A/N: Well, here's a nice change. P.A.R. made a mistake and no one caught it but me. Actually, I haven't made one this big since Sirius lost his wand in Fever and it mysteriously turned up again in later chapters.
If you don't read the Q&A, you would have missed this.
In last weeks Q&A I told Dumbledore's True Love that Sirius didn't turn into Padfoot to escape the ministry because he was too ill and couldn't transform.
Anyone see a problem here?
How did Sirius get to Remus' house?
Also, P.A.R. is just pleased as she can be to announce that for the month she has been counting hits to her stories, she has logged in close to three thousand (for one month!). I'm thrilled beyond words. So, thankyouthankyouthankyou to all of you, those who review and those who do not, for reading my stories. Interest is truly the best incentive for a writer. (Although reviews get you answers.).
Anyway, on with the story.
Enjoy.
Chapter Seven: And You Still Make Housecalls
For the next three days Sirius did little but lay in his bed and sleep. Remus tried on several occasions to get him to eat something, most without any success.
Coherency was a transient thing with Sirius. Though Remus was beginning to wonder if it wasn't also a bit selective, since the only time Sirius seemed to choose to show any was when Harry was there.
The morning after Sirius' arrival, Remus had called Dumbledore by fire. Worried and nervous, he explained the situation to the Headmaster in 'what if' terms. Something that seemed to amuse Dumbledore to no end as Remus stumbled over finding the right words without reveling too much. Over and over Remus had stuck to his belief in Sirius' innocence. In the end, Dumbledore had given Remus a small smile and had replied that, if all Remus supposed ever came to pass, he was quite sure that Remus would make the right decisions. And it was somewhat of a surprise to Remus when Dumbledore called back that night to inquire, if any of Remus' suppositions had come to pass, how he imagined things would be coming along right then.
The exchange of calls continued over the next two days, with Dumbledore checking in two to three times a day on 'how things might be coming along'. Remus always strived to keep things as understandable but vague as possible. But by the third day, Remus was too worried about his friend when he called the Headmaster to splice words.
"I'm getting worried, Albus." Remus told the Headmaster as Dumbledore's head stared up at him from the fire on the fourth day, all pretenses gone under Remus' mounting worries. Though he still held to never using Sirius' name in case the fire was 'tapped'. "He does nothing but cough. He hardly eats. And the only thing he shows even the remotest interest in is Harry."
"How is Harry doing?"
"He hasn't gotten sick yet. I was quite concerned at first, having been around him for so long that Harry might get ill as well. But he says he kept a ton of protection charms on him to make sure Harry never caught what he's got."
"It does seem that he took exceptional care of the baby."
A rasping cough echoed down the stairs.
Remus turned to it for a moment. "He's getting worse, Albus." Remus stated quietly as he turned back to the Headmaster, his expression now quite grave. "I'm going to have to call a doctor."
"Is that wise, Remus?"
"It's necessary. And besides, I think I know someone we can trust. I've known the man for years."
"Well, you do what you think is best. Keep me informed."
Remus nodded as the fire flared up and the head disappeared. Sitting for a few moments staring at the merrily dancing flames, Remus finally threw a handful of powder into them.
"Dr. Aaron Richards." He stated as the flames flared up again.
A soft knock sounded on Remus' door late in the afternoon. A hacking cough followed Remus down the stairs as he made his way to the door.
Remus never thought he would be so happy to see a doctor in his life as when he opened the door to the short, balding little man who was Aaron Richards, M.D..
"Aaron." Remus greeted him as he ushered the man inside and took his coat for him. "It was good of you to come so quickly."
"Not at all." Aaron replied. "Good of you to think of your old friend when you needed a doctor. Not just go running off to any old quack."
"Well, I wanted a quack I knew." Remus replied with a tired smile. "And besides, you make housecalls."
The man gave Remus a pat on the shoulder. "Well, you sounded like you had quite a situation here, Remus, old man." He stated with jovial smile.
A loud wail sounded from upstairs.
The doctor turned to the sound with a slight laugh. "That would be Harry then?"
"If it's not then your second patient is a lot worse off than I thought."
"Well, why don't I have a brief look at the little tot first. Then we'll see how your house guest is getting on."
Dr. Richards took several minutes looking Harry over as he flicked his wand over the baby here and there, mutter to himself the whole time.
