The Grim
Claudia was standing on the street in front of Number Six, Frognal Gardens. She could not stop thinking about those sweet twelve hours during which she thought she was moving in with Sirius and would never have to come back to her parent's house. Alas, she was here.
"Claudia, dear." Cassandra exclaimed the moment Claudia stepped through the door. "You've grown so much. A proper young woman now." She added and hugged her daughter. Claudia shuddered. Her mother's hug made her physically sick.
"Tell me. How's Julius?" Cassandra asked.
"Not sure." Claudia shrugged. "We broke up."
"That's a shame. He was a nice boy." Cassandra replied. "Is there anyone else?" She acted like her daughter was her best friend. Like she did not attempt to beat the shit out of her the last time Claudia was in this house.
"No." Claudia lied and clenched her fist. This was going to be very hard.
The following morning, Claudia came down to breakfast dressed and ready for her first day at the Ministry. She put on her nicest blouse and trousers and even cleaned her shoes. She felt weird looking that girly and polished, but turning up in jeans and a t-shirt was regrettably, not an option.
"Nice to see you dress up for us." Cassandra smiled when Claudia walked through the door of the dining room. "What's the occasion?"
"Oh." Claudia stuttered. She thought she would not have to see her parents again and did not tell them about the Ministry. "I got a job."
"Aren't you bit overdressed for scrubbing cauldrons somewhere?" Marcus smirked. Claudia had no idea what her brother was even doing there. She thought he had moved out.
"I would be." Claudia sneered back at her brother. "But I think it will do just fine for a Private Secretary to the Minister of Magic."
"What did you say?" Frederic interjected and spat out the tea he was drinking. His reaction made Claudia's heart jump with joy. Tormenting her father for underestimating her was one of her favourite things.
"I got a summer placement in the Minister's Private Office." Claudia replied calmly. Frederick and Cassandra looked at each other. Neither of them seemed proud of her, which did not surprise Claudia in the slightest.
"But I've made plans for you." Cassandra piped up. "I need your help to plan the summer party. And Lilibeth's son is coming to stay with us, I thought you could show him around town." Claudia rolled her eyes, another of her mother's attempts to set her up with some appropriately pureblood boy. "And I set up tea for us with Marigold. And Walburga!"
"I suspect I'll be busy." Claudia smirked. She knew how important it was to Cassandra to make a good impression on Walburga Black, and it gave her unbridled joy that she got to spoil her plan just a little.
"And I wanted us to see someone. About the…" Cassandra added, before pausing and giving her husband a side look. "About the Grim. I saw him last night. In the garden."
"Don't be ridiculous, woman. There was no Grim." Frederick barked, making it abundantly clear that this conversation was over. The family ate the rest of the breakfast in silence. Everyone but Claudia was clearly seething.
Claudia used the Floo Network to get into the Ministry. The moment she found herself in the atrium, she became instantly nervous. Everything looked so big, so proper.
She was met by the reception desk by one Ignatius Woodward, one of the Assistant Private Secretaries to the Minister of Magic. He explained that he was one of five Assistant Private Secretaries and that he will be her mentor throughout the summer. There was also a Principal Private Secretary, Senior Private Secretary, and two Diary Secretaries. He mentioned their names, but Claudia forgot them instantly. She could not get her head around why anyone, even the Minister of Magic, would need so many secretaries. What did they do all day?
Ignatius led her to the Minister's office and showed her to her desk. With no introduction or explanation, he asked Claudia to look at some letters and draft replies before the Minister signed them. The letters were some of the weirdest things Claudia had ever read. It was one conspiracy theory after another. You-Know-Who was just a hoax to keep the Minister in power. Owls were animagi trained to read everyone's post. The Floo Network was designed to allow the Ministry to spy on people in their homes. Claudia paused. That one was actually plausible.
The replies drafted by the Ministry officials were unbelievably dreary and quite patronising. Claudia caught a couple of spelling errors, corrected the tone in places to make it less smug, and put all the letters into the box that the Minister was to take home that evening.
