Chapter 3: History of the Fallen
Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had to finish the sculpture I was making in my art lessons at home and that took up most of my free time (and I´m still not finished... -.-"). Anyway, thanks to everyone who gave me such nice critics, I hope you like this chapter as well and give me a nice, little review again! =)
Here´s the third chapter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Padfoot skidded to a halt in front of the tree. Finally, finally he had reached it and after a quick glance around, he transformed back and looked up. The branches of the tree weren´t low enough for him to climb up and there didn´t seem to be a ladder or something that would help him in that matter. Hoping to find *anything* that would help him, Sirius started walking around the tree, which, considering the size of it, took him nearly ten minutes.
Eventually, he even knelt in front of the tree and felt the trunk with his fingertips, though he didn´t think that would help him any. But then, just as he thought of giving up, he found that there were some holes, big enough to set a foot inside, carved into the trunk, each of them lined up until they reached the first branches of the tree. With renewed vigor, he started to climb them up.
It was extremely difficult to climb the tree for he nearly was pressed flat against the trunk and the fact he had to climb very high before reaching even the lowest of the tree´s branches wasn´t very motivating considering the size of the giant tree. Several times, Sirius was tempted to look down and see how far he´d gotten, but he ruthlessy pushed those thoughts far away, afraid of getting fear of heights.
When he had at last reached the end of the ´ladder´, he found himself on a big platform that allowed him a better view of the whole tree, which was wider than he had originally thought. Sirius took a look around. Everytime the branches were crossing, another platform was installed; from his point of view he could spot around fifty of them, each connected with a ladder (*not* carved into the trunk this time!). As he didn´t see anybody, he started to climb higher onto the other platforms.
As Sirius did so, he noticed there were some lights floating trough the air. ´Odd,´ he thought. When he finally stood on the next platform, he was able to take a closer look at the lights and was startled as he saw the first living creatures in this strange place. The ´lights´ were little dragonflies whose bodies were glowing in various colours and radiating soft light. Their way of flying was very different from what he had ever seen with average dragonflies. Instead of it being fast and looking almost kind of stressed, these little creatures were slow, floating through the air by winding themselves though it, their crystalline wings barely visible when they were moving.
Somehow, Sirius felt himself relaxing in the presence of these creatures. The light they were radiating was strangely calming and Sirius instantly liked these creatures. Besides him, they were the only thing alive in this strange place – at least the first he had discovered. Again, Sirius went higher on the tree and the sight that met him on the next platform made him gasp in surprise.
There were houses all over the platform which seemed to have simply grown out of the tree. As Sirius stepped closer to one of the houses, he curiously looked trough a window in the wall. The furniture inside the house also seemed to be a piece of the tree as if the tree himself had given the residents of this house all the things they needed. Sirius stepped inside the house trough a broken door; everything here looked old and forgotten, the dust lying inches thick on the floor and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and in the corners of the room.
Suddenly, Sirius noticed something strange about a chair which lay broken on the floor. He knelt down and took a closer look at it. At some places, the wood was coal-black as if it had been burned, but there was no sign that the fire had reached all of the house, for most of the things didn´t show any sign of ever having contact with fire or something else as hot. Sirius exited the house and went to inspect the other houses. Everywhere he found similar sceneries: every house was deserted and dirty, with the furniture broken and every now and then the wood had been burned.
Frowning, Sirius stood in the middle of the platform; how had a fire managed to get up this high when downstairs there hadn´t been any signs of it? And why hadn´t it burned all of the houses, just parts? There´d been enough wood for the flames to eat! As Sirius pondered on this matter, he dimly became aware of the big burn mark he was standing on, coal-black like the other things. Sirius looked down and was surprised by the size of it, the spot reminding him strangely of a large footprint.
By now, Sirius´s curiosity had awakened and figuring he would get to the bottom of the matter if he´d find something like a library or just a few written testaments, he went up higher and higher on the tree, wanting to get to the top of it.
