Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.
Family
Riiiiiing, riiiiiiing......
The sound of a telephone ringing woke Sirius up. He just laid in bed a little bit longer, his eyes closed. He was glad to be awake, because he had been having a very weird dream in which he had been killed by his cousin Bellatrix and then had been brought back to life by an ashanrii. He definitely had to talk to Albus. The inactivity was driving him mad.
The wizard opened his eyes and blinked, getting used to the light coming in from the window. And then looked around, and realised that he didn't know where he was. A sudden thought made him start to sweat: the dream hadn't been a dream at all! He HAD been killed. And now, he was alive again. And indeed he was, because at that moment his stomach decided to growl a bit, requesting his attention.
He got out of bed and opened the door to the room. He came to a corridor that looked familiar. From the doorway, he could hear a voice whispering something from somewhere to the left, so he just followed the sound. One of the girls from the previous night was standing in the far corner of a comfortable-looking sitting-room, talking on the telephone. Amanda. Sirius wasn't very happy about that. Of the three girls he had met a few hours ago, Amanda had been the one he had liked the least. He stood there, waiting for her to finish talking and realising he was there. He didn't have to wait long. Amanda hung the telephone, a worried look on her face, and then looked up and saw him.
"Good morning!" she said. "Or maybe I should say 'good evening'. It's almost six."
"Did I sleep for so long?"
"Yes, you did. The pills I gave you were supposed to make you sleep, and then I'm sure your body needed a rest after all the things you put it through yesterday."
"Not that I did it on purpose," Sirius almost growled, a little bit offended at the girl's words. Merlin knew he would have avoided all of this if he could have.
"Ok, ok!" Amanda said, raising her hands as if in surrender. "Didn't mean to anger you. I see you don't appreciate much my sense of humour, so I think I'll quit for now. Maybe we should start anew."
And then she approached him and offered him her hand.
"Hi! I'm Amanda. Pleased to meet you."
Sirius smiled, shook her hand politely and even bowed a bit, making Amanda laugh.
"Hi! I'm Sirius. The pleasure is mine."
Amanda smiled again, and Sirius felt he could watch that smile for hours and never get tired of it. The night before, he had been more impressed by Sandrine's exuberant beauty, but now he realised that Amanda was probably even more beautiful, though in a subtle way. She took him by the arm and guided him to the kitchen were they had been talking the previous night. A man was there, with his back to the door. When they entered, he turned around and smiled.
"Hi! You must be Sirius Black."
Sirius shook his offered hand, and then turned to Amanda as she spoke:
"This is Edvard Bergen. He's Sandrine's cousin. He lives with us too. We haven't been able yet to find a woman silly enough to take him."
"Thanks very much, Mandy. Nice girl, always has a kind word for everyone," Edvard said looking at Sirius, but he was smiling, which meant he didn't feel offended at all, and so Sirius felt that this was probably a regular joke between them.
"I was cooking some dinner. Lasagne. I hope you like it." Edvard added.
"I do, thanks." Sirius said.
"Well, I'm sorry to have to leave the company of such attractive men and specially to miss your lasagne, Ed, but I'm afraid I must go," Amanda announced, and turned to leave the kitchen.
"What? But you just came back from work! Is something the matter?" Edvard asked.
Amanda was already in the sitting-room, getting her bag and preparing to leave.
"I'm afraid so. Nothing to worry. I won't probably be back until tomorrow, though."
"But you didn't even eat! Take something with you. Maybe just a sandwich or something."
"It's ok. I'll have something on the way."
Edvard didn't look too convinced that she would, but didn't say a thing anyway. He knew Amanda far too well, work was always the most important thing to her. More even than food. She opened the door and then turned and said:
"I'll see you tomorrow, Sirius. Try to rest a bit more tonight."
"Oh, I don't know..." Sirius said thoughtfully. "Maybe I'll be gone when you come back..."
"Oh, no, you won't." Amanda said, with her hand already in the door knob. "I'm taking you back to Hogwarts, so you'll have to wait for me."