"You're done already?" Asked Ignatius, looking somewhat surprised. "Go sit on the meeting that is about to start." Claudia must have looked horrified because he chuckled and continued. "Don't worry. You don't have to say anything. Just take notes and write a minute afterward." He dropped back into his chair. "I can't take another meeting about these bloody American talks."
Claudia picked up some quills and parchment and tentatively walked through the enormous oak door that separated the office that all the private secretaries shared and the room the Minister used. She recognised him instantly. He looked just like on the pictures in the Daily Prophet.
"Who are you?" The Minister barked when he saw her.
"The placement." Claudia stuttered. She could not believe she was actually there, standing in front of the Minister of Magic.
"Your name is Placement?" The Minister smirked.
"My name is Claudia Avery." She blushed.
"Avery?" He asked. "Frederick's daughter?"
"Indeed." Claudia replied, trying to mask the disdain for her father. "I'm supposed to take notes." She pointed at her parchment and scuttled towards the very back of the table to await the beginning of the meeting.
"Are you ready, Minister?" One of the diary secretaries popped her head in.
"Send them in, Berenice." The Minister replied.
Few seconds later, Claudia's father strode in, followed by about half a dozen wizards and witches. They all squeezed around the opposite side of the table to where the Minister was sitting.
"Where are we, Frederick?" The Minister asked as he opened a file in front of him.
"We are there on ninety percent of the text." Claudia's father began with a barely noticeable glance towards his daughter. She knew he was hating this with every fibre of his body.
"And the ten percent?" The Minister asked, with a slight frown.
Frederick invited one of his subordinates to explain what the problem was. Claudia had very little idea what the wizard was talking about. The ten-minute monologue he embarked upon was riddled with technical terms she did not understand and bizarre acronyms. But she kept taking notes and trying her hardest to make sense of it all.
"Fine." The Minister said when the wizard finished and shut his folder. "I expect an update tomorrow." With those words, the officials shuffled towards the door. "And Frederick, do make sure that the aurors are on top of the security arrangements. We cannot have a repetition of last time. It would be a resigning matter for both of us." The Minister added. Frederick gave the Minister a slight nod and disappeared.
Claudia spent the next two hours trying desperately to decipher her notes to produce a sensible minute of the meeting. When she finished, she brought it over to Ignatius' desk.
"That actually makes more sense that I thought it would." Ignatius smirked as he reviewed it. He frowned slightly when he got to the end. "Delete the reference to the aurors needing to be on top of security, and it's good to go."
"What happened last time?" Claudia could not quite resist asking.
"Nothing to concern yourself with." Ignatius replied sharply. "Get Berenice to make a copy. She will keep one here and one goes to Avery."
At four, Claudia's first day was over, and she met up with Sirius a stone-throw away from the Ministry in the Victoria Embankment Gardens.
"How was the first day?" He asked and kissed her.
"It's amazing." Claudia said, practically jumping up and down. "It's going to be the best summer ever."
"We have a very different idea about what makes a good summer." Sirius laughed. "Do you have a couple of hours? I need your help with something."
"What are we doing?" Claudia asked and wrapped her arms around him.
"We are going to Highgate." Sirius replied proudly. "To meet an estate agent."
Neither of them had ever been to Highgate and apparition was not an option, so they had to travel the Muggle way and take the tube.
When they got there, a witch in bright pink robes was already waiting for them in front of Hillside Mansions, a beautiful old building just off Archway Road. She showed them to a stunning top-floor flat. It had vast windows, was airy and bright. The whole thing was like a dream. Claudia could not help but imagine what it would be like to wake up in a place like this every morning.
The second flat they went to see was in a mews off Gower Street. It was smaller, darker, and in a much busier area. Sirius too looked like he had already decided in favour of Highgate.
"I'll just show you the garage." The estate agent mentioned as she led them back down the stairs.
"The previous owner left that here. It comes with the flat." The estate agent said as she opened the garage door and pointed towards a pile of metal. She looked at the piece of parchment she was holding. "It will need assembling and fixing. But I gather it's a Triumph…"
"Triumph Bonneville T120." Sirius exhaled in amazement. "649 cc parallel-twin engine. Top speed, hundred and eight miles per hour."
