Harry Potter - Gamer Neighbour
Summary: The new neighbour over the street at Privet Drive number five seems pretty normal, but not Privet Drive normal. But is anyone with the power of the gamer ever even remotely normal? No fucking way.
Disclaimer: I do own some shit, but not any recognizable characters, places or settings in this particular fanfiction.
Chapter 12:
"You're still not forgiven." Violet groused around a mouthful of lemon meringue pie. "Either of you."
Violet and Lily had apparently spent some time talking last night after he crashed, but it had been focused more on the many weird and incredible things that had taken place at Hogwarts. His parting shot earlier after Violet had called him a stuffy bore had apparently led to a bit of discussion about what Violet was actually at Hogwarts for, her schooling. According to what he'd found out earlier this summer when looking into the Potters, Lily was a bit of a magic nerd and had been a very talented and motivated student during her time at Hogwarts.
Violet... Not so much.
She had power in spades and she too had talent, but the motivation just hadn't been there and she was way too easily distracted. She'd also went for softer easier electives like Care and Divination, where Lily had gone hardcore and taken Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Potions, Advanced Charms, Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts and Advanced Transfiguration, the later three subjects not even being offered at Hogwarts any longer. If students wanted to go above and beyond NEWTs in any subject these days, they had to self-study, hire a tutor or take an Apprenticeship after Hogwarts.
Lily had challenged herself and not only handled it, but excelled.
The discussion that had taken place while he was holed up in his office likely would have gotten quite heated if the two had been more familiar with each other, but Lily at least seemed to have a better handle on her temper then Violet did, so it hadn't degenerated into some sort of shouting match. But handle on her temper or not, the older Potter had seemed to get her points across anyway.
Violet had been less then pleased to discover in person that her mother not only was a Hermioneish studious type, but that she also expected her daughter to do well in school too. What few stories she'd heard about her mother in the past had mentioned that she was a very talented Witch, but she'd never quite connected that to how their respective attitudes and motivations for schoolwork might clash.
She was pretty torn about it. On one hand, having to devote more time and effort to schoolwork rather then actual fun stuff sounded pretty darn boring to her. But on the other hand, it was kind of nice to have someone who expected the best out of you and believed that she was capable of that. She'd never had that growing up and had in fact learned to preform below average to avoid outperforming Dudley which just led to trouble. Keeping herself from sticking out and underperforming actually came naturally to her now. Hermione had tried to motivate her after coming to Hogwarts and had some success at times, but it had been sporadic at best rather then a permanent change. But now, with her own mother pushing her to do well?
She did want to make her mother proud of her, but... Study? When there was Quidditch, Wizarding Chess, Exploding Snap, exploring the school, snowball fights and other stuff that was just plain fun?
Yeah, she was torn.
"You're my daughter and I am proud of you. I will always support you." Lily reassured her little girl, but a strained expression appeared on her face despite her assurance. "But come on?! Care and Divination? We used to call that the route to future crazy cat lady! You'll be surrounded by cats and sipping tea, stroking the cat in your lap as you try to read patterns in your teacup before you know it!" she finally snapped.
"Divination is..." Violet started to protest, but trailed off, finding it hard to actually come up with a reasonable defence for taking that particular elective other then 'simple, easy and zero-effort', which wouldn't really hold any water with her studious and ambitious mother.
"Pure and utter nonsense." Lily firmly declared.
"It has a pretty bad rep here. From what I understand, the last couple of Professors in Divination at Hogwarts has been... Well, not the best of teachers for most students." Nick understated. "I went with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes for my core electives from third to seventh year, but I did take a year of Divination in Sweden before dropping it. Then I picked it up again for a year in Australia. Never had much luck with predicting or seeing the future which seems to be the focus of it at Hogwarts, it seems I have zero talent for it. But you don't have to be some kind of Seer to use Scrying, Farseeing, Dream speaking or some of the other branches of Divination that are popular elsewhere. It helps if you have the 'Inner Eye', but it's not a requirement. In Sweden we focused heavily on Scrying, in Australia it was mostly dreams and visions we focused on. Apparently, Hogwarts has had a long history of actual Seers and Prophets as Divination Professors, which has skewed the curriculum heavily towards Divining the future, Prophecy and areas like those that actually requires the 'Inner Eye'." Nick mused.
"You took Divination?" Lily asked with an expression more appropriate for an occasion where one had just stepped on a dog turd or something equally unpleasant.
"It seemed pretty interesting, so I took it as a third elective. But Runes was even more interesting than I originally thought it would be, so I dropped it for my fourth year. The teacher for it in Australia was pretty well regarded and the course itself vastly different from in Sweden, so I took it up for another year of it while I was there. I'm actually doing some Scrying now, though the target seems to have left Europe so it takes a bit of time. But the waters looked a bit brighter last I looked, so I'll probably get a hit sometime today." he agreed and smiled. "But yeah, had I gone to Hogwarts I rather doubt I'd taken it. While I like learning new things, I prefer learning stuff that's useful for me. From what I know of the Hogwarts Divination course, most of what I'd get out of it is theory on stuff I lack the talent to use. Reading tea leaves is about the only thing taught for the first year I'd be able to use, albeit quite spottily and unreliably at best. Later years have some more, but it's still pretty focused on things I wouldn't be able to do."
"Scrying, visions and dreams have a use?" she asked doubtfully.
"Scrying, yes. At the moment, I'm Scrying for Sirius Black. Your Ministry has been hunting him for over a year with scant results. I started Scrying for him a couple of days ago and unless he manages to hide underneath some heavy Wards before I get a hit, will find out where he is before long. It took me less then twenty minutes of work to set up and I've already done better then the entire Auror department has managed to do in a year." Nick replied with a faint grin. "Visions, well, not much Talent for that, so that's another area where I haven't had much success. Dream Speaking, Dream Interpretation and Dream Visions are pretty closely related to the Mind Arts, so there I actually do have some talent."