Sirius started to sweat and he became aware of his empty stomach that demanded to be fed. On the next platform, he frantically searched the houses, but there wasn´t any trace there had ever been food. Sirius again started climbing higher when suddenly, he found himself standing on the biggest platform he had seen on this tree. There were hundreds of the glowing dragonflies floating trough the air, bathing the place with their light and illuminating a wide palace-like house grown out of the tree like the other houses he had seen earlier.
Though it didn´t look as broken as the other ones, it still seemed to be deserted and the wood had some cracks in it. But for Sirius the most striking thing about this palace was the fact it had obviously been half- burnt for a great part of the building was black and seemed to fall apart every moment. Sirius slowly crossed the place that seperated him from this... palace, as he didn´t know what else to call it. He breathed heavily, the sad atmosphere of this place getting to him and engulfing his senses. „Something terrible has happened here, I know that," Sirius muttered softly to himself, not noticing he had spoken that statement to himself.
Finally, he stood in front of the broken double-doors and hesitantly pushed them open. They gave a long criek, sounding as if they were crying. Sirius shivered. He had never been to such a creepy place before; sure, he wasn´t the type of man to chicken easily but *this*..., this was just so different than anything he had ever experienced. He didn´t know where he was, he was alone and he didn´t know what would happen. And worst of all, he hadn´t the slightest clue what had happened to Harry and how he could help him and if he would ever get back to him. For a moment, Sirius was terrified by the thought of being stuck here for all eternity, separated from the ones he loved and dying here, alone and forgotten.
Sirius gave himself a mental slap; if he ever wanted to find a way out of here, he had to stay sensible. Gathering every ounce of courage he had left, he entered the palace and was standing inside a great entrance hall. Every step he took echoed trough the room as he went further into the hall. There was a great hole on the ceiling where the light of the dragonflies shone trough. Sirius smiled as he looked up and saw the little creatures which again succeded in calming him and with new courage, Sirius called out, albeit still a bit hesitantly: „Hello? Is someone here? Hello!" Besides the echo of his own words there came no reply.
Sighing, Sirius moved to inspect the hall and found there were three doors, each on a different wall that lead out of the hall. He didn´t know which to pick first, so he decided for the one on the right side.
The door led him to a room where Sirius met the most unusual thing he´d ever seen. The ground of the room was covered with the leaves of the tree and several smaller trees emitted from the ground. Sirius came closer as he noticed there were fruits growing on the trees which looked really appetizing, especially to his empty stomach which again started to rumble angrily. He quickly reached out to fetch himself a fruit.
But then he stopped abruptly; who told him that he could really eat the fruits without being poisoned? His hand still hanging mid-air, he thought about his options. He could either leave the fruits and then most problably starve to death, or he could take the risk of being poisoned by eating the fruits but he could also have luck and the fruits wouldn´t harm him at all and he´d have a constant source of food for as long as he had to stay here.
Chosing the latter, he finally picked one of the rather odd-looking fruits and ate it. It tasted good and when he didn´t feel funny or ill, he took some more until he was sated. Now that one of his problems had been solved, he looked around. There were no more doors except the one he´d come trough. Figuring the room seemed to be safe, he decided to settle down for sleep here as the whole climbing up and inspecting had really exhausted him. As he lay down and sleep claimed him, he was having dreams about him being back with Harry and the two of them going to the Qudditch World Cup.
***
The next day, Sirius woke up, feeling sleepy and not quite realizing he was still in the strange dimension he had gotten. He opened his eyes, confused where he was as he didn´t remember this place. Suddenly, the memories of the last day came back to him, how he had climbed the tree and finally ended up here. Sirius groaned and put his head into his hands. He had hoped this would all have been a very bad dream and once again, a feeling of being lost overwhelmed him. He shook himself, he had to remember that he needed to stay sane if he ever wanted to find a way out of this mess. He thought about Harry and that he needed to help him and if he just gave up here, he wouldn´t be of any help for him.
