Kitsune no Yobi (狐の呼び)

Sunday 12th September 99

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Pansy and Draco were sitting around a table at the Hog's Head, waiting for their rendezvous. It was 3:05 already, and Draco's leg was shaking from impatience.

"If this isn't my dear first cousin once removed." Said a sarcastic voice.

He tensed when he felt two hands on his shoulders and looked up only too meet sparkling brown eyes.

"Hello." Pursued Sirius with a big smile.

Before Draco could say anything, he had already moved away and sat next to him - in front of Hermione.

"Padfoot!" Said Harry with a big smile. "I'm so glad you came."

"I had to, we're family after all." He softly answered. "I was surprised to see you with another member of the family though. I thought you two hated each other's guts."

"It's pretty funny actually," started Ron, "cause they're in-"

"Ronald." Cut Hermione.

If daggers could be sent only by looking at someone, Ron would have been badly injured. Sirius suddenly bent over the table to greet Pansy, trying to lighten the mood.

"Nice too meet you long lady, I'm Sirius."

"Hi... My name's Pansy."

"Lovely. Now," he turned to Harry and winked, "why did you summon me?"

He got out his wand, enveloping them in a Muffliato bubble. "Well, of course I wanted to introduce you to Draco and Pansy who I became... Friends with. And then, I think it would be better for Draco to explain. Or Hermione. Cause I'm a bit lost."

"Alright then, who's going to enlighten me?"

Draco cleared his voice and took out his notes. "It might be better that I take care of it."

"Ouhhh notes? Fancy."

Harry rebuked his godfather with a glare. The situation was a bit too serious for his jokes.

Slowly, Draco started explaining his condition for the third time.

"Oh," Sirius gaze saddened, "I was hoping it wouldn't be about that."

The five students frowned, waiting for him to pursue.

"Cissy... She had a lover, in her early twenties. At the time, she wasn't married to Lucius yet but they were betrothed already. Bellatrix was already promised to Lestrange, and after Andromeda's marriage with Ted, my aunt wanted to be sure her youngest daughters would marry a nice pureblood. She chose the Malfoy heir, they were close in age and he was the perfect match, ambitious, she was sure he would bring fortune to the family. But Narcissa... Narcissa had fallen in love with a man named Hayate. He was a couple of years older than her, at least that what we all thought, and had appeared from nowhere. He had no background here but claimed he was from Japan. Cissy had asked him about Mahoutokoro without success: he couldn't perform magic. Only Andromeda, Ted and I knew about her situation, we were quite close you know, growing up. Eventually, we noticed that Hayate was able to perform some sort of magic, different from ours. He could control the sound."

"The sound?" Asked Hermione.

"Yes. He could make things silent if he wanted to, or make them extremely loud, just by touching them. He could make music with the wind. It was a beautiful power. He later explained us that he was an Ongaku Kitsune. A fox spirit that could control sounds. He was 1036 years old, and had taken a ship to Europe to discover the world in human form a century ago. Cissy didn't care about him being a fox spirit, she loved him so much. After he had explained the whole bonding story, she accepted to do the blood pact with him. They were so happy together..."