A/N: And it's here we take a tiny break from the dark stuff that's happening to Renee for another little flashback chapter of mine. I'm trying to get better at showing rather than telling in my stories, and especially with original characters, whether they're minor or not, I like to try to flesh them out as much as possible and make them well-rounded, and hopefully well-liked in the process.
I hope you enjoy it! This chapter might be kind of long as a consequence, but as I said in a previous chapter a while back, I like my flashbacks to being all one chapter so as to avoid confusion.
32
Tonks wasn't sure how this day could possibly get any worse. She didn't want a brawl to break out in her best mate's home, Merlin damn it.
As much as she dreaded Sirius's temper, she had hoped to get through this initial conversation with everyone in the room present on her own terms, thank you very much, and that did not include either Sirius or Ollie losing their tempers, respectively.
She flinched as Lupin half-rose from his spot next to her on the sofa and he addressed Sirius in a clipped and impatient tone.
"Sirius, please calm down, you aren't the only one who cares for Renee," he spoke up, a hardened edge to his voice that hadn't been present before as his light brown eyes flashed and narrowed as he glared across the way at his best friend, while Tonks kept her gaze fixated on her two married best friends, thinking this was a huge imposition, what she was asking of Ollie.
And Norah, he piped up inside her mind. Tonks startled at his dipping into her stream of conscious thoughts as he had, but as he shot her an apologetic look and gave a light shrug of his shoulders, she felt the tension in her shoulders slowly release, and she offered him a wane smile.
"Can you find her, Ollie?" Tonks whispered, already knowing the answer, seeing it for herself in the man's bright blue eyes, currently smoldering with fathomless rage and annoyance at the unwanted presence of Sirius Black in his and his wife's home.
She let out a tired sigh, carding her fingers through her short bubblegum hair, wishing with all her might that circumstances were different, that she was visiting the Brennan household under more pleasant circumstances, but she was desperate.
"Yes," he answered, his smooth, languid voice smooth, rich, and melodious. It did not escape Tonks's attention how his cobalt blue eyes had darkened in annoyance, nor how Ollie continuously flitted her cousin darkened looks.
She didn't know what the hell the two men had argued about in the Three Broomsticks all those years ago, but Tonks knew if she and Remus couldn't find a way to calm him down, and fast, they could kiss this idea of the Brennan's helping locate Renee and Everett goodbye.
"What do you need from us in order to make this happen, Ollie? What can we do to help?" she pressed, glancing down, and winding her hands around the cup of freshly brewed tea Norah had painstakingly gotten up to get for everyone, though Tonks was not at all fooled.
She could sense in the young blonde witch's eyes she needed a moment to herself, and they all heard her sniffling little half-choked sobs of misery emanating faintly from inside the kitchen when she'd gone.
It had taken her almost ten minutes to return with the tea trays and their respective cups, but by the time she did, Norah was admittedly looking much more composed, though her pale blue eyes were cracked and red-rimmed at the edges of her haunted irises.
Ollie shot Sirius a pointed look, saying nothing towards the dark-haired former prisoner of Azkaban before swiveling his gaze back around to look his best friend in the eye.
"Silence would be best. Absolute silence. And…" Here, he paused, casting a distrusting, almost wrathful gaze towards Sirius again. "For you to get out of my home, Black, after we're through here, and never set foot in my door again, and don't you dare come near me or my wife," he growled, gnashing his teeth together.
Remus leaned forward in his seat, setting aside his own mug of tea, casting an interesting glance between the Brennan's and Sirius.
His ears perked up as Norah made an odd little strangled sound at the back of her throat the moment Sirius's grey eyes lingered on her, and it did not escape his attention that Sirius's eyes had widened as his eyes locked onto Norah's, as a light ignited in his grey orbs, as though he had suddenly remembered something long forgotten.
Sirius's face paled in horror as dawning recognition flitted across his face like a shadow, and he cast a furtive, almost guilty look towards Remus that immediately piqued his curiosity.
