Nothing belongs to me except the stuff that does.
Chapter 1: The Story Continues
"Ruff!" a dog barked loudly. "Ruff! Ruff!" Remus Lupin was awoken early one morning from a deep sleep. Not fully awake, he mumbled, "Why can't people have enough consideration to keep their pets quiet this early in the morning? Some of us are trying to sleep." He pulled his pillow over his head to muffle the noise and had almost fallen back to sleep when a sudden thought hit him. Sirius, he thought. He listened. The dog was still barking loudly. He climbed out of bed and went to the door. He pulled it open, and sure enough, there was a large black dog he recognized instantly as being his old friend Sirius Black.
"Sirius!" he hissed, shocked to see him. He then noticed an old lady walking down the street looking at them suspiciously. He was sure she hadn't heard him say Sirius's name, but he still didn't want to take any risks.
"Spot! How many times do I have to tell you not to run away like that!" Remus shouted. "Get in here!" he allowed Sirius to come into the house, then shut the door.
"Sorry, but you can never be too careful," said Remus as Sirius turned back to human form.
"It's all right," said Sirius. "Listen, there have been a lot of things happening lately. Dumbledore sent me here. You heard about the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts, I'm assuming?"
"Yes," said Remus. "Harry was the fourth champion and he won."
"That's hardly all of it," said Sirius. He sighed, dreading to tell Remus what he had to tell him next. "Remus, Voldemort has his power back again."
"What?" Remus's face looked alarmed.
"Harry was taken to Voldemort during a the third task of the tournament through a portkey. Wormtail was there. Using Harry's blood, he made a potion that brought Voldemort back to his body."
"Goodness! Is Harry all right?" asked Remus, still looking shocked at the news.
"Yes, he's fine, luckily. He managed to get away from Voldemort." Sirius was still angry with himself for not being able to do anything to protect Harry. He'd told James he'd take care of him, and he couldn't keep letting him down.
"Dumbledore told me to gather our old crowd and make them aware of what happened. He says the only way to defeat get through this is if we can stay united. He also told me to stay here with you, and he'll be in contact with us soon," said Sirius.
Remus looked a bit frightened and still shocked at the news. Though he didn't ask any questions, Sirius knew he wanted an explanation. They sat and he began telling the story from the beginning.
He told Remus everything. How Harry's name had mysteriously come out of the Goblet of Fire and everyone had thought that he'd put it in himself. How the man they'd thought was Professor Moody turned out in the end to be none other than Barty Crouch's, son, who was also called Barty Crouch. He got his parents to get him out of Azkaban and fake his death, using his mother who had used polyjuice potion to look like him. His father kept him under the imperious curse and made him wear an invisibility cloak at all times. But, finally, Barty had grown to be able to fight the curse, and Voldemort came to see him and put his father under the imperious curse instead, to keep him from discovering anything while they planned the death of Harry. Under the instruction of Voldemort, Barty had been the one behind all of it. He'd used polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Moody and had spent the entire year making sure Harry would be the one to win the tournament; giving him clues as to what the tasks would be, making sure that he was kept out of danger. And in the end, he had turned the trophy in the center of the maze into a portkey, a portkey that led to the graveyard where Voldemort's father was buried, and the place where Voldemort had planned to finally see Harry's death. Another boy, Cedric Diggory, had accompanied Harry to the graveyard, as they'd agreed to both touch the trophy at the same time and declare victory for Hogwarts. Cedric had been killed instantly by the avada kedavra curse. Wormtail had then tied Harry to Voldemort's father's grave and made the potion to bring Voldemort back to his body. After that, Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters, his supporters, to return to him. Then, he decided to duel with Harry. He'd just attempted to do the avada kedavra curse when Harry shouted expelliarmus. Because of something that Dumbledore had called Priori Incantatem, the result because Voldemort and Harry's wands had been made from feathers from the same phoenix, a beam of gold light had been created between them from their wands. Then, shadows of people who Voldemort had killed with his wand began to come out of it and talk to Harry. Among them were Cedric, who had asked Harry to take his body back to his parents, and Lily and James who had told Harry to run back to the portkey before Voldemort had the chance to kill him. When Harry had returned, the entire situation was worked out. Dumbledore had used Snape's truth potion to make Barty confess to all of it. Then Cornelius Fudge, the minister himself, had come to Hogwarts with a dementor who performed the fatal kiss on Barty before he'd been able to hear what he had to say. So that left them now with the situation that they knew that Voldemort had returned, but Fudge didn't believe them. So, as Dumbledore had instructed, they had to get united and be ready to fight the Dark Side before things got as bad as they had been before.
"Well," said Remus, looking as though he was reluctant to believe the news. "I guess we'd better start gathering people." At this suggestion, Sirius remembered something else he had not told Remus.
"Snape," said Sirius. "Severus Snape was a Death Eater. But he's on our side now. Dumbledore is very confident of that. He made me shake hands with him before we left. So it looks as though we're going to have to work with him instead of against him for the first time ever," he said, remembering how their rivalry went back to their days at Hogwarts as students.
Remus nodded. "I've known that since I had been teaching there last year. Now, we're going to have to be careful when finding people. Most everyone thinks you're still guilty, Sirius. If anyone says anything, we're going to have even more trouble than we do already. I think we should write Dumbledore and tell him you're here. And see if he has any more he can tell us."
"Okay," agreed Sirius. "I should write Harry, too. See how he's doing since his encounter with Voldemort. Dumbledore insisted that he go back to the Dursleys' even though the Weasleys wanted him to go straight home with them."
"I wonder why?" said Remus.
"I don't know, but Dumbledore has his reasons," said Sirius. "My guess is that it probably has something to do with Harry's safety. The poor kid, seems that danger and misfortune have been following him his whole life. I just hope he's all right."
"Harry's a strong boy and a really good wizard, better than a lot of adults," said Remus. "He learned to fight off dementors more easily than I knew anyone could." He remembered Harry's third year when he'd taught him how to do so. "And with Dumbledore involved, Harry will be safe." He reassured Sirius.
"I guess you're right," said Sirius. "Plus, Voldemort wouldn't go and do anything to Harry right in front of Muggles. At least I doubt it. He's too clever for that."
Remus nodded. "Don't worry yourself. Why don't you take a break from this and I'll start contacting our old crowd a while."
A tired, stressed out, and worried Sirius could do nothing more than agree to Remus's suggestion. But he still couldn't stop worrying about Harry.