Consequences
By Neurotica
Eleven
As promised by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Percy Weasley was taken to Azkaban Prison a week after his capture along with the other Death Eaters in Ministry custody. His mother, Molly, had put up quite the show with her tears and wailing as her baby was led away by Kingsley and his partner, Sirius Black. For weeks, it had been hard for either Auror to look her in the eye. Neither of them could imagine what must feel like for her to see her son locked up on charges of following the very wizard she and her husband were fighting against.
There wasn't much sympathy to be spared for the Weasleys, however; the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic were busier than ever as they attempted to capture the dark wizards responsible for an increased amount of tortures and deaths. Nobody was safe any longer, not wizards, not Muggles. The Muggle Prime Minister had been informed of the tragedies occurring in the magical community. He'd worked closely and quietly with Minister for Magic Amelia Bones in alerting his public without giving the magical world away.
Every day the Daily Prophet listed the victims of Lord Voldemort and his followers, and everyday the list grew longer. Minister Bones, fearing an attack at the Ministry, shut down all Floo entry into the building. Many Ministry workers were upset with her decision, and magical maintenance charmed the weather outside the windows with tornados, tsunamis, and thunderstorms for two weeks. Minister Bones was firm in her decision, backed fully by the Head Auror, Sirius Black, and the complaints faded with time.
Remus Lupin, the missing Order of the Phoenix member and best friend to Sirius Black, had yet to be located. Even with the help of his ex-fiancée, Naomi Watts, the Order's newest spy, there had been no leads on his location. Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, even sent out a team of old friends to track Remus down, but still found nothing. It was as though Remus had disappeared into thin air. Sirius, along with his partner of nine years, took a few days off work to join the search efforts. The four days were spent without sleep and with little food. Sirius remained in his Animagus form most of the time, hoping to catch his best friend's scent. What was left of the little hope Sirius had in finding his best friend was lost when Kingsley forced him to return to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
The last week of October, Sirius spent the majority of his time brooding, drinking, and falling into a deep depression over the loss of his brother. He couldn't even bring himself to write his godson at Hogwarts to tell him everything was okay and not to worry. His cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, had taken it upon herself to write to Harry every few days. She tried to get Sirius to write a short message to Harry, but the Auror couldn't even do that simple task any longer.
Halloween night did nothing to improve Sirius' spirits. He remained in the kitchen of his childhood home, three days worth of beard growing on his face, drinking his fourth bottle of Ogden's firewhiskey in those three days. Tonight would be the first Halloween spent out of Remus' company in almost ten years. The two of them had always used the night to remember their lost friends—their family. They comforted one another in a way no other could manage. They took care of one another to be sure neither of them was falling into a depression. Halloween, once the favorite holiday of all Marauders, was now a day of remembrance and mourning.
This year, Sirius was alone and inconsolable. Most of the Order had attempted to help him. Molly had even prepared a large dinner with all his favorite foods, but Sirius refused to eat. All he wanted was to be left alone to wallow in his own misery.
Emmeline Vance and Tonks wouldn't allow it. They threw out Sirius' last bottle of firewhiskey, shaved him, forced him to shower and put on clean clothes, and join the rest of the Order for dinner. A strong sobering charm had been used by Emmeline, leaving Sirius angry with her for ruining his drunken stupor.
Sirius continued to brood through dinner, glaring at everyone around him, and only eating small bites of his meal. The tense, depressing mood only increased when an express owl flew through the fireplace. Sirius picked up the letter from his mashed potatoes and tossed it uncaringly across the table to Kingsley. The other Auror rolled his eyes at Tonks, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and read the letter. He sighed heavily when he reached the bottom, wondering if he should even tell his boss the news.
"Where?" Sirius muttered, pushing his peas around his plate with a fork.
"Hogsmeade," Kingsley replied. "Dumbledore's locked down the castle. All the students are in the Great Hall and accounted for. Except for one..."
Sirius closed his eyes tightly. He should have expected this on Halloween night... "Harry," he said quietly.
Kingsley nodded. "Harry."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Nothing like a battle for my godson's life on Halloween to brighten the mood," Sirius said lightly, pushing his chair away from the table and standing. He pulled his wand out from the back pocket of his jeans and headed up the stairs.
Albus Dumbledore sat at the staff table, his blue robes twinkling in the light of charmed, floating candles. On either side of him were Alastor Moody and Minerva McGonagall, the only two professors he could trust with absolutely anything. His Potions Master, Severus Snape, had not returned to Hogwarts since he'd been broken out of the Ministry of Magic. While Albus was never one to give up hope, he feared Severus had met the same fate as Remus Lupin, as much as it pained him to admit.
He looked out upon the sea of students trying to enjoy their Halloween feast. He only wished their innocence could last after they left Hogwarts. Their only hope for survival, the wizarding world's only hope, was a fifth year Gryffindor who wouldn't eat any of the sweets his friends piled on his plate.