"What exactly happened between the two of you?" he questioned, furrowing his brows in confusion. "I think a little context here would go a long way in helping Dora and me to understand."
Ollie offered a curt nod towards Dora's husband, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he sat on the loveseat next to his wife, an arm wrapped around her shoulders in a protective, somewhat possessive embrace, hoping to provide his wife with what little comfort her could manage to give.
The fact that Tonks had asked for his help for the first time in admittedly a long time outside of work-related incidents was telling.
"It's not a pleasant story, you two," he managed to croak out in a weak, hoarse-sounding gasp. "I'm...not proud of it, what happened, but...if I show you, promise me that you won't think less of me for it," he said, lifting his gaze and allowing his bright blue eyes to settle over Tonks, who quickly nodded her agreement that she would, of course, she would.
And now, with her own cousin, that betrayer, that witless worm, under his roof, sitting in his chair, eating the food that Norah had painstakingly prepared for the two of them, considering what he had done, left him with an amazing feeling of conflict, a brand new injury.
A brand new humiliation, almost. A part of him shattered inside as his mind flitted back to that night in the Three Broomsticks that apparently, Black hadn't bothered to remember until just now, if judging by the look of shock that had snaked its way onto his face was anything for him and the others to go off of now.
Black was a hated thief who had stolen something most precious to him at the time.
The hatred that coursed through his veins was not something that Ollie could articulate, though he ached to if it would help Dora and her husband to bloody understand where he was coming from, why he harbored such resentment towards Black.
Ollie let out a haggard sigh, his blue eyes growing almost painfully sad in his momentary surge of anger as he looked at his wife out of the corner of her eye, how her knees were pulled up close to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs, and she was shaking.
Badly. Because of him, and the memories that the group had resurfaced by bringing Black here.
Ollie raised one of his strong, slightly calloused hands so as to allow it to pass over the features of his handsome, but quite tired and pale face.
When the appendage ghosted over the bridge of his slender nose, he stopped, giving it a sharp pinch in a moment of self-frustration, not bothering to stifle the low growl that escaped from deep within the confines of his broad chest.
He offered Tonks as he blearily lifted his head an apologetic glance as another sigh left him, and before he lost his resolve, he waved his wand and pointed it at the closet in the front hallway.
The door flung open of its own accord with a loud, resounding bang that made Norah jump.
Tonks and Lupin and Sirius sat up straighter in their respective places, mouths slightly agape in shock and equal expressions of wonder mixed with a slight twinge of unease in their eyes, Tonks' gaze never leaving Ollie's as he allowed their personal Pensieve to float to the middle of their living room parlor.
"See for yourself, and please...don't think ill of me for what happened, Tonks," Ollie answered in a flat listless voice as he let out another tired sigh and collapsed back against the armchair.
He waved his wand once more, pressing the tip of it to his temple and allowing the chosen memory of that fated night in the Three Broomsticks to float lazily towards the hovering and waiting Pensieve, as Tonks and Lupin collectively rose from their places and made to move towards it with hands interlocked as one.
"It's all right," Norah whispered, interjecting before Ollie could open his mouth to speak. She reached over and gave Ollie's left hand a reassuring squeeze, the pads of her fingertips ghosting along with the metal of his wedding ring. "See for yourself, you will be the first, he's never let me see what happened," Norah repeated, sounding slightly put off and hurt, in her soft, timid voice, echoing her husband's words.
Tonks and Lupin exchanged a worried glance with one another before nodding and closing their eyes, dipping their heads into the Pensieve, and allowing the device to take them back to a night in her best friend's mind, to the fated night that he hated Sirius Black forever…
Twenty-year-old Norah looked up as the bell above the door jangled and the hanging talking voodoo heads hung on the outside of the front door of the Three Broomsticks grumbled their displeasure, muttering a few choice words under their breaths, telling the new patron to shut the damn door before he let in all the snow and icy slush.
The snow had been coming down so hard for so long that she didn't think anyone else would be coming into the Three Broomsticks today, given how nasty the blizzard outside was.
