(3) Reflection
Once the doxies had settled again, Sirius hauled himself up & transformed. As Padfoot, he headed down into the bowels of the castle by using the lost passageways the Marauders had discovered in their time together. He came out in the kitchens. First things first. He was hungry. Azkaban barely fed one enough to keep them alive.
The Hogwart's house elves noticed how thin the black dog was & gathered the scraps together into a bowl. Padfoot came over, barked a thank-you & began gulping it down. One elf put her hand on his head to hold him back. "No, no. You'll make yourself sick. Eat slowly." She pulled the bowl away & then handed over one piece. Another elf sat beside her & they took turns handing out one piece at a time. A third elf brought over a bowl of warm milk that Padfoot finished next.
Padfoot glanced around, white milk dripping from his lower jaw. He yipped softly & trotted through the door, ending up outside. Padfoot stretched almost twice his length & headed into the barns where the unicorns that pulled sleighs at Christmas were kept. He fell fast asleep for the first time in years on a pile of soft hay.
It wasn't until late the next morning that Padfoot woke up. He mentally kicked himself. He didn't come here to sleep but to figure out how to fix everything. Oh but Merlin knew how good that sleep was. He decided that first he'd try to get some breakfast off the elves, then he could think straight. Padfoot yawned & stood up.
"Oh sweet Merlin!"
Padfoot stared...right into his own younger human eyes.
"Wow!" The younger Sirius put aside a bucket of apples. "You look just like Padfoot." The unicorns milled about, shoving both boy & dog over. Apples first. Everything else later. Sirius grumbled about sexist creatures as he stood up. Padfoot flipped over onto his back with a yelp as one particularly large stallion bowled him right over in his haste to get the apples. He got up on his paws. "Easy there, pooch. These unicorns think of nothing but food. They don't like me to much, 'cause I'm a guy I guess. Detentions are never easy."
Padfoot rolled his eyes, remembering. He had helped James set up a prank for 'Snivelus' only to have Filch end up being the victim. More importantly, Mrs. Norris, who got caught in a jinx that hoisted her up to the ceiling leaving her trapped. Sirius somehow got the full blame while James managed to not get caught by noticing Remus on his way to the hospital wing. James went with their werewolf, leaving poor Sirius to take the full heat. Detention was feeding & turning out the unicorns to roam the grounds the next morning. While the Hogwarts unicorns were trained & as a rule had to take orders from anyone of Hogwarts, it was still no easy feat for a male human.
The hand of his young self brought Padfoot back to reality. "I can't believe how much like Padfoot you look," Sirius went on talking. "You're a bit thin but I'll take care of you. Maybe you can be trained to join us on Full Moon nights. Tonight by the way." Padfoot gulped. Tonight? Oh to run with the pack again! "Wait a minute," Sirius was suddenly a lot closer to Padfoot then the black dog realised. "What's this? Hey, that's our tattoo." Sirius suddenly pulled out his wand & aimed for the dog's head. "Who sent you?" Padfoot sat on his tail looking innocent. Wow, did he ever look scary when he was mad. He had never really noticed before. "I'm warning you!" Sirius shook his wand. "That is our tattoo," He pulled up his left sleeve. "M.W.P.P.! We ALL have it. How come you do?"
Padfoot's eyes shot into his hairline. He had forgotten about that. The Marauder's brotherhood tattoo showed up even on their animal versions, simply because they performed tattoo magic on each other's forms to make it show through the fur. Moony had to be drugged to sleep for that one. It was probably the most dangerous ridiculous thing they had done since none knew just how long a fully transformed werewolf on Full Moon would stay under. Remus wasn't pleased either when he found out the next day. (No they didn't ask, knowing his answer would be a definite 'Non (No)!') Padfoot sighed & hung his head, thinking hard.
"Fine," Sirius raised his wand. "Reverso!"
Shit! Or as Remus would say, Merde!
Sirius—both of them—stared at each other. "Um..." The older one began.
The younger one looked over this haggard man in prison robes. Azkaban? But no one ever escapes from Azka—how the hell is he managing Padfoot?
"This is not what it looks like," the older Sirius tried again.
The younger one held up his wand. "Who are you?"
The older Sirius checked on the stallion that had run him down & then looked back at his 17 year old self. "You...don't recognise me?"
"No."
"Good," Sirius nodded. "Otherwise you would have gone mad."
"Oh I'm quite pissed off, thank you very much," The teenager huffed.
"Yeah, ok. Not that kind of mad but anyway."
The teenager watched as the prisoner bowed his head, rubbing his temples. "Now I know why you know what's going on in the future."
"No I don't," the young Sirius shook his head. "I in fact—"
"Suck at Divinations," the older Sirius finished. "I know. Believe me, I know."
"Who are you?" the young Sirius demanded again. "How can you be Padfoot? Where'd you get our tattoo?"
