Diagon Alley Debacle
“So, what do you think?”
“It’s nice… a little dirty though.”
“I’m going to clean it, obviously.” Sirius sat down on the old sofa, ignoring the puffs of dust that issued from it. “But what do you think?”
Remus folded his arms across his chest and observed the apartment they were standing in through critical eyes. It certainly wasn’t the first place he would pick for any of his friends to live in, the very fact that it looked like a pack of rabid dogs had once lived in it did not help his opinion of the place. However, for someone like Sirius, the flat would do. Granted, the place was dusty beyond comprehension, but a few cleaning spells would solve that in seconds. Some of the furniture needed repairing or replacing, but that shouldn’t be too hard for Sirius to handle. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a sitting room. There was just enough room for one person, maybe two. Sirius had enough money left over to buy furniture that suited his tastes better than what he had right now. All in all, Sirius had picked a fairly decent flat to start with.
“It’s good,” Remus consented finally. He glanced out the front window, forgetting he couldn’t see the street below. “When are James and Peter getting here?” James and Peter would be joining them shortly and then they would all be Apparating to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies. James also mentioned he had a surprise for them and they were eager to see what it was.
Sirius checked his watch, before realising that he still hadn’t learned to tell time with it. He appreciated the fact that getting this watch was a tradition and loved that Mr. and Mrs. Potter had gotten him one, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t irritated every time he tried to check the time. “Err… James said around noon. What time was it when you left your place?”
“Eleven.”
“Soon, I guess.” Sirius stood up and studied the couch, tapping his wand thoughtfully against his cheek, his mouth curved into a small frown. After a moment, he pointed his wand at the couch and muttered a spell. Almost in an instant, the couch was free of dust. “Sit down,” Sirius said, gesturing to the spotless sofa.
Looking wary, as if he still expected some dust bunnies to attack him or the couch to devour him, Remus took a seat. “How did the Potters take it when you told them you were moving out?” Remus asked curiously. The Potters loved Sirius like he was their own son; it was bound to greatly upset them when he told them he was moving out. “How did you break it to them, anyway?”
“Very gently,” Sirius assured him as he strode about the room, cleaning up the dusty furniture and wooden floors. “I told them I appreciated everything they’ve done for me and just because I was leaving didn’t mean I was never going to visit them, but it was time I started living on my own…”
Remus leaned back into the cushions, watching as Sirius waved his wand at a picture frame he was sure was going to be sold within the next week. “And?”
“I would always accept their lunch invitations and that they were free to check on me whenever they wanted. So I’d take my feet off the furniture if I was you.” Remus quickly put his feet on the floor. “They could show up right now and I don’t need your disgusting footprints on my furniture.”
“My feet aren’t that dirty, Padfoot.”
“They’re dirty enough.” Sirius waved his wand at the wooden floor in the entryway and every speck of dust disappeared, leaving a shining surface behind.
Remus watched this with an amused look on his face. “You’re very good with those cleaning spells; you should consider being a maid.”
Sirius picked up a rag on the table in the hallway and flung it at Remus, who was not expecting this, was hit in the face with it. “The landlady, Mrs. Sherman, is great,” Sirius went on conversationally, moving to clean up the kitchen. There was no way he could have the room where he ate dirty. Any place where food was prepared was sacred to Sirius and deserved the utmost cleanliness. Remus got up from the sofa and followed him.
“I think any woman who could put up with you living above her is amazing,” Remus commented dryly, sitting down at the kitchen table.
“Why do you joke at my expense?” Sirius asked exasperatedly, inspecting the room with meticulous eyes.
“Because it’s so easy.”
“I thought so.” Sirius stood back and observed the stove. He had never used one in his life, and was not sure what Muggles did to make them work. Did they turn those knobs or poke it with a stick? And what was the little door at the bottom used for? He knew he should not trust himself with something so potentially dangerous. Turning to Remus, he inquired, “You reckon I just use magic to cook?”
Remus nodded seriously. “Unless you want to blow this place up, then your wonderful landlady might not like you so much.” He got up and joined Sirius in observing the stove. Growing up with a Muggle for a mother, Remus had more of an idea of how to work a stove, though he thought it might be fun to see Sirius try using one. “So, why is your landlady so great?”
“She’s not going to charge me rent for the months I’m away at school.”
Remus’s eyes widened in surprise. This woman really was as wonderful as Sirius was making her out to be. “That’s very nice of her.”
“I know, it’s great!” Sirius gave up on watching the stove as if he stood there long enough; it would do something, and instead he went to check the cabinets. He assumed the previous owners would take their silverware with them, but there was always the chance they had left something behind. He saw, unfortunately, that the cabinets were bare, except for a moth that took the opportunity to escape when Sirius opened the door. He grabbed the quill he had left on the counter and dipped it into the inkbottle, scribbling silverware down on the list he had been constructing.
