Chapter 9: Busted
"What will your Daddy think?"
"He'll think that we did what we could to protect our friend from the likes of you." Fred said, whipping out his wand and pointing it at Black.
"Let him go," he said in a threatening voice, indicating to his twin, while Ron stepped protectively in front of a rather terrified, but defiant, Harry.
"Expelliarmus!" Remus stepped out from behind Sirius. Everyone's wands flew into his waiting hand. He looked at Sirius with a stoic look on his face but Harry could tell that Remus was quite angry. "I'll take these boys home to their parents, why don't you take Harry back up to the house." The werewolf said, handing his friend two of the wands.
"But-" Ron started. Sirius whipped around to face the boy.
"But what?" He asked in a harsh voice.
Ron was able to build up his Gryffindor courage in order to say, "Harry doesn't want to live with you. He wants to come to the Burrow with us. Hell, I think that he would even prefer to live with the Dursleys than to live with you!"
"Is that so?" Sirius sneered. "Well then it is a good thing that he doesn't have a choice does he? I'm his legal guardian, and I get to say where he lives and who he lives with. And rest assured, because of this Harry will never step foot into your house again."
"You can't do that!" Harry exclaimed, coming out of his shocked silence.
"I can and I will, you are also forbidden to contact anyone with the name of Weasley while you stay in my house. In fact-"
"Sirius," Remus interrupted, "just take Harry back to the house." Sirius didn't argue. He shrunk Harry's trunk and grabbed the back of his godson's shirt, forcing him in the direction of the house. Harry turned around briefly and waved goodbye to the Weasleys, not sure if he would ever see them again. Black looked as though he could kill Harry at any moment. Actually, The-Boy-Who-Lived was surprised that he survived the twenty-minute walk back up to the house, a firm (almost painful) hand guided him in silence the entire way.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Black yelled as soon as he had pushed his godson into the house.
"I was-"
"I DON'T WANT AN ANSWER! I know what you were thinking, you were thinking that you could go and run off with your little friends and live happily ever after. YOU WERE WRONG. You're mother and father left it up to me to take care of you after they died. LILY AND JAMES wanted you here."
"That's before you murdered them," Harry muttered under his breath.
Immediately after he spoke, he knew that that might not have been the smartest thing to say. Black turned bright red and was, if possible, even more angry.
"You know NOTHING of what happened that night. You know nothing of your parents."
"Thanks to you! It's your fault that I never knew my parents."
"No, it's yours Harry James Potter. Voldemort wasn't interested in your parents, he couldn't care less about Lily and James, he wanted you. YOUR PARENTS DIED FOR YOU, not that you deserve it. You disrespect their wishes for you. James would have been very disappointed in you."
Harry felt as though he had been slapped in the face. How dare this-this Voldemort supporter tell him that he disappointed his parents? Sirius took advantage of Harry's stunned silence.
"From now on, you will listen to me. Now for the little adventure that you had tonight-" Harry came out of his stupor.
"What? WHAT? What are you going to do to me that you have already done? You've taken me from my friends, and you killed my parents what else can you possibly do? Kill me? No one would be shocked, and then you would get what you deserved all those years ago, a nice long stay in Azkaban."
"WHAT WILL I DO? I-I- HARRY JAMES POTTER YOU ARE NOW GROUNDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"
"Grounded?" Harry laughed. Never before in his life had he been grounded, the Dursleys never gave him any privileges that could be taken away from him.
"That's right mister. Grounded. For the rest of the summer, and maybe even next summer you will not be allowed to owl ANYONE without my express permission. You will not receive any mail either that I have not checked. So I expect the only letter that you will be allowed to read will be your Hogwarts letter, that will come in a couple of weeks. You will not fly, and as of now, your broom is mine. Maybe, if you're lucky, you can have it back at the end of the summer. Any more incidents like this, and I wont allow you to play for your house team. No more leaving this house you will spend all your time in your room- no scratch that. You will spend every minute of the day, under my careful supervision. You won't leave a room without my permission. IS THIS CLEAR?"
By this point, Harry was white with rage. He was so angry that he couldn't even speak.
"Good, now that you have an understanding of how the rest of the summer is going to be, you are to go to your room and stay there until I come and get you in the morning. I've already placed heavy wards on your windows and door so if you even walk too close to them, I will know."
"But-"
"NOW! OR SO HELP ME MERLIN I WILL MAKE YOU COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS AND EASTER JUST SO THAT I CAN CONTINUE THIS GROUNDING!"
