Chapter 44 – Padfoot's Return

Harry knew that Ron was slowly thinking of more drastic means to stop him from pacing. For the past few minutes, the silent glares he threw into his direction had become darker, and more and more often his eyes strayed to the heavy iron pan that was suspended above the hearth. Harry would love to keep his kneecaps intact in the near future, yet he could not think of another good way to let out the tension. Pacing seemed to help at least a little, and in all honesty he didn't think that Ron would really resort to physically hurting him.

Nearly two hours since they had come down into the kitchen. Time seemed to be creeping by, whenever Harry checked his wristwatch, only a few minutes had passed though they had felt like hours. Ron seemed to sense that Harry was not in the mood for conversation, he had been staring down at the tabletop or into his cup of tea long gone cold for most of the time, but there was a rigidity and tension in his posture that belied his own nervousness.

Both of them jumped and spun around as the fireplace behind them suddenly sprang to life. Instead of a floo-call which Harry would have expected, there was a whooshing sound and suddenly Remus was standing in the basement kitchen. Harry wanted to look up, wanted to try and read the expression on Remus' face to see what had happened, but somehow, he didn't dare to. It was as if his body was following an own agenda, and within seconds, Harry was at Remus' side, hands on his shoulders, bursting out with questions.

"Remus, what happened? What did you do? What about Sirius? How is he? Can I see him?"

Remus took a moment to draw breath, and to Harry it seemed as if he was attempting to smile, unbeknownst that he was already smiling widely.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later. Sirius is awake."

Harry's eyes widened, and he thought that his heart was beating so fast and loud that the others had to hear it as well.

"Awake? He's really awake? Can I see him?"

Remus nodded. "Yes, he is awake. I've been talking to him. He was responding, and he seemed lucid enough to me."

Harry immediately turned towards the fireplace, but Remus held him back by his wrist. Before Harry could say something, Remus turned towards Ron.

"Could you tell your parents that Sirius is awake, and that I've fetched Harry and brought him to St. Mungo's? Professor Dumbledore should be informed of it, as well."

Ron nodded. "Sure, will do. Tell Sirius I said hi."

Harry nodded impatiently, resisting the urge to tap his foot onto the floor. He wanted to get to Sirius, wanted nothing more than to get to St. Mungo's as quickly as possible. He was glad when Remus turned back towards him immediately after he had finished speaking to Ron.

"All right, you go first Harry. But please, wait for me next to the fireplace. I know that you want to see Sirius, but I don't want you to run through St. Mungo's all on your own."

Harry nodded, then he quickly climbed into the fireplace, shouted out his destination and was gone. Without Remus' request, he would have probably started running towards Sirius' ward immediately, and even though Remus arrived maybe fifteen seconds after him, it seemed like an endless delay. He was already halfway through the foyer by the time Remus had finished vanishing the soot from their clothes. He guessed that Remus was following him, but he didn't look back to check if that was the case. His mind was focused on one thing alone, and that was getting to Sirius' ward as quickly as possible. He didn't hear the sound of his footsteps echoing on the floor, didn't notice any of the people he ran past, he was only noticing how much of the seemingly endless distance he had already crossed.

There were two Aurors standing in front of Sirius' ward, Kingsley one of them, but Harry brushed past them without even noticing that they were there. Neither did he see that Kingsley had to hold back the other Auror from coming after him and restraining him.

Panting, Harry stopped barely in the doorway, not quite believing his eyes. Sirius was sitting up in his bed, a number of healers bustling around him. Harry couldn't see clearly, his gaze was suddenly foggy and misted over, but there was no mistaking that Sirius was sitting up in his bed, and that he had turned towards the door upon Harry's abrupt entry. Harry thought that Sirius was looking slightly confused, but then it was as if the invisible force that had been holding Harry back stopped working and the next thing he knew was that he was storming forwards and threw himself into Sirius' arms.

He was crying, could barely breathe in between the heavy sobs that wracked through his body, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the fact that Sirius was there, Sirius was holding him, Sirius would be all right. And if Sirius would be all right, then Harry would be, too.

