To care
They rushed both bodies towards the nearest set of desk and Rufus cleared the surface with his hand causing an assortment of books and parchment to crash towards the floor. He helped Richard heave the boy onto the desk and pinned the kids struggling shoulders down so that he wouldn't cause himself more harm by moving around too violently. The young auror's mouth opened and the convulsing vibrations from his torso caused Rufus to turn the boy's face to the side so that the blood rising up in his throat would stop choking him.
A mass of thick liquid came oozing out of the man's mouth and the auror gasped as his lungs were finally able to take in air again. Richard was busying himself with cutting the boy's robes off so that they could get to the actual wound. On the table next to them another pair of aurors had positioned the second kid. Rufus knew he wasn't going to make it. He had seen enough of this sort of thing to know when it was hopeless. They shouldn't even be bothering trying to stop the other boy's bleeding, too much of his blood was already on the floor.
He turned his attention back towards Richard who was had cut through the uniform and was busy tearing through the torn, blood soaked shirt. "His name is Brendan Heywood. He joined our ranks last year sometime." Richard muttered while he prodded the flesh wound with his wand. He looked back at Rufus, "Scrimgeour, if this kid dies we will never know what happened."
Rufus nodded impatiently, he knew that; which was why this kid wasn't going anywhere until he had an explanation of what happened. Did they finally track down Black? Did Black perhaps duel them? Is that why they were both so seriously injured when they limped into the building? Would he be able to give an accurate location of where they last saw Black? How long ago where they attacked? He needed to act immediately on this information.
Rufus looked around the hallway, a few aurors who had stayed on well after hours were beginning to notice the noise. In the cubicle not too far away he saw the balding head of Kingsley Shacklebolt poke hesitantly over the wall. "Kingsley, get me something to relieve pain. There is a potions store in Shid's office." Rufus barked at the man. With a confusing frown on Shacklebolts face he left with a swift nod he fled his cubicle.
Rufus turned back to look at the progress Richard was making, the tear in Heywood's chest was slowly growing close underneath Richard's wand tip. Richard was always very good at healing life threatening injuries. He was dead useful to have lying around. "I suppose he is going to make it after all then?" Rufus asked innocently. His arms were getting tired from restraining the jerking figure.
"He will need to be transferred to St. Mungoes. I fixed him up so that he wouldn't bleed to death but there is a lot of tissue damage that will need to be repaired by professionals. We should give him some time before questioning. He is already in shock as it is." Richard withdrew his wand point from the boy's body and caught Rufus's gaze, "You aren't seriously going to question him about this are you?"
Rufus shrugged, "I have a job to do. We cannot let this wait till morning." He turned his head over his shoulder to see a few heads peaking out from the different cubicles, each with a puzzled frown and a keen eye. Kingsley was hurrying back out of Shid's office clasping at least three different bottles and trying to remember which potion was supposed to do what. "Be a dear Richard, and help me sit the boy up will you?"
Law said nothing; Rufus knew that he didn't approve of the idea of heavily medicating the boy purely for the purpose of getting a logical answer out his mouth. Rufus supposed that the consequences wouldn't be that good. Afterwards, when Richard shipped the boy off to St. Mungoes, the healers would have to wait for the potion's effects to ware off before they could continue healing him.
They slowly lifted Heywood's body into a sitting position, causing him to jerk violently and scream his silent anguish.
"You can use this one, I think." Kingsley said as he approached Rufus's side. Shacklebolt pulled the cork off of the tube and with a strong hand grasped hold of Heywood's jaw. The boy's entire head stopped moving and the force which Kingsley exerted onto the man's face with his hand caused Heywood's jaw to fall open. Kingsley slowly let the tube tip into the mouth and waited for all the liquid to run into it before he rearranged his hand on the man's face in order to push it close.
Heywood swallowed reluctantly and immediately the potion kicked in. Rufus nodded in approval over to Kingsley who had managed to successfully not kill his only source of information. "Thank you Shacklebolt, now if you would round up everyone who is still here for a meeting that will start in five minutes, I would be much obliged."
Dismissed.
The convulsing auror had stopped jerking painfully and his body was beginning to slump forwards as all the pain left was numbed by the potion. Next to him Richard removed the silencing charm that was originally put onto the man to stop his hysterical screaming. "Heywood?" Richard asked firmly.
The man's eyes flicked up, "What happened to Walter?" he said instantly.
Rufus took up the position Kingsley's hand had abandoned to keep the boy from turning his head and seeing his dying friend and the two aurors, who were trying to resuscitate him minutes ago, walking off to the meeting Rufus had just called.
"Son, you need to tell me what happened." Richard said gently.
The boy frowned, his eyes darted over to Richard, "Sir, do you remember that old broom you spotted dumped in those bushes on the shore near Azkaban?"
Richard nodded, his intelegent eyes flickering with understanding, "You and Walter were the ones I ordered to follow the trail?"
Rufus could tell that the drug would soon take its full effect. They had to get it all out of him before he went into a heavy drug-trance or a coma or whatever. "Son, did Black do this to you?" he cut in.