When the weather got this bad, Madame Rosmerta typically only had one or two customers a day. She had been busying herself by using her wand to wipe down the cleaned tankards and wine glasses, using most of the downtime to read her latest copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander.
The young werewolf had not been granted permission by her and Everett's father, Elias, to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when Norah had turned eleven, claiming that, with her lycanthropy and at the time the Wolfsbane Potion had not yet been invented, that it was entirely too dangerous and not at all worth the risk.
As a consequence, Elias Jameson had chosen to homeschool his second youngest, his beloved daughter, and provide the girl with as good of an education as he possibly could.
Norah wanted only one thing in life: to study fantastic creatures and make a career out of it, perhaps open up her own menagerie one day.
Her brother, Everett, encouraged the dream, telling Norah in private to go for it, whether Dad approved of her venture or not, to start thinking for herself and what she wanted of life, not what kind of life her father wanted her to have, or rather, in this case, would permit her.
Norah had gotten a job not that long ago at the Three Broomsticks to earn a livable wage and with the dream of saving up enough Galleons and Sickles to buy one of the abandoned shops in Diagon Alley, the building quite decrepit, but once she was finished with it once she had purchased the rights to the building and gave it a good cleaning (with Everett's help!), she would finally be able to open up her own menagerie like she always wanted, and with any stroke of luck, perhaps even famed Newt Scamander himself would pay her shop a visit. She could only hope so!
The dull, dreary Friday had been dragging on, only one person coming in before the blizzard had raged war on the outside elements, and so Norah was happily surprised when the cloaked man came in.
She jumped as if to move towards him, but Madame Rosmerta, also behind the counter and had been absentmindedly preening her nails and looking rather bored with nothing else to do, glanced up from her nail preening and shot the stranger a bright, white smile and intercepted him before Norah had a chance to stride out from behind the counter, and she gave her boss of about the last eight months or so a hard, stony glower as Madame Rosmerta merely blinked at her, Merlin bless that witch's soul.
She had taken one look at Norah's application, not commenting on the fact that Norah had received no formal education from a magical institution, or the fact that she had shamefacedly confessed that she was a werewolf, it being the first thing out of her mouth when she applied for the job and had said when and if she wanted to talk about to her, then Rosmerta would be waiting for her to listen.
Norah huffed in frustration as she settled back down behind the counter, her elbows propped up on the wooden counter, her cheeks resting in her fists as she observed the tavern's newcomer.
The cloaked shrouded figure turned to observe Rosmerta in silence before almost stalking his way towards the counter where Norah stood idly waiting for the man to lower his cloak's hood and reveal his face.
She thought it strange he hadn't done that already, and furrowed her brows in contemplative thought, though she exhaled a sigh of relief as the man pointedly lowered the hood of his thick black woolen cloak and grumbled irritably under his breath as he patted some snow that had fallen onto his hair.
Norah inwardly cringed as the man lifted his sharp, angular chin and brushed a lock of his shoulder-length dark hair out of his eyes and off his shoulders to better keep it out of his way, and her heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she found herself looking into Sirius's Black's eyes.
Norah swallowed thickly past the lump in her throat as she nervously flitted her gaze towards the door, hoping her boyfriend, Ollie, of almost a year now, a former Slytherin and accomplished Legilimens, would be stopping by to pick her up from the end of her shift like he had promised he would once he got off from work at the Ministry.
She had met the raven-haired, blue-eyed man on an ill-fated cold December, alone, shivering with only her father's cloak for warmth after a particularly violent and brutal transformation, when a stranger had accosted her on the sidewalk and had attempted to torture her once the man in question found out she was a werewolf, but thanks to Ollie showing up when he had, he'd saved her before anything truly awful towards her had been allowed to happen.
She still remembered his first words to her, after asking if she was all right and hurt at all.
"I'm still cold," she remembered saying innocently enough, grasping onto his shoulders when he had pulled her closer, almost pressing her firmly against the cold brick wall at her back.