For his part in the exam, Harry sat trying to grab the polish stick every time it came within reach.
"Good reflexes." Dr. Richards commented as Harry almost got hold of his target.
"Good lungs too." Remus muttered behind him.
"Babies will cry, Remus." Dr. Richards replied. "It's what they do best. And I'm happy to declare this one as fit as a fiddle. You've been doing an admirable job of taking care of him." He turned and gave Remus a curious look as Harry happily grabbed the wand as it lowered to within his reach. "How did you ever come to have this child anyway, Remus? I mean, this is James and Lily Potter's son, isn't it? Gimme that!"
Harry did his best to hold onto the wand as Dr. Richards pulled it quickly out of his grasp.
At the abrupt loss of his new toy, Harry started to cry.
"That's actually a very long story." Remus replied as he glanced over to see what Harry was crying for. "Perhaps I'll tell you after you see your next patient."
"Ah, yes. Been quite mysterious about that one, Remus." Dr. Richards said as Remus placed Harry back in his playpen and handed him a toy wand. Harry immediately stopped his crying and happily began tapping the toy wand on the rim of the playpen.
"There's really not much to tell." Remus answered as he led Dr. Richards out of Harry's room and down the hallway. "He showed up a few days ago with a cough and a high fever. Both of which have gotten steadily worse."
Remus led the doctor into Sirius' room with a silent prayer the man hadn't seen any news reports or Daily Prophets in the past few days. But not too much to his surprise, Dr. Richards stopped short at the door to the room as his gaze fell on the figure in the bed.
"Merlin's Beard! That's Sirius Black!" The man quickly turned to Remus. "Remus Lupin! Have you completely lost your mind? This man is wanted by the ministry."
"For questioning." Remus put in quickly. "Sirius hasn't been accused of anything."
"That's hardly how it sounded in the paper."
"And the ministry isn't being any less single minded, Aaron." Remus stated. "They've already tried and convicted him of something he didn't do. The man is completely innocent."
"Do you have any idea what the ministry will do if they find him here, Remus? Have you ever been in a jail? In Azkaban? How well do you think a werewolf would fair there once they find out?"
"The man is my best friend, Aaron." Remus replied in a flat, but stern voice. "I have no intention of abandoning him to those vultures at the ministry."
"He's a wanted man, Remus."
"And currently a very sick one."
Dr. Richards turned back to the man on the bed. If nothing else was true, the man certainly wasn't well. One didn't have to be a doctor to see that. His face was pale and drawn and his hair was wet with sweat. Through out the entire exchange the man had shown no interest that there was anyone else in the room or that he was the topic of conversation. Instead he lay huddled in the bed, clutching the sheets to him, sounding like he was fighting for every breath he took.
Deciding to worry about politics later, Dr. Richards sat his bag on the floor by the bed and pulled out a standard piece of parchment, which he hung over the bed.
"How long has he been here?" He asked, not looking up from the bed.
Remus looked up at the man, but didn't answer the question.
"I need to know how long he's been ill, Remus." Dr. Richards explained.
"I met him in an alley a few days ago." Remus answered finally. "He was coughing then. He hardly looked conscious, in fact. The next time I saw him was in the ministry jail. He looked a bit more lucid then. Said they had a doctor come who gave him some potion that seemed to help a bit. Since he's been here he's been sort of in and out. At times he seems lucid enough. Other times, he's like he is now. He doesn't even know you're in the room."
Dr. Richards stared at the parchment as the writing quickly scribbled over it, listing various bits of medical information about the patient. Finally he pulled out his wand again and performed several of the same spells he had with Harry before turning back to Remus. His expression very solemn.
"This man is extremely ill, Remus. He needs to be in a hospital."
"I can't do that, Aaron." Remus replied. "Everyone knows his face. They'll recognize him as fast as you did."
"It wasn't a suggestion, Remus."
"Nor is it an option."
Dr. Richards looked a little exasperated at his friend. "Do you understand?" He asked. "The man could die without proper care, Remus. He has a full-blown case of pneumonia, he's dehydrated, malnourished, running a fever, and I haven't even started to run half the test on him I'd like too. He needs to be taken to the hospital."
"If he goes to the hospital and they recognize him and report it to the ministry, he'll go straight to Azkaban, Aaron. How long do you think he'll last there? Certainly not to any trail, if he even gets one."
"Gets one?"
