27 Chp 27: Murder on the Dance Floor
Quotation Marks Notice: Skip
I've had some comments about the usage of quotation marks. I was educated in England and was taught to use a single apostrophe to denote speech, whilst I use a double apostrophe for direct quotations. Consequently, I have used a double apostrophe to differentiate thoughts and have been using italics and double apostrophes to denote internal conversations with Calcifer. After doing some research I notice Americans and American authors typically do it the other way around. My statistics indicate around 18% of the readership is American. Please leave a comment if you would prefer it the other way around, I will change it around with a notice highlighting that change if I receive over twenty comments to that effect.
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Location: Dogs Den
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Nervously walking out of the loo hands still wet, Adam saw Sirius sitting certifiably stormy on a lounge chair in the living room.
'Sit'
Adam awkwardly wandered over to the kitchen table pulling over a chair.
Ssssscccrrrrrrrrr
The feet of the chair scraped across the wooden floor unpleasantly. Adam sat down facing Sirius.
They sat in silence, one of Sirius's eyes twitching as he looked at Adam.
'You've been keeping a lot to yourself'.
'...'
Adams's mouth moved but words didn't come out.
'The hospital gave me your records. This was your state on arrival. Subconjunctival haemorrhages to the eyes, three identifiable rib fractures, straight bruising from the shoulders to the lower abdomen, tracheobronchial injury to the windpipe. Inflammation around all joints, evidence of muscular overtraining and nerve damage, recently healed trauma to the head, recently healed burns to the hands and elbows, thirty-centimetre laceration to the right calf, evidence of previous trauma to legs and finally, seventy-four scars of various sizes identified'.
'I was willing to let you explain in your own time, but what I saw today, was something else, that was no magical creature .... and you didn't hesitate, you had seen that before'.
'It's a long story ....' replied Adam.
'We've got all night' said Sirius pouring a half-open bottle of Oban into a whisky glass, 'Am I going to need this'.
"I'd tell him. From the few people you've met in this world even over Andromeda and the doctor this man has put you first over the past few weeks and you're going to need someone to cover for us if things go sideways in the usual way" said Calcifer earnestly as she laid down at Adam's feet.
'And that thing next to you is bloody alive that is beyond any enchantment I've seen or exists'.
'...'.
The griffen tried to make itself smaller, in an attempt to pull itself out of the proverbial firing line.
'Let's start easy what was that in Ollivanders'?
'That ... was a pink terror followed by the consequent two blue ones' replied Adam.
'And'.
'Um-um it's like a demon if you could call it that of the legions of the changer of ways' answered Adam stuttering slightly.
'I'm assuming that there are more where they came from'?
"He doesn't know how right he is" said Calcifer.
'Yes and unfortunately that's about the prettiest form they come in', he said with a thousand-yard stare.
'Did you come from that place?' said Sirius slowly.
'Kaldor said he found me there when I was just a baby and since a few weeks ago I've lived my whole life there'.
'Kaldor... Is that the man you've been referring to as your mentor' enquired Sirius?
'Yeah-h, he was a bit crazy but he was ... my mentor' said Adam laughing and crying a bit at the same time as he mentioned Kaldor's name, 'He's the only reason I'm alive'.
Standing up from the lounge chair Sirius walked over to the window which looked down on the still hustling street below streetlights illuminating bustling pedestrians below.
'Did this place have a name' said Sirius?
'...'.
'Adam' said Sirius quietly.
'The warppp' stammered out Adam as Big Ben struck twelve in the distance with finality as he started his painful tale.
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Time: 1 am
~ Sway as sung by Jennifer Connelly ~
'When marimba rhythms start to play
Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more ...'
The voice of a woman singing carried with a ghostly cadence over the few patrons of the underground jazz bar, its entrance hidden in an unnoticeable alleyway branching off St James Square.
Sirius was sat alone at the bar, Adam had gone to sleep after giving Sirius a cursive overview of the warp, which was still sending shivers down his spine as he sat in the bar, swilling his glass of whisky. Muggle hell seems like paradise comparatively he thought, horrified by it, but angrier at himself for sitting around for years doing nothing, whilst his godson lived in that hell.
'Jamie give us a glass' said a soft voice from behind him'.
'Coming right up, the usual Ms' said Jamie the twenty something bartender dressed in a waistcoat and dress shirt.
'Thatta boy' she said her pearly whites flashing dazzlingly in a radiant smile.
Sliding onto a stool she rested her elbows on the bar stretching her neck back like a cat as she leaned forward.
Sirius was in his own head and hadn't noticed the lady at all, who had shimmied a bit closer with a cheeky smile on her lips.
'Heyyyyy, broody mac broodyson, did you like the singing'.
'Huh, sorry, what, oh yeah the singing was great, the ladies got a really beautiful voice'.
'Hahaha, are you flirting with me ... all these compliments' said the woman mischievously'.
'What, no ... Oh' said Sirius in an exclamation of realisation.
'Am I too beautiful to talk to'.
'Uh, yeah, I mean no ... I'm sorry I'm Sirius'.
'Explains why you're over here sat so-seriously, and I'm Marlene, thank you for asking' she said intoning every syllable.
'Well it's a pleasure to meet you Marlene' said Sirius painfully.
'What, my name is not that bad I think it's a nice name thank you very much' replied Marlene picking up on Sirius's withdrawn response reacting to her name.
'No, it's not you it's just the name of a friend I was very close to who passed away in a .. accident a few years ago, I think it's a beautiful name'.
'Mmmm' she hummed a smile returning.
'So what's got you so glum, on this beautiful' checking her small watch 'Morning' asked Marlene?
'I'm sure you wouldn't be interested, you need to get home and I need to pull myself together' answered Sirius gruffly.
'I've got a little time before my next song and my father always said he met the most interesting people when he opened his ears and listened'.
'Wise man sounds kind of nosy though' said Sirius huffing a laugh through his nose.
'Oh he was, oh my God, no sense of personal space, but I'm interested ... really', she exclaimed with palpable honesty.
'Well it's hard to know where to start, I recently started looking after my godson who was found after he went missing years ago when his parents died. Up until a few weeks ago I thought he was dead and well the kid he's been through a lot, more than I could have survived and it's hard knowing, he was out there after all this time when I could have been working to save him' said Sirius laying it all out.
'But you're there for him now, aren't you' responded Marlene.
'Yes, but it feels too late'.
'From what you're saying there's no way you could have known, which says to me there's no point beating yourself up about it, you seem to really care about the kid so you just have to be the person he needs from now on. It's time to move on Mr Sirious'.
'You might be right but I still blame myself, thanks though that's the nicest thing someone's said to me in a long time' replied Sirius.
'It's a pleasure, if you ever need someone to listen or to lay your head on you know where to find me'.
Grabbing, a post-it note and a pen from the bar she wrote down a number, knocked back the drink that had arrived as they were talking, jumped down from the seat and walked back towards the stage, hips swaying to continue her set.
'What on earth is this number for' thought Sirius confused, before finishing his drink and leaving the bar.
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(This chapter was initially inspired by the Song Murder on the Dance Floor after watching salt burn which I will never be lucky enough to unsee - Also there were landlines in 1991 and technically working mobile phones).
