Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ And They Smiled ❯ One-Shot

And They Smiled

By: VenusIsKnownForFlyTraps

 

There she stood. In the middle of the scratched, wooden floor she stood with her back to him. The fresh smell of bacon and eggs was in his nostrils, begging him to go and eat them, but he remained where he was, frozen, watching from afar. She turned to put the slightly burnt food onto a chipped and cracked plate, twisting her body slightly so he could see her from the side. Her fading red hair swung slightly in it's messy ponytail on the back of her head, and he saw some of the alarmingly pale skin on the back of her neck, which was quickly covered by the faux fur of her old, beaten jacket.

 

He knew she would turn toward the window in a few seconds, carrying the broken plate with the second-rate food over to the wobbling table right next to the cracked window, then close the blinds, blocking all light from entering the old cottage, and eat her meal in silence, until the animals nearby smelt the food and went to visit her, knowing she would give it to them. The lazy bastards.

 

The woman's name was Araceli Serrani, he knew from all the meeting he had been to where everyone would talk of what importance she was and how they would help her help them, yet never followed through with their words and forgot about her until the next meeting.

 

He watched as Araceli closed the blinds, a few twisted together and broken, letting in little streams of light over her face, and allowing him to continue watching her. Her eerie green eyes squinted as the bright light that came through the broken blinds, making them seem a ghostly yellow color.

 

A couple moments passed and he saw a small group of foxes prowl over the coat of dry, dead leaves coating the ground, and the leader scratched at the low pane of the window, causing her to pause mid-chew. She swallowed and stood with the plate in her hands, and walked out of the room. A moment later she stepped outside of the small door of the cottage and put the plate down. She ungracefully plopped down onto the cold stone steps and watched with eyes of great sorrow as the foxes zoomed away from the window and to the plate and ate up all the food.

 

She smiled.

 

The foxes looked up at her, licking their lips free of any remaining egg. She resembled a fox greatly. She had once had red hair almost as bright as a Weasley's, but it had now faded with depression and age. In addition to the red, she had two thick strips of black, one on each side where her ears were, but there was additional red hair in front of it, blocking her right eye out of view, and her left eye just visible, held back by two cracking green barrettes. Inside the black of her hair were thin strips of white, but it was impossible to tell if she had done that on purpose, the white representing the white tuffs of fur that came out of a normal foxes ears, or if it was from age, though she looked only twenty.

 

Without so much as a thank you growl, the foxes left to find some other source of food. Food was scarce, as winter was coming, and the girl, Araceli, knew she would need to find herself food, yet paid no mind to her rumbling stomach and closed the door to the cottage, walking out, the crunching of leaves drifting to her watcher's ears, and made her way to town.

 

~*~

 

“Sirius!”

 

“What? Oh, hey, Reamus,” he said in a slightly-less-than-enthusiastic voice.

 

“Where have you been? Dumbledore told you not to leave!” Reamus said in a commanding voice.

 

Get off your high horse… the black-haired man, Sirius, couldn't help but think to the irking brown-haired man in front of him.

 

“Hmm? Oh, yes,” he said, vaguely remembering the white-haired man telling him to stay indoors.

 

“Are you OK?”

 

“Yes, I'm fine,” and with that he quietly walked up the creaking stairs to his hippogriff's room. “Hey, Beaky.”

 

The birdlike creature blinked at him softly, then made a low sound in his throat and chirped happily.

 

“I saw her today,” Sirius replied to the unasked question, slumping onto the floor. The hippogriff stood from its place on the floor and walked over to its master, squawking awkwardly at the new fact.

 

“Yeah, she gave those ruddy foxes her last bit of food.” Beaky squawked in an angry manner at this fact. “Yeah,” he said again, staring intently at a dead rat on the hay floor.

 

“What do you think I should do?” He looked up at the grayish hippogriff sitting next to him. Beaky squawked again, only this time in an excited manner, stood, and walked over to the large window.

 

“You can't be serious…” he sounded slightly dazed. “I can't go up to her and tell her. Its not that easy.” The bird creature squawked loudly, pounding its feet into the wooden floor.

 

“I know what your saying, but I can't do that.” Beaky squawked again, as if saying why not? This has been going on so long, why not do something? “You know I'm not allowed to leave this house.” The hippogriff made a noise that sounded oddly like laughing. You leave this house every day; the laughter seemed to scream to him, and your afraid to leave to do something that could change your whole life?

 

“Beaky… But what if it changes for the worst? My life will be ruined.” The birdlike horse creature looked at him with that you-are-so-fucked-up look. Sirius grinned. “Oh, shut up.”

 

He looked out the window at the grayish clouds hanging lowly over the house, where the clouds had parted enough for the sun to shine brilliantly on the busy world below.

 

He smiled.

 

“Maybe tomorrow.”

 

~*~

 

This is what I was basing Araceli off of:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l26/CatsFearMe/BIGGERfoxg irl.jpg

 

Author's Note:

I don't know what made me write this. I just saw the pic of the girl I based Araceli off of and thought of Sirius Black. And Araceli is a real name; it's the name of my pan pal from Spain. Oh, and this happens during Harry's fifth year.