Chapter 11
Sirius and Katja went back up to the common room, acting as if nothing was wrong. They decided not to mention anything that might have happened with Peter. Soon, they were in thought about the detention that they were going to have with Professor McGonagall. Soon, it was time for them to go down.
McGonagall had a stack of Galleons on her desk. "Please demonstrate, Ms. Wagner" the professor commanded.
"Of course, Professor," replied Katja, who immediately started to charm the coin. It wasn't hard at all—after all, she had done this a couple of years ago with the DA Galleons. Katja was soon lost in concentration, while Sirius was trying his hardest not to look amazed at his girlfriend—they hadn't even practised this beforehand. McGonagall was focused on the intricate wand movements that Katja was performing as part of the spell. Soon, she was done, and she put the Galleons on the table. She explained that on a real coin, that the numbers on the coin indicated the serial number of the minting Goblin. These, she explained, could be changed to something else, such as a date and time. She showed McGonagall that she had the Master coin in her hand, and suggested that the Professor take one of the coins. Katja tapped the numbers on her coin, and watched as McGonagall gasped as the coin grew hot. When she looked at it again, the Professor realised that indeed, the numbers had changed.
"All right, good work, 20 points to Gryffindor for your hard work. I will not give up the detention, though, you will meet me in the Trophy Room tomorrow at 1900, which you will be hand cleaning. I must let you know, though, if you ever do this again, I won't let you slip. You'll be cleaning the castle for the next month."
Katja said, "Yes, Ma'am." while Sirius stood at attention and saluted.
McGonagall said, "Don't make me give you a week's detention, Black. You know that I don't like that type of thing!" But this was said in a softer tone of voice, that one rarely heard from Professor McGonagall.
They went back up to the common room, where they told the Marauders what happened.
"Wait," Lily said. "You lied to Professor McGonagall?"
"It's a damn good thing you had an excuse," said Remus. "At least one that you could pull this quickly. Very good. Unfortunately, you've still got detention tomorrow night."
That night, before she went to bed, Katja decided to charm a piece of paper, and then write a note to Sirius. She then added a couple of more charms. This would make it so that the letter couldn't be read until the right password was given, and the letter wouldn't be delivered until breakfast.
The next morning at the breakfast table, Sirius received a note.
Padfoot,
Meet me at the Secret Room with Remus after breakfast. There are certain things you need to know.
Ruige
Sirius immediately looked over at Katja and made a slow, but deliberate nodding motion. He showed it to Remus, and then like the rest of the notes any one of them sent or received, he set it on fire with his wand. After he was done, he and Remus went up to the familiar corridor, where he opened the room, and went in. He didn't have to wait long; less than a minute after he entered, Katja came in.
"What's up, Katja?" Sirius asked his girlfriend. "The guys wanted to talk to you about something. According to our map, you were following us the other night. To be more precise, you were following a werewolf and his Animagus friends on the Full Moon. Why?"
"Do you mean this cloak and this map?" asked Katja, pulling both items out of her legendary beaded bag. Immediately, Sirius and Remus were in shock.
"How did you get our stuff?" asked Sirius.
"Take a closer look, Siri," said Remus. "That map is at least twenty years older than our map."
"Almost exactly twenty years," replied Katja. "Don't worry: James still has his cloak in his room. Let's just say that mine is extremely similar. Now, can I trust that we can keep this between us?"
"Of course. I, Sirius Orion Potter-Black, do solemnly swear on my life and my magic that I will not reveal anything I am about to hear to anyone else, unless they already know the secret. So help me Merlin."
"I, Remus John Lupin, do solemnly swear on my life and my magic that I will not reveal anything I am about to hear to anyone else, unless they already know the secret. So help me Merlin."
So Katja told them the same story that she told Lily, but with one exception. At the end, she told him what she was.
"Before, I answered 'quite simple' as an explanation to why I was following you," said Katja. "The answer is that most witches and wizards don't want to have anything to do with me because of what I am. I do think, knowing Remus, that he will be able to take it."
"What is your secret?" asked Sirius. "If you say a Vampire, then Remus won't like it."
"No, though you are close. I, Hermione Jean Granger, alias Katja Hermione Jean Granger Wagner-Dumbledore, am a werewolf."
"What?" Sirius asked. "You are the werewolf? You fucking tried to kill me, Kat! Why should I forgive something like that? I tend to want to return the favour when people try to kill me! I've already got sights on my cousin, Bellatrix, on Malfoy, not to mention my parents and the Dark Lord! Don't make me add you to the list!"
"Sirius, you cannot defeat the Dark Lord. It is something that me and someone else must do. You can help, but you will never be able to defeat him."
