Nox Redux

Chapter 8

Finn slouched into the room behind Rose and Remus. He looked as if he felt left out; Sirius thought, and he had a typical adolescent's sulky grimace. The boy glanced round the kitchen; his initial scornful look was at least not followed up by a scathing comment. However, he did look as if he was going to start asking questions. Sirius wished he wouldn't, as he really did not want to discuss what they had been talking about, and glancing at Moony it was clear he didn't either.

As he shut the door behind Rose, Remus asked, "Tea?"

"I'll give you a hand," offered Rose and wouldn't listen to Moony's protestations that it wasn't necessary. While they were fiddling around with the kettle and tea things, Finn let them get on with it and came and sat beside Sirius. "You all right?" he hissed, "'Cos, you don't look all right."

Sirius looked at him thinking, so why ask? But then something seemed to crumple inside him and he shook his head. "No, I'm not all right." Finn was staring at him with concern and he tried to explain. "All I've been thinking about for the last few days is getting here. I thought once I was here, everything would be all right."

"But it wasn't," the boy finished for him.

He shook his head again. "No," then he paused, at a loss over how to continue in a way the boy would understand. It hadn't been Snape's less than thinly veiled accusations of course. He would have been more disturbed if the ex-Death Eater had greeted him with unfettered joy. No, it had been Moony, who after listening to what he had to say, seemed to think there should be more, had kept asking for more, and he didn't know what he was after, or why.

Rose carried the teapot over to the table. "I'll be mother shall I?" she asked, flicking a glance at Sirius and Finn. Remus put the milk jug and the sugar bowl down then he sat down himself, as Rose started to pour.

"You're not going to start going on at him again are you?" Finn asked in an aggressive tone.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think we've been 'going on at him'?" he asked.

"Well I've got eyes, haven't I?" the boy declared.

Sirius watched Moony's face crinkle in amusement and then frown as the boy carried on, "All he could think about was getting here. Right from when I found him and he was half dead, it was 'got to get to Moony's'. And when he finally gets here and you talk, he looks as if you've told him he's got frigging leprosy or something."

Sirius blinked at Finn in surprise at the strength of the boy's defence, as Rose said reprovingly, "Finn!"

Whether it was this, or Finn's squirming response, but Sirius felt himself relax a bit. Later, once they had had some lunch, and the dishes had been cleared up the wizarding way, Rose told Finn he could earn his keep by going down to the village to get some milk.

"Aw Gran, do I have to?" he whined.

"Well, there's no more milk and somebody has to go."

Realising he was going to get no support from either Sirius or Remus, Finn stood up, muttering under his breath then said in a louder voice, "I'll see you guys later," and slouched off. He didn't quite slam the front door on his way out.

Rose waited until he had gone, then she remarked, "You know, I feel he's going to be much happier being out of the way for a while." Sirius and Remus looked at one another. "And so, I expect will I, as I think you two still have some things to discuss." She stood up. "I spotted some interesting herbs growing in the hedge along the lane that I'd like to gather. I won't be too long."

After she had left, Remus cocked an eyebrow and said, "Perceptive lady." Then he grinned, "Did you see the expression on Finn's face when I started doing the dishes?"

Sirius managed to grin in response. "He would have been really offended if we'd laughed at him," he commented.

"I just bet he would've." Remus smiled again. "Seems a nice kid."

"He is, but I don't think he's really grasped what's going on."

"Perhaps that's just as well," replied Remus, "He's not got much magical talent has he?"

Shaking his head Sirius replied, "I don't think so. Oh, he's got a little, but somehow I don't think the interest is there to develop it."

Remus paused for a moment and leaned back in his chair as if wondering quite how to phrase what he was going to say next. When he did speak his tone was much more serious, " You know, I've been thinking about what we were discussing this morning."

"Yes?" Sirius responded cautiously, his lighter mood abruptly evaporating.

"There was one part of your adventure that we never really went over." He paused and looked Sirius in the eye. "Just how exactly did you manage to escape from Voldemort?"

Sirius froze. "Escape?"

"Hmm. What did you do?" Remus' eyes weren't amused now, but strained.

Sirius dropped his eyes and swallowed as his throat tightened. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. Suddenly something in his head started screaming, run! But something else was screaming, kill him! Instead, his legs had started shaking so much he didn't think he could move. Then the flight response was too much and he leapt out of the chair, making for the door.

