Wizards & Therapies | An OC Wizarding World Fanfic

The Map

I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter! I finally handed in my paper, hence I will be able to focus on my writing once more. There should be around three-four more chapters. Based off that I will see if I am up for writing OotP or end it with a round-off of what may happen.

Song of the Day: Wild Flower by RM

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The map bore signs of use. There was a knick here and there, a little foxing around the edges, but it was the very map the Marauders had created back in their fifth year. They'd improved the map year by year. At first, it did not bore the dots that showed if anyone was around the corner. That improvement was Remus's doing. He had coaxed that spell out of Eliza when she looked up protective tomb incarnations.

Remus told her what had happened. Harry snuck out to Hogsmead with James' invisibility cloak and this map. How Harry got both, he had no idea. Remus was mad of course. They went through so much to keep him safe.

But when Harry told Remus he had seen Peter on the map, things started to fall into place.

Eliza's eyes scanned the paper, hoping to catch wind of the name that filled her heart with so much dread.

There was a missing piece of information, one which she desperately needed. The selkie told her he was waiting for her. But, she didn't have the time to go down and check. The light was fading outside. Eliza did not dare be caught alone in the dark with someone who was a potential murderer. Even more so if no one knew where she was going.

Did you not have the time, a voice in her head said. Or did you not want to?

The voice was soft, like a caressing mother chiding her child. It wasn't the voice of her mother. Her mother was never a big sound of reason in her life but stopped her from doing impulsive acts.

Remus rubbed his forehead.

"I don't know what to make of it."

"He wants to see me," Eliza said suddenly. But it wasn't clear. It was weak, a mumble under her breath.

"Pardon?"

"That day at the lake. The selkie told me that Sirius wanted to see me."

A dark look befell Remus' face.

"No."

"No?" Eliza felt numb. "Why not?"

"We need to access the situation first. Gather a lot more. And Eliza... he's not the man you knew."

"And I am not the person that he remembers either," Eliza added calmly.

"You can't duel him!"

"I can hex him."

"That is not the same," Remus pleaded. "He cornered you once. What is to say he won't sneak up on you again? I'm being realistic. Don't look for him alone."

"Well, then would you come with me?"

"Now? The sun is going down. The dementors will be out. You don't want to do this."

"What's better than nightfall?" It felt stupid. Impulsive. The true answer was to leave the castle now and talk to Sirius. They would get the answers they wanted.

But Remus was ever careful and sometimes unreasonable. Even more so when it was something he was headstrong about.

"I will try to find him," Eliza added cooly.

Remus eyed her. He said nothing, only his heavy breathing cutting through the tension. He was calming himself down. Talking about Sirius was working him up.

"I don't want him to hurt us. I don't want him to hurt you even more," Remus clenched his hands. "Is that not a simple wish? The wish for peace?"

"Peace and silence are two different things, Moony." Eliza felt her eyes sting.

She had left the wizarding world because she wanted peace. It disappointed her to no end. In that disappointment, the silence was her solace when it should have been justice. Remus must have thought the same, but his hands were tied more than hers. He was a werewolf. He did not have the privilege of raising his voice against the ministry. He did not have a name that used to be one of the Sacred Twenty-Nine.

But if she was going to do this, she would need someone on her side. The most important person to persuade in this whole ordeal.

She would need to share her thoughts with Dumbledore. She would need to let him into her most vulnerable hours, to the hours leading to Regulus's death.

"I will talk to Dumbledore," Eliza folded her hands in front of her. "I...I won't pursue Sirius just yet."

"What will you tell him?"

"Nothing that will shine a light on this -" she nodded towards the map. "Nothing about you."

Remus closed his eyes and she could feel the words run through his mind.

"Promise me you'll take care of yourself."

Eliza could not promise that because they both knew what it meant to go through the Pensieve.

***

He waited for her.

He was waiting in the trees that day by the lake. He watched them walk around the Great Lake, arm-in-arm and laughing. In his worst hours, he had thought that Remus and Eliza would love each other when he was gone. They had lived in the same apartment, it only made sense that they found solace with each other when he was gone. It didn't make him happy at all.

So when she talked to the mermaid and didn't come to him, it hurt him. He thought that she would come running, but he realized it was more because Remus was right there. She couldn't.

So he waited as Padfoot in the woods. Days went by and he didn't catch sight of her.

Crookshanks made his mood even worse. Scabbers, as that Weasley boy called him, was missing.

He knows that I am here, Sirius thought darkly.

He knew that he was going to have to strike now. Then he can go back to jail for his crimes.

But did he want to go back to Azkaban?

He thought of the day by the lake. He imagined what it was like if it had been him by Eliza's side, running a hand through her dark curly hair when the wind picked it up and blinded her sight.

He remembered when he first fell in love with her. It hadn't always been the case. She had seemed like a convinced pureblooded witch for the longest time and acted like she looked down on people, until one day she stopped. Sirius was too busy pissing his mother off at first, and when it was apparent that Eliza was to be matched with Regulus, he hated her even more. But after that, he noticed her. He had made it his business to annoy her until he realized she was in Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes. He noticed how she often kept Slytherins off Lily's back. He listened as she argued with Regulus to talk kinder under the guise that it would help persuade people more.

Then he kissed her. After all, he thought it would piss off Regulus, only to realize that he had wanted to do it because he liked her. But he knew that she could never be his. It would have broken everything she had worked for and endangered her life. But that didn't stop them from stealing a few kisses in the darkest corners of the castle for the longest time.

They graduated. A few months went by without her but he still thought about her.

And then she showed up saying Regulus was dead. She was his, but she also wasn't. There was no time during the war for them to talk about their relationship, and they acted as they had only that they were more open about it. Finding her walking down the corridor and cornering her had reminded him of that.

When the time came, Sirius would do better. He would court Eliza the proper way.

But until that day came, he would need to make his wrongs right. He needed to find Pettigrew. Maybe he will keep him alive if someone would listen to him.

And if no one would listen to him, he would kill Pettigrew.