Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J.K. Rowlings, Warner Bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from cannon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door. Addendum: If you recognize a name of a character from elsewhere it isn't mine.

A/N: Thank you Thank you thank you 100 reviews (Author happy dancing) for those who asked totem spirit info is from w.w.w...m.a.n.a.t.a.k.a...o.r.g. Take out most of the periods.

Sirius' Savior

Chapter 43 After the Quest

Yiska was pleased. His guess that a vision quest would help Harry settle his magic, had worked out the way he expected. The boy had a powerful totem. That wolves had put in an appearance in an area where there hadn't been wolves for twenty years reaffirmed his instincts that Harry and his magic would wield great influence some day. Yiska and Harry were almost to the Park entrance when Yiska looked over as Harry was digging in his pack. He braked sharply. "Where did you get those feathers?"

"From the eagle."

"What eagle?"

"Well further up the cliff from the ledge where you left me there was an eagle's nest, yesterday I felt drawn up to it. There were actually four eagles there two babies, the mum and dad. The dad, males are smaller than females in raptors I remember reading that somewhere, he was molting but he walked right up to me and bumped my hand so I'd stroke him. Some of the feathers were loose and came out when I touched him, but I didn't pull any out honest. Anyway I collected the ones that came out and the others on the ledge. Is there a problem?"

"Harry in this country it is illegal for anyone of non Native American descent to have eagle feathers and even Native Americans must have permits to have them."

"Are you allowed to have them?"

"Yes as a Navajo shaman I have the required permit."

"Should I just give them to you?"

"Let's go see my nephew." Yiska wasn't sure of the procedure for found feathers but Harry's attitude spoke of a simple mistake and he hoped to shelter Harry from the arrest and fines that would normally happen to someone who wasn't authorized for possession of eagle feathers. He stopped at the ranger's office and asked where Jim Shivers was. Shortly afterward he and Harry drove to the trail that his nephew was doing maintenance at.

"Uncle, didn't expect to see you. How did the quest go?"

"The quest was successful but we ran into a snag." He motioned for Harry to get out of the truck. "This is Harry."

Jim looked at the boy in front of him. "Aren't you a little young for a vision quest?"

Harry flushed but the flush colored not only his lightly tanned skin but continued all the way to the tips of his hair that were just visible beyond his baseball cap. "Merde." He swore he felt his magic flaring and started a breathing exercise to try and calm his magic. It worked. A few minutes later his hair had changed to a less noticeable color.

Jim having felt the flare of magic suddenly understood. "I see," he looked at his grand uncle, "so why hunt me down?"

"Harry has not one but two totemic animals. The wolves we've heard howling the last two nights and an eagle."

Jim's eyebrows climbed into his hair in surprise. Seldom were eagles a totemic animal.

"Anyway the eagle gifted Harry with some feathers."

Jim suddenly understood the problem. He knew technically he was supposed to arrest Harry but his uncle came to him hoping to spare Harry the problem. "How about, Harry, you tell me about where and how you got the feathers Harry and you turn all of them over. I'll check the nest site and say I found the feathers and you don't get in trouble."

"Fine. My vision quest took me up Spider Rocks, I was up two to three hundred feet up on a ledge on the southeast face of the northern most rock. The second morning I was up there I felt drawn to climb higher I climbed probably another hundred feet. There's a ledge with a nest the nest has two babies and the dad was there. He was molting. He approached me actually bumped my hand to make me pet him. He shed about seven feathers I took the seven feathers he shed and the six others that were on the ledge. His mate showed up with food. I climbed back down to the ledge I was on. I'm really sorry I broke a law, I didn't know. It just felt like I was doing what I was supposed to."

Jim looked at the feathers all of them showed signs of wear that would indicate being molted rather than plucked. "Okay, did you notice if either of the adults was banded?"

"I think the mum was."

"You said two chicks, did they look healthy?"

"Yeah they were getting their feathers."

"Great I'll get Fish and Wildlife to register the nest and band the babies. I knew there was a pair but before today we couldn't place the nesting site, so this is helpful. I'll look the other way since I now how things can be while you're on a quest, if I need to I'll use magic to smooth things over. Now looking at you, you look like you could use a good meal. But you probably aren't ready to stomach much he pulled a roast beef sandwich with all the trimmings from his cooler. He pulled out a large cup and a wand and a second later the cup was full of hot beef broth. He gave it to Harry. "Where did the stick come from?" he asked.

"The wolves brought it to me. See, you can see where the pups played with it and where the adult carried it."

"Tell me about the wolves and are you sure they were wolves not coyotes?"

"They were wolves seven adults five pups. I slipped when a rock shifted under me and it dumped me in the den. I hit my head and came to when the pups licked me. I was a playmate to them for the night. The mum pretty much ignored me after I threw myself to the den floor in response to her growl. The dad brought the stick in and dropped it in front of me. Like the feathers it felt like I was supposed to take it."

"Everything in the park is supposed to stay in the park federal law prohibits taking anything from the park. But I'm going to allow you to take the juniper branch since campers on the campground if they found a branch like that on the ground would probably just burn it. I'll transfigure something to take it's place since you were so cooperative about giving up the token from the eagle."

"Thank you sir."

"Yes thank you nephew." Yiska added his thanks.

