All in the Family

Chapter 40: The Leaky Cauldron

Even before his head had stopped spinning from their newest space he heard a door slam shut, and as his eyes focused on the surroundings he only saw four around him. Evans, Longbottom, and Smith had very likely gone into the first room they'd seen, away.

Blinking a few more times he found himself face to face with a crup, asleep at the moment curled up in the corner of its crate. Looking around more properly he recognized himself in the Magical Manegerie, he was leaning against the counter, and after hoisting himself to his feet found a prestine cage full of lively rats skipping happily about and a door beyond that, likely where the rest of their group had vanished too.

James was already pacing in heated frustration, paying no attention to anyone around him with his continued mutterings. "Misunderstanding my arse, we just heard about Hagrid being taken to that place because of something he didn't do, but apparently it's the most mad thing on Earth for the same to have happened to Sirius. Thirteen people, thirteen years, this is a right load of-"

"I know that Prongs, we know that," Remus was still trying to sooth his temper, with good reason. They didn't have Snivilus here for him to vent on, and the niffler currently trying to escape its crate certainly didn't deserve his wrath any more than any other creature in here. "It just, shocked them I'm sure, caught all of us off-"

"Shocked! Yeah, that's a good one. Padfoot! Sirius, why the bloody hell didn't you-"

All three of them turned to find him right where he'd still landed, slumped against the back wall where apparently a billywig was usually displayed, though he wasn't spotting anything in there right now.

James finally vented some of his fury by clutching up the first thing his hand grabbed, a bag of rat feed off the counter, and chucking it at him. It collided just above his head and sprayed everywhere with still no reaction.

"The hell's the matter with you!" James stormed over to him still in a towering temper. "Why am I the only one-"

"What's shouting about it doing you? Any good? I don't think so!" Remus insisted, starting to look a little flustered himself as he looked desperately between the pair, and then finally to Peter as if actually thinking he'd have an answer for once. He just held his hands up in surrender, as lost for words as he had been during the last fight between his friends. He wasn't even sure if this was a fight, what did you call such a horrid accusation that Sirius wasn't protesting?

James began his pacing again as words echoed from outside the door about Harry spending his time in Diagon Alley of his own free will. He was grinding his teeth and muttering so furiously it was a wonder if he could even hear a word.

"Why weren't the names listed?" Sirius finally did speak up, when Harry would overhear passersby on the street talking of it so casually. "The, the ones who..."

Remus sat down beside him then, wrapping an arm around his shoulders while Sirius kept his knees tucked to his chest. James deflated slightly, but his need for action against this still wouldn't slow even as he answered a touch more calmly. "Ah, I'm sure they are at the bottom or something, probably that Shunpike guy just, you know, didn't read it."

"It, very well might have been us though," Peter grudgingly acknowledged what he thought Sirius might be thinking. "You got the blame for something happening, but the three of us were there, for some reason, and something happened."

"Said a Muggle was present, for all we know that could have been the target and things got out of hand. Merlin knows that sounds like something you'd get caught in," Regulus offered quietly, shuffling over by the front door as he looked uneasily from this room to the street. It was very clear he had no want to join the others upstairs now, but he still didn't feel secure in here with them.

Sirius didn't look particularly relived, but he did marginally seem to come to grips with this idea now that there was some sort of explanation in the air. Even just Regulus speaking again, the first time he'd made any attempt to do so since the revelation of You-Know-Who had been announced, eased just some part of him. Of course the paper would take his name and slander the rest, come up with some cock-and-bull story about him being on the Dark Lord's side and blame him just like Hagrid had for being a half-giant so of course he'd been the cause of that Chamber mess no matter how little sense it made when you stepped back to look at it.

The majority of what they heard of the book wasn't particularly note-worthy, Ron and Hermione arriving, Ron's little pet rat apparently was sick and Hermione got her hands full with a new cat, literally. Glancing up at the shelves now he spotted it quickly enough, the squashed face wasn't hard to miss among the sleek breeds. Crookshanks was perched right on the edge of his enclosure, already out and free again, watching everything below with intelligent yellow eyes that frankly gave Sirius the creeps to stare at too long.

Then the fight with Molly and Arthur was overheard, and Sirius had to painfully remember how to swallow again. Remus tightened his arm around him and scooted just a bit closer with a scowl in place, while the his other two friends began saying terse things of rebuttal to every horrible thing those Weasleys had to say about him. Sirius found himself as flush with gratitude for them as he had been with worry in the first place.

For the first time, he really thought about his life in this future without Prongs, what must be going through his head for all of this. It seemed he'd look past this heinous crime, possibly even seek Harry out and somehow reveal the truth to him. The idea seemed ludicrous, why would he go hunting down some kid when he'd now be on the run? Did he even have anyone left he could turn to? It made some sort of sense, why Harry would have spotted a black dog around him, Harry seemed to be the only link he had left to the life around him.

Reaching up, he grasped Remus' hand on his shoulder and held it for a few moments longer than strictly necessary, just breathing again which he swore he hadn't done for the remainder of that bus ride. He grinned at Prongs and Wormtail, even Regulus for not running off the second they heard this. He didn't care what the rest of the magical world thought, he'd long since learned to ignore the student populace and this was no different. He had all the people he needed to care about right here.