Chapter 31

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

A/N: The number of plagiarist profiles and stolen stories in the Harry Potter Fandom is getting out of hand again. I urge all readers before they read a story from an author they haven't known for more than six months to check out their profile to see how long they've existed and to check out the reviews. There are a lot of members out there sick of this issue and are posting that work has been stolen and where to find the originals. Please put some effort into making sure you're reading work posted by it's author.

Dear Sirius

I didn't mind the flights when we came and I certainly didn't need to be drugged so as to not hex anyone, everyone on the plane was nice to me or kept to themselves. I was just so glad to be getting away to safety and worried that someone would come after us. Emma made it as difficult as possible by making lots of different plans and we didn't fly all the way to Australia we came by cruise ship from Singapore which was lots of fun. I learned to swim in the pool there, which was very convenient considering the weather here. Perhaps you could go back to England like that if you have to go. Of course, you'd have to stop over somewhere over the full moon but I expect that a lot of people on an around the world cruise take a break somewhere. Nobody would suspect why, unless they were a werewolf themselves.

We arrived in towards the end of Australia's winter and it was like a sunny summer day where we embarked, I was glad it was a bit cooler down south though the summer was still uncomfortably hot and I'm glad we could swim nearly every day to cool off, but I won't miss the snow and freezing cold of a drafty castle in Scotland in the winter. We were going to stay and look around before travelling south but I was getting worried about Hedwig so Dan and Emma agreed to come to our new home as soon as possible so I could try to call her. We're renting a house and Dan organized it over the phone from Dubai so it was ready for us to come straight here. Hedwig found me of course, she's very clever like that, but I was worried about her travelling all that way over the sea. I don't think I could do that to her again but attempting to travel with an owl in a cage would be impossible and having her visit me on a cruise ship would attract far too much attention. I don't know what I would do if I had to go back to England. I couldn't leave her behind, but I don't want her to have to make such a voyage on her own and there's the fact that even of I could put her on an airplane she would have to go into quarantine for six months or more when she arrived in England.

I don't know what to feel about what you told me about Remus. I guess it explains the way we all felt about him that there was something going on besides his desire to get to know his dead friend's son. Particularly when he'd never tried to get to know me before. I never trusted him as much as I did you because he literally had years to try to find me while you were in prison, and two years while I was at Hogwarts where he knew exactly where I was for ten months of the year and he never bothered to visit or write to me until you asked him to try to find me for you and Dumbledore wanted me to stay in, or return to, Britain and Hogwarts. The fact that he's still affected by compulsions only makes it worse.

Dan and Emma want to thank you for telling us, and I am grateful. I now have security checks on all my mail. I won't tell you what they are though because I don't want Remus to try to find a way around them.

I don't think that I should see Remus for a while, in fact it might be best for his sake for him to go somewhere that he knows the compulsions will have no effect. Who did he have try to break the compulsions, if it was the ministry then maybe he should ask a private curse breaker or the goblins or a proper healer if there's any cure for him. I don't trust the ministry to have done their best for him. Not when the problem occurred because he's a werewolf and it strengthens their agenda that were wolves cannot be trusted.

I have to go and study, we have a potions test tomorrow. Some of the subjects at Bunyip are easier than they were at Hogwarts but potions is not one of them, thanks to the complete lack of real teaching in the subject at Hogwarts. They've given us a heap of extra reading to help catch up on the theory Snape didn't bother to teach us and the professor is going to check that we've read and understood it all.

Regards

Harry.

Dear Harry

I'm glad that you're taking precautions with all of your mail and not just the letters you think could come from Remus. He really isn't the enemy in all this, and you know he isn't the only person that would want you to go back to England and face Voldemort. In fact, there are a lot of people that wouldn't be willing to give you the choice about it that I'll remind you that Remus and I swore to do. To that end I think that you and the Puckles should all carry portkeys to the school or somewhere safe in case you are abducted. I know you probably wouldn't trust one I sent you but you should ask someone that you do trust to make you some. Have them made as powerful as possible and strongly disillusioned so they won't be found by your captors. Also know that your elves can find you almost anywhere in the world if you call them. Very few people are capable of warding against a house elf, and even fewer would trust their elves to put up wards for them. Most don't bother because it is more convenient to be able to have their elves able to pop in immediately when called. They are overlooked so people don't consider them to be a threat.

