Once in a Blue Moon (COMPLETE)

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Different As Night and Day
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“Why don’t you go and visit with Firenze?” Romulus suggested as Remus sighed with boredom for the dozenth time.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to go out today in case I get spotted?”

“I said you couldn’t go into Hogsmeade,” Romulus reminded him. “The forest should be all right as long as you stay to the paths and don’t detour off of them.” He ended the sentence with a warning in his tone but Remus had no intention of disobeying this time. He’d not seen Firenze in over a week and he needed something to distract himself from the depressing thoughts of Sirius and the other first years arriving at Hogwarts later that day.

Remus ran through the forest paths with an ease that came from familiarity and in almost no time at all he arrived at the centaur camp.

“Good morrow Master Lupin,” Torin, Firenze’s father, and the leader of the centaur herd greeted him.

Remus waved hello, no longer bothering to ask how it was that the centaurs knew who and what he was. It was enough that they accepted him and hadn’t turned him over to the Ministry of Magic. Not that they didn’t have their own problems with that honourable institute, and he knew that might well have influenced their decision to maintain their silence about Remus.

“Where’s Firenze?” Remus asked as he approached Torin.

“Practising his archery in the long clearing,” Torin replied, pointing in the appropriate direction, even though he knew that Remus knew the way as well as any member of the herd. “I’m heading there myself in a moment, if you want to walk with me.”

Remus nodded and waited as Torin picked up several bows and an assortment of arrows, then he followed after him towards the clearing. He didn’t ask Torin whether he could ride him, and Torin didn’t offer. Remus knew enough of the centaurs to know that they were a very proud race of creatures and although Remus had ridden on Firenze a time or two, usually so they could escape punishment for some combined mischief, he knew it was a privilege that was offered only rarely.

They approached the clearing quietly, so as not to distract Firenze who was concentrating intently on the wooden target that was swinging from one of the trees.

The arrow flew from Firenze’s bow and Remus gasped in admiration as it hit the target just an inch or two from the centre. It appeared that he was the only one who was impressed though. Firenze was frowning at the target with displeasure and Remus could see a trace of disappointment in Torin’s face as he observed his son.

“Would you like to practice with Firenze?” Torin asked Remus as he considered first one, then another, of the bows, before finally offering one to him.

“I’ve never held a bow before,” Remus admitted as he took the unfamiliar weapon into his hands.

“And you shouldn’t be holding one now!” a voice spat from behind them.

Remus turned round to see two more of the herd approaching the clearing. One of the two was Ebony, Firenze’s older sister. The other, the one who’d spoken, was Magorian, one of the few centaurs who actually scared Remus.

“I’m leader of the herd,” Torin stated quietly. “If my son’s friend wishes to learn some of our ways, then I shall teach him.”

“He’s a dark creature,” Magorian sneered as Remus shifted from one foot to the other. “Dangerous.”

“Only on the night of the full moon,” Torin replied calmly.

“You’ll bring death and destruction on us all,” warned Magorian, one of his front hooves pawing at the ground with frustration. Torin merely looked at him calmly and eventually Magorian spun round and galloped off into the trees.

Ebony turned to follow after him but was halted by her father’s voice. “I don’t like you hanging around with him,” he admitted. “We must learn to get along with the humans, no matter how badly they treat us. Fighting won’t achieve anything except the death and destruction he fears.”

“Magorian craves your position as leader,” Firenze warned his father. “And many of the herd are eager to let him lead them against the Ministry.”

“Well for the time being, I’m still leader of the herd and I will not be waging a war on the Ministry.”

Ebony nodded dutifully to her father and turned to follow after Magorian.

“You’re worried about her, aren’t you father?” Firenze asked quietly.

