Remus and Tonks find the Teller's Court full of music, with Dance and Sing in the center, entertaining those gathered. They are graceful, their movements reflecting both the appreciation of the musicians' skills, and their love for each other. As the werewolf and his Auror wife take the space Snape and Malfoy made for them, the performance ends, and Dance and Sing bow to one another. For some reason, there seems to be a strange air of discomfort, and the four companions look at each other questioningly. As Snape is about to speak, they hear shouting from behind them and the Dark wizard is the first to rise, his hand already reaching for his wand.
None can believe the sight that greets them: two Silhouettes pursuing a blond wolf, desperately trying to catch him. Snape, Dance and Remus immediately move to intercept him, but the wolf dodges them easily. Remus makes another attempt and succeeds, landing on his side hard with the struggling wolf in his arms. He holds the struggling wolf as tightly as he can without hurting him, and together with Dance and Snape they carry him back to the Court. Layne snaps at the air, his eyes tightly closed, and tries to escape his loved ones without doing them any harm. He cries and whines piteously, he howls and it is a heartbreaking, mournful sound. Malfoy tries to calm him as Remus holds him, but Layne's grief is so great even the White Wizard's healing magic has little effect.
Every breath the blond wolf exhales is accompanied by a shudder, and it is painful for all to see. Snape rounds on Dance, his teeth clenched and eyes narrowed. "What was in there? What did he see?" Dance sighs and places a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "Severus, I am sorry, but it is not for me to say, any more than it would be to tell them what you saw." Layne whines sorrowfully, huge tears filling his brilliant yellow eyes; they spill out onto his fur and his grief is palpable to everyone there, even Beltane. The wolf howls again as the swan gently nudges him from beside Malfoy, and Sing bites her lip. She kneels down in front of him and draws a gauzy garment out of the air, then drapes it around him.
As he releases his wolf form the thin cloth solidifies and becomes a beautiful robe, similar in color to a Hufflepuff's robes, and the front of it has darkened spots from his tears. He trembles violently as Remus lets him go and he collapses into Sing's arms. She doesn't try to soothe him, she only holds him as he cries. Anguished, sobbing, he tells them after several minutes, "I found my mother buried there, in the outer-most ring of graves around Uriel's." No one speaks for some time; all Snape and Malfoy feel they can do is rest their hands on his back. Finally, Layne adds, "she was buried beside my twin." He shudders once more, then says, "the twin I didn't remember I had, until I saw her."
Once he is calm enough, he explains that when he neared the Sacred Circles he shed his clothes and became his 'wolf self'; he could not bear going before one such as Uriel as a Man. He won't share with them what the Great Wolf shared with him and they do not ask; he tells them that it was a gift he will always cherish, and his loved ones are put at ease with that knowledge. Then he tells them, "after Uriel left me, I felt totally alone, but only for a moment. There was someone there with me, and I was almost afraid to turn around. Who else could be there for me to see? I was completely unprepared." He looks around at them, then sighs deeply. "It was a wolf cub," he says softly, and Tonks sits down on the ground beside Malfoy. She wants to ask him what the cub looked like, but she stops herself.
"She was just little, just a little baby," he says, his eyes tearing up again, "and pulled at my tail until I got up and followed her. She led me...she led me to her grave, and to our mother's." He wipes his eyes and sighs again. "She smelled like strawberries, this little cub, and that's what made me remember her. There were wild strawberries in the woods where we were living, and she would roll in the patches. The juice would stain her fur..." he breaks down and cries again, but he calms himself and pulls the robe tightly around him. "One day, while she was playing in a patch, something bit her, and because she was so small, by the time the healer came..." he shakes his head and Tonks sniffles. Malfoy puts a comforting arm around her and Layne says, "we were only three months old. She didn't stand a chance."
