➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟏𝟐 “𝙍𝙚𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙝”
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To say that Sirius was in a deplorable condition, was the understatement of the year. The man was malnourished, even with all the food and potions María and Carolina gave him in his short stay in the country house. Inevitably, after the whole adrenaline boost of the full moon night had passed, his body gave up in exhaustion.
True to their word, Caelum and María had stormed into Dumbledore’s office with Sirius and used the Floo Network back to the country house, and as the first sun rays illuminated the next morning, they took a Portkey to Colombia, and by lunchtime, Sirius was already admitted to the Hospital del Sagrado Corazón in Bogotá.
By the time the school term ended, Sirius had been for almost two weeks in the hospital, and looked like a much more enlivened man than he did in the last months. And, as he and his family had refused to give any kind of statements, each day he received letters from people showing their admiration and even some lawyers wanting to ‘advise’ him to sue the Minister.
The hospital was huge, bigger than St Mungo's, and more modern. Sirius had been treated like a critical patient in Intensive Care when he arrived, but a week later he was moved to the Step-Down Unit, where he was closely watched but not at risk anymore.
It had been a very sweet reunion. Being able to finally hug his uncle in peace; sharing conversation and food through quietness and tranquility soothed Nicolás’ heart.
Harry had been overjoyed in each and every visit, going to lengths like joining Abu Angela in cooking healthy pastries and desserts for Sirius.
According to Caelum, Sirius had cried for long minutes after seeing his parents-in-law, who once upon a time gave him a home, and now welcomed him back into it, with their arms and hearts just as open.
It was a very emotional first day, but Sirius was Sirius, so he wasn’t going to allow people to be all sentimental around him.
He told jokes and tried to act like everything was in order, but there were small things that they noticed, like holding his wife’s hand, he would generally, on any occasion, search for her hand, and he would grip it, trying not to harm her, but she could feel the desperation in his grip. As if he was trying to convince himself that no one was going to storm into the room and take him back to Azkaban, or not assure himself that he wasn’t just dreaming.
After more than a decade with barely any food, he ate everything like a dying man approaching his last meal.
The cold would generally make him have nightmares, and he wasn’t able to sleep alone, so his wife and son would generally take turns to stay awake by his side, either barely leaving the hospital at any time.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
Of course, Nicolás had been far too naive. How could he have been so stupid as to not have predicted it was going to go that way?
Ever since the night of the accident, days short of a month ago, Nicolás noticed the way his father seemed to grow fidgety the moment he stepped in any room or got close to him. Every time he tried to question the man, he only gave him evasive answers and tripped over himself to find a way out, leaving a disheartened Nicolás behind.
In the last weeks, he had grown overly silent, gone was any reaffirming touch that was so constant in their interactions, and that new and ever-present thickness in between them was suffocating him.
His mother had told him to just give it time, and he had tried, really fucking hard had he tried, but his heart couldn't take this any longer. The space and time between them were clearly having no effect, and Nicolás feared that any more would cause an unfixable change in them.
It was no surprise to find his father inside the small hut in the middle of the reserve. The building was small, and it was surrounded, in a rather large radius, by a wall of tall vines with thorns, an effective mechanism to keep out any magical creature during the full moons.
Remus was sitting on the dusty bed, alone, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Ever since the summer started, Nicolás saw how his father would excuse himself constantly with the excuse of going to tend to any of the creatures in the reserve, but Nicolás also noticed that said thing only happened each time there was some family gathering or comfortable ambiance. His father was punishing himself by extracting himself from anything he deemed as good and undeserving for himself.
Hell, he didn’t even spend much time with Sirius, the last one of his school friends. He barely handled his wife’s questioning eyes with small flinches, and let’s not even talk about how he avoided Nicolás, his own son, like the plague.
The fact that he didn’t use a single Cleaning Spell on the hut told Nicolás this was also part of his self-inflicted punishment.
“Hi,” Nicolás greeted softly. Remus’ head snapped towards him.
“Nico,” he breathed, standing up.
“I thought you said you needed to check on the sick Hippogriff,” Nicolás raised a brow.
Remus looked around, “I — yes, I needed to check on her, but I—”
But Nicolás also knew that sometimes soft and gentle didn’t work. In sixteen years, he had come to know just how bricked-up his father’s brain was, and maybe what he needed to make was a more straightforward and harsh approach.
“Please, save it,” Nicolás cut him in. “We both know that was a lie because just last week Abu Pedro gave her the good-to-go.”
Remus clasped his mouth closed, looking down at the floor with a deep sigh, before sitting back on the bed.
“Will you tell me what’s wrong so we can talk it over and be done with it?” Nicolás asked, “I’m so tired of how awkward this has turned,” he gestured to the two of them.
“Nicolás, what I did—”
“Was not your fault,” Nicolás insisted.
“Yes, it was, I knew what I was doing,” stressed Remus, his head on his hands.
“But you had no control over it, that’s the difference—”
“It makes no difference! I hurt you, Nicolás!” said Remus, and Nicolás knew he was desperate for his son’s punishment; in his venomous mind that was the only way towards repentance and possible atonement.
“I don’t know why you insist so much on being guilty of something” stressed Nicolás. “This is not even about me, you’re making it about you, about how in your head I have to lash out at you so you can be free to feel guilty. But this is about me, about what happened to me—”
“What I did to you,” Remus harped in, but Nicolás ignored it.
“It is up to me to decide whether you're guilty or not. And I’ve decided you’re not, so what you have to do is suck it up like a grown man and come back,” the last words came in a hurt whisper.
