Chapter Seven
Distrust
"I'm your handsome and charming host, Sirius Black. I'm your godfather," the grinning haggard looking man concluded his welcome.
"Sirius Black..." Hermione looked to be in thought, she knew that name.
Suddenly Harry jumped out of his chair, and placed himself as good as he could in front of Hermione.
"Mi, back away quickly..."
Hermione paled, and got up. Harry was mirroring her actions, shielding her to the best of his ability.
"Mr and Mrs Granger, we have to get out of here... Sirius Black is a killer, he is after me."
"Harry, Hermione, stop this nonsense," Remus Lupin said. "Sirius is no danger to either of you."
"Oh you would say that, Professor," Harry sounded sarcastic. "That makes three for three... first year my DADA teacher is Quirrelmort, next year it's the obliviating pervert, and now it's the henchman of a murderer out to get me.
"Mi, do you see our wands?" the last was added in an aside to his girlfriend.
"HERMIONE JANE GRANGER, SIT DOWN, "Emma Granger yelled out. The two Granger adults had gotten up, and Emma looked annoyed.
Hermione stopped backing away, and looked uncertain at her mother, and her boyfriend.
"Mr Granger, Mrs Granger... do you know who that man is?" Harry tried.
"Harry, please," Sirius looked crestfallen at the sight of distrust in the eyes of his godson. "Please sit down and listen. I am not out to harm you, either of you. I want to protect you."
"Swear on it," Harry demanded.
Sirius took out a wand, and raised it. "I swear on my life and magic that I have no intent to harm my godson or his girlfriend." The wand tip briefly flashed, and Sirius looked at the two teens.
"I hope you're satisfied?"
"Harry... at the least we can listen to him," Hermione suggested. Her boyfriend nodded, and Hermione slid back into her chair, followed by Harry.
"Well now that we're all seated again, let me continue," Sirius said with fake cheer. "As I was saying, I'm your godfather, and this is my home. Harry you have no idea how good it is to see you... but why do you look like that?"
Harry shrugged, "this is my natural form. That other shape was forced on me. Okay Sirius, so if you're my godfather, where have you been all my life?"
"And why did both the telly and the Prophet report you were an escaped murderer?" Hermione added. The two were huddled close together.
"Hermione Jane, apologize to the man," Emma chastised her daughter.
"No Emma, it's okay," Sirius grinned. "You've got to tell me more about that base form of yours later Harry, but as to your questions... I was the guest of the Ministry for a few years, until I checked myself out this summer. The accomodation wasn't much to my liking."
"Padfoot, be serious," Remus interrupted him.
"I'm always Sirius Moony," Sirius said with a laugh. The corresponding smile took years of his face, and for a moment he looked to be a care-free man.
"Padfoot? Moony? "Harry looked incredulously at the two. "I... I remember those names..." He looked away in thought. The others in the room were gazing at him intently, none more so than the two men in question.
"You're a dog!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Sirius.
"Harry... you remember us?" Sirius looked amazed. "Yes... I am a dog animagus. You liked to ride on my back when you were little... wow I haven't thought of that in years..."
Sirius suddenly frowned, and began to look angry. "That bastard! Moony... I think I've been obliviated!"
"Obliviated who by?" Remus looked a bit alarmed.
"Who else? Albus Too-Many-Bloody-Names Dumbledore of course! Moony, do you know the reversal spell!?" Sirius had stood up, and looked furious.
"Err... we know something that can help," Harry tried. He was still distrusting a bit, but on the other hand he knew the names Padfoot and Moony from his earliest memories, and that could not be a coincidence...
"But we'll need our wands."
"Harry, you don't mean? "Hermione asked him, and he nodded in reply.
"Dan, their wands are in the cabinet to your left," Sirius indicated. Dan got up, and took the two sticks, handing them to the teens.
"Okay Padfoot, sit back down and brace yourself. You too Moony, this will probably hurt like hell," Harry warned them. "Mi, you ready?" Hermione nodded, and both pointed their wands at the duo.
"Finite Ultima."
–-
Sirius stood in the middle of the wreckage, laughing like a madman. He had just cornered the traitor Wormtail, only to get tricked by him... the rat had hit him with a cheering charm of all things, and then blasted the street, hitting one of those Muggle gas lines. The wreckage was enormous, and only the fact he was a wizard and thus more resilient than baseline humans had meant he survived. But the rat had escaped.
