All Debts Must be Paid

Chapter Thirteen: Remus

"Remus, I would be far happier if you stayed at Hogwarts for the next while, or at least until we can sort things out with the Ministry," Dumbledore told him.

Remus stared at the Headmaster, unimpressed. "I really don't see any necessity for skulking here," he began.

They were sitting in Dumbledore's office having tea, the early evening sunshine streaming through the windows. Remus had been trying to convince the Headmaster that the fuss from the newspaper article would soon die down and that it was more important to find Sirius. While Dumbledore agreed on the need to find Sirius he placed great emphasis on the need for taking necessary risks only. "Our endeavours are risky enough without placing them in danger through taking unnecessary risks," he had told his former pupil.

Their argument could have continued without resolution when they received a most unwelcome interruption.

Arthur Weasley charged into the office. One look at the expression on his face and Remus felt a sick sense of dread clench his guts.

"Not good news then, Arthur?" Dumbledore asked.

"I came as soon as I heard. The MLES have recaptured Sirius Black."

"When?" Remus croaked out.

"This afternoon, in Knockturn Alley. Fudge is cock-a-hoop, medals all round I should think."

"Is Fudge still insisting on handing Sirius over to the Dementors?" Dumbledore asked, glancing at Remus.

Weasley swallowed then nodded. "He wanted the Kiss administered immediately, but Kellow eventually managed to persuade him to hold back until tomorrow to give them a chance to question Black."

"Sirius is luckier than Barty Crouch was then," Dumbledore commented.

"Kellow's not entirely stupid, you know," Weasley said. "I gather he stressed the importance of finding the traitors who've been sheltering Black since his escape. The subject of You-Know-Who never even came up."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "It depends on what questions they ask him then, how much he tells them."

Remus snorted. "Well, after that article in the Evening Prophet, I would imagine their first question is going to be, 'were you staying with Remus Lupin?' After that I really don't think they're going to look much further than me, do you?"

"So you will stay here," said Dumbledore.

"No," said Remus firmly. "I'm going to try and get him out of there." When the others began to speak, to protest, he raised a hand and continued, "I am not doing this out of emotion but because someone needs to try and I am the logical choice to go."

"How so?" asked Dumbledore, his blue eyes intense.

"We can't guarantee they will be content with me, and Sirius knows too much. Mr Weasley, Arthur, you have your family to consider, and I'm sure you are of far more use on the inside at the Ministry."

"My wife is as committed to our fight against You-Know-Who as I am," Weasley responded stiffly.

"I'm sure she is, but that's not the point. While we all take risks in this fight knowing that we may end up paying with our lives, this isn't about Voldemort. This is about Fudge and the Ministry. In any case, for anybody else to do this for Sirius - who knew the risks he was taking - simply doesn't make sense." Remus paused and ran a hand through his hair in thought. "Look, I'm already wanted. If they catch me, no one else will be implicated."

"Have you considered that they might, in fact be expecting you to try something like this?" Dumbledore enquired.

Remus shrugged. "And if they are, and if I fail, I still can't implicate anyone else because I'm allergic to Veritaserum and know I can break at least one of the other, strong truth potions. In any case, I owe Sirius this."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "As long as you have thought it through then, he said.

Remus stared at him. "You intended for me to go all along!" he accused the Headmaster.

"As you said yourself, Remus, you are the logical choice. And I know that if I forbade anyone to try you would go anyway so why not accept the inevitable?" He waved a hand towards an armchair. "Come sit down and finish your tea, we can talk about how you're going to get there, and anything you might need to take with you." Dumbledore turned to Weasley. "Arthur, what do you think?"

Arthur and Remus sat down. "Well you can Floo into my office," he began and talked for some time.

---

An hour later, Remus stumbled from the fireplace in Arthur Weasley's office. And promptly staggered into a desk, stifling an instinctive yelp as he did so. Weasley didn't warrant a very large office it seemed. He walked over to the door and listened. He heard voices as a group of people walked along the corridor outside and waited until they had passed.

Cautiously he opened the door and stuck his head out into the corridor. No sign of anyone. Then he paused, it would look better if he belonged around here, so he closed the door again and looked round the room. He found what he was looking for on the stationary shelf of a small cupboard in the corner, a cheap quill, some parchment and a clipboard. Perfect. He allowed himself a small smile.

