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The Veil | ||||||
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Category: Post-OotP, Holidays Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: Drama Warnings: Death Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 113 Summary: In the fall of 1996 Harry finds a book about the ancient holidays just before Samhain, or what has become Hallowe'en. Tradition says communication with the dead is possible. Harry enlists Ginny to help him find out if its true. Hitcount: Story Total: 59181; Chapter Total: 2532 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: I know I said the spell would be in the next chapter, but Remus was talkative and wanted his story told. Enjoy, I promise the spell will be in the next chapter. MNF |
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Chapter 6: Reunions, Part 1 October 30, 1996 Remus sat alone in his room at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. He’d taken over Regulus’ room when the Order came to the house two years ago, so he’d be close to Sirius and help his best friend deal with his ordeal from Azkaban. Sirius always charmed his room, so no wizard or witch heard his cries of anguish or his screams of re-lived terror. Unfortunately, the werewolf’s enhanced hearing only muted the distressing sounds. Tonight, he was missing his friend deeply; all his closest friends and his true love. It was like this every year as the anniversary of that fateful day approached. This year it was made worse by its proximity to the full moon, only four days past. Without his friends to occupy the long hours of the night, Remus turned his wolf’s nature upon himself; gnawing at his own flesh, uprooting his hair, throwing his body against anything solid enough to create pain which kept his mind focused on not hurting someone. He’d not found work since leaving Hogwarts and doing things for the Order didn’t pay. He’d never ask someone else to pay for his medicine. He was thankful for the roof over his head and Molly’s sending him food on a regular basis, it was much more than he’d been used to. Having a bed to lounge in, especially one as comfortable as Regulus’ former one, was a luxury too. For Remus, life just felt unbearably long. He needed to defeat Voldemort for James, Lily, and Sirius; after that, he suspected he’d not stay alive for long. Harry was close to adulthood now, he would no longer need a teacher. A knock at the door surprised him, as no one else was planning to be in the house tonight. He hoped it wasn’t Tonks. While he enjoyed her company, Remus couldn’t explain his heart wasn’t free to give any more; Eva still held onto it even if he were to never know what happened to her. A second knock, more persistent this time, forced him from his bed. He opened the door. Then the werewolf passed out. “I told you we should have done something other than just drop in,” Lily chided James as she dropped to her knees and pulled her wand to check on him. After a second pass-over, she gave her husband directions. “He’s just fainted from fright. Pick him up and put him on the bed.” James did as he was told while she looked around. “My, Reg certainly was proud of his house, wasn’t he?” The black and green striped wallpaper and Slytherin banners were unsettling to Lily. Her last year at Hogwarts had been brutal at times due to members of Regulus’ house. He, of course, was already gone to join Voldemort. She saw the frame of the wrought iron bed and felt sick — they weren’t normal metal posts, but instead intertwined snakes creating a patchwork for the headboard, footboard, and side-rails. “I’m quite certain the decorations pre-date Reg. If my memory serves me right, the whole house is this way,” James said. “Once Moony wakes up, I’ll show you the unique things Sirius and I did to his room. I’m sure his parents were thrilled.” “You two,” Lily scoffed just as Remus started to come around. She sat down on the bed next to him and took his hand. “There, there, Remus. Yes, it’s us, and we have a story to tell you.” “Come on, Moony. That’s it chap, open your eyes, or I’m going to put cayenne in your morning tea again.” Lily gave her husband a frustrated glance and a slight groan of frustration before she went back to enticing their friend awake. “Remus, hon, come on, it really is us, James and Lily. We have so much to tell you.” Slowly Remus began to awaken. First, he heard Lily’s soft voice, biding him back to reality like she did when he awoke in the shack while they were at school, or in the sitting room at Potter Manor after they’d left Hogwarts. Her voice was so lilting that he often thought of chimes when he listened to her. Anwen’s was different, even when she was talking it sounded like music and his Eva’s voice, well, he heard the crashing waves and whistling noises of he sea. The tones which caused other men to crash their boats upon the shore were the ones which beckoned him home; to her side. Should he ever get the chance to find her…he stopped the thought. There was no way he’d ever find her. He concentrated on the memory of Lily calling him, the man named Remus Lupin, back from the murk of the wolf’s mind. Then the dream became all too real as he heard James flippantly remark about a prank he’d played on his tea once. “Wait,” Remus thought, “that happened on the day they’d died. No one knew about it but the two of us.” “Remus, Moony, come on man, we’ve only a few hours before Harry is going to do the summoning spell, and we need to explain it all to you,” James said again. “And by the way, you look really old.” The older man’s eyes popped open, and he again saw the pair who had greeted him at his bedroom door. The two of them looking exactly as they had the night they’d died; right down to Lily’s purple and white stockings and black dress. “Am I dead?” he asked. “No,” Lily said softly, “and as it turns out, neither are we.” “How? Why? Where? Harry?” Remus blurted words, ideas, unable to make them connect fully. “That’s