The Marauders: Year Four

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Breaking Up is Hard To Do

They were learning about augureys in Care of Magical Creatures class. Professor Kettleburn had one of the smoke-grey birds in a black iron cage, on loan from the Ministry. "When it rains, the augurey appears closer to a shade of emerald than she does now in the sunlight," Kettleburn explained, running a hand over the feathers of the bird, which looked mournfully about at him. "The augurey cry indicates when it is about to rain... Many superstitious wizards of ages past were foolish enough to believe that the cry of the augurey foretold a death, but research by Newt Scamander has since proven this old-witch's tale incorrect..."

Sirius was concentrating very, very hard on his textbook and the bird, trying to ignore the stares from Marlene McKinnon, who was sitting on the opposite side of the cluster of students before Kettleburn. He turned his eye downward and caught a flash of green ink on Remus's parchment. He'd drawn an impeccable illustration of the augurey. "Wow," Sirius said, "You've done a grand job of that."

"Thanks," said Remus quietly.

Sirius watched as Remus worked. He had a box of muggle pencils and markers of all different colors that he was using to add detail to the sketch, shading in areas that needed to be darker and highlighting parts where the sun reflected off the feathers... Sirius was reminded of the muggle boy he used to watch, what seemed like hundreds of years ago, drawing in the park... He remembered zooming in with the omnioculars to see the boy's sketches, thinking that Spencer - for that was the boy's name, he remembered from the brief encounter he'd had with him - might have been a muggle, but there was magic made in his sketchbook. Sirius realized he felt very much the same about Remus's drawings.

"You've captured the sadness in its eyes," he whispered.

"It's the way the light reflects them," Remus answered. He looked around and his eyes caught Marlene's. "You have an audience, Sirius."

"I know," Sirius whispered.

"She looks sadder than the augurey."

"Don't say that," Sirius pleaded.

Remus looked up at him. "Are you going to talk to her today?"

Sirius looked uncomfortable, "I dunno..."

Remus took a deep breath and looked away from Marlene, "You really should, you know. Dragging her along like this when you don't really want to be with her isn't very fair. You should let her go if you're going to."

"I know."

Kettleburn's voice broke over their whispered conversation, "Nothing in this world sounds as heart-wrenchingly awful as the augurey's soulful cry..."

"'Cept maybe that of the girl who's heart you've just shattered," muttered Sirius, watching as Remus added flecks of silver along the edges of the tear shaped nest he'd sketched as a backdrop for his drawing.

When class had ended, Sirius drew a deep breath and dawdled, waving Peter, James and Remus on without him. "You're alright?" Remus asked as he closed the book of parchment he'd been using for his sketches. He stared at Sirius with imploring eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be alright," Sirius replied.

Remus peeked to his right and saw that Marlene was hovering, watching as Sirius and Remus talked. "Are you sure you want to break up with her? You were very happy at the end of last term..."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah." He sighed, "A lot's changed since then... and... I dunno, I can't really talk to her the way I ought to be able to talk to somebody that I care about that way." His throat burned a bit and he realized that he'd been staring directly into Remus's eyes, which were honey in color at the moment. "When you love someone you... you ought to be able to tell them anything."