(1995)
Meeting Sirius again was like stepping back into the past.
The man had changed since the last time Harry had seen him. Gone was the prisoner of Azkaban. In his place was a Lord of Black - a man who was resembling his great-grandfather a lot more than ever before, which said something because the man Harry had gotten to know in the first war had been way on the way to be a Black Lord in his own right even if he wasn't a Lord but an Heir back then. Yes, Azkaban had definitely messed up that man - and Harry was happy to see him like he was now again.
Even if it meant that Harry's heart stopped for a moment when the well known gaze of a man he had thought lost in Azkaban finally found Harry's eyes again.
"Salvazsahar," the man said, and threw Harry back into the memories of a man he had thought lost for such a long time already…
(1979-1980)
The attack was vicious.
Dumbledore's people were unprepared and basically unable to defend themselves in time to fight back.
The first of them went down before one of them even understood what was happening.
Only James Potter, Lily Evans and Sirius Black managed to dodge the first attack.
They dodged the spells aimed at them, turned and returned fire - but they were overwhelmed by their opponents. One against twenty… not the best odds to survive.
The first one of those three, who went down, was James Potter.
He went down, but the moments his hands hit the earth, lightning erupted from the ground, defending his fiancée and his brother in all but blood by frying Death Eaters left, right and centre.
Then a second curse hit him and left him with a head wound and unconsciousness on the ground.
A second later, his fiancée Lily Evans was felled by another curse, leaving the only one standing the Black heir who stared at the Death Eaters in defiance.
"Give up, Black," one of the Death Eaters said. "You won't defeat us!"
Sirius Black just straightened at that, his face defiant and unrelenting.
"It doesn't matter," he returned, his eyes narrowed and icy. "Even if I die here, I won't give up without at least trying to survive!"
"Well, if you want to die - we definitely can arrange that, Black!" one of the Death Eaters countered and then started to hurl curses at the Black heir.
Yet, Sirius Black stayed and defended.
He downed one of his opponents, then two - it was the second after he downed the third that finally one of the spells would have hit him… if he hadn't been protected by the shield of another person in the last moment.
It was a stranger who then stepped out of the trees surrounding them.
Sirius was the one to see him first.
The stranger was a bit younger than Sirius - and Sirius wondered if the stranger shouldn't still be at school. He seemed young enough to be.
The Death Eaters on the other hand didn't notice him until a rune flickered into existence in front of Sirius and his downed comrades.
For a moment, the rune glowed in the dark, and then a bright flash surrounded Sirius and the others.
The next curse hurled at Sirius by the Death Eaters hit a shield unseen by anybody and yet so very existing.
The curse bounced back, multiplied and hit more than one of the Death Eaters, downing them and sometimes even killing them.
That at least drew the attention of the Death Eaters - their searching gaze finding the man responsible for a shield unbreakable enough to stop their curses.
"Don't you think you should stay out of this, stranger?" One of the Death Eaters asked sneering.
The stranger raised a single shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.
"I swore to aid those in need, no matter their dedication wherever I can," the stranger replied. "I swore to aid in need, to heal those I found hurt and to defend the weak - I'm not about to break my oath."
For a moment, there was silence in the clearing.
Then another Death Eater spoke up, this one sounding less sure than the other.
"Your healer's oath doesn't condone killing - and some of my comrades definitely died by your hand right now."
The stranger smirked.
"You're right," he said. "A normal healer's oath doesn't condone killing. But I'm not a normal healer."
With that, his wrist flickered in a shortened gesture.
A second later, curses hurled from the trees surrounding the clearing, hitting Death Eaters in deadly precision.
"And unlike other people, I don't mind a dead pureblood if it means to have an opponent less the next time we cross parts," he said, his hand reaching for a slender, old looking wand.
It was then that Sirius understood that the stranger hadn't used a wand until now, his hands being empty before.
But how-?
The thought was stopped when the wand of the stranger moved. Fire erupted from the ground, burning and twisting in a way Sirius had never seen before.
The Death Eaters eyes widened. Some of them tried to counter the flames, but none of them succeeding.
The stranger's face twisted in an ugly grin, vicious and deadly in its own way - and the Death Eaters ran…
The moment the flames came crushing down on them, the Death Eaters apparated - fleeing the death trap they had found themselves in just a second ago.
Just another second later, the flames came crushing down on Sirius and his people as well - just to be stopped by the barrier that had stopped the curses as well.
Then another person stepped up next to the healer who had decided to help them.
This stranger wore a cloak that hid his features from the world.
"The most of them escaped," he said in a voice that Sirius knew but couldn't place for the life of him. "But I burned at least two to three of them to death - and injured at least ten to fifteen."
"I never expected them all to die," the healer replied, his eyes on Sirius and his people who were still surrounded by lowly burning flames and the barrier. "Put it out. There are injured down there that need immediate treatment if possible."
The other stranger inclined his head and the next seconds, the flames surrounding Sirius and the others vanished.
Sirius clutched his wand harder when the barrier surrounding himself and his comrades came down next.
"Your ward-work is exceptional - but then, I guess you already know that, don't you, Sal?" the cloaked stranger commented while the healer and he stepped closer to Sirius and his companions.
"I should hope so, considering how much I have to rely on it whenever the Mad Genius decides to test his newest ideas," Sal, the healer, pointed out.
The man next to him quaffed.
"Too true," he agreed, not to bothered by the implications and not looking at Sirius at all as if Sirius wasn't a threat to him even if he wanted to be.
Sirius pressed his lips together, but decided that speaking up might be the better option considering that there were still hidden people surrounding them.
If those strangers would have wanted to kill them then Sirius and his people would already be dead.
"Who are you?" he decided to asked, trying to ignore the fact that he was surrounded and outnumbered.
The two strangers nearing him, turned to look at him at that.
It was the man who had been called 'Sal' who spoke up next.
"I'm Salvazsahar," he said. "I guess, we haven't met yet."
Sirius stared at the man as if he had lost his mind.
"No," he said slowly. "I don't think we have met yet."
The healer just nodded, but still managed to not look too concerned.
"Don't worry, Sirius Black, Heir of Black," he said instead. "We're not here to hurt your comrades even more than they already are."
Sirius' eyes just narrowed at that.
"Then tell me why you are here," he demanded.
The strangers exchanged a glance.
Then the one hiding beneath the cloak shrugged and Salvazsahar spoke up again.
"You could say we were on a hunt," he replied and something vicious showed on his features again.
Sirius frowned.
"A hunt," he repeated.
The stranger beneath the cloak shrugged.
"They took down one of our own - we didn't like that at all," there was gruffness to his voice, gruffness and grief. "We're not pig ready to slaughter - and those ' Death Eaters' do well to understand that."
Sirius blinked in surprise.
"Wait," he said slowly, his mind barely keeping up with what he had been told. "Are you telling me that you're here because you were hunting Death Eaters?"
He wasn't able to keep out the disbelief in his voice, but the grim expression of Salvazsahar told him more than anything that his disbelief was in the wrong place there.
