Chapter Seven: Risky Plans (AKA Operation PASBOHF)
It was needlessly risky.
He had a plan, yes.
But it was risky.
He was very likely to get himself caught, but… if that happened, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
This all started when Snuffles saw how broken-hearted Harry was over his broom being destroyed and how sad-yet-enraged Harry was over the news that he, or well, that Sirius Black was Harry's godfather and had betrayed Harry's parents.
Around his friends and peers, Harry mostly acted like he was doing fine. And after the initial talk about him, err, about Black with Ron and Hermione, Harry hadn't really spoked to his friends about the subject. All Harry would say was that he was giving the situation some thought.
So, from what Snuffles saw, Harry's friends mainly left the issue alone… probably because whenever Ron and Hermione started talking, their conversation usually seemed to devolve into a heated argument about their pets.
Snuffles was firmly on Hermione's side of that particular argument. It'd save him a lot of trouble if her lovely cat, Crookshanks, would just kill the rat. But, then again, if Crookshanks killed the rat, then it'd be a very long and complicated process to get himself freed – mostly because he was pretty sure that the Minister had something like a kill or 'kiss' on sight order out on Sirius Black.
But, whenever Harry was only around Snuffles, Harry was generally a brooding storm of misery and rage.
Although Snuffles couldn't really do anything about Harry's issues with Sirius Black (since he has yet to catch that bastard rat), Snuffles could probably help out with Harry's other issue.
Harry was devastated, absolutely devastated, over the state of his once pristine broomstick.
Snuffles had been aware that Harry had a good broomstick – he was on the Quidditch team after all. But Snuffles hadn't been aware of the circumstances that led to Harry becoming a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and getting a broom.
Harry got on the team in his first year! Harry had been the youngest Seeker in a century!
And Minnie herself – the strict Professor McGonagall – had actually recommended Harry for the team after he pulled off a stunt that was worthy of the Marauders. Harry had been defending a fellow Gryffindor (well, the property of a Gryffindor, but same difference) and he had stuck it to a snobby Slytherin at the same time.
Harry had told Snuffles all about how he'd gotten onto the Quidditch team and Snuffles was so, so proud of him. Maybe a little concerned about how Harry could've gotten hurt during that stunt, but, generally, Snuffles was so proud.
Snuffles was surprised, but not shocked, when Harry had told him that his Nimbus 2000 had been a gift from Professor McGonagall. It wasn't that shocking because Snuffles knew that, while Minerva was often a strict taskmaster, she would occasionally bend the rules a bit for one of her Gryffindors.
But Snuffles figured the main reason for Harry receiving a broom – the best broomstick on the market at the time – was because Minerva was a major Quidditch fan. And she couldn't have Gryffindor losing to the Slytherins, could she? So if she saw Harry performing a feat worthy of an amazing Seeker, well, it made sense that Minerva would recruit Harry for the Gryffindor Quidditch team rather than punish him for not staying on the ground.
And apparently Harry wasn't the only one who was disheartened over the broom disaster. Harry had told Snuffles that Oliver Wood was particularly putout over the whole incident. Harry figured that his captain's mood was the result of the combination of the Gryffindor Quidditch team losing to the Hufflepuffs and having his Seeker's top-of-the-line broomstick destroyed which will cause his Seeker (Harry) to be out of commission for the foreseeable future; or at least until Harry can get his hands on another broomstick.
Harry sadly confided in Snuffles that he'd probably just have to borrow one of the school's broomsticks for Quidditch practices and games.
There was no way that Snuffles was going to let Harry ride around on a school broom for Quidditch. First of all, Snuffles knew that those brooms were seriously outdated and in very poor shape (and he knew this because he and Harry had done a little reconnaissance and checked out all of the school's broomsticks in the broom storage shed near the Quidditch pitch). Secondly, since the brooms were on their last legs, it was very likely that in a rough game of Quidditch (especially if they were going up against the Slytherin team), a school broom would break or malfunction – which would likely result in Harry getting hurt. Lastly, the so-outdated-it-was-almost-ridiculous school brooms would be oh so very slow and a Seeker needed a fast broom to go after the Golden Snitch.
Thus, the plan.
Snuffles decided to call it Operation: Put A Smile Back On Harry's Face.
