Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Remus had tried to be patient when he heard that Sirius broke out of Azkaban.
He really had.
He’d gone to teach at Hogwarts at Albus’ behest, hoped that Sirius would be brazen enough to break into the school, which he did, but Remus had missed him. Their fractured circle needed Sirius and Remus was running out of time.
It didn’t help that Snape was breathing down his neck and trying to make him drink poison every month to keep him in check. The bastard knew what wolfsbane did to his inner werewolf. Tossing that potion out a window was the only thing he could do to keep his blood pure enough to keep his submissive alive and his wolf happy with him.
He felt like he was on highwire and any mistake would send him tumbling into the abyss below.
If he could only wrangle his mildly insane alpha, he could get him back home to break the stasis around their submissive, start healing them both and then get their cub to safety.
The problem with the mildly insane, they were unpredictable. Remus was a man that enjoyed a good plan. Chaos was not his forte. Because of that, it nearly took the entire school year to corner Sirius.
Naturally, their cub had to be the center of their little reunion. His wolf went a bit wild being so close to his alpha and cub. He was just a bit too feral to be around children.
It led to him getting fired, but Sirius escaped and Remus knew that had to piss Dumbledore off. The old coot had never thought to cast a memory charm on Remus the way he seemed to have with Sirius. Remus remembered everything from the first war. He remembered the hours of speculation James and Lily had over the headmaster’s obsession with their cub. Sirius had been the one to bring up leaving for Nevarah first.
He supposed that Albus had some inkling of Lily, James and Sirius being a part of a triad of dragels, but he hadn’t thought that Remus had bonded to them. Their circle had kept it very quiet, but to someone who understood a circle’s dynamic could tell, but Remus had a feeling that Albus didn’t know quite as much about dragels as he thought he did. Otherwise, he’d know not to get between his and his cub.
Albus had kept him as far away from Harry as possible, but it seemed Sirius escaping an unescapable prison caused him to reconsider his stance.
The headmasters’ biggest mistake.
Remus had taken Sirius to his small home off in the Forst of Dean. It had been their circle’s safehouse during the war and a planning space for their eventual escape to Nevarah. They had been so close to leaving before Voldemort attacked in ’81.
The home was mostly just a single room with a kitchen and living space. A bedroom and bathroom were located down a slim hallway. It was the hidden basement that really made the place special, that and all the warding to keep unwanted intruders out.
Sirius was heaving on the hardwood floor as more illegal potions exited his system into the plastic bin in front of him. A small speckling of blue scales along his neck would appear every now and again as he coughed. They would eventually need to go to the goblins to try and remove whatever suppression was on him to get his dragel side to completely come out.
James’ family had tried to pressure Sirius into going when he was under their care, but he had been stubborn and refused to go.
Now, the scales only came out when he was truly distressed. When he looked up, the blue that had been missing for so long was back around his irises. “Moony, what the hell happened? Why didn’t you take Harry and run?” Sirius asked hoarsely as he pushed himself against the couch to rest his head on something soft. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked Remus that, but it was the first time he sounded coherent.
The purging potions were working, but the memory charm was strong and he didn’t want to damage Sirius’ already fragile mind.
Remus let out a sigh from the chair he’d been sitting in to monitor the other man. It was an old rickety thing, with more nails and glue under the blue cushion than wood at this point. The entire place was shabby. Something a werewolf could afford. “Dumbledore and the fallout from the war stopped me from taking him and running. I was monitored constantly and couldn’t get near Harry without Dumbledore threatening to reveal my status as a werewolf and I couldn’t just leave James.”
Sirius’ head snapped to look at Remus. “James died,” he said as if the words on lips were a lie he told himself and frowned. His brows furrowed for a moment.
The werewolf kneeled down in front Sirius and cupped his soul bonded’s face in his hands. “Think Sirius, please,” Remus begged, praying that the memory charms weren’t permanent. He couldn’t do this alone anymore. He needed Sirius to remember how to safely remove the blood runes. He was the only one left alive who knew how to take them down without killing their submissive.
