CHAPTER 11

She tied you to a kitchen chair…

Inside the flask it looked utterly harmless, more like hair conditioner than a instrument of mass destruction. The thick swirls of white and red chased each other through the swirling silvery liquid and really it's almost beautiful.

I'm two seconds from throwing it from the window and into the sea.

Percy trembles as he approaches the bed, sinking down onto it and wrapping his arms tightly around himself, back to me as he stares out into the ocean, or maybe just at the flask full of death. I take a step towards him and a shard of glass from the broken vial sinks into my bare foot. I pull it out and the blood wells up thick and dark to run down the sole of my foot and land on the carpet.

I leave a trail of tiny spots of red as I pad down the hall to the bath, rinsing my foot in the sink and binding it tightly. Through the open window I can hear the shrieks of children running along the bluff, playing tag and eating grapes until they get sick. There's a knock at the door before Madae comes in, resting her hand on my shoulder.

" Siri, what's wrong sweet one?" My mother hasn't called me that since I was seventeen. She pulls me over to the low cushioned bench and sits me down, pulling a brush from the nearby shelf.

" I miss my mate Madae." It wasn't what I planned to say, or even what I thought I was feeling, but from the moment it leaves my mouth I know it's truer than anything else I feel right now. Even stronger then the clawing sense of betrayal in the back of my mind.

Her hands are firm as she begins pulling the brush through my hair. I hadn't realized how long it's grown until I feel the bristles of the brush scraping the middle of my back. She's silent, letting the words tumble out of my mouth as she separates my hair into seven strands braiding them all together.

" The boy…it's not his fault Madae, but something he helped in killed many people. Killed his lover and I almost lost Remus and do you remember James and Lily, Madae?" Her reflection nods in the mirror. " Their son Harry is missing and we know he's here but before we found out they killed my mate Madae…Re is gone."

I haven't said that out loud. In all this time that I've known, that I've said it to myself silently I never heard my own voice wrap around those words with such finality.

There's no going back now. Oh god, Remus is gone. When she wraps her arms around me I lean back against her, letting the tears run down my temples as she rocks us from side to side. The children outside, screeching with joy almost drown out the miserable sound of my sobbing.

" Shh." Her voice is low as she comforts me with legends of our culture before the destruction. When I can draw a steady breath she lets me go, sitting gracefully beside me. " Sirius, sweet one, listen to me." Her fingers are cool and scented as she cups my face. " I don't think I will ever know what happened. I want to know, but my soul says there will never be time, so here is a half advice. The boy…he's just that. A boy. And to look at him, a great innocent. This war you're in has touched you both in ways you will never recover from. Don't hold him accountable for your pain." She stands, pulling me to my feet. " The entire family will be here after dark. Go, forgive the boy and rest until then." With a kiss my mother is gone again and I turn back towards the bedroom.

Percy's still curled around himself on the bed, shoulders heaving as he muffles sobs into the pillow. He turns his head away from me as I slip onto the bed, curling around his shaking form. His glasses are sprawled on the bedside table and his hair, mussed and windswept from the day's excitement is now a tangled halo around his face.

" I'm sorry." Another silent sob shakes him in my arms as I whisper the words into his ear. " I'm sorry for every accusation I said, all the ones I didn't and for everyone you make against yourself. I'm just so scared." He rolls, eyes wide and shimmering as he looks at me in disbelief.

" You're scared?" His hair untangles beneath my fingers and it's hard not to laugh at him.

" Completely terrified. That's not even an accurate beginning for how scared I am, but it will have to do." He chuckles a little, eyes cast downward as his arms loosen around himself, one hand toying with the buttons on my shirt.

" I wasn't really scared before. Not until you forced me up that cliff and then I realized that I could still be scared and then I was to tired and angry and then I realized I'd finished the brewing and that this was it. There was nothing left between myself and going but Harry and Ron." He buries his head underneath my chin, letting my hands wander across his back and up his arms and through his hair, easing the last of the nervous tremors from him. Exhaustion rolls off him in waves as I pull him closer to me, sitting up and rocking with him.

" A'takira adini espe tiru nada. Toke nadu ry'enta adia espa nada." It's the same lullaby I crooned to myself rocking in the darkness of Azakaban. Percy looks up from my shoulder, eyes half closed.

" You sing wonderfully. Whatever are you singing?"

" Katara Toke. Song of the island. It goes…sleep among the ruined city, island ruins filled with flowers…" I'm not sure how much of the song I translate for him before he slips into unconsciousness. Easing him down into the bed it feels completely natural to undress his feet and ease him out of his over shirt. His hair is soft as I brush it off his forehead and with the same clenching suddenness I realize, I've started to love him and could well fall very much in love with him if we had time.

