Harry didn't sleep well that night. In the darkness of hid bedroom he
couldn't help but let his mind wander to thoughts of what Dumbledore's
plans were and what he had sent Hagrid to do and was he doing it now? Why
did he trust Snape? Harry wouldn't trust him as far as he could throw him,
which was probably quite a considerable distance.
He must have dozed off at some point though because when he woke up bright summer sunshine was pouring in through the window. A quick look at his watch told him that it was just before ten o'clock. He got up and went over to the wardrobe and put on his too big clothes feeling excited. He'd be seeing Sirius today. At least now Dudley was slimmer his clothes wouldn't be as baggy by the time Harry got them. He wandered downstairs vaguely thinking of getting some toast.
The Dursleys were already up and eating their breakfast in the dining room. They didn't show any sign that they had noticed him enter the room. He helped himself to a slice of toast and started eating it when Uncle Vernon looked up from his paper and said,
"So how's he getting here then?" The question startled Harry but he hadn't thought about that, how was he going to get here?
"Um I don't know. He doesn't have a car so he won't be driving. I suppose hell apperate or something."
"What does that mean when it's at home?" asked Uncle Vernon looking distinctly worried.
"Apperate?" asked Harry
"Well what else would it be?" he said going slightly purple. He added "Idiot boy" in an under tone.
"It means that he can appear out of thin air," said Harry with the air of describing how a tin opener worked. The Dursleys shivered collectively at the thought of a man suddenly appearing in their living room.
"Oh," said Uncle Vernon, "Well at least he won't be blowing up the living room again. We. Er. decided that we preferred real fires, didnt we Petunia?" he looked at her but she just stared at him with a look on her face that said quite plainly that she would have preferred to keep the old fire so he continued,
"So we didn't put the electric one back," said Uncle Vernon, looking at Aunt Petunia again who merely said "Hmph!"
"Oh right," said Harry, "I hadn't noticed." but as he leaned back on his chair to look he noticed that they had indeed kept it the way it was when he left last summer.
"Well he might use floo powder then, you know, like the Weaslys did."
Another "Hmph" from Aunt Petunia who obviously remembered it only too well.
The atmosphere in the house as lunchtime approached was even more tense than it had been last year. The Dursleys were far more scared of Sirius than they were of the Weaslys. Uncle Vernon had again put on his best suit and kept twitching his foot and drumming his fingers on the arm of the sofa nervously, his forehead looking slightly damp. Dudley sat frozen in his armchair. He hadn't had very good experiences with wizards so far. Aunt Petunia kept pacing the living room as if it would stop Sirius coming.
The atmosphere was starting to get unbearable and just as Harry was about to get up and escape he heard muffled, whooshing noises coming from inside the chimney breast. Uncle Vernon, who knew what was coming this time stood bolt up-right, Aunt Petunia suddenly stopped pacing the room and froze next to her husband. Dudley didn't move but his eye swidened with sudden fear and his face had all its pinkies taken out of it to leave him a deathly shade of white. Harry rushed over to the fireplace to help Sirius. But the man who had just been flung out of the fire place was not Sirius. Harry recognised who it was straightaway. There was no mistaking him -it was Professor Lupin.
Harry helped him up, wondering what he was doing here, but before he had a chance to say anything to him the fireplace emitted his godfather. Sirius stood up brushed off his sooty robes and grinned at Harry.
"Hello Harry," said Sirius with a grin on his face.
"Hi Sirius and you Professor Lupin. What are you doing here Professor?" said Harry trying not to sound too confused.
"Sirius was staying with me and when he told me he was coming to see you I thought I would come along. Its good to see you again."
"Yeah, its good to see you too." Harry was now feeling very happy but he was aware of the Dursleys hanging awkwardly in the background and thought that he'd better introduce them.
"Sirius, Professor this is my Uncle Vernon," Uncle Vernon nodded as a way of saying hello,
"This is my Aunt Petunia," she did the same, "and this is my cousin Dudley" Dudley merely let out a dry gasp, he was to frightened to do anything else.
