Chapter 7.
Albus was brooding. It was not a common occurrence, but today he could not avoid it. Harry Potter had grown up resented by the people who were supposed to love him and it was he, Albus, who had placed him there. Not only that, but now Harry was at the mercy of Sirius Black, if he was even still alive and that, too, was Albus' fault.
As he sat there, brooding, Fawkes appeared with a burst of light and song. Albus felt his mood lift slightly.
"Fawkes, my friend, it is good that you are back. Any news of Harry?"
Fawkes eyed him beadily and sang some reassuring notes.
"Yet I see you did not bring him back with you," Albus commented.
Fawkes merely lifted one wing and stuck his head under it.
Albus chuckled despite the gravity of the situation. Fawkes was clearly not worried, which meant that Harry was alright, or soon would be.
"Something amusing, Albus?" The voice shocked him out of his reverie and he turned quickly to the fireplace where a familiar head was looking at him.
"Amelia, it seems my familiar is ignoring me, at present. He has always been a wilful bird."
"I see." Amelia apparently did not find it half as amusing as Albus did. "I have come here on a matter of some urgency, I'm afraid. Would you please come to the Ministry immediately? It is about Harry Potter."
Albus felt himself relax a little. So this was why Fawkes was so unperturbed. The Ministry had recovered Harry. "Yes, of course my dear."
Amelia's head disappeared. She had always been a woman of few words.
Albus retrieved his jar of Floo powder from the mantle and took a handful. Throwing it into the fire he announced, "Amelia Bones' office, Ministry of Magic." As the fire turned green he stepped in and felt the familiar sensation of being tickled by the flames.
He appeared in Amelia's office, stepping out of the fire gracefully. A quick glance about the room showed him that Harry was nowhere in sight. Amelia sat behind the desk opposite a young woman Albus recognised as Nymphadora Tonks, a new Auror who had graduated from Hogwarts almost two years ago.
"Ah, Nymphadora, what a pleasant surprise," Albus said jovially.
The young woman flinched at the name, but said nothing. She looked downcast and did not meet his gaze.
"I have just heard Auror Tonks' report, Albus and felt you should be apprised of the situation yourself," Amelia told him.
"What situation is that?" Albus asked. It didn't sound as though they'd found Harry after all.
"As you know all the Aurors that we can spare have been pulled off regular duty to help in the search for Harry Potter," Amelia began. "Normally Auror Tonks would still be in training, but her unique abilities make her invaluable for stakeouts as she can regularly change her appearance to avoid being spotted. It was for this reason that she was stationed to watch the entrance to the Channel Tunnel as we suspected it was likely that Sirius Black would take Harry out of the country. He has no wand as far as we are aware, unless he is using Harry's own, and therefore must resort to muggle means of travel." Amelia looked to young Nymphadora then. "If you would please continue, Auror Tonks."
"Yes, Madame Bones," Tonks replied respectfully. "Professor Dumbledore, approximately six hours ago, at ten in the morning, I was fortunate enough to glimpse Harry Potter at the station. He was accompanied by a small man with grey hair, at least what was left of it."
"Polyjuice?" Albus asked curiously.
Nymphadora glanced at Amelia who nodded. "I doubt it, sir. If it was it stands to reason that he would also use it on Harry. He is rather recognisable and the whole world is looking for him right now. Besides, how would he have gotten it? I think it more likely that he was either an accomplice of some kind and Black was somewhere nearby, or perhaps…"
"Perhaps what Auror Tonks?" Amelia asked curiously.
"We're assuming it was Black that took Harry," Nymphadora said slowly. "I know it makes sense, he has the motive and we know he was able to get in the tower once before and with his history it's a reasonable assumption to make, but I know there was no one else in that compartment."
"You're suggesting Black had nothing to do with this," Amelia stated.
"I'm suggesting that maybe we don't know all the facts," Nymphadora said.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Albus asked the young woman. He didn't want to make any judgements until he knew what had occurred.
"I watched the small man use the Imperious curse to gain entry to the train and then followed him to a compartment. I pretended to be a French student on her way home and sat with them for the duration of the journey, hoping to get some idea of who the man was. He told me that Harry was his son and he was going on a business trip.