"Scrying I've heard about when it comes to finding lost items and such. Pandora, one of my friends in Hogwarts, used it pretty often to find misplaced books in the library." Lily admitted after a few moments, then frowned thoughtfully. "Heard some students who took Divination talking about Dream Interpretation as well, I think."
"We've done Dream Interpretation in class." Violet revealed. "Lavender think that I'm obsessed with cake and Professor T predicted that I'd die from choking on a chicken bone during supper on that day. Obviously, both were wrong." she snorted.
"And somehow you still haven't dropped that class and replaced it with something useful?" Lily questioned with a raised eyebrow while Nick chuckled.
"Yeah, no wonder Hogwarts has fallen behind in international school rankings." Nick snorted. "That tagline of being 'the best and greatest school of magic' hasn't had much truth to it for at least five decades or more at this point. It's still well regarded for both Charms and Transfiguration, but some other subjects just barely scratch average and some are international jokes."
Lily looked pained.
"Is it truly that bad now?" she asked. "I knew our History and Defence classes were... Not well regarded... Even in my time."
"If you try to get a job in a foreign country with a Hogwarts degree, you should expect to have to retake both your OWL's and NEWT's in Defence, Divination, History and Muggle Studies if any of those are important for that job unless you've taken them in another ICW certified country. For both Divination and History, you may just as well not have taken the classes at all, that's how lowly regarded a Hogwarts degree are in those two." he explained. "Potions is along with Charms and Transfiguration also one of those classes with a pretty high reputation abroad, but the number of people graduating with a NEWT in Potions is the lowest in Hogwarts history. But there's no denying that those that do take it and make it through, are highly regarded and very capable."
"Yeah, well, with how Professor Snapehole acts in class, there's no wonder that so many decide to drop Potions as soon as possible to get away from him." Violet grunted.
Lily had taken note of the animosity Violet displayed every time Snape was mentioned and felt that calling him 'Snapehole' was a bit over the top, but her own feelings about her old childhood friend were conflicted at best, so she had yet to put down her foot and try to get Violet to at least speak respectfully about her Professor. He had been one of her best friends for years, but they'd pretty much remained distant ever since the Mudblood incident. Her instinctive gut reaction was still to defend him, but before she actually could, she recalled their later more volatile relationship and remained silent instead of speaking up in his defence.
"So I hear, but most importantly, the ICW investigators have heard as well." Nick grinned. "I think Professor Snape have some well-deserved exciting times up ahead. There's no denying that he has a lot of skill and knowledge to pass along, but his ability to actually do so in a fair and unbiased manner is... Somewhat dubious."
"Dubious? Pfah! Couldn't happen to a more well-deserving arsehole." Violet groused and shuddered, just speaking about the guy brought quite a few disturbing mental images to mind.
Lily opened her mouth to lodge a protest at Violets language, but instead let out a sigh and inserted another spoonful of pie instead, chowing down on it after a bit of a mental struggle, trying to overcome conflicting instincts.
"How can I be hungry and full at the same time?" she muttered to herself.
"Your body knows that it needs massive amounts of food, but your stomach has shrunk, so it just won't fit as much as your body wants." Nick replied. "I have some Nutrient Potion brewing in the laboratory, which should be done in ten minutes or so. I'd suggest taking a dose with supper this evening. They're normally taken with breakfast, so there's a full day of activity after to help build muscle, but you should probably take one before going to bed to help your entire body recover and regain some badly needed mass. Then you can take one with breakfast for three or four days, after that, we can see if more are needed. But with full meals, snacks in between and Nutrient Potion with breakfast, you will recover body mass pretty quickly."
"You're giving my mother magical steroids?" Violet asked with a somewhat dubious expression.
"Nutrient Potions can be used for that and it's not unusual to take extremely small doses with meals shortly before big Wizarding competitions, but just taking one doesn't magically build muscle mass. You have to take one, then work out like a son of a bitch while the effects last or you'll just gain weight, not muscle. They basically add more nutrients and building blocks to your body, sort of like eating more, only in highly concentrated liquid form. One dose pretty much adds the rough equivalent of a couple of days worth of full meals, without having to go through the effort of eating like food is going out of style to get that much energy and mass into your body." Nick replied. "Just tossing a few down and then not working out will just lead to a big belly and a lot of excess fat all over the rest of the body. But for someone so dangerously underweight, it should be pretty good however."
Violet slowly nodded, her mother was currently almost ghoulishly thin.
"I'll have to go to Gringotts, I know how expensive those potions are." Lily stated with a pained expression, not at all looking forward to that. It was tough enough just to walk across the room and she had to stop eating for a minute or two sometimes during the meal as just moving her arms and chewing felt like a chore at times. She couldn't ever recall feeling as weak and easily exhausted before in her entire life, not even when bedridden with sickness had she ever felt this pathetic. "And I need to pay rent, I'll not be some ruddy freeloader." she fiercely added.
"There's probably a lot that should be done, both at Gringotts and the Ministry." Nick said and gently shook his head. "But don't worry about money or red tape for now, just focus on recovering. I imagine there'll be quite the circus and somewhat harrowing to get yourself declared alive and well again. I rather doubt it's a simple procedure and it likely will involve a lot of poking, prodding and extensive invasive examinations as well as mind-numbing amount of paperwork in quadruple copies. The examination should probably also be something you set up ahead of time yourself and involve some pretty hardcore Magical Contracts, so the team that preforms the examination sticks to just confirming that you are alive and who you claim to be, not take the opportunity to preform some research on the side."
Lily paled.
Right, she must have been declared dead. She probably didn't even have access to the Vaults any longer.
"I also don't know what happened to your wand, I don't think I've ever read anything mentioning what happened to it after that Halloween." Nick mused. "But for now, just do the exercises I gave you, eat and snack when you get hungry, rest when you need to and recover as best you can. When you feel up to it, we can go to Gringotts, the Ministry and get you a new wand. Not necessarily in that order, you should probably have the wand before going to the Ministry at least."
