Chapter Seven: 15 Explosions
Harry-
We are all worried about you in Black's house, how are you doing mate? Is he feeding you? It doesn't really matter, because if you he isn't you'll get food soon enough. As soon as you left the Leaky Cauldron Hermione, Fred, George, and I started coming up with a plan to rescue you, just like last year from the Dursleys. Unfortunately, this time we can't get a hold of a flying car, but we have managed to work something else out for Tuesday at 11 o'clock at night. Do you think that you can get out? Fred and George said that they could send you a treat to make Black sleep if you think it will be a problem. Anyway, we don't want to give too much of the plan away in case this letter is taken by Black, but be prepared with your Nimbus 2000 and trunk at 11 on Tuesday. Hope you can hang on till then mate!
-Ron
PS- When this owl didn't reach you first, we made sure to give this to Dad, but in case you read this before he leaves, know that he doesn't know about this plan. DO NOT TELL HIM, Mum would kill us.
Harry stared at the letter for a good ten minutes. He knew that Ron and the others would come around for him! Today was Saturday, he could hold on for at least three days. Harry was beginning to worry, even though he had only been here for a couple hours, that he would never be able to leave. There was a knock on Harry's door.
Quickly, he stuffed the letter into the top drawer of his bedside table. The knock came again.
"Harry, can I come in?" It was Lupin. Harry was very relieved.
"Yeah."
Remus came in. "That was some fight you had with Sirius there, we could hear you outside."
Harry didn't say anything. The werewolf came over to the bed. "Look, Harry I think you should know that Black isn't completely stable in the head. He truly believes that he is innocent. Something after the murder made him lose his marbles, if you know what I mean…"
"But he KILLED my parents."
"Shh, you don't want him to hear you. I know that, the Minister knows that, and so does Dumbledore. But as of right now, I need you to know that Black has no intention of hurting you. You have to be more careful around him. You wont know what will set him off."
"But-"
"No buts about it Harry. I'm here to protect you from him, but I can't be here 24 hours a day."
Harry's eyes widened. "You're leaving?"
"I don't want to, but I have other things that I have to take care. Now I will be here most days, but at the end of this month I have some business that I have to take care of, and I wont be able to be in the house with you. That is what I was talking to the Minister about."
'Good thing I'll be long gone by then,' Harry thought to himself. But he couldn't help but be mad at this man. Remus knew what Black had done, and he was just going to leave Harry defenseless?
As if he had read the Boy-Who-Lived thoughts Remus said, "You won't be alone Harry. Arthur has arranged for you to spend the night at the Burrow that night, with your friends. You're lucky that your birthday happens to fall at the end of the month. Harry's heart soared. He was going to get to see Ron! But then he thought of something.
"But what about Black?"
Remus chuckled. "Don't worry about Sirius, I'll convince him."
Harry, however, didn't look convinced.
"But-"
"If you trust me Harry, then you have nothing to worry about. Do you trust me?"
Harry was silent for a moment. "I think I do."
Remus practically glowed. "Good, now why don't you stay here and rest until dinner is ready. I'll go talk to Sirius.
III
"Absolutely not," Sirius stated in his most stubborn voice.
"But Padfoot-" Remus started.
"I said no, and as Harry's guardian I get the final say in these things. I'm not letting Arthur Weasley within five feet of my godson. If his offspring wants to see Harry so badly they can visit here."
"Now Sirius, you know that-"
"Exactly the point, their father wouldn't trust me with his precious children, so I don't trust him with Harry."
"The difference here is that the Minster doesn't need to gain the trust of his children, while you do need to get Harry to trust you."
It was a low blow, and Remus was fully aware of this.
"And do you really think that this one action will win Harry over?" Sirius asked with a bark of a laugh in his voice. "I don't think so, if anything it would remind him of how much he hates it here. The answer is still no." Sirius began to walk out of the room.
"You shouldn't be worrying about what would happen if you did let him go, you should be thinking about his reaction if you say no." Remus said quietly, stopping his friend half way out the door. "It would give him further reason to hate you, it could destroy any chance of a good relationship between you two. This could be a start Sirius. It may not win him over completely, but it would be a start."
Sirius still didn't say anything. "I need you to do this Sirius, you need to do it for yourself, but also for Harry. Harry needs a strong adult in his life. Do you want that to be you or Arthur Weasley?" Sirius knew that Remus was right, hell Remus was always right. He sighed.
"I'll think about it, on one condition."
"And what's that?"
Sirius grinned.
III
A couple days passed. Harry spent the majority of his time hiding in his room, only coming out for meals. It was really the only safe time that Harry had discovered. Remus often went out during the day, only returning at meal times to "make sure that Sirius didn't poison both himself and Harry with his cooking." Sirius, of course, realized that this was an insult to his cooking skills, or lack-there-of, while Harry took it as a precaution on his life. Which amused Remus further.
"You sure about this Padfoot?" Remus asked.
Sirius scowled. "You promised Moony, this was my one condition."
The fore-mentioned werewolf raised his hands in self-defense. "I'm just checking, now what are you doing for dinner? Do you want me to make something before-"
"I'm not THAT bad at cooking Remus! Name one incident that I've caused anyone any physical harm by cooking dinner."
