They arrived at number four Privet Drive at seven o'clock the next morning. It was a dark gloomy morning in Little Whining. The rain just started to pour down as Hermione knocked on the door. In the little time it took for Vernon Dursley to answer the door they were soaked, and the cloaks they wore weren’t helping.
"Whatever you’re selling we're not buying."
Hermione put out her hand to keep him from slamming the door. "Excuse me Mr. Dursley, but we're not selling anything. We're here to see Harry Potter." She was shivering and her hand on the door was going numb. "It's awfully cold out here; may we come in?"
"No," Mr. Dursley looked shocked by the suggestion. "What makes you think I would let a bunch of weirdoes into my house?" He tried to shut the door again but Lupin and Sirius forced their way in.
Hermione followed their example. "Please sir, we're only here for a short while--just long enough to pick up Harry," Hermione said, pulling off the hood of her cloak.
"There is no Harry Potter here. Just me, my wife, and son, you must have the wrong house." Mr. Dursley started to panic. He knew that Harry was in danger, and was still afraid of the threat he received from Moody a few weeks ago, to not let him fall in harms way.
"Please sir, my name's Hermione Granger. I'm a friend of Harry's from school." She stuck her hand out to shake his, but he just looked at it. Slightly offended, she continued, "And this is Remus Lupin, an old professor of Harry's..."
"You were one of the blokes that threatened me a few weeks ago," Mr. Dursley interrupted
"Yes, and I'm more than willing to up hold my end of the threat." Lupin began to advance toward Mr. Dursley.
Hermione stepped between Lupin and Mr. Dursley. "And this is Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather," Hermione said quickly.
"S-S-Sirius Black, but Harry said you were dead." Mr. Dursley started to back away out of fear.
Sirius lowered his hood. "It's complicated, Mr. Dursley," He said, clenching his jaw. “We can explain it all if you would just get Harry for us.” His voice was calm and polite, as he didn’t want to antagonize Mr. Dursley. Trouble was something he didn’t need right now.
"I see what you’re doing;” Mr. Dursley stroked his chin. “You're using magic to fool me; you're here to hurt the boy." He paused for a moment to think. "You know what; I'll give you the boy if you leave my family alone and make sure the rest of your kind doesn’t blame me for his death."
At that, Sirius decided to throw politeness out of the window. He reached into his robes and pointed his wand at Mr. Dursley's throat. "You are a pathetic excuse for a human being."
"Sirius no! You can't use magic here. The Ministry will find you."
"I don't care, Hermione!"
"You should Sirius, think of Harry." Hermione knew Harry was his weak spot.
"Call Harry, Dursley, and maybe I won't turn you into the filthy disgusting beast that you are."
"POTTER, LIVINGROOM NOW!"
Sirius moved his wand closer to Mr. Dursley's throat. "Say please," he said through his teeth.
"PLEASE," said Mr. Dursley, immediately.
A few minutes later they heard Harry’s voice at the top of the stairs. "Please? Since when do you say please? If I didn't know better I'd think someone was holding a gum to your..." He stopped a few steps from the bottom. He saw Sirius holding a wand to his uncle's throat. Without thinking, he jumped the rest of the way down and drew his wand, pointing it at his godfather.
”Who are you?" he asked, not seeing Hermione and Lupin.
"Harry, it's Sirius." Hermione stepped into Harry’s view.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?" He looked at her, but his wand never left Sirius.
"We're here to get you for the summer."
"Who's that?" Harry motioned toward Sirius.
"Who does it look like?" Hermione said, sarcastically.
"It looks like Sirius," Harry’s looked into Sirius’s eyes. "But I know that's impossible. He's dead." He looked away from Sirius, his voice full of bitterness.
Sirius lowered his wand. "Harry, I know what you saw at the Ministry and we'll explain it all later, but right now we need to get going." He started to walk toward him, but Harry kept his wand up and wouldn't let him come close.
Harry wanted to believe it was Sirius, but he had been tricked in the past and he wasn’t going to let his guard down. "You look like him, you talk like him, but I can’t be sure you are him.”
"Harry, it is him. If you can’t trust that, then ask him something only Sirius would know,” she suggested.
"Okay," he didn't lower his wand. "What did you give me for if I ever needed to talk to you?"
Sirius took a deep breath before answering, "A mirror your father and I used to talk to each other while in separate detentions."
"You still have those?" Lupin broke his silence.
Sirius turned to face Lupin "Yeah, I wouldn't let my mother destroy them." He turned back to Harry. "Your father gave me those mirrors as a Christmas present in our third year. I gave him the other one when we left school. The night he died I was able to get it from the house before it fell. I figured they’d come in handy one day." He gave Harry a crooked grin.
When Sirius grinned at him, Harry’s stomach gave a jolt. ‘It’s him; he’s alive, but how? I saw him fall. But how could someone under Polyjuice know his grin?’
“I’m still not sure. One more question.” He paused to think, and after a few minutes it came to him. “The night my father died, Hagrid came to get me. What did you give to him?”
A wide smile crossed his face. “I never told anyone about that, but I guess Hagrid has told people when I escaped. I gave him my flying motorcycle.”
“Wait, you gave Hagrid your bike? You wouldn’t even let me drive it.” Lupin said, with bitterness.
Harry finally lowered his wand. Sirius didn’t move toward him; he stayed where he was and they stared at each other in an awkward silence. Harry felt as if he had just gotten his father back. His insides were turning in a good way.
