Chapter Eight: The Red Branch of the Slow Autumn

"She's with someone else."

The words hung between them for long seconds of frozen time until Remus blinked at her, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Don't be disingenuous," Remus scolded.

"I'm not. It's not me," Elodie said miserably.

"Well that's patently ridiculous," Remus said, dismissing her statement so easily that she stared at him, unwilling or unable to comprehend the breadth of meaning in what he said and the way he'd said it.

The candle on their table flared red, and their waiter cleared away the plates and offered dessert.

"Yes," Elodie said at the same time as Remus declined. She widened her eyes at him, and he shifted into an alternate Remus, a polite, fake Remus.

"You've convinced me. Dessert it is!"

The candle sputtered back to its golden light and Elodie still felt bold and empowered, thanks to the wine.

"Stop that right now, you sound like Percy Weasley!"

Remus laughed so hard he started coughing.

"It serves you right! Where on Earth did you pull that atrocious fake cheerfulness from? It was revolting," she told him.

"It doesn't matter," Remus said, looking away.

James? something inside Elodie suggested.

The silence between them lengthened and grew until she was desperate to say something yet completely despairing of what to say.

"'If I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window…'" Remus murmured, looking out through the window up at the sky outside.

"That's pretty. Is it from a poem?" Elodie asked, her voice quiet, almost a whisper. Still, she startled him.

"Hmm? Oh, that. Yes, but it's not important," he said, his voice growing rather forceful. "Not important at all. Forget about it."

Elodie wanted to write the words down, wanted to Google them and find out what poem, but his unexpected vehemence made her loathe to trigger more of it by pulling out a pen and paper. Instead, she repeated the phrase that she thought would be the most memorable. The red branch of the slow autumn, the red branch of the slow autumn…

She knew she would forget, and if it was imperative she forget it, he'd make sure she did, but maybe someday she would come across those words and they would trip the wire of remembrance to bring her back to this moment.

Their dessert came, a rich chocolate concoction that soothed away all of the tension between them into something comforting and less sharp. Their conversation shifted into the mundane and safe, and Elodie forgot the words he'd spoken so wistfully, just like she expected to.

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The next morning dawned bright and warm. Harry and Sirius had spent some of their time together the night before preparing his trunk for the trip to Hogwarts, and Remus spent a short time looking it over before declaring it ready. Harry was excited to leave but more subdued than she had expected, but a stray comment about a 'Prefects carriage' told her everything she needed to know about Harry's behavior.

Elodie felt like she was off-kilter, and both Remus and Sirius seemed to behave the same way. Sirius was, of course, distressed about not being able to come with them, and at the very last minute before they left, stalked off into their bedroom without saying a word.

"I'm sorry, Harry. Sirius hasn't had the benefit of living in society for nearly as many years as you have been alive," Remus said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Part of why it seems so important to Mrs. Weasley or I that we teach you manners, or how to control your temper is that it can be a constant struggle, even as an adult."

"Well said," Elodie murmured.

When they'd gotten Harry and his trunk and Hedwig and her cage to the train station, however, they were met with a very enthusiastic black dog.

"He didn't want me to tell you," Harry said from his kneeling position in front of the dog. He was vigorously rubbing Padfoot behind his ears. "He's been looking for a place to Apparate close to here for over a week."

"That is incredibly dangerous," Remus said with a deep frown. "I would hope that in future you'd warn me about something like this. Remember what I said about him not being fully socialized. Sirius has always been reckless, and he's missed twelve some years of growing up."

"Nearly fourteen, I'd say," Elodie interrupted. Padfoot tried to nose some kisses into her hands but she lifted them out of his reach. "I am sorry about how confusing this is, Harry. Snuffles ought to know better."

The black dog whined unhappily.

"It could have been worse. Now, SIT!" she commanded. Sirius/Padfoot/Snuffles sat.

They approached the gateway wall to Platform 9 ¾ and watched a few Hogwarts students and their families as they passed through the wall. A whooping sound echoed out behind them and all four of them turned to see the Weasley family.

