Chapter 1
Remus was sitting against the brick wall with his knees hugged to his chest, whilst Dorcas was perched next to him biting her nails, and Marlene was pacing anxiously.
“He’ll win, he did nothing wrong,” Marlene murmured, her voice quaking.
Dorcas looked up and gestured for her to sit with them, partly wanting Marlene to settle and partly wanting the support.
Sirius was currently inside, on trial for the betrayal of Lily and James Potter. A crime that he did not commit, but rather who he thought was one of his best friends, Peter Pettigrew, had committed. Peter had told Voldemort their location, resulting in both their deaths. Unfortunately for Voldemort, it had also resulted in his own, after being killed in the process. Of course, nobody had believed Sirius’ innocence and he had been locked up for the past 4 years in Azkaban. Now, they had found a link leading to Peter and reopened the trial, and would be putting Sirius under veritaserum.
Remus, Marlene and Dorcas had been living together since the war had ended, they were the only ones left other than Mary, who had returned home and lost contact. Their apartment wasn’t the best, but it worked okay. Marlene and Cas slept together in the bedroom and Remus took the sofa. It was pretty much all they could afford, seeing as none of them worked and were living off the last of their parents' money. It didn’t help much that all three had developed pretty bad drinking problems, and rarely took care of themselves. The war, losing all of their friends and being completely struck with PTSD was a lot for three young adults in their early 20s to try to deal with on their own and unfortunately they didn't have the healthiest coping mechanisms.
Dorcas entwined her fingers with Marlene’s and rested her head against her shoulder, there wasn’t long left until the court would finish, and Sirius’ innocence would be decided. Truth be told, all of them had believed that Sirius had been the mole, it was what had been told to them after all, and now they would potentially be seeing him. Five years of thinking their friend was responsible for half the misery they had endured, and only one phone call from Dumbledoor changing almost everything they had thought was true. It was a lot.
The doors opened and there were footsteps rushing down the stairs, to which everyone stood up and stared. Much to their surprise, it was Sirius. His already long hair had grown to his lower back and it was jagged and greasy, his face was pale and scratched up and his once joyful eyes were pale and lifeless. He looked around at them, his face hollow-cheeked and dreary.
Remus stood up and approached slowly, still in disbelief. “Sirius,” he managed to utter. “You won? You’re innocent?”
Sirius simply stared back, no answer until he eventually nodded once and before Remus could say anything else, they heard another pair of footsteps.
Dumbledoor was stood behind Sirius, watching them. He cleared his throat, glancing up and smiling. “I’m glad to see you all reunited, I know this must be quite a shock. There’s been a large turn of events, and I'm afraid I'm here to bear even more big news.”
“Yes?”
Albus looked to the ground. “Before the Potters died, they had put Sirius as Harry’s legal guardian, meaning you have full custody of him if anything were to happen to them. Since you have been in Azkaban, Harry has been with Lily’s sister and her family but we’ve noticed that they don’t exactly treat him the best. Now that you are free, you have a complete legal obligation to take him, if that’s what you wish.”
Sirius’ eyes widened and he looked frantically to Remus, who was staring dumbfoundedly at Dumbledoor.
“I am aware that you probably can’t do it alone, Sirius, so we thought it would be appropriate for you to all help. I know how close you are, well, were. There is a house for you, in the muggle countryside, protected from everything. With Peter and other various death-eaters still being on the run, I think raising him away from magic would be a smart decision.” Albus was now very close to the four of them and planted his hand on Sirius’ shoulder. “If you really don’t think you can do it, it’s okay, there can be other arrangements. I understand that it’s a lot to take in within your first minutes of reunion.”
Sirius shook his head, “I mean, yes, I’ll do it. If you think I’m okay to do it? I haven’t even talked to anyone in four years, you think I can raise a four year old?”
“All three of us can help, we’ve been living in a one bed flat, we're pretty close-knit. We’d be happy to stay with you both, of course,” Dorcas smiled half-heartedly, Marlene and Remus nodding in agreement.
Dumbledoor clasped his hands together, “Good, I think you’ll be great. You’re all young, I know you might think too young, but you’ve got good morals and you’re kind. That's the best you can ask of parents, you know but know that you always have Minerva and I for support, if you need it. I’ll leave you alone now, I’m sure there's a lot to catch up on. You can use floo to get to the house, I’ve written the address on a piece of paper.” He handed the paper to Sirius and waved them goodbye, leaving all four quietly shocked.
“You can come back to our flat, Sirius, get cleaned up before we go?” Dorcas offered, sweetly.
Sirius nodded, quietly. “Yes, thanks- thank you. I’d like that.”
-
They were sitting on the two sofas in their small living room-kitchen space. The water had finally stopped running and they heard Sirius stepping out of the shower from inside the bathroom. He had been in there for over 30 minutes, but none of them blamed him, they didn’t know what it had been like in Azkaban.
