A/N: You can all thank Karla, to whom I am giving full credit, that this chapter is a little longer today than it was originally. Why? Go read her answer in Q&A. Who says I don't listen to my readers? I really do, guys.
The title of this chapter was suggested by a friend who, upon reading the last chapter and then reading the first few paragraphs of this one, named the chapter.
Chapter Nine: You Couldn't Have Just Added This To The End Of That Last Chapter?
A sudden jarring brought Sirius back to himself. It was as though his body was being yanked forward, and then back. It took him several seconds to realize that that was, in fact, what had happened. Someone had tried to pull the Dementor back, and seconds later, tried to pull him free of its grip.
"Sirius!?" A frantic voice called his name. "Sirius? Are you all right? Can you hear me?"
The next sound was what brought Sirius fully back to himself faster than anything else could have. Harry's cry.
He opened his eyes to find himself sitting on the ground in the doorway of the cell, the anxious face of Remus in front of him. Just off to the side Sirius could see Snape standing in the corner with his wand out, trained threateningly on the Dementor, who was sitting in the corner as though he had been thrown there. The creature looked as surprised as Sirius imagined it was possible for it to. At the door to the cell, Dumbledore was talking in his usual mild voice to the two guards that had escorted Sirius there.
Again the wail rented through the air.
"Harry?" Sirius managed to get out. His throat felt like he hadn't had a drink of water in weeks. The voice coming out of it sounded frighteningly unlike his own. It was scratched and hoarse and could barely make any sound at all.
Sirius felt himself collapse forward into Remus' arms as he grabbed him in a tight embrace. He didn't think he'd ever felt as tired or frightened as he did right then.
"It's all right, Sirius." Remus whispered to him in a reassuring tone. "You're all right. We stopped it in time."
Sirius looked up as a whimpering cry called for his attention.
"Harry?"
"Harry's fine." Remus assured him. "He just frightened. You know what he's like, Sirius."
Sirius quickly pulled himself together as he looked around to finally see his godson held in Dumbledore's arms, fighting for all he was worth to get free of the old wizard as he reached for his godfather. Sirius quickly reached up for him. Dumbledore let the child slip into the safety of Sirius' embrace. Harry cooed his delight as he squirmed his way into Sirius' robes, burying himself as deeply in them as he could, pulling the loose material about him for comfort. Sirius smiled down at the child, giving him a reassuring hug that did as much for him as it likely did for Harry. But just the same, Harry happily cooed up at his godfather again and pulled the robe tighter about him.
Finally convinced Harry was all right, Sirius turned a confused stare to the two men before him.
"Remus?" He asked, a mild panic coming back to his voice. "What are you even doing here?"
Sirius found himself suddenly grabbed in a tight embrace about his neck.
"Saving your life, you stupid dog!" Remus cried happily. "Talk about 'the nick of time'."
Sirius quickly pushed him back. "Remus! You interfered in a court ordered action! All you've done is guaranteed yourself the next place in line!"
"I'm afraid your 'court action' has been delayed, Mr. Black." Dumbledore spoke up with a small smile.
"Delayed?"
"I arranged already to have the proper paper work done to issue an immediate stay of any action against you based on some rather compelling new evidence that Severus came across. My guess would be that the orders are already in the hands of the head of the prison." The Headmaster turned to the two guards at the door. "If one of you , please," he added mildly, "check to see if the orders have arrived yet concerning Mr. Black."
One of the guards quickly departed.
Sirius turned his attention to Snape, who, while still holding his wand trained on the Dementor, met Sirius' questioning stare.
"I ran a test on the blood sample I took from you, Black." Snape answered in a voice that seemed to indicate he wasn't pleased himself with the results. "It would seem that you are allergic to one of the main ingredients of Veritaserum."
Sirius stared up at the potions master with a somewhat blank expression. "Allergic?" He asked in a slow, quiet voice as his brain worked over the new information and applied it to all that had happened in the past few days. "But if that's true, then...then they never gave me Veritaserum at the trial."
"That is correct." Snape replied.
"Then what did they give me?"
"A very rare, very hard to detect potion called Cortulous. It is similar to Veritaserum in its effects on the person taking it, with one major difference."
"And that is?"
"It makes you a very convincing liar."
"A what?"
"A liar, Black. That's the reason they never bothered to have you tell a lie to prove you were under the effects of Veritaserum? How do you make a person tell a lie who's already lying?"
Sirius blinked at him. "Sorry?" He asked in a confused voice.
