Nox Redux

Chapter 7

The next morning Sirius was woken up by Finn exclaiming, "Cripes, Sirius, mate! Don't tell me that's Moony."

Sirius opened his eyes and looked to where the boy was standing at the front of the bus, pointing. Through the windscreen, he saw a sour faced figure in black robes standing in the garden staring at the bus, and he choked. "No, that most definitely isn't Moony," he declared.

"Best friend though, huh?" teased Finn.

"Don't even joke about that," responded Sirius, revolted.

"He's coming over," said Finn. "What is he wearing? Last time I saw him he looked like an undertaker.

"Where've you seen him before?"

"The other day, outside that weird herb shop in Amblesbury. Does he always look that pissed off?"

"You there! Boy! What do you think you're doing here?" Snape's voice demanded.

Sirius hurriedly pulled on his jeans and stood up. "I'd better speak to him," he told Finn and clambered down out of the bus. Finn followed, but stood uncertainly by the door.

Wishing he had a camera to capture Snape's expression, Sirius drawled, "Looking for someone, Severus?" Just looking at the man made his hackles start to rise.

"You!" Snape's face clearly expressed the revulsion he felt. "What are you doing here, with these Muggles?" Snape seemed shaken.

"Looking for me were you? How flattering," responded Sirius.

Snape's eyes kept flickering from Sirius to the bus and back again. As the other man walked towards him he said, "I suppose it's of no consequence to you that people have been desperately searching for you while you've apparently been gallivanting around the countryside with a group of Muggles on a camping trip!"

With an effort, Sirius stopped himself from punching the other wizard, although it would have been immensely satisfying to have done so. Instead, he ignored him and walked up to the door of the cottage and banged hard on it with his fist. "Moony!" he yelled. "Come and rescue me, please!"

Almost instantly the door was flung open, and Remus, an expression of relief vying with a broad smile, grabbed Sirius by the shoulders and shook him, saying, "Padfoot, thank God! We thought you were dead!"

"I thought I was dead for a while there myself," Sirius replied. He turned round and called over to Finn, "Can you wait here for a bit, Finn? I just need to speak to Moony alone first."

Looking slightly offended at the exclusion, Finn grumped, in what sounded like his best what-do-I-care voice, "Sure. I'll get me breakfast then."

Remus flicked the boy a slightly apologetic glance, and said to Snape, "You'd better come in too, Severus."

Sirius frowned, wondering what they needed him for, but Remus put a hand on his arm to shush him before he could say anything and pushed him inside. So, he stood in the hall waiting until Snape had followed, and Remus had shut the door.

He had a last glimpse of Finn staring at them, a nonplussed expression on his face.

---

Remus was tired. It seemed these days he was always tired. It had been after two in the morning before he had returned home from Hogwarts and a very long discussion with Dumbledore. Now that Sirius had turned up of course, a lot of that was irrelevant. He looked at his old friend sitting at the kitchen table. He appeared to be in better shape than he had done last year. Well, that wasn't hard. But he was still painfully thin and haggard, and his eyes hadn't lost that horrible haunted quality that seemed to be the legacy of Azkaban. Remus wondered if they ever would. Every now and then he thought he saw a flicker of the old Sirius, but it was buried deep, under a burning rage for revenge, that would have consumed him utterly had it not been for the equally fierce protective instinct he seemed to have developed for Harry. Remus rather thought that might be the saving of him - if he survived long enough.

They had been talking for a long time. At first Sirius clearly felt he was being blamed for managing to escape from Voldemort, and had taken refuge in an outraged bafflement. Snape's attitude had hardly helped.

Remus sat down at the table opposite his friend. "Padfoot, nobody is blaming you for anything - "

"Speak for yourself, Lupin," Snape broke in.

Forcing a flash of irritation down, Remus continued, "Apart from him, of course, and you're hardly going to let that bother you. But for God's sake, why didn't you contact anybody as soon as you had escaped?"

"I was coming to you," Sirius tried to explain. "But he was after me…" he trailed off and rubbed his eyes. "I don't know. All I could think about was running. And then I ran into that bullet." Remus caught a flicker of a smile that almost reached his eyes.

"And then you so conveniently got saved by those Muggles. That has to be the most ridiculous thing about this whole farrago!" declared Snape unpleasantly. "Whoever heard of Muggles using magic? They can't. That's why they're Muggles."

Sirius was virtually growling at him now and Remus turned round. "Well as we said before it's something that can easily be checked, Severus, " he said mildly. "In fact," he continued, as Snape angrily glared back at them, "Why don't you go and do just that?" Then making sure Sirius couldn't see his face, he added giving Snape a meaningful look, "And the other things we discussed?"

"As you wish, Lupin," said Snape in a sour tone and he Disapparated with an angry pop.

After he had gone, Sirius leaned back in his chair and the faint smile flickered on his face again. "I think if you hadn't made Snape leave, Moony I'd've killed him."

"Well that was fairly obvious," said Remus, and smiled.