Leaving the office, he walked along the corridor to the swing doors at the far end. As Weasley had said, they opened onto a stairwell. Remus paused for a moment before starting down the stairs and peered downwards, nostrils twitching. He would have known he was approaching the lock ups even if he had been blindfolded. There was that same hideous smell drifting upwards that he remembered from before. And it was only going to get worse. He finally reached the basement and knew that the hard part was only just beginning. Arthur Weasley had said the doors would be warded, but not what with. He could probably break the wards if he tried but that would likely set off all kinds of alarms. No, he had to find the counter spell. Before he had left, Weasley had shown him a powerful Curse breaking charm one of his sons had passed on to him. It could also be used to break wards. The charm enabled the caster to identify the specific warding spell that had been used and the counter spell that was required to cancel it. The trouble was, there were rather a lot of spells it could be, so it was going to take some time.

Twenty minutes later Remus was starting to sweat. The charm still hadn't worked, and he was very lucky nobody had come along in the interim. While Weasley had told him none of the guards who'd been on duty the day he was interrogated would be in today, it didn't stop him worrying that someone who knew who he was would come along. He couldn't be lucky indefinitely. Then just as he was actively having to suppress the urge to tear his hair out, there was a click and the wards fell. He gave a great sigh of relief. Oh thank Merlin!

He pushed the door open and closed it behind him. With a click the wards re-engaged. At least he knew the right spell now. He tried to orientate himself. If he remembered correctly, and he would be the first to admit that his recollection was woozy, he'd been questioned in a room somewhere along this corridor. It stretched, empty in both directions.

He walked cautiously along, trying to look officious with his clipboard. The he heard the low murmur of voices up ahead where he could see the corridor split.

"They're not going to bring the Dementor down here are they?" said a voice.

"Bloody hope not. Those things give me the creeps," another voice responded.

Remus had found the guardroom. He paused and listened in case the guards happened to mention anything useful, such as which cell Sirius was in, but they carried on talking about Dementors and speculating what it felt like to get Kissed. Ghouls.

Remus found the interview rooms further along the corridor. Only one of them was occupied, and by the sounds coming from inside, there wasn't much interviewing going on. He left them to it. At least he had a quick escape route now. Interview room five had been empty, and it had a Floo connected fireplace.

Walking back to the intersection, he looked down the second corridor at what were clearly the doors to cells. The guardroom was immediately on the right, so he had to walk past it. He remembered Arthur Weasley telling him to be very careful what magic he used, as there were magic detectors in most of the corridors. So, remembering a Muggle who had declared that 'attack is the best form of defence' he stuck his head round the door of the guardroom and asked, "Hey, which cell's Sirius Black in?"

One of the guards rolled his eyes and said, "Oh Merlin, another one! What, want to see the notorious Azkaban escapee do you? I would think he eats pen pushers like you for dinner."

Remus tried to look embarrassed and shifty at the same time. "I'm doing a survey," he explained, waving the clipboard. "Would you let me see him?"

The guards laughed.

"Wotcher think, Ned?" asked one of them, "let the ickle pen pusher see the big bad Death Eater?"

"Ooh, I dunno, might crap himself, don't you think? Hur, hur," the other guard sniggered.

"No I wouldn't," Remus assured them.

The first guard grinned and said, "Well, I could do with a laugh." He reached over to a board with keys on it and picked up the one marked number three. There was a small piece of paper tacked above it with the name of a warding spell written on it. Remus' lips twitched. How typical, the guards had gone to all that effort in selecting an esoteric warding spell and had then written down the name in case they forgot what it was.

The other guard, Ned didn't seem so sure about showing off their famous prisoner. "Um, Reg, I really don't think this is such a good idea."

"You worry too much." Reg turned to Remus. "So, how about it? We let you have a peek through the Judas and you give us a galleon?"

Remus choked. "A galleon!" He didn't have to try too hard to sound outraged.

"We gotta cover our expenses you know," Reg told him. He was dangling the key in one hand, trying to tantalise Remus with it. He must have looked doubtful because almost immediately Reg added, "Tell you what, you can have a look at his wand as well. The very wand that killed thirteen Muggles."

"Really? I thought that was snapped when he was caught," said Remus dubiously, wondering just how gullible he looked. "Anyway, how would I know it wasn't just any old wand?"

"Easy," responded Reg. He turned and pointed at a row of baskets on a shelf. "Personal property of detainees. Ned, get number three down, will you?"

Ned grinned and pulled the basket marked three off the shelf. Sure enough it was empty save for a rather battered looking wand. He handed it to Remus, who tried to look suitably impressed.

"So, you going to pay?" asked Reg, still waving the cell key.

"Oh, all right," responded Remus, making as if to reach for his moneybag. Instead he leaned forwards and grabbed the key, while at the same time muttering, "Confundus!"