But time doesn't seem to be on our list of possibilities.

He cuddles under the duvet as I pull it over his shoulders.

I run into Massi as I step out the back door into the sunlight. In her arms is a folded cloth of dark blue shot through with gold thread and what looks suspiciously like a braid wrap.

" Oh no. Absolutely not Massiah Adini. There is no way I'm going native tonight." She gives me a huge grin, her eyes sparkling with smug mirth.

" You have to Sirius. The only one who doesn't is Percy. So I made sure I got everything together for you. Got your saro, your wrap, your bollera, your…" She looks up from pawing through the small pile and holds up a pair of thick gold earrings in the shape of thick squares, an old family heirloom. There's no escaping. "I don't have to reopen your ears do I?"

" No." I sigh, feeling their weight in my hands. It's been decades since I wore anything this heavy from my ears. Hopefully they don't feel as heavy as I think. She never notices as she pulls out a small jar of powder.

" Can you still put on Kolla without making yourself look like a woman?" I snatch the tiny jar from her and scowl.

" Yes, Massi. I can still dress up in skirts and makeup and somehow not look like a woman." Her laugh is high and sweet as she leans up to kiss my cheek.

" You don't intend on staying with us no matter what happens, at least give your Madae the pleasure of seeing her son dressed as a man of the island." She takes my hand, pulling me back inside towards the bath and shoving me in and chattering on and on. "…And make sure you use the sweet herb soap and oils and make sure you pin that braid up so I don't have to redo Antae Castopa's work." By the time she's gone I find myself with an arm full of towels, oils, soaps, pins and a copper tub filled with steaming scented water.

Some things never change. Massi could always talk the kraken out of the ocean if she had a mind to. Setting the piles on the bench, I smile to see a small plate of fruit and a goblet of honey wine beside the tub.

The water is just hot enough as I sink into it, picking up the goblet and letting the thick sweet wine roll over my tongue for a moment before swallowing. For a moment it's easy to forget I've ever left home.

And then the sun catches on the pale scars around my wrists. I set the wine down and in the bright light of the day begin to actually look at myself. The thick welts around my wrists where I spent years fighting restraints, the long lines of nails drug across my chest in one of a dozen fights under the cells of Azakaban, the list goes on as I run my fingers over them all one by one.

There is absolutely no way I'm appearing before my family with every shame and disgrace I own marked into my body. I'm rising from the tub when Massi comes in, humming to herself, arms full again.

" Siri, your Madae said…" Her voice trails off as I turn my back to her, my pinned braid baring the two scars from the whomping willow and almost half a dozen from the beating Lucius Malfoy gave me during…however long he held Remus and I in that lightless room in Devon.

" I don't think I'm going to go in my formals Massiah. I'm sorry but…" My breath stills as her finger comes to rest on the tail end of the longest scar, tracing it up my back to where it stops below my shoulder blade.

" Oh Sirius…" Her voice is soft and sad, but nowhere inside lurks the disappointment I feared. " What did they do to you out there?" She hands me my towel, helping me out of the tub and quickly moving the plate to a low shelf and sitting me on the bench.

" I can't do it. I can't appear before Madae and the entire Tokana like this. Not my family, not the elders, not in this body…" She startles me, sliding her hand over my mouth to still my words, pulling my chin up to face her.

" If not that body than who's? There is no one we want to see more and regardless of how a lifetime of Paccea may have hurt you, we know your soul here and under the scars, you're still Sirius Dilandi Black of the house of the temples of A'lat." Her hand is almost dwarfed by mine as she lifts it, kissing my palm. " If anything the scars are honor and a gift to us. They show us that you were strong enough to come home to us." My chest is tight and for a moment I think I may cry again, just bury my head in my cousins neck and sob but instead I laugh, because she's right and I'm stupid.

As long as I live, I'll have every mark inflicted on me and I'm not foolish enough to ever think I will do anything but feel burning anger or shame for most of them, but to my family, they are just skin, not me at all. Smiling at me she stands, moving behind me to remove the pins holding the heavy coiled hair off my head. With nimble fingers she winds the thick woven feather wrap around and through the seven strand braid, letting the one complete and perfect feather dangle from the end of the braid into the last few inches of free hair.

" There. Turn around." Instead she comes around in front of me before I can move, studying my face critically before cracking a sly smile. " And you're sure you can still put on the Kolla by yourself?"

