Title: Harry Potter and the Werewolf of Azkaban
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, settings or anything else from Harry Potter.
Warnings: AU

Chapter Two

"Leaky Cauldron? That's your stop, innit?"

Harry looked up in surprise. He hadn't realised how long they had been travelling.

"Yeah," he said.

"Leaky Cauldron, Ern!" Stan called to the elderly driver, who nodded, squinting at the road through his thick glasses. The brakes slammed into action, propelling Harry from his bed to land in a painful heap at Stan's feet.

"Come on then, we 'aven't got all day," the conductor said, grabbing Harry's trunk and heaving it down onto the pavement. Harry picked himself up and followed.

The Leaky Cauldron looked very old and dirty in the sunlight, and Harry wondered for a moment whether he had made the right choice to come here. It occurred to him that maybe he was in trouble for what he had done to Aunt Marge. The Ministry had almost expelled him last year for using magic in Privet Drive, and it hadn't even been him doing it, so what would they do
to him now?

But before Harry could make up his mind to walk away, the door to the dingy little pub burst open and there was Sirius rushing towards him, and another figure in pinstriped robes close
behind.

"Thank Merlin!" Sirius breathed, one arm already slung around Harry's shoulders and pulling him close. "What did you think you were doing? Didn't you get my owl? I told you to stay with your Aunt and Uncle."

"Never mind that now, Sirius," said the other man, who Harry now recognised as Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. "Let's just be thankful that Harry is here safely. Come inside, Harry. Tom," he turned to a stoop-shouldered man who was watching from the doorway. "Take Harry's things upstairs, will you?"

"Ern! Look! 'E's 'Arry Potter! Cor, I can see 'is scar an' all!" Stan Shunpike's excited voice came from the waiting Knight Bus, and Harry turned to see Stan pointing and Ernie squinting at him. He gave them a little smile and a goodbye wave, and followed the Minister into the pub. Sirius stayed behind a moment longer to shake Stan's hand gratefully and thank him for keeping Harry safe before following them.

Fudge led Harry and Sirius up into a small private parlour, a dark and dusty chamber that was quite empty but for a table and a few chairs scattered about an unlit fire. Tom, having delivered Harry's luggage and returned, snapped his fingers and the fire instantly burst into bright dancing flames. Fudge motioned to the chairs.

"Please, sit," he said, taking his own seat. Harry chose a chair close to the warmth of the fire and Sirius pulled his own protectively closer to Harry's. "Well, young man," Fudge began, eyes fixed on Harry but smiling quite kindly, "you have given us an adventure, haven't you?"

"I didn't mean-" Harry began, but Fudge waved a hand dismissively.

"Never mind that. Your Aunt has been dealt with and her memory modified. The Dursleys have been spoken to and they have agreed to take you back next summer, so there's no harm done."

"I don't want to go back," said Harry quietly. He glanced at Sirius, and went on in a pleading tone, "Couldn't I come live with you? The Dursleys don't want me there."

Sirius grimaced. He would have liked nothing better, and each time Harry asked it was harder to say no. "I'm sorry Harry," he sighed. "You know I'd love to have you live with me, but you need the protection of your Aunt's blood. She is your mother's sister. Although you'd never think it," he finished in a sneer.

Harry nodded; he understood. He stared at the joyfully flickering fire.

"Anyway," Fudge went on, breaking the slightly awkward silence. "Since you are here, and I think it would be wise to give the Dursleys some time to cool off, I see no reason why you shouldn't stay here with Sirius until the new Hogwarts term starts."

Harry looked up, all disappointment gone. So he would have his Dursley-free week after all! A whole week with Sirius in Diagon Alley! He grinned thankfully at Fudge, and then at Sirius.

Fudge smiled, then sighed and got up.

"I'm afraid I'll have to be leaving now. Very busy at the Ministry these days, what with...yes, well." He shook Sirius' hand, then leaned close and murmured something that Harry thought was, "Keep him safe, Sirius." Sirius nodded grimly in answer. Fudge turned to Harry and shook his hand too. "Keep this godfather of yours out of trouble, Harry," he said jokingly, "and no more running away in the middle of the night. I expect you're tired. Tom will show you to your chambers." He left the room, Sirius and Harry trailing behind

A few people were seated at tables or at the bar, and none of them looked up when Harry Potter, Sirius Black and the Minister for Magic walked in. Harry looked around and saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. He twisted to look for it, yes, that was it: a poster pinned to a wall, and now that he was looking properly he saw that they were pinned to almost every wall. WANTED! the poster read, in large bold letters, REMUS LUPIN. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HALF-BREED. DO NOT APPROACH! and beneath that a picture of a man; a scar-faced, painfully thin man, who was looking around interestedly. His hair was lank and reached to his shoulders, his eyes were shadowed but bright and sharp. Harry recognised that face immediately: the murderer!