Immediately both the guards' eyes turned glassy and unfocussed. "Sorry, what did you say you wanted?" Reg asked looking puzzled.

"Management Survey," responded Remus waving his clipboard.

"Uh huh. Do we have to?"

Remus tried to look doubtful. "I'm supposed to get these all done today, I'm working late as it is."

Reg was gaining confidence and said in a slightly more aggressive tone. "Well, I think it would be a good idea if you came back tomorrow morning, 'cos see, we're really busy at the moment."

"I'm never going to get this finished," Remus grumbled, but stepped back into the corridor. Then he grinned as he heard the two guards snigger and Reg say, "What was I saying there? Lost me thread. Anyway…" And the two guards carried on talking about Dementors.

Remus forgot about the guards as he approached the door of cell number three. From the sounds of someone pacing up and down, it was certainly occupied. Quickly he lowered the wards and unlocked the door.

He didn't get quite the reaction he'd been expecting. As soon as Sirius saw who it was, his apprehensive expression changed to one of fury. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?" he demanded.

Remus looked behind him just to make sure this remark was addressed at him. "Helping you escape? Or should I just leave?"

Immediately Sirius was contrite. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he said, "It's just, you shouldn't be risking your neck to get me out of here."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Why not? You risked your neck to get me out of here!"

This seemed to stump Sirius. He was looking very pale, and there was a large bruise on one cheek. He seemed about to protest some more when Remus broke in, "Sirius, argue with me all you like when we get back, but let's get back first, okay?"

Sirius nodded and brushed a hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said again, "I couldn't bear it if anything else happened to you because of me."

"Yes I know. Come on." Remus reached forwards to grab him by the arm, But Sirius pulled back, cradling that arm with the other. "What happened?" Remus asked.

"Wand backlash," Sirius explained.

Remus snorted and held out the wand Ned had given him, "Not this wand I hope?"

Sirius' eyebrows flew up in surprise as he took it. "No, I swapped that one for this one," he said and transformed.

Outside the cell, Remus left the key in the lock and raised the wards again. He grinned when he saw the look the dog gave him and whispered, "Just adding to your reputation, Padfoot."

They walked back along the corridor to the intersection and Remus led the way along to the vacant interview room. Once there he pulled out a small bag of Floo powder and said, "You'll need to stay as Padfoot, we're going to the Three Broomsticks." The dog acknowledged this with a quiet wuff. Remus lit the fire and threw a pinch of powder into the flames, giving the name of the pub as he did so. Sirius jumped into the fire and vanished. Remus followed him.

They took a short cut up to Hogwarts through the Forbidden Forest. As soon as they were out of sight of the village, Sirius stopped and transformed. He didn't look terribly happy for someone who had just been released from jail, Remus thought, and gave a tight smile. Attack first.

"So, you were coming in after me, Padfoot. What was the plan? he asked.

"Er," Sirius looked taken aback for a moment.

Remus turned to look sharply at him. "You did have a plan didn't you?"

"Of course. I had to get you out of there."

Remus waited for more. "And?"

"I had to get you out of there." Sirius repeated more slowly.

Remus stopped and stared at Sirius. He realised he wasn't going to get any more. "That was your plan, Padfoot? Come and rescue me? That was it?"

"What was wrong with it?" Sirius responded in a defensive tone. "It just wasn't very," he hesitated, "detailed."

Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius continued, "I knew something would turn up."

Apparently at a complete loss for words, Remus just continued to stare at him, shaking his head. Then he grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him round so he was facing him. "Don't you, ever, ever do anything like that again, Padfoot," he said fiercely. "It wasn't necessary. You could have gone to Dumbledore. If you'd only thought about it for ten seconds -"

"I did think about it!" Sirius hissed, trying to keep his voice down. "But you know as well as I do, that Dumbledore can't fix everything, certainly not where the Ministry's concerned. I'm not stupid, Moony. I managed to work out it was probably something to do with me. You think I could live with myself, if they sent you to Azkaban because of me?"

"You might well have to," Remus said looking at him steadily. "Thanks to you, they've now managed to make a link between us and I'm on their wanted list. There was an article in today's Evening Prophet."

Sirius briefly closed his eyes. "Oh God, Moony -" Then his eyes flicked open again. "This is all down to that bastard Jacks."

"I think we're agreed on that one then," Remus responded. "I wonder what Arthur Weasley knows about him.

"Weasley's been here?" Sirius was surprised.

"Of course. Who else do you think helped me to get into the Ministry? Helped me plan things out?" Remus turned and carried on walking up the path, reflecting that whatever else was wrong with the world, if he could still wind Sirius up, then some things were all right.