"Sounds like a nice visit," Remus snorted, "going to confront one of your friends about whether or not he's been tromping around the castle and letting a snake lose."
Harry, blushing madly at the suggestion, but unable to deny it, simply read.
"See," Harry said after reading that, "I didn't think Hagrid had done it on purpose!"
"Alright then," James said, shrugging and smiling, "we weren't mad at you, just surprised is all. Following that line of thinking, yeah I could see how you could think Hagrid had done this."
"Let's, not answer that," Remus muttered to himself, already coming up with a fair few just off the top of his head.
"That's an interesting note," Lily nodded, "it must mean that whoever really was attacking must have felt to unsafe to continue doing this, so they let Hagrid take the fall. If they had kept going, it would have proven Hagrid's innocence."
"I still can't work out how they're doing it again now," Sirius huffed.
"That would be an interesting visit for sure," James snorted.
"Wow, that's quite a gap," Sirius said in surprise.
"Let's hope that extends to, oh, eternity," Lily muttered.
"I hate that they did that second year, but don't have teacher meetings until fifth year," Sirius huffed, "seems a little backwards don't you think?"
"What classes did you take?" Lily asked Harry, hoping he would remember this small tidbit.
Harry frowned in thought, but shook his head as he admitted, "I've no idea. I just remember I signed up for the same stuff as Ron."
"Best thing you can do," James nodded, "at least if you don't like the class, you have someone to commiserate with."
"Can't blame you there," Remus nodded.
"You lot just hate the class because of who's teaching it," Lily snorted.
"Can't blame us," Sirius laughed.
"Which is really sad," James sighed.
"Still an important lesson," Sirius chuckled.
"Arithmancy," James said at the same time Lily said, "Ancient Runes."
Harry smiled at both of his parents while they gave each other amused smiles.
Lily asked, "If you hated Arithmancy, why didn't you drop it?"
"Because you didn't," James replied like he thought it was obvious, "and I wanted to keep one extracurricular class with you."
"I still can't believe you convinced Peter to keep doing it with you," Remus laughed.
"Are you kidding me?" James snorted, "Pete was better at that class then I was. I would have flunked out if it wasn't for him."
"Then why did he complain about it so much?" Sirius asked.
"Because he was 'sick of watching me drool the whole time'," he responded with a grin, giving Lily a suggestive look.
Lily rolled her eyes indulgently at him, finding this far more amusing now then if he'd told her this back during their years at school.
Harry waited for a moment, but was slightly disappointed when he realized this particular conversation had wound down to a close, so he decided to keep going.
"And that right there was my earlier point," Sirius laughed, but there was a tinge of sadness in it this time as he continued. "What if that kid wanted to grow up and work for the Ministry working with Muggles? You have to have an OWL in Muggle Studies to even apply!"
"I can't decide what surprises me more," Lily told him with a very shocked look indeed. "The fact that you want a career in the Ministry working with Muggles, or the fact that you just made a very good point."
"I'd say I'm offended," he smiled right back at her, "but I'm not. Hey, might as well do something with my best NEWT grade right?"
"I think she meant more about your insight into the schools teaching system," Remus pointed out.
"But she said she couldn't decide, so I decided for her," Sirius laughed.
"Guess that's something we should bring up to Dumbledore as well," James laughed.
"Right after we talk about the giant snake, and his incompetent teachers. It's right on that list," Lily nodded.
"Can she do that?" Remus asked in surprise
"Why would she do that?" Lily asked, aghast.
"I don't think you can physically do that," James laughed, "there's no way she could attend all of those classes, since some of them happen at the same time."
Harry felt another echo of something, more missing memories. Sighing in defeat, he laughed along as his family chuckled about McGonagall having to tell poor Hermione this fact, and then he pressed on quickly to move past his annoyed feeling.
Amusement gone at once, all four adults felt their own echo of pain. It hadn't been there for a while now, so it seemed even sharper now than ever as they realized, once again, Harry had no one to turn to in such an important matter in his life.
"At least someone did," Lily murmured.
"Well that's new," James said in surprise.