Heywood shook his head, then nodded his head, "We found him, him and the boy, out in the country. Black found us out and we were forced to attack."
"Where was this?" Rufus asked urgently.
"I tried to bind the boy up, but he kept resisting, I think I hurt the little guy quite a bit. Then Potter did some weird accidental magic and the bindings caught fire. Black was fighting Walter. I got hit with something and then, this." He continued, ignoring Rufus's question. "Is Walter okay?" he asked again trying to look over to his friend.
"Where was this place?" Rufus asked again, his hand squeezing around the man's jaw.
"I really need to know if he is okay." Heywood whispered.
"Dammit! Just tell me where the fuck you tracked Black to!" Rufus shouted. His tone got the boy's attention.
"It was in a village, Toggeleg."
Bingo.
Rufus was halfway towards the conference room. His steps were quick. His hand was still the perfect mold of the boy's face. He would have to act quickly. He would have to send out a team. He would have to find the village's location on a map. He had to think about this. Why would Black have kept Potter alive this long? And why would Black have gone out into the country? It didn't feel right. What could he possibly want in a village called Toggeleg? Who could Black have known that lived in that village? It wasn't as if Black would run towards his family. Most of his old death eater friends were in Azkaban and the ones who weren't would certainly not endanger themselves by allowing him to hide out at their homes. So it was another type of friend he ran to for shelter. Someone who was perhaps not a death eater? Someone who would be dark enough to help him out anyway.
Someone like that werewolf he and Potter always used to hang out with.
Yeah, that would fit nicely. If Rufus remembered correctly Potter, Black, Pettigrew and the wolf were good friends once. Rufus was half tempted to turn around and head down to werewolf registration and find out if his theory was true. However, that would waste time. Time he didn't have.
He walked into the open double doors of the conference room. A group of about nine aurors looked up at him with curious expression. He had hoped that more would have stayed after hours but it was nearly midnight after all.
"Boy's we have a location."
They apparated to the edge of the village were an old tar road led away from the town to the farmlands that lay between this village and the next. Rufus signaled the aurors behind him to follow quietly and in the semi darkness they jumped the wooden fence, leaving the quiet road for the tall wet grass of the fields that separated them from the werewolf's residence. The wind was picking up and it ran reckless paths through the long grasses, dodging the trees and stone walls that blocked its route.
Above him the moon shone with half of its intensity, still letting enough light fall onto the surroundings so that they could see properly. Every now and then a threatening black cloud would float across the moon's milky face and leave quickly, giving Rufus an indication of just how strong the wind above them was blowing. It was very chilly. His feet were numb in his boots. Automatically he vaulted across the low stone wall into the adjacent field, hearing the sound of feet hitting the ground in rapid succession behind him as he moved forwards at a brisk pace.
The land bent upwards towards the crest of a steep hill upon which a naked tree stood shivering in the disagreeing wind. Behind which the residence of Remus J. Lupin was supposed to be situated. He climbed over another wall and continues marching upwards, his feet encouraged onwards by the tall wet grass, which was whipping at his shins. As the reached the tree, Rufus saw the little house that stood a few hundred meters away. The lights were on and flickering in the wind.
He was about to point the others towards it when several things happened very quickly. A few stunners streaked their way past his shoulders, the wind blurring their edges so that they resembled flying crows. He heard the muffled sounds of the Auror's behind him falling to the rocky ground and turned back just in time to notice the stunner gliding its way towards him. Rufus dodged it, and took out his wand while he squinted in the darkness for the source of the attack.
A slow clapping caused his heart to freeze. It was coming from his right, "Well done, well done. You still seem to be the best dodger amongst the group, hey Rufus old friend?" It was Haden, "but, you should know by now that my stunners are charmed to hit the target, no matter how many times they are dodged."
Rufus only had the time to curse mentally before he felt a force hit him squarely in the back, knocking him forwards onto his knees. He tried taking a deep breath, but found that his lungs were struggling to cooperate. The wind had been knocked out of him. Rufus scrambled around on the grass until his body relaxed enough to allow a steady flow of air back into his lungs. All he could hear was his shallow breathing, and all he could see was the dark grass blades flashing their mocking smiles at him in the moonlight.
A set of hands pulled his head up, their fingers were twisted into his hair, and a cold voice whispered into his ear, "I have a proposal to make you. I hope this time you will not get upset and runaway."
Haden's eyes were gleaming with pleasure. It was a gleam that Rufus knew well. This was the look of triumph you found in the man's face after one of his plans had been played out to the smallest of detail. The lengthy shadows wrapped themselves around his face and twisted the shape to bring about a look of insanity. In Haden's hand however, there was no weapon to accompany the madness growing in his smile, instead it was a brown folder; the corners of the pages inside of it were flapping madly in the wind as they tried to break free of the paper clip that held them all in place.
Rufus choked on another mouth full of air, "Haden, what is this?" he asked meekly, "Sirius Black is in that house. Why aren't you recapturing him?"
