Once in a Blue Moon (COMPLETE)

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Like a Knight in Shining Armour
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Sirius hated Hogwarts.

That was the conclusion he had come to after three months where everything had been wrong.

His mother had purchased the wrong books for him, much to the glee of Potter and Pettigrew who delighted in his embarrassment at having to admit the same in front of the rest of the class.

His robes were the wrong colour, much to the amusement of Potter and Pettigrew who found this highly comical too. Sirius had even gone so far as to ask Professor McGonagall if she might be able to fix them so that they were the same colours of the rest of the Gryffindors, unfortunately she’d recognised Madam Malkin’s work immediately and had shaken her head sadly.

Having the wrong books and the wrong robes was bad enough, but being placed in the wrong house was the very worst thing about Hogwarts.

Sirius presumed that Narcissa had been the one to let his family know all about the horrific outcome of the Sorting Ceremony. Certainly his mother had found out quickly enough. On the plus side, at least she hadn’t sent him a howler to complain about it. Though it was a very small plus since she had instead sent one to Professor Dumbledore himself. The sound of her shrieking at the Headmaster had echoed through the hall during breakfast on his second morning at school. Sirius had cringed beneath the smirks of Potter and Pettigrew who’d agreed loudly and heartily that Mrs Black was quite correct and Sirius would be better off with his own kind, in Slytherin house.

Professor Dumbledore on the other hand had merely smiled and shook his head at the yelling missive. Sirius had heard him comment to Professor McGonagall that this wasn’t the first time in the history of the school that a parent had been disappointed in the results of the Sorting Ceremony. He’d added that none of the other students had been moved into another house and he wasn’t going to set a precedent for it with Sirius.

Sirius didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

All he knew was that Potter and Pettigrew had groaned at the news that they were not getting rid of him from the dormitory that easily and they had set out to make his life as difficult as possible.

The only good thing about being at Hogwarts was that his replies from Remus were coming through a little faster than they had at Grimmauld Place. Sirius briefly wondered if Remus were somewhere in Scotland too but the other boy was still as mysterious as ever and by now he knew better than to ask.

Remus had replied to his first letter from Hogwarts with assurances that everything would turn out well in the end and that he thought he’d make a great Gryffindor. He’d continued to offer advice and amusing anecdotes to cheer Sirius up although Sirius doubted the other boy had any idea that his letters were the only things he had to look forward to.

He was sitting out near the lake on a cold Saturday afternoon at the end of November reading Remus’s latest letter when he heard the familiar sound of Potter and Pettigrew laughing nearby.

“Well look who it is,” Potter announced with a sneer that Sirius didn’t have to see to know that it was there on his face.

“Another letter from mummy?” Pettigrew asked as they approached him. “He gets one nearly every day, did you notice James?”

“Yeah,” Potter snickered. “She wants to make sure her little darling hasn’t been corrupted by the nasty old Gryffindors.”

Sirius knew better than to inform them that the letters weren’t from his mother. There would be no point, and knowing his luck they’d probably try to steal them if they believed they contained more than complaints like the ones in the howler to Dumbledore. His mother, once she’d recovered from the shock of the Sorting, continued to write to him on a fortnightly basis but it was Remus who was his almost daily correspondent: Not that Potter and Pettigrew would understand that.

“Say, Peter,” Potter commented idly as Sirius tucked his letter into his robes and stood up to leave. “Do you realise it’s been nearly forty eight hours since we last hexed our friend here?”

Sirius reached for his wand in readiness to deflect whatever hex, jinx or curse Potter threw at him this time but it was already too late.

His hand flew up to his head in horror as he felt his hair mutate into something that was hissing and writhing about.

“Nice one, James,” Pettigrew chuckled. “Perfect for our little Slytherin wannabe. What’s it called?”

“The Medusa curse,” Potter replied. “I read about it last week and I’ve been waiting for a chance to try it out.”

“All right, you’ve had your fun, now take it off,” Sirius asked.

“What would I want to do that for?” Potter laughed, and he and Pettigrew made their way back to the castle.

Sirius made to follow after them, to insist they remove the curse from him, but unfortunately that was the exact moment he spotted Professor McGonagall walking out of the doors. Things had only got worse between him and the other boys after she’d come across them during one of their previous altercations. The last thing he needed was for things to get worse than they already were. For the moment though the Professor was still looking in the other direction and so Sirius ran for the cover of the trees of the Forbidden Forest, out of sight of everyone.

