Codename: People in Glass Houses shouldn't throw Stones ("Why don't they just charm the glass?" "Shut up James")
Sirius had definitely not imagined it. The water was rippling and swirling subtly in a way that his feet had not caused.
He sprang away from the lake shore, falling on his behind, his wand rolling out of his pocket. He landed heavily on one elbow and the impact jarred him, up his shoulder and along to his wrist.
There had been rumours that the Transfiguration professor before McGonagall had gotten into a competition with the Herbology professor at the time. The bets had started small- who could produce the biggest flower, who could find the softest texture. Who could create the smallest seed. They had escalated until finally, in a fit of rage that his superiority was questioned, the Transfiguration professor took a chunk of the forbidden forest (the Herbology professor's latest offering) and transformed it into a Giant Squid, which promptly dove into the Black Lake and inhabited it ever since.
Sirius prayed to Merlin that it wasn't the Giant Squid fancying a late night snack, and scrambled to his knees.
A tendril of water encircled his ankles and tugged gently, bringing him back to the waters edge. There were more and more, fingers and spirals and tentacles reaching out to clutch embrace and corral him. He felt himself scrape along the soil, his hands scrabbling but the land was giving way and was that a quiet ominous whooshing sound?
It was.
Squids didn't seem like they'd make that noise.
The water-tendrils were retreating and he hoped for all of three seconds it was a mermaid trying to have its wicked way with him until he noticed that his hands, which had previously been in moonlight, were in shadow.
Mermaids weren't that big.
Sirius stayed still, his pulse crashing in his ears, wanting to look and not wanting to look and wanting to look to see more than anything what was behind him so still and silent and a shadow. He wanted to bury his face into the dirt and hide and he wanted to know exactly what he was running from. He remained immobilised. Abraxas had told him, Walburga had told him, Bellatrix had shown him- he knew what was in the night and what was in the dark. He knew all about monsters and demons and spirits and curses- his father had called it toughening him up so he would be ready. But nothing prepared him for the moment he was on his hands and knees with his wand lying away with an unidentified Dark creature behind him.
He realised that nothing was happening. There was no movement, no breathing, absolute silence around him. A silence more silent than silence- a complete Deadening, save for his own life.
Sirius trembled, gulped in what could be his last lungful of air, and gave in to the fear. He slowly turned his head.
His first impression of was gleaming ink, navy blue and velvet indigo and black- rich slick wetness in the dark. His second was the burning hot air that the creature had just breathed down his spine.
It was a fucking massive horse with sentient eyes that glowed, a quiet green that flared and dimmed with the exhale.
He dimly felt the water tendrils reappear, snaking around his shoulders and turning him fully over. The horse was part of the Deadening, the cause of the Deadening, and without realising Sirius was moving forward, forward stepping up to reach out to the horse.
His mother's harpy voice chastised him in the back of his head- "Sirius Orion Black you disgraceful wretch! You bring dishonour to this family, see how easily it traps you, pathetic bloodtraitor" and he was half surprised he was grateful for the interjection because now his mouth was opening and his tongue was moving and
"What are you doing to me?"
So he could speak, but not break the spell, because that was what this must be- Magic. The horse lowered its forehead closer and closer, he would touch it any second, its green eyes still boring into his, glowing then fading with its breathing.
'I enslave your soul, son of man.'
The voice was like no-one's he had ever heard, low, rumbling, crackling with power, but oddly tinged .
At the last moment, he managed to twitch his bicep. His hand halted, jerking away from the horse's forehead.
"Kelpie!"
Naming your enemy does not usually work save in fairytales and folklore, but occasionally it is useful. Sirius was lucky- the giant horse stilled its descent to meet his hand and he had a moment to say the name twice more.
He then jumped back to why he had come here- Remus, the werewolf, how to stop him injuring himself, the water. Full moon- full moon, his wand!
