There were ministry wizards all around, Pettigrew was trapped like the rat he was. Sirius was free. As one of the hit wizard was about to slam handcuffs on Pettigrew when he whipped his silver hand out, and screamed a curse, his index finger pointed at Harry. Harry stood rooted to the spot, shards of glass were flying at him, someone, or something knocked him out of the way. An anguished shout filled the graveyard, blood was running down Sirius's fingers. The curse had hit him instead of Harry, blood continued to run down his hands, that covered his face.
"Somebody get him a doctor!" Harry heard one of the wizards shout, while scrambling to his feet. Like lighting several Healers apparated on the spot, surrounding Sirius.
Harry ran toward Sirius, but somebody grabbed him, "No! You'll only be in the way!"
"But!" Harry struggled out the wizard's grasp, long enough to hear someone say,
"It hit him in the eye, or just above it, he might be half blind for the rest of his life."
"NO!" Harry screamed. "Sirius!"
"Harry?" Sirius shouted back, his one good eye looking fervently for any sign of his godson. The Healers wouldn't let Harry get near him, though Harry was putting up a good fight.
"You've done enough damage for one day," one wizard whispered so that only Harry could hear.
"But I didn't mean to," Harry saw a Healer coming toward him.
"Mr. Potter, come with me," the Healer said. As she lead him past Sirius, several people turned to glare at him. He saw Sirius's face for a moment, cuts, and slashes covered it, blood everywhere, the left eye closed.
"Thanks to you, he may never see again!" one of the growing crowd shouted. "It's all your fault, Harry Potter, it's all your fault!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry . . ." Harry whimpered, tears began to roll down his cheeks.
"Being sorry won't make him able to see again, face it, it's all your fault!"
"No, it's not, it's not, it's . . ."
"Harry wake up!"
Harry was jerked out of the nightmare, his face wet with sweat, and tears. The young, but tired, and lined face of Remus Lupin stood out in the darkness. Where was he? Lupin's, yeah that was right, he had almost forgotten. He was staying with Lupin until Sirius was released from St. Mungo's, it had already been a week since school let out, since Pettigrew had been caught, since the nightmares began, a week since Sirius had been injured. Tears began to form in Harry's eyes again. "It was all my fault!"
"Oh, Harry," Remus wiped away Harry's tears. "You must never think that, Sirius doesn't blame you, I don't either, you know that."
"But he wouldn't be blind if it wasn't for me," Harry continued to sob.
"He's not blind, far from it, he just needs a small eye operation, and he'll be fine," Remus tilted Harry's head up. "He misses you. He really wants to see you."
"He'll hate me," Harry knew that was for sure, how could you still love someone who almost got you killed? Sirius's mauled face stood out in his mind's eye.
Remus knew that no matter how he tried to persuade Harry that Sirius would always love him, no matter what happens, Harry wouldn't have any of it. He was just wasting his breath, Harry would only believe it if he heard it straight from Sirius's mouth. Until then Harry would be plagued by nightmares, and there was nothing Remus could do to help. He let Harry cry, it wouldn't do any good to tell him to stop.
" Things couldn't be any worse, and yet they are a lot better, talk about an oxymoron," Harry muttered, gaining control over himself.
"You said it,"Remus smiled, if there was one good thing about Harry when he was sad, he broke out of it fast. "You should really visit him, though, he always asks about you." Harry shook his head, and Remus did not press the matter. The sun was starting to rise, so it seemed pointless to tell Harry to go back to sleep. He left Harry to get dressed, saying that he would be starting breakfast.
As Remus left to get breakfast started, Harry returned to the bed, not wanting to go back to sleep, but not wanting to get up either. The spectator's words played over, and over in his head. "It's all your fault, Harry Potter, it's all your fault." Harry scowled at his reflection, even though Sirius had push him out of the way, he didn't come out of the situation unscathed, there were a few scratches on his face that would fade with time, a Band-Aid covered what was a massive gash on his arm, that had been reduced to a small, but deep cut thanks to magic. There were also a number of bruises here, and there. "I'm a jinx, that's what I am, a total jinx."
"Harry, breakfast!"
"Coming," Harry hurriedly dressed, and went down stairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I wonder what Harry's up to," Sirius said thinking out loud. He was laying in a bed that was in a hospital room at St. Mungo's.
"Stay still," the nurse was fitting an eye-patch over Sirius's left eye, so he wouldn't get anything in it before it was operated on in a few days, the glass had cut to close to his eye to be fixed magically. "And who is this Harry of yours?" She said in an Italian accent.
"He's my godson," Sirius explained.
"The little boy you pushed out of the way, eh? His parents must be very grateful."
"They would be if they were alive." The nurse blanched. "It's okay, you wouldn't have known, but he means a lot to me, his parents were my best friends, and if anything happened to him I wouldn't be able to stand it," Sirius said sadly, wondering why Harry hadn't visited him yet.
