Chapter 16

After the quidditch match, Albus had returned to Hogwarts; Harry and Charley had gone to their rooms to rest; Remus was taking his shift in the Control Room; and Sirius had taken a long, hot shower and then had tried to take a nap. But he couldn't sleep, so he had gotten up and gone into the lounge to lie on the couch.

Sirius found he slept better at the pool. The sounds of Harry's laugher while splashing in the water lulled him to sleep. Or when Harry laid in the poolside lounge next to his, taking his own nap, Sirius was comforted by the sounds of his godson's breathing. It was when he was alone that he had problems getting to sleep. It was then, when he closed his eyes, he saw himself falling into the veil.

He knew how fortunate he had been. Not many people got the opportunity to return from the dead. But it was more than that. It was the fact that he had put himself in that position, taunting Bellatrix, not taking the fight seriously, that kept him awake. It was how close he had come to leaving his godson that caused him to be wracked with guilt when he closed his eyes.

He had been so stupid. As a teenager, he was a vain, attention-seeking, arrogant, self-centered prat. He didn't care about anyone other than his tight little circle of friends, the Marauders. He didn't even care about the girls he dated. He used them to satisfy his own physical needs, as well as his ego.

Lily had been the first girl he thought of as something other than a sex object. She had been his friend. She had always been honest with him. He loved her like he had never loved any other girl—like a sister. It never occurred to him to love her in any other way. She was James's girl, and James was like a brother to him. So Lily became his sister.

But Sirius had changed since his rescue from the veil. He no longer felt the need to seek attention. He no longer desired things he couldn't have. He had exactly what he wanted—a godson he loved more than he had ever loved anything in the world. More than he loved himself. He had a best friend who put up with him despite his faults. And he had Charles who had been the only man he had ever thought of as a father. And, yet, when he closed his eyes, he saw himself falling into the veil, and he realized how close he had come to losing it all—to never having any of it.

"Hello, Padfoot."

Sirius's gaze shot up to the portrait above the mantle. "James?"

James grinned. "Yep."

"What--how--where did you come from?"

"I've come from the great beyond," James said in an eerie voice.

Sirius snickered. "Oh, God, I'm glad to see you," he said, getting up from the couch and walking to the mantle. "I've needed to talk to you for 15 years."

James nodded. "I want to say something to you first, Padfoot. I know what happened, and I just want you to know that I'm sorry. It's all my fault, and if I could do anything to make up for it, I would."

Sirius frowned. "Hold on. You're apologizing to me? Bloody hell, Prongs, I'm the one who talked you into switching secret keepers. If it weren't for me, you and Lily would still be alive, and Harry would have a family."

"Harry has a family, Padfoot. He has you. I've talked with him, and he's told me all about you. He cares so much for you, Padfoot. He thinks of you and Remus as his parents." He grinned. "Of course, I find the implications of that little scenario a bit disturbing."

Sirius barked out a laugh. "Well, I do love Remus like a brother, but he's not really my type. I prefer someone with--you know--breasts."

"Look, Sirius, just let me say this, okay?"

Sirius nodded.

"I put you in danger by making you the decoy, both with Voldemort and the Ministry. I should have thought to let one person know that Peter was the secret keeper, in case anything happened. I should have told Dumbledore what we had done."

"I think we've hit a stalemate, Prongs," Sirius said, grinning. "Let's make a deal. I'll accept your apology, though I don't think you did anything wrong, if you'll accept mine."

James smiled at him. "It's a deal, Padfoot."

"So where have you been keeping yourself? I've been in this trunk for over a month. Why haven't I seen you before?"

"Actually, it's your fault. I've been trying to find a time to see you alone, and this is the first time I've gotten the opportunity. Damn, man! You must be as popular as you were when we were in school."

Sirius laughed. "Oh, it's a different type of popularity now, my friend. It's all family. There are no more women falling at my feet begging me to go out with them. I've gotten old, Prongs."

James snorted. "Yeah, you're an old man of 36 now, aren't you? Have you realized yet that you're only 9 years younger than my dad?"

Sirius groaned. "Thanks for pointing that out."

"So, where's Moony?"

"He's in the control room. I'll go get him."

"No, just go into Harry's room and get the empty frame off his nightstand. I'll move into that, and you can take me into the control room with you. Oh, and you prats to get more portraits and frames in here. It's going to get crowded in this one. Mum, Lily, and baby Harry want to visit you, too."

Sirius grinned. "I'll get that taken care of right away, old man."

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Severus Snape sat on the couch in the lounge area of his tent. In his hands, he held a gold chain with a medallion shaped into the initial P. Charles Potter had taken a hair from everyone's head, went into his tent, and then returned with the medallions.

"You're not prisoners here," he told them. "You can leave anytime you want. But with that medallion, you can also return. Just think or say the word Safe Haven, and you'll be brought back here. To leave, think of the place you want to go, as if you were going to apparate, and then say or think the name of the place. If you do leave, just be careful. Your lives are in danger."