Sirius shook his head and grimaced in pain. He grabbed his hair and squeezed his eyes shut. It had been something he did whenever he’d been hurt when they were kids. A familiar sign that lightened something inside Remus. “No, wait. He had been hurt, badly. The wards Lily and I created…it sent him here to recover. We couldn’t let anyone get their hands on our bodies. Dragels…we were a triad. I sent Lily’s corpse here…after I picked Harry up from his crib,” he groaned out hoarsely.
Remus’ smile wobbled at the reminder. He had been sent to another country and could still remember the moment their beta had been killed through their bonds. He’d come rushing back, but she was long dead. “You were a triad. A powerful one. Come on, Padfoot, we need you, remember,” he said as he placed a kiss to his soul bonded’s messy hair. He didn’t care that the room smelled mostly of bile and sweat.
Their circle could have a chance.
After a few more minutes of long-drawn-out breaths, Sirius’ grip on his hair loosened and he slumped into Remus’ hold. “He made me think I killed them. He made me relive fake memories of finding James’ body over and over again. Take me to him, please Moony. I can feel Lily’s absence, but James is still there,” he said as he rubbed his chest.
Sirius was no stranger to grief, Remus knew this, but he was also the worst at processing it.
He pulled Sirius up and took them to the kitchen and pressed his hand against the stone floor by the pantry. It faded away and led them down two flights of stairs and into a resting room that James had meticulously designed when he found out he was carrying Harry. There were pillows and soft blankets all around the room. The cavern had high ceilings to accommodate James’ primary air element, it was underground for Remus’ earth affinity, well lit for Lily’s fire and dank enough for what they felt was Sirius’ water affinity and James’ secondary element.
In the center of the bed surrounded by blood red runes was James in his halfling form. His peach scales were on the slightly duller side. Remus had tried to his best to keep his blood supply up while his submissive was kept in this trace like state, but he’d run out of Sirius’ blood a few months ago and what they had left of Lily’s he had been using sparingly.
If they could wake him up, James was going to be in for a long healing process to regain his lost strength. If they could find a healer to help them, that would be even better. Remus was hoping they’d be able to contact James’ third. She had gone into hiding, but James had always kept in contact. They could make plans to steal Harry away and whisk them all off to Nevarah. This mess wasn’t their problem anymore.
Sirius let out a horrified chirp at the state of the runes and walked over to the glowing circle, his hands turning into claws as he traced the symbols. He and Lily had been the masterminds behind this and if Remus had been around a bit more, he might have been able to break them himself. But, their cover had come first and the circle had paid the price for it.
Lily’s genius had saved James and Harry.
Sirius sliced his wrist and allowed his blood to drip into the runes. He quietly murmured something before pressing his lips to the stone. The area thrummed with magic for a moment before the marks vanished and Sirius and Remus rushed over to James who was finally, after more than twelve years, stirring from a spell induced slumber.
The soft cushions and quiet atmosphere did nothing to quell Remus’ nerves. Their circle was a mess. There was so much they had to do.
Sirius gently traced James’ jaw as the submissive’s eyes fluttered. “Prongs?” Sirius asked and James grimaced and slowly opened his hazel eyes. The blue in them nearly shining in the light from the room.
Their submissive narrowed his gaze, taking in Remus and Sirius’ appearance. James was a smart man. He had to know that something had gone terribly wrong. “Where’s Lily? Where’s Harry? Where’s our son?” he coughed out.
Remus choked back tears. “She’s gone, Prongs. Died protecting Harry. He’s alive, but out of our reach,” he replied before the true absence of Lily caught up with James.
He curled up and let out a heart wrenching sob before Sirius curled around him and let his own grief spill out.
James let out a harsh gasping breath. “We’re getting our son back. What’s the plan?” He asked and Remus felt the briefest flicker of relief. He wasn’t alone anymore.