A Sirius Unicorn
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.
Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW! IT CAN BE MY EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT:)
lloollliippoopp: I'm trying to continue with it on a regular basis. My updates may vary, but I'm trying to get a new chapter up at least twice a month now. Thanks for asking. I'd appreciate any feedback you could give.
DestinyStarPrincess: two words, THANK YOU! a lot:)
Chapter Six. Intervention
Athena looked very nervous at the intensity in James's last statement, "Tell us everything." Could she do that? The answer was almost definitely a no. After all, she had only met them a few days ago. Granted she knew one of their deepest darkest secrets and she didn't want them coming to their own conclusions about her, but were they really ready for this?
"I'm not so sure I can James." She finally said. He seemed taken back a bit by her forcefulness and looked to Sirius to intervene.
Sirius slowly turned to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Listen Athena, I'm not exactly sure James said it in the nicest way, but just as we have some explaining to do, so do you. So...Pllllllllllllllease!" Sirius finished jumping onto the floor in front of her and got into a typical begging stance. It seemed he really was a dog.
Athena couldn't help but smile. Even at a time like this, Sirius managed to make light of the situation. James even smirked a little at his friend's interrogation method.
Taking a deep sigh, Athena finally mumbled, "All right, I'll tell you two, and you can tell Remus when he's better, but don't tell Peter. Just tell him that I found a Unicorn hair and made a Polyjuice Potion with it so I could follow all of you. And," she said as they looked like they were about to start celebrating, "you have to tell me your story first. And, I insist that we all make an unbreakable vow of secrecy about what is to be revealed," she added as an afterthought.
At the mention of an unbreakable vow, Sirius and James looked less thrilled, but they agreed. James said, "We'll need to wait until Moony is here to do the vow. How about we head up to the hospital wing?"
Athena nodded and the three of them set off, each one too lost in their own thought for speech.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Athena couldn't believe it was only the second day of school! Her first day had been incredible. What would the second day hold? A transfer Thestral student? A three-headed giant dog named 'Fluffy'? Athena snorted at the idea. Where the heck had that come from?
Sirius and James glanced her way at the outburst, but said nothing. It was a little disconcerting to be among a quiet Sirius and James.
When they re-entered the hospital wing, they found Lupin sitting up quietly on a blindingly white hospital bed staring out through the window opposite him looking contemplative. About what, Athena had a pretty good idea.
When he saw them enter, a look of panic formed on his face and he quickly asked, "No one was bitten, were they?"
"Nope, although we do have some stuff to talk about with Athena here." James said as the three of them sat down on the bed next to Remus's.
"It has something to do with a Unicorn, am I right?" Lupin said glancing at Athena with his amber/brown eyes sparkling.
"Yea," this time it was Sirius who spoke up. "But Athena is forcing us to do an unbreakable vow before we reveal anything to each other, so we needed you. Are you feeling up to traveling to the Room of Requirement?"
"What's the R-" Athena began.
"It's a room that turns into whatever you need it to be, and right now, we need a place where no one will disturb us." Sirius said, glancing at Athena, a hint of reassurance in his stormy eyes.
"What about Peter?"
All three pairs of eyes turned to Athena at Remus's question. "Yea 'Thena', why aren't you letting Wormtail in on our little meeting?" James accusingly asked.
"Because I don't trust him. That's all you need to know for now. Are you ready to go Remus?"
Curiosity seemed to get the better of the boys, and with a quick swig of Pepperup Potion, Remus got out of bed and the four of them ambled quietly out of the hospital wing. No need to incur the wrath of Madam Pompfrey twice in one day they all reasoned.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Room of Requirement was, at the moment, a comfy common room, complete with snacks of carrot cake, apples, chocolate, and many other sugary edibles. The room seemed to be catering to Sirius and Athena's sweet teeth and Remus's chocolate fixation. There were four comfy chairs facing each other and a magical window was emitting a bright wave of comforting light onto the foursome's shoulders.
"Alright, everyone pull out your wand," James directed. They each silently complied, holding their wands out in the center of the circle as if they were about to say something like "Go TEAM!".
"Athena Skydancer, do you swear to keep the Marauder's secret?" James said, his voice solemn and his expression dead serious.
"I swear it."
Upon her words, a pale green glow emanated from all their wands then disappeared as if on a breeze. Athena cleared her throat to regain the Marauder's attention and said in the same tone James had used, "Do you, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, swear to keep my, Athena Skydancer's secret."
The three boys looked at each other and then looked back to Athena and said in unison, "We solemnly swear."
Once again, the wands glowed that pale green and then returned to normal. No one said anything for a moment. Then Sirius clasped his hands together said, "Wow, that was intense, almost like we were all getting married or something. Are we going to get to the part of telling each other are secrets now, or what?"
That snapped everyone out of their thoughts. Athena immediately gave a pointed look to James who decided he'd better start it off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We found out in our second year, that Remus here was a Werewolf. He was always going off to visit his sick mom and coming back all beat up."
"When Prongsie here pointed this out to Peter and me, I suggested that we investigate."
"Sirius's intelligent idea, was to follow me on one of my visits."
