XXII

Harry tuned out Ron's angry complaining about Hermione. Of course, Hermione had to go and buy a huge cat that had almost run Ron over. No wonder, Ron was mad, but Harry thought he was overreacting. After all, it was Hermione's pet and Harry didn't really believe, that Crookshanks – that was its name – wanted to eat Scabbers the way Ron seemed to fear.

At least when they entered the Leaky Cauldron, they finally stopped their argument. Mr. Weasley sat at the bar reading the newspaper with a big grin on his face.

"What's up, Dad?" Ron asked taking the stool next to his father. "Did we win another prize?" Ron winked at Harry.

"No, but this is better," the oldest Weasley grinned. "Somebody stole from the Malfoys. Right here in Diagon Alley. Lucius was spitting mad. This," he flicked at the page in front of him, "doesn't even begin to tell the story. Somebody stole almost a hundred Galleons right out of his son's pockets." Mr. Weasley snickered. "His fault of course. Why does he let his son run around with so much money?"

Ron and Harry laughed out loud. Harry really wished he'd have seen Draco's face when it happened. He could just imagine it. The blond git flaunting his wealth in a shop only to end up at the counter unable to find his father's money.

"Serves him right," Ron laughed, doubling over from laughter.

"You sure it's alright?" Hermione asked nervously. "I mean, this might have been Black."

"If it was Black," Ron snickered, "I applaud him."

But he was the only one who still laughed. Mr. Weasley had sobered up quickly at the mention of the name and Harry was worried too. He still remembered what Charlie had told him earlier that day. Was Black really after him? He was sick of everybody wanting to kill him. Harry just wanted a peaceful year in school. Instead, he had Voldemort trying to murder him in his first and second year, and now apparently a mad ex-convict who had served Voldemort during the war. He was really getting tired of it.

He looked around for Charlie. The boy hadn't gone into detail, about what Snape had told him. Harry itched to ask more about it. But he couldn't find Charlie anywhere. He only turned back to Mr. Weasley, when the man folded the Daily Prophet together and put it down. There it was again… Sirius Black's picture on the cover. It was now over a week ago, that they had increased the reward, but apparently, they were still looking for him.

"They still haven't caught him?" Harry asked looking at the waxy skin and hellishly glowing eyes.

"No," Mr. Weasley said gravely. He looked tired. "They've pulled us all off our regular jobs at the Ministry to try and find him, but no luck so far."

"Would we get a reward if we caught him?" That was Ron asking.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Mr. Weasley said. "Black's not going to be caught by a thirteen-year-old wizard. It's the Azkaban guards who'll get him back. You mark my words."

Everybody was talking about these Azkaban guards recently. Stan, the conductor on the Knight Bus had talked about them too. He seemed very spooked talking about them. Harry didn't know anything about it. Hagrid had never talked much about his short time in Azkaban last year, but it had visibly drained him. He had never mentioned any guards, though. How bad could these guys be?

At that moment, they were interrupted by Mrs. Weasley, and Ron's siblings – the twins, Percy and Ginny – entering the pub. They all greeted Harry enthusiastically. Mrs. Weasley showed off Percy's Head Boy badge. When he left, Harry followed him with his eyes and… there!

Just across from him, looking at him with mildly interested eyes sat Charlie. When had he entered the pub? Harry didn't remember seeing him come in.

"We tried to shut him in a pyramid, but Mom stopped us." George nudged Harry's side.

"Huh?" Harry turned away from Charlie. Who was George talking about? He followed George's gaze up the stairs. Oh right…Percy.

The next morning Kakashi's early set of one-armed push-ups got interrupted by the trampling of feet, the loud yelling of teenager voices, and banging doors. The oldest of the Weasley boys was missing his Head Boy badge.

With a yawn, Kakashi left his room all his stuff packed into a big trunk he had bought, not because he needed it – he could easily seal all his things into scrolls – but to better fit in with the other kids.

Kakashi heaved the trunk on the top of the stairs and listened. There were voices whispering. He realized he wasn't the only one listening in. Just down the stairs standing at the bar was Harry.