Sirius wasn’t sure if he was following a path through the forest or not. It had looked like a path at first, but the longer he walked the less it seemed to be one. All too soon he was hopelessly lost, the sunlight blocked out by the thickness of the trees, and any path that had once existed was now long gone and impossible to follow.

He was just wondering whether panicking might be a good idea when the sounds of whooping and cheering drifted to him through the trees. Heading towards the sound he soon found himself on the edge of a clearing. In the clearing itself was a young-looking centaur together with a young boy who he felt he’d seen somewhere before but couldn’t quite place.

The centaur was firing arrows at a swinging target whilst the young boy watched. The boy had his own bow in his hand and Sirius guessed he was waiting to take his own turn. The centaur fired a shot that missed the target entirely and turned directly to where Sirius was lurking.

“You missed?” the boy with the bow asked incredulously.

“We have company,” the centaur replied with a nod to the trees.

Sirius didn’t know how he’d been spotted but there was no point in lingering any further. He stepped forward, wishing he had something with which to cover his head and the nest of snakes that had replaced his hair.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he offered. “I got a bit lost.”

“Easily done,” the centaur replied with a smile. “For humans anyway.”

Sirius smiled back but at that instant he also stepped into the sunlight and the two archers saw him clearly and gasped in shock.

“Cursed eh?” asked the centaur, whilst the boy merely looked at him in horror. Sirius felt a bit uncomfortable at the boy’s reaction, there was surely no need for him to be that surprised? Magical mishaps were commonplace in and around Hogwarts; everyone knew that.

“I don’t know how to lift it,” Sirius admitted as he batted a particularly irritating snake out of his eyes.

“Any ideas?” The centaur turned to the boy who shook his head.

“You should probably go back to the school and get Professor McGonagall to fix it,” the boy suggested. “It looks like some sort of transfiguration.”

“You know Professor McGonagall?” Sirius asked in surprise. “Are you from Hogwarts too?”

“I’ve only heard of her,” the boy replied with a shake of the head. “I don’t go to Hogwarts.”

“Wish I didn’t,” muttered Sirius before he could stop himself.

“Don’t say that. You’re lucky to be able to go there.”

“But I hate it there,” replied Sirius, who was mortified to find his eyes were welling up with tears. “I got sorted into the wrong house and the other Gryffindor boys spend their whole time thinking up hexes to use on me.”

“I’m sure things will get better soon,” said the young boy, who was now looking very uncomfortable with the conversation.

“I guess I should head back and find McGonagall,” Sirius said. “If one of you could point me in the right direction?”

“Perhaps Romulus can help you out with the curse,” the centaur suggested.

“Romulus?” Sirius asked as he looked from the boy to the centaur and back again.

“My brother,” the boy explained. “He’s at work at the moment though. And I’m not supposed to invite anyone home without checking with him first.”

“I don’t want to get you into any trouble,” Sirius assured him.

“Maybe I can find something in one of his books to remove the curse before he gets home,” the boy speculated, almost to himself.

“You’d better hurry then,” the centaur suggested with a pointed glance at the sky. “Time is moving on.”

“I didn’t realise it had gotten so late,” the boy replied as he thrust his bow into the centaur’s outstretched hand. “See you tomorrow Firenze.”

“Farewell,” Firenze, the centaur called after them as Sirius found himself tugged unceremoniously through the trees.

“You do know the way, right?” Sirius asked.

“Of course! I just stick to the path,” the boy replied.

“This is a path?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Where do you live? Is it far?”

“On the edge of Hogsmeade, and not very. You should be back at the school in plenty of time to avoid getting a detention or anything.”

“You’re not going to get into trouble for this are you?” Sirius asked, still conscious of the rule the boy had mentioned about visitors. “I’m Sirius by the way.” He made sure not to add his surname to his introduction in case the offer of help was rescinded once his proverbial knight in shining armour found out exactly who he was.

“What he doesn’t know, doesn’t get me extra chores,” the boy joked. “Now hurry up, we’re nearly there.”

Sirius frowned as he realised the boy wasn’t offering his own name in return. But before he could say anything further he realised that the trees were clearing again ahead of them and a moment later they were out in the sunlight and the village of Hogsmeade stretched out before them.