"We don't take well to one of us dying for the simple reason that ' he didn't follow the rules '," the healer replied. "Especially if the rules he didn't obey are so useless in the first place."
Sirius couldn't help but think that his whole life had been turned upside-down right now.
The Death Eaters - Voldemort's people who conducted fear throughout the whole population - were hunted by people who were actually able to conduct fear in the Death Eaters' hearts.
"Now, boy," the stranger next to the healer spoke up. "How about you let Sal pass and take a look at your wounded?"
Sirius sent a gaze back at his friends and comrades.
He knew they needed help, yet this 'Sal' was an unknown to him…
The man seemed to understand what went through Sirius's mind, because his hand came up to his chest and tipped it.
The night was lit by the healer's oath displayed by the stranger.
Something in Sirius relaxed.
The healer's oath was a bit different than the one Sirius knew, but at the same time it was clearly a healer's oath and therefore to be trusted.
Slowly, his fingers still on his wand, Sirius stepped aside to give access to his comrades and friends.
The healer nodded and made a step forward towards Sirius' people, just to be stopped by the stranger walking next to him.
"No, Sal," the stranger said, catching the healer by his upper arm, "he still has his wand in his hands!"
"And you and the others are still surrounding him," Sal pointed out, clearly unbothered by the wand in Sirius's hand. "He won't hurt me as long as I won't hurt his people - and I don't plan to hurt them."
"But-"
"This is a stand-off I'm not interested on continuing, Archie," Sal replied. "I won't try and discuss something unimportant like a wand in the hands of a fearful child when there are people dying right in front of me. I will simply have to trust you and the others as well as the Heir of Black that I won't be killed by a spell from his wand as long as I don't do anything to deserve it."
With that, the healer freed himself from his friends grasp and stepped up to heal Sirius's people.
"And you're sure that you can't tell us anything else about that man and his people?" Albus Dumbledore asked concerned.
Sirius shook his head slowly.
"I've only ever seen those two - the stranger who was called 'Archie' and the healer," Sirius said. "They didn't truly introduce themselves and they weren't bothered by my wand or the fact that I was still standing and able to fight."
"The healer, you said he named himself," the Headmaster said.
Sirius slowly nodded.
"He told me his name was 'Salvazsahar'," he agreed.
"Salazar," the Headmaster repeated. "That sounds like a self-given name. I'm a bit bothered that he named himself after the Slytherin Founder of Hogwarts…"
Sirius opened his mouth to object when Alastor Moody spoke up from the back.
"Well, he said he was out for revenge," he pointed out. "Naming himself after the Slytherin Founder might have been part of it."
"He never said that he was out for revenge," Sirius countered, not too sure why his words had been twisted the way they had been. "It was Archie who told me that they were hunting Death Eaters as an answer to the death of one of their own. The healer just implied that they were on a hunt and that they didn't like the rules the Death Eaters try to imprint on the wizarding world."
"Which just implies that they're truly out for revenge," Albus Dumbledore countered. "It's never good to fight in revenge for a loved one dying. Doing something like that will just end with even more deaths in the end…"
Sirius frowned, his eyes searching out James who was frowning as well.
"Those people," Sirius slowly pointed out in the hope to make himself clear. "Were well organized. This wasn't just a rag-tag group of grieving fathers, brothers, sisters and mothers. They were more like an army than an untrained group of wizards and witches."
"An army," oddly enough Albus Dumbledore sounded even more worried at that. "This isn't good."
"Why?" Lily Potter asked, speaking up for the first time. "Shouldn't we be happy that they're there and helping us against the Death Eaters? Having trained people fighting on our side will just help us in the end."
"It will ensure more deaths in the end, too," the Headmaster pointed out darkly. "They will kill which means that the Death Eaters will be more vicious in return which again will lead to even more deaths than it already does on a daily basis."
When Sirius opened his mouth in protest, he was interrupted by the Headmaster who continued his monologue.
"No," he said while shaking his head. "If we meet them again, we should try to dissuade them from their path before they turn dark in their need for revenge."
That ensured a nod from most of the people around the table and a frown on the faces of Lily, Sirius and James.
Nevertheless, not one of them spoke up when the Headmaster dismissed the topic and instead turned to their future plans.
"I want to meet him again," Sirius finally confessed to his best friend and his best friend's fiancée the moment they had left the meeting. "I don't know why, but I want to meet that healer again."
"That healer? Sal- whatever his name was?" James asked his face thoughtful.
"Salvazsahar," he corrected his best friend. "His name was Salvazsahar."
"Salvazsahar," Lily repeated, her eyes thoughtful and startling green. It was then that Sirius noticed that her eyes were the same killing curse green as the healer's. "An unusual name."
Sirius shrugged.
"And yet, oddly fitting," he agreed. "I don't think I could ever imagine him with a different name - and I just met him once and for a few minutes."
He had no idea that he would meet the healer again, not too far in his future…
The next time, the healer and the Black heir met, was in the middle of a raid.
Sirius had been out walking in the muggle world after a long and tiring day. He had taken up that habit when his nights started to get filled with nightmares and his days started to feed his nightmares on a daily basis.
Sirius was an Auror trainee - others in his unit actually called him the ultimate Gryffindor since Sirius simply couldn't stand still and nearly always ended up in the thick of things. So, day in and day out, Sirius had to live with the cruelness of their current opponents, the Death Eaters. Seeing this and then losing his chosen parents on top of it had also ensured that Sirius as well as James and Lily ended up in Albus Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix - a participation that came with nightmares of its own.
So it was no wonder that Sirius started to search for relief, which he finally found in the muggle world which was basically blind to the war going on just next to them. Yes, there were attacks and raids on muggle towns, but mostly, the worst things still happened in the wizarding world or at least far away from the eyes of the muggles. Therefore, while the muggles were more cautious these days, the atmosphere in their world was less oppressive than the one in the magical world.
That fact was what drew Sirius to the muggle world, time and time again.
It was this fact as well, that had drawn Sirius that particular night - just that this time around the town he had chosen wasn't as peaceful as the towns he had chosen before.
Sirius had been at the end of his walk, nearly ready to head back home, when the first scream could be heard.
Of course, Sirius, being Sirius and a Gryffindor to the boot, didn't think but ran towards the screaming - just to hurry up even more when a second and third scream followed the first.
It took three Death Eaters that Sirius had taken down without thinking about it, for him to actually understand that he had basically stumbled over a catastrophe.
And even then, it took a few seconds longer and a confused look at the burning buildings to understand that it wasn't a catastrophe he was facing, but an active raid.
Of course, by then, the Death Eaters had seen Sirius and started to organize themselves to take him down.
Within seconds, Sirius was outnumbered.
"Don't you want to give up and spare you the hassle of dying, Black?" one of them asked with a sneer.
Sirius looked around.
He was surrounded - what an odd déjà vu.
The last time he had been surrounded had been weeks before when James and the others had been taken down and he had been the last one standing.
This time around, there was nobody else here than him and the only help he saw himself getting anywhere in the future might have been the other Aurors - if they had been alerted already, that was.
