Wild child

They didn't go back to the hotel, and Fanny didn't want to enter any enclosed space for the time being, and almost forgot the existence of Sirius who followed silently.Memories of darkness, putrefaction, and stiff bodies came flooding back, and she felt like she was going to throw up.

"That's it." Sirius said flatly.

"At least he's still alive." The other party looked at her almost like Franklin—or there was no "expression" in his eyes at all. Fanny swallowed and continued without confidence, "I'm not saying that living like this is better than dying. Better, but at least his family would have... some comfort."

"The dementor's kiss won't hurt you, the consciousness, intelligence and life are still there, only you are not." Sirius was unmoved, "Are you willing to live like this just to give your family that so-called 'comfort'? "

"No." Fanny replied without hesitation, "But I've never been the sentimental type, maybe some people are. And for the family, it's probably better to be alive."

"No matter how long it takes, they're bound to get tired eventually."

Sirius is right, Fanny can fully imagine Franklin's next "life": more and more things will be "learned", and the operations that can be performed will become more and more complicated, and will become more accurate and perfect after repeated training .He will be like a sophisticated machine, when someone presses the "Howeryou" switch, even if that person is cutting his neck, he will only mouth "Fine, thankyou".

No normal person can live with such a "family" forever.

"I don't know, maybe he won't last that long." Fanny sighed, "You saw it when Alice dragged him down just now, Franklin doesn't have the instinct of self-protection at all, just a small accident can cost him his life."

Sirius stared at her strangely for a few seconds, and asked in an unusually cold tone, "Do you know what I was thinking when I looked at him?"

"What?" Fanny was absent-minded.

"I really want to kill him."

"what?"

"But as you said, he's alive—or his body is alive. I can't do that."

Fanny didn't know how to answer this question, she felt that Sirius wanted to say more than that.

Minutes after they held off the dementors on the roof, the Aurors arrived. Kingsley gave no details, and Fanny didn't know and didn't want to know where things had gone since she lost consciousness: how close the dementors were to them. ?Did they catch them?Have they taken off their hoods?

How close were they to Franklin's fate?

He kept his normal self, back and forth with Fanny and taunting each other, but the reunion with the Dementor clearly hurt the inner Sirius Black.He was eerily silent, his eyes averted, as he discussed his next move.Fanny doesn't think there's much she can do about it. She hasn't lived with hundreds of dementors for 12 years, but already has to grapple with regular migraines while talking to victims' families.

The worst is yet to come, she has only practiced Occlumency for a few months, but she has cleared her mind before going to bed almost since she became a witch, so so far she can still build a wall for her brain during sleep, Block out what you don't want to see.

Even though she could hear the sound of the wall crumbling every time she half-awoke with throbbing temples, Fanny was grateful for it.Sleep is vital, she has proven so many times over the past 17 years of her life, and now she can only hope that her symptoms will improve after a few decent nights of sleep.

Her traveling companions were apparently much worse off.The first few nights they had agreed to leave the vigil alone until things went back to normal, but Sirius never fell asleep before she fell asleep, and she would wake up to find Sirius already sitting in bed or Standing in a daze by the window, Fanny suspected that he had either been tossing and turning in nightmares that were several times more realistic or hadn't slept at all.

Another reason is Sirius' temper, he was a tame giant chow before compared to now - even when he was mad, Fanny couldn't help noticing the metaphors and sarcasm about dogs used in him. It fits amazingly.

Really, nothing ruins your mood like not eating enough and not sleeping well.It also made it even more difficult to put up with Sirius, with Fanny increasingly finding excuses to act apart.It's not a good idea for a partner to take out that moody temper on an innocent third party, but it's the only way she can keep herself from going insane.

Although this method often brings disaster to herself.

For example, after finally finding a host in another remote town that is not very friendly and has no hotels, Sirius is harshly critical of the dinner prepared by the host at the dinner table, such as laughing at the hostess's steak "a mouse will die at all" can’t eat,” and of course the two were kicked out—for the second time in three days.The life of people here is very regular. After 9 o'clock, the lights are turned off one after another. The two people who failed to find another place to live wandered for several hours along the town's only two main streets that intersect in the center of the town. Neither looked at each other.

When the watch on her wrist indicated that the time was past midnight, Fanny made up her mind and turned around with a big step.

Sirius didn't get a response to his inquiry, so he simply walked in the opposite direction. Fanny ignored him and went straight to a house.It wasn't like she was doing nothing but sulking when she went around just now. The house looked old, with a layer of moss growing on the red brick frontage and front porch, and the faux-sloped slate tiles on the roof were peeling off. It was mottled and overgrown with weeds in the small courtyard.If she guessed right, no one has lived here for at least a few years.

There was a copper knocker shaped like a snake on the black door. It took Fanny a lot of effort to block the rusty lock, but she still broke it open with a thick, invincible wire.When the door creaked open, Sirius' footsteps came from behind her as expected.