There is silence for a while, a silence broken only by Tonks sniffling and the birds trilling softly to each other. At last, Layne rises and stretches, shakes out his hair and helps Sing up. Malfoy and Remus rise, and the werewolf gives a hand up to his wife. He holds her close as they return to the bench as Snape finally sits back down, and Malfoy sits beside him. Layne picks Johnny Rook up and helps him up onto his shoulder. "Her name was Penny," he says, "my mother was a tremendous fan of The Beatles. Do you see the humor?" It takes a second, but Dance gets it. "Twin cubs, Penny and Layne." He nods, wiping his eyes quickly. "There were two songs, I could never understand why she cried so when she'd hear them, nor why she couldn't bear the smell of strawberries when I was growing up."
He turns away from them and walks over to the Harper, her face wet with tears. "On my fifteenth birthday, I came into the kitchen and found her baking my cake. She was listening to The Beatles and crying, just crying. I was scared, I'd never seen her like that. The songs were Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever...when my Mom saw me watching her, saw how afraid I was, she covered her face with a towel and practically ran out of the kitchen. My brother and sister were frightened too, and I wanted to try to comfort her, but my father," his breath catches in his throat, "my father told me to take my siblings to our friend's house for a while, and he would come for us when our mother was better." Hugging himself, Johnny Rook nipping his earlobe softly, Layne turns back to his loved ones.
"Sitting there at their graves, I suddenly had all the answers. And I got to see what Penny would have looked like if she had lived. If she had been able to take a human guise. She was beautiful," he says, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "And our mother never got to hold her." Confused glances are exchanged, but Snape understands. "She was a wolf when this happened..." Layne nods. "Glory Ashbough was an animagus. Her parents were fascinated by nature and spent their time in the wild places of the world. So it was no surprise to them that their daughter chose to be a wolf from time to time. When she met my father...she was studying the wolves in this area. He came back to see her every night for nearly a month, and finally, she agreed to meet his people in her wolf form."
He walks back to them slowly, then sits down on the end of a bench beside Remus. "They fell in love. My mother sacrificed a year of her human life to live as a wolf among my father's clan, to prove that her love for him was true. Penny and I were conceived of that love, and the whole clan not only rejoiced at our birth, the first of its kind that they had ever known, but they claimed Glory as their own. That is why she was buried here, in the Sacred Circles." He rubs his eyes, tired now, and looks sadly at his Familiar, then at his loved ones. "After Penny died, she gave up her wolf form. Her heart was broken, you must understand...she couldn't...she couldn't deal with the pain...and Merrick's people understood when she left me with them. They didn't fault her..." He looks up at the eternally midnight sky, and Tonks sobs. "Your mother left you?"
He smiles faintly. "What choice did she have, really? A young witch, alone and grieving, with a wolf cub she treats like her baby? She wasn't living here, where no one would have asked and everyone would have helped. She was living out there, in the Wizarding world...and how would that have looked for the daughter of respected members of the Pure-Blood community? I was, in human terms, an infant. I couldn't shift. I couldn't take a human guise. I belonged with my father and his clan." Malfoy's eyes glint with tears. "It must have been awful for your father...the loss of his daughter, and his mate..." Layne nods and rubs his knees. "It was. He couldn't deal with the separation; the month was not out before he'd found her in her new home. He showed up on her doorstep in his human guise with me in his arms, and she couldn't send us away."
Dance brings him a sweet wine and a light cherry tart to help him with his weariness. Sing shares refreshments with everyone else as well, and after half and hour or so of a heavy silence, Layne says, "my family thought, like almost everyone else did, that Greyback had killed me. My mother's heart couldn't take that blow; she died in her sleep...her sorrow was so great that she died in her sleep and my father's clan brought her here, to rest forever beside her baby girl." Remus rubs his back and Johnny Rook nudges him lovingly. "She told me she thinks my father went back to his people. My brother, Ian, could be anywhere, but my sister Grace, who's twelve years younger than me, would have gone with my father. They were always very close. She can shift. Ian...likely can, but I never saw him do it." Snape closes his eyes for a moment. "That's where you were going then, to find your father?"