“Which is your house?” Sirius asked.

“That one,” the boy said as he pointed to a building set apart from the small cluster of houses that made up the village of Hogsmeade. The house on the outskirts looked a little run down but as they drew nearer Sirius could see that the yard was neatly tended and the windows were regularly cleaned.

The boy let him into the house through the back door and Sirius found himself standing in a kitchen where the breakfast pots, and possibly the dinner plates from the previous evening, were piled high in the sink.

“Don’t you have a house elf?” he asked casually.

“No.” The boy shook his head. “I’m supposed to do the pots before my brother gets back but Firenze got a new bow from his father this morning and…” His voice trailed off and Sirius couldn’t help but grin back at the boy who was making it clear that hanging out with a centaur was far more fun than doing the washing up.

“Er…I could give you a hand with them if you like?” he offered casually. “As a thank you for fixing my hair back.”

“I’ve not fixed it yet,” the boy pointed out as he led him through a door and into what appeared to be a study.

Sirius stood hovering nervously in the doorway whilst the boy pulled several books off of the shelves and piled them onto the desk.

“Do you know what the curse is called?”

“Potter called it the Medusa curse,” Sirius replied with a frown.

“That makes sense,” the boy replied as he went back to the bookcase and grabbed a couple more books to add to the pile. Finally he seemed to be finished and he picked the books up to take them through to the kitchen table where they could both sit down with plenty of room to scour through them for the counter-curse.

An hour later and they were still no nearer to finding the counter-curse. Sirius was actually starting to get used to the snakes and was becoming more than a little curious about who the boy sitting across from him was. At first he’d been too distracted and hurried to press him on the issue of who he was, but as time moved on it seemed a little silly not to know who it was whose kitchen he was currently sitting in.

“You didn’t tell me your name,” Sirius commented casually as he flicked through an old and musty book that predated the era of indexes and contents pages.

“Didn’t I?” the boy asked without looking up from his book. “Hey! Here’s something about the Medusa curse.”

“What does it say?” Sirius asked eagerly, the question of the boy’s identity pushed to the back of his mind for the moment.

“It says it’s not actually a curse,” the boy replied with a sigh. “The Medusa curse is named after the most famous of the Gorgon sisters. Although the original Medusa was permanently cursed by the Greek Goddess Athena, the Medusa curse as it is commonly known is in fact a hex. The effect of the hex is to give the subject hair in the form of snakes. Victims of the Medusa curse do not possess any of the other attributes of the original Medusa, they do not have the ability to turn people to stone with merely a look and their blood is neither a poison nor possessing of additional magical qualities.”

“Does it say how to reverse it?” Sirius asked.

“No,” the boy replied with a shake of his head. “Let’s keep looking.”

Sirius nodded and turned back to his own book with renewed energy. He was about to ask the boy his name again when the sound of a door opening on the other side of the house sounded.

“Oh crap,” the boy muttered. “Quick hide in my bedroom, through there.” He pointed to the door opposite the one to the study and practically pushed Sirius through the door, slamming it beside him.

“Remus?” a voice called out. “You home?”

Remus? Sirius listened at the door, his heart racing from not only the mad dash to hide, but from the knowledge that the boy’s name was Remus, a name he knew as well as his own.

“It has to be the same one,” Sirius whispered to himself. How many Remus’s are there out there who are this secretive and live with their older brother? And who have to wash the pots but put it off to do things more enjoyable? And who are old enough to go to Hogwarts but don’t? At least he guessed the Remus in the other room was old enough to go there, he seemed about his own age, though he hadn’t actually asked. After all, it seemed a bit daft to ask someone how old they were when you didn’t even know their name.

“I’m in the kitchen Rom,” Remus called.

“Done the pots yet?” Romulus asked.

“Er.”

“Please tell me you haven’t been near the school, again,” Romulus asked with what seemed a heartfelt sigh of impatience.

“Firenze got a new bow,” Remus replied as though this explained everything. And perhaps it did, because as Sirius watched through a crack in the door he could see that Romulus was smiling and shaking his head in despair.

“And what’s all this lot doing on the table?” Romulus asked as he gestured to the books.

“I was just looking some stuff up.”