" My? It's time to leave now." She laughs again and backs towards the door, stopping only to pick up the thick glass bottle of sweet oil.

" Don't forget." She tosses it to me so that it lands neatly in the cradle of my hands. " You might want to have Percy do it for you. You'll never reach your back otherwise."

She has the audacity to wink at me and cluck her tongue before leaving.

Five minutes of trying to apply oil to my back without dropping or knocking over the bottle later, I gather everything up and admit defeat. The hall is thankfully empty of cousins, mothers and children as I make my semi-naked way back to the room.

Percy is sitting up in the fading sunlight, stretching and yawning. He gives me a sleepy half smile, eyes traveling up and down my body, stopping on the bundle in my arms and the bottle of oil. His eyebrow lifts faintly.

" Not that you don't look fetching in oil and very little else, but shouldn't you have made any advances before we had to get ready for dinner?" I grin at him, dumping the pile on the bed beside him.

" I am getting ready for dinner. I have to go in formal wear and around here that's not much, but they're very picky about what is involved. This is sweet herb oil." I shake the bottle at him. " When being honored by the Madae Tokana you have to make sure you're all oiled down, good and all except that I can't…" I gesture towards my back. "So…little help?" He cradles the bottle gently, pulling the cork and inhaling deeply.

" This smells wonderful." Carefully he pours some into his palms, breathing on it. He catches my look and smiles. " Warms it up. Here. Turn around." He's kneeling behind me and then his hands are warm as they begin massaging the oil into my skin, lightly tracing the shoulder blades and digging his thumbs into the small of my back hard enough to make me moan. For a few moments it's just us and the breeze and the setting sun.

" Um…there." I barely open my eyes as he slides out from behind me, looking at the small pile on the bed. " And is that…what you're wearing?"

"Yes." I stand, shaking out the saro and folding the longer corner so that a length of the cloth was now golden shot through with deep blue. I let the towel fall to the floor and whip the saro low around my hips fingers securing it firmly underneath. The thick wrapped gold chain of the bollera is heavy around my neck, the ends dangling above my navel as I secure it with another inscribed golden square, but it's a comforting weight, the same as the earrings. Percy is silent as I move past him, opening the Kolla and dipping the little brush My tucked into my saro into the powder, tracing my eyes and smudging it thickly at the inner corners.

"Ha ha. Twenty years and I can still put on Kolla." I turn with a smug grin and Percy is just staring at me. " Percy?"

" How," His voice is husky. " Do you expect me to make it through dinner when you're dressed like that?" He moves towards me, arms resting on either side of me as he nuzzles the side of my neck. " Oh you smell good."

" Yes, but unfortunately for you this oil doesn't taste particularly good, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to content yourself with changing." He gives me a pout.

" Into what? I brought the rattiest clothes I had and I'm wearing those right now…" He stops as Massi pokes her head into the door. Sometimes I swear she spends her life hovering around and taking care of everyone's affairs. As if reading my thoughts she meets my eyes and winks, going over to Percy.

" These…" She shakes out a pair of loose white pants and an over shirt of the same heavy silk as a saro. " Are for you to wear to the dinner." In her hands is a small basket and I can see trailing threads sticking out of the edge. " I need you to slip into the pants so that I can adjust them though…" She's already kneeling beside the bed, pulling out a strip of hide with needles and pins jabbed through it and a hand wound reel of thin white thread. Her thick hair is pulled back from her face, the locks that generally frame her face twisted tightly with strands of the small pearls the boys gather from the ocean tunnel and wound around the back of her head. " What are you waiting for? I still have to get ready myself. I don't have all day." I snicker as Percy gives her an apologetic look before stepping out of his trousers and quickly into the overly large white ones. My works quickly, hemming and reworking the waist until they cling snugly to his hips. With a mischievous grin she tugs sharply on them, making Percy yelp and proving that her seems will hold.

" My, don't tease." She grins up at Percy and myself before rising in a fluid motion and handing him the shirt.

" Finish dressing him Sirius and make sure you aren't late. You have less than half an hour." When I turn around, Percy is busy tucking his undershirt neatly into his pants.

" What are you doing?" He looks up at me.

" Making myself presentable?" He asks before sighing. " No shirt?" I shake my head.

" Only this one I'm afraid." I pick up the sweet oil, pouring some into my hands. " Well…this too." He practically purrs as my hands rub the oil into his skin, leaving only a light sheen and sweet scent. I let my hands linger on the curve of an exposed hip, leaning in to breath his scent. " Mm. You're right. I don't think we can make it through the whole dinner ceremony." His lips catch my mouth, running his tongue just inside my bottom lip.

