Insouciant: showing a casual lack of concern
{===}
"Man Stabs Own Husband to Death in an Alley, Walks Free... Woman Accused of Five Counts of Homicide Guilty, No Punishment... Mass Murderer Let Loose." Sirius Black frowned down at the newspaper articles, "I'm beginning to rethink going outside. Everyone's a serial killer or a pervert."
Alex glanced up from across the table. They had been going through old newspapers for almost half an hour now, though Alex seemed to be having considerable difficulty, "How far back's that?"
Sirius flipped back to the front of the paper, "Four years ago. April sometime."
"Four years ago." Alex pondered. She looked down at her scratchy, large-fonted notes, "That's when the Death Eaters started killing?"
Sirius pulled a face, "Not exactly. That's when they started committing ordered crimes. Before then it was just the odd muggle born who got in their way. Afterwards, it became targeted. And they started getting away with it."
"Thirty five muderers." Alex commented, looking at him for what felt like the first time, "On average."
He frowned, "What?"
"What you were saying before, about everyone being a killer." She corrected herself awkwardly, "The average person walks past thirty five murderers in their lifetime. Marlene McKinnon said."
"Well, if McKinnon said it, it has to be true." Sirius remarked sarcastically.
Alex rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, flapping her newspaper dramatically, "Just makes you think. If you ever worry about being too up yourself, Black, just remember thirty five murderers didn't believe you were worth killing."
"Or alternatively, thirty five people who don't mind taking a life saw something special in me." Sirius said, "And when am I ever up myself?"
Alex snorted, "Would you like me to provide a list? It's alphabetised."
"I thought we talked about this." Sirius sat forwards, planting a finger on the tabletop, "No snark in my library. I don't appreciate the snark."
"You talked, I didn't listen. It's a disturbingly common trend." Alex rolled her eyes, "We're looking for something that happened four years ago, then?"
Sirius narrowed his eyes at the small text without looking up, "No. We know what happened."
"Do we now?" Alex asked with a sigh. He could hear her sitting back, "And this was decided when?"
Sirius frowned, "Did I not tell you? I could have sworn I said it out loud."
Alex rolled her eyes again, "Unfortunately, Mr Black, I am not a mind-reader, so-"
"You sound like my mother." Sirius muttered.
"Coming from you, I assume that's not a compliment." Alex remarked. She frowned at Sirius. Something was up with him, although she hated the fact that she knew that, "What happened four years ago?"
Sirius looked up at her. He spread his fingers wide, dramatically whispering, "The Shadow Man."
"The what?" Alex raised her eyebrows, "I'm sorry. I don't remember ordering a low-budget Marvel villain."
"I didn't come up with the name." Sirius protested, "It's just what the Death Eaters call him. This guy who organises everything. Before him, the Death Eaters were a public menace, a few murders, nothing really, all the bad guys put behind bars. After he took charge, they were a threat."
Alex frowned, "I thought My Voldy-face was in charge?"
"He is." Sirius sounded far too smartarse for Alex's liking, "But, in war, the general is often more important than the king."
"Because you've been in so many wars." Alex dropped all pretense of reading her paper.
Sirius grinned at her and sat forward, "I know enough to realise that I'd rather get called into Professor Dumbledore's office than Minnie's."
Alex sighed again, "So the... Shadow Man is pulling all the strings and stuff. How does that help us?"
"Multiple people could mean more than one agenda, a string of coincidences linking the murders. But it wasn't." Sirius' eyes glittered, "It was him. Which means he had a purpose, a reason for directing the murders at our year."
Alex took note of his pointed expression, "And you think that's us?"
"It makes sense." Sirius pointed out, "It's arrogant to assume we're the only people who know about the prophecy."
"Makes sense." Alex snorted, "None of this makes any sense. That prophecy was given to us by my dead Grandma, who, by the way, never met me and hid her visions in a wall behind a star map that we were just expected to investigate. Also, Sirius Black has started calling things arrogant. I'm pretty sure these are all signs of the apocalypse."
Sirius chewed his lip thoughtfully, "We should be investigating the prophecy." He decided at last.
Alex threw her hands in the air, exasperated, "Do you actually hear the words coming out of my mouth or is there some sort of inhibitor in your brain that prevents all reason and logic from getting through?"
"Reason and logic?" Sirius Black asked her incredulously, "What on earth would I want with those?"
"Oh, I don't know." Alex muttered as she watched Sirius being distracted by yet another randomly glimpsed book title, and disappear off among the shelves, "Defeating the Dark Lord seems like a strong start."
The library was almost deserted by this point. They were skipping dinner- or maybe tea, definitely one of the meals- to be there. To be perfectly honest, Alex's timekeeping skills were unparalleled only in their inadequacy, and she hadn't slept or even gone back to the dormitory, and it got dark super early now, so it wasn't really her fault. Candlelight spilled over the desk, illuminating the rolls of parchment and stacked books in a warm amber glow.
"What was that?" Sirius called from among the volumes.
Alex tapped an irregular beat on the table with her nails, "I said that my grandmother had a weak heart. That's how she died. Heart attack."
Sirius emerged again, frowning, "Interesting."
"Not really. People have been killed by exploding lava lamps." Alex cited, folding the piece of parchment in her hands very deliberately, "Now there's an interesting way to go."
