Sequel to "THORNS"

- Of Earth & Stars -

Chapter 30: A Family Reunion

June 1994 - August 1994

"Suri, stop. Have you thought all of this through?" Amalia Rosier stood at the door way of Suri's room, watching as the girl threw more and more belongings into her knapsack, charmed to be more spacious than it appeared.

Suri's hands stilled from her task. Looking over her shoulder at Granna, her inky black hair and effortless grace made Amalia think that for a second, she was looking at Sirius Black instead of her granddaughter. Amalia's shoulders tensed at the set of Suri's jaw—there was nothing that could change her mind. Just like you, Contessa.

"They ransacked my childhood home, Granna," Suri responded evenly, zipping her knapsack closed. Images of overthrown furniture and footprints scuffing through the dust on the hardwood floors of her childhood home flashed in Suri's mind. The second she got off the Express, the same two Aurors who greeted her on her first day of school waited for her on Platform 9 ¾'s. She was apparated to her home in Northern Ireland and forced to endure a grueling, three-hour interrogation on Sirius Black's whereabouts. All the while, her childhood home on the Scottish countryside was being pulled apart for signs of Sirius Black. Naturally, the Ministry's Aurors found nothing.

After they left, Suri schemed long into the night. She knew Sirius was innocent, and she would find him before the Ministry ever did. The plan started with having her friends over during the course of two weeks. With more overage people in her house, the use of magic increased, diluting the connection to her Trace as she prepared. A spacious charm on her backpack. A few brewed potions. Charms to hide her plans. All of this was done quietly in the span of two weeks. Only Nate knew the truth and Suri's grandmother knew the bare minimum. Now, Suri slung her backpack over her shoulders. "Granna…"

"I don't want to know where you're going," Amalia held up a slim, pale hand. "It will be harder for the Ministry to track you that way. You must never forget they will be monitoring your Trace very carefully now that your father is missing. The Trace includes apparition. Because you're a naturally gifted Legimens, that should go undetected. That potentially extends to Occlumency, too. Still, to be safe, it would be best if you use those gifts very seldomly until you turn seventeen or come back home. Do you understand?"

"I do."

"Good. I've secured tickets for you, Nathaniel Avery, Carly Davis, and Willem Thorne to attend the Quidditch World Cup-this is your deadline to return home. You'll need to demonstrate that you haven't done anything suspicious this summer. I will be spending short holidays in Vienna and in the south of France connecting with old friends—which happen to be close to your friends from Vienna and where Nathaniel's family goes on holiday. And Finally," Amalia's voice broke as she touched her throat. "Finally, Suri, whatever you plan to do, be alert and resourceful. Come home safely."

Suri crossed the room and hugged Amalia tightly. Suri had triple-checked her plans. She hesitated to say it was foolproof, but she knew she accounted for things to go wrong and how to get out of them. Whether this was fueled by her anxiety or living with other Slytherins for long enough, Suri knew how to hide. "I'm always careful, Granna."

"Good." Amalia's deep blue eyes shone with unshed tears. Then, clearing her throat, she produced her wand. With a light flick of her wrist, a velvet pouch came flying into the room, landing in her waiting palm. She then pressed the pouch into Suri's hands.

"This is all I can offer you on your trip. The same charm that's on your backpack is on this pouch."

"Thank you, Granna." Suri tucked the velvet pouch into one of the many spacious compartments in her backpack.

Granna followed Suri to the front door where Suri's new Firebolt was propped up. In honor of Suri flying again, Amalia Rosier decided to celebrate by getting Suri the latest broom. At the time, it had seemed unnecessary. "Think of all the great things you could accomplish between your talent and sheer power of this broom," Granna had reasoned then. Now, with the very real possibility of needing to outfly pursuers, Suri was grateful.

"I'll see you soon," Suri smiled, stepping out into the late summer afternoon, mounting her broom.

"Have a good time," Amalia responded, equally as chipper, if anyone from the Ministry listened in on their conversation. After Suri's interrogation, Amalia and the houselves Apple and Ivy, set up protective charms on the house to prevent anyone on the outside from listening in. She kissed her granddaughter's cheek and watched as she kicked off from the ground and took to the sky; she was glad to see Suri flying again.