"By that time I'd had the chance to get a good look at both of them and I'd noticed that the stranger was very nervous about something and seemed to be holding something in his pocket, presumably his wand. Harry was pale and shaking. I don't know what was wrong with him, exactly, but I think it's fair to say that he's not had a great time over the last few days. He also had a rather nasty bruise on his jaw."
Albus felt his teeth clench. Poor Harry, he was such an innocent child. He didn't deserve such treatment.
"Things went smoothly until we arrived in France," Nymphadora continued. "As we were disembarking I asked them something and didn't realise that I'd forgotten the accent. The stranger didn't seem to notice, but Harry did. I pulled out my wand as soon as I realised I'd been rumbled and tried to get Harry to come to me. At first he didn't know whether or not to trust me so I told him who I was and he started to come to me.
"Before he'd taken two steps the stranger had grabbed him and had his wand pointed at Harry's cheek. He threatened to kill Harry if I didn't drop my wand. I tried reasoning with him, but…" She sniffed suddenly, reminding Albus of how very young she was. "I didn't know what to do," she admitted painfully. "I dropped my wand. He stunned me and tied me up. By the time my partner revived me they were long gone."
"There, there, Auror Tonks," Amelia, while trying to appear comforting had a very stern tone of voice that was anything but. "You did what you thought best under the circumstances. It may not have turned out as you had hoped, but that is not your fault."
Nymphadora snuffled into a handkerchief. "I just can't help thinking that if I'd done something differently he'd be here right now," she said brokenly.
"I shouldn't have to remind you that you are still a trainee Auror," Amelia said. "It is only your morphing ability that convinced us to put you on such a difficult case. I assure you many seasoned Aurors would have made the same decisions you did."
Nymphadora wiped her nose. "Thank you, Madame Bones. I'll just go and write up my official report now."
Amelia nodded and Nymphadora left.
"Thank you for making me aware of this, Amelia," Albus said gratefully. "It will allow me to concentrate my own search in France."
"I'm only sorry it wasn't better news," Amelia said sadly as a memo flew under the door and landed on her desk. She opened it and scanned the contents. "Oh dear," she said after a moment. "Albus, I wonder if I could take up a bit more of your time.
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Albus and Amelia apparated to an unused alley. Both of them were wearing muggle clothes and Albus had charmed his hair and beard so they appeared much shorter than they really were.
Together they exited the alley and walked for perhaps five minutes until they reached their destination. Amelia knocked on the door and they waited.
A moment later the door was opened by a young woman with short cropped hair. "Hello." She seemed hesitant.
"Hello, my dear," Albus greeted her warmly. "We're here to ask you some questions about what happened earlier. May we come in?"
"Are you the police?" She eyed them uncertainly.
Amelia flashed a badge at her quickly enough that she would be unable to read the words upon it. The young woman ushered them in.
They walked through a waiting room into a rather small office. On the wall were various certificates showing the woman, Janet Worner, was a qualified veterinary surgeon.
"Can I get you anything?" she asked wringing her hands.
"No, thank you," Amelia said briskly, taking a seat. Albus shook his head negatively.
"I already spoke to some policemen earlier. I don't know what else I can tell you."
"Start from the beginning," Albus said gently.
"I was treating a stray dog," she started. "He had a broken foreleg and possibly other injuries. I assumed he'd been hit by a car. I was just preparing to send him down for some x-rays when I turned around and there he was." There was no need to say exactly who he was.
Amelia frowned. "Where did he come from?"
"I don't know," Janet replied evasively.
She was lying, Albus knew even without using legilimency. Why would she lie, unless…
"Amelia," he said jovially. "I believe this may go more smoothly if I were allowed to speak to Miss Worner alone."
Amelia looked at him sharply. Something in his eyes must have convinced her to trust him, because she nodded and left.
Janet Worner stared at him worriedly so he gave her his most charming smile to put her at ease. For some reason it didn't seem to work.
"Tell me, Miss Worner, the dog you were treating, did it disappear around the same time you first saw Sirius Black?"
She gasped, one hand flying to her mouth. "How did you…?"
"You will find that I will believe almost anything, Miss Worner. I might even believe you if you were to tell me that Sirius Black was the dog."
"You know," she said breathily.
Albus merely nodded his reply.
