Chapter 24 – Mona Lisa Part 2
"Hi Sirius, you busy?"
"Oh, hey there, Harry junior. How can Padfoot be of service today?" he said. There was no humor in his voice just bitterness.
Harry'' frowned. "What's wrong? Why the long face?"
"We just had a meeting and Snivellus was reminding me of how useful I am to the Order," he said angrily. "Damn git."
Harry'' smirked. "He does have a way with words."
Sirius scowled. "I suppose you would know everything about his way with words, given that you are a Slytherin."
"One would think that after all these years you'd stop judging people on the basis of their houses in Hogwarts."
"I don't judge people on the basis of their Hogwarts house," he said with a scowl. "Its only people like Snape I judge on the basis of their house."
Harry'' rolled his eyes.
"What do you want anyway?" asked Sirius.
"What? I can't come and talk to my other world godfather?" he said, trying his best to look innocent.
Sirius just gave him a look.
"But you're right," said Harry''. "I wanted to know something."
"And what is that?"
"Harry, your Harry was just telling me the other day how frustrated you are at being confined to this dark and dreary house."
Sirius scowled.
"If you had a chance of getting out of the house for a while and doing something useful, would you take it?"
"Without a moment's hesitation," replied Sirius.
"Then I need your help with something," said Harry'' "And I need you to promise that you won't tell anyone about it."
Sirius leaned forwards looking interested. "Is it legal?"
Harry'' smirked, "What do you think?"
Sirius gave a wide smile. "Now you've got my attention. What's on your mind?"
Harry pushed himself up on the kitchen counter and made himself comfortable. "Do you know anything about my parents having an ancestral home?"
Sirius was clearly not expecting such a question and looked quite surprised.
"No," he said, after a moment's pause. "James parents and grandparents and all the other Potters, all lived in Gordic's village as far as I know."
"Did my dad ever mention anything about his vaults to you?"
"Only that it had treasures that he never dreamed it could have. But James was never really the kind of person who cared about treasures. The only treasure he cared about was Lily," he said with a wistful smile.
"Nothing else?" pressed Harry''.
"No," said Sirius. "But I do remember him complaining about his dad asking him to accept the responsibilities of being the head of the house and guarding its treasures or something like that, but James had said no... I had asked him once what that was all about but he was rather tight lipped about it. Must have been something about finances," he said with a shrug.
"Or maybe it was some dark secret about their family. Maybe they weren't as light as people expected them to be," said Harry'' thoughtfully.
"Light?"
"Opposite of dark," said Harry''. "I figured if you can call the Malfoy's and families like theirs dark. Then the Weasley's and Dumbledore and families against dark arts would be called 'light'."
"That's quite the theory," said Sirius, sounding amused. "But if you're suggesting that the Potters of all people have some hidden dark secret, then I'd highly doubt it. The Potter's including your grand and great grand parents have always known to have been strongly against any form of dark magic."
"Then what would you say if I told you I found a coded map in one of the Potter vaults apparently leading to its ancestral home. The only reason I can think of a house being so well guarded was if they had something to hide."
Sirius scoffed. "A secret map? Have you considered that it could simply be a fake?"
Harry frowned. "I don't think its a fake at all. Here, see for yourself," he said and then pulled out the parchment he got from the vault and gave it to Sirius.
"What am I supposed to be looking at?" said Sirius nonplussed.
"Look at the bottom left."
"The key lies in La Gioconda, one of my greatest works – LDV," read Sirius. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"In one of the Potter vaults there is a table which can show you any document you want, in regard to the Potters. So I asked it to show me a map to the Potters ancestral home and it showed me this.
I then with some help from a friend figured out LDV stand's for Leonardo Da Vinci and La Gioconda is the other name for the Mona Lisa, which means that we need the Mona Lisa to make this parchment show us the location of the house. And ironically Leonardo Da Vinci was known as Leonard Potter before he was disowned by his parents."
"What's the Mona Lisa?" asked Sirius looking lost.
