Location — Dover, England
Date — November 2, 1981
Time — 3 AM
Gibson's POV
The blare of a ship broke his sleep. His eyes flew open, and he stood up straight from where he had been napping behind a container, causing his head to strike it. His head started to throb in pain and his pulse hammered in his ears.
It took a few seconds for his racing heart to calm.
'They haven't found me. Mad-eye hasn't found me.'
He looked sideways and saw the sodium lights illuminating the docks. Ferries loomed, white and blue hulls, slightly rusty from seawater. Lorries and crates spread across the entire port.
Muggles doing what they could best do — physical work, just like farm animals, moving around, hauling stuff from one place to another.
None took notice of him. For them, he was merely another vagrant who was sleeping at whatever place he could find.
He removed his golden pocket watch from his trousers and, surprisingly, noted that it was already 3 AM. His contact had told him that he would be at the docks by 2 AM.
'He's never late. So, what has happened?'
Various thoughts started to pass through his mind, especially the thought of his contact getting caught at the hands of those Merlin-damn aurors.
Cold sweat broke out across his skin at the thought. If his thinking was going in the right direction, then his life should have been in danger.
He quickly gathered whatever belongings he had, which in hindsight, were not much. He quickly fled from the docks to make sure aurors wouldn't be able to catch him.
As he weaved through various small alleys, he began to curse the Potters in his head.
'It's because of them that I am in this condition.'
It all started two days ago, when the Dark Lord attacked the Potters. James and his mudblood wife were in Mungo's, meanwhile, their son was killed.
But, his Master didn't manage to survive the attack. As the news of the Dark Lord's death spread across all of Britain, old Bagnold started to crack down on all of the supporters of the Dark Lord.
He and his father tried to reach their family estate, but Mad-Eye and his group of Merlin-damned aurors ambushed them. His father lost his life but he managed to scramble away. He tried to contact all of his fellow Death Eaters, but either aurors were hunting them or they were trying to leave Britain. They also gave him the same advice.
Walking down the path that he was taking, he managed to cover a considerable stretch away from the docks. He sat down on the porch of a small house to take some rest.
He was heaving, he didn't have the experience of walking like that. He could apparate wherever he wanted. But, he couldn't do that right now as he could be tracked if he used any kind of magic.
He then heard some footsteps coming from a nearby alley. He quickly moved behind some boxes that were lying on the porch to hide.
As the footsteps rose in volume, the voices came nearer, and his heartbeat also started to rise. He gathered some strength & peeked a little and managed to see a group of Muggle girls talking and passing by. He let out a sigh of relief.
All of them were young, in their early twenties... a little overage from what he usually liked. An ugly feeling rose in his mind after seeing them, but he pushed those thoughts away. He couldn't afford any attention right now.
He left his hiding spot and decided that he wouldn't stop until he reached the apartment of his contact.
20 minutes passed as he briskly walked through various alleys, and he reached a much darker and much sparser neighborhood. The roads were silent, with uneven chirping in the grass grating on his nerves.
When he finally saw a downtrodden building at the very end of the road, he felt a sense of relief washing over him.
He was still cautious so he used his magic to find out if the building had aurors but he only managed to sense one human inside.
He quickly approached the structure. The road that he was using, was so unused, that the entire road was covered with bushes. He managed to get through them and arrived at the entrance to the building.
'The door is open. But, why?' The question struck his mind but he ignored it.
'Maybe I am thinking too much.' He entered the building and found that it was covered in darkness.
"Richard...RICHARD... ARE YOU THERE?" He screamed into the silence, his voice echoing through the entirety of the structure, but, there was no response.
He moved further inward but tripped on something, causing him to fall. "FUCK" was the word that came out of his mouth as his knees struck the floor.
He stood and felt something sticky on his hand.
He sniffed his hand and felt the metallic scent hit his brain.
'No…'
The scent of iron.
'NOO…'
The scent of ...
"Blood..." his whisper made the realisation hit harder for him.
His heart rate rose, cold sweat draped his forehead, and his legs started to shake.
With his shaking hands, he picked out his wand from its holster and tried to remember the spell that every first-year student of Hogwarts could perform even in their sleep.
"Lu...Lum…Lumos" he stuttered out and his eyes widened at the condition of the room in front of him.
The entire room was covered in blood, and the pieces of flesh clung to the walls.
And a... body lay on the floor, right next to where he was standing.
He froze where he stood. His limbs locked in fear as he got a good look at the dead body.
It was covered in scars dripping with fresh blood, with chunks of flesh missing, but the most disturbing thing was a missing body part.
The missing part, that brought some memories to bubble up in his mind.
'Let's give them something to remember.'
His breath quickened.
'Grab that mudblood's hand.'
He started to step away from the body.
'Hello Twins, Good to see both of you here.'
He ran toward the door.
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'
He felt something strike him from behind.
'Removing their heads, it's not like they are going to use them anymore.'
He fell face-first on the floor, hitting his nose and causing him to bleed.
He moved his own head sideways when he saw a head coming to a stop right in front of him.
The head of Richard.
Before he could take it in, someone kicked him hard on his hip.
"AHHHHHH"
He screamed as a cracking sound filled the room.
Tears sprang into his eyes as the pain coursed through him.
He grabbed his wand tightly and asked in between his sobs of agony, "WHO IS HERE? COME OUT OR ELSE I WI—"
"I will what, Gibson?" A voice cut in, causing his head to snap in the direction of the sound.
A man came out of the shadows, soaked in blood with scraps of Richard's flesh still sticking to his clothes. But it was his hand that grabbed Gibson's eye — One of the hands was normal but the other one was not a hand at all, it was a claw — dripping with blood.
When Gibson looked away, his focus shifted to the face of the attacker and whatever doubts he had were washed away.
