Hey guys!
Re Dumbledore's message, it's not intended as a trap; he really does want to help them. But of course he still wants to get Harry back under the safety of Privet Drive and the spell, so that is open for interpretation.
Blue Ocean24124437: I must admit I find the apparition a bit inconsistent in the books. There are lot of occasions in the early books where going by apparition would obviously have been the more logical choice, for example at the start of OotP, when they were getting Harry to Grimmauld Place. Granted, having them go by broom is a lot more cooler, and cinematic, but ultimately unnecessary if apparition was possible. The explanation Lupin (?) gave at the time was that Harry was to young to apparate. My interpretation of this, and the rules I'll be following for this fic, is that being apparated before actually having done so on one's own is very risky, at the mind/body/whatever is not used to it yet, and might get splinched, which is why apparating children is not advised. The exception to that would obviously be Dumbledore taking Harry in the beginning of HBP, but he's Dumbledore, so rules don't really apply to him anyway. Might all be hogwash, and there might even be an explanation on Pottermore (didn't check), but this is what I will be operating on in here.
alix33: It wasn't Snape (pretty sure he was a Death Eater already at the time, and James and Sirius would have hexed him on the spot if he had dared to show up anyway), but just some random ministry official. The Potters seemed to be quite rich, so they probably had some high-ranking connections who had to be invited. But nice parallel to Hermoine, hadn't even thought about that :D
The game is afoot
Harry spent most of the following night lying awake, wondering what it all meant.
If Sirius really had lived here before, then why hadn't he told Harry? Why had he lied?
The people who lived here before were very mean, Prongslet, and they left a lot of evil stuff. So don't go in any rooms we haven't cleaned yet without me or Moony and don't touch anything strange. Alright?
Had he lied? He surely must've, because how could his family be evil? Family was nice, everybody knew that. Harry's parents had been very nice people, and Remus talked about his own in very friendly terms. It was evil step-mothers – or Uncles and Aunts – who were mean.
But you don't even know for sure if it is him.
It was a small hope that he clung to with all his might. It was true. He hadn't actually been able to read the name. Maybe it was someone completely different. Maybe Sirius really had only lived here as a barely tolerated guest, like Harry had at the Dursleys.
I'm going to find out, he decided. I'm going to investigate, like a proper detective.
"This one?"
"Uhm...Norfolk?"
"Almost, very good. It's Suffolk. The one above that is Norfolk, that one. You can remember them if you think about the compass; Suffolk is in the South, and Norfolk in the North, see? What about this?"
"Kent!"
"Correct! This?"
"Es-Sussex?"
"The one between them. You should know this one, actually. It's where you lived."
"...Surrey?"
"Exactly. There's Little Whinging, see?"
Harry did see, though he didn't linger long. It looked far too close to London, and he'd have liked there to be more than just a few inches between him and the Dursleys. But it gave him an idea.
"Where did you use to live, Remus?"
Remus smiled, apparently not minding the interruption at all. "Well, I was born in Wales, but we moved when I was about five. I grew up in Yorkshire. Can you find that one on the map?"
Harry frowned. Yorkshire...He had heard of it, but it had always sounded very far away. And given with how much sneer the Dursleys had mentioned it, it was probably not a very proper place. Maybe a lot of wizards lived there?
He decided to simply try his luck and pointed to the largest county in the north of England. To his surprise, Remus smiled. "Very good! Do you know what the county town is called?"
This time, Harry didn't have to think very hard. "York. And where did Sirius live?"
He barely noticed Remus' praise as he held his breath in anticipation, struggling to keep the neutral expression.
Don't say London. Don't say London.
But at first Remus didn't say anything, frowning instead. "I don't know," he said finally. His voice was light, but Harry couldn't decide if it was real or if there was a shadow of anxiety in it. "In only met him at Hogwarts, which is a boarding school. And most summers we used to go to your Dad's to meet up, so I never actually went to his home. This is where James lived, see? Do you know what the county is called?"
