Electric Avenue by DesertPlanet

To say Remus was concerned was a bit of an understatement.

Christmas was coming soon and Sirius was starting to get insufferable. Everyday he would ask about Harry and everyday Remus would have to tell him the barest of information. It wouldn’t be long before Sirius decided he had had enough and did something rash in order to find his godson.

“Look, Moony,” Sirius said from where he lay sprawled on the sofa. “All I want to know is if I can send him a gift and what he wants. That’s it. Can I not send my godson a bloody gift?”

Remus sighed and put his book down with a loud thunk on the table. “Sirius, I know you. It won’t be ‘just a gift.’ You’re going to try and send him something that will track his location. Or you’ll track the owl. Or, potentially even worse, the owl will be tracked by someone else. This isn’t that simple! He’s trying to hide, Sirius!”

“Well when can I talk to his keeper then?” Sirius grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest petulantly. “I’ve kept this entire bloody thing a secret for weeks now! Weeks, Moony!”

“I know, I know,” Remus tried to placate the man. “I’ll try to…”

“WEEKS!” Sirius continued to rage. “Do I even know who it is who is looking after him? No! Do I know where he is? Only that he’s in Dublin, which I’m honestly beginning to doubt! Do I know what he’s doing? Not in the slightest! The only thing I know is that he was working on a project that you took over for some reason!”

Remus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This wasn’t the first time Sirius had gone on this tirade. “Padfoot…”

“A project that is absurdly complicated simply because we are treading into unknown territory and having to make some pretty big assumptions along the way,” Sirius continued, standing up and pacing the room animatedly. “Now, how did he get involved in this? Oh, wait, I know the answer ‘he’s safe and in Dublin!’”

“Sirius…”

“I can’t take this anymore!” Sirius yelled finally, standing and striding towards the fireplace. “Even Dumbledore would give me more than those two pathetic pieces of information! Maybe I should go to him and ask? Someone’s gotta be feeding you lines. The two bloody lines you’ve been allowed to give me!”

Remus froze for a second before hanging his head. He knew what he had to do; he just hoped Severus would be in a good enough mood to listen to him. Truly, Sirius had been doing a surprisingly good job of keeping what little information he was being given a secret. But Remus knew that would only last for so long before he became bored and desperate.

And bored and desperate he was rapidly becoming.

“Don’t you dare!” Remus said, quickly heading him off before he grabbed the floo powder. “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“Or what! All I want to know is if I can send my bloody godson a Christmas gift!” Sirius said, trying to wrestle his way past the werewolf. “And if you aren’t going to tell me a straight answer, I’m going to go to Dumbledore!”

“NO!” Remus yelled, his eyes flashing amber as he shoved his friend away from the fireplace with far more force than he had originally intended. “Absolutely not!”

Sirius stumbled back, a wild look in his eyes as he lost his footing and fell to the ground with a thump. Remus had never, ever fought back like that. Even when they were teens, Remus was always the pacifist. He never once laid a hand on anyone in anger or frustration for fear that they would be injured.

“Please, Sirius,” Remus said, walking towards his dazed friend and squatting next to him. “Give me like an hour. Please. Before you go talking to Dumbledore, please give me some time to go talk to Harry’s ... keeper. Please.”

Sirius stared at his friend, blinking in confusion as questions whirled in his head. Had Dumbledore done something to Harry? Was that why Harry had disappeared? Did Dumbledore actually not know what was going on? Was Dumbledore the reason for Harry’s disappearance?

What in Merlin’s name was going on?

“Okay,” Sirius said quietly. “Okay. I’ll give you time. But I want to know today. Please. That’s all I want.”

Remus sighed and stood slowly rubbing his face for a moment before grabbing a handful of floo powder. Sirius was not going to like how this was going to go no matter what he did. He could only hope that both Sirius and Severus would keep their tempers in check for long enough to not fight each other over Harry.

“Hogwarts, Remus’s Quarters.”

Sirius stared at the fireplace for nearly an hour straight, mulling things over in his head and pondering what he had missed. Something must have gone horribly array for Harry to have gone missing. Something that Dumbledore had to have done.

Or worse, didn’t do.

