Consequences

By Neurotica

Twenty-Five

A week had passed since the full moon and not much had changed in the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. Emmeline was still avoiding Remus like a plague—inwardly (though he'd never admit it aloud to his best friend) Sirius kind of thought she was right to be upset with Remus. If someone Sirius had been dating for six months had kissed her ex-fiancé, then lied about it, he'd be pretty damn upset too. Order meetings had become very tense ordeals for Remus and Emmeline—the witch was her normal cheerful self when she greeted everyone else, but if Remus said something to her, whether regarding Order business or otherwise, she pretended not to hear him, and stared off into another direction.

Actually, Sirius hadn't known the woman could be so stubborn. Remus had apologized to her upon deaf ears a hundred times at least, and she still blew him off. Sirius had finally cornered Emmeline at the Ministry one afternoon and asked if she was planning on breaking off her relationship with Remus, or if she was just going to let him sit and wonder. To his complete horror, she'd burst into tears and collapsed against Sirius' chest, muttering that she just didn't know anymore. He'd awkwardly patted her on the back, but stopped almost immediately when he saw Remus approach Emmeline's office. Remus glared at his best friend slightly before turning around, tossing a bouquet of flowers in the rubbish bin, and walking away. Sirius had to explain what had happened with him and Emmeline when he returned to Number Twelve, but Remus wouldn't listen for the first two hours of the explanation.

Hermione had finally stopped her crying, much to Harry's relief, and began to accept Ron and Harry's attempts to make her smile—Ron had actually succeeded in making her laugh when he jumped a foot in the air after finding a spider that had crawled into one of his shoes. Hermione would be going back to the Burrow with the Weasleys in a few days. Though Number Twelve was safer for her, Molly didn't think it was "proper" for a teenage girl to be holed up in a house alone with three wizards.

Tonks had gone to stay with her parents for a while—she wasn't yet ready to stay alone in her home, and Andromeda had come to Number Twelve and practically dragged her only daughter out to dinner with her and Ted. A few days later, at his cousins' requests, Sirius had moved Tonks' things to her parents' home.

Remus and Sirius had been discussing leaving Number Twelve as well, in favor of the cottage in Kent. Both were quite fed up with the old house, as well as the insults Sirius' mother threw out every time somebody accidentally set her off. When they'd mentioned the idea of moving back to the cottage to Harry, the boy had been thrilled. It was the house he'd grown up in, and it would be nice to sleep in his own bed rather than the bed Sirius had used when he was a child.

Dumbledore hadn't shared Harry's sentiments about the move, though. He'd tried to convince Sirius and Remus that Number Twelve was safest for Harry, outside Hogwarts, but the two younger wizards insisted it was better for Harry's sanity to leave Order Headquarters. At least at the cottage he could go outside—Molly didn't allow any of the children leave the house for fear that a Muggle would notice something odd. Finally, Dumbledore conceded that it was indeed their choice, and offered to help replace and strengthen the wards surrounding their home.

The day before the moves, Molly was busy doing laundry for Sirius, Remus, and Harry as though none of them knew how to wash their own clothes—Sirius didn't argue; Molly enjoyed fussing over them. Hermione and Ron sat close to one another at the kitchen table looking over one of the books Remus and Emmeline had bought for the young witch. Sirius wandered down the stairs looking for Harry, and instead found himself with an armful of shirts, underpants, and socks, all freshly laundered by the Weasley matriarch.

"Take these to Harry, please, dear," the witch said hastily, waving her wand to fold more clothes.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Sure, Molly," he said. "Ron, have you seen my godson?"

Ron looked away from the page Hermione was pointing at, blushing deeply enough to match his hair. "Er, yeah, he and Ginny went up for the chessboard and Harry's chess pieces."

Sirius resisted the urge to grin cheekily at Ron and nodded his thanks, not wanting to embarrass the boy any further. From what Harry had told him, the youngest Weasley son needed all the confidence he could get with girls, even if the girl had been one of his best friends for nearly six years. Ron reminded Sirius of Remus in that aspect; Remus and Naomi had been very good friends in school, but it had taken Remus until sixth year to finally ask her out on a date, and that was only after James had (jokingly) threatened to ask her to Hogsmeade with him. Naomi and James had been friends since they'd been infants. Both of their parents were high up in the Ministry together—their fathers were Aurors together—and had all been friends since their own days in Hogwarts.

