Sarah woke when she heard Lily shouting. "Sirius! Quick, drink this blood-replenishing potion. Hold still. I have to clean these wounds."
"Ow!"
"I said hold still, or I'll hold you still with an Imperius curse."
"That's illegal!"
Sarah got out of the four-poster bed and padded downstairs in the black silk pajamas Lily had loaned her. Sirius was lying on the living room floor, bleeding from numerous wounds. Lily was crouched over him, busy with her wand and potion bottles.
"Who you gonna tell? 'While Lily was cleaning my werewolf bites…' I don't think so. You wouldn't feel any pain at least. Should I?"
"Don't you have any pain potion?"
"I'm really low after that Death Eater attack two days ago, and I'm saving the last of it for James when he gets back."
"You're saying your husband is the sort of wimp who would demand a pain potion just for a few werewolf bites? I'll tell him what a low opinion you have of him."
"You do that. Sorry, I need to concentrate, this is a deep one."
Sirius suddenly let out a wordless scream. "Oh fuck that hurt," he added. "Excuse my language." Sweat was running down his pale skin, and he was panting. "Hey, how do I know you're the real Lily? Maybe the real Lily got captured by Death Eaters, and I'm actually being tortured by an imposter. You're my mum in disguise."
"Shut up, Padfoot. Oh, Sarah, you're here. Distract this wimp for me."
Sarah timidly put her hand on one of Sirius's tightly-clenched fists. "You'll be all right," she said.
He fixed his bright grey eyes on hers. "Aren't you glad you have a second chance to kiss me? Don't be so slow this time."
"For most patients, I'd say that if he's flirting, that's a sign that he's still alive, but Sirius might be an exception," remarked Lily. "I'm sure his corpse will flirt with the worms in his grave for some time after he's buried."
"You wound me, Lily. I am not a flirt. I'll have you know that I am madly in love with whatshername here.
"Sarah," said Sarah.
"Right. Sarah and I are engaged to be married. Didn't you see the announcement in the Prophet? My family all died of shock when they got the wedding invitations, so my darling Sarah and I will live happily ever after with all our cute little half-blood babies. Half of them will be squibs, but we won't care. We won't drown them. We won't drown any of them." He gripped Sarah's hand crushingly as Lily cleaned another bite wound. Thanks to Lily's potions and spells, Sirius's wounds were gradually turning from bloody, jagged rips to what looked like week-old scars.
"What should our color theme be for the wedding?" asked Sarah.
"Red and gold," said Sirius. "Definitely. I hope you have a lot of relatives, since mine aren't coming because of all the aforementioned sudden deaths."
"Should we hire a band?"
"Of course. How about the Ramones?"
Sarah laughed.
"You prefer Black Sabbath? Anything for you, love. I'll get Ozzy to sober up and rejoin the band."
"How about Queen?"
"Yes! Perfect! We Are the Champions! I always thought that was most beautiful bridal march ever written."
"This is the last one," said Lily, swabbing out a deep gash in his thigh.
"Honeymoon in Vegas?" suggested Sarah.
"Hell yeah. You're not jealous of those showgirls, are you? They mean nothing to me, they just needed a place to sleep, and our hotel room is so huge."
"Done," said Lily. "Thank you, Sarah." Next, she looked at Sirius's ripped and bloody clothes. "We might as well fix these while we're waiting for James to come back."
"What are you babbling about, witch? You patched me up well enough to rejoin the fight. I can't let James and Remus have fun without me." He got up, grabbed a bottle from Lily's potion collection, gulped it down, and dropped the bottle on the floor. He took another bedraggled feather from the vase, tucked it in a pocket, then turned to Sarah. "Kiss for the brave hero?" His breath smelled spicy and strange as he drew his face close to hers and whispered, "Nah, that would be bad luck before the wedding. See you later, alligator." He vanished with a loud crack. It hurt her ears, so close.
"What the hell?" said Sarah.
"Sirius is just like that," said Lily with an irritated expression as she picked up the bottle he'd dropped. "Don't take him too seriously."
"Those were werewolf bites," said Sarah. "Sirius just got multiple werewolf bites. So he's a werewolf now, just like Lupin."