The madness left Haden's face and it froze over into something that once again resembled sadness. The man's eyes were digging into his trying to find some understanding, "I am Warden of Azkaban Rufus. That is what it says on my paycheck," the wind wallowed around there heads, "But I am telling you now that I am nothing more but a prisoner myself." He looked over towards the cottage and chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Sirius Black," he said after a while, "however, is not a prisoner. He was never proven guilty Rufus. By law, he is breaking no laws. This," he said turning his head back and lifting up the file, "is a file I found in that hidden room you people lock up your lies in. I made a few copies of it, and if you do not let Black go, I can promise you that it will find its way to a newspaper or to the Wizengamont."
Rufus flinched, and pleaded hastily into his old friends face, "I need to capture him. He took the Potter boy. Can you imagine how the wizarding world would react to that information alone? I need to capture him. I need to kill hi-"
"No." Haden interrupted in a throatily, "You need to let go of it Rufus. You already lost. You already lost. You need to let go of it all now. You need to let go of the war. You need to let go of your lust for revenge. We both know this has nothing to do with Magical Britain or its reaction to this information. This is your heart hunting down the things that it thinks would bring you peace." The hand around his hair loosened its hold, "Let it go Rufus. Just let go."
Something hard hit him over the head.
The world of semi-darkness faded into Black.
The memories just kept coming back. Every smell and every object in the room opened up some part of his past. He would suddenly remember all the random things he had done in his youth. It all came too quickly.
Sirius was overwhelmed by the sudden restoration of his memory. At the same time he wished he didn't have to remember the way things used to be. It just reminded him how painfully different things were now. When he was in Azkaban all he knew was that Remus was his friend and that they had spent their youths together at Hogwarts. Now he was seeing how Remus had changed from the kid he remembered from school. His mind was starting to list the differences between his school chum and the prematurely old werewolf that sat on the bed staring down at his godson with a distant look in his eyes. Moony wasn't the same anymore.
"It looks as if he is okay now, don't you think?" Remus asked him.
Sirius met his old friend's eyes. "I dunno. I don't think anybody is going to be okay for a long time." They had both been awake for hours and had not spoken more than a hundred words to each other. Sirius thought that it would be easy to speak to Remus; that they would spend hours talking about everything that happened the past seven years. He thought it would all come out naturally like it used to in his memories. He thought he would have spilled his heart out by now.
The head beneath Sirius's hand moved as the little boy sighed and snuggled further into the warm covers. It was quite cold this early in the morning and Sirius had collected every blanket he could find to cover Harry with. Maybe Harry was too warm now. Sirius would rather have Harry feel too warm than too cold.
"I wonder what he is dreaming about." Remus asked after a reasonable stretch of silence, "I wonder if he is dreaming about Lily and James."
Sirius sighed as he stroked Harry's head again. His memories of himself were ones where he was a over confident extrovert. Yet Sirius couldn't get himself to start a conversation between them. Remus had been trying very hard the past hour to get them both talking.
It would be sunrise soon.
"I haven't told Harry about padfoot yet." Sirius hesitated at the randomness of his comment. He mentally shrugged as he saw Remus shift his attention towards him. Remus looked relieved that some attempt at conversation was being made by Sirius. "I thought it would be a lot for the kid to take in. You know, his godfather is actually a dog doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would tell a kid who has recently been through what he has been through. It would confuse him or scare him or something."
An unfamiliar smile crept onto Remus's face. It didn't quite register with his memories. Sirius had never seen it before. "You have changed a lot." Remus said simply, "The old you wouldn't have given a damn. I was surprised that you didn't begin parading padfoot in front of him the moment we got out of that street. You would want to show off to your godson. You used to do it all the time when Harry was little. Lily would get so mad at you."
"Yeah, I think she tried to kick me out of the house once-" Sirius continued with a painful frown. It wasn't nice remembering the many different curses Lily put on him.
"But you never stayed away for too long." Remus finished with a raw smile, "You slept on their coach for about a year afterwards. It used to drive Lily mad. She would go on these howling fits and be furious with James. The next morning she would be asking you if you wanted bacon or sausage."
"I always did say that Lily was a bit mad." Sirius added on as an after thought. "She didn't like me at all. And when James chose me to be the godfather over you she had kittens. Went on a rampage about how irresponsible I was and how I couldn't take care of myself and probably wouldn't be able to take care of Harry. She always made me feel so loved and appreciated."
"Lily loved you like a brother Padfoot." Remus corrected in the same calm voice he used to preach to them at school in, "She might not always have, expressed it in a, reasonable way."
"what? You mean that time she started throwing her tea set at me was actually a very touching act of love? Gods Moony she nearly blinded me with that teapot." Sirius was enjoying this. The memories this conversation brought up were all good. They were all happy. "You and James were having a wonderful time though."
