~
Title: Quite Past Time
Chapter 2: Effect
Author: EC-Chan
Disclaimer: Don't own it- not my characters,
anything else you need to know?
~
When Harry Potter carefully walked down the staircase in the middle of the night in his aunt and uncle's home, he was expecting to find two things; the first being complete and utter darkness excluding the light shining off of the lamplights outside pouring in through the window and the second simply a glass of warm milk. What he found was a scene he had not expected.
Light flooded the entirety of the first floor of the Dursley house and Harry knew instantly, having been the one who had made sure they were all off before, that it was either the work of an extremely appalling burglar or Dudley had made it his mission in life to attempt to get even (in a rather pathetic way he might add) for his little scare the summer before. Neither option seemed feasible.
Harry was just about to shrug the lights off and head for the kitchen as he had meant to do when coming downstairs, but a sudden sound stopped him. Someone or something was rummaging through the drawers, or at least that's what it sounded like. For a moment Harry wondered if Dobby had come to look for him at the Dursleys' as he had once before, but he doubted the House Elf would 'try to save his life again' after Harry had specifically asked him not to.
Pulling out his wand from his pocket, Harry inched carefully towards the kitchen door. Unsurprisingly the horrendous thief (if it was a thief) had left the door open and Harry took a deep breath before daring to inch his head around the archway, his wand ready. A sudden shill passed through the boy-who-lived's body as he caught sight of the back of a man in a black robe.
He was just about to jump through the doorway and demand an explanation when the man turned and Harry let out a sigh of relief. It was only Remus. But what was he doing rummaging through the cabinets at Harry's aunt and uncle's house in the middle of the night? Better yet what was he doing here at all?
"Don't you have a better use for your time Professor?" Harry asked and despite his puzzlement a warm smile crossed his face.
"Good evening, Harry," Remus said, greeting him likewise, but didn't pause in his search for….well whatever it was he was searching for.
Harry watched him for a moment, his confusion growing and then finally asked. "What are you doing?"
"Looking to see if these Muggles have anything useful," Remus said and then pushed the drawer in with unnecessary strength. "Which they don't I might add. How they cook anything decent is beyond me….unless they don't cook anything decent."
Harry stared at the slightly perplexed Professor and wonder idly for a moment if he had gone temporarily insane. "Why?" He felt like he had regressed to when he was three again, asking the Dursley's why he didn't have parents or perhaps the question before that one:
'Why does Duddy get presents and I don't?'
'Because he has parents boy, now shut up and watch.'
"Because we need supplies if we're going to go on the run of course," Remus said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, Harry supposed, it was….if someone had told them that they were 'going on the run' to begin with.
"What are you talking about Professor?" Harry asked, now almost definitely sure his father's friend had gone insane.
"I'll give you the details later," Remus said with a half wave-like motion. "Where's the pantry?"
~
Harry would have expected anyone but Remus Lupin. Sirius, yes, he could definitely picture Sirius breaking into his aunt and uncles' house in the dead of the night, carelessly turning all of the downstairs lights on and then stealing food, but Remus? Professor Lupin?! It just seemed incredibly wrong….
"Professor," Harry tried again, but Lupin seemed not to hear him, his eyes searching the road meticulously, shifting the weight of his oversized backpack a bit as he went. Harry had seen earlier when the Professor was storing food in it that it had indeed seemed enchanted to hold an inordinate amount of items, but there also seemed to be some sort of limit because it did seem to be getting fuller with ever item placed in. He surmised that the pack, which looked like it was originally intended to hold about three hundred pounds, would weigh double or even triple that amount at this point. Unless the Professor had placed a levity charm on it, which Harry assumed he had since he was able to carry it easily enough, but hadn't for a fact seen the spell being cast.
This whole situation puzzled him. He wasn't exactly annoyed that Lupin didn't seem particularly keen on telling him what was going on besides the fact that they were now officially 'on the run'. A few days after his godfather's death Harry had made a promise with himself; he wouldn't go searching for trouble anymore. He wouldn't "play hero" as Hermione aptly put it. It was a lot harder then it seemed at first.
He had wanted to keep his subscription to the Daily Prophet for example, but had decided against it, knowing it would only make him feel guilty about what was happening in the Wizarding World which was the start of the chain reaction he had promised himself would not happen anymore period. So he had forced himself to take long walks, hide in his books, and try not to think about what might be happening in the Wizarding and even Muggle World. He couldn't even allow himself to watch the Muggle news after a strange report of a mutilated corpse with no way of identifying the assailant.
