A Little Risk ★𝒮𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓊𝓈 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀☆ |On Hold|

Found You

Chapter 7

Found You

2 weeks later

Now that he'd procured a wand, Sirius didn't really know what to do next. His days were spent trudging along, trying to stay hidden yet take advantage of daylight, and his nights were full of uneasy dreams, almost all of these punctuated by his waking up in a cold sweat. 

His next destination would be Hogwarts, though most likely in the Shrieking Shack. He'd hadn't wanted to get there early before the students had arrived, since he knew Wormtail and his owner would be among them, and he wanted to be there when they were. Plus, catching another glimpse of Harry wouldn't be so bad. 

And so, it was the morning of September 1st, when Sirius was finally relieved of his boredom and unsureness of where to go. He was going to head to Kings Cross, under the guise of being some random person's pet, though if things went to plan they wouldn't even know that Sirius was tailing them. He'd have to wait for the train to go on a bit, and the platform to empty, and then he'd begin his journey to Hogwarts. 

He'd made it before, in his younger years, and he knew that if he simply followed the tracks, he'd be okay. But he also knew it had taken days to get there, which did improve his gratefulness of having the Hogwarts Express. 

But that journey had been made in the middle of the year, meaning that the train was- actually, he'd never bothered to find out where the train resided after picking up and dropping off students. He knew for a fact that it went back to London though. That meant that he'd have to spend a little time in the countryside before he knew it was safe to go on the tracks since if a train was coming across him, he'd be roadkill. 

He apparated in a London alleyway, one he remembered from his younger years when he'd been trying to sneak up on James on their way to the platform. There he promptly transformed into Snuffles, and trotted along happily among the crowd, some of whom edged away from him, which he couldn't blame them for, given his appearance, which he'd seen in the reflection of a lake. One little girl pet him though before her mother picked her up and started ranting about rabies. 

Muggles. 

He made it onto the platform, looking for the usual cluster of wizards attempting to blend in, though that was pretty hard given that their trollies were holding large school trunks, and on top of many, there were owls in cages. He spotted one of these said groups immediately. A fairly large one as well, all of them sporting flaming red hair. Only one wizarding family could be that large with hair that striking color. It was the Weasleys. They weren't alone, however. Harry was with him... and... two ministry officials? 

They went in one by one, and Sirius dashed after the last few. The sight of platform 9 3/4 would never get old. The Hogwarts Express, belching steam all over the crowd, the crowd, full of students, many of whom were trying to get away from their parents before they could embarrass them in front of all of their peers, with the exception of the tiny first years, who their parents were trying to pry off of them so they could get onto the train. 

Sirius shook his head. As great as the platform was, he had a mission. He had to stick close to the Weasleys. Besides, he wanted some inside intel on why those ministry folk were with them. He knew Arthur worked at the ministry, but last time he checked Arthur's position wasn't one that they'd give two private escorts to. They seemed to be there for Harry, as each one was flanking him on both sides, with Harry looking extremely disgruntled between them. 

He inched closer to them, hiding behind a pillar. 

With his keen hearing, he picked up Arthur's voice. "Harry, if I might have a word?"

"Sure, Mr. Weasley." 

They headed off to the side, right next to one of his wanted posters. "Looking forward to a new term?"

"Yeah."

Sirius didn't know what Arthur was going to say, and why it was so important, but he was sure that he hadn't pulled Harry off to the side simply to ask him about school.

Arthur looked around nervously, then spoke. "Harry, there are some within the ministry who would strongly discourage me from divulging what I'm about to reveal to you, but I think you need to know the facts. You are in danger. Grave danger."

"Has this anything to do with Sirius Black sir?"

Snuffles tensed up. What did Harry know about him? Other than his escaping from Azkaban of course.

Arthur asked his question for him. "What do you know about Sirius Black Harry?"

"Only that he escaped from Azkaban." Snuffles relaxed, lowering his hackles. He immediately tensed up when he realized that Arthur was probably going to tell him everything. 

"Do you know why?" As much as he thought Arthur was a nice guy, and that he didn't know the truth, Snuffles still wanted to go and bite him or something, just to make him stop talking.

"Thirteen years ago, when you stopped-," Arthur continued.

"-Voldemort," Harry cut in.

"Don't say his name," Arthur said.

"Sorry."

"When you stopped You Know Who," Arthur said, putting extra emphasis on Voldemort's alias, "Black lost everything. But to this day, he still remains a faithful servant. In his mind, you are the only thing that stands in the way of You Know Who returning to power. So, he escaped from Azkaban to find you and-"

"Kill me," Harry finished. Sirius was dumbfounded by how calmly he said that, as though people tried to kill him every day. Though, when someone's first of many attempts to kill you happened when you were one, he assumed that he couldn't blame the boy. 

"Hurry up Arthur!" Molly's voice rose above the crowd. 

In a softer voice, Arthur spoke to Harry. "Harry, promise me that you won't go looking for Black."

Harry looked shocked but nodded.

"Arthur what are you doing back there?! The train's leaving!!" 

Arthur led Harry back and Harry scampered onto the train. As the express was leaving, he saw it. The boy with the rat, Molly was handing it to him through the open window, running to keep up with the train.

"Ron! Ron, don't forget Scabbers!"

"Thanks, mum!" the boy, Ron, shouted back. 

"And for goodness sakes, don't lose him!!!" Molly hollered after the train. 

Sirius was frozen still. It had been years since he saw that rat. Granted, he looked quite bedraggled but no less fat, and of course, he was missing a toe. Peter Pettigrew. The rat had evaded him for years, but finally, after all this time. 

Found you,  Sirius thought.