"What? But I can go on my own, can't I?"
Amanda laughed at Sirius surprised face.
"Yes, you could. But in these dark days I doubt very much that even Albus Dumbledore himself will welcome you unless you have a very clear proof that you are who you say you are. And as everybody thinks you are dead... Well, we thought you might need someone to take you there. Just to make sure that you'll get the chance to explain everything before getting killed a second time. Sandrine isn't looking forward to rescuing you again. She says once in a lifetime is enough. Let's hope the Lestrange woman doesn't make her work much."
At this she laughed even more.
"But they don't know you, do they? Why would they listen to you?" Sirius felt a little annoyed at having to be escorted.
"Oh, they DO know me, don't worry about that."
"What?"
"The girls will explain everything to you at dinner, don't worry. I really must be going now. Bye!"
And she was gone before Sirius could say another word.
Sirius turned to Edvard, who was looking at him understandingly.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know what they have planned. I just came home, so Amanda just had time enough to fill me in on your sudden appearance yesterday and to tell me that you would be sleeping in my room for a couple of days."
"Oh! That was your room?"
"Yes. But it's ok, I can sleep with Mich."
"Mich?"
"Yes. He's my cousin. Sandrine's brother. He lives here as well."
Sirius made himself comfortable at the kitchen table, and then asked:
"So, how many are you? I mean, how many people live here?"
"Oh, really quite a few," Edvard answered, and started lifting his fingers as he counted. "There's the girls: my cousin Sandrine, Amanda and Sha-adi. I think you've met them already. Then there's Mich and Morten, who is another cousin of mine -but on my father's side, so he's not related to Sandrine and Mich. And then there's Ben, Benjamin, he's Amanda's brother. Well, and Sha-adi's."
"Amanda and Sha-adi are..."
"Sisters? Well, kind of. Sha-adi was born a mermaid. Yes, don't look at me like that." Edvard laughed at Sirius shocked face. "I'm sure you noticed her hair and eyes. Although maybe you didn't, being worried about more important matters as you probably were at the time..."
"Well... I noticed her hair and her eyes," Sirius admitted thoughtfully, "but I didn't give them a second thought."
"Perfectly understandable. Well, she was a mermaid, and still is, of course. But she had the luck of being born in the shores of the Giant's Causeway, in Northern Ireland, and that's where the Ice Castle of the jilguereis is, as you may have heard before..."
Sirius looked as if Edvard was speaking Mermish instead of English, so Edvard decided he needed to add some more information.
"Ok. I'll start at the beginning, then. There are different castes, or kinds, of ashanriis. Each of them have different powers and skills, but there are only really three castes that are STRONG. The other ashanriis are more like very beautiful witches, but not really very different from magic people in general. Now, with these three castes it's different. They are the REAL ashanriis, so to say. Whenever the ashanriis have been in danger over the centuries, these three castes have been the ones to fight their enemies and defend the others. The jilguereis are the singing ashanriis. Their power is in their voices. When they sing, they can control you absolutely and there's nothing anybody can do to avoid it. They can make you love them, surrender your wand, put you to sleep, jump from a roof, kill someone else, even kill yourself... There's really no limit. Or at least, not one that I know of. Amanda is a jilguerei. She was born in the Crystal Castle, because her mother was a very important jilguerei and used to live in the court, protecting the Princess."
"The Princess?" Sirius interrupted.
"Oh, yes, I forgot. You probably don't know about the Princesses either." Edvard thought for a moment how to explain best about the Princesses. "You see, every caste has a Princess. The Princess is a kind of source of power. All the ashanriis take their power from their Princesses, and have to protect them as well, because the Princesses have a lot of power, but they cannot use it themselves. The ashanriis are a little bit like the bees or the ants. All of them work to keep the community alive, and then there is the queen bee, who takes care of the reproduction of the community. The ashanrii princesses don't need to reproduce themselves like bees, but they have to keep the magic alive inside of them. They're like a walking muggle bomb. They cannot activate themselves, but they could be very dangerous if they were to fall in the wrong hands. For instance, if they were to marry the wrong man, say Voldemort."