"No," said Lily. She narrowed her emerald eyes at Sarah. "It's complicated, and I can't tell you all of it. James and Sirius went to school with Remus. With some illegal and very dangerous magical experimentation, they developed a magical immunity to lycanthropy. Even Dumbledore doesn't know. Which reminds me: don't let Dumbledore look you in the eyes. He's a legilimens. He'll read your mind if you don't know occlumency."
"I thought Dumbledore was on your side!"
"Oh, Dumbledore's the leader of the Light, no question. It's just that he's a goodie-two-shoes. I tried asking him a simple question about protecting my baby via a sacrifice, and he wouldn't even talk to me about it. He won't have anything to do with Dark magic. I'm having to do all the research myself. I figure there's nothing wrong with a little Dark magic, if it serves the greater good."
"That seems sensible."
"Anyway, you'll need to be obliviated after tonight, since you know too much, and I can't let Dumbledore be the one to do it, because once he has access to your memories, he'll know how James and Sirius developed their immunity to lycanthropy, and they don't want him to know that. I could do it, or Remus."
"Obliviated?" She didn't like the sound of that.
"We'll erase some of your memories. That would be much better than the information about Remus's spying activities getting out if you happened to get captured by Death Eaters. They'd read your mind, or torture the information out of you just for fun."
"Torture? But if I'm being tortured, and I don't have the information they think I have—"
"They'll kill you either way. Let's try to get some sleep. You don't have to wait up for James and Sirius. Go back to your room. I'll see if I can nap on the couch here. The portkeys are set to bring them here. I want to know the instant they get back."
"I could stay on the other couch—"
"As long as you don't talk. I can't deal right now. Something must have gone seriously wrong."
Sarah sat on the couch that didn't have a rumpled sheet on it and watched Lily put her collection of potions in order. Then she watched Lily pace. A few sparks flew from the ends of her red hair whenever she ran out of room and spun to charge the other way.
After a long time of getting no rest at all, a bloodied James suddenly appeared in the living room. He was clutching the paw of an enormous shaggy black dog, which looked at least as injured. One of Lily's bedraggled feathers was tucked between the dog's toes, held there by James. James's other hand held what looked like two large candelabras made of daggers, dripping with gore. He dropped them on the floor with a clatter.
"Help Padfoot first," panted James. "It's bad." Blood soaked his hair and had dripped down his face, but he was at least conscious.
Lily rushed to help the dog, which was unconscious and gushing blood onto the floor. "Stay with us, Padfoot," she said as she worked fast with wand and potions.
James got out of her way, rummaged through the potion kit and drank something, then set about trying to heal himself. His shredded black robes and shirt revealed claw marks across his back, and the back of his thigh had been bitten. Both wounds were hard for him to reach. He winced as he tried to twist his bloody back to see his wounds.
"There's some pain potion," said Sarah to him quietly, trying to be useful.
He looked at the few drops of pain potion left in the bottle. "No, Sirius will need this more than I when he comes to." He put the bottle down and picked up a different one. "Miffy!" he called.
The little creature appeared with a pop. "Master Potter is hurt!" it screamed.
"Please clean this bite out with this," James said. "Before you heal it with magic. My stag form might be immune to lycanthropy, but who knows what other filth is in a werewolf's mouth."
"Master Potter should be more careful!" fretted the creature as it worked. "Master Potter is the last of his blood, and his heir not even born yet!"
"There seems to be plenty of Potter blood," James remarked, looking at the floor, red and slick. "Ow!"
"Master should not joke about such things," said Miffy firmly.
"Yes Miffy." His eyes searched the room for a distraction and settled on Sarah. "I'm sorry we're not providing a more restful environment for you, Miss Briarcliff. I wish I could say that Potter hospitality is usually better than this but frankly this is pretty normal around here, at least in wartime. It's a wonder Miffy puts up with us. We very much appreciate all she does for us." Sarah was glad to hear the pronoun, as she had no other clue of Miffy's gender.
"Master Potter could show his appreciation by not running into danger all the time," grumbled Miffy. "Blood all over my nice floor!" She stepped back from James, now that his wounds looked like they'd been healing for a week, and directed her attention to the floor.
"That can wait," said James. "Help Padfoot first." Lily was still hard at work on the injured dog.
"That dirty beast should be an outside pet," Miffy grumbled.
"Miffy!"
"He wouldn't want me healing him," she explained. "He'd be bawling at me to keep my nasty house elf hands off him if he were in a state to talk, yes he would."
