Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter Forty Seven

With the students back in Hogwarts, the Order was able to get much more done without the children about asking all sorts of questions about everything. However, things were not going well at Hogwarts at all with Dolores Umbridge still holding her reign of terror over the castle. It was becoming more and more difficult to remain in contact with any of them as everything was being monitored through the castle. The Ministry was set on having everyone believe that Harry and Cedric were liars and that Voldemort hadn't returned. Nixie couldn't believe something as stupid as to having two eyewitnesses to the event, not counting for anything. To blame it on stress was even worse in her mind.

Eleanor had followed through with sending her knitted garments through the post. Of course, it wouldn't last much longer as Umbridge was growing suspicious of that as well. The Order had to warn the students to lay low and not bring any unwanted attention to themselves.  Which proved to be the hardest thing for Harry and his stubborn nature. Nixie couldn't help but laugh sometimes as she thought of how much Harry was like his parents in the field of stubbornness, so much he was like Lily with defending the idea of right and wrong. And very much like James where he didn't hold back with anything he had to say.

Although, Sirius was helping plenty there as he encouraged Harry to continue opposing the foul woman and supporting Dumbledore's Army as the students called it. Nixie was all for the idea of the students learning to defend themselves against the Dark Arts as Umbridge's curriculum  wouldn't benefit the students at all. 

But the boy was suffering the consequences, and Umbridge's punishments for the boy were enough to make Nixie want to travel to the grounds herself on the next full moon and show the miserable woman what half-breeds were all about. 

Staring at a pair of knitted socks, Nixie moved them about in her hands, completely stunned at the idea that a pair of socks had changed so much.She thought back to the first time the Order was gathered all those years ago when she had first left school with her friends. Her mind traveled to all the lives that were lost during the fight against Voldemort and his followers. 

"What are you thinking about?" She felt a hand trail through her hair before Sirius took the spot beside her. She nearly jumped thinking she was alone in the Grimmauld Place besides Kreacher and Buckbeak.

"What...I thought you and Remus were out-"

"We were out." He said, but there was no smile on his face. The two men had left earlier to search on any possible leads of Margaret's whereabouts but it seemed they came up empty handed once again.

"Where's Remus?" She asked.

"He was fairly upset, he didn't want to come back here right away, I think he might have left home for the time being."

Nixie sighed focusing her eyes back on the socks again.

"What are you thinking about?" Sirius asked her again.

"I'm thinking about how I wish Eleanor had been born sooner." She said with a small smile before looking up at him. "How things would be so much different if she had been around during the first war. I mean, well...she was, but she was only a baby at the time. Could you imagine if we had the knitting during the first war? How many people would still be here today? Lily, James, Marlene...the Bones...the Prewetts..."

She stopped herself as she watched Sirius look down to the floor with a saddened expression at the mentioning of the lives lost.

"We have it now though." He said finally. "We have it now and that's what matters, it changes everything."

His fingers continued to hold onto the ends of her hair, moving the strands carefully through his finger tips as his eyes met hers.

The couple studied one another, braving smiles on their faces,  but the look in their eyes told a completely different story. They were scared and it was obvious, the two of them were afraid of having to lose anyone else including each other. They had finally made it back to each other after being separated well over a decade of time only to be thrown into another war right away. Only this time, they were fighting two wars, the fight against the Ministry and the fight against Voldemort.

The fact that they didn't have the support of the Ministry as they did before wasn't comforting at all, but they were hoping Dumbledore would be able to convince them. Instead he was being made out to look like a raving lunatic along with Harry. They were the faces of the slandering articles that the Ministry stood behind.

Nixie knew the Ministry was denying it out of fear. No one liked the idea of Voldemort returning except for his followers and to prevent people panicking, they were doing their best to cover it up. But they weren't doing anyone any favors by hiding it or trying to ignore the cold hard facts that were before them.  Nixie feared it would be too late before anything was done.

"I know these past several months have been incredibly hard on you, Nini." Sirius began but Nixie shook her head. 

"It hasn't been tough on just me, Sirius. You forget to include yourself in that as well. It's been a hard several months for everyone. Hard nearly fifteen years if we're being completely honest." 

She didn't handle her stress well, but she was fully aware that Sirius didn't as well. Before the children had arrived during Christmas along with the rest of the Order, she could see the toll of the Order taking on him.

His focus was on her and her emotional state, but Nixie could see the stress of him being in the Grimmauld Place taking it's heavy toll on the man. Before Christmas, she remembered him drinking quite a bit when he didn't think she was watching, he looked worse than he did in the cave at one point.  Luckily, the happiness that came with the holidays was enough to bring Sirius back to his usual spirit but Nixie didn't want to see him fall into that same situation again.

"Do you still believe that things will get better?" Sirius asked her.

"Yes." She answered. "Just looking at these socks and all this knitwear, is enough for me to know that things are going to head into a better direction. The problem is, I think we're all hitting out rock bottom at this point. The Order is tired, we don't have any answers and-"

"But there is always a bright side to being at rock bottom, Nini."

"It's dark enough down there to take really long naps." She said with a smile making him laugh.

"No, I was going to say that once you hit rock bottom, the only way left is up. So, the Order might be hitting rock bottom with the Ministry and all the nonsense going on at Hogwarts, but it means things will turn around."

He released her hair from his hands and took her hands in his.

"I hope so because with Dumbledore no longer in Hogwarts, I'm terribly nervous for Harry and the others." She confessed.

"You don't have to be worried about Harry, Nini, you know who his parents are and-"

"Sirius, you keep forgetting that he is still just a child." She said cutting him off. "Regardless of his parents being who they were, he is still a child. All this is probably just as scarring to him, but he puts a brave face on for everyone just as we all do. Sometimes I wish he didn't know so much about the Order-"

"He has a right to, Nini. It's his life that's constantly in jeopardy. Voldemort wants him dead by his own wand. We can't just leave him in the dark of things..." Sirius argued.

Rather than sitting and fighting with the man, Nixie said no more as she removed her hands from his and gathered the knitting supplies from the table to bring into the other room.

"You could just use your wand-" Sirius suggested with a frown.

"I need the exercise."