Disclaimer: I am not JKR, or any of her minions, or whoever else has rights to Harry Potter
Note: It would be a shocker if I wrote more on this story, it's actually the first fan fic I ever wrote, even if I wasn't posting till just now.
Year Three, or Sneaking Snakes
Harry specifically chose the compartment with the sleeping professor, knowing chances he would be joined were low, considering the popularity both Blaise and the various Weasleys. Hermione did join him, which practically guaranteed that Ron would stay away, as their arguments had already become school legend. Once she and his serpentine companion had provided him with a complete explanation of what had happened between the professor and the Dementors, he was determined to learn the charm. He couldn't let anything induce such a state of near hibernation and mental anguish be induced in him ever again, even if it was his only way of hearing his mother.
All things considered, everybody was surprised when Sirius Black tried to break into Gryffendor tower instead of the Slytherin dorms. Harry used the map from the twins to slip out into the forest to discuss hibernation times, feeling that he'd be safer out there, despite the potential changed focus of the escaped prisoner. He was pleasantly surprised to see his dog hanging out in the forest, and actually convinced Dobby to bring it food while he slept. The silly elf didn't even think it was strange that the animal preferred meat sandwitches over dog food.
However, his planned early date for slipping away was interrupted by his passing out upon encountering the dementors congregating around the quidditch pitch, where a game was in full progress. He woke up in the hospital wing with a mouthful of chocolate and the memory of his vow to learn the charm against the foul creatures strong in his mind. All the same, Professor Lupin was amazed at the intensity with which Harry attacked learning the Patronus charm, which he insisted on practicing every night, and actually managed to master it just before classes were out for Christmas.
He had planned to use the Hogsmead visit as a cover for his disappearance, but returned to the castle to ponder what he'd overheard about Sirius Black. Perhaps the man had merely assumed that he was in the same house as his parents; there certainly were enough people who had been obviously disappointed by his sorting.
Harry actually vanished shortly after opening his first Weasley sweater. He slid into the mass of snakes with relief, certain that Sirius Black would never find or harm him there. In an adjoining cavern, a certain black dog patiently awaited his food, knowing to stay away from the snakey-smelling back recesses of his current home.
Bane took a deep breath of the warm spring air, knowing that it would stay that way, now. He looked suspiciously towards the snake cavern, fingering the bow at the movement. Nobody else in the herd was brave enough to patrol out this far, but suspicious things were happening with one of the house elves, the stupid things.
The centaur got the shock of his life when a human figure slowly crawled out of the small crevice. Harry leaned back, stretching, his pale skin criss-crossed by the clinging black and green snakes, perfectly matching his brilliant eyes and hair. As this makeshift clothing began to drop off, he turned and looked straight at Bane. The centaur dropped his bow and fled, wondering as he crashed through the underbrush if this was what the stars had meant about the lord of snakes arising with his servants within the next year.
Harry shrugged and started putting on his clothes, then slunk back to the castle. He had thought he'd seen something, or somebody, but it was hard to tell without his glasses, and Black wouldn't have fled. He was actually early to breakfast, which was nice, as he was too ravenous to deal with questions, and the emptiness of the Great Hall made it easy to feed his remaining friends as many sausages as they wanted. There must have been a dozen still clinging to his mammalian warmth. Lupin's absence was a bit disappointing, as he was fond of the man. Seeing Snape's expression upon spotting him was almost worth it, though.
After class, when he saw that professor taking something to Lupin's quarters, he followed, and slipped in when the other had left. "Hey Lupin, how was winter?" Harry started to laugh when the poor man nearly choked.
Lupin ended up coughing up nearly half of his potion while the contrite student patted his back. "Harry, do you have any idea how worried everyone, I was?"
"Sorry," he said, "but I have done the same thing every year, everyone else shouldn't have been so concerned."
"There wasn't a serial killer after you those years," Lupin admonished him, "and I did know and worry those years."
"Voldemort himself possessing my defense teacher doesn't count for that?" He continued, "and even though I did kill the basilisk last year, I just feel safer out of Hogwarts. Now what was that about knowing about my other disappearances?"
Lupin blinked, and muttered, "I think I'm going to have a bit of a talk with Dumbledore about those comments," before giving a brief explanation of the Order's reunion, without mentioning it by name.
