RP: Dinner for Two

[tt_cecilia.insanejournal.com]

Date: 30. November, 2001
Characters: Cecilia Proudfoot and Sirius Black
Setting: Early evening, Sirius' house
Content: TBD
Status: Open: Private


The basket on the kitchen table had been packed even before Jamie had left to join the rest of his class for the astronomy camp-out. Some of the faster growing vegetables in her own garden were on the verge of being ready for harvesting; another short week or so, she estimated, but they weren't completely right for tonight. So, she had made a round of the market, adding to the things she already had in her cooler and cupboards as well as a good portion of what most of all resembled dark turkey meat. She forgot which animal it came from, but she recognized it as a favorite whenever it was available.

After her shower she had let her hair dry into the stubborn curls she had given up on trying to tame, though she did let it hang loose, rather than tying it up in the usual ponytail. The clothes took a bit more consideration. Dinner with Sirius called for something a bit less casual than her regular everyday clothes, but they would be cooking, which took out some of the formality. She eyed her tank tops and cargo shorts longingly, but those wouldn't even be considered casual; they were her work clothes. Finally she settled on her white tunic with the black lace decoration over her sand coloured denim skirt and comfortable sandals. There, relaxed without being too casual.

With a light jumper draped over the basket, she apparated to Sirius' house, taking a moment to run her fingers through her hair, before she knocked on the door.

Comments

[tt_cecilia.insanejournal.com]

"The veil," Cecilia said softly, scooping a handful of diced vegetables into a bowl. She let Sirius take the time he needed, sensing that he might need it. Perhaps it had been an unfairly hard question to ask him, but asking him what his favourite colour was, she thought, would have been making a mockery of his offer of complete honesty. Besides, she doubted he'd believe it was something she actually wanted to know, after all, a quick glance around the house would reveal a fondness for the colour green.

His answer made sense, in a way, because there was no way she could possibly understand what it was like, but it had affected him greatly, of that she had no doubt, and that was why she had asked the question; to get a better understanding of him. "Hermione..." she muttered, at first not certain who this woman was, when it struck her and she felt a bit silly for not having realised it immediately. "Oh, Hermione Granger, right?" That had to be her, otherwise she doubted he would have named her as casually as he had.

Bringing the bowl of vegetables over to where he had summoned the herbs, she put it down next to him in case he wanted to add some of them to it. "I guess I was more curious if you'd registered anything while you were... behind the veil," she looked up at him. "Like, the time you were there, was it an eternity or the five or six years you were there, or more like a blink of an eye?" Either way, his return was bound to have messed with his mind, though she was certain it would have been different all depending on how long it had seemed. Then again, this was solely for her own curiosity's sake and for her ability to understand him, to some extent, but it wasn't imperative that she knew. "You don't have to answer that, if you don't want to," she assured him with a gentle smile, placing his hand on top of his. "I can ask easier questions, too, if you prefer."

[tt_sirius.insanejournal.com]

"Yes, Hermione Granger. Brilliant witch. I'm indebted to her twice over now. She saved my life after I escaped Azkaban and I feel she saved it again to bring me out of the Veil," he replied somberly. There was little doubt in Sirius' mind that even though Hermione claimed the Veil accident had been simply that - an accident - that she had somehow affected the doorway to death enough to extract him from it's grasp.

Sirius glanced down at the bowl, making the assumption that Cecilia thought the vegetables would benefit from the herbs so he sprinkled a couple of fingerfuls onto them. Putting a spoon in the bowl, he tapped it and it began slowly turning the vegetables to mix them with the herbs. "I did say I would answer your questions," Sirius pointed out after a moment, grateful for her understanding but also knowing that she was extending him a trust that he hadn't yet earned.

"It might as well have been an eternity. The only friend I had in this... that world died while I was trapped there," he clarified, his tone taking on a small, but temporary hard edge. "I remember being hit with Bella's hex and feeling the push backward - the cold slip of the Veil as it touched my back. And then I don't remember anything specific. Whispers. Dark... dark whispers that came and went, speaking of vile, foul things." Sirius paused, his body giving a tiny shudder as he drew on those memories. He swallowed and looked down at her, his gaze grave. "I had no sensation of time passing. Just an engulfing sense of evil."

[tt_cecilia.insanejournal.com]

Satisfied with the amount of herbs Sirius added to the bowl, Cecilia looked back up at him when he set the spoon to mix it. "You did," she acknowledged and summoned a few more of the leaves she had used to Transfigure before she had left. It wasn't only for her curiosity's sake that she was starting out with the hard questions. By asking the hard questions first, the ones she figured a lot of people were dying to know, Sirius would – hopefully – know that if she was staying around, it wasn't to get the answers from him. Hopefully.

One by one, she transfigured the leaves into sheets of baking paper, that she stacked neatly next to the bowl while she listened to him talk. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said quietly, meaning it from the bottom of her heart. For him to first be forced to be in what he himself had just described as an evil place, only to return and find that his only friend had died while he was gone was just more unfairness than a single person deserved in several lifetimes.

"And now that you're out from behind the veil," she started carefully, reaching for the fish and placing a suitable amount in the middle of the sheet on top. "Knowing what you know or remember from how it was there, what does that make you think about the place we've landed in? Is it really the paradise it looks to be, or is that all-encompassing evil still lurking all around?" If what was behind the veil was as evil as Sirius had described it, and she had no reason not to believe him on that one, then where would a time disruption through that very same veil have brought them? Removing the spoon from the bowl, she scooped a small handful of vegetables up, placing them on top of the fish before she meticulously began folding up the sides of the paper until it would hold liquid without it spilling over the edges. "Add a bit of butter and a touch of white wine, I'll close it up and seal in all the flavours while it bakes."