C. M. Black: Blood of a Dog
Chapter XVIII: This is not good-bye
The sun was shining through the leaves, creating small spots of light in the ground in the sheltered clearing. Standing tall was Remus Lupin, looking unabashed at the two who had just joined him. At his feet was a large, scruffy dog, his tail unusually still compared to the many times he had had visitors before. The dogs grey eyes brightened and his form shifted, changing into the still unfamiliar form of Sirius Black.
Harry grinned, but Cassy remained curiously passive. Not even a flicker of joy lit in her eyes, not that it mattered, for Sirius was looking at Harry with his own warm expression.
'I did wonder if you two would be able to wake up at all this morning,' said Lupin lightly.
'Well, Cassy...' said Harry. He smiled when Cassy narrowed her eyes.
'Well, first things first,' said Lupin. He waved an arm closer to them, fluttering the Invisibility Cloak that hung over his arm. Harry took it back. 'Don't lose it. I remember the panic your father had if it was ever misplaced, he got it from his father too, much to his mother's reprimand.'
'She didn't really mind. In fact, she was worse than his dad for encouraging us during the summer. James got a lot of his traits from her, I reckon,' said Sirius fondly.
Harry's eyes softened.
'And, I believe this is best placed with you two,' said Lupin, delving into his pockets. He pulled out the familiar tattered Marauder's Map that he must have taken off Sirius sometime earlier. It was given to Cassy, who was quite relieved that she had indeed not written her Astronomy notes all over it.
'You know,' Sirius said gently, as if unsure he should be speaking at all, 'if this hadn't happened the way it did, you would have been given to me. Your parents made me your Godfather.'
'I know,' said Harry.
'If I was to walk away a free man yesterday I would have asked you to live with me. I mean... I understand if you wouldn't want to, of course, but I would -'
'I would have loved to,' said Harry, beaming. 'The Dursley's aren't much of a family.'
Sirius smiled widely back at him, taking ten years off his dirty face. He then looked to Cassy for a moment, before his eyes flicked back to Harry briefly once more. 'Thank-you both... for helping even though you could have easily ran to the castle. I'm sorry for all the hassle I caused this year.'
Cassy did not say anything at all, but here eyebrows had dipped slightly, her face tensed the tiniest bit. While staring at her father intently, she saw Lupin looking at her. He clapped his hands together.
'They'll start combing the forest sometime today, I expect. As much as Fudge said there is nothing he can do, I don't expect him to actually do so,' he said.
'I searched all night for Peter, he won't find him if I couldn't,' said Sirius gruffly.
'Perhaps not, but I can't imagine him giving up the chance to.'
'It won't make headlines then? Maybe I'll be moved from the front page soon too. What a pity, I was quite used to seeing my face everywhere I turned. Kept me grounded,' said Sirius, raising his eyebrows.
Harry and Remus laughed; the edges of Cassy's mouth turned up and she looked to the side. Nothing about the situation felt right to her. It was as though she was watching someone else's grand reveal, she was watching the lives of a loner, an innocent man, and an orphaned boy meld into what they should have been; it was like reading the end of a book with none of the distance.
She realised she was frowning as she turned at the sound of her name. It rung oddly in her ears and it took a moment to realise it was Sirius that had called her. He regarded her for a moment before smiling.
'You really are incredibly bright, but then you always were a very curious child.' He let out a small laugh. 'You get that from me, you know, only I chose not to do anything with my brain but cause trouble.'
'From what I've heard she does that too, taking Harry down with her,' laughed Lupin.
'Hardly!' Cassy exclaimed quickly. 'I have to get him out of whatever trouble he has caused.'
'You got yourself into enough trouble last year. That had nothing to do with me at all,' insisted Harry with a pointed look he tried hard to to ruin with the smile that threatened to break across his lips.
'You really want to get into that right now?' said Cassy in fake seriousness.
Sirius and Lupin laughed at them and Cassy felt herself flush, suddenly aware at having forgotten the company she currently kept. She ducked her head suddenly, feeling very much like a child in her grandmother's company in a way she had not in years.
