Title: The Wall
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: An alternate Universe fic. Sirius only killed Peter. And was released from prison. Now, ten years later, Harry's' sparked interest in his godfather leads him to a man who calls himself 'The Grim.'
Disclaimer: I don't own this, if I did, I wouldn't be writing a disclaimer.
A/N- You all have made it rather clear that you don't want slash. Thank you( I didn't think I could do it anyway) Also, I am SO sorry about the errors. I'll be perfectly honest with you all, I can't spell worth a damn. I do spell check and grammar check at least a dozen times before I post, and it still manages to miss some words, so if you see something wrong, please tell me about it. (I also happen to be bad at homophones, too) I am going see if I can turn this in as an English report and the last thing I need is a bad grade in English. As you can tell, English is not my best subject. Again, thank you all for your reviews!
The Wall, chapter 6
******************
An hour later, Remus stood outside Harry's hotel room fidgeting like mad, shifting his weight from foot to foot. A passer by would have thought he was waiting on a blind date. And for the first time in his life, Remus found himself wishing the suspicions of the public were true.
He turned back to the door and lightly knocked. Swallowing the lump in his throat and trying hard not to throw up. After Cyrus had left, Remus began to realize how little he actually knew about Harry. Remus could tell you when Harry's birthday was, where he was born, (he had been there) his size, weight (15 pounds under average) best class, (Defense against the dark arts, figures) best friends, (Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger, Dumbledore had told Remus about them) position on Quittich (Seeker, Remus had never missed a game) and numerous other things about the boy.
How would Harry react? Did he even know this aunt? She was his uncle's sister. Maybe he didn't know her. Maybe he won't care.
'Or maybe she had been his only confidant in his uncles home, his only friend until he got to Hogwarts.' Remus thought.
Either way, it would never be easy to tell a person a relative has died.
Harry opened the door and did not bother to hide his surprise from Remus.
"Professor, what are you doing here?"
" Harry, can I come in and talk to you for a moment?"
"Eh.... yeah, sure come on in." Harry backed away from the door and let Remus inside.
It was obvious that Harry had just gotten out of the shower. Stem was still coming from the bathroom and Harry's head was wet. He had a towel in his hand and was apparently trying to dry his unruly hair. As Remus gestured for him to sit down in front of him in the bed, though, Harry threw it in the clothesbasket.
" What is it, sir?"
" Harry...when you..... did you....."
' Darn, this is hard.' Remus thought.
" Harry, when you left your uncles house...."
" What's happened, professor?" Harry said cautiously.
Remus looked down into Harry's bright green eyes, Lily's eyes. And felt a bang of pain in his chest.
" Harry, your uncles sister, did you know her well?"
" Aunt Marge?"
'Crap, he calls her aunt, but she's not his aunt, they were probably close .... He did know her.'
"Yes, well......She's um...... I don't know how to say this, but she....."
" She's dead, isn't she?"
Remus couldn't look in Harry's eyes, so he turned away from them.
" Yes, she died..... the day after you left, that's the rumors that are flying around ....."
"I knew she drank to much....." Harry mumbled.
" Huh?"
Remus looked back at Harry, who returned his gaze.
" We weren't close, if that's what your thinking. I hated her to be honest. But that doesn't mean I wanted to die...."
" It's ok, Harry, really. Everything will be alright." Remus said, putting a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. They think that your home isn't stable enough for children to live, so you won't have to put up with your uncle anymore "
" How did you know about that?"
" About what?"
'Smooth, Lupin, real smooth.' Thought Remus.
" My... My uncle? How did you know?"
"um... It comes with working with dark creatures as much as I do. You can tell that someone is hiding something. I just figured... I won't mention it again. Don't worry it'll be ok."
' Lets hope you can't tell I'm hiding something.'
" No, no it's not." Said Harry, leaning in to Remus' hand and stifling a sob." I know she shouldn't have died, I knew something was wrong with her the night I left, I mean, she as drunk, she had passed out, but I thought that something else was wrong. I should've told someone...."
" No, Harry, Its all right, really. You couldn't have known...."
" Will there be a funeral?"
" Well, yes, I suppose. If you want me to find out for you....."