"I know. He's had some bad experiences with house elves, but I'm sure we'll bring him around eventually. He's my friend. I'm ordering you to heal him. So do it."
The little elf grudgingly joined Lily in healing the dog's numerous wounds. She had no wand, but didn't seem to need one.
"Can I help?" James asked Lily.
"Miffy and I can handle it," she said. "You need to rest. Go to bed before you collapse. That Pepper-Up will wear off any minute."
Instead, James, with some Scourgify spells, cleaned the blood off the two vicious-looking candelabras of daggers. Then he folded them compactly, for they had an ingenious design, (Swiss army candelabras?) and stored them in their black case. Next he directed his Scourgify spells to the bloody floor, an action which offended Miffy greatly.
"Master Potter must rest!" she screeched. "Master Potter must go to bed right now and stay there until Miffy serves him breakfast, oh yes he must!"
"Now I've got two green-eyed harridans bossing me around," James grumbled as he stumbled to the stairs.
"Don't think I didn't hear that," said Lily.
"Outnumbered in my own home… This baby'd better be a boy. I could use an ally."
"Go to bed, James."
"Whatever you say, Lily. I'm not obeying my house elf, here, I'm obeying my wife. Just to be clear."
"Goodnight, love," Lily said, not looking up from the wounded dog.
"Goodnight."
"It be morning," said Miffy. "Sun be coming up."
"Goodnight," said James firmly. "I'm the head of this household, and I say it's still night. It's so dark."
The sky outside the large windows was brightening, but no one argued. James took one step up the stairs and paused. He started to sway.
Miffy looked up, and, with a sudden gesture towards James, caught him as he collapsed, cushioning him with a wordless spell before he hit the floor.
"Come back down to help Padfoot after you tuck James into bed," said Lily.
Miffy nodded, then levitated James upstairs.
"You might as well go to bed too, Sarah," said Lily. "We won't hear any news about Remus until some time after moonset."
"Goodnight," said Sarah.
"Hm," said Lily.
Sarah grudgingly went, for she couldn't think of any way she could help here. If Sirius died while in dog form, would his corpse stay in that form, or revert back to human? They might need a differently-shaped coffin. With rhinestones on it, for his funeral in Vegas, where they'd planned their honeymoon. There must be pet funeral parlors there. She did not just think that.
She wished she'd brought that marmalade jar full of flames. What if her captor died in wolf form? Who would attend his funeral? Would the mourners get along with each other? She was going back to bed to sleep. Very funny, thinking she could sleep. Those blades had been covered in gore. Her captor had specifically requested that his friend James stab him with his dagger-tipped antlers, because he'd rather die than bite people. If her captor died, she could go free. That was what she'd been hoping would happen. It was nothing to get upset about. Really it wasn't.
What kind of stupid guest room wasn't supplied with a box of tissues? Oh, here were some fine linen handkerchiefs. They would do.
—-
She must have slept eventually, since she woke to the smell of frying bacon. The windows of this guest room looked out on a semi-wild orchard, illuminated by midday sun.
The shower was luxurious, and there was a dressing gown as plush as a teddy bear. The clothes she'd been wearing for two weeks straight were clean and folded, as she'd grown accustomed to, but more neatly, which she wouldn't have thought possible. There was also a beautiful dark blue gown laid out for her, long and high-necked, in the style Lily had worn last night, so she was being offered a choice. She picked the gown. When in Rome. Apparently, Sarah was approximately the same size as the non-pregnant Lily, so the borrowed gown fit. She had second thoughts when she couldn't see her feet going down the stairs, but bacon was calling her so she charged boldly ahead.
James was alone in the dining room, eating eggs and bacon, drinking tea, and reading the paper as if he hadn't just fought in a battle. "Good morning Sarah," he said, smiling, putting down his paper and gesturing graciously to a chair. "Please join me for breakfast."
"Good morning," Sarah said weakly. She sat. There was an elaborate feast on the table.
"We didn't know what you like for breakfast so Miffy just made pretty much everything. Help yourself. Or she could make something different if you prefer."
"Where are Lily and Sirius?" She knew better than to ask about Lupin.
"Lily's set up the living room like a hospital ward, and hasn't left, although Sirius is out of danger now. Well, for Sirius. He hasn't regained consciousness yet, or transformed back to human. Just as well." He stood. "I'll see if I can get Lily to eat something. Maybe she'll come to the table now that you're here." He left for the living room, limping only slightly.
