Roast Ham Warnings
“Someone's at the door, Uncle Sirius.” Percy said importantly as he returned from investigating.
Remus looked at Sirius.
“Probably carollers.” Ted said although his wife tensed up next to him.
Avery looked at Kingsley, “I don't think it could be anything. Festive time of year.”
“None of the known Death-eaters have been particularly active.” Kingsley replied, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, setting down his glass. “I’ll come with you, Sirius.”
“Don’t think I can handle it?” he asked, jokingly.
“Can never be too careful.”
“Aw, now you’re sounding like Moody, Kings.” Sirius said as they walked together to the door, Kingsley with his wand out.
Sirius unlocked the door and took a deep breath. He opened it.
“Ah, Sirius! And here I thought you had left me in the cold.”
Albus Dumbledore stood on the welcome mat, dressed in robes of a deep red with a thick, black coat. His tall wizards hat brushing the roof of the porch.
“Dumbledore.” Kingsley said, putting his wand away.
“Were you going to attack me, Kingsley?”
“No sir.” Kingsley smiled.
“Please, if you can, fetch me Remus, I need a word with him and Sirius.”
“Of course, sir.” Kingsley nodded, patted Sirius on the shoulder and went into the house.
“Please, come inside.” Sirius said.
“Thank you,” Dumbledore walked gracefully in, bobbed down so that his hat was not brushed off from the door frame.
When Remus got there, Dumbledore gestured to the room off the right side of the door.
“I first want to apologise for the party crashing. I understand you have a fair few guests…” he said, firelight glinting off his half-moon spectacles. “And second… I’m… I’m so sorry for your loss. Lily and James… They were the best of us.”
“Dumbledore… you don’t need to.” Remus said, looking away.
“No. I do.” He removed his glasses to pierce Remus and Sirius with his sharp blue eyes. “It was my fault. I let them get killed that night. If I had… If I had been smarter or planned something–”
“Dumbledore. We all blame ourselves. You don’t–”
“I’m sorry. Sirius. Remus. They were your best friends and I should have seen the… I should have…” he sighed, unable to continue.
He stared into the lounge room where the party crowd were staring through the doorways and at Dumbledore. Dumbledore smiled and waved a hand, “Hello. Merry Christmas.”
The crowd waved back in varying levels of drunkenness and chorused back to him.
Dumbledore sighed and turned back, “I… I also wanted to congratulate you on finding Iris and raising her and Harry on your own. It must’ve been hard.”
“We weren’t alone.” Sirius said and felt his anger flaring inside him, “We had the Weasleys. The Order. The Order that you made. Where were you when he- when- when he got James and Lily?” Sirius’ voice cracked, “You said they were safe. You said they were safe! ”
“Sweetheart…” Remus placed a hand on Sirius’ shoulder.
“You- you want to apologise? H-how about helping?” Sirius was shaking with anger. He made furious movements towards Dumbledore, Remus had a steady hand on his partner’s shoulder. “What about bringing me back my brother? Both of them? ”
“Sirius–”
“You said you had a plan. We believed you. They believed you and they paid for it! All of them did! The Potters, the Mckinnons, Dorcas, Regulus!” Sirius lunged at Dumbledore, shaking the man by his collar. He bellowed, “How- how could let them die? ”
Sirius wanted to attack him. He wanted to make this wise old man feel some of his wisdom. His face was blotchy and red, tears springing from his eyes.
“Sirius!” Remus said and pulled him away. Sirius collapsed into Remus’ shoulder, trying to take steadying breaths.
“I… I do not deny that I had a part in their deaths. They were working on my orders, afterall.” Dumbledore straightened his robes and sighed. “I understand your anger, Sirius. Truly. We… we have all known loss.”