Or Operation PASBOHF for short.
And Snuffles was sure that he could pull this plan off because all he needed was an owl, some parchment, some ink, and a quill… And some funding, but Snuffles wouldn't actually need to see or handle the money himself.
Although Snuffles was generally uncomfortable around goblins and their attitudes towards wizards, he was exceptionally happy with the goblin's policies on how they managed a wizard's bank accounts.
Goblins didn't really concern themselves with the affairs of any wizarding government. And thanks to a treaty between the Goblin Nation and the Ministry of Magic, goblins were the sole managers and operators of any and all Gringotts branches within the United Kingdom. The Ministry of Magic (and wizards in general) had to keep their noses out of goblin business when it concerned the management of finances in any Gringotts premises.
Goblins had their own set of laws and rules that they abided by.
If a witch or wizard were to perform a crime against the Goblin Nation, such as fraud, murdering a goblin, or stealing from Gringotts, then that witch or wizard would be persecuted to the fullest extent of the goblin law for his or her crime and then banned from entering any goblin-managed facility. Sometimes there would be extenuating circumstances and the goblins would be lenient, but usually the goblins were out for blood, so to speak.
As long as a witch or wizard had Galleons, Sickles, Knuts, or other valuables that had monetary worth and had at least one vault within Gringotts, the goblins would serve that witch or wizard as a customer, albeit with their customary grudging attitude. And because of that, goblins didn't care if a witch or wizard was a law-following citizen, a high and mighty lord, or an escaped convict.
That meant that Snuffles still had access to at least one vault in Gringotts: his trust vault. Snuffles wasn't entirely sure if he had access to the other Black Family vaults. If he had been officially disowned (like his mother threatened to do when he ran away from home to live with the Potters), then he wouldn't have any access to the other vaults. But he was pretty sure he hadn't been disowned if only because the newspapers would've taken great pleasure in referring to him as the 'disgraced and disowned Sirius Black' just to spice it up from calling him the 'Azkaban escapee Sirius Black'. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, as the only living heir to the main branch of the Black Family, he was probably the next Lord Black. Or he would be referred to as such if he was ever exonerated or if he ever got a fair trial and was proved innocent.
No. Not if, when.
'When I get a fair trial and can prove my innocence. I've got to think positive.'
The fact of the matter was that Snuffles still had access to some funds – and a considerable amount of funds at that.
He'd have to clear up any issues and check up on the Black Family vaults later, hopefully when he wasn't a fugitive from the Ministry.
For now, the first step in Operation: PASBOHF was for Snuffles to draft a letter to his account manager at Gringotts.
So that meant that Snuffles needed to borrow a quill, some ink, and a bit of parchment from somewhere. There was always someone who would accidentally leave a quill or some parchment around the Common Room, but getting his hands on some ink would be a bit more difficult. Snuffles would probably have to wait until Harry and the other third year boys were asleep and risk getting an inkwell from one of their school bags. Or he could wait until Harry and his friends were in class and rummage around Gryffindor Tower for the supplies he needed.
But if he waited until Harry was in one of his classes, then that would mean that Snuffles couldn't follow Harry around the castle because Snuffles would have to stay in the Tower until Harry came back for him. And Snuffles didn't feel comfortable doing that since he wasn't sure where the rat was.
Snuffles had figured out a while ago that Azkaban had had more of an effect on him that he had previously thought. He knew he was physically weaker than he had once been. Snuffles had been starved in Azkaban, given just enough food to keep him alive, but not enough to allow him to build up or keep any strength. And then when he finally began eating right, after Harry had found him and started helping him recover, Snuffles realized that he had a long road to recovery ahead of him. He got exhausted too easily, his emotions were all over the place, he would occasionally loose time or forget where he was, and every so often he would think that Harry was James. Snuffles was pretty sure that he was hovering closer to insanity than sanity at the moment; and that was just the beginning of his problems.
But the worst thing, the absolutely worst thing, that Azkaban did to him was break his nose.
Well, he didn't actually break his nose in Azkaban, but technically his nose was broken because right now his damned nose wasn't working properly.
As an animagus, Snuffles had the same range of smell that a canine did. He could scent and track as good as, if not better than, the finest hunting dogs. Or at least he used to be able to. Before Azkaban.
