AN: B-chan, Romulus is a very paranoid boy by nature and he's very sensitive about being a squib, he's afraid of being the next one to disappear. And only the high-ups in the Ministry know about Voldemorte at this point, they're trying to keep it quite so people don't panic. And to Anon. I was letting off creative steam with those other things, if I hadn't gotten them out of my head this chapter would have taken even longer. Hope it was worth the wait!
Hmm.. Sirius is planning something. But why does he need weird potion ingrediants and what's it have to do with that strange book? Don't worry, you'll find out, but not for another couple of chapters. ^_^
"Please talk to me
Show some pity
You touch me in many ways
But I'm shy can't you see
Obsessed by you
Your looks but anyway
I would any day die for you"
~ Shy, Sonata Artica
Sirius stood on the hall balcony of Lastrange manor, staring down in horror at the people that had been invited to his mother's little dinner party. Or, more accurately, their children. Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Geoffrey Goyle and Samuel Crabbe stood in a corner, talking. Sirius pulled at the stiff neck of his new dress robe that all of a sudden seemed to be constricting his breathing.
It was bad enough meeting his mum's friends for the first time, but that they were the parents of the boys he and his friends tried to get expelled on a weekly basis only made him that much more nervous.
His mother finally spotted him and gestured for him to come downstairs. He did so very reluctantly, and walked over to where his mother was talking to a really stuck up looking blond couple.
"And this is my son Sirius," Io said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "And Sirius, this is Claudius and Marcella Malfoy, I think you know their son, Lucius." Sirius nodded mutely, cleared his throat and finally managed to squeak out a "nice to meet you," around the lump of fear in his throat.
"Lucius!" Marcella Malfoy called as her son walked past. The Slytherin turned to look at her and stopped in his tracks when he spotted Sirius.
"What are you doing here?" Lucius asked incredulously.
"I live here," Sirius replied, trying to imitate his mother's expression of cool confidence and only making himself seem snotty.
"Lucius, this is Io's son, Sirius," Marcella said as her son came to join their little group.
"We've met, he's two years below me at Hogwarts," Lucius replied, his eyes mocking as he gave Sirius something that only barley passed as a polite smile.
His mother introduced him to a bunch of people all of them going by in a blur. The actual dinner went by in much the same manner, along with Sirius trying not to make a fool out of himself by using the wrong fork or spoon out of the nearly dozen that sat on either side of his plate. And then, to his horror, all the adults went into the drawing room and he was left alone with Snape, Malfoy and a handful of other Slytherins to keep him company.
'You can do this, you're a Gryffindor after all. Be brave,' he thought to himself. But as he watched, Severus and Lucius traded looks, and both broke out in cheshire cat grins before they turned their attention on Sirius.
"Um, if you'll excuse me," he said quickly, rising from the chair he'd been cowering in and nearly running from the room. He found himself at the door to the drawing room and wondered if his mum would be mad is he tried to stay with her. He realized that he really didn't know her well enough to be able to predict her reaction, so he decided no to chance it. He was just about to go find another hiding place when he heard Mr. Lastrange mention his name.
"-well, yes, Sirius is a bit of a liability. But he's good friends with Harold Potter's son - good enough that Harold himself helped the boy find Io. That could be an advantage."
"And we asked Mr. Riddle before doing anything. He seemed to think it was a wonderful opportunity…" his mother put in. 'Liability'? 'Opportunity'? And who the hell was 'Mr. Riddle'? Sirius frowned at the closed door. What on earth was going on in there? Sirius shook his head in confusion. It was probably one of those conversations that you didn't understand unless you were an 'adult'. James said his dad had them with people all the time.
He whipped his head around when he heard footsteps father down the hall. If Snape of Malfoy found him eavesdropping on their parent's discussion, they wouldn't waist a second to get him into trouble. He took off down the hall again and ducked into the Library. He hide behind an overstuffed black leather chair near the back wall so that, even if someone came in and looked around, it would be hard for them to spot him.
He sat there for a long time, catching his breath and trying to relaxed the muscles that had been tensed all night. He leaned back against the bookcase, absently running his finders over the spines of the tightly packed books.
His mum must have been in Slytherin when she was at Hogwarts; it was the only logical reason for her to have invited the people she had to this little get together. They were all old friends from school. He cringed slightly, 'wonder if she's mad that I was put in Gryffindor?'
