By Admiral Albia
A/n; Well, I know that this idea's been done before, but the main part isn't Sirius getting freed here.. it's what happens afterwards... and I can practically guarantee that that bit's original. As you may have guessed, Sirius has a choice between living free... or dying. But Harry and co. have to make it for him...
Disclaimer; I own nothing except the pets and the word Cargen. Happy? Oh yes, and I also own this **** painting... "It's boring, it's boring..." The word Puffskein belongs to J.K. Rowling too; it's in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them which was released in the UK for Comic Relief. I don't know about other countries, sorry.
Changing;
[][][] means the POV is changing; probably from Sirius in the first
person to third person or vice-versa.
/\/\/\ means the scene or time is changing...
Chapter 5; The Alps and the Dark Lord
"Is that him?"
"Does that stag look like your Patronus, Harry?"
"Um... no. Oh, this is stupid! `Somewhere in the
Alps`, what a brilliant location..."
"I have to agree. I also have to land, desperately.
It's getting dark in any case, let's stop for the night."
"OK." Harry and Remus had been flying almost non-stop
for a week now, taking three days to reach the Alps then spending the next
four days wandering around looking at every stag they met, which was rapidly
becoming boring. Remus consulted the map.
"Let's see... there's Bolzano about half a mile
North, and just on the outskirts there's a wizarding village... ugh, someone's
spilt custard on it, probably Paul... um... Pilo. Could be Pilo. So OK,
we'll stop off at Pilo for the night. Happy?"
"Yeah, but we've covered almost all the Alps now
and there's been no sign of, well, anything. And Sirius could be dead by
now."
"He could, but I'm willing to bet he isn't. Like
I said, he's never been ill before in his life. The only other time he
was, it only took him a day to recover. There's Pilo, there."
They touched down in front of a small hotel and
Remus, chucking his broom to Harry, dashed behind a tree. He emerged looking
a lot happier.
"That's the only trouble with brooms, there's no
on-board toilet. Now, you almost managed that Language Charm last time,
didn't you, so let's try again. Lingua!"
"Lingua!" Harry copied him, then started
speaking - and to his surprise, realised that he'd mastered the spell at
long last. Remus grinned at him.
"Good... now let's go and book a room." A/n;
of course, he said that in Italian. But since both of them have language
charms on, it really doesn't make any difference.>
A short while later, the two of them decided to
ask around for any sign of James. It was dark and there was nothing else
they could do, but as soon as they stepped outside they got an answer.
Four or five children were running down the mountain,
laughing and playing. They all seemed to be between ten and fifteen, and
as Remus and Harry watched a small girl detached herself from her mother
and ran up to meet them.
"Did you go? Did you?"
"Of course we did! He's really nice, you know, as
long as you're not too little or too old."
"I wanna go see the mountain hermit!"
"You can't though! He hates little kids, says they
bring him bad memories. Wait until you turn nine."
"That's ages away! `m only four!"
"Five years, Bella. It's not that long."
"But you can't come with me then!"
"Ah, well, that's just a problem you'll have to
solve..."
"I must say he seems to have got nicer these last
few years." The girl's mother had joined in the conversation. "He doesn't
hex people as much as he used to."
"Yes he does! It's just that nobody who he'd hex
goes up there any more!"
"Excuse me." Remus interrupted, sounding interested.
"This mountain hermit... what does he look like, exactly?"
"Well, he's in his late thirties, I think... and
he wears glasses and he's got black hair..."
"And is his hair always a mess?"
"Yes! Do you know him?"
"We came to look for him, actually. Could you show
us where he lives tomorrow?"
"Of course. But he won't let you in, you're too
old."
"I'll risk it. Thank you very much!"
[][][] Sirius' POV
"I just am, that's all." James looked at me and winked. He wasn't actually eating the toast, of course, he was putting it in his pocket.
"Has the paper come yet?" Mr Potter asked, as he sat down to eat. "And where's all the toast gone?"
"No; it's in James."
"Yeah. Can I have another piece, Mum?"
"No. You'll explode."