Harry went up to his room as quickly as he could.
III
"Arthur? Molly?" Remus called into the Burrow, three teenaged boys standing reluctantly behind them.
"Remus is that you?" Molly came running into the front room. "The boys are missing! Hermione and Ginny know something but they won't tell us and we just called Dumble-"
"Calm down Molly, they're here with me-"
"They are? Oh my babies! We were so worried! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I THOUGHT YOU LEARNED YOUR LESSON LAST YEAR! IF YOU EVER-"
Remus silently snuck away to find Arthur and Dumbledore now that he knew that the Weasley boys were, well maybe not safely, but in their mother's custody. He found the two men in the kitchen.
"Ah, Remus," Dumbledore greeted. "What brings you here at this time of night?"
"I found your sons Arthur, and was returning them here."
"You did? Where were they?" Arthur was clearly very worried about them.
"Actually I didn't find them, Sirius did. On his property, about ready to whisk Harry off."
Both of the older men winced.
"Is Harry alright?" Dumbledore asked with a lot of concern in his voice.
"He's fine, a bit shaken up. Sirius Black does have quite a temper. Not that I can really blame him in this case, what were the boys thinking? Running off in the middle of the night, especially with Harry-"
"But everyone is alright?" The Minister of Magic interrupted with urgency. "Do I need to send Aurors?" Remus shook his head.
"No, I think that all will be well." There was silence for a couple of seconds.
"This is actually an excellent opportunity Remus, the Minister and I were
going to call a meeting with you soon anyway. We were wondering how the situation was."
"As good as anyone could ask it to be, well before tonight. Harry spends most of his time in his room and Sirius spends his time on a fruitless search for a dead man."
"He still believes that Pettigrew is alive?"
"Yes, and I can't seem to dissuade him from that notion. He searches endlessly I truly believe that he is mad. Harmless most of the time, though."
"And he doesn't suspect you?"
"He has no clue, I think that he is too preoccupied with Pettigrew and Harry now to really focus on me."
"Good news my boy, good news. I think it is time that we let the poor Minister have some rest now." Remus nodded.
"I better make sure that my wife hasn't killed our sons yet," Arthur chuckled. "She better have left some of it up to me. Continue to keep a close watch Remus, if there is even a slight sign of Harry being in danger, floo here immediately."
"I will do that. Goodnight Minister, Headmaster." An exhausted Remus went to the fireplace to make sure that Sirius hadn't killed Harry yet because, as Arthur had said, he wanted to do his fair share of yelling at the boy.
III
Remus came out of the fireplace, realizing that it had taken him an hour to get the Weasley boys safely back at home. He hoped that Sirius hadn't throttled the boy to death by now, but the werewolf certainly wouldn't blame him if he had. He was about to head upstairs to go check on Harry, and give him a piece of his mind when he heard loud laughter from the kitchen. Surprised, he walked towards the room.
"Hahaha Prongs, I remember that too! And then…then…then there was that thing in the place with the you know- MOONY!" Sirius was sitting on a stool in the kitchen talking to a bottle when Remus entered the room.
"Sirius are you alright?" The werewolf asked with concern in his voice.
"I-m excellent! Good ole' Prongs and I were just talking about the thing in the place you know with that guy and the hair-"
Remus looked at the bottle and then at Sirius. "Are you drunk?"
"Naw, naw, I just a little fire whiskey, I'm not drunk, but why don't you stop moving Moony?" Sirius said taking another swig was the bottle, which was nearly empty. "Hey, where did James go? D-did he leave again? I needed to talk to him about his son- you know- black hair green eyes what's his name Barry-?"
"Harry, Sirius, Harry, you wanted to talk to James about Harry?"
"That's it! Harry…hehe hairy Harry. He don' like me Rem and and I gotta fix it…" The look on Sirius' face made Remus feel as though there was a dementor in the room. He looked so…hopeless. Something that Remus had never seen in his best friend, not even right after Lily and James died.
"Oh, Sirius, don't worry about Harry. He just doesn't understand-"
"No, no, no, he understands. He knows he knows…"
"What does he know?"
"He knows that I killed James n' Lily he knows that I trusted that rat faced boy, he knows that I was too much of a cow-coward to-" The almost-convict was sobbing now.
"No, its not your fault you know that-"
"NO!" Sirius shouted, interrupting. "I did it. I killed 'em. That's, that's, that's why the kid hates me. He should! I think that I will just let that Weasley fellow have 'im. Tha's where he wants to be…" He finished off the bottle and then promptly passed out.
