The Promise Ring - by The White Lily

Chapter 25: Trouble

After their discussion was over, Harry had asked Professor Dumbledore if he could walk Sirius out to the gate. "Of course," the headmaster had replied, "but make sure you are back in time for lunch, Harry. We can't have you missing out on meals or your afternoon classes!"

It felt odd walking through the castle with an enormous black dog padding beside him. Sirius' Animagus form was so large that Harry could rest his hand flat on the dog's shoulder without bending. Sirius' toenails clicked loudly on the stone floor, which made Harry glad that everyone was in class, so he did not have to put up with strange looks.

A loud hiss sounded from in front of them and Harry saw that Mrs. Norris, Filch's foul cat, was standing in the middle of the corridor a bit further ahead. Her back was arched, her ears were laid back and she looked about twice her normal size because all her scrawny hair was standing on end. A low growl emerged from her throat and then she hissed and spat again at the intruder in her castle

Sirius sat back on his haunches looking at her and the big dog's tongue lolled in a lopsided grin for a moment before Harry realised what he was going to do. "No, Snuffles!" he yelled as, with a shuddering bunch of his enormous muscles, the dog leaped towards Mrs. Norris. The scrawny cat streaked off down the corridor with Sirius in pursuit. The funny side of the situation started to dawn on Harry, even as he pelted down the corridor after the two animals yelling, "Get back here, Snuffles!" He kept running towards the low-pitched, chesty sound of Sirius' barks as fast as he could, silently cursing prankster godfathers under his breath.

Harry finally found them in the trophy room, where Mrs. Norris was sitting atop one of the larger trophy cases, calmly washing herself, while his godfather bounced around below, barking energetically. Harry leaned against the door to catch his breath and marvelled at how, despite his deep, throaty barks, Sirius managed to sound like an excited Chihuahua yapping.

It was thus that Professor McGonagall found them about a minute later. "Potter?" she asked, one hand held to her heart in shock. "Is that your dog?"

"Um – yes?" Harry replied rather questioningly, as he shot an alarmed look at the crowd of students that had formed just behind his teacher. The noise of the chase had obviously attracted students from their classes to find out what was going on.

McGonagall peered at the dog for a moment and then took a step closer. "That's not a dog, it's an Animagus," she stated rather slowly. "And there are no big black dogs in the Animagus register. Thus, this is an unregistered Animagus." McGonagall seemed horrified at the mere thought. "Stand back, Potter," she continued grimly, "this is most likely some servant of You-Know-Who."

At this point, Harry began panicking for real and threw himself in front of the dog. "Professor, I can explain. The Headmaster knows he's here and wants it kept a secret." Sirius thumped his tail weakly on the floor, looking apologetically at Harry, who continued earnestly, "Please, Professor, can we go to the Headmaster?"

Professor McGonagall stared at him for a long time before giving one short, sharp nod, her lips impossibly thin, and Harry breathed easier.

***

Half an hour later, Harry and Sirius were retracing their steps through the castle, leaving Dumbledore to make Professor McGonagall a stiff cup of tea in his office. Harry was not impressed.

"What were you thinking?" he hissed at the dog as they wound toward the entrance to the castle. "Do you think I want my godfather Kissed by a Dementor? Don't you understand that I need to be able to think that some day I'll get away from the Dursleys? That some day I'll be able to live with someone who loves me? And if you get yourself captured or killed…" Harry made a noise of disgust and continued walking in silence, trembling with the force of his emotions.

Cho Chang shot them a glare from where she sat, under the tree where Ron and Hermione had been sitting before, but Harry hardly saw the tears streaming down her cheeks, or her white fingers angrily tearing a small piece of parchment into tiny pieces. Sirius had nearly got himself revealed to the whole school.

A few minutes later, as they rounded the east side of the lake, Harry felt Sirius' wet nose creep into his hand, startling him. Harry looked sternly down at his godfather, who was sitting on his haunches directing enormous puppy-dog eyes at him, and gave in. He knelt beside the big black dog and flung his arms around him, "I'm sorry, Sirius, I was just really worried, you know? Just… just be careful, okay?" The dog nodded gravely and Harry couldn't help grinning. "Do you have any idea how silly it looks to see a dog nodding?"

