Remus arrived back at Grimmauld Place around three o'clock the next day, to find Sirius in a terrific mood. As soon as he came in the door Sirius was telling him about Tonks and what a splendid person she was, how they had made dinner and she had spent the night, and that she might stay over again after the meeting. Remus wasn't exactly enthusiastic about Tonks; she had said something to Ginny about thinking he was cute, which of course had made its way to his own ears through Molly, who told him to go out with her. How anyone could think of having a love life right now – especially with a werewolf – was beyond Remus's comprehension, besides the fact that Tonks had to be at least fifteen years younger than he was. And so he was trying to keep his distance from her, a plan that would be much harder if she and Sirius were going to become friends.
Remus kept his mouth shut though, because Sirius seemed so cheerful; his friend had been suffering as of late, anyone could see that, so anything that brightened him up was something that Remus would have to tolerate. He went upstairs to take a nap, still exhausted from the transformation, and when he came back down a few hours later he found Sirius and Tonks in the kitchen together, chatting before the meeting.
The meeting began with Severus's report. "The Dark Lord has begun moving those he trusts into positions of greater authority, but still leaves empty seats around the table; I suspect this means he believes a great breakout from Azkaban is plausible and could happen soon, although there is no direct plan. He wishes to know if Potter is with his relatives, but is reluctant to send anyone to check lest he be detected. Also, McNair was heard from several days ago; he will reach the giants in four to six weeks." Albus nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this information; Sturgis, who acted as secretary in meetings, scribbled madly on a piece of parchment, taking everything down. Albus questioned Snape on the particulars of the meeting for a few minutes, and then changed topics.
"I feel that we should collect Harry next Wednesday, July 28th. I would like at least five to go; you will apparate to Little Whinging and then fly back with Harry." Hands shot up and Albus smiled and then began to choose. "Remus, you should go, Harry needs a familiar face; Alastor, you will be useful; Nymphadora, please do…" He stopped at six. "Very good. Now I need one person who will be in charge of planning the operation and making sure Petunia, Vernon and their son are not in the vicinity so that Harry can be collected with ease. Nymphadora, can I trust you to do this?"
Tonks beamed from the other side of the table. Remus felt a slight amount of regret; not only would they go to collect Harry together, but Tonks would need some guidance in executing her first big project for Albus and Remus knew his assistance would be quite helpful to her. There would be no way of keeping his distance for the next week or so.
The meeting wound to a close and people began to get up, some to leave, some to help serve supper. Arthur went up to call the children down; Severus spoke with Albus quietly for a few minutes and then turned on his heel to leave, but before he could reach the stairs there was a flash of fire and Fawkes the Phoenix materialized in the middle of the room. He flew to Albus's arm; Albus stroked his feathers for a moment with a look of utter concentration on his face, and then Fawkes disappeared. Remus realized he was half out of his seat, his hand on his wand; he knew something was wrong just from the look on Albus's face. "Severus, stop," Albus said, his tone so serious that Severus too put a hand on his wand as he did an about face. "Harry has been attacked by dementors in Little Whinging." Sirius yelled and jumped to his feet. Albus raised his voice as he continued speaking. "Everyone stay calm; everyone stay put. Harry is not harmed and has been returned to the protection of his relatives' house by Arabella; Mundungus disappeared. The Ministry is taking swift action though, and I must move quickly. I shall send word what I require from you. For now it is essential that everyone stay here." He made direct eye contact, first with Sirius, then with Severus. "Harry is not hurt and is currently safe; now we only have to prevent Cornelius getting his way." He kept staring directly at Severus as he gave further orders. "You may leave Severus; go to him and 'inform' him, see what you can discover."
With that Albus vanished immediately. There was an uproar in the room; Remus saw Sirius, a wild look in his eyes, look toward the door as if he was going to leave anyways. Arthur had just returned with the kids in tow, and they were all extremely confused as to the commotion. Minerva and Molly were yelling at each other. Remus found his voice.
