Author’s note: This story is dedicated to poppy47334 for agreeing with me that Rika is a beast. ;)
<3 the comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A few weeks had passed and it was once again time for a full moon. This would be my fourth one with Moony and Padfoot, but my first one at Grimmie-house. As usual, I was super-hyped. I crawled out my balcony and down to the ground, listening to my IPod and running laps for a good two hours before the sun came up.I spent a few more hours dancing until I smelled breakfast being cooked.
I crawled back up my trellis and back onto the balcony (using the front door was soooo overrated ;) ) and went downstairs. Meat!! I smelled meat!!
I charged towards the kitchen, jumping over the couch in my haste, and loaded a plate up with nothing but meat. Sausage, bacon, ham, yum. I glanced up to see the tribe of redheads staring at me, especially poor Ginny who was sitting on the couch I’d vaulted over.
Okay, must restrain self. Must eat food calmly and like a person. Much. …Much. …Munch…. Mun—DEVOURE!!!!!!
….. ….. .. . …Well that plan failed.
“Are you alright?” Tonks asked, eyeing the way I kept fidgeting.
I nodded. “Yup. Fine just fine. Totally completely and utterly and absolutely, positively, incredibly fine. Couldn’t be any finer. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine.”
Her mouth dropped open in a small ‘o’ shape.
“Are you high?” Fred asked suspiciously.
“Because your eyes are abnormally gold today.”—George
“Even for you.”—Fred
“And your pupils are dilated.”—George
“And you just ate more meat than a herd of Hippogriffs.”—Fred
“No, no highness, well kinda, but not druggie high, nope, no drugs, just, you know, full moon. Tonight. As in today. Later. When it’s dark.”
“I thought full moons made werewolves tired.” Harry said, obviously thinking of Remus.
I nodded. “Yup, sure does. Normal ones. Not me. Cause you know, I’m a beast and what not.” I filled a plate full of food. “Mentally alluding to Remus, I’m gonna go get him food. Poor Moony. Needs food. And love. And—“ I spun around to Mrs. Weasley. “CHOCOLATE!! Remus needs chocolate!! Do you! Have! Chocolate!! Now!”
Slowly, she nodded, summoning a chocolate bar. I grabbed it and ran upstairs with the food. Approaching Remus’s room and using more restraint then I thought possible for myself, I opened his door in a quiet, slow manner.
Remus was spread haphazardly across the bed, tawny head barely visible under the covers. Next to him, curled up in dog form, was Padfoot. He cracked an eye open, tail wagging at me. I went to the bathroom, grabbing a towel, laying it in front of Padfoot, and spreading some food on it. He happily chowed down. I set the rest on Remus’s bedside table, along with the bar of chocolate. Grabbing his wand, I cast a simple heating charm to keep the food warm (Having magical people as my best friends and living with magical people for the past few months had taught me some easy spells).
I wanted to stay with Remus, but my self-restraint couldn’t hold out much longer, and he needed rest. I knew he’d understand. Giving Padfoot a quick ear-scratch, I shut the door as quietly as I could and zoomed back downstairs.
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It was amazing, Harry pondered absent-mindedly, how exhausted you could get just from watching someone else be active. Rika had never looked less human than she did now simply because no human on Earth could have that much energy. Even the twins were slumped on the floor, too exhausted from trying to keep up with Rika to even make it to the couch before they collapsed.
And yet she was still bouncing.
It hadn’t been all bad though. It turns out that Rika was a great dancer and had real talent as a singer. Though three hours into her living-room-concert, she’d had to opt for just dancing because her voice was going hoarse.
Perhaps the most surreal part of the whole thing was that she’d been dancing for a good five hours now and had yet to repeat a single song…. Just how much music did she have on that IPod?
Sirius came down. The two exchanged a look, and Rika went off to wherever she’d go to change.
Jealousy, Harry mused, was also amazing. He honestly liked Rika. She was nice and funny. She knew what it was like to be judged by people, and she never treated him differently because of who he was. She had to go through a horrific transformation once a month, she had no legal rights, she’d been a slave to the Malfoys.
Yet he still couldn’t stop the occasional stab of jealousy when he saw her with Sirius and to a lesser note, Remus. They were his parents friends, Sirius was his godfather; he wanted a relationship with them like Rika had, but he didn’t know where to start, how to bridge the gap between the infant they had known him as an and who he had become. How to bond with familiar strangers.
He’d talk to Rika about it. She wouldn’t laugh at him, or just tell him to go talk to them. She’d try to help and if she couldn’t think of an answer, she’d straight up tell him instead of offering vague advice. Once his Ministry trial was over, he’d talk to her first thing.
