A Promise Worth Keeping

Chapter Fourteen

When he realised Harry was no longer there, Remus's heart skipped a beat. Where the hell had the boy gone? He stood irresolutely for a moment - there were several ways Harry could gone - the corridor joined another one in a 'T' with a stairwell at the head of the 'T'. The other corridor stretched some way into the distance in both directions. There was no one there. Then he heard shouts coming from the stairwell.

"Hey! Come back!" a boy shouted.

Remus ran towards the shouts. A dark haired boy was half-heartedly running down the stairs in front of him. Remus leapt down them after him, "Who were you shouting on?" he demanded.

The boy, a prefect, turned round looking surprised. "Er, just a Muggle-born first year not wearing his robes. Just took off when I asked him about it."

"Black hair, glasses, about this tall?" Remus waved a hand to indicate Harry's height.

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Yes." Then, as Remus ran down the stairs past him, he asked, "And who are you?"

"Work for Dumbledore," Remus said over his shoulder and promptly forgot about the boy. The corridor at the bottom of the stairs was empty and he swore. What was Harry trying to do? Where was he trying to go? And then it struck him, it was obvious really, he must be trying to find Black, after all he'd done nothing but ask where the bastard was. He didn't think he'd given Harry any clue as to Black's whereabouts other than that he was downstairs. He sighed. 'Downstairs' covered a hell of a lot. However, he was confident that sooner or later he would find Harry wandering around, completely lost.

Twenty fruitless minutes of systematic searching later, during which he had checked the dungeons, he wearily climbed the stairs to the Hospital Wing on the off chance that Harry had found his way back there. On the way he spoke to the inhabitants of the numerous pictures he passed, to see if any of them had seen Harry, but none had, although they said they'd look out for him.

However, there was no sign of Harry in Poppy Pomfrey's domain either, and she hadn't seen him, so with a sigh he walked along to Dumbledore's office, loathing the fact that he was going to have to admit to failure. He stood in front of the gargoyle for a few minutes, but then sighed at himself for prevaricating. Pointless to put it off, but he was dreading the look of disappointment he knew he would see in Dumbledore's eyes.

Dumbledore's meeting seemed to have finished, as the Headmaster was by himself, so Remus began, without preamble, "Professor, it's about Harry."

Dumbledore put down his quill, eyes twinkling. "Have a seat, Remus. You mean that Harry got away from you?" He indicated the leather chair in front of his desk.

Remus sat down. "Er, yes."

"Severus found him wandering the corridor outside the potions classroom and brought him up here."

Remus gave a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God! I didn't think he could have got far, but there was no sign of him anywhere." Then the first part of what Dumbledore had said registered. Snape had found Harry? Oh wonderful, he thought. Snape would take great delight in reminding him of it.

Dumbledore looked down his long nose at Remus. "Harry is a resourceful boy." His lips twitched. "Because the Governors were still with me when he came up, Severus told Harry to wait outside. When he went to fetch him, the boy had gone. He had got out when Lucius Malfoy left."

Alarmed, Remus asked, "You don't think Malfoy harmed him at all?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Lucius Malfoy may be many things, but he is not stupid. No, Severus went after Harry." He changed the subject. "What happened?"

Remus shook his head in exasperation at himself. "Harry is a very hard boy to talk to, so I had the obviously less than brilliant idea of showing him round the castle. It seemed to ignite a spark of interest in him so we went all over." He sighed. "Of course Harry was simply trying to get a clue as to where Black was being held."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Remus," Dumbledore reproved.

Remus acknowledged this with a perfunctory smile. Then he continued, "In any case, I don't think I had realised quite how attached Harry had become to Black." He looked sombrely at the Headmaster. "It's going to be hard for him, after all that has happened. Those Dursleys…." He shuddered.

"They protected Harry in ways both he and they didn't realise," Dumbledore told him.

"Yes, but at what cost?" Remus burst out. "You didn't see the way they looked when they spoke about him." He stood up and paced around the room for a moment. "I've heard people speak in more kindly terms about werewolves!" He stopped, a horrible suspicion crossing his mind. "You're not going to send Harry back to them are you?"

