Moonlit Horizons
Chapter Three
By Dizmius.
Disclaimers as per usual.
Wont be updated till the 3rd
September after this one as I'm away with my mateys.
All thoughts in first person are in italics, this will mostly be Remus' thoughts on stuff. Apparently, my italics stopped working halfway thru the previous chapter, so I'm sorry 'bout that.
*^*
"I thought you said one pint?" Remus raised an eyebrow as Sirius came back
with an armful of drinks.
"Well…" Sirius set them
down on the table. "It looked rather lonely by itself."
"Such an excuse…" Remus
shook his head, picking up the glass. "This draught bitter?"
"Newcastle Brown." Sirius
said, wiping the froth off his lips. "Nice stuff it is too… maybe not in the same
league as Guinness, but its good nevertheless."
"Ah." Remus frowned, This isn't my forte. When was the last time I had Muggle alcohol? Years and years ago, and yet he still knows what is what and which brands are better after all these years, sometimes I wonder what's going on in his head. He was normally talking booze with James, he always knew which was which. They'd spend hours in various pubs arguing over which beer was better, well until Lily got fed up with them coming home at odd hours blind drunk and waking up to find Sirius snoring loudly on the sofa.
Sirius had turned his
attention to one of the big television screens near the bar, he was watching
various Arsenal Fans cheer on their football team, jumping up and spilling
their beer every time their striker scored a goal against Everton. "I will
never understand why Muggles can get so excited about a game played at
floor-level with just one ball. Ridiculous."
"They've never seen
Quidditch, you can't really blame them."
"But only one ball!"
Sirius looked scandalised, "How can that possibly be interesting?"
"You need to understand
the atmosphere to enjoy it."
Sirius almost choked on
his drink. "ATMOSPHERE? Remus this isn't a book or a lesson, this is a sport,
you do NOT study the atmosphere to get a better hold of the game."
"How wrong you are,
Paddy." Remus grinned. "Just watch the way people react, they love the game,
there's got to be something about it that gets them going, right? Think of it this way, so its easier for you
to understand, think of football as a woman, you're not just going to pick any
woman, right? There's got to be
something there that makes you want more, its not just the woman herself that
gets you going."
"I can disagree with that
statement." Sirius waves his beer mug in the air to gesture with, and it
sloshed over the table.
"Which is why you've never
kept a woman for more than a year at maximum, because you go for face-value,
not depth." Remus smiled, he knew he'd won. So did Sirius, but he'd never admit
defeat. He took a sip from his pint.
"Football has an atmosphere to it, just as Quidditch does. It's just entirely different. If you actually watched it you might
understand."
"And you understand that
game do you?"
"well, not exactly, but
it's fairy entertaining in places." Remus shrugged. "It's better than say…
cricket is."
"Cricket?" Sirius almost
dropped his glass. "Please tell me you don't seriously follow that Muggle
game?"
"No, of course not, but
its all over the Muggle papers when its in season." Remus picked up The Times.
"See, all the back pages are devoted to sport, like the Daily Prophet, but see
that, that's cricket, because it's the summer season. Usually the premiership football games start at the end of the
cricket season, which is now."
"I'm confused." Sirius
started on his third pint. "Stop confusing me, I have a very weak mental
stability at present."
"So I can see."
~*~
"Sirius, get the hell off
my sofa, and get up." Remus shook the
snoozing Sirius awake.
"Wha?" Sirius mumbled
something about ridiculously early mornings and promptly rolled over to stretch
and fell onto the cold stone floor. "Bloody hell."
"I'm wondering whether I should tell the lady at the door that her garage mechanic is asleep on the floor and can't be bothered to wake up and see the lovely leather she's wearing." Remus said nonchalantly walking back into the kitchen. Leather, yeah, that should get him going, he was a sucker for women in leather. If this doesn't get him up, then he's ill.
"Leather!? Where?" Sirius
jumped up, pushing his mussed up hair out of his eyes. Scanning the rooms quickly.
"I was joking, it was a
ruse to get you out of bed." Remus called from the stove, "Hungry, Paddy?"
"I thought you just told
me there were women in leather here for me?"
Remus rolled his eyes and
pushed a plate of food towards his friend, "I was joking, here eat this, but
you do still have a job to go to remember?"
"My head hurts." Sirius
stated plainly as he picked up a fork. "I think I drank too much yesterday."