Somehow, Sirius doubted that he could rely on help from law enforcement any time soon.
He was on his own.
Common sense told Sirius to be cautious what he said to his opponents, especially considering that they surrounded him.
Sirius told common sense to shut up.
"I doubt you'd actually manage to kill me," he said, throwing caution in the wind. "After all, you didn't manage it the last time - and I doubt you've gotten better in those few weeks we haven't seen each other!"
Some Death Eaters audible gritted their teeth.
"Do you really think it's the best way to provoke us right now, Black?" the Death Eater who had spoken first asked coolly. "Considering that you're alone and without any way to call for help, shouldn't you think about your words a bit more?"
Sirius shrugged.
"You haven't tried to kill me, yet," he countered. "Looks to me as if you actually doubt your own ability to do so as well."
Three or four of the other Death Eaters raised their wands at that to curse him, but the Death Eater in front of Sirius raised his hand and stopped them.
"We have an offer for you, Black," he said instead. "Join us! You're a Black, you -"
"Blah blah blah," Sirius said. "I've heard all of your codswallop before. Stuff it! I'm not interested."
"You're a Black," the Death Eater countered. "Your whole family -"
"And there you've named one of the most important reasons why I'll never even think about joining your sweet little organisation," Sirius countered and waved about with his free hand. "Really, if you'd actually wanted me to consider your group you'd have to throw out the rest of my family first."
Obviously, that wasn't what the Death Eaters had expected.
Nevertheless, Sirius decided to use their currently shattering disillusions and actually attacked three of them before the others understood what was happening.
After all, why wait until they recovered their world view? It hadn't been Sirius's fault that they had it wrong to begin with and considering the way Sirius had treated the other Blacks in Hogwarts Sirius actually couldn't fathom how any of the Death Eaters had ever thought he might join them because of family…
Sadly enough, the Death Eaters recovered before Sirius could damage their troops a bit further and soon he was enveloped by spell-fire.
It was only the third or fourth time when one of their spells missed him when it really, really shouldn't, that Sirius actually started to suspect something unsavoury happening.
Well, at least unsavoury towards the Death Eaters…
He got his confirmation a few seconds later when a spell slipped through his defence and would have hit him - should have hit him in the solar plexus and was intercepted by a short flicker of golden light.
Sirius dodged the next three spells and then looked around.
It took him a moment to see the man in the darkness that was hidden thanks to the night surrounding them and the wild shadows cast by the burning buildings.
The man was kneeling, clearly treating someone and only a faint flicker of golden magic, nearly hidden by the flames actually alerted Sirius to his position.
The Healer.
The man, Sirius had wished to meet again.
Salvazsahar.
It was then, that a Cruciatus broke through whatever protection the other man had set up around Sirius and Sirius went to his knees.
The man, as if alarmed by the breaking of his spell, looked up.
Glittering green eyes in the colour of the killing curse met Sirius's grey ones.
Then, the man flicked his wrist and the Death Eater who held Sirius under the spell went down with a scream.
Sirius immediately used the distraction to down three more of the Death Eaters.
That seemed to be the last straw for his opponent and the last five of them hurriedly apparated out instead of taking on the Black heir any longer.
Sirius's gaze immediately swept the area behind him for any hidden enemies who hadn't left.
When he finally looked back towards the healer, he actually stumbled backwards another second later.
The man - now standing directly in front of him - watched him in amusement.
"You alright?" he asked when Sirius came to an embarrassed stop two steps away from him.
Sirius blinked.
"Er… yes?" he answered, his answer sadly sounding more like a question than an answer.
The other man raised his eyebrow.
"You sure? Those were at least thirty seconds of Cruciatus."
Sirius stared at the other man.
"You counted?" He asked confused and the healer sighed.
"No." The other man rubbed his eyes. "But I couldn't react immediately considering I was still sealing the chest of the man, so I can guess that it had to be at least half a minute - and I know that the Cruciatus is no joking matter."
There was a sever expression in the healer's eyes that spoke of intimate knowledge and not just hear-say.
"I'm fine," Sirius assured the man. "Thanks for helping me."
The man's mouth twitched.
"Actually," he countered, "considering that you fought those men and distracted them you were the one who helped me."
Sirius shrugged.
"I only ended up here by chance. It's not as if I planned to distract them. Merlin! I didn't even know you were there until I noticed your fancy spell on me!"
The healer stared at him incredulous at that.
"That wasn't a 'fancy spell'," he repeated and shook his head.
"Well, it saved my life twice now," Sirius pointed out.
"Wasn't the same spell like last time as well," the man countered with a sigh. "If it had been the same it would have stopped you from fighting - even if it had kept up against the Cruciatus a bit longer than this one."
Sirius looked at the healer interestedly.
"Can you teach me?" he asked.
Salvazsahar raised an eyebrow at him.
"Which one? The one today or the one from back then?"
Sirius shrugged.
"Either," he said. "Both."
For a moment, the healer looked at him as if he wasn't too sure what to think of him.
Then he sighed.
"Did you take Ancient Runes in school, by chance?" He asked.
Sirius rubbed his neck.
"I did," he said even if he wasn't too sure what Ancient Runes had to do with the spells the healer had used.
"It's a rune frequency," the man said. "Five runes for the one from back then and three for the one from today."
This time, Sirius's eyes nearly bugged out.
"A rune frequency?!" He repeated incredulous. "That's… you can only use runes to read! How do you-?"
He stopped when the other man huffed annoyed.
"It's a language - a written one, but still a language," he said a bit more snidely than it warranted. "The oldest of our spells have their base in the runic language! Of course you can use it for spells!"
Sirius frowned.
"So you what? Write the runes in the air and hope that they work?" he asked a bit doubtful but willing to try considering he had seen the effects of the spells already.
For a moment, unhappy, green eyes looked at him; then the other one obviously forced himself to take a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.
"Yes," he said. "You can do this. Or you use your wand and actually get them to work like any other spell…"
Maybe, Sirius would have returned something biting to the smart-alec comment from the other man, if the fire hadn't chosen that moment to enhance the dark circles beneath the other man's eyes.
Sirius inwardly winced and wondered if the other man - tired as he looked - had the same trouble with nightmares as Sirius had…
So in the end, the only thing that came out of Sirius's mouth was a confused: "But you don't use your wand - and I can't remember you painting a chain of runes in the air last time as well…"
Actually, Sirius only remembered one rune that started the spell - definitively not five.
The other man sighed and rubbed his eyes again, his eyes drifting towards the still burning houses. In the far off, the sounds of sirens could be heard, announcing the fire-fighters, ambulances and muggle police.
Soon, both Sirius and the healer would have to vanish if they didn't want to get drawn into the whole investigation the muggles would start about the fires…
"I use a short hand," the healer said in that moment, sounding more exhausted from second to second. "It's something you learn to use over time - but it's not something you can actually start with. It's the same with spells, after all. At the beginning, you need incantation and movement to transmit your intention. If you've done the spell for years, you won't need any of that anymore. Your intention will be enough to guide your magic."
Sirius had to admit that those words made sense.