"The ministry thinks he's insane. Completely deranged. They don't see the point in trying a man who can't help them convict him."
"Remus, this man may have killed your best friend and his wife. Possibly tried to kill that little boy back there. How can you stand there and defend him?"
Just then a loud wail echoed down the hall. But Remus stood staring at Dr. Richards as though he hadn't heard it. But after a few seconds he held a finger up.
"Just a minute and I'll show you." He replied.
Remus disappeared out the door, then reappeared a few seconds later with Harry in his arms. Almost on cue, as soon as he saw his godfather laying in the bed, Harry began to struggle in Remus grip and reached out his arms to Sirius.
"Paf!" Harry cried. "Paf, Paf, Paf."
Remus restrained Harry as he turned back to Dr. Richards. "That's how." He replied firmly. "Sirius had Harry with him for months. Away from everyone and completely hidden. If he had wanted to hurt the boy, he had months worth of opportunity and no one would have ever known." Remus finally gave up restraining Harry and placed him on the foot of the bed, where the child made a bee-line for his godfather and promptly began crawling over him. "Now," Remus continued, turning back to the doctor, "is that a child afraid of his worst enemy?"
Dr. Richards watched as Harry grabbed a handful of Sirius' hair and gave it a firm yank, eliciting the slightest response from Sirius as he turned his head slightly.
"Sirius did everything in his power to protect that child for months. He fed him, took care of him, and looked after him. And when he knew he couldn't do it anymore, he turned Harry over to me, the one person he still trusted. And nothing in this world will ever convince me Sirius had anything to do with James and Lily's deaths."
Dr. Richards turned back to his friend. "That's because you inherently look for the good in people, Remus. You want to see your friend as innocent, so you arrange things to suit that scenario. But perhaps its all been nothing more than Black playing the part he had to to gain your sympathy. The one person he could still depend on for that. He's ill. He needs help. Who better to start trying to convince your harmless than your best friend?"
"Then he's been planning for a very long time, Aaron. As I said, he had Harry for months and never harmed him. The child is absolutely attached to Sirius. The hardest time I have with him is when I won't let him see Sirius." Remus turned back to the bed where Harry was now contentedly playing with a patch of Sirius' hair. "If I want him happy and quiet, I just leave him with Sirius and that's what I get. Hardly the reaction of a child afraid of someone."
"And maybe all Sirius wanted out of this was Harry."
Remus looked shocked. "You're not serious?" He stated. "You think Sirius would kill James and Lily to get Harry? No offense, Aaron, but that's insane. This is Sirius, we're talking about. Mr. Sirius 'I'll-never-marry-and-have-no-kids-tying-me-down' Black. Sirius never wanted children, Aaron. He wanted life to remain one big, long adventure and only saw kids getting in the way of that."
"I think the key word in all that was 'insane', Remus. And that's what the ministry thinks Sirius is."
"He's not insane, Aaron. He's been as lucid at times as you or me. In fact, I have yet to see him do one deranged thing."
"Blowing up the muggle's house doesn't qualify then, I take it?"
"And there's no proof what-so-ever Sirius had anything to do with that."
"Just a handful of muggles seeing him leave the house."
Remus looked quizzically at his friend. "No one saw Sirius leave the Dursleys'. Where did you hear that?"
"It was in the paper." Dr. Richards replied. "Ministry spokesperson reported it."
"There." Remus stated angrily. "You see? They've tried and convicted him already. Fabricating whatever evidence they need. No one saw Sirius leave the Dursley's. Not even the muggles themselves. They were running down the street at the time."
Dr. Richards sighed to himself. "I still say you're seeing one side of this, Remus, and refusing to take things into account."
"I think I'm taking things into account just fine, Aaron." Remus replied as he turned to see what Harry was up to.
Harry was happily giggling as he sat on the bed, blissfully playing with his godfather's hair. All of which Sirius seemed oblivious to as he gave another hacking cough.
Aaron sighed quietly as he followed Remus' stare. For several minutes he watched the child continue in his happy pass-time.
"None of this changes the fact that the man is deathly ill, Remus. He needs to be in a hospital."
"Can't I do what needs to be done here?"
Aaron thought for a moment. "I can leave a few potions. Some anti-biotics. And I'll make out of list of routine care." Aaron turned back to his friend. "But if he doesn't show some improvement in the next few days, Remus, he has got to be taken to a hospital. You understand?"