“And about you,” Torin admitted. “If it comes to a war within the herd Magorian will try to take the leadership from me, and from you, if I am gone. With the support of your sister, Magorian may be successful. She’s forceful, not like the other mares. I sometimes wonder if maybe she has mixed too much with humans. She talks of equal rights for the mares and if she throws in her support with him and raises the mares too…”

Firenze nodded seriously while Remus felt uncomfortable, as though he was intruding on matters that didn’t concern him.

“You’re barely more than a foal,” Torin sighed. “We’d best both hope I’ll be around for many years to come.”

With that Torin shook his mane of hair at the same time as he seemed to shake off the morose mood that had descended. “Well, young Lupin, are you ready for your first archery lesson?”

Remus felt his uneasiness disappearing at Torin’s encouraging smile and he nodded eagerly.

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Sirius stood on Platform nine and three quarters and looked in trepidation at the throng of people dashing here and there. To his left stood his mother, tall, proud and domineering. To the right was his trunk, along with Damon, looking as vicious and malevolent as ever.

Close by, a young boy was being hugged by his elderly mother. The boy was wearing robes without the insignia of one of the school houses, and Sirius guessed that he was a first year, still to be sorted, not unlike himself.

The boy’s mother tried in vain to flatten his brown hair into a presentable style and Sirius smirked slightly at the annoyed expression on the youngster’s face.

The boy caught him looking and Sirius flushed and turned away to look back towards the train. He was grateful that his mother wasn’t making such a spectacle of herself. Ever the epitome of respectability Walburga Black would never do something as common as show affection for her son in a public place. Sirius looked around the platform again and saw more and more students hugging and kissing their parents as they said their goodbyes. Not all of them were carrying on like the elderly woman nearest to him and Sirius wondered, for one brief moment, whether his own mother would in fact kiss him goodbye.

He turned to look at her but she was paying him no mind and was instead engaged in conversation with her sister-in-law Druella. Sirius groaned inwardly as he realised that that meant that Narcissa was probably lurking around nearby too. He spotted her almost at once, locked at the lip with Lucius Malfoy. He closed his eyes at the sight and turned away. When he opened his eyes again it was to see the messy-haired boy standing close by and about to poke his finger through the bar of Damon’s cage.

“Don’t!” Sirius called out but it was too late.

The boy gave a harsh cry of pain when Damon bit him on the finger.

“James? What is it? What happened?” James’s mother turned from handing his trunk over to the station staff and hurried over to her son.

“The owl bit me,” James replied in a somewhat muffled voice as he currently had his finger in his mouth to stem the bleeding.

“Let me see,” his mother demanded as he pulled out her wand.

“It’s just a cut,” James muttered but he didn’t pull his hand away as his mother cast a healing charm to repair the damaged skin.

“What do you think you’re doing, bringing a vicious thing like that to a school?” James mother snapped and Sirius stepped back involuntarily, right into his own mother.

“Sirius, do be careful,” Walburga said with a sigh of impatience. She didn’t turn round and barely deviated from the flow of her conversation.

“Your son is he?” James’s mother asked.

Walburga turned round at this and glared at the smaller woman. “Ah, Mrs Potter, isn’t it?” she asked with a sneer of contempt.

Sirius had never seen anyone lose the colour in their face as quickly as Mrs Potter.

“Mrs Black, my apologies,” Mrs Potter grovelled, backing away rapidly. “Come away James. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of them.”

Walburga continued to glare at the Potters until they finally turned away. Then she turned back to Druella with a smile.

“That bird is a bit vicious though,” Druella commented with a nod to Damon’s cage.

“Sirius wished to have an owl. It was the finest bird in the shop and you know how I dote on my eldest,” Walburga replied with an airy wave of her hand.

Sirius sighed again, and when it became clear that his mother wasn’t going to assist him, he heaved his trunk towards the train himself.

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Remus’s morning passed in pleasant companionship and he was delighted when he even managed to hit the target, held stationary for him by Torin.

“Will you stay to lunch?” Torin asked as they walked back to the camp.

“Is it that time already?” Remus replied in astonishment. Firenze pointed to the sun, high in the sky above them, and he saw that time had indeed slipped away from him. Sirius would be eating on the train now.

