Chapter Thirty Five

August the , Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five

"Davie, you don't need to worry, it's just Harry," Sirius said, patting her shoulder hesitantly as they sat alone at the kitchen table, awaiting the others, save for those who had been sent to Little Whinging to fetch Harry Potter after he received correspondence from the Ministry.

"Just Harry - just my best friend's son who I've never met or lifted a hand to help at any point in his working memory," Davie moaned in a fearful, almost frenetic tone. "Just Harry who I've had to keep his best friends from telling him too much. I've had to stop you once or twice as well, who here looks like the villain?"

"I'm sure he'll -" Sirius began, but he quickly cut himself off. While he hated admitting to Davie that the way his mind conducted itself was in essence mostly the same as the way it had when they were children, he did in fact have to concede that he foresaw Harry's anger at all of them for the sheer fact that it was the same way he himself would react. It was the same way Sirius still reacted to being excluded from Order meetings in his own home, to being prevented weeks ago from helping rescue Davie from Bulgaria.

"It - it doesn't matter, I guess," Davie said, clearing her throat. "I deserve every bit of whatever anger he's going to feel. What matters is that they get him back from those terrible relatives of his. Excuse me," Davie said, getting up from her seat just as Severus and Molly were entering the dining room. She nudged past them quietly and retreated back to Regulus' bedroom, leaving Molly to stare at Sirius distastefully.

"You never could stop upsetting the girl," Molly said, busying herself with pouring a few glasses of water to place around the table for everyone to arrive. "Ever since you were young - either snogging one another senseless or tearing one another's eyes out -"

"I suppose any time she gets upset, it's automatically on me then," Sirius growled - despite his innocence, Molly Weasley had never grown particularly close to Sirius Black, nor did she regard him as a man of particularly good qualities. "Alright then."

Davie, meanwhile, was wracked with an almost inexplicable sort of tension and anxiety for hours - she wanted to meet Harry, to so what had become of the little boy she had last seen in person the night that the Potters had learned of the prophecy, the little boy she had bounced on her knee while he waited for his mother. But Harry, she knew, was no longer that little boy, just like Davie was no longer that same young woman. What if, Davie wondered, Harry wanted to know why Davie had never been there to care for him?

The question hounded Davie for hours - even when she already heard the others arrive, heard the unfamiliar voice that she knew had to have been Harry's. Davie's chest tightened at the prospect of being so close from her best friend's beloved son, who stood no chance of remembering her.

When Davie finally managed to exit the room without feeling like she would fall over from anxiety, she stepped into the drawing room where everyone was gathered, including Harry - and it appeared that the Weasley twins, Fred and George, had already managed to grate on everyone's tempers.

Sirius looked up at the door when the petite woman moved through the doorframe and clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, nodding towards the door.

"Harry - if you'll spare a moment," Sirius said with a slight chuckle as Davie cleared her throat, approaching slowly as the room settled slightly to stare. "I present to you, Davina Maddux. Order of the Phoenix. Order of Merlin, third class -"

"That's not necessary," Davie said in a somewhat shaky voice, placing her hand on the table near Harry, looking at him with vague, blinking eyes. "Harry," she said, carefully addressing, though he couldn't understand why she acted so strange around him. Not that Harry was not accustomed to people treating him differently - it was simply that there was something different in the way Davie regarded him. She didn't round on him as though she were the anxious fan of the Boy Who Lived. There was something very emotional and apprehensive about the way she stood next to him, drumming her fingers hesitantly on the worn wood dinner table. She couldn't think of anything to say to him -

Thankfully, Molly Weasley provided a topic of discussion.

"Thank heavens you're here," she said, her face reddened in evident exasperation. "I was only just telling Sirius and Remus that it was a terrible idea to tell the boy -"

"-he's hardly a boy anymore, Molly, look at him!"

"Sirius, perhaps you think it's admissible to deprive him of what little childhood he may be able to get," Molly interrupted, her frustration with Sirius' unchanging character now very clear; Harry, for one, looked as though he were struggling to hold his temper out of respect for Molly Weasley, whom Davie knew had always been a very motherly figure towards him. "It's not time -"

"It's never time - if you wait until it's time -"

"Davina, dear," Molly interrupted, her warm eyes turning towards the woman expectantly. "Please remind them that it's for the best that we wait until Harry is ready -"

"They won't wait until he's ready, Molly," Davie spoke up in a stoic voice, deeper than usual - in their youth, this was the voice only when she was bringing up bad news from the Ministry; Sirius had come to call this her Auror voice. Oddly enough, not until right now did it sound so strikingly identical to the way it had sounded fifteen years ago. "Lily, the boys, and I were only two years older when the Order started than Harry is now and the boy's been through ten times more than any of us had been through at that point," Davie continued, crossing her arms and locking eyes with Molly. "If we don't tell him the danger he's in, he won't know until he's in the middle of it again."