"Well there was that time in our 6th year when you somehow managed to convince the house-elves to let you make you special stew, which boiled over, exploding half the kitchens and causing the great food shortage of 1976, landing three house-elves in the hospital wing-"
Sirius waved his hand impatiently. "I was 16 then, mistakes made while in Hogwarts don't count, name one time when I was an adult that I've hurt someone making food."
Remus gave his friend a skeptical look. "Since when have you ever been an adult?"
"You know what I mean, anything after the age of 18."
"Fine, at James' bachelor party all you had to do, as far as food prep, was make the popcorn. That was it, and you decided to use a "special" spell that resulted in the kernels popping and unpopping again and again while in your stomach, and James ended up having to spend the night at St. Mungos-"
"Pfft, I was drunk from the firewhiskey, that you provided, so it doesn't count."
Remus rolled his eyes, "And then there was that time when Harry was a baby, and you were babysitting and you had to make porridge for him, but you decided to make it- interesting- as usual, I believe that the exact statement was 'Harry needs some flavor in his life,' and you somehow managed to make a mild poison, that would have killed Harry as soon as he swallowed it."
"But he didn't eat it, no one was harmed!"
"No, he didn't eat it, but he threw it all over the kitchen, causing James to slip and fall and crack his head open on the kitchen floor."
"But-"
"You have caused a total of 15 explosions and landing 10 different people in the hospital or the hospital wing 25 times, because of what you have the gall to call cooking."
Sirius frowned, "I thought it was only 14 explosions?"
"You always forget the time you made your way into the kitchens at the Three Broomsticks, because you knocked yourself out for three days."
"Oh right!" Sirius looked as though he was thinking very hard. "Maybe I'll carry out."
"That sounds like an excellent idea."
III
"DINNER TIME," a voice belted from downstairs. Harry groaned. He had just finished his Charm's essay, and had lost track of time. The only thing worse than having to have dinner with his godfather was not having proper time to mentally prepare for having dinner with his godfather. Reluctantly, Harry got up from the desk to go downstairs, taking as much time as possible to delay the inevitable. What he found at the entrance of the kitchen made him stop short.
"Where's Remus?" He demanded, panicking at seeing only his godfather sitting at the table, and a table setting for two.
Sirius chuckled, "He had some things to take care of at home, and I thought it would be nice for the two of us to spend some time together without him."
Harry's eyes widened. He had no clue how he was going to survive a dinner with just Black. His gaze shifted to the door of the kitchen.
"I-I'm not really hungry, I'll just-"
"Sit down Harry," Sirius said in his most commanding voice to his godson's retreating back. Harry was so stunned at the tone of voice that he obeyed, not saying a word as he sat at the table.
"Now that Remus is gone, we can finally eat something good. I ordered some pizza, which I am pleased to say, has no nutritional value what-so-ever." Harry still said nothing, but carefully took a piece of pizza from the center of the table and began nibbling. He didn't think that Black would dare poison him with the Ministry so close at hand, and Harry was quite hungry. "Now, you have been here for three days Harry, and I realize that I know very little about you. I know that you are in Gryffindor and your best friend is the Minister of Magic's son, what's the story behind that?" Silence. "Fine, if not your red-haired friend, what about that girl with the bushy brown hair, is she your girlfriend?" Harry chocked on his pizza, and shook his head quickly. "No, well if you don't want to discuss your friends, I'm afraid there is another very important topic I must discuss with you."
Harry ignored him.
"You see Harry, when a man and a woman love each other very much…"
A panicked look crossed the raven-haired boy's face. "I- no- I-I-already-"
"Already Harry?" Sirius said with glee. "But you're about to turn 13! Why, it took your father and I at least until we were 15 to try to go that far with a girl-"
"No!" Harry shouted, beet red now. "I know about-about that already."
"Oh good, than we can go straight to talking technique, now young Harry, girls- it is girls right? Not that it matters to me, make whatever life choice you like- but I know about girls, and well they don't like it when-"
Harry leaped up from his seat. "I-I just remembered that I forgot that I…got to go," he breathed before running out the kitchen.
Sirius grinned. The evening may not have gone as planned, but at least he had the upper hand by the end of the night. Oh, he couldn't wait to tell Remus about Harry's face, when realization had struck. 'I win,' Sirius thought.
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AN- I hope you all liked this chapter, now some review responses:
illachi- Remus doesn't know Harry well enough to tell him something like that. He might in the future. He's only known Harry for a couple of days, he's not going to tell his biggest secret to someone he has known for that period of time.
Sirius Fan- Thanks for your review, I'll try to fix that, I don't always correct things well if Word doesn't correct it.
lucerito-del-alma- Scabbers ran away, Remus couldn't see him.
Harmony'sSake- Only Remus knows that Sirius is innocent, and well, Peter too, but that's it.
But really, thank to you everyone who reviewed!
Tidbits from Chapter Eight: Of Flyings and Kidnappings
"A good two hours. Two hours Moony! I got him to talk to me for two hours!"
"George and I nicked it when we went to visit Dad at work."
"Yeah, but I'm loads better now. Thanks for once again rescuing me."
"…but before he could go further into the woods something, or rather, someone came out first. "Uh oh."