This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Word Count: 1871
Title: Aboard Space Shuttle W00F
Note: MuggleAU, Final Space AU (No information of final space series required for judging)
Warnings: Explosions
Beta: ViolaMoon, Ash Juillet, VanillaAshes
Quidditch League:
[Team]: Pride Of Portree
[Position] Captain
[Theme] SciFi: Genre: Space Western
Hogwarts
Assignment 9: Exobiology: The Study of the potential for life beyond Earth: Task #1: Space Exploration - Write about space - visiting, exploring or just studying in some way.
Current day, Space Shuttle W00F:
"So, Remus, it's been 300 days since I last spoke to an actual human," Sirius told the facecam. "And while you haven't replied to any of my other 299 messages, I am sure you have just been busy." Sirius smiled, content in his belief that someday Remus would actually reply to him. He looked around the room filled with monitors and sighed to himself.
"Well, that's all I have for you today," he added. He turned off the facecam and pressed send. The electronic doors opened, and a small round robot floated inside.
"Sirius," the robot said with a creepy smile. "Messaging the space commander again, he is."
"Kreacher, I would not be sad if you were dead," Sirius told the robot in annoyance.
"Kreacher is your best friend. Kreacher is here to keep you sane," Kreacher said.
300 Days Ago, Planet Earth:
Sirius ran furiously, clutching a small pouch of gold in his hands, while two large men pursued him.
"Stop! Thief!" they cried, but Sirius managed to lose them by ducking into a nearby bar.
He caught his breath and slipped the coins into his pants pocket before he leaned against the wall. His eyes roamed the bar and spotted a handsome space commander, dressed in the tell-tale blue-and-white suit with the star emblem. The man had dark hair, and he was leaning over a piece of paper at the bar.
Sirius nudged a short, chubby man nearby. "Who is that tall drink of water?" he asked.
"Oh, that's Remus Lupin, but unless you are part of the space command, you stand no chance with him."
"Is that so?" Sirius said. He wiped his shaggy hair behind his ear. "It just so happens that I am a space commander."
"Really? Then where is your suit?" The man was clearly sceptical.
"I have one, it's… it's in the bathroom."
The man laughed.
"Oh, shit," Sirius muttered under his breath, making his way to the bathroom now.
Sirius spotted a suit on the floor and realised the man in the stall was a space commander. 'What are the odds?' Sirius wondered.
Sirius waited outside the door, and when it swung open Sirius quickly wrapped his arm around the unsuspecting man tightly. He held his own breath as he waited until the tall, dark haired man stopped struggling
Sirius smiled at his reflection after pulling on the suit, and spent a minute worrying if the man would be okay. He scribbled a note with the words. 'Sorry' on it.
Sirius made his way from the bathroom, heading straight for the bar where Remus sat. He looked down at something Remus was scribbling on a piece of paper.
"First time I've gotten a guy's number without saying a word," Sirius said with a smirk.
"It's a formula for intergalactic travel." Remus looked up and raised his eyebrows.
"Let me buy you a drink," Sirius suggested.
"I'm really busy at the moment," Remus countered. Just then, an alarm sounded in the bar. It was a siren calling space commanders to action.
"Come on then, pilot," Remus said, pulling him along now.
"Oh, double shit," Sirius muttered, barely audible. He was wearing a pilot's badge. How hard could it be?
The answer was very hard. As soon as Sirius looked at the dials and various knobs, he panicked. With Remus insisting he hurry up and fly the spacecraft, Sirius saw a big red button.
Immediately, the button launched a fleet of missiles, destroying an entire fleet of spacecraft as well as a small family-owned Mexican restaurant.
"Oh, triple shit," Sirius exclaimed as he watched the area go up in flames.
Current day, Orbiting Space Shuttle W00F:
As part of Sirius' punishment, he had to help fix space stations. On one such occasion, he was floating about in his spacesuit, when suddenly, a small green blob seemed to collide with him. A scream instantly left his throat.
"A face eater!" Sirius shouted. "Get it off me!"
It only took Sirius a couple of seconds to realise that this creature meant him no harm, since it was attempting to cuddle him, and making a noise almost like purring. He didn't know where the little guy came from and felt bad for it being all alone, so he took the alien back aboard.
"Kreacher sees we has a new beastie on the ship," the robot companion said, eyeing it as suspiciously as a robot could.
"Don't listen to him," Sirius said to the alien with a huff. "What shall I call you?"
Examining it, Sirius spotted feathers and a large orange beak on the small green alien. The creature nuzzled him, and when Kreacher made another comment, it attempted to snap at Kreacher with its beak.
"How about Buckbeak?" Sirius asked, ignoring the potential injury to his supposed 'space insanity avoidance companion'. The creature bounced up and down. "I'll take that as a yes." Sirius grinned.
Next day, Space Command Headquarters:
A beep signalled that Remus had a new message, and he opened it. It was from his advisor, Albus Dumbledore, stating that there was an emergency and that he needed to attend to. Other than that, his messages were completely empty.
