Author's Note: Hi everyone, here's the next chapter, and things really come to a head. James and Sirius finally catch up with Peter...and Anwen and Sirius are allowed to...again. Only one song for this chapter: "Get the Balance Right" by Depeche Mode. Thanks so much to everyone who is reading and to those who are leaving reviews, they really do make my day. I don't own the HP world, but I do so much like to play in it. Mutt
Chapter 20:
Things that go bump in the Night
Anwen POV:
"That was brilliant. All of the exams, you did such a good job with them, Remus. You should be very proud of the skill with which you taught your students," I told him and he smiled at me. The five of us were sitting in his rooms, going over the last of his finals, the third year one, which had been this morning. Sirius was sitting on the arm of the couch, next to me, James and Lily farther down and Remus in the easy chair by the fireplace. James, Sirius and Lily had been watching via a rather complicated spell that they had cast,so they could remain out of sight. I was down on the field helping Remus.
"It was rather funny though, when Hermione couldn't get away from the boggart," Sirius said. I swapped him in the shoulder. "Hey what was that for?" he asked me.
"For being rude, love. She was terrified, Sirius, and then she was devastated, convinced that she would fail the final. Now, what the boggart became, that was funny," I told him.
"Really, that might have been one of the best boggarts of the year, second only to Neville's at the beginning of the year. Honestly, Snape and Minerva as your boggarts – how hard have they been on these kids?" Remus said, and we were all laughing.
"Do you think that you'll come back next year?" Lily asked him.
"I think I might. Albus and I have talked about it, and with everything that will be happening here, it would be a great time to be teaching. I enjoy it as well," he told us and I smiled at him. Of course, if that stupid law even makes it to the floor of the Wizengamot, things could change for our friend. "I will still need your help Anwen, you are a natural teacher," he told me and I smiled at him.
"Thank you, and I will be more than happy to help. My new boss is pretty flexible about when I'm in the office, hence why I was able to be here all week. I do have to speak at the Wizengamot next week, but I'm prepared for it," I told them. I had been able to retain my seat in the court, but in sessions when I needed to present testimony, I was required to abstain from voting. I had become a full member of the Wizengamot. Me, Muggle born Anwen Hodgson, was a member of the highest Wizarding court in Brittan. Sometimes, I still needed to pinch myself.
"I think I'll have to make eyes at you while you're presenting your case," my husband suggested. I just rolled my eyes at him.
"I'll just ignore you," I told my husband.
"You had another transfusion yesterday, right?" Lily asked me, giving me her look of understanding and then politely changing the subject.
"Yes, and it may be the last. I'm at about 80% of what I was four months ago, before I gave birth. My magic is still obliged, and I find it frustrating that I can't see spells and auras because of it. I feel sort of blind without it. I hope it is the last transfusion, I don't like what it does to Sirius," I told them, reaching over to stroke his face. He was significantly depleted, and couldn't do much spell casting when he was recovering. I didn't like that the most recent transfusion coincided with the full moon tonight.
"I'm just glad that you're getting stronger." he told me, kissing my hand. The way he looked at me was making my insides melt. "Next month, if all goes well, she will get a clean bill of health," he leaned down and kissed my head.
"Still curtailed on physical activity, huh Padfoot? How are you handling that? You know, I think that we could find some of those old magazines of yours," Prongs teased him, and I buried my head in Sirius's chest.
"Let's not talk about it anymore, thanks," he said, I picked my head up and looked at Lily, she smiled and mouthed, 'boys' at me. I nodded.
"Speaking of physical activity, have you had the 'little wizard' talk with Harry yet?" Remus asked, and Lily and I both turned to look at him. That's one of those dumb euphemisms the boys used in school to talk about their favorite part of their anatomy. I had hoped we'd never hear it again.
"Not yet, he's only 13," Lily said indignantly.
"He's almost 14 and I figured that we'd have it this summer. Why?" James corrected her.
"A girl in one of the 4th year classes was saying how cute she thought he is and how perfect she thinks his bum is," Remus said and we all started laughing.
"Oh my little boy is growing up," Lily bemoaned, and I put an arm around her.
"Hey, I'm willing to help you with the talk," Sirius volunteered, and we all said "NO," in unison.
"Why not?" he asked, honestly thinking that it would be a good idea.
