"Are you alright, after everything?"
Sirius turned his head towards her, even though he could see nothing in the dark - not that Magdalena's dark hair sprawled everywhere helped much. Did he dream of her asking him this? Was it perhaps his subconscious? He listened in for any movement, and as his eyes had gotten accustomed to the dark, he started seeing the whites of her eyes, and the gleam of her teeth as she asked the question again.
"Are you?" She breathed, and he felt her warm thigh pressed against his side. He grabbed at it, tenderly at first, before burying his palm underneath her thigh, once again digging his fingers in her soft flesh, as he had done not so long ago, and as he had done back in Transylvania, and back at her house, all those weeks ago. He was alright.
"And you?" he asked in turn, to which he heard a shuffle which he took as a yes. "And Remus?" And another wordless shuffle.
"That's what you did all those years ago, wasn't it? During the war…" he asked, out of interest, yet already having guessed the answer - her nodding was simply a formality. "Did you enjoy it?"
"Did you enjoy killing Greyback?"
"I did, in fact, Leni. I did." he barked a laugh, yet he had fully meant his words. He did not regret a single moment of it, and if it was needed, he would have done it again. And again. And again, without remorse. After all, he had to at least equal Pettigrew's murders. "That was not the plan though, you-"
"If you take your plans from old wizarding stories… you know those old folk tales always have things added to them."
"It was a good call, wasn't it? Finally, those grim books found themselves handy for once."
He had indeed - to the surprise of both Remus and Magdalena, their plan all hinged on a story that Sirius had read as a young child at his uncle Alphard's, about a despotic ruler who was killed and eaten by the wizards he ruled over. He distinctly remembered - And he ate three cows, and three ovens of twenty breads each, and drank seven barrels of wine. And the wine had aconite oil, which brought with the fumes and rosy cheeks a stupor and a drunkenness seldom seen. And he ate, and drank, and ate, and drank, until he was eaten and drunk himself by what he once thought to be his loyal subjects.
Sirius paused, and moved his hand further on her thigh, as he noticed her slightly inch away. It was the most they have talked in weeks, and he could not - he would not let her leave, not now, not when he needed someone to talk to most. He had gotten used to exchanging ideas, used to someone calling him out on his idiocy. It reminded him of the times before the war. It reminded him of summer nights spent with James and Remus and Peter, laughing until the morning and sneaking firewhisky from James's dad's cupboard. It reminded him of spending his nights at James' and Lily's, when Lily was pregnant and the terror of an attack was looming over them all, and he'd stand guard, and sometimes Remus would come as well, before they all suspected one another…
Still grasping her leg, Sirius was unsure whether Magdalena wanted to leave of her own accord, or whether she thought he wanted her to leave him alone. She could leave, if she wanted to, and he would let her, but until then, he would momentarily hold onto her, onto this.
Alas, that's what you get for making yourself too useful, still-caged bird, he selfishly thought.
"Do you not feel like you have lost any bit of your humanity, then? With this killing?"
Sirius turned his head once again towards Magdalena, barely able to see her features. He couldn't figure whether she simply could not sleep, or was taking advantage of this moment of openness to ask all questions that had been bothering her. Regardless, he figured he owed her a few answers, at least. And it was quite easy to talk in the darkness, to feel but not see her, and to know that she could not see him either.
"Greyback does not count as a human, not with all the vile things he did." He idly grasped at her wrist, and idly pressed his thumb against her bones as he spoke, facing her. "Ask Remus, ask anyone that had to deal with him. He has been nothing but a force of evil. If anything, the humanity in me grew with that." he spoke convincingly, hoping that if he repeated them both in his head and out loud, that he would convince himself of these facts as well.
"Speaking of asking Remus… Why did you get rid of him, back in Albania, those months ago? You sent him on a wild goose chase, you never asked for a follow-up on, you never-"
"Why did my good friend Remus kick you out, Lena, after you fucked?" He had asked this question without thinking, taken aback by the fact that the two had been discussing him. Her wrist slipped from between his fingers, and Sirius felt her thigh escape from his other hand, as she turned her back at him and towards the night sky.
