Still not JK. Funny how that is.
Part Forty: Foxy and Roxy
On the early day in April that Hogwarts students left to return home for Easter, a much smaller percentage of students than at Easter collected their things and said goodbye to friends as they made their way into Hogsmeade to board the Hogwarts Express. Kali, Ron, and Harry left Gryffindor tower together to meet Draco in the Entrance Hall where he was standing with Snape, who wanted to see Kali and Ron off before the Easter holiday. The way Snape had become first tolerant and now almost warm toward Ron never ceased to both scare and shock Harry almost as much as it did Ron. It was mostly in silence as they rode into the village in one of the carriages as they didn't want to carry their drunks the whole way into Hogsmeade.
"You almost ready to go?" asked Lupin once they had reached the train station. Harry, who had been grunting trying to get his trunk out of the position it had been squeezed into, nodded. "Let me help you with that, Harry."
Grabbing the end of the trunk together, they wriggled it free and Lupin helped Harry load it onto the bright red steam engine.
"I got us a compartment toward the front," said Lupin. "I came down here early today just after breakfast. Thought it would be nice to be outdoors for some time before spending hours riding on that train just because you kids can't apparate yet."
"We aren't kids," protested Harry.
"Yes, you are," reaffirmed both Professors Lupin and Snape. They exchanged uncomfortable glances before returning their attention to the four students standing with them.
"Going back to Black's too, are you?" said Snape. Lupin gave a short nod.
"Staying here at the school?"
"Someone has to keep Servius Atwater in line."
"Why don't you get on the train, then," said Lupin, looking at Harry, Draco, Ron, and Kali.
"Okay," said Harry, slowly, and he climbed into the compartment Lupin had pointed out to them with Draco following right behind him.
"You coming, Kali?" asked Ron as he was about to climb on the train.
"You go ahead. I want to say goodbye to my dad."
He nodded. "Yeah. Okay."
As Ron disappeared onto the train, Kali gave Lupin a quick smile before turning to Snape. "I'll see you when I get back," she said, giving him a hug.
"Behave yourself," he warned, feeling very exposed with Kali's arms wrapped around his waist anywhere other than the safety of his chambers deep in the Hogwarts dungeons. She, however, didn't let go, and he reluctantly returned her hug in a manner that was more like a pat on the back. "If I hear you caused problems over holiday . . ."
"I know, I know," she said, smirking, as she pulled back. "If I was bad, you'll poison Ron in class and refuse to give him the antidote or something equally appalling."
"I wouldn't poison your boyfriend, Kailah."
"You say that now, but I think you're lying."
"Why would you ever say that, Kailah. I've been nothing but nice to Mister Weasley these past few months."
"And I've been very proud of you. Take care of yourself while I'm away. Make sure you get enough sleep and I don't want you skipping meals."
Snape rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the fact that Lupin was snickering beside him. "Yes, Kailah."
"I mean it, Daddy. You don't eat enough and you're always losing sleep. I worry about you."
"I promise to eat and sleep while you are gone, now get on the train, Kailah, and stop worrying about me. I'll be find over the holiday."
She looked doubtful as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and turned away to board the train.
"She acts just like Drusilla," said Lupin once she had gone, still snickering.
"I know," replied Snape. "So why did you send everyone into the train before they really had to be on it?"
"I wanted to know how you were doing, Severus," replied Lupin. "I didn't think it was the kind of thing to talk about in front of them."
"What do you by how I'm doing?" drawled Snape, sounding more than a little offended.
"Now don't take it like that, Severus. I know you know what I'm talking about. It's April second, which means its going to be April fifteenth soon. Right after Kali's birthday, I know its the worst day of the year for you. Don't even pretend it's not."
"I'm not pretending like anything," countered Snape, crossing his arms over his chest. "This isn't something I want to talk about at all, much less with you."
"Are you going to let a schoolboy feud between us get in the way -"
"Lupin," said Snape, weary, as he rubbed at his eyes, "I don't want to think about this just now. I'd prefer if I never had to think about this."
"Fine, but if you ever change your mind . . . it's not a day of importance for me, but I miss her, too. We all suffer in February; you just have Kali to counter it, which means making up for it in April. My door is always open if you want a word."
Snape didn't reply in words. He, instead, gave a short nod and turned away, heading away from the train and in the direction of the school. Standing on the platform, Lupin watched Snape disappear in the crowd of Hogwarts students until he could no longer see frightened first years eyeing him as they tried to get on the train. He sighed, and glanced to the train before drudging his way onto it and entering the compartment.
