Back to Work
After the first month of lying low and setting up her persona, Briar got back to work. Every other night she'd wait until her roommates would fall asleep before transforming and flying around the castle to the seventh floor corridor and the Room of Requirement. During the week she worked on her various plans and projects. Over the weekends she would make her excuses, and leave to go reaping* and gather information.
The Sorting Hat was a great help with the Guardians' letters. Helping her write in different styles and manipulating the wording to better sway the public while not offending the politicians.
It was after a particularly long letter about accepting magical creatures and the advantages of doing so that Briar asked the question that had been nagging at her.
"How do you know how to do this?"
'Years of watching headmasters and headmistresses deal with parents and board members. Surprisingly, it is the parents that have proven the more difficult of the two to deal with.'
The Hat was also a wealth of magical knowledge.
'You forget that I was made of magic supplied by the Founders themselves as well as having had centuries of watching students and staff practice and experiment with spells and the like,' he explained as he talked her through the process of laying down runes that, combined with the magic of the Room of Requirement, would make it so that two minutes in the room would only equal one outside.
After finishing with her work she would practice spell work. First with each wand separately and then dueling practice with both together. Once done, she would banish her projects back to her bed and take off for the forest to gather any loose strands of spiders' silk and unicorn hair she could find. Occasionally, a thestral hair if she could it. Flying back to her dorm, she would carefully tuck everything away before collapsing into sleep, Seraph watching over her. The pattern continued and the month of October flew by until it was Halloween.
It was a hard day and Briar struggled through her classes. Around noon she heard the shouts indicating a prank had been pulled. Her lips twitched as she slipped away to set up a reply from Renegade before escaping to the seventh floor.
'You should be down enjoying the feast.'
"You know I'm not in the mood, Teagan." It had been halfway through their third meeting that Briar had told the Hat that calling him 'Hat' was weird and he needed a name. The next night he'd decided on Teagan, which according to him was a Gaelic name meaning poet. "You saw what happened on past Halloweens, is it really surprising I don't like it?"
Teagan sighed, 'I really wanted to see the prank.'
"Ask Dumbledore to show you then."
'It's not the same,' pouted Teagan.
"Look, if you're not going to help, please, at least be quiet." They lapsed into silence. Briar stared at the rolls of parchment in front of her while absently stroking Seraph.
After nearly ten minutes of silence, Teagan spoke again, 'Are you going to visit him next week?'
"Yes."
'Madam Pomfrey spoke to Dumbledore after your last visit. She wants to know who has been leaving the tea for young Mr. Lupin. She worries that whoever it is knows about his condition.'
"Well, she's right. I do know about his 'condition,' and if the tea helps, which it does, I will continue to leave it."
'As for the letters?'
"They. . .help." Briar bit her lip, "I hope they do, anyway. Remus said that until James and Sirius confronted him, he always felt afraid and alone. Even after he told them the truth, he said it wasn't until after they spent their first moon with him as animagi and still wanted to be friends that he stopped being afraid they would abandon him," she explained.
"I'm hoping that by leaving the letters it will make it easier for him to believe that there are people out there that don't care about his lycanthropy."
'Did I tell you he was quite insistent on knowing who you were? We argued about it during his sorting.'
"I suppose it isn't nice to tease him then?"
'Nonsense! You are quite right to try and build his confidence, he has so little, and nothing builds character like having something search for. Now, since you are not getting anything done, you should rest. Especially since you plan to – what do you call it? Ah yes – go reaping tonight.'
Briar sighed, but pushed the scrolls away and stretched out on the now expanded sofa. "Wake me when it's time?"
'Of course,' Teagan replied, before the room whisked him back into Dumbledore's office.
Briar flew over head, looking for a safe place to transform and dove for a small alley. Once in human form, she released the small pouch she had held in her beak, now mouth. She pulled out a small vial and dropped in a couple hairs. As soon as the liquid turned a sickly pink, she downed the polyjuice potion, quickly changing her clothes once her body had stopped changing. She slipped on the two rings that would hopefully be the only weapons she would need, and disapparated. Time to make the demons of All Hallows Eve** come alive.
