Laocoon's Children: Secret Tongues
Epilogue
By copperbadge
AU. When Sirius and Remus go looking for Peter Pettigrew, they make a wrong turn and someone else finds him first. Eight years later, Sirius owns a book store and Remus manages it for him. When Harry stumbles into the store and they find out the truth, they decide it's time to be Stealing Harry. (SB/RL slash relationship in later chapters.)
Exams had passed and the school term was over almost before Harry could catch his breath. Considering everything, the Quidditch championship was cancelled, which only seemed to speed up the
arrival of exams. Padma even came back to school and took her tests, though she went home right afterward and Hermione Granger beat her out for top of the year, which must have been annoying. Neville
promised Harry he'd go visit the Patils as often as he could, and Draco swore he would too, although of course for Draco it was a little more difficult. Especially since his mum was apparently in a
very foul mood indeed and had been seen publicly fighting with Walden Macnair, up to and including trying to scratch his eyes out. Draco didn't know what it all meant, but he had a feeling he was
going to have a very long, very unstable summer. Harry pressed the invisibility cloak on him again, and Draco didn't even make a token objection this time.
Draco did, however, have one consolation for not being able to visit Padma personally. He sent Dobby to the Patils for the summer, with his wages paid in advance, which Sarasvati thought was a very
gentlemanly gesture and Parvati thought was pure show-offery. Draco assured Neville and Harry that Parvati was just jealous because nobody had ever sent her a house-elf.
Summer would be different for Harry than it was for the others; he was going back to Betwys Beddau, the little Muggle town where they kept their summer house, and he wouldn't be able to even fly on
his broomstick for three full months. Still, there were good points; he had a long, exciting train trip to look forward to, as well as the warm summer days in what Remus always said must be the
greenest place on earth. He'd get to see all his old school friends from before Hogwarts and play football again and go fishing in the river with Padfoot, and there would be books from Professor
Snape (there always were) and he'd have his bicycle to ride and all the town-folk would spoil him rotten. It didn't look to be such a terrible summer, except that he couldn't write to his friends.
And he was only just a little bit envious that Andromeda and Ted were taking Neville to Canada for a whole month to visit Ted's Muggle brother and his family.
Remus had gone down to Wales during exams to take all their things to Betwys Beddau -- the important things, anyway -- and so there was no strict need to stop in London, but they had to transfer
trains anyway and Sirius had inexplicably booked them on a much later train for the rest of the trip.
"We have to pick up the portrait," he explained to Harry, as they walked through the crowds in Diagon. "We'll keep it in London most of the time, but I thought you'd like to see it and we can
certainly take it to Betwys Beddau for the summer."
"Is it really going to make you look young for ever?" Harry asked. He followed Sirius into Fansif Alley and towards the green door of Broosh & Chackle.
"No," Sirius said, looking over Harry's head at Remus. "We were going to, but..."
"Well, given everything...." Remus added.
"I mean, you wouldn't want your old godfather to look the same forever, would you?" Sirius asked, somewhat anxiously. Harry grinned at him.
"Course not," he said, and Sirius smiled in relief.
"I thought we'd get your portrait done next year," Sirius continued. "Over Christmas, maybe. Helena's dying to be the woman who paints the portrait of the Boy Who Lived."
"Sure," Harry said agreeably. He felt in quite an agreeable state; Peter Pettigrew hadn't been heard from in ages, he'd personally helped save Padma from being eaten alive by a diary, and he had
Remus and Sirius' undivided attention. He continued to feel agreeable all through the train ride to Llangynog and the bus from there to Betwys Beddau.
There was a letter waiting atop a pile of books when they arrived, as Harry had expected; Professor Snape's handwriting, in his usual emerald-green ink.
Harry,
I trust that you have arrived safely and without undue incident. Please inform your guardians that I have tested the wards on the house and found them sound, although the state of the garden leaves
much to be desired. It is upon this subject that you will conduct your summer studies; I expect full documentation of a proper wizarding herb garden and have provided the appropriate seed packets and
a text on their care and cultivation. Please do not allow that empty-skulled mutt of yours to dig it up.
