Wrongful Imprisonment:
That's The Way The World Is Now
A/N: If you're wondering, that's the full title of this story, the document stuffed up last chapter, and put up the un-edited version…not that there was that many differences, just a couple of grammar changes…also my document manager is stuffing up yet again! Man I wish I had a computer that WORKED!
Anyway, I got reviews! Does happy little dance
Chapter Two: Not In This Nightmare
Remus Lupin arrived at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, after staying at home due to a certain monthly affliction. When he entered the kitchen, he may have not expected a party, but he definitely didn't expect to see Sirius, Dumbledore and Tonks sitting in the kitchen, looking so gloomy he thought that someone had died. Sirius right eye was swollen, and looked like it certainly would bruise in the morning.
Dumbledore had looked as serious as ever, and for once, the part of his head that sounded remarkably like Sirius didn't make an awful pun out of it.
Tonks was the calmest of the lot. She had been sitting in one of the wooden kitchen chairs next to the windowsill, sipping a cup of tea, and wiping the window with the sleeve of her robe, with the hope of beckoning some sunlight in. When Remus walked into the room, all she did was look him straight in the eye, and tell him that he shouldn't use any sugar.
Dumbledore suddenly stood up, and said he was going to announce an emergency meeting for the Order of the Phoenix.
A couple of phoenix and telephone calls later, Dumbledore had everyone who was able to come to the unplanned meeting.
The aged wizard walked to the head of the table and announced, "This meeting of the Order of the Phoenix will now come to order." He cupped his hands and sat down in the hard wooden kitchen chair.
Tonks batted the sugar bowl back and forth across the table. Dumbledore looked at her. She looked up, and realised." Sorry." She said apologetically. "I just want to warn everyone that this," she said, picking up the sugar bowl and holding it next to her pink, spiky hair, "is salt."
Mad-Eye Moody relieved Tonks of the sugar bowl and went to the salt shakers and shook some into the makings of his coffee. He looked at the salt shaker curiously with his one magical eye.
"Um...I don't think you should use that!" Tonks exclaimed loudly.
Moody's magical eye whizzed around and Tonks found herself on the receiving end of the electric blue eye's stare. "Why?" Moody asked gruffly, his many scars making him look very intimidating.
"I never said that that was sugar in the salt shaker."
"Humph. I knew there was something dodgy about this sugar." Moody placed the salt shaker back on the table. His eye whizzed back to looking out the back of his head.
"Order, Order. How many of you have read the Daily Prophet this morning?" Dumbledore asked the members. Some of them turned and looked at each other. A few answered quietly in the affirmative.
Dumbledore looked at them over his half-moon glasses. "For you who have not, there is copy of the paper on the table. For you who have, I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about."
"James Potter!" Squealed a witch in a purple robe, with black hair and pink cheeks.
"Correct, Miss Jones. That's why I'm sending both Mr. Lupin and Miss Tonks to Mr. Potter's house to pick him up."
"What! What about James? He died fourteen years ago! Why do you have to bring this up? " Remus asked, standing so quickly it caused another tear in his robes that would need patching.
"James Potter Alive: The Ministry Has Been Lying to Us?" Minerva McGonagall asked, reading the headline on the front page. "What does this mean, Albus? How…?" Her eyes looked curiously up to Albus, as if she thought the answer would be written there in big, black, loopy letters.
Remus looked out the window. On days when you received horrible news, it was meant to be grey and gloomy, with lots of rain and the occasional thunderstorm.
The sun outside was mocking him. It was warm for a late summer afternoon.
"The question is not how, Minerva, it is…"
"Why the hell this happened to us!" Sirius interrupted one hand on his swollen eye.
There was a sudden intake of breath. No body had ever dared to interrupt the great Albus Dumbledore before. The room was silent. Remus took advantage of this peacetime to look at the paper. He started to read.
He learnt that it was quite the oppisite of someone dying. Rather, that one of his best friends had spent fourteen years in Azkaban. His first thought was, Ha! This is preposterous! Next the Daily Prophet's going to say that I grew up in Azkaban!
But for once, article spoke the truth. Probably the first time in the newspaper's history. Remus thought they should get a medal. A nice shiny, gold one.
Remus was in disbelief. He looked out the clean part of the window. When you were feeling sad or unhappy, wasn't it meant to be a grey and rainy day, and thunder storming? Sirius stood up and declared loudly, "This is just some screwed up dream that all of us are having at the same time! If we're lucky, we'll wake up and it'll be
yesterday. If we're even luckier, we'll wake up and realise that the past fourteen years have actually never happened!" Sirius told them, rubbing a chin with a non-existent beard.
Remus would have loved to believe in that theory, but he didn't believe in dreams. None of his dreams ever came true. Only his nightmares.
"Alright I'll do it."
There was some banging and whispering heard from outside the door. "James? Harry's father?" someone asked loudly.
"Ron! You'll get us heard!" said a shrill voice, louder than the last.