Sirius raised a curious eyebrow when he reached Harry's bedroom door—his closed bedroom door. If Harry and Ginny were just getting a chessboard and pieces, then why was the door closed, and why was Harry's wireless set turned up so loudly? Sirius' somewhat limited parental instincts kicking in, he opened the door slowly and silently. What he saw caused him to drop Harry's neatly folded laundry to the floor from shock: Harry and Ginny were on the bed, engaged in a rather passionate embrace, their hands in places they definitely shouldn't have been.

Neither of them had noticed Sirius' entrance, so the wizard waved his wand and turned off the wizard wireless on Harry's desk. The effect was immediate: the two teenagers broke apart and stared in horror at Sirius, their hair mussed, and their clothing wrinkled. Harry attempted to stammer an explanation, but Sirius silenced him with a look.

"Sirius, have you seen Ginny? Molly's looking for her—" Remus called, approaching the door and peering in. Harry groaned loudly in both embarrassment and anticipation of a very long lecture.

"Your mother is looking for you, Ginny," Sirius said in a very controlled voice, even though he was sure Ginny had heard Remus when he'd come in the room. Ginny nodded, not looking at any of the wizards in the eye, and quickly left the room.

"What's going on in here?" Remus asked slowly, looking from Sirius' expressionless face, to Harry's red one as the boy shifted under his guardians' eyes. The two older wizards entered the room and closed the door, Remus still waiting expectantly for an explanation.

"You know, Harry, I was only half-joking last year when I said I wasn't sure how I felt about you having girls in your bed," Sirius began quietly.

"Excuse me?" Remus asked loudly.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said, not looking away from his godson. "Harry seems to be quite the Casanova, Remus. Aren't you proud?"

Harry rolled his eyes in growing frustration. "I'm almost sixteen, Sirius—"

"And you're still living under my rules!" Sirius finished for him in a shout. Harry flinched at the change of tone. "Now I understand that you've got all these hormones driving you insane, but how bloody stupid can you get, making out with Ginny Weasley while her parents are downstairs?"

Harry slumped back into his pillows, crossing his arms and looking away.

"Do I even want to know how far you and Ginny have taken your... relationship?" Remus asked calmly.

"Nothing's happened," Harry muttered.

"Nothing except what I just walked in on, right?" Sirius asked heatedly. "And I'm damn glad I came in when I did..." he added darkly. "Kissing Ginny is fine. You're right, you are almost sixteen, and I can't stop you from kissing girls. But I can damn well stop you from being holed up in your bedroom with Ginny or any other girl you decide to bring home. Do you understand me?" Harry nodded and muttered something. "What's that, Harry?"

Harry turned his head to glare at his godfather. "I said, yes, sir."

"Thank you," Sirius said stiffly. "Molly has taken the liberty of washing and folding your clothes. I suggest you get your stuff packed and go down to thank her."

Without another word, Sirius yanked the door open and stalked down the hallway to his own bedroom, almost slamming the door shut on Remus' face. "Don't you think you were being a bit too hard on him, Sirius?" Remus asked.

Sirius rounded on him angrily. "Too hard on him! Remus, you didn't see them when I walked in! Five minutes later, and they would have been naked under the covers!"

Remus raised his eyebrows calmly. "I don't think you're giving either of them enough credit. They may be fourteen and fifteen, but I like to think we've raised Harry with more sense. And I know Molly and Arthur have raised all their children with more sense than that." Remus sighed. "Besides, I happen to recall many times when I walked into our dormitory at Hogwarts to find you or James with some girl on your beds..."

"That's exactly the problem," Sirius huffed. "James and I were hormone-driven bastards in school, and I'm sure you'll also recall the reputations we gained because of that..." Sirius flopped unceremoniously onto his bed. "You were never like that... Why's Harry got to be like me and James?"

Remus' lips twitched. "I think this is the first time you've ever been disappointed that Harry's turning out like James, Padfoot." Sirius glared at him. "As for me..." Remus shrugged. "I had the same hormones going through my body that you and James had. I just knew how to control them better. It's normal for Harry to be doing these things, Sirius. Believe me, I'm just as upset that he was doing it as you, but think of it this way: we've known Ginny Weasley since she was four years old; at least he's with someone who doesn't care that he's the Boy-Who-Lived..."

Sirius calmed slightly at that. "It's not that big of a shock, really, Ginny and Harry, I mean," he muttered. "Harry told me he fancied her."

"When did he tell you that?" Remus asked curiously.