Layne nods and covers his face to yawn sleepily. "Yes, and to grieve." His shoulders sag and he yawns again. "I feel like I could sleep for a couple of days now. Where is Ellie?" As if in response to his question, there is the sound of a whinny in the distance...
None can believe the sight that greets them: two Silhouettes pursuing a blond wolf, desperately trying to catch him. Snape, Dance and Remus immediately move to intercept him, but the wolf dodges them easily. Remus makes another attempt and succeeds, landing on his side hard with the struggling wolf in his arms. He holds the struggling wolf as tightly as he can without hurting him, and together with Dance and Snape they carry him back to the Court. Layne snaps at the air, his eyes tightly closed, and tries to escape his loved ones without doing them any harm. He cries and whines piteously, he howls and it is a heartbreaking, mournful sound. Malfoy tries to calm him as Remus holds him, but Layne's grief is so great even the White Wizard's healing magic has little effect.
Every breath the blond wolf exhales is accompanied by a shudder, and it is painful for all to see. Snape rounds on Dance, his teeth clenched and eyes narrowed. "What was in there? What did he see?" Dance sighs and places a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "Severus, I am sorry, but it is not for me to say, any more than it would be to tell them what you saw." Layne whines sorrowfully, huge tears filling his brilliant yellow eyes; they spill out onto his fur and his grief is palpable to everyone there, even Beltane. The wolf howls again as the swan gently nudges him from beside Malfoy, and Sing bites her lip. She kneels down in front of him and draws a gauzy garment out of the air, then drapes it around him.
As he releases his wolf form the thin cloth solidifies and becomes a beautiful robe, similar in color to a Hufflepuff's robes, and the front of it has darkened spots from his tears. He trembles violently as Remus lets him go and he collapses into Sing's arms. She doesn't try to soothe him, she only holds him as he cries. Anguished, sobbing, he tells them after several minutes, "I found my mother buried there, in the outer-most ring of graves around Uriel's." No one speaks for some time; all Snape and Malfoy feel they can do is rest their hands on his back. Finally, Layne adds, "she was buried beside my twin." He shudders once more, then says, "the twin I didn't remember I had, until I saw her."
Once he is calm enough, he explains that when he neared the Sacred Circles he shed his clothes and became his 'wolf self'; he could not bear going before one such as Uriel as a Man. He won't share with them what the Great Wolf shared with him and they do not ask; he tells them that it was a gift he will always cherish, and his loved ones are put at ease with that knowledge. Then he tells them, "after Uriel left me, I felt totally alone, but only for a moment. There was someone there with me, and I was almost afraid to turn around. Who else could be there for me to see? I was completely unprepared." He looks around at them, then sighs deeply. "It was a wolf cub," he says softly, and Tonks sits down on the ground beside Malfoy. She wants to ask him what the cub looked like, but she stops herself.
"She was just little, just a little baby," he says, his eyes tearing up again, "and pulled at my tail until I got up and followed her. She led me...she led me to her grave, and to our mother's." He wipes his eyes and sighs again. "She smelled like strawberries, this little cub, and that's what made me remember her. There were wild strawberries in the woods where we were living, and she would roll in the patches. The juice would stain her fur..." he breaks down and cries again, but he calms himself and pulls the robe tightly around him. "One day, while she was playing in a patch, something bit her, and because she was so small, by the time the healer came..." he shakes his head and Tonks sniffles. Malfoy puts a comforting arm around her and Layne says, "we were only three months old. She didn't stand a chance."
There is silence for a while, a silence broken only by Tonks sniffling and the birds trilling softly to each other. At last, Layne rises and stretches, shakes out his hair and helps Sing up. Malfoy and Remus rise, and the werewolf gives a hand up to his wife. He holds her close as they return to the bench as Snape finally sits back down, and Malfoy sits beside him. Layne picks Johnny Rook up and helps him up onto his shoulder. "Her name was Penny," he says, "my mother was a tremendous fan of The Beatles. Do you see the humor?" It takes a second, but Dance gets it. "Twin cubs, Penny and Layne." He nods, wiping his eyes quickly. "There were two songs, I could never understand why she cried so when she'd hear them, nor why she couldn't bear the smell of strawberries when I was growing up."