"It was very entertaining," Remus admitted trying to suppress the smile which was slowly twitching its way onto his face. "Don't get me wrong but watching Lily take out her frustrations on you was always funny. It's too bad Peter always had to rush off to his death eater meetings and didn't bother sticking around a while."
The sentence hung in the air. Sirius was left staring blankly at his friend through the dim light that shone into the room from the new morning sky. He didn't want to think about Peter and the casual way Remus was talking about the traitor was shocking. There was actual regret in the man's voice. It was as if Remus was actually sad that the little rat was never around much. It was wrong.
Remus got that weird smile on his face again and maintained eye contact with him for a while, before he shuffled off of the bed and stood up, "Sirius, don't get me wrong, I really don't like what Peter did. But knowing the truth about the past doesn't change it. He was our friend at Hogwarts and he was out friend after Hogwarts. No matter how much you might hate him, you cannot change what he meant to you." It was a very uncomforting smile. It was cold and it was teasing and much too grown up for Sirius's liking. Sirius didn't move a muscle as Remus began walking towards the door. "I'll make us some tea. I don't think eight year olds get up this early so I don't see the point in waiting for him to wake up." He said before he slipped out of the door into the cold, dark corridor that ran into the kitchen.
Sirius looked down at Harry. His fists were curled up around handfuls of blanket. He was remembering that the thing he always hated the most about Remus didn't change in the seven years he spent in Jail. The old wolf was still always right.
His godson seemed to be sleeping very peacefully. Then again from what Sirius remembered about Harry when he was younger, he did sleep a lot. Lily always used to go on about how blessed she was that her son slept when he was tired. Sirius wondered if Harry had changed a lot from the little baby he used to play with. Well obviously the kid would have grown. And, obviously he would have changed. And, well, obviously he wouldn't be like he was when he was one. It was a stupid thought anyway.
As he walked down the dark corridor, Sirius couldn't help but to wonder if what Remus had said was actually true. Had he changed a lot? Was it true that he never really gave a damn back then? Was he really such an inconsiderate person? He might not always have shown it in the right way but Sirius knew that he had always cared about people.
He paced into the kitchen and his eyes flickered up to find Remus. "Do you?" he asked the man as he leaned back onto the counter.
Remus was busy rummaging through his cupboard looking for suitable containers to drink tea from. He stopped suddenly and threw Sirius a very confused stare, "Do I what?"
Sirius shrugged, "Do you dream about Lily and James sometimes?"
"Oh," Remus unfroze and continued searching his cupboard, "not really."
"It must have been hard for you to get over their death and everything that happened." Sirius pressed on. "You must have worked through some serious denial."
Remus shrugged, "So would anybody if they wake up one morning and find out that three of their best friends were just gone." Remus charmed the kettle so that the water would begin to boil.
"And what about me?" Sirius asked him after a while. "How did you feel about me? Did you feel angry at me? Did you feel shocked? How did you feel when you found out that James and Lily were supposedly betrayed by me?"
Remus turned to face him with a blank expression, "Where is this going Sirius?" he asked with a solemn face.
"Just answer the question." Sirius urged on, "How did you feel about me?"
"I don't know. I was rather upset I suppose. Everyone trusted you so much." He acknowledged.
A silence fell between them again. Sirius was having a hard time digesting the words, "You were upset? Upset? Is that all you felt? You didn't feel betrayed or you didn't have a hard time believing it. You just felt, upset?" Did Remus really used to think that about him? Did everybody think that about him in the past? "You make it sound like you weren't surprised at all Remus. You make it sound as if you knew all along I was going to let James down."
"Sirius, I didn't say any such thing." His friend stated calmly, "You are blowing things out of proportion."
"Remus, believe it or not, I was never the insensitive jerk you and Lily had me figured out to be." Sirius felt his fist curling into the counter top. "I would never have done a thing to hurt either of them."
"Padfoot-" Remus said as he tried to interrupt.
"I know I never really showed you guys that I was a responsible adult-"
"Padfoot-" Remus tried again.
Sirius ignored him, "-but that doesn't mean that I wasn't responsible. There was a reason that James trusted me you know. You know James. With his dad and the way James was raised all paranoid about trusting people. Don't you think he would have had a reason for trusting me? Didn't you once think for a second, in all the seven years I sat locked up in Azkaban, that I didn't do it? Why would I hurt James and Lily that way Remus? Why would I hurt you that way? You guys were always the only thing I had!"
"Shhh." Remus hissed forcefully, "Don't start shouting. You will probably wake up Harry. Look Sirius, I am sorry that I didn't think twice about it. I really am. This is just the way things happened. You won't believe how guilty and sorry I feel for it. Anyway, I really need to go into the village to buy some milk. Just keep it down will you?"
Remus pushed away from the counter and with an unreadable look he had seen in many memories Remus moved towards the door. It was odd, but in Sirius's memories, Remus always acted this way sometimes. Sirius still couldn't figure out what the mood meant. It was the complete mood swing that Remus always did when Sirius started bitching to him about something. It was such a moony thing to do. In a sad way it brought his some comfort.