Running to the kitchen and pulling out the small stack of letters from Harry from over the summer, Sirius dug into them with a fine-toothed comb. Even Tonks and Kingsley were after whatever had happened, though they seemed to be just as in the dark about Harry’s location as everyone else. They had a trail, however. They were just following the evidence.

And how he wished he could get his hands on that evidence.

Looking at the letters now, they seemed even more benign than before. General complaints about his relatives. Complaints of not feeling well. Wishes that he could come stay with Sirius. Wishes that the entirety of his fourth year hadn’t happened.

Tonks and Kingsley had been looking into his relatives, relatives that Dumbledore had placed him with, and they were asking some rather pointed questions. Had something happened between Harry and his relatives and Dumbledore refused to remove him from the situation?

Thinking back on when he first escaped Azkaban, Sirius shuddered. The frantic swim to the mainland had been exhausting, but he had a goal in mind. Yes he had wanted to see Harry, but he needed to kill Peter. Going by Harry’s relative’s house was not the wisest decision he had ever made, but it had made his trail a bit more difficult to follow rather than going straight to Hogwarts.

He had thought it a bit odd that Harry was dragging his trunk down the street so late at night, but he hadn’t really put too much thought into it at the time. He was just happy to see his godson and was honestly in shock as to how much he looked like James. Suspiciously like James, if he was being honest.

Sirius remembered laughing at the story of what had actually occurred that night, what with Harry inflating his aunt and all, but he had only thought it to be good fun. Now the thought was making him sick. It had been accidental magic, after all. The old floozy had been insulting his mother and, when he had tried to defend her honor, that horrible woman had doubled down on the insults. She had deserved it after all, but even Sirius’s own parents hadn’t kicked him out of the house for accidental magic, no matter how explosive it was.

Harry hadn’t been kicked out, however, he had been on the run.

Sirius looked at the letters once more, paying more attention to the complaints against the Dursleys. If one wasn’t looking for abuse or neglect, the complaints would sound just like that: teenage complaints. Not enough food, not being allowed out of the house, excitement for seeing his friends and coming back to school. It all sounded like a normal teenage life. But Harry had always been so thin and the Dursleys lived in a good neighborhood so there wasn’t any good reason he couldn’t have been allowed to wander a bit. From his letters, the farthest he was allowed to go was the playground up the street which was well within view of the Dursley house.

But why hadn’t they taken him to a muggle healer if he was complaining of feeling sick? Surely the Dursleys could have taken the time to get him a quick appointment to at least get him checked out. It wasn’t like healthcare was privatized and difficult or costly to access. That was one of the benefits of living in the muggle world, afterall.

So why didn’t they take him to the healer? Surely Dumbledore knew something! He had to have known something. He was in charge of the Potter estate after James’ death, afterall. He had made it known from the get go that he would be the one responsible for finding a suitable place for Harry to live.

Sirius didn’t like the implications of this whatsoever. And the more he thought about Harry’s past behaviour, the more he didn’t like where his thoughts were going.

He was so deep in thought, in fact, he was only vaguely aware of the sound of the floo going off in the living room.

“Padfoot?” Remus said softly, shaking Sirius from his thoughts. “I got permission. And his… guardian… wants to speak with you too.”

Sirius’s eyes shot up as he looked at Remus with the most frantic look Remus had seen in a long time. “Really? You aren’t joking?”

“Why in Merlin’s name would I be?” Remus sighed as he pulled up a chair. “You aren’t going to like this though. You aren’t going to like one part of this. But please, please listen to the entire story before you start yelling.”

“Snape wants to speak with me too?” Sirius muttered darkly as he continued to pace around the kitchen.

To say Sirius had taken the news of Harry’s true parentage well was an absolute lie. He had nearly blown the dining table to bits in his rage, his magic swirling around him as it tore chunks of wallpaper from the walls. He had screamed. He had cried. He had thrown anything he could get his hands on across the room. Then, finally, he began to pace.

“Are you going to kill him?” Remus asked bluntly as he continued to try and repair the damage his friend had done. There was a reason Remus had wanted to speak to him privately, after all. He knew Sirius wasn’t going to take this lightly and was likely going to have a rather explosive reaction to the news.

Especially since the tale of what had happened to Harry only got progressively worse and ended with him hospitalized against his will right alongside the Longbottoms.

