Archive of Our Own

Chapter 1: Second Thoughts

December, 1987

The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade

“Ah, Remus, good to see you. I hope you haven’t changed your mind? I realize that I can’t offer anything right now, but there is a position for you next year.” Dumbledore smiled at his former student and took another sip of his hot chocolate. He usually preferred tea, but he’d just come back from a visit to Azkaban and the festive atmosphere and the chocolate helped the recovery process from dementor exposure. The smugness he felt at the sight of Remus also helped. After years of losing his Defense Against the Dark Arts professors annually, often before the end of the school year, he had decided to take the step of arranging for a substitute in advance. Remus would be teaching next year’s class and in the meantime would serve as back up in case of… Well, in case a backup proved necessary.

“Not at all, Dumbledore. Frankly, I need this. I…I need something to take my mind off of things. Something to look forward to.” The past half a dozen years had been hard on Remus Lupin, not least because of the loneliness. Losing all his closest friends in a matter of hours, three to death and one to betrayal, had left him depressed and lonely. This teaching opportunity was the first thing he’d felt excited about in years, and would allow him to interact with his co-workers without needing to hide his nature. That was why he was here. He had been having a drink with Hagrid (groundskeeper at Hogwarts and therefore a colleague) when he’d seen Dumbledore sitting alone and had taken the opportunity to come and thank the headmaster again for the job opportunity.

“Yes, I understand. However, I am slightly disappointed in you, Remus. I thought you two were better friends than that.”

“Us two? Who?” Remus went back over the last few minutes, trying to figure out when he had lost the conversation thread.

“You and Sirius of course.”

“That traitor?!? He-“ Remus floundered around, his fists clenched and his face going pale. He wanted to shout, kick something (preferably Sirius Black) but all he could do was stare at Dumbledore with a mix of surprise, anger, hurt, and bitterness.

“I believe him innocent. I know I gave evidence to the contrary, but I went to see him and he told me his side of the story. To be honest, his side makes a lot more sense than what I originally thought happened, but I don’t have enough evidence to set the ministry straight.“ Dumbledore remained calm as he had found this to be the best way to deliver unexpected news.

“What’s his story then? It must have been good to get you believing it.” The words were forceful if quiet. Remus felt a bit betrayed by his old headmaster, someone he looked up to and admired. Sirius’s betrayal had left a deep scar not only on Remus, but also on everyone who knew him and the Potters. “He was their friend. They trusted him with their life, with Harry’s life, and he – he just-“

“Think Remus. An individual’s animagus form – yes, he told me about that – are linked to their personalities. Dogs are known for being loyal and playful companions. I urge you, for the sake of years of friendship – loyal friendship – to visit Sirius and give him the opportunity to tell you his version of events.” Dumbledore took a final sip of his hot chocolate and set it aside. He was still surprised that three fifteen-year-olds had managed to become animagi without help from adults. Animagi were wizards who could transform into animals at will. This ability was high-level magic and the process of becoming an animagus was dangerous enough that it was illegal to do so without the ministry of magic being aware of the attempt. The wizard didn’t pick what animal they would transform into. Instead, the animagus form (and there was only one per wizard) was predetermined by the wizard’s own nature.

Dumbledore leaned toward Remus and began to speak quietly. “When he had every reason to distrust you, when he had every reason to not only turn his back on you but to also expose you, he didn’t. Instead he took steps so as to keep you company in your hours of need, covered for you when you needed it. You have reason to believe that he betrayed years of friendship, but don’t you owe him a chance to explain?” Dumbledore got up and walked out of the Three Broomsticks, hoping that Remus would at least think about what he had said. Sirius was starting to lose hope of ever getting out of Azkaban. He needed a friend now more than ever.

 *****************

Remus sat alone for a long time, remembering the happy days when he’d been a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He remembered James, the mischievous, arrogant boy who grew to be a strong, honorable man. Lily, the talented girl who grew into a highly accomplished witch. Peter, hopelessly overshadowed by those around him as a boy, only to die in an attempt to bring Sirius to justice as a young man. And Sirius, who possessed enough loyalty for two, only to turn around and betray his closest friends. Sirius, who turned his back on his family because of their prejudice and their support of Voldemort.

Remus stewed on his memories of Sirius, and though it was possible that Sirius would revert to his family’s way of thinking and become a death eater, it was unlikely. As Dumbledore had pointed out, it just wasn’t part of his nature. If Remus moved past his feelings of hurt and betrayal, if he thought about what he knew of Sirius, he had to admit that Dumbledore was right. He did owe it to Sirius to ask for an explanation.

Remus checked his watch (3:20 pm) and hurried out of his seat. After a quick stop at Honeydukes for chocolate, he flooed to the ministry of magic. There he registered for a visitors pass to Azkaban (he had to make up a story of wanting to see Sirius suffering for his crimes) and was escorted there by Alistor “Mad-Eye” Moody, who had also known Sirius and the Potters.

The effect of the dementors were felt as soon as one stepped onto the island that housed Azkaban. Moody’s presence ensured Remus was able to make his way to Sirius’s cell with little close contact with the dementors, but there were enough of them on the island to make up for this lack. Moody knew where Sirius’s cell was and led Remus down long corridors and two narrow flights of stairs before making a right turn onto a dark corner of the building.

“I’m surprised you’re willing to go into Azkaban, Moody. You have so many enemies here, you’re likely to cause a riot.” Remus was privately glad that it was Moody escorting him. Moody had fought in the Order of the Phoenix, a group founded by Dumbledore and dedicated to defeating the dark wizard Voldemort and his followers, called Death Eaters. As such, Moody already knew what Remus was and could be trusted to keep quiet if the dementors caused Remus to reveal his condition. It went without saying that Moody was an accomplished auror more than capable of dealing with dementors if they decided to cause trouble. Remus himself was not allowed a wand within Azkaban. No visitor was for fear of a prisoner getting a hold of a wand and using it to escape.

“You’re old friends. Just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t do anything foolish.”

“Constant vigilance?” Remus was torn between insult and amusement. In the end, he chose to be amused as that was the safer alternative when dealing with Moody.

Moody just shrugged and pointed to a pile of rags behind the prison bars. Remus gasped when the rags changed position to reveal a dirty, skeletal face. “Sirius?”

 ******************* 

Sirius could not believe his eyes. He had hoped for this (when the dementors left him long enough to clear his thinking a bit) but had never thought it would actually happen. Remus had come to see him. Slowly getting to his feet, he shuffled to the bars of his cell and used them to hold himself up. “Moony?”

Remus flinched at hearing his nickname, something he hadn’t heard since James and Lily’s death. “Here.” He unwrapped a chocolate bar, broke off a few blocks and offered them to Sirius.

Sirius grabbed the offered chocolate and stuffed it into his mouth. He kept staring at Remus as the chocolate worked at clearing his mind. “Why are you here? You’ve never visited before and it’s been… It’s been…”

“Six years, Sirius. It’s been six years. I… I want to know why. Why would you do that to James? To Lily? To Harry?”

“I didn’t! I’m innocent!” Sirius took a moment to calm himself as he was faced with Remus’s look of disbelief. He knew he only had this one chance to convince Remus and he needed to. He needed Remus to believe him. “We switched, Peter and I. He was their secret keeper. I thought the Death Eaters would come after me since I was the obvious choice, you were chasing after Fenrir Greyback and could have been killed at any moment, but Peter, he always managed to stay out of the skirmishes. We were all okay with that because he wasn’t exactly useful in a fight, but it meant that he had the best chance of staying out of Voldemort’s way. So, I convinced James to make the switch at the last moment. I… it was me, my fault that they died, but I didn’t betray James and Lily. I made the mistake of trusting Peter and I convinced them to follow my lead.” His voice was hoarse by this point and he had to take a few deep breaths. Remus offered him more chocolate and he stuffed it in his mouth again.

“But you killed him. He tried to bring you in and you killed him and a bunch of muggle bystanders.” Remus (and Moody, who had also been friendly with Sirius at one point) was trying absorb what Sirius was saying, but couldn’t make sense of it. It was true that the confrontation between Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had taken place in front of dozens of muggle (non-magical) witnesses.

“He’s alive, Moony! I was the one who tried to bring him in, and I almost did except I underestimated him. He accused me of betraying James and Lily, cut of his finger, blew up the street, then escaped as Wormtail! I was too surprised and when the aurors showed up all I could do was laugh. Wormtail got the best of me, Moony.” Sirius shook his head in continued disbelief. “Wormtail got the best of me.”

“Alive?!? What- How- Alive?!?” For the second time that day Remus was floundering for words.

“Who’s Wormtail?” Moody was interested despite himself. He prided himself on being able to judge people, but Black had surprised him with his betrayal. Now though, it was looking as if his initial judgment had been right all along.

“Peter is an illegal animagus and could turn into a rat. We called him Wormtail because his tail looked like a worm.” Remus answered Moody absentmindedly as he digested what Sirius had told him. “It’s in his nature to be a rat.” This made much more sense. While Peter’s betrayal was still blow, it wasn’t as painful as Sirius’s. He had always known that Peter was equal parts friend and hanger-on, spending time with them mostly because they provided him with protection and social standing. Obviously, Voldemort had offered him a better deal.

“A literal and figurative rat. I never liked him. Always thought it weird that the rest of you were friends with him. Black, how do we prove your innocence? Where is Pettigrew?” Moody was almost looking forward to another hunt. It had been a few years since his last tough case.

“I’ve had some time to think about this.” Sirius grinned. Six years in Azkaban was a long time, long enough to think. “And I think he would have stayed hiding as a rat. My esteemed cell mates,” Sirius’s disgust was obvious to see and hear, “Have on and off been planning nasty surprises for him. They think he betrayed his master, that he was the reason they’re stuck in here.”

Moody was nodding along to what Sirius was saying. “It would make sense for him to hide out with a wizarding family, to keep up with wizarding news-“

“And be assured of regular meals and a warm place to sleep.” Remus tagged on. Peter was known for his laziness. He wouldn’t enjoy life as a street rat.

“Yes.” Moody sent a scowl (barely discernable as his resting face was a scowl in itself) at Remus for the interruption. “But not a family that knew about him being a rat animagus.”

“That puts the death eaters that managed to avoid Azkaban out of the running.” Sirius pointed out.

“Also members of the Order in case any of us bothered to question your guilt and learned about him.” Remus was feeling very guilty for having not questioned Sirius before this.

Sirius reached out a hand for Remus. “I distrusted you, too. Knowing there was a spy, I thought Voldemort may have used your condition to turn you against us. It’s why I didn’t tell you about the switch beforehand. I told James that I would get word to you, but I hadn’t actually planned to.” He gave a weak grin. “Great minds think alike.”

“So do stupid ones apparently.” But Remus was chuckling. He knew that, even after all these years, he still had one friend. “I’ll make it my life’s work to get you out of here, Padfoot. I promise.”

**********************************

Chapter 2: The Hunt Begins

The three agreed to not involve anyone else in the search for Wormtail. Moody thought others would deliberately warn Wormtail and cause him to flee. Sirius and Remus agreed because they also feared Wormtail being warned, though by accident. If this were to leak to the Daily Prophet, then Wormtail could easily read the story.

“Here, keep the rest of the chocolate.” Remus emptied out his pockets to Sirius. He had bought several large bars from Honeydukes. “I’ll come visit you-“

“No, you won’t.” Moody cut in with another scowl, “What excuse will you use next time? It’s too risky, people will talk. I’ll come visit when I can. I do this often to check on those I captured so no one will think anything of it.” Moody, unsurprisingly, didn’t trust the dementors to keep the inmates in. The dementors were blind and so wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between two humans. A switch could easily take place, and even if the dementors noticed they wouldn’t care. “I can’t bring you anything too obvious but I’ll swing by with chocolate and updates.”

“He’s right, Moony.” Sirius cut across Remus’s protest. “I’ve survived six years; I can survive a while more. The chances of finding Wormtail are already low, I don’t want them lower.”

Remus gave them both a helpless look. He wanted to make up for the years when he hadn’t been there for Sirius but knew they were both right. “I wish I had come sooner.”

“Hey, it’s been long enough that Wormtail probably has his guard down.” Sirius was trying to put a positive spin on things. Seeing Remus, knowing he believed him, had given Sirius a surge of strength and hope.

“Most likely. Still, we shouldn’t do anything to tip anyone off.” Moody was already making a mental list of possible families that Pettigrew could be hiding with.

“Moony, what about Harry? How is he?” A good portion of Sirius’s guilt came from not taking care of his godson, Harry, the way James and Lily had expected him to.

“I don’t know. Dumbledore is hiding him, for his own safety, and won’t tell me anything. He said that he didn’t want me to accidently lead anyone to him.” Remus was also worried for Harry, but he trusted Dumbledore’s judgment.

“Too right. There are still plenty of Death Eaters out there, just waiting to get their hands on him.” Moody appreciated this – to be honest, any – security measure. He had long admired Dumbledore’s successful hiding of the Potter boy from wizarding society. It was probably why the boy had managed to survive this long.

“I suppose, but is he happy? What’s he like? Does he… blame me?” Sirius wanted news of Harry almost as much as he wanted his freedom. The main reason he wanted his freedom is because he wanted to care for Harry and live up to his responsibility as a godfather.

“I don’t know.” Remus felt even guiltier for not knowing anything about Harry. His condition had made the decision to stay away from Harry easier, but he still wished that he knew more about him. I could’ve done more… Tried to get more information from Dumbledore…. Sirius is still in here because I didn’t do anything, and he doesn’t know anything about Harry because I didn’t do anything… It’s my fault, I’m a great big do nothin-

“Oy, you! Back off!” Moody pointed his wand at a dementor that had come too close to the three of them. “Lupin, it’s time we left. Black, I’ll visit you soon. Lupin, snap out of it and let’s go.” Moody grabbed Remus’s right arm with his left hand and started dragging him out of there. Sirius went back to his cowering position in the corner of his cell, but not before hiding the chocolate bars in his tattered rags. He was going to need them.

 ********************

Moody and Remus quickly gave up on the idea of checking every wizarding household for Wormtail. For one thing, there were enough Wizards in London alone to make the process time consuming. It would also have raised a few eyebrows as neither of them were known for being social; Moody was known for being downright unfriendly, and Remus’s condition had long made him hesitant to form long-term connections. Most wizarding families also had so many protective enchantments on their dwellings that they were hard to find unless you were invited there. Some of these enchantments were left over from the First Wizarding War (when Voldemort first rose to power and terrorized Britain), but many were there to keep muggles, dark creatures, and unwanted visitors away. Moody was well known and respected, but definitely not wanted as a visitor. He tended to scare the children with his scarred appearance and paranoid advice. His habit of yelling ‘Constant vigilance!’ at random intervals didn’t help matters.

The full moon occurred on the second of February and Remus was still paler than usual a few days later when he met Moody at a seedy muggle pub in London. Remus had suggested the Leaky Cauldron (a wizarding pub and the entrance to Diagon Alley, the main commercial area for magical London) but Moody had refused on the grounds that someone was onto them. Few wizards were capable of passing as muggles (wizarding fashions hadn’t really progressed beyond the middle ages) and by going to a muggle pub Moody would be able to catch out any spies.

Remus had been too tired to be bothered to argue and had instead dragged himself out of the rundown flat he’d been renting and then spent most of his energy apparating to a nearby alley before walking over. Now he was not only tired, but also queasy and had a migraine. He fell into the chair across from Moody’s and used the table to keep himself from falling out. “So, what’s new?”

“I need your help finding Pettigrew.”

“Wha-? I know you need my help! Matter of fact, you are helping me to find him!” Remus’s exasperation with Moody had actually settled his stomach to the point where he thought he could apparate back home without throwing up.

“That’s not what I meant.” Moody waved his hand impatiently. “I meant that I have a new plan that requires two people. Sirius and I came up with it the last time we talked.”

“You talked to Sirius? When? How is he?” Now Remus felt guilty for not asking about Sirius as soon as he had sat down. Over the past few weeks he had often thought of his friend (and how wonderful was it that he had a friend again?) and how he was still in Azkaban.

“Day before yesterday, and I gave him more chocolate. He was doing alright considering the circumstances. But he had this idea and he and I came up with this plan.” Moody was nearly rubbing his hands together at the thought of it. He hadn’t attempted something like this before, being more or less law abiding and not much of a prankster, but he liked it. “When the ministry awarded Pettigrew his Order of Merlin, they also gave his mother his finger that they found at the scene. I can use the finger as part of a compass spell to find him. Actually, any piece of bone works, but all they found of him was that finger.”

“And you need me for…?”

“Well, Mrs. Pettigrew is old, and I’m told she’s dying. Go see her, bring a bunch of Pettigrew’s photographs, and just pay your last respects to her. I have it on good authority that she keeps her son’s finger in a box over the fireplace mantel. Here,” He plopped a ring sized box in front of Remus, “is a fake you can switch it with. By the time anyone notices the difference, we hopefully will have already brought Pettigrew in.”

Remus opened the box and quickly closed it again. “There’s a finger in there!”

“Not a real one! It’s from Zonko’s joke shop. Like I said, it will be found out eventually, so we need to move quickly once we have the real finger. Mrs. Pettigrew lives in Hogsmeade, the last house on Winding Street. Once you have the finger, meet me at the Hog’s Head.”

“This is excellent, Moody! We’ll have Sirius out by this time next week! I’ll send her a letter, asking to see her to reminisce about Peter. She was fond of me, I think.” Remus pocketed the box as he and Moody got up to leave.

Rather than going home, he went to the post office in Diagon Alley and paid the witch manning the counter for parchment and a quill. He then sat at the end of the counter, out of the way of other customers, and tried to think of what to write. 

Dear Mrs. Petigrew,

I was sorry to hear from an acquaintance of your ill health. I was a friend of Peter’s and had long been comforted by the thought of someone else remembering him as fondly as I. He was a good fri-

Here, Remus stopped. By all accounts, Peter was a horrible friend, and it was hard to express such fond sentiments of him, even on paper. The thought of lying to the poor old woman to her face was repugnant. Sirius’s life is at stake. I need to do this for my true friend, who is counting on me. I need to do this for James and Lily, who deserve to see their betrayer be brought to justice. With those thoughts uppermost in his mind, Remus continued with his letter. 

He was a good friend and I miss him to this day. I often look at my mementos and photographs of him and the Potters and think of where we would all be today if not for Sirius Black.

If it is not too much trouble, I would like to visit you in person, as a sort of homage to Peter. Few people knew him as well as I, and you knew him better. I completely understand if my visiting is out of the question.

All my best,

Remus Lupin

That was the best he could do at the moment, but he needed to start thinking about what to say to Mrs. Pettigrew if she accepted. His feeling toward Peter were still too raw for him to able to pull off a good enough performance. It was something he’d have to work on. In the meantime, he needed to find a position. Between the chocolates for Sirius and posting letters to Moody, he was down to only a few sickles, not enough to last him the month. Being a substitute teacher didn’t pay anything unless you actually substituted.

