The Intentional Accident

Like every other morning before a match, Michael was the first up. He was able to feed and change David before Sirius had even woken. When Sirius did finally get up, he found Michael and David playing in the living room. It had been David's squeals of delight that had woken Sirius, but he didn't mind. He would have rather been woken by the sound of his son's happiness than anything else in the world. Scooping David up in his arms, Michael carried him over to Sirius.

"Look who's up! It's Daddy. Oh, I think Daddy's not quite awake yet." Taking the elated baby in his arms, Sirius smiled dopily.

"It looks as if I'm the only one not dressed yet."

"Well, we've still got a while before we have to go. David's looking forward to his first Quidditch match, aren't you, David?" asked Michael, tickling his son under the chin.

"David!" stated the little one between giggles. A glazed look, a concoction of surprise and immense pride came over Michael and Sirius' faces.

"You heard that as well, right?" enquired Michael, tempted to pinch himself.

"I certainly did! Oh Davy, what a clever little boy!" exclaimed Sirius before smothering his son's cheek in kisses. The horrible sense of dread that he had felt the previous evening had now dispersed like a black cloud that never unleashed it's downpour. He had worried for nothing.

~|~

Once Sirius was dressed, they made a hasty departure for Puddlemere United's home ground. They were late meeting up with Agatha at the entrance to the Top Box. She was somewhat disgruntled at being made to wait so long.

"Now when you said 9 o'clock, I assumed you meant 9 o'clock. I just hope neither of you two plan on teaching the little 'un to tell time."

"Sorry we're late, Agatha. We were ..."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you were. You'll be pushing your luck if you're not ready to play on time, Mikey." Michael simply gave Agatha an 'I'm too happy to let you get at me' smile and proceeded to kiss his husband.

"Just you watch. This match will be over in a few minutes. Their Seeker couldn't catch a cold," he whispered into Sirius' ear. Unable to think of anything witty to reply with, Sirius simply spoke his mind.

"I love you."

"I love you too," replied Michael. He pressed his lips against Sirius', who felt an extraordinary tingle, the same that he had felt when Michael proposed and touched his hand. It was the kind of kiss he wanted to never end, but it was rather abruptly interrupted by an indignant squeak from David, who was feeling rather forgotten. Laughing, Michael placed a kiss on the babe's forehead, and then leaned in to whisper something to him. "Be good for Daddy." With that, he was off at a half sprint, turning back while running to wave to them before disappearing up the stairs to the changing rooms.

~|~

Far from upsetting little David, the roar of the crowd excited him immeasurably. He cheered with the rest of them as the players flew out onto the pitch. He waved his arms wildly when he caught sight of Michael on his broom, crying out 'Dada! Dada!' over and over. Although he knew he should have been rooting just as loud as his son, Sirius could hardly take his eyes off the other team. He was looking for someone in particular, someone he was hoping against hope that he wouldn't find. His heart skipped a beat when he caught sight of him. He was hovering alongside the other Ballycastle Bat's Beater, bat in hand and ready to play. Michael still hadn't fully told Sirius about his encounter with Scott in the Leaky Cauldron, so even though Sirius was blissfully unaware of how furious and humiliated Scott had been that day, he still felt that something was wrong.

The sharp sound of the referee's whistle brought Sirius back into focus. The Quaffle was up and had already been grabbed by one of Puddlemere United's Chasers. Within seconds it was thrown across the field to another Chaser. The Ballycastle Bats intercepted the next pass, but it was quickly recovered and in the blink of an eye was thrown into one of the Ballycastle Bat's goals. This ferocious and intense level of play continued until Puddlemere United were leading by eight goals.

Years after, when Sirius looked back at what happened, he always looked for something he could have done. He had seen it about to happen; yet his nerves had failed him. Michael had just saved another goal and passed it to a teammate. Sirius saw Scott flying just yards away from Puddlemere United's goal area. He saw the Bludger approach. He saw Scott fly forward a little to intercept it then take a huge, directed swing at it. He saw it hurtle towards Michael, even though Michael hadn't. In Sirius' mind, he heard the terrible crunch as it collided with Michael's head. He saw him fall of his broomstick and down to the ground. When he heard the sharp intake of breath from the crowd, his nerves finally returned to him.

The med wizards ran to stop Michael hitting the ground. Their spells caught him just in time. There was a great deal of shouting from the crowd. The other players swarmed down, all except one.

"Agatha, take David!" exclaimed Sirius. After passing his crying son to her, he Disapparated without another word.

He Apparated at the side of the pitch. He started to run over to the huddle of people; Michael couldn't be that badly hurt. They had stopped him before he hit the ground, a few months in hospital perhaps ...that's all it had to be. It had to. Patrick, Michael's best friend and David's godfather, saw Sirius approaching, left the group surrounding Michael and ran to intercept him.

"Sirius ...there's nothing you can do."

"Patrick, let me go," stated Sirius impatiently. His training in Healing wasn't for nothing; he could help Michael if only Patrick would let him go. "Patrick ...get out of my way, he's not that badly ..." Patrick took hold of Sirius's shoulders.

"Sirius ...he's dead."