"They haven't added a new class into the system in years, and they chose Divination," Sirius asked in disgust. "They could have picked a range of things, made Toad Choir an elective instead of a club, bloody art classes, or even Alchemy! Okay, maybe not that last one since it worked out so bad last year, but still! Guessing the future?"
"It is a rather flimsy brand of magic," Remus agreed, "but I suppose some students might enjoy it."
"It could tie in quite well with Astronomy as well," Lily nodded, "I've never looked to closely at Divination, but I know they do a lot of star tracking."
"That was very well rounded advice," James approved.
"Yeah, I agree. I've nothing to add this time," Sirius nodded.
"Now do you remember?" Lily asked eagerly.
Harry nodded with relief that he could grasp hold of that simple thing and told them, "Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination."
"Sweet," Sirius grinned, "I'm glad you picked the new class, that ought to be fun to watch."
"And Professor Kettleburn is a great teacher," Remus grinned, "you'll learn a lot from him."
"How do I keep missing the Quidditch chapters!" Sirius huffed in outrage. "I mean really, first Harry, then James, then Remus, now Harry got another one! Why do I keep getting missed out on this!"
"If it makes you feel any better," James sighed, "ours kind of sucked. With any luck this game will actually go without something awful happening!"
"Not another attack in there!" Lily yelped in shock, feeling that was just a little too close for home.
"I cannot believe that would happen," Remus shook his head furiously, "nothing that dangerous can get in the dormitory, they're the most heavily protected areas in the entire school!"
Harry read on, nervous all the same.
"Some jerk went through Harry's stuff," Sirius asked in disgust, that didn't entirely hide his relief that their initial assumption had been wrong.
"The Invisibility cloak!" James suddenly yelped with a whole new fear, "they didn't find that did they?"
"No," Harry reassured, then frowned as he tried concentrating without straining himself to much, "they took a book. I can't remember which one though..."
"Maybe it was a chick who wanted one of your Lockhart books," Remus offered.
"Didn't he give all of those to Ginny though?" Lily asked.
"Oh yeah," he shrugged, then said, "okay, I'm out of ideas."
As Harry's brain was starting to pound a bit with the strain of remembering again, he decided to read on rather than hurt himself.
"They were looking for something," Lily said with narrowed eyes, noting at once how everything seemed to be out and away from Harry's space.
"What though?" James asked again, thinking the only thing Harry, or anyone in that dorm for that matter, had of value was his invisibility cloak. Yet Harry said a book had been taken?
"No lose there," Remus smirked.
Lily snapped at Sirius before he could say anything, "quit pointing out every time we say something the same as someone in this book. It's not that bad."
Sirius huffed and pouted, but didn't interrupt Harry as he continued.
"That's, not good," James said at once with a frown.
"Why would someone steal that?" Sirius asked.
"Why did someone try and throw it away in the first place," Remus reminded, "considering the diary frames Hagrid, who isn't the one doing this, why is that book even considered dangerous to anyone?"
"You think Hagrid might have found it, figured out how to work it, then thrown it away?" James asked.
"No," Remus shook his head, still frowning. While it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities, it didn't seem in Hagrid's nature to try and trash it, he seemed more likely to hand it over to Dumbledore then flush it down a girl's toilet.
"This is ridiculous," Lily huffed, "I really wish Harry hadn't even found that book, it was completely pointless."
"Can't do much for it now," Harry sighed.
"Already prepping for next year's classes," Lily smirked.
"Where did she even get that?" Sirius asked.
"They invented this thing," Remus told him, as if talking to a slow child. "It's called a library. It's where you can go and borrow books from." Then he continued in more normal tones to Lily, "I'm not surprised one bit if she went down there moments after she signed up for her classes."
"Nope," James shook his head, "we established that any student can get in and out of the dormitory."
"Even any teacher could get in and out," Sirius agreed.
"Which leaves our list of people, which was blank before, just as blank," Remus huffed.
"Sirius, did you want to read the match?" Harry asked kindly.
"No," he sighed, still eyeing the book with want, "if we actually make it round to your seventh year, and last game, and I've still somehow been skipped, then I will demand my due chapter. Hopefully though, my luck isn't that bad."
