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.

Calm Before The Storm

Sirius awoke once again in an unknown room, but this time it took him less time to remember he was at Sandrine's house. Or was it Amanda's? He really didn't know. Well, that didn't really matter now. The important thing was that this time he hadn't thought all the things he had experienced in the last hours were nothing more than a dream. He knew that Sandrine, Amanda, Edvard and all the others existed, and he was glad for it, because that meant he was alive.

After having a shower and a shave -he didn't want to be told again to get dressed-, he went to the kitchen. Edvard was there, eating some cereals and drinking some coffee while reading a newspaper. A muggle one, Sirius noticed.

"Good morning! Did you sleep well?" Edvard asked him.

"Yes, very well, thank you," Sirius lied, he didn't want to sound ungrateful. "I wasn't sure if there would be anyone awake so early."

Edvard shrugged.

"I've always been an early raiser."

Sirius just nodded. He was too sleepy yet for conversation.

"Coffee?" Edvard offered.

"Yes, please."

Edvard poured some coffee for Sirius and then pointed at the table, laid with a wide variety of food, from fruit to toasts, pastries and cereals.

"I can cook something stronger if you want, some bacon and eggs, maybe?"

"Thanks," Sirius said, "some toast will be fine. I'm not very hungry. I ate a lot of lasagne yesterday."

"Yes, I noticed," Edvard said smiling. "I'm glad you liked it."

"It was delicious," the wizard said while nodding.

After that, they just ate their breakfast in silence. Sirius was pondering if he should talk to Edvard about his desire to return to his friends that very same day. He wasn't sure how much influence the young man had over his cousin or the other girls, but maybe it was worth a try. The few hours sleep he had got the night before hadn't helped in the least to lessen his worries. How were Harry and Remus? Did they know already that he was alive? Had Professor McGonagall had time enough to tell them already or was she still at St. Mungo's?

This thought had barely entered his mind when the person who could answer all of his questions came into the kitchen: Amanda.

"Good mo-o-orning!" She yawned.

"Good morning!" answered Sirius, his eyes almost popping out of his face while he looked Amanda up and down, taking in her very sexy black long night-dress and her sleepy face.

Edvard didn't speak, but poured some coffee for the girl, and then smiled a bit to himself at seeing Sirius' appraising look.

Shaking himself out of his shock, Sirius finally took the opportunity of asking Amanda about her aunt.

"Oh, she is feeling much better, thanks." She replied with a smile, and then turned suddenly serious and added: "That toad-faced woman! Merlin help her if I ever meet her again!"

Edvard raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry.

"Umbridge!" Amanda almost shouted.

Edvard's second eyebrow joined the first one and almost disappeared under his hair.

"She has been working at Hogwarts," Amanda explained, "spying on Dumbledore and making things difficult for the teachers. My aunt has been complaining to me about her since the first day of classes. I must admit I didn't really listen to her complains. I just thought she didn't like the woman."

Edvard snorted.

"Well, you know she can be a bit picky with people. Look at poor Sybill, for instance. She is really a sweetie, but my aunt just can't stand her and will never give her a chance."

"Mandy, Mandy, Mandy. This is Umbridge we are talking about. You should have known better." Edvard reprimanded.

"Oh, I know," Amanda sighed. "But I guess I never really thought the woman could be a danger to anyone, at least not with Dumbledore around."

"So, what happened?" Sirius asked. He had heard about Umbridge's interference in the Order's work, but he was more worried now about the actual circumstances that had taken Minerva McGonagall to St. Mungo's. There was a possibility that someone else had been injured as well.

"The toad decided she wanted to arrest Hagrid," Amanda informed them, her expression hard, "probably just because she disliked him, I doubt she had any real reason. Being a coward, she didn't want to be on her own when the moment to arrest Hagrid came, so she called some aurors. When my aunt tried to defend Hagrid, the aurors shot stunners at her. FOUR of them, if you believe it."

