Sirius's Surprise

The next morning, Harry was rudely awakened when Aunt Petunia decided to try a new approach to waking him: a glass of water. Harry bolted upright, gasping as it ran down his face and shirt.

"What did you do that for?" He asked angrily while squeezing the water out of his bangs.

"It's time to get up and I'm not about to come prodding you awake every morning! Now, there's a pan full of eggs and sausages downstairs for Duddy Dum's birthday today, " Aunt Petunia switched her voice to a syrupy hum as Dudley, smoothed blonde hair and all five double chins, lingered in the doorway.

It wasn't really his birthday; Dudley had had his ages ago while still at Smeltings. But he had whined an entire fifteen minutes before they gave in, allowing him to have a belated party. Piers Polkiss, Liza Bethany, Niles Finch, and a few other friends from Dudley's school would be pouring into the living room in another two hours, yet the Dursleys hadn't mentioned anything about Ms. Figg. Maybe they had decided to use him a human piƱata.

----

"You better watch yourself today; I'm warning you. We didn't manage to get a hold of Ms. Figg, her house appears dark and no one answers the phone." Harry paused to wonder if they had bothered to find out if the old bat had finally died. What if she had and no one had noticed? "And as we've got no one else to take you, you'll be spending the evening upstairs not making a sound."

Harry nodded. He understood perfectly because the Dursleys often did this to him. When there was no one else to take him, he was cooped up in his room trying to pretend he wasn't there. The last time this had happened, a house elf named Dobby decided to pay a visit to him and ended up smashing the Dursleys' sugared bowl of pudding.

Uncle Vernon suddenly lunged forward, bearing his small stubby teeth like a baboon. "I mean it, boy. If you keep to yourself, you won't get hurt. Understood?"

Harry nodded again. He didn't entirely mind spending the evening in his room. As long as his aunt or uncle didn't come barging in to make sure he wasn't doing what he would be (finishing up his homework), he'd get by just fine.

----

At five o'clock sharp, the doorbell rang and Aunt Petunia pushed Harry up the stairs, reminding him the punishment for leaving his room.

"And don't you dare make a sound!" She hissed after him.

Harry slumped down on his bed and stared at Hedwig's empty cage. A few of her feathers lay curled at the bottom along with shells from her food mixture of nuts and almonds. It was good that Ron had sent a food package for Hedwig, too. Otherwise she might have been living off what he was, stale birthday cake and sugarless wafers. All his other rations had run out ages ago. Only two more weeks remained until September the first, so Harry hadn't sent any word to his friends that he was in need. If only he had his letters to read. They could at least distract him from the horrible potions essay he still needed to write, Explain How Medieval Alchemy Become the Basis for Modern Day Potions.

Kneeling down next to the broken bookshelf in the corner of his room, Harry reached underneath it to grab one of his thicker leather-bound schoolbooks. Ron always grumbled about its weight, usually comparing to that of Gilderoy Lockhart's ego. Suddenly a shrill scream that could only be Aunt Petunia's echoed from downstairs, causing Harry to drop the book on his foot. Hopping to the landing with his good foot, Harry heard a surprised a second bellow, this time from his uncle. It was followed by a babble of curious whispers from Dudley's friends.

"Budge up there, Dursley, need to get through."

"JUST WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!" Uncle Vernon's voice rumbled with a boiling fury and uneasiness.

"Only be a minute. Harry!"

Sirius Black suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs and catching sight of Harry, gave a toothy grin.

"Surprised?"

Harry beamed at his godfather.

"Not nearly as much as they must be."

"Where's your trunk? I'll have to enchant it to fit in your back pocket."

"What - am I coming to live with you?" Harry sputtered.

"S'only temporary, but you better hurry up before-"

"I DEMAND YOU LEAVE MY HOUSE AT ONCE! YOUR KIND IS NOT WELCOME HERE!" Uncle Vernon halted beside Sirius, his face a shade of red Harry had never seen before.

"Go on, Harry, gather your things together."

Harry hesitated, then wheeled around and headed for his room. He snatched up the few things he owned and stuffed them inside the scratched, worn trunk he'd bought with Hagrid in Diagon Alley only a few years ago. All the while, he kept catching phrases from the insults Sirius and Uncle Vernon were hurling back and forth.

His schoolwork and letters were found stuffed in a shoebox underneath his Aunt and Uncle's bed. Lugging his trunk onto the landing, with Hedwig's empty cage on top of it, he called down the stairs for help.

"Oy, Sirius, think you could give me a hand here?"

Uncle Vernon's eyes widened as Sirius, who was still rightly telling him off, pulled out his wand and nonchalantly muttered 'mobilicodex'. Backing into a picture of an old windmill on the wall, Uncle Vernon watched as Harry's trunk floated down the stairs.

"And furthermore, if you can afford to plump up your son into the size of a small blimp than I certainly believe you can feed my godson better than a stalk of celery for breakfast! I mean, you must realize that we're not playing Oliver here."

The trunk landed at Sirius's feet. They both looked to it and Sirius muttered a few more words, and it popped into a key chain.

"Out... just get out." Uncle Vernon murmured hoarsely.

"Harry?"

"Oh, right, ready." Harry shook his head and tried not to smile as he passed his uncle.

"Well, Dursley, it certainly has been a pleasure. Your trunk, Harry." Sirius dropped the key chain luggage into Harry's palm.

Uncle Vernon gave the two of them a sour look.

----

Harry had to agree that his godfather looked much different than when Harry had seen him in the hospital ward at the end of last year. Sirius's hair now fell in floppy layers and the gaunt, skeletal look he once had was gone. His cheeks were a little fuller, but his gray eyes still held the numbness gained from twelve years in Azkaban.

