No Quarter
Harry had his head in the toilet while he heaved up what he desperately hoped was the last of the alcohol in his system. Harry’s head was pounding, his stomach felt miserable, and Harry’s memory of the night before was spotty.
Did Mickey actually say he wouldn’t kiss Harry? Did Harry and Mandy have sex? Did Harry offer to sell drugs with Mandy’s weird cousin?
A lot of weird things were popping up in fuzzy memories that didn’t make much sense.
Harry hoped that Mandy would be there when he woke up, but he woke up alone in his bed in a suspiciously clean house. There had been probably a hundred people in Harry’s house the night before, did most people clean up after themselves before they left a party?
Harry kind of doubted it.
Maybe Mandy cleaned up since she knew Lupin and Sirius should be back that day.
Harry rather hoped they didn’t return until after three so he didn’t have to explain why he wasn’t at school. As long as they did return though. Harry had a sort of paranoid thought that neither man was returning and Harry was going to have to figure out how to pay electric bills.
Once Harry felt that he was able to move without feeling the floor wobble beneath his feet, he went back to his bed. With any luck, Harry would wake up in a couple of hours and could sneak out of the house just in case Sirius and Lupin returned early.
And Harry desperately hoped that at least one of them would return.
When Harry woke up again, it was noon and he was parched.
Harry took a quick shower before he went downstairs to get a sandwich and as many bottles of water as he could carry. Harry drank two of them and picked at the sandwich before he sat down to reread Hermione’s letter and pen a response.
Hermione,
Mandy is the one who helped me find the Bean statue. She is pretty, we’re also sort of seeing each other.
They were fake-dating but Harry was quite sure that they had real sex…
Will you try and mention that to Fred? He’s stalking you, I think. He sent a letter to me. He wants to drop out and move here.
Which was insane. Fred would hate being outside of his world and that would eventually lead him to hate Harry. Harry would rather have Fred move on than hate him.
That is interesting that Dumbledore stepped down. I hope he traps Voldemort soon. I thought my scar would be hurting all the time now that he’s back but it hasn’t so much as twinged.
Harry paused to reach up and touch the scar on his forehead only to cringe from his own touch and drop his hand. Harry preferred to not think of Voldemort or scars he gave Harry, it tended to lead to Harry remembering those cold red eyes while he writhed beneath a crucio or cutting curse.
My friends are teaching me loads.
It wasn’t a lie. Harry knew how to strip copper, break security tags off bottles of alcohol, and that carburetors and converters were the best car parts to sell.
The family that lives next door to me is a bit like Ron’s. Fiona is the oldest and she sort of raises the others. Then Lip is the next oldest, he’s brilliant. Ian is my age, he’s training to join the army. Debbie is 12 and she likes dolls. I helped her build a dollhouse, sort of. I dunno much about Carl or Liam, they’re younger, but the entire family is rather nice.
Harry asked a few questions about Hermione’s classes and work load as prefect and then hesitated when he added a quick end note.
I didn’t want to tell you, but I got in a fight my first day of school here. Ian and Lip helped me, it’s how we met, but I didn’t want you to worry. Lupin is here and things with Sirius are fine.
Stop worrying.
Love,
Harry
Once Hermione’s letter was in an envelope ready to be mailed, Harry grabbed his phone from where it usually stayed on his nightstand and sent Dudley a message.
It’s Harry
Within thirty seconds of sending the message, the phone lit up with an incoming video call. Harry pressed the green button and then looked at it uncertainly while it said ‘video connecting’.
“Little H!” Dudley’s face filled the screen and Harry couldn’t help but grin.
Harry never would have considered his cousin a friend until the summer before fourth year. It had started slow, just Harry noticing Dudley was quieter than usual. Then Harry went for a walk one night when he couldn’t sleep and found Dudley at the nearby park, crying his eyes out.
Apparently Dudley had gotten himself a girlfriend and she cheated on him. He claimed his heart was broken and Harry had just quietly patted him on the back. When Harry said perhaps it was for the best, he’d been referring to the girl for getting away from Dudley, but Dudley saw it as a comment of encouragement.