"It's a painting kept in a museum in France. Very famous in the muggle world and a painting which could most likely be the key to finding my ancestors home."
"All of this is very interesting but why are you telling me this?" asked Sirius taking a moment to process Harry's'' words.
"Because I need your help to steal the Mona Lisa."
Sirius's mouth dropped open in surprise and then he began to laugh.
"You have got to be kidding me! Now I know what this is!" he exclaimed.
"What is it?"
It's a prank that's what it is! Who put you up to it? Remus?"
He went into another bout of laughter.
"Or was it the twins?"
Harry'' didn't even crack a smile.
Sirius's laughter slowly died away on seeing the look on Harry's face.
"Oh my god... You're not... you're not actually serious?"
"Spot on," said Harry'' acidly.
"You, you actually want to steal a painting which is in France," he said in shock.
Harry'' nodded.
Sirius looked at Harry'' calculatingly, weighing the pros and cons of what inter dimensional godson was suggesting.
"Do you have a plan?" he said finally.
Harry'' smiled. "I Knew I could count on you Sirius."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Original World
Albus Dumbledore stood in front of the wall where his students had disappeared.
He removed a letter from within his robes, a small glass container with some sand in it and a piece of Harry's'' glasses. He placed Harry's'' glasses and the letter next to the wall, then leveled his wand at the wall in from of him and cast the most powerful revealing charm he knew.
His suspicions were soon confirmed as a ripple passed through the wall and slowly a number of runes began to appear on the wall and after a few minutes the entire wall spanning up to ten meters was covered in ancient runes. Most of which even Dumbledore could not identify.
"I was right," he whispered in awe. He ran his hands over the runes reveling in the way the felt on his skin. The fact that he could not read them alone was a testament to the age of these runes.
He could make out the rune which meant travel and another which meant space but the rest were just obscure. They were unlike anything he had ever seen before and he had no clue as to why such runes would be inscribed on a wall next to a class room. But then again Hogwarts had many secrets and many which were yet to be discovered.
"Time to get to work," he murmured.
Taking a deep breath, he took a step back and uncorked the bottle with the sand and threw it on the wall.
Almost instantly the wall began to pulse, a blood red color which kept steadily rising by the second. He felt a breeze beginning to form around him and knew that whatever happened next would either kill him... or not kill him. Either way he'd never know unless he tried.
Dumbledore took a deep breath before raising his wand. "Scroufigy," said Dumbledore sending the spell towards the wall. If he was right then, the act of trying to vanish the time sand when they were in contact with the runes would lead to the activation of the runes using his wand as a source of power and as it turned out he was right.
The moment the spell impacted the wall a tiny black vortex replaced the centre of wall and began growing in size. Dumbledore could feel his magic literally being sucked out of his body. The light breeze which he had felt earlier had now transformed into a powerful gale and seemed intent on sucking everything around it into the black vortex.
It took every ounce of Dumbledore's strength, magic and will power to prevent himself from being sucked into this black portal. He glanced at the place where he had placed the letter and the piece of Harry's'' glasses and realized that they had already got sucked into the vortex.
The strength of the vortex kept increasing as Dumbledore's strength faded. He tried to break the connection his wand had with the wall but it wouldn't break.
Dumbledore's eyes widened and he tired to break the connection again, but it didn't work. He knew he didn't have much time left.
Thinking about his student's safety he focused all his power into his wand and with a burst of strength he forced his wand up breaking the connection it had with the runes causing the portal to suddenly close up and bring all the chaos around it to a stand still.
Dumbledore could feel his legs wobble from the effort he had put in staying firm in his place. He felt exhausted and just remaining upright was such an effort for him at the moment.
"Fawkes," he whispered and in a burst of flames his familiar appeared by his side trilling softly making his aching body relax. He then concealed the wall and held on to the phoenix's tail feathers. "Let's go Fawkes," he murmured and the mighty bird teleported away with Albus. It's pet needed rest desperately.
An Hour Earlier.
