A Promise Worth Keeping

Chapter 18

Remus didn't know whether to be glad or sorry that the squad of Hit Wizards turned up no sign of the fugitives. The rational, logical part of his mind knew perfectly well that Dumbledore was right - he would not be responsible for what happened to Black. But it wasn't how he felt.

Doubt had started to creep in. He'd wanted Sirius to be innocent so badly, and yet he'd hardly given him much of a chance to explain himself, had he? He ran the conversation he'd had with him over and over through his mind, trying to discern anything he might have missed from what the man had said. "Why won't you bloody listen?" Black had asked. If he was honest with himself, had he listened? And Remus knew the answer was no, he hadn't. He'd been so nauseated at the barefaced lies; he couldn't stomach listening to any more; but what if they weren't lies? What if Sirius really never had been the Secret Keeper as he had claimed? And now he'd condemned him to a horrific fate. But then, the rational part of his mind argued that Dumbledore had talked to Black as well, and hadn't come to any different conclusion about him either.

The Headmaster persuaded him to stay at Hogwarts and help in the search; clearly concerned at the effect the situation was having on him. "At least stay until they're found, Remus. Harry will need someone like you." They were sitting in the Headmaster's office on the Friday morning after Black had escaped. The blizzard had still not cleared and it was snowing hard. The Headmaster continued, "So we can make sure he's all right."

What, Remus felt like saying, so once you've done that you can send him back to the Dursleys? However, he agreed to stay for Harry's sake, and found to his surprise, that it was good feeling the atmosphere of the castle around him again. But as the days passed and the search turned up nothing, he began to feel that perhaps the Headmaster had just asked him to stay to give him something to do, than for any useful contribution he could make.

The Sunday after the school broke up for the holidays he went and had a pint in the Three Broomsticks at lunchtime. He was sitting in a corner by himself staring gloomily into the fire, when somebody sat down at his table. He looked up and recognised the Auror, Meredith.

"Mind if I sit down?" the Auror asked.

"Er, not at all," Remus lied.

"You're one of men that brought Black in the other week aren't you?"

Remus didn't see any point in denying it. "One of them, yes," he said.

Meredith nodded. "Thought so. Other one was a right close-mouthed git," he commented taking a sip of his drink.

"It depends who's talking to him, he doesn't suffer fools," Remus responded, amused.

Meredith grunted. "Thinks I'm a fool does he? Well he wouldn't be far wrong." Then as Remus shot him a questioning glance he commented, "Auror training, lesson one, never, ever, underestimate your opponent."

"You underestimated Black?"

"Well what do you think?"

"I don't think you're alone in that then, I think we all did." Remus took a sip of his own drink.

They sat in silence for a moment, and then just as it had begun to stretch out into awkwardness, Meredith asked, "I was wondering, if you had any tips?"

Remus stifled a laugh. "Tips? What do you mean?"

Meredith leaned forwards. "Look, you know perfectly well there's been no sign of them anywhere. Nobody's seen any stray black dogs roaming about, no small boys on their own. They came down that tunnel and into the hallway there, and disappeared," he waved towards the door. "It's almost as if Black had a Portkey."

"Yes, but the snowstorm hampered the search," Remus objected.

"Yeah well," Meredith acknowledged. "It didn't help. It's just that you seemed to have an unusually deep knowledge of the castle. I mean, you seemed to know stuff Dumbledore didn't, and I was wondering how far this knowledge extended, you know, distance wise."

To his annoyance, Remus felt himself flush. "I know most of the Forbidden Forest and the hills around here pretty well," he admitted. "That's partly why I've been helping search the Forest. Why?"

Meredith screwed up his face in frustration. "Assuming Black didn't have a Portkey, and the Higher Ups have by no means ruled that out, he had to have stayed in the area. The boy was hardly dressed to be wandering around at night in freezing temperatures, so they must have got under cover somewhere. You know we've checked every house and shed in the village and we're sure it wasn't here."

Remus took a sip of his beer. "What about up in the hills?"

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you checked the caves in the hills? There are several that I know of."

"CAVES!"