Then it was as if thirteen years old animosity disappeared. Dudley helped Harry with his chores so they had time to watch horror movies together. Harry helped Dudley think up pranks to use against the boys in his dorm that irritated him.
Vernon and Petunia had been bewildered when they’d find Dudley in the garden with Harry, pulling weeds and cracking jokes, but they never said anything.
Harry discovered that Dudley was an earnest sort of person with an odd optimistic look in life. It was a good personality to have around for the few weeks Harry spent at Privet Drive before a dementor attack led Harry to Grimmauld Place.
Dudley had also, incredibly unexpectedly, gotten Harry a birthday present for his fourteenth birthday and in return, Harry shared his secret cakes.
Although Harry could do without being called ‘Little H’.
“Hey, I thought you would be in classes,” Harry said.
“At seven thirty?” Dudley laughed. “There’s a tiny little time difference between us, mate.”
“Right.” Harry had forgotten. “How’s good old Smeltings?”
“Not nearly as exciting as Chicago apparently is.” Dudley’s grin grew and Harry realized that he’d lost more weight since Harry saw him last. He looked great, really. Harry never noticed - probably because he’d never stared at a screen filled with just Dudley’s face before - but their eyes were nearly the same color.
“I told Abraham, remember me telling you about my mate? The one that’s a whiz at trig? Anyway, I read him your letter and I reckon he pissed himself he laughed so hard.”
Harry laughed and tried to remember exactly what his letter had been about.
“Oh! Was that when I told you Mandy and Mickey gave me a blow job?” Harry asked.
Dudley chuckled again and nodded. “And you were going to go lose your virginity to some girl and she gave you a hickey.”
“That’s old news, let me catch you up…”
Dudley snacked on a bag of crisps and roared with laughter while Harry told him about everything that happened since then.
“And I think I shagged Mandy last night so I dunno if she thinks we’re dating or not, but—”
Harry snapped his jaw shut and froze when he heard a door downstairs slam shut.
“Shit. I’ll call you later,” Harry whispered to Dudley. Dudley nodded and must have realized Harry needed silence because he disconnected without saying goodbye.
Harry could hear muted voices downstairs and he crept carefully across his floor to crack his door open to hear better. There was a second where Harry was filled with relief to hear both Sirius and Lupin until he realized they were talking about him.
“How am I supposed to know what Harry does all day? He’s seventeen! I don’t need to babysit him!”
“He’s fifteen and you’re meant to be taking care of him!”
“Harry? Harry’s not fifteen?”
Harry felt his heart twist painfully when he realized that Sirius had no idea how old Harry was.
“You’re sick, Sirius. You need help,” Lupin said, sounding tired.
“I’m not sick, Remus. Sorry if my memory is foggy right now. I was drugged and kidnapped, you know.”
Harry rolled his eyes. There were a million excuses Sirius could use to explain away how he got drunk and pissed off to a different country, but drugged and kidnapped was a weak one. Lupin must have been thinking the same thing Harry was.
“You’re sure you didn’t just get drunk with that man and sober up in Canada?” Lupin asked.
“YES I’M BLOODY SURE! HOW THE HELL WOULD I HAVE GOTTEN THERE?!”
Harry cringed at Sirius’ furious tone. Clearly Lupin didn’t make any headway on Sirius’ mental problems on his rescue trip.
“Don’t yell at me because you claim to have been drugged and kidnapped. Who would do that, Sirius? Huh? Have you already made yourself a sinister enemy in this muggle community?”
Harry knew what Sirius was going to say before he said it. Harry could sense it and sure enough—
“I think it was Harry.”
There was a beat of silence and then Lupin laughed mockingly.
“Yes, Sirius, the underage child with no wand managed to drug you and transport you to Canada by himself. Truly, you can’t be this absurd.”
“I didn’t say he did it alone.”
“I bet his skinny girlfriend helped,” Lupin said so seriously that it took even Harry a moment to pick up on the sarcasm.
“I didn’t say it was muggles that helped,” Sirius snarled.