There was a knock at the door and Sirius yelled for whoever it was to come in, sure that it was James and Peter finally deciding to show up. Looking up, instead of two seventeen and sixteen year old boys, he was met with an elderly lady with greying hair, golden rimmed glasses over grey eyes and a friendly face. She was holding a tray of something Sirius could not see, as it was covered. “Hullo, Mrs. Sherman,” Sirius greeted, smiling.
“Hullo, Sirius, dear,” Mrs. Sherman said jovially. She gave off the appearance of an old grandmother who doted on her grandchildren every time she saw them. “I just brought you a housewarming present.” She handed Sirius the tray she was carrying.
He pulled off the cover and saw it was a tray of freshly made brownies. He couldn’t keep the appreciative smile from sliding onto his face. “You really didn’t have to; you’re already letting me live here.”
“I won’t hear it,” the woman said firmly, stepping out of arm’s reach so he could not give back the tray. Her eyes roved the kitchen; taking in the cleaning Sirius had just been doing before he hastily shoved his wand into his back pocket and covered it with his shirt. Her eyes landed on the third occupant of the room.
“Oh,” Sirius said suddenly, setting the platter down beside his list. “Mrs. Sherman, this is Remus Lupin, a friend of mine from school.”
“Nice to meet you, Remus,” Mrs. Sherman said, extending a hand.
“You too,” Remus replied, standing up and shaking the woman’s hand.
Mrs. Sherman stayed for a few moments to help Sirius compile a list of the things he would need for his apartment. When the landlady left, Sirius took one of the brownies she had brought him and chewed on it thoughtfully, scanning the list of items the two had come up with. “I never knew living on your own required so much stuff,” he mused. He nodded at the tray behind him. “Have one, Remus.”
Remus took one of the brownies and bit down. He read the list from over Sirius’s shoulder and lightly commented, “I don’t think you’ll need all those appliances.”
“I do if I have to keep up appearances, pretending to be a Muggle and all.”
“Yeah, but you can always pretend whatever you had broke and you’re waiting to get a new one.” He took another bite of the brownie. “Besides, I doubt she’ll come barging in while you’re cooking.”
“Who’ll come barging in while Padfoot’s cooking?” Sirius and Remus whipped around to see that James and Peter were standing in the kitchen with them. They had not even noticed them Apparate in.
“Prongs! Wormtail!” Sirius exclaimed happily. He spread his arms out in a jokingly regal manner. “So, what do you think of my kingdom?”
“It’s nice,” Peter said quickly, without really taking in his surroundings.
Sirius smiled at the youngest of the four boys and then turned his attention to James. “And you, Mr. Prongs, what do you think?”
“It’s a pit,” James said in his most honest voice. “Absolutely hideous.”
Sirius was silent for a moment, before he smirked. “So, you love it, then?”
James cracked a smile. “Of course I do.” He raised a hand in greeting to Remus. “How’ve you been, Moony?”
“Good, you?”
“Spectacular.” James clapped his hands together in a businesslike fashion. “Well, lads, Diagon Alley awaits!”
Diagon Alley was crowded, filled completely to the brim, which made absolutely no sense. It was the last week in August; school was starting in a matter of days. Was everyone this remiss in their school shopping? There was hardly any room to walk to get from store to store. The boys spent at least forty five minutes in Flourish and Blotts, trying to locate all of their school books amidst the crowd of tiny students they assumed were the incoming first years. It took even longer waiting in line to pay for them. Once they had all of their books together, James and Sirius needed to go to the Apothecary to stock up on potions supplies. NEWT level Potions was going to be akin with a painful death, they had moaned.
“Hey, what was that surprise you had for us, Prongs?” Remus asked as James and Sirius came out of the Apothecary with their new supplies.
James looked confused for a moment, before comprehension dawned. “Oh, right! Merlin, none of you are going to believe it.”
“We might believe you, if you ever bother to tell us,” Remus reminded him.
“Dumbledore made me Head Boy!” Cheerfully, James continued on his way, not realising that his words had rendered his friends incapable of mobility. It was only when he had walked a good length away that he realised he was alone. He spun around and saw Sirius, Remus and Peter were rooted to the spot, gaping at him with their mouths hanging open. “What?”
“You’re Head Boy?” Sirius asked disbelievingly.
“Yes…?”
Sirius looked like he was having the most trouble grasping this. Dumbledore would never make one of the worst troublemakers Hogwarts had ever seen Head Boy. It just didn’t make sense. He always thought the Headmaster would make anyone other than James Head Boy. Sirius looked from James to Remus a couple of times, before his eyes finally rested on Remus. “But… I thought… you were… it… James?”