“Come back?” Remus whispered back.
“Every time, it feels like you’re not there. I miss my Dad,” said Nicolás, letting all the layers of his hurt naked for his father to see.
"Love," he whispered, and with his own watering eyes, Remus moved to his son, enveloping him in his arms, and they stayed there for almost ten minutes more, until they were both in condition to walk back to the cottage.
The next full moon was... illuminating, to say the least.
Nicolás had stayed behind, as per his mother’s reasoning that his father wasn’t ready to see him again in a full moon. But Nicolás had a point to prove, and using his Invisibility Cloak, he went behind them and showed himself.
At first, Moony was ecstatic to have his Padfoot back to play, but the moment Sunstripe walked in, Moony forgot about the dog, pouncing over his son.
The big wolf pinned the lion to the floor, whining and whimpering in the most profound, instinctual, and animalistic regret, nuzzling his son's snout, licking his face, and sharing his heat. And he forgot about everyone else.
Through Moony, once more, Remus was able to express and lay bare everything he had been holding inside his chest.
And after that night, things started to go back to how they were supposed to be. Even if he still felt bad, given by the way his eyes turned down sometimes, Remus was able to spend time and proximity with his son once more, as if nothing had happened.
And Nicolás made it his mission to make him grow accustomed once more to his physicality.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
“And, if you add a few drops of Vanilla Essence, it takes out the horribly sour taste,” said Nicolás, looking at the boiling potion in front of Harry.
“Oh! Okay!” said Harry, grabbing the small dropper labeled Vanilla Essence, before Nicolás grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“Hold your horses, cowboy. It's already too late, Little One,” Nicolás said with a chuckle, Harry frowned at him confused. “It’s almost ready, it has no effect now,” he added, and Harry looked sad, probably thinking he failed the exercise. “Tomorrow, I’ll teach you a small variation. It makes it much more potent, and that way you can mix it with a sweet drink and conserve the overall effect.”
After an eager agreement on Harry’s part, both boys started to tide up the room, before loud steps resounded in the house.
“Owl post! Owl post!” Nicolás heard Caelum’s yells approaching the room. The door was barged open, “Our O.W.L.s results are here! Come now! Everyone wants to know our marks!”
And without waiting for an answer, Caelum ran back to the main room as quickly as he had appeared, being followed by Nicolás and Harry at a more reasonable pace. How Caelum was able to scream like a maniac without swallowing the Mandrake leaf under his tongue was the needed proof that Nicolás’ Sticking Charm worked fantastically.
Everyone was gathered in the living room. Carolina and Remus were curled up in one of the love seats, just like Aunt María and Uncle Sirius were in the other. Abu Pedro and Abu Angela gestured for Harry to sit with them on the sofa, where the boy comfortably nestled.
Everyone had coffee in their hands, as Caelum and Nicolás opened their letter under everyone's excited and eager eyes. Caelum read out loud his.
This is to certify that the candidate named below completed the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations, conducted by the Wizarding Examination Authority, and obtained the following results:
Astronomy E
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology O
History of Magic E
Muggle Studies E
Potions O
Transfigurations O
Everyone clapped hard, with María and Sirius squeezing their son as hard as they could (not that Nicolás and Harry hugged him any softer).
After that, everyone’s hungry eyes fell on him, and Nicolás complied, opening his letter, skipping the whole preface, and reading his results with wide open eyes.
Study of Ancient Runes O
Arithmancy O
Astronomy O
Caro of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defense Against the Dark Arts O
Divination O
Herbology O
History of Magic E
Muggle Studies E
Potions O
Transfigurations O
“Wait, what?!” Carolina asked, looking at her son, as everyone else, with wide eyes and gaping mouths. “What do you mean you got twelve O.W.L.s?!”
“Surprise?” Nicolas grimaced.
“This deserves a celebration!” exclaimed Abu Angela, jumping from her seat. “You two have made us more than proud! This deserves a feast!” she said, moving towards the kitchen, probably in need of summoning the house elves to assist her.
“Feast! Feast! Feast!” Nicolás, Caelum, and Harry chanted as they moved to the kitchen to request their favorite foods.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
After the first loud clap of thunder rumbled up in the sky, Nicolás took off the Concealing Charm of his cabinet, opening it. The excitement was sparkling in his fingertips.
“Yes!” Nicolás exclaimed, making Cedric’s gaze divert from the constellation made of glowing stickers on the ceiling of Nicolás’ bedroom, which they were sharing. He saw his boyfriend crouched on the floor, taking something out of a cabinet.
“Is that the potion?” Cedric asked, walking to him. With a proud smile, Nicolás showed him two phials filled with a blood-red potion.
“It’s ready for us. I mean, you, you and Caelum,” said Nicolás, almost vibrating.
Taking a step forward, Cedric took one of the phials from Nicolás’ hands. “We shouldn’t keep your cousin waiting,” he said, looking into Nicolás' eyes. They were so close, that he was able to smell the Nicolás’ soft cologne.
As he beamed, Nicolás’ warm hand enveloped one of his, giving it a gentle squeeze before he was dragged out of the room by his boyfriend, and soon, out into the reserve’s forest.
“So, you guys ready?!” Nicolás shouted over the noise of the thunders, walking towards the others.
The sky was a whole spectacle. Zeus, as the magnificent Thunderbird he was, probably felt in the middle of a ballroom. Jumping from cloud to cloud, with his majestic golden plumage taking steel blue hues, and the thunderstorm he summoned acting as the orchestra of his background.