Once Suri was out of sight and Amalia was alone in her home, the woman's face crumpled with fear. Amalia knew Suri was born with the same recklessness her parents shared, but there was a certain calculated stillness that neither Sirius nor Tessa naturally demonstrated. All three were feelings oriented, wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Suri, however anxious, had always been thoughtful and calculated with her feelings; stewing on them longer than Tessa or Sirius would have. Amalia, drying her tears, stepped back into the Maeve Manor long after Suri was out of sight, silently praying her granddaughter wouldn't meet the same fate as the late Contessa Rosier.

Something was coming, similar to the War twelve years ago when Tessa, Sirius, and their friends decided to join the efforts against evil. Amalia was certain it would all happen again, and she feared for her granddaughter who could never sit back when she found something important. Amalia, with absolute certainty, knew that whatever was coming would be worse than before.

X

Remus Lupin looked up from his book, not that he was reading to begin with, and listened to the stillness outside of his cottage in Yorkshire. "Cottage" was a generous term to use for his home. A "shack" would have been a much more appropriate term for his dilapidated abode, but cottage seemed kinder.

Rising from his seat, Remus put his book aside and reached for his wand on the table beside him. He knew exactly which floorboards to avoid to minimize creaking when he stepped, and he nimbly leaned against the front door, peering out the peephole. So far, he saw no one, but Remus was sure he wasn't alone.

He walked to his kitchen and looked out the window to the expansive rolling hills and saw nothing—until from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of someone going around the corner of his home. Immediately, Remus reacted.

One second he was in his cottage, the next he had apparated outside and one hand shoved a shoulder hard against the side of his home while the other pointed a wand at the intruder's throat.

"Suri?!"

"Moons!" The girl's grey-blue eyes were wide but defiant, her voice giving no indication of fear. It was only when he released her and she ran a shaking hand through her black-as-night hair that he realized she had actually been scared.

"What are you doing here," Remus demanded, quickly ushering Suri inside and locking the door firmly behind him.

"Looking for you," Suri deadpanned, as though it was obvious. "We're going to find my father."

"Suri…" Remus trailed off, eyeing Suri. She dressed in muggle's fashion—black denim jeans, white t-shirt, a plaid, red button-down tied around her waist. She wore a backpack, and carried her broom. Her statement was so matter of fact, it was an echo of the years before his friends died. Remus rubbed his tired eyes. "How did you even find me?"

"I overheard a conversation between Snape and Pomfrey while I was working in the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey doesn't think I hear much when I'm disinfecting basins in the backroom. They argued about your wolfsbane and who should be the one to administer it to you. Snape said something about how you should have stayed put in your Yorkshire hiding place. Naturally, because of his unnecessary comment, I had to put a slickening charm on his office floor, so hopefully he learns that he's not in any position to look down on someone when he's flat on his arse. Anyway, I remembered that bit of information and well, I figured your home would be...quaint. Luckily, it only took three tries until I found you." Suri immediately walked to the dining room table, put her backpack on the surface before reaching into a smaller pocket and extracting a large square of parchment.

"Delightful," Remus muttered, simultaneously feeling both insecure about his dwellings and spiteful distaste for the potions master. He shook his head, watching as Suri unfolded a world map across the table, using his old tea mugs to hold down the corners. "While I am incredibly impressed and somewhat appalled that you've managed to find me, I think finding Sirius will be a different matter. Do you think I'd still be here if I had even the slightest inkling of where he might be?"

"You're right," Suri agreed and she folded her arms. "I knew I was taking a risk in coming here because you might have been gone, but you're still here and that's what matters. I have an idea of where to find my dad and I'll need your help to get there."

Suri hunched over the map and Remus looked over her shoulder. For the first time he noticed several black X's across several different countries of the world.