"Um, let's see. The broom closets, the owlrey," I said.
"The Quidditch pitch, the area behind the field," James added.
"The path on the way to the lake, empty classrooms, the Astronomy tower," Remus continued.
"And, don't forget the Potions lab," Lily added. We were laughing rather greatly.
"Did I forget anywhere, 'shag king'?" James asked him, and my husband looked at his friends and then at me shocked. I just nodded at him.
"You knew about all of those places?" We all nodded at him. Then he looked down at me. " I thought I hid it from you better than that. You were awfully young," he said. I just shook my head at him, and sighed.
"Sirius, it was a long time ago. Don't worry about it," I told him, leaning up to kiss him. I could tell that it upset him that I knew all of this.
"But, sweetheart...I'm sorry." I nodded at him. I could feel deeply this knowledge was affecting him. Our talk in the hospital room must have disconcerted him more than I thought. I could feel how deeply sorrowful he was right now.
"I know," I tried to comfort him. "You're still not talking to Harry. You're liable to give him pointers, and I don't think any of us are ready for that. You're not even going to give the 'little wizard' talk to Ethan, either. I've already talked with James about doing it," I told him. He looked at me, hurt. "Sirius, they don't want you corrupting Harry, and I don't want you corrupting our son. You have a history of corrupting younger students," I told him with a wink in my eye.
"Corrupted you, corrupted you huh," he said, standing up and picking me up off the couch. "Maybe we should go and find a broom closet right now and I can show you how I'd like to corrupt you," he said, his face close to mine, with that crooked smile that I love.
"Get a room," James yelled at us in a teasing way.
"We would if we could," I groaned back, and Sirius put me down. "Come on Lily, I bet our children have driven Molly and Arthur crazy," and she nodded at me standing up.
"We'll see you both in the morning, I'll floo over so that I can help heal you," she said to Remus. James stood and took her in his arms and Sirius pulled me aside.
"I'll miss you," he said, gently caressing my face.
"I'll miss you too. He needs you though, so it makes it all worth it. I'll kiss the kids for you, and be safe tonight," I asked him, and he nodded.
"Lily and the kids are staying with you ?" he asked and I nodded.
"We'll be fine. Floo home tomorrow morning, and I'll have breakfast ready for you and James. I love you," I told him as I stood on my tip toes to bring my lips to his.
"I love you more," he said, just before his lips met mine. It was a sweet, but passion filled kiss. I could hear Lily reminding Remus that the potion was in the fridge, and he needed to take two full doses before nightfall. We flooed over to the Weasley house to get our kids.
"Mistress Anwen, Mistress Anwen, please wake up," I heard a gravely voice calling me, and I struggled to wake up. I opened my eyes, and Kreacher was standing next to the bed.
"Kreacher, what's wrong? Is it the kids?" I asked him, my mind still filled with sleep.
"No, ma'am. St. Mungo's just fire called. Master Sirius is in Hospital," he said, and my eyes flew fully open and I sat up.
"Alright, I'm going to get dressed and go right over there. Thank you," I said, dismissing him from our chambers. It wouldn't do any good to question him more fully, the effort it would take to get information from him would just slow me down. I quickly changed into some clothes, and went down a floor to the guest room that Lily and Emma were sharing. I knocked lightly, and was relieved when Lily told me to enter. When I opened the door, I saw her sitting there, feeding Emma.
"Lily, Sirius is in St. Mungo's. I don't know anything else, as soon as I do, I'll get in touch with you. Can you keep an eye on the kids?" I asked and she nodded at me.
"Don't worry about the kids. Tell James to Patronus if he needs me, and Anwen, I am sure that it's nothing too bad," she said, and nodded at her. I just needed to know for sure. I took off down the remaining stairs.
When I got to St. Mungo's I went to the Trauma department, I found the information desk. "Excuse me, my husband, Sirius Black was brought in a while ago. Could you tell me where he is?" I asked the young medi-witch, and she smiled at me. "He's going to be fine, so take a deep breath there. He's down the hall, room 11," I nodded at her and took off.
I saw James in the hall, and he came up met me halfway down the hall. "Anwen, he's fine, he just needed some strengthening potions and such. It's been a long night, and we have a lot to tell you," he said, and I looked at him confused. Why does he need strengthening potions? Was his magic depleted that badly? I searched James with my eyes.