"But those potions... The food... And the room... And Violet..." Lily fretted nervously.
"I'm no licensed Potion Master, but I know my way around them better then most. I also know enough Alchemy to refine some of the more costly ingredients on my own. The rooms were just empty guest rooms anyway, I didn't use them. Food, well, I do like cooking and seeing people enjoy what I make, so it's not like I mind that part either." Nick explained and then gestured at Violet. "Midget McShorty here is admittedly a bit of a hazzle, but I guess I can try to endure her presence."
"Hey!" Violet protested and hefted her plate, now holding a fresh serving of pie, her third serving of dessert. "You want a piece of this, you bastard?" she snarled.
"Not much of a dessert guy, so no thanks. The little I had earlier was enough for me." he replied with a wide grin as he watched Violet struggle with what seemed like a monumental decision to her. Throw the pie at him and miss out on eating it, or refrain from lemon pieing his face and get to stuff herself with more pie instead.
It seemed her stomach won out, as she put the plate down and angrily dug in.
Nick got up and carried his plate over to the sink, then returned with a cup of coffee for himself and another for Lily.
"You can try some, but I recommend drinking very slowly and be aware of what your body is telling you. Stop drinking if your body protests too much." he told her after putting her cup down, then made his way around to Violet and patted her head. "And no worries, Mini Red. You're not a hazzle, I've had more fun with you around then I've had in a long time." he told her before making his way back to his own seat.
Lily was incredibly torn as she observed the happenings around the table.
She had just been given a cup of coffee, which she was incredibly grateful for.
She had seen the way a head pat and some mollifying words had instantly calmed her daughter down, who was now blushing and looking down at her plate, keeping her mouth too busy with eating pie to offer up a verbal response. But the crush was very evident, and she did not like that at all.
It had been an incredibly satisfying meal and while she still felt the odd sensation of being both full and craving more at the same time, it had been delicious. He was a good cook, incredibly knowledgeable in a wide variety of fields and in general seemed like a very good man. If she forced herself to be completely objective, she likely would normally approve of him and may even try to set up some of her unattached friends with him. However, with her having been dead for fifteen years, things were far from normal.
Her teenaged daughter was clearly crushing on the older man.
Lily had so much to be grateful towards him for, having been returned to life and get another chance to bond with her daughter was just... She lacked the words to describe just how much she valued being reunited with Violet. Priceless didn't even begin to describe it, but she couldn't help but feel incredibly on edge and resentful around him none the less. She still felt like it was a miracle that she hadn't gone ballistic on him.
Lily raised the cup to her lips and inhaled the scent of coffee, then took a small cautious sip from it, just barely managing to supress a loud moan as she finally got to drink some black gold. She had seen how Nick poured her smaller cup of coffee then his own, then add some hot water to it to make it more diluted then his own. But it was still coffee, the seductive smell and taste she could recall. She did feel her tongue twitching and her throat informing her that it didn't quite appreciate the drink, but sweet Maeve, she didn't care.
Okay, as the provider of coffee, she was willing to give him the benefit of a doubt for now.
Her daughter was head over heels for him, but he seemed to mostly ignore it and instead treated her more as a daughter then anything else. Had that not been the case, things would have been very different.
She tried to ignore the massages. Yesterdays massage had clearly not just crossed a line, but shat all over it and pounded it into the ground with a sledgehammer, but he had seemed quite out of it at the time. This morning it seemed less inappropriate and he certainly hadn't fingered what shouldn't be fingered by someone so much older than her little girl. But she was still irked about him massaging Violet in the first place, no matter how innocent and necessary it might be.
However, she put those images out of her mind and instead focused on her coffee. Smelling it almost as much as she tasted it.
Coffee was good, coffee was brilliant.
All was well with the world!
Everything was complete and utter shit, the world just one big massive turd that was dropped on her! Her endurance was shit! Her balance was shit! Her body was shit! Everything was fucking shit!
"Stop being so shit!" Lily snarled at herself between heavy strained breaths.
All she had done was sit on a couch and used a thin rubber band around her legs to raise and lower her feet from the ground and opening and closing her legs while struggling away with two low-resistance hand grippers for less then ten minutes, but she was breathing like she'd just run a marathon. Her heart was thudding away in her chest and she was sweating buckets.
Sweating buckets!
Breathing heavily!
From moving her legs and hands!
Her body was shit!
When she'd read through the exercises Nick had given her, she'd felt like laughing since it seemed like nothing and something that she should have been able to get through in thirty minutes, but he'd spaced them out over three different sessions over the course of her first day.
She no longer felt like laughing and understood why the load had seemed so light. For someone who hadn't been dead for fifteen years, it was a pitiful amount of exercise, but for her it felt like just mentioned marathon without having practised at all for it. Violet had joined her in working out a bit and she'd blasted through all of Lily's exercise for the day in fifteen minutes, while Lily herself had just barely managed to complete a third of the ones assigned for the first session of the day. Violet was now doing various squats, jumps and body twists with two small dumbbells in her hands.
Violet did have some moments of stiff jerkiness, but it appeared her body was a lot less stiff and causing her less issues today. The massage earlier this morning and the shower she had taken after it had made her decide to get some workout done alongside her mother, both to keep an eye on Lily and get some exercise of her own.
A Quidditch freak, just like James.
Just looking at her made Lily feel like fainting.
She understood why Nick had gotten her nine sets of exercise clothes now in spite of the fact that they probably wouldn't fit her in a week or so. Her current ones were freaking soaked and she had two towels layered underneath her butt to protect the couch from her sweat.