Harry didn't know how much time had passed when he had finally calmed down. Sirius hadn't said a thing since his arrival, he had wordlessly wrapped his arms around the teenager and was holding him tightly against himself, rubbing soothing circles against Harry's back with one hand. Harry actually didn't want to move just one bit, he was comfortable in his momentary position, but there was one thing he needed to do first. Wiping his eyes on one of his sleeves, he withdrew slightly from the embrace and looked up at Sirius.

His godfather was looking down at him, his blue eyes clear and expressive for the first time since he had reappeared from behind the veil. A slight smile was playing around the corners of his mouth, and he was cupping the back of Harry's head with one hand while he stroked a few strands of hair away from Harry's face with the other. Harry felt new tears shoot into his eyes and quickly wiped them once more with his sleeves. He tried to say something, tried to find the right words. There were so many things he had thought of during the past two months, so many things which he desperately wanted to tell his godfather, but the words just didn't want to come out. He just looked at Sirius for some long moments, then brought up a hand and pressed his palm against Sirius' cheek, as if reassuring himself that he was really, truly there. Sirius' skin was reassuringly warm, his cheek was unshaved and stubbly, and Harry felt the muscles move beneath Sirius' skin as his godfather smiled down at him. It seemed so real, it could only be real, this simply could not be a dream. Harry smiled back at Sirius, then leaned his head back against Sirius' shoulder and sighed deeply, though it came out more like another sob. Sirius tightened his arms around him and made low shushing noises into Harry's ear. Then he spoke, though it was not Harry he was addressing.

"Remus, what happened? Why is Harry so distraught? And how did I end up here? You said something about someone dying, what in Merlin's name happened?"
Harry shifted around so that he was leaning against Sirius' side and could look around the room without moving away from his godfather. He was quite surprised to find that the room which had previously been bustling with healers and nurses was now empty safe for Sirius, himself and Remus who was sitting on the bed facing them. Remus smiled encouragingly at Harry and squeezed his arm, then he sighed deeply and turned towards Sirius. Harry felt too exhausted to do any explanations, too worked up to do anything than to cuddle as closely to Sirius as humanly possible.

"It's a long story, Sirius", Remus said.

"So you said. I don't know how I got here, but I think I have time for it right now."

Remus sighed again. "Yes. Only, it's difficult to find a beginning. Do you know what day it is?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "I don't know how long I've been here. But last I know, it's been the beginning of June. The ninth, something like that."

"What is the last you remember?"

Sirius thought for a long moment. It was visible from his expression when the memories set in, and Harry felt Sirius' arms tighten around him instinctively.

"The Department of Mysteries. We went there, Snape said that Harry thought Voldemort had caught me, he was trapping Harry with it. There were Death Eaters in the Department. Bellatrix was there, wasn't she?"

He looked around in confusion, as if expecting his cousin to come jumping out from behind the wardrobe and hold them at wand-point. Remus squeezed his arm and shifted nervously on the bed.

"Yes, Bellatrix was there."

"What happened?"

Remus sighed deeply. "Sirius, this won't be easy to accept, but a lot of time has passed since that night in the Department of Mysteries."

"How much time? For how long have I been here?"

"You have been here for a few days."

Sirius frowned. "So I got knocked out cold, something like that? A few days, maybe a week, well, that's not exactly short, is it?"

"No. But it wasn't just a week. Sirius, today is August 22nd."

It set in slowly, but as it did, Sirius paled even further. "Two and a half months? Where was I?"

"You fell through the archway in the Death Chamber."

It was over, Harry knew that. The mere thought about it shouldn't hold such a power over him anymore, but everything inside of him froze at the mere thought that Sirius had fallen through that accursed archway. A small sob escaped his lips, and Sirius instinctively pressed the teenager's head closer against his shoulder.

"But that can't be. Nobody can fall through that archway and survive."

Harry's breathing became rapid, and small black spots started to dance in front of his vision. He knew that Sirius hadn't died, Sirius was there with him, they had brought him back, yet the mere thought that two months ago everything had seemed so different sent icy chills through his entire body. Remus wasn't faring much better.

"That's what we all thought, yes." Remus said in a low voice, his face far paler than it had been only moments ago.

Sirius shook his head, clearly not believing what Remus was saying. "Then how come that I am here? What brought me back?"