In the interests of keeping you out of mischief, I have also selected several volumes for your summer reading. Try to retain something from them.
Nymphadora insists that I inform you that she "says hello". The woman is infamous.
As ever, I am
Your Professor
Severus Snape
Remus sorted through the books, idly. "Here's the text on Herbology, it's the usual stuff...other books: The Lord of the Rings, Never Cry Wolf, and A Brief History Of Wizarding
Politics. Oh, and Wizard Bird. Say what you like, Padfoot, but the man knows how to pick books."
"At least one of those is going to bore him to tears," Sirius answered, pouring instantly-hot water out of the kettle on the stove.
"Run and get into your pyjamas, Harry, and if you're in bed in half an hour we'll pretend you're asleep and not reading one of Professor Snape's books."
Harry was allowed to stay up late that night, with his cocoa on the bedside table and Never Cry Wolf propped on his knees; the summer unrolled before him like a splendid panorama, and he was
happy.
***
A month into his holiday, Harry woke to the insistent sound of knocking on the front door of the River House. He froze in his bed; nobody had ever knocked on the front door before. Nobody could
find the front door. Which meant that either the fidelius was broken, or --
"You stay there," Sirius shouted at him as he ran down the hallway, wand in hand. It wouldn't work unless Harry was in danger -- that was the deal they'd made with Albus Dumbledore -- but he tended
to keep it closer than he had in the past. Remus staggered out after him, pulling on his pyjamas as he went and blocking the doorway between living room and hall. Harry saw him nod at Sirius, and
Sirius flung the front door open.
"Professor!" Harry cried, slipping past Remus. Severus Snape stood in the doorway, looking exhausted.
"What on earth?" Remus asked, coming forward and putting a protective hand on Harry's shoulder. "What are you doing here? You know you're not supposed to come unless -- "
Snape held up a folded copy of the Prophet and offered it to Sirius, who accepted it with a suspicious look. Harry craned his neck to see the headline.
Lucius Malfoy escapes Azkaban, it read, and then in smaller font, Daring daylight disappearance baffles authorities.
"They say," Snape said pointedly, "that it looked as though a rat had chewed through his straightjacket straps."
Sirius grabbed the other man's arm and tried to haul him inside, but Snape put out a hand to stop him before he could.
"Is he coming here?" Remus asked worriedly. "Do they know? Did Dumbledore send you?"
Snape looked over his shoulder, out through the front doorway. At the end of the garden, where the path to the front door met Cwndu Road, there was a Hogwarts school trunk. Sitting on it, looking
very small and bereft, was Draco Malfoy. He was clutching Harry's invisibility cloak, twisting and creasing it between his fingers.
Remus looked at Sirius, then back at the boy.
"I'll go transfigure another bed in Harry's room," he said quietly.
Snape held out a small leather bag with the Gringotts Bank seal stamped on the side.
"For his room and board," he said as Sirius accepted it. "Equal parts Dumbledore and Narcissa Malfoy. I cannot linger."
He walked back down the path to where Draco sat; Harry tagged along curiously as Snape bent to whisper the location of the house in Draco's ear. Draco's eyes widened as the River House appeared
before him out of the empty meadow. Before Harry could thank the Professor, he was gone.
"Hi," he said to Draco. The other boy looked pale, and he had deep circles under his eyes that bespoke more than a single sleepless night.
"Hi," Draco murmured. "Brought your cloak back."
"Thanks," Harry said. "Want some help with your trunk?"
Sirius came out of the house when they were halfway to the door and took the trunk out of their hands, carrying it easily into the bedroom. Remus was already in the kitchen, preparing an early
breakfast. He offered each of them a plate of sausage, eggs, and toast; Harry led Draco out onto the wooden porch that overlooked the back garden and they sat on the steps, quietly.
"So," Harry said.
"So," Draco echoed. Harry looked sidelong at him, and a grin suddenly split his face.
"This is going to be the best summer ever," he said.
END