~ sorry about the split, this was a REALLY long chapter and since the thing was originally written for recreation, I hadn't bothered to split it. Here's the second half of chapter 1, hopefully I won't need to do two-parters in the future. ^,^ ~
Chapter 1 ~ With Sticks, Puppies and Sheet Monsters (part 2)
~previously~
"I'll show them!" she half-sobbed, half-ranted as she began stuffing everything she could get her hands on into the black backpack, "I'll run away!"
"…I'm so sorry, she was supposed to be in the classroom, but sometimes she plays in the forest…she can be a bit restless sometimes…Mimi! Mimi, honey, are you out there?"
Sirius quirked an eyebrow at her skeptically. Boy, this lady was as clueless as they went.
"Don't worry, ma'am, we'll be back with her in a jippy." he said and took his husband's hand, pulling him into the forest with him.
The adoption story Remus had told the woman was true in itself. He and Sirius were legally married and looking to adopt a child and Mimi's story did touch their hearts, but THAT was actually just one in an array of reasons that made them come here and ask to adopt Mimi Huggins, specifically.
For one thing, she was absolutely a young witch, there was no doubt about it. And she'd been unknowingly using magic for years now. The tricky bit was – the Ministry of Magic hadn't detected her doing so at all.
This was unheard of. Normally magical children, even when born to Muggle parents, would be immediately detected and someone would be dispatched to inform the parents of their child's gift and how to keep it secret.
However, this was not the case with Mimi. The very first time her existence was investigated was just over a month ago, when the Ministry got word that an upset Muggle couple was going around, spreading rumors about a child having magic powers.
The search of their house revealed traces of very real and very strong magic, but the Ministry's records showed no witch or wizard had been performing magic there which counteracted direct evidence.
Whatever had concealed this magical activity had to be extremely powerful.
Some more digging revealed the existence of a girl called Mimi Huggins, an orphan who had been adopted three times so far and then brought back to the orphanage when her parents realized she was not like other children.
First such time was when she was four years old. Her adoptive parents took her in when she was a baby and she grew up with them without even knowing she was adopted. However, at the age of four she began showing signs of witch powers; things around her fell over and broke, her parents couldn't find her to take her to the doctor's even though she was sitting RIGHT in the middle of the living room, giggling at them, her hair grew back when it was cut in a way she didn't like…
All these things really scared Muggles so they couldn't bring her back to the orphanage fast enough.
Mimi was now only nine years old, but her powers were already growing too fast to control. She had to start Hogwarts two years earlier than other children to learn to use them and, with special permission from the Ministry of Magic itself, Remus and Sirius were determined to make it happen.
…if they could find her, that is.
After a bit of wandering around the forest aimlessly, Sirius tripped on a moss-covered log and would've easily toppled face down if Remus hadn't grabbed him and kept him steady.
"GAH, this is ridiculous!" the dark haired man snapped, "I'm going to Change and seek her out by scent!"
"Siri, NO!" Remus retorted, sounding pretty much like someone reproaching a dog…force of habit, "We're surrounded by Muggles! If anyone sees you-"
"We're surrounded by FOREST, love!" Sirius moaned, waving his hands around to emphasize, "No one will see me AND if I Change, I'll track her down AND have a better view of your butt, so everyone wins!"
Remus grumbled a little and glared away. He was getting impatient himself…he and Siri had been looking to adopt a sibling for Teddy for around a year now, but with the prejudice against same-sex parents still lingering it hadn't been easy even with both of them being war heroes and having already raised a healthy boy.
Finally, with all their friends pulling all the strings they had (and Remus and Sirius had some powerful friends now, all former comrades from the Order of Phoenix), they were cleared to adopt and they had their hearts set on Mimi.
However, Remus dared not believe it was true until they went safely back home with her so he was eager to find her and get the procedure over with already.
"You know what…" he finally said, "Let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way."
"Wha- no, wait, what am I supposed to do if I find her first?"
"What do you mean what- talk to her, Siri!"
"But what if she doesn't like me?"
Remus had to duck his head and snicker at his love's childish whine.