It was incredible how Zeus was able to summon all the power of a thunderstorm, and still be strong enough to prevent a single drop of rain from falling on them.
Caelum stood next to Uncle Sirius and Aunt María. They decided to use the reserve’s forest, with the rest of the family waiting back in the warmth of the cottage.
It was widely known that some people panicked in their first Animagus transformation, with the overwhelming increase of their senses and physical experience overall, so, having many people close by would only end in accidents easily avoidable.
The process was a tedious one, but it was a fairly simple one if you were a control freak like Nicolás, of course.
The first step was to place one Mandrake leaf under the tongue, and make sure it didn’t move, fall, or was swallowed, for a month; from full moon to full moon; something Nicolás helped Caelum and Cedric accomplish by using a Sticking Charm on them — it was only thanks to the heaven's mercy that Caelum hadn't swallowed his leaf with the tiring last full moon they had at Hogwarts.
After that month was completed (which happened close to two weeks ago), they would place their saliva-covered leaf, alongside one hair from themselves, and a teaspoon of dew collected from a place not touched by the sun or human feet in the last seven days — something they accomplished thanks to Abu Angela, who collected it from the Reserve.
These things were combined in two small crystal phials previously bathed under the pure rays of moonlight. The phials, once filled, needed to be hidden in a dark place and left alone until a thunderstorm.
During the time following the brewing of the potion, they needed to, each sunrise and sunset, hold their wand, with the tip pointing at their hearts, and recite an incantation, “Amato Animo Animato Animagus.”
The general rule was that, if everything was done correctly, they would start to feel a second heartbeat, that of the animal form they were trying to summon. Caelum described it as “freaky,” while Cedric said that it made him feel “rapturous.”
Lastly, once it was all done, it was only a matter of waiting for a thunderstorm — something Zeus was helping them with at the moment.
“Look at these babies!” exclaimed Nicolás, showing them the blood-red potions, each phial with a name tag.
“Merlin’s balls!” laughed Uncle Sirius, ecstatic. “Let’s do this!”
“Let’s do it!” agreed Aunt María with a sharp nod.
Nicolás handed one phial to Caelum. “I’ll take Cedric to the other side, you guys stay around here!” he said, taking Cedric’s hand and walking.
Gripping his hand, once they were out of reach for the others, Cedric spoke, “We’re really doing this. I am doing this.”
“Yes, you are,” said Nicolás.
“I’m really going to break the law,” Cedric half whispered.
“First time of the many to come, Baby!” Cedric’s eyes opened wide at Nicolás’ words, looking at him with a violent flush, evident even in the dark of the night. “What? Is there something wrong?”
“No! Not at all!” Cedric shrieked, perhaps too quickly. Nicolás raised an inquisitive brow at him, narrowing his eyes, and Cedric’s flush deepened. “I just — it’s nothing! I just — umm — I — cough — liked it — cough — the — cough — petname,” he whispered the last part, doing everything in his power to avoid eye contact while clearing his throat.
Nicolás grew a wide smirk; this Cedric was very different from the one on top of him, pinning him to the mattress, a few weeks back in their dorm bed.
“Oh — oh! It’s that so, Baby?” said Nicolás, and Cedric half groaned with a mortified expression, his neck and ears flushed now too. “Would my baby like to—”
He was cut by a bashful Cedric, taking the potion from his hand.
“Let’s go do the thing!” he said, and Nicolás smirked back at him. “The transformation! It’s now or never! Break the law and that stuff!”
“Okay, okay, let’s do that,” Nicolás chuckled, and they walked until they reached a small clearing.
“Give me your clothes so I can hold them for you. The first times it’ll make it much easier…” Nicolás said, before smirking, “Baby,” he added.
Cedric’s eyes snapped wide again. “No!”
“What?” Nicolás asked with a laugh. “Come on, you’re the Hufflepuff captain! I would assume you’re used to seeing dudes in their birth suits, and to be seen just as you came to the world.”
“Well — yes! — but not — not — you’re not one of those dudes! I don’t — I don’t feel for them what I feel for you!”
With a soft smile and a charged sigh, Nicolás looked Cedric up and down, trying to come up with an alternative to make things easier for his mortified boyfriend.
“You’re still wearing too many layers, Ced,” he said. “Trying to transform so many of them can make you get stuck mid-transformation. Why don’t you just keep your pants and underwear, and take off everything else?”
Cedric spent a good minute thinking that over, before giving a grateful smile and a nod. He took off his sweater, shirt — and Nicolás tried not to gasp loudly at the sight of that toned chest and abdomen, perfectly illuminated by the thunders, emphasis on trying —, and lastly, he took off his shoes and socks.
“Tip on your heart,” Nicolás instructed, and Cedirc obeyed, putting the tip of his wand against his heart. “The incantation. Loud and very clear, word by word, focus on the feeling on your chest.”
Cedric did as told, he said the incantation in a strong voice, “Amato Animo Animato Animagus.” And then, he drank the potion in a single gulp, before falling to his knees, screaming in pain.
“It hurts!” Cedric cried out, feeling like a fire had been ignited in his guts.
“I know!” said Nicolás, remembering the pain from when he was twelve.
“It burns!” screamed Cedric, feeling the second heartbeat beating so loud, it was almost deafening him.
“I know!” repeated Nicolás, remembering how scared he had been once upon a time, the night he became an Animagus.