'Harry, you live with Lily's sister, don't you? Do they still hate magic?' asked Sirius.
'Oh, yeah,' said Harry brightly. 'They loath me entirely.'
Sirius raised his eyebrows and grinned. 'Well, you just let them know about me and they'll soon ease up on you.' He winked before looking at Cassy. He asked in a slightly more hesitant tone, 'Who do you live with?'
'Alphard,' she said shortly.
'Oh, thank Merlin,' he said with a big sigh. 'I wondered and wondered who would have taken you in. As long as it wasn't my mother, I suppose it would be all right. Alphard was the best I could have hoped for.'
Cassy did not feel it was appropriate to mention she had indeed visited her grandmother on several occasions before her death, although she did answer when Sirius asked if she was still about.
'Oh, no,' she said. 'She's very much dead, as of 1985, I believe.'
'Marvellous,' he said back spiritedly.
'Stop it, you two,' said Lupin.
The conversation did not continue for long. It was likely that people would begin filing out of the Great Hall from breakfast soon, eager to make use of the infrequent Scottish sun and there would be no way people would not notice the two students with their teacher early in the day. Sirius mulled a round for a bit before pulling Harry into a tight hug. When he let go he looked at Cassy, moving his arms out a bit as she stared at him. She made the same motion slowly and Sirius moved in to her her too. They were both very stiff and she patted his back to make him let go when the earthy smell of his prison robes became too much.
Sirius and Lupin's embrace was shorter, but tighter, bidding a confident short good-bye. They spoke as though their time apart would be short, but then again, after twelve years, Cassy could not imagine they would part easily again after finding one another so recently.
'Wait, how are you going to escape? Where are you going anyway?' asked Harry suddenly.
Sirius smiled and said, 'I got here, didn't I? I'll manage to get back out of Britain again, don't worry about that. As for where I'm going... it's probably best you don't know. I'll write though, to both of you.'
With that Sirius turned back into Blackjack and hurried deep into the forbidden forest. It was only seconds after that Lupin took Cassy and Harry by the shoulders and steered them up the hill for breakfast. At half-eight on a Sunday, the hall was still fairly empty. Of course, that excluded Hermione, who seemed to have wandered down extra early that day. She watched them curiously from across the hall, glancing at Lupin as he passed. It was not until Cassy and Harry slid into seats opposite that she raised her eyebrows high into her hairline.
'Where have you two been then?' she asked. 'Has something happened?'
'You could say that,' said Cassy. 'You could also say that I was right and you should all listen to me more.'
Harry smacked her lightly on the arm.
It was more difficult to explain what had happened the night before to their friends than it was to explain the last two years of misadventure. It was not that it was more dangerous, in fact, Neville remarked that it was probably the least dangerous end to a year they had ever had, but it took a little more to convince everyone that what had happened was real and not an elaborate lie concocted by Sirius.
Neville had grinned at Cassy and Harry widely. They must be so relieved, he had said, while Hermione was still trying to wrap her head around any of this had been possible. She had checked the Animagus register earlier that year for her homework and Pettigrew's name was absent. Ginny raised the point that they probably would not have registered, given the reason for their transformations and the group fell into a lengthy discussion. They threw back and forth ideas on where Sirius was going and how anyone would even go about tracking Pettigrew.
The hardest part to swallow was the fact that Ginny had been living with a murderer for a few months short of her entire life. She scrunched up her nose at the realisation Scabbers had slept on Ron's bed with him. Everyone chuckled at the thought of Ron's reaction if they were ever to tell him.
'It's probably rather fortunate that we forgot to mention Hagrid had Scabbers to Ron,' said Hermione. 'Otherwise we might have never known any of this.'
The topic fell out of conversation by the end of the week. It was on each of their minds, but there was nothing left to say. Occasionally, Cassy looked up at the post expecting to see an unfamiliar owl swoop down, but after three days she had shook that all together. It was silly to expect him to write so soon, or write at all, regardless of what he had said. He had left her life as quickly as he had entered it and nothing had changed for it.
