A Promise Worth Keeping

Chapter Eight

They stood outside Dumbledore's office. "Come on, Lupin," said Snape, "let's get this over with, I've got classes to teach." Without waiting for a response, he turned and stalked off down the corridor, his robes swirling behind him. Remus watched him for a moment then sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

He didn't know why Dumbledore had wanted Snape to come along, but the very fact that he had done so indicated that the headmaster trusted Snape. Quite why he did so was unclear. Or perhaps it's more a case of not trusting you, the voice of his conscience asked, because he'd be right not to, wouldn't he? But he thrust this thought away, and followed Snape along the corridor.

They walked down to the gates in silence. Snape didn't even look at him. But that had never worried him in the past, so instead Remus tried to think about the best way of proceeding. As they neared the gates he said, "We should start with the Dursleys."

Snape stopped and turned round; he had been walking slightly ahead, as if to prevent any casual watcher from assuming that they were together. "I quite fail to see the necessity for that," he told Remus.

Remus allowed himself a slight smile. "Think about it. If Dumbledore's right and Harry wasn't kidnapped, it's not going to take Sirius long to find that out, now is it? Since Harry's disappearance seems to have been the trigger for his escape, the Sirius I knew couldn't have resisted going after him especially as Harry is responsible for the destruction of Voldemort. Sirius would want someone capable of that power under his control."

"Why? To corrupt him?"

Remus nodded unhappily. "I think so."

This time it was Snape who smiled slightly; it wasn't a pleasant smile. "You know him best, Lupin."

And what the devil did he mean by that? Remus wondered, but he hid his irritation and continued, "So what we have to do, is find Harry."

"Well I had actually worked that out, Lupin, "said Snape, hiding his irritation less well. "But I repeat, why the Dursleys?"

Remus sighed. "Well, unless Dumbledore told you where this institution is, I don't see how else we're going to find out. I don't really think that we could walk into the Ministry and ask them, somehow, do you?"

Snape sniffed, but he seemed to take the point.

They Apparated into the back garden of Arabella Figg's house, a couple of streets away from Privet Drive. Even from outside there was a feline smell to the place. She didn't appear to be in, so they walked straight round to the Dursleys.

As they went, Remus thought about what he was going to say to them. They had been at Lily and James' funeral, but he hadn't spoken to them. He wasn't actually sure that he'd ever spoken to Lily's sister before. He certainly hadn't spoken to her husband, a most unpleasant looking man, from his recollection.

They turned a corner into yet another quiet street. Identical houses, differing only in the style of their gardens, stretched out before them. There was a car parked in the driveway of number four, which Remus assumed meant someone was at home. Snape's sneer was more pronounced than ever, as he looked at this suburban scene. He couldn't have looked more out of place if he had tried, Remus thought. But then he didn't suppose he looked much as if he belonged here himself either.

They walked past the car and up to the front door. Remus rang the bell.

Footsteps sounded and an irritated woman with faded blonde hair flung the door open. "Yes?" she demanded without really looking at them.

"Er, Mrs Dursley, Petunia -" began Remus.

Now she looked at them and her eyes widened in horror. "Get out of my sight! Why can't you dreadful people just leave us alone? Haven't you freaks done enough damage?" She made to slam the door shut, but was unable to do so as Snape had put his foot in the gap.

"I can't speak for Lupin here, but I'd be delighted to leave you alone," Snape told her in his most acidic voice. "Unfortunately we are trying to find out what happened to Harry Potter, the boy who was supposed to be in your care, remember him?"

"Well why don't you ask your friend, the one who was here earlier and who smashed up the house?" Petunia asked bitterly, still trying to close the door. "I don't know why you dreadful people have to keep coming here and pestering us. Why can't you just speak to one another like normal people?"

Vernon Dursley came out of the living room, doubtless to see what all the noise was about, Remus thought. At sight of the two wizards, his face darkened, "Get out!" he bellowed. "How dare you -"

"Mr Dursley," Remus began, putting his hands up placatingly, "it's vitally important that we find out what happened."

"Find out what happened? I'll bloody show you what happened!" Vernon reached forwards and grabbed Remus by one wrist and dragged him into the house. "There! Look at the mess your precious friend left."

The living room had been wrecked, smashed ornaments were scattered on the carpet and furniture overturned, although the Dursleys seemed to have been in the process of trying to tidy things up when Remus and Snape arrived. "Bastard attacked my wife, kept demanding to know where the brat was."

