Lies

By Neurotica

Twenty-Five

After the dream Harry had previous to his first Occlumency lesson, Dumbledore reported to Sirius and Remus that Snape had been present at that particular Death Eater meeting. The test subject Voldemort had spoken of was a mystery to the spy, but he said he would look into it.

The Headmaster had insisted he be present at Harry's second lesson with Emmeline, and didn't seem surprised at Harry's progress and quick grasp of Occlumency. There weren't too many things Harry, or anybody else, for that matter, could do to surprise Dumbledore; he'd seen too much in his long life.

On Thursday evening, Harry was preparing to go and stay with the Weasleys for the night. Sirius and Remus had asked Molly and Arthur if they could take Harry while they were on Department of Mysteries' guard duty. The redheads were more than happy to oblige, saying Harry was welcome anytime.

"What time is Molly expecting Harry?" Remus asked, slightly short of breath as he ran into Sirius' bedroom.

Sirius was lying on his bed, quietly reading a book. Normally, a scene such as this would make Remus quite suspicious, but he didn't seem to care at the moment. "I don't know," Sirius muttered, turning a page in his book without looking up.

"Well, Kingsley just Flooed. Elphias Doge's been sick; he can't finish duty tonight, which means we have to go in early."

"Bloody hell!" Sirius whined, closing his book. "I just got home! I don't want to go back so soon!"

"That's perfectly fine with me, Padfoot," Remus said. "I'll go by myself to the Ministry tonight. And when six Death Eaters show up, kill me, and get the prophecy, the guilt can fall on you."

"First of all, stop being so damn dramatic," Sirius said. "And why is Doge by himself?"

"Don't know." Remus shrugged. "It's daytime, the Ministry is packed... I guess Dumbledore didn't feel the need to take people off their day jobs."

"What time do we need to be there, then?" Sirius asked, changing out of his Ministry robes and into Muggle clothing.

"Soon as possible. Kingsley made an excuse to get Tonks off work early, so she's covering for Elphias," Remus answered.

Sirius nodded. "I'll go make sure Harry is ready, then."


Instead of packing an overnight bag as he was supposed to be doing, Harry had decided to test out his Animagus form again. His small wings carried him from one side of the room to the other in less than a second. This is better than my Firebolt, Harry thought happily. He landed on top of a large wardrobe in his room to catch his breath.

In less than a year and a half, Harry had succeeded in his transformation. He'd listened raptly when Sirius would explain all the problems he and James had experienced while they were becoming Animagi. He'd known in the beginning what could go wrong, and luckily, had avoided many of the things that had happened with the Marauders.

Harry stepped to the edge of the wardrobe and prepared to dive off. He stopped, however, when the door to his bedroom opened. Harry's small green eyes widened as Sirius looked around the room perplexed, and made to leave again. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, causing his small, perfectly round body to heave. The relief was short-lived; the bedroom door had burst open again.

Sirius' mouth was open slightly as he slowly walked to the wardrobe, his eyes never leaving Harry. Harry gulped noiselessly and backed into the wall behind the wardrobe, hoping to hide himself from his godfather. He thought he'd succeeded until he heard the scraping of a chair across the bedroom floor and saw Sirius cautiously peek over the edge of the wardrobe.

"Harry?" Sirius said doubtfully. Harry slowly made his way towards Sirius. "No way," he muttered in amazement. "How did you... wow..."

Gently, Sirius reached out and picked the small bird up from the wardrobe. He stepped off the chair and immediately had to sit. "Well, that figures, I suppose," he said, commenting on Harry's Animagus form. "See you couldn't get rid of that scar, but it actually looks kind of cool."

"Sirius!" Remus called, entering the room.

Sirius stood and hid Harry behind his back. "Yes, Remus?" he asked innocently.

Remus cocked an eyebrow in suspicion. "Where's Harry?" he asked slowly, looking around the room and back to Sirius.

"Er, don't know. He might be downstairs already," Sirius replied casually.

"Yeah? What's that behind your back?" Remus asked, moving closer.

"Nothing," Sirius said quickly, backing away from his friend, careful not to hurt his godson.

"Sirius, we don't have time for whatever prank you're trying to pull. We've got to find Harry and get him to the Weasleys," Remus said in exasperation. Before Sirius could do anything, Remus suddenly called, "Accio!"

Harry zoomed from Sirius' hand with a squeak, trying to fight the spell and get away from Remus. Remus, however, had always had sharp reflexes; he caught Harry easily.