Chuckling slightly, Harry kept reading.
"Fair enough," Sirius nodded, "not only could he not be able to prove it was his to begin with, but why would you draw attention to the act you own a diary?"
"You're an idiot," Lily told him.
"No," Lily groaned, "not again!"
They all looked pretty fearful, Harry most of all for some reason. There was something significant about this Quidditch match, and Hermione?
Remus released a shaky breath and said, "well, the students have been getting lucky so far, no one's died. Since all of the school's heading out towards the pitch now, I should hope no one will even get attacked this time."
"You think she figured out what was going on?" Sirius asked curiously.
"Forget that," Lily hissed, "she's running off alone, now! What if, hell whatever it is, finds her!"
Harry groaned, letting his head fall into his hands as his mother's words resonated inside him. The truth rang clear, of that he was sure. Lily realized what was going on at once, and clutched her son's hand, asking weakly, "please tell me you did that because Hermione came back down after the game and told you what she was thinking."
Harry looked up and shook his head miserably, whispering, "no, she gets petrified. Her and some other girl-" he cut himself off with a wince of pain and a growing ache of terror for his friend.
All four of them looked extremely upset for a moment, before Remus said, "well, she's lucky she just got petrified. That means she'll be just fine like the other students."
Harry nodded numbly, still shaking a bit. James was still casting his son concerned looks as he said, "guessing this means we don't get to hear her theory then?"
Harry shook his head, before pressing his hand into his temple again, and finally turning back to the book, now no longer even vaguely concerned about the coming match.
"The only thing I can think she figured out is how it's getting around," Remus huffed, "which will be annoying, because that's something I can't figure out either. Basilisks are just so big, there's no way possible someone wouldn't have seen it slithering around."
"I'm still more concerned with who's doing this than anything," Sirius disagreed, "and I'd be far happier if she figured that out."
"Did that everyone not include one of your best friends?" Lily asked in confusion.
Harry sighed glumly, now wishing he'd had the sense to go with Hermione at the least, or drag her down to the pitch and say she could check this out later, or something other than just letting her go like that!
"It's okay Harry," James said bracingly, "we know Hermione's going to be okay, right? So there's no since berating yourself over something that already happened."
Harry smiled at his dad for giving him back the same advice he'd been giving to them. He still didn't feel any less guilty, but he felt a little better as he continued.
"I've never been less excited for a match," Sirius sighed.
"Well that's not good," James frowned.
"She's cancelling the match?" Remus asked.
"I'm going to be honest," Lily sighed, "I'm a little relieved."
Harry sure wasn't at the time, but knowing now what he didn't then, he was very much pleased this game wouldn't go.
"To be fair," James frowned, "I'd be thinking the same thing if I didn't know Hermione and another student had been attacked."
"Poor kid," Sirius nodded, "hopefully the match is rescheduled or something."
"Why though?" Harry blurted out, anything to distract himself from what he so desperately didn't want to hear next. "Same as last year honestly, wouldn't it have been better for us to have stayed in the Great Hall, why move us back to our dormitories?"
"Because the dormitories are the most heavily and safely magically guarded part of the whole school," Remus gently explained. "They couldn't protect you nearly as well with you all out in the open like that, so they move you back to where you sleep, no better protection's there."
Harry nodded in understanding, dearly wishing he could delay this further but decided to just get it over with in the end and kept reading.
"Why you?" Remus demanded.
"She's not going to take you to Dumbledore again?" James scowled. "What was the point of going last time?"
Harry sighed, he had a vague feeling wherever he was heading, he wasn't going to like it.
"Oh crap," Sirius winced in disgust, "now I know this isn't going to be good."
"Oh," James said, then winced, "well, I guess she might be taking you to see Hermione then?"
Harry nodded, feeling in his gut that was true.
All five of them winced, none of them particularly pleased at this confirmation. They'd had no doubts Harry was wrong, but hearing it didn't feel any better.
"Wow," Remus said, going bug eyed, "so she did figure it out. The basilisk anyways."
