[She curls up next to him, her legs crossed, and holds onto her slate for a second. The problem with fake relationships is that while she might not feel sexually attracted to Sirius (or anyone) she still can develop attachments, and now she's attached. He's nice to her. He makes her feel good. Safe.
She doesn't get a lot of that around here without Castiel.]
I don't understand why anyone would think that was funny.
He's cruel sometimes. He just doesn't think, he-- I don't know why, he just doesn't. He doesn't think about why it would be awful, he just does things, and he only realizes later.
[She decides, there, that whatever this is, she'll be as candid as possible. It's easy not to be, when every word you express has to be written down on a slate the size of an iPad, but she looks around for a piece of paper and a pen, and writes for what seems like a long time.
And then she hands it to Remus.]
I'm not always very good with dealing with scary things. I'm not very brave, and the other day I got really scared - it was hard to be sad when I'm so afraid, but I thought, I thought well, it would be okay, if I got so scared I couldn't think I could just go to Sirius and he would help, right?
Because even if I don't want to be clingy I am. I don't have anyone here from home, none of my friends or my brother or even my dog and people have been kind to me but sometimes you just want to know that you can hide with someone and they'll hold onto you even though you feel small and weak and terrified. I didn't know it was just a joke. I thought it was something awful.
I didn't know he would come back
Where I'm from when you die you're dead and that's it
and I was scared and it was just a joke, and yesterday I saw Sirius and I made him a frittata and I didn't tell him how scared I was because I thought that I needed to be brave but now I'm just upset.
[She hasn't slept in 45 hours and she just leans her head down so it's on her knees.]
[He reaches for her, throwing an arm around her, hugging her tightly. He's not good at affection, not really, but she looks so lost and lonely.]
They don't . . . they don't come back either, where we're from. I only knew because Sirius told me, and even then, I thought it was shit.
[A beat. He sighs and rubs his face tiredly.]
Our friends-- our friend James, he . . . he dies, in the future. He gets killed perhaps seven years from where I'm from, and it's-- well. It's not Sirius' fault, at all, it's . . . it's someone else's fault, but he still shoulders the blame. And he's so terrified of losing James, of even the thought of losing James, that he's been going half-mad for weeks. That's what was wrong with him-- remember, you asked me? That's what he was so worried about.
[He exhales harshly and glances over at her.]
I think this was his way of trying to blow off steam. I'm not saying it was a good way. And I'm sorry you were so scared. If you told him, he would have comforted you, but I appreciate it's not always easy to say what you feel. God knows I never do.
I just unloaded on you, I don't think you have anything to be sorry for.
[She heard that Remus likes chocolate, and back when she was stalking Isaac for the same position that Sirius has now (the Isaac before he left, and came back, and forgot her) he gave her a bunch of Reese's peanut butter cup minis, half of which she's eaten, and half of which she stowed away. There are only six left now, but she opens her nightstand, leaning over to do it, and pulls them out, putting three in Remus' hand.]
[Not that Seraphim can make candy. But she's a math genius, Remus is a wizard, and someone on board must know how to make candy. They just need that last puzzle piece.]
[He shakes his head and gestures at the door with his wand.]
Locked. So it doesn't matter. But I'd say . . . oh, I don't know. An hour. Perhaps three. He'll go to James, and depending on what James says-- and I don't think he'll be too happy, to be honest-- he'll either sulk for a while and then try to apologize, or just come and do it directly.
We, ah . . . the way it works in our world is that all witches and wizards are on their own for the first eleven years. I mean, we live with our families, but we have no formal education. It's up to the parents to teach things like math, reading, writing, et cetera. But when we're eleven, we're sent to Hogwarts.
So there I was, sitting in a compartment, all alone and terrified. I wasn't technically allowed to be at school as a werewolf, and so I'd already decided I'd try to stick to myself and not get much attention, and that way I'd be safest.
[He smiles at the floor rather fondly.]
But then these two idiots came barging in and sat down. I'm James, one said, and the other grabbed my hand in an enthusiastic handshake. What house are you going to be in? I said I didn't know.
We're for Gryffindor, they said, and I nodded and said I'd rather like that as well. Sirius offered me a chocolate frog, and that was that.
[She just looks away for a moment, and then back at Remus, and she finally actually sees the scars on his face, and then there's that moment where the music in her head - the voice of God - shifts, and she can hear him. It's not altogether comfortable to be able to do that. To hear someone's place in creation.
She takes measure of the notes.]
He's good at finding people in need, and helping them out, isn't he? I was crying, by myself, because I had a fight with someone, and he sent a little paper mouse to cheer me up.
The problem with Sirius is that while he's incredibly cruel at times, he can also be incredibly thoughtful. My transformations . . . when I was a child, my mother used to risk being bit by me, being killed by me, because she couldn't stand hearing me scream and not being able to do anything about it. The pain is . . . it doesn't last, but I usually have to stay in bed for the next two days, because it's so exhausting.
When they figured out what I was, when I was thirteen, I really did think I was done for. Werewolves are pariahs in our society; I figured they'd either beat me or out my secret-- or perhaps both. But what they did . . .
[He smiles vaguely, remembering.]
Every person has an animal they're intricately associated with. Mine is, of course, a wolf, but it can be anything-- something that represents you at your core, what you truly are. James is a stag, something noble and wise, and Peter is a rat, small and furtive and clever-- and Sirius is a dog, loyal and brave and, at his core, loving. He wants to make everyone laugh, and be happy, and in that quest he doesn't think. But anyway-- there's a spell in our world that lets us become that animal at will. It's incredibly difficult, and if it goes wrong, it goes quite badly; there are hundreds who end up in the hospital every year because they do it wrong.
But when they found out what I was . . . they spent the next two years working on that spell, desperate to make it. Animals are safe from werewolves, you see; the wolf doesn't care about animal flesh. Only human.
[He smiles sadly.]
They transform with me every month without fail, and keep me in check. The pain is marginally less, and Moony is so much calmer with them.
And Sirius-- he's the one who sticks by me most, who endures the most injuries when Moony gets upset; he's the one who finds me clothes at dawn and carries me back to the school.
[A tremendous part of her cries out at that. At the idea of pain so bad that it exhausts you, of a transformation so terrible it does all those things to you. It's something so private, so personal, and now Seraphim knows, now she knows, and she's kept so much of herself locked away.
And then things click together.]
He was your dog. The one I met. That's why you got upset when he put his head up my skirt.
Ye-es, probably a good idea. But yes, he is quite loyal, and kind, and all that rot.
[He wrinkles his nose.]
He's not going to be too happy you know about Padfoot, though. It's sort of a secret. I mean, we don't tell anyone at home, because it's illegal, but-- I don't know. He tells some people here.
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