Chapter Twelve: Staying Hidden

There was a moment of shocked silence - while everyone stared at each other - and Remus knew it was only the surprise of finding these two wanted criminals in bed together - in each other's arms - that stopped the Ministry wizards from stupefying them where they sat.

But then the spell seemed to break - the wands were raised - and every wizard in there seemed to yell 'Stupefy' at the same time.

The boys moved as one - as though they had read each other's minds - and crashed down onto the pillows, so the stunning charms passed harmlessly over their heads. The red sparks from all the different wands collided mid air and ricocheted off - bouncing off the walls, severing the lampshade from the ceiling and even hitting one of the aurors directly between the eyes.

His eyes crossed and he keeled over backwards, as the rest of the Ministry wizards took cover from their own rebounding spells.

And in that moment, Sirius and Remus locked eyes - nodded at each other; Remus grabbed the case; they gripped their wands; Sirius grabbed Remus and they twisted into the nothingness. Remus just had a fleeting impression of the toadish Ministry Hag screaming 'capture them!' before they had apparated away and left the aurors behind.

...

Splash!

...Perhaps Sirius had misjudged it, or perhaps he had simply tried to apparate them too far - but the pair of them materialised out of the air and were immediately submerged in the salty waves of the crashing ocean.

Remus felt himself sink several feet before he realised what was happening, kicked hard and managed to break the surface. He came back up, blinking, gasping for breath and spitting saltwater from his mouth, to find Sirius also floundering. They grabbed hold of each other, nearly sank, and then righted themselves.

'What happened? Where are we?'

'I tried to get us to Croatia - must have missed.'

'You think?' He felt himself nearly sink again and kicked his legs to try and stay afloat.

'We can't be far from shore - we just need to swim.'

'Swim!'

'It's not as far as it was from Azkaban to the mainland.' And Sirius vanished and the dog appeared in his place.

'That's alright for you! I can't do that!'

But Padfoot only woofed, took the case from Remus and held it in his mouth, nudged Remus along for a bit with his nose and then set out paddling for shore. Now he at least had both arms free, Remus began to swim after him.

It was very uncomfortable trying to swim in his pajamas - not only because the material was sodden and weighing him down - but because it kept feeling like his trousers were sliding down. Though every time he tried to pull them back up he found they were still perfectly in place.

When he had been younger - after the bite but before Hogwarts - his mum had taken him to a muggle swimming baths one afternoon. There had been a group of children from the local school there - and Remus had watched them longingly, wishing he could go to school, be normal, have friends … But the real reason he had never forgotten was because all the children had been swimming up and down the pool in their pajamas.

He had asked his mum what on earth they were doing - why weren't they wearing regular swimming costumes? They were muggles - it was normally wizards that wore completely the wrong thing in completely the wrong place. And she had told him that it was a standard part of learning to swim in the muggle world. Non-magic people taught their children to swim in their clothes, in case they ever fell into a body of water fully dressed.

Now, desperately struggling against the waves in his night clothes, he realised the muggles had been onto something. He was just thankful that all he was wearing was pajamas. If he had had to do this in his heavy robes and shoes … he would have long since sunk to the bottom of the ocean and drowned.

The swim to shore seemed to take hours. His arms were heavy and tired, the sea kept splashing into his face, rushing into his mouth and making him choke, stinging his eyes… Padfoot was going slower than he needed to, sticking close to Remus in case he got into trouble - nudging him along when he looked like he was starting to struggle.

But eventually they got close enough to shore that their feet hit the sandy seabed. Sirius transformed back again and, with their arms wrapped around each other - they waded their way out of the sea and up onto the beach - gasping and panting and dripping with water.

...

The sudden arrival of two soaking wet men, from the depths of the ocean, wearing nothing but pajamas and one of them half naked, clutching a suitcase, caused no small amount of disturbance among the early morning muggle dog walkers out on the beach.

But as they called after the boys in Croatian that they didn't understand, the two of them ignored the muggles and just stumbled and staggered their way up the beach until they reached a dark, wooded spot and slipped in among the trees to hide and get their breath back.

