Here's the newest chapter, with great news: the plot's back on track (*gasp* there was a PLOT??), whoopee! It didn't really turn out like I'd planned it about a year ago, but who cares? Speaking of planning: last friday I planned out the six chapters to come (Ancient Christendom bored me...). It made me actually quite sad to see it written down in my notebook: "WW 20 - The second war begins" and "June 16, WW21 - Fun Chapter?"... The last chapter of Wanderings! Then I'll take my much-deserved summerstop, to gather ideas for the sequel... Yes, there'll be one!
As for this chapter... it got longer than I thought it would turn out, AND it has lots of Sirius&Remus babbling, so I guess you'll be happy. :) Enjoy.
Oh, wait! About the quote: it's quite a strange situation we have before us. This is the first time I've used a quote that's already been said in the fict... It probably won't be the last time either... :)
Enjoy!

April 1995.

"This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out."

* * * * *

Will be there. See you then.

Padfoot.

* * * * *

"Now, it's just Remus who's coming over today," Sirius told Buckbeak, meanwhile brushing the horse-part of the animal with a make-shift brush. "He's not dangerous and he's not going to eat you, so I don't want any funny business like you did at Christmas, okay?"

Buckbeak had his eyes closed and was deeply enjoying the firm brushing. He didn't appear to have heard Sirius.

"Hm?" Sirius asked. He poked the animal in the ribs. "Okay?" Buckbeak snorted, insulted, but didn't really seem to object. "Good." Sirius started brushing again. "Hippogriffs," he sighed.

Buckbeak pretended to try and peck Sirius, who jumped out of the way, laughing.

"Hey, as far as the pecking-order is concerned here, I'm above you, okay?" He tapped Buckbeak playfully on the beak. Buckbeak let out a shriek that echoed against the wall, and he reflexively spread his wings, nearly knocking Sirius off his feet. A short mock-fight followed, which was won by Sirius who was able to quickly slip under Buckbeak to the animal's other side and prod him there. Buckbeak glared but Sirius just laughed, gasping for breath after all the excitement. He hadn't felt so happy in weeks. He scrambled to his feet again.

"So, now that's been settled – " Buckbeak huffed but didn't object " – I'll go down to Hogsmeade and come back with Remus. You stay here and be a nice Hippogriff, okay?"

I'm using that word too much, Sirius thought. Buckbeak stared at him with unblinking eyes, and he took the liberty of taking that as "sure". He changed into Padfoot, slipped out of the cave and started walking down the path towards Hogsmeade.

~*~

Strange, how a village can change in just a few months.

Hogsmeade was the complete opposite of what Remus had walked into last Christmas. Instead of snowy white, the main colour was now green. It was warm, and there was a strong scent in the air Remus could only define as 'spring'. It was the best thing he'd ever smelled, and it brought a spring to his step.

Walking lightly was easy because this time he didn't have two heavy bags to carry. Sirius had told him that he had a steady supply of food now, so he didn't have to bring anything along. Remus hadn't liked the prospect of eating the scarce amount Sirius had (even though the supply was apparently steady), so he carried a rucksack with a bottle of water, his tin with tealeaves, two cups and a packet of chocolate chip cookies. Drinking tea was an old English tradition, he had reasoned. One couldn't pay someone a visit without drinking a cup of the warm liquid.

He walked down Main Street, keeping an eye out for a big black dog. He finally saw his friend sitting at the end of the road again, under the battered old photo of himself staring meanly at the passers-by. Padfoot had seen Remus as well, and he got to his paws, wagging his tail. Remus smiled and started to make his way to the shaggy dog, but before he had set even two paces, someone tapped him on his shoulder and called his name. He turned around.

Professor Vector was beaming up at him. It was fairly obvious what she was doing here; she was holding a rather large square package, wrapped in brown paper and with the Hogsmeade Post Office's address on it. Apparently she had been picking up books she'd ordered.

"Remus!" she said. "What a surprise! What are you doing here?"

He smiled. "A surprise indeed, but a pleasant one," he said, genuinely pleased. "I'm here to… visit an old friend of mine." Well, it's true.

"So you don't have time to have a drink?" she asked.

"Alas, no," he replied, giving a comical sigh.

"You know, we all miss you terribly," she suddenly said. She heaved the package a little higher on her hip and squinted her eyes against the sun. "Especially Fillius. Now he doesn't have someone Gryffindor-Ravenclaw rivalry with. Minerva's too serious for that."

He laughed, albeit a bit sadly. "And I suppose Dumbledore doesn't want to take sides?"

She laughed as well.

"He's always on everybody's side at the same time, so it gets terribly confusing," she said.