Exam results were handed out on the last breakfast. Cassy and Hermione quickly snatched each other's papers from one another and scrutinised their scores closely. Cassy had actually done very well in Muggle Studies, although Hermione had still beaten her, but they had agreed to call that one fair. Cassy had overcome her in potions once more though, while Hermione excelled at Charms by a little bit. They were both mortified when they saw had drew in Ancient Runes. Harry rolled his eyes as the two bickered, stuffing his own results into his pocket, having passed everything. Neville had passed every subject too, although just barely for History of Magic and Potions, but he beamed at his Herbology score.
It was the final dinner of term where Professor Dumbledore made an announcement that caused every heart in the school to sink. There was booing and hissing, all the while Cassy sought out Lupin's eye. When she finally caught it, he looked at her from over the top of his goblet with a nod when she tilted her her head slightly to the side with narrowed eyes.
When she, along with her five friends, reached his office shortly after the meal, he smiled at them over his shoulder; he did not stop packing his scruffy shoes into the tiny suitcase. Instead, he indicated to be passed the faded shirt on Hermione's left.
'Are you really leaving, Sir?' burst Harry.
'Do you have to leave? You're the best teacher we've ever had,' said Neville desperately.
Lupin grinned. 'From what I've heard that's not as much of a compliment as you'd have liked it to be.'
Everyone chuckled slightly, spreading out to inspect his luggage a little more. If he minded, he did not show it, instead he used them to move things to and from him, chatting all the while.
'I have things I need to do,' he said simply.
'But the Headmaster got you this job and it is a good job! You won't... you won't be able to...' Hermione stuttered for a moment.
'I won't be able to get another job easily? No, I don't expect I will, no job I ever have will be as stable, or as well-paying as this for someone with my condition, but some things are more important than that.'
'You're going to find him, aren't you, Professor?' asked Harry firmly.
'I am,' said Lupin with a nod. 'I wouldn't be able to call myself a friend if I didn't try to help him, especially after everything he's been through and tried to do alone. I'd gladly give up everything I have to make up even a little bit of what I owe him.'
'What makes you believe you owe him anything?' asked Cassy quietly.
Lupin turned to look at her curiously. Slowly, he then smiled widely at her, not grinning, but a warm, toothy one that Cassy had never seen him wear before.
'You'll understand the feeling one day,' he said, shutting his final suitcase. 'Oh, and seeing as I am no longer your teacher, I do insist that you all call me Remus, not Professor.'
There was a peculiar tone in Remus' voice that Cassy thought about long after they had left his office that evening. Although she did not say it to her friends, she was fairly certain Remus knew something they did not; it was as if he was certain that they would meet again in the near future, despite how unlikely it was he and Sirius would be returning to the country soon. It sounded absurd. There was surely nothing he could know, but perhaps he did not know, perhaps it was a feeling or a doubt that played in his tone. There was even a moment where Cassy thought it might have been hope that lead him to think he would see them again soon.
She mulled it over briefly on the train home while the conversation had tapered off, but then let it go. Turning to Neville, she flicked a card in his hand and he reshuffled with a small 'ah'.
'Cheater,' grumbled Ginny, peering over her own cards.
'If you want to complain about cheating then I suggest you stop reading Harry's cards in the reflection of his glasses,' said Cassy, smirking.
Ginny made a strange noise from the back of her throat and Harry leant over, bending the tops of her cards down. 'Oh, really? I'm sorry, let's get this back on equal terms.'
'Oy, get off,' she said, grabbing at his hands before aiming a pinch for his side.
Cassy took a moment to lean over to Hermione, who sat beside the window. She mumbled, 'So, the Time-Turner...'
'I've given it back,' said Hermione quietly, careful not to let Ginny or Luna hear. 'You lost your opportunity to use it.'
'Opportunity? You slept with it on. What opportunity did that present?' demanded Cassy.
'And how would you know that if you hadn't looked for it? It's a good job I did or who knows what might have happened,' spluttered Hermione.
Cassy rolled her eyes. 'It would have been fun, something I think you forgot existed this year.'
'Oh, because you were a barrel of laughs. Anyway, I've dropped Divination and Muggle Studies, so I'll have much more time to concentrate next year.'
