Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 25
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Wednesday, December 23, 1981
Grimmauld Place:
The next day, Sirius was still brooding. Rather than staying with the Potters as he originally had intended to do, he chose to use the portkey Harry provided and return home. He knew he was stubborn and he knew he had disappointed Harry, he could see the disappointment written all over his face. Remus remained silent throughout the rest of his time at the island, too. It seems like they all knew that this was something that he would have to work out on his own.
While he knew logically that he was being an immature prat, he had years of ingrained prejudices to sort through and as much as he wanted to let them go, his first instinct was to always shun anything in relation to a Dark ability or Slytherin House.
So lost in his thoughts was he, that he laid in bed straight through breakfast and very nearly past morning tea, when there was a knock on the door and his mother came in to check on him.
"Sirius, you've missed breakfast, are you feeling unwell?" Walburga asked in concern. Sirius rolled over to look towards her and didn't answer, just blinked his eyes at her and stared silently. Not knowing what else to do, Walburga strolled over to the bed and sat down next to him, then she raised her wand, ignoring his visible flinch, and cast a general diagnostic spell.
"Well," Walburga said, running her hand through his hair to sweep it out of his face, "you don't appear to be running a temperature." Tilting her head to the side, Walburga continued to scrutinize Sirius in concern for a moment and then asked, "Would you care to tell me what's bothering you so much that you skipped breakfast when you are still gaining back your strength from your brief period in Azkaban?"
Since his arms and hands were still tucked in under the blanket, Walburga settled for just running her fingers through his hair, gently sorting out the tangles with her fingers. Sirius closed his eyes and sighed, he vaguely remembered her doing this for him when he was a very small child and he would wake up from a nightmare. Walburga didn't push for an answer, she just remained there patiently waiting for him to come to terms with whatever he wanted to say. When he did finally speak, it wasn't at all anything that she was anticipating.
"I found out yesterday that my godson, the child and the time-traveling adult, are both parselmouths, and I didn't handle it very well." Sirius finally said.
Walburga remained silent for a while and continued to run her fingers through his hair, finally she said, "Well, that's a very rare and coveted ability to have."
Sirius rolled his eyes and rolled over to his back, causing Walburga's hand to fall away from his hair. Thinking he didn't want her company anymore, she moved to stand up, but Sirius shot out his hand and took her hand before she could stand up all the way. Giving a little smile, she sat back down and waited for Sirius to speak, squeezing his hand a little in encouragement.
"Rationally, I know I overreacted, Mother. I understand logically that it would be a very useful trait to have, but as soon as I found out they were parselmouths, all I could think about was that Voldemort was a parselmouth and that he was evil and revolting." Sirius sighed.
"It sounds to me," Walburga said, "that I'm not the only one that needs to reevaluate everything I thought I ever knew."
Sirius sighed, ran his free hand across his face and said, "I suppose you're right about that. I don't know how to do it, though."
Walburga squeezed his hand, which Sirius returned, and said, "Well, I don't have all the answers yet, but I promise you that it's something that we can work out together." With a little smirk she added, "I imagine it will be highly entertaining, since our prejudices run so opposite of each other."
Sirius barked out his first laugh since leaving the island and said, "I dare say you're right about that."
Suddenly, Sirius' stomach began to growl and Walburga said, "All right. Enough brooding, son, get up and take a shower and come downstairs and have tea with me. I'll ask Kreacher to make extra for you, since you missed breakfast."
Sirius gave a grateful smile and said, "Thanks, Mother." Squeezing her hand he added softly, "You can't imagine how much it means to me to know you care."
Walburga's eyes watered a little as she nodded her head and said, "And you can't imagine what it means to me that you have agreed to give me another chance to be the mother to you that I should have been to you all along." And with that, she squeezed his hand one more time before leaving him alone in the room to get ready to face the day.
Island:
The occupants of the island ate breakfast silently lost in their own thoughts, with Little Harry occasionally breaking the silence as he made general noises of enjoyment as he ate his breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, and occasionally hissing back and forth with his new pet snake that was currently wrapped around his little wrist.
They had found the baby emerald tree boa during their trek around the island yesterday that was thankfully a non-venomous snake, even though as speakers they wouldn't have had to worry about that too much. Little Harry was drawn to the color because it matched his and Harry's eye color, but even without that factored in, Little Harry made an obvious connection with the little snake and was adamant that this snake was his snake. After trying out some names, the little snake liked the name Basil the best.
The only downside of finding Basil was how much more withdrawn Sirius seemed to get. He refused to change back into his human form in order to speak with anyone, even going so far as licking Little Harry on the cheek in goodbye and quickly dashing out towards the beach before he changed back into his human form and disappeared with the portkey Harry had given him previously..
Little Harry had been confused about why Padfoot would have left so soon, but he was soon distracted with Basil, so didn't make a big deal over his absence.
Harry was brought out of his musings when an owl arrived from Moody with copies of the proposed contract for his freelance investigations, leaving the name of his business blank, as Harry hadn't informed him of the name of the business he had chosen.
After breakfast, Harry read over the contract and made his proposed changes, filling in the space for the business name with HP Investigations. He had briefly considered MoD Investigations for his business name, but decided he didn't want to come up with a cover story for what it actually meant. With the name he had decided on, he could pass the business on to Little Harry, if Little Harry chose the same career path, when it was time for he and Merope to move on to their next adventure.
After sending the owl off to Moody with his amendments, Harry turned to Remus, who had came into the sitting room while he was reviewing and amending the contract, and said, "Well, Moony, I was hoping to include Padfoot in with the trip, but considering the events of yesterday, I'm not sure if he will be up for my company today. How do you feel about coming with me to the cottage at Godric's Hollow to pick up Little Harry's things and make repairs and seal the place up?"
