Posted: 10 June, 2015
According to the Denali, Sirius was showing more life than they'd ever seen. They were delighted with the changes in their coven-mate, and immensely grateful to Alice for being the one to bring them about.
However, whenever Alice looked at Sirius, she could still see grief lingering behind his eyes and the brittleness to his smiles. She also hadn't missed the mournful silences he often fell into when alone. She wasn't just imagining it either—Jasper confirmed his emotional state when she asked. And Alice?
Well, she was getting sick of it.
It wasn't that she wasn't sympathetic. God no! She knew just why Sirius still grieved, and the idea of losing one's magic was horrifying. A part of Alice —a not inconsiderable part— had been desperately hoping that magic would carry over in the transformation. The fact that she now had proof it wouldn't was making a certain decision of hers a thousand times harder.
But, her own uncertainties weren't the point right now. Sirius was.
Alice knew pity wasn't what her godfather needed to snap himself out of his depression. It wasn't how he ticked, so to speak. And so, when she sat down beside him a week after arriving in Denali, Alice bluntly stated, "You're gonna cut it out with this moping bullshit soon, right?"
"What? That's—"
"I mean, for Merlin's sake, you've got three gorgeous women trying to get into your pants," Alice muttered. And it was true. Sirius was gorgeous, and the Denali sisters apparently had few reservations so far as sex went, so long as everyone enjoyed themselves. Tanya in particular eyed Sirius up whenever he entered a room. "If you're even half the man-whore Remus's stories made you out to be, you should consider yourself in heaven."
"He told you that?" Sirius squawked, looking appalled.
Alice laughed. "Remus agrees that it was hilarious how determined you were to pretend I was a sweet innocent flower who would be … I don't know, mentally scarred or something, just from hearing stories of your whorish youth."
"You are a sweet innocent flower!"
She rolled her eyes. "I killed a man at age eleven," she reminded him, thinking of Quirrell, "and broke enough school rules to challenge yours and my dad's records combined. Oh, and then there was that whole 'defying my own government' thing which I suspect may technically count as treason." She gave him a taunting look, just knowing the next part would break him. "And I assure you, even before Jasper, I was hardly innocent."
The emphasis on the word —with waggled eyebrows for good measure— really left no room for misunderstanding. Alice watched, amused, as Sirius's eyes went wide in horror. He grabbed fistfuls of his hair and shook his head, shouting, "Noooo! I'm not hearing this!"
Alice, dutiful and kind goddaughter that she was, cackled with glee and generally enjoyed his pain. Then Sirius regained his sanity enough to notice a certain point she'd mentioned…
"Wait, this Jasper bastard touched my precious goddaughter too?" he snarled, looking ready to kill.
Alice gave him a sharp look and conspicuously fingered her wand. "Did I happen to mention I learned the castration curse?"
Sirius made a horrified noise as he crossed his legs. "Alice!"
She rolled her eyes. "And how is Jasper and I news to you? We don't exactly hide that we're together."
"I figured you just held hands! And maybe, sometimes, very rarely, there would be an awkward kiss. On the cheek!" he hurriedly added.
Alice just stared. "The denial runs deep I see."
"If I'd know it was, was—" Sirius choked, unable to say it, shuddering in horror. And then that murderous expression returned. "If I'd know, I would have killed him by now."
"Castration Curse, godfather dearest," Alice sweetly reminded him, pleased to see Sirius cringe and back down once more. "Really, don't try anything. If not for fear of your bits, then…" She smiled softly. "Then because I love him."
Sirius faltered. He studied her closely. "He's good to you? Makes you happy?" he asked with rare gravity.
"So good. Unbelievably happy. He loves me too." She added, in a wondering tone, "He's my soulmate, Sirius. My true mate."
Her godfather gave a defeated sigh. "Fine," he muttered petulantly. "I guess … I really can't kill him then." He did not look happy at this realisation.
"Because it'd break my heart and crush my spirit," Alice chirpily agreed with a wide smile.
"Stop it," Sirius whined, but there was a smile tugging reluctantly at his lips. A real one, not one of those brittle fakes. "Now you're just rubbing it in."
