There is a short word "Friend."
In it is the loyalty of outstretched hands,
The protection from hundreds of swords
And a thousand angry speeches.
The bright light of salvation
From a single threatened trouble,
From that foolish step
And from your own self.
You can do a lot have time, -
To warm native heart
You're brave and invincible.
But what if you're alone?!
The girl looked at the fire in the fireplace, expecting support from him.
She had been sitting like this for about an hour, desperately trying to think of something. I didn't want to argue about the correctness of my decision, because any thought about the consequences caused unpleasant sensations in the stomach. Narcissa clearly understood that it was fear. Still would! If Lucius ever finds out what she is about to do ...
The girl raised her head and looked around the half-empty living room. In the opposite corner, a couple of sophomores were whispering about something. There was no one else in the room. Not surprising - dinner time. Narcissa herself was not hungry. Her wanted to shrink into a tight ball and hide somewhere for two hundred years. But she didn't have so much time to be afraid and feel sorry for herself. There was a week: short, small... Today is Saturday night.
Next Saturday there will be a Christmas ball, and then ... So! We won't talk about "later" now.
"Hey! Why weren't you at dinner?"
Yes, Belinda was not enough for complete happiness today!
"I don't feel like eating ..."
"Shall we take a walk?"
"Sorry, I still have to finish writing the potions."
Narcissa got up resolutely from her chair and walked towards the room. She was not going to leave the living room now. Too much has happened this day. She is not yet ready to meet Sirius.
Sirius! Entering the room, Narcissa leaned her back against the wall. How can I tell him? How to make it clear? How to meet so that, Merlin forbid, Lucius doesn't know? You can't turn to anyone for help. Thanks to Fred, though he didn't say anything about today. Oh! What to do?
In such fruitless agony and doubt, the rest of the Sabbath passed. Time is running out, and brilliant ideas did not want to come to her bright head. At night, tossing and turning awake in bed, Narcissa went over all the assistants in her head. The conclusion was sad. She did not know a single person whom she could trust. There was always only Sirius in her life. But in this situation, someone would help him.
Sunday.
Narcissa jumped out of bed after a sleepless night and rushed into the shower with naked adrenaline. Fifteen minutes later, without reduced speed, she ran out of the room amid displeased grumbling from the neighboring beds. Well, it was not her leisure to see that the wall clock showed 6:15.
In the living room her had to slow down. The enthusiasm ended, and the realization came that at this early Sirius was probably still watching the tenth dream, and she still would not get into the tower of Gryffindor. The girl sank into a chair. When she decided on this, everything seemed much easier.
The rest of the morning was spent aimlessly turning the pages of a book that someone had forgotten. Finally, closer to nine o'clock, the students began to crawl out. Narcissa decided that she did not want to communicate with anyone and was just going to go into the room, like the unforgettable Lucius Malfoy in the living room. He looked quite cheerful, which could not be said about the girl herself.
"Hi. Did you have breakfast?"
"Yes. I mean, no. I don't want to."
Narcissa decided to slip past Lucius, but he caught her hand.
"Will you keep me company? Everyone else is probably still asleep."
Without waiting for an answer, Lucius twisted the girl's fingers with his own and pulled her towards the exit of the living room. What was left to do? Narcissa obediently followed.
"By the way, I didn't know you were an early bird. Somehow I always thought that girls like to sleep before dinner to look good and all."
"I love getting up early," Narcissa said.
"Wow! My bride is full of surprises," Lucius's voice was amused. "Well, all the more interesting. I hope that all these surprises will be pleasant."
"You hope in vain," Narcissa thought listlessly, peering into the corridor. Her heart sank at the sight of any tall figure. They reached the main hall without incident. They entered the door hand in hand. Narcissa could not lift her eyes from the floor. She didn't want to see Sirius's face. She was more than certain that her appearance by the hand with Lucius would not brighten the Sunday morning of her beloved Gryffindor. When she reached the table, Narcissa finally got rid of Lucius's hand and sat down in her seat. After hypnotizing the oatmeal for about five minutes, she heard a quiet voice over her ear:
"Honey, are you trying to cool it down or warm it up in this way?"
