The Art of Forgivness

The raven haired little girl surveyed the interior of the cabin with a critical eye. She might only be five, but her mother had taught her a lot of things in those five years. One was never enter a room until you were completely sure who and what was in it. This room held...Cookies! She ran forward, then stopped and turned back to her mother with a sheepish look.

"It's all right," Remus said as he emerged from the back bedroom.

Alexandra continued to look at her mother questioningly.

"Come here," Sophia said guiding her young daughter by the shoulder, "I want you to meet someone. This is uncle Remus."

"Uncle?" the girl looked up with curious eyes, "He's your uncle?"

"No, he's yours."

"So he's your brother?"

"Something like that."

"Okay," she nodded, "Can I have a cookie Uncle Remus?"

***

Several hours later Alexandra had been tucked away in the loft. Remus and Sophia sat at the kitchen table with the a small plate of cookies that had escaped the five year old's wrath.

"She's very pretty," Remus broke the silence.

"Thank-you," Sophia smiled with a mother's pride, "but I worry about her being so skinny."

"Were you skinny?"

"Yes, knobby kneed, the whole deal."

"I'd say you grew into it rather nicely."

"Always the charmer," she shook her head.

"No, that was Sirius's job," he replied. The comment had been meant lightheartedly, but an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"How can you do that?" Sophia broke the silence.

"Do what?"

"Talk about him. Let alone talk to me and be civil after what I did?"

"If there's one thing I've learned it's hate gets you nowhere."

"Got me a lot of places," she disagreed.

"Like where?"

"Do we have to do this tonight?"

"I think I'd like to hang onto my anger for a few more days actually," he replied wryly, "Makes it easier to pretend I'm not ready to have a nervous breakdown."

"So, do you have any plans?" she asked studying the table top.

"Other than cleaning this place up? Not really."

Sophia closed her eyes to hold back the memories, but they were imprinted on the back of her eyelids like old black and white photographs. The words spoken so carelessly echoed ones spoken just as carelessly a lifetime ago. A lifetime when she'd been seventeen, reckless, and so in love she couldn't see straight. A lifetime ago when her best friends had been the only things she'd ever need. A lifetime that had ended the night Lily Potter had died.

"Are we lying to ourselves?" Remus whispered in a voice so soft she barely heard him.

"About what?" she asked raising her hazel eyes to meet his ice-blue ones.

"Everything?"

"Things won't ever be the same Remus, but hell, maybe we'll learn to trust each other this time around."

"We were growing up, moving apart. It happens. I just wonder if it was a coincidence Voldemort struck the moment we were at our weakest."

"I can't believe I ever doubted any of you."

"Like you said, maybe this time around we can learn to trust each other."

***

The next morning Sophia stumbled out of bed groggy and bleary eyed to find Remus and Alexandra sitting at the table while Alex ate a bowl of cereal and he read a muggle newspaper. Then, while she drank a cup of coffee her daughter climbed into Remus's lap and demanded that he read her the comics. It made Sophia smile to see her daughter bonding with him so quickly. There had never been many strong male role models in Alex's life and she wanted her daughter to know what an honest, true man was. Sure, Remus had made his share of mistakes, but in the end he'd always picked himself up and gone on, making no excuses.

After breakfast Sophia attacked the house with the single-minded determination to clear away every speck of dust, polish till she could see her face in the hardwood floors, and just generally return the cabin to the glory it had been in the days while Mrs. Potter had still lived. It wasn't that she really liked cleaning. In fact, the whole process would have been easier if she'd used her wand, but Mrs. Potter had been muggle born, and though she was a witch, she had insisted that everything that didn't absolutely require wand work be done by hand. The woman had taken more pride in her home than anybody Sophia had ever met.

While Sophia worked inside Remus headed outside to begin repairing the greenhouse that had almost completely collapsed. Alexandra was not the type of child to remain cooped up for any period of time, and soon fled the house in search of Uncle Remus.

It was nearing lunch time when Sophia heard the crash from outside. Her wand flew across the room and into her hand. She was out the door in an instant. Remus lay sprawled in what had been a half-repaired greenhouse. Alex was giggling and holding something resembling a very ugly cat in her arms.

