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Pitching Tent


Mrs. Pettigrew clutched Peter’s fat cheeks in her palms, plopping kisses all over his round pink face. “Maaaaaa--” whined Peter, struggling to get away, his eyes catching Sirius’s amused expression over her shoulder “Maaaaa-- cut it out, you’re embarrassing me.” He struggled to get out of her grasp.

When they’d used the floo to get to Diagon Alley - stumbling out of the fire in the Leaky Cauldron - Sirius turned to Peter, “Bloody hell, she’s overbearing.”

Peter was still straightening his hair from all the kisses she’d given him. “I know.”

Sirius led the way past Tom the Bartender, who only half glanced at the two kids that had just come spinning out of his fireplace, and through the concealed passageway to Diagon Alley. Peter followed along, looking around with wide eyes. He’d never been to Diagon Alley by himself - always it had been with his mummy and elder sister. It was overwhelming now, especially with the added booths and saleswizards heralding their wares of lockets and talismans to keep away dark magic.

“C’mon Peter, those things don’t work,” said Sirius, dragging Peter away from a booth with bottles of powdered unicorn horn strung about on necklaces.

They arrived to the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop front, where they’d agreed to meet James. There were new brooms on display in the window, models that had just been released, and there were large clusters of Hogwarts students they recognized from around the castle out front of it, looking at the best bits of wood that galleons could buy. Peter looked up at the wide golden snitch sign that hung over the door on their way in.

James was admiring a display of prescription goggles that would keep him from having to wear his glasses in poor weather when Dora spotted Sirius and tapped James on the shoulder. James turned and his face lit up, “Hey! There you lot are!” He galloped across the shop. “Look at this!” he said, waving them to see the goggles, “Think how brilliant these would be on the pitch! Especially in the rain!”

“Awesome!” answered Sirius.

“See mum? They’re awesome,” James said, waving the goggles at Dora.

“Maybe another day,” Dora replied. “We need to get back to your father.”

James put the goggles back on the shelf with a sigh and followed Dora out the door to the main road. She looked about as she led them back to the Leaky Cauldron, her sharp eyes seeming to analyze every person they passed, not trusting a single one of them. She kept checking to be sure the three boys were there. Sirius leaned closer to James, “Have you mentioned the camping yet?” he whispered.

“My dad knows about it,” James whispered back, “He said he’d tell her after we’d gone. He’s getting the tent out for us now.”

Peter edged in, not wanting to be left out, “Does he know… you know… why?”

“No,” James replied. “Only the three of us know about that.”

“Are you lot nervous?” Peter squeaked.

“I’m excited,” James said.

“Me, too,” Sirius chimed in, “Especially after the letter I got from Remus the other day. He sounds miserable. His dad’s made him eat muggle pub chicken.”

James smirked, “So?”

Sirius was about to answer when Dora turned ‘round - they’d reached the alley by the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius had thought they were going in to use the floo, but instead Dora led them into the shadows between two buildings hurriedly. “Okay, one at a time. James.” She held out her hand and grabbed onto his wrist. “Let’s go. Stay here you two.” With a crack they’d disapparated.

“Cool! Side along!” Peter squeaked with excitement.

Sirius had done plenty of side along apparition over the years, so he just nodded, not sharing in Peter’s enthusiasm.

When Dora returned and Peter clambered to her, grabbing onto her hand eagerly.

“Be right back, dear,” Dora told Sirius, and again - with a crack - she was gone.

Sirius stood there in the dark alley, waiting, when he heard a familiar voice and he looked up to see Orion Black, just coming out of the secret passage from the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. Sirius quickly ducked back against the wall, his back pressed to the brick, and peered over a rubbish bin as his father looked around Diagon Alley, craning his neck. Sirius got the very definite impression that Orion was there looking for him, Sirius. He held his breath, afraid that Orion would turn to his left and spot Sirius. But after several long, painfully stressful moments, Orion stepped on by the alleyway and was gone from sight.

Only just in time, too, for with a crack, Dora returned. “Okay, quickly,” she said, looking at the mouth of the alley as though she knew what had happened. Sirius grabbed hold on her hand and clutched tight as she disapparated, the familiar hook-in-the-stomach pull that wrenched Sirius about through time and space to land on a sidewalk in a little neighborhood.

It was the oddest feeling, looking about, seeing the burned-down skeleton of the Parish house and the little house on the other side of the Potter’s house, apparently set next to each other on the street. He knew this wasn’t how it should be, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see it any other way.

Dora reached into her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Here we are,” she whispered. “Don’t say it outloud.” She glanced about the street nervously as James looked at the paper.

When he’d looked back up, it was as though the world had been turned right again. There it was - the little house that he loved so much, where he’d sought refuge back at the holidays. On the steps, waving and laughing were James and Peter. He felt rather honored to have been trusted with the secret that was guarding the Potter family’s lives.

Dora herded the boys into the house, waving her wand to seal a good deal of locks that had been added onto the inside jamb of the door. James ran through the entry hallway, waving for Peter and Sirius to follow him, “C’mon up to my room!” he called. “Thanks for going with me mum!” he added, as all three of them thundered up the steps.

