Descent

Remus sat in his office, idly flipping through his lesson plans laid out on his desk. With one hand, he was turning the pages, and with the other, he was stirring his tea. It was the first quiet moment he had had in months, considering it was the first week of term. The summer was just short of perfect, that shouldn't be mistaken, but it was busy as well. With Harry staying with them now at Grimmauld Place, Sirius and Remus had to quicken their renovation and cleaning of the house that had began the summer before. The Order, though quick to help, were also filling the old house and new home with other worries.

Just two months before, they had been in the Department of Mysteries, watching Sirius nearly fall to his death. All that transpired were some broken bones in Sirius and a deceased Bellatrix Lestrange. Remus had been left holding the wand that killed her, having never realized he had it in him to shoot to kill. He was still reeling from this, wondering what he would have done had he not come home with Sirius that day. It had opened many doors within him, letting out feelings he had been pushing down for years. With Sirius in Azkaban, and then trapped in grimmauld place, there hadn't been much time to think about who they were before. There was only now.

After seeing both Voldemort and Wormtail at the ministry, Fudge was forced to accept two truths: Sirius Black was innocent and Harry was right about Voldemort. Sirius had received a full pardon, his wand back, and custody of his godson, all in one day. It was a lot to process, and the ex-convict spent most of his time trying to rebuild his life now. And Harry's too. He wanted his godson to have as normal of a childhood as he could now that he was free from his suffocating relatives, even if that meant watching him train to be a child solider as well.

It would have been far less busy summer without those stresses. Remus knew that Sirius had been looking forward to quality time with Harry, and Remus had to admit he had too. But with a new war right at their heels, they had to be two steps ahead. That meant less Quidditch, more strategy. Perhaps after Voldemort was gone-well, it was difficult to think that far now. For any of them. But he knew that Sirius hadn't been ready for the summer to end.

Though Remus was still spending his nights and weekends at the house, he knew Sirius got a little stir crazy during the day. He always said "How can I be considered a free man when every time I step out of the house, people are muttering about how I should be locked up?" He felt for his best friend. Truly, he did, because he knew how it felt. Remus knew that one could never really get used to being looked at as if the whole world wanted you in a cage. For these reasons, he tried his best to have patience with Sirius always turning back up at the castle.

So, when his office door was thrown open without warning, he didn't even look up. Only one person would come in unannounced. "Sirius, can't you knock?" Looking up at his best friend now, he closed his book.

Smirking, Sirius closed the door behind him and moved to sit in front of Remus's desk. "Why? You know it's me. Lock the door if you don't want people in here."

"I just might start." Remus half teased, letting out a quiet laugh. "What are you doing here? I've been gone for three hours, did you really miss me that much?"

Rolling his eyes, Sirius leaned back in his chair. "Always. But no, I came to see Harry. However, he seems to be hiding as I've looked nearly everywhere he'd be."

Remus knew that this meant Sirius had looked in maybe three or four places and had promptly given up. "He's been spending an awfully large amount of time with Dumbledore lately, so he might be in his office. Secretive stuff, I suppose. Every time I've asked Harry about it, he's gotten extremely quiet and refused to speak a word of it."

"He's loyal to the man, you know that. We all are, but not as much as Harry." But Sirius would have liked to know what was going on as well. Harry always seemed to be short with him lately and it was starting to worry him. The boy seemed to be under a lot of pressure and Sirius couldn't pinpoint why. But he had a feeling it had something to do with Dumbledore. "Changing the subject. How are you enjoying your new job?"

With Dumbledore's persistence in Severus Snape taking over the DADA position, Remus had taken on some of his first and second year classes as well as assisting Minerva in some of her Deputy Headmistress responsibilities. Really, he was just helping wherever he could, and it was appreciated by all but Snape. "It's…keeping me busy, I suppose." He smiled though. It wasn't a secret that he'd rather feel useful then not. "I'm glad that it doesn't keep me too busy, though, because I couldn't not be apart of the Order."

"As if we're doing anything other then trying to get Molly to stop redecorating my house." Sirius joked quietly. "Keeping Harry safe is our number one priority right now, though I have to say, I wish he would stop being spoken of like some sort of weapon."

Remus snorted quietly. "It's how Dumbledore intends to use him. As a weapon against Voldemort. And its how Voldemort sees Harry as well."

"Comforting." Sirius said quietly, his face a bit more sober now as the front legs of chair hit the floor. Most of his days were spent avoiding this conversation. Between Alastor Moody, Molly Weasey, and Snape, everyone had an opinion about his godson's wellbeing and none of them was positive. It took all he had in him not to just scream at everyone to leave Harry be. To just let him be a kid. To just let him be an adult. To be what he wanted to be. Instead, he had to watch him become a pawn.

Remus reached forward, his hand squeezing Sirius's arm. "We're all going to breathe a little easier when it's over, Sirius. But Harry's fine, he's in good hands here…" He trailed off however as shouting started to sound through the door. Standing up now, he moved to open his room to the hallway. A few students rushed past him looking panicked.

"HELP!" They heard. "HELP! HARRY!" Sirius stood up then, instant panic seeming to hit him in the chest. He recognized that voice as Ron's.