"Not bad, Moony," Sirius commented. "You'd have made a decent Seeker."

Remus ignored his friend and examined the wriggling bird in his hand while Sirius looked on with that bloody innocent expression that had never fooled anyone with any sense. To the werewolf, the tiny golden bird looked like a Snidget, but with deliberate mistakes. Instead of the ruby red eyes a Snidget normally had, this one had emerald green ones. Not to mention the black feather in the shape of a lightning bolt on its back.

Remus sighed and sat the bird on Harry's bed. "Might as well transform back; you're already caught," he said calmly.

Hesitantly, the bird began to change and grow into a guilty-faced Harry. "Hey, Remus," he said with a little wave.

"Hello, Harry," Remus said flatly. He looked over at Sirius. The Head Auror was glancing around the room obliviously, apparently waiting to catch the blame. "Do you have your bag packed?" he asked Harry.

"Um, no..." Harry said slowly, looking at Remus as if he was mad.

"Well, please hurry. Molly is expecting you for dinner, and Sirius and I have to leave soon," Remus said before walking out of the room.

Sirius and Harry watched Remus' retreating back with increasing confusion. "What was that?" Sirius whispered, semi-horrified.

"I don't know," Harry said uneasily. "Is he sick?"

"Don't think so," Sirius replied. "Get ready to go. I'll talk to him."


Remus walked down to the kitchen with a large smile forming on his face. He hadn't wanted to say anything to Harry—he wanted the teenager to think he was in trouble (another tactic he'd learned from McGonagall)—but he was actually quite proud of his surrogate godson. It had taken James and Sirius the better part of three years to do what Harry had done in half that time. Remus had known for certain that Harry would not heed their warnings about stopping the Animagus transformations—what Marauder would? Especially when the warning had come from fellow Marauders.

While it would have been better for Harry to listen to what Sirius and Remus had told him (Remus would be having a talk with the teen tomorrow), Remus couldn't bring himself to be angry with Harry. It took a lot of intelligence and magical capability to become an Animagus, and it filled Remus with a sense of swelling pride to know he and Sirius had obviously done something right in raising Lily and James' son.

"Er, Remus?" Sirius said hesitantly, approaching his grinning friend.

"Yes?" Remus said casually.

"You're scaring us," Sirius said bluntly. "What's wrong with you?"

Remus chuckled. "Nothing's wrong with me, Sirius. We've raised another illegal Animagus. Why would anything be wrong?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You're not angry?"

Remus shrugged. "Not really, no."

"Okay, who the hell are you and what have you done with Remus?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Padfoot. Can't I, for once, just be happy without everyone wondering about my sanity?"

"No," Sirius replied.


Just past midnight in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, all was quiet and peaceful. The home of Molly and Arthur Weasley, dubbed the Burrow, was, as all homes should be at this hour, dark and calm. Molly and Arthur were sleeping soundly while they believed their children to be doing the same in their own rooms.

In reality, however, four of the five Weasley children who resided in the house were gathered in Ron's room around Harry and his overnight bag. By light from a flashlight Fred held up, Harry pulled out a silver liquid-looking cloak. Ginny gasped quietly at the sight of it as Fred dropped the flashlight. He and George tentatively reached out their hands to touch it, identical looks of awe on their faces.

"Where'd you get it?" Fred asked softly, obviously highly impressed.

"It was my dad's," Harry said proudly.

"Brilliant," George whispered.

"Are we just going to sit here all night or are we going to play Quidditch?" Ron asked with a grin.

"There's no way we can all fit under that," Ginny said skeptically. "If Mum finds even one of us, we're all in a world of hurt."

"Ah, right," Ron responded, still grinning and looking at Harry. "Looks like we've got a problem there, mate."

Harry smirked. "You lot take the cloak and get our broomsticks. I'll meet you in the orchard."

"And how do you plan on getting out there without anybody catching you? Mum can here us sneeze in a dead sleep," Ginny said doubtfully.

"Leave that to me," Harry said mysteriously. Three sets of raised eyebrows met him. "Go on, I'll see you out there," he said, handing George the Invisibility Cloak.

George covered himself and his siblings with the cloak, but not before Ron could send Harry one last wink. Once the Weasleys were out of the room, Harry went to Ron's bedroom window, opened it, and transformed into the Snidget. He soared through the window in the direction of the orchard that he and the Weasleys used for Quidditch practice.

