The Runaway Robin
Chapter 54
Dark clouds rolled into each other up above, only a draft of air away from falling down on the earth in torrents. It seemed the weather refused to be happy, uncannily mirroring Sirius' disposition. It had been weeks since he had spent a sunny morning outside Potter Manor as Padfoot and lounged in the soft grass early in the morning.
He loved basking in the warm sunlight – something he had thought would forever be a luxury out of his reach while he had been in Azkaban. It was one of his secret pleasures, something even Harry had never witnessed since he was not one to wake up early.
Even thinking about his godson was enough to put a damper on his already gloomy mood. He sighed from his position on the ground beside Buckbeak and rolled up the sleeves of his dark t-shirt which clung to his back.
The Hippogriff was sleeping peacefully, not disturbed by the loud clanks issuing from Sirius and the beast he had been working on for the past hour.
It was his motorbike, the one he had last seen when he had given Harry to Hagrid on that life-changing night and gone off to chase Wormtail.
He had practically been in love with this beauty for quite a few years before his life took a turn for the worse. James had made fun of him and Lily thought he was an idiot for loving a non-sentient thing as a motorbike even more than he had fancied his girlfriend back then… Amelia? Amanda? Sirius could not even remember her name now.
'Who cares?' thought Sirius idly, pushing back his sweaty hair which kept falling into his eyes. That was another life. One he was never going to get back.
So if he wasn't as besotted with the motorbike now as he had been then, it did not matter.
It was just a bike.
Granted, it had plenty of memories of him and James riding on it together, up to all sorts of mischief.
But he would have rather gotten back James than this instead.
Still, he could not be upset with Arthur. He had been taken aback when he had called him aside after their first meeting in their new headquarters and given him the bike.
"Hagrid gave it to me after… well, it's been with me all this while," finished Arthur, uncomfortably. "Molly doesn't know of course. I must confess I am not very adept with motorbikes. I prefer cars, having owned one for quite a while before my son and your godson let it loose in the Forbidden Forest."
Sirius let out a bark of laughter, recalling Harry's story that he had told him over the summer. He had thought only he and James and Remus had wandered the Forbidden Forest for fun and knew it like the back of their hands. But they had never seen giant acromantulas in there that wanted to eat them for dinner. And thank Merlin for that.
"Hagrid thought it would make for a good birthday present. But I haven't been able to find the right parts or information to repair it by then. I think it would be better to put it in your hands so you can fix it up yourself. I heard you built it from scratch?"
He smiled. "I did. Thanks, Arthur."
Sirius had to remove the two-cylinder 650cc engine from the rusting frame – the old girl had been unused for far too long and it was time for a refit. He had waited for a month to get his hands on a four-cylinder 750cc engine to take its place after tirelessly gathering some knowledge on what was new in the muggles' world. They did have the most fascinating ideas.
oOo
"There you are!"
Remus strolled into the shed, raising a quizzical eyebrow at Sirius before he gave a short bow to Buckbeak, who had woken up at his sound. He then proceeded to pat the Hippogriff, which resumed its doze again.
Sirius was sprawled out on the ground with a Muggle toolbox, his beloved motorbike partially deconstructed. Remus was aware that Sirius had thrown himself into fixing the bike up once Harry had up and left. He knew this was only a distraction, but he was glad Sirius was, at least, not sulking around, getting drunk and taking his bitterness out on unsuspecting Order members like he had been when locked up in Grimmauld Place.
Maybe, it really was the house that had got to him then. He seemed relatively normal now in comparison.
Relatively.
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" asked Remus, his lips twitching despite himself, when Sirius immediately peeked into the cracked and dusty rear view mirror of his bike.
"Is that your way of saying I look like dragon dung?"
"More or less," agreed Remus. "At least get a shave before you show up like this in headquarters."
Sirius rolled his eyes and lifted a shoulder as if to say that nobody could do anything about it anyway. Which was quite true, but it would be good for morale when their leader did not look like he had been living on the streets. Remus said as much to which Sirius grunted in agreement.
"Is everything quiet back there?" asked Sirius after a moment, unscrewing a few bolts with his grease-slicked hands.