They sank down, with their backs pressed against the trees for support, closed their eyes and did nothing for a good long while.

Remus wasn't sure how much time had passed, or even if he had fallen asleep for a bit, before he forced himself to start doing something. Using the same charm from yesterday, he dried himself off and then - as Sirius did not seem inclined to move yet - pointed his wand at his friend and dried him too.

'Thanks, Moony,' Sirius murmured sleepily.

'Pass me the case.'

With a groan, Sirius pried open an eye and handed the suitcase over to Remus. Remus opened it up and took out all of their sodden and soaking things. 'Well - I suppose they needed a wash,' he said, performing the drying charm over them all. He took out some underwear and fresh robes - bundled them across to Sirius, 'here' and then took out some for himself.

They got dressed - repacked the case - and then looked at the map.

It was a crumpled, pulpy mess - with ink running and bits of parchment flaking off.

'Do you think we can even salvage this?' Remus asked.

'We need to - give it here.' He waved his wand over it a few times - and when he was done it was still usable. Not as good as new but … they could still make out most of the town names. A few were still indistinguishable - the letters running together - but hopefully that wouldn't matter.

They sank back down - still exhausted. 'How did they find us?' Sirius asked. 'There weren't any Ministry wizards in the town yesterday - they'd all rushed off to Kobolddorf and suddenly, not only are they in Italy - but they're right in our room.'

'The Striga,' Remus told him. 'The museum said she's not an omen of bad tidings - she actually makes bad stuff happen. She brings them down on the men she targets. Once she was in our room - the magic of her must have made it so the Ministry knew exactly where we were.'

'Well that's not very nice!'

'She's a monster.'

'Well… yes. But you said she targets handsome men. You'd think if she was looking to, well … you know … with a handsome man, she'd at least not try and get them killed or captured first.'

'I don't know that she was looking to … you know . She seemed more interested in drinking your blood than … anything else . I don't know why she goes for handsome, young men. Maybe she just likes looking at them.'

'Creepy bint.'

Remus laughed, 'yes - that about covers it.'

'We really do attract the good ones, don't we, Moony? Toad Face and Reptile Lady … there's a definite pattern. I understand completely now why neither of us have ever ... well … you know.'

'You mean besides your long incarceration and my being a werewolf?'

'Yeah. That's immaterial. The real problem is: we only get the ugly girls.'

'Sirius!'

But they were both laughing. Remus held onto his side, where he could feel a stitch developing. 'Anyway - I think it's pretty safe to say that - no matter her interest in us - the Ministry Hag is definitely not looking to … you know with us. I think it's fair to say she finds us as disgusting as we find her - or certainly she finds me disgusting. Maybe she has a dark fascination with you. Maybe you could be in there, if you wanted.'

'No way - I think it's the other way around. Me, she can take or leave. She can't get enough of the thought of the "halfbreed". You heard what she said on the train - about what you might have done to her in the night … that was textbook wishful thinking, Moony, old friend, if ever I heard it.'

Remus picked up a twig and lobbed it at Sirius.

'Ow.'

'You deserved that.'

'I'm just saying as I see it,' he said lazily, closing his eyes. 'Toad Face seems to hate "halfbreeds" just a little bit too much, if you ask me. And it's a very thin line between love and hate.'

'Tell me about it - just a minute ago we were best friends - and now you've started trying to pair me off with the Ministry Hag, I'm never going to speak to you again.'

'Well, you're a man of intense passions, Remus. That's why the Ministry Hag is so hot for you.'

This time, Remus threw a much bigger stick.

'Ow.'

...

They didn't move out of their wooded spot for a long time, the sun crept across the sky and the shadows began to lengthen. Eventually, however, they became hungry enough that they decided they would have to risk heading into the nearest town.

'We don't have any muggle money,' Remus pointed out, as they made their way on foot towards the outskirts of the city of Umag.

'Don't worry about it.'

'Well it's hard not to worry when we won't be able to eat.'

'I've got an idea.'

'Oh, this should be good.'