His thoughts were interrupted as he actually looked at the books he was running his hand across, one title jumping out at him. 'Ex Magus ad Bestia'? Where had he heard that before? He repeated the title in his head, hearing it said in a very prim and proper voice: Professor McGonagall! Now he remembered! She'd said something about it on their first lesson last year. But Sirius couldn't remember what it had been, he'd been too distracted by the fact that she'd just turned herself into a cat and back to pay attention to what she was saying.
He pulled the book from the shelf and open to the index.
Involuntary Transformation:
Leopard-men
Shang-Shi
Werewolves 'hmm…he'd have to read that chapter…'
Transfiguring Others:
Toad and newt curses 'Nope. Interesting, but he'd probably get expelled if he changed Snape into a frog permanently…'
Transfiguring Self:
Animagi
Temporary ad bestia transfigurations 'Now that sounded interesting…'
Sirius flipped to the back of the book and started reading and was soon oblivious to the rest of the world, to caught up in possibilities to pay attention to anything around him. An idea was nagging at the back of his mind and he soon flipped to the chapter on werewolves to see if it could work. 'yep…knew that already…really?…hmm…There!' ~Werewolves, though vicious to any man who crosses their path, will only very rarely attach animals. Therefor many wizards skilled in transfiguration have avoided attack by changing themselves into all manner of beasts. ~ A slow smile spread over Sirius' face. He'd always wanted to see what Remus looked like in his wolf form…
"There you are!" Sirius jumped a good foot into the air from where he sat on the floor. He looked up to find his mother standing over him, her hands on her hips. "Sirius where have you been, it's nearly dawn!" She said, frowning at him. 'Oh no, oh shit, I made her mad,' he thought frantically, cowering against the bookcase.
"I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry," he said frantically. "I just found this really interesting book…and I lost track of time...and...and…" he stuttered in way of explanation. Io stared down at him in confusion for a few moments before understanding flickered in her dark eyes and the tall, proud woman sank down to her knees and put her hand on his shoulder. Sirius flinched.
"Sirius…Sirius calm down. It's okay," she said soothingly. "I'm not like him. I won't hurt you, I promise." Sirius looked up at her with wide frightened eyes, his body shaking slightly beneath her hand. "I was just worried about you. You weren't with everyone else when the party ended and I've been looking for you for ages," She explained. Sirius relaxed slightly and gave her a sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry…" he muttered softly.
"It's alright. Why don't you go to bed, it very late," she suggested. Sirius nodded and walked with her out into the hall. "And don't worry about being late for breakfast, you're allowed to sleep in." He smiled at her and quickly went to his room, 'Ex Magus ad Bestia' still clutched in his hand.
He was woken up the next morning by the scratching of claws against his window. He groaned and rolled over, hiding his head under his pillow, but the scratching continued. He finally gave in, standing up and looking out the window groggily. A pair of wide yellow eyes stared at him through the glass and he nearly had a heart attack before he realized he was looking at an owl. He opened the window and the owl hopped inside.
"Good morning," he said, his jaw nearly unhinging as he yawned. He took the role of parchment from the owled outstretched leg and scratched it on the head before sitting down on his bed and opening the letter.
~ Dear Sirius,
I'm fine. The last full moon wasn't that bad… ~
Sirius blinked at the letter for a few moments before it sunk in and his heart skipped a couple of beats. Remus had written him back!
~ But trust me, if you think your summer has been boring, be glad you didn't have to stay at my house. All I've done all summer is homework and rereading all of my books.
No you didn't tell me you had house-elves. How big is your mother's house? I thought house-elves only lived in mansions and castles. And how was that dinner party, by the way? Was it as boring as you had expected?
Also, have you gotten your book for next year? If not, I'm going the Tuesday before we go back to school.
Sincerely,
Remus ~
Sirius was suddenly very thankful that he'd been putting off going to Diagon Alley until now. A chance to see Remus outside of school? He'd be there.
The next two weeks seemed to take forever. Sirius tried to keep himself busy by reading the book he'd found from cover to cover. It was very interesting, but he couldn't seem to sit still long enough to read any significant portion of it. He was too exited to see Remus again.
