Snape choked on his stew. Harry squirmed, and Professor Dumbledore frowned grimly. Even Padfoot whined.
"Oh, don't worry," Nadiera told her fellow diners, "I can't do it alone. I'd need some of my fellow Sisters with me." To her secret satisfaction, this didn't seem to reassure Snape in the least. "Dessert, anyone?" she asked.
Oddly, everyone seemed to lose their appetite. Padfoot scurried with his tail between his legs into the corner of the room. Snape would have done the same, if he were able to change into a dog. Instead, he rose from the table, and muttered, "Excuse me," while flaring his oversized nostrils and glaring murderously at Nadiera with his black eyes. The others watched as he stalked off.
"Goodness, Severus usually never passes on dessert," Dumbledore mentioned, mostly to ease some of the sudden tension in the room. Harry swallowed bleakly in response. "This, gentling that you do. How is it done?" he asked her.
"I've never known a man to do it. I'm sure before the Breaking of the World, he would have been able to, but that knowledge of how he would have done it is lost. The point is, even if I told you how to do it, you wouldn't be able to. Only a woman channeling saidar would be able to gentle a man," Nadiera explained.
"And not by herself, like you were saying, right?" Harry rushed to say.
"No. She would have to be linked with a certain number of other Aes Sedai to do it," she clarified.
"You wouldn't want to go and uh, gentle, any of us, would you? I mean, we've been nice to you and everything, right?" Harry asked worriedly. Of all his luck, to have to run over with a car the kind of witch that had the ability to take your magical powers away from you!
Nadiera seemed to know what Harry was thinking, because she said, "Harry, I can't blame you for hitting me with the, what did you call it, a car? I appeared out of absolutely nowhere right before your car rolled along in my direction. I tried using flows of Air, like I had used on Snape, only there wasn't enough time to stop the car. Besides, Madame Pomfrey has Healed me as good as new, so no real harm has been done by you. And besides, the Red Ajah is supposed to gentle men that can channel because they believe he will go mad if they do not. For all I can see, it doesn't look like any of you are Light-blinded like the male Aes Sedai of old." Nadiera paused for a moment, while Padfoot came back, wagging his tail happily, to her side. "Although," she pondered as she patted Padfoot on the head, "I think Snape could use a good fright."
Harry grinned widely, but Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Severus Snape is really not as bad as everyone thinks. He simply has a rough nature, prickly as a cactus sometimes. And having the dog here agitated him, I think. Harry, that reminds me. Severus is right; you need to go back to the Dursleys before it gets too much later." Harry sighed sadly, and Dumbledore added, "I'm certain that the Weasleys will be inviting you to The Burrow anytime now."
Harry looked at Dumbledore, saw the fixed look in his blue eyes, and knew there would be no turning him around. So, he rose from his seat, and knelt down beside Padfoot.
"I'll see you soon, Padfoot," he said softly. "Counting the days..." Padfoot gave a great, booming bark, stood up and wagged his tail, as Harry stood up and looked at Nadiera. "It was nice meeting you. And I hope everything works out for you. Take care of the dog for me; he seems to like you."
"Poppy, if you'll come with me back to the hospital wing so we can see Harry off..." Dumbeldore said. Madame Pomfrey nodded in Nadiera's direction, then left the room with Harry and the headmaster.
Nadiera was still stroking Padfoot's head, but not paying attention. She seemed lost in thought, until, of course, Padfoot's head felt different. She looked down and saw not the dog, but the man that he really was. Sirius looked up at her, and she gave a start. His eyes danced with amusement at her response to his trick.
"Don't do that again! I've never seen anyone change into an animal form before, and to me, that's quite abnormal!" she sniffed.
"Well, if you look at me now, you'll see that I'm quite normal," Sirius assured her.
"Somehow, I don't think 'normal' applies to you in any sense," she huffed. No, a small voice inside her head teased, he isn't a normal man at all. He's far too handsome to be normal!
"Are you blushing?" he asked her.
Light! she thought to herself. "No I am not blushing, much," she growled. She felt the heat creeping into her cheeks, so she could not actually lie and deny that heat. The bloody Three Oaths don't work too well in situations like this, do they? "Please don't talk like that around me again," she told him primly, while trying to get herself under control.
