Disclaimer: I wish.
Chapter Thirty-Five: Summer AirSo fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.
- Mrs. Barbauld, The Death of the Virtuous
Sirius sat in the velvet armchair across from Remus with Anna's head gently resting Anna's against his chest. Over an hour ago in the very early morning, Dumbledore had left to go back to Hogwarts with Snape, and Remus, Sirius and Anna had retired to the lounge room, where Anna had immediately crawled into Sirius' lap. She had clung to him desperately, her face nuzzling his neck, before she drifted into a slow, easy sleep.
"Is she asleep?" Remus asked quietly.
Sirius nodded, careful not to disturb the girl in his arms. "Do you think Tonks will be back soon?"
Remus checked his watch. "It's two. I suppose she'll be here any minute."
No sooner had the words left his mouth that the woman in question trudged tiredly into the room, wearing a very short skirt and an impossibly tight blouse. She sank into the couch beside Remus. "Well. That was an ordeal."
"Are you okay?" Remus asked, his voice laced with concern.
"Yeah," she sighed, dropping her head onto Remus' shoulder. "Just bloody tired. Stupid Ministry idiots had me answering questions for a whole bloody hour."
"Ah," Sirius said sympathetically, his eyes twinkling at Remus' obvious discomfort. "But everything went alright?"
"Of course it did. I decided to go with my instincts and change into someone a little more alluring. Stupid pervert law enforcers were like putty in my hand." She stood up, changing into a buxom blonde with a rather large bust and huge, baby blue eyes. "Oh Sir!"she mimed, lifting a hand melodramatically to her forehead and tossing back waves of peroxide blonde hair, "I'm so glad you're here! I was so scared! I heard noises coming from the hallway! Please! Help me! I'm just a stupid airless bimbo with gigantic boobs! I couldn't possibly do anything on my own!" She grunted, changing back to her usual appearance. "Stupid Natalia White. I swear that woman has no brains."
Remus and Sirius chuckled as Tonks made her way to the door. "Well, they caught Sturgis. They're having a trial for him tomorrow. Well, I guess it's today now," she added tetchily. "I'll Floo Dumbledore, then I'm going home to sleep! Seeya guys." She sauntered out of the room, leaving a very flustered Remus and a very amused Sirius in her wake.
...&&&...
The following morning, while Ron and Harry were receiving their Hogwarts letters with news of Prefects and the upcoming year, Anna and Sirius were laying outside in the back garden, basking in the glory of the suns first rays.
"Lord, I am tired!" Anna mumbled, somewhere near the regions of his stomach.
"Yes, well that does tend to happen when one wakes up in the middle of the night after having an urgent epiphany that must be dealt with immediately. S'not my fault you're tired."
Anna playfully swatted Sirius' hand. "No need to be petulant. I still feel horrible about Sturgis. He's going to get Azkaban."
Sirius repressed a shudder, despite the warmth of the fresh, summer air. "It wasn't your fault, Ann."
"But it was!" she moaned into his chest. "Why does everybody insist on telling me that it wasn't my fault when it so blatantly is? If I had have been smart enough to figure out why he was so veiled then I could've saved him!"
"No one is perfect Anna." Sirius licked his lips. "Nobody's flawless. We all make mistakes."
"Yes, but when a mistake could potentially cost someone their life it's a little bit of a bigger issue," she said dryly.
Sirius froze.
Anna lifted a hand to her mouth, sitting up to look at Sirius. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I wasn't thinking."
"It's okay," he said in an undertone. He raised a hand to her face, twining a lock of her cherry-brown hair with his fingers. He tugged on it gently. "Because of you, I've learnt to deal with all that stuff. With your... Healing, I've been able to let it go. And also because of you, we were able to get to Sturgis before he got to far in," he added, reassuring her. "You see, Ann, sometimes we make mistakes, but sometimes we're able to rectify them. You can redeem yourself."
"Like Harry," she said softly, laying her head upon Sirius' chest once more.
"Yeah. Like Harry."
...&&&...
In no time at all, bags had been packed, belongings had been retrieved from where they were littered about the house, pets were caged, and the children were ready to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Sirius had somehow managed to convince Molly and Arthur to allow him to accompany Harry to the train station and it was now with a heavy heart that he entered the gloomy residence of 12 Grimmauld Place, trailing unnecessarily behind Remus and Tonks.
