(Sirius's POV)
"Wait!" he shouted out to no avail as his godson disappeared in the magical fire, before mumbling, "That could have gone better."
Walking back into the kitchen, he said, "He's gone."
"Shouldn't we go after him?" Remus asked with concern.
"Not unless you know where he could have gone," he shot back, feeling a bit annoyed at the situation before saying, "He has a point, you know. Why didn't you check on him like we promised James and Lily?"
"Truthfully, I don't know why I didn't," his werewolf friend admitted. "After James and Lily's deaths, and your so-called betrayal and 'murder' of Peter, I kind of lost it. I just wanted to get away from all the death and misery, so I ran," Remus shouted in anger. Whether he was blaming Sirius or himself for his actions, he couldn't tell.
"By the time I got my head together and contacted our old Headmaster, he informed me that Harry had been placed with his loving Muggle relatives and for his safety his location couldn't be revealed."
At this, Sirius couldn't help but snort at the idea of Harry's relatives being loving.
"Besides, I'm a werewolf; I'm not safe to be around, especially not for children."
Sirius rolled his eyes, since it was the same old story as when Remus was at Hogwarts, never dating at all due to his condition.
"Something funny?" Remus asked in an annoyed tone.
"First, you are the safest werewolf I know, and your condition only affects you one night a month. I know a fair few wizards who are more feral than you are, even as a werewolf. Also, that crap you bought about keeping Harry safe - you could have at least written to him or been there at the station last year to see him off. It's not like the departure date has changed in the last two hundred years," he stated.
"Maybe, but Dumbledore said he was fine, and the Headmaster has never been wrong. He led us successfully against You-Know-Who," Remus protested.
"Successfully?" Sirius challenged with rising anger. "You call James and Lily's deaths a success? Or the hundreds of other wizards and witches who were murdered in their beds? Let alone the tens of thousands of Muggles who got killed in the crossfire? We won by luck! Unless you're saying Dumbledore knew that You-Know-Who's Killing Curse would backfire and intentionally set Frank and Alice up to die?" he shot back with venom.
"And even then I spent the next decade in jail due to the Headmaster's word, whilst real Death Eaters walked free!" he barked, feeling the desire to transform and rip something apart.
"Wrong choice of words," Remus admitted, seeing his friend's rising anger. "By God, I miss them too," he said before picking up his drink.
Calming slightly, "I miss them too," Sirius admitted. He was half tempted to mention that Harry's relatives had been far from a loving family to try and drive the point home of the Headmaster's ability to be wrong, but decided otherwise since it wasn't his place to share that knowledge - it was his godson's. He suspected there was more to it based on Tonks's expression, suggesting she knew much more. He wouldn't break the trust his godson had in him so soon by telling Remus of his childhood.
"What am I going to do?" Remus asked.
"I don't know," he admitted, already accepting that Harry was far more like Lily than James. This made it somewhat easier to separate the two despite their looks, but it also meant that it would be far harder to mend this bridge. James would just hex you or punch you and it would be cool afterwards, but Lily would hold on to it and drag out her payback. "We'll think of something," he said, throwing his friend a bone.
"I hope so."
"We will," he said reassuringly to his friend before his eyes lit up with a plan. "I've got an idea."
"What is it?" Remus questioned.
"I just became the owner of my parents' old house, which is run down with age and lack of care since they passed away. Me and Harry are going to clean it and make it our home, since the wards on the place are better than anything else Harry or I own," he said with a flick of his hand.
"It's a big task and will require a lot of work, since it's a big place, so an extra pair of hands could be useful," he said, shooting his friend a cunning look, similar to that of a dog who's just about to snatch a slice of bacon off its owner's plate without being noticed.
"Are you sure about this? It could just make it worse," the werewolf probed.
"Absolutely," he said with a grin as a plan took shape in his mind, whilst taking a Butterbeer out of the fridge. "Plus it's a big place, loads of rooms and a big basement suitable for holding a werewolf, so you could always move in. And frankly, two Marauders working together - what could possibly happen? It's not like he will be able to prank us. He's not James; he's more like Lily," he stated with conviction. "Besides, I own the place, so it's up to me who I allow to stay, not Harry."
"If you say so," Remus said with an unsure smile, taking the Butterbeer out of Sirius's hand. "But if he takes after Lily, you know it could become worse before it gets better. Severus still has that greasy hair from when he called her a Mudblood in our sixth year, you know?"
"Really?" Sirius responded, feeling slightly less sure now, before asking, "Any idea how she did it? I was thinking it over whilst I was locked up and still couldn't figure it out," very much impressed that her revenge was still in place after so many years.