"Anwen, Peter was on the grounds, and the Dementors followed him. When they couldn't get to Peter, they attacked Sirius. They apparently tried to perform the kiss on him. He couldn't get his patronus up soon enough, and, well..." he trailed off. "But Harry was there, and he was able to take care of them. We weren't supposed to be on the grounds, so I brought him here for treatment. Healer Orlaf has been taking care of him" I could feel the tears behind my eyes. My husband had endured a Dementors kiss?
"I need to see him, please," I said, and James walked with me back to Sirius's room. I opened the door and walked in, and he was lying in the bed, looking rather gray and rather scratched up. He turned his head at the sound of the door opening. He smiled a little and I went to his side. "Are you alright, love?"
"I'm fine Anwen, it's just with the magical transfusion yesterday, I was lacking some of my strength," he said. James brought a chair over, and I sat down next to him, taking his hand in mine. I couldn't hold back the tears any more, or the anger building in me.
"No more, we are not doing another one. Look what happened to you. Are you sure that you're alright?" I said, getting hysterical. We had spent too much damned time in this place recently.
"Sweetheart, I'm fine, I promise. They're just going to give me a few rounds of potions, and then I can come home. Calm down love, gonna take more than a few Dementors and a rat to get me away from you," he said, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. "Now, we have a story to tell you. Did James tell you what he's got living on his property now?" I shook my head at him. "A hippogriff," he said, and I looked at James shocked.
"Let me start back at the beginning," James said, and I nodded at him. Sirius shifted over, and patted on the mattress and I climbed in the bed next to him. His arm snaked around me and he sent me a wave of love. He was trying to calm me down with his mood, but I wasn't ready yet. James sat in the now empty chair. "We had eaten some dinner, and Remus had taken the first dose of his potion. We didn't have anything else to do, so we were playing poker, waiting for it to be late enough to head out to the Shack," he told me. I could only imagine what they were playing with for the poker game. I bet that if Sirius won, someone was going to get another tattoo with him.
"Anyway, we still had the map, and we wanted to see if the route to the Whomping Willow was clear. Imagine our surprise when we saw Harry, Ron and Hermione huddled together, just outside of Hagrid's hut." I shook my head at him. That boy needs to have a tether put on him so he can't go outside of the inhabited parts of the castle. "I knew that the APPEAL for the Hippogriff was this afternoon," he said, emphasizing the word, like it was vile to say. "I also knew that it had failed." I nodded at him. Amelia had called me and told me what happened, and asked if we had any legal recourse. I hated to tell her that we didn't. James continued, "And that the execution was set for sundown. Three guesses what the kids were doing down there," he sighed. Clearly his son's antics were getting to him.
"We decided to head down there, to try and intercept Harry and get them back into the castle. They had freed the hippogriff, what did Hagrid call him?"
"Buckbeak," I reminded James, and Sirius shifted next to me. I could tell he was uncomfortable, so I took his hand and brought it to my lips. I had stopped crying, but my eyes were still burning.
"Right, they freed Buckbeak, and they had gotten him into the woods. I don't think that they had a plan beyond that. We let him roam the forest and I figured that we could find him in the morning, and come up with something then. Anyway, we were heading back toward the castle, when Peter appeared out of no where, and took Harry. He dragged him into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow , towards the shack." he said. I could feel my face drop. Peter actually got hold of Harry? Wait, why the hell is James so calm.
"Love, James wasn't this calm when it happened," Sirius told me, and I looked at him, puzzled. "Your face, you were making your, 'I'm trying to make the pieces fit together face'," he told me. I smiled at my husband. I can't believe how well he can read me.
"Remus levitated a stick and hit the knot, and we all followed Peter into the Shack. He had taken Harry's wand, and was pointing it at him, mumbling something. We got in the room, and he turned using Harry as a shield. Of course, the idiot forgot that we can do our spells silently, he never could, so I disarmed him, and then Harry elbowed him in the face," James said. "You would have been proud," and I nodded. See, hand to hand combat training is important. Another area that Fudge was wrong about.
