Title: Black Christmas
Author: Semmel
Summary: Life for Harry gets unpleasant when his two best friends disappear without a trace, and Headmaster Dumbledore freaks over seemingly unimportant things.
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to the wonderful K. J. Rowling. I don't make any money out of this.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Dedication: to the challenger (still don't know who)
Chapter two
Minerva McGonogall, Transfiguration Professor and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had an extremely good morning. Well at least until she was violently shaken out of her dream - candlelight dinner with Rubeus Hagrid - by no other than Albus Dumbledore himself. Irritated at being woken that early (10:00 a. m. on a holiday!), and embarrassed at being seen in her night dress by the Headmaster she prepared for a telling of, that would even have made Voldemort crouch. But then she saw her boss' face. All anger melted away instantly at the lost look and the swollen, red eyes. In a raspy, tear-strained voice he told her that he had lost his favourite socks, the ones that his dead mother had give n to him on the last Christmas they had spent together. The strict, but clever witch had long learned that her colleague's affinity with this particular pair of foot-wear was very deep, indeed! He only wore them on Christmas, and watched like a hawk about their state. The loss of this Christmas gift would affect him severely.
A thorough search was immediately organised. Professor Sprout would look through the quarters of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. Potions Master Severus Snape would take care of the R avenclaws and Slytherins. Professor Flitwick, Divination teacher Trelawny, and caretaker Filch would search the rest of the castle, while Professor McGonogall, Hagrid and Fang were responsible for the grounds.
So it happened that at 10:39 sharp Harry, again, was questioned about the whereabouts of aforementioned knitwear. It was when she saw the young seeker take of to continue his practice on the Quidditch field, that Professor McGonogall hat THE idea of how to distract the distraught Headmaster. The older men had constantly kept bugging them about the results of their search, and was more a hindrance than any help. A Quidditch match it would be! Between Gryffindor and Slytherin! And seeing as Madam Hooch was on vacation, Snape would referee the game! He had been complaining about the waste of time that the search would be anyway, and certainly wasn't looking hard enough for her taste.
Okay, she had to admit, he wasn't the fairest (no pun intended), and definitely not the most unbiased umpire ever, but you had to take, what you got, and he was the only one who had any experience in it. And after all, last time he was referee her Gryffindors had still won! They would make it again! She was almost sure. Almost.
What do two teenagers do if they are bored out of their minds, especially if above teenagers are in love. Well, the answer is simple: snog. They did anyway when a large black, shaggy dog bounded up the stairs in an abandoned building. They kept kissing each other furiously, unaware of the beetle-black eyes upon them. "They seemed to do that a lot lately.", the dog thought. It whimpered. The couple still didn't take any notice. Not liking to be ignored the canine gave a short, but loud bark. It did the job. The teenagers pulled apart immediately. The boy , a red-head with lots of freckles, blushed crimson, while the girl, brown eyed and lots of bushy hair, hid her face behind her hands. The dog grinned. "Um, hi Sirius!", she managed. "Hello!" Where there had been a dog only seconds before there now was a tall and slender man with long black hair, a grin still plastered on his face.
"Since when do you use hair gel, Hermione?" "I told you, you don't need it." Ron had snapped out of his embarrassed stupor, and was now trying to regain his composure and normal complexion. He couldn't really control the latter, but distraction was supposed to help. Although, if she had heard his thoughts, Hermione would have pointed out, that the originally meaning was that you had to distract yourself from the cause of the abas hment and not others from you! But this helped, too.
"I trust, you haven't told Harry?", Sirius inquired. The girl nodded in affirmation, they hadn't. It was supposed to be a kind of Christmas present. One of those you couldn't buy with money, but were the most valuable. It wasn't only valuable to her classmate though. His godfather estimated it probably even higher. It didn't happen everyday, that your name is cleared from crimes you didn't commit. The only thing that could have made it even better, would have been the capture of one Peter Pettigrew. You see this man sold Harry's parents to Voldemort, the most evil wizard of all time. After the dark lord had killed the Potters, Pettigrew framed their best friend Sirius Black. Black, who didn't have any evi d ence that he was innocent, was sent to prison immediately afterwards, not even being given a trial. He managed to escape though, and could even catch the traitor, but the rat could escape. With Peter gone it seemed that Sirius had no way of proving his innocence. Until, well until he had visited the ruins of the Potters' house one day, to be exact Halloween this year, the fourteenth anniversary of his friends death, and found a letter from James Potter addressed to him, which was never sent. The contents of this letter were enough to clear him, and with the help of Albus Dumbledore he finally was declared a free man the day before. All of this had been kept secret though. The necessary actions, like erasing him from the list of outlaws, giving him back his belongings (including his wand), and the compensation for his illegitimate imprisonment, had been taken by the Ministry. But the latter wouldn't keep Sirius Black mouth shut about the injustice of his treatment. The reason, why he hadn't shouted it out at the top of his lungs yet, was that he wanted to pleasantly surprise his godson. At least he hoped Harry would like it. The confirmations of Ron and Hermione just weren't enough, he needed to hear it from him. In a few hours he hopefully would.
A/N: Chapter 2 done. What do you say? Thanks to all who have and will review!