You said some of the subjects are easier here? Are you sure they're being taught to the international standard? I worry that with all the nonmagical things you're learning that they aren't teaching you enough magic. Bunyip has the reputation of being a reasonable school, though there really isn't much difference academically between the Australian schools, but Hogwarts is the premier school of magic in the world.

Remus and I looked at the options of coming out here by boat but I didn't think we had the time to waste. We needed to get here and find you as soon as possible in case you were in danger. Not to mention that we didn't have a solution for the full moon thing. Perhaps we will go back that way though, we would need to break the journey up. Remus did think about a combination of boats and trains, and going via Russia or across America so we could stop for a couple of days around the full moon, I don't think he realized we could do that with a boat as well. Thank you for that advice, if I never have to get on a plane again in my life it will be too soon, and the quarantine problems mean I cannot travel in my animagus form.

Padfoot.

Dear Sirius

I know you and Remus swore a magical oath not to kidnap me or force me to go back to England and the worst he could do is to lie to me trying to persuade me that he believes it's in my best interests to return to England. I can tell you now that it wont work. I had very good reasons for leaving and while I'm glad they're taking steps to make Hogwarts safer and remove Dumbledore's influence from the school and the ministry, I still have reasons for staying away. Not to mention that I really like it here. I feel safe at school and at home for the first time in my life.

You said that you're worried about the standard of teaching but it isn't Bunyip that hasn't been teaching to international standards but Hogwarts. Hermione and I have had to pretty much complete a self study course for first and second year history, and receive intense tutoring to catch up two years of runes and arithmancy, the only reason we're not seriously behind in DADA is that it was my favourite subject and when it was being taught by a complete moron last year I asked my quidditch team mates what they were taught in their second year and borrowed their books. Between the three different sets of first year and second year books they gave me it covered the topic pretty well though they were all very different. I don't know how Hogwarts can call themselves the premier school for magic in the world when they don't offer half of the electives Bunyip does, and half of the subjects they do offer as electives are core subjects from first year here. Not to mention a subject being taught by a ghost who could be marketed as a cure-all for insomnia and doesn't teach the curriculum, DADA that was taught first year by a man who stuttered so badly we couldn't understand him and turned out to be possessed by Voldemort who has a vested interest in us not learning to defend ourselves from his followers and then by an inept fake and liar in second year. Then there's Snape who's method of teaching Gryffindor involved insulting us and our ancestors and taking points for breathing too loudly and refusing to answer our questions.

All the wanded subjects come easily to me now because I was used to casting with a core breech and I have so much more magic now that it's been healed, and we were slightly ahead in Charms and Transfiguration because Flitwick and McGonagall were both such great teachers, though neither of them was a very good head of house. The amount of bullying their housemates that both houses got away with would probably have made the founders roll over in their graves. I guess they didn't have the time to do both jobs properly. Snape at least seemed to support his students properly, it was the teaching that he didn't do, and I don't know enough about Sprout and Hufflepuff, she was a decent Herbology teacher I guess but the one here explains things better, including the uses of the plant in potions and the effects different growing conditions can have.

Regards

Harry

-o0o-

"Sirius needs to get back to Britain. There's a lot of changes being made and as a member of the Wizengamot he has a vote that's going to be needed to help ensure that things change towards a more equal society. He has responsibilities at home, he can't just stay here waiting for you to change your mind and come home," Remus said, testing the waters to see if Harry would consider returning to Britain and wanting to remove him from the Puckles' influence. Of course, he moved too quickly, he had underestimated Harry's reluctance to leave his new life, and wariness of his godfather.

"Is that you saying that, or is it the compulsions Dumbledore put on you?" Harry asked. "You and Sirius can go back to London if he feels he needs to but he hasn't said anything to me about it. I'm not going to move back to England, I'm staying at Bunyip for the next four and a half years," Harry replied firmly.

"And Harry needs to stay here and have a normal childhood before all that fame and responsibility is thrown back at him," Emma replied.

"His parents would've been devastated that he chose not to attend Hogwarts, they both loved it so, they enrolled him the day he was born and even when he was a baby they talked about the adventures he would have at school," Remus said.

"I think my parents would've wanted me to survive my schooling and having been nearly killed 6 times in my two years at Hogwarts made that start to look unlikely," Harry snarked back at the man.

"Of course, I don't know for sure because nobody has really told me much about them other than Sirius a little and you know how scrambled his memories can be. Of course, I also like to think they wouldn't have wanted me to live with Mum's magic hating sister and her abusive husband but nobody did anything about that."

