"Tonks..You are related to this guy, right?" Richard picked up the paper and waved it at the window. "He should be an uncle or something from your mother's side, if I remember correctly?"
Tonks appeared next to him almost as if she had apperated.
"Nope!"
She tore the newspaper from his hands and threw it away.
"We are NOT related to the Black family in any-"
"Wanna help me hide him?" Richard interrupted. For her credit, Tonks didn't immediately flip out as Richard expected. Instead, she stopped speaking for a moment, and took a deep breath to calm herself, before asking calmly,
"Why would you want to do that?"
Richard held his hand, and the paper floated back to his hand. These types of simple spells were ingrained to his instincts after countless hours of practice.
"He's innocent." Richard replied, placing the paper on the arm rest. " The other guy, Peter Pettigrew, faked his death and made him look like the perpetrator."
"No, no no," Tonks denied, " The reports say that there were witnesses, and they found only a piece of Pettigrew left."
" Pettigrew is alive. Scuttling around like a rat" Richard replied with undisguised contempt. Truth be told, the reason he didn't dare to kill him all these years, was because of caution.
Pettigrew was someone who fought in the war. And he was skilled in dark arts as well as combat, despite him being a coward. So he tolerated his presence for two whole years.
"How's your auror job going these days? Any interesting developments? "
"Since when do you care? And why are we getting off track here? Weren't we talking about some important things ?"
"Just humor me." Richard said and laid himself comfortably in his chair.
"Well, there isn't much recently," Tonks said slowly. "These days we are all going around looking for Black. So its just patrol after patrol. And we have to deal with those dementors, nasty business."
"So, field days then?"
"Yeah."
"Perfect." Richard rubbed his palms. "I want you to do me another favour, and don't worry, it isn't about stealing anything" Richard quickly assured Tonks seeing her face scrunch up. " I want you to keep an eye out for new werewolves."
"Werewolves?"
"Yeah."
He needed his own group of soldiers. Loyal,and ferocious and at the same time, not particularly connected or valued by the wizarding world. If he used his evil piece, then he should be able to reduce or even control the transformation.
" I'm looking for character, than ferocity, though. Someone who hasn't given up. Not hopeless, drifting person who wait and take wolfsbane every full moon. I'm talking about someone who goes around hammering feral werewolves for revenge." He looked at Tonks," You understand the type I'm ask in for, right?"
Tonks looked at him with suspicion.
"Why?"
"Just do it." Richard replied, dismissing her. "I got my things to do, so you do your things."
He had to plan out this year carefully. By the end of this year, he had to get more people to his side.
A bishop, a pawn a knight and maybe a took.
" Any news on magical creatures?"
"Nothing interesting. Newt Scamander is still going out of his way, so we don't actually deal with magical creatures at the moment."
'I see'
He sat there for a moment, and considered.
"So, is there anything YOU want?" Richard asked. He knee that he had made many unreasonable requests , and Tonks had actually done many of those, even adopting him under her family name. So he wanted to give something back as well.
The scowling face immediately unravelled into a bright smile.
....,....,....,....,....,....,....,....,
"WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Quieten down a little will you, we don't want to wake up the entire neighborhood."
Tonks laughed as she increased her broom speed.
"Take a load off man, don't tell me you've never wanted to just get on a broom and let it loose."
"Indeed I have."
Richard replied, with a smirk on his face. Flying was one of the activities he never got tired of. He was a Phenex, a bird whose home was the sky, and more than that, he was a person too tired of staying in the rules.
He sat on the metal sword reminiscent of a sword cultivator and looked down at the blurring black sea. The night had made the entire world dark, and it was beautiful.
He stood up, then angled his flying sword up, racing to the sky at breakneck speeds, the g forces pulling his cheeks down. He could hear Tonks calling him from below slightly, but it was not clear enough.
Faster
Higher
He urged the sword, as he moved up, through the clouds, almost vertical, not caring about the cold.
A little bit more.
He felt the frost starting to build. Slowly, and his breath turning to smoke, but he just needed a little more..
Swoosh
He broke through the dense clouds, where he came to a slow stop.
The massive pale moon cast its light over the kingdom of sky, lighting the thick clouds in an ethereal glow and despite the light, he could see stars, twinkling in the background in red gold and white. He could see the colors clearly, and a single thought rose to his mind, as he let his legs hang from the swords side.
'How wonderful, it would be, if this was real..'
This sky, this moon, this silence.... Even her.
Richard looked down at Tonks, who was screaming her throat bloody for him to come back down. He couldnt hear it, but her expression said everything.
Yet this existed not as reality, but an in between state of fiction and reality.
Then there was a second thought.
He dismissed the sword, letting his body plummet.
Rustle rustle
Flap
Flap
His clothes danced and his hair waved as he fell down with nothing to slow him down. His gaze never leaving the sky.
'If only this belonged just to me'
He turned around, his face facing the far below sea, and called his bishop.
Flap
Two wings of fire manifested from his back, spanning severely meters wide, each flap of the giant wings breaking his descent until he stopped just at the surface of the sea.
Swoosh
Swoosh
Small waves broke from time to time, being the only sound that could be heard.
Well at least for a few minutes.
"YOU STUPID IDIOT! HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY INSANE!?WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU EVEN THINK...."
It was funny. Tonks's face was literally red, and her hair was bristling . She looked like a red porcupine from his perspective.
He materialized another sword with the flying enchantments and dispelled the wings.
It was fun. But still, it was sad. Because he was still alone. Even after two lives. And his only family was nothing but a character in fiction, existing in a semi real state.
He sighed.
It sucked. Which made it all the more important for him to dominate this story. Only then would he be able to go to the real world.