Shift

Ten—Of Stories and Blue Skin

(December 5 1987)

"This is absolutely amazing." Remus murmured softly, pulling out of his best friend's embrace. Sirius looked incredibly happy, with a smile gracing his features and a bit of the old sparkle in his blue eyes. He looked, even six years later, much as he had when Remus had last seen him. But the werewolf knew better than that. He could sense a wariness and carefulness about the other man that had never been there before. Sirius looked tired and worn and thin (but he supposed, with a slight twinge of guilt, that Azkaban did that to people).

But Sirius' newfound innocence cast other things into light as well.

Only a few moments before, he had been one of the last Marauders. And the other had been a mass murderer and a traitor. Now he was one of three living Marauders, one of whom was no more a traitor than Dumbledore himself, and the other was even more of a betrayer than Remus thought it possible to be.

It didn't matter. Sirius was innocent. And Harry—he glanced at the last remaining Potter—Harry was safe.

Remus was jarred out of his thoughts when Sirius followed his line of sight. "He's alright, Remus. When I found him, he was all alone—he was alright, of course, eating an ice cream cone, even—and he's been living by himself for a while, I suppose. Well, he had Devlin at any rate."

"Devlin?" Remus inquired. His eyes fell on the brown dog, who was still looking at the intruder watchfully. "Oh."

Harry chose this moment to speak up. "Sorry," he began shyly and rather politely as far as children go, "I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you again?"

Sirius looked surprised, as though he had forgotten that Harry wouldn't remember the werewolf.

"This," he said, putting an arm around Remus' shoulder, "is Remus Lupin. He was a friend of your parents. He's my friend as well."

Harry shook the man's hand. "Remus is a strange name," he commented in a moment of uncharacteristic boldness. He then blinked and grinned shyly. Remus only laughed.

Sirius smiled as well. "I bet you have no idea what's going on, do you?"

Harry awarded Sirius an easy grin. "Not a clue."

Sirius ran one hand through his long, black hair and peered down at his worn, dirty clothing. "I need to get cleaned up first." He glanced at Harry, realizing his godson was in the same predicament: Harry's clothes, though they weren't even close to the state Sirius's were in, had been worn so often that they were quite thin and quite dirty, and there were holes in the knees of his pants. "And so do you."

He reached over to poke his godson's neck, and Harry laughed, pushing Sirius' hands away and pouting. "I don't like getting cleaned up."

"That's obvious." Sirius chuckled. "Anyway, we'll have to fix that, won't we?" Sirius said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Go on upstairs and take a bath…I guess we'll dig up some clothes for you."

"'Kay," Harry murmured. He started up the stairs—with Devlin following close behind him—glancing back at Sirius and then turning away quickly, blushing a little, when he discovered that his godfather was still watching.

"He really trusts you, doesn't he?" Remus asked.

"I think the trust was already there." Sirius said honestly. "All I really had to do was talk with him a bit and he started to relax and joke around with me. I think he just remembers me on some level, that's all."

For a moment, there was silence, but Remus broke it, speaking awkwardly.

"Sirius," he began softly, "about….about everything, I…I'm so sorry. I didn't—"

Sirius placed a hand on Remus's shoulder. "It's all right, Remus. I guess we're even anyway: You thought I killed Lily and James and I thought you were the traitor. I'm sorry about that as well," he faltered, "I should have known it wouldn't be you. And there's really no excuse. But now I think…Dumbledore and Fudge themselves could come up to me and tell me you'd murdered everyone in Hogwarts, and I'd have a really hard time believing it. I'd probably tell them to go soak their heads or something, because I know you wouldn't do that."

Remus laughed. "That sounds strange, coming from you. So solemn, I mean." He sobered, "But I feel like that as well."

"Anyway," Sirius said, stepping away, "I really do need that shower. Make yourself at home, though. You could explore the house, I suppose—it's rather large, I had forgotten that it was this big—but don't go too far, I guess. If Harry doesn't like baths, he'll probably be out soon."

