Chapter Seventeen: A Trace of Magic

'Aguamenti,' the water sputtered out of Sirius' wand and then died. 'Aguamenti.'

Remus eyed him wearily. 'Why don't you give it a rest?' he said, keeping his voice gentle. 'You're getting better at it - you are … but maybe if you gave yourself time to recuperate, instead of wearing yourself out, then next time you try your magic will be stronger.'

'Or it will have vanished forever,' Sirius said darkly.

But Remus shook his head. 'That isn't going to happen. You still have enough magic blood to do magic - that isn't going to change. They obviously didn't put in enough muggle blood to outweigh your own.'

'Just to leave me virtually powerless.'

'And alive .'

Sirius ignored him, 'aguamenti' - the water sputtered out again. Remus sighed.

They were struggling their way up a mountain pass. Even though it was the height of Summer - and Montenegro, same as all the Balkan States, was unbearably warm - this high up there was snow on the ground; patches of crystal white powder that must surely never melt if they were not melting in this sun. There were large boulders littered around and, to their right, was a sharp cliff face comprised of loose scree … They hoped it would at no point become necessary to scramble up that. Especially as Sirius did not have use of his right arm.

The air was thin, the path was steep - and the going was hard. But - difficult as this was - they had agreed going over the mountain would be quicker than going around it. Muggle hikers kept passing them by, giving their robes and Sirius' arm funny looks. The boys were most definitely not dressed for mountain climbing and - between the recent splinching and the recent full moon - neither were in peak physical fitness, and both needed to keep stopping to rest.

But every time they did, Sirius would take out his wand and practice the water charm again … His success rate was variable and he was downcast.

'Why don't you at least try something different?' Remus asked him. 'A first year spell or…'

'No. When I get this one right, I'll branch out. But until then…'

Remus sighed again.

'Show me again, Moony,' Sirius said. 'So I can compare.'

'Comparing achieves nothing.'

'I want to compare. Do it.'

Another deep sigh - but with Sirius looking at him like that, and the fear that maybe Sirius was blaming him for his current predicament … that he should have stopped the muggles from giving him non-magical blood - meant that he could not say "no". He took his wand from his pocket and gave it a miserable flick. 'Aguamenti,' he muttered.

Immediately an impressive fountain of water shot from the tip, into the air, curved down and splashed against the rocky ground.

'Aguamenti,' Sirius said, copying him. A very short burst of water shot out of the end, and then plummeted to earth.

Sitting there together - conjuring the water and watching how far it could spurt - Remus was suddenly reminded of all their contests back at school … up against a wall, when no one else was looking … the ones he had always won. Even when it was the four of them.

He coughed, uncomfortably - and flicked his wand to stop the fountain.

Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines. 'It always was your special talent, Moony,' he said glumly. 'James and me could hex you before you'd even grabbed your wand … but you always hit the highest up the wall… and now I can't even hex you.'

'You will again … anyway. The - er - measuring contests weren't the only ones I won. Remember when we used to see who could get the highest up the girls' staircase before it turned into a slide and pushed us back down? I got the highest on that too - I managed six steps one time.'

'I got to the fifth once - I'd lifted my foot to get onto the sixth step, before ...'

'I was just faster.' His brow furrowed. 'You would have thought James would have been the one to win those, the fastest of us all. He was the quidditch player. But he could barely get off the first step.'

'You know,' and Sirius seemed to have forgotten about his current problem and was beginning to smile, 'I always wondered about that. I always wondered if maybe the stairs could sense intent. And that affected how quickly they reacted.'

'What do you mean?' he asked - utterly bemused.

'Well - you and me, Moony - we had no interest in actually getting into the girls' dormitory. It was just a competition as to who could get the highest. Our intentions were totally pure. But James …'

'James was actually trying to get to Lily?'

There came that bark like laugh. 'Exactly! I wonder if the stairs could tell he had nefarious intent in his heart - and so threw him out as soon as his foot touched the first step. But for us … there was nothing up there for us. We had everything we needed in our own dormitory.'

