Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Measures

Remus stared at the door to Sirius´ flat. He didn´t want to knock. He didn´t know how he had been convinced to go out that night. Another of Padfoot´s half thought out plans to get Remus to socialize. He raised his hand to knock on the flat door, but changed his mind turning to leave.

"There you are," Sirius said, opening the door. "Weren´t planning on fleeing were you?"

"The thought hadn´t crossed my mind," Remus answered sarcastically, stepping into his friends flat.

"You aren´t wearing that are you?"

Remus looked down at his slightly shabby robes then back up at Sirius. "What is wrong with what I´m wearing?"

"You are trying to MEET people," Sirius said, exasperated. "People don´t want to get to know people who don´t even know how to dress themselves."

"I wear these robes all the time..."

"Yes, and when was the last time you went on a date?" Sirius asked. "That girl, in seventh year. You went to the ball with her. What was her name?"

"Bertha Hopkirk."

Sirius shuddered. "She got on my nerves."

"She was sweet."

"In an annoying way."

"Well, some of us don´t have girls flocking to them," Remus said, his voice heavily sarcastic.

"You would if you went out more, met some people. You are a charming person Moony," Sirius said. "And if you stopped hiding it you could really find someone."

"Until they found out what I was," Remus replied quietly.

Sirius fell quiet for a moment, sifting through his closet. He tossed Remus a pair of deep green robes. "Wear those."

"There isn´t anything wrong with what I´m already wearing!"

The front door opened and in waltzed James and Lily. Lily looked gorgeous as she ever had, her engagement ring sparkling on her ring finger.

Remus couldn´t help but feel a pang of jealousy every time he looked at the pair of them. So happy, so content. They had things he knew he would never have. No one wanted to date a werewolf when there were normal men around.

Remus was jerked out of his thoughts by James. "You aren´t wearing that are you?"

"What is wrong with what I am wearing?" Remus was reaching the point of exasperation. "Lily, help me."

"Oh, just humor them Remus," Lily said, stepping forward and taking the robes Sirius had handed him out of his hands. She held them up to him. "You´d look good in these. Just give them a try." She placed a hand on his back and led him to another room. She pushed him gently through the door, and closed it before he could turn around and protest.

"Ok, who are you trying to set him up with?" she asked Sirius.

Sirius pulled a face of mock offense. "Hey now, I´m not setting him up with anyone."

"Who is she?" She turned to James now. Sirius knew that James had a horrible time lying to his future wife. She generally saw right through him.

"Who says it´s a she?" Sirius interjected.

"Sirius, that isn´t even funny," Lily said, waving a finger at him. "I really should tell Remus that you said that."

"Tell me that he said what?"

Remus had reappeared in the doorway wearing Sirius´ robes.

"Wow, Moony," James commented. "I think you look better in those than Sirius did."

Remus smirked. Sirius scoffed. James and Lily, however, started to laugh as they all made their way out of the flat.

~ * * * ~

The Office of Magical Law Enforcement lies at the intersection of Main St. and Wolfsbane Way in Diagon Alley. There was quite a bit more activity in it then there usually was at 11pm, because on the top floor the office New Year´s party was taking place. But down a couple floors, a single office was still lit up.

Zenobia Mills sat at her desk, a file open in front of her. She was flipping through school transcripts, personality analysis results, permanent disciplinary records, etc.

She read over the top of her wire frame reading glasses. First the personality analysis:

"The subject displays a high level of aggression. He is short tempered and exhibits a confidence that borders on egotism. He has a reckless history, acting constantly without any thoughts of consequences for himself or others. The subject was nearly charged for attempted murder at the young age of 16. The subject is prone to snap judgements and maybe even discrimination."

Zenobia´s frown deepened. She hated hearing her apprentice being referred to as "the subject". It was easy for them to judge a nameless person. Harder to judge was Sirius Black himself.

She flipped to his permanent record from Hogwarts. She had laughed the first time she had seen it, but now it was causing her nothing but problems. Anything and everything it was possible to be punished for at Hogwarts, he had been caught doing at some point or another. He served innumerable detentions, and had been suspended only once.

It was that suspension that she was focused on now. The documentation was in Albus Dumbledore´s loopy script. She couldn´t help but notice that he sounded almost as if he was writing a journal entry, not writing up a suspension report.

"On January 16, 1976 , Sirius Black (16) informed Severus Snape (also 16) of a particular knot on the trunk of a tree on the Hogwarts grounds fondly referred to as the "Whomping Willow". Sirius told Snape that if you he poked the knot with a stick the tree would freeze. Severus followed Sirius´ instructions: he prodded the knot and entered the hidden passageway beneath the tree. Severus was nearly faced with a full fledged werewolf (Remus Lupin) at the end of the passage. Fortunately due to the heroic (though foolish) actions of James Potter (16) an untimely death for young Snape was averted. Sirius has been suspended for two weeks."