Dumbledore had just finished his letter to his counterpart in the world Harry'' had gone to.
If his theory was right, then Harry'' and Lillian were trapped in another dimension and the only way to get them back was to open the portal through which they traveled. Which could only mean that combined with the cleaning spell Harry'' had used and the time sand there was another factor with caused the phenomenon. And that other factor had to be something close to where Harry'' had disappeared.
Now if he could find this other factor and open the portal, he needed to make sure he opened the portal to the correct world and to do that he'd need a link to that world. Luckily for him he had Harry's''glasses which thankfully had not gone with him but had left behind.
So if he used a piece of the spectacles plus the time sand and plus the unknown factor, the portal would open and theoretically he could get Harry'' and Lillian back.
Dumbledore smiled and leaned back in his chair. He glanced at the letter again hoping he had not missed anything important and read it once again.
Once satisfied he sealed the letter and cast a spell on it which would enable only him to open it and hence the other world Dumbledore to open it.
Satisfied with his hypothesis he stood up and made his way to he charms corridor to find the unknown factor and get another step closer to bringing Harry'' back to the world he belonged.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Alternate World, 2 Weeks Later
"Let's go over everything one more time," said Sirius.
"We leave at 3.00 in the afternoon," said Harry''. "We then take the Knight bus to the ministry which will take approximately 10 minutes. Once we reach the ministry we make our way to the international portkey department and get a portkey to the French ministry which will take us about an hour to acquire. On reaching the French ministry we make our way to the muggle world and take a cab to the Louvre museum and find where the portrait is being kept. Once we locate the portrait we find a bathroom and hide under the invisibility cloak until the museum closes and then go back, take the painting and get the hell out."
Sirius nodded. "What about the cameras?"
"We'll be under the cloak so there shouldn't be any problem," said Harry''.
"What about the one that will be aimed at the portrait. Don't you think the muggles will freak out if they see the painting moving on its own? And not to mention if our hands get caught on camera, the French aurors will be on to us in an instant."
"That'll be the only camera we're going to disable. By the time the muggles realize what's going on, we'll be back under the cloak along with the portrait."
"And then we can slowly slip out undetected," said Sirius.
"That's right," said Harry''.
"Remember, we can't use our wands," said Sirius seriously. "The French ministry is much more efficient then ours and they strictly forbid the use of any magic in muggle areas. Even a simple lumos will get them to send an entire team of aurors to arrest you."
"Rather excessive don't you think?" said Harry'' raising an eyebrow.
"They take their security extremely seriously. Which is why in the entire history of the war against dark wizards, you'll never find a single one even mentioning a war like ours in France."
"So no magic when we enter the muggle world," said Harry''.
"10 points to Gryffindor."
"Slytherin," corrected Harry'' automatically.
"Whatever," replied Sirius rolling his eyes.
"Is our back up plan ready?" asked Harry''.
"Yeah," replied Sirius. "I had to give Dung almost all the silverware in this house to force him to get it done."
"But it is done, right?" pressed Harry''. "The photos and all?"
"Don't worry they're all done."
"I want to see them."
"They're all packed!" protested Sirius. "I don't want to unpack just to satisfy you!"
"Alright, alright," grumbled Harry''. "I just hope we don't have to use it."
"And remember," said Sirius suddenly, "Paris is an hour ahead of London and the museum closes at 8.00 pm. So we got to make sure we reach there before six."
"What excuse do we give to the ministry for our reason to visit?"
"We'll come up with something."
"Not good enough Sirius," said Harry deadpanned.
"Oh, fine. I was thinking along the lines of you're my son and I was here looking for my wife who dumped you with me as soon as you were born and fled."
Harry's'' eyes almost popped out.
"Trust me, it'll work. Everybody falls for the whole mushy crap," said Sirius with a grin.
"You couldn't think of anything else?" demanded Harry''.
"Nothing as convincing as this," replied Sirius airily.
"Idiot," mumbled Harry''. "Anyway, go color your hair. I'll be doing the same."
"Yes sir," mocked Sirius.