"James and Lily both loved Hogwarts and the Potters have attended since the school's formation," Sirius said. "They would have been disappointed that Harry didn't love it too but they would've wanted what was best for him."

"If they cared more about some stupid tradition than Harry's safety then they wouldn't have been very good parents," Hermione said.

"If you need to go back to England, then you must go. But I will not be going back with you," Harry said firmly. "The Puckles, are my family and my legal guardians. There are no problems with me staying here without you."

"I don't know why you would want to go back to Britain either Remus. Werewolves are treated so much better here and you know the British ministry doesn't want you to come back," Hermione said.

"You need to have a hard think about why Dumbledore and the Ministry wanted Harry back in England. I guarantee it wasn't in his best interest," Emma said quietly. It hit Remus just as hard or harder than if she had shouted it. The Puckles were right, Dumbledore had had a reason for wanting Harry at Hogwarts and he hadn't seen fit to share that reason with Remus so it was possible it was something he would've objected his honorary nephew being involved in, if he was able to think clearly.

-o0o-

"What the hell was that all about? You know that I don't care about taking my seat on the Wizengamot," Sirius demanded once Harry and the Puckles had left.

"You don't want to go home?" Remus asked. "Don't you miss England, didn't you plan to ask for your job as an Auror back once we'd found Harry?"

"Why would I want to go back and work with that lot of backstabbing traitors! I worked with the Aurors and never once did I give them a reason to doubt that I was on the side of the light, I was James' Auror partner, and not one of them stood up and asked how I could have betrayed James like that. Not one of them demanded that I at least get a trial before being thrown in that hell hole and left to rot!" Sirius said angrily, looking at Remus as though he'd grown an extra head.

"We can't just stay here in a motel forever Sirius, I'm tired of this transitory life. I want to go home and settle back into things, get a job, finish re-weatherproofing my roof before the winter snow brings it down on top of everything," Remus whined. "I thought that when you decided not to buy a house that you meant you didn't want to stay in Australia."

Sirius looked around the cluttered motel room. You're right we can't stay here. We need our own space, we should buy a house and settle down. I'll make more enquiries about property for sale, and how to go about converting a muggle property to a magical one if necessary. You can look for work here if you want but I have more than enough money for the two of us and to look after Harry too if the Puckles would let me." He got up and put his jacket on. "Let's go."

"What? Where are we going?" Remus asked confused though he still pilled on his jacket and made sure his muggle money and ID were in the pocket.

"To buy a house of course," Sirius replied as if the answer were so obvious he couldn't understand why his friend had to ask.

"It's not that simple. You looked before and couldn't find anything." Remus protested. He'd hated being dragged around while Sirius found fault with property after property. Any of them would've been homes he'd be happy to live in and all of them had been beyond his budget to even rent let alone purchase but Sirius wasn't happy with any of them, he seemed to have no clear idea of what he actually wanted in a house but he had developed a ridiculously long list of things he didn't want and couldn't tolerate.

Sirius just laughed and it turned out that if you were truly ready to buy a house and prepared to spend as much as Sirius was prepared to spend, it was indeed that simple. He signed the deeds on a large five bedroom house on a fifty acre property with half the land uncleared native forest about twenty minutes by fast broom west of Bunyip School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, by noon the next day, and they spent the week cleaning and furnishing it before they moved in on the weekend.

Remus smirked to see that the house had a lot of the features that Sirius had declared he couldn't live with a few months before but it was a nice home, with privacy from the neighbours and a secure shed for him to spend the full moon and probably the real selling feature for Sirius was that it was the closest home its size to Harry's home and school. Sirius sent Harry a letter with their new address telling him about buying the house and that they'd set up a bedroom especially for him for whenever he wanted to come and stay with them and a guest room for Hermione if she wanted to come with him.

Reading the letter from Sirius, Harry was ambivalent about the fact they'd allocated him a bedroom but somewhat reassured that they'd bought a house in the area and Remus had begun looking for work, indicating that they were planning to stay here near him instead of trying to convince him to return to England and to Hogwarts. He was also confused by it after the talk he'd had with Remus about Sirius' responsibilities back in England, still as Hermione had said, Sirius didn't seem to be the sort of person who took responsibilities all that seriously. He also didn't seem to be the sort to settle down in a quiet country town for all that long either and as Emma pointed out, with the amount of money the Black family had buying a house was not a big commitment, the family probably owned a dozen homes all over the world. It didn't necessarily mean anything except that they planned to visit the area regularly, whether that was because they were planning to visit Harry or because they were still hoping to take Harry with them when they went back to England, and thought having a house so Harry could come and visit Dan, Emma and Hermione might make him more agreeable to leaving.