Sarah heard voices from the living room surprisingly well, as if through an intercom. "Lily, come eat. You've done what you can. It would be most improper for the lady of the house not to join her guest for breakfast."
"You're going to tell me that's another one of those old pureblood customs, isn't it?"
"Of course."
"I swear you make up half of those on the spot."
"Only half? It's like you hardly know me."
Lily let out a small laugh. "All right, I'll eat."
"And then sleep. Because it's a terribly stuffy old pureblood custom that pregnant women must eat and sleep."
The two of them soon entered the dining room, supporting each other through James's limp and Lily's exhaustion.
"Good morning Sarah," said Lily.
"Good morning Lily."
Lily gestured at Sarah's place setting, no doubt noticing that she hadn't started eating yet, not knowing the etiquette. "Use whatever fucking fork you want. I think Miffy puts so many out just to intimidate people." She put a slice of toast on her plate, but didn't look at it after that. "How has the Prophet managed to twist this?" she asked James, looking at his newspaper.
"Well, they couldn't pretend it didn't happen, but they're making it out to be much less serious than it was. Listen to this: 'The Ministry assures all citizens of Magical Britain that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures are more than adequate to handle these pests. Anyone with knowledge of the identity of the vigilantes is encouraged to report them anonymously to the Ministry.' We used to be brave volunteers who happened to be on the scene, and now we're vigilantes. Alastor was right, the Death Eaters are infiltrating pretty high up in the Ministry, not just the Auror Department." He suddenly tossed the paper aside. "What am I doing, reading the news to my pregnant wife? You're supposed to be thinking calm, pleasant thoughts. And eating."
"I want answers. How did you and Sirius get so badly hurt? You were supposed be airborne, shooting spells at werewolves on the ground. It should have been a slaughter."
"It wasn't just werewolves. They were joined by Death Eaters. No mention of them in the paper of course. They were fighting from the sky too. I couldn't tell friend from foe until they shot at us. My broom got destroyed when I crashed. I've been meaning to upgrade anyway."
"Same here," came a weak voice. "What model are you looking at?"
"The Nimbus 1500 looks great. They say it's even faster than the 1001, and can make tighter turns. Sirius! You're awake!" James ran to the living room, followed closely by Lily and Sarah.
Sirius was lying on what appeared to be a very large dog bed on the floor. His legs hung over the edge. "If we get identical brooms," he said weakly, "then we'll really see who's the better flyer."
Lily drew her wand and scanned Sirius's various injuries.
"I thought the better flyer was the one who managed to stay in the air longest last night," taunted James.
Lily tilted the last few drops of pain potion, and a couple of other potions as well, into Sirius's mouth.
"The better flyer had all his blood relatives out to get him last night," said Sirius bitterly once Lily was done with him. His lips curled in disgust. "All eager to prove their dedication to the cause by killing the blood traitor. I don't know if it was my brother Regulus or my cousin Bellatrix who shot me down, but it was a relief to be down among the werewolves instead of in the air with the Blacks."
James gently put his hand on Sirius's shoulder. "I'm your brother now," he said firmly. "Don't call Regulus your brother."
"You call me brother, yet you didn't wake me for breakfast. Did you at least save me any bacon?"
"Brotherly love goes only so far. I ate it all, sorry. You just get cold porridge."
Sirius tried to growl, but it turned into a laugh.
"You should be able to eat," concluded Lily. "If someone feeds you. Your front legs, sorry, your arms, still have some healing to do. I'll charm this dog bed to carry you to the dining room." She pointed her wand at the bed.
"No, I'll transfigure it," said James, drawing his own wand and putting a restraining hand on Lily's arm. "You need to rest."
She nodded, sheathed her wand, and stepped back.
James's handsome face twisted into a grin, then took on an expression of intense concentration. The dog bed under Sirius reformed from an oval into a rectangle, longer and narrower to fit his human form. It sprouted poles from its four corners, which raised it up to put Sirius at about waist height. Each pole was tarnished brass, with a helical twist that reminded Sarah of something. Then James directed his attention to each pole in turn. The first thickened and bulged
until it sprouted a statue of a stag, in a simplified, cartoonish style, with chipping brown paint on the body and tarnished silver antlers. It seemed to have the brass pole impaling it through the middle, and Sarah realized what it reminded her of: a carousel horse.
