Don't dream
Remus dropped the bandages and box of plasters he'd been helping the nurse carry, the second they stepped back into the room.
"He-he was just here!" he spluttered.
The nurse frowned at him before something caught her eye line, "The window.. It's wide open, he must've gotten out that way, it leads straight to the car park."
The brunette instantly grew dizzy, having to lean against the wall to regain his balance, chest growing tight he managed to squeak out a response: "I.. I have to go.. Please inform the head teacher of Harry's disappearance and of his weak condition."
"Wait-! Where are you going? I..." her voice called after Remus, trailing off as he made his way out the room. He went into the empty staff room and quickly disapparated.
I need to get to Sirius... The teacher thought, still in a dazed state.
Remus reached back home and rushed inside to find his boyfriend, trying to subdue the panic attack he felt building up. "Sirius!?.." his voice cracked, emotion showing. "Sirius!!"
"Hm? What's up?" he called from the other room, in his usual casual, uncaring manner.
"Sirius, it's- it's Harry-" the other's head snapped up at that. "He's missing, it's my fault.. it's all my fault." Remus grabbed handfuls of his brunette locs, standing in front of his boyfriend, now. "I wanted to help, but I left him alone, and- and he ran away! How could I let this happen?! Merlin's beard, I'm so stupid."
Sirius wrapped his pale, slender hands around Remus' and gently peeled them away from his scalp.
"No you're not, Moony. You know you're not. How about I go out as Padfoot and try and find him? I'm sure I'll find him in no time if I catch his scent."
Remus took a deep breath in and out, gradually beginning to ground himself. "Okay.... Okay. You do that and I'll call the muggle police men. He's injured, Padfoot, he really needs help."
In response, Sirius nodded affirmatively then quickly transformed into his animagus form, sprinting out the door.
Please be okay Harry...
***
Harry had no idea where he was.
Sure, that was kind of the whole point of running away. His legs had carried him as far as they could take him, adrenaline pulsed through his body to push him further. Just keep running. he would keep thinking, but eventually his legs began to give way. He'd ran for about half an hour then walked the rest. In order to give himself a break, he was currently parked up against a substantially large tree truck, back firmly pressed against the coarse bark.
The adrenaline was slowly, but surely, beginning to wear off, causing agonising pain to rush through his body and crash down on him all at once.
"Ow ow ow.." He muttered to himself, eyes squeezed shut, legs drawn to his chest and his head resting on his knees.
Harry chomped down on his tongue, hard. A futile attempt to suppress the pain but he was spiralling. Overwhelmed by the ache rushing through him and the fact that he was completely and utterly lost. The boy lifted up his head, fixing his glasses as his green eyes frantically took in their surroundings.
That was when something familiar caught his eye. A black German Shepherd that practically towered over himself began to approach him.
Harry unclenched the fabric of his trousers and let his knees drop to the floor so he could cross his legs. The dog stopped in front of him and whimpered slightly at the sight of the ravenette's red eyes and tear stained cheeks.
"How did you get here..?" Harry asked, feeling slightly stupid for trying to speak to a dog, it's not like it could answer, anyway.
It approached the boy further and began to lick the tears that had previously escaped his eyes. Harry began to giggle at the ticklish sensation.
"Okay. okay! Stop!" he said between laughs. The dog barked happily in response and started running in circles chasing its tail."You're a silly doggy.. I like you, unlike Aunt Marge's dog, Ripper.. He bit me!" The German Shepherd stopped running and looked back over to Harry and whined again, "Her and Uncle Vernon said I'd done it to myself and said that I deserved it.. But that's not true! I was walking past Ripper then Aunt Marge poked him and he got up and bit me... It left a mark as well, look!" he rolled up his trousers leg to reveal a dog bite shaped scar on his leg (surrounded by scars and more recent cuts and bruises from Vernon hitting Harry with his leather belt) "But you'd never do that would you?" he patted the black dog on the head and smiled at it wagging its tail. He sighed again before continuing,
"I hate Aunt Marge.. she's not even my real Aunt, but Uncle Vernon makes me call her that. A few years ago me and Dudley, that's my cousin, were playing musical statues then she hit me round the shins with her walking stick to stop me from winning! I was only around 4 then... But I guess I'd probably experienced worse from my Uncle at that age..." The dog let out a mewl and curled up at the boy's side, as if to comfort him. Harry felt rather silly, confessing everything to the German Shepherd, but he just had a feeling that it could understand what he was saying.