"Who brought you back, that's Harry and Severus. What kept you alive for so long was the blood-bond."

"Which blood-bond?"

"The blood-bond you and I have been sharing for over fifteen years without realising it."

Sirius sank back into his pillows, confusedly looking from Remus to Harry and back again. Harry felt more and more as if he was about to collapse any moment, and he was torn between a number of feelings which he could not all immediately name. He could only imagine what all this must be like for Sirius right now, how his godfather had to be feeling, how confused he had to be. Looking up, he found that Sirius attempted to smile encouragingly at him, but the only effect this had on Harry was that another sob wrenched free and he burrowed his head against Sirius' shoulder. Sirius helplessly looked towards Remus, only to receive a sad smile in return. Turning back to his godson, Sirius stroke the hair away from Harry's face, pressed a kiss on his forehead and held him tightly.

"It's all right", he whispered. "I don't understand just one bit of what happened or what is going on here, but I'm here now. It'll be all right."

Harry had his arms wrapped tightly around Sirius' waist, his face buried against Sirius' shoulder again. He didn't know what to do next, he felt as if he couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but hold on to his godfather as if there was the danger that he'd be ripped away from him again any moment. He was sixteen years old, and first he had been bawling his eyes out and now he was cuddling to Sirius like a small child. But he simply couldn't do anything else. The past months had been a constant emotional turmoil, an up and down between devastation, hope, disappointment, grief, sadness, and now that it was all over, Harry felt strangely empty. Or maybe it was a relaxed emptiness, he didn't even know that, didn't know exactly what he was feeling, but Harry wanted nothing more than to sit here and not let go off his godfather, not ever again. Tired, that's what he was. For two months he had focused all his energy into getting Sirius back, and now that he had him, he was only tired. With a sigh, Harry closed his eyes and settled against Sirius' chest, allowing his godfather's steady heartbeat to lull him into a comfortable relaxed state. He wasn't about to fall asleep, but this was definitely more relaxed than he had been in quite some time. Sirius was lazily running his hand through Harry's hair, but he had his eyes fixed on Remus. When he spoke, his voice seemed to come from a distance.

"That blood bond you were talking about. Why didn't I know that it even existed? Did…did you know?"

"I don't know", Remus answered. "I didn't realise it, either. But after you…after you fell through the veil, I started having seizures. There was no explanation for them, none but the idea that I was somehow bonded to somebody. Severus performed Legilimency on me to find out for sure, but I should have known."

Remus fell silent, and Harry opened his eyes a bit to find that Remus was shaking his head, not looking up to meet Sirius' or his eyes.

"What should you have known, Remus?", Sirius gently probed.

"Since you fell through that veil, I was dreaming about you. About the night when we closed the blood bond."

"When was that? Why don't I remember, why did I never realise that there was a bond? From all I know, that isn't something ordinary."

Remus smiled softly. "No, it definitely isn't something ordinary. Do you remember that night during the war when we were ambushed in London?"

Harry looked up at Sirius, but found that his godfather's gaze was unreadable to him. Slowly, Sirius nodded.

"Well, my memory of that night is a bit hazy, but I know what you mean, yes." He ran a hand through his hair, his gaze distant. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was obvious that Sirius was far away and lost in memories for a moment. Finally, his gaze cleared again and he looked at Remus, a new emotion in his eyes. "You were injured. Merlin, why didn't we notice it before?"

Remus shrugged. "It's not all that surprising, if you think about it. First we were close friends, then the war drove us so far apart. For twelve years I didn't even dare to think about you. It's no small wonder we never noticed."

Sirius wordlessly brooded about that for some long minutes, his hand never stopping to stroke through Harry's hair.

"I'm just glad it saved your life", Remus finally said. Sirius remained silent, but he watched Remus closely. Harry shifted slightly, but though Sirius readjusted his arms, his attention remained focused on Remus.

"You don't look too good, Moony old friend."

Remus smiled unconvincingly. "It's been a hard time during the past months. For all of us. But I'm all right, Padfoot."

Without thinking, Harry rose into a half-sitting position, words of protest already on his mind. He knew that Remus didn't want others to worry about him, and to a certain degree he could sympathise with that feeling, yet he didn't want to hide the truth of what had happened from his godfather. And he guessed that if Remus reassured Sirius now that everything was just fine, he might never tell Sirius what had really happened.