"I can imagine that," Remus grinned.

She smiled, heaving the package up once more. "Well, I have to go. I have a class to teach in half an hour."

"Make me jealous, why don't you?" he said, making her laugh again.

"Do come and visit us sometimes," she said.

"Will do."

Having both hands occupied with holding the package, she nodded goodbye and walked away in the opposite direction Remus would take. He waited until she was out of sight, then walked over to Padfoot.

The Animagus curiously cocked his head, asking a question without words.

"That was professor Vector," Remus told him. "Arithmancy teacher, remember? She taught us from the third year up? Well, me at least, you never learned anything…" Padfoot growled.

"Not really sorry for that," Remus said, grinning wolfishly. "It's the truth. Anyway, I used to sit between her and Flitwick last year, and she wanted to know what I was doing here. Said I was visiting an old friend."  

Padfoot nuzzle went up and down, making an "ooh"- gesture. Then he got to his feet and wagged his tail again.

"Yes, let's get up to your cave," Remus agreed. He climbed over the stile and followed his friend's wagging tail up the mountain, to Sirius' hide-out.

~*~

The climb was easier than a few months ago because this time the path wasn't half-frozen. Padfoot once again kept his guest in mind and took a more leisurely pace than he would normally have done. It took them just under half an hour to reach the cave. The moment they reached the small clear space before the entrance, Padfoot changed back into Sirius. Remus sunk down on a rock and let his rucksack fall on the ground.

"Don't you think they'll find out you're staying here if you get out in the open like this?" he asked. Sirius shrugged, a broad grin on his face he couldn't fight.

"No one ever gets up here," he said. "And it's not as if I'm practising my yodelling up here."

Remus laughed at the image of Sirius belting out a yodel, complete with lederhosen.

"Well, stay here," Sirius said, gesturing for Remus to stay seated. "I'll get us lunch." 

Remus obediently stayed on his rock while Sirius slipped into his cave. He was amazed at how magnificent this hidingplace was. The cave itself was barely visible from the village, being surrounded by tall trees and fairly high on the mountain. The entrance was a mere slit in the mountain, and you only noticed it standing almost right in front of it. There was a small clearing in front of the cave, a circle with boulders around it, looking as if they were made to sit on. A small opening between the trees made it possible to see Hogsmeade, but it was too far away to see anyone on the mountain if you were standing in the village. The only way to catch Sirius before he saw you was to fly over the mountain from Hogwarts. And doing that meant you'd have to account to Dumbledore what you were doing there. If the small cave had been especially build, it would not have been a better place to hide.

Sirius crawled out of the cave again, a blanket and several sandwiches in his hands. He had a worried look on his face.

"What's up?" Remus wanted to know, meanwhile taking over the sandwiches so that Sirius could spread out the blanket.

"Buckbeak's not inside," Sirius said. He frowned. "I told him to stay here. I hope he's only off hunting and not doing something stupid."

"Uhm, how can Buckbeak actually get out of the cave?" Remus wondered. "That opening is tiny." 

"Oh, there's a bigger entrance on the other side," Sirius said, waving Remus' comment away. "It comes out on the other side of the Forbidden Forest. It's big enough for him to get through. I just hope he hasn't flown off to Hagrid or something; it'd betray both of us."

"Hmm." Remus sat down again. He couldn't say he was very disappointed that the Hippogriff wasn't there; it made him nervous. "Is Buckbeak still so font of tearing things apart?"

"Just this morning he tried to peck my hand off," Sirius said airily. Then, when he caught Remus' stare: "don't look at me like that! We were only re-establishing the pecking order! I won of course."

"Yeah, Merlin knows you know how to do that," Remus said. Sirius threw a sandwich at him. "Hey! No food fight!" The blanket was sprayed with bread and ham. Remus picked up one of the loafs of bread but pulled a face when he saw the sand in the butter. "Look, disgusting. I'm not going to eat that."

"Give it to me then." Sirius stuck out his hand.

"What?"

"I´ll eat it." He snatched the bread from Remus' hand and shook the sand off, carefully put the ham back, folded it double and ate it in three large bites, ostentatiously chewing with his mouth half-open. The disgusting sight of his yellow teeth chewing the white bread made Remus flinch. "See?" Sirius finally asked, swallowing the last bits away. "I've eaten far worse than that, actually."

"Yech," Remus said. "Disgusting. I can't believe you just did that."

Sirius shrugged. "After rats, anything is a delicacy."

"Coming summer, when Harry's back home, you'll come over to me and I'll give you proper food." Remus shook his finger at a bemused Sirius, as if his friend was just a little child. "We need to get you back on your old weight, you look a mess. Your own mother won't even recognise you."

