A/N…disclaimer, don't own. Not much else to say, other than please review and thanks to Deidre of the Sorrows, ciberloco, Tanya J Potter, Neoma, Sexy Black, Katie0, and fath8252 for reviewing last chapter.
Rainbow Over the Moon
Chapter 2; Of Flying Dogs and Motorbikes.
Wednesday came and went in much the usual way Wednesdays did and Harry could barely contain his excitement. Harry had made sure all of his homework was complete so that there were no distractions during the rare time he had to spend with his godfather and most favouritest professor (who, he thought wryly, would've probably slaughtered him if such bad grammar appeared in an essay).
Midnight would arrive soon enough, but, until it did, Harry was left gazing out of the window, waiting for Sirius to show up, and being not entirely sure how said person was planning to 'bust him out.'
During the day, Harry had done jobs for his aunt and uncle, which mainly consisted of cleaning, something to be done around Dudley. Harry swore that if he didn't do it when Dudley stood up there would be a Dudley-shaped clean patch among the debris of pop cans and crisp packets. Dudley's diet had long since gone out the window.
Harry's most preferred chore was gardening. When the sun was beating down on his neck and he had dirt up to his elbows it made him feel alive. He liked the free rein he was more or less given when working in the garden. When cleaning indoors the orders given him were things such as 'clean the bathroom, boy' and there was only so many ways to clean a toilet. But in the garden his instructions wee to 'tidy' it or order it, and with this Harry could shift plants, prune and trim to his heart's content. This small liberty and space for imagination, meant the world to Harry, and that fact alone proves how monotonous and servile Harry's life with the Dursley's was.
As a result, the Dursley's garden was beautiful, something that Aunt Petunia took full credit for. As evidence to this, Aunt Petunia could be seen, at appropriate moments, puttering in the flower-bed under the living room window, an area Harry wasn't to touch. Situated here were Aunt Petunia's begonias, and a sorry site they were too. He had felt sorry for them once and watered them a little. When his uncle caught sight, he realized this was a mistake. Why Harry wasn't to touch them, he did not know, but he assumed it must be something to do with incomprehensible Dursley logic. Perhaps Aunt Petunia thought, on a subconscious level, that as she cared for the dying begonias she must have created the beauty of the rest of the garden. Harry assumed it would remain one of life's great mysteries.
Another of life's mysteries would be the reason for Uncle Vernon arriving home from work that evening and proceeding to beat Harry. This was a regular occurrence so Harry did not give it any particular thought and just endured the beating. In his mind he lumped the beating with the rest, the cause being unknown and, to anyone but Vernon, illogical and cruel. Unlike Harry however, the bush in the back garden quivered with rage and seemed to fight an internal war of whether or not to swallow Vernon Dursley right there. It didn't, but a pair of eyes and a motorbike headlamp peeped from its green depths, unknown to all but the great black dog now sniffing at the back door.
Harry pondered his day by his bedroom window, shifting every so often to relieve a bruise he was sitting on. As the majority of his body was bruised and sore, he had adopted a system of regularly changing which wounds he put pressure on and which he relieved. He was so absorbed in his thoughts and changing of position, he did not notice the shaggy black dog, which was slowly floating up the side of the house until it poked it's nose through the crack in the window.
He jumped far enough off the bed to crack his head of the ceiling and get his intestines in a knot, but Harry regained his feet and pushed open the window to allow the dog passage.
Once inside the dark room the dog morphed. Morphed until in its place was a tall, dark and scary man.
"Hello!" Sirius said in a comical voice. "What are you doing up at this hour?" He said in a mock stern voice. The only response he got was to receive a low flying teenage boy 'round the middle where he promptly had the life squeezed out of him.
"Need…to…hack…breathe!" He wheezed. He was released.
"Pleased to see me then! Down to business. Everything in your trunk? Muggles appropriately knocked out?" Sirius grinned in an impish way. It suited him.
"Yep. Yep. And Yep. Can we get out of here now?" Harry asked, desperate to leave.