As they entered the kitchen, the sound of a broken gasp reached his ears. Looking up, he saw Anna sitting at the kitchen table, Daily Prophet spread before her, a hand clutched at her mouth.
"Sturgis... he got six months... Azkaban..."
Sirius pushed past Tonks and Remus and hurried into the room. "Ann, are you okay?"
She looked up, ashen-faced and wide-eyed. "Yes, I suppose I am. Poor Sturgis."
Sirius sighed. "We've been over this, Ann, it wasn't your fault."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she said dourly. "I'm going to go have a nap. See you guys later."
For a minute, Sirius looked as if he was about to follow her as she rushed from the room, but was stopped by a pointed look from Remus.
"Well, I better get going," Tonks said slowly. "But I really don't want too," she moaned as she sat down at the table.
"Hmmm," Sirius mused. "I wonder why you'd be so keen on staying... certainly not to spend time with your dear old cuz?" He raised his eyebrows in an irritably knowing manner. "Perhaps there is someone else your – oh, I don't know – mooning over?"
His quip earned him a reproachful glare and a swift kick under the table.
...&&&...
"Sirius? Sirius?" came the insistent call a few days later.
"In here, Moony!"
"Ah. There you are." The werewolf strode purposefully into the drawing room, the Daily Prophet tucked under his arm. "Have you seen this?" he asked, holding out the newspaper.
"Seen what?"
"This." He folded out the paper. "The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murdered... etc... etc... is currently hiding in London!"
He stared at Sirius.
"It was in yesterdays paper. I only just noticed it this morning."
"So?" Sirius replied. "They're always guessing where I am, nothing new."
Remus sighed exasperatedly. "I thought you might say that. I really don't think you should risk going out again."
"Oh pish, posh, Mother."
"Sirius! I'm serious! You really can't risk – "
Remus was cut off by a large, snowy owl that swooped majestically into the room.
"That's Hedwig. Harry's owl," Sirius exclaimed as the owl flew down onto his shoulder. Sirius quickly tore the letter from Hedwig's leg. He read it aloud to Remus:
"Dear Snuffles
Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible. I'm really glad it's the weekend.
We've got a new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge.
We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon.
Please write back quickly.
Best,
Harry"
"Did you get all of that?" Sirius asked Remus.
"Yes, pretty much. Except for the first bit. What did Harry write to you about last summer?"
Sirius thought for a moment. "Ah! His scar! His scar hurt him..."
"Good," Remus said shortly.
"What? Good that his scar hurt?"
"Not at all. Just good because to an outsider that could sound particularly incriminating. Think about it. 'I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge.' Coming from a fifteen year old boy, that could be really, really wrong." Remus shuddered.
Sirius looked to Remus, perplexed, before realisation hit. "Remus, you have the sickest mind. You just gave me perhaps the worst mental image I have ever experienced. Including the time that Anna told me how she received the 'sex talk' from Professor McGonagall."
"SIRIUS!"
A/N: Hehe. Thankyou for reading. I just have to clear a few things up...
One of my lovely, wonderful, beautiful reviewers expressed some distress that Sirius is going to die at the end of this story. While in my personal opinion (as much as I would like to be proved wrong) Sirius is well and truly dead. HOWEVER in this story, Sirius WILL NOT DIE! The Veil scene will happen, I'll just find a way to bring the gorgeous man back to life. There you go. Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this... maybe I should be leaving it as a cliffy... Hhmmmm.....
About the whole Remus/Hermione thing a few of you asked about; as much as I d occasionally love to read a good RL/HG or SB/HG (I always just imagined Herm to be better of with an older guy. I mean, sometimes I just feel like Ron won't be able to keep up with her. But I digress.) Hermione and Remus will not have any kind of romantic relationship at all. That would just make this story way to complicated. They will just become good friends, I mean, they're so similar, why not?
Thirdly, this story seems to be getting a little AU. Until the end of Harry's fifth year, you'll just have to get used to it. Sorry.
Finally, if any of you are lucky enough to live in Australia, do yourself a favour. Go down to your local Woolies or Coles and buy a packet of Kurrajong Kitchens Lavosh biscuits and a tub of Nutella. I am in Heaven!