Disclaimer: I only own Robert and Gabriel.

Ok, it's been awhile since my last update. I've been working on my Hellsing story and that's taken a while and I also have been preparing to go back to school. I'm back at school now so writing for fanfiction will be second to school activities. I do have a few of the HP books here at school with me so if I do have some free time I will be able to work on it along with my other stories.

This book is going to be interesting because this is a bit of a turning point in the story: Harry and his friends are getting old enough that Robert doesn't need to be watching them like a hawk to keep them alive and intact. I'm hoping to have a little bit of Robert's assignment in later chapters I do have a bit of an idea for what I'm going to do for that.

Enjoy:

"Harry."

Harry looked up from his History of Magic essay. He was currently working on a piece about Medieval Witch Burnings being pointless. So far the best piece of information he could find in the books he had was something about a witch who enjoyed the tickling sensation the Flame Freezing Charm produced so much that she was caught over forty times in various disguises. However that was going to need to wait as Gabriel was calling him about something.

"What is it?" he yelled down to his adoptive father.

"We need to talk for a moment," Gabriel called up to him. Harry sighed, pushed his chair back, and walked downstairs to the kitchen.

"Ok, what do we need to talk about?" he asked the middle-aged man.

Gabriel smiled, "Harry, I have received an assignment that will require me to not be here for a few days," he said, "and with Robert already gone on his assignment, there are some people who would prefer if you weren't staying by yourself."

"Why?"

"It would seem that the criminal Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban Prison," Gabriel said lightly as if this was something to discuss over afternoon tea. Harry glanced up at the clock. Three forty-two.

'Funny,' Harry thought, 'it is time for afternoon tea.'

Gabriel continued, "Black was convicted of selling your parents to Voldemort, I should tell you, as well as the murder of Peter Pettigrew, one of your parents close friends, and is considered to be a great supporter of Voldemort, his right hand man some have said. The Ministry of Magic believes that he has escaped to extract revenge for killing his master."

"Something tells me that you don't really believe that," Harry scrutinized Gabriel.

"That's partially because I knew the man slightly," Gabriel said, "It isn't enough to turn over a conviction, but my intuition told me that he wasn't the kind of person to do that sort of thing. The fact that he never had a trial vexes me as well."

"He was sent to prison without a trial?" Harry exclaimed, "Isn't that…"

"Unethical?" Gabriel supplied, "In America we'd call it Unconstitutional, but that's because we have a document, called the Constitution of the United States of America, which dictates that all people have the God given right to a fair trial. Though that concept can be distorted…"

"Wha…"

"That's irrelevant, Harry, I was digressing from the subject. The thing is that people believe that Sirius Black is out to get you and they would rather you not be by yourself. Therefore the Minister of Magic has requested that you stay at the Leaky Caldron where you can be monitored while I am of on duty."

"Why can't I stay with Mr. Lupin?"

"Remus is a werewolf, as you remember Harry, and the Ministry isn't very trusting of werewolves and other sorts of magical creatures, mostly for illogical reasons."

Harry walked back upstairs, wondering what Gabriel had meant. However the arrival of three owls through his window soon shocked him out of his ponderings. One was Hedwig, his snowy owl given to him when he found out he was a wizard. One of the others he recognized as Errol, the ancient Weasley owl, who was looking extremely tired. The last one was a rather handsome tawny owl, which Harry recognized as one of Hogwarts' School Owls.

Each owl had a parcel and a note attached to it. Harry reached for the school owl first, untying it from its burden and allowing it to fly away. Next was Errol who was very grateful as Harry put him in Hedwig's cage and began gulping down water. Hedwig, who looked very pleased with herself nipped Harry affectionately as he untied her and flapped over to rest on top of her cage, as Errol was in it.

Harry looked over his packages, deciding to open the one from the school first. Picking up the letter (which had thick handwriting instructing Harry to read it before opening the package) and opened it. Inside was a letter from Professor McGonagall saying the usual pre-term letter things as well as an enclosed permission slip for going to Hogsmeade Village on the weekends, and a letter from Hagrid.

Dear Harry,

Happy Birthday! Think you might find what's in the package useful for next term. A bit of advice: stroke the bindings. Hope your summer's been fun.

All the best,

Hagrid

Harry opened the package to reveal a book entitled Monster Book of Monster's. He had a brief moment to wonder what Hagrid meant before the book began snapping at him in an attempt to bite his fingers off. Holding it shut with one hand, Harry took Hagrid's advice and ran his finger down the bindings of the book and, remarkably, it went quiet. Harry put his belt around it to keep it shut for when it woke back up.