"Is this really necessary?" asked Lily, but she was smiling.
"Of course it is," said Sirius.
"Don't interrupt the artist at work," scolded James. He moved on to the next pole, and soon it was impaling a statue of a huge shaggy black dog, with a bright pink tongue lolling goofily from its mouth.
The third pole soon impaled a large brownish grey wolf. James then knelt, with some discomfort, to create a cute brown rat, which clung to the fourth pole as if trying to hide behind it. Then he stepped back to admire his work.
"That was unnecessarily flashy," said Lily, although she was smiling.
"Unnecessarily Flashy is my middle name," said James. "It's an old family name, very traditional among the ancient and noble houses. You wouldn't know that of course, so I'm glad to fill you in on these finer points of pureblood culture. Hey! Wouldn't it make a great name for the baby? It's unisex!"
Lily shook her head, laughing.
Sirius admired his litter. "Nice, but why are we being stabbed through the heart?"
"Haven't you ridden a carousel?" asked Lily. "These are in the style of carousel horses."
"This is a muggle thing, isn't it?" complained Sirius. "You know Regulus and I were never allowed—"
"We'll redo your childhood when this war is over," promised James. "We'll all ride a carousel. Maybe for your birthday, the war might be over by November. If not this year, then the next. Anyway, now all this thing needs is wheels so I can push it to the dining room," he added, pointing his wand. "I'll just give each animal roller skates."
"Don't be ridiculous," scolded Lily, pushing his wand aside and drawing her own.
"You're telling me not to be ridiculous?" asked James. "Do you have any idea who you married?"
"You can't put wheels on a work of art like this as if it were a grocery trolley. This calls for charms." With four taps of her wand, she had the four sculptures prancing like animatronic circus animals, the rat seeming to strain to lift its pole. They smoothly carried Sirius into the dining room, where they once again stood as still as statues. "Of course our breakfast is cold by now." She pointed her wand at various dishes. "Thermos." Fragrant steam rose from them again. Then Lily loaded her plate and ate. Her smile made her look much less tired than she'd looked before.
James positioned himself by Sirius's head and got a forkful of bacon. "Open up the goal hoop, here comes the quaffle!"
"At least let me keep my dignity."
"What dignity? And I've got to practice for feeding a baby."
"I should fling porridge into your hair. I remember when Regulus was little—"
James stuffed a big piece of bacon into Sirius's mouth.
"Thank you," said Sirius when he had finished chewing.
"So how did it go?" asked Lily. "Is Remus all right?"
"We looked all over for him from the sky," said James, as he continued to stuff breakfast into Sirius, "but didn't find him until after we crashed and transformed. Our animagus forms have better senses of smell than our human forms of course, so that helped."
"'We' found him, he says," mocked Sirius, refusing a bite of egg. "I found him."
"You had the advantage of crashing first," said James, stuffing the forkfull of egg in. "So anyway, Padfoot and I herded him in the direction of the Shrieking Shack, but he kept getting distracted by the smell of humans."
"I'm afraid I had to bite him pretty badly," said Sirius.
"And then this little light reddish wolf started attacking us, really ferociously. It was weird, since the wolves were just going after the humans of course, they were mostly ignoring us except when we got between them and the humans. They even attacked Death Eaters who'd been knocked off their brooms." He laughed.
"That's what they get for allying with feral werewolves," laughed Sirius. He seemed to be imitating some snob's voice, although it was hard to tell as his normal voice was pretty upper-crust already. "'Oh Sirius, you're not quite refined enough to associate with us, so we'll invite this feral werewolf pack to our evening soirée instead.' Fucking arseholes."
"You're friends with a werewolf too you know," James pointed out.
"Yeah, but he's not feral. There's a big difference. Remus has far better manners than I, most of the time. Last night being the— You know, last night wasn't even an exception, considering that we were acting at least as savage as he. We were absolute beasts," he said proudly. "So anyway, this little reddish wolf—"
"I impaled him on my blades, and it was hard getting him unstuck without hands, but no way was I going to transform back just then—"
"So I pulled him off Prongs's blades for him, and then I bit Moony by the scruff of the neck and dragged him to the Shack, because I have a practical animagus form, unlike some people—"
"You wish you had antlers too, Padfoot. Which one of us killed more werewolves, huh? And without having to taste them."
"Oh shut up. If it weren't for my idea to tip your antlers with blades, you still wouldn't be good for anything but standing around looking majestic."