"We, Sirius and I, were ready to kill him," I looked at James shocked, and then turned to look at Sirius. This isn't the way things were done. As bad as Peter is, he shouldn't be murdered. I opened my mouth to say something.
"Anwen, love, he had tried to kill both of our families. Indirectly, by giving Voldemort the information about where the Potters were hiding all those years ago, and recently, by poisoning you and Lilyan. We were furious, and rightly so," Sirius told me. Again, I opened up my mouth to protest.
"We didn't kill him Anwen. Harry begged for his life, saying he didn't want his father and godfather becoming murderers. Harry saved him," James told me. Then his face softened. "All of your conversations with him about the need for justice, rather than vengeance must have stuck," he concluded. I smiled at the notion, and relaxed a little.
"I magically tied him up, and Remus sent a patronus up to Albus, to let him know that we had Peter and where. While we were doing all of this, that dumb rat starts shooting off his mouth about why he betrayed us, and how important Harry is to the Dark Lord," James said. "We basically told him that we didn't care, and that the Dementors were on their way to take him back to Azkaban. Well, his whole demeanor changed, getting bitter and angry" James finished.
"Told us he was glad that he had caused all of this trouble, and regretted that the poison hadn't had more time to work, because he was looking forward to meeting up with you, when you couldn't protect yourself with magic," my husband told me. I felt a shiver pass through me. I shook my head, partially in disbelief, partially in disgust. "He went on to insinuate what he would do to you," Sirius added in a wholly in appropriate tone of glee.
"Why are you happy about this?" I asked him.
"Anwen, we're not sure that Peter was ever able to, um, service his own needs," he said, with a dorky look on his face, "he certainly wasn't going to be able to perform under duress," he finished. I could see where he was going with this.
"You husband did a right good job of reminding him of this fact, by bringing up the time that even his Muggle magazines of the naked women couldn't help Wormtail relieve himself," James said. "I almost felt sorry for him, but not quite," I looked down at Sirius, and he was wearing the most glorious cocky smile.
"He then said that without your magic, you'd be defenseless," he said, a full scale smile erupting. " I let him know that without magic, you would still kick his dumpy arse," Sirius said proudly.
"Well, that's certainly true," I smiled at my husband. "So things seemed to be going alright. You had Peter bound, Albus knew what was happening. Where did things go wrong?" I asked.
"Not where, who," Sirius said cryptically. I looked at him puzzled.
"Snape decided to follow us. He's been peeved at Moony, since he chose to have Lily brew him the potion instead. Stupid git, probably just enjoyed seeing him suffer. Anyway, he shows up, disarms Padfoot and me because we were on campus without permission," James said rolling his eyes. "Of course, when we get disarmed, the binding on Peter is let loose. Thankfully, Harry is a smart and competent kid and knocked Snivelus out," James said smiling.
"We get Peter secured again and started outside so that the Dementors could find him, and to get the kids as far away from that experience as we could. What we didn't bother to check was the time. The moon had risen by the time we got outside," James continued the story. Think back, had he taken the second dose? Did they tell me Remus took all of it?
"The moonlight hit Remus, and it dawned on all of us that he hadn't taken the second dose. He was going to change, and it was going to be painful. I quickly told Harry to get Ron and Hermione out of there, I changed over. In the commotion, Peter got hold of a wand, Remus's I think, and changed himself. He scampered off into the grass, we had lost him, again," the story continued.
"Remus changed and he could smell the kids and Snape, and since he wasn't in full control of himself...." Sirius said, very quietly. "I changed over to protect them. I was pretty rough with him, trying to get him away from the kids. He's going to need some extra healing in the morning," he continued, clearly feeling badly about what he had to do. The odd thing is that Remus will thank him for it.
"We got separated, when Moony threw Sirius off, and I needed to chase him farther into the woods. I got him deep into the forest, far away from any people and most definitely away from the school. When I was sure that he wouldn't be able to attack anyone, I went back to find Sirius," James said.
"What happened to you?" I asked my beloved, stroking his face where a cut was healing.
"Moony had thrown me pretty hard, cracked a few ribs I was sure. I stumbled away from where I thought that James had chased him. I ended up on the some soft ground, near a clearing, I don't even really know where I was," he told me, looking off into the distance, trying to remember. "I shot some sparks up out of my wand, to let James know where I was. The pain was intense, and I was bleeding pretty badly," he told me his voice getting quieter. I could see the tears forming in his eyes.
