“I thought you said you and Sirius were close…” said Harry as Monicola finished. “Usually that means you ―”
“I was being sarcastic!” Monicola exclaimed, moving from the kitchen to the door leading to the back yard where the Weasleys, Hermione, Lupin, and Tonks were lounging around the large table. In two days Harry, Ron, and Hermione were leaving on the journey to Godric Hollow. Ginny was returning to Hogwarts the very next day for her sixth year. They were having a celebration for both departures.
“But you did say that he found out you were a vampire, right?” asked Harry, sitting down at the table next to George. Monicola sat on his other side next to Charlie who promptly kissed her. No one paid attention to this; the potion Fred and George had put in his drink had not warn off and Charlie’s frequent outbursts of strange things did not bother anyone anymore.
“Sorry,” Charlie said automatically. “Green, cheese-tailed gorillas.” he added.
“Please stop saying that, Charlie,” pleaded Monicola. “You make it seem like it’s killing me. I don’t hate it at all.”
Charlie, apparently unable to respond to this, proceeded to squeeze his mouth closed so nothing outrageous could come out.
“How did he find out you were a vampire?” asked Harry, ignoring the interruption.
“Lupin let it slip while the both of us were in the extra classroom on the fifth floor.”
Hardly believing what he was hearing, Harry asked, “In a classroom, the both of you? Doing what?”
Across the table Lupin snorted the pumpkin juice he had been drinking through his nose. Ginny, who was next to him, handed him a napkin, smirking.
“Nothing, I swear! Lupin, tell him!” exclaimed Monicola.
“Well, we weren’t doing anything you were thinking about, Harry. Although, I was sort of…well at sixteen I…I can’t say I wasn’t thinking―”
“I think you should let me continue, Lupin,” offered Monicola. Lupin nodded.
“Frosted bogies!” shouted Charlie.
***
“Could you knock it off?” said Sirius, keeping his gaze away from Monicola and Lupin, bringing the book he was pretending to read closer to his face.
“Sorry, are we disturbing the hard worker?” said Monicola, her wand still pointing at Lupin who was now several feet in the air.
“Yes, you are.”
Monicola let Lupin down with a thud. “Fine. We’ll go somewhere else.” They left through the portrait hole, Monicola screaming as Lupin shot water at her.
“Can you believe them?” asked Sirius to no one in particular. “Making a racket while others are trying to study!”
“Why won’t you just except the fact Monicola will never choose you over Lupin and you can’t do anything to change that?” asked James who was attempting to beat Peter at Wizard’s Chess.
Sirius ignored him. Peter and James laughed when Sirius huffed and walked out the portrait hole.
Two floors down in an empty classroom, Lupin and Monicola were “practicing” for their exams in Charms.
“We’ve been at this for quite a few hours. Aren’t you tired?” she asked, sitting down at a desk.
Lupin shook his head and sat down next to her. “Are you?”
“No, but I am all wet!”
“You’re the one who can’t remember the drying spell.” Lupin waved his wand and Monicola’s robes were dry.
“Thanks.” She looked down at Lupin’s hands, seeing the scratches all over them. “I missed you last week….How did it go?”
“Fine as usual, I guess,” Lupin muttered, shrugging.
“I want to come see you next time.”
“You can’t, you know that!” yelled Lupin hurriedly. “What if I bit you? You would die, did you know that? You wouldn’t become a werewolf, you’d be dead, Monicola. I am not taking that risk!”
Monicola held her hands up in defense saying, “Alright, alright! I understand!”
“Some times I think you forget you’re a vampire.”
“It’s easier now with the Sun Protecting Charm, being around normal humans, having…well not a completely normal friend.” They both laughed. “Before coming back here it was hard to forget, especially without any other human contact. I’m glad I came back,” she added happily. Lupin smiled.
“So am I. Are you hungry?”
Monicola nodded. They walked toward the door and when Lupin opened it, Sirius was standing straight as a board, looking down the hallway, a stunned expression on his face.
Monicola knew what happened immediately. She dragged him into the classroom and pinned him to the wall with her arm. “What have you heard?” she shouted, fear shivering through her body.
“Vampire,” Sirius murmured.
Lupin swore loudly. Monicola wiped her sweaty forehead with her sleeve and breathed deeply. “What were you doing coming this way, spying on us?”
Sirius seemed to snap out of his stupor and gave her a nasty look. “I was going for an early dinner! I have better things to do than to listen to you two sucking each others’ faces! It’s not my fault Moony has a big mouth!”