“I-I’m going to die!” Cedric cried out, feeling the panic rise in him.
Nicolás dropped to his knees beside him, gripping his shoulder, and preventing Cedric from succumbing to the instinct of wanting to melt into the floor to stop the pain.
“No, you won’t! You’re going to do it, and it’s going to be beautiful, and I’ll be here, with you,” Nicolás tried to calm him, cupping Cedric’s face, as tears fell from the other boy’s eyes. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not! I don’t feel okay!” Cedric half growled in pain.
“But it will be,” Nicolás insisted, his thumbs gracing Cedric’s cheeks in soft circles. “You’re doing amazing! Don’t fight it, just let go of your control. Let it come forward, Baby.”
And it seemed Cedric had been completely honest back then. All it took was for the last word to come out of Nicolás’ mouth, and the boy finally let go, reclining against the warmth of Nicolás’ body, and with a final pained yell, his body started to shrink, as black fur started to come out.
Nicolás saw how Cedric’s hands turned into paws and large claws grew from his fingers. His body, so much smaller, fell on fours on the soil, and white fur started to grow on top of his head and down his back. And he growled.
And Nicolás had to stop himself from barking a laugh, because, in all honesty, there was not a single animal that could be more accurate to represent Cedric than the honey badger of their Hufflepuff House.
The badger, still accommodating to being physical, growled at Nicolás, and Nicolás had to use every ounce of mental strength so as to not transform into Sunstripe to play with Cedric. The badger wasn’t ready to welcome a lion anywhere close.
“It’s okay, Love, it’s okay,” said Nicolás, extending one hand for the badger to smell. After taking in his scent, the growling ceased and was replaced by the soft licking of a small tongue.
Nicolás stood up. “Walk around for a bit, try your new body, Love.”
And the badger did just that, walking, or rather toddling around like a newborn. He smelt everything near him, bit the grass, and growled at his own shadow. And Nicolás was dying inside by how utterly adorable it was, feeling as if his heart grew in his chest with each step of the badger's small paws.
Nicolás knew he needed to buy a photo album as soon as possible, now knowing how to put to extreme use that Polaroid camera he received his last birthday.
Smiling, he crouched down. “Okay, Baby, come here,” he said, and the badger's head snapped at him when he heard the petname, before he walked and sat in front of him, looking at him.
“Now, I need you to focus your mind. Focus on remembering your human body, remember what you were wearing. And disentangle yourself from the animal. Okay, Baby?”
The badger seemed to nod before he closed his eyes, and the fur started to disappear, retreating, once more, inside his body, and slowly, he started to grow in size, limb by limb. And in less than five minutes, Cedric was back in front of him, sweating and exhausted, spitting out the grass that he had bitten as a badger.
“I did it,” Cedric whispered in a hoarse voice.
“Yes, you did it, Baby,” Nicolás said, running the tip of his nose over the bridge of Cedric’s. And now, bathed in the intensity and excitement of the moment, Nicolás leaned forward, capturing Cedric’s lips in his.
There, in the stillness of the night, now calm without Zeus’ thunderstorm, their hearts beat as one, in synch, like the leaves rustle against the cold breeze of the fall.
And it was so, natural, so perfectly threaded and woven in the embroidery of their existence. It was as innate as searching for the sunlight comes to the Sunflowers, as organic as pollinating comes to the bees, or as spontaneous as lighting-up comes to the fireflies in the darkness of the night.
Cedric’s hands enveloped his waist as their foreheads rested together.
“Thank you,” Cedric whispered.
“Always, Baby,” Nicolás said, a teasing tone in the last word.
Chuckling, Cedric sat on the cold ground. After helping him dress up, Nicolás grabbed his hand, and together, they walked back to the cottage, where everyone was waiting for them.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
The playful wind fluttered Sirius’ hair, but his eyes were fixed on the Hippogriff Caelum was riding, they were approaching them, back to the ground.
He could still remember the night Caelum finally became an Animagi — a good week ago. A Shiloh Shepherd, fur as dark as his last name.
He could also remember the way his son screamed, thinking he was about to explode in pain as he writhed in the forest ground. Sirius and María tried to calm their son, so the transformation could come easier — thankfully Caelum was smart enough to follow their advice and stay only in his underwear, as using more clothes can turn the first transformation into something tragic.
He cried, and María cried too, as their son’s body started to morph, until finally, his fur came out, and he fell on fours, leaving in his place a black dog a little bigger than Howler — his mother —, and as big as Padfoot — his father —.
The general advice was to let the first-time Animagus alone so they could get used to their new animal body, but Sirius had never been known for his patience, and very quickly, Padfoot, a black German Shepherd, was jumping around Caelum, and quickly, Howler, a Husky, followed suit. And so, both parents ran around the forest with their son.
Sirius remembered the way back in school, how all of them joked about the way they would call their children, if they ever had them. He remembers Prongs joking how Moony, for obvious reasons, would call his own, 'cub' — which was very fitting, considering Nico had a lion as Animagus form —, while the others deemed it only fit for Sirius to call his own, 'pup' — which ended up being more than fitting.
There were soft steps, the sound of the dry twigs on the floor softly breaking, and then came her voice, the voice he’s loved ever since he could remember. The voice that once upon a time, when they were but teenagers, held him from his breaking point.
The voice that once called him Black in annoyance, later Sirius in contemplation, then Love in affection, and finally, Amor or Mi Vida in devotion, because to María, everything sounded so much more serious (no pun intended), when she said it in Spanish, her native language.
