Thank you to all reviewers – and remember: ALL criticisms gladly accepted!

Lost: Small Boy, Answers to Harry

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The department store was crowded, but if Sirius had hoped to blend in among the powered ladies and black-clad assistants, he was sadly mistaken. He paused behind a tall perfume display to catch his breath, and searched for anyone in their vicinity who seemed unusual. As he looked around, his eyes rested on some activity near the automatic doors across the room.

A man was talking to one of the assistants, apparently having just entered the store. At first glance he didn't look out of the ordinary: but, like Sirius, he did not quite fit in. He was wearing an outfit at least ten years out of fashion, along with leather sandals overtop of socks, despite the puddles outside left over from recent rain. His dark grey hair was beaded in a style Sirius had seen in many elderly wizards.

As Sirius watched, the assistant pointed in their direction and the man turned his head. Sirius ducked back behind the perfume display, but he had no doubt the wizard had seen him. He didn't look like an auror, and he had definitely been following them, which meant he could only be an enemy.

Sirius bumped Harry higher on his hip and dashed between the aisles of make-up counters towards the textiles section. A wide stairwell lead down into the basement, where a sign declared a sale on good linen, along with public toilets and a mother's room.

He hurried down the stairs and found himself in a maze of sheets and towels. Another sign pointed him towards a white-washed corridor. Sirius entered it and ducked into the mother's room, pushing the door shut behind him and locking it with a quick spell.

He lowered Harry onto the changing table and sagged into a chair. With luck, they had evaded their follower for now. If he found them in here…well, Sirius was ready. Very few lone death eaters could take on a fully-trained auror, let alone one cornered and angry.

Harry was watching Sirius patiently.

"Holding up, kid?" his godfather asked, and the boy nodded. Sirius checked the cut on his forehead: it had sealed up quickly, confirming Sirius' fears that it was a magical wound.

Where to go? The spy would be outside in the store, waiting for him to make a break for it. He could fight his way out, but among all those muggles, even a little bit of magic would attract unwanted attention: their follower was obviously waiting for back-up. Sirius clutched the wand hidden in his robe. His cousin Andromeda lived only a few miles from here, though he couldn't remember her address exactly. They would be safe there for a few hours: long enough to get a message to Dumbledore.

He was so close…if only he could apparate! But the locking spell clung heavy to his ribcage, weighing him in one place. If only he had taught Harry to apparate, though at his age he probably couldn't manage it yet. If only he had searched the Potter's house for James' old invisibility cloak – but it was in storage somewhere, and the time it would have taken to find it would have cost them too much. If only he could get to a fireplace…but they would be watching the floo network. That was how they had tracked him to London: it had been a stupid mistake for him to make, travelling by floo powder in the first place.

Only one option left.

"Harry," Sirius took his godson's hands in his own large pair, "I want you to stay here-"

"Where are you going?" Harry's eyes widened.

Sirius cupped the boy's chin in one hand, "I'm going to get help, alright?"

"And leave me?"

"Yes," said Sirius quietly, "I have to get a message to my cousin, Andromeda, and I have to be in the open to do it. But if I'm in the open, you'll be in danger, do you see? She's going to come and find you, and she'll look after you."

Harry looked accusing, "And then you'll come back?"

"I'll try, Harry."

Harry threw his arms around Sirius, "no. No. I want Mum and Dad! I want you to stay!" he sobbed.

"Harry," Sirius hugged his godson, not wanting to let go, "sometimes people have to go away. But once Andromeda comes, she'll take you to Dumbledore. Do you remember him? The old man with the long beard, remember?"

"Yes," sniffed Harry, "I threw up on his lap. I'm scared of him."

"You did too. That's alright, he wasn't angry, he's a nice guy, I promise he is. And he's going to look after you. And Moony will be there."

"Really?"

"Yes," said Sirius, though he had made that part up. He had to keep Harry calm somehow.

"Oh," said Harry, tugging at a strand of Sirius' hair that had come loose from the ponytail, "oh. Okay. If Moony is there, he can find you. Okay."

Sirius straightened up and took James' jacket off Harry's shoulders, "I need to take this, Harry. Now, you have to listen. If anyone comes in and asks you what you're doing in here, you have to tell them that your Mummy has gone to the toilet and you're waiting for her to come back. Don't go with anyone – don't let anyone take you out of this room. When Andromeda comes, and she'll come as soon as she can, she'll recognise you, but you won't know her. You have to ask her, 'what did Sirius give you for your seventeenth birthday?' and she'll tell you, 'a box of cockroaches.'"

