Sirius stood staring at the figure donned in black for a moment. His wand was already in his hand by instinct, ready for action, but it took him a beat to register what was in front of him.
". . . Are you mad?" Sirius pointed his glowing wand towards Quinn. "Or are you looking to surrender? If it is the latter, then I'll gladly take you in right here, right now. What do you say, want to come in? We're renovating right now, so it'll be a little rough, but I assure you, I'll put you in the best one we have."
Quinn would've good-heartedly laughed if he wasn't under his mask. But Noir wouldn't laugh in any situation, so he went straight to the point, "About the attack in the Ministry, what is the Auror Office's stand on it? How will you and your people handle the Death Eaters now?"
Sirius scoffed, taking one step closer to Quinn. "What are you, a journalist? Why would I tell you a single thing to a criminal like you?"
"I want to know the Ministry's stance on- criminals- like Death Eaters. Is the Auror Office going to stay still like cowards after the Death Eaters came into your house and bombed it? If so, I will lose all the respect I have for your occupation."
". . . Cowards?" Sirius' voice went as cold as a grave. "You're calling us cowards when you're then one who hides behind that mask? How dare you say that you fucking nobody. Unlike the rest of my peers back in the office, I respected you for rescuing Amelia from Voldemort— but to think I was giving respect to someone who doesn't respect it."
Quinn narrowed his eye behind his mask.
"I could not care less what you think of me, Sirius Black," said Quinn. "Get to the point. What is the Auror's stance on the Death Eaters? If you do not want to tell me, then say so, and I will leave."
"Do you think I'll let you walk away just like this?" Sirius, his wand taking on an angry glow.
Quinn didn't believe words were an appropriate response. So he turned to what he considered an appropriate response and flared up his market. The doors and windows of solitary street rattled, and even the dust on the ground floated to rise up.
"I am not a pushover," said Quinn. "I did not want this conversation to go this way. But if you want to go down this path, I will very willingly follow through with it."
"You didn't want to go this way? What did you expect would happen between an Auror and a wanted murderer?" said Sirius.
"A cultured conversation."
"Cultured conversation with a bloke who has taken body parts out of people? Yeah, right! Have some self-consciousness."
Quinn could tell this conversation was going nowhere. He wanted to get some information, but it didn't look like Sirius was going to give it to him willingly. He could take it out of the Senior Auror's mind against his consent, but that was something he was looking to avoid because of how messy it could get and become a rolling snowball. Right now, he was more willing to take a risk on a Junior Auror, who might or might not have the crucial information he was looking for.
"This was a waste of time," said Quinn and started to back away while keeping an eye on Sirius.
A wise decision as Sirius immediately shot a spell towards Quinn, who blocked it with a shield and returned with a magic-heavy spell. Sirius moved to block it with his shield and was sent back flying as the spell made contact with a shield.
"Oof!"
A blue glow appeared around Sirius, and all the momentum was killed, bringing him to a halt. The Senior Auror landed on the ground skillfully as if he had practiced a hundred times. But as Sirius regained his footing, another spell appeared in his peripheral. He raised his wand, and a hasty shield spell blocked the attack, but Sirius was sent flying once again. The same blue glow of Arresto Momentum cut Sirius' momentum and brought him to a halt, with Sirius physically maneuvering himself to land on the ground.
*Pop!*
Sirius looked up just to see the sole of a black combat boot smash into his shoulder and slam him to the ground, rattling his entire body.
"Gah!"
Even in this situation, Sirius' mind worked with perfect calmness and awareness of his situation. He channeled his magic through his wand, a dome manifested above him. Crack! But the next second, the dome was broken by a heavy blunt attack. Then Sirius saw the black sole come down, and this time instead of landing on his shoulder, it squarely pressed into his chest and rammed into the ground.
"Think about it before calling me a good-for-nothing, Sirius Black," said Quinn. He extended his gloved hand, and Sirius' wand went flying to the side of the street, in a shady corner, making it difficult to be seen. "I do not wish harm upon those who do not deserve it. You do not deserve to face the harm I inflict upon the deserve. I still respect the Aurors, and the country can not lose any more Auros, so I'm going to leave you, so make sure you lie here like a good boy."
Quinn passed a light vibration spell through Sirius' body which did not hurt him, but it didn't hurt but did heavily disorient him. When Sirius recovered from the spell that shook every part of his body, Quinn turned away and was already turning the corner of the street.
"War."
Quinn stopped and turned towards Sirius.
"The Aurors are at war with the Death Eaters."
'War. Now that is something,' thought Quinn. He didn't know what war meant in the context of the Aurors; they could be simply starting an arrest hunt for the Death Eaters, or maybe it was more along the lines of avenging their fallen ones. But whatever it was, Quinn knew that this was the advent of what was called in the canon as the Second Wizarding War.