He fell backwards, the water tendrils reaching to catch his fall but it was enough, his palm slamming down onto the twelve and a quarter inch rosewood. The Protego charm was up in a matter of eyeblinks.
Which could have been really slow or really fast, because the giant horse- Kelpie, Kelpie, he told himself- didn't blink at all.
In fact, it seemed to be regarding him with the same scrutiny that McGonagall sometimes gave him when she couldn't decide where he'd hidden Dungbombs on his person.
"You can't touch me now, right?" He laughed. Full moons were often used by Dark creatures to enchant and tempt foolish Muggles into their clutches.
The Kelpie bent its front legs and sank down into a folded neat thing on the shallow bottom of the lake. Its eyes never left Sirius.
But he was behind the Shield charm, so that should be OK. Whatever weird hypnosis thing it was trying would be ineffective.
He got a second good long look at the beast, this time without the compulsion to touch it, and wondered if this was what Remus looked like as a wolf, all sleek and rippling muscles and silent if deadly poise. Immediately he knew that that could not be so- the werewolf he had seen as a human was distinctly bestial in a primal, feral way.
As if thinking of him had summoned it, he heard a long wail reverb along the grounds. He stiffened, his feelings of safety from the Shield charm evaporating despite the idea that Remus was locked away securely in the Shrieking Shack. What if Remus got out? He didn't think he'd be able to make it back safely and Remus would be terrified when he changed back- what if he hurt him? Sirius may have been many things but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to look at Remus the same way if he hurt him or his wolf.
'That is not your kin, son of man.'
He turned back to the Kelpie incredulously.
"Did you just come into my thoughts?!" That wasn't anywhere in the Dark creatures handbooks- not that they were particularly useful other than how-they-might-kill-you-vs-how-you-kill-them.
The Kelpie remained silent. He looked at it from one angle and another, mistrustfully, but the eyes remained fixed on him, brightening and dimming with its breathing. Then, because this night couldn't get weirder already, he decided that on the off chance the Kelpie had actually been talking to him he was going to clarify things with the beast.
"You know what? Let's get a couple of things straight here! Remus is my friend and he has been my friend since first year. It's not his fault he's a werewolf, he was probably bitten and that can't have been fun. And he doesn't like being a werewolf he isn't proud of it! He's not a wolf most of the time so he can still be my friend and you are allowed to care about your friends so,so ...so there!"
The Kelpie's flanks heaved twice, huge flexes, then many smaller ones. It took Sirius a moment to realise that that could be technically construed as laughing. Did Dark creatures have a sense of humour?
'What ambitions have you, Son of Man?'
It was strange. The horse's mouth hadn't moved, but Sirius hadn't felt any kind of penetration that could be expected of a Legilimens- if a Dark creature could even do that.
He wasn't foolish enough to answer that. Goblins would barter with you and leave you fools gold, faeries would steal your children and trolls- well, very few conversations with trolls ever had a happy ending. Usually they got bored of whatever you were talking about and started hitting things. Unfortunate of you to be in the way.
He pivoted on one heel, intent on going back to the castle and the safety of his bed up in Gryffindor Tower, but the water-tendrils blocked his path. They were getting closer to the witching hour and the cloud cover was fading.
'What ambitions have you, Son of Man?'
It appeared Sirius' beauty sleep wouldn't be happening until he started talking again.
"I want- I want to help Remus, so he doesn't hurt himself. And right now I want to go to bed, and I want to stay true to myself." He added that last bit out of a paranoid hunch that the Kelpie might take it upon itself to transform him horribly or keep trying to enslave his soul.
It exhaled again, sides heaving, otherwise placid.
'I will strike a bargain. Your ambitions will be true, and I will call you again.'
Sirius wasn't entirely sure what the Kelpie got out of it and he was definitely reluctant to agree to anything that wasn't 15 pages of parchment triple signed and claused to death, but he had enough sense to realise that it was entirely probable he couldn't leave if he didn't agree.
"Deal."
