More than a Dream

Chapter 3

Not a Dream After All

Harry shouted and woke up, breathing hard. It was dark, and the floor he lay upon was near unbearably hard. He stayed still, choking back sobs. It had been a dream after all. Sirius, magic, all of it a dream. Any moment now Vernon would bang on the door to his cupboard and shout at him not to make any more noise. There, he heard the footsteps coming now. He heard a door open, then a voice.

"Harry? Are you alright?" A beam of light from the open doorway fell onto Harry's face as he looked up at Sirius with tears still shining in his eyes. "Hey Harry, what are you doing on the floor? Did you fall out of bed?"

Harry quickly untangled himself from the blankets around him and launched himself at his godfather, hugging him tightly, tears streaming down his face.

Sirius looked at Harry with a surprised expression on his face before picking the too small child up and carrying him over to the bed. He sat down and leaned against the headboard, cradling the still crying child gently in his arms.

"Shh," he whispered, wiping away Harry's tears with his thumb. "What's wrong, Harry?"

"Promise you're not a dream?" said Harry softly into his shirt.

Sirius held Harry tighter, "I promise, Harry." He disentangled himself from the boy and lay him down on the bed murmuring that he should go back to sleep. He lay the blankets back over Harry and turned to go.

"Stay, please."

Sirius turned back to Harry, looking at the boy with a sad smile on his face, "Of course."

He slipped in beside the small child, letting Harry curl up against him. He sighed. Tomorrow was their last day of their stay with David. It was already too dangerous for them to stay any longer. They needed to leave the country. To go somewhere where no one knew them or of them. Or at least, didn't know enough about them that a glamour covering up Harry's scar and disguising his own looks wouldn't fix it. He relaxed into the soft bed, wondering when the next time they had one so comfortable would be.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Harry ran. He was panting as he squeezed between several pedestrians as a dog. There was a reason he had stolen from a fat man. Fat men weren't supposed to be fast. Fat men were supposed to be easy to get away from. This man, however, seemed to be defying every single known law of physics there was. The man was probably two meters around and he was keeping up with a dog! Harry ducked into the alley that hid his and Sirius' current hideaway. It was a dead end, with a hole barely large enough for Harry to transform into a human, push the fat wallet into the hole, transform into a cat, and crawl in after it.

Sirius looked up as Harry entered and frowned. Hadn't he told Harry that stealing was unnecessary? Some food was one thing, but the boy insisted upon getting money as well. He coughed, then sighed. He knew why Harry had done it. Sirius had caught the muggle flu. There was no cure for it in the magical world, and even if there was, neither Sirius nor Harry had dared venture into the British magical community since Harry's eighth birthday. This meant that Sirius was in need of muggle medicine. Unfortunately, muggle medicine was expensive. And ever since the two of them had returned to Britain, Sirius had been unemployed.

It hadn't always been like this. Living in magically expanded holes in the walls of alleyways. There had been a good eight months or more when Sirius and Harry had lived as Neil and James O'Connor. That had been when they lived in Spain. Sirius had learned the language from his mother in his youth, and Harry, due to his young age, had picked it up fairly quickly. They had posed as a father and son, with Sirius doing odd jobs to pay for a small apartment in a mostly muggle residential area of Madrid. That had been good. It had worked out quite well until they had been hit with an anti-glamour charm while walking through a wizarding shop. Harry's scar had appeared and Sirius had become the infamous Sirius Black, Dark Wizard. They had apparated to Burgos, then Bilbao, then Pamplona, and had then travelled as dogs to Monaco. From there they had made their way, trying to avoid apparition as much as possible, until they had finally managed to return to Britain, in a roundabout fashion. After all, going from Monaco through Paris, then Vaduz, then Berlin, then Luxembourg, then Amsterdam, to get to the UK, could hardly be called a direct route.

In any case, here they were, in Ottery St. Catchpole. It felt odd trying to speak and understand English when they had spoken Spanish almost exclusively for the one and a half years they had been gone.

And it didn't help that Sirius was sick, or that Harry kept getting caught stealing. They really had to find somewhere to stay. Preferably in the wizarding world somehow. Sirius wondered how that was ever going to happen.

