eloise martin enjoys her simple life in diagon alley with her best friend, nymphadora tonks, until dora's cousin needs a place to stay while on the run. soon, not only is eloise's life upside down with cousinly chaos, but also budding feelings for...
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Harry had never been part of a stranger group. Crookshanks led the way down the stairs; Lupin,Pettigrew, and Ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-legged race. Next came ProfessorSnape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as they descended, held up by his ownwand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Harry and Hermione brought up the rear.
Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn sideways tomanage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. Harry could see them edgingawkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Harry went rightafter Black, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lollinghead on the low ceiling. Harry had the impression Black was making no effort to prevent this.
"You know what this means?" Black said abruptly to Harry as they made their slow progressalong the tunnel. "Turning Pettigrew in?"
"You're free," said Harry.
"Yes..." said Black. "But I'm also — I don't know if anyone ever told you — I'm yourgodfather."
"Yeah, I knew that," said Harry.
"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said Black stiffly. "If anything happened tothem..."
Harry waited. Did Black mean what he thought he meant?
"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said Black. "But...well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a... a different home..."
"Oh, Harry!" Eloise awed, her eyes wide.
"What — live with you?" he said, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock protruding fromthe ceiling. "Leave the Dursleys?"
"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," said Black quickly. "I understand, I just thought I'd—"
"Are you insane?" said Harry, his voice easily as croaky as Black's. "Of course I want to leavethe Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
Black turned right around to look at him; Snape's head was scraping the ceiling but Black didn'tseem to care.
"You want to?" he said. "You mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it!" said Harry.
Black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile Harry had seen upon it. The difference it madewas startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask; for amoment, he was recognizable as the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding.