On the Tuesday before September 1st, Sirius was up and out of bed at an unprecidentedly decent hour. He was bathed and dressed and had already checked himself in the mirror at least a dozen times before it was even time for breakfast.
"Sirius what is wrong with you, you're acting like you're meeting a date, not one of your friends," his mother asked as they sat finishing their breakfast. Sirius stared at her wide-eyed for a moment before forcing a laugh.
"It's not a date, don't worry mum," Sirius said, trying to smile at her convincingly. 'He won't consider it a date anyway,' he though bitterly. Io rose an eyebrow, staring at her son with a calculating look on her face, but said nothing.
By the time they'd made it to the Leaky Cauldron, Sirius was so full of nervous energy that he was constantly tapping his foot or drumming his fingers. And he was nearly climbing the walls by the time Remus actually showed up, almost falling out of the fireplace in the process. Sirius immediately pounced upon him, hugging him in greeting and smearing soot all over them both.
"Hi!" Sirius said brightly. Remus wiped the soot from his eyes, looked up at Sirius and promptly sneezed on him.
"Sorry," the smaller boy muttered, rubbing his rose. "Soot doesn't agree with me."
"It's okay," Sirius said. So much for a warm greeting. Sirius' mother frowned down at them haughtily before taking out her wand and casting a quick cleaning spell on the two of them, leaving them spotless.
"Thank you Mrs. Lastrange," Remus said politely. She made a dismissive gesture and turned to Sirius.
"Here," she said, pulling a silk bag out from the sleeve of her robe. "This should be enough for your school supplies as well as a few other things." Sirius took it and looked inside, nearly dropping the bag when he saw how many galleons were in it.
"But mum…" he sputtered, staring at her wide-eyed. Io frowned at him.
"I don't have the time today to stop at Gringotts and get any more Sirius, you'll just have to make due," she said sternly, completely misinterpreting Sirius' reaction.
"No, that wasn't…I mean," Sirius stopped and took a deep breath. "What did you mean by 'other things'?" he finally managed to ask.
"You need an owl, I don't want you having to use those school birds, make sure you get it from Eeylops and not the Magical Menagerie." She cautioned, ticking points off on her fingers. "And I thought you'd probably want to replace the broom you must have left at that muggle's house when you left, so there should be enough for that as well. And please get yourself some new robes, I saw the state your old ones are in and I'll have no son of mine running around in such shabby clothes." Sirius could only mutter a 'yes, mum,' when she had finished her instructions. She nodded once, as if everything were in order. "Goodbye, I'll be here to pick you up at half-past-four." Io said before disaperating.
"Must be nice," Remus said once she had left.
"What's nice?" Sirius asked, still distracted by bag of money in his hand.
"Having rich parents," Sirius looked up at Remus, frowning in worry. He'd sounded almost as if he were mad, but why?
"It's weird. Last summer I had to deliver muggle newspapers to earn money cause dad refused to pay for my school supplies," Sirius said absently, shoving the galleons into his pocket. "Come on, lets go!" he said brightly. He turned to see Remus looking at him funny, a sad and confused expression on his face. "What?' he asked him.
"I…never mind," he said quickly. "Um…why didn't they have owls deliver the papers?" Sirius blinked at him and them burst out laughing.
"You really need to take Muggle Studies," he said between snickers before grabbing Remus' hand and dragging them both towards the back of the Leaky Cauldron. "I say, the first thing we do is get ice cream, my treat." Sirius said, grinning as they stopped in front of the back wall of the courtyard. He stared at it for several seconds before turning to Remus his face slightly flushed with embarrassment.
"Do you remember how to get in?" he asked hopefully. Now it was Remus' turn to laugh at him.
"Three up and two across," Remus said as he pulled out his wand and tapped the brick in the right spot. It never failed to amaze Sirius as the bricks seemed to roll back and the entrance to Diagon Alley appeared.
"After you," Sirius said, bowing to Remus with a flourish.
"You're very strange, has anyone every told you that?" Remus asked as he walked past.
"Only my friends," Sirius replied, jogging to catch up with Remus. The smaller boy protested when he realized they Sirius had been, well, serious about buying him ice cream, but had eventually relented.
"Can we go to the Apothecary first?" Remus asked as they sat finishing their ice cream cones. "I want to get it over with." Sirius agreed and they just entered the shop when Remus let out an exclamation.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked as Remus was searching his pockets frantically. He sighed in relief when he finally produced a little gold key.
