Runaway Home

Chapter Five-

Hasty Explanations

Harry wrung his hands nervously, wondering if Sirius' friend had heard the bark. He knocked lightly on the door just to be sure.

He jumped back in surprise when the door swung suddenly inward.

A man stood there, wearing an odd sort of... dress... and pointing a wooden stick at Sirius. He had light brown hair that was going gray, and his jaw seemed to be clenched. He gestured with his free hand to Harry.

"Come inside, Harry. Quickly." His eyes and stick never left Sirius, who didn't seem to be aware of the man's presence at all.

Harry was only seven. He didn't know what the stick the man held was, or why the man knew his name, but he didn't miss the burning hatred in the man's eyes. His little fists clenched angrily at the thought of him hurting Sirius with the stick. Finally he found someone who cared about him, and liked him, and now this man wanted to mess it all up!

Little face crumpled with rage, Harry stepped between Sirius and the angry man. He glared up at the man. "You have to let him tell you his story!"

Remus couldn't help but lower his wand a little. He'd barely had time to look out his window and register who he was seeing, much less why they were there. Sirius had clearly kidnapped Harry, but why had he brought him here? If he'd been wanting to finish what he'd started, he'd have killed the boy long ago, not brought him all the way here... Maybe he really was mad.

Still not taking his eyes from the traitor, he schooled his expression to one of polite curiosity. "What story is that, Harry?"

Harry stomped his foot impatiently. Adults were always so nitpicky. "He said that he didn't murder those people like everyone thinks he did. His friend did, he betrayed them, and he made it look like Sirius did it!"

Remus frowned despite himself. "His friend?"

"Yes! Sirius said that my parents had a...a spell put on them, so Volemort wouldn't find them, and only one person was supposed to know where they were. He said that everyone thinks that was him, but it wasn't!" Harry's lip quivered. "He said that you were his friend, and if he could just tell you his story, then maybe you could help him. And... and now he's hurt real bad..."

Remus' thoughts spun. His friend? Who else would have been the Potters' secret-keeper but Sirius...?

And then it hit him:

That had been the point. Sirius was the obvious choice; so they'd switched to someone less obvious, so that Sirius would only be the decoy...

"Sirius!"

Remus was jerked from his thoughts by Harry's shriek. The boy knelt next to Sirius, who appeared to have collapsed.

A quick battle took place in Remus Lupin's mind at that moment: believe what Sirius had told Harry and take him inside, or call the Aurors and let them deal with him without ever hearing his side of the story...

"It's all right, Harry. He'll be okay. Mobilicorpus," Remus muttered softly. The limp body of the dog lifted into the air, and Harry let out another yell.

"What're you doing!" he demanded. "Don't you dare hurt him!"

Well, whatever Sirius had done, he'd gotten an ally in Harry. Remus levitated him into his house and motioned to Harry to follow. "I'm not going to hurt him, I'm going to take care of him. Come on now, and close the door."

The house had two bedrooms, one of which Remus had long ago turned into a guest room. Sirius had often stayed there the days around the full moon. James had been too busy with his young family, and Peter with his job and business for the Order, but Sirius had never missed a full moon in all their years as friends.

Remus felt his throat tighten a bit as he pushed open the door to the room. It was dusty, and a few boxes were stacked in a corner; they held picture albums, full of photographs of all the people Remus had loved who had been taken from him. His parents, James, Lily, Harry, Peter... there were even some of Sirius that he couldn't bring himself to burn.

But he couldn't dwell on that now.

He gently let Sirius down onto the bed, then tapped him with his wand. He transformed, and Remus felt his throat tighten again at the pitiful sight of his old friend.

Sirius moaned and flinched through his semi-conscious stupor. He didn't seem able to fully breathe, making odd little wheezing noises with each breath. Harry whimpered softly. "Will he be okay?"

Remus made himself smile at the boy. "He'll be fine, don't worry. Why don't you sit down there," he gestured to a dusty armchair in the corner of the room. Harry obediently sat, still looking very apprehensive.

Remus forced the boy out of his mind as he turned back to Sirius. His shirt wasn't worth saving, filthy and bloodstained as it was, so Remus simply Vanished it.

His mind turned mechanical as he went through the steps of repairing Sirius' broken ribs and healed the bruising on his side. Sirius breathed easier.

"What exactly happened here?" he asked Harry, looking at Sirius' shoulder. He'd never seen anything like that wound.

"A farmer shot him with a gun," Harry said. He was shifting back and forth in his dusty chair.

Remus frowned and peered into the wound. He knew he couldn't heal that; he had enough training from Madam Pomfrey to take care of himself after the full moon, which meant bruises, cuts, and broken bones. A gunshot wound was way outside his experience.

After cleaning and tightly bandaging it, Remus pulled a light blanket over Sirius and put a ward on the bed; Sirius wouldn't be able to leave the bed when he woke up.

He turned back to Harry with a smile. "Are you hungry, Harry?"

Harry bit his lip and looked at Sirius. He seemed torn between his hunger and his godfather.

"Sirius will be alright, he just needs rest right now." And a decent healer, and a miracle... who's going to believe the word of a seven-year-old and a werewolf? "Why don't we go find some lunch?"

He heated up some leftover stew he'd eaten the night before, and gave Harry a rather large bowl. He was much too thin.

Harry's eyes widened at the size of his serving, as if he couldn't believe that all that food was his.

Remus ignored the surprised look and sat down across his kitchen table from Harry. "Now, how exactly did you come to be... traveling, I suppose, with Sirius?"

"Well," Harry swallowed a spoonful of stew, "he came to my school. As a dog, 'course, because he couldn't let people see him."

Remus nodded knowingly.

"I gave him some of my lunch, and he saved me from Dudley-"

"Who's Dudley? And why did you need saving?"

Harry blushed, as if he'd said something forbidden. "He's my cousin... he doesn't like me very much. But anyway, Sirius scared him away. Then after school, Sirius was there again, and he took me and showed me he was a person, not a dog. He told me his story, and that he was a friend of my parents, and why he had to stay as a dog so people wouldn't recognize him. He said he loved me," Harry said shyly.

Remus nodded slowly and drummed his fingers against the table. Sirius had clearly gone to great lengths to get Harry on his side... Maybe his plan had been to lure Harry into believing him so that he could use the boy to make himself look more innocent.

Or maybe he was insane.

Either way, it didn't bode well for poor Harry. He clearly trusted Sirius a great deal... finding out that the man was actually a mass-murderer would hurt him badly.

Remus miserably ran a hand through his sandy hair. Harry wouldn't be the only one it hurt.

Sirius looked terrified, pleading as he was bound the chair at the Ministry. "No! Remus, I didn't, I swear! I'd never-"

Remus groaned softly to himself. Never in his life had he felt so torn as he had at that moment. He hated Sirius for what he'd done to Lily and James and Peter, but at the same time... at the sound of Sirius' voice panicked in that way Remus had never heard before, he'd wanted to run over and embrace his friend, his brother, his packmate...

"S-Sir?"

Remus opened his eyes and gave Harry a forced smile. "You can call me Remus, Harry."

"Um... Remus? Will... will Sirius be alright?"

That depends on too many different things to know... "He'll be fine, Harry. Don't worry."

"He said that if they caught him, they'd do something bad to him," Harry said. His chin quivered a bit and he sniffed. "You won't let them, will you? You believe his story?"

Any reservations Remus had about helping Sirius vanished at the pleading look in the poor little boy's eyes. It would have taken true sincerity to make Harry this devoted.

And Remus Lupin knew a thing or two about dark wizards; they weren't capable of faking love.

"Come with me, Harry. We're going to go visit a friend of mine."