"He was brought in by an elderly woman," she said quickly, as though desperate to say it to someone who wouldn't think her mad. "Her name was Marsha Cromwell. She said she found him, knocked out on the street and brought him here."
"Which street?" Albus asked urgently.
"Um… Charing Cross Road, I think."
He was trying to get to the Leaky Cauldron, but something happened before he got there. What could it be?
"She offered to pay for any treatment the dog needed. I think she was lonely, she was going to call him Mr Tiddles."
Albus had to stop himself from snorting at that. The notorious Sirius Black, mass murderer, named Mr Tiddles? Just wait until he told Minerva.
"As I said before, I was getting a sedative and I turned back to the dog, but it was gone and Sirius Black was sitting on the table, holding his arm. I panicked a little, partly because it was Sirius Black and partly because a dog had just turned into a human. He told me to wrap his arm up, so I did. I didn't know what else I could do. Then he told me to lead him outside and turned back into a dog. Once he was out he ran."
Albus nodded. "Did he at any time threaten you?"
Janet shook her head. "That's the strange part; he didn't. The worst he did was warn me not to do something stupid, like cause a scene and he made a sarcastic comment about me telling the police about him changing into a dog."
"I see." Sirius' behaviour was most curious, Albus decided. Once Harry was safe and they had him back in custody Albus would have to have a long talk with the man. "What time was this?"
"She was the first one in this morning," Janet said. "No later than half past nine."
"Thank you." That meant that it was extremely unlikely that he had been on the train with Harry and the stranger. Could Nymphadora be right? Maybe he wasn't the one that kidnapped Harry. "I have only one more question," he said after a moment. "Have you told anyone else any of this?"
"No," she said emphatically. "Who would believe me? They'd think I was crazy. I actually think I'm crazy right now."
"Good." Albus withdrew his wand and pointed it at her. "Obliviate," he said quietly. He was rather skilled at memory modification and found it easy to adjust her one of that morning to what she'd told the police, just in case they came back to ask her more questions. "Thank you for your time, my dear," he said courteously, before sweeping from the room.
Amelia was waiting for him outside. "Well, did you learn anything?"
"This morning, not long before Harry was spotted on the Channel Train, Sirius Black broke into this surgery and forced Miss White to attend to a broken arm. Once she had done so he fled." Albus said succinctly. He didn't want to tell Amelia that Sirius was an illegal animagus just yet, not until he knew just how guilty the man was.
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They'd spent hours wandering through the streets of whatever French town they had finally reached. Harry neither knew, nor particularly cared where they were right now. He was so exhausted his muddled brain was barely coherent, but Wormtail was adamant that they needed to lose any Aurors following them. So Harry had been forced to follow Wormtail for hour after hour, through town and countryside, stumbling more frequently as time passed until eventually he felt he could go no further.
Wormtail had apparently come to the same conclusion. He used Harry's wand to open the door of a house that looked to be for sale and pushed Harry in.
Harry hit the floor face first, his arms coming forward too slowly to catch him. Wormtail secured the door then grabbed Harry by his collar and forced him up, half leading and half dragging him into the next room. Harry screwed up his face against the pain from his ribs.
There was no furniture, but the floors were carpeted, much to Harry's relief when Wormtail let him go and his legs were unable to hold his weight. He didn't move, what was the point? He felt his left arm yanked back and winced as the movement caused his ribs to shift slightly. The cuff was reattached to his wrist and the other end pushed through the grille of the gas fireplace. Harry remained still and unresponsive as Wormtail stomped away. A minute later he heard the toilet flush.
By the time Wormtail returned Harry was fast asleep.
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Sirius had followed Harry and Peter as closely as he dared while they exited the station, not wanting to lose them in the throng of passengers. He'd tripped a few people up because he was so focused on the two small figures he was stalking that he hadn't been watching where he was going.
Once they had left the station Sirius was able to increase the gap between them significantly. Few of the people on the train left the station on foot and Peter had chosen a direction in which no one else was headed, making it all the easier for Sirius to track them on scent alone, allowing them a much bigger lead. He wanted to attack on his terms, not when Peter was almost dragging his obviously wounded and exhausted godson along by one elbow.
