Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

25 June, 1994 - Seaside

The walk along the beach was a warm and sunny one under the late morning sun and though the silence between Sirius and Lavinia was rather short of comfortable, it was, at least, no longer a heavy, painful thing. The truth was that there were still things both of them needed to say, truths that would have to be admitted to at one point or another, but at least for now, they both seemed content to leave those things for later.

Lavinia was more than grateful for this. As far as she was concerned, this morning had already been stressful enough and given how little sleep she'd gotten last night, she was in no mood to make it worse, especially not with conversations where she would have to explain herself and her actions when her brain was exhausted from the frankly ridiculous amount of thinking she'd already had to do. Really, she would have liked to just take a nap, or else curl up on the couch with a book and have a calm, easy day with absolutely no surprised whatsoever.

On this front, however, she was rather out of luck, tough not at all in the way she'd anticipated.

She and Sirius had been walking along the beach for several minutes when a very loud, trilling sort of caw sounded from their right and Lavinia jumped rather badly, knocking sideways into Sirius who laughed slightly as he caught her and set her straight again, his hands lingering on her shoulder for perhaps longer than was absolutely necessary for her to regain her balance even if one did take into account the less than stable sand underfoot. Lavinia, however, elected to ignore the little detail of his hands on her arms in favor of the more pressing matter of a very large and less than happy looking beast staring her down with eyes that seemed to glow even in the bright sun.

"I did say there was a hippogriff," Sirius pointed out rather drily, watching her with an amused expression as she stared and stared at the utterly massive beast standing at the entrance to the cave not ten feet from them that she hadn't even noticed they'd been near.

"I'm not entirely sure I believed you until now," Lavinia murmured, frowning at the creature and trying, through the fog of her shock, to remember what on Earth a person was supposed to do when faced with a hippogriff that didn't particularly seem to appreciate her presence.

Sirius snorted. "Would I lie to you?" he asked jokingly.

Lavinia didn't bother looking at him, instead keeping her gaze on the beast whose molten orange eyes were fixed on her with rather unnerving intensity. "I don't think you want to get into that right now," she replied softly, intending to make the words sound light and teasing, but failing miserably as her voice came out flat and hollow. Which, she supposed, was only natural. That was one of the many many issues they had not addressed at all. Not that this was the moment.

And perhaps Sirius realized that because he didn't respond, though Lavinia thought she might have seen him wince out of the corner of her eyes. She ignored the expression, in part because she didn't want to get into that particular problem right now and in part because that great winged beast was now clicking its beak at her in a slightly menacing fashion that had Lavinia drawing back ever so slightly.

"You're supposed to bow," Sirius murmured from next to her, putting a steadying hand on her elbow as he said it.

Lavinia snapped him a look, weighing the mild amusement in his voice. He quirked an eyebrow at her and gestured her forwards. Deciding he wasn't stupid enough to play some silly prank on her right and now and thinking that bowing sounded vaguely familiar, Lavinia returned her gaze to the creature. Then, feeling rather foolish, she bent at the waist, keeping her eyes locked on those bright orange ones that gleamed slightly as she moved. It occurred to her as she watched the beast watching her that this would be a very good opportunity for the hippogriff to sink that sharp, still clicking beak into her now exposed neck if it decided it didn't like her, regardless of her subservient posture. But perhaps that was the point - to show trust. A ridiculous idea, really, because she didn't see where this creature got off demanding she trust it when it so clearly didn't trust her, but... well. If it worked, it worked. And if it didn't...