“I was under the impression we couldn’t be heard,” said Lupin, rapidly advancing on Sirius. “You would have to be pretty close and standing still for quite some time to hear me…And who said we were sucking each others faces?!”
“What do you want me to do about you making bad judgments?” shouted Sirius, ignoring his last question.
Monicola pressed harder on his chest. “Don’t tell a soul, dead or living, what you heard. My privacy and comfort is at stake.”
“Oh, yes,” said Sirius, sarcastically. “I really care about those things!”
“Not a word,” she whispered dangerously and let him off the wall. She turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
“I suppose she won’t be wanting to talk to me right now,” said Lupin, sighing.
“Sorry, mate, I really didn’t mean to.”
“Just don’t tell anyone, not even James or Peter, alright?”
Sirius nodded. They left the room, going toward the common room.
“Wasn’t it you that told me she had a personality like poison?” asked Sirius. Lupin nodded. “Don’t listen to your own advice, do you?”
***
Sirius couldn’t sleep. All week long he had been thinking about Monicola. A vampire at Hogwarts…Dumbledore must have been losing his mind.
He rolled over in his bed and saw Lupin sitting up, staring fixedly into the night.
“What’s the matter?” Sirius asked, sitting up in bed as well.
“Tomorrow,” said Lupin, “is her birthday. I completely forgot.” He smacked himself in the forehead.
Sirius knew he should have felt sorry for Lupin and should have said something comforting, but he was thinking of his own gain.
“I have to go,” he said hurriedly, pulling on a pair of jeans. He rummaged through his truck and withdrew a sack of coins, a quill, parchment, and a jar of ink. “I’ll be back soon.”
Before Lupin could say anything, Sirius sprinted from the room.
His heart jumped around in his chest as ran through the halls to the Owlery. There weren’t many owls sitting on their posts; most of them were out hunting. He chose a large barn owl and then started to write his letter. He finished it, attacked several Galleons to the parchment and attached the whole thing to the owl’s leg. It immediately took off into the sky. Sirius watched it disappear; he smiled smugly as he walked back to bed.
***
“Oh, wow, Lupin! It’s really beautiful!”
“Is it? The woman at the shop said you would hate it!”
“We vampires have very strange tastes.” She held up the silver cross necklace and let it spin in the morning light. “Incredibly ironic, I know but we tend to prefer the stranger things in life. Just as long as it wasn’t wood, then I would have to kill you.”
“I’m very glad they don’t make wooden necklaces then.”
They were sitting in the common room. Everyone had gone out to enjoy the fresh air on a beautiful Saturday morning.
Monicola couldn’t believe Lupin had spent Galleons on her, especially on something this beautiful.
“How much was it?” she asked interestedly.
Lupin laughed. “You’re not supposed to ask someone that!”
“I don’t care what I’m not supposed to do! How much?”
He sighed and mumbled, “Ten.”
Monicola’s eyes brightened. “Ten? As in ten Galleons?” Lupin nodded. “Why on Earth would you spend that much money on me?”
“Because…I wanted to.”
Monicola could feel her cheeks get warmer, something they hardly ever did. Breath, she thought. This is no time to get all fluttery especially not with a werewolf.
To break the long silence, Lupin asked, “So how old are you?”
“Now, I know you’re not supposed to ask a lady that,” said Monicola, putting on the necklace.
“I’ll keep that in mind when I see a lady…”
Monicola threw a couch pillow at him. Lupin threw it back, softer though, and stood up.
“I have to go. I have to meet James.”
“What for?”
Lupin shrugged. “Sirius said he wanted me for something.”
A few minutes after Lupin, Monicola left as well for lunch. On her way down she saw Sirius hurrying toward her with a whicker basket.
“Happy birthday, Moni,” he said, holding the basket to her.
“What is ―?”
“Just open it.”
Monicola took it reluctantly. Slowly, she opened one end. Bright red eyes were staring back out at her.
“What the ― ARRGH!”
A huge black object came flying out of the basket on to Monicola’s head, hissing and spitting as it scratched at her face.
Sirius swore loudly, grabbing his present, and helping Monicola up.
“I’m sorry!” he cried, holding the cat out away from his body.
Monicola waited for her skin to heal before she said anything. “You are so lucky I’m a vampire, Black. Otherwise those scratches would have been permanent and I would have had to kill you…slowly.”