“You think I wasn’t surprised?” James said indignantly, now standing with his friends. He knew they would be surprised, but he thought they could at least muster some happiness for him. His parents had been elated at the news. “I thought it was going to be Remus too.” He quickly turned to his Lycanthropic friend. “You’re not mad about this, are you?”
Remus laughed loudly. “Are you mad? I’m thrilled I don’t have to be Head Boy!” He thought being a Prefect was bad enough. He couldn’t imagine the hassle being Head Boy would come with. He had enough difficulty keeping his friends in line now, as it was. If he were Head Boy that would mean more responsibilities he was incapable of handling. He was ecstatic he lost out on the position.
James smiled in relief. He shouldn’t have expected any different, but there was always the chance Remus had decided he wanted to be Head Boy. “Good, in that case then, I’ll¬-” James was abruptly cut off by a loud explosion.
The cobblestone street below them seemed to rock violently as if it was about to cave in and there was the deafening sound of shattering glass and store displays falling viciously to the ground, breaking on contact or else rolling away. Everywhere shoppers were brought to their knees, throwing their hands out to break the fall. Bags dropped to the ground and the contents spilled everywhere. There were cries of children and shouts of surprise. In the distance, in the direction of the Magical Menagerie, smoke was rising in the air.
“What the bloody hell was that?” Sirius asked dazedly, picking himself up and then holding out a hand out help James to his feet.
“Dunno,” James said, straightening out his pants. “Something… something exploded.”
“How could something explode?” Peter asked, his knees trembling ever so slightly. His face was deathly pale when he saw where the smoke was coming from.
“Dunno, Peter.” Remus’s face was white and he was staring in the direction of the smoke. “What d’you think it was?”
James and Sirius shook their heads. They had no idea what could have exploded, or why anything in Diagon Alley would explode in the first place. Now that the initial shock had passed, there was a new sound filling the air “ yells of terror, cries of children. The smart thing to do would be to go home immediately, come back another day to finish their shopping, get themselves out of the present danger. But the boys let their curiosity get the better of them, as usual. Sticking closely together, they set off towards the place where the smoke was rising.
When they reached the source of the smoke, it was with terror that they were filled with. The Magical Menagerie was in violent flames. The structure was slowly coming down; the glass in the windows had shattered. There were disjointed cries coming from all the animals inside and there were people the boys hoped were the workers running frantically about the outside, trying to find ways inside to save the animals.
“Dad!” Peter shouted, hurrying towards the burning building, not seeming to realise he would not be of much help. Remus came up behind Peter and firmly pulled him back. There was no need for him to get unnecessarily hurt. Peter’s father worked in the shop, they all knew this, but Peter had to stay back. Mr. Pettigrew would not want his son endangering himself. Peter wasn’t letting this go so easily, however. He fought viciously against Remus’s grip, but Remus wouldn’t let him go. “Remus, let me go!”
“No, Peter,” Remus said in a strangely calm voice, that did not reflect the look on his face.
“My dad is in there!”
“No, he’s not, Peter,” Sirius said, pointing to a man with soot covering his face. Though a great portion of his face was marred with dirt, he was still recognizable as John Pettigrew. Remus’s grip slackened on Peter’s arm when he saw the man and Peter used this opportunity to run to his father.
“Sweet Merlin,” James breathed, staring at the wreckage before them. “You guys know who must be behind this, don’t you?”
Sirius nodded grimly. There could only be one person responsible for this. He couldn’t see a pet store erupting into flames on its own accord.
Peter and his father came over and it was easy to see Mr. Pettigrew was terribly shaken. He explained that he had just been arriving to work when the place blew up. There were some workers in there, he told them heavily. He didn’t think they had managed to make it out. The animals inside, who had been causing a racket just moments before, were silent now. The only sounds they could hear were the crackling flames. “Go home, boys,” Mr. Pettigrew told them with a wavering voice. “Don’t make your parents worry.” He turned to Peter. “Tell your mother I’m okay and I’ll be home late.”
The boys knew better than to refuse to listen to Mr. Pettigrew, and they knew their parents would be worried. The Potters and Lupins knew their sons were going school supply shopping that day. They would find out soon enough about the explosion. The streets of Diagon Alley were crowded with frantic shoppers, all shouting that something terrible was going on and others confirming what had exploded. It was the peak shopping day and there were too many children on the streets.
The boys were ready to Apparate home when there was another loud explosion, except this was distinctly wand fire. This couldn’t be happening. There was no way there was fighting in Diagon Alley. Without thinking, the four boys hurried in the direction of the wand fire, drawing out their own wands. They didn’t know what had come over them, but there was no way they were going to let this happen. They weren’t about to let whoever started this going down without a good fight. They didn’t exactly know how much a group of four boys could do, but it was worth a try.
