Chapter Twelve: Coming Home.
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Next morning, well before daylight began to break, they were up and dressed, bundled in layers against the winter cold.
"You don't have to come with me you know," said Sirius. "This is my task really."
"What if something goes wrong?" Julia said. "Look what happened last time I let you go off and do something like this on your own. And besides, I do bear some responsibility. Don't you want me with you?"
They stood looking at each other. Sirius took her hands and lifted them to his lips. "This thing we have now," he said. "This second chance. It's precious. It's not to be taken lightly. I won't throw it away."
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Julia unhooked the torch that hung by the back door.
"What's that for?" asked Sirius.
"It's dark," she said, "there's no way we can walk up the hill in the dark."
He tutted impatiently. "You're forgetting something aren't you?" he said. "I'm a wizard, Julia. I might not be much use, but I can do this." He opened the door and flicked his wand. A friendly ball of light bounced eagerly on the step.
There had been a frost, and ice was crusted at the edges of the depressions in the mud. It crunched underfoot as they walked.
They climbed up the side of the hill and skirted to the eastern side where the huge stones lay. There, under the great oak tree, with Albie patient at their feet and their arms wrapped around each other, they waited for the sunrise.
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When the first beams of wintry sunlight touched the great stones that lay fallen in the thorny undergrowth, the blocks were no longer lying on the ground, but were once again a strong stone doorway leading into deep darkness. As the light entered the passage it appeared at first as if it was being sucked into the void beyond, and for a moment Julia was confused. Then she realised that it was not the light that was being drawn into the hill, but the darkness that was oozing out, tainting the dawn.
The morning began to dim and a sense of cold and dread began to envelop her. Albie whined in fear and cowered on the ground. Sirius touched his head, murmuring beneath his breath, and the dog quieted, but still he was terrified.
Above the level of hearing, a noiseless scream was building. It was the icy, howling silence of fear, and Julia had felt it before. "Dementors! Christ, no! Sirius!"
She spun to stare at him, her hand tight on his arm. Afraid for him, until she saw his face.
He was magnificent. Fierce, martial and focused. His eyes gleamed like polished steel and he gave a terrible smile of complete confidence.
Julia could not believe he was laughing as he raised his wand towards the encroaching shadows. "You think to follow me? No! You are not for this world, go back to the endless night where you belong! Expecto Patronum!"
She could not really see Sirius's patronus, but a shaft of silver sliced into the looming spectres and the gaping cavity beyond. Before they had any more opportunity to suck the light and promise from the day, the ghastly things were swallowed back into the opening; into the hill. As they disappeared for a split second Julia thought she saw a tall figure silhouetted in light against the darkness.
Sirius lifted his wand again. "Reparo!" There was a faint indefinable shift in the air, and an almost-movement beyond the stones; a sense of order and balance returning. "Colloportus!" Another shift and the hillside was back as it was before, the stones lying in the scrub as they always had with not a sign of the dark mouth of the barrow.
Julia drew a deep breath, and looked at Sirius with undisguised admiration. "Sirius, sweetheart, you made a Patronus!"
Casually, he blew across the tip of his wand and jammed it into the waistband of his jeans. "So I did," he grinned.
"Did you know you'd be able to?"
He put his arm around her shoulders and she moved closer. "There was never a moment's doubt in my mind that I could," he said.
"You know," said Julia, "just for a moment I thought I saw someone else there."
"Yes," said Sirius. "I did too."
"It looked like you," said Julia.
Sirus shivered violently.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Someone walked over my grave that's all."
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They were startled by a voice from above and looked up to see Robin and Mab standing near the stones. Robin laughed gleefully and clapped his hands together with a sound like the snapping of twigs.
"The Gate is safely closed," said Mab. "The curtain is drawn. The Shadow Path is flowing away. Mayhap we shall meet again in this century or the next, or the one after. Blessings be." She made a broadcasting motion towards them and Robin giggled and turned a backwards somersault.
If sunlight could have taken the form of fine snowflakes, Julia thought, that is what settled momentarily upon herself and Sirius and the great black dog with them. Then Robin and Mab were gone.
Julia was filled with a joy so complete it was almost unbearable. She thought Sirius felt it too. The harsh lines on his face had eased and he was laughing. Albie's tail was wagging so violently she thought he might do himself an injury. The sound of church bells drifted over the fields from the village below .
"It's Sunday," she said. "I'd forgotten. Look, it's starting to snow. It's time for breakfast, and we've got a Christmas tree to decorate."
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A couple of hours later, warm and replete with tea, and bacon and eggs, they heard the low rumbling sound of a motorbike from the lane outside. Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Is that Rick?
"I expect so," said Julia. "Let's go and see."
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Rick pulled off his helmet and jacket and put them on the bike seat. He shook Sirius's hand."Good to see you again, man, you're lookin' a lot better than the last time."
