Chapter Nine: Living with Canines
Morgana hadn't lived with anyone in over a millennia and was grateful that when Harry moved in he hadn't affected her daily routine too much. Living with two men, and wizards at that however, turned out to be far more of an adjustment that she anticipated. That wasn't to say it was frustrating, as Remus and Sirius staying with her did have its upsides.
Remus offered a wonderful sounding board for her academic conversations. She'd even had him help her revise her dissertation for her History of Magic mastery on The Great Purge and Magic's First Crisis in the Time of Camelot, though she did have to giggle and pass off how she knew so much by stating the Le Fey family kept rigorous records.
One morning, she'd woken to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and old parchment. Sitting up, she realized she was still in the library and must have fallen asleep revising her last draft. A threadbare flannel blanket was draped over her lap, and as she looked across the room she noticed the table that the enticing aromas were emanating from. Remus was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee in the same clothes as the night before like her. She remembered him coming in to help her with a translation of an old Gaelic text, but she hadn't remembered either of them falling asleep. A blush colored her cheeks as she stood and made her way over to the table to pour herself a cup of coffee. Sitting down across from the sandy haired werewolf, she poured herself a cup.
"Good morning," her soft whisper, slightly husky from sleep had Remus raise his head to meet her eyes, his own a deep amber.
"Morning."
Remus wasn't alone in joining Morgana at her work, as Sirius would often wander by when she was brewing in the potion's lab, keeping up a steady stream of anecdotes from his Hogwarts days, all centering around James trying to impress Lily, and some greasy kid named Snivellus. It wasn't entirely the best for brewing, but it'd been years since she laughed that hard, so she let it slide.
One such day, about a week after Harry's birthday, she'd been in the lab for most of the afternoon attempting to brew Felix Felices. She'd had the potion in the works for months, but for whatever reason it kept backfiring. Suspecting it might have something to do with her powers as a High Priestess of the Old Religion, Morgana had screamed out in frustration, drawing the attention of the Grim. Poking his head in the lab, Sirius noted the black sludge in the cauldron before Morgana, the witch in question slumped over her worktable, dark lines under her eyes as she glared at the ruined potion. Her hair looked like it hadn't been washed in several days and hung lank down her back, the curls lifeless.
"Hey now, why don't you go shower and take a break. You look like Snivellus on a hard day...which was everyday for him, so not good for you," walking over he carefully coaxed Morgana to stand, wincing as she snarled at him eerily resemblant of his mother in the moment. Walking her out of the lab, making sure everything was settled, he led her upstairs towards her room.
"You know, you remind me a bit of Lily. After Hogwarts, in between missions for the Order she was getting her duel masteries in Charms and Potions and well one night when she was trying to work on a basic blood replenisher, she snapped. Starting ranting and raving about stupid dark lords and their sycophants. Her magic went wild and her hair starting sparking up on end, she looked like a ginger wookie. James made the mistake of telling her that and she hexed him so silly he was covered in green and silver polka dots for three days straight," Sirius smiled at the memory, he had just broken up with Marlene and was back with Remus. He and James were making dinner when Lily had her fit, and after the first hex, Sirius had dove for the floo and showed up at his and Remus' flat begging for shelter. Remus had laughed at him, and made him a cup of tea while Sirius shuddered in horror at how creative Lily had gotten over the years with her hexes. James showed up covered in polka dots crying about witches and their madness a little while later, and Remus had cuffed him upside the head and made him explain what had happened.
Morgana laughed at the story, her eyes lightening a bit as she heard about her descendant. Lily Potter was a force of nature, one that Morgana would have delighted to have known.
"I wish I could have met her," she murmured as she let Sirius settle her onto her bed and pull a blanket over her.
"I wish you could have too love," he replied as he dimmed the lights and left the room.
