He Nearly Killed the Cat
The Truest Friends
By Anne B. Walsh
Author Notes:
Possible need for tissues this time as well, though not as bad as last chapter.
Sirius sucked in a breath and opened his eyes. He was lying flat on his back, which made sense as the last thing he remembered was falling, but didn't explain the very sore condition of his chest or the stranger bending over him.
Wait, he looks an awful lot like—
"Confirm we have that mask in place!" snapped a voice which solidified Sirius's tentative opinion.
Doesn't make it make any more sense, but at least now I know who he is.
"Confirmed," chorused two other voices which belonged with the first one, though they did nothing to reassure Sirius of his continuing sanity.
The hell with sanity, what about my life? That looked like a Killing Curse from this end…
The not-stranger bent over Sirius again. "All right, Padfoot?"
"I… think so." Sirius experimented with sitting up and found an arm in place to help him. Upright, he looked across into eyes of brilliant blue and found his confidence slipping again.
He can't be. They can't be. We were all split up, scattered across a hundred thousand worlds, miracles on this level just don't happen…
"Moony?" he said tentatively.
"For now." His friend grinned at him. "Not that I'll be different when we get out of here, but I travel under a different name nowadays. And speaking of traveling, we need to move. Our time is running. Are you good to go?"
"Let me find out." Sirius flexed fingers and toes, rolled his shoulders and arched his back, hoisted his hips off the ground to get his knees under him and assess his body's level of readiness. "As long as we're not talking long-distance endurance running, I should be set. Just came off a battle here, so I'm a little winded."
"We saw," said the boy of the teenage twin pair who had been standing sentry against whatever might come out of a world of endless clouded gray during the brief conversation. "Not bad fighting. For an old man."
"Old man?" Sirius spluttered. "I will have you know I could spot you two spells and still whip your arse all around a dueling ring, you little upstart! Who taught you everything you know, huh? Who was that?"
"If we could break up the festival of testosterone, please?" The girl tapped the back of her left wrist impatiently. "There are still people left to find, and we need to get there first."
"Well, if someone would give us the coordinates, Neenie, then we could go!"
Neenie made a face at her brother and flicked her fingers in the air. The numbers which sprang into existence meant nothing to Sirius, but she studied them for a few seconds, then nodded. "Not too far. A quarter-mile at most. This way."
"Then let's go." The boy set off in the direction his sister had indicated at an easy jog. She followed in his wake, the two men bringing up the rear.
"Just tell me one thing," Sirius said once he found his stride.
"I will if I can."
"Did I die back there?"
Moony raised one eyebrow in the mannerism Sirius had never been able to duplicate. "Do you feel alive?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"No buts. You feel alive, therefore you are alive, therefore, no, you did not die back there. Your body died for a moment, which gave us all a good scare when we thought we'd mistimed it, but I think in the end this may be best for everyone."
Sirius shook his head. "I'm going to want a whole carpetload of explanations after this."
"Once we finish what we came here to do, you can have them. And it looks like here we are."
Neenie had halted beside a piece of their gray surroundings that looked, to Sirius, no different than any other piece, and was sketching a rune on it. When she had finished, though, she stepped back and a glowing rectangle faded into focus around the complicated character, reminding Sirius of an open door with too bright a light on the other side.
"On the other side of this, you'll be twenty-five again," Moony said, motioning to the door. "You're looking for a lady and a baby girl. Find them, bring them back to where you came in, and we'll pull you all three back out, and we can head home and start on those explanations. Do you need to know anything else?"
"You mean my lady and baby girl, don't you?"
Moony's smile was savage. "However did you guess?"
Sirius felt an answering smile bare all his teeth. "Oh, I am going to enjoy this one."
Drawing his wand, he bolted through the door.
Kreacher, you are mine.
Kreacher didn't think he'd been this happy since the day the Mistress and the Master had learned that their second son was going into the service of the Dark Lord as the first should have done.
The Mudblood is dead now, as dead as the body that Kreacher made for the foolish wizards to find in the meadow outside Hogsmeade. Her true body can be Vanished, and the little mistress raised up in the proper way, until one day when the Mistress is mourning the end of the House of Black, Kreacher can give her the greatest joy in the world by telling her that it is not so…
The little mistress, after one or two wails of fear when she felt herself falling, had quieted, nuzzling her face into her mother's chest as though expecting a response. Kreacher shook his head sadly. "Poor little mistress," he crooned, reaching for her. "Come to Kreacher now. All will be well…"
A shriek of fury greeted this, and a tiny brown hand slapped his away. Kreacher was not entirely pleased, but kept his reaction under control. There would be time to redirect her spirit and fire into the proper channels. "Little mistress must come to Kreacher," he said firmly. "Kreacher must clean up this nasty mess, so that the House of Black will be properly clean and pure again."