"How much?" Claudia was shocked. Hundred and eight was a lot of miles per hour in the hands of someone like Sirius. It was even faster than her broom!
"It's the one I want." Sirius ignored her. "The one I showed you in Edinburgh."
"The one you can't ride until you turn nineteen?" Claudia chuckled. "That's nearly a year and a half away!"
"It would take me about as long to put it back together." Sirius laughed and crouched next to the disassembled bike. He was looking at it with so much love in his eyes it made Claudia nearly jealous.
Claudia practically had to drag him out of there, as it was getting late and the estate agent was getting rather impatient watching Sirius bouncing around the garage like a loose bludger.
"What do you think?" Sirius asked, as they sat down in a nearby pub for a drink. "Which one should I get?"
"The Highgate flat is bigger." Claudia said and watched Sirius nod. "Brighter." He nodded again. "In a better condition, and a better area." Sirius kept nodding, and his eyes continued to glow. "But you want the other one." Claudia had to laugh.
"Can I?" Sirius whispered. He was really beginning to look like a small child at Christmas.
"Why are you asking me?" Claudia chuckled. "It's your money, your decision."
"I want you to like it." Sirius said and gently placed Claudia's hair behind her ear. "For when we finally move in together."
"I like it." Claudia whispered. "It's more you anyway."
"I'll send an owl to the estate agent tonight and make an offer." Sirius replied. He could barely sit still.
"I think she's expecting that." Claudia laughed again.
For the next week, Claudia felt like she was on a cloud. The paperwork for Sirius' new flat has come through and it was officially his. Just one more week before the process was completed, and he got the keys.
The Ministry internship was still as exciting as on day one. Claudia even found a sort of friend in Berenice, a bubbly girl who liked to drink industrial quantities of tea and gossip. Claudia hoped that the latter quality would prove useful in trying to figure out whatever Dumbledore was after. By mid-July, Claudia felt like the time was nearly right to ask her about the previous Principal Private Secretary.
At breakfast one morning, Cassandra was muttering something about seeing the Grim again, and it being a terrible omen. Claudia decided to get to the Ministry early, before her mother begged her to visit a seer with her. But before she got to the fireplace, she saw a letter with the Hogwarts crest on the side table in the hallway. It must have been the exam results!
Claudia's heart sank the moment she looked at the parchment.
Defence Against the Dark Arts – Acceptable.
All the happiness she felt over the past few weeks had drained out of her in an instant. This was a disaster. How was she going to explain this on the auror application? How could this even happen? DADA was her second-best subject.
Claudia crumbled the letter, shoved it into her pocket and stomped off towards the kitchen. She could barely concentrate all morning and nearly forgot she was supposed to be meeting Alice for lunch in the nearby pub.
"How's the auror office?" Claudia asked half-heartedly. She wanted to be happy for Alice, but with her own dream in tatters, she was finding it very hard.
"It's amazing." Alice whispered. "There is so much cool stuff they are teaching us. And the things we get to see… I've been on a raid yesterday." Alice added in a whisper.
"Sounds great." Claudia said, trying her hardest to smile.
"What's up?" Alice knew her friend well and clearly was not fooled.
"Nothing." Claudia mumbled and submerged herself into the repulsive soup she ordered.
"Claudia…" Alice began again. "What has your mother done now?"
"Nothing. This time." Claudia attempted a smile again. "We got our exam results today."
"I forgot." Alice said. "The NEWT ones got released ages ago."
"I got an 'A' from DADA." Claudia whispered and poked the soup with her spoon.
"Sixth year exams are meaningless. You know that." Alice replied. "You've just been bit distracted. That's all. You'll be fine for the NEWTs."
"Never happened when I was dating Julius." Claudia sighed.
"Don't tell me he was a better study partner." Alice chuckled, trying to cheer her friend up.
"No, but he made me miserable." Claudia grumbled. "I study better when I'm miserable." She could not hold it in any longer and burst into tears. "I've been so stupid. I'm one of them, aren't I? One of the girls that forget about everything when they get a boyfriend."
"Don't be daft." Alice said and put her arm around Claudia. "You'll do great in your NEWTs. There is a desk in the auror office with your name on it."