The old wizard didn't say anything.

"Dumbledore you can't!" Remus was horrified.

Dumbledore's expression was bleak. "I would have thought, Remus that the necessity for it was obvious given recent events. Had Harry still been in his relative's care, Sirius Black would never have been able to get near him."

"They won't have him back, you know, not after what happened to Dursley. And even if they could be forced into it, I don't think Harry would stay, not now."

"You forget, it would only be until September. Harry will understand why it is necessary when it is explained to him."

"With all due respect, Headmaster, I'm not sure that he will. When you're ten, nine months is forever," Remus told him, deeply concerned. He felt that rather than understand, Harry would feel this was the ultimate betrayal. "You know I'd take him myself in an instant, if I could. But I hardly think the likes of Fudge would approve, do you?"

Just then, footsteps sounded on the stair outside Dumbledore's office. The door burst open and Snape rushed in, his black eyes blazing and an expression of utter fury on his face. "Black's escaped and he's taken the Potter boy with him!"

"What! How?" Remus exclaimed.

Snape ignored him and addressed the Headmaster. "I'd just about caught the boy - he'd run into the Entrance Hall. Those idiots from the Ministry were escorting Black out at the same time. When he saw the boy, Black went completely berserk and freed himself, injuring the Aurors in the process." Snape rolled his eyes. "Quite who they're recruiting these days I've no idea, but they're obviously desperate."

"If we could discuss the Ministry's staffing policies another time, Severus," Dumbledore remarked. "We would like to know what happened. You were not injured?"

Snape waved a hand dismissing the Headmaster's concern. "Of course not. But Black's a complete maniac. It was hard to bring him down because the boy got in the way."

"He went with Black willingly?" Remus asked.

Snape flicked a glance at him. "Yes, of course he did. Ungrateful brat!"

"Mr Black clearly has a stronger hold over his mind than we had anticipated," Dumbledore said. "You went after them?"

"Naturally!" Snape looked irritated. "But they disappeared somewhere on the second floor. Rather than chase after them myself, I thought it best to raise the alarm."

"What happened to the Aurors?" Remus asked, puzzled.

"I've no idea. One of them was knocked out and the other was injured, but it wasn't serious, I don't think. I thought it was more important to try and apprehend Black and Potter."

"You were quite right," Dumbledore murmured, glancing at the clock. "We have twenty minutes until the current classes finish. Severus, would you contact all the staff, requesting them to keep the students in their classrooms until we find out what has happened, and then report here."

Snape sniffed disapprovingly, but went over to the fireplace to do as the Headmaster had asked.

Dumbledore turned to Remus. Despite the situation there was a slight twinkle in his eyes. "Do you know of any passages and other routes around the building that the rest of us might not know about?"

Oh God. Remus took a deep breath. "Quite a few I suspect. You'll know yourself that there are numerous passages and secret stairs around the building. But there's at least seven tunnels that we found that go to Hogsmeade."

Snape had been talking through the fire in a low voice, but clearly he had been keeping one ear tuned to what was being said, as he turned round and exclaimed, "Seven!"

"Yes, but Filch knows about four of them." Remus assured him, amused.

"Dear me, there are three tunnels out of the grounds that our caretaker has no knowledge of?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "I only knew of one."

"That we knew of," Remus amended.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "I don't think we should jump to the conclusion that Black will have made for one of those tunnels. After all, he surely knows that we will have alerted the authorities to keep watch where they come out. Where do they come out, Remus?"

"Well we can discount the one from the Whomping Willow, I think. There's one that starts on the third floor underneath that statue of the old witch. It comes out in Honeydukes' cellar." Remus then quickly ran through the others as Dumbledore gave a quiet chuckle.

Snape finished what he was doing and walked back to the others. "I think you're giving Black credit for too much sense," he said. "He was just looking for an escape route. He wouldn't have cared whether Filch knew about the tunnel or not, and he's unlikely to have considered waiting around here for the fuss to die down. I personally think reports of his sanity were greatly exaggerated, in any case."

Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Nevertheless, Severus, we should cover all eventualities. Which is the nearest tunnel to… where on the second floor did you lose him?"

"He took the boy up the stair that goes off the south corridor, and then ran east along the second floor."

Remus sighed. "Could have been making for any one of them then. We'll have to check them all."

There was a smart rap at the door, and Minerva McGonagall entered, closely followed by Professor Flitwick. There was an appalled expression on her face. "Albus, is it true what Severus said? Black has escaped and has kidnapped Harry Potter?"

Dumbledore looked grim. "Quite true I'm afraid, Minerva."

There was a further interruption as the Auror, Meredith charged into the room without knocking. Blood was streaming down his nose, and had splattered all over the front of his robes. As with Snape, rage suffused his features. "Black's escaped!" he shouted.

"Yes, we had realised that," Snape pointed out.

"And you're all just standing there! Why don't you get after him!"

"We were in the process of planning how to do that, Mr Meredith. It may have escaped your notice, but Hogwarts is rather large."

Dumbledore's tone was mild, but Meredith must have felt himself reproved, as he flushed and mumbled, "Yes of course, Headmaster."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled briefly. "We were discussing how to approach this, Mr Meredith. There are a number of tunnels that lead from here down to Hogsmeade. Black knows about all of them, so he could have used any of them. Alternatively, he may still be in the castle and lying low until the hue and cry dies down."

"I'll notify the Ministry," Meredith said with decision. "I suspect we'll watch all the tunnel exits, although it would help if you could determine which one was used."

"I bet it would," muttered Snape under his breath.

Meredith ignored this and went over to the fireplace. While he was talking, Dumbledore outlined the various options they had for searching the castle. In the end Remus found himself teamed up with Snape again, who this time, merely rolled his eyes at the prospect.

Meredith pulled away from the fireplace, his face flushed and angry. He looked as if he'd had a right bollocking, Remus thought. "They're going to send a squad of Hit Wizards to Hogsmeade. I'm to get Steerforth and meet them there," the Auror told Dumbledore.

"Where is Mr Steerforth?" asked Dumbledore.

"Er, in the Entrance Hall. He was still out cold, when I came up."

"And you just left him there?" McGonagall asked, faintly.

"Er, yes. Anyway, look it's more important that we catch Black. Where do these tunnels come out?"

Dumbledore glanced at Remus, and he quickly told them. Meredith let out a low whistle. "Who would have thought," he said and grinned. "Wish I'd known about the Honeydukes one when I was here." He walked over to the door. "You'll let me know if you find them?"

"Of course. I hope you'll do likewise, Mr Meredith," Dumbledore responded.

"And for goodness sake, man go and get Madam Pomfrey to give you a blood clotting charm or something before you go. If you don't get that bleeding stopped soon, you're going to collapse." McGonagall ordered looking sternly at the Auror. He had probably been terrified of her when he did transfiguration, Remus thought, because he promptly fled, almost knocking over Professor Sprout who was coming in.

As the rest of the staff trickled in, to be teamed up and told where to search, Remus left with Snape to try and trace the route Black had taken with Harry. They walked along the corridor in a welcome silence. Having let Harry escape himself, Snape could hardly gloat, and it gave Remus the opportunity to think about other, more important things. You're going to have to tell Dumbledore about Padfoot, he realised. Now that Black had Harry, they would be looking for a man and a boy. But he knew it was likely, if they got out of the castle, that they would travel as a boy and a dog. It would be unforgivable to keep that information to himself any longer. His own feelings no longer counted, not when he thought about the danger Harry was in.

Snape broke into his thoughts. "So where exactly on the fourth floor is this tunnel, Lupin?"

"Behind that big mirror on the west corridor."

"What, the one that looks as if it came with a job lot of Rococo furniture?"

