Chapter Ten: Fantastic Beasts
Time: Late Morning 7/14/95
Remus Lupin was grateful to Sirius for providing this sanctuary where he could count on food and medicine being available as soon as he was recovered enough to use it. The morning of July 13th, when he had regained enough of his human sensibilities to use a quill, he had pushed the customary note under the magically sealed door before drinking some sleeping potion. Awaking from that nap, he had found murtlap ointment and a self warming bowl of chicken soup on a tray inside his now unwarded door. He applied the one, ate the other and returned to sleeping. Having the extra day to rest before having to cope with everyday living -- and that took a bit of coping when you were regularly ill and practically unemployable -- was the best sort of gift.
When he awoke on July 14th, he tried to tidy the room a little, but spell work made his head throb just yet. "A hot shower and a shave are what you need," he mumbled to his reflection. "You may feel like something the kneazle dragged in, but you don't have to look it!" He always felt as though the fur that grew outside during transformations must grow inside too, and perhaps, in the dark cave of his brain, it didn't recede quite as quickly as it did from his skin. Fortunately, it would take very little thought to stand under the shower. Having exhausted his powers of concentration with remembering to bring his shaving mug and a change of clothes, Remus trudged stiffly down the hall and reached for the bathroom doorknob. He nearly fell forward as the door swung open. The woman behind it gasped in obvious surprise. He should speak to her, to let her know that he was himself again, and not dangerous, but he couldn't think of her name. Were these transformations taking a toll on his mind as well as his body? He knew everyone who could enter this house. So why did this woman seem unfamiliar? He stood pondering, disoriented, unable to move or speak in the presence of this mystery.
The woman's eyes, though wide with alarm, looked steadily into his. Her fear would not blind her. She would not be repelled. Her eyes reached into his soul, ... and drew out his name.
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"You never told me you had an American girlfriend!" Remus had located Sirius in his room an hour after breakfast. "Or should I say 'fiance? I can't believe you didn't tell me!"
"I never told anyone ... anyone except James and Lily, and only because Lily guessed it."
"Well, that explains the transcontinental apparation license and the secretive trips in the summer months. After Voldemort's attack at Godric's Hollow, we all thought you had been up to no good when you absented yourself for supposed rafting trips you never discussed afterward, and some said the apparation upgrade had been a getaway plan." Remus shook his head. "What fools we were! What could be more normal than a young man slipping off to see his girl from time to time?"
"And what could be more abnormal than that young man having to keep the girl hidden for fear she'd be a casualty of war. We were all paranoid in those days." Sirius raised an eyebrow at Remus, then sighed, "And now here she is, and here I am, and there's still no easy answer..., no, I should just send her packing. After all, she did promise not to follow me. But then it appears she isn't safe in the States either. Besides, I feel I owe her something. After all, I made her promise to wait for me, but didn't keep my end of the bargain."
"You're saying you've loved other women since then?" Remus was trying not to seem surprised.
Sirius gave a bitter laugh. "I sure got around in Azkaban! Of course not; you know as well as anyone what my life's been like. No, I promised I'd come back to her. I was sure I would, too, after the war was over."
"For you it's never ended."
"Nor, it seems, for her."
There was a long pause before Remus asked, "Does she know that you're confined to the house here?"
"I'm trying to make her understand that, and that she'd be restricted in her comings and goings if she stayed. Being a muggle, I just don't think she can comprehend how dangerous it could be for her to get mixed up in this war..." Sirius suddenly slammed his fist on the side of a cherry wardrobe. "This is snorkack crap! As soon as she's had a few days to see what the situation is, she'll just have to go back to her muggle life. Do you know she's an important professor at a muggle university? They've even heard of her at colleges here in England. She's made something of herself while I've rotted in Azkaban. I can't imagine why she'd want to hang about in this dungeon." He waved his hand dismissively at the house around.
"And yet, you hope she will." Remus said.
"Don't talk rot."
"Don't be hasty." Remus smiled. "She went through a lot to find you. At least try to get reacquainted. You thought she was something special when you proposed to her, and I suspect you're right. She must still think the same about you."
Sirius only grunted.
"Can I ask you something?" Remus went on.
"You're going to anyway, I think."
