Chapter seventeen, by Dizmius
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You ALL have to listen to Air- the virgin suicides album; it's the best for writing fanfic to. Goes well with moonlit horizons too… I've decided Sirius is gonna play "highschool lover" from the soundtrack as his improvised piano bit. Why is it called moonlit Horizons? Just a comment Remus makes in this chapter. A comment I wrote for him in the beginning, before even writing the rest of the story. Originally I was going to start with that but then I had a better idea. Hope you liked my digression chapter 16 B hehehe… kind of off topic, but it fits in you see, and explains some stuff that I thought needed explanation. It can be ignored if you so wish.
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"Look what I've found!" Sirius beamed at Anna and Remus after dinner that evening, "You have to come see this."
"What is it?" Anna asked, curious as to what had got Sirius so excited.
"A piano, here at Hogwarts!" Sirius laughed, and strolled up the stairs into a room adjacent to the astronomy tower. It was an empty room, except for a large grand piano, which stood in the middle, covered with a thick layer of dust.
Remus trailed a finger through the dust, idly drawing a stick person flying a kite.
"Pretty." Anna smiled, and drew another stick person next to Remus'. She gave it a triangular dress and curly stick hair. "There, a masterpiece."
"And now… the great maestro Sirius Orion Black takes centre stage in the Albert Hall." Sirius narrated to himself as he sat down on the piano stool, a large cloud of dust rose as he lifted the lid slightly. He fingered a few notes, and smiled. "And it's in key!"
"And what will the great maestro play for his humble audience?" Anna gave Remus a smirk, this could be amusing.
"Erm… Scales and Arpeggios, courtesy of some rather funky alley cats… Not that I really like cats, I've always
been more of a dog person myself, but…"
"Get on with it." Remus groaned.
With painstaking slowness, Sirius picked out a few arpeggios and strung them together, warbling along to himself, mimicking the various voices of the cats,"
"Wait a few minutes and he'll start going "beow" again." Remus grinned as Sirius put on a faux- high-pitched voice.
"Feeeeeel the music ringing from your chest and not your noooooooose! Whilst you sing your scssssssscales and your arpeeeeeeeggiooooos, …."
"Why would the music be ringing from your nose?" Remus asked, confused.
Sirius seemed to have lost track of the song and was now improvising, banging out something with a bit more of his characteristic 'spunk'.
Anna took hold of Remus' arm, and whispered in his ear. "Let's leave him to his fun, he looks like he could be a while..."
Remus nodded and they silently closed the door behind them, cringing as Sirius misplaced a chord and swore violently.
"He's mad." Anna shook her head, looking inquisitively at the Astronomy tower door. "Do you think we could see the stars at this hour?"
""Well, probably, its dark and there's little cloud, do you want to?"
"Yes." Anna smiled pushing open the gilt-trimmed door.
"There are four little astronomy rooms, the best one is the one with the blue telescope, it shows all the magical bearings on the stars and such like." Remus squinted through one of the keyholes.
"Why are you squinting through the keyholes of the doors?" Anna asked trying not to laugh.
"Astronomy tower was one of Sirius Blacks' favourite places, work it out from there. You tend to learn not to just open doors up here." Remus knelt down to look though the second keyhole. "I'm so glad Sirius isn't here."
"Why?"
"You don't want to know the comments he'd make about those two." He pointed at the door, hastily standing up. "Getting a bit heavy in there." He grinned.
"Who is it?" Anna asked, smirking.
"I'll clue you in, they both share the same last name, one's aloof and antisocial, the other is just one big human ball of sarcasm, nice but ironic as hell." Remus silently opened the door to the third astronomy room. "And they obviously don't care for the best telescopes either."
"How do these work?" Anna sat down in the large chair and peered up through the eye piece of the telescope,
"Depends where you want to focus in on."
"Zodiac stars, Sagittarius and Virgo and Pisces…" Anna twisted round in the seat to look up at Remus. "All I can see is a big blotch of black… stuff."
