Wish Upon A Falling Star.
A/N: Sorry for not updating in three weeks! I'm trying to get my updating schedule for all three stories back on track. School holidays really threw it off course. I know you've been waiting for this.
Chapter Twenty Three: The Tale of Sirius Black.
Remus looked at Lily, throwing her a questioning look. "What are we meant to do?" he asked her, looking to the dog, which had become slightly agitated and was thumping its front paws on the crimson rug it was laying on, and looked back to Lily.
Lily bit her bottom lip, turning it white. For a few minutes she just stared, and then shook her head. "We could force him to change," she suggested.
Remus raised an eyebrow. "And what happens if he does turn out to be a murderer? If Peter really was your Secret Keeper…" he trailed off, for there was no reason for him to finish the sentence.
The dog's ears went back and its tail stopped wagging merrily. It growled menacingly, and stood up, stretching his hind legs.
Lily gave a small shake of her head again. "He could have already transformed, and be beating us around the head with a heavy book by now." She eyed the bookcase in the corner of her room. "I know there's a lot of them in here."
"But we're armed, and he's not."
"And if he wanted to kill either of us he's had plenty of opportunity to do so, you were alone in here for about two hours…be reasonable Remus."
Remus tapped his foot on the floor. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Lily nodded confidently. "Very."
Remus pulled out his wand from the pocket of his new robes and muttered, "…then on the count of three…"
Lily raised her wand as well. Blue light shot out of their wands, combining into a single spell to strike the dog on the rug. The shaggy black-haired dog was knocked off balance, nearly hitting its head on the stone wall behind it. Yet it wasn't quite a dog anymore. The spell was doing its work, and the dog was quickly morphing into a human.
It was true. The dog was Sirius Black. Sirius Black was lying in front of a fireplace on a fourth floor room at Hogwarts.
Remus's eyes went wide, as if he couldn't believe what was right in front of him. "S-Sirius?" he stammered. He looked like he was going to sink into the floor. Or faint. Perhaps both of the above?
Lily laid a hand on his shoulder, which was more of a caution than anything. Her other hand had a tight grip on her wand, which she had trained at Sirius.
"Do you have an explanation?" Lily asked calmly. "I'm not going to do anything until I have an explanation."
She could feel Remus's shoulders heaving under her hand. That was not good. Remus Lupin was meant to be the calm one, the voice of reason. The day he became mad was the day... the day people escaped from Azkaban and came back from the dead.
Sirius slowly sat up and stared at the tip of Lily's wand. His eleven years in Azkaban did make him look a bit crazed. His matted, elbow-length black hair did not make him look rather welcoming when it was framing his very pale gaunt face.
He suddenly jumped up to his feet and let out a laugh like a mad dog. He had to lean against the mantelpiece to stop himself from doubling up.
Lily did not see what was so funny. Furthermore, she was not amused. Her expression did not change as she glared at Sirius.
Sirius sobered up after a few moments, and stood up straighter. "So what are you going to do when I do give you my 'explanation'? Sorry, Lily, but you were never good at acting angry."
Lily shook her head again, for the third time. "I'm not acting angry," she stated, confused.
"Then you are the calmest angriest person I have ever seen."
"But…I…oh well…Do you have an explanation?"
Sirius smiled ruefully and moved off the rug and to a seat by the roaring coffee table. "Oh yes…Fudge came around for his annual Azkaban, you know, making sure all us prisoners are nice and insane…" he laughed bitterly then continued, "Well, I have to say, he was quite disappointed in me. He came in my cell, flanked by two Aurors, and asks me how I'm going. I told him I was doing fine, although I was a little bored. I noticed he had a copy of the Evening Prophet. I asked him for it, told him I missed doing the crossword. He looked at me incredulously for a few seconds and stared at the paper to deem if I was worthy of it. Eventually he handed to me, and I asked for a quill. I was obviously pushing my luck there, so he left."
Lily nodded, but still did not lower her wand. "Keep going," she urged.
"Then I looked at the front page of the paper, and guess what I read?"
Lily smiled. "I was never good at guessing."
Sirius laughed his dog like laugh again. Running his hands through his tangled mess of unruly hair, he nodded his head. "You never were, Lily, you never were."
"I do believe the title was Lily Potter, Alive." I was a little bit shocked, to be honest, but then my logical processes started working again and I asked my self if the Daily Prophet could be wrong. They aren't exactly known for creating accurate articles…"
"Well…" Remus interrupted, "there are getting slightly more factual…"
Lily gave him a withering look. "Let's stick to the point here, Remus."
"But then I decided I had to try and find you, Lily, just on the off chance that it was true, that you were really alive, because you were the only person that knew the truth. The truth about Peter. It took quite a while though, you never went outside much…only that time at the Quidditch match, and you were surrounded by too many people…"
Even though she was trying to keep calm, Lily could hear her voice hardening. "I'm afraid I don't know the whole truth about Peter."