"The Dementors were there, and there were so many of them," he started. "I tried to think of you, and the kids, and I made a shield for a while, but I was overpowered. It was too much, and the shield fell. It was awful, Winnie. I heard what my father said to me while I was growing up, I remembered your face that night in Greece, I thought about how lost I felt when you were poisoned in February..." he trailed off. I wiped the tears from his eyes, and kissed him.
"Don't think on it anymore love, remember my kisses, not theirs," I whispered as I kissed him again.
"He must have passed out, because he was unconscious when Harry found him. Harry ran over and cast his patronus. He produced a full bodied charm Winnie. He's only 13 and he did it," James told me, beaming with pride.
"We always knew that he was strong, this just proves it. Did he tell you what form it takes?" I asked, looking for something happy to lift my mood.
"It's a stag, too," James said, choking back tears of joy and pride. "Harry drove the Dementors away, and just before he succumbed to the exhaustion, he fired off some sparks to alert his friends. Albus found Hermione and Ron and the three of them went down to get Harry and Sirius. I came upon them as they were headed to the castle. Albus suggested that I bring Sirius here, which I did," James told me, concluding the story.
"I can't believe it, we almost had Peter and he escaped again. Maybe he should have become a cat, since it seems that he has 9 lives," I joked and they both laughed at me, until Sirius realized that it hurt to laugh. He winced in pain, and I kissed him again.
"Hey, we saved Snape from a werewolf, do you know what that means?" Sirius said with a wicked smile. James looked at him, and the realization dawned on his face.
"Snivellus owes you a life debt, and he now owes me two," James told us. "Wait, and Peter owes his life to Harry. Maybe it wasn't such a bad night after all," he added, and we all nodded.
We talked for a few minutes more, until a medi-witch came in to give Sirius some more potions, including one to induce sleep. James told us he was going to go and see Lily and then head up to Hogwarts. It was nearly dawn now, and he would want to find Remus and get him back to Lily as quickly as possible. He would make sure that she and Eira had a full updating while he was at my house. I stood and hugged him and thanked him for everything, and asked him to convey to Harry my appreciation for all he'd done the night before.
Sirius fell asleep and I settled myself into the chair, wishing I had brought some work with me, so I could read while I rested. I am far too keyed up right now to sleep myself. I was lost in my thoughts about the argument that I needed to prepare for the Council of 13 meeting in two days, and then the Wizengamot the following week. I was nearly positive that Albus had enough votes with him to at least temporarily halt the movement on the Anti-Werewolf legislation, but I still wanted to put together a strong argument. I was roused from my thoughts by Healer Orlaf entering the room.
"Anwen, it's nice to see you, but not like this. How is our patient doing?" he asked me, extending his hand. I stood and shook it and then looked at my husband.
"He's sleeping right now. He couldn't do a charm last night, that I happen to know he's been able to do since he was 18. What the hell happened?" I demanded.
"The transfusion drained him. I've never worked with anyone whose magic was bound before. You're in unchartered waters, Anwen," he said calmly. That wasn't good enough for me.
"Then, that's it. We're done with the transfusions. My magic can come back on it's own, or I will stay at the level I'm at. No more," I said, clearly putting my foot down.
"Very well. Next week, I will remove the obligation from your magic and we can begin seeing how or if it has been affected. Now, as for your husband, he should be fine to go home by the end of the day. Try and keep him quiet for another week, he did crack two ribs, and while we have given him skele-grow, the muscles were damaged as well, and they simply need time to heal. I will give him another dose of strengthening potion while he's here, and he will need to have doses tonight and tomorrow," he said. I nodded at all he was saying. "I'll be back later to check on him. Try and rest yourself, you're still not at your best," he reminded me and I nodded at him. When he left the room, I sat back down, and drifted off to sleep.
Sirius POV:
"In conclusion, further regulation is unwarranted at this time. The current registry is sufficient for Ministry needs," she ended. I watched my wife close her portfolio. She looked amazing in her black and red solicitor's robes, and she commanded everyone's attention. "Does anyone have any questions?"
"I have one," Lucius Malfoy said. Anwen nodded at him. "Shouldn't we do everything we can to protect our society from such dangerous half–breeds?"