" Nope. But we'll try awfully hard." He steps back lightly on bare feet and shrugs into the heavy silk shirt, arranging the folds, shockingly, in the correct manner. " How do I look?"

" You look wonderful." I turn to see my Madae in the doorway in her deep purple sarae, hair pulled back from her face and then falling free to her waist. Her smile widens as she steps inside the room. " You both do." Her fingers rest lightly on the bollera around my neck before she steps back " Come, they wait."

The entire Madae Tokana is waiting in our family grove, the women elegant and strong in their age and beauty. My mother gently leads Percy to sit with Massi and her family before joining the other women, now eleven in all, standing before the large bonfire. On either side my entire family is interspersed with half the town, members I didn't know still lived and children I had never seen be born as I walk down through their ranks, kneeling in the circle of olive, cinnamon, and Saro branches. The eldest woman there comes forward, her white hair sweeping her calves and one seeing eye fixed firmly upon me. Her voice is kind but very firm as she begins speaking, asking me who I am, why I came, why I brought Percy, what we came for and what we seek. The words roll of my tongue in formal Atlantian as I ansewer her every question, eyes locked with hers in respect. For a moment everything is silent before she claps once followed by the pairs of women surrounding her until they have each given me their approval. With a nod from the women I stand and step out of the circle and the meal can begin.

The food…I've had nothing like it since I left home and yet, I can't focus on it. Only on the laughing boy sitting next to me, engaged in a lively conversation with A man I can only assume to be my cousin's husband about the history of A'lat. Thalia has crawled into his lap and is eating his roast bird and all of his fruit with one hand, the other tangled contentedly in his hair as she sings a little to herself. On either side of me people chatter excitedly, touching my shoulder and back, dropping welcoming kisses on me. Massi laughs as Percy reaches for a piece of his food and comes up with an empty hand and a giggling child, handing him another plate and scooping up the four year old in her arms.

In this moment I know I belong here forever and I'm glad that if I have to die, I die here.

From the shadows a boy, maybe thirteen steps out, a conga held between his knees and strapped securely around his neck. He smiles nervously, his first drumming. Around us other boys are scrambling for their instruments including Epifiano, who must be at least twelve then. Taking a deep breath he lifts his hands and starts pounding out a rapid rhythm, joined by children with bells, tombas, castanets, and big metal drums. Even Massi's father gets up, joining the boys with his old guitar.

With a rush six or seven woman get up, including My and begin to dance, limbs glowing in the firelight as they kick, whirl and gyrate in an ever widening circle as more and more people join.

" Siri!" Massi appears at my side, face lightly flushed as she smiles. " This is for you! Come dance!" I shoot a beseeching look at Percy who only settles back further on his woven mat, gesturing towards the circles that whirl and kick.

" Go dance!" And then three more women are pulling me to my feet and into the largest circle and pulling me along into the dance. I link my arms with my uncle and his brother, following them through two steps sideways and back the other way three more steps, kicking and turning to face the inner ring of women. As we rotate, I watch Percy lounging in the shadows, the edges of the firelight catching his hair and making his eyes glow as he watches.

And then we rotate again and he's gone.

The dance seems to drag out as I search the crowds for him and then the circle breaks and the music is hard and raw and Massi is grinning from behind Percy's shoulder as she shoves him out amongst the dancers, a deep green saro clinging to his hips and thick bands of gold on his upper arms and around his neck.

I love my cousin.

His hair falls in his eyes as he slips into my arms, his back fitting snugly against my chest as I pull him tighter against me. His body sways with mine as I move him with the music and against me, hand sliding against the slick skin.

" You have no possible idea how much I want you right now." He shivers in my grip and lifts his feet clear of the ground, letting me spin us around. " Kick your right foot as high as you can." His stomach quivers under my fingers as I scrape my nails across it. " I want you right now, in front if the fire with the music still playing. I want to make you scream in time with the drums." I spin him and arch him over backwards so that his hair brushes the grass, fitting my thigh snugly between his legs as I lower him repeatedly until he's kneeling in the grass, legs open and head back as I spin around him, kicking over his head and pulling him back to his feet, breathless.

" How long does this last?" His breath is a gasp as I sink my teeth lightly into his neck.

" Until dawn." His moan is like fire in my veins. " But I don't think it'd be amiss to skive off for a while as long as we return." With a growl he grabs my hand from his waist, pulling me out of the dance and off into the trees.