"So, you haven't told me yet, but how did you end up all sparkly?"
"I know! I'm like a living diamond!" Sirius smirked, the expression dripping with 'you know I'm gorgeous'. "Totally sexy, right?"
Alice gave him a disbelieving look. She'd expected some sort of bluster, defending of his masculinity. She should have known better. Sirius was a vain thing, but he hated to conform to traditional expectations.
"You're a pretty, pretty princess," Alice deadpanned.
Sirius actually preened in response. He turned his head just so and a beam of sunlight fell across one cheekbone, highlighting the sharp edge by reflecting back a dazzling rainbow of light.
Alice tried to look flatly unimpressed. Really she did. But in the end she ended up shaking with laughter, muffling the sound into the hands she pressed to her face.
"It's alright, goddaughter-mine. Many have been overcome by the Sirius Black-charm. You're not the first."
"Shut up, you dork, and tell me how you were changed already."
"Ah." The tone was so suddenly-grim that Alice looked up, finding a dark expression on Sirius's face as he spat out, "Volturi."
She blinked. "The vampire kings?"
Sirius grimaced. "No kings of mine, that's for blood sure."
"What did they do, Sirius?" Alice asked, fingering her wand. "And who do I need to curse?"
His expression then was such a strange mix of emotions: pain and loss as he looked at the wand —his own was useless to him now— surprise at the role reversal of who should be looking out for whom, and amusement at her willingness to do violence on his behalf.
"Well?" she demanded.
Sirius gave a bark of laughter. "No, don't go starting a war on my account. They're not worth it, and they leave me alone now." He sighed. "It was one of their 'acquirers' that changed me. He saw me do magic and next thing I know I'm spending three days in Crucio-like agony, waking up with a craving for blood and…"
"And your magic gone," Alice said gently, when he couldn't.
"Yeah." He cleared his throat, running a hand through his hair. After a pause he huffed and shot her a small but genuine grin, one laced with a bit of sadism. "Pretty sure my 'maker' is dead by now. The Volturi were pissed that he'd acted without consulting them first. I think maybe they wouldn't've cared if I kept the magic, but since I didn't, they saw it as my maker having deprived them of a seriously powerful asset."
"Did they take any of this anger out on you?" she asked.
"No, surprisingly. They like to pretend to be civilized, less than the monsters they really are—and I'm not talking about their vampirism. But yeah, the need to put on a good face made them courteous towards me while I was there."
"Really? No problems at all?"
"Well … they all sneered worse than Snivellus when I kept picking off the local wildlife population, rather than helping myself to their murder buffet. There was an attempt to pressure me into conforming to their diet, but when I locked myself in the most remote dungeon I could find in their pretentious palace and tried to starve myself to death, they eventually gave up on it and contacted Eleazar to take me in."
"Eleazar?"
"He used to work for them. His gift is gift-sensing. He left after he found Carmen, and couldn't quite balance his work with his love life or something." Sirius shrugged. "I think Carmen wasn't comfortable with the Volturi's methods, which is like a million points in her favour."
"And I suppose Eleazar was chosen because of the Denali Coven's 'vegetarianism'."
"Mhmm. There was a second or two though, after Eleazar first showed up to get me, where they almost changed their minds. Eleazar sensed that I was gifted right off, but the extent of it surprised even me. I'd known I still had Padfoot —I kept it under wraps though— but it was Eleazar that realised I can take any canine form now.
"Aro," Sirius spat, disdain for the Volturi king clear, "he has this mind-reading thing and no care for invading the privacy of everyone he can get his hands on, so he saw it as soon as he shook Eleazar's hand. Apparently a shapeshifting vamp was enough of a novelty that he wanted to keep me around.
"Hell if I was gonna be his 'pet dog' though. I told Aro no way in hell, and that I'd make his life hell if he tried to keep me. And then Caius —he's a regular Malfoy-lookalike, that one, and just as snotty— chimed in something about my gift being far too reminiscent of the 'Children Of The Moon'. Werewolves, you know."
