Caelen slipped quietly throughly the darkened hallway, easing the old door open slowly so as to avoid any creaking, she peaked around the edge. "Harry? You awake?" She whispered into the darkness.
Harry squinted trying to make out the small girl. "Caelen? What're you doing up? Where's Remus?" He questioned groggily.
Caelen tiptoed quickly across the room and climbed in next to the teen nestling her head against his shoulder and causing the boy to roll his eyes slightly. The first time she'd climbed up next to him, the summer before at the Weasleys, Harry had fallen out of the bed in surprise; he had since become accustomed to her snugly personality and instead wrapped an arm around her. "What's up Cae?"
She hesitated wringing the edge of the blanket in her hands nervously, "are you scared, about the hearing? Do you think they'll expel you?" Caelen whispered.
His first instinct was to respond bravely, 'of course he wasn't scared they couldn't expel him and he'd be fine' , he knew better than to try though, Caelen always knew. Harry wasn't sure how,maybe it was a werewolf thing Remus seemed unusually perceptive also, maybe it was her past, whatever the reason the girl saw right through him; she always picked up on the emotions of those around her. The boy sighed in defeat, "yeah I'm scared, if I get expelled, if they take my wand, I'll have nothing I'll have to go back to the Durselys on my own and they're terrible. I'm worried about Voldemort too, what he has up his sleeve."
"You have more than just magic Harry!" The girl argued in an irritated tone, reminiscent of a certain potions professor's exasperated drawl. "You have uncle Sirius, and daddy, the Weasleys, and me. You're not alone Harry, even if they take your wand you still have family."
Harry squeezed her into a tight hug, "thanks Cae, now where's your dad at?"
"He said he had something important he had to tell Dumbledore. Guess he'll be back soon he left a couple hours ago." Caelen shrugged as if it didn't matter, they both knew it did.
The pair continued to whisper for a time, talking about their summers so far and Harry's frustration at his seclusion. Caelen still felt awful for her treatment of Sirius on her birthday and hoped she'd be able to make it up to him. Harry reassured her their shared godfather wouldn't hold something she said when she was upset against her. Late into the night Harry carried the, finally, sleeping girl to her room and tucked her messily into bed.
He backed slowly into the hall letting out a startled yelp upon colliding with a solid form behind him. "Oh professor Lupin! You startled me!" Harry gasped in shock.
"Sorry," his ex professor apologized, "I'm no longer your professor Harry you can call me Remus. Was Caelen keeping you up?"
"I think she was having trouble getting to sleep." He replied hoping to get information from Remus about Dumbledore.
The man looked guiltily towards the closed bedroom door, "ah yes, well thank you for looking after her Harry. I fear there may be more nights like this coming, Dumbledore has another mission for me."
"Like last time?" the boy questioned quietly. "Caelen told me you were gone for months and nearly died.."
"Yes well I hope to avoid another occurrence like that, and I should be checking in at least once weekly, but yes I'll be rejoining the werewolves." Either he noticed Harry's mutinous expression or he was trying to defend his decision to himself, whatever the case Remus' next words came in a tone pleading for understanding. "I've made good headway with them Harry. Three of the younger werewolves could be very close to joining the order; I just can't back away now. Don't mention this to Sirius, he won't understand and I don't care to argue the matter with him. I may well be gone before you get up tomorrow, if so I hope everything go's well at your hearing."
Harry wasn't certain wether to wish Remus well or try to stop him, instead he stood frozen in the darkened hall until long after his former professor had vanished into the bedroom. He certainly hoped, for Caelen's sake, that Lupin would be safe this time.
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Caelen awoke with a start, the sun's first rays hadn't yet reached the horizon. For a moment she wondered why she was awake so early before noticing her father packing a bag quickly in the dark.
"I'm sorry cub did I wake you?" He whispered as he approached the bed pulling his puzzled daughter into a hug.
Caelen stared in confusion at her father's bag. "What's going on? Are you leaving?"
Remus held her tightly, "I have to go back out, Dumbledore needs me."
"But I need you!" Caelen argued pouting. "Please don't go again daddy."
Her plea almost broke the man's heart, almost, but he had to go; this was for Caelen as much as anyone else. "Please understand little cub I'm doing this for you and Harry and uncle Sirius. We have to win this war, to clear Sirius, to have a chance to change the prejudices against people like us or people like Hermione, and for Harry. Harry's been a target all his life, he deserves a chance to not have to worry someone's out there waiting to kill him or his loved ones. Don't you understand cub?"
Caelen nodded sniffling quietly into her father's shoulder. "But I don't want you to go, I don't want to lose you."
Remus would have liked to reassure her that she'd never lose him, that he'd never go anywhere but he knew she'd see right through such empty reassurances. "I'll be careful Caelen I promise, but cub, even if something happens I'm not leaving you alone. You have uncle Sirius, and I'll always be with you as long as I'm in here," he tapped her forehead lightly, "and here," he pressed his knuckles against the girl's heart. "I have to go now, be good for Sirius."
Remus slipped from the room leaving a note on the kitchen table for Sirius and vanishing outside into the early morning light.
