Date: 18th November Time: Morning Location: Grimmauld Place Characters Involved: Sirius Black and James Potter
Sirius could feel his deep tan fading under the watery English sun. A sharp frost seemed to have taken the country, making nature crisp and white. It promised snow to come. It was a far stretch from the grey, volcanic-warmth sand on which he'd walked only yesterday. Still, he pulled his leather jacket close and smiled as he walked through the park close by Grimmauld Place.
Problems did not vanish by themselves, especially problems connected to Grimmauld Place. Sirius knew that, yet the barrier to thinking of them was a geographical as well as physical one. He stopped at the entrance to the park and placed a hand on the icy metal of the gate. Just before he'd left, Amarissa Cross had found out his real identity, and he'd discovered that Regulus had known of Bellatrix's existence all along. Time and distance had cooled his fury, but they had also honed it, crafted it into something entirely more clever.
Sirius Black had a plan.
Small children rushed past him, almost round in their thick coats and scarves. Their mothers followed behind, calling out warnings in a puff of warm cloud-like air. At least that was one thing he didn't have to face - his mother's portrait had been removed in a pile or rubble, unceremoniously dumped in the back garden until Sirius could decide how to deal with it. Kreature had wailed, pulled at Sirius' trouser leg. Perhaps the house elf would have taken the portrait by now, despite Sirus' less than polite caring instructions.
None of those sticky sentiments about home had ever applied to Sirius. He was more fond of the mugggle song where I lay my hat.... But however he felt about this house, he had undeniably missed its two occupants. A cup of tea, and James to tell him everything, that was the ticket.
Sirius let himself in and found himself wandering through to the kitchen, "If you're not decent, I'm walking into rooms anyway."