A/N: And, as promised, an earlier chapter :D I would have made it earlier but all of a sudden I had a need to remind myself how much I hate painting walls...
Hope you like it!
"It's Harry," Sirius said. "He's in trouble."
Remus didn't say a word at first – he just stared at him for several seconds. "How can you possibly tell?" he asked once his found his voice.
"My watch is burning," his friend replied, turning to look pointedly at his father-in-law.
Gabe's eyes immediately widened. He'd been the one to charm it, therefore he knew better than anyone what it meant. "He's calling for your help."
"Calling for his help?" Remus asked, confused. "But… how?"
"The watches are connected," Gabriel quickly explained. "Harry can use his to call Sirius's and Mia's for help. You need to use the spell and find out where he is," he told his son-in-law. "Quickly."
"I… but…" he turned to Remus. "Moony…"
Remus shook his head, knowing what was going to happen. "Go. Do what you have to do – I'll be fine on my own with the Wolfsbane."
"Will you? You may have some colour back but I doubt you're already in any shape to apparate yourself anywhere," Sirius replied.
As much as he wanted to deny it, Remus was fairly sure his friend had a point. He still felt quite weak at the moment and was pretty sure that apparition was a synonym to splinching at that point. He'd have to find an alternative way to get himself into his parents' old cottage, the safest place for him to transform.
"Do you think you can use the location spell on your own?" Gabe asked Sirius.
He nodded. "I think so."
"Then find a piece of parchment and do it before the signal fades away. In the meanwhile, I'll apparate him over to the cottage," his father-in-law said, nodding at Remus. "I'll be right back."
Well, that sounded like as good a plan as any, Sirius thought. "I'll meet you there if I get the chance," he promised his best friend, who shook his head.
"Don't worry about me – Harry's the one who needs you right now. Tell Dora I'll be fine on my own."
The two other men were out the door in a matter seconds and Sirius was off to floor above, looking for some parchment. He soon found himself bursting through the living room, opening drawers, desperately searching for some – where did parchment go when one needed it? Merlin knew he kept stumbling on it when he didn't.
"Sirius, what are you still doing here?" Lulu asked, eyeing him with confusion from the spot where she stood by the sofa.
"What's wrong?" Tonks added.
"Nothing," he lied, obviously. "Lulu, do you think you could take the kids downstairs and give them their dinner? Keep them occupied for a while too?"
His mother-in-law raised her eyebrows. "What's going on?"
"Daddy?"
Sirius stopped searching for a second in order to look behind, finding Alex standing there, looking at him with a stressed little look on his face. "Everything's fine, mate. Daddy's just playing a game," he lied to the little boy, forcing a smile. "Go on with Gran, will you?"
The little boy appeared to relax a little with the reassurance, though Lulu kept eyeing him inquisitively – she wouldn't fall so easily for the lie. "Well, Sirius?"
He huffed. "There's no time to explain. Ask Gabe when he gets back. Just please get them busy for a while," he requested. "Please."
The last 'please' seemed to be enough to get the woman to give in, as she was soon picking Mary up from the sofa and leading Alex out of the room by the hand. "Don't think you're off the hook, Black," she warned him before stepping out.
He nodded faintly, hardly caring at the moment, as he was then left alone in the room with the pregnant auror, who kept following him with her eyes as he jumped from drawer to drawer in search for a piece of parchment.
"Sirius, what the hell is going on?" she asked him, giving up on trying to deduce anything out of his actions – the guy was like a kid on crack… "Is it Remus alright? Where…?"
"Remus is fine, though it seems like he'll have to spend this full moon on his own. Gabe is helping him apparate to the cottage to make sure he doesn't splinch himself, so he's in good hands," Sirius said, breathing in relief as he finally found a blank piece of parchment under a pile of old magazines.
"What? But… what happened? You were going with him," she said, more as a statement than as an accusation. She really had no clue what was going on.
"Change of plans. Harry's in trouble," he said, moving over to the coffee table in front of the pregnant woman, where he placed the piece of parchment and his wand.
Tonks gave him a surprised look. "How do you know?"
Sirius shook his head, telling her to ask him later under his breath as he struggled to remove his watch, which, though no longer burning to the point of it being painful, still released plenty of heat.
From her seat, Tonks struggled to find a position that would allow her to see what he was doing – the baby's current position was certainly not helping making every move easier. When she finally managed to get a glimpse by propping her back further with an extra cushion, she saw him placing the watch by the piece of parchment's side before grabbing his wand. He soon pointed it at the watch and mumbled something under his breath – next thing she knew, he was lifting his hand and, as the wand stopped touching the watch, it was like a small golden string came up, one end being attached to the wand and the other to the watch.
He moved his hand very slowly – Gabe had warned him sudden movements could break the connection and destroy the message that identified the location. So, just in case, he didn't allow himself to as much as breathe until his wand finally reached the piece of parchment and the tip of the little piece of string that had been touching the watch previously moved to the black surface. He shook the wand for a second and let the string detach from it, falling fully onto the parchment – and then, he noted, it started to become darker, as if the parchment was absorbing it and turning it into ink. It soon started to look like a mere drawn line on the smooth surface, which slowly started to move around, shaping itself into words. When they were finally readable, though, he cursed heavily under his breath.
"What was that?" Tonks asked in disbelief. What the hell was that? How had the string become letters? And what did they say? They were written in print far too small for her to see without leaning closer, quite the hardship in her state.
