Book 1: Harry Potter and The Hidden World

Chapter 8: Lingering Sentiment

"Our ability to repress unpleasant memories is a corner stone of our survival."


McGonagall walked into her classroom bright and early on the first day back from break. She set down a box of walnuts on her desk that the students were going to be turning into croquet balls. She waved her wand and instructions for the days lesson began writing on the board. She then sat down at her desk and began grading some papers while waiting for her first class of the day to arrive.

It was around then she noticed something was very wrong. She looked around the room trying to pick out what was out of place.

Eventually she noticed Harry Potter sitting in a desk a full hour before class was scheduled to start. A student showing up to class early on the first day back was so irregular her brain had been ignoring his appearance out of sheer disbelief.

"Mr. Potter." she said. "I'm sorry I didn't see you. Is there something I can help you with?"

"My parents were in your house." said Harry, looking down at a photo album in front of him.

"Yes, dear." said Professor McGonagall, coming out from behind her desk. "The were Head Boy and Head Girl their final year, that was the year your father straightened out."

"Did you know them well?" he asked as she looked at the pictures he had.

"Your father was part of a group calling themselves 'The Marauders'." she pointed to a picture of his father and three other boys. "They were Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and..." the name seemed to stick in her throat. "...Sirius Black. They were the predecessors of Fred and George Weasley. There are still booby traps around the castle that they made. That vanishing step in the Astronomy tower? That's one of them."

"You must have hated them." said Harry.

"Yes." said McGonagall, smiling fondly. "In spite of your father's distaste for academia, he was always very adept at Transfiguration."

"And my mother?" asked Harry.

"Her I never had much contact with." said McGonagall. "She preferred Charms and Potions. And Arithmancy."

"If Sirius was their friend, why was he on Voldemort's side?" he asked.

She flinched at the name.

"I have no idea." she said and swept back to her desk, "If you'll excuse me, Potter. I have to finish grading these papers."

"There's one more question," Harry asked, pulling the picture of his mother and her dark haired friend he had gotten from Aunt Petunia. "This is my mother's school friend, but all I know about him is that she called him Sev. Do you know where I can find him?"

Professor McGonagall looked up at the picture and her eye twitched. Like someone who's opened their bathroom door to find a tiger lounging in their bathtub. She knew if she told him, then it was going to hit the fan.

"You can find him in the dungeon." said McGonagall. "That's Professor Severus Snape."

After Harry picked up his stuff and left, McGonagall noticed the paper she was grading was actually a copy of the Evening Prophet.

~o!o~

Professor Snape was shocked to see a student coming in early. And he was irritated that it was Potter.

"What do you want Potter?" sneered Snape. "If you need remedial potion lessons I can direct you to some Hufflepuff Potion NEWTs, but I am personally unavailable."

"You knew my mother." said Harry, holding up the picture of Snape and Lilly.

Snape blanched at the picture and jumped up from his seat.

"Where did you get that?" asked Snape, enraged.

"Petunia Dursley." Harry responded, taken aback by the passion of his response.

"Petunia!" Snape yelled, slamming his hand down on his desk. "That scrubbing puff-adder!" he began to pace angrily about the room.

"Can you tell me about her?" he asked, feeling like he was bating a shark.

"She was a very wonderful woman-" he broke off, then "I'm not discussing this with you! And your father was a toerag you should know!"

"I know." said Harry. "And his father didn't want me."

Snape stopped in mid fume to stare at him.

"I asked Professor McGonagall about Sirius Black, but she said she didn't know why he went to the bad guys." said Harry. "I think she does know and doesn't want to tell me, but you aren't the kind of person who'd spare my feelings."

"Flattery will get you no where Potter." said Snape settling back into his chair. He gazed at Harry appraisingly.

"Your parents went into hiding with you when they found out the Dark Lord wanted their blood." he started. "Their house was protected by something called the Fidelius Charm. The charm involves hiding a secret inside a person, the secret keeper. As long as their house was under the charm, The Dark Lord could have his fingers sewn onto your crib and he would have no idea where you were. The only way someone can know where the secret location is, is if the secret keeper tells them where it is. It was widely known that Sirius Black, your father's best friend, was the Potter's secret keeper."