Please, do not say…
“I reckon he had one of his new death eater pals help him. No, I’m serious, Remus! Listen! Harry probably tried to make a run for it back to his Master, but he didn’t count on you showing up, did he?”
“HARRY PICKED ME UP FROM THE AIRPORT, YOU BLOODY MUPPET! THEN HE GATHERED UP ALL HIS NEW MATES TO LOOK FOR YOUR SOGGY ARSE!”
Harry blinked. He had never heard Lupin yell before. And he especially had never heard Lupin call anyone a soggy muppet.
Harry suspected that Lupin had some interesting stories locked inside him. A werewolf wizard growing up in a muggle orphanage only to join a gang later? A gang that Lupin still stayed in contact with?
Perhaps Lupin wore soft and unassuming cardigan sweaters to hide the fact that he was something of a badass.
Harry mentally remembered to use soggy muppet as a future insult.
“Is that what he told you?” Sirius laughed madly. “You’ve lost the plot, Remus!”
Harry leaned out his door to listen as Sirius began stomping through the house to the front door.
“YOU NEVER KNEW THE PLOT, SIRIUS!” Lupin yelled through the house.
The front door opened and then slammed shut hard enough to shake the house. Harry stood in his doorway for a second and then—
“You can come downstairs, Harry.”
Harry walked slowly down the back stairs and gave Lupin a guilty look when he saw him. Lupin looked tired, he was leaning against the kitchen counter in front of the sink and Harry wondered if he’d even slept during his trip.
“I woke up sick,” Harry said immediately, a complete truth.
Lupin raised a single eyebrow at Harry.
“I’m sure you did,” he said evenly. “You’re sweating Fireball from your pores, Harry.”
Lupin didn’t sound angry so Harry took a seat at the table and watched as Lupin began to brew a pot of coffee.
“You called Sirius a muppet,” Harry said.
“He’s being a muppet.”
“I’m not a Death Eater.”
“I assumed as much.”
“I didn’t drug Sirius.”
“I might. I bet he’s quiet when he’s unconscious.”
“I had a party last night.”
“Next time open the windows, if you don’t mind.”
“Right…” Harry trimmed his fingers anxiously on the table top. He was thrown off by all of Lupin’s nonchalance and Harry realized that outside of a classroom, Harry rarely ever interacted with Lupin. “So… er… how did it go? You know, before the muppet thing?”
Lupin sighed and held up a hand. Not to brush Harry off, but to ask for patience while he finished making himself a cup of coffee. Once Lupin sat down across from Harry, he started his trip from the beginning.
*****
Remus swore to himself while he trekked through alleys that he used to be intimately familiar with. The flight to London had been filled with enough turbulence that Remus didn’t sleep a wink and it wasn’t helping his irritable mood.
Why Sirius would decide to take a trip to bloody Canada, Remus would never understand. Canada was the worst country to visit as a wizard on the run. Either Sirius had to cross back through as a muggle or he would have to check in with the Magical Border Patrol and get permission to apparate across.
And since Sirius didn’t have a single legal document that would pass border patrol inspection, Remus was once again having to clean up Sirius’ mess.
Remus found the hidden doorway he’d been looking for after walking past it twice. It was nestled between two dumpsters on Barrett Ave. The door was grimy enough that it was barely recognizable as an entrance.
But Remus had spent entire summers running in and out of that door. Those were brilliant days that Remus only remembered fondly.
Most of the gang was either dead or in prison, but Remus knew Mac was still around. The whole bloody world could burn to ash and Mac would be around.
Remus peeled his sweater off and rolled his shirt-sleeves up until the tattoo on his upper right arm was visible. It was the same one all the other members had gotten the summer Remus was initiated. In thick black lines was St. George’s Cross and instead of the red sword that would finish the London flag, there were two cursive letters, ‘S’ and ‘G’.
Sirius had once joked that it meant Sirius is Great and the two tick marks on the right side of the flag were because he was doubly great.
Remus had smiled and simply said it was a family crest. Which, in the most genuine way, it was.
