Broken

By Neurotica

Eleven

The day Sirius, Remus, Julia, and Harry were to return to Privet Drive happened to be the day of the full moon (convenient, eh?). Remus told the others that he wanted to go back to his home in Kent for the night... alone. Sirius insisted on going with Remus, not wanting his friend to suffer another full moon alone—not to mention, he was quite eager to have another full moon experience under his belt. Reluctantly, Remus agreed—it had been a long time since Sirius had spent a full moon with him, and Remus wasn't sure about the Animagus' strength. Sirius told him to shut his mouth and stop being such a girl.

Julia wished them both good luck, Sirius a bit more than Remus, took Harry in her arms, and Flooed back to Number Nine. When she stepped out of the fireplace, she found her godson grinning up at her. "That was fun," he said quietly.

Julia chuckled, giving him an odd look, thinking he was too much like his father for his own good, and put him on the floor. Harry looked around and froze when he heard the all-too familiar laughter of his cousin, Dudley. She answered the silent question he was giving her when he turned away from the window. "You won't be going back there, Harry. Don't worry about your cousin. If he messes with you, he'll answer to me, and tomorrow, he'll answer to Sirius and Remus. Okay?"

Harry smiled weakly and nodded. "Kay," he said quietly.

Julia smiled. "Now, I'm afraid we really don't have anything for you to play with right now, but we do have the television. Do you like television, Harry?"

"Yeah," he said shyly. "But Dudley always gets to pick the show..."

The witch sighed. They really had a lot of work with this child... "Well, tonight we'll watch whatever you want. And if there's nothing on the telly, I'll take you to the cinema. How does that sound?"

Judging by the smile on Harry's face, Julia would say her offer sounded too good to be true to him.

Sirius and Remus sat at the kitchen table of Remus' cottage in silence. It wasn't awkward silence, though; they'd gotten over that last week. Currently, they were remembering the adventures they experienced at Hogwarts with Prongs... and Wormtail before he turned into a traitorous bastard.

Around 6:30, Remus began to pale and sweat. He could no longer hold up his butterbeer bottle, and had the beginnings of the shakes. Sirius quickly drained the rest of his drink and went to help his friend.

"Come on, Moony," he said softly, putting an arm around Remus' waist. In turn, Remus put one of his weak arms around Sirius' shoulder.

Carefully, they went down the stairs together to the basement Remus used for his transformations. It was the same as Sirius remembered it to be: bare and dirty. He could see spots of blood Remus had missed during clean-up from his last full moon. He'll be okay tonight, Sirius thought firmly. I'll be sure of that...

"Sirius," Remus said hoarsely, allowing Sirius to help lower him to the ground.

"Yeah?" Sirius said, assisting Remus in exchanging his old robes for a blanket. If the only robes Remus has are these dirty old rags, maybe he should wear them, tear them up, and let me buy him some new ones... He'd deserve them... Sirius thought.

"Thank you," Remus said quietly.

Sirius looked up, realizing Remus wasn't just talking about his clothes. He nodded and smiled, not sure if he could just say thank you in return to his best friend. "Anytime," he said for the time being.

Remus' entire body stiffened and Sirius backed away into the stairs, transforming into Padfoot, and turning away—Remus didn't like people watching him transform. The screams of pain coming from the other side of the basement reminded Sirius of Azkaban.

But this isn't Azkaban, and I'll never go back there, he thought forcefully.

Ten minutes later, the screams were replaced with loud, painful howls. Remus' transformation was complete. Slowly, Padfoot turned around to face the brown werewolf curled up, whining in pain, facing away from him.

Moony started to growl deeply in his throat. There was a familiar scent behind him, but he couldn't turn around just yet. He'd known that scent in his youth—the scent brought him images of trees and lakes and stags, rats, and dogs. The scent belonged to a friend, a pack mate. But why had it taken so long for the large black dog to return? Moony had been waiting for five long years for his friends to join him after their sudden disappearances. Not until now did one of them join him. And where was the stag's scent? He realized the rat wasn't a friend anymore, but Moony still wanted the stag and the dog together—it just wasn't the same without the stag...