"What did he look like?" asked Snape, stepping into the room.

Vernon glared at him. "Tall, filthy long dark hair, piercing eyes. Total lunatic, if you ask me."

Snape glanced at Remus. "Sounds like your old friend, Black."

No, thought Remus as he looked round the room, it didn't. Sirius had never been this, uncontrolled, unless he was insane, which was looking more and more likely. "He was looking for Harry you say?"

Dursley nodded, as if he couldn't bring himself to speak. The man's colour did look rather high.

"So what did you tell him?" Remus asked. His voice was still polite but he wasn't being placating now.

Dursley smiled unpleasantly. "We told him the boy had been taken to St Brutus secure centre near here, but there wasn't any point in going there because he had run away two weeks ago."

Petunia followed Snape into the living room and interrupted. "We did what we were asked to do," she snapped. "It's hardly our fault if the boy turned out to be so violent that he assaulted my husband and social services took him into care. You can't blame us for that." She had an expression, almost of triumph as she said that, Remus thought.

Their self-justification was nauseating and as he looked at them, he felt the familiar surge of guilt that he hadn't tried harder to persuade Dumbledore to let him take Harry. He wondered what price Harry's physical protection had been bought at and if Harry himself would consider it worth it. "And you're not the slightest bit concerned at what might have happened to Harry?" he asked then, but Petunia's vindictive expression answered that question.

Snape was looking sceptically at Vernon as if trying to work out how a ten-year-old boy could assault a man of his size. "Assaulted?" he asked.

"Yes assaulted," Petunia responded defiantly, putting a protective arm around her husband. "Poor Vernon had a fractured skull. He nearly died. The doctors say he was very lucky."

Vernon patted his wife on the arm. "There, there dear, you've been a tower of strength."

Fortunately before Remus could throw up, a car drew up outside and footsteps approached the front door, accompanied by the squawk of Muggle radios. Petunia squinted through the net curtains and said to Vernon, "It's the police. Again. What on earth are the neighbours going to think?"

"You didn't call them?" asked Snape.

Vernon snorted. "To chase after one of you lot? What's the point?"

"Perhaps they've found Harry," Remus suggested. He certainly hoped that was why they were here.

Petunia cast him a venomous glance for making what was clearly an unwelcome suggestion and went to answer the door. "Yes?" he heard her ask.

"Mrs Dursley, is everything all right here?" a voice responded. "We received a report from one of your neighbours that a strangely dressed man was breaking into your house."

"No it's not all right. Why can't these horrible people just go away and leave us alone," Petunia responded, beginning to sound hysterical. "You'd better come in I suppose."

Two uniformed policemen followed her into the living room. Their eyes drifted towards where Remus and Snape were standing, taking in the wrecked room. Remus immediately felt that he had been classified as a 'suspicious character'.

"You've had a break in, is that correct?"

"The bastard broke into our house while we were out and wrecked it, then when we came back he attacked my wife and threatened me!" Vernon declared, his choleric complexion darkening again in anger.

The policeman raised an eyebrow, still looking at Remus and Snape. "One of these men?" he asked.

Vernon glanced contemptuously at Remus and said, "No, of course not, the other one, the lunatic."

The policemen looked at one another. "So, if you don't mind me asking, who are these two?" asked the second one.

Remus decided to help him reclassify them as eccentric but harmless members of the public. "We were looking for our friend," he offered. "He's a bit unstable."

"Uh huh. And just who exactly are you?"

"Remus Lupin, and this is Severus Snape," Remus responded, projecting every ounce of calmness and reasonableness he possessed into his voice. Snape stood there with his arms folded and a sneer on his face, which really wasn't terribly helpful, Remus thought.

The policeman looked enquiringly at Petunia and Vernon.

"They just march in here, without so much as a by-your-leave, asking their questions," Petunia sniffed bitterly. "All we ever wanted was for them to leave us alone."

"You didn't invite them into your house?" The policeman's eyes narrowed.

Petunia looked aghast. "Invite those freaks in. Of course we didn't. Why would we do that?"

The radios squawked something unintelligible and the other policeman, turned round and said something into the mike, of which the words 'four Privet Drive' were the only ones that were audible.

"Care to answer that?" the first policeman asked Remus.

