Because You Love Me

86. Attack of the Wolf

 "Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Alaina asked him for the third time. The two of them were walking in front of everyone else.

"Fine, Mum," Harry told her. "I promise."

Hermione and Sirius were shouldering an injured Ron, and Severus and Remus had their wands on Peter in the back. He was walking in front of them, shaking like a leaf.

"I'm sorry about the bite on your leg," Sirius apologized to Ron. "I'd reckon that twinges a bit."

Ron glared at him. "A bit? A bit? You almost tore my leg off!"

"Sorry. I usually have more of a loving disposition as a dog." Harry looked back and smiled at him, wonder in his eyes. Sirius smiled back. He was glad the young boy didn't hate him, or at least, he didn't seem to. Harry and everyone else had been wrong about him. "James insisted more than once that I make the transition permanent. The fur I could live with, but the fleas? No."

Harry and Alaina both snickered. Hermione too, but Ron was in too much pain to laugh at all. His face was contorted with bitterness and agony. Severus and Remus both found it amusing as well, but neither of them cracked a smile. They were all already tired. All of them walked up through the trap door, one at a time, and waited at the top until every single body had come through. Remus was the last one out.

Darkness had blanketed the grounds of Hogwarts. There was a full moon hanging in the sky and the stars were highly visible in the cloudless vastness of it. It was all Sirius saw he stared out into the blackness. He had always had an eye for the stars. He was free and it felt wonderful. He walked over and stood beside of Harry and Alaina, his head full of things he wanted to do when this was all over.

"I'm terribly sorry if I frightened either of you," Sirius said. "It was never my intention."

"Well you certainly did at times," Alaina told him. "Why didn't you come to me?"

"I didn't know what you might think of me."

"I didn't know what to think of you until Severus reminded me that Pettigrew was alive. He told Dumbledore as well."

"Snivellous?"

Harry snickered. "Who?"

"Yes, who?" Alaina echoed. They sounded like a couple of owls.

"Oh, it's a nickname James and I gave Snape a long time ago. I, uh--Lucius told me he had fallen in love with you when he came to Azkaban. I know it's out of the blue for me to mention it, but I've heard you feel the same."

"Yes," she said, blushing, and without hesitation. "I do love him."

Sirius frowned. "You have had a soft spot for him since the day you met him. I've never been able to understad it. Then I saw the two of you together. Several times, in fact, and I saw no sign of the pratt I once knew."

Alaina smiled. "He's changed."

"Apparently so. He seems to genuinely care for you."

"I'm glad you feel that way, Sirius."

He sighed. They talked a bit more about other things. Harry's adoption was one of the subjects that came up.

"So, Harry calls you 'mum', huh?"

"Yes. He wanted to. I adopted him."

"Right. I knew that. I heard about it in prison, oddly enough. Someone from the Ministry was there on business and I overheard them talking about it. Wow."

"I know. It still overwhelms me sometimes."

Harry grinned. "I'm so glad that she did. I can't imagine where I'd be if she hadn't."