Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 20

*7th Year*

One breakfast time, Remus was sitting with with the rest of the Marauders as usual when something very unusual happened. His friends had been discussing the upcoming full moon whilst he had been running over the Ukrainian words he had learned in his most recent lesson with Mariya. He was becoming quite good at the language and Mariya had been teaching him about the culture, specifically the folklore.

Practically the entire school was sitting at the long tables when the candles suddenly started to dim, fading into darkness as the hall was lit by a blue glow from above. When Remus looked up, he saw a word written across the ceiling in ghostly blue. To most people it would mean nothing, but Remus recognised the word - Казка (Kazka) - it was the Ukrainian word for a fairy tale, and indeed as he thought the translation, the magic almost seemed to fulfil it. The word did not diminish but streams of light began to stretch from it, fluttering around in the hall for a moment before they began to descend towards the students. Some people screamed out of fear but Remus knew that they would not be harmful and was more curious to see what they were. They seemed to sense the fear radiating from some people and avoided them as they approached the more confident students. Remus reached a hand into the air to receive the streak heading towards him and smiled as it alighted on his palm to reveal a shimmering pale blue . Wisps of blue light continues to emanate from it as it rested there for a second before it seemed to sink into his hand. It's outline glowed for a second before it disappeared entirely and Remus blinked slightly confused as he looked around at the other students. Everyone had a butterfly now and many of the students who had had them at first were now experiencing the same thing as Remus.

It took a few minutes for all of the butterflies to disappear and when they did a voice echoed throughout the room.

"To remind you that magic itself is beautiful, whatever people do to it."

Remus glanced back towards the ceiling just in time to see the word disappear as light began to return to the hall. Gasps resounded throughout the hall as people realised that, where the butterflies had once sat, they had , the wisps of light having turned into vines that crept up their wrists and arms.

Ignoring the excited whispers, Remus glanced over Sirius's shoulder to lock eyes with Mariya and she flashed a playful smile before she returned to her own breakfast. He knew it must have been her that caused the incident as - though the word had been written in Latin characters - he knew the word was Ukrainian, as he had learned it just the other day.

He noticed that the clasps that held her pigtails in place were gold but tiny butterflies were etched into the metal. That girl was completely unbelievable, she must have used a multitude of charms in order to make the magic work correctly. Remus was glad that she had though, because it was just the sort of thing the students needed to distract them from the death and destruction that was taking place outside of the school grounds. Knowing her, this would just be the first in a long line of occurrences in which she would relieve the minds of the students and help them to forget, if just for a moment, everything that was happening in the world.