"And Voldemort found them." said Harry.

"Which means." prompted Snape.

"Sirius Black told him where to find us." said Harry.

"The day after the attack." said Snape, who turned his chair and was no longer facing Harry, "Your father's other friend, Peter Pettigrew went after Black himself. He found Black in the Whitehall district and tried to duel him. Black cursed him so hard that Pettigrew and all the muggles on the same city block were killed."

"He was their best man." Harry said quietly.

"Yes." said Snape, "and your godfather."

~o!o~

"What," said Fred to George, "is that?"

"That," said George, "is a mystery."

Fred and George were sneaking through the castle halls in the dead of night trying to get to the kitchens. This was generally hazardous to anyone who didn't want to get caught and quartered by Mr. Filch.

The Weasley twins had an edge though. They had the Marauders Map as laid out by Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. The map had a layout of the entire castle, secret passages included. As an added bonus, the map showed you were everyone in the castle was in real time. Right now, that feature was raising more questions than answers. There was a dot walking up from the dungeons that was labeled as 'Драгoмир Деспapл'. They had never seen anyone on the map labeled in another language.

The really strange part was as they peaked down the hall mystery dot was walking down, they didn't see anyone. George aimed a stinging hex down the hall at nothing in particular. Nothing said 'ouch!'

"Who's there?" said George coming around the corner.

"And how did you turn invisible?" asked Fred behind him.

"Oh, it's you two." nothing pulled off it's invisibility cloak to reveal Marcus. "Does Filch have you patroling the corridors?"

"Bugger that for a game of soldiers." said Fred. "We just want to get to the kitchen."

"So do I." said Marcus. "The Angel Food cake at dinner was amazing. I was hoping they had leftovers."

"Oh, yeah, we're with you." said Fred. "Why does your name show up like this?" he showed Marcus the map.

"This damn thing is using my birth name." said Marcus. "I was hoping never to see it again."

"You changed your name?" asked Fred.

"Well, back in Prison - hang on." Marcus pointed to a dot on the next floor. It was labeled Sirius Black.

A look past between the Twins. The look said 'The reward money was how much?'

~o!o~

"So, Misters Weasley," said McGonagall looking down at the Twins lying supine on stretchers. "putting aside being out of bed after hours, you thought attacking a deranged murderer was a good idea?"

"Well," groaned Fred, "it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Fortunately, Mr. Montefiore had a better idea and found Professor Snape." quipped McGonagall.

It had been an hour since the alarms had gone off, and all the students had been corralled into the great hall so the castle could be searched for Sirius Back. Dumbledore had conjured up a thousand plush sleeping bags and the students were trying to get a nights sleep under the threat of grisly murder.

Draco, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Marcus were sleeping to the lee of the doors with their heads together and their bodies pointing out making a star shape.

"Why would he break out of Azkaban and come to Hogwarts?" asked Ron.

"I would run to Barbados." said Hermione. "And with the Dementors still guarding the castle, it's actually easier to get there."

"He's here because there's something here he wants." said Marcus. "Obviously."

"What is it?" asked Draco.

"That is rather less obvious." said Marcus. "What's also evading me is why he beat up Fred and George."

"It's because they caught him?" said Ron, uncertainly.

"He could have just killed them." said Marcus. "He didn't know I was running to get help. If I hadn't been there he could have killed Fred and George quietly and made his way to one of the houses for a murdering spree."

"Stop." said Ron, in a strained voice. Fred and George dead just didn't bear thinking about.

"I'm sorry." said Marcus. "It must be something that can secure his freedom, otherwise he would have run off to Barbados."

"Or he could just want to finish what he started." said Harry.

They were all dead quite after that.

~o!o~

Hagrid stoked the fire excitedly. This was going to be the most brilliant moment of his career. Years of independent research and one night of lucky gambling had culminated to make a dream finally come to life. He added another log to the fire and watched the hearth excitedly. His expression morphed to horror when he heard a knocking on his door.

