ღ chapter nine
( in my arms )
"MUM, YOU CAN stop checking the curtains every two minutes. He doesn't know where we live. And I still don't understand why exactly you pulled me out of school, Professor Dumbledore had the situation under control. Everyone else is fine, you even let Harry stay!" Juliet argued, fingers curled around a chipped turquoise mug filled with steaming hot chocolate. She had a blanket thrown over her lap, and was cozy in the sitting room near the front of their manor.
"You and Harry are not the same," Cordelia insisted, letting the fabric of the periwinkle curtains slip from her fingers as she slid down next to her daughter. She cradled her softly for a second, pressing her lips to the top of Juliet's hair. "I can't explain much now, but you'll be at home, with me, till I get an all clear from Dumbledore. I've also arranged to keep you for a few extra days, until he comes back, we can celebrate your birthday together, okay? I'll send you back on Friday."
A loud knock sounded on the doorway, causing Cordelia to jump, and reflexively draw her wand from her robes. She was still wearing her traveling cloak over her silk nightgown, having jumped straight out of bed to come get Juliet. That had been two hours ago, and it was closing in on midnight.
"A Mr. Remus Lupin is here to see you, Miss Cordelia!" the house-elf, Rora, called out.
Cordelia softened, but still didn't let her guard down, her heels clicking on the marble floors as she made her way to the door. Juliet followed, peering around the doorway as Cordelia opened the door. "Who's wedding was my daughter a flower-girl in?"
The customary question. Juliet knew her parents were in the now dismantled Order of the Phoenix during the wizarding war, and as a result, knew what exactly Cordelia was trying to do. She had no recollection of that particular wedding, besides a picture of her dressed in lavender, perched in her mother's arms.
Lupin smiled. "Stevie and Marlene's," he said, Cordelia letting out a sigh of relief and tossing her arms around him. "Dumbledore sent me over to say it was all clear."
"Come in, Remus," Cordelia invited, as he stepped inside. A thunder-clap startled Juliet, who flinched, before she grinned at Lupin, who offered her a smile.
"Jules, why don't you head on up to bed," Cordelia suggested. "It's late, put that out-"
Juliet rolled her eyes, slipping her lighter back into her pocket and taking a drag of her cigarette. She needed to replenish her stash before she went back to Hogwarts, she'd run out a few weeks back and had bought some off a sixth year Hufflepuff, who definitely charged her way too much. But even that stash was running low.
Cordelia pressed a kiss to Juliet's forehead and gently nudged her in the direction of the stairs. Jules could hear the soft whispers of their conversation as she made her way up the stairs.
"How did he get in?"
"You know how, Delia," Remus had answered. They seemed to realize she was lingering in the staircase, and promptly entered the sitting room and closed the double doors. Juliet made her way to the east wing, where her room was located just down the hall from where her mother now slept alone.
She crossed the room and sunk into the velvet cushion of her window seat, taking another drag from her cigarette and pulling her knees to her chest. She'd skinned them after falling on the steps leading up to the Owlery a few days prior, and the bandages she had wrapped them in were starting to fall off. She bit her lip and tore them off, grimacing at the sore flesh. She had been out of bed after curfew when that had happened, and she was the worst at healing spells, so she simply wrapped them instead of risking it with magic. Jules probably should have asked Hermione for help, but she definitely had not been in the mood for a lecture.
One of the house elves had changed her sheets and dusted away the dust that had been collecting for the two months she had been at school, and she inhaled the soft smell of lavender detergent and peeled off her sweaty clothes in favor of a baggy AC/DC shirt and shorts. A warm bath later, she was fighting sleep.
Cordelia found Juliet sprawled in her bed, the gauzy curtains of her canopy fluttering in the breeze from the open window. Juno was curled up in the crook of Juliet's elbow, amber eyes alert. Cordelia smiled at the sight, and went to close the window so it didn't get to cold, the guilt festering in the pit of her stomach by her lies to Juliet eating away at her. She needed to say something, but it felt hard to do so, after lying ever since that fateful Halloween exactly fourteen years ago.
The guilt she felt was immediately washed away when she spotted a familiar set of pawprints in the garden, and it took everything inside of her to stifle her sobs, fist inside her mouth, only a muffled cry escaping her lips. Sirius was not guilty, but Cordelia was adamant on refusing to let him see Juliet until the whole world knew. Teenage girls were never good at keeping secrets.
She needed to tell Juliet, but surely she would hate her own mother, and it would break Cordelia's heart if that ever happened.
THE AIR IS cool against her cheeks, the ominous sound of thunderclaps doing nothing to deter a determined Cordelia Valentine. The grass is soft against her bare feet, as she cups her hands around her mouth. "Love? I know you're around here somewhere, I saw the prints from Juliet's window."
