Out of Order
“What’s the point in guarding the prophecy when he’s already got Potter? Does it even matter what it says anymore?” Emmeline Vance asked with an apologetic wince in Sirius’s direction. He kept his face unaffected. The Order was meeting at the Burrow tonight. It was the prime meeting place and kept under a fidelity’s charm.
“I agree with Emmeline. It seems rather needless considering You-Know-Who isn’t going to waltz into the Hall of Prophecy in the midst of the Ministry’s wartime prep,” Amos Diggory nodded. He was new to the order. After Harry was taken, the Diggory’s joined forces with Dumbledore. Cedric was shaken, having developed a close relationship with his fellow competitor, his parents shaken because they realized Cedric could have been taken had he won the tournament instead of Harry.
“I suppose Potter finally did something right in his idiocy of getting captured by the Dark Lord. The ministry believes the Dark Lord has returned thanks to the absence it their beloved Boy Whole Lived,” Snape sneered at Sirius as he spoke, daring him to retaliate. Just a few months ago, Sirius would have risen to the bait. He knew better now. He knew Snape hated Harry and hated Sirius and wished for nothing more than to make their lives as miserable as his own.
“Tell me, Severus,” Sirius began calmly. The use of Snape’s govern name had everyone watching with rapt attention. “Was it also Harry’s idiocy that lost Voldemort’s trust in you, or was that your own? I imagine it is frustrating to lose what little value you once had to this organization.” Okay maybe he couldn’t fully resist barbing Snape.
Snape paled in response, eyes darkening with anger. Arthur Weasley, ever the peacekeeper, spoke before Severus could retort.
“I think we can all agree that Harry is not to blame for his current situation— whatever it may be. Speaking of Harry, Albus, what news do you have on that front? Have we made any progress locating him? Tracking known, er, trusted Death Eaters to narrow down a possible base of operation?” All eyes cut to Dumbledore, who frowned.
“Much to my displeasure, no. We have made no progress. Alastair, you’ve taken point in this. Would you please continue?” Albus brought his fingertips together and gestured to Mad-Eye thoughtfully. The latter grunted.
“There’s nothing to continue. It’s as you said, Albus— Potter’s gone without a trace. No Death Eater has been tracked to a possible location. Voldemort himself has been spotted, but he’s impossible to tail safely, even by the best aurors. I think it’s time we consider the possibility that Potter’s beyond finding,” Mad-Eye finished rather bluntly. There was a second of silence before the protests and shouting started. Sirius played his part well, knowing that Harry was indeed alive but unable to share that information due to the dark magic used to acquire it.
“If Harry were dead at the hands of Voldemort, he would shout it from the highest mountain. There is no way he’d quietly kill Harry and move on,” Sirius insisted, not for the first time. Others nodded in agreement.
“He could change his tactic, use this opportunity to kill Potter quietly and attempt to move more into the open,” Mad-Eye argued. His magical eye swiveled around wildly to each person as they spoke.
“He could attempt to flip the boy,” Snape sneered. That was met with vehement denials all around the table.
“We can’t keep putting time and resources into finding one boy when they are desperately needed elsewhere. We need to move on. We need to accept that Harry Potter is well and truly gone—“ anything else that Mad-Eye planned to say was cut off not by arguments or shouting and disagreements, but by an earth-shattering CRACK that shook the house to its foundations.
The order members were thrown off their seats by the percussion that ripped through the Burrow. Through their disorientation, they drew their wands in search of what surely must be and imminent attack.
Sirius cast his eyes over the room, and seeing nothing launched back on his feet and crouched low. His wand scanned with his eyes, the familiar pre-battle calm set in as he led the way outside.
Sirius came to a screeching halt when he saw the source of the blast of magical energy. Instead of a hoard of Death Eaters, there crouched one person— one man— battered and bloody.
“Harry,” he breathed out, heart beating uneven and painful somewhere in his throat. Ocean blue eyes locked on electric green ones.
Home.
Sirius vaguely registered shocked gasps and shouts from behind him. It wasn’t until he registered Mad-Eye and Dumbledore advancing with their wands drawn that Sirius was able to move from the spot he had been rooted to.
As he moved, Sirius allowed himself to take in Harry’s full appearance. It was not a happy sight. His clothes were ragged, ripped and filthy and saturated with what was undeniably blood. His hair was longer than ever, longer than Sirius’s own, easily past his shoulders and as wild as ever. Midnight curls unruly and undeniably filthy.
The most jarring aspect of the whole scene, though wasn’t his tattered apparel, wild hair, or even the large quantity of blood. No, the my jarring part was the offensive dueling stance he took. Wand held confidently and firm, pointed at the nearest threat. The stillness with which he watched Mad-Eye and Dumbledore approach could only be described as predatory.