Finally, he made his way back to the entrance hall and walked trough the left door in hope to find something that could help him. After he had entered, Sirius found himself in a circular room full with mural paintings that Sirius decided where worth a closer inspectation. A once-over told Sirius that the paintings seemed to illustrate the history of the land Sirius had gotten. The series started with a picture of middle-sized pixie- like creatures who had leaves instead of hair and were working on a field. As Sirius studied the painting, he noticed there were many animals which Sirius didn´t recognize painted in it and he could also see a great forest where the trees were looking healthier and the whole scene was looking brighter than currently.
The next paintings showed the same creatures with increased technology, it was like a history of civilisation and the paintings went on and on like this, every next picture showing another new invention of the pixie- creatures. Sirius followed the line of the paintings until his attention was drawn to a painting where some of the creatures were producing something that strongely reminded Sirius of a mirror; wondering, he studied the next painting where the same mirror was hanging in a dimly lit room, emitting magical sparks and the whole surface was rippling.
Then, Sirius frowned in concentration; he leaned closer and inently looked at the uneven surface of the mirror. He could see the silhouette of a... a person coming trough it. Even more confused, his mind rotating, he inspected the paintings further until he saw a picture with the pixie- creatures running away from something that resembled a fire wall, except that the flames were black and there were evil-looking red eyes in what looked like the monster´s head. The longer Sirius looked at the monster, the more details he could see. The fire-demon, as he had dubbed it, had four arms, each one ending in a hand with deadly claws and fiery legs which ended in dragon-like feet and a long fire-tail emitting from its spine and swaying behind it.
Still dazed, Sirius reached the two last paintings, one showing a pixie- creature dressed in arcane robes and magical energy surrounding its form, defeating the fire-demon, but dying as well in the battle. The last painting was partially destroyed but the same gloomy scenery like outside could be seen on the remaining parts.
When he was finished, Sirius slid down the wall, suddenly feeling rather tired, but at the same time, a small hope was fanning inside him. The tragic history that had been told to him by the paintings left him a bit sad, but it had also shown him a possible way out of this world. Sirius stood up again and moved over to the painting where he had seen the person come trough the mirror.
As he gently traced the outline of the figure, he wondered about the mirror: why had the pixie-creatures build something like that? Had they known about some kind of technology to journey to other dimensions? Would he be able to get back to his home, back to his Harry through it? Sirius jerked his head up.
„Now, there´s only one way of finding out!", he said aloud and went to explore the rest of the palace.
***
Meanwhile, three days had passed by and Harry was sitting outside of the Dursley´s house, sitting on his trunk and awaiting the member that would take him to the headquarters. Back to Grimmauld Place. Sirius´s house. Harry didn´t know how he would cope with seeing that place again for everything there would remind him of Sirius and how he had led his godfather into his death. As he felt tears welling up again in his eyes, he impatiently ground them out.
The last days with the Dursleys had been horrible, with Petunia being falsely friendly with him while Dudley and Uncle Vernon ignored him most of the time, though sometimes Vernon´s temper would snap and he´d start yelling at Harry, always being stopped by Petunia. His nightmares again had become worse, now with voices being added that yelled at him for killing his own godfather and when Harry finally woke up, he would fall back onto the bed and sob silently into the sheets or Padfoot, if the plush dog was buried into his face.
Harry was shaken out of his thoughts when a black car with darkened windows arrived. It stopped right in front of him and when the driver´s door opened Harry could only gape at the man that stepped out and smiled at him.
Finally, Harry managed to say something. „Remus! What are you doing here?"
Remus chuckled, obviously amused at Harry´s surprise. „Well, what do you think? I´m coming to take you to the Order. I even personally asked Albus for it."