"Quiet? With the twins? Has it ever been quiet with you and James?"
Sirius snorted half-heartedly. "What are you doing here then? Don't you have a new wife to attend to?"
Remus rolled his eyes at the weak attempt at humour. "Just stopping by for some fresh air," he said, before adding, "I might have forgotten what that smells like, what with the number of dungbombs the kids keep dropping everywhere to scare off that bloody ghoul."
Sirius laughed properly now. It wasn't everyday Remus swore and he knew it would crack him up.
Remus spoke with innocent curiosity. "Fred, George and Lee Jordan say they have some interesting news to share during this weekend's meeting."
"Ah yes, it's going to be a big night," said Sirius, unfazed. "I'm already expecting fireworks and cheering chimaeras or something equally ludicrous. At least, I have something to look forward to this weekend."
"So they were telling the truth when they said they've already run their plan by you?" probed Remus.
"Obviously, they needed to run it by me. I wouldn't allow something if I didn't think it was safe."
Remus bit his tongue in amusement. 'Sirius' and 'safe' weren't two words he would use in the same sentence. Unless it involved Harry, of course.
"Running a pirate radio station when the Ministry has been taken over by Death Eaters seems very safe to me, yes," said Remus, smiling wryly.
Sirius did not seem taken aback that Remus had found out about the twins' plan. In fact, he seemed to have been expecting Remus to figure it out as he raised both his eyebrows as if to say, 'You-know-that-only-now?'
"Well, it is not exactly a bad idea, per se," admitted Remus. "It's only—"
Sirius huffed, trying to pull out the engine from the body of the bike. Remus gave a long-suffering sigh and pulled out his wand. With a flick, the engine dislodged from the frame making Sirius fall back on his arse.
"Remus, you git," muttered Sirius, swearing under his breath.
Remus shrugged while pocketing his wand. "You looked like you needed a hand."
"You don't use magic on something as delicate as this," said Sirius gruffly. "Did you have to help?"
"In my defence, I thought this was getting thrown out."
Sirius glanced down at the rusting hunk of metal in his hand before mumbling something in the negative. He put it aside carefully and wiped his hands on a rag dirtier than his hands.
He frowned at Remus. "If you're that bored out of your mind, perhaps I must ask Fred and George to give you an entire segment on the channel. We need announcers and someone to come up with the content, decide on what we're going to broadcast and everything. I'm sure the boys have it down pat but they would still need help …"
Remus stared open-mouthed in disbelief. "We are going through with this then? Are you actually serious?"
"As serious as my name," said Sirius, his eyes alight with mirth before they dulled again. "We can't win a war playing safe. We need as many wizards as possible to stand up to him and we need a voice to let them know that they should stand up to him. If they won't provide us a platform, we create one for ourselves."
In all honesty, Remus was thoroughly impressed with the twins. How they intended to work around the very minor detail of the entire Ministry on the lookout for them, he did not know. But it made him eager to get to know what they had planned. "I must say I'm a little excited by the prospect. But it also worries me. A lot of things can go wrong."
"Then we'll make sure we're ready for anything," said Sirius, solemnly. "This is our best chance to get our stand out there. The Quibbler is a fine magazine, but I honestly will not take the word of a periodical during times like this, which thought I was Stubby stinking Boardman."
oOo
Opening his eyes and blinking them to find the blurry, yet stark white surroundings, Harry was certain he must be in a Hospital of some sort. He was slightly puzzled when he heard the sounds of a heartbeat monitor which beeped somewhere above him. He reached for his glasses by his bedside when he felt a tugging on his hand. He raised his hand to his eyes, and he could make out a tube running from his forearm. He frowned when he realized that he was in fact, in a Muggle hospital.
It felt strange to Harry, even though he had been admitted in a Muggle hospital perhaps twice in his life, and that too, before he had known he was a wizard. So it left him thoroughly bemused to find a witch sleeping on a chair from across his bed.
Harry could only whisper, "Demelza?"
He could hardly hear himself and was not surprised when she didn't wake up. He reached out for his glasses and put them on, blinking against the bright white lights, having gotten used to gas lamps and candles by now.
