The Hedwig Chronicles

The Hedwig Chronicles

The Cemetary Reunion

He stooped down to the ground, facing a cold plaque of dull grey marble stone, feeling much too morose to raise his head and read the words artily engraved in it forevermore, the words he hated yet remembered and felt the weight of every waking second.

"I came as soon as I could." Sirius raised his head finally and felt the tightness in his heart give way. He didn't bother wiping the tears that fell freely in small rivers on his cheeks.

She knelt down in the dirt and carefully lifted his chin, gently brushing away the strands of unkempt hair that fell in his face in a motherly fashion. Then she leaned in and placed her warm lips on his cold forehead.

"Hedwig," he choked out, sobbing in her arms at the light contact as she ushered him quietly, listening to him. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it."

"I know," she murmured soothingly. "I know. It's not really your fault. I'm sorry for ever saying it was."

"The house. It's - "

"Shh, I know. It's all right. It's going to be all right."

He pulled away. "And Harry..." he said thoughtfully.

She eyed him quizzically. "I thought Dumbledore - "

Sirius nodded grimly. "Yes. I handed Harry to Hagrid, but - " He cut himself off, pausing to look down as the skies rumbled, announcing imminent rain. "I - he's been sent to a muggle family, Lily's sister's."

"Petunia?" Hedwig asked incredulously.

"Yes. He's never going to learn about his parents or this whole world."

Hedwig bit her lip, hugging herself and looking like a little lost girl; the first time Sirius remembered seeing her looking so vulnerable since... "Maybe it's for the best?" she remarked feebly. She looked away as though she feared he might slug her for her stupidity.

"You know as well as I do that growing up like him, already a huge celebrity in our world just mere hours after his parents' death and defeating someone so powerful and living in theirs with no recollection of what that scar means and how it came to be etched in his skin forever is going to affect him greatly."

Hedwig licked her lips dully and nodded slowly. "What are you planning, Sirius? Tell me," she pleaded. "I don't want you to commit something you'll regret later."

Anger flashed like gunfire in his nearly indigo eyes. "I wouldn't regret killing off the traitor even if it means I have to spend the rest of my life in Azkaban."

Hedwig saw red. Her eyes widened at the meaning of his statement. "Sirius, please, you don't mean that! It's just your anger speaking... Please tell me you won't go searching for the mole. He probably had no choice."

"He had a bleeding choice. Refusing Voldemort's offer would have been the best choice he would have ever made. But, no, the madman rose to bloody masterdom and fed off of people like him. Slime with no pride and loads of fear lurking behind their cold black eyes. People like you and me, but without the nerve to run away when they see red."

Hedwig cringed at the loathsome name that had scared two to three generations of wizards and witches. She had never been scared to speak his name, but it still struck her everytime the name was mentionned. Could he be around a corner, ready to strike again? Voldemort might have been dead or, truth be told, reduced to an inhuman and powerless substance, he still instilled fear in everyone with his unspoken promise to return stronger than ever before. It was just a matter of time. They would have to wait...

"So, tell me," Sirius spat out, "what's the best way to ensure the little bastard doesn't inform his master about my godson's current location?"

"Sirius, no." The reply, or rather command, had come out so strongly out of Hedwig that she stared wide-eyed at Sirius and swallowed with difficulty.

Sirius blinked, obviously struck by her words as they sunk in. "What?" he questionned dumbly after a moment of silence.

Hedwig gazed at him helplessly. "So many lives have been put to the test or sucked our of men and women by Voldemort's followers or Voldemort himself. You can't follow on that path as well. You know why?" She stepped forth, grasping his hands in hers and threading her fingers through his, looking up at him intensely with a new confidence, one that only he could induce so in her. "You can't go fight a battle that you can't possibly win by yourself." She softened, now looking melancholically at the grave they stood by. "Lily wouldn't want that, and James neither."

Sirius stared at their entertwined hands and sighed, noticing the light squeeze she'd given to his fingers. "There's something else you're not telling me," he concluded.

Hedwig closed her eyes and nestled her head against his chest, smelling the moss, the cinders and the humid earth impregnated into his clothes and skin, probably from his trek amongst the débris and the woods to get to the cemetary where their best mates now lay for eternity. "I don't want you to go," she breathed out against the thick fabric of his robes.

Sirius didn't respond immediately but brought a hand up to carress her hair softly, leaning his head over hers and ferociously wishing he could change the hands of time and change the destinies of everyone he cared most about. James, Lily, and now Hedwig... and Harry.

He stiffened suddenly. "Hedwig, I want you to swear you won't try anything funny," he said solemnly.

She pulled away and her eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"Trust me."

The realisation hit her square in the chest. Trust me. Could she? "But Sirius - "

"Don't. I'm going to protect Harry, whatever it takes. I'm going to do what's right."

And suddenly a big burly black dog appeared before her eyes. Hedwig cried out, "Sirius, no!"

But it was already too late; the dog had disappeared into the woods and never once looked back to offer her the last apologetic glance she was waiting for. The rain fell in cold hard drops against her flattened hair and she hugged herself, standing lonely, eyeing the grave next to her with sadness dripping out of her eyes.