Sirius Black: The Count of Monte Cristo

Remus Lupin walked into the drawing room of Grimmauld Place to see his dark haired friend sitting in one of the armchairs, reading a large book.

"What are you doing, Padfoot?" he asked him curiously.

Sirius looked up, startled from Remus's entrance. He had obviously been very engrossed in the book. "Oh hello, Remus."

Remus sat down across from him in the other armchair and observed his friend. "I half expected to see you lying out on the floor again with a bottle under your arm."

Sirius glared at him. "I can drink when I want to Moony."

"I know that."

Sirius pushed some of his long dark hair out of his pale, unshaven face.

Remus craned his neck to look over to try and read the cover of the book. "What are you reading?"

Sirius looked embarrassed. "It's nothing…just an old book…"

"I observed as much. Which one?"

Sirius hesitated and handed it over to him, apparently unable to say it out loud.

Remus took the heavy book in his hands and turned it over. In small gold printing was the title: 'The Count of Monte Cristo'

Remus had read this book once many years ago himself as a young boy. He remembered finishing it on the train to Hogwarts. He had tried to explain it to his friends but the Marauders hadn't paid him much attention as they were all too busy trying to come up with a scheme on the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher.

Remus looked up at Sirius. "This is a good book…I haven't read it though in ages."

"So it was you who read it. I thought one of us had."

"Yes, I finished it on the train to Hogwarts in our 4th year."

"Ah."

"It's a muggle book though-" Remus said frowning slightly as he looked at it. "So why on earth is it in this house?"

Sirius shrugged. "I haven't the slightest clue. I found it in the back of a closet-disguised as an old telescope."

Remus's frown deepened. "That's strange."

Sirius leaned over and tugged the book gently out of Remus's hands.

"I'm assuming that you're enjoying it then?" Remus asked.

Sirius nodded, his face solemn. "It's strange Moony-" he said quietly. "He's just like me."

Remus had not read the book in a long time and couldn't exactly remember what it was all about. "How so?"

"Edmond Dantès…the Count of Monte Cristo…he's just like me."

Remus listened patiently.

Sirius took a deep breath. "It starts with this young bloke that has everything going for him-he has a great life, he's happy and he's real honest and decent- then one day, these gits come and mess it up for him. They frame him for something he didn't do and nobody actually investigates to see if he was truly innocent or not. He's immediately sent out to an island fortress turned prison. They throw him in a cell reserved for only the worst types of criminals and he starts to despair…almost falling into insanity."

Remus shuddered, as a chill ran down his spine. The coincidence was eerie.

"Then one day, right before he hits the ultimate bottom- something happens to him, and his will to live is suddenly restored. He makes plans to try and escape the prison that no one else has ever been able to escape from before and survive. As he is planning it, he pieces together all the plots that put him in his awful predicament. Finally-he escapes the terrible prison that he had been held in for 14 years and swims back to land."

Sirius looked at the cover of the book again for a moment and then continued on, "And then do you know what he does Moony? He plans for revenge. He goes and makes it his goal to destroy all of the bastards who messed it up for him to begin with. It becomes his quest to ruin them all…"

There was a long and heavy silence between them.

"And does he manage to do it?" Remus finally asked.

Sirius looked at him, his grey eyes fathomless. "I haven't read that far yet."

fini