The front door opened and the cold wind that was blowing outside rushed into the cottage. Remus stayed standing in the doorway for a moment, "I really am sorry, Padfoot." He muttered before slamming it closed behind him. His voice was of haunting sincerity.
Sirius would admit that the things he used to do when he was younger weren't always so great. He would do very stupid things most of the time. But were his actions back then an accurate description of who he was? Remus and the rest of the world seemed to have expected him to be the sort to kill all those people and betray his best friend. It was as if they had all been waiting for him to turn bad. Nobody had found what he had been accused of difficult to believe.
Was it because of the way he had been raised? Was it the way he used to act? Was it the family he came from? Remus accepted it easier than he excepted James and Lily dying. Was he really such an asshole back then? Sirius sat down at the kitchen table facing the door and the big window besides it. His hands were numb with cold.
He wasn't a bad person. He was never a bad friend. He might have been a bit childish seven years back and he didn't take much seriously. He pulled a lot of pranks and made fun of a lot of people. But he was scarcely out of his bloody teens back then. How could everyone have expected him to just grow up overnight? It was unfair. All he ever tried to do was to have fun. He just wanted to live his life to the fullest. How could people mistrust him for it?
It was just so unfair.
Remus stumbled into the cottage and slammed the door shut behind him. The wind had rubbed his face raw and his entire body was shivering from the cold weather outside. His insides had frozen over as well, but for a completely different reason. When he looked up he saw Sirius sitting at the table looking at him with a curious expression on his sullen face. "Sirius, we need to take this all to Dumbledore. The faster we do it the better." Remus said trying to even out his breathing.
Had they seen him? How long would it be until they were standing at the door? What was he going to do? Dumbledore would be furious at him for not reporting Sirius and Harry straight away. He didn't want to make his old headmaster angry. It wasn't a good thing. Albus Dumbledore had always been a trusting and kind wizard. He had always given Remus as much respect as he would give any other human being. Remus didn't want Dumbledore to be angry at him. He didn't want the old headmaster to be inconvenienced by anything Remus did. Hiding a mass murderer and a stolen Harry Potter was defiantly something which would inconvenience Dumbledore. No doubt the old man had been trying tirelessly to find Harry. But, if Remus acted quickly and told Dumbledore that Sirius was here with Harry before his headmaster got here; if he wasn't seen by Moody in the village. Then Dumbledore couldn't be angry at him because Remus did indeed tell him the truth. He had to act quickly.
Sirius swallowed the mouth full of coffee and tilted his head in confusion, "I just got here Remus, and I don't think it would be a good idea to get Dumbledore involved just yet. You said he was pretty much against me and still is." His friend's head turned towards the hallway door and towards Harry.
Remus felt his breathing pick up a notch. What was going to happen? What if Dumbledore took Sirius and Harry away and he never got to see either of them again? Remus shook of his coat and let it drop to the floor. "I think they already know we are here Sirius. On my way into town I sort of came across these scorch marks near the road. They were made by curses Sirius. Wizards were here last night. I bet you anything they were aurors. Someone followed you here." Remus was frantically searching for some parchment in cupboards. He was remembering the weird circumstances which led up to the encounter he had with mad eye in the village. He had walked past the man hoping that Mad-eye's eye was looking somewhere ells. "If the aurors knew you were here, than Dumbledore knows you are here. We need to do something." Remus started pulled an old ruffled roll out from under a book of cooking recipes. He snatched up the quill and started writing.
He addressed the headmaster formally. Then started scribbling down a very brief explanation of what happened. He had to send this quickly; he had to send this quickly. How far away were they? How quickly were they walking? His headmaster could always walk either very quickly or very slowly. So he didn't know how much time he had before they came barging in. Arresting Sirius and taking Harry away. He couldn't let them take Harry away. He loved Harry. He needed to be around the boy. The kid looked so much like James and acted so much like Lily.
"Maybe you should write slower. Calm it down a bit. And tell me what you are doing." Sirius put a calming hand on his shoulder. "What aren't you telling me? Why are you so out of breath?"
Remus stopped writing for a moment and looked up at him with fearful eyes, "I was followed on my way home Sirius. It was Mad-eye. They are coming Padfoot. Dumbledore and Moody are on their way and they - I just don't know what to do."
It was true. Remus didn't know what to do any more. Dumbledore would probably be here any moment. Would it even matter if he wrote the damn letter? The headmaster would have seen through it and moody would defiantly have noticed him in the first place back in the village. Not only would he lose his friend and James's son but he would lose the trust of the one man who always gave him a chance. The first man to look past the fact that he was a werewolf. Remus didn't know what to do. He dropped the quill and abandoned the letter. "How are you going to convince Dumbledore that you are innocent? I just got you and Harry back I don't want the two of you to be taken away. I just. Don't know what to do. They are coming." Remus was working himself into a state.
