Three hours later, Remus was in the kitchen preparing more tea for his guests.
An unusually full house today, he mused as he tapped each of the cups with his wand. He had gone from nearly twelve years of relative solitude to three guests in his den, two of whom were currently boarding with him. Perhaps these times weren't all bad. If only Voldemort knew that his evil was bringing old friends back together – uniting wizards everywhere – and bringing out the best in his enemies… well he probably wouldn't care. But being reunited with people who cared for him certainly proved to Remus Lupin, a werewolf despised by wizard society, that there was hope.
Discovering Sirius' innocence had lifted a huge weight that Remus hadn't realized he'd been carrying. His closest friends had been everything to him, and the night James and Lily died, he thought he had lost them all. When Sirius had arrived at his door in June, all those years of solitude didn't seem to matter much anymore. He now had someone to keep him company on the full moon. He now had another wizard who did not flinch at sight of him, who would touch him. It had been years since Remus had received any physical human contact. Sirius would shake his hand, clap him on the back, and even embrace him. Remus was so used to locking his emotions away, deep inside himself, he hadn't realized how deprived of human contact he had been. Now he had another friend back, from the best time of his life that seemed so long ago… No, these times couldn't be all bad, he had meant it last night, what he had told Raven, it was good to be reunited with the old crowd.
Albus Dumbledore looked up and smiled as Remus carried the tray into the den. Raven tried, politely, to refuse the tea. But the old wizard wouldn't hear of it. Her bonds and gag had been removed, but there were still red marks on her wrists from her desperate fighting. Remus noticed that Sirius' eyes kept traveling to them, and his hands would twitch. He could imagine how horrible it must be for him to not be able to reach out to her.
The four of them had been talking for hours, relating the story of Sirius' innocence from the start. It had been a painful but necessary ordeal, and Dumbledore's presence had made it much easier. Remus didn't know how long any of them could've endured having to bind and gag her like that.
Raven had calmed down significantly, though she had become unusually quiet and withdrawn.
"So it was Peter," she whispered. "All of this because of Peter, and Harry – Harry let him live?"
"Harry, takes very strongly after his father," Dumbledore said calmly. "The resemblance is uncanny."
"And like James," Sirius added. "Harry is ridiculously noble," he smiled in spite of himself. "He said that he didn't think James would have wanted Remus and I to become murderers for Peter's sake." There was a long silence, while the four of them wondered at the immense wisdom that had come from one so young.
"Impressive boy," Raven said at last.
"I quite agree with you Raven," said Dumbledore happily. "Harry has, indeed, proved to be a very strong wizard, and not just in powers of magic." He took a last sip of his tea before standing to leave. "I would love to spend the rest of the evening catching up with all of you, but these days, I have many, increasingly pressing and grave matters to attend to. I hope I can count on your assistance Miss Blackwing?" Raven nodded dumbly. "Splendid! Remus, your tea, as always, has been excellent. Thank you for your hospitality. I must bid you each adieu." With that he raised his wand and disappeared into thin air.
The three remaining wizards sat in silence for a long time. Raven was staring at the tabletop, apparently lost in thought. Sirius was staring at her and Remus – Remus decided that it was time he left these two alone.
"Em," Remus muttered. "I'm going out to run some errands in the village. Food stuffs and what not." He looked from one to the other. "You two can stay here, just don't blow up the house." Neither of them answered, he hadn't really expected them to. Still, knowing them as well as he did, he figured it couldn't hurt to remind them not to destroy anything. Remus found it somewhat eerie for the two of them to be so quiet. Sirius inclined his head slightly, which Remus took for an okay. Smiling slightly to himself, he left the house. He was doing the polite thing of course. There was a lot that needed to be said between Sirius and Raven, and he really had no right to listen in, but for the pure and simple sake of curiosity, he would've loved to be a fly on his own den wall right then.
* * *
The silence sat heavily in the room until the click of Remus' door signaled that he had left. They listened to the crunch of his feet on the gravel path outside the house fading into the distance. Raven continued to stare intently at the tabletop, as if she could find some way to sort out this torrent of information in the wood grain. Sirius watched her. He wanted to talk to her, but couldn't think of anything to say. Anything that came up in his head seemed too stupid to say out loud. What could he say anyway? "It's nice to see you again Raven, sorry I've been in Azkaban all this time…" He wasn't a moron, he knew that he couldn't simply start where they had left off. They would probably have to rebuild their relationship from scratch.