Upon hearing Dumbledore´s name, Harry´s face darkened a little, which didn´t went unnoticed by the ever perspective Remus Lupin, but who didn´t want to bring that topic up until a later conversation. He eyed Harry up and down. The boy didn´t seem to have slept very much for he was looking paler than usual and the old rags he was wearing didn´t do very much to conceal his state of exhaustion. He inwardly sighed. Sirius´s death had obviously gotten more to Harry than Albus had originally assumed. He shook himself out of his thoughts and asked Harry: „Now, let´s get your trunk in the car, okay?"
Harry smiled a little and helped his ex-professor storing the trunk in the car and then put Hedwig onto the back seat. Harry, too, had noticed how exhausted Remus looked, his golden hair streaked with grey in spite of his still young age. Well, not *young* like a teenager, but a man in his best years. Remus also had went through too much in his life, having lost his very best friends.
They both entered the car, but Remus didn´t start the motor. Instead, he looked at Harry intently and Harry started to shift uncomfortably under his intense gaze. Finally, Remus broke the silence.
„I know how hard it is for you now, Harry. And I know that there´s nothing I can do to take away the pain. But I want you to know that you can come to me whenever you feel alone or want to talk. Okay?"
Harry nodded and smiled at Remus. „Okay. Thanks, Remus."
Lupin smiled and then did something Harry would´ve never expected. He leaned over and put his arms around Harry, embracing him. Harry knew the werewolve didn´t touch other people very often and was grateful for the embrace he was receiving now. He thanked Remus by putting his arms around him, both comforted by each other.
When Remus eventually pulled back and started the engine, Harry´s mood had heightened a little. It was just that he knew that Remus understood him, having made the same experiences as Harry. He didn´t try to comfort him with phrases like ´everything will be fine´ or ´life goes on´ and ´he wouldn´t have wanted you to be unhappy´, like Ron and Hermione did. Well, mostly Ron. He knew they meant it well, but they couldn´t understand how he felt right now.
That was what was different about Remus. He just understood. ~~~~~~~~~~~
Phew, that was a long chapter. Hope, you enjoyed it! Now, go and be some nice readers and click on the ´go´-button and write me a review! =^.^=
Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had to finish the sculpture I was making in my art lessons at home and that took up most of my free time (and I´m still not finished... -.-"). Anyway, thanks to everyone who gave me such nice critics, I hope you like this chapter as well and give me a nice, little review again! =)
Here´s the third chapter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Padfoot skidded to a halt in front of the tree. Finally, finally he had reached it and after a quick glance around, he transformed back and looked up. The branches of the tree weren´t low enough for him to climb up and there didn´t seem to be a ladder or something that would help him in that matter. Hoping to find *anything* that would help him, Sirius started walking around the tree, which, considering the size of it, took him nearly ten minutes.
Eventually, he even knelt in front of the tree and felt the trunk with his fingertips, though he didn´t think that would help him any. But then, just as he thought of giving up, he found that there were some holes, big enough to set a foot inside, carved into the trunk, each of them lined up until they reached the first branches of the tree. With renewed vigor, he started to climb them up.
It was extremely difficult to climb the tree for he nearly was pressed flat against the trunk and the fact he had to climb very high before reaching even the lowest of the tree´s branches wasn´t very motivating considering the size of the giant tree. Several times, Sirius was tempted to look down and see how far he´d gotten, but he ruthlessy pushed those thoughts far away, afraid of getting fear of heights.
When he had at last reached the end of the ´ladder´, he found himself on a big platform that allowed him a better view of the whole tree, which was wider than he had originally thought. Sirius took a look around. Everytime the branches were crossing, another platform was installed; from his point of view he could spot around fifty of them, each connected with a ladder (*not* carved into the trunk this time!). As he didn´t see anybody, he started to climb higher onto the other platforms.
As Sirius did so, he noticed there were some lights floating trough the air. ´Odd,´ he thought. When he finally stood on the next platform, he was able to take a closer look at the lights and was startled as he saw the first living creatures in this strange place. The ´lights´ were little dragonflies whose bodies were glowing in various colours and radiating soft light. Their way of flying was very different from what he had ever seen with average dragonflies. Instead of it being fast and looking almost kind of stressed, these little creatures were slow, floating through the air by winding themselves though it, their crystalline wings barely visible when they were moving.
