Out of the Books

Chapter 11 - Telling the Truth

When Leo and Amy returned from the supermarket, Jack still wasn't finished telling Padfoot everything that had happened since this fateful Halloween night in 1981. Sirius's head was swimming with all the information James was supplying him with. The thing he wondered about most was why James could only remember the wizarding world after such a long time, while he and Lily had taken all their memories straight into this other world, they were now living in.

Sirius was grateful for the break that came with the twins returning from shopping. He was also looking forward to something good to eat.

Jack took the groceries from the children to put them away in the kitchen. When he opened the kitchen door, he gasped.

"Amy, Leo," he called with forced calm. "Would you please come over here?"

The twins joined their father at the kitchen door. The kitchen looked even worse than they remembered. Also, after the sun had been shining through the kitchen window all afternoon, an unpleasant smell had begun to develop.

"Er...yeah...," Leo began very eloquently, but didn't know how to continue.

"I'd rather not found such obvious evidence that you have cooked today in the kitchen," Jack said, looking intensely first at Leo and then at Amy.

Leo and Amy automatically stepped back from their father. When he employed this kind of voice to make such seemingly cool comments he usually was only instants away from losing his temper.

"Er...I'm sorry," Leo said meekly. "We just forgot."

Jack sternly arched an eyebrow at his son. "Forgot?" Then he breathed deeply and sighed. "I know, you don't honestly think I believe that. So why don't you just clean up the kitchen now and then maybe we can go outside in the garden to have some tea?"

Leo and Amy nodded and Amy smiled sheepishly as she quoted one of the favorite sayings of her father, "A task is only done after it is wrapped up!"

Jack grinned indulgently and tousled the hair of his daughter. "Yep, exactly. Now go and finish fixing lunch."

While Leo and Amy started cleaning the kitchen, Jack put some of the beef in a large bowl and gave it to Padfoot, who immediately started munching enthusiastically. Having fed his best friend, Jack went to set the table for tea on the porch in the little garden behind the house. Just when he was carrying the cups outside, Liz called as she had promised that morning.

"Good afternoon, love," Jack greeted his wife cheerfully and took the phone outside to sit in the sunshine.

"You sound like you had a great day," Liz teased him. "I take it, Padfoot and the children behaved themselves."

"By and large they behaved quite well. Leo and Amy cooked lunch by themselves today and made a mess out of the kitchen. They are cleaning it up now. Padfoot and the children are getting along really great." Jack turned around in the chair to reassure himself that the twins were doing fine.

"They were cooking? Wow! And how did they do?" Liz asked, amazed. The twins had never shown much interest in cooking.

"As I said, they made a mess out of the kitchen. But I guess they were quite satisfied with their spaghetti, although Padfoot wasn't too thrilled about their cooking."

Liz laughed lightly. "I can see that. Doesn't he absolutely detest anything that has to do with tomato, when he is in his dog form?"

"Yes, but he must have been really hungry, seeing as he ate almost half of the portion they gave him," Jack joined her laughing. "But they went and bought some ground beef for him this afternoon."

"Poor Padfoot, I bet he was really relieved about that," Liz smiled.

Jack nodded. "Oh yes, he was." Then he sobered and continued in a more serious tone. "Leo and Amy spent already quite a lot of time with Padfoot and I think they noticed that he is not just any dog. Yesterday they asked me why Padfoot appeared in the building we marked on the map, and today Leo asked me how old Padfoot actually is."

"Hm," Liz pondered how to answer those admittedly clever questions of her children.

"I thought it best if we told them the truth," Jack interrupted her thoughts.

"What?" Liz asked, startled. "James, we can't! They would never believe us. The truth is just too incredible. And what would be the use of it, as there is no way to get back into the wizarding world anyway?"

"But they have a right to know. It's an important part of our familiy. And they know that there is something we are hiding from them. Lily, do you know how it was killing me that I didn't know what was wrong with you when you had all those dreams? It hurt me that you wouldn't tell me. I thought you didn't trust me," Jack finished quietly.