“I still might,” Sirius said darkly before collapsing onto one of the few unharmed chairs with a sigh. “At least someone seems to care about him finally!”

Remus smiled sadly and nodded. That was the one good thing about Harry’s situation: he had someone who genuinely cared for him. Someone who was ready and willing to fight for him, not just order him around.

Sirius sighed heavily and rubbed his hand over his face, wincing as the stubble chafed his hand. “I guess I’m ready to talk to him. I guess I have to be.”

“Just…” Remus said with a frustrated sigh. “Just be civil, ok? Please? Snape has no qualms about killing to protect his son. He’s already made that very clear.”

Sirius’s eyes widened marginally before he smirked mischievously. “Well, at least he’s made his loyalties clear! I was beginning to worry.”

Remus rolled his eyes before walking to the hall and straightening his robes. He knew Severus was still sitting there, likely still sipping on the small glass of brandy he had helped himself to, and had heard the entirety of Sirius’s explosion.

True to form, Severus was indeed sitting in one of the wingback chairs, leisurely reading a potion’s manual he had pulled from one of the shelves and looking as though he were the lord of this manor, not Sirius. His black robes fit in well with the dilapidated decor and overall ambiance of the house. Even Kreacher, who was in the room with him, seemed more at ease around Severus than he ever had around Sirius.

“Sirius is ready to speak with you now,” Remus said, feeling ridiculously like Sirius’s butler as he invited Severus into the still quite destroyed kitchen.

Severus shut the book he was holding with a snap and stood before brushing off his cloak. “That was quite the explosion. It’s a wonder the house is continuing to stand.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Sirius for you,” Remus chuckled lightly though he was still quite hesitant to allow Sirius to speak with Snape. “Will you be civil with him at least?”

Severus paused in the doorway as he looked back at the other man with a rather impassive look on his face before raising an eyebrow. “I have always been civil, Lupin.”

“Horseshit,” Remus said with a frown. “You gave as good as you got. We may have started it, but you made damn sure you finished it by any means necessary.”

“Civilly,” Severus smirked evilly. “I never once snuck up on you or laid a trap for any of you to fall into. That was far more Potter’s modus operandi.”

“No, you got someone else to do your dirty work,” Remus sighed and rubbed his face. “Just talk to him. Answer his questions. He’s already more on Elias’s side than Dumbledore’s.”

Severus nodded once before striding into the kitchen to speak with the man he had long considered to be his greatest foe. While he dreaded this conversation, he knew it was necessary. If there was one thing Dumbledore did not expect, it was for the two of them to be working together in any way.

Now to deal with the mutt and hopefully find a way to placate him and his insatiable urge to destroy any and all well thought out plans.

“This is stupid,” Sirius grumbled as he looked at the harness and vest which lay on the table in front of him. “This will never work.”

The conversation between the Slytherin and the Gryffindor had been unsurprisingly explosive despite best efforts being had on all ends to keep it from becoming such. While Severus and Sirius had agreed or found common ground on most points, there was simply one request that Sirius had from which he would not back down and which Severus would not acquiesce to: he wanted to see his godson.

Sirius understood that Elias was most certainly not going to look the same as what he had and there was a chance that he simply would not remember him, but Sirius continued with his demand.

Threats were thrown about, though both parties knew these were quite empty as neither of them had any desire to go against Dumbledore without further proof of wrong-doing on his part, nor did they wish to even attempt to confront the man alone. Both men knew the end result would not be in their favor, nor would it be in Elias’s best interest for them to be actively working against each other. They had to be a united front.

Eventually, amongst all of the yelling which had ensued, Remus pointed out the largest flaw in Sirius’s request. If there was even a remote chance of Elias recognizing him, he would have to either be in his animagus form or he would have to be himself. He was a wanted man and he would most certainly be caught if he waltzed into St. Mungo’s undisguised, so that idea was right out.

So the next question was how they were going to sneak a rather large, almost grim-like dog, into a hospital without anyone knowing that it was an animagus who was being brought in.

Ideas were thrown around about potentially using James’s old invisibility cloak to sneak him in, however this was quickly dismissed as multiple spells were placed around the premises of St. Mungo’s which would allow both healing staff and security to find wayward, invisible patients. Shrinking him down would trigger similar wards, as would placing him under the effects of a glamour or polyjuice.