Upon feeling Harry shift around, Sirius turned and looked at him. So did Remus, though his expression told Harry clearly that he would have loved to keep the details from Sirius. Sirius looked from Harry to Remus and back again, looking every bit like somebody who had said something wrong without knowing it.

"What's wrong? You are all right, Remus, aren't you?"

Remus nodded, and Sirius turned back to Harry. "Is he?"

"Yes, don't worry. But…well, he wasn't all right all the time. Actually, he wasn't anywhere near all right for most of the time since you fell through the veil. Remus nearly died." Seeing Sirius' shocked expression, Harry quickly shook his head. "It's all right now, really. I just…I just thought you should know. It's all right since we brought you back, but before I was really worried about Remus."

Remus smiled softly at Harry, and Sirius bent forward to wrap Remus into a tight, one-armed embrace.

"It's good to have you back, Padfoot. So good to have you back." As he withdrew, he smiled shakily at Sirius. Harry sighed lowly and leaned back against his godfather's chest.

"Don't you remember anything from the time after you fell through the veil?", he asked. Sirius thought for a long moment, then he shook his head.

"I don't know. Nothing specific." He thought for a moment, and a slight shudder ran through him. Harry saw the hairs on Sirius' forearms raise up. "It wasn't good. But it didn't feel like being gone for two months. It was more…nightmarish. Like a bad nightmare, the one in which you're running from something but can't move forward, and whoever's following you is catching up, and suddenly they're all around you. But it didn't feel like two months. For the life of me I couldn't say how long I've been there, but it didn't feel that long. I really don't know, it's hard to remember anything."

The memories seemed to have come back while thinking about it, but Harry didn't want to pry any further right now. He'd give Sirius some time to deal with what had happened, first. That wasn't important now. For the moment, Harry wanted nothing more than to enjoy the fact that his godfather was back, that was enough to keep him content. More than enough. After a few minutes of silence, he felt Remus squeeze his arm, then the man got up from the bed.

"I'm going to talk to Kingsley for a moment, see how things are supposed to go on for tonight. I guess those healers will be back soon, but I'll see that they'll leave you alone for a few more moments."

He gave Sirius' arm a squeeze as well, smiled softly and left the room. After the door closed behind him, the room remained silent for some long moments. Finally, Sirius shifted around a bit so that he could look at Harry. His gaze, when Harry finally looked up to meet his godfather's eyes, was shadowed with concern.

"Are you all right?", Sirius asked softly, running a hand along Harry's cheek. Harry leaned closer into the contact and closed his eyes tightly to stave off new tears.

"I will be."

Instead of accepting that answer, Sirius continued to look at Harry, and though the teenager refused to meet his gaze, he was feeling very small under that scrutiny.

"Harry?"

"Please don't go again." The words had tumbled out before Harry had consciously thought about them. It had sounded far more needy than he would have liked, but right now he didn't mind. Right now, it was probably good that Sirius knew just how much Harry needed him. Sirius looked at his godson for a few moments longer, then he tightened his arms around Harry and held him tightly against his chest.

"I have no intention of going anywhere. I never had any intention of going anywhere."

"And yet it happened."

Sirius sighed deeply. "Yes, it happened. Harry, there are never any guarantees in life, especially not during times of war. I have every intention to stay with you and take care of you, believe me. But there is simply no guarantee."

"I know", Harry mumbled against Sirius' hospital shirt. "It's just…I don't want to go through that again. You're all the family I have, I don't want to lose you again. Just for once in my life I want to have a normal family. I want you to stay with me. I love you."

Harry still didn't remember most of the things he had wanted to tell his godfather as soon as he woke up, but that was the most important thing. The one thing that could no longer be left unsaid. He had only realised just how much he cared about his godfather after Sirius had been gone, and the mere thought that he would never be able to tell Sirius how much it meant to him that he had come into his life had been more than painful. But now his godfather was back, and Harry got his second chance at letting Sirius know how much he cared.

