Seeking Sanctuary

The following week was insanely busy. Sirius made an appointment with Indra Budiono early in the week.

"Mr. Secretary thank you for seeing me."

"Mr. Black. It is my pleasure, I hope your ward is getting better."

"Not really, not yet at least. But now we have an idea what is wrong, and that's a start." Sirius paused before continuing, "I would like to know what you wanted to ask me back in May."

"Your skills Mr. Black are impressive. I was hoping to offer you a position either as an auror or a trainer. Britain's magical community is one of the most isolationistic in the world but their aurors are second to none. Especially in recent years, due to their civil war no doubt."

"However since May, I have heard some disturbing rumors with you as their topic. Indonesia, as you no doubt know, has no ties to England, but I have a good friend that is an auror in India and India has strong ties to England. At this time with my present information I am not willing to offer such a position. Is there something you would like to share, Mr. Black?"

Sirius found himself debating. Merlin it's like playing poker; fold or call he thought. He'd never been good at backing down so he decided to gamble and put all his cards down. "I departed England the night my... best friend and the brother of my heart and his wife were murdered by Voldemort." He shuddered.

"I left for two reasons the first is easy Harry. My godson, my reason for being, James made me promise to protect him no matter what, especially from Albus Dumbledore. The second is because I was framed for the killing of James and Lily. At school James, myself, Remus Lupin and another boy Peter Pettigrew were the closest of friends, Remus is a werewolf. When it was known Voldemort was targeting them, the Potters went into hiding."

"We decided to use the Fidelius Charm, the only question was who would be the secret keeper. For anyone who knew us I was the logical and most likely choice for secret keeper. We knew someone was feeding information to the dark monstrosity, we thought Remus' curse was catching up to him that maybe he was the leak. I decided that I should be a decoy and I suggested that James and Lily use Peter."

"It turns out that Peter was the traitor and he set me up to take the fall. I beat him though, I didn't follow my heart that night and hunt him down. I followed my head and did what I promised James. I took Harry and disappeared." Sirius shook slightly and fell silent as he again relived the horror of that night.

Indra Budiono looked at the haunted and hunted man in front of him. He had always prided himself as an excellent judge of character. He poured a cup of tea and handed it to his guest. "Thank you. I reassures me in my ability to judge a person's character. When I first heard the rumors..."

"It's alright."

"What were you hoping when you came in here today?"

"I guess I was maybe hoping for a job, or a work permit, and help moving to the muggle world and maybe asylum from the British manhunt, protection for Harry. I don't really know. I feel like I've been hit from so many sides it's hard to know which way is up."

"Why move to the muggle world?"

"To help Harry. Removing him from a high magic environment to a low one should help him fight the curse on him because the curse pulls energy from its surroundings, at least that's what the Healer thinks." Sirius sighed. "Healer Sri Lie said she had a squib sister on Bali that would teach me how to live like a muggle."

"I think I can help you with that."

So here he was June 23, 1982, about to move into a muggle home. It was actually rather lavish by Indonesian standards. Of course given that he liquidated half of his inheritance from his Uncle to buy it it should be. It was three miles from a beach and a mile from the nearest village. It had a tall coral stone wall around the property.

There was a gate keepers house beside the gate and six bedrooms and four baths in the main house. There was also a pool, and every modern amenity in the house. He hired The Healer Sri Lie's sister, Liana as a housekeeper/nanny he also on her recommendation hired two other squibs that were much younger.

So Citra became a maid and Darma a groundskeeper/ guard. He thought it was a far more lavish lifestyle than he wanted but between Healer Sri Lie, Indra Budiono, and the local goblins he was persuaded. The gatehouse became the bridge point. On one side of the door he carried his wand and was an auror for the Indonesian government.

But once he crossed the threshold onto the estate he did no magic, carried nothing magical and because of a complex spell set by the healer and goblins the residue of his day was cleaned away. It had been warded magically to protect the occupants. A magical person would be hard pressed to even see the house, the goblins had carefully set crystals around the property and within the houses designed to capture magical energy so the wards and protections worked but radiated no magic for the third spell to use.

It took Sirius another month but he learned to block his own magical energy outflow so that the only magical energy available on the estate was Harry's.