"Oi, are you sure that thing's housetrained enough for a train station?" Bill said when they were within speaking range.

"Definitely not," Remus said darkly. "After you, Harry."

Harry wheeled his trunk and Hedwig's cage with him and confidently passed through the wall. So did most of the Weasleys, until just her housemates were left.

Elodie was suddenly, horribly certain that her Muggle prior life would prevent her from going through the wall. Remus would question her about why and it would all come out- the fact that he was written to be a werewolf, how she'd loved him as a fictional character, how she'd ruined the books' storyline with her meddling…

"I think you'd better stay here with the dog," Remus said. He hugged her with one arm and walked purposefully into the brick wall and disappeared.

Elodie sat down on a nearby, dirty bench and covered her head in her hands.

"I was too chicken to try it, Snuffles," she told the dog beside her. "Terrified I'd run at the wall as Pinocchio and never turn into a real boy."

It was a long wait until Remus came back, and Elodie wasn't sure which one of them was really being punished by that. Remus may have meant it to be Sirius, but to Elodie, the brick wall that led to Platform 9 ¾ might as well have had a flashing neon sign that said 'FRAUD' above it. Any spell that included a check of inherent magic was bound to discover her deception, she felt, and she would avoid the chance of failing those until there were no other options.

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When they'd all made it back to Phoenix House, Remus told Elodie he needed some quiet time before their trip to Hogwarts, and then disappeared into his bedroom.

Sirius was jittery. He kept fingering something in his pocket and pacing around, making it impossible for Elodie to focus on the article she was reading in the Prophet about the Ministry of Magic and treaties with their magical allies.

"What?" she finally said to Sirius after he tripped on the edge of the rug again.

"I want to talk to you, but-"

"Now is really a bad time," Elodie responded. She realized she and Sirius had said the same phrase at the same time. "I appreciate that you recognize that. Could you maybe pace in the bedroom? Or, even better, in a memory?"

"Pace in a memory?" Sirius repeated, clearly confused.

"Yes! You have access to a whole host of memories you were preserving for Harry, don't you? Pick a boring one and go pace."

"I never… That's…" Sirius stared at her.

"What? You miss your old friends, you are irritating your new one, and you could at least be near them if you did it this way," Elodie pointed out. "I mean, it's unconventional, but so are you."

"Don't think I missed the part where you called yourself the 'new one,' as if I've only got one new friend," Sirius said, walking over to the Pensieve.

"Befriend a homeless person in the train station, did you?" Elodie asked tartly.

"I bet one of them would have offered sexual favors to calm me down," Sirius joked.

"You can still go ask, nothing's stopping you."

"Ouch."

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Elodie peered at herself in the mirror again, staring at her neck. There was only the tiniest outline of the hickey there, now, despite Sirius having 'reinstalled' it at least once. She didn't want to wear anything around her neck, but she also didn't want to show up at the school that her pretend husband used to attend and work at with any hint of something impolite or improper between them. Remus was not the kind of man to leave love marks in public places, she was certain of that.

Moony, on the other hand…

She backed away from the mirror to look at her whole outfit. Elodie had opted for a skirt again, this time a honey-gold colored long one with red ribbons, along with a matching honey-gold shirt with a high, decorated neckline in crimson accents. It covered her splinching scars, but didn't look uncomfortably formal, either. She decided to leave her hair down, and used a very minimal make-up charm.

Elodie really wanted to wear her charm bracelet, but she hadn't been able to find it in months, which made her very sad. She regarded it as sort of a magical artifact, given the way it had popped into existence by accident when Remus had tried to conjure her favorite book. Every so often, she liked to touch the charms and think about the ways that the characters she felt they symbolized had affected her life. Alastor in particular had lived up to his inclusion, and so had Slughorn, if the cauldron really was meant to be his. She'd interacted with both Tonks and Kingsley a bit, but not enough to really feel like either of them were symbolized by the Auror badge, and there were still a few more charms that she felt she didn't quite know who they stood for, yet.