"Talk like what? Oh! Talking about looking at me? Okay," Sirius sighed with a false tone of resignation, "I won't tell you to look at me again. But then, just try not looking at me, instead of looking at me every chance you get... I'm starting to feel like I'm some sort of object here. It's making me uncomfortable. You don't mind if I look at you, do you?" he smirked as he winked at her.
Nadiera stood up and looked for all the world like she was about ready to call lightning down on his head. "I can see why Snape doesn't like you! You are insufferable!" she railed.
Sirius just laughed as he lounged on the carpet. "Maybe you and I can go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Padfoot needs to be walked there. And don't worry, Padfoot will stay by your side all day, because he rather likes getting patted on the head by you." Nadiera was puffing up again, so he added, "just as much as you like to pat him on the head..."
"Fine! What's in this alley place?" she demanded.
"Oh, lots of things vital to the survival of any witch or wizard. Besides, I have a feeling you don't want to spend all day over here, keeping Dumbledore company. Oh, and by the way, did you know that your face is about as red as that shawl you wear?" he told her.
Nadiera made a face that Sirius was not likely to forget; it resembled a goddess of war statue he'd once seen. Stonily, she grunted, "Until tomorrow." She stalked out much like Snape had before.
"No, I don't think I've gotten enough of that woman yet..." he murmured. It shocked him for a moment when he gave a thought to how much he did want of her. He figured he'd better turn himself back into a dog before he went to sleep tonight, or he wouldn't be getting much sleep at all. At least as a dog, he didn't have human dreams, and he knew she'd be in every one of them tonight.
Nadiera spent the night at Hogwart's. Since it was summer, there was plenty of room for her in any one of the dormitories. She was shocked at how many classrooms there were in Hogwart's, and how many beds in each dormitory. In her own White Tower, very rarely was there more than 40 Novices at any one time. The ability to channel had become less and less common as the thousands of years since the Breaking of the World had passed. There seemed to be far more wizards and witches in this world than there were Aes Sedai in her world.
The next day, Nadiera prepared for her day at Diagon Alley. She dressed in her one other dress, which was a russet color, with a square neckline. She braided her shoulder length sandy hair, and clasped a thin woolen cloak around her shoulders. She wore no jewelry; she kept her Great Serpent ring in her pocket. Traditionally, Aes Sedai would wear that ring wherever they went, but it was certainly not forbidden to remove it if the need arose. She didn't like wearing it; her ageless face was enough to make people take a second look at her and suspect her of being a "Tar Valon Witch." She didn't need to make it worse by wearing the ring as well. Aes Sedai were not always welcome in her world, in fact, many people hated her for what she was.
Nadiera made her way down to the Great Hall to meet the black dog, wondering if people in this world regarded witches and wizards with the same sort of contempt.
Professor Dumbledore also met her there, and Padfoot wagged his tail slowly as Nadiera approached. "I understand that you are planning to go to Diagon Alley; I think it would be wisest to use Floo Powder to get there. Judging from the look on your face, you've used Floo Powder before. Good, good..." Dumbledore smiled as Nadiera's stomach flinched. Padfoot trotted along to one of the many firplaces in the Great Hall.
Dumbledore glanced about, making sure no one was around, and then he nodded. Sirius reappeared, and tossed Floo Powder into the flames. He dashed into the bright emerald fire and said "Lupin's Place!" He disappeared. Nadiera took a pinch of the Floo Powder and tossed it into the fire like she had done the last time. She stepped into the emerald flames and said "Lup--ahem--place," because she'd just inhaled a bit of soot.
She spun and spun in place until she was very certain she would heave up any breakfast she'd had. And then, she was tossed out of the new fireplace unceremoniously. She landed face down with a muffled "oof!"
Nadiera looked up. She didn't see Sirius, or even Padfoot, anywhere. She would have risen from her prone position, except she heard muffled noises coming from the next room from where she was. It was dreary and there was a bad feeling to the air, like the person who lived here was a Darkfriend. "Sirius!" she whispered fiercely, but there was no sign of him. Nadiera had a sinking feeling that this wasn't "Lupin's place." But the question was, where did she wind up landing?