Remus nodded, and tapped the telescope with his wand, "Here, take my wand." He handed her his wand. "Whatever you want to focus in on, just say it's name and tap the telescope, you can command it to zoom in, or pan left, whatever you wish it to do, or if you aren't sure tap it and say random, it'll just show you something randomly chosen by itself." He sat on the arm of the chair, peering up through the window at the glinting stars.
So typical of Draezyc to drag Snape up here… You can bet she wasn't interested in the view either. I loved it up here, just staring at the sky, wondering why it held so many answers to age-old questions. The only ones who ever really understand the sky are the centaurs, but it'd take a miracle to get any useful information out of them at the best of times. I used to resent the night sky; it held what was the bane of my existence. But you have to push through these things; it's not the sky's fault, obviously. How can you blame something like that on the sky?
"What's your favourite star constellation?"
"Hmm?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Stars, which are your favourite." Anna asked again.
"Cassiopeia." Remus answered, "Always loved it, always will… it's in conjunction with Venus at the moment, or at least, according to Trelawney."
"Which is why one of the stars in the middle seems to be glowing greeny blue."
"That's right." Remus smiled. "My mother used to tell me to wish to it, because she said anything the fates had to offer, were dealt out by Venus' command. She got lonely up in the sky, and liked people talking to her, telling her their wishes."
"And you were how old at the time?"
"Six," Remus leant down to pick up one of the dusty volumes of astronomy books on the floor.
"What's that?"
Remus looked up, "Astronomy books,"
"Nono, the necklace." Anna pointed at Remus' neck. "I didn't know you joined up with the Army."
"Army? No, this has nothing to do with any army of any kind." Remus unclipped the silver chain from round his neck, and placed it in Anna's hand.
"Registry of Magical Creatures, Werewolf identity number 018646, Remus J. Lupin." Anna read the embossed script on the dog tag. "They make you wear a label?" She sounded disgusted. "How could they?"
"In case I devour some poor ministry official I suppose." Remus shrugged. "I've always worn it. Brings me back down to Earth sometimes. Reminds me who I am."
"You're Remus, not some number on a magical database of creatures."
Remus laughed. "Even my name, it was tempting fate… Son of wolf, Wolfish." He chuckled. "Want to know what my father was called? He was Timeo Lupin… Can be translated as- I fear the wolfish. I'm used to it."
"Don't you ever wonder what you'd have been like if you weren't…"
"A werewolf? Yes, sometimes. But I will never know what Remus J Lupin would have been like in an alternate universe, so I'm afraid you're stuck with this one." Remus gave a small bow, "Compete with deluxe dark creature upgrade."
"Shouldn't I have one, if all this thing about a Phaerren means I'm classified as a creature?" Anna asked, hanging Remus' tag on the focusing toggle.
"Well, if the ministry ever find out what you are, then yes." Remus crouched down, so he was at Anna's eyelevel. "But that's not going to happen, because we're not going to let the ministry find out. The moment the ministry knows, so does the rest of the wizarding civilisation."
"How many werewolves are there, in England?"
"Only England? At the last census, about two hundred and seven. But that was in 1980, the number's probably dropped since then." Remus shrugged, "I don't know many of them, and they don't really like to associate with the only known wolf issued with a wand, usually with your ID tag, you get your wizarding license revoked, thus, they take your wand."
"But you have yours."
"Only because of Dumbledore, I have a lot to thank him for. But, a lot of the werewolves are Muggles. They don't understand what's happening to them most of the time, or it's all hushed up by the government."
"The stars look better from far away." Anna smiled briefly, getting up out of the chair and sitting on the window seat, pushing the large window open, looking left, she could see the couple in the other room had had the same idea, and two distinctive pairs of black dragonhide boots were hanging out of the window. They must be sitting on the ledge. Slightly dangerous, the drop was a long and painful-looking one.
Anna felt a hand on her shoulder, and almost shrieked.
"Don't look down." Remus grinned. He peered out of the window, "Waning, just how I like it." He nodded up at the moon, sitting down beside Anna, "or preferably, heavy cloud cover. Snow is nice."