Suddenly, Moony was angry. He sprang up to face the dog. The dog, thinner than Moony recalled, studied him thoughtfully, not showing any sign of fear as Moony bared his teeth in threat. He wasn't really threatening the dog, but demanding to know where the stag had gotten to... He really liked the stag...

Moony's growls became louder, and the dog stood his ground, starting to growl as well, but his were playful—it was the growl Moony remembered the dog using when they first met. Moony's friend was back—a little beat up, a little tortured, but he was back.

Moony barked. He was taught how to bark by the dog. The dog barked back, his tongue hanging out in a canine-grin.

Moony bent his front knees, laying his head on the ground with his tail wagging happily in the air. Padfoot made a sound like a chuckle. Padfoot... that was the dog's name...

The two canines wrestled like old times, but going easier on one another than they used to—they still had to get used to each other again. They played for hours, remembering the stag and the stag's young fawn, and Padfoot's mate. They would be a family, a pack, like they should have been years ago.

Finally, Moony and Padfoot seemed to tire each other out. They curled up in front of a small window close to the basement's ceiling watching the moon, waiting for it to wane.

Next morning, once Remus had gained some of his strength back, he and Sirius Flooed back to Number Nine, Privet Drive. They found Julia and Harry curled up together on the sofa across from the fireplace, an empty bowl of popcorn, fizzy Muggle drink cans, and candy wrappers littering the coffee table in front of them.

Sirius grinned at the sight. "Looks like they had a lot of fun, eh?" he said quietly to Remus.

Remus chuckled hoarsely. "I guess we missed out," he joked. He left Sirius to wake the other two while he went upstairs to take a long, hot bath.

Sirius stood in place for a moment, just watching Julia and Harry sleep, a soft smile forming on his pale face. This is the way things should have been... No, he corrected himself immediately. Lily and James should have never been killed. But if this is what I have to settle for, it'll do just fine.

Julia must have sensed his stare—she began to stir. He moved forward and knelt beside the sofa, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "Morning," he greeted softly as she opened her eyes.

She smiled for a moment as though waking from a wonderful dream to find it had come true. "Morning," she said. "How's Remus?"

"Fine," he replied quietly, not wanting to wake Harry. "Did you two have a late night? Should I be jealous?" he teased.

She laughed softly. "Oh yes, Padfoot, I'm leaving you for our godson."

Sirius smirked. "I won't allow it. He's mine."

Julia rolled her eyes. "You're such a prat," she whispered.

"Language, love. And yes, I am, but you still love me."

"Keep thinking that, Black," she muttered as he leaned in to kiss her.

Their moment was interrupted by a yawn. Sirius pulled away from her and chuckled. "Now I know what James was talking about, how Harry always used to interrupt him and Lily."

Julia glared at him slightly, though her lips were twitching, and looked down at her godson. "Good morning, Harry," she said quietly.

Harry opened his emerald green eyes and looked around for a moment as though he wasn't sure where he was. Probably thinks it's all a dream, Sirius thought sadly. I'm in the same mode of thought, kid.

"Hand me his glasses, Sirius," Julia requested. Sirius did, and watched Julia gently place the glasses on Harry's face. She'd repaired them a few days before, taking away the need for spello- tape on the bridge of the round-rimmed spectacles.

"Hi," Harry said a bit shyly to Julia.

"Hi," Julia smiled. "Look, Sirius is back."

Harry turned his head and smiled when he spotted his godfather. "Hi, Sirius," he said quietly.

"Hey, kid," Sirius said, moving some hair away from Harry's forehead. "How are you?"

"Good," the child responded. "Is Remus back too?"

Sirius nodded. "He's just upstairs taking a bath. He smells," he added in a loud whisper, causing Harry to giggle and Julia to slap his shoulder.

"What?" Sirius asked, rubbing his shoulder. "It's true."

Harry giggled harder, and Julia could no longer hide her smile.

"Okay, who wants breakfast?" Sirius said, standing and rubbing his hands together.

"Are you cooking?" Julia asked with a raised eyebrow. Sirius nodded happily. "Then you're on your own. I won't let you poison Harry with your wretched cooking," she said, sitting up with Harry beside her. The two stood and started towards the kitchen.