"Harry's location," he mumbled, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind as he stared aimlessly at the paper.
"And…" the auror urged him.
He turned to her, a grave look on his face. "Malfoy Manor."
"Oh," she mumbled, remaining quiet for a second. "That's bad," she managed to say, stating the obvious.
"You think?" he asked, getting up in a flash and starting to pace left and right. He stopped all of a sudden after a few seconds. "I've got to get there! Yeah, I'm heading there. Now."
"What? Wait a minute," she said, giving him a surprised look. "You can't go in there just like that!"
"Watch me. I should send Kingsley a patronus…"
"Sirius…" the woman said in a warning tone.
"… have him warn the rest of the order for help… yeah, that's…"
"Sirius, stop!" she yelled. He turned to her in alarm, frowning deeply. "Will you stop and think for a bloody second?"
"I did think! Now I'm acting. The kid needs me in there – I'm going," he stated, determination all over his tone.
"Are you, really? And how do you expect to get in, genius? Let me guess: you're expecting them to be dumb enough to have left the front door open. Or maybe you can just ring the doorbell and they'll welcome you with open arms," she told him sarcastically. "The place is a bloody fortress, Sirius, and unfortunately the bad guys aren't always as dim-witted as we wish them to be."
"What are you saying, then? That I can't get in?" he inquired in disbelief. No, that couldn't be. That just couldn't be…
"Not if you head there with a hot head and a half-arsed plan!" she replied. "Merlin, you'd have made a terrible auror if you'd decided to be one."
"What do you suggest, then, Miss Five-Star auror?" he asked, out of patience. He didn't need lectures – he needed solutions. The clock was ticking, far too fast for him to like it
"Well, let me think, would you?" she said, taking a deep breath. "And stop pacing!" she shouted just as soon as he started again. "You're making the baby dizzy."
"Oh, for the love of…"
"Shh!" she said, clearing her mind so that she could do some thinking. She didn't know where to start. There were ways to break wards but she didn't really know any since they were all ridiculously dark and illegal. Then again, her not knowing them might not make much of a difference since, being dark and illegal themselves, the Malfoys' wards were bound to be proofed for all of those. Merlin, there was just no way around it, was it?
It was the damn bad thing about wards: they were great when they were protecting them and a pain in the arse when they were serving the bad guys. And the Malfoy's were just remarkably good – they'd tried to get into that house a good handful of times the previous summer, soon after they'd gotten reports Bellatrix might be hiding in there. Unfortunately, verifying hadn't been a possibility – by then, the Malfoys were official outlaws, therefore, barring the ministry from stepping foot into their property wouldn't make them lose much. They'd been so close to getting this Egyptian bloke who was famous from being able to crack pretty good sets of wards to help them but then the Ministry had gone and been taken over. If only they'd managed to reach any conclusion before… but not a single man they'd tried to send in had succeeded at it. If one was honest, they were basically slaves to their own magic. There'd come a day when…
And then it hit her like a brick wall. Slaves.
"Kreacher!" she said, startling Sirius and, soon enough, herself too, as the house-elf materialized in front of her even though she hadn't really been intending to call him, rather than just naming the answer.
"Kreacher?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ms. Tonks call," the house-elf said, confused at their surprise. "Master tell Kreacher to come whenever Ms. Tonks call this morning."
"Good. Good," Tonks said, gladly. "Kreacher, I need to ask you something. You can break through wards, right?"
The house-elf eyed her with some suspicion. "Kreacher can if Master order Kreacher to," he responded.
Sirius looked at Kreacher, then at Tonks. "You don't mean…"
"Shh," she dismissed him, keeping her attention on Kreacher. "And humans… you can take humans with you, right?"
Kreacher hesitated. "Kreacher think so. Most times."
"Most times?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not if wards are too strong, too dark…"
There was a general moment of silence. "But they usually aren't that strong, right?" Tonks said.
Kreacher shook his head. "No. Only happen to Kreacher at Hogwarts and… another time." He looked pointedly at Sirius, who realized which time he was referring to. The one when Regulus had died, in the cave where Voldemort had placed one of his Horcruxes…
Merlin, Sirius thought, those must've been some wards, made by You-Know-Who himself. Harry had mentioned they'd been connected to Inferi too. "Right," he mumbled. "But you could try to get in, right?"
The house-elf hesitated. He had absolutely no idea what was going on and breaking into the Malfoy manor with a human just didn't sound like such an idea Mistress Mia would approve… somehow he found her judgement far more reliable than his Master's. Still, he had no choice. "Kreacher must obey Master," he said.
"We're not asking you to obey, Kreacher," the pregnant woman said firmly. "We're asking you to help. Harry."
Kreacher's already huge eyes widened further. He didn't need to say a word for them to know he'd dive into the deepest pits of hell to help Harry. Or Izzy. Any of his young masters. "Young Master Harry in danger?" he asked, clearly alarmed.
Sirius nodded and was just about to explain further when Gabe burst into the room.
"Any news on his location?"
His son-in-law nodded and was just about to speak when Tonks interrupted him.
"Is Remus okay?" she had to ask before the conversation had a chance to be eclipsed by Harry's situation.
Gabe nodded. "He's fine. We got to the cottage safely. He's waiting for the transformation now," he assured her quickly before looking at Sirius. "You were about to say…"
"He's in Malfoy Manor," Sirius told him. "And Tonks thinks Kreacher's our only way in."
"House-elves are not bound by wards the same way we are," she explained quickly.
