Chapter Two: Run away Sirius!
Moony's residence:
After he had left Godric's Hollow he drove towards the nearest town, found a deserted ally to shrink his bike, but a featherlight charm on it and picked it up. It might be useful at a later date. And apparated to Diagon Alley. Went to Gringotts and down in the Potter vault. He took out the message from James to Remus, made in case they had been wrong about he being the spy. Then he went to his own vault. He took out a bag of galleons, and then shrunk it to fit in his pocket. After he left Gringotts he apparated home, quickly packing his most prized possessions and some clothes and left again just as he heard the telltale crack of apparition.
He walked around in a muggle neighborhood trying to decide if he should go to Remus. Remus might try to kill him before he got to explain everything. And Albus might come there looking for him. No. I can't leave without telling Remus. I owe him that. But he'd have to wait a little to be sure Albus had been there and left before he showed he's face there.
So after an hour of apparating and walking randomly around to confuse the DMLEs tracking squad Sirius had apparated to Remus's house, and knocked on the door. He had his hands visible, up around Harry with palms outwards. Clearly having no wand out. And now he stood here waiting.
After a few seconds Sirius heard footsteps from inside the cabin. They came closer fast and then Remus stood in the door. When he saw Sirius standing there he looked like he wanted to murder him! Then he saw Harry in his armes, and that Sirius was unarmed.
"You have some explaining to do Sirius, and you will come in and do it now! I will give you the benefit of a doubt, since you brought Harry with you. But if what you say does not make sense i will kill you myself. You will keep your hands where I can see them at all time. And tell me upfront if you need to move them for any reason." Remus had pulled his wand out as he said this. It was pointed at Sirius's forehead. Sirius could see that his best friend had been crying not long before.
"How did you know?"
"Dumbledore floo called me not 15 minutes ago, said you had betrayed James and Lily, kidnapped Harry and fled. He also told me to get him if you came here."
"I would never betray them!" Sirius snapped loudly, before he got a hold of his emotions again and asked: "Have you called Dumbledore?"
"No, not yet. But lets go inside, we will talk there." Remus backed away from the open door. But still kept Sirius in his line of sight. He motioned for Sirius to follow him. The room they entered was small, a small table stood between two chairs in a corner of the room and one was on the other side of the room, it was also a fireplace on the wall between the chairs. Remus pointed him over to the single chair. Sirius sat down, and Remus took a chair across from him. He still had his Wand out.
"I find it hard to believe you would betray them, even more now that you show up with Harry, but I know you where the secret keeper… Unless, you thought i was the spy. And it was all a lie."
"I'm sorry Remus. We should have trusted you. We thought it was you or my sister. She is a Black after all. We thought since Voldemort was promising all werewolves who joined him equal rights you might be tempted enough to join him. In the end we trusted the wrong person."
"We made Wormtail the secret keeper, and told a lot of people it was me. I mean, who would suspect that puny little rat compared to one of the best fighters in the Order. Now i know why he was so happy that day. He was overjoyed that he was the one who could give him the Potter's. I will kill that rat if it's the last thing i do." Remus looked to be thinking about this.
"I need to put my hand in my pocket now Remus. James wrote a letter for you, to explain everything, if time showed we were wrong and he wasn't able to tell you sorry himself anymore" Remus only nodded once. A spell at the tip of his tongue in case it was something else that came out of his pocket.
"I have no idea what is in this letter Remus, so forgive me if i can't answer all of your questions afterwards." Sirius said while handing the letter to Remus.
The next few minutes where spent in silence as Remus read the letter from his now dead friend. When he was finished he had tears in his eyes, but he had a strangely determined look on his face. "I will always remember the fun times to my friend." He said and put the letter in his pocket. The letter was opened now, so they wouldn't be able to use it as proof of innocence anymore. But it would still be better to have it just in case.
"Ok. Now we need to talk to Dumbledore." Remus said after a little while.
"No, we can not. Even tho i am Harry's godfather he wants to but him with Lily's sister: Petunia, and her husband Vernon Dursel or something. The worst kind of muggles both of them. And he knows this, we have both been there when Lily talked to him about her sister in the order meetings." At this Remus looked thoughtful.
"We both know how the court hearings are right now, for me to claim Harry I will need to be cleared of all charges. And it's much more likely they just throw us both in Azkaban. Probably without even a trial. Me for being in the service of Voldemort, and getting the Potter's killed. You for being a dark creature aiding a criminal. Or, if we are really lucky we just get the kiss. No thanks. I will leave the country, and raise Harry somewhere no one will recognize him, or me. I might send him to Hogwarts when he is that age, but that depends on Albus i think."
"I see your point Paddy, if we stay we go to Azkaban, and Harry goes to the Dursels… We can't allow that to happen. I just wonder why that old fox want Harry to go there." Remus looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, what are your plans? What do we do from here?"
"Now we go to my dear cousin Andy."
"Is that safe?"
"I don't know Moony, but i know she has an Unplottable cabin in the Norwegian mountains. In case she and Nymf had to flee the country. She bought it after they got Ted in June. And i was hoping she would let me buy it. And take us there. After all, i would never say no to family asking me to stay there, so it could still be used for their possible escape."
"Hmm. That sounds like a working idea. I have never heard much about the magical community in Norway, so they will hopefully not know much about us either. It's in apparition distance from England, so that's good. The one thing i do know is this: Its a medium size country with few people, lots of forest and mountains. It should be easy to hide and go unnoticed there. Alright then, to Andromeda it is. Just give me a few minutes to pack the essentials and i'm ready." At that Remus left to get some clothes, the valuable books he had collected over the years and anything else he might need. You gotta love shrinking charms. After five minutes he was done and all of his stuff was in one pocket.
"Ok, lets go Remus. You know where to apparate?"
"Yes, i have been there before remember?"
"Off course, how can i forget? Lets go then."
And with a crack they were both gone.
Tonks's residence:
After the two marauders had arrived at Andromeda's home they went through the same thing as Sirius did with Remus, greetings at wand point, notice Harry, ask for explanation, show letter, and so on. Now they had finished explaining everything and had just asked to buy the escape cabin.
"Well Sirius, that cabin is my safety buffer, but as you said, if I can still come and go as i please even if you own it, what does it matter. Alright, you can stay there, but only if you let me and Nymf come with you."
"WHAT! Are you crazy woman! We will be on the run, with a "kidnapped" Harry Potter to boot. All of England will be looking for us, and you want to join us? What will happen if we get caught, what about Nymf?" Sirius was panicking.
"If you think i will let a mangy mutt and a wolf raise Harry, without any adult supervision, you really are crazy." She said with a smile. "And what do you two know about raising a kid anyway? If you two go alone, all his life will be spent with two idiotic marauders. He will probably go insane before he even set foot in Hogwarts. No. He will need a woman in his life, and I'm guessing none of you are too thrilled about a sex change? Altho, miss Lupin and mister Black sounds like a very cute couple. And a kid his age to play around and have fun with will also be invaluable." She said while laughing. Then she became serious. "There is nothing you can say that will change my mind, so don't even try."
"We don't have to listen to this! Come on miss Lupin, lets go!"
"O no, miss Black. If we go alone i will be the man here, so if you don't want to say goodbye to Sirius jr. I suggest you listen to your cousin."
"Ok, fine. You can come. But if things go to hell in a hand basket don't say i didn't warn you."
"Fine, we stay here tonight and we go tomorrow, after i have been in Diagon Alley to buy everything we will need. I only set up the cabin for two. And we need to have some more supplies before we go. I will start packing now. Come along now, let me show you to the kennel." She said with a taunting smile.