Remus felt himself blush. He didn't know exactly what Sirius meant by that - but he knew that he couldn't possibly begin to know just how true his words were for Remus. 'What about Mary McDonald?' he asked - and his voice sounded thick and strange to his ears.

'What about her?'

'Well, weren't you ever trying to get up there to get to her?'

'No - I kissed her behind the broomsheds. Not in Gryffindor tower. And I only did it to see what it was like. And because James wouldn't stop banging on about her. She liked me - and he had this idea that Lily might be more willing to go out with him, if I was going out with Mary. I only did it to shut him up, really.'

'So … you didn't like her?' He didn't know why, but his heart was battering against his rib cage. Which was ridiculous. This was one kiss, twenty years ago, and meant absolutely nothing now - whether Sirius had liked her or not. But he still found he was holding his breath as he waited for the answer.

Sirius shrugged - and then the look on his face told Remus he immediately regretted the action. 'Yes - she was perfectly nice. I liked her well enough.'

'No - I mean liked her liked her. Like James liked Lily.'

'Oh … no.' He gave Remus a funny look, which Remus did not understand at all. 'I mean, she was very pretty and everything but … not really my type.'

'So - was Lily's muggle cousin more your type?'

'No … She didn't quite hit the spot either.'

'So why did you kiss her?'

'I dunno - practice?'

'Practice for what?'

'For if I ever kissed someone I did like. I didn't not want to know what I was doing. You only get to kiss a person for the first time once, Moony. And, back then, I thought maybe - I mean, I hoped ... Well, we all thought we had futures back then, didn't we? We couldn't possibly know what the future held for us - or how completely alone the two of us would go on to be…' The smile had well and truly faded from his face now.

'I was always going to be alone,' Remus said.

'Well - once upon a time, I didn't think that would be the case.'

'For you or for me?'

'For both of us.'

Remus shook his head - and stared out across to the horizon. 'No one would ever want me,' he said - trying not to sound bitter about it.

'That isn't true … Now, come on, we need to keep moving.'

...

They stopped again less than an hour later. Once again, Sirius got his wand out and started practicing the water summoning charm. Remus watched him for a few minutes and then turned his back, conjured some goblets and filled them with wine. He wasn't quite sure why he turned his back to do it … maybe because he was afraid he would look like he was showing off.

This must be hard for Sirius. He had always been so powerful. Way more powerful than Remus. To now be struggling like this … but it was better than being dead, he thought fiercely.

He handed a goblet of wine to Sirius, 'here you go.'

'Show off.'

He rolled his eyes.

'You know I've been thinking…' Sirius said.

'That's a first.'

'Ho ho - no, I have … about what that witch said, about Peter stinking of rat and asking how far this next town was to walk to.'

'What about it?'

'Well - she said he was travelling incognito. And he doesn't like the Ministry hanging about which … when you fake your own death, I can see why they would be an inconvenience. He's hiding from them every bit as much as we are. He doesn't want to use magic in muggle places in case it draws attention to himself, in case they think he's us and go and look into it.'

'So?'

'So - it's obvious isn't it? He's travelling as a rat. That's why he's barely ahead of us even though we keep having to stay still for days at a time. Because even walking, we can still walk faster than a rat can scurry.'

'You might be right.'

Sirius gave a satisfied smirk. 'I'm always right.' Then he lifted his wand and tried again. 'Aguamenti.'

...

They settled down for the evening once they were near the peak. It was cold, with the sun setting and this high up, but - with an apologetic glance at Sirius - Remus conjured them a fire and soon it was blazing away merrily. Sirius said nothing about it. Remus conjured them more wine and they sat there, drinking together, huddled up close for extra warmth.

Every so often, Sirius would flick his wand and try the water conjuring charm again.

'At least point it away from the fire,' Remus said to him, flicking his own wand to restore the flames after Sirius' latest attempt had doused them.

'Sorry - when you're a squib you don't expect to have much luck conjuring water.'

'You're not a squib.'

'I'm not not a squib.'

