"If only there had been a Dementor around... As a sobbing Wood passed Harry the Cup, as he lifted it into the air, Harry felt he could have produced the world's best Patronus."

- J. K. Rowling, The Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter Fifteen

Chapter 11: Summer at Lupin's

As promised, Kara took Harry into Diagon Alley two days later. They got a number of stares, which Harry noticed weren't all due to him for once. Word must have spread about what Kara and Lupin had done. She ignored them, but Harry noticed her mouth was tight.

They went into Quality Quidditch supplies. As Harry already had the world's best broom and a good servicing kit, they only walked out with paraphernalia. Kara was smiling at this point.

"We used to all come here together," she told him. "Remus and I would leave your father and Sirius to drool over their options and head to Flourish and Blotts."

"I thought Remus liked Quidditch?" Harry asked. Calling his professor by his Christian name was still a bit difficult, but Sirius was right. It was too formal to keep using "professor" when addressing the other adults in the house with such familiarity.

"He does," she answered. "Quite a bit, actually. But even he doesn't have as much, er, enthusiasm for it as your father and godfather."

"What about you?"

"I enjoyed your father's games. It about ends there. I haven't even been on a broomstick since school, I think...There was one particularly good game, seventh year...It was not long after your grandparents had died, and I think James needed the win. And oh, did he have to fight for it that match. Those of us who weren't in the audience weren't just on the edge of our seats - we were nearly falling out of the stands. That actually probably was the last time I rode a broom."

"If you were in the audience, how come you rode a broom?"

"Because Sirius caught me up once the cheering started. He was so excited. Only it was probably a bad idea - He had broken up with Marlene McKinnon the day before, and she seemed to think I was the reason. She cornered me in the hall later and hexed me so badly I spent the rest of the weekend in the hospital wing."

"I've seen you duel. I'm surprised she got the drop on you." It was the only thing Harry could think to say to this.

"Well, we hadn't joined the Order then - I wasn't trained. And I was a little slower at spells when I first came to Hogwarts."

After a moment, Harry decided to pursue the subject. "So...you weren't the reason Sirius broke up with her?"

Kara snorted. "No. He was just tired of her. I think in some ways they were too much alike. He got bored."

"What did he do when he found out why she'd hexed you?"

Now she frowned. "Do you know, I don't know. I never asked him, and she and I gave each other a wide berth after that. I even made sure to sit next to Remus at meals for a while...just to help quell the rumors. Eventually we all just...forgot about it."

Harry digested this information as they went about the rest of their shopping. They went into Muggle London, and, while he felt a bit awkward shopping with a woman who was barely an acquaintance, much less his mother, Kara gave him his space, hovering in calling distance only, letting him sort out things for himself.

They returned home that evening to find Sirius sitting in the kitchen, frowning over two letters. He looked up as they entered.

"How did you make out?"

The shopping bags they were carting in should have spoken for themselves, Harry thought, but he couldn't resist showing his godfather everything he'd gotten in Quality Quidditch supplies. Kara rolled her eyes at them and started on dinner. At some point, she told Harry he'd better get his things up to his room, and he spent an enjoyable hour finding the right places to hang his new purchases on his walls.

His clothes remained in their bags in front of the wardrobe.

*HP*HP*HP*HP*

"What's all that?" Kara asked once Harry had gone upstairs.

"A letter from Dumbledore asking to meet us at the school on the fifteenth of August," Sirius said. "And another letter from Scrimgeour. He wants to meet with me on Friday. He doesn't say why."

"If he has any sense, he's offering you your old job back."

Sirius looked amused as he sat back in his chair. "I hadn't even thought that far ahead."

She looked him over carefully. The light in his eyes now obscured the dark at the back of them - most days. His face had filled out just a little. His hair was trimmed just about his shoulders, and his teeth were clean and whole.

"Do you need more time?" she asked carefully.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I expect I'll get bored if I leave it too long - even with this mysterious project we have with Dumbledore. Gonna tell me anything before we get there?"

"Too many ears in this house," she said, nodding in the direction of the stairs. "And this is a bit dark for pillow talk. Even for us."

They had been talking, in fits and bursts, at night. Little things came out. Sometimes about Azkaban, sometimes about what it was like to watch Peter destroy their friends and their lives and not be able to tell anyone the truth. Slowly, very slowly, they were starting to process what had happened over the last couple of years.

She sometimes felt bad about this. She had begun her journey here with Remus, and now she felt she was leaving him behind. But they weren't teenagers anymore, and she noted Remus had been giving her and Sirius space to do exactly what they were doing.

Like he knew they needed to.

Her friend's selflessness was enough to give her a headache.

A tap on the glass. They looked up to find Errol at the window. It was opened, but only just so, and there was not enough room for the owl to squeeze through.

Kara crossed the room, opened it, and let the poor thing in. She carried him over to the table, where Sirius retrieved the letter tied to his leg, then out to the parlor and the owl stand they kept in there, where he could rest for a bit. She called up the stairs, asking Harry to bring some of Hedwig's food and a bowl of water when he came down.

"The Weasleys want us to come to dinner on Friday," Sirius said as she returned to the kitchen.

"Well, that will be something to look forward to. I imagine Harry will be tired of all us stuffy old adults by that time.

Sirius chuckled. "I also got another owl earlier today."

