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The Charkorais Bird


The fading sunlight turned the leaves and the sky pale gold, and three forms moved through the trees, ducking branches and brush. Fireflies dotted the dark spaces beneath the canopy, little specks, glowing merrily. In the distance, there were crickets chirping, the low song of birds bidding the day farewell, and far off, the howl of a wolf.

A natural wolf, that is.

“This way,” called the figure in the lead, “This way… hurry…”

Newt Scamander broke through the treeline, wiping twig and leaf from his hair, his old Hufflepuff scarf catching on a branch, and he tugged it free as Ned Veigler and Remus Lupin stepped through the trees as well, into a clearing that led up to a cliff that overhung a great valley that seemed to stretch off endlessly. Newt trotted toward the cliffedge with the two younger men, smiling up at the slowly rising crescent moon in the sky, the light of which was slowly pushing away the stretches of the gold fingers of the sun to replace it with silver. “Yes,” he whispered, “Yes it’s a lovely moon, we - uh - we should see the creature. Very soon, if my calculations are correct.” He rolled up his oxford shirt sleeves and checked the time on his watch. “Any time now, really.” He turned his chin up to look to the sky.

Remus was nervous and excited at the same time.

They sat on the grass and stared up into the sky, waiting…

As the moonlight fell over him, Remus felt an aching in his bones, and he absently rubbed his knee caps as they sat there. Veigler reached over and nudged Remus, offering him a handful of aconite leaves, and Remus gratefully took them and put the minty-licorice flavored leaves into his mouth and chewed them like they were a gum, feeling a bit of relief rush through his body.

“There she is,” said Newt suddenly, standing up.

Remus quickly turned to look the direction Newt Scamander was looking, but there did not seem to be anything there. He squinted, wanting to see it, too. Veigler didn’t seem to be able to, either, and Remus wondered if it was like the thestrals back at Hogwarts, the winged death ponies that only those who had seen death could see…

But then Remus saw… something… a shimmering in the dark sky, a shape moving… He leaned forward, nearly cross eyed he was staring so hard at the shimmering space before him. It was like trying to see the wind. And then the sun disappeared completely beneath the horizon… and the moon was officially the only entity in the sky… and there was a sort of sizzling sound - like the end of a firecracker - and suddenly there in the sky was the curling twisting silver form of the bird - her body seeming to slowly shiver in view,

“Incredible,” breathed Remus as the bird coiled her way into the night sky. He stared, unable to tear his eyes away, tilting his head back to watch.

“I thought that you, uh, might… might enjoy this one,” Newt said quietly, smiling.

Remus asked, “What is she?”

“She’s a Charkorais,” he said lowly.

“Chakorais,” breathed Remus, feeling the exoticness of the word on the tip of his tongue.

“Yes,” Newt whispered, and his face turned, following the charkorais as she spun and unfolded, “Yes - an Indian breed of bird, a sort of night bird, singing in into the wee hours of the morning..”

As though on cue, the charkorais leaned closer to loop ‘round, beak nearly touching her impossibly long, silver tail feathers, which reminded Remus of a peacock’s plume, or of Fawkes the Phoenix if he was silver, and she started to sing. Her song was beautiful, warbly and romantic, like a well played violin. The song poured forth… so clear and shining that it seemed to almost tangible in the moonlight.

“Fascinating little things aren’t they?” asked Newt, the light of the glowing, beautiful bird reflected on his face. “They can only be seen under the moonlight - they’re, uh, invisible at all other times of day. They keep nests low to the ground, -- usually among mint leaves. This particular one has nested in a, uh, a spearmint patch in an old muggle man’s garden in the valley below. I have no idea what she is doing so - so far from home - they’re native to India. She may be the victim of the egg trade. Their eggs are considered a delicacy - if one can, uh, find one, they’ll sell on the market for over a thousand galleons apiece. It’s against the - the law to sell a Charkorais egg, but that, uh, only stops the… the honest.” Newt stared at the bird sadly. “They’re terribly endangered, Charkorais.”