With a last glance at her outfit (so very Gryffindor), Elodie left the bedroom and headed into the living room to meet Remus by the Floo.

"Sirius still lost in memories?"

"I told him if he was going to pace around like a wind-up toy, he could do it in a memory instead of on the carpet," Elodie told Remus.

"Wind-up toy?" Remus repeated, confused.

"Never mind. Shall we?"

The Headmaster's Office Floo was a bit of a walk from the Hospital Wing, but Elodie didn't mind. As they walked, she asked him about the person they were going to see.

"Poppy Pomfrey was the first person at Hogwarts to see me at my worst. It was the strangest feeling for me- I was bleeding, I'd barely dragged myself in from the Shack, eleven years old, just two weeks into term. She showed me that not everyone pre-judges. She showed me…" Remus broke off, stopping next to one of the windows that looked out on the grounds. The Whomping Willow wasn't visible, but they both knew it was there.

"I couldn't even guess at what you're struggling to say, but she sounds lovely," Elodie said softly.

Remus was resting his weight on his hands, leaning toward the window, but he turned to look at her. He looked sad.

"She showed me that my father was wrong. He had told me to act cold and distant to her, so she wouldn't be forced to care for me, and I did it, that first morning," he said, speaking with disgust in his voice. "I held myself distant from her and she was still gentle and respectful. She saw through me, and if she hadn't, I could have ruined the way she saw werewolves for the rest of her life. I've always respected her for that, for the way that she listened to the patient, not just the chart, not just the family, not just the professor reporting the injuries."

Elodie sensed that there was more behind what he was saying, probably related to James and Sirius, but she didn't pry.

Suddenly, she realized what he was struggling with.

"Remus, you don't want to lie to her, do you?"

"No. No, I don't." He sounded relieved to get the words out.

"Maybe we can couch our language? We're Harry's guardians, that's true. We live together. We love Harry. That sort of thing?" she suggested. They started walking again, and he sighed.

"No, I think she would see through evasive language more than a direct lie, honestly. I will just look forward to setting the record straight with her, someday."

It seemed like a natural thing for her to reach down and take his hand in hers, and that was how they crossed the threshold of the Hospital Wing.

"Remus!"

The speaker was a small woman wearing a flattering Mediwitch uniform, the odd little quirks of which seemed perfectly suited for her. She had a kindly face and seemed almost ageless in the way that some women did when they got older. Her blue eyes were bright and happy as she made her way over to them.

"I was so pleased to hear you two would be coming by!" she took Remus's hands in hers and looked up at him. "I was happy to hear you were able to take over Harry's guardianship. Will you introduce me?"

"Hello, I'm Elodie," Elodie said, hoping to avoid Remus needing to be explicit about introducing her as his wife. She held out her hand to shake, and the other woman shook her head and gave Elodie a fierce little hug.

"You're lovely! Oh, Remus! I must say I am upset that I wasn't invited to your wedding, though," Madame Pomfrey said when she'd stepped back from Elodie. She actually put her hands on her hips to scold him.

"We haven't had a magical one," Remus said.

"We're saving up," Elodie said, walking over and looking up at him with affection. "It's simple enough to conjure the things for a Muggle one."

Remus put his arm around her, his thumb rubbing circles on her upper arm. "I wouldn't think of leaving you out, I promise," he promised Madame Pomfrey.

"Good!" the mediwitch said firmly. "I confess I got all the details about what you're about to ask me from Albus already. I'm persistent," she said apologetically. "I think it's a fantastic idea, and I promise you I'll be in communication about him, whether it's Quidditch injuries or otherwise. His aunt and uncle actually served me with something called a 'cease and desist' order halfway through his first term, telling me not to bother! I hope it cost them a lot of money." She made an angry noise of satisfaction.

"I don't want to say I anticipate any medical issues, but he's that sort of age," Remus said.

"Thank goodness Fred and George's younger brother isn't as troublesome as your childhood friends!" Pomfrey agreed.