"Don't forget the contacts and the fake mustache," added Harry''.
"Right... Oh, and is our distraction in place?" asked Sirius.
"Yup, Harry senior knows what we're up to and is more than willing to help."
"He didn't want to come?" asked Sirius.
"He did, but I managed to convince him not to. We need someone here who can keep our disappearance secret for as long as possible."
"Does he have a plan?"
He enlisted Fred and George to create a huge distraction in the kitchen for us to escape. And the rest of the day will be filled with other pranks which will keep most of the people quite busy and by people I only mean Mrs. Weasley," said Harry''. "Hopefully nobody will realize that we're missing until tomorrow morning and we should be back by then." Harry'' paused to glance at his watch. "Prank number one is due to start in exactly 90 minutes."
"Its 1.00 pm now," said Sirius.
"Let's get to work then. We have a painting to rob."
Two hours and a few explosions later.
"Welcome to the France," a pleasant voice said. "Please state name and nature of visit."
Harry'' and Sirius were still disoriented from the long portkey journey.
"Yeah, name's Samuel Smith and this is my son Peter Smith," said Sirius adopting a downcast expression which the woman didn't fail to notice.
The woman smiled back, "Nature of visit?"
Sirius's smile nervously. "Is that really necessary?" he asked warily.
"I'm sorry sir, but you have to state a nature of visit or I'm going to have to hand you over to the aurors."
"I'm sorry but it's kinda private," said Sirius, lowering his head.
"Sir?"
Sirius's eyes glistened. "It's my wife," he whispered.
"Your wife?"
A tear leaked out of his eye. "I don't want to talk about it."
Hey," said the woman putting her hand on Sirius's cheek. It's alright, you can tell me."
"She, she abandoned my son and me a year after he was born and I've spent my entire life looking for her just to know... just to know why she did it! Why did she choose to abandon me and leave us," he said as another tear leaked out. "Just to know the reason she caused so much pain to our family and break the bond of love we had!"
The woman was looking close to tears herself and Harry'' had to refrain himself from rolling his eyes.
"What does she look like?" asked the woman gently whom Harry'' had now identified as Amelie, by the name tag on her dress.
"She has Blonde hair, the most beautiful brown eyes and she looks like in angel from heaven," said Sirius, with a dreamy look on his face.
"That's so romantic," she said with dreamy look as well. "Tell you what. I'll just write the nature of visit as tourism and you can be on your way for the security check."
"Thank you so much," said Sirius, rubbing his eyes. "Come along now Peter. We have an angel to find."
"Best of luck!" said Amelie, now dabbing her eyes with a napkin.
"You could have just said we're here to visit a friend instead of that drama you pulled back there," hissed Harry'' once they were out of hearing range.
"Then I'd have to state name and address of friend and thanks to my drama, our brown eyed friend forgot all about it. And when she realizes it, she'll make up a name and address to keep her job."
Harry'' was about to reply but Sirius interrupted. "We'll talk later. Now we have to see if muggle disguises are enough to fool magical detectors."
10 minutes later, Harry'' and Sirius were on the streets of Paris congratulating themselves on the success of the first stage of their plan.
"I can't believe that girl didn't realize that you described her as your wife!"
"She was a blonde."
Harry'' rolled his eyes.
"But mostly it was the Sirius charm that worked the magic."
"Or it was the fact that I cast a slight compulsion charm on her so that she'd believe you without any issues."
"You what?" hissed Sirius in outrage. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was!"
"I know," replied Harry'', "But do you think it was worth hoping for the success of your charm?"
"We could have been caught!"
"But we didn't get caught and I was sure the spell wouldn't be detected in that crowd of people who happen to be Witches and Wizards, so lets move on," said Harry'' as they entered muggle Paris.
"Wow," said Sirius, as soon as he caught sight of all the cars moving on the main road, the number of people walking around talking on their cell phones and the sheer number of buildings all around them, each having a different size and design. It was so unlike the wizarding world!