"You got that from a mirror?" Sirius demanded.
"Well, if I'd figured out there was a Basilisk running around, and put the pieces together of how all the students at school were petrified, then yes. A hand mirror would be the perfect thing," Remus pointed out.
"Well I think this makes you officially smarter than Hermione," James grinned.
"I disagree," Remus shook his head, "I most likely couldn't do a Polyjuice potion even now. I'd still say Hermione would beat me in a general knowledge test."
"You figured out the giant killer snake before her," Lily pointed out.
"Okay, so I might be able to beat her at one thing," he was full blown grinning now, "but I really don't even see the point of this."
"It made me feel better," Harry pointed out, "took my mind off the fact that Hermione isn't petrified, right now. I don't have the memories to reinforce it, but I've got this gut feeling again that she's fine now. Err, at least when I last saw her, which I can't remember," he trailed off again in frustration.
"Well, guess we should keep reading then, so we can watch her wake up," Lily encouraged.
"Dang, and I thought curfew was bad before," James winced.
"What!" Lily asked in shock, "How would that even work? There's no way they could schedule that."
"It's going to be mayhem," Remus agreed.
"And not the good kind," Sirius added on.
"Now that's ridiculous," James scoffed, "use the buddy system if you must, but there really is no stinkin' way you could possibly control that!"
"So they're not even going to reschedule the tournament?" James asked in disgust.
"That was your biggest worry?" Lily demanded.
"Quidditch is good for the school," Sirius butted in, "keeps morale up, helps keep the mind off the terrifying things."
Lily couldn't deny the logic of that.
"Gobstones club is going to be pissed," Remus snickered half-heartedly.
"Well let's hope some bratty Slytherin prefect doesn't blame it on an innocent kid this time around," James grumbled to himself.
"Well, the one kid who actually had a clue what was going on in that school is temporarily stone," Harry sighed, "so I don't think that's going to happen."
"Wow, when you put it like that, Slytherin does look pretty bad," Sirius nodded.
"I still can't figure out the link between all of them," Remus sighed. "Is it random? Or could the person doing this really have some ulterior motive towards muggle born's."
"Was that Ravenclaw girl a muggleborn?" James asked.
"Don't know," Harry shrugged, "I don't even know her name."
Lily pursed her lips, before shaking her head and saying, "that's hardly fair. The Slytherins could just as easily be framed for this just like Harry was before."
"We weren't arguing the point," James shrugged, "we never hated the whole of the house, just a few particular students."
"Who all happened to be in that house," Sirius snickered.
"I, almost feel bad for him," Remus said, raising a brow in surprise. "I mean, is he really that naive? But he probably knew that Prefect pretty well, all the Prefects kind of know each other at least in passing, so I'd like to think he's more stunned at knowing one of the victims this time."
"I think you're right," James nodded, "I like your idea better anyways."
"That, is the scariest thing I've heard all year," James shuddered in disgust.
"Not going to happen," Sirius growled, "Ron would take him in, or hell he can go and live in an empty house and live off the vault until he comes of age!"
"Don't worry," Harry tried soothing them, "I really don't think the school closes. That's not going to be an option."
Lily released a breath and gave all four boys a critical eye, hoping they might understand Tom's motives a bit better now. Most of them still looked more upset at Harry's predicament.
"They better not," Remus snapped in disgust, "since he was never convicted of the crime in the first place, and especially since he didn't do it!"
Harry felt a sick feeling rising inside of him again, he had a really bad feeling about this.
"That would be nice," James sighed, "but I still don't see it."
"He might have a guess at what's wandering around the school," Remus offered.
"Then why wouldn't they have been putting more roosters around the school," James disagreed, "you've got to admit Moony, it's pretty farfetched this stuff happening."
"The roosters," Sirius muttered mostly to himself, but then he repeated it louder, "you remember just before Harry found Justin and Nick? We were wondering what could have been killing Hagrid's roosters?"
"Whoever's been letting the basilisk loose, of course," Lily nodded. "They wouldn't want those birds to have any chance of coming near that ghastly snake."
