{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books. I, therefore, own no parts of this, save for the characters that are parts of my own imagination, mostly including Andromeda McGee and Wyvern}
Chapter 19
Hence the Name Forbidden
**For when you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little marker, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says "You are here." Somewhere in Chapter 10 of "The Restaurant At the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams**
"Pray tell, what did you do?" Sirius questioned as Andy made her way out of the corridor and into the potions dungeon.
"You suspect me of doing something already?"
"Considering you look like a cat that has just caught the biggest mouse of all time, yes, I do. So 'fess up."
Andy gave him a smug look. "I got Snape to promise not to kill you."
"How in the name of Merlin did you accomplish a miracle like that?"
"It's a secret. You only need to know that he won't kill you without my consent."
"Oh, great," Sirius said sarcastically. "All I have to do is stay on your good side and I won't die."
"That's one way of putting it, yes," She paused to think. "So what exactly are you going to do with Lily and James's son?"
Sirius looked at her as if he hadn't really thought about it. "I'll raise him, I suppose, until he leaves me. Hell, Andy, he's sixteen now. In a few years he'll be legal and free to do whatever he wants."
Andy laughed. "Sorry, Sirius. I just can't picture you as a parent."
"Who said anything about being a parent?" I'll try to keep it at friend level. Harry doesn't need a parent after all he's been through. He needs some one he can trust, not some one to tell him what to do."
His counterpart shook her head. "Sirius Black, you will never change."
The first years began to fill the room looking like they were about to enter a pit of poisonous vipers, which was not far from the truth given both professors' tempers and the fact that some where in the room there were probably poisonous vipers, pickled and canned. They worked on basic skills for the class. Thankfully the only interesting thing that happened was one group found a way to make their cauldron emit bright magenta smoke. Soon that was cleaned up and done away with, though it did leave a spot of the same color on the ceiling. They were done for the morning. A quiet knock sounded at the door. "Come on in."
Remus entered, closing the door behind him. "Hullo. I just wanted to see if the two of you had burned down the laboratory yet."
"Not yet, though we did end up with a pink spot on the ceiling."
"I kept waiting to hear some sort of explosion."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Remus."
"We'll try harder next time."
Remus shook his head at them, hiding a smile. "Would you by any chance happen to have anymore of the Wolfsbane potion?"
"It's that time already?"
"Unfortunately, it is," the werewolf sounded depressed.
Andy dug through a shelf of bottles. "No, no, no, that's definitely not it, no, no, not that one." She turned back. "Aw, shit."
"You don't have any, do you?"
"I'm afraid not and it would take too long to brew a batch of it."
"That's not good."
"We could do what we used to do," Sirius spoke up, sounding almost resigned.
"Sneak out and you transform?"
Sirius looked grave. "Yes."
"I'm coming too," Andy decided stubbornly.
"Do you remember how to transform?"
"I think so."
"Then tonight, we go."
The afternoon crawled by at a snail's pace. It was mid-November so the afternoons came earlier and darker. Remus was looking decidedly ill during dinner. Sirius and Andy escorted him outside to the forbidden forest and into the Shrieking Shack.
"Just like old times," the werewolf said weakly. He clutched at his stomach feeling his insides shift and reform.
"It'll be all right, Moony. We're here for you."
He flashed a quick grin that turned into an inhuman snarl. His nails lengthen, fur growing thick on his hands, rippling up his arms.
"Should we?" Andy asked.
"Yes," Sirius blurred to his giant black dog form.
Andy took a deep breath, concentrating. She felt her body melt away and reform. Her muscles expanded, becoming stronger and more powerful. She was a lynx, a feral cat. She smiled a feline's toothy grin. Now she knew where Dumbledore had gotten the surname for her earlier, unidentified self.
"Moony?" she whispered, approaching the werewolf. "We're here for you."
Moony pulled himself to his paws. "Padfoot, Shadow, it has been a long time."