"For all the Princesses!" Edvard exclaimed. "What were they thinking of? How could they attack a Hogwart's Professor?"

Sirius just nodded in agreement with Edvard's indignation.

"Who knows," Amanda shrugged. "But one thing you can be sure of. If I ever come across that woman..." Amanda said menacingly, and the flash in her eyes confirmed Sirius' suspicions that, if that were to happen, Umbridge would be indeed in trouble. He just couldn't believe it when he heard Edvard laughing.

"Well, you'll have to be very fast, you know. I doubt very much there will be much left of her if Sandrine gets to her first." The man commented, and then laughed some more.

"Sandrine?" Sirius asked, a little bit lost now. "Why would she want to hurt Umbridge?"

Edvard stopped laughing all at once. "Well, it's a long story," he answered noncommittally.

"Gentlemen, enough about that woman, if you don't mind," Amanda pleaded, rubbing his tired eyes. "I've been thinking too often about her in the last hours. I'd rather forget her for a while. Why don't you tell me about your day yesterday? I'm sure it couldn't be worse than mine."

While he poured himself some more coffee and started buttering a piece of toast, Sirius explained to Amanda what had happened the day before. Not much, really. When he told her that Edvard had been telling him a bit of the ashanriis history and how Sha-adi and herself had become 'sisters', Amanda turned deadly serious and shot a fierce look at Edvard. The man looked guiltily at her and then lowered his eyes to the tablecloth. Sirius sensed there was something wrong, so he just went on explaining that he had met Benjamin. Amanda's furrowed brow instantly cleared at the mention of her brother's name. She smiled sweetly once more and started praising his brother, saying how good and clever he was.

Edvard took this opportunity to make himself scarce, and left the kitchen after saying, with a pointed look at Sirius, that he would be in the library if they needed him. Amanda shot him a last angry look before he closed the door.

Sirius cleared his throat and then changed to the subject he really cared about: his return.

"You know, I'm a bit worried about my friends. When I was... killed," he added with an effort, "my friends and Dumbledore himself were still fighting some Death Eaters. Yesterday, with all the shock of being alive again, I really didn't think about it, but when Sandrine mentioned that your aunt was at St. Mungo's..."

"You started worrying about your friends," Amanda finished for him.

Sirius nodded.

"Well," Amanda said sorrowfully, "I'm afraid I cannot ease your worries. As I told you, my aunt was injured at Hogwarts, so I doubt very much that she knows anything about your friends. The healer who attended her told us that she could probably leave St. Mungo's tomorrow, though, so you'll probably be able to join them soon. Four stunners are not enough to keep a McGonagall out of the way for long," Amanda commented proudly, lifting her nose up in the air without even realising.

Sirius smiled happily at her. His mood was suddenly lifting. "Tomorrow? You mean that I could be back at Hogwarts maybe in a few hours?"

Amanda smiled at the wizard's obvious hopefulness. "Well, we'll have to wait first until my aunt gets the chance to talk to Dumbledore. She will contact me when everything is ready for your return."

Sirius' smile faded a bit.

Amanda reached out and laid her hand on top of Sirius'. "Listen," she said encouragingly, looking him in the eye, "my brother will tell us for sure the moment the healer decides my aunt is fit to leave the hospital, he works there, and although it's Saturday, he's going to keep auntie Minnie company."

Sirius nodded and then laid his other hand on top of Amanda's. "Thanks, I know you are really trying to help. I'll try to be patient, I promise."

Amanda smiled at him and their gazes locked, but the spell was almost instantly broken, because at that moment the kitchen door opened and Sha-adi and Morten came in yawning loudly. Amanda and Sirius let go of each other's hand extremely quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid catching the other two's attention. Sha-adi and Morten didn't comment, but looked at each other knowingly and couldn't suppress a tiny smile.

"Good morning!" Both of them said cheerfully.

"Good morning, and goodbye!" Replied Amanda, and instantly stood from the chair she had been occupying and made for the door.