Padfoot simply gave him a lofty look and trotted on with his head held high. Stifling a laugh, Harry joined him in the long walk to the gates of Hogwarts.

***

"Well, Harry, this is where I have to leave you," said Sirius when he transformed back into human form at the gate. "We can't have you getting off Hogwarts grounds, can we?"

Harry nodded his head sadly and pulled his cloak around him to ward off a sudden chill. "Thanks for coming to see me, Sirius. Even if we can't use Dad's watch to help you win your freedom just yet, I was glad to see you."

"Me too, Harry, me too. And it's definitely a great comfort to know that if I do happen to be captured, I've got a chance!" Sirius looked at Harry piercingly as he continued, "Now you take care of yourself – and that young lady of yours!"

"She's not my…" Harry started hotly, but broke off when he noticed the grin on Sirius' face and realised that he had been successfully baited. "Oh, you," he said, punching him on the arm, and then pulled him into a tight bear hug. "I'll miss you," he said quietly.

"You're on." Harry started. That didn't sound like Sirius' voice – that had sounded like…

"What did you say?" he asked doubtfully, pulling away slightly and looking up. He shivered, as the cool autumn air seemed to find infinitesimal gaps in his cloak, bringing his skin up in goose pimples. It had sounded like Cedric's voice.

But Sirius' face had frozen in horror and his lips were moving in a silent plea. Then Harry heard his mother's voice screaming, "Not Harry! Please… have mercy…" and the chill around them suddenly made sense. Harry looked over his shoulder and saw at least twenty tall, black-robed Dementors gliding towards them.

Sirius had sunk to his knees and was clutching at his head, drawn in to whatever horrible memory had taken him. "Stand aside, you silly girl," Voldemort's voice echoed inside Harry's head.

"Wands out d'you reckon?" asked Cedric and Harry pulled out his wand, trying to push the memories away and concentrate on something happy. Sirius had fallen to the ground, unconscious. All his happy memories seemed to be too slippery to grasp, he was falling; he was drowning in icy water…

"Kill the spare," said Voldemort's high, cold voice and there was a flash of green light. All of a sudden Harry remembered waking in Ginny's arms after a nightmare, one of her hands stroking his shoulder, the other patting his hand soothingly.

"It's not your fault…" she whispered softly.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry cried and the silver stag burst out of his wand, charging toward the Dementors and scattering them with great tosses of his silver antlers.

Harry's Patronus did not seem to affect a few of the shorter black-robed figures and he realised why when they began pulling their wands out. Before the first curse could be fired, Harry grabbed Sirius' wrist and activated his Portkey pin, sending them back to Dumbledore's office for the third time that day.

"It's just a bit of a shock, Albus," Professor McGonagall was saying. "Of course, it makes sense, but I've spent thirteen years …"

Professor Dumbledore held up his hand to silence McGonagall as he noticed Harry lying on the carpet behind her chair. Harry heaved himself wearily into a sitting position next to the unconscious Sirius and tried to explain. "They were waiting for us, Professor! Right near the gate – there were more than twenty of them, a whole lot of Dementors and some Death Eaters."

"Minerva, if you could fetch Madam Pomfrey?" Dumbledore requested, then rummaged in his desk drawer for a moment and produced a slab of Honeydukes' chocolate. "Here you go, Harry, this will help," he muttered and handed the bar to Harry. Harry broke off a large piece for himself and started chewing, then sat in McGonagall's vacated chair watching Sirius, trying to work out how he could feed chocolate to an unconscious man.

Dumbledore sat back down at his desk, staring into his Pensieve. Adding a couple of thoughts, he poked the swirling liquid with his wand before saying, "There are two very important questions for which we must find answers. First: how did Voldemort manage to sneak some Dementors away from Azkaban without the Ministry noticing? And second: How on earth did they know that Sirius was here?"