Remus was staring at their cases, lined next to one another by the fireplace. “Should we eat dinner before we go?”
“I think we better get there as soon as possible, Remus.” Marlene was lying with her head in Dorcas’ lap.
He nodded and fumbled with the sleeves of his sweater. “Am I the only one nervous? I mean, it’s not like I’m scared of Sirius- I know he’s innocent and all. We, we just haven't seen him in so long, Azkaban changed people. I can’t even imagine how horrible it’s been and, and-”
Dorcas sat up and reached across to place her hand gently on his knee, “I think we can agree it won’t be easy. And you’re right, he’s probably pretty traumatised, but all we can do is try to help him, right?”
Before anyone could answer, the bathroom door knob jittered a bit and the door opened with a creak. Sirius walked slowly down the short corridor and stood as their eyes scanned over him. He was fully dressed in Remus’ clothes, seeing as that was the only spare clothing that would fit him; a green patterned sweater that was far too big for him and faded denim jeans that he had rolled at the bottoms to not appear so ridiculously oversized on him. His hair was wet but brushed and looked even longer than they had thought. Although Sirius had always been thin as a teen, he was now extremely skinny, emancipated even, and Remus wasn’t surprised that his clothes were way too big for his small frame.
He stood there, awkwardly. “I’m sorry for taking so long, thank you for the clothes Rem-Remus.”
“Yeah, um, no problem.” Remus cleared his throat and stood up, fidgeting with his hands. “We should get going, before it's late.”
Marlene jumped up and picked up her case, walking over to the fire. “Haven’t done this in a while, I guess you never forget,” she said, warmly. Dorcas joined her by the fire, handing her a fistful of floo powder and reading her the address from the paper. Marl kissed her on the cheek, before murmuring a goodbye to the others and dropping the powder.
Dorcas followed after her, leaving just Remus and Sirius.
“You can go first, Sirius.” Remus smiled, picking up the last of the cases and stepping behind him. “I’ll take the cases, I’ll just, um, see you there.”
-
The house was small but cosy. There were four bedrooms, all with sunken roofs and big wooden beams across the ceiling. It was just as rural as they had imagined, but quite the switch from the slums of London. There was both a front and back garden, full of flowers and soil with access to a small river at the back. It had already been furnished and cleaned for their arrival and it felt nice to be so pampered again. They assumed that the money had come from the Potter’s vault, not that any of them would want to take advantage of that. The money would be spent on raising Harry, trying to give him the best upbringing that overwhelmed young adults could.
According to the note left on the kitchen table, Harry would be arriving tomorrow and so the girls went to bed early, without eating dinner. Remus, on the other hand, was starving and started to boil water on the stove, chucking dry pasta from the pantry in with it. There wasn’t much food, enough to make dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow, but they’d need to food shop. Some floorboards in the next room creaked loudly and Remus could hear what he thought was muttering.
“Sirius, is that you?” he asked, peering around the wall.
Sirius was standing there glancing around, not entirely sure what to do with himself. He wasn’t exactly used to all of these luxuries. “Um, yes.”
“Do you want pasta? I’ve just started on it.” Sirius nodded and walked into the kitchen, perching himself on the edge of the table. They sat in silence for a few seconds, the water simmering in the pot. “I think I should apologise to you, Sirius. No, I know I should. I’m so sorry that I thought you were the mole. I knew deep down that you’d never, I just-”
“Remus, it's- it’s all fine now. It's okay, I forgive you.”
“No, just because you're out doesn’t make it okay. Four years of Azkaban, for doing nothing. It’s just crazy. I'm so sorry.”
Sirius did a sort of half smile, the corner of his mouth creeping up slightly. This would've reminded Remus of their Hogwarts days, if it wasn’t so obviously forced. Yet that still wasn’t the only factor making it appear so incredibly fake, his eyes stayed dim and practically emotionless.
The frothy water boiled over the saucepan, sloshing over Remus’ hand and making him retract it quickly, wincing. He muttered a curse under his breath and grabbed a nearby tea towel, dabbing gently at his pink skin to dry it.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Sirius’ eyes running over his body. It was obvious he hadn't been caring for himself and multiple new scars trailed along his neck and arms from his transformations. Those were the only ones visible while wearing clothes, but the difference was noticeable. He too had lost a vast amount of weight, which was of course going to happen seeing as Remus had lost all appetite since losing the majority of his friends and his home.
Sirius approached the stove and turned down the gas, letting the water bubble down and drop to a simmer.
“Thanks, I should’ve been paying more attention. It’ll be done in about 5 minutes,” mumbled Remus, not turning his full body around to look.
“This will be my first proper meal in a while,” Sirius said, rather quietly. “Believe me, I’ve gotten quite used to grule and cold mash potatoes.”
Remus now turned to look at him thoughtfully, “God, I can’t imagine what you've been through. Let me finish cooking, you should sit down.” He walked over to the dining table and pulled out a chair for Sirius, who slumped into it effortlessly.