“Amor, you two have been here all morning, any chance you’ll be coming back inside?” she asked, stopping by his shoulder.
He turned back to look at her. This was the woman who changed the trajectory of his life, the woman who gifted him with the most unconditional love, the most unwavering support, and the most ineffable experience, one he always thought he never wanted, until it was impending, sixteen years ago. Parenthood.
She stood there, as entrancing and riveting as she’s always been, challenging the beauty and transfixion of the Fairies dancing around the reserve.
Her hair was as dark as Remus’ favorite bitter chocolate, her skin perfectly toned by her genetics and the sun, that little golden ring piercing on her left nostril, and her sweet smile.
“He was just taking his last ride,” finally responded Sirius, pointing as the Hippogriff that Caelum was riding, finally touched the ground. “He said his Bowtruckle got motion-sickness.”
“Yeah, Twiggle never really liked leaving the ground, unless he was clinging to Caelum, of course,” María quipped.
“So…” Sirius started. “What was the very important, can’t-be-later thing you needed to tell me?”
“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to tell you about this…” her voice drifted off as the space was taken by her son’s loud one.
“I think Buckbeak has settled just fine with the herd!” Caelum said, reaching them, Twiggle chirping annoyed in his shirt’s pocket. “And… what’s wrong?” he asked, seeing how tense his mother was.
“Do you remember what we need to talk?” María asked.
“Oh,” Caelum breathed.
“Yes. Oh.” María said, raising a brow at her son.
Caelum chuckled, his hand moving to the back of his neck. “Well, we can leave out some… details, right?”
“Caelum,” his mother said in a stern voice. Wincing, the boy started to speak.
“Well, heh, you see, Nico and I went to Grimmauld Place last summer for—”
“Why would you go to that place?!” Sirius asked, suddenly remembering how, in between his two visits to his family’s ancestral house while on the loose, things seemed to have been moved around.
“Because we needed to research on Voldemort and—”
“Oh, no, young man, you have absolutely nothing to do with Voldemort! And you shouldn’t be doing anything related to him!” said Sirius vehemently.
Feeling as if he was being belittled, Caelum frowned. “Well, too late for that. We found information about him in your house, you know, all of it written by your brother.”
“My... Regulus…” Sirius breathed. “He was a bloody Death Eater, Caelum! Of course, he knew all kinds of stuff about Voldemort!”
Rolling his eyes with an exasperated sigh, Caelum opted to just avoid everything related to Regulus or the ways he had helped the Order during the war, or his major back-stab to Voldemort at the end.
Instead, the boy decided to start talking in a quite evasive way about the Horcrux Cave, trying to quickly get over it so his father wouldn't grasp the main implications. Sadly for him, his mother’s punishment was to talk about it in great detail.
She was not going to let him out of the hook after the near heart attack she suffered that night.
Thanks to his mom's prodding, Caelum had to explain everything in great detail, from how they got there, to how the place was, to him feeling a familiar magical trace in there, to the altar, the basin, and the potion that caused Nicolás so many horrible visions and insatiable thirst, to Slytherin’s locket and how it ended up being a fake Horcrux, as Regulus had stolen the original one.
But of course, María should have known better than to expect her husband — the one whose first thought after escaping Azkaban was to run towards the most Dementor-jammed place in the UK, instead of home — to be patient and not storm into the cottage.
Seeing his father storming away — probably to find Nicolás and demand answers from him —, Caelum winced once more.
Caelum didn't even get the chance to lie down for his father about how Regulus had betrayed Voldemort or the simple and small detail that they had found Regulus’ body encased in a large crystal — alive, at that —, after a decade of everyone thinking him dead.
Heh, Nicolás was so going to kill him once he got his hands on him.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
It was a calm morning, with the Cardona-Black portion of the family having an intense talk in the forest, the rest of the Cardonas stayed inside the cottage, more specifically, the living room.
Angela and Pedro were in a corner, talking about something, probably Ministry-related. Carolina was working through some paperwork, while Remus read a book at her side.
Harry was lying on the floor, napping, with Ember’s big furry head resting over his chest. Cedric and Nicolás were on the long couch, legs entangled as Nicolás' back was leaned on Cedric's chest. Nicolás was reading his Alchemy guide, and Cedric was eyeing, with much interest, the newest muggle comic book he borrowed from Caelum, a Scarlet Witch issue.
But of course, it was hard to keep the calmness when you lived with one Sirius Orion Black.
“Nicolás!” Sirius’ voice roared as he stormed into the living room.
All the heads in the room snapped in his direction, and Nicolás, with a sigh, closed the book in his hands and propelled his body from Cedric's comfy chest.
“Yes, Uncle Siri?” the boy asked innocently, and from behind Sirius, he saw Caelum and Aunt María arrive with contrite expressions.
“Oh, no, don’t you ‘Uncle Siri’ me now. How dare you?” Sirius pointed at him in a very dramatic, and very Sirius way. Poor Cedric probably thought a battle was about to unleash right there in the living room, and he, very sweetly if unnecessarily, moved to his feet, right behind Nicolás like a sentinel.
Everyone in the room was just as perplexed as Nicolás, looking at Sirius as if the man had lost his last marbles.
“I… well, I have dared many things in the last years,” said Nicolás with an airy chuckle, “you’ll have to be more specific.”
“How dare you take my son into a place like that?! You two could’ve died!”
Ah, so they finally told him about their little… expedition of the Horcrux Cave, Nicolás thought.
