Dedicated to my Grandmother, who loved Harry Potter almost as much as I do.
Chapter 10: Friendship
Remus walked up to the house that he knew his former friend, Sirius Black, lived in. He was still reeling over what had happened in the Minister's office earlier that day. Remus felt terrible. He hadn't believed Sirius' story, actually he hadn't even listened to it. The werewolf had been so grief-stricken and angry that he hadn't even been able to face Sirius on that horrible day. In fact, Remus had dreamed of this day for many years. He had dreamed of marching up to this house and punching his former friend in the face, and to ask him why—why had he betrayed his best friends? But now the answer was right there…Sirius hadn't betrayed anybody.
Remus waited a couple of seconds before being able to summon his courage to knock on the door. There were sounds of crashing from inside, and some mild swearing before footsteps heading towards the door. Remus held his breath. The door opened. Sirius Black opened the door, wand raised. Without even looking to see who was there he said, "Go away!" And slammed the door shut. Remus just stood there, and then after a second, he knocked again. The door rushed open
"Don't you understand English? I thought I told you to…" Sirius finally noticed his once friend standing in the doorway. There was an awkward silence. "Er--what brings you here Remus?" Sirius asked in a quiet voice. "Revenge?"
Remus shook his head. "I think we need to talk Sirius." The aforementioned man nodded, and opened the door all the way to allow Remus entrance. The two walked together to the living room, which actually took more than Remus could have ever imagined. The house was a mess. There were piles of clothes everywhere, and many discarded cardboard containers, which Remus could only assume held some sort of food product at some point. The smell was horrible too. Sirius led him to what should have been the living room and swept some clothes of the sofa, so that Remus could sit down. The werewolf sat down gingerly, hoping that the seat wouldn't give way. Silence.
"It
was Peter wasn't it?"
Sirius
looked up suddenly. Whatever he had been expecting Remus to
talk about this wasn't it. He didn't dare hope that Remus
had finally discovered the truth.
"What?"
Sirius croaked, barely able to get
the words out of his mouth.
"Peter…Wormtail.
You
switched didn't you--and
that day
on the street, it wasn't you
it was him and he…"
"Transformed
into a rat and joined the rest of his kind in the sewers."
Sirius concluded in a bitter voice. Remus felt horrible. All
those years…
"Why
didn't you
try to contact me?"
Sirius looked down. "Would you have believed me if I had?" Remus gulped, but didn't say anything. They both knew the answer.
"You know, he didn't just go down to the sewers. He found a home with a wizard, a rather important one at that," Remus than went on to explain what had happened in the Minister's office. Sirius just listened in silence, trying to accept everything. He still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Remus was here. "Sirius did you hear me?"
"What?"
"I asked you what we should do to find Peter."
"We?"
"You don't think that I'm going to just let that rat get away with this do you? No Sirius, it is obvious that you need help. And the first order of business is to clean this house up. You too. Really Padfoot, when was the last time you had a bath?" Sirius smiled. It had been the first time since the death of James and Lily that he had heard his nickname.
"You're one to talk Moony, are those gray flecks I see in your hair? Merlin, you're only 25!"
"Well at least my hair isn't as greasy as Snivillus'," Remus quipped back, not losing a beat. Sirius stared at him with horror and ran his hand through his hair.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Yes, yes it is." Sirius gave a shout and ran upstairs.
"Hey where are you going?" Remus called up to his newly restored friend. Sirius didn't answer but Remus knew where his friend was going, and that made the werewolf smile. He had a friend again, and never again would he allow for a misconception to get in the way of the two of them.
III
Remus couldn't help but think of that afternoon as he sat in the waiting room of St. Mungo's hospital. He had been waiting there for hours now, hoping to get word on how Harry was doing. They weren't sure if the Boy-Who-Lived was going to make it. The dagger that he had been stabbed with had had some sort of poison on it, they had told Remus the name of the poison, but the werewolf wasn't paying close enough attention. He was too worried. All he knew was that Harry wouldn't, or couldn't wake up. The wound wouldn't heal properly either. Remus was devastated. Sirius had been arrested, for having supposedly committed this terrible act, and Harry was lying as if dead. Everything was falling apart at once.
"Mr. Lupin?" Remus looked up. Dumbledore was standing behind him. There was no happiness in his face.
"Is Harry going to be all right?" The werewolf asked in earnest. Dumbledore shook his head sadly.
"We don't know yet, dear boy, we don't know." Remus put his head in his hands.
"Where's Sir—Black?"
"In a holding cell at the Ministry. His trail is set for a week from tomorrow, but we are worried that if Harry doesn't wake up soon that he will get off just as he did before."
"What happened exactly?" Remus asked, not really sure if he wanted to know. No matter what the Headmaster said, Remus had no way to know if it was truth. And he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Dumbledore sighed, and sat down across from the werewolf, looking very old.