All other conversation was suspended as other customers looked round to see who had shouted. After a moment, the buzz started up again. Remus looked at the Auror in surprise. "Clearly not."

"What caves? Where are they?" Meredith banged his drink down, sloshing it over the table and stood up.

"Well there's one a couple of miles outside the village, and two more a bit further away."

Meredith stood looking at him for a moment before exclaiming, "Well, show me!" And without waiting to see if Remus was following, the Auror left, plonking his glass down on the bar as he passed it.

Remus felt a surge of excitement and walked out of the pub after him. "Give me five minutes," he told Meredith. "I need to let Dumbledore know where I'm going. It never occurred to us that the caves hadn't been searched."

When he came back from the Owl Office, Meredith was waiting for him, along with another Auror, a sharp-faced man he introduced as Fairley.

It took some time for him to lead them up to the cave he remembered. The path was obscured by the heavy snow, and the going was treacherous in places. Eventually though, he stopped outside the entrance, waiting for Fairley to catch up. "This is it," he told Meredith.

Meredith looked round blankly. "Where?"

Remus gave a slight smile and responded, "In here." He walked towards the narrow crevice and muttering "Lumos!" gave himself enough light to see by. The Aurors followed him inside.

"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Meredith. "You'd never find this place unless you knew it was here."

Fairley knelt down beside the remains of a fire, touching the ashes. "Someone's been here recently," he said.

Meredith cast a revealing charm, but the signatures of any magic that had been cast had long since dissipated. "How recently?" he asked Fairley.

The other Auror shrugged. "In the last few weeks."

"Black definitely knew about this place?" Meredith asked Remus.

Remus couldn't help smiling slightly. "Oh yes, he certainly knew about it."

The two Aurors looked at one another. "All this is circumstantial," said Fairley, "but it's the best clue we've had so far."

Meredith turned to Remus. "Okay, so they spend the night here, then what? Which way would they go?"

Remus shrugged. "Probably over the moors. It's a fair hike, but you come to Muggle settlements eventually."

"How far?"

"Hard to say," Remus prevaricated. "I'm not sure, in any case if distance by miles means much in that type of country. It's how long it takes you that's important."

Meredith rolled his eyes. "All right I'll re-phrase that. How long would it take?"

Remus was still reluctant to commit himself. "Well, I suppose at this time of year, and with a child, probably most of the day." Then, at the same time as the other two men, he realised the implications of what that meant.

"But they would have been caught in the snowstorm," said Fairley. "They could be dead." He sounded disappointed.

Meredith snorted. "Yeah, and the only way anybody would believe that, is if we produce bodies. So, we still need to find them. Lupin, you'd better come with us. I think brooms would be the best way to cover the ground; you do have yours with you don't you?"

Oh wonderful, Remus thought, my favourite activity. "Er, actually I don't, I'd need to borrow one."

"Don't worry, we'll get you one," responded Meredith callously. Fairley promptly Disapparated before returning some ten minutes later with three brooms.

Remus unenthusiastically took the one he was offered. He had always hated flying. Meredith noticed and grinned. "Not a star of your House Quidditch team while at Hogwarts then, were you, Lupin?"

Shrugging Remus said defensively, "No, not everyone could be, you know."

"Well, as long as you can stay on a broom, you'll do. Now, come on, let's go!"

It was noticeably warmer than it had been for some time. "Looks like a thaw," commented Fairley. "At least if the snow's going and they did die in the blizzard, then it'll be easier to find their bodies."

Meredith grunted and jumped on his broom, zooming off up the hill, a few feet above the ground. Fairley followed leaving Remus standing looking at the broom he'd been given. After a moment he sighed and put his hand out. Somewhat to his amazement, the broom rose up and he jumped on.

The two Aurors were waiting for him at the top of the hill on the ridge. A wasteland of snow stretched out to the grey horizon ahead of them. Meredith was trying to look optimistic. "Let's assume for the sake of argument, that they made it across. Where's the first settlement they would come to?"

Remus pointed. "In that direction, as the crow flies. But they may not have been able to go straight. There are streams and a lot of boggy ground. There's another cottage, a bit further on, that way." He pointed slightly to the right.