Sirius smiled and held Harry close. "I love you, too. And I will do anything in my power to keep you safe and happy. As soon as I'm out of here, as soon as my legal status is finally cleared, the two of us will finally get our chance."

Harry smiled sleepily. "Good."

It was obvious that Sirius still had many questions about what had happened during the past two and a half months, but Harry felt too exhausted to answer any of them at the moment. He was too tired, he only wanted to rest, to finally rest peacefully again. He closed his eyes, shifted into a more comfortable position, and allowed Sirius' steady heartbeat to lull him asleep.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Remus returned to Sirius' ward half an hour after he had left, only to find Harry still lying on Sirius' bed, curled up against his godfather and by all looks asleep. He silently approached the bed and sat down on Sirius' other side. Sirius turned and smiled at his friend.

"He fell asleep shortly after you left", he said lowly, his hand all the while continuing to tenderly run through Harry's hair.

"It's been some very exhausting days for him. Exhausting weeks, rather. An it's already quite late, I'd say he was tired."

"Any news from out there?", Sirius asked, nodding his head into the direction of the door.

"I got the chance to talk to Kingsley for a few moments. The healers will be back tomorrow morning, for tonight they have seemingly examined you enough. Kingsley said they were surprised at how normal all their examinations came up. One of the healers will stay outside tonight, though, together with Kingsley. Just in case something happens, they still have monitoring charms on you."

Sirius nodded. "What about the Ministry?"

Remus shrugged. "Kingsley will stay here for the night. Officially, he's still in charge of your investigation. Over the past weeks, there have been some serious – posthumous – doubts about the question of your guilt. So they will listen to your story before they do anything else, Kingsley assured me that he'll make sure of that. Probably they will give you Veritaserum."

Sirius nodded absently. "As long as they don't come with a Dementor." He shuddered slightly and tore himself out of those thoughts before the fear could overwhelm him. "I just want to get out of here as soon as possible. Before Harry leaves for Hogwarts."

"First you'll need the agreement of the healers to be discharged. And there is still the Ministry to consider."

Sirius shook his head. "I'll get myself discharged as soon as possible, whether the healers like it or not. I feel exhausted, but not sick enough to keep lying here in hospital. And you said yourself that the healers have come up with normal results from their first examinations. I just…" The little colour that was left drained from his already pale face and he shook his head. "I just don't want to go back to Azkaban", he said lowly. Remus nodded.

"After you were back, Albus said he'd do his best to help get your name cleared as soon as possible. I doubt that he'd let them bring you back to Azkaban. Probably, they'll monitor your movements and will put you under house-arrest until everything is cleared up completely."

Sirius grimaced slightly, but then he looked down at the sleeping Harry and he nodded. "I hate that place, but if it's necessary I'd even let them lock me up there." He raised his head and looked up at Remus. "I just want to be free. I want to be there for Harry."

Remus smiled. "You'll get your chance. I'm sure you will."

"Do you think they'll let Harry stay here for the night?"

"Kingsley didn't say anything about him having to leave in the near future. Just let him sleep, I doubt that anybody will come in and chase him away."

Sirius nodded, unconsciously cradling the sleeping teenager more tightly against himself. He looked at Remus for a long moment.

"Have you had anybody look at your hand?"

Remus shook his head. "It's no deep cut. I cleaned it up, it'll heal on its own."

Sirius brought up his own hand, wrapped in a bandage, and looked at it as if he could see the cut through the white linen. "What in Merlin's name did you do, anyway? I still don't quite get what happened. We're sharing a blood bond, that much I've understood. The rest is still a complete mystery to me. What was that you said about Snape earlier, what does he have to do with everything?"

Remus sighed. "It's a long story, Sirius. Are you sure you don't want to wait until tomorrow?"

Sirius shook his head. "I doubt that I could sleep now, anyway. If you don't mind staying here, I'd very much like to know what happened."