'Hang on - watch.' He pulled Remus to a halt. They were standing on the opposite side of the road to a cafe; little tables and chairs were set up outside. It was busy - couples and families packing every table.

'Let's see…' Sirius said, scanning around, 'yes - her - let's wait!' He pointed to a youngish woman sitting opposite a man. She had a sunhat sitting on the table next to her, and her handbag dangling from the arm of her chair.

After a moment, she said something to her companion, got to her feet - and went inside the cafe. Presumably to use the bathroom.

'Come on,' Sirius grabbed Remus, hurried him across the road - with Remus protesting and asking what was happening the whole way. He darted between the tables until he was right by the lady's abandoned chair and then shoved Remus hard, so he fell into the table itself - obscuring the seated man's view for a second.

'Siri- ' Remus looked around, annoyed - but Sirius was nowhere to be seen.

The man was frowning up at him, looking annoyed. 'Nespretini oaf! ' he barked.

'Sorry!' he backed away, looking round for Sirius - and then caught sight of him at the end of the road, peering round the corner and beckoning Remus over. 'I'm really sorry,' he said again - and dashed away. 'Sirius what on earth-' He stopped talking and his mouth fell open when he saw what Sirius was holding.

'Sirius - did you just steal that lady's bag?'

'Of course not. I borrowed it.'

'For what?'

Over by the cafe - the woman had come back outside, found her bag missing and was kicking up a fuss, while waiters hurried around looking for it and the owner of the cafe came out to apologise profusely.

Sirius ignored the whole thing. Calmly, he unzipped her bag, took out her purse and opened it up.

'Sirius -'

'Shh.' He took all the notes out of it.

'Oh - so you're borrowing her bag but stealing her money? That's better!'

'Of course not!' He splayed all the notes into a fan; green and blue and red pieces of paper all with pictures of old men from the olden days on them, and bearing very large numbers across them. He tapped the notes with his wand and said 'gemino'. And then - just like that - he had two fans of notes. He slipped the first back into the lady's purse and the second into his pocket. 'See - no harm done - now wait here.'

Remus lurked around the corner and watched as Sirius went back to the cafe - the woman was still standing up, she had started to cry and was periodically yelling at the man she was sitting with for not looking after her handbag properly … Or at least Remus assumed that was what she was saying - she was speaking Croatian after all.

She suddenly spluttered to a stop - and stared - when she noticed Sirius walking towards her, holding her handbag. 'Hi,' he gave her his most charming smile. 'Is this yours? I just saw the most dreadful, disreputable looking man steal it. He banged into your table and then ran away … I went and got it back for you.' He gave her another roguish grin - complete with a wink - and handed it over.

By now she was pink and looking flustered but very pleased … as if it was not every day that men as handsome as Sirius came riding to her rescue and then winked at her. And though she didn't seem to understand half of what he had just said, she did understand that her handbag was not lost - and she seized it in delight. 'Hvala vam,' she thanked him, beaming. 'Puno ti hvala!'

'My pleasure,' he gave another wink.

Round the corner, Remus rolled his eyes. A moment later Sirius was back with him. 'Could you have flirted any more with her if you'd tried?'

'So what? Flirting gets you places.'

'If you look like you, I suppose it does. And did you just tell them I stole that bag?'

'Relax, they didn't understand a word I was saying.'

'You called me disreputable.'

'You are disreputable, Moony. You're a werewolf, on the run from the law with a convicted mass murderer, and you just aided and abetted in theft and counterfeiting money. You don't get much more disreputable than that.'

Remus stumbled to a stop. 'I - don't know why I put up with you.'

But Sirius only grinned. 'Because you love me.'

Despite himself he could feel himself starting to smile - and he bit his lip to try and stop it. 'I should just go home. Tell everyone you coerced me into running away with you and get back to my real life.'

'You can't do that! You'd miss the rest of the ad-'

'Don't you dare say it!'

'-venture. Come on - let's go spend our ill gotten gains.'

...

They had found a place to eat that was far away from the scene of their most recent crime and eaten risotto made with squid ink - which had turned the rice black. Even Remus was dubious about this, the muggle shop in his hometown did not sell anything near as exotic as this … But it proved to be all right - and they were hungry enough that they scraped the last of it from their plates.