After he'd cleaned up after lunch, Nick had left Lily and Violet on their own for a bit to do some shopping for groceries now when there was an extra mouth to feed, but he'd also returned with various clothes and necessities for Lily. She'd felt immensely grateful when he'd provided her with several sets of casual clothes and underwear she wouldn't have to borrow from her daughter, as well as the seemingly excessive amount of exercise outfits, but she now understood why he'd provided so many of them as these ones were completely soaked with sweat already. She'd also gratefully received combs, brushes, a simple makeup kit, perfume, soap, lotion, shampoo, hair bands, hair clips and various other necessities. It was all simple stuff and not some sort of luxury brands, but as he'd explained she'd probably outgrow a lot of the clothes before the week was over, so there wasn't much point in going overboard. Once she felt better, stronger and closer to her proper weight and size, she could tag along and pick out her own stuff.
"Stop and take a break if it becomes too much." Nick hinted from over in the reading corner, where he was fiddling with a large stone bowl. She'd first thought it was a Pensive, but apparently it was a Scrying bowl. "I based your exercises on long-time coma patients who has woken up, there sadly wasn't a precedent to go on for people who had been dead and decomposing for fifteen years. I think it should be about right still, but I could have overestimated how much your body would be capable of at the moment." he chuckled and Lily felt simultaneously offended and relieved.
Offended because he obviously thought that she couldn't handle this tiny amount of exercise, relieved because she actually couldn't and this gave her a chance to covertly get some rest while speaking to him.
She understood just how massive a thing it was he had accomplished with her and the more she thought about it, the less she understood how he could be so hands-off and dismissive about it. Hell, SHE wanted to cut herself up and try to figure out what had happened.
But other then having examined her this morning, keeping an eye on her and offering her assistance for various small tasks, he seemed to be content with treating her incredible resurrection as some small thing, more like a source of sporadic amusement and occasional worry for her wellbeing then anything else. The way he could joke about it felt a bit off, but at the same time, it comforted her. Made her feel less like some freak of unnatural magic, a crime against everything natural and orderly in the world.
"I can handle it. It's just a lot more exhausting than I would have believed, even knowing how much effort it takes just to walk." Lily panted out.
She still couldn't go to the bathroom and back on her own. Or anywhere really. Violet or Nick had to walk with her, holding her hand or arm while being on alert in case she lost her balance. Or at least remain nearby, prepared to dart in to help. But even with that assistance, she still got tired and needed frequent breaks during her attempts to walk. She should have understood just how hard exercise would be, but had still dismissed the schedule upon first read as way too light a load.
Nick looked at her for a few moments with a somewhat dubious expression, but finally merely shrugged and returned his attention to the bowl on the table in front of him.
Even without having said anything, she could practically hear his 'Oh well, let her hurt herself, she will learn her limits better that way' reasoning that she was sure was hidden behind that look and shrug.
That smug fucking bastard.
"I'm fine." Lily panted and struggled to close the hand grippers.
She'd show him!
"Yeah, that's obvious to all. Just take a break, mom." Violet snorted with her arms held straight out to the sides holding the dumbbells, while twisting her upper body from left to right. She recalled James doing similar exercises during Hogwarts when he was on the Quidditch team. Something about the rapid twisting, turning and pressure the body was put under when being flung back and forth while straddling a broom at high speeds. She couldn't quite remember, not really having cared as Quidditch was an uninteresting past-time to her. She'd went to matches when Gryffindor played, but had never been a big fan of the game. She'd mostly went to show her support for her House and once James had finally worn her down and matured enough that they started dating, to show support for her boyfriend.
She supressed a twinge of pain at the thought of her boyfriend eventually turned husband, who had not returned to the land of the living alongside her. She clenched her hand grippers harder and mentally screamed at herself to not cry. She panted and forced her legs apart, the rubber band around her thighs making the seemingly simple motion a lot harder than it already was with her weakened body.
"I can handle it." she insisted. "Just watch. I'll show you both." she snarled and forced her body to move, glad to have the exercises to busy herself with instead of focusing on what she had lost.
Violet glanced worriedly over towards Nick, who merely shook his head with a wry smile.
"I haven't known either of you for very long, but I have no doubts whatsoever that you got your own iron will and fierce determination from your mother. What would you do if someone told you that you couldn't do something or wouldn't be able to handle it? What would happen if someone told you to ease up while you were already trying to do it?" Nick asked and Violet frowned for a few moments.
"I'd tell the bloody fool off and do it anyway." she admitted after a few moments.
"Keep that in mind before trying to tell your mother something similar." he hinted with a wide grin.
Lily kind of wanted to lodge a protest at their assessment of her character, but couldn't bring herself to do that. Her current attempts to show them off and that she had in fact done similar things sometimes in the past when people had doubted her made it hard to come up with a viable argument against that assessment.
She'd done similar things pretty often, actually...
All of the fricking time, if she was completely honest with herself...
Just a minute ago, though without being quite so harsh about it, in fact...
Fuck, that pervert was right about her, wasn't he?
Nick suddenly got up and grabbed a book from his shelf, then returned to his seat, looking between the bowl and the book.
"Did you find Sirius?" Violet suddenly inquired, noticeably perking up.
"Yeah, I got a hit. Now I'm trying to figure out where he actually is." he said and held up the book he was looking into, revealing it to be a thick Atlas. "It's a bunch of islands somewhere outside of Europe, but at least it's not on the other side of the world. Fair bit of ocean around them though. Not quite sure where exactly this is."
Violet abandoned her exercise and walked over to where Nick was, staring down into the bowl.
"Looks pretty, even from a distance. Hilly and mountainy, though." Violet declared after a few moments. "Are those old volcanos?"
"Looks like it. Thought it was Hawaii at first, but if he'd gotten all the way over there, it would have taken longer to get a lock on him. So it's not as far away from here as that." Nick mused as Lily put down her hand grippers and pushed the rubber band off her legs, then gingerly got upright. It wasn't a break, she told herself. She was just curious about Sirius. Violet swiftly made her way back and grasped her left arm, helping her hobble along towards the reading corner, where Lily stopped and looked at the bowl, while panting heavily.
