I Dreamt Of You (Wolfstar)

Chapter 18

After dinner had concluded, Sirius followed the sea of Gryffindor students behind the prefects as they made their way to the dungeons where the Common Room was located. Having been there before with Lily, Sirius already knew the way, but pretended to have no clue where he was anyways.

The students gathered in the common room, waiting for something. A moment later, what they were waiting for became clear as Professor gark strode into the room, robes billowing behind him. Now that he wasn't influenced negatively towards the man any longer, Sirius took a moment to admire his presence and wondered if he used a spell to make his cloak do that or if it was just from the way he walked.

Remus snickered from where he was standing next to Sirius, having heard his thoughts. It actually isn't a spell, it's from his inheritance as a vampire. Ironically, his animagus form is a bat, which I always thought amusing when students called him the Dungeon Bat , Sirius' mate replied, projecting his thoughts towards the elf's mind.

Sirius nodded, interested. The professor was now in the middle of his speech to the first years, half of which looked terrified and the other half looked bored. Tuning back into the conversation, Sirius was just in time to hear Gark mention a buddy system in the halls due to the other houses being bullied by Gryffindors, especially the younger years, meant to curb this behaviour by peer pressure he presumed.

Frowning, Sirius tried to remember a time he'd ever seen a Gryffindor alone. None came to mind, they always seemed to move in groups. Robert had always sneered at it and said it was because they were arrogant gits, but now he knew the truth. Had Robert been one of the students bullied by the Gryffindors? What else had he missed during his years here under the compulsions?

Professor Gark finished talking and dismissed the students to their rooms, turning and heading towards what Sirius knew from the Map given to first years to be his office. Murmuring a quick explanation of where he was going to Remus, Sirius made a beeline towards the door. He caught Felix just before he closed the door and requested to speak with him privately.

The vampire gave him an unreadable look before gesturing for him to follow the teacher into his office. Felix closed the door firmly behind him and cast a couple of privacy spells before whirling around and raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Mr. Black? What do you need?" He said flatly.

"Err, I just wanted to let you know that I have been under compulsions and potions my whole time here at Hogwarts and I wanted to apologise for my behaviour towards you." Sirius stammered, looking shyly at his feet. His long hair fell forward, obscuring his face.

Gark sighed and took a seat. "Mr. Black, there is nothing to apologise for. You were not in control of your actions. On the other hand, I must apologise for my own treatment of you. I hold a precarious position as a spy and am expected to act certain ways because of it." The professor looked tiredly towards him.

Sirius nodded, understanding what he meant. Remus had explained some over the summer. "I'd like to start over." the elf said, fidgeting with the hem of his robes. "In private at least, I'm not sure if it would be safe to do so publicly yet." He added hastily.

"I would like that, though you are correct it would have to be in private. Dumbledore has eyes everywhere in the portraits." Gark inclined his head. "Please, call me Felix as my godson Remus does. I hope to get to know my young cub's mate better." The vampire looked expectantly at Sirius, having scented the mate bond on him as soon as he'd entered the common room next to the werewolf.

Sirius smiled happily. "Thank you, Felix. Only if you call me Sirius then."

"Alright, Sirius." Felix nodded. Clearing his throat, the vampire leaned back in his chair casually. "I happen to be aware of your previous living conditions as I was the one supplying hope with potions treatments, and if you would ever like to talk about it, I would be willing to listen. My own childhood was not a happy one, personally." He looked away from Sirius almost shyly, long onyx hair tumbling in soft strands across his face.

"Okay, thank you." Sirius said again, nodding and fiddling with his fingers for a moment before he looked up and cleared his throat. "Err, do you think I could meet my mentor Darya this evening? Papa, I mean Lynal, told me she was your mate and stayed at the castle?" He asked.

Nodding curtly, Felix rose from his chair, moving to stand in front of a painting of a beautiful garden. "Follow me then, Sirius."

Reaching into the frame, Felix frowned in concentration as he did something to the garden's fountain before extracting his arm just as a click sounded and the wall next to the painting swung inwards, revealing a well-lit passage.

The two walked briskly down the narrow hallway that ended at a large, wooden door decorated with an intricate lion carving. Sirius assumed these must be the Head of Gryffindor's quarters.

The door opened and there stood a stunning woman with long pastel green hair. She had silver-blue eyes the colour of ice. From her dark brown eyebrows, Sirius assumed the hair was dyed instead of being natural. He still didn't know all that much about magical creatures so nothing was really out of the realm of possibility for his imagination. She was wearing a soft black sweater and black leggings and had bare feet.

Sirius' eyes lit up and he beamed at her. "Darya! Hi!"

Darya grinned back at him. "Nice to finally meet you, Sirius." The woman gave Felix a quick kiss on the cheek, who hugged her briefly in return before he excused himself to head back to his office. Apparently, the head of Gryffindor rarely got much sleep on the first night back, having to deal with homesick children and all sorts of other issues.

Darya watched him go fondly for a moment before turning back to Sirius. "Alright, did you get your journal set up?"

"Yeah, I just didn't know what to write and it wasn't long before school started anyways." Sirius replied.

"Okay, well, the main purpose I intended for them was arranging meetings and communicating messages. Do you know anywhere we could meet safely?" The older water elf asked, twirling a lock of her hair idly.

"Not sure, but I can ask my friend Happy. He's a house elf." Sirius said after a moment's contemplation.

Calling happy, Harry waited for a second before the excitable elf popped into existence in front of him.

"Master Sirius called happy?" The house elf asked, large eyes staring up at him.

"Yes, thank you for coming. I just wanted to ask if you knew any secret, safe places that I could meet my mentor at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked.

"Youse could be using the Come and Go room!" happy answered cheerfully. "The house elvsies use it to store broken things. It's on the seventh floor and youse walk three times back and forth to open a door. It can be anything you wants."

Darya smiled at the house elf. "Thank you, happy. That is very helpful."

With a grin and a wave, happy popped away again, leaving the two water elves to gaze at one another.

"How about meeting there every Saturday night for lessons?" Sirius proposed. During the week he'd have too much work and hopefully he'd be able to sneak out of his dorm room with Remus' help.

"Sounds good to me. I have a much more flexible schedule than you, so it should work just fine." Darya agreed.

The two talked a little longer to plan how they'd meet before parting ways, with Darya vanishing into another room and Sirius going back through the passage and past a grumpy, exhausted looking Felix to the Common Room.

Remus was curled up on one of the couches waiting for him, half-asleep and Sirius flopped down on top of his tired mate playfully. Remus scrunched his nose up and shoved the elf carefully off of him, sitting up fully.

"You ready to head to bed, then? We're in a room with James and peter. It's the same arrangement as last year, we had an empty bed then." Remus said, taking Sirius' hand and leading him along to their room.

They got ready for bed and were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows. It had been a long day and everyone was exhausted.