Death Before Dishonor

Death Before Dishonor

Chapter Four: Handle With Care

Four days, he thought to himself. Four more days and they´ll be on the train, going to Hogwarts where they will all be safe. A sigh threatened to escape him, but his irritation turned it into a growl. Four days to keep two kids alive and hope that Sirius can keep Harry out of Voldemort´s hands. He forced himself to smile, but he was sure that the expression on his face bore no similarity to that of a happy man. It certainly didn´t feel like a real smile, anyway, and he really did not know why he bothered. Probably because he was walking down a Muggle street in broad daylight, going to see people who might be in even more danger because of his presence.

Remus Lupin growled again. Save the world from Voldemort, he thought peevishly. Sure, Headmaster, no problem! He snorted, this time in cynical amusement. Who would have thought that one of the greatest wizards of all time would trust a werewolf? But a small voice in the back of his head reminded him that Dumbledore did trust him, even when no one else had. And the best part about that was--or worst, depending upon how he was feeling at the given moment--was that Voldemort thought he could use that to his advantage. Subtle contacts from old "acquaintances" had told him that the Dark Lord was trying to recruit him, and Remus growled again and the thought. Sure, like I´ll go anywhere near the monster who killed James and Lily, he thought angrily. He tried to kill Harry not once or twice, but three times--four if you count his youthful self from that damn diary.

Shaking his head, the werewolf pushed such thoughts out of his mind. If he was reading the map right, the Granger residence was only two houses away, and it wouldn´t be polite to pop up on their doorstep with such morbid thoughts in mind. Hell, it might not be such a great idea to be there at all--but he was. And maybe I´m just paranoid, but Voldemort´s never been squeamish about who he´ll use to harm someone.

He reached the correct door and knocked twice. Several moments later, a middle-aged woman who looked like an older version of Hermione Granger opened the door. She had glasses, he noticed, and intelligent eyes that gave him a quick once over before she had even finished opening the door. "Yes?"

"Are you Mrs. Granger?" Remus asked politely, smiling in the friendliest way he could manage with all the worries that were bouncing around in his head.

"I am," she answered, looking at him strangely.

"My name is Remus Lupin," he explained. "I used to be one of Hermione´s professors at school. There are a few things I need to talk to you about. May I come in?"

She studied him once more and hesitated. Smart woman, he thought. Good. Not like he would have expected anything less from Hermione´s mother. After all, her daughter was at the top of her class by a rather insurmountable margin. "Trust me, Mrs. Granger, I would not be here if it were not of the utmost importance that I speak with you."

"All right." Cautiously, she stepped aside and led him into the foyer after closing the door. "Would you like to speak to me, or my daughter?"

"Actually, I would like to speak to both of you, and your husband as well, if he is home."

Moments later, he was sitting at the kitchen table when Mrs. Granger led her husband in. "Hermione will be downstairs in a moment," Mrs. Granger explained. "She was just--"

"Professor Lupin?" The startled voice came from behind him, and Remus twisted in his chair. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Hermione," he said softly. "Perhaps you had better sit down before I begin explaining."

Her bright eyes shinning with curiosity, Hermione sat between her parents and Lupin. "Are you here from Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes and no," Remus replied, and watched her parents exchange worried glances. Turning, he faced them. "How much has your daughter told you about what is happening in the Magical world?"

Mr. Granger replied after looking at his wife and receiving a nod in return. "Some," he said. "Hermione has told us that there is a--Dark wizard, do you call them?--that has come back into power after having supposedly died fifteen years ago. She´s warned us that we may be in danger because she does not have wizards for parents."

"Well, at least you have the gist of the situation." Remus nodded, and took a deep breath. "So I´ll try to make my explanations as short as possible.

"What Hermione probably has not mentioned to you is that one of her friends from school is the focus of many of Voldemort´s plans. His name is Harry Potter--I believe you have met him a few years ago--and his parents were old friends of mine. Voldemort killed them when Harry was just a baby, but for some reason, he could not kill Harry. One of his main goals is now to hunt Harry down and kill him.

