Challenge
Sev and Sirius cried for a while, hugging each other. Remus remained silent, maintaining absolute discretion.
Now we do have reconciled, Sev thought. By doing something like this he more than pays his debt and we seal a pact of eternal friendship, I already consider him on the same level as Remus.Who could have said it?My tormentors are becoming my best friends.
I really want to tell him that I wanted to become a Death Eater and feel forgiven by him too. And something else, tell them both about Lauren, I can do it without revealing who she is. They will understand in a few words like Lily thing, they will not ask me for more explanations than I can give them and they will also give me good advice. I'm going to talk about both things.
When he calmed down, Black said to him, still hugging him, "Well, then you are in charge of talking to the old man about the subject, so that he can inform himself at the Ministry and tell me what I should do before the term ends, or you can tell me in the summer, in case I have to go to the Ministry during it. Hopefully we can get it up and running next year."
"Okay, Sirius, I'll talk to him and we'll do it like this."
"If you already know something, tell me next Saturday at the Quidditch match."
"Even if James comes?"
"Of course, even if James comes," the Gryff replied. "I haven't told him anything yet because I wanted to talk about it with you first, but I plan to tell him if you agree."
"Okay, you can tell him if you want."
"I won't tell him about Lily's Potions position."
"No, not that, for the moment," Sev answered.
"Well, it wouldn't be bad if he knew the whole truth about the subject."
"But it would be revealing to him in a way that Lily and I have been in contact all year, and I think he would feel betrayed. We are going to stop seeing each other throughout the summer, I prefer to wait until next year, when I can strengthen the relationship with him more and perhaps he has found another person, to tell him the truth, or perhaps never tell him, so that he thinks it was you and Remus who have helped me get her back."
"Very well, very clever, we will do it as you see fit," Black agreed. "I also wanted to talk to you about finding another person for James."
"Okay, but we'll leave it for later, first I want to tell you something."
"Go ahead."
Sev separated from Sirius, who continued to hold him by his shoulders. He said to him, looking into his eyes, "I want to tell you something about myself that Remus already knows and you deserve to know too."
"You don't need to tell me anything, Sev," denying, very sweet. "I already know what you're going to tell me."
"You say it, then."
Black sighed. How intuitive he is, he can already guess everything just by looking at me, Sev thought.
"No, I don't want you to think about it now, I don't want to make you feel bad," Sirius said.
"But I need to clarify that between us."
"Okay, I'll say it. You could have been on the other side."
He has been kind enough not to mention the fateful word, thought Sev. "That is."
"When did the idea occur to you?"
"After the Shrieking Shack."
"Dreaming of taking revenge on us," the Gryff deduced.
"Indeed."
"Then it wasn't your fault, it was mine too."
Oh… maybe that's why he didn't want to talk about it, he feels guilty too. "No, Sirius, I kept thinking about it for a long time."
Sev cried again and Sirius hugged him again. "Ugh, Sev... I already told you not to talk about it, I'm giving you a lot of trouble today, I was hoping we'd have a good time. How long is a long time for you?"
"Until October of this year."
"Until you could be with Lily again."
"That is."
"Did you talk to anyone about it during all that time?" Black asked.
"I didn't."
"Then it's normal, you were alone, you had no one to advise you well and you had lost all motivation in life thinking that you had lost her. As soon as you got your friend back you gave up on the idea."
"It's not like that," Sev denied. "Until the end of last year, Lily always tried to convince me to leave the snakes and I didn't listen to her, and during the month of July we saw each other as friends and I continued to think so anyway. In October I didn't give up because she was my friend again, but because I knew she loved me."
"Well, what does that matter? The important thing is that you did it, and not for others, but for yourself. You would have suffered the unspeakable by becoming a murderer, because I am sure that sooner or later you would have regretted being one. You forget who you're talking to, I'm not scared at all, you know my whole family are Voldemort supporters and my fifteen year old brother is probably already training with them. I could have been in your place myself, I was saved by meeting James on the Express. Maybe if we hadn't had that run-in as soon as we met, if we had been decent people and the four of us had become friends in that compartment, your life would have been very different. Forget the issue, come on, you have more than compensated for an evil that you never did, now you will not be able to live in peace until we put an end to it, and all so that the rest of us can do it."
"Yes, Sirius, I am going to live in peace, thanks to you."
"You don't know how relieved I feel."
How good, how quickly he understood everything, he better than anyone, because he was the trigger, although I think he had already thought about the issue. Sirius also knows the human soul perfectly, he is extraordinary, he makes exceptional and very accurate assessments with a few pieces of information. I adore him, more and more.
