Title: An Claidheamh Soluis

Author: AineRose

Updated On:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, okay! Stop suing me!

Author's Note: Finally, an explanation!

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Visitor.

The man at the door was pale, and in much worse shape than Vernon had ever been in his life. His sandy brown hair, flecked with grey, fell over his eyes; his simple jumper and jeans were old and worn and his coat was threadbare; his face was lined with pre-mature wrinkles, and he looked like a man who had seen too much. But, the thing that annoyed Vernon the most was that he had the audacity to offer his hand to him.

"What ever you're selling, we don't want to know," he said gruffly, and attempted to slam the door. He was halted, however, by an invisible force. The man placed his hand to the door and smile thinly.

"I'm not selling anything, Mr. Dursley, but I think you want to know what I have to say."

Vernon gasped. "You!"

He recognised the man now. He had been with the boy at the train station coming back from that, that…place!

"Get away from my family," he snarled. He must be here for Emma, instead of that Giant.

To think he had let that witch stay in his house. He had let her watch TV, eat his food, play on his new laptop. His insides squirmed at what the little thing could do to his house. Having one in his house was bad enough, but two! And now this man had the nerve to invite himself into his house. Well technically he hadn't invited himself in, but waited patiently while Vernon stared at him, before clearing his throat softly.

"I'm glad you recognise me, Mr. Dursley. Do you mind if I come inside? It's rather nippy outside."

Vernon stared at him, his jaw flapping in the wind.

"Vernon? Who's there?"

It was Petunia. She wore a curious look on her face, and Vernon could think of nothing to say to her. The man moved swiftly past Vernon and into their hallway.

Petunia stared at him suspiciously. "Who're you?" she asked briskly.

The man extended his hand again. "Petunia Dursley? I believe we've met before. My name is Remus Lupin," he said, incredibly polite for someone who had just trespassed onto their property.

"Now look here," Vernon started. "I will not permit some abnormal, rude stranger to barge into my house uninvited and…"

But Petunia's eyes were widening, and a strange look crossed her face. "Lupin," she whispered.

Lupin chuckled and redrew his hand. "I thought you might remember me."

"What do you want?" Petunia snapped. "If you want Harry, just take him and go as quickly as possible because we have guests and I won't stand-"

"Get him to take that little brat with him," Vernon interrupted her.

"Actually Mrs. Dursley, I'm here to talk to you, Lupin cut in. "And Harry, of course," he added. "I have wonderful news for you regarding your sister, L-"

"I will not tolerate her name being spoken in my house," Vernon shouted.

"Vernon!" Petunia gasped.

Harry and Dudley had sneaked up to the door, and when Harry saw Lupin he let out a shout and rushed to embrace him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Everybody's okay, aren't they? Nothing's happened has it?"

Lupin smiled. "Everyone's fine Harry. In fact, they're better than fine."

Harry stared at him. "What's happened?" he asked suspiciously.

"I was just about to tell your Aunt and Uncle. Shall we go into the living room? I don't wish to continue this here."

The Goldens were exiting the dining room now, and looking extremely uncomfortable. "We must be going Petunia, Vernon. I'm sure you have to catch up with your friend. We'll see you later."

"He's not our friend!" Vernon exclaimed, while Petunia bobbed her head beside him.

"Wait!" Harry said quickly. "Emma, this is Remus. Remus this is Emma. She's going to Hogwarts next year. She only got her letter today. Emma, Remus is a wizard. He was a friend of my dad's."

"Hello Emma." Remus said kindly to the shy girl. "Congratulations. I'll be teaching you at Hogwarts. I'm sure you'll love it. Everyone does." He looked at Mr. and Mrs. Golden, "I'm sure you're very proud."

"Oh, yes!" Mrs. Golden beamed. "I can hardly believe it. A witch in our family!"

Remus grinned. "Emma will love Hogwarts. It's the best school in the world for Magic. It's also one of the safest places on Earth," he added gently.

"Fantastic! Yes, well, we must get going! Good bye Petunia, Vernon, Dudley, Harry. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Lupin."

And they were gone.

Lupin followed Harry to the living room quietly, with Harry shooting him questioning looks. Vernon, Petunia and Dudley followed them, Petunia in front, Vernon last and Dudley wedged between his parents. He looked extremely disturbed with one hand on his bottom and one covering his mouth. He waddled along, his piggy eyes darting between Lupin and Harry over his enormous hand. Harry turned around quickly and bit his lip to keep himself from laughing. Remus looked at him worriedly, rather like Mr. Weasley had, as if he was mentally disturbed. He offered the boy a small smile. Dudley squeaked in terror and pressed himself up against his mother's bony frame. Petunia shot Remus a deathly glare, and Remus just looked at her with that horribly familiar mischievous smile that Lily's friends had always reserved specially for her.

