Chapter 7: A Double Escape

Derek was sitting on the porch of number 13, Grimmauld Place. He was absently "honing" the knives that he had piled to one side of him. He wasn't really sure what in Merlin's name that meant that he was doing, but he kept doing it because his partner said it was a good reason to be sitting on the porch. Derek couldn't imagine why anyone would need so many knives though. He still wasn't sure whether this would work.

He cast a glance over to the "next-door" neighboring house. James Potter was sitting there, doing something equally mindless, though he had not shared what it was that he was doing. Derek couldn't see him to try to figure it out, either. Not that he'd know. Apparently this was a place that Muggles were on occasion, and they had to be doing things that a Muggle might do on their porch. Even if it was in the middle of the night.

Derek only hoped that the people in numbers 11 and 13 Grimmauld Place were really on vacation.

James had told him all sorts of things that he was still processing in his head as that morning had faded into afternoon, and then to evening. The first was the one that he was the most leery about. Sirius Black lived at number 12 Grimmauld Place. And yet, here Derek was, honing knives or whatever on the front porch of number 13, and next door was James Potter who was sitting on the front porch of number 11, doing Merlin knows what. And there was no number 12.

Now, Derek rationalized to himself that this was magic. Of course it was; any pureblood family forced to live this close to muggle quarters took precautions. Derek was merely surprised that he, as a pureblood, and James as another pureblood, could not see the house if it truly did exist. Why did they need to be invisible from fellow purebloods? There was no reason that came to mind to Derek, and that's why he wasn't very happy with this turn of events. The other events actually encouraged him, in a way.

Sirius Black was stuck in a similar situation that Derek was. Not that it was exactly the same… Sirius knew where his loyalties lay… he knew who he was and what that meant. Something that Derek did not have. But that was the main difference between the two of them. Sirius was in a family that did not particularly think that he was loyal to his own blood. In Sirius's case, of course, they were right. So James had told him that it had become unbearable in the last few days, and Sirius was planning on running away.

"So, what does that mean for us?" Derek asked, still leaning back on the couch in the receiving room of the Potter Mansion.

"It means," James said, leaning in, "that we need to be there to make sure he succeeds."

Derek looked dubious. "And you need me?"

James sighed. "I can't do it alone. Remus is otherwise occupied for the next few days and it's hard to get him out of the house anyhow. Peter is sick and can't help… so I'm the only one of us that can do this."

"And that's why you need me."

"Bingo."

Derek did wish that he wasn't so bored. They had been sitting there for what seemed like many hours, but Derek knew that it had really been less than an hour. The sun was not quite entirely set yet, and its last feeble rays were peeking over some of the other buildings in western London. Soon no rays of light would reach them at all, and that was when James said it was likely to happen. If Sirius could take care of what happened within the house, it stood to reason that he would be able to get out of there on his own… But James had made a deal, and Derek was fully intent on keeping his part of the deal up.

James looked up at the darkening sky, seemingly gauging the amount of sunlight that was left. Since Sirius had not given them a specific time, just sunset, it stood to reason that they both should be ready at a moment's notice. James nodded at Derek, and he returned it. Be ready, the instant things began to happen, they would happen very quickly. Sure that the knife he was holding needed no more "honing", Derek switched with one of the knives he hadn't done yet, and continued to work.

All of a sudden, Derek spotted Black, running straight out of a house that had not been there in the first place, and Derek felt a funny feeling that the porch he was sitting on had just been pushed aside to let the new house in. It was quite the grand place, but Derek couldn't dwell on that. He and James rose and sprinted down to the entrance of the house that had just appeared. James ran after Sirius with his invisibility cloak and broom in hand, while Derek ran as if he had come from number 12 instead of number 13.

Sirius had kept his word, and with a little effort on Mr. Potter's part, Derek looked from the back exactly as Sirius did, down to every stitch of clothing. Derek only hoped that Sirius was away before…

"SIRIUS BLACK! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"

…his mother got out of the house.

Derek was to keep running until a particular thing happened. But once that happened, he only had a few moments before he had to call the Knight Bus and get on. He had to make it look like Sirius had gotten on the Knight Bus before Mrs. Black was able to figure out that he wasn't her son. So that she would waste precious time trying to find him on the train, and having the only one that she could find be him. It had to be very fast.