:: His face is lit from below in the cold silver glow and warm golden firelight from the candles strips the harshness of the lights…

" Percy?" He's not sure whether to laugh or not. " Of all the times to be daydreaming, now is not it." He grins from beneath his bandana, eyebrow ring glinting in the light. " Cause I think we may have just done it!" He dips the ladle into the cauldron, pouring a flask full of the thick opal creamy liquid. " But um…how do we test it?" Carefully he stoppers it, setting it on the shelf behind us in the lab. His lab goggles dangle around his neck.

" We'll owl the minister and that's up to him. We've done our job." I shove the goggles up onto my forehead and come around the steaming cauldron, wrapping an arm around his slim waist. " So, how do you want to celebrate?" He bats my hand away from the buttons on his robe.

" Not in here, that's for sure. I'm sick of these walls. Come on. We can take a long bath and go down to the three broomsticks...have some dinner, some wine…" I sigh, pulling back.

" As wonderful as it sounds Cam, I'd rather stay in for the night." He frowns at me. " Don't let that stop you though. You go on into town, have a few drinks, bring the wine back here…" I kiss the corner of his mouth. " And then we'll celebrate together."::

There's no celebrating now though. No joy at the small flask on the desk, drawing my eyes like a magnet. Instead there's simply the overwhelming sense of impeding doom. I shiver as I curl tighter around myself on the large soft bed. Sirius left the room and the silence in the warm air is unnerving.

He's disgusted with me. My one ally in my last endeavor hates me now. Even muffling my sobs in the soft pillows until it's hard to breath doesn't make the sounds any softer in my ears. I bite my lip, trying to quell the sickening waves of bone crushing fear.

God, don't let him change his mind, don't make me do this alone.

He slips onto the bed behind me, fitting his body against mine as he wraps his arms around me. I turn my head away from him. I don't want to see him abandon me.

" I'm sorry." His words slip into my ear and shudder through me. He's not staying. " I'm sorry for every accusation I said, all the ones I didn't and for everyone you make against yourself. I'm just so scared."

Logically I should have known that he was scared too. Who wouldn't be, but to hear him whisper it in my ear is just as relieving as the half heard apologies. I twist in his arms, staring up at him.

" You're scared?" He gives me a rueful smile and his face looks different for a moment before I realize why. The flowing hair that generally falls over his shoulder is pulled back into a tight braid at the nape of his neck.

" Completely terrified." he catches the corner of his bottom lip in his teeth. " That's not even an accurate beginning for how scared I am, but it will have to do." It feels good for the sudden rush of air from my chest to be a laugh and not another sob. I'm sick of tears. I ease my nails out of my arm, fingering a button on his shirt.

" I wasn't really scared before. Not until you forced me up that cliff and then I realized that I could still be scared and then I was to tired and angry and then I realized I'd finished the brewing and that this was it. There was nothing left between myself and going but Harry and Ron." I'm babbling and when I stop it's so sudden I almost bite my tongue as I stop the out pouring of words, burying my head under his chin as he runs his hands over my back and arms and through my hair.

Fuck. Cam this isn't funny. You and Remus are not funny.

I don't want to love him.

He sits up, pulling me with him so that I'm cradled under his arm, tucked against a solid wall of warmth. He begins rocking side to side with me, singing softly under his breath. I close my eyes, letting the syllables slide over me. A-ta-Key-re-uh Ad-de-ne Es-pe Te-ru na-da… I look up at him through heavy eyes.

" You sing wonderfully. Whatever are you singing?" He leans back further against the headboard, voice rumbling in his chest as he begins to translate the song. I close my eyes and worm closer to him.

:: The white sands are warm and soft under my body as I let the breeze tickle over my bare back. A familiar weight settles across my hips, long fingers braiding random sections of my hair.

" I'm really feeling it here. You should stay."

" Cam, you're being absolutely ridiculous. I can't stay. I have to save Ron and Harry." The wind carries the scent of burning from beyond the beach and even from behind me. His legs are starting to burn where they're clamped around my waist.

" Now who's being ridiculous? You don't have to take the potion you know. You know there are plenty of other things you can do with it. Knock out a death eater and pour it down his throat, feed it to a fucking owl and tie a note to it's leg saying "boom" and address it to Voldemort…you're creative Percy, you're just looking for an easy way out." The heat of his skin is almost unbearable as he slides off my back, walking into the waves. The water boils around him, but the look of anguish is eased off his face as he walks further out. Around him dark haired figures swim, circling him and tugging his hands down towards the sunken cities.

