Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

2: chapter six

It took a week until Sirius was finally feeling up to leaving the infirmary. Although he had not been allowed to leave, he left anyway. He found himself in large kitchen, with high windows looking out onto a crowded street. Amidst the crowd he could see a cloaked figure heading away from the house. It was clearly Aro. He wondered where he was going, but before he could come up with an explanation, he heard someone enter the room.

"Sirius! Long time no see!" He turned to see Jane, she smiled at him. "How do you feel?"

"Great actually!" Sirius smiled back. "Can we go exploring?"

"Absolutely, but fist you need breakfast and a shower." She told him, he laughed and helped her prepare eggs and bacon. "Aro left, said you were feeling better."

"He's not as bad as I thought he was." Sirius admitted as he fried the bacon.

"How are you doing this so quickly?" She asked, staring at the plate of bacon he had just produced.

"Harry and I often cook for our Aunt and Uncle." Sirius shrugged. "How do you like your eggs?"

"Fried. Sirius be honest with me, how do they treat you?" She asked. "Why did the Weasleys find you in the cellar?"

"I fell." Sirius answered, not meeting her gaze, she knew he was lying.

"Bullshit!" He stared at her, not many people swore, or at least not in front of him.

"They pushed me." Sirius replied, serving the eggs.

"Why?"

"I don't know." Sirius sighed. "Harry had a house elf visit him. It used some magic and ruined a party my aunt and uncle were having. They blamed him of course, so they put bars on the window and locks on the door so we couldn't go back to Hogwarts. Then they decided to separate us, and they ended up pushing me down the stairs to the cellar."

"I don't get it, what did you do?" Jane frowned.

"Nothing." Sirius replied. "At least nothing I know about."

"Sirius that's not normal, most people aren't treated like that." She told him gently. He frowned.

"They aren't?"

"No, Sirius are they a danger to you, have they hurt you before?" She asked, he stared into the empty trying pan in thought.

"I don't think so, i- I mean I've been slapped and punched a few times, and they've locked us under the stairs for a while sometimes." He answered, snapping out of his daze and beginning to wash the pan.

"Is that where you used to sleep? Before you got a room?" She asked, he just nodded, focusing on scrubbing the grease from the pan. "Sirius you shouldn't be treated like that, and you definitely shouldn't go back there."

"Jane that's my home, my family." He told her, she shook her head.

"Blood doesn't mean family. Harry maybe, but not the muggles, Me and Ollie, Justin, Ernie and Hannah, Hermione, Cedric and Leah, that's your family, you don't deserve that." She told him, he stared at her.

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." He replied, she rolled her eyes at him.

"Sirius, listen to me, I'm right." She said. "I really don't think you should go back there."

"I've got nowhere else to go." Sirius replied, biting his lip.

"Look around, this is as much yours as it is ours." She told him, he glanced around the kitchen with a frown.

"I want to get out of there but... I can't leave Harry." He answered, she sighed.

"What does he do for you except get you in danger?" She shot back at once, passing him his plate of food. He chewed a piece of bacon thoughtfully. "Sirius, he's put you in danger so many times, because of him you got thrown down some stairs. Because of him Aro punished you, because of him a mountain troll could have torn you to shreds." She told him, he put his plate down and shook his head, trying to form an argument.

"But he's my brother." He finally answered. She shook her head.

"Sirius how many times is he going to put you in situations where you're in danger until you get it?" She asked, before she could carry on, he let out a scream, clutching his head. "Sirius what do you see."

"I don't want to! Make it stop!" Sirius screamed his head pounding as an eruption of images exploded in his mind. "Please make it stop."

"Jane why is he-" Ollie cut himself off. "Sirius you need to focus." He went over to the boy and pulled his hands away from his face. "Focus, what can you see."

"Make it stop." Sirius whimpered.

"Come on Sirius, we need to know." Jane prompted.

"He's back." Sirius finally responded. There was more to it, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"And?" Jane knew there was more, she could tell.

"The Basilisk had been reborn. It wants blood. One of us is going to die." Sirius tried to keep up with the images in his head, his eyes screwed shut as he tried to work out what was going on.

"Tom riddle will be reborn. The diary. Dumbledore has the ring. Aro doesn't trust him. The ministry is unjust." Sirius finally opened his eyes, the images fading, a single tear fell down his cheek. "What's happening to me?"

"You did so well." Ollie hugged him, he was oddly comforting and Sirius found his strength returning.

"I don't understand." Sirius muttered.

"You have the ability to collect information, you don't realise it, but you can get any piece of information you need. Sometimes it comes back to you all at once. That's why you sleep walk, you're collecting." Jane explained.

"You knew!" Sirius frowned, pushing Ollie away from him as he tried to calm him down. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We didn't know how you'd take it." Ollie replied, he looked a little hurt.

"And that's for you to decide?" Sirius snapped, Ollie looked hurt. " Why do I trust you?" And with that he left, the front door slamming behind him.

"Sirius!" Ollie tried lamely. "We have to go after him."

"Let him cool off, he's in a lot of pain. We could have prepared him better." His sister responded with a sigh, looking at the boys half full plate with a sigh.

"What if he doesn't come back?" Ollie frowned, he still wanted to go after the boy.

"Where else is he going to go?"