"That was not your idea."
"Yes it was."
"Yes, but you were joking. It was my idea to actually do it."
"So is Remus OK?" demanded Lily.
"So I was dragging him along, and all these wolves kept attacking me, but I didn't want to let go of him of course, so I was basically weaponless without use of my teeth—"
"So I, with my mighty blades, sharp as the sword of Godric Gryffindor himself, defended my helpless friend. Werewolves were dropping right and left."
"Yes yes, very heroic. You kept needing me to let go of Moony to get werewolf corpses unstuck from your antlers."
"The design might need some refinement. Anyway, we got him to the Shack, and then Padfoot transformed back to human just long enough to cast a Patronus to tell Madam Pomfrey we'd seen Remus drag himself there from the safety of the air, and then we got back to the fight. The Death Eaters had cast an anti-disapparition ward, so the humans who got knocked off their brooms were at the mercy of the werewolves. Padfoot and I were pretty busy. The wolves had started off just fighting us when we got between them and their human intended victims, but eventually they seemed to be targeting us."
"Was there an anti-portkey ward as well?" asked Lily.
James and Sirius exchanged a glance. "Well, it seemed like a great opportunity to kill a lot of werewolves, so we didn't actually check for a while," said James. "We didn't even have to hunt them down, they came to us."
"It was very convenient," reported Sirius cheerfully.
"They were having to climb over the corpses of their fallen packmates to get to us, which made them clumsy."
"It was awesome. But then I was busy pulling another werewolf corpse off Prongs's stupid antlers when I got attacked from behind, and I don't know what happened then—"
"—and I knew the jig was up, once Padfoot had passed out from blood loss, since there was no way I could do this alone, so once the corpse of the wolf that had attacked Padfoot was stuck on my antlers and I couldn't get it off, I transformed back to human—"
"You what?!" squawked Lily.
"For just long enough to put your portkey in Padfoot's paw and say 'Love Nest,' and I think at least two werewolves crashed into each other in the space we disappeared from."
"You transformed back to human—" started Lily, outraged.
"Well I couldn't speak the activation phrase in stag form, could I? Or even access the portkey of course."
"I'll need to develop a different kind," she said, "if you're going to keep doing this sort of thing."
"Of course we are."
"We're Gryffindors."
"You know you'd have done the same."
"True," she admitted. "Although a doe isn't the most ferocious fighting form to have in a battle." She thought a moment. "We should make some armor for Padfoot."
"Now you tell me!" said Sirius.
"It just occurred to me. I didn't know you were planning to make a habit of fighting in your animal form."
"I bet we could make some really cool-looking armor. I want to look at some medieval stuff for inspiration. Maybe Japanese. Should it be black, you think? I look good in black."
"How it looks isn't the important part!" snapped Lily.
"What's the point of wearing armor if I don't look good in it?"
"I'm wondering that myself," said Lily dryly. "I can't think of a reason not to let you just get eaten by werewolves next time."
"James, I think your wife's defective. She's missing her sense of humor. Is she still under warranty?"
"James, I suppose it would be silly of me to complain that your pet dog doesn't get my jokes. That's really the least of his faults. He's barely housetrained."
"Don't make me pick sides here," pleaded James, laughing.
"Bros before does," rhymed Sirius firmly.
A silver hen fluttered out of nothingness and landed by Sirius. It opened its beak and spoke in a woman's voice. "Sirius Black, I thought you'd want to know that a friend of yours is here. He's unconscious, and probably will be for a while, but he should survive."
"Yes!" Sirius tried to jump up, but Lily held him down. She suddenly didn't look exhausted at all.
"Don't even think about getting up, and you know what would happen if Madam Pomfrey saw you covered in werewolf bites. You're not visiting Remus until you're better."
"Aargh! Why do you always have to be right? Put my wand in my hand, I can't move my arm."
James drew Sirius's wand for him and handed it to him.
"Expecto Patronum!" The huge shaggy dog was even brighter than before. It was nearly painful to look at. Its wagging tail was a glowing blur. "Madam Pomfrey, thank you! I am madly in love with you. Tell me when he wakes up." The dog went galumphing off. "James, could I borrow your owl? I need to place an owl-order to Honeydukes. The Hogwarts hospital wing is about to get a huge delivery of chocolates."
