The Last Kiss

Chocolate Frog

~13~

Remus' eyes grew wider by the minute, as Renae told him about Perdita.

"You and Sirius...have a daughter?" He asked with disbelief.

"Had, Remus," she corrected him. A lump formed in her throat as she realized she would have to relive Perdita's death in order to tell him.

Remus looked thoroughly confused now. "What do you mean had?" He suddenly seemed to understand as she sat silent, tears running down her face. She wiped her eyes before telling him the story of that fateful day in June.

****

Sitting around in hiding was Sirius' last choice of activity, but considering the alternative, he'd have to shut up and deal with it.

Overlooking the plush Amazon forest just outside his window, he thought about Harry. Upon first sight of him in the dark alley nearly a year ago, he thought he was looking at James. The same untidy black hair, glasses and thin frame. In the dim light, he hadn't seen Harry's green eyes yet; those he got from Lily.

Sirius fought back tears. He was always so happy thinking of Harry and how he wanted to live with him, but his thoughts always seemed to drift to Lily and James. For years he had blamed himself for their deaths, and now their son served as a reminder of that.

He had to remind himself, Harry is alive, Harry made it. James wouldn't want you grieving over him forever! Imagining James standing before him, telling him this, he realized it was Harry's face he was imagining. Finally, Sirius smiled.

Looking across the table, he saw Remus' letter sitting open. Reaching over for it, Sirius picked it up and reread it, for the fifth time that day.

Padfoot,

I'm sorry I couldn't see you before you took off, but I'm sure you understood. I know I shouldn't have risked sending this to you, but Dumbledore assured me that Fawkes would find you without being followed.

I had to write you to tell you I've left Hogwarts. We both know what would happen anways when word gets out, so I made it easier on Dumbledore. Harry was disappointed, but I think he took it well otherwise.

Since I'm, again, unemployed, I'm taking the opportunity to see an old friend. If all goes well, I may have good news for you when I get back, maybe more than that!

Well, I will leave you to ponder what I'm up to, which I'm sure you will do. (You never were fond of hints and vague details, were you old friend?)

Moony

"You were right, Moony, I do hate it when you do that." He said to himself as he again began to wonder what Remus was up to.

****

"Are you sure about this?" Renae asked, looking over at Remus as he continued to help her pack a trunk.

Remus had stayed in America for the past month and had managed to talk her into taking a year's sabbatical from Blakmore, and go return to Britain with him. Remus was hoping they would get the chance to somehow meet with Sirius since she refused to tell Sirius about Perdita in a letter, not to mention tell him how sorry she was for ever doubting him and that to this day, she still loves him.

Locking the shabby trunk, he answered. "Yes, relax. If I know Sirius at all, he'll return to Britain if only to keep a close watch on Harry. Peter's still loose and may have rejoined with You-Know-Who by now, which would most certainly pose a risk for Harry."

"Alright. You're sure you don't want to stay with me in Hogsmeade? You know I have connections to get you Wolfsbane Potion," she grinned.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Oh, like Snape will be anymore excited in brewing that for me now!"

"Hey, you forget...he's nice to me."

"Oh, like that's saying much!"

~~~*~~~

Sirius almost wanted to laugh as he read Harry's letter.

Dear Sirius,

I reckon I just imagined my scar hurting, I was half asleep when I wrote to you last time. There's no point coming back, everything's fine here. Don't worry about me, my head feels completely normal.

Harry

"Nope, sorry kid, I'm not that thick!" he said aloud to himself as he grabbed a blank parchment and quill, and wrote back.

Nice try, Harry.

I'm back in the country and well hidden. I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. Don't use Hedwig, keep changing owls, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself. Don't forget what I said about your scar.

Sirius

~~~*~~~

Renae walked into the Hog's Head and found him right away. Sitting towards the back, in a very dark corner, was Severus. "This seat taken?" she asked, walking up to the table.

He chuckled. "As a matter of fact it is."

Sitting down, she decided to play along. "Really? By who?"

"A particularly annoying wise-arse who seems to think of me as a friend."

"Ah, poor fellow. Who could ever mistake you for a friend?" She grinned, picking up the bottle of rum that was sitting on the table and pouring herself a glass. "They must be mad!"

Leaning in a bit, his face illuminated by the candle centerpiece, he responded, "You are."

Chuckling, she lifted the glass, gave him a quick toast and downed the shot.

"I see you've grown even more accustomed to the unique taste of rum," Severus added with a pleased grin.

Pouring another shot, she set the bottle back down on the table. "Well, with the hell I've been through, can you blame me?"

Slowly, Severus let his double shot of vodka slide down his throat before answering. "No, I suppose not." He looked down at his now empty glass. "As if I have room to talk."

