Through Another's Eyes

By Neurotica

Six

Harry had paced the length of Albus Dumbledore's office so many times in the last half hour that he was certain that if he looked, he would see a worn path in the carpeting. His Headmaster had told him to remain there while he'd gone to speak to Lily and James. That had only been half an hour ago, but it seemed so much longer. Harry kept replaying the vision he'd experienced in his mind, continued to see his godfather's face contorted in pain. He'd wanted to go with Dumbledore, had actually begged, to help in whatever ways he could, but Dumbledore had been adamant in directing Harry to the chair in front of his desk to await his return. But Harry had only managed to remain seated for one minute and twenty-eight seconds before his nervous energy had him up and pacing.

A low, crooning note stopped Harry in his tracks. He turned around to look for the source, immediately finding Fawkes on his perch, watching his every move. Harry smiled very slightly and started towards the phoenix. "Sorry, Fawkes," he said quietly, reaching out a hand to run along the creature's head. "Making you nervous, am I? Well, I'm a little nervous myself. Nothing's gone right since I got here; no matter how much I try to change things, they only get worse." Harry backed up until he hit Dumbledore's desk; he leaned on the edge and looked at Fawkes thoughtfully. "You know, where I'm from, you saved my life once." Fawkes crooned softly again as if in question; Harry nodded. "Bit of a long story, but I'd gotten impaled by a blind basilisk and the only things that kept me from a probably very painful death were your tears."

"There's a hell of a story in there..."

Harry jumped and turned, surprised to find his mother dusting off ashes from the Floo—he hadn't even been aware the Floo had been activated. With the briefest of glances at Fawkes, Harry headed towards Lily and tried to smile; he failed the second he got a good look at the witch. It had only been a little over an hour since he'd come to Dumbledore with his vision and he knew Sirius was like a brother to Lily, that she would want to find him just as much as anybody else, but there had to have been something else going on to make her look like that. And there was only one something he could think of that might have happened since he'd been safely tucked away in Dumbledore's office.

Gulping, Harry slowly approached his mother, noticing her reddened eyes as they avoided his. "H-have you found Sirius?" he asked in a whisper, unsure if he wanted the answer.

But Lily seemed to read his mind. "We don't know anything new," she told him. "But thanks to you, we do have a lead on Sirius' whereabouts; James and Sirius are there as we speak looking for clues."

Relieved there was still a chance Sirius was alive, Harry let this new bit of information sink in. He raised an eyebrow. "Is that safe?" he asked dubiously.

Lily raised an eyebrow back. "No." The honest answer made Harry crack a small grin. "But James and Remus have done this before and they'll take care of each other."

"What, they've had to rescue Sirius from captivity before?"

"Yes actually," his mother answered wearily. "But if you don't mind, that's a story for another day, I think."

Harry nodded a little, still none the wiser about why his mother seemed on the verge of panic. "So not to sound rude or ungrateful, but why are you here?"

Lily gave a tiny smile as her eyes betrayed an inner battle of some sort in her mind; to Harry, it seemed as though she wanted desperately to say something, but was uncertain if she should. "I wanted to see you," she eventually said. "Albus refused to let you leave the school with everything that's going on and I thought we both could use the company."

Harry waited for her to expand, but she remained silent for the moment as she led him back to the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. He didn't like the silence that followed. Lily's eyes darted to his face every few seconds, a muscle in her jaw fighting against the urge to speak. It was a look he knew well thanks to Hermione. He'd lost track of the number of times his friend refrained from commenting on something he and Ron were discussing or doing, usually when it involved something that kept them from schoolwork. Whatever was on his mother's mind, she wasn't going to share it on her own.

"What's wrong?" Harry finally blurted after the fifth time the witch had drawn in a breath to speak only to release it again in annoyance at herself.