"Oh thank God Remus is alive," said Sarah, after James had gone off for a Honeydukes owl-order form.
Lily looked at Sarah curiously. "Did Remus tell you about his mission?"
"No!" said Sarah. "I thought he was loyal to Greyback ever since I was captured. It was a shock to find he was actually a spy once I got here. He really gave no clue at all."
"Phenomenally good at keeping secrets, Remus is," said Sirius admiringly. "Of course, he's been practicing since he was a wee lad."
"You realize that since Remus survived, he'll be heading back to the pack, and you'll have to go with him to maintain his cover."
"Of course I realize," said Sarah.
"Are you willing to do that?"
Sarah nodded. "You can't just send him back there alone."
"He'd be better off without the distraction of having a human to protect, but we couldn't explain your disappearance to Greyback," apologized Lily.
"I'm going back. I understand how important it is that I go."
Lily narrowed her emerald eyes at Sarah again. "How can you understand? This isn't your war. You don't know what we're fighting for."
"You're fighting against werewolves, so you've got to be the good guys," said Sarah. "It doesn't seem that complicated."
"Werewolves are just a small part of this war. When you say you're willing to go back, that means you're willing to die for us, for people you don't really know, for a cause you don't fully understand. You realize that."
She made it sound so stupid when she put it like that. "Yes!" said Sarah, trying to sound brave, but probably just sounding irritated. "If you can all be so brave, I can be too."
"Don't argue with the girl, Lily," said Sirius. "Gryffindors don't have a monopoly on bravery."
James returned with a candy shop order form, and a quill and bottle of ink. He sat by Sirius to fill it in for him, but first he addressed Lily. "If you've had enough breakfast, go to bed."
"I know, I've got to gestate the Potter heir properly," she said with an eye roll.
"I'm saying this for your sake, Lily, not for the baby's. Please. You deserve to be taken care of too."
"James never would have married you had he known you'd someday get dark circles under your eyes like this," said Sirius.
James picked up his newspaper, searched Sirius for a place that wasn't already injured, and whacked him. "Bad dog," he said.
Sirius whimpered.
"All right, I'll go to bed, if only to get away from Sirius," said Lily. "James, take care not to let Sarah out of the grounds." Lily left.
"You know what Remus likes," said Sirius to James. "Get him the usual, those massive extra-dark bars. Throw in some boxed assortments for Madam Pomfrey and whoever else is stuck in the hospital wing." James filled out the form. "Who's turn is it to pay, mine? It's been so long. Bring that form closer so I can tap the Gringotts authorization field."
James hesitated. "Didn't you pay last time?"
"Don't argue with a wounded animal, James, or I'll bite your hand off."
James let Sirius pay by tapping the form with his wand, an action that required very little hand movement. Then James rolled the form and stood. "I'm off to the owlery. Back in a moment. Sirius, is it safe to leave you with Sarah for a minute?"
"You can't accuse me of stealing hearts when girls just leave them lying around."
"I'll be back soon," James promised Sarah. Then, after a warning look at Sirius, he left.
Sarah and Sirius looked at each other. Sirius gave her a devilish smile. "Would you please be so kind as to scratch my head? I can't, you see, what with my heroically-acquired injuries."
This was probably a bad idea, but… "Where?"
"Left side, above my ear."
She scratched. This was a man who knew how to use conditioner. His hair was as beautiful as the rest of him.
Sirius closed his eyes. He had eyelashes that many women and some horses would envy. He groaned as if in an indecent amount of pleasure. "Oh yes! That's it! Perfect! Oh don't stop. Now move around a bit, the rest wants scratching too."
Sarah did. "Like this?"
"Oh Merlin yes."
"I wanted to thank you," said Sarah. "For saving Lupin. For getting him out of the battle even though you had to hurt him to do it."
Sirius scoffed. "I don't need thanks for that. He's my friend. And the only werewolf the Order's got. He's much more valuable to the Order than I am. My only use, aside from my decorative value of course, is that my family's so determined to kill me, they get distracted and clumsy whenever I enter a battle. They neglect other targets to focus on me. Maybe the Order should use me as bait. Just set me out somewhere, looking all pretty and vulnerable, lie in wait, and pick off my family when they come to kill the blood-traitor. I'll suggest that to Dumbledore."
"That's so horrible. Your own family! Surely they must still care for you on some level."
"Apparently not."
