Peripetieia: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances; the point of no return.
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Sirius Black didn't like this 'Oscar' person.
Alex had said Oscar was Logan's cousin. Alex had said that he was a muggle who dropped out of Sixth Form last year for the family trade. Alex had said that he had been there almost every time she had visited Logan's over the years. Alex hadn't said why he kept smiling at her with only half his face, in a way that Sirius supposed was meant to be attractive, or why she smiled at him more than she had ever smiled at Sirius, or why they seemed to know each other so well for someone who was only a relative of a friend.
The rest of the Marauders, to Sirius' confusion, had no such reservations about Oscar. In fact, Remus was happily chatting away to him about 'Comet Wars' or some other battle surrounding celestial bodies, Sirius was paying more attention to the way that Alex was nodding along to what the older boy was saying. Peter and James were listening avidly, caught in that sort of strange fascination of muggle culture.
By the time they had finally reached the farmhouse, Sirius was beginning to regret suggesting the trip at all, no matter who was in danger. He was ready and willing for Logan to turn up and drive a wedge of familial protection between Alex and the muggle guy who- Did he just touch her shoulder?
Maybe he was jealous. Just the thought sent a spike of guilt running through Sirius. He had never been the jealous type before, and he had always rolled his eyes at the people who were. This wasn't who he was, and it shouldn't matter who was in question. It was another test, another question of, Am I like my parents?
Perhaps Alex had been right when she'd said that it was all about them. The more Sirius tried to escape them, the more he felt the shadow of their presence in his life looming over him, just pulling him back in all over again. Perhaps that's why he felt so attached to Alex. Despite the lying, and the blatant misleading, Alex had felt like the one thing in his life that he'd got right. He hadn't messed her up, had offered her support, someone to talk to.
That realisation in itself was the most messed up thing he'd thought all day.
"Logan's still in his room." Oscar was saying as he kicked open a small white gate, "But I wouldn't go in there with him. He's still puking up a storm."
"Sounds fun." Alex commented blandly.
Oscar shot her a look, "There's something different about you. I can't put my finger on it."
"Yeah, well I started doing drugs," Alex responded nonchalantly, glancing at the sky, "It really changes your perspective on things."
Sirius followed the others into the quaint little farmhouse and up the narrow wooden staircase that waited just inside. He didn't pay much attention to the décor- he was sure it would be just as disgustingly adorable as the exterior- although he still caught himself half expecting the stairs to move beneath his feet. He missed home.
Logan was in his room, surrounded by piles of cough medicine and half-drunk potions, and firmly settled in a pair of Superman pyjamas. He looked up at their entrance from where he had cocooned himself in his light blue bedspread at the bottom of his matress.
"Alright, mate?" James nodded to him, the casualness of his comment provoking a snort from Remus.
Logan, far from surprise, sighed and leaned back into his makeshift den of illness and self pity, "Just when I thought I could finally escape you lot."
"Unless you can turn into a butterfly and flap out of here, you're gonna need us to escape something much worse." Alex piped up, stepping around Oscar, eyes darting around the room like she expected Voldemort to leap from the charmingly chipped brickwork.
Logan's eyes betrayed his shock. His lips parted a little, "Alex."
"Actually I'm her evil doppelganger." Alex responded nonchalantly, moving to the window and twitching the curtain aside, "And it looks like I got here just in time. We got company."
I looked past her. Swirling mini-tornadoes of black mist were streaking over the sky, touching down just over the field that we had arrived in not twenty minutes before. They rearranged themselves into three figures, all clothed in black, and spaced at perfect villain intervals apart for that classic silhouetted evil figures in the distance aesthetic.
Logan sat up, blinking sleepily, "What's going on?"
Alex took a step back, looking over the assembled squad of guys and making some quick calculations, "Potter, Remus, fill him in. Pettigrew, Oscar, barricade the doors, buy us some time. Toto, you're with me."
It took Sirius a moment to realise that she was talking to him. By the time he did, she was halfway to the door, "Where are we going?"
"To the roof." Was the short answer, "Let's see who we're up against."
There was a regimented military procedure to the way Alex moved now, a purpose that Sirius had never seen before, except when she was prepping to take a picture. He could physically see the world around her zero down to one foot in front of the other. She had always had that ability, no matter how scared she was, to lose herself in the task at hand. Sometimes Sirius thought that was why she got so afraid- because if she knew she could fade from reality so easily, it would be hard not to wonder if one day she wouldn't make it back.
The roof was accessed through a hatch in the ceiling just outside of Logan's room. Sirius watched as Alex made an assessment about her height, and gestured to him to pop it open. A ladder unfolded itself at his touch, sliding into place.
He held out a hand to pause Alex, just for a minute, speaking in a low voice, "Look, I know I dragged you into this, but are you sure you're up for it?"
In response, Alex scoffed, "I'm a newly initiated werewolf who's just discovered that the dog I sort of adopted is actually the arsehole that the dead grandmother I never met told me that I have an inescapable destiny with." She shoved past him, feet hitting the bottom rungs of the ladder, "They could have a fully activated nuke out there and I'm ninety percent sure I'd walk away."
"Yes." Sirius said, determinedly staring at the floor. Talking to someone at arse-level was one of those occasions where you aren't sure where to look, "But is that you talking or the... Thing?"
Alex stopped her climb and looked down at him, "The 'thing' is me now, and it's might save you all. So you can bloody well accept it already."
She disappeared through the ladder. Fighting his annoyance, Sirius followed her, barely taking in the chipped roof tiles, or the no-longer-so-distant figures picking their way carefully towards them in his rush to voice his opinion.