"She'll like you just fine, dear, I'm sure." he said good-naturedly, "Just…don't turn into a dog in front of her, okay? She probably doesn't know what an animagus is."
Sirius nodded, looking somewhat nervous.
"Alright…alright…I can do this…" he took a deep breath, pecked Remus on the cheek and then disappeared through the thick branches.
Remus chuckled fondly before doing the same, only in the opposite direction.
Mimi ran and ran until she finally reached her favourite spot in the whole forest ~ some old, moss-covered ruins she'd discovered years ago. Whatever building they were remains of, they were reduced to crumpled stone walls, now covered with vegetation and long forgotten.
However, there was a corner that provided a small shelter where the walls kept their support to part of what was probably the stone ceiling. Mimi jumped over the wall and rushed straight to that pocket of safety that would hopefully protect her from the chilly wind.
She sat down on the ground in that corner, still panting and hugged Patchy closer to her chest.
"Oh, man…it's so c-cold!" the girl mumbled through clattering teeth, "I wish I had time to grab my jacket…maybe we can sneak back in tonight and get my clothes…and some food…man, I'm hungry…"
A sudden rustle nearby made her flinch with a gasp and look over, but nothing was there except the…unusually dark…forest.
Mimi retreated deeper into the corner, hugging Patchy closer. The forest felt different today…dark and threatening, unlike ever before. She hadn't noticed while she had been running, but now that she had time to sit and look around, she just desperately wanted to be somewhere else.
Another rustle from a bush nearby startled her and this time she looked over just in time to see something black and fluttery disappear behind a thick tree trunk.
"What the-" Mimi uttered before something black, hairy and huge jumped out in front of her.
Mimi's scream broke out so loudly that flocks of birds took off from the branches of all nearby trees, afraid for their life.
The girl grabbed her backpack off of her shoulder and was about to smack the THING with it when a terrified whimper coming from it stopped her and she cracked one dark-blue eye open to see that the THING was not a monster at all.
"It's a puppy!" she gasped out, half-relieved, half-overjoyed and Sirius' black ears twitched in amusement. Puppy? He was in the form of a huge, mastiff at least twice the girl's size, but he didn't get to argue that point when a giggling, black-haired girl all but threw herself at him, hugging him around the neck happily.
"Puuuupyyyy!" Mimi giggled as she huggled the confounded dog, "I'm sorry I almost hit you! There's something weird in the forest and I- kyaaa, you're so soft!"
Sirius huffed to himself defeatedly, his black tail patting the grassy ground lightly, against his will. The little girl's hug was warm and honest and her silky, black hair tickled his nose pleasantly. Dogs enjoyed these things.
But wait…what was that she said? Something weird in the forest? Sirius' mindset was…somewhat simplified when he was in his animagus form, more instinct than reason-oriented, but even so this sounded like trouble.
More so when his sensitive ears picked up a suspicious rustle behind his back. Sirius used one large paw to gently push Mimi away in order to turn around and sniff the air.
There was definitely something out there, but he couldn't pick up any scent of it…that, in itself was weird.
"You heard it too, Puppy?" Mimi asked fearfully, "The forest was never like this before, I-"
Suddenly there came a loud, flapping noise, like when someone would flap a sheet to straighten it and something black landed on top of them in a flop.
At first Mimi thought someone had thrown a black sheet on them – the thing felt thin, cold and soft and it clung to every bit of her body it touched. However, she immediately realized that it was moving. And not just moving ~ it was squeezing harder, plastering itself all over her face and filling her nose and mouth, preventing her from breathing.
It was alive and it was trying to suffocate her!
She would've screamed, but could pull no air into her lungs. From somewhere nearby, she heard a short growl and the THING was suddenly pulled off her with such force that Mimi staggered forward and fell to her knees and hands, coughing and gasping for breath.
A snarl and then the sound of clattering teeth made her head snap up and she realized that the puppy was wrestling the Thing desperately only a few steps away.
It did look like a black sheet, now that she got a better look at it. It was so tightly wrapped around the dog's powerful form that every muscle on its body showed through the thin matter of the strange creature.