Narcissa winced and looked up from her plate. Lucius looked suspiciously cheerful.
"I just think: do I want to eat or not ?"
"A-ah," Lucius held out and began his breakfast.
Narcissa quietly glanced at the opposite table and sighed, either relieved or disappointed. Sirius was not there. Evans was with a friend. Narcissa noticed that Evans was unhappy about something. Four friends were missing.
Narcissa looked at her porridge again. Probably sleeping. But for some reason my heart sank with anxiety. Not! Things are good.
The girl glanced at the front door again. A dark-haired youth entered the hall. Her heart jumped and sank in disappointment. Heck! Day off. Nobody is wearing a school uniform. So at least she would have jumped up from the sight of only Gryffindors, and now ... Narcissa followed the Hufflepuff who entered with a displeased look and looked at the door again.
Potter! The stomach did a somersault. It was a good thing she didn't have time to eat. Can not be! Potter, Pettigrew and ... everything. Sirius was gone. Maybe he'll come up with Lupine later? On this Narcissa would have calmed down, if her attention had not been attracted by the strangeness in the behavior of Lily Evans. Instead of rejoicing at Potter's appearance, she frowned at him and, having said something to her friend, got up from the table. Potter tried to grab her arm, but she pulled free and headed for the door. For some reason, it didn't seem like an ordinary fight. Frowning Potter, tousled his hair, plopped down on the bench and looked at Pettigrew. He looked guilty too. Narcissa knew with an unerring instinct that something had happened. But how did she know?
"Looking at the appetite with which you figuratively spread the porridge on the plate, a piece stands across the throat."
Narcissa looked back at Lucius, then at her breakfast. It turns out that while watching the Gryffindor table, she managed to turn the porridge into some kind of mass unappetizingly smeared around the edges of the plate.
The girl tried to smile at Lucius.
"I guess I'm not hungry."
He nodded.
"I'm going to practice. Are you going to watch?"
"Lucius, it's minus twenty outside !You'll freeze on the broomsticks."
"Well, you can state your objections to Flint. For my part, I will try not to freeze any of the vital organs. And you really better stay in the castle. You are not yourself today," he easily stood up and gave Narcissa a kiss on the top of his head.
"Happy training," the girl said absently, gazing after Lucius as he walked out.
At the front door, the Slytherin prefect ran into Snape. They took a couple of steps to the side, clearing the passage, and began to talk about something. Narcissa looked at Potter. The same gloomy guilty face.
"Hi," Snape plopped down next to Narcissa, "what's up?"
The girl nodded in greeting and raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
"Lucius asked to look after you. He said that you didn't eat anything and that you were acting strange in general."
"Everything is fine with me."
Narcissa cheerfully picked up the toast and began to spread it with jam:
"You see: I'm already eating," she took a bite and, after chewing, asked, "Severus, did you get here without incident?"
"In terms of?" Snape did not understand, even the hand with the spoon froze in the air.
"Well, there, I don't know. Black, Potter, and all that."
"Ah," Snape finally brought the porridge to his mouth, "no-ah, I didn't see Black at all, and I see Potter came earlier. What? "
"Yes, just ..."
"Hey, what's the matter?"
"I just haven't seen Black for a long time, so I thought, suddenly you met him."
"You know, he usually somehow at the sight of me first pulls out his wand, and only then speaks. And that is mainly spells. So he would hardly have conveyed" hello "to you through me. And, by the way, we studied with them on Friday. Not that long ago. "
"Nevermind."
"I always wondered how you can communicate with this ..."
"Se-ve-rus," Narcissa sang in an angelic voice, "next time I will add Love Potion to your glass and arrange so that you will see Potter first ..."
"And I was still tormented by the question of how such a cute creature ended up in Slytherin. It turns out that the hat is always right."
"Yes."
Narcissa deftly threw her legs over the bench and stood up. Walking past Snape, she ran her fingers over his shoulder, announced: "Thanks for the 'cute creature'" and headed towards the exit with a flying gait.
Snape watched her go and sighed. Something was happening. He saw it. He wanted to help, but how?