The other parcels were from Ron and Hermione. Ron sent him a Pocket Sneakscope, a contraption that would spin and whistle if someone untrustworthy was around, as well as Happy Birthday wishes from Ginny. There was also an article about the Weasley family winning the annual Ministry Prize Drawing this year with a record thirteen hundred Galleons as the prize. The Ron also said that they were visiting Bill in Egypt where he worked as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts Bank. The twins had gotten into a bit of trouble for trying to shut Percy in one of the larger tombs. Harry laughed at that thought.

Hedwig had brought him a parcel from Hermione who was vacationing in France. She sent him a Broomstick Servicing Kit, complete with handle polish, Tail-Twig Clippers, an attachable compass, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare.

Harry should have felt happy about the arrival of his Birthday Presents from his friends, but for some reason he didn't. Why is it that they remembered his Birthday when his father and brother seemed to have forgotten? He had just turned around to go confront Gabriel when he noticed Gabriel in the doorway to his bedroom.

"Incidentally, Harry," Gabriel said holding up a hand with a cloth over it, tapping the cloth with his wand and pulling it up revealing a cake that wasn't there a moment ago, "Happy Birthday!"

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Harry sat outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor finishing his Medieval Witch Burning essay. Florean was a bit eccentric, giving Harry free sundae's every half an hour if he wanted them, and he knew a great deal about the witch burnings. All of his school shopping had been done days ago and he was beginning to get a little bored just being at Diagon Alley by himself. He had run into a few classmates; Seamus and Dean were in Quality Quidditch Supplies admiring the latest broom model: The Firebolt. It was the fastest broom in the world, able to accelerate up to 150 miles an hour in ten seconds. Harry was sorely tempted to try and get one, but he already had a broom and figured he didn't need to change brooms just because a better one came out.

Neville past by Harry with his rather formidable-looking grandmother, they were looking for Neville's booklist, which he had misplaced. He saw the Patil twins with Lavender Brown gushing over the Divination book that third years were supposed to get. Malfoy was spotted strutting around with his father but thankfully their paths never crossed.

Harry was reading the third volume of In Shade and Shadow which the new DADA teacher had put on the list; either the new teacher knew Robert or had the same taste in books, but Harry decided that was a good thing because the book was fascinating. He happened to look up at the precise moment that Ron and Hermione came rushing up to him.

"Dad said you were staying here," Ron grinned, slapping Harry on the shoulder, "How was your summer? Egypt was great. Ginny and Mum got in a huge fight when Mum didn't want her to go into some of the more grotesque tombs, Bill eventually persuaded her to let Ginny come in. She's with Mum right now getting her books, just so you know. Have you gotten your books yet?"

"Summer's been a bit boring actually," Harry said, "Without Robert as an accomplice to annoy Gabriel all I've really been able to do is "misplace" some of his things and have them turn up several days later in random locations. The toaster showed up in the toilet, that took a hell of a long time to clean up, and his dress robes were found shoved into a very small desk drawer. As for my books, yeah I've got all of them. What do you make of the Care for Magical Creature's book?"

"The assistant and Flourish and Blott's nearly cried when we said we wanted two," Hermione said, heaving her three bags, all bulging with text books up onto the table.

"Damn, Hermione, what are all those for?" Harry asked.

"She's not planning to eat or sleep this year," Ron rolled his eyes, "While we've just added Divination and Care for Magical Creatures to our schedule she's added Arithmancy, the Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies which I'm not sure she needs since she's Muggle-born…"

"It'll be fascinating to see the wizards' point of view of the subject," Hermione defended herself, "And so what if I'm taking more classes than you."

"Well, Robert would probably be shaking his head at you right now," Harry commented, "and probably make some comment about holing yourself in the library or common room with your book will be terrible for your mental health regardless of how much you like doing it."

"But Robert also studies like mad," Hermione protested, "He himself said that he's constantly studying when he isn't actively doing his job."

"Yeah but he didn't start doing that until he was fifteen," Harry said, "Granted that was only two years after he started Magic School, they start at thirteen instead of eleven at the Masonic School of Magic, but he was still older and he had year round school."

"I've still got a bit of money left," Hermione changed the subject, "I've been wanting to get a pet, Ron has Scabbers and you have Hedwig…"

"There's a magical pet shop over there," Harry pointed, having memorized the layout of Diagon Alley in the week and a half that he had been there.

