Hey! I'm back:D And happy! I aced my geometry test –grins like an idiot- anyway, I'm in the lab right now so I'm just sending this, but I can't take long, so no small talk! On with the chappy!
JK owns them, I just make them –censored-. :D
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"Are you ok Mr. Black?" her voiced snapped him out of his thoughts.
He just nodded numbly not understanding why, all of a sudden, he felt so down. All the while he had followed Snape and then Poppy around the castle he had been in deep thought, as he was now.
She didn't look very convinced but didn't press matters as she opened the door to the room of requirements.
"I don't know if you came across this while you were here in Hogwarts, it's the room of requirements" she explained, letting him go through the door first.
Boy, did he know about it…actually…Remus and him knew it very, very well, but that was another matter all together. And of course, back then it didn't look exactly like it did now.
"The headmaster wishes for you to stay here for the night, using it as your room. Just don't leave until he calls you; after all, this place is full of people who can easily identify you. Also when he does ask you to leave the room, don't do it in your human form." She listed the rules as they reached the center of what looked like an empty room.
He nodded without making a sound; that feeling of emptiness still consuming him.
Funny, after all the times he had fantasized about eating real food or taking a very long and hot bath (Seriously, being 'scourgified' once a month did nothing to make you feel real clean) he couldn't decided what he wanted to do first. He had been pushed over the edge in a lot of ways, and deciding what he wanted to satisfy first was a harder task then he had thought.
However when he thought about eating something at the moment he just stared at his hands…they were extremely filthy. There was dirt under his nails and all over his hands, dry blood and an infected wound he got from the rocks also were pretty noticeable. He looked at his robes, or whatever word you'd use to describe that piece of rags, and shuddered. They even looked heavy, as though they had housed every single bit of dirt, sand, mud or whatever else they had encountered.
Suddenly he felt disgusted with himself; he felt it so much he wished he could just leave that body. It was such an overwhelming feeling that he felt nauseous and had to try and use his little self control not to throw up whatever he didn't have in his stomach.
Clearly, after that, making his choice wasn't hard at all and when he lifted his head to look around his saw that the place had become a bathroom. Well not a full bathroom really, a large shower had appeared and so had a full length mirror.
"If I didn't know better, I'd guess you were thirty, not twenty four!" Poppy's voice came suddenly as she tried to snap him out of daydreaming. She got what she wanted really, even if it was the wrong thing to say…
Sirius cringed at the sight reflected; what had he become!
Standing on the other side of the mirror was not young, beautiful and charming Sirius Black, oh no. Instead, stood there an older man with skeleton-like features, dressed in what looked like a bunch of random cloths put together by dirt and sweat.
Long, tangled and greasy hair fell until his waist; not looking that critical though as it got closer to the roots, there it was still soft and straight (it didn't look much cleaner though). He also had a growing large beard that looked as tangled and bushy as his hair. And it did little job of hiding the man's mouth where yellowed teeth appeared occasionally.
He looked away unable to stare at that stranger anymore…it really made him sick.
Pomfrey looked at him sympathetically and smiled in a reassuring way.
"Don't worry son, after you get cleaned up, have a full meal and a long night's sleep you'll be as good as new." She said with a cheery voice. "Now…I'll leave you to take your shower, anything you need the room will give to you…" the nurse explained with a smile, she looked ready to leave, but didn't, like she had just remembered something. "Hunn you really need to cut that hair of yours! I remember you never let anyone get near it with scissors, but I guess now it's a bit too…long isn't it? You can call me when you're done, I'll cut it for you if you want." She said with a smile then finally headed out of the room.
As soon as she had done so, Sirius looked once again at the mirror before him and it shattered into tiny little pieces before all of it and its shards vanished. Now that was much better.
He got out of those robes and into the shower, suddenly all of his problems seemed to go away. He felt that hot water touching his abused skin and washing away all the dirt on his body. He stood there without moving for a few good minutes just enjoying that feeling the water gave him before actually looking around for the bottles madam Pomfrey had left him.
He scrubbed over and over, hard and non-stop every inch of his body, needing to feel as clean as he hadn't in years. At some point his skin even became red, but it was as though he didn't even notice it, he needed this. After what seemed like hours he could say he was done, at least with his body, that is.
