Prelude to Moondance

    Professor McGonagall lead the way to a statue, where she paused for a moment, and suddenly whirled around to glare at Remus and Sariyah.

    McGonagall turned back around towards the statue and said, quite clearly, "Sherbet lemon." The statue began spinning slowly, rising as it did so, revealing a rotating spiral staircase. "Get on, then, Dumbledore's expecting you."

    Sariyah and Remus stepped on the rotating staircase. Sariyah had never been to the headmaster's office, but the situation was not the same for Remus. He had been there previously, on the first day he had arrived at Hogwarts, for reasons known only to himself and his three best friends.

    The staircase rotated higher and higher, and for most of the ride up, Sariyah was clutching her stomach. She had a fear of heights, and the slow rotating was even enough to make her queasy. They reached a door at the top which slid open and they walked out into a large office.

    Sariyah's face had gone from the normal light brown to a sickly white after going up the staircase. She kneeled down on the ground, clutching a table nearby that was occupied by whirring silver objects.

    "Are you alright?" asked Remus concernedly, bending down beside her. Her head was down and eyes squeezed shut.

    "I'm fine," she squeaked, trying with every ounce of her to keep the dinner in her stomach where it was. She stayed in that position for about a minute, until the nausea went away, then she stood up slowly.

    The office was filled with strange objects, some whirring and clicking, others just sitting there. Portraits of old headmasters (she assumed they were, anyway) were hanging on the walls, staring down at the pair who had just traipsed into the office. A large desk was situated at the end of the room, and behind it was an even larger fireplace. The chair at the desk was empty, they saw, and there was a perch beside the desk.

    Sitting on the perch was a tiny bird, staring at them almost suspiciously. It squawked feebly, the force of its voice nearly knocking it off of the stand it was sitting on.

    "Fawkes," explained Remus to Sariyah, as she stared at the bird. "He's a phoenix."

    "Thank you, Remus, so I gathered," Sariyah replied. Remus grinned sheepishly, his cheeks turning slightly pink. Sariyah wasn't aware of any living phoenixes, and to see one sitting there in plain view was quite enthralling.

    Out of nowhere, they heard a sort of swishing sound, like robes being twirled in a breeze. Dumbledore appeared behind them in a swirl of his ocean blue robes.

    "Hello Remus, Sariyah," he smiled genially. "Sorry I'm late." Dumbledore hastily made his way to his chair behind the large desk.

    "That's what we came here for too, Headmaster," said Remus. "We were late too, for the meeting, and we just wanted to explain why."

    "No need to explain, I already know what happened," the Headmaster said quietly. "You had other business to attend to, from what I hear."

    Sariyah suddenly felt the wave of nausea spread over her again, and she gripped the desk in front of her very tightly, her knuckles turning white.

    "Miss Khan?" asked Dumbledore concernedly. "Are you ill?"

    "I--" started Sariyah, but her voice became very squeaky all of a sudden, as it was fighting the vile, burning substance that was now inching up her throat. The substance quickly slid back down, to Sariyah's relief. "I'm fine..."

    "Perhaps a visit to the hospital wing, after this brief meeting," said Dumbledore helpfully. "I called you here to tell you what you missed in the meeting tonight. The Dark Lord is indeed closer than we could have imagined at this point. It is of utmost importance that you take charge wherever needed and watch out for the safety of the students, as I cannot be with them at all times. There are dark days ahead of us," he finished. His blue eyes stared calmly and the Head Boy and Girl standing across from him.

    "Do they know where he is, exactly?" asked Remus, looking thoughtfully at the headmaster.

    "Not exactly, but they have an idea," Dumbledore replied. Remus nodded.

    "That should do it," mumbled Dumbledore. "Unless...oh yes, how could I forget? Miss Khan, your mother wishes me to tell you that she won't be in touch for a while. You understand, she's been quite busy and, well, with the Dark Lord nearby, she just has a lot on her hands right now."

    Sariyah, out of nowhere, felt a surge of anger hurtle through her. Why couldn't she tell me herself, she thought furiously. She only nodded, for fear of what might slip out if she opened her mouth.