"Thanks." Claudia whispered. But inside her head, she was already thinking how much work she was going to do and when. She could never allow herself to slip up like this.
Claudia was still feeling very determined when she found herself walking up to the Potter's house in Winchester the following weekend. She finally agreed a time with James to use his dad's lab. It was time to brew the alkahest and figure out what Snape was up to for good. Once they were done with that, Claudia would have even more headspace to study. She could not wait.
As expected, Sirius to open the door. But instead of sneaking into the lab, Claudia found herself face-to-face with the entire Potter family, who were lined up in the entrance hall and were grinning at her. Remus and Peter were also there.
"What's going on?" She whispered anxiously towards Sirius.
"They just wanted to meet you." He chuckled and held her by the shoulders. Claudia was not entirely sure whether it was an act of love, or he was making sure she did not run away. "And these two buggers wanted to see it."
"I never thought this day would come." Gushed the women who must have been James' mother. "Sirius bringing a girl home."
"Nice to meet you." Claudia mumbled and extended her hand. Mrs Potter did not take it. Instead, she gave her a long hug. "Let's have some tea and sandwiches." She added jovially.
"We need to…" Claudia began to say and pointed to where she hoped the lab might be.
"No point arguing." Sirius whispered, grabbed her around the shoulder and let her towards the dining room. "It would take longer than actually having the tea. I've learned my lesson."
What followed was one awkward tea. Mrs Potter kept eyeing them and asking all kinds of question – about their first date, whether Sirius met Claudia's parents. She had no answer to any of it. They never been on a date and the hell would freeze over before she was going to bring Sirius to her parents' for dinner.
"Excuse me." Claudia whispered half-way through her tea. "I'll just pop into the bathroom."
"Third door on…" James began to say.
"I know." Claudia jumped in, still somewhat distressed by the interrogation.
"Have you been here before?" Ask Mrs Potter.
"Yes. For the party…" Claudia said before she noticed James staring at her with his eyes wide open. She looked at the others. Sirius had his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking, most likely with laughter. Peter spilled some tea. Remus was looking out of the window, pretending he was not there.
"What party was that, James?" Mr Potter asked, somewhat curtly.
Before Claudia could hear what excuse James managed to come up with, Sirius stood up, grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the dining room.
"What have I done?" She grimaced as he shut the door behind them. "Is he going to be in trouble?"
"No." Sirius laughed. "He could kill someone, and they would still forgive him."
And it seemed that way. Few minutes later, Mr Potter emerged from the dining room with his arm around his son. He led them down to the basement, through several sets of locked door, and into a very impressive lab.
"Everything you might need for alchemy is in that cupboard over there." He pointed to the far corner of the room and left them in there alone.
"Sorry." Claudia mouthed towards James.
"Don't worry about it." James waved his hand. "I don't really know why I hid it from them in the first place. It's not like they were going to say no."
"They never do." Sirius laughed.
Claudia noticed some award certificates on the wall and went to look at them.
"Your dad is the Fleamont Potter?" She exclaimed excitedly, in complete disbelief that she was going to use the lab of one of the most famous potioneers Hogwarts ever produced.
"Yes, I know." James mumbled. "You thought that would make me better at potions… I've heard that joke before." He added, bitterly. Everyone chuckled. "Anyway." James rolled his eyes. "Are you two finally going to tell me what you need the lab for?"
"We need to make the alkahest." Claudia said.
"Couple of questions, if you don't mind…" James smirked. "First, how? Your last attempt was pretty rubbish."
"It was better than yours." Claudia mumbled under her breath.
"We overheard Flamel telling Dumbledore how to make it better." Sirius said, clearly deciding to be the grownup this time. "It's worth a try."
"Alright." James seemed somewhat satisfied. "Second question. Why? Don't you two have more fun things you could be doing with your time?"
Claudia and Sirius looked at each other. It was time to come clean. About the whole affair.
"We don't think Snape is making the Elixir of Immortality anymore." Sirius began.
"We think he might be trying to poison me." Claudia added and took out the vial of Snape's concoction out of her backpack. "With this. We want to use the alkahest to find out for sure."
"I know Snape isn't exactly a saint." Remus jumped in. "But why would he be trying to poison you?"
"My brother's orders." Claudia sighed and looked to the floor. "There is something Marcus wanted, but Sirius and I stopped him. Now, he's using Snape to punish me."
"Is your brother really capable of that?" Remus added.
Claudia looked at him. There was no malice in Remus' voice, he just sounded genuinely curious. She surveyed the others. James had his arms folded across his chest. He hated dark magic, that much was clear. Peter was looking at her with his mouth somewhat open. She could not read him at all.
"My brother is a Death Eater. And my father too." Claudia whispered. "They're capable of anything."
She did not dare to look at any of them. She did not dare to interrupt the silence.
"Right." James said finally. "I'll get the oven burning. I'm no alchemist, but that I can do."
"And I'll get the equipment ready." Remus whispered. "Come help me carry it, Peter."
"Thank you." Claudia whispered, and they got to work. By the evening they were half-way there. Claudia was confident that by the end of the summer, they were going to find out what Snape was brewing.
It was now the last week of July. Sirius had moved into his new flat, Claudia revised enough DADA to make herself feel more useful again, and even the Minister was beginning to like her.
On Saturday, Claudia was coming home late after spending the day with Alice in Diagon Alley. It was a beautiful clear night, so Claudia decided to walk home. She had just passed Belsize Park tube station when she caught a hooded figure a street corner away in the corner of her eye. She shuddered. It was just paranoia. The last time she saw a hooded figure, she nearly bled to death in a Hogwarts corridor. She must not let it affect her.
She turned into Perrin's lane, and her throat closed a little. It was a narrow and badly lit alleyway. She did not like leaving the relative safety of the main road, but she had no choice. This was the only way.
Claudia walked as fast as she could, without breaking into a run. She glanced over her shoulder. There was no one there. She took few more steps. Another glance.
And there they were. The hooded figure again, illuminated by the light of the full moon.
Claudia's heart started racing, and she began to run. She did not dare look back again, and in a few minutes she found herself in the hallway leaning against the front door of her parents' house. Never had she felt safer inside that house than outside of it. There was a first time for everything.
Claudia run up to her room. As she approached the window to shut the curtains, she could not help but glance towards the other side of the road. There they were again, hiding in the shadow of a tree.
She dropped to the ground, shaking with fear.
It took her a while to realise that she did not have to face it alone. Not anymore. She crawled to her trunk and took out her two-way notebook.
"Are you awake?"
There was no reply. Not even after ten minutes.
"Someone followed me home. I'm scared."
Claudia was panicking now. Sirius not replying to her was worse than if she was on her own. She even began to wonder whether her mother could have been right about the Grim.
"Sirius, please." She added. "I don't want to be here alone."
But the pages of the notebook remained blank. Claudia stared and stared at it, but that was not going to magic up a response. He must have been asleep.
It was now two o'clock and Claudia was still sitting on the floor, unable to move. She got fed up waiting for a reply and was trying to come up with the safest way to get to Sirius' flat. Floo network was not an option, the flat was not connected to it. She would have to apparate, but an anti-apparition jinx protected her parents' house. She would need to go to the garden, climb over the fence and then apparate. It took Claudia a while to summon enough courage to do just that.
She felt so relieved when she found herself in Gower Mews and running up the stairs to Sirius flat.
She knocked on the door. Nothing.
She knocked again. Nothing.
And again. Nothing.
She slid to the ground again, clutching her wand. Where could he possibly be? None of the explanations she managed to come up with calmed her down. If anything, they made her more anxious. She tried to shut her eyes, but all she could see were faces – Daisy's face, Leanne's face, Marlene's face. No, he just could not have.
The day was breaking outside and finally, Claudia heard the front door creak open and someone's steps on the stairs. She stood up and raised her wand, just on the off chance it was not Sirius.
"What are you doing here?" He gasped when he saw his girlfriend with her wand raised.
"If you read your stupid notebook, you would know." Claudia growled. "Where have you been?"
"I've been with the guys." Sirius said and unlocked the door. He certainly looked like he had not slept. If anything, he looked like he spent the night rolling on the ground somewhere. His clothes were covered in mud and there were leaves in his hair.
"Doing what?" Claudia barked, trying not to imagine all the faces again.
"Is everything ok?" Sirius ignored her question. That made Claudia's blood boil.
"Obviously not." She frowned and followed him into the flat.
"Will you please just tell me what's going on?" Sirius grabbed her by the shoulders. He looked worried now.
"The one time I actually wanted you to protect me." Claudia sighed and began to explain.
"I'm sorry." Sirius whispered once she finished. "Please stay here. Get some sleep." He rummaged through his pocket to produce a key. "Take this. So you always have somewhere to go."
Claudia wanted to be mad at him, to say she was going to go home. But she could not. She wanted nothing more than to feel safe. So she stayed.
For the next few days, Sirius was overcompensating and barely let Claudia out of his sight. If anyone else did that to her, she would have hexed them at this point. Even with Sirius doing it, it was becoming annoying. At least it made her stop thinking about all the other girls. There was no way he would have the time to be with someone else, while driving her this crazy by following her everywhere.
One evening, Claudia, Sirius and his friends were hanging around the flat. Augustus sent Sirius some of Alphard's old furniture, and they were all helping him to sort it.
"I think there is a boggart in here." Remus said and pressed his ear against an old chest of drawers. "Yup. Definitely a boggart."
"Can I try?" Claudia asked, full of excitement. It was the perfect opportunity to practice some defensive spells for DADA. She stepped in front of the cupboard and flick her wand to open the drawer.
Claudia was not entirely sure what was going to come out of there. Until few weeks ago, she would have said it would be her dressed and acting like her own mother. But she was not sure anymore. Maybe there was something else she was more scarred of now.
Her throat closed when a hooded figure emerged from the chest. It was the same person who she saw in Perrin's lane.
"Riddikulus." She shouted, and the figure turned into a juggler. The juggler looked familiar. It was the Minister of Magic in purple tights and a shiny waist coat. Claudia chuckled, despite the knot in the pit of her stomach. She remembered all too well how scared she was that night.
"I'm sorry." Sirius whispered and squeezed Claudia's shoulder.
"I know." Claudia replied somewhat half-heartedly and gave him a brief hug. As she turned away, the boggart turned his attention to Sirius. It changed its form and suddenly, there was another Sirius standing in the middle of the room. His hair was cut short, he was wearing formal clothes.
"Blood-traitors." The boggart muttered in Sirius' voice. "The lot of you."
"Pathetic." Sirius chuckled. "Is this really the best you can do?" The boggart changed this from again and pale and lifeless bodies of James, Remus and Claudia appeared in the middle of the room. Everyone went silent.
"Predictable." Sirius sneered, although he did look more shaken than last time. The boggart began to change its form again. Claudia wondered what could possibly be scarier than what they had just seen.
Soon, she had her answer. The dead body of Severus Snape appeared in the exact spot where the other three laid seconds ago. There were deep gashes all over his chest, his arm was missing. He looked like he had been torn apart by a pack of wolves.
Claudia had absolutely no idea why she was looking at this scene. She looked up to see what kind of insult Sirius was going to throw at the boggart, but none came. He looked frozen, his face was pale and body rigid. You could hear the pin drop to the ground.
James stepped in front of Sirius, pushing him away. Claudia did not even see what his boggart turned to or how James got rid of him. Her eyes were still boring into Sirius. He looked haunted again.
"What was that?" She whispered.
"Nothing." Sirius mumbled and started shaking. Claudia did not believe him for a second.
"This is about what happened last year, isn't it? With Snape?" She remembered what Sirius told her in the hospital wing. That he did something stupid and if James had not intervened, Snape would have been dead.
"I don't want to talk about it." Sirius mumbled.
"Why wouldn't you just tell me?" Claudia insisted. "You keep disappearing. Won't tell me where you've been. What am I supposed to think?" She was getting quite angry with him.
"I keep telling you. It's not my…" Sirius defended himself.
"Yeah, I know. Not your secret to tell." Claudia rolled her eyes. "I better go home. If I'm going to be lied to, I rather do it there." She added and stormed out of the flat.
Once she was in the street, she heard footsteps behind her.