Soon they left the small village behind and began hiking across country that was nearly entirely uninhabited. Sirius knew he couldn't risk Peter glancing back and seeing him. His old friend would recognise him instantly and might do something stupid. So he was forced to allow them even more of a lead. Fortunately it wasn't raining, so their scent would remain long enough for him to follow.
It was well into the night by the time he reached the small nameless French town. Sirius had been forced to slow more and more as time went on and as Harry found it harder to struggle forward.
He followed his nose right to the door of a small house that had a sign over the door. He couldn't read what was on it, but it looked a lot like the signs muggles put over their houses when they wanted to sell them.
The street was quiet as Sirius crept over to the window. He used all his senses to ensure he wasn't being watched before he reared back onto his hind legs and propped his good paw onto the window sill.
The window was grimy, but not obscured with curtains. Through it Sirius could see a bed piled high with blankets, most likely conjured. At first glance the bed was empty, but Sirius knew Peter better than anyone and knew how comforting it was for an animagus to sleep in their alternate form, especially one like Peter who had used that form so much.
Sirius' eyes scoured the room for another figure and his heart clenched at what he saw. Curled up in a foetal position on the floor, without a single blanket, was Harry. One of his arms was hanging from a small chain connected to the fireplace, one of the weird muggle style fireplaces that didn't use wood to fuel them.
Sirius knew this was his perfect chance. He could capture Peter while he was asleep, take his wand and return Harry to safety. If Peter happened to get beaten to a pulp before dying a horribly painful death, well, Sirius was supposed to be a murderer and insane to boot, no one would be surprised and Sirius had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
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CRASH!
Harry awoke instantly, startled by the loud noise so close by. Slowly, to avoid jostling his injuries, he turned to look in the direction the sound had come from.
It seemed Wormtail had conjured himself a bed to sleep on, but hadn't the power to make it last through the night. Some posts remained, standing upright, but the mattress and supports had vanished, letting the rat fall onto the floor. As Harry watched even the posts disappeared. Wormtail transformed back into a human, looking about as though he couldn't figure out what had happened.
Harry couldn't stop the snort that escaped him, no matter how hard he tried.
Wormtail pulled himself together and glared at Harry. "Do you think that's funny?" he hissed, pulling out Harry's wand.
Harry whimpered slightly. He knew what was coming.
"Crucio," Wormtail screeched happily and Harry succumbed to the pain, unable to distinguish what was caused by the curse and what was from his aggravated injuries. As he lost consciousness he could have sworn he heard glass shattering and saw a large black dog leap through the window and attack Wormtail.
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Sirius had been on the verge of a plan when he heard a loud crash and looked back through the window to see Peter transform back into his natural form – although Sirius would swear that the rat was actually Peter's true form. Had he been in his own human body he knew he would be laughing right now. Peter's conjurations had always been a joke in school, but then so had most of his spell work. He didn't understand that, unlike James and Sirius and to a lesser extent Remus, he needed to practise to get better.
Peter seemed to take offence at something and pulled out a wand, cursing Harry. Sirius saw red as his godson curled up even tighter and screamed his soul out. Any semblance of a plan was forgotten and Sirius just reacted.
He would never recall exactly how he had broken the glass, maybe it was a bout of unrestrained accidental magic, but he knew without a doubt that the glass was gone as he sailed through the window and landed, with the crunching of glass on the carpeted floor within the house.
However he had gotten there he had achieved his true purpose; to distract Peter from Harry. The curse had been broken and Harry lay, trembling even in his unconsciousness, with fragments of glass sparkling on and around him.
Not wanting to allow Peter to get his bearings Sirius lunged for him, biting almost right through his arm and feeling the bone snap between his powerful jaws. The wand skittered to the floor.
Sirius transformed, his body between Harry and Peter, the wand at his feet.
They stood, staring at each other, both holding an arm protectively against their chests.
Peter fell to his knees, tears pouring down his face, knowing that his position was precarious at best. There was little chance of persuading Sirius he hadn't done anything wrong. Sirius knew, better than anyone, everything that Peter had done.
Sirius stooped and picked up the wand in his good hand. It felt good, he realised, to hold one again, as if something that had been missing had been returned to him.
"Peter, you're going to burn in Hell," Sirius said menacingly.
"Sirius, old friend," Peter tried pathetically.