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The full moon at Grimmie-place went just as well as the past three moons. The next day everyone involved was tired but fine. Another week had past, and the dreaded date had finally arrived.
Harry’s Ministry trial.
Which I was to accompany him to.
Joy.
The poor kid was obviously trying to put on a strong face, but he looked like a nervous wreak, pushing his breakfast around his plate rather than ingesting it. I leaned over, resting a hand on his knee.
“Harry?”
He slowly looked up at me. I watched him until he was looking me fully in the eyes.
“The Ministry is shit. The people in charge are shit. But they’re vain shit. They can’t do anything that will harm their precious public image; expelling the boy who lived on a flimsy charge would most definitely make them look bad. They’ll have to try and discredit you if they want to succeed. Be honest, be polite and remember that your words will be used against you. But also remember that people will be watching. People whose opinions are important to the Ministry. I’m not telling you to spin a sob story, but read your audience carefully, say what pleases them; in the end it’s them you need to convince, not Fudge.”
He nodded, looking way too serious for a teen. Smiling, I hugged him and ruffled his hair. “Good luck kid.”
“You too.”
Oh right…I’d almost forgotten that I too would be at the Ministry due to suspicious circumstances…
Just peachy.
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Harry and I walked side by side, neither one of us sure who was garnering more stares. Arthur was on Harry’s right, hand on his shoulder, and Remus was on my left, hand on the small of my back.
Just like body guards. If the situation had been less tense, I would have made a joke about feeling like a celebrity.
As we approached the room Harry would have his trial in, a man stopped us. “No pets,” he growled, looking pointedly at me. Jerk.
Remus nodded, moving away, but I stopped him. “I’ll be fine, you go on with Harry.”
Remus shook his head, looking pained. “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t risk leaving you alone, and Harry has Arthur.”
It was perfectly logical but still…
“Don’t worry Rika,” Harry said once again looing too mature for his years. “There’s nothing Remus could do to help me anyway. And if something happened to you just because you were trying to make me feel more comfortable, I’d never forgive myself.”
Awwwwwww. He’s like a lil soldier. All wide green eyes and toughness.
I gave him one last hug. “Knock 'em dead kid.”
He nodded, and we parted ways.
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Sitting with Remus waiting was boring. Nothing remotely bad had even tried to happen to me. I honestly think that Malfoy just wanted me here to rub it in my face that I had no rights. Dick. No..that’s an insult to male genitals everywhere. Smelly dick. There we go, much more fitting.
Then it happened because life just can’t be happy to let me sit back and stay relatively unharmed for once.
A little girl had been walking hand-in-hand with a woman when the woman stopped to chat. The little girl wiggled her hand free, looking around curiously. Then she spied it. It was a muggle fire extinguisher that had been charmed to shoot fire at anyone who came within a foot of it. Mr. Weasley had been having a hard time fixing that one. The little girl started towards it.
Oh no.
And as always, my instincts kicked in. Instead of simply yelling at her to stop, I took off running. In hindsight, I guess it’s good that I did because if a charging werewolf didn’t stop her advance, I doubt a little yelling would have.
Her hand was outstretched.
I was almost there.
Remus yelled.
The woman turned and screamed.
I saw the orange-blue of flames.
My arms surrounded the girl, body twisting so my back was to the heat. We hit the floor sideways in a heap, and I lay there stunned for a second before the pain registered.
I screamed, letting out a stream of unintelligible cusswords. Remus scooped me up, running full speed to the medical floor(Apparently people here got injured so much they’d just brought the hospital to the Ministry…).
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The best thing about Healers is that they rarely notice I’m a werewolf until they’ve already treated me. They see blood and their instincts kick in. They had me shot up with painkillers and applied a butt load of salves and bandages to my side and back before one of them had noticed my gold eyes and scars and let out a gasp.
They were now in the hallway talking to Remus. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, just an angry tone of voice. I knew I’d be fine. Just sore for a while. And if the Healer’s denied me further treatment, I’d be sore for even longer.
My ears pricked at the sound of squeaking. I frowned, looking over to see a mouse staring up at me. What the hell?
And then instead of a mouse, there was a man.
“Finally,” he said in a grating voice, mouth twisted in a horrible smile, “you’re alone.”
And indeed I was alone. Very alone.
And injured. With the only man I knew who was a rat both literally and metaphorically.
Peter Pettigrew.
Oh shit.
Author’s note: Sorry about the cliffie lol. I didn't make my vote/comment goal for last time, so I'm going to ask for 4 votes/comments for a quicker update this time. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for…Or maybe the power has just gone to my head lol. I finally got to do some Harry introspection over his relationships with Rika and Sirius :). Hopefully I’ll get to develop them further…I’d really like some feedback on how I portrayed his character; he’s a tough one for me to write about…
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