But right now, Snuffles could barely smell anything, let alone track something as small as that rat.
And the real kicker was that Snuffles hadn't even notice that he was lacking in the nose department until after Halloween – when, after he had seen Harry and calmed down, he tried to find the rat's scent to track him down. Snuffles had been unpleasantly surprised when he had had to practically stick his nose onto Ron's robes to catch a whiff of the rat's scent only to quickly lose it once he moved away from the redhead.
Snuffles also realized that his eyesight wasn't what it used to be either. He could generally see well, which is why he hadn't really noticed his sight problem at first. But when Snuffles tested his sight a bit, he found that, compared to what his eyesight used to be, he was practically nearsighted.
Luckily, his ears seemed to be working just fine. Hearing Remus before the man appeared was the only thing that allowed Snuffles to avoid the Defense Professor. Snuffles originally thought that Remus had been using a spell to hide his scent or something for some reason. Now Snuffles realized that it was his own nose that was the issue.
So, since Snuffles couldn't rely on his own nose to sniff out the rat, he needed to stay near Harry to keep him safe. That meant that Snuffles' only option was to wait until Harry and the rest of the boys in his dorm were asleep to grab some parchment, ink, and a quill.
Like he'd realized before, this plan of his would be risky. But what's life without a little risk?
And if the end result put a smile on Harry's face, then the risk would be more than worth it.
He would have to wait a few more hours to enact the first part of his plan. Snuffles was currently sitting at Harry's feet in the Common Room as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together at one of the tables writing what Snuffles thought was their potions essays since Ron and Harry were being pretty vocal about how much they hated Snape.
Eventually, the boys had either finished or decided to give up for the night (Ron had already asked to see Hermione's essay – and she refused to let him – so Snuffles figured that she had already finished her own assignment). Snuffles followed Harry and Ron up the stairs and into the third year boys' dormitory. As Harry and Ron were grabbing their pajamas to change into, Snuffles jumped up on Harry's bed, ready to wait for the rest of the third year boys to return to the room and fall asleep.
A while later, Snuffles laid on the bed next to Harry, getting prepared to make his move. It had been about an hour since Snuffles had heard the last boy in Harry's dorm settle down for the night. The room had been quiet for the past fifty or so minutes, so Snuffles decided that it was safe enough for him to get started. If any of the boys were still up, all they'd see was Harry's dog wandering around the room. But to write the letter, he needed opposable thumbs – so Snuffles needed to become Sirius once again. And Sirius being spotted in Gryffindor Tower would be very, very bad. So, he'd have to do most of the work as Snuffles and spend as little time as Sirius as he could.
'Alright,' Snuffles thought as he slowly sat up. 'Operation: PASBOHF is a go!'
Snuffles eased his way off of the bed so as to not accidently wake up Harry.
Poking his head through the bed curtains, Snuffles looked around the room. All of the other boys appeared to be in their beds and sleeping, so Snuffles carefully got off of the bed and decided to move towards the first schoolbag he saw.
Neville Longbottom's schoolbag was conveniently propped up against the end of the boy's bed, all ready to go for a full day of classes tomorrow.
Snuffles cautiously padded towards the schoolbag, pausing every time there was a slightest rustle or a sigh from any of the boys.
Nosing the bag open, Snuffles quietly rummaged around the bag, gently pulling out a quill, a spare sheet of parchment, and finally, a partially filled inkwell.
Snuffles quickly realized that he needed to move the supplies somewhere where he could safely (well, relatively speaking) transform into Sirius for the few minutes needed to compose the letter. And he also realized that he needed a way to transport his supplies to wherever it was he was going to go.
Snuffles couldn't leave Gryffindor Tower – that much was certain – because he wouldn't be able to get back into the Common Room without revealing himself to say the password or without having to wait for a Gryffindor to leave or enter through the portrait entrance. And if Harry found out that Snuffles had left the Tower, it might put Snuffles in an uncomfortable position.
So Snuffles would have to do this somewhere within Gryffindor Tower. But luckily Snuffles wouldn't be confined to just one room in the Tower because, and Snuffles did a quick check to make sure, the last boy who had enter the third year dormitory hadn't closed the door all the way. It looked like the door had shut, but, luckily for Snuffles, it hadn't latched.