"Oh, man!" Mimi gasped, staggering up to her feet somehow with Patchy in her arms, "Oh man…oh, man…it's choking the puppy! Patchy, what do we do?"
She looked around frantically for a solution, the dog's whimpers, snarls and snapping of his teeth making her flinch every second. There were branches and stones scattered about, but the Sheet-Monster was so thin that she'd probably hurt the puppy more than it if she struck it.
A sound between a whimper and a hack came from the dog and Mimi looked over to see the animal lying on its side, still struggling but with much less vehemence. He was losing his strength.
"Ng…LEAVE THE PUPPY ALONE!" she suddenly roared from the bottom of her lungs and all but tackled the Sheet-monster, grabbing fistfuls of it and pulling it from the dog's head with all her strength.
The Sheet-Monster let out a sound between a hiss and a growl and suddenly puffed itself up like a balloon with such force that Mimi felt herself literally thrown off.
She screamed as she flew backward and landed a couple of feet away, mercifully on the soft, mossy forest ground.
The Sheet-Monster looked angry as it left the dog to glide towards the reeling little girl in pretty much the same way a medusa moved through the water, by puffing up its head and then deflating the air from its back to move in short, jet-fast glides.
Mimi gasped and pushed against the ground with her legs, sliding away from the creature backwards. At one point, her hand landed on a rock and she picked it up and threw it, but the Sheet-monster wasn't even slowed down. Though it looked like soft, black silk, the rock just bounced off it, as if it had hit a brick wall.
Mimi whimpered when she felt her back hit the stone wall, meaning she could move back no further and the creature now slowly glided over to a halt in front of her. Only now Mimi could see that on one corner it actually had two tiny, crimson eyes that glowed hungrily as the creature began to rise up to loom over her like some kind of a wireless umbrella.
"It's gonna eat me!" Mimi suddenly realized just as the creature lunged at her and she only had enough time to curl away from it, hugging Patchy to her chest tightly to protect him.
"Experto Patronum!" someone suddenly roared and Mimi heard a loud noise right above her head that sounded like someone hitting a hanging sheet with a baseball bat with all their strength ~ POW! The noise was immediately drowned in the creature's high-pitched shriek of agony.
Mimi's eyes flew open to see what happened, but the girl immediately gasped and squeezed them shut again when a surge of white light blinded her.
A moment after, someone grabbed her shoulders gently, and a scent of aftershave filled her nostrils as she was pulled in a warm, soft hug.
"It's okay, it's okay, sweetie, it's gone." a gentle, male voice murmured into her hair and Mimi finally deemed it was safe to crack one eye open and see what was going on.
She found that she was pressed face-first into a mass of thick, soft green clothes that covered the chest and arms of the man hugging her and stroking her hair. Looking up, she met a pair of worried, warm golden eyes and gasped, pointing her finger up at the man's face.
"You're that guy!" she gasped, "Did you see that THING? What was that? What did you just do? Is it dead? Did you kill it?"
Remus opened his mouth, but Mimi suddenly gasped and pushed against his chest.
"PUPPY!"
"Puppy?" Remus repeated as the girl tore away from him and ran around him and then towards a large mass of black fur, lying motionlessly on the grassy ground.
His golden eyes flew wide when he recognised it.
"Siri!" Remus gasped and ran over to where Mimi was already hugging the dog's head to her chest, crying her eyes out.
"Don't die, puppy!" she sobbed, tears streaming down her face in torrents, "You're so cute and that monster k-k-k-k-KILLED yooou!"
"Dear, let me see, please?" Remus instructed her gently, somewhat amused through his worry which had lessened considerably when he saw that the dog was, indeed, still breathing.
Mimi let him feel up the dog's throat with his fingers and then watched in confusion as the brown-haired man reached into his pocket and pull out a long, thin wooden rod…type thing.
She immediately gasped and pulled the dog's head to her chest again protectively.
"What are you doing with that stick?"
"Just watch…" Remus told her secretively, his knowing smile reassuring the girl that he was going somewhere with this.
Remus pointed the stick straight at the dog's throat and cleared his throat before,
"Episkey!" he pronounced, loudly and clearly, a word Mimi had never heard before.