Draco and Harry had seated themselves on the floor across from one another, chess board in the middle, and Ron sat off to the side, offering each of them help. Neither one seemed to want the assistance and Draco had told Ron to bugger off twice since Lupin entered the compartment. The chess pieces, however, were on Ron's side and kept telling Draco and Harry (who they didn't trust in the least even if they were their own pieces) that Ron was the only one with any sense.
Kali was perched on the end of a seat just behind Ron. Her fingers were rubbing circles on Ron's shoulders and neck, massaging the muscles there in an action that seemed so natural she barely knew she was doing it. When Lupin entered, she was the only one to look his way and give him a smile when he sat down across from her. Five minutes later, the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station, heading for King's Cross and an Easter holiday with Sirius.
Glancing down to the chessboard, Lupin laughed as he saw Harry make checkmate and Draco groaned loudly.
"You should have listened to me," said Ron, knowingly. Draco glared at him.
"Why don't you put your moves where your mouth is."
"Was that a challenge?"
Draco arched one solitary eyebrow and Ron switched places with Harry to sit across from Draco. He grabbed his chess pieces and they began setting up the board. Kali's hands went to Harry's neck now, reassuring Lupin that she didn't realize what she was doing and her mind was elsewhere.
"Merlin, Ron, your girlfriend has good hands," said Harry as Ron was setting his pawns up.
"That didn't sound right, Harry," said Draco, snickering.
"That's what I meant."
"Are you all right, Kali?" asked Lupin, grabbing her attention.
"Hm? Oh, yeah." She smiled. "Just worried about Daddy. He always gets weird this time of year. I feel guilty for leaving him with Servius over Easter."
"I'm sure he'll be fine."
She nodded and no more was said as Ron and Draco had started their game. It didn't last long, Ron quickly defeating Draco, whose pieces were shouting obscenities at him for losing so quickly. It had only taken five moves and now Draco was fuming, frantically challenging an amused Ron to a rematch. Accepting the challenge, they set up the board again and Draco only lasted two moves longer than the first game before Ron won.
"If I beat you, you're never going to beat Ron," said Harry, laughing as Draco set up the board a third time.
"Don't just sit there, Harry. Help me out. You two, Kali. It's us against Ron. How about it, Professor? Want to join the cause?"
"That's not very fair to Ron," said Lupin.
"He wouldn't mind," said Harry. "He'll probably still win."
"Especially if I'm on your team," added Kali.
So it ended up that Harry, Kali, and Lupin joined Draco in a game of chess against Ron. The collective effort was a valiant attempt, even Ron had to admit, but the results weren't what they had hoped for as Ron still won after thirteen moves. Giving up, Draco sat in the corner of the compartment, slumped against the wall and staring out the window refusing to speak to Ron until the witch with the trolley cart came around.
"I still can't believe how good you are," said Draco, shaking his head. "I'll get you back for that. Perhaps I'll attack you with some of your brothers pranks from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."
"You couldn't do that," said Ron. "I work there on weekends and I know the merchandise fairly well. If you tried to use it against me, I would recognize it. You'll just have to go to Zonko's. I know it isn't the cool joke shop anymore but I spend so much time with Fred and George that I don't know their merchandise."
"I feel so old with you lot," said Lupin. "I remember when Zonko's first opened and now it isn't the cool joke shop anymore."
"It's okay, Lu - er - Remus," said Harry. "We think you've still got some cool in you. Sirius, too."
"Thank you very much, Harry," said Lupin, dryly. "I'm honored. I'll have each of you know that I was very cool when I went to Hogwarts, thank you very much."
"Of course you were," said Harry. "Writing the Marauder's Map and everything."
"We did more than write the Marauder's Map."
"Yeah, you pranked the Slytherins."
"A lot," added Kali. "According to what my Aunt Serena tells me. She said it was a dangerous time to be a Slytherin and she was just glad that you only ever did things in the boys dormitory."
Lupin gave a deep, rich laugh. "Yeah. I don't think any Gryffindor knows the boys dormitory of Slytherin as well as we did. Granted, we did have Sirius to give us a hand in that one. It's bloody helpful having a former Slytherin in your gang. Makes for finding your way around loads easier."
"Aunt Serena told me about all sorts of things you used to do to the Slytherins."