At this, Sirius arched his eyebrows, plainly surprised that Edvard would mention Voldemort and state so clearly that he was 'a wrong man'. But Edvard was busy with the lasagne and wasn't paying much attention to Sirius reaction, just telling the story of the ashanriis as if he was telling a tale to a child. So he went on:
"So the other ashanriis take their magic from the Princess, and because they depend on the Princess being alive and well protected, that's what they do, they take care of her as if she was their most precious weapon, because if the Princess of a caste died without having left a daughter to substitute her in her role, the ashanriis of that caste would loose their magical powers and become mere muggles."
At this point, Edvard made a pause to put the lasagne in the oven, but Sirius didn't say a thing, because his mind was busy analysing all this new information.
"So, as I was saying before, Amanda is a jilguerei. She was born in the Ice Castle and used to play on the Giant's Causeway shore. That's where she met Sha-adi. Amanda was an only child back then, her brother is 8 years her junior, and because there weren't many kids of her age at the Castle, she used to play alone on the beach. Now, as you probably know, merpeople don't have families."
"Oh, really?" Sirius was very surprised at this. "When I went to Hogwarts there was a very big community of merpeople living in the lake near the school, and some of them even had Grindylows as pets."
Edvard nodded at this.
"Well, there are probably some exceptions, but basically, when a mermaid child is born, it just depends on itself to live on, like a fish. The mother just goes on with her life as if instead of giving birth to a child she would have just coughed or sneezed. Nothing really life-shattering. Merpeople are usually very cold and independent beings, and they don't need to make friends or have loving relatives. But Sha-adi was different from the beginning. She had lived for four years on the rocks close to the Ice Castle, and had seen the ashanriis walking around with her daughters, taking care of them, loving them... She silently envied them. She wished she had a mother too."
Edvard went to the fridge and poured some wine for Sirius and himself. After tasting the delicious rosé, Sirius thanked Edvard and went on listening to his story.
"Then, one fine day, while she was staring bored at the horizon, Sha-adi heard a splash. A little girl had fallen into the water. She recognised her immediately, because she had seen her many times playing in the sand with her mother. The ashanriis usually live close to the water, in the shores of seas, lakes, rivers, fountains..., but curiously enough, only few of them can swim. This little girl, Amanda, didn't know how to swim and was drowning. Her mother didn't seem to be around at the time, so Sha-adi jumped into the water and rescued her. Although Amanda was already 10 years old by then and quite bigger than Sha-adi, that wasn't a problem, because merpeople are really strong in the water. Their age doesn't match either the age of a wizard. Again, they are more like fishes in this sense, and so, although only 4, Sha-adi's mind was that of an older child."
Edvard sipped some more wine and went on:
"When they got to the shore, Amanda's mother was already there and picked her daughter out of the water. After checking that she wasn't hurt, she turned to Sha-adi, smiled at her and caressed her cheek, and from that day on Sha-adi would come to the shore every day and Amanda and her mother would near the water and play with her. Little by little, she grew more confident, and started to get out of the water and change her fins for legs, but she still lived alone in the water most of the time. Then, after the Day of the Dortors, when Amanda's mother was killed and Amanda saved Princess Xanda, Sha-adi left with her, and they have lived as sisters since then. Amanda even insisted on Sha-adi using her mother's surname, Ming."
Edvard made another break in his story now to check the lasagne. He seemed satisfied, and then busied himself preparing some salad to go with it. Sirius then took the opportunity to make some questions:
"So Sha-adi isn't an ashanrii? And what about your cousin? Is she a jilguerei as well? And what was that day something you mentioned? The day of the doctors, of something like that. And you said that Amanda saved a Princess? How..."
"Ok, ok, give me a break," Edvard laughed. "I'll try to explain everything, right? Let's see... The dortors are the main enemies of the jilguereis. Because every caste of ashanriis have different skills and powers, they have different enemies as well. The dortors are kind of black shadows who take the life out of the ashanriis. They don't really have a body, so they cannot be killed with weapons or wands. Only the song of a jilguerei -or of any other ashanrii- can kill them. My cousin Sandrine is a dansarine, their court is in the Mediterranean, in the south of France, and they are famous for their dancing. Like the jilguereis can control you with their voices, so the dansarines can possess your mind when they dance. Before you know it, you'll be hanging on their every move, and when the music ends and they stop dancing... too late, you are already dead."
"Oh! Yes, I noticed that your cousin walks in a strange way, as if she were floating more than walking." Sirius commented.
"Yes, the dansarines walk on the tip of their toes, as if they were dancing ballet all of the time. But they really dance to any music, even rap." Edvard said smiling. "And as for Sha-adi, she is NOW an ashanrii, a jilguerei like Amanda. Don't ask me why or how, because I don't really know how it happened, the girls are all very secretive about it, but after the killings..."
"Killings?"
"Yes, from the Day of the Dortors and during the following weeks, a lot of ashanriis were killed. I think less than half of them survived. They were very numerous, so there are still plenty ashanriis in the world. Nevertheless, most of the ones who survived were already too old to have more children, and as 70 per cent of the children were killed too, they haven't been able to recover yet from that day."
Sirius looked nonplussed.
"Did you say 70 per cent of the children?"
"Yes," Edvard answered mournfully. "The attack had been very well planned. The enemy knew that the older ashanriis were very powerful, but an old woman can't have children and will eventually die, so it didn't matter if they survived or not. If they just killed the younger generations, the ashanriis would extinguish in due course. And that's what they tried to do. And almost succeeded too."
Both men took a good draught of wine. They felt they needed it.
"A war started between the ashanriis and their various enemies that day," Edvard continued. "It seems that they had planned a joint attack, with the help of some ashanriis themselves, who had been silly enough to believe their enemies really had something to offer them that was worth risking the life of the Princesses, so there was a war all over the world. The fuocciris, the ashanriis of the fire, which are the most numerous caste and the better prepared, since most of them are warriors, declared war to the enemies of all the castes and swore to defend them. They are very brave and loyal, and through the centuries they've saved the other castes more than once. When they joined the war, Amanda, Sha-adi and my cousin Sandrine were at the Mountain Castle, the fuocciris' castle, somewhere in China I believe. I don't really know what they were doing there. Probably just looking for protection, since Amanda's mother was dead and my aunt had been killed too a couple of days before that. The Mountain Castle was under siege for a very long time. That was something new in the history of the ashanriis, because the Mountain Castle is supposed to be the best defended place in the magical world. It's very hard to find, and if it weren't for the jilguerei traitors, I doubt very much that the giants would have had a chance."
"The giants?"
"Yes, giants are the worst enemies of the fuocciris. So, anyway, when the fuocciris were almost defeated, something happened. Nobody really knows what, but suddenly the giants retreated, and the fuocciris joined the freight in the rest of the world and finally defeated once more the enemies of the ashanriis. My cousin, Amanda and Sha-adi were there then, together with Ben and Mich, who were only three years old at the moment. I suspect they probably performed some dark magic, I don't know, but when they came back, Sha-adi had magical powers as well. Not that she couldn't sing before, you know mermaids have always been famous for singing -even muggles know that-, but now her voice has the power of a jilguerei's, and she can do magic as any other ashanrii."
Sirius was silent, trying to understand all the things that Edvard had told him. He had never known that the ashanriis really existed, and now it seemed that they had even had wars and the like. A whole history, maybe starting even earlier than the wizarding world's itself.
"So the giants are the enemies of the fuocciris and the dortors are the enemies of the jilguereis. Who or what are the worst enemies of the dansarines, then?"