More strangely, the tip of the stick flashed and glowed some pale-blue light on the dog's throat which immediately seemed to constrict and then relax before the dog took a deep breath and then suddenly sat up with a happy yelp.
Mimi was dumbstruck for a second before she threw herself at the fully-recovered pooch.
"PUPPY!" she squealed as she squeezed the dog's neck, "I'm so glad you're okay! I- what the-"
She felt the neck she was hugging suddenly flex and twist as it changed shape and the dog grew in height rapidly, pulling her upward with it.
After a dumbstruck moment, Mimi yelped and let go as if burned, which sent her landing bottom first on the mossy ground.
"Ouch…" she groaned and then looked up to see not the puppy, but the dark-haired man she'd seen before.
Mimi gaped up at him speechlessly as Remus reached up and brushed some messy, black hair from the man's forehead gently.
"Are you okay, dear?" he asked warmly and Sirius looked grouchy, but grateful for the coddling.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he grumbled, even as he turned his head a little to nuzzle the palm caressing his face, "What the bloody hell was that thing?"
"A Lethifold," Remus replied darkly, "I've only read about them…they're supposed to be rare and they're indigenous to tropic areas…someone set it loose here on purpose."
Sirius rubbed his neck uneasily.
"I thought it was going to be the end of me." he grumbled, "Couldn't even change back into a human, it was clutching me so tightly…how did you beat it?"
"Patronus charm." his lover replied with a rueful grin, "It's about the only thing that works on them. Good thing I got here when I did…it was about to devo-"
He managed to stop himself just short of saying 'devour' in front of Mimi and both he and Sirius seemed to remember her and glance down to where she was still sitting on the ground, flabbergasted.
The girl's dark-blue eyes suddenly flashed in anger and she pointed a condemning finger at Sirius.
"You're not a puppy!" she accused him and Sirius ducked his head with a rueful chuckle.
"Nope, guess I'm not." he admitted.
"Why were you pretending to be one?"
"I wasn't, I'm a-" he began and then trailed off helplessly, realizing that any sensible explanation would take hours. He gave it a little thought before he bent down and crouched in front of the glaring little girl, "I promise we'll explain everything soon, but we should get back now, everyone's probably worried."
"Oh, fine." Mimi sighed and rose from the ground, dusting off her blue denim skirt.
She picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder and was just about to start walking when she realized two hands were extended to her – one from Sirius one from Remus. Looking up and seeing them smiling down at her, she grinned as well and took both their hands with one of her own, Patchy slung over her shoulder comfortably.
After they returned to the orphanage, Sirius and Remus headed straight to the Matron's office to take care of the paperwork. The stern-looking woman with graying hair hesitated when she presented them with the documents to sign.
"Before you sign the papers," she said uneasily, "I should probably tell you that Mimi has had problems with adoptive parents before."
"Yes, we've heard the story." Sirius sighed, somewhat impatiently, "It's what made us ask for her in the first place."
He felt Remus nudge his knee with his own gently and looked over to his husband who was sitting in the chair next to him to see his golden eyes warmly advising patience.
Sirius settled down a little, though reluctantly. He didn't see why they had to bother with all this Muggle paperwork and procedures, he just wanted to take Mimi home already. The Ministry should've just sent a team of Obliviators to simply erase everyone's memories of her.
"I'm aware of that," the Matron sighed, "but I need to be sure you understand that all this history has made Mimi…very wary. Her last adoptive parents said she wouldn't even call them 'mom' and 'dad', as if she was expecting to be taken back any day then."
"You have nothing to worry about, I assure you." Remus told her warmly and his gentle, calm attitude seemed to cause the woman to relax unconsciously, "Sirius and I have already raised a child, my son Ted. We're not new to this and we're not quitters either. I'm absolutely sure Mimi is our girl."
"Oh, really, you already have a son?" the Matron perked up, "Ah…if you don't mind my asking…his mother?"
Remus' already pale face seemed to whiten even more and his jaw tightened as he forced our a reply.
"She…she died." he said sadly and the woman nodded vigorously.