He turns away from them and walks over to the Harper, her face wet with tears. "On my fifteenth birthday, I came into the kitchen and found her baking my cake. She was listening to The Beatles and crying, just crying. I was scared, I'd never seen her like that. The songs were Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever...when my Mom saw me watching her, saw how afraid I was, she covered her face with a towel and practically ran out of the kitchen. My brother and sister were frightened too, and I wanted to try to comfort her, but my father," his breath catches in his throat, "my father told me to take my siblings to our friend's house for a while, and he would come for us when our mother was better." Hugging himself, Johnny Rook nipping his earlobe softly, Layne turns back to his loved ones.
"Sitting there at their graves, I suddenly had all the answers. And I got to see what Penny would have looked like if she had lived. If she had been able to take a human guise. She was beautiful," he says, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "And our mother never got to hold her." Confused glances are exchanged, but Snape understands. "She was a wolf when this happened..." Layne nods. "Glory Ashbough was an animagus. Her parents were fascinated by nature and spent their time in the wild places of the world. So it was no surprise to them that their daughter chose to be a wolf from time to time. When she met my father...she was studying the wolves in this area. He came back to see her every night for nearly a month, and finally, she agreed to meet his people in her wolf form."
He walks back to them slowly, then sits down on the end of a bench beside Remus. "They fell in love. My mother sacrificed a year of her human life to live as a wolf among my father's clan, to prove that her love for him was true. Penny and I were conceived of that love, and the whole clan not only rejoiced at our birth, the first of its kind that they had ever known, but they claimed Glory as their own. That is why she was buried here, in the Sacred Circles." He rubs his eyes, tired now, and looks sadly at his Familiar, then at his loved ones. "After Penny died, she gave up her wolf form. Her heart was broken, you must understand...she couldn't...she couldn't deal with the pain...and Merrick's people understood when she left me with them. They didn't fault her..." He looks up at the eternally midnight sky, and Tonks sobs. "Your mother left you?"
He smiles faintly. "What choice did she have, really? A young witch, alone and grieving, with a wolf cub she treats like her baby? She wasn't living here, where no one would have asked and everyone would have helped. She was living out there, in the Wizarding world...and how would that have looked for the daughter of respected members of the Pure-Blood community? I was, in human terms, an infant. I couldn't shift. I couldn't take a human guise. I belonged with my father and his clan." Malfoy's eyes glint with tears. "It must have been awful for your father...the loss of his daughter, and his mate..." Layne nods and rubs his knees. "It was. He couldn't deal with the separation; the month was not out before he'd found her in her new home. He showed up on her doorstep in his human guise with me in his arms, and she couldn't send us away."
Dance brings him a sweet wine and a light cherry tart to help him with his weariness. Sing shares refreshments with everyone else as well, and after half and hour or so of a heavy silence, Layne says, "my family thought, like almost everyone else did, that Greyback had killed me. My mother's heart couldn't take that blow; she died in her sleep...her sorrow was so great that she died in her sleep and my father's clan brought her here, to rest forever beside her baby girl." Remus rubs his back and Johnny Rook nudges him lovingly. "She told me she thinks my father went back to his people. My brother, Ian, could be anywhere, but my sister Grace, who's twelve years younger than me, would have gone with my father. They were always very close. She can shift. Ian...likely can, but I never saw him do it." Snape closes his eyes for a moment. "That's where you were going then, to find your father?"
Layne nods and covers his face to yawn sleepily. "Yes, and to grieve." His shoulders sag and he yawns again. "I feel like I could sleep for a couple of days now. Where is Ellie?" As if in response to his question, there is the sound of a whinny in the distance...