" Cam!" He stops in the water. " You want me with you, don't you?" He smiles at me.

" To be so smart you can be awfully simple Percy. You're always with me."

He dives and disappears beneath the waves::

For the first time in a year I've dreamt of Cam without seeing the destruction all over again. I sit up in the empty bed and stretch my arms over my head, yawning. The sun is setting over the ocean, setting the water ablaze with gold and orange. From the corner of my eye I see Sirius hovering in the doorway. I turn towards him and smile.

He's fresh from the bath, his skin slightly damp and I can smell the scent of oil from here. I let my eyes flow up and down his body, from his broad shoulders to his long legs and back to the bundle in his arms, a bottle of oil perched on top of it all. My eyebrow quirks.

" Not that you don't look fetching in oil and very little else, but shouldn't you have made any advances before we had to get ready for dinner?" A grin crosses his face as he leans over, dumping a very small pile onto the bed. The braid in his hair is now woven through with a feathered wrap that coils tightly around sections and then weaves in and out of sections before tying off above a few inches of loose flowing hair.

" I am getting ready…" The arch of his back draws my eyes as he leans over the bed, plucking an ornate bottle of thick hand blown sea green glass from it's resting place on a folded length of deep blue cloth shot through with threads of gold. I look up in surprise as he shakes the bottle at me. " little help?" The glass is warm in my hands as I take it, easing the thick cork out of the narrow neck and taking a deep breath of the thick sweet scent. Something like water lilies, basil, clover and half a dozen things I can't name. It sits thick and fragrant in the palm of my hand as I lean forward and exhale on it, warming it in my hands. Sirius gives me an odd look.

" Warms it up." He nods slightly. " Here, turn around." I kneel on the edge of the bed, rubbing my slick hands together before putting them on his back and sliding them up to his shoulders, kneading the warm flesh under my hands methodically. He gives a groan as I dig my thumbs in at the base of his spine.

There are moments where time stands still and you can spend an eternity or a moment doing one thing and never tell the difference. This is one of those times. Only when I want to slide my slick hands up his thighs and throw his towel out the window do I stop, sliding off the bed and standing in front of him on barely supportive knees. He looks at me through hardly opened eyes.

" Um, there." The sun is gone, the dim twilight seeping through the window. Around us lamps are lighting themselves and he gleams in their light. I shift my eyes to the pile on the bed. " And is that…what you're wearing?" He moves, pulling the heavy cloth from the bed and shaking it out so that it's glimmering golden inside flashes for a moment. Leaning over the bed again he takes a protruding corner, folding it so that a long streak of gold shows against the blue. Offhandedly he drops the towel to the floor and for a moment again I'm tempted to trace my hands up the lean legs and then he's wrapping the cloth around his hips with a few deft movements so that it clings to his body, barely riding his hips.

Gold glitters up from the bed as he pulls a long cord of the metal up and slips it around his neck, threading it through a thick square of gold until the ends rest evenly above his navel. Carefully he slips of a pair of matching squares into his earlobes and they look dreadfully heavy but if they are he ignores them, going to stand in front of the mirrored dresser, dipping a small brush into a tiny jar and quickly sweeping a line of dark powder above and below his eyes, taking his finger and thickening the line in the corner of his eyes. He gives his reflection a grin and laughs.

" Ha ha, twenty years and I can still put on Kolla." He turns to me and desire hits me in the pit of my stomach, flaring up like fire.

" Percy?"

" How do you expect me to make it though dinner with you dressed like that?" His smug half smile melts into a gasp as I take three steps forward, pinning him between the dresser and my body, burying my face in the soft skin between his neck and shoulder, taking a deep breath. " Oh, you smell good."

" Yes…" His voice is thick as he tilts his head away from me, giving me access to his neck " But unfortunately for you this oil doesn't taste particularly good so I'm afraid you're going to have to content yourself with changing."

Shit. Change?

" Into what? I brought the rattiest clothes I had and I'm wearing those right now…" As if cued, Massiah pokes her head into the door, looking Sirius over and then grinning at me, arching her eyebrows. Without pause she strolls in, her hair pulled back from her face with strings of small white pearls. Piled in her arms is a mound of white cloth. She stops in front of me.

" These," She shakes out a pair of light weight white pants that are obviously far to big and a shirt of the same heavy , silky looking material of Sirius'…skirt. I crack a small smile. " Are for you to wear to dinner. I need you to slip into the pants so I can adjust them though." She's kneeling by the edge of the bed, pulling a small sewing basket out of the jumble and fishing out a strip of needles and pins.

