Now he wasn't so sure. No one from the order had been in contact with Headquarters since he had sent off his reply letter and he was beginning to doubt that the letter had come from Dumbledore at all.
While it was not unusual for certain members of The Order to go without reporting in for days and sometimes even weeks at a time, hearing from no one was, quite frankly, setting Sirius' teeth on edge. It was even getting to the point where he would have been glad to catch sight of Severus Snape, that's how bad his anxiety over the situation was.
Even if they had nothing to report to Dumbledore there were those within The Order whom Sirius had become friends with and who would make visits which were purely social in nature, but even they were not turning up. Heck, just last night Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, Bill Weasley and Sturgis Podmore were meant to come around for a game or two of cards and work their way a few bottles of fire whiskey in order to let of a little steam. (Moody, of course, would have been made to take out his magical, all seeing eye so that the game was fair!)
None of them had turned up for the game and not one of them had gotten in touch, not a floo call, not an owl and Sirius thought that to be rather rude!
Last night he had wallowed in his disappointment by making his way through two and a half of the ten bottles of fire whiskey that had been set aside for the game before slumping over the kitchen table and passing out.
That was last night though. Twenty-fire hours later and Sirius was now wide awake, sobered up and sitting in front of the fire hearth, staring into the roaring, orange flames as he contemplated the situation that he currently found himself in.
One person missing the game was understandable, two was plausible, three was a bit of a stretch but not beyond the realms of possibility. After all, Kingsley, Sturgis and Bill all had jobs to see to and could easily have been called in to attend to an emergency. But for all five of them to miss the game made no sense at all and Sirius Black did not like it one little bit.
To make matters worse there seemed to be some kind of communication block in place. There were no letters being delivered, no floo calls to take and, with no one visiting Headquarters, Sirius had not seen a copy of the Daily Prophet in days. For obvious reasons he could not subscribe to the premier wizarding periodical himself and had to instead rely upon others to bring copies around with them and leave them lying around.
How was he meant to know how much Ministry-induced damage he was going to have to rectify when he and Harry were together again?
Rapidly he was coming to one every simple conclusion – if information would not come to him, he would have to go and find it. There were no owls available for his personal use at Headquarters, and the Ministry keeping an eye on the Hogwarts Floo Network ruled that out. Even if he did use the floo network, there was no guarantee as to what he would find at the other end. What if the Ministry had raided Hogwarts and Sirius stepped out of the fire place right into a band of Aurors? He was, after all, still marked to have his soul removed through the kiss of a Dementor should he be caught alive.
After hours of thought, what he must do now was becoming steadily clearer. The previous year, during the events of the Tri-Wizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts, he had spent much of his time living in a cave just outside of the wizarding village of Hogsmeade and had entered the village at night to pull discarded copies of The Daily Prophet out of rubbish bins. As a wanted man with no means of communication, this was the best way he could think of to get the information he so desperately desired.
'Yes' he thought 'that will have to do. I did it once and I can certainly do it again.'
He got out of his chair and waved his wand through the air several times. Moments later his younger brother's old school trunk flew in through the drawing room door, followed by several sets of robes, bedding and a decent supply of food.
The trunk landed upon the nearby table and the lid swung open. Sirius watched as clothes and blankets folded themselves up and secured themselves compactly and tidily within one half of the trunk while the food filled the other half. After a couple of moments' thought he decided to add in the remaining bottles of fire whiskey as well. He had no plans on getting drunk while in the cave. Bitter experience had taught him that sleeping in a cave in Scotland during the winter months was not a fun experience, no matter how many blankets you bundled yourself up in or how many warming charms you cast around yourself.
Fire whiskey, as well as being a very good way to get yourself very drunk very quickly, was also known for its warming properties and if you happened to catch a cold, warming up a bowl of fire whiskey and inhaling the fumes for about ten minutes was a rather effective way to clear your airways (Sirius had never agreed with his mother on many topics, but it was hard to argue with her home remedies like that one!)
Thoughts of home remedies quickly turned Sirius' thoughts to medicinal potions. He was never any good at healing charms so in the event of a cut, a bruise or a broken bone he usually relied on a potion or living through the pain. As the remaining bottles of Ogden's Finest Fire Whiskey settled themselves into the trunk, Sirius headed down to the kitchen and raided The Order's potion supply cupboard.
While he might fight with Snape tooth and nail and while he might trust the man about as far as he could throw a mountain troll without the aid of magic, there was no denying that the greasy git made good potions. Deciding to be prepared for anything he grabbed pepper-up potions, burn salves, skele-gro, bruise removal paste, a cut sealing concoction and a few antidotes just to be on the safe side.
Returning to the drawing room he placed the potions into the trunk and closed and locked the lid.
"Kreacher!" he called out and a moment later the old, cantankerous House Elf that had served the Black Family for years appeared in the room.
"Nasty young Master calls for Kreacher?" asked the Elf, trying his best to appear subservient like a good House Elf but ultimately unable to keep the loathing out of his voice.
"Yes Kreacher. I am leaving." replied Sirius.
"Master is leaving?" echoed the Elf.
"Yes, Kreacher, leaving. There has been no word from anyone in The Order for several days now, so I am going out to attempt to discover what has happened. Until I return I will be in a cave just outside the village of Hogsmeade. Should anyone from The Order arrive here before I make my return, the only people you may inform of my location are Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin or Alastor Moody. Is that clear?"
Kreacher bowed low and croaked "Crystal clear, master."
Sirius huffed and used his wand to shrink the trunk down to the size of a galleon before placing it into a pocket before leaving the room.
At the door he turned back and said "Oh, and Kreacher? Try and keep the place looking tidy this time. I don't think we need another doxy infestation in the curtains of the master bedroom, do we?"
"No, master," croaked Kreacher. "Kreacher will keep out doxies."
"And feed Buckbeak," added Sirius before heading downstairs.
.....
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