"Like setting off dungbombs in interesting places," said Harry, nodding to Draco. "We heard some really great ones over the Christmas holiday. I bet Filch wanted you hanged when you set off all those dungbombs in the Great Hall."
Sighing, Lupin said, "Those were the good old days. Then again, Kali, a lot of what we did was intended to inflict either pain or humiliation on your father."
"I know. Aunt Serena told me."
"Serena always was rather chatty. Unfortunately, though, your father always seemed to get the brunt of it, Draco."
"Mine?" said Draco, looking surprised. His cocky, arrogant, respectable father had been the butt of Professor Lupin's jokes? Growing up with a man that didn't seem to find anything humorous, much less understand the definition of the word joke, it was hard to imagine.
"Yeah. Lucius was always getting it from us. Nine times out of ten, I'd say. We never intended for them to hit him in particular. We were usually hoping for Severus. Sirius really had it out for him. Sometimes we got him like we hoped. Sometimes we got the entire male Slytherin lot. Those were the best. Usually we only got two or three of them, and one of them was almost always Lucius."
"Like what?" asked Draco, wanting to hear more about his father at school, before he had gone hard, cold, and detached.
"Yeah," prompted Harry, "give us a good story, here, Remus. Entertain us."
"Okay," he said, searching his mind for something good. "I know! Alright, there was this one time in sixth year, and don't go getting ideas from this, you hear?" They nodded, waiting for him to continue. "Right now I'm your friend, but I'm still your professor when we get back to school. Anyway, we always had some process in our group. Typically, I came up with the ideas. Peter was responsible for getting the Slytherin password. James and Sirius would execute the plan. Either that or all four of us would execute it depending on what it was, but they were the craziest and they'd try even the most curious ideas I had come up with.
"This was the beginning of the year. Right before the summer holiday, sometime in May, was when Sirius thought it would be amusing to tell Severus how to get under the Whomping Willow. Things had been intense between them that year and Sirius wanted to get him back for trying to get us expelled. The summer holiday didn't do much to placate their anger and they got into a brawl right in the middle of Potions class.
"Now, Sirius and Severus were always at each other's throats in Potions. Both were extremely talented in the art and were always trying to show the other up in class. Prove he was the better one. The whole thing escalated and they ended up getting detentions for sabotaging each other. I believe Sirius threw a Fizzing Whizbee in Severus's cauldron, which didn't yield positive results as that particular sweet contains dried billywig stings in its recipe. As the dried billywig sting is also a common potion ingredient, it had a nasty reaction with the rat spleen. Severus doubled Sirius's dried nettles. There was a catastrophe that resulted in the Potions classroom being shut down for a week.
"Sirius was absolutely furious and deemed it was time for one of our infamous pranks. Just a few weeks before, Professor Kettleburn had got this shipment of blast-ended skrewts for the fifth years and I had told them how funny I thought it would be to release on in the Slytherin dormitory."
"Oh sweet Merlin," muttered Draco, who still remembered blast-ended skrewts from his fourth year all too well. Harry and Ron were laughing so hard tears were rolling down their cheeks, as they could only imagine where this was going, and the destination promised to be all too funny.
"The point is, Sirius thought it was a grand idea, so Peter gave them the password and he and James stole Buttercup -"
"Buttercup?" asked Draco.
"Yeah. There were six of them. Nice size, too."
"I never thought of Professor Kettleburn as the type to name his skrewt 'Buttercup.'"
"Oh, he didn't. One of the fifth years did. Now that I think about it . . . Ron, you'd know him."
"Me?" said Ron.
"Yeah. Dane. I guess he'd be your uncle."
"Your uncle named a skrewt 'Buttercup'?" asked Draco.
"I can see it," said Ron, after thinking for some time. "Charlie lived with him when he first went to Romania but then Uncle Dane got married and his wife didn't want to live so close to a dragon reservation. It had something to do with one of the Norwegian Ridgebacks getting loose and burning down a few houses. Eventually, she persuaded him to move back to Britain. Uncle Dane's kind of strange."
"Kind of?" said Lupin. "Dane was one of the weirdest people I ever knew. He had a real penchant for Care of Magical Creatures. He liked animals, beasts, creatures; absolutely hated kids. Professor Kettleburn loved Dane. He was his favorite student, so when they got the skrewts, he was allowed to name them. There was Buttercup, Foxy, and Roxy -"
"Foxy and Roxy?" asked Harry.
"Yeah. The twins."
"Twins?" said Draco.
"Yeah. They had the exact same dimple by the sucker. Buttercup, Foxy and Roxy, Princess, Marigold, and Bob."