With only a wild grin as warning Sirius grabbed Harry by the scruff and chucked him out the window. His rapid descent down the side of the building was abruptly stopped, as was his cry of shock as he hung in midair. He slowly began to descend again as he looked around wildly in confusion. The ground met him gently but his terror was once again renewed when he looked up to see his trunk plummeting rapidly towards him, followed by a spread-eagled dog descending like an avenging angel. When the dog and trunk met the same fate as he, did his brain kicked in and he slowly thought 'levitating spell'. Duh! He still felt stupid when Remus stepped out of the bushes, wand aloft.
"Hiya Harry!" He said, obviously glad to see his young student and unofficial godson again and was consumed instantly in a crushing hug.
Lupin disappeared inside the bushes and came out holding the handlebars of a big, black, shiny motorcycle.
Harry's mouth dropped in shock and awe as he stared at the magnificent machine. The bike itself seemed oddly familiar, like a favourite dream he had once had but not experienced in a long while, and it oddly did not look out of place being held by the tall and lanky Remus Lupin, who was not the type one would expect to promote mototcycles.
"Cool!" Harry exclaimed and reached out a hand to touch the throbbing bike's leather seat.
"Hop on then Harry!" Sirius said to him as he straddled the huge machine. Harry complied and gasped when he felt the power of the engine underneath him.
"Sirius!" Remus called with a vaguely hopeful expression on his face. Sirius turned round and nodded to his friend.
"Yeah, you can borrow her later, I'll see you back home. Later mate!"
Remus blinked and popped away with a snap.
"Why didn't he come with us?" Harry asked.
"No room on the bike and he has to get some things sorted out before we get home. I promised to let him take her for a ride on his own later. Doesn't look like the biking type does he? But he loves this thing, helped me with the enchantments and everything."
"Oh." Another thing he hadn't expected from Remus Lupin.
"You being underage and can't apparate yet, and if I did it, it would set off blaring alarms in some poky Ministry office somewhere, I figured this would be the most fun way to get you home." Sirius said and revved the powerful engine and they roared off into the night. Harry decided he liked the word 'home' when Sirius or Remus said it.
They took off into the night, the black bike blending perfectly into the inky night sky .
Sometime later, over some field, Sirius said over his shoulder, "Did you leave a note?"
"No. They'll just be glad I'm gone!" Harry shouted back to Sirius. Between the roar of bike's engine and the wind rushing past his ears, it was hard to hear anything.
"Good job I left them a little curse to remind them then, isn't it!" Sirius said with a grin.
"Sirius!!! You can't hurt them." Harry cried out. As much as he wanted to hurt them, they had taken care of him. As much as he detested the idea, he might have to go back next year and he told Sirius as much.
"You're too good for your own good Harry. Don't worry, they won't remember it by next week. Its just a little engorgement charm, so the odd limb or two will be the size of a watermelon." He said with a mischievous grin, that Harry could sense even through the back of Sirius' head.
Harry furrowed his brow and tried to work out how big Dudley would be had he been hit with the curse, the majority of the parts of him was already bigger than a watermelon.
Not long after that, Sirius pulled the bike to a halt in a small garden, in front of a small sort of grey splotch Harry assumed was a house in the dark surroundings.pretty little cottage. It seemed to be situated in a large clearing surrounded by trees. Harry wished he had paid attention to where they had been flying over, he had no idea where in the country they were.
"Where are we? And what time is it?" Harry was looking around him curiously, like a foal in a new place.
"A forest. What does it look like Harry." Sirius said in a 'well duh' kind of voice.
Harry was about to retort, but thought his chance of winning the argument was somewhat low and went back to studying the cottage.
It was two stories. Where the two sides of the roof met was a small window with ivy trailing from it. The red bricks of the house were worn and spattered with the odd white brick. Like the Burrow, the house didn't seem quite straight and the chimney was most definitely crooked. The garden was well tended and large. Sirius led Harry to the front door and pushed him through into the kitchen. Remus was standing by a counter top and when he turned there were two mugs of tea in his hands.
"Hey, good timing," He said and passed both Harry and Sirius one.
