Marauders - Always - Part One

CXCIII: Your Dad's Determination and Your Mum's Spirit

There was a memorial stone there now. Sirius didn't know when the stone had been put up, but he recognized the magic. In his dog form, he could almost smell it. At some point, Remus Lupin had travelled to Hogsmeade and, even with his terrible knee, made his way up the side of a mountain and stood in this very spot to place the stone that Sirius now stood before - in human form because it seemed disrespectful to be any thing else.

Professor Theodore "Ned" Veigler, 1951 - 1978, Beloved Brother - He was a Very Good Man, but a Very Terrible Wolf

Sirius stared at the stone, then ran his palm over the face of it, his fingers slipping between the grooves of the etched-in lettering. He could picture Remus sitting here in this spot and carving this stone with these words. He peered over the edge of the cliffside at the village far below, blurry from distance, and beyond it, rising up from it's hill, nestled among the trees of the Forbidden Forrest, Hogwarts. The spires of the castle pointed into the grey-blue sky, clouds slipping past. He could see the specks of owls fluttering around the owlery and the occasional thestral breaking the tree cover and flying along the surface of the water.

It was a beautiful place. Before it had become Ned Veigler's death place, Sirius had thought it might be a nice place to come and have picnics on a date and he'd joked about as much - right there, he thought looking at the boulder he'd suggested Remus lean him up against. Sirius flushed and looked away from the boulder, back to the memorial stone.

The cave behind him was mostly closed in from the blast that had emitted from Remus's own wand that day, a defensive measure, an attempt to kill Voldemort and the Death Eaters who had taken the life of Ned Veigler. Remus had boldly shot a bombarda into the roof of it and collapsed the entire open mouth of stone, been nearly crushed himself beneath it all. It was clear that there had been some attempt to excavate the cave since then, by either Remus himself, looking for a body to bury, or else by some member of the Order, Sirius reckoned. Stones had been moved aside and stacked, clearly by magic, creating a gap.

A person couldn't fit through that gap.

But a dog could.

Sirius had slipped into the gap and explored a bit in the back of the cave. There was a solid back wall with no fissures in the back, and enough space that, once he was in, he could easily transform to human. There was room to stretch and breathe in there without being exposed to the elements - or to wandering eyes. He'd found a nice place among the trees just 'round the bend, too, where Buckbeak - er, Witherwings that is - had built himself a nest and found quite a lot of wild things to eat. The hippogriff was rather happy there.

He'd managed to slip into the inn with Oliver Kent several more times that week - though some nights Oliver had kicked him out, most of the nights Oliver seemed to be almost warming up to the idea of having another creature in the room with him. He didn't talk to the dog, but he did drop scraps of the dinners he brought back from the pub and Sirius had done pretty well for himself off the bits and pieces Oliver gave the dog. But the nights he wasn't invited there, he'd been tredding the steps up the mountain side and slipping into the cave to protect from the howling wind.

He had to get into inn tonight, though, one way or another.

Tonight, he was to meet Harry in the floo.

Sirius watched the students milling about in the village below, their black uniforms making them look like ants milling about an overturned stone, clustering and rushing about. He wondered if Harry was down there and reckoned he must be - after all, Sirius himself, as godfather, had signed Harry's permission slip for him to go to the village with the other students. Harry needn't to sneak about to go this year. Surely he would be taking advantage of the day, spending it with his friends, drinking butterbeers and having a good laugh.