Keeper of the Stars

The rain started out lightly, a slight drizzle falling from the light grey, almost white skies that left a fine dusting of water droplets on the windshields of the parked cars nearby. As the clouds overhead gathered and darkened, the rain changed to a smattering, then to a steady shower. Within minutes the sky was a dark grey, almost black, and the rain fell in a heavy curtain. People rushed back and forth across the sidewalks with umbrellas, briefcases, newspapers, or plastic bags over their heads. Cars whizzed down the streets, windshield wipers flailing madly, dousing unfortunate passers-by with sheets of filthy water from the gutters. Neon signs glowed bravely through the tumultuous downpour: hot doughnuts, hot coffee, we're open, come in. Most shone in vain; no one was out on the streets that cold, rainy night. Clerks kept busy by talking to one another, chatting or playing word games.

In a small shop on the south side of town, a shop rarely visited even on a fine day and never on a night that stormy, a young woman by the name of Taygeta Dnoces sat by herself, leaning on the counter and wondering why she was still here. No one was coming in. If she just locked up and went home no one would ever know. Yet something kept her sitting there. Lacking anything better to do, she had her feet propped up on the counter and her nose buried in Misty of Chincoteague.

Suddenly, to her surprise, she heard the jingle of the bell over the door. Her feet hit the floor with a sharp thud as she straightened quickly. Looking up, she was startled to see a tall man, soaking wet, staring around him wildly, as though looking for something.

His appearance was odd by any standards, even Tay's. His hair was long and scraggly and hung in wet clumps, plastered to his gaunt face. His dark brown eyes, wide with fright, darted from here to there, seeking something that seemed rather elusive. He wore battered brown robes; Tay could see that they were not only filthy, but also frayed, torn, burnt in patches. Water was pooling at his feet; it was not clear, as Tay had expected, but carried brown streaks from the dirt and also faint tinges of red. Clearly, he had been badly hurt recently.

"Sir?" Tay ventured. "Can I help you?"

The man looked at her wildly, staggered over to the counter, and collapsed against it, clutching the edge of the wood tightly with both hands.

"Please," he rasped, his voice hollow and accented. "Where the hell am I?"

He's drunk, Tay thought in alarm. As calmly as possible she said, "You're in the Starlight Café, Sir. Can I get you a cup of coffee or something?"

The man looked around frantically. "Where--" he gasped out. "Where is the Starlight Café?"

Okay, he's really drunk. "Right here, sir, on Little Creek Road." Situated right between two huge stores, as it happened, and right across the street from a large coffee shop. Hardly anybody even stopped by. Hell, the little hole-in-the-parking-lot coffee place down at Ward's Corner got more customers than they did.

"No," the man said, almost pleadingly, gasping as though breathing was very difficult for him. "What city? What county?"

"Sir, did you miss your stop?"

The man seemed about to say something, but nodded.

"Where are you coming from?" Tay asked. That'd be at least a reference point.

The man looked trapped, then said, "York."

"York county?" The man nodded. "Okay, sir, where are you headed?"

"London," the man said quickly. "What's the fastest way to London from here?"

Tay stared in astonishment. The man was clearly off his rocker. "Well, Sir, the Norfolk International Airport is on Azalea Garden Road...go that way down Little Creek, turn left at the very end, and go pretty much straight--you can't miss it."

The man laughed weakly. "Ha, ha. I'll take the bus...when does the next bus leave for London? I know there's one out of Norfolk..."

"Sir, I assure you," Tay said dryly. "The only way to get to London from here, besides flying, is to take a boat. And believe me, the plane is faster. It's only nine hours as opposed to two days. Are you sure I can't get you a cup of coffee?"

The man looked frightened. "What--Norfolk--am--I--in?" he said jerkily.

There is more than one Norfolk, after all, Tay reminded herself sternly. "Norfolk, Virginia, of course, sir. For the last time, would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Yeah--yeah..." The man didn't seem to notice what she'd asked. He slumped into a chair, looking pale and stricken. "V-Virginia? That's in America, isn't it?"

"Indeed, sir. Do you want anything in your coffee?"

"Hell," the man half-sobbed, apparently ignoring her. "How the hell did I get from London to America? What the hell did Bellatrix do to me?"

"I think you're going to need your coffee black," Tay said as tactfully as possible.

The man looked up at her sharply. "I do need it...but how did you know my name?"

Tay blinked. "I don't. What made you think I did?"

"You just said--"

"I said I thought you needed black coffee," Tay interrupted. "As in coffee with nothing in it. Strong and straight. Your name is Black?"

The man nodded, gripping the cup she handed him so tightly she feared it would break. "Sirius Black, actually."

"Nice to meet you, Sirius." Tay fixed herself a cup of coffee and rang them both up, then paid for them out of the money she'd brought along for her dinner. "I'm Taygeta Dnoces, but my friends call me Tay. What brings you out here?"

"I wish like hell I knew," Sirius said hollowly, slumping down in the stool. "I just...appeared. I have to get back!" he suddenly said in a fit of passion. "I have to help Harry--he'll die--I have to--"

"Calm down," Tay said, putting her hand on his shoulder and pushing him back onto the stool. "You can't get there fast enough to do any good. You might as well stay around. Besides, you're hurt, and if you think I'm letting you out of my sight in your condition you're crazy."

A strange smile quirked Sirius's face. "Tay, I've been crazy for almost fifteen years. I've been near death's door for fifteen years too. This is nothing."

"Maybe so, but I still don't think you're up to anything like a major travel expedition."

~~~

Sirius came by a lot over the next week. He got a job on the opposite shift to her as a waiter at a restaurant nearby; when he was off he'd stop by, buy a cup of coffee, and nurse it for an hour or so while he talked with Tay.

He learned that she was thirty-four, about his age, that she had two brothers and a sister, that she had been raised in a sheltered and protected environment and that she, like him, had run away from home when she was a young teenager.

"Mother didn't approve of my lifestyle," she explained, swiping at the counter with a white rag. "I wrote to her once I got back to school to let her know I was alive and well. We finally reached a reconciliation last year. She offered to finance me, but by then I already had this job and I liked it, so I stuck with it. It's not so bad, really. We don't get much business, but the job pays well...for now. If it starts slowing down we might have to start laying people off, but..." She shrugged.

One day, while she was working, Sirius asked her where she went to school. She was rather guarded about the whole thing. "Boarding school in Massachusetts."

"Uh-huh." Sirius had a suspicion nagging at his brain. "Salem?"

Tay looked up in surprise. "How'd you guess?"

Sirius chuckled--sort of--pulled his wand out of his pocket, and laid it on the counter. "Hogwarts, class of '79."

A smile crept across Tay's face. "You'd best put that away before one of my ever-present customers comes in."

Sirius managed a laugh and pocketed his wand. As he stuck it in his back pocket, he thought with a dual pang of Moody and Harry, but didn't say anything to Tay. You can't move forward if you're holding on to the past.