"Put that thing down," she called to her daughter as she rushed to the fallen werewolf. It was more obligatory than anything else however. Alex appeared in no immediate danger while Remus had probably broken his neck.

"Remus J. Lupin if you're dead, so help me..." she muttered as she picked her way through the rubble.

"Nice to know you care," came the wheezing reply.

"Anything you can't feel?" she questioned kneeling down. She pried open one of his eyelids to check his pupils.

"Everything hurts in equal measure," he assured.

"Can you move?"

"I suppose."

"Remus..."

"I'm fine," he said pushing himself up into a sitting position.

"Then what the hell happened?"

"Language mommy," a little voice piped up.

"Yes, language," Remus smirked. Sophia's glare convinced him to stop smirking and begin his story.

"Alexandria noticed the cat in the tree. It struck me as odd that a cat would be this far up in the mountains. It's not an animagus. All the spell did was make it hiss a little. Then I tried to accio it down, but it dug its nails in. I assured Alex it would come down in it's own time, but she got very upset, so I got the ladder and went up after it. I'd just reached it when it took a flying leap off the branch. I lost my balance. The cat vanished into thin air just before it landed on my face."

"That would be because Alexandria's holding it," Sophia said with something akin to wonder in her voice. She turned to the child who was completely absorbed with the mangy pile of fur in her arms.

"What'll we name it mommy?" the little girl looked up at her with round eyes. It would never occur to her darling child that they wouldn't take the creature in.

"First let's give it a bath and see what it looks like under all that dirt," Sophia replied.

"Cats don't like water," the five-year old said in her most somber voice.

"Most cats don't like water," she corrected, "My cat at school absolutely adored it. Otherwise we'll have to shave the poor thing, and I don't think it'll like that much either."

"You can't shave a cat," Remus objected coming, albeit slowly, to stand next to them.

"I can and I will if it won't submit to a bath."

There was another loud popping noise that caused Remus to jump backwards, but Sophia, instead of acting like a normal person, dived forward and knocked Alexandria to the ground. They hit the dirt with an alarmed yowl from the cat.

"Sophia!" Remus rushed forward and pulled Sophia off the surprised child.

"Are you okay baby?" Sophia ignored him, and pulled her daughter to her feet.

"Did somebody attack us again?" the little girl asked with the slightest quiver of her lower lip.

"No baby," the blond witch shook her head, "Mommy was just startled is all. Is your kitty okay?"

Alex looked down as though she'd forgotten she was holding the cat. For a moment Sophia had too.

"It's clean," the little girl smiled holding it up, "See, you don't have to shave it."

The cat was in fact clean and combed.

"Does that popping noise always happen when she shows signs of magic?" Remus asked putting two and two together.

"I wouldn't know," Sophia answered, "This is the first time it's happened."

"Well then a celebration is in order," Remus replied. He scooped Alexandria up cat and all and carried her into the house.

***

"I don't think that's a normal cat," Sophia said several hours later when night had fallen. She sat on the porch steps with Remus staring out at the wild Alaskan night.

"Why's that?" Remus asked seemingly in deep contemplation of the quarter moon that was just peaking over the trees.

"It's the size of a full grown cat, but it still has kitten teeth, and that's beside the fact that it's all the way out here."

"So what do you think it is?"

"Could be a Laurel ."

"A cat with almost human intelligence and of unusual size," Remus mused, "Named for the witch Cameron Laurel who claimed to have tamed one in the 13th century. There's only been a handful of sightings since. They're widely held to be myth."

"So are a lot of things," she shrugged, "And you haven't done your research. Cameron Laurel didn't tame the thing. You can't even tame a regular cat. The popular "myth" is that she saved its life, and it decided to bond her. They were inseparable until her death."

"What are you going to do with it?" he sighed.

"What do you mean do with it? We're going to keep it of course. I can't let that poor thing fend for itself. It's only a baby."

"I'd almost forgotten how fond you are of animals."

"Sometimes I like them more than people," she laughed.