He nearly jumped when Demelza Robins stirred and looked up at him with wide eyes. "Harry! Are you alright? What were you thinking? Why did you—"
Harry only had enough time to say "Shush!" as the door opened just then to reveal a middle-aged Muggle nurse. She clamped her mouth shut and watched as the woman tended to the bandages on his leg.
"Are you feeling any pain?"
"No," said Harry, which was almost the truth. He did feel quite numb, in a good way.
"Well, it's just a minor fracture," said the nurse, kindly. "Four days in bed and you should be right as rain. You might have to keep your leg in a cast for a few weeks, but it won't tie you down to your bed, if that's what worries you. Are you sure you have no family to notify?"
Harry blinked uncertainly and was grateful when Demelza intervened, "We're orphans. We grew up together and now he takes care of me."
The nurse looked from Demelza to Harry with sympathy, before smiling up at him. "You're lucky your sister got you here swiftly." Saying so, the woman left and Harry turned towards Demelza, raising his eyebrows in bafflement. "What in Merlin's name happened?"
oOo
Earlier…
Demelza tugged her hand from the wizards' strong grip, but it was in vain. There was no way she was escaping from here and she felt her throat choke with tears to know she was dead, or soon will be.
Having been asked to step away from the Hogwarts train, which had been halted on its tracks in the middle of nowhere, had lit up alarm bells inside her head. But Demelza had not dreamed of the severity of the situation she was in.
The train had been delayed by an hour and masked men searched the coaches, calling out names of students. Everyone had looked at each other confused when almost every name they had called out had been found to be missing from the train.
But around twenty or so, including herself, had been one of the names in their list and they had been asked to step out of the train.
Oh, a few students had put up a fight, including herself. She was a Prefect this year after all and it didn't matter that her first duty as a Prefect would be to save the children from Death Eaters.
But there was no parent or teacher to actually put a stop to them, not when they had come with the Ministry's backing.
Demelza had been whisked away to a place that had looked like it was part of an old factory. She realized the rest of them were all around fourteen to seventeen years old. At least there weren't any first or second-years. She recognized only two boys and one girl, who were all in her year, but the others, she knew only in passing. The men, Death Eaters, she soon learned, had questioned them, tortured them for information on the other students and where they were hiding.
Demelza was just as clueless as they were.
How had nearly all the Muggleborns, save a few, known not to board the Hogwarts Express? And why had she not been one of them?
After two days of trying to get the answers out of them, the Death Eaters had relented and decided they would leave them after all.
In Azkaban, that is.
Demelza had made a ruckus along with some of the older kids which had resulted in the arrival of a man who claimed to be a werewolf and threatened to bite them on the full moon. It shut them up effectively.
All of their wands were taken and she worried they were going to snap it in half. But she noticed the Death Eaters pocketing them and the kids were taken using Portkeys in groups of five, presumably to Azkaban.
Demelza belonged to the last group, her mind whirring with the only thought that if she needed to escape, it had to be now.
The last group were to be taken to Azkaban by the werewolf himself, but Demelza had made up her mind to make a break for it. All she needed was her wand.
When the werewolf had been staring Patricia down, licking his lips threateningly, Demelza lunged straight towards his pocket and miraculously gripped the wood of a wand.
She could tell it wasn't hers, but she had no choice and the spell was on her lips before the werewolf could pounce at her. "Petrificus Totalus!"
The man went rigid and fell to the floor with a thud.
The other students cheered in elation and ran towards Demelza, who quickly pulled out all of the wands the werewolf had pocketed and found hers.
The other kids took their wands, when she spoke up, "They'll come looking! We have to leave now!"
Nobody needed to be told twice. They made a mad rush towards the door and out of the building into a barren land with not a soul in sight, when they heard the crack from above that could only mean that a wizard had Apparated.
Demelza didn't stop to turn around, but she heard several more people Apparating nearby and panic flooded her, when two men popped out of nowhere and grabbed her around the waist.
"Let me go!"