Sirius shot her a look, "The killing curse mimics a heart attack. That's what muggle autopsy reports end up putting it down to."
"You think my grandmother was murdered?" Alex asked, "By Death Eaters?"
He shrugged, "Makes sense."
"Stop saying that." Alex instructed him, launching the paper airplane in her hands at his head. She might not be great at magic, but both her origami and her paper airplane skills were tuned to perfection.
Sirius rubbed his head resentfully, "Ow."
"We should go to my house." Alex said suddenly, a thought hitting her.
"Well that was certainly a change in character." Sirius observed, "One minute you're chucking your origami masterpieces at me, the next you're inviting me over for a date?"
Alex pointed at him, "Not a date. The night after the whole star-wall-prophecy thing, I got another message."
"And you didn't think it was worth mentioning?" Sirius asked, setting down his new stack of books.
Alex scrunched up her nose, "Well, it was extremely passive aggressive and not at all helpful."
"Not everything that's passive aggressive is unhelpful." Sirius commented, "Look at you."
Alex narrowed her eyes at him, "Which one am I?"
"Does it matter? The first one." Sirius squeezed his eyes shut in thought for a moment, "Hold on. No. Yes. Okay. Alright."
The girl thumbed through the first book on Sirius' pile absently, "Should I be calling someone or is yelling responses to phone conversations something you do a lot?"
"Your house." Sirius declared, "We need to go to your house. There might be another message."
"Didn't I just say this?" Alex asked, sounding as if she wasn't quite sure herself.
Sirius grinned at her, laying one hand on the table and using it to hop over the top with the agility he had definitely not been showcasing in the last hour of book reading, "Yes, but now I'm saying it."
"Excuse me. Could I talk to my brother?"
Alex twisted in her chair to see Regulas Black, standing awkwardly at the side of a shelving unit. He was picking at his sleeve habitually, with a nervousness she empathised with. His dark hair looked unwashed, although it had been cut recently so that it no longer resembled his brother's. The Slytherin logo over his heart bore tell tale signs of wear, a curious thing on a child of the Black family.
"You've made it very clear that 'brother' is no longer a word that you want applied to us." Sirius' cold voice surprised Alex. She had heard it before of course, but never in such close proximity to her, and never after such a light tone.
Regulas stumbled on his words, "Sirius, then. I need to talk to you. Please. It's important."
"Everything's life or death in our family." Sirius addressed Alex, "You can see why I got out."
Alex gave him a pointed expression, and smiled warmly at Regulas, "I don't mind leaving."
"You don't have to-"
"Thank you." Regulas returned her smile with a nervous one of his own.
Sirius threw his hands in the air, the same way that Alex had done earlier. She doubted he even noticed he was subconsciously copying her, "Is everyone done micromanaging my life for me now? Do I get to make some decisions of my own?"
"Absolutely not." Alex decided, sweeping up her stuff. She leaned closer to Sirius before she left, muttering under her breath, "Don't go too hard on him. You don't want to loose your brother."
Her last glimpse of Sirius' face was a slightly confused, slightly surprised expression, following her with his eyes as she marched out of the room.
As soon as he was sure Alex Fawley was gone, Regulas Black turned to his brother, "You're in trouble."
"I'm usually in trouble." Sirius replied blandly, "Care to be a bit more specific?"
"The Shadow Man." Regulas said.
Sirius tried to look unaffected, stacking parchments and books without any actual respect for order, "You mean the fairy tale our aunt used to tell us to give us nightmares? Are you determined to remind me why our family is the worst?"
"He's real. He contacted me." Regulas said, visibly swallowing.
Sirius still refused to be moved, "Are you sure it wasn't Cousin Bella in a mask? She does like her tricks-"
"Dammit, this is real!" Regulas showed obvious signs of panic. His eyes darted to the door and back again, "He's after you and that Fawley girl."
'That Fawley girl'. It was so strange to think that was all Sirius had thought of Alex at the start of the year. Now she was... Well she was Alex. Brilliant, amazing Alex who didn't even understand how brilliant or amazing she was with her camera and her hidden wit and her constant ability to surprise him.
"What did he say?" Sirius asked, dropping a copy of Grimm's Fairytales on top of Advanced Spellcasting.
He could picture Regulas frowning, "What?"
"You said the Shadow Man contacted you." Sirius repeated, "What did he say?"
Regulas stuttered, "Right. Yes. Right. Well, there was some stuff about a prophecy. The Death Eaters need you and Alex to be somewhere or do something, or they can't win."
"Or they can't win." Sirius echoed, "Interesting."
"Please." Regulas said, "Please tell me. Please let me help. I can help you."
Sirius pulled his eyebrows together, "Why should I trust you? You chose the Death Eaters. You chose our family."
"You were leaving me." Regulas' eyes were brimming with tears, "You were leaving me with them. I couldn't just... Just watch. We don't do that. You know we don't do that."
"We always throw the first punch." Sirius murmured softly. He wanted, so badly, for his brother to be telling the truth. He wanted his trust, his friendship. He wanted to grin confidently at a party and to sling his arm around Regulas' shoulder and say, My brother. He was reminded sometimes how young Regulas was, how much responsibility was now resting on his shoulders, the Black family name weighing on his too-thin frame.
Regulas was obviously waiting for an answer, "Please."
Sirius sighed. Alex's words rang in his head, You don't want to loose your brother.
"What do you already know?" he asked.