Disclaimer: See Chapter One!
Uploaded: 6th January 2005
"Black Light"
By Dante Lewis
Chapter Seven: Goodbye is so hard to do.
"Just five more minutes, please!" Remus pleaded with the Azkaban Mediwitch before him, holding baby Estella close to his chest, the rapid beating of his aching heart soothing her slumber.
"Mr Lupin. I have been gracious enough to grant you lenience, but we have been bartering this exchange for close to half an hour. Now, I really must insist that you hand over the child, else I summon Aurors to arrest you for obstruction." The stout, muscly woman grimaced dutifully at the distraught werewolf.
Remus unashamedly allowed the tears to flow as he leant over the infant in his arms and kissed her tenderly on her forehead, her cheeks, her chin, her nose… and in fact on every exposed, vulnerable piece of flesh on her body as though to will, by sheer love and force alone, a protective shield around the child. His tears wet her face, while hergreying eyes – her fathomless, innocent eyes that were so devoid of the mirth and mischief of her father - stared up at him with foolish trust and an impossibly aged clarity, the melanin already starting to determine the iris' hue. "Goodbye my Angel, M-moony is sorry they wouldn't let him keep you."
He sobbed, the emotion of the past 24 hours pouring free. "Don't forget that your Mother loved you. Aunt Lily and Uncle James would have loved you too, and Harry will love to meet you at last! I-I'm sure Uncle Snivellus loves you too, though I wouldn't call him that to his face if you want to live to see Hogwarts!" He let out a strangled nervous laugh. "God I hope you live to see Hogwarts. You'll love it there Angel, just you wait! If your Daddy isn't out to teach you how to fly, I promise I will. Gods how your Daddy loves you Missy. Don't forget how much love you are surrounded with. May you remember and be protected, sweet child."
The Mediwitch, by this stage, was becoming increasingly exasperated. "Honestly, Mr Lupin, you're making it sound like the child is being sacrificed to the eternal suffering of purgatory!" She admonished.
"Well, isn't she?" Remus shot her a cold hard look, before placing one last chaise kiss on Estella's brow and handing her over before he lost all nerve. "Now, just take her and go before I change my mind and hex you into your next lifetime!"
The moment Estella left the sanctuary of Remus' embrace, the tiny infant started to scream. A blood curdling, terrified, full-bodied scream that, if Remus didn't know any better, he would have thought the poor child was under the throes of an unforgivable. Weighed down in his shoes by the lump in his throat that was threatening to choke him, Remus watched helplessly as the Black child was carried away to an ominous fate.
Swallowing back the lump, Remus' heart broke, the last shreds of his resolve crumbling. Never before had he loathed his Lycanthropy so much. It was his fault she was going to that awful place. His fault. His whole live was forfeit. He'd lost everything.
"Selina, I'm sorry. I failed you." Remus whispered under his breath. Self-loathing setting in as he abruptly left the nursery – and the hospital – and headed towards the nearest pub.
He needed a drink.
Meanwhile, at Azkaban, Sirius Black was stirring. He had dreamt that his child was in danger and he couldn't reach her. She had been screaming so much. Then, the dream had shifted and his child was lost at sea. The wail of his daughter's cries was replaced by the deathly silence of the ocean. His child couldn't call for him, and yet as much as he wanted to help, he couldn't call out to her because he didn't know her name.
As Sirius began to stir even more, the crying was back. In his last moments of his dream, he was relieved that he had some point of reference from which to find his daughter. But it was with a violent start that he realised that he was no longer dreaming.
His daughter was screaming.
End Chapter: Goodbye is so hard to do