Then she told him the true prophesy that Lily had seen the other night. They were both stunned.
"Kat. How do we know that you are not just, as the Muggles say, winding us up?"
"Because, I am a wolf Animagus, and my form is unnaturally similar to my werewolf form," Katja responded whilst shifting to wolf and back. The boys then asked her for some time alone. She acquiesced, and the Room obliged with a wall between the boys and Katja. What the boys did not know was that the wall was littered with Listening Sensors.
"Can we trust her?" asked Sirius. "I mean, she isn't even Katja! Her real name is like Hermione or something, she said. She's been lying to us from the start, Mooney. I move to revoke her membership in the Marauders and modify her memories so that she doesn't remember anything about us." When she heard this, Katja chuckled. Even though she could hear the boys, they couldn't hear her. I'd like to see them try Obliviating me. They would be the ones losing memories! She thought as she listened. She then heard Remus start to defend her (even though it should have been the other way around).
"She was a beautiful werewolf, Sirius. Mooney wanted to be her companion so badly—I've never been around another werewolf during the full moon before. I could see the loneliness in the eyes—never before have I seen such loneliness, even in Humans, and she was so afraid. She looked much like I did when I first came to Hogwarts. I was afraid that I would get loose. Do not fault her for trying to hide her identity, Sirius. She is as bound by the Temporal Prime Directive as we are bound to the school, the Marauders, and the Potters."
"Yes, but why couldn't she tell us before? Why did she have to lie by omission?"
"Now that I think of it, she was trying to tell us. Remember back to the day of the full moon? She was dropping hints all day, now that I am more rational."
"What did she say, Remus?"
"She told me that she knew what I was feeling," answered Remus. "I then snapped back, 'Like Hell you know what I am feeling,' and she replied, 'You are not the only one with problems; especially your badly-behaved rabbit-type problem.' I think that she was really just trying to get away from us that night. I mean, Padfoot, look at it this way. She willingly goes into the Forest and not the Shrieking Shack. I think that she thinks that she's a danger to us all."
"How can you say that! Moony, how many 'friends' lie constantly to one another! How can a relationship be 'true' if it's foundation of trust turned out to be nothing more than filthy lies? What do you want me to do; pretend as if nothing happened! Even that would be a lie! Just because she's a werewolf does not mean her lies are justified automatically. You are a werewolf! You still told us your name: You never lied to us! If you didn't want to tell us something, you'd merely leave the question unanswered" replied Sirius.
"She comes from a different time, Siri" countered Remus. "She was probably trying to protect the timeline. She must view time as linear."
Just then, the two boys heard a slamming noise, as the door to the Room Of Requirement banged open. Then, a couple of seconds later, the two boys were forcibly thrown from the Room. The Room had a sense of humour, though, as it threw them out right in front of the Slytherin common room. The two boys quickly moved to get away from the place as soon as possible, when they ran into Professor Slughorn.
"You boys trying to prank my Snakes again? Ten points each from Gryffindor and ten points to Slytherin for forcing you to quit your assault." Snape and a couple of his cronies came up behind the boys and hit them with a Petrificus Totalus. This caused them to fall over. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall came up behind them.
"What did you just take? Twenty from the Lions and Ten to the Snakes? Well, then Thirty points from Slytherin for attacking a prefect, ten from Slytherin for attacking another student. Also, Mr Snape, your probation is hereby rescinded: You will serve the full month's detention."
Up in the Gryffindor Dormitories, a lone wolf was curled up on the floor next to her bed. She had used the Cloak to get from the Room of Requirement to the Dormitories. En route, she had carelessly knocked people out of the way with wandless Banishing charms. Soon, Katja heard a knock on the door.
"Katja! Can I come in?" asked Lily through the door. Katja growled in response. On the other side of the door, Lily was worried. She let herself go into her Animagus, and she might Turn me if I go as a Human! She thought. Aslan will have to go in there.
Transforming as she opened the door, Lily was almost immediately tackled by a large wolf, who growled a challenge. Aslan roared back, which caused the wolf to submit. Soon after, Katja shifted back to her human form. Lily followed.
"What have I done?" Katja asked Lily. "All I've done since I've come her is lie to these people. Hell, if it weren't for that six-month adventure we had, I'd probably still be lying to you, too."
"Put up some Sensors, you wolf! Those two aren't as bad as you think. I'm sure that Remus will be able to convince Sirius. It's too bad you've got Secrecy Spells on everybody. I'm sure that James wouldn't care you the fuck you are, and would help Remus."
Katja put up the sensors, and found that Black and Lupin were continuing to argue, and had just walked into the Common Room. "Do not fault her for this Sirius," Remus was saying. "lest you too would like to be eaten from the inside by remorse. Being a werewolf is a lonesome agony; a burden only eased by true friendship. We must be true friends."