"Take care of yourself, Sirius Black," said Quinn. "Wars do nothing but damage to everything involved. Stay alive; the world needs more people like you in it."
After throwing some pleasant words, he turned the corner and apparated out, leaving behind a relatively unharmed Sirius Black.
. . .
Quinn dropped the Noir patch on his bed and plopped down beside it flat on his back.
"War, he says," muttered Quinn.
He was expecting some big news today, and what he heard was right up the alley he was expecting. And it did bring him some nervousness and a little bit of anxiety. As he had said to Sirius, wars brought good to no one involved. There was destruction, loss of life, and distress on the entire spectrum of emotions.
"War," Quinn muttered again.
It was already here. Quinn knew that it would come sooner or later, but now that it was here, it seemed that there wasn't enough time to prepare. There had been things he had been preparing for a very long time, and they still weren't complete.
'Especially, the main part on which everything depends upon.' His hand went to the chain around his neck where the Ressurection Stone lay. He hadn't had enough time to work on it and desperately wished he had gotten his hands on it sooner.
But there was no use complaining. All he could do was move his plans faster and hope that they had progressed enough to work.
Quinn stood up from his bed. Picked up the Noir patch and walked down the stairs of his suitcase.
If he wanted to make his plans move faster, he needed to put in the work to make that happen.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
The door opened, and Sirius entered the room as silently as possible.
"You're late, Auror Black."
Sirius looked a bit embarrassed as he looked at the table of important people sitting at the same table— the Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones. . . Head of DMLE, Rufus Scrimgeour. . . Head Auror, Gawain Robards. . . Head Hit Wizard, Cillian Parry, among many other important personnel from the DMLE.
And Sirius was late to that meeting.
"I'm sorry," Sirius said to Scrimgeour. "I encountered two drunken parties fighting each other in the street about Quidditch, creating problems for everyone. There was no Junior in the area, so I had to take care of it."
He sat down in a seat near the walls of the room.
"Welcome to the meeting," James Potter whispered as he leaned toward Sirius.
"Don't start," Sirius sighed.
"Did you really find people on the street?"
"No, I met the Invisible Vigilante," said Sirius. "He beat me to the ground. I got late because of that."
James tried to hold back his laugh, but it leaked out, gathering eyes from everywhere in the room.
"Is there something you find funny, Auror Potter?" asked Amelia.
"No, nothing Minister," James said hurriedly with a serious face. After he was sure no one was looking at him, he whispered to Sirius, "Seriously, what happened?"
"I met the Invisible Vigilate."
"Did you meet a girl and lose track of time."
"I met the Invisible Vigilate. He asked me what had happened. We got into a fight. He barely beat me to the ground, barely. We agreed that I could've won if he didn't get a drop of me and then parted ways like civil gentlemen."
James wanted to scoff, but it died in his throat when he looked at Sirius. The smile drained from his face, and he grabbed Sirius' arm, "Did you really? How did that happen? What happened?!"
Sirius nodded.
"You are fine, right?" asked James.
"Yeah, I'm fine," sighed Sirius. There was a silence before he said, "He was strong."
"What?"
"He was strong. I made sure to charge up my shield plenty, but I was still blown away. And you know what? He blew me away twice at that. I couldn't adapt the second time as well. It was like there was a gulf of power that I couldn't cover."
"What did you say to him?"
"Nothing much, but then he didn't kill me. . . so I just said that we were going at war."
"You did what?! That's not supposed to go out! What happens if Scrimgeour and Bones shut down Robards proposal?"
"Like that's going to stop him."
"I know it won't, and that's why we have to keep it under wraps. You shouldn't have told him even if this goes through."
The two stopped talking when Amelia got up along with the other bigwigs.
"I have listened to what DMLE Head Scrimgeour and Head Auror Robards had to say. . . and given the circumstances, I have come to a decision," Amelia looked around the room and spoke after a pause,
"We are going at war with the Death Eaters. This is going to be a covet operation, so whatever we discuss here moving forward is not to be talked about outside."
Sirius looked at James, "Well, there you have it. It's not as bad as before, is it?"
James opened and closed his mouth before shutting it and looked ahead, his expression covered in shock.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
Quinn West - MC - Just a few days, I was talking about getting lazy. . .
Sirius Black - Senior Auror - I did nothing wrong, per se.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I'm back. Not a fracture, but serious ligament damage(tore 'em up pretty badly.) 5 days of bed-rest. After that, if the swelling and pain have improved, I can commute carefully with a support splint without worsening the injury. Then with care and DIY physiotherapy for 1-2 months, I will be able to regain full mobility. Not going home, at least not as of now; let's see how I'm doing on Monday.
