By Admiral Albia
Is it okay to be myself?
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 Ten; The Quad
Remus was sitting up and reading when Sirius pushed
the door to the hospital wing open, which surprised him.
"Remus? Aren't you meant to be in a coma-like trance during which your morphic field and human instincts reassert themselves over the wolf's versions of the same?"
"Yeah, but something woke me up. S'odd, I feel fine." Remus yawned. "Just a little tired, but then I was meant to be asleep for twenty-four hours..." He blinked suddenly. "Sirius... if you didn't know I was awake, why're you here?"
"My body's fifteen."
"Yeah, and? ...oh, crap..."
"Precisely." Sirius lifted a hand as Madam Pomfrey entered the room and opened her mouth to shoo him out. "Madam Pomfrey, this is important. I'm surging."
"What?" Sirius sighed.
"My body is fifteen, remember? Until the first full moon of my next birthday, I'll be surging." He pulled his stage-wand out of his pocket and glared up at her. "I need a discharge point. This thing's useless, it doesn't have a core."
"Just do what you usually do and channel it into the music, dance and acting," Remus suggested. Sirius shook his head.
"I can't, not when my power level's rising that fast. I need to bleed it into something."
"Sirius, where did you surge?" Madam Pomfrey asked urgently.
"Top of South Tower. Don't worry, there was only one other person in there and I cleared her out..."
"Oh, good."
"I'm not stupid, you know." From the bed, Remus suddenly had a huge coughing fit. Sirius glared at him.
"Oh? What did you discharge into, then? You seem to be able to move normally."
"Uh.... nothing visible..." Madam Pomfrey lifted an eyebrow.
"This isn't like the time you managed to create a ten-foot wall of solid air in the middle of the Quidditch pitch, is it?"
"No."
"It was an entertaining match, though," Remus sniggered. "Slytherin vs Hufflepuff, and nobody could work out what was in the way..."
"'Specially when Snape's bludger rebounded into his face..."
"Yeah..." Remus leant back, a huge smile on his face. "Happy days..."
"Best match I've ever seen, played in or heard about repeatedly from fanatical best friends."
"So what did you do, Sirius?" Sirius sighed, then jumped as a quad [1] of Ministry workers rushed past the room and lowered his voice.
"I healed Remus." He paused, and winked at his friend. "And, I set up a little surprise for Snape. Nothing major."
"So you did know I'd be awake."
"Actually, no. I must've given you a bit too much..."
"Well, whatever." The nurse sighed. "Our first priority now is to get you two out, about and acting human. Sirius, I'll have a word with the Headmaster about your... problem. Remus, get up, get dressed. What do you two have next?"
"Defence Against the Dark Arts, but we still have a free period; we're meant to be in the middle of Potions right now."
"Oh." She sighed. "All right then, go up to the Gryffindor common room and stay there. And do something normal, like chess, or cards, or read, or talk about Quidditch, Sirius, it's their biggest talking point about you..."
"But I hate Quidditch!"
"Exactly! You stand out!" Remus, who had somehow contrived to dress while this short exchange was taking place, interrupted.
"We'll play chess," he said firmly, and dragged Sirius away before his friend had a chance to argue.
/\/\/\
Twenty minutes later, Harry, Ron and Hermione were back from the Quidditch pitch. They all looked rather surprised to say the least at Remus' sudden reappearance, and had to be glared at forcefully by Sirius and given the infamous `werewolf smile` by Remus before they shut up about the matter; it still wasn't safe.
"Why'd you do that?" Ron asked, looking over at the chess board curiously. Sirius blinked.
"Do what?"
"Move the knight. Surely if you do that then Remus can -"
"Checkmate," Remus said calmly. "And Ron? He knows. He was letting me win. It's an annoying habit picked up from playing against Peter, I believe." Sirius rolled his eyes and nodded.
"He was terrible. Terrible."
"Not that I couldn't beat him if he hadn't let me, may I just add."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"We'll see about that! Places everyone, we're starting again..." The chess pieces obligingly moved back to their starting positions, and Ron pulled a chair up and sat down to watch.
"Remus," he said quietly, looking around to make sure nobody was listening, "Do you know there's a quad around?"
"Pawn, white bishop, forward two paces... yes, Ron, I do. That's why I'm sitting here playing chess with this loser."
"Loser? Me?"
"Yes, you." Remus looked up thoughtfully and, just as thoughtfully, stuck his tongue out at Sirius. Ron stifled a laugh. Sirius looked offended.
"Just because some people can't do Transfiguration properly -"
"Just because some people do Arithmancy too well -"
"Just because some people shave their ears -"
"Just because some people are only half human... damn!" Sirius glared at his friend.
"Thank you, Moony. Thank you."
"Sorry..." Ron's interested face appeared in the line of vision of the two Marauders.
"You're only half human?"
"Yes, Ron, I'm half human. Could I just bring the quad back to your attention please?"
"What's a quad?" Harry asked, coming back from the dormitory - he had had to change out of his Quidditch robes. Sirius groaned.
"A quad... is a group of four Ministry workers who are used to control non-human magical beings." He scowled. "Ninety per cent of the time they do this by killing them." Harry's eyes darted quickly to Remus and back. The werewolf nodded tiredly.
"My sister was killed by a quad. One of my best friends was nearly killed by a quad, but we got him back..." he sighed. "Neither of them had done anything. Oh, except my sister had just had pups."
"That's... sick," Harry said. He blinked. "Your sister had puppies?"
"Ye- well, not technically, technically they were cubs, but you've got the general idea..." Remus grinned. "She gave birth at full moon, Harry. It's a hazard... they're human now, though. Most of the time."
"What brought them here then?" Ron demanded.
"Who knows? Me, Hagrid, Flitwick, Snape..." Remus sighed. "Sirius..."
"It was me," Sirius said bluntly. "I surged, remember?"
"Snape's not human?" Ron's eyes lit up and he turned to his best friend. "Pay up, Harry." Harry groaned and dug into his pocket; Hermione, who had come over as Harry asked about the quad, clucked her tongue disapprovingly; Sirius and Remus sniggered.
"He's three-quarters human," Sirius said once Ron had been paid, "But that's still enough for the quad."
"Why?" Hermione asked. "Why do they do it?"
"Apparently we're a danger to humanity." Sirius growled. "My people were created to help humans. Just because one corrupt Minister for Magic was exposed by one of us -"
"What are you, then?" Ron asked curiously.
"Don't ask, Ron, OK?"
It was at this point that the portrait hole opened and four burly Ministry workers stepped into the room.
A/n; Oh... deary... deary... me.... ^___^ Siri and Remmie in trouble...
Review! I only got three reviews for the last chapter! I'm desperate!