"Alright," he agreed. "So… can you teach me those rune sequences?"
For a moment, the healer hesitated.
Then he sighed and nodded slowly.
"Watch," he said and when Sirius looked up, his eyes meeting the green ones of the healer he expected a visual demonstration - not a short mental attack of a legiliment who could breach his shields without breaching them and a memory of the man in question drawing the rune sequence into the dirt. The man in the memory was still a boy and in his hand was a stick that he used to draw. His clothing was simple, very roughly made and the worst quality Sirius had ever seen.
" What -?"
But before Sirius could actually panic because of the mental attack, the healer had already withdrawn from his mind.
"Don't you dare to use those sequences without having them learned by heart before, Heir of Black," the healer reprimanded Sirius, his face so severe that Sirius didn't even think about disobeying that order.
Then the man bowed slightly and with a simple "Have a good day" Salvazsahar had apparated away.
Sirius gawked at the empty place where the other one had been for another minute or two, before he finally gathered his mental faculties and apparated as well - just in time to miss the arriving muggle first responders.
Of course, the Aurors still hadn't shown up…
"Sirius? Sirius? What are you writing there?"
Only when the parchment Sirius had been writing on was taken from him, Sirius actually looked up and sheepishly remembered that he was in the middle of a nice supper with his friends.
"Ah… er… nothing, Lily?" he finally said and tried to get the parchment from her again without success.
Lily frowned at him and then at the parchment.
"This looks like runes," she pointed out instead. "Not like 'nothing'!"
For a moment, Sirius wanted to protest and keep his secrets, but then he slumped in his seat and nodded, very aware that James and Remus were also looking at him now. Peter, the last of their friends, was currently away to look after his sick mother, so he wasn't there even if everyone else actually was.
"Why are you writing runes?" Remus asked and reached for the parchment. "As far as I know you hated that class in school - something about not being useful?"
Sirius slumped even more at that.
"I… I might have been wrong with that, actually," he said, still a bit sheepish. "Someone… well, someone actually showed me how wrong I was with that assumption just a few days ago."
"Who?" Lily frowned and stopped Remus from getting the parchment from her. Her eyes were fixed on the runes. "Those don't make sense… protection, balance, health, justice, destruction… why would you-?"
"It's a spell," Sirius confessed, not looking at Lily and the others any more.
"A spell?!" There was disbelief in both Remus's and Lily's voice… only James was oddly silent on that matter.
"A spell," Sirius agreed. "One of two I learned from the Healer."
This time, James spoke up.
"Salvazsahar?" He asked, having actually learned to say that name after Sirius had used it that often in the last few weeks.
Sirius rubbed his neck.
"I… er… met him again," he confessed and when his friends just looked at him he plunged into his story head-on.
After, his gaze returned to the table.
He hadn't told them all. Never, absolutely never, he had sworn to himself, would he tell them that the healer was more provident in mind magics than Voldemort - and Sirius would know, considering that he had already faced Voldemort and his abilities as a legiliment in the past.
So he simply told them that the healer had taught him the rune frequencies and then apparated away.
"So… he taught you how to do those spells he used - and now you're practicing them on a sheet of paper?" Lily finally asked with a frown. "Wouldn't it be more convenient if you actually used your wand to-?"
"He told me not to," Sirius replied a bit nervously. "At least not until I couldn't write them by heart…"
"That never stopped you before," James pointed out and Remus nodded.
Sirius just rubbed his neck a bit sheepishly.
"Yeah," he agreed. "But… well… I forgot to ask about the counter?"
At that, Lily and the others stared at him as if he had lost his head.
"What?" Sirius said defensively. "It's not as if a simple finite would work on runes - and there are no books I know of that contain the knowledge how to counter those spells!"
That was when Lily started to laugh at him.
"You… you already tried one of them, didn't you?" she said giggling.
Sirius reddened.
"I… er… I might not have been able to reach my living room table for three days now," he finally admitted to the laughter of the others. "And I really, really don't want to try one of those spells again before I have the proper counter curse…"
Of course, a confession like that just ensured that Sirius was the butt of the joke for the next few weeks.
"Still shielding your living room table from Death Eaters, Padfoot?"
"Oh, shut up, Prongs! It's been nearly three weeks, don't you think it's enough already?!"
"No, not as long as you're still shielding it - and you are, aren't you?"
Sirius just grumbled to himself but actually didn't answer and definitely didn't look at anybody else in the room.
"Alright, boys," Moody spoke up in that moment, having heard of the incident weeks and weeks ago in another Order meeting. "I have to ask: what is that whole 'living room table shielding' about?"
James, Lily and Remus shared a glance and snickered.
Sirius grumbled some more.
In the end, it was James who shared gleefully.
"Sirius used an unknown shield-spell on his living room table - and now he can't find the counter." At that, the other two started to snicker even more and even Peter's forcefully neutral face turned into a slight grin.
Traitors, all of them!
"It was worth a try," Sirius finally said frowning. "The shield spell is powerful - nearly as powerful as the one the Healer used back then."
Or well, as powerful as the one the healer used - but they didn't need to actually know that it was the same spell; especially not the Headmaster…
Said man started to frown the moment Sirius compared his spell to the Healer's.
"You shouldn't put your trust in something unknown, Sirius," the man said - but the only thing Sirius heard was 'you shouldn't trust this man'. "It's dangerous. It would be better if we stayed with the known and well trusted. They're well tried and tested, after all."
Sirius just pressed his lips together, not accepting but also not rejecting the Headmaster's words.
"Oh, you have to forgive him, Headmaster," James spoke up in that moment. "I think he's somewhat crushing on the Healer - so it's no wonder that he wants to be able to do something impressive the next time they meet!"
While Sirius knew that James only wanted to help him - there were things he couldn't let stand, no matter what!
"I'm not crushing on him!" he objected immediately. "I'm a ladies' man! There's no way I'd ever crush on a man!"
Not, that this was Sirius's main objection.
He had to admit that he was somewhat fascinated by the man - but that fascination, while unexplainable, was definitely platonic in nature.
"Sure thing, man," James objected amused. "What do you want from him then? He's about our age, not bad looking and-"
"Not listening, no, I'm not listening to you!" Sirius replied, sticking his fingers in his ears. "You've definitely not called him good looking right now, no, definitely not…"
James threw Sirius an amused look before turning to the others who looked at them with various expressions of amusement on their faces.
"Like I said," he said smugly. "Totally crushing on him - and in denial to boot."
That, ended in roaring laughter from the most of the attendant crowd - and a lot of teasing for Sirius in the next few meetings… and this time, it wasn't just because he was still shielding his living room table from Death Eaters.
Nevertheless, Sirius's wish to meet the Healer again was just strengthened after that second meeting - and not only because he actually hoped for a counter curse to finally reach his living room table again…
Of course, his next meeting with the healer was as unexpected as the last ones had been.
The next time they met was in the middle of a skirmish with Death Eaters.
Sirius's side was winning this time around - but only, because there were some strangers mixed in the usual crowd that actually knew how to hold their ground on a battlefield.
