Take Care Of Yourself
Chapter nine: Marauding
[Characters and setting belong to J K Rowling. Everything else is my own.]
Remus and Sirius stepped down into the wine cellar behind Harry, leaving Hermione to watch Young Harry in the living room. The dank, low-ceilinged cellar was now empty apart from the racks of old wine bottles. Harry gestured at them.
"These can easily be moved," he said. "Now, I thought, since there's a door at both the top and bottom of the steps, and it's all solid stonework, we could make this a safe room. For you to use, Moony, on full moons."
The werewolf looked uncomfortable. "I really can't justify transforming in a house with a toddler, especially since I can't always afford the Wolfsbane Potion."
Harry looked at him, puzzled. "I can brew it."
Remus blinked. "Oh. Oh, of course you could. I- thank you."
Sirius slapped him on the back. "I'll still stay with you, Moony, don't worry about- oh, wow, that's some really fancy spellwork, Prongs. I mean Harry, sorry. Merlin, is that permanent transfiguration?"
Harry lowered the elder wand again. The door at the top of the stones steps was now of seasoned oak, two planks thick, bound by steel strips a handspan apart. It had a bar and a lock on each side. The ceiling and walls of the cellar had been transfigured into padded leather, enchanted a pale, calming blue.
"It sure is. There's a trick to permanent conjuration and transfiguration, I'll show you some time. What colour carpet, Moony?"
"Don't bother. I'd just scratch it to shreds the first time." The greying man rubbed his face, looking sheepish.
"Well, I'll just fix it up then."
"Cream."
"Cream it is." Harry flicked the wand, and a hairy puddle appeared in the middle of the stone floor. It rippled, and quickly expanded into a shag carpet.
"That's really more off-white," Sirius criticised, as the obscenely quivering mass reached the walls and flattened out. "Or pale egg-shell."
Harry gave him a deliberately condescending look, then turned to Remus. "I might get a Gringotts contractor to make us another door for the bottom of the steps, to be absolutely certain. Made of stone, with steel bars and a more complex lock. It might come in handy, for keeping... other guests, from time to time."
Moony raised his eyebrows. "That didn't sound creepy at all."
Harry wiggles his own eyebrows in response. "Just taking what you said about a private jail to heart. Hopefully, we'll never have to use it as one. Oh, and while I think of it, Crayon-Dumble's been teaching me the Fidelius Charm, too."
He turned back to Sirius. "Now that you're up and about, you can help me cast it on the property. Now that you're back as the heir, I can't do it myself. The existing wards only barely recognise me as a Black family member."
Sirius looked back at him in puzzlement. "Oh – because I made you my heir in the future, but now I've replaced you again?"
"I assume so. Now, we'll make the main Fidelius a general safety net, and tell the secret to everyone we trust. Then we can make Young Harry's bedroom a safe room, by putting another Fidelius on that which only we four can get into."
"It's possible to nest Fidelius Charms like that?" Remus' eyes lit up. "Intriguing – I had no idea. What if you set up two conflicting charms and their fields interfered? Or put one Fidelius on a mobile position, and moved it in or out of another?"
"You should probably talk to Hermione and the Old Man about it," Harry shrugged. "The theory is pretty complex, and I'm mainly interested in the wandwork."
Remus nodded, and a thought struck him. "Maybe we could have another safe room for Young Harry to sleep in on full moons," he suggested. "And you two keep the secret from me. Just in case."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Overkill. Let's just teach the kid to be an Animagus. Then Moony could roam the house as he liked. It worked for us Marauders, right?"
"He's two years old, Sirius."
"Yeah, but it'll help my recovery if I don't get confused by having two people called 'Harry' in the same house."
Harry suddenly looked a little nervous. "If it helps, I've pretty much finished my animagus form now, so I'll think of a nickname you can call me by, right?"
Sirius brightened up immediately. "Oh no. You don't get to choose your own Marauder name. You really think 'Moony' wanted to be called that?"
Lupin glared at him.
"I'm glad you're following in your dad's footsteps, though," Sirius continued eagerly. "What's your form?"