Remus nodded slightly.
Aaron pulled a notepad out of his bag and began writing things down for Remus. "Oh, and I'm recommending limited contact between Black and that baby. As sick as he is, the charms may not hold out much longer. And if that little baby gets sick, he'll be in for a very rough time. And don't try to recast any of them. If they were failing, I want to know so I can begin treating Harry right away just in case."
Remus nodded again as he went and retrieved Harry off the bed. An angry cry protested Remus' action as he extracted strands of hair from between Harry's tiny fingers as he pulled the baby away from his godfather. The cries continued for several more seconds, but then abruptly stopped.
Remus settled Harry in his arms as he studied the now silent child in amazement. Two saucer-wide green eyes were staring at the inert figure on the bed. 'Stunned' was the word Remus would have given the baby's expression.
As Remus began to take him from the room, Harry let out another loud cry and reached again for his godfather. But when the figure on the bed didn't respond, the baby grew quiet again, staring at him with a look of confusion. But slowly the two large eyes began to fill with tears that quickly brimmed over and rolled down Harry's cheeks as he turned those eyes now to Remus.
Remus tried to comfort the child, who did his best to stay as still as possible.
"Never seen a child get so quiet so fast." Aaron commented as they stepped from the room.
"He's probably frightened." Remus replied, still trying to coax a reaction from a completely passive Harry. "That's was probably the first time that Sirius didn't answer his call. And he doesn't understand why. All he knows is he's with strangers again, and so he's reacting the way he remembers to act with others."
"By doing nothing?"
"By being quiet." Remus stated a bit harsher than he intended. "The people who had Harry before Sirius would frighten the child into silence whenever he made any noise. When he lived with those people he hardly ever cried or even moved. The child was petrified of everything and everyone.... except, it seemed, Sirius."
When Remus returned from putting Harry down, Aaron had a row of bottles set up on the night stand and a piece of parchment in his hand.
"You'll need to follow the instructions exactly." Aaron said as Remus looked over the parchment. "And the medicine has to be delivered every day, at the same time. I'll give him a shot before I leave, and I'll be back tonight to see how he's doing and check back again in the morning. All right?"
Remus glanced up at his friend. "Aaron, you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
The doctor stared for a moment at the man in the bed. "To tell you the truth, Remus," He said quietly, "I really haven't decided what to do. I can't shake the feeling you letting friendship blind you here. I'll help the man as best I can to get better. As you said, as he is, he wouldn't last out the day in Azkaban. But in the end, I'll do what I feel I have to."
Remus saw his friend to the door as watched as he went to the end of the drive and disapparated. He felt more than anything Aaron's parting words were more of a warning than anything. That his own doubts about the situation would eventually lead him to do what most of the rest of the general public would likely do under similar circumstances. Report Sirius to the ministry, who would most certainly take him straight to Azkaban.
That was the one thing Remus couldn't let happen.
Q&A
You remember. Your fun. My fun. That stuff.
Dumbledore's True Love: No, no, no!!!!!!!!! Not to be changing names on P.A.R.!!!!!!! It is very confusing for old people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awwwww. Give poor Remus a break. The man was probably just minutes away from a nervous breakdown at that point. So yes, he just said the first thing that came into his mind. I mean, it wouldn't have looked very good if someone was watching to have the man standing there in the rain trying to think of the name of his dog, would it? (How could you NOT forgive Remus just about anything?)
I warned you it was a cute chapter.
O.K., little secret here. P.A.R. has issues with the 'twinkle' thing. Mainly, everybody uses it. So it is close to never that you will ever see it in one of my stories. Just a 'me' thing.
I don't think I need to give any hints to which side Dumbledore is on. I don't do the 'evil' Dumbledore thing either.
Ummmmm, yeah, phlegm is just another word for ummmmm.....ahhh, you know. The other stuff.
HA! Nice try. No way am I telling you my age. Besides, I think I've given you enough to place it fairly close. I already told you in my bio. page I'm older then the combined age of just about any two of you, and in one of my Q&A's I said I've been writing for close to three decades (if not over that). Do the math. What does it tell you? I AM OLD, PEOPLE!
Besides, I'm female. And females never tell their age.
Actually, I haven't really had a birthday since my twenty-fifth birthday. But I have celebrated a lot of anniversaries of that one.
