They carried down the path towards the sounds of fighting.
Bill had not been sure what to think when mum and dad had casually announced that they'd befriended infamous mass murderer Sirius Black. Sure, he'd turned out to be innocent and he adored their mum's cooking but there had been such a myth built up around the man. One of the key figures in the last war, gone turncoat and sentenced with the deaths of twelve muggles. Well, it was pretty clear now why people had assumed Sirius Black capable of killing a dozen people with a single spell.
There were six masked foes against two wizards, Sirius and an unknown man in a burnt cloak. The one helping was going toe-to-toe with two of them while Sirius fought off the remaining four Death Eaters. He danced across the battlefield. Dodging everything that was being thrown at him, he shot off spell after spell in a continuous loop of barely legal curses and transfigurations. Bill and Charlie threw themselves into the mix, using the element of surprise to slip behind the cluster of enemies, although it was obvious that Sirius was handling things just fine. One of the Death Eaters was turned into a pigeon and when they tried to fly away, Sirius cast with a complicated swirl of his wand and the earth twisted and rose into a huge barrier around everyone, blocking out the sky and encasing them all in thick rock. The bird smacked against the wall and crashed into the ground, dazed.
"Did I say you could leave? I wasn't fucking done with you yet!" Sirius cackled and transfigured another one's mask into a clown's face complete with red nose. They fired a killing curse which Sirius dodged.
One of the Death Eaters made a gesture to his compatriots. They scooped up their bird friend and moved into formation, each taking point to fight off one of their foes while the fifth held the shield. Sirius transfigured some rocks into sharp knives which shattered their defenses, one of them slipping through and sinking into the rock a few inches from one's face. Bill threw a blasting curse at the remains of the shield and it fell in time for Charlie and the other wizard to send stunners into their formation.
Barely blocking them, the Death Eater in the front, who was likely in charge, made another gesture with his hand. As one, their enemies all turned on the spot and dissolved into black smoke. The Death Eaters flew into the air and deep into the forest.
"God damn it! I didn't even get to kill any of them!" Sirius complained and dismantled the wall of rock, confirming that they were fleeing. The unknown wizard who'd been fighting alongside them started vomiting into the grass and collapsed. "Woah, alright there mate? Thanks for the assist."
"Da, I am well," the man said in a thick Bulgarian accent. He wiped a thick mixture of soot and sweat off his forehead and the group realized he was wearing tattered, filthy Quidditch robes.
"Holy shit, Viktor Krum?" Charlie said. "Are you sure you're alright? I'm pretty good with healing spells."
"I am cursed small bit," he admitted. "I am usually quicker -"
"But you just played a game of Quidditch, I can imagine how exhausting that is," Charlie agreed. "Here, let me help you."
"Are you hurt at all, Sirius?" Bill asked.
"I'm fine. I assume the kids made it out okay?"
"Yes, everyone is at the Burrow, safe and sound. We had a little bit of a run-in when I busted down the anti-apparition jinx but it was just one and he was quickly outnumbered. Ron actually got him… It's not the right time to ask Krum for an autograph, is it? Would cheer Ron up though."
"Damn. Impressive."
'Yeah. The kids did good. Harry was exhausted but mum's got them. Do you think there's more of the Death Eaters running around?" Charlie asked. "And where's dad?"
"He's helping to clear the stadium. I don't think there's more of them. I only saw eight when they were chasing the crowd. With such small numbers, their plan was likely to cause as much damage as possible before leaving." Sirius said. "Of course, I can't be certain. Fuck, where the hell are the aurors?"
"Everyone would have been watching the game, yeah? Surely they had some posted on security?"
"Security's all dead then. And it's every man for himself otherwise," Sirius groaned.
Krum hacked up some awful-looking wad of black blood.
"All better?"
"Da, da. Thank you very much," he said.
"You shouldn't be flying for a while," Charlie warned.
"Eh, worth to protect children. Excuse me, I like to look for teammates now."
"Yes, let's head to the stadium and see what we can do," Bill said.