Sunday flew by, and she never met Sirius. He was nowhere to be found. Evans showed up for lunch and dinner and was frowned both times. Potter, Lupine, and Pettigrew never showed up. It was not getting funny anymore.
Monday.
Narcissa woke up to find that there was no one in the room, and she herself was hopelessly late for breakfast. Hastily taking a shower, the girl rushed to the main hall. There was almost no one there. Munching on a sandwich, Narcissa looked around the Gryffindor table. Sirius was gone. However, his companies too. Hopefully they had eaten earlier. Hope was weak, though.
The history of magic has never dragged on for so long. If earlier you had to put a lot of effort to stay awake, today the girl struggled not to jump up and not rush to the exit, in search of the Gryffindors. They had a transfiguration on schedule, and common sense dictated that Professor McGonagall was unlikely to appreciate her impulse. The bell rang like the most awaited signal. Joint potions ...
Narcissa flew out of the office, but in the corridor she realized that such impulsiveness and haste would not do good. On the way to the dungeons, she ran into the toilet and there, looking at her reflection in the mirror, tried to calm down. It didn't work out very well. How can you become calmer here when a half-witted teenager looks at you from the mirror with feverish excitement in his eyes? So! Calm down.
Ten minutes later, the girl slowly left the toilet with a slight boredom in her eyes and walked with a confident step towards the potions room. As she entered the classroom, Narcissa froze, making every effort not to panic. Lupine hunched over in his place, shaking his head diligently at some of Lily Evans's remarks. He looked so that they put more beautifully in a coffin. But at least he did appear, and then praise Merlin. The good news seemed to be over, as the seat next to the drooping Potter was empty. Her heart ached in alarm.
Narcissa crossed the office and sat down in her seat. Today was the practice session, and Snape had already set up his cauldron and the daffodil as well. The girl nodded in gratitude and began to feverishly figure out how to find out where Sirius was. Something has happened, it's obvious. The too cheerful Lucius Malfoy came to mind. Not! It couldn't be that he did something to Sirius. If only Fred ... The only way out is to talk to Lupine. The matter is small: how?
Behind her thoughts, Narcissa did not notice when Professor Zemus entered the classroom. She returned to the sinful earth a strong push under the elbow. Narcissa turned to look at Snape, and then a brilliant thought came to her:
"Severus," she whispered, leaning in closer, "do you think it's possible to throw something at the Gryffindors without anyone noticing?"
Snape turned in surprise at his deskmate and replied with a grin:
"If something is exploding in Potter, then I even agree to be noticed."
"I'm serious!" Narcissa protested, unfortunately, too loudly.
"Miss Black, your personal affairs need to be dealt with outside the classroom. I will also hear at least a word not on the case, Slytherin will lose points. "
Narcissa glared at Zemus and showed her fist to Snape. The size of the cam, by all indications, did not frighten him. How else to explain the offensive smirk addressed to the girl?
Narcissa looked back at the Gryffindors and marveled at Potter's mortified expression. Oh! What happened?
James Potter glanced over at Narcissa Black, who turned around and lowered his head again.
"Heck! When will Lily finally stop harassing him with her angry looks? And without that, it's sickening. How idiotic it all turned out. But Lunatic knew something. After all, as he asked us not to come on this full moon. And when I began to be indignant, he pinned me to the wall and demanded that, as a last resort, they should not take the Tramp with them. Aha, you won't take it, of course! But why did Lunatic insist so much? Did you know something about Sirius? It turns out, and Lily knew something. Heck! They could have said in a human way, or else they went on: "Don't take it! Do not take!". And now they are still accused of all mortal sins. Well, who would have thought that Tramp's head would be clogged with something completely different from what they all did on the night from Saturday to Sunday. It's not the first time. And it all started as usual. The tramp, after all, knew no worse than others that, being in the form of an animal, one should not lose control over the temporary body for a minute. You should always see yourself as an animal, feel like one. Everything seemed to be going fine. They raged by the lake. We. And the big black dog was sitting on the shore and staring at the water. And that she was given to him at three in the morning? Well, who could have guessed that he would blow his head off, and he, having lost control, will turn into a man. "
James shivered at the memory of the moment. To experience this again, he would not agree for any price. It's one thing to read in a textbook that a werewolf is insane and does not recognize either his own or someone else's, another thing is to see with his own eyes. James closed his eyes, reliving that moment again.