"Oh, Christmastime. You were busy with Emmeline..." Sirius said dismissively, noticing Remus stiffen almost instantly. "Sorry, Moony," he muttered.

Remus shrugged it off as nothing. "Well, I've got to finish packing. Would you mind if I borrowed a few books from the library?"

"Not at all, have at them. I'd planned on burning the ones you didn't want, anyway," Sirius said.

The next morning, both families enjoyed one last large breakfast before leaving for their respective homes. Harry maintained a stony silence towards both of his guardians, even though Remus hadn't really done anything to deserve it. He suspected Harry was more embarrassed at being caught than he was angry. Sirius and Remus didn't tell Ginny's parents what had transpired between their daughter and Harry the night before—Molly would probably have taken it worse than Sirius.

Once the dishes were all washed and put away, Molly gave Sirius, Remus, and Harry a hug and kiss each, thanking them for their hospitality over the last year. One by one, the Weasleys and Hermione Flooed back to the Burrow. Remus shrank his, Sirius', and Harry's belongings to fit in a single box, and then shrank that box to fit into his pocket.

Sirius was determined to ride his motorbike from London to Kent, regardless of Remus' insistences that it was going to rain later in the afternoon.

"Padfoot, if you fly in the rain, you're going to freeze to death, and I don't feel like thawing your corpse from that motorcycle when we finally find you," Remus said as he reached for the Floo powder and held it out to Harry.

The teenager stepped into the fireplace without a word to his guardians and said their address clearly before disappearing in the whirl of green flames. Remus turned to Sirius, suddenly understanding why his best friend wanted to fly his motorcycle back home. "I'll talk to you later, alright? Fly safely," Remus said, before following Harry.

He stumbled out of the fireplace into his childhood home with a happy sigh. Harry was waiting for him on the coffee table. "May I have my things, please?" he muttered stiffly, not looking Remus in the eye.

"Not until you and I have a little chat," Remus said simply. "Don't be too hard on Sirius, Harry, or me for that matter," he said before Harry could interrupt. "You've got to understand how much of a shock it was for him to have walked in on that."

"Why couldn't he have knocked?" Harry asked heatedly, standing and pacing around the living room. "He always knocks before coming into my room."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "He does that out of courtesy to you, not because he has to, Harry. And I suppose he realized something was going on in there, or he would have knocked. Just for my own curiosity, how far were you planning on taking things with Ginny?"

"What's it matter?" Harry asked loudly.

"It matters because Sirius and I are responsible for you, whether you like it right now or not. And we both happen to think a lot of Ginny—perhaps not as much as you think of her, but we're looking out for her well-being as much as yours," Remus said mildly.

"We weren't doing anything she didn't want us to do," Harry insisted as if he was suddenly worried that Remus was accusing him of something to the contrary.

"I'm sure what the two of you were doing was done with mutual consent," Remus said. "But please, for your sake, don't do anything stupid, Harry. You're both far too young for that, and I would hate to see your futures ruined because of one night's fun. Besides, neither Sirius nor I would be able to look Molly Weasley in the eye for as long as we lived—and if somehow Ginny ended up pregnant, I don't think we'd live much longer..."

Harry rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Look, I'm happy for you and Ginny, Harry, but please, no more girls in your room with the door closed, alright?"

Harry nodded. "Okay. Now may I have my things?"

Remus chuckled and pulled out the miniature box from his pocket. He and Harry unpacked their possessions and placed them in their rightful places before sitting at the kitchen table with butterbeers. Remus looked out the kitchen window with a smile. It was true what they said: there's really no place like home...

Sirius drove his motorcycle through London and, once he found a deserted road, hit a little silver button on the console, taking him into the air almost instantly. He'd planned to fly all the way back to Kent, but as he flew, a sudden urge hit him, and he turned back towards London. He sighed, thinking hard about what he was doing, and more than once had to push back the urge to turn around again.

He landed his bike and sped down the familiar back roads he'd taken when he was younger. He was going to visit his old flat, the place he hadn't been since before his arrest by the Ministry nearly fifteen years earlier. He had many reasons for not going back there, one of the strongest was that the flat had been where he'd spent most of his time with Julia before her murder and the place he'd gone on a month long drinking binge after her funeral.