Several silent moments passed, before Liz finally sighed. "But do you really think they are old enough for that?" she asked.

"They are old enough to have figured out quite a lot so far, aren't they? Lily, they ask intelligent questions, they have proven that they are ready to know and that they are willing to understand."

"Alright," she said after heaving a heavy sigh. "But I'd like to be there. They can wait one more week, can't they?"

Jack nodded to himself. "Yes. I told the children that I would tell them everything today. But I guess it is better that the whole family is together for such an important issue."

"I need to get going. There is going to be a press conference for the quarterfinal game England vs. Spain tomorrow night. You are going to watch this, aren't you?"

"Of course," Jack said enthusiastically.

"Alright. I'm going to be really busy during the weekend. I'll call you on Monday," Liz told him. "Tell Leo and Amy that I love them, and Padfoot too."

"I will. Have fun at the quarterfinals," Jack said and hung up the phone.

When he returned into the house, Leo and Amy were still working hard cleaning the kitchen. Jack decided to take pity on them and helped them with the rest. With united forces they finished soon after and went outside on the porch to have some well-earned tea and ice cream. Jack also carefully carried Padfoot, who had already finished his meat, out into the sunshine. Padfoot growled indignantly about being so helpless that he needed to be carried, but he also seemed grateful for the warm and fresh summer air.

"Mum says hi and she loves you," Jack informed his children, as they were sitting around the small round table, a huge bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries in front of each of them. "She is amazed that you cooked lunch by yourselves."

Amy and Leo glowed with pride. Then Leo put his spoon down. "Dad," he began. "Yesterday you said that you would tell us, what M.o.M. on your map means, and why we found Padfoot there."

Padfoot also looked up, as Jack answered. "Yes, your Mum and I also talked about this on the phone. I know that I said yesterday, I would tell you as soon as we are home, but your Mum and I decided that we should wait until next week, when she is back home."

Amy frowned about that and Leo looked for a moment, as if he wanted to protest. But then, both children just nodded. "But really. Next week we want to hear the story," Leo said eagerly.

Jack smiled about his son and assured him that as soon as Liz was home, they were going to learn the truth about the family.

The weekend passed in sweet idleness. Father, children and dog spent the long June days mostly in the garden, just sun-bathing in the soft, green grass, playing cards, Padfoot watching them, and looking at some more pictures and telling stories.

On Saturday evening, they watched the football game between England and Spain. The whole family was thrilled to witness England enter the semifinals.

During the next week, Amy and Jack had to go to school again, while Leo stayed home with Padfoot. Amy, who had never been to school alone, missed her brother a lot, especially as her class mates were still angry with Leo and her about messing up the class trip. So she usually sat quietly in the back of the classroom, trying to ignore the glares in her direction and taking comfort in the thought that the summer holidays would start after this week was over.

Leo on the other hand enjoyed spending time with the unusually clever dog. Even though they were both limited in their movement and couldn't run and play outside in the nice summer weather, Leo and Padfoot didn't get bored. One of their favorite pastimes was Leo reading a book aloud and Padfoot lying next to him, listening. It didn't take long for boy and dog to develop a deep friendship. Sometime in the middle of the week, Leo was amazed to learn that Padfoot was even intelligent enough to play memory with him. Padfoot also convalesced very well, and by Tuesday, he could already stand up and walk some steps.

In the evenings, when Amy told Leo what he had missed in school, Jack usually told Padfoot more about this world and about Liz's and his efforts to find a way back. Jack also tried to ask Padfoot about the wizard world, but was very limited in doing so, as he could only ask questions which could be answered with yes or no. This way he found out of Voldemort's sudden disappearance linked with his and Lily's death, Voldemort's comeback, Sirius's imprisonment in Azkaban, and Harry being the best Gryffindor Seeker in a long time.

