Chapter 27

Her head was pounding, and her stomach was burning with so much pain, but she could hardly care for that. When she had casted the killing curse as well as the multiple others - the figures realised they were drastically outnumbered and retreated, gone too early to watch Adria stumble to her brother's lifeless side.

She was screaming, sobs strangled and choked and holding his face, ignoring the tears falling onto his suit covered in snow and mud, "Alfie...Alfie please!"

"Alfie!" she screeched at the top of her lungs, fully slapping the boy just in case, in case he was just unconscious and not what she thought, she couldn't bear the thought of thinking the worst. She was having fun, content and relaxed and happy and it was fully stripped from her as she screamed strangled cries and gripped onto the boy lying lifeless for dear life.

She couldn't fathom the thought of him being dead, he couldn't be.

She punched his chest, slapping him and trying to wake him - he was just asleep, and he would wake up, maybe the killing curse couldn't affect him, or didn't affect him. Maybe he was special and shielded it with some sort of dormant magic that helped him.

But she knew, and so did Sirius as he screamed too, falling in front of a lifeless Grace who - even after death - held onto her husband's hand, both falling at the same time and clutching each other as they fell to the ground just after their death.

"No!" Adria screamed, clutching her stomach when another strike of pain engulfed her, furiously wiping her tears and holding onto her brother.

"Alfie!" she sobbed even louder at the sound of Alina's voice, followed by Benji who fell beside her, screaming out protests of the boy.

"He...he'll wake up, right?!" Benji screeched, biting his fist to hold in his sob, "he- he's just...unconscious?!"

"Alfie..." Alina squeaked, grabbing hold of her brother's hand on the opposite side. Lia had moved beside Grace with Sirius, eyes full of pain and heart full of hurt and she didn't know what to do except cry.

"He- no!" Adria cried, falling into Benji who held her as much as she held him, "it was...Benji, it was the killing curse."

Benji sucked in a deep breath, the pain engulfing every bone in his body. This was Alfie - the boy who had a hard time fitting in but still somehow managed to be the most incredible role model that Benji could ever think of, who made mistakes and was flawed but still loved everyone with his full heart.

"No," Alina squeaked, falling into Jesse who fell to his knees beside her, kissing the girl's forehead and silently crying himself as he held her.

Adria winced again at the pain in her stomach, at the burning sensation and she wasn't sure if she even wanted to look down in case there was a wound. She was in an excruciating amount of pain, but she was forcing herself to push past it.

She was clutching onto Alfie for dear life, sobbing about how she was supposed to save him, screaming his name. She couldn't lose another family member, she just couldn't.

"He's not dead!" she screamed, sobbing so much that it got caught in her throat, "he can't be dead - no! no!"

She screamed when two arms pulled her away from them and into their chest and she screamed an cried as Milo held her to him, keeping her close to him as the Professors who attended the party inspected the boy with silent mournful glances in the family's direction.

"Shh...It's going to be alright, Addy," Milo whispered quietly but she shook. She was fully shaking, her full body shaking - partly from the pain - and mostly from the thought of him being gone.

"Alf?" her head snapped around so quickly that she was sure she heard a crack, and she fell back into Milo at the sight of Jude with his head tilted and his eyes wide as he stared at his brother. He pushed himself forward before Adria could stop him, and she clasped her hand over her mouth as she watched him - as her family watched him.

He pressed his hand to Alfie's cheek, eyes wide of wonder and confusion as to why his brother was sleeping on the ground and frowned at the sad faces around him, and before Adria could move to get him, he whispered, "is he and Gace joining mummy and daddy?"

Adria couldn't feel the pain in her legs as she collapsed to the ground, her strangled sobs leaving her lips in harsh vicious cries and Sirius stumbled over to her, pulling her into him and allowing her to cry.

It was then that he turned to Milo, and his eyes widened, and mouth dropped, "Milo...what happened to you?"

"Wha-" he looked down at his stomach, of the white shirt covered in deep red blood and he shook his head as he stared at Adria, his heart racing and pounding all at the same time, "Sirius...it's not...it's not my blood."

Sirius' heart dropped as he remembered the events just previous, of Adria throwing herself in front of him without a second thought and he slid his hand slowly around her stomach, his eyes closing when he felt it - when he felt the wound and her flinch from the pain, but she made no attempt to move.

"We need to go, right now," Sirius said suddenly, eyes looking up at James and Lily who had just arrived looking dishevelled and in pain, "we need to get her to St. Mungo's."

"Sirius-"

"We need to go!" Sirius' voice boomed, and Mila's cries were heard from Finn's arm as he held her tightly in his arms. He guided Adria to stand up and she was silent - completely lifeless but she protested.

She protested to stay with her brother, ignored the blood dripping down her mother's dress and begged to stay with him, but she couldn't.

Her cries started again as she saw not the once perfect wonderland the park had transformed into, but the red-bricked entrance to St Mungo's hospital.