“I think you’re underestimating us, Siri,” said Nicolás, and as Sirius opened his mouth, the boy stopped him with a gesture. “Caelum isn’t a little child, and neither am I.”
“You’re barely sixteen!” Sirius stressed.
“I know! We’re sixteen and we risked our necks in that cave! I’m sorry, okay? I already apologized for it, but I don’t regret it and never will. This is to help Harry, to stop Voldemort and you will not make me regret it!”
“To… stop Voldemort?” Sirius asked, looking at everyone, aghast. “What — Nicolás — what are you talking about?”
Nicolás moved his eyes and directed an impassive look at his cousin. Froze in his place, Caelum grimaced, shrinking as he coughed and abashed, sheepishly played dumb. Of course, the halfwit forgot to tell his father the important information. Just wait until Nicolás got his hands on him.
“We went into that cave thanks to your brother,” Nicolás said.
“W-what? — what does Regulus have to do with anything? He was a bloody Death Eater!”
“He has everything to do with it,” Nicolás said, as if that alone explained everything. “He was the one to discover Voldemort made Horcruxes,” Sirius gave him a confused look. “He basically split his soul, and put parts of it in objects, making him virtually immortal.”
“And how do you know this?”
“We went into your family’s home, and we found journals and letters from Regulus,” said Nicolás. “He betrayed him, you know.”
A tormented expression crossed his face like a squall, “Him?”
“Regulus spent quite the time exchanging letters with Victor Lestrange and Leliana Rosier, they were—”
“Members of the Order,” Sirius finished frowning. Nicolás nodded. “Why was he exchanging letters with members of the Order? Did they give him information on us?”
“Do you remember the time we secured a warehouse in muggle London? A warehouse that so mysteriously happened to have maps with their movements underground?” María asked. Sirius looked at his wife, nodding. “And the time the Death Eaters used an experimental poison we had never heard of before, and just at the same time, Victor just so happened to come up with the recipe of the exact antidote?” Sirius nodded slowly, piecing it together in his head. “Do you remember who was the first one to warn us about James and Lily?”
“Regulus,” Sirius breathed.
“Think of every small thing that just so happened to come to us, saving us, giving us an edge on the war, all with no real explanation. Sirius… all of that was Regulus,” María concluded.
And for the next minutes, Sirius simply breathed, trying to accommodate all the new information in his brain. His brother, the one he left behind thinking was a lost cause, the one who joined the Death Eaters at barely sixteen, the one who one day simply died, leaving him with a broken heart, was not what he thought, not in the slightest.
Seeing as the conversation was not going to move in any direction, Nicolás gestured for Abu Pedro, who nodding, left the room in a hurry.
Nicolás gestured for Sirius to follow, “Come,” he said, with his uncle and the rest walking behind him, and out of the cottage.
As he opened the door of Abu Pedro’s study, he heard Sirius, Cedric, and Harry inhale loudly. They were the only ones who hadn’t seen Regulus’ body encased in the red crystal.
“Is — is that…” muttered Sirius, walking up to the crystal, softly touching it.
“Caelum found him in the cave, we brought him back,” said Nicolás.
“He… he looks much older,” said Sirius, remembering the last time he saw his brother.
It had been a cold night, he and María were on a patrol, when, out of nowhere, Regulus appeared behind them, and grabbing their arms, he forced them to Apparate to what looked like a forest. His brother looked pale and sick, but they didn’t have time to ask anything, because Regulus told them they needed to hide the Potters, as Voldemort was going for them himself. He spoke in a desperate voice, almost… pleading, as if he needed to make sure the Potters were saved, right before Apparating them back to their patrol spot and Dissapparating. The next time Sirius heard of him, he was declared dead, and his body was never found.
But this man here, he was his brother but had nothing to do with the one he remembered. For starters, he looked older, practically their age — as if he hadn't stopped aging —, with a beard, and secondly, his face had, at least, five long scars made with what seemed to be claws, just like his arms, where the torn fabrics let his broken skin at sight.
“Is he…”
“He’s alive,” said a deep rough voice. They all turned to one of the corners of the room covered by shadows, from where the voice came, before a man materialized himself out of nothing, seemingly having... walked out of the shadow? “His magic’s the one keeping him from this realm.”
It took less than two seconds before everyone’s wands were pointed at the man — except for Sirius, who still hadn’t bought a new one. Only Angela laughed, before walking up to the man.
“Dramático como siempre, ¿eh?” said Angela.
The man simply laughed, embracing her. “Ah bueno, perro viejo no aprende nuevos trucos.”
The woman shook her head, “Everyone, this is Zipa Tisquesusa, leader or, well, Zipa, of the Muisca Magical Community,” she gestured to the man, and everyone gasped.
The Muisca Magical Community was the last direct descendant line of any of the original Pre-Columbian magical tribes of Colombia.
Angela turned to the man, “¿No te molesta hablar en inglés para todos?”
The man, Zipa Tisquesusa, scanned them all, “¿Creí que tus hijas y nietos hablaban español?”
Angela chuckled, “Mis yernos también, pero al que tienes que convencer no lo ha hecho en más de diez años.”
“Maldita sea,” Abu Pedro’s voice cursed, before the man himself stumbled out of the shadow, much like Zipa Tisquesusa had done. “Nunca me acostumbraré a eso, recuérdame no volver a viajar contigo.” He looked around, “Everyone’s acquainted now, I guess?”
“You said his magic?” asked Sirius, gesturing the crystal with Regulus’ body, “I mean, I’m sorry, but who in the bloody hell are you? What in Merlin’s balls is going on?”