"Well, I'm off to bed," Remus sighed. He stopped at the door.

"Are you coming in?" he asked.

"I'll just sit out here for awhile."

***

Starring out into the inky black sky, dotted with flecks of light like fairy dust sprinkled across the heavens, Sophia was drawn back in time. To a night just like this one some sixteen years ago, the night James and Sirius had been kidnapped. From a wedding reception of all places; her wedding reception in fact.

Flashback:

Sophia Hays was not anything remotely resembling happy. The place where she was supposed to have spent her honeymoon was now serving as a safe-house until Headmaster Dumbledore found out who, if anybody, the Death Eaters had been targeting. Probably Sirius if she were to field a guess. His family could not be very happy about his marriage to a "mudblood" witch of the worst kind. Both of her parents were muggles. Extremely successful muggles, but that really didn't matter.

"Pacing like a lunatic won't bring them home any faster," her best friend Lilly Evans said breaking through her thoughts.

"Shut it Evans," she snapped.

"Sophia Hays-Black," an older woman broke in, "You stop that right now. We're all worried. Turning on eachother will not solve a thing."

The seventeen year old gritted her teeth and replied, "Yes Mrs. Potter."

"Good girl," Mrs. Potter smiled from the kitchen, "Now go sit with Remus. Somebody should be there when he regains consciousness."

"This place is beautiful," Lily commented when the other witch had left.

"Rustic is more like it," the older woman replied looking around fondly at the cabin she'd helped her husband rebuild.

"I can see why you guard it so carefully."

"You would have seen it much sooner if you'd just given my James a chance."

"Mrs. Potter," Lily sighed, "You and your husband seem like very nice people, but your son just isn't my type. Besides it's only a case of wanting what you can't have."

"That's what I thought about Aaron," Mrs. Potter replied, "We've been married for twenty years now."

"How did you meet?"

"Oh, dear, well lets see, I'd just started working as an auror, I was one of the first women they accepted," she noted with pride, then continued, "He was a year ahead of me, handsome as the devil, and they partnered us. Must have been six months before we started dating. Of course I had to transfer, but that's all right considering I'm the head of Children's Welfare Department now. Another six months after that we eloped."

"How old were you?"

"Twenty-two," she smiled in remembrance, "but what you really want to know is what I think of your friends marriage isn't it?"

"They're just so young."

"And you think Sirius will break her heart? Sometimes what you see isn't always what you get. Sometimes it is and you're just interpreting it wrong. He's not the most responsible young man, but he's good to her Lily. Unless he's abusing her it's not really any of your business."

"You're not the one who has to listen to them fight!" Lily snapped. Immediately she looked apologetic, but it was to late to take back what she'd said or the disrespectful tone in her voice.

"I'm sorry," she added hurriedly.

"Don't apologize," Mrs. Potter shook her head, "Is there something I should know?"

"Not really," Lily said quietly, "Sophia's sort of renowned for her temper. It's just I'm afraid she's limiting herself. Don't you think they're too young?"

"Of course I do," Mrs. Potter sighed, "but you know Sirius and Sophia. Once they've made their mind up about something the only thing you or I can do is be there for them when the consequences come to call."

"Oh, don't I know that," Lily frowned. Silence reigned for a few moments while Mrs. Potter flipped the chicken she was frying.

"You cook when you're nervous don't you?" Lily asked as she realized Mrs. Potter was frying chicken, boiling potatoes, and baking a cake all at the same time.

"I do anything I can to keep myself occupied," she replied, "Aaron and Dumbledore will bring them back. Don't worry. You can't do anything about that."

"I'd be a total wreck if I had a son and he was out there."

"I am a total wreck child, but now's not the time to show it. Somebody had to stay behind to watch over the rest of you, and I was the best candidate. I'll have a good cry when it's all over and all my boys are home safe."

"Need any help?" Lily bit her lip not sure how to reply to that. She didn't have the faith Mrs. Potter did.

"Those potatoes are about done. Fetch some butter and milk out of the icebox. There's a masher in the top left drawer."

End Flashback