Sirius thought the men to be bystanders since they were in Hogsmeade this time around and maybe Sirius would have continued to think so if he hadn't ended up back to back with a man he had only seen two times but never forgotten.
The black, long and somewhat wild hair paired with the striking green eyes Sirius only knew from Lily were indication enough who it was, after all.
"Any reason why we meet each other always on the battlefield?" Sirius Black couldn't help but ask the healer when he found himself back to back with a man he hadn't actually expected to be there. "Couldn't we meet once somewhere else instead?"
"Are you asking me out on a date?" The man countered immediately and downed a Death Eater to his right with a curse Sirius Black had never seen or even heard of before.
"Ah… well, not like that," Sirius replied immediately, blushing madly. How could that man even insinuate that Sirius-?
The other man snorted amused.
"I've had Newt Scamander as a lover once - I'm not about to have another lover so soon after the last," the other man replied before Sirius could stutter through his sentence.
Sirius choked and was nearly hit by a curse thanks to it.
"How-? Scamander?!" He finally spluttered and the man dismissed one of the curses thrown at him with a wicked grin on his face.
"I thought you'd prefer to hear something like that to a simple refusal of your proposal - you're a Black, after all," the man countered amused and Sirius somehow got the feeling that he had been the butt of a joke right now.
"You-! How could you shock me like that - and in the middle of the battle?!" He cried.
The next moment a barrier that hadn't been his own work shielded him from a curse to his right.
"Don't worry," the man said. "I was already on the look-out to ensure your safety. I wasn't about to have you die because of shock."
And Sirius couldn't help but admire the man's ability with his wand.
"Are you sure you're not interested in a meeting outside of the battlefield?" He said without even thinking about it. "I'd love to learn a curse or two from you."
The man threw him an amused but disbelieving glance over his shoulder.
"You're asking me on a date so that I can show you more curses? Weren't the shields I taught you enough?" He said grinning.
"Not a date!" Sirius yelped immediately. "Just a meeting! A meeting and an exchange of knowledge!"
"And what about your leader?" The man countered immediately. "Will you tell him about that potential meeting of us as well if I agree?"
In Sirius, there was no thought about his reply.
"No," he said. "If you don't want me to, I won't."
Because Albus Dumbledore, for all that James thought he did the right thing, had the terrible habit of not truly listening if Sirius or one of the others said anything…
The man send him a knowing and a bit amused look, as if he had expected an answer like that from Sirius all along, but in the end just shook his head.
"I don't think that would be a good idea. I'm not fond of splitting loyalties to people who deserve said loyalty," he replied, his wand dancing through the air with a finesse Sirius couldn't help but admire.
For a moment, Sirius thought the other man was talking about Dumbledore, but a quick glance following the man's short gaze told Sirius who the other had truly been talking about.
James and Lily.
Both of them weren't that far away. They were both fighting like a well-oiled machine and Sirius couldn't help but think that their deadly dance was as mesmerising as the healers.
For a moment the amused thought of "Salvazsahar looks like he's them combined - with a lacing of something else in there." shot through Sirius's head, then he dismissed that thought and took down another Death Eater instead.
"It's just a meeting," Sirius said. "And I definitely need to meet you - if just so that you can give me the damn counter to the shields you taught me!"
"Tried them already, did you?" The other man shot him an amused grin, obviously knowing the result of that try.
Sirius winced.
"I… er… might?"
"How do they hold up?" This time the green eyes definitely twinkled in amusement.
Sirius huffed in mock-anger.
"I haven't reached my living room table in weeks," he replied.
"Then you definitely did it right," was the mild reply while another Death Eater ran against a nearly invisible shield.
"Doesn't help me," Sirius grumbled. "I need the counter to actually use them - and I don't have it and can't find it!"
This time, the amusement on the Healer's face was plain as day.
"Of course you can't," he said, his green eyes meeting Sirius's for a moment. "They're family spells - they've been in my family for thousands of years. There's no counter out there to find except with Ana and me."
"Ana," Sirius repeated. "Sister?"
This time the other man actually laughed, avoiding two spells by simply nearly buckling over with laughter.
"No," he finally rasped out and downed the Death Eater who had tried to curse him. "Definitely not my sister!"
Then the healer shook his head, still slightly chuckling and took on the next Death Eaters.
"I guess I'll have to ensure that Ana never finds out you called him my sister," he commented. "He'd kill me for this, considering I'm at fault when it comes to his name…"
Sirius snickered himself and shielded the healer from an incoming spell.
"You nicknamed him Ana?" he asked amused.
"I named him Anastasius," the healer replied, throwing Sirius an amused glance. "Any short-form he picked up on the way might or might not have been my fault at all."
Named him-?!
Before Sirius could actually question that sentence, three Death Eaters advanced on him at the same time. The next ten minutes his whole attention was on his opponents - until the healer finally freed himself from his own opponents with a slashing curse that left them chocking on air and bleeding at the same time.
"Damn, you definitely need to teach me that spell!" Sirius exclaimed. "That would have been handy the last time James, Lily and I were forced to face the Dark Bastard!"
"Dark Bastard?" The man threw him an amused look. "You don't use something like 'Dork Lord'?"
Sirius snickered.
"Oh, I'm so using that from now on!" he replied while they tackled his opponents together. "Definitely trumps 'You-Know-Who' by far!"
The man shook his head at Sirius and then sighed.
"Alright," he finally said, his wand taking down one of his shields that had turned out to be unnecessary now that the enemy was defeated. "One o'clock - the Leaky Cauldron on Monday. Don't be late."
With that he turned and started to slip away.
"Salvazsahar!" Sirius called out to the other man and he saw surprise in the healer's eyes when he turned.
"I listen, Heir Black," he agreed, his eyes looking at Sirius as if he had never seen him before.
"My brother and his fiancée - may I bring them as well?" Sirius asked, his eyes as steady as he could manage while looking in eyes so sure of themselves.
The healer crooked his head, his face thoughtful.
"You may - as long as they don't blab. There's bad blood between the Headmaster of Hogwarts and me," the healer replied, the warning clear in his voice.
There was no way that he would join or work with the Order of the Phoenix.
There was no way he would interact with Albus Dumbledore in any way or form.
And Sirius, as odd as it sounded, could accept that quite well.
"They won't tell," Sirius replied, assuring the healer. "I will make sure of it."
The healer inclined his head and with a last glance around and at the healers of St. Mungo's who were treating the wounded he turned and then apparated away.
Meeting the healer was something that Sirius couldn't help but feel nervous about.
He was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron with Lily and James next to him, both of them watching him, frowning.
"Are you sure, you're not about to introduce us to your crush?" James teased him again after Sirius shifted in his seat for the n-th time.
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I'm not about to introduce you to my crush!" He denied immediately. "It's more that… I don't know how to describe it. There's something special about him - something I can't yet put a name to and… I need you to actually meet him. I need to actually meet him."
It was in that minute that Salvazsahar - finally! - entered the inn. He wasn't late or anything, it was more that Sirius had dragged Lily and James to the inn far too early and yet couldn't help but watch the door nervously for the whole half an hour they had been early.
