Runaway Home

Chapter Seven-

Reunited

"Mhmm..."

Sirius groaned and opened his eyes groggily. He took a moment to get fully awake before sitting up with another groan.

When the room finally quit spinning, he recognized it immediately. So they'd made it then...

Sirius felt his side gingerly and grinned as he found it was healed. His shoulder still burned ferociously, but at least he could breathe again. He threw the blanket off himself; Remus must have a fire burning in every room, he thought to himself, for it to be this hot.

And just where was Remus, anyway? And Harry?

Sirius frowned, suddenly worried for his godson. Clearly Remus hadn't reacted too badly, since he, Sirius, was lying in a bed instead of a cell, but that didn't stop him worrying.

He went to throw his legs over the side of the bed, but what seemed to be an invisible wall prevented him from doing so.

He growled softly to himself. Well, they probably hadn't left the house...

"Remus?" he shouted. "Harry?"

There was no answer.

"REMUS!" Still nothing.

So they had left the house. Sirius felt a lump grow in his throat as he thought of the various places they might be.

He felt at the 'wall' around the bed. Perfectly smooth and hard, and there didn't seem to be a weak spot anywhere.

Sirius felt himself growing panicked, and a claustrophobic urge to escape overcame him. He pounded on the wall, clawed at it, threw himself against it. He had to get out, had to talk to Remus, had to find Harry...

The sickening pain in his shoulder was forgotten as he attacked the wall with every ounce of strength he possessed. He transformed and lunged at it, biting and clawing, transformed again, pounding hitting punching...

It took several minutes for him to give up. Utterly spent, he collapsed back onto the bed with a groan. The room spun before him, and now the pain had spread from his shoulder all through his arm and back. He whimpered softly, helplessly, and watched the ceiling spin.

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Remus stepped out of his grate and ran a hand nervously through his hair. He'd never been in a more awkward position... If Sirius was innocent, as Remus devoutly hoped he was, then no mere apology would ever cover the guilt he felt. If Sirius was guilty, then Remus would have to undergo the pain of having his friend taken from him a second time. And Harry would never forgive him for letting Sirius go to the dementors.

But he couldn't undo what was done. He squared his shoulders, took out his wand, and went to the guest room.

His jaw dropped.

The sheets and blanket were twisted into a great mass, stained horrifically with blood. Sirius lay in a position that looked as if he'd fallen that way. The dressings on his arm were ripped and torn, hanging half-on half-off his shoulder.

Sirius gave a start as Remus walked in. On seeing who it was, he quickly tried to sit up.

Remus winced as blood oozed from under the mangled bandage.

"Remus..." he said hoarsely. "Where's Harry? Is he alright? You haven't gone to the Aurors, have you?"

Remus moved over to the side of the bed. The ward was designed so that only the person lying in the bed when it was made was bound by it; he could move in and out of it as he pleased.

"Harry's fine, he's with Dumbledore," he said softly. "And no, I haven't gone to the Aurors. I'll hear you out before I do." He forced a sharper note into his voice; he couldn't let Sirius know how badly he wanted to believe his innocence. If Sirius really were guilty, Remus would be all too easy to manipulate if he let his feelings show.

Sirius let out a choked sob of relief and lay back down.

Remus levitated the armchair over next to the bed and sat down. "So why should I believe you?" he asked, in a voice much colder than he felt. "Why shouldn't I just hand you over to the dementors?"

For a moment, hurt flashed through Sirius' haunted eyes. Only for a moment.

He looked Remus straight in the eye. "I wasn't the Potters' Secret Keeper. I got James to switch, at the last minute, to Peter. No one would suspect Peter... And much to my misfortune, no one did," he said with a bitter laugh.

"I went to check on him that night, but his house was empty. What was odd though, it looked just as it always did; the door was locked, his cloak was gone, there wasn't any sign of forced entry or a fight, or anything.

"That's when I knew that he'd betrayed us. He sold Lily and James to Voldemort," Sirius snarled softly.

