ᴅɪsᴘᴇʟ ᴍʏ ʙᴏʀᴇᴅᴏᴍ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴅᴇᴜʀs' ᴇʀᴀ

Chapter 64: AB revealed

Hogwarts, a week after

"No, wait a minute. Did you just blow smoke in their faces after you stole the body and burned it on a godforsaken cliff?"

"Yes."

The three Marauders, Marlene and Lily stared at Sirius with wide eyes. James's face twitched.

"It's not funny at all," Lily chided.

"No," Sirius grinned. "It's bloody sad, Lils. I lost the woman I loved and who—can you fucking believe it?—loved me back. What they were going to do with her, that was sad."

Sirius has been drinking for a week. Emily ate her handfuls of pills and shared with him. Because of this, he had constant hallucinations. Emily swayed like a sleepwalker and sometimes apologized to Sirius, calling him Regulus. They spent seven whole days in Blackshire, stoned and almost happy, until James and Lily arrived there and dragged them out to Hogwarts.

"Dumbledore-"

"I don't care about him," Black snarled. He jumped up from the couch and stormed away.

"I just wanted to say that Dumbledore settled an issue with Serena, and none of her family would take revenge on Sirius," Lily mumbled, and James squeezed her hand.

Padfoot paced the long corridors of Hogwarts, hands deep in his pockets.

Everyone's scared of change, everyone's scared of losing their loved ones. Anything can happen. At any second. And then you stop being scared.

Sirius had nothing else to fear.

Black kicked Mrs. Norris who had appeared from around the turn, and the cat flew along the corridor with a desperate screech. From somewhere came a grunt, intermittent breathing and annoying quick steps.

"Oh, you nasty little boy! .." Filch shouted. "Stop right there!"

But Sirius already stormed away, jumping over the railing, and after a few minutes found himself at the main entrance. His legs just carried him to the Black Lake.

He remembered how he had sat there an eternity ago offended at the entire world, and Emily Parker was hiding behind a tree. Now was his turn.

After the last return from Blackshire, Emily became unrecognizable. She always, at any free moment, was at the Lake as if it was telling her something that others had not heard, and even Remus could not pull a word out of Emily.

She sat on the shore, in a long dress looking like raven feathers, eerie rough boots peeking out from under it, and Beata's jacket thrown over the shoulders.

"Hello there," Sirius flopped beside her on cold stones.

Emily didn't respond. She looked at the water, her pupils reflecting the swaying surface. A cigarette smoldered between her lips, ashes falling down.

"I told James and Remus what happened. Lily and Marlene too... You don't have to do it yourself."

Sirius took out his cigarettes.

"It's easier to talk to you than my best friends. Probably because you're silent all the time. You're damn weird, Parker. But I respect you for your perseverance."

Emily shook her head and all the ashes fell all over her dress.

"Have you combed your hair since last week? You look disgusting. It's good that you don't wear any makeup, you'd smear all the mascara." Sirius made a quick movement and pulled the butt out of Emily's lips.

"Thank you," she said. "It seems to have stuck to my lips."

Emily said something out loud. It was a great event, but Sirius pretended nothing big happened. Her hands were down as if chained to the ground. Sirius knew the feeling when you don't have the strength to even move. Like, if you make one, even the smallest movement, the surrounding universe will crumble like a house of cards.