Moonlit Horizons – Chapter 24

Back after a severe case of writers block…. Arg!

spoilers + art = http://www.geocities.com/halutirius/moonlithorizons  All to do with MH, I loved making it, you should go there to get the gist of what I mean!

"The sun is a mass of incandescent gas" belongs to They Might Be Giants… not me, I write songs that have meaning… (Wait for My Sophrosyne)

***

 The feast had gone relatively smoothly after Sirius' little outburst of Madauderality.  That held nothing to the evil glint in the eyes of the twins as they watched Padfoot mischievously.

Remus had walked back up to the small room he occupied and rounded the corner, only to walk straight into Lucius Malfoy.

"Watch your step wolf boy."

"Excuse me?" Remus raised a challenging eyebrow.  "Did you say something death eater?"

"How dare you accuse me of such low life scum!" Lucius thundered, loud enough for people passing to turn heads. "Did you hear what this inferior idiot just called me?! A death eater! The sheer audacity of this!"

Lucius felt a tap on his shoulder and turned round to come face to face with a very angry Auror.

"DUCRUET!"  Malfoy wrenched himself away from her grasp.  "You as well?!  Dear me, your standards have fallen."

Edea nodded smiling.  "Not as much as yours are about to."

"What?" Lucius frowned.

Edea cocked her head sideways.  "You know, I've ruined people's careers before."

"And so have I, Auror.  I would watch who you talk back to if I were you." Lucius flicked a speck of dust off his cloak.

"Still the bully, I see.  But goodness, where are your thugs?" Edea gasped mockingly. 

"One doesn't need thugs to get one's way." Lucius rolled his eyes.  "I think you'll find that I have a great deal of influence over your placement in the ministry."

"Yeah, whatever."  Edea laughed.  "They don't call me one spell DuCruet for nothing you know, and let me give you a clue, it isn't because I can only use one spell."

"I would take you to court for grievous bodily harm."

"Fair enough, but you do know that my father is the Grand High Lord Judge of the Magical Justice system."

"Which is exactly why you're in the job you are now." Lucius added, wrapping his cloak around him.  "You must excuse me." He drawled. "I have pressing matters to attend to."

"say hi to Voldemort for me."  Edea called out after Malfoy's retreating figure.

Remus scowled. "You shouldn't do things like that Edea.  You'll only get into trouble."

"Remus… I'm an adult now, I can get into as much trouble as I like."

Remus noticed Draezyc peering round the corner of the corridor snickering at Edea.  He sighed and pushed Edea down the corridor in front of him.

"What you pushing me for?" Edea twisted left and started walking the other way. "I have a Malfoy to scout after."

"I think you'll find you're too late." Draezyc was leaning against the pillar, picking at one of her nails, she looked up at Edea and sneered.  "You have to get up earlier than that to catch yourself a Malfoy.  And bragging about dear old daddy wont help you."

"And what would you know?" Edea asked menacingly

"A lot more than you do obviously." Draezyc smiled, giving Edea a piercing stare.

Remus frowned and noticed that Anna was standing just behind him, watching the altercation with a worried expression.

"Oh yes? Well if you truly are on our side you would have told us by now, exactly what you know."

"Ah yes, but that would take out all the mystery.  Plus I'm not on YOUR side, you don't rule the side like an autocracy, in my opinion, there is no right and wrong in either side"

"You're going down Tealamon."

"Yeah? Well remind me to send you a postcard when I get there, ok?  Oh and by the way, if you hadn't noticed, it's Snape now." Draezyc clicked her fingers in front of Edea's face and made her way down the large staircase

"Was it just me or was her cloak covered in blood stains?" Anna whispered to Remus.

"I could smell it."  Remus nodded.  "Perhaps we should ask Severus?"

"No.  He was at the feast, he wouldn't necessarily know, and he's been in such a bad mood since you two got plastered."

"What are you two talking about?" Edea scowled,  "We do have a war to win here."

"I don't think you're going about it in the right way though."  Anna shrugged.  "Can't you try to be nice to her?"

"NICE?" Edea choked.  "This is a death eater we're talking about.  I'm going to get her in Azkaban before Christmas, you mark my words.  I just need to finish some research and I've got her cornered."

Edea stalked in between a group of Ravenclaw fifth years, trying to get to the stairs in the commotion.

"You think she will?" Anna asked curiously

"Honestly?  Edea will try her hardest to follow through with what she's said, she rarely says something like that if she isn't very, very sure of what she's saying.  I have a bad feeling that she's been scouting the ministry's restricted files for dirt on Draezyc.  And of course if Draezyc goes down, then Severus will be next."

"Are all Aurors like that?"

"Most of them." Remus nodded apologetically.  "She never used to be like that, the stress I think, of holding down a job as an Auror."

"They're really just paid killers though, aren't they?" Anna muttered.

"Well in a way, yes.  Paid spies too." Remus smiled weakly.  "Not a job I'd ever consider." James was one.  Well, training to be one anyway, along with Sirius.  I could never even go for an interview, being a werewolf.  Not something you can hide on any job application.  A paid killer, not something I'd ever thought of as describing Aurors before, but that puts them on the same level as death eaters, they're rewarded killers.  I wonder what Edea's up to.  And Draezyc… She must have been up to something gory…

Remus and Anna sat down in chairs beside the crackling fire.