I s'pose it wouldn't hurt to tell him more...
"My Uncle isn't very nice to me. When I was little, my parents died in a car crash- must've only been one... I don't remember much about them. I think they were probably a great mummy and daddy but Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and well... everyone said they weren't. They called my dad an alcoholic and said he spent more time at the bar, or with a drink in his hand, than he did with me. But I don't believe it. All of the very few memories I have of him and mummy were all good, I felt loved." he let out a deep sigh, "I have a picture of them and some of their friends, it was taken the summer before they died. It's a weird picture, it moves; I'm sure it does. My Uncle and Aunt just say I'm imagining it, though. They both looked really happy, holding me between the two of them. I miss them a lot. How can you miss someone you hardly knew?"
The dog's ears pricked up at the mention of the boy's mum and dad, it nuzzled into Harry and looked up at him with big brown eyes. The ravenette patted his companion on the head with his non-broken hand.
"It's okay, doggy, I'm fine.." he smiled down at the dog. "I ran away, that's why I'm here (wherever here actually is). Uncle Vernon was really mad at me the other week, it was my fault, though... I'm really weird, you see. I can make things happen like... like magic. Which I know isn't possible, magic isn't real! But I levitated my cousin off the ground last week because he made me really upset... And well, my Uncle found out and- and he trod on my hand and put it the fire-" he shuffled slightly and showed the dog his hand whilst simultaneously realising that he'd lost the gloves Uncle Vernon had given him. "Look! It really hurts, too... I have massive bruises everywhere and marks from being hit with my Uncle's belt.... I think I'm really ugly."
Harry looked down at his lap, tears falling down onto his trousers, leaving little patches of moisture scattered across them. Suddenly, the dog stood up and whined and began to run away from the boy.
"Hey! Wait- Stop?!" Harry hopped onto his feet, wincing slightly from the pain, then chased after the dog.
***
Sirius ran with only one particular thought in mind: I need to get my Godson out of that house.
Him and Remus had been repeating the same phrase to themselves for the past couple weeks but as Harry began to spill all his secrets to him, he didn't even have control, as the black dog took off, leading Harry back to his shared flat with Remus.
They came to an abrupt stop outside the apartment door and he barked at Harry to open it. With a frown, he did so.
"Where are we...?" he whispered, looking down toward Padfoot, who was unbothered and just strutted over the threshold happily and wagging his tail. Harry followed in pursuit and closed the door, albeit hesitantly, behind him.
Sirius finally gathered his thoughts and decided that until Remus returned, he'd stay in his animagus form (he didn't want to startle the boy). He led the ravenette towards the sofa and jumped up on it, beckoning Harry to take a place next to him- which he politely did.
"Do you think I could still tell you about my Uncle? I've never spoken about it out loud before.. I don't know why I'm even asking, you're a dog, it's not like you understand me anyway.." he scoffed. Sirius tilted his head to the right slightly, hoping the boy would take it as a sign to continue.
"The bruises aren't even that bad, they hurt loads but after all the other things... I'd take a punch to the face any day over-"
All of a sudden, the door swung open and Harry's head snapped towards it, flinching violently with a look of pure fear on his face. Remus Lupin stood in the doorway staring back at the young boy.
"M-Mr Lupin?!"
"Harry." he nodded, eyes fixated on Sirius whose ears had dropped and he shrank down to hide on the sofa.
"Mr Lupin, I'm sorry I ran! I- I was really scared, I didn't mean too, And- and your dog, he led me here! I'm sorry!" he said, hurried to the point where all his words began to merge into one.
"That's quite alright." Remus turned his attention back to Sirius. "Padfoot. What did you do?"
The dog whined an apology and followed the other into the kitchen and they shut the door, leaving Harry. Sirius finally transformed back and started to ramble out an excuse before Remus could even say anything.