He cracked his front door open and looked around outside, seeing no one.

"Mr. Hagrid?" he heard from around his ankles.

He looked straight down to see three first years at his door step. He recognized Harry Potter flanked by a red head and one unsettlingly calm fellow.

"What are yeh' doin' out 'ere?" he asked them. "Yeh shouldn' be out this late, not with Black on the loose."

"It's only Five in the afternoon." said the monotone one.

"Professor Sprout told me you were asking for pictures of my parents so you could make the photo album for me." said Harry. "I wanted to thank you."

"Oh," he said. "Well, that's very nice o' yeh, but I'm not really up ter entertainin' righ' now so yeh..." he looked down at both kids.

"Weren' there three o' yeh?" he asked. Harry and Ron looked around for Marcus.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Marcus from inside the house.

Hagrid wheeled around to find Marcus gazing into the hearth.

"What the bloody hell are yeh doin' in 'ere?" Hagrid blustered.

"I stole in through the window when it looked like you were hiding something." he answered still focused on what was in the fire.

"Bloody Slytherin." said Hagrid.

Ron and Harry squeezed their way in while Hagrid was distracted. Ron's eyes bulged out of his head when he saw what was in the fire.

"Is that..."

~o!o~

"...A dragon egg." said Ron.

Ron, Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Marcus were all gathered around Hagrid's fireplace while he gently turned the egg over.

"You keep saying that." said Hermione.

"I hardly ever get a chance to use it in a sentence." said Ron. "Dragons only lay one egg every twelve years. They don't reach birthing age until fifty. Only one in every ten dragons is female."

"So, what your saying," said Draco, "is that this is statistically the last dragon egg we will ever see hatch."

"Yes," said Ron. "We should savor it."

"How do you know so much about dragons?" asked Hermione.

"My brother Charlie works in a dragon sanctuary in Romania." Ron answered.

"That is so hot." said Hermione.

"Well," Ron started, blushing, "he did have a lot of-"

"No," Hermione stopped him. "I mean I need to sit by the window for a while." with that she got up from her seat next to the fire and went over by the far table.

They had been coming to Hagrid's cabin in secret for the past fortnight. An hour ago, while Draco was checking in, the egg had started shreiking. The egg was about to hatch. They were about to see a dragon being born.

"I love amniotes." said Marcus. "Birthing is so much cleaner for egg laying species."

"Please stop." said Harry.

"Mother once told me that the pain of child birth is equivalent to having your bottom lip pulled over the back of your head." Marcus continued.

"I will hex you." said Harry.

"And the contractions can cause- Oh look!" he said. The egg was starting to fracture.

They watched in awe as plate of eggshell came off and eventually a scaly, scrawny, leathery, beautiful baby dragon.

"Oh, Bless him. He knows his mommy." said Hagrid as the hatchling started attacking his boot.

The watched as Hagrid rocked it and fed it chickens blood mixed with brandy.

"It's really quite cute for a high crime." said Marcus. "I'm curious, Hagrid. Now that you've illegally hatched your own dragon, how are you going to keep it hidden?"

"No one likes a kill joy, Marcus." said Draco. Then the dragon bit his finger.

~o!o~

Quirinus Quirrell stared into the infernal mirror. Instead of his reflection, he saw himself holding a stone as red as blood. And his robe size was a size 5.

He had crossed every other obstacle in the way without any difficulty. McGonagall's chess set had been an easy feat. Flitwick's flying keys had been a simple task. Snape's potion bottle puzzle had him scratching his head for an hour, but that was behind him now. And here at the end of the rainbow, the leprechauns had padlocked the gold and left an insulting note.

This last trap reeked of Dumbledore's personal brand of crazy. It was a mirror that showed you your hearts desire. The Philosopher's Stone was unseen anywhere else in the room. For all Quirrell knew, the Mirror was just be a red herring and the stone was buried 50 meters beneath Professor Sprouts greenhouse.

He gave the mirror one last look, admired his size 5 robe, then turned around and left the chamber. If at first you don't succeed, try again later after imbibing vast amounts of alcohol.