Lupin and James came running toward them.
“We heard screaming. What happened?” asked James, glaring at the cat questioningly.
“That,” Monicola said, pointing at it, “is my gift, from Sirius.”
James laughed loudly. “It’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen!” He reached a hand out to touch it and came back with a bloody finger. “Son of a ―”
Lupin was glaring at Sirius angrily. “This is what you ran off for last night, wasn’t it? You tried to make your present better than mine.”
“I don’t see your gift anywhere, Remus!” Sirius shouted back.
“It’s right here!” Monicola dug into her shirt and pulled out the silver cross on its chain. Sirius eyed it jealously. “Lupin had sense enough not to buy me something living! If you even tried to know me, maybe you’d know I don’t like animals.”
“You never gave me a chance! Every time I tried to get to know you, you wouldn’t give me the time of day.”
Monicola snorted. “Get to know me? As I recall you always talked about yourself!”
“Would you two stop bickering!” shouted James, who was still trying to touch the dangerous cat. “Your voices are really starting to hurt my ears!”
“SHUT UP!” Monicola and Sirius said together.
“Oy! Monicola!” someone called from down the hall. A blond man came running toward them with a glass sphere in his arms. He was dressed in Muggle clothing.
“Here you are, love,” Hawk said, bending down to kiss Monicola on the cheek. “Happy birthday!” He handed her the glass orb. It looked a lot like a crystal ball only the cloudy shape within didn’t fill it completely.
Monicola’s eyes grew wide as she said, or tried to say, “I-Is t-this my…”
“Sure is and I have another surprise. You’re getting out of here! I just spoke to your Headmaster. The All Father wants you in Greece.”
Remus stared back and forth between Monicola and the blond man. Who was this man and why on earth did he kiss Monicola!? Sirius was thinking along the same lines. He handed the cat to James who had gotten it to like him a little. “Excuse me,” Sirius said, his lips very tightly pursed. “Who the hell are you?”
“Hawk Livingston,” said Hawk cheerfully, putting out his hand. Sirius didn’t except it. “Are you coming?” he added to Monicola. She had been silent for quite some time.
The reason for her silence was that she did not want to leave Hogwarts for two reasons: She truly loved it there and…Remus. How could she leave Remus now? Why should she have to? Slowly, she turned to Hawk and said, “What for?”
He seemed shocked for a second but recovered. “Because I have to bring you. If I don’t, Father will kill me…literally.”
“What if I don’t want to go?”
“Then I’ll just have to take you myself,” and Hawk took Monicola in his arms, threw he haphazardly over his shoulder and started walking down the hall. She screamed and pounded on his back but he was not going to let go.
As one, Remus and Sirius ran after them, James taking his time with cat in hand. They all came to the gate of the schools outside where the clouds had started to cover the sun. Remus and Sirius had their wands out.
“Put her down!” they both cried.
“Or you’ll do what?” asked Hawk amusedly. “I can’t be killed by magic…”
“Stupefy!” howled Sirius and Hawk went flying. Monicola fell a few yards away from him. Hawk wasn’t moving. He had hit his head on a rock and blood was starting to pour out. His wound was not healing.
“What have you done to him!” screamed Monicola, running toward Hawk who was groaning quietly.
“I was only trying to ―” Sirius started but she interrupted him.
“Vampires can’t heal when they’re stupefied you twit!”
“I didn’t know ―”
“You best pray that you never see the Veil, Sirius Black!” she shrieked but then she stopped abruptly. She swore loudly but didn’t explain herself. She stood, holding on to one of Hawk’s limp arms.
“Wait!” Remus called, knowing what she was about to do.
“I’ll come and see you again, I promise,” she replied. She took a step and then stopped. “James, can I have that cat?”
James stared confusedly at her but handed it to her anyway. She spun and she, Hawk, and the evil cat were gone.
The three boys walked back to the castle as it started to rain. Remus remained silent, his face expressionless. He had heard about Hawk from Monicola. She complained about him constantly. From what he heard, he knew he would never let Monicola see him again.
“What do you think she meant by a ‘Veil’,” Sirius asked no one in particular. Both boys shrugged and James replied, “Maybe it’s a death wish.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from Monicola.”
Nothing To Do With the Spell Within by moonlite90
Chapter Notes: Sirius can’t take it anymore. He has to confront his friend with the problem he has with him being so close to the girl he likes…although he was not expecting a fight or quite so many people to be involved.