"That's the one, ornate gilding with fat cherubs, grapes and shrubbery. Matches those two ghastly tables in the library," Remus replied as Snape rolled his eyes. Oh Lord, he thought. They had something else in common - a mutual dislike of Rococo.

They arrived at the second floor. "So where did you lose them?" Remus asked.

Snape told him, and Remus stood in thought for a moment. "Right, if I was making for the fourth floor I would go this way, especially if I was trying to lose someone." He pointed.

Snape shrugged. "You know best, Lupin."

Remus flashed him a glance, but said nothing. There was no sign anyone had been this way, although he hadn't really expected there to be any. It wasn't as if Harry would be trying to get away from Black after all.

The mirror stood there against the wall in all its Rococo glory, when they got to the fourth floor. The glass was slightly spotted with age and the gilding faded, just as he remembered.

"How do you open it, Lupin?" demanded Snape.

Remus gave himself a shake. It was almost as if he didn't want to find them, the way he kept drifting off like this, he thought. "Oh, Aperito!" he said, tapping the mirror with his wand.

The mirror swung silently open revealing a long, dark passageway. Remus muttered a roving light charm sending a ball of light along the passage until it came to rest against a wall about twenty metres in, lighting up the top of a stairwell. There was absolute silence.

"It doesn't look as if anyone's been here since you last were, Lupin," remarked Snape.

But Remus was staring at the floor, frowning. "Black had a wand, when he got away, didn't he?"

"Yes, he got that stupid Auror Steerforth's one. Why?"

Remus hunkered down so he could look at the floor more closely and summoned his ball of light back until it hovered a few feet above the floor, halfway along the passage, lighting it up. The floor was dusty and almost looked undisturbed. Almost. Remus looked up at Snape. "I think they came this way."

Snape shrugged, but he cast a revealing charm and raised an eyebrow as the signature of Black's spell appeared. "I suppose you're right," he acknowledged, grudgingly. "How long is the tunnel?"

"It used to take us about twenty five minutes to get to the Three Broomsticks, where it comes out. We've missed them; they'll be there by now."

Snape pulled out his watch and glanced at it. "You're right. We'd better notify Dumbledore."

"Er, that's all right. I'll do that. I need to talk to him anyway. Why don't you send Meredith an owl?"

Snape looked at him suspiciously for a moment, his eyes glittering in the light from the ball. "As you wish," he said eventually.

Remus couldn't help dragging his feet as he walked down to the Headmaster's office. For all as if he'd been caught in some heinous prank, he chided himself. He knew it was the look of disappointment he would see in Dumbledore's eyes that he dreaded more than anything, that and the feeling of betrayal he knew he would feel. Not so much a betrayal of Black, but of the three boys who had been his friends so long ago. He remembered them standing there after they had shown him what they had done for the first time. They had looked so pleased with themselves, as well they might, he had thought. He remembered how he had felt so overwhelmed that they would do that for him. With an effort, he pulled himself back to the present, he could no longer ignore his duty, so he knocked and walked in.

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk writing. He looked up as Remus walked in and he put down his quill. "Remus, you have news?"

"Yes, Headmaster," he responded and sighed. "I'm afraid it's not good. We identified the tunnel Black took and unfortunately it's likely, given the time, that he's long gone. We've notified Meredith to alert the Hit Wizards and it's up to them now."

"You blame yourself." It wasn't a question.

"If I hadn't lost Harry in the first place, Black wouldn't have been able to take him." He paused, inwardly squirming. "Headmaster, there's something else you should know."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, and looked shrewdly at Remus. "Something that you find hard to talk about?"

Remus answered with a perfunctory smile then he took a deep breath and rushed his fence. "He's an Animagus," he said flatly.

"Dear me." For the first time in his life Remus saw an expression of surprise flash across the old wizard's features. "Since when?"

"Er, fifth year," Remus responded, shamefaced, and sat down.

"Remarkable. Well, I don't think I've ever been accused of knowing everything that goes on in this school, and this certainly proves it. What form does he take?"