Alice nodded. Jasper had mentioned these 'Children Of The Moon', explaining how they were different to the Quileute wolf-shifters. Everything he told her connected pretty flawlessly to werewolves as she knew them. She'd wondered if at some point a werewolf hadn't been pushed through the Veil, passed that worthiness test in the cave as Alice and Sirius had, and consequently brought the curse into this world.
Jasper had also told Alice how the one called Caius had gone genocidal after a werewolf almost killed him a few centuries back, deciding that they all needed to die. That in mind, she wasn't thrilled to hear that Caius had compared Sirius to a race he had a psychopathic hate-on for.
"Did he do anything?" she asked tensely.
"The pasty boy-king said he didn't care how much I would amuse Aro, he refused put up with a 'filthy mongrel' in his presence." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "'Course, I couldn't let an insult like that slide."
"Oh Merlin," she groaned, equal parts dismayed and eager to know more. The latter won out. "What did you do?"
Sirius's smirk was more than a little wicked. "I detoured past his wing of the palace on my way out, transformed and cocked a leg on his door." His smirked widened. "Taking vampire senses into account, it'll take ages for the smell to fade, not matter how much he has the servants scrub it down."
Alice burst into giggles.
Alice would be pissed —like really pissed— if she weren't so busy being mortified and trying to hide it.
She'd been riding Jasper to what promised to be a fantastic finish when they were interrupted by a girlish scream of unending horror…
…coming from Sirius.
Everyone came running at the sound, alarmed and worried, appearing in the blink of an eye. Fortunately Jasper reacted just as quickly so Alice was properly covered with a sheet before the Cullens and Denali could get a good look at her naked self.
"No, my eyes!" Sirius was howling as he rolled on the floor.
Tanya was kneeling at his side, a frown marring her pretty face as she held his wrists. "Stop trying to claw your eyes out," she ordered.
"I have to. I have to make it go away!" Sirius moaned. "My brain, my poor brain. I have to bleach it and, and… Why, Alice? Why did you do this to me?"
Alice, curled up in Jasper's lap with her face in her hands, peeked out from between her fingers. She was pretty sure she was blushing red enough to put Bella to shame as she muttered, "Me? You're the one who didn't even knock!"
"You should have warned me!" And then Sirius actually sobbed a bit. "If I'd known, I would never have… But there was nothing, no suspicious noises or smells." He paused and grimaced at that thought, slumping into Tanya's embrace and letting her pet his hair soothingly. "No warning at all," he whined.
The audience to the drama seemed fairly split between sympathetic and amused. Emmet was of the latter category, outright guffawing. So too was Kate, who had collapsed against Irina's side, the other having to hold her up as she laughed.
"Okay, no," Alice snapped, anger beginning to outweigh embarrassment. She crossed her arms over the sheet she was wearing and turning a glare in her godfather's direction. He couldn't quite meet her gaze. "This is not my fault! I was being thoughtful to your … delicate sensibilities."
"Not delicate!" he yelped, offended, but was ignored.
"There were silencing and scent-blocking spells up. It's not my fault you have all the manners of someone raised in a barn, and thought it was okay to barge into the bedroom of your adult, sexu—"
There was another piercing, too-feminine shriek. "Don't say that word!" Sirius cried.
"—sexually-active goddaughter," Alice finished firmly.
"Tanya, lovely Tanya, do you see how she torments me?" Sirius moaned.
Tanya rolled her eyes and petted his hair a bit more. "You poor baby," she deadpanned, obviously biting her lip not to laugh.
"You could have just … not. Not anywhere near me," Sirius suggested to Alice. "Is that so much to ask?"
"I'm not taking a vow of chastity whenever you're around Sirius," Alice said firmly. "Because then you'd always be around. I know you would."
Sirius avoided her eyes a bit more assiduously, looking put out that his plan was foiled before it even got off the ground.
"We could always hang a sock on the door," Jasper suggested in a drawl of barely-suppressed amusement from behind Alice.
"You!" Sirius snarled —actually snarled— eyes narrowed as he pointed an accusing finger at Jasper. "You don't get to talk to me! You, you … goddaughter-defiler!" he screeched, eyes wide and wild. "I'll turn into a fucking dire wolf and eat you. Don't think I won't!"
