Hello! Another chappie up. This one's not that long but I'm already working on another to compensate it. I hope you enjoy it
The letter from Harry came right next evening. Had Sirius not heard about the last night's events beforehand, this message from his Godson would have given him a nice shock and many other sleepless nights spent by thinking. But now he already knew what to answer to his Godson. Sirius and Natalie had already talked and decided to tell Harry about Karkaroff personally. Thus, Sirius asked Harry to be on November 22 alone in the Griffindor tower so they could talk. Despite Natalie's slight protests, Sirius decided to use the Floo network.
But strangely, the time until the 22nd seemed to slow down. Every day, Sirius and Natalie were watching the Daily Prophet very closely but they still found nothing except the offensive articles of Rita Skeeter about Harry. When Sirius read the first article about Harry, he angrily slammed the paper on the table and for the rest of the day threatened to go find Rita and strangle her with his bare hands. Fortunately, Natalie was able to talk him out of it, although she was more than tempted to join him – the articles made her stomach churn and she couldn't even imagine how Harry was feeling. For a few times, Remus stopped by, especially after he had read the articles himself, and with him they discussed the Karkaroff-topic again. He also brought Natalie her cat and dog, for which she was more than grateful.
Finally, November 22 came and Sirius was nervously walking around the cottage, counting down the minutes to one o'clock. Natalie was nervously sitting on a chair, bitting her lower lip. She desperately wanted to talk to Harry as well but she knew this would have only made things more complicated right now. Sirius and Harry would barely have the time to talk about Karkaroff, let alone that Harry now had other things to worry about.
"How long?" Sirius asked anxiously and Natalie sighed.
"Exactely two minutes less than when you asked me last time." she said and Sirius grinned sheepishly.
When it was finally time for Sirius to firecall Harry, he eagerly took a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fire.
When Harry kneeled down in front of the fire and Sirius could see his face after several months, he was almost startled at how weary his godson's face looked. He looked as if he hadn't slept peacefully in several days and not eaten either. Sirius' stomach churned when he imagined what his Godson must have been going through; what he already had gone through. And still, Harry was worried about him. Sirius rather didn't mention the articles in Daily Prophet to Harry because there still was a real danger he would immediately decide to go after Rita Skeeter again. He was even a bit startled, when Harry told him about dragons but tellling Harry about Karkaroff was more important now (although he hated to worry his Godson even more). But there was something to be worried and he figured that Harry was better knowing about it. But truthfully, right now Harry was more concerned about the First Task.
Natalie was kneeling next to the fireplace, from which now was sticking Sirius' lower part of body, and she listened to the muffled talk between her lover and godson.
"Padfoot? Tell him about those dragons!" she said loudly so he could hear her even when he practically had his head in Hogwarts right now. Sirius seemed to hear her since he moved onto the dragon-topic. But suddenly, he quickly jerked away from the fireplace, spilling some soot on the floor. But this time Natalie could care less.
"What happened?" she asked immediately, neither of them bothering to get up from the floor.
"Someone almost caught us." Sirius said angrily "Hell, just when I was about to tell him about the spell!"
"Maybe we could send him an owl." Natalie suggested but Sirius shook his head impatiently.
"Before some stupid owl makes it to Hogwarts, the First task will be over. Besides, we owl Harry a lot, it could get suspicious." He said grimly and Natalie had to admit he was right. In the meantime, Sirius got up and went to pour a glass of Firewhisky while Natalie stayed sitting next to the fireplace dejectedly. But suddenly, Natalie lit up with an idea and looked up with hope.
"Sirius? We don't have to send the letter by an owl." she said with a small smile and Sirius gave her a curious look over the brim of his glass. Natalie sighed with exasperation at his thickness and pointed at herself. Finally, Sirius seemed to get the point as he gave Swanny an amused smile. Without hesitation, he ran to the desk and quickly scribbled a messy note, telling Harry everything he would need to know about the Conjunctivus Spell.
"Done?" Natalie asked impatiently and Sirius nodded and came over to her.
"Just be careful." he said and Natalie rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry, I won't be intercepted." she said with a grin and was about to transform when Sirius stopped her.
"Wait." he said quickly.
"What?" Natalie raised her eyebrows.
"This." Sirius said and gave her a tender kiss.
"Oh." Natalie smiled when he pulled back "Don't worry." she said then, transformed into a crane, and took the note into its beak from Sirius' hand. He had to grin when he saw the crane's expression; he could have sworn it was rolling its eyes on him. Then opened the window and with a graceful move Swanny flew into the darkness outside, not forgetting to smack Sirius head with her wing jokingly.
Harry was walking with Hermione around the lake again, telling her about the talk with Sirius. He told her everything what Sirius had told him about Karkaroff, and also about his nocturnal adventure with dragons. Hermione was shocked when he told her what the First task was supposed to be.