"Sirius is hiding somewhere warm," said Suri, matter-of-factly. She pointed to some of the X's on the map that were drawn through colder countries and continents. "He would also want to be out of reach of the UK's Ministry of Magic. He'd be somewhere remote enough to hide, but not too remote to the point where he is noticeable. I've narrowed it down to two places: Madagascar and the Fiji Islands. I have a strong feeling he's at the Islands. There are over three hundred of them, so he could hide...I just know he's there. I can't explain it, but these feelings are never really wrong."

Remus frowned at Suri's logic as he studied the map. She had a point in guessing Sirius's motives which were incredibly accurate despite having grown up without him. "How do you know all of this for certain?"

"I just know things," Suri smiled obscurely, tapping the side of her head. That little act, the way her eyes crinkled mischievously—she didn't need to look like her mother for Remus to know Suri didn't fall far from Tessa's magnificent tree. Remus could remember those "feelings" and "knowings" Tessa had back in their youth—they were always right.

"Moons," said Suri gently, pulling Remus from his memories without knowing. "I need you for this. I…" the girl took a deep breath, touching her crystal vial. "Before I knew Sirius was innocent, I saw my grandmother's memories. In one of them, my dad stopped trusting you, but my mother trusted you with her entire life. I was confused by these memories, so I stopped trusting you when I came back to school from the Christmas holiday. I wish I hadn't been so stubborn and I just talked to you about those memories, but I didn't know who to trust. If I could turn back time, I would take it all back because I liked having you. It was like…" Suri trailed off and she looked away from him. Remus felt his throat tighten when Suri's bright eyes found his. The beautiful young woman that stood before him was that bawling four-year-old girl taking a huge chunk of his heart when he placed her in Amalia Maeve's arms.

"Having my godfather at Hogwarts was like being given a chance to see the life I could have had if I lived with you instead. I'm so sorry for how I behaved. Will you forgive me, Moons?"

Relief flooded Remus as well as that familiar, bittersweet regret. All this time, he'd thought he'd embarrassed Suri somehow, by being poor or a shell of a human. "There's nothing to forgive, Suri," Remus finally said, giving her shoulder an affectionate squeeze, "And you've had a good life. Look around, is there where a child should have grown up in? With a werewolf godfather, no less."

Suri looked around his cottage, drinking in the poor state of everything. Remus knew it was the exact opposite of what she was used to, given her upbringing with her grandmother.

"I would have been happy because I had you, Moons. I love my Granna and I would do anything for her, but I know I would have been happy here too. And probably a little less coddled."

Remus chuckled. "No one was as coddled as your mother—by her mother and Slytherin. But you turned out all right, Suri…I worried about that for so long after I last saw you. I couldn't have raised you better."

"It took a while to get here, but I think I'm doing alright too," there was a veiled, unfathomable look in Suri's stormy eyes. Though she looked at him, it was as though she looked through him. A moment later, she blinked the look away. "What do you say, Moons? Shall we find Sirius Black?"

"I suppose whatever my answer is, you'll end up on this journey to look for Sirius regardless of my answer."

"That's my plan, but I'd like you to be there," Suri deadpanned.

"Fine," Remus sighed, disliking the idea of Suri embarking on a potentially dangerous and definitely illegal journey all on her own. "Let's go to Fiji."

X

"This is what tall feels like," Suri murmured to Remus. "I'm really missing out on something!"

"You really are, Amalia."

Suri stuck her tongue out and Remus—or her grandmother's tongue. In order to get to Fiji, Remus had insisted they take muggle transportation. It was the first time Suri had ever been on an airplane, and the feeling of being higher than any broom had ever taken her would be something Suri never forgot. Prior to boarding the plane, Suri found—courtesy of Amalia Rosier—Polyjuice Potion, several blonde hairs and a change of clothes to fit a much taller and thinner woman's body.

Suri looked down at her—Amalia's—hands that were paler than her own complexion. But the most surprising thing Suri observed was the obvious height difference. Her strides were longer, and so she had to walk slower as to not feel like she was paces away from running. Looking at Remus now, she found herself almost eye-level with his over six-foot frame; Amalia Rosier was quite tall for a witch.