Meredith screwed up his face in thought. Then he said, "Let's spread out. The snow won't be gone today, but you never know. We'll try that further cottage first then the other one. Watch out for Muggles!"

The three wizards crossed the moor, flying low about a quarter of a mile apart. Remus was glad the other two weren't close. It meant that when he had to stop to be sick, which was going to happen soon, he knew, they might not realise why. He was almost amused at himself, the way he desperately didn't want them to know. He remembered James's attitude when he had found out Remus suffered from incurable broom-sickness. Disbelief hadn't been the half of it. Quite why he had then seemed to find it so funny was unclear. The others had seemed to find it a pretty good joke as well. Of course the three of them had then spent six weeks researching motion sickness charms and potions before he had found out and dragged them along to Madam Pomfrey. Remus remembered begging her to explain that it was not a physical problem at all, but psychological.

Remus looked up. He suddenly realised he'd been flying for ten minutes and didn't feel sick at all. Madam Pomfrey's words came back to him. "You get sick because you don't want to fly. Until you find a reason that's more important than not flying, you'll never do it." Looked like he'd finally found a reason, even if it had taken him nearly twenty years, he smiled to himself and flew on.

Nearly two hours later the character of the landscape started to change as the rough, unfenced moorland was crossed by an ancient drystane dyke. In the distance, Meredith signalled and Remus approached.

"How far is it, to this cottage you mentioned?" the Auror asked, as Fairley flew up.

Shrugging, Remus responded, "I'm not sure, about a mile, maybe two."

"We'll need to be careful from now on then, and keep your eyes peeled, both of you. I don't want to have to put any long winded explanations about precisely why I had to Obliviate a whole load of Muggles into my report."

The cottage, when they reached it, sheltered in the lee of a clump of old, Scots pine trees. A thin trickle of smoke was dribbling out of the chimney so it was clearly inhabited. Someone had built a snowman beside the cottage. Along with the rest of the snow, it was rapidly melting now, but would probably remain for a day or so yet. As they approached, a small avalanche of snow slid down the roof and fell off.

When they landed and started walking towards the house, it was obvious that something had happened. The front door stood wide open. Meredith put his arm up to stop Remus and Fairley walking any further. He stood, eyes narrowed staring at the scene in silence before saying, "Right, Fairley, check the back, Lupin you come with me." And he walked forwards without checking to make sure Remus was following.

Inside, muddy footprints covered the carpet of the small hall. Remus followed Meredith into the kitchen. A chair lay on the floor where it had been overturned and on the table, beside two half empty mugs of coffee, a bag indicated someone had been packing. Remus shivered.

Fairley walked in through the back door. "Nothing outside apart from a lot of footprints, " he said.

"Hmm, " Meredith looked thoughtful. "Check upstairs," he told the other Auror, then with a wave of his wand cast a revealing charm. He sucked in his breath as the magical signatures appeared. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed.

"What's the matter?" Remus asked.

The Auror turned to him. "We've only just missed them. Whoever cast these did so in the last few hours." He gestured towards the bag on the table. "This feather light charm's the oldest of the ones I reckon were cast today. That one by the door, is where someone Apparated into the house. There's the remains of a few others but they're much older, last week I'd say."

Remus glanced out into the hall. "There's another one out here - a Stunning Curse."

Meredith raised his eyebrows at that. Then he stood in thought for a moment before saying, "It's pretty clear what happened, I mean it's almost textbook stuff. There's a knock at the door, strongest one goes to answer it, gets taken out, meanwhile the accomplice Apparates in and takes out the weaker one."

Fairley came down the stairs. "Found these on a pile of bedding on the floor of one of the bedrooms," he said, holding out his hand. On the palm lay several coarse black hairs.

"You recognise these?" Meredith asked Remus.

He nodded. "They're from the dog."

Meredith grinned, but then frowned as something occurred to him. "No wait; this doesn't make sense. Black and the kid are in here. Knock at the door, Black goes to answer, leaving the kid in the kitchen, gets taken out. But who were the others?"

