Work Text:
‘This must be it,’ he said quietly. The brass number four on the side of the house gleamed in the setting sun, the shadows from the other, identical, houses casting long shadows across the gravel driveway and the perfectly manicured lawn, that somehow wasn’t brown even in the oppressive heat.
‘I don’t know what I was expecting,’ said Tonks, ‘but I really thought the Boy Who Lived would live somewhere a bit more exciting looking.’
Remus’s lips twitched. ‘A mansion?’ he asked lightly.
‘An impenetrable fortress,’ she replied, grinning wickedly. Moody clucked his tongue irritably.
‘Enough nattering, get over here.’ He jerked his head and irritably stomped towards another house, and rapped on the door. Remus could hear the yowling of many cats from inside.
An old woman in a hairnet opened the door. Moody pointed his wand at her. ‘Who moved you into this house on November the third, 1981?’
‘Frank,’ said the woman. ‘On Dumbledore’s orders.’
Satisfied, Moody lowered his wand and greeted her with a grin that would have been pleasant on a less scarred man.
Arabella Figg ushered them inside, looking rather alarmed at the number of them, but they filtered through to the living room, where several bushy tails seemed to dart away beneath the sofa and into cupboards.
‘Oh no,’ said Tonks quietly. ‘I’m deathly allergic to cats.’
Remus’s head snapped towards her, immediately concerned. ‘What?’
She grinned. ‘Kidding, I just don’t like them. More of a dog person.’
‘You can get a good view through here,’ they heard Arabella call, and she led them into a sitting room with a bay window which looked directly out at number four. They all found somewhere to sit, just about - Remus perched on the arm of the sofa on which Hesita, Dedalus, and Elphias sat, with Moody, Kingsley and Sturgis on the other, with Emmeline sat uneasily on the hardwood coffee table. Tonks simply sat on the floor near Remus’s feet, resting her arm and chin on the window sill as she peered out.
Arabella handed out tea and slices of lemon drizzle cake, and some of the braver cats ventured out, approaching tentatively, one of them trying to use Moody’s wooden leg as a scratch post.
‘He’s not been right at all, you know,’ Arabella was saying crossly. ‘I mean he never looks happy here, but he’s been so miserable looking that I came close to telling him who I was even before the Dementors! Kept trying to get him to come in for some tea.’
‘And did he?’ asked Remus.
‘No, of course not, why would he? He was always bored stiff when he was round here as a child.’
‘It’s a good job you were out that night, Figgy,’ said Sturgis. ‘Bloody Dung…’
There was a general murmur of irritation - Moody growled some particularly choice words. Remus sighed. ‘I think it’s a good job Harry worked so hard to learn the Patronus.’
‘Well, quite! I never would have managed to get hold of anyone in time, would I?’ exclaimed Arabella. ‘Not with my gammy knee.’
‘They’re leaving!’ hissed Tonks suddenly, her nose practically pressed against the glass of the window.
They all watched as a family of three left number four - there was some relief, as there had been minor concerns from Hestia that they might try and take Harry with them.
‘Is that definitely them?’ barked Moody.
‘Yes, I’m sure that’s Petunia,’ said Remus, squinting slightly at the bony woman. He had seen her only a handful of times many years ago, and never bothered to speak to her, but he could certainly recognise Lily’s sister as she brushed the suited shoulders of a very large teenage boy and ushered him into the gleaming car.
They watched as the car reversed out of the driveway, the light of the sun making the rear window flash brilliant white, and then drive smoothly away. Remus rose, along with Tonks and Kingsley.
‘Not yet!’ snapped Moody. ‘We wait until nightfall!’
‘Bloody hell, Mad-Eye, we could go and wait in there, couldn’t we?’ said Tonks. ‘Have a chat with him while the sun goes down, help him pack?’
‘Night. Fall,’ Moody insisted.
Tonks rolled her her eyes and exchanged a glance with Remus, who thought with amusement that she was probably the only one there who dared to do so in Moody’s presence. He perched back on the sofa again, absent mindedly scratching behind the ears of a grey tabby that had jumped up onto the back of the sofa beside him.
Lily had a grey cat like this, he remembered vaguely. Timothy? No, Ty-something… Tybalt. Yes, Tybalt. Noisiest bloody cat he had ever met. Used to drape itself around James’s shoulders.
