December 26: J'Suis Malade
When Sirius awoke it took him a minute to register why he woke up and where he was. Someone was in his bed. No, not his bed; Remus' bed.
/Oh, yeah/ Sirius thought, /I came in here last night. /
He looked down and saw Remus curled next to him, his head resting on Sirius' shoulder, but he was awake; his golden eyes sparkling in the sunrise.
"Good morning," Sirius said sleepily.
"Morning." Remus turned away and coughed into a pillow.
"Feeling sick?"
"Yeah...Uh, maybe you should go. Don't want you to get sick."
"I don't mind. I never get sick anyway."
"Well, I don't want to take the chance." Remus coughed again. He pointed to the door, "Go."
"But," Sirius protested when Remus started pushing him away. "What am I supposed to do all day? Everyone left last night."
"I don't care what you do...Read or something."
"Read? Read! That's like a death threat."
Remus' eyebrows knotted together in confusion. "Why is that a death threat?"
Instead of going into detail Sirius just smiled, placed a kiss on Remus' forehead and said, "Get well soon—otherwise I'll die of boredom." And he walked out. Having no idea what to do he took himself through the many and lengthy hallways in search for something interesting.
When he was on the first floor his eyes were drawn into the living room. A box of some sort had someone in it and it was talking to him. Awed, Sirius took a step into the room wondering what device this was. He cocked his head in a dog-like manner. Sirius was so interested the talking box he didn't even realize the girl laying on the couch. He walked up to the box and touched it. A weird feeling shocked his finger.
"Hey!" Sirius shook his finger free of the sensation. He sat crossed- legged very close to the black box and stared; but after a while it hurt his eyes and he had to blink rapidly and look away. He scooted backward watching the mini-people move and talk.
When a girl on screen slapped a boy across the face, Sirius exclaimed, "Hey, that's not nice! He's your boyfriend!" A giggled erupted from behind and he twirled around.
"They can't talk back, Sirius."
"Renee." Sirius felt his face get hot from embarrassment. "I didn't think anyone was here."
"I'm quiet," She smiled. "If you were wondering, that's called a television or TV."
Sirius turned around and looked at it briefly before looking back at Remus' sister. "So that's what Lily is always jabbering about."
"Lily? Your girlfriend?"
Sirius laughed, "Oh yeah...As if. We hate each other. James, on the other hand, is in love with her."
"Well, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Aren't you married?"
Renee chuckled, "Full of yourself, aren't we? Don't get me wrong, I'm just a very curious person."
"A girlfriend?" Sirius held back a threatening smile. "Nope. No girlfriend."
"Really? I would've expected you to even have a couple of them."
"I get that a lot...wonder why...," Sirius added sarcastically.
"What about Remus?"
Sirius' heart pounded, "What?"
"Does Remus have a girlfriend?"
Sirius let out a breath he didn't realize he was even holding. For a second he could've sworn she asked him if he was going out with... "Oh, uh, no. He doesn't."
Renee sighed deeply, "Figures."
"Why? He could if he wanted to. He just...doesn't want one...a girlfriend..."
Renee snorted, "He'll forever be a virgin."
"I wouldn't put that past him."
She looked at him skeptically. "Are you saying—no, he's only fifteen, he couldn't... wouldn't..."
Well, if that's what she wanted to believe, Sirius wasn't the one to dampen her spirits. So, instead of replying he turned back to the television, and watched a bunch of muggle girls talk happily to each other over school.
"What is Hogwarts like?"
Sirius looked back at the woman. "Hasn't Remus told you?"
"No... we're not exactly...close."
"Your not? I thought brothers and sisters—wait, I have no right to speak about that. My brother and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye either."
"Sounds familiar." Renee rested her head in her palm. "So what is Hogwarts like?"
How do you describe such a place? "Uh, big and...um, roomy...?"
Renee's eyebrow raised. "That's very descriptive."
"There's no real words to describe it," Sirius racked his brain for impressive adjectives. "A tremendous stone castle full of nagging teachers and bothersome kids all fighting with each other with a passion. All surrounded by the ceaseless grounds, home to the Forbidden Forest and enigmatic lake." Sirius restated everything in his head. Sounded right, little corny, but still right.
"Sounds amazing..."
"My favorite place in the world." The two sat in silence only listening to the conversation on the TV.
"Sirius," Renee seemed very uncertain, "Did you..." She stopped.
"Did I what?"
"Nevermind." She leaned back resting against the back of the cream couch.
Sirius scowled. "I'm not a person to 'nevermind.'"
She gazed at the black-haired boy momentarily. "Last night...before I went to bed I talked to Remus...He had on this Celtic-looking necklace with this black sphere hanging from it..."
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "I've noticed. But...why does that matter?"
"Because he didn't have it on before Christmas. So where would've he gotten it from?"
"Curious. I wonder who got it for him."
"Hmmm." Renee stood up and walked to a small bookcase and pulled out a rugged, leather-bound book. She flipped its contents and stopped at one page and handed it to the teen on the floor. "Look familiar."
Sirius looked at the picture. The Christmas present he gave Remus, shown brilliantly in the volume. Sirius tried reading the caption underneath, but with his luck it was in French.
"It's the Aisling-Loit. If you knew Gaelic that would be dream-destroy in English." She grabbed the book from his hand and started reading.