The night air was cool as it moved through Harry's feathers. He breathed in deeply, filling his small lungs with a fresh, calming breeze. In no time at all he landed in the center of a clearing, surrounded on all sides by large trees, and waited patiently for his friends to appear.

"How did you get here so fast?" George demanded when he pulled the cloak from his head and tossed it to Harry.

"Yeah, did you learn to Apparate?" Fred asked.

"Marauder's secret." Harry smirked again.

Ron laughed at the bewildered looks on his brothers' and sister's faces and handed Harry his Firebolt. Shaking their heads at one another, Fred, George, and Ginny mounted their own brooms and set off into the sky. They lit lanterns they'd hidden in the trees, giving them plenty of light to play by.

Using a charmed Muggle golf ball Mr. Weasley had given them as a Snitch, and an old soccer ball they'd found in the forest as a Quaffle, they played long into the night. Ron was, as always, Keeper, Ginny and Fred were opposing Chasers, Harry played Seeker, and George was a human-Bludger.

By two-thirty, the five Gryffindors deemed themselves too tired to carry on. Harry caught the charmed golf ball one last time and flew to meet his friends on the ground. Harry took the Invisibility Cloak from Ginny and led the way back to the Burrow.

Laughing and joking with the Weasleys, Harry turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. He'd nearly run into a hooded figure. For a moment he thought it was Mr. or Mrs. Weasley, but then he noticed the white mask covering the figure's face.

"Harry, what's the hold—" Fred broke off as he stepped behind Harry.

"Hello, children," the figure said softly. "Have a nice game?"


Sirius sat silently beside Remus against a wall just outside the entrance to the Department of Mysteries. The night had been downright boring; at the moment Sirius was hoping for a Death Eater to show up just to provide some momentary excitement. He'd finished three different crosswords, played Hangman with Remus, and as a last resort, finished a report on Death Eaters for Minister Bones. His eyelids were beginning to close as he counted the number of cracks in the ceiling above him. At eighty-seven, he felt Remus start next to him.

"Remus?" he said. Both were covered with individual Invisibility Cloaks belonging to Mad-Eye, making it quite difficult for the two wizards to see what the other was doing.

"What?" Remus muttered sleepily.

Sirius chuckled. "Just making sure you're awake."

"I'm awake." Remus yawned loudly. "What time is it?"

"Three. We've still got four hours."

"Bloody hell."

Sirius grinned and shook his head. "I'm having a bad influence on you, I think," he said to his friend.

"You've always had a bad influence on me, Sirius. That's how I received two hundred detentions between second and seventh year."

The humor faded quickly as the two heard hurried footsteps coming down the dark, seemingly deserted corridor. Immediately, Sirius stood and withdrew his wand from his jeans, staying under the cloak. He could feel, rather than hear, Remus do the same next to him.

After a few tense seconds, Tonks ran around a corner, nearly tripping over her own feet, and looking around wildly.

"Sirius?" she whispered uncertainly.

"Tonks?" Sirius removed the hood of the cloak from his head. "What're you doing here? Isn't it past your bedtime?" he teased.

"There's been another attack," Tonks patted, intentionally ignoring her cousin's dig at her age. "At Arthur Weasley's place."

"What?" Remus nearly shouted, taking off his own cloak.

"Yeah. We got a call from the Diggorys. Amos said he thought he saw something going on down there."

Not wasting a moment—not wondering how Amos Diggory could see something going on a miles away from his home—Sirius dropped the Invisibility Cloak and sprinted down the corridor, Remus and Tonks right on his heels, towards Auror Headquarters.

"We can't Apparate," Remus breathed.

"The hell we can't," Sirius growled, muttering the counter jinx for the Apparition charm around the building. A second later, he disappeared with a furious pop.

Remus waited a moment for Tonks to catch up, instructed her to contact Dumbledore, and Apparated to the Burrow.


"Not bad, Harry," George said. Harry had just pulled off a stunning spell on the Death Eater who had ambushed them.

"What should we do with him?" Ginny asked quietly, trembling slightly. Fred gave her a brief one-armed hug.

"Leave him here." Harry grunted as he and George rolled the Death Eater into the trees. "Everyone got their wands?"

"Mine's in my room," Ron said.

"Dammit, Ron," Fred muttered. "Come on. Where there's one, there'll be ten more."

Harry threw Ron the Invisibility Cloak and told him to run to the nearest neighbor, the Lovegoods, to use their fireplace. Stealthily, Harry, Fred, George, and Ginny crept through the trees and hid behind the Weasleys' garage as they spotted three Death Eaters moving towards the front door.