"Ah, I see, forgive me." she said, "Well, I see no reason to delay this any longer…both of you, sign here, here and here and you can take her home by the end of the day!"
Both men sighed a discreet breath of relief. Finally!
Only several hours later, Mimi was seated in the back seat of the same, expensive, black car that she watched roll into the courtyard magnificently from the classroom window only a short while ago.
She hugged Patchy closely to her chest as she watched the familiar orphanage building grow distant once more through the window, not altogether sure how to feel about this whole thing.
Sure, these guys seemed nice but then again, so did all her previous adopters. Just in case, she decided not to get all comfortable with them too soon.
Still, there was one, tiny hope in her heart. All her previous adoptive parents ended up bringing her back because she was weird. Well, these two were weirder than she could ever hope to be, maybe they'll be fine with it.
"So…" she finally spoke up when the orphanage was blocked completely out of sight by tall trees next to the highway, "Uh…can you explain stuff now, like you promised, Mr. Black?"
Sirius gave her a despairing look over his shoulder.
"Please don't call me that," he asked her, looking pitiful, "it makes me feel old."
"You are old." Mimi pointed out, making Remus chortle briefly, sobering up when his husband shot him a hurt glare.
Sirius then turned his gray eyes back at his new adopted daughter.
"I'm not old." he stated, "So don't go calling me Mr. Black."
"Can I call you Mr. Puppy?" Mimi perked up, making Sirius choke a little.
"No." he ground out, "Call me- uh…"
He reddened a bit as he ground it out, "…call me dad or something."
Mimi sobered up and looked away to stare through the window.
"Maybe later." she said, after a pause, "So, you gonna explain stuff or what? What was that Sheet-thing? And how come you can turn into a puppy? And what's with those little sticks? And-"
"Mimi," Remus interrupted her, a smile tugging at his lips as he caught the girl's dark-blue eyes in the rear view mirror, "Explaining all that stuff will take days and weeks and months. There's more to learn than you could've ever imagined. But there's one thing you should know before anything else ~ Sirius and me, we are both wizards. Those 'sticks' were our wands which I used to cure Sirius' hurt throat and that's why Sirius can turn into a dog."
Mimi blinked, her jaw dropping slightly at the unexpected, blunt explanation.
"I…I don't believe you!" she gasped out without thinking, unable to comprehend that something so awesome was possible, despite what she'd witnessed earlier.
"I thought you'd say that." Remus replied with a small smile before glancing at his husband, "Siri, could you cast the concealment charm?"
Sirius grinned, knowing what was next and pulled out his own wand, waving it in a circle as he clearly pronounced, "Obscuro!"
Mimi looked around but could see nothing different, but then the entire car suddenly buckled and then literally jumped into the air, climbing in height at a sharp angle from the highway.
Mimi sat frozen and shocked in her seat, watching the treetops slowly move down through the window and then disappear before she jumped up and glued herself to the window.
"We're FLYING!" she half-squealed, half-gasped, "Man, that is so cool! We're- we're really flying! Patchy, look how high we are!"
She turned to the very amused two men in the front seats.
"This is a magic car, isn't it?" Mimi said knowingly, causing Sirius to snicker.
"No kidding." he said amusedly, "A family friend fixed it up for us. And trust me, it only gets cooler from here. Now sit down and buckle up, missy. We're speeding up."
Mimi obeyed enthusiastically, squealing in delight as the car suddenly accelerated, the moment she was done putting on her seatbelt.
"This is so AWESOME!" she screamed happily as the magical car took her away to a new life of magic, secrets and adventure.
~End of Chapter One
Next Time:
"Most of the stuff we don't know what it's for," Sirius had said at one point, "we just stuff into the attic."
"Teddy, we're home!" Remus called out in a vaguely upward direction, "Come on down to meet someone!"
"No way can I sleep now, Patchy." she told her friend excitedly, "It's expedition time! I bet this house has secrets and I'm going to find them all out!"
PS: The recap and preview stuff is...meh, spur of the moment thing. I wanted to try something a little different. Let me know if it annoys you and I'll knock it off. Well - see you in a week or so...review, folks! Tell me what you hate or like! I'm always open to constructive criticism. ;)