For a moment, the Headmaster's blue eyes met Harry Potter's green ones. For a moment, Dumbledore felt the pain his pupil was dealing with—fear, anger, sadness, loss of hope. For a moment, Dumbledore realized how tired the war was already making Harry. But it only lasted a moment before Harry turned his head from the staff table, whispered something to his friends, and left the Great Hall.
Harry was growing claustrophobic in the Great Hall. He looked away from Ron and Hermione's worried faces and up to the staff table. Hagrid still hadn't returned from wherever he was, nor had Snape. He locked eyes with Dumbledore for a few seconds, and looked away quickly. The Headmaster was trying to read his feelings again and he could no longer take it.
"I'm going for a walk," he muttered to his friends. Ignoring their pleas for him to wait, Harry left the Halloween feast. He let his feet carry him through the empty corridors of Hogwarts. His feet took him to the large castle doors and out onto the grounds. They carried him past the winged boars guarding the Hogwarts gates and down the path leading to Hogsmeade village.
He was blatantly disregarding the only rule Sirius had set for him at the beginning of term ("Do not leave Hogwarts grounds"), but didn't much care at the moment. Sirius hadn't replied to one of his letters for nearly three weeks. Instead, Tonks had been writing him, telling him that Sirius had been quite busy at the Ministry as of late. Harry knew she was lying.
He knew what Halloween meant to his godfather and Remus, and he could only imagine how Sirius was fairing without his best friend. Probably has a few bottles of Ogden's for company, he thought with a bitter smirk, kicking a stone in his path.
He reached Hogsmeade in almost record time. The shops closed early so their keepers could enjoy a Halloween celebration in the Three Broomsticks. There were very few reasons for wizarding folk to enjoy themselves these days, and Harry silently commended the villagers of Hogsmeade for their attempts.
He continued to walk through the village and only stopped when he reached the Shrieking Shack. He'd heard the stories at Hogwarts about this place being the most haunted building in all of Britain. Of course, he'd also heard stories from his guardians about the full moons, and stags, dogs, rats, and wolves. Harry had known the truth about the Shrieking Shack before he'd even seen the rundown house. In fact, he and Ron had made an effort to encourage the rumors of violent spirits in the shack just for their own enjoyment.
Harry leaned against the fence surrounding the shack and tried to think of all the stories his guardians had told him about their days at Hogwarts. He was just thinking about how warm the evening was when a chill ran down his spine. He shivered once, not thinking anymore of it until he felt his teeth begin to chatter.
Should have brought a cloak, he thought, rubbing his arms for warmth. Or at least the Invisibility Cloak. The fabric may be thin, but I could sneak into the Three Broomsticks without being caught.
Harry blinked. He blinked again... and again. He couldn't see. He'd gone blind... Don't be stupid! he thought, trying not to panic. A horrible silence surrounded him. All he could hear was his own rapidly beating heart and deep rasping breath.
Flashes of what he knew to be memories flashed before his eyes. A fat blond boy was pushing him around, chasing him down a street on a bicycle... A horse-faced woman and a fat man with no neck were calling him a freak, shoving him into a cupboard... Wormtail... Voldemort… Malfoy... a bright green light...
The last things Harry saw were a bright white flash and Sirius appearing above him...
"Dementors," Sirius whispered the moment he appeared in Hogsmeade. "Why'd it have to be dementors? Trolls, giants, Voldemort… Just not dementors…"
"Shut up and let's go," Kingsley said, appearing beside him. The rest of the Order was not far behind, and they could see a pair of blue eyes glowing in the moonlight on the edge of Hogsmeade.
"Oh good," Sirius muttered derisively, "Dumbledore's here."
"HARRY!" Emmeline cried, pointing towards the Shrieking Shack.
Sirius' head snapped in that direction and his insides turned to ice. Four dementors were bent over a shape with untidy black hair. One of them was lowering its hood...
"Oh dear god..." Sirius muttered. He tried to think of something happy, anything, but nothing came to him. "Do something!" he yelled to the other Order members. "They're going to Kiss him!"
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" three voices cried in unison. Sirius shielded his eyes and ran forward, behind the patronuses, trying desperately to get to Harry. A panther, a bear, and what looked to be an overgrown squirrel chased the dementors away and then faded into nothing.
Sirius tripped, nearly falling on top of Harry's unconscious form, and pulled the teenager with him against the Shrieking Shack fence. "Harry, wake up," Sirius muttered frantically, tapping on Harry's cheek roughly. "Come on... fight this..."
"Sirius! Look out!" Tonks shouted.
He turned around, his godson held closely to his chest, and spotted another wave of dementors swooping in. But by this time, Dumbledore had arrived. With one wave of his wand, the largest, brightest Patronus any of them had ever seen in their lives shot from the wand's tip. The dozens of dementors were driven far away, over the mountaintops. They could still see the glow of the patronus (Sirius thought it looked like some sort of bird) shining brightly from miles away.