“You’re thinking about that school again, aren’t you?” Firenze commented idly.

“I’d be on the train to the school now, if it weren’t for…”

“Your lycanthropy,” Firenze concluded.

Remus nodded silently.

“You can learn so much without going to Hogwarts,” Firenze reminded him. “Do they teach you archery there?”

Remus shook his head. “I don’t think so. They call it a muggle sport. Hogwarts teaches magical stuff but nothing else.”

“What about the herbs and creatures of the forest?” Firenze asked, waving an arm around him enthusiastically.

“They offer Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.”

“But the centaurs know so much more than wizards,” Firenze stated enthusiastically. “Wizards have barely scratched the surface of all there is to know about this world. They fear the forest; they don’t try to understand either it, or those who live here.”

“It’s not like I don’t enjoy learning what your father teaches us,” Remus assured his friend. “I just want to be at school with other boys my age. I just want to be normal.”

“You can never be normal,” Firenze told him. Remus cringed at the cold hard truth. He knew that Firenze didn’t mean to be so harsh, he was still a teenager, and that, combined with the ways of his people, that had been ingrained since birth, meant that sometimes he said things that were uncomfortable to the young werewolf. It wasn’t as if Remus could deny the truth of the words.

He wished that Firenze could understand him but they were from two different worlds and he knew that no matter how hard he tried to explain, the young centaur could never truly appreciate the position Remus was in.

They were both what the Ministry termed half-breeds but other than that they were as different as night and day.

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“Didn’t Romulus tell you not to come into Hogsmeade today?” Firenze asked as he and Remus crept up to the almost deserted train station. In the distance Remus could see the steam of the Hogwart’s Express, as its long journey from King’s Cross drew to a conclusion.

“We won’t be seen,” Remus assured him. “I just want to watch. There’s no one here yet anyway.”

“Hagrid’s over there,” Firenze pointed out as the Hogwart’s Gamekeeper soothed an edgy thestral waiting to pull the carriages. At least that was what Remus thought the man was doing. Since he couldn’t see the creatures it was a little hard to tell the state of mind of the animal.

Remus ducked down as the Gamekeeper, whose hearing was as sharp as any animal, turned round to look curiously at the bushes where he was hiding.

“It’s just me Hagrid,” Firenze called out as he stepped out into the light of the station, successfully diverting attention from the still hidden Remus. “I thought I’d come see how you were doing. I forgot it was the first day of term.”

“Easy ter lose track,” Hagrid agreed with a smile. Firenze approached him and they talked easily for a few minutes before the train arrived and Firenze bid the Gamekeeper farewell and galloped for the forest.

Remus remained hidden, a little less cautious now that he knew any sound he made would, in all likelihood, be lost amidst the noise of the train full of students.

“Firs’ years! This way!” Hagrid called and Remus watched with a mixed feeling of eagerness and envy as he watched the smallest of the students make their way through the crowd towards Hagrid. Remaining in the bushes he followed with them, curiosity battling with caution as he trailed after the group. They soon reached the dock and Remus settled himself down in the bushes once more to observe.

Remus looked at each of the faces as he wondered which of the boys was Sirius Black. Voices drifted to him on the wind and he strained to make out the words.

“We have to go by lake?”

“Wow!”

“Which house do you want to be in?”

“He’ll be in Slytherin.”

Remus looked at the messy-haired boy with glasses who’d sneered the last comment. He was looking towards another boy with a glare and Remus followed his gaze.

The boy who was the object of their attention seemed oblivious to the fact. He was neatly dressed in green and silver robes and his raven coloured hair was tied back at the nape of his neck.

“Sirius?” Remus whispered the question.

He pulled his gaze away from the boy to scan the crowd for anyone else who might already be wearing the Slytherin colours. There were none, most students having no idea which house they were likely to end up in.