"She doesn't know about your dog form, but she called you a stray dog, right?"
Sirius rubbed his temples and squinted. "Her Granny used all kinds of dog allusions when we first met. Sapphire has done the same. I suppose it's just astronomy."
"Are you convinced of that?"
"No, I'm not. She's full of surprises. Always has been. She has an odd way of just knowing what's on your mind. Snape believed she was a legelimense for a moment. That's one reason I didn't know for sure whether she was witch or muggle for a year after I met her. I thought maybe she didn't use a wand when I was looking because she wasn't sure about me either, or else she lacked formal training. She has a way with plants and animals too -- just sees right into the essence of living things."
Remus nodded. "When we met this morning, I was still a little disoriented and I frightened her, but she didn't scream or run. Instead, she did the strangest thing."
"Such as?"
"She named me."
"She ... named you? What, a furry SOB?"
"No, really." Remus wasn't laughing. "I didn't know what the name meant, but I knew it belonged to me as soon as she said it. I think it was her way of accepting me -- of asking me to accept her." Remus paused and went on. "Did you tell her I was a werewolf?"
"No! " Sirius looked startled. "I wouldn't tell her unless you wanted me to, or there was, you know, a situation that absolutely required it."
Remus went on, "I asked Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Molly, and none of them think she could know. But when I was showing her the back garden this morning, I asked her what she had called me. She acted embarrassed, and said she didn't know why she had called me by a Cherokee name, and that she really didn't mean anything by it. I had to press her quite a bit to get the meaning out of her, but when I did, do you know what she called me at first sight?"
Sirius waited for Remus to go on.
"She called me 'Gray Wolf'."
Sirius was silent a long time. "That sounds like Sapphire. Her granny once told me she and her granddaughter 'didn't fit in with regular folk'. At the time, I thought she was telling me that they were witches, but now I think she was just saying that their skills and abilities had made them outsiders among muggles. She could tell I was an outsider, too, though she never asked me why I was different."
"Maybe leaving her muggle life doesn't seem so hard to her, if she doesn't fit in."
"She's got a good job. She's respected in her professional sphere. Why would she want to leave that?"
Remus smiled a little sadly. "A good job is a wonderful thing, but it's not the only thing in life. You and I ought to know. Now, don't you two have a date to meet Buckbeak soon?"
"I'll tell her not to poke her nose into your business." Sirius said.
"How will you explain that order?"
"I'll just tell her you have an illness you don't like to talk about."
"Great," Remus sighed. "Now she can think of all kinds of nasty diseases for me to have."
"OK, I won't bring it up unless she does," Sirius said, " but be warned; she's trained as an herbalist and traditional healer. Those muggle sciences are sort of akin to medicinal potion making -- use a lot of the same stuff we keep on hand for such things. That was another reason I took her for a witch at first. Anyway, I'm just saying she won't sit and watch you looking pale for very long without wanting to improve you."
"I believe you. Molly and I marked off about eight square feet of ground that should be safe for her to tend if she wears some protective clothing, and already she's thought of twenty medicinal or nutritious plants that should grow there and identified another two or three already there that she wants to cultivate. "
"Someone will have to watch her while she's out there."
"We told her you had plenty of time to do that."
"Oh, thanks." Sirius scowled, and Remus shook his head.
"Look man, you didn't throw her out the first day, so you may as well talk to her. It's sort of pointless if she hangs about and you ignore her."
"She's getting a feel for my dismal existence. It should repel her in a few days."
"Maybe your existence could be less dismal if you spent some time talking to the lady."
Sirius gave his friend a dark look.
Remus shrugged. "I don't know why you want to be such a gloomy Gus. If she were my old girlfriend, I wouldn't waste time sitting alone. Just think about it, will you?"
" 'Think', he says. All I do all day is think. It's Azkaban all over."
As Remus opened the door to leave he added, "I hear Buckbeak shuffling about. Get your butt down to the kitchen and take the woman to see the hippogriff. I'll bet none of her muggle girlfriends can top that for a unique date."
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"He's magnificent!" Sapphire whispered to Sirius, as she bowed to the hippogriff.
Sirius felt no small satisfaction as the beast bowed back. "I thought you'd like him. Would you like to pet him?"
"Oh, would I!"