"Yeah, you're right, I am being such a fucking ass. Katja's probably so mad at me, she's gone off with Severus." Sirius was saying. Katja's face fell, but was immediately changed by what he said next. "No. She's too good for that. She'd never take a revenge that far. I should try and find her on the map and apologise to her. But will she even listen? Accio James' Marauder's Map! It says that she's in the one place in Gryffindor that we can't get to."
"There is nowhere in the castle we can't get to," replied Remus.
"We cannot get into the Girl's Dormitories, no matter how much we try. It seems that the castle has wards against things like that."
Up in the dormitories, Lily and Katja were laughing. Katja got up and changed her mood perceptibly. "I think that we should go downstairs and give the boys a history lesson about the Founders and our school," Katja suggested, appearing to switch into Lecture-mode. The two went downstairs and surprised the boys, who turned around, curses on their tongues.
"Well," Katja said. "The Girl's Dormitories are warded so that men cannot go up into them. This was because the founders thought that males were naturally less trustworthy than females. That is why females can enter the Men's Dormitories, but not vice versa."
"Kat" said Sirius. "I'm really fucking sorry. I guess I overreacted to a couple of things that you said. You had your reasons, and I really like you. I couldn't care less what you are or" he shifted into a whisper, "when you are. I just like you how you are. Will you forgive me?"
"Of course I will forgive you, Padfoot."
She then pulled him into a hug worthy of Mrs Weasley. The next day, the couple had their detention in the Trophy Room, and arrived a couple of minutes early. McGonagall was already there, and had two sponges and a bucket of warm, soapy water. She immediately saw the two teens, and called them over.
"Take these. I want this place to be clean by curfew," said the Professor. "If, at 2300 you have not gotten it done, you will stay here until you have gotten it done. However, this extra time will be under my supervision. You will now hand me your wands, as I want this done without magic. I will be back."
Katja and Sirius looked at each other and watched the professor leave. Katja and Sirius started to scrub the floor. I never had to do something like this before, she thought. I left before Mum could teach me (or I could use wandless magic!), she thought. It's too bad Harry isn't here, in a way. Supposedly those Muggles he was with made him do everything around the house. But he's not here. Out loud, she said, "Not exactly a dreamy...whatever date we're on."
"Which date is this," Sirius returned.
"At least three or four," she answered, before soaking her sponge in the bucket. She then squeezed the sponge over Sirius's head. "Then again, the night is what we make of it!"
As Sirius got drenched, he started laughing, saying, "You are truly one of us, meine Katze! You are truly a Marauder."
Of course, while he was saying this, he was getting his own sponge ready, which he quickly deployed over the head of his girlfriend. They were both drenched.
"No way!" Katja shrieked at Sirius. "You didn't just do that!"
It was soon a full out war. There was more water on them than there was on the floor. The water bucket was almost empty, Katja noticed. Fortunately, she knew and could do a wandless refilling charm. This just meant that they were able to get each other even wetter than before. After a while, though, they decided to just suck it up, and get to cleaning. It really only took them an hour to get done, and then they decided to talk for the rest of the time. This "talking" quickly degenerated into more physical forms of pleasure, such as kissing. Before they knew it, the detention was over.
The next night, Katja and all the other Marauders sneaked out to Hogsmeade and went to the Three Broomsticks. Fortunately, thought Katja, Madame Rosmerta doesn't care who comes into her bar—just that they don't cause Law Enforcement to come, and that they've got gold.
The group had just finished up their third pint, and were more than a little drunk. Lily then said something that caused Katja distress. "I'm surprised, that Sirius has good enough taste to stay with you," Lily said. "Most of his other girlfriends only lasted like two weeks. I think that you've been going for at least three or four now?"
"Yes, we are doing quite well. How are you and James?"
"We're also quite good. He told me, again, how beautiful I am. It reminds me of when he asked me out earlier this year." Lily responded. "He said that I 'was like a rare flower, treasured and cherished. Goodness knows, like a rose, I've tried to pick you many times before! (Darn those thorns!) But now I realize that the only way for me to enjoy your true radiance is to sit next to you, like I am right now'"
Katja realised that both James and Sirius were quite tired, and decided to call them on it. "Why so tired, boys?" she asked innocently, even though she realised that she had been anything but innocent in this time-line.
"I took Lily to the Room for a while last night," he replied. "We just lost track of time, and we came in a bit late."
"Maybe we should go back" suggested Katja. "I mean, it'll be a wonder that Dumbledore doesn't know we've sneaked out again! And certain males here are drunk off their asses!"
