Marauders - Always - Part One

CLXV: Broken Glass

The silence that filled the room was palpable. The pack leaders who had been in their positions longest looked quickly down at the table top, biting their lips. The newer leaders glanced nervously between Remus Lupin and the newcomer, Storm. Mrs. Vane pulled her baby closer to her chest, covering the infant's head protectively as she cooed in his ear, eyes darting from Storm to Remus and back again. Even Verna was shaking her head and making the sign of the cross over her shoulders and forehead.

Remus stood, staring at Storm, for several long moments. His mind raced for some grand, bad-ass gesture he could do, some incredible one-liner that was so great it could've been torn right out of some hit Hollywood movie. What would Sirius do? he found himself thinking. He took a deep breath, aware of nearly every eye on him, and especially of Storm's smirk as he waited to see the response Remus would give.

"What? No answer for that?" Storm taunted. 

Remus's fist clutched tighter on his wand-cane and he closed his eyes. In his mind, he could hear Sirius Black's laughter - that mad, wild laughter that his husband was so well known for. What could only be described as the full blown spirit of Sirius Black possessed Remus for a moment as the low bass line of Queen's Another One Bites the Dust went through Remus's mind and his lip twisted into a smile as he opened his eyes.

He lifted the cane, shook it once - it went from cane to wand before their eyes - and Stewie's eyes widened as he leaned forward eagerly. Remus waved his hands - wand clutched in one - over his head from back to front as though hurling an invisible basket ball into a hoop at the far end of he room. With the motion, the large round stained glass window over the huge doors burst, showering shards of glass in and downward like a colorful glass rain.... Then, as he drew his hands backward over his shoulders, the arched windows on each side shattered in unison one set at a time front to back, matching the position of his hands as he moved, stretching out his palms. He flicked his wand and a silver shield charm formed over the table and its occupants, stopping the glass as it fell over them like an umbrella so that it the sound was like a wave crashing on the shore, but far more colorful as the shards spun down - blue and yellow, red and green, purple and rosey pink. The glass pooled on top of the shield charm, creating a stained glass effect to their bubble, the sunlight pouring through the now wide-opened arches overhead freely and illuminating the shards. He held the charm the whole time they settled and landed until every last piece of glass had fallen into place upon the top of the protective bubble. When it had, he paused, weakened the charm slightly so that it bowed under the pressure of the glass, and then with a quick motion of his hands, he'd thrown the charm off - the protective bubble bursting up and flinging the shards of glass into the air. Remus paused and then waved his wand in a quick series of jabbing motions and as the glass flew up from the protective bubble he'd just shattered, they now twisted and spun back into the window frames, piece by piece, repairing themselves back into their original forms... settling in... as though nothing at all had happened.

Silence returned over the room.

Remus sat down and picked his tea up from the table, taking a sip, and then looking down the row at Storm, who stared up at the windows, wild-eyed. 

Brixton was laughing under his breath and had turned to Gerry and the pair of them were nodding, smirking, laughing at the shocked expressions the others had. 

"Sweet Jaysus an' a donkey," whispered the woman with the baby, clutching her son to her chest, her eyes staring up at the glass windows, which looked as remarkably untouched as they 'd done before she'd watched them shattered and empty framed. Her eyes darted about the chamber. 

"If I had any questions that would've done for me," muttered Gerry. "How 'bout it bub?" he asked, glancing down the row at Storm.

Verna was shaking her head in disbelief or admiration.