Half Lives – Chapter Two
If Harry had expected a heartfelt reunion with his godfather when their feet touched back down in Dumbledore's office, he was sadly mistaken. Harry hit solid ground, his knees buckling a little as the golden statue Port Key fell to the ground with a resounding clunk. As his head cleared, he noticed that Sirius was standing beside him, holding him up, practically.
"Sirius!" He cried. "I thought-"
"What in all that is magic did you think you were doing?" Sirius roared, grabbing Harry painfully by the shoulder and dragging him across the room. The innumerable portraits began to wake up, complaining about the noise.
"What? What are you on about, Sirius? Didn't you see? They were-"
"Running off like that! Going to the Department of Mysteries. Leaving Hogwarts!" Sirius threw him into the chair opposite the Headmaster's desk.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Harry asked, looking around the room in panic.
"Taking your friends to St Mungo's. Smoothing things over with the Ministry." Sirius said with more than a hint of bitterness. "He'll be a few minutes." Sirius ground the heels of his palms into his eyes, and began to pace back and forth in rapid strides. "Your friends Harry! What- I don't see – just what could possess you to do that?"
Harry sank back into his chair, quailing slightly under Sirius' wrath. "I thought, I thought they had you." He said quietly.
"What?" Sirius stopped pacing and rounded on him, his normally smiling mouth a snarl. Harry was horrified to see more than a passing resemblance to Bellatrix.
"I thought they had you! Alright?" Harry yelled, jumping up out of his chair, his hands balled into fists
"No it is not alright! It is far from alright!" Sirius stepped away from Harry and began walking again. "What about that mirror I gave you? It meant to prevent exactly this! Didn't you think to check?"
"I didn't have time to think!"
"There is always time to think!" Sirius snapped. "And how did you find out about my capture, exactly? Did Lucius send you a letter?" He asked sardonically.
"No! I saw them torturing you! Okay? Every night for a year! And will you stop pacing!" Harry spat.
"Which is exactly what Snivillus was giving you those lessons for! Merlin Harry, for once you could have just applied yourself to your studies! Then we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Oh, I've got to 'apply myself to my studies', do I? That's rich, coming from you! Who are you now, my father?" Harry sniped.
"No! Because he's dead. Like we nearly were!"
"Well we're okay now, aren't we?"
"We're okay? Oh yes Harry, we're okay. But what about the others? The Order? Your friends? Merlin Harry! What were you thinking? They're your friends!"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Harry cried, covering his hands with his ears and closing his eyes.
"Stop being a child!" Sirius ordered harshly, ripping his hands from his ears and shoving him back down into his seat.
"I am a child!" Harry protested, probably the only time he ever would admit that. "I'm just sixteen!"
"I know Harry, I know." Sirius said, suddenly going quiet. He pulled the headmaster's chair from behind the desk, and sat down heavily. "Believe me, I know." He sounded tired. "But you're more than old enough to use common sense."
This time, Harry didn't retaliate. He just sat and stared at his godfather.
-0-
"Just, why didn't you check Harry? Why didn't you find out if I was even home?" Sirius asked, sadly, staring at the desk.
Harry mimicked his godfather and traced pattern in the wood with his eyes. "I tried to firecall you." He said in a small voice. "But Kreacher said you weren't there. I didn't have time to find out in person. I thought they'd got you."
"Kreacher said-!" Sirius broke out angrily. If looks could kill, that desk would be charcoal. "Why that lying little-!"
"Sirius Black!" said a cool voice. Sirius snapped his head up and twisted round in the Headmaster's chair to see the owner of the voice behind him. "You have no permission to be here, great-great-grandson." Phineas Nigellus said gravely. "You also have no right to disrespect you elf in such a manner."
"Well you have no right to tell me what to do!" Sirius retorted.
"Regrettably, I do. I have been assigned to watch over you, worthless task as it is. I see you bring Harry Potter with you." Harry looked up. "This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful Headmaster. Or has Dumbledore sent you here?"
Harry could not speak. Portraits all around the room watched him blearily. It occurred to him that dawn was just breaking, and his and Sirius' argument must have woken them.
