Chapter Ten

"Come with me, Elen. Please. Meet Remus and Harry. It's a Hogsmeade weekend; Minerva suggested that we might like to have a picnic..."

"I... " Elen backed away, hesitant, arms full of ginger fluff. The completed potion regimen had made him stronger and had Healed the magical damage done by the Dementors and the Healers, and Crookshanks had helped him a lot as well, but he was no less reluctant to leave the safety of Grimmauld Place. "No. No, I don't think..."

"It'll be fun." Sirius kept his voice gentle. It's not his fault; remember that. "Hogwarts is beautiful. I loved it there. You can have a look at it from a distance and see how beautiful it is, and maybe one day you'll even want to go there." He smiled, sad. "You can't stay cooped up in here forever." Because we both know that you have to testify in just over three weeks, and the less stressed normal situations make you, the less stressful an abnormal situation like that is going to be.

"My magic..."

"It won't hurt anyone now, Elen. You know that. You've been doing the exercises that Snape set and you have control now. Am I right or am I right?"

Elen bit his lip. "Yes, but..."

"Just us. Me and Remus and Harry and you. And Crookshanks if he wants to come." Crookshanks mewed grumpily. Sirius took hold of Elen's hand. "Come on – it'll be fun. You always listen when I tell you about Remus and Harry. You even laugh. Often. Like the time when Remus told Harry about trying to make me a real Grim with the help of two massive bags of flour and repeated Sticking Charms, meaning I looked like a ghost and stuck to everything I touched for two weeks until it wore off. Try meeting them. Please." He smiled reassuringly. "Even for fifteen minutes. You lasted half that with Minerva when you met, and you didn't even have control of your magic then."

Elen hesitated, then decided. Be brave. Sirius trusts them and the stories are funny. And if they're scary, I survived Dementors for more than just fifteen minutes, and Sirius will be there. "No magic. They don't use magic on me. And you don't leave. And if someone else comes, we leave."

After weeks of asking, did he just agree? "I'll call them right now and tell them. They will not use magic on you. And of course I won't leave. And it'll be just us." Sirius tore into the living room after the mirror, leaving Elen holding Crookshanks tightly, hovering by the newel post and wondering what on earth had possessed him to agree to this. Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes.

"Ready?" Sirius had re-entered the hallway, almost bouncing off the walls. Crookshanks launched himself out of Elen's arms and trotted up the stairs, turning halfway to send a reverberating purr Elen's way. Elen sighed.

"I guess he's not coming..." He turned back to Sirius. "Okay..."

Sirius put his arms around Elen and Disapparated.

Left behind, Kreacher paced the drawing room, glaring at the locket. Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to destroy it. The brat is trained now and strong enough to hold it off while Kreacher obeys his Master's last order, so Kreacher won't really be attacking him. But Kreacher needs the brat to open it before it can be destroyed. Kreacher heard him speaking Parseltongue. He hissed between his teeth. The brat won't even come in the room, and if Kreacher brings him by force the brat will never cooperate, and the blood-traitor will prevent Kreacher from trying again. What is a good house-elf like Kreacher to do?

Master Regulus was a Slytherin. Kreacher must be like him. Kreacher must persuade the brat to teach Kreacher how to open it...

Sirius and Elen appeared at the mouth of a cave on a cliff overlooking the village. "People hardly ever come up here, so we should be fine. This is the place we were going to go if the Aurors broke through the wards on Grimmauld Place." He grinned. "Anyway... take a look over there, Elen. That's Hogwarts."

Elen gazed over at the castle. "It is beautiful..." I never thought wizards could make something beautiful.

Sirius slung an arm around Elen's shoulders. "Come on. If I remember rightly there should be a halfway-decent meadow down the track a little bit. Harry and Remus should be here in a few minutes; let's see whether we can get the picnic set up before they arrive."

Elen nodded, but didn't move, taking Sirius' hand. "You first."

Sirius shrugged. "Okay." He started walking, and Elen followed him. See, Elen? Nothing to worry about. He reached the place and flung himself down, pulling a picnic basket out of his pocket and restoring it to full size with one tap of his wand before pulling it open and almost burying his head inside it looking for the rug. Elen sat down stiffly beside him and ran his hand over the grass, and then turned to watch a bee in the wildflowers. This is so different...