"Quiet!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Maybe it was because he never raised his voice, but everyone stopped at once and stared at him. "Let's keep control. You heard what Albus said, there's no immediate danger and we need to wait for instructions. If a patronus shows up no one will even hear what he needs from us. Let's sit down, talk amongst ourselves, and have supper." Amazingly they listened. Remus saw the end of Severus' long, black robes disappearing upthe stairs as things began to settle down and Molly and Arthur explained what had happened to the children; everyone else speculated wildly about how dementors had gotten so far out of Ministry control.
Fifteen minutes after Albus's departure, a Phoenix patronus appeared in front of Sirius. "Sirius, write Harry a note. Tell him not to leave the house, and that I am sorting things out." Sirius, pale as a sheet, ran for a scrap of parchment and immediately scribbled out a missive. Sturgis's owl was nearby, and the note was sent off immediately. Minerva went outside for a few minutes and came back in with three Hogwarts owls perched on her arm; Remus smiled at her. "Thank god someone has a cool head." She gave him a crooked smile and he saw her worry for Harry in her eyes.
Just minutes after Minerva collected the owls, another patronus arrived, this time for Arthur. This one ordered him to give Harry much the same message, and Remus realized what Albus was doing; Harry now had specific instructions from the two most parental figures in his life. He would obey both Sirius and Arthur without question; the threat of Harry running off was all but neutralized. A third patronus arrived, telling Tonks to go and take up guard duty; she left immediately.
Ten minutes after this, Albus appeared once again in the basement. He raised his hands for silence against the dull roar that immediately sprang up. "Harry is safe; his cousin was mildly sickened by their encounter, but neither has any injuries or lasting effects. He stayed inside; Sirius, Arthur, your messages did the trick. Vernon and Petunia tried to throw him out" – here Sirius let out a cry of rage – "and forced me to step in; they will keep him for as long as needed. Tonks is keeping watch; Mundungus abandoned his post for unknown reasons. When he is located, he will be answerable only to me." Here Albus couldn't keep the anger in his voice, and Remus saw that the Headmaster's eyes had turned so dark they were nearly black. Arthur turned to the children, who had just finished picking at their supper, and sent them to bed; they went without so much as a peep. Fred and George, though nosy, chose their battles well. Tonight was not a night to risk angering Albus. Once the children had gone, Albus continued.
"The Ministry tried to expel Harry for casting a patronus to repel the dementor that attacked his cousin; I put a stop to that, but he will have to attend a disciplinary hearing on August first. Because of this, we will go ahead with the plan to collect him on July 28th; nothing has changed. I do not need to tell you, though, that the seriousness of guarding Harry has increased tenfold. Until we collect him you must keep vigilant and make sure that no harm comes to him. I do not know where the dementors were sent from, but they were sent; dementors do not go out of their way to find underage wizards and attack them. They are given orders to do so." As Albus finished this sentence, the doorbell rang and Arthur ran to answer it.
He came back with Severus in tow, pale as a sheet, eyes glittering strangely. Albus locked eyes with him and they shared a silent communication, and then Albus said "please share what you learned, Severus." Severus sank into a chair; Remus wondered if he was alright. Most of the rest of the room was still standing. "It was not the Dark Lord, Albus. He was… displeased to hear that dementors may be under the control of someone other than himself or the Ministry. He most definitely has plans to control them, and possibly soon, but it was not him." Albus nodded gravely; all was quiet for a few moments. "Until we find out more about this attack, guard duty for Harry becomes even more of a necessity. There is only one more week until we collect him." Albus looked at each one of them in turn. "Help me keep Harry safe until we can have him under this roof, for all of our sakes."