Fairley looked blank.

"Other Aurors, surely?" Remus hazarded.

"Can't have been. They'd still be here, doing forensics, clearing the place up for the Muggles, that sort of thing. Had to have been somebody else, but who?"

"What about that idea that was floating around weeks ago?" asked Fairley, "You know, the one where the kid had been kidnapped by Death Eaters?" He cast a snide glance at Meredith. "I remember you thought that was quite likely."

Meredith shook his head. "But that wouldn't make any sense either. If they were Death Eaters, why would they take out Black like that?"

A small voice at the back of Remus's mind whispered, it would make sense if Sirius wasn't a Death Eater. He ignored it. Instead he asked, "What happened next do you think?"

Meredith walked back outside and cast another revealing charm. This time the signatures were unclear and fuzzy. "Ah," he said. "Brooms." He raised an eyebrow, "And a levitating charm. Well at least that puts a limit on how far they've got, and we know they didn't go back to Hogsmeade." He paused and sniffed the air. "Rain coming. I need to report back. We've done all we can here."

Back at Hogwarts, Remus quickly went in search of Dumbledore. He arrived at the Headmaster's office at the same moment as Snape, and they went up together. The Headmaster indicated that Remus should go first. When he described what they had found at the cottage, and their interpretations of the spell signatures, Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "And you concur with this, Remus?" he asked.

Remus sighed. "I don't know," he responded. "It doesn't make sense that, if the kidnappers were Death Eaters as Meredith suggested, they would knock Black out like that. But I can't for the life of me see that they would be anyone else."

"Oh come on, Lupin! Use your brain!" Snape exclaimed. "Black's insane, a loose cannon. They wouldn't want that kind of deranged lunatic getting in the way of their plans." He turned to Dumbledore. "You saw what he was like when we spoke to him, Headmaster!"

"But that doesn't explain why they didn't just kill him!" Remus said forcefully, all his doubts coming to the fore.

Dumbledore held up his hands. "Gentlemen, please! We are clearly not going to establish the truth of what happened there until we find them." He paused. "Now, Severus, what have you to report?"

Snape sniffed. "If you would bear with me for a moment, Headmaster what I have to say is connected with this I believe. I had occasion to visit Diagon Alley today," he said then. For a moment Remus wondered if he was going to have to picture the unlikely image of Snape doing his Christmas shopping, but the Potions master continued, "I found I had to restock my Potions cupboard. After I had finished, as I was in Knockturn Alley by this time, I had a drink in a local pub. I happened to speak to several er, old acquaintances, more than one of whom reported that a very rare potion ingredient is shortly going to be coming on the market."

"What is this ingredient?" demanded Dumbledore.

Snape suddenly looked very tired. "The blood of a child, blood with rather unusual, if unspecified qualities."

Remus felt sick. "Oh God," he said.

Snape cast a sour glance in his direction but didn't otherwise comment on his remark. Instead he continued, "Naturally I tried to find out the source of these rumours, but have not so far, been successful. I can try again tomorrow if you like."

Dumbledore nodded curtly. "Do so," he said.

Before Snape left, he added, "There is one other thing I should tell you. If these two issues are connected, and I quite fail to see how they would not be, the boy is still alive."

"You're sure about this?" Dumbledore demanded.

"Oh yes, without going into any details that would make Lupin here throw up on your hearth rug, Headmaster, the timing of his demise will be extremely important. It won't have happened yet, but it will be soon."

Snape left then, Remus watching him. "I hope I've got a stronger stomach than he thinks I do," he commented.

Dumbledore gave a perfunctory smile and sat down in the chair opposite him. After a moment the old wizard spoke, for once, his voice sounded very old, "Do you understand now, why it has been imperative for Harry to have the protection he has enjoyed all these years?"

Remus sighed as Dumbledore continued, "Without that protection he has always been vulnerable."

"And sending him to the Dursleys was the only alternative?"

"Under the circumstances, yes." Dumbledore stood up and looked out of the window for a moment. Then he turned round to Remus and his eyes twinkled briefly. "You know, despite what some people seem to think, I am only human. Like us all, I make mistakes. Unfortunately we seldom get the opportunity to correct our mistakes."

