The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Quite Imminent

"Oh bless him." She took the wands and quickly selected out a green one - Strawberry-Kiwi flavor - and bit into it.

Remus lay the other flavors on the table and Sirius plucked a gold one - pineapple - from the stack and sat down on the arm of the sofa, his stocking feet up on the seat.

Remus glanced between Dorcas and Sirius, then said, "If you excuse me, I've got to get back to the Kelpies." He gestured to the briefcase.

"Ohhh - that's how - Gosh I'm a bleedin' idiot. I swear I've got baby brain," Dorcas said.

"Yeah, Newt Scamander's briefcase."

"How is Newt? Is he in there?" Dorcas asked.

"Oh no, he's in New York," Remus answered. "He's alright, but long story short he's had a bit of surgery and needed some help looking after his creatures in the case and I'm on a bit of a holiday before summer classes and volunteered." He smiled, then nodded to Sirius, who stared at him blankly, sucking on the wand as he stared at Remus. "I'll be back out in a bit." He met Sirius's eyes and then glanced at Dorcas meaningfully.

Sirius sucked extra hard on the licorice wand in response and Remus rolled his eyes and climbed over the lip of the suitcase, disappearing down the ladder and subtly closing the lid behind him.

Sirius looked back at Dorcas again.

"So tell me what happened with this woman and the accusations and everything, Sirius, honey," Dorcas said. "Same rules apply, even if it's not an official visit. I won't tell anyone anything you say. I'm sure you were really upset - Gideon said there was time in the holding cells at the Ministry involved? And now house arrest?"

Sirius chewed and swallowed the last of his quickly eaten wand licorice wand to give himself a bit more time to stall, and he flipped onto his side on the couch, putting his legs up on the arm where he'd been sitting and propping up his head with a throw pillow. They looked the stereotypical part of a therapist and a patient now, he thought, and he stared up at the ceiling.

"It seems there was a good deal of misunderstanding," he said, reciting the words that Harry Underhill had told him the night they sat up, playing Go Fish in the dungeons of the Ministry of Magic. "Ms. Leonards said things I misunderstood, I said things she misunderstood, and my poor darling Remus ended up in the middle of all that. You know how people flip out over any mention of a werewolf these days!" Sirius shrugged. "That's all."

Lycanthrophobia had taken a bit of a resurgence lately, Dorcas had to admit. It seemed like mention of Greyback was everywhere - his picture popping up in nearly every issue of the Daily Prophet. He'd been turning a lot of people, mostly in villages in Southern Scotland for the time being, and although the Ministry kept trying to reel him and his new turns in, they'd not been very successful on a whole. The Restriction Act was being talked about, debates about whether they needed to work on an amendment to the Act, increasing measures and allowances for the collectors, perhaps some sort of enticement for the werewolves to register themselves in the form of financial support... things of that like... And yes, there were a lot of accusations flying. Why just the previous day there had been an article about a man in a fight with his neighbor pointing the finger and falsely calling his neighbor a werewolf, resulting in the man being forcibly dragged off by the collector to be tested for infection.

Dorcas tried to shift her weight, but this was too much work and she ended up in the same spot she'd been before she tried at moving. "I suppose. It must've been scary just the same, though?"

Sirius shrugged. "Prison wasn't that bad."

"You can tell the truth, Sirius," Dorcas pressed. "You told me once you're claustrophobic. Those cells are tiny - weren't you anxious?"