Sirius stood the moment he saw the man, his eyes fixed on the simple attire and the dark hair of the healer.
The man's eyes immediately found Sirius's, as if he already knew where to expect the man to sit.
Green eyes clashed with grey and Sirius couldn't help but gasp when he saw the face of the healer again.
Something… there was something achingly familiar and yet to foreign to it - and Sirius's mind simply couldn't grasp what he was actually seeing whenever he saw the other man.
The healer stepped up to them, his eyes travelling first over Sirius and then over the others.
"I see that you brought some chaperones to our meeting," he commented and a smirk played on his face that oddly enough reminded Sirius of Snape - a fairer and far more regal Snape, but Snape nonetheless.
"Salvazsahar," Sirius replied in greeting and gestured to the empty chair at their table. "Please take a seat."
The man shot him an amused look before glancing over his shoulder to another wizard who had stepped in just a second after the healer himself.
He waved at the man, clearly indicating that he didn't have to join them.
As an answer the wizard in question sat down deliberately on a table that had their table and the entrance in sight.
The healer sighed and then took the invite and sat down as well.
Sirius and James exchanged a glance, something the healer noticed because he elaborated without being asked.
"There are some who didn't trust your intentions considering that for all you are children of Black and Potter, you are part of Dumbledore's followers as well."
It was Lily who commented on that.
"That sounds as if you have some problems with the Headmaster," she said frowning and clearly not too happy with it.
Green eyes met another pair of the same shade and Sirius marvelled how similar the eyes of the healer and James' fiancée were.
"That's one way to put it," Salvazsahar replied. "But I guess it's more the fact that something happened and… let's say a few of my people won't and can't forgive."
"So it has nothing to do with-?" Sirius started to ask but was interrupted by Salvazsahar before he could finish his question.
This has nothing to do with the one you lost?
Green eyes pierced him, their depth deeper than anything Sirius had ever seen and their grief as fresh as it must have been the first day.
"I won't forgive," he told Sirius and there was no warmth to his words. "I can't forgive."
The answer contained so much more than Sirius could fathom.
Whatever happened, it wasn't that the other man blamed the Headmaster of Hogwarts for their recent loss. Yet, he blamed Dumbledore - but for what, Sirius couldn't imagine.
Idly, Sirius wondered if the things the healer blamed Dumbledore for had happened in the other man's school time - just to dismiss it in confusion when he noticed that the man should have been in their year or thereabout and yet, Sirius had no memory of ever seen the man at Hogwarts…
"The Headmaster is a good man," Lily pointed out before Sirius could gather his thought to answer the cryptic statement of the healer. "He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts-!"
"That's not an argument," the healer replied, his green eyes so similar to Lily's. "Being Headmaster doesn't mean that you can't be evil."
Lily's eyebrows shot up.
"So you want to tell us the Headmaster is-"
"He's not evil," Salvazsahar assured her before his face turned serious. "But the path to hell is paved with good intentions. There are things he has done that can't be forgiven - at least not by my people."
"But why?!" James asked confused in that moment, before Sirius had the chance to gather himself again. "What did the Headmaster do that you can't forgive whatever he did?"
The healer just shook his head tiredly.
"It's not that easy to explain - and it's not a story I would share because right now it isn't finished," was his exhausted reply.
Finally, Sirius managed to get his mouth working again.
"But-!"
"If you truly want to know, Heir of Black," the man replied before Sirius could even finish his protest. "Ask me again in a decade or two. I might be inclined to answer then."
For a second, James, Sirius and Lily exchanged unsure looks; then Lily sat up straight.
"Just… could you tell us part of it? Just a part, so that we understand?"
For a moment, the other man hesitated, but in the end he sighed and closed his eyes before inclining his head.
"There was a fight," he said slowly. "A battle. Friends of mine against the enemy. One of them… let's call him-" At that his lips twitched and his eyes shot towards the man who had come with him in hidden glee. "- Archie for this, was a good fighter but hampered by the fact that he was shielding his downed cousin Polly-" Again a twitching of his lips and Sirius wondered if the man was mocking his friends by giving them those names. "- Nevertheless, he was a good fighter and would have held his own if Albus Dumbledore and some of his men hadn't interfered. Like it was, Albus Dumbledore and his men entered the battle."
The healer's eyes darkened at that place.
"He and his people had no knowledge of the nature of our fight, they had no knowledge of our battle strategy and no knowledge of the fractions fighting," he looked at Sirius first, then at James, then at Lily - his gaze severe and bitter. "So he and his people stepped into the fight and just started to down wizards left, right and centre."
Lily sucked in a breath, clearly understanding where this was going and Sirius suddenly felt uncomfortable in a way he hadn't for a long, long time.
"One of Albus Dumbledore's people aimed at Archie, shooting off a curse that would have killed him instantly and left his cousin for death as well after losing the one who kept him alive in the first place," the healer continued, his voice now definitely bitter. "Another friend of mine saw."
There he hesitated, clearly debating with himself before forcing out the words he clearly hadn't been sure he wanted to say.
"Said friend had a ten year old son and counted himself to the friends of Albus Dumbledore," he said. "Yet, he had to jump in front of a curse meant for a man defending an innocent to safe two lives at the cost of his own."
"That-" Lily started but was interrupted by the other man before she could utter what she had wanted to say.
"Later on, when Albus Dumbledore discovered that the man he had called ' friend ' had died, he told us that he had died for the Greater Good - that his death had meaning because he died as a friend of Albus Dumbledore while standing against the dark," there was desperation and disgust warring in the healer's voice. "It was a senseless death, a death that could have been prevented like so many that day if Albus Dumbledore hadn't been. Archie and Polly - they won't forget that, they won't forgive that."
"And you obviously don't as well," James concluded quietly.
The healer shrugged helplessly.
"There's more to it between me and him," he replied, his green eyes sad. "So much more - most of it, I'm not able to say because, truthfully, I don't know all his deeds against me just yet. Just keep it with the fact that I can't… simply can't work with him."
And Sirius, as much as he wished the healer to, understood the reason why there was no way that the two factions fighting against Voldemort could join forces - at least there was no way as long as the Headmaster insisted on leading them; and he would insist, Sirius was sure of it.
"If you hate the Headmaster so much - why are you here, meeting with us?" James asked in that moment, frowning. "Shouldn't you keep your distance from us instead?"
The healer laughed, but there was still bitterness in his laugh.
"I should," he agreed. "But you are Potters and Blacks - and as odd as it sounds, I always tended to trust your families more than it might have been good for me."
And his green eyes swept over them, stopping at Sirius grey ones, their gaze nearly a silent plea to change the topic - but why he chose Sirius to plea with, Sirius couldn't fathom.
Nevertheless, it was surprising how well Sirius could read the other ones face and eyes when he only ever had been able to read his best friend James' face and Lily's eyes before…
And oddly, Sirius had no intention to reject the silent plea of help as well.
"So… spells," he said instead, not caring that he didn't manage a smooth transition to the topic he had wanted to discuss in the first place. "The one you used at the end of the battle-"
"- and the counter to your living room disaster," Lily added amused.