"What? You're leaving again? You just came a couple of hours ago!" A worried Sha-adi exclaimed.

"I know," Amanda sighed, but there is some work I wanted to finish before Monday, and as I spent the night in the hospital, I should really get going now."

"You're going back to the hospital this evening?" Sha-adi asked.

"If auntie Minnie is not realised before 5 p.m. yes," her sister said.

"Well, then I'll go with you. At least you won't have to be there alone." Sha-adi said with determination all over her face.

"Sure? You really don't need to, you know? I can take a book. Or maybe some work..." Amanda added as an afterthought.

"No, really, it's ok," Sha-adi insisted. "Auntie Minnie is like my aunt too, and then we can take turns and you can try and get some sleep."

Amanda thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Ok, if you really want to come, perfect. I'll probably be at the lab the whole day. I told Ben I would be there at around five, so he can be here for dinner."

"Right, so I'll pick you up at the lab at around three, and then we can have something to eat before going to St. Mungo's."

Amanda laughed at her sister's distrust. She didn't seem to think that Amanda would eat unless she was forced to.

"So be it," she pompously replied, and bowed a bit before leaving the kitchen.

Sirius rose too, he wanted to talk to Edvard and see what was going on before. He didn't understand why Amanda would be mad at her friend for telling him about her life.

He found the library right away, a spacious room next to the sitting-room. Three of the room's walls were covered from floor to ceiling in bookcases full of all kind of written temptations. There was a table in the middle of the room, with a strange thing on top of it and lots of papers, but Sirius didn't look at it twice. Edvard wasn't there. Sirius hadn't enjoyed reading for a while, and he felt now was the right time to do it. Although his experiences lately had been anything but common, he felt strangely at ease and relaxed, so a good reading was just what he needed at the moment.

He approached the wall of books just behind the table and started looking for an appealing title. To his disappointment, most of the books he found at first were about chemicals, herbs and natural remedies. Then there were a lot about infirmary and medicine in general. Those were followed by lots of books on children and education... He was starting to despair of finding something that suited his tastes, when he finally found something a little more interesting: books about the dark arts and how to fight them. 'Probably Edvard's,' he thought. He found then an interesting issue of Transfiguration Today which included an interesting article about living animagi - the registered ones, of course.

Sirius took the magazine and was going to leave the room, thinking he would enjoy the article much more while sitting in the terrace of the flat, when a paper laying on the table caught his eye. The words 'Wronged Werewolves - A summary of the misconceptions about the lycantropic condition' were printed in black letters on it. Sirius lifted the page and looked at the next one. It seemed to be a book on werewolves, probably a photocopy, since the pages weren't bounded, just printed. Still, Sirius couldn't help but wonder. The title on the first page seemed to imply that the writer was defending werewolves, not attacking them as most writers did. He lifted some more pages, searching for the author's name, but it wasn't there. 'Maybe an anonymous work. No wonder, since probably the general public wouldn't appreciate much a study on werewolves safety and would want to lynch the author,' he thought darkly. The most curious thing of all, though, was that he had found such a book in the house of a dansarine. Edvard had said that werewolves were the mortal enemies of the dansarines, so why would anyone in that flat bother to read or even copy such a book?

"Oh! You're finally free?"

Sirius yelped in surprise and let the pages in his hand fall to the ground. He hadn't heard Edvard coming.

"Sorry I scared you, didn't mean to. It was too hot in here, so I went to the terrace, but when I saw Amanda leaving I thought you might come to the library to meet me."

"That's ok," Sirius said, very conscious that he had been probably looking at something he shouldn't. "I came looking for you, but as you weren't here I thought I might as well pick something to read. I found an interesting issue of Transfiguration Today and was going to the terrace myself, but as I was leaving I noticed this, and stopped to look at it."