The liquid in the bowl was a clear light blue, not transparent enough to show the bottom of the fairly shallow bowl. It was completely still, not a hint of a stirring on the surface, looking more like the surface of a coloured mirror then anything else. In the centre of the bowl, she could see a top-down view of a series of islands, hilly, mountainous and lush with greenery. Her brow furrowed as she stared down at the image in the bowl.
"Somewhere in the Mediterranean?" she suggested between heavy breaths.
"Not entirely sure, but I don't think so. Saw some pretty good maps of the area during my time on Malta. I think it would seem at least somewhat familiar to me if that had been the case. But I don't recognize the layout of those islands at all." Nick admitted. "Don't understand how he got there either. You said he ran away from Hogwarts on a Hippogriff?" he asked, looking up at Violet.
"Yeah, Buckbeak. Me and Hermione rescued him from being executed by some Ministry goons and Sirius used him to escape." Violet replied and Lily had to supress a groan at how much insanity Violet had encountered at Hogwarts. Her own time there had certainly included a fair bit of youthful hijinks and some odd happenings, but the stories Violet had told her just boggled the mind. The fact that she was able to just shrug off what she had just said as nothing particularly interesting or special was a testament to how many other incredible events had taken place during her first three years at Hogwarts that were even more insane then this incident!
"He must have stowed away on a ship or airplane, I think. Hippogriffs are fair flyers, but carrying a human would severely reduce the amount of ground it would be able to cover." Nick mused as he moved his right index finger along a map of the world, starting from England and gradually moving outwards in expanding circular movements, his eyes trailing alongside his finger, with frequent glances over at the image in the bowl.
Eventually his finger stopped on a spot in the Atlantic. He looked thoughtful for a few moments, then checked the index and turned pages until he found what he was looking for, comparing the image of the page he was on to the image in the bowl.
"Okay, I was wrong. Scrying over land is faster than water, so he's not as far away as I thought. He still is in Europe, sort of, but not near mainland Europe. It's the Azores. I think those are Portuguese, possibly Spanish." he declared, holding his Atlas next to the bowl, turning it around slightly so they could see that the map matched up with the image in his Scrying Bowl. He handed the Atlas to Violet, then whipped out his phone and after some tapping on it, apparently found some more information then the Atlas provided. "Ah, yeah, Portugal. Autonomous Region of the Azores, nine major islands, capital is Angra do Heroismo, mild climate year-round, small population..." Nick mused and put the phone away again, then grasped the sides of the Scrying Bowl.
His forehead creased for a few moments and the image slowly started zooming in. It took almost three minutes, but eventually it had moved into the outskirts of a city where the three of them found themselves looking at a shaggy and haggard-looking black dog who was tearing through a plastic trash bag in a dirty alley, rifling through the contents of the bag for edible scraps which were quickly wolfed down.
"It's Padfoot!" Violet exclaimed happily.
"Oh, Sirius." Lily groaned and slowly shook her head at the image in the bowl.
"Wizards are insane." Nick firmly declared with a disgusted expression on his face. "He must be either deranged or the most morally upstanding guy on the planet if he's eating trash instead of using the fact that he can turn into a fricking dog to get something decent to eat, even if he has to steal money or food directly."
"Pft!" Lily snorted and Violet chuckled at the thought of Sirius being the most morally upstanding guy on the planet.
Nick took the Atlas back from Violet and after staring at it for a while nodded to himself.
"Right. I think he's on the outskirts of Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island." he declared and his brows furrowed again. "Flying will take a bit more out of my day then I'd like, if there even are daily flights out there from London. Fuck. I hate international Portkey travel." he groaned and looked around the room for a few moments, then up at the two girls. "Will the two of you be alright on your own for an hour or two?"
"Of course." Lily assured him.
"Who the hell do you take me for?" Violet snapped. "Of course I'd be fine, but I'm going with you!"
Nick leaned back in his couch, looking up at Violet.
"Oh? And your recovering mother would be able to manage on her own?" he inquired and Violet who seemed to be building up to an angry rant in order to secure her place at his side to get Sirius froze in mid-motion, stopping in her tracks with her mouth half-way opened. "There's three of us here. Lily has no wand and can barely walk unassisted. You have your wand, but I wouldn't recommend using magic until your Magic Burns clear up. You're also fairly noticeable, though a Glamour or two or just some Muggle makeup would make it harder to tell that it's you. But even if you wouldn't need to use your own Magic to use a Portkey, having you tag along brings the risk of you being recognized both when getting the Portkey and upon arrival in the Azores. Your legend is not solely restricted to the British Isles, I assure you. I doubt the Azores has a large wizarding population, but even one person recognizing who you are could cause rumours to spread about the Girl-Who-Lived strutting about in the Azores." he clarified and offered her a wry grin. "Come on, Mini Red. I'll just grab a Portkey to Ponta Delgada, use Point Me to find Sirius when I'm there, grab him and then make my own Portkey to get directly back here. It shouldn't take me very long."
Lily looked torn about staying behind as well, but as her attempt to exercise had just shown her, she was in no way ready to be out and about just yet.
"Fine." Violet groused reluctantly, but appeared less then pleased with her decision.
"No worries, shorty. I'll be back in a flash. Just keep an eye on Big Red while I'm gone." Nick told her and she squared her shoulders, glaring down at him.
"You had fucking better be back in a flash with Sirius." she informed him. "Or else..."
"No worries. Wizard with common sense here, remember?" he asked and got up, giving her a head pat. "Take care, Reds." he added and Lily received a head pat of her own before he vanished with a soft pop after first stepping into a pair of outdoor shoes over at the entrance.
"What the frick is up with all the head pats?" Lily groused. "Is he addicted to them or something?" she added. Violet certainly seemed to be a more frequent recipient of them, but she too had been graced with a few at this point. She was torn about it, it was clearly an affectionate gesture of sorts that he seemed to dole out on the regular, both as encouragement, comfort and when he was simply amused. But while she doubted he intended it as such, except a few times when bickering with Violet, it felt somewhat demeaning to be patted on the head like a young child again.