Elodie felt a pang. She saw the light of amusement fade from the woman's eyes and wished she could tell her that Sirius wasn't the man that history portrayed him as. Even though The Prisoner of Azkaban was Elodie's favorite of the seven books, she couldn't remember if Poppy Pomfrey was in on the secret of Sirius's innocence.

"Remus, could I ask a very dear favor? There's a young man whose parents are still dithering about whether they should allow him to attend. Albus is giving them a few extra days to decide," Pomfrey said, stepping toward them, a determined light in her eyes. "He's a werewolf, and his parents…"

"What can I do to help?" Remus said after she trailed off.

"Can I take a picture of the two of you? I want his family to see that there is hope. Elodie clearly loves you so much, and you've worked as a professor here, and you have a successful job at a newspaper, Albus tells me," Pomfrey said passionately. "His father doesn't want him to 'get his hopes up' that his life could be meaningful. He thinks it's a waste of our time!"

"Remus spoke about your kindness to him when he first arrived. I think that had a great effect on his self-esteem. The young werewolf you're talking about could definitely benefit from that," Elodie said. She turned her body a bit so she could put her arm around Remus.

"I'll run and get my camera!"

When the mediwitch was out of earshot, Elodie said, in a low voice, "You don't have to do it if it makes you uncomfortable. I can come up with something."

"You are very good to me," he said, leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

"You should know by now that you inspire goodness in the people around you," Elodie said, moving out from the circle of his arm to look him in the eye. "Your father said the same things, didn't he?" she asked.

Remus didn't look at her. Finally, as they heard the footsteps of Poppy Pomfrey returning, he gave her a tiny, unhappy nod.

"He was wrong."

Elodie walked over to him and reached up to place a hand on his shoulder, and then she lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. She whispered in his ear.

"It's not like we're lying to her, you know. It's not untrue, just unrequited."

The hand he'd rested at the small of her back tightened at this, but she dropped back down and turned to face Madame Pomfrey, who already had the camera up, taking pictures.

"Oh, dear. I hadn't planned to kiss in the picture! I didn't want to look indiscreet-"

"Oh, You're a sweetheart! It's perfect."

"Maybe one more for my conscience?" Remus asked, and everyone laughed.

"All right, if you must," Pomfrey said, holding the camera up again.

"No kissing, got it?" Elodie said, looking up at Remus and smiling impishly. He smiled down at her, and they turned to smile at the camera.

"Oh, Remus. I wish I could tell that scared little boy your first term what his life might be like, someday," Pomfrey said, fishing into her apron pockets for a handkerchief.

"I would have preferred far less heartache for Remus, friend-wise," Elodie said.

"Well, I'm sure you have much to prepare for," Remus said with a note of finality in his voice.

"Ah! There's the professor voice," Pomfrey teased. "I'll take care of your boy, I promise. Take care of each other, while he's gone."

Elodie and Remus said their goodbyes and walked out of the Hospital Wing.

As they walked back to the office, Elodie said, "You shouldn't be ashamed of what you had to go through with your father. Your father is the one who should be ashamed." Remus made a noncommittal noise beside her, and she nudged him with an elbow. "No, I'm serious! Harry needs to know that he shouldn't be ashamed of the way his aunt and uncle neglected him, they way they abused him, and it won't help if you're reluctant to talk about that sort of thing, too. It takes time, that's all."

"Duly noted," Remus said, but he smiled at her sharp look. "Old habits die hard."

"They should die a horrible, painful death, is what should happen," Elodie sniffed.

"Well, you sent Sirius into a memory to pace, do you want to go into the memory where I punched my father in the face?" Remus asked in too mundane a tone for such a revelation.

"Yes."

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When they Flooed home, Remus told her that he was working on using the healing spell she'd used on him as the alternative for a more common, more generic spell in his column. She referred him to the chapter she'd discovered it in Hogwarts, A History, and he took the book with a murmured 'thank you' and locked himself into his room.

Elodie went to check to see Harry needed any clothes laundered, an action that was completely fruitless but which was already a habit despite him only living with them for just under a month before term started. When she came upstairs again, feeling foolish and emotionally affected all at the same time, she found Remus with his work briefcase, about to step into the Floo.