He then proceeded to collect the scattered pages on the floor. Edvard approached to help him, and when he realised what Sirius had been looking at, visibly blanched. Now Sirius was even more curious, so he decided to try and see if Edvard knew the author of the text. Moony would be most interested in such a book - that is, if he ever got the chance to tell him about it before his friend cursed him into next week for letting him think he was dead.

"I thought it strange that there was a book on werewolves in your flat," Sirius commented tentatively, "as you said that they were dansarines' enemies... And specially here, laying on the table, as if it had been consulted recently..."

Edvard was still rearranging the picked pages on top of the others and didn't look at Sirius when he answered in a very strained voice:

"Well, you have to know your enemies to be able to fight them, don't you? You can find a lot of material too on giants and other dark creatures in here. I use them now and then too, as reference material for my classes."

Sirius thought that was quite logical, since Edvard taught Defence Against the Dark Arts, but there was something about the way he seemed to be avoiding Sirius' gaze, and he wondered why Edvard looked so nervous. But before he could ask, Edvard looked at him, a quite sincere smile in his face, and added:

"So, what about we have a drink in the terrace while we discuss a bit about transfiguration? I must admit I'm quite fascinated by the subject, although I never was very good at it."

"Ummm, ok," Sirius agreed.

Edvard leaded the way to the terrace and Sirius followed him, still wondering about that book and thinking that maybe he could try and ask Amanda about it later, since Edvard didn't seem very kin on the subject.

A little bit later, a glass of juice in a hand and the magazine in the other, Sirius finally asked Edvard about Amanda's reaction at breakfast.

"Oh, yes," the man nodded, "I had completely forgotten about that. I should have told you yesterday that the girls don't like much talking about the past. I suppose it brings them bad memories, of their mothers' death... You probably noticed that Sandrine wasn't too happy either yesterday when she came home and we told her what we were talking about. Amanda just was a little bit more obvious this morning, but I don't think she was any angrier than my cousin. Sandrine was just more subtle. I just thought I should warn you. From now on, if they ask what we are talking about, just say 'sexy witches', that will shut them up," Edvard said, and both men grinned.

***

The whole day was spent in a leisurely way, just chatting with Edvard and Morten about different things. Mich had apparently left before Sirius had awoken, Sha-adi had gone shopping with a friend before going to pick up Amanda at work, and Sandrine had had an emergency call from the hospital and had left in a flash, promising Sirius she would explain everything about the bond on Sunday. He didn't care much, though. He still felt terribly guilty for not running out of the flat right then and finding Remus and Harry to put them at ease, but he had promised Amanda he would try to be patient, and Sirius Black kept his promises. He knew it was a necessary evil. Everything would be much better if Dumbledore was warned of his 'resurrection' beforehand.

On the other hand, Sirius really liked Edvard, he reminded him a lot of Moony, and the wizard thought for a moment that Edvard and Remus would probably get along very well - if it weren't because Remus was a werewolf and Edvard was the cousin of a dansarine, that is. Pity, really. Edvard cooked lunch and they ate it together in the kitchen. They even shared some red wine. Cooking was a hobby of Edvard's, and he was really good at it. That reminded Sirius again of Remus, he loved cooking too.

Benjamin came back home just on time for dinner, and assured Sirius that his aunt was much better and would probably leave the hospital the very next day. Sirius took a deep breath. At least, Harry and Remus wouldn't have to suffer much longer.

Little did he know, things wouldn't go precisely as planned the next day.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

I know I had said that chapters 4 to 6 would be shorter, but that was before I realised that I had made a mistake - I had forgotten that Professor McGonagall was in St. Mungo's, and she was going to be the link between Hogwarts and the ashanriis in my story -, so I had to re-write chapters 4 to 6 and change the plot a bit. I must admit it has been very traumatic, but now Chapter 6 is almost ready - again -, I can talk about it. And I can say for sure that in Chapter 7 we are going to meet again some familiar faces.

In this chapter nothing much happens, but next chapter things are gonna get a bit messy for our friends, so cross your fingers and wish them luck! ;-)