Chapter 56:

Finally free!

Sirius found Harry sitting at the kitchen table, his pensive gaze directed at the wooden top from which he was absentmindedly scraping away at an imaginary stain. Sighing, he sat down opposite his godson. Sirius knew that the boy should definitely not be here, witnessing scenes like that. Nevertheless, his egotistic self was only too happy to be able to finally spend some time with James' son. If only Snape were not here...

"What was wrong with him?" asked Harry into the tabletop.

"He was having a flashback or a nightmare. Or quite possibly both. I don't know. He surely gathered enough ammunition for several years of nightmares during his captivity."

Harry looked up at his godfather, a strange mixture of guilt and confusion in his eyes. "When I confessed to him that it had been me who betrayed him, Snape reacted rather composed. He took it almost calmly ... well, for his standard that is…. And now that I only wanted to help, he completely freaked out; he even started to shout."

Sirius held the boy's gaze with suddenly felt pity. No, the boy really should not be here. " Well..." He hesitated a moment. "Despite the fact that Snape likes to make himself look like an intrepid bastard, I think that he is afraid of us."

"Afraid? Of us?" Harry's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.

Sirius nodded and his voice quieted into a hesitant whisper. He would never have thought that he would ever say something like that about Snape of all people, but in the hours in which he had been musing over his 'patient', thinking how best to convince Albus that he was right in his assumptions, he had reached a rather unpleasant conclusion. These were certain things that only accented Snape's already strong sense of mistrust. Unfortunately, some events from their childhood, which were partly his doings too, and of which he had felt prouder of back then as he did today, did only enforced it all. "Yes. You see, from his point of view, it was only to be expected that you would betray him. You are James Potter's son, mind. But us actually wanting to help him, he cannot buy. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much reason to do so, either."

"Why? Because of the Shrieking Shack incident?"

Sirius shook his head. "Not only that. You know Snape wasn't exactly popular at school. James and I couldn't stand the sight of him, and we let him know it, too. He was an easy target. Unpopular, ugly, odd and mean. And the greasy git always reacted to our pranks and teasing and did retaliate with almost as good as he got, and that with means something bordering on the dark arts. Still, there were four of us. Okay, three since Remus almost never joined in, but it was always three against one, and we did some really nasty things and humiliated Snape in front of the entire school. Back then, it seemed hilarious to flip him upside down and take off his underpants in front of the whole student body. We justified our bullying, claiming that the idiot deserved no better. He was the mean Slytherin who knew no scruples and we wanted to hurt him. He had an almost worse character than Draco Malfoy, you know. And then there was the Shrieking Shack, where he could have been killed. Snape is convinced that I will turn on him, stabbing him in the back any second like I would have as a boy and because you are James' son he expects the same from you."

"But he did provoke you!" Harry exclaimed, who had turned a shade paler at Sirius's retelling of the prank with the underpants. "Had he not done so, you surely had left him alone."

Sirius lowered his head, suddenly not able to look into the trusting, hopeful eyes of his godson, and much to his indignation he felt the blood rush to his cheeks. Should he lie to the boy? Harry would only need to ask Remus, or worse, Snape himself, and he would for all time lose any trust in the honesty of his godfather.

"Honestly speaking, we didn't always need a provocation on his part to attack him", he begun hesitatingly and he dove into his own memories of James, the marauders and the probably happiest time of his life, surrounded by friends and acceptance. "We were young and Snape was our chosen enemy, who mostly existed to have the stuffing knocked out of him by us. We were popular with almost everybody at school, except for the Slytherins of course, and getting one over him was regarded as cool. Sometimes we attacked him just because we could do it, or, like the thing with the underpants, to impress others." He looked up, searching for an understanding about immature, foolish teenager stupidities in Harry's eyes but finding nothing but shock and disgust in them.

Sirius swore under his breath. Somehow, the whole story had come out wrong and too late. Sirius remembered Harry telling him how hard it had been for him to be outcast and ridiculed in front of the whole school. He shouldn't have told Harry about the 'not so heroic' actions of the marauders. Now, James' son would think that they had been the only ones culpable. Why did he ever have to let himself get carried away that way and feel sorry for Snape? That's what it had gotten him into now. It wasn't even remotely true that Snape was innocent. Far from it. At that thought, he even managed to stir some of the old, well known flicker of hate in his heart again, but the flame didn't manage to fill his whole being and only stayed an unpleasant, warm feeling in his belly.

"Besides, Snape did dish out his share too, and he knew his hexes, I can tell you, " he added in an almost pleading tone of voice. Sirius regretted his words almost immediately when Harry didn't answer. Admittedly, the answer, in Harry's eyes was probably more than insufficient.

