Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: So Sirius is going to search Gryffindor tower. I wonder how Peter will escape being found ...

Chapter 9: Grim Defeat

They were left standing in the corridor for a very long time while Professor Dumbledore admonished Auror Black. All the man would have had to do was to go down to the Great Hall and ask Professor McGonagall for the password! In the meantime Mr. Filch and several of the teachers searched the institute for the Fat Lady.

Unfortunately they were unsuccessful and so Mr. Filch finally took her empty portrait off the wall and hung up the picture of Sir Cadogan, the clumsy knight with his fat pony, instead.

The Gryffindors were given a new and very strange password, craven cur, and were finally allowed to go to bed.

Of course they could not sleep after all that excitement, though and discussions why the Aurors were searching their dorms continued late into the night.

Everybody agreed that it had to have something to do with Peter Pettigrew, but nobody could imagine how he was supposed to have gotten into the castle. After all it was surrounded by dementors, Pettigrew's picture had been shown to every door and window and there were wards to prevent rats from entering.

"There's no way he could have gotten in," Hermione agreed the next morning. "They are just getting paranoid over your safety."

The only effect all the discussions and the search that had now been postponed to during the morning lessons had was to make everybody so nervous that even the usually quiet and sleepy Furball was quite distressed and refused to stay in the dorm alone. Ron finally shrugged and put the shivering rat into his school-bag where he disappeared into a gap between two books.

"He should feel safe enough in there," Ron decided after a moment. "It's like a dark tunnel in the earth. That's where rats live, isn't it?"

The search was of course fruitless, though according to a rumour some Hufflepuff first year had heard Auror Black tell the teachers that he could practically smell Pettigrew in the Gryffindor dorms and Professor Snape was said to have reminded Professor Dumbledore of some sort of objections he'd made to some decision the Headmaster had made that summer.

Sir Cadogan turned out to be even more obnoxious as a door guardian than he had been as a guide. He kept challenging students to duels and changing passwords at least twice a day.

And as if that weren't annoying enough Harry also began to feel that the teachers were watching his every move.

Therefore he wasn't very surprised when Professor McGonagall summoned him into her office. He only wondered what rule it was that he had violated so badly that she wanted to admonish him in private rather than wait for his next Transfigurations class.

He was in for a surprise however.

"Harry, I know that this is going to scare you very, very much, but I'm afraid you have to know," she said instead of launching into a lecture about rules and obedience. "You must have heard about the escaped prisoner that the Aurors are searching for."

"Peter Pettigrew," Harry confirmed. "He escaped from Azkaban and can turn into a rat."

"Yes," Professor McGonagall agreed. "He was a Death Eater. That is what the bad wizards that worked for You-Know-Who are called."

Harry nodded to show that he understood.

"And ... well ... it's believed that he is now after you. That he wants to kill you to avenge You-Know-Who. Some things he said before he escaped and the fact that all the clues the Aurors have found show that he must be somewhere near Hogwarts point to that."

Harry nodded again. "The Aurors said that to Professor Snape when they came here."

"Well, Harry, then I'm sure you will understand that we are very worried about your safety. I want you to be really careful and never to leave the castle without a teacher there to protect you. Do you understand?"

Once again Harry nodded, but then he remembered the approaching Quidditch match. It was the first of the year, and Oliver, the Gryffindor team captain, was very eager to win the cup this year. He never had and this was his seventh and final year in the institute.

It took some begging to get Professor McGonagall to agree to let Harry continue to train as long as Professor Hooch was there to supervise and protect him.

That was quite a relief, because even despite it Oliver was so nervous that he kept pestering Harry with advice so much that he even arrived ten minutes late for Defence Against the Dark Arts on the day of the match. Luckily it was Professor Snape that was teaching the lesson and not Professor Lupin who already thought that Harry was lazy, and Harry got off with only ten points taken off his house and wasn't assigned another make up essay.

With any luck that was going to remain so as Professor Snape hated Professor Lupin and was not likely to talk longer than necessary with him. In fact, Professor Snape even began the lesson by complaining about Professor Lupin's lack of notes and informing them how far behind they were in this subject.

Then he started teaching them about werewolves even though Hermione told him they were due to start on Hinkipunks and insulted Hermione by calling her an insufferable know-it-all when she tried to answer his questions.

When Ron objected to that he got a detention and that finally silenced the class.

Harry did feel a little sorry for his friends of course, but mostly he was relived that he didn't have to serve detention or write another extra essay right before the Quiddtich match, which he knew would have been the result if Professor Lupin hadn't been sick.

Not that he was saved from writing an essay entirely. Professor Snape assigned two pages on how to recognise and kill werewolves for homework, but at least that was an assignment everybody had to do.

The weather had been awful for days and they had to play their match in a terrible storm that kept blowing Harry off course and pelting his glasses with raindrops until he couldn't even tell his team-mates from their Slytherin opponents anymore.

Luckily Oliver called for a time-out when the teachers actually had to get up and cast wards against lightning strikes, and Hermione used that opportunity to sneak onto the pitch and enchant Harry's glasses to repel water.

When the game resumed Harry was at least able to see as well as the rest of the players, though he regretted it when the next flash of lightning revealed the Grimm himself sitting in the top row right next to Auror Potter watching the game and the one after that showed Harry the dementors closing in on the pitch as well.

Once again he felt the terrible cold and then he heard a high-pitched, terrified voice screaming: "No, not little Master Harry! Please not hurt little Masters!"

And the next thing Harry knew was that he was lying in a bed in the hospital wing. His friends and team-mates crowded around him and told him the sad, but also exciting news! The dementors had not been able to resist the lure of so many people being together and had attacked. Harry had once again fainted at their approach and would have fallen to his death if Professor Dumbledore hadn't managed to slow his fall. The Aurors had driven the dementors back, but in the meantime the Slytherins had won the match.

Some of the Gryffindors, especially Oliver, blamed Harry for the defeat, but luckily his friends and the beaters George and Frederick were firmly on his side.

"It was bad luck," Frederick told him. "You can't win them all."

That was true and Harry began to feel a little better ... until he heard the worst news of all: his broom had been blown into the Whomping Willow after Harry had fallen off and by the time Professor Flittwick had reached it only splinters had been left of it.