 ******************** 

As Remus was having his dinner the next a day and owl flew in clutching a thick envelope.  It was from Mrs. Pettigrew and contained a letter that was several pages long and written with an unsteady hand. At the end of it was an invitation to afternoon tea for the next week. Remus quickly replied in the affirmative and sent it back with the same owl. He then went to his desk and wrote a quick note to update Moody and set it aside to post later. Just as he finished, another owl arrived, this time with a pouch as well as an envelope. Remus took both from the owl with a quick “Thank you.” Recognizing Moody’s handwriting on the envelope, Remus gave the owl the note he’d written for Moody and sent it on its way. He wasn’t sure where Moody got his owls from, but they never accepted or required payment. He opened the envelope to find two pieces of paper inside. The first note was from Moody and read: 

Remus,

Saw Padfoot just now. He pointed out that this Wormtail business may be getting in the way of your job. He wrote a note authorizing the withdrawal of a hundred galleons from his Gringotts vault. He wants you to have them, and if this goes on longer than we expect, he’ll withdraw more.

A. M.

The second was written in Sirius’s familiar hand, though it was shakier than he remembered it being.

Moony,

You have the best chance of finding Wormtail because you know him and what he looks like. Therefore, I am hiring you to look for him. Don’t be a prat and accept the pay.

Padfoot

Remus was torn between accepting the galleons as payment, and rejecting them as a handout. He turned his attention to the pouch, which looked too small to hold a handful of galleons, let alone a hundred. Remus opened the pouch and turned it upside down causing a waterfall of gold coins (galleons) to come out, until there was a large pile of them. Some money pouches had extendable charms on them so that their owner can carry large amounts of money without anyone else noticing. Remus had never thought that he would need such a pouch as he rarely had two galleons to rub together, let alone a hundred.

Remus felt himself getting angry until he looked up at the only window in his flat. He then looked around his shabby lodging. The two room flat was in a rundown area of London, just outside Tottenham. There was a door leading to a small bathroom to his right, and a sleeping area to his left. His desk was against the lone window and the front door was on the far right of the wall opposite. No kitchen, just a counter where he kept his cooking supplies. He had put a refrigeration charm on the small chest on the counter, and he used magic to cook everything. No dining table – he usually ate at his desk – but a there was a coffee table and two well used armchairs in the middle of the room. He looked back at the pile of money.

Remus was looking for Peter to help Sirius, not for any sort of monetary gain for himself. However, his financial situation meant that he couldn’t fully concentrate on finding Peter if he had to also put energy into finding and holding onto a job. Moody was an auror so hunting for Peter was part of his job and he didn’t need to worry about it interfering. He didn’t need any additional payment, though if he wanted it Sirius could definitely give it to him. Remus on the other hand, didn’t want payment, but he needed it. It would free him up to work on finding Peter full time. Not only that, he could also start preparing for when Sirius got out of Azkaban. It would hurt his pride, but accepting the galleons was the right thing to do.

Remus nodded to himself and started putting the coins back into the pouch. He’d paid this month’s rent for the flat so there was no point on spending money to move to nicer place right now. If the plan went well then he’d have to find somewhere for him and Sirius to live while Sirius recuperated from the extended contact with dementors. If the plan failed for some reason, then he preferred to stay here rather than waste time looking for a new flat. Either way, the money was better off in his Gringotts vault until he needed it. Pocketing the pouch, Remus checked the moon chart on his desk before heading out to Gringotts. He had three weeks before he would start to feel the effects of the full moon and he planned to use that time efficiently.

*****************************************

Chapter 3: Return to Hogsmeade

The week went by quickly and soon enough Remus apparated to Hogsmeade to meet Mrs. Pettigrew. As Remus walked through Hogsmeade he couldn’t help but be reminded of all the hours the Marauders (as James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had called themselves) had spent here, visiting the various shops during school authorized Hogsmeade weekends, and not so authorized night visits when they would all sneak out of the castle to explore the surrounding area. This was good as he’d decided to separate his boyhood friend from the man who betrayed them all. Young Peter was a good friend, even if he grew to be a traitor. To that end Remus had spent the past week immersing himself in memories of happier times, and had made a list of stories from their time at Hogwarts to tell Mrs. Pettigrew.

The last house on Winding street was a blue cottage, small and not very well kept. It was in reasonably good condition but it was obvious that the owner didn’t care much for it. There was a light dusting of snow on the path to the door and smoke was coming out of the chimney. Remus knocked and waited to be invited in.

The woman who opened the door had graying hair and her already short figure was slightly hunched over. She looked to be in her nineties, though Remus knew that she was actually in her sixties. Her eyes were brown, not Peter’s watery blue, and the dark grey of her hair made it obvious that she had been a brunette, not a blonde. Nevertheless, there was something about her that reminded Remus of Peter.

“Yes, dear?” The women said in a slightly husky voice before giving in to a fit of coughing. Remus immediately reached out to pat her back and hold her up as the coughing fit had nearly sent her to the floor.

“Ah, Mrs. Pettigrew, I’m Remus, Peter’s school friend. We’ve never actually met, but Peter had told me about you and I hope he’s told you a bit about me. You invited me over for tea earlier.”

“Yes, yes.” She eventually stopped coughing and lead Remus into the cottage. “I remember. Thank you for coming, not many people remember my son. He wasn’t the most social boy. He used to tell me that you helped him with his school work, tutored him. I have to say that you were the least foolish of the boys he spent his time with. All I heard of the other two is how much trouble they got into.”

Remus chuckled a bit at that. “We were a handful. Poor McGonagall spent quite a bit of her time giving us detentions.”  

“Yes, yes. Excuse me, dear, I need to go get the tea set. Please, have a seat by the fireplace over there.” She pointed to a flower-patterned sofa and chairs while she headed to a door that apparently lead to the kitchen.

Remus walked over to the fireplace and immediately noticed the Order of Merlin. Next to it was a closed box much like the one that Moody had given him. After checking to make sure that both boxes contained a finger, Remus quickly switched the boxes and pocketed the original. That was easy. He heard Mrs. Pettigrew coming back into the living room and turned. Some tea, some conversation, and then he’d make an excuse to leave. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.

******************** 

It was three hours later when Remus left the blue cottage. Mrs. Pettigrew had apparently been starved for company and had not given him an opportunity to take his leave any earlier. Remus was glad that she had been willing to do most of the talking as it meant that he hadn’t needed to contribute as much to the conversation. Still, it was worth it. He patted his pocket to make sure the small box was there and headed over to the Hogs Head to meet up with Moody.

The Hogs Head was a pub owned and operated by Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore’s brother. Albus was the headmaster of Hogwarts and a very well-known wizard. Few knew of the family connection between the two as Aberforth rarely used his family name. He had however been a member of the Order of Phoenix, though the brothers were not close.

Unlike the majority of Hogsmeade, the Hogs Head was not decorated for Valentine’s day and was its regular dark, dusty self. It was one of the few Hogsmeade businesses that did not make Hogwarts students welcome and Aberforth was known for his unusual (meaning dangerous, shady, or both) clientele. Students were encouraged by the Hogwarts staff to avoid the Hogs Head and to visit the Three Broomsticks instead. Really, the Hogs Head was exactly the kind of place that would make Moody feel right at home.

Remus and Moody had agreed to meet for dinner since Moody had had to work at the auror head office that day. This worked out well since Remus was running so late. He had less than an hour to wait until Moody showed. Entering the Hogs Head, Remus ordered a fire whiskey and sat nursing it at the bar.

“Constant vigilance!” A hand clapped him on the back at the same time as someone barked into his ear, startling him into almost falling off his barstool.

“Damn it, Moody, don’t do that!” Remus righted himself and used his wand to clean up the whiskey that had spilled on him. “It’s bloody annoying!”

“If you had been paying attention to your surroundings you wouldn’t have been surprised. What if I had been an enemy, eh? What if I had been out to get yeh?” Moody moved towards an empty table and Remus followed him.

“No one is out to get me, Moody. And aren’t you going to order something?” Remus sat with his back to the pub’s entrance while Moody sat facing it.

“They’re always out to get you, you don’t know who, you don’t when, but they’re out there. And no, I don’t trust Aberforth. There was always something weird about him.” Moody took out a flask and topped off Remus’s mug with it before taking a sip himself. “So, did you get it?”

“Yes. Here, when are you going to do the compass spell?” Remus handed the box over to Moody.

“In a couple of weeks. It needs some preparation first. I have to clean and purify the bone, then strengthen the magical signature in it for maximum coverage. There are also some rare ingredients to gather. This spell will point in the direction of Pettigrew’s magical signature, so if he’s somewhere that can hide that the spell won’t find him.”

“There’s a chance it won’t work?” Remus was taken back by this. From what Moody was saying it looked like Sirius wouldn’t be free for weeks!

“If it won’t work it will limit the places where he’s hiding. Most wizarding homes don’t have protective enchantments that hide magical signatures. The few that do are well known to the ministry since they have to register that sort of thing.”

“What can I do?”

“If he’s far away, having a direction won’t help much, so I want to get a detailed map of Britain and tie it into the spell. I need you to figure out how to do that. I’ll be using another spell that’ll tell me if he’s dead. No need to waste time looking for his magical signature if it’s not there in the first place.”

“Alright, but how will we search private homes if the compass spell doesn’t work?”

“If the spell doesn’t work, it could also mean that Pettigrew is at the Ministry or Hogwarts, since they both block outside magics. I can take care of searching the ministry and you can do Hogwarts.”

“That’ll take ages!” Hogwarts castle was huge and full of secret hideaways, passages, and rooms. Beyond that, it was rarely the same three days in a row; the 142 staircases sometimes moved around, there were rooms that showed up on odd days of the month, doors that pretended to be walls, walls that pretended to be doors, and those were only the oddities that were proven. There were legends of secret chambers full of monsters and magical rooms that fulfilled your needs or were full of treasure. The Marauders had explored Hogwarts castle and grounds to the point where they drew up a map of it, but even after seven years they didn’t know all of Hogwarts’ secrets. “We’d have to check every pet rat, that’s if Peter hadn’t decided to just live at Hogwarts year round rather than being a pet.”

“Well, you’ll be in charge of that. I’m too noticeable and I’ll scare the kiddies. And we can’t do the compass spell inside Hogwarts because the inner walls also block magic. The ministry has protective enchantments on the inner walls too so no spell there either. Good luck to both of us.”  Moody took a long swig of his flask and then put it back in his coat. Getting up, he gave Remus a stern look. “If finding bad people was easy the Ministry wouldn’t need aurors; any idiot would go out and catch themselves a bad witch or wizard. We have a problem, and we have a way to solve it. That’s already better than most of my other cases.” With that Moody walked out of the pub.

Remus, after barely a minute of thought, realized that Moody was right. So what if freeing Sirius turned out to be more work than he’d originally planned? No matter how much time and effort it took, Remus was going to prove Sirius’s innocence. The results were worth any amount of effort. And now, thanks to Sirius’s generosity, Remus had enough money to last another couple of month without a job.

 ********************* 

Remus was eventually able to tag on a modified homonculous charm to the compass spell. Rather than showing where everyone in Britain was – which required more power than he had anyway – the modified version only pinpointed Peter’s location. However, this had taken him a month and a half of research and experimenting – he used his blood rather than bone to determine that the modification worked then adapted the charm to use a bone fragment. Moody had already determined that Peter was still alive and was more than ready to cast the compass spell.

 *********************

April, 1988

Remus Lupin’s flat

“You cast it since you knew him better. Could help with finding him.” Moody was unfolding the map of Britain on Remus’s desk. He then took a finger bone out of a small box and carefully set it centered over their location on the map. The bone was also pointing the direction that Remus was facing. “The casting is simple; it was only the prep work that took some time.”

“Alright. Usque ad animam.” Remus used his wand to tap the four compass directions around the finger bone. The bone rose a few inches, spun two slow circles, and then settled back on the map in its original position. “He’s hidden then.”

“Yep. I’ve already found out which homes can block outside spells. Malfoy manor, the Goyle propert-“

“Death Eaters. He wouldn’t have hidden there.” Remus brought out a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill to list the places they’d need to search. Hogwarts and the Ministry were already on it.

“Stop interrupting! I know that, I just have everything memorized in a particular order.” Moody liked Remus more than he liked most people but that wasn’t as big of a compliment as it seemed. Most people were idiots, in Moody’s opinion, and calling someone not an idiot wasn’t exactly a compliment. “Right. The Goyle property, the Crabbe home, Greengrass Hill, the Parkinson’s place, the Lestrange’s manor, the Black townhouse, Dumbledore’s family home, and Shell cottage which is owned by a Prewett. Everywhere else was destroyed during the war.”

“Known Death Eaters are living in some of those places. Both Lestrange manor and the Black townhouse are empty and are protected against animagus. We can ask Dumbledore about his family home but Peter would want to stay away from the homes of order members. That leaves the ministry, Hogwarts, Greengrass Hill, and Shell cottage.” Remus said as he added the private residences to his list.

“I know Muriel Prewett and she wouldn’t allow any rat into her house, animagus or not. I’ll look into the Greengrass’s; the father has a history of muggle baiting. I can go with Arthur Weasley the next time he searches the house.”

“I’ll see what I can do about Hogwarts. I can ask Dumbledore for permission to start searching. If school lets out before we find Peter we can do the spell again, in case one of the students takes him home.”

“That still leaves us three months to search. Ask Dumbledore for a list of students with pet rats.” With that Moody gathered the map and finger bone and left.

We’re a step closer at least. Hold on Sirius, you’ll be free soon. Remus took out another piece of parchment and began his note to Dumbledore.

 ***********************************

Chapter 4: The Hunt Ends

Remus spent the month of April brewing polyjuice potion. If Peter were to see him at Hogwarts he would obviously avoid him. Since the point of Remus going there is to find Peter he planned on using the polyjuice potion to disguise himself. He made sure to get Dumbledore's permission first. Dumbledore had even provided him with some of Filch's hair to use and all that Filch had asked in return was Remus's help in scaring the students by seeming to be in two places at once. 

It was now the middle of May and Remus had been searching Hogwarts for two weeks. It was unfortunate that the Hogwarts faculty didn't keep track of student's pets except to insure that they only kept one at most. So far Remus's searching consisted of wandering the castle hoping to catch sight of Peter by chance. He had talked to the Hogwarts house elves and they had promised to catch (alive) and bring him any ownerless rats that they find. They had found nearly two dozen rats so far, but none of them were illegal animagi. 

Remus, after a day of searching the grounds, entered Filch's office and sat in one of the chairs. The chair happened to be facing a cabinet with an old piece of parchment sticking out of its bottom drawer. Remus stared at the parchment for a moment, trying to think of why it was familiar, until it hit him: the Marauders Map! Of course, how could he have forgotten it? It showed everyone at Hogwarts (with a few rare exceptions) and wasn’t fooled by animagus transformation. Remus quickly went to the cabinet and took out the parchment. Laying it on the desk, he murmured, “I swear that I am up to no good.” Lines started forming on the parchment as Remus began unfolding it.

The map was actually quite large as it showed not only the castle but also the grounds. Luckily it was just supper time so most of the castle’s occupants were in the great hall and would be for a while yet. The rest of Hogwarts was almost empty. Remus started scanning the map for a Peter Pettigrew but after going through most of Hogwarts without finding him, he focused on the great hall. Starting with the Slytherin table, Remus went up and down the rows of name labels looking for Peter. He used his wand to get the name labels to rearrange themselves so that they weren’t overlapping each other. He finally found Peter at the Gryffindor table, near a Perseus Weasley and an Oliver Wood amongst others.

Rather than running off to the great hall and making a scene that would cause Peter to flee, Remus drank a little more of his polyjuice potion. Picking up the Marauders map, making sure to keep a close eye on Peter, he walked to the entrance hall and settled in an out of the way alcove to wait. Students were already leaving, the upper years sooner than the lower as it was getting close to exams and they wanted to fit in as much studying as they could. Finally, Percy Weasley’s label moved, and Peter’s along with it. Just as Percy got close to the great hall doors, Remus looked up and saw a small red-headed first year with something cupped in hands leaving the great hall. Remus, in Filch’s voice due to the polyjuice potion, called out “Weasley! Stop right there!” He stuffed the map into his robes and strode (well, Filch’s body couldn’t do much more than a shuffle) toward the boy.

Percy stopped and gave Remus a terrified look. “Yes, sir, Mr. Filch?”

“What do you have in your hand?” Remus had reached Percy by that point and could see that not only was it a rat, but it was the right rat: Wormtail. “I need you to come with me now, and keep a hold of that thing in your hand.” He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and lead him to Filch’s office.

When he had first come to Hogwarts to search for Wormtail, Remus had brought with him a rat cage with a sturdy lock and an unbreakable charm on it. It was currently sitting under Filch’s desk, which worked out well since Wormtail couldn’t see it and therefore get suspicious. Remus took Wormtail from a protesting Percy and rounded the desk to quickly kneel and shove Wormtail into the cage and lock it. He then picked the cage up and set it on the desk to take a careful look at the rat and really make sure it was the right one.

After a while, Percy’s whining protests became too much, and Remus turned back to the boy. “There is reason to believe that one of the Death Eaters, who was a rat animagus, had gone into hiding when You-Know-Who was defeated. I believe that this is the Death Eater. The cage they’re in has an unbreakable charm on it which would kill them if they tried to transform into their human shape.” At this, the rat became more active and started squealing.

“WHAT!?! No, Scabbers is just a common rat, he’s no animagus, why would you even think that? Please give me my rat back, don’t-“

“Do you trust Dumbledore?”

“Wha- Yes, of course-“ Percy was very confused now on top of being distressed. What did Dumbledore have to do with his rat?

“Then if Dumbledore were the one who checks the rat for animagus magic, would you agree to that?” Remus took out a small gold bell from his pocket and rang it. The bell had been given to him by Dumbledore and allowed him to summon a Hogwarts house elf. One appeared not a second later and looked expectantly at Remus. “Please inform the Headmaster that I have found our rat.”

“Yes, sir,” The house elf squeaked then disappeared.

“Percy, please calm down. If this is nothing more than a rat, then the test Dumbledore will perform won’t harm it, or actually do much of anything. The spell will only force an animagus animal to transform into its human form. Your rat will be returned to you immediately with my deepest apologies for the mistake.” Remus didn’t want to distress the poor boy, but having Wormtail for a pet was obviously dangerous to him and his family.

“You won’t hurt him?” Percy was crying now, but he was too respectful of authority to do more than looking pleadingly towards his rat.