"Just keep eye contact and do all those things you do when you meet a strange animal."
"Strange indeed."
"Well, I meant one you haven't met, but for a muggle, I guess we could say a hippogriff is something strange."
"Strange and wonderful," Sapphire said, holding out a hand toward Buckbeak.
"I don't think he'll sniff you. Birds aren't big on smells."
"But he's part horse, too."
"Not the sniffing part."
Buckbeak was turning his head from one side to the other, looking at Sapphire with each glowing eye separately. Finally, he rubbed his beak against the proffered hand. Sapphire drew in her breath at the approach of the enormous predatory head, but she held still.
"Just stroke his neck now. That's it. Good boy, Buckbeak."
Sapphire was gently petting the soft, white neck feathers and running her hand more firmly down the dappled gray withers and back. Buckbeak made a contented noise, somewhere between a whicker and a cluck. Sapphire giggled.
"It is a funny sound, isn't it," Sirius smiled. "I wish I could take you for a ride on him."
"It must be wonderful."
"Yes, and no. The motion takes some getting used to. Sort of a cross between flying on my old motorbike and bouncing around on one of your mules." Sirius paused a moment. "Now that I think of it, it's probably a good thing you made me ride Jack and Blackie. When Buckbeak and I first met, I had to learn to ride him 'on the job' so to speak. It was a matter of both our lives that I be successful."
"Does he mount from the left? And did you?" Sapphire grinned.
"He does indeed, and I did. We dismount that way too -- always on purpose, I might add. Are you proud of me for remembering?"
"More like amazed."
They both laughed, then grew suddenly silent. Sapphire was first to speak again.
"So he's a fugitive too?"
"Yes, though unlike me, he really committed his 'crime'. But there were extenuating circumstances. He's not vicious like they say." Sirius gave the big animal a pat and opened the bucket lid.
"Blech!" Sapphire made a face and stepped back a bit. "I believe you about him not smelling much. That's worse than cat food! Can't he eat oats and hay?"
"He tries to graze a bit, but he can't really chew it. His beak is made to rip flesh. It's a little better when we can get rats. These fish guts are the worst."
Sapphire stared thoughtfully at the horse end of Buckbeak. "I sure miss Blackie. He was a good mule."
"I'm glad he was useful to you."
"'Useful' isn't the word. He saved me, Sirius. I think about that all the time." She dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve, and Sirius conjured a handkerchief.
"Thanks," she continued. "Sorry, it still upsets me."
"I suppose it might."
"You know something, Blackie was like me the way Buckbeak is like you."
"How's that?" Sirius asked.
Blackie wasn't really a magical animal, but he wasn't ... well, he wasn't ordinary either. He knew things mules don't know, like what those dementors would do to me."
"Maybe he just knew you needed protecting."
"Did Jack protect me when you stunned me?"
"He was old and became derelict in his mulish duties."
Sapphire laughed at Sirius' drollness, then continued, "Blackie knew where things were, too. I remember you telling me he had a great sense of direction, and you were right. If I once showed him some patch of useful plants, I could almost just tell him what I wanted and he would head there."
"That was the Thestral in him. They're famous for that."
"But yet he was a mule. He had the usual mule anatomy, with maybe a few marginal oddities, like the pointed teeth, but he didn't vanish or fly or anything. He lived in a world that denied magic, even though he had the genes for it in him. Now Buckbeak, he's completely from this magical world. I mean, he's a physical impossibility; how can a horse body live on an eagle's diet? He's part of the world you opened for me, where a man can vanish into thin air, and pop through locked doors without a key," Sapphire paused, then added, "and when you opened it, I felt that I'd been hunting for that world all my life."
"You don't know very much about my world," Sirius said.
"I know you. I think that's quite enough to get started."
"I was barely twenty-one years old then. It was a lifetime ago."
"And I was three years older and thought you were too young to take seriously, until you persuaded me otherwise. You were put off by my being a muggle for a bit and I was afraid of the magic you could do. You were hidden here where I couldn't possibly find you, yet I did." She smiled at Sirius. "You and I, maybe we're like this hippogriff; maybe we have a knack for the impossible?"
@ 2,694 words, Last Edit 07/16/07
Posted by Madmaxime at October 10, 2007 03:53 PM