"I need to have Scabbers checked out," Ron said, pulling out his pet rat, "He got hit with a funny spell in Egypt by one of the Curse Breakers and hasn't been the same since."

Harry looked at Scabbers. He normally was a healthy looking, brown garden rat, looking very lively for having lived as long as he had, Percy had handed the rat down to Ron after owning him for five years Ron had now had him for about three. Scabbers had now lost a considerable amount of weight and was looking quite bedraggled to say the least.

Harry paid for his ice cream and the trio headed for Magical Menagerie, the pet shop where Robert and Harry had purchased Hedwig a couple years ago. Hermione went looking around the shop as Harry and Ron approached the desk.

"Can I help you?" the middle-aged witch behind the counter asked.

"I need something for my rat," Ron explained.

"Bang him on the counter," the witch told him, pulling out a pair of thick, horn-rimmed glasses. Ron pulled out Scabbers again and the witch examined him. "He's been put through the wringer a few times," she said, "How old is he?"

"We've had him in the family of nearly eight years and he was full grown when we got him," Ron said.

"Impressive," the witch said, "Ordinary garden rats tend to only live three years or so he's been taken care of quite well, I'll say that, what happened to him that he got like this?"

"We took a vacation in Egypt and he got hit with a funny spell," Ron mumbled.

"Do you know what spell?"

"No."

"Pity, well nothing can be done about that. I'd recommend allowing him to rest and take it easy for a while and this rat tonic," the witch handed Ron a little red bottle.

Hermione came walking up to the counter carrying a ginger cat. "Hide the rat!" the witch said hurriedly, but it was too late. The cat spotted Scabbers and, wriggling its way out of Hermione's arms, jumped up onto the counter and began sniffing the rat. Scabbers had gone completely stiff as the cat examined him, and was starting to shake with fear. The cat opened its mouth and…began licking Scabbers?

"Crookshanks, what are you doing?" the witch asked a little disbelieving. The cat lay down on the counter and began purring, holding the rat to its belly. Ron, Harry, and Hermione peered down at the two animals. To their shock, Scabbers had fallen asleep.

---------------------------------------------------

"What's this all about?" Ginny asked as the four of them sat in the Leaky Caldron eating dinner. Crookshanks and Scabbers were once again snuggled up with each other, snoozing as the humans ate.

"Apparently my cat has taken a liking to Ron's rat," Hermione said, "Oddly enough it's kinda cute watching them." Ron acted like he was vomiting while the two girls were looking at the two pets, causing Harry to choke on his soup.

Percy had been appointed Head Boy, and the Head Girl appeared to be the Ravenclaw prefect that was attacked last year which also turned out to be his girlfriend. Naturally Fred and George had taken the first opportunity to steal the badge and alter it so that instead of reading Head Boy it read Bighead Boy. Harry wasn't sure why this was supposed to be funny, but with the twins nothing every really needed explaining because it was usually too complicated.

Unfortunately Ron had forgotten his rat tonic down at the table and since Percy hadn't found the badge yet had been recruited to help find Percy's badge. Harry volunteered to go and get the rat tonic and as he reached to bottom of the stairs, overheard a rather interesting conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

"It makes no sense not to tell him," Mr. Weasley was saying, "I've talked with the Minister about it but he insists that Harry be kept in the dark on this matter. He's thirteen years old for Merlin's sake and…"

"The truth would terrify him, Arthur!" Mr. Weasley said almost hysterically, "He's a boy after all, how would you feel knowing the greatest You-Know-Who supporter of all time had broken out of prison and is after him? Do you think Harry will want that hanging over him this coming year? He's happy not knowing!"

"I don't want to frighten him!" Mr. Weasley snorted, "But I do want him to be aware of what he's doing this year because the risks of him ending up in the Forbidden Forest this year and running into Sirius Black are too high! Gabriel is currently following a lead on Black right now and if he hadn't been here at the Leaky Caldron under supervision I don't know what would have happened. Suppose that the lead was a farce and Black had been camping outside of Gabriel's house for the past week waiting for him to leave without Harry?"

"But that didn't happen, Harry was here the whole time, so what's the point?"

"The point is that eventually we may make a slip up and that's all Black needs: one tiny slip up! And all of a sudden we have Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, dead."

"But he'll be at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore; there isn't a safer place in the world."

"The same was said about Azkaban and Black managed to break out of that. And Hogwarts happens to be where Black's headed."