I'm sure Whisp is a lot of fun to co-write a story with. P.A.R. just isn't a real fan of co-writing. Had some bad experiences with that.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, one sitting? P.A.R. is impressed. Didn't feel much like sleeping that weekend?
Actually, of the chapters of Family Life, I think Chapter Eleven (Facts Of Life....), will probably always be my favorite because it was the original chapter of that story and was therefore my first fanfiction piece.
Now, now, CHILDREN! There will be no fighting over gold stars! (Actually, I'm very impressed you got a plaque for yours.)
Cute quotes, by the way.
Padfoot's Bone: Of course it's shiny! P.A.R. doesn't give away just any old imaginary gold star. She gives the best!
Again, you were warned. It was a disgustingly cute chapter. Got one more of those, by the way.
About Family Life, again, thank you for the wonderful reviews. You just make P.A.R.'s day. I know you went further than Chapter Thirty, but I don't have those reviews in front of me, so they will have to wait until next week, although I remember you said some nice things about Analisa. Thank you.
Orion Black is without a doubt a very intriguing character. And yes, Sirius and Orion's relationship is explored a good deal more in depth in Family Relations, Family Life's sequel. And Rowling has actually said, by the way, that she has Sirius' history plotted out.
Sirius' relationship with Orion currently (as of Family Life) is....tense. But I got some questions on that because at the end of Fever, the person Sirius leaves Harry in the custody of should something happen to him, was Orion. And that's where things started to get confusing.
In Family Life, Sirius would hardly mention his brother. But in Fever he talked about him like he was...well, family. The reason for the confusion was that Family Life and Fever are not related stories. One has nothing to do with the other witht he exception of the last chapter of Fever. The fact that Sirius signed Orion as Harry's legal guardian in the event something happened to him figures prominently in Family Relations.
In Family Life, Sirius indeed does not like Orion. And there are several reasons. At Hogwart's, Sirius and Orion had a very nasty falling out. Can't tell you why because it figures into Family Relations. Also (you'll get this more in depth in Family Relations, but here's a sneak peek), when Sirius escaped Azkaban, the first place he went was to his family home, where Orion was living. Soon after Sirius showed up, so did the ministry. Now Sirius at the time was a bit.....hostile to everyone and everything. So the only way for Orion to keep him still and keep him quiet at the time the ministry was there was to immobilize him and gag him. This didn't go over very well with Sirius, who, soon after the ministry left, did likewise. Sirius and Orion did sort of patch things up after that, but Sirius is still a bit burned that Orion never offered once to help him while he was on the run from the ministry. But the reasons for that come out in Family Relations. So I'll stop there.
Oh, Sirius also has some very strong issues with his brother's.......better half? The story behind that is in Enemies, which I hope to post next.
Sirius and Arabella's relationship at Hogwart's was not as idealistic as it sounds in Family Life. They had their problems. I mean, consider Sirius' reputation as most people write it.
Yes, that was what Harry was going to say. Thank you for catching that. I'm sure more people did, but no one said so.
If you're going to insult Snape's 'art', you'd best come prepared.
Alexa Black: *P.A.R. stands and frowns.* Exactly what are you people trying to make me responsible for here? You squirt yourself, you know what that would do to P.A.R.? It would give her one less review each week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bad people threatening to squirt themselves! Have some CONSIDERATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You betcha it's far from over.
Apassov: *Sigh.* Great. Just what I need. Now I got doctors reading me. Don't you people have a waiting room full of sick people or somethin'?
Actually, Sirius only had Harry about two to three months on his own, and he got sick during the time he had Harry. TB takes much longer to show that that. Especially if it was advanced to the stages of the symptoms Sirius is showing.
Me: I gave you a gold star and you were going to FLAME ME?????!!!!!!! Humph! And yes, I would care. I take my reviews quite seriously. And in the combined total of nearly three thousands hits to my stories, I have yet to be flamed. *P.A.R. smiles proudly.* Oh, unless you count the one that threatened to kill me. I guess that might have been a flame.
I must have been attending school in the dark ages I guess. When I went, tests and exams were the same thing. Unless by exams you mean those things the government gives to try and fool people into thinking they're actually trying to improve our public school system.
