Shooting Star

Chapter Sixty-Five

Things got bad quickly. Pretty soon, Harry Potter was Undesirable No. 1, and the Ministry was taking Muggleborns in for questioning. Sirius deemed it too dangerous, and decided Remus and I had to go into hiding. He took us to number 12 Grimmauld Place.
We went in and were greeted by the portrait of Walburga Black screeching, and a creepy 'ghost' of Dumbledore rushing at us. We took care of that quickly and made ourselves as comfortable as possible with Sirius jumping at every little movement.
"Mum?" I heard.
"HARRY!" The four of us chorused and I pulled my child into a hug.
"There are people watching." Hermione explained quickly. "You've got to be especially careful to apparate onto the top step. Mundungus Fletcher robbed the bloody place and took the locket Kreacher had that Regulus had gotten--Tonks! Hi, you look marvelous! How are you feeling?"
"All right." Tonks smiled.
"That mirror you gave me?" Harry asked Sirius. "I think you left the other here. We found shards of it."
"Oh, shit." Sirius sighed. "Mundungus Fletcher is a bloody--"
"Language." Remus told him.
"We have to leave tomorrow." Harry said.
"Where's Ron?" Tonks asked.
"Eating." Hermione pursed her lips.
We stayed up, probably too late, trying to get the kids to tell us stuff, but they wouldn't.
I eventually made the kids go to bed, since they'd be unbelievably busy in the coming days.
"I'm sorry, Mum." Harry told me quietly.
I shook my head. "No, Harry. I'm sorry." I hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek. "Get to bed. Go on."
"Hey, Dad?" Harry asked.
"Yeah?" Sirius said.
"Your room--"
"Oh, Merlin. I knew that'd come back to haunt me." He pressed his fist to his forehead.
"Might I ask why?"
"To piss off my parents."
"Yeah, sure." Harry grinned as he walked out.
"I'm not sleeping in that room." I told Sirius.
"Me either." He laughed, throwing his arm around me.
"I hate it here." Sirius whispered as we laid in bed with his bikini models staring at us.
"I'm sorry, love. We don't have to stay."
"Yes we do. You know, I went outside and talked to some of the people watching us."
"And why the hell would you do that?"
"You were upset. So I went to tell them to get the hell away because I wasn't going to live with my wife feeling unsafe in her own home."
"They could have killed you."
"But they didn't. I took precautions."
"I'd prefer to be stalked than to go to your funeral, Sirius."
I woke up in the middle of the night to Sirius making a strangled noise and sitting straight up in bed, his hands clamped over his mouth. I grabbed my wand as I sat up. "What's wrong?" I looked around.
He shook his head, slowly removing his hands and drawing in heavy breaths. "Nothing. Nothing, sorry. Go back to bed."
"Sirius?" I asked.
"I said nothing. Sorry I woke you. Go back to bed, love." He laid back down and rolled over.
"Sirius." I repeated.
"Nothing, Liza. Go to bed." He didn't turn to face me.
"Sirius, are we going to talk about all of this, or are you just going to go back to how you were?"
"How I was? What the hell does that mean?"
"Mr. I Don't Need Anybody. Fine, Sirius. Goodnight." I laid back down.
"Eliza." He whispered.
"Yeah?"
He rolled over and propped himself over me, kissing me. I knew we should probably talk, but I also knew he wouldn't want to, so I just pulled him down to me.

"Be careful, you hear?" I told the kids, hugging all three of them.
"We'll try." They chorused.
"I love your pancakes." Harry said as he hugged me.
I laughed a bit, trying not to cry. "I'll make you some more when this is over."
Then they left, and I started sobbing. Then Tonks started crying. She muttered something about pregnancy hormones as she wiped her tears.
"Where the hell is Sirius?" Remus asked her.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I'll find him."
Remus hugged me tightly, and I cried into his shoulder. Neither of us spoke what we were saying: that we may never see those kids again.
Tonks hadn't returned in a while, and I had calmed down, so we went to go looking.
We found them in the kitchen. They were sitting on the floor. Sirius was staring blankly forward, and Tonks knelt in front of him. "Sirius." She said gently. He didn't respond.
"Touch him." I told Tonks.
She touched his arm, repeating his name. Sirius jumped, blinking. "Huh?" He asked, looking around. He watched us all looking at him.
"You want to share with the class, Padfoot?" Remus asked.
"I'm sorry. I'm alright." His voice cracked. He looked at me, and then he started to cry.
Then Tonks started to cry, and then I started to cry.
When Harry was little, Remus was telling him a story of when he fell down the stairs, and Sirius picked him up.
"Wait, how'd he pick you up?" Harry had asked.
"He grabbed him by the waist, stood him up, and they started dancing." I had interjected from my spot on the couch.
"What'd they dance?" He asked me.
"The Macarena." Sirius had grinned.
Of course, that hadn't actually happen. Sirius had actually just pulled him up by the hand and steadied him, and we'd gone on with our lives.
Now, Remus went over to Sirius and grabbed his hands. "Up you go." He said, pulling him up. He assisted Tonks next, and then started crying as well.
So, we all sat at the kitchen table in number 12 Grimmauld Place and cried for a good hour.
Sirius continued staring into the corner of the kitchen every time he was in the room. I supposed that that was where something bad had happened, and just didn't ask.
I hated being here. It was torturing Sirius, and consequently torturing me and Remus, and therefore Tonks as well. It was awful. I supposed we'd have to just live with it for a while...