‘I’m very excited to meet him,’ said Dedalus, nodding enthusiastically over his tea cup. ‘I mean, I have before, of course, but I expect he’s changed over the years - I wonder if he will remember me? He was still a young child, but I recognised him straight away-’
‘Who does he take after?’ asked Hestia. ‘I only met him once as a baby, and they all look the same, don’t they?’
‘He looks exactly like James,’ said Remus, smiling mildly. ‘Even though I was warned, it was still quite a shock.’
‘With the crazy dark hair?’ asked Kingsley, a slight chuckle to his voice.
‘Just the same, right down to how it sticks up at the back.’
‘Excellent,’ boomed Kingsley, grinning broadly. ‘That man did make me laugh with that mad hair.’
‘Does he really have the…?’ Tonks trailed off, gesturing awkwardly to her forehead. Remus nodded, and she whispered, ‘wow.’
‘Lily’s eyes, though,’ said Remus, after a slight pause. ‘Green, you know.’
‘Oh, Remus, don’t, you’ll break my heart,’ said Emmeline. She said it lightly, but there was a pained look across her face, and Remus understood why. It had always been the first thing people noticed about Lily.
They watched the house silently. None of the lights were on, and none turned on even as the evening got duskier as the sun sank lower. Remus glanced at his watch. It was too early for Harry to have gone to bed yet, surely, but there seemed to be no signs of activity at all.
‘Is this definitely the right house?’ asked Hestia anxiously.
‘Of course it is,’ snapped Arabella. ‘I would know, wouldn’t I?’
The street lights slowly glowed until the road was cast in a strange orange light, the sky darkening, moths began to batter themselves against the window. Moody stood suddenly, and they took this as their cue to go, whispering their farewells to Arabella even though it wasn’t necessary to keep their voices down.
They walked across Privet Drive to number four, where Moody tapped his wand against the front door. It swung open into a shadowy hallway, and they trudged through, gazing around curiously.
Remus had to agree with Tonks a little - this was not at all what he had been expecting, but he wasn’t sure what exactly he had expected. He supposed he must have thought, somewhere in the back of his mind, that it might be like the house in Godric’s Hollow, that there might have been some shoes kicked to the side of the staircase, or a coat slung on the bannister. Maybe he had expected to smell a roast dinner, rather than lemon and bleach. Perhaps he had expected to hear a wireless playing, or at least the rhythmic ticking of a clock, not this aching silence.
‘This is the wrong house!’ Hestia hissed.
‘It can’t be,’ said Sturgis.
‘It is, look!’
She was gesturing to the photos that were perfectly positioned, evenly spaced on the walls and at elegant angles on the little side tables, all of which, even in the darkness, clearly showed a family of three.
‘It’s not,’ frowned Remus, walking through a door which led into a gleaming white kitchen. He was searching for a discarded envelope, something that might have a name and address on, but every counter was spotless. He went over to the fridge, thinking something might have been stuck up there, an invitation or a summons for jury service or something, but there were only magnets, stuck neatly in a level, straight line, showing a chubby child on a variety of theme park rides.
Oh, Merlin, perhaps this is the wrong house, he thought with a slight panic.
‘It has to be right,’ said Tonks, ‘I sent that letter specifically to the Dursley family, if it was the wrong family they’d have - oop!’ She had backed into the draining board, knocking a plate out which rolled on it’s side and fell to the floor with a loud crash.
There was a silence for a few seconds as they all froze, waiting in case it was the wrong house and a muggle would come bursting in. But the house stayed as still and quiet as it had been from the moment they stepped over the threshold.
‘Well done, Tonks,’ growled Moody sarcastically.
‘It’s just a plate, Mad-Eye-’
‘You don’t think we ought to keep it down?’
‘Well if it’s just Harry Potter in here, there’s no need, is there?’
‘Are you sure he’s in here?’ asked Hestia again.
‘He must be,’ muttered Remus, though worry was starting to grow in his stomach. Why had Harry not come to investigate the noise? It was very unlike him.
He left the kitchen and went into the hallway again, peering up the stairs. In the low orange streetlight that filtered through the frosted glass of the window and the front door, Remus could see something glinting at the top of the stairs. His eyes adjusted until he saw that it was a silver lock, the kind you would add to a door rather than a key hole. He frowned, and raised his wand. ‘Alohamora,’ he whispered, and a loud click echoed as the others shuffled and gathered around him at the base of the stairs.
The door swung open, and a shadowy figure appeared, swift at first but then motionless and silent, before cautiously approaching, wand raised, still mostly in shadow.