"I saw him!" Harry burst out. Fudge halted, regarding Harry with a puzzled expression.

"Saw who?"

"Him," Harry pointed to the poster, which smiled the same calm, peaceable smile the murderer had given Harry at the bus stop only a few hours before.

"Yes, he's been on the Muggle news as well. Terrible business."

"No, I mean I actually saw him. At the bus stop in Little Whingeing, just before the Knight Bus came. He was talking to me."

Sirius gripped Harry's shoulder tightly. Fudge spluttered incoherently.

"Merlin's beard...to think...my goodness...if the Bus..." he trailed off, apparently too shocked to speak.

"So he's a wizard?" Harry asked.

"What? Oh, yes. Yes, he is a wizard. Sirius, you'll explain, won't you? I... really...this puts a new perspective on things...really very urgent...must go..." Fudge stammered, and the next moment he was sweeping out of the pub in a flurry of pinstriped robes.

Harry looked up expectantly at Sirius, whose gaze was fixed on the pleasantly smiling face of the murderer with a strange expression on his face. If Harry had been asked to describe it, he would have said that he couldn't put a name to it, it was too complicated: there was hate in it, and anger, and a strange kind of pain, and bitterness, and, strangest of all, sorrow.

"Sirius?" he said, uneasily. Sirius blinked, seemed to shake himself slightly, and looked down at Harry.

"Come on," he said, with a strained smile. "Let's go up to your room."

"Why was Fudge so worried about me?" asked Harry a little later, after Sirius had made him eat some food and given him a warm drink and they were both settled comfortably in Harry's room.

Sirius paused. "It's this Lupin business," he said at last. "Big scandal. Everyone wants to know how he got out of Azkaban. Fudge is in trouble if he can't come up with a way to reassure people."

"What did he do? Lupin, I mean."

Sirius' eyes were strangely bright. "He was a Death Eater. Big-time supporter of Voldemort, one of his biggest. Killed thirteen people with one curse."

"Why?"

"'Cos he was a maniac, Harry. Is a maniac."

Harry sipped his hot chocolate, which was much thicker and richer than the stuff Stan had given him on the Knight Bus.

"Why did the poster say 'half-breed'?"

"Lupin's a Dark Creature. A werewolf, actually. Which makes him doubly dangerous and doubly a headache for Fudge."

"Why?"

"Because he's got all the bleeding hearts equal rights people breathing down his neck." Sirius' voice was tinged with bitterness. "They can't kill him straight off, otherwise there'd be another scandal. Same as when they caught him first time around. Most sane wizards were all for carting him straight off to Azkaban, but these people said no, you can't do that, and so he had to be given a fair trial. Didn't matter, anyway. They knew he was guilty. A whole street full of witnesses." Sirius looked at Harry. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now. They'll catch him soon enough. Can't hide a werewolf. Drink up and into bed, you've had a long night."

It was a golden week. Sirius showed Harry all the secrets of Diagon Alley; the little side streets that led off into fantastical shops crowded with the weird and wonderful. Sirius showed him the places that he and Harry's father had loved to visit when they had come here together on their shopping expeditions, after Sirius had run away from home. They made little longing noises together at the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies after seeing the brand new Firebolt. Every day they ate at Florean Fortescues's Ice Cream Parlour, attended by Florean himself, who often refilled their dishes free of charge.

There they sat on the last-but-one day of Harry's holiday. Ron and Hermione were arriving the next day, and the day after that would take them back to Hogwarts and a new term. Harry felt excited about being back in the familiar castle, but there was also a part of him that would have been happy to sit outside in the sunshine every day, with Sirius telling him old stories.

Sirius was silently toying with his spoon, swirling the ice-cream around his dish without paying much attention to it. Harry watched him expectantly, recognising that his godfather wanted to tell him something and was working up the courage.

Sirius took a deep breath. "Harry," he said at last, "I need to tell you something. Fudge doesn't want me to tell you, and neither does Molly Weasley, but I think you need to know." He stirred his ice-cream a little more while Harry waited. "Remus Lupin broke out of Azkaban to come after you."

Harry blinked. "Me?"