Once out of the airport, Remus hailed a cab, taking him and Suri into a populated travel destination on one of the more popular islands. They wandered the streets, wondering exactly where Sirius would be in this mess—if he was in this mess, Remus thought to himself.

"The potion is likely to wear off soon, it's been nearly three hours since the last time I drank some. But since we're here, I think I should be safe without it. Besides, I want to make sure I save some of the polyjuice for an emergency."

"You're probably right," Remus agreed. "Have you gotten any sense of where Sirius might be?"

"I don't know," Suri/Amalia, frowned. "When I slept on the plane, my mind managed to link with his—I hope that didn't register under my Trace…" catching Remus's confused look, Suri added, "that happens to me. I guess when I'm under a lot of stress my mind takes me somewhere else. However, it's never been anywhere pleasant-just Sirius's mind."

Remus frowned thoughtfully at this. He remembered Suri's Legilimency notes regarding emotional distress and the use of Legilimency or psyche related magic. However, the concern of discovery pressed more heavily into him at this time. "If it's an innate talent, then it shouldn't be detected. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you and potential trackers. What did you see when you connected with Padfoot?"

"Clear ocean water and a long wooden dock of sorts. I caught glimpses of darkness and maybe like a large tent or small room...I'm not sure."

"A beach villa." Remus guessed, just the scars on his face scrunched with concern when looking at Suri. "It looks as though your disguise is beginning to expire."

Reaching up, Suri undid her bun, and instead of blonde, her inky black waves had returned.

"Shit," Suri swore and Remus whirled her around, maneuvering them out of the throng of people on the busy street. Luckily, no one paid them any attention. "The alley," he said, swiftly guiding her around a corner just as Suri began to shrink in height by several inches.

Remus waited against a dumpster as Suri changed out of Amalia's clothes and into her own on the other side of it.

"Moons!" Suri, back to her normal self, came around the dumpster holding a flyer. "This was on the wall—and look! There's the beach villas you mentioned."

"Probably, but, in the grand scheme of Fiji, there are probably dozens of these kinds of resorts. It's hard to say where to begin."

Folding up the advertisement, Suri stored it in her back pocket. She hadn't the slightest idea of where Sirius was, but she could feel something like a gravitational pull that was probably linked to Sirius. "Well then, we'll just have to start looking until there's a better plan."

X

The sun had just set, and he heard their footsteps far before he heard their voices. Quietly, Sirius reached for his wand—one he had stolen before he left the United Kingdom—and sat on his cot in the darkness, incredibly still. He'd been here for three weeks and no one came to visit him. But now there were two. Sirius knew, gripping his wand defensively, it was only a matter of time before the Ministry found him. No matter what, he refused to go back to Azkaban. He'd rather die than go back.

Outside of the hut, Sirius heard one voice murmur, "stay behind me."

Quietly getting to his feet, Sirius pointed his wand at the door when the locked doorknob jiggled without opening. There was a momentary pause, a whisper from outside, then the lock clicked open.

Sirius swore his heart would beat out of chest when the door slowly creaked open. It had been so long since he had to curse someone for the sake of his own life. He noticed one of the two shadows belonging to his visitors move forward to enter his hut. Sirius raised his wand, prepared to strike, but when the first of his visitors came through, hands held defensively in front of her as her blue-grey eyes quickly settled on him, Sirius nearly dropped his wand. When she spoke, just at the sound of her voice, an echo of a woman who he had seen so many times in his dreams—who he swore saw walking toward him on the empty beach these past three weeks—Sirius thought he might fall to his knees.

"Hey, so my wand is in my back pocket, okay? So don't do anything stupid like trying to hex me."

"Princess," Sirius's voice was hoarse with disuse. "Tess." At first, all Sirius saw was Tessa Rosier—his Tess—chestnut brown hair tumbling down to her waist and the deepest blue eyes he'd ever fallen into. She hadn't aged a day and she was walking toward him until she paused, frowning.

"No, Daddy, it's me. Suri." Her eyes flickered between him and the wand in his hand. Sirius blinked several times. Tessa was gone and standing before him, several inches shorter, with a regal face and a mass of wild, black waves, was his daughter. Sirius blinked again, he had to be dreaming. This was all a mirage—a trick played by malnutrition and loneliness. Sirius raised his wand.