"How do you know?"

"Cornelius told me about the night after Black escaped. He went to question the guards about what Black had been acting like and apparently for the past week Black had been muttering "he's at Hogwarts" over and over again. Then suddenly he just wasn't there anymore."

"What's all this about?" a new voice asked. Harry thought it sounded an awful lot like Gabriel's.

"Ah, Gabriel, how did the hunt go?" Mr. Weasley asked in a jovial voice.

"Dead end," Gabriel said, "I expected it to be but had to go investigate it anyway. How's Harry?"

"He's just fine," Mr. Weasley said, "And he'll probably stay that way if he doesn't find out about Black."

"Too late," Gabriel said, and Harry could almost hear the smile on his adopted father's face as he said it.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Weasley asked, rather taken aback.

"Two reasons," Gabriel said, "One: I told him why he was coming to the Leaky Caldron before I left. He knew about Blacks escape and possible motive before he arrived here. And Two: he's sitting on the stairs over there and has probably heard every word of your conversation."

Harry walked into the open, picked up Ron's rat tonic, waved to Mrs. Weasley, who looked rather pale, and Mr. Weasley, who looked rather relieved, and a smiling Gabriel and walked back up the stairs to give Ron the bottle.

-----------------------------------------------

Mr. Weasley had Harry promise him, even if he wasn't his guardian, that he would try and stay out of trouble this year before getting on the train. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were now looking for a compartment to sit in, most were full. They eventually found one toward the back end of the train that was, for the most part empty.

"Who do you suppose that is?" Ron said pointing to the sleeping form of a middle-aged looking man.

"Professor R. J. Lupin." Hermione told the other three.

"Lupin you say?" Harry asked looking at Hermione, "You're sure it's Lupin?"

Hermione pointed to the man's suitcase where it read in faded letters Professor R. J. Lupin. Harry could hardly believe it. Mr. Lupin was going to be this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! No wonder the class text book hadn't changed; Robert either introduced Mr. Lupin to the book or the other way around.

"Why do you ask?" Hermione said, waving her hand in front of Harry's face to get his attention, "And what were you thinking about? I called your name twice before you responded."

"Well, as it so happens, Mr. Lupin and my family are actually good friends and I suspect that either Robert gave him the In Shade and Shadow series or Professor Lupin introduced Robert to them," Harry said, "It's going to be another interesting year."

The four kids discussed what their summers had been like in a little more detail than the discussion in Diagon Alley, Ron applied the rat tonic to Scabbers and returned him to his coat pocket where he was sleeping, Crookshanks calmly purred from Hermione's lap, and Harry and Ginny began discussing Quidditch. Ron joined in on the conversation after a few moments and the three began analyzing the strategies of various professional teams. Harry wasn't very surprised when Ron knew half the plays of a good portion of the various teams in Britain.

"It's a bit different," Hermione eventually said, looking up from her Arithmancy book which she had been reading, "without Robert here I mean. He always had a funny comment or story or trick to show us. Remember the Muggle card trick where he selected a card, showed it to us, placed it in the middle of the deck, had Ginny hold the deck loosely in between her fingers, slapped it, and the only card remaining in her hand was the card he showed us?"

Ginny giggled remembering the trick. "Yeah, and then he admitted that he hadn't the foggiest idea for how it worked," she said, "I wonder how he's doing…"

"Robert is doing quite well actually," a muffled voice said. Every head in the room turned and stared at Professor Lupin. He had turned over and was sitting up straight; he looked as tired as ever in his thin robes. "He came past my house a few days ago, looking for some information I'm not completely sure what he was looking for. He looked as fit as ever and acted as eccentrically as ever," Lupin said with a smile, "I swear that boy can't say anything without interlacing a joke into it."

"What'd he say this time?" Harry asked.

"For a period of time, about twenty minutes I believe, all he would say was "What are those?" and "Is it really that big?". After about three minutes I caught on to what he was doing and somehow we managed to communicate and get things done with him only using those to questions," Lupin chuckled, "He also, as he left, told me that he finally figured out what Muggles hear when they put a seashell up to their ear."

"What?" Ron asked.

"PUTMEDOWN!" Lupin yelled at the top of his lungs, causing everyone to jump and then laugh as they figured out what Lupin had said.

They talked for a while, asking things about Robert, much of which they knew, some of which they didn't. Harry decided that if he saw Robert anytime soon or heard from him he was going to need to tease his older brother about this "Danica Mathis" whom Lupin said he had a bit of an infatuation with.

