The Touch Of Prometheus

THE TOUCH OF PROMETHEUS

Written originally in Portuguese, english version: Fabianna Bluhn

Thanks to my beta readers: Silvia Rodrigues and Audrey Fischer.

Chapter 6 - Sirius Disapparates

Hours later, Sirius woke up. Sheeba was already out of bed, completely dressed, smiling at him. The conjured landscape showed the sun rising behind the sea.

"Good morning, sleepy-head," she said, "It's almost time for you to Disapparate."

Sirius blinked many times, so that his eyes got used to light. "What time is it?"

"Half past six."

"I don't need to Disapparate until eight," said Sirius and buried his face into the pillow.

"Hey, stop being lazy!" Sheeba laughed as she tugged him out of the bed, and then, they started a little ‘war', in which Sirius tried to keep his body on the bed and Sheeba tried to raise it up. As Sirius was much stronger, he knocked her down on the bed between laughter.

"Seriously, Sheeba, why are you geting me out off bed so early?"

"I'd like to show you some things."

"So show me!"

"Accio!" Sheeba pointed her wand at two photo albums that were on her beside, and they flew to her hands. She opened one of them and Sirius looked at it, finding something odd, "These pictures have some problem! Everybody's motionless on them!"

"Sirius, these are Muggle pictures. My friends at the time I worked for Muggle Police."

"They really look like Muggles..."

"But they are brave Muggles, most of them are really nice."

"Okay, praise to Muggle people by Sheeba Amapoulos. Why are you showing me these... pictures?"

"Sirius, you're going to walk around Muggles all the time in the following days, I wanted you to know some things so then you won't make many blunders."

"Hey! I don't do blunders, okay? I know quite enough about Muggle, I'm not a moron."

"Well," Sheeba started, ignoring Sirius's indignation, "I want you to look at this, it's a fire weapon, a pistol. From its barrel, bullets come out..."

"Sheeba, I know what a pistol is. Did you forget that I ran away and hide myself among them for some time?"

"But you're still wanted by the Ministry, and I don't want you to run risks. Do you know what this is?"

"Of course I know! It's a remote control! It's used to operate machines from a distance away," he looked triumphant.

"Nope. It's a cell phone." Sirius looked annoyed, his eyes kept looking for familiar things in the picture.

"I know what this is! It's a coffee-machine!"

"Wrong again; it's a machine that triturates paper... and this is what I need to show you," she said and pointed at the sprinklers on the ceiling.

"I've seen some of those in Muggle buildings. They are located on the ceiling, aren't they? And they useful for what?"

"They're sprinklers. It's a Muggle system to fight fire. When a room is set on fire, the sprinklers automatically start to spout out water."

"What a complicated thing!"

"I'm telling you this because yesterday I saw that you'd need to know everything about sprinklers and fire weapons, but I can't tell you why."

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Don't let Remus enter in a place whose door is green."

"Why?"

"If he enters there, he won't come out alive."

"What about me?"

"You can enter there. There isn't anything in that room that can do you any harm."

"And is there anything else you need to show me?"

"Well, Sirius... I need to tell you something... I wouldn't be honest if I hid those things from you."

"Don't tell me that while I was at Azkaban you had another man..."

"It isn't that! It's something else that I'm sure you'll despise, but I ask you at least to understand it," Sheeba opened the second album, in which there was magical pictures. She stopped in a page in which there were four pictures: in one of which Sirius was next to her, grinning, but once in a while, he frowned and disappeared, and reappeared in the next picture, where he punched somebody else, and retook his position next to Sheeba in the first picture.

In the picture that Sirius had "visited", between Sheeba and Dumbledore there was a wrinkled, wounded and black-eyes Severus Snape.

Sirius became angry, "What the hell is HE doing there?"

"That's what I'm asking you to understand. I and Severus have become friends."

"Severus? Sheeba, are you MAD? Calling him by his first name? Did you know he tried to give me to the Dementors? Do you have the faintest idea of how much I and Snape HATE each other? DO YOU?"

"Sirius, he isn't actually evil as it may seem to you..."

"No, he isn't evil at all, he was just one of Voldemort's stupid clowns, he only tried to get Dumbledore for his master, but deep down, he's all goody-goody, he's never done anything bad in his whole life..."

"You aren't evil either and you've already tried to kill him."

"You aren't protecting this snake, are you?"

"HE SAVED MY LIFE, SIRIUS!"

"... What?"

"Severus Snape saved my life. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

"He saved your life for what? When?"

"Do you remember Atalanta Myers?"

"The Death Eater?"