"I went to Godric's Hollow, but obviously I got there too late. So I did the only thing left to- I went after Peter. I caught up to him in a Muggle street, and he..." Sirius shifted uncomfortably, his eyes still locked on Remus'. "He blew up the street, transformed, and disappeared. 'Course, no one knew he could transform, so..."

Remus said nothing for a moment. In their years at school, they'd gotten into more tight spots with teachers than any group of students had any right to. And in all those tight spots, Remus had learned something about Sirius- he couldn't look someone in the eye and lie to them.

He stood, not breaking eye contact with Sirius.

"Please, Remus, believe me... you know me, you know I'd never betray my friends!" Sirius laboriously sat up, looking as if he was going to be sick. "Please, Moony, believe me..."

Remus felt tears prick his eyes as he leaned down and embraced Sirius. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "So sorry... I don't know how I could have believed it was you, Padfoot..."

Sirius seemed to be convulsing in his arms; Remus wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying. He wasn't sure he cared. He had his brother back, and that was all that mattered.

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry, Moony..." Sirius said. There was a tear in his voice; he must have been crying, Remus decided.

He released his friend and frowned down at him. "For what?"

"I... I thought it was you, I didn't trust you," Sirius choked again. "And I trusted him... and so because of me, Harry's an orphan..."

Remus sat down next to Sirius and put a hand on his non-bloody shoulder. "There wasn't anything we could have done, Sirius... My mother used to say, 'Fools dwell on the past and ignore the future'."

There was another moment of silence, and suddenly Sirius smiled. "We sound like women."

Remus couldn't help but laugh. "So we do."

They sat there a moment in shocked silence, both trying to absorb the fact that he had a friend again. It was Sirius who finally broke the silence.

"Do you always keep your house so hot? It's November, Moony, not January." He wiped at his forehead.

Remus frowned and put his own hand to Sirius' forehead. Oh no... "Lie down," he ordered. When Sirius went to protest, he gently pushed him back down. "I'll be right back."

Remus quickly went to his kitchen and poured cold water over a washcloth. He thought about his options as he wrung it out; take him to Hogwarts, risking someone seeing him... try healing him myself, risk something going wrong...

"I want to see Harry," Sirius said plaintively as Remus came back into the room. He was struggling to sit back up, and it didn't appear he was succeeding.

"Should've stayed in bed today," Remus murmured under his breath.

Sirius frowned. "What?"

"I said, lie back down before you hurt yourself." Remus glared. "I didn't waste my day listening to you just to let you bleed to death now that I actually believe you."

Sirius grinned perversely, but did as he was told. He even held still while Remus put the cold cloth on his forehead and re-cleaned and bandaged his shoulder.

He really must be exhausted, Remus thought. He glanced down at Sirius' bare stomach and noticed for the first time the ribs clearly protruding from the flesh.

"When was the last time you ate, Sirius?"

"Dunno," Sirius said airily. His eyes were a little glazed over. "Had some bacon yesterday... it was burnt. Damned Dursley..." he growled.

Remus looked back at Sirius's face, slightly alarmed. Hogwarts it is, then... He wanted to ask what Dursley had to do with bacon, exactly, but decided that Sirius' immediate health was more important than his feverish rambling. "Sirius, do you want to see Harry now?"

Sirius nodded happily. He seemed to be in shock.

"Well, if you want to see Harry, you have to transform, alright? Can you do that?"

"'Course." It took six tries, but Sirius finally managed to do it. Now, instead of a glassy-eyed, bandaged, emaciated man, there stood before Remus a glassy-eyed, bandaged, emaciated dog with its tongue lolling out.

"Good. Now, you can't transform back until I tell you, alright? We're going to go to Hogwarts and see Harry, but you have to stay a dog, alright Padfoot?" Remus wanted to kick himself; this wasn't going to work, he was going to be seen... And then they'd both be off to Azkaban.

But if I don't, then he'll bleed to death, Remus told himself firmly. Got to take him to someone who can heal him.

"Alright, come on Padfoot."