Chapter 4
"Prongs, I need you to stay awake. I need you to listen to me and I need you to answer my questions."
James eyes seem to fokus on him. They have done that before, but only ever for a split second, before unfocusing or drifting closed or away. Now though, they seem more fixed on him.
"Alright"
As Sirius takes a breath James' voice reaches his ears. It's barely above a whisper. Had he been any further away than kneeling right in front of James, Sirius wouldn't have heard him.
Harry's cries would have drowned him out.
Harry.
Harry is still crying but he will be fine.
James passed out and he will do so again, if he doesn't keep him awake. Ask questions. Right.
"Prongs, what lovely people were present on Harry's first birthday?"
James' eyebrows scrunch up in thought.
"You. Me. Harry. Lily."- at mentioning her, his gaze unfocuses and Sirius is worried to have lost his attention, until-"Wormtail. Moony."
"No, Prongs. Moony wasn't there on Harry's birthday.", Remus hasn't been there a lot of times for a long time. Doesn't even know where they live, Sirius has made sure of that.
"He is.", his voice is hard. Decisive. Angry. But why? Remus really wasn't there. So James angry, but about
"What?"
"Moony. Love him. So do you."
No. No,no,no. He cannot love Moony. The traitor. Lily's dead. Harry's bleeding. Attacked in their own home.
Which Moony can't find. Or see.
He couldn't...
Movement in Sirius peripheral vision.
Sharp pain, as he stands.
"STUPUR!", red light hits before he realizes he has drawn his wand. The intruder takes another step towards him
"STUPUR!"
towards James
"STUPUR!"
towards Harry
"STUPUR!"
The massive figure sways a little
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The shape leans forward. Towards him. Towards James. Towards Harry.
"STUPUR!"
Sirius sends that last one up high, so that James, himself, Harry doesn't get crushed.
"Sirius", not James, to loud in his weakened state, not Sirius himself, why would he, so who else...?
"Sirius", the figure starts again, "calm down. 's me, Hagird.", a thick brown beard came into view, as the figure, Hagird, sits up.
Hagird is the only person Sirius knows, that can resist that many stunners but better save than sorry. "What was the last creature we fed together?"
"Thestrals. Said they're beautiful. Right you are",his voice lowers as he speaks and at the end takes on a sad tone.
Hagird slowly turns his head. His eyes widen, as he takes in the scene in front of him.
Sirius keeps wand raised, his voice sharp as he demands: "What are you doing here?"
And more importantly, how did he get here?
"To get Harry."
"No." Hagrid had the audacity to look taken aback.
"Dumbledore's orders.'m sorry"
"No. Leave." Sirius takes a step back.
His body now blocks any straight path towards Harry. He no longer stands in front of James, leaving him exposed. Fuck.
"Sirius, pease..."
"No. Stay. Away. From. Harry."
Hagird opens his mouth, as if to voice further protest. In that moment, James turns his head. His face barely moves but Sirius can feel the pain echo as if it was in his own head.
Good thing he took of James' glasses, at least. Those must have pressed into James' head hard.
"Hagrid. Go get a pain potion and a wakefulness potion from the shelves next to Lily's room. It's downstairs, once across the hallway." James reaches down his leg. As James' face scrunches, a burst of sharp pain shoots up from Sirius' own knees.
Fractured knee caps. How could he forget those. Sirius isn't confident in his bone mending spell work "bring some skelegrow, if there is any, and a measuring cup."
There must be something truly terrifying in his face or voice for Hagrid to look even a little scared. He tries to stand but his arms are still tied firmly to his torso and his legs to each other. With a flick of his wand, Sirius ends the body bind and the stunners. He leaves his wand pointed on Hagird until he is out the door.
Once he is gone , Sirius moves to sift through the cabinet for the baby sling.
He spreads the long strip of fabric out on the floor between the crib and where James is still lying, somewhat conscious.
No one takes Harry from James, not even Hagrid, not even Dumbledore.
Sirius won't let him.
Sirius is no idiot, though, no matter how often Remus may claim otherwise.
(Don't think about Moony.)
Sirius knows he can't fight Hagrid fight Hagrid and he certainly cannot fight Dumbledore. Therefore he needs to run away with Harry.
He picks Harry up, puts him down in the middle of the spread out fabric and ties him like a backpack onto his back.
Sirius hears the clattering of bottles. He has to leave. He can't apparate, not with a baby, not with a barely concise James as a side along. Same goes for the floo. He can't leave James, though. That means they have to escape manually. On foot? To slow. On brooms?
On his bike! That might actually work. But to ride it, James needs to be awake and to wake him up, Sirius needs those potions.
He just needs to be ready to run, as soon as James can.
Sirius kneels back down next to James' head, keeping the door in front of him. This way he'll see anyone come in and his body shields Harry.
He turns James' face towards his own. At this James makes a noise of vague displeasure. His eyes flicker around until they land on Sirius. James' voice is still quiet and thick as he asks: "What happened?"
Relieve floods Sirius. That was a full sentence. James woke up on his own or even stayed awake for the entire confrontation with Hagird. "Hagrid showed up. Spooked me quite a bit. I sent him downstairs to get you some healing potions."
As if summoned, Hagird appears in the doorway, three potions and a measuring cup in hand.
"Put those down there." Sirius points at the floor next to James' torso. Hagrid does so gently.
In a soft voice, Sirius addresses James: "Prongs, there are fissures in your knee caps. I will give you a sip of skelegrow in order to mend those."
Sirius picks up the cup and fills it to the twenty milliliter mark with skelegrow. This much will help without causing bone overgrowths. Probably.
"You will have to sit up. I will support your weight, if you need me to."
Sirius took the small nod as agreement enough to lift James into a sitting position. James grimaces but protest no further, so Sirius raises the cup for James to drink.
"Ew", Sirius didn't think James could look that disgusted. He knows better now.
"I know, I know. Here, drink this." Sirius hands James the bottle of wakefulness potion. He takes it and empties the whole thing, thank Lily for preportioning. Sirius can see the exact moment the effects sets in, James face contorting in misery, as the pain hits his suddenly awake mind in full swing.
"Ow", James grumbles, "little warning before you feed a guy torture juice."
"I wasn't certain you'd have drunk it, if I had." Sirius hands James the last bottle. "For the pain"
He takes the potion and drinks it. "For your sake and mine, I hope you mean against."
Even as he speaks his face relaxes, his voice sounding less and less pained.