Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 26
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Godric's Hollow:
When they arrived on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow, Remus started to take his hand back, but Harry stopped him. At Remus' questioning look, Harry explained that he could only extend his cloaking spell when they were in contact with each other and that he needed to confirm they were, in fact, situated to be unnoticed before Remus let go, then Harry would place a mild notice-me-not charm on them both, so that they could walk into the village without anyone paying any particular attention to a couple of strangers.
After all of that was taken care of and they had started their trek to the cottage, Remus asked, "If you can take us directly through the wards without detection, why didn't you just apparate us directly into the cottage?"
Harry looked around and placed a modified muffliato that would move with them as they walked and said, "If I were alone or had only Mary with me, I would have done so, but I've never tried to take anyone else with me through wards with the intent to be undetectable, so I felt it better to error on the side of caution and walk up to check the wards before making a hole for company to slip through undetected.
"Just as my cloaking spell will only work for more than myself if I'm in contact with the other person, I didn't want to risk the wards being set off the moment you let go of me inside the cottage." Harry shrugged and added, "That scenario is probably unlikely, and I'm confident I can handle Dumbledore if he shows up, I'd just rather not have to fuss with him right now."
After a moment of contemplation, Remus shrugged his shoulders in response and Harry dropped the charm. A few moments later, both gentlemen found themselves standing in front of the cottage where it appeared that the Ministry (or more than likely, Dumbledore) had already taken it upon themselves to turn the Potters' home into a war memorial. Harry cursed in frustration.
Remus raised an eyebrow, not understanding what would have upset Harry and asked, "Are the wards something you can't get through?"
"No, Remus, it's not that," Harry answered, throwing up another muffliato.
"What made you so upset, then?" Remus asked.
"The Ministry and/or Dumbledore had no right to do this, I mean I know they did it in my original timeline, but I was just too tired of fighting the Ministry about everything by the point I was able to do something about it, so I never complained that they confiscated my family's property. It just blows my mind how they have effectively confiscated privately owned property from an orphaned toddler and turned it into a war memorial. What I really want to do is banish this mess and send a howler to the Ministry about their greedy fingers stealing property from a toddler."
Remus smirked in amusement and said, "Yes, that would be rather amusing."
"The problem is that I just signed a contract to work with the Ministry with HP Investigations, and I need to make a show of being in good relations with them. Sending them a strongly worded howler would not bode well for future working relations." Harry tapped his chin in thought. "I suppose whenever Sirius chooses to speak to me again, I'll bring up my concerns about it and see if he would like to be the one to go toe to toe with the Ministry about it. He would be able to justify his outrage more than I would be able to, he is Little Harry's godfather after all."
Remus made a hum of agreement and Harry returned his attention back to the wards, which turned out to be one tangled mess with tons of different magical signatures on them. It seemed that more than just Dumbledore was keeping track of the property. Harry sighed in frustration. He wouldn't have known about these wards being there in his original timeline, but then they may have all faded by the time he ever made it back to check the property, not that he would have known anything about warding at that point. It had been prevented by his actions in the last timeline, so he didn't have any idea who all would have placed these wards and for what purpose.
Harry turned to Remus and explained what he found regarding the wards, then Remus asked, "What do you want to do then?"
Harry sighed and said, "The wards are no problem, as far as my being able to place a shield around them to prevent triggering. What I'm frustrated about is all the different magical signatures that I've found. It will take extra time that I don't really want to take today just to follow each thread to see where they originated from, without actually unraveling them and alerting whoever placed them in the first place."
Finally, after talking over it back and forth between the two, it was decided that Harry would just go in by himself and see the state of things and collect just a few of Little Harry's toys and clothes, though he had probably outgrown most of the clothes located in the cottage, and Remus would go ahead and take care of packing up all his stuff at his place and leaving word for the landlord that he would not be renewing the lease. They still planned to meet for lunch, but decided to just meet at the Leaky Cauldron instead of checking out what pubs, if any, were in Godric's Hollow.
Harry was only going to collect a few things because when he was able to convince Sirius that he needed to make a fuss at the Ministry about confiscating property from a toddler in order to create a war memorial, Harry didn't want it to be obvious to anyone investigating that there were missing items. If the investigators only noticed a few personal items for a child missing, they were more likely to assume they were packed up for Little Harry to have with his relatives.
Harry was just finishing up when he received a patronus message from Merope saying that Sirius returned to the island and she directed him to Godric's Hollow, but before he could send her a response to try to hold him back for a brief moment, he heard the pop of apparition in the yard, which tripped the wards that Harry was cloaked from while in stealth mode.
Cursing, Harry closed up his backpack where he placed everything he was taking for Little Harry, and ran down the stairs (forgetting he could just apparate there) in an attempt to intercept Sirius before Dumbledore or whoever else placed the wards showed up. He met Sirius just inside the front door in the foyer and was able to hit Sirius with a silencing charm and grab onto him, extending his stealth mode onto him at the same time, when pops of apparition could be heard.
Harry whispered to Sirius, even though he could have spoken in a normal tone without detection at this point, "Please don't attempt to get loose and give me a moment to explain." At Sirius' nod, Harry continued, "I can only extend my cloaking capabilities over to you while we are in physical contact. When you arrived, you tripped some wards that multiple people had set on this location, I don't yet know who, but one of them is more than likely to be Dumbledore. I didn't have time to return a patronus to Mary to warn you before I heard you arrive."
