Title: Faking innocence (1/4)
Author: Fabs G.
Summary: Sequel to Judging Innocence. Harry suspects something is going on between Sirius and Remus and, together with Ron and Hermione, they are determined to find out.
Rating: PG-13 (for some swearing)
Pairings: Sirius/Remus (duh), slight James/Lily, hints of Ron/Hermione
Disclaimer: Everything is JK Rowling's! All I own here is the plot and Professors Fengel and Rosier.
A/N: The long awaited sequel! (Ha! As if) Or rather, a sequel. Period. This IS slash, so the readers from Judging Innocence who don't like RL/SB Slash- don't read.
A/N2: It's not necessary to read Judging Innocence to understand what's going on, but many stuff will make a lot more sense. The basic you need to know is that Sirius is free.
A/N3: Review, and I will adore you!
Enjoy!
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Chapter 1: Finding Out
Harry time: December 22nd. Harry is sprawled on his bed reading from his father's diary.
(James' diary. The beginning of the Marauder's second year)
Remus is a werewolf. I guess you could call this an eventful day. And it's not even October yet. Oh boy, what a year this will be.
The bloke is so stupid! (No offense, Remmy) He kept the secret from us because he thought we would desert him! Like if we would! Well, I did see Peter quiver slightly and he confessed me he was a little scared but we talked a bit, away from Remus' and Sirius' earshot and he realized Remus is totally harmless.
The thing is, Professor Rosier gave us an essay on werewolves. He talked about them throughout the whole class. Remus did seem awfully quiet during the class, now that I think of it… Anyway, last night the three of us (Sirius, Remus and I. Peter was in detention) were doing the essay on the common room.
Sirius, Remus and I settle down on one of the tables to do the essay at about 10pm. Merely half an hour later, when Sirius and I were struggling with the damn essay, Remus had already finished. I remember the dialogue:
"You've already finished?!" (Sirius. He hates doing essays)
"Yeah. I know a bit about werewolves" (Remus. Sounded so depressed)
"Are you ok?" (Me. I did catch that strange tone of voice)
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" he was gathering his things, preparing to go to sleep (it was well past midnight) I saw Sirius shuffling his papers and take out his lunar calendar and read from his book. He looked at Remus (who had noticed this and was as stiff as if someone had cursed him with the body bind) and then look back to his book. Sirius turned and looked at me with his eyes wide open. And I got it too. Remus knew about werewolves because he was one!
Remus made an attempt to get out of the common room (not a dramatic stuff, just merely walking) but we sprang up from our chairs and stopped him before he reached the portrait.
Sirius: "Wait!"
Me: "Don't leave!"
S: "Why didn't you tell us?"
Remus: "Why would I?"
M: "Because we're your friends"
R: "Are we still?"
S (He looked like he could kick him): "What kind of stupid question is that?"
M: "Of course we still are, we will always be"
R: "Even If I am… what you now know I am?" (He sounded as though he hated himself. I'm going to work on that so-called self-esteem of his)
S: "So you turn into a wolf once a month. Except for the pain you must feel during it… I think it's cool"
Remus chuckled. That was a good sign.
M: "The only thing that this changes" (and Remus' face went snow-white) "is that now we know where you go every bloody month! 'My mum is ill' 'My aunt is ill' really…."
"Harry can you come for a second?!" bellowed Sirius from downstairs.
Harry had no time to read Remus' reaction to his father's commentary, but judging from the fact that Sirius and Remus were still best friends, he didn't have much to wonder about.
"Coming!" he hopped from his bed at Remus' house, which by now he considered his own, left his father's diary over his pillow and went downstairs, finding Sirius and Remus in the kitchen. Everyone loved the kitchen. The whole house was big and every room was fairly well illuminated if the day and the sun helped. (And lately, it hadn't. It had been cloudy for days) Every room, in its own way was comfortable and welcoming, but the kitchen was the best of all of the rest. It was warm during the winter and fresh during the summer, it was spacious and with a giant-sized window that let them see the backyard and let the sun enter illuminating everything it could.
Of course, the house seemed so welcoming to Harry because after five months, even though he had spent them at Hogwarts, he considered the place like his true home. The Dursleys had been erased from his mind like if they had been a bad dream. However, every now and then someone mentioned 'the muggles you live with' and Harry grew bitter, making however had made the giant mistake understand that he lived with his godfather Sirius Black and with Remus Lupin. The person learnt to never make the mistake again.
Upon entering the kitchen, Harry saw that Sirius and Remus were bent down over something gray on the kitchen counter.
In the half-year since Sirius had been freed they had changed amazingly. Sirius had decided to leave his hair a little shorter than shoulder-length. Now that he had been eating everyday properly for a long amount of time his body had filled and his muscles reappeared just as he had looked in the photo of the Potters' wedding. He was nearing 40, but he looked younger than in his early 30s. Remus, although he looked basically the same, looked a lot healthier than before. His life was other now- he lived with his best friend and with his friend's son, and that definitively showed in his appearance.