Remus nodded and thought for a moment. "As I said, it's a long and difficult story. After you fell through the veil, we all thought you were dead. It was hard on Harry, especially since he had to return to his muggle relatives for the summer. We met them at King's Cross station, to give them some pieces of advise on how they were supposed to treat Harry, but of course we all knew that this was a less than optimal arrangement. Especially with you gone, he would have needed more emotional support than they were able to give, but with Voldemort reappeared, this was the safest solution for Harry. And I have to admit that at that time, I was too wrapped up in my own issues to think about a better solution for Harry. He was physically safe, that was the most important thing at that time. So I returned to Grimmauld Place with the others. It was all a blur, I had a pretty bad transformation and took a while to recover. Something like three weeks into the holidays, Kingsley and Moody forced me out of my stupor when Arabella reported that Harry had been brought to hospital."

Sirius' face shadowed with concern and he held Harry a bit more tightly against himself. The teenager gave a sleepy sigh and shifted around a little, but he didn't wake up.

"Why was Harry in hospital? What happened?"

"From what it seemed like at first, we assumed that he had tried to poison himself."

"Poison himself? Why should Harry do something like that?"
"It seemed as if he had poisoned himself. His relatives said that he had brewed something up with the ingredients from his potions kit. And after your death, we left him to deal with it all on his own. It was scary how quickly we all accepted the possibility that he might have attempted to commit suicide. The first thing I did was call up Severus, and he gave Harry an antidote. I stayed in the muggle hospital with him, and when he woke up, he told me what had really happened. He hadn't tried to poison himself, he just isn't the world's best potions brewer. Harry had been trying to brew a Dreamless Sleep Potion, but effectively had nearly managed to poison himself."

"Why did he try to brew such a potion at all? Why didn't he just write and ask somebody for help?"

Remus shrugged. "Because he didn't want to worry anybody. Because he didn't want to seem weak. Because he thought he could brew the potion. Still in the hospital, Harry asked me to take him away from his relatives. I thought he must have been pretty desperate to reach out and ask for help like that, and though Albus had decided that he should return to his relatives, I asked Dung for help and brought him to Grimmauld Place. It didn't change everything for the better, but he was starting to feel more comfortable. And then those seizures started."

Remus shook his head and turned to look away from Sirius, but his friend reached out with his free arm and urged him to look back at him.

"What is wrong?"

"Nothing."

Sirius smiled slightly. "Not one of your better lies, Remus."

Remus gave a short, mirthless laugh and stared down into his lap.

"I should probably be thankful for the seizures. When they started, I was just about to leave the Order."

Sirius raised both eyebrows. "Why?"

Remus only shrugged. "I don't know. I just didn't see the sense in it anymore. Not in anything. The people around me died, everybody I cared for just vanished. The Order didn't achieve anything, and I thought I had nothing left worth getting up for in the morning. It all culminated, and during an Order meeting I exploded."

"What did you do?"

A slight smile stole across Remus' face, despite his obvious attempt to hide it. "I hit Severus."

Sirius gave a quick, bark-like laugh, then guiltily pressed his lips together and looked down to see whether he had woken Harry. But the teenager was still blissfully asleep.

"You hit Severus?"

"It was…I just lost control. He was his usual obnoxious self, said things he shouldn't have said, and I just lost control."

Sirius shook his head, a disbelieving grin on his face. "I wish I had seen it. I really wish I had seen it."

"I don't believe in violence to settle conflicts, and that left hook didn't help the situation any, but Merlin, it was a good feeling. But still, I really thought that I didn't have a future in the Order. I just wanted to get away from it all, but as I was preparing to leave, I had that first seizure. So I had to stay at Grimmauld Place for some time longer, and then things happened so quickly. There was a Death Eater attack, and Harry had another of those dreams again, the dreams that are connected to Voldemort. We all decided that if this marked the beginning of the war, Harry would be safer at Hogwarts, where Severus could give him lessons in Occlumency. The problem was, the seizures happened more and more often, and even as we finally found out what could have caused them, even as Severus had established for a fact that there still was a connection between you and me, we didn't find a way to use that bond to bring you back. It went so far that we thought about means to sever the connection so that it wouldn't kill me as well. Harry…well, he understood why I was thinking about cutting off the connection, but he couldn't accept it. And so he searched for a way to bring you back." Remus laughed mirthlessly and shook his head. "And he found it. But even as he put the answer right in front of me, I didn't want to accept it as a possibility. And so he went and tried to do it on his own."

Sirius shook his head. "I don't get that. What did he do? And where does Severus come into all this?"