Of course, life with the two men wasn't all bonding and quiet moments. Just the other day, Sirius had taken Harry to the zoo, and they'd come back after dinner, Harry with rosy cheeks and bright pink hair, and Sirius with a bright blue and white lightning bolt across his forehead. Remus spent the next day in the library with Harry, teaching him basic arithmetic, something Morgana had been meaning to do. The two men seemed to be replacing her in terms of importance to Harry's life and while she was happy Harry was happy, it still stung. She wanted to spend time with him, but every moment she had free from planning and plotting, the two Marauders swooped in and stole it from her. And that's not to mention the breakfast snafus.
Morgana had even woken up that very morning to have a cup of tea before helping Bitty with breakfast, something she'd started doing to keep Harry from offering. But when she'd gone into the kitchen, the table was covered in pastries as apparently the two men had gotten up early and decided that Harry needed to try every pastry that ever existed. As if their repeated attempts to hijack the morning routine hadn't been enough, Harry had taken one bite of a melted sugar cinnamon roll, and fallen in love. The subsequent sugar high had her cleaning glitter glue off the walls from his attempts to "make the portraits sparkly". It was increasingly difficult for her to not confront them on their interferences, not to mention the larger, more serious problems living with others meant.
Sirius's drinking was worrying her, a glass of Firewhiskey was in his hands for most of the day. And while he wasn't exactly a rude or irresponsible drunk in front of Harry, his behavior vexed Morgana who saw it as a bad influence. Remus wasn't much better as he enabled the other man, claiming that Sirius had a right to drink for a while, seeing as he was still dealing with the after-effects of Azkaban. Remus' own demons of self-worth or lack thereof had Morgana tiptoeing around the man, worried she might say the wrong thing and send him into a depression. She'd pondered addressing his furry little issue as well, but with their acquaintance still new, she didn't want to say the wrong thing and ruin any chance for a relationship. Not to mention that she knew Sirius would be on Remus' side, their bond tighter than most she'd seen in this new era. She'd started to plot an intervention after the first month for Sirius, her patience wearing thin at his behavior, which was in stark opposition of the plans she had for the Black heir. He was supposed to be her ace in the hole, the connection between the older Dark pureblood faction, but his unwillingness to cooperate with anything political and his constant state of inebriation was too much.
It all came to a head one night about a month after the two men had moved into the house on Corvus Lane. Remus was recuperating in his room after his first full moon with access to Wolfsbane, which Morgana had brewed for him. She'd given into her desire to help the man by presenting him with the potion and waved off any attempts to converse about it with an awkward laugh before disappearing into her office. Sirius however, was in the library fiddling with the radio. Morgana had at first been intrigued by the device, pleased at the musical diversity it allowed, but she was quickly becoming annoyed as Sirius had used it to plague her with endless songs about sex and women. Her final straw tipped over as he put on Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" with her in the room, she was not fat thank you very much, she trained hard to stay in shape and be prepared for anything that might come at them. Harry had laughed at it, even as Morgana glared at the man's rudeness.
"Don't mind the witch Prongslet, she's just a bit cranky this time of the month," Sirius smirked.
"Why don't you go up to your room," Morgana steered Harry out of the library, sending a withering stare at her roommate and followed her ward.
Seething at cocky grin on the animagus' face she headed upstairs to make sure Harry was busy playing in his room that night (she'd gifted him with a set of Legos, something that she'd read about in the mundane papers as a stimulating toy for children). Satisfied with his amusement as he started building a replica of Camelot, using the enchanted painting of the ancient castle hanging above his bed as a muse, Morgana made her way back to the library, where Sirius was currently blasting "Witchy Woman" on the radio.
