The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

The Kneazle's Eyes

The Kneazle's Eyes

Fallengunder was locked tight.

The drapes repaired and pulled shut.

Doors to refinished rooms shut and blocked.

A fortress on guard.

The kneazle lay in the shadows on the second floor, peering with wide yellow eyes through the rungs of the stairwell, watching as below the two strange humans she had been watching seemed to be preparing for something - an attack of some sort, though from what the kneazle was unsure. They seemed to be arming the castle from the inside out, as though they were protecting the world from a danger that might escape from within.

The air was thick with anticipation, with dread... and the kneazle could smell canine, which only set her further on edge, the hairs on her back bristling from her neck straight to her bottle-brush tail, which flicked with nervous energy.

"I think we've done all we can," Veigler announced. He sat on the bottom step of the stairwell and Remus sat beside him, wincing as his bones touched the step. Veigler wore the same pained expression on his face as Remus did. Veigler reached a shaking hand into his pocket and withdrew some aconite leaves. He held a palm out to Remus, who took them and chewed them slowly, even though the very thought of chewing made him want to throw up. Veigler chewed in silence beside him.

Remus closed his eyes and wondered where Sirius was, what he was doing. He'd started a letter to Sirius - it sat upstairs, tucked between the pages of one of the books in the newly designated library, the words Dear Sirius across the top, but nothing below it. There was only one thing that Remus wanted to say to Sirius... and he couldn't bring himself to write it on the parchment, to send it off tied to the foot of a bird across the 1800 km that separated them. He couldn't do it. It was the sort of thing that one needed to say in person, the sort of thing that Remus Lupin needed Sirius Black's grey eyes to look into in order to speak.

He'd been stating out that window in the library all this time, staring at the stones. There was a stone... about halfway up the precipice the castle faced, one stone that stood out, that was a different colour than the rest. And that stone was exactly the shade of Sirius Black's eyes.

Veigler stared up at the high windows that overlooked the hall where they sat. The sky outside was lavender. The moment was nearly upon them. He looked over at Remus. "How are you holding up, Rey?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm alright."

Veigler reached over and patted Remus's shoulder and Remus looked up at him. His wild, bushy hair was thick and he was still unshaven, as though Veigler had decided he rather enjoyed this untamed look he had about him. Remus thought it made him look like the sort of man that would own a secluded castle and secretly be a werewolf. It made Remus smile, and Ned reflected that smile back.

"I'm glad you're here, kid," Veigler said now.

"I'm glad, too," Remus answered.

"Not to get all sentimental," Veigler chuckled, "But you're the closest to family I've ever had. You and the Scamanders." He smiled. "I missed you something fierce these past months. You have no idea how... empty... this castle was before you came. Nor the place I was staying in town. It was quite lonely."

Remus murmured, "I imagine it would be... but one day, it'll be full of life. You can feel it in the walls, just waiting to happen." He cast his eyes about and his focus landed on the kneazle, whose yellow eyes gleamed down at them. "We have a visitor."