Doreen pulled up behind him in a battered little car and Julia waved to her. "Are you coming in for a drink?"
"Nah man, gotta get off. Last minute Christmas shoppin' an' such, ya know." He gave Doreen a look of faint disgust.
"Come over on Boxing Day," said Julia, "we're having a bit of a party."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, pet."
Doreen pipped her horn beckoning him to hurry. Rick climbed into the passenger seat and wound his window down.
"I dunna think they know it all," he said. "Them scientists. You make 'er fly."
The little car reversed out onto the lane.
"What?" said Sirius. "I don't understand."
"Merry Christmas, sweetheart," said Julia. "The jacket and helmet are just on loan. I hope you've got a licence."
"Don't need one," he said vaguely. "I'm a wizard. But—?"
"Don't you like your present then?" she said.
"Like it? You bought it? For me?"
"Well, who else would it be for? It's your money anyway, really."
"No it's not. I've no use for it."
"Whatever you say, my love. I'm cold and I'm going indoors."
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Julia spent a happy afternoon decorating the Christmas tree and didn't see Sirius again until darkness had fallen. When he finally came indoors, he looked rather pleased with himself.
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After they had eaten, he took her hand and pulled her up. "Leave the dishes," he said, "I'll do them later. Wrap up warm. Very warm. We're going out."
"Out?"
"For a ride. Come on, don't dawdle."
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The polished tank flashed gold in the light from the cottage window. Sirius kicked the engine over and it thundered into life.
"Do you need to do that?" she shouted over the noise.
"What?"
"Kick it up? Can't you do it with magic?"
"I could!" he shouted back, "but it wouldn't be the same!" He seated himself and jerked his head back. "Get on!"
She climbed behind him groping at the back of the seat for something to hold on to.
"Hold on to me," he said
"I'll throw you off balance!" she protested.
"No you won't. Put your arms round me."
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The bike pulled out onto the lane, and then the cold breeze shifted in a shiver of magic and Julia squealed; first in terror, and then delight.
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Far below, the cottage and the village were like toys scattered on a carpet. The road and the river twisted in pale ribbons between the dark patchwork of fields. Above them, the pale night sky intersected by endless lines of vapour trails stretched away forever.
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Julia rose early again next morning to bake a chocolate cake ready for Megan's return.
Sirius sniffed the air appreciatively. "I've made something for Megan too. Do you think she'll like it?" He handed her a little carving.
"Sirius! It's quite beautiful! Did you use magic?"
He shook his head. "No magic. That would be cheating."
"Yes it would," she said, "but—a frog! Why a frog? Do you know you couldn't have chosen anything more perfect?"
"Really?" He raised his eyebrows. " Why is that?"
Julia paused and looked past him, thinking. "You should know. Megan. She's always been a bit . . . different. In the way she sees things. Sometimes people don't understand her." She paused and put her finger on his lips, looking into his eyes. "She's got your eyes. Magic ones." He kissed her fingertip.
"About a hundred yards along the lane here," she gestured, "near the bend, there's a shallow pit just behind the hedge. It holds water until about June, but it usually dries up in the summer. You can walk over to it from our garden. One spring when Megan was about eight—it must have been a weekend or in the school holidays, I forget—I was gardening and left her to her own devices. When I came in and went upstairs to get changed. I found she had filled—I'm not joking—filled!—the bath with bloody tadpoles. Not just tadpoles really. They were all in the process of turning into frogs and a lot of them already had. I was furious." She laughed. "Honestly, Sirius, you should have seen it! There were tiny frogs jumping about everywhere and there was muddy water and blanket weed all over the place.
When I asked why she'd done it, she said she had to. She told me that if she hadn't moved them, they'd all have been killed. Obviously I thought she'd been watching too much 'Watership Down' or something. I wasn't at all happy and made her take them all downstairs and put them in the garden. While she was doing that, we heard the most almighty crash in the lane, and a few minutes later there was an explosion. A boy racer had taken the bend too fast and swerved to avoid a tractor. His car went right through the hedge and ended up in the pit. The engine caught fire and he only just got out before the petrol tank exploded. It took the fire brigade hours to extinguish it. They even made us evacuate. It made a terrible mess. Still nothing much grows there."
"So what did you say to her afterwards?" Sirius asked.
"Well nothing really. We both knew she'd been right, but she should still have asked first. But since then I always pay attention to her Feelings. They're never wrong."
"Never?"
"Never," Julia confirmed. "She is very special you know, Megan. Really. It's not just maternal partiality." Julia stroked the little wooden frog. "It's wonderfully realistic. Did you model it from a real frog?"
"I asked Albie to find one for me."
"Please," she said. "Please tell me you didn't do that at the kitchen table."