"But you can't see the horizons. Moonlight on snowy horizons is wonderful."
"Who cares about moonlit horizons?" Remus ran his hand down her back. "I'd be very grateful if some sort of Armageddon actually came along and blasted the damn things into lots of little bits, a continuous new moon, blissful." He pulled her back against him. "And..." He gently kissed the nape of her neck, "It'd make a very spectacular addition to the northern lights auras you see in the north."
"Couldn't you just magic the moon away?"
"Possibly, but don't you think people might notice? Oh the moon's gone, ooops! I bet the Muggle physicists would have a great challenge explaining that one, a sudden change in the erm… weightlessness outer space air pressure making the moon implode into its own invisible black hole, miraculously not taking the Earth with it. Or maybe a hoard of aliens abducted it as a souvenir..."
"Remus?"
"Mmm?" Remus raised an eyebrow in question.
"Shut up."
"Feisty." He kissed her nose. "Such a lack of manners."
"I agree. Lupin, shut up." A velvety voice floated across from the window across from theirs.
"See." Anna grinned.
Remus leaned out of the window to see Snape sneering at him, "Have you been eavesdropping our conversation?"
"Not the entire conversation, just the bit about Muggle physicists and aliens abducting the moon." Snape smirked. "Now if you'll excuse me…"
Lupin grimaced, "Consider yourself excused." He muttered, turning back to Anna, "I swear one day, if Sirius doesn't get there first, I'm going to strangle him."
"Can I help?" Anna grinned wickedly, "I could set his hair on fire again."
"You are deemed a part of the Strangle Snape Society. A society which has been in existence since 1971, and now has a cult following." Remus said solemnly, "Price for being a patron of said society is kissing the Founder." He wiggled his eyebrows wickedly, pulling her close for a deep kiss.
This would be the point when Sirius suddenly makes an entrance, claiming that he didn't know the room was occupied, and asking if he can join in. Thank god for pianos.
Remus jumped as he heard a chink against the stone floor, turning prepared for Sirius' grinning face. Suitable retribution in hand.
Nothing.
Anna reached down and picked up Remus' ID tag off the floor. "Only this." She smiled, "Were you expecting something else?"
"No…" Remus glanced at the door, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "Nothing at all." I really desperately hope Sirius didn't get the invisibility cloak off Harry when he visited, that could cause no end of trouble. Remus snapped back to reality when he felt the top buttons of his robe being undone. He instinctively grabbed Anna's wrists.
"I was putting your tag back on, silly." Anna rolled her eyes. "Like I'd do that here, in front of… those two."
Remus leant his head forward, letting Anna put the chain over his head, as if he was accepting an Olympic medal. She tucked it under his shirt. A shadowy figure on the path below caught Remus attention. There was no mistaking the pristine pinstripe robes, "Ah, looks like Eddie's back."
"Good, that's bound to keep Sirius occupied." Anna smiled softly, caressing Remus' arm lazily. "Lets hope she doesn't mind blondes."
"I'm hoping she doesn't run into Draezyc anytime soon. I mean, they're bound to meet some time, but this could be explosive." Remus leant his head back against the stone. "In the late seventies, Sirius took an interest in Draezyc, this was before she hooked up with his greasy-ness, I think he was just using her actually, not to sound nasty, but every female wanted Sirius in some way or another, and he just loved the attention, he still does. And he knew he'd failed miserably with DuCruet, she didn't want to know him. So he went out of his way for Draezyc. Didn't know she was a death eater. Then, some time later, Eddie regretted her decision to leave Sirius, she was probably one of the girls he had more of a connection with, they share the same sense of humour, though it may not seem like it in public. Draezyc was just slightly too sarky for Sirius, pretty yes, he always went for the dark haired ones, said they had mystery or something, and to top it off, none of us really liked her, being a Slytherin and everything. Of course, he dropped her the moment he heard Edea had changed her mind. Draezyc and Edea never got on before that either. Always slinging barbs at each other in the corridors, trying to out-do the other. I think it's safe to say Draezyc wasn't happy."
