Thank you all to those who reviewed and story alerted and favorite and so forth. It really made my day :J. Okay so Pensieve moments are italic. And I use a direct quote from order of the phoenix Ibelieve, that is also in italic
Disclaimer: I don't own anything and/or the quote from harry potter and the order of the phoenix.
Lupin walked slowly around the room for a few more moments. Finally after much consideration he decided to watch something from the durselys. He knew that it wouldn't be pleasant and that mooney would probably go nuts, but he couldn't stand not knowing.
He however didn't have the heart to actually look through them and pick. So instead he closed his eyes and grabbed at random. Hoping that whatever he chose wasn't that disturbing. Then he grabbed the Pensieve and prepared the memory. He took a deep breath and waited a moment to ask himself if he really voluntarily wanted to see something like this. Deciding that he had to for harry he went back to the task at hand. Once everything was settled he slowly lowered himself into the scene.
Remus could tell immediately that he was at number four privet drive. He had landed smack dab in the middle of the durselys lawn to be precise. Lupin looked around at his surroundings, all appeared to be calm. The sun was about to set, birds were merrily chirping in a tree nearby, in the distance you could hear car doors opening and then soon after closing. From inside the durselys residence you could hear the distinct sound of voices in a conversation and the low rumble of a TV in the background.
Wasting no time in getting inside Remus hurried in to see what he had come to view. There was Harry's fat lump of an uncle sitting on the couch. Next to him was his son, who even at such a young age was almost as big as his father width wise. The boy's eyes were set on whatever was on the telly at that time.
Hearing rustling behind him he turned around to face the kitchen, not seeing harry though but instead his horse faced aunt. Wearing a horrid looking dress that only seemed to amplify how bony she was. She looked to be trying to do the dishes and glare at something at the same time. Thinking that it might be Harry he turned back around. But it was not, instead it was a fat bulldog, which had a rather large id tag that read ripper. Drool was dripping slowly and in slimy clear ropes from his jowls onto the carpet. And the dog's slightly yellow but extremely sharp teeth were popping out from his mouth as he growled lowly.
There was an insanely large hand slowly petting the dog on the back which drew him to look up from the dog and see what he thought at first was Vernon in woman's clothing. Upon closer inspection which almost made him sick up on the carpet he came to the realization that this was indeed a woman his was staring at. Even though he had never seen her before he knew that in some way she had to have been related to Harry's uncle Vernon. The look of them was just too similar not to be.
Realizing that she was talking he stopped paying attention to her appearance and listened in on what her and Vernon were discussing. The topic of that night appeared to be Harry and there hatred for him.
"I'm telling you Vernon, there is no sense at all in keeping such a horrible boy like that around. For all you know he could end up being a bad influence on Dudley! Take my advice and send him straight to an orphanage!" The strange woman raved on.
"But Marge think about what people would say! The rumors that would go around on privet drive about us if someone found out we got rid of him. I would never be able to show my face in public again!" Petunia interrupted from her place in the kitchen.
Remus desperately wanted to scream at her that she shouldn't ever show her face in public again after what she's done to Harry but knowing that no one would hear he refrained. He had also gained the new information that the man like woman in the living room with them was "Marge".
"Don't you worry about dudder's here," Vernon said "he knows that the freaks no good to be around, even takes after me and gives him a couple punches. The boy's even smart enough to make a game out of it with his friends. What's it called again Dudley?"
Dudley was forced out of his trance like state at the mention of his name. It took him a few moments but after a while he was finally able to form thoughts and replied "Harry hunting" before going back to stare absent mindedly at the TV screen.
"Don't worry about us either Marge. Yes the boy is rotten but it's nothing I can't handle! You give him a good long beating every now and again to show him who's boss and pretty soon you can get him to do whatever you want." Vernon replied, making Remus glare. "Watch." He commanded Marge and turned his attention to a dark corner in the room.
"BOY! Go and get me a large glass of brandy!"
Soon after Vernon's yelling's a very small looking Harry popped out of said corner which he had been quietly standing in. Remus could guess that he was around seven but in knowing that Harry would be tiny from all his neglect he knew that he was probably much older.
Harry was wearing a red overly large and holey shirt the almost went down to his knees. On his legs were dirty and also huge blue jeans that were so close to falling down.
Treading carefully around the room Harry walked into the kitchen trying to ignore the harsh glares that were directed at him from everyone but Dudley (who was distracted by the TV) and Remus. Very slowly so not to make a mistake Harry pulled out a stool and got onto it to grab a glass for his uncle's drink.
It made Remus hurt to see try to leap to get to the cups as he was just out of reach from being so short for his age. He wanted desperately to go over and grab harry by the waist to give him an extra boost up. But he could not see as all of this had already happened.