They just barely made it down to dinner, and as soon as it was over, Hermione pounced on Harry and dragged him off to see Hagrid, with a hasty explanation of the elder Malfoy's legal action against the hippogriph. "Of course, I've been scouring the library for legal methods and angles I could use for freeing him, and sending letters, but I can't help thinking your signature would have been able to at least delay things. Prejudice against the muggleborn really is more than just a Malfoy thing, I guess," she said, mournfully.
Ron was actually already down at the cabin petting Buckbeak, who was the inspiration of a partial truce between him and his housemate, as he continued to idolize the animal for the Malfoy incident. Harry was totally surprised later when they were leaving by his dog's appearance and subsequent attack of Ron. He immediately tackled the animal, shouting, "no, no, bad dog, Ron is my friend," while it scrabbled frantically at Ron's torso and arms. "Hermione, go and get Professor Lupin, he'd know the most about animals besides Hagrid."
She frowned anxiously, "but he's sick, you saw that he was out of class today. I don't want to bother."
"Then get Snape," Harry said, "but don't mention Ron, then. I talked to Lupin, he had some potion, wasn't too bad. Tell him we're by the willow."
Hermione screamed as a branch shot past her and Harry almost lost his grip on the dog. "I'm going! Don't let it get you," she added, over her shoulder as she ran."
Ron yelped as a branch struck his leg with a sickening crunch, clipping Harry in the shoulder at the same time, knocking him off the crazed dog, which immediately took the opportunity to drag the boy into a crevice. By the time Harry had leaped to the spot, it had resealed, and for a few breathless moments, he scrabbled hopelessly in the roots before finding the catch.
"He's after Scabbers, my rat!" Ron gasped when Harry burst in, "no wonder the poor thing was hiding at Hagrid's. First Hermione's demon cat, now your grim after my poor pathetic pet."
Harry blinked, nonplussed, as he'd taken arithmancy at Hermione's advice and had no idea what a grim was. "I wish you could just tell me why you're after his rat, you silly dog," he sighed. They were both shocked when it obligingly transformed into Sirius Black. Just as he started to explain, an out of breath Lupin dashed in, followed by Hermione. Sirius used the distraction to seize the quivering rat from his owner.
"Recognize him, brother?" Sirius shouted, brandishing the quivering animal, "let's kill this rat together."
Immediately, said victim transformed into a scruffy man, still dangling by the convict's hold on his collar, "please, please don't, you don't know how afraid I was. How can you blame me for this?"
"What on earth is going on!" Hermione interrupted, "and how did Sirius Black get in here? Where's the dog?"
"Apparently, he is my dog," Harry replied, "and here I thought he wasn't going to go after me on account of my being in Slytherin, like some junior Death Eater."
"No, though we do have to talk about that, I came to kill the traitor I was imprisoned for murdering years ago," he replied with exasperation, "James wanted to tell you, Remus, but I'm sorry to say I thought you were the spy, sorry."
"Are you suggesting you switched secret keepers?" Remus continued upon seeing a sheepish nod, "but what about all the muggles killed?"
"They must have gotten caught in the explosion when I blew the gas line to escape this lunatic," Peter squeaked, "who cares? You kids aren't going to just watch them kill me are you? Ron, I was a good pet, wasn't I?"
The redhead snorted with disgust, "you were the worst, and I even let you sleep in my bed. You are sick!"
"Too bad you didn't keep him in a cage like everyone else, or I'd have gotten him that night I broke in with none the wiser, and we wouldn't have this mess now," Sirius added unhelpfully.
"What!" gasped Snape as he burst into the room, "Pettigrew, alive!"
The rat jumped on that, "you've got to help me, Dumbledore, our master," he babbled desperately, twisting out of Black's grip.
"Yay, another spy," muttered Harry, as Lupin gasped in sudden pain.
"Stupify!" shouted Snape at the suddenly fleeing rat. "You'd better have taken your potion, you fool. What possessed you to leave the castle tonight, of all possible nights? You ought to be behind strong locks!"
They had all just managed to get past the tree, with Snape carrying the caged rat, when Lupin barked, "I don't think I kept enough of my potion down, you'd better get away. Harry, this is not your fault, I shouldn't have come out."
When they had nearly reached the castle, leaving Sirius outside to wait for a verdict, the werewolf charged them, causing Snape to drop the cage in terror. It cracked open, and the frantic animal took off, the werewolf in hot pursuit. "At least he had the sanity to ignore us," the potions master muttered, "but we must tell the headmaster what has transpired, for all that it will sound absurd."