Yes, I was just trying to seduce your cousin and you think it's a good idea for me to get undressed right now? She looks up at me and glares, reminding me even more of Ginny.

" What are you waiting for? I still have to get ready myself. I don't have all day." She hands me the pants, turning to reach into her basket as I step out of my jeans and into the small white tent. Her hands are warm as she pulls them down to my hips, pinning them while Sirius perches on the dresser, watching with a satisfied look as Massiah's small scissors and long fingers make short work of the waist, reworking it so that the pants fit. Finally she looks up at me and grabs the legs of the pants, tugging them downwards. The seams hold and so does my grip. Sirius smirks, standing.

" My, don't tease." She wrinkles her nose as she smiles at me, standing up and handing me the heavy shirt.

" Finish dressing him Sirius and make sure you aren't late. You have less than half an hour." Sirius follows her halfway to the door while I start tucking my undershirt into the pants. He turns around.

" What are you doing?" I look up at him, one hand still against my hip.

" Making myself presentable?" damn, I'm already doing this all wrong. " No shirt?" He shakes his head.

" Only this one I'm afraid." He picks up the bottle of oil and smiles slowly, pouring some out into his hands. " Well…this too." The shirt slips out of my hands as he slides his palms up my chest in a mimicry of the way I rubbed his back. His hands slip up around my back and back down my sides, resting on my hips above the pants. " Mm, you're right. I don't think we can make it through the entire dinner ceremony."

I've never kissed Sirius Black for the sake of kissing him. It was always grief or anger or confusion, power and struggle and taking. This is just a soft exhaling of breath as I let my lips graze his, letting my tongue slide along the soft wet line of the inner edge of his lower lip.

" Nope…but we'll try awfully hard." Starting by stepping away from him and breathing my own air. I slip my arms into the shirt, arranging the thick folds in the front so they lay straight down the front as I search for buttons. No buttons. Over Sirius's shoulder I see his mother enter the doorway, her body wrapped round in the same thick, but soft and cool silky fabric as we're wearing. The deep purple color makes her look absolutely regal as she smiles at me. I spread my arms. " How do I look?"

" You look wonderful." Sirius almost jumps as the woman comes into the room, the smile on her face widening. " You both do." Her hand rests softly on the golden cord around Sirius' neck before she steps back and turns towards the door. " Come, they wait."

The half moon is the only light now as I follow them out of the villa, across the bluff and down into a grove of the same twisted blooming trees from the jungle. Inside the light from a large fire in the middle of an enormous clearing lights on close to a hundred people, ten of them, all women, standing at the furthest edge so that the light cast shadows across their strong features. We pause and Sirius's mother touches my arms gently, leading me towards a group of familiar faces. Massi, dressed in a deep aqua, her children around her and a man beside her, average height and broad, like the twins, his braid tumbling down to rest at the base of his spine. He gives me a wide welcoming smile, pulling me to stand next to himself and Lysander as Sirius's mother leaves and joins the ten other women before the fire.

Only when she's still does Sirius move, walking with sure, measured steps towards them all, stopping and kneeling in a circle of branches. An elderly woman, her calf length hair solidly white, steps from the middle of the line and her voice is low and rich as she begins speaking. Around me heads nod and murmurs ripple through the crowd. Sirius never looks away from her face. His tongue slips over the words as they flow from him in return. The woman steps back and for a moment everything is silent.

I'm the only tense person here. Even Sirius, under the scrutiny of half his home is relaxed, kneeling in the grass. My heart almost stops when the perfect silence is broken by the woman's clap. Around her the other ten follow her, one by one until they nod and he rises.

" So you are Percy? I'm Herkul, Massi's husband." He sits down on woven mats I never noticed and around us young children, almost teenagers scurry, bringing plates heaped with steaming rice, fresh fruits and some sort of meat around. Sirius sits beside me with a flop, taking a plate from a young girl who stops before him. A boy with large eyes stops next to me, holding out the plate in his hands. He blushes when I smile at him. The girl next to him, serving a plate to Herkul says something in a litting tone that makes him scurry away as the other laugh. I feel a tugging on my arm and look down to see Thalia clambering into my lap, round face split by a smile as she touches my hair hesitantly and then happily wraps one hand in it, stroking it.

I haven't held a small child in years, since I went with Cam to visit his family, but the weight in my lap is a comforting distraction against the tiny voice in the back of my head.

::eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye::

Herkul has been telling me about the history of the island in between bites of the delicious rice in coconut sauce when I reach for another bit of roast bird and my hands brush an empty plate. I look down and Thalia smiles up at me, face sticky with fruit, the last of my food in her chubby hands as she giggles at me. In a moment Massi is there, putting a fresh plate into my hands and sweeping up the little girl into her arms, taking her off into the shadows under the tree and laying her down on a small blanket.

At the edge of the clearing a shadow moves and a boy, the one who gave me my first plate steps forward, a large drum hanging around his neck, the body firmly between his legs. Around him there's a scurry of boys, including Massi's son, for a variety of instruments. Taking a deep breath the boy lifts his hands and begins beating out a quick staccato rhythm. With that steel drums, guitars, other drums and even some deep horn that echoes through the air join him. With an air of excitement a handful of women rush out into the large empty aisle that Sirius walked, dancing in a flurry of high kicks, step dancing and gyrations.

Around them a circle forms slowly, ever widening as more and more people join the dance. Massi bursts from the circle with a wide smile and flushed face.

" Siri! This is for you! Come dance!" He shoots a pleading look at me and I lean back onto my mat, gesturing out at the dancers.

" Go dance!" Three more women appear, grabbing his wrists and pushing his back, pulling him to his feet and into the dance, giggling all the while. He locks arms between two older men and bows his head, swaying as the music changes slightly before stepping to the left two times and back right three steps before kicking up and turning with a yell, facing the inner ring of women, moving again as the music begins to pick up speed.

" Percy." My head snaps around to see Massi, who I was sure was dancing still. " I need you to come with me." Two other women are beside her, one holding a folded bundle that looks green when the light actually reaches it and the other holding a two glimmering gold bands.

" What…" They pull me to my feet and out amongst the trees, outside the ring of the main fire and into a smaller space made by four large trees and lit with four small torches.

" We've decided to surprise Sirius." One of the women starts brushing my hair out around my face as the other pulls the shirt off my shoulders and Massi starts fidgeting with the buttons on the pants.

" Hey!" She ignores me, unbuttoning the pants. " What do you think you're doing?! Get away from there!" She rocks back on her heels, looking at me with annoyance.

" First of all, it's nothing I haven't seen before, secondly I don't intend on hurting you, but we're trying to get you into a saro and full dress before the song ends. This requires that you deal with your Paccea modestly issues later." And then my pants are gone…and she's taken my shorts with them. Off to the side one of the women nudges the other, tossing her head slightly with a sly smile. Massi snaps off a terse word before wrapping my hips in what is indeed a very deep green cloth. Her hands brush against my hips as she reaches under the…saro, I think she called it, and does something to it, giving it the same tug test as before. It clings just as securely as the pants. One of the women is using a quick motion to reapply oil to my back and arms and the other is slipping the smaller of the thick gold bands onto my upper arms and around my neck so that it rests above my collarbones.

" I feel like a sultans concubine." Massi grins at me, grabbing my face in one hand and sweeping the same powder as Sirius held onto my eyes, smudging the inside corner with her finger.

" But you look wonderful. Come on!" She grabs me by my wrist, pulling me out of the circle and back to the party at a run. We stop as a new song starts, the drumming wild and abandoned. Sirius is standing there, eyes roving the crowds.

And then he looks at us and Massi giggles softly, shoving me out roughly onto the grass.

He's a force all his own as stalks over, taking me in his arms. He pulls me back against him, fitting my back against him, pulling me back into the rhythm of the music. His hands slip against my skin, gliding teasingly across my stomach.

" You have no idea how much I want you right now." He wraps his arms around my waist, spinning us with a side step and carrying my weight as I left my feet to keep from tripping. " Kick your right foot as high as you can." I do, my foot almost brushing that of a handsome teenager and a woman. He pulls blunt nails over my stomach, and I shiver. " I want you right now, in front if the fire with the music still playing. I want to make you scream in time with the drums." He spins me in his arms and bends me over backwards, pressing himself against me until my hair brushes the grass. His thigh is hard between my legs , lifting me and then surging back down with me, bending me lower until I'm kneeling in the grass, trying to catch my breath as he whirls around me, kicking high over my head and bending back down, pulling me back to my feet and against him.

" How long does this last?" The last word leaves my lips in a gasp as he sinks his teeth into my neck lightly. His voice is muffled against my throat as his hips sway against mine.

" Until dawn. But I don't think it'd be amiss to skive off for a while as long as we return.." His voice is teasing as he slips his fingertips into the top of the saro. I grab his wrist with a growl, and pull him between writhing, dancing bodies and off into the trees.