Remus could hear Harry's breathe speed up and see him began to cast looks over at his uncle who was looking very impatient as it took longer and longer for Harry to get a glass. He felt sick at the thought that harry was scared of a beating.
Finally after one last large jump Harry was able to grab a glass come back down on the stool without hurting himself, much to Remus's delight.
His victory was short lived because in the epic battle for the cup neither Harry nor Remus noticed Harry's Cousin Dudley sneak into the kitchen from the living room. And as soon as the glass was securely in Harry's hands and a small smile crossed his face Dudley kicked the stool out from under him and gave a teasing laugh and smirk.
Harry's small body crashed down to the ground as the stool was swept out from under him. He landed pretty hard on this head which made Remus cringe. However Remus was relieved to see him get back up and not appear to be too busted up. The glass was even still firmly in his left hand which made him smile in accomplishment.
"Hurry up freak!" Vernon called from the living room. Everyone had seen what Dudley had done to Harry but Remus noticed no one bothered to do anything. In fact it looked as if the hints of a smirk or smile were beginning on Petunia's face.
Moving as quickly as his small legs would carry him Harry found the brandy and poured it into the cup. Everything was going according to plan until his tried to deliver it to his uncle.
As Harry swept past invisible Remus and into the living room he didn't quite see the bulldog called ripper. So close to his destination and harry tripped on the carpet and in an effort to regain his footing accidently stepped on ripper's tail.
The dog instead of whining lashed out and began to bark loudly and cruelly towards harry. All the while snapping his jaw hoping for a taste of Harry's flesh for what he had done.
Quickly Harry scooting across the rug to get away from the small but menacing dog. Ignoring the small shards of glass that had lodged in the skin of his left hand from when the glass went flying and broke in his hand. They didn't however go unnoticed by Remus, who felt mooney give a whine at the state of his cub.
However Marge thought this was all such good fun and leaned down and unhooked ripper from his leash giving him free rein around the room to Harry.
Harry seeing this out of the corner of his eye promptly got up and began to run hoping to get away before the dog could sink his teeth into somewhere on his body.
The room erupted in laughter as ripper chased Harry around barking all the way. Everyone expect Remus and surprisingly petunia was enjoying the site before them. But both for very different reasons. Remus out of concern for Harry, and Harry's aunt because of the havoc the bulldog was unleashing on her house as it followed a panicking Harry.
Finally after one to many winces from her while they both came very close to knocking over something valuable aunt petunia opened the door to the lawn and made and ushering motion at harry with her hand to get him out of the house. Harry saw it and ran outside; aunt petunia still was cruel enough to leave the door open so ripper could follow.
Seeing that everyone was just going to forget that harry was out there with the insane animal Remus followed them outside. His body aching with the want to do something, anything at all to help Harry out of the situation he was in now.
Eventually Harry began to get tired of running and climbed up one of the durselys trees in their backyard. He got to one of the top branches and then stopped, sitting there and panting to catch his breath.
Ripper was on a mission though to tear Harry limb from limb and stayed in the garden at the base of the tree Harry was currently hanging from. Barking and growling at Harry, circling the tree and just waiting till Harry fell to the ground so that he could have a go at him.
Remus was fully prepared to wait it out with Harry and see how this ended. Even if it ended with Harry falling and ripper giving him a couple of painful bites. He was going to be there for his cub, even though this had already happened and Harry had no idea he was there.
However he never got that chance seeing as in that very moment things began to get fuzzy, the scene faded and before he knew it he was back in the Pensieve room.
Gasping from being thrown back so soon Remus was eventually able to regain his bearings and focus on what he had just saw. True it wasn't a beating but it still showed just how much his cub had been through at his horrid uncles' house. The sudden need to go the Durselys and marge and make them pay for their cruelness overtook Remus.
He knew from the beginning that he and mooney most of all would not like what they saw in the slightest. But he never imagined anything like this happening after he watched just one memory. It was still three weeks till the full moon but mooney was trying to take over Remus's body so he could find those durselys and tear them to pieces.
The chosen one was Mooney's cub after all! He had a right to get his justice for Harry!
Knowing that if he didn't calm himself and the wolf inside him soon horrible things would happen. Horrible things that would most likely result in Harry being taken away from Remus and maybe even Sirius.
So he tried his hardest to focus on the fact that Harry was safe now. In fact he was just up the stairs sleeping in a room that was close to his and Sirius's. Nevertheless it wouldn't work; mooney was still just as rallied up as before.
Getting desperate Lupin looked around the room hoping that not all of Harry's memories were painful and that he would be able to find a decent one that would calm him down and distract him from the inhuman cruelness he had just witnessed.
His patience wearing thin and mooney growing stronger by the second he finally found what he had been looking for. This memory was labeled "Firecall talk to Sirius", wishing that it would be a soothing conversation between godfather and godson he plunged into it.