"Sirius?"

"Si?"

"Sirius, you could at least try to speak English."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Did you want to tell me something?"

"I got another wallet," stated Harry matter-of-factly, knowing perfectly well that Sirius disapproved of his thievery. He tossed the wallet towards his godfather, with a hand that spoke of experience in such things.

Sirius caught it deftly, opening it carefully and inspecting its contents. Several fifty pound notes looked back at him As well as more than a dozen fives and tens. He raised his eyebrows, this was quite a catch. They'd be able to buy plenty with this much.

Suddenly a hand reached through the hole in the wall where Harry had just entered. A hand holding a rather large bottle of rat poison. Which was then broken, the contents being spewed over the entirety of the duo's hideout.

::Maybe we should leave,:: suggested Harry sardonically, looking in disgust at the poisonous liquid splattered over their possessions.

Sirius nodded curtly, quickly shrinking their one trunk and then transfiguring it into a collar which he handed to Harry. Harry slipped the dog-tag that Sirius had received when they had stayed with a young muggle couple as pets onto the collar swiftly. Sirius changed and Harry quickly slipped the collar on over his head.

He called Otean and drew out his own dog-tag, giving it to Otean to be held in his mouth. Harry transformed into his dog form and Otean slipped onto his neck, transforming into a green collar, the dog-tag hanging from a small loop in the fabric.

::Ready?:: asked Sirius.

::Yeah,::

And with that, they jumped straight through the back wall of their now former home-

And crashed into three people with bright red hair.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sirius shook his head to clear it, and looked at the people he had landed on. There was a boy and girl about Harry's age, and a boy who looked to have just left Hogwarts after his last year at the school. He got up quickly, picking Harry up carefully by the scruff of the neck with his teeth, setting him down on the pavement beside the three red-heads, rather than leaving him on top of them. He looked at Harry worriedly when the boy unconsciously shrunk away from the three children. Harry still didn't do very well with strangers.

::You alright, Harry?:: he asked, keeping a tight rein on his thoughts, making sure that no one but Harry would be able to hear him.

::I'm fine,:: said Harry, though he sounded a bit dazed, and no small amount of apprehension in his voice.

The three red-heads got up, and the eldest held a hand out towards Sirius cautiously. Sirius made a show of sniffing the hand carefully before licking it in greeting.

The boy grinned, then cautiously petted Sirius on the head, scratching behind his ears.

::Ooh, good. Nice,:: muttered Sirius, much to Harry's amusement. Then the petting stopped and Sirius whimpered his disapproval. He watched as the elder boy made the same entreaty towards Harry, which Harry responded to by walking up to the boy and sitting in front of him, placing his paw in the boy's hand. Suddenly the girl spoke.

"Charlie, can we take them home with us? Please?" the girl asked pleadingly.

"I'm not sure, Ginny. They might not want to come. Besides, Mum and Dad might not let you keep them."

"I'm sure that they'll come. They're friendly, and they look hungry," said the younger boy confidently.

The eldest, Charlie, just looked at the younger two for a moment before he rolled his eyes and smiled indulgently. "Sure. But only if they follow." Charlie knelt down beside the two dogs and checked their tags. "They're muggle pets, I think. Their names are Blackie," he checked Harry's tag, "and Scruffy."

Harry and Sirius looked at each other in surprise, both thinking the same thing. ::Muggles?::

::Well, you did say that you wanted to get back into the wizarding community somehow,:: said Harry.

Sirius looked skywards, the closest he could get to rolling his eyes while in dog form, ::This isn't what I had in mind,:: he muttered to Harry.

Harry gave him a doggy-grin. He knew what that meant. It looked like they were going to be spending some more time as pets.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Mum! Dad!" called Charlie as he walked into the Weasley home, his youngest siblings trailing in behind him, as well as the two stray dogs they had picked up in the village.

His mum walked out of the kitchen, wand in hand. Apparently she'd been cleaning. "Yes-" she began, then she caught sight of the two dogs. "What are they doing here?"

