Chapter 4 Leaving Privet drive
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.
A/N i don't know how well it works, but a big part of this chapter is in Remus's POV. I just thought it would make a bit of a change, but I don't think it will happen much later on in the story. After all Harry is the main character, and J K Rowling does almost always write the scenes from Harry's POV, (I can only think of one scene in the books that does not have his view on things.) Anyway, enough of my babbling on, I just wanted to know how people felt about different POVs. Does it make it more interesting? Should I include more later on in the story? Or does no one really care? Tell me what you think, anyway here is chapter 4.
Remus Lupin could not believe what he had heard. Early yesterday morning, Arthur had come into the headquarters with the news that Harry had used underage magic again. When Arthur told them he had used the Patronus, of course they had all assumed that it had been dementers again, like it had been last year. But they had been informed a few hours later that it had been a Lethifold. Hardly anyone had ever even seen one of them before, they were extremely rare especially in this part of the world. He didn't doubt for a second that Harry was telling the truth, but still it was rather hard to take in. Of course they all knew that it wasn't just there by chance, the Lethifold had been sent by someone. But how they had managed to control a Lethifold was beyond him. He sighed to himself, would that boy ever get any peace? He seemed to be the most unfortunate person he had met in his life, and that was saying something.
Remus had lived a life full of people judging him before they really knew him because of who and what he was. He was a werewolf, and therefore the number of true friends he had who trusted him completely was very small. Things had been really bad for him before he had come to Hogwarts, he'd never really had a great deal of contact with people his own age. His parents had tried to shield him from the prejudice they knew he would have to face as much as they could for as long as possible. But that had all changed when he came to the school, and met 3 people who had changed his life.
James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. They had been amazingly good friends, better than he had ever thought would be possible for him. Of course that was before he learned of Pettigrew's betrayal. All those years he had believed Sirius had been the traitor, when all along it had been Wormtail, who was still alive. It filled the normally clam and controlled wizard with fury when he thought of the fact that Peter was still alive out there when he had been directly responsible for the deaths of James and Lily; two of the greatest people Remus had ever met. If he ever had the chance, Remus would not hesitate in killing the man, who he had once considered to be his friend.
These thoughts inevitably led towards James and Sirius. The death of Padfoot was still so new, the pain so raw, it was almost too much for him to face. He had believed him to have been a traitor, and he had been as good as dead to him. He had believed James and Peter to be dead, and that had left him as the last of the Marauders. But then, barely more than two years earlier he had found Sirius again, and it had made him happier than he had ever been in the previous 12 years. It seemed doubly cruel now to have lost Sirius again, so soon after he had found him again.
Every time something like this happened to Harry, a part Remus felt incredibly guilty. He knew Sirius had felt like this too; both of them felt they were letting James down some how. When Harry was born, they had all been so happy, and the Potter's had immediately decided to name Sirius Godfather; if anything was to happen to them, he was to take care of him. Sirius, who had never usually been one good at sharing his feelings, had confided to Remus last year how he felt like he was letting his best friend down; he had been unable to protect Harry all his life, and at the end of his 4th year he hadn't been there when he had needed him most.
Now, Remus felt similar to this. With all the other marauders gone, he was the one who was supposed to be looking after him. But, though it pained him to admit it, he didn't even know Harry all that well. True, they had spent a lot of time together in his 3rd year, but Remus hadn't even told Harry who he really was until he absolutely had to. He supposed that a part of him had felt guilty that he had not been there for Harry; the son of his best friends. When he had been born, Remus had assumed that he would become like an Uncle to him, and he was sorrier than anyone that it had not turned out like that. Remus had been worried that Harry would ask him why he had not taken him in when his parents died. The truth was, Remus had wanted more than anything to do just that, but Dumbledore had insisted he go to his Aunt and Uncle's house, and should have no contact with the wizarding world until he was ready. Remus had had no choice but to trust his judgement, and had therefore spent 12 years unable to even see Harry. He had been incredibly happy 3 years ago to finally be able to spend time with him, and had been very proud of him after mere minutes of knowing him.
He knew Harry would be suffering from the loss of Sirius just as much as he was, and he was glad that they had now come to take him away from his Aunt and Uncle's house, to take him to Grimmauld place where he could be with his friends.
He, along with Tonks, Moody, Kingsley and 7 others had come to pick him up from his Aunt and Uncles house. They would be travelling the same way as they had last years; broomsticks. It seemed the safest way, as Harry could not apparate yet, and they didn't want to travel by floo powder as they were not sure they could trust everyone at the ministry, which was still carefully watching the floo network. Tonks had sent another letter to the Dursleys to lure them out of the house. This made it so much easier for them, as they did not have to worry about talking to his family, or using magic in front of the muggles.
They had apparated directly into the living room, as they knew no one would be there to see them, except maybe Harry, but that wouldn't have mattered. In turned out, however, that he must have been upstairs as there was no one in the room when they arrived. They thought someone would have to go up to find him, but Tonks announced their arrival for them by accidentally knocking over a ornamental plate above the fireplace, which resulted in a large crash.
"Sorry," she whispered, blushing furiously, as she quickly muttered the repairing spell and replaced it. Of course by now Harry must have heard their arrival, and they all walked into the hall to see him walking cautiously down the stairs, wand raised. He relaxed visibly when he saw who it was.
"Harry, good to see you." Remus greeted him by shaking his hand, "how are you?" He looked intently into the face of the almost 16-year-old. Harry met his eyes, and Remus was shaken by the lack of emotion he saw staring back at him. His normally vibrant startling green eyes had a slightly, for lack of a better word, dead look in them. Remus was concerned but took it just to mean he was still in a state of denial about the death of his Godfather. He himself had felt a similar way when James and Lily had died; it had taken a while for the news of their deaths to sink in.