"I don't want to make him miserable. I want to put him on his guard!" Kakashi recognized Mr. Weasleys' voice from the day before. He was whispering just below the stairs. If he didn't want to be overheard, he should try harder. "You know what Harry and Ron are like, wandering off by themselves. They've ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home. If that boy, Charlie, and the Knight Bus hadn't found him…He would have been dead before the Ministry found him."

Kakashi still stood at the top of the stairs. He hadn't bothered to hide, and by now, Harry had noticed him, too. The boy looked up at him, and put a finger on his lips, telling him to stay quiet.

"But he's not dead; he's fine, so what's the point—" That was Mrs. Weasley's voice. Kakashi barely recognized it when she whispered.

"Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible."

Again, Azkaban… What made this place so inescapable? It sounded as if Sirius had done an impossible deed by escaping. Kakashi bristled angrily. He still remembered the day he found Sirius – still in dog form. Half-starved to death and desperate. Was that the trick of how they kept the inmates locked up? Just weakening them to the point where they wouldn't even have the will to escape?

"We almost had him. He was in a holding cell in the ministry, and then—Don't ask me how he escaped. He had a partner, I tell you. There are two death eaters out there…This is worse than we thought. What they did to Alaric. Even Tonks, his own great-niece."

Kakashi paled.

His own great-niece?

Kakashi had not just almost killed a friend, he had hurt Sirius' niece? No wonder Sirius had been disgusted with him. He had attacked not just his friend, which would be bad enough, but his family too. Nervously, Kakashi dragged a hand through his dyed hair. He had really botched the escape, Kakashi knew now.

I'll never forgive you. Do you hear me? I'll hunt you down, and if it's the last thing I'll do.

"But we know what Black's after—"

"Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts," Mrs. Weasley interrupted her husband.

Harry over at the bar turned deathly white. He took a step back, and pinched his lips, obviously trying to suppress any sounds. Then he almost jumped when Mr. Weasley banged his fist against the table. It was a miracle that none of them saw Harry.

"Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Black's been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts…he's at Hogwarts.' Black's deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that."

Twelve years… Alone in Azkaban. Sirius had not once talked about Azkaban. Kakashi didn't really have a concept of the place in his mind, but the more he heard about it, the angrier he got. Twelve years alone in Azkaban. The words were clear. Twelve years of isolation. And then they thought him mad for speaking in his sleep? If he seemed deranged to them, it was because this place had made him so!

Yes, indeed. That night, when Harry stopped this You-Know-Who-Voldemort was the night when Sirius lost everything. Kakashi knew that much at least. Only, not the way these people thought. And Sirius was never provided the means to mourn his family.

If Kakashi didn't hope for more information, he would interrupt them right there. He hated to have people who clearly didn't know anything about Sirius, talk about him like that. He hated it even more, that Harry had to listen to this. Kakashi knew how much Sirius cared about the boy, but if Harry just blindly listened to what other people said about Sirius, even with the rat captured and Sirius' innocence proven…How could there be any trust between them?

Kakashi was about to make his presence known when the mention of the Azkaban guards made him reconsider. The conversation had now turned to Dumbledore, who Kakashi knew was the headmaster of Hogwarts and apparently a very powerful man—for being the headmaster of a school, anyway.

"We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed," Mr. Weasley said.

"Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy if they're there to catch Black?"

"Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards. Nor am I, if it comes to that…but when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you'd rather avoid."

The Azkaban guards. In his mind, these guards were the worst of the worst. How else could he explain the way everybody talked about them. He had first thought of people like Ibiki Morino, who would be well-versed in torture and interrogation and who could hold prisoners in check. Now he feared it might be worse. Were they so bad, that even their own allies would want to avoid them? Kakashi didn't like the mentality. To offer up prisoners to the mercy of people you wouldn't even want to interact with on a normal day…

Kakashi hated to think about it. And if they were now stationed at Hogwarts, that meant Sirius was running right towards his tormentors.

"You were right," Harry whispered when Kakashi dragged his trunk down the stairs. The Weasley's had quickly finished their discussion and left. Harry still stood where he was, frozen at the counter. "He's after me." He turned to Kakashi.

