A/N: I've made up some of my own creatures for this chapter.
Chapter 5 - Creatures
The next day was Saturday. As the boys left the dorm for breakfast, James surreptitiously kept an eye on Remus and Sirius. They seemed a little off, but James couldn't put his finger on just what that was. Peter also sensed something. He looked curiously at Remus as they headed down the staircase. "Are you alright, Moony?"
James swore saw Remus shoot a lightning-fast glance at Sirius before he looked back at Peter to say, "I didn't sleep very well last night. That's all."
James peered under his messy bangs at Sirius. His quiet friend also seemed a bit weary. And James was positive that he saw Sirius' glance frequently shifting towards Remus. Something was definitely up with these two.
Once they captured their usual places at the Gryffindor table, Sirius sank into a preoccupied state, barely registering the fact that food had appeared. His thoughts were miles away, at least until a scolding caw echoed over their heads heralding the arrival of Hadar Black's haughty gyrfalcon. Sirius glared at him, knowing full well that Xerxes was only used for missives his father though of great importance.
"That was quick," Peter commented on the bird's appearance. "You'd think that it would have taken at least twenty-four hours for the school to let you parents know what you were up to yesterday and for them to send a note about it."
"Maybe Dumbledore talked to them by fire," Sirius shrugged, happy that his parents hadn't sent him a Howler. It was a measure of the depth of his preoccupation that he barely glanced at the short, ominous note from his father regarding the previous day's escapades. 'Your mother and I have had enough of your inexplicable and unacceptable behavior. You choose to disobey us. You will pay the consequences. When you come home for Christmas, we will inform you of the steps we intend to take to make you conduct yourself in a manner more befitting your family and your station in life. '
Sirius had more pressing concerns than his parents' disapproval. Where could he and Remus go to be alone? He pondered, oblivious to the conversation of his roommates. The best place he could think of was the Shrieking Shack. No one would interrupt them there, other than James or Peter and he could warn both of them off. But, he wasn't sure how Remus would feel about having a romantic tryst in the very place that was the site of so much pain. However, there was a perfectly good bed in one of the rooms. He could bring candles and food and perhaps decorate a bit in some sort of autumnal theme.
As they all rose from the table, Professor Kettleburn's booming baritone reverberated from the walls of the Great Hall. "Mr. Black!"
"I'll catch up with you guys later." Sirius said as he turned towards the Head Table. He walked to meet Kettleburn, ignoring the sniggering comments of the Slytherins. "Go on, Black. You'll look so pretty covered in hippogriff shit."
"Don't let the skrewts burn your delicate fingers, Starlight!"
"Yes, Professor?" Sirius looked evenly into Kettleburn's craggy, frowning face.
"Since Dumbledore's appointed you my personal assistant for the rest of this term, I'm going to take advantage of that. I need to give some medications to some of our resident creatures this morning. Meet me at the paddock in 15 minutes and don't wear anything you're fond of; it might get messy."
As Sirius left the Great Hall to don his grubbiest clothes, he found Remus waiting for him. Wordlessly they walked back towards Gryffindor Tower. As they passed the open door to the Transfiguration classroom, Remus suddenly grabbed his companion and practically threw him into the room. Sirius barely had time to yelp in surprise before Remus was on him, pinning him to the wall, with an eager mouth sealed to his lips and an importunate tongue trying to slide down his throat. Sirius responded, clutching the hard, tense body pressed up against him, electricity zipping along his nerves.
When they broke apart to resume their walk to their dorm, Sirius broached the subject of the Shack. "I know it's not the most romantic spot in the world, but it's private. And the bedroom is relatively comfortable. I want to spend the night alone with you, with no interruptions." He looked uncertainly at Remus, wondering if the tawny head would shake in dismissal, too overwhelmed by the torments of his transformations to see the Shack as anything but a prison. His heart skipped a beat when he saw those luscious lips curve in a smile as the hazel eyes tipped up to look at him with a heated message of want and desire. The look was borderline predatory and Sirius found himself licking his lips with anticipation.
"The Shack will be perfect," Remus said, his voice a smoky, feral growl. He stepped back. "You better get going. You don't want to make Kettleburn wait."