"We are. We are now able to identify the individual werewolf who bit and infected someone. The are slight variations to the strain based on the person's blood chemistry. All cases that have been reported since 1983 have this information recorded in the case file," she spoke.
"But how do you know who the offending werewolf is? Do we have a registry of their blood?" he asked her, and Anwen smiled a half smile at him. He must have walked into something she set up.
"We haven't needed one since the end of the war. The great majority of the attacks that have occurred in recent years have been perpetrated by the same person. A known associate of the Death Eaters," she told him. "Those that were not included in this number, generally fell into accidental infections, often done by young family members who did not know that they were werewolves themselves. I can provide you with a complete statistical analysis if you would like," she offered. Malfoy shook his head.
"But shouldn't we be proactive in our registration of these vile creatures?" Nott asked her.
"That would be a viable plan, if the attacks were increasing; but the reality is that they have decreased significantly. Creating such a registry would only inflict upon the infected further alienation and ridicule," she told him.
"Aren't you a little biased in this area?" Lucius taunted her. I watched Anwen steel her face, and open her mouth to speak, but Albus started before she could.
"I do not think that questioning Ms. Hodgson-Black's objectivity in this matter is relevant," he said. I was getting frustrated, but I felt my wife send me a wave of calm, and a small curl of her lips let me know that she had something to say.
"Albus, I do not mind answering the question," she said, and Albus nodded at her. "If you are referring to my relationship to Remus Lupin, then yes, I am biased. I have been friends with him since I was a child. I have never felt my life threatened by him, and I am more than willing to leave my two young children in his care. I would also like to remind the council that we only know about the effects of infection on blood chemistry because of the work Mr. Lupin has done. The decrease in new infections has also occurred because of his work with the families of the children bitten during the war. He has contributed greatly to our society, and we are all safer because of his dedication to his work," she said firmly. My heart swelled with pride for her. "Now, if you have no further questions, I will take my leave so that you may vote," she said, and no one raised any other questions.
"Thank you for your time in this matter. You have provided us with what we need to be able to move forward on this matter," Albus said. Anwen tipped her head, gathered her things, and left the board room.
We had some further discussion, several times both James and I needed to hold our tongues because of the stupid things being said. Albus finally called for the vote, and we thankfully were able to pass a moratorium on any further tightening on werewolf legislation. We exited the conference room, and James and I headed down to Anwen's office.
"Edie, is she in there?" I asked her assistant, and she smiled up at me.
"She is, and she is anxious to hear what you have to say. Already ordered two cups of coffee and two chocolate bars from downstairs," she told me. Wow, must be stressed if she's gone through that much chocolate.
I pushed open her door and saw my wife. She had changed out of her official robes, and now was simply in work robes. Remus was in her office, pacing as we entered.
"Well?" he asked, and Anwen was rising to greet me.
"The moratorium passed, but we agreed that we would re-visit the matter in another year," I told them, and they both seemed to relax. "You, were brilliant," I told her, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her.
"Thank you, I was nervous," she told me. Then, extracting herself from my arms, she went and knocked on the door that led to Amelia's office. The door opened and Amelia surveyed the room and smiled.
"I knew you were the person to make them understand. Thank you," she said gratefully.
"I didn't do it for you," my wife said to Amelia, and then she turned and was looking at Remus. He immediately crossed the room and hugged her. He whispered something in her ear, and she nodded against him.
"Alright, take the rest of the day off, because tomorrow we need to start looking at this thing at Hogwarts' next school year. I want to make sure that I understand all of the laws and rules governing it, so I know what kind of security I need to attach to it." Anwen nodded. "You'll need to talk to the Wizengamot next week, present a full report on our legal obligations and such."
"Already started, but I will take the afternoon off, thanks," she said looking at her boss.
Amelia looked up at Remus and spoke to him. "I was so sorry to hear about what happened. Susan spoke of how she enjoyed your class, and about how much she had learned. I doubt Albus will find as good of a teacher," she told him.
"Thank you, but it wasn't meant to be. Fortunately, I have my work with Lily and the children to go back to on a more full time basis," he said, but we all knew that he was disappointed that Severus had made his secret public knowledge to get back at us for what happened in the shack.