"Well, that's not surprising – I haven't seen her since I was sixteen," Sirius said, pulling up his shoulders in a defensive way. "Whatever happened to her anyway?"

"Can I have that sandwich?" Remus asked instead of giving an answer. "That's cheese, right?" Sirius shove the sandwich in his friend's direction.

"Well?"

"Uhm, she died. A couple of years ago." Remus shyly bit his sandwich, feeling uncomfortable discussing this. Sirius didn't seem affected, however.

"Okay." Sirius wolfed another sandwich down, then remembered something. "Oh, Harry send me something to drink as well."

Remus looked up. "Harry?"

"Yeah, he's sending me food from Hogwarts," Sirius explained, taking up a flask. "I'm afraid it's nothing stronger than pumpkin juice – I figured it would be a bit… strange, to send him an owl with a note saying 'could you send me some Butterbeer or Firewhiskey because professor Lupin's coming over and we'd like something strong to drink and possibly get drunk'. I mean, not really the right example to set, don't you think so?"

Remus laughed. "Hardly. But pumpkin juice's fine as well."

"'fraid I don't have cups or anything," Sirius said apologetically.

"I do." Remus took out the cups from his rucksack and Sirius distributed the orange liquid. Then they sat back against the boulders, drinking pumpkin juice and eating the sandwiches.

"How's Harry?" Remus asked.

"Still alive," was the sighed answer. "The question is for how long, however…"

"The second Task was with that lake, right?"

"Yeah. He wrote me that he found out the way to survive underwater a few minutes before the Task started. Lucky devil."

"Well, he's always been exceedingly lucky."

"Yeah, he started when he was only a couple of hours old, when he got me as his Godfather. Pure luck," Sirius joked, avoiding the subject they were both thinking of.

"And how's his love-life?" Remus asked with a small smile.

"Love-life? Does he have one?" Sirius was genuinely amazed.

"According to Witch Weekly he has." Remus took a copy of the magazine from his rucksack. He had saved it especially for Sirius, just to amuse him.

"See, I never read that magazine," Sirius said. "And oh Merlin – I can see why Harry didn't send it to me." He leafed to the article and started reading it, a grin on his face. He was laughing out loud when he'd finished it. It was so infectious that Remus was grinning as well.

"Hermione Granger, isn't that the – " Sirius waved his hands at the sides of his head to mimic bushy hair. "That girl?"  

"Yeah, that's Hermione," Remus nodded. "Best girl of her year. And the previous years. And probably the next years as well."

"Wasn't she the one who'd figured out you're a werewolf?" Sirius wanted to know.

"Your memory's too good for your own good, Padfoot," Remus said.

"Well, she's not as ugly as they say," Sirius said, laying the magazine aside.

"No, she isn't," Remus agreed. "Once she gets those front teeth straightened out, she'll be quite pretty I suppose."

"Front teeth?" Sirius frowned. "What about them?"

"Uhm, they're fairly large." Remus didn't feel comfortable discussing the outward appearance of one of his students, even though it was fairly harmless.

"Didn't notice anything special about them," Sirius shrugged.

"Oh well." Remus shrugged as well. "It's a lousy story anyway. Worthy of The Quibbler."

Sirius frowned. "The what now?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. You've been away too long."

"That's a way to put it. I've been 'away'. Nice euphemism."

"Anyway," Remus continued, "The Quibbler is a magazine with out-of-this-world stories and theories. They once had this long-winded story about Dumbledore being Father Christmas' brother."

"You know, that actually makes sense. They both have a long beard for starters."

"Yeah, and they both wear red and they both live in a secluded castle." Remus rolled his eyes. "I'd almost start thinking you wrote that article."

"Aww, darn Remus, you found out my secret." Sirius devoured the last sandwich. "Got more to eat?"

"Do your stomach resemble a bottomless pit or something?" Remus fished the chocolate chip cookies from his rucksack. "Here. And don't eat it all, will you?"

Sirius tore the package open. "I'll try." Remus immediately snatched the bag from his friend's hands.

"It's not that I don't trust you," he said. "I just… don't trust you." He divided the cookies, watched sharply by Sirius. "There. Now you can have them."

"Still protective when it comes to chocolate?" Sirius asked, picking a bit of chocolate off.

"Of course." The cookies were just too large to eat in one bite, so Remus bit one in half. Sirius stretched his long legs on the blanket and leaned back, enjoying the sun on his hollow cheeks. There were bluish bags under his eyes, and Remus doubted his friend slept very well. But before he could ask, Sirius spoke.