299 Days Ago, Planet Earth:
James Potter woke up in the bathroom of the bar with a headache, no spacesuit, and a note that simply said, 'Sorry.' His face went red as he realised he would need to call this in. "Could this day get any worse," James said, walking over to the basin. "I can be happy I decided to wear clean boxers," he added jokingly.
James swallowed. He dialed the headquarters, and Commander Moony answered the phone with a gruff tone.
"Yes, pilot Potter?"
"Um, sir, I ran into a bit of a situation last night," James said, running one hand nervously through his messy jetblack locks.
"What type of situation?' Moony asked. James could feel his palms getting sweaty. This was it.
"My suit got stolen while I was in the restroom of a public bathroom at the bar," James said very quickly, hoping it would be over soon.
Moony let out a barking laugh. "What was that?"
"I will need someone to come bring me another suit, sir." James was blushing furiously, but luckily, it was only him in the bathroom.
Current Day, Space Command Headquarters:
Remus had learnt his way around a space shuttle, so when Albus briefed him about the interstellar emergency, he had to go. Remus and his co-worker, Lily Evans, boarded the ship and set off. Remus was told he needed to go check on Space Shuttle W00F, because the prisoner aboard it was nearing the end of his sentence, and the ship wasn't responding to remote check-ins anymore. Remus didn't know that it was the very prisoner who had hit on him in the bar almost a year ago.
Day 304, Space Shuttle W00F:
SIrius concluded his message, just like every other, by urging Remus to reply. Sirius sighed to himself, rubbing Buckbeak's head thoughtfully. "I'm sure he will respond."
Buckbeak chirped happily in reply. Sirius left the room, and the doors shut behind him. He reached the large open kitchen area and looked for his favourite coffee mug. It was white with a black silhouette of a dog.
"I wonder where that stupid robot is," Sirius wondered out loud. He tried to call Kreacher, but there was no reply. Shrugging, he walked back over to the mainframe where he sent his messages, wondering if he had forgotten the coffee mug inside there. The door slid open, and Sirius saw Kreacher fiddling with the computer.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked suspiciously, and his eyebrows rose as he reached a conclusion. Kreacher had disabled the spaceship's communications, which meant that Remus had never received his messages, and what was worse, he was stranded in space with a jealous robot and a birdlike alien that didn't speak.
"Kreacher is only protecting his master from the bad man," Kreacher attempted to explain, but Sirius hit the robot in frustration.
"Ouch, shit," Sirius exclaimed, checking his hand. He left the room again, so distraught he didn't even bother getting the coffee mug, which had been his reason for returning, and went to his room.
There was a buzzing noise, and Sirius jumped to his feet. 'What was going on?' he wondered.
'Stranger alert! Stranger alert!' Echoed through the halls of the ship, and Sirius wondered who was attempting to board the ship. 'Manual override detected, welcome officers Evans and Lupin.'
"Lupin?" Sirius said, walking towards the loading bay. "As in Remus Lupin?"
His eyes met the handsome man he had dreamt of every night, and he pinched himself as the sultry voice replied, "Yes, who are you?"
"I'm Sirius Black, surely you remember me?" Sirius' smile faded when Remus shook his head.
"Have we met?" Remus repeated, and Sirius couldn't help but tear up.
"You — you don't remember me?" he swallowed. "I know Kreacher disabled the communications, but I didn't think you would forget the day we met."
Sirius didn't know the Evans woman, but her eyes went wide at his reply.
"Your insanity avoidance disabled the mainframe?" she said, gobsmacked.
"Yeah, idiot was jealous of my messages to him," Sirius said, jerking his head in Remus' direction, making his hair bounce.
"You have been sending me messages?" Remus echoed.
Sirius nodded.
"I'm Lily Evans," the woman introduced herself.
"Sirius Black," he said, holding out his hand.
"Black, you cannot mean, oh, the man who blew up the starfleet." Remus' face changed to recognition.
"I'll just be in my room," Sirius said sulkingly, and stalked off in the direction of his bedroom.
Lily laughed as she remembered the story being recounted, both from her co-worker Remus, and her boyfriend - the pilot who had to call in the missing suit: James Potter.
"What are the odds of us being sent here to free him?" Lilly asked Remus as she worked on the mainframe. She hoped it wasn't damaged beyond repair.
"I don't know, Lily," Remus replied. "I never thought I would see him again."
"Strange how small the universe is." She grinned at him. "Hey, look, all the messages are stored on the mainframe after all."
"All of them?" Remus asked. "How many did he send?"
"304," Lily said softly. "That means…"
"One for each day he was here," Remus completed the sentence. "That is the sweetest thing any guy has ever done for me."
"I think I will go speak to Mr Black, you should probably see all of these." With a nod towards the screen filled with Sirius' messages, she left the room.
Remus didn't know how to feel about the prisoner's actions, but he was sure of one thing. He didn't want to miss out on a great opportunity. With that thought in mind, he clicked on the first message Sirius had attempted to send him.
"Hey, Remus, it's me, Sirius, the idiot who blew up the fleet… Let me start off with a line that's been stuck in my head ever since I saw you. Are you the moon? Because even when it's dark, you still seem to shine..."
Remus smiled.