“This doesn’t look like healing charms,” Romulus commented as he picked up the book Remus had been looking at.

“I know all about healing charms,” Remus replied, in a bored tone.

“You barely know anything. How many times have I got to explain to you? I might not always be around to patch you up. You have to learn these spells so that you can take care of yourself if anything happens to me.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.” Remus sounded very sure of himself but Sirius could see that Romulus was very worried that something might.

“We don’t know that,” Romulus pointed out as he read from the book before casting his brother a worried glance. “Do I want to know why you’ve been reading about the Medusa curse?”

“I was just looking stuff up and it sounded interesting,” Remus replied, though Sirius could tell that he had trouble meeting his brother’s eyes as he lied through his teeth.

“Hmm? Is that right? This wouldn’t be a case of looking things up for your friend Sirius’s Christmas present would it?”

Sirius gasped quietly at the sound of his name as his suspicions were confirmed. He continued to look through the door and caught Remus’s quick and guilty glance in his direction. Thankfully for both of them, Romulus missed it.

“Remus,” Romulus sighed and rubbed his temples with his hands. “I know you think you’re trying to help your friend out with this booklet of hexes and jinxes you’re putting together, but have you thought that maybe you’ll just make things worse for him?”

“But he’s getting hexed all the time,” Remus replied. He seemed to have come to the decision that since Sirius now knew who he was he’d just carry on as normal and hope that his brother didn’t realise that they had a guest hiding out in Remus’s room.

“But there’s a bit of a difference between being supportive and giving him ammunition to fight back.”

“But…”

“But nothing. You don’t know anything about these boys who Sirius is having problems with. They might be perfectly nice young lads.”

“They’re mean to him.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve only heard one side of the story.”

“But Rom…”

“Okay, okay,” Romulus gave up in the face of Remus’s pleading tone. “But I want to see that booklet before you send it. And you’re not putting the Medusa curse in it. It’s been open to debate for years as to whether any of the snakes that appear in place of hair are poisonous.”

“Poisonous?” Remus squeaked nervously. “Er, Rom…”

“What?” Romulus looked at Remus as he stood shifting from one foot to the other. Sirius meanwhile tried to distance himself from the snakes, an impossible task since they were attached to his head.

“Sirius?” Remus called out. “You’d better come through here.”

“Sirius?” Romulus asked as he glared at Remus.

“Hello,” Sirius whispered from the doorway. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get Remus into trouble but…” He gestured mutely to his head and Romulus’s jaw dropped slightly.

“You didn’t?” he asked Remus.

“It was Potter, from school,” Sirius explained, shaking his head rapidly, agitating several snakes in the process, as he hurried to Remus’s side. “Remus was just trying to help. He thought there might be a counter-curse in one of your books.”

Romulus stood silently for a moment or two, and Sirius wondered if he might be thrown out of the house, snakes and all. Eventually Romulus pinched the bridge of his nose, shook his head slightly and gestured for him to take a seat.

Remus and Romulus sat down at the other side of the table and Romulus sorted through one of the books that they hadn’t yet looked through, quickly finding the counter-curse and removing the snakes, replacing them with his usual raven locks of hair.

“Thanks.” Sirius breathed a sigh of relief and ran his hand through his hair.

“My pleasure,” Romulus replied as he looked from him to his brother.

“Remus isn’t in too much trouble is he?” he asked nervously.

“No more than usual,” Romulus sighed. “Apart from the not doing the pots, not studying the charms I set him to learn today –”

“I practised them earlier!” Remus exclaimed.

“For how long?” Romulus asked with a snort. “For ten minutes after I went to work and then you high-tailed it to the forest to hang out with Firenze?”

“Er.”

“Thought so,” Romulus groaned. “So, Sirius Black is it?”

Sirius nodded.

“Well you’ve already met Remus, and I’m Romulus.”

“Pleased to meet you sir,” replied Sirius, holding out his hand formally. Remus snickered at his words and he felt his face flushing slightly.

“Ignore him,” Romulus advised with a smile. “I’ve done my best to teach him some manners but I’m afraid I’m fighting a losing battle.”

Remus stuck out his tongue childishly, and Romulus gestured towards him that this just proved his point entirely.

“Now Sirius,” Romulus began, and Sirius had an inkling of a suspicion that he knew what was coming. “I don’t know how much Remus has told you today –”

“Nothing sir. I didn’t even know he was Remus until you came back and called his name.”