Although she couldn't deny that she did feel incredibly helpless, much like a small child, at the moment. So the head pats increasing that feeling, while simultaneously giving her occasional comfort, encouragement or reassurance, made her feel incredibly conflicted about them.
Especially now, when she was soaked with sweat and would have preferred to keep her distance from everyone.
Which just made the fact that she had to accept Violets help to get back to the couch and her exercises all the more annoying.
Especially as Violet didn't even seem to have shed a drop of sweat, despite having run through Lily's entire exercise schedule and then added more and harder exercise for herself.
She couldn't wait until she was fully recovered and back at full speed.
Nick strolled casually along, deftly avoiding other pedestrians while chewing on an Azorean hot dog he'd purchased from a street vendor. The lightly toasted bun with a pleasantly spiced sausage, crunchy coleslaw, mayonnaise and hot sauce probably would be a pleasant treat all on its own, but what really sold it for him was that it was buried underneath a generous layer of thin crunchy fried potato strips.
It was a pleasant enough sunny day, with a slight breeze bringing the salty scent of the ocean in over the city. In his blue jeans, well-worn Accepts 'Balls to the Wall' album t-shirt and a brand new black ballcap with 'Ponta Delgada Krew' written on it in white-blueish lightening-bolt looking letters, he likely looked like a casual Muggle tourist taking in the island atmosphere rather then a Wizard following the slight pull from the wand in his wrist holster towards his future kidnapping target. He'd also stopped to pick up a bag filled with twenty Pastela da Nata pastries, they'd make decent little snacks once he was back. He also had three extra Azorean hot dogs and a big pet bottle of sparkly water resting in another bag, having been quite horrified at seeing the sort of actual literal trash that Sirius had been eating.
The pastries he figured would go over well with the ladies upon his return. Not all the women he'd met over the years had been gung-ho about sweets and pastries, but from what he'd seen of both Violet and Lily so far, they certainly seemed like the kind of gals who would appreciate some baked goods from his jaunt abroad. Lily had consumed her past-breakfast biscuit almost as fast as Violet and while she'd settled for just grabbing one more after, unlike Violet who had gone through three more, he had seen Lily glancing at the biscuit platter more then once after her two. So the freshly baked treats had a high chance of being appreciated. The one great thing about traveling by Portkey was that it was so fast. Unless Sirius proved tricky and evasive, they'd likely still be warm when he got back.
He had been tempted to make a stop at a local market and see what sort of fresh produce they had, but had settled for just three brief stops so far. One for an ATM machine and getting the ballcap he was now wearing in lieu of sunglasses which he'd neglected to bring from a street vendor next to the ATM machine, once for the custard-filled pastries and the last stop for the hot dogs and water bottle. He rather doubted either of the hot-tempered redheads would appreciate finding out that he'd delayed to shop for vegetables, fruit, fresh fish and whatever other local specialities he might stumble across.
He vaguely recalled having had cheese from the Azores in the past that he'd really enjoyed and he looked mournfully at the amount of enticing-looking cheeses he saw through the window of what looked like a small store specializing in local cheeses, wine, dried and smoked meats, pickled and preserved things and small decorative hand-crafted items.
He sighed and kept walking, eating his hot dog and following the pull of the 'Point Me' spell on his wand. Having grown up with a strong-willed mother and a baby sister who wasn't far behind in that department, he knew very well that he was a bit on the hen-pecked side of things, being unwilling to disappoint a lady and in general being highly accommodating towards the fairer sex.
And now there were two of them waiting for him and Sirius back home. Two ladies of the spicier variety.
"They're coming to get you and then you'll get your balls to the wall, man. Balls to the wall." he sung to himself under his breath to avoid disturbing anyone else nearby.
He kept on humming and took the last bite of his sausage as he spotted the grim-looking mutt of a dog he was looking for further down and on the other side of the street Nick was walking on.
It seemed Sirius had spotted two other tourists who were also enjoying some hot dogs and was following in their wake, eating the fried potatoes they left scattered behind them. Nick had made a bit more of an effort to not litter, but it seemed these two cared less about that and so, Sirius licked the fallen potato strips off the street.
Nick wanted to let out an audible groan, but refrained.
What the hell was wrong with this guy? As someone who could change between man and dog pretty much at will, it shouldn't be too hard to keep himself fed and instead he ate trash and refuse? Granted, Nick knew that he was a bit flexible when it came to following rules and regulations, but Sirius should have been a kindred spirit in that department as well based on what he knew. But the Sirius he knew about from his knowledge of Harry Potter he vaguely recalled complained about having eaten rats while on the run, so he supposed that trash and refuse was at least a very slight step up from that.
But what the hell, man? Steal! Clean up a bit and beg for food outside restaurants, use those puppy dog eyes! Sneak into somebodies home, steal the money in their wallets and food from their kitchen! Break into a restaurant and grab fresh stuff! Go into a supermarket as a human, put stuff in a bag, transform into a dog and run out with the bag! Just by thinking about what Nick himself would do for food if he was on the run and could turn canine at the drop of a hat, it took less then five seconds to come up with a wide variety of ways to keep himself well fed.
He supposed he could give Sirius a bit of a free pass since he'd been locked up in Azkaban for so long, but surely he couldn't be as mentally damaged as not to realize that there were better and safer ways to feed himself then licking stuff off the street, eating trash and hunting rats?