"Several days ago, we received information about how Voldemort planned to kidnap Harry. Sirius Black, Harry´s godfather and another wizard, got him away from his relatives before the Death Eaters--they´re Voldemort´s accomplices--could take him. I don´t know where they are right now, but I know they are safe." Or I´m sure that I´d know if they weren´t, anyway. Hermione´s face had tightened as he spoke, but it relaxed visibly as soon as Remus mentioned that Harry was with Sirius and away from Voldemort.

"Will Harry be safe?" she asked when he paused.

"If anyone can keep him away from Voldemort, Sirius can," Remus answered, nodded to her in reassurance. "He´s had ample experience with Death Eaters..." Don´t think about that, Remus. It´ll just make you angry, again.

"Anyway, that brings me to my next point," he continued. "As you know, Hermione, Sirius spent the early part of the summer gathering the `old crowd´ for Professor Dumbledore. The `old crowd´ is actually the Order of the Phoenix, a group of witches and wizards who joined together to support Dumbledore the last time Voldemort rose to power. As before, we have realized that the Ministry cannot be trusted to do what has to be done. I´ve spent the summer making preparations and working towards that end.

"My knowledge of Voldemort´s activities has put me in a position to see a great deal of information and make some logical assumptions. First and foremost of which is that he wants Harry. He needs Harry if he´s going to prove to the world that he is every bit as powerful as he once was. Therefore, he´s going to go to great lengths to get a hold of Harry Potter.

"And that means you are not safe here."

"What?" Mr. and Mrs. Granger gasped together.

"It´s because I´m Harry´s friend, isn´t it?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Yes," Lupin replied heavily. "That, and you are an easier target than Ron, because he is surrounded by wizards on a daily basis. Here, you have no protection." He looked at her parents. "Now, you must understand that I have no evidence to support my conclusions, and I am acting on my own. I do not dare write Professor Dumbledore in case the owl is intercepted, which is the same reason Sirius and I have not been in touch. But I feel very strongly that if we are to keep Harry safe, we must keep you safe. All of you."

Mr. Granger laid a protective hand on his daughter´s shoulder. "But certainly this...Voldemort fellow wouldn´t go after a child...?"
"He went after Harry, Dad."

Hermione´s father went pale. "But..."

"I know this is hard to hear," Remus said gently. "I am not a parent myself, but I can only imagine how it feels to know your child is in danger. But Voldemort will come. He has no conscience. He will not care how old she is."

The name of Cedric Diggory hung unspoken in the air between Remus and Hermione, but although they exchanged a glance, neither said a word. Hermione´s parents just didn´t need to hear that.

"What do you want us to do?" Mrs. Granger finally asked.

"What I suggest is that you take a vacation," Remus replied. "Stay away from this house and any place you normally go until a few days after Hermione is safely back at Hogwarts. In the meantime, I will take her to Ron Weasley´s house. She will be safe there." Or at least I hope she will.

Hermione nodded helpfully. "You´ve met Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," she said to her parents. "And my friend Ron. I´m sure I´ll be safe there. They´ve got a family full of wizards."

The Grangers exchanged worried looks once more, and shared a moment of silent communication that Remus knew was common between married couples. Finally, Mr. Granger nodded. "If you think she will be safe, that´s what we´ll do."

"Thank you," Remus breathed, unable to articulate how relieved he was. He knew this was hard for them, knew it had to hurt. "You won´t regret it," he promised.

An hour later, he and Hermione watched from the front porch as her parents drove away. Between them, on the ground, lay Hermione´s school trunk, along with a bag of any Muggle items that she would need until they reached the Weasleys´ house. They stood quietly for a moment, and then she asked.

"So how are we going to get to Ron´s, Professor?"

He smiled slightly. "I rented a Muggle car, Hermione. It´s just down the street."

"Can you drive?" She eyed him suspiciously.

"Yes," Remus chuckled. "I learned in my sixth year at Hogwarts. It´s amazing, the things you do when you´re friends with Sirius Black and James Potter."

"You drove?"