"Taxi!" shouted Harry'' signalling to an free taxi ahead.
"What Xi?" asked Sirius incredulously.
"Sirius, just shut up and follow my lead. You're the boss in the wizard world but I'm the boss in the muggle world. So just shut up till we get to the museum."
"Yeah, yeah," said Sirius staring around in fascination.
"Where to sir?" asked the taxi driver.
"Louvre museum," said Harry''.
The ride to the museum was quiet except for the occasional yelling of obscenities by the driver at other drivers.
It was 4.30 when they finally reached the museum.
"Enjoy the art my friends," said the driver after counting his money. "The stuff in there is worth millions!"
"Thanks," said Harry'' politely.
They were standing in front of 19th century style building with an archway in the centre. It was quite long and most certainly extended a long way back.
The only thing they didn't know was the sheer massiveness of the structure.
"Go on in my friends!" shouted the taxi driver. "You'll know where the entrance is once you see it! Most people consider it to be an insult to this beautiful structure!"
Harry'' and Sirius stared at each other wondering what the driver meant as he zoomed away.
"Let's go then," said Sirius, shaking his hair out of his eyes.
"This looks like a palace," muttered Sirius, looking around as they entered a courtyard.
"Maybe because it is a palace converted into a museum," said Harry'', pushing through the mill of people surrounding them.
They entered through another archway and then gasped.
Ahead of them was a beautiful pyramid made entirely from glass. It was surrounded by three other smaller ones but their eyes were drawn only to the main one.
"Looks like that's what the driver meant when he said we'll know which is the entrance," said Sirius in awe.
Harry'' just nodded unable to find words to describe what he was feeling as they moved towards the majestic entrance.
"Though kinda looks out of place doesn't it," commented Harry''. "A glass pyramid inside a 19th century palace."
"Still looks amazing," said Sirius.
They passed through a metal detector on their way in and through an x-ray machine to look for any other contraband they might carry.
They bought a book guide from one of the stalls.
"Wow, Sirius. Check this out," said Harry''.
"What?"
"This place covers over 652,300 square feet and more than 380,000 objects and has eight departments, each dedicated to a different field of art!"
"That's impressive," said Sirius, slowly, not really understanding the significance of what Harry'' just said.
"Impressive! Sirius this place is almost as big as Hogwarts and is filled only with famous works of art! Most of the items in here are worth millions!"
"Millions! Now that's impressive!" Sirius said sarcastically. "Now we can drool over the history of this place later. For now we have a job to do, so let's concentrate on that first... Now which way to the painting?"
Harry'' looked at the guide map. "High Renaissance collection... This way," said Harry''.
"Okay, now make sure you remember this way properly," murmured Sirius. "We can't go up and down trying to memorize the way because of the cameras. We keep close to the crowds and once we find the painting, we keep moving ahead until we find a rest room and hide in there until the museum closes. The museum stops admitting people in at 5.30 and they try to get rid of everyone inside by 6.30-7.00.
So we have around 45 minutes to find the painting and then hide, got it?"
"Got it," said Harry''.
Once they reached the painting they marveled at its mystique for a while before moving on but not before making note of the positions of the cameras in the room.
Suddenly a voice boomed through the museum. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Louvre museum is now closing. We request everyone to please make their way to the exit. Thank you for your cooperation." The announcement was then repeated in French.
"Time to find our hide out," muttered Harry''.
They found a relatively crowded rest room and entered. Harry'' slowly slipped out the invisibility cloak they had borrowed from Harry and covered Sirius and him when nobody was looking.
Stage two of the operation was complete.
Now they had to make sure nobody touched them and they didn't make a sound until the museum was empty.
It was not until 7.30 Harry'' and Sirius were sure the museum was empty.
"Put the mask and gloves on," whispered Sirius. "I know its uncomfortable but better disguised then identified."
"We're disguised anyway," protested Harry''.
"Well then, lets be double disguised," said Sirius. "Aren't you forgetting that once we escape we need to leave the country safely too?"