"Mum, can we keep them? They're really nice and well-trained and-" Ginny said quickly and Charlie could have sworn that the two dogs had exchanged amused glances.

"We'll see about their being well-trained," said Mrs. Weasley, cutting off her daughter's diatribe. Then she turned to the dogs. "Sit," she said sternly.

Both dogs sat. "Roll over." Both dogs rolled over, in the same direction. "Lie down." Both dogs lied down. "Bark." The two dogs barked, the smaller one giving a single yip before stopping. However the larger one continued barking until Mrs. Weasley gave the curt command of, "Stop Barking!"

By this time the rest of the family was watching, with the twins snickering softly. Who knew a dog could have a sense of humour? Mr. Weasley cleared his throat softly, distracting his wife from her assessment of the two dogs' obedience.

"I think that we've seen that they're well-trained, Molly. I see no problem in having them stay," he remarked cheerfully, idly patting the larger black dog on the head.

Molly sniffed, then said, "Oh alright," which earned her cheers from the assembled children, "but they'll have to have a bath. And you'll need to name them."

"They already have names, Mum. The big ones Blackie, according to that funny little metal thing on his collar. And the grey one is Scruffy," said Ron.

"Muggle pets?" asked Mr. Weasley, with a vague excitement in his tone that was present whenever he spoke of anything to do with muggles.

Ron nodded, "Charlie thinks so." He turned to the two dogs, "Well, it's time to get you two into a bath. Come on," and with that he left up the stairs, towards the bath-room, the two dogs following.

Arthur watched after his son, then turned to the other children, "You all might want to help. I've heard that dogs don't like being given baths too much." This statement resulted in all the children, except Percy who wanted to study, running up the stairs to help Ron give the dogs a bath, and Charlie who turned to his parents with a rather odd look on his face.

"I don't think that those are really dogs," he stated bluntly, which made his parents turn to look at him in shock.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure. The way we found them was rather. . . odd. They just popped up out of nowhere, like they'd apparated or something. And they act intelligent. More intelligent than any muggle dog I've ever seen. I'm not sure though. . . it just seems odd."

"Well," said Mrs. Weasley, "what exactly do you want us to do about it?"

"I think that they should be tested for being animagi."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Harry and Sirius plodded down the stairs of the Burrow, as they had learned it was called. They had had fun drenching the children, who had now gone to sleep, thoroughly during the bath. They went into the kitchen, noting that the parents, since they had yet to learn these peoples' surname, and Charlie were still up.

Harry walked over to Charlie and nudged him, hoping to get some food. Charlie grinned and got up, grabbing his wand from the table and flicking it absently. A bowl of meat scraps appeared in front of both Harry and Sirius, and they dug in happily. They probably would have been disgusted if they were in human form, but as dogs the food was perfectly appetising.

When the dogs were busy with their food, Charlie went over to his parents.

"Now?" he asked. His parents had decided that since he was the one with the suspicions, he would be the one to cast the charm that would reveal whether or not the two dogs were indeed animagi.

"Let them finish eating first at least," said Arthur.

Charlie rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway. He sat down, waiting for the dogs to finish their meal.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Sirius flicked his eyes to where the three red-heads were sitting, watching him and Harry intently. He shifted nervously, something was up. He finished his food, then nudged the owl away from him a lied down, waiting for Harry to finish. He kept throwing glances at their "owners," wondering what exactly was going on. Then Harry finished his meal, and the two of them were suddenly bound with ropes.

Harry looked at Charlie, who was the one holding the wand that had apparently bound them, in panic. This was not good, most definitely not good. What was going on? They didn't suspect them, did they? The next words that he heard gave him a clear answer to that question.

"Revealus Animagi."

A blue-white light rushed towards Harry and Sirius, splitting into two forks just before it hit. Harry felt the change rip through him violently, rather than the pleasant sensation that he was used to, and shuddered. The ropes quickly moulded to suit their human selves. Harry looked stubbornly at the ground, until he heard the woman scream.

"THAT'S SIRIUS BLACK!" Harry looked at her sharply. Damn, he'd been hoping for a bit of a better reaction. Then the woman turned her attention to him and cried out again, "and that's Harry Potter!"