Norah remembered Ollie's piercing eyes of blue, how they seemed to bear a hole straight through her eyes and to see into her heart, and what his response to her statement had been.
"Let me take care of that, Norah," he had said in his low, seductive voice, and before she could so much as protest, his mouth came down on hers.
The kiss had been sweet, gentle, but almost painful against her freezing skin.
He'd held her firmly that night, almost bruising her mouth with his unrelenting kisses, but that had been the start of a truly beautiful, caring relationship.
That fated first encounter had been almost a year ago, and the two had quickly entered into a relationship following Ollie escorting Norah safely home, even staying with her and tending to the worst of her wounds, not caring that she was a dangerous, savage wolf, like the rest of the world seemed to.
He was able to look past that, and for that, Norah loved him all the more for it.
Though right now, she sincerely hoped her boyfriend would make good on his promise to pick her up on time before her shift ended. She didn't like the look of intrigue in Black's eyes.
The man had always been after her, having taken a fancy to her for whatever reason or other, despite knowing she was in a relationship.
He'd never acted on his desires, of course. Even Black wouldn't stoop that low, but the moment he took a step forward and he staggered, almost stumbling, and only saving himself from tripping when he shot out an arm to brace his broad body against the counter, could Norah's wolfish, heightened sense of smell pick up on the Fire Whiskey spirit on his breath.
He'd been drinking. Again.
Norah's resolve nearly hesitated as she met Black's hardened gaze. She almost turned and let Rosmerta deal with Sirius, but Norah held herself still, straight, and proud, jutting her chin out slightly defiantly.
Sirius furrowed his dark brows in a frown as he leaned forward on the counter, placing both of his palms flat against the mahogany surface.
"You're drunk, Black. Go home," she muttered under her breath in annoyance as she reached for a rag underneath the counter to wipe a glass. "We don't serve patrons that are already hungover. Get out," she snapped, no hint of warmth in her voice, not liking how Black's pale grey orbs wandered up and down the length of her body in her red turtleneck sweater dress, black leggings, and knee-high black ankle boots.
"I'm not…drunk…lost bet…with Hagrid…it's…how I cope," he slurred in a dark tone, but he stepped back a few paces, cursing under his breath as he almost tripped over a stool.
She felt her facial muscles stiffen and tense as she strode out from behind the counter, glancing wildly to the left and right for any sign of Rosmerta, but the tavern owner had vanished.
Norah let out a tired sigh. It looked like it would be up to her, as usual, to deal with Sirius.
"There's no…no music in here," barked Black in a rough, coarse grating voice as he looked around. "Why doesn't…Rosmerta play Celestina Warbeck or the Weird Sisters or something? Ought to really liven the place up a bit, yeah?"
But before Norah could answer, he met her gaze, the intensity of his eyes causing her to blush as she wanted nothing more than to look away.
But Norah knew if she did that, then he would have won, and he'd know he made her uneasy.
"Will you…sing me a song, Norah? You've always had…a pretty voice," Sirius grumbled.
"You want me to sing you a song, Black? Are you out of your Merlin-damned mind?" Norah asked with a defiant tone as she strode towards him, her wand clutched tightly in her hand.
Sirius staggered backward toward the front door as Norah continued to advance on him.
"Have you offered Brennan a song yet tonight?" he snapped, spitting Ollie's surname as though it were a poisoned piece of chocolate that had settled and lingered upon his tongue. "Or do I have the honor of being the first, Norah?" he asked.
Norah's face flushed bright crimson in anger. He was only trying to get a rise out of her, his petty way of dealing with his own jealousy, she suspected, but she had a job to do, and this man was quite literally standing in the way of that.
She took a deep breath and turned to look at Norah, cocking his head to the side and looking at her much like a stray dog would do whenever it had cornered something it found most curious.
Though before she could part her lips open to speak, to raise her wand and point it at the front door, given Black's back was resting against the door's frame, with the intent of kicking him out, she let out a startled yelp as he staggered forward, his equilibrium off from how buzzed he was from however much Fire Whiskey he'd downed.