Nick got out one of the custard pastries and nibbled on that as he kept on walking, looking into store windows, glancing at interesting pieces of architecture and generally seeming to pay no attention at all to the black shaggy dog. He made an appreciative noise as he bit into the still warm pastry, giving a mental shrug at the sort of fattening crap he'd stuffed himself with since Violet came to live with him. He usually stuck to a light and simple breakfast, but Violet had a preference for full English or other pretty substantial meals. If he snacked on anything at all before lunch, it was usually an apple or other fruit. If he snacked on anything after lunch, it might be a biscuit along a cup of coffee, but usually it was just the coffee. After supper, rarely anything, possibly just a late-evening sandwich or something if supper had left him unsatisfied. Almost never any desserts with his meals, although it wasn't completely unheard of.
But both Violet and now Lily were in dire need of some fattening up, though more Lily then Violet. Violet wasn't painfully underfed, having recently returned from Hogwarts where she was free to eat whatever she felt like and apparently where she led a pretty active life that assisted in preventing her from blowing up like a balloon. She had an athletic rather then a curvy voluptuous body in spite of eating like it was going out of style, but he imagined that she probably had lost at least a bit of weight after arriving at number four due to the ridiculous grapefruit diet he'd heard about. He'd mostly seen her from a distance before she came to live with him, but she did look slimmer the longer she stayed at number four after coming back from Hogwarts. Not dangerously so, but she could do with a bit more meat on her bones.
Lily? Dear lord, she'd likely lost near half her body weight if not more based on pictures he'd seen of her before that Halloween. She hadn't been overweight by any stretch of the imagination in the pictures he'd seen, but she did lean more towards the curvy voluptuous rather then slim athletic body-type of her daughter. She desperately needed food and plenty of it to recover from looking like a stick-figure.
So, he had kept the food coming, serving dessert with every lunch and supper, snacks in between all meals. Not just for the girls either, he ate some of it as well, even if he didn't stuff himself like Violet did.
And now he was here to bring back another person who also seemed in dire need of some fattening up.
He'd have to increase the amount of exercise he himself got or he'd balloon up before long if he kept his current company and ate what they ate.
He saw Sirius abandon the sloppy eaters he'd been trailing behind after they finished their hot dogs and head onto a side street. Nick kept on walking straight ahead for another block, then crossed over and took a side street parallel to the one Sirius had trotted down. A curse left his lips as he strolled past a small restaurant which based on the pictures outside and the smells from inside specialized in seafood. It felt wrong to visit a new country without tasting his way through the local specialties, picking up ideas for his own cooking, so he had to fight his desire to step inside to see what was on offer.
He shook his head and focused on what his wand was telling him. It felt like Sirius had kept on walking straight ahead on the street he'd entered earlier, so Nick kept on walking straight ahead too. He tensed a bit as he suddenly felt the pull from his wand growing stronger as he approached a small alley. Seemed as if Sirius was coming closer to the street Nick was on. He stopped and investigated the store window of what seemed like a small sport goods store with a bit of hiking focus. Sirius didn't seem to be moving, so Nick eventually abandoned the store window and kept on walking closer to the alley.
A casual glance into the alley revealed the reason why Sirius had stopped. He was standing on his rear paws, front paws leaning on the side of a dumpster while his head was buried down into it.
Nick shook his head in silence and made his way into the alley, his wand noiselessly jumped into his hand. A silent gentle wave and a Muggle Notice-me-not settled over the entire alley. He'd maxed out his Wandless Magic thanks to the game thingie, something which otherwise likely would have taken multiple decades of incredibly hard and boring work, so he didn't actually need to use his wand for much of anything. But it was a habit and one he wasn't keen on kicking, as he felt it was for the best if as few people as possible knew just how capable he was without one. Besides, the name Magical Focus wasn't for nothing, it was a hell of a lot easier and less draining to use a Wand then to go without.
Sirius stiffened and his head jerked up from the dumpster, ears twisting around in Nick's direction before the rest of his doggish head did. Apparently, Sirius was sensitive enough to magic to feel its use nearby as Nick didn't think he'd made enough noise to be overheard and the myriad of scents in the alley should have made it hard for Sirius to smell him, even if he currently was in a form that was highly adept at picking up the most minute of scents through vast amount of conflicting scents. Nick wasn't quite sure what had given him away and didn't really care enough at the moment to ask.
"Hello there, Sirius Black." he greeted the dog as his wand jumped back into the holster while he waved at the Animagus. "I come bearing food and a greeting from Violet, so please get your snout out of that dirty dumpster before you make me vomit." Sirius seemed about ready to bolt any second, staring intently at Nick's right hand. The dog had looked up and saw how Nicks wand leaped back into the wrist holster prior to his greeting wave, so he was aware that he was at a disadvantage, but had also seen Nick put his wand away. "Yes, yes, I am a Wizard. I wouldn't know about you or Violet if I wasn't." Nick said and crouched down, placing a napkin on the ground where he piled up the three paper-wrapped hot dogs he'd bought earlier, putting the bottle of water down next to the trio of delicious-smelling paper packages.
Once done presenting his offering, he took several steps back and gestured invitingly at the food.
Sirius tilted his head back and forth a few times, seemingly considering the situation. He looked over his doggy shoulders at the other end of the alley, then hastily back at Nick again, glaring suspiciously at him.
"I could have just stunned you or cut your head off straight away instead of casting a Notice-me-not if I wanted to do you harm, Mister Black." Nick offered with a shrug of his shoulders. Sirius growled half-heartedly at him, but then calmed down and gave off a doggy shrug, before his body rippled. A few seconds later, the black dog was replaced with a shabbily dressed wizard who looked to be in dire need of a bath, a hairbrush and a change of clothes. "Dear lord, have you been sleeping in dumpsters too?" Nick exclaimed and shook his head as the scent of trash intensified when Sirius took human form. "I haven't spent a lot of time looking around here for options, but surely you could have at least snuck into a barn or something outside of the city if you didn't feel like sleeping in a doorway or on a park bench? Sleeping on a stack of hay have to be a lot more pleasant then rolling around on trash!"
Sirius jerked in place at the admonishment, a confused expression on his face for a few moments as he observed Nick.