Sirius continued to hold him until he recovered.
Sev pulled away from him. "There is something else I want to talk to you about, that worries me and I haven't wanted to tell you before."
"Well..." Remus said.
"I feel a little bad, I'm taking up all your attention with my problems."
"Don't worry about that, Sev, that's what friends are for, today for you and tomorrow for me," said Black. "Come on, go ahead."
"I can't give you many details and I may not be able to answer the questions you ask me."
"Don't think about it so much, Sev, it's okay," Remus said patiently. "Come on, go ahead."
"I have another relationship that I have also abandoned and it is longer in time."
"Okay, I'll ask you. Respond to what you can."
"Go ahead."
"How long have you known her?" Lupin asked.
"Since first year."
"And when did you fall in love?"
"In January," Sev answered.
"In the wake of?"
"Enter direct contact."
"Has there already been intercourse since then?" Remus continued.
"It hasn't."
"Has there been at all?"
"Yes," the Sly confirmed.
"Since when?"
"Since the beginning of June."
"Does Lily know all this?" Lupin asked.
"Of course."
"Okay, okay, that's love. As much time as I have been with Cecile and without intercourse for months. And you didn't fall in love with her because of her physical appearance, otherwise you would have loved her since you met her."
"Of course not," Sev confirmed.
"Take time too."
"But I'm not going to see her all summer."
"Yeah. Then spend more time as friends between now and the end of the term if you can afford it," Remus recommended. "After all, this is how you have been for months without anything else. Were you comfortable?"
"Yes a lot. In fact, things started to break down precisely when we considered having something else."
"Yeah. Then maybe it's not convenient for you to have anything else with her, take the summer time to think about it."
"Ugh... But she has been in love with me since first year," Sev objected.
"Wow…" very surprised. "What are you saying?"
"What you are hearing."
"What a story... How did you leave that information out, Sev? That changes everything. Almost as long as you have loved Lily," very admired. "She loved you and you loved Lily, what a triangle, worthy of a good novel. Did you know it?"
"I didn't, I found out shortly after coming into contact."
"Wow, Sev. That is also forever, even more dedicated than you to Lily, because Lily at least was your friend, but that girl didn't expect anything from you. Who initiated the contact?"
"She did."
"With pretensions?"
"Just be friends," Sly responded.
"Don't fail her. Remain her friend at all costs and take time to regain the feeling you had for her. She will also give it to you, you are her eternal love and she has finally won you over, two months for her means nothing. What do you think, Sirius?"
"Booff… I don't have experiences of such long-term relationships," Black responded.
"I don't have them either, Sirius, but I get an idea."
"Because you have also lived a lot through novels and movies, but you already know that I haven't. But I can tell you, Sev, that two months of separation is not a big deal, at least it won't be for you, with everything you want to do they will fly by. Can you write to each other?"
Ugh… Sirius can already smell who she is, later I'll ask them if they've guessed. "Yes, we can."
"Well, that's it, take care of her by letter."
"Well, you already have our opinion, Sev," Remus said. "Do you agree with us that that's what you should do?"
"Yes I do."
"Do you have any pending issues left?"
"Yes, to ask you if you have guessed who it is," said the Sly.
"I have, Sev," Remus told him, with absolute conviction.
"Me too," replied Sirius.
"Booff… I've already screwed it up."
"Why?" Sirius said. "I already knew it."
"And I smelled it and I'm an occlumant," Remus said.
"But not Sirius."
"But you already know that I'm not going to let them read me, Sev, neither the bad ones, nor the good ones," Sirius said. "Worry more about her. Is she an occlumant?"
"Yes, she is."
"Well, that's it, matter settled."
"How did you know, Sirius?" Sev asked.
"One of my girls, a Huffle from our year, told me that you had conjured twin Patronuses in Defense class and that everyone hallucinated."
"Well yes, I screwed it up, half the school must already know that. How did you guess, Remus?"
"Because of something you told me one day and because of the dates, the Potions act," Remus replied.
"She also screwed it up."
"Don't worry, Sev, it won't get out of here," Black told him, unconcerned. "Another thing is what people think they know, rumors die down just as they come on. More worries?"
"No, but an order for you, if you can and it is not too much to ask."
"Ask."
"Do you have a way to get the addresses of as many Voldemort supporters as possible when you go to your house to pick up your things?" the Sly asked.
"Of course, I was already thinking of doing it, copying my parents' entire agenda."
"Wow, Sirius... What a triumph! You're the best! I love you!" Sev hugged Sirius and kissed him on his face.
"Hey... take it off, take it off... not in public, I'll lose my fame," Black said.
