Dark Magic

Friends and Monsters

We ate dinner in the family dining room, prepared by Remus with all that he could muster from years of pantry abandonment; which wasn't much. Tomato soup...Yum! Insisting he would go shopping the following morning, I eagerly awaited my invitation to join him in Diagon Alley. I did need some new clothes, after all. And I could pop into Gringotts to get some money that my parents had left Harry and I after their passing.

Both Sirius and Remus spent the next hour reminiscing about their time at school. And I realised that the former prisoner hadn't really had a chance to mourn his best friend's passing. It wasn't long before the fire whiskey was out and Sirius was trying his absolute hardest to subdue his tears that threatened to fall. Knowing it was getting late and the moon would be rising shortly, the two of them made their way up the stairs, after making sure I was in my room and safe.

About thirty minutes remained until the moon would rise, so I took out my two-way mirror and glanced at my reflection, making sure to cover any blemishes or stray hairs with a small enchantment. "Draco Malfoy." How I found myself missing saying that name, the glass face rippled and waited for a response.

"Em!" His voice sounded before his face appeared through the mirror. "Hi Draco. How are you?" I asked excitedly, waiting for him to appear. "I'm good. Listen, do you mind if I call you back some other time? I'm doing homework at the moment." I knew from the crack in his voice and his lack of showing himself meant something was off. Plus, Draco wasn't one for homework; especially during the school holidays.

"Uh...Sure. I'll speak to you later, mate." I spoke simply, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. Had I been in the same room as him, I would have tried to search his mind for the truth. But he wasn't. So I couldn't. "I'll call you tomorrow. Bye." His voice broke once more with his final goodbye. I could only hope this did not have anything to do with Lucius Malfoy. But the doubt eating away at my thoughts spoke otherwise. Draco was scared of his father; that much was evident from the small snippets I had gathered from his thoughts and passing conversations.

My mind was soon preoccupied, however, as a loud bang shuddered through the ceiling. Remus.

I fled from my spot on Sirius' floor, grasping the door handle to find it had been locked. Very quickly and very angrily taking out my wand, I spoke simply, "Alohamora." The door unlocked as I ran towards the third floor and towards the direction of the attic. "Sirius!" I called, running up the last set of stairs to the top of the house. But the door at the end of them slammed closed. "Emerald! Go! The Wolfsbane potion, it-" Sirius let out an awful scream as I banged my fists against the door and tried to open it. "-It Didn't Work!"

A loud bang sounded as I felt Sirius' presence leave the doorframe, allowing me to grasp the handle and burst inside. The room was silent as I searched in the darkness for any sign of movement. Whimpers finally guided me to a very injured black dog on the ground. He had been hurt severely, his whimpers signifying he was fading in and out of consciousness.

The creak of a floorboard sounded from behind me, causing me to turn quickly to find a transformed werewolf ready to pounce towards me, teeth bared. My gasp caused it to leap, pinning me to the ground as it had the night of the Whomping Willow incident. Closing my eyes, I waited for the same events to unfold as before; the werewolf's saliva dripping onto my cheek. Sirius' whimpers had silenced. The room was quiet.

Until a small sniff emitted from the werewolf as it pressed its nose to my neck, where my scar was situated. A loud THUMP! sounded, causing my eyes to shoot open irrevocably. A pressure fell onto my thigh as the werewolf collapsed to the floor and rested its head on my leg, falling asleep.

My breathing hitched, before I let out a low sigh of relief and rested my hand on his head. "Emerald?" I gasped at the voice, forgetting momentarily about the injured man laying beside me. "Sirius." I spoke, barely above a whisper as I took my wand out and pointed it towards him. "Ferula." I conjured, struggling for a moment to remember the healing spell I had read about the year previous. Not in our curriculum, but something I believed would be very useful to learn.

