6

Never in all the years that he had been locked away from any semblance of a normal life had Sirius ever imagined that he would feel as happy again as he did now. Even confined mainly to the cottage, the garden and the pump house, he nonetheless felt a freedom that was as sweet, delicious and precious to him as the memories that had kept him going through a time of his life he was increasingly coming to regard as the Dark Years. Penance years. Years filled with nothing but loneliness, isolation, misery, hopelessness and despair. Years that he was doing everything in his power to excise from his memory.

He was running out of superlatives to describe his experience of everything that had been denied him for so long - the sky seemed so much bluer, the sun so much brighter, the air fresher and the trees greener. Every day he was amazed by the thrill he felt at such simple things - seeing a butterfly landing on one of Ariadne's lavender plants; hearing the call of the birds first thing in the morning and as they flocked to their nests at night; savouring the scents of freshly ground coffee, pot roast and hot buttered toast; the taste of chocolate, honey, sponge cake and apples picked straight from a tree that Ariadne had planted herself.

But more than all those things, more than any kind of conscious external experience was the simplest thing in the world, something that most people took for granted.

To wake up in the morning and feel the weight and warmth of her beside him; to feel her arm around his waist or resting against his chest; to see her smile as she opened her eyes and kissed him softly as though he were the most precious thing in the world to her; to hear her breathy confessions of how much she loved him as they moved so rhythmically, so perfectly together as though they were one heart, one mind, one soul; never tiring of each other from the time the sun set until it painted the sky with fire again at dawn. Having Ariadne back again was worth more than anything else his freedom could possibly have brought him.

The more time he spent with her, the deeper his feelings grew and the more determined he became to make what they were trying to do work. If it did, they could finally be together properly. They would have a home, a life, and so would Harry. The thought of seeing his face when they would tell him that he could finally leave the Dursley's and have two people in his life who would love and care for him as much as his own parents had left Sirius with a fluttering, restless anxiety in the pit of his stomach that made the waiting for Lucius' letter all the more agonising.

As much as he would have liked this temporary calm to last, he knew that, like all good things, it had to end sometime.

Very soon, it did…with the arrival of a large snow-white owl.

Ariadne had been crouched among the echinacea and rosemary, weeding the flower beds with a few withering charms while Sirius was down in the stream giving Buckbeak a bath when Malfoy's owl landed on top of the picket fence.

It sat there with its head held high, looking quite indifferent as it displayed its enormous wingspan while it waited for Ariadne to remove the parchment that was tied to its leg. She conjured an owl treat with her wand and offered it to the bird, but it turned its head away in a gesture that was almost disgust.

'Just like the rest of the Malfoys, aren't you?' she told it. It refused to move from the fence until she finally managed to find a mouse to offer it instead. The owl flapped its wings and grabbed the unfortunate creature in its talons as it took off, soaring up through the tree canopy into the bright blue morning sky above.

Ariadne unrolled the parchment and glanced at the few ornately written words before she rolled it back up again and started to run down from the garden towards the stream.

Although he was supposed to have been bathing Buckbeak, it appeared as though Sirius had been getting the soaking. Buckbeak was running happily back and forth through the water, squawking, stamping his talons, swishing his tail and flapping his huge wings, creating a mini waterspout in the centre of the pool while Sirius, soapy brush and wand in hand, was trying desperately, but unsuccessfully, to catch him. Like Buckbeak, Sirius was soaked through, his hair dripping wet and his clothes clinging to him like a second skin.

'Beaky, get back here!' he yelled, just when he lost his footing on the slime-covered stones again and slipped beneath the water.

Buckbeak squawked loudly, the closest he could probably get to laughing, as Sirius pulled himself up, running his hands through his hair and wiping the sheets of water from his face.

'You just wait! You bloody bird….when I get hold of you, Beaky…I'm warning you! That's the last ferret you're getting, you hear me? I'm not chasing down ferrets or voles or rats anymore for you! You can catch your own or live on the damn grass!'

The weight that had settled in the pit of her stomach when the letter had arrived somehow didn't seem quite so heavy anymore as she sat down on a pile of stones to watch them, a bemused smile on her face.

