A/N last time Altair got
Sirius's letter and he appeared. The next one will be up soon. Please review.
(To make any since read part 1) Also, the orb will be appearing later, so try
and be patient.
Disclaimer: Sirius, Harry, Remus, Buckbeak, McGonagle, Dumbledore, and Azkaban belong to J.K. I own Altair.
~ Moony Lupin
The Celtic Orb
Chapter 2
Realization
Sirius felt a cold sweat beginning to dribble
down his face. In his head he let out a string of curse words. She might not
of figured it out! What did you have to show yourself for! But he new she
would have figured it out anyway, and he told the little voice in his head so.
Ally looked at him pure malice in her face she looks remarkably like Harry
in the Shrieking Shack…only cuter…trailing off he mentally slapped himself
now is not the time for hormones Black he told himself viciously. Panicking
he searched for something to tell her, to convince her he was innocent, but he
new without Pettigrew that was going to be a much harder than under the
circumstances he convinced Harry with.
"Um…" He started lamely but was interrupted by an
over jolly Remus bursting through the thicket of bushes on their left, by the
look on Remus' face Sirius concluded that either his friend had not missed him
as much as he thought or Remus was on sugar high. "How was keeping my dog?"
asked the all to happy werewolf, sugar high concluded Sirius. Definitely
sugar high. After a while with no answer Remus looked around the rock on
which they were standing and when he saw Sirius his face drained of color,
realizing exactly why Ally had been glaring daggers at him for the past minute.
"I'll be going now." Remus stated the happiness entirely gone from his voice
replaced by a fearful stutter. But all to rapidly Ally seized the back of his
retreating robes saying in a deadly whisper, "Oh, but Remus, I'd like to have a
little "chat" about the dog you left at my house and whether or not you knew
some of it's amazing features. And why you Black" she hissed rounding on him,
rage seething in her features, "dared to show your murderous, traitorous, thing
you call a face here again, after what you did to Lily and James." A moment of
silence passed through the group, along with a shiver shared only by Sirius and
Remus. After a while Remus recovered his voice, "Ally," he said gently, "Sirius
is innocent…" he was interrupted by a snort from Ally, he continued "just look
at that letter. It's proof enough." At these words Sirius felt a rush of relief
flood through him. He was very glad Remus kept his head in these
situations. Looking back at Ally he saw that she was pouring intently over the
letter and by the looks of it rereading a few sections. When she was done with
the letter she merely threw it over her back and said in a voice that seemed
forced, "For all I know that Harry person is one of Voldmorts brutes and the
letter was to through me off." Sirius stared at her in disbelief. He then
forced himself to speak, "Ally," he mumbled to get her attention, "Tell me,
which is more likely; me being innocent or Harry Potter being one of Voldmorts
lackeys?" he let these words sink in. He supposed that might sway her opinion
and at the moment was very glad of Harry's choice not to use sincerely but
Death to Pettigrew as an ending, something, that at the moment might, save his
soul. After a few moments he decided he might as well use the final words he'd
convinced Harry with, using a bit of revision. "Ally," he pleaded, "In my life
you knew me better than anyone, even James, and you know I'd never betray him
and Lily…" he was interrupted by Remus correcting his English, glaring at Remus
he continued, "You know I wouldn't. Please, believe me." At that moment Altair
Silver looked into his eyes and what she saw there told her he wasn't lying she
acknowledged all that information with a nod of her head, twelve years of
hating flushed away in single nod of the head. And with that nod a small
flicker of light appeared in the back of Sirius' deadened eyes. Remus smiled,
the sparkle that had long been lost from his friend's eyes was back. Still smiling
he quietly slipped from sight.
Sirius was standing frozen to the spot
in the same position he had been in five minutes ago fighting a desperate inner
battle with himself. At the moment the battle was on what to do next, something
Sirius usually didn't give much thought to. The topic choices for the moment
were:
A.
Rush over and give Ally a type of bear hug that basically that you give a long
lost friend.
B.
Make a smart remark on her cooking.
C.
Give a little speech on how she's changed and yadi, yadi, ya.
D.
Rush over and give her an all out, earth shattering kiss.
So
far he had easily eliminated both A. and C. without hesitation but B and D were
giving him a lot of trouble. He took a deep breath, deciding. "Ally, to put it
nicely when I tried your food I honestly wished I could swim out to Azkaban and
borrow some of their gruel." He breathed without taking a breath. He looked up
looking for a reaction all the while ducking incase she decided to make the
wand in her right hand useful. But when she gave him no reaction he rushed up
and, to make it polite, proceeded with a much more detailed plan D. then he had
expected to use in the first place. At the end of this he smiled down at her,
looking for the first time in fourteen years like the man that had laughed at the
Potters wedding.