"That one as well," Sirius agreed before looking back at the healer. "Can you teach me?"
The healer's lips twitched a bit.
"Same method as the last time?" he asked amused. "Or do you want something more… normal?"
For a moment, Sirius stared at the other man with an open mouth, then he hurriedly said.
"Normal," he said. "Definitively the normal way!"
He had no great urge to feel helpless because an unstoppable legilimency attack any time soon.
The other man sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"Then it will take some time," he said. "You need to learn some concepts before I can teach you the spells I used."
Sirius grimaced but Lily perked up.
"Concepts?" she repeated.
The healer shrugged.
"Most of my spells are either rune based or intention based," he said. "I'm not really good when it comes to classical wand-magic. And those that are classic… well, they're mostly not Latin-based spells which means that I need to give you some basics in the language they're in…"
While Lily's eyes lit up with excitement and Sirius groaned, James laughed.
"You don't have the… classical… Hogwarts education, do you?" He asked amused.
The healer's lips twitched.
"I assure you," he said. "I attended Hogwarts. It might have been some time, but I was there as a student… or some such."
Sirius looked at the man in disbelief.
"I can't remember you ever going to Hogwarts," he countered. "And I remember those who went with us all!"
Again, the other man's lips twitched.
"I wasn't a Gryffindor," he said, making Sirius wonder how the man knew . "But you're right. I never went to school with you ."
And Sirius couldn't help but think that those words were important.
The other hadn't gone to school with them .
But if not with them, with whom did he go?
The healer interrupted Sirius's thoughts when he sighed and then leaned forward.
"Alright," he said. "Let's see how much of those concepts I can teach you today."
In the end, this wouldn't stay the first and the last meeting between them. Both, Lily and James actually took a shine to the man and Sirius? Well, he had to admit that he had become infatuated by the man from their first meeting onwards, already.
Over the following weeks, they continued to meet the other man - first to learn the concepts and spells he taught them, but more and more because Salvazsahar was something akin to a friend.
"I'm finished with you, James! How could you do that you… you… you toe-rag!"
Sirius couldn't help but stare at the train-wreck that was currently happening in his best friend's kitchen.
Said best friend was currently holding up his hands defensively while his wife stood in front of him with fury in her eyes.
"Don't worry," the man next to Sirius said in that moment and leaned backwards in his chair, not concerned at all that James's marriage was about to go straight to hell. "They'll make up."
"How… how can you be so sure?" Sirius asked a bit confused. "I haven't seen Lily that angry… ever!"
The other man shrugged, still unconcerned.
"Hormones," he said. "James will survive it."
"Wait - you're blaming this… this disaster on stress?!" Sirius asked the healer next to him incredulously. "You can't just sit there and blame this on stress!"
The healer sent him a slightly confused look and didn't even jump when Lily actually threw a plate at James, before he suddenly snickered.
"Yeah, well," he said with a twinkle in his green eyes. "There's more to hormones than stress-"
Of course it was then that Lily interrupted him with a snide remark.
"Are you actually laughing about me, Salvazsahar?" She asked him with narrowed eyes.
The healer held up his hands, his face all puppy-dog and innocent like hell.
"Never," he said. "I'd never laugh at you, Mummy ."
With that, an amused look towards the other two who looked as confused as Lily at the last word, he stood up.
"Sorry, but I have to go now. Ana'll come by in an hour and I should be home before he turns up if I want my home to still stand when I return," he told them and then left with a wave.
"Mummy?" James repeated and turned to look at his confused wife.
Lily shrugged.
"Sometimes," she said. "I definitely don't understand Salvazsahar."
The other two nodded.
Only Sirius would remember that day when Lily found out she was pregnant two weeks later… but then, Salvazsahar would have been a lousy healer if he couldn't recognise a pregnancy, wouldn't he?
Shortly after that last incident, Sirius and the others noted a visible decline when it came to seeing Salvazsahar. They continued to invite him like they had before, but Sal started to decline more often than previously.
That didn't mean they didn't meet unscheduled on a battlefield or two.
Nevertheless, Sirius couldn't help but notice that whenever he saw the other man, the healer looked tired and worn-out as if not only the war, but something else was gnawing on him as well.
His face was more often than not drawn and pale, his eyes blood-shot and he looked at Lily and James as if he wanted to learn them by heart.
It all came to a head when Death Eaters collapsed a cave on Lily and James when they fled from the battlefield.
It had only been Lily, James, Sirius and Salvazsahar and his people who had been battling the Death Eaters - Lily, James and Sirius having been drawn to the other group over the last months - so Dumbledore wasn't anywhere near them… if he even knew about the fact that Sirius and the other two were in battle, that was.
Nevertheless, this was a moment Sirius actually wished for the Headmaster to be there.
While Salvazsahar was a good wizard, he wasn't the most powerful out there and Lily and James were in a collapsed cave - maybe even dead already…
"Lily! James!"
There was absolute panic in Sirius's voice and he shook Archie's hand from his shoulder, unable to comprehend what had happened just moments before.
He didn't think about it, just ran up to the place where Lily and James had been buried alive and-
A hand snatched him around the waist, keeping him from trying to dig out his friends with his bare hands, magic forgotten.
"They're alright, Sirius! Stop it! They're alright!"
But Sirius wouldn't listen, not after seeing his brother and his wife being swallowed by the earth like he had.
"Stop worrying and start thinking, Sirius!" The man next to him admonished him. "You need a clear head now to ensure that they get out as unharmed as possible!"
"They could be dead for all you know so don't you dare to-!"
"They're not dead," it was the calmness in the other man's voice that finally broke through Sirius utter panic. The healer next to him sounded so sure… so utterly sure that they were alive that it nearly hurt to listen to him.
"How can you be so calm? How can you actually believe that they're alive without any assurance that they truly are?" He whispered and looked at Salvazsahar.
For a moment, the healer looked at him with an expressionless face, then he sighed and closed his eyes which had the colour of Lily's eyes. Oddly enough that comparison actually soothed Sirius further.
"I am calm, because I don't guess," his companion replied, clearly understanding that Sirius needed something to hold on right now. "They're alive - I assure you, they are."
"And how do you know?" Sirius countered half-way to angry now. "How can you know after they were buried by the earth like this?"
There was no way the other one would know - no way for anybody to know!
No matter what the other man believed, Sirius wouldn't believe it just because a man who was a friend for barely a year said so!
The healer sighed again, clearly guessing what Sirius thought, but answered anyway.
"Because their child isn't born yet," he said as if it explained everything - and oddly enough, from one moment to the next, it did for Sirius.
All the clues, all the odd things he had witnessed - hell, even his own fascination with the other man.
Lily's eyes, the same green and the same shape.
" I'm Salvazsahar. I guess, we haven't met yet." Yet.
A difference in his healer's oath but the same nightmare…
James's sense of humour… "Are you asking me out on a date?"
Salvazsahar's face so similar and yet so different to James's.
" I don't think that would be a good idea. I'm not fond of splitting loyalties to people who deserve said loyalty."