"Hello," said Sirius and Lupin together. The Dursleys didn't do anything they just stood there and stared at their unwanted guests with their mouths hanging wide open. Dudley who had obviously taken about as much stress as he could handle let out a huge, ear splitting scream and bolted out of the room almost knocking his mother down in the process. Sirius and Lupin exchanged curious glances with each other. Aunt Petunia who seemed to have found her voice at last said,
"Id better just go and check hes OK." and shuffled out of the room, leaving her husband to cope with the hoard of wizards in the living room.
"Dudley has had a few er bad experiences with wizards," explained Harry.
"Oh. That's OK," replied Sirius looking totally confused at this bizarre behaviour, as did Lupin
"Harry, could I have a word?" asked Sirius looking suddenly serious, "In private," he said looking discreetly at Uncle Vernon.
"Yeah sure. That's OK isn't it Uncle Vernon?"
"Ill just, make myself scarce," he said and headed straight for the door , obviously glad of an excuse to get away, but not happy at leaving them allalone.
"Have a seat," said Harry indicating the sofa.
"Thanks." Harry had a proper look at Sirius. His hair was short and neat again and he looked as though he had had a few good meals inside him.
"Sorry about the Dursleys. To say they don't like wizards much is a bit of an understatement."
"Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet your family at last even if the introduction was a bit unusual," chuckled Sirius.
"How are you doing now Harry?" asked Lupin
"I'm fine now Professor, thanks."
"Sirius told me what happened and what you did. I know you must have heard this already but you were very brave and I'm certain that James would have done exactly the same. You showed a lot of courage."
"Thanks," said Harry looking at his feet. He wished that people would stop talking about it though. He didn't want to think about it.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about Sirius?" asked Harry trying to change the subject.
"Well, you can say no if you like but I need a favour."
"Sure. Anything."
"Well I need somewhere to lie low for a while. I was staying at Remus's but he needs to go away on some er, business and I was wondering if -"
"Do you want to stay here?" asked Harry hopefully; he'd love to have Sirius stay for a while.
"If that's OK with you. I'll stay in my dog form while your Aunt and Uncle are around and you can just say that I left you a guard dog or something."
"Yeah that'll be great! I'm sure the Dursleys won't object to me having a dog, especially if it was from you. They'd be too afraid that you'd come and turn them into slugs or something to say no."
" I think you should take out a subscription to the Daily Prophet as well while I'm here just so that we know what's going on in the wizarding world."
"Yeah, good idea. I'll send Hedwig out when she gets back from hunting."
"Ah, Harry, does your family know that Sirius was convicted for murder?" asked Lupin.
"Yeees," said Harry, unsure whether they should know or not.
"Do they know I'm innocent?"
"Ah no, but they only reason I didn't tell them was because they don't bother me as much now that they think I've got a dangerous godfather," said Harry hurriedly, trying to explain why he hadn't told the Dursleys.
"Well I dont think we have to enlighten them do we?" said Lupin with a grin spreading over his face. "No, I don't think that's necessary," added Sirius an equally mischievous grin spreading over his face too.
Harry decided to ask something that he'd been wondering about for a while now,
"Sirius, what's Dumbledore planning to do?" When Harry asked this the happy mood was quickly replaced with a far more serious one.
"I'm not really sure Harry. I haven't been in touch with Dumbledore since I left the hospital wing at Hogwarts." "Well who else knows that Voldemort is back?"
"When I left went straight to Remus's and explained everything to him. Then he came with me to Mundungus Fletcher's. If I turned up by myself he'd have had me back in Azkaban before I could explain anything. So we explained to him that I was innocent, he took more than a bit of convincing, and then we told him that Voldemort was back. I think that was more of a shock to him than I was," explained Sirius
"Who's Mundungus Fletcher?" Harry asked.
"He's an old friend of ours. He did a lot of good work for our side when Voldemort was last in power. It took a while for the news to sink in but he's fine now," replied Lupin, "We just told him that Voldemort was back we told him that you were there but that's all. We didn't say how you were involved," said Lupin who had obviously read Harry expression correctly. Harry didn't want everybody to know about his involvement in Voldemort's return. Not just yet anyway.
