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|||||Catch Me If You Can|||||
by: Kinomoto Touya
Author's Notes/Standard Disclaimer: Hiya! Okay so this is my first Harry Potter-based fiction (I think, since I've written more than fifteen 'unpublished' fan fictions. And since my computer crashed before, it is gone---erased entirely in this world.) And I would concentrate on my all-time favorite book character of all time, Sirius Black (Oh, how I really wish this guy is for real! I wouldn't mind being Harry's *fairy* godmother...hohoho... ^o^!)! Since of course, this is my first fan fiction in Harry Potter, I expect that it won't be as good as we thought it is so please read still and review constructively, please. Anyway, Ms. J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter's story and characters. Sue me not please.
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Catch Me If You Can _It was probably the coldest summer night the world had ever felt. Not a soul is wandering around that night for everyone was near their fireplaces, clothed heavily in their mid-winter clothes. No one knew what exactly happened and everyone seemed to have a heavy-hearted point of view but the frostiness of weather forbids each of them to even utter a word. It wasn't just the coldest summer night but the most silent as well.
Or at least they think of it that way. Outside their empty streets stroll a very beautiful woman despite of her paleness. Her eyes too were deep and only hatred was cut perfectly in there like the best-cut diamond. She is dressed in velvety black cloak; a finely knitted dark green scarf seems the only thing protecting her from cold.
"Those Muggles," the woman huffed forcefully in shadows. "I can't believe how weak they are!" She looked back and added, "And for sure, if you won't change your ways, Sirius, you'll be a stinky trash in this world just like them!"
Following after her was a little boy in black cloak and a green scarf was hanged in his neck too and is about five years of age. She is her son, but it doesn't seem like it. Looking at her expression, she is as if staring at her enemy than looking at her son. Petite in size the boy maybe, his eyes show no fear at his mother at all. His wavy long hair brushed across his face annoyingly but he still didn't mind it. All his attention was focus on what his own mother shall do next.
The woman raised an eyebrow, "Young man, what is that look in your face again!" she cried.
The boy said nothing. He rolled away his eyes from her and walked away with his hands hidden under his cloak's pockets.
This act of the boy only angered his mother even more. "I am talking to you, Sirius!" she let out a glass breaking shrill. "Sirius...Sirius!"
Completely, he didn't mind her. He just huffed the way her mother huffed moments ago and walked away as if seeing no one at all.
"Why, you sick, darn brat!" she bellowed. "You are just as darn as your Uncle Alphard!" she paused. "What am I saying? I do not even know him!"
"Come on, Mother," the boy spoke finally. "Surely you know about him."
"Well, I don't anymore!" she screamed, a large vein in her neck trembled violently. "He is a shame in our family! A shame on us pure-bloods! And it seems you are starting to be exactly like him."
"But what is the difference between pure-bloods from other wizards?" the boy inquired philosophically. "I mean, both can do magic, both can..."
"We are not the same as them!" she screeched annoyingly like fingernails dashing down the blackboard. "They are just a bunch of trash! And could you please forget about that...that, uh...mug Alphard. I am afraid that you and your cousin, Andromeda, are starting to be like him! That make me even hate him even more!"
"You just can't accept that he is a better wizard than you," the boy added undertone.
"I HEARD THAT!" she roared on top of her lungs, blood rushed in her bleached face. The bird family that had cuddled tightly on the trees' thick branches hurriedly dashed. Even the street lamps flickered though they protected by thick type glasses. Some windowpanes slightly cracked as well.
However, the boy didn't seem to be affected at all. Either he is beyond aloof or he is just a little deaf. Not a word entered his ear.
"He is not better than me in anyway!" she barked right in front of her son's young face. "He is just a worthless trash---a big insult to the whole family! To the entire pure-bloods! And if I won't teach you a lesson now, young man, you would be exactly like him!"
She turned back away from her. "I'll isolate you in this Muggle world until you learn your lesson, Sirius!" she flipped her jet-black hair hastily and added sneeringly, "And remember, I'll be watching you. Don't dare do anything against my will!" She turned her nose up in the air then she is gone.
Inside, the boy, Sirius Black, never felt so happy. He won't see her for a while. This isn't the first time her mother gave this as her punishment. More or less this is the one hundredth twenty-fifth and each time lasted for an average of about two days. The longest time was about for a week and that was Sirius's finest week in his life.