    Fawkes let out another feeble caw and rustled what feathers he had at the moment.    

    "Well you two had better be off then, rounding off the first day, eh? Should be an excellent school year, excellent. If you need anything, I will be here," Dumbledore said reassuringly. Remus and Sariyah went ahead and walked out of the office, onto the spiral staircase where Sariyah shut her eyes tightly until it had stopped moving. They made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, rounding up a few stray students and stragglers who were out in the corridor past curfew.

    They found the common room nearly empty, except for three figures bathed in firelight. One was reading a book, while the other two were playing wizard chess.

    "Well," Lily said, peering over the top of her book, "nice to see you again. Disapparated for a while, didn't you?"

    "You can’t do that here,” Sirius, James and Remus said together, unplanned. Remus shook his head and smiled, while Sirius and James grinned over their chess game.

     “I'm sure Sirius told you about our run in with Severus and Malfoy and the rest of their cronies," said Remus quietly, taking the seat beside Lily.

    "Yes, that was quite heroic, really," Lily said, laughing.

    Sariyah sat down on the ground in front of the fireplace, trying to warm her feet. "It actually was kind of funny," she chuckled. "They like stirring things up, I think. Although I can't quite understand why Severus is always with them, he seems a little out of place."

    "Snivellus?" said Sirius, not looking up from the chess board. "Snivellus hasn't anything to do but tag along with them...no one will go near that greasy hair except the pieces of scum that belong in it, like Malfoy." His queen moved diagonal a space, took off her crown and in one clean swipe, knocked off the black pawn that had been sitting there seconds earlier.

    "Your move, Prongs," he grinned at James. James stared at the board momentarily before he poked his white castle forward to tackle the black king, who had been left unprotected.

    "I win," James said, a grin spreading over his face.     

    Sirius shook his head. "What's new," he retorted, sweeping up the pieces in one hand.

    "I bet that I could beat all of you," Lily said, her emerald eyes briefly making contact with Sariyah. Sariyah quickly looked away from her, hiding a smile, knowing exactly how dirty Lily played wizard’s chess.

    "Ah, Evans, you could never beat this man," Sirius said, grinning at James. James winked roguishly at Lily and ran his hand through his already messy hair.

    "James, for crying out loud, stop messing with your hair," Lily chided. "It's going to fall all out and you're going to be bald."

    Sirius laughed. "Then he would look like the new Herbology professor! All we would have to do is drop him in black paint and give his teeth an Engorgement charm."

    Everyone but James laughed, all of them trying to imagine him as the tiny African professor of Herbology.

    “At least,” James started, “I don’t look like I could be related to Malador, Padfoot. She looks like she could be your mother, or long lost sister...”

    “She does have an attitude like my dear old mum,” Sirius replied. “Although...I think my mother might actually be better looking than the her...my grandmother probably looks better than her, and she’s been dead for about five years.”

    They all laughed again, and everyone was in quite good spirits, but soon they realized that it was near midnight, and they had another long day ahead of them.

    “I’m going to go and take a quick check of the corridors,” said Remus, rising from his seat. “Goodnight everyone.”

    Sirius was immediately on alert when Remus explained where he was going. He caught Remus’s eye, and raised a quizzical eyebrow. Remus shook his head, and motioned towards the window, where a half-moon was floating serenely in the sky. Remus exited the dormitory out of the portrait hole.

    James kissed Lily goodnight at the foot of the stairs to the girls dormitories, and she headed on up. Sirius and James went upstairs as well, after bidding Sariyah goodnight.

    “Coming, Sar?” asked Lily, who was at the top of the stairs.

    “Yeah, I‘ll be there in a bit,” said Sariyah. “I’m just going to dry my shoes.”

    Lily nodded and went into the girls dormitory. When Sariyah saw that the coast was clear, she grabbed her cloak and headed out of the portrait hole. She climbed the stairs to the Astronomy tower, and went out to the top of the castle, overlooking everything. She frequently visited this spot when she needed to think about things, and tonight was quite the night to think about things.