Harry frowned. Stupid scar, always giving away his identity. Of course, he could have hid it with his hair or something, but lately he had been unable to get it cut. So it had grown out and he now kept it in a tight ponytail, out of the way of his face. Coincidentally, this style displayed his scar quite well, or quite badly depending upon how you looked at it.

Charlie had gone pale, and the man, Arthur, was busy searching the kitchen for something.

"What are you doing?!" asked Molly, panic clear in her voice.

"I'm calling the Ministry," he said curtly. "The Aurors will doubtless be able to take care of this."

"NO!" shouted Harry, forgetting all caution. "You can't! Sirius never did anything. He-"

"What lies have you been feeding him, Black?" spat Charlie venomously.

"He hasn't been lying to me!"

"Harry, dear, surely you can't believe that-" started Mrs. Weasley, before she was cut off.

"Truth spell me if you think I'm lying," said Harry coldly.

"Harry! No!" hissed Sirius urgently.

"Why?" asked Harry, deciding that it would be wiser to speak audibly for the time being.

"Truth spells are painful, Harry. You know that."

Harry paled slightly, but stuck his chin out stubbornly, "I don't care. You're not going back to Azkaban."

Sirius turned to the Weasleys, "Truth spell me. But don't hurt Harry."

The three Weasleys blinked in surprise at the extraordinary protectiveness present in the man's voice. Arthur nodded cautiously. "We'll hear you out. But any funny business and we won't hesitate to call the Aurors."

::What are we going to do? We're tied up tight enough to cut off circulation. It's not like we can move,:: muttered Harry sarcastically. He shuddered at the phrase "funny business." It reminded him of something that his uncle would have said, especially when spoken in that tone of voice.

::Harry, you're not helping.::

Harry gave a mental shrug. He didn't like being tied like some criminal and he wasn't going to make a big secret of that fact.

The Weasleys looked at Sirius expectantly. Finally Charlie spoke up, "Well, are you going to start or what?"

Sirius gave him a look, saying only two words," Truth spell."

Charlie blushed slightly, then looked towards his father. He knew the charm, Charlie did not. Arthur nodded and cast the charm. Sirius hissed in pain when it struck and Harry looked at him worriedly. Then the questions started.

"Are you or were you ever a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Were you the Potters' Secret Keeper?" The charges held against Black had included being the Potters' Secret Keeper. It had been made public knowledge about three months after his escape.

"No."

"Who was?"

"Peter Pettigrew." The Weasleys all paled, and Charlie sputtered in disbelief.

"Peter Pettigrew?! The man is a hero! He's one of the best Aurors there is. Why would we believe you?"

"Well the little matter that Sirius is UNDER TRUTH SPELL might be taken into account," spat Harry.

The Weasleys gaped at him in surprise. "I have two more questions," said Arthur softly. Sirius nodded, waiting. "Have you been training Harry to be a Dark Wizard?"

Harry bit his lip to keep his angry response to that question from coming out and waited for Sirius' answer.

"No."

"Do you intend to harm any of my family?"

"No."

Arthur nodded, and lifted the charm, "Well that settles it then."

All four of them, Molly, Charlie, Harry, and Sirius, looked at Arthur in confusion. "Settles what?" asked Sirius cautiously, expecting Arthur to turn to the fireplace to call the Aurors.

"You're innocent. We won't tell anyone about you unless you want us to."

Charlie raised his eyebrows in surprise, but didn't show any signs of disagreement. Molly just nodded and started bustling about the kitchen. Sirius and Harry just stared at the three of them in shock. Sirius was a wanted criminal, thought to have either murdered Harry or trained him in Dark magic, and they were going to be let off that easy?

"Do you mind then?" asked Sirius, looking pointedly at the ropes he was bound in.

Charlie blushed, and quickly undid the ropes, murmuring his apologies. Sirius and Harry both leaned against the wall, rubbing their stiff muscles and regarding the three Weasleys warily. This was quite the turnaround, and they were still wondering what the catch was.