Gabe nodded. "Good thinking. But what about inside? The place is huge – I was there in a raid once a long time ago and finding anything in there was a pickle."
That, all of them thought, was a good question. Before any of them could suggest anything, though, Kreacher cleared his throat, capturing their attention.
"Kreacher know another house-elf… He use to work for Malfoys but Young Master free him. His name be…"
"…Dobby?" Sirius asked, interrupting him. "The little guy that helped Harry during the tri-wizard tournament?"
Kreacher nodded. "Dobby always want to help Young Master. He out of Hogwarts now – work at the Hog's Head. Kreacher can find him quick."
"Good. That's good," Gabe said. "Harry could be with his friends too – more than one house-elf could make a smoother escape."
"Great, then let's stop wasting time and go," Sirius said, approaching the house-elf.
"Go?" Tonks asked.
"Not you – you're not going anywhere in that state," he replied.
She frowned deeply. "Thanks for pointing that – because I'm a big idiot and don't realize that maybe getting into the Malfoy Manor while looking like a beached whale is a bad idea," the metamorphagus said sarcastically. "Obviously I'm not going anywhere but neither are you! Not in any state," she told him.
"What are you talking about? Harry's trapped in there!" Sirius protested.
"Kreacher and Dobby can get Young Master out," the old house-elf promised.
"But can you fight the Death Eaters probably hanging out in there on your own?" Sirius replied.
"What makes you think fighting is the best choice? Sometimes you need to be subtle. Mad-Eye always told me that the surprise element can make up a whole plan," Tonks told him.
"Well, Mad-Eye's gone now, Tonks!" Sirius told her, maybe a bit more harshly than necessary, he quickly realized when she glared at him. "And even when he wasn't, he knew there were also times when you need to get your wand and fight."
"Then let Kreacher and Dobby go in and find out if that's the case – if they need us there, they'll come back for us. But if they don't, great."
"Great? So what? We can just sit this one out?"
"No! So you can stay out of the way, genius!" Tonks replied.
"She's got a point, Sirius," Gabe told his son-in-law before he could protest further. "In auror training, they teach us there are two kinds of 'wanting to help': the kind when your help is needed and you'll be useful and the kind when it isn't and you'll get in the way. This is the second time: Harry needs a way out. Kreacher has it. Dobby has it. You and I don't have it. If we get in there, we'll be nearly as trapped as they are and the elves will have to rescue us too. We need to trust them with this one: that Dobby clearly knows how to get around the house and it's in his and Kreacher's nature to move quietly and swiftly. Plus, they can pop from place to place quickly. We'd just slow them down and that could get us all, as well as Harry and his friends, killed. We need to at least give them a chance to scope the place on their own – decide if they'll need us there or not."
Sirius pursed his and started pacing. His gut told him to go, his brain told him Tonks and Gabe were right and he shouldn't. Merlin, his mind was racing with the bloody dilemma… History was full of events that had taught him going by his gut usually didn't lead to any good: there had been the time when his gut had told him shoving a werewolf into Snape's face would be a pretty fun prank (in hindsight, he sort of wished that one had gotten bloody back then because it would have avoided a whole lot of trouble now…) and then there had been that other time when he'd decided to follow Lestrange's provocations by going after Wormtail without a plan – that had not only gotten him hurt but had also let him to hurt Mia more than he ever had the right to. But staying behind and waiting was just so… not him. He could foresee himself losing his mind with a lot of clarity.
"Sirius, we're wasting time," his father-in-law warned him. "You need to give him the orders or Kreacher won't be able to get in."
"Fine!" he shouted before turning to Kreacher. "Fine. Do it: get Dobby, go into the Malfoy Manor and get Harry out of there. If when you get there you see you need us, come back for us," he said, phrasing the orders very clearly.
Kreacher nodded, not once sending him the look of disgust he sometimes had on when Sirius gave him orders. And then, with a soft cracking sound, he was gone.
"You made the right decision," Gabe told Sirius as he started to pace again. "It's not always easy when it involves relying on someone else."
"Not always easy," he replied with a sarcastic chuckle. "Right. Try bloody excruciating."
He wasn't made for that – waiting. He was a doer. He did stuff, rather than waiting for someone else to do them for him. It was just in his nature. So staying behind and waiting… well, he wasn't quite sure how to even deal with it.
For starters, he went back to pacing – left and right, left and right… he had to stop, though, when he saw Tonks giving him the evil eye. He sat down on one of the armchairs… and then got up again as he couldn't bring himself to stay still. Merlin, it was driving him insane. And it had only been a minute or two since Kreacher had left, for Merlin's sake. He thought back to all these times he'd tried to talk Mia into staying behind during battles and realized how selfish he'd been – it was actually worse to stay behind! And, then, all of a sudden, another thought crossed his mind.
"Wait, what about Mia?" he asked, turning to his father-in-law. "Do you think she got the signal too? It was connected to her watch as well. Merlin, she must be losing it if she did."
Gabriel shook his head. "I honestly doubt it. I charmed the watch so the signal would be discreet enough so no one else would pick it up. For that to happen, I made it so it would've never reached both watches at the same time – it'd get to the closest one first and then if there wasn't a reaction from the owner, it'd move on to the other. Malfoy Manor is near Southampton, so the signal would've reached you first and since you checked his location, it never would've reached Mia."
"Good," Sirius said. "That's good."
"You'll need to tell her, though," Tonks pointed out. "She won't take it lightly if you don't. I sure wouldn't if it was this one…" she said, rubbing her belly.