Harry looked around the room and what he could see of the inside of the cottage. It was the definition of lovely. It was warm and cozy, and slightly messy yet still clean, and had a well-used quality which gave the house the feeling of being loved.
His old professor stood watching him, as if waiting for his approval.
"Wow! This place is ace!" Remus blushed. "Feels like… feels like a family lives here." Harry added with a touch of melancholy in his voice.
"We are a family, now that you're here, sort of!" Sirius' bubbly voice announced. "Sit down, kiddo." And seated himself at the scrubbed wooden table. Harry perched nervously on the edge of a seat.
"Relax Harry. It's just us." Remus quiet voice said from somewhere behind him. A plate of biscuits appeared on the table and Remus sat down opposite Sirius, leaning his arms on the table in front of him. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, and Harry noticed with a wince the jagged scars running across them.
"He's scared your going to give him detention, Professor." Sirius said and laughed.
"I never had to give you detention did I Harry? And you can relax you know. I'm not going to bite you or use you as a chew toy or anything." Remus said with a wry grin. Had it appeared in one of his letters, Harry would have been biting his pillow to stop his laughs from being heard, as it was he just snorted and then clapped his hand over his mouth in horror.
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean…its not that…but you're my professor and I didn't want to…and I hardly know either of you." He stammered.
"Harry, I'm not a professor. I don't care what you say to me. Neither does Sirius. You'll get to know us, so make yourself at home." Remus ordered and watched Harry carefully, when he didn't relax he lowered his voce and growled "Do it." Drawing out the words and Harry settled into his chair more comfortably and took a biscuit.
"That's better. You don't have this problem with me in your letters. Thank you, by the way. I wasn't sure if you wanted to…know, write to, me or anything." Remus said.
"Of course I want to!" Harry exclaimed speaking louder than a hush for the first time that night. "I mean…you were the best professor we've ever had. And you're the first link I had to my parents…no offence Sirius."
"None taken, I was meant to be a crazed Death Eater out for your blood at the time, apparently." Sirius said around his mug of tea. Harry laughed.
"This is your house, Remus?" Harry asked, starting a conversation for the first time in days.
"Yeah. It's not much but…I built it myself. A few years before I worked at Hogwarts. Explains why its wonky. Magic tends to do that, though I did a lot by hand." Remus explained.
"Really? Wow! That's…that's amazing." Harry said and looked around the room. The walls in here were red brick above the counter, which was like the table, a bright beech, scrubbed clean and varnished. Wooden cupboards in that same bright wood hung on the walls above the bench and a sink was sunk in one end. There weren't any appliances, but then what else would you expect from a wizard. The other end of the kitchen opened out into a living room, and from here Harry could see the end of a squishy looking sofa.
"Thanks…occupational hazard of being a werewolf, landlords tend to hate you." He said wryly.
Harry laughed quietly and drunk his tea watching Remus and Sirius. Remus didn't look much healthier than he had a year ago, still exhausted and slightly ill, but then, it had been the full moon last night. The patched and tattered robes weren't in sight though, and currently Remus sported similarly worn jeans and a long sleeve t shirt, same as Sirius. Both men were tall, and lanky, and Harry supposed shared clothes, particularly now Sirius' previously strong and well built form had been shrunk down to his bare skeleton, allowing him to wear the clothes which fit Remus. The werewolf had always been thin to an almost painful extent, from the lycanthropy and extraordinarily strong for the same reason. Sirius on the other hand had been muscular and larger, but his incarceration in Azkaban had atrophied his muscles and left him much the same shape and form as his thin friend. Harry was surprised at their height actually, both easily reaching 6'3 or 4 and felt propelled to ask about his father.
"Short arse!!!" both men had laughed immediately, and sobered quickly realising there was no one there to defend himself, and Harry wondered whether either had quite gotten over his mother and father's untimely demise.
"Sorry Harry. James wasn't really short at all…but us two, being the unnaturally long creatures we are, towered over him by about 5 inches. So he was average really, and so was your mother. Which unfortunately leaves you in the state of remaining of average height." Sirius explained and allowed himself a small smile for James.
Remus had smiled too and rubbed an area on his shoulder fondly, before finally speaking.