It wasn’t until Severus asked, albeit in the form of an insult, if there was any way a mutt could be useful that an idea sprang into Remus’s mind.

“This is your option, Black,” Severus growled, lifting the collar with a rather malicious grin. “If you want to visit my son, you’ll need to put this on.”

It had taken only a few short trips to verify that this idea would, in fact, work.

During one of his visits to the Janus Thickey Ward, Severus had casually asked one of the healers about the policies regarding bringing service animals into this building. After explaining to the highly confused healer what he meant, it was agreed that allowing Elias to see his ‘service dog’ after so many months away from him may actually help him in regaining function or at least provide some sort of motivation. Naturally, it was decided he would not be allowed to keep his poor dog on the premises, but a few visits here and there sounded like a fantastic idea from the healer’s perspective.

“How do I know you aren’t taking the piss?” Sirius rounded on Remus. “Siding with him and making me wear this ridiculous ...outfit…”

“Sirius, why would I lie to you about this?” Remus groused, pulling on his own tattered traveling cloak and folding his arms. ”Come on, mate, transform already and we’ll be off. They aren’t going to let us in at all if we don’t hurry.”

Sirius sighed before taking a deep breath and focusing on his dog form. The slight pop as his body instantly rearranged itself no longer bothering him after so many years of performing the transformation. Shaking himself off and giving himself a cursory scratch behind the ear, Sirius sat and waited patiently for one of the other men to spell the elaborate get up onto his person.

“There you are,” Remus said with a chuckle as the harness self-tightened. “You look far more put together now.”

“Yes, yes,” Severus said, trying in vain to keep himself from chuckling at the man’s plight. “You certainly look like a professional mutt.”

Sirius growled lightly before shaking himself once more as he got used to the vest and collar he now wore. He was sure he looked utterly ridiculous, but Remus had assured him that if there was any way they could sneak him into St. Mungo’s, this would be it. He had seen the pictures in the book that Remus had brought in when they were discussing the different options he had to see Harry, but he still thought this to be an absolute hoax.

But there was only one way for him to find out safely, at this was it.

“Sirius,” Remus said sternly as he grabbed the transfigured leash and clipped it to the leather collar which was around the dog’s neck. “Remember, you have to act as though you are well trained. Not a transfigured human, but a well trained dog.”

Sirius huffed at the statement but sat and perked his ears up attentively. He could act like a dog, that wouldn’t be a problem, he had done it for over a year while on the run. The question was how to act like a well trained… what was the word again? … service dog. He hadn’t the faintest idea, but he certainly thought he could pull it off.

Or he hoped he could at least.

“Alright, I created some official looking muggle papers for you stating that he is a seizure alert and balance assistance dog,” Remus said, handing the papers to Severus who quickly looked them over. “They should be good, but if not…”

“If not, I can claim these are the translated ones he came with when he moved here,” Severus said, folding the papers and placing them in his breast pocket. While the Belarussian medical files Healer Shannon had created for him certainly brought some questions when he was initially admitted to St. Mungo’s, they were quite useful in covering up any strange discrepancies with other paperwork Elias needed. Any missing or odd looking paperwork could easily be covered up by the simple fact that the entire area had recently gone through rather significant political upheaval in both the muggle and magical worlds.

“Right,” Remus said with a rather toothy smirk. “I’ll apparate with Sirius if…”

“No,” Severus said with a sigh. “No, it would be best if you stayed here. If you were seen with Black, it would be much easier for those in the Order to make the connection as to who he is.”

Remus rolled his eyes slightly but sighed. Severus was right, but he hoped Sirius wouldn’t do anything stupid without him there. “Fine.”

“We shall be back shortly,” Severus said, grabbing the leash from from Remus’s hand and moving towards the living room with Sirius pulling back slightly on the lead and whipping his head around to look at Remus.

“Severus, you have to remember to treat him like a well trained service dog too,” Remus said, quickly blocking Severus’s path and allowing Sirius to get his bearings. “And not just that, as his service dog, Elias and Snuffles would have a bond similar to that of a familiar. This is Elias’s dog, Severus.”