"Exactly. Almost all the Death Eaters had already been arrested or killed by the Aurors. I was already working for the Muggle Police, in London, when I saw her. I trailed her. She was living somewhere in Notting Hill, she was disguised as a Muggle. I sent an owl to Dumbledore asking him to send an Auror to London urgently, I didn't want to lose her track. He sent Snape, but before he arrived, Myers drove me into a corner. You know I can't predict my own future, and I didn't know she was just behind me."

"What happened next?"

"Atalanta cursed me, using Cruciatus, she had in her hands some robes that belonged to Voldemort, she wanted to make me to touch them and reveal to her where he was. She wanted to bring him back to life. At this very moment, Snape showed up. Atalanta didn't have the faintest idea he had changed his convictions, who he supported. He distracted her for enough time, until Mad-Eye Moody left the shadows, disarmed her and arrested her. But at this moment, I was nearly dead."

"And how did Snape save you? Did he give you a potion?"

"No. He gave me the kiss of life."

"WHAT? THAT SLIMY SNAKE KISSED YOU?"

"WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE HIM LET ME DIE?"

"No," Sirius said in a tiny voice and it seemed he came back into reality again for a minute, and then, he said, looking annoyed and embarrassed, "Wasn't there any other way out?"

"If there was, do you think he would give up a whole year of his life for me?"

"I think he would do anything to kiss you."

"Don't be stupid. It's easy to say it now having me safe and sound standing just in front of you, but imagine me nearly dead. Do you think Snape would take advantage of this? If it wasn't for him, I would have died before I could enter St. Mungo's Hospital. Do you understand now why we are friends? You can't have your life saved by someone and despise this person!"

"Do you know how Snape treats Harry?"

"Did you know he saved Harry's life?"

"It was his duty, after all; once James saved his life."

"Sirius, he promised me he would stop harassing Harry."

"It seems he isn't the kind of guy who keeps his promises. Just guess in which subject our godson gets his worse grades?"

"Okay, I'll talk to Sever... to Snape again I think he and Harry will end up getting along with each other. And so will you two."

"Yeah, sure, when hell freezes over," Sirius stood up, looking for his clothes, "Where are my Muggle clothes?"

"In the wardrobe. I washed them, they were filthy..."

"I'll take a shower. I'm stinking as a dirty dog and my head needs to be cooler."

Sirius vanished for some time and Sheeba stayed seated at her bed; exhausted by the argument they had just had. She had already seen Sirius taking showers before and getting out of the shower shaking his whole body as a wet dog, however, this was the first time she saw Sirius getting into the shower without singing badly as he usually did. She thought why she came to love a guy who was so temperamental...

A moment later, he showed up wrapped by a towel and started dressing in his now-cleaned clothes that still had their punk look. Then, Sheeba lent him her Protective Garment (identical as Harry's) and Sirius put it on with his clothes without saying a single word. As the tunic touched his body, it disappeared.

"See you later," he said, still annoyed.

"Won't you kiss me goodbye?"

"Bye," he said and Disapparated.

Sheeba stood up irritably. It would be better if she went to her job, she had many things to do today.

Chapter 7 - London-St Petersburg-London

Sirius Apparated into a public restroom inside West End station in London's subway. A guy in Muggle clothes, that vaguely resembled a wrinkled suit, had his back turned to him and was using an urinal. When Sirius arrived, he turned his face to him and said "Hi". It was Remus Lupin. Sirius turned around, visibly embarrassed.

"Sorry, Moony. I guess I've arrived at the wrong time."

"That's okay, it happens," Lupin smirked as he concluded what he had to do and washed his hands, "My werewolf scent tells me I'm in front of a very annoyed guy..."

"Some things happened this weekend... I met Sheeba..."

"That's great, isn't it? It was time for you to come to an understanding with her..."

"Yeah, but we argued again..."

"Why?"

"Snape," Sirius growled.

"Oh, yes. She told me about it once. They're friends ," Lupin turned his bag inside out, looking for something, "Oh, I found it," he took out of his bag a large pet collar.

"And you think it's normal?"

"Listen, Sirius. You're the most hard-headed person I've ever met. Sheeba loves you and you know it. She waited for you for FOURTEEN years. Don't you think that if Snape had the furthest chance with her she wouldn't have gotten sick of waiting? But if you dump her...," he handed the collar at Sirius, "Can you put on this collar, please?", he said, "Well, if you dump her, Snape will come to comfort her, full of kindness... and then, one can't tell what'll happen..."

Sirius was struggling to put on the collar and Lupin started helping him. At this very moment, a very well-dressed Muggle entered the restroom and looked at them astonished. Lupin grinned and said cheerfully, "Theatre! We're rehearsing for a performance!"

The Muggle seemed to have given up whatever he came to that restroom to do and left the room muttering, "Perverted gays!"