Look at the audacity of him, he knew he'd have a hangover
when he started drinking last night, and now he's got the gaul to complain
about it to me. He knows I'm going to
lecture, he's just asking for it, I can see him egging me on in his eyes. For once, I'm not going to fall for it, if
he wants a lecture he can go to McGonagall.
"What are you going to do
today, Rem?" Sirius asked, filling a glass with water.
"The Grindylows need their
water changing, so I'll do that first. I got an owl from Drusilla last night, she needs another batch of Dried
Asphodel, so I'll see if I have any left, or I might have to re-dry a new batch
in the shed. She wanted some werewolf
hair too, so I'll see if I managed to leave some round in the basement from the
last fullmoon."
Sirius nodded, it was
common knowledge that Remus had excelled in Herbology, and had a particular
trait for growing herbs and plants in his garden just for the sake of the
pretty flowers and smells. He had
started selling them when a friend had complimented his ability to grow foreign
plants naturally in the British climate, and had asked how much it'd cost for
him to buy some of Remus's herbs. Trade
had flourished by word of mouth, and Remus now had a few loyal customers who
regularly asked for more herbs. "You
might want to read this, it's the sort of thing that appeals to your sense of
humour." He passed Remus the Daily Prophet.
"Oh?" Remus looked down at
the front page, where a gleaming picture of Gilderoy Lockheart was waving up at
them, swishing his blonde hair. "Lockheart speaks of new adventure with
werewolves in the heart of Muggle London. I see he's found his memory again then."
"Oh not all of it, he's
re-read all his own books to find out about himself, this time however, he
actually believes he's done all of the things he's said he's done."
"Lockheart fends off eight
foot high lurid pink werewolf, presumed hybrid species of giants and
werewolves… Does this guy know that giants are terrified of werewolves, and can
sense them miles away? Even Hagrid was
a bit wary at first." Remus grinned slightly. "Yesterday wasn't even a full
moon, who does he think he's kidding? Lurid pink? If I'd had known we could
choose our own ridiculous colours, I'd have been first in line."
"Ah, but read on further."
Sirius pointed at a few paragraphs ahead.
"Lockheart smiled bravely
as he told your reporter about the attack the werewolf had chosen. Apparently the werewolf had Quidditch
experience and was using a famous chaser formation to corner Gilderoy in a dark
enclosed alleyway." Remus snorted with laughter. "This man…. Is a maniac."
"You haven't read the last
line." Sirius grinned mischievously. "Listen to this," He took the paper from
Remus. "Gilderoy Lockheart has revealed that he is now going to put his whole
effort into the search for murderer and Azkaban escapee Sirius Black, he is
confident that by using his unique magical methods, he will recapture the
feared fugitive and personally administer the dementor's kiss."
"He will kiss you? Sirius…
I fear for you." Remus grinned. "With someone like him on your trail, you're
really really doomed."
"Tell me about it." Sirius
laughed, pulling on the jacket he had worn the day before, "See you later,
yeah?"
"Definitely, have fun,
Padfoot."
"My name," Sirius said
haughtily, as he strode out of the door. "Is Severus."
~*~
Remus was walking up the
dirt track leading to his home when a sharp cry and a loud thud caught his
attention from the field he was passing. Remus peered over the fence and saw
Anna in the mud, looking up worriedly at the animal advancing on her.
Hippogriff? Sirius's Hippogriff?I thought he left it with
Hagrid? What on earth is that doing in
there with her? She won't know what to do, she's never seen one before… oh
hell.
Remus clambered awkwardly
over the fence and dropped down into the mud, sploshing over to the Hippogriff,
he bowed low and waited for the bow back. It didn't come.
"Ah, okay." Remus mumbled
slowly reaching out for Anna, "Just walk backwards, don't blink. Try not to look worried."
The hippogriff eyed them
beadily, then let out a squawk that pierced the air. It flapped its wigs and
walked forwards, cornering them against the barbed wire fencing. Oh…
Uh…Hippogriffs damn… natural predators of most countryside animals… a
countryside animal… a rabbit…
Remus pulled out his wand,
and pointed at a stone behind the hippogriff. Mumbling something under his breath he transfigured the stone into a
small white rabbit. The Hippogriff
turned round, to get a better look, and shot off to chase the rabbit. Remus heaved a sigh and turned to Anna, who
was giving him death stares.
"Okay, I should probably start to explain some of this." Remus scratched his head, thinking about the best way to go about this, he glanced at her, she was staring at him with her mouth open in half-shock. That's done it, she thinks I'm loony, or at worst, she thinks she's loony.
I'm so glad Sirius
isn't here.
TBC