"I'm sure you're tired Harry…I'll show you your room and then you can see the rest of the house tommorow?" he asked.
"Yeah…that'd be great." Harry replied and smiled, a true smile for once.
The staircase was narrow and bent around a corner halfway up and if Harry was honest, slightly crooked, but performed it's duty as a stair case well and conveyed them into a short corridor with four doors leading off it.
"OK, Harry…that's the bathroom." Sirius said and pointed out the first door on the left.
"My room…and Sirius'" Remus added pointing out both doors in turn. "If you need anything then feel free to come to either of us…I know that you…may not be comfortable with me but…I'm here, ok?"
Harry nodded and said quietly "Thanks. It's appreciated."
Further along the corridor was another door, on the very end of the hall.
"Your room, is this one." Sirius pushed open another door.
"I have a room?" Harry asked as Remus pushed him through the door.
"You don't at the Dursley's?" Remus questioned back.
"Yeah, I guess. It's formally known as Dudley's second bedroom." Only now was it that he actually looked round the room.
Its neutral walls sported burgundy trim and pretty gold stencilling. The bedspread was deep red with gold Gryffindor lions on it. The floor was left as floorboards, but finished with a wax or polish or some sort and added a rustic feel to the room. Harry felt at home in it at once.
Harry just stood and gazed around. To him this was the most brilliant thing he had ever seen. There was a bookshelf in the corner with books already on it and a small desk in the corner, which had some interesting whirring objects perched on its polished wooden surface.
"M...my room?" Harry stood in the middle of the room gaping like a rather stupid fish.
"Don't you like it?" Remus looked terrified.
"Oh god! No! Professor, I love it! Did you do it?" Harry frantically explained.
"Sirius helped when he got here and put in some 'helpful' comments before that too."
Harry looked pensive for a moment, contemplating something or other then stepped forward and flung his arms around a startled Remus. He was soon spluttering the same choking protests Sirius had at the Dursley's.
"I'm sorry…I mean…sorry." Harry stammered as he realised how surprised Remus looked.
"Harry…Harry, calm down. It's alright…it's nice to be hugged. I'm just not used to it." Remus insisted and put his hands on Harry's shoulders, forcing him to look at him.
"It's just…well…thank you!" Harry gushed. "I want…" he began and then shrugged as he didn't know how to express what he wanted.
"It's ok, Harry. Now come on…we'll help you unpack tomorrow if you like, but sleep for now." Remus ordered and pointed to some pajama's sitting on the bed.
Harry knew he was wearing his 'goldish' look again, but didn't much care, he was having trouble comprehending how much care had been put into planning his stay…or whatever this was.
"Er..th..thanks." he said.
"Welcome. Now we'll leave you be."
"Night Harry." Sirius added from behind Remus. He had stood watching Harry curiously since he had seen the room and was now troubled by something.
"Night Sirius. Night Remus…thank you both of you." But the two men simply nodded and back out of the room.
"What was that about?" Remus said when they reached the corridor.
Sirius' troubled look had returned and he thought a moment. "We know he's is neglected by the Dursley's…" he said, anger tinting his voice. "And I think…well, he wants a family very badly. And we are the nearest he has to that, because James and Lils were our best friends. But he is confused by you…tomorrow we should explain some stuff to him." Sirius said in a wise sort of voice.
Remus nodded and sighed. "I wish we could give him James and Lily rather than our memories and perceptions of them."
"Me too mate, me too." Sirius said sadly and ran a hand through his hair. "Well…I'm off to bed. It's been sort of overwhelming…today I mean."
"I know. But I am going to be downstairs for a bit. I'll see you in the morning, Paddy, alright?" Remus replied.
"You should sleep Rem…last night was hard on you." Sirius said with a worried frown.
"Stop worrying. I'm fine. Night Padfoot."
"Ok. Night Moony. Don't stay up too long. Those bags under you eyes, very unappealing."
Remus laughed as went downstairs and left Sirius standing in the hall, concerned frown on his face as he pondered both his best friend, and the boy who was, hopefully, sleeping on the other side of the wall.