Remus threw himself after him, overturning his chair as he did so, but Sirius automatically blocked him and punched him in the face with his elbow. The force of the blow knocked Remus over and he staggered to the floor, blood spurting from his nose. Instantly, Sirius felt himself grabbed by the legs as Remus brought him crashing to the floor as well. Immediately, he flashed into Padfoot, snarling and struggling to be free, to obey the overwhelming command that told him to flee.

Remus had Padfoot by one of his back legs and the dog instinctively clenched his jaws around the man's arm. Remus grunted in pain but clung on grimly, struggling himself. Just as Padfoot realised he was pulling his wand out of his pocket with his left hand, and before he could let go, Remus pointed the wand at him yelling, "Stupefy!" Then everything went black.

---

Remus leaned back, rubbing his arm and choking on the blood running down the back of his throat. He watched as Padfoot's unconscious form shifted back into Sirius, wondering, dear God, what the hell happened there?

Slowly he crawled to his feet and staggered through to the scullery where he spat an enormous gob of mucus and blood into the sink. "Gah!" he exclaimed in disgust, and cast a quick healing charm on himself. Immediately the bleeding stopped. He rolled up his sleeve checking his arm, but the skin wasn't broken so he just left it. Then he tried to wipe the worst of the blood from the front of his robes. It didn't seem to make much difference. He sighed and walked back into the kitchen. Then he knelt down beside Sirius' body, checking he was all right. Satisfied, he picked up his chair, sat down at the table again and put his head in his hands.

The front door banged, and footsteps ran up the hall. Rose flung open the kitchen door exclaiming, "Remus, Sirius, are you all right? I heard - " her eyes widened as she took in the scene.

Before he could respond, someone else opened the front door. Remus looked at Rose and said urgently, "If that's Finn, get rid of him."

Rose glanced back down the hall, but shook her head as Snape angrily pushed past her, much to her obvious annoyance saying, "Well, Lupin, Dumbledore insisted I come back until -" Then he noticed Sirius' still form and demanded, "What happened here?"

Remus told him, "I was trying to get him to tell me something about how he escaped from Voldemort, when he went berserk and attempted to bolt."

"What did you do to him?" Rose asked.

"Stunning Curse. He'll be all right."

Snape walked over to where Sirius was lying and looked down at him. "Well it doesn't take a genius to conclude that this is connected to the Memory Charm that's been put on him."

"I expect it is, but I don't see how."

"Oh come on, Lupin! Think who was holding him. I'll be surprised if he's not been under the Imperius Curse the whole time," Snape told him sourly.

Remus looked up. "The Imperius Curse? Sirius?" He was astonished at the suggestion. "But he would have fought it. He was always good at throwing it off."

"I don't think you are taking into account what impact the combination of the Imperius Curse and the Cruciatus Curse would have had on him. And, don't forget, Voldemort had him for as much as a fortnight." Snape's black eyes bore into Remus' own. "Two weeks of excruciating torture. Could you hold out?"

Remus broke eye contact and looked down at Sirius, lying on the floor, his chest softly rising and falling. After a moment he said, "All right I can accept that under torture he might eventually give in to it, but as soon as he was free he should have been able to throw it off."

"Only if he knew about it, Lupin."

"Oh God, you're right; the Memory Charm." Remus distractedly ran his hands through his hair. "I remember reading about cases where people were ordered to do something very specific which was then covered up with a Memory Charm until it was triggered." He glanced at Rose who was standing by the dresser watching them. "I'm sorry, this must all be very confusing for you," he said.

"Oh don't mind me," she replied, I think I've picked up enough to understand that he's been horribly tortured to make him do something he would never do under normal circumstances. How do you find out what?"

Snape shrugged. "Break the Memory Charm," he said as if it were obvious.

"We can't do that!" Remus was horrified. "If we did, it would destroy his mind."

"No loss there then," Snape muttered under his breath. Then a malicious sneer flickered across his face and he continued, "Of course if I know anything about Voldemort it's that he appreciates the apt particularly if it amuses him. So I would be very surprised indeed to find that Black has been ordered to do anything other than kill Potter."

TBC...