Since Sirius was still under a silencing spell, he gestured for Harry to continue. "I can feel that whoever has arrived has just placed anti-apparition wards up. I'm going to take the silencing charm off now, we shouldn't be overheard while we are still in physical contact." At Sirius' nod of acknowledgement, Harry removed the silencing spell.
Sirius immediately whispered, "What the hell is that shite outside?"
Harry thought for a moment Sirius was referring to the popping sound they heard of multiple people apparating in, but then he realized he must be talking about the memorial. Harry said, "That, Padfoot, is a war memorial that the Ministry and/or Dumbledore saw fit to erect." At Sirius' raised questioning look, Harry said, "It was a war memorial in my original timeline and I never fought to have it removed and the property returned to me, I'll explain about that when we have time later. I didn't realize it was turned into a war memorial this soon after their death, though, and it caught me by surprise when Remus and I first arrived.
"Perhaps you could lodge a complaint about the fact that the Ministry confiscated private property from your orphaned godson for a war memorial that could have been erected anywhere. However, right now, we only have a few seconds before we find out who is out there, the question is, how do you want to handle it? Do you want me to remain in my stealth mode, but present beside you as backup and let you confront who is there, or do you want me to just take us both out now and figure out who all is out there another time? Keep in mind that if Mad-Eye happens to be out there, he can't see you now and will probably be confused and suspicious if one minute he can't see you, and then can the next."
After a moment Sirius asked, "Can you apparate us out and somewhere beyond those that are here, so that we can see who showed up and confront them later if need be?" Harry agreed that he could, made sure that Sirius retained a firm grip, and then apparated them out, arriving silently just a few feet beyond the group, absently noticing that some snowflakes had begun to lightly fall by this point.
Surrounding the Potters' cottage was Dumbledore, of course, what appeared to be a few reporters from the Daily Prophet, and a couple of aurors, including Mad-Eye. "Well," Harry said, "I'm sure we can guess what Dumbledore wants, and I don't fancy wasting my time on him today."
"Yeah, I don't fancy listening to him prattle at me either," said Sirius.
"How about we wait until after Boxing Day to come back out here and come through the wards on purpose together, then you can raise hell about turning the Potters' home into a war memorial when it wasn't their property to start with," said Harry.
"Yeah, I like the way you think," said Sirius, "I know Gryffindors normally like to jump in with both feet and damn the consequences, but I think it would be better to have the makings of a plan for this. Not to mention, there are still muggles in this neighborhood and I don't fancy getting in trouble with the Statute of Secrecy should spells start flying."
Harry agreed with that, though he secretly thought muggle repelling charms wouldn't be that hard to set, and then he said, "I'm supposed to meet Remus for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron in about half an hour, he went to his place to pack up his belongings. Do you want to go with me to meet up with him?"
"Only if you don't mind my company before I've apologized," said Sirius seriously.
Harry smiled and said, "Don't worry about it, Padfoot. I knew you would come around eventually, but I did expect you to take a little longer to come around."
Sirius shook his head and said, "Well, as shocking as it is, I spent the morning speaking to my mother about it and she helped me change my perspective a little bit. She suggested that we help each other with our personal prejudices, since they run so opposite of each other, so hopefully I can avoid any more episodes."
Harry smiled and said, "Well, good for you Padfoot. I'm happy that you and your mother are getting along so well and can help each other and bond at the same time." Sirius smiled at that and Harry said, "Well, I'll apparate us to a deserted alley and then we can walk to the Leaky Cauldron from the muggle entrance."
"Sounds good," said Sirius.
Leaky Cauldron:
Harry and Sirius walked into the Leaky Cauldron and found Remus waiting in one of the corner booths and made their way over to him. Seeing that Remus was only sipping on a butterbeer, Harry asked what everyone wanted and walked up to the bar to put in an order with Tom and bring back more drinks to the table. Sirius had just finished updating Remus about the goings on at Godric's Hollow when Harry took a seat and put up a muffliato, just to be on the safe side.
"Let's not talk about that right now, we should talk about more pleasant things and make our plans for Christmas and decide where we're going to celebrate," said Harry.
When both Remus and Sirius gave a blank stare in return, Harry said, "I'm not opposed to having our Christmas celebration in the tent, but, Sirius, I don't want to
leave your mother by herself for Christmas. Perhaps you can speak with her and see what she would prefer, because I'm sure that she is anxious to be able to spend Christmas with you, and I'm sure that you want to celebrate with Little Harry. Mary and I would be open to celebrating together at Grimmauld Place. I would suggest renting a few suites at a muggle hotel, but I'm not sure if your mother would be capable of blending in, or if she would even want to."
"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "I'll definitely speak with her and see what she wants to do. I don't want to leave her to celebrate by herself either, and I think she would probably enjoy having Christmas at Grimmauld Place."
"Okay." Harry nodded, "Now that that's decided, Remus, any idea where you want to set up the spare tent?"
Remus answered and then the three men began speaking about mundane things and Harry took down the muffliato when the server came with their food, then put it back up after the server left again.
After eating, they returned to the island and the rest of the afternoon was spent getting Remus set up in one of the spare tents and Sirius running around as Padfoot, playing with Little Harry, until after supper when Sirius returned home to spend time with his mother.