After pausing a second, she did a weak Sobering Spell on them, and everyone felt at least a little better.
"Don't worry!" said Remus. "I've got just the spell!" He got the Marauders into a circle and shouted, "Non notatvr nostri lvctvs!" They then walked over to the secret passageway that lead to the statue on the fourth floor.
Amazed, Katja wanted to know what the spell was. "It is how we can get around the school so often. As long as we don't just happen to run into a teacher, we won't get caught, because most of the detectors just use a person's magical signature. This 'cloaks' the magical signature, similar to what those Romalans do on that Muggle Television show, Star Trek." answered Remus, the only one with enough knowledge of both worlds to make a reference like that, but like most wizards, he got the reference wrong.
"I believe it is Romulans, Mr Lupin. From the planet Romulus. You of all people should be able to remember a name like that," Katja replied, making a joking reference to their lycanthropy.
Everyone went up to the dormitories, where they all tried to get some sleep (and really get sober) before they had classes in the morning. What Katja didn't realise is that the next day would hold surprises beyond her wildest imagination.
As they were walking to transfiguration the next day, Sirius and Katja were talking. "You seem to be a little bit...hesitant around Remus," said Sirius.
"Sirius, you cannot tell anyone!" Katja responded. "But my other form has...feelings for Remus. I know that as a human I love you, and that you are my mate, but my other form has different ideas. That's one of the reasons that I need for Snape to make that damned potion. If the potion doesn't work as well as I hope, then I know that there are other methods of controlling myself—it's just that they are extremely risky."
"Risky to whom? If you mate with Lupin, that would be a very, very bad thing!" replied Sirius.
"Not to me, except in the most roundabout way. The person that they could hurt the most, Sirius, would be you."
"Me? Why me?"
"Because I'd have to change into one of my wolf forms, and bite you. Obviously, I don't want you to become like me, so you would have to be at least partially transformed in your other form. I would then be able to Mark you as my mate, and you would be protected from most threats when around me."
"Kat, I love you! I'll do it," said Sirius.
"Do you know the risks, and are you completely sure?" asked Katja.
"Of course I know the risks!" answered Sirius. "I cavort with one of you every month! I think that I know more about … your sort than most. "
They decided that, since there were only a couple of days until the next new moon, there wouldn't be enough time to research the complete ritual enough. Katja had discovered that this type of magic would be most potent on the opposite time of the month to the full moon, so that gave them the full-moon. Obviously, the ritual could be done any time, but it would be most effective on the new moon. They then decided to do the complete ritual on the next new moon.
At breakfast, everybody got a nasty surprise when a Howler came in. Sirius knew what the note contained, and was dreading it—he knew it was for him because it was his parent's owl with a red envelope.
Sirius carefully opened the note, which started to shriek immediately. Katja recognised the voice: it was Sirius's mother, and it was shouting some of the very same insults.
Sirius Black!
You Filthy Blood traitor scum! Associating with Mudbloods, filth and half-breeds! Stains of dishonour, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth!
You are a shame to the family. You are the only traitor out of all of us, disgracing the eldest son of an Ancient and Noble House! You could've had Power! Yet, you are going to the Halloween as a Muggle! I have never been more ashamed. Even you being sorted into that evil House of Lions doesn't compare to your traitorous acts now! You are now of equal status with your cousins Andromeda and Nymphadora. As in out of the family! Good Bye, filthy scum associating with Mudbloods, filth and half-breeds!"
"Well," Sirius said when the Howler was finished. "I certainly hope that mum and Regulus die soon, because then I can become a true Black again. For all intents and purposes, I am now Sirius Orion Potter, since the Potters did a little bit of paperwork to officially make me their surrogate son."
"Don't worry, Sirius Potter, we'll get through this, we will." responded Katja.
That day after Katja was finished teaching Defence to her Third Years, Auror Williamson let loose a bombshell.
"You do know that certain people can do what the Muggles call 'reading minds?' It is called Legilimency."
"I know, Sir. I am an Occlumens."
"I would very much like to test it," replied the professor. At her nod, the professor said, "Legilimens!" Right then, a couple of memories, including the one of the night in detention came to her mind, before she was able to push him out in a matter of less than thirty seconds.
"I was most intrigued by that one memory of yours—the one of just the other night." he said. "You thought that, 'If Harry were here, he would have been able to teach me how to do this type of thing more effectively.' I disagree. I would think that Harry would urge you to just take your punishment, just like you urged him in your school days. He might even take a perverse pleasure in it."
"How do you know that? Harry would never do something like that."
"I, Professor David James Harry Williamson, am the one known as Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter, godson of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, conqueror of Lord "He-who-must-not-be-named" Voldemort."
"Bullshit."