Somehow, Sirius felt himself relaxing in the presence of these creatures. The light they were radiating was strangely calming and Sirius instantly liked these creatures. Besides him, they were the only thing alive in this strange place – at least the first he had discovered. Again, Sirius went higher on the tree and the sight that met him on the next platform made him gasp in surprise.
There were houses all over the platform which seemed to have simply grown out of the tree. As Sirius stepped closer to one of the houses, he curiously looked trough a window in the wall. The furniture inside the house also seemed to be a piece of the tree as if the tree himself had given the residents of this house all the things they needed. Sirius stepped inside the house trough a broken door; everything here looked old and forgotten, the dust lying inches thick on the floor and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and in the corners of the room.
Suddenly, Sirius noticed something strange about a chair which lay broken on the floor. He knelt down and took a closer look at it. At some places, the wood was coal-black as if it had been burned, but there was no sign that the fire had reached all of the house, for most of the things didn´t show any sign of ever having contact with fire or something else as hot. Sirius exited the house and went to inspect the other houses. Everywhere he found similar sceneries: every house was deserted and dirty, with the furniture broken and every now and then the wood had been burned.
Frowning, Sirius stood in the middle of the platform; how had a fire managed to get up this high when downstairs there hadn´t been any signs of it? And why hadn´t it burned all of the houses, just parts? There´d been enough wood for the flames to eat! As Sirius pondered on this matter, he dimly became aware of the big burn mark he was standing on, coal-black like the other things. Sirius looked down and was surprised by the size of it, the spot reminding him strangely of a large footprint.
By now, Sirius´s curiosity had awakened and figuring he would get to the bottom of the matter if he´d find something like a library or just a few written testaments, he went up higher and higher on the tree, wanting to get to the top of it.
Sirius started to sweat and he became aware of his empty stomach that demanded to be fed. On the next platform, he frantically searched the houses, but there wasn´t any trace there had ever been food. Sirius again started climbing higher when suddenly, he found himself standing on the biggest platform he had seen on this tree. There were hundreds of the glowing dragonflies floating trough the air, bathing the place with their light and illuminating a wide palace-like house grown out of the tree like the other houses he had seen earlier.
Though it didn´t look as broken as the other ones, it still seemed to be deserted and the wood had some cracks in it. But for Sirius the most striking thing about this palace was the fact it had obviously been half- burnt for a great part of the building was black and seemed to fall apart every moment. Sirius slowly crossed the place that seperated him from this... palace, as he didn´t know what else to call it. He breathed heavily, the sad atmosphere of this place getting to him and engulfing his senses. „Something terrible has happened here, I know that," Sirius muttered softly to himself, not noticing he had spoken that statement to himself.
Finally, he stood in front of the broken double-doors and hesitantly pushed them open. They gave a long criek, sounding as if they were crying. Sirius shivered. He had never been to such a creepy place before; sure, he wasn´t the type of man to chicken easily but *this*..., this was just so different than anything he had ever experienced. He didn´t know where he was, he was alone and he didn´t know what would happen. And worst of all, he hadn´t the slightest clue what had happened to Harry and how he could help him and if he would ever get back to him. For a moment, Sirius was terrified by the thought of being stuck here for all eternity, separated from the ones he loved and dying here, alone and forgotten.
Sirius gave himself a mental slap; if he ever wanted to find a way out of here, he had to stay sensible. Gathering every ounce of courage he had left, he entered the palace and was standing inside a great entrance hall. Every step he took echoed trough the room as he went further into the hall. There was a great hole on the ceiling where the light of the dragonflies shone trough. Sirius smiled as he looked up and saw the little creatures which again succeded in calming him and with new courage, Sirius called out, albeit still a bit hesitantly: „Hello? Is someone here? Hello!" Besides the echo of his own words there came no reply.
