Chapter 4: Marauding, Memories and Merlot
Notes: Thanks for reading. I am trying to get these out as fast as possible but still be up to my usual quality of work. Still, if anyone can think of a good summary for this thing it would be most appreciated. Remus never does get a break, now does he? This chapter proves it. Well, the troubles with Harry may be over, but now we move onto a different type of trouble. As a note the new character doesn't play a big role outside of the next 2 chapters, so don't flame me about Mary Sue…
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"The auror's reports came back, and they showed… nothing," explained Dumbledore. This seemed rather confusing, so I assumed that there was more. Sirius opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but I jabbed him in the ribs. What ever it was, knowing him, it was stupid. He jabbed me right back, although I didn't stomach it as well, and started wheezing. Harry laughed at this, and once we were done beating each other up, Dumbledore continued.
"We got word of one of the higher ranking aurors in, in hope that she would be able to find something out…" she? I haven't known any female aurors since… no can't be. "Candida Gray figured out exactly who. Sure enough, it is traceable to Voldemort. Seems he is keeping a new pet in the forbidden forest…" I didn't even hear the rest of the conversation because I was worried for Sirius's sake.
His face went gaunt at the very mention of the name. You could see that hate in his eyes. "Down boy…" I whispered to him like he was in dog form. His fists clenched tightly, but he didn't say anything. Dumbledore looked slightly disturbed by this reaction, like there was more. "Spit it out Albus," hissed Sirius in a cool tone.
"I was afraid of this reaction. Unfortunately, you haven't overcome your, er, anger…" Harry and I both had to hold him back. Even though Harry had no idea what was wrong, he knew it would get ugly if Sirius got loose. "Because you guys have to go vanquish the thing. You, Remus, Severus, and Candida. She will be residing at Hogwarts for the time necessary. Good day to you all."
I knew right there that Sirius wasn't gonna take this one good. He never does deal with things like every one else; I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid. Pomfrey came walking in wearing a smile, for once in her life. The mere sight of this disturbed my train of thought, as well as Sirius's anger. "Yo, wha's shakin Poppy?" Leave it to Padfoot…
"Harry will be able to leave whenever he is ready. He should be fine; the healing potions from last night should just about totally heal him. The only exception to this is that gash in the stomach. It is healed on the inside, so there won't be any blood. If he coughs, it will be dry, nothing to worry about. Now, I am going to leave him to you,"
Harry darted out of his bed, threw on robes, and tried to make a run for it. "Not so fast kiddo…" I said in my stern voice, which may not be Academy Award winning, but it is definitely an improvement on Sirius. Harry propped himself on the bed, trying to give us a puppy dog look. It didn't work because that was something Sirius could do, and Harry's attempts looked pathetic compared to him.
"Now listen up. If anything is wrong or something, tell us. We need to know. Why didn't you just stay there? It was a near miraculous recovery, and you really were pushing your luck there. Now I want a promise that when there is a problem, you will tell us." Sirius and I were switching back and forth between these lines. Harry nodded in full understanding. When we gave him the ok, he headed down to breakfast to find his friends.
"Hey Padfoot, wanna go to Hogsmeade today? We could do some Christmas shopping and get it out of the way… Plus there are the Quidditch stores!" I was trying to get his mind off of that evil Candida, and I had a feeling that Quidditch and shopping were two of the best ways to distract a rather simple minded fellow such as Sirius.
"No thanks, you go ahead Moony. I have some, er, things I need to do today." Damn, I have obviously underestimated the mind of him. I just shrugged, because even if he wasn't going to go, I still would. I do need to get some things. Dumbledore talked to us, and we are going to be staying here because the forest is not a safe place to be living at the moment…
I got back from Hogsmeade a few hours later. I bought a few things to make my stay here a bit more enjoyable. I can hear Sirius now… "Books, right? You bought books. For you its two things, books and chocolate, and you never go anywhere without either." The sad thing is, he is right. Speaking of Padfoot, I think I will go visit him.
"Sirius, can I come in?" I asked as I knocked on the portrait that leads to his guest room. Wow, there is a room here that we actually didn't find in our marauding days. Dumbledore assigned us our rooms, and we were shocked to find out that there are rooms that our map doesn't show. It took a while for Sirius to realize who it was, then answered.
"Yesh Moony, come in," he answered in a rather slurred voice. This kind of worried me. I opened the door to find Sirius's room in total ruins. There were bottles of Merlot everywhere on the floor. So then I turned to Sirius… oh good god. It was obvious he had been drinking, a lot. His eyes were all glazed over and he was stumbling about like an idiot bumping things. He had in his hand what must have been his 5th bottle.
"Sirius Orion Black!" I shouted. If you haven't noticed by now, I am rather into using middle names. They work rather well to get the message across. "What have you done to yourself?" Uggh. I knew he was gonna do something stupid, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! So this was his way of dealing with things. "What ish it Moony? Thish ish a total invashion of privashy…" Sirius babbled on like an idiot. As if he didn't know why I was angry. He of all people should know why alcohol is a bad idea. Or, maybe he was too drunk to realize. He began to take a long swig, until I pulled the bottle away from his face, causing him to spit red Merlot all over the floor.
"I think you have had enough Sirius," I said firmly. I had to push him back as I poured the remainder of the stuff down the drain. I made him sit down as I made some coffee. That was what he did for Candida; it seemed to cure her rather fast. He began to sip it silently for a while, and I forced him to drink it all. Once I was sure he was sober enough to comprehend what I was saying, I began to talk to him.
"Sirius, you should know, of all people, this isn't the way to solve your problems, and it only makes it worse. This is about Candida, isn't it?" I asked him, and he just looked down at the floor and nodded, too embarrassed to say anything. After all, the whole reason he hates her is because she is an alcoholic. So why was he doing this?
"Now, you are letting yourself fall into the exact same trap that she did years ago. You know that it isn't a good idea, and you also know the consequences, so why did you do it?" Sirius just shrugged. Then he began to say that is was just so calming, and it was just a way to take it off of his mind. Of course, that's what she said too.
"During our marauding years, she was just so nice. It really just brings back old memories of when we were younger, good and bad." The coffee improved his speech, and to think it was invented by muggles. "I think I was thinking a bit too much of the bad. So I grabbed some Merlot and started at it. Then it came to another bottle, and another..."
"You gonna be alright?" I asked him unsurely. He nodded yes, so I left and went to bed early, because tomorrow will be an early day.
