He swept up the salt and the blood and wrapped Bella's bones back in the shoebox he'd kept them in. Picking up the ancient grimore full of rituals to summon the undead, he read over Alabasandria's neat scrawl lining the edges in her careful notes. She'd been young when she'd first studied it. There were small doodles and he laughed at a small annotation near the back of the book. Trying this next blood moon! Mother says I will not be an apprentice anymore if I am successful! Wow, three whole exclamation points. The current Alabasandria would never.
He frowned. How old had she been when she'd crafted her horcrux? Had she also been a young child? Did she regret it? Did that justify her actions?
An owl bounced against the window. Sirius shook himself from his thoughts to fetch the letter.
Getting the horcrux was easy. Two of the three legal owners of the vault were dead, and the last Lestrange had a life sentence. Andromeda, and Sirius to a lesser extent, were blood relatives of Bellatrix, and Sirius handed the distrustful goblin coin after coin and said please very nicely, and they were let in without too much fuss.
"I don't understand what the point of that was," Andromeda asked. Sirius hid the gaudy cup under his robes as they left. The evil magic whispering from it plagued Sirius' thoughts. Holding one of the damn things solidified his opinion. These things were Dark for a reason. Poor, poor Harry. His sweet boy.
(When he'd grasped Harry's ring in desperate palms, it hadn't felt evil, just sad in such a profound way that tugged at his heartstrings, his soul. It brought back shadows of his childhood he'd forgotten to time and alcohol.)
Torture lives in that ring, Alabasandria's voice taunted him. You left him with those muggles and they beat him. How can you dare deny him security and safety after what he's been through?
"Sirius?"
He shook himself from his thoughts. Andromeda's hand rested on his arm, bringing him back to earth.
"It's a very long story, but it's important to keep Voldemort from returning to full power. Thanks for your help, cousin."
"It was no problem at all. Is there anything else I can do to assist?" She looked at him, worried and gentle-faced like he hadn't ignored her existence for over a year. Sirius felt shamed at her easy acceptance, he didn't deserve it.
"If you were to hide a valuable artifact, like hypothetically, another trinket of the Hogwarts founders, somewhere in the school, where would you hide it?" He said, half-jokingly. He'd combed every square inch of the school already, after all. Why would Andi know where it was?
"The Room of Requirement," she said easily.
"The what now?"
She explained it in detail. It was as good of a lead as any. If the marauders had not discovered it back when he'd spent his days exploring every inch of the castle, then it seemed a very safe location.
"Are you doing alright, Sirius, you look… exhausted." She finally asked. They were done with the errand and now it was awkward and Sirius didn't really want to be alone at Grimmauld again but he couldn't exactly ask Andi to what, pity him more than she already did?
Sirius muttered something vaguely reassuring.
"Did you sleep at all last night?"
"No," he admitted. He was getting too old for that sort of thing. He ached in muscles he did not know he had.
"Would you like to stop by for an early lunch? Nymphadora should be home. She'd be thrilled to meet you properly." Nymphadora had been a toddler, the last he'd seen her.
"Yeah, sure. If you don't mind." Sirius murmured, a light smile gracing his tired features.
...
The Tonks' home was lovely and quaint, but once they'd entered the house, they were not met with any positivity. They'd gone to the bank first thing, before most people got up for work and before either could check the morning paper. The Daily Prophet lay spread out on the kitchen table, a shaking Nymphadora running straight for her mother. The large font of the front page headline was visible from the entryway.
HAS YOU-KNOW-WHO RETURNED!?
Sirius pulled it towards him in shock.
MYSTERIOUS ATTACK IN MUGGLE LONDON - ALL SIGNS POINT TO TERRORIST ORGANIZATION 'DEATH EATERS'.
Yesterday evening, a muggle building, thirteen stories tall and home to several businesses, was demolished in a peculiar fashion eerily similar to the explosion that destroyed the Gringott's Stadium last summer. Luckily, the attack occurred after most of the workers inside had already gone home. Still, there are an estimated 40 dead.
The similarities in the explosion between the muggle building and the stadium (an artificially constructed earthquake occurring underneath the structure, causing the implosion of the entire building) have not been confirmed by the Ministry, which has not yet responded. However, last night, we interviewed several muggles (discreetly, of course) as well as two Ministry employees who wished to remain anonymous, and we have confirmed that the Dark Mark (the call sign of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named ) was on sight.