Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 24
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
The next morning, Sirius woke up in his old room and stretched, causing some of his bones to pop rather loudly. Taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly, he lay there quietly a moment reminiscing over the past couple of weeks, his fingers absently fiddled with the bracelet that Harry gave him to ward off the dementors. He had decided that he was never going to take it off, that way if the dementors ever became a problem in the future, he wouldn't ever be put in the position to fall prey to them ever again.
He had stayed up most of the night getting to know his mother again, without the cell bars between them and without the previous prejudices holding them back. He was amazed at the changes that had come over her since he last spent time with her when he was sixteen years old, even Kreacher seemed to be significantly different than what he last remembered.
What surprised him the most was how different Grimmauld Place now felt, it no longer felt dark and depressive as it had during his childhood. It felt light and peaceful, as if nothing bad could ever happen here again. When he asked his mother about it all she could say was that she didn't know what caused the change, only that it felt noticeably different after Harry had visited her to discuss plans for his trial.
After laying in bed for a few more minutes just thinking about everything, Sirius decided it was time to get up and get ready, so he forced himself up and out of bed, then grabbed his toiletries and a change of clothes to take with him to the bathroom for a shower. He absently told himself he needed to visit his flat and see if all of his belongings were still secure.
Once in the bathroom, he continued with his normal routine; teeth cleaning and breath freshening charms, he considered shaving, but he was too fond of his roguish looks to do so yet. Then he disrobed and hopped into the shower under the hottest water his skin could stand. As he washed and lathered, he thought about the plans he had today, seeing Little Harry.
This was the day that Harry promised to come pick him up and take him to the island so he could be reunited with Little Harry. And even though he was a little disappointed that he would no longer be Little Harry's legal guardian, realistically he understood that remaining in his role of godfather and fun uncle was going to be better for Little Harry in the long run. Even though Harry was not able to tell him much during his visits to his cell while preparing for the trial, he understood enough to come to the conclusion that Little Harry was settled and had loving parents again. So regardless of whether or not he was legally Little Harry's guardian, he was still going to have a hand in raising him as his godfather, spending time with him and taking care of him.
Sirius couldn't help but to briefly feel regret for running after Peter, instead of demanding Hagrid hand Little Harry over to him by rights of being his godfather. But then, he thought that based on the swiftness of his incarceration, he probably wouldn't have been able to escape his fate without fleeing with Little Harry that same night. So in a way, he was glad that Harry and his wife were able to rescue and adopt Little Harry so quickly, as it took away any hold Dumbledore would have had over any of them.
The hard part, in Sirius' mind, was going to be having to play the part of a grieving godfather who is searching desperately to find his godson, even though he knows perfectly well where he is. He decided that he was going to have to start thinking of Little Harry as Harry's son and not his godson, otherwise it was going to make acting as if he's searching for his godson that much more difficult. While he does have more than average acting skills, due to his life of pranking with the Marauders; however, that didn't cause him to consider himself a great actor, at least not good enough to fool someone like Moody for long. Sirius thought he might suggest to Harry that they inform Moody the truth about Little Harry and Harry's time travel.
It was about 15 minutes after Sirius showered and dressed that Kreacher announced Harry's arrival and escorted him to the sitting room where Sirius was sitting with Walburga.
After polite greetings, Harry turned to Sirius and asked, "Well, Padfoot, are you ready to go? I haven't told Little Harry I was coming to get you, I wanted it to be a surprise." Sirius nodded and stood. Turning to Walburga, Harry said, "Walburga, you're welcome to come as well."
Walburga was thoughtful, but eventually said with a smile, "Thank you for the invitation, Harry. I would very much like to meet Little Harry, but I think it would be best if I stayed here and met him another time. I'm sure he will be more than distracted enough by his reunion with Sirius, without adding a stranger to the mix. Perhaps once things have settled down, you and your family could come here to visit? And Mr. Lupin as well."
Harry smiled and said, "Yes, Walburga, that would be fine." Turning to Sirius he pulled out the portkey and said, "Well, Padfoot, let's go surprise Little Harry." Once Sirius had grabbed on, Harry smiled and nodded in goodbye to Walburga and activated the portkey.
They arrived on the island seconds later and Sirius was amazed at the tropical paradise, turning to Harry he said, "I can't wait to let Padfoot loose and run around to explore, but first I want to see Little Harry."
Harry laughed and waved towards the direction of the tent with his hand and said, "Well, let's go."
Sirius said, "You're living in a tent? Really?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's only temporary. I'm planning to build several treehouses as described in the book The Swiss Family Robinson, it's a muggle story if you don't know what that is. But really staying here on the island is only temporary, I'm setting it up as a vacation spot, but also a safe haven for peaceful werewolves like Remus. As soon as we tie up all the loose ends here in Britain, I intend to move the family to the United States of America."
