Chapter 10 "20-13-18"
Harry leaned back against the headrest and smiled as the rain touched his face. He opened his eyes and saw Hedwig wheeling back. "So how do you know the port key thing is going to work? What if it lands us in a giant nest of Aurors?"
Sirius fished the Frisbee out of the door pocket and handed it to him. "See right along the rim? That little circle thingy? Press that."
Harry did and a dull light sprayed out like fine mist. "What is it?"
"It's the destination spread sheet. See all those little rows running up and down in the light?"
Harry nodded. It looked like a very large ladder.
"That's actually an Auror code for the destination. It says that the landing point is Empty Abandoned Mansion Number 20-13-18."
"And how did you learn about it?"
Sirius tried to keep his face blank but a twitch of his lips gave him away. "Ah... you know. Here and there."
Harry cast a disbelieving look in his direction. "So... tell me more on why the Aurors are after you."
"I'd rather not." His voice was gruff.
"I'd rather you did." Harry easily leaned over and yanked the wheel to the right. They rode off the dirt road and settled there. As the road turned to mud in the near silence of the rain. "Well?"
"You don't need to know!" Sirius yelled.
"Yes I do!" Harry yelled back.
Sirius rested his head on the wheel and was silent.
"I need to know Sirius." When Sirius didn't reply Harry sighed. "... What were those things on the house yesterday... the wards?"
"They were created to protect you from Voldemort." He didn't offer up anymore information besides that.
Twenty Questions ought to break up the ice. "Why do they call him that? Voldemort?"
Sirius turned so he could just make out his eyes from his mass of hair. "What do you mean?"
Harry leaned into the corner the car door and seat made. "Why do they call him that? I mean... He can't fly without a broom. And he sure as hell ain't death. What's the point?"
Sirius laughed and to Harry it almost sounded like a bark. "I think you're probably the first ever person to ask that. But... it's probably psychological. I mean, Tom the Most Magnificent and Hypocritical Bastard of Slytherin doesn't have the same ring to it."
They both waited a beat and started laughing.
And poor Mr. Z was left in the horse trailer as the rain slithered through the air holes and slits in the roof. Mr. Z lay flat on the floor and felt the rain hit the center of his forehead. If he was human he would have felt an extreme exhaustion and hunger. The amount of food he had eaten was meager to a zombie. He also would have felt an acute stabbing pain from his chest from his broken ribs that were jammed into his lung. Piercing them. But he wasn't human. He couldn't feel anything.
Well, almost anything. He could feel the hunger.
----
They stopped in a small highway town to refuel the truck and for Harry's secret mission. To get Sirius to get a hair cut. In the end there was nothing secret about it. They passed by a barbershop and Harry grabbed him by the arm and shoved him in.
Harry smiled at the shocked Sirius. "I'll come by and pick you up once your done." He wandered down to the old thrift shop in town and browsed. Sirius had transfigured a pair of Harry's jeans but it would be good for Sirius to have his own. When Harry found a pair of jeans and a sweater that looked like they would fit him he grabbed them, and slung them over his arm. It would be good if he could find a pair of boots too.
He found those, they were dark and scuffed in more places than one, but they would work.
Harry brought them over to the clerk and placed them on the glass topped table that served as the check out. As the clerk rang everything up he looked at the assortment of knives and lighters under the glass.
"Anything else you want?"
Harry pointed to a plain straight dagger with a worn drown scabbard and a silver Zippo lighter. "Those too."
He got the bill and was glad he had owled Gringotts for money in the only moment of relative peace he had a few days ago. He paid and passed by Sirius before he realized it was him. "You look great!"
Sirius cuffed him upside the head. "We have Aurors after us, probably Death Eaters too, and you send me off to go get my hair cut?"
"I bought you clothes, don't complain."
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Could this moment of peace be the calm before the storm? And I'll ask you another question. What do you think 20-13-18 stands for? Or am I lying and it doesn't even have a purpose?