Too Much Trouble COMPLETE

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Chapter 5
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“Bet you I can stay longer as Padfoot than you can as Wormtail,” Sirius teased Peter with a grin. “Though we can both outdo Prongs with no trouble at all.”

Remus smiled as they teased and joked with each other on the first day of the Christmas holidays of their fifth year. “Do you take that bet?” he asked Peter with a smirk. “What will the winner get?”

“You think Wormtail will beat me?” Sirius asked in astonishment. “Take that back.”

“Wormtail can hide easily if a teacher comes up here,” Remus pointed out. “You’re a ruddy great dog.”

The friendly arguing continued for another hour until the terms of the bet were set out to everyone’s satisfaction.

Nine days later Sirius counted his winnings and gloated over his victory. None of the other marauders ever managed to beat his record.

-o-xXx-o-

Remus apparated to the Potter residence as soon as he’d left the presence of the Dark One. At least he hoped it was the Potter residence in this particular world.

Thankfully it seemed that his luck was in. He rang the bell and a moment later a familiar voice called out to James to get the door. It seemed that James and Lily were together in this world too. He smiled, eager to see the couple again, though in reality he had only seen them the day before.

The door opened and James stood on the threshold with his jaw hanging down. The astonishment swiftly vanished and was replaced with a look of coldness that Remus had never seen before, at least not directed at him. He recalled the words of the Dumbledore impostor and knew that not only had the Remus of this world severed ties with his friends, he’d done it completely and there was clearly ill-feeling between them.

“Well?” James snapped. “What do you want?”

Remus recoiled slightly at the hostility but didn’t change his mind about enlisting the help of the rest of the marauders. “Can we talk?” he asked.

“What do you want?” James repeated impatiently.

“I need your help,” Remus said, but before he could begin to explain James began to laugh loudly. There was no humour in his laughter and he shook his head as he looked at Remus. “Please, Prongs?”

“Don’t call me that!” James hissed. “Don’t you dare call me that ever again!”

“James, will you at least let me explain?” Remus begged. James was already beginning to close the door on him and Remus pulled out his wand to stop him.

-o-xXx-o-

Sirius watched as the rest of the duplicates gathered in the common room, their escape imminent. He waited patiently as the others stepped into the passageway and finally there was only himself and one of the Ravenclaws left.

“After you,” the Ravenclaw offered. Sirius nodded and stepped into the tunnel. Behind him, he heard the sound of a door opening and he twisted round to see a familiar face in the doorway.

“Remus!” he called out, stepping towards the common room entrance eagerly.

He had only gone a pace or two when Remus raised his wand and pointed it towards the escaping prisoners. “CRUCIO!” he yelled.

Sirius braced himself for the pain but it didn’t come. He saw the Ravenclaw fall to the ground and heard him scream out in pain.

Then hands were tugging him into the passageway and the stones were closing, leaving Remus and the Ravenclaw in the common room.

“Open the door!” Sirius ordered. “We’re not all here.”

“It’s too late,” Bellatrix argued. “If we go back we’ll all get caught.”

“We can’t just leave him there.”

“We got who we came for,” Lucius replied as the water began to pour into the passageway. He pointed his wand at his lover who ducked his head under the water to allow the Bubblehead Charm to be cast.

“Open the door!” Sirius demanded again.

Lucius ignored him and turned to another Sirius who copied the first one and was soon breathing underwater.

Sirius continued to argue, being backed up by one of the other Gryffindors and the solitary Hufflepuff.

Unfortunately the water was slowly rising and Sirius had no choice but to let Narcissa cast the Bubblehead Charm on him.

Behind him, the wall separated them from the final prisoner, but there was nothing he could do to save him.

-o-xXx-o-

“James, who is it?” Lily called from the living room.

“No one,” James called back as he tried to close the door again.

Remus cast a spell to fling the door back open. “James, please let me in.”

“Piss off, Lupin!” James snarled as he tugged at the door again.

“James,” Lily called again. “You’re letting a draught in, who is it?”

“It’s Remus,” Remus called, hoping that Lily, who had always been a good friend to him, would be more prepared to listen to him.

Remus heard Lily’s light footsteps hurrying into the hallway. “Lily,” he greeted her with a smile.

“What are you doing here?” Lily asked. Her voice wasn’t as cold as James’ had been, but it was certainly lacking in its usual warmth.

“I need your help,” Remus explained. “I’m in so much trouble and if you’d just let me explain…”

“Why don’t you ask your precious pack?” James asked.

“You’re my pack,” Remus replied. “You and Sirius and Peter. You’re the only pack I’ve ever had or ever wanted.”

“Turned you away have they?” James asked with a small amount of glee. “Well, it’s too late for you to come crawling back here now. You burned your bridges good and proper and I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done to Sirius.”