Sirius gave up and started crawling up the embankment, his jeans and t-shirt sodden and covered with mud, his hair hanging in thin, wet clumps over his face.

'Buckbeak enjoyed his bath then, huh?' Ariadne grinned as he stumbled towards her.

'Ah, he can stink if he wants to,' he said, flopping down on the stones beside her. 'Bloody bird…he just won't get any potential mates to take him seriously while he smells like a cross between a latrine and a dog with wet fur. And I refuse to ride him while he stinks like that…You hear me, Beaky?' He raised his voice to the Hippogriff. 'I refuse to come anywhere near you! That includes meal times!'

Buckbeak cawed softly as he picked his way through the mud, lowered his head and pushed his beak up against Sirius' arm. Sirius resisted for a while, until Buckbeak started pushing him harder and nipping at him. Only then did Sirius' frown melt away into a long-suffering smile and he reached up to scratch the Hippogriff's silky feathered head. 'You know, Beaky, you're lucky you saved me and I owe you. Else I'd put you out to pasture for being a pain in the arse.'

Buckbeak bent his scaly front legs and laid down, resting his head in Sirius' lap, cawing softly in the back of his throat.

'Aw, you shouldn't tease him so much,' said Ariadne. 'He loves you, you know.'

'Got a funny way of showing it,' he said with a wry smile as he leaned over him, hugging his huge, feathered head and scratching the back of his neck. He looked over at the parchment clutched in Ariadne's hand. 'I take it by the frown that's what we've been waiting for.'

She nodded and handed him the parchment.

Sirius let it roll open as he held it in his left hand, still scratching Buckbeak with his right, as he read it.

Dear Ariadne,

Look in the Daily Prophet tomorrow morning. Further documentation will be sent then. If all is satisfactory, please owl me as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made for the meeting we discussed.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely,

Lucius Malfoy.

Sirius finished reading and handed the parchment back to Ariadne.

For a long while he remained silent, just scratching Buckbeak's head as he stared out across the pool towards the stream that babbled happily through the trees.

'Are you all right?' Ariadne asked, slipping her hand over his knee. 'You haven't said anything for - '

'I'm fine,' he murmured, 'I just feel…I don't know…strange, I suppose. It's been so long, I've gotten used to living like this…just you, me and Beaky, and now…' He shrugged, helpless to find the words that could truly convey how he was feeling, 'I suppose maybe I'm a bit - '

'Frightened?'

He looked at her, a shadow of a tired smile on his face as he nodded.

She moved her hand to cover his and gently squeezed his fingers. 'It's all right to feel that way. You've been through so much, Sirius. I know that this isn't going to be easy, but you have me, you have Harry and you even have Dumbledore behind you now, not to mention Harry's friends and Remus, too. We all believe in you. We all know you're innocent. That has to count for something.'

'What about Beaky? He's still under a death sentence.'

'I'm sure that the Ministry will have far more important things than a Hippogriff on their minds as soon as they realise that You-Know-Who is on his way back. Do you think that anything Malfoy says, or has said in the past, is going to be important once everyone realises what he is?'

'I doubt it will be that simple.'

'And you've no reason to believe it won't be. Don't worry so much. Buckbeak will be fine. Neither of us will let anything happen to him. If the worst happens, then we'll just come back and hide out here. I've done okay all these years.'

He still harboured some concerns, but her reassurances had eased the knot of tension that had lodged itself deep in his gut and for that, he was grateful. He leaned closer to her, resting his head against her shoulder, as she moved her hand softly over his back. It was good to be close to someone again. To be comforted. Reassured. Someone to share the burdens he'd had to bear alone for so long.

'Everything is going to be fine, Sirius. I promise you. Things are going to be so much better than you could ever have dreamed and one day, you're going to look back on all this and smile. Really you will.'

It was easy, sitting there in the warmth of a late August afternoon, with the woman he loved beside him and Buckbeak asleep in his lap, to believe that.

But he also knew that more dark days would come before the light he craved so desperately would finally dawn.