Chapter 5
As Dumbledore apparated onto Privet Drive, he saw the back of someone dressed in a black cloak, with long dark hair. He thought momentarily that it must have been someone there to visit the Dursleys, but then the person disapparated. He thought for a moment that the person looked vaguely familiar, but then shook his head and proceeded to the front door of house number 4. He knocked once, but before he could knock again, the door drifted open a bit.
Dumbledore frowned slightly, and pulled out his wand, not quite sure what he was fixing to walk into. He stepped into the foyer to find Vernon Dursley lying on the floor, and the door to another room that he thought was a broom cupboard standing open. He quietly stepped over Vernon's body and looked into the cupboard and was appalled at what he saw...a heavy chain hanging from the ceiling, a heavy chain bolted to the floor, several pieces of wire lying about, and a wad of cloth and a longer strip of cloth lying next to it.
He quickly decided that he needed to wake up Mr. Dursley to find out exactly what had happened. He pointed his wand and quietly muttered, "Enervate." In an instant, Vernon was stirring and groaning, then he finally sat up and looked right into the twinkling eyes of the headmaster.
"You freaks! Get out of my house! You've got no right here..." He was silenced as quickly as Dumbledore could wave his wand.
Vernon sat on the floor, moving his mouth in anger, but suddenly he stopped, realizing that he wasn't able to hear what he was saying. He glared up at the old man with his beady dark eyes and purple face almost ready to burst.
Dumbledore then calmly asked him, "Do you know what happened here tonight?"
Vernon nodded his head yes.
Dumbledore then asked, "Is young Harry here?"
Vernon shook his head no.
Then Dumbledore asked him, "Do you know who is with him?"
Vernon nodded his head again vigorously.
Dumbledore stood there and weighed his options...he could just cancel the silencing spell on the man and let him talk, or he could just use Legilimancy to see it for himself. He chose the latter.
He pointed his wand at the man sitting on the floor and said, "Now, Mr. Dursley, let's see what happened here once you brought young Harry home from the train station. Legilimens!"
Vernon's eyes took on a glazed look as he witnessed everything he had done to his nephew after he had gotten into the car, how he had beaten the child once he had gotten home, how he had knocked the boy unconscious and cruelly gagged him, wrapped wire around his wrists and ankles, and how he had dragged his nephew into the cupboard under the stairs and hung him up like a piece of meat. He also saw how he came back in the cupboard to see his nephew hanging there, his eyes closed, tears leaking down his face, how outraged he felt, and how he had twisted that short wire around the boy's neck and fastened it up to the chain hanging down, knowing it would eventually strangle the boy.
Then, as he stood outside the cupboard door, listening to the choking sounds that Harry was making, he heard the door open, and saw those 2 freaks come into his home. He watched as they tore open the cupboard door, and heard how the one freak had howled with despair. Then he saw that jet of light coming from the other man's wand, and he knew no more.
Dumbledore released the spell, and quietly muttered, "Finite Incantatem", allowing Vernon to speak. And speak he did.
"That boy's freak of a godfather came here and another man, and they took the boy away. I'm glad he's gone, he was such a burden to my Dudley and Petunia. How could you put that lazy boy here in my house?" Vernon was beginning to get loud again, but a showing of the headmaster's wand quickly quieted the purple faced man down.
Dumbledore thought for a moment. It appeared that Sirius and Severus had come to rescue Harry from his uncle's rage, and it also seemed that they were working together quite friendly-like. How could it be that the spell he had cast so long ago had been broken? It would take some powerful magic to have undone that spell; not even Voldemort could have done it.
"Mr. Dursley," Dumbledore began, "How could you have done this to your own nephew? He is just a child. I realized that young Harry can find some kind of trouble to get into from time to time, but trying to kill him was not the answer." Vernon sat there in the floor, starting to shake a bit as he realized that a fully trained wizard had a wand pointed at him, and he had tried to kill one of them.
He swallowed painfully and asked in a shaky voice, "Just what do you plan to do to me? I don't even know where the boy is, or where they took him. When the other man came back and got the boy's things out of the cupboard, he didn't say a word to me, other than knock me out again with that stick-thing you guys carry."
Suddenly, the man he saw leaving when he was arriving came to mind, and a light turned on in the old man's mind. That was Severus I saw leaving as I arrived, he thought. He turned to Vernon and sighed.
"All right Mr. Dursley. I'll clean this mess up and set things to right. I don't think anyone else will bother you now," Dumbledore said, while he was setting things to right with his wand. In just a few flicks, the cupboard was clean, the wires and chains were gone, and it was even dust free and clean.
Vernon cleared his throat and mumbled a very low, "Thanks," and turned his back on the old wizard. It was at that moment that the wizard pointed his wand and muttered, "obliviated," and began the task of altering the muggle's memories of the evening. Once he was finished, he sent the man upstairs to go to bed. Then Dumbledore took one more look around and then walked out the front door and down to the sidewalk. He then disapparated to Hogsmeade to make the long walk back to Hogwarts. He knew he had to thing about how to get Harry Potter away from his godfather and his potions master. He had come to the correct conclusion that somehow, that spell he had used to alter their memories had been broken, and that the two men now remembered their friendship. How was he going to find them, and get control of the boy-who-lived once again? And where was his phoenix?
