The Durmstrang Potter Twin

To Walk

Sirius's POV

I shut the door quietly behind me and leaned against it, crossing my arms. Tara looked up from the desk that hadn't been moved out of our room and gave me a small smile before returning to what she was working on.

"You and I need to talk," I said after a minute of watching her write.

She looked up, nerves flashing before her eyes before rolling her chair back out from under the desk. I found myself glad that she didn't instantly try to assume what was going on. Instead, she looked up at me and asked, "What is it?"

"Tara," I looked down for a moment before shaking my head and standing up to go sit on the bed. "You've been so distant since you were sent down to... that place. I... I'm worried that you're not doing well."

She tilted her head curiously to look at me, "What would give you that impression?"

I scooted closer and leaned forward to take her hand before looking her in her eyes, "Tara. I have known you for over a decade and a half now. I know when something's bothering you."

Thankfully, she didn't bring up that I wasn't actually there for the majority of that time. For all I knew, she could have changed her behavior. This could be a woman that I could no longer read. For all I knew, she could need the isolation now.

I continued on before she could say anything, "You don't have to tell me anything that happened if you don't want to. I just don't want you to have to suffer alone. You've been so quiet... I'm just worried. You do nothing but work at this desk and exercise."

She looked at me, somehow calmer now that I had spoken and finally said, "I know. I know I've been distant." She looked down and shook her head. "This injury... has been a long term thing. I have to be incredibly careful about it. Once I'm able to stand again, Apollo will replace the brace that's been on my spine since the initial injury. But I have to get it back into basic function before he can put the brace on. I have to get it back into alignment. And everything that has happened recently... Sirius, I know you've felt it. The war's been back for nearly a year now, ever since Harry saw Tom. I'm trying to plan ahead. For the battle. The final battle. But everything is forcing itself against progress right now."

I sorted through the jumble of information and filed most of it away for later, "What do you mean 'against progress'?"

She grimaced, "My spine is stuck. It's just in one place, and I've been working at it for weeks, but I can't get it to release. It aches all the time and now I can't get in touch with Wesley for some reason. I don't know what's going on and there's not much I can do about it right now while I'm still injured."

I allowed the silence to linger for a moment before she finally sighed, "I can't get things done, stuck the way I am, whether I'm able to write or not. There's information that needs to be gathered, people that need to be checked on personally. I can't just contact some of these people out of the blue for the first time in a decade- they need true, physical proof that I'm actually alive. There are so many things I have t do. I'm writing as many people as I can for information and for help and it just isn't enough right now. Something is coming in the next few months- I've felt it for the past few weeks, growing in my mind. Tom is back, but something more is coming. And there's nothing I can do about it."

It took a moment before I crossed the room to crouch beside her at her chair, "You still have time then."

She looked over at me, brows furrowed, "What do you mean, time?"

"To heal. A few months is a lot of time if you look at it in the space of days in a month. And who says you can't travel and fight like that? You've always been able to figure something to work around an injury or a difficulty- what's a disability compared to some of the other things you've done? You need to think outside the box, even if you think you might be stuck in one."