He stood up and going over to the range where the teapot was keeping warm, he re-filled the tea mugs and sat down again. He looked down at the table for a moment, seeing the Muggle road atlas, still open at the page where Sirius had shown them where Buckbeak had flown into Voldemort's ward. He pushed it to one side and leaned forwards across the table, grave again. "Look Sirius, I know this has been hard, is hard, but we have to check your story."

Sirius brushed his hands across his eyes in a gesture of resignation. "I know you do. You have to make sure I'm really me. But it doesn't stop it hurting. To regain your trust after all this time and to lose it just because I had to fly in the wrong direction…"

"It was bad?" Remus asked softly.

The eyes that met his own were hooded now, shuttered and withdrawn as Sirius retreated behind his armour. Then he gave a brief nod.

Remus looked at him expectantly and Sirius dropped his eyes for a moment as if thinking about what he was going to say. Eventually he looked up and for a moment, an ironic gleam appeared in them. "Little Peter's been practising, but I can't say that I'm impressed with the subject matter, or his teacher."

As Remus drew in a quick breath to say something, Sirius put up a hand to quiet him and continued, "But don't worry, he wasn't trying to kill me, I think he just wanted to torture me." His lips stretched in a smile that didn't reach his eyes, and Remus knew he wasn't talking about Peter any more.

"But you got away, you escaped," he said in a level voice.

"Oh yes, I escaped," replied Sirius, but his eyes were bleak.

Just then, there was a flutter of wings against the window behind Sirius. He turned round and looked at the snowy owl on the other side of the glass and exclaimed, "Hedwig!"

He reached for the latch and quickly opened the window, letting her in. "Nothing's happened to Harry has it?" he said to her as she held out her leg with the message tied to it to Remus.

Lupin laughed, clearing the air slightly, "Only worried sick about you," he said. "She's been coming here every other day for the last two weeks." he quickly scanned the message and passed it over to Sirius saying, "See for yourself."

Sirius read the note and said immediately, "Give me your quill, Remus, I'll write to him now and tell him I'm all right."

Remus grinned and reached over to the pile of books at the end of the table where his quill was lying. He passed it over. Sirius took it but before he started writing he said, "I know Dumbledore asked me to lie low here for a while, but surely there wouldn't be any harm in going to see Harry would there?"

Remus looked narrowly at him for a moment. "When would you want to go?"

Sirius shrugged grinning, "Oh there's no hurry, say, this afternoon."

Remus' expression didn't change however, but he responded, "I don't see why not, but we'd better clear it with Dumbledore first. I wouldn't say anything in your message, don't want to get Harry's hopes up and if you do go it would be a surprise for him - he'd like that."

Sirius made a face but said, "I suppose you're right."

Remus stood up. "In the meantime, I think I will go and talk to your friends out side, before one of them at least expires from curiosity." He glanced out of the window as he said this, then left the room, leaving Sirius scribbling on a piece of parchment.

---

Whatever it was they were talking about was taking a hell of a long time, Finn thought. Under his Gran's watchful eye, he had forced himself to eat a whole bowl of muesli - which just about made him gag - and Sirius still hadn't come back. He sat on the steps of the bus for a bit, but that was pretty boring. His Gran couldn't make him do the washing up because they needed to get water and he didn't want to use his laptop because the battery was getting low. In fact, the only thing to do was wander round the garden. And it wasn't his fault if the interesting bits happened to be nearest the windows of the cottage.

He could hear a lot of shouting. The undertaker's voice was quite prominent, and the softer tones of Sirius' mate. Every now and then Sirius himself said something, but Finn couldn't make out what any of them were saying. It didn't sound like a very friendly sort of a conversation.

Then a large snowy owl flew up to one of the windows and Finn caught a glimpse of Sirius as he opened it to let the bird in. Strange. He carefully inched forwards along the wall, hoping to hear more but everyone seemed to have stopped talking. Finn suddenly felt like he was being watched. How could they possibly see him? They wouldn't be able to see him from the window. Quickly he moved back and when the door opened, he was sitting on the steps of the bus again.

He expected to see Sirius, but it was his friend Moony instead. He came over to where Finn was sitting.

"You must be Finn," he said in a friendly voice, "We weren't properly introduced earlier. My name's Remus"

Finn frowned. "I thought you were called Moony?"

Remus or Moony or whatever he was called replied, "Moony's just a nickname. I've known Sirius a long time. As it happens, I'm very grateful to you."

"You are?"

"Yes, I gather Sirius has you to thank for saving his life."

"Oh, that." Finn shrugged. "It was nothing. Anyone would have done the same."

"No, I don't think they would have."

Before Remus could carry on, the Sour Faced Git walked round from the back of the cottage and came towards them. He flicked a contemptuous glance at Finn before saying to the other man, "Well Lupin, it's as I suspected, his memory has definitely been altered."

Remus drew in a quick breath, suddenly looking very grave. "I see. I wonder why. Thank you, Severus. Well we will have to find out. In the meantime - "

"In the meantime I do have other work to do," the Sour Faced Git broke in, and he stalked off in the direction he had appeared from without another word.

Remus turned back to Finn, eyes twinkling. "Don't worry, he's like that with everybody. So, do you think I could speak to your Gran? Sirius has told me a lot about her. Then we can go inside."