Remus cocked his head to the side and watched the white rabbit on the kitchen table proudly raise itself up on its haunches. The black rings around its eyes and jagged orange patch of fur on its head left no doubt as to the animal's identity. Sirius was on his back kicking his legs in the air, cackling uncontrollably.
Moony put a thoughtful finger to his lips. "I'm going to have to say we call him..."
"Fluffybits."
"Fuzzyface," Sirius countered, managing to get his spluttering under control. The rabbit made an indignant high-pitched noise, which set him off again.
"Squeaker," Lupin said firmly.
"Thumper."
"Tinypaws."
Harry struggled back into his human form, and fell off the table. "I am not going to be called Tinypaws," he growled.
"You've still got whiskers."
"Shit." Harry squeezed his face in concentration until they were gone.
"Maybe... 'Creampuff'?" Sirius asked innocently, struggling to his feet and then giving Harry a hand up.
"Flopsy."
Harry sighed.
"Bunnyface."
"Bobtail," Remus suggested.
Sirius made a face. "Too much like Wormtail."
"True. 'Prettywhiskers', then."
"Nah. He wants something manly like 'Bucktooth'."
Harry groaned and put his hands over his face.
"Brer."
Sirius looked confused, but let that one pass. "Cottonpaw."
"Flopears."
"Pinky."
"March."
Sirius frowned. "Why 'March'?"
"As in, 'Mad as a March Hare'."
"Muggle stuff?"
"Muggle stuff."
"I still prefer 'Creampuff'."
"Hopper."
"Tinkles."
"How about 'Jackalope'?"
Sirius open his mouth in rebuttal, then paused. "What the hell is that?"
"It's a mythical American rabbit."
"A magical rabbit? That's ridiculous."
"Mythical, not magical. Nonexistent. Made up," Remus elucidated. "It's a muggle myth, like the vegetable lamb or the wild Scots haggis."
"Hey, I caught a haggis once," Sirius protested. "Remember? Hogwarts, sixth year. I chased it down as Padfoot, fought it, and ate it still struggling! You can't stand there and tell me the wild haggis isn't real."
Lupin sighed. "We established, remember, that was a huge pork-and-suet pudding the house elves threw out after it lay around so long that it went off. It might have been a bit more ...full of life than you'd ideally want a meat-based dish to be, but it did not put up a fight."
"It did!"
"It might have fermented a bit, but that's all."
"I almost lost an eye," Sirius said sulkily.
"Whatever. 'Jackalope', yea or nay? I know it's too many syllables, but it's a rabbit with antlers, and it's more appropriate than 'Pronglet'."
"I've already vetoed 'cub' and 'pup' as mildly patronising terms of endearment. Let me be crystal clear: 'Pronglet' is every bit as bad," Harry said sternly, waving his wand menacingly.
Sirius sighed, still pouting. "Well, 'Jackalope' is okay, I guess. We can just shorten it to 'Jack', I can handle that."
Harry shrugged. "Better than Flopears."
Remus smiled. "'Jack' it is, then. I suppose now all that remains is to sneak into Hogwarts, invade Filch's office and add his name to the Map."
"So is he going to register?"
Hermione beamed down as the newly-christened Jack struggled futilely in his younger self's grip. "It's a misdemeanour not to, worth a small fine. Using an unregistered Animagus form to commit a criminal act automatically adds a week in Azkaban to any conviction."
She winced as Harry managed to dangle the squirming rabbit upside down. "Given that all you need is spare time and a potion to find out if you have an animal form, and there's a big incentive to keep a useful ability like that secret so you can use it in a tight spot, there's no surprise only seven wizards became registered Animagi this century. The real number is probably fifty times that."
"So... that's a 'no'?" Sirius hid a smile as the toddler began to wring the rabbit's long, floppy ears.
Hermione sighed. "Harry never does things by the book."
"So, do you need help getting revenge on the Dursleys?" Sirius' grey eyes glittered dangerously.
"Revenge? Nah."
"You're not doing anything, Harry?" Remus interjected.
