Disclaimer: I do not own anything of this story. Harry Potter and all of the notable characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
Magnolia Crescent
Chapter Seven
The Innocent Plan
Sirius Black frowned, looking up at the castle, pawing the ground as he paced the cold, packed snow. Ideas and plans bounced around in his head. He contemplated whether or not he should ask Ron about the rat, though doing so would be unbelievable and with Hermione around, he could kiss any chance of getting a wand goodbye.
"So what's the next step?" Harry asked, walking into the clearing and noting the dog. Black shifted back as the rest of the next generation Marauder's appeared.
"We brought you a clean change of clothes; no offense, but your smell has become really bothersome," Hermione admitted sheepishly as she pulled out a clean set of clothes along with some soap. "I don't know if it'll fit or not but it's better than what you have right now," she commented, gingerly handing the clothing to him. As soon as his hands wrapped around it, she jumped back, almost afraid to touch him.
"Thank you," Black said sincerely, looking over at Ron but seeing no sign of Peter.
"What?" Ron asked, glancing around.
"Nothing," Black shrugged, looking back at Harry. Sighing, he turned his mind away from revenge and back to the matter at hand. "Next step is partial transformations. As a dog, this will make things much easier; increased smell and hearing plus loss of color. I have a few books I will need you to memorize on canine physiology. I would recommend starting with the ears or the nose. This would be a lot easier to show the finer points if I had a wand," Black grumbled, looking over at Hermione. Taking a deep breath, "but we will have to make do with what we have." He took out a piece of paper and began to illustrate the shift.
"Now then, you're going to need to hold onto your wand and I want you to follow my instruction the best you can. And be ready to run to the nurse as soon as possible if anything goes wrong," Black warned.
"Right, he was practicing transfiguration and screwed it up," Ron repeated. Hermione shook her head hopelessly, Harry concentrating on his nose.
"I don't trust him," Hermione commented, watching Black and Harry work. Ron glanced over at her.
"How many times are you going to say that?" Ron asked, exasperated. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Ron continued. "I know you don't but he's harmless and we know a lot about him, like why he escaped. At this point, we could turn him in, but I think this is amazing, being able to turn into animals. Besides, so long as we don't do anything stupid, we could milk this for weeks," Ron smiled.
"I don't like it. It seems odd that the man who supposedly wants to kill Harry is now teaching him. Even more so that he would do such a thing at the risk of being captured. It's not logical," Hermione reasoned, looking over to Ron and hoping for some kind of answer.
"We may not know the whole story," Ron shrugged. "My dad always told me that an Animagus form reflects who they are as a person. If Black is a dog, that would mean he's very loyal." Hermione at him like he had grown another head. "What?"
"I just didn't think you would be the one to talk me down," she admitted. Ron blinked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, a little concerned. She smiled knowingly, Ron frowning, even more confused than before.
"So, if you didn't betray my father, who did?" Harry asked.
"That's why I came here to begin with. James, Remus, and I, along with a boy named Peter Pettigrew," Black started to explain. "We were all best friends, James and I were the best of friends." Black added, beaming with pride. Harry noticed that he seemed to brighten a bit at the memory. "Back when Voldemort was running around, we were part of a group led by Dumbledore to fight against him. Your parents soon became a target, though no really knows why. Voldemort never tended to have reasons for the murders he committed. Anyways, we found out about it and wanted to protect you and your family. So Dumbledore suggested a piece of magic known as the Fidelus Charm, or Secret-Keeper."
"What exactly is a Secret-Keeper?" Harry asked.
"It means that a single person is trusted with information so long as they don't give it up, the secret stays safe," Hermione interjected. Black simply nodded in agreement.
"Well, I was the Secret-Keeper for a while, but being your father's best friend placed me as the prime suspect. It was trying, and I was targeted for a while until," Black paused, taking a breath. "I broke. I begged your father to pick someone else, someone who wouldn't be suspected." Black's shoulders dropped at this statement. "I realize now that I shouldn't have, that I should have stuck with it because maybe James and Lily would still be alive. I was just so tired from all of the Death Eater attacks and everything that came with being a Secret-Keeper. I regret that more than anything. We ended up asking our weakest friend, Peter. Remus and I were sadly having issues so we didn't trust each other."
"Remus? As in Professor Lupin?" Harry blinked. "You two are old friends?"
"If you can say that, I don't know how he would react if he saw me now. Anyways, mistrust was common, you didn't know who was really working with Voldemort or was cursed. So we asked Peter and you can put two and two together. I got to relax maybe one or two days before I remembered the house where you were living. I panicked, wanting to make sure that Peter was doing his job, but when I got there, I was too late. The house was destroyed, James and Lily were dead and Hagrid had already found you. I told him that I had been named the godfather but the oaf," Black snarled, stopping when he saw Harry frowning.
