Truths

By Neurotica

Seven

Wormtail couldn't believe his luck. He'd been traveling for less than three days and had somehow made it to London. As he scuttled around side streets and alleyways, Wormtail went over his plan once more.

It was perfect.

Not one thing could go wrong now.

It seemed to Wormtail that Remus had actually taken his little visit as a dream, after all. Otherwise, Aurors would be swooping down on him at that very moment as he munched on a stale piece of bread found in the dumpster he currently inhabited.

It may have been easier to have just wiped Remus' memory with his, Remus', wand—it'd been sitting right there on the bedside table. But Wormtail hadn't even considered it. The Animagus finished his less than satisfactory meal, jumped from his dumpster, and scampered in the direction of Little Whinging, Surrey.

With the way things were going, Wormtail would have the boy in his grasp in less than a week.

Scurrying away from the dumpster, Wormtail didn't see a woman—a witch to be precise—walk past and throw in a day-old copy of the Daily Prophet. If he had, he probably would have forgotten the entire plan. On the front page of the paper was a picture of Sirius Black laughing maniacally at the morning sky.

The sun was rising over the castle that was Hogwarts. By the looks of it, the day was going to be magnificent. The giant squid in the lake had surfaced, splashing water onto the shore at Fang, the gamekeeper's large boarhound.

Inside the castle, professors who had stayed after the students left for the summer holidays began to rise and head to the Great Hall. They all had the same exact thing on their minds: Sirius Black.

The entire staff had read the Prophet the evening before, and all wanted to ask Dumbledore if it was really true, whether Sirius Black was truly innocent. Many of them remembered Black from his school days at Hogwarts. Who could forget him? Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew served at least one detention with every professor in the school at least once a week. And that was when they were behaving.

Now they needed answers. And who better to get answers from than Albus Dumbledore?

Meanwhile, down in the kitchens at a small table in a corner, two men lay with their heads buried in their arms—they were fast asleep. The two former Gryffindors were among favorites of the house-elves at Hogwarts. In their school days, once they'd located the kitchens behind the painting of the fruit basket, they rarely ever left. Many times, those two men—along with their two other friends—would skip meals in the Great Hall to visit the over ecstatic house-elves.

The night before, they had arrived in the company of Headmaster Dumbledore. The three wizards were discussing matters of the utmost importance, and were treated to a feast of sweets and drinks from the elves. After an hour or so, the headmaster left to return to his office, while the other two—Sirius Black and Remus Lupin—remained.

The topic of discussion between headmaster and former students was Harry Potter—the Boy-Who-Lived.

Since Sirius was the child's legal guardian, Dumbledore could find no reason to refuse Sirius' request of custody. That was not for lack of trying, though. The headmaster had been most concerned with Harry's safety outside the sanctuary of his mother's blood. But both Sirius and Remus argued that they were full grown wizards and were more than capable of keeping a child safe. Both would rather have died than to allow anything to happen to Lily and James' only child. Both had loved the child since the moment they set eyes on him. Both were more than willing to give up their daily lives—though Sirius hadn't had a daily life in nearly five years—to take care young Harry Potter.

Dumbledore's last hope was the Ministry of Magic. Surely they would side with him over Harry Potter's safety. So Dumbledore painfully told the younger wizards that the Ministry would probably fight the custody to the death.

Sirius merely scoffed. "They'll want to bend over backwards after what they did to me," he'd said.

If one thing had never changed about Sirius Black, it was that he remained stubborn when he got an idea in his head. This led to many of his nine hundred detentions in Hogwarts—a record Sirius was very proud to hold, by the way.

So, with that, Albus Dumbledore let all arguments drop.

Now, don't get me wrong! It's not that Dumbledore didn't want Harry to live with his godfather, per se. It was more of an issue of security. Albus Dumbledore was as obsessed with security as he was about lemon drops. But the old man was not stupid—far from it actually. He knew what it would mean to Sirius to have Harry live with him, and he was sure that Harry would have been immensely pleased, as well.

That is why, in the end, Dumbledore agreed to Sirius Black taking custody of Harry James Potter. There were a few conditions, however.

Firstly, Dumbledore wanted to wait one week before Harry left his aunt and uncle's home. This was to allow the newly-released Sirius time to get reacquainted with the world, as well as to take care of his personal business. A place to live was not an issue; Remus insisted on having his best friend and surrogate godson live with him for as long as needed. Sirius, of course, agreed to this.

