The Love Of A Wizard

By the next afternoon, Sirius was seeming to do much better. Having his master close at hand seemed to make him heal all the faster. Claudia noticed this, and couldn’t help but feel unhappy by the thought that her visitor would be leaving soon.
They enjoyed eating meals and walking around the open land. Emma seemed to be much more interested in Sirius, now that he had a name. She would bring her toys to him and play with them in front of him. She would include him in on her imaginary games and talk to Sirius like an old friend.
While walking after diner with Remus on the second day, Claudia asked him of his life.
“So what do you do while you’re not chasing your dog?” She asked him.
“ I am a teacher.” Remus answered.
“What do you teach?”
“I teach mostly…the basics. I just finished teaching a term in a private school here in England. But I think I will be taking some time off.” His eyes never met hers as they walked. Claudia thought he may not want to talk much about this so she recommended that they go check on Sirius.
Sirius, who was now walking a bit on his own and eating well, was laying on the floor watching Emma play.
“Alright you, it’s time for bed.” Claudia said to Emma. Emma was not ready to go to bed, but stomped her feet as she made her way to her room. Claudia stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes.
“It will only get worse as she gets older.” Remus told her with a little laugh.
“Yes. I know. I am not looking forward to that. I am going upstairs to read her a story and then it’s off to bed with me. Have a good night and goodnight to you Sirius.” She walked over to Sirius and scratched behind his ears. “Goodnight.” Claudia went upstairs.
While she was tucking a very sleepy Emma into bed, she offered a story. But Emma could hardly keep her eyes open, so Claudia kissed her on the forehead , turned of the light and closed the door. While changing into her night clothes, a small t-shirt and sleeper pants, her mind was on the man downstairs. He is handsome, she thought. Pleasantly nice and articulate, but why does he look so…shabby? If he is in fact a teacher, one would think that he would pay more attention to his looks. At this thought she climbed into bed and grabbed her latest novel and settled in. Just as she was getting back into the book, the most annoying thing happened. She put the book down and stared at the wall. Something she forgot to do….but what? All of the doors are secured. The animals have all been fed. What was it? She climbed back out of bed and opened her door. She went to check on Emma first, who was already deeply asleep. She made her way down the darkened staircase and into the kitchen. She stood there and looked around. Then she saw it. The bottle of medication for Sirius, she had not given him his evening medications.
She grabbed the bottle and made her way quietly to the laundry room. Remus was staying in the downstairs guestroom, so she tried to be very quiet. When she reached the door, it was partially open and the light was on. That’s odd. She thought. Why would Remus still be in there? But as she thought this, she heard his voice.
“…isn’t right Sirius.” His voice was hushed and he sounded upset. To her surprise he seemed to answer himself.
“But I feel it would help us. No one can say she hasn’t been helpful.” Her heart was thumping in her chest. She had just let a madman into her home. And this madman was talking to himself about her.
“No…”
“Just do it for me I have no one right now. All I can do is sit and wait for something to happen. I feel like I am going mad!” This last bit was more than she could bare. This man had to leave and leave NOW. She threw open the door and let out a mute scream. There sat Remus on the floor, next to another man! Sirius was nowhere to be seen, but this man was laying on his bed.
Remus rushed to her but she backed away shaking her head. Thoughts of her and her daughter’s murdered bodies filled her head and she began to cry.
“Let me explain…Claudia!” She took off up the stairs and ran to her daughter’s room and closed the door. She stood there panting and crying all at the same time. She had to get out.
A quiet knock sounded on the door. She jumped back and stared at it. Remus’ voice came from the other side.
“Please come out Claudia. I can only imagine what this seems to you. Would you let me explain?” His voice was soft an full of concern.
“Please leave Remus. Or whoever you are.”
“I would Claudia, but Sirius won’t let me.” This was met with silence. His dog won’t let him? What kind of crazy man is this?
“What? Are you….crazy?” This was met by a small laugh and once again her heart leapt at the thought of his smile. She kept reminding herself that he was crazy. Delusional. Very handsome….
“Please Claudia. I promise, you nor Emma will be harmed. We will explain this to you. Normally we wouldn’t bother but you have been kind and generous to both of us.”