“No, Percy, I promise we won’t hurt him if he’s nothing more than a rat,” As Remus said this Dumbledore walked into Filch’s office. Remus wasn’t sure how Dumbledore had gotten there so quickly, but he wasn’t going to ask. At the moment he had more important things on his mind.

“Ah, Remus, you found him then?” Dumbledore leaned down a little for a closer look at the rat in the cage. “Well this should be quick, though we will need more room.” The office had never meant to hold more than a few people, and that was before Filch had filled it with wall-to-wall cabinets.

Dumbledore led the way to a nearby empty classroom and set the cage on one of the desks. He opened the cage door and grasped the rat in his left hand, holding his wand in his right. Pointing his wand at the struggling rat, Dumbledore made a quick motion with the tip that cause a blue and white flash. He then quickly let go of the rat.

The rat had already started to transform and by the time it landed on the floor it was a small, unkept man with rat-like features, watery blue eyes, and light hair that was too dirty to show the real color. This was Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail. Dumbledore cast a sleeping charm on him then knelt down, took Peter’s left wrist, and pushed the dirty sleeves of his robes to reveal his left forearm. It was pale, with a grayish tattoo of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth; a Dark Mark, the sign of a Death Eater. Dumbledore straightened and ropes came out of his wand to bind Peter.

“Remus, please escort Percy to Gryffindor tower and his brother, Charlie. Explain to Charlie what happened and ask him to care for his brother. I will send a message to Moody asking him to meet me at the Ministry as I will be escorting Peter there and handing him to the auror department. You will probably need to give a statement at some point, so prepare yourself.”

The polyjuice potion was wearing off, and by the time Dumbledore finished handing out instructions, Remus was back to looking like himself. Percy just stared at Peter with a look of utter shock on his little face. At Remus’s urging, Percy followed him out of the classroom and up to Gryffindor tower. It was only halfway there that Percy realized that he wasn’t being escorted by Filch.

“Who are you? Where’s the caretaker?” Percy whispered this as he didn’t have the energy to speak any louder.

“I am Remus Lupin and I have been looking for Peter for months. Filch was kind enough to allow me to use his likeness to search Hogwarts. I am sorry that you lost a pet, but Peter was a Death Eater, as you saw by his Dark Mark. He was too dangerous to be allowed to be free. I will send a letter to your parents explaining all this, and if you like, I can ask Professor McGonagall to allow you to floo home for the weekend.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice… I HAVE BEEN LIVING WITH A DEATH EATER FOR SIX YEARS!!! HE SLEPT IN MY ROOM, ATE MY FOOD, WAS NEAR MY SISTER-“

The ramifications of what Percy had witnessed were finally catching up to him. He was caught between horror, disgust, fear, outrage and a range of other emotions that he couldn’t name. It was too much for a young boy to keep in and he burst into tears. Remus picked him up and carried him the rest of the way to the portrait that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He had managed to avoid other students so far, and rather than enter and cause Percy potential embarrassment, Remus asked the fat lady in the portrait to get Charlie Weasley to come out on his own. He then moved them around the corner and out of the way of anyone going into the common room.

It was only a few minutes before Charlie found the two of them. They were both sitting on the floor, Remus with his back against the brick wall. Remus was rubbing Percy’s back as Percy cried against his shoulder. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“Charlie, Scabbers is a Death Eater and he’s going to prison and he was sleeping in my bed and-“ Percy’s tearful explanation only served to confuse Charlie.

“Rats don’t get sent to prison for sleeping on people’s beds, Perce.” Charlie sat down on the other side of his brother and gathered him close, taking over from Remus. Charles was a fifth year student and felt protective of his much younger brother even if Percy usually acted stiffer than people twice his age.

“I believe I should probably explain. My name is Remus Lupin. The rat you knew as Scabbers was actually the animagus form of a Death Eater. Dumbledore, Moody, and I have been looking for him and we finally found him. Dumbledore forced the rat to take his human form and he is being escorted to the ministry as we speak.” Remus rose out of his sitting position and looked down at the two brothers. “I need to write a letter to your parents to explain all this before the aurors show up. I have already offered to ask Professor McGonagall to allow Percy to floo home for the weekend and I can ask the same for you, too. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“That would be good, thanks. Ah, this is a lot to take in, but thank you for catching… Scabbers, I guess.” Charles continued to pat his brother’s back as Remus said his goodbyes and left.

 *********************** 

Remus went to Minerva McGonagall’s office first to let her know that Peter had been caught. Minerva was the Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts as well as head of Gryffindor house. She, along with the other three heads of houses, had already been told that a search was being conducted for an illegal animagus and so wasn’t as surprised as the boys. Rather than Remus writing the Weasley parents a letter, McGonagall offered to do so saying that they were more likely to take her seriously. Since she was writing them about the weekend visit anyway it wasn’t much bother. After thanking her, Remus headed to Hogwarts main gates so that he could apparate to the ministry since you couldn’t apparate within Hogwarts.

As soon as he arrived at the ministry’s entrance hall a paper bird with his name written on its wing flew to him. As soon as he caught it, the plane unfolded itself into a note addressed to him.

Remus,

The Wizengamot has agreed to hold a joint trial for Peter and Sirius. I will ask Amelia to allow you and I to accompany the group sent to retrieve Sirius from Azkaban. Meet me at the MLE offices as soon as possible.

Albus Dumbledore 

Remus immediately set out to meet Dumbledore at the MLE (Magical Law Enforcement) department, though he had to ask for directions repeatedly to get there.

***********************************

Chapter 5: The Trial

Mid-May, 1988

Sirius was napping in his animagus a form. Animals processed emotions and memories differently than humans and were not as affected by dementors. Sirius had managed to last the years in Azkaban with his sanity intact partially because he was able to transform into a dog. However, this didn't help him keep his body healthy; his cell was tiny and he didn't have any opportunity to exercise. 

When Sirius heard footsteps he transformed back to his human form so that he wouldn't be revealed as an illegal animagus. As had often happened since Remus had come to see him, Sirius found himself hoping that he had a visitor. Moody visited him often enough, almost weekly, which had helped him keep track of time. This time though it wasn't just Moody who showed up. Remus, Dumbledore, and two others who were vaguely familiar, a witch and a wizard, were there, too. Remus had a grin on his face while Dumbledore was smiling. 

"We found him, Padfoot. They're already prepping for a trial." Remus couldn’t help but give his friend the good news.

"You found....?" Sirius's voice was still hoarse sounding even though he's been talking to Moody on a regular basis. A conversation every one or two weeks was not enough to keep his voice box in condition.

"Shush, don't say anything. Dumbledore, the two of you were supposed to keep out of the way." The unknown wizard said as he used his wand to unlock Sirius's cell. He and Moody supported Sirius as they started moving him out of his cell. 

The witch took over the talking. "Sirius Black, you are on your way to the Ministry of Magic to sit through a trial in front of the full Wizengamot. I am Amelia Bones, head of Magical Law Enforcement, and with me are Head Auror Scrimgeur, and Auror Moody to escort you there. Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore have asked to accompany us, though they are not supposed to interact with you in any way." Here she sent disproving looks at Remus and Dumbledore. "That is all we can tell you until your trial begins." 

With that the group made their way out of Azkaban proper. Scrimgeur side along apparated Sirius to the ministry while everyone else apparated there on their own. They made their way to a theatre where a large group of people wearing plum colored robes sat on raised rows of benches arranged in a semicircle, facing two chairs. One of the chairs was already occupied by a small, dirty man who was handcuffed to the armrests. Scrimgeur and Moody sat Sirius in the other one and set his forearms on the armrests so that the magical handcuffs would snap shut around them. There were witches and wizards standing along the walls of the room with watchful looks and their wands out. Five seats were positioned slightly lower than the benches but still facing the two handcuff chairs. A wizard in a green bowler hat sat in the middle seat while a young wizard sat on one of the end seats with a lap desk ready. Amelia Bones went and sat between these two wizards, while Remus sat on the other end seat with Dumbledore taking the seat beside him.  

"Is that everyone?" The wizard in the bowler hat – Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge – asked as he looked around. "Yes? Good. Let's begin.

“This trial concerns the events of October 31, 1981, whereby the Potters were murdered by You-Know-Who. Soon after that, one Sirius Black was apprehended and thrown into Azkaban, and one Peter Pettigrew was believed to have died. Sirius Black was accused of being a Death Eater, passing on information to You-Know-Who, and casting a curse that killed Peter Pettigrew along with twelve muggles. Sirius Black was never officially tried.” At this the people wearing plum robes started talking among themselves, to Fudge’s obvious annoyance. “Quiet, quiet! Yes, thank you.” With one last annoyed look around, Fudge continued. “Obviously, Peter Pettigrew is not dead, and this court has been asked to hold a formal trial for Sirius Black as there is new evidence available. Albus Dumbledore has offered to speak on Sirius Black’s behalf since Black’s stay in Azkaban has had a negative impact on his faculties. This trial is closed and there is a news ban in effect until such a time as I see fit to lift it. No one is to speak, write, or in any other way communicate any information related to this trial outside this room. Dumbledore, you have the floor.”

And so the trial of the decade began.

 ****************** 

Dumbledore first asked that Sirius be given some chocolate as he (Dumbledore) gave some background information. “The Potters had been actively working to undermine Voldemort and his Death Eaters since their Hogwarts’ graduation. By the time Lily became pregnant they were already near the top of Voldemort’s ‘to kill’ list. For their son’s sake they went into hiding, just until Harry was old enough to be separated from them for days at a time. After sometime they agreed that the fidilius charm was the best way to hide, as they had been under near continuous attacks. I offered myself as their secret keeper, but they wished to use Sirius Black instead. He was their best friend and their son’s godfather, and they trusted him above all others.” Dumbledore turned to Sirius. “The next part you know better than I, Sirius.”

Sirius’s voice was hoarse, and he kept stopping to drink water and eat more chocolate. “I was supposed to be their secret keeper; that was what we agreed on and what we told Dumbledore… But I was such an obvious choice, and I knew that I would keep fighting… I thought that Peter would make a better keeper since he rarely fought anyway, and no one would think of him as the secret keeper… I convinced them to switch at the last minute, not realizing that he was the traitor. I killed them because I convinced them to trust him, my choice killed them…” It became obvious that Sirius couldn’t continue past this point, so Dumbledore turned to Peter Pettigrew.

“Peter, what do you say to this?”

“H-he-he’s obvi-viously ly-ying, P-p-professor. I-I-I wo-wo-would never…” the small, dirty man was obviously scared, stuttering his way through a speech on how he was innocent and Sirius Black was a murderer. His tale included an – unlikely – account of how he tracked Black after he heard about Lily and James’ death. He had survived their confrontation but had hid in fear of Black since. A majority of those present were nodding along with his story as the wizarding world had spent the last six years believing a similar version of events.

“Peter, may I see your left forearm, please.” Dumbledore ignored his protests and rolled up Peter’s left sleeve so that the court could clearly see the gray tattoo there. “Peter, if you are not a death eater, why do you have a Dark mark?”

There were immediate outcries of surprise and indignation from the rest of the room. All Dark marks predated the Potters’ murder since Voldemort wasn’t there to mark new followers. The Dark mark was proof that Peter had sided with Voldemort more than six years ago and therefore was unlikely to have hunted Black down for his betrayal. He would have been better off by pretending ignorance of everything and hope nobody points to him as a death eater.

Amelia Bones took over Peter’s portion of the trial. It was determined, after more than an hour of questioning both him and Sirius, that Peter had been the spy, the secret keeper, and the one to betray the Potters. He had also been the one to cast the curse that killed the twelve muggles and had escaped using his unregistered animagus form.

“You managed to become an animagus?” Amelia knew enough about Peter Pettigrew to find this highly unlikely.

“If the court allows, I can explain that.” Remus kept his eyes down as everyone looked at him. He ignored Sirius’s weak protest and spoke as clearly as he could. “I am a werewolf. My friends didn’t want me to be alone during the full moon, so they became animagi to keep me company. Peter was one of those friends, as was James. James was exceptionally good at transfiguration and helped the rest when they needed it.” Remus kept it as vague and condensed as he could. He didn’t want Dumbledore to get in trouble for allowing werewolves to be students at Hogwarts, and he wanted to finish while everyone was still shocked into silence about his admission of werewolf status.

“He’s a werewolf!”

“But he’s so quiet and even tempered. I never would have guessed!”

“He’s a werewolf!?!”

“Capture him! He’s a danger to the rest of us!”

“He’s a werewolf?!?”

“Quiet. Quiet! Being a werewolf is not illegal in itself. The surprise many of you expressed at Lupin’s admission proves that he has been taking the necessary precautions to safeguard the safety of others. Now be quiet so that this trial may continue.” Amelia turned back to Lupin. “So Peter had help.” That made a lot more sense to her. “Who else is an unregistered animagus?”

Remus was about to refuse to answer when Sirius said “Me. It was only us three, even Lily wasn’t, though James told her about it. She kept trying to get us to register.” He smirked a bit at that. The continuous chocolate eating was helping him clear his mind, though he was also getting a bit of a sugar rush from it.

The trial had now exceeded the three-hour mark and it was getting near midnight. Fudge hadn’t planned on being inconvenienced this much when he had allowed Dumbledore to convince him to hold it immediately. Fudge decided that it was high time he took charge of things (mostly so that he’d be able to catch some sleep before his morning meetings). “We have heard Peter Pettigrew’s case and I believe that we know enough to come to a decision. Is he guilty of being a Death eater, endangering the Potters, and killing twelve muggles? Show of hands, please.” He looked around the room and nodded in satisfaction. “Peter Pettigrew, you have been found guilty of said crimes by a unanimous decision of the Wizengamot and I sentence you to a lifetime in Azkaban by the power invested in me as minister of magic. I hereby strip you of your order of Merlin, since apparently you didn’t deserve it. Aurors, take him to one of the cells used for animagus prisoners.” Fudge looked expectantly at the young wizard with the writing desk. The young wizard, who had been transcribing the trial, presented him with a form filled out with Peter Pettigrew’s name, the charges he’d been found guilty of, and the resulting sentence. After signing the form himself, Fudge passed it to Amelia and then Dumbledore so that they could witness it, before handing it back to the young wizard to be filed away.

Peter pitifully cried for mercy as Scrimgeur ordered two aurors to take him away. Fudge ignored him and turned his attention to Black. Fudge was not a popular minister; he was perfectly aware that many saw him as useless. He was also aware that he had gotten the job mostly because Important People expected him to listen to them. The previous minister of magic, who was well respected in her time, had made an oversight, one that Fudge was in a position to correct and in that way gain respect.

“Sirius Black, while you have been proven to be innocent of the crimes you were previously accused of, you are an unregistered animagus, and that carries its own punishment. Of the six years you spent in Azkaban, three will count towards fulfilling that sentence. The other three are due to an extreme and unfortunate mistake on the part of the Ministry of Magic. I apologize for your suffering and you will receive a formal apology from my office as soon as possible, and I will ensure that news of your innocence will be spread to the public as soon as possible. Since it was you who confronted a known traitor and nearly lost your life, I hereby award you an order of Merlin, first class. I also award you thirty thousand galleons in restitution for your suffering and the ministry will foot the bill for any medical treatment you need. In the meantime, you are to register your animagus status with the correct authority by the end of the month or you will face more charges. Court dismissed.”

The room was completely silent, until…”What?!?” Sirius was taken completely by surprise at this turn of events.

No one had expected that from Fudge. Clearing Black of the charges was obviously necessary, but no one had expected Fudge to provide him with fair restitution, or be wily enough to use the animagus charge to decrease the ministry’s obligation to Black. However, Fudge was a politician at heart, and knew how to spin things his way. Black was obviously set to be popular, due to his heroic attempt to bring Pettigrew to justice, and the tragedy of his Azkaban stay. Fudge’s sentencing served to remind everyone that Black was actually a criminal and deserved to spend some time in Azkaban, which made the ministry look less foolish. On the other hand, Black (and his supporters) would be satisfied by the ministry’s offer of restitution, and would be less likely to demand a reward for capturing Pettigrew. All in all, Fudge would come out of this smelling like a rose, unlike anyone else involved in Black’s original capture.

Fudge suited his actions to his words and got up and walked out of the room. The young wizard hurried after him as there were still court documents to sign and witness. Everyone else shuffled confusedly out of the room – “Are we still not allowed to talk about this?””I don’t know what Fudge was thinking.””I didn’t know Fudge did any thinking!” – as Scrimgeur freed Sirius from his chair and ordered the rest of the aurors back to their regular posts. Remus was the only one who hadn’t moved from his seat.

Remus was sitting with his head bowed forward and his eyes closed, his hands were clasped together between his knees. For the first time in six years – longer even – life was good. No war, his friend free, his other friends resting in peace now that justice was done and their son (Harry) could now live with his godfather. Life really was good.

 ******************************************** 

Chapter 6: Recovery

"How long are you staying here?" Remus added sugar to his tea and leaned back in his chair. 

"Another few days, at least. I'm trying to get out as soon as possible, but six years in a ten-by-ten-foot cell take their toll." Sirius grimaced as he sipped at his potion. It's been two days since the trial. His animagus form had allowed him more protection than other prisoners, but he still had to deal with having little physical activity for six years. Muscle atrophy, reduced bone density, and hypertension have forced him to plan to spend his first week as a free man at St Mungo's. Being forced to spend six years without a connection to magic had only aggravated his health issues. Magical beings need magic the way muggles need plumbing; they can do without, but their quality of life decreased significantly. The very presence of magic induces healing in wizards even if they don't cast any spells. By taking away Sirius's wand, they took away a large part of his connection to magic and so reduced a lot of his natural immunity. His animagus form allowed his psyche some protection, but it did little for his physical health. 

So far, he'd been prescribed various health potions, was working on getting his stomach used to regular meals, and getting used to being surrounded by – mostly – sane people. 

"Dumbledore came by yesterday."

Remus raised his eyebrows and put his tea down. "He did? How did I miss him?" Remus had spent the past two days close to Sirius, helping him with his physical exercises and keeping him company.

"You were brainstorming with healers for ways to make me even more miserable. Anyway, he knew that I'd been having problems with sleeping, memory, and depression. He suggested occlumency as a way to clear my mind and mentally heal. He even offered himself as a teacher." Sirius was surprised that Dumbledore was willing to make time in his already busy schedule for him. Then again, since the day Dumbledore had recognized Sirius's innocence, he'd been trying to make up for his part in the whole mess. If the ministry hadn't offered him money (and he hadn't inherited money from various relatives) Dumbledore would have offered him financial help as well as the lessons.  

"That's excellent! You probably won't take to it, but even a little will help you. I think meditation in general will go a long way towards helping you heal. Occlumency is a step past that and you probably won’t actually need it. You just need a bit more control over your mind." 

