Beyond Azkaban

Chapter Eight

***

"It didn't work, did it?"

"No, Moony, it didn't," Sirius said dourly.

"You do realize that you're lucky to have your soul at the moment, don't you?"

"Yes, Moony, I do," Sirius looked up into his lover's aging face. "But I was so close," he added regretfully as Remus kissed him lightly on the forehead...

***

"Who is this Moony you keep mumbling about?"

"What?" A startled Padfoot slowly lifted his head to stare into bright yellow eyes. "Oh, it's you, you dumb cat," he snarled.

"My name is Crookshanks, by the way, and I wouldn't say that if I wanted help from the cat I was insulting."

"You didn't help me much, now, did you? And how do I know you'll really help me, anyway?"

"I thought you may have been intelligent enough to do it yourself, but obviously you weren't. Besides, I found a better way in - even if it is the same way you just tried - but the portrait is different."

"And would you stop babbling and explain, superior one?" he asked sarcastically, containing a growl.

"The new portrait over the entrance to the tower has strange passwords and changes them twice a day. If you really want to know, today they've been 'oddsbodkins' and 'scurvy cur', but he'll probably change - "

"And how does that help me if they're constantly changed?" Padfoot interrupted.

Ignoring the interruption, Crookshanks went on. "Well, you could go today, but I wouldn't recommend that. Security has been tightened on the castle: there are trolls next to the portrait hole and the doors have been trained to recognize you, or at least your human form."

"I don't need a door to get in, and speaking of which, how did you get in here?"

Crookshanks swung his tail back and forth with impatience for Padfoot's stupidity. "I see you come in here; it doesn't take a human to watch someone."

"I wasn't aware that I was being watched - I had enough of that in Azkaban," Padfoot told the cat with disdain.

"I don't trust you like I don't trust that rat, who, if it makes you feel any better, I watch even more than you and I try to attack every once in a while, but he always gets away." Padfoot brightened a bit, knowing he did indeed have an ally, even if it was a cat that didn't seem to like him all too much. "Oh, and for your entertainment, there's a Quidditch match on Saturday: Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. The boy with the scar is the Gryffindor Seeker." With that, Crookshanks turned and walked towards the tunnel to leave the run-down house, not even waiting for the thank you that Padfoot was about to give, however reluctantly.

When the cat was out of sight, Padfoot transformed into Sirius. He remembered the passwords that Crookshanks had given to him: "oddsbodkins" and "scurvy cur". Sirius had no doubt that the new portrait over the entrance to the Gryffindor tower was the demented knight, Sir Cadogan. The senseless and chivalric portrait would be easy enough to get past when the opportune moment came.

***

The rain came down in torrents, yet Padfoot sat in the topmost row of seats near the Gryffindor goalposts, motionlessly watching the Quidditch game in which his godson, the Gryffindor seeker, was playing. The game was rough, but mainly because of the heavy rain, lightning, and thunder that plagued the two teams, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The only way for a small, golden ball to be seen was to wait for a flash of lightning to illuminate the dark sky. Despite this, Gryffindor was fifty points ahead and currently in a time-out.

Padfoot wished he could see what was happening in the game, although his ears had caught the whistle that signaled the end of Gryffindor's time-out over the thunder. He could soon make out small figures darting about, along with a black-haired boy in scarlet robes making his way towards the goalposts. Even in the horrible flying conditions, Harry Potter was an excellent flyer, maybe even better than his father. At this idea, Padfoot thought, "Sorry, Prongs, but someone had to be better than you someday." He wondered what the Marauder would say to his son's talent, and he laughed at the idea of the expression that would be on James' face if he had a chance to say out loud what he was thinking.

As Harry got closer to the goalposts and where Padfoot was sitting, another flash of forked lightning lit up the sky. The Gryffindor Seeker jumped as he looked into the stands, then the sky, his eyes wide and scared. Padfoot ran further into the shadows, hoping Harry didn't see him. But the Gryffindor had recovered himself and looked again into the stands and the sky. As a teammate called to him, he averted his eyes back to the game and began hurtling towards the Hufflepuff Seeker, who was undoubtedly chasing after the Snitch.

As his godson chased followed in pursuit of the Snitch, Sirius felt a familiar cold sensation that he hadn't felt for months. The crowd became eerily quiet and, suddenly, the bodies of Lily and James Potter were the only things on his mind, except for the destruction of Godric's Hollow.

"No! I'm innocent, I'm innocent, I'm innocent," he automatically chanted as the images before him changed. He saw not Lily and James, but Harry. Padfoot watched as his godson fell from his broom --- almost fifty feet from the ground. He did a double take and he suddenly grasped that the dementors couldn't force him to relive a memory that never happened. He ran down the stands recklessly, ignoring the dementors' effects on him, and only stopped when he noticed Dumbledore slowing Harry's decent and performing a Patronus Charm on the dementors. The feeling of emptiness left and sense told him to make his way back to the Shrieking Shack as quickly as possible.

He slipped down the stands unnoticed and cautiously headed across the grounds and towards the Whomping Willow. As he neared the huge tree, he stopped, seeing a small person picking up fragments of what seemed to be wood and throwing them into a bag. Padfoot crept around the tree so he was behind the person, whom he now identified as Professor Flitwick, his old Charms professor. Confused as to what the pieces of wood were, he crept closer and read "Nimbus 2000" in brilliant gold lettering. Harry's broom had been smashed against the Whomping Willow, he recognized, not wanting to think of what could have happened to Harry.