"Yes. Don't worry, Harry. There's no way he'll get to you. Not with Dumbledore and the Ministry and me looking out for you."

"I'm not scared," said Harry stubbornly. Sirius beamed at him.

"Good lad," he grinned. "I knew you were made of stouter stuff than they think."

Harry smiled at Sirius' approval, but he was still puzzled. "Why me?"

"Like I told you, Harry, he's mental. He probably thinks that getting to you'll bring back his old mate You-Know-Who." Sirius always used Voldemort's name, except in public where people were still raw and frightened of it.

Harry nodded and decided not to push the subject, since it obviously made Sirius uneasy. But he still wasn't happy. There had been plenty of opportunity for Lupin to kill Harry at the bus stop. The street had been dark and deserted, nobody would have seen or heard him murdered, nobody would have known. Sirius' explanation didn't satisfy him because, despite his alarming appearance, Lupin hadn't seemed mad or dangerous. His smile had been an honest, open smile, his voice had been pleasant and mild, and his eyes had been calm and clear. And yet there were the thirteen dead Muggles and the street full of witnesses.

"What's Azkaban like, Sirius?" Harry asked impulsively.

"What on earth d'you want to know that for?" Sirius laughed. Harry shrugged.

"Just wondering," he said.

Sirius, now solemn, stirred his melted ice-cream, lifting up spoonfuls and letting the thick, creamy half-liquid trickle back into the dish. "Azkaban. Azkaban. Well, Harry, if ever there was anything to make a wizard stay on the straight and narrow, Azkaban's the thing. It's a horrible place. Just this grey prison building out on an island. Awful. Prisoners go mad there. The guards - you'll be seeing them this year, Fudge has sent them to guard Hogwarts - the guards are Dementors. Have you ever heard of them?" Harry shook his head. Sirius shivered, and went on, "Dementors are terrible things, horrible. They...they suck all the happiness out of a person, make you feel like you'll never be happy again. They make you cold...freezing...and all you can think of are all the awful things you did, until there's...there's nothing but darkness and all the bad things...it's not pleasant, Harry. Not at all."

"Have you ever been to Azkaban?"

"Me? Not as an inmate, but as a visitor once or twice. It was awful...all the prisoners screaming and wailing and the Dementors just gliding around and feeding off it. I don't want to go back there." Sirius shook his head as if to emphasise his point. The golden sunshine seemed suddenly too bright for talk of desolate prisons and madness, the chatter of the wizards around them seemed over-cheerful and out of place, like canned laughter on the television shows Dudley always watched.

Sirius gazed solemnly at the tabletop for a few moments, not really seeing the table at all, Harry suspected, before he shook himself out of his reverie and grinned at his godson. Sirius' grin was infectious, wide and boyish and mischievous, and Harry always found himself grinning back.

"Anyway," Sirius said brightly, "it's our last day together, so let's go and make the most of it, shall we?"

Ron and Hermione arrived the next day, Ron more freckled than ever and bursting to tell Harry about his family's holiday to Egypt, Hermione very tanned and bursting to get back to school.

They spent their last day of freedom wandering around Diagon Alley, buying Ron and Hermione's books and school supplies, and then enjoying Florean's best ice-cream, although Ron was annoyed at Hermione for her new pet's attempts to eat Scabbers, who was looking distinctly under-the-weather after the trip to Egypt.

"Crookshanks can't help it, Ron. All cats chase rats." Hermione tried to reason, cuddling the bandy-legged, mangy-furred ginger cat as if it were the sweetest kitten. Crookshanks yowled menacingly at the trembling Scabbers.

"Yeah, well, Scabbers is ill, isn't he? The last thing he needs is that great monster after him."

Harry sat back and enjoyed watching the two of them argue. He really had missed them over the summer holidays, even though they had sent him letters and birthday-presents, and it was wonderful to have them here with him again.

The atmosphere was festive that night in the Leaky Cauldron, with the Weasleys, Sirius, Harry, and Hermione all eating together as a sort of farewell feast for everyone who was heading off back to Hogwarts the following day. The only person who didn't seem to be enjoying himself was Percy, whose shiny new Head Boy badge had gone missing earlier that day and returned bearing the slightly less important-looking message: 'Bighead Boy'. Fred and George flatly denied having anything to do with it, but Percy continued to shoot them angry glares and spent the evening morosely prodding the badge, trying to get the message to change back.

"He'll have his work cut out for him," George confided in Harry. "That's a Semi-Permanent Changing Charm."

