good things fall apart • sirius black

Pretty stars burn out eventually

No one registered Sirius' absence until dinner time. The adults all thought the children were together; James and Lily thought he was with Ellie; Ellie thought he was with James and Lily. There was no panic until everyone had convened in the Potter's dining room and suddenly they were a man down.

After leaving Camille and the Orangery, Ellie had gone in search for her friends, only to be intercepted by Euphemia and dragged into the kitchen whilst she cooked. The loving woman berated her about the tattoos she'd caught sight of, and then forced Ellie to chop up the carrots, the beautiful girl unaware that Sirius had supposedly gone to find her. All whilst James and Lily lounged in his room as he talked her through the different Quidditch teams he had jerseys hung up for, everyone under the impression that Sirius was with someone else.

"I saw him outside earlier and he took off towards here." Camille told everyone, "Could he not just be in his room?"

"I'll go and check." Ellie rose out of her seat immediately, but her Aunt stopped her with a careful hand on her shoulder.

"I think James should go."

The messy haired boy pointed to himself briefly, but then shrugged and stood instead, brushing the back of Lily's hair down gently as he wandered off towards upstairs.

"Why couldn't I go?" Ellie demanded.

"Just something he said, is all." Camille replied casually, "James will get him, don't panic. Sirius seemed in a bit of a mood."

"Did he tell you why? What did he say?"

When Camille shared a pointed look with Cyrus, Ellie began to panic. Sirius couldn't have been in a bad mood, he'd been smiling so wide this morning, and she was desperate to know what was wrong, what it was that had changed.

"What did he say?" Ellie repeated with more force, but before she could get a response, James' voice was calling.

"He's not up here!" The worry was evident in his tone as they listened to his thundering footsteps racing back down the stairs, his feet coming to a skidding stop in the dining room doorway, "His Hogwarts trunk is gone, his wand off his bedside table, his vinyl." James was frantic, eyes wide and chest heaving, "I think- I think he's gone."

Euphemia gasped as she clapped a hand over her mouth and Ellie was out of her seat in seconds, racing towards the hallway to put her combat boots on.

"Camille and I will head back towards home, see if he's in the forest." Cyrus announced quickly, "Fleamont, search your garden. Euphemia, you contact Andromeda. For all we know he's gone to see her last minute. And someone should check Protea House."

"I think Ellie's already going." Lily said and they all fell silent.

Only a second later, they heard the beautiful girl's voice shouting from the living room, the roaring of flames following.

"We'll go after her." James announced, grabbing Lily's hand and dragging her towards the living room.

Ellie shut her eyes tight as she was swallowed by the green flames. She wasn't entirely sure how she knew that Sirius would've left for Protea House, but she just got a feeling and let that guide her. Heart in her throat and mind reeling with all the worst possible scenarios, she didn't move through the Floo Network quick enough. This type of panic was what she expected to feel when she knew he was out on Order missions in the future. But there was a high possibility that he'd took off and gone chasing Death Eaters now.

There was no such thing as an overreaction in the world they lived in now. One foot wrong and you could be found, caught, killed, and Sirius was beyond reckless at the best of times. Ellie only prayed that he had just gone to see Andromeda.