'I feel like there should have been an aspect of socialising in that sentence.'
Hermione rolled her eyes then. She doubled back on herself, peering out the window curiously. Cassy tilted her head as she also caught sight of the tumbling brown mass. It was a very small owl, about the size of what Cassy's own owl would bring home from his nightly hunts, and attached to its leg was a letter that was too large and sent it rolling when the wind caught it wrong.
'Harry,' said Hermione, 'look at that.'
Harry turned awkwardly from where he was fighting off Ginny's foot, having dropped all the cards across the floor. He stood, slipping in-between Cassy and Hermione, who were nearest to the window, and stuck his arm out, snatching the tiny owl from the air and pulling off the letter. It nipped at his fingers and he let it go. The owl hooted high and loud, it sped around the compartment before settling in-between the cages of Crin and Hedwig, neither of whom appeared to like the development.
Cassy squashed herself between Harry and Luna as the letter was opened.
'Do you think it's from Sirius?' asked Ginny eagerly.
'Read it out loud!' said Hermione, peering over Harry's shoulder as he unfolded the parchment.
He read:
Dear Cassy and Harry,
I hope this reaches you in time, otherwise, pass on my letter to the other, whichever one of you this bird actually gets to. He's a little bit air-headed and very excitable, so I hope this makes it in one piece.
I have reached a safe place to stop for a while, Romulus will be meeting me soon and we'll keep you both updated. I can't tell you exactly where we are, because you never know who might find this, no matter what is believed of me for now. I think the better truth is known for now, at least to some. I have read the Dementors being lifted caused quite a stir because a murderer was still loose. Lucius Malfoy had an excellent piece to say on the matter, actually. I suppose his son is just as caring and giving?
Presumably by now you both have realised that it was I who sent you those gifts for your birthday and Christmases. Crookshanks made the orders for me. I am afraid that I did use your name, Harry, but I billed it to a different account. I put some thought into them, but it is hard to know what kids like these days.
If either of you ever need me, your owls will find me. Send word over anything and I'll respond as soon as I can, although that may take a while. Please don't send this one though. I don't want him back. I thought either of you might know someone in need of an owl.
Blackjack.
'Remus is meeting him before he goes abroad then,' said Luna.
'I did say it was him who sent those gifts,' said Hermione triumphantly, but Harry could not be bothered to answer back to her. He was grinning at the letter.
'So, any one want an owl,' he asked. 'You don't have one, do you Ginny?'
Ginny flushed pink. 'No,' she said.
'Want him then?'
She stared at the little owl above them for a moment before nodding. 'I've never had my own pet before. Ron will be so jealous though, especially since he lost Scabbers this year. What will I say to mum and dad though?'
'We can think of something,' said Cassy.
The train pulled into the station, rolling to a stop in front of the dozens of bodies that lined the platform all ready. From the window Cassy could see Alphard, his hands in his coat pocket and Narcissa by his side. Lucius was missing, but Cassy assumed he was probably sulking from having lost his case against Hagrid. She had seen how devastated Draco had been. Without turning to look at them, she spoke to Harry and Neville, saying she had an idea and that she would write to them later this summer.
'You better write,' said Neville. 'More than last year at least.'
'My post was being checked last year. There was little chance it would make it to you anyway,' she said, lazily swinging her head to him.
'I don't think I can stand another summer with the Dursleys,' sighed Harry.
'I don't know, they might be a bit nicer knowing you have a convicted murderer as a godfather,' said Luna lightly. She pulled her trunk down from the shelf with surprising ease.
Harry grinned, 'Yeah, that's true.'
Cassy laughed as she watched Harry talk to his relatives from a distance. He turned and winked as all colour left their faces.
Done! Thank Merlin it is done. Despite being my favourite film, the year actually isn't very fun to write. That might just be because of how I did it, but I feel like I can do more with next year.
This was just a quick chapter to sum it all up. The next year is called: C. M. Black: Skin of a Dragon – so look out for that. It should be up sometime this month, seeing as I have a few chapters done all ready and I break up for Easter soon.
I hope you enjoyed the year and plan on sticking with me.
Thanks!