"No, but I know it's not a potion, otherwise Severus would have been able to fix it by now. He's not a Potions Master for no reason," Remus admitted, thinking over the incident. "It has to be a charm. One she created herself, and you know what she was like."
"Yeah," he agreed, remembering Lily helping them get the spells working for the Marauder's Map.
"You certain about this, Sirius? I'd rather not have to deal with whatever Lily did to Snape. Remember, I have a lot more hair than you."
Sirius got a mental image of Remus's werewolf form with greasy body hair, with the moonlight reflecting off it, causing him to chuckle at the idea.
He quickly sobered though at the horrible thought of his own form suffering from the same greasy-haired fate, making him pale at the idea, before saying more to assure himself rather than Remus, "That will never happen."
...
(Headmaster's POV)
Albus pinched his nose in annoyance as he put down the latest edition of the Prophet, before wondering what to do about his newest headache caused by young Harry's summer activities and the release of his godfather.
Not that he was upset that Sirius had been released and cleared; it was good to know that Sirius had indeed been innocent after all - the former Gryffindor had always been one of his favourites. He did feel guilty about his role in the man's imprisonment, and the private knowledge that the youthful man he once knew had probably died in Azkaban by his hand.
What annoyed him most about the whole ordeal was the fallout. Once again his plans had been upset, and now his judgement was being questioned by the press, giving some real ground to Lucius's concerns about his leadership. Not that Lucius was much of a danger anymore, after the loss of the Black and Lestrange votes and their collective vaults. However, the man could still cause some serious harm with his current plot to have him removed, if events went against the Headmaster.
And then there was Bones announcing an investigation into how an innocent man was sent to jail without a trial. This caused a full-out media blitz with demands for a statement, to go along with the entire Wizengamot being in an uproar over the whole issue.
He couldn't tell if it was due to the fact that an innocent man and a so-called Lord was falsely imprisoned by his hand, or the fact that Lord Malfoy had just lost three-quarters of his own votes over the whole ordeal.
There was also the fact that Madam Bones had been able to get such a trial passed under their collective noses without being noticed. This once again confirmed his belief that he needed to get an agent within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so he wouldn't be caught off guard again and left holding the blame for something like this.
Sighing, he tried to weigh the best way to achieve such an end, now that Mad-Eye was retiring.
Mad-Eye was good for bits and pieces since his magical eye saw many secrets, but everyone knew he was Dumbledore's man, so his value as a spy was limited to what could be seen. Ultimately, he needed to get a new face or two within the department, to replace the ones he lost.
Before long, his mind was once again thinking about politics and the shifting factions resulting from Sirius's freedom. Surely it wouldn't affect the elections, since all the bribing and political manoeuvring had already been done, but still it had upset the nest and added a new element to the game.
Now all anyone could do was wait and see which side of the fence Sirius decided to come down on.
He was personally betting that Sirius would come back under his wing and bring those votes with him, ensuring his control of the Wizengamot for the near future, as soon as the man realized he was out of his depth.
Checking his grandfather clock, he saw that he'd better get going if he wanted to get to the meeting with the newest recruits for the next generation of the Order of the Phoenix on time. After all, it wouldn't do to be late.
"Fawkes," he called out, causing his familiar to instantly appear by his side. Stroking his partner affectionately, he said, "The Shrieking Shack, please, my friend," before disappearing in a flood of flames and instantly arriving in the upper floor of the building. Looking around his secondary office, he checked the wards to see they were fine and intact.
Albus quickly cast several high-powered Cleaning Charms to remove the dust and grime from the place, before lighting the fireplace with a flick of his wand. This made the backup office seem as warm and friendly as possible, just like his office within the school, but without the spying portraits and the horde of students.
After all, as head of a secret organisation, it wouldn't do to advertise its membership by making them walk through Hogwarts, where countless students could see them, as well as feed the Hogwarts rumour mill. He would have to add a couple of portraits to help watch over the place, as well as having corresponding paintings in his office for extra security. It helped that Remus often used the lower floor to safely transform and would often end up howling the night away, scaring away curious eyes.
You could say he had a guard dog of sorts, which caused him to chuckle at an old joke from his youth about werewolves only being good for protecting their masters. Added to this was the fact that the man was completely unaware that he had set up shop above him, all due to several clever wards and enchantments which could easily keep a curse-breaker busy for several days.
He then walked over to the window so he could watch the path, knowing all too well he still had another ten minutes before his former students arrived. This gave him plenty of time to go over his speech and gather his aura of leadership.
Fancying a lemon drop, he turned to his desk to realize he didn't have any, sighing with the realization at last at what he had forgotten to bring, before making a mental note for next time.
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