Return of the Unicorns, Chapter 11
Note: Chapter 9 was from the perspective of Amos Diggory, Chapter 10 was from the perspective of Sirius Black, and now Chapter 11 will be from the perspective of Remus Lupin.
Remus Lupin was having a frustrating week.
He'd been spending every night that week outside Malfoy Manor, hoping to glean secrets from the Malfoys' secret meetings that he could take to the Order of the Phoenix, which was always a frustrating job. And to spoil his mood even further, Sirius wasn't anywhere to be found.
Under Order of the Phoenix guidelines, someone in the Order should be looking for Sirius – but nobody had gotten wind that he had been captured either by the Death Eaters or by the Ministry of Magic, so no one really knew where to look. Remus was annoyed with Sirius for his sudden disappearance, but more than that, he was worried for his friend.
He'd just returned from yet another fruitless Order of the Phoenix overnight mission and was legitimately wondering whether he should search the country of England from top to bottom for his long-lost friend… when said long-lost friend appeared in a vast leather armchair at Grimmauld Place.
"Padfoot?" spluttered Remus.
"Yeah, it's me," shrugged Sirius as he calmly sipped from a steaming mug of tea.
"Where have you BEEN?!" cried Remus.
"Hush now, or you'll sound like Molly Weasley," chided a smiling Sirius. Merlin, he looked far too cheerful.
"You disappear for a bloody FORTNIGHT, Padfoot, and you come back like nothing happened? Why are you SMILING? Last I checked, you were going out of your over being stuck here! But you can't just run off – that's too risky!"
Sirius didn't respond, but got up from his armchair and handed a spare mug of tea to Remus, who took a greedy sip. That sip helped to quench his thirst, but not to calm his temper.
"I did run off, but don't worry – I was in disguise as a dog for most of the time until I made a new friend. Her name is Hope. She's great. We can trust her."
"CAN WE?!" spluttered Remus.
"Relax, Moony. Come on, let's go meet her!" With that, Sirius grabbed Remus's wrist and apparated the both of them to a beautiful townhouse in downtown London.
Remus looked around the spacious entry hall – yes, this place had an entry hall – and took in the beautiful Victorian architecture. Muggle paintings and photographs of beautiful landscapes adorned the walls. This was the sort of place where people lived if they were wealthy and well-connected, or if they knew somebody who was.
Had Sirius seduced some rich widow in hopes of scoring a new place to live?
The answer to that question then became an apparent NO.
An attractive young woman dashed out into the entry hall, her socks sliding on the polished wood as she skidded to a stop. In contrast to the fancy house around her, she was dressed simply in jeans, socks, and a purple sweater. She was tall, athletically built, and extremely attractive with a coffee-and-cream complexion, dark wavy hair, and bright gray eyes.
There was something oddly familiar about the young woman, but Remus couldn't quite place it.
"This is Hope," announced Sirius. "She is a reincarnation of the unicorn Rocinante, and she is a very talented witch on top of that. She needs to learn lava hexes, for the purpose of kicking the giants out of the territory that belongs to her unicorn herd. She's going to Hawaii quite soon – and she's taking me with her, so I thought I might also bring you. Want to come?"
"Really?" replied a confused and disbelieving Remus.
"Come on, we Marauders are due for another fabulous adventure! Learning lava hexes in Hawaii would be perfect!"
"I'm more worried about taking off on a strange trip with a stranger than I am about the actual destination, Sirius."
Sirius ignored his friend's skeptical tone. "And Hope, allow me to introduce you to my friend-"
"Remus Lupin!" she filled in, "The absolute best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has ever had in… uh, all eternity!"
Lupin placed a hand over his chest, taken aback. "I'm… flattered!"
"Sorry, I don't know how I know that," replied Hope with a shrug. "I just know that it's true. I'm sorry for what happened at the end of the year you taught, by the way. People hear one whisper that you're a werewolf and they suddenly turned into such jerks. Honestly, if they're going to so horrible about you being a werewolf, then they don't deserve you!"
"Thank… you?" replied Remus.
"I didn't mean to be quite so blunt," Hope said, checking herself. "Or to poke at old wounds."
"Not to worry, you didn't," consoled Remus. "Really, I'm quite flattered! Like you, I wonder how you even know that I was a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts."
"Our unicorn friend remembers the entirety of her past life as a unicorn, but there may be another life she doesn't quite recall. You see, she grew up among Muggles and she only discovered her wizarding powers a few months ago. She's not sure where or how she learned magic, but she is rather good at it."
"Thanks, Sirius," Hope replied modestly.
Remus wasn't sure why he liked her, but he did. So, he stepped forward to shake the young woman's hand. "Well, it's good to meet you, Hope."
When Remus's stomach suddenly let out an ungodly growl, Hope ushered the two friends into the kitchen. "What are you hungry for, Remus? French toast? Omelet? Full English fry-up?"
"We want all of the above, obviously. And by the way, you are the bessssst," moaned Sirius as he sat down in one of the kitchen chairs and stretched out to rest his legs on the table.