"In court proceedings," Snape explained, "when a person is under Veritaserum, they have a spell placed on them to make them lie, to show the Veritaserum is working. The spell is common knowledge as is it that Veritaserum will counter it. Once the spell is in place, the person is told to state something that is the truth, and he should lie. But under Veritaserum, he wouldn't be able to. But if such a spell were placed on someone under the effects of Cortulous potion, the results are rather....nasty."
"Nasty?"
"The spell is countered by something that is suppose to make the person do what they are already being compelled to do. The effects on the person alone can be very damaging."
While Snape was going through his explanation with Sirius, Harry had managed to calm back down and was now working his way through his godfather's robes until he was peeking out now from them around Sirius' side. The first sight he met had him staring wide-eyed in wonder. Before him, crouched in the corner of the little room, was another man, dressed all in black robes.
Harry smiled at the man. People in black robes were always nice to him. Especially the one he was presently clinging to. His godfather usually wore dark robes. And so did the other man who was so nice to him.
But the man didn't look very happy. He was crouched in the corner with his black robes pulled about him. Harry took a step out from Sirius' robes, but still holding one corner tightly in his hand.
Perhaps the man was afraid. Harry understood afraid. When he felt that way, he called for his godfather, who almost always came right away.
Harry stared at the man with a great deal of curiosity. What was he so afraid of? Harry followed the man's stare.
Right to the tip of the wand.
A wand which was in the hand of another man.
One who was dressed in black robes.
Harry frowned. That wasn't right. Why was the man afraid of someone dressed in black robes?
Perhaps he didn't know the man in the black robes wasn't going to hurt him.
Harry knew how to fix that. He simply had to tell the man in the corner.
Harry let out a small sound. A string of syllables laced so tightly together they didn't come out sounding like much of anything.
But the man in the corner looked up.
Harry smiled. His whole face reflecting his pleasure at the man's reaction.
The man had heard him!
Well, that was a start. Harry took another brave step away from his godfather's comforting presence. Well, he wasn't afraid anymore, so that was all right. And no one around him seemed upset, or angry, or afraid......well, except the man in the corner. And the man in the corner seemed greatly interested in what he had to say. Harry watched with a pleased smile as the man slowly raised himself up. No one else in the room seemed to take any notice. Harry looked back at the others. They were still listening to the man holding the wand.
When Harry turned back to the man in the corner, the man wasn't in the corner anymore. He was crouched low still to the ground, but he had moved now to halfway between the corner he had been in and Harry. And he still seemed greatly interested in Harry.
Harry decided it was time to let his godfather in on things. Mostly because the man was starting to give him a strange, unsettled feeling. He gave Sirius' robe a slight tug as he pointed at the man and sounded off with a string of syllables.
Sirius turned about to see what his godson wanted.
Just in time to see the Dementor launch itself at Harry.
Q&A
*P.A.R. smiles happily.* Ya' wanna know what makes a writer reallllllly happy, folks? To get exactly the reaction out of their readers that they wanted to. And that was exactly what I got with chapter eight. Thank you all most sincerely.
Mayleesa: Oh, dear. That was a somewhat severe reaction!
I hope you're safely back in your body, Dear, and able to review again.
Dark Whisper: Well, since going back to school is hard enough, O.K., I won't kill him.
lilahp: I had issues with the movie. I thought there was way too much whacking going on. Like the pat with Norbert. I liked that sub-plot. It was really cute and added a great deal of suspense to the story. And they nearly left it out entirely.
No. No Time-Turner. It's been done, after all. And as I say so often, if nothing else, I strive to be original. Family Relations is a great example of this for me. Although it's one of the most obvious plot lines in the world to me, I can't believe no one has done it before.
As a writer, I really liked the way chapter eight came off. It was very well written, even for me. If you'll notice one thing about chapter eight, there is almost no dialogue. That is very unusual for me, as that I rely heavily on dialogue to move my stories.
Fanfiction.net has eliminated the type of e-mail I was using, and with it, apparently my account as well as my old e-mails. Something I did not appreciate at all. I am going to try and re-establish it on Monday. Give it another try after that.
Nagini: Nagini, I think that was the longest review I have ever gotten. *Throws out a gold star.* Have a gold star! You deserve it.
Weddings aren't bad. As long as they're not yours. (A little P.A.R. philosophy.).
I hope you're not made at me anymore.
Guenivere Weasley: No, no, no. I am NOT hurting him! I haven't hit him ONCE this entire story!
Yes, Author Alert is a nice thing when it is working I am told.
Storyspindler: If you break your toys you can't play with them anymore. Good point!