It wasn't as if he were turning his back on the world, per se. It had seemed like that to him at first, but later he realized that it was what he desperately needed; a break. A break from worry and most of all, all of the doubts….away from his guilt. And later after that he finally understood, as strange as this may seem, that it was a way of learning to trust the so-called adults; Dumbledore most of all. They knew what they were doing, or at least they would know more then him. They had lived through Voldemort once before, after all, and there was little or nothing he could do at this point. He would only make matters worse, as his last visit to the Ministry showed. It was better to trust them and be thankful for the reprieve, though he wouldn't have termed staying with the Dursleys' as such any time before now.
Which was why he had followed Lupin out the door without protest, understanding that the Professor could most likely not talk about what was going on until they were somewhere he knew was safe. Harry had no idea where that was, and he was quite content in not knowing.
Remus stopped abruptly, forcing Harry suddenly out of his reverie. Without explanation, the Professor dug through his robes to find his wand and held it out in front of him. Almost immediately a bus erupted seemingly out of nowhere. Taken aback, Harry could only follow the Professor onto the bus and watch as he paid their fare.
~
Remus wouldn't talk on the Knightbus excluding his few words to the driver, Ernie Prang, and conductor, Stan Shunpike. Both, of course, talked to Harry and he answered their questions as politely as possible, listening to their gossip with a smile. They didn't mention anything about Voldemort, for which he was eternally grateful. It seemed uncharacteristic of them both, but with Lupin staring them down with solemn eyes from the other bed, he could understand why Stan had finally retreated to talk to the other passengers.
Harry knew that his father's one-time close friend was acting odd and it was starting to worry him. But before he could screw up enough courage to ask, despite the warnings going off in his head, the Knightbus stopped and Stan announced it was their stop; London.
Remus led the way through Diagonally. He let Harry stop to admire the new Nimbus 2007, but beyond that they continued their endless walk to Gringotts, where Remus pulled out a key that looked much like Harry's own, and led him to a vault that was even fuller then the one Harry had inherited from his parents before he had taken the first of his school money out.
"It's Sirius'," Remus said tonelessly, but his eyes glazed over nonetheless as he bent to scoop up a handful of Knuts, reaching into his pocket once again to acquire a bag to put them in. Back at the front desk instead of walking out the door and continue on their way as Harry had thought they would, Remus veered back to the front desk and asked for the money to be exchanged for Muggle money.
Another alarm went off inside Harry's mind. Were they going to stay in the Muggle World? But why? He filed away these questions with the many others he had had today in the back of his head. Remus gave him a small smile as he nodded towards the door, his features oddly tense.
They made their way back through Diagonally without stopping, and upon arriving back on the streets, Remus turned the opposite way Harry was used to going, and began to quicken his pace. On they walked throughout the night until Harry thought that his legs would fall off if he took another step forward, but he always would without a complaint and reveled in the fact that they had indeed stayed attached to his legs. After loosing all of the feeling in his feet, however, he thought it might be best to ask Lupin how much farther they would be going, but without warning the older man turned and made a beeline to a rather shabby looking hotel.
Harry was too exhausted to complain when he found himself in a room with twin beds, a small bathroom, and the rather claustrophobic smell of undiluted smoke and beer. He simply flopped down on the nearest bed and slept, not even caring that it felt more like a wooden board then a mattress.
~
"Professor," Harry tried to ask the following morning as his stiff muscles cried for a nice long soak in a hot tub. He ignored them, instead focusing on the Werewolf. "May I ask you a question?"
"Call me Remus Harry," He said immediately. "You'd best not call me Professor here….I'm afraid I may not be able to give you much of an answer to that question at the moment. You'd best keep it until we reach a few towns over."
"Where are we going?" Harry asked anyway, his aching feet dulling his patience. "I know you can't say but I mean generally speaking. Are we going to meet someone? What's going on? Is it something to do with-."
"Harry," There was a definite warning tone in his voice. "You'll get the whole story, I simply ask that you be a little more patient. I can say one thing, though, we're not going to be meeting up with anyone you know along the way and our destination is a bit undetermined. We have different objectives then last year."
Harry frowned, not really understanding what the Professor meant. Sighing wearily, he got ready for another long day. But then if he couldn't trust Lupin to know what was best then maybe this summer hadn't been such a victory at all.
~
Thank-you BamaRedneck, NyteShade, nomer, Lolua, Luna Moonglade, moo, HPdancerfan4, Lilly Black1, Renee, psalatino, Catiechan, RebelFalcon, AmyLupin1987, Unhealthily-Obsessed, Wonkywerewolf, and By Remy for reviewing!!!
I really wasn't expecting a lot of reviews for this story. I'm sorry that I can't write out thanks or anything in more detail. I am so incredibly tired and they only reason why I have the ability to post this is because it's already written ^.^; I may change the next and final chapter a lot, however, but I don't anticipate it taking that long because I have tomorrow off from school….so I think look for the last chappy Saturday/Sunday.
~