Obligingly, the water-tendrils parted. Sirius bolted, and when he looked over his shoulder, sure that it would default on their makeshift agreement, the Kelpie was smoothing back into the lake, seamless and tranquil. The last things to submerge were the two glowing green eyes, that burned brighter with every breath in.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
When the door crashed open to the second year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, Peter bolted upright. James was already sitting at the end of his bed, cross legged and stiff.
"Jesus Christ!" Pete squawked.
The two of them looked down at the sodden mess gasping for breath on the floor. Then, tentatively, one of them poked it. It rolled over and became recognisable as Sirius.
"What happened to him?" Pettigrew wrung his hands, turning to James. James set his jaw grimly. He spoke with the voice of a boy who has seen much beyond his years.
"He tried to run all the way up the Tower."
Pete gasped, face going pale as his gaze flitted over his friend, who was currently engaged in a sort of Rimegar Advanced Yoga in an attempt to rid himself of a stitch.
"Mate, what happened?"
"One-" click "second" crack "please". Sirius was bent double, hands on his knees as he panted.
"Blimey, haven't seen you this knackered since Snape burned a hole in your cauldron." James sprung off the bed, arms unfolding and one hand reaching to give his friend a lift up back to the world of the Normal People.
With a sigh and one huge crick of his neck, Sirius finally righted himself.
"I just did possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life."
"Whaaaat?! Without us?!"
James' indignance soon abated as Sirius recounted the tale, his eyes glimmering with apprehension instead.
"Was it a male or a female horse?"
"Did it smell of fish?" Peter wanted to know.
"I don't know and no," Sirius replied, "I was only down there because I was hoping to figure out what to do about Remus."
"Maybe we should see what it says when it calls you again?"
"Pete, THAT would be the stupidest thing you've ever done in your life."
"Yeah hah, worse than your enchanted cutlery." (Peter had at one point in his life thought it would be fun to have dancing cutlery at the table- some relic of seeing rebellious Muggle children. The spoons just left bruises but the knives and forks could be down right vicious while stamping out a mambo.)
"Well, you obviously filled Pete in on our trip to the Hospital Wing this morning."
"Yeah James did. I was kinda thinking that it's not fai-"
"-fair for him to be chained up like that. I know. We have to go talk to him when he gets back into the Wing tomorrow."
James adjusted the glasses on his nose.
"I was thinking we could stupefy him and like, knock him out. That way if the wolf is unconscious too as well as Remus he won't fight and hurt Remus."
"Yeah but a werewolf is a lot bigger than a normal human being he'd need basically four or five Stunners at the same time- and if there are more of us that makes it more risky that one of us gets hurt."
"What about if we like laid out meat to make sure it was happy and not hungry? Dogs go to sleep after they've eaten right?"
"Yeah but Pomfrey and Gaius would notice and I think we are all in agreement that we don't want them to know we know because then we would not be allowed within 20 miles of that shack."
"Also there is the small fact that it might want to find more meat and try and break out and go hunting." James nodded seriously.
"Wolf treadmill? So it can run and run and get exhausted and not hurt Remus?"
"NO!" "Not so keen on that one."
"Well ok, what about... nah- that would be risky."
"Keep thinking lads, we'll find something soon."
Sirius was the first of the three to excuse himself and draw his curtains. As much as they wanted to help Remus right this instant now, he knew he would be brighter in the morning. Plus that brush with the weird horse thing and the subsequent run had knocked him flat big time.
Peter followed him, leaving James to sit up in his bed, thumb polishing his glasses with a rag, a faraway look in his eye.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Remus was returned to classes two days later, without much ceremony. He looked as pale as every other full moon recovery, not saying much, trying to catch up on the days he had missed. James wondered why the teachers weren't more understanding of his condition when he clearly couldn't do homework on certain nights.