They laughed.
"We already have a spy. By the way, where do you live?" Sev asked.
"In London, Grimmauld Place, twelve."
"Oh, how strange, in London. Almost all wealthy families live in manors."
"I live in a very big and very old house too, huh?" Black said. "It has three floors, it could fit four or five families like mine. I hate my house, it's gloomy, dark, old. You don't know how much I want to lose sight of it forever."
"Nothing, Sirius, you just have to spend a while there and never set foot there again in your life."
"Surely not, because my parents are going to disinherit me. It will remain for my dear little brother."
"Do you know whose idea the addresses were, apart from yours, of course?"
"Whose?" asked the Gryff.
"Of that little girl you see flying. When she graduates she wants to go find each Death Eater at his own home to snack him."
"Wooow… and she is in third year," deeply admired.
"She is brave, the bravest," Sev too. "Do you know who Hippolyta was?"
"Of course. The queen of the Amazons."
"How did you know if you don't read?"
"I do read. I do read Greek mythology, Remus gets me the books," Black clarified.
"You're in love with her, right, Sev?" Lupin asked. "That's where your crisis came from."
"Of course," vehement, with absolute conviction. "I'm crazy about her."
"And she about you?"
"Also," Sev responded.
"Good!" they both shouted.
They laughed.
"Do you have any pending issues left?" Remus asked him.
"I don't."
"Well... the problems are over. It hasn't been that bad, right?"
"No, it hasn't been," the Sly responded.
"Well, let's see if we learn."
"Well, Remus, you don't air yours either. Don't you think it's about time you told more people that you're a werewolf?"
"Ugh, Sev... I'm really afraid that others will be scared of me."
"Ugh, Remus... all of us who know it are not scared. At least to the core of the Guard, you have known them since March and you know that they love you very much. You've told Alice and Frank."
"True, I have told them."
"Of course, man, if the damn rat knows, don't Jack, Anthony and Deborah deserve to know? If you want, don't tell Fiona and Heather until they're occlumants, but at least you should do it to the three of them."
"Well, whether they are occlumants or not doesn't matter, the Marauders aren't, nor were you, Lily or Cecile when you found out," said Lupin. "In that regard, I'm not afraid at all, the old man is not going to expel me from Hogwarts."
"Yeah, but maybe you don't know that Voldemort will probably also try to add the werewolves to his ranks. Greyback is one of his henchmen."
"Ugh, Sev..." surprised and worried, "And that? Why had you never told me?"
"I don't know, I had never related both topics, it just occurred to me."
"Well yes," said Sirius. "I also knew about Greyback and I hadn't realized it."
"Ugh... It means, I have to be careful when leaving Hogwarts even though I'm not known as a good duelist," said Lupin.
"Well yes, Remus," said Sev.
"And that Peter can tell on you when he becomes a Death Eater when they expel him," said Sirius.
"Booahh..." Lupin exclaimed, scared.
"He won't, Remus," Sev told him, taking him by his shoulders, with absolute conviction. "We will Obliviate him, just like if he discovers anything about the Army."
"It doesn't matter, even if we Obliviate Peter, Greyback still knows where I live. He attacked me in my home."
"But that was more than ten years ago, Remus," patient. "He no longer remembers it."
"I will always have the doubt," Lupin lamented.
"And even if he remembers it. How many victims must he have caused in all these years? He's not going to think of going specifically for you. Ugh... I shouldn't have said anything, we were happy and I screwed it up. First I burden you with my worries and now I create another one in you without being able to give it an immediate solution."
"Well, Sev, it's not your fault nor am I your responsibility, we each have to take care of ourselves. You have done well to warn me, if I don't feel safe I will live in the Muggle world, I will go to university as I plan, my parents can afford it."
"Very well, Remus, I like it that way, giving it courage, brave Gryff," with deep admiration.
"We have to learn from you."
"And you will come to the castle to spend the moons," deduced the Sly.
"Of course, as I already do on holidays."
"Lily and I will go on a run with you if Cecile, Sirius and James can't come."
"Brilliant."
"A question, Sev," Black told him. "If you can answer it, of course."
"Say, Sirius."
"Did you Obliviate the malefics you lynched?"
"Of course," Sev responded.
"Wow… great."
"Anyway, we read them and they had serious doubts about becoming Death Eaters. You should have seen how they turned out."
"Well yes, I would have liked it," said Black.
Sirius is Sly to the core, he's also bloodthirsty.I'll show him when we Bond. Let's ease the tension and make Remus forget about it. "Let's see, Sirius, the matter we have pending. What did you want to tell me about finding a girlfriend for James? "
"That we have already found her. Lily read Mary and I found out, look what a disappointment, that she hook up with me for getting close to him."
