Streetwise

Chapter 2

The sun was up, shining down through the mist that engulfed the city. Kings Cross Station was as per usual filled with people rushing to and fro to work...for at that hour they were late. Many...despite the sleep in, still carried headaches from the weekend that just passed. Each was in their own world, completely ignorant to their surroundings, which is probably the reason why nobody noticed a certain, highly-dangerous, escaped convict in their midst...by the name of Sirius Black.

Sirius sighed; he had been out for two years now, leading a life on the run, merely loitering for the last couple of months. Some days he felt like he had no purpose to live anymore, in Azkaban at least he still had the comfort of knowing that Harry was safe and would be soon attending Hogwarts...when he had first escaped he had held the hope of a new beginning, of at least redeeming some of his guilt through Harry. Then when Harry had gone missing, Sirius had had confidence in finding him, and maybe even make a new life with Harry away from the magical world, away from the old crowd, maybe even live in America, the land of dreams and new beginnings.

Sirius had looked for Harry around London, he had searched all over the world, but his efforts were in vain, as days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years, there were still no sign of Harry, his hopes and dreams had slowly evaporated...he has nearly lost the little hope that he has ever had.

It was time to face the truth, Harry was gone, probably dea... no he couldn't bring himself to admit it, maybe by not admitting it, Harry still might have a chance. No...he refused to give up hope on Harry just yet, he owed James and Lily that much at least.

Damn Wormtail, if it wasn't for him, James and Lily might still be alive, and Harry...Harry would be safe... surrounded by his parents' love. But Sirius knew that it was not all the rat's fault, he was partly to blame for James and Lily's death. If only he hadn't persuaded James to change secret keepers, if only he wasn't so bloody terrified of been tortured by the Death Eaters, if only he had trusted Remus! Yes... when it came down to it, it was all his fault. His fault that James and Lily are dead, his fault that Harry's life is now in question, his fault that Harry had to live with that horse faced woman and her lump of a husband, his fault for not noticing that Peter was the spy, the traitor, the backstabber.

At the thought of Peter, Sirius felt his hands clench into fists, Wormtail ...the bastard has probably returned to serve Voldemort, again the pathetic servant of the resurrected Dark Lord...that is if You-Know-Who himself hadn't killed that incompetent traitor by now.

Sirius closed his eyes and stood still, breathing deep, trying to calm himself, oblivious to the muggles rushing around him... ... ...who were all cursing, under their breathe at the strange man. For Sirius was indeed the epitome of strange to a muggle's eye, his hair was tangled, greasy, flecked with dandruff and full of lice, just begging to be washed. Having not seen a razor for eleven years, Sirius sported whiskers to rival Kris Kringle's except not white or as carefully trimmed. His skin yellow and waxy, and his cheeks smudged with dirt, he could easily be mistaken for just a commonplace beggar, yet somehow one hesitates to classify him as one. Maybe it was because of his weird garments, though dull and black in its colour, they were like...well the closest in a muggle's wardrobe they resemble would be a dress. Or maybe it was the fact that he wasn't begging for money or food, instead he was standing quite upright, almost proud, the posture of a person with great dignity and honor, definitely not that of a beggar's.

Today...today was indeed a special day. It was exactly twelve years ago that Lily Potter gave birth to a baby boy, turning the once mischief-making mastermind, aka a marauder, James Potter, into a father, it was also exactly twelve years ago when Sirius was named the godfather of that child, Harry James Potter. As godfather Sirius legally had custody over Harry if, God forbid, anything might prevent James and Lily to fulfill their role as guardians to their son. Twelve years ago Sirius would never have thought that James and Lily might not be able to care for Harry, nor did he dare to think that he himself might not be able to care for the boy. Yet here he was twelve years later, on his godson's birthday, not even knowing if the boy has reached his twelfth birthday. Oh dear God.... If only he had arrived earlier at the Dursley's, but no, he had to wait until Harry's birthday. Sirius remembered that day well, after the initial shock and some persuasion Vernon Dursley had admitted that Harry had left that morning, just before lunch. At first Sirius had thought that Harry would be back, for the Dursleys had said that he hadn't taken anything with him, surly that would be a sign that Harry hadn't left for good.....right? Apparently not, for Sirius had prowled Privet Drive for a week afterwards in his animagus form, but there was no sign of Harry.

Two years ago, when Harry had gone missing, the wizarding world was in turmoil, his 'timely' escape from Azkaban and Harry's disappearance meant that the wizarding world immediately came to the conclusion that he, Sirius Black, had finished the last Potter off. Sirius had felt sick when he had read the Daily Prophet, which was two weeks old already when it had reached Sirius.

