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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.

The answer would be for Sirius to spring himself out. But he’d need help to do it. Since the alohamora wasn’t working on the lock, Remus started his research there. How does one unlock a door that the alohamora won’t unlock? Well it turned out that locking spells that disabled the alohamora were very hard to unlock with spells, but there were other options for such things. One of which was a muggle lock-picking technique that one could do with a girl’s hair clip. He tried picking the locks on the back door at the Lupin house after having Tizzy cast some good locking charms on it, but the bobbypin only worked on about half the spells Tizzy set and, seeing as they weren’t sure which of the spells Walburga Black had cast on the door at Numnber 12, Remus wanted to find a way that would undo any of the spells. So he continued researching.

It took another week before he discovered the tool they needed. It was a penknife, available at a store in Diagon Alley called Wildlife Wizarding Equipment which claimed to have various attachments with magical properties, including one that could untie any knot, a spoon that could heat or cool any food (and also magically cleaned itself off when one was finished eating from it), and, most importantly for their needs, a blade that could pick any lock, even those sealed with charms the alohamora could not undo. It was quite an expensive tool, however, and the Lupins did not have a lot of money. Remus had about a quarter of the amount that the penknife cost and that would’ve been using his money for new school robes, too. But he was willing to go back to Hogwarts with his ankles showing if it meant getting Sirius out of Number 12 Grimmauld Place… but he still needed the help with the rest of the money.

That was when he got James in on the act.

James had been the one that came up with the funding to buy the knife, as well as the plan for getting to Diagon Alley and, subsequently, Grimmauld Place.

Remus had never been on the Knight Bus, but James had promised that it would be a good idea. Remus had been nervous about lying, but he told Lyall he was going to his friend James Potter’s house for the night (which wasn’t really a lie, only an omission of what they were doing first). Tizzy had apparated Remus to the corner at the end of the cul-de-sac where James had told Remus to meet him.

James at least had the courtesy of leaving Dora a note this time.

The boys had taken the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron. Remus was far less enthused with the wizarding transportation than James, who positively adored it, seemed to be. James had kindly offered Remus the bean bag chair on their first trip, telling him that it was the chair everyone wanted on the Knight Bus. Remus had left the bus and immediately pitched his breakfast into a rubbish tin on the side of the street in an alley near by the Leaky Cauldron. “That was terrible,” he’d announced weakly, swiping the sick from his lips with the back of his fist.

James laughed, “So I’ll be having the bean bag next ride then?”

“We’re seriously taking that thing again?” Remus had groaned.

Once Remus had finished and used the aquamenti charm to clean his mouth, they rushed by Tom the Barman and out the brick passageway to the wizarding street. They ran along, being careful to watch where they were going and what was going on. After all, Diagon Alley was far from safe these days and every shadowy figure made Remus think of the fate that had befallen Honey Pettigrew, every loud sound made him look about for a broken vial of dragon pox virus as had befallen Charlus Potter. But they had to get Sirius that knife, or else their plans would be for nothing.

The Wildlife Wizarding Experience was a couple blocks past Gringott’s in Diagon Alley, and was a specialty store servicing wizards and witches who enjoyed spending time in the great outdoors. They walked through a bizarre assortment of tents of every shape and size - tents with signs that promised they were bigger on the inside or that had soundproof walls or protective charms. They passed a display of werewolf whistles and silver daggers that made Remus shiver and James pulled him on to look at a magically taxidermied dragon, around which were many accessories for dragon training, including fireproof robes.

“Blimey,” James said, running his palm over the stuffed Welsh Green’s scales, “They’re giant.”

“Says here this was an adolescent!” said Remus, pointing to a little plaque before the dragon. “They grow to be twice that size when they’re adults.”

“Bullocks!” James exclaimed, rushing over to look at the note, “You aren’t serious.”

Remus sighed, “No, I’m Remus.”

James grinned. “He would’ve been most disappointed in you if you hadn’t made the joke.”

“I know, that’s the only reason I’ve made it.”

James laughed.

Finally, the boys made it to the display case for the knives. There were all sorts of special knives with magical properties in the cases and the boys looked them over until Remus finally spotted the one he’d seen in the catalog and tapped the glass with his finger tip. “There it is,” he said.

James waved for the shopkeeper. When Remus pulled out his coin purse, James shook his head. “Put your coins away, Lupin, I’ve got this.” He poured the galleons onto the countertop and the shopkeeper wrapped the knife up in a leather pouch with care.

The boys sat at one of the tables in front of Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Shoppe with great big frappes as Remus carefully wrote out a note for Sirius, telling him what the knife could do and detailing the plan for him. Then he carefully folded the note, slid it into the pouch with the other supplies, and into his bag. “Ready to go and get our boy?” James asked.

“So ready.”

They walked back to the street outside of the Leaky Cauldron, Tom the barman keeping his eye on them suspiciously. Remus glanced his way, nervous, and hustled to stay close to James. When they’d reached the sidewalk, James stuck out his wandhand once more and the BANG! of the Knight Bus had filled the air.

And so it had been that, following another terrible round of stop and go lurching of the bus, most of which Remus had spent hiding out in the loo losing all of the frappe, they’d arrived to Grimmauld Place.

And now, there they sat, side by side on the bench, staring at the brick wall… and waiting.




Sirius was asleep when the clicking on the window came, tired from the long night. Bubo’s beak pecked at the window repeatedly and Sirius stretched, pushing himself up from the covers and pillows on the bed, a bit disoriented, until he spotted the owl through the glass. “Bubo?” he got up and walked over, pushing up the window and letting the owl in. Bubo flew in and hopped onto the desk and waited while Sirius took the package from her leg. She watched him carefully while he untied the laces of the leather pouch and poured out the contents. The penknife fell onto the desk, followed by the invisibility cloak, carefully folded, and a note labelled Operation Free Sirius.

Sirius grinned.