Harry chuckled, "did you really?"

"Yes. And I enchanted them to catch fire when she opened the box. I was only twelve. Now can you remember all that?"

Harry repeated the instructions diligently. While he did so, Sirius took a hold of the cushion on the seat and wrapped James' jacket around it. Then he tapped it with his wand and muttered a spell: the pillow was transfigured into something that look roughly like a four year old boy with black hair and green pyjamas. Harry's eyes widened at this crude double of himself. Sirius pulled the hood up over the head of the pillow and positioned it in his arms so that its faults weren't visible.

He gave Harry a quick hug and then went to the door, unlocked it and peered out into the corridor. A few muggle women were walking back into the linen section, but he could not see anyone suspicious.

"Sirius," said Harry quietly, "Mum and Dad are dead, aren't they?"

Two green eyes were watching him, full of intelligence.

"Yes," said Sirius, "they are."

Harry looked down at his hands, "goodbye," he whispered.

"Bye, Harry," said Sirius, and hurried out into the corridor. He considered locking the door from the outside, but knew that would really get the muggles' attention. He silently said goodbye to his godson again.

He slipped back through the store, carrying the fake child in his arms.

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Sirius knew that every step he took was drawing their pursuers away from Harry, so he walked quickly. He knew that the wizard with the socks and sandals was following him as he left the department store, and resisted the urge to break into a run. He had to get his message to Andromeda, the only person he knew for sure would be near enough to help, but if he let it off too early the man following him would be bound to sense a trick and might retrace Sirius' steps, back to the bathroom of the store where Harry waited.

He went into shops and out of shops, weaving a complex trail and making many stops out of sight. He recognised this neighbourhood, and knew Andromeda's house was only a few blocks away. He slipped his wand out of his robes and muttered a quiet spell. The tip lit up with a tiny red light, like a glowing ember. Sirius put the tip to his lips and blew on it, and the light grew brighter. He began to speak into it as if it was a muggle microphone.

He told Andromeda what had happened to the Potters, where Harry was waiting, and how she could contact Dumbledore. He could only hope she would act on the message – though she was against the persecution of muggles, Andromeda had never picked sides in this war, and Sirius hadn't seen his cousin for several years, so he didn't know where her loyalties lay exactly. But he was sure she would never give a innocent child over to Voldemort, and she was the only person nearby who he knew he could trust.

The message was complete. He stopped and looked up at the cloudy sky, and visualised the path the message would have to take. He pictured his cousin's face in his mind, so that the message would reach her. He raised his wand and pointed upwards, muttering the words that would release the flying message into the air…

Something slammed into his back, sending ice needles running through his body: his limbs became stiff and immobile and he toppled to the ground, falling painfully on his side. His entire body was frozen, all but his eyes, which blinked stupidly. The transfigured pillow rolled out of his arms and lay on its back, the featureless face staring at the sky.

"That's not the boy!" he heard angry voices, and two pairs of feet came into view. One of them picked up the pillow and threw it aside angrily. Curious muggles were staring at Sirius in concern, but Sirius was too horrified to pay any attention to them. He had had no idea they had been following him so close, but he should have known death eaters would have no qualms about using magic in front of muggles, as he had been prepared to do, if it came down to a fight.

His wand was still clutched in his stiff, outstretched arm. If he could activate the spell to send the message whizzing away, it might still reach Andromeda. He chanted the words in his head, desperately trying to work the magic silently. Harry's life depends on this…

A foot, clad in a sock under a sandal, slammed down on Sirius's hand, and he would have cried out in pain if he could have. With a sickly crunch, his wand snapped in half and the wizard standing over him kicked the pieces away.

"Where's the boy?" one of the death eaters swore, "where'd he go?"

"I don't know, shut up," the other replied aggressively.

"He knows! Unfreeze him, I'll make him tell us! Give me ten minutes with him, he'll tell us!"

The second death eater growled, "not with this crowd. We'll get him out of here – if the lieutenant turns up and finds out we lost the kid, what d'ya think he'll do to us?"

His companion made a noise like someone standing on a cat, "oh, oh, we're dead, dead…" he moaned.

The second death eater knelt down and Sirius saw his face: it was twisted in a frown, his features rough and ugly. The muggles behind him were closing in, unable to resist a spectacle.

The wizard pointed his wand at Sirius' chest and said quietly, "stupefy."

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TBC