"And, how was your date last week?" He opened one eye, which twinkled playfully.

Remus thought about this for a moment. "It… changed me. Literally."

"Wow. Give me a date like that," Sirius muttered.

Remus stretched out his legs as well and leaned back against the same rock Sirius was leaning against. "Don't think she's your kind of girl," he said.

"Why not? You wrote about that… Lova. Seems exactly my kind of girl."

"Indeed," Remus sighed. "A bit too much."

Sirius raised his head. "A-oh. Should I be insulted?"

Remus pulled a face. "She had this knack for 'collecting' you had as well."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Nah, don't worry. It's not as if it's your fault anyway."

"Hmm." They were silent for a few moments, each thinking about what could have been but never got the chance to be and other complicating stuff like that.

"And, what else have you been up to?" Sirius asked finally.

"Nothing much," Remus shrugged. "I met a few, hum, people who thought they knew a way to cure me, but it didn't work. Quite the opposite – I nearly Changed halfway through the month. Got the fur and all."

"You don't look like it," Sirius commented.

"I got better," Remus grinned. "No, it surprisingly went away when I started drinking the Wolfsbane Potion."

"God, I hate asking this again," Sirius sighed. "Uhm, what's that?"

"A potion that keeps the Wolf in check," Remus explained. "It lets me keep my human mind, so I won't start eating other people or wrecking my house. D'you know there are people who haven't even heard of it?"

"You mean besides me?"

"Yeah. Well, I actually mean werewolves who've never heard of it. You see, I met this girl – " 

"Oh dear," Sirius said, winking.

Remus scowled. "She's nine. Anyway, the Wolfsbane Potion's been around longer than she's been a werewolf, and yet she'd never heard of it before I told her about it!" He sat upright, indignation rushing through him. "It's ridiculous! You'd think the Registry would encourage drinking such a useful potion, but no, they don't even tell people about it."

"Well, it's common knowledge that Umbridge and the Ministry in general isn't really the most werewolf-friendly," Sirius muttered.

"True. You know what I'd like to do?" Remus asked. "Besides giving Umbridge a nice kick up her… Uhm…"

"Arse?" Sirius suggested.

"Yeah. Uhm, well, apart from that," Remus continued, "I'd really, really like to, you know, kind of reform the entire Registry. It's ridiculous that people keep blundering along like that. It's practically certain that there's no cure, but no one tells the new werewolves that, they have to figure it out for themselves, and besides," he ranted on," isn't it a bit strange that there are only non-werewolves working at the Registry? What do they know about anything?"

"It's easy then," Sirius cut in. "Just give Umbridge and Fudge a nice kick and reform the whole thing. I'm on your side so that already one supporter."

"There's just this tiny little problem that they probably won't listen," Remus sighed. "They're too blind for that."

"Then it's your fate to endure it." Sirius sighed as well. There was again a short moment of silence. Then Sirius said: "you know, I've been thinking…"

"Oh God."

"Yes, it was quite a surreal experience. But the point is – if my mother's dead, and my father as well, and my brother…"

"Hm?"

"Whatever happened to the house?"

"What house?"

"Oh, nothing important," said Sirius airily, "we just happened to have this mansion-type house in London which just happened to be in our family for generations. Kind of an expensive thing, you know."

"Well, I don't know," Remus answered. "As far as I know, nothing happened with it."

"You know what that probably means?" Sirius asked, pensively.

"No. What does it mean?"

"That it's probably mine…" This took both of them by surprise.

"Wow! I didn't even know you used to live in London," Remus said, rather excitedly.

"That's because I ran away, remember?" Sirius replied sourly.

"But still, it's a mansion!"

"Hey, wait, don't get all excited," Sirius warned. "It's not like the Potter's. This one is stuffed to the brim with Dark Arts and all kinds of nasty things. Including but not limited to my family."

"We can get rid of that," Remus said optimistically. "You know what? I'll take you to London this summer, we'll take a look at your house. Hardly anybody knows you're Padfoot, it'll be quite save."

"Only if we're going to Surrey as well, to see Harry," Sirius said, not at all looking forward to going back to his old home again.

"Harry will be scared out of his wits to see his old teacher standing on his doorstep."

"No he won't. And if he is, I'll growl at him."

"Ooh, really threatening."

"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" Sirius grinned.

"Speaking of threats," Remus began, then cut his own sentence off: "my God, we're really jumping from one subject to the other. Anyway, as I was saying – speaking of threats; wasn't there something about Moody and Snape?" 

"Oh, right. Harry told me Moody's suspecting Snape of something. Not that it surprises me… And there's more," Sirius said darkly. "You know that Durmstrang is one of the schools competing in the Triwizard?"