She stared at him for a moment or two before nodding resolutely. "We were attacked tonight," she began quietly. Harry felt his heart skip a beat as she told him of the Death Eaters allegedly sent as a distraction to kidnap Piper. She told him of the note they'd received about Piper being wherever Sirius was and how James had almost immediately jumped at the chance to get out and do something that might help find his daughter and best friend.

Harry remained quiet when she finished. He didn't know how to respond even if he could manage to speak; he could sense how terrified and lost Lily was in this situation, especially considering only three weeks had gone by since she lost the son she'd known since she'd given birth fifteen years ago.

There were a hundred questions flooding Harry's brain, but he couldn't find the voice to ask even one—why would the Death Eaters take Piper? What could a five-year-old have done to piss off Voldemort? Harry rolled his eyes at himself; what had a fifteen-month old done to piss him off? Existed. He recalled hearing of a prophecy from the other Harry, the one originally from this world, about him being the only one with the ability to vanquish the Dark Lord. If that prophecy existed in his old world, Harry knew it would explain a hell of a lot.

But there was no prophecy that referred to Piper, was there? There was nothing about her from which Voldemort could benefit.

Except me, Harry thought suddenly. Maybe he's hoping I'd be the one to run off on a rescue mission. And that's probably why Dumbledore kept me here too; he probably thought he same.

They'd be right. Harry knew if he'd been given half the chance or less, he'd have gone off to search for Sirius on his own. Lily had arrived before he'd gotten the chance to think of it.

"Harry."

The boy had been so lost in his thoughts that he'd barely heard his name. His eyes snapped away from a spot on the carpet to meet his mother's. He felt slightly guilty as he realized he'd started planning a way out of Hogwarts to help James and Remus find Sirius and Piper when Lily needed him here. She'd said as much when she'd arrived, hadn't she? He looked at her questioningly.

She hesitated again. "Albus told us about your vision," she said quietly. "And I know it's probably not something you can control, but..." Her voice trailed off and she shook her head, deciding not to continue.

Harry was curious, though. "What?" he whispered.

She looked at him regretfully. "Just..." Lily took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Is there any way that you can see where Piper is and if she's okay?"

The boy felt winded. He immediately knew the answer to the question, but the look of desperate hope on Lily's face stopped him from saying it aloud. He wished there was a different answer...

"I don't know," he whispered, staring at his shoes. "I've only ever been able to see what he sees, to feel what he feels. And it only started last year. If there is a way to control it, I haven't learned it yet..."

Lily's eyes shut tightly in disappointment and Harry wished he could take the words back. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

Her eyes snapped open again and she shook her head. "No," she said quickly. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't ask that of you. I know if there was something you could do, you'd do it." Harry nodded and they were again thrown into an awkward silence.

Fawkes let out a long, soft note and Harry felt some of the tension leave his body. Lily managed a tiny, yet sincere, smile as she looked over her son's shoulder at the phoenix. "So, while we're waiting for news, how about you tell me about that basilisk?"

James and Remus entered the Muggle apartment building as silently as they could manage, the Auror wordlessly performing charms to check for hidden dangers. They crept along the hallways slowly, their wands at the ready and pointed at every door they passed, searching for the one Harry had seen in his vision. Twice, one of the wizards stopped in his tracks, causing the other to do the same, because he'd though he'd heard something. Both times it had been concluded the noise heard had been caught by a rat or some other harmless entity.

Remus was beginning to feel impatience and frustration rolling off his friend as they continued not to find their quarry. He knew James wanted nothing more than to abandon the pretense of doing things the safe way, to sprint through this place calling out his daughter's and best friend's names so they could get out of here and put this entire ordeal behind them. But no matter how many times Remus felt James' arm twitch with the force of restraining himself from doing just that, James continued executing his Auror training, which included the discipline to remain quiet and hidden until further information was gathered.

The initial surveillance of the building turned up nothing, not even in the spot Harry had seen Sirius being tortured by Voldemort; the place was abandoned and it seemed they were the first to step foot her in months. And the more they looked, the less likely it seemed that they'd actually come here for any good reason. Remus knew exactly what was going through James' mind as they reached the topmost floor and removed their disillusionment charms: they'd come here on Harry's word, because he had been so certain that what his dream or vision had told him was truth, and thanks to that, they'd just wasted the better part of an hour that could have been used for searching out other, true leads.