He turned the water off for a moment and watched as a pair of scissors appeared on a stool beside him. He looked at them for a moment just before reaching them and then looking up to find himself staring at a mirror on the wall. He didn't think twice, he cut it all off. It wasn't reduced to a really short cut, his hair was around his shoulders now. Now that he could deal with washing.
After that, he used a blade to carefully take that disgusting beard off his face, and because the mirror did not disappear after he used it he could see that slowly the stranger in his reflection was turning into him.
Just like he had done with his body he did with his locks. Feeling as the magic from all unknown concoctions he had used worked on them. Slowly, his straight-by-nature hair became soft and cleaned like it once was. By the time he was done, he could carelessly run his fingers through them. And that fact almost brought a smile on his face, as he remembered how he used to run them through his hair all the time just to look cool and impress Remus (and how it always worked for him, but when James tried it with Lily she just called him a fat-headed git).
"Moony…" he murmured noticing how hoarse his voice was.
He had to find his ex-lover no matter what and get him out of the mess he was in.
He called madam Pomfrey as soon as he had dressed himself, using a paper airplane the room had provided (he couldn't, after all, stroll down to the infirmary, now could he?). And as he waited for her to come he kept passing his tongue over his teeth unconsciously, it was very nice to feel them smooth again. They had gone back to normal too, pearl white and clean like they had always been.
The woman didn't take long and soon Sirius was sitting in front of that full mirror again and with a question he didn't know how to answer.
"How would you like it?" she asked smiling over his shoulder looking at him through the mirror.
He wasn't looking back though, he still didn't want to look at the mirror until she said 'Done'.
"I don't know…normal?" he tried, all he wanted was to become the way he had been before…
"Hunn…I'll see what I can do" she said looking thoughtful "I'll try to keep it as long as I can, since you always were it like that."
With no objections made she did her magic and Sirius watched as black spots fell all around him. And when she was done, the animagus dared look at the mirror what he saw was…himself.
Yes, much thinner, no smile announcing he was up to something; but it was still him, even his hair looked like it had in school. He smiled weakly not knowing what else to do and saw that the nurse smiled with him.
"Right, now let's get you something to eat shall we?" she suggested and everything around them suddenly changed from bathroom-like to a dinning room.
The large banquet table was already set and full of the most rich, colorful and good-smelling food. Before poppy could even say anything, Sirius was already at the table putting as much of everything in his plate as he could.
She just smiled and shook her head. Some things never change.
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"If that's all the help you can provide us Black, I'm regretting not having you finished off the day you came here." The potions' master snapped as he looked at the list of places Sirius had thought up, they were trying to guess where Remus could be.
"If I'm not mistaken you had nothing before, I narrowed it down to twelve places, I don't know what you're complaining about Snivellus" the animagus said calmly, he had become so much more like himself in the last five days he'd been at Hogwarts. (Probably due to Snape's presence, really).
"Keep pushing your luck Black and you'll see what happens to your little friend when we find him" Snape threatened.
Sirius out-right ignored him, his enemy had been throwing threats his way ever since he got here. He didn't know if he was being stupid ignoring them, but when did Sirius black ever think before acting?
"Look, can't you just talk to the order? Send twelve people to those places and we'll probably find him! We can't sit around all day and expect something to happen, if anyone from the ministry finds him, he's dead."
"Don't tempt me, If we had time I swear I'd leave him to be found by Aurors. Unfortunately the full moon is in two days and unless we want the golden boy to be devoured by that beast you call a friend, we do have to find them. And though you might be under the idea that everyone else has as much time to sit around and do nothing as you, I assure you the order is already on it, as Aurors." He said arching his brow.
"Fine then, I'll go after him." Sirius said annoyed grabbing the list from Snape's hands.
"Do as you wish Black, hopefully you'll learn to listen when the dementors catch you in the middle of the street. I think you forget you're on the run…"
"This is more import-"
"I see we're very energetic this morning" a calm voice interrupted them both. "Mr Black, no need to be such in a hurry, I'd like you to hear what I have to say…" Dumbledore said smiling and taking a place on one of the chairs around the table.
The animagus opened his mouth as though ready to retaliate, but then chose to be quiet and do as he was ordered, smart choice really.