Sirius's grip on his shoulder increased and Remus felt himself hold back tears. This was turning out to be the worst day since that Halloween. It was all going horribly wrong. Before Remus had chance to think another thought the front door burst open. Remus's head shot up and turned towards Dumbledore and Moody who were both walking briskly into the room with their wands drawn. Remus watched in horror as Mad-eye stunned Sirius. Sirius's grip on his shoulder relaxed and his friend fell towards the floor before Remus could do anything.
"Remus, do you know where Harry is." Dumbledore asked in a stern voice. His blue eyes had no twinkle in them and his face was expressionless. It frightened Remus so much. "Remus, do you have any idea were Harry Potter is?" Dumbledore asked again.
Slowly Remus nodded, his eyes watching as Mad-eye went about the business of tying Sirius's body to a chair. This was just awful. Sirius didn't do it. This was just wrong.
"Where is he?" Dumbledore asked moving towards him. "Remus where is Harry? Show me." He commanded placing his old hand on the place where Sirius's palm had rested moments before. "Remus, I need to know that Harry is okay. Please try and understand that this is very important."
The headmaster's eyes did not at all compliment his voice which had suddenly gone soft. Reluctantly Remus's head nodded, "He is in the bedroom." Remus said quietly, with another glance at Sirius's limp body being tied to a chair by a very pissed of Moody, Remus began moving towards the hallway door and towards his bedroom. The headmaster followed briskly. "Professor," he started saying, "This isn't what it seems."
The man behind him said nothing, when they got to the door Remus opened it and Dumbledore brushed past him into the bedroom. The old man located Harry very quickly and approached the bed immediately. "Remus, is Harry harmed in any way?" Dumbledore asked him quietly his old hand resting on Harry's head.
"No, sir. He is just tired. Professor, please listen to me." Remus said urgently, "This is all a big misunderstanding. Sirius didn't do it. Sirius didn't kill those muggles. He is innocent."
The old man heaved a great sigh and relaxed visibly, "you are the second person to tell me thus. Do not worry Remus, I came here only to find out the truth." The old man looked up at him with the usual twinkling eyes, "You would excuse me for my rudeness Remus. I am sorry that we barged in here like we did. The warden of Azkaban contacted me this morning at a very early hour and told me that Sirius and Harry were to be found at your residence. I intend to question Mr. Black. That is all. The minister for magic and the head auror are very determined to kill Sirius and I think that I might be able to provide some protection against that if I know the truth of the matter." Dumbledore looked once more upon Harry and then turned away from him altogether and headed back towards the door.
Remus felt relief spread through him. He took a deep breath, "Sir, if Sirius is innocent, what will happen?"
The old man drew up next to him and looked at him curiously, "A great many things Remus. I will of course bring Sirius's case up in the Wizengamont which would stall Cornerlius and Rufus from acting against Sirius's life. Ultimately, I suppose Sirius would be proven innocent in front of a full jury of members. If your friend is innocent I would let him stay here in your care if you choose." Dumbledore stated fairly.
"I would. But Professor, what would happen to Harry?" Remus asked quietly looking over to the little boy's sleeping form.
"Harry will be taken back to his family's residence in Surrey." Dumbledore said calmly.
"Can't he stay here, for at least a while?" Remus blurted out, "I – I finally get to see him. I want him to stay."
"Harry is safest at his aunt's house Remus," Dumbledore said with a distant look in his eyes, "But, I will speak with her and if she agrees then I do not see why the boy cannot stay the duration of Christmas." A soft smile touched Dumbledore's lips. He left the room after fixing Remus with an understanding look and went back into the kitchen where Moody had probably already set everything up for the questioning.
Remus let out the breath he had been holding. Everything suddenly seemed fine. Sirius was innocent and when Dumbledore found it out he would go out of his way to make sure everything worked out fine. Dumbledore would take care of it from here on in. And, Harry didn't have to go home. He could stay here. It was perfect. It was more than Remus could have hoped for. Today wasn't such a bad day after all.
Harry wormed his way out of the covers and slowly let his feet drop to the wooden floor. He didn't know where Sirius and Moony was. They were there when he fell asleep and when he woke up they were just gone. Harry didn't think that they would leave him all alone. Moony would certainly not leave a house as nice as this. They would come back. Moony had to come back to the house. They wouldn't leave him all alone. And even if they did it wouldn't be that bad. Moony's house was very far away from Private Drive and there were a lot of books to keep him busy. It would take ages to read all of them. Then there were also the photo albums. They would take ages to look through. It wouldn't be that bad if they didn't come back for him, but it wouldn't be that great either.
Harry really liked Sirius and Moony. They were really nice to him. Sirius even bandaged his back just like aunt Petunia did whenever Dudley hurt himself. She would clean the wound, just like Sirius cleaned his back; she would wrap it up in bandages just like Sirius did last night. And last night, Sirius and Moony tucked him into bed. Just like aunt Petunia did every single night with Dudley. They didn't read him a story. But Harry didn't really mind. He had no doubt that moony could read. Moony was really clever and Moony knew so much. But he wasn't sure if Sirius could read. So he wasn't angry at Sirius for not reading him a bedtime story. He also wasn't angry at moony for not reading him a bedtime story. Moony was probably very tired. Harry had been asking him so many questions. Aunt Petunia always said that answering questions was troublesome. So Moony had to be very troubled after Harry had asked him all those questions about his mum and dad.
