Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

She began to wish she hadn´t dropped Care of Magical Creatures after fifth year — there were all sorts of beasts and beast-people rushing to and fro, some which she recognized and some which she just wished she did. There were centaurs trotting purposefully and looking stern, pointy-eared, haughty women in long silky dresses who could only be elves, and a number of very short, very hairy, angry-looking creatures who sat around one of the campfires clanging brass tankards together and singing in off-key voices.

Benjamin paused, and with a muttered "Wait here," to Hermione and the others, ducked into a small blue tent.

Ron reached over and rubbed Hermioneś arms. "You look cold."

"I am cold. Itś freezing. And those little singing men are making me nervous."

"Dwarves," muttered Ron, into Hermioneś ear. "Read about them in history class. Mean little buggers but good fighters. Get them drunk, they´ll run around axing everyoneś legs off at the knee."

"They´re awfully hairy," put in Ginny, looking at the dwarves suspiciously.

"And gender does seem to be optional," observed Ron. As if they had heard him, the dwarves glanced over and glared at the three of them out of many pairs of little red eyes. A moment later, they had gone back to singing more loudly and raucously than before.

The chimneys were dirty at Mrs. McFry's

And I'll grant they were worse down at Molly O'Clue's But the chimney sweep said, with a gleam in his eye

"I've got a great tool here for cleaning the fluuuuuues!

For I may be a tiny chimney sweep

With a tiny grimy face

But I'm carrying a broom that makes strong girls weep Won't you let me up, up, up your fireplace? *

Benjamin poked his head out of the tent. "She said she wants to see the Heirs," he said, looking at Hermione and Ginny. "Just the Heirs."

He looked at Ron. "You´ll have to wait here."

"No." Hermione shook her head before Ron managed to say anything. "We won´t go in without Ron."

Benjamin looked as if he didn´t believe he had heard her correctly.

"You won´t what?"

"We won´t go in without Ron," Hermione repeated. "Can´t you tell her that?"

Benjamin stepped out of the tent, drawing the flap shut behind him.

"I don´t think you understand," he said, his voice sharp with anger.

"Sheś dying. Sheś the greatest witch of our age, and sheś dying.

She gave everything she had in defeating the Snake Lord and it killed her. Sheś only kept herself alive this long because she wanted to see you. She was waiting for you. Sheś been like a mother to me my whole life and these past two days I´ve had to watch her suffer and wait for you, so I´m sorry if it seemed like I don´t like you, but as far as I´m concerned you´re the only reason sheś still here and in pain, and-"

"Benjamin!" Hermione interrupted, shocked. "I´m sorry. We didn´t know."

He nodded, obviously ashamed of his outburst.

Hermione exchanged a quick glance with Ron and Ginny, who were both as obviously taken aback as she was. Not to mention that it was difficult to watch someone who looked so much like Harry be angry and unhappy, even if they did know that it wasn´t him.

"I´ll wait outside," said Ron quietly. "Itś fine."

Benjamin nodded. The unhappy look around his eyes eased slightly.

"I´ll wait with you." He turned back to the tent, and pulled the flap back open for Hermione and Ginny. Ginny hesitated a moment, then ducked through; Hermione paused at the entrance, and looked back at Ron. He returned her anxious glance, blue eyes bright under his sooty hair, and winked.

She bit her lip. "Ron, be careful. Don´t go anywhere. And don´t get in a fight with the dwarves. And — "

"And don´t eat to much chocolate or I´ll get sick. I´m not going to fight with the dwarves, Hermione. Get along with you."

"Itś just that they look like they´ve been doing kind of a lot of…you know," said Hermione, miming the gesture of someone picking up a tankard and downing it.

"Thumb-sucking?" hazarded Ron, looking at her curiously.

"Drinking," hissed Hermione in exasperation.

"Don´t look at me like that. I´m not the one who needs to brush up on her finger pantomime."

Hermione threw up her hands and glanced over at Benjamin. "Look after him," she said, ignoring Ronś glare and quite conscious of how silly it looked, telling a twelve-year old to look after a boy four years older. But she didn´t care. With a last quelling glance at the both of them, she ducked into the blue tent after Ginny.

Because the wards around Lily and Jamesóld house prevented Apparating within a half-mile radius, Lupin and Sirius Apparated into Godricś Hollow High Street instead. Godricś Hollow was a small, inoffensive little wizarding town just on the Welsh side of the border with England. "Itś green, Remus, really green," Lupin remembered James having told him at school, and he had at first thought that James meant that the lush Welsh land around his hometown was green. But no, he had meant the town itself, which was indeed green — the shop fronts along the High Street were painted in shades ranging from emerald to lime, picked out with accents of blue, white and gold. A scarlet Welsh flag snapped in the stiff breeze overhead, its gold dragons fluttering above the words Y

Ddraig Goch Ddyry Cychwyn.

Narrow little cobblestone streets wound through the shops and houses. In the distance, Lupin could see the rise of the hills behind the town, dark green and gray. Though it had been clear at the Manor, it was cloudy here; the sky was slate-colored and lowering.

Lupin shivered and pulled the collar of his travelling cloak up around his ears.

If any of the inhabitants of Godricś Hollow had noticed the two wizards who had suddenly Apparated into their midst, they didn´t show it. Nobody looked at Sirius or Lupin as they wended their way down the street that led out of town, past a candy shop with a display of Scrum! Chocolates in the window, (a glowering photograph of Viktor Krum loomed over the pile of gaily wrapped sweets. "Scrum! The new brand of candies personally endorsed by the famous Bulgarian Seeker.") and a pub called The Slug and Lettuce.

"James and I used to play darts there," said Sirius, as they passed under the sign, which seemed to be made out of a real leaf of lettuce, and out of which a small glowing slug was taking contented bites. "It was the only game I was better at than him."

"You might have been decent at Quidditch if they´d let you play on the motorcycle," Lupin grinned. "What happened to your bike, anyway?"

"Hagrid had it for a while. He gave it back to me after the acquittal, but I haven´t had the heart to use it. The last place I ever flew on it was…well, here, and — anyway, I´ve got Buckbeak now."

"So where is it?"

"I had it stored in my vault at Gringottś. Why? You want to borrow it?"

"Not really my favored mode of transport, but thank you."

"Itś a girl magnet, that bike."

"Thatś nice."

"Which reminds me. Are you bringing anyone to the wedding?

Because Narcissa has this friend who doesn´t have anyone to go with, and I thought you might be willing to do us a favor and be her escort. She used to be an Auror and she really likes dogs, so the wolf thing probably won´t be a problem…"

Lupin paused in the middle of the street and looked at his friend with deep suspicion. "Are you trying to set me up, Sirius?"

"What? No," said Sirius, looking indescribably shifty. "Never…"

"Sirius…"

Sirius abandoned all effort at pretense. "Oh, come on, Moony. You need to get out more. Meet someone. I always thought I would be the last bachelor, but you…well, aren´t you bored?"

Lupin growled. " For your information, I lead a rich and varied social life."