"From what we can tell Harry and Black got into an argument. You wrote me before that Harry was not being very careful about what he was saying to Black. So Black stabbed him, and the alarms on the house went off, letting us know that Harry was in mortal danger, so a couple of aurors were dispatched at once. They found Black on the floor beside Harry, with the knife in his hands. They stunned Black and brought Harry here as quickly as they could. If they had been even a minute later, young Mr. Potter would be dead."
Remus felt like crying. It certainly did sound bad, and he wasn't sure what to believe. "I'm sorry," he whispered, not really sure what he was sorry about.
"It was your fault Mr. Lupin, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. As I understand you heard the alarms and went the Weasley's house at once." Remus nodded.
"Yes, we thought it was their boys again."
"You were looking out for Harry's best interests all along. Now I need to ask a favor of you." Remus heart stopped. What could Dumbledore possibly want him to do now?
As if he had read Remus' mind Dumbledore said, "I want you to go talk to Black—"
"But—"
"No, I need you to see if you can't get a confession out of him. We can't let him get back out on the streets because there isn't enough evidence again. Pretend to be his friend this one last time, and then I promise I will never ask for you to spy on him again."
Remus sighed. "Alright, when do you want me to go?"
"Right now, there is already a portkey set up for you outside." With that Remus was gone, ready to once again confront Sirius Black.
III
When Remus entered the Auror division at the Ministry, he was immediately escorted to the holding area. He was thankful that they hadn't taken Sirius to Azkaban, where the Dementors would have probably driven his friend mad in a matter of hours. However, when the werewolf was taken into the cell it looked as though Sirius looked terrible. His face was ashen gray and it looked as though he had been crying. The convict didn't even look up when Remus entered the room. He went over and sat next to his friend on the bed.
"I think we need to talk Sirius," he said repeating the words that he had first spoken to his friend all those years ago. Sirius looked up immediately.
"Remus! How did you get here? Is Harry ok?" Remus looked down sadly. Sirius became crazed. "How is Harry Remus? Did they get him to the hospital on time? Is he…no, he can't be. Please tell me he's not dead Remus!" His eyes were wide, and tears were coming down his face.
"Harry isn't dead Sirius," Remus said quietly. Sirius sighed in relief.
"Then its ok, everything's fine, did you come to pick me up? Did Harry tell everyone what happened? Can we go home now?"
Remus shook his head. "Sirius…Harry may not make it, the knife that he was stabbed with…it was poisoned Sirius. The healers say that he could die within the next couple of days." There was silence. Sirius was obviously in shock.
"But you said—"
"He's alive, but just barely. Sirius, what happened?"
"It was that damn Pettigrew again. He came in, and he had Harry, he was going to kidnap him!" Sirius proceeded to tell Remus the rest of the story. Remus just sat there in silence at the end of the story.
"You believe me don't you Remus?" Sirius asked desperately. "I swear it was him, I didn't…I wouldn't…I couldn't hurt Harry you know that don't you Remus?"
Remus said nothing for a while until, "Of course I believe you Sirius." The aforementioned man looked like a load of bricks had been taken off his back.
"I thought that maybe after what happened with Lily and James that…"
"Sirius, I made a mistake then. I am not about to make the mistake again. I'm going to do whatever is in my power to get you out of here. Do you understand me?" Sirius nodded. "Good. Now, I'm going to go check on Harry again, but I don't want you to give up hope. This may take awhile."
Again, Sirius nodded, and just as Remus was about to leave he said, "If Harry wakes up…tell him that…I love him, and that he better get better soon." Remus smiled sadly in response.
"I will." He was almost out the door when Sirius spoke again.
"And Moony?
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome Padfoot, anytime."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
AN- Sorry, sorry, I know this chapter is late. My grandmother died, (which is why this chapter is dedicated to her) and I had to leave to go to her funeral, which put me behind in schoolwork, which put me behind on my college applications, which put me behind on this fanfic. I'm actually pretty happy with this chapter, and I hope that you are all too. I just finished it, and I'm posting it as soon as possible, so hopefully there aren't too many mistakes. I just didn't want to make you have to wait again!
There is only going to be one or two more chapters to this fanfic, so hopefully you are all enjoying it so far.
EsScaper- Thanks, as always for your review. I'm glad that this story isn't too predictable. Hopefully this chapter answered your question, but if you still haven't caught it, it will answered more clearly in the next chapter. And this wasn't too bad of a cliffie, the action is falling, as my English teacher would say, so there is going to be some suspense. Anyway, thanks again!
lucerito-del-alma- Glad you enjoyed my plug, it's the only other fanfic that I have out there right now that I would recommend. I do enjoy writing Sirius' temper. He's not perfect, like many people try to make him. I still love him though, faults and all. Thank you for your review.
I think this chapter answered everyone else's questions, but if not, ask them again, or hang tight for the end. Everything will come together eventually.
I will update as soon as I have the next chapter finished!