Sighing, Sirius moved to inspect the hall and found there were three doors, each on a different wall that lead out of the hall. He didn´t know which to pick first, so he decided for the one on the right side.
The door led him to a room where Sirius met the most unusual thing he´d ever seen. The ground of the room was covered with the leaves of the tree and several smaller trees emitted from the ground. Sirius came closer as he noticed there were fruits growing on the trees which looked really appetizing, especially to his empty stomach which again started to rumble angrily. He quickly reached out to fetch himself a fruit.
But then he stopped abruptly; who told him that he could really eat the fruits without being poisoned? His hand still hanging mid-air, he thought about his options. He could either leave the fruits and then most problably starve to death, or he could take the risk of being poisoned by eating the fruits but he could also have luck and the fruits wouldn´t harm him at all and he´d have a constant source of food for as long as he had to stay here.
Chosing the latter, he finally picked one of the rather odd-looking fruits and ate it. It tasted good and when he didn´t feel funny or ill, he took some more until he was sated. Now that one of his problems had been solved, he looked around. There were no more doors except the one he´d come trough. Figuring the room seemed to be safe, he decided to settle down for sleep here as the whole climbing up and inspecting had really exhausted him. As he lay down and sleep claimed him, he was having dreams about him being back with Harry and the two of them going to the Qudditch World Cup.
***
The next day, Sirius woke up, feeling sleepy and not quite realizing he was still in the strange dimension he had gotten. He opened his eyes, confused where he was as he didn´t remember this place. Suddenly, the memories of the last day came back to him, how he had climbed the tree and finally ended up here. Sirius groaned and put his head into his hands. He had hoped this would all have been a very bad dream and once again, a feeling of being lost overwhelmed him. He shook himself, he had to remember that he needed to stay sane if he ever wanted to find a way out of this mess. He thought about Harry and that he needed to help him and if he just gave up here, he wouldn´t be of any help for him.
Finally, he made his way back to the entrance hall and walked trough the left door in hope to find something that could help him. After he had entered, Sirius found himself in a circular room full with mural paintings that Sirius decided where worth a closer inspectation. A once-over told Sirius that the paintings seemed to illustrate the history of the land Sirius had gotten. The series started with a picture of middle-sized pixie- like creatures who had leaves instead of hair and were working on a field. As Sirius studied the painting, he noticed there were many animals which Sirius didn´t recognize painted in it and he could also see a great forest where the trees were looking healthier and the whole scene was looking brighter than currently.
The next paintings showed the same creatures with increased technology, it was like a history of civilisation and the paintings went on and on like this, every next picture showing another new invention of the pixie- creatures. Sirius followed the line of the paintings until his attention was drawn to a painting where some of the creatures were producing something that strongely reminded Sirius of a mirror; wondering, he studied the next painting where the same mirror was hanging in a dimly lit room, emitting magical sparks and the whole surface was rippling.
Then, Sirius frowned in concentration; he leaned closer and inently looked at the uneven surface of the mirror. He could see the silhouette of a... a person coming trough it. Even more confused, his mind rotating, he inspected the paintings further until he saw a picture with the pixie- creatures running away from something that resembled a fire wall, except that the flames were black and there were evil-looking red eyes in what looked like the monster´s head. The longer Sirius looked at the monster, the more details he could see. The fire-demon, as he had dubbed it, had four arms, each one ending in a hand with deadly claws and fiery legs which ended in dragon-like feet and a long fire-tail emitting from its spine and swaying behind it.
Still dazed, Sirius reached the two last paintings, one showing a pixie- creature dressed in arcane robes and magical energy surrounding its form, defeating the fire-demon, but dying as well in the battle. The last painting was partially destroyed but the same gloomy scenery like outside could be seen on the remaining parts.