"He's a dog, a large black dog - looks like a Grim actually. He used to have a lot of fun with that." Remus's voice cracked and he smiled bleakly. "I'm sorry I never said anything before, I know I should have done, but it seemed like betraying them."

"Them?"

"Oh, they were all Animagi. James and Peter managed it too. They did it for me - they wanted to help damn them." Remus found to his horror that he was blinking back tears and put his head in his hands. He took a deep breath after a moment and sat up. Dumbledore wasn't looking angry at all, or disappointed, just immensely sad.

"Dare I ask what forms James and Peter took?"

Remus gave another bleak smile and swallowed hard. "James was a stag and Peter was a rat."

An arrested expression crossed Dumbledore's face. "A rat you say?" And he suddenly looked very thoughtful.

Before Remus could ask why, the door banged open and Cornelius Fudge and Milton, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement walked into the office. Fudge's face was a bright beetroot colour, clearly from annoyance, not embarrassment. "Now see here, Dumbledore, you assured me this morning that there was nothing wrong with security here at Hogwarts. And now look what's happened. It's a damned poor show that's what it is." He wagged a finger at the Headmaster.

Dumbledore looked down his long nose at Fudge and said severely, "Nevertheless, Minister it was not through any fault of ours that Black escaped. The member of my staff who was present did all that could be expected, given the presence of Harry Potter, after all I scarcely think you would have been happy if the boy had been killed in the crossfire."

Milton, who had been standing behind Fudge looked horrified and said, "You misunderstand, Headmaster, no criticism was intended."

Fudge looked as if he was going to contradict Milton, but Dumbledore forestalled him stating, "Enough of this. In the meantime I have received information that should make Black's recapture easier. It would appear that at some point he learnt how to achieve the Animagus transformation. I am told he takes the form of a large, black dog, like a Grim."

"Good God," exclaimed Fudge faintly. "He's an unregistered Animagus?"

Milton looked equally surprised but assured Fudge, "Don't worry, we'll soon have him back in Azkaban, Minister."

"Yes, but that's what you said when he first escaped, Milton and that was weeks ago. It wasn't even your men who captured him. It was Dumbledore's." Fudge was starting to bluster. "In any case what's the point in sending him back to Azkaban? We have no guarantee now that he won't just walk out of there again."

"What are you trying to say, Cornelius?" Dumbledore asked in a voice that should have had Fudge quaking in his shoes.

"I think my meaning is sufficiently clear, Albus. We need to solve this problem of Black once and for all. The only way to ensure that none of this happens again, is to remove him as a threat. Therefore I signed an order that when he's recaptured he's to be given the Dementor's Kiss immediately."

Dumbledore looked deeply disapproving. "Well, I don't think I need to tell you what I think about that," he said.

Fudge continued to bluster, "Yes well, Dumbledore, you can think what you like, shut up in this remote castle as you are. But I'm a bit closer to the pulse of things and I have the safety of the wizarding world to consider."

Remus felt sick, more torn than ever. Abruptly, he stood up. "Excuse me," he said, and left the room without looking at any of the others.

As he closed the door behind him, he heard Fudge saying, "What's the matter with him? Face like a thundercloud…."

Later, Dumbledore ran him to earth, standing in the dark on the top of Astronomy Tower looking at the stars, glittering like a scatter of diamonds on black velvet in the frosty night. The Headmaster didn't waste time on platitudes. "Why are you so upset, Remus?"

"I don't know." Remus wrapped his arms around himself, but it wasn't against the cold. "I suppose I feel that if he's caught now and Kissed it will be my fault, and I don't know despite everything, that I want that."

"No indeed." Dumbledore paused. After a moment he asked, "Remus, why did you tell me that Sirius is an Animagus?"

"Because I was afraid for Harry, I suppose."

"Has that changed?"

Remus shook his head. "No, but -"

"But you are not responsible for what others choose to do. Are you?"

"No, you're right." But he still felt deeply unhappy.

"Well then, come down to dinner."

Taking a last look at one particular star in the constellation Canis Major, Remus sighed, and followed the old wizard downstairs.