"Well, I am glad that today worked out so well. Enjoy your afternoon," she said, and Anwen nodded.
"I am planning on it. I have a check up at St. Mungo's and then some other tasks to deal with. I'll see you in the morning." Amelia nodded, and closed the door. Anwen grabbed her cloak, and told me that she would see me at home after her appointment, and the rest of us went to lunch.
Anwen POV:
I am way too excited about this. I was sitting on the bed, bouncing up and down on my bum. Spring had turned to summer and I was enjoying the warm July breeze that was floating in from the open window. I had relied on my sister to help me with this little scheme, but she seemed more than happy to help. Actually, it was pretty funny, as soon as Eira got here, she reminded me that I owed her a story about Sirius from school I had told her years ago that she had to wait until she was of age, and she didn't forget. I had explained Sirius's rep while he was at school, and what exactly our binding meant for our marital relations. I knew that Ma would kill me if she ever found out, but well, my littlest sister was of age now. Today, I had employed Lily's help as well. Sirius should be home any minute. I can play my husband so well.
Five months, two weeks, and six days. That is how long it has been. And that should be ending in less than an hour. Yeah!! And I was bouncing on the bed again.
I felt him before I heard him. He had come through the floo and had started bounding up the stairs.
"Anwen, Anwen, where the hell are you? What happened? Where are you love?" He was screaming. Thank goodness the kids are gone. I hate when he yells in the house. I could hear his footsteps reaching the third floor. He entered our room, and was immediately alarmed to find me in bed.
"Anwen, love, what happened? I got a message from Lily saying that you were at home in bed and I needed to get here as soon as I could," he told me, coming over to sit down on the bed next to me. I casually raised my hand and the door to our room closed. He looked at the door, and then looked at me again. "Anwen, you just did magic," he said in disbelief. I nodded at him.
"You just did wandless magic," he said again. I nodded again. "Really, we're like two weeks ahead of schedule here," and I nodded my head again.
"Complete and total clean bill of health," I said calmly. I could tell that he was excited.
"Really, no side effects?"
"None. My visualization skills are a little, um, wonky; but Albus assured me that with practice they would come back," I told him. "Now, as much as I would love to talk about my magic, there is something else that I would much rather be doing," I told him, sending him a wave of lust and longing. It was enough, and he gathered me up in his arms, and kissed me passionately.
For the last few months, we had been so very cautious with our passion, afraid to get me to excited, afraid to make him too frustrated. We didn't have to be today, finally. I felt Sirius stroke my lips with his tongue and I opened my mouth. I loved the way my husband tasted. There was a desperation to his kisses, and to the rate with which he was removing my clothing.
We needed little encouragement, there was a recklessness to what we were doing. It wasn't the best we had ever had, but it was wonderful in it's own way. I was finally whole again, finally complete. When we were done, we lay together in a sweaty mass of limbs.
"I missed you so very much," I moaned at him.
"I missed you too, more than you could know," he said, running his hand across my mid section. "So, Lily knew what was happening today?"
"Yeah, when I got back from the Healer today, I immediately fire called her. Eira flooed over with the kids, and they are spending the night. Ginny and Ron were coming over as well. We have hours and hours alone, together," I told him, as I lifted his hand to kiss it.
"You used your sister to help facilitate a shag-a-thon?"
"Yup, with the promise that I would take her, Ginny and Hermione to Monaco next weekend. Seems a small price to pay to be able to be alone with you, my darling husband," and I tilted my head to kiss him again.
"I agree," he said, kissing me again. "Wait, that means I'm alone with the kids for the weekend," he looked at me, cocking his eyebrow.
"Sorry," I said. "Maybe Moony can help?" I offered.
"I don't want to talk about kids," he said, kissing me, "or siblings," another kiss, "or friends," another kiss, this one deeper and longer. "I'm not sure that I even want to talk at all," he said, gently rolling me over onto my stomach. Sirius settled himself down next to me, to my left side, his right arm draped over me. And then I felt it, his lips on my back. He shifted my hair to one side, and moved his lips to my hair line, and slowly began to kiss his way down my spine. It was sensuous, the way his tongue would trace along my vertebrae, his hands gently stroking my sides. When he got to my Griffin tattoo, I had nearly lost the ability to breathe. This is going to be a really good day.