Flicking her wrist at the double doors they flew open, the music drowning out the crack of the heavy oak doors hitting the wall. The music was already incredibly loud, but it got even louder as the animagus noted her entrance. Her temple throbbed as the music increased in volume, interval by interval. Her eyes settled on the radio and with a flash of gold, the music abruptly stopped. Sirius was sitting in a chair at a small table across from the fireplace, his hair up in a messy bun as he nursed a glass of Firewhiskey. Morgana settled into the chair across from Sirius and stared him down, waiting for the Black Lord to acknowledge her. After a minute, he lifted his head and met her gaze. Keeping eye contact, she reached over and snagged the glass of fire whiskey from his hands, vanishing it with a flick of her wrist.
"We need to talk about your drinking."
"Oh we do, do we?" Sirius arched an eyebrow at her as he leaned back in his chair, affecting a devil may care attitude.
"Yes, while I know you would never intentionally hurt Harry, the things you say while drunk do. I'm not asking you to stop altogether, but I do want you to monitor what you say," Morgana stopped talking as she watched the Black Lord inflate, his grey eyes darkening to slate.
A creak on the wood floors alerted them to Remus, who calmly sat down at the table next to Sirius, setting a cup of tea down on the table before leaning back and placing his hands behind his head. Sirius's eyes flicked over to his old friend, before returning to Morgana.
"I would never hurt my godson, and I drink to deal with the pain so I'm sorry if I don't fit your picture-perfect little image."
"That is not what I meant in the slightest," pinching the bridge of her nose Morgana tried to continue, "I'm just worried, you keep telling Harry you failed his parents whenever you're drunk, that you're the reason they're dead and it's confusing him. Not to mention your snarking at me, which is not exactly appreciated."
"Well I am the reason they're dead," Sirius slammed his fist down on the table, glasses shaking from the impact, "If I hadn't suggested the switch of secret keepers, James and Lily would be alive." He ignored the last half of her comment, it was just a little teasing. He was like that with Lily all the time in past.
"Sirius he is five years old!" Morgana snapped, her eyes narrowing at the man, "He's too young to understand and while he knows you love him telling him these things bothers him."
"It's better he knows the truth now, I failed James and Lily," he stopped, his eyes looking off in the distance, wallowing in his self-pity. He knew that he had failed them, failed his pup, but he was trying to make it up to them all, it just became too much sometimes. And the firewhiskey helped.
Morgana couldn't contain her shriek of rage at his brooding.
"Oh please, so you adjusted plans in an attempt to better protect them. That's hardly a failure, I put the sword that killed my brother in his murderer's hands. I have more blood on my hands than most people have ever wrought. I burned towns to the ground. I razed the land, and you don't see me going around whining about it, sharing it with an impressionable young boy, no I've moved past it and am attempting to make amends." The words were at the tip of her tongue, but the two men still didn't know of her true nature, and now was not the time to break it to them. So instead, she simply said, "You adjusted plans to better protect them, and you did it trusting in another friend. It's not your fault. So stop blaming yourself, and take action and go to the bloody mind healers like you're supposed to."
"She is kind of right Pads," Remus interjected from across the table, he'd been silent until then but seeing his opening he decided to go for it.
"Oh, like you have room to talk Mr. I'm a monster, woe is me, I have no job prospects even though I live without rent and have a job offer from a good friend," Sirius snarked.
"That was uncalled for," Morgana said, her frown evident as Remus curled in on himself, "Yes Remus needs to further his own self-worth, but he has dealt with so much in his life. Monthly painful transformations from age four and coupled with severe stigmatization on what he was, is a heavy burden to bear. He reminds me much of the legends of Merlin I've come across. He dealt with many similar issues, though I do think he was less self-doubtful."
"Oh that's nice, he gets compared to Wizard Jesus, and I'm told I'm demented and need to see a shrink," Sirius rolled his eyes and slumped down deeper into his chair.
"Yes, well if you're going to act like such I will judge you respectively," Morgana responded, "And this conversation has gotten off track. You've been here for over a month, and you haven't gone to one of your appointments with mind-healers. Go. Talk to someone about your guilt. For Harry."