Oh, dear, this is a tough one to explain. No, Sirus made it to Remus' by himself. No help from anyone (minus one invisibility cloak and one wand). However, I'm very happy to hear SOMEONE mention that they realized there was a lot more going on in the conversation between Remus and Dumbledore than met the eye. First off, Dumbledore wasn't 'warning' Remus Sirius had escaped, he was telling him. Second, he suggested he was telling him that night because he didn't want him reading it for the first time in the morning paper, but he actually figured Remus needed to know as soon as possible so he would be waiting for Sirius' arrival. He asked Remus if Sirius had said anything that indicated he was thinking about escape, saying Remus was the last person to see Sirius before he escaped that night. Two reasons for that statement. One, Dumbledore was letting Remus know he knew he had something to do with Sirius' escape, and two, the ministry is probably thinking so too. Dumbledore asked Remus if he wanted to bring Harry to the castle for safety. (He wanted to know if Remus was worried about Sirius coming there, which he obviously wasn't.). Also, Dumbledore wasn't telling Remus about the ministry watching the house in case he was shocked in seeing someone outside, he was warning him about it. And finally, Dumbledore left the door open in case Remus needed help.
Now, did Remus catch on to any of that? You'll see.
So, dang it! Slap that plate on the table and get out that fork and knife! You won another gold star for catching onto that conversation being more than it was. (Bon Appite!)
Oh. Sorry. Almost forgot. Here you go. (*).
Uh-huh! EVERY chapter, buddy boy! (We don't give them imaginary gold stars for nothin', ya' know!)
You obviously have not heard, Dear. But life isn't fair.
What is this place you go to in the summer? A cabin in the woods? Do you have to fetch water from the stream?
But sorry, yes, Family Relations, the sequel to Family Life, is looking more and more like a summer reader.
Taracollowen: I have an assignment for you. Go read Dumbledore's True Love's answer. Just like the first two lines. I'll wait.
Back already? O.K.. So I don't have to go through that again.
Anyway, I LOVE that people actually look FORWARD to this. Boggles the mind, but hey! Works for me.
Harry is indeed very cute if you follow general consensus on the matter. For me, it's simply a matter of less dialogue to type.
Zimmy Russell:
Still no Jolt. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
I don't know how much math or geometry I use in my stories, but knowing something about it did help when I was writing Science Fiction. But forget about writing, Dear. I find it pretty darned useful just to get through LIFE. So, yeah, keeping working on it. It's sort of important. You may not see it now, but trust me, it sneaks up on you in the weirdest places.
Dumbledore knows Sirius isn't deranged? What do you think? And if you're still confused, go read Me's answer, and, if you're still confused, ask again next chapter.
Great! Another person who can't handle suspense. Why do you people even pick up books?
Hey! You know Whisp?!
The ministry wasn't expecting that? The ministry isn't expecting the sun to rise tomorrow. But that's just them.
Remus isn't sure what's wrong with Sirius and he ain't no doctor.
Phlegm again, huh? O.K., go read Dumbledore's True Love's answer. IF you're still confused....ya' ever have a REALLY bad cold? Do you remember what you used the klennex for? Does P.A.R. need to go on here?
Yeah, yeah. Every now and then P.A.R. does cute. Just don't spread it around, will you? I have a reputation to maintain.
An honor? *P.A.R. laughs.* Boy, do I have you fooled. P.A.R. is not a nice reviewer.
Everybody's reading all the Q&A's. Man, I should stop writing stories and just do Q&A's. There's gotta be money in that.
LauraBlade: Ahhhh! Finally! Someone who I kept in suspense, but who THANKS me for it.
Thank you! Hope you liked the new chapter.
Kiara O. Lawrence: Ummmmm, yeah. I've seen the 'Hey! That looks familiar!' scenario played out a few times myself. But I look at this way. Some of those stories have actually been pretty good. And if some little fledgling writer grabs that first spark of inspiration from one of my stories and says, 'well, that was nice, but I think I could have done better', and rewrites it with a different ending or something, I'll just have to take them out back and throttl..........I mean, I'm honored if I started another writer's soul on the road to authorship.
No. Honestly. Look at what I'm doing here. Face it people, fanfiction is a form of plagiarism. However, J.K. Rowling has been kind enough to put up with those of us who gain inspiration from working with her characters. Who am I to gripe about someone doing the same to me?
Insulted?
No. I'm honored.
And thank you for a lovely review. P.A.R.'s ego got stroked so much, it's purring.