"Sure enough, it's professional grade." As always, the sarcasm tone.

Fanny walked in without saying a word. She couldn't touch the switch in the darkness for a while, so she simply used her magic wand to light up the lamp.The light was somewhat dim under the obstruction of the insect corpses and dirt accumulated in the lampshade, but Sirius whistled when it turned on, and Fanny was surprised by the contrast between the interior decoration and the exterior appearance.

The pitted leather furniture has a few bug holes but is still creamy soft; the crystal coffee table in the center of the living room looks like it was carved from a single block of ice; the exotic decorations on the walls have become grimy It can be seen that it is made of ivory and agate; on the wall of the living room directly opposite the sofa, there are stuffed African lions, and the tusks and beards are still intact and lifelike.

Sirius was talking outside the door, although the feeling of something wrong in her heart gradually increased as she entered the room, but Fanny had had enough of his voice—besides, whether it was her or Sirius, what part of this time was Are you okay?Ignoring the uneasiness, Fanny lit up all the lights and started walking around.

If there is something abnormal about this house, the wealth of the owner must be one of them.At any rate, after reading so many Draco's "teaching materials", she could see that the reliefs on the stair railing, the vases placed next to it, the murals in the corridor and even the origin of the wood in the fireplace were all intriguing.

It is certain that even if this house is brand new, there is nothing special about it from the outside. What kind of family needs to hide wealth like this?And for such a building, the interior space seems to be a bit... big.About halfway through the corridor connecting the bedrooms on the second floor, Fanny finally remembered the last and most obvious thing that was wrong: there were no electrical appliances in this room.She'd walked almost all over the house, and the only thing that could be an electrical appliance was the light, and she hadn't seen a single switch so far.

Fanny stopped to gather her composure, and then was hit by a surging sense of threat—there were strange wizards around, and they were close at hand.Her hand clutched the wand in her pocket and froze.

A thin wooden stick was silently pressed against the middle of her neck from behind, and the elegant wooden door in front of her opened, and the wand in the hand of the person who came out was pointing at her heart neatly.Immediately, she heard the sound of the door opening on the left rear, and she didn't dare to look back, but she guessed that another person came out.

The man in front of her had stiff, coarse black hair, was not much taller than her, had a square face with steep lines, and dark eyes with a cruel smile.Fanny saw the end of a livid-black mark on the cuff of his wand arm.

"Drop the wand." He made a harsh metallic sound in the back of his throat.

Fanny hesitated for a moment, the tip of the stick on the back of her neck suddenly became red hot, she had to let go.

Great job, Fanny Sanchez.You are such a fool.

"Well, let's find your dirty little friend now."

The Death Eater was whispering orders, the wand poking at her hard at the nape of her neck.Fanny's throat was dry, she listened to her breathing and then controlled it to become steady, and slowly turned around and walked past the door and decorative paintings just passed.

Sirius must not be caught.

They were getting closer and closer to the stairs she had just climbed up, and the Death Eaters' goal was clear.Three people were walking on the left and right of her and behind her, and it seemed that there were no other accomplices.The one on the right held a wand in one hand and grabbed Fanny's shoulders with the other, dragging her staggeringly; the black-haired Death Eater walked a little in front of her left, staring ahead vigilantly; the wand on the back of his neck pressed tightly hold on.

The nearest ornament to that corner was a brass vase in an alcove, probably from a century or two ago, and she hoped it was lighter than it looked.

The direction of the footsteps of the man on the left began to change, and Fanny felt the wand in the rear move away a little.

The strength of her lower body caused the owner of the hand on the right shoulder to stagger, the first elbow hit near his liver, and a red light rubbed against the top of Fanny's head from the back of her head and hit the carpet.She passed under the outstretched wand of the man on the left and slammed into it, smashing herself and him against the wall.The copper vase flew towards the person behind her with a cracking sound, and was knocked away even faster.

Has anyone tried smashing a copper vase against a wall in an empty hallway?Until Fanny's screams subsided, the humming still echoed in the room.She couldn't hear the spell, but she was sure she had been hit by the Cruciatus Curse, and there couldn't be a spell that would cause more pain than that and not kill the victim—and then she was almost killed by the Cruciatus Curse herself. Analysis is funny.

A pair of booted feet approached Fanny, and its owner was probably going to kick her or give her another blow with the wand in his hand.She stared at it, without trying to get up or guessing, and listened intently to what was going on downstairs.

Sirius must know that there are enemies here, and the movement just now may be heard in the whole block.What did he say?Without knowing the number of enemies, if it is determined that it is too late to rescue your companions, you must evacuate immediately to protect yourself as the top priority.It's close to the stairs, and if he Apparates down there the sound should come up too.Or he didn't come in at all—did he come in?He also seemed to give a warning but she didn't pay attention, God she was so stupid.