She felt her body twist when she was being taken along for an unwilling Disapparation along with someone. Demelza ensured her wand was still clutched tightly in her hands and as soon as her feet felt solid ground, she aimed at the nearest person with an "Expelliarmus!"
The man went flying back, and she would be forever grateful to Colin Creevey for teaching her that spell. She ran away from the men, realizing she was in a place that looked somewhat like Diagon Alley.
Which was good. At least, she knew she was in London, instead of the middle of nowhere.
But this place was not Diagon Alley. The shops were all grim-looking with only a few people walking along the street. This had to be Knockturn Alley.
She saw more people on the adjoining street ahead and made her way towards it. Her dad always said it was the safest to be amongst crowds of people.
Her dad had no clue how wizards worked, obviously.
Before she could yell for help, the Death Eaters caught up to her and gripped her wand arm. Demelza turned around and smacked one of them straight in his nose, startling him. But another man caught her from behind and twisted her arm behind her, making her scream and drop her wand.
She hoped and prayed someone from the crowd of people would help her. But all she heard were screams and yells as people ran away or Disapparated from the scene.
Demelza tried to head-butt the man who was holding her, but he was fast or he had anticipated what she was about to do and ducked.
She needed her wand, but with their vice-like grip, she could not shake them off even though she tried to wriggle away from him as much as she could.
When suddenly, she heard the Death Eater holding her arm shout something before letting her go. Amazed at her luck, she quickly located her wand and grabbed it before trying to run, when she was caught hold of by yet another Death Eater.
Where were they all coming from?
Demelza heard a quiet pop and someone else grabbed her hand (she was going to have bruises on her forearms if she survived this) and dragged her away from the Death Eater with a forceful tug.
"Avada Kedavra!" She heard the heart-stopping words shouted by more than a couple of voices behind her.
The boy with the green rucksack, who was gripping her arm, pushed her roughly behind him and yelled some spell that caused a huge, circular wall of silver metal to materialize in front of them.
It shattered with a deafening bang and Demelza had ducked in reflex. She screamed when she saw the boy lying on the ground, with a huge chunk of his metal shield crushing his leg.
All was quiet for a moment and she thought she should make a break for it now and save herself. But she could not imagine leaving him behind when he had saved her life. She hurried towards him and slapped the side of his face, "Wake up! Wake up! We should get out of here!"
He looked like he was barely holding onto consciousness, and his breaths were laborious as if it took him an effort to breathe at all. She tried to dislodge his leg from the heavy metal when she heard him rasp, "Twitchet!"
Demelza was confused and wondered if he was rambling in his pain, when there was a crack just behind her.
She turned around in alarm to see a tiny creature but her eyes widened when she noticed one of the Death Eaters was getting up, relatively unharmed and pointing his wand at her. She screamed, but the man was thrown back forcefully and it took Demelza a couple of seconds to realize that the house-elf (for that's what it was) had disarmed him with such force with only a wave of its tiny hand.
Demelza turned to the boy again who croaked, "Get –us—back!"
She watched in alarm as the elf squeaked, "Master Harry! Master Harry! Twitchet will take care of you!"
The elf waved its hand again, removing the huge weight off of the boy's leg and turned towards her with wide, worried eyes. "Hold on, miss!"
Demelza had only just clutched its thin hand when she felt herself Disapparating once more that day.
She opened her eyes and looked around her, trying to assess if she was safe. It was a rundown place, its walls made of stone and the sound of the sea just outside.
"Oh my Young Master! You is injured!"
Demelza turned around to see the elf tearing open the bloodied cloth clinging to the boy's leg. Demelza moved closer and could see bone through the gaping hole in his calf and nearly fainted.
"We should take him to a hospital!" she squealed.
"Master isn't safe! Master has ordered Twitchet to never go to wizarding places!"
"He's bleeding out! Can't you do something?"
Twitchet, as the elf seemed to call itself, gently tried to extricate the green rucksack that the boy was still wearing. Demelza helped to quickly remove it and she asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"Master must have his Dittany," mumbled the elf as it reached into the rucksack. It pulled out a cork stoppered vial with brown liquid and with a wave of its hand, the cork flew out. She watched in horrified fascination when the elf poured just a few drops over the gaping wound and the flesh seemed to weave itself together.