Nicky: Nicky? Nicky? I don't remember seeing a 'Nicky' review of Family Life. Hmmmmm.
Personally, I think Sirius would make an outstanding father.
Once again, no, no, people. P.A.R. does not (currently) write slash. No need to worry in any of my current stories. No slash warnings.
vmr: Well, I couldn't leave him in jail forever. Not much of a story there. And thank you.
Starlight: Are you the Starlight of One Time Thing...... fame, by the way? If so, I have SO been plugging your story!
Anyway, thank you. I try to keep everybody as in-character as I can.
Voltora: Yah! You found the Thesaurus!
Finally, someone who isn't too upset about the once a week thing. I can sympathize witht he too little time thing, Dear. It's the reason you only get chapters once a week, and I'm usually struggling to make that.
Semmel: Yes, the combination is usually too cute for words. But for me it usually just adds up to a lot less dialogue.
Whisp: Ohhhhh, now THAT doesn't sound like fun at all. *P.A.R runs back to her swamp, where she's happy.*
When did I say Harry never gets sick?
As to Dumbledore, go read Me's answer. That should clear up most Dumbledore questions, as should this chapter have.
Abbsiegail: Hope you're feeling better. Being sick is the pits. At home. At work. Wherever. But thanks for using your last bits of energy to crawl to the computer and typing out the review.
Kat: As always, who am I to try and shame someone for not reviewing? Oh, yeah. P.A.R.'s not guilty of that?
Yes, for the moment Sirius is safe. But the ministry is out looking for him.
Black Sparkles: I'm glad you like suspense, Dear. If you didn't, you have no business reading this story.
Now, again, how can I answer that without making the story really redundant?
MKH: a.k.a. Troublemaker!
Actually, I was sure you'd be the one to catch the continuity error mentioned in the author's notes. HA!
Anyway, Remus broke Sirius' animagus form because he was so sick. And where as Remus doesn't have much medical experience to draw on to treat a human being, he has probably even less on how to treat a dog.
I don't know about the Aurors having invisibility cloaks thing. My impression fromt he books was that they were fairly rare, fairly expensive, and Aurors are paid like police officers.
I'll give you the broomstick thing if you give me Remus keeping the shades drawn on the upstairs rooms and we'll work it out from there.
Also, Remus' house, remember, is protected by wards much as the Dursley's was. My guess is one of those would have signaled someone trying to get past the wards with an invisibility cloak.
Silverfox: You don't like Black? I thought good old Sirius was like mint. (Everyone likes mint.)
The film studio people have strongly suggested that the fourth book will be released in two parts so that as little as possible has to be taken out. Part one is suppose to be released in November, and part two in December. But that is, after all, still nearly three years away and movie studio executives have been known to change their minds in a lot less time than that.
Karla: A teacher as well! P.A.R. is honored you are taking the time to read her story!
Why did I skip over Sirius' escape from the ministry? Two reasons. One, it was fairly uneventful (trust me on that one). And two, time.
Actually, Remus is just trying to keep things going right now. I mean, consider all the poor man has been through. First he's confronted with the possibility that his friend is a murderer, then an arsonist, or at the least a deranged lunatic (Is that redundant?). Next, he's being jerked around by the ministry, and, after helping them put his friend in jail, finds out he was being jerked around by them, suddenly has a small baby to care for, and is now an accomplice in a jail break. What's wrong with him? Quite frankly, why he hasn't had a nervous breakdown yet I think is amazing (But it didn't work into the plot too well either.).
But he did get him a doctor. Give him some credit. Or at least a good scratch behind the ears.
Fanfiction Writers Handbook, p546, Paragraph 8, Subsection 9: Mean writers are allowed to abuse characters.
And I'm not abusing him! I got him a doctor!
By the way, where did the 'impedimenta cursed Remus' come in? I missed that. And I'm writing this thing.
Yeah, yeah. I know. I have a slight continuity problem with Harry's age. But P.A.R. tries to stay away from children (for her sake and theirs) and so I don't have a lot of experience with how a child that is as old as Harry is SUPPOSE to be would act. So you have to give me some lead-way here and go with the idea Harry is younger than you would think based on the canon of the books.
That's all for now. Reviews, excluding those outside of this story, are as of 03022002. If I missed you, I'm sorry. Let me know. Check is in the mail.
See you next week (I hope).