"Yeah, he said that. Also offered me his pensieve to look at my happy memories and remember them better. I think at this point, the best thing I can do is put as many memories between my time in Azkaban and the present. Making new memories will be best, but in the mean time I need to push back the bad ones." Actually, remembering James and Lily, even happy memories, were probably going to hurt, but he could share them with Harry, show him his parents. That would make the experience very positive and give him and Harry something to talk about and bond over. 

"Did you ask him about Harry?"

"No... I want to do a bit of healing first. I don't want to be in a position where he can use my health as an argument against me getting guardianship of Harry."

"That... is reasonable. Merlin, Padfoot, you're thinking things through!"

"You needn't be so surprised."

"But I am! Neither you nor James were ever the type to think before acting. You planned jokes and raids, but you didn't really take the time to think about whether what you were doing was wise. I'm – I'm proud of you!"

"Well, I had six years to think about the wisdom of what I did, not just in trusting Wormy, or going after him, but every action. And on that note, I owe you an apology, a sincere one. Back in sixth year, when I was stupid enough to let slip how to get past the Whomping Willow to Sni- Snape, I apologized because you were angry at me and I wanted you to forgive and forget. I didn't take the time to think about whether what I did was right or wise. I was an idiot, an immature idiot, and I needed six years in Azkaban to learn my lesson. Moony, I am sorry for what I did, not because you got mad about it, not because of you or your involvement at all. I'm sorry because it was a stupid, dangerous thing to do."

"Ah, alright. I accept your apology and I'm happy that you figured all that out." Remus was getting more surprised by the minute. When he had thought of being able to spend time with Sirius again, the Sirius he imagined was a physically older version of what he remembers. He hadn't expected, ever, for Sirius to mature and become a, well, become an adult. It was both a pleasant change, and a sad one. Sad because it brought home the fact that they weren't young anymore, that they had changed and time had moved on. Circumstances had made them older, wiser, and wary of the world. James though, James will never have that chance to grow. Lily was always the adult in their group and probably wouldn't have changed as dramatically.

"Honestly, if not for Harry, and you, and the resulting health issues, and mental trauma.... Let's just say Azkaban wasn't a total waste of my time. It was the kick in the pants that I needed."

"I can't agree with you, no one needs Azkaban, but if believing that helps you then go ahead."

"I'm not saying it's a positive experience, just that it gave me the chance to reflect. I'm a good person, Moony, but not always a nice one." Sirius shook his head as if to clear away those thoughts. There was no need to talk about this right now, time to change the subject. "Anyway, the healers think I will make a full recovery eventually if I keep at it. Between everything, I should be back to normal, physically and psychologically, this time next year. If not, I'll go see a muggle therapist if I have to. I don't want anything to keep me from taking proper care of Harry. You know I'll be watched closely and criticized for every little mistake."

"I'm there for you, Padfoot, I'll help you in any way you need."

"Good, you can take occlumency lessons with me. If I have to go to school, so do you. Anyway, it sounds like something useful for your furry problem. You have almost as many mental issues as me"

"Idiot. But yes, actually I am interested in sharing your lessons. It could also be something we can teach Harry later on."

“So that’s settled, the next issue is housing. Where are we gonna live?”

“I had planned on renting a cottage, somewhere rural, in the beginning at least. You need some peace and quiet until you get used to more people.”

“Good, good. I want to live somewhere with a lot of sun and nature and room to run. Somewhere like your family’s place. How is your dad, by the way?” Remus’s mom had died before Sirius had gone to Azkaban, of a muggle illness (she had been a muggle). Beautiful, wonderful woman she was, and had cemented Sirius’s contempt for his family’s beliefs; she had been more of an aunt to him than any of his blood aunts.

“Dad is doing well. He’s been in America the past few years, living with family there. He couldn’t stand to stay after mom passed on, and the constant moving around I had to do meant we didn’t see each other all that often anyway. I didn’t want him to suffer for my condition. Actually, he sold the cottage before he left, but I can probably get it back. The present owner rents it out instead of living in it.”

“Excellent! Yes, that’s what I want. It has a lot of happy memories for both of us, it’s isolated, perfect for full moons. Here, I’ll get you an authorization to access my vault, you can take the money out to buy it.” Sirius suited his actions to his words, passing a parchment with his written authorization and signature to Remus within a few minutes.

“I have to say, Sirius, I’m surprised you’re not all that bitter. You have every right to blame me, and others, for what happened to you. We should have trusted you, I should have trusted you, or at least made sure that you got a trial. I just can’t believe how forgiving you’re being.” Remus still carried around a lot of guilt about his lack of action and probably will for the rest of his life. He let down his friend, his brother, in his time of need and-

“Remus, stop. Stop thinking like that. The first year of my imprisonment everyone was running around catching leftover death eaters and didn’t notice my lack of trial. Matter of fact, most obvious death eaters didn’t get trials, the ones caught red handed at least. The only ones who did were Bellatrix and her gang and that was mostly because of Barty Jr.’s connection. Security was very tight in Azkaban, and very few people were allowed to come and go. You wouldn’t have been able to do anything, not even to send me a message. After things calmed down, Dumbledore came in to see me and got the full story, but by that time it was too late. The ministry wanted to forget all about Voldemort, and resented how Dumbledore and the Order were being treated as heroes while the ministry officials were shown up as useless buffoons. I was a Black, and a popular order member turned traitor. I was Dumbledore’s mistake, something they could point to and say ‘see, Dumbledore isn’t all powerful.’” Sirius got up and got himself a cup of tea to calm down. After sitting back in his chair, he looked at Remus with a twisted smile. “Dumbledore tried to get me a trial, they refused. Not only to spite Dumbledore, but because a lot of prisoners didn’t get trials. If they gave me one, they’d have to give trials to the rest. That’s what they’re doing now. Anyone who was arrested but not tried, and doesn’t have a dark mark, will be getting a trial. They didn’t want to admit they’ve made a mistake, didn’t want to spend time and resources going through trials, and Bagnold was doing her best to maintain control. She wasn’t willing to give any sort of support to Dumbledore because she was afraid he would take her post.”

“WHAT!?! She didn’t even try? You could have been out of there five years ago! What an evil, power hungry, unscrupulous-“

Sirius’s smile gentled and he held his palm up. “Moony, Moony, settle down! It’s over, and I’d rather look forward than back. And anyway, Dumbledore made sure she lost her post over this. That’s why she ‘retired’ two years ago. Dumbledore wanted me to get a trial, and since she wasn’t willing to give me one, he made sure to get someone else who was. Fudge, once he got elected, told Dumbledore that he was willing to give me a trial, but that without solid evidence, there was little chance of me being set free. I needed Wormtail, otherwise I would have had a trial and got convicted, and lost my one chance of freedom. Why do you think Fudge got things wrapped up so fast? He and Dumbledore had a deal. Dumbledore promised to give him some public support in the beginning of his post.”

“That makes a lot of sense. I never expected Fudge to fall in line so quickly or to be decent about the ministry being wrong. He was doing it for his own benefit, and had expected for things to go the way they were.” Remus was remembering the trial, and how Fudge had taken control at the end of it.

“He felt a little bit bad, too. I mean, he was one of the people who put me in there, but I forgave him. He didn’t know me personally, and Wormtail made it look very convincing.”

“You are more forgiving than I. Merlin, Padfoot, you’ve really grown up.”

 ******************* 

A week later the two friends had just finished moving into the cottage. It was small, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and small kitchen/dining room that opened to a living area. The front door opened into the living area, with the kitchen to the left and the two bedrooms in the back. The bathroom was between the bedrooms. The basement had been fortified by Remus’s father, Lyall, years before for Remus to spend full moons in there. It was a very picturesque place, all in earth tones and vines growing on one side of the cottage. It had a small garden in the back and was in the middle of small clearing within a muggle forest. There was a muggle village about three miles away, but the forest kept most muggles away.

Sirius took the smaller bedroom since he was more comfortable sleeping in a small room. The bed was a single, but that was alright too for the same reason. Remus made dinner (Sirius ‘helped’) and they went to sleep early. Tomorrow, they would go see Dumbledore and finally ask about Harry. Sirius thought it would be a couple of months at least before Harry became comfortable with them. He didn’t want to just take Harry away from his home without first gaining his trust and making him feel like they were a family. Once Harry was ready, he would help them look for a bigger place that could fit all of them. Until then, Sirius would concentrate on improving his health and getting to know his godson.

********************************************

Chapter 7: Hiding in Plain Sight

May 30, 1988

The walk from the front gates to the great doors of Hogwarts was a walk down memory lane. After apparating just outside Hogwarts, Remus and Sirius cast notice-me-not charms on themselves so that they could walk through the grounds without too much attention from the students. Sirius and Remus reminisced on their school days and were in a very good mood by the time they reached the headmaster's office. 

Remus looked at Sirius. "Do you know the password?"

"No, but Dumbledore knows we're coming." Sirius turned to the gargoyle guarding the entrance. "Could you tell Dumbledore that Remus and Sirius are here to see him?"

After a minute of nothing the gargoyle moved aside and stairs started rising up. The two friends quickly stepped on and rode them to the landing. Dumbledore was already there and ushered them into his office.

"Sirius, Remus, sorry for the delay. A headmaster's job is never done." Dumbledore rounded his desk and sat on his chair. "Sirius, you are looking much better. I can't tell you how good it is to see you so healthy."

"Thank you, Dumbledore. I still have a-ways to go but I'm getting there." 

Suddenly Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix familiar, let out trilling cry before looking almost reproachfully at Dumbledore.

"Yes, Fawkes, I have not forgotten. Sirius, this is a gift from Fawkes." So saying he took out a small crystal vial from the top drawer of his desk and handed it to Sirius. "It contains a small - very small - amount of Fawkes's tears. There is a particular healing potion, Fyrebrew, that uses them as the main ingredient. You should be able to find instructions for it in Baltair's Healing Portents. There is a copy in Hogwarts library if you don't have one. The potion will go a long way towards healing you."

"That's convenient."

"Yes, very. It took me a while to convince Fawkes to be so generous, but the thought of Azkaban having a permanent impact on your health was a great motivator. Hopefully, it will have a positive effect on your mind, but I don't think it will. This will only heal you physically. The potion itself should be within your skill to brew, it's just the rarity of the ingredients that prevents healers from prescribing it."

"Thank you, Fawkes, and you, Dumbledore, for thinking of it. I've been researching occlumency and I have to agree with Remus that it doesn't sound like something I'd have an easy time with. I'm hoping that meditation and immersing myself in positive memories in a pensieve will be enough. Honestly, I don't want to revert back to who I was before Azkaban. That Sirius was immature in many ways, rebellious. I just want to move beyond the nightmares and depression."

"That will still take effort, but it is doable. I will help you in any way I can, my door is always open to you. I was thinking that we could meet once a week for you to access Hogwart's pensieve. It cannot be removed from my office, but once you learn to use it I am willing to give you time alone to view your memories in privacy."

"That would be great. Remus has also offered to lend me memories if I need them, and between the two of us things should work out well." Sirius took a calming breath and braced himself. "Enough about how I'm doing, how is Harry doing?"

 ******************

"Boy! Make sure to have the yard work done before your uncle gets home, or you'll answer to him!"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry Potter had just gotten home from school and had hoped for (but not expected) a small snack before starting on his chores. Watering the garden and keeping up with the weeding was hard work on an empty stomach, especially for a seven (almost eight) year old. Harry didn't expect to have time to do his homework until after dinner, since he was expected to help out with dinner preparations. 

Putting his school bag in the cupboard under the stairs (which happened to be his room), Harry headed out to the backyard. Over the years, Harry had found that he was better off getting rid of weeds as he saw them rather than doing a weekly weeding. It meant that on the occasions when he was low on time (this happened often with the list of chores he was responsible for) he could still manage to do a good enough job on the yard work, thus avoiding punishment. Said punishment usually entailed being locked in his cupboard for long periods of time, which he hated not only because it was boring, but also because it kept him from school. Harry didn't like to study or anything, but he did like that most of his teachers had positive opinions of him and don't want to let them down by missing class. He had managed to maintain decent grades this year just because he's avoided major punishments, and the Dursleys (his aunt, uncle, and their son) didn't notice because Dudley, his 'big boned' cousin, wasn't in his class. Petunia and Vernon Dursley didn't care about Harry so long as he didn't draw attention to himself, and usually just signed his school work without looking at the grades. He didn't want them to realize that his grades were better than Dudley's. That, he was sure, would lead to a whole new set of problems. 

By the time Vernon came home a few hours later, Harry had done some weeding, pruned the hedges, watered the front and back yard, as well as helped his aunt cook dinner. He was currently setting the table, while Petunia attempted to bribe Dudley into studying for an upcoming spelling test.

"Dudders, sweetie, you need to be able to spell to get a management position like your daddy's, and you want to be like him, don't you?"

Personally, Harry didn't, but he guessed that Dudley didn't have a better role model. Honestly, neither did Harry, but he still planned on being nothing like his uncle. 

"If you do well on the test, I'm sure Daddy and I could see ourselves getting you something nice."

"What will I get?" Dudley's eyes narrowed in greed.

"Well, what do you want?" Petunia was not in the habit of putting limits on her beloved son. 

"I want a day without the freak around!" Dudley sent an evil look at Harry, which Harry ignored. He knew that if he did anything, the Dursleys would immediately punish him. Dudley was not worth missing the special speaker Mrs. Dodger had arranged for his class. It was a firefighter and rumors were that they hand out special prizes to students who answered questions correctly. 

"Of course, sweetums, anything you want, if you get a good mark on your spelling test – that's an eight out of ten or better – we’ll send him away for the day. We may even take a family trip!" It was obvious how relieved Petunia was that Dudley was willing to study. She's recently received a phone call from his teacher, Mr. Brooks, warning that if Dudley didn't improve his grades there was a good chance he'd be held back. Petunia above all else wanted the respect and good opinion of her neighbors, and though she loved her son and she refused to admit it, Dudley was the biggest obstacle in her way. His unhealthy size made it seem like she didn’t take good care of her family, his spoiled (and bullying) demeanor meant that the other mothers often made pointed comments about her lack of parenting skills, and his lower than average grades put her own intelligence to question. Fortunately for Harry, the neighbors for some odd reason didn’t take much notice of him, or anything relating to him. If they were to ever mention him to Petunia he would never hear the end of it.

**************

“YOU LEFT HIM WITH PETUNIA! WHY YOU-” Remus cast a quick silencio at Sirius to keep him from saying something he’d later regret. The last time Sirius had been this angry he had confronted Pettigrew and ended up in Azkaban. Remus thought it prudent to take over the talking.

“Petunia was always envious of Lily and her magic, and that turned to outright hatred early on. Leaving Harry with her was a bad idea. Leaving Harry on her doorstep with a letter and nothing else was… negligent. Did you at least throw a warming charm on him? Did you put any sort of monitoring charms to make sure she took good care of him?” Remus was as angry as Sirius (who was still mutely shouting and making rude hand gestures at Dumbledore), but Remus’s anger more often burned cold and allowed him to maintain his composure better than Sirius.

Dumbledore put his hands up in peace gesture and did his best to explain himself to the angry duo. “Yes, I did throw a heating charm on him. I am not sure if you are aware, but Lily and James had been using their time at the cottage researching various ways to protect Harry. The most powerful they found was a blood based ritual, where the willing sacrifice of the parents would give a child an exceptional strong shield against harm. This shield can be aimed at a specific person against whom it will be most powerful, but it will also extend to many aspects of the child’s life. The child is thereafter seen as ‘lucky’ by others since it seems as if things have a way of working out for the best for them. It is a way for parents to secure the best life for their child if they are willing to sacrifice their own life and magic for it, since the shield requires two willing life sacrifices to bond to the child, and is powered by the parents’ magic.”

“What does that have to do with you leaving Harry on Petunia’s doorstep?”

“James and Lily didn’t have a chance to complete the ritual. Lily was able to bond her life and magic into a shield for Harry, but James didn’t have a chance to. His intent was there, but he didn’t finish the bonding process. Fortunately, what they did was still enough to protect Harry against Voldemort’s killing curse. I knew that they hadn’t finished, and suspected that the shield was already breaking down, its power fluctuating. When I arrived at Godric’s Hollow and saw that Lily was able to finish her part of the ritual, I immediately used what little I knew of blood magic to stabilize the shield by using Lily and Harry’s closest living blood relative, Petunia. James’s contribution to the shield was fundamental in Harry surviving the killing curse, but it was quickly being drained away. All Harry has left was Lily’s portion, which uses Petunia as an anchor. So long as Harry considers Petunia’s home to be his, the shield will be active.”

“But Voldemort is gone, his followers either in Azkaban or in hiding. He doesn’t need the shield anymore. He could have been placed with proper guardians a long time ago.”

“Who? Sirius was in Azkaban, Alice and Frank were attacked not long after James and Lily, and the Ministry would never allow you to get custody of any child, let alone Harry. The ones with the strongest tie to him at the time were the Black sisters, Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy. I don’t need to tell you that with his political and financial standing, Lucius Malfoy would have had little problem taking custody of Harry, especially considering he has a son his age. No, by hiding Harry as quickly as I did I was able to keep him of the Ministry’s control.”

Sirius had calmed down a while back and had listened to what Dumbledore was saying. He cuffed Remus’s shoulder, pointing to his mouth when the other turned to him with an annoyed look. Remus sheepishly (he had forgotten about the silencio) cast a finite to allow Sirius to speak aloud.

“I am here now, and as his godfather and second cousin, I have a good case for getting custody of Harry.” Sirius was not leaving Harry with Petunia. She may have already damaged his ability to do magic with all her talk of ‘freakishness.’

“Yes, but that may be unwise. I don’t believe that Voldemort is gone, and more importantly, Harry currently serves as a beacon for the light. Any dark witch or wizard, and there are many out there, seeking to gain power will see him as an obstacle in their way and will be after him. The protection living with Petunia grants him is necessary for his well-being.”

“I can protect him! I’m not a Black for nothing, we make Moody seem careless. I can set up wards and protective charms out the wazoo, I’ll even hire goblins to do the work-”

“Sirius, I know you will do your best, but nothing you set up will be as complete and versatile as the shield he currently has. For example, it has not only placed a weak muggle-repellent charm on him to keep curious neighbors from noticing his accidental magic, it has also placed a strong wizard-repellent charm to keep him from drawing the attention of the wizarding world. I’ve seen him out and about in London, but if I approach with the intent of talking to him I somehow find myself five minutes later shopping for muggle candy without getting within ten steps of him. I know where Petunia lives, yet I can’t get there. I keep getting lost. I don’t expect that Petunia has treated him as she treats her son, but I did place a health monitoring charm on him that night, and he seems to be well. Perhaps as his rightful guardian and one appointed by Lily you would have better luck, but I do not know for sure.”