"It turned out that it wasn't so bright an idea, because after we nearly got killed by that stupid tree, we were almost bitten by Remus himself, who had just transformed. We all hightailed it back to our common room screaming for our lives, it's a wonder we didn't wake up the whole castle. Especially since Wormtail was screaming like a little girl."
"No Padfoot, that was you."
"Can it Jamie, or I'll bite you next full moon."
"As if you could!"
"Enough you two! We need to finish the story." Sirius and James quickly shut up and began making faces behind Remus's back. "So anyway, I confronted them the next day and I found out that they didn't care I was a Werewolf. Heck-they even thought it was neat! The only problem was, they wanted to be with me when I changed, and that was too dangerous, so we devised a safe way."
"Between James's transfiguration skills, my potion skills and Moony's research, we became unregistered animagi at the beginning of our fifth year. The first of us to transform was Prongs here."
"That was quite a shock, let me tell you! Antlers coming out the top of your head is bound to make anyone uneasy."
"Uneasy is a nice way to phrase that, as I recall, you passed out cold."
"Shut up Moony, I thought you were too sophisticated to make fun of people."
"I only give credit where credit is due."
"Ok, before I start sounding like Moony, let's finish the story."
"What are you talking about Pads? It's done. Unless she couldn't figure out that you became a bloody dog and Peter became a squeaky rat!"
"Alright Prongs, NOW ITS BLOODY DONE! Happy?"
"Very."
"So Athena, what do you have to say to that?" Sirius asked looking apprehensive. She noticed that now that they were done recounting their exploits, they all seemed a bit apprehensive, especially Remus.
"First off, W-O-W! Becoming unregistered animagi, on your own, at the age of fifteen is amazing! Secondly, even if we hadn't done the unbreakable vows, your secret would be safe would me. I know we've only met recently, but I really do trust you guys and I hope you feel the same for me. The reason I didn't invite Peter is because I don't trust him. I really am a Unicorn, and as such, I have the power to read a person's aura. His is negative which means there's something amiss with him."
Leaning back in her chair, Athena gave them a second to digest all of this before she looked back to Remus and said in a quieter tone, "Remus, it makes no difference to me that you're a Werewolf. I knew it the moment I met you two days ago. You've been one of the nicest humans I've met so far." Sirius huffed a little and pretended to look hurt.
"Sirius, you've been the most interesting human I've met so far." They all, minus Sirius of course, laughed at this.
"I'm sure she meant that in a positive way Padfoot." Remus said playfully before walking over to Athena and giving her a hug. He lingered a little and as he pulled away, whispered in her ear, "Thanks, you don't know what it means to me to hear someone say that."
Athena gave him a thoughtful nod and said, "Well, I suppose I should give you all a little background on myself, seeing as how we don't want to waste those lovely spells."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I was born four hundred fifty-eight years ago, the only filly of Queen Arabella Skydancer. My father was a Black Unicorn named Anikon.
Black Unicorns are very rare, and are known for their reckless behavior and their roguishness. So naturally, my mother fell hopelessly in love with Anikon despite my grandmother, Alanair's warnings against their relationship.
Just as Alanair had predicted, my father left my mother. I never even got a chance to meet him before he took off. My mother didn't like to talk about him much, but I always got the feeling that she never stopped loving him. Anyway...
I grew up in two different castles, Summer Palace and Winter Stronghold. I attended the Academy for Unicorns at Spring Meadows and often went on trips with my friends to Autumn Acres. Summer Palace will always be my favorite place though. It's a beautiful pearl white castle that overlooks much of the mystical Black Forest and has acres of lush, emerald fields of grass and flowers surrounding it. I suppose the only way to really describe it-is that it's simply magical.
My best friend is a young royal bodyguard named Aramos. You actually remind me of him Sirius. Although, he's quite a bit older than you and not as funny. He liked to think he was funny though. He's...umm..I think he's going on his five hundred sixty-second birthday this year, but I'm not sure, it gets confusing.
How I came to be here is a rather long and in depth story, but I'll try.
Aramos and me had gone on a vacation to Autumn Acres. On our way back, we were ambushed by these dark wizards. We made a stand and were reinforced by the captain of the Royal guard, Adair. We then rushed back to Summer Palace and my mother told me that the dark wizard, Voldemort, was behind this. He wanted the Unicorns for his allies, and if he didn't get his way, he wanted us destroyed.
My mother revealed to me an ancient prophesy made by Alanair at my mother's birth. It profesized the end of the Unicorn Queens and possibly that of all Unicorns. My mom thought the time had come. She ordered Aramos to escort me to Hogwarts where I would be tutored and watched over by her old friend, Albus Dumbledore. She also gave me the mythical ring of the goddess Athena to become human whenever I wore it.
What has become of my mother, I don't know. She vowed to... hold off Voldemort while Adair led the rest of the Unicorns to safety at Winter Stronghold. I can only hope that it never came to that. Aramos and I left that night and here I am." She finished, unshed tears lingering in her eyes at the thought of her mother and the fate of her Unicorns. She looked up to meet the eyes of the Marauders, but they all looked rather shell-shocked.
"Guys, please say something!" She begged. A single silver tear found its way onto her plush armchair as all three boys stood up.