Chapter 29


A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or The Lion King. All characters, settings, and plots belong to both JK Rowling and Disney.

First, let me apologize for my delay in posting. It's been a little rough right now, between my job and the recent tragedy that happened a little more than a week ago. For those of you who might be unaware, on Sunday June 12, 49 people were murdered at a LGBT nightclub in Orlando Fl, while another 53 people were wounded. To avoid delving into politics, I'm not going to talk about the shooter as much as I am going to talk about the victims here. One of them was a former coworker of mine, and a friend. Many mass shootings have happened in my life—so many they've almost become commonplace. One of them happened at my cousin's alma mater. It's just been really hard to accept the fact that this time, one of the victims isn't just a name on a list. It's someone I knew, someone I worked with and someone I regarded as one of the nicest people around.

Please, I ask everyone who reads this: If you are going down to Florida anytime soon, please be respectful of the people who work at Disney, Universal, Seaworld, and the other parks in the area. It's hard to recover from something like this, especially when you knew one of the victims. My thoughts go out to every single family member who lost a loved one that night. #orlandostrong.

Thank you all for your reviews and your views. Hard to believe that I'm almost at 30 chapters but here we are! Oh, I'm going on vacation with my folks so I'll be traveling this week and next week so updates might be a little spotty.

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Please enjoy and review!


Simba plopped on the floor of the Common Room, exhausted. It had been weeks since Sirius told him that Peter Pettigrew was still alive and Simba had been adamant about being the one to look for him. If Sirius got caught, it would only end badly for him.

There was another reason why Simba wanted to be the one to search for the rat. The searches wore him out each day, sometimes to the point that he wouldn't be able to make it up to the Common Room to sleep. However, he had yet to take another dose of the Dreamless Sleep since he began the searches.

He wasn't the only one who seemed to be exhausted lately—Hermione could be seen pouring over her books in the Common Room, snapping at anyone who dared disturb her. She and Ron had not yet patched up their feud since the day Ron found his bed sheet covered in Scabbers' blood. Simba didn't know how to tell him that it was possible that Scabbers faked his death.

Yeah, that would go over nicely. Someone as level headed as Ron would surely hear me out. Oh, how did I find that out? Well, the escaped convict told me!

His thoughts had grown more sarcastic of late—however that necessarily wasn't a bad thing. Well that's what Cedric told him one morning as he sat with the Hufflepuffs for the first time. They all knew about Ron and Hermione's fight—and that Ron blamed Simba for some reason. They were more than happy to let Simba sit with them to avoid the awkwardness at the Gryffindor Table.

He really enjoyed getting to know the students from the other House. Susan Bones was very nice, and one of the few people who didn't seem to ask about his sleep schedule. Hannah Abbott brought him milk from the kitchens as the House Elves were still terrified of him. He had bonded with Justin Finch-Fletchly as the young boy had been petrified as well. The only person in Harry's year that Simba wasn't fond of was Ernie MacMillion—he knew what the boy had said about his brother the previous year.

All in all, things seemed to be going well. When he wasn't busy with the rat hunting or hanging out with the Hufflepuffs, Simba would go down to the Forbidden Forest to hang out with Sirius. He also apologized for how he acted during Christmas.

"It's fine," Sirius had told him. "From what I understand, you've been pretty stressed. I would have done the same thing if I thought James was threatened."

"Really?" Simba asked, looking up at the man from his spot on the ground. Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, of course I might not have been as scary as you were but I would have gotten the point across."

Sirius was a lifesaver at times, and Simba went to him whenever Harry or another Gryffindor got too inquisitive about his sleep schedule.

"I mean, they won't let it go! I pass out on a flight of stairs once and they feel the need to monitor everything!" Simba griped one day in March after Harry, yet again, asked about how he had slept. Granted, it was one of the few nights the nightmares had returned. Couple that with how physically exhausted he felt and Simba could understand Harry's concern.

However, he had a perfect person to rant to and he was not going to throw away his shot!

"You know, Harry and his friends remind me so much of James, Remus and myself," Sirius chuckled. "James did the same thing to me one year—actually it was right after I'd been Sorted into Gryffindor. Believe it or not, I didn't appreciate the constant badgering."

"What did you do?" Simba asked, always excited to hear about Harry's father. It was a way to really understand some of the traits Harry had—plus if there were any embarrassing Baby Harry stories in there, Simba wouldn't mind at all.

"Punched him," Sirius shrugged. "Ended up with two weeks of detention and five points off Gryffindor but James and I became fast friends after that."

"Why?"

"I really don't remember," Sirius told him. "Some times that just happens. You can become friends for the strangest of reasons."

Simba sighed and looked back on the past three years at Hogwarts. Sirius certainly spoke the truth.

000

There was only one day where Simba halted his Peter Pettigrew hunt. That day was the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Quidditch match and Fred had, ahem, suggested that Simba go to the game. Simba, not being a dumb lion, agreed—not wanting to get on the wrong side of the twins for any reason.

The day was beautiful, with clear blue skies and little to no wind. It was as if nature wanted to say 'See? Nothing to worry about!'. But Simba knew that something would happen. It was Harry—something always happened to Harry.

"Hey Simba!" Susan smiled as Simba plodded over to the Hufflepuff stands. "Joining us today?"

Simba nodded, not wanting to get into any details though he was sure the whole castle knew that Ron was blaming him for the death of his rat. Simba just considered himself lucky that Gryffindor wasn't playing Hufflepuff today. It would be awkward enough after the game when people found out that Gryffindor's mascot wasn't in the Gryffindor stands.

"Oh bloody hell! Potter's got a Firebolt?" Ernie groaned as the Gryffindor Quidditch team flew out of the locker rooms. "That's it. Any chance we had of making it to the Quidditch Cup is over."