"I will tell," he assured her. "I just… I need to have something to tell her. Right now, I still don't. She doesn't need to be losing her mind the same way I am."
"Well, I'm afraid standing around in here won't help making it less stressing," Gabe stated. "I'm going downstairs to have a word with Lucy. Then I'll go check on the house's wards just in case. Call for me if anything happens."
Sirius responded with a nod, before moving over to the window, looking outside just for the sake of trying to keep his mind occupied. It didn't work, of course, so he moved on to other things, such as inspecting the drawers he'd been searching earlier, standing with his head against the wall, tapping his fingers on a tablet and eventually turning the telly on and taking to flipping through the channels. He couldn't help it – if he didn't do something, he couldn't stop thinking and that was bad.
Eventually, Tonks, who was pretty much stuck in the room with him, had enough. "Sirius, if you don't stop it right now – the pacing, the zapping, the fiddling with all sorts of stuff … – , I'm getting my wand and use it to turn you into a garden ornament," Tonks threatened. "And you really don't want me using my wand around you right now because this kid has completely messed up my magic – just the other day I was trying to open a Muggle soup can and it blew up instead!"
"I'm going mad here!" he replied.
"What the hell for? Kreacher would be back by now if there was some sort of vicious battle going on – he wouldn't be able to help it since you gave him orders to do it! Can't you wait quietly like a normal person instead of acting like a bored child?"
He pursed his lips but didn't respond. He knew he was being annoying, of course, though she didn't really have to point that out in such a moody way… Still, he did make a bit of an effort to stay in one place from then on, avoiding nervous ticks as much as he could. It worked for about five minutes, which would have been fine if that hadn't made those minutes feel like twenty instead.
"I'm sorry," he eventually heard Tonks saying before he turned to her. She did look a bit guilty… "I shouldn't have yelled… or called you a child. You've got every right to lose it a little bit. It's just… the hormones are driving me mad. It shouldn't be an excuse for everything but, well…
Sirius sighed. "It's fine," he told her. "You shouldn't have been dragged into all this, anyway. In your state, you ought to be using up your last days before the kid comes by and turns your brains into mush to relax, not to stress over mine."
She shook her head. "It's okay – I'm not very good at staying away from action, anyway. It's not in the auror nature," she told him before letting out a long breath. "I guess you never stop worrying, do you? About your kids… I've really set myself up for seventeen years of sleepless nights, haven't I?"
Sirius sighed. "Sorry to be the one breaking the news to you but those will probably last long after he becomes of age. Merlin knows that's the case with Harry… though hopefully Lupin Jr will have a much calmer life than his godfather's."
Tonks chuckled lightly. "I suppose you have a point," she offered, taking a breath. "They begged me to pick another career. My parents," she specified. "They didn't want me to be an auror because it was dangerous and stressing and… Merlin knows what more. But I did it anyway – it was what I wanted to be, so what else was I going to do? They made me floo in every day when I was in the academy… twice a day for the first month after I moved into field work."
Sirius nodded. He could see what she was trying to do: telling him her parents has been through the same… sort of; showing him she'd always been fine, regardless of their worry. If only it were so easy… He shook his head, telling himself to stop thinking of that. "I'm sorry about your dad, Tonks," he found himself saying instead, for the first time since the news of Ted Tonks's death has broken.
He knew those words should have come out of his mouth weeks before. It wasn't like he hadn't had the chance when they'd broken the news to her or over at the funeral… but she'd looked so fragile, back then. It had seemed like even bringing up the subject of her father's death might have broken her to pieces on its own. So he'd just stood there, always nearby with Remus, and patted her shoulder awkwardly. It wasn't like she cared, really – her mind hadn't really been around those first few days. It was now, though. Very clearly.
Tonks sighed, leaning her head against the back of the sofa. "He was a good dad. A really good dad," she said.
"Good," Sirius told her. "That's good – you deserved a good dad."
"So did you and you got a really crappy one, according to my mum," she replied.
He chuckled for a second. "Yeah. Nothing short of a psychopath, that one," he observed. "But forget about him – the old bastard is roasting in hell where he belongs. Hopefully I won't ever have to hear a word from him again, or at least not until I snuff it."
She rolled her eyes. "Please, if there's any justice in this world or the other, you won't be going to any sort of hell. You're nothing like that bloke and you know it. I mean, you may have your flaws, such as being cocky, reckless and having a habit of acting like a kid most of the time but despite all of that, you're a pretty good bloke. And, more than that, you're a great dad. Only a blind person wouldn't see you'd give an arm and a leg if that's what it took to keep those kids safe and happy. And they adore you – you're exactly the kind of father I'm hoping Remus will be for this baby," she mused, rubbing her belly.
Sirius managed to smile for a second. "He will, you know? Be a good father," he told her. "He's pretty much been one his whole life – I mean, if it wasn't for him watching over us, James and I would've been expelled from Hogwarts by fourth year."
Tonks rolled her eyes. "I think that's a bit different than raising a child, don't you think?" she stated.
"Well, yeah, but it means he's got the instinct, you know? To take care of people. Initial freak-out aside, he's been pretty good with you and the baby, hasn't he?"
She sighed. "It was a pretty big freak-out."
"It was a pretty big issue," Sirius replied. "I thought you were over it by now, anyway."
"I am," she said. "Well, most of the time. It's just… he left once, when he thought the baby might be like him. What assures me that he won't do it again if the baby does turn out to be that way? A werewolf?"
