Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 11

Disclaimer:

I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.

The next morning, rather than calling for room service again, the group joined the other guests in the hotel restaurant for a traditional English breakfast. Harry had discreetly cast a muffliato so they could still speak freely and not raise any suspicions from the muggles surrounding them.

During breakfast, they made plans to visit the zoo and then stay one more night at the hotel, before leaving for the Potter property that they had found on the properties list located on a private tropical island. There wasn't much information written down about the property, as it wasn't a property that had been often used, which was a little shocking when Harry found it on the list of properties. If he had known about it in his own time, he would definitely have spent time there, but he suspected that it must have been sold by Dumbledore while he was slaving away at Privet Drive, or possibly even stolen by Dumbledore for his own private use. There was no telling at this point and it was all speculation now, Harry had no way to get any true answers regarding it anymore.

There was a distinct possibility that whatever home was there would need some repairs, or there might never have been a home there. But if they did find a home and it needed more repairs than a simple reparo could handle, they could set up their tents until they made the repairs. Hiding the tent's origin would be a nonissue, because Remus had already guessed the time traveling, he just didn't know from how far in the future.

When Moony mentioned the full moon was on Friday, Harry assured him that regardless of where they stayed on the island, he and Merope had enough time and power to make him a warded area that would keep him and everyone else safe. Remus was a little skeptical, but chose to wait and see.

After breakfast, they went back to the suite to get changed into weather appropriate muggle attire, and at Merope's reminder, they left some clothes scattered about and conjured up a few empty suitcases again, just in case the cleaning staff came up to clean while they were out and wouldn't think anything was out of the ordinary.

With everything arranged and everyone finally ready to go, Little Harry reached up for Moony to carry him, and then they were off in the direction of the zoo.

Little Harry hadn't felt this loved and happy since before his real parents died. He loved his new parents, too. And now that he had his Moony back, he was even more happy, now all he needed was his Paddy. His new daddy told him they were going to get him his Paddy, but he didn't understand why it was taking so long. They did get him his Moony, though, so he decided he would wait and let them get his Paddy back, from wherever he went to. He must be lost, which made Little Harry feel sad.

When Remus noticed Little Harry's look of sadness, he asked, "What's the matter,cub? Don't you want to go to the zoo?"

Little Harry just said quietly, "Miss Paddy. Want Paddy back."

Remus glanced over at Harry and Merope, and then said, "Well, we are making plans to bring him home,cub, but he's being kept in a location where he can't have visitors. We have to find out how to get him out."

Little Harry thought about it for a moment and said, "Daddy can just get him."

By this time, they had reached a fairly crowded area, so Harry threw up some privacy charms before the discussion was able to be overheard, then weaved some mild aversion charms around their group, so the crowd would subtly move away from them.

Not really noticing what Harry was doing, Remus resumed his conversation with Little Harry and said, "No, I'm not sure you even your daddy could get him out of there."

Harry cleared his throat and said, "Well, actually I could, but then he'd be on the run and we'd have to go through the trouble of getting him a new identity, schedule him some muggle plastic surgery to change his appearance, etc. So I'm saving that for a last resort, if convincing the Ministry to give him a trial doesn't work." Then tilting his head in thought, Harry said, "I am hoping to get him out at least by Christmas, but I'm thinking about paying him a visit soon, just to make sure the dementors can't hurt him as much. I mean, he still has his animagus form and that helps, but it's still a drain on him, I can make him something the guards won't be able to detect that will help fight off the effects."

Remus was midway between shock and awe and said, "How could you possibly do that? It's impossible to get in and out of Azkaban undetected, it's never been done."

"Well," Harry said, trying to be modest, but after living so many years with the MoD powers, it was getting more and more difficult to be modest about it, "Mary and I have some special abilities that we planned to wait until we had both you and Sirius together to reveal. Suffice it to say, I can get in and out without detection and we'll leave it at that for now."

They let the discussion drop after that. Little Harry seemed to be somewhat satisfied from what he heard, though, all he really understood was that his daddy could get Paddy back and that was all he was concerned about.

After a little while, Little Harry started to enjoy all the sights that he saw on the rest of the walk to the zoo. He had never been to a zoo before and wasn't sure what it was, but he really liked seeing all the cars driving and the bright lights and Christmas decorations in the shop windows they passed. Finally after walking for a few blocks, they were at the zoo. There were no lines to wait for at the entrance, so Harry was able to pay the admission fees immediately. After requesting a copy of the map, they proceeded to view the exhibits as they appeared on the map, since no one expressed any particular preference.