"As I said, our friend is pretty unstable and it's rather important that we find him," Remus responded as calmly as he could.

"I'm sure it is, but it's not really a good enough reason for entering someone's house without their permission, you know. Unless you're here in some sort of official capacity and have a warrant?" The man's sceptical expression said that he didn't think it likely.

Snape pulled out his wand. "Oh for goodness sake, Lupin!" he exclaimed, raising it, "Just Obliviate them and let's get out of here."

However, the policemen must have been trained to react to threats and immediately had Snape up against the wall, wand arm up his back. Remus blinked. They were fast. Before he could raise his own wand though, Petunia had grabbed his right arm, allowing the other policeman to snatch the wand from his grasp.

"Get your filthy, Muggle hands off me!" yelled Snape, losing his cool.

"Shut up you fool!" Remus hissed, but it was too late.

"Right, you pair are under arrest," snapped the policeman who had Snape pinioned against the wall. "We'll have Breach of the Peace for starters. Once we get down to the station we can go into a bit more detail about just what exactly you've been up to here." In a singsong voice he continued with some sort of statement about not having to say anything, but Remus wasn't quite sure what it meant.

"What the hell are these things?" demanded Remus's captor, looking at the wands.

"Offensive weapons of some sort," responded the other man without really looking at them. "Mrs Dursley, Mr Dursley, someone will come back later to take a statement."

The Dursleys nodded, looking pleased at the turn of events.

The two officers bundled Remus and Snape out of the house and into the back of the waiting police car. Remus was reluctant to do anything that would require a visit from Ministry Obliviators so he didn't dare try to Disapparate. In any case it would have been too dangerous while the policemen had his arms secured and afterwards when they handcuffed him to Snape. At least the wretched man had calmed down a bit and he might stand a chance of being able to talk their way out of this.

The station turned out to be a dilapidated concrete building with water stains running down the front. The lino in the windowless waiting area they were taken to was scuffed, as were the plastic chairs. The air reeked of stale cigarette smoke. A tatty poster pined to the wall warned of the dangers of car theft. It was very depressing. While a bored looking officer was taking their details a man in ordinary clothes came into the room.

"Did I hear someone say there had been a call out to four Privet Drive?" he asked.

"Yeah, sarge. This pair, Breach of the Peace, possibly breaking and entering." The officer said without looking up.

The sergeant raised an eyebrow, looking Remus and Snape up and down. "So what're a pair of neo-pagan weirdos doing breaking into the Dursley residence?"

"Said they were looking for a friend, sarge," said the officer who had arrested them.

The man sighed and pointed at Remus. "Right, you first. In there," he waved towards an open door. Remus was curious. This man knew the Dursleys. He might possibly be able to give them some information about Harry. Accordingly he glared at Snape, trying to convey a silent message to him not to do anything that would require a visit from Ministry Obliviators. He wasn't sure if he had got through.

The interview room looked very like the one he had been in up in Edinburgh that morning, but at least Muggles didn't have Veritaserum. The man glanced down at a piece of paper the officer outside had given him. "Right, er Mr Lupin, if you would sit down please." He waved towards another of the ubiquitous plastic chairs set at a table.

Remus sat down. The sergeant sat down opposite. Then another officer closed the door and sat down next to him, pulling out a notebook.

"Right, I am DS Green," said the sergeant. "This is DC Morton. You have been advised that you can contact your solicitor?" Remus nodded. "Are you prepared to answer questions?"

Remus shrugged. "I suppose so."

The two police officers glanced at one another. "All right. DC Morton here will take notes. At the end of the interview he will read them back to you so you can confirm that they are a true record of what you have said. Do you understand?" Remus nodded and Green continued, "Do you know the Dursleys, Mr Lupin?

"Not exactly, but I was a friend of Petunia Dursley's brother-in-law."

"Was?"

"He's dead," Remus explained.

Comprehension flickered across the man's face. "Of course, the Potter boy."

Remus allowed his interest to show and the sergeant narrowed his eyes. "So what do you know about what happened to the Potter boy?"

"Not much," admitted Remus frankly. "I had heard he had got into trouble and had disappeared. I was worried." Which, he reflected, was true enough.

"Uh huh. And why did you go to the Dursleys' house?"

"We thought they might be able to tell us a bit more about what had happened to Harry."

"Mmm. And you were so anxious to find out you forced your way into their house, smashed up their living room and assaulted Mrs Dursley?"

