The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Charkorais Song

Charkorais Song

Ned Veigler held the matchbox in his palm carefully. They'd moved the glass box containing the Charkorais chicks into one of the small habitat rooms off the main laboratory room and set a little mattress in the corner for Remus, covered with pillows and blankets. Remus held his wand tight in his fist, staring at his trainers, wrapped up in his Moony jumper. Veigler paced, staring down at the matchbox. He took a deep breath then looked over at Remus as he came to a stop. "You're certain you want to do this?" he asked.

The Charkorais birds peeped from their incubator.

Remus nodded firmly, "Positive."

Veigler held up the matchbox. "If anything goes wrong at all, I'm right here, mind."

Remus nodded again, "Yes, sir."

Veigler closed his eyes, steeling himself in preparation, then used his thumb to push the tray of the matchbox open.

A great howling filled the room as the boggart escaped the box. He'd been waiting a great deal of time, after all, to get out of the matchbox. Decades. The mass of it was unbelievable and Remus winced with the fear that welled up inside of him as the boggart sprawled across the ceiling - dark blue and purple clouds, shifting... shifting... until... between them broke the full moon, vibrantly blue and silver. Remus shivered as the light of the moon fell upon him, and his skin bubbled and boiled and fur threatened to sprout... he felt sick to his stomach and fell back onto the mattress, pulling his knees to his chest as the moon shone bright above him.

Veigler too felt the effect of the moon on his skin, burning, and he dropped to his knees also.

"Go," Remus groaned, "Go. It's alright, I'll be fine."

Veigler shook his head.

"Go!" Remus yelled, "It's stupid of us both to suffer this."

Veigler hesitated, but finally, seeing the determination on Remus's face... and how alert and shimmery silver the Charkorais chicks looked under the pale light of the moon... Veigler grasped the door and let himself out.

He stumbled into Tina and Newt Scamander, who were eagerly waiting just outside the door, watching through a double-sided mirror window. Newt caught Veigler carefully and Tina rushed to get a cup of aconite tea as Veigler shook and sank into a squat wood chair. "Dunno how the - the boy is going to do it with these - effects," said Veigler, breathless, as his skin stopped bubbling quite like it had been. "It was the agony of changing, the pain of the DNA being rewritten, without the relief of it being completed." He shook his head, "Blimey. The boggart is strong."

Tina came back and handed Ned Veigler the tea cup, aconite leaves swirling about within, and Veigler quickly drank it down, the china clinking against one another, his hands still shaking. "We can't leave him in there going through that the whole week," she said strongly to Newt.

Newt shook his head, "Most certainly not." They all looked through the window at Remus - laying on the floor, quivering and convulsing, but refusing to use his wand to cast the riddikulus to end his pain, his eyes trained steadily on the flapping wings of the little Charkorais birds as they thrived beneath the very moon that hung above, driving him into madness so that he started to violently scratch at his arms... "We need another solution."

Bilius Weasley easily snuck out the front doors of St. Mungo's hospital, sticking close to Sirius and James as they walked out to the streets of London side by side, talking loudly about taking a breather real quick. They walked just a couple feet away, and into a small alley way before Bilius took off the cloak. "Blimey," he said, looking at it hanging from his fist, "That's a rather handy bit of fashion, isn't it?"