Sirius' wounds were covered in bandages from my healing charm, also helping in relieving some of the pain as he rolled over onto his side with a wince. "You would have been excellent when we were younger on a full moon." He noted as I helped him sit up, the werewolf in my lap growling slightly in the midst of his slumber.

"I think I would have been a good addition to the Marauder's." I chuckled, which he returned but winced as it had hurt his chest a little, in the moment. "You and Harry would have given your father a good run for his money." His smile faded at the words escaping his lips, his eyes growing sad as he averted his gaze onto the attic floor. "He seemed like a good man, from what Remus has shown me, in his memories."

Sirius' eyes snapped up to meet my own, disbelieving and curious, "You can see memories?" He repeated, to which I nodded with a small hum in confirmation. "May I show you some of my own?" The man asked hopefully, my eyes finally meeting his silvery ones as I smiled, my stomach flipping in anticipation, "I'd like that very much."

Sirius proceeded to open his mind, allowing me to filter through some of the happiest memories he had managed to preserve in the cells of Azkaban. The first day he met my father on the Hogwarts Express. The both of them being sorted into Gryffindor and choosing a dorm together; who they just so happened to share with Remus and Peter (Peter's face being blurred for most of the memory). The days my father would chase after my mother for her affection, unsuccessfully. My father trying out for Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Sirius successfully attaining the role of a Keeper in their third year. I felt a lot of pride to share with him that I had made the Slytherin team as a Keeper. The pranks they would partake in at school together. The school holidays when Sirius would leave his awful family and spend with the Potter's, my Grandparents. The day the Marauder's graduated. The day my father asked Sirius to be his Best Man and then Harry's Godfather a year afterwards...

And then something I wasn't supposed to see...The night Sirius rode Hagrid's motorbike (his motorbike) to Godric's Hollow, the night of my parent's deaths. I hadn't known he was there before. Hunting down Pettigrew. First, he found my father, as Severus had on that night. Then my mother and a crying baby in his cot. The sound of a person apparating outside cracked through the street, startling a 21 year old Sirius Black as he fled the home quickly, resuming the hunt.

"I'm sorry." I gasped, being plunged back into reality as my eyes found those silvery ones again. Sirius' hands were encasing my shoulders, being careful to avoid waking the werewolf that was grumbling slightly in his sleep. "Emerald, I'm so sorry." The man looked as though he could cry as I shook my head, "It's alright. I've seen it before." But my words didn't comfort myself or Sirius in the slightest.

The sky filtering through a window in the attic was getting lighter, signifying a new day was in short approach. "The sun will be up soon. I'll stay with him until he wakes up." My voice was soothing and reassuring as I sent a small smile Sirius' way. But the man shook his head in protest, "He'll go made if he thinks I left you alone. He'll know that most of last night wasn't a good one."

Deciding it would be best not to argue with him, I nodded; suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness as my eyes closed and I drifted into a very light sleep. It felt as though a few minutes had passed before Remus' angered voice was shouting at Sirius, as quietly as he could so to not disturb me. But I was hardly sleeping, opening my eyes to find my Godfather in a bath robe, having lost his clothes in his transformation. Luckily, the summer nights made the attic warm and the moon cycle short. But that didn't take away from Remus' indisposition the morning after. He was still better than I had seen him in the past full moons.

"Are you bloody mad? She could have been killed!"

"You narf overthink things Mooney. She's fine, look at her!"

The two pairs of eyes drifted towards me, Remus' softening as he noticed I was awake. But as his gaze lingered on something, a gasp escaped his lips as he quickly knelt down beside me, his hand very slowly and gently reaching towards me. He was looking at my neck. Where the now unconcealed scar lingered that I had forgotten to cover up the night previous. Anger and self-hatred and sadness filled his eyes with tears as his fingers brushed against my skin as though I were a china doll. Delicate and all too easy to break. His lip quivered as he took a step back, "I'm so sorry. I'm a monster." And before any other words could escape myself or Sirius, he fled the room, leaving us both in shock...