"Okay, okay, lets go," said Harry'' putting on the mask albeit reluctantly.
They moved quietly and swiftly under the cloak. Once or twice they saw a security guard patrolling and they had to stop until they were sure the guard was gone.
Finally they reached their destination. The painting was right in front of them. All they had to do was grab it and run.
"Sirius, we have to disable the camera first," said Harry''.
"How do we do that?"
"Just pull the wire out. Covering it with something will be too risky."
"Why?"
"They have ways of finding people with just a piece of cloth or a fingerprint."
"How much time do you think we'll need once the camera is out?"
"About a minute I guess," said Harry''. "Muggles are quite efficient when it comes to security."
"So lets do this then," said Sirius with a grin, but Harry'' didn't move. In fact he was frowning.
"Why the frown?"
"Did you ever think how we were going to carry such a big painting out? Some one is bound to hear us and it won't fit under the cloak," said Harry''.
Sirius's mouth dropped open.
"Shit," was all that left his mouth. He couldn't believe they hadn't thought of that!
"We're going to have to use magic," said Harry'', with a resigned look on his face.
"If we do that, the aurors will be here in an instant," said Sirius.
"They'll have to meet the muggles first. Talk to them and then enter here. They can't simply apparate in here without warning."
"If that were the case then how much time do we have to get out? I'm sure they'll put up anti apparition wards the moment they get here."
"Then we're going to have to move faster than them. Its 8.20 right now. We disable the cameras, transfigure the portrait into a doll or something and then you can apparate us out to the main entrance from where we can catch a taxi to the airport."
Sirius sighed. "Looks like it's a good thing we got Dung to make passports for the two of us in our disguise."
"It's a good thing I thought of it," replied Harry''. "Now we have an escape route and I know for a fact that there is a flight back to London at 10.00 pm."
Sirius was silent for a moment. "Right, so we disable the cameras, transfigure the portrait and get the hell out and take the first flight out of here. Not the one to London but any flight out of Paris."
"Why any flight?"
"Because the French aurors are not stupid and they are bound to send some one to the airport to check for magical artifacts being taken out of the country."
"Then we still stand the risk of getting caught."
"Don't worry. They'll check all magical means of transport before moving on to muggle means. By then we'll be out of here."
"Why won't they send someone immediately?" asked Harry''.
"Because they're arrogant too," said Sirius. "Even if they do have the best aurors in the magical world, they wouldn't consider a wizard using a muggle way to escape. Only after they run out of all options they'll consider checking the airports and all."
"Aannd you know this how?"
"I was an auror before being sent to Azkaban and I had a few friends who happened to be French aurors. Don't worry, we won't get caught," said Sirius.
"I don't like it, but it's better than nothing. Alright then, on the count of three.
One.. two.. three!"
Security Room, Louvre Museum
Mark the security guard was excited. His girl friend was sitting in his lap with her lips attached to his and was in no mood of letting go.
"Ummm, I like you when you're in uniform," she murmured huskily, brushing her lips against his ear.
Mark inhaled sharply, "I bet you'll like me better without the uniform."
"What about me without clothes," she whispered seductively, playing with his tie.
Mark was so busy staring at her that he didn't see one of the screens go blank.
She began to unbutton his shirt while trailing kisses down his chest and he didn't see the third and fourth screen go blank too.
Mark put his hand behind her head and pulled her in for another searing kiss. She moaned in pleasure when his mouth moved to her chin and then to her neck.
"Lift you hands," he whispered in her ear, trailing his fingers on her stomach and slowly grabbed the hem of her shirt, ready to remove the thin fabric covering her skin.
It was then he glanced at the T.V screens and noticed that four of the screens were blank.
"What the hell?" he shouted in shock, dropping his girl friend unceremoniously on the floor.
"Mark!" she exclaimed indignantly.
He ignored her and pressed a button on the control panel and spoke into the mike.
"Security team 3, we have a code blue situation in the high renaissance section, I repeat we have a code blue situation in the high renaissance section."
