Chapter 37: Meeting Again

Sirius tried not to make it a habit to trot around the village unless it was the dark of night, but this was worth the risk. He had been making his way north for some time, using his charming doggy looks to get a good nights rest when he could, but he knew he wouldn't need his doggy looks for this stay. He trotted down the alley next to the Castleview Bed and Breakfast and waited patiently next to a trashcan.

Dufftown was not his favorite part of Scotland, but essential to his journey. Not to mention the tourist location and views made it easier for him to sneak about without much notice. Maybe he was just bitter he couldn't visit the distilleries around here as he had before Azkaban. He still remembered Remus snatching a tourists sun hat and walking about the distillery proclaiming himself the King of Whisky. James had fallen off his chair in laughter and Lily had tried to apologize to the tourist, but he had only spoken Russian, so really there was no stopping the sobering punch Remus took. Remus' expression of pure indignation made James fall off his chair all over again, though Calamity had fixed them both up in no time at all. Sirius couldn't remember if Peter had been there. He heard himself growl without meaning to. He had already begun erasing the traitor from all of his pleasant memories.

It took only an hour for Calamity to appear, tying back her hair in a hurried manner, looking very annoyed. She paused at the alley's opening and Sirius peaked his head around the trashcan, letting his tongue loll out at the sight of her. A smile broke across her face. She trotted over to him and bent down, scratching behind his ears.

"Aren't you a dear," she cooed. "And so well behaved. Why don't you come with me?"

Sirius followed obediently and Calamity led him to the back door of the bed and breakfast, muttering an unlocking charm so that they could enter through the kitchen undetected. She pushed the door open carefully and peaked her head inside. Finding the coast clear she led him up two flights of stairs to a large room with a Queen size bed and an attached bathroom. It was more spacious than her room at the Hogs Head had been. As if sensing his thoughts she said, "Went for the double this time, since I'm actually expecting company."

She pulled the curtains closed and held her hand up for him to paused. She waved her wand muttering a few detection spells. Satisfied that the room was clear of any magic or spies she tucked it into her pocket and nodded to him.

Sirius appeared where the dog once sat. He beamed and embraced Calamity. He could smell a bit of butterbeer on her and some chestnut, perhaps. He laced his fingers in her hair, messing up her attempt at an up do.

"Missed me, eh," she teased.

"Of course, git," he said pulling away and kissing her cheek. "And you?"

"Me," she asked innocently.

"Yes, you. Did you miss me?"

"I've been very busy."

Sirius pouted and crossed his arms. He fell back onto the bed dramatically. Calamity laughed, falling next to him and brushing a strand of hair away from his forehead.

"Of course I missed you," Calamity said soothingly. Sirius rolled onto his stomach.

"I know," he said with a smile. "How was Albania? How's good old Pops?"

"Cryptic," Calamity replied. "Nothing but riddles. That whole generation is nothing but riddles."

"You told Dumbledore about it?"

"I've been to the school but haven't had a chance with all the arrangements for the tournament."

"I figured."

Sirius pulled a letter from his pocket and handed it to Calamity. Her eyes ran over it quickly, her frown deepening, though it was obvious she knew the gist of it already.

Dear Sirius,
You told me to keep you posted on what's happening at Hogwarts, so here goes – I don't know if you've heard, but the Triwizard Tournament's happening this year and on Saturday night I got picked as a fourth champion. I don't know who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, because I didn't. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff.
Hope you're okay, and Buckbeak –
Harry

"He's in the forest. I visit him everyday, but I think Hagrid is quite happy to see him," Calamity said handing the letter back to Sirius.

"Give me the bad news, eh," Sirius said. Calamity's frown deepened.

"Well he's not wrong. Dumbledore thinks someone put his name in the goblet as well and of course you can imagine Moody in the meeting afterward."

"Constant vigilance?"

"Constantly."

"And Dumbledore asked you to work as a medic?"

"Yes," Calamity said. She leaned on her arm thinking. "He's gathering his people around him."

"Keeping them close," Sirius agreed.

"He must know you and Harry are in contact."

"Probably."

"And that you'd come back to make sure he's safe no matter what sensible people tried to tell you."

"Probably."

"What's he preparing for?"

They sat in silence for a long time both in thought. Sirius considered the best and worst case scenario, then the impossible, and then the highly unlikely.