‘Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone’s eye out,’ growled Moody from over Remus’s shoulder.
‘Professor Moody?’ came Harry’s uncertain voice. It was deeper than when Remus had heard it last.
‘I don’t know so much about “Professor”, didn’t get round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly.’
Remus saw the shadowy figure lower his want slightly, but stay firm where he was. He was afraid, Remus realised, and it was little wonder. He stepped onto the bottom step of the stairs, one hand gripping the bannister as he peered up. ‘It’s all right, Harry. We’ve come to take you away,’ he said reassuringly.
‘P-Professor Lupin?’ Harry’s voice sounded far less worried now, and far more hopeful, if a little disbelieving. ‘Is that you?’
‘Why are we all standing in the dark?’ asked Tonks, amused. ‘Lumos.’
From behind him, the staircase lit up in soft blue light - with that familiar punch to the gut, Remus saw James, blinking in the sudden brightness, still gripping his wand tightly.
He smiled up at him, so pleased to see him, alive and well - if a little thinner, a little paler, and more dishevelled than he would like. It had only been a year, but he had grown significantly since he had last saw him; he seemed more like a young man now, rather than the child he had known.
He beamed up at him, and Harry smiled weakly back, though he still looked a little shaken.
The hushed silence that had fallen over them all as they looked up at him was broken, once again, by Tonks. ‘Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would,’ she said happily. ‘Wotcher, Harry!’
He heard Kingsley give an amazed, breathless chuckle. ‘Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus. He looks exactly like James.’
‘Except the eyes,’ murmured Elphias. ‘Lily’s eyes.’
Harry now looked highly uncomfortable, but before Remus could call him down, Moody had sniffed suspiciously. ‘Are you quite sure it’s him, Lupin? It’s be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any veritaserum?’
‘Harry,’ said Remus swiftly, before Moody could think of any more potions to force feed Harry, ‘what form does your Patronus take?’
‘A stag,’ said Harry, who was still frowning in nervousness.
‘That’s him, Mad-Eye,’ said Remus cheerfully.
Harry began to descend the stairs, coming more into the light - Remus could see dark circles around his eyes and his hair was even messier than usual. He stowed his wand in his back pocket just as James always used to and was immediately roared at by Moody - Remus saw him start slightly, but he didn’t remove the wand.
He left Moody and Tonks to bicker and tease one another, and held out his hand to Harry as he approached, shaking it as Harry came level with him. ‘How are you?’ he asked him quietly, examining Harry’s pale, thin face. It was times like these, when Harry’s expression was stoic and tense, that he didn’t look like James at all.
‘F-fine,’ Harry stammered, looking uneasily at everyone around him. ‘I’m - you’re really lucky the Dursleys are out…’ he mumbled.
‘Lucky!’ laughed Tonks, proudly. ‘It was me who lured them out the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they’d been short-listed for the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They’re heading off to the prize-giving right now… or they think they are.’
A ghost of a smile flickered across Harry’s face, and Remus felt a rush of gratitude to the Weasley boys that had helped them create the most tempting lure. ‘We are leaving, aren’t we?’ he asked, with an edge of desperation in his voice.
‘Almost at once,’ Remus promised him. ‘We’re just waiting for the all-clear.’
‘Where are we going? The Burrow?’
‘Not the Burrow, no. Too risky,’ he added, as he led Harry to the kitchen. ‘We’ve set up headquarters somewhere undetectable. It’s taken a while…’
When they were all gathered on the gleaming tiles of the kitchen, Remus introduced the rest of the group to Harry, who inclined his head awkwardly at them and stood uncomfortably under their intense stares.
It must feel very odd, he supposed, to have people consistently amazed by your mere existence, much less to have complete strangers smiling so affectionately at you, forgetting that their relationship with James and Lily was completely unknown to Harry. ‘A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you,’ Remus said, trying not to let his amusement show too much.
‘Yeah, well, the more the better,’ growled Moody darkly. ‘We’re your guard, Potter.’
‘We’re just waiting for the signal to tell us it’s safe to set off,’ said Remus, peering out of the window. ‘We’ve got about fifteen minutes.’
He heard Tonks asking Harry about muggles, but swiftly had his attention pulled from the window back to Harry as he spoke to him. ‘Look, what’s going on, I haven’t heard anything from anyone,’ he said impatiently, ‘what’s Vol-?’
‘Shut up!’ snarled Moody, as the rest of the group hissed and panicked.
‘What?’ asked Harry, who looked rather irritated.
