Petit Noir

Petit Noir

"GOD I HATE YOU,"

The door slammed shut and Sirius groaned, sinking into a nearby chair. He buried his face into his hands.

"By Merlin's ghost, I don't know what to do with that girl,"

A seated figure, hidden in the shadows of the fire, grinned at his friend's distress and nodded.

"I understand, but you must look at from her side of the story, she is a teenage girl, living in a male-dominated household, of course there will be times when she needs some space."

Sirius turned towards his comrade,

"Yes but why now, she was fine up to a year ago, something happen a Hogwarts perhaps? If it did I'll ring that headmaster's neck, he's not a patch on Dumbledore."

Remus rolled his eyes and raised himself from the chair,

"Well I hardly think he's going to come out of his retirement, just to teach Ebony, eh Sirius? Let me talk to her."

Sirius nodded, absent-mindedly staring into the fire.

Just as Remus had reached the large oak paneled door, however, he spoke.

"Dreama would have been able to handle her, eh Remus, she always was a natural with kids,"

Remus just nodded, softly closing the door on his grieving companion.

He found a tearful Ebony, curled under the canopy of her bed.

Without adding a word, he gently tucked in his small frame so he rested just above her head. She didn't even look up as he affectionately stroked her hair.

"What's wrong mo petit noir,"

He used her pet name, which she hated with a vengeance, to try and shock her into a reaction, but it didn't even get a frown. But Remus knew her moods so he tried a different tack.

"Do you want some food, there's some cauldron cakes in the fridge?"

This provoked a response, if only small.

Ebony shook her head.

"No, feel sick."

A little concerned, Remus reached down to feel her forehead. She felt a little hot, but nothing serious. He gently uncurled himself, so as not to disturb her, and stood beside the bed. Bending down, he worked swiftly to uncurl the blanket from under her and gently tuck it around her.

"Need anything precious?"

She looked up at this, her very dark brown eyes, flashing from the light of a candle, perched on her bedside locker.

"Can you boil a potion? Madame Pomfrey says it tastes better hot."

Remus smiled remembering his days in the stuffy dungeon potion room, being supervised by, eagle eyed, Professor Uafasach.

"Yes, what's it for?"

"The cramps."

Remus turned a whiter shade than his usual pale complexion.

(Check out Procol Harem's "A whiter shade of pale", Ed)

"Cramps!?"

"Yea," Ebony snuggled deeper into her pillow, "All girls get them, bring it up here when you're done please, the bottle's on the dresser, don't use it all." She added as an after thought.

Remus nodded, then walked, as if in a daze, towards her neat little cabinet. There among her wand, a picture of her mother, and a sleeping toad, lay a small bluey-green glass vial. He picked it up and fingered it thoughtfully, rejecting the urge to un-cork it and take a sniff. Pocketing it carefully, he blew a light kiss over to the bed's inhabitant, then left shutting the door softly behind him. As he descended the stairs he heard voices from the living room.

"Ah, Ron and Harry have returned," he grinned to himself, their presence always brought Sirius out of himself, and little else did these days.

But he hesitated outside the door, as he heard a voice he didn't quite recognize. A slow, drawling sound, as if everything that it said was a real bother to its owner. He opened the door cautiously, and was greeted with the all too familiar from of Draco Malfoy. He sat, crossed legged, next to Harry on the couch. Ron seemed quite unruffled by his presence, sitting on the Persian rug beside the fire, in fact he was laughing at one of his witty remarks.

It was Sirius that first noticed Remus at the door. His cheeks red with laughter, made Remus's long strained heart, leap. He smiled in answer to Sirius's invitation to join them, but shook his head indicating that he had things to do, instead he beckoned Sirius over from his seat by the fire.

"What's up?" Sirius looked non-plussed to have been called away from this lively debate, which had gone quiet at Remus's appearance.

But Remus merely nodded towards the corridor outside the room. Shaking his head, Sirius leaned against the wall. He was silent, waiting for an explanation.

"What's Draco doing here?"

"He came with Harry and Ron, Why?"

Remus sadly looked at him, sometimes his friend could be so dense, god, to think he was as sharp as a pin in Hogwarts….

"Weren't they enemies in school?"

"So people change, look at Peter," But Sirius knew Remus wouldn't settle for that, "Look, he appears to have bailed the pair of them out of a sticky fix at the academy, so I guess they felt they owed him."

Remus appeared satisfied at the explanation, but seemed to be busy, fetching something out of his pocket, so Sirius waited.

"Here, what do you think this is?"

Sirius took the slender bottle in his hand, pulling out the cork, he took a whiff.

"Phew, that’s a familiar stench, didn't you need to take it at one point?"

Remus nodded, taking the bottle back from Sirius's clumsy fingers.

"Yes, it was used to relax my muscles during a particularly harsh transformation, in the middle of puberty, it stunk out the dorm for a week after." He twisted the bottle's neck in his hand while re-corking it.

"I found it on Ebony's table."

There he had done it, dropped the hint, Sirius knew his mind had slowed down, but he still hated stuff being spelled out for him. But it looked like Sirius was tired.

"Why?"

Remus decided to tell him, even if it meant that he felt stupid afterwards.

"Oh." Was his only reaction, "The heat is in the kitchen."

He then retired to the living room, where raucous laughter ensued.

Remus gazed after him until the golden light faded to a crack beside the door, and the corridor grew dark and cold. He could feel tears welling in his eyes,.

"Oh Sirius, I thought you were getting better." He muttered under his breath, fighting the urge to slam his fists into the wall. Gulping some deep breaths he composed himself enough, to walk towards the kitchen.

Bending down, he turned on the gas and pointed his wand towards the hob, so a bright blue ring of flames burst into life. Reaching into the cupboard, he withdrew a small pan, and poured the mustard yellow goop into it. Heating it gently, he let it simmer until he found a glass. He reached towards a door that opened a small shelf where the glass where kept. He chose a long stemmed goblet and pulled it out. He stared at it for a moment before turning it around. The Gryffindor coat of arms was etched on its gold exterior, the name James Potter was engraved underneath it. Remus almost dropped it on to the flagstones beneath him.

"James's graduation cup" Memories flooded back to Remus's, long purposely forgotten images of James, too painful to recall. "He had drunk from it when anointed head boy." He whispered.

Why did Sirius keep this, he thought. Sniffing it, he was shocked by the fresh smell of polish that lingered around the goblet, "Maybe he does remember," Hope flooded into Remus as he replaced the goblet carefully back in its place and chose another to pour the potion into.

Holding the steaming cup carefully, he mounted the stairs, towards Ebony's room.

"Here petit noir," He knew from dealing with Lily, when she and James fought, that girls, especially sick ones, loved to be cuddled and pampered, and pet names included that. He approached the bed. "This will make you feel better."

She raised herself up in the bed with her left arm. She smiled weakly at her godfather. "Thanks," she swung it down and pulled a face, "ugh."

Remus smiled and took the goblet off her, balancing it carefully on the locker. She snuggled into the covers, as Remus covered her with the blanket. He then sat beside her, dreamily stroking her hair as she slumbered.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive. Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see, all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free."

He kissed her gently on the forehead. "Sleep little marauder, your daddy will recover and your lone wolf will always watch over you."