Remus flashed an astonished glance at the Headmaster. Was he saying he'd been wrong, he wondered, or was Dumbledore prompting him to think about his own past? And he thought of all the things he had said or done over the last few weeks himself, that now he wished unsaid or undone, and sighed. "Very seldom," he agreed.

The next day passed in an agony of waiting. Remus felt useless and the feeling annoyed him. This intensified when Snape returned after lunch and curtly refusing his offer of help, buried himself in the Restricted Section of the library.

Meredith re-appeared and reported that despite sending out squads of hit wizards they had been unable to find any clue as to where Harry had been taken at all.

However it wasn't until the following afternoon, which Remus realised rather belatedly was Christmas Day that Snape appeared to make any progress.

He was trying to play chess with Dumbledore and was in the process of being beaten rather badly, despite helpful suggestions on strategy from Meredith, when Snape came in, carrying a couple of books. "Headmaster, I think I know where Potter will have been taken," he said.

"Where?" demanded Remus.

Snape's black eyes glittered as he passed an old book over to Dumbledore. The Headmaster held it so Remus and the Auror could see. It was open at an engraving of a stone circle. He cocked an eyebrow. "Of course, the lunar connection."

Snape nodded and Remus said immediately, "There's a half moon tonight. But surely they'd wait until the Full, until next week?"

"Too risky, I would imagine," Dumbledore told him. "Where is this place, Severus?" he pointed at the engraving.

Snape smiled grimly, "About thirty miles away."

"You're sure it would be that one?" Remus asked.

"Oh yes, Lupin it would be that one. It's one of the oldest; the largest in the area and it meets all your criteria for distance, Meredith. No other does that."

As Remus jumped up, Dumbledore told him, "Bring Harry back here, Remus." He glanced at Meredith, looking deeply disapproving. "I expect you have your own orders concerning Mr Black."

Meredith shrugged. "Like you say, Headmaster orders."

"I should go too, Headmaster," Snape announced. "In case things have progressed further than we anticipate and there is er, evidence to secure."

Dumbledore nodded.

Even if he had had the inclination, Remus would have had no time to stop and be sick thinking about Snape's evidence. Meredith was joined in Hogsmeade by both Fairley and Steerforth. He instructed a group of hit wizards to follow behind them as back up. "Just in case," as he told Remus.

Then they Apparated to the edge of a patch of woodland, about half a mile, so Snape told them, from the circle itself. Darkness had fallen and the sky had cleared, showing the half-full moon sailing high above the trees. Remus glanced up and shivered. Please God they weren't too late.

Wands held in front of them, the five of them walked steadily through the trees in silence. The woods were completely still and Remus found the tension almost unbearable. He listened intently for any sound that might give a clue as to what was happening up ahead, but the sound of his own heartbeat, thudding in his ears masked any faint noises.

Suddenly there was a shout of rage and they stopped dead, glancing at one another. Then, as they started running forwards, a dog barked, once, a great booming bark. After that there was more shouting.

"At least we know Black's here," commented Meredith.

"And not everything seems to be going their way. Whoever 'they' are," Remus added.

Then from the side, there came the frantic rustling of a large animal pounding through the undergrowth and a huge black dog that Remus hadn't seen for nearly ten years ran out in front of them. It saw them and stumbled, pale eyes locking with Remus's own.

And it transformed, spitting the wand it had been carrying onto the ground as it did so. For an instant that seemed to last forever, Remus stared at Sirius Black, sitting on the ground, chest heaving, staring right back at him, wild eyed.

Then, before anyone else could say anything he burst out, "Harry managed to get into the woods. Lucius Malfoy's back there at the stones with four thugs." His teeth bared in a ferocious smile. "They've only got three wands between the lot of them." And he slowly pulled out another wand from the pocket of his robes and threw that down on the ground as well.

Meredith snorted. "Yeah right!" he exclaimed. "Do we look like Muggles?" He pointed his wand at Black and opened his mouth. "Stu -"

Remus flung out an arm. "No! Wait!"