Right now he was trying to find out how Sirius had died. "So it wasn't the Volcanis Curse, which caused your death, otherwise you wouldn't be alive now," he observed.

Padfoot hobbled towards the window and tore at the curtains with his muzzle. Jack looked at him, confused. Then he laughed disbelievingly. "Come on mate, you don't want to tell me that you got killed by a curtain?"

The dog turned towards his best friend and scowled at him, while he snarled angrily.

"Wait, you are serious about that, aren't you?" Jack's eyes widened in shock. "That's why the twins found you at the Ministry. So the Veil of Death really exists."

Padfoot nodded and sat down heavily on the floor. He didn't notice Jack's eyes light up excitedly.

"Padfoot, do you realize what that means?" he asked his friend. "That veil must be a gateway between our worlds. If we could just find its counterpart here, we might have a chance to get back," Jack speculated enthusiastically. What would he give to return to the world where his first-born son lived and fought an entirely unfair fight. What would he give to help him bring down the dark wizard who had torn their family apart and who had so many other innocent people's misery to answer for.

James had been happy with his life as Jack Pearson, but since he had retrieved his memories of the wizarding world, he couldn't get it out of his mind and it felt much more real and important to him than the world he and his family were living in now. If there was any chance for returning into his home world and the children were willing to follow him and Lily, he would gladly take it.

Padfoot shook his head doubtfully, but Jack wasn't ready to give up hope. "Really, this might be the most promising lead, since we started searching for a way back. I can't wait to talk with Lily about that."

On Wednesday evening, Jack, the twins and Padfoot gathered around the TV once more. After an enthralling match against Germany with penalty shots in the end, England missed the opportunity to enter the final. Now Jack, Padfoot, Amy and Leo could hardly wait for the European Cup to be over, as it meant that Liz would come home then. Amy and Leo wanted to finally hear what the big mystery of their parents was, Jack was dying to tell Liz of his ideas about the Veil of Death, and Padfoot was looking forward to seeing his best friend's wife again. After all, he had been unconscious when the family had met in London because of him.

So when Liz finally came home late on Monday evening, she was surprised to find a very excited family, dog included, awaiting her in a nicely decorated living room, having prepared a huge welcome dinner and greeting her enthusiastically.

Even though the dinner consisted of ordered pizza and ice cream for desert, as Jack wasn't able to cook much better than Leo and Amy and the twins didn't think their cuisine was worth the mess it involved, Liz was touched by the gesture. She gave her husband and each of her children a big hug and a kiss, before she turned to the newest addition to the Pearson family.

"Hi Padfoot," she said softly and stretched out her hand to touch his black fur. "I'm glad to see that you are feeling better."

Padfoot returned her gaze, an odd mixture of sadness and happiness in his eyes as he licked her hand in greeting.

Sirius felt it hard to keep eye contact with his best friend's wife. He had missed her and was happy to see her again. But at the same time he felt so guilty. He had promised to take care of her son, his godson. And he had failed them both, Lily and Harry. First, he hadn't been there to raise Harry because he was in Azkaban and then, he got himself killed. He had failed.

Sirius had had those feelings before and he had felt a bit guilty towards James as well, but when he looked into those eyes of the woman who made anyone want to be a better person, he suddenly had the feeling that he hadn't done enough.

As if she could read his feelings, Lily knelt down to Padfoot and pulled the dog into a huge hug. "Sirius," she whispered into his ear. "I don't know, what happened in the last fifteen years, but I know that you did everything you could to make sure that Harry is safe."

Padfoot pulled away from the hug, wondering if he really was this easy to read, and waggled his tail, grateful that she understood and happy to have her back.

When the family finally settled down to eat, Leo and Amy did their best not to burst with curious questions about the past of their parents. Finally, Jack, who was surprised by their self-control and patience, took pity on them and approached the topic they had been waiting for.

"Now, what your Mum and I are going to tell you, is a very long story. So why don't we finish eating and then find somewhere comfortable to sit," he suggested when they were almost done with their pizza.