The Sabini Gang had been Remus’ family for as far back as he could remember. Before there was Moony in the Marauders, it had been Scar in the Sabinis. And after Prongs died, Padfoot went to prison, and Wormtail went on the run… Remus had still kept his sanity through the Sabinis.
It was only his quickly obtained adult criminal record in the muggle world that kept Remus from kidnapping Harry from his relatives to raise within the same family that raised him.
A poor idea, that Remus could see at thirty-five years old, but it had been an excellent one at twenty-one.
Remus kept his right arm in sight as he rapped his knuckles on the back of the door and prepared himself for a blast from the past.
“‘Oo is it? ‘M armed!”
“Scar.”
Remus waited while the sound of bolts and chain locks were removed until the door creaked open and a single eye peered at him.
“Sca’? Iz ‘at really you?”
Remus twisted his lips to the side in a wry grin. “No, Mac, I’m a bloody clever imposter. Let me in, you old slag.”
The door was thrown open and Remus was granted his first view of Mac, the boy that took Remus from St. Peter’s orphanage and inducted him in the gang, in nearly three years. Mac was still just as tall as Remus, but with noticeable more muscle mass. He’d shaved his red-hair off and Remus raised his brows to see the new black eye patch covering his left eye.
“Sca’!” Mac reached out and grasped Remus’ right forearm tightly in a familiar grip. When Mac smiled, Remus grinned to see that he’d finally replaced his missing front tooth with a gold stump.
“Next time you make me wait out here I’ll knock that other rotten tooth from your head,” Remus laughed. “I told you to be expecting me.”
“Yeah, well, ‘ow was I supposed to know it was really you, eh? Ya disappeared, Sca’.”
“Oi, I had other bloody obligations, didn’t I?” Remus said. It was almost too easy to slip back in familiar speech patterns that young Remus had worked so hard to correct.
The other boys at Hogwarts had been well-bred English boys with proper speech and a vastly higher level of knowledge than Remus had. Remus used to spend long days in the library, just trying to play catch up, while he whispered conversations to himself as he mimicked James and Sirius’ accents.
Everyone thought Remus was so quiet and shy while Remus was merely trying to avoid standing out as a feral wolf child with gang aspirations.
“Obligations,” Mac mimicked Remus and then let out a bark of laughter. “C’mon then, ‘ave a pint and tell me what’s so bloody important.”
Remus followed Mac through the narrow hallway that was coated in greasy wooden paneling. Remus touched a part of the panel where it had a seam and smiled to himself when he felt the catch beneath his fingers.
“Got anything good in here?” Remus asked, tapping his knuckles on the hollow walls.
Mac nodded while he fidgeted with a key to open the door at the end of the hallway.
“Got a new shipment of AK’s, prettiest things ya ever saw, Sca’.”
“What are you selling them for?” Remus asked curiously.
Mac swung open the next door and grinned when Remus breezed past him.
“For you? Twenty-five hundred.”
“Pull the other one, mate.”
Remus looked around the main meeting room of the gang and saw they had something planned, a bank robbery possibly, that was being mapped out on the far wall. Contrary to the filthy hallway, the meeting area was clean, posh, and well-organized with the gleaming round table that was older than Remus’ great-grandparents.
They had spent many days at that table. Remus wasn’t able to join the discussions held until he earned his first tick on his tattoo, but then Remus rose through the ranks quickly. Remus had a knack for evading law enforcement that only rivaled his disregard for morality when they warred with other gangs to expand their territory.
Remus often wondered if Albus somehow knew of Remus’ life outside of Hogwarts and it was why he was inducted in the Order.
Not that Remus was as helpful to their cause as he had been to Sabinis. Witches and wizards rarely wanted to hear how assault rifles and planted evidence could resolve many of their conflicts. And Remus could hardly show a cavalier attitude toward reasonable loss of life, not with that crowd.
“You daft tosser.” Remus had drifted toward the board with a grand robbery planned out in careful detail. Remus pointed at the escape route they planned to use for Mac.
“Look,” Remus traced the underground tunnels they planned to use. “You’re missing an excellent opportunity.”
Mac squinted at the board with his one eye until he saw what Remus did immediately.
