By Admiral Albia
Abandon the search for Truth; settle for a good fantasy.
Note; All quotes and songs will be marked. If it's not marked (and this
applies to Chapter 1 too), then I wrote it. Just to sort out any problems
which may arise with people saying `That's not Shakespeare!` when they
read Chapter 1, for example. I know it's not Shakespeare, I wrote
it. ^_^
On the same note, I'm going to try to make sure
Sirius sings songs that are in keeping with his timeline. That unfortunately
means that he will NOT be singing `Who Let the Dogs Out` unless someone
introduces it to him. You can expect 50's/60's rock and roll, though. ^_^
OK, so it's a little out, but I don't know much 70's music.
Disclaimer; If I owned Harry Potter, I would be working my arse off writing TOOTP (Book Five), not this crap. Sorry.
This chapter;
Chapter Nine; I STILL can't think of good titles! AAARGH!
Sirius made his way up one of the many towers at
Hogwarts, still not believing the other boys' stubbornness. Not only had
it taken him half an hour to get away, but Harry had very nearly pulled
a James on him and made him play...
He probably should go and watch them play, just for Harry, but he'd done that once and the only thing he'd discovered, except that his godson needed a new broom, was that he still hated Quidditch. He rolled his eyes and knocked on the door which was now blocking his path, having to hold on tightly to the railing provided as he was now at the very top of South Tower, and outside on a little balcony.
"Password?" The door asked, sounding bored.
"No idea," Sirius yelled over the wind.
"OK." The door swung open. Sirius grinned and walked in; `No idea` had proved years ago to be the only password everyone could remember, and had eventually become fixed.
A gust of wind blew in from one of the many open windows as the door clicked shut behind him, setting pieces of paper rustling everywhere. The sun shone in through various other windows, proving to the incumbents of South Tower that it was indeed a nice day, if only they could be bothered to take advantage of it. A few bits of music flew off the ramshackle old piano in the corner, and were quickly snatched up by the girl playing it, who had red hair.
A lump rose in Sirius' throat. Everything was just as he remembered it.
The girl on the piano had caught her music now, and was just turning back to the piano when she noticed him. She smiled briefly, recognised him and hastily turned back to the keyboard. Sirius sighed, went up and leant on the instrument. The girl glared at him.
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your finely-tuned hatred towards me, but is Professor Vicrae around?"
"No; she went to get something. Can I play this now?" Sirius shrugged.
"Sure, go ahead." He left the girl to her own devices and went to find a decent violin, which was hard in this place, even with a room full of them.
He was just kneeling down by the pile of discarded instruments when his stomach twisted painfully. Sirius gasped, doubling over as his eyes watered and wondering if he'd eaten too much at lunch; but he'd had this feeling before, when he was fourteen... and fifteen... it'd been when... oh, damn.
Sirius heaved himself upright as the twist came again, sharper, harder, carrying with it more force; more warning. He reached into his pocket and his fingers closed on his wand as the surge came, filling him with magic, sending every nerve in his body jangling with the stuff, blinding him with the white-hot power that brought both pain and peace... he focused his mind, channelled it all into the wand as he'd been taught, began to relax as he felt it leave his body...
...and screamed as it came back, forcing itself back into him, amplifying by the second as it demanded to be used; he realised furiously that his stage-wand had no core and he couldn't channel the magic into it -
And then there was calm, as his power reached its limit. Time was his again, but he knew it wouldn't be long before the magic realised that it had been called this high, not to avenge something done wrong, but because he hadn't used it as he was meant to. Other boys like him had channelled it into all sorts of things to escape the pain; Sirius was the only one who had ever taken it willingly. He hadn't been exaggerating when he told Fudge, earlier in the year, that he would rather die than go back to Azkaban.
There was something there. Sirius paused, confused, then sent a little of the magic down it for closer inspection. He blinked mentally at what he found, and drew in closer. That couldn't be right... could it?
He'd always thought it was James who - oh. No, the magic was right. He had never told James his deepest, darkest secrets, had he?
Well, not all of them. Not why his parents were really in Azkaban, or why he had spasms and `fits` occasionally for two years, which stopped as suddenly as they started; not what he was.
And they'd all thought Remus was the secretive one. Hah! He was secretive, true, but he was too good at being secretive. He couldn't hide that he was keeping secrets, not without giving one away.
He knew what he would do with the power now, though.
With one hand, Sirius grasped the unseen thread running to and from him. As full of power as he was right now, it obligingly solidified under his touch, allowing him to channel his excess power into it, to lend t to the person on the other end of the line; the person who needed it.
With the other, he searched around until he found another thread running from him; the same, but different. This thread was dark where the other was light, humming nastily where the other sang softly.
Sirius grinned to himself and sent some power down that one, too. The person on the other end of the dark thread would receive a nasty shock before the day was out; a very nasty shock indeed.
The power ran out. His vision cleared, and he stood up; the pain earlier had forced him to his knees. The girl who had been playing the piano earlier was standing in the doorway, looking worried. This close, and after that big a power surge, Sirius recognised her vaguely as Ron's sister. He gave her an encouraging grin.
"Before you ask; I'm fine. I get those sometimes, that's all. But we'd better get out of here, the Ministry will be swarming around just as soon as they get into the castle."
"Why?" Sirius sighed to himself.
"I'm meant to... do something to prevent those attacks. I didn't, and they'll be after me." He grinned wryly. "Trouble is, it's a magical attack, so they'll trace it to the closest person in the room. Unless you want to be taken out of school and yelled at by Ministry officials for a few hours, I'd recommend we clear the tower." There, he'd done it without a single lie. Well... OK, so discharging wouldn't have prevented the surge, but it would have stopped it building. Close enough.
Ginny (for such a girl was she) nodded, biting her lip. "Shouldn't you take it now then?"
"Hm?"
"Whatever it is you have to take to stop the attacks. Shouldn't you take it now?" Sirius blinked. Damn.
"Uh.... no. But, I need to go see Madam Pomfrey about my wand."[1] She stared at him. Sirius calmly picked the piece of wood up from where he'd dropped it and waved it under her nose, then headed off. The Ministry squad that would come after him for this one would be looking at a `crime` which had nothing to do with what he was already convicted for, and he wasn't hanging around to get himself caught.
Whew, I think I'm finally over my HP writer's block! And it's about time too... I like chapters like this ^_^ Lots of plot and detail, but no explanations. They make for some good reviews... so review! What do you think caused him to spasm?
One a side note, could I please ask people to stop reviewing the `Title` pages in Raindrops and Rosebuds (the ones with `please do not review this page` written on them in large letters). You may think it's funny, but just about every person who reviews thinks it is and quite frankly I'm getting sick of it. Once was funny. Twice was humorous. Ten times just makes me want to flame someone.