Harry was very glad Hermione had ignored his advice regarding classes when they were able to go back and save Buckbeak. As they were sneaking along, desperately trying to avoid being spotted by anybody, he saw Sirius all alone. The man was surrounded by Dementors and defenseless, with the werewolf off chasing the rat.
"Oh, how horrible, Harry," Hermione whispered, "the ministry has orders for them to kiss him."
"I know," said Harry, "hold Buckbeak." He then stepped forward to cast his best Patronus, thinking of what Lupin had said about its form from the first time. They left the unconscious man draped over the nervous hippogryph, in a rush to get back to the castle in time. Harry was almost relieved to fall back into the morass of make-up work after such a first day back.
He had also, in the process, become the twin's undisputed hero, for returning and causing such a ruckus, and on their birthday, no less. He'd decided to withhold his knowledge of the identity of the map makers for a while, in an attempt to let their fervor die down, despite his appreciation of their extra tutoring in "pranking-oriented" potions and advanced charms with "hilarious applications." There is really only so much he could learn about how to make potions explode, especially considering that he'd had that class with Neville and Seamus for several years, after all.
The general wizarding public, or perhaps just the Daily Prophet found themselves in quite a quandary—should they talk more about Lupin quitting in a hail storm of howlers over his being a werewolf, or the continuing hunt for the notorious Sirius Black, or the crazy allegations from a few school children and Severus Snape that Pettigrew was alive and masquerading as a rat. The Quibbler, of course, simply re-ran all of its old articles about Stubby Boardman, in addition to posting a full, but confusingly vague interview from Dumbledore himself regarding the events surrounding Black's appearance at Hogwarts.
Harry, of course, was blissfully unaware of all this, aside from a few letters from Hermione, sent through regular post, of course. There was no telling what his relatives would do to him if another owl appeared in their house or garden. Even Hermione knew this, and frankly sent every bit of post with fervent prayers that her friend would get the mail before his relatives, so as to actually be able to read what she had to say. He'd only been going through his routine of dodging the relatives for a week when Blaise Zaibini himself appeared in the local play park, where he usually hung out.
"I do hope you've not decided to drop me as a friend in favor of the Weasley clan," he said in an offhand manner. "I suppose with all their muggle-loving ways they've been on your phone day and night, one or another of them. It's really quite pathetic that father only allowed me to come after you when he overheard they'd gotten ahold of tickets and were thinking of taking you along."
"Tickets to what, Blaise, my first friend?" Harry said, "Honestly, I don't think they can even pronounce telephone correctly, let alone use one. Worst sort of purebloods, really—I heard Ron even reads that comic that makes fun of ordinary people."
"Oh really, how fun," Blaise grinned. "I'm talking about the Quidditch World Cup, you poor disconnected twit. It's in England this year, and we've got the best seats in the house—same view as the top box, but without either Malfoys or Fudge."
"Well, that is an attractive proposition," Harry said, trying to sound offhand, "of course, any escape from hell, I mean, here, would be great. How long can we extend my Qutidditch Cup related visit to you?"
"Trying to invite yourself over to my house, Potter? How very unsubtle of you. But, considering your need to shop, and get back to school, I anticipated that—how about the rest of the summer, starting with the Cup?"
"Oh, I will definitely owe you now, how very sneaky Blasé. An offer I really can't refuse," Harry said with a grin, 'how soon, I mean, when can I come over?"
Blrise grinned and pulled out a medallion with a family crest of some kind on it, and handed it to Harry. "Tap this with your wand while touching your trunk as soon as you've packed, and it will take you to my family manor."
"Planned on my agreeing, didn't you?"
"Only an idiot wouldn't. I'll see you when you show up, then, Potter?"
"Tell your mother to expect me for dinner tonight, then, Zaibini, alright?"
"Wear wizarding robes then—the rags you're wearing now would be a disgrace even for a House Elf."
Harry did not reply, waiting for Blaise to disappear before going back to number four to pack. It was the work of a moment to inform the Dursleys he'd be spending the summer with the same family as last year, though with a different method of departure. Packing took even less time, as all Harry did was shove the books and papers on his desk into his trunk. He did have to change, however, so it was about ten minutes later that Harry disappeared from Number four Privet drive. He was only moderately surprised to find himself in the front room of the Zaibini townhouse, rather than the country manor, given the way the family tended to move from one house to another via floo, as though they were one building.