"And that won't?" asked the first voice, slightly miffed.
"It doesn't matter since they've already heard us!" The second voice retorted.
"Thanks to you."
"Actually it was you."
"Does it matter?"
"If you were listening, I already said it didn't!"
"Great, now you're making enough noise I'm surprised the whole bloody street hasn't heard by now!"
"It doesn't matter!"
"You've already told me that."
"So?"
"I don't need it repeated, I'm not stupid!"
"You're doing a very good job of it."
Remus thought it was time to break up this argument. He knew from experience it would just end up going around in circles. So he opened the door.
"I told you so." Hermione Granger turned to glare at Ron Weasley. They both had fleshy string falling out of their ears. Ron rolled his eyes, making them look up to his fire red hair.
"You were eavesdropping again, weren't you?" Remus asked sternly, his hands on his hips.
"Professor Lupin, we're sorry…we just heard Harry's name, and couldn't resist."
"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Remus. I am no longer your professor." Remus sighed. But I wish I could be. But wishing doesn't get you anywhere. At least it never did for me…Remus felt suddenly older, and felt like bolting up the stairs and sleeping forever. And I think I have a lot of gray hairs…maybe I should grow a moustache…No. Just no. Think about how odd it would look!
Hermione's eyebrows furrowed. Nervously sweeping back some strands of bushy brown hair she said, "But I think we should tell Harry, at the very least."
"He already knows." Remus replied. This seemed more and more like a nightmare every second. Although he didn't think punching himself would solve the problem. "Tonks and I are going to retrieve him and take him to see his father."
"I don't think that's a good idea. What do you think, Ron?"
Ron shrugged his shoulders. He stood there in his maroon jumper for a while and answered, "I dunno. It might be a good idea. By the sound of his letters he doesn't seem very happy. He thinks we're keeping things from him."
"Dumbledore's decided. We're going to see him, at the very least, and try to explain it even more.
So he agreed to go with Tonks, to retrieve Harry. To prove to himself this wasn't some sort of weird fairy tale, written by some weird muggle at one of those 'computer' things.
Tonks came, holding two brooms in her hand. One of them was her own Cleansweep. One of them was one of the Hogwarts' brooms, an Oak 400, at least a hundred years old, and looked like some three-year old had Spello taped a few odd twigs together. She turned to Remus, and threw the Oak 400 at him. He caught it easily.
So he stood in the front hall of the Noble and Ancient House of Black, praying that the broom would actually lift him up in the air, and if he was lucky, take him to Privet Drive and back.
But Remus wasn't a very lucky person. Weren't the events of his life enough proof of that? How many people had been afflicted with lycanthropy, how many people had had their best friends and family die in the past fourteen years? Who else thought that Fate thought it her personal mission to screw their life over as much as possible?
Of course, none of his best friends had ever died. It was one thing to find out Peter was alive, but it was something entirely different with James.
Well, he guessed he could count Lily. She wasn't going to make an unexpected return from the dead soon, well at least not in this certain nightmare.
"Safe journey, alright?" Ron told them, his freckled face seeming even redder in the afternoon sun.
"Well with luck, neither of us will end up dead." Remus answered shortly. He hated heights. He'd never told anyone before though, and he didn't intend to start now.
"Stop being so cynical, Remus, the world hasn't ended…yet." Tonks said sadly. "It's in your best interest to remain optimistic, and everything's going to be better isn't it? You lived twelve years of your life thinking two of your best friends were dead, and one might as well be. You were all alone. Now, everything's changed. You can be together again. You have to start accepting people back in your life. What did you want to do? Become a recluse and eat fried daffodils for the rest of your life? "
Remus smiled weakly at the daffodils, but then sighed. "But we can't. Because of Peter. He betrayed James."
Tonks looked at him, her now blue eyes looking at Remus's. "Truth can be stranger than fiction, and as in good fiction, don't be surprised if all the twists aren't released until the very end."
"Tonks, when did you start analyzing your life like a book?" Remus asked curiously.
Tonks waved the question aside. "Think about it. No one's dead."
"What about Lily?"
"After all I've heard I wouldn't be surprised if she just popped up one day, and knocked on the door, and yelled, 'SURPRISE!' But it's not going to happen in this nightmare."
"That's what I thought."
"And this is even worse for the Ministry. Now the majority have voted Fudge out of office, the Ministry is in chaos." Tonks wrinkled her nose, accidentally changing it to be a bit more like Remus's.
"I think we should get flying today, if we hope to get anywhere by midnight." Remus declared, mounting his broom.
She went to Remus and cast the Disillusionment Charm on him. Remus felt like someone had cracked and egg on his head, and it was trickling down his back.
Tonks cast the charm on herself, and they were set.
"Yeah…and while we're flying, I'll give you something to think about. Who said people can't come back to life?" Tonks asked Remus.
They went into the back garden.
"Three…two…one…LIFTOFF!" Tonks yelled, sounding like a Muggle child watching a rocket countdown.