Donavan Baldacci was celebrating. Both he and his two friends had recently joined the rising dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, or the Dark Lord as they had been told to call him. All three had joined together soon after graduating from Hogwarts and had gone on several mudblood huntings. They had just received word that they would be joining the attack on Raven's Post village, their first official attack and were currently celebrating by getting drunk at their favorite pub.
It was a good night.
"Loo – hic! – look at tha – hic! – tha,'" his friend slurred, pointing. Donavan looked over to where a beautiful, blonde witch was entering the pub. Donavan whistled and the woman looked over at them and smiled. "Merlin, but she mus' be part vela!"
Donavan nodded and watched as the woman made her way over to them.
It was a good night.
"You three look like you know your way around a pub. Care to recommend something?"
They blinked at her, alcohol muddled brains processing the words.
"Oh,uh, yeah, yeah! Of course." Donavan was the first to recover. "Me, Donavan, I like beer, but mah mates, Jerry and Cole, like whiskey and mead." He gestured to each in turn and the woman's smile widened.
"Something different for each of you? Excellent. Would you let me try some of yours? I'm not sure what I like and –" They were already shoving their drinks at her and she cut off with a laugh. She sipped each one and passed it back, her hand covering the rim each time. "Well, the whiskey's a little strong and the mead a little heavy, so I guess I'll go with the beer."
Grinning triumphantly, Donavan ordered her one and was rewarded with another glowing smile.
It was a good night.
"So what are you three men in here celebrating?" Donavan's friends who had been drowning their disappointment suddenly brightened at being called 'men.'
"Well, we jus' got assigned to a very import'nt team in charge of a dangerous task."
The woman gasped, "Oh my, you must be very brave."
All three soon found themselves tripping over each other in their haste to tell her exactly what the mission entailed: the where and the when and who all they thought would be going with them. Once they'd exhausted that topic, they told her about their other exploits, never noticing how her eyes narrowed or that no matter how much she 'drank,' her glass stayed full.
"How would you three like to show me some of those moves, hmm?"
They leapt up, Jerry taking her hand to pull her to her feet. At the door she stumbled, grabbing Coles' arm to keep herself upright. Outside she took Donavan's hand and he felt something sting him, but quickly forgot about it as she pulled him down the street saying, "I know the perfect place."
It was a good night.
Briar breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the three baby Death Eaters sagged to the ground. She had almost run out of time, feeling the potion wearing off as she left the pub, but fortunately it seemed they were all too far gone to notice.
Quickly stuffing the rings, one containing a compulsion potion and the other a fast acting poison, into the bag she disapparated, reappearing several blocks away before transforming, as an added precaution, and flying back to Hogwarts. She had not expected three lowly Death Eaters to know anything important, but it appeared she had a town to visit.
Landing on her bed, she quickly scribbled out a plan before snuggling under the covers, thinking about next week and the full moon.
Briar woke from where she'd been dozing outside the infirmary and fluttered over to an open window.
Remus lay on a bed as Madam Pomfrey fussed over him, healing what she could and tipping potion after potion down his throat. Once satisfied she'd done all she could she closed the curtain. Briar watched as she set up the wards and alarms that would alert her to any changes or visitors before heading back to her office/living space.
Briar transformed and sat down on the sill. After years of helping and watching the mediwitch (courtesy of her brother and his friends) she knew exactly what spells the matron used, how they worked, and more importantly, how to get around them.
She first sent a small compulsion at the woman's door that would remind her of some paperwork that urgently needed doing if she tried to leave. Next she tweaked the wards into ignoring her presence using the method the mediwitch had taught her, in her first life, to keep her from triggering the wards unnecessarily while checking on patients. Last she cast a one – way silencing spell around the curtains so she could hear out but no one could hear in, and a spell that would alert her to anyone coming within thirty feet of Remus' bed.
Rigging everything to disappear when she left and tacking up a rune that would erase her magical signature, she slipped through the curtains around his bed. She knew from her time with older Remus that he wouldn't wake until at least noon.
Briar opened her bag and quietly set a teapot, charmed to keep the tea warm, a cup, and a letter on his bedside table, before sitting down and turning her attention to the boy.