"Don't listen to them," Kakashi said, feeling a need to defend Sirius. "I'm sure it's nonsense." He couldn't really explain to Harry how he knew that. If anybody knew that he had met Sirius, they would capture Kakashi and interrogate him until they knew everything Kakashi knew. Even if he evaded capture, that would only make helping Sirius much more difficult. He had a good position now, close to Harry and the rat. Risking that just to tell Harry a story, that the boy would have no reason to believe, wouldn't be smart.

"Nonsense?" Harry snorted. His face was still ashen. "You heard it. He's been talking in his sleep. 'He's in Hogwarts.'"

"There are plenty of people at Hogwarts," Kakashi said vaguely. "Just…we don't know anything yet."

Harry shook his head. "Easy for you to say. You don't know how it is. Voldemort's been trying to kill me since I was a toddler. And now even his sympathizers…I'm so sick of it. I hate them all."

"You don't know anything about Black yet." Kakashi didn't relent.

"Yeah? I think I heard enough." His shoulders slumped a little. "Sorry, Charlie. But you can't understand it. You don't know how it is… I just know." He made to turn away from Kakashi. "But you're right. I shouldn't worry too much. I can take care of myself. It just sucks. Now, the teachers will watch every move I make."

Kakashi suddenly felt an unexpected kinship towards Harry. He himself had never liked it when people treated him like a child as if he couldn't handle the dangers, he was in.

Kakashi looked after Harry. Then he pulled his trunk out to the waiting cars.

"Ah, you must be Charlie!" Mrs. Weasley greeted him happily walking up to him to promptly wrap him into a tight embrace. "I've heard all about you, my dear boy. Unbelievable! I have a son called Charlie too, did you know? My second oldest." Kakashi didn't know. The oldest Weasley-kid he had met so far was a boy called Percy.

Kakashi was then seated in a car next to the Weasley twins and Ginny. Mrs. Weasley sat in the passenger seat. Kakashi didn't know the driver. Through the rear window, he could see Mr. Weasley usher Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the oldest Weasley brother into the other car.

"So, Charlie," one of the twins greeted him, "we heard you met Snape."

"Called him Miranda, we heard," the other twin added with a huge toothy grin.

"That's a story we'd love to hear, don't we George?"

"Yes indeed, Fred."

As he couldn't keep them apart based on their faces, Kakashi quickly memorized their individual scents.

Kakashi couldn't wait for the cars to arrive at King's Cross. He really wanted to leave London. Over the weeks he had gotten somewhat used to the stench and the noise, but he would be happy to be rid of it again.

Kakashi watched in awe, as Mr. Weasley and Harry leaned against the barrier between platform 9 and 10 on King's Cross Station and…vanished. Curiously, Kakashi stepped a little closer. Was this another instance of magic hiding places in a different dimension? He looked around himself. Apparently, there was a hidden platform there, but as he looked around not only could he not see it. There would be no space for it here.

Kakashi carefully knocked against the barrier. It was solid, yet Harry had just slipped through. They hadn't even used a passcode the way they did to enter Diagon Alley. And yet, it was no mere illusion. This barrier was real.

"How does it work?" he asked.

"Oh, dear. Of course, Charlie, you never did this before. How about you watch Ron and Hermione first?" Mrs. Weasley suggested.

Kakashi gave a short nod. Ron and Hermione nodded at each other and then walked right through the barrier. It didn't make sense to Kakashi. He knocked against the hard surface again.

"But I can touch it. It's not a mere illusion," he wondered out loud.

"Of course not," Mrs. Weasley said with a small frown. She stood next to him with her hand against the solid brick wall. "If you don't believe or if you don't want to pass, you won't. After all, we don't want muggles to accidentally fall through, do we?" She chuckled lightly, then she moved away, to let her eldest son and only daughter through.

Searching the wall, Kakashi finally found the magical core. The way he had found it at the wall to Diagon Alley as well. He quickly understood. His chakra probed and played with the faint magical energy he could detect. He could manipulate it, he realized.

Clearly, Kakashi couldn't use magic, but with magic already there, Kakashi could interact with it. Which was good to know. That way, whatever magical seals or wards they had, he might be able to get through them even though he wouldn't be able to cast them himself.