"Didn't occur to me." he mumbled in embarrassment, then tilted his head as he looked Nick up and down. "Do I know you, kid?"
"No, we've never met. I'm Nick Jones. Please, grab yourself something to eat and drink that doesn't come out of a dumpster." he replied and gestured at the hot dogs and water bottle. "Like I mentioned earlier, I'm here on Violet's behalf."
"And how do I know that? I have a prize on my head." Sirius responded suspiciously, then started to spin around in panic as Nick's wand jumped into his hand. Before Sirius had gotten more then a quarter of the way around, he found himself completely petrified.
Nick casually strolled over and looked Sirius straight into the eyes from half a foot off.
"You are tired, hungry, exhausted and have the reaction speed of a half-dead snail. If I wanted to bring you in or kill you off, I certainly would have a pretty nice opportunity to do so now, wouldn't I?" Nick asked, then spun around and walked back to his former position, then restored Sirius ability to move. He got out his pack of smokes and lighter, then lit up a cigarette with great relish. He noted how the tracking Rune he'd covertly placed on the other man's left leg while staring him right in the eyes softly glowed for a few moments before fading away completely. It wouldn't last for more then an hour or two at most, but that should be enough to find Sirius again if he bolted. If Sirius ran, Nick would just skip the talking bit, ambush him, put him to sleep and drag the unconscious man back like a proper kidnap victim.
The fugitive nearly lost his balance and fell over once he could move again, but just barely managed to remain on his feet. He seemed to contemplate just running, but after a few moments shrugged and turned back to Nick. He looked silently at him for a few moments, then crouched down and grabbed one of the hot dogs, tearing open the paper wrapped around it. He took a huge hungry bite out of the dog and twisted the bottle open, taking a long swig of water once he'd chewed down on the hot dog.
"Alright, I'll bite. What do you want?" Sirius asked, then immediately took another bite out of his fried potato-loaded hot dog.
"Violet says 'Hi, Padfoot', first of all. Things have changed a bit since you left Hogwarts on the back of Buckbeak." Nick started and sighed. "Her asshole relatives left her alone to go off on a five-week cruise, locking her out of the house. I moved into Privet Drive a bit earlier in the summer and spotted her sitting outside the front door when I was out for a smoke. When I walked over to see what was going on, I overheard her muttering about drinking rainwater and sleeping in the tool shed in the back yard. I told her to stuff those plans and dragged her over to my house and tossed her into a guest room there. I'm not sure what the fuck the rest of the Wizarding World is smoking, but I'm not willing to just let every single supposedly responsible adult in her life just continue to make shitty decisions that fucks up her entire life."
"What? They did what?" Sirius blurted out, some half-chewed pieces of his hot dog flying out of his mouth at his exclamation. "Those bloody..." he snarled ferally and his eyes narrowed in fury and hatred.
"Yeah, I thought just about the same." Nick agreed and took a deep pull from his smoke. "Sadly it seems like she's cursed to have the adults supposed to be responsible for her being anything but. Her parents find out that she's prophesied to face a dark lord and instead of leaving the country, sticks around to be murdered by just mentioned dark lord. Instead of staying behind to take care of her recently orphaned diaper-clad arse, you instead run off in search of revenge. Instead of letting the authorities handle her, Dumbledore forces her upon magic-hating Muggles to neglect and heap abuse upon her. Instead of listening to her when it comes to just mentioned Muggles once she gets back to the Wizarding World, everyone just ignores her and sends her back for further hell every summer. I'm actually tempted to run a scan for curses on her, just to see if she actually is cursed or if it's just another in a long line of examples of how fucked up the Wizarding World is."
Sirius locked about ready to fly at him in a murderous rage when he mentioned her parents, but paled and looked guilty when it was his turn, then grew angry again as Nick continued to list offences against his goddaughter.
"Thankfully, I don't yet seem to have caught whatever is causing Witches and Wizards to lose any semblance of common sense and general human decency, so now I'm here to get you back to jolly old England. You're getting a trial, you'll be declared innocent and this fugitive-on-the-run trash-eating shit can go hang. Instead you can do what you should have done in the first place and take care of your fucking Goddaughter instead of running about doing anything but that." Nick stated firmly and Sirius squirmed a bit under his judging glare.
"It's... I... I shouldn't have run off after Wormtail, but I was just so bloody angry..." Sirius mumbled and took a despondent bite out of his hot dog.
"It's what it is, you can hardly go back in time and change your own actions at this point." Nick shrugged. "Besides, rest assured that I will be keeping an eye or two on things. If I hear even the slightest hint of you doing something stupid ever again once you're back and a free man, I'll hunt you down just like I did today, but I will do so in order to drag you off to a veterinarian to be neutered before presenting your furry arse to Violet. A pretty pink leash and collar charmed to be unbreakable will be involved."
Sirius winced and shuddered.
It wasn't the first time the vet threat had come up since the first time he successfully transformed into Padfoot, but it didn't have quite the joking overtones to it that he was more familiar with. And even if it was a pointless threat to make as he'd arranged for something similar along those lines in his wilder rebellious Black-family-hating youth, it still managed to give him the willies none the less.
He ate the last of the first hot dog, then grabbed and tore away the paper away from around the second one.
"If I mess up again, you probably should." he agreed and looked down at the hot dog, but instead took a swig of water from the bottle. "What now?" he asked once he'd swallowed.
"Now, you finish your hot dogs and water, while I finish this cigarette and probably another one. Then you get to experience the joy of going back to England by international portkey with a full stomach and bladder. Upon arrival, I'm assuming you'll get an ear load from an angry redhead, while you're still trying to decide if taking a piss or vomit is the more dire need after the uncomfortable Portkey trip." Nick grinned while Sirius paled and froze in fear for a few moments.
He looked down at his hot dog and the one that still rested on top of the paper towel on the ground.
Then took a large bite out of the one he was holding.
"Sod it, so worth it!" he mumbled around a mouthful.