Chapter Ten: Unpleasant Meetings
"Sirius, where is Remus?"
Sirius didn't answer straight away, but his eyes became unfocussed and distant. He bit his lower lip and his chin began to tremble. If Harry had needed the confirmation that indeed something was terribly wrong, this would have been it. Sirius' entire bearing had changed during the fragment of a moment after Harry had asked that question. He had never seen Sirius that scared and beside himself before, and it did little good for Harry's own peace of mind.
"Sirius? What has happened to Remus? Where is he?" Harry's breath caught in his throat. "He isn't…oh no...please don't tell me that he's…"
Sirius closed his eyes and slowly shook his head.
"No
Harry, he's still alive. But I'm afraid we don't have much time."
Harry looked up, his eyes wide.
"What happened?"
Sirius sighed and buried his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes warily.
"It seems that Peter has learned a thing or two during the past fourteen years."
He slowly got up from the sofa and stretched his hand out to Harry. The teenager took it and Sirius pulled him up and towards the portrait hole.
"Come."
Harry followed Sirius out of the Gryffindor common room and into the corridor. He didn't need to ask where they were going, he already knew that they were heading towards the infirmary. That was where Remus had to be, that was where Sirius and he were supposed to be as well. They walked in silence down the staircases and into hall where the infirmary lay. Sirius opened the doors and they walked silently into the room. Harry suddenly remembered that it had only been a couple of weeks ago that he himself had woken up here after the last Death Eater attack, with Remus sitting at his bedside.
Only one bed in the infirmary seemed to be occupied, with the curtains drawn close around it. Madam Pomfrey had been sitting at her desk, but upon seeing Sirius she came over towards them immediately.
It seemed that somebody had explained Sirius' innocence to her, or she quite frankly didn't care about the legal status of her patients. Whichever it was, she immediately came over and tried to drag Sirius away.
"I told you that I wanted to have a look at you Mr. Black. Over here onto the bed, if you please."
Sirius groaned.
"And I told you that I was fine…"
Madam Pomfrey waved her hand in the air while the other kept pointing her wand threateningly at Sirius.
"I don't want to sedate you, but I'll do if I have to. I see that you're still as stubborn as you were back at school. The sooner you come over here, the faster we get this done. Take your shirt off and sit down, please."
The nurse's voice had taken a dangerous edge which left no possibility but to obey, even for somebody like Sirius. Though he still didn't look too excited about the prospect of a thorough check-up, he carefully took off his shirt and sat down on the bed Madam Pomfrey had indicated. Harry sucked in a sharp breath as he got a look onto his godfather's chest.
His lower chest, abdomen and sides were covered in bruises and scratches, and Harry also saw a not so small number of hex marks amongst the bruises. Harry didn't know how Sirius and Remus had gotten out of the house, but if they had taken the other portkey, then Remus had not been able to help very much in the fighting. Sirius seemed to have taken the brunt of all the spells and physical attacks that had been aimed at them. Madam Pomfrey raised an eyebrow.
"So you're fine, yes? Mr. Black, this doesn't look particularly *fine* to me." While saying so, she poked a particularly nasty looking bruise with the tip of her wand, making Sirius wince as if to confirm Pomfrey's words that he wasn't doing all fine. "I'll take care of those bruises and cuts, and then I'll give you a pain-numbing potion. But first I'll make sure that nothing is broken. Please hold still for a moment."
Sirius did as he was told and kept still throughout the entire examination. Luckily, nothing was broken and after two quick healing spells, Sirius pulled over his shirt again and quickly gulped down the goblet of potion Madam Pomfrey held out to him. He didn't particularly care about his own condition at the moment, bruises and sprains or not.
"What about Remus?"
The nurse only shrugged, and whatever meaning there was behind this gesture, Harry didn't understand. He guessed that it meant Remus' state had not changed, that would also explain why Sirius' face had hardened again.
"I want to stay with him."
Madam Pomfrey only nodded. Usually she preached her patients' need for rest whenever possible to whoever willing or not willing to listen, but in this case she might have realized that she had a snowball's chance in hell to keep Sirius away from Remus.
"Just don't expect too much, Mr. Black."