Suddenly they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Sirius and Harry glanced at each other, then quickly transformed. Ginny walked into the kitchen rubbing her eyes sleepily and looking at her parents and elder brother confusedly, "What's going on? I heard yelling."

"Nothing, dear. Go back to sleep," said Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny nodded, obviously very tired, and trudged back up the stairs. Harry raised his eyebrows at her obedient departure, which felt odd as a dog but conveyed his message none the less. The Weasleys didn't notice his expression, however, and merely cast a silencing charm, closing the door and locking it, making sure that there would be no more interruptions.

"You can change back now," said Charlie. Sirius nodded, and changed back into his human form, taking a seat at the dining table. Harry merely settled himself around Sirius' legs.

"Why are you helping us?" asked Sirius, looking from one Weasley to another, both suspicion and curiosity showing in his expression.

"Because you're innocent," stated Mrs. Weasley as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. Sirius frowned slightly, but saw the sincerity in all of their faces. He nodded, accepting but still slightly wary.

"Aren't you going to transform?" asked Arthur, "You might want to join in our conversation."

::If I want to join in conversation, then I will. Being human has nothing to do with it,:: said Harry into all of their minds. The Weasleys jumped, and stared at Harry in shock.

"You're a Secondary?!" Charlie half-shouted. Then he turned to Sirius, "You hurt him, didn't you?! You bastard! I'll-" suddenly he was lifted into the air and put, not so gently, back in his chair. Harry was glaring at him from where he lay at Sirius' feet.

::Sirius never did anything to me.:: he spat.

Charlie merely stared at Harry in shock, "But then- How did you-" he sputtered.

Sirius opened his mouth to explain, but was stopped by Harry's ::Don't make me bite you. They do not need to know.::

Arthur coughed, then spoke, attempting to change the subject, "Are you planning on having Harry attend Hogwarts?"

Sirius frowned, "I'd like him to, but I didn't think that it would be possible, considering the circumstances."

"You could just send him. And let Dumbledore work it out when he gets there," said Charlie.

::I'm not leaving Sirius.:: came Harry's mind-voice, calm and decisive. ::And the Aurors would be after me.::

"You're a hero," said Mrs. Weasley, "Surely they wouldn't-"

::If they thought I knew anything about where Sirius was, then they would.:: said Harry.

Sirius looked at him in surprise. He had no idea that Harry had this so well thought out. They had never really talked about it before, even though Sirius had shared numerous stories about Hogwarts to Harry.

"It's a pity that you're not cats, or owls," said Arthur thoughtfully.

"Why is that?" asked Sirius, though he thought that he knew where this was going.

"You could go to Hogwarts as pets, for Ron maybe."

"Harry can turn into a cat," said Sirius softly.

The Weasley's looked at Harry in surprise, again.

::I'm. Not. Leaving. Sirius.:: repeated Harry firmly.

"Perhaps, if I wrote to Professor Dumbledore and asked if there could be an exception made to the rules. I could tell him that one of our children is particularly attached to you," said Arthur, directing his comment at Sirius.

Harry looked sceptical, if dogs can look sceptical, but didn't voice his opinion on the matter.

"How would you explain to your children the fact that 'Scruffy' is no longer a dog, but a cat?" asked Sirius.

"He's got a point," said Charlie.

"Well that's out then," said Mrs. Weasley, handing Sirius a cup of tea. Sirius raised his eyebrows slightly, but nodded his thanks anyway.

"Then I'll say that there are two dogs, instead of one," said Arthur.

Both Sirius and Harry looked doubtful, but Sirius shrugged, showing that he didn't mind if the Weasleys carried on with their plan. Harry yawned, which made the adults present smile slightly.

"Well, it's far past time for us all to go to sleep," pointed out Arthur, "so I'll write the letter tomorrow."

Sirius transformed, and Mrs. Weasley removed the spells on the room. The three of them then went up the stairs to their beds.

Sirius and Harry exchanged looks. ::That was. . . certainly interesting,:: said Sirius, yawning.

Harry shot him a doggy grin, ::'Night Padfoot.::

::Goodnight Harry.::