The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Flight of Bert and Ernie

The Flight of Bert and Ernie

Remus woke up suddenly from a dream. He couldn't remember all of it, echoing through his head was only the vague image of Sirius Black, calling him a monster... He closed his eyes and shook his head and ran a hand over his jumper... and realized the Charkorais birds weren't there on his chest like they had been when he'd fallen asleep. "Bert? Ernie?" he sat up, looking around, still groggy and spinny-headed from the dream. "Where are you at Bert?" Bert was the one that never, ever stopped peeping - this was probably the quietest he'd been ever in his whole little bird life.

Remus very carefully felt around the mattress.

The birds were entirely invisible by now, being almost a month old. Every now and then, Ernie would flicker into view a little tiny bit - more a shimmer or a reflection of light than really visible - but Bert was entirely invisible and Remus was afraid he might smush one of them if he moved too quickly...

Suddenly something bumped into his head.

He looked up and felt about in the air and felt little tiny claws close 'round his wrist. He could see the indentations, but not the feet that made them. "Bert? Ernie?" A second set of claws clutched onto his forearm. "Bloody hell, you lot scared me!" he said, frowning. He carefully put his other arm 'round the back of them, pulling them into his sweater. "Wait a second," he realizd suddenly, "You lot can fly now? Since when?! Hey!" He felt immensely proud and he got up, carefully keeping hold on the birds, and tucked them into the cage that Newt had built so they were easily found. He hurried out into the laboratory.

"Mr. Scamander! Mr. Scamander!" Remus scurried up to the desk where Newt Scamander was leaning over a load of sketches with a big funny monocle on one eye so that when he looked up at Remus, he looked as though one eyeball was four times larger than the other. "Bert and Ernie can fly!"

Newt Scamander looked impressed, "Already? Brilliant!"

"Yeah!" Remus was quite excited - possibly the most excited he'd been since his spat with Sirius. His face glowed.

"Excellent," Newt nodded, pleased, "This will be perfect timing for a trip to Cairo - we can leave tomorrow --"

"To Cairo?" Remus asked, "What's in Cairo?"

Newt answered, smiling, "Well the reserve where the Charkorais are from, of course. The egg was stolen from a friend of mine there and he's got a brilliant set up for the birds - brilliant. I told him we would see to it that the birds were healthy so that they wouldn't have a problem mixing with his other specimens, and since they're flying ---"

"We're - we're getting rid of them?" Remus looked crestfallen.

Newt shook his head, "Not getting rid of, no! We're bringing them where they belong, my boy, there's a vast difference."

Remus ran a hand over the loose thread on his jumper that they liked tugging on and cast his eyes downward. "Yeah."

"Surely you knew this day would come that we would have to free the Charkorais birds?"

Remus paused, "I thought... I thought you were gonna keep them... that I could visit them."

Newt Scamander lay a palm over Remus's shoulder, "You've done marvelously taking care of them, but all fantastic beasts have a place and they belong where they belong and we must respect that and be kind to them and let them go."

"What about the Niffler?" Remus pointed out. "She lives with you."

"Ah my poor Niffler," Newt said, glancing over where the Niffler's little toes were only just barely showing over the edge of the basket she was curled up in, "She's been with me so long that I very much doubt whether she would know what to do if I ever freed her. She stowed away, you know."