Harry gaped at Dave as though she were some sort of unforeseen savior, as though she had just strolled into the room like some sort of waifish wanderer and immediately leapt to his defense. Molly, however, regarded the petite woman with a mix of disbelief and disappointment.

"Marauders forever, then, I suppose," she said in a stiff voice; Arthur Weasley immediately placed a hand on his wife's shoulder placatingly. "I shouldn't have expected you to contradict them. I didn't think being an Auror for so long would have made you so foolhardy, Davina," she said, before walking out of the room, her husband close behind. Davie wrung her hands slightly, glancing up at Remus, who gave her a calming nod.

"You're an Auror." Harry repeated, blinking at the woman, attempting to place her, to analyze her in any way he could. She gave a cough-like laugh and glanced at him with a reserved nod. "Who - how do you -"

"My stars, you're the spitting image of James," Davie said with a cluck of her tongue. "Except for -"

"My eyes, I've heard," Harry couldn't help but snap irately - it had been said so many times that it seemed more like a trite adage than a discovery for him now. Davie, however, chuckled and shook her head.

"The eyes, of course," she said, as though she had forgotten something absurdly obvious. "But I was going to say your ears - perfect ears, not awkward and ungainly like mine. I lost count of how many times I told your mother I wish I had her perfect ears so I wouldn't look like it elephant when I wore earrings. I suppose it happens when you're best friend, you notice the most obscure things about one another -"

"You were my mother's best friend?" Harry interrupted, looking at the woman with a sort of urgency that apparently alarmed her. "When? How long? Why haven't I ever met you?"

"You have," Davie said with a pained smile - Sirius face fell at the sight of Davie being faced so abruptly with the very thing she dreaded most. "Though I know it was too long ago for you to remember. We were all very close -"

"Then where'd you go?" Harry interrupted suspiciously. Sirius placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him, but he paid little heed, keeping his gaze focused on the woman in front of him. Davie, however, appeared to be having trouble formulating words. She had thought of this day many times; she had admittedly even rehearsed her explanation to her satisfaction - but a scripted, cold, flat explanation did not seem to be good enough to present to Lily and James' son, not after everything that had happened.

It was Remus who finally spoke up, noticing how the color drained quickly from Davie's face.

"She left to work in Bulgaria," Remus said simply, compelling Harry to turn and face him. "About a year after your parents died. I suppose it was somewhat our fault that she left," he continued, casting an apologetic glance in Davie's direction. "We treated her unkindly - never intentionally. But suffice it to say, she was not the one who abandoned anyone in their time of need."

At this, both Harry and Sirius looked rather curious - neither of them, after all, had been present at the time Remus was referring to. Harry was already with the Dursleys, and Sirius was in Azkaban. Even Davie appeared surprised at Remus' admission; he had spoken apologetically on the subject before, but never with any specificity.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation," he said with a weak smile towards Harry and Sirius. "Very well…"

Davie Maddux had not left her study in days - she hardly ate or slept, and surely hadn't seen sunlight in all that time. Her desk was strewn with photographs and news clippings, and notes scribbled on parchment then scratched out repeatedly. Thus was the state in which Remus Lupin found his friend when he appeared to check on her.

"What are you doing?" he asked, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Davie, why can't you accept -"

"Lily and James and Peter have only been dead for three months and you already want to forget about giving them justice," Davie said groggily, the dark bags under her eyes eerily pronounced in the dim lighting of the room, She looked as though she was going to collapse and fall asleep on her papers at any moment.

"This isn't justice," Remus said flatly. "We know what happened, Davie, why can't you just accept -"

"Accept that Sirius did this?" Davie said ferociously, standing up and leaning across the table. "When I saw him every single day leading up to that night? When we fell asleep telling one another how much we were worried about Lily and James? Sirius wouldn't lie -"

"Davie, you're driving yourself mad!" Remus said, leaning across the desk as well and looking his friend in the eye, desperate to get through to her. "You spend all your time obsessing over Sirius and forgetting that all of us even exist! Maybe you haven't found anything to prove him innocent because there is nothing to find -"

"Some friend you are!" Davie said shrilly, shoving a stack of papers off of the desk so that they flew and arced weakly before floating to the ground with a rustle. "You're going to give up on Sirius that quickly -"

"YOU'RE MAD, DAVIE! PETER IS DEAD! " Remus said, reaching out and taking Davie by the shoulders. "And Sirius killed him, what about that -"

"Get out." Davie said flatly, shoving his hands off of her shoulders coldly, her face going stony and emotionless. "If you're going to treat me like I'm insane, get out of my home."