Norah let out a squeak as she felt herself beginning to lean back the moment his strong hands gripped onto her shoulders to stop himself from falling, squeezing her eyes shut as Norah felt the back of her skull collide against the hardwood floor of the tavern, hard.
She and Sirius looked a bloody mess, a tangle of limbs and a rather suggestive pose, at that.
Norah grunted and groaned at the throbbing pain that exploded in the front and back of her head as she shook his shoulder lightly, but Sirius made no move to force himself off of her and help her up off the floor.
Instead, he slurred his speech and mumbled something incoherent, rolled over, throwing up an arm, catching Norah around her slender shoulders, and causing the young bartender to fall on top of Sirius.
It also didn't help matters that it was at that precise moment that she heard the front door open with a loud, resounding band, flung open so hard she heard it rattle in its hinges, and there stood Ollie.
She heard him inhale sharply, and then started spluttered frantically in a panic.
"Don't just stand there, Ol!" she hissed at him, still grunting with the futile effort to remove Sirius's arm. "Get him off of me, Ollie, please!"
Her boyfriend's heavy footfalls approached their spot on the floor in front of the door quickly and then the crushing force of Black's body that was pinning her to the ground was gone.
Before she could manage to catch her breath and straighten up completely, Ollie knelt down slightly, grabbing her by her upper arm and spun her away from Sirius's semi-conscious form, though the man seemed to be regaining the power of cognitive thought, at least a little.
Ollie turned Norah in his calloused hands, so the young blonde witch was now facing him, a mixture of emotions on his features.
"Are you hurt, Norah?" he asked, his quiet tone suddenly sounding angered, clipped, and rather demanding. Concern and more than a hint of rage flitted through his sky-blue eyes as he looked his girlfriend up and down for any injuries. "Did Black hurt you?" he growled.
Norah had never seen this side of Ollie before. It was almost…possessive.
She didn't even know what to call the burning, smoldering look in the man's blue eyes, darkening, almost cerulean in color the angrier he became as his gaze remained fixed on hers, desperately searching her eyes for the truth.
"N—no," she stumbled over the word, shaken at his set expression, at the way a muscle in his angular jaw twitched, and his angry tone. "I—I'm not hurt, Ol. I don't think Black knew what he was doing. He's been drinking again."
Ollie wrenched his head to the side and glowered at the dark-haired former Gryffindor. Norah felt a chill run down her spine.
Why was her boyfriend acting so out of character? It was almost like watching someone try to take a bone from a vicious dog.
Maybe it was a bad analogy, but it was the only thing she could think of to describe his shift in countenance.
Whatever the hell was the matter, Norah knew she had to try to calm her boyfriend down.
But before she could, Ollie turned his attention toward Sirius, removing his wand that he had hidden up the sleeve of his black woolen sweater.
"You've gone too far," he hissed through gritted teeth, balling his free hand into a fist, and lowering it to his side, Norah noticing his entire body was shaking, as though fighting against something dark festering within and losing. "You damn fool. Did you want to see my magic that badly?" Ollie shouted, his face draining of color as his free hand conjured a large ball of flame with next to little effort on Ollie's part to conjure it.
A burning rage hit Ollie so hard he didn't have time to properly sort through his emotions. One minute he was standing outside the Three Broomsticks, wondering where to take Norah for dinner tonight, maybe that new Muggle Italian place she'd been eyeballing for the last two weeks, where he had been hoping to ask Norah to marry him, having gone with Tonks earlier today to a jeweler in Hogsmeade to pick out something that they thought Norah would like, and then the next, he'd walked in to pick up his girlfriend from her shift to find…that, and his good mood immediately vanished.
His emotions raged war uncontrollably within the Legilimens, feeling nothing but anger towards Black for the scene he'd walked in on.
"You started this! Not me, Black," he growled, his words escaping him as almost a low growl, his chest practically vibrating from the noise.
The moment Ollie hurtled the first jinx Black's way and sent the former Gryffindor sailing through the air, his reflexes so fast Black barely had time to blink, much less register what had happened, a new fear threatened to consume Norah.