The bedraggled shape of her lover slowly emerged from one of an emaciated dog. "Delia," he sighed, making no move to step forward. She did, however, taking no care into how he looked as if he hadn't bathed in ages, nor the dirt coating his clothing from head to toe. She flew into his arms, and gasped at the ribs that jutted from his chest, the ragged breaths he was taking sounding like a lung infection.
"Twelve years since I've seen you," she whispered, eyes filling with tears at the sight of the state that Sirius was in. He seemed hollow, and far more empty, a shell of the joyful man he had once been. They'd only been together for five years, and spent twelve apart, twelve years of misery, and heartache. The only thing that had kept their love alive was the living personification of it, a mini Sirius with Cordelia's eyes, who loved animals, and Quidditch, and had the world's biggest heart. "I've missed you."
"How is she?" Sirius asked, almost numb in the way he spoke. "She doesn't know?"
"I've kept my promise. I brought her home for a few days, after what you pulled at Hogwarts," Cordelia replied, brushing a thumb against the scruff of his cheeks. "Remus left a half hour ago. He's finally a professor, just like he always talked about."
Sirius tried to smile, folding his lips over his teeth to hide the decay. "Your chest sounds nasty, love. Come inside, I'll clean you up and get you out of here before the staff and Jules wake up."
He seemed reluctant, but followed her inside. He'd never been inside the manor the two of them had built, for it had been finished in the December following his imprisonment. Still, he knew the place like the back of his hand, as he followed Cordelia into what was supposed to be their room.
Cordelia turned on the water, and filled up the tub, glancing at Sirius, who simply stared. She carefully helped him out of the prison issued uniform, cringing at the tattoos stamped into him to signify his imprisonment. The harsh numbers and glyphs had no place next to the lilies that grew on his collarbone, nor the name of his daughter and girlfriend on his arm. The glasses tattooed for James, and the snitch he'd gotten after Marlene, the small S for Stevie, the names of the Marauders, a moon for Remus, and Cordelia's name on his wrist so he could always look at it whenever he missed her.
His ribs stick out of his skin. Sirius had always been slim, but all fat and muscle had evaporated to leave behind a pile of pearl bone and translucent skin. He was covered in so much filth that the water darkened the moment he slipped in. Carefully, she lathered shampoo into his hair, and followed it with conditioner, helping him clean the spot on his back he couldn't reach, and handing him a fresh towel to wrap around himself. She washed and dried his prison uniform, which he insisted on wearing once more, and helped him trim his hair. He looked more like the Sirius she knew at that moment.
"Come," she whispered, as she sat on the edge of her bed with her kit of healer supplies. "I don't like the sound of that chest."
She had him drink some tonic and left him curled up in her sheets while she dashed down to the kitchens to grab something for him to eat. There was leftover shepherd's pie, and roast potatoes, which she piled onto a plate for him, along with tea for them both. He stared blankly when she entered the room.
The Sirius she knew always ate prim and proper, from years spent growing up in a strict family where etiquette was pushed down his throat, and to watch him eat with his fingers as if he didn't know when his next meal would be, was heartbreaking. She sipped at her scalding tea, and they sit in silence. The plate refilled multiple times, and he seemed much better by the time he was full. "Can I see her?"
"She's asleep," Cordelia whispered. "I do think I need to tell her soon," she mumbled, clearing away the dishes.
Sirius nodded. "Just make sure she doesn't tell anyone," he said, as they set off down the hallway. There was a sign taped to the door, Juliet's Humble Abode, Please Knock Before Entry, causing him to chuckle. He was near tears when he finally saw her, asleep, and curled up on her side, with her cat in the crook of her elbow.
She reminded him of Regulus in her looks. The Black family bone structure, and dark waves was all Sirius, even if she had Cordelia's eyes and nose. Carefully, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, before backing away, in fear that he had awoken her.
"I need to leave," he whispered, with sad eyes. "I love you, you're my girls, and me being here is dangerous for you both."
"I'm going to tell her, Sirius," Cordelia whispered. "She needs to know."
Sirius nodded, pressing a finger to his lips and backing out the door. He shrunk back into the starved looking dog, and disappeared out the back garden, leaving Cordelia to curl up in the empty space next to their daughter, holding her close, salty tears drying in her dark curls.
All she had was their love in her hands, the tangible, human form of it, even if Juliet was completely clueless about her heritage.
( AUTHOR'S NOTE )
i hope you loved this chapter!
and yes, ik, cordelia does know that
sirius is innocent, but she hasn't told
jules yet, just to protect her!