Neither she nor Sirius had lifted their disguises yet, but if they caught him it wouldn't be long before they found out.If Sirius was caught, Harry and the others... God forbid he was gone, and it was all her fault.Why did she hang around outside for so long?She shouldn't even have asked to come out with him in the first place.

Fanny tried her best to relax herself and tried to sense whether Sirius had left, but it was useless, she didn't have supernatural powers or advanced wandless magic, and it was an instinctive intuition to detect the existence of magic power around her.She had never specifically practiced how to explore a certain space - why hadn't she? ——and now surrounded by these three people so closely, she couldn't feel anything at all.

"Ah, it looks like he's still in this house." One hand roughly grabbed Fanny's hair and lifted it up, confirming Fanny's fear. "How touching, you idiots are such a virtue."

He slammed Fanny's head against the wall, and the words of the next Death Eater echoed as strangely in her ears as the shattering of a brass vase.

"I have an idea." Fanny tried hard to blink away the physical tears in her eyes and looked at the person who spoke. The guy was clutching his ribs with a livid face, "Crucio."

Fanny's slap just now made him hunched over and uttered words with difficulty, but it also made his hatred strong enough.

The pain disappeared when Fanny was about to faint, and there was no other movement.A nearby Death Eater cursed, but the man clutching his ribs looked satisfied. "Ah, it seems that your partner doesn't love you very much, does he? Then let's do it again..."

"Enough is enough." The metal voice sounded, and it was even harsher because of the loss of patience. "Get her somewhere more conspicuous. I'm sure you'd be very proud to have your bones broken by this jiao, but not now, Burst."

Just a few steps away, Fanny was thrown onto the handrail near the top of the steps, and her abdomen hit the wood so hard that she felt like she was going to vomit her stomach out.Fanny collapsed trembling, and was dragged to barely stand up. She looked at the living room with blurred eyes, not knowing what she wanted to see.

Fanny didn't realize it before, but now she is sure that the house is full of traceless expansion spells.Now the perspective of this place is quite good, and the whole living room can be seen at a glance. Presumably the former owner of the house liked this feeling very much: high above, as if a king is patrolling his own domain when going up and down the stairs.

Sirius wasn't in the living room, at least not within sight.

"Listen," the metallic voice continued in Fanny's ear, her right hand being pulled up and a wand resting on her wrist, "if your wand isn't thrown out by the time I count to three, you will Wait to see me throw the bitch's paws down."

Fanny's hand tightened for a moment, then relaxed again.She stared quietly at the railing in front of her, concentrating on her other hand.This feeling is familiar, and she should be terrified, but now she is only worried that the Death Eaters next to her will notice the silver light on the palm of her left hand.Here's how Fanny Sanchez deals with her fears.

"three."

The wand on her wrist was slightly raised, and everything seemed to be in silent slow motion for a moment. A red light shot from behind the sofa closest to them, pointed at the wand on her wrist, and flew out.Feeling that the magic wand on the back of her neck moved to the position above her shoulders to aim at the sofa, Fanny took half a step back and grabbed the arm and swung it over the railing. direction.

The old worm-eaten wooden railing shattered suddenly, and the fall seemed to never stop.

Fanny, who was in the air, saw that the sofa was blown away by the third Death Eater, but a red light shot out from behind a huge vase one person tall on the other side of the living room, Sirius' black figure flickered beside the vase , almost completely covered by flying leather fragments and cotton wool.

Then the first collision came, and soon all the sounds were pouring into Fanny's ears, making her brain buzz continuously.

Fanny found herself kneeling on the guy's back, one knee pressed hard against the back of his neck - he'd held his wand against her position earlier, twisting the wand's hand behind his back with both hands.The Death Eater was unconscious, his wand rolled out of nowhere in the impact of the fall, and there was an expanding pool of blood under his face.She thought she was screaming, but then Sirius told her she was so quiet the whole time that he thought she was dead before she got up.

Sirius had subdued the remaining Death Eater, and it was only when she saw him walking towards her that Fanny let go of the Death Eater's arm as if awakened from a dream.The red in front of her eyes made her startled for a moment, and then she found a not-so-shallow cut on the back of her hand. It seemed that Sirius had locked the time quite tightly just now.The sense of touch is starting to catch up, but it's not very painful yet.

"Hmm." Fanny said, starting to heal herself.

"Are you serious?" Sirius said amusedly, reaching out his hand to take out the small bag from Fanny's pocket and started looking for medicine.

"You are." Fanny tried her best to sound normal, but the voice still sounded like someone was holding her neck.The fact that she didn't react to Sirius' actions just now is enough to explain the problem.

Focus, she commanded herself.

It didn't work this time.Blood surged in her temples, and Fanny closed her eyes tightly, hearing her own gasp like an explosion.Her entire lungs were screaming and protesting from the infusion of too much gas, and soon she was completely suffocated.Sirius grabbed her by the shoulders, she knew something was wrong and wanted to tell him it was okay, but she opened and closed her mouth a few times but couldn't utter a single syllable.