Got you hooked, huh? Goody. I need all the reviewer I can get since only about a tenth of you reading this review. I mean, people, I got over a thousand hits on this story, but only a hundred reviews. But don't get me wrong. I appreciate every one of you. Just a little bit more to the ones that review. After all, P.A.R. gives you something to read. Give P.A.R. something to read too.
UnrepentantReader: Still not repenting, huh, Dear? Of course, it begs the question, what does a repenting reader do exactly?
You will let me know if your suspicions were correct or not, won't you? I'm just curious.
I still have a few more surprises. story's not done yet, after all.
Well, thank you as well for the hours of entertainment I get out of reading and answering reviews. It a mutually beneficial relationship.
RavenLady: How could I end a chapter like that? It was easy actually. I just stopped typing. *P.A.R.'s just being a little silly.*
Not capable of this level of anguish? Dear, have you not read The Bonds That Tie? I thought that was as anguishy as I could get!
Nicky: All right. Let's look at the logistics of that. What is the point in freeing a soulless shell?
Now, would I honestly have let them come too late?
Silverfox: Do you honestly think old Fudge even knows what's going on? Especially given how fast everything is happening. There's just not enough time to send out letters to everyone. The only reason Snape and Dumbledore know what's going on is that Remus was in the courtroom and inadvertently tried to see Sirius after the trial.
It's a plot device, Dear! I needed to be able to arrange the scene so that human's could be around the Dementors. I also sort of questioned how there could be human guards at Azkaban (I mean, there must be some, no?), but that they're not effected by the Dementors.
I would think the Dementors would care about the human guards in a off-handed sort of way. I mean, let's face it, there's a tentative relationship if ever there was one. You believe you have control over something that could turn on you at any moment, and that you have basically no control over unless you really know what you're doing. I would not want to be a guard in Azkaban the day the Dementors decide who's really on top of that food chain.
I also thought you would only be able to feel a Dementor when it was 'feeding', or when it didn't have it's effect on human's dampened or 'turned off'. This is why I wrote it that Sirius could feel the Dementor in the cell with the other prisoner, but not the one in the cell with him when he first entered it.
Fire Spirit: No. Not the end of the story. And don't be so sure that Sirius got the Kiss.
Eva Phoenix Potter: Well, apparently I'm not that cruel at all.
purple water: You're a lawyer. I just know you are. Nobody could be this detail oriented and not be a lawyer. And if you aren't one....you should be.
I always attributed the Kiss to being sort of a 'brain dead' sort of thing. There's no real damage done to the body, just the mind, which is utterly destroyed beyond repair. But the body itself, along with the brain's stem, is not physically harmed, so the body continues to live.
Most of the screaming I think is still being done by those the Dementors still have an effect on. Those being given the Kiss only scream once, ya' know?
I'm sorry to negate part of your next supposition, but Snape did identify what Sirius was given. It just wasn't mentioned until this chapter.
All right, I'll give you the time frame thing. Yes. it is seriously off. Snape should have had a few hours there, but due to a revision in the next part of the story, he lost a few hours and ended up with about one....one and a half tops. For him to get to Hogwart's, set up his lab, test Sirius' blood, find the agent he was looking for, identify Sirius' allergy and inform Dumbledore in that time frame is a bit of a stretch. But then, he is Snape.
How long does it take to get to Azkaban? Depends on what you've done. (Sorry, being a little silly.). I would give it, from courtroom to Azkaban, about thirty minutes. But remember, there's parchment work to be done, and that gives me an open playing field.
What? You don't like the Klingons around the hot tub at 4AM chanting rude Klingon bar songs outside your hotel window at the top of their drunken little lungs? Honestly! What sort of conventioneer are you? (If you're anything like P.A.R., you're an old one, who needs her blasted sleep!) In the old days, we'd have just thrown a toaster out the window with a long extension cord. Ahhhhh, the good old days.
All right, defense of character! Katlin didn't let Sirius beat her up. She was taken utterly by surprise.
Seduction? Again, the woman goes with her strength, and what has worked in the past. From my point of view, 'man with crying baby', or 'man with beautiful woman and an evening of great sex'. Not much wondering which way the old ball is going to roll on that one. But then, Katlin was operating on a short budget report and had no real idea of Sirius' level of devotion to his godson.
I'll give you the wand thing. Author over-sight. But then, as that I don't think that there was a mention of Sirius even using his wand, it begs the question if he even had it at the time. But that was never really addressed in the story.