"Roger that, control tower, heading to the room now," came a voice from the speaker.
Mark removed his hand from the button. "Clair, get your shirt back on and sit quietly," he said sharply.
"What's going on Mark?" she asked fearfully.
"Possible theft," he replied shortly.
Back to Harry'' and Sirius
Harry'' and Sirius had just disabled all the cameras before removing the invisibility cloak and their masks.
"Go," was all that Harry'' said.
Sirius rushed to the portrait and lifted it out of its hinges.
That turned out to be the wrong thing to do. As soon as Sirius removed the portrait, a loud siren began to blare and steel bars began to descend from all the exits blocking all the exits.
"Transfigure it now!" shouted Sirius.
Harry'' nodded and transfigured the portrait into a wooden doll and stuffed it into their bag. Sirius then cast a quick cleaning charm around the room and grabbed Harry's'' arm firmly. Harry'' suddenly felt like he were being squeezed through a tight rubber tube and then it was gone. He found himself standing near the exit.
"Sirius," he began but his other world godfather just covered his mouth, threw the cloak over them and quietly dragged him out and ran towards the other exit to the streets.
Almost immediately Harry'' heard the telltale sound of wizards apparating where they were about 5 seconds ago. The wizards froze under the invisibility cloak as the spotted at least a dozen aurors shouting orders in French. Both felt a blanket of magic fall over them signalling the activation of the anti apparation wards.
They continued moving further away until the museum was out of sight and once they were sure that no one had followed them they removed the cloak of invisibility and headed to the main road.
"Taxi," shouted Sirius and one stopped right in front of them.
"Where to?" asked the cab driver.
"Airport," said Harry''.
"You'll have to hire a private cab for that sir," he replied, "I'll give you a card."
"Look," said Sirius shortly, "We're in a hurry and we really don't want to miss our flight. I'll give you half the total fare as extra."
"Extra, huh," said the driver. "The airport is quite a distance away. You sure you can afford it?"
"I can afford more than you can imagine," replied Sirius with a smirk.
"Good enough for me. Hop in."
"And go a little fast if you can. We really don't want to miss our flight," said Sirius.
"You got it boss," he said with smirk before changing gears and shooting off like a bullet.
Harry'' and Sirius held on to their seats for their dear lives as the cab driver swerved between traffic and took short cuts where ever possible.
"You have surprisingly no luggage with you," commented the driver.
"It's at the airport already. We were just roaming around the city when we realized the time," said Sirius.
"Yeah," added Harry'', "The place is so beautiful that we lost track of time completely!"
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Ah, yes," he said sagely, "Paris does that to you."
Harry'' laughed cheerfully while Sirius stared at him with surprise written all over his face.
"Will you stop staring at me like that?" Harry'' hissed softly.
"What's with the act?" whispered Sirius.
"The muggle police will question the taxi drivers about anyone suspicious person leaving the area around the museum and we shouldn't look suspicious to this guy even if we look different."
"We aren't suspicious," said Sirius. "We got in we got out. That's it."
"We are not out until we are back under the roof of Grimmauld place," growled Harry'', "Now start laughing."
"What?"
"Laugh," said Harry'', "Loudly"
"Why?"
"Just laugh," snapped Harry''.
Sirius began to laugh uproariously causing Harry'' to wince. He didn't mean Sirius had to laugh right into his ear!
"What's with the laughter?" asked the driver, now lighting up a cigarette.
"Nothing," said Harry'' glaring at Sirius. "My dad was just reminding me of my less than memorable moments here."
"Oh, that's interesting, what happened!" he asked.
"Nothing interesting," said Harry'' trying to discourage the driver from asking more questions. Obviously any man would insist on knowing more he thought with a smirk and this simple minded driver was no different.
"Oh, come on," he said. "It's not like I'm going to tell anyone you know!"
"Alright," said Harry'' with a resigned sigh. "It all started with this girl when we were visiting the Eiffel tower," he began.
The chatting continued and Sirius soon caught up with Harry's'' plan and began making up more ridiculous stories each more embarrassing than the other.