Sirius gave Harry a small forced smile, then beckoned him to follow him behind the curtains around Remus' bed. Harry took a deep breath to steel himself, then did as was asked.
Remus was lying in the hospital bed, on the first look appearing to be merely asleep. The cut on his temple seemed to have been healed and the blood been washed from his face. He was abnormally pale, his face had a somewhat pained expression and from time to time small tremors wracked through his body, but other than that, there was nothing indicating that something was really seriously wrong. But Harry guessed that something had to be really wrong, otherwise Sirius would not behave the way he did.
He had sat down, his eyes fixed on Remus' face. One of Remus' motionless hands had been taken into Sirius' own, and he gently brushed his thumb across the back of Remus' hand. Harry sat down in a chair on the other side of Remus' bed and watched his godfather intensely.
Sirius didn't seem to realize that he was there anymore, his attention was completely focussed on Remus.
But Harry still didn't know what was so wrong with his godfather's friend, it really looked as if he was merely asleep. After a moment, he voiced that thought.
"Sirius, what's wrong with him? It looks like he's only sleeping."
For a moment Sirius didn't react, he merely held onto Remus' hand as if it was his lifeline. Finally, he tore his gaze away from Remus' face and looked at Harry. The teenager was startled when he saw the hollow and pained look in Sirius' blue eyes. Not letting go off Remus' hand, he shook his head. After a long moment during which he seemed to search for the right words, Sirius began to speak.
"It...it was Wormtail. Wormtail was in the house."
Harry nodded.
"I know. I...I heard you talking from the staircase."
Sirius looked up at him, as if the events of the past two hours were too confused in his head for him to remember that particular detail.
"How much did you hear?"
"Pretty much everything, I guess. I heard that he threatened Remus, heard him talking about the other Death Eaters outside, heard him talking that they had come because of me. To bring me to Voldemort."
The last part came out as a whisper as Harry's voice broke and he looked down at his folded hands.
Sirius slowly nodded, remembering. When he spoke again, his voice sounded hoarse, and the words came out slow, as if the effort of talking was causing him physical pain.
"When you were gone, a hell broke lose. Remus...I don't know how Wormtail knocked him down, but he was pretty much out of it. And when the back-up crew arrived, it all got a bit confusing. I had really thought that I had knocked that little bastard out for a good while, and through all the cursing and hexing I didn't realize that he wasn't. I...I knew we needed to get out of the study as fast as possible, but when I turned back to get Remus I saw Wormtail bent over him."
Harry closed his eyes and swallowed.
"His silver arm?"
The arm he got because of me, Harry thought. Because I was there and made it possible for Voldemort to carry out the rite.
Sirius shook his head and rubbed his eyes with the balls of his hands.
"No."
He laughed mirthlessly.
"No, not his silver arm. That would have been good to...to torture Remus, to make it slow and painful, but I guess he rather wanted to make it quick and irreversible. He was well prepared."
Sirius bit his lower lip and looked down at Remus, absent-mindly running a hand through the other's sandy brown hair.
"He had powdered silver."
Sirius' voice broke and slowly, dreadfully the implication of this last sentence sank in for Harry. The third year Defence lesson on werewolves came to his mind, the (at that time rather meaningless) paragraph about werewolves' reaction to silver in his textbook.
'Silver is lethal to werewolves in either form, therefore werewolf hunters have been using silver bullets for centuries. Pressed to the skin of a lycanthrope, silver causes third degree burns that immediately break the skin open. Silver in the bloodstream of a werewolf is equally lethal, depending on the amount of silver molecules inserted immediately or after a time not exceeding twelve hours latest.'
"Oh god."
Sirius nodded slowly, as if he knew what Harry had been thinking about.
"It's...he'll...but...he can't...will...will he die?"
Sirius shrugged, not taking his eyes off of Remus. The only indication that he was worried about this just as much as Harry was, was the extreme look of pain on his face.
"I
don't know, Harry. We don't know. There's...a potion. Snape's off to brew it at
the moment."
Remarkably, Sirius' face for the first time remained completely impassive at
the mention of Snape's name.
"It can...neutralize a certain amount of silver in the blood before the silver starts damaging the cells lethally. If it's taken in time. Remus will probably be puking out his guts as soon as he's taken it. But, well, if the potion isn't administered in time, or if there's too much silver in his system...he'll die."