"Oh, we did many stupider things that that, Hermione," Remus replied, leading her down the street and dragging the truck behind him. "But yes. Over the summer before that year, Sirius had acquired a fascination with Muggle motor vehicles. We thought he was crazy, at first, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, and the law prohibiting magical tampering with Muggle devices had a lot more loopholes at that point." He grinned as they reached the nondescript rental. "Sirius eventually settled on a flying motorcycle, but I always enjoyed cars more."

"Oh." They wrestled her trunk into the back seat. "I have a hard time imagining you as a practical joker, Professor Lupin."

"Do you?" He slid into the driver´s seat and belted himself in, starting the ignition.

"Well, you´re always so nice," Hermione explained. "You´re not like Fred and George at all. I mean, your grades weren´t like theirs, were they?"

Remus laughed. "No, not at all. James, Sirius, and I always traded on being the smart kids. It never kept us out of trouble, but sometimes it made our pranks harder to track. But after having been in Filch´s office when I was a professor, I noticed that our files are much, much, larger than the Weasley twins´. He´s still got them, too."

Hermione giggled. "Why?"

"I have no idea," Remus admitted. "But the entire year I was there, Filch kept looking at me like he expected me to transfigure his darn cat into a fish or something."

"Did you?" Her eyes danced.

"Me? No." He laughed again. "James did, though. He was always the best at Transfiguration. But it wasn´t Mrs. Norris. It was the cat before her."

"You mean Mrs. Norris isn´t immortal?" Hermione asked with such faked innocence that Remus almost ran them off the road because he was laughing so hard.

"I hope not!"

"Crucio!"

Harry tried to cry a warning, but there was no time--all he felt was pain. It felt like every nerve ending in his body was on fire, felt like he was going to be torn limb from limb. Vaguely, he felt his body hit the ground, and although he could not hear it over his own screams, he knew Sirius had landed next to him. Through the pain, he knew it was over. He felt his body convulsing, felt waves of pain tearing through every part of him--

"Stupefy!"

It stopped. Harry blinked and stared blindly at the gray sky. The pain had stopped. Why had it stopped? Hands shook him.

"Harry? Harry?" It was Sirius, leaning over him and holding his shoulders gently. The older man looked every bit as pale and ragged as Harry felt, and his features were tight with concern. But it was Sirius, and the three Death Eaters who had cornered them were sprawled on the ground, unconscious. "Harry, can you stand? We´ve got to get out of here before they wake up."

Harry nodded numbly, and allowed Sirius to help him to his feet. His head spun, and he tried to remember what had happened, but everything was so blurry... He only remembered a strong voice shouting out Stupefy and then the pain stopped. Finally, he mumbled, "Who...?"

"I stunned them, Harry," Sirius said softly. Distantly, Harry felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. "Come on, we´ve go to go."

The pain started to fade a little when he sucked in a deep breath. However, he guessed that he must have hit his head on the way down, because nothing Sirius was saying made sense. "How?" he asked. His head clearing, Harry blinked and looked up at his godfather. "I thought you couldn´t use magic when under the Cruciatus curse."

"Most people don´t try." Harry stumbled suddenly, and Sirius caught him. His legs felt like jello. Quickly, they moved past the unconscious Death Eaters and out of the empty alleyway they had been chased into. "I´m sorry I can´t do anything for you right now, Harry," Sirius added softly.

"I understand." Besides, simply being with Sirius helped him. It was wonderful to know that someone cared, that he wasn´t alone--that he had family. Real family. "Where do we go now?"

"The Leaky Cauldron, then Diagon Alley," Sirius responded immediately. "From there, well, I´ll figure out something. Hiding in Muggle London isn´t going to work anymore."

"No kidding," Harry breathed. Then again, it had bought them five days of relative peace and quiet--five wonderful days that he´d been able to spend with his godfather, who still managed to have fun despite the fact that they were running away from the most powerful Dark wizard the world had ever known. They never stayed in the same hotel room twice, and never went into the same store or restaurant more than once, but Sirius had still ensured that they enjoyed nearly every moment of their time. It had almost been like vacation.