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Remus' assumptions had been correct Sirius was livid. Upon reading the note, written in his old friend's usual neat script, he had gone on an hour long rant, to anyone who would listen, about the idiocy of certain former professors intent on endangering their own lives and currant professors happy to endanger the lives of others.
Caelen sat sullenly, a part of her was proud of her father but a bigger part agreed with Sirius. It didn't help that Mrs Weasley, while she meant well, insisted on coddling the youngest resident of Grimald place; shooing her away as the others tackled doxies and whatever else had taken up resident in the ancient house of Black. Many rooms in the old building had yet to be cleaned and were therefore off limits, nobody wanted a repeat of the, now infamous, bogart incident.
Once Sirius had calmed some, calm being a very loose description for the agitated black haired man who had taken to grumbling under his breath rather than the shouting rant he'd started off with, he attempted to distract Caelen by having her assist him in feeding Buckbeak. While the child loved the hippogriff she wasn't a huge fan of dead rats and happily escaped to her room rather than be shooed away again once her godfather headed for the drawing room.
She hadn't been in there long before Mrs Weasley allowed her into the drawing room for a lunch of sandwiches and cake. Caelen entered the room catching the tail end of what seemed to be a heated conversation between her godfather and Harry about Sirius' cousin Bellatrix and his overall dislike of his family, and by extension family home, as a whole.
That evening greeted them with a sleepy but agitated young Lupin. After a failed attempt at sleeping alone she'd crawled in next to her uncle and, despite his pleas for rest, had begun chattering away in a thinly veiled attempt at distracting herself from the absence of her father.
"I read about a protection spell earlier today. I'm not even sure if it actually exists, the book wasn't clear on that fact, but it's rumored there's an object somewhere that was spelled with a charm so powerful it could very nearly bring back the dead!" She gushed about the book she'd buried herself in while the others cleaned.
"Nothing and no one can bring back the dead pup," Sirius grumbled sleepily.
"Oh I know that but this thing supposedly can stop it, regardless of the severity of the spell or wounds. It sounds like whatever it is it could even stop the killing curse!" The girl was obviously very excited by the idea of such an object existing. "Problem is whatever the charm that was used on it was the inventor died before he shared it so no one knows anything about it."
Sirius chuckled lazily. "Must not have worked if he died despite it."
Caelen sighed rolling her eyes in exasperation at her uncle, "it wasn't for him uncle Sirius! He made it for the one he loved! Apparently, whoever they were, they were in danger. The object was meant to protect them."
"So somewhere out there, there might be a heavily charmed object from centuries ago that might be able to stop death possibly the killing curse itself. Only problem is no one knows for sure, no one knows what it is, and it is purported to only work once so it may have already been used, and we're staying up to talk about it now?" The man grumbled throwing an arm over his eyes.
"Sorry," Caelen muttered settling down under the covers quietly. Sirius had just begun to doze off when she spoke again. "I know how you feel uncle Sirius." She whispered into the darkness.
"Hmmm?"
The girl rolled onto her side facing his general direction even though she had no hope of actually seeing his face in the blackness that cloaked the room. "I understand how you feel, about your family. My mother wasn't any good either. She's the only family I knew before daddy but I wouldn't imagine her parents to have been much better, I mean she came from somewhere right? It doesn't change who you are though, it doesn't make you bad."
Sirius sighed sadly, "oh pup, it's not the same really. I come from a long line of bad seed, my very name is Black."
"For a long long time my name was freak, or monster. Do you think that applies to me?" She argued with quiet conviction. "So your parents weren't any good, your brother was a death eater, and nearly the rest of your family follows along the same line, that's not you uncle Sirius. They don't make you who you are. Neither does this old house, some day your name is going to be cleared and Voldemort isn't going to be around anymore and you'll be able to get out of here. Maybe when that day comes you could burn this old place to the ground and be done with it completely, but, you can't let it beat you. That's not who you are is it?"
Caelen turned the nearby lamp on and lifted her shirt revealing a pale pinkish scar branding her with the word 'monster' on her ribs on the left side. "You're not bad, you're not worthless, and I'm not a monster, ok?"
Sirius gritted his teeth, fury filling him to the point of explosion at Gina, as he tugged the light blue pajama top back down and tucked his goddaughter in gently. "Ok puppy, you're right." He kissed her forehead as he reached across turning the lamp back off. "Go to sleep now hmm? I promise I won't let this old house beat me down so much tomorrow."
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Ok guys usually I read it one last time before posting but it's late and I have a horrible headache so I'm posting without that final read through hopefully it doesn't totally suck and you enjoy it I've been very anxious to get back to this. Good news though in the time I've been away I've tweaked all the uncertain plot points of this story and now have everything but filler parts mapped out till the end and can I just say I am beyond excited!! Ok because I know you'll be wondering because you guys are awesome my family is no longer sick yay! But my son is teething and exasperatingly cranky the boy is lucky he's cute lol jk so updates while he's in his impossible mood will be slow but they're coming. I am so very excited about my plans for this story I just can't wait to get it out there for you!! Ok I'm gonna go before I start writing spoilers lol as usual I love comments and I'll see you guys soon hopefully. Later 😉