She would never cease to be amazed by magic.
"Twitchet cannot mend broken bones," squeaked the elf. "Twitchet doesn't know…"
"His leg is broken?" Demelza's eyes widened and she looked back at his leg again. She thought it looked fine, probably a bit bruised as the new flesh had turned purple. But she was not an expert on how broken bones looked like.
"Twitchet knows miss! Twitchet can see the swelling. Dittany ought to have healed Master's wound completely."
Demelza quickly shrugged off her thin cardigan that she had been wearing over her dress and asked in a wavering voice, "Could you hold his leg up please?"
The elf levitated the boy's leg by just a few inches so that it was raised from the ground. Demelza tied her cardigan around, securing it as tightly as she could manage.
"It'll hold for a while. We need to take him to a hospital! Even a muggle one should do."
Demelza did not plan on going near wizards anytime soon. She turned to see the boy's face again, his features etched in pain even though he was unconscious.
She was in for a shock however, when she saw his features bubble and morph right in front of her eyes. She screamed again but her shock was replaced by amazement when she realized she knew this boy.
"HARRY?!"
She had thought nothing of the fact that the elf called the boy 'Master Harry', there were plenty of Harrys after all, but seeing his face, his scar – it was undeniably Harry Potter.
The house-elf looked at her inquiringly. "Miss knows my Master?"
"You're his house-elf? Of course, I know Harry! He's a friend!"
The house-elf spoke, "Twitchet will take Master Harry to London along with you, Miss! But Twitchet cannot be seen by muggles…"
"It's alright, Twitchet, you can trust me," she said as comfortingly as she could. "I'm muggleborn. I can make sure he is healed if we just make it to a hospital! He saved my life."
Twitchet did not hesitate and asked her to hold its hand again and Demelza Disapparated yet again that evening.
She was outside a hospital with only Harry, flat on his back on the ground. She did not stop to wonder how Twitchet must have disappeared quicker than she could blink, but instead ran into the hospital and called for help.
Soon after, two nurses came with a stretcher and carried Harry inside a room. Demelza spoke hurriedly of his injury, carefully lying to make it seem like it was an accident.
She had been ushered out of the room, while a doctor tended to him and after a few moments that felt like hours to Demelza, who was glancing around nervously, they announced he would be fine.
"Just a broken fibula," said the doctor. "Nothing to worry about. I've put it up in a cast and given him a pain killer so he's under a good sleep for now. It needs to heal on its own. A month of sufficient rest from walking and he should be perfectly fine."
A month?
She could not help but wonder that if something were to happen to Harry Potter in that time, she would totally be held responsible. And what of his family? His godfather?
Why was Harry alone in the first place?
oOo
Harry rubbed his forehead absently. "I can't thank you enough…"
"Harry, you saved my life! I should be the one thanking you," said Demelza, earnestly.
"Where's Twitchet?"
As if she had been waiting for his call, Twitchet Apparated in with a crack, making Demelza jump.
"Master Harry! Twitchet has been worried and waiting and waiting for your call."
"I'm alright, Twitchet," said Harry, smiling tiredly. "I'll be back from this place within a couple of days. You don't have to worry."
The elf bowed, pleading, "Master, please! Please allow Twitchet to get Master Sirius—"
"No."
Twitchet quietened but Harry could see she was very upset, even though she did not dare speak up.
Demelza stared at him, but Harry couldn't care. "You will not get anyone, you understand me?"
Twitchet bobbed her head reluctantly and Harry felt a twinge of sympathy. "You can wait back in the shack till I call you again, Twitchet. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You have a good night."
Harry was sure Twitchet was cross with him again as she left wordlessly. He turned to notice Demelza still staring at him and he raised an eyebrow in question.
"Why can't you let your godfather know—?"
"I'm sorry, but that is between me and Twitchet," he said with an edge to his tone.
Demelza nodded after a moment as if she recognized that she was crossing some untold boundary. "Shall I get something to eat? I haven't eaten all day. I bet you're starving too."