Sirius sat there glaring at her for several minutes, his grey eyes dark and pouring into her own vibrant green. He knew instinctively that she was right but hearing about his issues didn't really help. He wasn't sure why he hadn't gone to the appointments, he'd gotten ready each time, stood in front of the Floo, and then went straight to the bar in the parlor. Remus had tried to talk to him a week before, but the conversation quickly turned into a who's the guiltiest/apology fest that had left them crying into cups of tea Bitty had placed in their hands.
Narrowing his eyes at the glass in his hands, he shoved it away and stood up. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he started to walk out, "I'm going to go for a smoke."
Remus watched Sirius go, before taking a sip of tea. Tapping his hand on the table for a second, he stood to go. A pale hand reached out to grab ahold of his, stopping him in his tracks.
"Thank you for backing me up, I know that wasn't easy, you've been so close for so long," Morgana's soft voice startled him.
"Yes, well I happen to agree with you here. It's not good for the cub," he cleared his throat as she stood up next to him.
"Thank you, Remus," standing on her toes, she pressed a kiss to his cheek before turning on her heel and walking away.
Standing there in shock, Remus lifted a hand to his cheek. Though he'd purposely kept his distance from people since James and Lily died, he had missed human contact. Sirius was trying enthusiastically to make up for it, launching himself on Moony whenever he could. Morgana's closeness was startling though, as she seemed to want to keep herself apart from others. There was a void in her eyes sometimes, a longing for something, yet absence of it at the same time. He knew that even though she'd answered their question in the beginning there was a lot she wasn't telling them, but he'd let it slide, knowing she would reveal everything.
Her presence in their lives, however distant she may try to keep from them, was a blessing. He'd come across her working on revising her thesis in the library and spent the next four days helping her edit, buried in primary documents and anecdotes. Sirius regularly stopped by the potions lab to offer his assistance, he wasn't the best at potions, but he was decent at the preparation part. Of course, that often devolved into a story about the past that had the former Marauder heading straight for the bar or for a smoke outside. That very morning though, they'd gone out to buy pastries to thank Morgana and Bitty for their breakfasts, and while the house elf grumbled about it, he'd seen the small smile on her face when she thought they weren't looking. Morgana herself had sniffed at their offering, and daintily picked at a poppyseed muffin until Harry used his 'doe eyes' to con her into sharing a giant cinnamon roll with him. She'd laughed and sliced the roll in half, icing smeared across her face when Harry tried to feed her a bite.
Remus stood there for several minutes after she'd gone, thinking about the sharp turn his life had taken over the last month. The great clock above the fireplace chimed eight o'clock, startling him from his thoughts. Shaking his head, he wandered off to find Padfoot, sure the old mutt could use company after the little intervention their hostess had held.
Ϟϟϟ
After the confrontation in the library, things between Sirius and Morgana cooled down a bit. The animagus realizing that perhaps the witch was right in her assessment that he seek help, and Morgana realizing after much reflection and a night of drinks with Amelia and Elladora, that the animagus teased and needled her to get a reaction out of her. From then on, their relationship flirted the line between cordial and friendly, Sirius' visits to the potions lab more frequent, and Morgana's new interest in music kindled and was brought to flame by the animagus' eclectic tastes. Remus had walked in on the two dancing around to the dulcet tones of Steven Tyler and Aerosmith one night, and promptly walked back out as the song quickly changed to "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran.
Two months after Harry's fifth birthday and the initial move in of the remaining Marauders, Morgana decided to celebrate the milestone. She had Bitty make a special trip to the market for fresh ingredients, then gave her the night off. The house elf grumbled and shook her tiny fists at Morgana for it but left her alone in the kitchen. Laying out what was needed, Morgana waited for the inevitable appearance of the Marauders and their protege. They'd spent the day at the park with Harry, visiting with Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom who were supervised by Augusta. Soon enough she heard the front door open and the wards shudder as they passed through them. Light footsteps sounded in the hallway as Harry rounded the corner and came through the open door, his cheeks lightly flushed as he skidded to a stop in front of Morgana. Laughing at his exuberance, she leaned down for a hug which he gladly reciprocated. The two men had followed behind at a more sedate pace, and so were greeted by the sight of Harry and Morgana hugging. Loudly cooing Sirius threw a hand over his heart and swooned at the sweet sight while Remus scanned the counters, his enhanced sense of smell picking out the different scents.