"Remus, listen, I didn't have a choice! I know we agreed that I'd just go and find him but he saw me. So I just thought, well it couldn't do much harm to stay with him for a little while, y'know, whilst you called them muggle people, please-men, was it? Never mind that, but he was telling me about Vernon, and Remus I just wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let my godson back with them people, James trusted me! I-"
But his flow of thoughts was interrupted by the door slowly creaking it's way open, a small figure stood in the doorway staring at them both with wide eyes.
"Harry, we'll be out in a minute just wait in there for me hon." Remus said softly.
His eyes found their way over to Sirius. "Uh.. Mister? Did you say I'm your godson?" he asked sheepishly.
Sirius and Remus looked at each other, the latter sighed and gave a nod, motioning the man to explain.
"Yes, your dad made me your godfather before his- uh.. before he passed," he winced slightly saying this, James and Lily's deaths were still a rather fresh wound to him, "But sadly you had to go live with your Aunt and Uncle."
"Oh..." Harry averted his eyes to the cool kitchen tiles, before he realised something, "Where's your dog?" he questioned, frowning.
"He- Er- We let him outside for a bit." Sirius replied quickly.
"But I saw him come in the kitchen?"
"We let him out shortly after."
"... Okay."
"Right then," Remus interjected before the boy could ask anymore questions, "How about we get you back home?"
"NO!" Harry cried, beginning to look distressed. "Please no, Mr Lupin, please please, nonononono."
"It's okay, Harry, I'm sorry I suggested that, how about we go back into the living room and Sirius can bring us a cup of tea?" the boy nodded slightly, wiping his nose and his eyes an oversized sleeve. "Yeah? Okay, come on then." Remus offered him a hand, which the ravenette took, and then led him back to the sofa and laid a blanket over him. He felt stupid for even suggesting that, but Dumbledore would be showing up soon if they weren't careful
Sirius came in with the tea and set it down on the mahogany coffee table, glancing over at his godson in the process.
With his knees, once again, drawn close to his chest, Harry looked so small. The tears were cascading down his red cheeks; he'd cried so much today, Uncle Vernon always said he was a no good crybaby.
"Please don't make me go back," he whispered in a meek voice, "I'll tell you everything, just pleasepleaseplease don't send me back there" his eyes wandered over to Sirius, "I can live with you! You're my godfather! You knew daddy, so you can take care of me."
"What d'you say, Moony? The kid has a point.."
Remus released a long sigh, "Yes alright then," giving them both a crooked smile, "Harry, you don't have to tell us everything if you don't want to. If you're going to live here then we want you to be comfortable and feel safe. Here, let me take a look at your wounds."
The boy hesitated but gave his hand over to Remus, reluctantly so. The latter pulled his wand out his pocket and concentrated to the best of his ability.
Crack!
Harry's let out a yelp of pain and snatched his hand back. But then he realised: "My fingers?! They're- They're better!"
"I can help heal that nasty burn you've got there too. If you want me to?" The ravenette nodded and willingly placed his hand back in Remus' palm. He refocused his attention to the wound and watched it gradually close up.
"Woahhhh!" Harry watched in awe, eyes as wide as saucers.
"Unfortunately it's going to leave this scar, but at least the pain will be gone now."
"Are you- are you magic...?" the boy asked, staring at his lap as he began to clench and unclench his previously broken hand.
Remus nodded, "Yes, and so is Sirius, and you as well."
"Me?!"
"Yep!" Sirius chimed in, "Your mum was a very gifted witch and your dad a very powerful wizard. Have you ever done anything? Something that you couldn't control or explain?"
Nodding, Harry responded, "The other week I levitated my cousin-" he grimaced at the memory, "But Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia says magic is weird and unnatural... I'm not allowed to do it. My Uncle tells me off."
"Well, they'll be no telling off here! You can use magic all you want!"
The ravenette gave a small smile to the two before looking down at lap, fumbling to roll up the oversized sleeves of his school jumper.
After Sirius caught Harry doing so, he decided to make a proposition. "How about we go out and buy you some new clothes!" he grinned, "Can't have you walking round tripping over all the time, can we?"
Harry smiled back and nodded vigorously, "Okay!"
"I'll stay here, I need to call Dumbledore. But don't be back too late you two!" His voice beginning to crescendo as the pair made their way out the door.