Sirius' voice broke and Harry bit down on his lip, hard.
"There's nothing we can do?"
Sirius looked up, his blue eyes looking extremely watery with tears that were threatening to fall.
"No. Nothing we can do."
Harry looked down at his former teacher's body on the hospital bed. Remus' skin was nearly translucent on his arms and hands, he could see the veins standing out blue against the pale skin. Veins through which at the moment poison was running through Remus' body, killing him slowly from the inside.
When he looked up again, he found that Sirius was no longer paying him any attention. In fact, Harry would have been surprised if his godfather would have acknowledged anything around him except from Remus. With his left hand he was still holding on tightly onto Remus' hand, while his right hand was combing through the sandy brown hair.
All the while Sirius was muttering reassuring phrases, surely more for his own peace of mind than for Remus'. Harry didn't think it wasn't very probable that Remus even realized they were there.
While he was watching his godfather and Remus, Harry realized that all his previous anger for the two men had vanished in the light of the latest events. It didn't surprise him at all, though he had been really upset and angry that Remus and Sirius had hidden their relationship from him he had never wished any harm come to them. They had really been through enough in the past years.
Harry leaned back in his chair and took Remus' other hand in his. Hesitantly, he squeezed it but there was no reaction from Remus. His former teacher's skin was unhealthily cold and Harry threw a concerned glance at Sirius. He wanted to ask his godfather whether this was another bad sign, but one look at Sirius' face made him swallow every comment.
Harry knew that if the situation was different and it was him lying in this hospital bed, Sirius would be sitting beside him if he could, just like he was sitting here right now. Though Harry would never openly admit it, one of his fears upon learning about Sirius' and Remus' relationship had been that Remus' role in Sirius' life would push him aside, now that he had finally found his own kind of family in the person of his godfather.
He had never even thought about what the two men had to be feeling.
Maybe that was why he was so startled to see Sirius cry. His godfather wasn't sobbing openly, but there were tears streaming silently down his face. He was still softly stroking Remus' hair, and this small gesture combined with the look in Sirius' eyes finally made Harry see what he should have realized right from the start.
Sirius loved Remus.
It was as simple as that, and still couldn't be more complicated. And Harry feared that he had made it even more complicated than it had already been.
Both Sirius and Harry spun around startled when the infirmary doors were being pushed open rather hastily. Snape stormed into the room and towards Remus' bed, the curtains of which had been left open since Harry and Sirius had arrived. Snape was carrying a goblet, and upon seeing him Madam Pomfrey got up and hurried over towards Remus' bed as well. She gave Harry a stern look.
"Mr. Potter, please leave now."
Harry resolutely shook his head.
"No."
"Mr. Potter!"
The nurse's voice was hard and had the unmistakable tone it took whenever she didn't want to hear any contradiction. Harry threw a pleading glance at Sirius, but his godfather shook his head.
"Harry,
this is not going to be pretty."
"I don't care!"
Harry didn't even realize that he was fighting a lost argument, acting every
bit like the five-year old he never wanted to be treated as.
Sirius got up from his own chair and went over towards Harry.
"Harry, just give Snape and Madam Pomfrey some time and space to administer the potion and see if it takes effect. Twenty minutes, then you can come back, alright?"
Slowly, Harry nodded, realizing that he had lost this fight. Sirius gave him a final squeeze of the shoulder, and Harry turned around and left the room. As the infirmary doors closed behind him, Harry didn't really know where to go now. Gryffindor Tower was empty and Harry didn't really want to be there. He could go to the kitchens, but Dobby was somewhere down in the dungeons and Harry wasn't particular keen on other house-elfs or food right now. After a short moment of thought, Harry went back into the Entrance Hall. He could as well fetch his broom which was still lying in front of the castle doors. Not that he really cared about his Firebolt right now, but it was better than to stand around here in front of the doors and waiting to hear whether Remus would pull through or not.
He reached the castle doors in no time and stepped outside into the cool night air. A breeze was chilling down the temperature noticeably, but after everything that had happened, Harry welcomed it. He picked up his discarded broom from the grass and had already turned back towards the doors when he decided not to go back in just yet. He still had about fifteen minutes left, and knowing Madam Pomfrey he couldn't rely that she'd let him in after twenty minutes, anyway.