Newt reached into his pocket and withdrew a small notespad and a muggle pencil and he started drawing the bird, balancing the pad on his knee, a feverish expression on his face as he licked the graphite tip and started in on his illustration.

“Hopelessly connected to moonlight,” murmured Veigler, watching the bird as it sang and wove in the sky before them, her wide silver wings flapping in a most graceful way, “Sounds rather familiar.”

Remus nodded, chewing the leaves Veigler had given him, his knees and ankles still aching terribly.

Eventually, the Charkorais flew off, leaving them sitting on the ledge with nothing but the dots of house lamps to look upon and Newt Scamander stood up, “Let us get back to the inn. Tina will be looking for us.” The other two followed and they walked back through the trees, the way they’d come, back to the little village where they were staying. Newt carefully studied faces of people in the little pub and dining area in the lobby of the inn they were staying at, his eyes sweeping about for enemies, as Remus and Ned climbed the stairs to their rooms. Newt’s eyes lingered on one bloke in the corner of the room, who was sipping soup from a bowl, but the man never looked up, and so he hurried on up the stairs without concern.

Tina Scamander was just climbing out of the briefcase when they returned, and there were some loud sounds from the creatures within echoing out. She frowned, “Quiet the lot of you!” she commanded and she closed the lid of the case and was about to lock it up when the clawed paw of the Niffler stuck out the crack and she sighed, opening it back up as the Niffler crawled out and fell to the floor with a thump. Tina closed the case.

“Hullo Niffler,” greeted Newt as the furry thing rushed across the floor of the inn, wrapping herself abound Newt’s ankle and picking at the shiny buckle of his shoes eagerly.

“Did you see the Charkorais?” Tina asked. Nodding, Newt held out the notepad to her as he shed his jacket and the old Hufflepuff scarf. Tina looked over the sketch he’d done and she smiled, “Oh it was a beautiful one you saw tonight! Any idea how she came to be in that man’s garden?”

“No more than I, uh, had before,” Newt answered. “Egg trade, I suspect.”

Remus had gone to his bed in the corner of the room and kicked off his trainers. He glanced at the mirror on the nightstand - still showing the darkness of the Shrieking Shack - and he lay down across the bed, his face propped up on a bunched up pillow, staring at the mirror as his breathing deepened, tiredness taking over him…

“Here you are, dear.” Remus looked up and found Tina standing over him, holding a cup of steaming aconite tea. “To help your bones rest for the night.”

“Thank you,” he answered, sitting up and taking the tea cup.

Tina glanced at the mirror on the nightstand, where Remus had been staring, and she sat down slowly beside him as he sipped the tea thankfully, the heat of it feeling good in his belly. “You miss your friends, don’t you?” she asked.

Remus nodded, “Very much.”

“You’ll see them soon,” Tina promised.

“If Hogwarts reopens,” Remus said.

“It will,” Tina replied. “Hogwarts has endured far worse times than even now over the centuries.”

Remus thought of all the wars and terrible times he’d read about in Hogwarts: A History and all the things Professor Binns had taught them of in the four years they’d been attending the school. Tina was right, of course. It just seemed as though he’d never be back aboard the Express, as though he’d never see James, Peter, and Sirius ever again. It had been a month already since he’d last seen them.

“It’s just that usually the mirror is -- there’s a second piece, see, and usually James and Sirius use it to see each other when they’re apart… and I thought since they gave me James’s half that maybe Sirius --” he shrugged. “I just thought perhaps I’d get to see him, but maybe it was just a trinket. I don’t know.” He’d taken to falling asleep staring into the mirror every night, hoping he’d wake up and find Sirius’s eyes peering back.

Tina gently hugged Remus’s shoulders.

He finished his tea and she took the cup and stood up, “Get some rest, Remus, you’ll need it for tomorrow… Newt wants to rescue the Charkorais from the old man’s garden and transport her and her nest back where she belongs and we’ll need to be well rested to help.”

Remus nodded, “Thanks again for the tea,” he said.

Tina smiled. “Of course. Sleep.” She waved her wand and the oil lamp that flickered on the night stand lowered.

Remus smiled, laying down, and, staring into the mirror’s glass, he fell asleep within moments.