" NO! I.... I don't think the Dursley's want me there. I think.... I think that he probably blames me in a sense. Maybe I'll just send some of those ever-blooming roses I saw at Magical Flowers For All anonymously, so they'll take them. They won't except them if they know there for me...."
Harry stopped and looked up at Remus.
"Thank you for telling me professor. I .... I had no ideal...."
"It's all right, Harry. I don't mind."
" How..... How many people know?"
" Well, I don't know." Remus lied. In truth, rumors had probably all ready been confirmed, so it was only a matter of time before the Daily Prophet was printing bold headlines like 'Boy who lived in abusive home.' (A/N- Original, I know)
" Ok, thanks anyway."
" Is there anything you need?"
" No, you don't have to stay if you don't want to."
" Do you want me to go? I don't mind.."
"No, I would like to be alone, if you don't mind, sir."
Remus paused. " All right, if you need any thing, even when school starts, I'll be here, ok?"
" Are you sure?"
"Yes.....I will be."
" All right." Remus sighed, defeated.
" I'll see you Harry. Good bye."
" Bye."
Once Lupin was gone. Harry threw himself on the bed and felt tears well up in his eyes. What in the world was he crying for? He didn't like Marge, he wasn't happy she was gone, but he didn't care enough to cry, did he? Apparently so.
But deep down, Harry knew that's not why he was crying. No matter what Remus said. People were bound to find out. And when they did, Harry dreaded what Malfoy would say......Especially if it got out that he had been abused, two years of keeping it secret and now it was going to be in the Prophet. What would Ron and Hermonie say to him? Would they be mad at him for not telling them? Or would they be sympathetic?
' That's just what I need, more pity.' He thought.
Harry wanted...... Needed someone right now. Not Lupin, Lupin was his teacher. Not that Lupin was an unfriendly person, but Harry didn't want his future professor to see him cry.
Harry reached under one of his pillows and pulled out the wooden box. He read the letters again, at least a dozen times apiece, and tried to imagine his godfather, who ever he was, sitting next to him. Trying to hear him (even though he had never heard his voice.) Trying to piece together a conversation with him.
' What's wrong, bright eyes?'
' Nothing.'
' You're lying.'
'Ok, I don't know what's wrong. I feel sad, I feel lonely..'
' You're not alone, you have me........'
" I don't even know who you are," Harry said aloud. " But I'll find out."
Meanwhile, outside the room, Remus had also broken down too.
Harry was in there suffering, alone, with no one to talk too. And Remus knew he wanted to talk. Everyone has to talk about his or her feelings sometime to make all the hurt better. At least, according to a 12 year old James Potter.
Harry had reacted better than Remus expected. In fact, he was quite proud of Harry. But he didn't express anything. He had shut Remus out.
' That will change' Remus though ' As soon as he gets used to you, it will change'
Despite his self, Remus was unsure, what if the Dursley's permently scared him? A thought that had kept Remus up at night ever since he ad found out that Harry had been abused. What if Harry didn't want to go with him? Remus had heard stories of children running back to abused homes after being put in foster homes because they couldn't adjust to the new way of life.
' No, Harry's stronger than that, you'll see. You'll get custody. He'll adjust and you'll look back on your worries and laugh.'
Remus took a deep breath, trying to clear his breath, and choked. He smelled blood, thick, tainted blood. He began to sniff around wildly (getting odd looks from the passer bys) to see the source and was shocked when his noses lead him to the carpet.
A large, red stain had set in the carpet. The way it was spread, almost like a perfect circle, it was obviously intentional. Remus knew the smell, but he couldn't place it.
'It's not human blood.' Remus thought to himself 'It's not a werewolf's blood either. It smells..... Old. That's odd, the stain doesn't look old, and the smell is to fresh to be old, but the blood...'
And then it hit Remus, like someone smacked him in the face.
' Vampires blood. But who in the world...?'
The blood was old, far too old to come from any of the fledging vampires that lived in England, and why would they want to put a large pile of their blood in front of Harry's hotel room anyway? True, an ancient vampires blood was supposed to scare off any fledglings, but as far as Remus knew, there was no vampire after Harry.