"Because he knows I'll break his face if he tried. And he knows how much he hurt you last time. And because he already loves that kid – you can see it every time he looks at you," Sirius told her. "Have a little faith in him."
She sighed. "I do. I always do," Tonks told him, rubbing her belly absently. "He suggested we call him Ted," she said. "The baby, I mean."
"I thought he didn't know it was a boy," Sirius replied.
"He doesn't," she confirmed. "He said that if it was a boy, we could call him Ted like my dad. And since I know it's a boy…"
"Ted, it is," Sirius supplied.
She nodded. "Teddy Lupin," she said, looking down at her stomach with a soft smile on her lips. "He'll be okay," she said, looking up at Sirius. "Harry, I mean. He's been through so much already – we both know he did the impossible by breaking into the ministry too. Getting stuck in Malfoy Manor somehow is nothing in comparison. You'll see Kreacher will have him here in no time. Maybe he'll even be around for Easter – Mia will love it if he is."
Sirius hadn't thought of that. If… no, when Kreacher brought Harry back, he'd be home. They'd have a chance to be with him, to be a family, even if just for a little while. Because there was no way he was letting the kid leave until Mia got a chance to see him too… not unless his life depended on it. "Maybe he'll be around to meet his godson."
"Hopefully," she replied, sighing as she eyed the gigantic bump. "I can't really take carrying him around all the time much longer. It's murder for your back – you blokes have it easy."
He didn't reply – he knew there was no way to answer that the way he wanted to and not getting kicked or punched somewhere sensitive. He really didn't feel like getting Tonks angry again – she was actually being quite handful in what came to passing the time… which reminded him to check his clock.
"Forty minutes?" he asked in disbelief. "Kreacher's been gone for forty minutes?"
"Thirty-seven, more like," she corrected him.
"It's too long," he said, getting up. "He was just supposed to get there, snatch the kid and his friends and come back. How long does it take?"
"A lot longer than it feels like when you're the one doing it," she assured him. "Trust me – the adrenaline makes time fly. Sometimes in the field you feel like something's taken a minute and, when you check, it's been like half an hour. Besides, being sneaky requires its time. You need to make sure the coast is clear, sometimes wait for people watching to leave, hide for a while… give them time. Forty's not bad. Once I had to hide inside this ridiculously narrow broom cupboard for like an hour for a mission – bloody uncomfortable and note that I was skinny back then."
He might've laughed at that any other day but he simply wasn't in the mood at the moment.
When he got up again to resume pacing, he clearly saw Tonks rolling her eyes at him. He didn't have a chance to start, though, as Lulu soon appeared on the doorway with a pyjama-clad Mary on her hip.
"Any news?" she asked.
Sirius shook his head. "Nothing. Alex?" he asked, noticing his son's absence.
"Gabe has him running around down in the library – the kid needs to exhaust his batteries a little more before we put him out of commission for the night," Lulu let him know. "As for this one," she said, nodding at Mary as she made her way to him, "she could use a bed-time story." And then, she promptly dumped the toddler in his arms.
"Lulu…" he started, shifting the little girl.
"Don't Lulu me," his mother-in-law replied. "Pacing around here won't help anything. You need to keep yourself busy or it will feel like millennia before that house-elf comes. Start by putting your daughter to bed – and don't complain about it. She's pretty calm this evening. Will probably nod off after a page or two. Mind you, I'm not usually this generous."
He sighed. She had a point, he noted as glanced at the little girl, resting her head on his shoulder sleepily. "Alright," he said. "But call for me the moment you hear something."
"I will, now go," she said, waving dismissively at the door.
Mary started protesting before he could make his way out, though, demanding a good night kiss from her godmother, who gladly conceded once Sirius brought the little girl over. Afterwards, Sirius noted as he left the room, the toddler went back to being unusually quiet. Could she really be that tired? Lulu had mentioned she'd been perfecting her walking skills all day, trying to chase Alex around. That was tiring even for him, he had to admit. She certainly didn't seem like she was coming down with something… Oh, well, he thought – at least that one was restful. That was the last thing he could possibly say for himself…
"I wish I could be carefree like that, you know?" he told the little girl as she sucked on her thumb. "Your brother's gotten himself in a huge pickle." He huffed. "I can't believe Kreacher's the one in charge of getting him out of it."
"Keesh," Mary said, looking around in search for the house-elf, having recognized the name from his father's words.
"Yep, Kreacher," he mumbled absently as he climbed up the stairs. "Guess if it all turns out okay, I'll owe him big." That actually made him groan – he hated owing stuff to people. And if that person – or creature – just happened to be the house-elf who'd followed every guideline his parents had set to make his childhood into a living hell, even worse… He shook his head – no, it didn't matter. If there was any good reason on that Earth to be on debt to Kreacher, it had to be saving his godson's life. "It will turn out okay," he told the baby, more as a way to convince himself than Mary, who probably didn't understand all that much of what he was saying. "If everything goes the way it's supposed to, tomorrow your mama and Izzy will be here and so will Harry."
"Ma," Mary mumbled before letting out a big yawn.
Sirius's lips turned up a little bit at the corners as he placed a kiss on the top of the little girl's head before stepping into the nursery, where he took a seat on the rocking chair with his daughter on his lap.