True, he mustn't have hated her. He perfectly knows that she is his mother yet everything that she said or does drives him crazy---but he never speaks about it. He had no one to speak his heart about it. Friendless, heartless and an empty person drifting on earth he is---very much like her. Maybe that is the only thing that tells him that he is his mother's son for they both exists in this world yet truly, they do not really live at all.
Deafening silence continued and trapped eternity inside of it. He continued to walk inside the Muggle town that no one look as if not a soul live in there. Indeed, this is the loneliest place on this galaxy, probably in the whole universes put in together.
Who is he kidding?
He then heard a soft, soothing type of noise---a warm, fond lullaby nearby. Unconsciously, he followed where that 'noise' is coming from. It happened to be coming from a small, old, cracked, green cottage. He tiptoed on one of its cobweb-adorned windows and saw a red-haired woman who is very thin, pale and tired. Large eye bags are drawn in her eyes but her prettiness cannot be denied. She sits uncomfortably on a fractured chair, but a smile is curled undeniably on her lips. A baby on swaddling clothes cooed at the sight of her. She is indeed everything to the baby.
"Lullaby and goodnight," she tearfully sang, admiring her baby's loveliness. "Go to bed now and sleep tight,"
The baby cooed even more as he reach for his mother's dry, bony fingers. In an instant after seeing everything, Sirius jumped down the ground again and started to run. But the 'noise' he had heard still sings on his head.
"Go to bed, and start to yawn. Pleasant dreams until dawn..."
Farther and farther he had run---alone. He knew there is something wrong. Clenching his heart, off he went to the town where no one seemed to live, not knowing where to go.
"You are no good! You're almost like him! You are just a pain in the neck!" a different voice whirled in his mind---a very different one but it does seemed very familiar. Yes, it was no one else but his own mother and his father.
He pushed the idea back on his head. Crazy, he is indeed crazy. Any normal person could have cried but he was---not an inch of fear can be seen on his face, not a single tear formed by his dark eyes. He was, smiling. And that is the last thing any one could have done at that moment. Yet like a lost child, he does not know where to go either.
He is just a child after all.
He then stopped in a fairly large architecture's post. He closed his eyes and panted heavily. He does not know how far he had run or where he is. Clasping his chest he opened his eyes. He stared at the post's carvings and saw child-like faces, with two little wings each and locks of curls carved on it. He let his eyes travel across the place---almost everything is made out of pearly-white, cold cement from floorings to the stairs and even to the posts like the one he is inclining on. Every post is also carved by countless of designs such as wings and feathers and flowers. The windows are the only things that aren't made of cement though for strong metal and multi-colored glasses are used for it.
What is this place?
Sirius's ear then heard a sad tune being played from inside. Somehow, the tone seemed calling him. He can feel that the tone wanted no one else but him.
"Come inside," the voice seemed to be very inviting.
Sirius walked very slowly and saw a silhouette at the middle of the architecture. It was playing a small stringed instrument---a violin. Its hands were perfectly playing a sad but beautiful tone---the tone, which the mother is playing to her little one just some moments ago.
The silhouette figure then stopped for it felt that someone is looking on its playing. It looked on its four directions---north, west, east and south and saw another silhouette---Sirius Black---hidden behind one of the biggest, strongest post. It dropped its violin and like a mad whirlwind, it ran away not knowing exactly where it wants to go.
"Stop!" Sirius, who is behind the post, cried. He chased after the silhouette who is now hiding five posts from him.
"You can't get away like that!" Sirius smirked unto the darkness. But the silhouette persisted by running amidst the chairs.
"What do you want from me?" the silhouette cried. So now he knows what the silhouette is---it is a girl. However, he still cannot see his face. "I didn't do anything to you! Why are you running after me?"
"I do not know," Sirius replied, laughing boyishly while still struggling to catch after her. "You suddenly run. I then want to follow."
"Huh?" the silhouette was puzzled. Nevertheless, she continued to go away from him even though she does not know where exactly he is. The moonlight suddenly disappeared into the thin air.
She stopped halfway into nowhere. She still has no idea which part of the chapel she is.
Suddenly, the moonlight again appeared. She found herself beside the violin she dropped earlier. In a split second, a forced dropped her to the ground. She closed her eyes and after ten seconds, she opened them again. There he found a very pale young man whose eyes were deep and his messy black hair. He was looking straight unto to her.