"Ok, we need to talk," the old Sirius pulled out his necklace. "See this?"
The teenager shrugged. "An hourglass. So?"
The pair looked long & hard at each other. In a rare moment, the younger one kept silent. He could see that the prisoner was thinking long & hard. He kept his wand trained on him, not trusting the man for a second. Who was he? More importantly, what? A Death Eater no doubt. He had heard about the followers of the rising Dark Lord. Was this man one of them?
"I'm you."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm from around fifteen years in the future," the older Sirius went on. "I got blamed for fifteen murders—Ha! Oddly enough—in one day that I didn't even do & was chucked into Azkaban for it. When I broke out twelve years later, my original mission was to go for the real killer but then I stumbled upon this. It's a Time-Turner. I'm going to fix everything so that only one dies."
"Moony & I read about Time-Turners once when sneaking about the library in London."
"Restricted Section of Hogwarts actually."
The younger Sirius still looked sceptical. He thought hard. "We should go to my boat. It's charmed to fly you know. We could have a personal conversation where no one could find us."
"Motorbike actually. It's in France at the moment. At the Lupin Manor."
Sirius the younger clasped his hands in front of him, pale grey sparks shooting out of his wand. The older Sirius didn't move or make a sound. If his younger self took him out, all was lost. How to gain his own trust? "This could be Polyjuice Potion." The younger one suddenly said.
"Can't affect our Animagus forms though," the older one put in. "Whoever uses Polyjuice potion for me can look as me only in human form. Never Padfoot."
The younger Sirius pulled in a gasp. He was trembling now. He couldn't believe it. "Who did you say you were?" He asked in a low dangerous voice.
"I'm you, about fifteen years from now."
"No..." The younger Sirius murmured, turning his face away for a moment. "You can't..." He stood silent for long time. Both did. After several minutes, the teenager looked back. He wiped tears from his eyes. "I...Azka...not I! I'm not like my fami—how can I end up there?"
"Like I said, it was a set up."
"No," the young Sirius dropped his wand & stumbled backwards. "No no no! Not me! Merlin no!" He covered his face in both hands & doubled over sobbing. "Oh Gods no! Not me! Twelve years?"
"Alright wait! Stop it!" The older Sirius rushed at his young self & grabbed hold of his shoulders. "Look at me!" He shook the boy.
"I can't! I can't!" the teenager sobbed. "I can't face something like that! I can't! Not twelve years! I'm innocent? Merlin how can this be?"
"That's why I'm here. The Time-Turner," The older Sirius said.
"Who dies? Who killed them? WHO?" the teenager threw off his old self & screamed at him. "Tell me who did this!"
"James. Lily. Several random muggles. Peter."
"THE WHOLE FUCKING PACK?!" the teenager crashed to his knees sobbing. "Moony? Oh please not Moony to?"
"Moony survives to hate me for the next twelve years."
"HATE…me? Not my werewolf! He can't hate anything."
"He was one of the group who put me away—"
"NO!"
"Then for the next twelve years, he hated me."
"You're lying! He's MY werewolf! Mine! Moony could NEVER hate me!"
"He thought I killed his pack, what do you expect?"
"Not Moony! NEVER!"
"When I escaped & went after the real killer, Moony came after me," the older Sirius hung on to his young self once more. He had no idea how to soothe himself. If the teenager cried any harder he could attract unwanted attention. You must never be seen. Damn it! "He will try to kill me."
"I can't believe it. I can't! I WON'T!"
"LISTEN TO ME!" the older Sirius shook the boy so hard he nearly cracked his own neck. "Remus was acting under the false story everyone fell for. It isn't his fault. For Merlin's sake, he lost his entire pack in a day! Cut him some slack!"
The younger Sirius stepped back against the wall, putting both arms up in front of his face in a block. "You're asking me to believe the impossible!" He slid down the wall until he was sitting in a pile of hay & shoved his hands through his hair. His body shook with a fresh wave of sobs. "Not Moony. Not dear sweet Moony!"
When the sobs subsided a little, the older Sirius said, "He's going to be ok. They all are. That's why I'm here. It'll be fine."
The younger Sirius put his head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. He suddenly looked straight into his older eyes. How haunted he looked. This can not be! "You said that only one will die instead of fifteen. Dear Merlin! I can not believe I would come back fifteen years to kill a werewolf I've given my life to protecting!"
"I'm not here for Moony."
"Then who?" the younger one shot to his feet.
"I'm here for the traitor."
"Who is that?" the teenager grabbed the collar on the prisoner & yanked him forward. "You tell me right now or I swear to Merlin I'll kill you now. I won't let anything happen to any of my pack-mates."
"You'll regret saying that one," The older Sirius grabbed the young hand & shoved it away. "For the traitor is none other than Peter Wormtail Pettigrew."