"I see you narrowed the places we've been looking in, that's very good. However I advise you against joining the already formed search party, it would be unwise to willingly look for trouble right now Mr. Black. I understand you and Mr. Lupin are very…close, however it is by being here and doing what is asked of you that you'll be able to help him."
He said nothing, instead he kept looking at the names in his hands, if he could just-
"I have 3 groups that will search these places and if they really are in one of them, they'll be found before the full moon. So not to worry…I would just like for you, Sirius, to try and remember anything you might have left out. Severus, please come with me, I need you to explain to Kingsley, Eme-"
His voice got tuned out as he left the room of requirements with the potions' master right behind him, leaving a frustrated Sirius to deal with his own rage.
The former marauder was so annoyed at his condition he felt like taking matters in his own hands without consulting anybody; then he remembered that last time he tried that, it got him sent to Azkaban.
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Every word exchanged between the headmaster, potions' teacher and ex-convict were passed on, in all details, to a couple of people that would most certainly make great use of the information. And it was a matter of luck and racing against time, the treasure hunt that would lead to a series of unfortunate events had begun…
The three groups of two order members started their search the next day. And it unfortunately took longer then they had planned to check and find each place. It resulted on them coming back the day of the full moon with hands empty and not a trail to follow…
The situation became more aggravated when Amycus and Alecto had much more luck at searching for the werewolf and boy-who-lived.
See, the order members had, after all searched all the places Sirius had listed. Everything however was awfully confusing: all houses were abandoned and at the same time some looked recently-lived in, as though it was sure that someone had been there. But none of them looked more 'recent' then the other. Bad timing really…blame it on their lack of luck or whatever else, it was a fact that when they reached the house Remus was in, he had been out by the lake with Harry. Far away from their sights and with a card up his leave their wouldn't dream of counting on: he had James' invisibility cloak (had gotten it out of Sirius' vault).
The death eaters, as was said, had better luck, for that house was one of the firsts they chose to look in, and when they got there they clearly saw both child and werewolf inside…
Now, for them, it was just a matter of waiting for the moon to come and go. Then they would have a very sensitive and harmless little wolf on their hands and an unprotected child within their reach.
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Remus paced up and down the hall thinking about what he should do. He noticed, when he came back from the lake, that someone had been here (they didn't really cover it up) and that knowledge made his stomach house butterflies. No matter who it had been, ministry and death-eaters alike were both a threat and the worst of it was: he couldn't run away, for in less than an hour he had a blood-thirsty beast to turn into.
He gathered the Gryffindor courage everyone spoke of and called Harry softly, the boy looked sleepy and he smiled upon seeing him.
"Hey little one, sleepy are you? It's still seven, you know?" he said jokingly, he knew Harry was very tired these days, what with moving around so much and having little food and an immense supply of nightmares keeping him up at night.
"I'm not sleepy" the boy said fighting back a yawn.
Remus thought it was amazing how Harry could make him laugh or smile in a chaotic situation like this one.
"It's ok Harry, but I need you to hear what I'm gonna say ok?" he asked, his face a bit more serious.
It got the kid's attention enough so that the boy looked more alert as he nodded.
"Harry, we're going to…play a little game tonight ok? You like games right?" he asked to make sure the boy was hearing him.
"I do! What game are we gonna play?" he asked become even more awake.
"It's like a game of hide and seek" he explained as he got on his knees, becoming eye leveled with his godson. "Only it lasts all night long".
"All night? So I can't go to sleep?" he seemed sad now.
"You can, you should. All that matters Harry is that you stay hidden all night ok? Remember that cloak we take around?"
He nodded still looking confused.
"Well, I want you to have it. You can lie down and everything but you have to keep the cloak over you ok?"
"Ok" the boy answered, though not liking the idea at all.
"Look, you have to pay attention. This is the most important part of all: no matter what you see Harry, no matter what you hear. You can not move, or make any sound at all until I come and say it's ok. Till then you have to keep the cloak over you and stay hidden, ok?"
"I don't like this game" Harry answered truthfully, he had gotten used to speaking his true feelings around Remus.
The lycanthrope just smiled back at him.
