Simply Moony

I walked into the ballroom with Kitty to find at least a hundred people, most of them famous in the wizarding world. Kitty dragged me over to Felix Angelus, one of the Chasers, and I had to physically prevent myself from blushing. Felix's poster resided on the wall beside my bed, where it smiled and winked at Lily, Kacia and I. Lily said it was scary, but I liked it. Felix had been in his seventh year at Hogwarts when we were in our first, so I didn't know much about him, but I knew that he had been a Ravenclaw and had played for his house team since his third year.

"So, do you have any plans to play Quidditch when you leave school?" Felix asked me. I looked around for support from Kitty, but she had disappeared. Wonderful.

"Well - I - er - I don't actually play for the school team or anything yet, but I'd like to," I said.

"From what Kitty told me, you should have been on the team years ago." I shrugged modestly.

"I'm not bad, but -"

"Chloe! You won't believe what just -"

Kacia stopped speaking abruptly as she caught sight of Felix. He looked from me to her and back again, and tapped his empty glass with a fingernail.

"I'll leave you to it - I need another drink anyway."

He walked away, and Kacia dragged me over to a corner of the room. Her eyes were sparkling, and her cheeks were flushed.

"That - was - amazing!" she exclaimed.

"Er - what was?"

"I just pulled Steven Crotchet!"

"You - what?"

"We were just talking and stuff, and I made out like I was a big Arrows fan and how I think he's fantastic, and then...then he kissed me, and it was so great and -"

"What about Sirius?"

"Who?"

"Your boyfriend. Sirius Black. The one whose house we're in."

"Oh - he won't mind. I've been meaning to end things for a while now anyway, and I think he has too."

"But you said -"

"Care to dance, Kacia?"

It was Steven Crotchet. I pulled a face and walked away, and looked over my shoulder to see them slow dancing, Kacia laughing at something that Steven said. I really felt sorry for Sirius - he'd done nothing to deserve that.

"You look amazing." I turned to see Remus, dressed in black.

"You don't look too bad yourself," I replied, tilting my face towards his for a kiss. He obliged, and looked curiously at my outfit.

"Where did you get it from? It looks expensive..."

"Kitty lent me it. She was convinced that it would suit me better than pink or lilac."

"She was right. You look gorgeous. D'you want to dance?"

"Yeah, why not?"

We slowly swayed to the music, our arms wound around each other, my head leaning on his shoulder. Suddenly, someone shouted Remus' name. I looked up, bewildered, and saw James hurrying towards us.

"What -?"

"You've got to stop him," James said urgently. "Sirius is drunk - he's on the roof, he won't come down! Where's Kacia?"

"I don't know," I said, looking at where she had been. "She was dancing with Steven Crotchet, she said something about ending things with Sirius -"

"Shit," Remus muttered.

"Yeah, you know what he's like when he's been drinking," James said grimly. "Lily and Peter are still outside, trying to talk him down - I thought you two might be able to help..."

"What's going on?" Kitty demanded, coming over to us.

"Sirius is on the roof," I told her quickly. "He won't come down, and he's drunk."

"What? If this is anything to do with that Kacia girl, I'll -"

"Look, let's just go outside and see if we can get him down," Remus interrupted quietly. Kitty hesitated and then nodded, and we hurried outside.

Sirius was sitting near the very top of the roof, swaying dangerously, a bottle of wine in one hand.

"Sirius!" James shouted. "Come down, will you?"

"No point!" Sirius shouted back.

"Please, Sirius," Kitty begged, and she began to cry. "Come down, you'll fall..."

"So what!"

"Chloe - can't you do something?" Remus asked fearfully.

"Like what?"

"Well, your mum's a Mediwitch - can't you do something?"

"The most I can do is slow him down if he falls, so he won't hit the ground with such an impact as he would normally. Someone get a message to St Mungo's, just in case he does fall."

"I'll do that," Lily offered, and rushed back inside.

"And someone should really go up there with him, to make sure he's safe," I went on. "Any takers?"

"Not me, I'm scared of heights," Peter piped up. I looked at James.

"What about you?"

"I don't know, I -"

"For God's sake, James!" Kitty cried. "Just go up there - I'm begging you, please. If he falls, I don't know what I'll do..."