'You're not a squib - you're not a muggle. You're a wizard who has had a nasty injury and isn't at his peak at the moment, but will recover in no time at all.'

'Yes - and then next full moon you'll go for a stroll in the moonlight and be completely unaffected.'

Remus gave him a dark look. 'What has happened to you is nothing like what has happened to me. I'm cursed, you're injured - it's completely different.' Something flickered in the corner of his eye and he glanced towards it - frowning.

Sirius hadn't noticed. 'Uhuh - yes - it's completely different. You're a werewolf and a wizard and I'm completely ordinary and unmagical… I probably can't even see dementors anymore.'

'Lucky you…' Remus said - not really listening. He was still frowning. There was… something . Something wasn't right - the air kept flickering … like some kind of glamour or charm had been cast, like something was hidden - just out of view - just out of reach … But this was the top of a muggle mountain. They should be the only wizards up there … there shouldn't be any traces of magic here except their own … and yet…

'Did you see that?' He asked.

'See what?'

'I don't know - it was .. blurry .. there's something out there.'

'I didn't see anything.'

'It was like a trace of magic.'

'Well, no wonder I didn't see it - being a squib and all.'

'You're not a squib!' He turned back to the fire … but every so often would check over his shoulder and peer around again. He was sure there was something out there. If Sirius didn't need the rest, he would insist they keep on walking through the dark to get away from it. As it was, he intended to stay on his guard and keep his wand very firmly in his hand at all times.

'So are you going to conjure up the sleeping bags?' Sirius asked, 'I'd do it myself only…'

Remus rolled his eyes. 'Don't say it.'

'Not saying it doesn't make it any less true.'

'It isn't true - and saying it over and over again does not make it more so.'

'Well - have it your way - but I'm still incapable of conjuring the sleeping bags.'

He shook his head, but he couldn't face their continuing arguing in circles anymore - so he let it go and conjured a pair of purple, squashy sleeping bags and a couple of pillows. 'I think a mountain top is the most uncomfortable place we've found to sleep so far,' he said. 'And that includes the night I recently spent locked inside a cage.'

'And it's the most exposed.'

'And that includes the night I recently spent completely naked locked inside a cage,' he smiled … but he glanced again at the flicker of the shadow, which he kept catching sight of out of the corner of his eye … that trace of magic that left him uncomfortable.

Sirius had leaned back, his hands behind his head, and was staring up at the sky. The stars out here were incredible - a thick, twinkling blanket of fireflies that spread as far as the eye could see … and they reflected in Sirius' eyes. But Remus stayed upright and alert, still watching for anything untoward.

And yet, despite his wary guarding, it was Sirius who spotted something coming towards them. 'There's something headed this way,' he said.

'What? Where?' He twisted and peered around, thinking it must be whatever was causing that flickering magic.

But Sirius raised his arm and pointed to the sky. 'Up there. Something white… it's headed straight for us… Hedwig.'

And sure enough, Hedwig materialised out of the darkness - her white feathers gleaming in the moonlight - and swooped down onto the mountaintop beside them, where she hooted affectionately and stuck her leg out for Sirius to take the letter.

But with his arm all bandaged up he couldn't manage to untie it, and Remus took over.

'Read it to me, Moony,' Sirius said, settling back down.

Remus broke the seal on the envelope and unrolled the parchment.

Sirius!

He read.

I hope this finds you. I'm back with the muggles now - but even I'm hearing rumours. They say you were cornered in a town in Bosnia - you and Professor Lupin - they say you escaped, that you apparated but that you got splinched. I didn't know what that meant but … Ron says it's when apparition goes wrong and you leave part of you behind. They're saying one of you must be terribly injured. It's disgusting - but they said after you escaped all they found of you was a big hunk of raw flesh, lying on the ground, oozing blood…

They both looked at each other and winced. 'I never did stop to think about the part of me I left behind,' Sirius said.

'How awful - at least the kindly, blind witch won't have seen it.'

And this is the really disgusting part - the Ministry official, who had cornered you, scooped it up and brought it back to Britain as a trophy.

They exchanged another look, this one disgusted. 'I really hate that Ministry Hag,' Sirius said.