Harry hastily tried to muster up some enthusiasm as he looked at the map, but even learning about his father's childhood home didn't soften the disappointment he felt.
Another strategy, then.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
Remus looked up from his book to find Sirius standing in the doorway, his arms crossed and a reproachful look on his face.
"I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."
Sirius huffed and stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind him. "The itching powder! You helped him!"
Remus couldn't help but chuckle. "It took you two days to figure this out? And of course I gave it to him. You cheated in a game of chase with a seven-year-old. Frankly, you deserve it."
"But you helped him throw it." Sirius insisted, flinging down on the sofa and reaching for the bowl of Bertie Botts Beans that were left over from Harry's maths lesson this morning. "He would've missed if you hadn't intervened. Traitor."
"You don't know that," Remus repeated calmly, "He's James' son, maybe he just inherited his talent. And I still need those." Remus flicked his wand and the Beans flew back into the cupboard. He had, of course, charmed the itching powder, but he didn't want to spoil Harry's triumph by letting him find out.
"Tyrant. What's that you're reading there, anyway? Harry's essay? We did great on that one, by the way. And it was hilarious, Dromeda was in it, and that git Phineas. I mean, that practically made Ted Perseus, which is a bit of a stretch if you ask me, but-"
"It's not Harry's essay," Remus interrupted, setting aside his quill. "Speaking of which, where is he? Didn't you two want to build that pillow fort?"
"Nah, he wanted to read," Sirius said, looking mildly disgruntled as he surreptitiously searched the room for more food. "You're turning him into a right little swot. If James knew..." He drifted off, his frown deepening when his hungry gaze found nothing. "I wish we could take him out more. Do anything. This house is bloody depressing."
Remus hesitated. Yesterday, their discussion had been brought to an abrupt end by Dumbledore's Patronus, but as much as he disliked their first topic, his last point still stood.
"You should really tell him," he said carefully, "About whose house this is. He's going to find out eventually, and it would be better if it came from you." He remembered Harry's question from that morning, and the uncomfortable half-truth he had been forced to tell him.
Sirius' face darkened. "Why?" he snapped, clearly growing annoyed. "I'll figure out a way to remove that blasted tapestry, and the horrid bitch too while I'm at it, and there's no need for him to find out. It'd only confuse him."
"How is knowing about your parents worse than telling him I'm a werewolf?" Remus asked exasperatedly.
"Because you've got an illness that's in no way your fault. My parents were huge dicks by choice – there's a world of difference!" Sirius was on his feet now, and yelling so loudly that Remus cast a worried glance towards the ceiling, wondering if Harry had heard him.
Sirius seemed to have the same thought, for he quickly calmed down again, slumping back into the sofa. "I'm sorry," he muttered miserably.
Remus didn't answer, watching his friend in contemplation.
It's getting worse.
He glanced back towards the book he'd been reading. "I think we need to figure out something to do about this."
"My parents being dicks?" Sirius asked humourlessly. "I'd suggest burning this shack down, but I'm afraid that'd be a bit inconvenient right now. Though it might still be worth it..."
"No, you," Remus said patiently. "And your...your head." He didn't know how to phrase it properly, as Sirius had always been extremely guarded when it came to his emotions. Getting him to talk about his mental problems – or even to admit that he had any – would not be easy.
As expected, Sirius' expression immediately closed. "My head's fine," he snapped.
Well, you started this, you might as well go through with it.
"No, it's not," Remus said quietly. "Padfoot, you spent six years in there. Of course that leaves traces; it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"I'm not ashamed," Sirius hissed. "I just don't want to talk about it, alright? It's none of your business."
Remus sighed. "Maybe none of mine, no," he continued carefully. And it was true. He didn't mind being the victim of Sirius' violent mood swings; he could handle having insults flung at him. But it wasn't himself that he was worried about. "But it does concern Harry."
Sirius' head whipped around, and Remus flinched at the hateful glare now directed at him. "Don't bring him into this. You know I'd never..."