The bathroom would probably be the best place for Snuffles to transform. He could have a relative amount of privacy in one of the stalls if no one else was in the bathroom. And at this time of night, Snuffles assumed that there wouldn't be anyone in there – well, there was always the possibility that someone could wake up with the urge to 'go', but that was a slim chance and Snuffles was willing to risk it.
Snuffles, after a quick glance around the room, figured that his best bet on moving his supplies would be to just carry them in his mouth. Like a real dog would. Only gentler.
If a golden retriever could safely carry a raw egg in its mouth without breaking it, then surely Snuffles could carry some parchment, a quill, and an inkwell in his mouth without causing some sort of disaster.
After a bit of awkward biting, licking, and drooling, Snuffles managed to fit the entire inkwell in his mouth and gently clamp down on the parchment and the quill with his teeth.
Snuffles slowly padded over to the door. With a bit of maneuvering, Snuffles was able to nose open the door and leave the room.
Lady Luck must've once again been favoring Snuffles because the door to the bathroom had been left ajar. Snuffles ran to the door and squeezed through the opening.
Hearing only the clicking of his claws on the tiled floor, Snuffles was happy to find that he was the only one in the room and he quickly made his way into one of the stalls, nosing the stall door shut behind him.
Snuffles carefully dropped his supplies on the floor in front of him and did a quick inspection. The parchment had a couple of teeth indents, but no holes. The feather of the quill was slightly damp with his saliva, but it was otherwise in perfect working order. And the inkwell managed to stay firmly shut, which Snuffles was very thankful about. He was grateful that it hadn't opened in his mouth. That would've been messy… and disgusting.
Since the supplies remained undamaged and no one else was in the room, Snuffles transformed into Sirius.
Sirius sat down on the toilet lid and grabbed the parchment and quill off of the floor. He smoothed out the parchment over his knee and the leaned down to uncork the inkwell. Sirius dipped the quill into the inkwell and then proceeded to carefully compose a letter to his Gringotts account manager.
His handwriting was shaky and writing on his knee wasn't exactly helping his legibility, but his letter could still be deciphered. Sirius was basically asking his account manager to access the funds from his trust vault for Sirius as well as use those funds to make a purchase.
Sirius had overheard a few members of Harry's Quidditch team discussing brooms and how a new model had been recently released that summer. He thought they might've called it a Firefly or something, but at the time, Snuffles hadn't really been paying attention.
So Sirius didn't exactly know the best make or model of broomstick on the market. It wasn't like he could go off and research it or ask anyone about the latest and greatest brooms. That was why Sirius decided ask his account manager to use the funds from his trust vault to purchase the best broom on today's market. He figured that his account manager could find out what the best broomstick was and purchase it a lot easier than Sirius could at the moment. Also, Sirius put in the specification for the broomstick to be sent to Harry Potter, wrapped in Christmas paper, and for it to arrive on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
And, knowing a bit about how goblins worked, Sirius added that his account manager should pull the funds necessary for the broom as well as the amount required for the services that the goblin would be rendering since the goblin would be acting as an intermediary for Sirius.
Finishing off the letter with his somewhat illegible signature, Sirius nicked his thumb against the sharp part of the quill, letting a bead of blood well up and then he pressed his thumb down on the parchment next to his signature, leaving a bloody thumb print behind. Since Sirius couldn't go to Gringotts in person and since he didn't have his signet ring for either the Black Heir or the Black Lord, Sirius had to leave a small amount of blood on the parchment for identification purposes. He knew that the goblins would accept that as a form of legitimate identification.
'Step one of Operation PASBOHF is complete! Step two will begin tomorrow!'
With his letter finished, Sirius rolled up the parchment and put it and the quill on the floor. Sirius transformed back into Snuffles, grabbed the supplies with his mouth, and quickly made his way back to the third year boys' dorm room.
Snuffles quietly nosed the door shut behind him and gently dropped his now partially drool-covered supplies near Neville's schoolbag. Snuffles placed the inkwell and quill back into Neville's bag, but grabbed the letter he had just written with his teeth.
