minnow // sirius black

fifty-three

53 ;   the days

Remus came on the 18th, late at night.

 Lily and Sirius were asleep while James and I were sitting in the living room, Aubrey and Harry in their respective bassinets, Esme in her bed, all sound asleep. We had taken some time after the other two putting the children to sleep to sit and talk. We'd been talking about how I found Sirius was incredibly annoying. He always got to Aubrey before I did, and always wanted to be the one caring for her. Despite knowing he meant well, it made me feel quite useless. 

James quietly defended Sirius, saying that he didn't want me to overexert my mentality. James said that I was still in a sensitive mindset, and the last thing anyone wanted was for me to withdraw and throw myself into doing nothing but caring for the girls. When I asked why James was not doing the same to Lily, he reminded me that she didn't nearly die, four separate times. She hadn't watched her mother, father, and brother-in-law die. She hadn't been through as much as I had. Lily hadn't seen, and been as close to death as I had. And while she had been through her fair share of shit, and had watched me die, she was not as mentally fragile as I was. 

"And that is not to say that you are weak, you are the strongest person I know. Your strength doesn't come from not breaking down, it comes from being able to build yourself back up after each breakdown."

"If I didn't know better, I would think you were colluding with Sirius to get me to see a therapist."

"He wants you to see a therapist?"

Before I could answer and tell James that Sirius had been asking me to see one since Fleamont, there was a soft knock on the door.

My blood ran cold, for a moment, but I remembered the charm. You are safe. My heart still began to race, and my stomach dropped.

I quietly stood from my spot on the couch, listening closely as I pulled my wand. Several seconds of silence passed before I heard the soft tapping of the special knock we had come up with for safety. I kept my wand out, opened the door, and furrowed my eyebrows in confusion when I saw Remus' disheveled face on the other side of the door. His eyes were wild with caution, and he seemed frazzled. 

"What's wrong?"

"You haven't heard?" 

"No?"

Remus stepped in and sighed in relief when he saw James.

"Remus, what the hell happened?"

We sat him down on the couch, and he began to tell us about how the Death Eaters had raided the town that Lily and James were hidden in. When asked how he knew where they lived, he said most of the Order knew, including those we worked closely with. Remus said that they hadn't gotten to Lily and James' house before the Order swept in and ran them off, but there was no doubt that the Death Eaters now knew that the Order was hiding something there. The way that so many members got to them so quickly, and fought so hard to get them to go away was a dead give away.

"So we have to move again?"

"Probably. Albus told me to inform Jemina. He didn't mention that you were here already. Which... why are you? Minnow said you and Lily weren't coming until tomorrow. That's why I was relieved to see you."

"Lily wanted to come early," I lied quietly. I figured it would be easier to capitalize on the incident than to come up with an excuse. "She had a bad feeling, and asked if they could come sooner than planned. I told her that she could, of course, but she'd have to help me set up the basement."

"You guys fixed the basement?"

"Well, we magicked the basement to the best of our abilities, but yeah."