Chapter Twenty One: I scent the morning air
The languorous arrival of dawn was welcomed and filled with promise. The dim sunlight gradually began to fill the room and whilst Teddy's breathing was slow and strained, he was breathing nonetheless. He was alive and through the worst, and Sirius felt quietly optimistic.
In the small hours of the morning a house-elf had entered silently to restock the medicine cabinet in the matron's office. Sirius recognised it as a house-elf he had seen in the kitchens and had asked it if they could arrange for another house-elf to go to Gryffindor tower to collect Teddy some pyjamas and some clean clothes. They returned quickly and helped Sirius tidy Teddy up, and when he was no longer covered in mud, blood and dirty torn clothes, he began to look slightly more salubrious. Feeling inspired, he sent the elves off again to the kitchens to try and find some of Remus Lupin's miracle cure-all medicine- chocolate. It was worth a shot; after all, Remus had always sworn by it. Sirius felt slightly more upbeat, and happy to be doing something helpful for once.
Confident that Teddy would be alright, Sirius left his bedside momentarily and walked to stand beside the furthest window. Below were the Hogwarts grounds, stretching far out toward the horizon. He watched dawn break. The treetops were gilded over with gold and the sun pulled itself through the coppice of trees on the grounds below to make its morning appearance. Sirius was unaware of everything that was happening throughout the castle; he was unaware of the visitor who was making their way to the Headmistress's office.
An elf returned quickly with the chocolate, but Sirius was distractedly gazing out of the window looking at the thick edges of the Forbidden Forest. Something very strange had happened last night, and he couldn't for the life of him work out why.
He shouldn't have been surprised that the night had taken such a bad turn. He had a lot to think about, but what he wanted to know most, was why there had been a werewolf in the forest at all. As far as he knew, none of the students were werewolves, and judging from McGonagall's reaction, she hadn't known about the werewolf either. And besides, the wolf had been fully grown; it could only have been an adult. The Hogwarts grounds were so well guarded it would be impossible for anything to get in at night- he'd had experience of trying to get into Hogwarts, and if it hadn't have been for that cat, he wouldn't have been able to. So the werewolf must have access to Hogwarts, or worse, must already be at Hogwarts. The devils were already inside the walls. The possibilities weren't pretty.
The door swung open forcefully and the first visitor to the hospital wing that morning arrived urgently. Professor McGonagall's usual steady clip-clop was hurried and uneven as it traversed across the tiles of the hospital wing.
"Where is he, Poppy?" She spoke far too quickly.
The matron had been making up the beds nearest to the door. She replied, sounding confused. "Who, headmistress? Master Lupin? He's still in the bed over there…"
"No, no… Where's Black?" Sirius looked over to her, startled. Had she realised she'd slipped up? Or did she know that the matron already knew who he was? Having spotted Sirius beside the furthest window overlooking the grounds, Professor McGonagall rushed towards him.
The door opened again, and Sirius heard the banging of the wooden door in the frame as it shut. He didn't turn to look at the second visitor, he was still watching McGonagall for some indication that she had noticed her slip-up.
"Is something wrong, Professor?"
The new voice cut straight through him. It was like a sharpened dagger had been hurled through the empty room and had struck a chill through his dark heart. Sirius felt his knees buckling but he fought to stay upright, gripping onto the window ledge for support. He knew he had heard it correctly. His ears were not playing tricks; he could tell who it was, even though it sounded lower and thicker than it should, even though it was disguised with age. It was unmistakably recognisable. But it was completely unexpected.
It was Harry Potter.
Sirius almost didn't want to turn around. He didn't want to face Harry; it felt like facing reality. Until now, this strange future he had found himself in had felt like a peculiar dream, from which he would be able to leave if only he could find it in himself to wake up.
Nothing had changed drastically, not really. McGonagall was still exactly the same as he remembered, he'd never known Hermione well enough to be affected by the change in her, and he had never even met Teddy before. But Harry- his poor Harry- had been a ruined fifteen year old when Sirius had last seen him. That was how he remembered him; the child who'd tried to smile as he faced the worst. The child who had wanted his help, his advice, and had desperately sought Sirius's solace.
Now Harry would be nothing like he remembered and Sirius would have to face the truth. He was lonely, he was in the future, and he was never going back.
"Professor?" Harry's voice faltered. Had he noticed the man stood at the window? Did he think it was just a shadow, a haunted spirit of the Godfather who was supposed to be long dead? The shaking voice, full of worry, took Sirius straight back to what he remembered. To his fifteen year old Godson. And he realised that wherever he was, whatever year or whatever time or whatever dimension, he was still Harry, and he would still be exactly the same.
To hell with whatever anybody said, his Godson was here, and Sirius would finally be able to reveal his secret to the only person that really mattered. Why he was here, Sirius didn't care. What he would say when he found out about him, well, Sirius didn't care for that either. He turned to face him, a beaming smile finally stretching out across his face.
"Harry," He breathed, his eyes glittering with happiness.
Harry stared hard at the man who had addressed him, and the colour drained from his face. He stumbled into the bed closest to him and held himself against the metal bars, not once taking his eyes off Sirius. He seemed to be doing some serious thinking; Sirius could almost see the cogs whirring in his brain. Harry's eyes still were unblinking behind those same familiar round glasses. When he realised who it was, and when he trusted himself to believe what was really in front of him, his face broke into the first smile he had worn for days. "Hello, Sirius." His voice shook audibly, but Sirius could hear the smile as he spoke.