Secondly, since Sirius and Harry would be staying with Remus, wards and charms needed to be placed around the area surrounding Remus' home. Dumbledore and Alastor Moody would be securing the property, personally. If there was one person more concerned with security (and I use the word "concerned" lightly) it was Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.

Lastly, they would need to be absolutely positive that the majority of the wizarding community was not aware of Harry's change in residence. At the moment, reporters from the Daily Prophet and other wizarding publications were practically beating down the doors to Hogwarts castle to get to Sirius. And to bring Harry Potter into the mix would not be wise. In time, it would be known that Harry would be in Sirius' custody—it would be inevitable. And besides, it wasn't as if Dumbledore was going to lock Sirius and Harry in a house day in and day out. But before that day, the world needed to get used to having Sirius Black back.

All in all, the conditions were not too bad for Sirius. Though he was more than a little tempted to jump on the Knight Bus and go to Number Four, Privet Drive right that moment—Remus and Dumbledore squashed that plan before it was all the way out of Sirius' mouth.

Coming back to the present time, the two Marauders were still sleeping soundly at the small table. Sirius' mouth was wide open, and he had a small puddle of drool forming under his face. Remus' face was dry, but he was snoring quite loudly.

A small poke in the side quickly jolted the werewolf from his slumber. Remus looked down at knee level to find a house-elf (a male by the name of Sketch) looking at him with wide, apprehensive, yellow eyes.

"Sketch is sorry to wake you, sir," the house-elf said. "But Headmaster Dumbledore wants sirs to join him in the Great Hall, sir."

Remus blinked, trying to awaken himself. "Oh, okay," he said with a yawn. "Please tell the Headmaster we will join him just as soon as I rouse my friend here."

The house-elf smiled widely, bowed low, and disappeared with a low crack.

Remus stared at the spot the house-elf had been for a moment. He looked across the table at Sirius' sleeping form and had to try hard to keep himself from laughing at the sight. One arm was stretched across the table with his head laying on it, and the other was hanging limply at his side.

When they had arrived at Hogwarts last night, Dumbledore kindly suggested that Sirius should have a shower and change in to some fresh robes before they began their discussions. Once Sirius stepped out of the shower nearly forty-five minutes later, a group of five house-elves pounced on him. By the time they'd finished, Sirius was clean shaven and his hair was cut just above his shoulders, rather than to his elbows.

Remus thought he looked much better afterwards, though he was still unhealthily thin. The house-elves will take care of that, he thought. Madam Pomfrey checked Sirius physical health, fed him at least a hundred Chocolate Frogs, and sent him on his way.

One thing Remus couldn't seem to get past—besides the whole Sirius innocent/Wormtail traitor thing—was Sirius' eyes; they were so dead. It didn't help matters that Sirius was pale as a sheet, as well. If Remus didn't know any better, he would say Sirius was a vampire.

It will get better with time, Remus assured himself. He had to continually remind himself that Sirius had spent five years in Azkaban. Remus could barely handle half a day in the place, let alone 1800 days.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Remus tried to wake Sirius. "Sirius," he whispered.

Nothing. Remus shook him slightly. "Sirius!" he said a little louder.

Still nothing. "Oy! Padfoot! Get up!"

Not a damn thing.

With an irritated yet amused sigh, Remus turned around to find a giggling house-elf holding up a bucket of ice cold water. Recalling his Hogwarts days, Remus grinned mischievously and took the bucket from the house-elf. He turned back to Sirius, rolling his eyes at his own childishness, and dumped the entire bucket on Sirius' sleeping head.

The Animagus jumped significantly, nearly falling off his chair. Sorry, did I say nearly? I meant that Sirius fell sideways off the wooden chair, landing on the cold floor with a thud.

It took him a minute to realize what had happened. He looked up through sopping hair to find Remus Lupin—former Prefect and all-around good boy, the most responsible and sensible of the four Marauders—doubled over, laughing hysterically. The empty water bucket lay forgotten at his feet.

Sirius glared at his friend for a moment, but soon he was laughing as well. Once the two twenty-six-year-olds managed to calm down a bit, Remus performed a drying spell on the now shivering Sirius.

"Merlin, I haven't laughed like that in years!" Remus said, still sniggering.

Sirius snorted. "I haven't laughed period in years." All humor had gone in an instant. Sirius hadn't meant to kill the mood, it just happened. It left Remus feeling guilty and Sirius feeling depressed and angry at his Azkaban memories.

After a moment of brooding silence, Remus stood. "Dumbledore wants us in the Great Hall for breakfast," he said quietly.