"Oh no," Ginny gasped, pointing to an upstairs window. The other three looked up and saw what was unmistakably wandfire coming from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's bedroom.

"They'll be okay," Harry assured Ginny quietly. He took aim, motioning for the others to do the same. "Any spell you can think of on three... One... Two... THREE! DIFFINDO!"

Four jets of light shot from their wands towards the Death Eaters. Caught by surprise, two of them were hit—one with Harry's curse, sending him flying backwards, the other by Fred's boil hex. The remaining Death Eater was hit by a stunner coming from behind him. Harry slowly moved to peek around the side of the garage and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Sirius running towards them.

"All right?" Sirius called.

"Yeah!" Harry called back. "There're more inside!"

Nodding, Sirius ran to the front door. He blasted it off its hinges and disappeared in the house.

"Harry!" they heard Remus shout. "Are you okay? Where's Ron?"

"Ran to get help!" George said.

"Sirius?"

"Inside," Harry said before stunning the boil-faced Death Eater.


Remus left the teenagers to join Sirius. He took the stairs two at a time as he headed to Molly and Arthur's room. He crossed the threshold to see Sirius checking the pulses of two unmasked, unfamiliar Death Eaters. Arthur was nursing a bleeding shoulder while Molly huddled close to a white-faced, shaking Percy.

"The other kids are outside," Remus said quietly to Molly, moving to check Arthur's arm for any sort of infection.

"How did they get out there?" Molly asked shrilly.

"Good question," Sirius said flatly. "They're stunned," he said, gesturing to the Death Eaters. "We'll take them and the other three to the Ministry. Molly, Arthur, Percy, pack a few bags; you can stay with us at Number Twelve."


Half an hour later, the Weasleys' front yard was full of Aurors investigating the scene. Remus had just finished talking with Dumbledore via the fireplace and entered the kitchen to find Harry and his friends being questioned thoroughly about what had happened. Ron had returned with Mr. Lovegood not long after Remus had run inside the house.

"You five did very well tonight," Sirius said to the teenagers as they sat at the table with hot tea in front of them. "You shouldn't have been out, but I am quite proud of all of you." Remus and Arthur nodded in agreement.

"Why were they here?" Ginny asked quietly.

Sirius could think of many reasons instantly: Harry was at the Burrow, Molly and Arthur were in the Order of the Phoenix, Arthur was a Ministry employee, the Weasleys were hated by most Voldemort supporters, possibly Voldemort himself. The list went on and on. Without exchanging a glance with Remus and Arthur, Sirius answered Ginny's question as best he could. "I really don't know. But we will find out," he said. "Right now, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you lot are safe."

Before leaving the Burrow, Sirius had Harry lead him and Remus to the spot where Harry and George had left the last Death Eater. The Weasleys had already left by portkey to Order Headquarters.

"Where'd you learn how to stun?" Remus asked, examining the unconscious Death Eater.

Harry looked at his godfather who quickly looked away, whistling innocently.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Been teaching him Defense techniques again, Padfoot?"

"And get him in trouble with the Ministry? Never! I'm disappointed that you'd ever think so lowly of me, Moony!" Sirius said in mock-outrage.

"You're a moron, Sirius," Remus commented casually. Harry grinned. "And you, Harry, I am quite shocked with you. First you become an Animagus right under our noses—how we never realized before tonight is beyond me—and then you become a dueling wizard. Impressive."

"But I meant what I said," Sirius said, losing his humor. "You five shouldn't have been out tonight. Midnight Quidditch isn't worth being killed over. Of course, if you would have been in the house, it could have turned out worse, but that isn't the point."

"Let's get back," Remus said quietly, not looking at the other two, remembering the last time he'd played Midnight Quidditch during a war... "I'm sure we're all exhausted." Sirius looked at him apologetically, but he missed it.

Together, the three of them walked back to the Burrow, the stunned Death Eater on a stretcher directed by Sirius.

Kingsley had been heading the investigation. Sirius' second-in-command met them half way across the garden with a Portkey to take them back to Number Twelve.

Before leaving, Kingsley informed them that all of the underage wizarding charges would be dropped on the grounds of self-defense. Harry, of course, hadn't even thought about that aspect until Kingsley mentioned it, but thanked him and touched the old leather boot Sirius held out, taking him, his godfather, and Remus back to Grimmauld Place.