"Sirius!" Remus had called from a fair distance away, wary of startling Elen. Sirius sat up and waved, head still stuck in the basket, food raining down into his lap. Elen laughed at this, but as Remus and Harry came closer the laugh shifted into a wary, cautious stare as he edged as close as he could to Sirius. Remus stopped and put out a hand to stop Harry. "Hello, Elen. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Hello," Elen said softly, slipping his hand into Sirius' for reassurance.

Remus smiled and sat down, beginning to set up a picnic for him and Harry where they were. "We brought the dessert, Sirius. Two packets of chocolate biscuits, and Harry got something with cream and fruit and an absolutely insane amount of marshmallows from the house-elves..."

"Ambrosia. And there's enough for twenty. They just don't know when to stop. Did you bring the sandwiches, Sirius?"

"Yeah, they're right... huh. I thought they were in the basket..."

Elen touched him on the shoulder and pointed down.

"Oh." Sirius gathered up the sandwiches and lobbed them underarm, one by one; keeping a deliberately straight face that Harry had learnt to see through within a week and neither Remus nor Elen had ever been fooled by. "Catch." It's two picnics side by side for now, with two of us politely ignoring Elen to let him settle, but it's a lot better than one picnic and Elen not being here at all. He passed a sandwich to Elen and pulled the wrapping off his own. "Enough chatter. Let's eat." Between bites, he joined in a half-joking argument about Quidditch with Harry and Remus, letting Elen fade into the background.

Sirius wolfed three sandwiches before Elen had even eaten half of one. Elen was more interested in keeping a watchful eye on Remus and Harry than eating, and his stomach was in knots anyway. He slowly began to shred the sandwich and toss it onto the grass. Noticing this, Remus rolled over to hide the drawing of his wand, and muttered "Avis." If you're going to feed the birds, Elen, then we'll make birds for you to feed.

A canary fluttered to Elen's crumbs. Then another. And another. Elen smiled and shredded another sandwich, studying them, absentmindedly putting part of the sandwich in his mouth. Remus focused. You. The one with the brown speckles. Go to him.

Elen froze as the canary alighted on his hand, then slowly smiled again, wondering. "Sirius, look!"

Sirius laughed at the bird and the look on Elen's face, then looked sidelong at Remus. Remus gave a slight nod. Tell him what I'm doing. It'll be all right.

If you say so, Sirius telegraphed with his eyebrows and a one-sided lift of his mouth. "Look at Remus, Elen. He's making birds for you." Please, please let this work... Remus slowly twirled his wand once more, keeping it pointed firmly in the opposite direction to Elen, and another canary puffed out of thin air, landing on Remus' wand in a fluff of yellow feathers before fluttering over to the crumbs.

"How are you doing that?" Elen's voice was quiet and hesitant, but his eyes were shining and he was edging forward. Sirius felt like dancing a jig. Moony, Moony, you are a genius of the highest standing! How did you connect with him so fast?

"It's a spell. Avis." Remus smiled over. "See? There's a black one. They only last about half an hour – they're not real birds, after all – but they're pretty while they do last."

"But they ate my crumbs." Elen looked confused for a moment, then suddenly started to panic. "What happens when they stop lasting? Do they die?"

"No, of course not. They appear in a puff of feathers and they vanish in the same way." Remus smiled kindly. "Have you ever drawn pictures in a book and flipped the pages really fast to make it look like the picture's moving?"

Elen shook his head slowly, eyes beginning to show signs of wariness again. Remus dug in his pocket and pulled out an old notebook. "Here. Sirius can show you how it's done, and then I'll explain the rest of it. They don't die, Elen. I promise." He tossed it over.

Sirius grimaced as he picked it up. "I'm pants at art." He scribbled for a few minutes, filling pages, then held the book upright and flipped quickly through. "A man at the start... and he's turning into a dog. See?" He looked at the final drawing critically. "Or maybe it's an octopus. Hard to tell..."

"Yes..." But what does this have to do with the dying birds? Elen looked back at Remus.

"What Sirius just did with those pictures is a Muggle way of pretending that something is moving when it's really not. Magic just lets us take it a bit further," Remus continued. "As in, far enough to fool all the senses, not just the eyes. We can't actually create life, Elen – those birds are no more alive than that series of stick figures is actually one stick figure turning itself into a whatever-it-is. And since they're not alive, they can't die." He looked seriously at Elen. "If they were actually alive and only lasted half an hour, I wouldn't have conjured them. That would be cruel."