"Sure," Remus replied as his best friend—his best friend? It felt odd to say that after so long—climb the stairs.

Sirius was right, as luck would have it. Only five or so minutes later, Remus was looking around one of the bedrooms when he heard a soft voice say, "Where is everybody?" He made his way back to the living room at length to find Harry and a dry Devlin standing there.

"Hey, Harry," he said.

"Hi." Harry replied shyly.

"It's nice to finally see you…I've been looking all for you all over, you know," he said lightly, trying to start a conversation.

"Looking for me?" Harry asked curiously.

"Of course. There are a lot of people looking for you, Harry. It was like you'd disappeared off the face of the earth—no one had a clue where you were!"

"Sorry," Harry murmured, deference returning in full. Remus took a moment to look at the child. Harry was extremely small for a seven-year-old. Had Remus not known that Harry was seven beforehand, he would have guessed that the child was five or six. But regardless of the fact that he was so little, he still looked amazingly like his father—coal-black hair that stuck up in the back, glasses. Of course, he was tanner than James, but Remus assumed that Harry was outside quite often. And he had the famous, thin, lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. And he had Lily's startling, piercing emerald eyes, eyes that were looking at the ground. Harry appeared to be casting about for a different subject. "Sirius said you knew my parents?" he asked softly.

"Sure I did. Your father was one of my best friends. He was smart and brave and fun, with a good sense of humor. Just like you." Harry smiled, cocking his head as if to indicate that he wanted to hear more. "Sirius was a good friend as well, along with…" he stopped.

"With who?"

"…with your mother, Lily," Remus finished. "Your parents were top in their year, Head Boy and Head Girl."

"Mum's name was Lily? What was my dad's name?" He looked excited. Almost as though no one had ever told him this much about his parents.

"You don't know your parents' names?" Remus asked incredulously.

Harry looked down at his feet almost immediately. "No, I don't. I'm sorry, sir."

Remus blinked. Sirius had said that the Dursleys had told Harry that his parents had died in a car crash, but he thought they would at least tell him their names. Harry was still staring at the floor.

"There's no need to apologize, Harry." He said gently, sitting on a nearby couch and motioning for Harry to come sit with him. "And don't call me 'sir', it makes me feel old." He grinned. "Call me Remus. Or Moony."

Harry's eyes widened. "Really?"

His expression was so comical that Remus couldn't help but laugh. "Really."

Harry smiled, then his brow furrowed. "Why 'Moony'?"

Remus looked at him, hazel eyes meeting green ones. "That's a story for another time. But back to your earlier question: Your father's name was James."

"James and Lily." Harry said, trying the words out and commiting them to memory.

"Right." Remus confirmed. "Now. We have a bit of time before Sirius comes downstairs, and I happen to know a rather good story regarding him and your father. It's rather embarrassing on Sirius' part, of course. Would you like to hear it before he comes back?"

Harry's eyes sparkled, and he nodded slowly; Devlin curled up next to him and placed his head in Harry's lap, looking rather protective at first, but then beginning to wag his tail.

Remus chuckled, and began. "Well then…I suppose the whole thing really started when your father bet Sirius that he couldn't get a girl by the name of Alyssa to kiss him before the week was out. You see, it was well-known that Sirius rather liked Alyssa, who…"

"…and since James had been pretending it was Sirius' fault all along, she turned his hair bubble gum pink and his skin dark blue! It lasted for nearly a week, and on top of that, he could only speak in limericks—that's a funny sort of poem—so, as you can imagine, it was pretty funny when he yelled about it being James' fault. No one could really tell what he was saying; it was like he was speaking gibberish. Come to think of it, I don't think Alyssa and Celeste ever found out that it wasn't Sirius' fault…Lily had something to do with it, I suppose…anyway, the best part of all was when he was hurrying down the hallway—late for Transfiguration as usual—and he ran into Severus Sn—"

"Moony!" Sirius whined as he came downstairs, still dripping wet. "You said you'd never tell!"