III
Harry woke up late the next morning, as he had been unable to get to sleep until very late at night. He had been thinking about what Black had said. Had he, Harry, indeed been responsible for the death of his parents? Dumbledore had only ever told Harry that Voldemort was coming after his parents, he had never mentioned the fact that Voldemort wanted Harry. The-Boy-Who-Lived thought that his parents were just as much as a target as anyone else during the war, with this thought, he felt like he was going to throw up. A knock on his bedroom door did not improve the feeling in Harry's stomach. Before he could respond, the door opened.
"Harry?" Remus entered the room. The aforementioned boy felt great relief.
"Remus! I was so worried that-"
"I know what you were worried about," he said sternly. "And before you think any different, I think you made a serious mistake last night young man. Don't think for a second that because I'm here that your punishment has changed in any way. Sirius is a bit…indisposed…at the moment, so he sent me here to come and get you."
Harry's heart sunk. It was then that he realized that Remus just might blame him for the death of his parents as well. "Now Harry, it is time to go eat some breakfast."
"I'm not hungry." Harry muttered.
Remus got stern again. "I don't care if you are hungry or not Harry James, you are to come downstairs to the kitchen. Sirius says that you must be either with him or I at all times. Except when you're in here for the night, with the door and windows locked." Harry didn't even bother to argue, he knew that there was no point. He followed Remus downstairs to the kitchen, where he was very surprised to see his godfather already sitting at the table, looking horrible.
"Would you like some more bacon Sirius?" Remus asked in a pleasant voice. Sirius glared at his friend and grunted in reply. "I'll take that as a yes then. Harry, there are some muffins on the table and pumpkin juice in the refrigerator, I expect you to eat something. That goes for you as well Padfoot."
Had it been a less serious situation, the identical looks of hatred on godson and godfather would have been hilarious. Breakfast was a silent affair, all three lost in private thoughts. Remus couldn't help but notice that there was something different about Harry this morning. It was more than just the attempted escape and the punishment that had followed afterwards. Something was…broken…inside of Harry, in the same way as Sirius. He guessed that something that had happened last night had triggered this depression in Harry. The werewolf wasn't sure what he would do with these two broken boys. When breakfast was over and still no one had said anything, Remus decided to take control of the day. "Harry, why don't you go get your homework and work on it down here."
Harry just nodded and left to go get his homework. As soon as he was out of the room, Remus turned to his friend. "Are you alright Sirius?"
"Peachy. Do you have a hangover potion? I have the worse headache in the world."
Sympathetically Remus said, "No, I'm sorry. Just drink the rest of that coffee, and hopefully you'll feel better a little later. Look Sirius what did you say-"
Harry had arrived in the kitchen with his books at that moment, stopping Remus mid sentence. There was an awkward pause. "So Harry, what homework do you have to finish?" Remus asked to break the silence.
"Not much, I finished most at the Dursleys." Harry muttered.
"Well that's excellent, your mother would be very proud-" Remus noticed that Harry tensed up at the mention of his mother. "Is there something wrong Harry?" The Boy-Who-Lived shrugged. "What do you have left for homework then?"
"Just transfiguration and potions." Remus winced slightly.
"Not my two best subjects. But you know Sirius and your father were somewhat of transfiguration hotshots back in their day. So he can help you with that, and I think that I can handle third year potions, but any higher than that I think you'll be out of luck kid."
And that is how the day passed. Harry, Sirius, and Remus sat in the kitchen working on Harry's homework. It was a solemn afternoon, but at least Harry had been able to finish the rest of his essays. He had no clue what they would do tomorrow with all his work already done.
"Time for bed Harry," Remus said in a stern voice, looking at his best friend who had barely said a word all day. The werewolf would worry about talking to Sirius after Harry had gone to bed. The two headed upstairs to Harry's bedroom. Remus was making sure that Harry would be safely in his room for the rest of the night. Just before he could close the door Harry spoke.
"Is it true that Voldemort only came after my parents because of me?"
Remus' heart broke. "NO! Harry what made you think-" Then it hit him. Sirius. Sirius was the one who had brought that broken look to Harry's—no Lily's eyes today. "Harry, you are not responsible for your parents death, I need you to know that. Voldemort went after all on the light side, no one was safe," he said quickly. "Do you believe me Harry?" There was urgency in the werewolf's voice.
