Disclaimer: Everything you recognize as part of Harry Potter canon, likely comes from Harry Potter canon, and thus doesn't belong to me.

The Innocents' Revenge

A/N - What more can I say than...Oops? I might add, though, that the chapter was already written within a couple days of the last chapter being posted; it's the editing part that always takes the longest. On that note, the next chapter is already written, it just needs editing to be done, so who knows how long it will be until it's posted up. All well, you can at least enjoy this one for now.

Chapter Thirteen

"Hi, Ginny. You look irritated," a voice, which was far too perky in contrast to Ginny's bad mood, greeted as Ginny entered the room, shrugging off her coat as she did so.

Ginny scowled at Dora, who was lounging on the couch, her feet propped up on a pillow.

"Remus get sick of you and ditch you here or something?" Ginny retorted, draping her coat over the back of the closest chair.

Dora half smiled. "Ah, so you are irritated. What happened?"

Ginny sat down on the other couch, folding her arms tightly. "We found Harry,"

Dora immediately sat up; staring wide eyed at her. "You found him? Then, is he here?" she looked around the room as if he might walk in. "Where's Sirius?"

Ginny shrugged. "Probably informing Dumbledore about our discovery. And no, we don't actually have him. We only saw him today,"

"Where is he at?" Dora asked, settling back again.

Ginny scowled again. "He was wandering the streets of Godric's Hallow. With a girl,"

Dora paused. "Ah,"

Ginny sighed. "They were holding hands, Dora. I think...I think he might have forgotten about me,"

Dora made a non-committal noise, though she gave Ginny a sympathetic look. Ginny didn't quite know how to take that, but settled on mildly annoyed.

"What happened next?" Dora asked, moving the topic along.

Ginny shifted. "We called out to him and he ran away. He apparated, taking her with him,"

"I see," Dora replied, frowning thoughtfully.

Ginny leaned back into the sofa. The door to the room opened and admitted Sirius, causing Dora and Ginny to look over at him. He paused under their gaze.

"Dora! What a surprise! Where's your werewolf?" Sirius asked, his voice light and cheery.

Ginny glared at him, though she knew she shouldn't. He was just happy they had some progress with searching for Harry. She was happy as well. However, the only reason she was sticking around was because of Harry. If he didn't want her anymore, she'd gladly leave. She hated being cooped up in Grimmauld Place, and was also starting to miss her home at the Burrow.

"Hogwarts," Dora replied, her expression turning sombre. Ginny looked up, drawn out of her thoughts.

"Hogwarts?"

Sirius came to stand behind Ginny's sofa. He leaned against the back of it casually.

Dora nodded. "Madam Pomfrey wanted him to go to Hogwarts so she could check on his injured arm. It's been troubling him more and more lately,"

Sirius blinked in surprise at the sudden reminder that Remus was slowly dying. "Oh. Right,"

Dora looked away from them, rubbing at her swollen belly lightly. They could easily tell that her mind was on the unborn baby. How could she possibly raise a child without Remus around to help out?

"We'll always be around to help, you know. No matter what happens," Sirius told her, his voice unusually serious.

Dora looked over at him, her eyes glistening with tears. "Thank you, Sirius," she murmured softly.

For a long time after Harry finished speaking, the room was silent. Harry just sat, waiting for Sarah's reaction. Sarah, however, didn't seem to know how to react to Harry's story. Harry looked up impatiently at Sarah from behind his fringe, but Sarah was studying the floor, looking thoughtful.

At long last, she spoke, "So you're saying...there is magic?"

"Yes,"

"And you're a wizard?"

"Yes,"

"But you're sort of infamous at the moment, so you're hiding here?"

"Yes,"

"And you're the Harry Potter that disappeared from here so many years ago?"

Harry paused. Not having told her his last name at all, he didn't think she would have come up with that conclusion. Or rather, he had hoped that she wouldn't figure it out.

"Yes," he admitted.

Sarah nodded, looking pensive. Finally, she said, "But you still haven't told me who those people were,"

Harry sighed. "Truthfully, I don't know. Before I came here, I was in this place...it made me forget all of my happy memories, and the people that went with them,"

Sarah looked over at him sharply. "Then they were people who you must have had good memories with. Why did you run away?"

Harry grimaced. "I've put my past behind me, Sarah. I don't want it coming back to haunt me. Even the good parts. I've experienced enough to know that with all good things come bad things,"

Sarah stared at him for a long moment. "Okay. I might be able to understand that," she finally replied.

Harry nodded at her gratefully. He glanced at the clock in Sarah's room and found that it was past midnight. "I really should be getting home,"

Sarah glanced at the clock as well and nodded. "I'll walk you out,"

Together, they stood and exited Sarah's bedroom. They made sure to be absolutely quiet as they passed the bedrooms of the other occupants of the house, then went down the stairs. Sarah pulled open the door and Harry made to exit, but Sarah grabbed his arm. He looked back at her.

"You are coming back tomorrow, right?" Sarah asked, meeting Harry's eyes.

"Do you want me to?"

For a moment, Sarah hesitated, and then she stretched up on her toes and placed a chaste kiss on Harry's cheek. "I'll make your life happy again, Harry,"

Harry tensed up, but she just stepped away and disappeared up the stairs, leaving Harry alone in the doorway, staring after her in surprise.