Sirius moved forward toward Harry. He hesitated before he hugged him.
“How touching.” Their reunion was interrupted by Mr. Dursley. “Now that you all know one another, would you please GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!?”
“Gladly,” Harry made his way toward the stairs. “After I pack.”
“I’ll help.” Hermione followed Harry as he claimed the stairs and made his way to his small room. "So how has your summer been?” Hermione shut the door behind her.
“How do you think it’s been going?” Harry snapped.
“Sorry, I imagine you’ve been having a hard time. I mean thinking, Sirius is dead.”
“How long have you known that Sirius is alive?” Harry asked, calmly.
“Almost two weeks,” Hermione stated slowly.
“And you didn’t think to write me or even call?”
“I wanted to, but I wasn't in a situation where I could.”
“And what situation was that?” Harry raised his voice a little. “Wait, let me guess, you wanted to get your homework done. No, wait, you wanted to finish memorizing our new textbooks or - -“
"That's not true Harry," she interrupted him. "And I resent that you'd think that about me. You're more important to me than homework." Her voice began to crack.
“I resent the fact that one of my best friends lying to me,” he said coldly.
“I didn’t lie to you Harry; I couldn’t even talk to you…”
“And why not?” he cut in.
“We’ll explain everything later. We need to go; the train leaves in thirty minutes.”
“Fine, but I don't want to hear anything you have to say." He slammed his trunk shut and carried it down the stairs.
"Ready, Harry?" Lupin asked.
“Yes.” His uncle was scowling in the corner. "Er, I guess I’ll see you next summer.” Harry said to him
“Wait; where's Hermione?"
“I’m right here Professor.” She had stayed upstairs to compose herself; she didn’t want to appear upset.
They called for a cab and were on the train back to London in thirty minutes. Most of the ride was in silence. Hermione kept her focus on her shoes. She looked up a few times but Harry met her gaze with angry stares, so she kept her head down for the rest of the ride.
When they arrived in London they were met by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and a Ministry car.
"Oh Harry! So good to see you." Mrs. Weasley swept him into her arms and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Hello Harry! Good to see you,” Mr. Weasley said, extending his hand to shake Harry’s.
“It’s good to see both of you too.” Harry felt so happy that he temporarily forgot his anger from the spat with Hermione.
They loaded his things into the car and were soon on their way to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. I seemed to Harry that the car ride took forever, but when he saw the old grey building he realized that it only took twenty minutes to get there.
Before they entered Number Twelve they checked to see if the coast was clear. When they stepped inside it took awhile for Harry’s eyes to adjust to the light. He noticed that the portrait of Mrs. Black was gone. “What happened to the painting?”
"Dumbledore was able to reverse the spell that kept it up there,” Mrs. Weasley clarified.
“I imagine that Kreacher probably has it downstairs in his cubby,” Mr. Weasley gave a chuckle.
“Harry dear, take your things upstairs, and then come to the kitchen.” Mrs. Weasley hurried into the kitchen, followed by Hermione and Lupin.
Sirius helped Harry take his things upstairs to his room. “Are you alright Harry?" Sirius asked, panting from heaving the trunk up the stairs.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little confused."
"Well, let's go down to the kitchen and we'll clear everything up." He put his hand on Harry's shoulder and led him into the kitchen.
When they got to the kitchen Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks and Lupin were all sitting around the table talking in excited voices.
"Hi Harry, how's it going?" Fred asked.
”Not so bad and you?"
"Oh, we're better then ‘not bad’. Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes is doing brilliant.” George leaned closer to him and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Thanks to your backing."
"Well that's good. I'm glad that everything is good with you."
"Harry, come sit down. I imagine that you're confused about a few things," Lupin said.
"Yeah, like how you are still alive?" Harry asked, looking at Sirius. "Not that I'm not glad or anything, it's just that I saw you fall."
"It was me you saw fall but it wasn't me," Sirius explained.
"Then who was it?" Harry asked.
"My cousin Narcissa," Sirius explained everything that happened to him earlier in the summer as best he could.
”Wait, I'm a little confused. If you were being tortured and guarded by dementors, how did you escape? I mean, you must have been weak, and how could you get passed the dementors without receiving the kiss?"
"Hermione helped me."
Hermione, who had been staring at the floor the whole time, looked up when she heard her name. She figured it was her turn to explain her role in this summer's events.
"Hermione? How?" Harry asked, even more confused.
"I think I could explain that." Professor Dumbledore appeared in the doorway. "If you don't mind, Miss Granger."
"Of course not Professor," Hermione said, feeling relieved. She didn't want to make Harry more upset with her then he already was.
Dumbledore explained everything to Harry that he explained the previous night to the Order, including how Hermione had helped Sirius escape.
Harry looked at Hermione and saw the bandage on her arm and the cut on her head. He had been too angry with her to notice before. "So you've been spying on Voldemort all summer?"
"Yes," she said, never looking up.
Dumbledore stood, preparing to leave. "I think Molly, Arthur, and Remus can fill you in on Order business. I have to go meet your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.”
"You were able to find one already?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Well, she has been available for years, but I have had her doing Order business for me for the past fifteen years."
"What could you have needed done for fifteen years?" Sirius asked, bewilderedly.
"You'll find out soon. I'll be back tonight to explain further. Goodbye everyone."
"Goodbye Professor," Harry said as Dumbledore Apparated.