"Then we went to see Arabella Figg," continued Lupin, "She's an old woman but she did a lot of good work for us last time and I'm sure shell do it again."
"That's if you can manage to drag her away from her cats," said Sirius rolling his eyes at the mad old cat lady. But Sirius's last statement had made something click in Harry's head. This old woman sounded familiar. She had loads of cats and her surname was 'Figg'...
"Wait a minute," said Harry abruptly, "This Arabella Figg. She doesn't live a few streets away does she?" "Something like that," said Sirius looking quizzically at Lupin, "Why?"
"Because the Dursleys always bundled me off to her whenever they wanted me out of the way. Wait until they find out that they've been sending me to a witch all these years!" said Harry laughing, "But why did she never tell me she was a witch? She never mentioned anything about magic." Sirius and Lupin threw furtive glances at each other, as though they weren't sure how to answer. Eventually Lupin shrugged,
"I suppose it doesn't matter telling you now. She was on orders from Dumbledore-"
"What - why would she be on orders from Dumbledore?" asked Harry feeling utterly confused.
"Dumbledore placed her here soon after he brought you to live here. I suppose she was a sort of protector, in case anything happened that involved Dark Magic. I think the reason she never told you she was a witch was because Dumbledore wasn't sure how much you knew about the wizarding world and he wanted you to find out when he thought you were ready," replied Lupin.
" I had no idea Dumbledore had done all this stuff for me," said Harry feeling overwhelmed.
"He's very worried about you. He always has been," said Sirius.
The three of them sat in the living room of number four Privet Drive for several hours, until that last rays of daylight began filtering through the window, and Lupin only left when he noticed how late it was. "Oh, Id better go. I didn't realise how long wed been talking for so long. I've got to be somewhere but I'll see you both very soon."
"Goodbye Remus. Ill see you later."
"Bye Professor!"
"Bye Harry, and by the way you don't have to call me 'Professor' I'm not your teacher anymore, Remus will do fine."
" Oh, OK. Bye Remus," said Harry, cautiously, he was not used to calling teachers by their first name, even if he wasn't his teacher anymore. "Goodbye," said Lupin as he stood up, and with a faint 'pop he had vanished
He must have dozed off at some point though because when he woke up bright summer sunshine was pouring in through the window. A quick look at his watch told him that it was just before ten o'clock. He got up and went over to the wardrobe and put on his too big clothes feeling excited. He'd be seeing Sirius today. At least now Dudley was slimmer his clothes wouldn't be as baggy by the time Harry got them. He wandered downstairs vaguely thinking of getting some toast.
The Dursleys were already up and eating their breakfast in the dining room. They didn't show any sign that they had noticed him enter the room. He helped himself to a slice of toast and started eating it when Uncle Vernon looked up from his paper and said,
"So how's he getting here then?" The question startled Harry but he hadn't thought about that, how was he going to get here?
"Um I don't know. He doesn't have a car so he won't be driving. I suppose hell apperate or something."
"What does that mean when it's at home?" asked Uncle Vernon looking distinctly worried.
"Apperate?" asked Harry
"Well what else would it be?" he said going slightly purple. He added "Idiot boy" in an under tone.
"It means that he can appear out of thin air," said Harry with the air of describing how a tin opener worked. The Dursleys shivered collectively at the thought of a man suddenly appearing in their living room.
"Oh," said Uncle Vernon, "Well at least he won't be blowing up the living room again. We. Er. decided that we preferred real fires, didnt we Petunia?" he looked at her but she just stared at him with a look on her face that said quite plainly that she would have preferred to keep the old fire so he continued,
"So we didn't put the electric one back," said Uncle Vernon, looking at Aunt Petunia again who merely said "Hmph!"
"Oh right," said Harry, "I hadn't noticed." but as he leaned back on his chair to look he noticed that they had indeed kept it the way it was when he left last summer.
"Well he might use floo powder then, you know, like the Weaslys did."
Another "Hmph" from Aunt Petunia who obviously remembered it only too well.