Padding over to Harry's bed, Snuffles hid his letter under Harry's bed, pressing it up against the wall just in case someone decided to look for something under the bed.
Snuffles slowly crept back up onto Harry's bed and laid down next to Harry. Resting his head on his front paws and closing his eyes, Snuffles drifted off to sleep.
...
It was time to put the next part of Operation PASBOHF into motion.
Harry had entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom five minutes ago. Snuffles could trust that Remus would protect Harry if something were to happen, so Snuffles felt that this was the only time that he could leave Harry relatively unsupervised when Snuffles had no real idea of where that rat was at.
Giving one last glance at the classroom that Harry had disappeared into, Snuffles padded through the corridors and towards the Owlery at a quick pace. He wasn't running because he didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to himself, but he did need to get to the Owlery and then back to the Defense classroom before Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson ended.
Hopefully, with most of the Hogwarts students in one class or another, the Owlery would be free of any other people. And if a student happened to be in the Owlery, then Snuffles felt that he was capable of making a suitable distraction to get the student out of there.
When Snuffles finally made it up to the Owlery, he was relieved to find that he was the only one there besides the owls. Speaking of the owls, some of the birds were looking a little nervous at the sight of a canine in their presence.
Knowing that he had to be quick, not only to get back to Harry, but also to help reduce the chance that someone stumbled across him, Snuffles spat out his letter on the floor and transformed into Sirius. Right before Snuffles had left Gryffindor Tower with Harry, Snuffles had folded his letter as small as he could get it and wrapped it with another sheet of parchment that he had taken from Neville's schoolbag (and folding and wrapping his letter was extremely difficult when he had no thumbs and just paws and claws). Then Snuffles grabbed the wrapped letter between his teeth and carefully held it in his mouth, trying not to get it too slobbered on. Snuffles kept the letter hidden in his mouth and between his teeth for most of the day, waiting for Harry to go to his Defense class. His jaw was aching a bit from holding his teeth clamped in that one position for so long.
Sirius quickly picked up his letter, removed the slightly damp outer wrapping of parchment, and unfolded his letter. After giving his letter a glance to make sure that everything was fine (and that his saliva hadn't got his letter wet or caused the ink to run), Sirius went up to one of the school's nondescript brown owls.
He attached the letter to the owl's leg as he told the owl to take it to Gringotts. As Sirius took a moment to watch the owl fly off with his letter, an owl landed on his shoulder.
Sirius saw that it wasn't just any owl. It was Hedwig, Harry's beautiful snowy owl.
"Hello, pretty girl," Sirius greeted in a whisper as he gently brushed a finger over the feathers on the owl's chest.
Hedwig cooed at Sirius and nipped at a lock of his hair before she took off from his shoulder, gliding back over to a post.
Sirius glanced around to make sure there was still no one in the area and, upon seeing that there was still no one around, he transformed back into Snuffles with only Hedwig and the other owls there to watch him change from a man to a dog.
Snuffles happily trotted out of the Owlery and down the corridors to the Defense classroom. Once he was near the Defense classroom, Snuffles sat down at the end of the corridor and watched the classroom door.
As he was waiting for Harry's Defense lesson to end, Snuffles was giving himself a mental pat on the back for a job well done. So far, Operation: Put A Smile Back On Harry's Face was a success. As long as there were no issues with his letter or his bank vault, his Gringotts account manager should be able to make sure that everything would go according to plan. The final and most important test of his plan would be to see how Harry reacts to receiving his new broom on Christmas.
...
Today was the big day!
It was the day that Snuffles would find out if Operation: PASBOHF was a brilliant success or a devastating failure.
Snuffles woke up earlier than usual, way earlier than Harry normally did, because he was just so excited. He couldn't wait to see how Harry reacted to receiving his new broomstick. He had to force himself to stay still so he wouldn't wake up Harry, but Snuffles was pretty sure that he was vibrating in place.
He couldn't wait for Harry to wake up!
He couldn't wait for Harry to see and unwrap his present!
He couldn't wait to see how Harry would react to getting a new broomstick!
In general, Snuffles just couldn't wait for the day to start. He was so excited!
After about another two hours of trying to sit still next to Harry, Snuffles heard movement from the only other occupant in the room. Since Harry's friend Ron was starting to stir, Snuffles figured that it was time for Harry to start waking up as well.
