Black Flowers

Sirius Black sat on the deserted beach and watched as the tides came in. He had been on the island for about two months recuperating and had not felt this good in years. He wondered what it was about the island that just felt wonderful, waking up every morning for the past several weeks feeling that he could take on the world itself.

He thought back to the wake-up call he had received that morning from one of the house elves announcing that the lady had arrived. He sat up and looked around at the room he slept in, and pulled on one of the filmy white shirts that had been made available to him after he and Buckbeak had been led here by the "lady" Asphodel. He looked around the room again, the initial shock he had felt when they had initially arrived in the lounge of the house he had seen occasionally when he would dream about her.

He walked out into the lounge, and headed for the kitchen where Asy was standing making a pot of tea. As she had been waiting for him, she had removed her robes and leather jacket, and had hung them over the back of one the chairs at the table.

Sirius watched as she began to rummage through the utensil drawer, pulled out a knife and began to cut up the loaf of bread on the counter. Asy jumped and dropped the knife as she cut her right index finger. Her hands were shaking so bad that she couldn't keep hold of the knife. She grabbed the edge of the counter top as though she were in excruciating pain, her knuckles going white from the lack of circulation.

Tears began to stream down her cheek, mixing with the blood pooling on the surface top. Her body continued to become more rigid, her face going white as if she were going into shock; her head snapped back as she took in a sharp intake of breath and collapsed on the floor.

Sirius ran to her side, he cold see she was still breathing, just passed out. Two frantic house elves joined him at her side.

"The Lady!" they shrieked in unison. More of the house elves started to appear from various areas in the house to see what was happening.

"Back up everyone," Sirius raised his voice as he unceremoniously began to push house elves off one by one. "I'll take care of her."

He lifted her up into his arms and carried her into the lounge and laid her out onto the couch, and covered her with a blanket one of the house elves brought to him. He stopped the elf.

"Can you get something to treat her finger with?" he asked the shaky little creature, who hurriedly disappeared and then reappeared with some bandages, which Sirius dressed her finger with.

He placed his hand on her forehead and noted that she was cold to the touch, but she was still breathing. He began to think back to his days at Hogwarts for anything that would help him treat her. He stood and walked over to the closest bookshelf to see what books was there, the entire time, he was wondering in the back of her mind weather she was going to be okay.

He looked down at the house elf standing at the side of the couch, levitating a second, thicker blanket over her. The tiny creature tucked the blanket under Asy's body as a second elf entered the room with a bowl of steaming water balancing in one hand and a cloth draped over her skinny free arm.

"Do not worry, Sir," the first one come up to Sirius and reassured him "This has happened before, when she was a little lady." He said as he disappeared again, leaving Sirius alone with Asy and the second elf, which was now placing the wet cloth on Asy's forehead. She was softly cooing into the young woman's ear, which seemed to make her relax and fall into a deep sleep.

"It's okay now Sir. The lady should be fine in a few hours," she said as she came up to him and reassured him, just as the first one had, "Maybe you should go for a walk on the beach today." She added as she re-shifted her attention back onto Asy.

Sirius hesitantly nodded in agreement and left the room, but not before he glanced at her, laying on the couch, her face almost serene, a change from the pain that had been contorting her features.

He walked out of the house and onto the beach where he now was sitting, watching the tides cooing in, trying to figure out where he was to go from this point.

He knew that heading back to England was out of the question unless it was absolutely unavoidable, and he knew that Asy wouldn't allow him to leave the safety of the island unless it was a life or death situation.

With how still this island is, I don't see myself getting into any truly dire situations any time soon. He thought as he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. His gaze shifted to the source of the commotion and smiled.

Buckbeak was running down the beach towards where Sirius was sitting. He then noticed the particularly large garden gnome; its bulbous potato shaped face was a mix of terror and what looked like thrilled excitement. He got the impression that this may have all been a game to the gnome.

Sirius decided to sit back and watch how the hippogriff fared against the surprisingly fast creature. He couldn't decide weather route for the gnome or for Buckbeak. He also couldn't decide weather he should try to intervene on the gnome's behalf.

I should just leave it. This is just nature working the way it does. I shouldn't interfere in this. He concluded in his mind and continued to watch as the hippogriff snapped, picked the screaming gnome up in his beak and lifted up into the air out of Sirius' sight. Too late now anyways. He concluded as he stood and headed off back towards the house and looked out over the ocean and watched as a group of seagulls began to circle and dive for fish.

Sirius smiled as he turned and walked towards the house. He walked into the lounge and sat down across from the couch where Asy was laying. He watched her shallow breathing continuing to reflect on the day. He laid his head back on the headrest and nodded off to sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A few hours later, Sirius awoke to see that Asy was still asleep and the house elves had left tea on the table in front of him.

He sat forward in the chair, poured himself a cup and sat back sipping the warm liquid and contemplated over the taste of the tea.