After what seemed like hours of torture for Harry'', the taxi finally stopped in a crowded airport terminus.
"Bloody hell," whispered Sirius, after the driver had left. "This place is freaking crowded."
"Welcome to a muggle international airport Sirius," said Harry'' with a grin.
Sirius just nodded dumbly.
"What now?" he asked.
"Now, we follow the directions, look for the first flight we get out of this city and then head back home."
The pair stopped in front of a flight schedule.
"The earliest is in 45 minutes to Rio de Janeiro," said Sirius. "45 minutes is a long time."
"45 minutes is no time at all if what uncle Vernon said about airport security was true."
Sirius frowned when Harry'' mentioned his uncle.
"Oh and Sirius."
"What?"
"You'll have to do all the talking. You're the adult."
"Me! But I know nothing about all this!"
"Don't worry. Just show them our passports when they ask for it and then pay them the amount they ask for."
Sirius looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Relax Sirius, I have no doubt you'll manage perfectly," said Harry''.
"You so sure?"
"Yeah, because if you don't... we're screwed."
"Right," said Sirius taking a deep breath and checked the flight schedule once more. "Rio De Janeiro, terminal 7, lets go."
They stood in line waiting to be scanned by the security guards when Harry'' noticed something unusual.
"Sirius," he whispered.
"What?"
"Look at the guy in the black suit."
"What about him?"
"Look at his pants."
Sirius looked carefully. "They're too small for him," he said in surprise.
"And his socks are not matching... like he wore them in a hurry and to top it all off, he has a thin metal wire in his hand which looks like a magical detector to me."
Sirius's eyes widened in panic. "Shit, Harry'', they found us! We got to run!"
"Dammit Sirius just calm down," he said, as he noticed a few people looking at his fake dad curiously.
"How can I calm down?"
"They haven't found us yet! It's been over two hours since we left the museum and I'm sure they must have made the muggle connection. Just let me handle this and we'll be fine."
"You'll handle it! How are you going to handle it without magic?" hissed Sirius.
"Trust me," whispered Harry'', not elaborating.
Sirius to Harry's'' surprise acted perfectly. Must be because of his pranking tendencies, he thought with a smirk. And maybe because of his auror training too he added as an after thought.
10 minutes later they were three more people in front of them before the wizard scanned them. He was sure that instrument would detect their wands and the transfigured portrait.
Slowly taking a deep breath he cautiously raised a finger and willed the wizards shoe laces to untie.
There were two more people in front.
Harry'' held his breath.
One more person.
Sirius moved ahead.
Harry'' raised his hand subtly and moved the man's left leg on to his right shoe lace and then made him try and move his right leg to the right.
Everything happened just as Harry'' planned it.
The man went crashing into the table beside him, hitting his head viciously against its corner.
There were shrieks from the women around and a few guards rushed to the man's aid.
By the time the wizard recovered from his fall, Harry'' and Sirius had already placed their bag on the conveyor belt and avoided the wizards scan.
Harry'' allowed a smile to grace his lips as he saw the wizard stand on his feet shakily looking like he had just been slammed in the head by a bulldozer. The auror felt there was something amiss and his fall was not natural at all but he passed it off as part of the massive headache he was feeling at the moment.
Things went pretty much smoothly after they left Paris. It was an 11 hour flight to Rio De Janeiro and another 12 hours to London, not to mention the three hours they had to wait in the Brazilian airport waiting for the heavens to clear. Harry'' was confident that there was no way the wizards or muggles would be able to find them and identify them.
The only thing left to worry about was the reception they were going to get when they went back to the headquarters if anybody had discovered their disappearance. It would be sometime in the afternoon when they reached the headquarters and Harry'' had no doubt the news of the stolen portrait would have reached every household around the world.
What to do next, pondered Harry'' as the pilot announced their arrival at the London international airport.
Little did he know that back in his own world, a dark lord with unimaginable powers and a will to rule to world had been resurrected.