InsaneJournal

Sirius handed Fabian the empty vial and got to his feet. He used his own wand to patch up the wound on his chest, stemming the blood, then grimaced. "Bitch," he muttered. "We need to alert the Order." He whipped out a Patronus -- a wolf -- and said, "Encounter with Lady Noir. Fabian and I are fine. Waiting for DMLE" and sent it off. It would find James and Remus before too long.

But before he could say anything else, the unmistakable sound of the Floo interrupted the tense silence.

"Alison I-" Derek stopped mid-sentence on arrival as he looked up and saw the scene before him. Two strange wizards, covered in blood with the room in absolute disarray. It was exactly the start of a few of his nightmares, though usually the wizards wore masks rather than being strangers.

No, they weren't strange, their faces were familiar but he couldn't quite place their names just yet because his mind was too preoccupied with the scene in front of him and where was-

Alison.

Even at this angle, when Derek noticed the body at their feet there was no doubt who it was. With no other warning or accusation, Derek had whipped out his wand in rage and blasted two wordless stun spells at the duo, sending the first of the blazing red spells at the bloodier of the two.

Fabian had tucked the vial away as the Floo deposited the new arrival in the kitchen. The place had clearly seen a fight; Fabian had been bashed around into the cabinets and bounced off one of the appliances. He started to say something but the bloke was already throwing a stunning spell at Sirius and then another one at Fabian, whose wand was still in its sheath. Fabian reflexively threw up his arm to defend himself, and the stunning spell knocked him back into the stove with a resounding crash.

Derek saw his spell throw one into the stove, but he didn't wait to see if the stunning spell had done anything to the remaining one. "Impedimenta." It came out in a low angry hiss, as he shot the spell at Sirius. On the job he would've been taken the time to secure the culprit who'd crashed into the stove, immobilize him in some way, because of course these two were culprits. He worked at the DMLE, if he recognized their faces vaguely from a split second and it wasn't from personal acquaintance...well then they were probably involved in criminal activity at one point.

Not that it mattered now, Derek's main goal at the moment was to get them away from Alison, save his wife before it was too late. Though the sinking feeling in his gut told him it was likely already too late.

Sirius blocked the spell but not quickly enough, and he stumbled into a table. He raised his non wand hand. "Hang on there, mate," he said. "This isn't what it looks like." Even though it did look pretty bad. "We came in -" But he was interrupted by Fabian crashing into the stove.

Sirius wasn't going to get a break, because his words had Derek only seethe. Not what it looked like? His wife could be dead on the floor and the bloody wizard standing over her had the gall to say it wasn't what it looked like?

Forsaking verbal spells, for advantage but mostly panic over his wife and outrage at the scene before him, Derek threw a nonverbal Oppungo Jinx at the dishes and kitchen equipment by the sink, sending the plates, cups and utensils to attack both the men in a flurry. He just needed an effective distraction now that they were both farther away from Alison so he could get to her and save her. He didn't even need to beat them both, just find an opportunity to apparate her off to Mungo's so they could save her. Merlin, just give him that one moment to manage it.

Creative, Sirius thought. "Wait -" he said but in the next moment, two armed hitwizards cracked into the house and whatever he was going to say didn't matter anymore.

"Wands on floor. Now!" The hitwizard on the left was tall and thin and Sirius obeyed immediately, holding his hands in the air. He knew and Fabian were recognizable and winced.

Fabian's wand hadn't been out at all--he'd been too busy shielding his unprotected head from the kitchen implements--so he just raised his hands. "It's in my sleeve; I haven't had it out. Do I have permission to--"

"Shut up," the first hitwizard, the one who'd told them to drop their wands, said, so Fabian did. Meanwhile, the second hit was leaning over Alison Boot's body, checking for a pulse, and after a moment, rose up and turned to Derek. "I'm sorry, sir."

"It was Lady Noir," Fabian said, and the first hit backhanded him for talking out of turn.

Sirius could feel his frustration and temper rising. "We're doing everything you're asking. You need to listen to us. We caught Lady Noir --"

But the first hitwizard silenced him with a flick of the wand, and Sirius railed out, yelling angrily without any sound coming out. "Mr. Boot, we'll take these two in. I'm sorry about your wife, but we're going to need your statement about what happened here." He pocketed Sirius's wand and then reached out to pull Fabian's up out of his sleeve.

The second twirled his wand to magically bind first Fabian then Sirius with their arms behind them. Sirius began to struggle but then stilled, opting instead for scowling at everyone. Glowering, really. "What can you tell us?" he asked as he stood up and set a quill flying over a notebook to take in Derek's response.

When the hitwizards had stormed in, Derek had already been rushing to Alison's side, dropping his wand without a care on their demand and sliding on his knees towards her limp form on the floor. None of the chaos around registered, he was too focused on his wife, desperately and frantically trying to find some sign she was still alive.

He found none.

Yet the confirmation from the hitwizard was the blow that made it feel real. Derek stilled, carefully taking one of his wife's hands in his and intertwining their fingers before putting his other hand on top. He kneeled there, bent over and clasping his dead wife's hand while accusations flew about over his head. The rage, panic, desperation, that had been there moments before had dissipated and he just felt hollow. It felt like his heart had dropped out through his stomach and there was nothing left.

There was no answer from Derek at the questioning, he only clasped Alison's hand tighter and stared at the lifeless look in his eyes, unable to tear his eyes away. It took two more repeats for him to finally respond in anyway, and when he did his voice sounded as hollow as he felt. "I arrived about a minute ago to find them both bloodied and standing over Alison on the ground. I attacked to get them away from her." That was it, he never looked away, and there was a finality to the statement that suggested that's all they would manage out of him about this at the moment.

There was a pause, and the hollow matter-of-factness faltered. "...I'm not leaving her here. Do something, take her somewhere, just...she deserves better. I'll give you a statement after that. And after..." Terry. Merlin, no, how was he going to break this to his boy? That his mother was gone and..."My son. I have to...he has to hear it from me first." Emotion creeped back in at the thought of Terry and Derek's grip on his wife's limp hand only grew tighter, it was the only thing that was making this feel real and allowing him to find his voice. "Let me contact him and then I'll answer all your questions."

Fabian caught Sirius' eye as best he could and shook his head. There was no need to get their stories straight, at least. They were going to say the same thing, because it was true. Unfortunately, unlike the last time he'd dueled Lady Noir, the witness was going to be hostile. They were going to need help, and a lot of it, to get out of this one.

Sirius gave an imperceptible nod back to Fabian, just to let him know he was on the same page. He knew as well as Fabian did that they would be separated and interrogated and sequestered and held until something came of this. Hopefully it would be resolved sooner rather than later. They hadn't done anything wrong -- unless you were to count letting Lady Noir get away!

The hitwizard who had bound the two of them led them out of the room as a third walked in with a grim look on her face. "We'll take them in. Quarterly," he said to the witch, "see to it that Mr. Boot and his wife are transported to St. Mungo's. I'll meet you there."

He was joined by the first who took hold of Sirius's elbow tightly and hissed at him to shut up, even though he wasn't talking. After leaving the kitchen, the hitwizards apparated away, one with Sirius and one with Fabian.