Harry was hungry now that she mentioned it. But he frowned in confusion. "You're not leaving?"
"Leave where?" asked Demelza, tilting her head to the side.
"Your home," said Harry, bemused. "You're free now! You can get your family and go into hiding."
To his surprise, Demelza's face darkened. "I can't Harry, I can't go back."
"Why not?"
Demelza worried her lip before shaking her head and announcing, "You-you wouldn't understand unless you were a muggle-born…"
"Try me."
She stood up, and put her hands around herself, staring at the window. "My parents don't like any of this – magic, wizards, witches. They were of a mind to not let me go to Hogwarts at all when I turned eleven."
Harry's eyes widened. "What?"
Demelza nodded slowly. "But I was adamant and I insisted – told them that they should be happy for me. They were certain I was ruining my life joining a witches' cult."
"A witch—Oh…" Understanding dawned on Harry.
He had never thought of that. Uncle Vernon & Aunt Petunia did not think they were a cult. Freaks, yes. But devil-worshipping cults? No.
At least, he thought they didn't.
Or maybe they had. Harry would never know.
"I always cover up a lot of things that happen here," continued Demelza, "I don't want them to get more alarmed than necessary. But if they know what's happening here now, forget Death Eaters. They will snap my wand in half themselves and board me off to some faraway school, so I can forget about all of this! I can't do that, Harry. I love what I am, I love being in Hogwarts, even though it's not exactly safe now!"
There was silence then, broken when rain started to fall, hammering against the window panes.
"Well, what do you want to do then?" asked Harry, finally.
Demelza shook her head. "I really don't know, but I just can't go back, Harry."
Harry felt sorry for her, knowing well what Hogwarts meant to him. He could not possibly ask her to stay with him, but he couldn't just let her off either. "Look, I get it. Your parents are probably not very understanding of people like us. But there's really no safer place for you right now than with them. If they ship you off to some school as you say, you'll be safe at least for now."
Demelza flushed in anger. "Didn't you hear—?"
"I heard what you said," said Harry. "It's probably going to sound stupid, but you can always come back. You're a witch for Merlin's sake! You could Apparate once you're—"
Demelza stared disbelievingly at him. "Harry, I'm fifteen! I don't know how to Apparate and I won't know it in future if I'm going to be sent off to who knew where!"
"I can teach you if that's what–"
"No amount of your teaching is going to help if my parents take my wand away from me!"
Harry closed his eyes and let out a long suffering sigh. "I'm out of ideas. What do you reckon you want to do then?"
Demelza fiddled with the hem of her knee-length dress before saying, "What if—What if I stayed with you?"
The silence lasted only half a second before Harry shook his head and said abruptly, "No, you can't."
"But—"
"I'm the last person you should stay with if you want to make it out alive!" said Harry, unable to believe she was actually suggesting this. "Don't you know who's after me?"
"I know you have more chances than any other witch or wizard to make it out alive from this," said Demelza, slowly. "Logically, that's where I am the safest."
"Logically," repeated Harry through gritted teeth, "I should not have involved myself with you in Diagon Alley in the first place."
Harry regretted his words immediately once he had spoken it aloud. He shook his head, "That was uncalled for…"
Demelza was glaring at him with a mixture of hurt and anger when Harry continued, "I am grateful you saved my life, but that does not mean I'm going to let you tag along."
"Fine," she said sharply, but somehow without having raised her voice. "I'll find some place myself. You have a good stay here, Harry. I hope you recover quickly. And thank Twitchet for saving my life and yours," she added with emphasis.
Harry was a tad ashamed of his behaviour but he also hated the prospect of letting her stay with him. He was uncertain what he was doing out here himself and it would be impossible to keep her from knowing about Dumbledore's mission if she were to come along.
Which is why, he did not stop her when she stood up to leave.
oOo
A/N: Now, who thought it could be Demelza Robins?
Thanks to each and every one of you who reviewed ^ ^!
I posted a one-shot, The Golden Snidget which is an outtake from this story that didn't make the final cut. Would love if you show some love on it!