"Not now, no," Remus said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. "But it's not getting any better. And I know it's not you speaking when you lash out at me, but Harry wouldn't understand. He's only just recovering from how the Dursleys treated him. How do you think he'd react if his godfather yelled at him over nothing?"
At his last words, all the fight left Sirius eyes, and his shoulder slumped defeated. "I-" he croaked, unable to finish his sentence.
"It's not your fault," Remus quickly said, not wanting Sirius to lapse into one of his bouts of self-hatred once more. "What Dementors do to a person...nobody can blame you. But you need to get help."
Sirius chuckled darkly. "And how do you suggest I do that? Shrinks are a bit hard to come by if you're a convicted murderer."
"Ideally I'd send you to St Mungo's," Remus nodded, relieved that Sirius seemed to at least acknowledge the problem. "Or talk to a few experts, but that's obviously not an option right now."
He had actually contemplated asking Dumbledore for help, but after Sirius' reaction to the Patronus he had decided to respect his friend's wishes and not contact the headmaster. At least he now knew that his letter had found his recipient, and that Dumbledore had actually believed him, which was more than he had hoped for.
"I've been going through some books, looking for hints about what prolonged exposure does," he said instead, indicating the notes on the desk. "But it's hard to find a precedent. Usually, if someone spent as long in their presence as you did..."
"They're either mad or dead," Sirius finished. "I know." He looked at the book that was still lying on the table. "Is that from the library? You do know most of those are banned by the ministry?"
Remus nodded. "This one certainly should be," he said, grimacing at the grey leather. "It details experiments to create living inferi by Dementor exposure. And it's not just theory; they tested it on muggles. Makes you want to burn it on the spot." Usually he would never even have considered burning a book, no matter how vile, but an afternoon in the Ancient and Most Deprived Library of Black had weakened his principles somewhat.
"Be my guest; fire's dying anyway," Sirius said, indication the embers in the fireplace. "Found anything useful in it?"
"Well, it does offer the most detailed description of long-time effects" Remus still shuddered when he remembered the cool detachment with which the author had described the "experiments". "But there's nothing in it about recovery, obviously."
"And you wonder why I don't want Harry to know that I'm related to those freaks," Sirius muttered. "So that's it? I'm gonna be an Inferius?"
"No you're not," Remus hissed quickly. "And your case is completely different, anyway. I don't think there ever was a documented case of an Animagus in Azkaban. The only comparison I could come up with is the short term prisoners, people who've only been there a few months. I know the ministry conducted a study on that a few years back; it was started by a human rights appeal. The proposal got shot down, sadly, but the report should still be accessible. I'm just not sure how to get it. It was published in a few journals, but I haven't been getting any since...well, I haven't got it."
Since my Dad stopped paying for my stuff, would be more honest, but he didn't want to delve into his monetary problems right now.
"We could break into the ministry to look for it," Sirius suggested, a sly grin on his face that made Remus wonder just how serious he was being. "Padfoot could take a dump on Crouch's desk while we're at it. I'm sure it'd be highly therapeutic."
"We're not going to do that," Remus interrupted quickly. "I'll keep looking upstairs; maybe there're a few older books about it. I know they did a lot of research back when they first installed Azkaban. Maybe I'll find something."
He seriously doubted it – he had read about the history of Azkaban, and most of the studies on Dementors back then had been concerned with their effectiveness in keeping wizards locked up, not in curing the hazards they wrought – but he didn't want to leave Sirius in low spirits.
To his relief, his friend simply snorted. "And until then, you just shove chocolate in my face whenever I get grumpy?"
Remus chuckled. "That's the plan."
"Is that a wizard paper?"
Remus looked up from his reading. "It is," he said, sounding rather surprised. Until now, Harry had taken no interest in reading the paper, after all. "The Daily Prophet. I buy it occasionally to see what's going on in the wizarding world."
He looked worried, probably because Harry had reacted very queasily when it came to anybody leaving the safety of their house, especially to go into the wizarding world. But today, Harry was almost grateful that Remus had done so.
"Can I read it? It looks cool!"