"Do you think—" Sirius seemed unusually diffident. "Do you think she'll like me, Julia?"
Julia had to laugh. She stroked the untidy lock of hair back from his forehead. "I guarantee that she will," she said. "I'm absolutely certain of it."
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Julia made some sandwiches and packed them to eat on the way. "You could apparate, you know," she said as she wrapped them. "If you don't want to go on the train. It's a long journey."
"Will you come with me if I do?" Sirius sniggered at her look of horror. "I'm joking. I'm pretty out of practice. I'd probably splinch both of us. Have we got time . . . ?" He nuzzled her neck.
"No we haven't, sadly." She gave him a swift kiss. "Come on, Lothario."
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Julia drove to Stafford station, where they took the London train. It was a slow one that stopped at almost every other little station on the way, so the journey was long and the carriage was stuffy. They sat on opposite sides of a table by the window and held hands, absorbed in each other. They must, she supposed, have looked like a pair of middle-aged lovers. Which of course they were.
At a small station somewhere south of Birmingham, an aggressive looking youth with a spider's web tattooed on his neck boarded the train and took a seat beside them. After watching them scornfully for a while, he swore audibly. Julia felt herself colouring and Sirius looked annoyed.
Milf? mouthed Sirius. Julia shook her head at him, but when the youth left his seat, he asked again, and would not let the matter rest until she told him.
"Mother I'd like to fuck?" he hissed in furious disbelief. His eyes were narrowed and cold.
"Leave it, Sirius, please."
The young man with the spider's-web tattoo returned to his seat carrying a sandwich which he proceeded to unwrap on the table. But Julia jumped in alarm when he let out a high, girlish scream and scrambled rapidly into the aisle. She looked down to see a fat snail gliding over his sandwich wrapper towards the table. She grimaced in revulsion and looked suspiciously at Sirius. He was oblivious, looking out of the window, intent on the passing landscape.
The youth's shout had attracted the attention of a uniformed attendant who hurried along the carriage to investigate. The young man thrust the sandwich wrapper at him. "'Ere! It's disgustin'! Snails in the butties! I'll sue you!"
But although they thoroughly investigated the wrapper, table, seats and floor, there was no snail to be found. Perhaps, if they had looked closely enough they might have found the trace of a slime trail here and there.
"It was them!" The aggressive youth pointed at Sirius and Julia with a trembling finger. Sirius looked bemused and Julia exchanged a look of sympathy with the unfortunate attendant, who ushered the young man to the other end of the carriage, still volubly protesting.
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From Euston, they walked to King's Cross. Sirius was fascinated by the crowds and the traffic.
"It's busier nowadays," he said. "I wouldn't want to live here again."
They navigated Kings Cross station hand in hand, heading for platforms nine and ten. In the air above them, announcements rattled unintelligibly, echoing around the arches.
"Last time I was here," said Sirius, "I was Padfoot, seeing Harry off to Hogwarts."
They arrived at the wide brick pillar wall between the platforms. "We'll have to wait here," said Julia.
"Why?"
"Well, I can't get on to the platform, can I?"
"You're with me now," he said. "Hold my hand and just walk straight ahead. Shut your eyes if you like."
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The old fashioned steam engine hissed and spluttered at the platform as the students noisily disembarked. At the far end of the train, a huge man with dark bushy hair and beard, who must have been eight feet tall at least, rested his black eyes on Sirius for a moment, then his gaze moved on.
"There she is! Megan!" Julia shouted, waving both arms wildly.
Megan was carrying a present wrapped in sparkly pink paper and adorned with an alarming number of bows and decorations. She looked back and waved energetically at a pretty blonde girl. "That's Sarah," she said. "She's my best friend. Can she come and stay?"
Megan looked beyond her mother and stopped.
Sirius sank to his knees oblivious to any curious looks that might have fallen on him with—perhaps—a fleeting trace of recognition. Or fear.
Wordlessly Megan handed the sparkly parcel to her mother and walked towards him. "Dad," she whispered. "I knew you'd come back to us." She wiped his cheek with her hand and smiled at him, with a smile so very like his own. "You don't need to cry, you know. Everything's all right now."
Unable to speak, he hugged her tight, and buried his face in her long, dark hair.
She put her arms around him. "You're going to be a great dad," she said happily. "It doesn't matter if you don't know what to do. I can help you."
After some moments, Sirius got to his feet. His movement was as graceful as ever, but his knees cracked painfully, and he rubbed them. He pulled Megan and Julia into his arms, dropping a kiss on each head.
"Come on then, girls," he said. "It's time to take me home."
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A/N, If you have enjoyed this story and you haven't read 'Dark Birthright', you might enjoy that too. 'Harry Potter and the Eversion of Magic' is a sequel of sorts, as is 'Harry Potter and the Reversion of Time'.
As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.
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