"Oh, for goodness' sake, I'll go up," I said exasperatedly.

"But - we need you in case -"

"The spell is lentum cadio," I told James. "You'll be able to do it; trust me."

"Chloe, be careful!" Remus shouted to me as I began to climb the trellis that ran up the side of the house. Remus had climbed up there during our Quidditch match to retrieve a rogue Bludger, so I presumed that it would hold my weight.

"Wha' d'you wan'?" Sirius asked. I could tell that he was trying to focus on me, but his eyes were bloodshot and I knew he was probably seeing triple, never mind double. I seized the bottle from his hand and shouted down to everyone.

"I'm going to throw the bottle, get out of the way!"

They scattered, and I dropped the bottle off the roof. It smashed, sending its contents everywhere.

"See? That's what might happen to you," I informed Sirius.

"I won' fall, I bin up before..."

"Yeah, when you were sober. Now just sit still, all right? The paramedics will be on their way."

Almost exactly as I said it, a white ambulance appeared with a bang and squealed to a halt in front of the house. Sirius swayed; I gripped his arm to hold him steady as Kitty, Peter and Remus explained to the paramedics what was happening. James was still staring up at the roof, wand gripped firmly in hand, with Lily beside him.

One of the paramedics held a large megaphone. He called up to us whilst his colleague began getting what he needed from the ambulance.

"You just stay up there...not much longer now..." His colleague came back and put what looked like a tennis ball in front of the house. It immediately swelled to a mattress the size of a tennis court. "All right, I need you to jump."

"I'm not jumpin'!" Sirius cried indignantly.

"Maybe not, but I am," I said, and jumped, dragging Sirius with me.

I heard a nasty cracking sound as we fell, and Sirius cried out in agony. Before I even had chance to register the noise, I was face-down in the mattress, and then a paramedic was helping me to my feet.

"Are you all right, love?"

"Yeah - yeah, I'm fine," I muttered. I peered over my shoulder to see Sirius having his arm tended to. He was wincing, and trying to pull his arm away from the witch trying to help him.

"What's going on?" a voice cried. I looked around to see Kacia, who was apparently going somewhere with Steven Crotchet.

"Sirius could've died because of you!" Lily said angrily.

"What have I done?" Kacia demanded, as Kitty came storming over. She didn't say anything, just swung back her arm and punched Kacia. Kacia staggered backwards, clutching her nose, and Steven led her away, glaring at Kitty.

"I swear to God, I'm going to kill her," Kitty muttered. I opened my mouth to reply, but felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Chloe - I need to talk to you. Come over here."

I followed Remus a little bit away from everyone else. He looked troubled, and I got the distinct feeling it was nothing to do with Sirius.

"What's wrong?"

"You told me you were Muggle-born."

"Well, I am -"

"But you also said that your mum's a Mediwitch." My face fell.

"Oh."

"Well? Are you going to explain?"

"Er - OK," I said nervously. "My real mum is a Mediwitch, but she's not even in the country. She had to let me go when I was four, nearly five, and she had to go and live abroad. I don't know where she is. I write to her, but she never tells me where she is in case the letters are intercepted. I was sent to live with Eddie and Paula, they're Muggles, and I still live with them now - I call them Mum and Dad because they are."

Remus stared at me for a moment, looking as though he was trying to decide whether to believe me or not.

"So why did you say that you're Muggle-born?"

"Because - because I always think of myself as Muggle-born. Nobody knows that I'm still in contact with my mother; nobody even knows that she's alive. Everybody else thinks that I'm Muggle-born."

"So what did she do that was so wrong that she can't come back to England?" I paused for a moment, and then answered him.

"You've heard of Grindelwald?"

"Who hasn't?"

"Well...my mother was one of Grindelwald's supporters. She's a very powerful witch, and Dumbledore tried to have her killed, but she got away. He believes that she's dead, and so does everyone else."

He was silent for what seemed like hours.

"I can't get my head round this," he said at last. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because nobody's supposed to know. Anyway, I'm sure that you have secrets from me."

He paused, staring at me.

"Yes, I suppose I do. Chloe..." He broke off, hesitating.

"What?"

"If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone else - not even Kacia?"

"Of course - what is it?" He paused again.

"I'm a werewolf."