“We..?” Her eyebrows raised as she said this.
“Claudia…Let me explain.” He opened the door and stood silhouetted by the light in the hall. He extended his hand to her and in his most wonderful hoarse whisper said, “Please”. She took his hand and he lead her down the stairs to the living room. She sat on the sofa and looked at him. He had a slightly guilty look on his face.
“Well?” She asked him. But his eyes were on the laundry room door that just opened and the other man stepped out. He looked worse than Remus did. His black hair all knotted and dirty obviously hadn’t been washed in a long time. He had a beard that was in just about as bad condition as his head. His clothes were torn and his feet were bare. But his face, on his face was a wonderful smile. His eyes danced and his lips created the most warmest of smiles. All she could do was let out a half laugh half sound of disbelief.
“Claudia Moore, I would like to introduce you to Sirius, Sirius Black.” He gestured towards the other man and then sat down next to Claudia. Who in turn moved away from him, all the while not taking her eyes off of the other man.
“You expect me to believe….you think that…..” Her voice trailed off. She looked back and forth between the two men. Then Remus began to speak to her, his voice was thick and low. The whole time Sirius stared at her and smiled.
“Claudia. Sirius and I are Wizards, magic and what not. Well, Sirius here is called an Animagus, he can turn into the black dog whenever he wants. He was in the dog form when he was hurt, and found himself here.” He had his hands folded and was spending a lot of time looking at them. The man called Sirius was still annoyingly smiling at her with his hands behind his back.
“You are telling me you two are…wizards? Prove it.” Her voice was harder than she wanted it to be, but it got Remus’s attention and he stood up to address Sirius.
“Sirius maybe we should just…”
“No Remus. Let me try.” He walked over to Claudia and crouched down in front of her. He took out of his back pocket a long stick. “Emma told me once, that her mum loves flowers. Your favorite being Tulips. Pink Tulips.” With that he tapped his stick on her knee and out of the end of it grew one single pink Tulip. He plucked it and handed it to her with a bow.
Claudia’s eyes were enormous and she held tightly to the flower he had given her. It was real. She stared at it for a moment and when she raised her eyes to meet theirs. They were standing shoulder to shoulder smiling at her. Remus was the one to speak first.
“Why don’t you go to bed Claudia. We can discuss the this in more detail in the morning, alright?”
“Claudia?” The man named Sirius spoke to her. She turned at the sound of her name. “Can I perhaps sleep in a bed tonight? Not that I mind the care you have given me at all. On the contrary, I am in your debt. But it has been awhile since I slept in a bed.” She saw for the first time, exhaustion and sadness in this man’s eyes. She looked at both of them and then nodded her head.
“There is another bedroom upstairs you may use. It has a shower as well. You might do well to use it.” With those words she walked up stairs, half in a daze to Emma’s room. She crawled into bed with her daughter and tried to fall asleep.
It was almost dawn before she found herself in strange dreams of dogs that turned into Tulips and flashes of the men’s faces swirling around her head. She opened her eyes to the early morning sun rays flowing in through the window. She looked next to her and her daughter still lay sleeping in peace. She thought maybe it was all a dream, perhaps she dreamed all this and she came in here after her bad dream? But at this thought she heard a man’s voce coming from downstairs.
“Breakfast everyone! Toast, bacon and eggs! It’s a feast!” She heard him chuckle to himself and begin to hum a song. She sat up and stared at the door.
“Well, here we go. Let see what kind of madness will happen today.” Emma turned over in her sleep and Claudia decided to let her sleep as late as she wanted. She opened the bedroom door and headed downstairs.
A freshly showered Sirius Black stood in his pants and no shirt before a skillet of bacon. When she entered the kitchen he smiled a dazzling smile and said brightly, “Good Morning Claudia. Want bacon?” She shook her head no and headed for the coffee pot, which she noticed had not been turned on.
“Do you want coffee…Sirius?” She asked him.
“Yes!” He exclaimed brightly. “I do not know how to work muggle contraptions. Can you show me how?” As he spoke he moved right behind her as she showed him where the coffee grinds went and where to put the water.