He reached for the book sitting on top of a nearby chest of drawers and opened it where he'd stopped reading the previous night. Lulu had been right on her prediction, as Mary fell asleep with odd ease against the crook of Sirius's arm three or five minutes after he started reading. He didn't stop there, though – even after he spotted the little girl snoozing on top of him, Sirius went on reading as the adventures of Babbitty Rabbitty turned out to provide a decent escape from the reality of Harry's life potentially being in danger at that very same moment.
He wasn't sure how long he read but he easily made it through The Wizard and the Hopping Pot and The Fountain of Fair Fortune before he spotted Lulu standing in front of him.
Sirius eyed his mother-in-law for about ten seconds before doing anything – she didn't really gave anything away through her expression, so he wasn't sure of he should be relieved or mortified. He wasn't sure he even wanted to… Yet, he had to. "Are they…?"
"Fine, yeah. He's waiting down at the kitchen," the woman told him, snatching the sleeping Mary from his lap before he had chance to get up in a jump without minding the little girl. "If your break your neck on the way down, I'm leaving you there to rot," she warned him once he sped out of the door in a flash.
He mostly ignored his mother-in-law until, after skipping far more steps than it was advisable, he nearly fell on his face. He forced himself to get a hold of his own hurry – they were fine. Lulu had said so. She might be a lot of things but she certainly wasn't a liar…
His godson was fine, he repeated to himself in a mantra as he reached the ground floor. He'd done the right thing by going against his nature – thanks to Gabe and Tonks's urging – and picking the most obvious. And, just as soon as he took those last steps and entered the kitchen, he found himself once again face-to-face with… Kreacher.
He stopped on his tracks and looked around. Aside from Kreacher, only Tonks seemed to be in the room, eyeing him as her fork rested on a ridiculously large plate for fish and chips and pork pie, apparently. Later he'd ask himself how someone could possibly gobbledown such a mix but, at the moment, he was too busy wondering why on Earth his godson was nowhere to be seen.
Soon enough, instead of wondering, he was glaring at the house-elf wondering what the hell the little bastard had done. He should have known. He really should have known. "Where the bloody hell is my…?"
"He's not here, Sirius," Tonks told him. "He's fine, though."
"Then where…?"
"Young Master send this," the house-elf declared before he could finish the question, promptly handing a piece of parchment into to his master. "He ask for Master to read this before asking Kreacher questions."
Sirius didn't stop glaring at Kreacher, even as he snatched the piece of parchment away. He started to unfold the piece of parchment, noting immediately before he started reading that the handwriting was clearly Harry's.
Dear Sirius, it started.
I can't thank you enough for helping us – we wouldn't have made it out without you.
We're mostly okay now – Hermione's not doing so well right now but we've been told she'll probably be alright. I suppose you can relax now.
Kreacher wanted to take us home but I told him not to. I've already involved you enough by asking for your help and me being there would only put you in more danger. Please don't make him tell you where we are unless it's for a life or death reason – the lesser you know, the better for you and for us.
Please send my love to aunt Mia, Izzy… and, well, everyone in our inner circle. Let them know I'm okay and that I'm doing my best to end this. And let Ginny know that I haven't fallen for some Veela yet. She'll know what it means. I'll try and write to her once I'm sure it's safe for both of us.
Be careful – I'd like to have a family to come back to.
Your godson,
Harry
P.S.: Thanks for Potterwatch too – listening to it is almost like being back home.
P.P.S.: Luna's safe – thought you guys might like to share that with the world.
Sirius sighed as he folded back the piece of parchment. "Bloody noble kid," he mumbled under his breath. "Couldn't he have ignored safety just for once?" He's been so set on having him over for Easter…
"Constant vigilance," Tonks quoted her late trainer as she ate a chip. "You know he's safe, though – that's more than you knew for the past few months."
She did have a point, Sirius thought before turning back to the house-elf. "What happened to Hermione anyway?" he asked Kreacher.
"Miss Bella," Kreacher mumbled, not offering much more as an explanation, since everyone knew Bellatrix was a clear synonym for 'torture'. "Dobby manage to get Granger girl out before it got to the worse, though. Kreacher think she going to be fine."
"So, everyone's okay, right?" Sirius said. "Everyone made it out okay. No permanent damage."
Kreacher didn't respond – that immediately set off some alarms.
"Kreacher?" Tonks asked, cautiously. "Is there something you're not telling us?"
The house-elf pursed his lips together, looking down.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin, Kreacher!" Sirius said, out of patience to handle his hesitations. "Just tell us what's wrong."
"Dobby," the older house-elf said. "He…"
Kreacher didn't finish – he really didn't need to.
"Oh," Tonks mumbled, getting the picture after a few seconds of silence. "Merlin… the poor little guy. How… was it… quick?"
The house-elf nodded silently, once again not offering more of an explanation.
"Okay," Sirius mumbled, taking a seat at the table. "Okay."
He couldn't help feeling pretty bad. And, strangely, not just because Dobby – the poor, dangerously helpful, house-elf – was gone. He actually felt bad at the thought that it could have so easily been old, slower Kreacher dying. Not that he'd terribly miss that one, Sirius forced himself to think. No, he told himself. It was for the kids because they just adored the blasted house-elf, who spoiled them shamelessly from time-to-time. And Mia too – she was rather fond of the little creep as well. So, him being gone would probably upset his family, which by extension would likely upset him. Because there was no way in hell he'd be upset over Kreacher being far, far out of his life. Maybe he'd missed the cooking. Probably the bickering too – with Snape having gone fully evil and out of range, who else would regularly fill the role of his opponent? But he wouldn't be sad, Sirius repeated in his mind. Just bored.