Snuffles stretched and moved his face closer to Harry's face. He hovered over Harry, purposefully puffing short breaths of air into Harry's face. Harry scrunched up his nose but otherwise didn't react.
Huffing in frustration, Snuffles then licked Harry's face from his chin to his forehead. This time Harry scrunched up his nose again, took a deep breath, and cracked an eye open to blearily look at Snuffles.
In response, Snuffles wagged his tail and licked Harry again, from chin to forehead.
"Ugh…" Harry said in a sleepy whine as he opened both eyes briefly before closing his eyes again and turning away. "Snuffles!"
'It's Christmas Day! It's Christmas Day! Get up! Get up! Get up!' Snuffles thought as he softly barked in Harry's face and then licked Harry's face again.
"Snuffles!" Harry whined, pushing the dog's face away as he yawned.
Snuffles was just about try to lick Harry again when Harry's bed curtains were suddenly pulled open. Harry sat up and Snuffles almost fell off of the bed when Ron's face appeared.
"Come on, Harry!" Ron said excitedly. "It's Christmas! Time for presents! Grab whatever presents you got and I'll meet you down in the Common Room!"
Ron disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.
"Christmas?" Harry said before the sleep cleared from his eyes and he beamed at Snuffles. "It's Christmas! Snuffles! Merry Christmas, Snuffles!"
'Yes! It's Christmas! Now come on! Come on! Come on!'
Snuffles barked as he leapt off of the bed and ran in a circle like he was chasing his tail, waiting for Harry to get up out of bed.
Harry laughed excitedly as he threw the covers off of him and got off of the bed. He rubbed Snuffles head and went to the end of his bed where the presents he had received were waiting for him in a pile. Harry grabbed his robe and placed his presents in it. With his arms full of presents, Harry turned to Snuffles with a wide smile on his face.
"Race you down to the Common Room, Snuffles!"
Harry dashed out of the room with Snuffles hot on his heels.
As Snuffles and Harry cleared the stairs and raced into the Common Room. Ron and Hermione had already gathered in front of the fireplace with their Christmas presents.
Harry walked towards Ron and Hermione as they both said, "Happy Christmas, Harry!"
"Merry Christmas Ron! Merry Christmas Hermione!" Harry responded happily as he sat down in front of them so that the three friends now formed a triangle. Snuffles trotted up to Harry and sat down in between him and Hermione.
To keep Christmas, or at least Christmas morning, peaceful and happy, Ron and Hermione had both agreed to keep their pets in their dormitory. So Crookshanks was still in Hermione's room and that rat bastard was most likely on Ron's bed. But Snuffles was trying not to actively think of that rat right now. He wanted to enjoy his Christmas morning with Harry.
All at once, the three friends started opening their presents, but Snuffles wasn't too concerned with what other presents Harry or his friends were opening. Snuffles was too busy keeping his eyes on one of Harry's presents in particular. A long rectangle shaped present.
Finally!
Finally Harry reached for the long rectangle shaped present and began tearing off the wrapping paper.
'Oh boy! Harry! You are so going to love this! I just know it!' Snuffles thought as his tail began to wag in excited anticipation.
"Oh!" Harry exclaimed reverently as he opened the box. "Oh Merlin!"
"What, Harry?" Hermione asked at the same time that Ron asked, "Whatcha got there?"
"It's a – It's a broomstick!" Harry exclaimed excitedly as he carefully pulled the broom out of the box.
"Woah! Harry!" Ron said as he got a good look at the broomstick.
"It's a Firebolt!" Harry said sounding thrilled, with a big smile stretching across his face and wide eyes as he stared at the broom in his hands in awe. Snuffles whole body started to wiggle and his tail thumped up and down as he could barely contain his excitement.
'He likes it! He really likes it!' Snuffles thought proudly. 'And just look at the smile on his face! It looks like Operation: Put A Smile Back On Harry's Face is a complete and total success!'
"Merlin! A Firebolt?!" Ron questioned as he scrambled over to Harry's side. "It is!"
"Who's it from, Harry?" Hermione asked, smiling softly at the boys' antics.
"Oh, umm… it's from…" Harry trailed off as he looked around for a tag or a card.