Sirius did a double-take and stared at Lily for a few moments. "But surely you know…" Sirius said faintly, "…about the Secret Keepers, the whole switching ordeal…"
"But what happened when Peter attacked you? Who killed the Muggles…was it you or Peter?"
Sirius's eyes widened. "Of course I didn't kill them!" he exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. "What would I have to gain by killing Muggles?"
Lily stared at Sirius. "Peter was the Auror…"
An irritable smirk passed Sirius's features. "I never knew how he managed that. He was never really good at school. Especially not in theory work. Actually, now I think about it, he was rather good at all practical subjects apart from Transfiguration...the little rat…" he finished bitterly.
The last three words confused Lily. Was Sirius just talking about Peter's betrayal, or was he talking about something more...was it possible Peter could be an Animagus as well?
She voiced these thoughts aloud. "Was Peter an Animagus as well? Considering both you and James were Animagi…"
Remus nodded next to Lily. "Yes. Peter could turn into a rat…rather fitting; now you think about it. It still amazes me that he managed to pull it off. He wasn't good at Transfiguration…"
"Yet he still managed to succeed. Maybe you were underestimating him all along. After spending seven years in the shadow of three of people he considered friends…people who never truly appreciated him for who he was…maybe he decided it was time to show the world what he was capable of, time to make a difference. I think you created your own worst enemy."
Sirius looked at Lily suspiciously, as if he was planning to give her a piece of his mind and tell her she was all wrong, but he swallowed and replied, "Do you still think I caused those Muggles deaths now?"
"No, because now this all makes perfect sense."
"I'm glad you see it that way, Lily."
Remus stared at Sirius for a few moments and then cleared his throat and asked, "Does that mean we can clear your name now?"
Before Remus had a chance to reply, Lily interrupted him. "I've already tried to speak to Fudge about it, and he didn't want to talk about it. What do you propose I do? Grab Sirius, walk right into his office, and bang him on his desk and say, "This is Sirius Black. He is innocent. He might think I'm a little bit crazy."
"Little?" Remus mouthed, leaning against the open window, which had a frigid blast coming from it, the sky outside was strewn with stars.
Sirius laughed harshly again. "That man won't see what's right in front of his nose."
Lily wasn't listening very well to the Sirius. She was looking out the window Remus was half-blocking. How come every time she saw stars she thought of James? It wasn't right…she breathed in some of the cold winter air into her lungs and reflected on the happenings of the past few months. She shivered and moved away from the window, pulling her cloak around her.
"Do you think Peter's still alive?" Lily asked, making her way back to the fireplace Sirius was in front, sitting cross-legged at his feet. She didn't look at either of the men as she asked this question, but looked at one of the tassels of the rug, making small plaits in the red and gold string.
Remus looked at Sirius. Sirius squinted his eyes and replied, "No. I don't think so. I didn't get a very good look, but the street was blown to bits. If I had been an inch closer…actually if I had been an inch closer I might actually be a bit better off then I was for those eleven years…"
"Well everyone in the Wizarding World is convinced Peter Pettigrew is dead. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's not. We can't do much about it until we know for sure."
"If Peter died, it's what he deserved, nothing more, nothing else. You get back what you put out."
"Well seeing as you can't help me…I guess I'll get going…" Sirius said, as stood up straight.
Lily, who was rubbing her hands together frantically, trying to get some feeling back into her now numb fingertips, froze and nearly fell flat into the fire. "Where are you going?" she demanded to know.
"I'm going back to my hidey-hole," Sirius said. "I don't want to force my presence on you any longer than I have to."
"It's winter!" Lily exclaimed, rubbing her hands again. "You'll freeze!"
"I have a fur coat to keep me warm, Lily."
"Just for a little while then, have a shower or something. You look like you knocked on death's doorstep and ran."
"Thank-you for your frighteningly accurate description, Lily."
"You're welcome. Is that a yes?"
"Alright then. Maybe. Just for a few days. So where's this shower?"
Lily directed him to the shower, which was adjoining to her room on the left side of her sleeping quarters.
After hearing the taps turn on in the bathroom, and a couple of expletives usually associated with turning the water on too hot, Remus turned to Lily.
"You don't really think Peter's dead, do you?"
"It doesn't matter. It was all in the past. Whether Peter is dead or alive doesn't affect what's happening right now. He was part of our lives before. He's not now. It doesn't matter. Bridge under water…" Lily lifted herself off the rug, and stopped rubbing her hands. She staggered onto the couch and collapsed onto it.
"I do believe you mean water under bridge. And I think it matters a lot to you, Lily, not for you, but for Harry and James's sake. Am I even close to the truth?"
"I don't know," Lily replied truthfully. "I'm only certain of one thing right now, and that is I want to take a nice, long nap."
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There was initially more for this chapter. But there was going to be a time jump, and it was just too confusing. So this chapter's a lil' short, but there's only about…six or seven chapters left. I think. It shouldn't be more then eleven. Review responses will be up tomorrow…It's way past bedtime…
Til next time,
Thoughts and Pondering.