"Remus?"

"I've decided to get my office time over with for the month. Most everyone will be out for Term Day, so it will be quiet," he said.

"Will you be back for dinner?" she asked, settling into her seat. She looked up and almost missed the questioning look Remus shot toward Sirius.

"Probably," Remus said. "I might grab something from the street market, though."

He tossed in his Floo powder and spun out of sight.

"That was odd," Elodie decided. She looked over at Sirius, who was leaning against the kitchen doorway. "Did that seem odd to you?"

"A bit," Sirius said. He seemed distracted, and Elodie decided that he and Remus must have had some kind of conversation she'd missed that would explain their behavior. She shrugged it off as not her business.

Soon, Elodie was engrossed in a list. With Remus away, likely until after dinner, which was at least four hours from now, she could write down the things she remembered from the fifth book, especially relating to Dolores Umbridge. She felt fairly guilty that, in her hatred of the character itself, Elodie had avoided the kind of re-reading and dwelling on certain passages that had made her remember so much of the third book. In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry had gotten detention quite early in the term (luckily, Harry had promised to write them often), and the shocking nature of the punishment his professor had given him caused the boy to avoid telling anyone.

It wasn't likely that they'd be able to remove Umbridge as soon as the first few days of punishment, but Elodie decided she was allowed to hope for that, anyway.

A noise had her looking up from her pages of parchment. Sirius had puttered around in the kitchen for a while before coming out to lean against the wall again, apparently.

"Elodie, could you… come into the kitchen to talk with me?"

Elodie looked at the empty spot on the couch where he usually sat next to her. "The kitchen? Why not just-"

Sirius had already disappeared from sight, so she stopped herself and went to go see what he was up to.

Sirius was sitting rigidly at the table, his hands folded in his lap. His chair was facing the chair next to him, and the setup almost looked like a job interview.

"Have you been poisoned?" she asked, a little too heavy on the sarcasm.

Sirius turned to look at her with surprise and then amusement. "No, but I imagine you know me well enough to guess something is going on. Please, sit?" He pointed to the chair beside him. Elodie chose the chair across the table from him, instead.

"Ellie…" he wheedled, but she shook her head.

"Something's going on," she said.

"Don't you trust me?" he asked her, smiling that dazzling smile of his.

"Fine," she huffed, moving to the chair he'd indicated. "What harebrained plan do you need to tell me about? I'm not sneaking you into Hogwarts; you can subsist on Firecalls and letters if you need more of Harry's attention. His education is too important."

"This is about Harry, yes, but more about- look, I want to do this again someday. More meaningfully," Sirius said cryptically. "But certain things from the books seem like they're inevitable. Cedric. Umbridge. I need to make sure Harry is protected."

Elodie could follow the latter half of what he was saying, but she had no clue what he meant about repeating the conversation. She nodded in encouragement about protecting Harry. Sirius reached out and grasped her hand, pulling it over to his own lap. He then seemed to think better of it; after squeezing her hand he let go, and she was forced to awkwardly draw her hand back.

"I want to make a partnership with you so that if I die, you'll be able to continue in your guardianship of Harry and be able to use my estate to support him," Sirius said, his tone and phrasing oddly formal.

"Is this why you kicked Remus out? Are you making a will?"

"No, I'm asking you you to- well, yes, I asked Remus to give us some privacy, but-"

"Sirius, your hands are actually shaking! Okay, whatever this is that you're doing, you definitely need to relax. Come here," Elodie said.

When Sirius held his hand out in front of him to watch it shake, she rolled her eyes and leaned over to kiss him. He actually resisted, initially, but when a chunk of the hair she'd tucked behind her ear fell forward releasing some of the sweetly spicy smell from her shampoo, he relented and kissed her back.

"That's a bit better," Elodie said. "What do you need me to sign?"

"Marry me," Sirius said, staring at her with sober intensity. "On paper. Someday, when my name is cleared, we can have the most elaborate magical ceremony you've ever seen, with all the international newspapers and everything. But I don't want to wait for that, and you don't deserve the stigma."

