Were And Wing,
Chapter 2:
Remus looked from Raislen to Albus as his mind struggled to organize itself around the drastic turn his entire life had just taken in the name of helping to bring Voldemort down. Not glaring at Raislen, who'd just dumped him into the floor less than a minute ago was difficult, but he managed.
"What now?"
"Well you can stay with us unless you have better ideas, as you and Morig will be gone enough meeting with the various sorts of creatures."
"Morig?"
He chose to focus on that rather than the horror of staying with Snape's best chums who hated him.
"That's the harpy," Raislen explained dismissively.
Remus nodded, feeling thick.
"Yes...of course. I need to go home and grab a few things...I rent at the three broomsticks."
He glanced to Albus.
"I take it fake me will be staying there now?"
Merlin's beard but this was surreal.
"I should think so," Albus nodded.
"At least for now. We'll make sure your rent is paid up, so don't concern yourself over that."
Remus nodded in relief. That was good to know.
Staying with Sirius had saved him some money, but though rent was now a stresser, he didn't miss dealing with Kreacher. At least no one at the Three Broomsticks ever constantly insulted his bloodlines or his...condition. That elf was evil in his way, if you asked Remus.
"Alright, then, let's go to the Broomsticks and grab your things, then it's off to mine so that you can meet Morig. Just so you know, I'm having Severus make you the Wolfsbane potion because I don't want to deal," Raislen said.
Remus wanted to scowl at the open look of distaste on the former Slytherin's face, but he was used to it by now. He wasn't accustomed to dealing with former school enemies who gave him the look but hopefully he could get to work with the harpy at once and thus Avoid Raislen for the most part.
"Severus won't mind," he asked, incredulous.
Snape minded being helpful in any way quite a lot.
Raislen's lips twitched into a slight amused grin.
"Oh he minds, but I don't care. Now let's go. Thank you, Headmaster," he said, giving Albus a warm smile.
"Of course," Albus said.
"I'm glad to help. And thank you, Raislen for stepping up. I know how badly you wanted to keep your family out of this, but these days it's more dangerous to do nothing."
Raislen frowned, giving a slight shrug that gave Remus the impression that he was not particularly happy to help.
"Well Severus has made sure I don't have much of a choice," he said darkly.
Remus was curious, but not about to show it by asking. Raislen and Remus left Albus's office and didn't 'speak a word as they exited the castle, then Hogwart's grounds.
"See you at the Sticks," Raislen said, then apparated away with a crack. Remus was quick to follow. He left Raislen sitting at the bar while he went up to pack the few things he felt he'd need or actually cared about. A small amused smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he briefly considered writing a quick note to the soon-to-be other him, but he decided not to.
What would he say, after all? Fake him would mostly be with the werewolves, and as he knew little to nothing of Greyback's lot, he had nothing useful to offer. Albus would give him all the information he needed. Throwing two worn duffel bags across his shoulders, he was heading from the room when he stopped. Digging a bit of parchment and a quill from the bedside table, he wrote the words *good luck*. He left the note on the bedside table and joined Raislen downstairs.
The dark haired wizard drained the rest of a bottle of butter beer that stood in front of him on the bar and rose to go.
"Side apparating," he warned, before grasping Remus's forearm and popping away. Remus squeezed his eyes shut as he hated side apparating. At least Raislen wasn't dreadful at it, and they arrived intact without Remus's stomach feeling upset in the least though his pounding stress headache remained unimproved.
They stood before a grand manor, which was basically the sort of place Remus expected Raislen to live in. The inside was spacious and decorated in heavy oak antique looking furniture of good quality. The home was clean while still looking lived in, perhaps due to the comfortable looking furniture and conveniently placed tables beside each chair or sofa in the large parlor into which Remus had been led. They were greeted by a frustrated looking house elf whose face was scrunched into a disgruntled frown. She appeared to be clad in enough brightly colored scarves to blind a basilisk. Remus had to struggle not to lift a hand to shield his eyes, not wanting to be offensive.
"Please Raislen! Remind your friend not to relieve herself in the floor anymore! Perhaps remind her more strongly than you did last time. I had to use three...count them three different cleaning charms to rid the room of the stains as well as the smell!"
The elf gave Raislen a pleading look from round blue eyes. The look was accompanied by a merry laugh that made Remus smile over its contagious sound. The laughter wasn't coming from the elf, so he glanced around and had to struggle to keep his jaw from dropping. She was beautiful...and topless! Also sadly not human so nothing would ever come of his admiration. Not to mention even if she were human, she'd never look his way twice.
"Oh come on! It wasn't that bad," she told the elf, still smiling as her bright black eyes danced with amusement in her striking heart shaped face.
"Besides...I just forgot," she explained, turning to Raislen as her shoulders, her slender naked shoulders covered in creamy silky looking skin, shook with laughter that she was at least half-heartedly trying to contain.
"You live for all your twenty-four years of life outside, freely shitting where you will, and when you're being kept in a cage for whatever reason, accidents will happen!"
Remus felt his lips twitch in amusement at the way she made the act of relieving herself indoors seem perfectly reasonable and understandable.
"True, but one day it might kill us and where will you be then," Raislen asked seriously.
The harpy who was obviously Morig sighed.
"I know. That's why I really am working on it! I used the stupid toilet thing three times today!"
"It only takes one time to kill us," Raislen reminded and Morig laughed.
"Don't be dramatic. You aren't letting me eat right so I probably can't kill anyone with my shit at present."
It was then that Remus processed her accent. She was American.
It was then that he blurted the stupidest words he'd ever said.
"You're American!"
As if that was some sort of strange bloody breed! He felt the heat rushing to his cheeks as he glanced away.
"Yes," Morig said faintly.
Remus glanced back at her to see her looking quite as if she'd been struck in the stomach. Had he done something wrong? Before he could ask she'd composed herself, and was continuing to speak.
"Raislen and Heather went on vacation in Florida for a few days and they found me. I sort of got lost and couldn't relocate my tribe. I get how stupid that sounds, but...I really thought I knew where I was but apparently not because I couldn't find them for shit. I flew about a day's distance from home because I was bored, but never did I imagine I wouldn't find my way back again. And yes I get how stupid that sounds, and I am not stupid."
"Of course not," Remus found himself reassuring.
No wonder she'd looked so upset when he'd mentioned America! It all made sense now. He wanted to reach out and put a soothing hand on her shoulder, but didn't even approach, less the gesture go amiss. He knew little to nothing of harpies, after all.
"It sounds like something strange happened," he offered thoughtfully.
Raislen nodded.
"That's what Heather and I said. Like some sort of magical anomaly. We spent two days trying to help her find her tribe but we only had a week off from work so had to return home. We hated leaving her so asked her to come along with us for the time being."
Slytherins being helpful and not leaving someone stranded was a bit of a surprise, Remus had to admit. Granted those two Slytherins had stuck up for Snape relentlessly. Also if he recalled properly harpies tended to be darker, more primal creatures, so perhaps dark wizards merely looked after their own in some cases.
Morig smiled.
"Heather and Raislen were very kind to me. Surprisingly so since harpies usually shit on humans to kill them, then take all their pretty shinys."
She gave that merry laugh that made it difficult not to laugh along with her in spite of the disturbing subject matter of which she so casually spoke.
"She wasn't doing that, so we felt sorry for her," Raislen said.
Morig nodded.
"That's sort of where you come in," she told Remus."They said they'd invest more time helping me find out what happened if I, in turn, agreed to help in the fight against Voldemort by marshaling an army of creatures to fight him because the humans are too stupid to fight him right. I said sure but as I'm not from here I didn't feel comfortable doing it alone, so they thought of you! So...thanks for helping. I hope we'll have a blast."
A blast? Fighting Voldemort or even marshaling an army to do so? Still somehow Remus found himself smiling at her and nodding.
"I hope so too."
He gave a sudden embarrassed chuckle, realizing he hadn't properly introduced himself.
"I'm Remus Lupin, by the way."
Morig nodded.
"Yeah, Heather and Raislen said. I'm Morig."
He grinned.
"Yeah, they said that too."
She, like all harpies, was a giant gray vulture from the waste down save for the large wings on her back, and human from the waste up. In her case a young beautiful human with long loose black curls of silken hair and smooth, fair skin. Her well formed chest was covered in a stash of glittering necklaces and nothing else. He found himself wondering if she'd shit on and killed humans to get them. He was jarred from silently debating the politeness of asking when she spoke, her words stunning him into nearly dropping his jaw.
"You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. All gentle like a deer."
Her words were soft, but managed to hit him like a stone regardless. He opened his mouth to say his friend James had been the deer, but shut it again because Raislen would react unpleasantly to mention of James.
Instead he simply gave her a baffled smile and said, "Thanks. No one has ever said that about my eyes before."
"If everyone is ready to eat, dinner is nearly ready," the nearly painfully colorful elf said, and vanished from the room.
"That's Mira," Raislen told Lupin.
"If you're wondering why she speaks like a human rather than an elf, it's because we freed her as soon as she came here to work for us when Heather and I were first married. She was very young, and only being exposed to us, she just speaks as humans do."
Remus nodded. Even if her outfit threatened to blind him, she was far nicer than Kreacher. Freeing their elf seemed rather an anti-Slytherin thing to do, but he refrained from saying as much. Instead he followed Raislen from the parlor and into the dining room. Morig walked at his side, her head coming to just above his waste.
"Do you walk more than flying," he asked and she grinned, shaking her head.
"Oh hell no! Just in here there are shelves with things on and pictures on the wall and I don't want to knock anything over with my wings."
"I'd almost prefer that to the shitting," Raislen said with a mock cringe.
"Accidental shitting," Morig corrected, laughing.
"So can harpies really kill with their...ur...shit," Remus asked and Morig nodded.
"Yeah! It's awesome!"
Remus cringed.
"That's definitely one sided," he said, and Morig laughed again.
"Well obviously!"