“Sirius,” Remus whispered again. This time a grin spread across his face and he felt a certainty in his gut that his guess was correct.

“…his stupid bird bit me at King’s Cross, you know.”

Remus’s grin grew wider. Silver and green robes and a vicious bird. Who else could it possibly be?

Remus watched as the first years climbed into the boats. Many were talking, laughing and joking as they approached the side of the lake. Some stood alone and Remus could see that Sirius was one of those. He seemed to have an air of reserve about him, a quality that made him unapproachable. Remus frowned a little, wondering briefly if he’d made a mistake. Could the haughty looking boy really be the same friendly and mischievous Sirius Black whom he’d been writing to for the past few weeks?

“Who is he?” the messy-haired boy’s companion asked.

Remus drew in a sharp breath as he waited for the reply.

“A Black,” the first boy replied. “Slytherin scum like the rest of that family. Pureblood fanatics and psychos, every last one of them.”

Remus frowned and glared at the two boys. Sirius wasn’t a pureblood fanatic. How dare they judge him before they even knew him!

It took every ounce of self control for Remus to remain hidden in the bushes as he watched Sirius standing quietly on his own. He wondered if Sirius had heard the other boys talking about him and although he suspected that he’d caught every word, he couldn’t help hoping that he hadn’t.

The first years climbed into the boats and Remus wished more than anything, that he could join them. Sirius didn’t seem quite so eager to embark on the final leg of his journey and was instead hovering at the back of the crowd.

Remus wondered later if he’d made some involuntary noise that had attracted the other boy’s attention. All he knew was that one moment Sirius was standing with his back to him, looking out over the lake and ready to climb into the last of the boats, then the next minute he’d turned round and was staring right at him.

Grey eyes, glistening silver in the moonlight, looked back at him with mild surprise and curiosity.

For several long seconds Remus stared back at his friend, longing to step forward into the light, to tell him who he was and to say something, anything. But he knew that he’d already done far too much.

Then Hagrid called out to the stragglers to get into the boats and the moment had passed.

Remus remained hidden as the boats crossed the lake. When the last of them was out of sight he finally turned to make his way home.

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Sirius felt the presence staring at him as he stood on the small dock near the lake. It wasn’t frightening, or even unnerving. It was just there.

He could hear James Potter telling the other students about him and he resolved to ignore the boy. The Potters never got put into Slytherin so it wasn’t like he’d have anything to do with him. James would forget about Damon biting him and they’d be going their separate ways.

Sirius lingered at the back of the crowd as the others climbed into the boats. The presence was still there and before he knew what he was doing he’d spun round to look at the bushes.

Light brown hair, darker in the moonlight, betrayed the presence of the young boy watching from the edge of the circle of light from the lamp on the dock. Beneath the mop of hair, he saw two eyes looking back at him with open curiosity.

A boy? Sirius could tell he was young and felt a start of surprise at the fact. It was late in the evening and there was no sign of the boy’s parents. What was he doing out here on his own?

“Come on now,” Hagrid urged and Sirius turned to climb into the boat.

He looked back only once before his gaze was captured by the vision of Hogwarts School. But even though he didn’t turn back again he still felt the gaze of the young boy in the bushes.

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“You went down to the station, didn’t you?” Romulus asked quietly as soon as Remus had stepped over the threshold.

“I just wanted to see,” Remus replied. “I didn’t speak to any of them.”

“Were you seen?” Romulus asked urgently.

Remus stood still as his brother’s gazed bore into him.

“You were, weren’t you?” Romulus didn’t wait for a reply as he pulled a trunk from the hallway cupboard.

“We don’t have to leave,” Remus pleaded, his hand reaching to stop Romulus from opening the trunk.

“I asked you not to go into Hogsmeade today. Just one thing I asked of you, for both of our safeties and you still did it!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You could have been caught! You could have been killed!”

“I hid, I was careful.”

“You weren’t that careful, or you wouldn’t have been seen!”

