One Day They'll Know Your Name

Name on the letter

Once they reached the Leaky Cauldron, Harry got a room for the night and owled his friends and Professor Dumbledore. Sirius, even though he had been the one to suggest it, had been reluctant to send a letter to the Headmaster.

"He's the one who agreed to send you there. You could have stayed with one of your friends! Maybe not at the Burrow, but there's plenty of room at Malfoy or Longbottom Manor! And Narci or Madame Longbottom would have taken us for a bit in a heartbeat!"

"That may be true, but what about when he hears about it from the Ministry who are going to have to get Marge down? You know they're going to paint me in as bad a light as possible!"

Sirius paused for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'll write Albus, and you can write your friends." Harry nodded. He decided to just write one letter and then ask Sirius to duplicate it five times. Once he had sent Hedwig out with the letters, with instructions to deliver Professor Dumbledore's last from Sirius, Sirius transformed back into Padfoot and they went to bed.

The next morning found Hedwig sitting on the bedpost by Harry's head. After breakfast and a shower,  Errol, the Weasley owl, Artemis, Draco's owl, Norbert, the Longbottom owl, and Blodeuwedd, Luna's owl arrived holding various letters. Harry had mentioned that all the thestrals were named for death deities, and Luna had instantly thought of the Welsh goddess Blodeuwedd and gave the name to her owl. Harry guessed it was extra proof that Luna belonged in Ravenclaw.

The letters were all variations of the same thing. Outrage at what Marge had said, laughter at her being blown up, and relief that he was out of that thrice cursed house. Draco included threats on the Dursleys, Hermione, Ron and Ginny expressed regret that they didn't have room in their houses for a boy and a dog, Luna was cryptic but helpful as usual, and Neville invited Harry and Padfoot to stay with them for the last month of the summer if Professor Dumbledore didn't let them stay at Grimmauld.

Harry turned to Sirius to ask what he thought. "Do you think Professor Dumbledore will let us stay at Grimmauld? Or at least get the rest of my stuff that I didn't take to the Dursleys?"

"I doubt Albus will let us stay at Grimmauld because that's where the Ministry would look for me first since I publicly live there. We should be able to pop in for a little bit to get your stuff though. Go ahead and let Neville know that you'll probably need to take him up on that offer."

After lunch a school owl came bearing two letters. The first was from Professor Dumbledore. Apparently he was relieved that Harry and Sirius were safe and he was working on the Ministry to get Sirius cleared again. The other letter was from Professor McGonagall and it contained a request for Harry to pick his electives and the permission slip for Hogsmeade. Harry gave the permission slip to Sirius and read through the information on the electives.

"What electives did you take?" he asked.

Sirius signed the Hogsmeade slip and turned to Harry. "Jamie and I took Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies. Lily took Runes, Arithmancy, and Care. Remy took Arithmancy and Runes. He always was the more academic of us." He smiled fondly. "Of course Remy wanted to take Care as well, but he decided it might be a better idea not to, considering. We always shared our notes with him, so he knows a lot about creatures, and he started studying creatures when he decided he wanted to be a Defense teacher. Of course no one will hire him, so he doesn't get a lot of work, but he says he's doing alright for himself."

"Remy? He's Moony, right? Why haven't I met him?"

Sirius scowled. "For some reason he seems to think you wouldn't want to meet him after he left you with the Muggles for ten years. I tried to tell him otherwise but he insisted. I haven't even seen him. We've just been exchanging letters because he doesn't want to be in my life without being in yours and he doesn't think you want him in your life."