"Ha ha ha ha, it's all my fault," Sirius was laughing and crying at the same time, "James, Lily, ha ha ha, I killed you both, ha ha."
"Drop the wand, Death Eater!" an Auror yelled, pointing his wand at Sirius. Sirius complied, but was unable to stop laughing. Then he was stunned, and knew no more.
Sirius woke up, and saw the leader of the Order of the Phoenix in front of him. "Albus! Thank Merlin you're here, it was Peter... he betrayed the Potters, and managed to escape!"
"I know my boy, no need to worry about it," Albus Dumbledore said with his eyes twinkling. "Now what to do with you..."
"Albus, you've got to get me out of here," Sirius pleaded. "There's no time to waste... Wormtail could be going after Harry as we speak! I need to take Harry and get him somewhere safe while the Aurors hunt the traitor down."
"I'm afraid I can't allow that Sirius," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "I have things all planned out for young Harry you see, and you would interfere with that. Best if you were kept out of the way for a while."
"Albus... what do you mean?" Sirius looked very confused.
"Obliviate," was Dumbledore's answer, and as the beam of light hit him, Sirius forgot ever seeing his former headmaster there. The next time he woke up, he was in Azkaban.
The scene shifted.
–-
Padfoot the dog was barking happily, as Harry was riding on his back. In his excitement Harry's haircolour shifted from its natural dark auburn to a deep black closely resembling the Grim's fur.
"He's great with children isn't he?" James asked his wife, as they were looking on.
"As if he could ever manage to trick a woman to stay with him for longer than one night," Lily replied with a laugh.
Padfoot mock-growled at his best friends, but Harry's happiness was infectious and he could not really be angry.
When Dumbledore Obliviated him a good year later, Sirius fought to keep this memory, but it was locked away with the rest.
–-
In the present, Sirius's head slammed on the table as he passed out.
–-
"Moony, I'm sorry, but..." James looked very apologetic as he prevented his friend from entering the Cottage.
"Prongs, you can't really mean you don't trust me," Remus pleaded. "You know I would never harm a hair on your head, or Lily's, or Harry's."
"I know that Moony, but Dumbledore insisted. Please, go away. The Fidelius will be cast tomorrow and you'll forget about this place, we'll contact you once it's safe again."
"Dumbledore!" Remus angrily exclaimed, and walked away from his friends "home without looking back. He apparated to Hogwarts gates, and let Filch lead him to Dumbledore's office.
"Albus, what the hell have you been telling James and Lily!?" he demanded of his former Headmaster once he was in his office. "They don't want me to be in on the secret, as if they don't trust me!"
"Remus my lad, it's for their safety," Dumbledore smiled. "You're a dark creature after all."
"Bullcrap Albus!" Remus fumed, "you know I'd never harm them. I swore an oath that if anything happened to them, I'd take care of Harry, you know that!"
"Thanks for reminding me Remus," Albus said with a smile. In a flash, he had his wand out and had it trained on Remus.
"You planned to go to the Forest of Dean for a while, and seek out a werewolf pack. You never swore an oath to keep Harry safe, and in fact because you are a werewolf, you are afraid to ever contact him again unless I tell you it is safe. Obliviate."
Remus looked dazed, as the spell hit him and the instructions overrid his plans.
"I... I need to go Albus," he mumbled when he came to, and left Hogwarts. He was hardly aware when the war was over with the death of his best friends and the incarceration of Sirius, and had no thought of even getting close to Harry. After all, a werewolf could be a danger to him...
–-
A second after Sirius passed out, so too did Remus.
"Hermione, Harry, I think it's time for some explanations," Emma Granger said in a sickly sweet tone.
Hermione paled, and grabbed her boyfriend's hand for support.
"Yes pumpkin, and I for one I am very interested in knowing why you didn't tell me your friend was really a boy," Dan said in a clipped tone.
Harry became even paler than his girlfriend, as he was faced with a seventeen stone father who he knew wielded a shotgun well.
–-
Severus Snape was stripped of his belongings, booked, and thrown into a cell. He had suffered through the indignity of having his fingerprints being taken, and now was waiting for Dumbledore or someone else to rescue him.
The WPC running his records through the database called in her supervisor when all kinds of alarms went off... one Severus Snape had been arrested in Exeter the previous day before some associate had broken him out, drugging several officers in the process... and his fingerprints had been taken then as well, and they had found a match with an unsolved murder from the early 1980s. One Benjy Fenwick had been found dead in his Surrey home, with multiple unexplained wounds on his body. From the evidence on site he had let his killer or killers in willingly. There had been many strange deaths in the late 1970s and early 80s, but in this case a set of fingerprints had been identified on a glass... a set that corresponded to the man they now had in custody.
"Looks like our pervert is a murderer as well," the officer reading the report mentioned. "Have him sent to Interrogation, time our bird tweeted a bit."
Snape was taken from his cell to another room a while later, and put down, still handcuffed, in an uncomfortable chair.
A Muggle policeman took a seat across from him, and placed some Muggle device on the table, then spoke into it clearly.
"This interview is being tape recorded and may be given in evidence if your case is brought to trial. The time is 1700 hours on Saturday, October 2nd 1993. This interview is taking place at Crawley Police Station.
"My name is PC 759 Higgs, I work at Crawley Police Station. My role today is to interview you in relation to the offence(s) you've been arrested for. I will be making notes during the interview purely for my reference. Also present is,"
"PC 814 Jones," the second policeman in the room answered.
The first continued, "Can you give your full name please?"
Snape raised an eyebrow, then realised the question was aimed at him. "Severus Tobias Snape."
"And your date of birth?"
"January 9th, 1960."
"Can you confirm for the purpose of the tape that there are no other persons present in the interview room?"
"Yes, and get the hell on with it," Snape grumbled.
"That is an affirmative," the policeman clarified. "I now need to caution you, and its important that you understand what the caution means, so you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?"
Snape groaned, "yes, I understand. Can we get on with it?"
"You have the right to free and independent advice. Do you require the services of a solicitor?" the policeman kept droning on.
"No, no, no. Get on with it. I know my rights," Snape drawled. The sooner he was out of this room, the sooner someone could come rescue him.
"For the record, the suspect clearly waives his right at legal representation," the policeman spoke in the device again. "If you change your mind at any point let me know and I can stop the interview. You can then speak to a solicitor by phone or in person. At the conclusion of the interview I will give you a notice that explains what happens to the tapes and how you or your solicitor can have access to them. Ok, tell me why you think you've been arrested?"
Snape sneered, "I haven't a clue why. I am an upstanding citizen and demand to be released."
"Can you tell us then why you were found in the Granger household, rummaging through the laundry basket?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Snape sneered.
"I have here the arrest report, it states clearly you were found holding a pair of girl's knickers. Do you deny this?"
"Yes."
"I see. Also in your possession was this stick. Does this have stick any purpose?"
"Yes, "Snape said, his eyes lighting up as the policeman laid his wand on the table. "It is quite remarkable in fact."
The policeman held up the wand, and inspected it as he spoke for the tape's benefit. "I am holding a wooden stick approximately thirteen inches in length. It appears to be made out of black wood, and is decorated at one end. There are no mechanical parts, and it seems to serve no purpose.
"I will now hand the stick to the suspect. Mr Snape, will you show us what this stick's purpose is? I must warn you, should you choose to assault myself or my colleague with it, this will be added to your list of charges."
"I'll be happy to show you both," Snape sneered. The policeman handed him his wand, and Snape took it in his cuffed hands.
"May I?" he asked, and the policeman nodded. Snape pointed the wand straight at the table, and with a jab shouted "Bombarda Maxima!", followed by a soundless shielding spell.
The white light fled from the tip of the wand, hitting the table and obliterating it. The tape recorder was destroyed instantly, and the force of the shattering wood and metal instantly killed the policeman called Higgs. Jones was stunned by the blast. Snape turned the wand a bit and cast a cutting spell to remove his cuffs, then trained his wand at the wounded policeman.
"Avada Kedavra," the teacher sneered, and the green light left the tip of his wand and murdered the officer.
"Bloody Muggle scum," Snape grumbled, then apparated out just before the door was kicked open, and a response team rushed into the room to find out the cause of the explosion.
The sight of an actual crater in the room, two dead policemen, and a missing suspect was not what the response team was suspecting at all.
A/N: Snape escapes once again. Once a wizard has his wand, there's little Muggles can do against him... but he has left even more evidence against him behind.
I hope the police interview is plausible. I've never been arrested in my life let alone in England, so this is taken from UK police series :)
And yes I know that handing Snape his wand was incredibly stupid. Even if they do have no reason to belief it is anything but a wooden stick...
Sirius and Remus will be waking up next chapter with restored memories, hopefully they can rescue Harry from impending doom. The Shotgun of Damocles is hanging over his head.