“I didn’t tell him who I was. I don’t even know how he knew I was there.”

“It was Sirius wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any idea how powerful and dangerous the Black family are?” Romulus asked before he seemed to remember who it was he was talking to. “But of course you don’t. You don’t remember seeing anything more than this small village and the Forbidden Forest.”

“I’ve seen the papers,” Remus reminded him. “I’ve seen the Black family mentioned in stories in the Daily Prophet.”

“They’re dangerous,” Romulus told him. “You can’t trust them.”

“That’s what they say about werewolves,” Remus whispered.

Romulus stopped and sat down on top of the trunk, pulling Remus alongside him.

“Please can we stay?” Remus asked. “I promise I’ll be more careful.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Can we stay?”

Romulus sighed. “It’s not like we have any other place to go.”

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“Black, Sirius,” Professor McGonagall called out.

Sirius felt the eyes of everyone in the hall fall on him as he made his way to the stool in order to be sorted.

“Another Black eh?” the Sorting Hat whispered into his mind. “I know just where to put you.”

Sirius sat patiently and wished the Hat would get on with it.

“Wait a minute though…” the Hat continued. “I see something different in you. Something your brethren didn’t have.”

Uh-oh.

“Bravery and the courage to be different.”

It wouldn’t. Please. No. Not that.

“Gryffindor!”

“What?” Sirius spluttered and there were several audible gasps in the room.

Even Professor McGonagall looked somewhat taken aback as she removed the Hat and proudly pointed towards the Gryffindor table.

“But I can’t be?” he muttered as he made his way towards the table.

He sat down on one of the benches, feeling out of place and conspicuous in his green and silver robes and tie, amidst a sea of red and gold.

Across the room he could see Narcissa looking at him in pure shock and he ducked his head to avoid her sneering expression.

“It’s a mistake, it has to be a mistake,” he mumbled to himself as the Sorting continued.

“I’ll say it’s a mistake,” a horribly familiar voice replied. Sirius looked up to see James Potter looking at him from across the table.

“No?” he whispered in horror. He couldn’t be in the same house as James Potter. That was just too much to have to bear.

“Too good for the rest of us,” James said in a loud whisper to the boy sitting next to him. “Dressed in his fine green and silver robes. Pure Slytherin.”

“The Sorting Hat must have been at the butterbeer,” the boy next to James suggested.

“Nice one Peter,” James laughed.

Sirius felt his face flushing in embarrassment and when the speeches were over and the feast began he could hardly touch his food.

“Mother’s going to be furious,” he mumbled to himself, trying to ignore the snickering from across the table.

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Dear R.L.

I’m writing this from Hogwarts School.

It looks like you were right about me not being right for Slytherin. I got sorted into Gryffindor. I think it might have made a mistake. I’m not brave or anything. I daren’t even write and tell my mother. She will be absolutely furious when she finds out.

There are two other boys in first year in Gryffindor. It seems strange because there are four beds in the dormitory but only three of us. I wish you were here in the fourth bed. I’d have someone to talk to then.

The two other boys are James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. They seem to be really good friends. I wonder if they knew each other before school.

Damon bit James at King’s Cross, so that didn’t help either.

I really wish you were here too.

Your friend

Sirius Black

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“See,” Remus stated as he passed Romulus the letter. “No word of seeing anyone near the dock. I bet he’s already forgotten he ever saw me.”

“Lucky for us.”

Romulus read through the letter before passing it back. “You can’t reply yet,” he warned.

“Why not?”

“Because he’ll know how close you are to the school,” Romulus pointed out. “His owl probably made it here in a matter of minutes and your reply will be just as quick to get back to him. If you reply before morning he’ll know you’re in Hogsmeade or somewhere nearby.”

“I can send a reply in the morning though?” Remus asked anxiously.

Romulus looked like he’d like to say no, but Remus knew his brother could refuse him little and when he nodded his agreement he threw his arms around him and grinned.