'There's not going to be an indication of who it's from, kiddo. I couldn't exactly have my name signed to it and a paw print would just raise some uncomfortable questions. Just enjoy it! It's a brand new broom – the best on the market!'
"I don't know who it's from," Harry said, sounding unconcerned. "I don't think I can find out who it's from right now anyway because there isn't a card or anything attached to it."
"Are you sure you should be accepting that, Harry?" Hermione asked as the smile slowly dropped off of her face. "If you don't know who it's from…"
"Of course he's going to accept it!" Ron squawked indignantly. "The Firebolt's the best broom out there right now! It'd be a crime not to accept it and use it!"
"Yeah, I'm definitely accepting it, Hermione," Harry said, a little baffled about why Hermione was even asking such a question. "I mean, when I got my invisibility cloak for Christmas in first year, I didn't know who it was from. But I still accepted it and used it then."
"But, Harry, what if that broom is sabotaged or something. I mean, everyone knows that your old one was destroyed so you'd be needing a new one," Hermione said. "If someone wanted to do you harm, giving you a cursed or faulty broomstick would be a very easy way for them to do so. I don't think you should just accept it like that. Harry, I think you should take it to Professor McGonagall to have it tested."
'What?!' Snuffles thought, unpleasantly surprised by what Hermione was suggesting. 'That's a whole new level of paranoia, even for me. I mean, I guess it's good to be in the habit of practicing constant vigilance as Moody would say, but still…it'd be absolutely awful to have to give up that great broomstick so soon after receiving it. Let Harry bask in his moment of Christmas joy!'
"What?!" Harry exclaimed, shocked. "No! I mean – it's a Firebolt!"
"Harry! What if it's from Sirius Black?" Hermione asked emphatically.
"Ha!" Ron scoffed. "Like Sirius Black would be sending Harry a broomstick."
'Actually, that's exactly what happened. I did send him a broomstick!' Snuffles was quite amused by Ron's statement.
"I've got to agree with Ron on this one, Hermione," Harry said. "It's an amazing gift from someone who was being nice. Very nice."
'Why, thank you, Harry! I'm glad you like it.'
"Harry –" Hermione started to say, but Harry interrupted her.
"And don't go saying anything about this to McGonagall, alright?" Harry asked. "It's just a broomstick. It's an amazing and top-of-the-line broomstick that I got for Christmas. Can't you just be happy for me?"
"Well, I am happy for you, but you should be more careful. With Black still out there, I'm worried –"
"Please, Hermione," Harry said, clenching the broomstick a bit tighter. "Just drop it."
"Fine," Hermione said quietly. "I'll drop it… for now."
...
Snuffles had debated back and forth about whether or not to go to the Christmas feast with Harry.
On one hand, there'd be amazing food and Snuffles would be there to guard Harry, just in case anything unfortunate were to happen.
On the other hand, Remus would be there and they would all be sitting together at the same table. There was more of an opportunity for Remus to recognize and expose him.
Harry or Remus.
Decisions, decisions…
In the end, Snuffles decided to risk it. It was his first Christmas out of Azkaban in twelve years and he was determined to spend the whole day with Harry. Consequences be damned.
With Snuffles trotting merrily by his side, Harry chattered with Ron and Hermione as they walked down the corridors to the Great Hall. Once the four of them reached the doors to the Great Hall, Snuffles darted forwards and ran straight for the main table where the plates were set up. In seconds, Snuffles had made it to the table and dove underneath it.
From his position under the table, Snuffles watched as Harry and his friends walked up to the table at a more reasonable pace. As Harry settled down in a seat, Snuffles brushed up against Harry's legs. Harry responded by petting Snuffles for a few moments.
Snuffles could hear Harry quietly talking to Ron about his new broomstick. Harry was still extremely excited about getting the broom and Snuffles was so proud of his decision to buy the broom for Harry.
Eventually everyone that decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas (Snuffles thought it was about twelve or thirteen people in total) arrived in the Great Hall and the feast commenced. The only real excitement that occurred (besides the random pop of the Christmas crackers) was when Harry's Divination Professor went to sit down only to exclaim that, if she were to sit at the table, then the first to rise would die. It was very dramatic.