With another gemino charm on their already enchanted notes, they then had enough money to get themselves a hotel room. They sat in there, with a cup of tea, and watched the muggle moving picture screen. They stayed well away from stories but had found an English language news channel and were watching it in dismay.

To get to Albania from Croatia they would need to pass through Bosnia … but the muggle news was now telling them what their waiter at the restaurant had already informed them of (rather incredulously at that: "You English not watch the news, no?") There was a war raging all through the former Yugoslavia and right now most of it was centred on Bosnia. Passing through it would be dangerous.

But, reluctantly, they had realised they would probably have no choice but to pass through it. Not with the Peter problem standing as it did.

Peter would have arrived in Italy that day - and he would not be getting back on the train, as that was now headed up to Kobolddorf and then out east . He was not being hunted by the Ministry … and, frankly, he was unlikely to catch the attention of the Striga. He had a ready supply of stolen gold and was in no particular hurry.

'I think he'll buy himself a new wand,' Remus said. 'In Maggiora - he'll get a new wand, and then he'll apparate across to Croatia.'

'Maybe he'll fall in the sea like we did - maybe he'll drown … fat, little git.'

But Remus shook his head. 'No - you miscalculated because we were under pressure. He has all the time in the world. It's not like Voldemort is expecting him. He'll reach Croatia and he'll start apparating through. And we won't know where he is.'

'He'll stop in wizarding towns though.'

But again Remus shook his head. 'The all wizarding town in Croatia is in completely the wrong direction. Look,' he pulled out the map and pointed. 'It's a funny shaped country. He doesn't want to head over there. He might stop off in Gnomagrad in Herzegovina - but he could just push straight on through to Montenegro. He could be in Albania in a couple of days time.'

'And the Ministry isn't after him - but if we apparate to these places…'

'Oh, we'll be caught for sure. They know we're going to Albania … they have the wrong end of the broomstick as to why - but they know where we're going. They'll guess where we apparated to. I bet Croatia is already swarming with Ministry officials. We're going to have to try and get past them.'

'It'll be safer to travel as muggles and use as little magic as possible,' Sirius said slowly. 'They won't find us then, won't be able to trace us.'

'Safer,' Remus agreed, 'but slower.'

They turned back to the screen - to watch the big green vehicles with their canons on the front rolling through the streets, and the scenes of explosions and makeshift hospitals with red crosses painted on the top. 'And we need to be careful in the muggle world as well,' Remus said heavily.

...

The next day they went to the muggle train station. Between the foreign money, the foreign language and the fact that neither of them really understood how the muggle world worked - it was nearly impossible for them to work out what it was they wanted.

They had looked at the map and had hoped they would make it half way down the coast today … but after half an hour studying the timetable and getting thoroughly confused they came to the disappointed conclusion that muggle transport would not get them that far that quickly.

Although Rijeka - the first big town on the coastline - was not far and, if they had a car, would have been a short drive … it turned out there was no direct train. They would have to travel in completely the wrong direction first and get a connection … and it would take over six hours. And at that point, they would only just be at the very start of their journey.

'Maybe we should just apparate this bit,' Sirius said doubtfully.

But Remus shook his head. 'These are muggle towns - if the Croatian Ministry gets wind of apparating going on in them they'll speak to our lot. They must know we're supposed to be here. The Ministry Hag will have informed them. If we apparate, we'll lead them right to us. No magic. Not unless it's completely necessary.'

So - rather glumly, they bought train tickets and got on a muggle train headed somewhere they had no need to be. 'How do muggles put up with this?' Sirius asked, as he watched the scenery flash past the windows. 'It wastes so much time.'

'I imagine that's why most of them learn to drive - so they don't have to.'

'Wish we'd learned to drive … wish I still had my motorbike.'

'Oh yes - that would keep us low profile and out of the sights of the Ministry: a dirty, great, flying motorcycle.'