Remus and Sirius were gaping at Dumbledore by this point. They had never heard of anything that would hide someone so thoroughly. Even the Fidilius charm only hid a location and required that at least one person (the secret keeper) can find said location.

“I didn’t know there was anything like that, though now it makes sense how I could never get any sort of information on Harry.” Remus was trying to remember if he’d ever come across any spell or ritual that achieved such a result.

“The ritual is African in origin and its name translates as simply ‘parent’s love.’ Most parents who do find it necessary to die protecting their children don’t have the advanced warning to set up the ritual. James and Lily needed six months to prepare the ritual, and it was only because James had little warning before dueling Voldemort that he was not able to take the last step, which was to initiate the bonding that would make the shield last all throughout Harry’s childhood.”

“Well, I still want to check up on him. What’s Petunia’s address?”

***********************************

Chapter 8: Harry Hunting

“Padfoot, what are we doing here?”

“We’re looking for Harry.”

Fifteen minutes later…

“Padfoot, what are we doing here?”

“We’re- oh, forget it! Moony, I want you to find Number 2 Privet Drive.”

“Alright, but you’re going to have to tell me what we’re doing here eventually.” Remus checked what house number they were currently passing (16) and continued behind Sirius. They had left Hogwarts a little over an hour ago and were now on a muggle street in Surrey. The houses, looking too alike for his taste, were of the two stories variety, each with its own driveway to the left of the identical front doors. It seemed as if even the length of the grass in the front yards was the same for each house, lest nature ruin the otherwise chilling effect.

“There it is, now what?”

“Now, we watch.”

“Padfoot-“

“Just watch, Moony. Actually, you don’t have to be here. You can’t get past the protection’s effects anyway. I don’t think you’ll be able to notice anything.”

“What-? Oh, fine! You’re lucky I brought along a book.”

**************

A couple of hours before, Dumbledore’s office

“Well, I still want to check up on him. What’s Petunia’s address?” Sirius looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

“Surrey, Little Whinging, Number 4 Privet Drive.” Dumbledore brought his fingertips together in front of him. “Sirius, I want you to think about what I’m saying to you. Obviously it could only be to Harry’s benefit to have you involved in his life-“

“I should think so!”

Dumbledore ignored Sirius’s interruption and continued. “-But the protection living with Petunia grants him is valuable, too. What little I remember of Petunia is not pleasant-”

“She’s a hag! She used to call Lily a freak every time she saw her, the old harpy!”

“If you can get past the protection, then you can check up on Harry’s living conditions, and be involved in his life, without removing him from her custody.” The last was said over Sirius’s continued protests. “I can understand that you want him to live with you, but think of his safety. The protection safeguards him from not only dark wizards and witches, but also any witch or wizard who may be over-enthusiastic in their attempt to thank him.”

“I can protect him. He is my godson and should live with me and Remus. We are strong enough to protect him.”

“Can you protect him from his fame? He is famous for his parents’ actions, and is celebrated for something that was the result of his parents’ death. Many in our world willfully ignore this and only think of him as a hero, a public figure that belongs to them and not a child who was tragically orphaned. They idolize him, have built him up to be this mythical figure. If their bubble is not burst, they will not treat him fairly. They will expect great things from him, things that are beyond a grown wizard let alone a child, and will punish him for failing to deliver. At least give him a few years to learn about our world in relative seclusion.”

“But why with Petunia? We can give him an anonymous life, a normal magical upbringing that will allow him to better understand his magical heritage. We-”

“You may do that once he starts Hogwarts. In the meantime, as his legal guardian you can do things that I can’t, such as stopping the publishing of those idiotic children’s books that many take seriously, or all those history books that can’t decide if he survived due to being a powerful light wizard or a powerful dark wizard. He needs time and privacy, and the protection will grant him that.”

“Petunia is probably not treating him well. She was always a vindictive b-.”

“Padfoot, I think we should listen to what Dumbledore has to say. He’s had more experience with this than us, and we should take the time to think about his advice.”

“Thank you, Remus. Sirius, I’m sure you can still be in Harry’s life. If Petunia isn’t treating him well, I’m sure you can convince her to change her behavior. Now, I would like to start working on getting you legal custody of Harry. I was a witness to you being named his godfather, as were you Remus, and can provide a character witness….”

They went through the steps of how Sirius would get legal custody of Harry, and stopping the unlicensed use of Harry's name, as well as coming up with solutions for any problems that may crop up. Sirius and Remus eventually left Hogwarts and apparated home on Remus’s insistence.

“Why did you side with Dumbledore? It’s obvious that the best thing for Harry is staying with us. James and Li-” Sirius was very unhappy by how the two had teamed up on him.

“I agree with you, Padfoot.”

“-Ly made me – Wait, what?”

“I agree with you. Harry would be happiest and safest with us. However, it was obvious that Dumbledore wasn’t going to budge. So, we will go along with his plans until he helps you get custody of Harry. After that, you, as Harry’s guardian, can do what you deem best and Dumbledore won’t be able to interfere, especially if we can hide our plans from him.”

“A Slytherin approach? You really think it’s necessary?”

“When has Dumbledore ever changed his mind? His ideals have always gotten in the way of people’s well-being. Remember how Moody wanted Order members to make unbreakable vows? A lot of us agreed with him, but Dumbledore was against it. If we had done it, then James and Lily, as well as a lot of others, would not have been betrayed to their death by Peter.” The last was said with a growl and a black look that Sirius shared.

“So you’re saying that, for Harry’s sake, we should hide him from Dumbledore?”

“You may have forgotten the prophecy, Padfoot, but Dumbledore hasn’t. Harry was marked, but he still has another confrontation coming. We all know that it’s not over, and Dumbledore is willing to use Harry for the ‘greater good.’ It’s so obvious that that was the reason he wanted him at the Dursleys’. He wanted to make sure that Harry was raised to be like us. We both had problematic childhoods that made us so grateful to Dumbledore for ‘saving us’ that we became his faithful soldiers. James, who had a normal childhood, was never as enamored with Dumbledore as we were, and he questioned him more often. The only reason he and Lily took on dangerous missions was because they wanted to stay near us. I don’t want Harry to have a reason to be that grateful to anyone.”

Sirius turned thoughtful. He remembered how in his first few months at Hogwarts he had been scared that his parents would yank him out due to being sorted into Gryffindor. It was only once Dumbledore had caught him sneaking around one night, and had assured him that that would not happen, that he had been able to relax. Still, it had forever established Dumbledore as a great protective figure in his mind, and for years after that it was the thought of Dumbledore that gave him the will to stand against his parents and their beliefs. No, he didn’t want that for Harry. “You’re right. Dumbledore is a great man, but he has his faults. We need to get Harry away from his influence before he turns him into another soldier.”

In silent agreement, the two friends got up to go check on Harry Potter.

**************

Back to Little Whinging

Remus did eventually leave, though Sirius thought that that was due to the effect of the protection. He himself actually felt no effects from it, and was able to witness first hand Harry’s treatment at the hands of the Dursley’s. He was ready to curse them to Scotland and back by the time they had finished supper and sat in front of their teevishing while Harry loaded the dishwasher. It was time he had a little chat with Petunia.

Grateful that he had worn muggle clothing for his mission today, Sirius walked up to the front door and rang the bell.

“Yes?”

“Hello, Petunia. Remember me?”

“…No…?”

“I’m James’s friend. I turned your hair pink at his engagement party.”

“YOU! GET OFF MY PROPER-“

“Now, now, Tuney, what will the neighbors say when they hear you screeching like that?” Sirius took out his wand and started playing with it. “I think you want to invite me in before I decide that pink really is a good color for you.”

Petunia took a fearful look at the neighboring houses, a second at the wand, and quickly stepped back to allow Sirius in. He’d barely made it through before she slammed the door shut. “This way. Dudley, go to your room.”

“I’m watching the telly!”

“You have a telly in your room. Now, Dudley.”

“What is it, dear?” Vernon didn’t stop reading his newspaper even as he asked the question. At this point in the evening he was done with his manly responsibilities and just wanted to check the football scores in peace.

The lack of endearments seemed to get to Dudley as he wobbled up the stairs with only a quick side trip to the kitchen for snacks. Meanwhile, Petunia led Sirius to the living room where she walked to stand beside Vernon’s chair and tapped his shoulder to get him to look up. “One of them is here.”

 *****

Harry was playing with a half melted toy soldier that he had scavenged from Dudley’s castaways as a birthday present to himself years earlier. He had just finished his homework (spelling test tomorrow) and wasn’t sleepy yet. Usually the Dursley’s would let him keep his light on unless they were punishing him. In that case, Vernon would unscrew the light bulb in cupboard and take it away. But tonight he wasn’t being punished, so he had time to play (quietly) while listening to the telly. That is, until he heard his aunt screaming at someone, then the telly turning off and Dudley stomping his way up the stairs. This was new. The Dursley’s rarely had unscheduled visitors, especially not this late. Harry moved closer to his cupboard door and opened it a crack to eavesdrop. Information was key to knowing how to behave around his relatives.

“-Treating him horribly, you horse-faced *itch.” The man’s voice was strong if a bit scratchy. He seemed well educate, at least his accent was posh like some of the business associates Vernon invited over for dinners in an effort to impress them. “You will give him his own room, you will feed him well, you will stop giving him chores, you will get him decent clothes, and you will stop talking or referring to him in a derogatory manner. I am working on getting legal custody of him, but in the meantime you will treat him like an honored guest. If I come back and see no improvement, I won’t be pleased. You should know that we do have our own version of child services and I will be lodging a complaint with them. Thus, they will also be monitoring you, and will take any necessary steps to insure that you are treating him well. Do you idiots understand me? What you are doing is called child abuse and neglect. Your abnormal treatment of him will be looked into later, but in the meantime you will stop.”

Harry was surprised to not hear anything from his aunt and uncle. He was even more surprised (and slightly afraid) to hear footsteps coming in his direction. He quickly backed away from the door of his cupboard as someone opened it fully from the outside. Crouching down to look at him was a man who looked to be in his twenties. He had shoulder length black hair and a beard shadow. His face was pale, his eyes grey, and he looked as if he had been sick recently. What was most surprising was what the man said. “Hello, Harry. My name is Sirius and I am your godfather. Will you come out so we can talk?”

 *****

Sirius’s first look at Harry was a bit of a relief. The situation could have been better, but it also could have been worse. Harry had James’s scruffy hair and bad eyesight, Lily’s eyes, nose, and general face shape, though the stubborn chin was all James. He was obviously dressed in second hand clothes that did not fit him well, and was on the skinny side. However, he wasn’t bruised (and from what Sirius had observed before, the adult Dursleys limited their abuse to verbal) and he wasn’t undernourished to the point of near starvation. This was a horrible home for Harry, but it had been survivable. Still, what Sirius had seen had only cemented his decision to get Harry away from there.

Slowly, Harry moved closer and Sirius stepped out of the doorway so that Harry could get out. As he stood up, Sirius saw that he seemed to be short, though he had long forgotten the average height for seven-year-olds. James had been tall, but Lily had been average height at most, so Harry could take after her. His clothing also didn’t help, being over-sized.

“Is there anywhere we can talk without anyone overhearing us?” Sirius asked him.

“M-maybe the backyard? There is a table and chairs set.” Harry seemed nervous, which was understandable. He hadn’t seen him in six years, and probably had no memory of him.

“That works. Lead the way.” Sirius followed Harry through the backdoor and to a small metal table with four chairs around it. The both sat down across from each other and each stared at the other. “I guess I’ll start with what you know or remember about your parents.”

 ************************************* 

Chapter 9: A Past Revealed

May 30, 1988

“Their names were James and Lily Potter, and they died in a car crash. I got my scar from the same crash.”

“They didn’t die in a car crash. They didn’t even own a car.”

“But aunt Petunia said they did!”

What to tell him? It was obvious that Petunia had hidden the existence of magic from Harry. Knowing about magic may do him more harm than good while he’s staying with the Dursleys, since they may force him to start repressing his magic and therefore turn him into an obscurial. There was still a small chance that Sirius wouldn’t get custody of Harry, or that it may take him a long time to do so. He wasn’t sure how long it took to become an obscurial, but he wasn’t going to chance it.

“Your dad worked in law enforcement. The leader of a terrorist organization was after your family and your parents died in a home invasion. Your mum was able to protect you until the evil git went away, but she died as a result. Your aunt and uncle probably didn’t tell you that because they wouldn’t have been told the particulars.” There, a nice muggle explanation for what happened.

“So, my dad was a hero? Why do the Dursleys hate them then?”

“Both your parents were heroes. Petunia had been jealous of Lily for as long as I’ve known them. Your mum was clever, pretty, and very charming. She won a place at an exclusive boarding school in Scotland because of her talent, and started going there when she was eleven. That’s where she (and I also) met your dad. Your dad and I were legacies, generations of our families went to that school, but your mum was the first of her family to do so. Petunia was at first jealous because Lily went to a special school. As she got older she noticed that Lily was prettier and more charming than her and became jealous of that. Your mum was very popular and had a lot of friends. She was also made a prefect due to her high grades and good standing with her teachers. Around the time that Petunia started bringing Dursley home to meet your grandparents, your parents started dating. Your dad and grandad got along well, though I wouldn’t say that they were friends. However, your grandparents obviously liked James more than Dursley, though they tried to not be obvious about it. It didn’t hurt that James was handsome and came from money. So not only was Lily better than Petunia, but her boyfriend was also better. By the time your parents sent Petunia a wedding invitation, she refused to attend. They never had a chance to reconcile before your parents died.”

“Do have pictures of my parents? Or letters or journals? Anything?”

“I can bring some pictures next week. You look like a mixture of them, though the hair and glasses (which need to be replaced) emphasize your likeness to James. Your mum had red hair and your eyes. The pale skin could be from either of them, though your mom got freckles if she went out in the sun. Both had paler than average skin, but your dad usually managed a decent tan in the summer. I can’t judge your build because of the clothes and lack of proper food.” Sirius got more comfortable in his seat and kept a steady gaze at Harry. It was obvious the boy had a question on his mind but was afraid to voice it.

Harry looked down at his hands for a few minutes before looking back up at Sirius. “Where were you? Why didn’t you come check up on me earlier?”

Sirius felt all the air leave his lungs in a long whoosh. This had been the question he’d been dreading. Keeping an eye on Harry to see his reaction, Sirius answered. “I was in prison. I was framed for a crime I didn’t commit and it took the government six years to catch the real criminal and set me free. I took a few weeks to recuperate, jail isn’t good for a person’s health, but I came here as soon as I could. I’m sorry for being away all this time. Don’t worry, because my imprisonment was a mistake, it shouldn’t pose a problem for getting custody of you. I am financially set for taking care of you, and I promise that whatever happens, I’ll be there for you from now on.”

Harry looked down for a while, thinking through Sirius’s answer. Finally, he looked up at his godfather’s face. “Okay. But I’m holding you to your promise.”

****They have a long getting-to-know-each-other conversation that I’m to lazy to write out****

"I know this in no way makes up for missing so many birthdays, but I have a gift for you if you'll accept it?"

"A gift? For me?" Harry couldn't believe that this was happening. He had to keep pinching his leg to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Not only were the Dursleys told off for their treatment of him, but someone came! Someone came for him like he'd always fantasized about. Sirius, who was his godfather (he had a godfather!) and therefore was like his family, knew his parents, was friends with them, and he liked Harry! He was going to adopt Harry (maybe) and it was all Harry could do to not burst into thankful, grateful tears. And now, Sirius was giving him a present!

"Yes, for you. It's not really fun, but it's tradition for a father to give his son a watch. Your grandfather actually bought me a watch when I was seventeen and I thought I'd pass it on to you. Here." Sirius had taken out a black box as he was explaining all this and put it on the table in front of Harry. "It's almost like your granddad bought the watch for you."

Harry reached for the box with shaking hands and began to open it. This was something that came from his grandfather, a sort of heirloom, and represented something he never thought he would ever have: a connection to his family. In the box, the watch was gold with a black face. The band was black leather (or he assumed it was as he didn't have much experience with leather) and the Roman numerals and watch hands were gold. A choked "thanks" was all Harry could manage as he put the watch on. He tried to tighten it as far as it would go - it was still a bit loose on him, but it wasn’t in danger of falling off as long as he was careful.

"It's my pleasure, Harry. Please keep the watch on at all times, even when you're sleeping or in the shower. It's waterproof and scratch resistant so you don't have to worry about that. Do understand, Harry?"

"Yeah, I'll wear it all the time."

The two said their goodbyes and Sirius went to have another chat with the Dursleys. He made sure to tell them about the special qualities of the watch, which included various tracking and monitoring charms, as well as the fact that he was the only one who could take it off. He didn't want them to even think that they could get away with neglecting or abusing Harry. After leaving the Dursley’s home, Sirius put a notice-me-not charm on himself and waited for them to go to bed. Harry was put in their guest bedroom and plans were made to clean out Dudley’s second bedroom for Harry. As much as Sirius really wanted to live up to his marauder reputation, any revenge he enacted on the Dursleys would be used against him when applied to get guardianship over Harry. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t still get back at them for making Harry suffer for seven years. He just had to be very subtle about it. With an evil smirk on his face, Sirius apparated away.

*************

Sirius, with help from Dumbledore, started the process for being legally acknowledged as Harry’s guardian. It took two weeks, a sizable donation to St. Mungo’s, and Sirius talking up Fudge and his administration in his press interviews, before Sirius was officially granted Harry’s guardianship.

Meanwhile, Remus had been researching other magical ministries to figure out which one was least likely to try to pressure them to return Harry back to Britain. Sirius and Remus had both decided that Dumbledore had a point about the problems with Harry growing up as a celebrity, and that Harry would have a more normal upbringing if he were to grow up somewhere where people would not look at him as some kind of hero. To that end, they were leaving the UK, and maybe even Europe to get as far from anything related to Voldemort and the damned prophecy as possible. As such, Remus was researching to see where they could go where there was a vibrant magical settlement, a decent ministry that was unlikely to care about what the British Ministry of Magic wanted, and a good magical school for Harry. It was down to two places: Egypt and Japan.

Japan’s ministry had very few ties to the UK, and the Japanese magical school (Mahoutokoro) accepted day students from the age of seven (basically there was a babysitting services as well as a chance for Harry to be fully integrated in the magical world by professionals). Their school was also well known for their Quidditch training, and any son of James was bound to be a talented flyer. Meanwhile, Egypt is possible home to the oldest magical settlements, with a full size magical city that predates the Roman Empire. Its ministry was powerful enough to not care about the UK, and the magical school Harry would go to (Uagadou) not only encouraged its student to become animagi, but also trained them in wandless magic. The only problem was making sure that Harry would be recruited by either school as his birth was registered by Hogwarts. As such, Remus sent owls to the education departments of both countries’ ministries asking what happens to the magical children of the families that immigrate there.