"Bit late for that, isn't it?"
Kreacher stiffened in shock. His little mistress crowed and stretched out her arms to the speaker.
"Kreacher, from this moment on, you don't do anything unless I specifically tell you that you may," the implacable, impossible voice went on. "You don't move, you don't talk, and you especially don't do any magic. Do you understand? You can nod your head if you do."
Against his will, Kreacher felt his head bob up and down.
"Perfect. Come back over here towards me and stand against the wall, where I can see you."
Turning to obey this order, Kreacher got his first look at the person whom all logic said should still have been imprisoned in his tiny stone cell on the island of Azkaban. His Master Sirius looked better than Kreacher remembered seeing him nearly a year before. He was clean, which always helped, but most of the sanity had returned to his eyes and he held himself like a man with a purpose.
Kreacher would have felt much happier about this had he not been so uncomfortably aware that the action his master had most purpose for at the moment was his, Kreacher's, painful and untimely death.
I'm never going to find out what happened to my little girl…
"Sirius!"
He whipped around and stared at the figure which had materialized behind him. "Lily?"
"You were expecting maybe Nearly Headless Nick?" Lily Potter smiled and held out her hand. "You don't need to be afraid for Meghan, Sirius. She's safe, safe and happy. I can show you if you like…"
Sirius took a step back. "I don't deserve it," he said hoarsely. "After the way I failed you with Harry? Twice over, now, by dying like this, just when he needs me most?"
Lily sighed. "You always were stubborn," she said. "Do you really think we're holding a grudge over that old a mistake? We were all tricked, and we all suffered for it. And even if we were still angry with you, which we're not, we certainly wouldn't use your daughter against you. She doesn't deserve that, even if you think you do."
This is not the way this conversation was supposed to go. "You can really show me what happened to her? And it isn't bad?"
"It isn't bad," Lily confirmed. "A bit confusing to start with, but not bad." She chuckled. "It may also make some sense out of that little byplay you just caught with Moony. So do you want to see it or don't you?"
"Do. Absolutely do."
"Then…" Lily wiggled her fingers at him.
Sirius hesitated for one more second, then grasped her outstretched hand.
She feels warm. Warm and real and alive. He barely noticed the archway room around them vanishing into fog.
I always thought she and James would hate me for buggering up and getting them killed, then not being able to take care of Harry the way I said I would. I played it over so many times in my head, I tried to apologize and they wouldn't listen, I begged them to forgive me and they turned away…
I guess I was wrong.
The fog cleared to reveal what Sirius thought might be a disused attic from his family's townhouse. A rocking chair, a cot, and a small table piled high with nappies bore silent testimony to the room's current use. Sirius swallowed a curse as he recognized the table.
That's the one. The one Aletha carved her message into. But it was down in Mother's room…
"We've gone back in time," Lily said quietly beside him as the room's occupants swam into focus. "Back to the fall of 1983, the last day Meghan spent in this house."
"Wait. What?" Sirius stared in shock at the man striding across the room to the woman and child on its other side. "But he—but I—but how—"
"Hush." Lily's hand covered his mouth. "Listen and learn."
Sirius went to one knee beside his wife and daughter, gathering Meghan into his arms and turning his eyes resolutely away from Aletha's motionless form. Almost thirteen years back in time, and I still got here two minutes too late. Nothing I could possibly do to Kreacher would make up for this…
Dadfoot, said an exasperated voice inside his mind as Meghan nestled down onto his shoulder, pressing her face to the side of his neck. No be silly. Mama Letha all right now.
"Oh, sweetheart." Sirius ran his fingers across the fine nap of Meghan's hair. "I only wish she were."
"Wish I were what?" murmured a faint, yet clearly audible voice.
See, Meghan said smugly. Told you.
Sirius resisted the urge to deal a firm swat to the small behind resting on his hand. Instead, he looked down.
Aletha's eyes were open, and she was smiling at him. "Hello, stranger," she said, shifting to her side and making a face. "Oof. I am going to have some beautiful bruises tomorrow."
