Breaking Black (A Sirius Black Love Story)

Chapter 87

The weather got colder, and the days got darker, in both regards to the war and the amount of daylight. Sirius and I spent most of our free time (the little that there was) in our house. Our house was protected by many concealment charms placed by Dumbledore himself. It was one of the only places we knew was safe.

I sat on the carpet in front of the fireplace, poking at the fire while waiting for Sirius to return home. Suddenly, I noticed an odd piece of paper in the ashes. We never used paper to start our fires. I summoned the paper into my grip, snuffing out the flame on the corner.

The paper was a yellowing piece of parchment, wadded up and covered in scorch marks. I flattened the parchment on my leg and tried to read it. Through all the grime and burned parts, I could only make out a few words, but I soon realized it was a letter. The handwriting was messy and rushed. The words in the body of the letter that I could make out were 'Dark Lord' and a fragment of the sentence 'I hope you're doing well.' The bottom of the page was signed R.A.B.

I kept poking around the ashes and fireplace, looking for more fragments of letters. I was hurt. The letters weren't mine and Sirius obviously didn't want me to see them, so he burned them without my knowledge. I continued to search, getting increasingly angry, until the flames of the fire turned green, signaling Sirius' impending arrival.

"Evening, love," Sirius greeted after stepping out of our fireplace. Normally, I would make a light-hearted joke about him tracking soot all over the house, but I glared at him as he approached. He lowered his head to kiss me, but I dodged his advance. He looked hurt and I crossed my arms.

"Sirius, why have you been burning letters?" I questioned, getting right to the point. Sirius' face went pale.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was stoking the fire today and a piece of a letter fell out," I explained slowly. I held the burned letter out for evidence and he took it from my hands. "What are you hiding from me?"

"I'm not hiding anything!" Sirius insisted.

"Then why burn the letters? Are you doing something wrong? Something illegal? Something with the Dark Lord?"

I pointed a shaking finger at the words on the paper. It was preposterous to think Sirius would ever be working with Voldemort.

"You can't possibly believe I would be doing something for Voldemort," Sirius sneered. He started laughing his barking laugh, as if he found the whole situation funny.

"Then why burn these letters?"

"I'm keeping someone safe!"

R.A.B. I thought to myself about the initials. Regulus Arcturus Black. The letters were from Regulus.

"Is R.A.B. Regulus?"

I knew the answer even before Sirius nodded. He grabbed my shoulders and slid his palms down my arms, so he could take my hands.

"You understand now why I had to burn them? We have Aurors crawling all over this house every week and my brother is a known Death Eater wanted for questioning. If anyone knew I was talking to him... Hell, I haven't even told James!"

"Well, how is he?"

"How do you think? He's working for the darkest wizard of all time."

"Has he told you anything important?"

"Why do you think I've been in contact with him?" Sirius' grey eyes glittered. "He's not exactly a spy, he's afraid if he tells us anything it will get him killed. I don't blame him. I can't even imagine what would happen if someone intercepted the owls. But he has been hinting about an attack on Beauxbatons. They had more Muggle-borns and half wizard students there because they weren't accepted at Durmstrang."