"I don't accept it." He said at her back, "I don't. So you can bloody well do the whole angst-emo-goth, I've-changed-this-is-who-I-am-now thing if you want, but all the rest of us are gonna do is sit back and wait for the storm to pass, wait for Alex to come back because the 'thing' living inside her is twisted and wrong and not real."
She didn't respond. Her back was to Sirius, looking out over the landscape.
He took a step closer, never moving his eyes from her, "Oh, and now you decide to go all silent treatment. What the fuck is your deal?"
Alex's arm whipped out suddenly. She reached behind her, grabbing Sirius by his collar and dragging him forward, so that he was looking out the same way that she was. The Death Eaters were closer now, close enough to distinguish who they were. There was Rodolphus Lestrange, and Lilith Flint, who had obviously decided that Sirius' black leather approach to fashion was worth copying, but it was the last shape that really seared itself into Sirius' memory- Bellatrix Black.
He hadn't seen her in months, not since the last Black clan gathering, but the change was obvious. Her hair had whipped itself into a tornado around her head, her eyes were wild with a terrifyingly insane light. Her engagement looked like it was working wonders for her.
"Okay, I have to make a few adjustments to the plan." Alex said.
Sirius glanced at her, "There was a plan?"
"There was a plan." Alex confirmed dully, "Well, half a plan. Well, half a plan and a cannon."
Sirius blinked, "Where were you keeping a cannon?"
"It's better if you don't ask questions." The werewolf instructed, "We're scrapping that plan. I have a new plan. Plan B: The Revenge of the Plan, Plan Strikes Back, Plan the Sequel."
"Planmageddon." Sirius couldn't help adding.
"We can't fight them off." Alex stated obviously, ignoring Sirius, "And they're after Logan."
Sirius frowned, "Right."
She turned fully to face Sirius, eyes dead set on him, "We need to apparate Logan out of here. Only problem is, if the papers are right and the Death Eaters have Ministry access, they'll be able to tell where we've apparated as soon as they get in here and see we're gone. And you can't apparate directly into Hogwarts, we all know that."
"So what's your plan?" Sirius couldn't help but ask.
Alex narrowed her eyes at the horizon. The Death Eaters were about a five minute walk away now, they were really taking their time, "You're gonna have to magic the lot of you into Hogsmead and run like hell. I'll stay behind to delay them for as long as possible. With any luck, they wont want to follow you if you're that close to school, but I'm not taking any chances."
"That's suicidal." Sirius growled.
"Yeah, well," She shrugged, "Luckily for you, I'm kind of in that mood at the minute, so-"
He stared at her hard, like he was trying to tattoo his thoughts right onto her soul, "What about tomorrow? What about when all of this fades? Would the other Alex do something like this?"
Alex grinned at him, a flash of silver, "There wont be a tomorrow."
"Exactly." Sirius pointed at her, "And you are not going to die. We'll find another way."
"Okay." Alex ran a hand through her hair, the first tells of stress that Sirius had seen her give off since this whole bloody mess began, "Okay, I am going through plans like fucking tic tacs now. And the third ones never very good if you rush it out. Look at Shrek Three."
"It doesn't need to be good." Sirius told her, "It just needs to be enough. Like Shrek Two."
"I'm beginning to think we shouldn't base our battle plans on a franchise that captains a semi-anthropomorphic donkey and a dragon as its B-plot romance." Alex said slowly, raising her eyes to meet Sirius'. Almost simultaneously, their lips twitched and they burst out in a fit of giggles. Not pretty ones either. No, it was snorting, wheezing, ugly giggles.
Alex stopped suddenly, like she'd been shot. Her arm flew out to grab Sirius', eyes wide.
He stared at her, a little concerned, "What?"
"I've got it." She whispered.
There was a moment of silence, and then she released Sirius, and leapt over a chimney pot, fingers scrabbling at the brick.
"What have you got?" Sirius called after her, voice as low as possible.
Alex didn't answer immediately, but pulled a rather large box from inside the chimney, "A thing."
"Is it an important thing?" Sirius asked, rather hopefully.
"It's a very reckless, possibly suicidal thing." She glanced up at him, "You want in?"
Sirius thought about it for a second, then shrugged, "What the hell. I've been looking for an excuse to get out of Slughorn's potions essay anyway. I think death makes the cut."
He dropped down into a crouch next to Alex. She gave him a meaningful look before letting the box fall open. Inside were stacks and stacks of a product very familiar to Sirius- Filibuster Fireworks.
"Brilliant." He grinned.
Alex grabbed a handful, reaching into her pocket for her wand, "Years ago, Logan scored some of these on the black market. He wanted to use them, but I chickened out. I didn't want to get in trouble with his dad. So we hid them up here. You know the thing about Filibuster Fireworks?"
Sirius did, of course, he knew everything about them, but in this particular situation, he wasn't sure what aspect of their construction would help. He shook his head.
"They're like wine." Alex grabbed anther handful, chucking them towards the edge of the roof. Sirius copied her, "They don't go off, they just get stronger, and more violent."
"And violent's what we need right now." Sirius finished. He shook his head again, this time as a gesture as appreciation, "Genius."
"Not genius." Alex finished unloading the fireworks and chucked the box off somewhere to her left, "But enough."
The Death Eaters were almost to the house by now. Sirius and Alex both gathered as many fireworks as they could, standing on the edge. Sirius Black wrestled his wand into his hand, and looked at Alex, once, for confirmation.
"Shrek Two?" He asked, trusting her to infer the hastily invented code word's meaning.
She nodded, "Shrek Two."
They locked eye contact, for just a moment, and, like the plan, like most things in Sirius's life that kept him going, it was enough. Their wands were positioned at the base of each pile of fireworks, pointing outwards, towards the invading forces.
The spell was yelled at the same time, "Incendio!"