the best hello you can do for your dearly departed mate and his wife?” James asked, and the older one sprung from his bed and grabbed his friend in the most forceful barrel hug he’d ever given. Remus Lupin had never been so happy to see someone as he was to see James Potter. His friend was still young, healthy, and as handsome as he ever was. Pulling back to look at him again, Remus couldn’t control the tears which began to flow. “Are you alive?” his beleaguered voice asked. “We are,” James responded. “It’s only through the magic of the god and goddess. We have so much to tell you.” Lily had stood off to the side while the friends reacquainted themselves, but she’d stood on the periphery long enough. “Please, let me hug him too,” she begged. James released his friend and then lent a comforting hand to Lily’s back as she threw herself into her old friend’s arms. “Oh, how I have missed you.” That was the last word said for long moments, as tears and embraces spoke the volumes words fell short of. When at last they had all calmed enough to talk, Remus suggested they head down to the kitchen and have some tea and biscuits Molly had delivered earlier in the day. “No one can know about us yet, just you. Then tomorrow Harry and Ginny. From there only a few select folks can know we’ve returned, at least until we’ve defeated Voldemort,” James explained. Remus nodded. “Perhaps it would be better to speak in here, or does Sirius’ room still have that table by the window?” “The hippogriff broke it last year, but I think between the three of us we can put it to rights. I’ll go arrange the tray and then we can fix the seating?” Remus beamed as he spoke. “That sounds like a perfect plan,” Lily said before giving his scruffy cheek a kiss. Remus left, and Lily looked to her husband. “Did he say hippogriff? Why did Sirius have a hippogriff in his room?” TV TV TV TV TV Hogwarts Castle “Everything is just as it should be,” Ginny said, looking at the table before them. Most of the meal they would leave out was present, they’d grab a few other things from breakfast which could spoil between now and then, like Pumpkin Juice and milk. The candles were carefully wrapped in Harry’s outgrown robes, so they didn’t touch or accidentally get broken. The herbs and other potion ingredients were each in their own crockery, carefully marked and a small glass jar held the pink flames. “Those flames of Anwen’s are really cool.” “It’s not Ahn-when,” Harry corrected, “it’s Ahn-oo-en, I asked Remus about her. The w sounds like a little whistle through your front teeth.” “Well, regardless of how you pronounce it, I would have loved to have known her. I might be able to sell this spell to the twins.” “I don’t know,” Harry said as he rubbed his hands on his jeans nervously. “It isn’t really ours to sell.” “You’re right,” Ginny said, reaching over, and picking up one of Harry’s hands. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this.” “I guess.” “Do you have your pictures and stories altogether?” “Yes,” Harry said more brightly. “Remus found this box in some stuff from the house he shared with Anwen and Sirius. Apparently, Sirius made it for her to keep some mementos of her family in.” “Is he coming tomorrow night?” “I don’t think so,” Harry replied. “He’ll be out on patrol. He was talking about going to live with the pack again, but I just don’t think it will work. He said they mocked him for smelling too human. I don’t even want to know what that means.” “Ick,” Ginny added. “I’m really proud of you for doing this, Harry. Most modern witches and wizards could care less about the old ways, the good old ways, not the stupid stuff Voldemort and his ilk spout off. This was once a powerful religion which stood among the great faiths of the U.K. Now it’s a punchline or a historical subject.” “I didn’t have the chance to learn before,” Harry stated. “The Dursley’s aren’t religious; they only went to church on Easter and Christmas, and that was so Uncle Vernon could look good. They never took me along, and I wondered how my parents would have celebrated. Sirius taught me a little about the magical holidays, but then he fell through…” he stopped, willing himself not to cry. “Do you think he’ll come tomorrow? Remus was unclear about how the spell worked. He isn’t religious either.” “I asked Mum in a letter, but she isn’t sure. If Sirius had been killed before he fell, then she was sure he’d come; but since he just fell, she’s not sure.” “I hope he’s here, or at least with Mum and Dad. That would make him happy.” A comfortable silence fell between them, and Ginny scooted closer, so she could lay her head on Harry’s shoulder, still holding his hand tightly between hers. “How are things with Dean?” Harry finally asked after their comfortable silence gave him enough courage to question her. “I broke them off,” she said softly. “He was so overbearing, wanting to tell me what to do and who to hang out with. Plus, he kept asking all these strange questions, like did I know where you went when you disappeared, and he couldn’t find you.” “You mean like now?” a small smile graced his lips and Ginny returned it, even though her head remained on his shoulder. She just knew that his lips had curled, the same way she knew when he needed a cuppa to boost his energy or give him a break from his work. “Yes, just like now. Dean rooms with you and has nearly all his classes with you, isn’t that enough time together?” “I sure think so.” Time slowed again and wove its cords around the pair, neither moving or speaking. Harry heard the bell chime, announcing the end of the day and reminding the students they needed to be in their houses. “I guess we need to go get some sleep or at least rest. I’ll meet you in the common room at seven tomorrow morning?” “Absolutely. Breakfast and then we come here and cast your spell.” The pair left the Room of Requirement, walking a bit closer together than they had before. |
| Reviews 113 |
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