When he was finished, Sirius slid down the wall, suddenly feeling rather tired, but at the same time, a small hope was fanning inside him. The tragic history that had been told to him by the paintings left him a bit sad, but it had also shown him a possible way out of this world. Sirius stood up again and moved over to the painting where he had seen the person come trough the mirror.
As he gently traced the outline of the figure, he wondered about the mirror: why had the pixie-creatures build something like that? Had they known about some kind of technology to journey to other dimensions? Would he be able to get back to his home, back to his Harry through it? Sirius jerked his head up.
„Now, there´s only one way of finding out!", he said aloud and went to explore the rest of the palace.
***
Meanwhile, three days had passed by and Harry was sitting outside of the Dursley´s house, sitting on his trunk and awaiting the member that would take him to the headquarters. Back to Grimmauld Place. Sirius´s house. Harry didn´t know how he would cope with seeing that place again for everything there would remind him of Sirius and how he had led his godfather into his death. As he felt tears welling up again in his eyes, he impatiently ground them out.
The last days with the Dursleys had been horrible, with Petunia being falsely friendly with him while Dudley and Uncle Vernon ignored him most of the time, though sometimes Vernon´s temper would snap and he´d start yelling at Harry, always being stopped by Petunia. His nightmares again had become worse, now with voices being added that yelled at him for killing his own godfather and when Harry finally woke up, he would fall back onto the bed and sob silently into the sheets or Padfoot, if the plush dog was buried into his face.
Harry was shaken out of his thoughts when a black car with darkened windows arrived. It stopped right in front of him and when the driver´s door opened Harry could only gape at the man that stepped out and smiled at him.
Finally, Harry managed to say something. „Remus! What are you doing here?"
Remus chuckled, obviously amused at Harry´s surprise. „Well, what do you think? I´m coming to take you to the Order. I even personally asked Albus for it."
Upon hearing Dumbledore´s name, Harry´s face darkened a little, which didn´t went unnoticed by the ever perspective Remus Lupin, but who didn´t want to bring that topic up until a later conversation. He eyed Harry up and down. The boy didn´t seem to have slept very much for he was looking paler than usual and the old rags he was wearing didn´t do very much to conceal his state of exhaustion. He inwardly sighed. Sirius´s death had obviously gotten more to Harry than Albus had originally assumed. He shook himself out of his thoughts and asked Harry: „Now, let´s get your trunk in the car, okay?"
Harry smiled a little and helped his ex-professor storing the trunk in the car and then put Hedwig onto the back seat. Harry, too, had noticed how exhausted Remus looked, his golden hair streaked with grey in spite of his still young age. Well, not *young* like a teenager, but a man in his best years. Remus also had went through too much in his life, having lost his very best friends.
They both entered the car, but Remus didn´t start the motor. Instead, he looked at Harry intently and Harry started to shift uncomfortably under his intense gaze. Finally, Remus broke the silence.
„I know how hard it is for you now, Harry. And I know that there´s nothing I can do to take away the pain. But I want you to know that you can come to me whenever you feel alone or want to talk. Okay?"
Harry nodded and smiled at Remus. „Okay. Thanks, Remus."
Lupin smiled and then did something Harry would´ve never expected. He leaned over and put his arms around Harry, embracing him. Harry knew the werewolve didn´t touch other people very often and was grateful for the embrace he was receiving now. He thanked Remus by putting his arms around him, both comforted by each other.
When Remus eventually pulled back and started the engine, Harry´s mood had heightened a little. It was just that he knew that Remus understood him, having made the same experiences as Harry. He didn´t try to comfort him with phrases like ´everything will be fine´ or ´life goes on´ and ´he wouldn´t have wanted you to be unhappy´, like Ron and Hermione did. Well, mostly Ron. He knew they meant it well, but they couldn´t understand how he felt right now.
That was what was different about Remus. He just understood. ~~~~~~~~~~~
Phew, that was a long chapter. Hope, you enjoyed it! Now, go and be some nice readers and click on the ´go´-button and write me a review! =^.^=