"Let's just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening and then we can worry about Karkaroff." She said to Harry. While walking around the lake, they were trying to come up a simple spell which could work but not even Hermione knew how to get past a dragon. So they decided to go to the library. As they were making way through the castle to the library, they suddenly heard a weird knocking. Harry abruptly turned around and found out that it was coming from a window. He opened it and couldn't believe his eyes. There, on the windowsill, was sitting a strange bird. It was huge, with a black tail and neck and the top of its head was red. Even Hermione looked astonished.
"This is a Red-crowned crane!" she exclaimed "This species doesn't live in Britain."
"Well, one apparently does but…wait, is it carrying a letter?" Harry frowned slightly when he saw a roll of parchment in its beak. It seemed almost unbelievable to him that such a graceful-looking bird would carry mail but then he remembered those colourful birds that Sirius had sent him over the summer and thought that nothing was impossible. Maybe some crazy wizards were using cranes to send letters… However, he was surprised when it held its head to him to take the letter.
"Who, on earth, would send you a crane with a letter?" Hermione wondered.
"Someone could. Sirius was sending me letters after huge parrots this summer." He said and a little cautiously approached the weird bird in front of him and took the piece of parchment from its beak.
"It´s from Sirius." he said eagerly in a muffled voice so no one would overhear him and Hermione curiously peered over his shoulder and silently read the message herself. When she read about the spell Sirius was reccommending, she slightly hissed "I'm so stupid" she whispered in barely hearable voice. Harry himself wasn't saying anything, although he didn't think of her as stupid at all; on the contrary, the fact she even knew this spell made her cleverer than most of the seventh years. But he still was too engrossed in the brief note he had recieved to contradict her. The fact, that Sirius cared about him and his safety so much that he was risking everything (even more than his life) made his chest swell with a strange feeling of belonging. Now he turned to the crane again.
"Thank you." he said and lightly carressed the plumage on its neck. "Just wait a minute, I'll write him an answer."
Harry quickly pulled out his quill from his bag and began scribbling the short note of thanks. When he finished, he scrolled the note and held it to the crane to take it. The big bird pecked him slightly onto his shoulder and flew away through the open window.
"Let's go, Harry. We have to go to the library to look at the spell."
"Yeah." Harry said and reluctantly took his eyes from the retreating form of bird on the grey sky. "Yeah, let's go."
However, Harry wasn't as lucky with the spell. Although Sirius had said was a rather easy spell, Harry had spent the whole Sunday in an empty classroom practicing but couldn't manage anymore than a shower of purple sparks.
"You're just not concentrating." Hermione said, annoyance hearable in her voice. It was already mid-afternoon and a stream of purple sparks had just flown above her head.
"Oh, yeah?" Harry said, sarcasm dripping of his voice. "I wonder why…"
"Harry, I'm trying to help you so stop taking it out on me"
"Sorry." Harry said, immediately ashamed of himself. Hermione ment well and all he was doing today was giving her hard time with his mood swings. Although it wasn't completly his fault, 'Everyone would be exasperated,' he thought.
"That's alright. Let's try again." she said patiently. Harry sighed and raised his wand once again. This time he managed a stream of pink sparks but nothing what would even remotely resemble the Conjunctivus Spell.
"Harry, we should go to bed." Hermione said when it was way after midnight. "There's no point in practicing when we both can barely stand." she pointed out and Harry nodded, too tired to disagree.
Dear Sirius,
Thank you for the advice, you've just probably saved my life. Not even Hermione was able to think of this spel. Yesterday, it was Ron going down the stairs.
Hope you're alright. Say Hello to Buckbeak.
Harry
P.S. Where do you get all those strange birds? They're cool.
When Sirius read the short message from his Godson, he laughed with his bark-like laughter.
"What is it?" Natalie, who was sitting in an armchair and resting, raised her eyebrow questioningly.
"Harry thinks you're cool." he said, his voice still full of amusement.
"Oh, does he? Glad I don't seem old and awkward to him." she joked "But maybe after seeing my human form he would change his mind."
"That's not true. No one would ever think of you as old or awkward." Sirius said and Natalie snorted.
"He's a teenager. Everyone above twenty seems old and awkward to him."
"Well," Sirius said with a strange smile, came over to the Natalie's armchair, and sat down on the armrest. "I, for one, think you look the same as those thirteen years ago." he said and Natalie smiled sweetly.
"Well, thank you. That's what women want to hear." she responded jokingly. She was glad to see this side of Sirius again.
"Do I get a treat?" he smiled cheekily and Natalie seemed to ponder his question, putting her finger on her chin.
"Oh, I don't know…let's see, will this do?" she asked and kissed him sweetly on his lips.
"Well, hardly." Sirius' grin grew when they pulled away, although it was a long kiss.
"And this?" she asked and gave him another, this time even more heated, kiss, exploring all the corners of his mouth with her tongue while battling his own.
"Still not what I have in mind." Sirius said then, breathing heavily.
"And what have you in mind, Mr. Black?" Natalie asked, playing innocent.