Remus thought about it for a moment and asked, "Are you sure that Dumbledore won't have put up wards to keep you out?"
"Even if he has, I know how to get around it or disable it in such a way that it still won't alert him unless I want it to," said Harry.
Remus nodded and said, "Yeah, alright." Then he looked at Harry with a serious expression and said, "I'm sorry about Padfoot's behavior yesterday. I should have realized he would have reacted that way and warned you not to reveal yours and Little Harry's abilities."
"No, Moony, it's fine. I had a strong inclination of how he would have reacted, but I felt it would be better to get it all out of the way early on, that way he can get over it faster and come back to us," said Harry. After another moment's thought he added, "I'm not even sure I ever told my original version of Sirius that I was a parselmouth, I mostly kept quiet about it because of a bad experience I had in my second year at Hogwarts.
"Plus, I never really had enough time to talk to him about anything personal or meaningful. I learned so little about my parents because every time I attempted to spend time with him, there was always someone else present or something else that required my attention. It wasn't until after I was out of Hogwarts and had already defeated Voldemort that I had time to sit back and analyze everything that happened in my life. I found it very likely that I was purposefully prevented from getting close to Sirius or asking too many questions, but I was too blinded and distracted in my youth to see it for what it was. I trusted those around me too blindly.
"I'm sad to say that I didn't even get the chance to know you as much as I would have liked. After Sirius died, you were sent away on missions to try to infiltrate the werewolves and I didn't get to spend much time with you to get to know you before you were killed in the final battle. Well, technically not you, but the version of you in my original timeline."
Remus was thoughtful for a moment and gave a small smile as he said, "Well, I'm not quite sure what to say to all of that. It must be quite surreal being around people who have died in your time."
Harry nodded and said, "Yeah, I suppose sometimes it is." Looking at his watch, Harry says, "Well, do you want to get a move on, then? I'm not quite sure how long it will take -"
"Harry," Merope interrupted, "just give me a quick moment so I can get something packed for the two of you to take for teatime."
"Thank you, Mary, but you don't need to go through the trouble," Harry said. "Actually, I was thinking that Moony and I would perhaps work through tea and have lunch at a nearby pub in Godric's Hollow, or the Leaky if there is no pub - my memory is a tad sketchy on what types of eateries Godric's Hollow would have - then return to the cottage if we haven't repaired the damage before we stop for lunch."
Remus said, "Yeah, that sounds fine with me." Turning to Merope, he said, "I really do appreciate the offer, Mary, as I enjoy all the meals you've prepared."
Merope smiled and nodded and said, "Well, Harry's not too shabby of a cook himself, and we usually trade off or cook together, but he has been busy with trying to set everything straight before we leave.
"I suppose Little Harry and I will remain here. I thought briefly about taking him to a muggle playground, but I have to keep reminding myself that we are in the middle of winter and if not for the fact we are here on this island and under weather controlling charms to boot, it would be rather cold and odd for us to be seen at a playground at this time of year."
Harry smiled in response and said, "Yes, I rather find myself forgetting about that fact, too, so it's very good we've not been going out in the muggle areas all that often yet. As much as I enjoy what the muggle world has to offer, I'm afraid I've become too used to using magic that I find it easy to forget myself. And while you could let him play with notice-me-not charms, he might not understand why the other children won't play with him."
"Well, Little Harry and I will just stay here and play on the beach, I'm sure Basil will enjoy basking in the sun on one of the nearby rocks," said Merope.
"Sounds like a plan," said Harry. "I'll just go and get changed."
After a few minutes, Harry came back after having changed into some older muggle clothes he wouldn't mind getting messed up. Of course, he had clean changes of clothes for when they went out to eat. "Do you have everything you need, Moony?" Harry asked.
Remus said, "I believe so, but would you mind creating a portkey for me so I can go to my home this evening to pack up my things?"
"Of course I don't mind," said Harry. "I can make one that will work only for you, since Sirius has his own. Not that I think you'll lose it, but if for some reason it leaves your possession, no one else will be able to use it and no one else will be able to tag along with you unless they've also been keyed to it." While he was speaking, he summoned a platinum ring from his backpack and turned it into said portkey with those features.
"Speaking of portkeys," Harry resumed, "that reminds me I was going to see if you would be interested in getting in contact with the peaceful werewolves and let them know that probably by summertime 1982, I'll have a sanctuary set up for them here and will provide them with portkeys."
Remus blinked in surprise, then said, "Of course I would be interested in spreading the word. May I ask why so many months from now, since you already have a warded area?"
"Well," Harry said, "I want to finish building the treehouses first, and I intend for those to be exclusively for the use of our close friends and family." At Remus' nod of understanding, Harry continued, "After I've finished with the treehouses, I want to ward a different part of the island and build some cabins for the other werewolves to use while they're recovering from the full moon, since they won't have access to the Wolfsbane I'll be making for you.
"May I ask why the sudden rush to go home to pack up?" asked Harry.
Remus said, "Of course, you may ask me anything you wish to. My lease is actually due to expire soon and I'd rather take you up on the offer of using one of your spare tents. Now that Sirius is free, and after he gets his head out of his arse, he'll be able to stay there with me."
"Of course you can borrow one of the spare tents, at least until we've gotten the treehouses finished. After they're finished, I intend to pack up the tents and move us all into the treehouses until we've decided when we're going to leave for the U.S." said Harry.
Remus smiled in answer, then he and Harry made their way out to the beach so Harry could apparate them out. After cloaking them both in stealth mode, it would encompass Remus only for the length of time they would be in physical contact with each other, then Harry apparated them both out to a deserted area outside the village.