Peter looked around as he followed after, at the mass of wizard photos that cluttered the wall leading up the stairs - photos of baby James waving at him from toy broomsticks and displaying loose teeth and, most recently, holding up the golden snitch he’d knicked from the tourney. “You coming or are you going to stand there admiring the Great Hall of James a bit longer?” James called to him from the bedroom door.

Scrambling, Peter caught up to the other two and James closed the door. Inside his room, he’d clearly only half bothered unpacking, his school robes and tie still hanging limply over the side of his open trunk. School books were stacked up on the desk, his quills and inks shoved into a half-open drawer. Bubo’s cage sat on the dresser and the windows were opened wide. Sirius peered over at the mirror on James’s nightstand and saw his own room back home, empty and dark.

James grabbed his bookbag from the foot of his bed and flipped it open and looked inside. “Alright! Awesome. We’re all set. Everything’s in here. Except --” he slung the bag over his shoulder and opened the drawer of his nightstand, withdrawing the three glass bottles, wrapped in a flowery silk scarf he’d stolen from Dora’s bedroom. “Here we are.” He carefully slid the bundle into his bag.

The boys quickly ran back down the stairs. “We’re going out to the field,” James shouted as they galloped through the kitchen after him.

“The field?” Dora looked up from where she’d just finished setting her knitting needles to work with her wand, “But --”

Charlus had barely looked up from the book he was reading. “They’ll be fine, Dora, let them go. There’s enough protective spells over the field to keep them safe enough… Come relax…” he looked over at James and winked and waved as his wife’s brow worriedly folded.

“But --” Dora started.

“BYE,” James called loudly, waving for the other two to follow him. They quickly hurried out the door before Dora could inquire any further.

Outside, the sun was shining and the air smelled like grass and dirt and Sirius thought that it was the best feeling in the world - running through the outdoors with his mates and feeling the sunlight beating down on him. He felt free and good and happy for the first time in awhile. They passed through a patch of tall grass at the far end of the Potter’s yard and through a small cluster of trees that led out to a large plot of untended land. Flowers grew, spotting the green with vibrant colors and a terrific smell.

“This way,” James said, waving them along the tree line around the lovely plane of grass. There’s a little creek over here and a clearing, it’ll be the perfect place to pitch tent.”

They followed him through the trees away, ducking branches and jumping over fallen logs. Under the cover of the trees, the smell was even more earthy and moss-covered, and their feet crunched over dried up leaves and twigs and over pebbles. Sirius spotted salamanders scurrying through the brush and great wide owl eyes blinking at them from up in the branches, hooting quietly in curiosity. Finally, James came to a stop and there was a lovely spot in the trees, just as he’d said, with a creek just a few feet away.

Peter looked around. “Are there many wild animals in here?” he asked.

James shrugged, “Dad saw a lynx once, I think.”

Peter paled.

“But it was odd that it was here,” James offered.

“With my luck, they’ll all be here tonight. Every last one in the country,” Peter lamented.

Sirius said, “By midnight, you could be a lynx yourself, Peter!”

James had taken his bag off his shoulder and reached inside to withdraw a huge tent - Charlus had put the extendable charm on his book bag for the occasion. “Here, help me to put this up, you lot,” he commanded, and they quickly set about pitching the tent. When it was done, though it sat a bit crooked, it still stood and they went inside to have a look about.

Sirius’s cousins, the Malfoys, had a tent one year that had been as decadent as the Taj Mahal once you stepped inside. They had even brought along their albino peacocks and tethered the great birds out front of the tent. The Potter’s tent was nothing like the Malfoy tent, Sirius thought, looking about. It had a bunch of mismatched furniture and blankets inside, but it was comfortable and there were plenty of places for the three of them to sleep, should they decide to do such.

James put the three bottles up on the table where they could be seen and the three of them gathered around the table to stare at the bottles.

“When do we do it?” James asked, seeing Peter’s face reflected in the bottles. He turned to look at Sirius.

“We have to wait for the moon to come up first off,” Sirius answered, “Then we’ve got to go out to the middle of the field so the moon’s on us and say the spell and drink the potion.”

Peter looked up. “So what happens if something… you know… goes wrong?”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong, Peter,” said Sirius in exasperation.

“But what if it does?” Peter asked.

“Then one of us will run back to the house and get my dad,” James said with a shrug, “He’s brilliant, he’d be able to help.”

Peter didn’t look fully convinced but he didn’t press it further.

“Well,” said James, looking at a large grandfather clock that stood in one corner of the tent, “Since we’ve got a while before sunset, do we want to go swimming in the creek until then? Maybe eat some dinner?”

“Sounds brilliant,” James replied.

“Dinner does, too,” said Peter.

James grinned, “Well, c’mon you lot - last one in the creek’s a rotter!” He turned and bolted out the door of the tent, followed quickly by Sirius and Peter, both scrambling to be second into the water.