What followed were several long hours of vanishing, heavy lifting and somber silence as they uncovered people from the rubble. Sirius worked until his limbs grew heavy from exhaustion, and then he worked some more. Once some Ministry workers finally organized a proper search and rescue, someone handed out Pepper-Ups. Sirius downed two and kept working. The tarps were repurposed as coverings for the rows of bodies they added to again and again and again.
It wasn't until around six or seven the next morning, when he'd nearly fallen face-first into a sharp bit of glass due to his exhaustion that he caved and apparated to Alabasandria's cottage. At his clumsy arrival, she dragged him inside the house and got him settled into the loveseat when an equally exhausted and frazzled Harry ran into the room, throwing his arms around him in a desperate hug.
"I got worried when you didn't come back. Charlie said you were okay but you never came home and -"
"Oh love, I'm sorry."
His blistered hands ran through Harry's hair, and he hummed under his breath to settle him just like he had when Harry was a baby. The boy curled into a ball in his lap, hiding his sniffles. Alabasandria joined them and put her hand on Harry's back. Sirius leaned against her, resting his head on her shoulder and they all curled together in heavy, contemplative silence.
"I thought we were all gonna die," Harry whispered. "It was so loud, and I could feel so many people dying and my magic was going crazy and then you left me!"
"Sweetheart, I'm here now. I'm sorry. You did great, I'm so proud of you. Even if it was scary, you did the right thing by listening to me and running."
A trio of steaming mugs hovered into the living room and Harry unfurled from his spot to drink. Sirius appreciated the dash of whiskey mixed into his own hot chocolate.
"Everyone would have been safe," Alabasandria reminded him in a gentle tone that made it clear she'd been repeating this many times throughout the night. "Your friends and Sirius all had their amulets. You did the right thing by retreating. Who knows what would have happened if they'd spotted you."
"Everyone would have been safe," Alabasandria reminded him in a gentle tone that made it clear she'd been repeating this many times throughout the night. "Your friends and Sirius all had their amulets. You did the right thing by retreating. Who knows what would have happened if they'd spotted you."
"I know, but it all happened so fast and Sirius left, so how was I supposed to know he was okay?" The boy whined, returning to clutch Sirius' shirt. The young teen may have started to reach a maturing age where he thought he was very adult-like and brave, but it was moments like this, where despite the heavy weight of the boy sprawled across their laps Sirius was reminded that his godson was so young. Much too young to have to experience something like this.
Slowly, the boy drifted off to sleep. Despite his own exhaustion, sleep felt beyond Sirius. Alabasandria turned toward him, absently running her fingers through her son's hair.
"About how many dead?"
"Well, they were still unearthing bodies when I left. A few hundred at least," he whispered.
"Hades guide them, that's… wow. I hadn't expected Voldemort's forces to be capable of that catastrophic of an attack. I was under the impression his forces were scattered and in hiding."
"They used an explosive of some sort. It was well planned out. Security had been taken care of while everyone was distracted with the match. They didn't need an army."
"They're cocky."
"They were right to be! They all got away!"
"Except for the one Ronald cursed. Harry nabbed some of his flesh, we'll be able to interrogate him tomorrow," she tried to assure him.
He sighed. "Will that amount to anything, though? Are we going to start hunting down the Death Eaters too?!"
"I want to as well, but Voldemort has a lot of connections with the Ministry. It would be so risky. As you've said, people are starting to get suspicious of Harry. If high-ranking politicians start disappearing, there will be questions." She said, in an unsatisfied tone. They knew it was safer to stay out of it, but it brought neither any joy in the notion that the terrorists would get away. It was all they could do to focus on Voldemort.
"Oh um, the Weasleys may have some questions, speaking of," he remembered.
"Great. Well, I'm not worried about them starting a witch hunt at least. I can always bribe Arthur with some muggle trinkets and he'll look the other way." She drew out the last word with a long yawn. "Right, to bed for all of us." She summoned a couple of blankets for him and levitated Harry out of the cuddle pile. She turned to Sirius and gave him a final, unfamiliar look.
"Thank you, by the way. For keeping him safe. I know he would have been fine, but… I'm glad you were there."
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