-

Her face was nothing like Sirius had seen in a long time, it took him back - not to her father's death but her mothers when she couldn't even talk. When her father died she forced herself into the role of Jude's caregiver and didn't care for what anyone else said, she was doing it and that was final.

She matured overnight and took on that role, but now, she had no role - she had already taken on that role and it gained her a wonderful family...but her brother was gone, and she couldn't even stay with him.

She had to go in for operations - magical surgeries and take potion after potion and Sirius waited and paced as did Lily and James who had arrived later with talk of what had to happen. Jude was fine, both he and Mila with Benji and Arden who had finally secured a flat for themselves and were taking them there for the night.

"Is there anything we can get you, Mrs Black?" asked the woman. She had told them her name was simply that on arrival when she realised that Mrs Hopkins-Black was a mouthful regardless of her loving it. Sirius had protested, not wanting anyone to ever find out that he had finally married as it could have led his family to her, but she didn't care.

She was Mrs Hopkins-Black, and she was proud of the title.

"My brother back," she spoke with no emotion and the nurse sighed with a sympathetic squeeze of her hand as Adria lay on the bed, tears streaming but sobs caught. Alfie had arrived with the professors soon after in search of something just for Adria's sake.

They knew that with Adria involved, they'd have to try all that they could in order to ease her, but she couldn't cope with the thought of him dead, so they brought him to the hospital just so she could see that they tried.

"I have to...get your file," the nurse squeaked, and Adria knew there was something she had yet to find out, "I'll come back with your results soon. I'll send your husband in."

"Thank you." Adria's voice was different, and she sat up on the bed at the sight of Sirius walking in and sitting in front of her, "It's gone."

"We...don't know that," Sirius whispered, reaching for her hand which she clung to tightly, her eyes forming tears and emotions returning. She was with the boy she could trust with everything in her - her husband, her Sirius, and she allowed her emotions to engulf her because she knew that he would be there.

He always had been there.

"I do," she nodded, "there's no way."

He cupped her cheek and wiped the tears, "...baby girl, please have hope."

She shook her head, covering her mouth to keep in her sobs, "I know we're young, but I wanted it."

"I know you did," he kissed her shoulder, holding her close to him, "and I did too."

"How is it possible," she choked out, "that this happened to be the best and worst day of my life at the exact same time?"

He shook his head, cupping her cheek and kissing her, "if I had just looked-"

"Don't you dare," she whispered, pushing her own pain aside to comfort her husband, "don't ever think that this is your fault, Sirius, it's not."

She could hardly move, lying there still with him helping and holding her. Her voice was croaky and strained, and he knew she was trying all she could to push aside the pain. It was drastically dampened with the number of potions to relieve the pain - but it was pain on top of more pain that wouldn't have happened had it not been for her personal circumstances that landed her in the worst place at the worst time.

"You jumped in front of me, Adria," he said it with such pain laced in his voice, "you screamed for me to listen and I didn't. I could have blocked that spell - I didn't."

"You were helping James," she gestured for him to move forward and she kissed him when he did, "I would jump in front of that curse again if it meant protecting you, Sirius."

He moved to lie beside her, and helped her get comfortable with the lack of room and the pain she was already in, "...is that what it's like?"

"Hmm?"

"Order missions?" she breathed out, leaning into him, "is it...that bad?"

"Sometimes it's worse," he spoke, "and I hate to say this...I hate how awful it sounds - but so many innocent people die out on missions...I feel numb. I feel indifferent towards deaths and lifeless bodies because I've seen so many.

But seeing...my brother and my sister, the parents of our godchild - It was something so different I couldn't bear it. But then I had to push that aside because it was so important to me but seeing that blood on Milo and figuring out it was yours - Addy, I loved Alfie, he was my family, but you are the most important thing to me.

Pushing my grieving aside was painful but it was easy because if your hurt then it's my priority to make sure I get you safe, I couldn't let you stay there no matter how much you wanted to. You were hurt, and you are still hurt.

And whatever happens, we can deal with it."

"Can we?" she asked, choking back a sob at the news she knew they would be receiving soon, "I know it's coming, Sirius, I can...feel it - but to hear it, I don't know. I feel numb, too, I feel numb and I can't tell you why, but it doesn't feel real."

He could only nod, and he had his arm around her so tightly that she felt every inch of herself pressed against him and his lips against her forehead, and when the nurse returned with pain in her eye and a deep breath, she braced herself for what she was going to say.

Because as soon as she was struck, it was in the back of her head and she wouldn't let herself think of it - even though she needed to, she just couldn't bear the thought of thinking of it. She had been so built on adrenaline back at the park that she couldn't find a second to think of it.

But arriving in St Mungo's gave her time to think...plenty of time to think of it.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Black," she held onto Sirius' hand so tightly just to feel something, and she could feel the tears already burning her eyes once more, "I'm afraid...we couldn't save your child."

She knew.

[ i made memes to go with this chapter and i hope u all (translation: y'all (for riley)) enjoy them

thank u]