"Harry conducted what was probably the biggest research of his life. And he came to the conclusion that the way to bring you back was by using Necromancy."

Sirius whistled lowly. "I understand why you didn't want to accept that possibility. And without a Necromancer, it wouldn't have worked, anyway."

"No, and that's what I told Harry. But instead of deterring him from this idea, he enlisted the help of Ron, sneaked away from Hogwarts and to the Ministry, managed to get into the Department of Mysteries and attempted to use Necromancy to bring you back, despite all the warnings he had received."

"But how?"
Remus breathed in deeply. "He managed to get hold of a book which told him what to do. I don't think he took it by himself, but I haven't yet figured out just how he lay his hands on it. He researched Necromancy so thoroughly, he must have known that this would kill him if he was no Necromancer, yet he tried to do this nevertheless. It was pure luck that Severus and I got to know what he was about to do, so we followed him to the Ministry. Harry had already started the rite, and as there was no way to stop him anymore, Severus had to finish what he had started."

Sirius wordlessly stared at Remus for some long moments. Then he nodded. "Snape is a Necromancer. It was probably his book Harry used."

Remus nodded. "Yes."

"You knew about it?"

Again, Remus nodded. "About Severus' ability? Yes, I did. After I found out what Harry was researching, I had a conversation with him about Necromancy as a possible way to bring you back. Severus flat out refused to even consider the option, so I didn't consider it any further. If anybody was able to judge about the possible risks, it's a Necromancer."

"How come nobody knew about it?"

"About Severus' being a Necromancer? Well, I doubt that he ever told somebody about it, except maybe from Albus. I found out by accident, years ago. I knew that Severus didn't particularly like the fact that I knew about it, but until a few days ago, I never once mentioned it to anybody else."

"Snape brought me back. Severus bloody Snape brought me back from the dead. That's one hell of a wizard's debt I'm in now."

"I doubt that Severus is thinking about this now. He did what he did to save Harry's life. And right now he's probably still too angry for pulling him into this to contemplate that you might owe him a wizard's debt."

Sirius shook his head and smiled grimly. "Not that I care, no matter how many wizard's debts I owe Snape. He saved Harry, that's the most important thing."

"And he saved you", Remus said softly, and when Sirius turned towards Remus he found that his friend's eyes were suspiciously shiny. "Merlin, it's so good to have you back, Padfoot. I missed you."

Sirius smiled and reached out to squeezed his friend's uninjured hand tightly.

"But what did you do earlier, before I woke up? Why did you cut us?"

"After we brought you back, you…well, you were unresponsive. Physically, you were back all right, but you just lay in your bed and stared at the ceiling, you didn't react to anything. For days, without any improvement. None of the healers had any idea what could be done to change your condition, and in the end I thought that, well, that I could use the blood bond to bring you back. But for that I had to reopen the bond, thusly all the cutting. I thought…well, it served to save your life once, I simply had to try and use it to save your life again. It took a lot of effort to coax you into coming back, though."

"I don't remember that." Sirius was shaking his head in confused disbelief, but Remus just squeezed his hand again and got up from the bed.

"It'll come back in time. I promise I'll give you all the details you might want to hear tomorrow, but for now you should probably try to get some rest. I imagine that the upcoming days won't become calm or restful."

Sirius grimaced slightly at the thought of what could possibly await him upon his return, but he obediently nodded and shifted around until he came to rest in a halfway comfortable position next to Harry.

"Shall I conjure up a bed for Harry?"

Sirius shook his head and wrapped an arm around Harry, who after all that shifting was nestled comfortably against Sirius' chest again. "No, leave him. It's…it's good to feel that he's here."

The memories of what Remus had seen during his attempt to bring Sirius back were still livid on his mind, but he would wait before he asked his friend about it. Tonight, there were far more important things. Harry definitely looked comfortable, and upon waking up he'd be glad to have the immediate reassurance that Sirius was back. Remus could very well imagine that Sirius needed the reassurance as well. He smiled and squeezed Sirius' shoulder again.

"If anything is wrong, Kingsley is outside. Albus should also know by now that you're awake again. I'll be back early tomorrow."

Sirius smiled back.

"Good night Remus."

"Good night."