"I know Harry, it's not that fun…but if you win I'll get you the biggest piece of chocolate cake ever!" he tried with a big smile. Of course that as a lie, but the boy didn't need to know that, now did he?
That seemed to do the trick and Harry smiled openly. "Ok!"
"So we1l'l start…now ok?" he asked looking at the sky through the small window in the living room.
"I'll play it in my bed!" the boy-who-lived announced gathering the heavy cloak from Remus and barely managing to keep a hold on it.
The werewolf shook his head 'no', that was the first place anyone would look, he really had to hide the boy.
Looking around he saw no other option, but an old closet (call it cupboard if you wish) that would certainly not bring the kid happy memories…but this matter was more important than that.
"You can't go to bed Harry, you have to stay in here" he said pointing to the cupboard to his left.
The boy looked visually frightened by the sight of it. What was going on? First Moony said he had to be quiet, then that he couldn't move and now he had to sleep in a cupboard again? Why?
"Harry please, we don't have much time. You've got to trust me little one, you know I love you very much don't you?" he said sympathetically as he already ushered the boy inside, making a nest-like arrangement of sheets for him to lie on. "It will all be okay in the morning; I'll come for you, and remember that no matter what happens you cannot leave here ok?"
Finally the boy-who-lived agreed on it and Remus, very reluctantly, left him there and hurried to the basement: he had less than ten minutes to lock himself up.
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A.N/
Well that's that :D hunnn
Notes about Chappie:
-I feel like I'm becoming boring again / sorry I can't seem to be able to rush things up just right. I either sum it all up or go on and on with useless details, what's the matter with me people! -sighs- anyway…
-That was a very useless-for-the-actual-plot Sirius scene, but I loved writing it (and it was done like billions of years ago) so no I couldn't leave it out.
-I think some of you will go like "Oh, but couldn't this person have done that and that and this and then all would have been fixed?" I tried to make the problems believable and everything, but if I failed, please let it go as a "for-plot's-sake" kind of thing -laughs-
Oh! This chapter has something different from all the others! It has a drawing to accompany it! It's an illustration I made long ago of Sirius when he had just cut his hair and is all wet, looking gorgeous in the first scene. Go here for it (take the spaces and quotes out people) "http // aaraujo . deviantart . com / art / The-Prisoner-of-Azkaban- 72108221"
And the drawing that goes with it is the one of Sirius as a 21 year old (before the whole James and Lily dying thing happened) "http // aaraujo . deviantart . com /art / Padfoot-57070748" it's just to give you the general idea of what I think Sirius looks like :D (errmm I'm not that good at drawing, so don't crucify me people -hides)
Answers to reviews:
Rekahneko: hunnn see what she's doing? That little devil:P
Bottlebrush: I hope I cleared it up (the snape seeing Sirius thing :P) yes beware :D thanks for your reviews!
arabellaw: He has to really :D I think snape seriously hates the lot of them. -laughs-
well remus and harry came back! But there'll be more of them next chappie :) thanks!
ProtegoNox: kkkkkk Hunn right you are about the wolf, trouble is to come really :D hhhahah no harry-eating will be involved kkkkk
Fantasyfan4ever: Thank you! Who doesn't love them:D The reunion is very, very near I promise!
Xylia Luna Orion: ohh I'm a bad influence! Go do your report:p -laughs- Hunn rita is a mere death eaters tool, poor thing. Thanks!
LittleHero: Seems like more than one person is running away from schoolwork beacause of me -laughs- ;P Thanks!
Suicidal Button: Good thing you like her -happy- I still think she's OOC though, but anyway, she's usefull -laughs-
SilverWhiteDragon: Yeah! I hate her too :D I love remmie, and yet I love making his life miserable -laughs- Hunnn sirius will be fine, don't worry :D
Queen Red Rum: Yey \o/ Nahh he couldn't have said the potion was wrong, cause one: it was too much for his ego, 2) the potion was already made. So yeah he just has to accept it. hahahahah Omg I laugh so much with your reviews! oH be nice to her, she's not that bad. (or not) be she'll play an important role. Errr...umbrigde? Not in this story really -laughs- maybe in another one? ;P
Inuyasha's hun: Yep, everyone is miserable at the moment, but yeah, it'll turn around. Thank you!
enix-XIII: thanks :)
Till next chappie!
