Burning fires and Goodnights

The fire cackled happily. Apples were crunched, mugs of tea were being sipped. Little children were nodding off on the couch. Altogether, it was a peaceful scene. But the atmosphere in the air was anything but peaceful. The adults in the room were scared, tense, and upright. Sitting on the couch with the children was a woman with black, curly hair and a worried face. She was curled up against her tall husband.

Reclined back in a deep armchair, there was a man nervously balancing his teacup on his knee. The firelight illuminated his tired face, with greyish hair surrounding it.

Dark, hollow eyes bore deep into the flickering fire, the eyes belonging to a tall thin figure, hunched up on the pouffe. He was holding his cup as if he had forgotten how to hold one, perhaps he had. He had the air of someone who is lost, someone who knows not what to do or say.

The voices were silent in the room. They had talked for hours of many things . . .

Of ships, and sails and sealing wax and cabbages and kings (A/N Sorry! Sorry. . . that just slipped out)

They had talked of events past and recent. . .there seemed now to be nothing left that they could say, and a great many things that they wished to say but dared not to. There was just that uncomfortable silence. The only peaceful figure (besides the sleeping children) in the room was a young girl, curled up in a chair with a book, oblivious to her surroundings.

The blacked haired woman glanced fretfully up at the clock The clock, which was a very odd clock for this household, considering it was just an average muggle clock, albeit an old fashioned one, read 10:30. She whispered to her husband, "Roger? Perhaps we'd better take these kids up to bed."

"I'll do it." Roger replied. " You stay here." Carrying the two small ones in his arms, he carefully exited up the stairs..

The departure of the little ones did nothing to ease the tension... there were too many events, too many memories to make this meeting comfortable.

"Anyway. . . ." said the dark haired woman.

"Well. . . ." said the man in the chair. Voices heard by nobody but them seemed to fill the air. The past . . . would it never leave?

"I guess. . . ." started the woman.

"Anyway. . . ." continued the armchair man.

"Well. . . ." The woman paused again, at loss for words. Then she found a subject to form a sentence upon. "Callie. You should be in bed." she said sternly.

A pained expression was in the green eyes of her daughter. Why did her mother have to be so darned oppressive all the time?

Sensing yet another confrontation between mother and daughter, the man in the armchair quickly asked, "What're you reading, Callie?"

"The Amber Spyglass. Philip Pullman. I got it and some other books for my birthday." answered the girl.

"From whom?" the man continued conversationally.

The girl paused. She glanced at her mother, whose lips were in a tight white line. Turning back to the man, she stuttered: " Well. . .umm. . . I'm not quite sure. They arrived in a package. . . muggle post." Roger was muggle born, and kept close ties with that world. Thus, the Wilberforce family received both wizard and muggle mail. " There was no card, no signature, no note or . . .anything. Just the books. . . And they were books that I had been looking for. . . for a very long time, as well. Like this one here." She gestured to the novel in her lap. "I had been waiting three years for it to come out. . . and then, this came. . . signed by the author too. . . ."

She trailed off, noticing the dark expression on her Mum's face. "Well. . . that's interesting. . . ." began the man.

"Interesting!" the woman's voice came sharply. "Interesting! It's too mysterious for my taste!" Siria's face was white and her eyes were flaming with anger and frustration. " I wished that I had just burned those books!" she continued.

"Oh goodness, Siri. You're making a bit of fuss of noth-" started the man.

"Nothing?!" interrupted the woman. "I'll tell you what I think, Remus! I think that Cal-"

But she too was interrupted. A half growl came from the fireside. "Leave her alone, Rea."

The voice was the voice of the silent man upon the pouffe. "Just shut up and leave her alone."

"But. . . ." Siri stopped when she saw who was speaking.

There was silence again. (A/N, I seem to like silence don't I? Twilight in my next part!)

"Callie. You should go to bed. . . ." said Siri again.

The girl stood up, hugged her mother good night, said, "'Night Mum, good night Uncle Remus." She walked to the door, paused. Looking back into the dim room, she said, "And goodnight. . . Uncle Sirius."

The man jerked at the sound of his name. For a second he was unsure of how to reply, then he remembered from his distant past. . . . "Goodnight . . .Calandra." The girl smiled, and left the room.

A cry of a child sounded from upstairs. Noting it, the man in the armchair stood up. "I suppose we'd better be going now, too."

"Yes." said the woman, standing up as well. "I think Roger needs my help upstairs."

"We'll see you in the meeting tomorrow?" asked Remus.

Siri grimaced. "We're not going to be able to miss it."

"Well. . . then, goodnight, I guess. I'll see you at Hogwarts."

"G'night boys. . . I'll see you tomorrow."

Moments later, all that was left in the room were the dying embers of the fire.

Five minutes later, and many miles away, there was another fire going. The flames it reflected were of a much less cosier room, though. The few pieces of furniture were shabby . Equally shabby were the robes that it illuminated. The owner of these robes stood up from where he had been making the fire. "Well, that's that."

"Remus?" A voice sounded from the darkness.

"Yes, Sirius?"

"Did we tell Rea about my being an Animagus?"

Remus frowned into the firelight, "I don't seem to recall that we did. . . but we must have. The story is unexplainable without the Animagi factor. . . "

"Yes, yes, I know that." said Sirius impatiently. "But I don't recall her having any sort of reaction. Wouldn't you think that she would?"

Remus ran over the events of the evening in his head, "That's right. She didn't. But... are you thinking that she knew about it before?"

: Sirius shrugged. "That thought crossed my mind. I don't see how though. We never told the girls, did we?

"Unless. . . :" Remus paused. "Unless. . . James told Lily and Lily told Siri."

"A possibility."

"Well that would explain it."

"Yes, it would."

"But. . ." Remus felt that something was not being said.

: "It just doesn't seem right, somehow." Sirius explained.

"Well. . . it's not important anyway." Remus brushed the conversation aside as he left the room. "The story's told. . . and there's that meeting tomorrow. 'Night."

"'Night."

The form of a black dog curled up upon the hearth rug.

There was a room that was very mugglish. In fact, you could probably find no room that was more mugglish than this. The furniture, the decorations, everything was neat, and dead dull and boring. Yet in that room, that room, there were two robed figures sitting by the gas fireplace.

One spoke, "Igh, and you call this a fire. Why, a spark is better than this! How can you live like this?"

Another voice laughed bitterly, "Well, I manage. Which is what I have been doing for years."

The first voice was hesitant. "You'll be there tomorrow, won't you?"

The bitter voice replied, "I don't have much choice, do I? Why even bother to ask?"

"Merely for conversation's sake."

"I don't like conversation. " retorted the second voice.

"Really?" said the first voice lightly. "Could have fooled me."

"Seera, please. I'm in no mood for jesting."

A sigh came from the original voice. "Yes, of course." A pause. "I should be going now. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." the other figure whispered, as she stared at the impersonal gas fireplace, and tried to imagine it as something else.

Thank yous now. Firstly, everlasting appreciation goes out to Andrew, for beta-reading this, and for being the great person he is (sorry, Ange! Had to put that in there.) Thank you to all my reviewers, : Lily Evans Potter, Bri- Lei, Sarah Weasley, Spunky, I Am Canadian, Aria* (Lily was friends with anyone who liked books. . . in my version of her. ) E K Nighthawk (No . . .in the first chapter she didn't know that he wasn't guilty. . .but she does now. ) Ariana, Mariel Avalon, Svolkame, Rebecca, VyingQuill, Lilly Potter and everyone that reviewed the prologue.

Please be kind and review this one?