She smiled as she ran a hand through his hair. James may look like Harry, but Remus was the one that acted the most like him. She couldn't help but think of all three of them as younger brothers. It was probably for this reason she found herself singing the same made – up lullaby she used to sing to Harry.
Remus Lupin floated, mostly still asleep, but awake enough to begin to feel the aches and pains of his body. Something brushed through his hair and he became aware of a noise.
'A song? Someone was singing to him? Madam Pomfrey?' Remus listened. 'No, it wasn't Madam Pomfrey, the voice was too. . .soft? Light? Young? Yes, that was it! The voice was too young. But then who. . .?'
A familiar scent tickled his nose; trees and wild roses and something bird-like. He tried to remember where he had smelled that before, it felt important, but the hand running through his hair and the soft singing lulled him deeper into sleep.
Remus jerked awake, looking around as quickly as his aching body would allow. He remembered. He remembered where he had first caught the scent of trees and wild roses and something bird-like. It was the girl! The girl he'd met in the robe shop. The girl who had given him the confidence to try and make friends. The girl who told him to find her. The girl he'd been looking for. That girl had been here, he was certain of it as her scent still hung in the air, and he was sure she had. . .
Remus frowned. A memory of. . .something floated just beyond his reach, refusing to let him remember. He sighed and his eyes landed on his bedside table. A teapot sat beside a cup and roll of parchment. His heart skipped a beat. It was the same set up that he'd seen the last two times after his transformations. Hesitantly he grabbed the parchment and unrolled the letter.
Well it's about time you woke up, sleepy head! You had me worried , good thing I know you're tough! I also know it was you that helped James and Sirius set up that prank outside the library. Great job! I was laughing for hours, though I was laughing harder when I saw what Renegade did to them in retaliation.
No, I'm not going to tell you, since I doubt James and Sirius will let you go two minutes without hearing about it once you get out. Anyway, be a good a boy ant let Madam P. fix you up and get plenty of rest. Oh and drink the tea, it'll help. Promise!
Can't wait to see you up and about again,
Your friend that knows and DOESN'T care
P.S. have you figured out who I am yet?
Remus grinned as he read the beginning and laughed at the thought of James and Sirius getting pranked. He frowned though, as he read the part about her knowing and, apparently, not caring. It was the same sign off as the last two letters and still caused fear to pound through him at the idea of someone knowing his secret.
Uncertainly, he looked at the tea. It had helped the last few times. He poured himself a cup and downed it. Smiling as he felt the pain ebb a little and poured himself another cup, letting the warm liquid wake him up and further ease his pain.***
He looked at the letter again and decided. While still unhappy and unsure about someone knowing his biggest secret, he might, just possibly, be willing to believe that maybe, just possibly, there was a tiny little part of him that was willing to hope, not believe! no, not believe. . yet. . .but hope that maybe this person might, maybe, just possibly, not care enough to still maybe, possibly, want to be friends with him.
Content with his decision, Remus looked at the post script and then cautiously sniffed the letter. A trace of trees and wild roses with a very faint something bird-like.
"You're the girl from the robe shop," Remus grinned.
It was supper time in the Great Hall and no one noticed as a pair of eyes watched James and Sirius greet their friend and regale him with stories of all he'd missed. No one noticed a smile break out underneath those eyes as they watched him smile and laugh, looking much happier than the days leading up to the full moon. No one noticed as the eyes glanced at the head table where the headmaster and his deputy had their heads together, whispering. No one noticed as they returned to the book in front of them, and later, no one noticed as the girl they belonged to disappeared.
Author's Notes:
* I'm not sure if I explained this properly in an earlier chapter, but 'reaping' is the term Briar is using to mean that (basically) she's going to go kill someone to fulfill her quota for Death. My way of think is that she's sort of Death's minion right now, and Grim Reaper, reaping, it just made sense to me.
** "All Hallows' Eve" is really just an old fashioned way of saying "Halloween." I used it because, honestly, "Halloween" just doesn't seem scary enough for me. It sounds, well, silly and just didn't fit the atmosphere I was trying to write.
*** There are herbal remedies out there that can help with the symptoms Remus is experiencing. I'm not going to list them all here as I've carried on long enough, but if you're curious look 'em up or message me and I can give you the ones I know of.