So, sure, he just felt bad for the danger he'd put Kreacher in for the sake of his family. They'd be the sad ones if Kreacher ate it. "Sit down," he ordered the house-elf, who mechanically obeyed his master. "Now, you're going to tell me about everything that happened."
Tonks cleared her throat by his side, making him look over at her.
"What?"
"Be careful what you order him to do," she warned him, waving her hand at the folded letter in front of her cousin.
He groaned before turning back to Kreacher. "Right," he mumbled, less than eagerly. "Feel free to leave out the parts giving away wherever you took Harry."
Kreacher nodded dutifully and was just about to speak when Sirius interrupted him again.
"And, just so I don't forget," Sirius added, trying to say it as matter-of-factly as possible. "Thank you. For… you know, saving Harry's arse."
"Young Master good for Kreacher," the house-elf stated, more or less making it clear he hadn't done it for Sirius, but actually for Harry. Like that wasn't obvious, anyway.
Sirius nodded. "Right… Good. Now, spill it."
"But are you really sure he's alright?" Mia questioned for the hundredth time since Sirius had broken the news to her through the two-way mirror.
"Yes," he replied. "You know Kreacher can't lie to me. And pretty sure he wouldn't in this case either."
"But couldn't he have come home at least?" she pointlessly asked, pacing left and right on the room with the two-way mirror in her hands. "He'd be safe there for a while – our wards are good."
Sirius sighed on the other side of the mirror. "Love, as much as it pains to say this, I think the kid has a point on this one," he admitted. "The less we know, the better and the least chance we have to get him into trouble. I mean, imagine if Snape got it into his mind to question you under veritaserum – again – and asked exactly those questions that would make you have to tell him?"
"I know, I know," she mumbled. "But this is just… frustrating." She sighed for a second before turning to glare at the mirror. "You should have told me about this earlier, Sirius. Merlin, how many times have I told you not to shelter me?"
"I wasn't sheltering you, Mia," he replied. "I was just waiting to have anything concrete to tell you. What would be the point of having both of us losing our minds when I wasn't even sure what was going on? All I knew was that Harry was in some sort of danger and happened to be in Malfoy Manor. Beyond that, all I had were suppositions."
Mia regarded the mirror closely for a moment before taking a long breath. "I just don't want to spend my time wondering if while I'm stuck here at Hogwarts, the world isn't crumbling beyond those walls without me knowing it."
"Love, if that ever happens, you'll know it once I see the first crack – just as soon as I'm sure the crack really is a crack, that is," he promised her. "The last thing I want is for you to get blind-sided. You know it is."
She sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. It's catching up with me, I guess – having to be here while everything happens out there. I wish I'd been there to help…"
"You'll be here tomorrow," he reminded her. "And there wasn't much you could do here, anyway. Which brings me to the point that now more than ever I understand what it feels like to be watching from the side-lines. Bloody stressing – I think my life got shortened by a decade just because of it."
Mia's lips curled a little. "I'll remind you of that next time you try to put me in that position during some battle."
"After today, I won't really blame you," he admitted, pausing for a second after saying that. "He's alright, Mia."
Mia nodded, despite of how much she wished she could see that for herself. "He's alright," she repeated her husband's words. "That's what matters."
"It is," he agreed. "Now get to bed – you've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow. It took Lulu nearly an hour to put Alex to bed since he was so excited by the prospect of seeing his mum."
"I suppose it will take me far longer than that to get myself to sleep as well after hearing the news," she replied, knowing just how wired-up they'd gotten her. And it was too late then to get herself some dreamless sleep potion from the infirmary – it just wasn't worth risking crossing paths with a Dementor on her way there.
"Well, that makes two of us," Sirius replied. "I suppose I'll be joining Moony's monthly full-moon-themed rendezvous tonight after all. I'll bark him your regards."
"You do that," she replied with a sigh. "Make sure Kreacher checks on Harry again in the morning, okay? Maybe he should take him some clothes and food and healing suppl…"
"I'll make sure he takes Harry a full care package, Mum," he promised before ordering her to take a rest again and bidding farewell until the following day.
Mia got up after she put the mirror away in the pocket of the cloak she'd set aside to wear the following day. She made her way to the window and looked out at the moon-lit grounds for a moment before resting her forehead against the glass and closing her eyes.
She knew Harry was alright – if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that Sirius would never sugar-coat anything related to Harry's safety just to have her crushed once she learned the truth. And Kreacher couldn't possibly lie to him. So, yes, Harry was okay. Still, that didn't change what had happened: there was not enough parchment in that castle to write down every single bad thing that might have happened to Harry at Malfoy Manor. It all ranged from horrible death to… even more horrible death, crossing torture and who knew what else. It was unsettling to know it, and even more unsettling to think it was far from over. Who knew how many more close-calls would come? How long before it all ended? How many more questions about that matter could she come up with before losing her mind?
She took a breath and told herself to stop there. It didn't work – not really. The questions still came every moment she lost her focus. But once she opened her eyes back up, something stole her focus altogether: the sight of three cloaked shapes making their way across the grounds under the moonlight. It didn't take her much imagination to gather that must be Snape and the Carrows.
They appeared to be headed to the gates, planning to leave the castle for whatever reason at half past ten in the night. Probably headed for some sort of emergency Death Eater meeting to deal with her godson's escape. She imagined their side wouldn't be happy at all with such a monumental failure…
She watched them slip out through the gates before closing the drapes with a quick move.