“Sirius?” Remus echoed. “Do you know where he is? Maybe he’ll listen to me, since you won’t.”

James laughed and shook his head. Lily just shook her head mutely, a confused expression on her face. “You want to talk to Padfoot.” He laughed again and opened the door wide.

Remus didn’t hesitate to step inside, he didn’t know how long the offer of entrance was going to last. “Where is he?” he asked.

James pointed towards the living room and Remus hurried into the room. Sirius, or more accurately Padfoot, was stretched out on the rug in front of the fireplace, even though it wasn’t lit. The dog raised his head slightly when Remus came into the room, but he didn’t leap up and bound over to greet him.

“Hello,” Remus said quietly as he knelt down on the floor. “Are you going to yell at me too?”

Padfoot laid his head back down and closed his eyes.

“The silent treatment, huh?”

There was no reaction from Padfoot although a glance towards the door revealed a smug looking James.

“Let’s go into the kitchen,” Lily suggested, steering James along with her. “Give them a little while to talk.”

Remus nodded his thanks before turning back to Padfoot. “You going to turn back into your normal self?” he asked in a conversational tone. Padfoot continued to ignore him so he continued on regardless.

“I guess I should tell you straight away that I’m not the Remus that you know. I’m another one, literally. I’m from another world where things are a bit different, a lot different actually. My Sirius, that’s the one from my world, disappeared and an impostor took his place. When I found out I flooed Dumbledore for help, but it turned out he was an impostor too. They sent me to this world and got the Remus that you know to take my place.” He glanced down at Padfoot to see how he was taking the news but the dog hadn’t changed position at all. “You following all this?”

Padfoot yawned widely and closed his eyes.

“Yeah, I know, it sounds incredibly confusing. But you’ve got to believe me, you’ve got to. Sirius, my Sirius, is in trouble and I’ve got to find him. I haven’t a clue where to start and I need all the marauders to help me. So, are you in?”

Padfoot didn’t move.

“Interesting story,” James commented. He and Lily had clearly gone no further than just out of sight and had heard every word. “Padfoot doesn’t seem to believe you though, and neither do I.”

“Why not?”

“Let me rephrase that,” James said as he walked into the room and sat down on the sofa. Padfoot stood up and trotted over to him. He jumped onto the sofa and rested his head on James’ lap. “I don’t know whether to believe you or not. I just don’t care enough to find out if you’re telling the truth or not.”

“What exactly did the Remus in this world do that’s so terrible?” Remus asked.

“You mean besides joining the Dark One?”

Lily walked over and joined James on the sofa. She reached over to pet Padfoot who whined slightly and shifted closer to her. “You and Sirius are still friends in your world?” she asked.

“We’re all still friends,” Remus replied as he leaned back against the wall. “What happened in this world to break up the marauders?”

Lily and James looked at each other, silently communicating as Remus waited for their reply.

“What was the longest time that the Sirius in your world stayed in his animagus form for?” Lily finally asked.

Remus looked back at her, the questioning confusing him with its seemingly randomness. “Nine days back in the Christmas holidays in fifth year. He and Wormtail had a bet over who could stay in their animagus form the longest. I don’t think he ever stayed as a dog longer than that though. Why do you ask?”

“Sirius has been living at Padfoot since the end of sixth year,” Lily replied quietly. “He’s not turned back into his human form once since then.”

“What?” Remus looked at the large black dog in shock. “He must have done. You can’t be with him all the time. He…”

“He hasn’t changed back once,” James interrupted. “Not for so much as a minute, and it’s all your fault!”

“What happened?” Remus asked, his eyes not leaving Padfoot who was staring back at him intently.

“That’s just what I’d like to know,” James snapped. “I could take a guess, but there are only two people who know for sure and neither of you are talking.”

“James,” Lily said warningly. “If Remus is telling the truth he has no more idea of what happened than we do.”

“We both know what happened,” James replied. “Sirius finally plucked up the courage to tell this selfish little prick how he felt and it went badly enough that he turned into Padfoot and won’t change back.”

“You think Sirius turned into Padfoot because your Remus rejected him?” Remus asked with surprise. “The Sirius I know wouldn’t let a simple rejection stop him from living his life.”

“A simple rejection? There was nothing simple about it!” James stood up and stalked across the room. “The dorm looked like a cyclone had swept through. The place was trashed and Padfoot was lying in the middle of it, beaten to within an inch of his life. He was in the hospital wing for over a week. You knew how he felt about you, you played with his feelings all year, encouraging him and flirting with him. Then when he finally opened up to you, you…”

“Knocked him back and beat him up,” Remus concluded on his own. “Damn.”