It was an amazing feeling, being up near the clouds. They looked like huge, foamy marshmallows, though he didn't want to go through one. He didn't like to get completely soaked while broom flying. He managed not to remind himself not to look down, knowing that such a reminder would cause him to the exact oppisite. There wasn't much to do, so he pondered Tonks' question.
He remembered the day when he learnt the meaning of the word dead.
Flashback:
His mother had been crying for hours, after the big, snowy owl had flown in.
Remus asked his father why his mum was crying.
He didn't like to see her cry.
His father sat Remus on his lap, and hugged him, and told him his grandmother had died in her sleep last night. When Remus asked his dad what dead meant, he wouldn't tell him. All his dad told him was that he'd understand when he was older.
Remus wasn't going to take that for an answer.
So Remus went to the tall bookshelf in his dad's study. Standing on his dad's office chair, the Muggle kind with wheels on it, he made a reach for the dictionary. It was nearly up the top, and covered with inches of dust.
He took it down and sat at his dad's desk. He traced a finger through the dust, collecting it all on the tip of his finger. His father had taught him how to use a dictionary a month earlier.
He flipped through to the letter d.
The first word he saw was dab. Dab: 1. To touch or pat lightly and quickly.
That was all well and good, but it wasn't the word he was looking for. Flipping to the next page, he felt the tip of his left thumb sting. He had given himself a paper cut. He put his thumb in his mouth and sucked it as he flipped over the next page.
About three page-flippings later, Remus reached the word. D-E-A-D.
Dead: 1. No longer alive.
Remus's lower lip trembled. Did this mean he'd never get to eat Grandma's cookies again? No more hugs from Grandma? No more Grandma? He sat there, crying, until his father found him there an hour later, sucking his thumb.
End Flashback.
Remus shook his head. He had only been six at the time, but he seemed to understand perfectly.
"Get ready to LAND!" Tonks shouted excitedly, "AAH! My T-shirt whacked me in the face!
Remus saw the house and steeled himself for landing. "You're getting a real kick out of this, aren't you?" he asked the space where Tonks should be.
"Yep, there's nothing like being up in the air!"
Tonks and Remus hit the footpath, Tonks lost her balance and fell over. She cursed under her breath as she got up. She took the Disillusionment charm off them both.
"So, what do we do now?" Remus asked.
"I dunno, knock on the door?" Tonks replied, dusting down her robes.
"If we're going to do that, you should do something about your hair."
"What about my hair?" Tonks asked, offended.
"Harry's relatives don't like weird things." Remus answered truthfully. He looked at the surroundings. A few parched gardens, a few sweaty residents, a lot of dehydrated birds, an owl or two.
"So now you're calling my hair 'weird'. Fine." Tonks concentrated, turning her hair into bushy brown curls that could rival Hermione's.
"What now?" Remus asked, turning so he faced Tonks. She swept a strand of bushy brown hair out of her face, and replied.
"We knock on the door, or wait for your moustache to grow." Seeing Remus's glare, she answered, "Lighten up Remus, it was a joke!"
"Wait…" Remus started, but it was too late. Tonks had made her way to the front door and had already knocked on it four times. He ran to catch up to her, nearly falling over his own feet, slightly disorientated from the flight.
Someone on the other side opened the door. "Yes?" they asked snappishly, opening the door only a crack. "What do you want?"
Remus and Tonks exchanged glances. Why hadn't they thought of a plan? Tonks improvised on the spot. "We're doing a survey on black-haired, green-eyed boys. We heard you had a child who fitted our description. We were wondering if we could take him up to our lab to undergo some tests."
Remus groaned. She obviously didn't have a lot of skill in the area of excuse making.
"You're one of his kind, aren't you?" The lady asked, looking Remus up and down. Remus looked to where she was looking, and realised with horror that he'd forgotten to take off his frayed robe.
"Yes." Remus sighed at the same moment Tonks answered, "No."
The lady glared at her skeptically. "Don't lie to me. You're here to see him, aren't you."
"Yes, that we are."
"Alright. You can come in. But you must go straight to his room, and be gone before my husband comes home.
Tonks' eyebrows rose. "She has a husband?" She whispered to Remus, her eyes going wide.
They both bolted up the stairs and into the room with the closed door, which must be Harry's.
Remus knocked on the bedroom door. He took a few seconds to look up and down the hallway. There was a lot of pictures of a big, coloured, balloon, but none of Harry.
These people must be really obsessed with balloons.
A few seconds later, the door was opened. Harry Potter stood in the doorway, wearing a baggy gray T-shirt and jeans way too long for him.
"Professor Lupin! You came!"
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Next chapter is when we get too meet James. Yay! I've written a little bit of a plot outline for this. I can't believe I've written three thousand words. Just couldn't stop writing, huh? When I update this story depends on YOU! You read, you review, I don't care how long it is. (Though long is good!)
Anyway, thanks everyone!
'Til next time,
Thoughts And Pondering