Twenty minutes later, they had reached the Leaky Cauldron. Harry was steadier on his feet now, and Sirius was in his dog form once more; although Harry knew Sirius was innocent, most of the wizarding world still saw him as Voldemort´s right hand man, and assumed that he was behind the attacks. In fact, as they made their way into Diagon Alley, Harry noticed an elderly witch reading the Daily Prophet. He couldn´t miss the headline:

BLACK MARK IN THE SKY: ANOTHER ATTACK BY SIRIUS BLACK

To his right, Sirius growled softly, but wagged his tail when Harry put a cautious hand on his neck. Their eyes met, for a moment, and Harry nodded, making his way up the street. Every now and then, he heard someone mutter his name, but he kept on walking, struggling to look as if he had a purpose and knew exactly where he was going. Sirius´ plan called for Harry to be noticed in Diagon Alley before they left, so he walked in and out of stores for a while, purchasing his books as he went, and trying to ignore the strange looks people gave him. Finally finished with his shopping, Harry returned to the Leaky Cauldron and rented a room for the night. By then, the sun was setting.

The walk upstairs was exhausting, and when he finally unlocked the door, it was all Harry could do to avoid collapsing on the bed. It had been so hard to act normally all day long; he was rapidly learning that when the pain from the Cruciatus curse faded, exhaustion was left in its wake. There was a pop as Sirius transformed back into a man.

"Go ahead and lay down, Harry," he said, casting a sealing spell on the door. "I know you´re tired."

Harry didn´t have to be told twice, but he wasn´t ready to sleep yet. He waited until Sirius had finished casting as silencing spell on the room, as well, and wondered why his godfather wasn´t constructing any wards. "Sirius?"

"Yes?" the older man turned to face him but did not put his wand away. His face was lined with fatigue, too, but he did not look ready to sleep, either.

"Are we going to be safe, here?"

"No," Sirius sighed. "And that´s why we´re not going to be staying here for the night. Do you have anything that belongs to Ron, Harry?"

Puzzled, Harry had to stop and think about that. "I don´t think so," he replied. "Why?"

"There are still three and a half days until you need to be on the Hogwarts Express," Sirius said quietly. "I can´t take you to Hogwarts early because there won´t be enough protection without Dumbledore there, and he´ll be at the Ministry right up until the start of school. So, the only safe place I can think of is the Weasleys´."

"But why do you need something of Ron´s?" Harry asked.

"I´m going to create a Portkey."

Harry gaped. "You know how to do that? Isn´t that really specialized magic?"

"Actually, you can blame Remus for that," Sirius smiled sheepishly. "While James and I were researching how to become Animagi, we convinced Remus to figure out how to make Portkeys. We said it was for one of our pranks, but it was really to keep him from knowing what we were doing. We didn´t want him to stop us." For a moment, his blue eyes darkened with sadness. "Anyway, he taught me and James after he figured it out."

"Wow." Harry´s brow furrowed in thought. "Is there anything else you can use?"

"Well, since I´ve never been to the Weasleys´, I need something with a link to their home," Sirius replied. "Do you happen to have a letter from Ron? That would probably work."

Harry sat up. "Yeah. He started fishing around in his pockets. "But it´s in my trunk, so you´ll have to restore that first. Here it is!"

Putting the pebble on the floor--he really didn´t think it was a good idea to have it in his hand when Sirius transformed the little rock back into a heavy trunk--Harry watched his godfather expertly transform the pebble back into his trunk. Without having to be told, Harry flipped open the lid and started searching for Ron´s latest letter. Finally, he found it, right underneath his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. He held the letter out to Sirius. "Here."

"Thanks." Sirius smiled slightly. "You might as well get some sleep, Harry. This will take me at least an hour, and you really look like you could use some rest."

He would have rathered watch Sirius, but his eyelids were getting awfully heavy. "Okay."

A few minutes later, Harry was so deeply asleep that he never noticed when his godfather removed his glasses and tucked him into bed.