Hope shoved at his shoulder. "I'm not waiting on you. Make yourself useful and put the kettle on for tea. Oh, and make us some mimosas while you're at it."
Sirius gave her a long look.
"Fetch, Major," intoned Hope with a roll of her eyes.
Remus couldn't help but laugh as his friend got up to do as she asked.
45 minutes later, the omelet Hope made was mostly devoured and Sirius had gotten everyone a second round of mimosas.
"How should we get to Hawaii?" asked Sirius.
"Do you think I could get some form of Ministry transport since I work there? Oh, by the way, Remus, I work as a Statistician for the Bureau of Statistics at the Ministry. Then I could bring you, Sirius, as my dog and Remus, you could come along as my friend."
Remus winced. "If you want to get to Hawaii quickly – and I'll wager you do since you'll want to fight off the giants as soon as you can – then you'd be better off to go without me. I'm registered as a werewolf under the Ministry, and werewolves can't use magical transport to other countries without having advance approval to travel. It's a rather lengthy process that takes months."
"That's absurd. And rude," scoffed Hope. "Well, what about Muggle transport? The Muggle community doesn't know about werewolves, so we could always just hop on the next available plane flight to Hawaii."
"I suppose that could work, assuming they'll let me travel in dog form," said Sirius. The Muggle community in Britain still thought of Sirius Black as a dangerous criminal, so he figured he'd be better off traveling as a dog.
"I have a Muggle passport," added Remus, "but tickets to Hawaii sound expensive. And how are we going to get there on such short notice?"
"Well, plane tickets aren't expensive or difficult when your cousin Laura's husband Ryan works for a major airline. Hang on." Hope started dialing a number on the house phone and quickly started conversing with a man on the other end of the line.
"Where did you find her?" Remus asked Sirius in a severe whisper.
"In Diagon Alley when she came up to pet my adorable dog self, but does it even matter?"
"We don't even know what she did in her past lives! And seriously – what kind of person instantly decides to make friends with a convicted murderer and a werewolf?!"
Hope had apparently heard that last question because she put the phone on silent and answered, "I realize that the both of you are outcasts while I can pass for normal, but the Ministry doesn't exactly recognize the existence of unicorns or their past lives either, you know. Maybe we can all be outcasts together?"
Remus shrugged. He hadn't thought about it that way. "Works for me."
"And besides," she added, "You're both wonderful people. I mean, really, what's a wrongful conviction and a case of Lycanthropy in the grand scale of things?" Before either one could answer, she turned around and resumed her phone conversation.
Fifteen more minutes later, she hung up and announced that they had tickets to Hawaii for that evening – and that her cousin's husband had even found them a suite in a five-star hotel.
"Thank you so much for doing this, Hope," said Remus.
"Are you kidding? You're about to accompany me to learn dangerous magic that's highly illegal in Britain. I should be thanking both of you because in an endeavor like this, I need all the moral support I can get."
Sirius turned to whisper in Remus's ear. "Reason number 1,086 why I want to be her friend: she gets shit done."
"What are the other 1,085 reasons?" asked Remus.
"Well, number one is that she always has tomatoes that she's happy to share with me. Dog-me loves tomatoes. As for the other 1,084, you'll find out soon enough," Sirius reassured his friend.
Several hours after Hope had arranged their flight to Hawaii, Remus and Hope were reclining in adjoining plane seats while dog-Sirius snoozed at their feet.
Hope turned over in her seat and opened one curious gray eye to rove about the plane cabin.
"Can't sleep?" asked Remus, who was also still awake.
"Can I ask you a question?" whispered Hope.
"Sure," shrugged Remus.
"Well, you can just stop me if this is an uncomfortable question and you definitely don't have to respond if you don't want to, but… what do you do on full moons?"
"Board up some old attic or basement and lock myself in there to transform and howl at the moon and bite and scratch everything around me all night," he sighed.
"It's just… I have an idea. What if I got you wolfsbane potion for the next full moon, and every full moon after that? And then I could turn into a unicorn and we could go adventuring into forbidden territories where humans aren't allowed to go. I know all about lots of the forests in northern England and Scotland, from my past life as a unicorn. It could actually be a fun time if you think about it."
"Hmm."
"You don't have to answer now, and I won't be offended if you think it's a terrible idea!"
"Are you saying… that you could turn my Lycanthropy condition into a shameless excuse to take mini-vacations overnight to cool nature reserves?"
"Oh, jeez. When you put it like that… I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."
"Are you kidding me? I love it!" he whispered gleefully.
"Let's do it, then."
"You know, when Sirius and I went to Hogwarts, we were friends with James Potter and another boy named Peter Pettigrew. After the three of them discovered I was a werewolf, they became animagi in order to look after me on full moons. I'd never even dreamed I could have such wonderful friends! We called ourselves the Marauders. James is dead and Peter is, erm, estranged from us, but I don't suppose you'd be interested in becoming a Marauder?"
"I'd be down," said Hope with a gentle smile.
"Excellent. I'm thrilled and I know Sirius will be, too."