'Maybe we'll get lucky,' Sirius said, suddenly hopeful. 'Maybe Peter apparating through these muggle places will attract the attention of the Croatian Ministry. Maybe our lot will go after him, thinking he's us - and they can catch him for us.'

'Maybe,' Remus smiled … he didn't think it was likely. 'But then when has anything ever gone our way before now?'

...

Many hours later, tired, sweaty and thoroughly fed up - the pair of them arrived in Rijeka. 'Let's find a hotel room,' Sirius said, mopping his brow and puffing a little. 'I'm getting in the shower. A freezing cold one. For about 45 minutes.'

'Well… don't use up all the cold water.'

True to his word, as soon as they were safely behind a locked door - Sirius divested himself of all his clothes, threw them on the floor and disappeared into the bathroom.

Remus sat on the bed, listening to the pitter patter of the shower raining into the bathtub … and tried not to think about it falling onto Sirius' naked body, trickling down his bare skin…

He felt a sudden throb between his legs; urgent and aching and pleasingly frustrating - and glanced towards the bathroom door - wondering if he had time to … But he was interrupted, just as his hand wandered below his belt, by a sudden tapping on the window.

Flustered - and burning bright red - he looked out and saw a snowy owl, bobbing up and down outside the glass, tapping to be let in. He hurried over, threw open the window and carried Hedwig inside. There were some biscuits on a tray with the tea and coffee making facilities - and he crumbled one up and gave it to her, while he untied the letter from her leg.

The sound of the shower finally stopped … and Sirius appeared in the doorway, wearing nothing but a fluffy, white towel wrapped around his waist.

Remus tried not to look. 'Hedwig came back,' he said - willing his voice not to tremble. 'She's brought you another letter.' He handed the scroll of parchment across. Sirius tore it open.

Sirius!

He read out.

What are the two of you doing? It was in the paper that they nearly caught you in Italy! I thought you said you were being careful. I don't know what's going on but they're reporting you're an animagus - so you can't even hide as a dog any more. How did you get that discovered?

'The Ministry Hag worked it out, did she?' Remus said. And for once he was grateful for her … because thinking about her killed the throbbing between his legs stone dead - even though Sirius was still bare chested and with droplets of water running down his creamy skin.

I hope you're not in Italy any more - and I hope the pair of you realise you need to be more careful. You're already sentenced to the dementor's kiss, Sirius, but some people are starting to call for it to be used on Professor Lupin too. You can't let them catch you. I really hope I don't hear anything about either of you again until it's the news that your names have been cleared. Don't do anything stupid! When I remember that Professor Lupin dared to tell me off for sneaking into Hogsmeade (using your map!) and now the two of you are doing this… I don't want anything to happen to either of you. My dad wouldn't want anything to happen to either of you - just be safe.

Harry.

'I'm surprised the Ministry reported that they almost had us,' Remus said, as Sirius scribbled a reply. 'It was another failure for them - I'm surprised they admitted to it.' Though at least - from what Harry had said - nothing seemed to have been reported about how the two of them had been in bed together, in a state of undress, at the time … Although it had been completely innocent! But then maybe Harry was just being delicate in not mentioning it… He felt himself blush at the thought.

Harry

It's OK - what happened was a fluke. We caught the attention of a scaly, reptile woman who makes bad things happen and one really weird wake up call later and the Ministry had found us. It won't happen again. We are safely hidden and taking every precaution.

Sirius

Once Sirius had finished the letter, he tied it onto Hedwig - she hooted at them - and then flew away, starting the long journey back to Britain.

Sirius looked at Harry's letter again. 'He's still calling you "Professor Lupin",' he noted. 'I told him he didn't have to.'

Remus smiled. 'Well, I was his teacher for a year - we spent a lot of time together. I suppose old habits die hard. It'll be a long while before he stops thinking of me as a teacher and starts thinking of me as just one of James' friends.'

'I suppose …' but something was making Sirius frown.

...

And he remained quiet all evening and had still barely spoken by the time they got into bed.

'So - what's wrong?' Remus asked him, once they were in the dark and lying curled up together. They didn't even talk about it any more - it was just taken for granted that they would sleep wrapped up in one another's arms … And if that was weird - well … they weren't hurting anybody.