So instead of going back into the oppressing stone walls of the castle, Harry turned around and walked down towards the Quidditch pitch. He guessed that walking there and back again would cost him just the amount of time he needed to spend.
When Harry arrived at the pitch, he put his broom into the grass again and slowly walked a around the field one time. If Snape's potion worked, Remus had a chance to survive. Harry might hate his sour professor with all his might, but if he managed to bring Remus back he'd be willing to be nice to the git and do his homework all the time for his remaining years at Hogwarts. If Remus only survived. But if the potion didn't work, or if there was too much silver in Remus' blood...Harry shuddered and bit his lip. If Remus died, Harry swore he'd find Wormtail and do his best to cause him just as much pain as the little traitor had caused Sirius, Remus and him. He had had a family, for fuck's sake. For three weeks, Harry finally had the closest thing he'd ever have resembling a family, and then this little coward came by and destroyed it all. Just like he had destroyed Harry's real family. Just like he had taken away Harry's chance to live with Sirius right from the start after his parents had died. If he now took away Remus as well, Harry didn't know what would happen. Sirius probably wouldn't pull through this, not this time, not again.
When he came back to the entrance of the Quidditch pitch, Harry realized with quite a start that his broom wasn't lying where he had left it anymore. He quickly glanced around. No trace of his Firebolt anywhere.
"Searching for your broom?"
The voice came from his left, and Harry didn't need to look to see whom it belonged to. Wormtail had to be pretty desperate if he dared to enter Hogwarts ground again. The small figure emerged from the shadows beneath the stands, the Firebolt in his right hand.
"Pretty careless to let something as expensive as
this just lying around."
Harry automatically reached for his wand and his blood froze when he realized
that it wasn't there anymore. It wasn't in his jeans-pocket anymore. It must
have slipped out in the common room and he hadn't realized it. Wormtail saw his
movement and grinned.
"Ah, don't say you're not armed? Tsk, tsk, tsk, that's pretty careless. What would your godfather say? First you leave his precious Christmas gift lying around, and then you're not even armed to defend yourself. My, my, what will he say when he loses Remus and you *both*, in one night?"
"You bastard!"
Those two words carried the extreme extend of Harry's hatred in every syllable,
but Wormtail didn't flinch. This was a completely different Wormtail compared
to the whining, pleading, pitiful sight of a man Harry had encountered in the
Shrieking Shack a year ago. This man was sure he was having the upper hand
here, sure that there was nothing Harry could do to defend himself. This
arrogance could be the only chance Harry had.
"Mind your language, boy. It's never wise to insult somebody who has a wand trained at your heart. And now, you will come with me."
Harry laughed out loud.
"The
hell I will!"
"Oh, I think you will do exactly that. My master's waiting for you."
"Then you can tell your master that he'll have to keep on waiting, because
I won't come!"
Harry sounded far more confident than he actually felt. Things were not looking
good for him, and he was perfectly aware of that.
"Oh, you *will* come, I'll make sure of that. And even if you continue to refuse following me out of the Hogwarts wards – something I would not advice you to – then believe me that you won't leave this Quidditch stadium alive. It was already bad enough that you escaped earlier this evening, but the Dark Lord simply can't accept that you are still walking freely. We simply can't have that, and after all you are not needed anymore. You've already helped to bring my master back."
Harry swallowed hard against the feelings that threatened to rise up again with an iron grip around his chest. The last time they had met. The night Voldemort had ordered Cedric to be killed. The night he had resurrected himself. Harry had absolutely no intention whatsoever to meet that...that thing again anytime soon. Never again, preferably. And neither did he plan on getting himself killed anytime soon, though unarmed against an opponent with a wand his chances didn't look all that good.
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw movement in the dark. Whether it was someone from the castle, or another Death Eater, Harry didn't know, but he didn't have any other choice but to wait and find out. It was not as if he could move away from here, anyway.
Wormtail didn't appear to have seen it, and if he knew who was out there in the shadows then he didn't show it.
"Now
do you come with me or do I have to stun you?"