The atmosphere in the house as lunchtime approached was even more tense than it had been last year. The Dursleys were far more scared of Sirius than they were of the Weaslys. Uncle Vernon had again put on his best suit and kept twitching his foot and drumming his fingers on the arm of the sofa nervously, his forehead looking slightly damp. Dudley sat frozen in his armchair. He hadn't had very good experiences with wizards so far. Aunt Petunia kept pacing the living room as if it would stop Sirius coming.
The atmosphere was starting to get unbearable and just as Harry was about to get up and escape he heard muffled, whooshing noises coming from inside the chimney breast. Uncle Vernon, who knew what was coming this time stood bolt up-right, Aunt Petunia suddenly stopped pacing the room and froze next to her husband. Dudley didn't move but his eye swidened with sudden fear and his face had all its pinkies taken out of it to leave him a deathly shade of white. Harry rushed over to the fireplace to help Sirius. But the man who had just been flung out of the fire place was not Sirius. Harry recognised who it was straightaway. There was no mistaking him -it was Professor Lupin.
Harry helped him up, wondering what he was doing here, but before he had a chance to say anything to him the fireplace emitted his godfather. Sirius stood up brushed off his sooty robes and grinned at Harry.
"Hello Harry," said Sirius with a grin on his face.
"Hi Sirius and you Professor Lupin. What are you doing here Professor?" said Harry trying not to sound too confused.
"Sirius was staying with me and when he told me he was coming to see you I thought I would come along. Its good to see you again."
"Yeah, its good to see you too." Harry was now feeling very happy but he was aware of the Dursleys hanging awkwardly in the background and thought that he'd better introduce them.
"Sirius, Professor this is my Uncle Vernon," Uncle Vernon nodded as a way of saying hello,
"This is my Aunt Petunia," she did the same, "and this is my cousin Dudley" Dudley merely let out a dry gasp, he was to frightened to do anything else.
"Hello," said Sirius and Lupin together. The Dursleys didn't do anything they just stood there and stared at their unwanted guests with their mouths hanging wide open. Dudley who had obviously taken about as much stress as he could handle let out a huge, ear splitting scream and bolted out of the room almost knocking his mother down in the process. Sirius and Lupin exchanged curious glances with each other. Aunt Petunia who seemed to have found her voice at last said,
"Id better just go and check hes OK." and shuffled out of the room, leaving her husband to cope with the hoard of wizards in the living room.
"Dudley has had a few er bad experiences with wizards," explained Harry.
"Oh. That's OK," replied Sirius looking totally confused at this bizarre behaviour, as did Lupin
"Harry, could I have a word?" asked Sirius looking suddenly serious, "In private," he said looking discreetly at Uncle Vernon.
"Yeah sure. That's OK isn't it Uncle Vernon?"
"Ill just, make myself scarce," he said and headed straight for the door , obviously glad of an excuse to get away, but not happy at leaving them allalone.
"Have a seat," said Harry indicating the sofa.
"Thanks." Harry had a proper look at Sirius. His hair was short and neat again and he looked as though he had had a few good meals inside him.
"Sorry about the Dursleys. To say they don't like wizards much is a bit of an understatement."
"Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet your family at last even if the introduction was a bit unusual," chuckled Sirius.
"How are you doing now Harry?" asked Lupin
"I'm fine now Professor, thanks."
"Sirius told me what happened and what you did. I know you must have heard this already but you were very brave and I'm certain that James would have done exactly the same. You showed a lot of courage."
"Thanks," said Harry looking at his feet. He wished that people would stop talking about it though. He didn't want to think about it.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about Sirius?" asked Harry trying to change the subject.
"Well, you can say no if you like but I need a favour."
"Sure. Anything."
"Well I need somewhere to lie low for a while. I was staying at Remus's but he needs to go away on some er, business and I was wondering if -"
"Do you want to stay here?" asked Harry hopefully; he'd love to have Sirius stay for a while.
"If that's OK with you. I'll stay in my dog form while your Aunt and Uncle are around and you can just say that I left you a guard dog or something."
"Yeah that'll be great! I'm sure the Dursleys won't object to me having a dog, especially if it was from you. They'd be too afraid that you'd come and turn them into slugs or something to say no."