Remus and Sev laughed, Sirius laughed too. Great, Sirius and I cheered Remus on a lot.What a great team. "Excellent! The truth is that she doesn't have very good taste, I prefer you a thousand times over him."
"Yeah, I know, but don't jump on my neck, okay? I don't know if I would be able to resist myself."
The three of them laughed again. He's as witted as I am, Sev thought.
"You know, Mary goes to what she goes. Good last name, money, a Quidditch hero, a faithful partner for life…" Sirius continued. "Of those four things I only have one."
"My, Sirius. Were you in love with her?"
"Not at all, the easiest way to get rid of her."
He's in love with Lily, Sev thought. "Well, how lucky. Have you already taken any steps in the appropriate direction?"
"Of course. I talked to her, I coaxed her out and she confessed it to me," Black responded. "And now we have colluded to get her to hook up with James. I talk to him about her because he has been seeing us interact as friends for a long time... He has never known that she was with me... he is a complete fool…"
They laughed again.
"I make them sit together in the Library... in the Common Room... in the Great Hall…"
"Great, Sirius."
"Between now and the end of the term they will have made friends enough to write to each other in the summer and that she will come to visit us at James' house, even if it is with the excuse of seeing me."
"Wow, Sirius, great... Hit that one, what a great team."
They high-fived and held them together.
Sirius looked at him with deep feeling. "All advice from Lily, how to do things right."
Now he also wants to do them right, Sev thought.
. . . . . . . . .
At four they made the change. Sev, Deborah, Jack and Andrew went down to the field, and Sirius and Remus stayed with Paul, the other three Sly fifth years and the two third years.
Sev and Hippolyta had a snack and then trained for an hour as they had done the previous Tuesday, flying in a formation of five chasing Hippolyta, and at the same time avoiding the Bludgers that the Sly Beaters threw at them.
(Although with the shield we should not dodge, the training is still very beneficial, because we get used to recovering the formation after breaking it, avoiding colliding with each other,) Sev was thinking. (Now it is not only the commander's orders that matter, the rest of us also speak, to warn the others that we have been left off the hook and let the others wait for us.)
Valerie, Deborah and Sev led, twenty minutes each. He had never tried it yet. (Well, I'm not bad at it, I'm a great flight commander too. Is there anything I'm not good at?)
They had agreed to take a break after an hour so as not to exhaust Hippolyta. Sev didn't get off the broom, he approached the Sly stands where his friends were. "What? What do you think? Isn't this better than Quidditch?" he asked them.
"Indeed, Sev, it's spectacular," Sirius replied, greatly admired.
"It should be given as a show," Remus said.
"Maybe when the war ends. What do you say, Ariel?" Sev asked him.
"That I would like to fly with you," the boy responded.
"Come on then, what are you waiting for? Go down for a broom and we'll fly while the others rest."
"I want too," Sirius said.
"Don't you want to, Remus?"
"I don't know how to fly, Sev," Lupin replied.
"What you learned in first year, come on, cheer up."
"Sure, Remus, let's go," Sirius told him.
"Okay, I hope I don't fall off the broom," Remus said.
"We'll go slow, we'll play chase," Sev proposed.
They went down. Sev did it too, on his broom, to wait for them. Meanwhile, he chatted with the teacher. "How have I commanded?"
"Incredible, nothing to envy the girls, as if you had been doing it as long as they have," Agatha replied.
"Great! Are we dodging better than Tuesday?"
"Of course. And you recover formation incredibly quickly. I don't understand how you do it."
What a surprise she's going to get when she learns Occlumency and know the Bond, she's going to feel like we've been kidding her.I'm going to pay some attention to Hippolyta. "What, Hippolyta? Are you having a good time?"
"I've gotten a little bored, honestly, doing the same thing for so long," the girl responded.
"Of course, you've already been flying for three hours, what a beating we're giving you today. Are you tired?"
"A bit. Later are we going to chase the Snitch together?"
"Of course, like we agreed at noon," he replied. "I promised you, we're going to do it."
"Then I might prefer not to fly again until we do. Will you miss me much?"
"No, Hippolyta, don't worry, we can also train without you. Go up to the stands to sit, to keep Shelley company, who has been left alone, and in half an hour you'll come back down, so you can also see us fly and have a good time."
"Can I, Professor Wing?"
"Sure, dear, go up and rest," the teacher responded.