For the next ten minutes, Zipa Tisquesusa and Abu Pedro explained everything they had discovered. From Regulus’ condition to his involuntary use of Blood Magic due to some previous binding contract of some kind. Then, they went on to explain the Breakout Ritual Zipa Tisquesusa had proposed in the first place.
“And how’s that supposed to work?” asked Sirius.
“His magical core is drained, it’s kept him alive, but nothing more. What we need to do, is empower it. Think of it like a battery recharge.”
“And why would you need my son for that?” asked Sirius with suspicion, “One should be enough.”
Zipa Tisquesusa shook his head, “Young man, one’s enough to re-charge him, not to guarantee any of your survival.”
“Survival?!” the three Cardona-Black asked.
Abu Pedro raised a hand when Sirius was about to start arguing.
“Which is why we would use the two of you, and the ritual would be done the night of the full moon.”
“Why the full moon?” asked Remus in an uncomfortable voice. He wasn’t looking at the prospect of some powerful magical ritual happening while he was all wolfed out.
Zipa Tisquesusa looked very taken aback. “I assume they teach you, at that school of yours, how the celestial events affect our magic?”
Everyone looked confused, except for Nicolás, Abu Pedro, and Abu Angela.
“What kind of wizards does that British school form?” Zipa Tisquesusa asked under his breath, Abu Pedro and Abu Angela merely shrugged.
Nicolás sighed, “The full moon is a celestial event, they can be channeled to enhance our magic,” he said. “Unbelievable how they really don’t teach you this basic stuff in Hogwarts,” he grumbled under his breath the last part. Not that the lack of formation hadn't been evident to him ever since his transferal from Castelobruxo.
The full moon was to be set in three days, so for now, they had to wait and prepare as best as they could.
•─────⋅☾☽⋅─────•
Once the full moon was close to its peak, Nicolás and Aunt Carolina took Uncle Remus to the small hut — according to him, Moony had been restless as the full moon approached and he was still dealing with the guilt of having hurt Nicolás. Cedric was in charge of keeping an eye on Harry back in the cottage while the rest of the family performed the ritual.
The nightly breeze was chilly, but thankfully there was no sign of rain nor too brash winds, the leaves in their trees danced in anticipation.
The ritual was to be performed in one of the largest clearings of the forest habitat. By the time they arrived, there was a completely symmetrical and gigantic Triquetra made of thick lines of sal. On its knot, right in the middle of it, the crystal with Regulus' body was placed.
Zipa Tisquesusa walked around the Celtic symbol, his ceremonial spear rhythmically tracing the floor, its wake leaving black lines of vaguely familiar symbols. Runes. Abu Pedro did the same but using his wand.
The Zipa had changed his previously black robes for white ones, probably designed for ritualistic purposes, and he seemed to be using even more gold ornaments than before.
“The Triquetra,” the Zipa spoke out loud, not looking back at them, but clearly having sensed their presence, “will be used to channel the three of us. We will be on one end each, your Regulus is in the center, as the knotting point of the ritual, and the surrounding lines represent our connection.”
Both, the Zipa and Abu Pedro continued to trace runes on the floor. “The ancient Norse really left us powerful gifts, didn’t they?” commented Abu Pedro with a chuckle, and with a wave of his hand, the six torches around the Triquetra, which formed a circle on their own, lit up.
“Triquetras also represent life, death, and rebirth,” the Zipa added.
“Wait, you said the three of us? I thought it was only Caelum and I,” questioned Sirius.
“You and your son will be there,” he gestures to the bottom nods of the Triquetra. “I’ll be at the top, channeling and conducting the ritual.”
“Why you?” pressed Sirius, clearly not trusting someone he didn’t know. “You said blood is important, but you’re not blood-related to us, even my wife is closer than you, or maybe Pedro,” he added.
Instead of feeling offended, the Zipa barked a delighted laugh. “Young man, you soon will learn how important raw power really is. After we’re done, you’ll tell me if your wife has the raw power to do this,” and instead of waiting for an answer, the man walked away.
As Sirius was about to walk up to him so he could continue the discussion, Pedro grabbed his shoulder, and Sirius faced his father-in-law.
“Sirius, not even I have the power to do this alone, hell, not even he will do it alone, just, trust me with this, please? I want Regulus back as much as you, and I would never do anything to endanger anyone I love.” Sirius only nodded at Pedro’s words, not understanding why his father-in-law seemed so desperate to bring Regulus back.
After a while, when he was satisfied with everything, the Zipa walked up to the father and son, “Take your posts,” he instructed, gesturing to the bottom nods of the Triquetra once more, before handing each of them a small athame.
Wordlessly, he walked up to his own post at the top of the Triquetra. There, he stabbed his golden spear on the floor, inserting the bottom of it, which only now Caelum noticed was like a dagger, on the ground.
Father and son walked, equally apprehensively, to their posts.
With hands and breath equally shaky, Caelum looked up to his father, who nodded back. With an awful precision, Caelum brought the edge of the small dagger and made a cut alongside his palm, from top to bottom, letting the drops of blood fall to the ground. His father did the same, and soon, two small puddles of blood formed on the ground.
After taking a deep breath, as the full moon finally reached its highest point in the night sky, Zipa Tisquesusa started his chanting, his eyes closed.