Harry didn't know if he could trust them, hell he didn't even know for sure if he wanted to trust them.

Sirius also asked Harry if he could send word to his elves in England to repair the roof and weather-seal Remus' cottage so he'd still have a home to go to if he did decide to return to Britain. He offered to pay for the cost of the work and the elves time and Harry was happy to call Kessie and ask her to ask the elf with the most experience in building maintenance to do it. He didn't want the man to be homeless even if he didn't trust him, or he thought the werewolf would have to be stupid to willingly return to the prejudice and bigotry of wizarding Britain and the risk of falling back under Dumbledore's influence. Still perhaps Sirius planned to send him home to act as his steward or something so he didn't have to go himself.

-o0o-

"I can't believe we're really planning to stay here," Remus said as he came down to breakfast one morning about two weeks after they'd moved in.

"Hermione was right you know, Australia treats werewolves much more like normal wizards except on the night of the full moon and nobody knows you here, they don't know about the effects of that bloody loyalty potion. You could be trusted here." Sirius stated. "Of course. staying here will do nothing to advance Dumbledore's idiotic plans for Britain but if you hadn't been potioned you'd see how insane those plans were. How dangerous for Harry and the whole of Britain. Not just magical Britain but the muggles as well. Following his plan would have brought us all to the brink of extinction. Get your head out of your arse and make the effort to think for yourself for a while and you'll see it. You can't go back to England, the effects of that potion is too strong, you need to stay away from anything that Dumbledore wanted to influence."

Remus turned to him with desperation in his eyes. "I can't stay here. Most of the plans Dumbledore shared with me included Harry. If I'm to escape his influence I can't be near Harry," he said reluctantly.

Sirius was quiet for a moment. "That might be for the best," he said slowly.

"You don't trust me with him?" Remus asked upset.

"Can you honestly say you trust yourself with Harry? Trust that you can stop Dumbledore's bloody potions and plans from trying to mess up his life?" Sirius asked bluntly.

Remus wanted to say 'Yes, trust me,' but honesty kept him quiet. He'd never knowingly and deliberately lied to Sirius and he couldn't bring himself to start now even if not being able to trust him did ruin their friendship.

"I want to trust you but you know as well as I do that your thoughts and opinions have been influenced and yet you still need to be reminded to stop and decide whether what you're saying or planning is coming from you or from his loyalty potions. When we talk about him it's hard to know whether you truly want what's best for Harry or whether you're trying to force him back into whatever Dumbledore's true agenda was," Sirius said regretfully. "And if I don't know whether I can trust you I can't blame Harry and Hermione or Daniel and Emma for not knowing either. They don't understand the reasons for your behaviour and to them it would seem that you want him to go back to England whether he wants to or not and you're lying about it."

Remus looked at Sirius sorrowfully.

"You're asking me to leave?" he asked.

"No you're my best friend and you will always have a home wherever I am. I just want you to stay away from Harry and the Puckles," Sirius said earnestly.

"You're right, I can't trust my opinions around Harry, but it seems ironic that I finally have a family that doesn't care about my furry little problem and I can't be trusted near them because loyalty potions I was given reacted with the fact I am a werewolf and can't be properly removed," Remus said sadly.

"I could kill Dumbledore for doing this to you," Sirius growled.

"If I thought you actually had the means to kill him, I would be compelled to stop you," Remus said soberly.

Sirius frowned. "Are you compelled to return Harry to Hogwarts or Britain?" he asked.

Remus thought for a moment. "Not compelled but I do want him to return even though the more rational part of me understands why he doesn't want to and that he's happy here, I am worried that the knowledge that Dumbledore isn't there is helping with that. I'm not sure what would happen if I knew he had returned to Hogwarts, whether I'd be compelled to try to return Harry to his control," he admitted.

"Do you feel influenced when you write to Harry or only when he is in front of you?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know, that is the reason I've been avoiding writing to him," Remus said.

"I think we need to know. How about you sit down and write him and Hermione a letter and see what happens. I won't let you send anything that will break your oath," Sirius suggested.

A/N2: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

A/N3: For those of you reading my story "The Last Attempt to Save the Pureblood Lines". Rico Perrien has with my permission written a spin off fic "Grey Against the Dark" I encourage you all to read it.