Hello hello lovelies!
Am I a massive tease with this chapter? Yes, yes I am! (Not in the way you may be thinking upon reading this A/N, I mean, given how the last chapter ended.)
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and only the story line and any OC's belong to me.
Tuesday, February 2nd, 1999
Potter Manor
"You really think we're going to find something else?" Remus asked, glancing to his left at his best mate.
Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, scrutinising the exterior of the Manor as if that would cause the structure to reveal its secrets—to show them where they needed to go. "No. Maybe, fuck if I know."
Then without another word the animagus headed towards the house, the setting sun casting long shadows alongside him as he moved. "Coming?" Sirius yelled over his shoulder.
Remus sighed, scratching behind his ear, "the worst that can happen is we find jack shite."
"I heard that!"
"I know!" Remus hollered back.
The two wizards, Tonks and Teddy had been round Andromeda's all day, and Remus was thoroughly exhausted—the effects from the Blue Moon a few days ago were still lingering.
However, Sirius had a feeling, so in spite of the fact that Remus wanted nothing more, than to collapse in his bed, he went.
As soon as they crossed the threshold, something strange occurred: their smell hit them full on, assaulting their senses. "Moony," Sirius whispered, almost reverently. "Do you think it's because we're remembering more?"
"I honestly have no idea, Pads," Remus said, marvelling as he drank in their scents.
The two men cautiously crept towards the grand staircase, so intent on following their noses that they didn't notice Mipsy standing ten feet to their right. The House Elf regarded them with a small smile, shaking her head fondly as she turned on her heel, and swiftly returned to her chambers.
Remus paused by Hermione's door: the chamomile and vanilla potent and enticing—entwined, and tangled with crisp traces of mint. Remus found himself thinking about how they'd found the letter in there. Maybe, there was something else to be found.
His hand hovered over the doorknob, but then, Sirius hissed his name lowly, and his head snapped in the animagus's direction instead.
"What?"
"Come here!" Sirius commanded, beckoning the werewolf over to Draco's door.
Remus hesitated, lingering in front of Hermione's door for an indulgent moment, before sighing heavily in resignation. "I'm coming," Remus responded, striding over to Draco's room.
Sirius had already pushed the door open, and Remus was smashed in the face by mint, fresh, clean mint. Wonder akin to witnessing the first bloom opening in spring—with crisp air rolling across your skin—filled him then.
"You go first," Remus murmured, gently shoving Sirius forward a step.
Sirius was clearly too enthralled by Draco's overwhelming scent to care, carefully proceeding.
They were moving through the scent—as if it was a tangible, elastic and flexible force that formed around them.
It was more than that though: Draco's magical aura was so potent—it was seeping from the walls where it'd been deeply embedded, and upon further investigation, he realised that Hermione's magical aura also painted the room with heavy brush strokes.
"I know we've asked this question before, but where do you 'spose all their stuff is?" Remus wondered aloud, eyes examining and feasting on every inch, every crevice and cranny in the room—trying to find something that perhaps he couldn't before.
It was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, but Remus saw a shimmer where the air was vibrating with magic, shielding something from view.
Step by step, he moved closer to the far right corner of the room, a feeling nudging his brain, and it told him that it was nothing, it was just a trick—his imagination running wild—but he persisted.
"Remus?" Sirius asked, he supposed it must have looked quite strange—stalking towards the corner, bending low down to the ground, and trying to make as little noise as possible; almost as if there was a skittish creature he was attempting not to scare away.
He drowned Sirius out, he needed to keep going, even if he didn't know why. He was so close to the ground now, that his fingers were brushing across the slightly rough surface of the hardwood floor.
A shock of magic sparked across his fingertips, before racing up along his arm and pooling in his elbow, but the glamour crackled and dissipated sharply, as did the pressing feeling on his mind.
Lying neatly on the ground, was what appeared to be a photograph and a folded, slightly yellowed note.
"What in Godric's name?" Remus said inaudibly, his lips more so forming the words, than actually making any sound.