Harry was safe, she told herself. Harry was safe – everything was going to be alright. That one time, at least.
It was quite an unusual thing, Severus Snape considered. Being called by the Dark Lord so suddenly, into the Malfoy Manor of all places and with the Carrows in a tow of all people. His supposed master always wanted at least one of them in the school, making his presence known to all.
He heard the Dark Lords voice long before reaching the chamber they were in. It was angry – furious – and it wanted blood. More blood than it usually did. Bella's voice sounded next – it was a little frantic, a little desperate, and otherwise completely mad, as it always sounded.
"… sure it was it, Master," he heard Bella saying just before he reached the room. She was kneeling in front of him, penitent as if she'd failed him horribly and was now trying to make it right.
Snape put his mind walls up high – he knew failing to keep them that way for a single second could lead to months of carefully planned infiltration being ruined. A single thought would be enough to give him away.
"I recognized it immediately from seeing it walking around auntie Walburga's house when I was younger," Bellatrix continued. "It was her house-elf – it's obliged to serve Sirius now. He's got to be the one behind this."
"Sirius Black," the Dark Lord said. "Looks like he's not as out of contact with his godson as he says."
"He's a parasite, my lord," Bellatrix said. "Let me kill him – he'll have to come out of his hole sometime. Let me kill him for you, my lord."
"No," Snape heard his alleged master saying. "No, I think I have better plans for him. I'd say the Blacks have… overused the freedom we've granted them. It's clear they won't lead us to Potter, not even now that they've helped him run. It's time we turn the tables. Severus, Amycus, Alecto," the dark lord called for them even though he hadn't even acknowledged their arrival.
"My lord," Snape replied, kneeling down, a gesture mimicked by the Carrows.
"Rise," Voldemort urged the. Snape did so, carefully averting his eyes from him. "Potter and his little friends…" he said the word as it the notion of friendship itself disgusted him "… were caught today. Briefly, as you may have gathered. Snatchers brought him here under disguises and fake names after they broke the taboo word but these fools I have for servants let them escape."
"It pains me to hear that, my lord," Snape replied, his eyes still down and he kept the barrier around his mind as strong as he could manage it.
"As it should," he hissed. "Black was behind the escape, it appears. I'd say he ought to be taught a lesson."
"I've been thinking the very same thing since I was unfortunate enough to meet him," Snape replied, in a rare moment of honesty. He even allowed himself to raise his head to see his master's face, then.
The Dark Lord seemed pleased. "Good. Now tell me, Severus: the girl… you have Black's precious little daughter over at Hogwarts, don't you? And his wife too. Isn't that right?"
"It is, my lord," Snape confirmed. All of a sudden, he felt cold. Very cold.
"And how easily could you make them both… disappear from the school? Discretely, of course."
"Very easily, my lord," Amycus replied before Snape could, sounding quite eager. "Tomorrow they'll be boarding the train to London for Easter. We could do it like we did it to the Lovegood girl."
"Good," Voldemort said. "Very good. So you could have them by tomorrow, I take it."
"Dead or alive, my lord," Alecto told him. "Whichever way you prefer."
"Alive," he told her. "I have quite some plans for them. A little cell in Azkaban. The same one Black occupied while he was in there. What do you say, Severus?"
"I'm sure he'll appreciate the poetics," Snape forced himself to say.
"I was hoping he would," Voldemort declared. "I'd like a word in person with them before sending them off. I expect to find them here tomorrow by this time, then."
He nodded. "As they will be," he assured his master before bowing and making his way out, reading the dismissal between the lines.
As he walked away, he listened to Bella going back to grovelling, offering her torturing services for either Mia or the girl. The Carrows ceased following him at some point, around the same time they ran into Lucius Malfoy down the hall – he imagined they'd be rubbing salt in the wounds inflicted by Potter's escape from his home.
The boy had nothing in his head, like his father before him. If only he'd gotten more of his mother in him, he might have gone without doing something so monumentally dumb like saying a well-known taboo word. At least he'd ran or all those months' work would have been for nothing…
And Black had gotten himself in the middle, of course – thrown his wife and daughter into the whole mess probably without even knowing. Cocky bastard probably thought he'd pulled it all off…
But, as much as he blamed it all on Black, he needed to do something, he knew. To stop it. To help them. Not for Black, certainly, as Merlin knew he simply couldn't stand the man even if that was required to save his own life. His wife, however, was another case.
One couldn't say he particularly liked Mia Black, even back when she was Mia Davis, but he certainly respected her. She'd been a good friend to Lily until death and the after it by raising the boy. As much as he found Potter distastingly… Potter-like, his godmother's gesture had been noble and more worthy of Lily's friendship than all his gestures together. And the girl… there was too much Black in her but he still couldn't abandon her. He'd made a promise to Dumbledore – to protect the students above all. She was his student and, had things turned out differently, he had no doubt she have been Lily's goddaughter. Lily would have loved her for it, so maybe there was still hope for her.
Besides, Azkaban was for criminals and deviants – Amelia and Isabelle Black were neither.
So, he knew what his mission was, then: he needed to find a way to warn them.
A/N2: I am not a cliffhanger junkie (that's what they all say, isn't it?). I really am not. So, let me assure you that this one is really needed. You'll see why next chapter. No evil laughter here - swear on my newly painted (hopefully for very long) walls. Feedback is welcome (I can see an intervention in the horizon...). Review!