"Has he come to see you?"
"No. I don't get it though, he was fighting tooth, and nail to get to me when I got hurt, but the Healers wouldn't let him, he had to be checked out too, but nothing was seriously wrong," Sirius shook his head.
"Maybe he doesn't like hospitals, eh?" the nurse suggested. "A lot of kids don't."
"No, I don't think that's it, and besides their thinking of dedicating a bed in the hospital wing at school for him, he's in there so much. Quidditch injures, and the like."
"Hogwarts? Which house?"
"Gryffindor, like me."
"He's good, huh?"
"Been on the team since first year," pride filled Sirius's voice.
"Well, that is something, he sounds like a good boy, he'll come soon, you'll see, just give him time, he really likes you, I can tell," the nurse smiled. "Now take this medicine the moment you feel any pain, we don't want Harry to lose his godfather, do we?"
"No," Sirius smiled too, she was right Harry would come, of course he would.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what are you going to do today?" Remus asked.
"Homework, I guess," Harry said in the same sullen voice he had spoken in for the past week.
"How 'bout Quidditch?" Remus suggested.
"Don't feel like flying," Harry heard himself say, this was a first.
Remus's mouth dropped, had Harry just said he didn't feel like flying? The Harry that had learned the Patronus charm just so he would be able to play Quidditch without worrying about fainting? This was getting bad.
"May I be excused?"
"Er. . .of course Harry," Remus was still dumbstruck.
"Thanks," Harry went up to the guest room to do his homework.
Remus watched Harry leave, he had never seem someone who harbored so much self-guilt for something he wasn't responsible for. I need to talk to Sirius, he will have a solution.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey Moony! What's up?" Sirius put down the crossword puzzle he was trying to do with one eye.
"You can read with only one eye?" Remus asked.
"Not really, I'd normally be done by now," Sirius frowned, Harry wasn't with Remus.
"You look like Captain Hook," Remus said noticing the eye patch.
"For the record Captain Hook had a hook instead of a hand, but not an eye patch, Blackbeard had the peg leg, and the eye patch," Sirius corrected.
"May Robert Louis Stevenson forgive me," Remus rolled his eyes.
"How's Harry?"
"Sad, sullen, low, ashamed, blue, cheerless, dejected, depressed, gloomy, grief-stricken, melancholy, mournful, sorrowful, sorry, woebegone. . ."
"I get the picture," Sirius held up a hand for him to stop.
"Good because I was running out of synonyms for unhappy," Remus panted.
"Okay, Moony, be a good wolf, and tell Padfoot what's wrong with Prongs's junior?" Sirius asked seriously.
"He has it stuck in that thick head of his that this is all his fault, and that you hate him," Remus replied.
"I don't hate him," Sirius said instantly. "I couldn't hate him even if I tried."
"I know, that's why I want you to talk to him, he won't listen to me, he doesn't even want to play Quidditch!"
"What?" Sirius almost fainted. Harry not playing Quidditch? It is the end of the world, issue warning, and survival leaflets, warn the Muggles, every man for himself! "This is bad, I need to talk to him, you should have brought him!"
"It isn't that easy, he's stubborn, he flat out refuses to come, I guess he's afraid that you'll yell at him or something."
"Oh brother," Sirius was for the first time in his life, stuck. He had no idea what to do or say, then what nurse said came back to him, "Just give him time, he'll come."
"So. . . any idea on what to do?"
"Give him a little time," Sirius said.
"Well I'm grateful for one thing."
"What?"
"He's your godson, not mine."
"Remind me to tell Harry you said that," Sirius grinned wryly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile back at Remus's house, Harry was poring over books, but not school books he had finished all of his homework ages ago, but always lied to Remus saying that he had more to do. So now Harry would pore over fantasy books, mystery books, any kind of book that he could get swept away into the story, and forget his troubles, and only care if Oliver Twist was or was not thrown in prison, or who had been the murderer in And Then There Were None. Today it was Treasure Island.
"Homework done?" Remus was back already?
"Taking a break, bored with goblin rebellions, and elfin uprising," Harry slammed the book shut. "I guess I better get back to work."
"By the way your History of Magic essay is fantastic, you made those goblin rebellions, and elfin uprisings sound actually interesting," Remus grinned as he left the room.
"Hardy har har, it is to laugh!" Harry called after him. He returned his attention to the book, on the cover there was a wild looking man, with a peg leg, and a black beard, with a colorful parrot on his shoulder, he was Captain Blackbeard. The eye patch caught Harry's eye, would Sirius have to wear an eye patch? Or maybe a magical eye? What if his face was scared like Mad-Eye Moody's? Harry shuddered, as a terrible thought entered his mind, what if Sirius became like Mad-Eye Moody, never trusting anyone? Always looking over his shoulder? Jumping at the slightest noise? Or worse, became like Snape? If Sirius became like Snape, Harry thought he just might run away. He had heard about things like that, like, loving father gets into a car crash, while going to pick up his daughter from a friend's house, because it's raining, and she can't walk home, and the father ends up having to walk with a limp for the rest of his life, and blames the daughter. The daughter runs away from home, because she can't stand her father blaming her anymore. Would Sirius become like that? He hoped not.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sirius Black paced his hospital room, bored out of his mind. I'm going crazy, I have cabin fever, no make that overly-safe hospital room fever!