"Gryffindor still has to win," Susan argued. "It's not all on Harry after all. Ravenclaw's chasers could score more goals before Harry could catch the snitch."

"A chaser scoring on Wood?"

"It could happen!"

Simba began to tune them out, as they had begun to remind him of Ron and Hermione. Thinking of them was a bit too painful right now—and personally he'd rather listen to Lee's commentary.

"They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor," Lee Jordan yelled into the microphone and Simba smirked. Trust Lee to focus more on the broom than on the match.

"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" Professor McGonagall interrupted, unknowingly echoing Simba's thoughts. The Gryffindor chasers seemed to be getting closer to the goal but Simba's eyes were on Harry. The Ravenclaw seeker was good, always cutting across Harry's path and forcing his brother to change directions to avoid hitting her.

He heard the Gryffindor side go wild and he turned to Susan, wondering what he'd missed in the match.

"Gryffindor's on the board, ten to zero," Susan told him with a downcast expression. Then, a worried look fluttered across her face and Simba turned back to the field to see a Bludger fly toward his brother. It thankfully missed him but that didn't stop Simba's heart from pounding in worry.

"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero," Lee announced and Simba shook his head in confusion. How in Merlin's name had that happened? Was the Ravenclaw seeker asleep? "Look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn!"

"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTSIE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"

Simba heard Susan and Justin snort in amusement as McGonagall scolded Jordan. It was true though—while Lee could sometimes be amusing, his constant praising of the Firebolt was somewhat tiring.

"Ravenclaw's on the board!" Ernie grinned. "They've scored three goals!"

"So they're fifty points down?" Hannah asked and Ernie's grin slipped off his face. Simba snorted and turned back to the game. Harry and the Ravenclaw seeker seemed to be going after the Snitch, while Harry was doing his best to lose her. Susan's gasp brought his attention back to the game where Simba saw his worst nightmare.

Three Dementors, three tall, black hooded Dementors, were on the field looking straight at Harry. Simba braced himself for the barrage of memories but to his surprise, none came. Though, maybe it was due to Harry's quick action. A silver-white stag erupted from Harry's direction toward the Dementors, trampling them in its path.

More importantly, however, was the fact that Harry's hand had closed over the Snitch signaling the end of the game. Six scarlet blurs flew into him and Simba turned to leave in order to join the mob of Gryffindors who were already storming the field.

"Go on!" Susan urged him as he seemed hesitant to go. "We all knew neither Hufflepuff nor Ravenclaw stood a chance at getting to the Cup, especially with Harry on the team."

Simba nodded and ran down the stairs to join the scarlet and gold mob. Shoving through the excited students, Simba snorted as Percy turned to leave. Honestly, if it wasn't for Harry, he'd be doing the same thing—leaving and probably finding a place to nap.

"Well done!" Simba grinned at his brother. "But did you have to give me a heart attack again?!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Harry chuckled. "Besides, the Dementors didn't affect me at all."

A small cough alerted them to the presence of Professor Lupin. "That would be because they—er—weren't Dementors. Come and see—"

Harry and Simba followed the professor through the crowd until the edge of the field was visible.

"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright," Lupin told Harry and Simba burst out laughing at the sight of the group of Slytherins trying to remove themselves from their long, black, hooded robes. The icing on the cake was McGonagall standing over them with so much fury on her face that Simba almost felt sorry for them.

"An unworthy trick! A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin!"

Fifty each or just fifty in total? Simba thought, still slightly bitter toward Professor McGonagall. He hadn't forgotten Harry's punishment in First Year. Personally he thought that trying to get Harry to fall off his broom was worse than being out of bed after hours!

"Come on Harry, Simba!" George cried, getting their attention. "Party in the Gryffindor Common Room! Now!"

Simba made to pass but Harry dragged him back to the Common Room. However, instead of staying for the party, Simba went up to his room and promptly passed out on the floor by Harry's bed. He was exhausted.

000

Simba was no stranger to waking up around three in the morning. Constant exposure to nightmares had made sure of that. However, there was a difference between waking himself up and someone else waking him up from a restful night's sleep.

"Wha's going on?" he asked, halfway awake but looked over and saw Ron staring at a man standing over his bed. A man who was wielding a knife. A man who looked very familiar.

He was going to kill Sirius. However, the man bolted before Simba could do anything thanks in part to Ron's scream.

"Ron? Are you alright?" Simba asked and Ron nodded, his face so pale Simba could count every freckle. It seemed that, at that moment anyway, the boy's fight had been put aside. Near death experiences trumped everything else.

"What's going on?"

Simba looked to see the other boys staring at Ron with concern.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!" Ron blurted out, as if forming actual sentences was impossible for him.

"What?"

"He was here," Simba agreed. "Ron woke me up with his screaming and I saw him."

It was as if that was the magic code as all five boys sprinted out of their dorms. A rather stupid thing to do if you asked Simba, as they knew the one place Sirius Black was not was the room they had just vacated.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" Fred asked brightly as they entered the Common Room, still littered with the debris of the party. Simba rolled his eyes at his friend and watched Ron interact with Percy. How did Sirius get into the Common Room? That mental knight kept changing the password every other hour so there wasn't any way Sirius could learn it.

"Now, really, enough's enough!"

McGonagall had made her entrance but she didn't seem concerned about the large number of students standing in the Common Room. Rather, she seemed furious.

"While I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected more from you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy defended himself. "My brother had a nightmare and I was in the process of getting them all back to bed—"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron shouted to get their attention. When he had it, the tips of his ears flushed red but he continued. "Professor, I woke up and Sirius Black was standing over me holding a knife!"

Simba wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but he could assume that it wasn't going to be good.