' Of course, Cyrus probably knows, seeing as he knows almost everything about Harry. Is this why he's been following Harry? Because of a vampire?'
That doesn't make any sense, if anyone is up to knocking off a vampire, it would be Cyrus. Remus should know, he had worked on making an alliance with the dark creatures during Voldermorts rein and Cyrus... Sirius, back then, could take anyone of them if they ever made a move to hurt any of the aurrors on their team. In fact, as far as Remus knew, James Potter was the only one who could beat Cyrus in hand-to-hand combat.
'So why would he go though all this trouble, he would have to go all the way up to... Well, he would have to go very far away to get blood like this. Why not just kill the vampire? This must be why he wanted Harry in after sunset, and he wanted him in this room, not mine.'
Remus sighed. It was pure Cyrus. Sirius would have let Remus know there was a threat on Harry. But this was not Sirius we were talking about. This was Cyrus. A big difference. One Remus had yet to realize, and one he most certainly did not like.
All this time Remus though that Sirius would just snap out of it. That he would one day come home, like he used to, with ripped up blue jeans and his famous leather jacket. His hair disheveled and he would be laughing and flashing his trademark smile. In his dreams Remus saw Sirius walking up with Harry, the two could have been anywhere. Swimming in the stream that was in the woods that surrounded their home, or riding on brooms and playing Quittich out in the back yard. Remus had imagined that one day they would both just walk in the kitchen one day, demanding to know what was for dinner and joking about Harry's parents as if they were still alive. But now... Remus began to see that Cyrus wasn't going to just 'snap out of it'. It may be years before he became normal again, (If Sirius was ever normal) and if he were to finally come back to the real world, Remus was sure there would be repercussions. Subtle differences that only he, Remus, would see, and the idea, the dream he had had since Cyrus first got out, for the first time, actually scared him some.
A/N- now sees that wasn't so bad, was it? As you can tell, I am in desperate need of a dictionary being shoved in my brain, plus; I took a Claritin (sp? You know what? I don't care) a few hours ago so I'm looking at the world a little differently now. So please forgive me.
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: An alternate Universe fic. Sirius only killed Peter. And was released from prison. Now, ten years later, Harry's' sparked interest in his godfather leads him to a man who calls himself 'The Grim.'
Disclaimer: I don't own this, if I did, I wouldn't be writing a disclaimer.
A/N- You all have made it rather clear that you don't want slash. Thank you( I didn't think I could do it anyway) Also, I am SO sorry about the errors. I'll be perfectly honest with you all, I can't spell worth a damn. I do spell check and grammar check at least a dozen times before I post, and it still manages to miss some words, so if you see something wrong, please tell me about it. (I also happen to be bad at homophones, too) I am going see if I can turn this in as an English report and the last thing I need is a bad grade in English. As you can tell, English is not my best subject. Again, thank you all for your reviews!
The Wall, chapter 6
******************
An hour later, Remus stood outside Harry's hotel room fidgeting like mad, shifting his weight from foot to foot. A passer by would have thought he was waiting on a blind date. And for the first time in his life, Remus found himself wishing the suspicions of the public were true.
He turned back to the door and lightly knocked. Swallowing the lump in his throat and trying hard not to throw up. After Cyrus had left, Remus began to realize how little he actually knew about Harry. Remus could tell you when Harry's birthday was, where he was born, (he had been there) his size, weight (15 pounds under average) best class, (Defense against the dark arts, figures) best friends, (Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger, Dumbledore had told Remus about them) position on Quittich (Seeker, Remus had never missed a game) and numerous other things about the boy.
How would Harry react? Did he even know this aunt? She was his uncle's sister. Maybe he didn't know her. Maybe he won't care.
'Or maybe she had been his only confidant in his uncles home, his only friend until he got to Hogwarts.' Remus thought.
Either way, it would never be easy to tell a person a relative has died.
Harry opened the door and did not bother to hide his surprise from Remus.
"Professor, what are you doing here?"
" Harry, can I come in and talk to you for a moment?"
"Eh.... yeah, sure come on in." Harry backed away from the door and let Remus inside.