"I'm going home," James said quietly, his voice shaking in frustration. "For all we know, Sirius and Piper have already been found."

Remus began to point out that had that been the case, somebody would have sent them a message, but he kept his peace for the moment. As they reached the stairwell, however, he felt a prickling sensation spread throughout his body; it was a feeling he knew very well and every time he felt it, it meant he wasn't as alone as previously believed. He looked over at James to see if he'd picked up on the same thing, but the Auror's mind was far too preoccupied.

Sliding his wand out of his cloak sleeve, Remus held his silence. If they were being followed, calling attention to the situation could mean sudden attack before either wizard could prepare himself. So instead, Remus continued walking beside James, his senses fully open to detect further danger.

They reached the top of the stairs when James stopped suddenly. "Moony," he said under his breath, "I don't think we're alone..."

Remus nodded minutely and on James' signal, they swung around in unison and began casting stunning spells at their unseen foe. Both spells were expertly blocked and the attack was returned. Remus had always been a decent dueler and James was one of the best. Between the two of them, they should have been able to take down their adversary with minimal effort; the other wizard retained the ability to fight and was hidden from them by what Remus thought might be a disillusionment charm. While James fired disarming charms and full body binds, Remus put up shield charms to protect them from the rapid fire aimed at them.

More than once, Remus and James had to pause in their offensive attack as their enemy's increasingly more damaging spells broke through shield charms and they were hit with cutting curses that tore into their skin. Every time he was hit, James became angrier and his spells were becoming more harmful too whoever was on the receiving end—Remus was almost certain he'd heard the word Crucio intermingled with other jinxes and curses that came out of James' mouth. The curse had missed, but the other wizard was caught off guard just enough that Remus could aim a tripping jinx at his legs, knocking him flat on his back.

Even this didn't halt the attack; before either James or Remus could stun their enemy, they were being hit by a spell that caused the feeling of a blindfold suddenly being placed over their eyes, rendering them incapable of accurately defending themselves.

Remus heard the attacker climb to his feet, heard James cursing as he tried to regain his eyesight, heard the attacker take a shuddering breath and, almost in slow motion, heard a very familiar voice mutter a spell used by Aurors that both disarmed and bound an opponent's hands behind his back. Without waiting for the spell to be fully cast, Remus shot off another stunning spell, hoping his aim wasn't too far off. When he heard their adversary's grunt as he fell to the ground once again, he breathed a sigh of relief just before his vision returned. He looked over at James, who looked ready to kill, and grabbed the wizard's wand arm to push it away as he presumably raised his wand to do just that.

James shot him a look of utmost annoyance. Remus ignored it, holding his friend's arm away from the stunned wizard until he finally lowered it to his side. Once confident James had his temper in check, Remus jerked his head towards the fallen wizard. "I think it's Sirius," he told James in a whisper. "No one else could recover from my tripping jinx that quickly." And indeed, in the many years since Remus had learned and perfected that particular jinx, none of his friends had gotten nearly as accommodated to it as Sirius, who had been Remus' practice target at least five times a week.

The anger almost immediately left James' face, only to be replaced with concern and regret. Both of them knew full well what spells James had cast and what curse he'd been prepared to cast had Remus not stopped him.

With a muttered, "oh hell," James closed the distance between them and where they believed the other wizard to be, moving his wand in an upward motion to lift all disguising spells. Remus reached the two of them as Sirius' face was revealed. James immediately began casting a status check spell over Sirius' body while Remus performed the necessary healing spells and countered charms as the spell revealed them. Once finished, neither wizard willing to acknowledge how close they'd come to killing their friend, they reversed the stunning spell and stepped back as Sirius began to stir. On instinct, their wands rose as Sirius' eyes opened; though they were certain of the wizard's identity, Sirius didn't start attacking his best friends with such gusto willingly. The words Imperius Curse crossed Remus' mind several times since they'd identified their attacker and if that was the case, they curse would still be active on some level and there was no telling what he might do when he got back his bearings.