Sirius and Ally walked casually back
to the house Sirius sometimes trotting along behind her in a happy silence as
Padfoot and sometimes strolling beside her in animated conversation as himself.
When they did reach the house the found a tethered Buckbeak munching on one of
the islands local, yet strange, birds. Sirius trotted up beside the half horse
half bird then, as a dog, scampered under the annoyed creature playing
something of a game were the rules seemed to be: annoy the Hippogriff and don't
get stomped on, as usual Sirius was violating a rule, the one about not getting
stomped on. When he assumed his usual form he was rubbing his back, which was
fairly sore from a few of the animals well placed kicks. Buckbeak nibbled
Sirius' shoulder affectionately while he patted the great bird/horse on the
head, "Ally," Sirius beamed, "I'd like you to meet Buckbeak. He is a wanted by
the Committee for Disposal of Dangerous Creatures section of the Ministry of
Magic, legally belongs to Hagrid, and has saved my life about three times now.
Not to mention his transportation uses." Sirius smiled again at her stunned
face and laughed, "Come inside and I'll tell you all about it."
Ally
"…So then there was this knocking on
Fliwicks window and when I looked up Harry and Hermione where tapping on the
glass, I was totally in shock and when I came over Hermione unlocked the
window. They flew me up to Trelawney's tower gave me the Hippogriff and told me
to get going. I did and from then on Harry and I have been exchanging letters.
Basically after that my life's been as boring as the life of a convicted
murderers life can be." He told Ally and Remus as they sat around the kitchen
table with steaming mugs of Hot Coco. Ally nodded her fascination evident. "I still
can't believe you didn't tell me about being and animages!" she huffed in a
fake sulk. Sirius just smiled and then said, "Anyway, Dumbledore wants to know
if you'll teach Care of Magical Creatures while Hagrid's on some official
business, thus you'll probably be teaching for about three months." Ally
nodded, stunned. "Great!" chirped Sirius happily, "Remus, under a lot of
persuasion from Dumbledore and myself, has conceded to teach Defense Against
the Dark Arts." In a more miserable voice he added, "I'll be teaching to." Ally
and Remus burst out laughing Sirius Black? She thought Sirius Black,
teacher's bane, teaching? The only things those kids will learn is how to bring
Filch to the brink of insanity and how to get framed for killing your best
friends along with… She stopped laughing, "Sirius," she stated worriedly,
"You can't teach, you're a convicted murderer!"
"Unfortunately" Sirius sighed dismally "Dumbledore has figured his way around that." More laughter broke out from Remus and Ally. "What," Ally gasped between laughs "are…you…teaching?" At this comment Sirius' face turned as sour as if he had eaten a lemon, "Potions." He spat out the word with utter disgust. Now Ally felt as if her bones would break from laughing, Sirius had always sucked at potions and Ally would love to rub it in his face as much as possible now that he was teaching it. "You gona be head of Slytherin also?" she managed to choke out sarcastically in her hysterical laughter. After about half an hour Remus and Ally had calmed down enough to make intelligent conversation, "Sirius," Remus asked, "How is Dumbledore getting around the fact that you're a…" he paused searching for the right words "convicted danger to society." He finished hastily. At this all that was left of Sirius' cheerful mode vanished and he replied in a dull voice "Pollyjuice Potion." Remus started to laugh again and after a few minutes when he showed no sign of stopping any time soon Sirius and Ally exited the room. In her room she asked Sirius, "Who is the Potions teacher you'll be taking the place of? Surely it's better than Darcy?" Sirius just looked at her in a gloomy way, but when she persisted he replied in a strained voice "Snape." The words hit Ally full in the face; realization began to dawn on her, she fell on the ground laughing and Sirius couldn't get another sensible word from.
Sirius
In the kitchen Sirius passed Remus who was still laughing jovially, Sirius sat next to him and sighed, "You'd think…" but he stopped as when he had said the first word Remus had burst out laughing full force again, Sirius backed out of the kitchen grumbling. He exited the house while thinking You'd think I'd hit both of them with a tickling charm the way they're laughing! Gee, it's not like I would laugh if Moony or Ally had to Polyjuice Hooked Nosed and Greasy…well maybe I'd laugh a little…or maybe a lot…okay, okay so I'd laugh till the fat lady sings, but it's no excuse for them. He kicked a pebble in the road and decided to write back to Harry, providing of course that he found Harry's letter. At this he walked off to search for the letter, full a where of what would happen if a Ministry Wizard got his hands on it.