"But she's happy now, isn't she?"
"It would seem so. But don't ask me to figure out the mind of Draezyc Snape, nobody really knows what's going on with her, where she's going to strike next. Except Severus maybe." Remus kissed her forehead. "She's certainly nicer now than she's ever been to anybody."
A shriek of outrage carried up the corridors, followed by what was unmistakably the voice of Sirius Black.
Remus got up, and opened the door, walking out of the astronomy block, his arm around Anna.
"I told you so." Remus whispered in her ear as at the bottom of the staircase, Edea was arguing with none other than Draezyc. Sirius and Severus seemed to be taking backstage as they restrained their other halves from an outright brawl.
"I told you never to come near me or my fiancé again!" Edea screamed at Draezyc who had a nasty sneer playing on her face. For such an argument, Draezyc looked stone cold.
"Then you shouldn't talk to my husband like that should you." Draezyc snapped back,
"What I said has nothing to do with you!"
"It has everything to do with me, and if you want me to stay away, you should seriously consider how you plan your living arrangements." Draezyc had obviously learnt from Severus about cold hard arguments, she didn't need to talk above a whisper, yet everyone caught her every word.
Sirius looked up and saw Remus and Anna watching apprehensively. He took Edea's arm and for perhaps the first time ever muttered. "Come on Eds, they're not worth your time… lets go."
"NO!" Edea wrenched herself free from Sirius. "I won't let that… that… Death Eater Slut have the last word."
The silence was ominous as Draezyc's sneer grew wider, her eyes narrowing. "And of course, you'd know all about how to define the word slut wouldn't you. You've been with enough sleazeballs to know. But you've got to tell me, did he pay you well? Because there's no way in hell I could imagine you in bed with Igor Karkaroff in any other circumstance…"
Edea lurched forward, and slapped Draezyc hard round the face. Draezyc gasped, and stumbled backwards, she was about to hit back but found that she didn't need to. Severus had got there first. He had grabbed Edea's shoulders and had practically thrown her away from Draezyc. "You never touch my wife, understood?" He snarled, his black eyes glittered menacingly.
Sirius steadied Edea and Remus could see just how much of a struggle it was for him to remain impassive and out of the fight. A red mark was burning on Draezyc's face where Edea had hit her. "For an Auror, that was pathetic. I'll remind Voldemort that, next time we meet for tea and crumpets." Draezyc smirked, before turning to leave with Severus.
As soon as they had gone Sirius went berserk. "Can you believe that? She's a bloody maniac." He drew Edea into a lingering kiss. "I promised Dumbledore, love. I promised I wouldn't get into any sort of fight with the slimy git or his wife."
"She's scary when she's angry." Anna breathed, accepting a friendly hug from Edea. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. But what she said about pathetic, wasn't true, it hurt my hand like hell, so it most definitely hurt her." Edea massaged her fist. "She's got one sharp cheekbone there, I tell you."
"You shouldn't have said that about her, though." Remus sighed, "You were baiting her to say something back, and you know what a vicious tongue she has, she was bound to incite you as well, and with him in the scene, its probably best to just blank them both."
"Here we go, voice of reason strikes again." Sirius groaned. "Next time, just hit her harder, faster, give it a good Auror shimmy yeah? Give the slimy git a good one from me if you get the chance, too."
"Why did you promise Dumbledore?" Anna asked curiously.
"We both did." Sirius muttered. "Had to swear that we wouldn't publicly have any sort of fisticuffs with each other, so me and Snapey are just cheerleading our ladies now."
"She's not… staying at Hogwarts is she?" Edea asked, a loathing look on her face.
"Erhm…" Sirius gritted his teeth, "As far as I know, yes." He cringed as Edea wailed loudly.
"Perhaps we should leave them to it." Remus whispered in Anna's ear, taking her hand and walking away, letting Sirius try to calm down his Auror.
They had turned the corridor, when they heard Edea exclaim, "You've gone blonde! You look awful."
Remus laughed, the next few days at Hogwarts would be "interesting", for lack of a better word.
TBC