Little Harry decided that he loved the zoo. He had wanted to climb in there with the lions, but his daddy wouldn't let him. Then he wanted to climb in with the wolves, and again his daddy wouldn't let him. When he asked why, his daddy told him that the zoo people would not let them come back, because they weren't allowed to know we would be safe with magic. That didn't make much sense to Harry because he knew his daddy could make them all invisible, but since daddy said he would explain it later, he decided to just watch through the glass, but it would still be better if he could go in there and play with them, he wanted to pet their fur that looked so fluffy and soft.

When they went to the snake exhibit, it was discovered that Little Harry had retained the ability to speak parseltongue. Harry thought the horcrux had not been there long enough for it to stay, but perhaps parseltongue was a latent inheritance that must have skipped some generations and that his own ability might not have actually come from being a horcrux. Harry thought it might be worth looking into, but only after they've taken care of everything else.

Merope put up a muffliato in order to keep from drawing the attention of the muggles that were present, then tried to explain to Little Harry why they couldn't stay the rest of the day to talk to the snakes, because there were other animals to see in the zoo. She promised him to get him his own snake he could talk to when they found their new home on the island. Satisfied with that promise, Little Harry didn't put up a fuss when they finally moved on from the exhibit and Merope had dropped the muffliato.

They skipped tea and stayed at the zoo until lunchtime and then ate at one of the nearby restaurants before returning to the hotel so Little Harry could lay down for a nap.

As Little Harry slept, the adults discussed the Sirius situation further. They felt like they had a decent enough plan, they just needed to work out how to approach Walburga. Harry expressed that he thought he could probably call Kreacher, since he did leave a note promising to show him proof of the cleansed locket, but didn't think it would be the best idea to do it from a muggle hotel, so they chose to wait until they moved to the island the next day.

In the meantime, Harry decided he was going to visit with Sirius tonight, so he pulled out a gold bracelet from his backpack and got to work enchanting to make it undetectable by anyone not keyed to it. When Remus asked how he intended to make it to fight the effects of the dementors, Harry simply said he was going to imbibe it with love. He was finished with it just before Little Harry woke up from his nap, by then it was time for afternoon tea, which they decided to call room service for.

They stayed inside the rest of the evening, ordering supper in as well. They watched a little TV, but they had the most fun when they played with Little Harry and conjured up miniature versions of the animals they saw at the zoo that morning. He was disappointed when the snakes they had conjured for him didn't talk back. As it got dark, they vanished all the animals and read him muggle fairy tales like Jack and the Giant Beanstalk and Pinocchio, which he liked a lot, if his giggling was anything to go by. Finally, Little Harry yawned a great big yawn and was ready to go to bed and everyone gave him kisses goodnight and Merope tucked him away to go to sleep.

Azkaban, Tuesday, December 8, 1981, 10:00 p.m.:

Sirius sat shivering in his cell trying to come to terms with the fact that he may never feel warm again. He had already lost track of the days. He felt filthier than he had ever felt before in his entire life. If he ever got out of here, he may never go without having a bath for so much as a day ever again. And the food, the food is awful here, it's like they were encouraging you to starve yourself so you'd die faster.

He could hear Bellatrix cackling down the corridor. He was determined that she must not have a soul because she didn't really sound all that affected by the presence of the dementors, either that or she had completely lost her mind and didn't notice them. He hoped it wasn't because she found amusement in whatever memories the dementors drew from her. The only time she stopped cackling like a maniac was when she was, presumably, sleeping.

Thankfully, the dementors hadn't come down the corridor very much tonight. He shuddered as he remembered the images of James and Lily dead that their presence drew from him, causing him to cry in heartbroken despair. He was nearly hoarse from all the crying and screaming he had done when they were last near.

Merlin, was he tired of sitting here day in and day out, listening to the jeers from the few human guards that were here. Sirius absently wondered how they managed to get the dementors to come back to Azkaban when it wasn't that long ago that they were helping to terrorize all of Britain following the orders of Voldemort. He was brought out of his thoughts when someone suddenly appeared in his cell with him out of thin air.

Sirius blinked in confusion. Someone was there, right? He decided he must be hallucinating now, to think that someone could have gotten in here without ever opening the door, but then a soft light began to glow in his visitor's hand and he had to shield his eyes with his hands, because it had been so long since he had seen so much light.

Finally when he was able to focus, Sirius pulled his hands back and looked up at his visitor. "James," he whispered hoarsely in shock, and then he fainted dead away.