    It was a cloudy night, dark and quiet, with a cool breeze wafting across the grounds. The lake shimmered, and occasional waves passed over it, the doings of the giant squid that lived there.

    Sariyah sighed. Ever since she was a little girl, her mother was never around much. She was usually alone with her large stock of toys and her cat, Orpheus. Her mother, a half-Egyptian, half-Indian witch, was very intelligent and was the Head of International Relations at the Ministry of Magic, as far as Sariyah knew. Her job kept her away from home most of the time, and Sariyah had a babysitter who was like a grandmother. Sariyah saw her mother every other weekend, and unexpectedly on occasional days of the week.

    She was quite lost in her thoughts (and bitter thoughts they were), until a voice broke her concentration.

    “Sariyah?”

    She jumped about two feet in the air out of sheer fright and spun around. “Remus? What--?”

    “I was checking the corridor, and I always check up here,” he explained. “This is snog-central.”

    “Oh,” she said, laughing, her heart rate returning back to its normal speed. “How do you know, Remus? Been up here lately?” She winked at him and nudged him with her elbow. “Hmmm?” she said.

    “Not recently, no,” he retorted, smiling. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

    She looked away, across the grounds that were illuminated in the moonlight. “It‘s nice here, at night,” she replied.

    Remus nodded his head. “It’s a good thinking spot.” He leaned against the parapet of the castle and looked around. “Nice view,” he said, gazing across the Hogwarts lawn.

    “Very pretty view. Doesn’t the moon look nice?” she asked, leaning on the parapet beside him, staring up at the sky.

    Remus did his best to hide the distaste and slight fear in his voice. “Sure.”

    “And the clouds, too...clouds at night. That’s what my name means in Arabic. Clouds at night,” Sariyah sighed.

    “It’s a very nice name, indeed,” answered Remus glancing at her, then returning his gaze towards the lawn. “Who picked it?”

    “My mum, I think. She was born and raised in Egypt,” Sariyah replied.

    “Yeah, you’ve mentioned that before. But you’re not Egyptian?” he asked.

    “Nope. Only a quarter. The other 3/4 of me is Indian,” she replied.

    “So your dad was Indian?” he queried, his quiet voice cutting through the still of the night.

    “Yeah. I’ve only seen pictures of him...he sends me cards on Christmas and my birthday, and lots of letters, and apparently I have half-siblings, but I don’t know them,” Sariyah said.

    Remus nodded and stared out more thoughtfully.

    “Do you ever wonder, Remus,” started Sariyah, “if we’re on the right side?”

    Remus was slightly surprised. “You don’t mean...”

    “Yes, I do. I mean how do we know that...that this is the right side? Maybe we should be fighting for the side with more power, you know?”

    Remus looked at her, but she would not look back. “No, Sariyah, I don’t. I don’t have doubts about good versus evil. We are on the right side...what would make you think that?”

    “My father wasn’t what you would call a good wizard, Remus. My mother has told me stories...about what a good person he was, but he was corrupted. She left because he was dipping his quill too deeply into the Dark Arts. But to me, he seems more loving than my mother was, he sends letters all the time, and I--I feel guilty, I guess. Guilty that I can’t be more like him...I want to be more like him, and as far from my mother as possible.” Sariyah explained.

    “Sariyah, there shouldn’t be a doubt in your mind that you’re on the right side,” Remus asserted bracingly. “You are on the good side, the side where...most...people are equal. We don’t want him to get power because he will use it for evil things. He kills people Sariyah, innocent people. You won’t be like your mother, I’m sure you’ve already tried to make yourself as unlike her as possible.” He finished this with a small smile spreading over his pale face. “I mean, you hang out with us...two of the biggest troublemakers in the school, the bookworm, the girl who sticks up for everyone, and the portly little guy who’s always lost.”

    Sariyah smiled a little. “I guess so,” she said, but still a doubt lingered in her mind.

    “It’s getting quite late...we should go before someone finds us and gives us the detention we’ve avoided since being here,” Remus said, his grey eyes reflecting the moonlight. They went down the stairs back to Gryffindor tower, and bid each other goodnight as they went up to their separate dormitories.