He sighed, damn the shallow minded magic folk, but he had always held the hope that at least a few would see reason, look beyond the surface and the assumed and at least listen to his side of the story. No....that wasn't right. Sirius really didn't give about what the wizarding population's opinion of him was, he didn't care about them, he only cared about two...his last true friend, he hoped dearly that he was still a friend, Remus Lupin and his godson, Harry Potter, for they were all that mattered to him now...they were the only ones that he had left. And he is going to make damn sure that he will not loose either of them...he had to at least try.

~*~

"Albus....it's good to see you sir" It had been eleven years. Eleven long, lonely, and guilt filled years of solitary life, cut off from society...or at least the magical world. It felt weird been around people, socializing once again amongst the wizarding folk. Yet deep within him it felt right, he felt he belonged...or at least fitted in more than usual. Remus hadn't wanted to come back, he had planned to live his whole life in his little hut in the middle of nowhere....it had taken many months for Dumbledore to finally convince him to come back, furthermore to act as the 'temporary' Care of Magical Creatures professor. That had been the basis of his acceptance...Dumbledore had assured him that the position was only temporary, but somehow Remus knew that Dumbledore had only said it to persuade him.

"Ah...Remus, welcome back. I trust that you are well?" Dumbledore though still bore the familiar twinkle in his eyes, had gotten on with his years...he was tired and he looked it too. First it was the disappearance of Harry, and then only a year later...the return of You-Know-Who, with the elixir of life to sustain him, he was more powerful than ever. He was attacking left, right and center yet the Ministry still refused to acknowledge his return, regarding the attacks as just a series of 'coincidences'. With the incompetence of the Ministry, Dumbledore had to lead the resistance by himself.

Remus suspected that the real reason Dumbledore had called him back was precisely because of the Dark Lord's return. There were precious few who sided with Dumbledore, the staff of Hogwarts, the Weasleys and a few other parents and friends of the old headmaster. Remus was of course part of the resistance, he wanted to do everything he can for the cause...he wanted revenge. It was You-Know-Who's fault, everything was his fault, if it hadn't been for him Lily and James would still be here, Sirius wouldn't have turned traitor, Peter would still be alive and Harry....

"Remus?" Remus startled, Dumbledore was studying him, concern was evident in his eyes. Remus shifted his gaze, he never liked it when Dumbledore used that gaze on him, it felt like he was looking right into his soul.

"I'm sorry, it's just that being at Hogwarts after all those years has brought back some...memories."

"Ahh...and so they should...Remus, after dinner tonight there will be a meeting in my office about the recent events. If you would like to join..."

"I'll be there Albus." Remus interrupted before Dumbledore could finish, the Headmaster didn't need to ask, it was what Remus had came for. To bring down the Dark Lord, to bring the Death Eaters to justice, to ask Sirius why...and then to kill him.

~*~

"Run Harry!"

Harry ran as fast as he could, he could see Thee off in the distance beckoning to him before she too turned to run. Closing his eyes, he urged himself with all the will power that he possessed to keep running, just a little further now. He could feel his whole body hurting, his legs, his abs, his chest, his throat. God, he was so thirsty, yet as dehydrated as he was he could still feel the sweat running down his face. Harry risked a glance back, evidently the man had given up on his chase, and Harry was thankful for that, he didn't think that he would be able to keep up much longer...not with an empty stomach anyhow. Glancing around he soon realized that he had lost sight of Thee; somehow he had ran blindly to a part of London that he has never been before. For a second he felt panic rising inside...it was not a good idea for a kid to be by himself on the streets of London after dark, and the sun was setting any minute now.

'Stay calm Harry, just stay calm, all you need to do is go into a shop and ask for the directions to Kings Cross...that's all.' But there was only one problem; the stores were all closed... the music store, the clothes shop, the bookstore... and the Leaky Cauldron? The tiny pub looked battered and grimy, if Harry hadn't been looking at each shop intently for a sign of human presence he would surely have missed it. Harry gulped, truth be told he didn't really fancy the idea of entering the pub... it wasn't exactly what you'd call inviting. Yet he really didn't have a choice, if he wanted to get back to the others he needed to get moving. The others...they would be so worried by now and Thee, knowing her she would be having the biggest guilt trip by now. And besides he was starving.

Determined to get back to the others, Harry took a deep breath and silently prayed for everything to be okay... then he pushed open the door.