"You know what the first task is," he asked finally.

Calamity blinked for a moment. She looked as if her thoughts had been far away and now she were jolted suddenly to the present. "No," she said finally. "No I won't know until the day or two before. I'm only the medic so I just need enough time to prep medicine for the worse case scenario."

"But you are in the castle?"

"I'll be moving in the day before the first task. I was just there talking to Dumbledore about arrangements before I met you in the alley."

"What did he offer."

"A room next to Severus Snape."

Sirius made a snorting noise.

"No need to add salt to the wound," whined Calamity putting her head down. "I asked him if there were any other option, but he insists all medics are staying at the castle in case of emergency."

"Gathering his people," said Sirius thoughtfully again. His eyes widened suddenly. "Does Harry know?"

"Based on his letter I'd say no," Calamity said. She was watching him carefully as she did when she wasn't sure what he were about to do and was ready to stun him if it was extremely reckless and stupid.

"Could you clear the floo way for me? To the Gryffindor Common room?"

"Sirius," she said slowly. She looked just like Remus did when he thought a prank was going to go horribly wrong.

"He'd got to know, Calamity. He's got to know so he can be in CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Calamity nearly fell off the bed at the shock of his Moody impression. She scowled at him.

"I can see what I can do. Certainly not tonight."

"But you'll make it so it's all safe and clear?"

"Not until late November. That's how long it'll take for me to set it up, especially knowing you're still a wanted man."

"When?"

"The twenty second," she offered, though she sounded doubtful.

"Brilliant! I could kiss you," Sirius said leaping from the bed. He rushed to the desk in the corner and ruffled through the drawer until he found a quill and parchment. Hurriedly he wrote his note.

Harry - I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted - we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure that you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd of November?

I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose.

Be on the watch, Harry. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd of November as quickly as you can.

Sirius

He reread it, then folded it and placed it on the desk, glancing over at Calamity.

"I'll send it tomorrow," Calamity said. She lay down on the bed and patted it for him to join. He allowed himself a moment of rest, snuggling next to her and feeling as if nothing had changed from all those years ago- before Azkaban and betrayals and deaths. He could hear a book opening and he peaked a look through his half closed eyes reading the title out-loud, "Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon."

"I figured that we are in Scotland," said Calamity with a guilty smile. "Why not enjoy some Scottish literature."

"You're a madwoman," Sirius teased sleepily. He could feel his travels weighing down on him suddenly. The pull of sleep creeping into his brain.

Calamity turned the page, her eyes moving rapidly across the page as they had across Harry's letter.

"Read it out-loud, please?"

Calamity smirked. "Tease me then demand to be included?"

"I'm a madman who loves a madwoman," Sirius said with a shrug.

Calamity cleared her throat.

"THE UNFURROWED FIELD. Kinraddie lands had been won by a Norman childe, Cospatric de Gondeshil, in the days of William the Lyon, when gryphons and suchlike beasts still roamed the Scots countryside and folk would waken in their beds to hear the children screaming, with a great wolf-beast, come through the hide window, tearing at their throats. In the Den of Kinraddie one such beast had its lair and by day it lay about the woods and the stench of it was awful to smell all over the countryside, and at gloaming a shepherd would see it, with its great wings half-folded across the great belly of it and its head, like the head of a meikle cock, but with the ears of a lion, poked over a fir tree, watching. And it ate up sheep and men and women and was a fair terror, and the King had his heralds cry a reward to whatever knight would ride and end the mischieving of the beast.

So the Norman childe, Cospetric, that was young and landless and fell brave and well-armoured, mounted his horse in Edinburgh Town and came North, out of the foreign south parts, up through the Forest of Fife and into the pastures of Forfar and past Aberlemno's Meikle Stane that was raised when the Picts beat the Danes; and by it he stopped and looked at the figures, bright then and hardly faded even now, of the horses and the charging and the rout of those coarse foreign folk. And maybe he said a bit prayer by that Stone and then he rode into the Mearns, and the story tells no more of his riding but that at last come he did to Kinraddie, a tormented place, and they told him where the gryphon slept, down there in the Den of Kinraddie.

But in the daytime it hid in the woods and only at night, by a path through the hornbeams, might he come at it, squatting in bones, in its lair."

That's all Sirius heard before he drifted into a deep sleep that only days of travel can provide the restless soul.

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