'Your blue eyes are quite pretty mudblood. It's a waste for you to have them.'
The same blue eyes, full of hatred were looking at him as if he were an insect.
"BOMBARDA" he roared as he fired the spell at the man, but the man was fast as he jumped away and ran directly toward Gibson.
Bombardas, Bone Breakers, and Blood Boilers were flung at the attacker, but not even a single one came close to connecting.
The attacker used his clawed hand to pull out a brick from the wall and threw it toward him.
The brick slammed into his wand, breaking the last line of defence that he had.
Before he could regain his senses, the attacker was on his head, delivering a kick into his stomach with so much force that he flew into the wall.
"AHHHHHH" his body exploded in pain, as he started to cough blood, causing him to double over.
"Are you having fun Gibson?" The angry voice of the man stopped right next to Gibson.
"Lo...Look, ple...please don't ki— AHHHHH" his voice was cut off again with a pained shout when the man's boot smashed his hand.
"This was the hand that you use to wield your stick, isn't it Gibson?" The man lifted him by his collar and looked directly into his eyes, "You know what Gibson, I wanted to kill you after giving you the exact amount of pain as you had given my family."
His words caused his eyes to widen,
'My fa…father will fi...find you. He will ki...kill you all.'
The man gave an angry smile at his look of realisation, "Looks like the bastard remembers."
He smashed Gibson's face to the floor again and again and again, causing him to lose some teeth.
He began to lose consciousness when he felt the man's claw on his neck.
His breath hitched.
"My name is Marron Sallow."
He gulped as it finally settled in his psyche that he was going to die.
'Sallow's Paradise'
He flailed weakly, but losing his dominant hand made those efforts futile.
"My name is Snarl."
He started to feel an enormous pressure on his neck, and a wet, tearing sensation started to spread.
"Ple—"
Then in a violent wrench, his body fell one way. His head struck the floor a moment later.
Then the building was silent once again.
Location — WDA HEADQUARTERS, LONDON
Time — 3: 30 AM, 2 November, 1981
Sirius Black's POV
Harsh glow stabbed into his eyes as he regained consciousness. He tried to bring his hand to shield his eyes but found that he was unable to do so.
Blinking his eyes rapidly to make them adjust to the lighting, he finally managed to get a good look around him.
He was inside a room, with his hands strapped to a reclining chair. The room was small, with a glowing Muggle halogen light giving a yellowish tint to the otherwise dark room. The room had nothing else except for another chair right in front of him. A door was also there but without a handle.
But it was the silence that unnerved him. There was no sound coming from outside, which meant that he was in a secluded place.
He attempted to break free of the straps, but they didn't budge, no matter how hard he pushed.
After exhausting himself, he tried to remember what had happened to him, and what in the Merlin-damned world he had done that he was strapped to a chair as if he were a Death Eater.
'YOU BETRAYED US, BASTARD.'
The voice in his mind gave him a whiplash of emotions that opened the floodgates of memories.
'It wasn't me, Sirius. It was you'
His heartbeat rose as the voice accused him.
'James on the floor, clothes burnt,…unconscious,… breathing, … alive but barely…'
His muscles tightened.
'The nursery covered in blood…'
Tears pooled in his eyes.
'Lily lying near the crib, covered in blood, not her own.'
Then his eyes dilated as realisation hit him.
'Cradle...Harry's cradle filled with blood, with no signs of Harry.'
He sobbed, remembering the entirety of the most dreadful night of his life. The night that took his entire family away from him.
'He was running on the streets.'
His face started to turn pale as the fragments slowly started to come together.
'WHY DID YOU DO IT, YOU FUCKING RAT…'
His heart started to thump wildly at the sight of Peter's face in the middle of an alley.
'I HAVE TO DO IT OKAY. I HAD NO OTHER OPTION…'
Rage filled his soul as he began to recall the betrayal of Pet… 'Rat'.
'I am sorry but you have to die Sirius…'
'BOMBARDA'
'A Blast'
'A flash of Black and Red and then Darkness...'
His breathing came to a stop as the complete understanding of what happened on the Samhain night became clear. Everything that he held dear to his heart was snatched away from him. James, more of a brother to him than Regulus, Lily, a kind-hearted sister that he always craved and Harry, his godson.
Everything was destroyed because of one man… ' Peter '.
'I have to get out of this place…'
'I have to find that Rat…'
'I have to kill him…'
Before he could act on his thoughts, he heard the squeaking sound of the door. He was alarmed when his inner grim whimpered in dread.
Finally, a large man entered the room with a sword on his back and a black wolf mask on his face.
The man was around 6 feet tall, with a hulking figure that could give Hagrid competition.
As the man sat right in front of him, the chair creaked in response. He saw that the man was wearing a black jacket with a red colored wolf stamped on it.
'A woman's face, wearing a black jacket with a red wolf…'
'You will be all right, Sir…'
The voice echoed in his head as he remembered a woman saving him right before the blast could hit him.
He looked up and saw the man scrutinizing him. His grim whimpered at the look of the man. But his inner anger overrode the feeling. He wanted to get out of here. He wanted to kill the Rat. And for that, he needed to gather information.
"Who are you? And where the hell am I?" his rage gave him enough strength to ask the question that he had wanted to ask since the man entered the room.
The man remained silent.
As he was about to work himself up for an angry tirade, the man finally spoke, his heavy voice echoing through the room,
"I am Detective Ookami, Chief of the War Council of WDA. You are currently at the W.D.A. Headquarters, London.'
The man, now identified as Ookami, stood up from his chair, bent down till he was at eye level with him and then spoke in the coldest voice he had ever heard in his life,
"Your questions have been answered. Now, you have to answer some of mine..."