‘We’re not discussing anything here, it’s too risky - damn it!’ Moody’s magical eye had become stuck again - he sent Harry to get him water for it, and Remus continued to stare out of the window, waiting for the signal. He was sure that Sirius would be anxiously pacing Grimmauld Place already.
‘How’re we getting - wherever we’re going?’ he heard Harry ask.
‘Brooms,’ he told him. ‘Only way. You’re too young to apparate, they’ll be watching the Floo Network and it’s more than our life’s worth to set up an unauthorised Portkey.’
‘Remus says you’re a good flier,’ said Kingsley, and Remus remembered, with an unpleasant jolt, that Kingsley and James had briefly been on the Quidditch team together, just for one year before Kingsley left.
‘He’s excellent,’ he said, looking down at his watch. ‘Anyway, you’d better go and get packed, Harry, we want to be ready to go when the signal comes.’
Harry and Tonks disappeared upstairs.
‘Like seeing a ghost,’ said Kingsley quietly.
‘You’re telling me,’ said Remus with a sigh. He reached into his pocket. ‘I’d better write that letter,’ he said.
‘I still think one of us oughta stay and explain it to them properly,’ said Sturgis uncomfortably. ‘It’s going to be a shock for them, isn’t it? To find their nephew gone?’
‘The impression I got from the Weasley boys is that without a letter they would be unlikely to notice he was gone at all,’ said Remus wryly, thinking with grim annoyance about the lock on Harry’s door. He smoothed out the paper on the counter and leant down as he began to write.
Dear Mr and Mrs Dursely,
I hope you are well, and our sincere apologies for the confusing evening you must be having. I am from the Order of the Phoenix, and on Professor Dumbledore’s instruction, we have come to move Harry away for the rest of the school holidays.
Please do not be alarmed - there is no cause for worry. Harry will be staying ith friends he has known for a long time, and will be safe under the best protection we can offer.
I’m sure he will be in touch soon, and you can rest assured that you will see him next summer.
Sincerely,
Remus Lupin
‘I don’t understand it,’ Kingsley was saying, prodding the buttons of the microwave, causing piercing little bleeps to fill the kitchen. ‘What is it counting down to?’
‘Until the light turns off and the plate stops spinning,’ said Sturgis.
‘Yes, but what’s the point?’
‘Perhaps it’s some kind of entertainment?’
‘Have you lot seen this?’ Hestia was giggling. ‘Em! Em, come and see this - hah!’
Remus folded the letter and placed it in the envelope, scrawling ‘Mr and Mrs Dursley’ on the front. He was sealing it when Harry and Tonks returned - Harry looking rather more like himself. No doubt Tonks had worked her magic and cheered him up somehow.
‘Excellent,’ he said as they approached, Harry’s school trunk floating before them. ‘We’ve got about a minute, I think. We should probably get out into the garden so we’re ready, Harry, I’ve left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry-’
‘They won’t,’ said Harry.
‘-that you’re safe-’
‘That’ll just depress them.’
‘-and that you’ll see them next summer.’
‘Do I have to?’
Remus smiled at him, because the dry, biting sarcasm was so like Lily, but he was unable to say what he really wanted, which was, ‘not if Sirius and I have it our way.’
Soon they were disillusioning him and then there was the signal and they were up up up and soaring through the cold night sky, shooting towards north London.
That evening, once the reunions had happened and the explanations had been given and the children had been sent off to bed, Sirius handed Remus a bottle of butterbeer. ‘Well?’ he asked. ‘How was it? He looks bloody awful.’
Remus sipped from his butterbeer before answering, considering whether he ought to say anything at all. ‘He was locked in,’ he said at last. ‘In his bedroom, I mean. A lock had been added to the door.’
‘To keep him safe?’ Sirius asked with apprehension, for they both knew he was reaching.
‘Not the impression I got,’ said Remus heavily. ‘Not a single picture of him in that house.’
‘Well I’m not standing for it,’ said Sirius grumpily. ‘He’s not going back there. I’ll find a way to convince Dumbledore.’
‘When we find Peter again,’ Remus said firmly. ‘Once you’ve proved your innocence.’ Sirius grunted. ‘I mean it,’ said Remus sharply. ‘I mean it, Sirius, don’t make promises you can’t keep.’
‘I won’t,’ said Sirius sourly. He glanced up at the ceiling. ‘He’s getting very tall.’
‘I know,’ said Remus. ‘Harder every time, isn’t it?’