"They're East-European, aren't they?" Remus asked with a frown. "Specialised in the Dark Arts?"

"Yeah, I used to have cousins there. Anyway, guess who the Headmaster is? Igor Karkaroff." Sirius suggestively raised his eyebrows.

"Igor 'I'll betray my fellow Death Eaters to prove I'm not a Death Eater' Karkaroff?" Remus asked, taken aback.

"The very same. And now my dearest – and only, for that matter – Godson told me that Karkaroff and Snape appeared very friendly towards one another…" Sirius suggestively waggled his eyebrows again. Remus failed to see the point, however.

"So? Seeing as both have an affinity with and love for the Dark Arts, it's hardly surprising that they'd seek each other's company," he said.

"Yes, but there's more," Sirius said. "Harry told me that Karkaroff walked into Snape's class one day, he seemed very anxious and he was showing something on his arm."

This was interesting. "Something on his arm?" Remus repeated. "Harry couldn't see what it was?"

"He had no idea."

"Hmm…" Remus thoughtfully scratched his chin. "Do you have any idea?"

"Besides the really ludicrous ones about rashes and warts he needed a potion for? Nope."

"Me neither…" They both frowned, trying to figure this out.

"Have you told Dumbledore about it?" Remus eventually asked.

"Yeah, but he hasn't reacted to it yet," Sirius said.

"Strange. Can't imagine him not knowing what it is."

"No, me neither." Sirius stared at the ground, frowing, thinking deeply. Remus couldn't help it; the sight of it made him smile. Although he (and James) used to tease Sirius that he wasn't able to think, it was just so… Sirius to worry himself over such a puzzle.

The sound of wings and talons scraping over stone made both of them look up.

"Buckbeak's back," Sirius said, relieved. He got to his feet and crawled into the cave. Remus was slightly unsure about what he should do, but, after a few moments, followed his friend into the cave.

The Hippogriff was crouched on the same leaf-covered spot he had been last Christmas. Remus carefully stayed near the entrance, still not comfortable around the fierce animal. Sirius was petting the horse-part of the Hippogriff as if it was just an ordinary pet.

"Hey, where've you been?" he asked. "You didn't fly off to Hagrid, did you?" The last question was asked with an audible urgency. Buckbeak snorted, which Sirius hoped was "no". He turned around and saw his friend standing with his back almost against the wall.

"He's not going to eat you," he said, half-laughing.

"Sure of it?" Remus asked. When Buckbeak heard his voice, he turned his head towards Remus. The moment he caught sight – or rather scent – of the werewolf, the feathers on his neck went on end.

"Maybe I should go outside again," Remus muttered. "I told you horses don't like me."

"Yeah, it'd seem so," Sirius said, frowning.

"Besides, it's getting late," Remus added, already slowly moving towards the entrance, ignoring Buckbeak's stare. "I must get back home."

"I'll walk you back towards Hogsmeade," Sirius said. "People'll notice if you Apparate from here." He turned to Buckbeak. "Stay here. And this time I mean it."

Buckbeak let out a shrieck that made Remus jump, but Sirius seemed unaffected. They both went outside and gathered the picnic things together.

"Is there anything you want to say now you're still in your human form?" Remus asked when they were ready to walk down the mountain.

"Uhm," Sirius thought out loud. "I'll probably think of a dozen things when we're in Hogsmeade. Write me, of course. Send food. And I'll see you again in a few months, I suppose, when it's summer."

"Looking forward to it."

"Yeah, me too actually." Sirius grinned his patented grin at Remus. "Should I be worried now?"

"Ow shut up." Remus tried to slap Sirius' head but his friend quickly changed into Padfoot, so his head ended up several feet lower than where Remus was aiming. "That's not fair," he said. Padfoot barked, almost literally a wolfish grin on his face.

"Haha. Now, coming with me or not?"

The two of them walked down the mountainside again, to the wizard village. Going downhill was easier than uphill, and it took them less time than earlier that afternoon.

Although it was the end of the afternoon, it was still light, and the air was still warm. Padfoot trotted alongside Remus to the Apparation Office.

"Well, I'll go now," Remus said, and he patted Padfoot on the head. The Animagus suffered it patiently, then nudged Remus' hand with his snout.

"Take care of yourself," Remus told him, and, after one final pat, he walked inside to Apparate home.

* * * * *

Well, I came, I saw… and I went home again. I've spend most of the evening thinking about Karkaroff's arm, but I still can't figure it out. Do ask Dumbledore again, he must know.

I have nothing more to add, nothing I haven't said or can't say in a few months. I'll write again when I have more news.

Moony.