Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
Home Sweet Home
One more time across the empty sea
Promise me that you won't sleep
One more cigarette and I'll let you be
Who the hell am I? Oh who the hell am I?
(Forget Me Forgotten - Hollow Wood)July 3rd, 1995Sirius stared in front of him at the long-forgotten house. There, between numbers
eleven and thirteen, stood a battered door and dingy windows attached to the building that
had been almost as much a prison as Azkaban ever was. He mentally calculated the number
of times he had almost died in Azkaban and wondered if any of them had been as bad as
the last time he had stepped foot inside number twelve, Grimmauld Place.
Never taking his eyes off of the building ahead, watching it appear as though out of
nowhere before them—the Fidelius Charm already in place—he reached a hand out to his
right and gripped Remus's arm. "Moony, do you remember sixth year after we stole the
girls' knickers, you told me that you would do your best to make sure I didn't do anything
incredibly stupid ever again?"
"I remember."
"Care to explain to me why we're walking into my parents' house right now?" he
asked, suddenly aware that his feet were carrying him forward toward the dilapidated old
door. A hand reached out, taking his arm, and Sirius sighed at the comforting feeling of
Tonks there on his left.
"Because, in a moment of surprising generosity, you offered this place to
Dumbledore for the Order," Remus reminded him, reaching forward and opening the
door.
The smells of dust, dirt, and mould assaulted their senses. Sirius and Remus visibly
recoiled, though Tonks appeared to be hardly affected.
Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "What the fuck was I thinking?"