"Bob?" asked Kali. "What kind of family do you have, Ron?"
"There was only one male. So, Sirius and James steal this blast-ended skrewt and they stuff it into a crate. From how Sirius told it, it was a good thing they were only going down to Slytherin. The skrewt had almost gotten them three times while they were carrying the crate down the dungeons. They snuck in under James's invisibility cloak and released the poor thing in the sixth year boys dormitory. Got out just before John Avery lit a few candles and screamed like a first year girl. Everyone started evacuating from Slytherin common room and Professor Kettleburn had to be called down to handle the skrewt and take it away.
"Your father got it real bad, though, Draco. Lucius always had this really long, blond hair. Not the way it was a few years ago, but really long. It used to go down to the middle of his back. Unfortunately for him, while Lucius was busy trying to be presentable and refusing to be in front of all the Slytherin girls with bed hair, Buttercup burned a good amount of it off. Macnair got a good burn from it trying to get Lucius out of there. Sirius thinks its this incident that led him to join the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures.
"Poor Professor Kettleburn got an inquiry but luckily he only was suspended from teaching for a few weeks and during that time we had a rather attractive substitute so it all worked out well."
During the rest of the train ride, Harry couldn't stop talking about the skrewt prank, something he thought to be ingenious. When the train finally pulled into King's Cross, Harry couldn't wait to talk to Sirius about it. They unloaded their trunks, found Sirius, and had very little time to talk before Sirius produced a Portkey and they went back to Godric's Hollow.
After unpacking, Harry sat down in the sitting room with Draco, Kali, Ron, Remus (as he was trying to force himself to call him), and Sirius.
"How was the train ride?" asked Sirius.
"It would have been easier to apparate," said Lupin. "I told them about the Buttercup incident sixth year. I thought I'd bring it up as Harry's been dying to talk to you about it."
"It was a stroke of genius," said Harry.
"It was, wasn't it?" said Sirius. "That was one of your best, Remus. Poor Buttercup. I really loved that blast-ended skrewt, you know."
"I know, Sirius."
"That blast-ended skrewt forced Snape to run into the hallway shrieking in only his knickers for me."
Kali seemed to find this very funny.
"It also burned off all of Lucius Malfoy's hair," said Lupin. Sirius, getting a very strained look as if he didn't want to laugh about it too much, nodded.
"He had that long hair and then he was half bald. Refused to leave the infirmary until every single mark on his body was fixed and his hair grew back. Dumbledore let him stay in there for a week before he insisted he get back to class. He had to take this hair growth potion daily for two months before his hair was back to the way it had been before the attack." Sirius shook his head. "Your poor father, Draco. I mean, we didn't like him, but he was one of the nicer ones to us. It was Snape and Lestrange that we really hated."
"Macnair and Wilkes, too. You forgot Macnair and Wilkes."
"And Rosier."
"And Avery."
"Okay, so we didn't really like any of the Slytherins, but I really loved that blast-ended skrewt," said Sirius, sadly. "Remember what happened to Buttercup?"
"Oh yeah," said Lupin, stifling a laugh. "Sirius and James got worried when Tristan Lestrange's father started in on trying to get Buttercup destroyed. Dane was a wreck over it."
"Dane Weasley?" asked Sirius. "Wait . . . that's Ron's uncle, isn't it?" Lupin nodded. "I never connected that before."
"Neither did I before today. The point is, Dane loved those skrewts. He was so upset he punched Lestrange's little sister right in the face when she told him that Buttercup was going to be killed. Dane was a wreck but no one was as upset about this injustice as Sirius and James."
"It wasn't Buttercup's fault we kidnapped her and she burned off all of Lucius Malfoy's hair. She didn't know any better."
"Anyway, James and Sirius decided they wanted to save Buttercup - so they released her."
"We freed her," corrected Sirius.
"In Hogsmeade," added Lupin.
"Hogsmeade?" asked Draco. "Why not the Forbidden Forest?"
"That's what I said. It was complete chaos. Fires were being lit everywhere. Eventually, the Ministry showed up and detained her. It's a good thing Dane never knew who set Buttercup free. He'd have killed you, Sirius."
"I was upset, too."
Harry shook his head, laughing. "You two are crazy."
~*~
Over the series of days spent at Harry's in Godric's Hollow, they had heard constant stories about their days at Hogwarts, most of them due to prompting from Harry who never tired of hearing about their antics. Kali and Draco bonded over having their fathers on the receiving end of the pranks and chaos created by Sirius, Lupin, and their school day friends.