It was obvious that Harry had just gotten out of the shower. Stem was still coming from the bathroom and Harry's head was wet. He had a towel in his hand and was apparently trying to dry his unruly hair. As Remus gestured for him to sit down in front of him in the bed, though, Harry threw it in the clothesbasket.
" What is it, sir?"
" Harry...when you..... did you....."
' Darn, this is hard.' Remus thought.
" Harry, when you left your uncles house...."
" What's happened, professor?" Harry said cautiously.
Remus looked down into Harry's bright green eyes, Lily's eyes. And felt a bang of pain in his chest.
" Harry, your uncles sister, did you know her well?"
" Aunt Marge?"
'Crap, he calls her aunt, but she's not his aunt, they were probably close .... He did know her.'
"Yes, well......She's um...... I don't know how to say this, but she....."
" She's dead, isn't she?"
Remus couldn't look in Harry's eyes, so he turned away from them.
" Yes, she died..... the day after you left, that's the rumors that are flying around ....."
"I knew she drank to much....." Harry mumbled.
" Huh?"
Remus looked back at Harry, who returned his gaze.
" We weren't close, if that's what your thinking. I hated her to be honest. But that doesn't mean I wanted to die...."
" It's ok, Harry, really. Everything will be alright." Remus said, putting a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. They think that your home isn't stable enough for children to live, so you won't have to put up with your uncle anymore "
" How did you know about that?"
" About what?"
'Smooth, Lupin, real smooth.' Thought Remus.
" My... My uncle? How did you know?"
"um... It comes with working with dark creatures as much as I do. You can tell that someone is hiding something. I just figured... I won't mention it again. Don't worry it'll be ok."
' Lets hope you can't tell I'm hiding something.'
" No, no it's not." Said Harry, leaning in to Remus' hand and stifling a sob." I know she shouldn't have died, I knew something was wrong with her the night I left, I mean, she as drunk, she had passed out, but I thought that something else was wrong. I should've told someone...."
" No, Harry, Its all right, really. You couldn't have known...."
" Will there be a funeral?"
" Well, yes, I suppose. If you want me to find out for you....."
" NO! I.... I don't think the Dursley's want me there. I think.... I think that he probably blames me in a sense. Maybe I'll just send some of those ever-blooming roses I saw at Magical Flowers For All anonymously, so they'll take them. They won't except them if they know there for me...."
Harry stopped and looked up at Remus.
"Thank you for telling me professor. I .... I had no ideal...."
"It's all right, Harry. I don't mind."
" How..... How many people know?"
" Well, I don't know." Remus lied. In truth, rumors had probably all ready been confirmed, so it was only a matter of time before the Daily Prophet was printing bold headlines like 'Boy who lived in abusive home.' (A/N- Original, I know)
" Ok, thanks anyway."
" Is there anything you need?"
" No, you don't have to stay if you don't want to."
" Do you want me to go? I don't mind.."
"No, I would like to be alone, if you don't mind, sir."
Remus paused. " All right, if you need any thing, even when school starts, I'll be here, ok?"
" Are you sure?"
"Yes.....I will be."
" All right." Remus sighed, defeated.
" I'll see you Harry. Good bye."
" Bye."
Once Lupin was gone. Harry threw himself on the bed and felt tears well up in his eyes. What in the world was he crying for? He didn't like Marge, he wasn't happy she was gone, but he didn't care enough to cry, did he? Apparently so.
But deep down, Harry knew that's not why he was crying. No matter what Remus said. People were bound to find out. And when they did, Harry dreaded what Malfoy would say......Especially if it got out that he had been abused, two years of keeping it secret and now it was going to be in the Prophet. What would Ron and Hermonie say to him? Would they be mad at him for not telling them? Or would they be sympathetic?
' That's just what I need, more pity.' He thought.
Harry wanted...... Needed someone right now. Not Lupin, Lupin was his teacher. Not that Lupin was an unfriendly person, but Harry didn't want his future professor to see him cry.
Harry reached under one of his pillows and pulled out the wooden box. He read the letters again, at least a dozen times apiece, and tried to imagine his godfather, who ever he was, sitting next to him. Trying to hear him (even though he had never heard his voice.) Trying to piece together a conversation with him.