"No I cant forget this evening, or your face as you were leaving, but I guess that's just he way the story gooooooooooeeeeesss!"

Not even a second of silence before Sirius Black, maestro extraordinaire turns up… oh great.

"Hey all… Pax um biscum!"

"Yeah, peace be with you too."  One of the portraits answered Sirius with a nod of its head.  "And cut the singing… wimp arsed little bugger, ain't you!"

Sirius blinked. "Do you want me to throw you and your stupid scenery into the fire?"

"If that's what it takes to take your ridiculously stoopid leather trousers in there too, then yeah, I dare ya!"  The pirate in the picture dropped his stripy trousers and mooned Sirius, who screwed up his face, and stuck his tongue out. 

"Bloody hell… put your arse away!" Sirius shielded his eyes.  "I get enough stress without having to witness that!"

"Is it just me or has Sirius turned crude since I first met him?" Anna asked, picking up a mug of Bovril that had suddenly appeared on the table next to her.

"he's always been like that."  Remus shrugged.  "Wait 'til he starts singing about the sun being a mass of incandescent gas…"  

"That wasn't my fault." Sirius sniffed, giving the painting a two finger salute.  "James hexed me… And I started warbling about how hydrogen turned into helium…"

"At a temperature of millions of degreeeees…. Baa- bum!" Remus finished for Sirius, giving him a grin.

"Er… okaay." Anna frowned.  "And you're not weird or unstable in the slightest."

"Damn right." Sirius nodded. "Meaning I'm a sane sane being."

"Of course." Anna nodded, picking up the ancient book of the Old order that Draezyc had given her days before.

"Whatcha readin'?" Sirius bounced over, cracking his knuckles.

"A book." Anna muttered, "You know, two pieces of cardboard with bits of paper in between."

"REALLY!" Sirius raised a mischievous eyebrow, " and I thought it was just another name for sandwich."

"Food on the brain."

"Amongst other things." Sirius nodded.

Remus turned as he heard raised voices outside the room.  Two very distinctive voices.  Leaving Anna to bicker with Sirius about her reading a book, he walked over to the door and set his ear against the lock.

"… oh and that's because you're so clever is it?"

"But of course."

"One day your so high and mighty attitude will get the better of you…  And I'll be there on the front row to watch with my little flag."

"Not going to happen."

"And why would that be?"

"Because I made you a promise."

"Really? What was that then?"

"I promised you I'd get you into Azkaban before the year ended."

"Well let me make you a promise DuCruet."  Remus frowned as there was a pause, he could just imagine Draezyc walking forward to get her point across.  "You get me in Azkaban and I'll make sure you're killed."

"Difficult to create plans in Azkaban."

"Who says I don't already have a plan to rid the planet of over mighty Aurors!?"

"You're a killer, Draezyc Tealamon.  You're not even worth Azkaban, you should be given a taste of your own medicine."

"And you're telling me that you're NOT a killer?! Try another story when you're in a fit state to construct an argument.  You're wasting my time."

The footsteps faded away, and when Remus peered round the door, the hallway was deserted. 

Those two…  I'm surprised Dumbledore hasn't made actions against this.  During school time as well, this could get very dangerous, especially with the current situations taken into account.  Anybody could have heard them… especially if Harry isn't the only one with an invisibility cloak.  Which I doubt, but still, theres always a possibility right?  Something Dumbledore used to say to me- "Always a possibility, its your job to make sure you have nothing to do with it when it happens"  Wise words. 

"Hey Moony!" Sirius poked the back of Remus' neck making him jerk backwards.  "What was all that about then?"

"Your girlfriend has a death wish I think."

"Oh, same as usual then." Sirius shrugged.  "never understood women, never want to try either.  Much too much effort."

"What you poking me for Padfoot?" Remus massaged the back of his neck.

"Oh, it looked like fun at the time, just a bit of my Marauder talent shining through, I tried to use my willpower to push it aside, but you see, it's instilled into me in such a way… I cannot help it but awaken at the call of the wild marauder-ness."

"Eh… yeah."  Remus frowned, watching as Anna was holding out her hand and staring at the fire in the fireplace.  The next moment the fire roared with a strange blue glow and completely shot up the chimney.

"Well I'm not a fire Phaerren then…" Anna said a little disappointedly.  "Perhaps…" She held out her hand at Sirius' glass of water, it shattered under her concentrated gaze. "Maybe not water either…."

"That was the stupidest thing I've seen.  That had a decent drop of brandy in!" Sirius knelt down to nurse his broken goblet, "My poor poor brandywater… soaked into the carpet…. I won't ever forget you!"

Anna held her hand out at Sirius and he rolled over, suddenly laughing like an idiot.  Clutching at his sides as if he were being tickled.  "That's it!"

"What's it?!" Remus asked, guiding Sirius away from the crushed glass on the floor.

"Well it says in the book that I can manipulate certain things, there previous Phaerrens have been able to do fire water ice, and natural things like that, but some could also affect humans and living beings… I can do that…"

Remus' eyes widened.  "That is one very very useful talent.  You have to tell Dumbledore about this, this could be perhaps a great help to the Phoenix cause."

Sirius had stopped gasping for breath and was lying flat out on the floor gazing up at the ceiling.  "You know, someone really needs to put mirrors on that ceiling, it'd look so cool, a vaulted mirror ceiling…."

Remus groaned tiredly.  Some things would never change

TBC