wmipart7 The Werewolves' Magic Institute
By Admiral Albia

In which three weddings are planned, Lily acts more strangely than usual and the Gryffindors are as nosy as ever...

Disclaimer; I own nothing except the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the books. It's very simple. Jiggy McCue (and the other Musketeers) belong to the great god Michael Lawrence, the rest belongs to the great goddess J.K. Rowling.

My heartfelt gratitude to Caitlin Black. A better beta-reader I could not ask for.

Chapter 7; Of Diaries and Henpecking
"Let's try fourth year," Ron suggested once Remus had gone to break up a fight outside the dining hall. Before the others could object, he had turned to 1981, grabbed the Revealer and Revealed yet another video scene.
"I don't know if we should..." Hermione began, but Ron cut across her.
"Oh, come on, Hermione, this one looks interesting... they're in the forest..."
"What?" Hermione gave in; she and Harry joined Ron in touching the tiny panel and once moe they lurched it a different time... a different place...

/\/\/\
They were in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, in the early morning, as were Sirius, James, Remus - currently a human - and Peter. Harry growled involuntarily.
"May I repeat that this is dangerous?" Remus said, sounding ever-so-slightly pissed off.
"You're with a Cargen. Nothing's going to to wrong..."
"Sirius, last time you said that we got detention every night for two months."
"Only `cos Lily followed us! That girl just won't get off our backs, it's not fair... and anyway, it was James who said that last time."
"It was not! You're just picking on me `cos I'm short..."
"You're right, we are," Peter put in; he was about a head taller than James. The other two were towering above them.
"How about if I picked on you because you're tall?"
"Peter's not tall, he's just taller. Than, say, you."
"Everyone's taller than James..."
"This is sizeist..." It was at this moment that they were interrupted by another person coming through the undergrowth. Everyone froze. Then;
"Hi, Hagrid," Sirius said brightly.
"Oh. `s jus' you. You know, yeh really shouldn' bring people wi' you. He's OK -" Hagrid nodded at Remus, "But t'others could be in danger. An' then what'd you do?"
"Run," The Marauders said in unison.
"There're some things in here yeh can't outrun, not by a long shot. Not even a wolf can," Hagrid added, looking straight at Remus. "An' yer not even meant to be in here, Sirius. All they said was it's OK for you to come in if yeh tell a member o' staff."
"I did. You. Just now."
"Tha's not what I meant and well you know it," Hagrid said. "Ah well, since yer in here, mebbe yeh can help me. I got ter set up some enclosures fer Professor Snigwin."
"We're going to have Care of Magical Creatures in here?" Peter asked, looking round the Forest in some horror.
"Nah, but it's safer teh keep `em here. C'mon."

After a short while they stopped in a clearing; and Hagrid gasped.
"Oh, no..."
"What's happened?" James asked, peering round his legs; then he saw. "Oh, yuck. That is gross." It was Sirius' turn next.
"Hey, let me see... oh, no!" Sirius ran straight out, and Harry, Ron and Hermione followed him, only to see a dying unicorn.
"I thought there was only one other case, years ago," Hermione whispered.
"This is years ago," Ron pointed out. "Remember?"
"Are you all right?" Sirius asked the unicorn, contrary to all the evidence.
No... I am dying... DON'T TOUCH THAT! Sirius yanked his hand away from the open wound on the creature's side.
"But... I can help... I can heal it..."
You would do better to save your strength, The unicorn said crossly, And find my foal. Female. New-born. She will die also, unless you save her...
"But I can save you!"
No. You will only postpone it. Go... find my child... The unicorn's head dropped. It had died.
"Any idea who... or what?" James asked; he had come up behind Sirius at some point in the exchange.
"No." Tears started in Sirius' eyes. "But I do know one thing. This unicorn had a foal. And I'm going to find it if it's the last thing I do..."
Mummy?
"Well, that was a quick piece of work," Remus said.
"Shut up." To the foal Sirius added, "I'm sorry. Your mother's... passed away."
Mummy! The foal nudged its dead mother with its nose. Mummy, wake up!
"She won't," Sirius said sadly. "She can't." At last the foal looked at him.
What do you mean? Is my mummy all right?
"I'm afraid not... she's dead."
MUMMY! You killed her!
"I most certainly did not!"
You didn't? Then who did?
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out... right after I get you somewhere safe..."
Are you going to be my new mummy?
"Um... sort of. Do you have a name?"
I'm Binary.

