Lupin ducked as a small box whizzed by his right ear, and turned to look inquiringly at Sirius.
'What the…?'
Sirius stood looking thoughtful as the last object flew towards him, and he caught it in his hand. 'James and I used to use this tree as a sort of…treasure chest. To keep things that we didn?t want his parents to see. He once told me that this tree has been here for hundreds of years, and generations of Potters have used it as a hiding place. I thought…' his voice trailed off as he knelt down in the grass, and Lupin knelt down with him, to examine the pile that had collected at his feet.
Some of the objects were familiar. Lupin recognized, with a pang, the box of Zonkos Magical Reality Pencils 'Make your sketches come to life!' that had been used to draw the Marauders Map. A stack of letters. He hadn?t seen them before, but he recognized Lilys handwriting. Sirius brushed a hand over those, and set them aside. A bag of Bertie BottsEvery Flavor Beans emblazoned with rainbows. 'Flower Power Flavors!' said the side of the bag. Sirius picked that up and grinned. 'I remember these. You weren?t supposed to eat the purple ones because they were hallucinogenic, of course that was just a rumor…'
'Yes, and you and James tested the rumor by sneaking three of the purple ones into Snapes oatmeal at breakfast. That was the day he nearly drowned in the lake because he thought it was a magical gateway to the Land of the Candy People.'
'Yeah, that was pretty funny,' Sirius grinned. Then quickly sobered.
'No it wasn?t. It was very insensitive of us.'
Lupin looked at him in disbelief. 'Sirius, did you sneak a purple bean while I wasn?t looking?'
Sirius grinned again and threw the beans aside. He picked up a wooden box and flipped back the lid. Lupin looked inside, and felt his heart skip a beat. A yellow-bound book. So You Want To Be A Wolverine: How To Become an Animagus in Twelve Difficult Steps.
Stacks of parchment notecards, written all over in Jamescareful, boyish handwriting. Ingredients We Will Need: powdered snakeskin, dragons blood, shredded boomslang skin, spine of newt…Note: ask Lily for key to Charms classroom so we can work in there…should be almost complete with the process by next full moon…
And Lupin had to shut his eyes because of the clarity of the image of James that flared up like lightning against his inner lids; James standing in the Forbidden Forest, waiting to change, face raised to the night sky, eyes full of wilderness and stars. Time compressed like an accordion, and he heard James laughing — Sirius had always laughed the longest, but James was the one who laughed first; he was, unlike Sirius, always ready to be happy, to be pleased. Lupin had always thought that that was because of the difference between Siriuschildhood and James? but then Harry, Harry with his awful childhood and his years spent locked under the stairs, still managed to be like James in that respect: he did not need much beyond his friends to make him happy. Whereas Draco was more like Sirius, in that it was hard to tell if happy was a word that could ever be appropriately applied to either one of them.
He heard Sirius clear his throat, shut the box, and lay it down at their feet. Lupin glanced around — there was another stack of letters, which, judging from the fact that most of them were decorated with little sparkling hearts and shooting stars and seemed to be from people named Ashley, Carole and Amy, were doubtless from Siriusold girlfriends, and which Sirius hastily pushed aside. There was a stack of old Quidditch cards, including a Ludo Bagman who grinned and winked cheerily, and an Ivan Wronski which doubtless would be worth a sizeable amount of Galleons these days. Sirius set these aside. Lastly, there was a stack of wizard photographs held together with a ribbon that Sirius slid into a pocket. Finally, he sat back on his heels, dusting off his hands, and shook his head.
'Not what you wanted?' asked Lupin, raising his eyebrows.
'No,' said Sirius slowly, 'no, there was this box, James was telling me about. I could have sworn….' He suddenly hopped to his feet, snapping his fingers. 'Of course,' he exclaimed. 'Its buried under the roots. Stand back a second, Moony.'
With misgivings, Lupin did so.
Sirius retrieved his wand from a pocket. 'Accio shovel!' he intoned.
Lupins eyes popped open. 'A shovel? From where, Sirius?'
'Wherevers nearest,' deadpanned Sirius. 'Oh, and duck,' and Lupin ducked as a good-sized shovel whistled over his head and landed in Sirius? grasp. Lupin crossed his arms and watched in mingled exasperation and amusement as Sirius rolled up the sleeves of his robes and attacked the base of the tree with the shovel. He didn ?t even want to think about what the good citizens of Godrics Hollow might think about a flying shovel winging overhead.
Since Sirius? manner discouraged assistance, Lupin sat down on a tree stump and watched as his friend hacked at the very hard ground with the edge of the shovel. Eventually Sirius stripped off his wizarding robes and threw them on the ground, and then his sweater followed. Lupin considered offering a hand, but then thought better of it. Instead, he took a bar of Scrum! Chocolate out of his pocket and began to nibble on it in a resigned fashion. They were obviously going to be there a good long time.
Draco lowered his hand slowly and turned to look at Slytherin.
The Snake Lord stood in the doorway, and Draco could tell by the dark red border of blood at the bottom of his robes that he had not yet changed his clothes. His eyes were alight, feverish, and two spots of color burned high on his cheeks. He looked neither very alive nor any longer did he look dead, but somehow in between, reflexively animate.
Draco heard Fleur get to her feet beside him. The heavy sweet scent that clung about her hair and clothes seemed stronger, maybe from proximity to the fire. It made him a little dizzy.
'Master,' said Fleur, and inclined her head.
Draco didn?t move. Slytherin took a few more steps forward, until he stood in the center of the room. 'Boy,' he said to Draco. 'You won?t greet me?'
'I won?t call you Master,' said Draco evenly.
Slytherin seemed unruffled. 'I would not expect you to.'
Draco narrowed his eyes. 'What would you like me to call you?'
'Soon enough,' said Slytherin, 'you will call me Father.'