Lily was still stroking Padfoot’s fur and Remus got to his feet and walked over towards them. He crouched down by the sofa and reached out towards the large black dog gently. “I’m sorry, Padfoot,” he whispered quietly into the dog’s ear. “I’m so sorry.” Padfoot finally turned to look him in the eye, but Remus couldn’t maintain the eye contact as he looked into the sorrowful eyes of the dog.

He turned to leave and no one tried to stop him. No one called him back as he walked from the room, down the hall and out of the door.

-o-xXx-o-

Sirius stumbled out of the Great Lake and ran for the cover of the Forbidden Forest. A quick glance behind him revealed the same building that he had always known and loved. Hogwarts was still the same impressive castle, it only had a different function. He wondered if he would ever again see the school he had loved since the moment he’d first laid eyes on it.

“This way,” Lucius ordered as they moved further into the trees.

“Hogsmeade’s the other way,” one of the Sirius’s said.

“Yeah, we’ll just walk straight into the nearest village after breaking you lot out of there,” Narcissa sneered. “No wonder you were all stupid enough to get yourselves captured.”

“Hey!” several Sirius’s exclaimed in various tones of irritation.

“Where are we going then?” Hufflepuff Sirius asked.

“Back to our world,” Lucius replied. “The doorway is still open, you lot can come along if you like, it’s up to you.”

Sirius stood in the clearing with the rest of his doubles. He wasn’t keen on the idea of leaving this world for another new one, but nor was he particularly enthusiastic about staying in this one either. He simply wanted to go home.

-o-xXx-o-

Remus had walked nearly half a mile down the lane when he heard the sound of doggy footsteps running up behind him. He turned round to see Padfoot racing towards him. The dog skidded to a halt a few feet away from him and Remus waited quietly to see what he had decided. James and Lily had followed after Padfoot but were still quite a way behind.

“Padfoot!” James yelled as he hurried to catch up. “Get back here!”

“He’s not a dog,” Lily pointed out. “He’s still Sirius inside, and you know he’ll do what he wants.”

Remus smiled at that and sat down on the grass verge. Padfoot nuzzled at him and Remus ruffled his fur affectionately. “You know, it’s rather hard to have a serious discussion with you when you’re a dog.”

“You think I haven’t pointed that out to him a million times already?” James asked as he finally caught up with them.

Remus continued to play with Padfoot as he contemplated his next move. “Come on Padfoot, let me speak to Sirius,” he asked.

Finally, something seemed to get through to the animagus and Remus watched as Padfoot transformed back into Sirius.

“You turn back for him?” James shouted with frustration. “After all this time, you turn back for the one who sent you over the edge?”

“It’s not him,” Sirius whispered, his voice weak from lack of use.

“You believe me?” Remus asked.

“I loved our Remus for years, and always hoped to see that same love returned. I never did…until today.”

“Ah.”

“He never said anything about being in love with the Sirius of his world,” James pointed out.

“He didn’t have to,” Sirius replied quietly. “When did you get together?”

“Just after Christmas in sixth.”

“You happy?”

“We were until I found my Sirius replaced with a double.”

“I’ll help you find him,” Sirius offered. “I’ve no idea how, but I want to help.”

“Thank you.”

James looked less than thrilled at the prospect.

“And you can stay with us until we find a way to get you and your Sirius home again,” Sirius added. “James and Lily have plenty of room.”

“Do I get a say in this?” James asked.

“It’s okay,” Remus said. “You don’t have to put me up or anything. Just let me floo Dumbledore and I’ll be out of your way.”

“Who’s that?” James asked. “One of your werewolf friends?”

Remus turned to James and a feeling of dread crept through him. “What do you mean, who’s Dumbledore? He’s the greatest wizard ever, headmaster of Hogwarts, member of the Wizengamot…how can you not know him?”

James shrugged. “Never heard of him.”

“Who’s headmaster of Hogwarts?” Remus asked in a whisper.

“Headmistress Sprout,” Lily told him, as though this was something he should know.

“You mean you’ve never heard of Albus Dumbledore?”

“The name’s familiar,” Lily admitted. “I just can’t remember where from.”

“I know where from,” Sirius said. “He was the only wizard who came close to defeating the Dark One. It was years ago, before any of us had been born. He and Grindelwald…” Lily and James flinched slightly as he said the name. “…they duelled and Albus Dumbledore was defeated. He was imprisoned somewhere in Europe. He escaped – some say Grindlewald let him – and hasn’t been seen in years.” He turned to Remus with a frown. “If you’re counting on this Dumbledore to help you, I think you’re going to be in for a big disappointment.”

“Story of my life,” Remus muttered. “Guess I’m on my own then.”

“No, you’re not,” Sirius told him firmly. “You’ve got me. If you want me.”

Remus nodded his thanks, ignoring the double meaning in the words that he knew were deliberate. This wasn’t his world or his Sirius no matter how familiar the love in the grey eyes appeared.