"And you for them. I mean, your brother—"
His cold grey eyes sprang open. "Regulus isn't my brother anymore. He's made that very clear. Stop that. Don't touch me."
Sarah extracted her hand from his silky hair.
James returned, looking cheerful. "Remus should soon be well-supplied with chocolate," he assured Sirius. Then he turned to Sarah. "Did he behave himself in my absence?"
Sarah nodded.
"Oh dear," said James. "He must be at death's door. Anyway Sarah, as you'll be staying with us until Remus's return, what entertainment can Potter Manor offer you?"
"I don't want to be any trouble," said Sarah.
"I know what trouble is, and you are not it," said James.
"I don't know," interrupted Sirius. "A pretty girl can be a lot of trouble."
"I'm headed to the library to research spells to use for armor, and possibly an off switch for Sirius," said James.
"Hey!"
"You may join me in the library if you like, Sarah. I hope you can find some book to interest you."
"Sure, thanks," said Sarah.
"I'll be back soon with some books on magical armor," James promised Sirius. "Please don't trash the place while I'm gone."
"That sounds like a challenge."
James shook his head at Sirius, laughing, then led Sarah to Potter Manor's beautiful, large library. "There are some novels on those shelves over there, if you like that sort of thing," he said. "My father had a weakness for romances. Most of the rest are esoteric grimoires and potions books and such, which would be dry reading."
"I… First I want to thank you. For taking care of Lupin. As well as you could under the circumstances."
James looked surprised. "I don't need thanks for that. Remus is my friend. And a vital spy, more important to the war effort than I. I'd die for him," he said matter-of-factly.
"It must have been hard, saving him by taking him out of the battle, by stabbing him."
James nodded. "Hopefully Greyback's pack will accept my brutality as proof that Remus is definitely on their side, not ours."
"It's an interesting parallel that Sirius's brother and cousin were so determined to shoot him down."
James stared at her. The pupils of his hazel eyes narrowed to pinpricks.
"I'm just saying," Sarah continued, "since we know that being particularly targeted doesn't actually prove which side someone's on—"
"Don't you dare," said James, his voice cold fury. "Don't dare call Regulus Sirius's brother. Sirius is my brother, my chosen brother." The atmosphere in the library changed, as if a powerful storm was gathering. James the gracious host was gone, replaced by James the angry and powerful wizard. His hair, which had been tousled before, stood up as if an electric charge were building inside him.
Sarah was afraid. "I'm sorry, I just thought—"
"You don't know anything about us. Don't presume to speak on matters of which you know nothing. Sirius cannot be the traitor."
"Why?" There was a fine line between brave and stupid, and Sarah was pretty sure it was far behind her by now.
"He just… He cannot. He's my brother. My parents as good as adopted him when his parents disowned him. Don't speak of this again." He turned to the shelves he'd identified as esoteric grimoires. The tension in the air slowly dissipated as James selected some books. Then he left without saying goodbye or so much as looking at Sarah.
Sarah spent the afternoon in the library. She tried to read but couldn't concentrate. When would they hear from Remus?
Finally, Lily entered, looking refreshed. "Did James just abandon you in here all afternoon while he and Sirius worked on armor designs? That seems uncharacteristically inhospitable for him. He can hardly pass that off as an old pureblood custom."
"It could have been worse. I think I offended him."
"What? How? He has skin as thick as a dragon's. There's no way to get an insult through, and believe me, I've tried."
"How well do you know Sirius?"
"Better than I'd like to. Of all of James's friends, Sirius is my least favorite. Why?"
That boded well. "I was just thinking. Sirius and James targeted Remus specifically because Remus is a spy, and they wanted to look convincing. And Sirius's brother and cousin targeted Sirius specifically…" she waited for Lily to fill in the rest.
Lily did. "That's a very interesting idea."
Sarah waited.
"And you were fool enough to share your suspicions with James, who considers Sirius a brother." Lily shook her head, laughing. "You'll have to apologize before dinner, or mealtime will be unbearable. Goblets will shatter just from the tension in the air. Tell James you spoke out of ignorance, and now realize how wrong you were."
"Do you think I'm wrong?"
"We know there must be a spy in the Order," said Lily. "Sirius though… Well, the fact that he's the last guy we'd suspect would be the perfect cover. Thank you for sharing your suspicions with me at least. I'll tell Dumbledore to keep an eye on him. We can't be too careful."