Oppressive silence filled the room.

Harry's eyes were opened wide, his face mirroring various conflicting emotions, none of them positive.

"This can't be true. I mean, it's always he who is so mean. You just wouldn't attack anybody without being provoked in he first place, would you? And Dad ..."

Sirius hated himself for having started on the topic at all. "James was a good man, Harry, and you shouldn't think of him differently because of some youthful stupidities. Besides, you cannot possibly understand what was going on between us Marauders and Snape back then. Snape wasn't an angel. Far from it. Otherwise it wouldn't have been half the fun anyway." Sirius tried unsuccessfully to chase a small smirk at this thought.

Harry swallowed hard and once again fixed his gaze onto the tabletop.

"Harry ..." began Sirius. He had to try at least, to explain to the boy what had happened back then. He owed it to his best friend. The memory was all that remained of James and Sirius would not let this memory become tainted in his only son's eyes. And certainly not because of Snape.

However, he was interrupted by a loud rapping at the door.

Sirius cursed under his breath. "Harry," he tried once again, not willing to let the matter rest so easily.

"It's okay, Sirius."

"Harry, look at me."

After one never-ending second, the teenager finally looked up and met his godfather's gaze. There was too much disappointment in his eyes to make Sirius comfortable.

"We're going to talk about it, Harry. Promised. But please, don't think badly of your father, okay?"

The boy nodded, but the confidence he was trying to display did not reach his eyes.

Once again, the knocking was to be heard, this time even more insistent than before. With a last and almost desperate glance at Harry and sighing softly, Sirius rose to open the door. Originally, only Albus, Remus, and Pomfrey knew about this place, but they would just enter without knocking, wouldn't they? It could hardly be an enemy, since enemies would not bother to knock before they attacked. The door was never locked, anyway. Moreover, the magical wards around the hut would have sounded the alarm. Remus had developed those wards on the basis of a simple foeglass himself and they were very reliable and effective.

When he opened the door, Sirius found himself staring into the grinning faces of Nymphadora Tonks and the tall, dark Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"What on earth are you doing here?"

Tonks was still grinning broadly when answering. "Dumbledore sent us."

"Why? I thought you were busy monitoring the Death Eater hide-outs?"

"We were indeed," Shacklebolt said in his deep baritone. "However, at the moment, there isn't much to do except for waiting and continue with the bugging. We have set up control at headquarters. Momentarily, it's Dung and Molly's turn to monitor any Death Eater activity. We are always on the alert, and all the members, who can do so without raising suspicion, stay at headquarters as often as possible. The others are ready on call any minute, too. As soon as the signal is given, we'll attack."

At this moment, Sirius remembered his manners and made an inviting gesture with his hands.

"Well, just come on in, then. It's bloody cold outside. You haven't come to spend Christmas with us, have you? That would be rather futile. Harry and I will go to the Burrow for Christmas eve. Snape will surely manage alone for a few hours. Albus cannot rob us of every fun."

"Sorry, but this will hardly work, dear cousin," said Tonks while she and Kingsley entered the hut.

Sirius snorted. "And why, pray tell? If you have any objections, you are welcome to take over the baby-sitting. I, for my part, am going to have a true Christmas with my godson whether you like it or not." He crossed his arms over his chest to lend emphasise to his point.

"Then you're going to be rather alone at the Borrow since the entire Weasley family is staying at Grimmauld Place," Tonks giggled.

"What's going on?" came Harry's voice from the kitchen. Shortly after, the teen stepped into the hall, eyeing the two Aurors critically and with unconcealed curiosity. "Oh, visitors?"

"Yes," answered Sirius. "These here are Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Both Aurors and members of the Phoenix order."

Harry's eyes widened as Tonks stepped closer to him before bowing to him theatrically.

"In flesh and blood."

For a moment, Harry's gaze lingered at the neon-yellow hair that was styled back (it looked like it had been in a wind tunnel just prior to their arrival at the hut), before composing himself and giving her a welcoming nod. "My pleasure."

Tonks had noticed his gaze nonetheless and started to giggle again while reverently tracing one particularly pointed lock that jutted out backwards. "You don't think green would suit me better, do you?"

The same moment, her hair changed colours, now displaying an almost blinding neon-green. Harry's eyes almost popped out of their sockets in astonishment.

"Tonks, stop showing off," chided Shacklebolt good-naturedly.

"I'm not showing off," the young Auror objected.

"Sure you do. Why else would you demonstrate this ability of yours whenever you meet a new kid." Turning to Harry, he explained, "Tonks is a Metamorphmagus. She can change her appearance at will."