"You're going to have a tomorrow to have bruises in." Sirius supported her as she sat up, then lost his internal battle for control and pulled her into the tightest hug he could manage with one arm. "Letha, my God, you're alive, I thought I'd lost you again…"
"You nearly did." Aletha laid her head on the shoulder Meghan wasn't using, her arms locked around him and starting to shake in reaction. "I know what it feels like now to have my heart stop, Sirius. Kreacher did that to me, he stopped my heart, and the other me, the one who belonged here, that killed her immediately, but I would have died too if Pearl hadn't saved me…"
"That's my girl." Sirius pressed his cheek against Meghan's, feeling her wordless glow of satisfaction. "Started you up again, didn't she?"
"Yes, and pulled me forward inside the mind, pulled me to the surface. I was buried very deeply, so it took some doing for me to find my way out, but I managed it in the end." Aletha's hand caressed his hair, slid down to the back of his neck, and stopped. "And you seem to have been through the same thing. With slightly less finesse in the method."
"Beg your pardon?"
Moony do it, Meghan supplied, planting one small foot on Aletha's bare arm so that she could speak to both parents at once. He can do's that with his fire. Zap! And Dadfoot's heart go thump thump thump 'gain.
"Zap." Sirius snickered. "I like it."
"It means you're alive." Aletha rose onto both knees, her arms still around Sirius. "I like that very much."
"Me too." Sirius angled his head forward and planted a light kiss on her lips, then gently disentangled her hands. "I don't think we should stick around any longer than we have to. Do you need anything from here?"
"No. Absolutely not." Aletha looked around the attic with a shudder, then stopped. "Except possibly information."
Sirius followed her line of sight. Kreacher, still standing against the wall, was glaring daggers at all three of them. "Information about what? He got a bug in his brain and decided he wanted to be more pureblood than the purebloods. Even they haven't gone to forced breeding that I've heard of."
"Yes, but in that case why choose me?"
"To make sure I'd go for it? I don't know. Look, Letha, we don't have time for—"
"And he keeps talking about his 'new master'," Aletha interrupted. "His new master did this and his new master did that. His new master had such a clever plan to make sure Kreacher got his new little master or mistress, and gave him precise instructions on how to keep it all a secret, right down to waiting until I gave birth, then using the leftovers from that and some bits of household rubbish to make a fake body that would fool any investigators looking into my disappearance. Don't you think that warrants a few questions?"
"Well. When you put it that way."
"I'm not understanding any of this, Lily." Sirius rubbed his hand across his forehead. "What in Merlin's name did Letha mean, 'the other me'? How many of her are there?"
"That we need to be concerned with? Only two." Lily put her fingers in her mouth. Sirius, recognizing the signs, covered his ears.
How did I know she'd still be able to do that same damn whistle?
Two other forms materialized out of the mist that eddied around the edges of the attic room. One was male, topped with a shock of messy hair, and moved with a smooth swagger. The other was female, nearly as tall as the male, with an aureole of hair around her head and beautifully statuesque curves.
Before Sirius knew what he was doing, he was moving forward, first at a walk, then at a run. The woman in front of him matched his every move, until with a rush they came together, clasping hands and staring into each other's faces.
"I never knew until today," Sirius said awkwardly. "If I had—"
Aletha shook her head, cutting him off. "It wouldn't have made any difference."
"I know. I just wish—"
"Don't we both." Aletha lowered her eyes. "I don't suppose…"
"I couldn't remember your face," Sirius interrupted. "In Azkaban. I couldn't remember anything about you. Your eyes, your hands, the smell of your skin and the feel of your hair, nothing. Only that you existed, and that you had said you loved me once."
"Why, Sirius." The gaze was still downcast, but the voice had warmed considerably. "That sounds like a compliment."
"It was meant for one, so that's good." Sirius surprised himself with a rusty laugh. "God, Letha, I don't think I ever stopped loving you. And it tears me apart knowing what you had to go through, knowing it was because of me."
Aletha finally looked up. "I knew the truth before the end," she said, her eyes beginning to sparkle. "So I didn't die hating you, if that's any consolation."
"It could be." Sirius drew gently on their linked hands, pulling her towards him. "If it's going to go on."
"Don't you mean if we're going to go on?" Aletha freed one hand to indicate the ongoing scene in the attic room. "She doesn't need us anymore, and ghosts always made me so sad."
"Same here. But you're avoiding the question. Are you planning on sticking with me?"
"Judging by past history, I'd say I have more right to ask that question of you."