"We'll assume the girl he was with is a witch, since Potter apparated with her, so we'll start with the wizarding district of Godric's Hallow. After that is complete, we'll start searching the hotels and apartments of the muggle district. Black will lead a group himself, searching using his unique talents," Moody said, pointing to a map of Godric's Hallow as he spoke. The crowd of twenty of so volunteers listened raptly to his plan. All of them were part of the rebellion, which had temporarily been delayed at this unexpected turn. They all agreed on at least one thing – finding Harry was more important than taking down the corrupt Ministry.

"Wait," interjected Rachelle, "if he's on the run, why would he be staying in a hotel or apartment?"

Sirius answered from his place at the back of the room. "He was close enough with that girl that he had obviously spent some time with her. If he's comfortable socialising, then he's probably living somewhere nearby. Also, he was wearing new clothes, which tells us he is either earning money or stealing, the second of which I highly doubt. Muggles aren't searching for him, so he could find shelter among them, easily enough,"

"But I thought this girl was a witch? Wouldn't she recognise Harry? This is Harry Potter we're talking about. Even the youngest child in our world has heard of him," pointed out Katie Bell.

There was a pause in the conversation before Moody said, "It's only an assumption that she is a witch, not a guarantee. Plus, Potter could have placed a charm on her. He was in the company of the Dark Lord for a time,"

Sirius felt a lurch in his gut at the memory of Harry's supposed betrayal.

The meeting continued, plans for the searching being made, and Sirius leaned back against the wall, bored. He had been one of the people to help come up with the plan, and didn't need to hear it being told to the rest of the search party. He just wanted to go out and start searching again, now that they had closed in on the area where Harry would probably be found.

Remus walked up to Sirius then, Dora tailing behind. Sirius glanced over at them. Remus looked paler than normal. His arm was wrapped in a fresh bandage, which was just to hide the wound rather than protect it. Sirius was glad that Remus kept it covered up. His entire arm was blackened and shrivelled. Every time Sirius saw it, he felt a fresh wave of panic. It was a reminded that his best friend was dying. Sirius shook his head, clearing his mind, then turned his attention to the pair in front of him.

"You two aren't going out to search, are you?" Sirius asked, eyeing Dora's swollen belly.

She shook her head. "Nah, I'm retired from this kind of work, at the moment. I'll probably take a nap while you and the others go out and search,"

Sirius nodded, then turned to Remus, who, Sirius noted, looked concerned about something; but then again, Remus nearly always looked concerned there days.

Remus shook his head swiftly in answer to Sirius' question, but then glanced around the room cautiously.

"How do we know that he is even still in Godric's Hallow?" Remus whispered, "What if he left when he saw you?"

Sirius sighed. "We'll just have to hope that he didn't. I'd hate to have to start searching for him all over again,"

Harry stretched as he stood up from his seat in the classroom in which he took a few basic lessons at the local college. Picking up his satchel of schoolbooks, he made his way out of the classroom and through the building to the exit. Though other students surrounded him, he stopped to speak to none of them.

Glancing at his watch, he noted that he had a few extra minutes today. He would be able to get to his flat to drop of his stuff before getting to the Jones' to work.

Finding his usual place behind the building, in an alley, Harry shifted into bird form and took off into the sky, his pack in his talons. He mentally smirked as he saw a pair of locals pointing up at him in amazement.

When he had first arrived, he had been nervous at using his form too much, especially since the muggle news reported a story mentioning a new bird of prey moving into the area. It caused a lot of unnecessary attention to focus on him, at the time. However, people were mostly used to him now. There were always the few exceptions, though.

It only took moments to get to his flat, and as he landed on the roof, he noticed a trio of people standing at the base of the building. They were talking avidly with the manager of the building. Harry transformed back into his human form and peered over the edge at the people curiously. During his time staying there, he had met most of the people who were living in the building. They had potlucks every Saturday, in the grassy park behind the building. Free food was free food, so Harry attended regularly.

These three people, however, were strangers. Studying them, he thought they might just be people who would be moving in, but then he noticed something that changed his opinion of them really quickly. Sticking out of the back pocket of one of the younger looking females was a slender stick that Harry recognised as a wand. They were wizards.

Backing away from the edge of the roof, Harry frowned, considering what to do. In all likeliness, they were here, searching for him. He couldn't recall if they were on the good side or not. Either way, he did not want to meet with them.

Stooping down, Harry picked up his pack and put it right inside the door leading to the stairs down to the top floor. It would be safe from rain there, at least. He wasn't too worried about thieves either. The bag only had schoolbooks in it.

Transforming back into a bird, Harry took flight, avoiding flying over the top of the three wizards, just in case they might recognise his form. He headed toward the store, where he had his shift coming up soon. At least work would put this out of his mind for a few hours.

Landing behind the building, Harry transformed back to his human self and entered through the rear door.

Henry was just coming down the stairs.

"Afternoon," he greeted.

Harry nodded back, his mind still preoccupied.

Together, they entered the store and got to work, joining Sarah, who gave Harry a sly smile in greeting.

A/N - Next chapter includes : private investigators, a Cousin Louise, and a close miss or two. Reviews inspire me and make my day, even if I'm not great at actually replying to them. I read and treasure every one!