At the appointed time Sirius was standing by the fence near the two young hippogriffs in the paddock. He had already greeted them with a deep, respectful bow, and one, a bronze-colored female had readily come over to have her shoulders massaged. Sirius climbed into the paddock and let his fingers knead the strong muscles. Her half-closed eyes suddenly flew open and she whirled to confront something behind him. He turned slowly, not wanting to alarm her further, and praying she wouldn't tear him to shreds.
It was Kettleburn, chuckling under his breath. He bowed to the young female, who, after eyeing him imperiously for a few moments, settled her ruffled feathers. She stepped back to Sirius, while glaring balefully at the Professor.
"You weren't scared of her, were you, lad." It was a statement, not a question.
"No, just wondering if I had any chance to get out of her way before she ripped my arm off."
"She had no intention of harming you. She was protecting you."
Sirius noticed that the female had placed herself between him and Kettleburn. And, while her massage seemed uppermost in her mind, she was keeping a wary eye on the Professor. He pulled a small tin of something out of his pocket and moved slowly to the hippogriff. Speaking in a low, soothing voice, the Professor explained what he was doing. "She has a small cut right above the hoof on her left hind leg that doesn't seem to be healing. I'm going to spread some salve on it. Keep rubbing her shoulders like that until I'm done."
In the same even tone Sirius asked, "Will that stuff hurt her?"
"No, it shouldn't feel at all unpleasant, so she shouldn't attack either one of us. But you never know with hippogriffs."
The salve application went off without incident. Next, the two moved on to a pair of avanuls, flightless birds the size of turkeys. They had been suffering some sort of digestive distress and were not at all happy at being forced to swallow their medication, which took the form of damp wads of sawdust that smelled of offal.
This was followed by dosing a large, nervous pellazine with an even fouler smelling liquid. This deer-like creature contained surprising strength within her slender, lithe frame. Sirius attempted to hold the pellazine still while Kettleburn tipped a leather flask into her mouth. She put up a tremendous fight, yanking Sirius back and forth across her stall until he was finally able to pin her into a corner. By that time, both humans had been sprayed with some of the flask's foul liquid. As if the rancid odor of the solution wasn't bad enough, the color and consistency put Sirius in mind of a night he had spent on the bathroom floor heaving his guts out after drinking too much mead. Making love to the toilet, as James had sardonically said at one point.
Professor Kettleburn left the best task until last. He tossed a bag to Sirius and pointed to some half-grown, orphaned kneazles. "Give them each three or four pellets apiece. And watch your fingers. The beasts love those things and their wee teeth are sharp as razors."
Sirius sat cross-legged on the ground and attracted a writhing, clambering crowd of mewing cats as soon as they heard the sound of the bag opening. They behaved much more politely than Sirius had expected, taking the pellets from his fingers with great delicacy. Two of the young cats then settled comfortably on his thighs, washing their faces. A third leaped to his shoulders and then draped himself around Sirius' neck, occasionally rubbing its face against the teen's jaw.
Kettleburn came out of the stable and stared down at his young assistant. "You're done for the day, Mr. Black. You can take yourself off."
"Is it okay if I stay with the kneazles for a while?"
The burly professor shrugged. "If you wish." He turned to make his way towards the castle, but then stopped, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You have a gift with animals, Sirius. They trust you very quickly, even my wilder, more unpredictable friends. You have an innate sense in how to approach them and they can feel it. It's almost like you've dealt with dangerous creatures before."
Sirius' impassive facade stood him in good stead. "I guess it's just one of those things, Professor." The Professor grunted a reply and continued on towards the Castle.
Sirius idly tossed a small stone across the ground. Three kneazle heads whipped around to follow its path. Sirius gathered several more stones, and, sliding his wand out of his pocket, transformed them into light-weight balls. One by one he skipped them hard across the ground. The kneazles launched themselves after their rolling prey, enthusiastically batting the balls through the paddock and out towards the forest.
Sirius watched the young cats play for a while, and then rose to go back to the Castle to prepare for his evening with Remus. The dorm room was empty when he arrived. Changing out of his sodden, smelly clothes, he left James a note, borrowing the Invisibility Cloak. Flinging it over himself, he gathered some blankets and sheets from the linen closet and then made his way to the Whomping Willow. Carefully looking around to make sure no one was near, he pressed the knot near the base of the tree to still its wild waving. Quickly, he disappeared into the hole in the ground and made his way along the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack.