"Er, no. That wasn't us." Then as the two policemen looked at one another again, Remus continued, "We also went to the Dursleys' because we believed someone else might have gone there looking for Harry," he answered. "We were right. He had."

Green frowned. "And this person smashed everything up?"

Remus nodded. "I assume so. He had gone by the time we got there."

"So this man, have a name does he?" Remus told him and Green said, "Okay we'll run it through the computer and see if we get anything. Black a friend of yours?" Remus's expression must have hardened, as Green continued, "Okay, not a friend, friend of the Dursleys then?"

Remus smiled at this and shook his head. "No, hardly."

The sergeant sighed. "And just why, exactly is Black looking for the Potter boy?"

"I'm not sure, but it's not for anything good. He's er, pretty unstable."

Green raised an eyebrow. "You mean he's certifiable? Insane?"

"I'm not sure. Possibly."

Green turned to Morton and said; "Check and see if there's anything in the system about absconded lunatics will you? And while you're at it make sure any descriptions don't match Lupin here or his friend Snape."

Morton got up and stuck his head out of the door. Remus heard him mutter something and then he came and sat back down again. "We'll just wait and see, okay?" Green pulled out a packet of cigarettes and offered one to Remus, but he shook his head.

Neither Green nor Morton said anything as they waited. It was very uncomfortable, and Remus wondered if it was all part of the interrogation. However, if it was, they were amateurs compared to the Ministry Aurors.

A few minutes later someone knocked on the door, and a woman stuck her head round. "Nothing, sarge," she said.

"Okay, thanks." Green paused and stubbed his cigarette out. He looked at Remus thoughtfully for a moment then said, "There was no indication that anybody else had any connections with the Potter boy. Then all of a sudden two weeks after he disappears all you people come crawling out of the woodwork. Why wouldn't the Dursleys have mentioned you before?"

"We don't get on," said Remus. "They really don't like us er 'neo-pagan weirdos'."

"You surprise me," responded Green dryly.

"I came as soon as I heard what had happened. I haven't seen Harry since he was a baby. I'm worried about him."

"You should be." Remus must have looked alarmed and Green continued, "It's the Oliver Twist syndrome with these kids. Head into the big city soon's they can." He sighed. "And get eaten up more often than not. I don't like to think about what's probably happening to that kid right now - assuming he's still alive."

"You're saying he's gone into London?"

"No doubt about it. They all do. Wouldn't want to bet anything on you finding him though. Not if we can't, and believe me, we have tried. There was a lot of evidence he attacked his uncle after all." Green pushed back his chair as if to conclude the interview, then he placed Snape's wand on the table. "Now before we finish, perhaps you could tell me what this is?"

Oh bloody hell, Remus thought. Then face absolutely deadpan, he responded, "It's a drumstick."

"A drumstick?" Green said slowly.

"Yes," Remus assured him, "For, er banging on drums."

Green stared at Remus for a long moment then picked the wand up again. "Uh huh. Looks like a magic wand to me."

Somewhat to Remus's surprise, Snape hadn't Disapparated, but was waiting outside, his sneer more pronounced than ever. Remus hoped he wouldn't say anything stupid. To his surprise, a few moments after going into the interview room with Green though, Snape came out again.

Green conferred with one of the uniformed officers and then turned to Remus and Snape. "Right, you two can go. It seems the Dursleys have confirmed that someone else was responsible for breaking and entering their house and they've agreed not to press charges against you pair. Can I suggest that you refrain from waving your drumsticks around in the presence of the police in future?"

Once outside Snape said, "Drumsticks?"

"It's what we always used to call them if we were around Muggles. They'd think we were in a band."

"We?"

"James, Si -"

"Yes all right. I get the picture." Snape stalked off down the street. After a moment he stopped and waited for Remus to catch up. "Where are we going?" he asked.

Remus smiled. "London. I am reliably informed that that is where Harry will have gone."

"Well we'd better get started then, it is a rather large city."

Remus grinned and they continued down the street looking for somewhere safe to Apparate from. As they walked, Remus realised Snape wasn't going to say any more and he simply had to know so he asked, "Just as a matter of curiosity, why were you only in the interview room for a few seconds?"

Snape flashed an irritated glance at Remus. "They informed me that I was under no obligation to say anything, so I didn't. What did you do, tell them your life history?"

Remus laughed.