The two of them stood silently, watching every little move Sirius made: his eyes opening slowly; his hand reaching up to press against his forehead as though he had horrible headache; as he, very carefully, braced his hands against the floor on either side of his body and began to sit up.

Sirius looked around him for several moments before his eyes settled on his friends. He raised an eyebrow. "Did I miss the party?" he asked hoarsely.

Remus glanced at James out of the corner of his eye, waiting for him to ask a standard identifying question. James' jaw remained tightly shut. He looked back at Sirius and thought for a moment. "What happened to my first wand?" he asked.

Sirius' brow furrowed for half a second; he looked as though he wanted to ask why he was being questioned, but held back. "Broken," he began. "When we were nineteen. During a duel, you were disarmed and dropped your wand. I tripped over a stunned Death Eater and fell on it. I've still got the scar on my thigh where the splinters stabbed me. Wanna see?"

Almost in unison, James and Remus rolled their eyes and lowered their wands, and Sirius realized it was safe to stand up. "Why the third degree?" the wizard asked, then took a look at the angry look on James' face and changed his question. "Do I even want to know what I did?"

"How'd you get here?" Remus asked quietly.

Sirius sighed. "I don't know. Last thing I really remember is being at word until about five minutes ago." He looked around the hallway again and shook his head. "I've never seen this place before in my life. Where are we?"

"Sure you've never seen it?" James asked roughly. Remus prepared to place himself between the two friends in case things got hostile. "You expect me to believe you've got no memory of anything that just happened? I know you better than that, Sirius, and I know goddamn well when you're lying!"

"What the hell's your problem?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Where's Piper?" James shot back.

Sirius blinked several times as he registered what had just been said. "Is that a trick question?" he asked Remus.

Remus shook his head. "Piper was kidnapped," he explained quietly. "The house was attacked tonight, we think as a diversion to get us out of the house. And by the time we got back in, she was gone."

"And we got a very helpful hint that if we found you, we'd find her," James finished in a sneer. "One more chance, Black: where's my daughter?"

The other two wizards' eyebrows shot up at how James had addressed his best friend. "I don't know where Piper is, James," Sirius said carefully. "I swear."

Rather than being calmed by Sirius sincerity that he indeed had no idea where Piper was, James was further incensed. He closed the remaining distance between himself and Sirius, grabbed a fistful of the other wizard's shirt, and shoved him roughly against a wall, his wand pointed at his friend's throat before Remus could do anything about it. "Bullshit," James hissed in Sirius' face. "What did you do to her?"

Sirius' eyes were wide and vaguely frightened, though anger was beginning to fill them. Remus stood aside, unsure how to undo this. Neither of them had ever seen James behave quite like this. Before anybody could say another word, a bright white light filled the hallway, lasting only a second; when it disappeared, all three wizards struggled to regain their bearings and eyesight.

"What the hell was that?" asked Sirius. James had relinquished his grip on him and was blinking rapidly in order to focus.

Remus shook his head, leaning against a wall for support; the brightness of the light had left him disoriented. "Dunno..." he muttered, shutting his eyes tightly against the spinning room.

Sirius carefully pushed him away from the wall, edging further from James' reach. "Maybe we should get out—"

"Shh!"

Remus and Sirius looked at James. The Head Auror's hazel eyes were wide open as he seemed to be listening desperately to something. Remus held his breath, willing himself to hear whatever it was James had heard. Very faintly, he could hear a muffled sob from somewhere down the hall. His eyes snapped up to meet James' as he recognized the sob as the one Piper used when her brothers left her out of whatever they were doing.