“HSBC has a direct openin’ to tha tunnel,” Mac murmured. “You think we should ‘it ‘em instead of Barclays?”
“No, I think you should hit both at the same time and then blow the tunnel that connects them. You’d have to sacrifice one man, two at most, but it’s quite the bloody payout if it works. And nobody else could pull it off again, go down in history.”
Mac played the scenario Remus suggested through his mind and then slapped Remus hard on the back.
“If it works, I’ll give ya one of them guns.”
“Excellent.” Remus smiled, thinking it would come in use at the ghetto Sirius moved his godson to.
“I’m afraid I’m on a bit of a schedule,” Remus said regretfully. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and gave Mac a photograph of James that he had. Harry looked enough like his father that with a few tweaks, it would work perfectly as a passport photo for Harry James Lupin.
“Eh? ‘Oo’s this then?” Mac asked. “One of the furries?”
Remus grimaced. “I wish you would quit calling wolves furries, Mac.”
Mac shot the same shit-eating grin at Remus that he’d had Remus’ entire life.
“If it’s got fur and howls at the moon…”
Mac was the only member of the gang that knew of Remus’ affliction. A side-effect of sharing a bed at the orphanage, truly. When Remus disappeared one night to go transform, only a few months after being placed there by the council, Mac followed.
The bloody moron could have been killed, but Mac thought being a werewolf was an excellent problem to have.
When Remus was invited to Hogwarts, he told Mac it was a school for other wolves. An outright lie, but one of less severity than breaching the Statute would have been.
“I need you to give him green eyes, make him a bit younger, and give me a full set of papers,” Remus told Mac. He checked his watch. “And I need it before my next flight leaves in eight hours.”
“Fuckin’ course you do,” Mac grumbled. He walked to the wall covered in computer monitors that showed various power spots in the city and some of houses that must have been marks.
“‘Ave a seat,” Mac said. He sat in one of the computer chairs and Remus took the other. “Let’s ‘ear about where the hell you’ve been, eh?”
Remus laced his hands behind his head and carefully caught Mac up on the last few years. Mac knew Remus had been offered a teaching post at ‘the wolf school’, but nothing of the events that took place since then.
It was a carefully edited story, one familiar to Mac:
Remus simply found himself as a player in a different type of gang war. What was Voldemort aside from a leader with his branded inner circle and undercover operations? And what was Albus if not a rival gang leader while he worked with spies and tried to recruit more pawns?
All Remus had to do was call them all werewolves instead of wizards and Mac accepted it as fact.
“And you?” Remus asked when he finished his story by explaining that the baby he’d once tried to kidnap was stuck in another country without a passport.
“Eh, same shit,” Mac said. He had already created a flawless birth certificate for Harry, one that listed Remus as his father and Lily as his mother.
James would laugh if he saw it, Remus was certain.
“Mary-Beth died,” Mac said without looking away from the computer.
“Oh.” Remus had always liked Mac’s wife. She was a flighty thing, but had fit in with the gang perfectly. “I’m sorry, what happened?”
“Police report said ‘er lover shot ‘er before killin’ himself. Both still naked in bed together.”
Remus’ lips twitched. “Tragic,” he said solemnly. “May she rest in the afterlife she deserves.”
Remus was able to rest for a few hours in one of the bedrooms in their headquarters. Mac swore to wake him when he had a perfect set of papers for Harry and there was no one Remus trusted more to do precisely as they said they would.
Certainly not Sirius, who had lost his mind according to Harry. Remus had been worried about Sirius and Harry being isolated together, but he’d been talked down as ‘a worrier’. And what happened? Sirius began his bullshit once again.
It was exhausting trying to keep Sirius from wrecking his own life. And more than that, it was infuriating to try and repair the damage that Sirius already wrecked upon Harry’s life.
Remus had toyed with the idea of leaving Sirius in Canada. He could take care of Harry and none would be the wiser.
If Voldemort was gone, Remus would do just that. Unfortunately, if Sirius were to die and nobody knew of it, the Headquarters for the Order would be exposed. And, in the bottom of Remus’ heart, he would feel guilty until the day he died if he could help Sirius and abandoned him instead.