"Stupefy!"

Before the jet of light could hit her, Remus was in front of Suri, countering the jinx with a protection charm. It was the fastest Suri had ever seen Remus move. She barely had her hand on her wand when it all happened.

"Expelliarmus!" Remus cried and Sirius's wand went flying from his hand and into Remus's. "Are you mad, Padfoot?! This is your daughter!"

"R-Remus," Sirius struggled to speak, his grey eyes were wide. They slid down his best friend and onto Suri who now pointed a wand at him. Her elegant beauty was a mask of whatever she might have felt.

"Suri…my Suri-girl."

Sirius's voice made Suri's heard clench painfully in her chest. Up close, she saw how emaciated her father looked. His black hair was long and stringy, matted to his head while his grey robes from Azkaban hung poorly from his too skinny body. This was not the man of her memory—this was not the handsome, singing man who could fight away all her childish fears with a single sweep of his wand. But still, this was her father. Her innocent father.

"Daddy." Suri dropped her knapsack to the ground and ran forward to hug him.

Sirius caught her with surprisingly strong arms and embraced her as if she was the only thing that could pull him out of his own personal storm. He buried his face in her shoulder, and Suri could tell he was crying too. He smelled like stale alcohol and the sour stench of an unbathed body.

"My little girl, I'm so sorry my Suri-girl, I'm so sorry," Sirius murmured over and over, apologizing for trying to jinx her. Finally, Suri pulled back and Sirius cupped her face, his grey eyes watched her so carefully, as though he feared that if he blinked she would be gone.

"I'm not so little anymore, am I?" Suri smiled while Sirius thumbed off her tears. Sirius chuckled in response. The smell of alcohol on his breath told Suri that her father was absolutely drunk.

"You'll always be my little girl," Sirius said with utmost certainty. Arching a single, dark eyebrow, he put a hand atop Suri's head. "Now that I've seen you up close, I'm rather puzzled by how you managed to be so...vertically challenged."

"You guys forgot to pass on the height genes to me." Suri laughed, shrugging. She extracted herself from her father's touch, stepping a couple steps back. "I'm sorry I'm not Mum."

"What?" Sirius's eyes widened fractionally, not following.

"Before I walked through the door you called me Tess. I'm sorry it was just me and not Mum."

Sirius shook his head. "It's your voice. It sounds almost exactly like Tessa's, but with less of a Northern Irish accent. But no, you're not her, Tess is gone. She's dead..." Sirius had begun to mumble as if he needed to remind himself what was real and unreal. "Don't ever be sorry for not being your mother. You're my girl, Suri Ariel Rosier-Black, and that's good enough for me, it will always be good enough." Sirius looked over to Remus who stood near the doorway, quietly giving the family their reunion. Sirius cocked his head. "So, how did you find me?"

"It was all Suri, Padfoot," said Remus, joining the pair with a small but proud smile. "I wouldn't have been able to find you without her. She found me in Yorkshire with theories on where you'd be and her mother's bloodline and talent for Legilimency came in handy in discovering you'd be in a beach villa."

"Ah that Maeve bloodline..." Sirius padded away from Suri and Remus to a small kitchen area. He reached for a ceramic jug and drank deeply from it; Suri was willing to guess it wasn't filled with water. Sirius wiped at his mouth then ran his hands through his scraggly black hair. Suri wondered at Sirius's quick-shifting moods. One minute he was crying and hugging her, the next he was bitter and paranoid. Was this the liquor or truly him?

Sirius gestured grandly to his small hut. "Well, now that you're here, Suri you can take the bed, Remus and I can transfigure these chairs into cots."

Suri watched as her father bustled into action—wand out and already charming the nearby chairs—a glimpse of the energetic man he used to be. While Remus and Sirius transfigured, Suri looked around the small, stale hut, trying not to feel useless at her inability to safely use her own magic without fear of her Trace. September first, the day she finally turned seventeen, was still a long way away.

