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Aurora Areli
I HAD NEVER BEEN part of a stranger group.
Crookshanks was in the lead; Uncle Remus, Pettigrew, and Ron followed him down the stairs. Next came Professor Snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as we descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Harry, Hermione and I brought up the rear.
Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Uncle Remus, Pettigrew and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Uncle Remus still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. I could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file, Crookshanks still trotting ahead of them. I followed behind Harry, who went right after Sirius. The latter was still making Snape drift along in front of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. I had the impression Sirius was making no effort to prevent this.
"You know what this means?" I heard Sirius say abruptly to Harry, as we made our slow progress along the tunnel. "Turning Pettigrew in?"
"You're free," Harry said. "Rory mentioned it."
"Yes . . ." Sirius said. "But I'm also — I don't know if anyone ever told you — I'm your godfather."
"Yeah, I knew that," Harry said.
"Well . . . your parents appointed me your guardian," Sirius said stiffly. "If anything happened to them . . ."
I smiled; Harry would finally be free from the custody of his awful family.
"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," Sirius said. "But . . . well . . . think about it. Once my name's cleared . . . if you wanted it . . . a different home . . ."
"What — live with you? Agh!" A soft thud and the hiss of pain told me Harry had hit his head on a bit of rock protruding from the ceiling. "Leave the Dursleys?"
"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," Sirius said quickly. "I understand. I just thought I'd —"
"Are you mad?" Harry said, his voice as croaky with emotion as Sirius. "Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
I saw Sirius turn around to look at Harry in surprise; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling but Sirius didn't seem to care.
"You want to?" he said. "You mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it!" Harry said.
Sirius' gaunt face broke into the first true smile I had seen upon it. The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger was shining through the starved mask. Hermione and I turned to each other and smiled at the happy exchange happening before us.