"Jack."
"Damn it, this is going to take some getting used to. Jack."
"No," Formerly-Harry continued, "They've only given me a year of abuse here. Since I wiped the future clean, it wouldn't be right for me to punish them for things they haven't actually done."
Hermione beamed down at him.
He beamed back up at her. "But now that you mention it, I did have the excellent idea of waiting till Dudders is school age, then putting a permanent muggle-repelling charm on him."
Sirius boggled. "But that... surely it would... couldn't it stop him... wouldn't it?"
"Harry, what-"
"Jack."
"Right, Jack. Damn it, damn it." Sirius muttered.
"I think you should have to pay a forfeit each time you say it."
"Jack Jack Jack Jackity Jackalope Jack Jacking well Jack. Jack, what aren't you telling me? About the future, and why you came back?"
The emerald-eyed Jack added two pinches of hydrated brimstone to the cauldron in front of him, applied a stasis charm, and looked carefully over at Sirius. In one day, the man's behaviour had made leaps and bounds towards what he remembered from the future. He was recovered enough to hear the full story.
"Okay. It began with the Battle at Hogwarts..."
Sirius shook his head and wiped his hand across his face. It came back wet.
"Hell," he said hoarsely. "Think I must be allergic to that mould gunk of Kreacher's." He smiled nervously across at Harry-or-was-it-Jack, who just rolled his eyes in response.
"It's okay to cry, Padfoot. It doesn't make you any less of a man."
"I'm not crying! This – these are tears of confusion. You're going to have to go over the whole story again, in detail, when I'm drunk and more likely to believe it. And understand it."
"You're not allowed to drink until we've seen a Healer," Hermione said, causing Sirius to frown.
"Harry will be watching to make sure," she added.
"And me," said Harry-Jack pointedly.
"Oh, right. Jack will be watching to make sure. Damn it," she said.
"Isn't the Animagus form meant to say something profound about the true nature of your inner self?"
Remus and Sirius looked appraisingly at the-Animagus-formerly-known-as-Harry.
Sirius opened his mouth. "Maybe he's got a one-track-mind when it comes to-"
"I'm going to assume it's because I 'hopped' back in time," Jack said hastily, conjuring ribbons of sparks to distract the toddler on the sofa. Then he scowled at Sirius, who laughed.
"Hell, if you're anything like your dad, Harry- oh, bugger. Jack."
Young Harry looked up from the sparks.
"Damnit," he said solemnly.
Smoothing over the disappearance of the Boy Who Lived into nothing more than an article in the Prophet speculating about "Harry Potter's adoptive family moving into their new safehouse" had taken some doing, even for Albus Dumbledore. His concern for the child had not abated, either, but a certain mysterious messenger seemed to think the boy was in good hands.
It was extremely troubling. As if he didn't have enough on his plate already, with Severus' incandescent fury over that embarassing incident at the staff table, and the latest Romanian hassles in the ICW.
But now he had managed to find the time to follow up on it. It was just past breakfast, he didn't have to be in the Ministry until mid-morning, and Minerva was completely capable of handling the day-to-day affairs at Hogwarts.
The Headmaster had struggled with his inner demons over this. But in the end it was no choice at all. He simply had to meet this other Dumbledore, for the greater good of all. Regardless of what the letter said, he had to know. He needed to know everything about what was going on, in case it impacted on Voldemort's inevitable return, or his own private project.
And certain signs – such as the strange lock-out of Phineas Nigellus – had pointed to the other Albus' presence here, in the quiet avenue of Grimmauld Place.
Dumbledore halted his stroll along the pavement, and looked up at a house.
Author's notes:
→ Kudos to Worldmaker for probably having the closest Animagus guess. Not that a bunny form is useless as such, but I think it makes a nice change from the magical forms Harry is usually saddled with.
→ Please note! I have gone back and done a little re-editing and cleanup on all the chapters up to and including this one, in preparation for finally updating.
→ As always, thanks for reading, and if you have a comment, leave a review. I read them all, even if I don't often reply.