"Scabbers!" Ron cried, reaching for the rat as Crookshanks barrelled after him. Scabbers fled, squealing.

"Alright Ron, I've got him," Sirius chuckled, grabbing Scabbers and nudging Crookshanks out of the way. The rat writhed and twisted in his grasp, desperate to be free. "In a bit of a state, isn't he? All his fur's coming out, his ear's torn, toe missing, I - OW!" Scabbers buried his sharp little teeth firmly in Sirius' finger. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ron, take your demon rat back! Don't you laugh, Harry, or I'll set him on you, the vicious little devil. OW!"

Ron, trying to suppress his giggles, prised Scabbers off Sirius and tucked the rat into his pocket. "That's your fault, Hermione! Honestly, can't you keep that animal locked up or something?"

"Really, Ron, you can't expect me to keep poor Crookshanks in a cage. He need to be free."

"I'll free him," Ron muttered darkly to Harry. "I'll set him free right where him and Fang can play together nicely."

Harry thoroughly enjoyed the noise and laughter of the meal, and was sorry when Mrs Weasley decided that it was getting late and wasn't it time for them all to be off to bed? Sirius tried to argue for just a little while longer but Mrs Weasley pursed her lips and even Sirius knew to give in.

In the morning, Ministry cars turned up to ferry the Weasleys, Sirius, Harry and Hermione to the train station. Mr Weasley wouldn't say why, but Harry suspected that it was to do with him and the fact that Lupin was still on the loose, although the Daily Prophet had been promising that the Ministry was closing in on him and of course they would have him very soon. Sirius shook his head over these claims and knew that the Ministry was no closer to finding Lupin than ever, but he didn't share these views with Harry for fear of worrying or frightening him.

Platform 9¾ was packed with parents and students. Mrs Weasley hugged all her children, then Harry and Hermione. Harry waited until they had moved off to the Hogwarts Express before saying goodbye to Sirius.

"I, er, suppose you're too old for a hug now, eh?" said Sirius, half-jokingly, half-wistfully. Harry shook his head, all self-consciousness forgotten, and hugged his godfather, his only link to his parents apart from a few tattered old photographs, tightly. Sirius held him close. "You take care now, alright? Don't get into trouble, and for Merlin's sake, and mine, don't go looking for Lupin."

Harry nodded, unsure as to why Sirius would think he would go looking for a man who wanted to kill him, but unwilling to waste time by asking questions. Well, apart from one...

"Sirius," he began when they had parted, pulling out the form that had arrived with his Hogwarts letter. "Could you sign this for me? It's for Hogsmeade visits, only the Dursleys didn't sign it, and it needs to be signed by a guardian and you are my godfather. Please?"

Sirius took the form and read it with a pained expression. "The thing is, I'm not really your guardian."

"But I'm sure it'd be fine with Dumbledore."

"To be honest, Harry, I'm not sure that I'm keen on having you wandering around Hogsmeade while Lupin is still out." Harry looked at his godfather, disappointed. Sirius sighed. "Tell you what, leave this with me and if the situation with Lupin changes, I'll owl it to you. Okay?"

"Okay," Harry said, seeing that this was the best offer he was going to get. Sirius draped an arm across his shoulders as they made their way towards the Hogwarts Express, which was getting ready to leave.

"Write to me often, okay Harry?" he pleaded. "And I'll see about you coming to mine for Christmas, too. Stay safe, and remember what I said: don't go looking for Lupin. Promise me, Harry?"

"Promise," Harry agreed, giving his godfather one more hurried hug before boarding the train.

Harry found the compartment that Hermione and Ron had claimed quickly, and slid into the seat nearest the window He ignored his friends, who were already arguing spiritedly over whether Crookshanks should be allowed out of his basket, and strained to see Sirius. There he was, standing a little way off from the Weasleys, smiling at Harry. As the train began to huff and puff its way along the track, he began to wave. Harry waved back, craning his neck to be able to see until Sirius was just a featureless smudge of black hair, and then the train swung lazily around a corner and he was gone.

A/N This chapter was hellish to write, because there was so much that Harry needed to be told about and therefore it needed to be close to the books while different enough so that I wasn't just copying, and I'm not sure that it worked. Feedback is very welcome, especially constructive criticism.
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed this story. I really didn't expect to get any kind of feedback! Dark and prone to violence, you can imagine Remus any way you want. Thewlis isn't exactly my picture of Remus either. I hope everybody else who had questions has had them answered by this chapter. I did try!