"I'm not interested in your excuses." She yelled without turning around. "Not anymore".
"It's me." Claudia turned around and saw Remus. He was the one who came after her.
"So, he's now sending you to clean up his mess!" She barked at him.
"No. I need to talk to you." Remus mumbled. "Let's take a walk." They walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached a nearby park. Claudia had absolutely no idea what Remus was up to, and it was beginning to freak her out.
"I take it he told you he nearly killed Snape?" Remus began, as they finally sat down on a bench. He was calm, quiet, and composed as usual.
"Yeah." Claudia whispered. Some of his composure was rubbing off on her.
"Did he tell you how it happened?" Remus asked. Claudia said nothing but shook her head, so Remus continued. "He led him into mortal danger."
"What kind of mortal danger?" Claudia asked.
There was a long pause. Remus was staring towards the sky.
"Me." He finally whispered.
"You?" Claudia chuckled. "You're one of the nicest people…"
"I'm a werewolf." Remus interrupted her.
Claudia had absolutely no idea what to say. Should she tell Remus she was sorry? Should she tell him it was not all that bad? Should she ask about how he became a werewolf? Her brain was going through all the questions at a million miles per hour, but none of that thinking translated into actual words.
"He thought it would be funny." Remus continued. "He was in a dark place. Didn't stop to think what would happen to Snape if he came face to face with a fully grown werewolf. What it would do to me if I killed him."
"Why are you telling me this?" Claudia finally spoke. "You barely know me."
"Because I can't stand watching him trying to keep it from you. It's eating him alive." Remus sighed. "Have you not realised that every time he goes missing it's the full moon? They're all looking after me." Suddenly, it made sense. That's where he went that night they were supposed to work on the alkahest. And when you got that awful gash. And on Saturday...
Claudia watched Remus' face. She recognised the look in his eyes when he talked about Sirius. She knew that look all too well. Was it possible that Remus was in love with him too?
"You must really care about him." She whispered. "Even after what he did to you."
"I'm pathetic, I know." Remus tried to laugh.
"I can't be mad at him either." Claudia chuckled.
"He's one lucky idiot to have found you." Remus whispered. "Anyway, should we head back? Before he murders both James and Peter?"
When Claudia walked back through the door to the flat, she saw Sirius sitting in the armchair. He was holding his knees against his chest, cigarette in hand, and was staring into the empty fireplace. It was just like the hospital wing again. When he noticed that both Claudia and Remus were back, he stood up abruptly.
"Claudia knows." Remus whispered. Sirius took few strides towards him and hugged him. Remus looked somewhat taken aback and uncomfortable, but eventually hugged Sirius back. There was deep sadness in his eyes, and Claudia was pretty sure she knew why. It was the only explanation.
"Thank you, my friend." Sirius whispered, let go of him and turned towards Claudia. "I'm so sorry. For not being able to tell you earlier. For not being able to be there when you needed me."
"I understand." Claudia said and buried her face in his chest. And she was not just pretending. She meant it.
"On a happier note. We found a safe way to keep Remus company during the transformations." Sirius grinned.
"What kind of safe way?" Claudia's eyes narrowed. Werewolves were dangerous, and she was not sure she entirely trusted Sirius' assessment of the risk involved of keeping them company.
"On the count of three?" Sirius turned to James and Peter. His eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Sirius, let's not." James implored him. "That's enough secrets for one night."
"Three." Sirius chuckled.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Peter squeaked.
"Two." Sirius moved into the middle of the room. James still looked far from convinced.
"Don't be shy, Prongs." Remus laughed. Prongs? What was prongs? Claudia had no clue.
"One." In a flash, there was a deer and a dog standing in their living room. Where Peter went, Claudia did not know. Not until a giant rat jumped onto the armchair.
They were animagi.
"It was you!" Claudia finally recovered her composure. She recognised that dog. "It was you who's been scaring my mother half to death with the Grim business, and who bit Marcus in the ass last year!"
The familiar black dog hopped towards her, pushed her into the sofa and rested its paws on her shoulders. Its breath was terrible.
"I don't think I ever told you." Claudia squirmed. "I really hate dogs."