As Sirius started to open his mouth to protest, Harry held up his hand and they both stopped walking, then Harry said, "As long as Dumbledore is Headmaster of Hogwarts, I refuse to send Little Harry to school there. As it is, this island is well away from Britain, but we're still close enough that it won't stop a Hogwarts letter from being delivered here. In the U.S., Little Harry will be less well-known and the fact that he has no lightning bolt," Harry lifted the fringe of his hair and showed his, "there won't be any excitement over his supposed fame. Though I have nipped the books Dumbledore intended to allow published in the bud, I doubt it will stop word of mouth accounts.
"Now, I hope that short explanation will suffice, because I know a little boy that keeps asking every day for Paddy."
Sirius nodded and said, "All right. But we will be talking about this leaving Britain nonsense later. I've just got my life back, I don't want to lose part of it again when you leave."
Harry smiled and said, "Padfoot, with magic, we can visit each other every day, no matter what country we're in. I can create an undetectable permanent portkey tied only to you and you can come and go anywhere we settle. I promise, it won't be as big of a deal as you think it will be. I do still intend to help Moody with investigations even after leaving Britain, which I still need to come up with a business name for."
With that additional information, Sirius nodded and then continued their trek towards the tent. Sirius stopped at the entrance and looked at Harry, took a deep breath, and then walked into the tent, with Harry following behind a second later.
Everyone was gathered in the sitting room. Merope was sitting in one of the corner chairs knitting the muggle way; Remus was sitting in the opposite chair reading a book; and Little Harry was sitting on a blanket on the floor playing with the stag, doe, grim, and wolf that Merope had conjured and enchanted for him at the hotel.
Upon their entrance, Merope looked up and smiled. Then placing her knitting to the side, with a charm to keep it in place, she leaned down towards Little Harry and said, "Harry Sweetheart, look who's here." Then she pointed her hand towards the entrance of the tent.
Little Harry followed Merope's hand with his eyes and then turned to look to see who she was pointing at. As he laid his eyes on Sirius, he dropped everything and struggled a moment to stand up in his haste, then he took off running as fast as his little toddler legs could carry him, with arms outstretched, and cried out, "Paddy!"
Sirius met him partway and scooped him up in his arms and held onto him tightly. Little Harry was so excited that most of his speech was indiscernible, but Sirius was able to pick out a few phrases; "Bad man, green light, Mama and Daddy gone, mean aunt and uncle, new Mama and Daddy, Moony, no Paddy, Zoo, beach," were just a few of the words he was able to catch. Finally Little Harry had calmed down a little and picked his head up to look at Sirius' face and grinned, then he looked over at Harry and grinned. Harry grinned back and gave him a kiss on the forehead and took a seat on the sofa.
Sirius stood there holding Little Harry a moment, and then followed Harry over to the couch. He readjusted Little Harry in his lap after he sat down, running his hands through LH's hair, and then holding his little hands in his own hands, he whispered, "Oh, pup, you've grown up so fast already. Paddy is so sorry he couldn't be with you sooner." Little Harry just smiled at Sirius and patted his face with his little hand and then cuddled back on his chest and remained quiet and still, just basking in the happiness of having his Paddy again.
Merope smiled and said, "I'll just bring tea out here, shall I?" Remus and Sirius smiled in agreement and Harry stood up to help. Once in the kitchen, Merope asked, as she began brewing the tea and gathering the cups, "So, do you plan to tell both Remus and Sirius your full history today?"
Harry responded as he gathered the ingredients needed to prepare creamed egg sandwiches, "I was considering it, but I feel that it might cause a bit more excitement than they're ready for, what with Padfoot reuniting with Little Harry. I don't think Little Harry is going to want to let Padfoot go anytime soon, and I don't want to talk about it in front of him."
Nodding thoughtfully, Merope checked the tea was almost done brewing and started helping Harry with the sandwiches, Harry scooted over to give her some elbow room. "Do you know when you might plan to tell them?" Merope asked.
Harry thought about it a moment and said, "I think I'll wait until after Christmas. I think it would be nice to just celebrate the season and not speak about unpleasantness. Perhaps by then, Little Harry won't be as clingy about Sirius and maybe we can see if Kreacher would like to keep him entertained while we speak about it privately."
Merope nodded and said, "That does sound like a good idea. What do you want to do the rest of the day?"