"You're crass, Sirius Black. I won't answer to such vulgarities."
"I didn't mean to. I meant to say- how should I phrase it?" he joked, laughing by himself as she continued to ignore him. "Made love? Or is that too much? To bed someone? How do wizards phrase it, these days? How do you want me to phrase it, Leni?"
Slowly, the moon was starting to make its presence known from behind the clouds, and he was able to see the room, and to see himself. He raised his free hand, and looked at it in the moonlight. He understood now, what she had meant by the blood, and he was thankful for that spirit, whatever it was, from the ritual, doing something to ensure that Harry could not have witnessed or seen the carnage.
"Where'd you get the Felix Felicis?" He changed the topic of conversation, and watched her turn back, slowly illuminated by the moonlight. "Dumbledore, wasn't it?"
"I'm not surprised Dumbledore thought we may need some for that." Remus replied the next morning, when Sirius had told him from whose benevolence the liquid luck came from. "Speaking of yesterday, we'll have to leave the country before any friend of Greyback notices he's been gone for a while. Or before they discover his remains, which shouldn't take long."
Sirius crossed his arms, tapping his heel against the coffee table as he pondered Remus's words. He knew what he had meant - he knew that Remus was still not convinced by his idea of not hiding the crime, in hopes it would be quickly discovered and published by the Daily Prophet.
By the time Remus came out of his room, Sirius had already discussed arrangements with Magdalena to bring Harry back to Britain, in the same way Madam Rona did it when bringing him to Austria, as that was the safest, with Sirius joining them in his Animagus form.
"I've already sent an owl to Dumbledore, and we'll meet him in Hogsmeade. And depending on whatever arrangements were made in that ritual and if that thing fulfilled them, hopefully Harry will know the next steps. If not, at least we rid the world of Greyback, which I consider a feat."
"I hope that hasn't given you ideas, Sirius."
It was Remus's time to cross his arms, and he turned from his coffee to look at him with a stern face. A face that made Sirius remember why exactly he had asked him in Albania to leave, why he sent him away for - well, they were right, the both of them, he did send Remus on a wild goose chase. And that was why he hadn't dropped his sights off Magdalena in the morning, not even as she had gotten changed, and had asked her to replace Madam Rona as Harry's guard, under the pretext it was for Rona's safety. It was a load of bull that he was unsure Magdalena bought, but after what they had discussed in the middle of the night, he wanted to keep her in the dark and away from Remus.
Because Remus knew, like no other, save for James back in the day, what he was thinking. He was sure that Remus could feel his bloodthirst, and he was sure he had felt it back when they were duelling, perhaps even sooner than that. But right now, he wouldn't admit to it. Not when he could read the disapproval in his eyes.
"My only ideas are around protecting Harry, old chap." he replied, feigning amusement, as if he was a lunatic for even insinuating there was a single other intention around any of his actions. "That's what we've been doing - that's what I've been doing since Peter escaped. Everything I do, I do for his sake, for James and Lily's son. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go brief Harry of our feat." he said, clapping his hands against his knees and raising himself from the chair.
"Sirius?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you alright? After- I mean, this is something only Mad-Eye would have done and came unscathed from."
"I'm fine." he said quickly, trying to forget how he had looked at his hands in the first rays of the sun, making sure there was no blood on them. "You? Considering, well, your history with Greyback."
"Yeah, no, yeah." Remus responded quickly, waving one hand. "I'm fine."
"Harry."
"Five more minutes." Harry turned on the other side of the bed, yet the voice still rang in his ears.
"Harry."
"Just a bit more…" he put his head under the pillow, and closed his eyes tightly, still trying to savour the last remains of sleep.
"It's done, Harry. We did it. You can come back now. Can you come back?"
Harry hopped out of bed and grabbed his glasses, realising that was not the voice of his father waking him up, as it had been in the past few days. That was Sirius's voice at the back of his head.