" I think you should take out a subscription to the Daily Prophet as well while I'm here just so that we know what's going on in the wizarding world."
"Yeah, good idea. I'll send Hedwig out when she gets back from hunting."
"Ah, Harry, does your family know that Sirius was convicted for murder?" asked Lupin.
"Yeees," said Harry, unsure whether they should know or not.
"Do they know I'm innocent?"
"Ah no, but they only reason I didn't tell them was because they don't bother me as much now that they think I've got a dangerous godfather," said Harry hurriedly, trying to explain why he hadn't told the Dursleys.
"Well I dont think we have to enlighten them do we?" said Lupin with a grin spreading over his face. "No, I don't think that's necessary," added Sirius an equally mischievous grin spreading over his face too.
Harry decided to ask something that he'd been wondering about for a while now,
"Sirius, what's Dumbledore planning to do?" When Harry asked this the happy mood was quickly replaced with a far more serious one.
"I'm not really sure Harry. I haven't been in touch with Dumbledore since I left the hospital wing at Hogwarts." "Well who else knows that Voldemort is back?"
"When I left went straight to Remus's and explained everything to him. Then he came with me to Mundungus Fletcher's. If I turned up by myself he'd have had me back in Azkaban before I could explain anything. So we explained to him that I was innocent, he took more than a bit of convincing, and then we told him that Voldemort was back. I think that was more of a shock to him than I was," explained Sirius
"Who's Mundungus Fletcher?" Harry asked.
"He's an old friend of ours. He did a lot of good work for our side when Voldemort was last in power. It took a while for the news to sink in but he's fine now," replied Lupin, "We just told him that Voldemort was back we told him that you were there but that's all. We didn't say how you were involved," said Lupin who had obviously read Harry expression correctly. Harry didn't want everybody to know about his involvement in Voldemort's return. Not just yet anyway.
"Then we went to see Arabella Figg," continued Lupin, "She's an old woman but she did a lot of good work for us last time and I'm sure shell do it again."
"That's if you can manage to drag her away from her cats," said Sirius rolling his eyes at the mad old cat lady. But Sirius's last statement had made something click in Harry's head. This old woman sounded familiar. She had loads of cats and her surname was 'Figg'...
"Wait a minute," said Harry abruptly, "This Arabella Figg. She doesn't live a few streets away does she?" "Something like that," said Sirius looking quizzically at Lupin, "Why?"
"Because the Dursleys always bundled me off to her whenever they wanted me out of the way. Wait until they find out that they've been sending me to a witch all these years!" said Harry laughing, "But why did she never tell me she was a witch? She never mentioned anything about magic." Sirius and Lupin threw furtive glances at each other, as though they weren't sure how to answer. Eventually Lupin shrugged,
"I suppose it doesn't matter telling you now. She was on orders from Dumbledore-"
"What - why would she be on orders from Dumbledore?" asked Harry feeling utterly confused.
"Dumbledore placed her here soon after he brought you to live here. I suppose she was a sort of protector, in case anything happened that involved Dark Magic. I think the reason she never told you she was a witch was because Dumbledore wasn't sure how much you knew about the wizarding world and he wanted you to find out when he thought you were ready," replied Lupin.
" I had no idea Dumbledore had done all this stuff for me," said Harry feeling overwhelmed.
"He's very worried about you. He always has been," said Sirius.
The three of them sat in the living room of number four Privet Drive for several hours, until that last rays of daylight began filtering through the window, and Lupin only left when he noticed how late it was. "Oh, Id better go. I didn't realise how long wed been talking for so long. I've got to be somewhere but I'll see you both very soon."
"Goodbye Remus. Ill see you later."
"Bye Professor!"
"Bye Harry, and by the way you don't have to call me 'Professor' I'm not your teacher anymore, Remus will do fine."
" Oh, OK. Bye Remus," said Harry, cautiously, he was not used to calling teachers by their first name, even if he wasn't his teacher anymore. "Goodbye," said Lupin as he stood up, and with a faint 'pop he had vanished