"Yes, it has, my friend," Padfoot spoke. "Shall we go?" He pushed open the door with his forepaws.
Three creatures ran outside away from civilization and into the dark wilderness. Their only light was the vibrant moon though they had been there before and needed no guidance. They dashed through the trees following ancient, familiar paths of their youth. Up and down hillocks, rolling in dirt, chasing animals that would have been a late dinner, they did it all. Wolf, dog, and lynx paused at the edge of the forest to watch the sunrise and howled at the passing moon.
"Good-bye, Moony," Padfoot growled.
"Until we meet again."
Moony's change back to human was as painful, if not more painful than his change to wolf. His fur shortened and diminished. Fangs became normal teeth and paws changed to normal human limbs. He slumped to the ground, utterly exhausted. Padfoot and Shadow transformed back to their humanoid selves.
"Moony, are you all right?"
He smiled weakly. "I'm as fine as I'll ever be."
Padfoot gave him a hand up. "Come on. Let's get you back. We all need sleep."
Remus stumbled as he took a step. Both Andy and Sirius were there to catch him. He felt his arms being draped around their shoulders for his support. "Thank you, my friends. I owe you."
"You owe us nothing, Moony. Friends don't let friends be alone when they need somebody. That's what we're here for."
"Besides, I miss doing that," Sirius added cheerfully. "Being able to run free, wind at your back, and not a care in the world."
The threesome slowly approached the Hogwarts castle. "Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
"I'll be fine. I just need a little rest."
They brought the werewolf back to his quarters. Andy gave them a quick "Be right back," and ran off. Remus collapsed into a chair with a heavy sigh. How many times had they done that for him, keeping him out of harm's way in the light of the full moon? They had put themselves in danger more times than he could count, just for him. 'Friends don't let friends be alone,' was that what she had said? Yes, he thought so. He was glad that he had someone now. Those ten years with no one to trust had been a living hell. Then the Wolfsbane potion had been perfected. That helped a little, though physical support was more effective.
Andy dashed back into the room, arms full with bottles. She dumped the lot onto the floor and began to pick through it. She handed a few to Remus. "They're rejuvenatives and pain killers. They might help. Sirius, catch." She threw one at him as well. Luckily, Padfoot still had relatively good reflexes and succeeded in not dropping the bottle. Andy downed one herself with a shake of her head.
"What did you do, hijack the infirmary?" Sirius joked.
"Oh, yes, at sword point. No, actually they were supposed to go to the infirmary and just never got there. We ran away before they could be delivered." She pulled out a large careen and summoned three mugs from a nearby shelf. A distinctive aroma filled the room as the seal was cracked.
"Coffee?" Remus asked curiously.
"Yep, coffee."
"Do I need to ask why it is coming from an over sized Erlenmeyer flask?"
Andy chuckled. "I stopped by the kitchens. The flask was clean and empty, so it served its purpose."
Remus rubbed his forehead.
"Plus, caffeine is good for headaches, which if I remember correctly are one of the after effects of transformation."
"Sometimes, Andy, you amaze me."
"That's quite all right. I tend to amaze myself more times than not."
Sirius looked at the clock. "Breakfast should be starting soon. You up to it, Moony?"
Remus blinked a few times to regain focus. "What?"
"Food, breakfast, now. Are you up to it?"
"I think so." He rose to his feet letting his back pop. "That felt better. The potions seemed to help." He was still unsteady but not as much as he had been before. "Food usually helps."
"Then let us go eat."
"Moony, I'm leaving the remainder of the potions with you. All of them should be labeled. If my hand writing was actually legible, you might be able to read them."
Sirius opened the door, ushering them out. Remus was limping slightly but was stable enough not to fall over. "Breakfast is waiting," Padfoot tapped his foot impatiently.
Andy made some comment about men and food.
"That was uncalled for." Remus stopped to let a muscle spasm pass.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Stop worrying about me."