"I'm not sure, but Sirius expressed interest in exploring the island as Padfoot and I thought perhaps we could take Little Harry out to do that after his nap, hopefully we won't have to resort to a sleeping charm to get him to take one. We still haven't helped him find a pet snake as you promised him at the zoo, so perhaps we'll find one while we're out exploring."
"Hmm. You're right about that," Merope said, "I had forgotten that I promised him." As she finished putting together the last sandwich, the kettle began to whistle and she finished preparing the tea, she turned to Harry and said, "Shall we?"
Harry smiled and said, "After you, my dear."
When they returned to the sitting room, Sirius was playing with Little Harry on the floor with his stag, doe, grim, and wolf, but returned to the couch with Little Harry upon Harry and Merope's return. Harry conjured a table to set the sandwich tray on, and then Merope settled the tea on the table next to them.
After everyone had been served, Remus asked Harry, "So now that Padfoot and I are both here, are you going to tell us your full story?"
Harry cringed and said, "I was rather hoping to deal with that unpleasantness after Christmas, which is only a few more days away."
Before Remus could say something in response, Sirius said, "Yeah, all right, Harry. I can understand not wanting to talk about something that you find unpleasant during a time that is supposed to be peaceful and joyful, but you're not going to come up with an excuse come Boxing Day."
Harry smiled and said, "I'll definitely tell you about it on Boxing Day. Mary and I discussed it a bit, and we thought that perhaps we could ask Kreacher to spend time with Little Harry for a little while that day, that way we could all speak in private. Little Harry is not ready to hear about all that was my life."
Sirius thought quietly for a moment and asked, "That bad, yeah?"
Harry said, "The first part of my life was no picnic. And based on the similarities between my original timeline and this one, Little Harry would have ended up following the same path, had something not caused the Death Eaters to attack, which triggered our arrival."
Finally, Remus interjected and said, "Very well. I agree to wait until Boxing Day. Now, what do you have in store for us the rest of the day?"
"Well," Harry said, "I thought we'd sit and visit, either here or down by the beach, until lunchtime, then Little Harry will take a nap after lunch. Since Sirius expressed the desire to explore the island as Padfoot, I thought we could do that after Little Harry's nap and at the same time, see if we can find him a pet snake while we explored."
Harry counted down in his head, three, two, one — "What?!" Sirius exclaimed. "Why would Little Harry want a pet snake?!"
Before anyone could answer, Little Harry said, "Me talk to snakes, Paddy!"
Sirius opened and closed his mouth a few times before he said, "R-r-real-lly? Y-you c-can talk to s-s-snakes?"
Little Harry looked at Sirius in confusion at his sudden change in speech, then turned to Harry and asked, "Daddy, what wrong with Paddy?"
"Don't worry, son," Harry said. "Paddy has simply forgotten himself for a moment." Then Harry looked sternly at Sirius, causing Sirius to gulp loudly.
Sirius cleared his throat and said to Little Harry, "That's right. Paddy was just surprised you can speak to snakes." Little Harry nodded and wiggled down to play with his toys.
Harry threw up a muffliato charm around Little Harry and glared at Sirius. "You are going to have to work on your prejudices against all things associated with Slytherin, you got that?"
Sirius crossed his arms and glared back, "Well, it took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting to find out that my godson is a parselmouth just like Voldemort was."
Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Being a parselmouth is a gift and it doesn't mean that someone who can parseltongue is evil. It's an extra ability we're born with and it's not anything we can control. Mary is also a parselmouth, before you try to look to her for support."
Sirius looked helplessly at Remus, who held his hands up and said, "Oh, no, Padfoot. You're completely on your own for this one. I was there when he spoke to the snake at the zoo and while I was surprised, it didn't change the way I felt about him."
Sirius looked affronted at that remark and said, "I'll have you know that his being a parselmouth in no way makes me love him any less. I was just shocked, I swear!"
Harry nodded and said, "Good. Now, let's talk about something else for the moment while Padfoot processes his thoughts." Then he removed the muffliato charm and suggested that they go out to the beach so that Little Harry could work off some of his energy, so that he would be more willing to take a nap after lunch.
As it got closer to lunch, Merope went back to the tent to prepare a light lunch, and then called everyone in when it was ready. After a quiet lunch, Sirius turned into Padfoot to help entice Little Harry into a nap, where they then proceeded to fall into a peaceful slumber. After about two hours, they woke up feeling refreshed and then it was time to explore the island.
Harry was a little concerned that Sirius chose to remain as Padfoot and not transform into himself, even for a little while, but he decided not to worry about it, figuring that Sirius just needed time to work out his feelings before he was able to confront the parselmouth situation as a mature adult. Shrugging it off, he led everyone out into the jungle, including Merope, to explore together and show off the progress he'd made so far with the treehouses.