"Well then." Sirius gestured expansively. "Ask away."
Aletha smiled. "I don't have to," she said softly. "Not anymore."
Hand in hand, they turned to watch the beginning of their daughter's future.
"You're going to answer me now, Kreacher," Sirius said grimly, sitting down on the floor in front of the glowering house-elf. "Who is this 'new master' of yours, and what did he tell you to do?"
"Kreacher… Kreacher…" The house-elf was clearly fighting with all his might.
"Answer me!" Sirius snapped. "That's an order!"
"Kreacher does not know!" The answer exploded forth, and Kreacher covered his face with his hands and began to rock on his feet. "The new master keeps his face always masked, he speaks in a voice Kreacher has never heard, but he is a master, though not in the direct line! He told Kreacher where to find the Mudblood—"
"Don't interrupt him," Aletha hissed as Sirius bridled at the term. "He's on a roll."
Kreacher's confession continued to pour forth, unabated. "—and he told Kreacher what could be done with her, how the House of Black could be continued, how Kreacher could save it from total destruction, and he gave Kreacher power, power of his own, power to resist orders that did not fit with the great plan—he said that the power he would gather from the things that Kreacher would do, that power would pay him back for the power that he had given to Kreacher, so Kreacher did not need to be afraid of accepting power from a master—"
"Enough," Sirius said, and Kreacher fell silent except for his gulping sobs. "Didn't work out quite like you expected, did it?"
"Be fair." Aletha bounced Meghan on one of her knees, smiling lopsidedly. "I don't think he had any right to expect you to come quite literally out of nowhere and mess up his perfect plan. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to ask, where exactly did you come from?"
"It's… a long story, and I'm not sure of all of it myself. Probably quicker just to show you." Sirius got to his feet and held a hand down to help Aletha up. "What should we do with him?"
"Hmmm." Aletha tilted her head to one side, considering. "Why don't we just order him never to tell anyone about this, to clean it all up and pretend it never happened, and let him spend however many years he's got left thinking about his failure?"
"You do have an evil mind." Sirius chuckled. "I knew there was a reason I loved you. Kreacher, you heard the lady. Do what she said. That's an order. And now, ladies…" He bowed to Aletha and scooped Meghan out of her arms, settling her onto his left hip and hooking his right elbow through Aletha's left. "Shall we depart?"
"Worlds that grow out of other worlds. People who try to make them stop, and people who try to let them grow." Aletha shook her head, watching the boisterous reunion in Outer Time. "Am I wrong to be glad I'm not her?"
"If you were her, you'd have had about a dozen more years of life experience at this point," James Potter pointed out. "Not to mention, one less highly unpleasant year with a house-elf. I know you were always complaining about Kreacher, Padfoot, but I never realized he was that bad."
"He wasn't. I didn't like the sound of that 'new master' business." Sirius scowled at his other self. "He'd better not forget that just because he's happy to be back with all of them. It's the sort of thing that comes back and bites you in the end."
"Don't worry." Lily had her best secret smile on. "I've… had a word with someone. She'll make sure he doesn't forget. Now, are you two ready?"
Sirius and Aletha glanced at each other, then turned as one for a last look through the veil at the slender, graceful girl who spun for sheer joy on her tiptoes, then posed with one foot effortlessly pointed over her head.
"She was never really ours, was she?" Sirius asked after a moment.
"We loved her." Aletha pressed his hand. "That makes her ours."
Turning their backs on what might have been, they faced their friends. "We're ready," said Sirius. "Lead the way."
Aletha looked back one more time to blow a kiss.
Meghan shivered and looked around.
"What's wrong?" Neenie asked, turning towards her sister.
"Nothing. I just thought… no, it's nothing." Her hand rose towards her cheek, touching a cool spot on its curve. "Just a chill, that's all."
But when no one was looking, Meghan kissed the fingertips of first one hand, then the other, and blew on both.
Just in case I wasn't wrong.
Shaking off what might have been, she went to join her family.
Author Notes:
So, bittersweet in some ways, but we're getting the Pack back together as always.
I'm surprised no one homed in more on Kreacher's comments about his "new master" last chapter. Hopefully this makes it clearer that this is a person we need to be concerned with!
This story may go on pause for a little while either after today's chapter or Friday's, but only so I can concentrate on other writings for a week or two. It will absolutely not be abandoned, so keep watching your inboxes and websites for updates, both of this and of… other things!