"Indeed." With another tilt of her head, Renae's second shot of rum hit the back of her throat. "So, dear old friend, what have I missed?"

His usual sneer skipped across his face. "Well, let's see...since my last letter, Potter somehow got himself into the Triwizard Tournament, miraculously survived the first task, and now I'm awaiting his next great effort at not getting himself killed."

"You sound a little perturbed. I've already read all that in the Daily Prophet, I am in town you know..." Severus snorted. "...so cut the crap and tell me what's really troubling you and Dumbledore." His eyes narrowed. "You don't fool me one minute, Severus! There's more to Harry being in this Tournament and you know it."

"You sound as if you already suspect something," he said coolly.

"I wanted to hear from you first, before I go jumping off the handle." Quickly she poured another shot of rum and downed it.

Pointing to her empty glass he said, "Keep drinking like that and you'll be falling off the chair."

She curled her lip up at him. Smart-ass!

Finally, after a rather awkward moment of silence, Severus took another double shot of vodka. "If you're suspecting what I think you're suspecting...then we're all on the same page." He looked at her from over the top of his empty glass.

Renae felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head. Names began popping into her head...Eunice, her mother...Charles, her cousin...Aleanor...James and Lily...the Longbottoms....PERDITA. Her hands began to tremble as fear ran through her body from her head to her toes.

No, please...haven't enough people suffered!

Without realizing it, she had dropped her glass and it went shattering on the floor. Severus quickly grabbed her arm and slid his seat closer to her. "Renae, are you alright?"

Pulling herself together, she nodded. Severus motioned to the bottle of rum and she shook her head. "No, I... I think I've had enough."

They sat silent for a while, Severus quietly waiting as she calmed herself down. "Renae, this maybe off topic, but...you never told me why you returned."

Instantly her nerves returned as she fought to come up with a reasonably acceptable excuse to give him, the last thing he needed to hear was Sirius' name. From what Remus told her in his version of what happened that night in the Shrieking Shack, she knew his reaction would be nuclear.

"I took a year's sabbatical to do some independent study in ancient spells and draughts."

Where the hell did that come from? An amused grin spread on her dark friend's face, and she wondered if he saw right through her lie.

"Really? Then I don't suppose you'd be interested in coming to my office to see some of my personal collection?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, she answered, "As long as we're talking about books, yes. Anything else and you'll find yourself short a leg...and I mean the shortest one!"