Wizards are cruel. But... maybe that's not actually true. I trust Sirius and he's a wizard. Perhaps he's not the only exception. Maybe, just maybe, the cruel wizards are the exception. "Okay." He began to eat, still cautiously watching them, but more relaxed now. "Sirius? What's Quidditch?"

We have INTERACTION! True, he asked me rather than Harry or Remus, but he asked a question about the conversation that I was having with them. "Quidditch is a game played on broomsticks with two teams of seven players and four balls..." He continued enthusiastically. Harry interjected after about two minutes, explaining carefully that the game was played in mid-air and that the broomsticks flew, and then tried to describe what it was like to be a Seeker, with Sirius breaking in to wax lyrical about being a Beater. Elen was looking completely bewildered.

Remus had gone very quiet. He was thinking of something completely different. That's a Muggleborn question, and a basic one at that. A FOUR-year-old wizard-raised child would know that answer, and Elen was eight when he lost all contact with the outside world. Sirius hasn't realised; he's pureblood so he's talking to Elen as he would another pureblood wizard who just happened to be completely clueless about sports. But Harry at least suspects that Elen may have been Muggle-raised. He tried to telegraph this to Sirius, but finally resorted to throwing a packet of biscuits at his head. "Enough!" His hands flashed in Marauder-sign, a curling of the last two fingers of the right hand and a touch of the thumb to the third finger. Muggleborn. Slow down.

Horrified, Sirius whirled towards Elen, who jumped at the sudden movement and cringed down.

"Sirius, you're scaring him!" Harry leapt up and ran to the other picnic, not thinking of anything but protecting Elen from whatever had gone wrong with Sirius. Remus was just one second too late to grab him, and didn't dare haul him back with magic in case Elen misinterpreted the gesture. But there was one spell that he knew for certain that Elen was not afraid of – a spell that he even liked, and which would maybe distract him from his fright.

"AVIS!"

A fat canary-yellow six-foot-tall ostrich poofed out of thin air just in time for Harry to run straight into its rear end. The ostrich shook its head, looking remarkably dim-witted even for an ostrich, and exploded into a fountain of feathers which promptly glued themselves all over Harry, making him look like an astounded bespectacled version of Big Bird. All four of them looked incredulously at each other in dead silence for two seconds, then Sirius collapsed in helpless laughter, and then they were all lost.

Remus was the first to recover. "Harry, come back here. Sirius, stop scaring Elen; we can talk about it LATER. Elen... actually, just keep laughing hysterically at that ostrich, that's fine." Three sharp shocks – Sirius, Harry, that absurd bird – in as many seconds. Right now, that ostrich is the best thing for him to be thinking about. I didn't even know that spell could conjure up something like that in desperation. Then again, who would ever have used that particular spell in desperation before? "And me... I'm just going to sit here and keep a straight face for as long as possible while I detach Harry's beautiful feathers."

Harry sat down next to Remus and stuck out his tongue for the down to be removed. Elen's laughter died slowly and he curled up, hugging himself and trembling. Sirius rested his hand on Elen's back. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I just... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Muggle-raised. That actually makes sense of a whole lot of things, and makes a horror out of so much more. No wonder he doesn't trust wizards! "That bloody ostrich, huh?" He rubbed Elen's back. Come on, Elen. Start laughing again.

"I would like to leave now." This has been fun, this has actually been mostly fun, but I can't take much more of it.

Sirius' face fell, but then he smiled. "Okay." You lasted almost an hour. I'm proud of you. He gathered together the sandwich wrappers and folded up the rug. "Harry, Remus – we're off. See you soon."

"See you then."

"Later."

"Wait," Elen whispered, pulling slightly away from Sirius. "Remus..." He hesitated, tried to speak twice, then gave up and pulled Sirius' head down.

Sirius grinned over at Remus. "He says thank you for finding Crookshanks."