"I hope this means," said the corpulent, red-nosed wizard who hung on the wall behind the Headmaster's desk, "that Dumbledore will soon be back among us?" The wizard was surveying Harry with great interest. Harry nodded. "Oh good, it has been very dull without him, very dull indeed." He settled himself on the throne-like chair with which he had been painted and smiled benignly upon Harry. "Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, as I'm sure you know." He said comfortably. "Oh yes, holds you in great esteem."
"That's enough, Phineas." Sirius said sharply.
"Disrespectful whelp." Phineas quipped, but otherwise remained silent.
-0-
The empty fireplace burst into green flame. Both of the room's occupants whirled round to face it, and Sirius leaped out of the Headmaster's chair like he had been burnt. Professor Dumbledore unfolded himself from the fireplace and stepped out of the grate. The portraits covering the walls burst into cries of welcome. "Thank you." He said softly. "Well, Harry, you will be pleased to hear that none of your friends are going to suffer lasting damage from last night's events."
Harry attempted to say 'good', but appeared as though his throat had closed up. He felt as though Dumbledore was reminding him of how much damage his rashness had caused, and although Dumbledore was looking at Harry kindly, instead of avoiding his eye as he had the past months, Harry found he could not look at him. So he just nodded instead.
"Can't we just go back to bed, Albus? Harry needs medical care." Sirius said from behind the chair, still looking guilty.
"Not just yet, Sirius. There are things we must talk of. But first, let me say that it is my fault that the pair of you almost died tonight." Dumbledore said clearly. "Or should I say, almost entirely my fault. Sirius, you are a brave, clever, and energetic man. And such men do not often allow themselves to sit at home in hiding whilst others are in danger. And Harry, I should never have neglected you into believing there was any need to go to the Department of Mysteries last night. If I had been open with you, from the start, then you would have recognised Voldemort's attack for what it was. Now," He said heavily, as he refilled Fawkes' water bowl, "what were you talking about before I so rudely interrupted?"
"Well?" Dumbledore asked when no one replied.
Sirius just made an angry growling noise, so Harry spoke to the carpet; "Professor, we were talking about Kreacher."
"Creeping, conniving low life." Sirius muttered.
"He told me Sirius wasn't at Number Twelve." Harry expanded.
Then, finding that he was filled with a sudden need to have Dumbledore understand his actions, to forgive him, maybe, Harry began to speak, his words tumbling over each other. "Because I went to find Sirius, that's why I was there. Those visions said he was being tortured. They wanted information on me. But he wouldn't tell. So I had to go get him. You weren't here to get him. I asked Kreacher, but he said Sirius wasn't there. I recognised the place in the dream. I tried to check he'd really taken Sirius, I went to Umbridge's office, I spoke to Kreacher in the fire and he said Sirius wasn't there, he said he'd gone!"
Dumbledore held up one hand. Harry stopped abruptly.
-0-
"Kreacher lied." Dumbledore said calmly. "You are not his Master, he could lie without fear of repercussion. Kreacher knew he was sending you to the Ministry of Magic. He intended it."
"He – he sent Harry on purpose?" Sirius asked in a hoarse whisper.
"Oh yes, I'm afraid Kreacher has been serving more than one Master for months." Dumbledore didn't appear very sorry, Harry thought viciously.
"How?" Sirius asked blankly, "He hasn't been out of Grimmauld for years."
"Kreacher took the opportunity some months pervious to now, when I believe Sirius told him to 'get out'." Dumbledore said, speaking to Harry. "He took Sirius literally, and went to the only other Black for whom he held respect. Narcissa Black. Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix's sister, and Lucius Malfoy's wife."
"How, how do you know all this?" Harry asked, feeling very sick as he remembered his own worry over Kreacher's absence that Christmas.
And then, Dumbledore explained how the Order arrived at the ministry. And once he had finished, he explained exactly why Harry had that scar, and exactly why the Potters had gone into hiding, exactly why Harry had been hunted by Voldemort for all these years. He explained exactly why he hadn't wanted to tell Harry this previously, exactly what repercussions it would have, and exactly why he would be murdered or a murderer.