When he came to the bedroom door, he saw a scrap of parchment tacked to it. In Remus' fine hand the note said, "Do not disturb – for Padfoot and Moony only!" Sirius opened the door to the bedroom and his jaw dropped in surprise. The room was filled with flowers and candles. Asters and mums of every hue sang a glorious paean to autumn, backed by boughs covered with leaves of gold and scarlet and vermilion. Unlit candles stood waiting on the nightstand, the old desk, the narrow mantle, sure to cast a magic glow on the heady colors splashed across the room.
Sirius made up the bed and dropped a tube of lubricant on the nightstand, smiling the entire time. Smoothing the pillows he thought about how Remus' tawny hair, glinting gold in the firelight, would look spread against the blinding white of the linens. He imagined the same light striking sparks from the myriad colors of Remus' hazel eyes. And he wondered how those eyes would look at him tonight. Would they glance away, overcome with shyness? Or would they burn fever-bright with a fire whose smoke was the husky, growling breath emanating from succulent lips? A quiver of nervous anticipation rippled through Sirius' stomach. He still smiled.
The rest of the day passed excruciatingly slowly. Sirius exploded into a frenzy of class work, tossing his usual procrastination out the window, seeking to finish all his weekend assignments before dinner. For some reason, this didn't make the minutes pass any quicker, but the sight of Sirius operating at full-throttle academic efficiency served to inspire a great many of the Gryffindors, even if they found it a little disturbing.
The only time Sirius came to a complete standstill, physically and mentally, was when James cornered him halfway between the Library and the dorm. "Hold still for a minute," James ordered, clamping his hands onto Sirius' upper arms and forcing him to a halt.
"What? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I can see that you've gone completely insane. What's going on? What are you and Remus up to? And why are you keeping Peter and me out of it?"
"Umm, you think we're up to something?" Sirius' eyes slid guiltily sideways off of James' face to focus somewhere down the corridor. He lacked the capability to lie convincingly to James, much to his irritation.
James' brows scaled impossible heights. "Oh, come on! Considering you've both borrowed a particular article of clothing from me today. And you're obviously planning on keeping your Sunday free of schoolwork. And when I asked Remus, he smiled a very odd smile and told me to ask you. And you look guilty as sin. You're usually much more adept at hiding your tracks."
"Oh. Yeah. Well. Umm." Sirius' eyes had wandered back to James' face, but his expression was one of such perplexity that James had to laugh. But, he said nothing more and waited for Sirius to continue.
Taking a deep breath, Sirius dove in. "Right. Here it is. And I hope this isn't going to upset you, but, well, you asked. Remus and I are spending the night at the Shack. Alone. Together. We've come to realize that we have a…a…an attraction for each other."
James pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Meaning an emotional attraction or do you just want to shag each other senseless?"
Sirius pondered for a second. "Yes."
James nodded, considering. "Now it all makes sense," he murmured. Sirius stared at him, for once completely motionless. Then, like the sun at daybreak, a smile spread slowly over James' face. "Well, that's alright, then."
"It is?" Sirius had never quite figured out how and when to come out to James, even though he was sure James suspected something. And he thought that, best friend or not, James was bound to be a little peeved at being kept in the dark for so long.
James grinned at him and started back towards the dorms, first pulling Sirius along, and then slinging an arm around his shoulders as they settled into step with one another. "Yes, it is. Although, I'm warning you. You better be good to Remus or I'll give you a damn hard thumping."
The night air bit with sharp, chilly teeth as two figures hidden under an Invisibility Cloak made their way to the Whomping Willow. They welcomed the cold for its calming effect on their racing, heated blood. Soon they scrambled into the passageway under the gnarled roots, two young men embarking on a journey across uncharted waters. They walked quickly through the tunnel. So quickly, they had no idea that a third person had approached the Willow, drawn by its extraordinary stillness. A pair of obsidian eyes quickly found the opening by the roots, but as he came closer to explore, the opening disappeared, and the tree's branches thrashed mightily back and forth. He flung himself to the ground and rolled out of the way, but not before a long, muscular branch smacked him hard in the middle of his back. With a muffled cry of pain, he scrambled out of reach. Then he rose and walked back to the castle, thinking.
TBC