"Fine," he answered back finally, but it couldn't be clearer he was lying. He looked like he hadn't got much sleep recently, but it was to be expected. After what had happened, anyone would experience some kind of nightmares because of it, and the teenager already had plenty of other memories that would disturb his sleep. It had not escaped Remus's notice when he had taught Harry at Hogwarts how hard it had been for the boy to come with a good enough happy memory to use to conjure the Patronus.
The rest of the order greeted him quickly, and Harry then turned back to Remus. "Are we leaving soon?" How are we getting there?"
"Yes, we're going as soon as we receive the signal, the same way as last year; broomsticks. Do you have your things ready?"
"They're upstairs, hang on let me go get them." Tonks once again bounded forward, and offered to go with him to help, and Harry smiled slightly at her, and the two of them left the room. Remus supposed Harry had probably not told his family he was leaving soon, so he decided it would be lest to leave them a letter like he had done last year, just to assure them that their nephew was safe. Of course, from what Ron and Hermione had told them about Harry's relatives, they may not be all that concerned, but still he was sure that a part of them must care at least a small amount for the boy. At least that's what he tried to tell himself.
Harry's POV
Harry was walking to his room, with an energetic Tonks bounding along behind him, glad he would be seeing the back of this place for another year, despite their destination.
"Just as clean as last year, of course," Tonks was saying brightly, "I still find it a bit unnatural."
"I know what you mean. Sorry about the mess in here though," he said as they entered his bedroom, "didn't really feel up to doing much cleaning. I hate staying here anyway."
"Surely it's not that bad." Harry could not summon the energy to correct her, and was saved replying to her anyway, as she picked up his trunk, and shrunk it along with Hedwig's cage. "Got your broomstick? Oh yes there it is. I still can't believe you have a firebolt! I got a new broom last year; a Nimbus 2000!"
Harry smiled inwardly to himself, remembering his first broomstick, which had also been a Nimbus. Professor McGonagall had given it to him after accidentally finding out Harry had a unusual talent for flying, while he was sticking up for Neville. He had been very fond of that broomstick, until it had been destroyed by the whomping willow in his third year. Now, however he had his firebolt and he treasured it much more than he ever had his Nimbus. Not because it was an international standard broom, but because it had been one of his few gifts from Sirius.
He was very grateful Tonks stopped that train of thought, by saying, "come on then, they'll be waiting for us downstairs. We'll be receiving the signal at any minute.
5 minutes later Harry was with the others on the front lawn getting ready to take off. Moody had once again disillusioned him. "Alright, Potter the same thing as last year, no matter what happens to us, you keep going. The rear guard is standing by to take over in case we all get taken out." Part of Harry thought Moody was being his usual paranoid self, but the other part of him was glad he was taking this so seriously and was terrified at the thought of anyone else dying because of him.
They took of, as they received the second signal, and Harry felt the familiar sensation of his worries being left behind him as he rose into the air. The dark thoughts and worries he had of Sirius and the prophecy had by no means left him, but he felt as though they had lessoned slightly. He remembered in his fourth year when he had faced the dragon in the first task. He had spent weeks of being terrified of what would happen in that task, especially when Hagrid had shown him what he would be facing, but when he had taken flight he had found that he had left his fears behind him on the ground. From the first moment he had tried it, flying had felt easy. He had never had to be shown how to do it, and as soon as he had first taken flight that day in his first year, he had found it to be one of the most wonderful things in the world.
As they travelled, Moody was taking them round in circles, and everyone else was getting impatient, except Harry. This year he didn't even really feel the cold, he just wanted to stay up there forever, away from the world that involved the prophecy, away from the guilt he felt about Sirius. He sincerely hoped that the ban of last year would be lifted; he couldn't wait to be back on the pitch. He suddenly realised how many new members they would need this year. They couldn't keep using the useless beaters they had last year, and Alicia, Angelina, Fred and George had all left last year. That just left Katie, a seventh year, himself, Ron, and possibly Ron's sister Ginny.
All too soon, in his opinion, they landed outside number eleven Grimmauld place, and unfortunately Harry was brought back to earth. They walked closer to the buildings, and this year Harry knew what to do. He imagined the note that Dumbledore had written last year, 'The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can by found at number 12 Grimmauld place, London.' Number 12 then seemed to suddenly appear; pushing aside numbers 11 and 13, and Moody, Remus, Tonks and the others followed him as he reluctantly walked up the steps, and opened the front doors.
Even though he had been expecting it, the memories of Sirius that hit him made him feel completely unprepared for the resultant onslaught of emotions that surged through him. He stood there silently, taking in his surroundings, trying to keep his emotions in check, and his face neutral, and he felt an intense gaze locked on him.
He turned to find Remus staring at him, and as their gazes met, Harry for the first time noticed the pain, that should have been so easy for him to notice, in the man's eyes. Harry suddenly felt guilty again; he had been so preoccupied with his own grief that he had not realized Remus would be just as upset, if not more so than he was being back here. It must have been just as hard for him to return here, as it was for Harry.
As they looked at each other, Harry realised that this wizard was the closest connection to his parents that he had left, and he slightly smiled at him. His first real smile in weeks; only very small, but it was there. Remus returned it, and put his hand on Harry's shoulder briefly, comforting him, before they both walked further into the house. Harry sighed to himself; it was going to be a long summer.
A/N there's chapter 4! I'm not sure I'm all that happy with it, especially the ending. If anyone has anyone ideas on how I could improve it, they're all very welcome! Please leave a review, tell me what you think!