"I really appreciate your coming here," Sirius interrupted them. "But would you be so kind as to explain why already?"

"As I told you, Albus sent us," Tonks said, now serious again. "Poppy will also be here soon. We are to take Snape to headquarters."

For a short moment, Sirius thought he had not heard correctly. This could not actually happen, could it? "I'm rid of him? I'M RID OF HIM!" Sirius felt like hugging the entire planet. However, he contented himself with throwing his arms around Harry and, overjoyed, spinning him around so violently that the teen almost lost his footing.

"There still is a God. Harry, we're going to spend a wonderful Christmas! Undisturbed nights, people to talk to who don't pour poison over you as soon as they open their mouth ... and the best is," he shuddered in disgust, "I finally won't have to spoon-feed Snape anymore, nor help him to the loo!"

A chuckling sound made him stop. Tonks was trying hard to suppress her laughter and Shacklebolt was grinning in a condescending, self-satisfied manner. Only Harry obviously did not enjoy his godfather's description of Snape's helplessness in such a private matter. He was staring at the floor, scraping the carpet with one of his feet in discomfort, almost making Sirius regret his thoughtless words a little. Snape had succeeded admirably in making practically all the members of the Order dislike him and they might use this embarrassing information against the man later on. Sirius shrugged. It was solely the git's own fault.

"Well, then get him out of here. I'm off packing. Harry, are you coming too?" he asked.

"Just wait a minute, Sirius," Tonks called after him. When Sirius turned around, she threw a small pebble at him, which he caught effortlessly with one hand. "Your portkey so you can take Harry to headquarters," she grinned. "Without it, he wouldn't be able to leave this place." She looked up the stairs, frowning. "Kingsley and I are going to wait for Poppy before moving Snape. She wants to make sure there were no negative reactions to the Strengthening Potion she gave him this morning and that its effects have dissipated sufficiently by now."

"Well, there might be a minor problem..."

"What problem?" echoed a new voice through the hall, and Sirius turned around to see Poppy Pomfrey standing in the still open doorway. "Please don't tell me that you have caused even more problems again, Mr. Black."

"That guy up there is the only one causing problems," Sirius growled at her. "The git was having a nightmare, and I gave him some drops of Dreamless Sleep Potion."

The healer inhaled deeply. "Mr. Black ..."

"Yes, just say it!" Sirius interrupted her rudely. "First, one is condemned to nurse the bastard back to life without being so much as asked and although I'm not interested in the idiot's well-being at all, and when you want to help for once, although the stupid git doesn't deserve it in the least, you get ticked off for it. That's so typical..."

Seething with anger, he turned around and began to mount the stairs. "Do what you want. I'm done with nursing Snape in any case. I'll be busy packing. Harry, we apparate in ten minutes, okay?" Without waiting for a response he disappeared up the stairs and into his room.

It took him even less than ten minutes to pack his duffel bag and return to the little entrance hall, where he waited impatiently for Harry. Tonks and Kingsley were still there, both engaged in a hopeless struggle with some folded Muggle contraption that looked like a chair, only that it had two small, wildly rotating wheels where usually the front legs are supposed to be, and two oversized wheels at the sides.

"Ouch," cursed Tonks, bringing her thump to her mouth, her face contorted in pain. "This blasted thing is bloody dangerous!"

"Pretty much every device is bloody dangerous when in the same room with you, Tonks," lectured Kingsley, although he did not look exactly happy nor more competent at his attempt to shake the tangled front wheels free.

"Why don't we just bring the portkey upstairs and apparate him directly from his bed to Grimmauld Place?" sulked Tonks while scrutinising her thumb for visible bruising without success. She sighed.

"Probably because the house is strongly warded and apparating into it is impossible?" Sirius said irritatedly. What was keeping Harry so long?

Tonks rolled her eyes. "I know that, you dork. It was a rhetorical question."

"And, according to Poppy, we cannot levitate him either. Because of the magical overload. He'll need all the reserves he has for apparating," mumbled Kingsley before giving a triumphant cry when the strange chair finally unfolded with a clatter.

At this moment, Harry walked down the stairs, a suitcase in his hand. "I'm ready, Sirius."

Sirius nodded and turned around, casually raising a hand in the direction of the two Aurors. "See you."

"See you too. Most probably pretty soon," said Shacklebolt. "As soon as Pomfrey gives her okay for apparating. Come on, Tonks, let's drag that monster chair upstairs."

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Thanks to Slytherin's silver snake and Sadistra for betaing:-)