The train stopped, suddenly. "What's going on?" Ginny asked.

"I'm not sure," Lupin said, "I'll go ask the conductor."

Just then all the lights in the train went out. There was a large amount of screaming from other compartments and Harry heard Ginny make several squeaking noises. "What the hell just happened?" Ron asked.

"Quiet," Lupin ordered. He lit his wand and went the doorway, opening it and pulling a student in. It was Neville. "What's happening out there?" Lupin asked.

"Not sure," Neville said, "It suddenly got very dark on my way back from the loo. And cold, very cold."

"Good Lord," Lupin muttered, "They haven't let one of those things on the train have they?"

"What things, Professor?" Ginny asked.

Just then the door and something glided into the compartment. Harry only had a moment to register the large, ominous, cloaked figure before an intense feeling of gripping cold overtook him. Was it his own breaths that were raspy or were they the figures? As he felt himself slide out of his seat he could hear the distant sound of someone screaming.

There was a sudden flash of silver light and the cold slipped away, but the chill remained. Lights were coming back on and he slowly returned to full awareness. Looking around, Harry noticed that he wasn't the only one on the floor. Ginny was curled into a fetal position and was sobbing hysterically. Hermione was prodding her with Crookshanks.

Ron and Neville, who looked a little unsettled himself, helped Harry to his feet and sat back down in the chairs. Lupin was opening chocolate sweets that had been purchased earlier, as if nothing had happened.

"What happened?" Harry asked, "What was that?"

"That," Lupin said, "was a dementor. Probably the foulest magical creature you may ever find in the world. It feeds of human emotions, as they are the strongest. It specifically feeds off of happy thoughts, which is why it gets cold. You all felt like you might never be cheerful again, did you not?"

Everyone nodded, except Ginny who was still being coaxed from the floor. She wasn't in a fetal position anymore but still sobbed hysterically, wringing her hands, clamping her legs together tightly.

Lupin motioned for Ron to come over. "Has something exceptionally bad happened to her in the past?" he asked quietly.

"She was possessed by a memory of Tom Riddle for most of last year and apparently during some of her black outs he did some pretty nasty things to her. Said that he made her wake up with her hand in her "happy place". Any idea what that's supposed to mean?" Ron told him.

Lupin turned several shades of red and gripped the armrest tightly for a moment.

"This pile is hers," he said pushing all the chocolate he had unwrapped toward Ginny, "make sure she eats all of it." He got up and exited the compartment.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked Ron, who recounted what he had said to Lupin quietly.

"Oh, God!" Hermione blushed. She put her mouth to Ron's ear and whispered something to him, causing him to blush as well.

'Guess Ron just learned what "her happy place" means,' Harry thought, who already knew considering Robert had told him shortly after the incident in the Chamber last year. Suddenly he remembered something from the DADA book.

"We need to get her to eat the chocolate," he said, "Dementors make us remember our most painfully awful memories. She's reliving last year in vivid detail right now. Chocolate happens to be the remedy for dementor affects…

---------------------------------------------

Dumbledore sat in his office after the start of term feast. Remus Lupin and Severus Snape sat before him. "I'm sure you are well aware of what the circumstances of this year hold," he said to the two of them.

They nodded.

"I'm sure you are also still harboring a few ill feelings toward each other from your school days."

Again, the two men nodded.

"And I'm also sure that both of you realize that it is in the past and we cannot let the past rule the present. Now everyone in this room knows that the situation behind Sirius Black's imprisonment is highly convenient and the most likely scenario is that the Ministry just wanted a scapegoat to be sent to prison and Black fit the criteria."

Remus nodded vigorously while Severus begrudgingly nodded in agreement.

"Neither Robert nor Gabriel is able to be around Hogwarts this year," Dumbledore continued, "Therefore it is up to you two that Harry stays safe and protected when need be. This is a difficult task, for even though Harry knows that he is being watched by us he must not feel like we are looking over his shoulder. He must be allowed to grow and, as Gabriel informed me about Molly Weasley's approach, we must not hide things from him for his well being. We are hiding enough as it is and even that shall be told to him shortly, he is very close to being ready to hear that information."

The three men looked at each other before nodding and Severus and Remus rose to return to their offices to rest for the night.

Dumbledore looked out the window into the night.

"This, Fawkes, is going to be an interesting year. I pray that all goes well for our Harry Potter and his friends."

So how'd I do?

Let me know: please review. And I mean it. Please.