Letting go of Harry, Morgana took a step back and smiled before gesturing across the counters, "I thought it would be a good bonding exercise if we all made dinner tonight. I had Bitty pre-make some things out of time constraints, but I figured we could do the rest. Homemade pizza sound alright?"
Nodding enthusiastically Harry rushed to the sink to wash his hands as Remus walked over to the topping selections Morgana had out and inhaled, the sharp scent of fresh pepperoni and salami making him hungry. Sirius danced over to Morgana and took her hand, lifting it to his lips he pressed a kiss to her palm stating, "You are a goddess divine, how'd you know I was craving pizza?"
Shaking her head at his words, Morgana flicked her wand down from its holster to her hand and levitated several cookbooks over to the workstation she'd cleared for Harry.
"I have a few recipes in mind for sauce? If you want to work on those with me while the older boys," she sent a sweet smile at the two who were bristling at being called boys, "Finish chopping up things for our toppings."
"Yes! I love cooking with you Mu-Morgana," Harry blushed and ducked his head as he started to measure out the amount of ground pepper specified on the pages before him.
Morgana twitched at the stumble before her name, surely he hadn't almost called her? No he couldn't have. Turning her attention back to the counter, she began to ladle some of the freshly pressed tomato paste into a bowl, hoping that the night would go off without a hitch.
Of course that was too much to ask when dealing with the marauders, but after two flour explosions, a quickly applied burn paste due to some melted cheese, and several glasses of wine, she sat back on the couch in the parlor, Harry in the crook of her arms with a smile on her face. Sirius and Remus were covered in flour and sprawled out along the floor, the former was groaning holding his stomach because he ate too much while the latter snored away because he ate too much. Harry snuggled deeper into her arms; he was fast asleep, and while normally Morgana would have insisted he wash up as he was coated in flour and tomato sauce, he looked too peaceful, and so she let him drift off in her arms. Running her fingers through his hair, she hummed a lullaby until she too fell asleep.
" Huna blentyn ar fy mynwes,
Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon;
Breichiau mam sy'n dynn amdanat,
Cariad mam sy dan fy mron;
Ni chaiff dim amharu'th gyntun,
Ni wna undyn â thi gam;
Huna'n dawel, annwyl blentyn,
Huna'n fwyn ar fron dy fam."*
*From Suo Gân a Welsh lullaby first recorded in print in the 1800's. Translation:
"Sleep child upon my bosom,
It is cosy and warm;
Mother's arms are tight around you,
A mother's love is in my breast;
Nothing shall disturb your slumber,
Nobody will do you harm;
Sleep in peace, dear child,
Sleep quietly on your mother's breast."
A/N
XIMorningStarlx Thanks so much for your review!
Sakihinata Thanks! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Beckarena Thanks! You're brilliant too! :)
diggerboy4 Thanks!
VioletZap Thanks for your review! I will be doing a few more chapters of the pre-Hogwarts years to cement how Morgana's presence has effected things but I will do a larger time skip to the Hogwarts years so the plot can really get going.
Blaze1992 Thanks for your review! And hmm I'm not going to say anything about the ring beyond this: it's presence is important :) And yes I loved writing the party scene and the aftermath of the ring.
Bentears Aw thank you!
Dzerx Hermione will be a player in the story, but one of many. She has an important role to play as part of Harry's inner circle, but I'm trying to flesh her out and make her a little more dimensional with a different background than canon!Hermione, so hopefully you'll enjoy this version of her.