"Sirius," the Headmaster said quietly. "Is he all right?"
The Auror didn't reply. He turned away from the mountains and buried his face in Harry's hair, rocking both of them back and forth, much like he'd done after Harry's first encounter with dementors. Tonks, Emmeline, Kingsley, Bill, Dung, and Arthur approached slowly, looking on anxiously.
"We need to get him to the school, Sirius," Dumbledore said, kneeling beside the Auror.
Sirius raised his head, his face tense, and nodded. "Okay," he said hoarsely.
Kingsley conjured a stretcher while Arthur and Dumbledore took Harry away from Sirius. Bill helped the Auror to his feet and they began their path towards Hogwarts. The Headmaster requested for Tonks and Emmeline to go into the Three Broomsticks and ask Madam Rosmerta to shut down for the evening. Sirius requested a bottle of firewhiskey.
"She won't take shutting down lightly," Kingsley muttered to Sirius, trying to get his friend to smile.
Back in the Great Hall, Ron and Hermione sat with the other Weasleys waiting for McGonagall to send them back to their dorms. Dumbledore had left hastily over an hour ago, and they had no idea where Harry had gone.
"I do hope he's all right," Hermione said worriedly.
"He's fine, 'Mione," Ron said thickly through his third piece of cake in fifteen minutes. He had his own way to worry about his best friend.
"If you don't slow down, Ronald," Ginny said matter-of-factly, watching Fred and George play Exploding Snap, "you're going to end up in hospital."
"Hey, why does Malfoy keep looking over here?" Neville asked quietly from Hermione's other side.
The Gryffindors looked to the other side of the Great Hall and spotted Draco Malfoy and the other Slytherins smirking at them.
Madam Pomfrey believed this Halloween would be slow for a change. Just about every year for the last ten, there were no less than ten students filling her beds. This year, she'd hoped to have a quiet evening with a bottle of wine the Headmaster had given her for Christmas.
But alas, things in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry didn't happen as planned...
Sirius had been forced to eat three blocks of Honeyduke's finest chocolate before he was allowed to see Harry. For two hours, he sat beside his godson's bed, praying the dementors hadn't done anything permanent to him. The other Order members were in the Headmaster's office discussing something Sirius didn't care to hear at the moment.
Everything just had to happen on Halloween, didn't it? Lord Voldemort had returned to full strength a year ago tonight; Lily, James...
By two in the morning Sirius was convinced Halloween was cursed.
He wouldn't sleep until he knew Harry was okay, and didn't have to wait much longer.
Harry moaned quietly, his eyes fluttering lightly. "Sirius," he muttered hoarsely.
"I'm here, kid," Sirius said, leaning closer and taking Harry's hand in his own.
"Happy Halloween," he said sarcastically, opening his eyes.
Suddenly, Sirius' anxiety turned to anger. He let go of Harry's hand and stood. "What the hell is your problem?" he growled at his godson.
Harry's eyes widened. "Sirius, what..."
"Shut up for a change," Sirius snapped. "I asked you to do one goddamned thing this year, and you can't even do that! What is it about 'don't leave the castle' that you don't understand?"
"Sirius, I—"
"Don't, Harry! Don't you think I've been through enough shit the past few months? Don't you think I could live with just one day of not having to worry?" Sirius shouted. "I've already lost Remus; I don't need to lose you too!"
"I thought you said Remus—"
"Give it up, Harry! The searches have stopped! Remus is gone! He's not coming back!"
"But—"
"Why couldn't you have just stayed in the damn castle?"
"I wanted some fresh air..."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "You wanted fresh air... Then go to the Astronomy tower! Do you have a death wish? Is that it, Harry? Do you want Voldemort to catch you?"
"Sirius, that's not—" Harry began heatedly.
"Next time I tell you to do something, Harry, or not to do something, you'd best listen," Sirius said quietly.
He and Harry glared at one another for long minutes in the dark hospital wing. Neither could remember being more angry with the other than they were right now.
"You can't tell me what to do," Harry said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"
"You're not my father, you can't tell me what to do."
Sirius felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He couldn't even get his jaw to drop at the proclamation. He stared openly at Harry, hoping beyond hope he hadn't just heard what he thought he'd heard. Harry couldn't have said that...
He watched Harry's eyes widen, but he couldn't hear his godson's stammered apologies. Numbly, Sirius nodded and turned, stumbling out of the hospital wing. He went through Hogwarts, leaving through the castle doors, ignoring Ron and Hermione's calls about where Harry was. He didn't even react when Kingsley yelled for him.
He Apparated back to the front door of Number Twelve, went up the stairs to his bedroom, found his hidden bottle of Ogden's and fell to his bed.