Sirius pulled her back by her arm. "I seem to remember," he began huskily, "that you rather enjoyed my breakfasts after our," he cleared his throat, "late nights."

Julia rolled her eyes, refusing to be fooled by Sirius Black's charm. "That was a long time ago, Black," she said airily, pushing away from him. "Besides, I've found somebody else. You could learn a few things from Harry. Now that's a wizard."

Sirius looked into the kitchen to where Harry was trying to climb the counter for a drinking glass. "Yes, I see what you mean," he said gravely. "Very well, you may cook breakfast."

Julia and Remus stood outside the small bedroom they'd set up for Harry and watched the child play with his godfather. Since Sirius couldn't exactly show his face in public, Julia and Remus went out to a Muggle toy store to buy Harry some things for his birthday. Sirius had insisted they use money from his Gringotts vault, converted into Muggle currency, to make their purchases.

"Look, my mother's dead now, and the Black family fortune is mine. There's nothing in the world that would make Mother Dearest turn in her grave quicker than spending all her gold on Muggle toys for the Boy-Who-Lived," Sirius said almost cheerfully.

Eventually, Remus and Julia agreed (mainly to keep Sirius content and happy) and left Sirius and Harry alone in Number Nine—a decision they were sure to regret later. When they'd returned some four hours later, their arms laden down with shopping bags, they received a shock to find that not only had the house been in one piece, but Sirius and Harry were quietly sitting on the sofa reading a book.

"Oh, hello," Sirius said, spotting the two of them. "How was shopping?"

Remus and Julia exchanged a startled glance. Sirius was acting a bit too innocently for anyone's good, and Harry seemed to have trouble breathing—his face was turning red as though he was holding his breath to keep from giving something away.

"Fine," Julia said slowly. "What did you do to the house, dear?" she added suspiciously.

"Nothing," Sirius replied.

Soon after, it was discovered that Sirius dyed all of Remus' clothes bright yellow. What wasn't clear, however, was how he'd done it; Sirius Black didn't have a wand. Julia found empty bottles of food coloring in the trash later that night...

Harry's sixth birthday was a quiet affair—the only guest that could attend was Dumbledore. While Sirius and Harry explored the new toys (including a Mister Potato Head), Remus and Julia spoke with the Headmaster in the kitchen.

It was requested that the Dursleys be notified of Harry's new living arrangements. Remus was none too surprised to find out that Petunia and Vernon hadn't even reported Harry missing to Muggle authorities, and they found out that Petunia was telling her neighbors that Harry was in a detention camp for troubled children for the remainder of the summer.

"The wards surrounding Privet Drive protecting Harry will fall the very moment you tell Petunia where and with whom Harry is now residing," Dumbledore explained. "You may or may not stay on Privet Drive—I will leave that decision to you. But I must once again impress the importance of wherever you go, new charms and wards will need to be placed.

The next afternoon, while Sirius was occupied with Harry's Muggle toys, Remus and Julia crossed the street to Number Four. When Petunia finally answered the door, she was quite shocked to find Norris Prewitt in the company of her sister's freak best friend, Julia. Remus broke the truth of his identity and saw with a large amount of satisfaction that Petunia seemed to be torn between fear and anger.

They told Petunia quite patiently that Harry was safe in their care, and that the boy would not be returning to Number Four ever again. Remus suddenly felt a surge of magic around them—looking to his right, Julia had obviously felt it as well; Petunia remained oblivious. The wards protecting Harry on Privet Drive had fallen.

It was now their responsibility to keep Harry safe, a responsibility that should have been theirs to begin with, a responsibility that they were more than willing to take on. Nothing would happen to Harry as long as they had anything to do with it. He would no longer be neglected or unloved. He would have whatever he wanted, and would no longer have to go without because of a selfish family who despised his very being. He would go to Hogwarts and become the wizard Lily and James dreamed he would become.

Julia and Remus left Petunia Dursley's doorstep with a new outlook on life. Everything had changed in a week's time, and neither could remember being happier about change.

Next on their agenda was to find Wormtail and clear Sirius' name.