"It was my pleasure, Elen." Remus smiled, and Sirius Side-Alonged him back home. Crookshanks gave him an ecstatic welcome, and he settled quickly, falling asleep curled around his cat on the tiger-skin rug. Sirius smiled and left them to it. That cat's the best thing that could ever have happened to him. He hasn't woken up screaming once since Crookshanks arrived. And today he almost willingly spoke to Remus when he was tired and stressed and recovering from a fright. We're getting there. Surprised, he blinked at Kreacher, who had appeared with a warm throw and pulled it over Elen. Kreacher turned and snarled at him, then vanished again as Crookshanks growled softly. Kreacher doesn't like Elen. He calls him "brat" as easily as he calls me "blood-traitor". So what on earth does he think he'll get out of pretending to be kind?

I will never understand my family's insane house-elf. And it'd break my brain if I even tried. He's under direct orders to not attack Elen, and what else could he possibly do?

Sirius

I was walking in the grounds and came across Remus and Harry carrying a bushel of bright yellow feathers, several of which gathered themselves together, flew at me, and gave me a tail. They said it was the fault of an exploding ostrich. I didn't know what to say back.

This is clearly your fault. It has Sirius Black written all over it. Please explain to me, in small words, what exactly an exploding ostrich was doing at your picnic.

Minerva

Hi Minerva

Thank you for sending us both into a fit of laughter to rival the one that happened when Remus accidentally conjured that thing. You may notice my quill shaking.

In small words? The ostrich was exploding. Yellow everywhere and much hilarity. Is any other explanation even required?

Sirius

PS. I inadvertently frightened Elen and Harry tried to protect him, which would have scared him even more if Remus hadn't intervened. Remus knew that Elen actually liked the bird-conjuring charm, and performed it with all the force of desperation behind it. The bright-yellow and highly-unstable ostrich was the result. I don't know which of us was more stunned – Remus on seeing the monstrosity he'd conjured, Elen on seeing an ostrich appear out of thin air and then explode, me on seeing Harry run into its backside, or Harry on acquiring all its feathers after it exploded.

PPS. Who, me? Surreptitiously perform an Attraction Charm on several ostrich feathers on the off chance that they'd get close enough to you before they dissolved again? I'm hurt that you could believe that of me.

PPPS. Remus thinks that Elen might be Muggle-raised. Do you happen to have any way of finding out? It's not hugely important, but I'm curious now, and Elen doesn't understand what I'm talking about.

Sirius

I shouldn't have asked, should I? I should have remembered that every time you explain the aftermath of a prank, I end up beside myself nursing a headache remedy. My alter ego is sipping a cup of tea on the couch beside me and wincing in sympathy. Metaphorically speaking.

Regarding your question... I don't know. It could be that he just forgot about our world while he was imprisoned. Or it could be that he is indeed Muggle-raised. We may never know.

Minerva

PS. I'm glad you finally managed to coax him out.

Professor Snape

Thank you for facilitating Elen's Healing. I realise now that it wouldn't have worked without you, and I'm sorry I was so rude. Really.

Elen's doing a lot better, but I wanted to ask... there's no way it could go out of control again, is there? For example at the trial, where he's going to have to take Veritaserum? He's beginning to get stressed about the possibility, and I don't want him stressing for almost a month if it's not going to happen.

I also wanted... look, could we possibly call a truce until this mess with Dumbledore is over? I'll try if you will.

Sirius Black

Black

If he is amenable the Healers and I will examine him this weekend. Bring him into St Mungo's at ten o'clock Saturday morning. There will be directions at the reception desk; just say you're there for an appointment with me and please try not to cause a riot.

Elen should be able to stay in control under normal circumstances, as long as he's been completing the exercises I set him. Given what I've heard about his nature, I doubt he's been skiving off. But it would be a good idea to make certain.

A truce. Until after the trial. Agreed. But if you break it, I will m... I will bewitch all your chocolate so that it turns into Brussels sprouts the moment you put it in your mouth.

Professor Severus Snape

PS. I am doing you a huge favour here, Black. You can repay me by never telling anybody else that I made that particular threat. This letter will spontaneously combust ten seconds after you've read it.

Snape closed his eyes and rested his chin in his hands. I never thought I would ever think such an absurd threat as that, let alone put it to parchment. But if Black shares the letter with Elen, as it seems he is doing with all correspondence, I doubt Elen would see a threat to "murder" Black as anything but deadly serious. And I want to see our handiwork sometime in the next three millennia.

Professor Snape

St Mungo's, ten o'clock.

Sirius Black

PS. All right. Without evidence nobody would believe me anyway.