"Ahhh……!" she screamed.
"Hi!" he said, smiling. "Finally I caught you! That really warmed me up."
"What are you doing?" she panted.
"Nothing…" he said. "Just chasing after a Muggle like you…"
"Muggle?"
Sirius let go of her, but he is still sitting beside her with a smile still drawn across his face.
"A Muggle is someone like you," Sirius didn't hesitate on telling her the truth for he felt so in ease with her. "A Muggle cannot perform any magic."
"Is that what a Muggle is?" she asked again.
"Well, yeah…"
"Then I am not a Muggle," she declared happily. "I can do magical things myself."
"You can?" he asked with doubt.
"Of course, I can!" she said. "I can do all sorts of magic myself…"
"Like?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Like, I can sooth the problems of people with playing my violin," she started, counting with her fingers. "I can sing songs for the Lord and His people. I can help attendants here cure the sick. I can think of great ideas to entertain people. I can pray for people's recovery…hey, that is already five!" she raised her open right palm high.
"N-No," he shook his head. "That is not what I mean."
"It is not?"
"I mean, magic like levitating objects, opening cursed doors," Sirius explained. "Or turning a cup into an animal…and perhaps using magic for defense."
"Oh, don't be silly," she giggled. "No one can do THAT!"
"I can…"
"Then show it to me if you can really do it." she challenged.
"I still can't do it," he confessed. "But I will---when I am old enough to enter Hogwarts!"
"Hogwarts?"
"Ah," he sighed. "A wizard school. Oh really…it is true that you Muggles do not know anything!"
"A wizard school?" she scratched her head. "Is there such thing?"
"Yeah," he smiled even bigger that half of his place seemed to crack. "And it is the most wonderful place in the whole wide world. I can't wait to---"
"But levitating things, opening cursed doors, transfiguring something and using magic for defense isn't necessary?"
"Huh?" Sirius shrugged. "Whaddayamean?"
"I mean, we are both human," she proclaimed. "We have hands and feet and will to do things that we really want. Magic isn't necessary."
"You are really different," Sirius's eyes deepen. "What is your name?"
"My name is Chen Hsiao Yu," she introduced herself as shoving a wisp of her long black hair from her pale, yellowish complexion. Her face reveals her dark red lips and small brown eyes. "I am an orphan from a far away place named Hong Kong. But when I am bought here by nuns they changed my name into Marianne, after the name of our Lord's mother, Mary."
"Our Lord?"
"Yes, our lord." she pointed into the stage-like part of the room wherein a man in agony is 'nailed' upon two sticks. "There he is."
"That man cannot be our Lord," Sirius said. "I mean, look at him. He is just a piece of wood."
Marianne chuckled. "I am not referring to the wood. The wood is only its representation. But really, the Lord isn't visible but cannot be felt. He is always beside everyone at all times and space. He is the most powerful being than anyone in the world."
"Hmmm…more powerful than Voldemort?" Sirius inquired.
"Uh, whoever he is…yes." Marianne smiled. "Especially if Voldemort is evil."
"Really?" Sirius's eyes grew wide. "Can we talk to Him? Can we ask Him to defeat you-know-who?"
"I-know-who, what?"
"Voldemort!"
"You can always pray to him wholeheartedly," she explained. "Tell Him what you really needed, however…"
"However, what?"
"He usually answers your prayer indirectly," she said. "And the answer may take a while or may not be responded at all."
"Why?"
"I do not know either," she admitted. "All I know is He have plans for all of us. So as they say, 'Thy will be done'."
"Then, if that is the case," Sirius's face then suddenly went down. "Probably He does not exist on our world."
"No, that is not true," Marianne reassured. "He does not give me everything I want just like real family because nobody adopted me and my real parents are dead---six feet below the ground."
"How did you know they are dead?" Sirius asked. "You have not seen them died, right?"
"Well, yeah…I was just a baby during those times," she narrated. "But I know that they are dead because I can no longer feel their touch, their care and their love. I carry people's touch, care and love for me wherever I go, even if I can no longer see them."
"Then my parents, my family are dead too," Sirius sadly said. "Even though they are still there."
"I understand you," Marianne nodded. "Some people only exists but they do not live. They do not feel happiness and they do not love as well."