"Let me show you." he said, his voice suddenly husky, and he gave her a hard kiss. In a while, they were making out like two teenagers, as if they wanted to catch up what they had missed when they had been at school. Natalie was slumped over the armrest of the armchair, and only Sirius's arms wrapped around her were holding her from sliding down. Still, neither of them was willing to break the kiss, as it was getting more and more heated. Sirius was lying on top of her, holding her tightly, with her legs wrapped around his waist. But just as he moved his lips to her neck and collarbone while his hand sneaked under her shirt, she reluctantly pulled away.
"Sir- Sirius wait." she said huskily and breathed heavily.
"What is it?" he asked, confusion evident on his face, as well as impatience.
"We can't do it here."
"Why not?" Sirius arched his eyebrow.
"Because of Buckbeak." she said and nodded her head to the Hippogriff, which was lying on the rug in front of the fireplace.
"What about Buckbeak?"
"Well, we can't do it in front of him." Natalie said and shot him a look which was clearly saying she was thinking he was crazy.
"Nat, I'm sure he's already seen plenty of things in his life." he said jokingly and was about to kiss her neck again but Natalie was quicker and put her hand over his lips.
"I'm not worried about Buckbeak's innocence, you git. I won't do it in front of him."
"Why not?" Sirius asked incredulously and Natalie rolled her eyes.
"I won't do it in front of anything what could watch us. It would be perverted."
"The things I do for you…" Sirius mocked an exasperated sigh. Reluctantly he got up from his sprawled possition on Natalie's body and without any warning, he grabbed her into his arms. At that Natalie let out a surprised yelp but Sirius only chuckled at that and carried her out of the sitting room.
Natalie was puzzled when he missed the bedroom door "Where are you-" But then the realization dawned on her when he headed to the bathroom…The truth was that Sirius and Natalie turned in very, very late that night. And even in bed, they did many things except sleeping. No wonder that the next day they woke up in mid-afternoon.
But as the day of Harry's first task was approaching, the mood in their cottage was deteriorating. On the contrary, both of them were anxious and nervous. Sirius was walking around the cottage like a caged animal while Natalie was preparing for her patrol in Hogwarts. For the whole day, Sirius was grumbling and complaining about staying put while both his Godson and lover might be facing a grave danger. Despite the knowledge that Nat could handle a dragon even blindfolded and that he had helped Harry as much as he could have, he had to admit that he, Sirius Black, was a bundle of nerves. However, Natalie wasn't any better. Everyone could tell she was nervous. For the whole day, she was jumpy, instantly dropping things and her hands were shaking. Neither of them dared to guess how Harry must be feeling.
However, on the day of the first task, it was as if Natalie's courage flowed back with a new strength. That day, she suddenly seemed like an Auror again – her eyes were glistening and her hand with her wand wasn't shaking even a little. Sirius remembered this peculiar characteristic of hers, even from thirteen years ago. She always seemed so sweet that she looked almost fragile and never bothered to hide her fear before battle. During their Auror training she always used to be scolded by their mentors for being scared and nervous (Sirius even recalled an incident when Mad-Eye Moody had been yelling at her when he had noticed her shaking hands) But when it came to the battle, Natalie always, as if miraculously, calmed down and people would hardly find a better Auror. She had always taken her opponents down with cold head, not hesitating even for a minute to do what needed to be done. Although she never prefered to use an Unforgivable Curse, she would go for that option any time if necessary.
In the morning of the First Task, Natalie got up early since she had a meeting with Dumbledore before the beginning of the Task.
"Sirius, promise me you won't do anything stupid." she worried as she was putting on her black cloak, although she would go to Hogwarts in her Animagus form.
"Like what?" Sirius asked while he was leaning against the doorframe, watching her with furrowed eyebrows. At that, Natalie sighed. The whole last day, they were arguing whether Sirius would go to Hogwarts as well or not.
"Like sneak to Hogwarts by yourself." Natalie said sharply as she was already tired of this conversation but knew it needed to be discussed anyway. Sirius just sighed and looked away and that gave Natalie the hint that it was exactely his intention. "Sirius…" she whined.
"Fine." he muttered, still not looking at her. Natalie's expression suddenly saddened and she made her way to him and put her hands on his chest. Just this gesture made him look at her and into her sad blue-green eyes.
"I promise I'll let you know as soon as possible. I'll send you a Patronus; just stay here, darling, please."
Sirius sighed again. This was a kind of emotional blackmail. How could anyone say no to her? "Alright. I will." he said, still a bit reluctantly but sincerely this time and Natalie gave him small smile. "And you be careful, love, understand?" he said and cupped her face with his hands
"It's just a dragon and one lousy Death Eater." she said and Sirius chuckled despite himself and swept away a strand of hair out of Natalie's forehead, pulling it behind her ear. Then he gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"I love you." he whispered.
"I love you too. Hold on." she said then, caressing his slightly stubbly cheek before pulling away from him and heading to the window.
"And remember – constant vigilance." Sirius said with a grin and Natalie grinned back.
"Stop that, I've got Moody there for this." she said. Then she gave him a slight wave and turned into the crane again. Sirius opened the window for her and in mere seconds, the crane was gone.
So, that's it for tonight. I seem to end every chapter by a fluffy scene...Well, I hope you liked it. Stay tuned for next time;)