Kindred Spirits

by Tailkinker

This is a work of fan fiction based on the Harry Potter series and the Sailor Moon franchise created respectively by J.K. Rowling and Naoko Takeuchi. The characters and settings belong to their respective owners and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes and should not be considered as part of the official canon of either series.

Dark Homecoming

They'd flown from Narita to Dubai, to Frankfurt, to London. Eighteen hours on the plane, plus six hours on layover, was a full day spent on travel. And to top it all off, crossing so many time zones meant that the clock showed only fourteen hours passed. Harry was bone-tired, and despite attempting to sleep on the plane, he was dead on his feet.

Hotaru handed him a bottle of water. "Here. This will help, more than you know."

"Thanks, Hotaru-chan." He uncapped the bottle, and to his surprise, drained it entirely. "Wow. Guess I needed that more than I thought."

Hotaru giggled. "Papa and I are used to the travel, but jet lag still hurts. Still, going west is a lot easier than going east. You were a mess the first two days in Tokyo."

"I'm glad we took it easy," he admitted.

"Of course, we've still got to get to Bristol," pointed out Hotaru. Harry groaned, and Hotaru giggled again. "It's only two more hours on the M4."

"Maybe I should just call for D—"

Hotaru gently placed a hand over his mouth before he could utter the House Elf's name. "Don't want him just popping in here, do we? You know he's just waiting to hear his name."

"Good point," admitted Harry.

"Plus, I don't think we'll be so long as that." She pointed across the concourse. "Isn't that your godfather?"

It was, indeed, Sirius Black, holding a sign with his name on it. Harry grinned, and ran towards his godfather, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten.

"Sirius! You didn't tell us you were going to meet us."

But Sirius wasn't smiling. "I had to come, pup. There's been some really bad stuff happening." He glanced at Hotaru, who was following somewhat more sedately. "Weren't you two with her father?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "He's off negotiating with Customs."

Sirius frowned in thought. "You two look beat. I imagine he's no better, yeah?"

"Yeah," admitted Harry. "Why?"

"I don't know a lot about Muggle jets, but I know that travelling a long way very quickly can mess you up. And you've still got to get to Bristol. I can speed that up a lot for you. It's not a comfortable ride, but it's very fast. But I need to get Harry to Clifton quickly."

"You're talking about the Knight Bus." Harry sighed. "It is fast, I'll give it that."

"Do you suppose your father would mind crashing at my place until tomorrow?" Sirius asked Hotaru.

Hotaru considered. "Well, the car is here. He'd still have to drive it home."

Sirius nodded. "Forgot about that. Okay. What if I give him some money to get a hotel room or something? Then he could rest up, drive home tomorrow when he's fresh, stop at Clifton to pick you up? Only, I think Harry's going to want your support."

"It's that bad?" asked Harry quietly.

"It's lots of bad things, but none of them insurmountable," said Sirius. "Sorry, pup, but you've come back into a hurricane."

As it turned out, Souichi-sensei was amenable to Sirius' plan. Sirius, Harry and Hotaru stepped out of the Knight Bus in a small alley next to Sirius' home in Clifton. As the magical bus departed—with a loud bang!—Harry was surprised to see the alley contract back to its normal size.

Hotaru looked a bit queasy. "I don't like that bus."

"I don't blame you," said Sirius, grinning. "But at times, it's simply the best choice. I can't side-along two people." He turned and opened the door to his flat. "All right. First off, you need to know that I've got some house-guests already. We're going to be a bit tight for space."

"You've got three rooms," said Harry. "Unless you had to give one to Draco—"

"Draco's not contacted me." Sirius shook his head.

"Sirius?"

Harry knew that voice, but was convinced his ears were playing tricks on him. He stepped in, past the sitting room, and saw his Aunt Petunia at the kitchen table.

"Aunt Petunia? What are you doing here?"

Petunia looked down. "Dudley was..."

"Dudley was attacked by a Dementor," said Sirius. He came in behind Harry, and moved to the icebox. "There was an Order member nearby, who drove it off, but Dudley was pretty badly shaken." He opened the icebox, and pulled out a jug of juice—a plastic jug, Harry was surprised to see. "Apparently, her husband did his nut, and threatened Kingsley with a shotgun."

"After they'd just saved Dudders," said Petunia bitterly.

Sirius poured some orange juice into a glass. "The Order wanted to increase their presence there, since Voldemort knows you spend your summers with them."

"Wait." Harry raised a hand. "How does he know that?"

"He's got supporters all over the place, Harry," said Hotaru quietly. "Probably one of the Slytherins told their parents."

"We think he got it from the Ministry, actually," corrected Sirius. "He's got supporters there, as well." He poured a second glass of juice.

"Vernon wouldn't hear of your kind watching over us," mumbled Petunia. "I told him to think of Dudley, and he said that he was thinking of Dudley." She looked up. "Lily told me about the Dementors, and that Muggles can't see them. We can't protect ourselves from something we can't even see. When the man from your Order told me that the only way to protect us, without putting a guard on the house, was to relocate us, I decided that Dudley and I would go with them."

"Put the Order in a bit of a spot," chuckled Sirius. "Luckily, I was there." He waved a hand around his flat. "I live more or less by Muggle means, so Petunia and Dudley weren't too weirded out coming here. Of course, there's some obvious magical stuff, but I keep that hidden, so I don't have to be a hermit." He gestured towards the fireplace. "Like my pot of Floo powder. It's a funerary urn. If anybody asks, my mother's ashes are kept in there."

"Clever," said Hotaru.

Harry knew some of this, as he'd already spent two weeks living here, and assumed that the explanation was for Hotaru's benefit. "So where's Dudley?"

"Out looking for new friends," said Petunia. "It seems that his friends from Surrey can't be bothered to call or write."

"This might be a chance for you to mend fences with him," observed Hotaru quietly. She looked down as the two adults glanced at her.

Harry shrugged. "I'm willing to give him another chance."

"Listen, pup, there's more to this." He picked up the two glasses of juice, and set them on the table. "You two sit down. Have a drink."

Harry sat, but his stomach was churning too much to pick up his glass.

"The Ministry is denying Voldemort's back," continued Sirius.

"I know," said Harry bitterly.

"What you don't know is that Fudge has gone on the offensive," said Sirius. "You haven't been able to get the Prophet in Japan, right? Well, the Ministry has been attacking you and Dumbledore through the Daily Prophet. Claiming that you're delusional, or attention-seekers, or the like."

"Not surprising," muttered Harry.

"Dumbledore's already lost his position on the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards." Sirius chuckled. "Though he said he didn't care, as long as they didn't take him off the Chocolate Frog cards. But when Kingsley summoned his Patronus to chase off the Dementors that attacked Dudley—"

"Wait." Harry raised his hand again. "What the hell were Dementors even doing in Little Whinging?"

"We don't know," admitted Sirius. "The Ministry insists that they're all still accounted for. But listen. When Kingsley summoned his Patronus, the Ministry assumed it was you. They immediately declared that you'd violated the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. They ordered your wand snapped and your expulsion from Hogwarts."

"What?!" Harry leaped to his feet. "But I wasn't even in England at the time!"

"We know," said Harry. "Arthur and Dumbledore immediately went to work on that, and managed to convince them to at least give you a hearing. But the Ministry chose to set that hearing for yesterday. We told them that you were out of country, but Fudge insisted that that was your problem, not his. And they upheld the ruling in absentia."

Harry collapsed back into his seat. "But that means..."

"You've been expelled from Hogwarts," said Sirius.

Harry felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. For the last four years, Hogwarts had been his home. He felt Hotaru's arm around him, and leaned into her support, shivering.