"Not a problem tell Aunt to send me some of those pumpkin cookies and we're all good."

Problems solved Yiska once again steered them towards home.

Sirius chewed on his thumb nail only to be reminded when it twinged at him he had been doing that entirely to often. Part of him still couldn't believe he let Yiska talk him into letting Harry go off on his own into the wilderness. All in the name of finding himself, especially since Harry wasn't going to be allowed to eat on this little adventure. But Harry's magic had been flaring at the drop of a pin with no rhyme or reason and he really couldn't seem to center no matter the exercise. He had spent hours on the phone with Beth getting her input and Rachel had concurred that trying something out of the box was better than doing nothing because if anything Harry's magic had been getting stronger and more out of control daily. They had three weeks before they were to go to San Francisco so Harry could train with Rose Tyler for his metamorphamagus talents. But his magic had to be centered before that happened. They had been drawing a total blank until Yiska had come up with his analogy to explain the problem and his suggestion on how to handle it. At a loss for anything else they had gone ahead.

When Winry heard about it from Beth, the day Yiska and Harry had left; she had verbally reamed Sirius that Harry was to young to go through the deprivation that came with a traditional vision quest and that he already had been through a ton by removing his horcrux. What the HELL was Sirius thinking when he agreed to Yiska's plan. In the three days since then Sirius had not slept or eaten and had been a basket case.

Jenny had shook her at Sirius as he endlessly limped around the tent to the trailer to the hogan to the tent again pausing only briefly to look to the southeast. And stopping only when it was too dark to see. She told him, "Yiska has guided many young men on their journey, and while Harry is one of the youngest he has ever led he is also one of the strongest." But still Sirius worried.

At three that afternoon, Sirius' pacing came to an abrupt halt. Yiska's truck was coming down the road. As soon as the truck pulled up, Sirius was there opening the passenger side door. And there was Harry sleeping with a bit of a half smile on his face. He was filthy but whole and his magic didn't seem ready to lash out at anyone like it had been before he left. He looked at Yiska, "It worked then?"

Yiska nodded. "His magic is strong but his heart is even stronger. His quest was completed more quickly than I expected most of which I would attribute to the discipline with which you have raised him. He fell asleep a half an hour ago but he'll probably wake up for dinner. From here I will give him a journal and some guided exercises, to encourage him to work through his feelings and to strengthen his magical control but he found his center and his spirit guides. His spirit guides were physical as well which goes hand in hand with him wielding great power in the future. I would encourage you to spend time with him, but before you do..."

"Yes?"

"Get some sleep and take a bath. It is apparent you spent these last few days worrying about Harry instead of trusting that this was the best thing for him."

Sirius sheepishly nodded and used his wand to levitate Harry to his bed in the tent.

Five hours later Harry woke up he felt disgusting as if his skin was crawling with dirt. He dug in his trunk and got clean clothes out and then went to the tent's bathroom where he took a long hot shower. He was happy that the bruise and small split on his temple had been healed by Yiska. Sirius would have thrown a fit if he'd seen it. His stomach was growling fiercely despite the juice and the broth he'd had he wondered if he would still be expected to make do with liquid or if he would get some semisolid food at dinner tonight. After he dressed in blue jeans he was pleased to note his facial shape and structure had ceased to alter itself on a whim. His hair on the other hand was purple at the moment so he stopped by his trunk for another hat he wasn't going to wear the one he'd worn on his quest until it had been cleaned. He left the tent and was met by Rachel. "Hey Rachel."

"Harry you seem more..."

"Settled. Yes, where's Sirius?"

"I would imagine he's still sleeping, he was so worried about you the whole time you were gone he didn't sleep. Of course Winry's chewing him out the day you left didn't help."

Harry had an idea and got a smirk on his face. "Do you know the spell that makes you feel like you've been dipped in ice water?"

"No." Rachel drawled. "Why?"

"I want him awake so I can tell him and you about the quest and I thought if we did that spell on him he would wake up."

"In a hurry."

"Yeah, well what goes around comes around. He used to do it to my dad all the time because my dad loved to sleep in. Dad in his journal always talked about wanting revenge but Sirius was always up before him so he never got the chance."

"Does your dad's journal have the spell?"

"Yes."

"Alright I'm in, if only so I'll have a funny story at the next check in. It's been really boring with you gone. Sirius mostly just paced in a circle."

Five minutes later Rachel and Harry were bolting out of the tent laughing as Sirius bellowed in shock. They went to the trailer to have dinner with Yiska and Jenny. Harry was ecstatic to see a poached egg, some runny corn pudding, and some stewed fruit at his place. "Yes! Real food."

Rachel looked at it and gave him a skeptical glance. "Real food?"

"Think of what I've had for the last week, this qualifies if only by comparison."

Sirius came in. "What was that?" he growled.

Harry irreverently said "Payback for all the times you did that to Dad."

"Fine but know this you little marauder, what goes around comes around comes around and now you don't have the protection of your allergy."

"Looking forward to it Sirius." Harry smirked. The rest of the evening was spent with Harry sharing what had happened, how he felt, and what he'd learned from the the last few days. Yiska gave him the promised journal it was a magical one that would never run out of pages and was keyed to his magical signature so only he could open it. What Harry liked the best was that it had the Spider rocks tooled into the leather of the cover.