The wand fire was coming from outside the bookstore, where they had been not too long ago. They could hear the shouts from people and could see the different coloured flashes of spells as they jetted through the air. What was going on? It was only when they were almost ten feet away from Flourish and Blotts that they saw it. There were black, cloaked figures and they were all wearing masks. What was worse, they were throwing spells at mothers, their children, everyone in sight.
These were the people they had seen in the forest almost four years ago. These were the people Regulus had been talking to the night Sirius and Remus followed him into the forest. These were the people Lucius Malfoy was so proud of, the people Sirius’s parents adored. These were the people who were responsible for every horrible thing that had happened since the boys first started Hogwarts “ the death of Professor Flitwick’s sister, Alice Gordon’s father, those poor Muggles. These were the people who sent the green, luminescent Dark Mark into the air every time they murdered someone. These were the people who were responsible for everything and they had finally come out in the open.
Without thinking, Sirius pulled out his wand and shouted, “Stupefy!” towards one of the masked figures who was barely taller than he was. The masked figure easily deflected the spell so that it was sent in James’s direction. James quickly ducked.
“You’re going to fight us?” the masked figure laughed as if he couldn’t find anything funnier than seventeen year old boys fighting him. But there was something… something familiar about that voice. Sirius knew that voice and he nearly threw up at the thought of who was behind the mask.
James, Remus and Peter had already been overtaken with three other masked figures, who had taken their distraction as the perfect moment to attack, and did not hear the voice. Sirius could not begin to tear himself away from the person he had tried to Stun. There was no way this was happening. The conversation Sirius had eavesdropped on the previous year… how had it come to pass?
“Regulus?” Sirius whispered, utterly dumbfounded. There was no way his little brother was behind that mask. Sirius wouldn’t allow it. His mind was playing tricks on him. His brother couldn’t have been one of the masked fools. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he was willing himself to come to grips with it on the very spot. That or he was praying that when he opened his eyes again, the scene before him would not be the one it was. He would be back home in his flat. Remus would just be arriving and they would take a tour of his flat. They had not left for Diagon Alley yet. His brother was not a bloody Death Eater!
The masked figure laughed loudly, as if he was relishing the horror his opponent was experiencing. “How’s my big brother?”
“You’re mad,” Sirius hissed, shaking his head slowly. “You’re mad!”
“Mad, am I?” Regulus challenged. “I’m simply trying to right the wrongs purebloods have had to go through.”
“Wrongs? What the bloody hell are you talking about?”
The sounds of the fights going on around them seemed to fade into the background. Sirius could only hear, could only see, his brother.
“Why are we letting these Mudbloods get what they want?” Regulus asked furiously. “Why are we letting them practise magic when it’s obvious they’ll never be fit for it?”
Sirius was using all of strength to keep himself from charging at his brother, knocking him to the ground and beating the stuffing out of him. How could Regulus say that Muggle-borns were unfit to learn magic? Had he ever seen Lily Evans at work? She was more a witch than he would ever be a wizard.
“You’re mental,” Sirius hissed viciously. He knew his brother believed the ridiculous morals of their parents, but he never imagined Regulus acting out on them. He never saw Regulus becoming like this. He had always had hope for his brother! He couldn’t stand this. “Go home, Regulus.”
Regulus’s laugh was loud and mirthful. “You can’t tell me what to do, Sirius! You’re not my father.”
“I’m your brother.”
“Hardly. You lost every right to tell me to do anything the day you ran away from home.”
Sirius gritted his teeth. He wanted so much to yell at Regulus, to rage at him and tell him how much of a fool he was. But he couldn’t do that. Regulus would never listen to him if he gave into his anger the way he wanted to. “Regulus, I’m asking you to go home before you get hurt!”
Sirius wished very much that he could see his brother’s face. It had been a long time since he had ever expressed concern to his brother. Sirius wanted to make it seem like he didn’t care what happened to the youngest Black son, when he truly did care. He wanted to sever ties from everyone in his family, yet he could not allow his brother to destroy his life.
“I’m not leaving, Sirius. I’m staying and fighting.”
“Do you even know what you’re fighting for?”
There was a change in Regulus’s demeanour; Sirius could see that, though he could not see the reaction on the boy’s face. Regulus was only sixteen; he should not have been fighting for this alleged cause. He should have been enjoying himself, preparing for his next year of schooling. He was a child! “Of course I do. Do you know what you’re fighting against?”
Before Sirius could say anything, Regulus had run out of sight. Sirius had half a mind to chase after him, convince him that there was still time to go back, but he didn’t. If there was any trait every Black possessed, it was stubbornness. Now that Regulus was gone, Sirius’s mind was able to drift back to his surroundings. There were shouts and jets of multicoloured lights. Everyone around him people were yelling and running, trying to find their loved ones or a good place to escape.
Sirius could do nothing except stare. Where had the world gone so wrong?