Remus' anecdote, it seemed, had struck a very delicate chord with everyone in the room - Davie had been forced to take a seat, suddenly looking very pale and close to tears. Sirius had been listening to Remus the entire time, but was staring at Davie almost unblinkingly. She had gone through all of that for his sake, because she wanted to remain loyal to him? She had stood by and let everyone turn their backs on her? This was the reason she could no longer go back to the way they used to be?

"Cat's out of the bag now, isn't it?" Davie said with a weak laugh, looking down at her hands. "I - well, a lot of things happened during that time that I'm not proud of. I couldn't face it anymore so I left," she explained weakly before looking at Harry. "I felt - well, that's not important," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I made a mistake as well - I put being an Auror first, and because of it, I wasn't here -"

"The night my parents died?" Harry inquired - Davie made no verbal reply. The expression on her face was confirmation enough, and at the mention of the night, Sirius' brow furrowed as though he were remembering something very distant, very repressed.

"Digby," he spoke up, causing Davie to bristle slightly as she looked at him; this was clearly something she did not wish to dwell on either. "You left to find Digby - did you -"

"He wasn't in Bulgaria. It was all a ruse," Davie said stiffly, unable now to meet Sirius' gaze, ashamed of the fact that the reason she had left him alone, the reason she hadn't been there to attempt to talk sense into him and prevent him from being present at the scene of the crime he had been framed for, had all been a hoax. "He was found five years later, irreversibly Obliviated. He's still in St. Mungo's," Davie recited as though she were delivering a report.

Even Harry seemed visibly uncomfortable at all of the revelations all once - especially because there was a great deal about their connection to Davina Maddux that he did not yet understand.

"But - but you all are friends now," Harry said, seized by a sudden feeling of worry brought about by recent events. Would a rift form between himself and Ron and Hermione because they were growing older, beginning to keep things from one another? "Just like before -"

"Heavens no." Sirius said, causing everyone else to turn their attention very quickly to him, and before Davie could make any motion to censor him, he continued, "We're all friends now, but as far as Davie goes, that's not all -"

"Sirius, he doesn't need to -"

"No," Harry interrupted resolutely. "I want to know everything. You were my mother's best friend, weren't you? Well, then I deserve to know about you as well."

"They were engaged." Remus piped in - and Davie let out a breath so prolonged hat she was like a balloon with its air being let out. There was a brief flash of grievance at the very blunt admission, followed by a sense of relief at the fact that she did not need to say it herself.

"Were." Harry repeated. "So you two - you cut things off when Sirius went to Azkaban -"

"I don't recall cutting things off," Sirius said offhandedly. "So to the extent of my knowledge, the present tense is more appropriate -"

"Sirius, please," Davie said, her jaw tense. "It's been over a decade, our main concern is Harry right now. Our godson is going to a hearing at the Ministry and I'm completely helpless to do anything because I've been told I need to -"

"Now you say our godson," Sirius said, unable to repress a haughty shadow of a smirk. "Just moments before he arrived you said you weren't entitled to referring to him as such because you and I -"

"Are you really going to twist my words, Sirius?" Davie huffed, brow furrowed in frustration. "Are we really going to argue like this in front of Harry -"

"Were they always like this?" Harry interrupted loudly, glancing over at Lupin with an arched eyebrow. Remus gave a chuckle when Davie quickly became quiet, a great deal of color appearing in her pale face.

"Always."

A/N's

And finally, Harry has arrived! I'm sorry again for the delay - I could really use a course in time management and I don't blame any of you if you'd like to throw rocks at me for make you all wait. Within the next couple of chapters, we'll speak a bit more with Harry. We're also going to see some developments with Sirius and Davie, and a temporary return to Hogwarts.

I apologize for the slight differences between what's happening in the story and in the actual text of Order of the Phoenix, but I promise you, I have this all planned out! Just trust me!

Thank you to obsession-iz-a-good-thing, AuntMo, exaigon, jekyllhyde67, Sarapha, and JohnnyStormsGirl for your subscriptions and feedback between the last update and this one. I'm glad you guys stumbled across my story and took an interest, even though I haven't been updating as often as usual. Until next time, cheers!