Remus shook his head, 'that's twisted on a level that I didn't think was possible. Keeping it as a trophy? That sounds like something even Voldemort wouldn't do. I didn't like her because she was getting in our way and trying to arrest us … and a little bit because she's ugly ... I never realised she was sick.'

'You should have done - after the way she acted when you found out you were a werewolf. She showed herself up, then, to be a nasty bit of goods. Nothing should come as a surprise after that.'

But that actually made Remus laugh. 'If I assumed everyone who reacted badly to my being a werewolf was a nasty bit of goods, then that would cover most of the wizarding world…' His brow furrowed as he remembered the moment Hermione had revealed what he was - how Ron had reacted: 'get away from me, werewolf!' He dismissed the thought … Ron had recently got into trouble for hexing someone in defence of Remus' honour, according to one of Harry's letters - whatever the boy's initial reaction had been, he had got over it.

And that was why Remus didn't usually hold grudges - sometimes people got over it.

But then sometimes - people turned out to be Umbridge. 'If I thought everyone who reacted badly to my being a werewolf was the type of person to take a hunk of disembodied human flesh as a trophy, then I would have spent my life hiding in a cave, refusing to talk to people … that is beyond the pale levels of awful.'

'Well - I still think we could have guessed,' Sirius muttered.

Remus went back to the letter:

They say it's the closest they've got to finding you and is proof that they're closing in - because you're getting sloppy, if you're getting injured. The paper says they took it to St. Mungo's - and the healers say it probably came from an arm … and that whoever lost it would have lost a serious amount of blood. They're even saying it's possible one of you died!

Sirius, I really hope Hedwig can find you - and I really hope everything's OK. I don't know what you're doing in Bosnia but please, if you're not dead, come home safely. Both of you. I really don't want either of you to be dead. Please write back as soon as you get this.

Harry.

'You should write back to him.'

Sirius glanced down at his bandaged and strapped up right arm - and Remus nodded, admitting he was being stupid. 'Alright - I'll write back to him.'

Though they didn't have parchment or ink or quills up on the mountain top. With an apologetic glance at Sirius, Remus conjured an empty inkwell and then waved his wand over Harry's letter, siphoning off the ink - it flew from the page in a liquid ribbon and poured itself into the pot. Then, with an apologetic glance at Hedwig this time, he reached out and pulled out one of her feathers. She hooted sharply and nipped his fingers with her beak. 'I know - but this is an emergency - for Harry.'

She hooted again - but it was less sharp, more reproachful.

He used his wand to sharpen the nib of his makeshift quill, dipped it into the recycled ink and then began to write on the now blank parchment:

Dear Harry,

Don't panic because it's me writing to you not Sirius. He is fine - but it was him that got injured and it was his wand arm. He's not yet up to holding a quill. He did lose a lot of blood and for a horrible moment I thought he was going to die - but we landed in a muggle town (I won't say where) and the muggles all rallied around and patched him up brilliantly. They took us to a hospital in an ambibibulanceblance … it was a big, white van with a blue light on top - maybe you know what it was, as you were raised by muggles. They stitched him up (literally they sewed his arm back together - I've never seen anything like it) and gave him some painkillers which … well, we're not talking about the stuff he said while he was high. The muggles had never seen anything like his injury, of course, though they didn't ask too many questions and they did the best they could - they saved his life - but we still want to go to a real healer and see if they can't grow his arm back properly. Though I'm not sure how we'll manage that, as we now have wanted posters of us stuck up all over the Balkans (which is how we got cornered in the first place).

Now that we know that our photos are out there and there is a reward on our heads, we will be much more careful how we go. Try not to worry - I won't let anything happen to Sirius and we will find a way to clear our names and come home.

My best to Ron and Hermione.

Remus (you don't have to keep calling me Professor Lupin - I'm not your teacher any more!)

