Chapter Thirty One: Break
Sirius was pacing and glowering. He was in disgrace once more, confined to his bedroom for a whole month for letting Snivellus best him in that attack by the lake. At least his mum had tried to get Sniv into trouble too, but there were too many witnesses (er, yeah, the whole student body did make quite a few witnesses) to the fact that James and he had started it. Sniv had just finished it.
Dumbledore had also told his parents about him getting drunk the night of OWLs, but that, at least, was not something the Blacks cared about. Except maybe the part where he had been drinking cheap butterbeer. The firewhiskey would have been fine, though. Wormtail had nicked some class stuff.
There was no fallout at home for the fiasco with the Whomping Willow and Snivellus, either. Dumbledore knew better than to tell Walburga and Orion Black about a werewolf at the school. And Sirius would die before he gave that secret away. He just hoped Sniv could be trusted ...
Snivellus, Snivellus, Snivellus! Sometimes everything that was wrong with his life seemed to be wrapped up in that greasy haired scarecrow from Slytherin. And he'd promised not to attack the git without provocation. Oh, his parents would be quite happy if he broke that promise. They'd stand by him against Dumbledore if he hexed the slime ball into St. Mungo's. But there was just a little problem with that. He'd promised in front of the whole school and Gryffindors, unlike Slytherins, kept their promises.
He'd tried to break out, but the Blacks knew their oldest son. The whole bedroom was warded and even shielded from Apparition. Yeah, they knew him all right. He and James had worked on that, too. Peter hadn't mastered it yet and Remus didn't even try -- he was too scared of his secret getting out if the Ministry got him for Apparating without a license.
It was the third day of his prison sentence and he was climbing the walls. There had to be a way to get out. He sat down at his desk and scribbled a note, then yelled, "KREACHER!"
The ugly house-elf Apparated to his room with a crack. Sod that. The house-elf could Apparate, but not Sirius Nigellus Arcturus Black, heir to the noble and toujours pur House of Black.
"Take this," he said, holding the parchment out to the house-elf. "Give it to one of the owls to take to James Potter."
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The Marauders minus one were sitting outside in the large garden behind the Potter mansion when the owl arrived. James read the note to the others. It was short and sweet. "James. Wish you were here. Me."
"Right," said James, passing the note to Remus, who glanced at it and passed it on to Peter. "We have to break Padfoot out. Ideas?"
"He'll be confined to his bedroom," Remus started. "And since he's not already here, I assume it's been shielded from Apparition. Warded too, probably."
"Warded," mused James. "Don't suppose they use any Muggle-style locks, do they?"
"Are you kidding?" said Peter. "In the sacred pure-blood stronghold of Black?"
"Exactly," said James. "That's their blind spot. So how would a Muggle break in?"
Remus remembered a Muggle TV show he liked to watch when he visited his Muggle grandfather. "Padfoot's room is on the second floor. They'd climb up the wall to the window."
"Yeah, but how do we get to the back garden in the first place?" asked Peter. "There's only one place to Apparate to and it's always watched."
"The Cloak," said James. "Moony and I Apparate in together, but he's under the Invisibility Cloak. Then I can also cause a distraction if something goes wrong."
"So I climb the wall? Under the Cloak?" Remus frowned, trying to remember what the wall looked like. "Is there anything to hang onto? If magic is out, I can't levitate."
"No, you can't even use the Cloak. That's magic, too," said Peter. "Once Prongs is inside, you have to hide somewhere until everyone goes back inside. And you have to hide the Cloak in the garden."
"Well then, maybe you better do it, Wormtail. After all, I'm a werewolf. I'm magical even without the Cloak."
"Don't be stupid, Moony," said James. "We're all wizards. You're not any more magical than we are. I agree with Wormtail about using the Cloak. But I don't see any reason why you can't keep it on you. The wards will be against the use of magic, not the presence of magical items."
"Oh, yeah," said Remus, flushing. "But now I have to climb the wall without any camouflage and I still can't remember what it looks like."
"Pensieve," said James and called to a house-elf. When the elf appeared, he bent down and said, "Get Mr. Potter's second Pensieve from storage and bring it out here, please."
"What -- ?" started Peter.
"Wormtail notices the most. We'll use one of his memories," said James.
"We're going to use one of your memories to examine the wall," explained Remus. Every time he thought he was used to how rich the Potters were, something like this would happen. Most people couldn't afford even one Pensieve.
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The plan went off like clockwork. James Side-Along Apparated Remus, under the Invisibility Cloak, to the Black's back garden. Kreacher sniffed and announced, "That Potter boy." For once, Walburga's prejudices worked against her. She had come to loathe the Potters, but her standards would not allow her to throw a pure-blood boy out without at least a semblance of hospitality.
"Good day, James," she said. "Sirius is not allowed to have guests just now."
James turned on the charm. "Madam Black, it is an honor just to be in this garden. Sirius is not the only attraction of this noble House."
Walburga looked down her nose at him. "Indeed." Manners required her to at least ask him in for some refreshment, since he was being so formal and polite, but she hesitated.
James decided to press the matter. "I regret that the grandson of Charlus Potter is such an inconvenience to you," he said, playing the family relationship card. Charlus had married a Black.
"Not at all," said Walburga, with a tone that said it definitely was. "Please come in and have a cup of tea."
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Remus waited a few minutes after James had gotten himself invited inside. Then he hid between the house and the hedge, took off the Cloak and stuffed it into a pocket. There was a tree reasonably close to Sirius' window. After another quick glance, Remus scrambled up it. Now, just a short jump over to the window ledge. It seemed to make a horrible racket when he crashed against the window. He held his breath and waited.
Sirius heard something bump against the window on the other side of his room. He went over to investigate and grinned from ear to ear when he saw Remus on the ledge outside.
Remus got out a Muggle suction cup and a Muggle glass cutter and cut out a circle of glass near the window lock. He reached in to unlock the window, but it didn't work.
"Mate, if that worked I'd've opened the window for you," Sirius said. "Maybe if I cast a shrinking spell on myself -- "
"No!" Remus hissed. "No magic. Can you get your hand through the hole?"
Sirius reached through. "Looks like it."
"Then I just have to make the hole big enough for all of you to fit through." Remus enlarged the hole while Sirius held the glass steady at the first hole. When Remus had finished cutting, Sirius carefully set the large cut-out on his bedroom floor.
"Now you jump across to the tree," said Remus. "Climb down and wait for me at the bottom."
Sirius made it out and still no alarm had been raised. James had been right about the Muggle approach.
Remus slid down the tree. "Now you need to Side-Along me from the Apparition point in your garden. You'll have to be fast once we start moving. I bet all hell'll break loose."
"You got it," said Sirius. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three."
As soon as they reached the Apparition point, alarms started to go off, but Sirius and Remus were gone before it could be shielded.
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James was in the kitchen drinking tea, under the watchful eye of Madam Black glaring at him from the doorway, when the alarm sounded.
"Oh, dear," said James, feigning surprise. "Has something happened?"
Walburga rushed to the kitchen window just in time to see Sirius and Remus disappear from the Apparition point. She whirled around and screamed at James, "YOU DID THIS, POTTER!"
"Madam Black, I've been sitting here the entire time," James protested, as if his feelings were hurt.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!" she screamed. "AND SINCE YOU WANT MY DISGRACE OF A SON SO MUCH, KEEP HIM!"
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James left with as much dignity as he could muster with dishes crashing around his head. He didn't realize it at the time, but Walburga was as good as her word. The next day, she and Orion disinherited Sirius. Padfoot arrived at the Potter mansion and there he stayed.
Posted by Madmaxime at February 6, 2008 05:53 AM