Sirius couldn't stop staring. Harry was no longer the miserable, frightened fifteen year old he remembered. He didn't look like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders any more. He didn't look as troubled, as sad or as lonely as he once had. He was older, his face more lined, he was well-dressed with smarter, well-fitting clothes. But his hair was still as messy as it always was, his glasses were still perched precariously on the bridge of his nose, and he still had the exact same honest smile. He looked healthy, happy, and remarkably calm about greeting his dead Godfather in the Hogwarts hospital wing.
"Harry!" Sirius repeated, laughing a little at the absurdity of the situation. He strode over to his Godson and embraced him in a tight hug.
"Is it really you?" Asked Harry cautiously, leaning back to look at Sirius again. "Shouldn't I ask some sort of question only you could answer? Constant vigilance, remember." Harry laughed nervously. He seemed torn between wanting to believe it, but knowing he shouldn't.
"Believe me, Potter. That's Sirius Black." McGonagall announced, in a tone that suggested Sirius had been driving her to despair. Sirius looked suitably affronted.
Harry didn't want to take his eyes off Sirius, but he was drawn to the boy on the bed. That was the reason he was here, after all. He seemed to shake himself out of his dazed state, and collected his thoughts. He looked suddenly serious, and motioned over at Teddy.
"So you don't think he will be a werewolf?" Harry asked sombrely, evidently having been filled in by McGonagall beforehand.
She shook her head. "He has had a lucky escape."
"I feared the worst when I got your message. I didn't read it until I got home this morning. I was doing night patrol."
Professor McGonagall looked uncomfortably between Harry and Sirius. Knowing they would prefer it, she made her excuses to speak with the matron, and left the two alone.
"McGonagall told me what happened. She said that you pulled the wolf off him."
"I told him to go back to the castle but he didn't listen."
"I think we've all been told something like that before and ignored it." Harry waved his wand and drew himself a little wooden chair. "I suppose all that's left is to wait for him to wake, then." It should have felt awkward, or strange, but for some reason, it didn't. Sirius felt like he'd never been away.
A timid smile was slowly forming on Harry's face as he took his chair to one side of Teddy's bed, and looked over to Sirius, who has resumed his place on the other. "So how long have you been here?"
"Since I fell through the veil."
"Sixteen years?!" Harry suddenly exploded. "Sixteen years you've been alive and I've only found out now!"
"Harry!" Sirius smiled indulgently. "It's not like that. I haven't been here for sixteen years. I've been here for five months."
"Where have you been all this time, then?"
"I haven't been anywhere. I fell through the veil five months ago. Harry, I've skipped the last sixteen years. The last time I saw you was five months ago. You were fifteen."
Harry blinked, trying to take in what Sirius had said. "But you were in the forest. The night I…" He paused. "The night I met Voldemort. You were there. I remember, it was so clear. It couldn't have been my imagination! You were all there, you, Lupin, my mum and dad. It was because of you that the Dementors in the forest didn't affect me. It was so real." Harry shook his head. "You told me that death was quicker and easier than falling asleep."
"I did? I don't remember."
"I couldn't have imagined it." Harry said, more to himself that for Sirius's benefit.
Sirius was worried about the direction the conversation had taken, and he desperately tried to change it. "Considering I'm supposed to have been dead for sixteen years, you don't seem surprised to see me."
Harry half-smiled, an inside joke that Sirius wasn't in on flickering across his face. "It's not the first time I've heard of someone coming back from the dead."
"Pettigrew?"
"No," Harry said meekly. "Me."
Sirius frowned. "Well, you could at least pretend to be surprised."
"Actually," Harry admitted sheepishly, "For the past couple of weeks I've received a few letters from Teddy asking all about Sirius Black, the mysterious hero from the war effort that Teddy wanted to write a History of Magic report on. At first I thought that he was just really doing his research, asking all these strange questions. But then it all became rather suspicious- how many school reports need to know what he looked like, how old he'd be if he were alive today, and does he have the same colour eyes as Grandma?"
Sirius let out a barking laugh. That boy- he might look and act remarkably like Remus Lupin, but he was about as discrete as Tonks.
"Teddy told me his new Defence teacher was called Professor Boardman," Harry's eyes sparkled with mirth, "It reminded me of that article in The Quibbler. Bit of a coincidence- Stubby Boardman turns up at the same time Teddy starts asking strange questions about Sirius Black. So, what happened? You fell through the veil and ended up here?"
"Yes. The veil is like a reverse time-turner. I haven't got any idea why I travelled sixteen years forward, but I did, and now I'm here." Sirius explained. "At least I'm not dead."
"I always did wonder what happened. I was in denial, I suppose, but I never thought you'd died. There was no body. I felt like I never got closure. But then I saw you in the forest, with the others, so I thought," Harry shrugged tiredly. "'Well, if he's here being resurrected with the resurrection stone, he must be dead'."
"You should have trusted your instincts. They're good and nearly always right."
"Lupin said that about me once." Harry remembered warmly.
"We all used to say that about you." Replied Sirius. "And we said it about James, too."
The fell into a companionable silence; Sirius was thinking fondly of James, whilst Harry was thinking about how surreal it felt to have his Godfather back- wonderful, but surreal no less.
It was a place Sirius never thought he'd find himself; sitting beside the sons of his two best friends. But as nice as it was to see his Godson again, and as nice as it was to get the chance to meet Lupin's son, he couldn't help but wonder why it was Harry that had arrived at Teddy's bedside.
A.N: Glad that chapter is over and done with haha! So many people were looking forward to Harry's arrival and I was not looking forward to writing it. Sorry if you didn't like it or it wasn't what you were expecting or you don't think it was worth the wait. But hey, Harry's seen pretty much everything- I feel like nothing would phase him anymore. So Sirius is still alive? Harry ain't even phased.