/\/\/\
Sirius pulled one hand out from under the baby unicorn and knocked on the door, which opened to reveal a very disgruntled looking woman.
"Yes? What is it?" She barked. "Oh, it's you. Good God, is that a unicorn?"
"Um, it's a long story, but her mother's dead and I sort of promised her mother I'd take care of her and I don't know what to do and she's hungry..."
"Come in. Not you lot," the woman added as James, Remus and Peter all attempted to follow Sirius in, "baby unicorns don't need an escort. Go to lessons!"
"It's Saturday," James said.
"So go and do your homework!"
"Don't have any."
"I thought you had some secret project?"
"We need Sirius for it, otherwise he'll get behind."
"Besides which we can't do anything until I get hold of some rat fur," Peter added.
"Why not go and ask Professor Yumpin for some, then?" And she slammed the door in their faces.
"That was a bit hasty, wasn't it?" Sirius asked. She scowled.
"I don't like having you in here, Black, let alone your entire bunch of idiot friends as well. How're its vitals?"
"Her," Sirius said absently. "Breathing easy, pulse normal, temperature normal as far as I can tell... no outward sign of illness. As far as I can tell, Professor, she's just hungry."
"Right." The woman's tone of voice changed suddenly from scornful to business-like. "There's milk in that cupboard. Pour some into the saucepan, then chop up some of each of those herbs and put those in. That's it. Do you have any dried apple while we're waiting?"
"I might have. Bria tends to eat it... ah!"
"Well, go on then, give it to her... what are you waiting for?"
"Is she old enough for solids?" The teacher forced Binary's mouth open a little.
"Looks like it to me. See, she's eating it."
"So why the milk?"
"She needs a drink, boy!"
"Ah."
"Why did you come here, anyway?" the teacher asked, while they watched the unicorn guzzle the milk.
"Well, you teach Care of Magical Creatures... and Hagrid said he wouldn't do it."
"So the fact that I hate you didn't come up?"
"Vaguely. But that's Peter's excuse for getting out of everything teacher-related, so..."
"I'm going to tell you something, Black. If this unicorn lives until the end of the school year, I will personally award Gryffindor four hundred house points. That's how sure I am she'll die."
"Can I have that in writing?" She glared at him. "Pleeease, Professor Snigwin?"
"Oh, very well." Professor Snigwin grabbed a piece of parchment, write something on it and signed it. "Now get out. And take the bloody foal with you."
"OK." Sirius picked Binary up gently and had reached the door when he stopped and turned round. "Professor Snigwin?"
"What?"
"You don't have any rat fur, do you? Because we're really stuck on that." She glared at him, then sighed and opened a drawer in her desk.
"Oh, all right. Just don't do anything stupid with it."
"It's not for me, it's for Peter."
"For Pettigrew? I take it back. Don't do anything at all with it." She threw Sirius a small packet, which he caught.
"Thanks, Professor. For... well, everything."
/\/\/\
"So that's how he got Binary!" Ron cried. "I was wondering about that."
"That teacher must have been so mad when she had to give Gryffindor four hundred points," Hermione giggled.
"What, in fourth year?" Remus had returned. "Yeah, Snigwin was furious. Lost all her credibility as Head of Slytherin, too. But she was a bit nicer to Sirius after that. Not a lot, but a bit. And we did get the rat fur." He paused. "Wait. Is that necessarily a good thing? By the way, Sirius is getting married."
"What?" Came three simultaneous voices.
"Sirius is getting married. To Emilily. From what he says here -" Remus waved a piece of parchment "- he was forced into it, but he doesn't say how. And I think two of Ron's brothers are too. Getting married, I mean."
"That'd be Bill and Percy," Ron said. "Is it on the same day as Sirius?"
"No; Sirius' is before. I'm kind of interested in how he's been forced into it, though... I mean, Lily and James are a matchmaking game raged out of control, but we never did that with Sirius..." Remus grinned reminiscently. "We tried. Oh, how we tried... but no, Mr. Clever had to get out of every single one by pretending he was going out with the dragon..."
"What do you mean, my parents are a matchmaking game raged ou of control?" Harry asked.
"Oh... Sirius and I set them up as a joke. They absolutely hated each other... come to think of it, nobody liked Lily very much... and we'd `matchmade` him with every single other girl in the house... It was kinda funny at first, until we realised they were serious and weren't just turning the tables on us. The we couldn't get rid of her..." Remus made a face, then realised they were all staring at him. "What? You didn't think that pair of complete opposites just fell for each other of their own accord, did you?"
/\/\/\
"You are not serious. How many times have I warned you against this?"
"It's not my fault I tell you! The snake forced me into it!" Sirius glared at aforementioned snake, who was gorging himself on rat fillets. James sighed.
"I don't get this. How can a snake force you to get married?"
"He proposed for me! To the damn' cat! And the cat said yes! For her! I'm telling you, James, we're being so badly henpecked here..."
"You think you're henpecked now? Just wait until you are married..."
"We plan to avoid each other," Sirius said delicately.
Oh, no you don't, buster, Tkaa said promptly. You're gonna have a family whether you like it or not.
"Correction. We plan to avoid each other and the animals. Insofar as they'll let us."
"That doesn't work either. You'll just have to learn to parallel-process..."
"OK."
"Forget it. You're good enough already."
"Wha?"
"See? Now. Don't tell Lily, she'll start making a cake. She's been doing that a lot recently."
"Mmm... she's put on weight, hasn't she?"
Sign of a Potter, Tkaa said.
"Tkaa, that's not nice."
"Yeah, she has... I don't like to mention it, though. The one time I did she went beserk and told me if I couldn't read the signs it was my own stupid fault."
Like I said, sign of a Potter... Sirius looked sharply at Tkaa.
"Do you know something I don't, snake?"
Nothing you couldn't work out for yourself... If you can't read the signs it's your own stupid fault... And with that Tkaa went back to his rat fillets. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Translation; He does know something but he isn't prepared to share it."
"Great."
/\/\/
A/n; Hehe! I like cliffies, don't you? Incidentally, anyone who's prepared to think can work out what's up with Lily. You might not even need Tkaa's riddles... ;-)
If you've read this far, congratulations! Now review! Go on!
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