"Piper," James breathed. He turned and began sprinting down the hallway with Remus and Sirius right on his heels. They skidded to a stop in front of a closed door; James waved his wand at it, unlocking and opening it in an instant. He disappeared inside the door and Sirius lit the tip of his own wand, performing the spells that checked for danger; James should have done this before even opening the door, but obviously was too preoccupied with other things. Remus' eyes scanned the empty room, finding nothing but a pile of blankets where James had fallen to his knees, holding his daughter closely. Sighing in relief at the sight, seeing Piper seemed completely unharmed, he approached them. "James," he said quietly.

The wizard reluctantly lifted his head and looked at his friend in question.

"We should get her home."

James nodded and stood carefully, bundling the sniffling Piper in his arms along with one of the blankets. The little girl's face was buried in her father's shoulder and her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck. "Moony," James whispered as they turned; Remus noticed he didn't acknowledge Sirius, who remained in the doorframe. "The portkey's in my pocket."

Remus reached for the indicated pocket and retrieved the portkey, reactivating it for the return trip with a tap of his wand. He held it out for James to touch and waited for Sirius to join them.

The expression on Sirius' face was one Remus hadn't seen in quite some time, the last following the death of Frank Longbottom. The two of them had been ambushed by a dozen Death Eaters and Frank had been killed almost immediately according to Sirius' story. Sirius himself had come back mostly unscathed and several Order members had decided his story didn't quite add up; how could it be possible that Sirius could overpower so many enemies on his own without meeting the same fate as Frank? The suspicion had lasted weeks and throughout that period, Sirius wore the same expression currently in place on his face: it was confusion mingled with doubt and fear of what was happening.

Before Remus had the chance to fully comprehend this, he and his friends were being pulled by their navels through color and sound until they landed roughly in the Potters' living room. Several surprised gasps met their ears and somebody had to brace James to keep him from falling over with Piper in his arms. The Order members immediately crowded around the two of them, leaving Remus to watch Sirius watch them. He wanted to pull Sirius into the other room and ask him exactly what he remembered, to try and help him remember what had happened; now wasn't the time, though. He and Piper were home safely and that was what mattered. They could figure out everything else later.

He had expected Lily to rush into the room and wrench her daughter from James, but the witch was nowhere to be seen. "She's at Hogwarts," Alice was telling James, probably in reply to his questioning. "Went to go see Harry."

"She will return momentarily," Dumbledore informed them, replacing his wand in his robes.

He'd barely finished speaking before the fireplace lit up with green flames and Lily was seen stumbling out. Immediately she latched herself onto her husband and daughter, and Remus didn't think they'd be seeing her face much the rest of the evening. Glancing over at the fireplace, he saw Lily had brought along a visitor. Harry stood on the fireplace hearth awkwardly, staring between his family and Sirius both relieved and longingly.

Remus nudged Sirius with his elbow to get his attention. "Harry's been worried about you..." he said leadingly.

Sirius looked around in confusion for a moment before locating the boy. He nodded at Remus and crossed the room to his godson to assure him that he was alright.

"Hell of a night," said a voice behind Remus.

He turned and found Tonks leaning against the archway leading to the front hallway. "Understatement, I think," he replied dryly. The other Order members were being thanked by Dumbledore for their quick replies to the Potters' pleas for help and began to leave. "Hell of a month might be more like it."

Tonks' vocal agreement was interrupted by a large yawn. She glanced at James, then Sirius before looking at Remus again. "Tell them I'll see them tomorrow?"

Remus nodded. "Of course. I'll show you out."

He took it upon himself to thank everyone again for James and Lily, and watched as each of them headed out the door, eventually disappearing into the night.

AN: Congratulations, readers, you've managed to guilt me into another chapter. Though I suppose you deserve it for sticking around after such a long hiatus... Cliff hanger resolved, for all those who were cursing me for leaving you with yet another one. I've got a pretty decent idea where this is heading in the short term, so hopefully I'll get another chapter out before another six months pass by. 1

Happy New Year! Please review!