Derek felt ready, and threw out his arm the instant that Mrs. Black yelled again. "SIRIUS! I SEE YOU!"

The Knight Bus appeared with a BANG, nearly drowning out the second sentence. Derek hopped on and said to Fred, "Diagon Alley!"

"SIRIUS! YOU GET BACK-"

"You heard him, Ern'!"

The Bus disappeared with another BANG! as Mrs. Black Apparated to right next to the Bus to try to grab Derek. She only managed to barely graze the back of the cape that he was wearing. The instant that the Bus was gone, Derek pulled a small vial out of his pocket, and drank it down. The back of him returned to exactly as it had been that morning when he had left his home. He only had time to sit down heavily before the Bus changed again with another BANG! Mrs. Black got on next.

"WHERE IS MY SON!" She screamed at Fred and Ernie, and without waiting for an answer she turned on the rest of the bus, who was looking at her aghast. Derek's insides squirmed at the fury on her face, but he forced his face to remain calm, something that he had been teaching himself for the past five years. He prayed desperately that he would not show a chink in the armor.

Mrs. Black walked up to Derek, and picked him up bodily by his shirt. It ripped slightly, but Derek pretended not to notice. "WHERE IS HE!"

"I haven't seen Sirius on the bus, ma'am." It was working!

"HOWEVER NOT!"

"Well, I just got on and slept for a while. Maybe he came on while I was sleeping."

Mrs. Black dropped him back into the armchair that he was in, turning her livid gaze on the rest of the passengers. She marched through them, giving each the same treatment that she had given Derek. She moved onto the second level, having had no luck with the first, but that did not mean for an instant that Derek and the rest of the passengers that night did not know what was going on. They couldn't always hear the answers to her questions, but they could always hear Mrs. Black's voice. Derek found an ounce of satisfaction rise in him when he heard her voice start to get hoarse.

She came back down, having had no luck, quite livid. More livid, in fact, than she was when she had first gotten on the train. She marched down the aisle again, and every passenger shied away from her as she passed. She walked up to Fred. She spoke in a deadly tone. "Have you seen my son?"

White-faced, Fred could only manage to shake his head.

"Then let me off at Grimmauld Place. NOW!"

Fred jumped, and told Ernie in a shaking voice to do it, and the Bus rocked with another BANG! They were back where they started. Mrs. Black glared at all of the people she could see in turn before spinning on her heel and walking with her nose in the clouds. When she had gotten off, the only sound heard for the next five minutes was the constant BANGs that the Knight Bus used to get around. Since Derek was used to that sound, he dozed for a while until they reached Diagon Alley.

Fred gently woke him up, and Derek was mildly surprised to find that he was laying on a bed instead of the armchair he had started in. Fred seemed a little quiet compared to his usual self, but he collected the fee from Derek and sent him off without a hitch, and they said their goodbyes and then with another BANG! the bus was gone.

Derek walked into the Leaky Cauldron and offered a tired hello to the barman. His name, so he said, was Tom, and he was just a barman who happened to be a good person to rant at. Then again, that was what made good barmen. Derek pulled up a stool and ordered a butterbeer to comfort his throat as he sat down to wait.

Tom handed him a butterbeer and grabbed the empty dirty glass that had been left at the spot next to Derek's and popped it into the sink behind him. Derek looked around. The Cauldron was rather empty that evening, with three at the bar, and only about ten or so at the tables surrounding. Derek imagined that it would grow more crowded as the night wore on, but he also imagined that he would be done there before it got too crowded.

"Your friend coming again?" Tom asked him, leaning on the bar, looking around to make sure that no one needed his help for anything.

"Yup."

Tom smiled, and rapped the bar once lightly. "I like you, you pay on time, you're quiet, you don't fuss, and you're nice to that girl. I must say that's more than your parents would do."

"I know."

Tom seemed to look at him a little funnily, the smile gone from his face. "I hope you stay that way then." And he walked away, as another customer had appeared at the bar. Derek took a drink of his butterbeer and thought about that for a while. Tom had just given him advice that was particularly meaningful… was this the way the normal world thought? Did he want to think like the normal world?