Harry looked around the room as he stood there. His shirt was very big and quiet old, but it was soft and clean. He was used to clothes like this. All his clothes were big and old. Though Moony's clothes were different, they felt different. It was like Moony really loved his clothes. Harry couldn't quite explain it. But it was like Moony took care of them. Dudley never took care of his clothes. There were always holes in them and they were always stained by the time Harry got them. The sleeves were usually frayed and the material was always so thin.
He quite liked Moony's house. There were so many books. Everything was wooden and worn. Everything was old and used. It wasn't at all like Aunt Petunia's house. It felt real. It felt like real people lived here. The room was really beautiful. Two bookshelves lined one wall and an old wardrobe was on the other side. Everything smelled like Moony. Everything looked like moony too. It was all old and proper and used. Like it was a million years old.
Harry walked over to the bookshelf, and looked at the interesting books. They looked very old and all their spines were cracked so many times that Harry thought they must have been read many times. He could just imagine Moony sitting in the old chair near the fireplace and reading the books. Over and over again. They would be like friends to him. Whenever Moony got sad he would read the book that made him laugh. Whenever Moony got lonely he would read the book that made him feel loved. Harry really liked books because they could make everything better.
The door creaked open behind him and Harry's head spun backwards. Sirius's head was wedged between the door and the wall and he had a soft smile on his lips, "You are awake," he said happily, "I didn't really know how long you would be sleeping in but I am glad you are up." The door creaked open further and Sirius walked into the bedroom, "Did you sleep well Harry?"
Harry nodded, "I slept fine." He said shortly turning his body away from the bookshelf. Sirius came to a stop in front of him. "I thought you and Moony went-went away." Harry added on as he stared into his godfathers blue eyes. "I- I woke up and –and you weren't here."
"We were in the kitchen Harry." Sirius replied gently, his hand came to rest lightly on his head. "What would you say to some breakfast? I bet you are hungry."
Harry bit his lip and allowed Sirius to street him out of the room. Harry was very hungry. He hadn't eaten in a long time. But he didn't really want to say anything to Sirius. He didn't really want to annoy Sirius or anything. Because Harry knew that Sirius had been hungry too and if Sirius could do something to feed himself he would have done it. So there was nothing Sirius could do to feed Harry and complaining to Sirius would only make Sirius angry at him. Harry didn't want Sirius to be angry at him. Harry wanted Sirius to like him. But it didn't change the fact that he was still hungry.
"What would you like for breakfast Harry," Sirius asked as he opened the kitchen door, "Remus made some porridge. Do you like Porridge?"
Harry nodded vigorously. He didn't really like porridge, but he wasn't going to let Sirius and Moony know that. If they liked porridge than they wouldn't like it if he didn't like porridge. If Harry kept Moony and Sirius happy, they would maybe let him stay longer. Maybe forever. That way he would never have to go back to private drive and could spend everyday reading books with moony and talking to Sirius and going through the old albums with the pictures of his mum and dad. Forever and ever. Until school started again. Maybe Harry could go to a school near Moony's house. Then he would be able to live here. If Sirius and Moony were okay with him going to school. If they weren't okay with it. Harry could always just stay here and read. He could read all of Moony's books and be just as clever as Moony afterwards.
"good morning Harry." Moony said looking up from the news paper. Which was odd because Uncle Vernon always shouted at Harry when he was busy reading the news paper. Moony folded the news paper and placed it neatly besides his half empty plate of porridge, "I trust you slept well."
Harry nodded as Sirius helped him into a chair. Harry could get into the chair himself, but Sirius always seemed to want to do things like that. It was sort of annoying, but as long as Sirius was happy, he could stay. Sirius disappeared behind him towards the stove and Harry was left staring at Moony. Moony's face was all weird. He had that odd look in his eyes again, the one he always got when he was staring at Harry. It wasn't an uncomfortable look. But it always made Harry sad. There was just something in Moony's eyes that was sad.
"Did you have any good dreams?" Sirius asked him, setting a steaming plate of porridge and a clean spoon in front of Harry and taking up the seat next to him. "Do you want me to help you eat? Do you want something to drink? I think Remus has some milk, and some juice. I don't know which kind of juice it is."
"Orange juice." Moony answered with a frown, "I think I used to have grape juice but I finished it last week sometime."
"He has orange juice. Would you like me to get you some orange juice?" Sirius continued, "or how about a glass of water? Do you even like orange juice?"
"If you don't like orange juice we could always go out and buy something else." Moony interrupted.
Harry bit his lip again. He didn't want them to go out and buy something especially for him. "Orange juice." Harry answered.