"Shut up, you traitor," Sirius snapped. "If that is how you treat friends, I'd hate to be your enemy."
Peter's eyes shifted about the room, desperate for an escape of some kind. Classic Peter, Sirius thought, you always talk about what a brave Gryffindor you are, but the moment a situation crops up all you want to do is run away like the rat you are.
"Why?" Sirius asked him. "We were your friends, but you betrayed James and Lily as though they were nothing."
Peter muttered something.
"What?" Sirius asked dangerously, moving closer so that the wand he held between them came to rest directly between Peter's eyes.
Peter blubbered. "He made me do it, Padfoot. He made me. He's so powerful, he would have killed me. What was I supposed to do?"
"The same thing we would have done for you," Sirius said coldly. He should have known that Peter would make excuses once cornered; it was the way he'd always reacted at school when they'd been caught out by McGonagall.
"I'm not strong like you," Peter cried. "Please."
"It wasn't enough for you? You couldn't stop at getting two of your friends killed, framing me for murder and abandoning Remus to full moons alone? You had to go that one step further and drag Harry into this, too." Sirius' voice was full of loathing and he was just seconds away from doing something irreversible to the rat.
"He's just a boy," Peter said dismissively. "His life would have brought my freedom."
Peter knew instantly he had made a mistake. He threw his uninjured hand up to protect his face as Sirius lunged at him, foregoing magic for the much more satisfying purpose of beating the rat senseless.
There was no competition. While Peter had spent twelve years living the good life, being fed as much as he could get and sleeping more than half of each day away, fat and pampered and hardly ever even moving if he didn't feel like it, Sirius had been forced to relive every tortured memory he had, more then enough to build up a lot of resentment towards his old friend. Not only that, but since his escape from prison he'd had a lot more physical exercise than Peter, what with swimming ashore from the island Azkaban was on, to running half way across England and into Scotland in his dog form. All Peter could do was try to protect himself as much as possible as Sirius hit and kicked and spat upon every inch of the man who had destroyed his life. He ignored the pain in his bad arm as he used it to smack Peter across the face.
Peter's body went limp under him and it was a crazed moment before Sirius could stop his furious assault. He glared at the prone form and giving it one last kick for good measure, retrieved the wand on the floor.
Looking around at the carnage of the room, two bodies, one of which was a bloody mess and shards of glass everywhere, Sirius knew he had to get out of here. Muggle neighbours might have called the poleese when they heard the glass shatter and they hadn't exactly kept the noise of their fight down. Between Sirius' enraged howls and Peter's squeals of terror they had probably caused a fair bit of commotion. Unfortunately the other two people didn't look like they would be moving soon and he wasn't willing to leave Peter behind until he was good and punished for what he'd done. No, Sirius wanted answers most of all and revenge and neither could be attained quickly. He couldn't carry even someone as small as Harry with his arm the way it was and you can only levitate one person at a time. Of course, he couldn't even do that in a muggle area like this.
Sirius bent down and rifled through Peter's pockets. A money bag, about half filled with galleons – where'd he get that? – some large muggle clothes similar to what the two unconscious people were wearing, all shrunk of course and… no, it couldn't be… James' invisibility cloak!
A plan quickly came together in his head. Not waiting to think it through – that was never his strong suit anyway – he turned to Peter and cast an interesting spell he remembered from when they were learning to become animagi that forced someone into their alternate form. If Peter had been awake he would have been screaming as his bones shrunk and changed shape out of his control.
That done Sirius scooped up the battered old rat and shoved it in a pocket. He re-shrunk the clothes and stuffed them in, too, not caring if Peter suffocated under all that. The money bag went in last of all.
Now for Harry. Gently as he could he levitated his small godson, luxuriating in the magic flowing so easily through him, just as it used to and draped the invisibility cloak over him. Healing Harry's injuries would have to wait until they were far away from here and had the time to do it. Then he would explain everything before finally getting his answers and avenging James and Lily.
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A/N: I felt very inspired to write this chapter and just wanted to say thank you to those who reviewed. I hope you're all having a great new year so far.
As always, please let me know what you think, by way of a review, e-mail or even by joining my Yahoo! Group. The link is on my profile. If you want a reply the last two are the best ways to go about it.
Thanks for reading.
Nats.