Instead, she busied herself at the kitchen table and set her knapsack beside the ceramic jug, catching a stinging whiff of alcohol. From her knapsack she pulled cans and packets of premade food and tea. There was a single stove in the hut and she was pleased to find a kettle beside it. Unable to charm the stove to life, Suri searched for matches in her knapsack. Lighting the burner, she filled the kettle with water and waited for it to boil. She glanced back at her father, wondering when he last had a meal or something other than whisky.

By now, Remus and Sirius transfigured the chairs into two small cots and managed to find a tarp to drape over the bed Suri was going to sleep on. She raised an eyebrow at the narrow mattresses, joining the men. She lightly reached out with her toe and nudged one of the cots.

"Will those actually be comfortable?" Transfiguration was arguably Suri's weakest subject. She did okay at it, but it wasn't like charms or defense against the dark arts that came easily to her. Some days her transfigurations were flawless, on others-even if the cup looks like a cup, it still squeaked like a mouse.

"Try it out," said Sirius.

Suri carefully sat on one of the cots then lied back, stretching out on it. Coming up on her elbows, she smiled. "What's the trick to transfiguration? It can be hit or miss for me."

"Don't be afraid of your magic or of failure." Sirius answered, the ghost of a smile on his lips. "I'm sure McGonagall will tell you that transfiguration is all about science and maths, which is partially true. But it's also about wanting something bad enough. How do you do at charms?"

"Outstanding."

"That's my girl," Sirius laughed.

"She's quite talented at Defense Against the Dark Arts too," added Remus, attending to the whistling kettle on the single-burning stove.

"Treat transfiguration like charm work. Your spell won't be as effective if you think there's a slightest possibility of failing. I would have you try it now, but your Trace…"

"I have no intention to use magic until I turn seventeen," Suri answered, "unless if I absolutely need to. Moons and I did everything we could to make sure we wouldn't be followed."

"Good." Sirius's shoulders lowered as he visibly relaxed. His grey gaze flickered over to his long-time friend with a look Suri couldn't quite read.

Over tea and a quick supper of canned soup, Sirius seemed to sober up. He smirked when he glanced over, noticing Suri stifle a yawn. Reaching across the kitchen table, he patted her arm. "Go to sleep, Suri-girl," he urged, his voice as soft as though he were talking to a very small child. If it were anyone else speaking to her in such a manner, she would have retorted with a biting remark at their coddling. With Sirius, she kept silent, allowing the man to be a dad.

"I don't think I can," Suri answered. She looked from Moons to her father. Two prominent men in her early childhood now returned to her, sitting across from her. Sirius, with a knowing expression, seemed to read her mind.

"Sleep," he insisted, Remus nodded. "You never had a hard time going to bed as a child. Don't worry, I'll still be here in the morning."

"Sleep well," Remus wished with an equally kind look.

The jetlag and exhaustion from all the emotions in the past day won over. Rising from the table, Suri kissed both Remus and Sirius on the cheek. "Night," she said and disappeared behind the tarp.

After changing into clean pajamas, Suri settled into the fresh sheets on the cot. Even though Sirius had changed the bedding when he rearranged the hut earlier, his scent still lingered on the bed. Beneath the stale scent of old whisky was something sharper and more wild like the ocean. Suri replayed the entire day in her head. Covering her mouth so neither her father nor her godfather would hear her, she closed her eyes as hot tears spilled down her cheek. Earlier, she had apologized to her father for not being Tessa. It always seemed like Suri had to apologize for being a mere fraction of the amazing, beautiful and successful witch that birthed her. If she wasn't living up to Tessa Rosier's shadow, then she was doing everything she could to get out of Sirius Black's. But Sirius said that she was good enough just as she was. Suri Ariel Rosier-Black was fine just as she was.

Suri didn't want to sleep and wake up to find that this was all a dream.

Author's Note:

So this chapter is written a little differently! It's important to me that we get to see more than Suri's perspective, that's why you get to see more of Amalia's, Remus's and Sirius.
Who's perspective would you love to see more of?

Drop a review, favorite, and/or a follow to let me know you're here! Thanks for reading; I'm so glad you're here!

X