/L'Aisling-Loit a été fait pour Maeve Astley la femme qui a eu des cauchemars terrifiants au sujet de son mari qui a été assassiné horriblement. Elle a découvert le Neamhnuid Artan enfoui dans les régions irlandaises. Elle a remonté une armure filetée avec de forts liens celtiques étreignant le Neamhnuid Artan avec lui. Elle a réalisé que quand les deux sont remonté correctement ils créent un lien spécial émettant une forte puissance qui transforme toutes les mauvaises et désagréables pensées en pensées agréables et heureuses. Seulement cent ont été faits et sont extrêmement valables et rares. Par après cinquante trois ont été brisés. Si on pour trouver un beau morceau, le prix serait dans les dix milles facilement./
Sirius looked at her stupidly. "I have no clue to what you just said."
Renee translated for him. "The Aisling-Loit made by Maeve Astley, the woman who had terrifying nightmares about her husband who was murdered gruesomely. She discovered the Neamhnuid Artan deep in the Irish grounds. She put together a threaded weave with strong Celtic bonds clasping the Neamhnuid Artan along with it. She realized, when the two are put together correctly they create a special bond emitting a strong power that turns all bad and unpleasant thoughts into pleasing and happy thoughts. Only one hundred were made and are extremely valuable and rare. Over time fifty three have been shattered. If one to come across such a beautiful piece, it would be priced in the ten thousands easily."
Sirius mouth dropped to the floor. "Ten...ten thousand?"
"Exactly my point." She closed the book and put it back on the shelf. "So Sirius, where would my brother find such an expensive item?"
"No idea," Sirius choked. /Ten-fucking-thousand/
"Don't give me this shit, Sirius." Renee rounded on him and pulled on his shirt collar threateningly, pulling him eye level. "I know you gave it to him and I want to know where in the hell you got it. To be perfectly honest with you, I think you stole it."
"Stole it? I don't steal things!"
"I know about your family, the Blacks. Rich, yes, but rich enough to buy a ten thousand plus dream catcher for a poor lonely werewolf? I think not."
"How did you know I knew about Remus being a werewolf?"
"I'm not as dumb as I may appear. You have many dirty little secrets and you better start 'fessing up."
"I don't have any secrets!"
"What about where you got the Aisling-Loit? Hummm? Why are you really 'friends' with Remus? What does he offer you that James doesn't besides a nice scare once a month? Why don't you and your brother see eye-to-eye? Why do you hate your parents? Why do you call Remus 'Moony?'" Renee paused. "Or what about what you and Remus were really doing last night before dinner?"
Sirius looked into her brown eyes full of hate. "You don't know anything."
"I saw you myself when you gave James your present and it wasn't last night. Care to enlighten me in your little rendezvous with my brother?"
"Fuck you."
She let go of his shirt and threw him onto the couch. "Don't fucking play games with me, Black. I'm Remus' only sibling, so if I have to act like the savage brother I will. Especially now that Remus won't be able to come down since he's so sick."
"Oh, I'm so scared." Sirius mocked shaking in fright.
Renee pulled out her wand and shoved it under Sirius' chin. "Dare to repeat?" Sirius shook his head. "Good, now answer my question."
"Which damned question?"
"About last night." She answered clearly irritated.
"OH, you know...the usual." Sirius grinned maliciously. "Doing the Unspeakable."
"Bastard."
"You can call me any names in the book and it won't make me the least bit flustered."
She disregarded his last statement. "You're a liar. Remus isn't like that."
"Like what?" Sirius asked innocently.
"He doesn't like other men."
Sirius laughed. "Sure, whatever. You and Remus don't even talk so how the hell would you know?"
She looked highly offended. "Va te faire foutre, abruti! You couldn't even imagine what this family has been through, so don't talk about us like we're completely divided." She jabbed him in his Adam's apple making him gag. "Where did you get the dream catcher?"
Sirius clamped his mouth shut and said nothing until she poked him again, harshly. "Don't do that!" He jerked his head away from her and shifted his body under her weight and managed to jump to freedom.
He was almost out the door when something hit him hard in the back.
"I'm sorry I had to do that, Sirius."
Sirius opened his eyes slowly and tried to recall what just happened. "Stupefy." He concluded.
"Quite a handy spell." His eyes landed upon his miscreant.
He sat up and smacked her across the face. "Shouldn't have pissed me off, Renee. I don't usually believe in hitting but when it comes to bitches I tend to bend that belief."
She rubbed her face gingerly. "You are some piece of work."
"Finely crafted." Sirius added standing up.
"No, greatly flawed." Malicious brown met infuriated gray-blue. "You're not leaving this room until you tell me the truth."
"Fine. It was a family heirloom and my uncle gave it to me. Satisfied?"
"Not quite." She pulled Sirius down so they were face to face. "Don't you dare fuck up my brother's life. If you truly love him and he loves you, make him happy. But if you don't really have any feelings for him...don't break his heart pretending you do." She touched Sirius' face gently and left.
"Talk about a someone who has major mood swings." He said to himself.
"I heard that!" She called back.
"Well, you do!"
"Never said I didn't!"
Sirius shook his head in incredulity. "Must be a Lupin trait."