She glared at him until they sat down on her best sofa. Vernon's face went an odd purple as Remus took off his coat and settled himself into his seat.

"Er…do you want something to drink?" Harry asked nervously.

"A cup of tea would be nice. It hasn't been a good trip here."

"You didn't just Apparate?"

"You can't Appatate or Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds," he reminded him. "I wanted to travel by Floo but Arthur advised against it. So I used a Portkey." Harry grimaced at the memory.

"But why were you in Hogwarts? Are you really going to be teaching us this year? What's happening?"

"I'll explain everything in due time. The tea?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll just…Do you want some Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon?"

Vernon stared at him suspiciously. "I don't trust you not to poison it," he grunted.

Harry shifted nervously. "Oh. Aunt Petunia?"

Petunia was quiet for a moment. "Two sugars," she said finally.

Harry went quickly to the kitchen, desperate to escape the tension in the room. He dawdled on the tea for some time, trying to postpone going back into the room. Though he was dying of curiosity as to what his news was he wasn't enthusiastic enough to want to return to his Aunt and Uncle's glares.

He made sure the water was perfectly boiled (he stared at the kettle and boiled it twice) and made a quite a business (though no one saw him) of adding the milk and sugar, and putting the biscuits on a plate adorned with flowers. Balancing the tray and opening the door took some time but he managed it finally.

Remus would never have believed a house could be so clean if he hadn't seen with his own eyes. Everything was neat and proper and dusted to perfection. He thought it made his house look like a shed. He had never believed Lily when she had said that she was the messy one in her family (She was so particular!) but now he believed her. The walls were cream, as were the chairs and sofa. The table was a dark oak, and the centrepiece of the room. It was intricately carved and held a vase of flowers on it. The vase, which held many exotic flowers, contained not a single lily, Remus noted.

The television took up half of the wall, and the other half was taken up by a stereo and computer. A mini fridge was conveniently placed beside the sofa, in case Vernon or Dudley required any thing to eat and didn't want to walk to the fridge. Remus shook his head in disgust at their laziness.

Vernon Dursley was staring at him with a mixture of indignation, disgust and terror on his face, which gave him an odd mauve hue. Petunia was not much better, watching him as if he were to commence jumping on the couch with his muddy shoes still on at any given moment. Dudley, the boy, worried Remus. He wondered if the boy had a severe mental ailment. He had never seen anyone hold their bottom as if it were on fire, unless it was on fire.

He cleared his throat. "You have a very nice house, Mrs. Dursley," he said as politely as he could.

Petunia's glare intensified.

"Just tell us what you want to say and then go," Vernon Dursley interrupted.

Remus smiled again. "I'm afraid that that could take some time. But I think it's something you would like to know."

"He's leaving?" Vernon asked innocently.

Petunia nudged him angrily. Apparantly, she wanted to be a good hostess, even if she despised the person she was hosting.

Remus smiled again, and eagerly accepted the tea Harry brought in, finishing half of it in one gulp. Petunia stared in horror at his rudeness as she sipped her tea politely.

He set the mug down and cleared his throat. "I have brought you some amazing, and wonderful news, but to understand it fully you must listen to me carefully. You may know that, just over a month ago, Harry's godfather Sirius was murdered-"

Vernon, Petunia and Dudley all turned to look at Harry. Remus ignored them, determined to finish his story as quickly as possible.

"He died in a very strange situation. You see, there is a room in the Ministry of Magic called the Death chamber. The room is bare, except for an arch and veil in the centre. The veil is an ancient source of magic, which was created by an ancient wizard named Arotes. He created it in the 12th century, during the great war of the Goblins and Mermaids, which resulted in many casualties for both wizards and muggles. Arotes himself lost his love, Niamh and became obsessed with getting her back. Of course, there is no way to resurrect the dead, and Arotes drove himself mad. He consulted ancient sorcerers and gypsies but only made progress in 1178, when he was told of a blind peasant with the power to weave the past, future, and present. He went to the man, and asked him if he could help him. The man, a descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw, crafted a veil that could allow the Dead to communicate with us and create a gateway to the Other World. It was a failure at first, because every dead person tried to communicate with him, and he died insane, trying to fulfil the wishes of the Dead. The veil was lost for hundreds of years, until it was found in the late 18th century, and has remained in the Death Chamber ever since.

