The Marauders: Year Four

Operation Free Sirius

Operation Free Sirius

"You know, Rey, I do believe that you having it in for Sirius has rubbed a bit of him off on you," James said, grinning as they watched the Knight Bus bang off from the curb, "This is a hair-brained scheme worthy of the mind of Sirius Black."

Remus held his stomach, squeezing his eyes shut, still waiting for his equilibrium to return. "I'm having some second thoughts on the whole thing, honestly," Remus answered.

James looked around, "So this is Grimmauld Place, 'ey? Miserable." The park had really become more run down over the summer as it had been a sweltering one and there'd been a ban on running the water, so everything that was typically green and plush about it was now dead and brown and dingy. The benches needed painting, too, and no children played anywhere on the trees. James looked about. "Well... there's Number 11, and there's Number 13, so I reckon 12 is --" James gestured.

"Yeah," Remus said. He sat on a bench and took a few deep breaths, and James sat next to him. "So you've got the knife?"

"I do," Remus replied, "It's in my bag, hang on." Now that he was sitting, the world was spinning a bit less than it had done before, and he slung his bookbag onto his lap and rummaged about the contents until he found the little package that he had prepared. "Where's Bubo?"

James whistled.

Soaring from one of the dead trees came the owl, her yellow eyes flashing, and she landed primly on James's outstretched arm. "Here we are," James said.

Remus bent forward and tied the package to Bubo's ankle. "Deliver that to Sirius Black, and make sure he opens it immediately," he commanded the owl.

She fluttered off and they watched as she flew up toward Number 11 and then seemed to flicker out of their sight.

"Bloody weird," James said.

Remus nodded. Then, "Oh I hope this works."

"Me, too." James replied.

And they sat, staring at the seemingly solid brick wall between Numbers 11 and 13 Grimmauld Place, waiting.

The scheme had begun when Sirius Black had written to Remus to apologize that he didn't see a way he'd be able to keep his promise to be there for the full moon. The parchment had come, tied to Bubo's leg, in a frantic hand that told of how distraught Sirius was over having to write the note. His usually messy writing was even more scratchy.

Mum's locked me in, Sirius explained in his note, And I've tried the alohamora, it doesn't work on it. I haven't any idea what I'm going to do. I don't know what their intentions are with keeping me locked away up here. I'm afraid they won't even let me leave to go back to Hogwarts. Nobody ever comes to check on me, for all they know I've died up here! Kreacher's the only one I see. He brings up trays of food. If you have a way, tell Dumbledore when you get back so he can come get me the bloody hell out of here. I don't think I can stand much more of this, Rey. But anyways, that's why I can't come. I'm sorry, Moony. Love, Sirius.

Remus had lingered almost as much on the love, Sirius bit as he had on the actual body of the note.

But it just wouldn't do, this knowing Sirius Black being locked up in a room like he'd been sentenced to Azkaban or something ... It just wasn't right. It was the worst thing Remus could possibly think of to have happened to Sirius, who was the freest person he knew. It just wasn't okay. He needed to get him out of there and as quickly as possible. So, Remus had set himself to researching how to do it. After all, he couldn't very well walk up and knock on the door and announce he was there to take Sirius away - for one, Orion Black was a known Death Eater, for two, the place was under the Fidelus charm and therefore he couldn't get to the door to knock on it and announce it to begin with. Luckily, Remus Lupin was the king of research and he found an answer within a few days.