It was raining.
Umbrella over her head, a thin, pale, blackhaired and black-eyed woman waited outside the Ministry of Magic. Everything about her seemed to be either black or white, save her lips painted ruby red. Her trenchcoat was wrapped tightly around her. Her name was Koda Snape.
While she stood there still like a statue, the raindrops falling and falling made a pattering sort of chorus for her amusement. Inside the Ministry building it was warm and dry, but she liked the cold and damp and especially the dark. If the world has taken precautions not to know you exist, the night is the safest time for you.
Koda waited.
It was November, and soon the puddles would start icing over, and the artic wind blew the rain nearly sideways. Koda closed her eyes, shivered, umbrella helping slightly in the gust. But she was waiting for someone, for someone she knew slightly. She was the only one who really cared that he was coming back from his ten-year sentence in Azkaban. She had a place for him to stay, food, water, even a little maternal love. That was why she waited, weathering the storm. She wondered whether the waves around Azkaban Island were churned to frothy white yet.
A figure walked out.
He had strawberry-blondish hair, and looked malnourished and anorexically thin. Shaking and shivering against the storm, his ragged robes and threadbare cloak didn't offer him much protection against the storm. His eyes were blue, but there was nothing but an empty ache and pain behind them - all the happiness taken from them. No, Koda thought, correcting herself, it looks as if his happiness was dragged out of him and violently murdered...
"Cei!" she called, above the wind.
He looked up, looked at her, paused warily. She rushed over to him, skipping across the puddles. "Cei! Cei, it's me, Koda - remember?" He stared into her eyes for a moment, then slowly nodded yes. "Come on," she said, gently taking his hand. "You can come with me. I have some food at home, and an extra bed... I think I have some of my dad's old robes, to get you out of those things - you're drenched..."
Cei nodded slowly, making Koda's voice trail off from her nervous babbling. The rain soaking him was running down his face, looking like tears. Koda bit her lip, the melencholy Cei was radiating blending into her own and making it hurt fiercely.
"Cei," she asked quietly, "Are you going to talk at all?"
He shrugged halfheartedly.
Koda looked up, positioning the umbrella to protect him from the rain as well. She dropped her voice to a whisper, leaning down close to his face as she held on to his small, bony wrist. "Cei... are you all right?"
He looked up, thinking for a second, and then shook his head no.
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It was still raining.
Koda shuffled the deck of cards in her hands, turning them over. Cei was curled up on the sofa, watching the rain with an almost baleful expression in his eyes. Rest and food seemed to have gotten him into a better, calmer mood - still pitifully sad, but not quite as suicidal as before.
An upturned, beaten hat was on the floor next to the sofa. Aimlessly, Koda flipped a card over and tossed it into the hat. It fluttered down, catching Cei's attention, who watched with the same sort of curiosity like a small child or pet dog.
Koda began to talk, as if to make up for Cei's muteness. She flipped over a card, looking at it. "The King of Hearts," she chattered, almost to herself. "Do you know, Cei, that they call the king of Hearts the Suicidal King because of the dagger he holds?" Koda flipped the card upside down, looking at it. "Sometimes I feel that way," she tossed off casually the same way she tossed the card. Cei blinked, if agreeing, righting himself on the sofa.
After two spades, three clubs and a diamond were tossed, Koda looked up. Cei, always the perfectionist, was building a house of cards, enthralled by his work.
She smiled, slightly saddened yet happy. It was something for him to do, at least, other than sleep. The scene made her sigh, however. Cei, like his father, had once been brilliant, but Azkaban had taken that all away...
Koda looked up - everything outside was shades of grey. As she tossed a Seven of Spades over, she mused on how appropriate the appearance of the day was.
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It had been raining over a week.
Koda had no idea why she wanted to go out, she just did. In the rain-repellant robes over her muggle clothing, she would be dry enough for a quick fly - it was far too soggy to walk.
But...
She was pausing at the door.
She looked at him. He still said nothing, despite her efforts to get him to speak the last few days. There was an intelligence still there, yes, he was still sane. Well, mostly. He just would not speak to her, or to anyone for that matter. It had jarred her, caught her off guard. First she had treated him as if he was a child, but after a day or two, once he finally had his wits back, he asked to be treated as a peer. That was why she knew now that he had a beautiful hand, elegant and swishing. Like his father's.
But now, he was asleep - curled up in the extra bed, trying to recapture the strength that had been taken from him in Azkaban. She commanded herself to be quiet, even catching herself holding her breath without meaning to. In the moody lighting, everything about him was accented - the scar on his cheek, the pure thinness of his body. Koda had to look hard sometimes, making sure he was still breathing.
Carefully, she tiptoed her way out.
The rain splashed against her robes, but with the hood up and spells in place she was dry. Mounting her broom, she went slow, looking at the puddles reflecting her own muddied image as she glided above them. It was a little escape, into the countryside.
Koda looked at the train tracks. They were for the Hogwarts Express. She had always thought it ironic that here they were, Cei Dumbledore and Koda Snape, the two people not wanting to go to Hogwarts the most, right by the route. Well, soon enough the train returning for Christmas holidays would be coming through. She wondered if she should make a point of waving.
The rain subsided to a drizzle, and the faint warm glow of sunlight through clouds decended. Koda looked up, glad for some bright natural light at last. She had missed the sun...
She sighed a little, and looked back down to her path - and immediately braked.
About ten paces away was a dog. Wet, smelly, large, and black with pale eyes, it looked up at her.
Koda blinked. Something jogged in her memory.
She remembered who the dog was.
However, a little voice inside of her told her to just play dumb. She listened to it, and took its advice. Reaching down, she petted the dog, talking to it softly, beconing it to come home with her. It seemed more than eager to, in fact.
Koda decided that she would actually like to have a pet around.
It was a full two hours before Koda and the dog were back home, and sitting by the fire, clean. Seeing no better opportunity to vent, Koda began to babble aimlessly to the dog.
"Do you see, in there, the boy sleeping - ? That's Cei. Cei Dumbledore. He's had a hard time... just coming out of Azkaban, and all. D'you know I was the only one who came to see him, give him some help. His own father too wrapped up in his job and too scared to cross over th' taboo line the Ministry set down. Imagine the field day the Prophet'd have if his father made any move to help him." Koda rolled back, feeling that it was good to talk. "I guess it's good I was here then. I mean, I already knew him..."
Out of things to say, Koda let her voice trail off, and looked back down at the dog. She made herself forget his former entity, she made herself forget what Sirius Black was, she made herself, simply, forget. It was a talent, something she was good at. She spoke to the dog, smiling vaugely, patting it behind the ears.
"You're Richmond," she whispered almost to herself as she dubbed him another name, and made herself forget Sirius Black.
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Author's Notes: 'allo, 'allo, 'allo, everyone. Yes, I'm back on fanfic.net, and you can thank a certain friend on Neopets for coaxing me back onto the site after my long, long absence. As usual, I don't own anything. Well, perhaps vaugely the twistings of Cei and Koda, but it's mostly JK Rowling's. Ah well.
Wierd fic, I'm warning you. It's darned interesting and fun to write tho'.
-=Skade=