"Our turn," the twins proclaimed.

Tentatively, Kakashi covered the magical core with his chakra.

WROOMMS!

The twins and their trunks crashed into the hard barrier. Confused they picked themselves up from the ground. A few muggles were looking at them and shaking their heads.

"What was that?" Fred asked picking up his trunk.

"Yes, what was that?" repeated George. He walked up to the barrier, poking at it with his finger.

"Not again," cried Mrs. Weasley. "We had the same problem last year. When will they—"

But at that moment, Kakashi retracted his chakra, and George fell right through the barrier.

"Oh dear, thank Merlin," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Go on, Fred, I'll bring your brother's things. Quick, before it closes again."

Kakashi watched Fred pick up his things and quickly make his way through the barrier.

"I'm sorry this had to happen just now," Mrs. Weasley apologized for something that was clearly not her mistake. Kakashi felt a little bad at experimenting, which was the main reason, why he didn't do anything else. The other reason was that he feared, he might accidentally destroy the barrier by attacking it too aggressively with his chakra. If he could manipulate it, there was a chance, he might accidentally destroy the magic.

Getting through was, in the end, a surprisingly easy task. He closed his eyes, the moment he feared the impact against the wall, but then he just fell through. Kakashi stumbled a little, catching his suitcase before it could roll away from him.

"Well done, Charlie," Mrs. Weasley said. "Now where is everybody?"

They found all the others just a few steps away. Only Percy was already gone. Fred was just explaining the story about how the barrier had closed on them for a moment.

"That's weird," Harry stated, just as George came to take his trunk from his mother. "I had the same thing happen to me in Diagon Alley."

Mr. Weasey frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"It wouldn't open. Then I tried again, and it worked… I thought I maybe have hit the wrong brick." Harry shrugged.

Thankfully, that explanation was enough for the present Weasleys. Kakashi would have to be more careful, he realized. He didn't want to get caught, manipulating magical barriers.

The Weasleys let the entire group towards the train. Kakashi covered his nose. This train stank abysmally of fumes. It was worse than all the other trains he had seen. An exhaust at the top of the engine let a thick dark-grey smog waft into the air. He hoped the ride wouldn't be too long.

"Here, this looks good," Mrs. Weasley said after they had already pulled their luggage past several compartments. They heaved all their luggage inside, then the kids went back outside to say goodbye. Kakashi almost missed that. He was looking for a seat when the youngest Weasley kid waved for him to come out again.

He was embarrassed as he watched the cuddly and loving scene. Mrs. Weasley was hugging and kissing all her children goodbye, even Harry and Hermione, who were decidedly not her kids. To escape, Kakashi stayed in the train door a step above everybody else, hoping that would put enough distance between them. He had survived one hug, but he didn't need another one.

"Charlie!" Mrs. Weasley called for him. "I hope you have a great first school year. This is really new to everybody, so give your teachers some slack, but ask them if you need help with classes, okay?" Realizing that the door was too tight for an embrace, she opened her arms for him. "Come here."

Horrified Kakashi stared down at her. The twins grinned stupidly behind him, giving him encouraging nods. They were mocking him. Kakashi didn't move an inch.

"Mom…" Ron cried out. "Leave him be, he's completely overwhelmed. This is embarrassing."

Kakashi felt incredibly thankful when Mrs. Weasley listened to her youngest son. With a pouty expression, she let her arms sink. But then she gave Kakashi a loving pat on the arm – his shoulder was too high for her.

"Take care of yourself, Charlie."

Kakashi barely even had eyes for her anymore. A bit further away, Mr. Weasley let Harry down the platform for a private discussion. With the somber expression on his face, Kakashi could guess what they would talk about. He lost them out of his sight when the twins entered the train and pushed him out of the way, into the wagon.

"Sorry," Ron muttered to him, as he climbed in after his brothers. "That was embarrassing."

Kakashi blinked. He looked back to the platform. Mrs. Weasley called out for her husband and then Harry came running back, jumping into the train.

"Don't worry about it," Kakashi turned to Ron, who was biting his lips. "You have a good mom. I'm just not used to it."

Ron blushed a little.