He had also told Snape privately that as long as he was in the Safe Haven, the mark would not burn his arm. He had created a potions lab in the tent and offered to get him any ingredients he needed. Of course, he could also return to Hogwarts or go to Diagon Alley for the ingredients himself, then come back.

"These medallions are a bit different than portkeys," he had told the group. "It will transport you from anywhere, even a highly warded area such as Hogwarts or Azkaban. It will also transport you if you are chained to a wall. But, try not to get chained to a wall," he said, grinning. "Also, unlike a portkey, your medallion won't work for anyone else. It only works for you."

Snape, as well as the others in the Safe Haven, knew that they would eventually have to leave. However, for now, he intended to stay where he was. And it seemed that the others had the same intentions.

He had talked with Narcissa earlier and had learned from her what had happened between Draco and Voldemort, and then between Draco and Lucius. Snape couldn't be prouder of his godson. He had been afraid that Lucius's influence would turn the boy into a Death Eater. But he couldn't have been more wrong, thank God.

It had been strange seeing Potter and Draco talking together about quidditch as if they had not been rivals for the past 5 years. And when everyone went to play quidditch, Potter had asked Snape to be a chaser on his team. Black had been a beater on Draco's team. None of this made sense to him. What were they trying to do here?

And where did Charles Potter come from? He had disappeared around the time the Potters had gone into hiding. And he did not look like a man of 60. Somehow, he had traveled in time to the future, but a time-turner could not take someone that far in time. So what had happened? Snape sighed. It was a mystery, but he was determined to solve it, if for no other reason than his own satisfaction.

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There was another Order meeting that night. Remus transported out of the trunk to Grimmauld Place while Charles, Harry, and Sirius stayed in the control room to, hopefully, destroy another horcrux.

Tonight, they were going to the orphanage that had been Tom Riddle's home for 17 years. Albus, who had visited the place before, had given them the address.

"This place is almost as bad as the Gaunt house," Harry said, turning his nose up in disgust.

"At least it's deserted," Charles said. "It'll be easier for us to get the job done."

Everyone watched quietly as they entered the room that Albus had described as having belonged to Riddle. Charles ran a scan and discovered that there was a soul piece in the wardrobe. "What an idiot," Charles said. "He should have known that this would be the first place Albus would have looked."

"I think he's too arrogant to think that anyone could figure out that he had made horcruxes," Sirius said. "Or that anyone could get past his wards."

"You may be right," Charley said, as he turned a few knobs to determine what kind of wards had been set. "Let's just hope that he is wrong."

After a few moments, the door to the wardrobe opened emitting a flash of purple light. "Ouch," Charley said. "That would have hurt."

"What was it, Granddad?" Harry asked.

"That was a curse that would turn a person inside out," he said. "Voldemort's a very creative individual."

"He's a very psychopathic individual," Harry stated.

The two older men chuckled. "Where did you learn that word, Harry?" Sirius asked.

"I found it in a psychology book while I was trying to determine my cousin Dudley's personality."

"All right. Here we go," Charles said. And they watched as an item floated out of a box in the top of the wardrobe. Charles levitated it over to one of the beds and dropped it on the mattress. "What is that thing?" he asked.

He zoomed in to try to determine what Voldemort had used as a horcrux.

"It's a tooth!" Harry said.

"A human tooth," Sirius added.

"It's a baby tooth," Charles said. "One of the lower front teeth, which is usually one of the first that a child loses before growing his permanent teeth, so my guess is that this is Voldemort's baby tooth."

They all had a laugh, trying to imagine Voldemort saving his first baby tooth.

"All right, boys, I want to warn you that this part is not pretty," Charles said, reaching behind the control panel and feeling for the hidden switch. "So prepare yourselves."

He flipped the switch and the tooth was hit with a green light. A small diaphanous form floated out of the tooth, screaming. Harry put his hands over his ears and shut his eyes. After a moment, the sound stopped and the ghostly image was gone. "Was that Voldemort's soul?" he asked.

"It was a part of it," Charles said, returning the tooth to the box in the wardrobe and replacing the wards. "That's three down and three to go. If we're right, we just have the necklace, the cup, and the snake left to destroy."

"You know, seeing that baby tooth makes Tom Riddle seem a little more human, doesn't it?" Sirius asked. "I mean, you have to think that at one time he was a little boy with dreams and fears and hopes just like everyone else."

"Yes, but that was before he grew up and became a monster," Charles said. "We can't think of him like that, Sirius. It will be too hard to vanquish him if we do. He's not human anymore. I'm not sure if he ever was."

"He was, Granddad," Harry said. "I saw him once when he was in his 7th year in the Riddle Diary. He was a bad person, and he was very powerful, but he was human."

"Yes, but that was before he split his soul to the point of hardly having one anymore, Harry." He turned to look at his grandson. "He's evil. He killed your parents without a thought. He tried to kill you. He's tortured and killed hundreds of innocent people, including children. Our world will be in darkness if he's not defeated."

"I know, Granddad," Harry said. "Don't worry. I know what I have to do."