Sirius nodded and followed Remus out of the kitchens and through the corridors. After a ten minute walk, they had arrived at the Great Hall. The enormous golden doors were left wide open, allowing the voices of Hogwarts' staff to carry through.

"Are you mad, Albus?" asked Professor Sprout. Sirius and Remus had never heard anyone—besides McGonagall, at times—speak to the Headmaster in such a harsh, sharp tone. And they had never heard Sprout speak to anyone in that way. "A convicted murderer, in this castle?"

It was more than obvious what they were discussing this morning. Remus cast a wary glance at Sirius as the latter heaved a heavy sigh.

"I assure you, my dear Pomona, that my mind is in perfect working order," came Dumbledore's calm, yet firm voice. "Sirius Black is one-hundred percent innocent, and has been so since his capture." Dumbledore looked away from the Herbology professor and spotted Sirius and Remus lurking in the shadows of the hall doors. "Ah, good morning, boys! I wondered whether or not I should send out a search party for the two of you. Come, have some breakfast; the porridge is simply delightful."

You couldn't cut the tension in the hall with a chainsaw as the entire staff was alerted to the newcomers. Many faces housed shock and disbelief. A few—okay, it was only Hagrid—simply beamed at Sirius with tears in his eyes. The pair made their way to the staff table where Dumbledore conjured two chairs between himself and McGonagall.

The silence in the hall was unbearable for Sirius. He didn't like how everyone kept staring at him as if he were about to cast the Killing Curse on them all right then and there. He ignored their horrified glances and anxious whispers, and began scooping breakfast onto his plate.

Remus glanced at Sirius and he, too, began to eat. As he put a fork full of eggs in his mouth, Remus chanced a look around the staff table. All but McGonagall and Dumbledore stared at Sirius. He wished, for the sake of his friend's remaining sanity, they would just finish their meals and leave.

As if he were reading Remus' mind, Dumbledore also looked around at the staff table with a frown. He cleared his throat loudly, calling everyone's attention to himself. "If you don't continue with your meals," he began, "we will have a few disgruntled and insulted house-elves on our hands." There was no twinkle in his blue eyes at the moment. The entire staff knew what he had really meant to say: Stop gawking at Sirius like bloody idiots and finish your damn food. But we all know that Dumbledore is far too polite to actually say this. Needless to say, they understood the meaning and continued their meals.

While Sirius avoided eye contact with anyone in the Great Hall, Remus and Dumbledore were caught up discussing plans to visit Diagon Alley later in the day.

Soon enough, to Sirius' immense relief, the Hogwarts staff finished their meals and took their leave. A few of Sirius' former professors passed him, offering their congratulations in nervous voices. Sirius thanked them quietly but gratefully. Hagrid rose from his chair and made his way to the center of the table where Sirius sat a short time later.

"Knew it couldn' a bin ya, Sirius. Knew you wasn't all that bad!" The half-giant patted Sirius on his shoulders, forcing him face first into his plate of eggs.

Remus and Dumbledore held back their laughter as Sirius sat back up with scrambled eggs in his hair and covering his face. Sirius thanked Hagrid and watched him walk out of the Great Hall.

An hour later, the Great Hall was empty save for Remus, Sirius, Dumbledore, and McGonagall.

"Well, that could have much worse," Remus commented. He seemed surprised by the (nearly) pleasant welcome Sirius received.

Sirius, whose mouth was full of pancake, nodded. He was reaching for his glass of pumpkin juice when a dark figure strode into the Great Hall. Sirius' hand stopped halfway to the glass and instead moved instinctively to where his wand was in his robes.

For a few moments, Sirius Black and Severus Snape glared at one another with the utmost loathing; hatred radiated between the two enemies. But neither made a move or said a single word. Both seemed to have forgotten there were others in the hall.

Remus looked between the two, waiting to break it up if it got too bad. He didn't feel quite as strongly towards Snape as Sirius, but he didn't want to see his friend end up in Azkaban after less than a day of being free. However, there was no need for worry; after nearly five minutes, Snape turned on his heel and strode quickly back to his potions dungeon without a word to anyone.

Remus let out a noticeable sigh of relief; Sirius continued eating as if nothing had even occurred.

As Sirius and Remus walked to the quarters Dumbledore had setup for them fifteen minutes later, Sirius said, "It's good to know that even after five years some things never change."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"

"Snivelly is still a greasy-haired git."

"Actually, Padfoot, that has changed. Snivelly is now a greasy-haired professor."

"Same difference."