On the shore of the lake, in place of a young black dog, a dark-haired youth suddenly appeared. Moreover, it seems that he himself did not notice what happened, continuing to look at one point. James, too, didn't figure it out at first. In a matter of seconds, a dark shadow darted to his right. Textbooks are right. The werewolf does not know the word "friend". There is a victim. A moment, and a furry figure knocked Sirius to the ground, and bared fangs reached for his throat. Then there was a continuous nightmare. A huge deer rushed to the tangle of bodies on the ground, trying to save the man, knock down, trample this monster. At that moment, there was no word for "friend" for James Potter either. Or rather, no! Not this way! It just existed, only it was directed at a person trying to cover his head with a bloody hand with his last strength. The grinning monster at that moment was the enemy.
James winced and glanced sideways at Lupine. How should he feel now? In the morning he did not remember anything, as always, but kind Tail shared his feelings. Now James was still seriously worried about the Sleepwalker. Somehow he quieted down suspiciously. Lupine rubbed his left hand and James grimaced again. A deer's hoof broke the werewolf's left paw. This gave Sirius a few moments. By some miracle, he managed to turn back. At first it seemed that the danger had passed, but then ... James still remembered the horror he experienced. The black dog looked like it had been driven by the Hogwarts Express. His left shoulder and neck were covered in blood, and air burst from his lungs with a raspy sound. The werewolf with a howl rushed into the forest, and James looked at the wounded dog and the brain was boring with a terrible thought: "Bitten! Bitten! All…".
How they got to Hogwarts, James remembered vaguely. He turned into a man and, shuddering at every rustle, dragged the dog on him. It was still a mystery to him how they could get there without incident. And here is the unhappy result of a night walk. A vagabond in the hospital wing with a fractured rib and collarbone and a shoulder ripped apart by terrible claws. Thanks, though not bitten. Managed to defend himself somehow. This is already becoming a tradition. Instead of the last Christmas ball, Sirius was also lying in the infirmary with a wound on his shoulder. By the way, on the same. Then he, being a dog, managed to run into a bush of some poisonous plant. Then it worked. And now Dumbledore was interrogating with passion. How the Tramp got out there, James did not know. Of course, I was composing something.
"Eh! And now Lily looks like a wolf and all the time consoles the Sleepwalker. Well, what have I got to do with it? One must, after all, sometimes listen to Lupine's opinion. Maybe good things will come out. "
James took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily.
"How can Black get along with Snape? I would have vomited long ago, and they bowed head to head and whisper. Heck! She doesn't know anything about Sirius. Although she probably knows. Malfoy walked into the infirmary yesterday and saw the Tramp out of the corner of his eye. He had to tell her. Strange ... at least she had to visit for decency. Slytherin - what decency can we talk about?"
And behind the first desk, two teenagers glanced at each other angrily. Narcissa was angry that she couldn't think of anything. Since Snape was the closest, she was angry with him. What to do? What to do? And then ... Only Providence itself, in the voice of Professor Zemus, barked towards the Gryffindors:
"Mr. Lupine, if You are so arrogant that you prefer Miss Evans's lectures to my lectures, go to the chalkboard and write the composition of the stamina-boosting potion."
Here it is! Narcissa, along with all the students, looked back at Lupine. He stood up slowly. He really didn't look good. Only then did Narcissa notice that a cast or something like that was peeking out from under the left sleeve, and the Gryffindor was moving suspiciously carefully. Lupine began to slowly make his way between the desks, walking around the daffodil from Snape's side. It dawned on the girl. While the head of Gryffindor was tensely forcing out the composition of some potion - Narcissa did not remember which one - the girl grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment and began to write quickly:
"Remus, I really need to know what's wrong with Sirius.
Please let me know somehow.
N.B. "
Folding the note, Narcissa turned to Snape.
"Severus, make sure Lupine can't walk past you back," she whispered.