They all agreed and took the ice cream with them into the sitting room, where Jack and Liz sat on the sofa, Amy took the armchair, but Leo was content to sit on the floor next to Padfoot.

Several moments passed, as Jack picked at his ice cream in silence, not really knowing how to start. Finally, he cleared his throat and looked up.

"Leo, last week you asked me how old Padfoot really is..." Jack began and noticed his son watching him curiously. "Padfoot was born on October 18^th 1960," he said and waited for his children to calculate the age of the dog.

It didn't take long for Amy to exclaim, "But Dad, that's impossible! Then he would be almost as old as you!"

"Yes, that's right," Jack said calmly. "As you have already noticed during the last week, Padfoot is not a normal dog. In fact, he is not a dog at all, he is my friend Sirius."

Amy stood up angrily. "Dad, you promised to tell us the truth. Instead you make fun of us by telling us some stupid fairy tales!"

"Amy, please sit down," Liz said, while she stood up herself and put a calming hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I know it is hard to believe, but please let us tell you everything. Your Dad is telling the truth. Padfoot is really Sirius."

Reluctantly Amy turned around to the dog, who seemed to have a silent conversation with the dumbfounded Leo. Slowly Leo turned to his sister. "Amy," he said quietly, almost not believing himself, as he was saying, "I believe them. But how is that possible? How can a man be a dog?"

Liz took a deep breath, knowing that everything else they wanted to tell their children, didn't sound much more probable than a man turning into a dog. "It is possible, because Sirius is a wizard, such as your Dad and myself," she said bracing herself for another round of disbelieving protests of her children.

Instead, they stayed surprisingly calm this time. "Okay," said Amy sceptically. "So you you can do magic, right?"

Jack shook his head. "No, we can't. We lost our magical abilities fifteen years ago."

Amy just snorted, but Leo quickly did the math. Suddenly his face lit up with an idea.

"Wait," he said slowly, trying to catch his train of thoughts. "Sixteen years. It was Peter, wasn't it? You said, he betrayed you, right, and by doing so, robbing you of your other friends." He was speaking quite fast now, excited that everything fit together. "By that you meant that you other friends are still wizards and you are not, so you can't communicate anymore. Now for some reason Sirius has lost his powers, too. That's why you can have contact with him, but at the same time, he cannot become a man anymore!"

Leo finished and looked around proudly in the now extremely silent sitting room, to find four pairs of eyes staring at him.

"Er..., what?" he asked, suddenly very self-conscious.

"That...is the stupidest story I have ever heard!" Amy said, looking at her brother as if he had completely lost his mind.

Jack shook his head, but didn't take his eyes off his son. "No, it's not, Amy," he whispered amazed. "Your brother got it figured out. It's a bit more complicated, but he pretty much summed up the basics."

While the rest of the Pearson family still recovered from their shock about Leo's sudden insight and understanding, Padfoot fondly and proudly muzzled the left hand of his new friend.

Finally Jack and Liz had regained their speech, so that they could continue their story, based on what Leo had said.

Even though Leo had figured out what had happened to his parents, it was hard for him to process everything in such a short time. But for Amy it was even harder. On a rational level, she understood everything, what her parents had told them and to a certain degree she knew it was true, but that didn't make it much easier for her to believe it.

They had stayed up long into the night, talking about the wizarding world, about their brother Harry, who was deeply involved in a war against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, and about Jack's and Liz's theory that the Avada Kedavra Curse wasn't really a killing curse after all, but propelled its victims into another world. Only, the ones staying behind couldn't know that, so it made no difference after all.

Finally though, exhaustion from working at the European Cup had caught up with Liz, and they decided that they all go to bed.

So, soon Amy and Leo were lying in their beds, the light turned off, and each enwrapped in their own thoughts.

"Well, but at least our wish came true," Amy whispered before turning around into her sleeping position." We got to know one of the other Marauders."