"Moony, I have pause I don't know how many lost years that I was incapable of worrying about you. And you're wrong; you aren't fine. You're a werewolf. Then again the rest of us aren't fine either."
"You're fully human."
"Azkaban does things to a person. I spent a few years talking with the spiders in my cell."
"I thought you had been Silenced."
"I was. They were telepathic spiders."
"Did they talk back?"
She looked him straight in the eye. "Yes they did."
The Great Hall was relatively empty given that it was early on a Saturday morning and those who had their priorities set straight were still dreaming. There were a few stragglers at each of the tables, though the staff table was relatively filled. Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed at their approach.
"You notice that she still doesn't trust us?"
"Well, of course, she doesn't trust us. You have half the group that caused her the most trouble in all her years at Hogwarts," Remus explained.
The trio took seats at McGonagall's end of the table just to irk her. She didn't look too extremely happy about this.
"Okay, this is getting on my nerves," Andy muttered. She raised her voice slightly. "Professor McGonagall?"
"Yes?"
"We are all mature adults here, not children. Please do not hold a grudge against us from what we have done in the past."
Dumbledore smiled from his place at the center of the table. He knew very well that Minerva McGonagall had been completely against their hirings.
"I think that might have been a little much too blunt," Remus muttered.
"Oh, well. I got my point across."
Sirius had a merry twinkle in his eyes. "Mature adults? Adults yes, but mature is only a state of mind."
"Sirius, shut up."
{Author's Note: The whole point of this chapter was a result of being bored on a four hour car trip to my grandmother's house. It's amazing how much you can write is six days when you have nothing else to do except lie in a hammock and swim in the lake. I apologize for taking so long to post this one. I spent 39 hours in the past week at Marching Band Camp, which consisted of spending nine hours a day for four days and three hours on Friday playing my clarinet and marching. We learned many pointless things, as well as drill sets and the music. Some of these include that the flautists have little people on the end of their flutes that were named such things as Billy Bob Joe, Bob, Lollipop, and Sylvester, and if the flute people fall off the flutes they will get smushed by the drummers or eaten by the color guard. We also learned that if we play the music pretty, people will throw babies and small kitchen appliances at us. "Timmy! To the tubas! Any of the three of them! Wheeeeeee! Thunk!" Needless to say, my mouth hurts, my legs hurt, and I have a really wonderful farmer's tan!
Atheis Gainsborough: Mallets are like the xylophone. I've played piano for about six years, though I've gone through about three teachers. I've taught myself a bit of it. I play what ever music I can find. Right now I'm conquering the songs from Harry Potter. Some of them are plain evil to play, especially the one entitled "Voldemort." But I won't go into that. I do some things by ear, but since I have no trouble reading music, it's easier to find the sheet music. FUBAR was just a random acronym that I like. As for Peanut Butter Cups, well…Let's just say it's an understatement that I'm obsessed with anything peanut butter. Spanish happens to be one of my better subjects. One of my friends left another review in Spanish, so I responded to it in the same language. Some one else noticed that and asked about it, so I responded again in the same language. I don't speak German yet. The school that I go to now doesn't have a good German program. I think we have one class of it, so I'll probably take it my senior year. Andy is an interesting character. Honestly, she's one of my few three-dimensional characters that I've done. She was developed as I began to write the story, so there no solid background to her. Her background is only known from my imagination. Pit bull is an inside joke. It's one of my nicknames, though that's the only part of her that we share similarities wise. It came from a Martial Arts class in which we did something called sparring, which is controlled fighting in a ring while protected by foam guards. The guy who I was sparring was about a foot taller than me and out weighed me by a good hundred pounds. After the match, he commented to my dad, who was the instructor at the class, "Sparring your daughter is like sparring a pitbull." So the nickname stuck, I am Pit bull, and people are afraid to spar me. Thanks for the long review. I love long reviews!
WeasleyTwinsLover1112: Here is your request for more. Thanks for the review.
Peace, Love, and Tie-dye, Nataly Ravenlock}