Remus was also in charge of figuring out their financial situation. Harry’s trust fund was closed until he turned eleven, and anything else he might have inherited was untouchable until Harry came of age. However, they had dealt with the issue of various businesses and authors using his name without authorization and Harry had one a sizeable settlement from them. Remus himself had little in the way of money, but Sirius was doing well. He had inherited from most of his family members since they left everything to the closest Black, and since he was the last surviving Black, he got everything. That added to the funds he had before he went to Azkaban, and the restitution money, made him a rich wizard, well able to afford to relocate. Remus and Sirius could start their own little business to keep themselves busy without having to worry about being profitable.

The day finally came when Sirius was able to visit Harry again. He had been kept so busy trying to gain guardianship that he hadn’t been able to talk to Harry face to face, though he had been by late at night and dropped him notes so that he wouldn’t feel abandoned.

Petunia answered the door a few moments after he knocked and didn’t even bother to talk. She just stepped aside for him to get in. With a quick ‘thank you’ (say what you want about Walburga Black, she taught her sons polite manners) Sirius made his way to the living room.

“He’s not here. He still has school until June 21^st, and school won’t let out for another ten minutes.” Petunia said as she followed him. She sat down on the edge of the sofa and kept watching him as if he was some wild animal about to attack her.

“That’s alright, I need to talk to you anyway. I managed to push the papers through and I’ve gained full guardianship of Harry in the magical ministry. I’ll be taking Harry with me for a visit but he will be back for tonight.” Petunia opened her mouth but Sirius continued talking over top of her. “Dumbledore wants him to stay here. Yeah, I’m not happy about that either.” The last was said to Petunia’s scowl. “I’m working on it, but in the meantime he sleeps here. However, starting tomorrow he will not be going to muggle school, so you may want to call them to let them know. Tell them what you want, because he’s unlikely to go there next year. He needs to start preparing for the magical world.”

“You didn’t tell him. About that-that world. You didn’t tell him.”

“No, I am planning on telling him today. He will spend every night – seven pm to seven am – here, but during the day I’ll take him and teach him about his heritage. I’ll keep trying to get Dumbledore to agree to let him stay with me full time for at least part of the year, but in the mean time we share custody.”

Silence. Very awkward silence. For nearly twenty minutes. Sirius was getting very sick of the photographs the Dursleys had lying around when the front door opened and Harry’s “I’m home, Aunt Petunia” was heard.

“In here, Harry.” Sirius grinned when Harry ran into the living room only to stop and stare disbelieving at him.

“Y-you finished the paperwork?” Harry couldn’t help but sound hopeful when he asked the question. Sirius got up and walked over to him.

“Yes! And I’m taking you out to celebrate!” Sirius hugged Harry before turning him around and giving him a push. “Go change into something, I’m taking you out for the rest of the day. We have a lot to talk about.”

Harry turned and started walking out of the room backwards. “About where we’re going to live?”

“Yes, that. And about magic.”

***************************************

Chapter 10: Magical Heritage

June 13, 1988

“There is no such thing as magic.” Stated factually, almost an instinctive response, obviously a phrase that Harry has heard often. Sirius was somewhat nervous about telling Harry otherwise since he wasn’t sure if the boy would be able to deal with his reality being massively reworked. Better to do it in private so that Harry could absorb and react to the information without worrying about being heard.

“We’ll talk in a bit, go get ready now.”

“Bu-“

“Later, Harry. Please, get ready.” Sirius hoped that he came of as firm instead of bossy; there was no way he was having this conversation in front of Petunia.

“Fine.” Harry ran all the way to his bedroom (his actual bedroom with a window and a wardrobe) to put his schoolbag away, and change into going out clothes. He was used to the frustration of not having his questions answered, but he had thought that Sirius was different. He was nicer than the Dursleys, and seemed interested in making sure he was well and happy, but he still didn’t tell him everything. It must be a grown up thing, not answering children’s questions.

It didn’t take Harry long to get ready, and ten minutes later he and Sirius were out the door. Harry was a bit confused when Sirius steered him towards an out of the way corner of the nearby park and stopped. Looking down, Sirius put his hands on Harry’s shoulder.

“Magic is real. I’m going to show you proof. This is called apparition, which is uncomfortable but really useful.” With that, Sirius held onto Harry more firmly with his left hand and pulled out a stick with his right. Harry felt a tug behind his bellybutton before he was squeezed tight and then popped out. Harry immediately went down to his knees and did his best not to lose his lunch. Sirius tried to help by kneeling and rubbing his back, murmuring encouraging words in the meantime, but it still took Harry a few minutes to calm his stomach.

Harry turned his head to Sirius and immediately noticed that he was somewhere else! Harry and Sirius were in front of a little cottage, beside a forest, with no sign of Privet Drive or Little Whinging anywhere. “Sirius..?”

“Harry, don’t freak out. This is proof that magic exists. What we just did is a form of magical travel.” Sirius stopped himself to see how Harry was handling things. He really should have done this more gradually, but hindsight and all that. “Harry, have you ever wanted something, or were scared or angry, and something interesting happened?”

“Y-you mean like when the really ugly sweater I didn’t want to wear shrunk? But it shrunk in the wash, Aunt Petunia said so.” Harry tried to understand what was going on, but it was just too confusing to deal with. “Can I get some water? My stomach is sick.”

“Sure thing, buddy. Here, let’s go in and get you some water, maybe some saltines, too. I’m afraid to say that most magical travel is uncomfortable, but you get used to it, and it’s a lot more convenient than dealing with muggle traffic.”

“Uh-huh.” Harry was still very sick to his stomach and very confused. He really didn’t know what to make of this idea of magic being real. So his godfather had a magic stick and could ‘bibbity-bobbity-boo’ him all around. Hopefully, he won’t be putting him in any dresses or expecting him to climb into pumpkins.

Harry, one hand on his stomach and the other on his head, let Sirius lead him into the cottage. The very obviously magical cottage since the pictures moved, the broom was sweeping the floor with no one holding it, and the flowers were made of flames instead of petals. If it weren’t for his stomach ache and the beginning of a headache, Harry would have thought that this was all a dream, similar to the one about the flying motorcycle.

“MOONY! HARRY IS HERE!” Sirius shouted (to Harry’s weak moan and flinch) as he lead Harry to sit down on one of the armchairs (there were two). ‘Moony’ turned out to be a man Sirius’s age, with brown hair and warm eyes. His smile was very welcoming and his eyes seemed to light up at the sight of Harry.

“Harry! Hi! I’m so excited to see you!” Remus said as he moved towards Harry with his hand out to shake. Sirius had left Harry to get him the water. “My name is Remus Lupin, and I was a school friend of your parents’.”

“Hi… Are you magic, too?”

“Ahh, yes, yes, I am. Sirius told you then? Well, he would have to, what with everything here being obviously magically.” Remus smile kindly at Harry. “How are adjusting to finding out?”

“Not very well. I don’t like that app-thing that Sirius did, and its all just… a surprise.” Harry took a deep breath and tried to think. Magic. There was magic, and Sirius had said- Wait. “Am I magic?”

“Yes, you are. Didn’t Sirius tell you?” Remus sent a look at Sirius, who just gave a sheepish grin while handing Harry a glass of Water.

“No, it was very fast. We were at Privet Drive and then we were here.”

“I didn’t want to have the conversation in front of Petunia, and apparating was the quickest way here. You’re better at these things, Moony, you tell him.” Sirius sat back in the other arm chair and made an inviting hand motion to Remus, who was glaring at him.

After a last dark look at Sirius, Remus turned back to Harry, was looked somewhat lost and nearly swallowed by the armchair. “Here, Harry. Why don’t you and I sit on the couch.” So saying, Remus half carried Harry to the couch and sat beside him. “Let’s start from the beginning.

“There are and always have been witches and wizards who could do magic. There is a whole magical world; wizards, dragons, unicorns, many magical beings that long ago decided to hide from the non-magicals. You with me so far?”

“Witches, Wizards, dragons, and other stuff are real and they hide.” Harry had a look of concentration on his face. This was so much more interesting than anything school taught him. 

“Right. Now, usually witches and wizards would have children who were also witches and wizards. That is the case with your dad and with Sirius, they both came from magical families. My dad was a wizard, but my mom was a muggle – that mean non-magical – but I am also a wizard. There also wizards and witches who don’t have magical parents, and they are called muggleborns. Your mom was a muggleborn. That’s why she was a witch, but your aunt and grandparents weren’t.” Remus gave Harry and expectant look.

“My parents were magical, so…I… am a wizard?” Harry looked hopefully at Remus, who smiled.

“Yes, Harry, exactly. You are a wizard. Your magic will become more noticeable as you get older, and soon you will go to magical school-”

“When? Which school? Where is it?”

Remus and Sirius shared a look. “We haven’t decided yet. See, we think it would be good idea for you to leave Britain with us, go somewhere new.” Remus said carefully, but Sirius quickly cut him off.

“Remember what I told you about how your parents died?” Harry gave a shaky nod. “Well, the terrorist I was talking about was a wizard, a bad one, and your parents were fighting against him. They died, but somehow, when the wizard turned his wand on you, the killing curse got deflected back onto him. For some reason, you didn’t die, he did. A lot of people in the magical community think that you did something and so they think of you as a hero, which is nice,” And it was for Harry, who was very excited at the idea that people actually liked him. “But also not, because they don’t know you, and they like you for something that happened when you were a baby and your parents died.”

This immediately sobered Harry up. They liked him because his parents died.

“They expect you to grow up into this hero who will save them from bad wizards, and they will expect you to be awesome at everything. I’m not saying you won’t be, I-we just don’t think that it’s fair to put all that pressure on you. So, we think that leaving would be the best option.”

Harry thought about it. He was used to people expecting him to be horrible and rude, and they always seemed so mad when he wasn’t, even though that was a good thing. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he wasn’t as good as what people expect, they’d probably treat him worse than the Dursleys. He nodded to himself. “So, where are we going?”

Sirius and Remus smiled gratefully at his easy acceptance. Remus put his arm around Harry’s shoulder and half-hugged him. “Well, right now it’s between Egypt and Japan. Both have good schools, and good communities and governments. And both have very different cultures and languages from Britain. The difference for you is that the Japanese magical school starts at age 7, so you’d be a year behind. The magical school that looks after Egypt starts at age 11, which gives you some time to learn the language and get used to magic.”

“So, I get to decide?”

“Well, we also have to make sure that the two schools will accept you. We haven’t heard back from them yet. But, yeah, you can decide.” Sirius go up from the armchair and joined the other two on the couch. “You will not go back to muggle school. Everyday, I’ll pick you up from the Dursleys’ at seven in the morning, and you’ll go back there at seven at night to sleep.”

“That’s just until we’re ready to move.” Remus hurried to reassure Harry. “And don’t tell anyone about us moving, that’s a secret. Alright?”

“Alright, I can keep a secret. But when are we going to move?” Harry looked from Sirius to Remus, who sat on either side of him.

“Hopefully, before your birthday. That reminds me, remember the watch I gave you?” Sirius pointed to Harry’s wrist. “It has spells on it that let me know where you are and if you’re doing alright. If at any time you feel in danger or you want to talk to me, touch the watch and say ‘I need Sirius Black.’” After getting Harry to repeat the phrase a few times, Sirius continued. “It will bring you here, so don’t just say it for fun. In the meantime, what do you say to seeing pictures of your parents?”

“YES!!”

*****************

Eventually, Remus did hear back from the Japanese and the Egyptian ministries. The Japanese one had some bad news in that, due to the language barrier, Harry would not be immediately admitted into Mahoutokoro. Instead, he would first have to learn Japanese (which would probably take him a few years) then catch up on the schoolwork he missed, before being allowed in. Meanwhile, since Uagadou didn’t start until age eleven, Harry had ample time to learn Arabic, French, and Swahili. Arabic is Egypt’s main language, while knowing Swahili and French as well would help him communicate with most of Uagadou’s students. Uagadou is the largest school of magic and had enough students that it divided its students by year, native language (each class offered was taught in multiple languages i.e. defense for year one had a section taught in French, a section taught in Arabic, etc. as needed), and gender (for dorms). Harry’s acceptance into Uagadou would depend on how powerful his magic is; less powerful children have an easier time controlling their magic and so can be taught at home. Powerful magical children, however, are better off in a magic school because their accidental magic is too obvious and could cause muggles to notice them. They also had an easier time learning wandless magic. As long as Harry officially immigrates to Egypt, he would be considered for Uagadou.

This settled matters: they were moving to Egypt. Remus immediately organized Arabic study sessions for all three of them, and French study sessions for him and Harry (Sirius learned French while growing up). Harry would learn Swahili once they reached Egypt, but Arabic was necessary for all of them in order to get along in Egypt. Remus took over some other aspects of Harry’s education, mostly maths, literacy, basic sciences, muggle and magical history, and personal finance (this was mostly through giving him an allowance to manage). Sirius taught Harry about magical culture, etiquette, international magical law and politics. Growing up, Sirius had hated those lessons, but he couldn’t deny that the knowledge had helped him when he worked as an auror. If later on Harry decided to forget it all, that was his decision, but Sirius wanted him to have the option of knowing.

That’s not to say Harry’s day was filled with lectures and book work. His magical history lessons were more like reading exciting adventure novels, and having an allowance to manage meant buying things that he liked, just in moderation. Sirius’s lessons were hilarious since Sirius would tell funny stories about his relatives (which had culture and etiquette information as well as some politics) and, best of all, about Sirius and James’ time as Aurors (law and politics). Harry was happy to do his muggle school work because he was praised for it; Remus was only too happy to tell him how well he was doing and to help him when he needed it. Harry, who had been starved for positive adult attention (any positive attention really) soaked it all up and was super motivated to keep receiving it. He found that without Dudley there to bully him behind his teachers’ backs, it was easier to understand the material and schoolwork even became fun. He liked math, could deal with literacy (though Remus’s insistence on proper essay format was bordering on obsessive, in his opinion), and science meant exciting experiments and fun field trips, to zoos, museums, and nature parks. All in all, the month of June, 1988 had turned out to be the happiest month of Harry’s life.

So far, thought Harry with a happy grin as he went to sleep that last night of June, the happiest month of my life so far. His life had improved magnificently, and it looked like that improvement was going to stick. A comfortable bed, a loving family, and hope for the future. What else would a boy need?

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Chapter 11: On to Greener Pastures

July 1, 1988

Unlike usual, their last day in Britain, Sirius went into Number 4 when he took Harry to the Dursleys for the night. Needless to say, no one was pleased by this, but Sirius had put off telling Petunia (he could not stand Vernon and refused to acknowledge his presence) about taking Harry permanently. Ignoring Vernon’s purpling face, Sirius said his good-byes to Harry and sent him up to his room before turning to Petunia. He was standing just past the door and had no intention of moving further in.

“Petunia, I will be taking Harry for the summer on a family vacation. We’ll be visiting some magical communities so that Harry can better appreciate his heritage. I’ll let you know when he’ll be back, but we’ll probably be staying well into August.” He made it out to seem as if he was taking Harry on vacation for the rest of the summer, in case things didn't work out and Harry had to come back. He didn’t want to burn any bridges until he was sure that Harry didn’t need them. It was for this reason that the Dursleys hadn’t felt his revenge yet. He planned on setting a bad-luck curse on the adult Dursleys and on making Dudley relive what Harry went through while living in Privet Drive in his dreams. Hopefully, it will teach him to be nicer to people.

Petunia (and Vernon) was more than happy with this and made it very obvious that he could keep Harry forever if he wanted. Even though Sirius was not impressed with their attitude, he was more than happy that they weren’t putting up a fuss or asking for details. With a sarcastic salute, Sirius ended his hopefully second last visit to Number 4.

Remus and Sirius spent the night preparing for the trip. Travelling to Egypt meant two days of travel sickness if they did it in one go since portkeys were even worse than apparating, and the longer the distance the worse they were. Travelling all the way to Egypt in one portkey was obviously a very bad idea, but taking more portkeys would not have saved them any time since they would have had to rest between portkeys anyway. While it would have been beneficial for Harry to sightsee on their way to Egypt, they wanted everything done as soon as possible to minimize the chances of Dumbledore or someone else getting in the way.

Magical Egypt covered a lot more geography than muggle Egypt, since when the Statute of Secrecy first came into being, the magical population chose to honor the old borders of Ancient Egypt rather than follow modern borders. While there were several magical communities in Egypt, the largest and oldest of them is Hekaniewt, named in honor of Heka, the Egyptian god who personified magic. Hekaniewt served as the magical capital of Egypt, housing the Egyptian ministry of magic, the main hospital, a world-renowned market, and the famed library of Alexandria (referred to as the Library from now on), which used to be in Alexandria, but when it burned, the magical community saved many of its scrolls, books, tablets, etc. and moved them to Hekaniewt. Since then, the collection had only grown and now served as a centre of scholarship for the magical world. Most individuals who wished to gain a mastery spent their first year in Egypt before being taken on as apprentices by a master.

Hekaniewt was hidden from the muggles, who found themselves excavating the Valley of Kings every time they tried to look for ancient settlements near the magical city. It was in the Western dessert, Northwest of the Temple of Ramses II and Southwest of the Abydos Temple. Housing six thousand permanent residents, and twice as many visitors per year, Hekaniewt is the most populous magical city of modern times, and one of the few that makes no allowances for the modern world. There was no muggle fashion, muggle news, muggle anything in Hekaniewt and its residents wanted it that way. They could always visit muggle communities, but pure magical communities were few and their number was decreasing by the decade. Hekaniewt was determined to hold on to its roots for the long haul.

Remus, who had hoped to gain a mastery in Defence, had been to Hekaniewt before and so knew who to contact to book them a hotel room and an appointment with a real-estate agent (a rare profession in the magical world since very few communities were large enough to need one). He also maintained contact with the immigration office (part of Egypt’s Department of International Affairs) in order to keep up with the paperwork necessary for the move. He had already managed to get pre-approval for a six month stay for himself and Sirius, with Sirius’s holding a note stating that his under-age ward would also be covered under his visitor’s pass. However, all three of them would have to undergo a health check within a week of their arrival to make sure they didn’t carry any sickness into the city.

They planned to stay at Al-Murra hotel in Hekaniewt while they sorted themselves out. Remus made an appointment for them to see an immigration official the week after they arrived. Hopefully, they could gain immigrant status before their visitor passes ran out. Due to its high amounts of visitors, Hekaniewt was very strict about visitors having permission to stay. Short-term visitor passes (less than a month) were easy to get the day someone entered, but anything longer had to be pre-approved pre-arrival. Remus was counting on Sirius’s money and Harry’s situation to ease their immigration process. In the meantime, both Sirius and Remus needed a few hours’ sleep to be ready for the day ahead.