"What did he say?" asked Sirius.

"Nothing... can you transform now? It's a disguise, we've got to go to St. Petersburg ‘cause I need to buy a wolfsbane potion. I can't manage to do this junk properly, so I'd better buy a prepared one."

Sirius turned into a dog. Lupin put on a pair of sunglasses and conjured a walking-stick and then, they left the restroom, Lupin pretending to be blind. They walked across the platform until they suddenly turned on their heels in front of a wall and crossed through it. It was a barrier. There was something that resembled an upright escalator. There was also a sign in which there were the inscriptions: Down: Shadow Cross Station. Up: Wizardry Shop. Lupin put away the stick and the glasses (wizards were way much more liberal about allowing animals at the subway) and said to the escalator, "Down!"

And the escalator travelled downstairs, heading them to a huge round station, in which there were over twenty platforms and subways to everywhere in the world.

One could read on a sign "World-Wide Underground – Shadow Cross Station – London – UK".

In each platform, there was a different subway, and it subway transported people to different places in the world. In each platform, there was a flag from the country and the terminal station's name. "Le Possion Noire – Paris – France", "Liberty Owl – New York – USA", "Toca dos Sacis – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil". There were platforms for many countries, the farthest and the nearest. Lupin bought two tickets "London – St. Petersburg- London" for him and for Sirius (wizards were liberal about pets, but there was a price for it) and they embarked bound for "Rhussian Rhapysodia" station, whose platform was placed next to the platform that bounded for Japan.

About half an hour later, they arrived at the Russian station. Lupin said something in Russian to the escalator, and it drove them upstairs. There were many shops full of magical artifacts and they headed towards a Potion Shop.

At the counter, two very warmly-dressed wizards, whose beards reached their waists, were waiting for clients. The shortest was as tall as Professor Flitwick, and the tallest was almost as tall as Hagrid.

The shortest saluted Lupin cheerfully, "Lupin! Volfsbane Potion, right?"

"Hello, Nicolay! Good morning, Djimitry."

"Humpf," said the tallest wizard. Nicolay whispered to Lupin, "Djimitry is ill-humored today. He lost money in a bet."

While the wizard was putting Lupin's potion in a vial, he and Lupin started a conversation that made Sirius bored. He turned around and caught a glimpse of movement. Suddenly, he smelled somebody and yelped at Lupin, who was currently waiting for the change from the three galleons he had given for his potion. Lupin looked at him blankly and Sirius darted, dragging his friend downstairs, since he was hanging onto the collar.

A calm but annoyed Lupin said, "Whatever it is, Padfoot, you're going there later to get my change."

Sirius dragged him again, following the track of a tall hooded wizard who was wearing a fuzzy coat and entering the subway that headed to New York. Before the subway went away, the wizard took off his hood and Lupin could see what Sirius wanted to show him; seated on a chair inside that subway, there was the renegade Death Eater, Igor Karkaroff, who was supposed to be hidden in London's subway giving Wormtail support.

Lupin decided they had to go immediately to London, forgetting completely about his change. Luckily, he would reach Dumbledore and tell him that, if there was a Death Eater meeting Wormtail, it sure was not Karkaroff. As they arrived in London, they quickly entered a restroom, where an anxious Sirius Black turned quickly into his human form.

"If it isn't Karkaroff who's meeting Wormtail, then there must be another Death Eater involved. Different from all the others we know of. Probably a neophyte like that Quirrell-guy!"

"Sirius, I think it's better to leave you at the room in which I'm living here in London. It is in a Muggle neighborhood, where you can remain reasonably incognito. While you are there, I'll look for Dumbledore."

"He may be at the Ministry today. Sheeba forebode this yesterday."

"Great. He didn't say in our conference yesterday where he would go today. Let's postpone the plan for today. I hope we discover who the hell this Death Eater is before tomorrow's night... you know then I'll be useless. Full moon."

They left the restroom, Sirius was already in his human form, and they tried to be discreet as they cast a Memory Charm at a security guard from the station, who could swear that that guy was blind and the other, the tallest one, had come from nowhere.

They got into the normal subway heading to East End station, where they got off and Lupin headed Sirius to the den where he had rented his room.

A fat Muggle, who was reading a newspaper, handed Lupin his key and muttered as they turned around , "Gays!"

"What did you say?" Sirius turned around and growled, wearing his most canine face, threatening.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything."

They went upstairs and entered a dirty and musty room in which there were two beds.

"Great," exclaimed Sirius, falling heavily on one of the beds and kicking his boots aside, "Back to the cave full of fleas!"

"What?"

"Nothing really important, Moony... but... what does ‘gay' mean?"

"For the safety of that guy downstairs, I'd better not tell you..."

To be continued...