Harry just shrugged. "We'll continue this in the morning…now I have something to take care of. Goodnight Harry." Remus shut the door, locked it and ran downstairs, where Sirius was sitting in front of the fireplace.
"What did you say to Harry last night Sirius?" Remus asked in a dangerous voice. Sirius seemed surprised at the tone of the voice that his friend took with him. Remus rarely got angry.
"I just-" An alarm sound in the room, interrupting him. "Harry." He said simply. Remus sighed.
"Already? Got to give those Weasley boys some credit for their determination. This conversation isn't over Sirius, but you better go make sure that Harry is alright, and I'll go to the Burrow and get Arthur."
The almost-convict nodded and started jogging up the stairs towards his godson's bedroom. As he reached the door he hesitated for a second. Maybe he should just let Harry go with the Weasleys. He would be happier there. Sirius was about to turn around when he heard a small yelp from the room. It sounded as though there was a struggle inside. Sirius burst through the door.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" A voice yelled. Sirius' wand shot from his hand to the feet of…
"Pettigrew."
Sure enough there, which a wand to Harry's throat was Peter Pettigrew, the man that Sirius had been hunting for the last eleven year.
"D-don't come a step closer S-Sirius, or I'll have to hurt Potter here." Sirius froze immediately.
"Let him go Peter," he said in a hard voice, "he's never done anything to you."
"I-I don't think I w-will Padfoot ole friend," Pettigrew said in a mocking voice. On the other side of his wand, Sirius could see the terrified look on his godson's face. Pettigrew must have put a silencing spell on him. "You see Potter is responsible for my last eleven years in exile, I thought that after I framed you for Lily and James' death I w-would be free. B-but you wouldn't leave me alone Sirius, I had to keep running and h-hiding. Tonight that ends."
"What do you want?" Sirius asked in a voice that was almost pleading. "Just let Harry go and we can talk…" He said stepping a little closer to his former friend. Pettigrew tightened his grip on Harry, whose eyes went wide after Pettigrew had spoken.
"N-no. Y-you stay where you are. If you want me to let your p-precious P-Potter go you're going to have to do something for me."
"What?" Sirius growled.
"Y-you have to t-turn yourself in Sirius. I can't keep living l-like this. Y-you need to-" Before he could finish talking Sirius made a very bold move. He lunged at Pettigrew and wrestled the wand out of his hand.
Pettigrew yelped in surprise, releasing his grip on Harry, who landed with a 'thump' on the floor. However, Sirius wasn't able to reach his godson in time. Pettigrew grabbed Sirius' wand that had been on the floor, and pulled a knife from his jacket. It was almost in slow motion. He plunged the knife into Harry's stomach and than disapperated. Sirius ran to his fallen, and now unconscious and bloody godson. He pulled the knife out of Harry's stomach and tried to stop the bleeding.
"HARRY!" He yelled in desperation. "HARRY! You have to be alright, you can't leave me too, oh Harry-" He pulled The-Boy-Who-Lived to his chest. There was a faint 'pop' but Sirius didn't notice, he was too busy trying to heal Harry's wound with his shirt.
"Dear god what happened here?" A horrified voice said from behind Sirius, who was still clutching to Harry. "Get away from him!" The voice said. Sirius ignored the voice and continued talking to Harry.
"Come on Harry, I know you can do it," he was crying now. "COME ON HARRY!"
"Sirius Black, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Harry Potter…"
"HARRY! Wake up!"
"Stupefy!"
Everything went black.
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AN- That was exciting wasn't it? HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! I posted this a day early, just so that I could give this to you, the longest of all chapters, on Halloween. It seems right doesn't it? Anyway, there is no preview for the next chapter, because, to be honest, the next chapter isn't quite finished yet. ::wince:: Hopefully I will finish it in time to post next week, but if not, remember that I gave you this chapter early. So once again….HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Also- Special prize to the 100th reviewer...I don't know what yet, but it will be good, I'm only four away!
EsScaper- Right as always. I have to say that I did really enjoy writing that scene. It's actually the scene that the whole fanfic came from, so I'm glad that you liked it!
Anti-thule- If you didn't like that cliffhanger, opps, sorry, here it is again!
Live2sk8- Please read the rant in chapter 8 about Remus…I think that might help you.
SHAMELESS PLUG- If you like Sirius and Remus in this fanfic, I suggest you read my one shot Sirius Black: Villian or Victim? It's about Sirius' reaction to the article in the Quibbler, it's a lot of fun. It wont take much of your time, and I think you will all like it!