"Are we running a post office now?"

"This one was from my cousin, Andromeda. The invitation includes you and Remus as well."

Kara kept her gaze carefully on the cooking pot, which was now boiling. What were the chances...

*HP*HP*HP*HP*

Dinner at the Weasleys was a raucous affair, which Remus suspected Molly didn't entirely appreciate. It was impossible to decipher whose happy mood was more catching - Sirius' or the twins'. Remus thought their teachers should all count themselves lucky Fred and George were a generation removed from Sirius and James. If all four of them had been at school together, no doubt Hogwarts would no longer be standing.

Kara was gossiping happily with Arthur about their mutual acquaintances: her customers and his coworkers. Ginny, Harry, and Ron were running through Quidditch scenarios, using their forks as brooms and empty glasses as goals.

"How have things been at the house?" Molly asked him quietly.

He looked at her. Molly was not what he would have called a subtle person, but it seemed she'd decided this conversation was just for his ears. Not entirely sure where this was going, he silently cast a charm about them, muffling them from the rest of the party.

"Fine," he said. "We're...settling in."

"It's an odd arrangement," she said slowly, disapprovingly.

"True," he said. "But it always has been. And Kara and I would have taken Harry in from the beginning, if Dumbledore hadn't made other arrangements."

"Will Sirius find a place for just him and Harry?"

"He might, eventually, but I'm trying to discourage it."

"Why?"

He shifted in his seat. "Well, Harry and I will be at the school most of the year anyway. Kara would be left - again - with that lonely house all by herself, and I imagine Sirius - You already know, don't you?"

Molly smiled. "Yes, but I wanted to be sure that was your plan."

He sighed. "James and I had a deal, back when we were at school. He'd see what he could do about nudging Sirius, and I'd work on Kara. They both proved too stubborn for either of us. But she has been clear that her feelings haven't changed, and I don't think his have either. They just..."

"...Have a lot to be going on with?"

Remus nodded. "I'm hoping if I can keep them under the same roof they'll eventually get round to sorting it out. Preferably after Harry has gone back to school."

Molly sat back, sipping at her elderberry wine. "Why are you young people so stubborn? Once Arthur and I realized we cared for each other, there was no stopping us."

"Because the world was a lighter place then, Molly. Sirius and Kara both have a lot of fear and doubt to get beyond if they are going to find their way to each other."

*HP*HP*HP*HP*

Scrimgeour had wanted Sirius to come back to work at the Auror office, his time in Azkaban giving him "a unique perspective on the minds and workings of Dark Wizards".

Sirius checked his first five or so responses to this, all of which would have cost him the job, and said he'd be delighted, but only after the summer was over. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with his godson.

About a week after this interview and the subsequent party at the Weasleys, he and Harry left for Greece. They spent two weeks there, in the sun, staring at old architecture and feeling the weight of the ancient world, basking on the beaches and swimming in the Mediterranean. They visited the Grecian wizarding sites, which of course the Muggles couldn't see, and ate food of a sort too exotic to be consumed at Hogwarts.

Sirius told Harry story after story about his dad, but was careful to wait for the boy's cues. It was a lot, he suspected, to get to know someone whom you knew you would never meet, and desperately wanted to.

On their last day, they were passing an old shop, right on the coast, where Sirius saw it. With a grin that stretched his thin face to breaking point, he asked Harry if he minded taking a bit longer to get home.

*HP*HP*HP*HP*

Kara was in the parlor when she heard the rumble. She and Remus had spent a quiet two weeks in their old routine, both recognizing that it was likely the last opportunity they would have to do so. Nothing significant happened, and Remus hadn't pushed her on the subject of Sirius or their bargain, which Kara was grateful for. She was also grateful to be sleeping alone during that time, as she had become somewhat restless. She wasn't quite sure how she would handle it when Sirius came home.

The rumble increased as it came up the road, rattling the house. She could hear the windows and old china clanking, and stood with a frown. Remus came out of his study and, with a bewildered exchange of looks, they both hurried for the back door.

They made it outside just as Sirius rolled up on a brand new black motorbike, Harry seated cheerfully beside him in the pillion pad.

Kara laughed. She laughed as she hadn't in fourteen years. As Sirius killed the engine and stood, leather jacket hugging his frame, she couldn't help her joy.

"He's back!" she announced, as though to an audience.

Beside her, Remus was also smiling broadly. "It's a very good thing we don't have neighbors," he noted.

Harry happily scrambled out. "We got it in Greece!"

"Does it fly?" Kara asked suspiciously.

Sirius' grin was infectious. "Not yet."

She laughed further.

He smiled at her, then nodded back in the direction of the bike. "Well?" he asked. "Want a go?"

Of course she did.

It took him a bit to unhook the pillion pad, during which Harry chattered to Remus about their adventures, and Kara rushed upstairs to find better footwear and something to break the wind. The pillion pad was parked next to their old shed when she came out. Sirius was waiting for her. She climbed up behind him, settling her arms around his waist comfortably. Some part of her, the part that was sixteen or twenty and hadn't seen a war or fought a dark lord in a graveyard, wished it already flew.

They had no helmets, so Sirius cast a Disillusionment Charm around them, and they were off.

And they spent an hour on the back roads of England, the wind in their hair and nothing but cheer in their minds.