He grinned to the other Gryffindors and at lunch made a show of being able to juggle grapes, a feat which so greatly impressed Marlene that she had a go and ended up losing a few in her hair and down her shirt. Remus blushed, embarrassed as she tried to find them, hands patting herself all over.
"wait wait I got one!" she crowed exuberantly, giving a harder slap to double check- her face quickly fell into a look of horror as she realised she had squished the grape against her skin.
Sirius was stuffing his knuckles into his mouth to control his laughter, and one look at the other Gryffindors was enough to set them off til even Marlene relaxed and found the humour in it.
They went back to the tower to exchange their books before the afternoon lessons and chill in the common room. James challenged a third year to a game of exploding snap, perhaps somewhat foolishly claiming that his glasses protected him from losing any eyebrows. The third year simply waited until he was fully immersed in the game before hexing him with unstoppable hair growth.
One of the prefects, Maconia Creevey, was summoned to undo the damage after James was sitting in what appeared to be a miniature bathtub of hair.
"Cheers Creevey!" He smiled, after she took out her wand and got to work with a slicing spell. He would later swear to Remus that he had been terrified she'd accidentally nick his balls.
But all of this couldn't help but feel like biding time for Sirius, filler until they got to the part where they could actually talk to Remus in private and let him know they knew.
That part came sooner than expected- Remus declared that he still wasn't quite over that flu and he was going to stay behind from dinner but that the fat lot of pigs they were had better bring some good things back for him. James therefore looked at Sirius intently and threatened him to "Make good your Most Noble House of Black knowledge somehow and find the Chief Overlord Fat Pig the best meats divine." Sirius promptly told him to stop acting poncy and stick it where the sun don't shine, before winking soppily at Remus and taking his broom to fly -illegally- along the corridors to the pear.
The two house-elves who were present when he tickled the pear bobbed up and down and asked him how Master Lupin liked his steak. Sirius went to say 'done', but stopped for a second. "Rare as you can", he finally muttered, "and can we have lots of cinnamon buns too. They're restorative for my health they are."
It is a little known fact that the house-elf chefs of Hogwarts Kitchen can give nutrition advice more reliable than any practitioner on Harley St or Healer at St Mungo's. Dusty, a middle aged female with a heart shaped, wrinkly face, peered up at Sirius to inform him he needed two tomatoes in the next week or he was going to catch a cold. Her friend, Mops, nudged her slightly, til she added he also had better find some prawns and bananas because he was due to have a potassium deficiency in the upcoming month and his shellfish resilience needed improving.
Sirius cocked an eyebrow but approved the steaming piles of food they laid out for him eagerly. They would be transported by Elf magic up to the second year boys' dormitory to help heal the sick young Master Lupin.
The food beat him back up the tower, but only just, and all four boys tucked in greedily. Peter gave a moan, cheeks bulging with steamed bun, eyes drifting shut in pleasure. James looked as though manna was falling from heaven. Only Remus came up short for a moment, quizzically examining the 'rare' steak that the Elves had brought. It was practically still bleeding.
He looked around the room and upon seeing that everyone else was engaged with their food - (Pete was serenading his) dug into the steak and kale. Remus thought it might just be the best food he'd ever eaten.
Sirius waited until their bellies were bulging before clearing his throat and looking meaningfully at James and Peter. James immediately refocused but Pete looked a little dazed still and he guessed that was ok, as soon as Sirius spoke he'd be back with them.
"Um, Remus?"
The werewolf smiled lazily at them, flopped stomach down on his bed. "Yeah?"
"So... couple days ago James and I snuck into the Hospital wing to see you, and we overheard Madam Pomfrey and Master Gaius talking."
Remus bolted upright, and his eyes were wild. Sirius noticed with alarm that his legs were shaking slightly.
"Oh god. You know."
"We know." They chorused. Remus rubbed his face with one hand.
"I totally understand if I need to move, I'm so sorry I really didn't like hiding it from you guys and I've never hurt anyone and-"
"Never hurt anyone except yourself", James interjected, "We heard about the three bottles of Skele-Grow. Three bloody bottles!"