"Sirius, as you may not know, had a cousin by the name of Bellatrix Lestrange, neé Black. She was convicted as a Death Eater after the fall of Lord Voldemort, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban, the wizard prison. She escaped last year, along with nine fellow Death Eaters and rejoined Voldemort. Last year, there was a battle of sorts in the Death Chamber-"

Harry was looking increasingly upset.

"And Bellatrix hit Sirius with a Disarming Spell. He flew into the veil."

He was silent for a moment, thinking of how to phrase his next sentence. Vernon Dursley was looking increasingly impatient; Petunia was looking as if a light bulb had gone off in her head.

"I knew I knew who he was," she said to herself. She looked up at Remus. "He was your friend, the mad one. I knew I knew him. I knew it!" she shrieked, before becoming quiet again for a moment. "I can't believe he was a murderer," she said finally.

Remus shook his head and sent a glance in Harry's direction. The boy was close to tears, and was paler than Remus himself.

"He was innocent, Petunia. Peter was the one who killed those people; Peter was the one who sold your sister's soul to Voldemort."

"I don't remember a Peter."

"Short, pudgy, liked to eat."

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, him."

Vernon interrupted, "Is there a point to your story? Because if you are going to threaten us then I think you should know that we've left him alone this year, and treated him fine, thank you very much-"

Remus raised his hand. "No, no Mr. Dursley, you must let me continue. You too Harry, you'll definitely want to hear this!"

He cleared his throat.

"The thing that was unusual about Sirius' death was that he was the first solid being to go through the actual veil, and into the Other World, wherever that is. We assumed he was dead, and prepared a memorial service in his honour. Two weeks ago, a woman called Greta Horrit reported that she thought she had seen Peter Pettigrew in the woods near her house, and an investigation into the matter has been launched. But, I'm getting off topic. Where was I? Ah yes, Sirius! We believe that he did pass through the veil, but as solid matter isn't allowed through, they chucked him out again!"

Harry looked up in shock. "They found his body?"

"Not just his body- him! Alive and breathing! He even looked in better shape than usual! He was in a coma for a while but he woke up about two days ago."

Harry stared at him, hardly daring to believe it. He opened and shut his mouth a few times and then finally said, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" in a weak voice.

"We couldn't be sure he would live. We spent day and night by his bedside." Remus' tone was sympathetic and regretful. "And then the Prophet got word today, and Sirius woke up and had a mad fit because you weren't there…" He smiled suddenly. "He wants to see you as soon as possible."

Harry's eyes were shining with tears. "This is a dream," he whispered.

Remus shook his head. "It's true," he told him gently.

"I don't see what this has to do with us," Vernon interrupted, yet again. "Unless this bloke gets his name cleared and takes the boy off our hands…" he grinned wickedly.

"There's more, you see, and Mrs. Dursley, I'd listen carefully if I were you, and you Harry. Sirius doesn't remember what happened, but we do know that he met someone there, because he grabbed on to them when he was leaving and took them with him. And somehow, he brought them back alive."

A deafening silence followed this statement, while everyone came to the same conclusion. Well, almost everyone.

"Well? Are you going to tell us or what?" Vernon exploded.

Petunia's face was chalky white, and quite matched the off-white chair she was sitting in. Harry was staring into space, and Remus guessed he was trying not to get his hopes up.

"The pair," he said quietly, "were Lily and James Potter."

Dudley's hand dropped from his bottom in shock. Vernon turned a rare mustard colour. Harry closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He then pinched himself rather aggressively until he broke the skin and red spots of blood began to appear on his skinny arm. He winced in pain and dropped his arm. "It's not a dream," he concluded. "You're lying."

"It's a joke!" Petunia muttered venomously. "It's some sick joke you're playing on us. I won't be fooled by you, Lupin!" she shrieked. "You haven't changed a bit! You're still playing sick, sadistic jokes on people for your own amusement! Well, I'm not surprised at all! Not when you are what you are- a freak!"

Remus winced, but remained as calm as he could. "Do you honestly think I could joke about this, Petunia? Do you think I could stand up here in front of you and say thing like this about my best friends in the world. Lily was like a sister to me, Petunia, and I could never darken her name like that."

His words echoed around her, and his face held such sincerity that Petunia slowly began to believe him. She was unable to contain the tears that brimmed in her eyes, and the wracking sobs that followed.

When they had calmed themselves down, Remus announced to Harry that he wanted to leave at once and asked him to pack for the coming year as quickly as possible. He then thanked the Dursleys for the tea, told Petunia he'd arrange for her to see her sister and floo'd to Hogwarts with Harry and his trunk on his tail, leaving three very shell-shocked Dursleys.

The room was completely silent for a minute, save for the old grandfather clock ticking. Then, Dudley got bored.

"What's for supper?"