Sirius came to a skidding halt just outside a brick building and stared up at the third level, where he knew his flat to be. He took off his helmet and set it on the seat of his bike before getting off and going up the front path. He climbed the stairs two at a time out of habit, and in no time he was staring face-to-face with a golden set of numbers: 342. Sighing again, he looked around to make sure no Muggles were watching, and tapped the doorknob with his wand.

The door swung open silently and he entered, reaching over automatically for the light switch. He smiled reminiscently and kicked the door closed behind him. It was a little dusty as he ran his hand over the small dining room table, but nothing had changed at all. All of the pictures he had of him, Julia, and their friends remained on a bookshelf full of old Hogwarts textbooks. Some of his clothes were still piled up in a corner next to the desk, and there was still an empty bottle of butterbeer sitting on the end table by the sofa.

He removed his leather jacket and placed it on a coat stand next to the door. Slowly, he made his way through his former home and entered his old bedroom. He laughed out loud when he saw the state of the bed—it hadn't been made in fifteen years. Old magazines littered his bedside table along with empty Muggle beer cans.

He bent down beside the bed and reached under, feeling for the box he knew was there. He smiled when he felt it against the wall, and pulled it out with his fingertips. Sitting cross-legged against the table, he lifted the lid of the shoebox and sighed. Inside was a variety of photos and folded papers, all held together by paperclips. This box was one of many that Sirius had kept after Julia's death. Her remaining family members had graciously allowed him to keep her school trunk and many of her personal effects.

Sirius remained on the floor of his bedroom for hours, rereading the poems and stories Julia had written in her youth; one in particular—a poem that had him laughing and crying at the same time. In the poem, (which he knew was about him) she'd called him a heartless pillock with absolutely no sense, but four lines down she called him her soul mate and her reason for being.

He flipped through the photos of the two of them, many of them showing the two of them curled up together, holding each other tightly, or sharing a tender kiss. He found one that was taken at Lily and James' wedding, where the two couples smashed cake in each other's faces. Remus and Naomi were in the background, laughing and throwing cake at their friends.

Sirius' wand vibrated in his pocket, causing him to drop the photo and jump a foot in the air. "This is why Mad-Eye's always going on about wand safety," he muttered, reaching for his wand.

He held it out in front of him—it was the communication spell he and Remus used when one of them didn't have the two-way mirrors. His best friend's face materialized in thin air. "Sirius, where are you?" Remus asked hastily.

"I'm at my flat... What's wrong?"

"There's been an attack at St. Mungo's again, but this time the Death Eaters have actually gone inside. Mad-Eye just Flooed... He says there aren't many survivors..."

Sirius felt himself pale. St. Mungo's was supposed to be safe. "All right," he said a bit shakily. "I'm on my way over there. Are you coming?"

Remus nodded. "Thought I'd let you know what's happening before I Apparated over there. I've sent Harry to the Burrow—I don't know how long we'll be gone."

Sirius looked at his watch—somehow, it was already ten p.m. "See you in a bit," Sirius said before lowering his wand, and breaking the connection with Remus.

"The survivors have all been taken to the Ministry for treatment," Johnson explained to his boss as they walked through St. Mungo's. Inside most of the rooms, beds had been covered with white sheets, signaling a dead body.

Sirius shook his head in horror as he looked around. "How many survivors?"

"About three hundred," Johnson answered quietly. "There were at least four or five hundred here, including Healers and medi-witches before the Death Eaters showed up," the younger Auror sighed.

"Black!" growled a voice behind them.

The two Aurors turned around to find Mad-Eye limping to them quickly. The retired Auror glanced at Johnson, making it clear to Sirius that he wanted to talk to him in private. "Go round up everybody else, and see if you can't get a list of patients, Healers, and all visitors that were here—we'll need to sort through and find out who died, then we'll need to notify families," Sirius said. Johnson nodded and glanced warily at Mad-Eye before walking away. "What's up?" Sirius asked his predecessor.

"Lupin here yet?" Mad-Eye asked. Sirius shook his head. "Well, I've got some bad news... Worse than all this, I mean. First, it seems Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange, along with Barty Crouch Junior, finished what they started with Frank and Alice Longbottom—they're both dead."

Sirius closed his eyes tightly, sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Also, it seems Emmeline Vance was here during the attack, visiting a sick friend or something. I haven't seen her at the Ministry—I've just come from there. I don't think she made it out of here—"

There was a sharp intake of breath to their right and the two Aurors turned to find Remus wide-eyed and pale, leaning against a wall for support. Sirius rushed over and caught him before his knees collapsed from beneath him.