That wasn't even a lie. The moving pictures, even though they were black and white, and the so obviously magic headlines made the Daily Prophet look a thousand times more interesting than any paper he had seen before. But today, he hadn't asked to amuse himself, but because he was on a mission.
After further consideration, he had come to the conclusion that House of Black probably meant that the family's name was Black. It had been confirmed when he had snuck back into the top most landing on Monday afternoon to look at the nameplate again.
Regulus Arcturus Black
Another frightening discovery was that the chocolate frog he had dropped in Sirius room had disappeared. First, he had panicked, thinking that Sirius or Remus must've found it and know that he had been in there, but when neither confronted him about it he concluded that it had probably been the Oompa-Loompa. But as exciting as that mystery was, he decided that finding out the truth about the house was more important for now.
Regulus Arcturus Black
Black.
He had realized, to his surprise, that he didn't even know Sirius' last name. It probably wasn't Padfoot – after all, he did know Remus' full name, and his last name was Lupin and not Moony – meaning that it was technically possible he was called Black. But how could Harry find out?
He couldn't just ask Sirius or Remus, as that would have been too suspicious, especially as he had already asked after Sirius' home. He had tried to gather any information from the photo albums, but there were barely ever any names in there. There was one picture of Sirius in a school Quidditch match – he'd substituted for an injured Beater, as he'd told Harry – but unfortunately his face had been turned towards the camera, so that the name on the back of his uniform wasn't visible.
After three days of trying, Harry had been at a loss. That was, until he came down to breakfast on Thursday morning to find Remus reading a wizard paper. A wizard paper, on which he clearly remembered seeing Sirius' face the first week he'd been here. Back then he hadn't gotten a proper look, as Remus had quickly folded it and put it away, but he was certain that if Sirius had been front page news back then, he would probably still get mentioned occasionally. With his last name.
He looked expectantly at Remus, hoping his expression was suitably innocent. Remus hesitated, visibly torn, but finally relented. "Of course," he smiled, "I'm reading this part, but you can have the rest. Actually-" He paused, and gave Harry a contemplating look. "Why don't you read this instead of lessons today? They read muggle papers in muggle studies, and I suppose it would be good for you to learn a little bit about the wizarding world. How about you write a little essay about a few differences to the muggle community?"
Harry beamed and nodded hastily, not even caring that he had just gained a lot of homework. After all, this would give him an excellent excuse to search the paper properly.
His heart hammering with sudden expectation, he began his study.
The first page he saw seemed to describe a Quidditch match. There was a large picture of an orange-clad man apparently falling off his broomstick. Normally Harry would've lingered, but he was on a mission, so he went on. The next part seemed to be about money. Harry almost yelped when he saw the strange creature that was talking to the camera, until he remembered what Sirius had said about goblins running the wizard bank. He eyed the goblin curiously.
He looked funny. He was probably about Harry's size, but he had a little beard, and his skin was very wrinkly. He had small black eyes that made him look rather shrewd. It seemed to be standing on a pedestal and give some sort of speech.
Harry looked down at the headline, and instantly felt his blood run cold.
Gringotts confirms: Black has been to his vault
Black...He threw a short glance at Remus, who seemed completely caught up in his own reading, and then quickly started skimming the article. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
"...the escaped murderer Sirius Black, sentenced for..."
There wasn't a picture of his godfather next to it, but Harry didn't need one. The case was solved. Grimmauld Place number twelve, the "house of horrors", as Sirius himself had christened it, was his godfather's birthplace.
Next chapter will be on Saturday, as usual.
For those who are interested, I also posted a new story, Drag Me Over The Rainbow, which is also AU and about Harry being rescued by Sirius and Remus, though more RemusXTonks centred and set in GoF. It's been sitting on my PC for almost a year, and is actually some sort of prototype of this story. For a while I thought I'd turn it into a sequel to The Letter, but this is now going in a different direction so I thought I might as well post both. Not to fear though, Letter will definitely stay the priority :)
As always, reviews are very welcome :)