Severus sighed through his nose, his nostrils flared as he pursed his lips before looking down at his childhood enemy and raising an eyebrow. “Snuffles?”

“That’s what Harry and his friends referred to Sirius as in their letters,” Remus said calmly. “I can only assume that, if he remembers Sirius at all, he would be more likely to remember that name in relation to this body.”

Severus nodded before looking down at the dog with a sneer. “Well, come along then Snuffles. Let’s not keep your master waiting.”

Sirius glared at him and curled one lip just enough for Severus to see his fangs before he reluctantly stood and walked to the man’s side where Severus then grabbed him by the handle on the top of the harness.

“Behave, Sirius,” Remus said lightly as the two other men disappeared from the living room. “Merlin, I hope he behaves.”

Sirius let out an involuntary yelp as he and Severus slammed into the ground in the alleyway near the main entrance to St. Mungo’s. He could quite honestly say he had never apparated in his dog form and wasn’t sure it was an experience he wanted to repeat.

“Hush, Snuffles,” Severus grumbled at Sirius’s whine. “Surely you’ve done this before.”

Sirius huffed and shook himself as though he were wet in an effort to get rid of the sensation of apparating before turning and walking towards the entrance of St. Mungo’s, stopping only when he got to the end of his leash. Looking back over his shoulder with a rather dark look, Severus swore he could hear the man’s voice saying “well, come on then.”

“I’m coming, mutt,” Severus growled before striding forward quick enough that Sirius needed to trot alongside him to keep up, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth in joy.

Thus far, Snape had held up his end of the bargain in taking him to St. Mungo’s. They hadn’t ended up in some dark alley or Death Eater safe-house. Honestly, Sirius had been preparing himself for what he would do in those situations, not what he would do when he saw Harry… Elias for the first time since his disappearance. It still seemed too surreal. In the back of his mind, he still had his suspicions that Snape was lying to him, but this was the only lead he had as to where Harry had gone.

As they made their way through St. Mungo’s to the 4th floor, Sirius languished in the fact that he didn’t have to be the one to answer the questions about why there was a dog walking through the building. Service dogs were not a common thing in the magical world, however they managed to not attract too much attention as Snape looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going. Sirius only had to keep up; a task which was far easier in his dog form.

After climbing several sets of stairs, Severus pulled Sirius to a stop outside of a set of unassuming double doors.

“Please, Snuffles, for once in your miserable existence listen to what I am going to say,” Severus said softly as he bent down to readjust the harness on the dog’s back. “You must behave as though you were a well trained dog, not your usual flea-bitten self. Whether or not he recognizes you, I assure you that Elias is the child you seek. You must remain in character no matter what. Your life depends on his cover and his life depends on you to remain covert.”

Despite how odd the movement was for a dog to do, Sirius nodded as he looked into Snape’s emotionless eyes.

“Come along then,” Severus said, standing and taking the end of the leash as Sirius fell into step alongside him. “Your ‘master’ awaits.”

Sirius took a deep breath through his nose as the door to the ward opened smoothly and Severus walked in with a practiced ease. It was hard for him to truly identify what he was smelling as a dog as he simply had never spent the time trying to learn different smells as a dog. There were few things he could truly easily identify as a dog which he couldn’t identify as a human, but if there was one scent he knew that he knew, it was Harry’s. He had spent enough time around the boy as a dog over the past few years to get to know the scent quite well.

There, mixed amongst the other smells of the ward, was the smell he knew. Muddled and slightly altered, but it was still his Harry.

If he was human, he felt he would have let out an uncontrollable wail as soon as he realized his godson was here. As it was, he started whimpering as he looked around at the various people in the ward as he tried to find the owner of the smell. He wanted to wander towards where the scent was coming from, only to be stopped short by the leash he was on.

“Ah, Severus!” Healer Strout said with a smile as she summoned the dinner trays from those patients who were capable of feeding themselves and placing them on a wheeled meal cart. “Is this Snuffles? It’s so strange to see a dog who isn’t some poor soul trapped mid-transformation.”

“Yes, this is Snuffles,” Severus said casually, though Sirius swore he could hear the man grinding his teeth as he said it. “You haven’t mentioned his coming to Elias, yes?”