Something within Brennan had changed, and it was not a change in Ollie Norah liked. The man's normally kind sky-blue eyes had shifted since the moment he walked into the Three Broomsticks and found Sirius lying on top of Norah in an unorthodox and suggestive way. His eyes had darkened to a cerulean hue that burned with a rage she'd never seen before in the gentle Legilimens.
At least, he was always gentle around her. Perhaps the only other time she'd seen the man lose his temper was the night the two of them had met and he'd saved her life.
His gentleness had since vanished at the moment as Black and Brennan dueled one another, streams of red and blue lights surging in all directions through the Three Broomsticks.
Norah swore she could hear Madame Rosmerta shouting something, but whatever it was, it was inaudible, as her eardrums were now filled with nothing but a fatigued ringing, causing the sounds around her to become faint.
Her boyfriend's timidness was non-existent. He was…he was angry. No, not angry. Furious.
In the year that she had been dating Ollie, Norah had never quite seen the man like this before. Frustrated, yes, annoyed, absolutely.
But furious? No, never. This was…very new.
The growl he'd released from deep within his chest sent a shiver of cold fear up and down her back. Somewhere deep within the recesses of her heart and mind, Norah knew that Ollie would never hurt her, never cause her harm, never do anything that would cause her strife on purpose, but to see him like this in a blind fury, ready to kill Black where he stood, it was scary as hell.
"Ollie, please don't!" Norah screamed, already knowing neither wizard could hear her over their shouting match.
She was afraid Brennan would lose himself, lose the part of him that made the man she'd grown to love over the course of a year, what he truly was, that this experience would scar him.
Ollie was not a violent man by any means, he was not a wizard who lived in anger. He was kind, he was a good, good man, with a pure heart. To see him in this way, was almost…heartless. He…he meant the world to her!
The thought of losing him if she allowed this to continue scared her more than the spells that were flying haphazardly through the tavern in all directions, so fast she could hardly keep up.
Thinking fast, wanting to do something, anything she could to help, Norah flung herself at Ollie's back in the hopes of stepping in between the two dueling, feuding wizards.
The young blonde witch would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid as she adjusted her firm grip on the handle of her own wand, her hands slick with sweat and fear. There was little hope for what she was about to do, and yet, Norah found that, though she was afraid of whatever would hurl her way, she wouldn't change a Merlin-damned thing about it.
In her own way, Norah had found something worth protecting, and that thing was standing right in front of her, frozen, staring incredulously with wide, blue eyes, brimming with unshed moisture, a look of disbelief on his handsome features as the edges of his close-cropped neat dark beard twitched without Ollie having to prompt it.
He was worth fighting for.
Ollie was the source of her strength, her determination, her will to make something of herself. The Legilimens had taught her about the joy of finding the small things of life, discovering her love for undiscovered creatures alongside her every step of the way, and in return, he had given her the greatest gift imaginable.
His love, his trust, and friendship.
Norah steeled herself, pivoting on her heel and raising her wand, prepared to blast Black into oblivion with a well-deserved Bat Bogey Hex, there was a horrible flash of red out of the corner of her peripherals, and a cloud of white haze and pain erupted from behind her eyelids.
She squeezed her eyes shut, blinded, and unable to see. Norah screamed at the pain, and before darkness blinded her, she hung onto the voice of the only person she cared to listen to. To Ollie.
And her ringing eardrums caught sight of one word, a word that she hoped the man would never dare utter against her, ever.
"Obliviate."
And then, her world went black.
Ok, but that one was really on Ollie. He shouldn't have lost his temper with Black and I definitely* think it was a morally wrong decision to choose to erase Norah's memories of this moment (and Black's) which explains why neither of them remembers the other, though if you caught it in the previous chapter, Sirius had a dawning look of recognition that suggested he remembered.
Let's see what his wife and Tonks and Lupin have to say to all this, now that they know the truth. Hopefully Ollie and Norah still agree to help them find Norah's brother before he hurts Renee!