"Seems kind of old" said Remus, prodding the gray thing over the counter slightly
"Don't do that, it might hurt him. Maybe he's sick?"
"Who's sick?" asked Harry
"Someone attempted sending you an owl, but look at the state of it…"
"He collapsed on the bird's fountain outside- nearly drowned, the poor thing. Luckily Sirius was there."
"I merely saw a gray blur splashing down"
Harry glanced at the envelopes forgotten over the table and recognized Ron's handwriting. "Errol?" asked Harry. The poor owl gave a faint hoot and fainted again. "Errol!" Harry took him in his hands and tried to revived him again, but the owl was as limp as if dead "Errol, wake up!"
"Errol?" asked Sirius
"It's the Weasley's family owl- the poor thing is so old it collapses on every trip"
"No wonder why- it really looks like he was born together with Godric Gryffindor"
"I wonder why he didn't use Pig" said Harry, prodding Errol awake without success.
"Pig?"
"The tiny owl you gave Ron- Ginny named him"
"Give him to me, Harry" said Remus "I'll revive him with some DeadUp and put him in Iris' cage" he said, talking about his own female owl.
Harry put Errol in Remus' safe hands and shifted his attention to Ron and Hermione's letters.
"Oh Good!" he said, reading the letters "They will be here tomorrow, and then you'll take us to the Hogwarts Express when the terms starts again- I thought Mrs. Weasley was going to say something but she has no problem."
"Good- I was about to send their gifts with Iris and Hedwig"
"Hedwig will be disappointed- she hasn't had a challenge in ages"
"Oh- Pig is over in the muggle world- delivering a letter for Hermione, that's why he sent Errol"
Remus entered back in the kitchen, with Errol up again but extremely exhausted
"I think it's best if you put him in Hedwig's cage, Harry. Iris threatened to bit him twice" Harry and Sirius chuckled. Iris, Remus' owl, was even worst that Hedwig when it concerned letting strange owls in her cage.
"Sure" Harry put the letters in his pocket and took Errol in his hands "I'll better owl Ron- tell him Errol will be staying here some days"
He climbed up the stairs and sat down at his desk. Hedwig hooted sweetly and moved so Errol would have more space in her cage. Errol fall asleep almost immediately.
"I have some work for you" he told Hedwig. The owl flew past Errol (almost knocking him down) gave a spectacular dive, and settled over Harry's desk again, stretching out one of her legs "Easy, I still have to write the note"
He scribbled a short note to Ron telling him about Errol and attached it to Hedwig, who soared past Harry's window and was soon out of sight.
Harry looked around for what to do next. He decided History of Magic and Charms were too boring and took his father's diary again, throwing himself flat on his stomach over his bed. He shuffled pages, going back and forth and finally chose to read a particularly long one from the Marauder's fifth year
Halloween- how appropiate.
Okay, Sirius is ready. I am ready. Peter is nearly there. Unless we leave Peter alone (we're not so lucky) We won't be ready to be with Remus tonight (full moon) Pity. I wanted to roam the school grounds at night- without the possibility of getting caught!
We have told Remus we still have a long way to be fully qualified (ha) animagi. "My best estimation" I told him while stepping over Sirius' foot so he wouldn't burst with the truth "is that we'll be able to be with you in about 3 months"
We're so cruel.
Same day at night
Peter managed it! I don't believe it! We practiced all day and he finally managed to stay as a rat all day. As we've read about a thousand times, if a wizard manages to stay in his animal form longer than 5 hours, he will do so for as along as he wants to, but first, he has to reach the 5 hours and past them without popping back to human form. It took Peter so long we were sick of seeing his face! Haha!
Hmm.. I'll take dad's Realitizer and capture a transformation tomorrow… It really is something to be left in a Realitizer if three 15 year olds become animagi without anyone's help…
Okay, Remus is in the Shrieking Shack (We're giving Madam Pomfrey time to get back to the hospital wing so we can leave) and our plan is to just appear in front of him and transform in front of his very eyes. Everyone's so nervous. Peter is practicing changing into his rat and trying to reach his maximum speed. Sirius is sitting on an armchair, wallowing in who-knows-what thoughts. (And checking the map every 2 or three seconds) And I am getting it all out by writing.
She's back to the hospital wing! We're off!
Next day, Very early
Moony was so emotional! Okay, so the wolf doesn't let him show emotions, and we roamed school grounds and played all night like children, but when we woke up this morning in the Shrieking Shack, after disentangling ourselves- animals like to sleep really together for the warmth- he started with the emotions.
See, the thing is that as much as The Change makes him more wolf-like, opens up his senses and instincts, it also turns him a tad more emotional- and he hates that. First, he nearly killed me for telling him we needed another 3 months to transform (I repeat: Haha) and then he started on what great friends we were and how we deserved the best in life only because of what we did, etc, etc, etc. Our egos grew the size of the Hogwarts castle.