“Mum’s the word!” Healer Strout said. “The lad could do with a happy surprise. He’s seemed so down recently; even Alice has been trying to cheer him up.”

“I just hope he recognises Snuffles,” Severus said uncomfortably, pulling back on the leash as Sirius continued to look around the unit, his nose in the air as though he were trying to find the boy by scent alone. “I mentioned coming to visit and it was as though the dog was smart enough to know what I was saying.”

“Aww,” Healer Strout said, putting a hand on her chest and smiling sadly as she turned to Sirius. “Who’s a smart boy?”

Sirius lolled his head back and looked at her out of the corner of his eye before hanging his tongue out of his mouth and panting heavily for a moment before whining and looking in the direction he believed Harry to be in. He just wanted to see his godson!

“Just keep the dog on the leash, please!” Healer Strout said with a smile at Sirius’s whine before waving the two on. “I know he’ll be a good boy, but I don’t want him going to the other patients as well.”

“I shall endeavor to do so, madam,” Severus said before rolling his eyes at the dog who had slowly made his way to the end of the leash and was craning his neck as best he could to see over the nearest rows of beds. “Alright, mutt. Let’s go see Elias.”

Sirius wagged his tail happily as he and Severus set off down the short row of beds before he suddenly stopped short just out of sight of Elias’s bed. What if Elias wasn’t really Harry? What if they were all lying to him? Or what if they were telling the truth and Elias didn’t remember him?

Remus had told him how sickly Harry had become. Of how his memory would fail him from time to time, how his body would shake uncontrollably. How he relied on potions to help him manage to get through the day. How he would have seizures on occasion. How he struggled to walk and frequently fell.

In some ways it was easier to think of Harry as still being missing than to think of him as being so ill.

Sirius swallowed hard before slowly stepping forward. He couldn’t continue to pretend everything was ok with his godson. For too long he had thought him to be dead; as damaged as he was, at least he was alive. Alive and receiving the love and treatment he needed to survive. Was Sirius ok with him not being James’s son? He wasn’t sure, but, no matter the parentage, James had loved him as his own.

So, so would Sirius.

“Elias,” Sirius heard Severus say as he stood at the end of the bed, gently pulling the boy’s attention away from the simple wooden puzzle he was working on. “I brought someone to see you.”

“W-who?” Sirius heard a teenaged voice say.

“Come on over then,” Severus said as he slowly pulled on the leash to bring Sirius around the end of the bed he was ducked behind.

As Sirius stepped out from around the bed, he heard the boy on the bed gasp loudly before whispering “No!”

Sirius slowly walked up to the bed and sat at the bedside, staring at the boy who was sitting in the bed warily. He looked nothing like his Harry, save for the location of a single scar on his forehead, though the shape of the scar was wrong. He sounded nothing like his Harry, his voice was far deeper and quivered and shook as he spoke with his father. His hair was tamed, unlike Harry's, and was easily pulled back out of his face. He was more gangly and Sirius could tell he would be far taller than Harry if he stood. Though green, his eyes were far more of a hazel tone and quivered behind long dark lashes.

“S-s-sn-nuffles?” the boy said timidly, holding out a shaking hand towards him. “S-sirius? Is th-that y-you?”

Sirius felt his heart leap into his throat and had to fight the desire to transform and immediately wrap his arms around the boy sitting in the hospital bed. He had recognized him. He had known who he was, even as a dog.

It was Harry. It really was Harry.

Sirius couldn’t contain himself any longer and let out an excited bark before launching himself at his godson and licking his face and hair until it stood on end. Harry laughed excitedly as he weakly pushed the dog's face away from his own and wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck and hugged him tightly before burying his face into the long black fur of Sirius’s ruff.

“I’ve m-m-missed y-you Sn-n-nuffles!” Harry cried, tears streaming down his face and wetting the dog’s neck. “I m-m-m-missed y-y-you s-s-so m-much!”

Sirius excitedly bounced around on the bed, eventually freeing himself from the boy’s grasp before snuggling himself on the rather thin lap and sighing as he felt Harry’s hands running over his long fur and scratching him behind his ears.

Harry was alive. Snape hadn’t lied, nor had Remus. And if they were to be believed about this, then Dumbledore would pay for his negligence.

Oh, he would pay.