"Finished feeding Buckbeak, I see," Lupin noted.
"What this?" Sirius raised the bag. "Nah. I thought I'd pop out and buy you a little something meaty to chew on next week."
...
"Ah-ha-ha," Lupin rolled his eyes and shook his head, but looked rather amused all the same. Sirius might make light of the fact that Lupin was a werewolf and that the full moon was not far away once again, but a long friendship with the man told Lupin he knew exactly how serious it really was. Lupin rather enjoyed the jokes. Even though he knew Sirius fully accepted him for who he was, the jokes helped to validate this acceptance. He didn't miss Mrs. Weasley's disapproving glance in Sirius' direction, but he decided not to comment. She didn't understand the dynamic of their friendship as well as they did after all.
"Anyway, as I said, I'm proud of him," Sirius nodded towards the paper. "He's standing up for what he knows its right and damning the consequences. You've got to admit that that takes guts."
"Indeed it does, but unfortunately guts are not what we need from Harry right now," Lupin pointed out. "What we need from him is patience."
"I get the feeling that that's not his strongest suit," Sirius murmured as he sat down and put his feet up on the table. "It's not mine either for that matter."
"Oh believe me, Sirius, we all know that here," Lupin snorted.
"I just hope he doesn't dig himself in too much deeper," Mrs. Weasley worried aloud. "Even if they don't go as radical as framing Harry for attempting to become a Dark Lord, how long before someone invents an excuse to cart him off to Azkaban or something. He won't survive a week in there."
"Well, speaking as someone who was in there for a good thirteen years and emerged with his sanity relatively intact, I'd say Harry would be alright. He's tough, that kid," Sirius acknowledged. "Shares that trait with his father. And his mother, come to that. All the same, I'm sure he'd have to do something pretty stupid for the Ministry to try something like that."
"Doesn't it worry you, Sirius?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "What the Ministry might be capable of doing to him?"
"Does it worry me? Of course it bloody worries me," Sirius sniffed. "But I have faith that Harry will be fine. If he starts acting too bone-headed I'm sure that Ron and Hermione will get him back onto the right course. Hermione's ludicrously bright for her age and Ron's got a good head on his shoulders. They'll steer him right, no question."
"I hope so," Lupin mused. "That boy can be awfully stubborn. Another trait he shares with his father. And mother."
"And me," Sirius grinned.
"And you," Lupin nodded with a smile.
It was at this moment that the fireplace suddenly flared to life with bright green flames and another redheaded figure stepped out of the flames. It was Bill Weasley, and he grinned at all and sundry as he shrugged off his outer robes and said, "Hey Mum, Sirius, Remus. Any chance I haven't missed dinner? I could use a good meal after all that hassle at Gringotts toDAGH…"
He was cut off from saying anything else when the fire flared again and another person stumbled out of it, colliding with Bill's back and sending them both sprawling into a heap on the ground.
"Ah, crap!" muttered the new arrival. "I hate travelling by Floo Powder I really do."
"Afternoon Dora," Sirius greeted his cousin as she and Bill struggled to disentangle themselves.
"Hoi! I've asked you not to call me that how many times now?" Nymphadora Tonks looked up with a scathing expression. "Would you please just call me Tonks, Sirius?"
"But your parents - my aunt and uncle, are called Tonks too," Sirius snickered. "I can't just call you that. Besides, Dora's much better than Nymphadora isn't it?"
"Yeah, but its not brilliant," Tonks murmured.
"I could always try Nymphie."
"Oh like hell you will."
"Uh… Tonks, as much fun as this is, do you think you can get off me now?" Bill grinned up from where she was straddling him.
Tonks swatted him, knowing he was only teasing, but clambered off him and almost tripped over a table leg, shaking her brown hair and screwing up her face, using her Metamorphmagus abilities to shift it back to her favourite shade of bubblegum pink, which was apparently too unprofessional for the workplace. Then she clapped her hands together and grinned, "So, what's for dinner?"
"There's quite a bit of Shepherd's Pie left over," Mrs. Weasley replied. "You can help yourself but… aren't we waiting on Kingsley? I thought that he was coming over with you tonight."
"Oh yeah, I'm meant to tell you, there's been a bit of a change of plans," Tonks snapped her fingers as she sat down and pulled over a decent potion of the leftover pie, whipping out her wand to perform a quick Reheating Charm on it. "Kingsley can't make it today. Something came up. Official Auror business."
"Care to give us the details or do we have to pull them out of you?" Bill asked, moving to wash his hands before he dug in himself.