Sirius jumped up and disappeared behind him again, busying himself in the kitchen. Harry picked up the clean spoon and began wolfing down the porridge. He didn't really like porridge but it was food. And if Moony liked porridge than Harry didn't want to upset him by not eating it. Aunt Petunia always got upset whenever Dudley said her food wasn't good enough. She would cry and then get into the car and drive into town to buy him take away food. Harry didn't really mind what he ate. Though he really didn't like porridge. He just didn't want to make Moony and Sirius cry like Dudley always made aunt Petunia cry. He wanted to stay here.
Harry just wished they would let him do somethings. Harry could make his own breakfast and get his own orange juice. He felt bad that Sirius had to do it. He didn't want to make Sirius's life difficult. But he didn't want to make Sirius upset by telling him that he couldn't do things for Harry anymore. It was confusing, but it looked like Sirius was enjoying doing all these things for him. Harry didn't really know why. Nobody every enjoyed doing things for him. That is why nobody ever did anything for him. Except Moody. Moody took Harry to see Sirius even though he never enjoyed it. He was always very sad. And Haden was even more sad when he tried taking Harry home. He had a very sad face. Harry didn't like it. He didn't want to make all these grown ups so sad. It was exactly the same type of sad that he saw in Moony's eyes. Moody and Moony's names were almost exactly the same. It was odd. They were both really miserable too.
Sirius set a large glass of orange juice besides his plate and sat down at Harry's side again, "Do you want anything else?"
Harry shook his head shyly, "Thankyou, its-its lovely."
Sirius nodded, "It's a pleasure kid."
Harry ate another spoonful of his porridge. He wanted to ask questions about what was going to happen next. But he didn't want to upset Sirius and moony. He wanted to know if he was going back to private drive but he didn't want to give them ideas. Grown ups were funny that way. You had to be careful what you said in front of them. They usually got funny idea's from the things you said.
"Do you like it here?" Moony asked softly.
Harry knew that Moony had been watching him. Moony did that last night too. He just kept watching Harry with that sad look in his eyes. "yes." Harry answered; he paused for a moment in his eating and looked around the room. It seemed in every room there were books. Harry liked that.
"I thought that if you are finish eating you might want to finish taking a look at those albums." Moony pressed on.
Harry's face lit up. Moony was looking at him with a sincere smile. He was being serious. Moony would actually sit with him and look at all the pictures and answer all his questions. Moony was really nice. Aunt Petunia would never do that. Aunt Petunia never talked about his mum and dad. Harry didn't even think that Aunt Petunia had a photo album of his mum and dad. Moony was too nice to Harry. It was something that was beginning to make Harry feel uncomfortable.
"Yeah, and afterwards we could do some other fun stuff." Sirius added on. "We could go for a walk or play games or-"
"read." Harry interrupted. He bit his lip immediately. He didn't mean to let it slip. He was just – he really wanted to read.
"or we can read." Sirius carried on, "do you want to read one of those books in Moony's room?"
Harry wiggled his lip between his teeth for a while before brining himself to answer, "Yes." He blurted out. He had wanted to read one of the books for ages. Moony and Sirius were smiling at each other. It was a secretive smile that Harry wasn't really apart of. But Harry didn't mind. It was fine. He didn't need to be apart of it as long as he was here. Moony and Sirius were so nice to Harry. They spoke so softly to him. He wished he could make them like him as much as Harry liked them. He wished he could maybe even make them love him like aunt Petunia always loved Dudley. Harry wished he knew how to make someone love him. He could never really figure out how Dudley did it. Dudley always complained and made aunt Petunia cry. But aunt Petunia loved him no matter how naughty he had been. Dudley was allowed to break stuff and make a mess and aunt Petunia always loved him.
Harry was not allowed to break stuff or make a mess. Aunt Petunia didn't love Harry even when he did break stuff and make a mess. Harry never really knew why. It was rather unfair. He wished he knew how Dudley did it. Maybe it was one of those things some people are just born with. The ability to make people love you was something Harry was just not born with. That would be why aunt Petunia never treated Harry like she did Dudley. But Sirius and Moony were nice men. They were so nice and they didn't shout. Not once did they shout at him yet. Harry wished he could make them love him. That way he would never have to go back. He could stay here and they would always be this kind to him.
Maybe if Harry was really good, Sirius and Moony would tuck him in again tonight like they did last night. Maybe they would make him breakfast again if he were really really good. If he just did like they wanted to then Harry couldn't make them angry. But it was hard. Because Sirius and Moony hadn't told him yet what would make them angry. Aunt Petunia always had rules. He wasn't allowed to go there or do this in her house. But here nobody had told him what he was and wasn't allowed to do yet. So Harry didn't know. So it would be very difficult to be good. Because there were no rules to follow. And if there were no rules to follow then it would be easier to break them because he didn't know what they were.
So it would be very difficult but Harry had to be perfect. If he was perfect he would never have to go back. And he could always be here. Forever and ever. Maybe even up till after the holiday's. He would never have to go back. He could live here, with uncle Moony and his godfather Sirius. It was very far away from private drive. For always.