This still didn't help any of them figure it out further, as just about anyone had access to Hagrid's coop, so Harry shrugged without disagreement and read on.
"Can't believe he hasn't used that all year," James scoffed in disgust.
"That poor cloak was rotting away down there at the bottom of your trunk. Poor thing must feel as abused as Hedwig did," Sirius agreed.
Harry just chuckled at them, he had no defence for this really. Outside of a bit of sneaking, he really didn't have that much use for one of his most treasured objects. He was kind of afraid if he brought it out too much, something might happen to it, so he kept it safe so he knew where it was.
"That's because you still don't know how to do it!" James laughed.
"We had the place pegged down by the end of our first year," Sirius agreed.
"I wouldn't call going to visit the library once, and a mirror three times, several," Remus laughed.
"How many is several then?" Lily asked rhetorically. "Several isn't exactly a set number."
"Let's say a dozen then," Sirius shrugged.
"Dang!" James yelped, "of all the bloody teachers!"
"I swear, there's some kind of bad omen following you around," Sirius agreed.
Remus released a breath, saying, "for all their bad luck, they seem to be able to counter it with good luck pretty well."
"Wow, does he always answer the door like that?" Lily asked in concern.
"No," Harry said, frowning, "and he didn't look good. Really pale, and shaking. I think something bad happens on this visit to Hagrid's."
"Bad how?" James demanded.
Harry released a huffy breath, reminding James at once Harry couldn't elaborate.
"Expecting who?" Sirius asked in concern, "anyone who would knock, Hagrid shouldn't be waving that thing around in their face!"
"This isn't going to be good," Remus sighed.
"Oh dear," Lily said, looking genuinely upset for him, "I can't imagine why he's acting like this."
"I'm going to take a wild guess," Sirius said frowning, "and say that this knock might be why Hagrid's so freaked out. Who else, and why, would visit at this time?"
"This isn't going to be good," Remus repeated.
They all released a breath of unease. Okay, so it wasn't the Headmaster who Hagrid was afraid of, but then what? What on earth could scare Hagrid?
"It must be him then," James said at once.
Harry was frowning, wondering why on earth he had an intense dislike for the man he remembered seeing with Dumbledore. Right away he didn't like him simply because he felt his father was right, and Hagrid's mood this night tied into this man.
"This isn't good," Remus said again.
"How many times are you going to say that?" Sirius snapped, this having been the third time his friend said that.
"Until someone proves me wrong," he snapped right back.
"I'm with Remus," James said, looking a little panicked himself. "Why's the Minister of Magic there?"
"Not for any good reason," Remus huffed.
"Okay, we get that it's bad, now I want to hear how bad," Lily snapped at them.
"Act how?" Sirius demanded, narrowing his eyes dangerously.
"Like interrogating anyone who you think has done something wrong?" James snapped.
"You're not going to let that go are you?" Sirius asked with a benign smile. While he had been rather miffed about that himself at the time, still was honestly, he was willing to brush it off for now to help cool his friends temper.
It wasn't working all that well, because James was muttering under his breath and Remus had a look about him like he wanted to go curse the jerks that had come and arrested Sirius at his own place for that nonsense, but Sirius was eager to keep reading and ignore this for now.
Harry looked extremely curious about all of this, but was even more curious to find out about Hagrid, so he stored the question away.
"This is an outrage," Lily snarled, her bright green eyes looking likely to burst into flames, "they're going to force Hagrid to leave the school because of something that was never proven, all those years ago?"
"I can't believe they're actually allowed to do that," James agreed.
"Wow, and here I thought the Ministry couldn't get worse then it is now," Sirius huffed.
"Is that all they care about, their image?" Remus demanded.
"Not even an apology I'm sure," Lily muttered.
Remus winced and then huffed saying, "yeah, your duty to relook into someone who you thought did something, not bleeding arrest him without proof. Does the fact that he wasn't convicted not mean anything?"
"Guess not," Sirius grumbled.
"Let out!" James said, going bug-eyed.
"Let out of where?" Sirius asked, looking like he was going to be sick.
