.full.waning.
The man standing in the center is the dreamer.
You know him, or have seen him in past broadcasts, or can't understand why the first person perspective on this forge is not its owner. It's Sirius Black.
Because who, especially himself, could ever identify Remus Lupin with this situation.
The stonework etchings at his feet gained in dimension around the edges. It rose into pinnacles, a circle of columns. This altar, this arena, complete with high priestess referee: Lily-no, Shirley, who opened her white hands and off them into the middle stepped the Weird Sisters of his Anatole. To the left stood Lust-Iolanthe. To the right, Doran't-say-it V. Tonks. At the apex, Behellatrix Lestrange.
They stood before him calmly, apparently free. Even with Hughes and Arthur playing chess behind him, and Asellus sparring with River between the columns, sword against riddles, it was obvious and true: Tonks and Io were prisoners. Any second, Bellatrix would kill one of them.
Bellatrix looked Sirius evenly in the eyes. She gave a reptilian smile. "You know how," she said serenely. So content, so gleeful to have her cousin in her thrall. Her eyes stabbed his. "You know what comes next."
At the edges, River shot out, "Nothing's next until it happens." The words successfully turned aside Asellus's sword.
Out beyond, James-no, Hughes, trapped Arthur's bishop-which was Merlin, who shrugged ruefully to the knight, Freya. Rex the rook and Scar the king exchanged a look. Which queen to sacrifice?
Sirius looked at Io. Black locked on violet. I remember you in my arms, and me in yours, the shadow of your hair, a refuge in the dark. I know the dangerous place, most deadly to you; the single point of softness which you think of as a gem a solid shard, but was soft after all and you let grow and envelop me; how I must have rent it to ribbons when I tore away
Then he looked at Dora.
In that moment, the dreamer was not Sirius one bit. He was entirely, rawly, Remus.
Because that's what loving Dora did. Like nothing else in worlds. It made him himself.
Both women looked back unreadably.
Sirius, again, looked back at Bellatrix. She licked a shadow from her lips.
Shirley-Lily raised her hand. Time for his move.
Slowly, the corner of Sirius's mouth curved into a lopsided smile.
"You know what comes next," Shirley, River and Bellatrix said at once.
Sirius laughed. Richly, resonantly, carelessly, giving it his whole body. The way Sirius always laughed and Remus never could.
"I choose neither," said Sirius. The chessboard toppled, the columns curved. "Neither of them needs me to save her."
Bellatrix arched an eyebrow. Simultaneously, Tonks and Io turned, and with wandbeam and bladefinger, ran her through.
As between them the shadow that had been Lestrange crumpled away, they turned from it to him. Io's blades shone in the Mist, by the light of Dora's wand.
Sirius smiled at them. With the kind of love he showed to so few, with which he would claim their devotion forever.
He opened his arms and put back his head. He kept smiling, satisfied and calm, as their weapons beam and blade drove as one for his heart.
You know him, or have seen him in past broadcasts, or can't understand why the first person perspective on this forge is not its owner. It's Sirius Black.
Because who, especially himself, could ever identify Remus Lupin with this situation.
The stonework etchings at his feet gained in dimension around the edges. It rose into pinnacles, a circle of columns. This altar, this arena, complete with high priestess referee: Lily-no, Shirley, who opened her white hands and off them into the middle stepped the Weird Sisters of his Anatole. To the left stood Lust-Iolanthe. To the right, Doran't-say-it V. Tonks. At the apex, Behellatrix Lestrange.
They stood before him calmly, apparently free. Even with Hughes and Arthur playing chess behind him, and Asellus sparring with River between the columns, sword against riddles, it was obvious and true: Tonks and Io were prisoners. Any second, Bellatrix would kill one of them.
Bellatrix looked Sirius evenly in the eyes. She gave a reptilian smile. "You know how," she said serenely. So content, so gleeful to have her cousin in her thrall. Her eyes stabbed his. "You know what comes next."
At the edges, River shot out, "Nothing's next until it happens." The words successfully turned aside Asellus's sword.
Out beyond, James-no, Hughes, trapped Arthur's bishop-which was Merlin, who shrugged ruefully to the knight, Freya. Rex the rook and Scar the king exchanged a look. Which queen to sacrifice?
Sirius looked at Io. Black locked on violet. I remember you in my arms, and me in yours, the shadow of your hair, a refuge in the dark. I know the dangerous place, most deadly to you; the single point of softness which you think of as a gem a solid shard, but was soft after all and you let grow and envelop me; how I must have rent it to ribbons when I tore away
Then he looked at Dora.
In that moment, the dreamer was not Sirius one bit. He was entirely, rawly, Remus.
Because that's what loving Dora did. Like nothing else in worlds. It made him himself.
Both women looked back unreadably.
Sirius, again, looked back at Bellatrix. She licked a shadow from her lips.
Shirley-Lily raised her hand. Time for his move.
Slowly, the corner of Sirius's mouth curved into a lopsided smile.
"You know what comes next," Shirley, River and Bellatrix said at once.
Sirius laughed. Richly, resonantly, carelessly, giving it his whole body. The way Sirius always laughed and Remus never could.
"I choose neither," said Sirius. The chessboard toppled, the columns curved. "Neither of them needs me to save her."
Bellatrix arched an eyebrow. Simultaneously, Tonks and Io turned, and with wandbeam and bladefinger, ran her through.
As between them the shadow that had been Lestrange crumpled away, they turned from it to him. Io's blades shone in the Mist, by the light of Dora's wand.
Sirius smiled at them. With the kind of love he showed to so few, with which he would claim their devotion forever.
He opened his arms and put back his head. He kept smiling, satisfied and calm, as their weapons beam and blade drove as one for his heart.