Chapter 176
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's or Criminal Minds fabulous characters. I do however own this story; I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
A/N: The people who voted in my Fanfiction poll, voted overwhelmingly for the options that had Harry meeting Sirius before leaving the country. This was surprising since none of the comments encourage me to keep Harry at Hogwarts and if they mention it at all want him to get away.
The idea of keeping Harry in this situation when I really believe he wouldn't go back, is one of the things that's caused me to struggle with this story. I believe my Harry wouldn't go back to either the Dursleys or Hogwarts again there was no other realistic way for Sirius to find Harry, but I cannot do it, I couldn't bear to have him back at the Dursleys. But for all you Sirius fans here's a little bit of what Padfoot is up to.
The emaciated and exhausted shaggy black dog slunk into Little Whinging late on a Thursday night. He'd had the Dursleys address in his muggle escape kit, set up and stashed under unbreakable muggle repelling and notice-me-not charms up in a tree in a park near his old flat in London. He'd been surprised that the park and the tree were still there after all these years, especially with the changes in the buildings surrounding the park.
Lily had insisted on giving the address to him even though Sirius didn't think that Lily's sister would accept or offer any help from any wizard no matter how bad things got. Still if the war spilled out into the muggle world to the point that even small towns in Surrey weren't safe, Sirius had promised to try to help Petunia and her family leave the country, even if he had to cast compulsion spells on her and her husband to accomplish it.
Sirius had heard through gossip in one of the disreputable pubs in Knockturn Alley earlier in the summer that Harry was spending the school holidays behind wards with his muggle relatives. The speaker had been bemoaning that they hadn't been able to find where exactly the house was so they could take Potter and his relatives out in retaliation for what he'd done that terrible Hallows Eve. Sirius had been horrified that Harry had grown up with the magic-hating Petunia and her husband but he had known how to find them. He had taken his time leaving the pub, lying low for a while making sure he hadn't been followed before making his way south.
Padfoot whined in confusion, he knew he was getting close to the Dursleys' house. He'd looked them up in the phone book and rung the number so he knew they still lived there but he couldn't feel any wards or signs of magic in the area at all. If the wards only enveloped the house itself Harry would be a prisoner indoors all summer. That couldn't be right! Perhaps Dumbledore had done something to make it look like they still lived there, or perhaps he'd used the Fidelius again, that didn't leave traces of magic in the neighbourhood around it. Sirius only hoped he'd learned his lesson about making sure to choose a secret keeper that could be trusted.
But Sirius doubted how the Fidelius would work in a muggle house where the occupants all came and went and supposedly needed to have their address on all sorts of official forms and the boys would want to be able to have friends visit. He crept towards Number 4 Privet Drive careful to act like a normal dog meandering up the street following scent trails only he could smell, becoming more and more sure he wasn't going to find his godson. He couldn't pick up even the faintest traces of Harry, if he was in the house he hadn't been allowed out into the neighbourhood at all this summer.
Sirius arrived at Number 4, noting that he could plainly see the brass number on the Navy-blue door. 'Not the Fidelius then,' he thought to himself. 'No one watching or guarding the house either.' He found a large bush to crawl under in the neighbour's yard and sat watching the house the Dursleys' had listed as their address as the sun came up.
He was roused from a light doze by the clatter of milk bottles being delivered and watched eagerly as several litres of milk were left on the stoop of Number 4. A light went on upstairs and then a few minutes later the front door opened and Petunia Dursley picked up the mild bottles, re-entering the house without noticing the Black dog sitting unnaturally still, watching eagerly from the neighbour's yard.
Sirius thought that he recognised the woman, she looked like Lily's sister but he wasn't going to take anything at face value if there was supposedly magic hiding the family. He ran across the yard and sniffed the doorstep where she'd stepped out to get the milk. It really was Petunia, even Dumbledore wouldn't have bothered to make an illusion smell like the family but he was concerned that the wards let him get all the way to touching the front door without so much as a warning. If fact he still couldn't feel them at all. He slipped back to his hiding spot and kept watch.
Vernon left for work, and the hours passed, Petunia came out to tend the garden, then late in the morning an obese blond boy left the house and slouched his way along the street. Padfoot rushed up to him sniffing and jumping up to make sure he didn't miss anything. There was no trace of Harry's scent on the boy. Was Harry even in the house? Had he ever been here? It would explain the lack of wards if he wasn't. Still, he didn't have any other leads on his Godson's whereabouts or anywhere else he wanted to go, so he patiently kept watch waiting for an opportunity to get into the house.
His chance came a couple of nights later when he was woken by Dudley and his gang staggering home from wherever they'd been drinking and he was able to follow the unobservant teen through the front door. He hid in the shadows as Dudley hauled himself up the stairs, making enough noise to rouse a deaf person but after the shouting and calling in the streets Sirius wasn't totally surprised that Vernon and Petunia didn't bother to get up and see what was going on or to berate the teen for his underage drunkenness.
Sirius waited for the house to quieten down again and the twin snores of the male Dursleys to echo through the upstairs before he began his search. Even from inside the house there was no sign of wards protecting anything, no floo connection or signs of any magic or potions in the house at all, not even a dropped Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean that had rolled out of sight and been forgotten.
It was clear there was no fourth person living in the house. In fact, the only sign of Harry was the smell of old blood and sweat coming from the cupboard under the stairs and the stuffy little room with the odd catflap in the upstairs hallway. Both the room and the cupboard also smelled of dust and disuse. If Harry had lived there, he hadn't returned for the summer. Looking around at the portraits of the three Dursleys decorating the living room and hallway he wondered whether the smell of old blood was tricking him and Harry had never lived there at all. Or worse if he'd been kept hidden in the cupboard and there were no pictures of him anywhere because nobody was supposed to know he was there.
It was only after concluding Harry definitely hadn't been there recently that Sirius became aware of the flaw in his plan. As a dog, Padfoot was incapable of detailed planning or thinking things through properly and here he was stuck inside a locked house with three people he didn't trust not to hurt a dog or call the dog catcher. He turned into a man just long enough to open the front door, figuring that it would be less suspicious to leave the door open than to risk someone seeing a strange man leave the house in the middle of the night. The adults would just assume that Dudley hadn't shut it properly the night before and he was in no state to remember clearly.
Becoming a man again gave him the opportunity to think and plan more clearly and take advantage of being inside a well-stocked muggle home. None of the clothing would be any use to him, refitting charms could only do so much after all, but he quietly retreated to the kitchen planning to help himself to a meal for the night, and a perhaps couple of pounds from Petunia's purse. Petunia had bought a large selection of cold sandwich meat and a large leg of lamb when she'd shopped that day and Sirius hadn't been able to resist. He quickly found the shopping bags and packed up as much food as his enchanted pocket would hold knowing that he had the skill to make it transform with him into his animagus form. Sirius also took the opportunity to rifle through the mail sitting tidily in the caddy designed for it. There were several bills for things and an old letter from Dudley, written to his mum and dad back in May. Nothing addressed to or from Harry.
He didn't want to linger here, it wasn't only the risk of one of the Dursleys waking up and catching him either as a strange unkempt man or a large dog in the house. His emotions were threatening to overwhelm him as he realised how impossible it would be to find Harry before September first. He knew there was nothing to do but to hope and pray that his godson was enjoying his summer wherever he was and was okay and being protected and well looked after.
Sirius let himself out of the house, and not knowing where else to look for Harry, Padfoot dejectedly started the long trek to Hogwarts.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.