But things settled down and Trelawney's comment was soon forgotten in the excitement of the wonderful Christmas feast.
Snuffles was aware of the clinking of silverware against the plates and the various conversations taking place around the table, but he was mainly focused on the delicious slices of meats that Harry would pass down for him to eat. Because of all the noise and the distraction of the tasty food in front of him, Snuffles didn't hear the specific sound of a fork clattering as it dropped on the floor.
Snuffles didn't realize he was being watched until he felt his hackles start to rise.
Snuffles quickly turned around only to briefly catch the person's gaze as that person sat back up properly at the table, the fork that he had dropped firmly clenched in his hand.
Snuffles froze in dawning horror. The roasted ham that he had been eating was no longer appealing.
Apparently Remus had dropped his fork and bent under the table to retrieve it. That wouldn't've been a problem, if Snuffles hadn't have been under the table and within Remus' line of sight. But, unfortunately, Snuffles had been right there and Remus had had a perfect view of him.
Snuffles thought he should run, run as fast and as far away as he could before… before Remus exposed him. Before he was thrown back in Azkaban. Before he was killed or his soul was sucked out. Before he was taken away from Harry.
'Remus had been watching him.'
But Snuffles couldn't move. He was horrified at what had just happened.
'Remus had seen him.'
He had just exposed himself.
At the Christmas feast.
Where a bunch of professors, including Dumbledore, were eating.
'Remus knows.'
Snuffles knew that if he ran, he'd be stunned and tied up before he could get halfway to the doors of the Great Hall. He had mere seconds to react before Remus would tell everyone about the Azkaban escapee sitting under the table. And Snuffles had very limited options about what he could do.
'How the hell am I going to get myself out of this one?'
...
Author's Note:
Somehow Snuffles/Sirius managed to takeover this entire chapter. I don't know how that happened since I usually like to mix it up, but c'est la vie.
So, I've noticed that whatever I read has a tendency to bleed through into my writing – like if I read an angst-filled story, then the tone of the chapter (or a section of the chapter) I write will be sad/angry or if I read a nice, fluffy story, then my chapter tone/sections will tend to be more heartwarming. This week, I read The Martian by Andy Weir and I cannot begin to express my love for that book and for Mark Watney. And I've noticed that this chapter was really, really effected by my book-of-the-week. One of my little outline blurbs that I needed to expand upon this week was "Sirius/Snuffles writes letter to bank for broom". It was supposed to be something briefly mentioned in a paragraph a little before or after Harry opened his broomstick-present on Christmas (and Christmas day was supposed to be one small section of a chapter), but after reading The Martian, that blurb pretty much exploded into a chapter all by itself and Operation: Put A Smile Back On Harry's Face was born. I think I can place the blame entirely on the character of Mark Watney.
Also, on a slightly sadder note – I might have to temporarily slow my updates.
So, you may have noticed that this chapter is a little shorter than my average chapter length (not including Chapter 1) and here's why:
This past week I started converting my entire DVD collection to digital and to do that, I need to use my laptop. That process tends to make my laptop run really, really, really slow and/or overheat if I try to do something other than run the conversion. Now, here's the thing – from now on, I plan on doing the DVD conversions all day. So while I'm doing that, I'll have no access to my laptop other than a little bit of time in the evening/night and maybe 5-10 minutes in between conversions to let my laptop rest a little.
Why am I not just doing one or two DVD conversions a day to free up some time on my laptop? Well, I'm preparing to move out to California within the next month or so and I want to be able to watch the movies that I have whenever I feel the need to. But DVDs take up precious space in my little car that I'll be driving across the country, so I decided to convert them to digital so that my entire collection will fit onto one small external hard drive (which takes up like no room at all). That's why I'm converting all day, every day – to get this part of my moving process done and out of the way ASAP.
But, as for slowing down my updates, here's my plan:
Option 1 - I'll continue to upload every Saturday, but I'll only upload a chapter that's around 4,000-7,000 words.
Option 2 - I'll continue to upload chapters of 10,000-14,000+ words, but it'll be every other Saturday.
I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet. But it will be temporary – I'll just have to do this until my entire DVD collection is converted to digital. So maybe a week or two until I'm back on track.
And I always appreciate any comments/reviews you leave!