Silence followed Sirius's sudden descent into madness, none one quite sure what to say.
It was broken by a loud, inelegant snort of laughter. Every head turned in surprise. Because had that really come from the ever-dignified Esme?
The woman in questions flapped a hand in front of her face as she tried to speak. "I'm sorry," she finally said faintly, hiccupping, "I just… And it's so ridiculous, that…" And then the woman collapsed into a fit of giggles.
There were some exchanged looks … and then everyone was laughter along.
Well, not Sirius. He was too busy pouting.
"Tan-ya," he whined, giving the woman a pitiful look. "They're being mean to me. Laughing at my pain!"
"Poor baby," she once more deadpanned. Then, with a smirk, she pulled his head closer to her, comforting petting taking a turn for the seductive. "Here, let Tanya soothe all your hurts," she said in a husky tone.
Sirius —face buried between her breasts— seemed to ponder this for a moment. Just a moment. "Hmm, you know what?" he said, popping to his feet with a squealing, laughing Tanya thrown over one shoulder. There was a very determined expression on his face as he said, "The only way to sooth my wounded psyche is to drown out the horrible, horrible mental images with something different, something the opposite of horrible."
Tanya tossed her head to one side, gathering the fall her strawberry blonde hair out of her face by twisting it in a bun at her nape. There was a smirk on her face as she reached down and slapped Sirius on the arse declaring, "Well, what are you waiting for? You've an enthusiastic volunteer and a plan, clearly. Are you gonna keep me waiting?"
"Never," Sirius declared, then marched off.
Tanya waved her family an upside-down goodbye, completely with cheeky wink. She even returned Emmett's thumbs-up gesture.
Their departure was followed by hoots, whistles, laughter and fond smiles all around.
Except for one.
"Darlin'?" Jasper asked, sensing her conflicted emotions.
Alice stared until everyone had left and Carlisle, the last, had politely shut their door behind him.
"Alice?" Jasper asked again.
She gave a sigh. "It's just, I think I understand how he feels." She paused, and then laughed a bit. "Okay, not completely. I'm not on the verge of a psychotic break, but… I'm glad to see him happy now. Really, really glad. It's just kind of…" She wrinkled her nose and shuddered. "Icky? Yes, icky, to know what my godfather and Tanya are probably up to right now."
Jasper laughed, a low chuckle that transformed into a purr mid-exhale, his chest rumbling against her back.
Alice leaned further into his embrace, the better to feel the vibration. She gave a sigh of mixed contentment and regret. The latter because Sirius's interruption had pretty much destroyed the mood. And what a mood it had been!
Jasper's arms tightened around her. He leaned back, shuffling towards the headboard, bringing her with him. Alice closed her eyes and hummed as Jasper's fingers began to card through her hair, gently twisting and twining and transforming her usually-unruly mess into one of his braided masterpieces.
And, yeah, okay. Not so much with the regret after all. It wasn't as explosive as sex, but being curled up with Jasper like this —quiet and content, the focus of his attention— was its own sort of pleasure.
A/N:
So many people seemed to assume Sirius still had his magic, despite no more evidence than Padfoot.
I guess I can sort of understand why, but on the other hand: it's canon that twilight-vampires sometimes retain a magically-enhanced version of a pre-change ability. I say 'magical' because despite what Meyers said, I just can't fathom that all of them have a scientific base—some are just too out there, or very mystical-seeming.
So yeah, I hope there wasn't too much disappointment, but Sirius does not have magic. The ability he retained, his 'gift', is his Animagus transformation. The enhancement is that it's a bit more diverse than before—instead of just Padfoot, he can pretty much pick any canine form.
The implications of all this magic-loss business does, of course, make that decision of Alice's a bit more complicated.
ALSO:
I didn't realise till after writing it that, as a vampire, Sirius shouldn't be able to … ahem, 'cock his leg on a door'. No bodily functions, no urination, etcetera and so on. But, well, I liked that bit so much I'm leaving it in. Call it an inexplicable aspect of Sirius's gift—doesn't just turn into dogs, he can pee like them too! Classy, right?
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