"Narcissa!" Snape pleaded. "You are crazy? How will I do it ?! "
"Somehow," the girl hissed.
"Minus five points to Slytherin, Miss Black. I warned."
Narcissa was quiet.
"That shit," Snape whispered with his lips, "take points away from your own house."
"McGonagall finishes Gryffindors all the time too, so what?"
"Anyway, he bastard. I would only fine Gryffindor in his place. "
"That wouldn't be very fair," Narcissa whispered.
"But, how nice," Snape spread into a blissful smile.
"Yes, if he ever becomes a professor at Hogwarts, it would be better to stop recruiting at the Faculty of the Brave altogether. Anyway, everyone will be expelled for academic failure," thought Narcissa.
Meanwhile, Lupine's torment at the blackboard seemed to end, and Narcissa kicked Snape hard under the desk. The latter glanced displeasedly at the girl and, taking out his wand, whispered something. At the same moment, the rack flew off the wall with a terrible crash, and flasks, flasks, potion ingredients fell on the floor. The class was filled with unimaginable noise and crash.
All the commotion drowned out the professor's voice:
"I just find out who did it ..."
He rushed to the closet and began to clean up the mess. Snape was shaking some crumbs from himself with a frightened look. It seems that he himself did not think that it would turn out so spectacularly.
"Lupine, don't stand there, take your place!"
The headman of Gryffindor got out of his stupor and went to his place, this time, bypassing the desk from Narcissa's side. The girl pointed her wand at a small piece of parchment and whispered:
"Wingardium leviossa."
The note slid into Lupine's palm, and he automatically squeezed it, casting a quick glance at the girl. It seems that he understood the reason for the end of the world. The young man reached his seat and sank into a chair.
Narcissa quickly enchanted the wall of her cauldron, making it mirrored, and began to watch. Lupine bided his time, Evans answered, and finally unfolded the parchment. He frowned, read it again, and raised his head. On the side of the cauldron, their gazes met. The young man nodded almost imperceptibly and, taking out his wand, whispered something. The lines began to appear quickly on the mirror surface:
"Today. 14:00. Transfiguration cabinet ".
Narcissa nodded and removed the spell from the cauldron. The rest of the lesson passed in a daze.
After a quick lunch, Narcissa rushed to the exit. Snape caught up with her in the hallway.
"Hey! Tell me immediately, what's going on? "
Narcissa shrugged lightly.
"Nothing."
"Why do you need Lupine?" Snape overtook the girl and blocked the road.
Narcissa was about to answer sharply, but then:
"Hello," Lucius Malfoy materialized from somewhere. "Have you had lunch?"
"Yes!" Snape and Narcissa responded in unison.
"What are the plans?"
Narcissa went cold and looked back at Snape. Now everything could easily break down. Apparently, the look was so desperate that Snape suddenly said:
"I was just asking Narcissa to pull me up in transfiguration. And then soon the test and ... "the young man demonstrated something unintelligible with his hands. Apparently, he marked the depth of his gap in the mentioned subject.
Lucius kept his gaze fixed on him, as if calculating something. Then he took a step forward and said in confidence:
"Be careful Severus, or I'll think you're trying to spend too much time with my fiancée," he smiled, and Narcissa's heart sank. A smile like that could kill.
However, Snape was overwhelmingly surprised. He calmly met Lucius's gaze and smiled back. The smile also turned out to be the same. Oh! The old hat was right in its division of children into faculties.
Lucius pulled Narcissa to him in a businesslike manner and kissed her temple. She noticed long ago that he kissed mainly her hair. Either he had a weakness for them, or he was just too lazy to bend over. The girl was more inclined towards the second option. As soon as Lucius disappeared around the bend, Narcissa, in a fit of emotion, rushed to Snape and, hanging on his neck, gave a loud kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," she said earnestly.
"You ... take it easy. Lucius will rip my head off and there will be no one to cover you," Snape muttered, blushing slowly but surely.
Narcissa smiled happily and dashed down the hallway. And Snape stood and watched the blond nymph who was playing with fire so lightly.
Life turns strange sometimes.