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Remus looked up at the clock for the third time in as many minutes and sighed. Sirius should have been here hours ago, even if he had, as the werewolf suspected, snuck off to King's Cross to see Harry once more. Remus considered this as he paced his tiny sitting room. Sirius may be a large child, but Remus knew that Harry was his greatest concern and Remus knew that Sirius wasn't about to go and do something stupid, like get himself caught and risk not being in his Godson's life again. Perhaps something had happened at King's Cross. Perhaps something had happened with Harry.
Glancing at the clock again, Remus continued to pace and think. He knew that Harry did not like his relatives, something, which at first, had shocked him. While teaching during Harry's third year, he'd watched over the pup; he knew that Harry didn't actively dislike anybody who didn't make his life miserable. Furthermore, Harry was so...hooked on James and Lily then, and now Sirius, as if there was no adult in his life. Remus had long suspected some amount of neglect toward Harry in the Dursley household, but had Sirius seen something more?
Deciding that Sirius must've seen something, as Remus could think of no other reason why his friend, who was more Slytherin than Sirius wanted to admit (like his godson..), wouldn't be here. Something had happened to Harry. Something bad, since Sirius hadn't even bothered to owl him. Remus didn't have enough warding around his cottage to keep Harry safe enough. Where would... "Grimmauld Place!" Remus exclaimed aloud as he grabbed a traveling cloak and dashed out the door. Sirius hates that place, but he loves Harry more, was Remus' logic.
Apparating to Grimmauld, he ran to Number 12, and finding that the door was unlocked, confirmed his suspicion. Either unaware, or uncaring of the portrait of Mrs. Black, Remus called out, "Sirius, are you here?"
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Severus reappeared with a soft pop, to find that his friend had fallen asleep with his head on the bed, his body almost falling out of the chair he was sitting in. He noticed that Harry's fingers had twined softly around the hair of the man's head, probably giving the boy some measure of comfort even though he was deeply asleep. He took the boy's trunk, and owl cage out of his pocket, unshrunk them, and left them in the corner of the room. Harry could go through it once he was feeling better.
He then heard a thud, and turned to see Sirius sitting up on the floor, massaging his head where Harry had twisted his hair around his fingers. Harry's hand now had a swatch of black/grey hair in it. Severus did his best to stifle a chuckle that was threatening to burst forth, and he almost succeeded, when as Sirius almost got to his feet, he over balanced and landed hard on his rear.
Severus couldn't contain his chuckle any longer. He laughed like he hadn't laughed in many long years. Sirius looked on with indignant fire in his eyes, but as he heard the deep baritone voice of his friend, he felt a grin sliding onto his own face, and finally joined in.
Severus finally got himself under control enough to remark, "Well, Siri, are you planning to keep practicing that one command all day? What was it I said? Ah yes...I believe it was...Sit!" This caused the normally quiet man to dissolve into another fit of laughter that finally brought tears to both of the men's eyes.
While both men were still under the throes of mirth, they failed to hear a voice calling for Sirius downstairs. Remus thought he heard someone upstairs, so he began climbing slowly, his wand at the ready. As he got closer, he recognized his friend's voice, that deep, barking laugh that meant that something really funny had happened. He thought he knew the other voice, but...nah, it couldn't be, he thought. He finally came upon the door to the room where the laughter was coming from and paused. He now heard the other voice clearly now. It was Severus Snape. Remus was stunned. Why would Sirius be here with Severus, he thought to himself.
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The two men dried their eyes, and looked at each other, both still wondering what on earth could have been so important and earth shattering that Dumbledore would have messed with their friendship. It was at that moment that Harry decided to protest all the noise in his room, as he began to moan and squirm in his bed. Severus and Sirius were at the boy's side in an instant. Harry was now running a bit of a fever, and he also appeared to be in some amount of pain. Severus grabbed several vials sitting on the bedside table and as Sirius held the boy's head up, he poured the potions down the child's throat. He helped him swallow them down, and once Harry had quieted down, Sirius carefully laid the sleeping child back onto the bed, and pulled the blanket up to his chin. He then noticed the fading black and blue hand prints on the boy's face, and he growled deeply. It was at that moment, Severus and Sirius both heard another voice that asked, "What's going on in here, Sirius?"
They both whirled around to find Remus Lupin standing in the doorway, looking at both of the men standing on either side of the bed. Remus started to ask something else, but then noticed the child in the bed.
"Is that Harry? Merlin, what happened to him? Was it Death Eaters?" He was speaking so fast that neither man could get a word in, but finally Sirius walked over to his other friend of many years and put his hands on the man's shoulders.
"Remy, yes, it's Harry. His uncle did this to him. He almost killed him. And that's not everything that's happened today," Sirius began to explain. He looked deep into Remus's eyes and found the soul of the man that he had been friends with for so long.
Sirius looked over at Severus and said, "I'm going to tell him. He won't go to Dumbledore, I know he won't. We can trust him with this. Besides, once Dursley spills the beans about who it was that came and rescued Harry, we'll need someone to go be able to get things for us...at least for the time being."
Severus thought for a moment, and as Remus looked on with shock clearly written on his face, he responded, "Go ahead Siri. I trust you, and I will also trust Remus."
Sirius looked at both of his friends and sighed. He then took a deep breath and began...
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Hi everyone! Here's the next new chapter of our saga! We really hope that you all enjoy reading! Slowly but surely, we will be getting to the real heart of what's going on here...
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