He was interrupted by the arrival of Sarah. She planted herself on Derek's left side and ordered another butterbeer. Derek asked to pick up the tab, and Sarah smacked him playfully. "I always bring the money, you know." But Derek merely smiled at her, like he had always smiled at her when she did that. "So what was the progress of the day?"

Derek shook his head slowly. "You won't believe it when I tell you, but you'll have to wait a few more minutes. Someone will be joining us, and he is slightly late." Sarah was surprised, and her eyebrows rose accordingly. Derek had expected this. "You'll see," is all he would give her.

It was about seven minutes later that James Potter was sitting down on Derek's right, and Sarah was flabbergasted. "J-j-James!" She said, not concealing her surprise (or her mild crush) at all. "B-but… Derek… and… you…"

"Came to terms," James finished.

"We've come to an agreement," Derek said at the same time.

The two boys smiled at each other, and Sarah took a large swig of her butterbeer to excuse herself from talking for a bit.

"Where's Sirius?" Derek asked.

"You can talk to him tomorrow, he's laying low and out of sight for a few days, so it's better if no one sees him outside of the house."

Derek let his smile show. "Your parents let him in?"

"They did, at that." James replied. "But I think that, after all that we talked about, it would not be prudent to pull the same trick on your parents too. Especially if the only place you can think of going is my house. Can't have too many fugitive purebloods staying in my room." James' smile became wry. "Not that I'd mind you staying in the same room. We've survived pretty long like that." All three teens shared a round of laughter. Tom looked up and smiled at them, though none of them noticed.

"What did you guys do?" Sarah asked.

"It was quite simple," came James's reply. "I got Sirius out of sight as quickly as possible while Derek kept his mother busy. A little luck and amazing timing saved both of our butts, and Sirius got all the way to my house without a hitch."

"I told him everything," Derek added, "and with a few agreements, a coming to terms, and a new understanding, he agreed to help me."

"That's wonderful!" Sarah exclaimed. "Surely this is progress on your way to finding yourself?"

Derek downed the rest of his butterbeer, and placed the flagon back down on the bar. "It has," he replied. "It has many things of progress that I never knew about, including a realization that I know nothing about muggles at all, that I know nothing about many of the other witches and wizards that I attend school with, and it's all because of the way I have been brought up. Through all this, I have made a decision.

"I have decided that I will hold against no one their blood or status of birth. Lily Evans has had me constantly questioning that aspect since third year, and it's about time I believe my own eyes. The way you are, James… the way that you are more than just the jerk who ruffles his hair to get attention…" James swatted him on the back, partially playing, "… the way you are a true friend to Sirius when he needed you most. Something that I have yet to have the chance to do, much less the honor of saying that I've done it. I can honor others and still be me; that I am sure of now.

"I just have to figure out how do deal with my parents." Tom had come and filled his glass, and he took another sip.

James clapped him on the back. "That's where the Marauders and Sarah here can come in for you. We may not have been the best of friends coming into this, but you helped a Marauder when, as you said, he needed it most, and you can bet Sirius was extremely grateful for your help, and I'm sure will be willing to work with you. You've been making progress with Sarah, and it's obvious Evans will help you." James paused thoughtfully.

Sarah cut in, throwing her arms around Derek. "I knew you'd come through! I knew it the whole time, when you dealt with me despite everything that I have to deal with, and you were willing to help me with my problems at home…" she shook her head as she disconnected from him. "I'm still surprised that I wake up in the morning in my own bed, and I still have a few reasons to smile about the day ahead."

"Now the real work begins," Derek said, sliding off the stool and tossing a few knuts and a sickle on the bar. James and Sarah followed suit. Derek turned to James. "Each day me and Sarah have met here, and we will continue to do so. If the Marauders would like to join us…"

"Once a week… say… Fridays…" James said, looking up and counting on his fingers, "We'll come and meet you here to discuss things. But I do want to have you over to talk about it too. I imagine my parents will have something to say about it, and Sirius will want his two cents heard when he hears you're in the same predicament he was in just a few hours ago."

Derek smiled, and put a hand on each of his companions' shoulders as they walked toward the fire to floo home. "I hope this is the start of a very meaningful relationship."

After the three were gone, Tom quickly wiped the tear from his eye as he smiled down at the glasses being washed. He knew he could trust the Fugue kid. He always knew somewhere that he was different than his parents.

"Go get 'em, Derek," he said, quietly.