Raven was different from Remus, in more than the obvious respects. Remus knew from personal experience, the kind of hell that Sirius had been through. He knew what it was to be a social pariah and he had understood Sirius immediately. Both of them were so overjoyed to be reunited with each other that they had no trouble rebuilding their relationship. Sirius smiled to himself, after so many years of solitude and misery, just having Remus back was more than he had hoped for in all his time in Azkaban.
Raven was another matter. He could tell she didn't trust him yet, and it hurt him deeply. She believed he was innocent, of course, but only because of Dumbledore, and though she had heard the whole story, he doubted that she had truly accepted it yet. Remus had told him of the horrific fight they'd had after his imprisonment. That must've been something.
Remus had a vicious, though seldom seen temper, and hers, though more visible, was more than a match for it. Sirius was, frankly, amazed that they hadn't managed to kill each other. But then, he frowned, Raven had come back to Remus' immediately, without any apology. She had forgiven Remus, why not himself? He watched as she clenched and unclenched her fist in thought, still staring at the table. It was a habit he knew well, and he nearly smiled in spite of himself to witness it again. It was a telltale sign that she was thinking hard. Whenever Raven's mind was working overly hard her hands would practically illustrate her thought process as it happened. Looking more closely, he noticed her hands were scarred and callused now. From her work he supposed, but that was the only really noticeable difference. It was maddening how little she had changed.
"I'm sorry, you know," he said quietly before he even realized he was speaking. Raven's head snapped up, she stared at him, startled.
"For all you went through because of me. I'm sorry," Sirius continued uncertainly. There was an awkward silence that felt, to Sirius at least, rather long. The two of them stared at each other across the table. Her eyes searched his. No, Sirius thought, she has changed. He hadn't remembered her ever to be so closed. Raven was one of the most open people he had ever met, through no fault of her own. Her eyes had always had a certain sparkle, a vivacity that he could never get enough of. They told him instantly what was on her mind, though perhaps that was because he knew her so well. But now- now they were darker, as he imagined his own eyes must be after Azkaban. He supposed that even Raven Blackwing could not escape the horror that had altered them all.
"It wasn't really your fault." Raven said at last in what she probably had meant to be an offhand voice. "It was Peter," she said, mechanically as though reminding herself more than him. Suddenly she stood up. "I'm sorry Sirius," she said. "I can't do this right now, I can't…" she took a breath. "I need to be a lone for a bit. Excuse me." Raven darted out of the room before Sirius could even respond.
* * *
Raven had been up late that Halloween night. For some odd reason, she'd been unable to sleep. She sat in her kitchenette with a cup of tea. The tea was cold, once prepared, Raven had realized that she didn't really want it, and making it had merely been something with which to occupy herself in her unexplained insomnia. The only sound in the tiny apartment was the radio. Raven couldn't stand to live in complete silence, so her radio was always on, even if it was tuned very low, as it was now. Raven stared into her cup, watching the tiny tealeaves slowly settle to the bottom, and wishing sleep would find her, when she thought she heard something on the radio that caught her attention. Raven could've sword she had heard the name "Potter". Curious, she stood and walked over to the device to tune it louder.
"…rrific attack at Godric's Hollow, Lily and James Potter, the young couple in hiding there, were both killed. However, the Potter's son, Harry, barely a year old has miraculously survived and the Dark Lord is believed defeated. I repeat, the Dark Lord is believed defeated at last- SLAM!"
Raven hadn't meant to hit the radio so hard. Unable to cope with what she had just heard, she had involuntarily brought her hand down upon the radio's power switch rather forcefully. The total absence of sound now felt very obvious and oppressive to Raven. Was she imagining things. Was she awake. The announcer couldn't have said what she thought he'd said… could he?
The heavy silence was suddenly interrupted by a knock on her door. Rashly forgetting to check to see who it was, Raven flew to the door and flung it open. Remus Lupin stood on the other side looking pale and grim.
"Raven, I think you should come with me," he said quietly.