*************

When Harry woke up bright and early on Thursday morning, he immediately remembered why that day was important. With an excited (and anxious) grin on his face, Harry quickly got up and made his bed. He had already packed his bag (no expansion charm) which fit his few possessions. When Sirius had offered to take him clothes shopping, Remus had suggested to wait until they reached Egypt; that way his new clothes would help him fit in with the Egyptian children his age and be tailored to suit Egypt’s warmer and drier environment. Harry had then pointed out that it would be easier to buy everything he needed from Egypt rather than dragging it with him. The only thing that Sirius had insisted on was a broomstick (Nimbus 1700) and a few muggle outfits to get him through until they had time to buy him wizarding clothes. Harry had no toys or books or any clothes from pre-Sirius that he wanted to take with him. So far, his most prized possession was an invisibility cloak that Sirius said had belonged to his father and was passed down in his family. Apparently, Harry’s dad had left it with Dumbledore, but Sirius had retrieved it for Harry.

Taking a last look around the smallest bedroom of Privet Drive, Harry made sure that there was nothing of his left behind. Seeing that it was now 6:30, Harry took a quick shower, changed into the clothes he’d planned to travel with, and put away his pajamas before carrying his bag downstairs to the front door. He only had to wait a few minutes before Sirius knocked on the door, which Harry opened with huge grin on his face.

“You ready to go?” Sirius asked dryly, looking at Harry’s packed bag.

“YES! Let’s go.” Harry picked up his school bag and tried to leave the house, but was stopped by a grinning Sirius.

“Just a minute, pup. I need to let Petunia know, and there she is now.” Petunia was slowly making her way down the stairs, pinched face and all. “As you can tell, Harry is ready to go. Like I said, we’ll be gone the rest of the summer, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from him.”

“We won’t worry, now leave before the neighbors notice you.” Petunia waved impatiently at the two of them as sounds of Vernon waking up reached the trio.

With a jaunty wave, Sirius and Harry closed the door to Number 4 with them inside and apparated to the cottage. The cracking sound made Petunia jump and almost fall down the stairs. She was so happy the freaks were gone and her life was back to normal, for a little while at least.

**

At the cottage, Remus was ready for them with his and Sirius’s shrunk luggage in his pocket as well as their paperwork and the old coffee cup they were using as a portkey. After giving Harry a quick hug hello, Remus held out the cup for the other two to touch. Their portkey was scheduled for 7:10 and it was already 7:09, so they didn’t have time to waste. With a tug to their navel, the three were on their way to a new life.

The three landed in Egypt’s Department of Transportation, in one of the areas sectioned off for international portkey arrivals. Luckily for them, the very sick trio were met with an experienced ministry employee who lead them to a bench and handed out potions that would help calm their upset stomachs. Long-distance portkey travel, while convenient, had the common side effects of upset stomachs, jet lag, dizziness, headaches, and a need to sleep. Remus had had the great idea to hire someone to wait for their arrival and take them to their hotel. This meant that rather than having to make their way to their hotel on their own, and getting lost along the way, they were able to reach their hotel and book themselves in quickly and smoothly. The next two days saw the three sleeping, eating, drinking potions for their various pains, and sleeping some more.

Eventually, on Sunday, they were well enough to get out and sight see for a few hours. Sirius bought Harry a few wizarding outfits, which were really needed since the natives were not happy to see a muggle-dressed little boy running around. They weren’t rude, but they tended to avoid looking at Harry. Sirius and Harry had a lot of fun trying out the foreign cuisine while Remus was able to eat some of his favorite dishes from when had last visited Hekaniewt. Harry’s favorite part of the city turned out to be their theatre where they saw a play about a wizard who tried to use his magic to make a beautiful witch fall in love with him but he had bad aim and his spell hit a hag instead. Unfortunately, the play was in Arabic, so Harry couldn’t really follow what they were saying. Still, the magical effects were spectacular. All in all, when they returned to their rooms that evening, they were very happy with their choice of new home.

Monday morning, Sirius, Remus and Harry made their way to the hospital for their health checks. Remus already had a file with the hospital from his last visit, but Sirius and Harry spent a good fifteen minutes filling out forms. Sirius was able to hand over his British health record and only needed a ten-minute check-up before he escaped his healer’s clutches. However, since Harry had none of his magical vaccinations, or had ever visited a magical healer, his case took most of the morning. He had to take vaccinations for Dragonpox, magical flu, wyrms, and many other diseases, which were uncomfortable to say the least. Magical vaccinations were not actual needles but rather runes that were tattooed on the child’s bottom; each disease had its own rune configuration. Luckily, the tattooing was done by expert rune masters who were able to make the runes so tiny that everything fit onto one square inch of skin. Harry was stupefied to make sure that he didn’t move and this also helped him avoid the pain of the process. His bum still smarted though and he needed a pain relief potion after the experience.

Harry also had other health issues. While his month spent with Sirius and Remus had improved his diet exponentially, and his magic had helped him deal with his past diet (or lack thereof) and the stress his body went through due to having to work so hard on his chores without proper nutrition, he still was behind where he should be physically. He was prescribed nutrition potions as well as a potion that helped him catch up on any growth he may have missed due to the Dursleys’ ‘care’. His biggest health issue was his scar. The healer in charge of him refused to give him a clean bill of health so long as his scar was not checked by a professional curse breaker. According to Hakim (Harry’s healer) the scar not only had a draining effect on Harry’s magic, it also impacted his sleep, his emotional and mental stability, and may be responsible for his extremely bad eyesight – wizards rarely needed strong prescriptions because their magic kept their eyesight from deteriorating that badly. Even Sirius had to admit that James had only needed his glasses for reading and only wore them because they made him look more intelligent. Harry, however, could barely see past the end of his nose, and needed a strong prescription for astigmatism, a condition that was extremely rare amongst magicals.

The healer, once aware that they were in a hurry, offered to talk to his cousin’s wife’s uncle who was a well-respected curse breaker. For a chance to look at a scar that resulted from a killing curse, he surely would make time to see Harry quickly. And he did; Harry and his guardians had barely made it back to their hotel rooms before an owl arrived inviting Harry to see Farid (the curse breaker) the next morning at ten. Sirius quickly agreed to the appointment before they sat down to their ordered dinner. Honestly, the three of them were curious to see what Farid would say about Harry’s scar, and maybe Farid could make it less noticeable. That would make hiding the fact that Harry was the Harry Potter much easier.

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Chapter 12: S.O.S

July 7, 1988

Farid had invited Harry, Sirius, and Remus to visit him at home, as his main office was in Gringotts (the Egyptian branch of the wizarding bank) and the goblins required advanced warning of at least three days of any hands on work Farid may perform there (for the safety of their clients – there’s a story about a curse breaker who accidentally set an ifrit free in the 1870’s that no one wants to tell). Farid lived in one of the residential areas off of the main street of Hekaniewt, within walking distance of both Gringotts and the Library. This made sense since Farid was a master who enjoyed having apprentices, who he usually housed in his own home. Said apprentices needed easy access to the Library and often accompanied Farid to his work at Gringotts. Farid specialized in living curses – curses that were placed on individuals. The delicate nature of the work (making sure he attacked the curse and not the individual) meant that Farid had to have exceptionally good control of his magic.

From the outside, Farid’s home looked to be a modest two level, off-white brick house with wide windows and fine detailing along the frames of the windows and door. Looking closer would show that the fine detailing hid runes and wards that protected the residents, helped maintain the structure, and maintained a comfortable temperature inside the home.

{For the next while, italics signify non-English speech}

Sirius had no sooner knocked on the door than it was opened by a tall, dark man of indefinite age. Sirius gave a respectful nod of his head and started with introductions – in French since it was more likely to be understood. “Hello, my name is Sirius Black, this is my friend Remus Lupin, and this is our ward Harry.”

“Good morning, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, young Harry, please be welcome in my home.” So saying, the man motioned them inside with his arm as he continued speaking. “I am Farid Abu Nasir. I can understand English, but my spoken French is much better than my spoken English so it is good that you understand it. Do they?” Farid asked turning to the others.

Sirius smirked and shook his head. “They are learning, but I will translate in the meantime.”

Farid nodded and continued in strongly accented English. “I am Farid. Welcome to my home. I am looking forward to working on your cursed scar, Mr. Potter. Please, all of you follow me to my study, my house-elf has refreshments ready there.” So saying, he lead them to a backdoor, through a small garden, and to a one room building that was slightly set apart from the main home. “This is all the way here because my work often involves the darkest of magics, and my wife does not like it in the same house as our children.”

Sirius translated the last part to others, and Remus chuckled. “I wouldn’t like it either if I were her. How many children do you have, if you don’t my asking?”

“Three. Two boys and a girl.” Thus began the traditional Middle Eastern tea brunch. Most Middle Eastern traditionalists prefer to get to know their clients before starting the work. It is considered ill-manners to go right to business as it gives the clients the idea that they are only wanted for their money and not their company.

A good half hour later, Farid’s demeanor changed to be more business-like. “Harry, if you are ready, I would like to get a look at your scar.”

“Yeah, sure.” Harry sent a half excited, half nervous look at Remus and Sirius before walking to stand where Farid was indicating. Farid had gotten up and was now standing within a circle (four feet in dimeter) carved into the floor in the corner of the room farthest from the sitting area. Harry moved to stand in front of him. Carefully moving Harry’s hair aside to reveal the scar, Farid began his work.

Farid spent the first ten minutes simply staring at the scar. He then spent another fifteen questioning Harry about it – did he remember receiving it (Harry remembered a green light), did it bother him (it burned when he had bad dreams), had he tried hiding it (glamours didn’t work and muggle make-up made it itch), etc. Finally, Farid raised his wand and started casting various spells on it. Silently. This part took hours, to the point that both Sirius and Remus had nodded off to sleep and Harry strongly wished he could do the same.

Eventually, finally, Farid seemed to finish. By the look on his face, Harry didn’t think it was going to be good news. Gratefully sitting back down (after poking his two guardians awake), Harry grabbed a biscuit and prepared for some bad news.

“It…it is not good.” Farid took a deep breath and looked at Sirius. “There is a way, an evil, horrific way, for wizards to gain a measure of immortality. They rip a piece of their soul and place it in an outside container. So long as that piece survives, it acts as an anchor to the mortal world and the wizard will not move on to the next life.” It seemed as if Sirius knew what was coming next for he had wrapped an arm around Harry was holding him protectively to his chest. “I do not know how, there has never been a living container, but young Harry carries a small piece of another’s soul.”

“What’s he saying, Padfoot?” Remus did not like how Sirius was reacting to Farid’s words and wanted to know what was going on.

“He’s saying th-there’s a piece of the evil git’s soul stuck in Harry.” Sirius whispered brokenly, holding on to Harry even tighter.

“Not stuck, just there.” Farid reassured before continuing in French. “There is a layer of protection that has kept the soul piece from attaching to Harry’s own soul. However, it seems as if that protection is slowly breaking down.”

“The blood wards!” Sirius said with hope in his voice. “Harry’s parent’s performed a sacrificial ritual that is supposed to protect him, though it requires that he consider his aunt’s home his home for it to continue to be active. It’s protecting his soul and keeping the soul piece contained.”

“I am sorry, but what ritual exactly did they perform?”

“It’s an African one who’s name translates to parent’s love. It requires the parents willingly sacrificing their life.” Remus quickly explained before turning to Sirius. “That means he really does need the protection staying at Petunia’s granted hi-“

“NO! I’m not going back, I can’t, I won’t!” Harry started struggling in Sirius’s arms but Sirius managed to keep a hold of the wiggling boy.

“Calm down, Harry, you won’t go back, alright? We’ll try every other option first.” Sirius turned to Farid. “Is there any way to remove the soul piece?”

“Even though the protection is weakening, it is still strong. I have heard that in order to release the soul piece, the horcrux, or object, must be destroyed. However, since Harry is a living horcrux, it may only require that he be medically dead for a short time. His protection has made sure that the piece was never able to properly attach itself to his body, so it should be easy to dislodge. If we combine the ritual used to deal with more common possessions, and a bit of Harry’s blood to strengthen the protection, as well as something that will stop Harry’s vital functions for a few moments… I can make no guarantees, and it will be hard work with not a very high chance of success.”

After Sirius translated this to the other two, Harry immediately voiced his agreement and did his best to convince the adults. Remus, however, went into his quiet thinking mode. Try as he might though, he had to agree with Harry’s more emotional decision.

“We have little choice, Padfoot. If we don’t do anything, the protection will end anyway once Harry reaches adulthood since he won’t consider Petunia’s home his by that point. And the longer we leave it there, the more time the soul piece has to impact his health and dig its way into his psyche. You remember what Hakim said; the scar contains a lot of cursed energy and is a significant danger to his health.” Remus was very obviously hesitant in his words.

“You think we should do it.” Sirius said in a flat voice.

“What is our other option? Do nothing?” Remus turned to Farid. “If it was your child in this situation, what would you do?”

“It is as you said, there is no better choice.” Farid said sadly. “I will perform this, and I will call on one of my colleagues who is an expert at dealing with possessions. Hakim can oversee Harry’s health. It should be done soon, very soon, while the protection is strong.”

Sirius looked at Remus’s dejected face, and then at Harry’s determined, hopeful one. With a sigh, he gave in. “Alright, when can you be ready for this?”

“I can be ready tomorrow afternoon. Make sure Harry has lots of rest, and food. He needs to be strong for this.”

*************

It didn’t take long for the trio to say their goodbyes to Farid and make their way home. Remus did his best to remain calm as Sirius very obviously started to panic and second guess his decision. Harry, always mature for his age, had a familiar stubborn look in his eyes, the same look that Lily used to get. There was also an impression of James in the way Harry’s chin was angled. Remus knew that Harry was set on his course, and regardless of his age, Remus felt that Harry had a right to make this choice. He was the one living with a parasitic soul, and the longer they left it there, the more likely that his personality would be impacted by its presence. Sirius’s  panic, while legitimate, could not be allowed to get in the way of Harry’s physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Arriving at their rooms, they showered and ordered a healthy supper. For the first time since he met them, Sirius and Remus told Harry what to eat and how much. Usually they let him eat as he wanted since his magic made sure that every nutrient and calorie went where his body needed it. However, it seemed as if his guardians were taking Farid’s words to heart and expected him o eat as if he was preparing for an Olympic eating event. Needless to say, Harry felt extremely stuffed before they let him leave the dining table.

It was after Harry had settled down for the night that Sirius and Remus had a chance to discuss what they had learned that day. They were half way into a decent game of chess (something that they both enjoyed) and continued to play while talking rather than ending the game.

“Moony, what are we going to do?” Sirius tried to keep the pathetic helplessness from his voice, but failed miserably. While many thought that Remus was the thoughtful member of the Marauders (and they were right) they did not realize that he was also the calmest, and that it was often his strength of character that kept the other three from crossing lines during their wilder school days. Remus was the big brother that Sirius had always secretly wished for, the strong presence he leaned on when the emotional instability he inherited through his Black blood got the better of him. James was the brother of Sirius’s heart, but Remus was the brother that Sirius needed.

“We will do what is best for Harry. He needs that soul piece taken out, and sooner rather than later. Two of the world’s foremost experts in soul magics and dark arts are going to perform the extraction. This is the best chance Harry has to get better, there is no question that this is the best thing for him.”

“But, what if it goes wrong? What if he gets hurt or-or…what if he dies?” Sirius had to whisper the last part, barely able to give voice to his greatest fear.

“Padfoot, he is already getting hurt. Anyway, we both know that Voldemort is not gone, and now we know why. What if he notices the connection to Harry and decides to take over his body?”

Sirius shot a fearful look at Remus. He had not even thought of Voldemort, let alone what Harry being his horcrux could mean. “Do you think Dumbledore knows?”

“Possibly, but I don’t think so. He may suspect, but he may also have hoped that leaving him with Petunia would have kept him safe. Either way, after this is done, we’ll owl him what we know. This could be the power that Voldemort doesn’t know, the fact that Harry is protected against not only him but also his soul piece. The soul piece could also the mark of Harry being his equal, since he literally shares a soul with him. Once its removed, the prophecy won’t come to pass because Harry won’t be connected to him anymore.”

“We don’t have a choice, do we?”

“No, we don’t. And Harry never did, the poor boy. A pawn all his life, and he didn’t even know there was a chess board.”

“He has us, though. We’ll protect him, from Voldemort, from the ministry, from Dumbledore, we’ll protect him from everyone.”

 ****************************************

Chapter 13: A Savior Saved

July 8, 1988

Upon waking up, Harry was instantly dragged to a loaded table and told to stuff his face. Farid had said to feed him well, and Sirius and Remus were going to make sure of it. For the first time in his life, Harry Potter was sick of food. He had a large breakfast, a sizeable brunch, and a full course lunch, with plenty of snacks in between. Harry could almost see himself transforming into Dudley in the space of one morning. Thankfully, the trio left for Farid’s house after lunch and so Harry had the chance to rest from the feed-Harry frenzy that Sirius and Remus were caught in.

This time, Farid opened the door before they knocked, and quickly ushered them to the detached room that they had been in the day before. Waiting there was a short, heavily tanned man surrounded by ancient looking books. Beside him was Hakim, the healer who had first demanded that Harry see Farid.

“This is my colleague, Adam, and you know Hakim. I apologize, but we should begin as soon as possible; there are tea and snacks on the table there.” Farid gestured to the coffee table. “This may take a while, so prepare to wait. Hakim, let’s begin.”

So saying, Harry’s manhandling began. First Hakim did a few diagnostic spells to make sure that Harry was physically healthy and strong (he was, aside from the cursed scar), then he was asked to bathe (he was taken into the main house for that) and dress himself in pale robes (undyed cotton). This was because he had to go through a cleansing ceremony that would help to further weaken the soul piece, and any magical trace on his clothing would get in the way. The cleansing involved him standing still while Adam walked around him chanting and waving around burning herbs. When he asked, Harry was told that showy magic (all the wand waving, booms and lights) was in fact very low level magic. The more powerful a wizard, the less obvious their magic (because the wizard learned control and subtlety) unless they wanted to show off. If Harry (or anyone really) were to commit themselves to magical study, he would start to develop an ability to sense magic and so would not be as bored when performing or witnessing rituals.

After the cleansing, Farid took seven drops of Harry’s blood, one for each chakra, before repeating the last part of the same protection ritual that James and Lily had performed years ago. This involved using the blood (diluted with a pre-brewed elixir) to draw tiny runes on his chakra points. Hopefully, this would strengthen the protection and further weaken the soul piece’s connection to Harry. Finally, Hakim asked Harry to lie down in the middle of the ritual circle before feeding him three drops of scorpion venom. The five men then held their breath and watched closely for any signs of change.