He sat back up when he heard the fluttering of wings at the window. He placed the teacup on the table and went to the window noting the flutter of snowy-white feathers on the other side of the pane. He opened the window and watched as Hedwig hopped into the room and presented her leg for him to remove the note attached to her leg. Sirius smiled and took a cookie and gave it to the owl who happily hooted and contentedly nibbled at the decidly delicious morsel in her claws

He took the note and sat back down, beginning to read the note from Harry.

(Insert letter from GoF).

He looked over the letter a second time and then turned his attention on Asy again.

She looked back at him and smiled. She had finally woken back up, and she weakly smiled at him.

"Letter from Harry?" she quietly asked as her eyes rested on the piece of parchment in his hand.

"Yes," he replied as he placed the letter on the table and kneeled down next to her and ran his hands through her hair.

"What do you know about Voldamort coming back?" he whispered into her ear.

"Sirius, please don't ask me that question," she answered, sounding extremely exhausted.

"Tell me what you know."

"You don't want me to answer you," she trailed off and closed her eyes to go back to sleep.

"No. Asphodel, you are going to tell me, and you are going to tell me now," but it was too late, she had nodded back off to sleep.

Sirius began to brood and decided to wait till she was able to coherently speak again. He had waited twelve years to begin to prove his so-called innocence, he cold wait a few more hours to get his answers from her.

He took a sip from the now cold tea and continued to watch her.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He stared back at her as her eyes opened again. He set the quill and parchment he was using down and resumed his hovering over her.

"Tell me what you know... Now," he said as he pinned her down to the couch with his own body.

"Know what?" Asy replied in mock innocence.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about Asphodel," he said as he forcefully grabbed her under the chin and stared into her eyes.

"You're not going to get it out of me by force Sirius," she spat out his name and narrowed her eyes.

"Besides, I can't tell you. It's official ministry business. I'm not authorized to tell anyone, not even Professor Dumbledore himself."

"I know that you're the Auror they've assigned to find Voldamort. Besides, I'm not here, remember?" he smirked as he brought his face closer to hers. She smiled back at him as she commented back to him.

"My right leg falling asleep is telling me you are very much here," he scoffed in response, which quickly changed into dismayed shock as she dissapperated from beneath him and then apperated in the doorway in from of the couch.

"Like I've told you twice already Sirius, I can't tell you anything about my job," she said as she walked towards him and placed her hand on his.

"But I will say this," she continued as she met his eyes, "Yes."

"You know what I'm talking about," she cut him off as she turned and headed back towards the kitchen.

Sirius collapsed on to the couch and watched as Asy hurried back into the room with her robes, jacket over her arm and four house elves following closely on her heels, yelling at the to lay back down.

"Will you four leave me be? I'm staying the night... I'm just taking my things to my room!" she yelled at the four creatures as she stormed out of the lounge, and towards her bedroom.

The elves stopped dead in their tracks with their little mouths hanging open in shock.

Sirius sat up on the couch and waited for her to finish what she was doing and come back out of her room - she took longer that he thought it would.

About twenty minutes later she came back out her hair dripping wet and a fresh, clean flowing dress that barely hid her body beneath it. Sirius watched the flowing material as she began to pace the room in front of the fireplace, he tiny bare feet making no sounds as she took each step.

"I need to go back to England; I need to get to Harry."

"What?" she stopped and looked at him in alarm.

"You heard what I said," he stood up and walked over to where she had stopped. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders.

"You can't," she said as she through his hands off and backed away, looking as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You can't, it's not safe... They'll catch you if you go back! Don't you know that if they catch you, they'll give you the kiss! I mean, if you leave..."

"You can't protect me, I know. But I'm willing to take that chance. I have to be there for Harry, like I should have been there for James and Lily... I need to fulfill my duty as Harry's godfather! He needs my help, and I can't do my job here! I have to go!"

"I do hope that you do realize that if you leave the safety of this island, that the next time that I see you, I won't be protecting you, and I will have to turn you in." she said as she sat down on the couch and sighed deeply. She looked back up at him, her eyes filled worry and concern.

"I know... but I also know that what happens will happen. No matter how hard we fight it. All I know is my place is with Harry right now; no matter what my safety concerns are for you, it's nothing compared to what Harry needs right now," he finished as he turned and began to leave the room.

"Besides, I have Professor Dumbledore's help too," he added as he held up a piece of parchment that had come out of his pocket. He left her standing in the lounge speechless.

As he walked back to his room to change his clothes, he reached back into his pocket and pulled out the necklace that Asy had given him while he had still been in Azkaban and clutched the pendant in his hand and then placed the pendant back in his pocket.

Sirius changed and found a quill and some parchment and finished his response to Harry and wrote a new letter to Dumbledore, and tied them to Hedwig and a second message bird, and sent them off on their way. He then ran out to the paddock where Buckbeak was kept and released him, climbing on his back and they left, leaving the isolated island behind, along with the comfort and safety he had enjoyed for the previous two months.

It was too late to turn back now.