There was a soft knock on her office door, drawing her mind away from the file. "It´s open."

It was Frank Longbottom, a fellow Auror for the Ministry. "Still mulling over that file?"

"They are throwing it all in my face Frank," she said, slipping off her reading glasses and setting them on the desk. "Every bit of it. Questioning my judgement."

"They think Sirius is not Auror material," he replied.

"That is because they AREN´T AURORS!" she snapped. "Bureaucrats, all of them. They don´t know a good Auror when they see one. I do."

"Zen, calm down," Frank said. He reached across her desk and closed the file. "They can´t override your decision. As long as you are willing to train him, Sirius Black will become and Auror."

She sighed. "I´m getting too old for this."

Frank laughed. "You are 24," you are one of the youngest full fledged Aurors we have. What are you on about?" He grinned. "Why don´t you come to the party?"

"What is there to celebrate?"

"It´s almost a new year Zenobia."

"If it is a year as bad as the last, there really isn´t any reason to be pleased about that."

Frank sighed. "Come on Zen," he said, encouragingly.

"Fine," she said, stuffing the file in a desk drawer. "But I don´t intend to enjoy it."

"Well, I´m sure you can at least pretend to."

~ * * * ~

When Sirius, Remus, James and Lily stepped into the party it seemed to already be in full swing, despite the fact that midnight was still an hour away.

Sirius scanned the crowd, catching site of Zenobia´s long Auburn hair in a far corner of the room. She was standing talking to Alastor Moody and Frank Longbottom.

I think she tries to find the most boring people to talk to.

"Your apprentice just arrived," Alastor said in his scratchy, worn voice.

"I guess that is my cue to go mingle, eh?" Zenobia said, taking a glass of wine from the tray of a nearby server.

She waded her way through the crowd towards Sirius. She paused occasionally to greet co-workers.

"Zen!" Sirius greeted. "Decided to come out of your little corner?"

"Ah, they were starting to bore me anyway," she said, smiling.

Sirius laughed his hearty laugh. "Anyway, introductions," he said. "This is James Potter, his fiancé: Lily Evans, and Remus Lupin. Guys, this is Zenobia Mills."

"The famous Zenobia," James said shaking her hand.

"It´s a pleasure to meet you," Lily said.

"So you are the one stuck trying to keep Sirius in link," Remus said, cracking a smile. "I almost pity you."

"It´s a tough job, but somebody has to do it," she laughed.

"Hey now," Sirius protested. "I am standing right here."

"Oh, its nothing I haven´t said to your face," Zenobia said.

Sirius was shooting a look at James then nodding his head slightly towards the dance floor.

Taking the hint James looped his arm around Lily´s waist. "I think we shall go hit the dance floor," he said, leading her away. "See you later."

"And off goes the happy couple," Sirius sighed. "Don´t look directly at them, you may get a cavity."

"Do I sense a bit of ... jealousy, Padfoot,?" Remus asked.

"Jealousy, nonsense," he said. "Oh look, there´s Mags. I´ll catch up with you two later."

"And then there were two," Zenobia said.

"They did seem to flee quickly didn´t they?" Remus said. "I don´t smell do I?" He playfully sniffed his robes.

Zenobia, though she didn´t state it out loud, thought Remus smelled delectable. She was ticking through her head the things she´d heard or read about the man. She always did this with everyone she met. Created a little score board inside her head and started marking the pros and cons of anything and everything she knew about the person.

She wondered for a moment if he realized that she knew what he was.

Then she promptly wondered if he´d care.

They had found themselves in an awkward silence and were failing to dig their way out of it. Zenobia took a deep sip of her wine.

"I hear you have been working for Dumbledore," she said finally, grasping at something they would have in common.

"Not officially of course," he answered.

"Well no one except the teachers work officially for Dumbledore," she said. "Wouldn´t want the head honchos of the Ministry feeling like Albus is usurping away their power and control."

"You are a head honcho of the Ministry."

Zenobia laughed and wine nearly resurfaced through her nose. "Hardly," she said. "Just because my name shows up in the papers doesn´t mean I get a say in anything."

"Oh, you´ve been in the papers? I hadn´t noticed," he replied sarcastically.

"Yes, kill a couple Death Eaters, get on the front page," she said. "Its really quite silly."

"You know, Sirius told me of your willpower, and your intelligence, but he failed to warn me of you sharp wit." Or your beauty, he added in his mind.

Meanwhile, across the room, Sirius had met up with James looking rather lost since Lily had wandered off to the restroom.