Within ten seconds Harry’s heart stopped, and moments later dark fog came out of his scar. This was followed by black tinted blood. Hakim immediately gave Harry the antidote for the venom, waited thirty seconds, and cast a spell that kick started Harry’s heart. The sound of the first beat was unusually loud, but it brought relief to all their faces. Unfortunately, that relief was short lived – Harry was not waking up.

**************

“What’s happening? Why is he not waking up?” Sirius’s panicked shouting didn’t stop him from trying to get to Harry, and Remus wasn’t controlling himself much better. Rather than shout, he quietly made his way to Hakim’s side as the healer cast diagnostic charms over Harry.

“Mr. Black, you are not helping. Please stay back as Hakim does his work.” Adam was holding Sirius back, with Farid’s help, but all three of them were wearing worried frowns and had most of their attention on Harry.

Finally, Hakim sat back and put his wand away. “He’s in a coma. The venom stopped his heart, which means that blood flow to his brain was cut off for two minutes. That is very dangerous for young minds, but especially young magical minds as the brain is the organ that controls our magic and keeps it from causing havoc to our bodies. As such, magical children are particularly sensitive to any mental trauma. It is another reason why it was so important to do this, but now Harry’s brain is doing its best to heal any damage done to its control of magic. Simply put, he’s in a healing coma indefinitely, though the longer he stays in the coma, the less chance he has of waking up.” This was all said in Arabic, which Adam then translated for Sirius and Remus.

Sirius sagged and fell onto the couch; he had Harry for a month and he already broke him.

“Sirius, we both- we all agreed that Harry had no choice but to go through with this. He didn’t want to put his soul, his magic, and his mental wellbeing at risk by putting this off.” Remus was trying to convince himself as well as Sirius that they were not wholly to blame for this latest disaster. “Hakim, how long before… how long do you give him to wake up?”

“I will be worried if he does not wake up in three days, extremely worried if he does not wake up in a week. I hope he does, and he is strong and driven, with his mother’s protection – remnants of it are still there, by the way – he has a good chance of waking up within three days. In the meantime, he should stay in the hospital under supervision.”

Sirius shook himself and got to his feet with a determined expression. Moony was right, this was not the time to wallow in guilt. It seemed like every time he did, it ended in disaster. When he heard that his brother, Regulus, had died, he had gotten drunk and attacked any death eater he could find, which got both him and James (who had gone along with him to watch his back) suspended from the Auror department. When James and Lily died, he had gone after Peter and ended up in Azkaban. Not this time. This time, he will control himself, he will force himself to think logically about what is best for Harry. “Yes, we’ll take him to the hospital. What else does he need?”

“The hospital staff will be able to feed him so that his body stays strong, and I will check on him regularly as I am currently his primary healer.” Hakim got up and moved to put his hand on Sirius’s shoulder. “Don’t give up hope, he has a good chance of waking up.”

*****************

Hakim arranged a private hospital room for Harry as well as a cot so that Remus and Sirius could take turns keeping an eye on him. One of the hospital nurses came by every six hours to feed Harry nutrient potions. The feeding was accomplished by opening Harry’s jaw and controlling a small portion of the potion so that it made its way to Harry’s stomach, at which point his body digested it and absorbed the nutrients. They did the same with water, though more often.

Luckily, Sirius and Remus only had to worry for a day and a half before Harry woke up, though he was very groggy when he did. He did have to stay in the hospital for an extra day because Hakim wanted to make sure he was fully recovered, but he was given a clean bill of health soon after and his file was ready for their meeting with their immigration official. Thankfully, Remus had been so worried about Harry, he had not thought to cancel their appointment which meant that they could start filing their paperwork that much sooner.

****************

July 12, 1988

Their meeting with their immigration official took place on a Tuesday morning. The Egyptian Department of International Affairs divided immigrant candidates into three groups: career, economic, and family. Career immigrants are those wishing to move to Egypt to study or because their employers asked them to – most of these immigrants are in some way tied to Gringotts or to the Library. Family immigrants are those who move to Egypt because they have close family there, or they inherited (not purchased) Egyptian property. Economic immigrants are those moving to Egypt with enough wealth to support themselves and their dependents without needing to worry about finding work. Sirius belonged to the last group of immigrants – he had enough galleons that he didn’t need to work (nor would any of his decedents for several generations). Though Harry was Sirius’s ward, he also had enough money to live on, though not as much as Sirius. Remus was a career immigrant; Sirius was ‘employing’ him as a nanny/tutor for Harry.

Harry, Sirius, and Remus were dressed in new wizarding robes that allowed them to blend in well with the residents of Hekaniewt when they made their way to the Egyptian Ministry of Magic. Hekaniewt grew around its main street, which served as a wide line the divided the city more or less in half. On one end of the main street was the Library, while the Ministry took the other end. In between the two were Gringotts, the hospital, and buildings that housed the headquarters of the various guilds that required their masters’ students to study in Hekaniewt. Remus had booked the trio into a hotel that was a fifteen-minute walk from the ministry, so it did not take them long to get there.

The meeting started off well, with Elias (the immigration officer) collecting the paperwork that Remus had gathered ahead of time. This included education records, legal history, financial statements, and a general biography for each of them. They also handed over their health checks and a report from Farid and Adam about Harry’s scar. Then the interview really started.

“Mr. Black, here it says you wrongfully spent six years in Azkaban. Can you tell me about that?” The story didn’t take all that long to tell, though Elias was very interested in Sirius’s status as an animagus as well as his previous occupation as an auror – most animagi were scholars or held masteries that made them over-qualified and uninterested in working for the auror office.

“Mr. Lupin, you suffer from lycanthropy. Should you be granted citizenship, how will you insure that no harm will come to others due to your condition?” The idea of using animagi to guard werewolves and keep them occupied during the full moon was new to Elias and he sent a note to the Department of Magical Fellowship (which “endeavored to improve relations between wizards and other magicals through diplomacy, understanding, and education”) regarding this new method. 

“Mr. Black, you are claiming that Mr. Lupin is your employee?” A great deal more paperwork followed to insure proper documentation of everything.

“Mr. Black, do you have documents proving your guardianship of Mr. Potter?” They had forgotten to pass those over, but Sirius was more than happy to drag them out. “Should anything unfortunate happen, do you have a will that explicitly states who Mr. Potter is to go to?” No, he didn’t, but he’ll file one with the goblins as soon as possible.

Finally, after several hours of torcher by paperwork, Elias organized everything into two files; one for Remus and one for Sirius and Harry. Crossing his arms on the desk, Elis leaned forward slightly with a serious look on his face. “When we first received your inquiry, Mr. Lupin, we were surprised that Harry Potter and his guardians would wish to leave Britain. However, thinking it through, it quickly became obvious that it is to Mr. Potter’s benefit to leave. The report filed regarding the cursed scar only made it more obvious that Mr. Potter is best served by being near experts that are able to deal with any unforeseen issue that resulted from his unfortunate history. For that reason, we have decided to fast track your applications. However, please be advised that as citizens you are expected to follow our laws and do your best to integrate yourself in our community.” Elias smiled and handed over three parchments that were signed and stamped by the Egyptian minister of magic.

Sirius grinned in relief and hugged a grinning Harry while Remus collected the parchments. They were now officially Egyptian citizens, meaning that neither the British ministry nor Dumbledore could coerce them to go back to the UK.

****************

The trio celebrated their new citizenships by having dinner out and then seeing another play at the theater. When they got home, they set about making a list of requirements for their new house. Remus had made an appointment with the real-estate agent for July 15, and she had wanted him to make a such a list. They quickly decided on three to four bedrooms, a study/library/den, and a decent yard. Other than their new home having a homey feel and nearby children Harry’s age, they didn’t really care for much else, and money was not an issue.

When they did meet up with Aziza (the real-estate agent) a few days later, she was quick to let them know that they had a lot of options. They saw five homes that same day (three houses and two large apartments), and they fell in love with the fourth one they saw. It was only a few minutes past Farid’s house, and was surrounded by families with children around Harry’s age as well as older couples and a few students who roomed together to save on rent. It only had three rooms, but they were large, and it had both a study and a separate library. Harry really liked it because he had been able to meet a boy his age who spoke a little English who lived only a few doors down. They happily moved in a week later.

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Chapter 14: Home, Sweet Home

July 31, 1988

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY-“

“Argghh!” THUNK! “OW!” Harry sat up and rubbed his nose, which had just been very rudely introduced to his bedroom floor. He glared at Sirius who had shocked him awake with horrific noises that not even a donkey would be willing to acknowledge as anything related to music.

 “-TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HARRY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOU!" Sirius was grinning manically at Harry while holding a chocolate birthday cake and wearing an obnoxious birthday hat.

Harry woke up enough to realize what Sirius was caterwauling, and started grinning himself. Birthday equals presents, and while Harry still wasn’t used to actually getting new things, he was expecting quidditch gear – Sirius had made very obvious hints and Remus had been talking to Issa’s dad about the neighborhood junior quidditch league. Issa was Harry’s best friend, and since he spoke a little English, he’d been helping Harry learn Arabic in return for Harry helping him with his English. Children in Hekaniewt were encouraged to be multilingual since so much of Hekaniewt’s economy was based on tourism and foreign visitors. French was the most popular language, with Chinese a close second. This was due to both nations having very strong economic ties to Egypt; the lack of British ties was the reason Remus and Sirius felt confident about bringing Harry here.

Harry was therefore very excited, especially since he also was getting his very own birthday party! A party that he helped to plan (it therefore revolved around quidditch and animagi, both things Harry was obsessed with) along with Sirius – Remus was content to let the two use the opportunity to bond while he came up with his own special present for Harry.

Harry had been to two birthday parties so far, both boys living nearby who he had gotten to know over the past couple of weeks. His Arabic had already improved by leaps and bounds due to the constant immersion as well as the tutor Remus had found for all three of them. Birthday parties were celebrated much the same in Egypt as they were in Britain, with the only difference being in the gifting. Gifts varied from money to food to clothing, as well as the regular toys and books. Gifts, excepting the ones from close family, were not to be expensive, as that could be translated into imposing a closer relationship to the recipient. It was more important that a person attend a birthday party they are invited to as that shows that they are willing to make time for the host regardless of their schedule. Harry (and Remus and Sirius) was lucky that Issa’s mother had made sure to let him know the cultural norms regarding gift giving before he had a chance to make a social mistake and embarrass his hosts.

“Quick, before the wax melts into the frosting!” Sirius urged Harry while holding out the cake (which was actually very small, barely ten centimeters in diameter) with a single lit candle on it. Harry closed his eyes, made a wish (‘I wish we will always be together’), and blew. Looking up, he went back to grinning as Sirius brought out two forks and motioned for Harry to take one.

When Remus came looking for them fifteen minutes later, he found them covered in frosting and using their forks as pretend swords. With a fond smile, he leaned against the door frame. “Too bad you two have already eaten, I’d just finished making chocolate chip pancakes and-“ Remus barely had time to move out of the way as Sirius and Harry raced to the kitchen, with Harry shouting that birthday boys deserved to eat first.

*******************

Harry’s birthday party went off without a hitch. Everyone he invited showed up, with most bringing Egyptian food as presents since they knew that neither Sirius nor Remus had mastered cooking Egyptian cuisine yet. Harry also received several books, a wizarding chess set, and tickets to the theater among other things. Sirius had gotten Harry quidditch gear, and a permission form to join the junior quidditch league in the upcoming season. Remus, on the other hand, had gotten Harry a black kneazel kitten with green eyes. Needless to say, the kitten was much better groomed than Harry, but Harry still loved him and decided to call him Lee for his mom, Lily. Remus had also gotten Harry a kneazel bed, scratching post, treats, and a book on caring for kneazels. Lee took an instant liking for Harry and spent the rest of the day perched on top of Harry’s head.

That night, a happy and tired Harry went to sleep with a kneazel on his pillow – apparently ee belived himself to above such things as kneazel beds.

Sirius and Remus stayed up late though, continuing an argument that started the day after they moved into their new home.

“We need to let him know. We can’t just disappear; people we care about will worry for us.” Remus was trying to convince Sirius to send a letter to Dumbledore explaining recent events. Sirius was being stubborn.

“No, even if they can’t take him away, they’ll still try and I don’t think Harry is up for another fight right now.” Sirius knew he was going to give in at some point, he just didn’t want to give in now. Time, they all needed time. Time to heal, time to get used to being in a good place, time to gain confidence that this can’t be taken away from them.

“Sirius, think about the horcrux – what if there are more? Dumbledore needs to know so that he can take care of things from his end. He won’t come for Harry, not now when he’s not even old enough to go to Hogwarts. He knows that it’s a losing battle, and he has more urgent things to focus on. Think about the media attention having Harry disappear will cause – we came here for anonymity and you holding off on sending a message is putting that in jeopardy.”

“FINE! Fine, but it will brief and to the point, and I’m  making it obvious that he is not to come or contact us again.” With that, Sirius summoned a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill and began his last letter to Dumbledore.

To Dumbledore,

Did you know about Harry’s scar? That it had a Horcrux in it? I say had, because we went to a curse breaker and he was able to remove it from Harry. Apparently the Horcrux was impacting him physically and mentally and if he hadn’t had it removed it would have eventually taken him over.

We left. We’re not coming back. We are now Egyptian citizens, and Harry is going to grow up as a normal, non-Horcrux, non-Savior boy, the way his parents wanted. He will not be attending Hogwarts, even if Remus and I have to homeschool him ourselves. Don’t write, don’t visit, we’d rather Harry forget all about Britain.

Sirius Black

“There, done.” Sirius decisively folded up the letter and set it aside to be posted the next morning.

“I don’t mean to nag-“

“You don’t nag, Remus, you’re the voice of reason that I need. I would never have been able to do so well with Harry on my own. Even now, I’m the fun uncle and you’re the responsible one, and thank you for not calling me out on that.”

Remus smiled fondly at his almost-brother. “I need you two more than you will ever need me, trust me on that.”

***********************

July 25, 1991

Nearly eleven-year-old Harry Potter was dreaming.

He was sitting on a rock by a running brook. The rock had a conveniently flat top and was just large enough to comfortably serve Harry as a seat. The sound of the running brook was incredibly soothing, and Harry manfully chuckled (more of a giggle, but no nearly eleven-year-old boy would admit that) as a mother duck appeared to scold one of her ducklings that kept biting at its brother’s tail feathers.

Suddenly, there was a man beside him, one he hadn’t heard approaching, but somehow was not surprised to see. Harry turned his face to smile up at the man. “Hello, sir. I’ve been waiting, but I tried not to let my hopes up.”

The man chuckled (this was an actual chuckle). He had messy hair, tanned skin, and green eyes. He was average height for an Englishman, and wiry. He seemed calm, but had a look to him as if he could handle any excitement that came his way, and had done so before. The man kneeled down so that his eyes were level with Harry’s and he reached into the brook to retrieve a stone that he then handed to Harry. With that, Harry’s dream started to fade as he started to wake up.

Harry opened his eyes as the morning sunlight was just coming through his window. Raising his hand to rub his eyes, he noticed he was holding something, a stone with runic inscriptions on it. Harry grinned and jumped out of his bed, yelling for Sirius and Remus. Meeting them in the hallway, Harry kept grinning as he held up his stone, his invitation to Uagadou.

“I got in!”

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Chapter 15: Epilogue

When Dumbledore received Sirius's letter he immediately increased the amount of time and effort he put into researching Tom Riddle's past. He was able to pressure Horace Slughorn into giving up the true memory of Riddle asking him about Horcruxes, though he had to promise him a dinner invitation to the Flamels’. 

In 1991, Dumbledore used the Philosophers stone to trap Voldemort's wraith within a large diamond. He then used the wraith in a variation of the compass spell to lead him to the Horcrux within Hogwarts (Ravenclaw's diadem). Unfortunately, the adjustments made to the spell meant it could only be used to find nearby Horcruxes. 

In 1992 when Riddle’s diary came into Hogwarts and the message about the chamber of secrets was put up, Dumbledore used the spell again to find the diary.

In 1993, Dumbledore determined the hiding place of the Slytherin necklace by using the memories he'd gathered on Tom Riddle. He took Severus Snape with him to the cave, but when they realized only one adult wizard can cross the lake, Snape convinced Dumbledore to let him handle it. Snape forced a muggle (he found him in a dark alley with an unwilling, underage girl) to drink the potion guarding the necklace. He killed said muggle and took the boat back across the lake. When they found the note inside the apparently fake necklace, Snape recognized Regulus Black's initials. It didn't take long for Dumbledore to convince Kreacher the house-elf to let him destroy the Horcrux. 

In 1994, Dumbledore went (alone) to the Gaunt shack. He destroyed the Horcrux there (the Gaunt ring) but was hit with a deadly curse in the process. Snape was able to extend his life by a few months which Dumbledore used to find the next Horcrux. Snape suggested that Voldemort may have entrusted Horcruxes to other followers like he did with Malfoy, and Dumbledore spent two months going around interrogating Voldemort's remaining, trusted death eaters. He eventually interrogated Bellatrix Lestrange (who was in Azkaban for life) who had been asked to hide the Hufflepuff cup. A week later, all the Lestranges (there were three in Azkaban) caught Dragonpox and died. This meant that their Gringott's vaults were temporarily in the hands of the goblins, who started the process of looking for heirs. Dumbledore traded the goblins Gryffindor's sword for the Hufflepuff cup in the Lestrange vault. Thus, Voldemort's final Horcrux was destroyed. 

When Dumbledore used to compass spell to find other Horcruxes (the spell wouldn't be able to pinpoint their location if they were far away, but it would show that they existed) and didn't find any, he destroyed Voldemort's wraith with fiendfyre. Thus, when Dumbledore died in 1995, he died in peace knowing that Tom Riddle (a.k.a. Voldemort) was gone for good.

Harry Potter returned to the UK twice; once in 1995 to attend Albus Dumbledore's funeral (he managed to schedule his OWL exams then too, just in case he needed British qualifications for something later on) and was surprised that Dumbledore left him stuff in his will. He visited Britain again when he was seventeen to access his full inheritance (and he also took his NEWTs then). Harry decided to become a curse breaker and apprenticed himself to Farid for five years before striking out on his own. Due to having lived a rather normal life for a wizard, the legend of Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived was nothing more than a footnote in wizarding history by the time Harry had reached adulthood. He had a very interesting life as a curse breaker, and died at the respectable age of 156, but never recovered the fame he had as a toddler, for which he was very thankful. He passed on the Potter invisibility cloak to his son, Sirius John Potter, as well as the Potter wealth, which Harry had increased using hard work and a talent for curse breaking.