"Well… did you hear about those weird shooting star thingies that they were yapping on about at on the Wizarding Wireless earlier today?" Tonks asked.
"Oh yes, I overheard something about odd looking meteors," Mrs. Weasley hummed. "I thought it was rather unusual but I'm not sure how they could be a cause for concern."
"Well… apparently one of them's been found," Tonks explained with a mouthful of pie.
"Found?" Lupin asked, leaning in with interest. "So they really did hit the ground?"
"Well, at least one of them did," Tonk replied. "This one in particular landed somewhere in a farmer's field not far from the city of Derby. But get this - if the things I've heard about it are true, it's sure as heck not a meteor."
"Then what is it?" Bill asked.
"We're not sure. But I heard it was like some kind of… glowing golden orb just sitting in the middle of the field like some kind of giant egg. About three metres tall and five metres wide according to the reports. But they're not sure what it is so Kingsley and a team of Aurors were dispatched over there with some members of the Department of Mysteries to help analyse it, see if it was dangerous or not. But really we don't know anything about it."
"How peculiar," Lupin pursed his lips slightly. "I don't believe I've ever heard of anything like that."
"Certainly is weird," Sirius agreed. "Does Kingsley think it really could be dangerous?"
"I dunno," Tonks shrugged. "That's pretty much all I know. Except… there was also something about the orb being kinda see-through. Just, like its really translucent. And apparently they think they can see something inside, but they don't know what it could be."
"That does sound troubling," Bill murmured. "Do you think this could be a move by You-Know-Who?"
"I rather doubt it," Sirius scratched his knee absent-mindedly. "Why would he do something so big and flashy when practically the entire Wizarding World refuses to believe he even exists right now. He's got the Ministry in just the position he wants them in right now, blind to his actions. He wouldn't risk exposing himself with something like this, would he?"
"I suppose it depends on what exactly we're dealing with here," Lupin stated. "We should probably relay this to Dumbledore. Find out what he thinks on the matter."
"Yeah, I agree," Tonks nodded. "And also, Bill, Kingsley did want me to let you know you might be called out there at some point. Said they might want a curse breaker on hand to try and figure out what's going on if the Department of Mysteries comes up stuck."
"I'll keep an eye out for the summons," Bill nodded in thanks.
"Still, this is a rather interesting turn of events," Sirius chuckled. "Wonder if the sky is going to throw anything else at us."
...
"Not much here, is there?" Wendy looked around after a good half an hour of walking. The sun was dipping down close to the horizon by now and once they'd reached land Wendy insisted on walking for a while to give Charla a break from flying. She was carrying the little Exceed in her arms while Lily and Happy hovered overhead, looking around at their new surroundings.
They appeared to have made landfall in a rather mountainous region, rugged cliffs stretching high above the seas and the hilltops rising even higher. Everything about the land was uneven, with jagged stones cropping out all over the place so Wendy was having to watch where she put her feet at practically all times lest she trip on something.
Mavis stood on an outcropping several metres higher with a grimace over her face. "I believe that we may be on another island," she said. "A rather larger island than Tenroujima but an island nonetheless."
"So we haven't found the mainland yet?" Happy asked, his ears drooping slightly.
"Seems not," Lily shook his head. "But perhaps its not far away. And there may still be something on this island that could help us. We should try searching for a settlement or something. See if we can find a map and someone to tell us how to read it."
"It doesn't seem like there's a town anywhere nearby though," Wendy murmured.
"True, but that doesn't necessarily mean that nobody lives close by. Some people do like to live in an isolated place after all."
"Yeah, like Porlyusica," Happy nodded. "She lives far out in the East Forest because she hates humans, but until you came along Wendy, she was Fairy Tail's best healer."
Wendy blushed and murmured, "Well, can we really say that I'm the better healer out of the two of us? Just because I can heal wounds and sicknesses with my Sky Magic doesn't make me better. She could know things that I don't. Maybe I should meet up with her if we ever get back. I bet she could teach me some new things."
"Good luck with that," Happy snickered. "She usually chases people away with a broom."
"…She sounds scary…" Wendy murmured.
"She is," Happy grinned unhelpfully.
"Anyway, to get back to the point," Charla coughed. "We should get about trying to find someone who lives close by, right?"
"Let's just hope that if this is an island there's at least someone on it," Lily agreed, rising higher to get the lay of the land a little more. "Maybe I can go on ahead, do a bit of scouting. I…" he stopped, and froze in the air, his eyes widening as something down on the ground below caught his eye.
And made his heart quicken.
...
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