What happened to the boy I knew?
“Drop your wand, boy,” Mad-Eye growled as he and Dumbledore came to a stop a healthy distance away. Harry didn’t lower his wand. “We will stun you if you don’t drop your wand.” Moody threatened.
To Sirius’s astonishment, Harry let out a mirthless laugh that chilled Sirius to his bones.
“Right, a stunner, how absolutely terrifying. I doubt I could make it through,” there was an uncharacteristic hollowness to his voice as he spoke. Sirius found himself again questioning what had happened.
“Harry, my boy, you must understand how this looks,” Dumbledore said
“If you think for a moment I’m going to lower my wand with 10 others pointed at me, you’re barking,” Harry replied evenly. His voice was different than the last time Sirius had heard it. There was a rumbling bass that seemed out of place after just two months of separation.
“That's understandable, Harry. We will lower our wands and once we have you can lower yours. No one is going to hurt you,” Sirius said calmly, keeping his eyes fixed on Harry the whole time. His last words came off as more of an order than anything.
Sirius let his wand drop to his side. He heard others behind doing the same. Finally when Albus and moody lowered theirs, Sirius approached Harry slowly.
Harry’s eyes, brighter than Sirius had ever remembered seeing them, moved from person to person, still analyzing and calculating the present threat. Finally, they rested on Sirius, and something deep within them softened. Slowly, he lowered his wand.
“Harry, before anything else can happen, I need you to tell me where you first saw me,” Sirius said gently, still approaching as if Harry were a dangerous and skiddish animal.
“In the park in Little Whinging. After seeing you, I tripped and accidentally called the Knight Bus,” Harry replied easily, the warm timber more present in his voice as he spoke only to Sirius.
Taking that as his queue, Sirius pulled Harry into a hug. Harry flinched at the contact before throwing his own arms around his godfather. Harry had grown exponentially since Sirius last saw him, and now stood equal to his own considerable height. Somehow, he had also filled out, no longer the scrawny underfed kid Sirius remembered.
Nothing else mattered though, as Harry buried his face in Sirius’s shoulder the rest of the world melted away, and all he could focus on was the warmth spreading throughout, soaking in the knowledge that Harry is here and he is safe. If Sirius was crying openly and with relief and overwhelming emotions, that’s his business and no one else’s.
Sirius could hear the others muttering behind, but his focus was trained exclusively on Harry. Gently, Sirius puked back to look into Harry’s face.
“Are you injured?” Harry shook his head. “I’m not going to ask you if you’re okay, because I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through. You can take your time in telling me about it if you so choose to—“
“Sirius, my boy, I quite disagree. I’m afraid that I must insist we question Harry—“ Dumbledore’s voice was sincere, though his eyes were hard.
“I’ll stop you there, Albus, Harry owes you nothing. If he wants to speak with you, that is his right. However, you will insist nothing,” Sirius cut Dumbledore off with finality. Harry sighed in what sounded like relief. Sirius mentally patted himself on the back for making the right call.
He turned to Harry before he spoke again: “Unfortunately we can’t go home right away,”
“Home?” Harry raised his eyebrows. Sirius grinned.
“Yep,” he said excitedly. “I have a ton to fill you in on, but first we do have to make a visit to Amelia Bones,”
“The head of the DMLE? Why?” Harry furrowed his brows. Sirius did the same.
“Harry, you’ve been missing for a long time. A lot of people have been looking for you, including the aurors. We need to let them know you’ve returned and they’ll need an official statement from you.”
“How long has it been?”
“It’s been over two months. You went missing during the third task and now it’s August 29th,” Sirius spoke gently, unsure of how Harry would react to this news. He frowned.
“Time passed strangely… I couldn’t be sure…” he trailed off, eyes going someplace far away. Sirius squeezed Harry’s shoulder sympathetically.
“Sirius, we deserve answers,” Emmeline called from the group. There were mummery of agreement from many of the order, but neither Harry nor Sirius paid them any attention.
“Harry, we really should get things tied up with Amelia as soon as possible. I know you need a nice long soak and some new clothes, but they’ll have to wait just a little bit longer,” At Harry’s nod, Sirius turned briefly to face the rest of the gathered order. “We are leaving now. I will update you as needed and only with the permission of Harry. You will not attempt to contact Harry directly about this without his explicit permission.” Lord Black held his steady gaze on Albus and mad-eye, briefly glancing at the others to get his point across.
When no one spoke, Sirius guided Harry to the edge of the apparition wards— because somehow Harry hadn’t actually shattered them in his explosive arrival. He tucked Harry firmly into his side, and turned on the spot.