- (I'm not going to write all of this up since I cannot remember most of it)
Coming out of it yes he was more cooled down than he was before but he was still very upset. However this time it was different, only he was angry not mooney and his anger was not directed towards the durselys but instead towards Sirius.
The words that Sirius had uttered to harry still rang clear in his mind even though he was no longer in the memory.
"You're a lot less like your father than I thought," he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've made it fun for James."
How dare Sirius say something like that to Harry after he spent many a night arguing with everyone on how he did not see Harry as James!
Remus still couldn't get the look of pain on Harry's face out of his head after Sirius said that one chilling sentence to him.
It didn't matter if he actually meant it or if he was just in a bad mood from being held up in his old house it still was inexcusable! And it probably made Harry believe that Sirius hoped that Harry could be James for him. Which was not something that Harry needed to worry about at the moment, he needed to be relishing in the fact that he had a guardian who finally wanted to look over him.
Could that be the reason that harry had been flinching away from Sirius recently?*
Finally deciding that he didn't care how late it was or about the hard day they had just had, he was going to go wake Sirius up.
He traveled silently up the stairs hoping not to wake harry as he woke Sirius. Harry needed his rest after everything that had happened earlier.
In a matter of seconds but to him what felt like minutes he arrived at his old friend's door and knocked firmly. Hoping that it would be enough to wake his usually hard sleeper of a friend. It turns out it was, it didn't take long for Sirius's door to fly open.
Sirius stepped out in his nightclothes, "Harr...", but the name died on his lips as soon as he saw Remus instead.
"Sorry mooney, I was expecting harry thinking he might have had a nightmare or wanted to talk." Sirius explained with a smile and a look a relief. This slowly faded away when he noticed the very stern and serious look on his friends face.
Lupin almost couldn't bring himself to do what he was about to do when he was finally face to face with Sirius. But he knew he had to for Harry's sake.
"Remus old pal is something the matter?" Sirius questioned gently as Remus stayed silent.
Giving a sigh of defeat in not knowing what to say or how to word his anger Remus just motioned for Sirius to follow him. As he began to descend the stairs he was relieved when he heard Sirius's footsteps carefully following in his tracks.
Sooner rather than later they were back in the Pensieve room. Remus stepped ahead and motioned for Sirius to join him. Finally he could only point to the pensieve and say watch to Sirius.
Sirius did as he was told and plunged into the memory all the same as Remus had only minutes before. Remus waited patiently as Sirius watched the conversation he and his godson had had. Never taking his eyes off of Sirius and the pensieve.
Sirius emerged looking very sick and confused. "Remus what…?"
Before he could even finish his sentence Remus blew up with anger. The words spewed from his mouth, one after the other.
"Don't you see what's so wrong with that padfoot! How dare you compare him to James like that! He needed to believe that you were actually around to take care of him and not to get our old friend back! And besides that fact it was completely horrible advice as well. He needed to be where he was safe." Finally finishing his rant he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
"Now Remus I know it wasn't the best of advice and yes I was indeed a bit snappy but could you really blame me? I had been locked up in my family's old house for the past six months! And Harry's a smart boy he knew that I didn't mean anything like that by it. Remus he knows that I care for him like my own son, not like James at all."
"Does he now Sirius? Yes you go out of your way to care for him but didn't you see the hurt etched on his face after you said that? And more to that matter have you even actually told him that you don't see him as his father? Do you even remember calling him James in the department of mysteries?" *Remus asked. In truth he had completely forgot what he had heard during that battle. And if it wasn't for his advanced hearing he knew that he wouldn't have heard it at all.
Sirius suddenly went pale realizing that what Remus was saying to him was true. How could he have been so blind to not notice any of that?
Taking in Sirius's silence Remus added, "You try your best padfoot, really you do. And on most days you succeed on being an amazing godfather. Yes, there are some days that I too look at him and believe it's James. But the important thing to remember is it's not. I miss James to but that is no excuse and I would bet you all the gold in gringotts that that's why he's been acting so weird around you. Don't you remember his flinching earlier when you touched him old friend?" *
Black let out a frustrated puff of air as the pieces began to fall into place. He ran a shaky hand over his long curly hair.
"Talk to him tomorrow about this… if you don't Sirius I will."
And with that Remus walked away shut the door softly behind him and went to his room for soon well-deserved sleep. Leaving Sirius standing in the room alone with only his thoughts and worries for company.
Okay so that's all.
First * I remember hearing that in the movie I believe but cannot remember if it was also in the book.
Second * it was mentioned in earlier chapters of Harry flinching away slightly and no one knowing why. Well here's the reason and also because of past mistreatment.
A Big thank you to all that helped in choosing Remus's memory to watch. Remember to review and fav please if you like what you read!