Chuckling, he led her to the door.

~~~*~~~

"I'll walk to the edge of the village with you, see if I can scrounge another paper." Sirius told Harry, transforming in a big black dog before leaving the cave in the mountainside outside of Hogsmeade. Reaching the stile, he let Harry, Ron, and Hermione pat him on the head before he turned and ran around the outskirts of the village.

Not feeling entirely hungry after the chicken Harry had given him, he still decided to nose around behind Honeydukes, just in case there was any dessert waiting for him in the trash bin. Merlin it's been so long since I've had a chocolate frog!

Reaching Honeydukes, he hid behind a large bush as an employee opened the back door carrying a small, and rather full trash bag. Walking over to a large trash bin sitting to the left of the door, the man threw the bag into it. As soon as the back door closed behind the employee, Sirius dashed over to the trash bin, threw his front paws over the front edge, and began tearing into the plastic bag.

Sirius was so involved with getting into that bag of possible thrown out sweets, he didn't hear the woman walk up along the alleyway between Honeydukes and little shop on its left. He didn't even hear her as she walked right past him on her way to the tree behind him. All Sirius noticed was that suddenly, the smell of chocolate frogs became stronger, and he began digging through the now open trash bag with even more ferocity.

I smell them! Where are they? Drooling more than necessary, he pushed a rather nasty looking sugar quill aside. Oh, so that's what they look like if they're over baked.

"You must be hungry."

Leaping at the sound of the voice behind him, his head popped up, the trash bag hanging from the top of his head making him look like a dog with an oversized balloon for a head. Lowering his front paws to the ground, he struggled to free his head from its smelly prison while the person who had clearly addressed him began to laugh.

"Need help with that?"

Realizing he had better let the woman help him or else spend who knows how long fighting the blasted thing, he sat down and waited patiently to be assisted.

"Evanui"

Sirius felt the bag instantly vanish, and looked over at the woman who was standing several feet away from him. At first he wondered why she'd be standing so far away, but then he quickly remembered exactly how big of a dog he was.

"There you go," she said, putting her wand back in her robes and picking her bag up off the ground, "you still hungry?"

Slowly and with his head lowered, he walked towards her, making sure she didn't get the impression he would hurt her in anyway. With each step, the smell of chocolate frogs grew stronger. His ears perked up as he realized that's what she had in the bag.

Sitting, leaning against the tree, he sat down beside her as she pulled a chocolate frog box out of her bag. Licking his lips, he quietly waited beside her, his tail whipping back and forth wildly. She began opening the box, "Sorry I don't have anything but candy," she laid the open box on the ground in front of him, "but something's better than nothing, isn't it?" she said with a smile.

With a soft bark of agreement, he quickly devoured the delicious treat before it hopped too far away. Though he knew he should have savored every morsel of the dark, melting, delight, he couldn't stop himself from attacking the sweet chocolate as if it would disappear before he could even swallow the first bite.

"Slow down! Goodness, you'll make yourself sick!"

As he finished the frog, he felt a warm hand run down his back. Looking up, the woman was petting him, a smile on her face.

"You're not nearly as mean as you look." Chuckling, the woman continued to pet him.

Something was very familiar about her voice. It was soothing, and as he suddenly realized, filled with an American accent. American?

Sirius looked at the woman, this time more intently. Her hair was light brown and fell just below her shoulders. Her hazel eyes smiled at him as he examined her with his dog eyes. I need to get closer, he told himself, to see her face more clearly. She was like a puzzle he needed to solve. Slowly, he inched forward, sniffing as he leaned into her, as if to lick her cheek.

"My, you're friendly, aren't you!" the woman exclaimed with a giggle, though she didn't back away.

Violets! She smells like Violets!

It was like an anvil fell from the sky and hit on top of his head. Renae!

Looking in her eyes again, he wondered how he didn't see her before. Though she looked older, and her eyes didn't shine quite like they use to, it was still her! He began licking her wildly, covering her face with kiss after kiss the only way he could. If only she knew it was me! If only I could tell her! Oh, how I've missed you!

****

"Wait, wait!" Renae exclaimed as she struggled to avoid the wet onslaught of the great black dog she had apparently befriended. "I... need...air...after all!" She managed to get the words out between turns of her head as the enormous tongue continued to graze her face. Finally giving up, she began laughing wildly, when suddenly, she fell to the side, the dog leaping over her and lowering its face so that they looked at each other, eye to eye.

A strange uneasiness came over her. It was as if the dog were really looking at her, as if it knew her. Okay...I'm losing my mind! Sitting up, the dog suddenly scrambled to sit in front of her. It leaned forward, its cold, wet nose almost pressing against hers as it mournfully whimpered.

What's wrong with this dog? It was unnerving; like the dog was begging her to understand something it was trying to tell her, but couldn't put into words. Renae found herself cupping the dog's ears in her hands as she stared into its coal black eyes. "What is it?"

Again the dog whimpered, softer this time, and Renae could have sworn she saw a tear run down from its left eye.

****

Sirius wanted more than anything to transform back into himself, and wrap his arms around her, but he knew she'd only scream in horror calling the attention of every witch and wizard in the village. If only you knew the truth... if only you knew I'm innocent!

As another tear escaped his eyes, he quickly ran back to the cave, before his heart could break even more. Seeing Renae was the most wonderful experience since he escaped Azkaban, but also the worst; for he couldn't be with her, she would think him a murderer.

Reaching the cave, he returned to his human form, and sat next to Buckbeak, silently crying harder than ever before.

~~~*~~~

Sitting in her room, overlooking the mountainside, Renae looked out the window, her experience with the great black dog haunting her. The way it suddenly dashed off, as if trying to flee before falling apart bothered her. One minute, the dog was wild with excitement, licking her face off, and the next, it was sad and whimpering, as if struggling to reveal some heart wrenching secret.

Night was falling and the light of the full moon cast an eerie light on the tops of the trees blanketing the side of the mountain. Renae had tried to talk Remus into staying with her, she really missed company, and she knew that Severus would have made the Wolfsbane Potion for her if she had asked. Hell, he still owes me a favor! She thought as she giggled.

Wait! Remus...he had told her about James, Sirius, and Peter being animagi. Shit, what did he say Sirius turned into? Jumping to her feet to pace the room, the chair she had been sitting in fell backward to the floor with a loud thud.

It was something big, him and James...something big enough to control a werewolf. Not paying attention to where she was walking in the room, she slammed her foot into the side of the trunk by the foot of her bed.

Hopping to the bed, she clutched her pounding foot in her hands and started swearing. "Shit! Damn trunk!" She drew a breath through gritted teeth. "Ah, my foot hurts!"

Foot...wait, PADFOOT, that's what Remus use to call him! Because of his animagus form. "Shit, why Padfoot?" She was thinking aloud now. "Pad.." smacking herself in the forehead, she continued, "...like a dog... LIKE A DOG?"

Running across the room, no longer feeling the pain shooting through her foot, she grabbed her cloak and headed for the door.

"That black dog! It was Sirius!"