"We have been over that one James, move on."
"Why don't you move on! You need to grow up and be more... serious... ba dum dum dooosh." They all habitually groaned. Sirius/serious puns had been the height of humour for about a month of first year but once you had overplayed it there really was no going back.
"So... I'm not out?"
"Out? No way! Who would get Flitwick into an academic debate as a diversion when we swap the Slytherin's owl post? Who else is dumb enough to try and tell Lily that James isn't an absolute prat? Who else can eat five Vanishing Sausages back to back and still feel where the first one is?!"
"Not my finest hour," Remus demurred, but he was thumped on the back. "Still pretty impressive!"
"Look, Rem. You've been an all round great guy since we got here, but it was going to take more than 'my grandma is sick again' to stop us figuring out it was the same time, once a month. You and the Healers just gave us the proof we needed, right from the Griffon's mouth. We know it mustn't be easy but we wanted to be here and like, do what we could to help you out. And maybe y'know, do an awesome prank once a month to help disguise your absence."
Remus blinked rapidly and on closer inspection Sirius saw the approach of TEARS.
"You guys are fucking brilliant imbeciles."
"Huh?"
"Was that...insult or...?"
"I dunno- anyways, tell us what it's like. We know you're hurting yourself and we were thinking up ways for the wolf to not hurt you. So far the best one we've come up with is Stunning you, which seems pretty shite to be honest."
Remus gave a short description of the transformation, which rippled down the spine and spread outwards, like something inside him was being unzipped and released out into the night. Chains, he said, were not good. Really not good. He might not be able to move around as much, but that meant the wolf was more persistant at worrying what he could reach of himself. This full moon he had taken to biting on the chains so hard that when Remus woke up two of his teeth were cracked through and Madam Pomfrey had needed to replace them.
Stunning had been the way Remus had transformed before he came to Hogwarts, but the mental repression of the wolf led to it bleeding and seeping into his mental faculties the rest of the time. James had listened incredulously, not entirely sure what he meant. "It's not", and here Remus swallowed, because it was hard for him, "Its not like there's two separate beings in me, me-Remus and the wolf, and the wolf only comes out in the full moon. The wolf is me and if I don't give that part of me its sufficient dues then it hurts me the rest of the time."
Pete flicked his eyes up "is that why you get so out of it before the moon?"
Remus, to their surprise, blushed.
"The moon is like... the moon is like, a Siren."
Peter still looked confused but James swore that they were "all extinct now and have been for years. The last one interbred and produced a Muggle singer called Adele, I promise!"
"It's like- the way it glows and calls to me is the sweetest thing on earth, and resisting it is so hard."
"Sweeter than Honeydukes stock?" That was Peter, ever dubious and fiercely loyal to Hogsmeade confectionery.
"Yeah. Sweeter than that. Like the best chocolate-whipple-marshmallow-sugarquill-knickerbocker-whizzing sundae ever,"
Remus looked up dreamily, instinctively seeking the light, "but soft and gentle- like a mother's hands."
Sirius quirked an eyebrow, a 'can you believe the sap of this guy' over to the other two Gryffindors, but it appeared his childhood experiences of a mothers hands were different to theirs because if they had looked sceptical before they were now totally on board with Remus' description.
"I get that way when I look at my broom sometimes."
They laughed, and the conversation moved to Quidditch and how the Chudley Cannons were definitely going to win the tournament this year and how James was a big fat liar because Puddlemere United was looking hot, and anyway Peter was going to Keep them all out of the water.
Sirius grinned, enjoying the company of his friends, until his eyes focused on the window behind the four poster beds and the fading dusk outside. The Kelpie had never been far from his mind, and he was sure, even now as he tossed aside his prejudices for Remus, that the Dark Creature lurked waiting to trap him.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A/N: Thank you so much for reading, hope you like it! ~featheredblades