"I won't go anywhere with you!"
Wormtail laughed again.
"So courageous, so stupid. You don't really have a choice, you know? I'll take you with me to my master. It's been my task to bring you, and if I don't show up with you he'll be very angry. Even angrier than he already is. But I'll make him a present which will definitely pacify him, a present you will certainly like very much. We'll leave a nice little trace when we go, so that your precious godfather can follow it. Because follow he'll surely will as soon as he finds out you're gone. And then my master does not only get to kill the Boy Who Lived, but also the infamous Sirius Black before he can become dangerous for him again. How does that sound, would you like to watch your godfather die a very painful death?"
"You bloody bastard!!!"
Harry didn't know what possessed him at that moment. Anger flared through him as it had never done before, not even when he had met Sirius for the first time and had wanted to kill him. Back then, he had not even known how to kill. Today, Harry knew, but he didn't waste any thoughts on the killing curse. He didn't have a wand anyway. And he didn't really think, as well. The only thing on his mind was the desire to hurt Wormtail, to hurt him as bad as he could and to stop him from hurting others. He had already tried – and maybe even succeeded – to kill Remus tonight, but Harry would be damned if he allowed that little traitor to use him as a bait for Sirius. He'd not allow Sirius to get hurt anymore, not if he could prevent it.
Wormtail didn't seem to have expected Harry to do anything, so he didn't have enough time to aim his wand and think about a spell before Harry's body hit his own. The force behind the impact threw both off their feet, and Harry mindlessly thrashed around and hit, kicked, bit and beat Wormtail as much as he could. The other man was stronger, he couldn't give him the chance to gain the upper hand again.
Wormtail was seemingly stunned by Harry's action and didn't fight back at first. But it didn't take him long to adjust to this new course of events, and after a bit of struggle and a hard blow into Harry's stomach that knocked the air out of the teenager, Wormtail managed to get above Harry and pin him down with his weight.
"Stop struggling you little devil! This won't help you, either. And now, get up!"
He roughly grabbed Harry by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to his feet again, wand trained between Harry's eyes. There was blood oozing out of Wormtail's nose, but he made no movement to wipe it away. His pale eyes were gleaming dangerously in the starlight, and his expression promised nothing good.
"That
was a big mistake. And now I've got you and you will come with me, understood?
Try to struggle, and you'll be in serious pain before
you can say 'Quidditch'."
Harry tried to knock his elbow into Wormtail's stomach, but the only outcome of
this effort was a hard slap into Harry's face.
"Stop
that right now!"
Harry's eyes were watering and the blood was pounding in his ears. There had to
be something he could do, for fuck's sake. Something,
anything.
Behind Wormtail, the shadows moved again, this time close enough for Harry to see. And what he saw there made his heart beat faster. A distinctly Sirius-shaped person was coming stealthily up towards them from behind. Harry couldn't make out the person's face, but he'd have betted all his money that it was his godfather. He only hoped he was right.
And then everything happened really, really fast.
Sirius' voice called out to him.
"Harry, duck!"
Wormtail was startled for a moment and Harry managed to get out of his grip and throw himself to the floor. Sirius shouted a curse, but it missed Wormtail by mere inches. The little traitor had managed to dodge it in time. Harry tried to crawl away, towards Sirius and safety, but suddenly a hand clamped tightly around his upper arms and pulled him up to his feet again. Wormtail was panting and looking murderously.
Harry didn't know what would have happened if Wormtail had just pointed his wand at his throat and told Sirius to stop there and then, but his father's former friend didn't chose to do that. Obviously afraid that he would be no magical match for Sirius, Wormtail tried to pull Harry away from the Quidditch pitch towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harry struggled against his hold, but he could not move properly. From the corner of his eye, he saw Sirius sprint towards them. Wormtail had seen him, too, and suddenly there was a malicious gleam in his eyes.
"Say
goodbye to Padfoot, Harry."
And before Harry could do anything to stop him, Wormtail had grabbed his neck
and slammed him with surprising strength against the magically reinforced thick
wooden beam that carried the Ravenclaw Quidditch stand. There was a sickening
'crack' as Harry's head made impact, he heard Sirius' voice scream his name,
and then everything went black.