A ten volume set of background story on Katlin? Oh, dear. Try a twenty-one chapter plus story, and a guest starring role in a few others, and three stand alone stories of her own. So she's definitely something of a permanent fixture for now. My job is making readers like her. Not an easy task for a Deatheater character with a past. But then, so far, The Bonds That Tie and Tried And Convicted are AU's and separate from any other story Katlin appears in and therefore, that scene never really took place.
Hard to believe, isn't it? Even for me. But yes, all that really happened in that chapter more or less was he walked down a corridor.
Mr. Happy Java Man: Why is it that every time I see your name I suddenly go into instant Jamaican accent?
Well, what can I say? P.A.R. learned about Cliffhangers. Bad old P.A.R.!
summersun: Bad at reviews!? Dear, no review is bad! At least not as far as I'm concerned. And I thank you for yours.
Hurray for plot twists, huh?
Sorry your computer has not been feeling well. But I'm pleased you were happy to come back to one of my stories.
Whisp! What!? Who!? Me?
You know what's bad? When you're not paying attention, you hit the little 'x' in the corner to close out the screen and it asks if you want to save the changes and you say 'no' without thinking. Man! I need to start doing automatic back-up on this computer.
Anyway, I think Sirius' thoughts are far from happy.
Glad you got those book reports done, Whisp. Man, thirty pages? Must have been a good book.
Your last line. I have a question. What is loff? Is that one of those acronyms P.A.R. is not familiar with? I mean, it took me forever to figure out what WIP meant.
See you Sunday, Whisp.
sweets: Oh, all right. Someone pulled the Dementor off Sirius in time. There. I said it. Happy? Probably even more so that I wrote that into the story, huh?
I don't know about Sirius thinking Remus could take care of Harry. Sirius turned Harry's custody in this story over to Dumbledore. Remus would not have been able to have custody as that werewolves are not allowed to adopt children.
Personally, I'd leave the Citronella at home. I don't think the stuff works too well, and the mosquitoes down here just seem to like it.
Brighid: Since there are more chapters, you know the story didn't end with that scene.
I will certainly try to take a look at your story, Brighid. I already looked it over briefly, and as that it is not too long I will try to fit it in. But I have a very tight schedule that does not allow for a lot of free time for reviewing stories, even though I enjoy doing it a great deal. All I ask of people is to please remember, I do not review nice, I critique honest. In other words, remember, you ask for it.
Me: You didn't like Chapter Two?
Why, Dear, do you hate Snape? He's such a great character. I almost never exclude him from a story. There is so much potential there in character material and background. P.A.R. likes Snape very much.
Wait a minute. If it was James who moved the picture (which it was), why are you doubting his sanity?
Snape has a lot to do with this story.(By the way, you capitalized his name there.).
As for passing out clue's, I was slightly chastised last time round for being too covert with my clues. This time I'm too easy. Still haven't found the happy medium with that one yet apparently. But I'm gearing up for getting hit hard with the wet noodle for Enemies, which I swore would go up against Audiaa2's Veracity for convoluted story line of the year award. However, as a side note, my friend (I guess this person is sort of my Beta reader. I mean, what do you call the person who reads your stuff, makes suggestions, and you tell them to get stuffed?) told me the story really does have a plot, they can follow it quite easily, and I need to get over myself.
Karla: Rio De Janeiro!? Really!!!!? Tell me somethin'. Is it really as nice there as the pictures all say?
I'm glad you liked the ending of the last chapter. People seemed to like it overall. But I will say this in defense of poor Sirius. No, folks, he did not pass out at the end of the last chapter. That was just the way he saw things. Attribute his lack of feeling anything to an emotional short-circuit, if anything. Think of everything the poor man's been through. Your nerves and your brain can only take so much.
Thank you for not screaming at P.A.R..
I live in Florida, Dear. I know all about storms and power and phone outages. Don't have that emergency flash light plugged into the wall for nothing.
And by the way, I am giving you a lot of credit in this chapter. (And I gave you credit in the Author's Notes.) Your review of chapter seven raised a great many questions and legal issues I had not originally addressed in my first draft of this chapter. When I read your review I went over things again and incorporated answers into this chapter as best I could in the short time I had. But again, I thank you for making note of things that were not being properly addressed and bringing them to light. I hope I covered everything.
Oh, and have a gold star!
And as you can see, you did make it by post time. I usually will check either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning one last time before I post.
Reviews are as of 09082002. Sorry if I missed anyone.
Remember,
to cats, you are just warm blooded furniture.
See you Wednesday, barring....well, you know.