' What's wrong, bright eyes?'
' Nothing.'
' You're lying.'
'Ok, I don't know what's wrong. I feel sad, I feel lonely..'
' You're not alone, you have me........'
" I don't even know who you are," Harry said aloud. " But I'll find out."
Meanwhile, outside the room, Remus had also broken down too.
Harry was in there suffering, alone, with no one to talk too. And Remus knew he wanted to talk. Everyone has to talk about his or her feelings sometime to make all the hurt better. At least, according to a 12 year old James Potter.
Harry had reacted better than Remus expected. In fact, he was quite proud of Harry. But he didn't express anything. He had shut Remus out.
' That will change' Remus though ' As soon as he gets used to you, it will change'
Despite his self, Remus was unsure, what if the Dursley's permently scared him? A thought that had kept Remus up at night ever since he ad found out that Harry had been abused. What if Harry didn't want to go with him? Remus had heard stories of children running back to abused homes after being put in foster homes because they couldn't adjust to the new way of life.
' No, Harry's stronger than that, you'll see. You'll get custody. He'll adjust and you'll look back on your worries and laugh.'
Remus took a deep breath, trying to clear his breath, and choked. He smelled blood, thick, tainted blood. He began to sniff around wildly (getting odd looks from the passer bys) to see the source and was shocked when his noses lead him to the carpet.
A large, red stain had set in the carpet. The way it was spread, almost like a perfect circle, it was obviously intentional. Remus knew the smell, but he couldn't place it.
'It's not human blood.' Remus thought to himself 'It's not a werewolf's blood either. It smells..... Old. That's odd, the stain doesn't look old, and the smell is to fresh to be old, but the blood...'
And then it hit Remus, like someone smacked him in the face.
' Vampires blood. But who in the world...?'
The blood was old, far too old to come from any of the fledging vampires that lived in England, and why would they want to put a large pile of their blood in front of Harry's hotel room anyway? True, an ancient vampires blood was supposed to scare off any fledglings, but as far as Remus knew, there was no vampire after Harry.
' Of course, Cyrus probably knows, seeing as he knows almost everything about Harry. Is this why he's been following Harry? Because of a vampire?'
That doesn't make any sense, if anyone is up to knocking off a vampire, it would be Cyrus. Remus should know, he had worked on making an alliance with the dark creatures during Voldermorts rein and Cyrus... Sirius, back then, could take anyone of them if they ever made a move to hurt any of the aurrors on their team. In fact, as far as Remus knew, James Potter was the only one who could beat Cyrus in hand-to-hand combat.
'So why would he go though all this trouble, he would have to go all the way up to... Well, he would have to go very far away to get blood like this. Why not just kill the vampire? This must be why he wanted Harry in after sunset, and he wanted him in this room, not mine.'
Remus sighed. It was pure Cyrus. Sirius would have let Remus know there was a threat on Harry. But this was not Sirius we were talking about. This was Cyrus. A big difference. One Remus had yet to realize, and one he most certainly did not like.
All this time Remus though that Sirius would just snap out of it. That he would one day come home, like he used to, with ripped up blue jeans and his famous leather jacket. His hair disheveled and he would be laughing and flashing his trademark smile. In his dreams Remus saw Sirius walking up with Harry, the two could have been anywhere. Swimming in the stream that was in the woods that surrounded their home, or riding on brooms and playing Quittich out in the back yard. Remus had imagined that one day they would both just walk in the kitchen one day, demanding to know what was for dinner and joking about Harry's parents as if they were still alive. But now... Remus began to see that Cyrus wasn't going to just 'snap out of it'. It may be years before he became normal again, (If Sirius was ever normal) and if he were to finally come back to the real world, Remus was sure there would be repercussions. Subtle differences that only he, Remus, would see, and the idea, the dream he had had since Cyrus first got out, for the first time, actually scared him some.
A/N- now sees that wasn't so bad, was it? As you can tell, I am in desperate need of a dictionary being shoved in my brain, plus; I took a Claritin (sp? You know what? I don't care) a few hours ago so I'm looking at the world a little differently now. So please forgive me.