Hippolyta went up to the stands. Those who were coming down arrived, those who had already flown left their brooms. The four of them played chase at a low altitude and very low level, so that Remus could also participate. A quarter of an hour passed like this.
"Well," Sirius said, still on his broom. "We'll let you continue."
"Do you want to try flying in formation with us, now that we are not going to chase Hippolyta?" Sev asked him. "You're doing pretty well, cheer up."
"Okay."
"I like it that way!"
They flew another twenty minutes in formation, this time Andrew led and Jack left fifth place to Sirius, who despite not being bonded with the others, did almost as well as them.
When they got down, Agatha asked him, "Your name is Black, right?"
"No, my name is Sirius, Professor Wing."
"Okay, Sirius. Do you fly a lot on holidays?"
"No, not much."
"Well, you are magnificent, it is your first time and you do it almost as well as them. Join the training now if you want."
"I'll think about it, I'm with the OWLs and I have two left for Outstanding," he responded.
"What NEWT are you going to take?"
"And you still have to ask it? Defense, what else?"
Wow… Sirius is totally irreverent, indeedhe could have been Sly, Sev thought.
"Great," Agatha said with admiration. "A very promising warrior."
Despite how he responded. How proud she is of us.
The last while, Sev spent flying with Hippolyta playing chase with the Snitch. Today she is tired, she has exhausted herself, we have burned her, we have gone too far.She is not happy or enjoying it, she is doing it almost out of commitment.I think we're going to leave the talk I wanted to have with her until tomorrow.
Today we will not burden her at dinner, she has already had a good breakfast and lunch and she has also had a snack. She has to eat what she can for dinner and go to bed immediately, tomorrow she has to study a lot, she is very slow in her practical Astronomy exercises. I'm going to ask her if she wants us to finish now.
"Hey, Hippolyta! Stop for a moment!"
The girl stopped, Sev stopped the broom at her height.
"Why did you make me stop?" she asked. "We have already lost sight of it again."
"No problem. Are you tired?"
"Yeah…"
"And why haven't you told me, honey?" he asked.
"Because I really wanted to chase the Snitch with you."
Ugh… she's about to cry, and so am I. "I know, Hippolyta, it was our fault, we screwed it up today. We shouldn't have put flight training after Quidditch, we haven't thought about the fact that you wouldn't resist it," crying. "I'm so sorry."
"Come on, Prince, don't cry, it's okay. It's because of what you told me on Thursday, I'm not strong and I have to get strong to be able to do all the things I like. You were right, and on top of that yesterday and at lunch I behaved very badly, today you had to get angry with me to make me eat the second course and despite that you gave me your dessert, you all are very good to me."
Very well, she realized everything on her own by not having resisted the training, so it has been fine. "Because we love you very much."
"I already know. Come on, don't cry, I can't stand seeing you cry, I'm going to start crying too."
"Okay, Hippolyta, forgive me." Sev wiped his tears with his shirt. "That's it, I'm not crying anymore."
"How we do?"
"If you're tired, it's better that we leave it and go home now so you can rest for a while before dinner, otherwise you won't be hungry even for a little dinner."
"You're right, and also having had a snack," the girl agreed. "But I'm very sorry, I've spent since Thursday waiting for Saturday to arrive."
"I know, honey, me too. Don't worry, we'll fly again next week, one day after dinner, like Tuesday, just two hours, and if you want we'll start chasing the Snitch, so you can do what you like most while rested. Okay?"
"Okay, Prince. But we have to catch the Snitch, it can't stay flying."
"Go down and I'll catch it."
Hippolyta laughed. What capacity she has to recover, indeed she is robust despite all her problems, he thought.
"You?" she asked, contemptuously. "It's going to take half an hour."
"What do you bet it isn't?" challenging.
"If you catch it in less than five minutes I swear I won't complain about food again until the next training session," she too.
The best motivation, better than beating Potter.Hippolyta knows me in just a week as if she had given birth to me. "I'm going to do it," he said. "Go down and look at me."
"I'm going to time you. Don't start until the teacher blows the whistle."
Wow… how hard, I love it. "Okay, I'll wait."
Hippolyta went down and Sev rose to the center of the field. He looked for the Snitch, which was easy to spot that day, because it was sunny and the little golden winged ball was twinkling. He spotted it before the whistle blew and followed it with his eyes.
As soon as the whistle rang he launched himself into it, rising high, diving downwards, making very sharp turns. He never lost it, he pursued it as if his life depended on it.
Before three and a half minutes he had his chance, the Snitch moved a long way in a straight line, but at dizzying speed. He positioned himself at its height, stopped paying attention to the flight, released his right hand from the broom, extended his arm and caught it.