A familiar smell that he couldn't quite place bloomed.
Remus couldn't physically bring himself to touch the items, but Sirius however, had no such reservations—he crouched down beside Remus, his hand shooting out and grabbing ahold of them.
"What does it say?"
Sirius opened the note with one hand, his thumb running across the neat cursive, "Hey wankers. Thought you might want this…If you're reading this then that means we're not back yet, and in that case, I'll see you soon, not nearly soon enough, but soon, Draco." Sirius slowly read the words aloud.
"Love you too," Remus said wryly.
Sirius exhaled heavily through his nostrils, folding the paper along its crease once more, before he shifted it behind the picture.
A cliff, a dark stormy ocean in the background, grey skies.
"Is that?"
"Yes." Sirius blinked rapidly.
"Didn't we go there during Christmas Holidays in our sixth year?" Remus asked, scooting forward as to peer at the photograph better, it was a bit grainy, the colours muted, but it was clearly the same place they'd once visited years ago.
"Riley took us there…she went there as a kid…it's in Wales…" Sirius said, his head tilted to the side as he scrutinised it.
"Is that it? Is this the only clue?" Remus frowned, disappointment bubbling up inside of him, "what the fuck kind of game is this, Dray?"
"Another dead end," Sirius grumbled, flicking the photograph away in frustration, only for it to flip over just before it hit the ground—revealing prim, yet scratchy handwriting on the back.
Neither of them noticed it for a moment, sombrely contemplating their next move, but Sirius resignedly glanced over at it, thinking himself petulant for throwing away the only clue they had. The only thing that might guide them forth and yonder on their search.
"MOONY!" Sirius scrambled to pluck the photograph back from its place on the ground.
"I'm right here, Sirius," Remus winced, holding his hands over his ears—his hearing far more sensitive than normal.
"There is something written on the back."
For my reckless lion, so when the time comes you can find me. So you can come back to me, my love.
Forever Yours,
Riley xoxo
Sirius traced the words in a trance, they were slightly smudged—when they were first written, almost like they were written in haste. His thumb halted abruptly beside the writing in the lower left corner, and Remus couldn't quite make out what it said, so he waited patiently.
The reward for his patience was Sirius's stridently roaring, "Fuck, and there's a location here, Moony!"
"Let me see that," Remus said eagerly, snatching it a bit rudely from Sirius's hands. "Bloody hell, would you look at that. There is."
"Well. What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sirius exclaimed, excitement bubbling profusely out of him, and he scrambled to his feet—and was halfway to the door—before he realised Remus was still on the ground.
Everything in Remus wished to go, he knew how much this meant to Sirius, but, he was exhausted.
Remus tilted his head up, gazing out of Draco's massive window: the sun had set in the time that they had been poking around, so the stars twinkled down at him in the clear, inky sky.
Quietly, ever so quietly, Sirius said, "you're drained, aren't you?"
"No, I'm fine. Let's go," Remus blurted, waving his hand dismissively as he gingerly rose from his crouched position.
He faced Sirius with a plastered smile on his face, he was not going to muck this up, Sirius and Riley—especially Riley, had waited long enough.
However, the moment his hazel eyes locked with the grey ones worriedly scrutinising him, he knew they weren't going anywhere tonight.
"She's been there for nineteen years, I highly doubt she's going anywhere," Sirius said as he approached Remus—impressively masking his acute disappointment—and rested a hand on Remus's shoulder once he did. "It's the middle of the night. We can go tomorrow."
"Padfoot—"
"Tomorrow."
"But—"
"Tomorrow, so we aren't stumbling around in the dark, only to take a tumble off the cliff for our trouble. It'll be much easier in daylight," Sirius insisted, his expression daring Remus to protest one more time.
"Fine. And it's a bluff," Remus said soberly, kicking himself for not hiding his fatigue better.
"Knobhead," Sirius said affectionately, pulling Remus into a hug.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, Sirius would finally be reunited with his witch.