"Then, I am dead too."
"No, you are not," Marianne said. "You are alive. You feel sad, you also laugh, and you have many, many stories to share."
They then heard footsteps; a large person seemed to be coming. "MARIANNE!"
Marianne's eyes then felt worry. "You have to go, um---"
"My name is Sirius Black," he supplied. "Why?"
"Sirius," she uttered. "Sorry, it was fun being with you but sorry."
"Can I play with you again?" he asked.
"Yes," she smiled. "And I will give you something…tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Sirius grinned. "Then, tomorrow, I will catch you…"
"Catch me if you can!" she smiled. "I'll be more smarter when that time comes."
"Even if you run into the darkness, I'll always know where you are," Sirius smiled. "By your sweet smell of roses, thank you."
"Oh, you sneaky little---"
"MARIANNE!"
"You better go and my the Lord bless you. Come again here at the church tomorrow---"
"So this is what this place is called---Church!" Young Sirius Black ran into the darkness.
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Sirius couldn't go to the Church---whatever it is---the next day, the day after and days after that. He tried every little trick in order to escape his parents but he failed and eventually, he forgotten about it.
Many years passed---twelve long years to be exact. Sirius is now a grown man. He can do magic as he has promised and he is now a graduating pupil of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he noticed something hanging from his best friend's girlfriend's neck.
"Lily," he greeted while they are at the platform nine and three quarters. "Say, what is that hanging from your neck."
"What?" she looked at her neck. "Oh this," he held the pendant of her necklace. "This is a cross. Why?"
"A cross?"
"Yes, a cross," she placed it down her chest properly again. "I may be a little witch here in Hogwarts but as a girl I believe in Jesus, our Lord too. What is---Sirius!!!"
Sirius ran away, yelling, "Tell the guys as well as our professors that I have to go somewhere important."
"What? To where?" Lily asked. She whispered to herself, "Oh well, may the Lord bless you."
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Sirius then was taken by his senses---his senses that were stored fro twelve long years. He reached that place again. Nothing were changed but vines, thick long vines decorated upon it. He quickly pushed the massive, heavy door open.
On the end of its red carpet, the 'cross' and the 'man' in agony were still there but underneath those was a long table. A young maiden lies unmoving upon the table. Her hand was on her abdomen and is clasped together. Her lips were red and she was so pale. Her long black hair was waves of the sea. She looks so much in peace. He then touches her face---they look quite alive but were really icy cold.
"You must be Sirius," an old man's voice said. "Marianne's friend, am I not right?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "I am he."
"I am the priest, Arthur," He then explained what happened to Marianne those days that they were apart. Marianne grew up with him and learned how to be a nun into the convent. Until one day, her heart grew weak and eventually she died. All those times she was always thinking and waiting for Sirius, but he never came.
"She...she wrote this and bought this for you before she died." Arthur handed him an envelope. Sirius opened it and a gold necklace with a cross pendant hanging from it. Sirius placed it around his neck and searched again inside the envelope. A letter was enclosed inside as well. It reads:
Dear Sirius,
It's been a long time, isn't it? I am more than happy that you are reading this letter of mine. Sorry, I couldn't come and play with you again for the Lord Jesus is calling upon me. I am grateful that you have become my friend for a short period of time that we shared. I am so sorry I told you to go away that night. I just do not want to see you seeing me drinking my heart medicine. I do not want you to worry.
You must be very powerful now---levitating, transfiguring stuffs and defending yourself with your magic. I envy you, somehow. But then again I have my Lord to make me as powerful as you are.
(I am lucky not to have that power because I might use it against other people when I am angry or frustrated with them. You who are given that gift must try your best and do what is always the right thing to do.)
I love you my friend and my God, our good Lord bless you and keep you always.
Love from,
Marianne
"And there she lies," Father Arthur pointed the young woman. "You are lucky to see her one last time. She died last night and her funeral will be a little later."
Sirius went to the table where she lies and fell into his knees helplessly. He touched her frozen hand tightly.
"Thy will be done,"
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Author's Notes: That is the longest one-shot and the most angst story I have ever written. My insights on religion and real power were written on it. I hope you enjoyed reading it too because I am almost in tears when I am typing the words, 'thy will be done'.
I love you, Sirius! Mwah!
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