“Now, we wait.” She said as the coffee pot began to gurgle and create a nice aroma within the kitchen. “Where is Remus?”
“Oh, he is writing a letter letting our friends know that I am alive and well. He should be back soon. Ah…here he is now. Morning Moony. Everything ok?” Remus entered the kitchen and nodded to Sirius. “Good morning Claudia. Sleep well?”
“No. You?” She was pulling coffee cups from the shelf and she thought she saw Sirius flash a smile in her direction. Sirius was loading all three plates with bacon, eggs and toast and putting them on the table. Remus sat down and waited for the other two to sit. Claudia began pouring coffee in mugs and brought them to the table along with sugar and milk. Sirius followed and sat down, as did Claudia.
Sirius spoke first, “Where is Emma? Still sleeping?” Claudia froze and eyed Sirius once more. “Yes, she’s sleeping. I’m just trying to figure out how I can tell her about you and not hurt her feelings that she no longer has a dog to look after.” She went back to eating her food and sat with quiet triumph as the two men stared at each other. She didn’t know why she was so angry about everything she had heard last night. Only that her once quiet life in the country was now quite chaotic.
“I never thought about it Claudia. I’m sorry. We will just have to tell her that Remus took him home or something.”
“Oh no. You are going to turn back into the dog and give her proper goodbye. That’s what you’re going to do.” She stated pointed her fork at him. “You can’t just leave without saying goodbye to her. For some reason she has gotten quite attached to you…or the dog Sirius and it wouldn’t be right to just leave like that. So get ready sparky, you better be a dog by the time she comes down. As a matter of fact, I would like to see this myself.” She stopped talking and sipped her coffee. Quietly applauding herself for being so level headed this morning after the events of last night.
The two men exchanged glances and Sirius let out a laugh that sounded like a bark. “OK boss. The dog it is. But before I change, can you take a look at my wounds and tell me what you think. I feel so much better now.” The motherly side took over Claudia and she reached for Sirius’s shoulder. His skin was pale and soft. Freshly scrubbed soft. Obviously he had taken her remark about the shower to heart. There wasn’t a stitch of dirt on him.
“Looks good to me.” She got up to refill her coffee and heard little footsteps upstairs. “She’s up. She will be down here in a minute.” No sooner had she said it that Sirius seemed to shrink and turned into the big black dog before her very eyes. If at any point she thought they could be lying, she now had no doubts But her exclamation of surprise had to wait. Emma came into the kitchen, hair all a mess and a blanket still tucked under her arm. She headed for her mother and received her daily ration of kisses and waved a little hand to Remus who beamed back at her. She spotted her beloved dog friend now sitting in the kitchenette and headed straight for him. Her tiny little hands scratched his head and she planted a small kiss on his nose. She then took her blanket and draped it around his neck. “Is my doggie feeling better today?” She asked him. In response he licked her face and sent Emma into squeals of laughter.
“What would you like for breakfast Emma?” Claudia asked her. “We made eggs, toast, bacon…” Her voice trailed off and Emma just shrugged her shoulders. She climbed into a chair at the table and began jabbering away to Remus.
Claudia made her plate in silence and brought her food and juice. As she sat down with her fresh cup of coffee, Emma looked up at her mother and spoke. “Mommy? Since Sirius is feeling better now, is he leaving?” Remus and Claudia looked at each other briefly and Remus spoke first.
“Yes darling. I must take Sirius home. But if it is alright with you ,and your mum of course, I will be back. I have a friend who I would like to introduce you to whom I think you will like.” He leaned into Emma as if telling her a secret. “His name is Sirius too. I named my dog after him.” Emma giggled and covered her mouth before her breakfast could paint the table.
“I think I will be gone a day, and if it is alright Claudia, I would like to come back tomorrow with my friend and we can have a proper sit down dinner and discuss matters.” Claudia knew he was promising to come back to explain all of the strange happenings and she felt a rush of friendship for the man sitting at her table. If it were all true, he could very well disappear and never return. But as she looked at him, she knew he wouldn’t do that to her or her daughter.
Claudia smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me.”


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A/N: how yummy is Sirius...hmmmm?