"Good natured as he is, he wouldn't let me take you, kept insisting that we hand you over to the Muggles. 'Got to take him to Dumbledore, I gots orders'," Black grumbled darkly. "I knew what had happened. I tracked that no good rat down and confronted him. Unfortuneatly, he let off a curse, killing the Muggles right after he chopped his finger off and transformed. Because I was there, I got hit with the murder rap and got trapped in Azkaban for twelve years." Ron and Hermione blinked at the harsh tone Black's voice had taken.
"So, Pettigrew is alive then?" Hermione inquired gently. Black simply nodded. "Well, if that's the case, we should be able to prove you're innocent. We may not know where Pettigrew is but I read recently about a device called a Pensieve; you can store memories inside it. From the sounds of it, they're not too hard to make either, then we can check your memories and show them to the right people," she smiled.
"That would require giving me a wand, as well as evidence that I didn't do it. There a few enchantments needed and it would take some time to put one together," Black informed.
"A wand," Hermione mused, frowning. Black gave her a tired award-winning smile.
"Still don't trust me?" he asked lightly as she shook her head. "Too much to ask, I guess. Tell you what, you get it fixed and talk to Lupin. He should be willing to keep me in line," Black offered confidently.
"But what if he doesn't believe you're innocent?" Ron asked. "I mean, I heard you didn't get a trial and nobody asked about it or visited. I don't know if he would be so quick to help," Ron admitted. Black darkened at that prospect.
"Harry, you could talk to him about it. Besides, I'm sure that if not, I could find him and talk to him," Black smiled confidently.
"How?" asked Harry.
"I have my ways, nothing to worry about. In the meantime, I will be looking into Peter myself and if you need, I can help out with Pensieve," Black offered.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I can handle it myself; it's not too complicated, it just takes time. Besides, you would need a wand and we still don't trust you," Hermione pointed out. Black nodded glumly.
"Right, let's not forget that Harry's got Quidditich practice coming up as well," Ron mentioned.
"That's hardly important," Hermione frowned, hoping to have Harry help her with the Pensieve.
"Tell that to Wood, it's his last year. Plus, he's determined to win the Quidditich Cup once before he leaves," Ron replied, a sly smile on his face. Harry swallowed.
"Harry, did you know that your father – " Black started.
"Yeah, first year. Harry is the youngest seeker in a century. Same year, we found out that his dad was a seeker as well," Ron hastily cut him off. Black still seemed to swell with pride.
"You know, I was on the team as well, as a chaser. Still, your father used me to train for catching the Snitch all the time. I could show you a few pointers if you like," Black smiled, a twinkle in his eye.
"That would be great," Harry smiled as he looked over at Ron. Hermione frowned as the boys started to behave just like boys.
"Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves? We have a lot of work to do; Animagus lessons, the Pensieve, Quidditich practice and our regular lessons. Harry, don't you think we've taken on far too much at once?" she reasoned.
"You worry too much, Herms. We've got time, besides, we got our homework already taken care of," Ron shrugged.
"You what?" Hermione asked, her eyes widened at what she heard.
"Well, we figured the lessons could take a lot out of me so Ron and I got our homework done as fast as we could so we're free," Harry commented, shrugging. Hermione felt her jaw drop.
"That's surprising," she admitted, after a moment. Ron looked hurt.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "I can get my work done ahead of schedule if I need to."
"I never knew, considering all those times you cheated from my paper at the last minute," she huffed.
"Well," Ron tried to explain, realizing he had just bit the hand that fed him. "It's much more reliable to ask you for help. I bet I got most of it wrong," he admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to worm out of the conversation. Harry was trying to hide his smile, looking over at Black who seemed like he was living a fond memory.
The group spilt up at nightfall, with Harry shifting his nose into a dog's muzzle. "Amazing. It took me days to get that down and you do it in less than an afternoon," Black complimented, slapping Harry on the back. Harry smiled as his nose returned to normal. They headed back to the school, leaving Black smiling at the Whomping Willow. He shifted into a dog, picking up the change of clothes and trotting off into the woods.
In case you guys couldn't tell, this chapter was supposed to be written through Sirius Black's point of view. As with the last chapter, it was authored by starwarsdude8221991. R&R, as always. I'm hoping to rip it from starwars' hands so that I can continue writing it but I guess he really likes writing it. I don't know, we'll. Either way, next chapter should be up soon.
*EDIT*: Starwarsdude and I both know James was a Chaser in the books and a Seeker in the movie. However, we have our reasons for choosing to keep James a Seeker. Sirius was the Chaser and for future purposes, this will be important.
~LE