An hour had already passed and Harry still couldn't believe was soaring over the rooftops of London on the back of a hippogriff. A certain hippogriff too named Buckbeak. Buckbeak had once belonged to Hagrid and condemned to being beheaded after being framed by Malfoy. Minutes before the axe was set to fall, Harry and Hermione had freed him to give to Sirius to escape from his own partial execution.

"C'mon Sirius, just tell me where we're going!" Harry begged for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Ah, now that's part of the surprise, but I'm sure you could guess it."

Harry tried to think for a second, but he still felt too excited to even think properly. He was going to be spending the rest of his vacation with the fun-loving prankster that had once dominated Hogwarts along with Harry's father. The two had been best friends, and Harry was interested to learn what his dad had been like.

"I can't think right now, it's all just a blur. It seems like we only just left the Dursleys."

Sirius grinned back at him.

"Honestly, Harry, I don't see how you can stand them. I couldn't live there ten minutes without turning them all into a family of horned toads."

"Yes, well after twelve years of wizard-free existence you'd be amazed at how patient you could become."

Harry waited for Sirius's light laugh, but it didn't come.

"Harry, I-" He stopped painfully, then, "Maybe I should fill you in on the latest Voldemort news."

It seemed obvious that Sirius was trying to prevent himself from saying something, but what was it?

"Well, what do you mean..." Harry said slowly, still thinking about what his godfather was about to say. "Have there been like attacks or signs that even Fudge can't ignore?"

"No attacks, not yet anyway. But there have been plenty of signs. Probably the most important one happened the day before your birthday, by the way sorry for my late letter. Had a bit of a problem when a Daily Prophet owl. Flighty little bugger had been trained to recognize my picture and started to take off. Luckily, after getting scratched to hell and pecked at a couple times, I managed to trap him under a cooking pot."

"What'd you do with him? Wouldn't they notice if one of their owls didn't come back?"

"Yeah, I was a little worried they might suspect something when I had to send them back my lazy eyed minute owl. But nothing happened and I received my copy of The Daily Prophet bright and early the next morning. We still haven't decided what to do with the Daily Prophet owl."

Harry laughed, "Is it possible to put a memory charm on an owl?"

"No, unfortunately. The Ministry keeps strict tabs on cruelty to defenseless magical creatures."

"Hm."

"But back to what I started out saying. You do know it's nearly impossible to break out of Azkaban."

Harry nodded, but still pictured dear old Padfoot slipping through the bars of his cell and past the hooded monsters with cracked scabby hands. He shuddered.

"Well, there was this couple, the Lestranges, who got locked up for torturing a family for information on Voldemort. And the Daily Prophet reported the morning before your birthday that their cell was found empty during bed check."

"What? But.. but how? Wouldn't the dementors have known that they'd escaped in the night? The only way you got out was because you're an Animagi... unless, were they?"

"Exactly, that's why it's so suspicious. I know they're weren't Animagi like me, because their cell was across from mine. I would have seen if they had transformed. Some wizards have taken it as a sign of Voldemort's rebirth and they're smart to. We've got to learn to accept the fact that he's back. Fudge still hasn't."

"But, how else could they have gotten out?" Harry asked, still dwelling on that fact.

"Well most of us that accept Voldemort's return have a theory. You see, the dementors were in league with Voldemort when he was in power last and I do believe that they are again. There haven't been any more Azkaban disappearances, but I understand that. See most prisoners go mad within a week and Voldemort wouldn't bother rescuing any of those useless servants of his. He'd rather let them rot there." Sirius spitefully and sharply steered Buckbeak to the left.

For a few minutes, they sat in silence as Harry absorbed the information he had just heard. So Voldemort had managed to get the Dementors back. How long would it be before all of Azkaban was left unfortified and Dementors were prowling all over the streets of London? At least Dumbleore might have managed to get the Giants on their side. He suddenly remembered something Hagrid had said before he had left last year.

"Got a little job fer me over the summer," The voice came back in an echo.

"Sirius, do you know - can you tell me what Hagrid and Madame Maxime went to do over the summer?"

"Er... well, I think I have some idea of what they might be doing, but Dumbledore ... he would prefer that I not tell you..."

"That's ok, I think I know what they're up to anyway. It's just," Harry struggled to find the words as he ran his finger over Buckbeak's glossy feathers, but another thought struck him unexpectedly. "Buckbeak - what if someone sees him Sirius? I mean, I don't think it'd be very good if a Muggle happened to look out their kitchen window and see a winged horse flying across the sky!"

"Don't worry, I put a charm on him before I left. 'Enogmorf Noisiv' will makes an object and us invisible. Tricky little spell, but amazingly useful. It comes in handy when you can't seem to find your trusty invisible cloak."

Harry grinned and yawned, thinking of what fun it would be to turn all Hermione's books invisible. He loosened his grip on Sirius's waist and stretched slightly.

"You must be tired. We're halfway there and I'm sure they had you up early doing who knows what."

It was then that Harry noticed the watch on his godfather's wrist; it was somewhat like other watches and clocks he had seen in the Weasleys' home. One hand revolved around it, pointing to such phrases as lost, nearly there, turn left and other traveling related sayings.

"Go ahead and rest your head on my back." Sirius offered.

"Er... okay then."

Each vertebrate seemed to jut out and into the side of Harry's head as he tried not to move too much. Finally he found a place on his godfather's back that didn't seem to have any knurl or bone poking out. Harry had to admit though, that Sirius's back was almost as comfortable than the stiff pillow he had at the Dursleys.