Sirius took a deep breath and then said, “I’m sorry, Professor. I… lost myself. Fresh wounds. I don’t blame you half as much as I blame myself. I just… there needed to be another reason why they died. I didn’t want to believe that… we were betrayed.” He took a deep breath, “As for my brother… you didn’t have any part of his death, I- I blame myself for that entirely. I should have… dragged him from that house when I had a chance…”
“Placing the burden of blame unto you or me will not undo the pain of betrayal and loss, Sirius, remember that.” Dumbledore said, looking wistfully out the window to his left. “There.. Is a more pressing matter than your anger issues of which I have come to find you. I have been searching for a while for any remnants of Lily’s family. You see, Harry survived that night, it was a miracle that the killing curse rebounded off him and onto Voldemort-” Remus and Sirius flinched, but Dumbledore went on, unnoticing, “- and it is my theory that that night, Lily placed a protection charm on Harry and that type of spell continues through blood. Lily has a sister, as you know, Petunia, a muggle. And even while Lily’s sister is non-magical, that charm exists within her.”
“What are you suggesting?” Remus asked.
“It is my theory - and it theory as I have no solid conclusion as to what exactly happened that night - that if Harry stays under the care of Petunia, the blood protection will endure. If he goes without knowing or having a relationship with his aunt then… well, I cannot be sure what kinds of dangers we are permitting him to be vulnerable to.”
There was a deeply uncomfortable silence. Remus and Sirius looked at each other, communicating without words.
“Did you come here to ask us to… to abandon our best friend’s son with a muggle? A muggle we know to hate everything his parents and he is?” Sirius asked, his voice embedded with emotion.
Dumbledore could not meet his eyes.
“The answer is no.” Remus said, before Sirius had a chance to say something stupid or do something worse. “We can - and have been- taking care of him. No, he will not go to live with Petunia.”
“Remus, if you just allow me–”
“I won’t have him being placed with a family that does not want him.” Sirius said, his voice thick with emotion, this conversation reminding him of his own estranged family. “I won’t do it.”
“We don’t know if they want him or not–”
“If they wanted him or if they cared, they would have showed up to the funeral! Petunia should have at least showed up to say goodbye to her own damn sister !”
“Sirius. That is enough.” Remus said, warning flashing in his eyes. “We talked about this. Not in front of… everyone.”
It was true that everyone else in Ludwig House was eavesdropping on the conversation though they were trying to hide it. It was lucky that Harry could not understand conversation that well and all he heard were loud and angry voices, blissfully unaware of two sides debating his future. No. Instead, he was in the kitchen, helping himself to a third rum-less rum-ball.
“I must warn you,’ Dumbledore said, quite perturbed, “That if this is your decision, you must also be aware of the dangers. There are several people who are still at large, with their master - who promised them glory and power - gone. And they know who supposedly defeated their master.”
“Are you saying that Deatheaters are going to come and hunt Harry down?”
“I am saying that it is a possibility. There is also… the traitor who would very much like to… worm his way back into your life. He has not been caught, he has not been tried - innocent until proven guilty… He is probably watching you, right this second, waiting for a chance to beg your forgiveness and be a spy and traitor once again, when the time is ripe.”
“I’d love to see old Wormy again.” Sirius snarled, much like a dog baring his teeth, “I’d love to hear what he's got to say. That's if he can talk fast enough before I rip out his—”
“Sirius.” Remus warned.
“Now that you are aware of this danger, do you still wish to keep Harry, here where hes potentially unsafe?”
They looked at him, both of them had steely eyes. They had made their decision.
“Very well. I see you are not about to change your mind. But…” He pulled out a slip of parchment, “This is where Petunia currently resides. I have written this with a spell so that it will change with her place of residence, you will be able to find her and contact her, if you wish. Do what you will with this information. And, also, it is fireproof, so if any accident may occur, it will be safe.”
He said this with a twinkle in his eye as if he knew that Sirius wanted to burn the small piece of paper as soon as Dumbledore was gone, which, in truth, was what he wanted to do.
“Goodbye Dumbledore,” Remus said, showing him the door. “And.. thank you for your concern, but I think we’ll be alright.”
Dumbledore nodded, “Goodnight. Merry Christmas.”
His eyes glanced over the faces of the party in the lounge room before slipping away into the cold, dark night, red robes billowing behind him. Sirius scowled at the figure in the darkness, promptly shut the door and returned to the festivities in the lounge room. Remus followed, trying to get his mind off things, focussing instead on the smell of drinks, stew and roast ham but a little slip of paper weighed heavily in his pocket.
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4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey
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