'Did you tell him I'm a muggle now?' Sirius asked, as Remus rolled up the parchment and stuffed it back into the envelope

'No - I still think it's early days to publicly announce your retirement from the world of magic.' He crossed out Sirius' name and wrote Harry's on instead. He tied the letter back onto Hedwig - apologised once again for stealing one of her feathers - and then she flew away, leaving them alone once more.

But, while he had been distracted reading and writing the letters, Remus had let his guard down over the flickering magic … and it was only now that he remembered and looked around anxiously. The shadow of enchantment was clearer than ever and - worse still - he thought he could see shapes moving behind it, getting clearer.

'Do you see that?' he hissed.

'What?'

'There are figures back there - getting bigger.'

Sirius craned his neck, 'no.'

'Well - I'm not imagining it. Something's coming. Get up - get your wand out.'

'What am I going to do? Yell "aguamenti" at them and get their feet wet?' But he still scrambled to his feet and drew his wand. And that was what mattered. Whatever was coming did not need to know that Sirius' magic was faulty - as long as he looked the part of a wizard, Remus could do the actual work of holding them off.

'Protego' he muttered, casting a shield charm in front of him - just as the figures grew so large they must have been right in front of them. And then it was like they suddenly emerged from behind an invisible curtain - stepping out of a haze. One minute there were three shadowy shapes, difficult to discern … and then there was a woman and two men, all tall and pale with thick, black hair - and as plainly visible as the two of them.

The woman smiled at them. Her teeth were sharp, and her eyes glittered strangely in the fire light. Her skin was waxy … and yet her clothes were fine and there was something undeniably attractive about her … even though she didn't look quite human. 'Good evening,' she said in a refined but very strong accent. 'We thought there were wizards on our mountain top - and now we see that we were correct.'

The boys glanced at each other. 'Your mountain top?' Remus asked.

'Well - we live here.'

They looked around. The place was desolate and deserted. 'Where?'

She laughed - it sounded like a tinkling bell, otherworldly but once again undeniably attractive. 'Well, we have hidden our home from the prying eyes of muggles, of course. Our castle is hidden behind enchantments - but you are wizards, you are welcome at our hearth. Come, we will give you food and a place to sleep. It will be better by far than lying on the ground out here, like animals.'

They looked at each other again. 'What do you reckon?' Sirius asked.

'Could be a trap.' They weren't even bothering to keep their voices down.

The tinkling laugh came again. 'Gentlemen, gentlemen, I understand you have no reason to trust us - let me introduce ourselves. I am the Countess Orlock and these are my nephews - Ionut and Florin. We made our home here in the mountains after we were forced to flee the Carpathians … Hospitality has been very important to us, the kindness of strangers - and now we wish to share some of that, pay it back. Do not insult us by refusing.'

'Er -' Remus wasn't sure what to say, he just gripped his wand tighter.

'Come - you do not want to spend the night sleeping rough on a mountainside. You must be cold and hungry. Ionut - take our guests' case.'

One of the men picked up the suitcase. Like his Aunt, he too had waxy skin, his cheekbones were high and he looked gaunt … but at the same time deeply attractive. He walked off with their case - and after that, the boys felt they had little choice but to follow.

The group headed to the flickering wall of enchantments that Remus had kept catching sight of out of the corner of his eye - and the three strangers disappeared inside, swallowed up into shadows once more. The two men looked at each other. 'We could just abandon the case and run for it,' Remus said.

'It's got the map and our money in it.'

'Is the map and the money really worth dying over?'

'We're not dead yet - and we've fought more monsters than we can shake our wands at; whatever's happening we can chance it.'

'But …'

'You're about to point out I'm a squib, aren't you?'

'I'm about to say your magic isn't a hundred percent and we shouldn't be getting into unnecessary fights.'

But Sirius sniffed at that and looked offended. 'Come on, Moony …' he took a step forward and then hesitated and looked sheepish. 'Er - maybe you should help me through the enchantments. I'm not sure I'm magical enough to get through alone … like the barrier at Kings Cross.'

'Anyone can get through the barrier at Kings Cross. My mum managed just fine.' But he took hold of Sirius' arm - took a deep breath - and then guided him through the strange, shimmering haze that only he could see.