***

"Your human is back with his friends." Crookshanks strode into the Shrieking Shack a day after the Quidditch match.

"I take it that means he's out of the hospital wing?"

"Obviously," Crookshanks informed him.

"Is the match ever going to be finished?"

"Gryffindor lost: the Hufflepuff Seeker caught the Snitch as Harry fell, or so I hear in the Common Room."

"There should be a re-match," Padfoot complained.

"You only think that because Hufflepuff won."

"But he fell!"

"And Hufflepuff caught the Snitch. Get over it," Crookshanks ordered haughtily.

"I can't believe I'm having a conversation about Quidditch with a cat," Padfoot said with wonder. "I should be talking to Remus - not you."

"What's so bad about me? And who's Remus? Is he that Moony you never shut up about when you sleep?"

"I've only muttered about him once, thank you very much, and yes, he is. You would know him too: he's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Oh. The werewolf?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Hermione, my human, figured it out by herself. She talks to me about things she can't tell her idiotic friends."

Padfoot barked out a laugh. "One of her 'idiotic friends' happens to be my godson."

"Well he's your idiotic godson, then. But he's not the stupidest one. That would be the red-haired boy who still hasn't figured out that his rat is really a human. He also fancies my human: he fights with her all the time.

"Sounds like Lily and James, almost. But she really did hate him until seventh year."

"They're your old friends, right?"

"Yeah, Harry's parents," Padfoot said quietly.

"But they're dead?"

"Yeah, and thanks for being so blunt."

"Sorry," Crookshanks said sincerely.

"It was years ago..." Padfoot trailed off, and then brightened up a bit. "Could you do me a favor?"

"What now?" Crookshanks' tail began flicking back and forth.

"I just need to you to take a slip of paper so I can Owl Order something."

"What're you getting? Maybe some catnip for the best cat in the world?"

"Sorry, but I haven't met him yet," Padfoot teased.

"See if I do you any favor," Crookshanks said haughtily.

"Oh, come on. Just let me write down my account number...I think there's parchment and ink somewhere in this dump."

Padfoot morphed into Sirius Black, who was immediately startled by Crookshanks' loud hiss. He turned around, looked at the orange cat, and began laughing. "You look like a huge fluff-ball," he informed the cat, who's hair was on end at the sight of the strange looking human who had just been a dog only seconds ago.

As Crookshanks hissed in response, Sirius said, "Just wait a second before you run away at the sight of me. I'm pretty sure there's paper in the desk." He walked to the desk, which was barely standing on its two legs, and tried to pull a drawer out, only succeeding in pulling the handle off of the drawer. He dug his nails under the drawer and forced it open to find paper and a Muggle ballpoint pen. He picked up the pen and twirled it between his fingers, remembering how it had gotten there.

***

"Why do we need a Muggle pen in here, again?" Sirius asked Remus on a Hogsmeade afternoon in the Shrieking Shack.

"Because they're more efficient than quills and ink. And they don't splatter ink all over your fingers, either," Remus stated matter-of-factly.

"Fascinating, Moony. Where'd you get it, anyway?"

"Lily gave it to me."

"Lily Evans? Prongs would be so jealous, even though he's currently with her. I'm jealous, too, for that matter!"

"And why are you so jealous?" Remus teased.

"Because I want a Muggle pen like that, too," Sirius whined, not about to tell Remus that the idea of him flirting with any girl, even talking to James' date, made him envious of whomever he was talking to.

"Or maybe you have a crush on Evans?"

"Ew." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "This is James' girlfriend we're talking about. She's nice and all, but James can have her."

Remus smiled, looking almost relieved. But that made no sense to Sirius. "My thoughts exactly," he said, standing up from the rickety chair so his nose was almost touching Sirius'.

Sirius could feel Remus' warm breath on his lips; he could hear Remus' heartbeat quicken along with his own. If he just moved his head a little bit closer..."Sorry," he said quickly to Remus, stepping aside to get out of his way.

"No," Remus said gently, looking down, "It was my fault."

***

He sat down on the same rickety chair Remus had used in their seventh year and began to write his Gringotts Vault and his order. As he dug through his brain, trying to remember whether the last digit of his account was one or nine, Crookshanks jumped on his lap, expecting attention.

"What do you want now, you selfish animal?"

Crookshanks bumped his head gently against Sirius' left hand, clearly a sign that Crookshanks wanted Sirius to pet him.

"Fine, you self-centered, egotistical, proud, and stubborn cat. Only because you're taking care of my order, right?"

Crookshanks purred, though Sirius wasn't sure if this was because he was scratching him behind the ears or because he was agreeing with him.

"I have no idea what you're trying to tell me, so just take this to the post office, will you?" He held his folded order out to the cat, which Crookshanks took in his mouth. He jumped gracefully off of Sirius' lab and walked out of the room. Sirius laughed quietly to himself at the cat's awkward, yet confident gait. That had to be the smartest cat he had ever met, though it wasn't as if he would ever let Crookshanks know that.

***