Harry was the most important priority, but Remus was arrogant enough to believe he could help them both.
When Mac woke Remus with a full set of documents that would undoubtedly pass all security checks, Remus had to turn down his offer of dinner together for another errand he had to run in London.
Remus found a hidden area downtown and turned on the spot to apparate directly in Nymphadora Tonks’ studio flat.
There was a wand jabbed in Remus’ throat the instant the brightly decorated flat settled in Remus’ vision.
“The last words Remus Lupin said to me before he left?” Nymphadora snarled. Her eyes were a wary shade of grey while her hair was a vibrant and furious red.
“‘It’s a shame I can’t carry you around in my pocket to fuck when I’m bored’,” Remus drawled teasingly. It had been the second to last thing Remus said to her, actually, but the more district to be sure.
“Before you got on the plane?” Nymphadora demanded with a roll of her eyes.
“Ah, yes, ‘Stay gold, Ponyboy’.”
Remus rubbed his throat when Nymphadora dropped her wand.
“Did you ever find that quote?” he asked curiously.
Nymphadora was already stalking away toward her bed that Remus had rather fond memories of.
“I’m not an idiot, Remus. You’re not the only who read the Outsiders.” Nymphadora grabbed a black backpack from her bed and threw it hard at Remus. “Don’t be such a pick-me bloke.”
Remus grinned and teased Nymphadora while checking to make sure all of Harry’s belongings he’d requested she find for him were in the bag.
“‘Remus, pick me’,” Remus moaned in a poor imitation of Nymphadora. “‘I can make you smile, take some of that stress off your broad shoulders’.”
“Oh, piss off.”
Remus laughed and ducked when Nymphadora sent a jinx at his head. Her hair was back to almost the exact same shade of pink that her cheeks were.
“I thought we’d all die in a war and I needed you to take ‘shag a werewolf’ off my fuck-it list,” Nymphadora said haughtily. “As soon as I seduce Snape, I can mark off vampire too.”
Remus tucked Harry’s papers in the bag before slinging it over his shoulder and smiling charmingly at Nymphadora.
“If you aren’t busy seducing Severus this evening, I do have an hour before I’ll need you to drive me to the airport?”
Nymphadora knew more sex-magic than any witch or wizard Remus had ever been with before. It was one of the many benefits of being her friend.
“Any obscure quote before you leave me again?” Nymphadora breathed in Remus’ face just outside his gate at the airport.
Remus traced the side of her lovely face and kissed her red lips one last time.
“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed,” Remus quoted in a whisper. “Be safe, darling.”
Remus boarded the flight to Ontario and wondered if he would ever return.
Finding Sirius had been a bloody pain in Remus’ arse. Remus used his card that was connected to Sirius’ muggle bank account to get to Toronto.
Remus didn’t see any cause to use his account that Sabini Junior had created for him years ago on his ‘Save Sirius From Himself’ trip.
There was a thriving magical community in the city of Toronto, but Remus stoutly avoided the area. If Sirius had any sense at all, he wouldn’t be anywhere near another witch or wizard.
Remus took Harry’s information about Sirius’ recent habits in consideration as he traveled from muggle pub to muggle pub, showing a photo of Sirius and asking if anyone had seen him. Just when Remus began to worry that he wouldn’t be able to return to Harry on Thursday as he promised, he got lucky.
“Oh, yeah, I know him.” The bartender in a pub aptly named Lucky’s nodded when Remus showed her his photo of Sirius. “He’s older now, right? Yeah, that tattoo, the stars?” She pointed at the constellation tattoo on Sirius’ collarbone that was visible in the picture.
“I asked him about it, he said it was some star gazing thing,” she said. “He’s been here every night, shouldn’t be long now.”
“Thank you,” Remus said gratefully. “I think I’ll go have a smoke while I wait for him.”
“Those things’ll give you cancer, buddy!” The bartender laughed and wagged a finger at Remus. “Don’t you want to live to be an old man?”
Remus smiled brightly. “Not particularly, no. Thank you again for your help.”
