The Last Marauder

Rescue

He could feel a cloth being bound across his mouth as a gag and feared that he would choke from it. His nose was still bleeding and he could not breathe properly neither through the nose nor through the gag. His heart started beating frantically and he tried to bring up his hands to remove the gag when he heard his uncle speaking.

"There are two of your...kind coming." He spit the words out. "If I hear any sound from you, you'll wish you had never been born."

With this, his uncle bound his hands onto the bedposts with a thin rope that cut into his wrists and locked Harry into his room. Lying on his bruised back definitely was the worst position he could be in.

Everything was spinning in his head.

Two of his kind? What could two wizards be doing here? Hermione and Ron? No, they would come in disguise if they came. Dumbledore? Why should his headmaster come? He was the one who put him here every summer without listening to Harry's pleas for not to be returned.

Harry still could not breathe properly under the gag and the lack of air supply made the room spin around him.

From far away he could hear voices. Downstairs? Maybe. They seemed to be angry, but Harry could not understand what they said. Had there been steps on the stairs? He could not tell for sure. Then somebody tried to open his door but failed. Of course. His uncle had locked it.

He could hear muttering and then the door flung open. The figure of a man appeared. Harry could not see him clearly, his glasses lay on the bedside table and his left eye was swollen, but the figure appeared to be known to him.

"Oh shit! Harry?"

The man approached his bed and bent over him.

"Harry, can you hear me?"

A hand cupped his chin and pulled his head to the side which caused Harry to utter a sharp moan of pain under his gag.

"Wait, I'll take the bindings and the gag of. Oh Merlin! Harry, what have they done to you? If he sees you like this he will be really guilty of murder!"

Careful hands removed the gag and Harry could finally breathe again properly while the bindings around his wrists were removed. The stranger rubbed his wrists and arms in order to bring the blood and the feeling back into them.

The door to his room had been left ajar and now that Harry could focus onto his surroundings again he could understand the voices from below.

"If you have harmed him, if you have only touched him, believe me I will not hesitate to kill you!"

That voice seemed familiar, but Harry could not put it into its proper place.

The following was his uncle.

"I only gave him what he deserved. I'm forced to accommodate a murderer! Worse than that, a murderer of your foul kind. A murdering freak!"

"Stop that immediately Dursley! I will not listen to you talking like this!" The stranger's voice sounded ready to kill, filled with venom and disgust.

But Vernon didn't stop.

"You dare not speak to me like that in my own house! You are even worse than this child of freaks! His parents received what they deserved and he should have shared their fate! At least then he wouldn't have been a constant burden and threat to us for the last years. He only received what he truly deserved! I only try to protect my family!"

The well known sound of a fist colliding with a face followed, a moan from his uncle and shortly afterwards a shrill scream from his aunt.

"So do I foolish muggle, so do I!" It was the voice of that man again followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

"Remus, what is wrong, why didn't you bring Harry down?"

The man entered the room and stood still for a moment. Then Harry could see him storming towards the bed, kneeling in front of him.

"Oh my god! Harry, Harry can you hear me? What have those muggles done to you?"

Remus? Had that familiar stranger just called the other man Remus? Remus Lupin? His teacher? Why was Lupin here? Harry's mind fogged more and more, he didn't understand anything anymore.

"He was gagged and bound when I found him and he doesn't seem to be really conscious. That excuse of an uncle must have been beating him up like mad, his nose is still bleeding. Let's bring him out of here. We can ask him what exactly they did when we've looked after him. Do you take him?"

The man nodded and bent down over Harry. He was now so close that Harry could make out the shape of the face and through all the fog and dizziness he suddenly recognized that man. His heart skipped one beat. That could not be true. He was only endangering himself, what was he doing here?

"Sirius?"

His godfather smiled weakly.
"Yes Harry, I'm here. I'll take you out of here, just one moment. I'll lift you up now okay?"

Harry nodded weakly and felt one hand gripping under his knees and another one under his back.

He cried out in pain. He had completely forgotten about his earlier encounter with Vernon's belt and the Smelting Stick.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

Concernedly, Sirius lifted Harry's shoulder up a little and his eyes widened in shock.

"I'm going to kill that fat excuse of a muggle! This bastard!"

Lupin stepped beside his friend and his eyes widened in shock at what he saw. But realizing that Sirius was close to storming downwards and making his threat a fact, he lay a hand on Sirius' shoulder and held him back.

"Save that for later. We have to bring him out of here."

Sirius nodded.

"Harry, I'm trying not to hurt you, okay?"

"Hardly possible...all hurts..."

And Harry passed out again. Sirius grimaced as if he himself was in pain and carefully lifted Harry from the bed. He was startled by the fact that his now sixteen year old godson didn't seem to weigh anything. Lupin took Harry's glasses and they proceeded down the stairs where they found a shattered Petunia and her son holding a large ugly toad in his hands.

"Sirius, was that necessary? You promised not to do anything when I left you here."

"He should be glad he's still alive."

Lupin turned towards Petunia.

"Where do you keep Harry's stuff?"

She backed away from the three wizards and merely nodded towards the cupboard under the stairs which Lupin opened with a wave of his wand.

He conjured the trunk out of it, then reduced it to the size of a matchbox and placed it in one of his pockets.

Sirius left with Harry in his arms and Lupin sighed. Another wave of his wand towards the toad, then he picked up Hedwig's cage and he too left the house. That nasty uncle would be restored in two hours time. Now there were more urgent matters to deal with. He caught up with Sirius and released Hedwig from her cage before shrinking it as well. The owl would find her way to Sirius' place.

They had to walk a little distance until they were far enough away from Privet Drive to apparate.

Of course, nobody knew about this attempt to free Harry and therefore the protection spells around the house had not been lifted.

Eventually, they had gathered enough distance to Privet Drive and Lupin and Sirius vanished with a low *pop*.

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Darkness. Somewhere, from far away, he could hear voices.

"We can't lay him down, neither on his back nor on his stomach. Seat him in that chair."

"The nose is not broken as far as I can see."

"His back looks really bad. We need to disinfect those welts before mending them, otherwise he'll get an infection."

Sharp pain. He tried to hiss, but found out he could not. Too painful.

"His breathing is too flat. There are at least two broken ribs. But I can't tell for sure whether he is hurt worse internally.

Hands touching his chest. Pain. He coughed.

"Shit. He's coughing blood. That's more than we can heal. Sirius, stay with him, I'll get Madam Pomfrey immediately."

Silence. Silence and pain.

"Where is he? Oh Merlin, who could do something like that? I need cold and warm water and fresh cloths. Sirius, you hold him upright while I mend the back. I need to look after the ribs but I can't until I can lay him down on the back."

Somebody shifted him around. Pain. More pain. Too much. Darkness.