"I forgot. I have to go to Gringotts and get money," Remus explained.
"I'll go with you!" Sirius offered but Remus shook his head.
"No, you go ahead, I just be a minute." Remus said before running off. Sirius frowned but when into the Apothecary alone.
He looked around, not really paying attention, when one bin caught his attention. It was full of what looked like blocks of solidified honey and the sign on them read: Asafetida. Where had he heard that before? It had been in that book he'd been reading. And if he remembered correctly…Sirius smiled and grabbed what he hoped was 20 grams of the stuff. Even if he found out that he couldn't go through with his plan, he'd find something to do with it.
He had just paid for his purchase when a voice behind him yelled and startled him.
"Sirius, what are you doing here?" Sirius whipped around to find James smiling at him. He smiled back and hid his package behind his back. He'd tell James about his idea when he knew it would work. But then his face fell when he realized that his 'day alone with Remus' would come to an abrupt end if the other boy knew that James was in Diagon Alley too.
"Oh no…James, go away," Sirius said frowning at him. James stared at him, hurt.
"Why?" the other boy asked angrily and Sirius winced.
"Sorry, it just…" he began, but was cut off as Remus came into the Apothecary.
"James! Hi!" the bespecalled boy took one look between the two of them and Sirius could practically see the light bulb turn on in his friend's head.
"Hi Remus," he said brightly before smiling apologetically to Sirius. "You two planned a trip and didn't invite me?" he asked, pouting comically.
"Oh, I'm sorry James. I didn't even think to invite you," Remus said looking upset and worried.
"It's okay Moony, it was great to see you guys, I guess I should got and get my stuff and leave you to alone," James said, trying in vain to make a strategic retreat so that they
"No, no, please stay," Remus said. Sirius closed his eyes and sighed. 'Damn'.
Even with the addition of a third party they had a great time and James was a lot more help than Remus could ever hope to be when they went to get Sirius a broom.
"Now maybe you'll be able to be on the Quidditch team instead of being our good luck charm." James said as they walked out of Quality Quidditch Supplies. Remus looked at them in confusion.
"He's come to every game and every practice since the beginning of second year. And as you know, we won the Cup both years," James explained. "I think he did it cause Katherine and Cassandra kept cooing over him." He said in a mock whisper. Sirius glared at him and stuck out his tongue.
He loved James like a brother, he really did, but Sirius had a tendency to do stupid stuff when he was around, and he'd been trying to show Remus that wasn't a complete idiot. And besides, the Keeper and Chaser hadn't paid that much attention to him. Remus just smiled and shook his head.
The day went by in a blur, the three of them looked at everything, even managing to goad each other into taking a peak down Knocktern Alley, but they didn't go in. Books were bought, robes were fitted and, all told, the three of them had a wonderful time. But by half-past-four, they were all so tired they could hardly drag themselves to the Leaky Cauldron.
James disappeared with his mother, he had managed a hasty good bye as she yelled at him. Apparently he had said he'd meet her two hours earlier and had completely forgotten.
Remus walked over to the fireplace and was just about to through in the floo powder when Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around.
"I'm glad you invited me," he said simply, looking down into Remus' gold eyes. 'It wasn't a date you git! Stop acting like it was!' he yelled at himself mentally.
"I'm glad you could make it," Remus replied. "And I'll see you on the Express." He was about to turn back to the fire when Sirius leaned in and gave him an impulsive kiss on the forehead. They blinked at each other before Sirius stuttered out an apology.
Remus just stared at him for a moment before quickly kissing Sirius on the cheek. Sirius could only gawked at him as he turned, threw floo powder into the fire and, with one last look at Sirius, shouted 'Lupin Cottage' and was gone.
When he finally turned away from staring into the green flames in amazement, he nearly jumped out of his skin. His mother was standing behind him, her arms crossed, and was looking down at him with a cold calculating gleam in her eyes.
"I thought you said it wasn't a date," she said simply. Sirius blushed scarlet and started to sputter but Io cut him off.
"I guess it's better this way. At least I'll never have to worry about dealing with grandchildren. But if you ever do anything like that in public again I will punish you, is that clear?" she asked. Sirius nodded quickly. "Good."