"It looks like it´s going well," Sirius said. "Does it look like its going well to you?"

"Tell me you aren´t seriously trying to fix up your boss and Remus," James said. "Please tell me that isn´t your plan."

"Hey, what´s wrong with that plan?"

"Everything," Lily said, having returned. She leaned on James´ shoulder, and he put his arm around her. "If they did start dating you don´t think that would be awkward for you?"

"When have you EVER known me to be awkward?"

"How about that time when you ended up having two dates to the Yule Ball and you had to pick between them?" James offered. "Or that time when Snape slipped a Jiggly Worm in your drink and you didn´t know and drank it anyway? Or when-"

"Ok, that´s enough," Sirius interrupted. "Fine. No more trying to set Remus up if this doesn´t work. I just really think they´d be good for each other, they are both anti-social."

"Well, Remus has reason to be doesn´t he?" Lily asked. "More often than not any woman he has been interested in has shied away from him as soon as they found out what he was."

"But she already knows he´s a werewolf."

"Sirius, you TOLD her?" Lily sounded amazed.

"I didn´t have to tell her," he said, almost defensively. "It´s all in my file. My permanent Hogwarts record. Because of The Prank."

The Marauders had pulled a lot of pranks at Hogwarts, but everyone knew which prank The Prank was. The night that had changed so many things. Before then it had been a highly guarded secret what Remus was. Not even Lily had known. Only the four close friends had known. Sirius himself still looked back on that night and chided himself for his foolishness.

Sirius had been in the Library, returning a book, when he saw Severus. He was peering out a window farther down, but one glance out a nearby window told him exactly what he was looking at.

Remus Lupin was being led by one of the nurses to the Whomping willow.

Severus was so enthralled by the site that he didn´t notice as Sirius came and stood next to him, gazing out the same window.

"There´s a knot," Sirius said suddenly. Severus startled, staring at him incredulously. "Near the bottom of the trunk. And when you prod it, it freezes."

He hadn´t said anything more. That had been enough though.

Remus and Sirius had attempted to regain their usual closeness after the prank. But they still, to that day, found themselves encountering odd moments where they couldn´t seem to talk normally. Unfortunately the damage remained, Sirius had handed damaging information to one of their greatest enemies. Sirius felt sometimes that Remus was waiting for the other shoe to drop because of it.

"So she knows," Lily said, jerking Sirius back from his thoughts. "She doesn´t seem to mind at all does she?"

Sirius returned his gaze to the bar where Remus and Zenobia were standing. She was laughing at something he said, and he was smiling in a content, enjoying way.

"I didn´t expect she would," Sirius said. "Zen´s not like that."

"You know, Sir," James said. "The way you talk about Zenobia all the time I thought YOU wanted to date her."

Sirius´ face was unreadable. "She doesn´t believe in dating co-workers. Nor, for that matter, do I."

James pretended not to notice that Sirius sounded more like he was pretending to agree, than actually agreeing.

"Its almost midnight, Padfoot, shouldn´t you be off finding a girl to kiss?"

"Funny Prongs, very funny." Though Sirius had to admit to himself that the though had crossed his mind.

He was gazing around at the people in the room. Frank had dared him to kiss Zenobia at midnight, but that was certainly an offer he didn´t intend to take considering he wanted to set her up with Remus.

***

The last minutes before midnight were ticking continually away. Zenobia had found herself deeply enjoying the stories of Remus who seemed to have encountered the strangest things in his journey.

"The vampire had to boil the blood before he drank it?" Zenobia laughed.

"Fear of impurities."

"But vampires are already dead."

"Don´t tell me that," Remus said. "Tell that to him."

"You must just attract weirdoes," she said.

"Of course, after all I am friends with Sirius," Remus replied, summoning another round of laughter from Zenobia.

The other wizards and witches at the party had started counting down the last seconds of the year and Remus had the sudden fancy that he may actually kiss Zenobia at midnight.

10

Should I?

9

What would Sirius say?

8

Or is this what he had planned all along?

7

She seems to like me.

6

But she doesn´t know what I am.

5

She certainly is beautiful when she laughs.

4

Remus, stop being childish, if you want to kiss the woman...

3

THEN KISS HER!

2

The worst that could happen is she´ll push you away.

1

Fine. It´s settled. I´ll kiss her.

"Happy New Year!"

There was, however, no time for kissing or celebrating of any kind. That would have been far too cheerful an event to occur in the middle of war times. No, instead at the stroke of midnight a loud explosion echoed through Diagon Alley. Followed quickly by the eruption of a large green light.

The Dark Mark was now soaring high into the midnight sky, illuminating Diagon Alley in an eerie green glow.