"Can I watch?"
"Shut up, Alyssa. Pleeeeease, Mum!"
"No! If you've both finished, go and work off that toast. Or... ah, the paper's here! And your Hogwarts letters, boys. You both got in, that's good."
"Death Eaters... Death Eaters... Barty Crouch... more Death Eaters... why don't they just give up?"
"Because they're stupid, dear. Oh..." Another owl had just flown in.
"Sirius... could I speak to you privately, please?" I followed her into the next room.
"Now, I'd like to tell you that this is nothing to do with me, Sirius dear, but the Ministry have decided to relocate you. I can complain, obviously, but I doubt that it'll do any good... we take you to Hogwarts, then Gladys will pick you up from there at Christmas. Would you like a tissue, dear?"
"No," I managed to say through the huge lump in my throat, "no, I-I'm fine." Why now? Why after two years had they decided to move me on? Why, why, why?
"I have to," I said miserably. "I don't have a choice."
"But why? You're happy here, aren't you?"
"Of course I am!" I stared at James. It was hard to believe that the first thing he'd ever said to me was `I don't like you`, now. Now, he wanted me to stay... "We'll still see each other at school, I suppose."
"Yeah, but it won't be the same, will it?"
"No." I looked down at Furnun, James' pet Crup; over at Puffy the Puffskein; and finally at Bria and Tkaa. "It won't."
"I've already told you my decision. I AM NOT BECOMING A DEATH EATER!"
"Your parents wouldn't like that."
"I have no parents."
"Ah, yes, I forgot. Poor little Sirius, never had parents, did you? And you," he snapped at Tkaa, "Get out of this vision."
Not on your nelly, slime-face.
"What?"
You heard.
"I see." He actually seemed to be at a loss for a second. "Very well. Take a while longer to consider, Sirius. And teach that snake some manners."
"Now how're you feeling?" Otto was back. I tried to keep my eyes open and shove Bria off at the same time, and discovered that I just didn't have the energy. She got the message, though, and jumped off of her own accord. "That bad, huh?" I nodded weakly. "Never mind, we'll find out what's going on here. Ron said it's Voldemort? Don't worry, you don't have to answer. And incidentally, Remus and Harry haven't been coming because they're not here. They're on some mission for Dumbledore, God only knows why now." He probably said more, but I didn't hear it because I fell asleep... again.
[][][] Third Person
"Definitely James," Remus muttered to Harry as they began the climb. They took their Language Charms off, since they no longer needed to speak Italian.
A short way up the path, there was a sign reading;
"Yep. Incidentally, now might be a good time to put the Cloak on." They donned the Invisibility Cloak and carried on until they reached a small crack in the rock - Harry was strongly reminded of Sirius' hide-out in Hogsmeade the previous year - and squeezed into, only to find a cave as big as the Entrance Hall at Hogwarts, littered with books, parchment, dirty robes and owl droppings. A man was sitting on a chair in the tidiest part of the cave polishing a broomstick, and even from behind Harry recognized his father; the hair was a big giveaway.
"Yuck," Remus commented in a whisper. "Right, you stay here and wait, OK? I'll... uh... prepare him." With that, he slipped out from under the Cloak...
"I do not, I had a bath this morning!"
"George, that's awful."
"Sorry. What is it, Hermione?"
"Listen; `The Maladius curse rapidly tires a victim until they are too weak to perform any simple actions such as sitting up, eating or going to the toilet. It repels and resists all cures and can only be removed by a very skilled witch or wizard in conjunction with the person who cares about the victim most. It can, however, be set by anyone. Victims suffer hallucinations, constant exhaustion and, in some cases, visions of the person who set the curse. The curse takes up to three weeks to become apparent and the victim dies in under two weeks.` We've found it!"
"And the person who set it is You-Know-Who," Ron said slowly, "which means that we need to use the other method. But.. the person who cares about Sirius most is Harry..."
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Hmm... is it really Harry? Or is it someone else? Looks up at second to last paragraph meaningfully>
Chapter Six, coming soon...
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