With that, Albus turned and swept out of the kitchen. All was chaos for a while, but Molly finally began sending people to bed. Severus had put his head down on the table after delivering his report, and Minerva had gone to sit next to him; she brought him a few potions from the small store that Molly and Arthur had begun keeping in one of the kitchen cabinets, and they talked in quiet, serious voices in the corner for a while and then left together. Sturgis and Emmeline left together as well; Arthur went up to bed after that, as he was on duty at midnight and wanted to get a few hours' sleep. Finally it was just Molly, Sirius and Remus in the kitchen. Remus was working at cleaning up the remnants of the meal from earlier when he heard someone crying. He turned around to find Molly holding Sirius, swaying back and forth slightly. "There there, dear. He's alright, you heard Albus."
Sirius was inconsolable. Remus had never seen his best friend cry, but he realized now that this was all too much. Not being able to go to the aid of someone you loved was the hardest thing in the world; Harry had been in danger tonight and Sirius had been helpless. Remus knew that Sirius fancied the idea of giving Harry a proper home; had Sirius been able to do that, had his name been cleared, he would have been with Harry if anyone – or anything - had ever come knocking. Instead, here he was in his mother's old house, unable to offer assistance or support to Harry in any way. His worst fears had come true when Mundungus had left Harry alone tonight.
Remus made eye contact with Molly and saw that she understood and comprehended Sirius's anguish. He knew that Molly didn't necessarily agree with most things Sirius had done in his life, and that she had struggled with having her family living with him. Not because she still believed he had betrayed James and Lily; Molly wasn't stupid. She just knew that Sirius was wild, reckless, and impulsive, and she worried that her own children would take his example to heart. But in this, love for a child, any child, Remus knew her heart went out to Sirius and she truly felt sorry for him.
They stayed down in the kitchen with Sirius until Arthur came down for guard duty. When Arthur walked in the room Molly was sitting with her arm around Sirius, holding his hand; Remus was across the table from them, talking softly. Arthur didn't even look surprised; Remus saw him caress his wife's cheek briefly with the back of his hand as he walked past, and other than that he said nothing while he ate a snack and prepared to leave for the Ministry. Before he left the kitchen though, he sat down on Sirius's other side.
"What you are doing, Sirius, is the hardest thing I can think of. I can't imagine if one of my children were out there and I knew they were in danger and couldn't go save them; and then afterwards, not being able to offer them comfort and tell them everything would be alright. I don't know what to say, really, I feel inadequate even trying to talk to you about it. I just want you to know that we all think you are incomparably brave for going through this."
He patted Sirius on the shoulder and took his leave. Not long after that Molly told them gently that they should all try to get some rest; it was after one in the morning. Remus took Sirius's hand and led him up the stairs. After his initial tears, Sirius hadn't cried or really said anything; he had just sat, looking empty, while Molly and Remus tried to talk and comfort him. Now he followed Remus obediently; but when they reached the second floor and Remus turned off toward his room, Sirius said "I'll be fine alone" and tried to pull away from Remus's grasp. "I won't," Remus replied, and he held tight to Sirius's hand. Inside the bedroom he handed Sirius a spare set of pyjamas and turned down the bed as Sirius changed.
When Remus returned from his turn changing his clothes, Sirius was sitting on the edge of the bed, just staring at the wall. Remus got into bed and said softly "come on Padfoot. It's over; you've got to stop beating yourself up and get some rest." After a few minutes Sirius curled up on the other side of the bed. This was a familiar routine from their school days; when the Marauders had been young, and even sometimes in their later years as teenagers, they had all needed the comfort and warmth of a friend here and there when dealing with homesickness and stress. Sirius had crawled into James' bed quite often when he had run away from home, but here and there he would choose Remus instead, and the routine was always the same. He never said he was upset, just got into the bed and stayed as far away as possible; but in the morning when Remus woke up, Sirius' arm would be around his waist and his friend would be sleeping soundly. Sure enough, in the morning Remus was comforted with the knowledge that some things never changed, as he tried to shrug off a snoring Padfoot and get ready for the day. Sirius would be alright – for now.