Remus left the bemused bartender behind while he strolled outside to wait for Sirius. He did have a smoke while he waited. It didn’t touch Remus’ agitation like a nice bowl would, but Remus hadn’t had time to visit the Sabini greenhouse when he’d been in London.
It was nearly dark and Remus was nearly out of fags by the time he saw Sirius approaching the pub. Remus had considered treating Sirius as an adult to get him home, but then Remus remembered Harry stuttering through a story of how Sirius was beating him but ‘it wasn’t Sirius’ fault’.
So Remus merely waited until Sirius was close and he stunned him and caught him before he could hit the ground.
“Evening, Pads,” Remus whispered to Sirius’ unconscious body. Remus lifted him up and played it off as a good mate helping a drunk one get back to their motel.
“Funny running into you here,” Remus went on conversationally. “I thought you’d be home, you see, but instead I found James’ son with the most incredible stories about you. I’d hate for them to be true, Padfoot. I never planned to be the last Marauder standing.”
Sirius said nothing, of course, and Remus silently resented him the entire walk to his motel.
Getting Sirius back as Harry was a positively brilliant plan that Sirius threw a wrench in as soon as Remus revived him.
“I’m not drinking that,” Sirius said flatly, glaring at the Polyjuice Potion Nymphadora got for Remus.
“Don’t be a moron,” Remus snapped impatiently. He was not going to miss their flight back to Chicago because Sirius was being absurd. “It looks perfectly lovely, much better than Severus did.”
Harry’s polyjuice was a citrus scented dark orange color, it was almost enticing. When Sirius had impersonated Severus in their sixth year, Severus’ had been a sticky black color that Sirius said tasted of licorice and death.
Not that any of them, Sirius especially, minded Sirius taking one for their team by drinking the foul potion. Severus wound up with a month of detention when that ridiculous busybody Maggie Cuddy caught Severus vandalizing the owlery.
Perhaps Severus shouldn’t have been talking about how werewolves were rabid, untamable, beasts that should be publicly executed.
Either way, Sirius should have no issue with drinking the potion to impersonate his godson.
“If I drink that, I’ll have that- that bloody… that- that fucking mark on my arm,” Sirius said. He truly sounded so angry that he was unable to speak clearly and Remus’ heart sank on Harry’s behalf.
“Sirius, you can’t- you must be joking,” Remus said slowly. “It’s the only way to get you home.”
“I’d rather die,” Sirius snarled.
“Fine.” Remus didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t dally any longer. Death was one option, but Remus had another as well. “Imperio.”
It was amazing how compliant Sirius was when under the imperio. He would be furious if Remus planned on letting him remember what Remus did, but not as furious as Remus was about his treatment of Harry.
Harry had been the one good thing that came from James and Lily’s deaths. When it felt as if the world ended, Remus could remember that there was a little baby boy, James and Lily’s pride and joy, that had survived all of the misery of losing his parents and would grow to become the man they wanted him to be.
Remus Lupin and his very compliant son, Harry Lupin, were able to fly home in very comfortable business class seats. And as soon as they made it to Chicago, Remus waited until the Polyjuice wore off and then he carefully rearranged Sirius’ memory of the trip back.
Sirius had been drunk, Remus had been a kind friend. It was tricky getting past border patrol, but Sirius hadn’t paid much attention.
“Bloody hell.” Harry stared at Remus with something like awe written all over his face after Remus told Harry the details of his trip. “Lupin, you’re… you’re like a secret badass, aren’t you?”
“It’s hardly a secret, Harry. And, please, call me Remus.”
It was overkill to hand Harry the backpack with his father’s cloak, his album of photographs Remus sent Hagrid a few years ago, his Gringott’s key, and his shrunken Firebolt. Poor Harry took one look at his cloak and burst into tears.
“I- I could rob a bank with this,” Harry sobbed, clutching the cloak to his chest.
Remus reached across the table to pat Harry kindly on the shoulder.
“Don’t be absurd, MACUSA would become involved in invisible bank robberies.”
Silly boy.
Remus would teach him.