"I lied," Remus said, smiling.

Sirius couldn't help but grin back. Harry's head was on Remus' chest but he was laughing so hard Sirius thought the child might burst at any moment. Sirius loved that sound with all his heart, though. He somehow got the feeling that Harry hadn't been allowed to laugh much, and he knew he'd have to help make up for the years when Harry had nothing to laugh about.

Harry giggled. "I bet you looked funny when you were blue."

"I did not!" Sirius said, feigning indignance. "I always look very handsome and suave, no matter what color I am."

This, if anything, made Harry laugh even harder. Remus whispered something in Harry's ear (it sounded suspiciously like, "He did too look funny.") that made Harry laugh again.

"Anyway," Sirius said solemnly, hating that he had to stop his godson's laughing, "I think it's time you knew about something, Harry." He sat on a couch opposite Remus and his godson. He and Remus stared at each other awkwardly, each unsure where to start and what to say. Some parts of the story would be harder to tell, and some pieces were difficult to explain. Neither quite knew what to say to begin; they hadn't seen each other in so long that their conversation would not flow with as much ease as it had all those years ago. It was Sirius who finally spoke. "I suppose I'll start. Mind filling in whatever I miss?"

"Sure."

"Once upon a time, a long time ago—well, not so long ago, really, only six years—there lived your parents and you, Harry. Your parents loved you very, very much, but they knew you were in danger because in those times, a Dark wizard named Voldemort was after you."

"Erm, Sirius," Remus interrupted, "does he even know that magic is real yet?"

"Yes, he already knows," Sirius said, "And I've no idea how." His godson shifted nervously in his seat, choosing to look into the fire instead of at Sirius. "…Anyway," Sirius continued, deciding to overlook that fact in face of Harry's obvious reluctance, "because your parents were so scared that you would be hurt, they went into hiding and told only one person where they were. Me." He took a deep breath. "I was their Secret Keeper. But I was your father's best friend, and I thought it would be better if someone else did it." He said, trying to keep the story simple for the seven-year-old's sake.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because Voldemort knew how to hurt and kill people. I thought he would know I was the one who was keeping the secret, and that he would know I was the one who was keeping the secret, and that he would get it out of me. So I asked James to switch, and he made someone named Peter Pettigrew the Secret-Keeper. Peter," he said, "was an animagus. Like me. But Peter was a rat." He took another shuddering breath. It was becoming difficult.

"And the rest of the story." Harry breathed. "The rest of the story is what you told Remus before. Peter told. And he lied to everyone. And he made it look like you did it instead of him."

"Yeah," Sirius said gratefully, "You remembered."

Harry nodded. He appeared to be deep in thought. "Can't Remus tell everyone you're innocent? Even if we don't know where Pettigrew is?"

"Maybe." Sirius said doubtfully.

"Problably not. Everyone thinks he's a cold-blooded killer," He said, looking apologetically at Sirius, "They don't know him very well, so they'll think he still is one. It's hard to realize you've been believing the wrong thing for six years," said Remus solemnly, obviously speaking from experience.

They were silent for a few moments, each deep in their own thoughts. Harry drew his knees up to his chest, and rested his head on it, then he broke the silence.

"That's all there is to it, then," he said simply, "We'll just have to find Peter."

A/N: Whew! Finally finished this chapter! I think I'm quite tired of all these conversations, so with any luck I'll make things start picking up again next chapter… In other news, I've finally finished summer reading this morning, so I'm starting Deathly Hallows after I update (yay)!!

Thanks so much to my reviewers, I think I'm officially addicted to reviews now—they make me happy! XD Anyway, school starts tomorrow, people! Why can't my school start next week like everyone else: P Well anyway, luckily I think I'll still be able to update at least once every two weeks from now on, but I'm still aiming for once a week…we'll see how that works out depending on time and reviews lol!

moonfyre

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