“Oh.”

“Does that mean I’m not in trouble for telling him who I am?” Remus asked with a grin. “And can I give you chores to do for slipping up?”

Sirius gasped at the idea, wondering just how purple his mother would have gone had he made such a suggestion to her. Romulus merely laughed though, and Sirius felt a pang of envy for the relationship between the two brothers.

“No, Remus,” Romulus replied. “Because if Sirius knew who you were because I’d called out your name, then it means that someone had to have told him it in the first place.”

“Sorry,” Sirius whispered with an apologetic look at Remus. He shrugged in reply, clearly realising that the game was up anyway.

After telling Remus that he was now doing the pots for the next week for telling Sirius what his name was in the first place, Romulus turned back to him with a serious expression. “What you need to understand Sirius, is that there are some people out there who are trying to find us. People who…well, let’s just say they don’t have our best interests at heart. That is why we’ve been a little secretive about who we are and where we are.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Sirius promised. “Really I won’t.”

“We’re trusting you not to,” Romulus said. “Please don’t use our names in letters or anything. Keep calling Remus R.L., and don’t write the address on the envelopes.”

Sirius nodded. “I don’t suppose you’d tell me what the L stands for?” he asked. “I’ve been dying of curiosity since the summer.”

Romulus looked at his brother quietly and Sirius could almost see the unspoken discussion taking place between the two of them.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Sirius offered as the silence stretched on a shade too long. “You don’t really know me so you don’t have any reason to trust me.”

“It’s not that,” Remus explained.

“We don’t really trust anyone,” Romulus continued. “It’s too dangerous for us.”

“I understand.”

“No you don’t,” Romulus stated firmly. “You can’t understand because you don’t know the reasons behind why we live the way we do. And we can’t tell you. I’m sorry, but that’s my final decision.”

“But Rom, you said…” Sirius looked at Remus and tried to make out what it was that he was trying to silently communicate to his brother.

It seemed however that he didn’t need to. Romulus understood him perfectly and turned back to Sirius with a tired smile. “Lupin, our name is Lupin,” he said quietly. “As anyone with the information you already have could find out merely by looking at the record of prefects where I’m afraid I’ve been listed since my fifth year at Hogwarts.”

“I never thought to look there,” Sirius replied. “I didn’t even think about it.”

“As Remus was casually hinting to me, you would have done eventually.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Sirius promised again.

“Sirius could even keep an ear open for news of anyone looking for us,” Remus suggested.

“There’s no need for that,” Romulus replied. “I have my ear to the ground and very little happens hereabouts without it being the subject of gossip in The Hogs Head.”

“That’s where you work?” Sirius asked.

“As you would surely find out when you reach your third year and can take advantage of the Hogsmeade weekends,” Romulus pointed out. “Now you should be heading back to Hogwarts or you’ll miss dinner and end up in detention. It’s already getting dark.”

Sirius nodded and stood up to leave. He held out his hand formally and Romulus took it to shake. “Remus, please see our guest out,” he asked.

Remus stood up and guided Sirius back out the kitchen door.

“You’ll have to come back and visit some time,” Remus suggested after he’d closed the door.

“I’d like that,” Sirius replied. “Maybe next time you’ll tell me why you and your brother are hiding?”

Remus looked back at him in the evening dusk and shook his head sadly. “I can’t do that,” he whispered.

“But you’ve told me stuff before that your brother said you couldn’t.”

“That was different.”

“Why?”

“It just was.”

Sirius looked at Remus carefully and tried to read his expression. The friendly mischievous boy was still there, but lurking beneath the surface was something akin to fear. Sirius decided in that moment it would be better not to pressure the boy into revealing all his family secrets. It was enough that his friend was so much closer to Hogwarts than he’d previously thought…the last thing he wanted to do was scare him off by being so inquisitive.

“I won’t ask again, not if you don’t want me to.”

Remus nodded in response to his offer and the fear disappeared from his eyes. It was replaced with a wide grin and a pointed finger in the direction of Hogwarts. “Follow that path to get back to school.” Sirius looked in the direction he was pointing and when he turned back it was to see that his friend had disappeared back into the house with a wave, leaving Sirius to walk back to Hogwarts alone.