But- we forgot about a little detail. Remus had pulled us into a group hug (Aww!) when we heard Madam Pomfrey's knock on the door! How could we be so DUMB! Peter and Sirius (with those broad shoulders) decided they had a better chance at hiding in their Animagi form, especially Peter, so the dog and the rat crawled under the bed but my stag with those antlers… I jumped to the floor and crawled under the bed as James. Luckily, she didn't see Sirius or me, but she did see Peter- and what a marvelous sense of humor Peter has turned out to have.
I was holding him in my hand when he bit my finger, telling me he wanted to get loose. He scurried towards Madam Pomfrey's legs- she shrieked LOUDLY. Peter chased her all around the room until she climbed over the bed! The woman couldn't have been more of a classic!
Honestly, I don't know how we did to hold up our laughs. Or our barks, in Sirius' case. Haha.
PS: One thing- When we woke this morning…Hmmm…
I was the first to wake, and barely lifted my head to see if Remus had transformed back or not. He had, and so had Sirius. They were hugging. Not emotional thanks-for-being-my-friend hugging, but the way… the same position Lily and I were hugging over my bed the other night, legs entangled and all. Is it really happening what I think is happening??
Oh My God.
What was his father talking
about?? He hastily read the next entry, and the following one, and the
following one, but he only found one very short and very intriguing entry: My
canine and lupine suspicions were correct. Woohoo!
He scanned the rest of the diary and stopped every time he read 'Sirius and
Remus' or something alike, but his father offered no answers to his son's question.
Suddenly Harry remembered what Sirius had said when he had given the diary to him, on his birthday. "Harry you should know that I took the liberty to hide the entries James wouldn't have wanted you to read somewhere safe…" Maybe that was what Sirius had been talking about. And it was Remus the one who discreetly asked Remus about The Entries.
At least Sirius had hinted that the missing entries were somewhere, so not all hope was lost. But Harry knew better than to do a thoroughly search of the house. When Sirius wanted to hide something, nobody could find whatever he had hidden.
He re-read his father's PS and absentmindedly twirled the diary in his fingers while racking his brains to what his father had really meant. Hugging. What could be so suspicious about hugging, he wondered, but if his parents had hugged like that and several years later he had been the outcome… Surely Sirius and Remus were not…
But Harry asked himself, why not?
Now that they were both leading somewhat quiet lives and therefore were not terribly skinny or with huge bags under their eyes, Harry could see that even now in their mid-thirties they were handsome men. And they had been very close friends for years. Harry remembered once overhearing Remus telling Sirius that even when all evidence was against Sirius, he had never truly believed he could have done it. He'd always had a hard time believing Sirius' dark side. Hence, why when he was teaching at Hogwarts he didn't tell Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus.
Harry replayed in his mind his 5 months of knowing them as close as family and the last summer's events. Sirius and Remus always so close… Harry remembered watching them just after Sirius' trial had ended and thinking that that was the outcome of being apart from your friend for twelve years. But now that he read his father's diary he was getting as suspicious as his father had probably gone.
Shaking his head and thinking he was getting as paranoid as Neville before a potions exam, he got up from his bed and went downstairs, to find something to do. Otherwise he would be subjected to History of Magic.
He hoped to find them in the kitchen, but he searched the house until, when he was about to push the door that leaded to the outside of the house open-
"Sirius, we can't do that with Harry in the house"
"Oh come on, with just a simple silencing charm"
"Sirius… what if Harry walks in just in that moment?" he stressed every syllable of the last four words.
"We do it at night, when we're sure he's sleeping" no answer. "Listen, Ron and Hermione will be here tomorrow for Christmas, and it'll be even more complicated then. I miss you" More silence. No wait, it wasn't silent… what was that sound? Was that… was that the sound of someone kissing?! Harry now felt exactly like his father right now.
"Silencing charm you say?" said Remus in an odd voice.
Unfortunately, in that moment, Harry's wand slipped from his pocket (it was already halfway out of it) and Harry hastily picked it up. He pushed the door open and he found himself face to face with Remus.
"Harry…" he did seem awfully nervous.
"Were you listening?" Sirius didn't seem particularly nervous, he actually seemed… amused. Remus sat down besides him in the benches that were out in the garden.
Harry chose faked ignorance "'course not. Just came in but dropped my wand. What would you need a silencing charm for?"
"Uhh…" Sirius looked at Remus for a second "Remus wants to do a potion"
"I thought you were awful at them"
"He is. That's why we need the silencing charm… His explosions are really loud" Remus choked on the pumpkin juice he was drinking, accidentally spilling it all over. He glared at Sirius.
"Am not! I-I- I mean, are not!" Sirius couldn't help but laugh at him as he wiped the pumpkin juice of his robes and off the table.
They went on talking for a while, but Harry now knew it. Something was going on between Sirius and Remus, and he wouldn't rest until he found out what it was. It wouldn't be easy knowing them, but Harry smiled. Ron and Hermione would arrive the next day, and he couldn't think of a better help to get a secret out of someone.
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To be continued!
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