Edvard tensed a bit. Not really much, but the change was there.
"Werewolves," he said in a hard voice.
Sirius blanched visibly. Moony... What would Sandrine or the others say if they knew his best friend was a werewolf? Would they still help him?
The sound of a key on the lock startled Sirius and Edvard out of their respective musings. They looked at the closed kitchen door, waiting for someone to come in. A moment later, Sandrine was there, with her long hair tied in a bun and her arms carrying a heavy bag with groceries. At the sight of the two men, she smiled and then greeted them with a suspicious look at the two of them:
"Hi! Did I interrupt something important?"
"No, not really," both Sirius and Edvard said at the same time.
Sandrine laughed.
"I see... Well, I won't ask again, but you really looked like you were expecting the Devil himself to come through that door. Mind you, not that I'm an angel either, but you're both safe from me, specially as I see there's lasagne for dinner and I'm starving."
Both men relaxed. Their thoughts had been dark, and now they realised Sandrine was probably right, there was a little tension in the air.
"Oh, I was just telling Sirius a bit about the ashanriis, and how Amanda and Sha-adi became sisters," Edvard said, as he approached Sandrine and kissed her cheek.
"Oh, I see. Definitely not a very funny subject," she frowned. "Well, then I'm afraid this subject is forbidden while I'm here. My day wasn't very good after all, and remembering sad stories is the last thing I need just now. You can go on with your explanation tomorrow, Ed. And anyway I need to speak to Sirius about his going back to his friends. Amanda called me and said she didn't have time to talk to you, Sirius, before leaving."
At this Sirius face immediately lighted with expectation. All the things that Edvard had told him moved to a corner of his mind. They weren't a priority now.
"Yes. She mentioned that she would be taking me back to Hogwarts, and that the people at Hogwarts knew her."
Sandrine nodded and laughed a bit:
"Yes, they do, quite well, I think."
Sirius didn't say a word, but the question was obvious in his handsome face, so Sandrine explained:
"I'm sure you know Professor Minerva McGonagall, right?"
"Yes..." Sirius answered, not seeing what the Transfiguration professor had to do with any of this.
Sandrine smiled once more. She was certainly enjoying this.
"Well, she is Amanda's auntie."
*****
Thanks for the reviews!
Well, a big big hug to all of you for reviewing. I really wasn't expecting such a response. I'm glad you're enjoying my story and hope you'll go on reading. I must warn you, though, that our friends from the Harry Potter series are not gonna be around in the following chapters. I'm writing Chapter 6 now, and I don't think they will be in it either. They have been mentioned so far, but haven't appeared yet, so maybe in Chapter 7 you will see Harry's reaction to Sirius' resurrection. I'm not sure yet. In this chapter I just tried to explain a bit about the ashanriis, let me know if I succeeded or if you didn't understand a thing. Also this chapter is the longest I've written so far, the others will be shorter.
I must admit I don't think that J. K. Rowling will bring Sirius back from the dead, but I felt so sorry for Harry that I thought I'd give him a second chance. This story is not going to be only about Sirius though. He was the excuse I needed to introduce the ashanriis, and in a few chapters we'll be seeing other familiar faces. Or did you think that Snape would keep his abnormally large nose out of this story? ;-)
shadowycat and Topaz Waters: Thank you both for your help! I've tried to use quotations this time instead of dashes. Dashes would be the usual option in Spanish, so I just used them without giving it a second thought. Let me know if you think the dialogues are more easy to follow this time. If they are, then I'll go back and correct chapters 1 and 2.
Kady Rilla Wholi: What? You knew I was going to get so many reviews? Let me guess: you are Sybill Trelawney in disguise, aren't you? No? Well, then... maybe a cousin or something? :D
Kabeebalers: Sirius didn't mention Harry so far because I didn't let him. :-) I'll explain why later.
Christy L. Black: Christy, I'm from Spain, so you can write your reviews in Spanish if you feel more comfortable. ;-)