Harry didn't look any kind of happy as he read.
"Would they really send him there," Lily asked, worrying her lip, "without any kind of proof."
"I'm terrified to learn the answer," James huffed.
"Great, cause this couldn't get any worse," Remus groaned.
"Nope, it just got worse," Sirius huffed, his hands starting to pat his legs in his display of nerves. Sirius was prone to getting up and running around when he got nervous, the fact that he couldn't do that now, and was forced to sit here and listen to this happening to Hagrid was driving him crazy.
"Dog's got good instincts," James nodded in approval
Now all five of them tensed up, a snappy retort on their lips, more than willing to curse Malfoy for that petty insult.
"Which means it's good news for us," Sirius snapped.
"Any bad thing for a Death Eater is a bright side for us," James agreed.
Remus was fidgeting with unease, dearly wanting to point out to his friends he didn't disagree with them, but he had a really bad feeling why Malfoy was there.
"Bloody hell," Lily snapped, beginning to wring her hands at once, "he must be joking. Dumbledore gone, if there's one thing holding back this would be attacker at the school, it must be Dumbledore."
"There's no way the governors could agree to such a thing," Remus agreed vehemently.
"Just goes to show I was right about the downfall of the Ministry," Sirius hissed in disgust.
"And how many people did he have to threaten to make that happen?" Sirius muttered under his breath.
"Can't believe he said all that with a straight face," Harry snapped in disgust, "since we all know he doesn't mean it."
"Wow," Lily said in surprise, "so even this joker knows better than to get rid of Dumbledore."
Harry cocked his head to the side, finding something odd in his mother's words, but the others were already agreeing with her, James saying, "as much as I hate his reasons, him trying to kick Hagrid out like this, at least he has some small sense."
"I just can't picture it," Remus said sadly, "Hogwarts without Dumbledore... just can't imagine."
"I'm positive this won't last," Sirius said, forcing bright tones into his voice, "like I said, I'll bet anything Malfoy had to force most all of those signatures so as soon as something else bad happens, they'll reinstate him."
"I'd like to point out you seem to have the same flaws as Ron half the time," Lily said gently, "while I can see the comfort you were going for, I certainly don't want anything else bad to happen at school."
Sirius gave a sheepish smile, unable to deny that.
"I'm so glad Hagrid said that," Sirius said, grinning wickedly, "now I'm wondering if this Fudge will have the gall to look into it."
"From the way he's treating Hagrid right now, I wouldn't hold your breath," James sighed.
"So they are sending him to Azkaban," Lily half shouted, "for what?! Without any proof, evidence, just a false claim from fifty years ago! Has the ministry fallen that far!"
All four boys looked ready to cower back in her rage, even when it wasn't directed at them. Lily continued on her tangent for quite some time, until Harry gently cut in saying, "Mom, I know it's all kinds of awful, but shouting really won't help."
Lily gave her son a scathing look as she snapped, "well it makes me feel better."
Harry nodded sadly, before he decided to read on in the momentary silence.
All five of them shuddered, not at all pleased with Hagrid declaring that. None of them could quite state enough just how lucky all the students had been so far that there hadn't been a killing yet!
"Why did he say that with such significance?" Remus asked. "Sweet sentiment, is he trying to say that McGonagall will take his place and do the same things as him?"
"Best I got," Sirius shrugged.
"Does he know you're in there?" James asked with interest. If he did, then he clearly wasn't going to rat Harry out, or he would have done it by now. If he didn't, then that was quite the coincidence.
"I think so," Harry nodded.
"I'm sure she will," Remus nodded with the utmost confidence in McGonagall taking over temporary responsibility for the school.
"What spiders?" Lily asked.
"Um, does he mean the spiders that have been randomly running away from the castle?" Remus asked.
"What would that tell?" Sirius asked.
"I'm sure Harry's going to find out," James grinned.
"I'm sure I'm not going to like the answers," Lily muttered in disgust.
"That's what I was thinking," Remus nodded, shuddering at the thought.
"Chapter's done," Harry said miserably, somehow knowing this still wasn't the worst thing that could happen to the school this year.