On Easter, Lupin and Kali worked all day long in the kitchen preparing Easter dinner. The original plan had been for Sirius and Lupin to cook, but Sirius had been doing more eating than cooking and after causing a few minor disasters, Lupin kicked him out and accepted Kali's offer to assist. Things had gone much smoother after that and though some of the food tasted funny (something both Kali and Lupin suspected was due to Sirius's accident with the vanilla extract), the meal was enjoyable.
They were due back on the Tuesday after Easter and Harry wandered down into the sitting room the Monday night before he would have to board the train, unable to sleep. Ron's snores were light from the cot by the window as Harry climbed out of bed and he could hear nothing but silence behind the door to the room Draco was sharing with Kali. He made his way down the stairs, surprised to see that a soft light was radiating around the corner. Sitting on the end of couch, looking as tired and weary but unable to sleep as Harry felt, was Sirius.
"Hey," said Harry, softly, as he came into the room. Sirius looked up from the book he was reading, marked his place at seeing Harry, and placed it aside.
"What are you doing up?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing," said Harry, sitting down next to Sirius. "I couldn't sleep. What about you?"
"The same," he replied.
"I'm actually glad we're both up. There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about but I could never seem to get you alone long enough to talk to you about it."
"What is it? There isn't anything wrong, is there?" Sirius placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, waiting for worst.
"There's nothing wrong exactly. The thing is, when Draco and I were here over Christmas holiday, we woke up on Christmas morning and we couldn't find you so we came down to the kitchen."
Sirius nodded. "I remember."
"Right. Well, we didn't go in the kitchen right away."
"I'm afraid I'm not following you, Harry."
"You were talking to Pro - er - Remus about my parents. And me. Draco and I overheard you. Draco said I shouldn't have listened but I'm curious and Dumbledore keeps telling me I have a problem with that and I should try to do something about it . . ."
"What did you hear me say?" said Sirius, cutting him off. He looked more scared than Harry could remember seeing him with the exception of the way he had looked when Snape told him he was fated for the Dementor's Kiss. Harry shook his head, trying to clear the thought. Thinking of the Dementor's Kiss only led him to think of Draco's father, soulless up in Saint Mungo's.
"You said it was your fault that I don't have my parents."
"Harry -"
"Don't say anything about it, Sirius. I just wanted you to know that I heard and let you know that you don't owe me anything. You didn't do anything wrong and I don't blame you for what happened to my parents."
"I feel like it is my fault, Harry," said Sirius. "That wasn't exactly the way I wanted you to find out. I didn't want you to find out at all."
"I don't think you should blame yourself, Sirius."
"James should be here, Harry. Not me."
"I don't even know my father, Sirius. I wish I did, but I don't. What I do know is you. You're the closest thing I have to a father. You practically are my father and I look at you as one."
Sirius stared at Harry, not knowing what to say to him. He looked so much like James it hurt and yet hearing those words come from him caused something inside him to snap. For years he had been carrying guilt, praying that James and Lily knew he never meant for them to be killed. He had tried to hide it from Harry, put up a happy facade, and the only person who knew his anguish was Remus Lupin, his futile attempts to make Sirius understand they already knew not working. After all this time, here was Harry sitting before him, a product of Lily and James's love, telling him that he knew Sirius never meant for it to happen. It was the closest thing to hearing it directly from Lily and James that he would ever get.
Harry felt himself being Sirius's arms wrapping around his shoulders and pulling him into a hug. Once the initial shock wore off, Harry wrapped his arms around Sirius to return the hug.
"Thank you, Harry," said Sirius. "I really needed to hear that."
"It's the truth. I didn't say anything I don't believe."
"I love you, Harry."
"I love you, too, Sirius. You're like a father to me."
"You're like a son to me."
"You know, I think I'm going to go to bed, Sirius. I'm really tired after getting that out."
"You know what?" said Sirius, grinning. "So am I."
Sirius and Harry stood together and headed for bed leaving the flames burning low in the embers of the fire.
Once again advertising for the get-together this summer I mentioned in Chapter 38. See that chapter for further details. I live in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, which is about 35 min from Hershey when the traffic is good, 45 min from Lancaster, and 50 min from Harrisburg. E-mail me if you're interested in hooking up sometime this summer. Once I have more people, we can all get into a chat or something and decide where we're going and when.