"It's done?" he spoke, turning his head around. There was no sight of his godfather in his childhood room, but he still was unsure how to address the presences speaking to him. "I- I need to check with her- with it, what the next steps are." Harry put on his glasses, and rubbed at the back of his neck, remembering what the spirit-creature, the name he settled on using momentarily, advised him on. "Will you take me back to Hogwarts then?"
"We're getting ready to leave this place, before they notice Greyback is missing. We'll get you to Hogsmeade, and meet with Dumbledore there."
"Okay. When we arrive, you can stop giving me the Sleeping Draught. I'll be ready to wake up then. That's what it said." he started to get dressed in the same clothes as when he had first arrived at his parents' place, taking a deep breath. He knew very well that Sirius could have stopped giving him the sleeping potion right then and there, but he could not leave without a final farewell. "Is everyone okay back there?"
There was a pause, and Harry looked around himself, in spite of knowing he could not see his godfather's reaction.
"Sirius?"
"Yeah- yes. All's good, Harry."
He nodded, despite knowing his godfather could not see his movements, and left his bedroom. The smell of chocolate porridge brought him downstairs to the kitchen, where he noticed not only his father and mother there, but a third presence as well at the table. Yet Harry knew by this point how to tell the spirit-creature by its eyes and constant smile, and figured immediately that that was not actually Molly Weasley at the table.
"Morning, Harry. Sit down, sit. Molly was just telling us about Sirius's latest feat."
Apprehensive, Harry followed his mum's instructions and sat down, watching his parents turn their heads to look at him with moist eyes. He read it in their expressions, in how his father tried to be strong and how he held his mother's hand over the table, in how his mother tried to keep a stiff upper lip, that they wanted him to stay, but they both already knew that their son had to finally leave.
"Oh, I don't want to butt in on this wonderful family moment. Please, enjoy your breakfast. Harry, whenever you're ready… I'll be waiting outside."
"Alright, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you." he said to certainly-not-Mrs-Weasley. Yet he was sincere in his appreciation. Because he knew that if she ordered him to leave that moment, he'd have to obey.
The smell of breakfast - of bananas, of porridge with shaved chocolate on top, of strawberry jam, of warm tea, of eggs and sizzling bacon, would have been irresistible any other morning, any other day, and Harry would have dug into his plate as soon as possible. But now, he found himself holding his mum's other hand, alongside his father.
"Right. I'm not very hungry." James Potter chuckled amused, using his free hand to fix his glasses. "So then, what should we say-... to each other?"
"Don't you have some wisdom to impart on Harry, before he goes?" Lily Potter asked, and they both laughed for a second, before realising the enormity of what was happening and stopping in their tracks. His mum moved her eyes, and his dad lightly shook his head.
"What wisdom? You're almost as tall as I am, and probably twice as smart by this point. What you did back there-"
"That was Sirius." Harry blurted.
"But you decided to go by yourself. And I would have done the same for Sirius, and Sirius for me, and we'd probably have fought about it. But Sirius trusted you enough to let you go. Because you knew that...well-"
"If Sirius would have gone, he'd have exchanged his life for you, Harry. That's why he's your godfather. But he has his own life, and you better make sure he knows that, when you go back. And you, mister, you have your own life to live." Lily's grip on his hand tightened, until her knuckles turned white, and she moved her other hand to his wrist as well. "You've grown up to be a very kind and gentle boy, Harry, and we do love you very much. And we always will."
Harry wasn't sure what to respond to that - he imagined scenarios like this when he lived under the cupboard, before he understood the enormity of what death actually meant, and that his 'real parents' would not simply decide to return one day through mysterious means. He opened his mouth, yet nothing came out, apart from a salty, hot taste at the edge of his lips, as he realised that tears had been flowing alongside his face as his mother spoke. With his free hand, he wiped his face off, and opened his mouth to speak yet again, only to see his father grasp his hand as well.
"Getting to know you these past few days has made us very proud of you, son, of what you've become."
"I haven't done anything-"
"You have, Harry, you've gotten through some very tough times." his dad spoke slowly, as a smile widened on his face. His other hand reached to pat Harry's shoulder, before squeezing it tightly. "Come on now, son, I think it's time."