"...what?" Elodie asked, her heart in her throat and the prickling of tears in her eyes.

"I want to ask you to marry me someday, when my name is cleared," Sirius said, scooting his chair close, his knees bracketing her legs. Gone was the formal tone and rigid body language. He was passionate, persuasive. "Right now, I want to marry you in name… well, not in name only, but secretly," he said, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "I want to cast the spells, say the vows, mean the vows, make the commitments between us now, just me, you, and the magic. I didn't want it to be a romantic question, but a pragmatic one." He gestured to their surroundings. "That's why I asked in here."

"You weren't trying to be romantic? That explains so much," Elodie said, trying very hard not to laugh. She was affected by the other things he said, but that part was just ridiculous. "But why stop there? Why not sit me on the lid of the toilet and perch yourself on the side of the tub?"

"You are my match in every way, you frustrating, adorable witch," Sirius said in a grumbling, argumentative tone. "Say yes," he demanded.

"I have a condition," Elodie said, her mind working quickly. What was the spell they'd talked about last year, when she'd seen Karkaroff in Knockturn? The precursor to the Dark Mark, one that bound a woman to her husband, with a mark on her arm? She couldn't remember, but she knew Sirius would.

"I am not sleeping in socks," Sirius objected vehemently.

"No, you outrageous, gorgeous man," Elodie said, mirroring his compliment seconds ago. "Nothing that mundane. Remember the spell you told me about where the nobleman could let his wife command his vassals, because she bore his mark? I want that. If this is a secret, that probably means I can't have a ring, right?"

Sirius just looked at her.

"Do you remember telling me about it when I was trying to tell you and Remus about the Dark Mark? Binding a person to another's life force, just like Lord Git. Except this would be your life force, and it would be like a tattoo I could wear," Elodie tried to explain.

"I know what you mean, I am just- do you know what you're asking? Pureblood families used to use that to mark women as property, Elodie."

"We wouldn't necessarily see it that way, and what a great way to subvert a terrible tradition, don't you think?" she suggested. "Pureblood Sirius Black marking a Muggle-born, out-of-this-universe-born witch as his? Your mother's portrait would spontaneously combust!"

"You're trying to manipulate me." Sirius narrowed his eyes at her, but his gaze was heated.

"I thought you liked marking me," she said in a faux sad voice.

"I do," he responded immediately. "You're making me like the idea, and not just because of… interpersonal reasons," he grinned at her. "If something happened to me, you'd know right away."

"I'm not going to let that part come true, Sirius. Even if I have to build you a cage with my bare hands and put it right beside Moony's."

He picked up her hand and kissed her fingers, then turned it over and kissed her palm. "I know. But I can't live in a cage, Elodie, and I know deep down you can't make yourself put me there."

"Watch me," she said under her breath. "I can't believe you thought this wouldn't be romantic," she said, nodding at the way their legs were interlocked, her hand in his, up against his face, his lips on her skin.

"I tried," Sirius said, kissing her wrist. He kissed his way up her arm, getting closer to her face, and then he slid his hands into her hair and kissed her. "Yes?"

"Yes," she agreed. The importance of what he'd asked and why overwhelmed her, and she pulled away from him to bury her face in his shoulder. More than anything Elodie wanted to show Sirius how much he meant to her, how she would gladly stand in public and claim to be his. Loving him meant respecting what he found important, though, and she knew he wanted better for her, even if she didn't agree with him. "How secret?"

"Not even Remus. Moony-"

"I get it," she said. More secrets to keep from Remus. "How are we going to even do this, though? You're a fugitive, and I assume heavy handed marriage spells don't work on disguised or altered people?"

"I have a plan," Sirius said. She was both thrilled and frightened to hear that.


Chapter 8 Note:

The poem Remus quotes is by Pablo Neruda. It's called 'If You Forget Me,' and I won't quote the whole thing but here's the section that quote came from:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ash

or the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you

Farther down the poem is this section, which is very indicative, I think, and doubtless will show up again:

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated