Chapter Six

It was five to six. Minerva, true to her word, was waiting in the front room of Remus' house with the curtains closed. The door into the house was Silenced to hide all sign of the three Aurors hiding behind it, the cord end of three Extendable Ears extending from their own ears under the foot of the door. Remus was pacing the kitchen like a caged beast, only the knowledge that Elen would not react well to him being in the room keeping him from joining Minerva and reuniting with his friend. Harry, who had been collected from the Leaky Cauldron by Minerva on her way back from the Auror Office, was also in the kitchen, trying to get Remus to calm down. A fourth and fifth Auror were guarding Harry, just in case Sirius tried something.

CRACK.

"... a glorified passenger service for vile traitors and scum and..."

"Shut up, you miserable maggot, and go to that corner until we call you to leave." Sirius' voice was exasperated and barely under control. "Hello, Minerva. It's wonderful to see you again."

Minerva turned around slowly, making sure her hands were in full view and not holding her wand. "Sirius." She smiled at him and then looked at the tense, unhappy teenager who was clinging desperately to him, eyes fixed on her, visibly shaking. Poor child. Poor, poor child. "Hello, Starling. I'm Minerva." She backed up two paces and sat down in Remus' tattered armchair, smiling the gentlest smile she could muster. "How are you?" I will call him by his nickname. Nobody who has hurt him has ever called him by his nickname before. It may just be enough to turn the tide.

Silence.

"Elen." Sirius' voice was soft. "You wrote to Minerva, remember? You promised to try."

Elen swallowed, nodded, gathered together all his nerve, and spoke. "Hello." His voice rasped at the edges and he coughed. "Hello, Minerva."

I cannot ask Starling a single one of the questions that Minister Bones gave me. He is terrified. And the only things keeping that savage mind-magic barely in check are that Sirius is fairly calm, that I am unarmed, and most especially that it's been made very clear to him – because I made sure that the Aurors swore on this as well – that if he feels he can't handle it we will allow him to flee with Sirius and try again later. It's only going to take the slightest spark to set off the wildfire. I can tell.

"Starling, you know I will not hurt you."

Elen shivered and huddled into Sirius, but nodded. "I know."

Minerva sighed and left it. "Sirius, how are you?"

"Stressed. But Harry's safe now that Wormtail's gone, so that's half the problem solved, and we're working on the other half. How is he?" He stroked Elen's hair gently. You're doing well. I know being here with a witch goes against every instinct you have.

"Harry's well. He's with Remus right now."

"That's good. They should have met a long time ago." Sirius suddenly thought of something. Maybe I can get Elen to relax. "Elen?" He signed to Minerva to stay where she was and stay still. "Elen, look at me." He turned Elen's head gently towards him, but Elen's eyes stayed fixed on Minerva and he remained tense and ready to bolt. "Elen. Elen. Elen..."

Elen's eyes flicked to him for a fraction of a second before returning to Minerva.

"Elen, you know how I can turn into a dog? Minerva's an Animagus too."

"Would you like to see, Starling?" Minerva asked gently. "You don't have to."

Elen looked at her doubtfully, weighing up the suggestion.

He's curious. Sirius Black, you are a genius. Either that or he's going to startle and I'll get fried. "I won't move from the chair. I promise."

Elen gritted his teeth and nodded sharply, backing into Sirius and groping for his hand. "Yes."

Minerva transformed and sat up still and straight.

"That's not a dog, Sirius. That's a cat." Elen had immediately relaxed, and Sirius let out his breath in a slow, relieved sigh. That could have gone so very, very wrong.

"Yes. Minerva can turn into a cat."

Elen smiled, looking her over. "She's pretty."

Minerva and Sirius choked at almost the same moment and immediately avoided each other's eyes. Independently, both of them thought of the nearby Aurors' probable reaction to this statement. Sirius laughed aloud. Minerva hunched down.

But as amusing as this is, it's not going to get us anywhere. Hopefully seeing Minerva as a cat has broken down that barrier preventing Elen from interacting with her. "Elen, Minerva needs to change back now." He glanced at Minerva, who nodded. "Okay? Three, two, one..."

Minerva returned to human form, but this was one step too far. Elen spasmed, hands flying to his head.

CRACK.

Minerva blinked frantically and sagged back in the chair, breath coming in ragged sobs. Sirius and Elen were gone, as was the house-elf who had brought them. She suddenly felt her stomach twist and barely managed to be sick on the floor rather than down her front. Pain and cold. So cold. She spat and choked, the gag biting at her mouth, the enchanted ropes cutting deeply into her wrists and ankles and the Dementors crowding around. There was nothing she could do. She retched again and the bond suddenly snapped, setting her free.

Merlin. My head. My all-over-me. Minerva opened her mouth to call the Aurors, but found herself melting back into her Animagus form instead. I think I will just stay as a cat for a little while and recover. I feel like my mind's been thrown in acid. Curling up tightly in the back corner of the armchair, she started to shake all over. Sirius was clearly not exaggerating when he called Elen's Legilimency savage and out-of-control. Merlin. She glanced up at the clock.

Almost seven minutes. He managed almost seven minutes in the same room as me, in a meeting he agreed to, with a near-instantaneous escape route in place and a support person present. And only about half of those minutes were spent with me in human form. And his Legilimency still blew up in my face.

That is not much to build on.

On the plus side, Sirius was right. It didn't cage me in with it. I'm not trapped there. Was that his memory? Merlin. Merlin. Merlin.


Sirius

I was delighted and astonished to hear that you were innocent. Please believe me when I tell you that I had no idea. I have spoken repeatedly to the Aurors here about the necessity of a trial for anybody else in your situation; I hope you were the only one but I do not know. They have promised me that they will look into it. I realise this sounds absolutely bizarre coming from me, considering that I deliberately eschewed any sort of trial for Riddle, but the Ministry would have balked at his age and he was already so manipulative and dangerous that he simply could not be left until he was older. I realise that you will certainly not believe this, but eventually the truth will come out. That is the nature of truth, after all.

The next reason I have for writing to you is that I wish to apologise for the delay in the return of your wand. I would sign the paperwork to release it to you in an instant, but I cannot sign anything while I am under arrest and the whole mess of red tape has ground to a halt. I have hinted as strongly as possible to anyone who will listen that it may be better to do the right thing first and beg forgiveness for avoiding all the bureaucratic obstacles later. Hopefully you will get your wand back soon.

Once you are officially pardoned, which should not take long with the strong evidence for your innocence, I would be happy to fully support your bid for the custody of Harry... on one condition. As you love Harry, keep Riddle away from him. If you endanger Harry by exposing him to Riddle, I will have no choice but to oppose full custody and send Harry back to his aunt and uncle to be protected by the blood wards there. They can easily be reapplied if Harry's running away has brought them down. You would naturally have visitation rights. I would never separate you and Harry.

Riddle may have manipulated you into loyalty, but I know that you still love Harry best. For your godson's sake, keep them apart.

Albus

Sirius screwed the letter into a ball, then unfolded it again and tore it up into tiny pieces, then screwed it into a ball again and threw it into the lit fireplace with a yell of pure fury. The Ministry owl blinked and took flight, concluding that a response would not be forthcoming. Elen's hands shot up to cover his ears as he flinched back into the corner where he'd been shaking for the last ten minutes, trying to deal with the fact that his wild magic had just attacked somebody – again. And this time it had lashed out at somebody unarmed.

You're right about exactly one thing, Dumbledore.

I don't believe you. Not about Elen.

However, after this disaster, he's never going to agree to meet anybody new again. Ever. So keeping him and Harry apart – although I wish that they could meet – may just be the way it has to be. Unless we can somehow bring Elen's savage magic under control, of course – but fat chance of that, not when it reacts like that simply to a stranger in the same room.

Another owl soared into the house, going straight to Sirius before he had time to calm down and return to Elen. Sirius swore. If this is you again, Dumbledore...

Sirius

Please tell Elen that I will recover. And tell him that I could tell he did not mean to attack me – he simply got frightened past his ability to control it, and it gave him no warning.

Tell him that it obviously was NOT his fault. And keep telling him that until he believes you. Tell him that I will only be angry if he insists on blaming himself for this. I chose to meet him with his wild magic unchecked, fully aware that I was taking a massive risk, and it backfired – and that was nobody's fault. Not yours, not mine, and certainly not his.

Minerva

Sirius sighed with relief. "Elen, Minerva's going to be fine." He knelt down and pulled him into a hug. "She just wrote. And she's not even angry." He held out the letter. "Read it for yourself if you don't believe me."

Elen took the letter. "She's okay?" he asked softly, not daring to believe it.

Sirius nodded. "She's going to be fine."

"Sirius, can I tell her that I'm really sorry? I didn't mean to..."

"I know. And so does she."