"Sirius, what are you doing out of bed?" Dr. Jack Dolittle asked.
"Dying of boredom," Sirius said, figuring the odds that his doctor's last name would be Dolittle. Good thing he doesn't know about good old Padfoot. Haha!
"Oh . . . this is serious maybe we should get you into intensive care," the doctor laughed at Sirius's annoyed expression. "Well, then again maybe not, but could you cease pacing for a moment, and let me check that eye, Captain Hook?"
"Yeah, and for the fourth time today, Captain Hook had a hook for a hand, and Captain Blackbeard had the peg leg, the annoying parrot, and the eye patch,"Sirius grumbled as the doctor examined his eye.
"I'm guessing you have kids."
"No, not exactly I take care of my godson, does that count?" Sirius was also counting how many times people asked if he had any kids.
"If he asks you for extra money every other day it does." Sirius shook his head. "Keep still, and he doesn't? Can we switch kids? Please? I'm begging here. Remember I'm near your eye."
"No thanks, Harry's mine," Sirius step back as the doctor finished with his examination.
"Harry? Oh, that's right you're Harry Potter's godfather," Dolittle scribbled something on a paper. "Sirius, if it's okay with you we can do the operation tomorrow."
"The sooner the better."
"Okay then, tomorrow morning bright, and early," the doctor said as he left.
"Early, why is everyone a morning person around here?" Sirius muttered under his breath as picked up a silver ball, about the size of a baseball, that lay on his bedside table. The ball was called a Watcher because that's what it did, enable the holder to view anything, or anyone he, or she wanted to. These balls were only given to hospital patients, and could never leave the building because if they did there was no end to the possibilities one could do with a Watcher, there was a special tracking device used on a Watcher to advert this from happening, and if anyone tried the consequences were very unpleasant indeed.
Sirius had been waging an inner battle with himself as whether to use the Watcher to see Harry or not.
"Hi, do you need anything off the cart?" an intern asked him, this boy came about once a day.
"No, I'm fine, thanks anyway," Sirius tossed the ball from hand to hand.
"You gonna use it?" the pimply-face boy asked.
"Maybe, don't you have some old lady to spoon-feed, or something?" Sirius muttered. He had finally made his mind up about the Watcher, after the boy left, Sirius hurled the ball at the door, "SHOW ME HARRY!"
The ball expanded like a silver movie screen, and hung suspended in mid-air, to show a short, skinny, fifteen-year-old boy trudging up the stairs. Looking decidedly sullen.
"Harry?" Sirius wasn't sure if Harry could hear him, or not.
Harry raised his head, "Sirius?" Then hit himself in the head, of course Sirius couldn't be there, he was in some hospital room, waiting to have his eye operated on, or plucked out, or to hear the news that he would be blind for rest of his life. "He's not there, Potter, act like you actually have a brain."
"But I am here, Harry, I'm right here, Harry listen to me, Harry?" Sirius said to the screen, but Harry did not acknowledge him. "Why can't he hear me anymore?"
He does not wish to! Flashed across the screen.
"But . . ." Sirius stammered as he watched the screen. Harry was staring at the Firebolt propped up against a wall, he looked like he really wanted to go flying, his fingers reached out to touch the highly polished wood, just as he was going to touch it he recoiled. "What?" Sirius was astonished. Harry gave the broom one last longing look before disappearing into another room. "Oh . . . the broom reminds him of me doesn't it?" Sirius realized. He wanted to tell Harry to have fun, and not worry about him, he wanted to be there with Harry, but he was in this stupid hospital room watching Harry instead of being with him. "Close," he said in the saddest voice possible, instantly the screen closed, and rolled back into a ball. "I should have never looked."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well McNair, now that, that idiot, Wormtail, is gone, I will have to rely on you for inside help, are you sure the boy heard you?"
"Yes Master," McNair answered.
"Good is everything is in place, as soon as that boy's godfather is out of the picture, I wouldn't be surprised if the boy handed himself over to us," said Voldemort.
"Our contact at the hospital said the job will be done by tomorrow."
"Good, very good, I hope Potter bids a fond farewell to his precious godfather!" a high cruel laugh filled the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry awoke to find that it was morning, he had to tell Remus what he just dreamt. He raced downstairs, still in his pajamas, to find nothing but a note.
Dear Harry,
Sirius's operation is today, so I'm going over there, and if all goes well you will be seeing Sirius tonight -Remus