then he closed his eyes and fell back onto the pavement, unconscious.

He didn't wake again until he felt the shackles attached to his wrists and ankles. His eyes opened blearily, looking around at who was touching him.

"Frank?"

"Sirius Orion Black III, you are under arrest for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles, as well as breaking a number of laws against the statute of secrecy and selling information to You-Know-Who himself. Due to the new ordinance passed by Bartemius Crouch Sr, anyone that shows proper evidence of participating in Death Eater activity will be reprimanded straight to Azkaban for a minimum of fifteen years."

Cornelius Fudge didn't bother to look Sirius in the eyes as he rolled up the magical scroll, allowing it to disappear with a sharp snap. Frank Longbottom and another unknown auror supported most of Sirius's weight as they began to lead him away.

"I didn't do it, Frank. I hope you know that," he whispered under his breath, suddenly feeling the exhaustion weighing on him.

He watched as Frank flinched at his words, shooting him a sympathetic look.

"Tell Dumbledore what I said, yeah? Just do that for me."

After a moment of hesitation, Frank subtly nodded, and Sirius let his head fall once more.