“Hyba bisqua chuhuza Bochica tunjo… Hyba bisqua chuhuza Bochica tunjo… Hyba bisqua chuhuza Bochica tunjo”
His voice sounded deeper as he spoke the Chibcha words — the ancient language of the Muiscas —, and the man opened his arms widely.
Slowly, the blood on the floor seemed to not only multiply, but it also moved, on its own, the red liquid started to trace the thick lines of salt, before coming to a stop in Regulus’ crystalized body. Once there, the blood started to creep up the crystal's surface.
The ritual was divided into three parts. The first one was to use the familial blood — from Sirius and Caelum as Regulus’ only blood relatives — and use it to thread around the crystal and the very essence of the magic that created it in the first place. That had just been done by Zipa Tisquesusa.
Caelum saw his mother and grandparents start to walk around the Triquetra, their steps easily falling in rhythm and synchrony, as they started to chant in unison.
“Phasmatos sanguine infudare corra… Phasmatos sanguine infudare corra… Phasmatos sanguine infudare corra.”
And suddenly, with each Latin word pronounced, the fire in the torches grew and grew in sudden spurs, until it stopped, at three times its original size, and the moonlight seemed to shine brighter upon them, and the once black runes on the floor now glowed in an intense blue light.
The second part started with them, using the blood to infuse the life force and energy from their magical cores and pass it down to Regulus, to empower his enervate magical core.
Caelum had never gone through a ritual like this, but once it started to pass down his energy, he started to feel drowsy, as if the rest of his energy left him, and the power from his magical core started to leave him.
In this same part, Zipa Tisquesusa was the one in charge of directing the blood so it could infuse Regulus with enough life force and bring him back to this realm.
The moment Zipa Tisquesusa changed his incantation, the second it left his mouth, a pain, a bone-deep, soul-crashing, and unmeasurable pain, came upon Caelum, and he knew the same happened to his father, for both of them fell to their knees at the same time, screaming at the top of their lungs, and using their hands to grab the forest ground, holding to the short grass for dear life.
“Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus… Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus… Victus Phasmatis Ex Eleto. Revertas Phasmatis Ut Victus.”
The air around the Zipa was electrified, making his clothes and cascading black hair fly around him, and all the gold he carried on his person seemed to shine just like the runes on the floor, and his eyes, now wide opened, started to glow white, just like the crystal tip of his ceremonial spear.
His arms were opened wide, channeling all the power he could get from everything around them. The full moon, the salt, the fire, nature itself, and the two wizards at the bottom of the Triquetra.
It didn’t take long for Caelum’s ears to go deaf in his mind, only being able to feel and process the pain that seemed to wreck his body. He was probably still screaming, but he couldn’t hear his own voice, nothing could cross the pain fog that blinded all of his senses.
Slowly, the lines traced by the blood that crept up the crystal started to make cracks on it as they were absorbed by it, and soon enough, cracks covered all of its surface.
The third, and final part of the ritual consisted in breaking the Binding Magic or contract that Regulus was part of.
In a sudden, but calculated move, Pedro, Angela, and María turned sharply, pointing their wands at the cracking crystal, and said the final incantation.
“Phasmatos omnio ligor coldate sangorium!”
And with that, the crystal exploded in an expansive wave of immense energy, but none of them moved an inch, and the once solid crystal turned into floating blood, moving up in a sudden wave; all the while Regulus’ body floated in the air, unaware of everything happening around him.
Using their wands, they stopped the liquid from falling back on the floor, they made it go upwards, before them, now accompanied by Zipa Tisquesusa, recited the last incantation.
“Ansanm non enim liberari pour les morts!”
And under the silver light of the full moon, all the liquid blood used in Regulus’ involuntary Blood Magic turned to dust, before disappearing into the atmosphere.
Regulus’ body, now freed, fell like a puppet without its puppeteer. And not a second after, Caelum and Sirius followed suit.
The last thing Caelum saw, before the darkness took over him, was how the fire from the torches died, leaving them to be bathed in the pureness of the moonlight.
As the light died, María saw how her husband and son fell, losing their battle to stay awake after so much pain.
She ran up to her son, as her mother ran to Sirius, and her father ran to Regulus’ body, which seemed to be having heavy spasms, water coming out of his mouth with violent force.
⋆｡°✩°｡⋆
Author's note
oookay, soo much happened in this chapter (what's new?) but yeah, I swear I don't like to make Remus suffer, but it was needed :(( and also what do you guys think Cedric would be if he was an Animagus? I'll die on the badger hill, but what do you think? Also, Caelum being a dog too?? >>>
The first spell used in the ritual I created it myself with words in Chibbcha, which is the dead language of the Muisca People from Colombia! It was really cool creating it.
Small translation for the Spanish dialogue:
“Dramático como siempre, ¿eh?”: Dramatic as always, eh?
“Ah bueno, perro viejo no aprende nuevos trucos”: Ah, well, old dog doesn't learn new tricks
“¿No te molesta hablar en inglés para todos?”: You don't mind speaking English for everyone?
“¿Creí que tus hijas y nietos hablaban español?”: I thought your daughters and grandchildren knew Spanish?
“Mis yernos también, pero al que tienes que convencer no lo ha hecho en más de diez años”: My sons-in-law do too, but the one you need to convince hasn't done so in over ten years
“Maldita sea”: Damn it
“Nunca me acostumbraré a eso, recuérdame no volver a viajar contigo.”: I will never get used to that, remind me never to travel with you
Now, any bets or theories on Regulus? I have so many plans for him in the plot and I'm so excited to have him!!
- 𝐣.𝐟. 𝐜. 🐼💜