Salvazsahar's knowledge of Sirius's loyalty to Lily and James.
" They're family spells - they've been in my family for thousands of years."
Yet no hesitation in teaching Sirius…
Lily 's eyes.
Ana. " I named him Anastasius."
Dumbledore.
" It's not that easy to explain - and it's not a story I would share because right now it isn't finished. If you truly want to know, Heir of Black, ask me again in a decade or two. I might be inclined to answer then."
Lily's startling green eyes.
" But you are Potters and Blacks - and as odd as it sounds, I always tended to trust your families more than it might have been good for me."
His knowledge.
" I wasn't a Gryffindor," but he knew that they were … "But you're right. I never went to school with you ." Yet, here he was, about the same age as them…
" Don't worry, they'll make up." So sure that Lily and James would stay an item. So sure they would have children…
LILY'S EYES.
Sirius looked at the man's face next to him and suddenly he wondered how he had missed all the clues, how he hadn't seen what was so obvious now.
"Lily and James," he said in awe. "They truly will have children, won't they? You have Lily's eyes and partly James's face. You're related to them, to both of them, but only a child or a descendant from the future could actually claim a relationship like that with them right now."
Salvazsahar grimaced a bit at that, before he sighed and shook his head.
"That doesn't matter right now," he said. "We have to keep calm and free them, not stand around and gossip."
Sirius nodded and took a deep breath.
A child from the future.
Lily and James would have children.
They would have descendants - and he didn't know how, he didn't know when, but some times in the future, Salvazsahar would be one of them.
This was a grounding thought.
So Sirius took a deep breath, centred himself on that thought and then got to work - quite happy now that Salvazsahar's people didn't have to be asked to help.
Nevertheless, the more dirt they unburied without finding Lily and James, the more nervous Sirius got again.
What if only Lily survived?
Or only the baby?
What if-?
Sirius shook his head.
He needed something to distract himself…
With that thought, he turned towards Salvazsahar who was working next to him.
"Your parents - what will be their names?"
The healer frowned but seemed already resigned to Sirius's stubbornness. But then, he had enough practice when it came to that for months now… if not in the future as well…
Nevertheless, that didn't mean that he simply gave in and told Sirius everything he wanted to know.
With a mischievous smile he looked up towards Sirius.
"Would you believe me if I said Merlin and Morgana?"
"Nope," Sirius immediately replied. "Tell the truth, squirt."
The healer threw him an annoyed glance, clearly not too happy with being called 'squirt'.
Then his lips twitched.
"If you call me squirt," he inquired and Sirius couldn't help to think that the expression on the other man's face was pure James right now. "Am I allowed to call you Pad-Daddy, then?"
"Pad-Daddy?" Sirius repeated confused. "Why Pad-Daddy?"
The future Potter just rolled his eyes at him, clearly still amused and a bit fond.
"When Lily and James have children," he told Sirius slowly as if the man was an idiot. "What kind of role do you expect to play with them?"
Sirius didn't even have to think about that answer.
"Most likely I will be the godfather for at least one of… them," he said slowly, trailing off by the last word when he finally understood where 'Pad-daddy' was actually coming form.
"Oh! You didn't!" He exclaimed, starting at his future grand or great-grand or whatever godson. "If you have to call me something else than Godfather, then at least make it ' Dogfather ' and not ' Pad-Daddy '!"
The other man smirked at him.
"As you wish, Dogfather," he said. "And now let's go and actually free Lily and James."
Sadly enough even while they continued working, Sirius wasn't dissuaded totally from the first question he had asked.
"Your parents," he reminded the healer. "You wanted to give me their names."
"I didn't want anything," Salvazsahar countered but at Sirius stubborn look, he gave in again. "Alright, would you believe me if I say my parents' names were Arthur and Morgana?"
"Not more likely than the first," Sirius countered. "Now the truth, Salvazsahar - or I tell your grandparents or whatever about your relation."
The healer sighed and closed his eyes, his smile suddenly gone.
"Henri and Cathérine," he said finally, his face gauging Sirius's expression.
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"You want to tell me your father was French?"
Salvazsahar shrugged, his lips twitching again.
"I might have omitted my father's true name," he replied. "But this is what they were called for a time."
And this time, Salvazsahar's face turned forbidding at the end, showing Sirius that he wouldn't get further with his inquiry.
With a sigh and a slow nod, Sirius gave in.
"Alright," he said, challenging Salvazsahar to correct him. "Harry and Catherine, it is."
And for a moment, Salvazsahar seemed to want to object to Sirius, but then he just shook his head and sighed.
"Let's free James and Lily, please," he said. "And don't you dare to discuss my relation with them anywhere near us, do you understand, Dogfather?"
"Cristal," Sirius replied, before his own face showed another mischievous smile. "But careful, Salvazsahar, the moment your Mum pops you out sometimes in the future I will lecture your parents about raising you as an honest and open individual who doesn't deceive family into believing him to be a stranger!"
The answer was an amused glance from the healer next to him.
"I believe, as evident by me, you won't succeed with your task, Pad-Daddy ."
"Oy! That's Dogfather to you!"
"Dogfather," Sal agreed and then ventured off to finally rescue poor Lily and James before Sirius could talk him to death…
(1995)
"You prankster!" Sirius exclaimed, stunned about the previous actions of his little brother. "You damn little prankster you… you tricked me!"
And with an amazed and somewhat proud shake of his head he followed his brother upstairs.
On the way up, Sirius's thoughts turned a bit more sinister.
His life, up until now had never been good.
But now-
Sirius couldn't help but think that he hadn't felt so good, so happy since forever. Ever since his brother returned, ever since he had decided to follow his brother and Harry instead of trying to listen to the Headmaster, Sirius had felt free in a way he had never before.
Of course, there were still a few people missing who would have made his life perfect, nevertheless, Sirius was willing to take what he could.
Regardless his loss of James.
Of Lily.
Of Salvazsahar…
"I knew that someday I would manage to be a good influence on you!" He called cheerfully, dismissing his maudlin thoughts from his mind with a force of his will.
"That's one way to put it," a voice that was known to Sirius yet wasn't Regulus answered amused. "But do you truly want to take claim on the fact that Reg managed to prank the whole world into thinking him dead when he was around a much more capable teacher all the time, my dear Pad-Daddy?"
Sirius stopped short on the last step down to the cellar.
It was like a calling of the past, like a sudden light on the way of redemption.
He had lost James.
He had lost Lily.
And yet, there was redemption calling - even if he didn't understand it until after he had already answered that achingly familiar banter.
"Hey! That's Dogfather to you!" Sirius protested, but his protest was automatic and it was only when he had uttered it, that he understood what he had said at all.
It had been the same he had always said when he had been called 'Pad-daddy' by the voice in the kitchen.
A voice he knew - a voice he had heard before, years and years ago…
"Salvazsahar," he said, his tongue not even stumbling over a name the most of the current world couldn't pronounce at all.
"Dogfather," the other man returned the greeting.
And Sirius whole world turned on its axes once again…