'Nothing's wrong.'

'So why are you so quiet?'

'I'm just thinking.'

'Well now I know something's wrong,' he smiled.

Sirius gave his bark of laughter. 'Nothing's wrong … I'm just thinking … about Harry.'

Remus' smile turned into a frown. 'What about him?'

'I was just thinking … you know him better than I do. You spent a lot more time with him. You recognised Hedwig … I didn't even know he had an owl. Let alone her name. I just - I don't know that much about him. I'm his godfather - and I don't really know anything about him. Other than he's good at Quidditch … and very brave, and loyal to his friends.'

'Well, that's not nothing.'

'No - but it's not much… Tell me about him, Moony. What's he like?'

'Well he's …' he furrowed his brow and thought about it. 'I mean really he's just a boy - a nice, normal kid … or at least, he wants to be normal. For someone who's been through everything he has - is as famous as he is - he is surprisingly normal. If you did not know he was - you know - "Harry Potter" - you'd have no idea. He is not big headed at all.'

'So … nothing like James?' There was very definite laughter in Sirius' voice.

Remus chuckled. 'He is considerably less arrogant than James was, yes. There's a lot of James in him, of course - he's very brave and loyal, like you said - and he's an excellent Quidditch player and he doesn't really set a whole load of store by the rules. He's happy to break every rule there is going. And his Patronus is a stag.'

'Prongs...'

'Yeah ... But … there is a lot of Lily in him too. He's gentler than James was. He's very kind. He would never make fun of people, or hex them for a joke like James did. He stands up for what is right. They would both be so proud of him.'

'I remember thinking it was so weird that James and Lily had had a baby,' Sirius said. 'We were all so young … I couldn't even get my head around the idea of maybe one day even thinking about having a family and there they were, married and with a kid. It's even weirder now he's nearly fourteen - and a real person. His own person. He's been through so much - not just with Voldemort but … helping me escape like that. I think of us in our third year and…' He shook his head.

'Oh, he is a lot more mature than we were at that age,' Remus agreed. 'Certainly more mature than you and James anyway.'

Sirius kicked him under the covers.

'Ow… he's had to grow up fast, I think,' he said sadly. 'He's different to who he would be if James and Lily had not … There's a lot of expectation on him, that we never had to deal with - that no other child does. And it's made him determined to prove himself. He doesn't want to be just a famous name. He's had to put up with a lot more than James ever did - it made me sad to watch him … and proud. He's exceptional, in his own way … but he doesn't really want to be. He just wants to be normal and to be happy and to be loved. To have somewhere he belongs.'

'Well, he can belong with us,' Sirius said. His voice was starting to sound thick with sleep now. 'Once our names are cleared - we can be a proper family.'

'He'll have to stop calling me "Professor Lupin" first.'

'Yeah - you can't be a family with your teacher…' He was quiet for a moment and then: 'do you mind, Moony?'

'Mind what?'

'Me crashing back into your life - and making plans for us to be a family with my godson?'

'No … I've been alone for a long time. It'll be good not to be alone anymore.'

'That's what I think too … and if you're right, then it's the same for Harry. If he can't have James and Lily, he should have us. We're the next best thing.'

'We just need to clear our names first.'

'Yeah.' He yawned. 'Night, Moony.'

'Night, Padfoot.'

...

The next day they caught a bus down the coast. For the next few days they travelled by bus, by train and even on foot - making their way south through Croatia. Occasionally they would catch glimpses of people - in the distance - so bizarrely dressed they could only be wizards attempting to pass as muggles, and they knew this was the Ministry out hunting them. But they kept their heads down, and stayed mixed in with the muggles and didn't use magic for days at a time so they couldn't be traced.

They knew Peter must now be ahead of them - but it was better to go slowly and hope to catch up than it was to use magic, get arrested and end up back in Azkaban … leaving Peter free to return to Voldemort.

After a few more days' travel, exhausted, dirty and in dire need of a long rest, they finally crossed the border into Bosnia and Herzegovina and started the next leg of their journey.