A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands.
A/N: The big divergence from canon or other fanfiction I've read starts now. I'd like to think this is much more mine.
Chapter 20: A Busy Night
November, 1994
"Are you 100% it could work?"
"Of course I'm not 100% sure. It's a bloody dragon!" Harry snapped at Hermione. She hunched over a little, hurt in her eyes. Harry sighed and reached over, taking her hand with his in a friendly manner. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to snap. This is just a fairly stressful situation."
"I don't blame you Harry, I never do. Not when you get put in these awful life and death situations."
"Maybe I should just walk into the arena and start blasting it with every spell I know. Seems as good an idea as anything?" Harry said with a half laugh.
"Harry, what about parseltongue? That might work! Dragons are part serpents!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Hermione, you are really amazing at thinking outside the box," Harry said, impressed by Hermione again. "Unfortunately, that won't work."
"Why not?" Hermione asked, annoyed that Harry had complimented her and then shot down her idea instantly. If dragons were reptiles, it was bound to work.
"Honestly, I don't understand the specifics. But Charlie and I discussed it over the summer." Harry shifted through the papers on the desk in front of the desk until he found one labeled Reptiles. He handed the letter to Hermione. "This is where he answered it. It was a little complicated. See if you can make heads or tails of it."
Harry knew it was a lie. It made perfect sense to him given the context of the earlier letters. But he suspected that Hermione might be able to understand anyways. Worst case scenario was that she was confused, but she might understand and see something Harry missed. He didn't know if it would have even the smallest chance of working given how angry the dragons would be, but it might be worth a shot if Hermione could find something.
They had stolen Akira's office to discuss strategies. They were talking through possible ideas and Akira had flooed back to Japan to take care of something for his dad. There was no spell Harry had learned in the last few weeks that could seriously bother a dragon. To be honest, almost nothing could. In his letters Charlie said that an angry dragon would only retreat from a pack of griffins, and that there was no other animal that could frighten them into flight. Harry had asked about boggarts, but Charlie had said dragons don't fear anything. Besides, no creature was stupid enough to have a home in a range that a wild dragons lived in. That was why there were sanctuaries for dragons that dragon handlers filled with animals for food.
One of the letters caught Harry's eye and he grabbed it from the pile and started to read it. A wide smile appeared on his face as he read. This could actually work! He turned to Hermione and tapped the paper.
"Harry?"
"Hermione read the third and fourth paragraph of this one. I think both ideas could work!" Hermione grabbed the letter and read the paragraphs in question in a matter of seconds.
"Harry, this is great!" Hermione said. "But for the first one it requires really advanced magic. I don't know you will be able to do it. The second idea is doable, but you will need to get airborne."
"Yeah, I haven't figured out that part yet, but I think that is more doable than fighting an invincible creature."
"True," Hermione said. "Let me think about how to get airborne. You should practice."
"I'll practice tomorrow," Harry said.
"Harry, the task is tomorrow afternoon!" Hermione was panicked. This was a really bad time for Harry's old habits of laziness and no work ethic to reappear. She narrowed his eyes as Harry didn't reply. Something else was going on, something that Harry was hiding from her. "Harry, what is going on?"
"Division of labor," Harry said. "You work on flight. I have to do something else. I figured by now I would have the first task figured out. This nonsense is insane. If I survive this, the second task can't possibly be worse." Harry walked over to the fireplace in Akira's room and looked at his watch. 5 minutes left. With nothing better to do, Harry dropped and started doing pushups. He wouldn't be able to do his night exercises anyways, so this seemed a good time to get them in, especially since he wasn't working out in the morning with Akira tomorrow. His brother hoped to get back in time for the task, but he had left the day before and when Harry asked him what was going on, Akira hadn't answered which meant it was serious.
"Oh god!" Harry said. "Cedric doesn't know! He'll get killed!"
"Harry, I think a 6th year student will be fine," Hermione said. "You should focus on yourself." Harry shook his head and drew his wand. He pointed it at the fireplace and muttered a few words. Hermione looked at him curiously. "What spell was that?"
"Sorry, it's Japanese. Kind of a trade secret from this summer."
"More secrets?" Hermione asked, a hurt look on her face.
"It's a spell that my martial arts school created. I took a magical oath that any secret spell I learned in Japanese I wouldn't share without the express consent of my master."
"Ok." Hermione understood that perfectly. Spell creators were among the most secretive people in the world. Not only did that level of intelligence mean that they thought at a level far above normal people but sharing a spell you created was an incredibly personal act. Most spellcasters only entrusted new skills to a textbook for a lot of money or to people you trusted. Obviously the martial artists in Harry's school had quite a few geniuses who chose the second option. Not to mention that Hermione did not know nor did she have any intention of learning Japanese, so she would not understand the spell which would impede her ability to cast it nonverbally.
"I have to go," Harry told her. "Do you know where Cedric is?"
"Harry, just because we went to Hogsmeade once, that does not mean that I know where he is?" Hermione replied archly.
"Yeah, but I have no idea." Harry slumped by the door. "I won't be able to find him the night before the task. He will be cooped up somewhere practicing."
"Harry, sometimes you are so dense," Hermione said with a patient smile. "You have a map that shows you where everyone is. Maybe use that?"
"Genius," Harry said, yanking the map out from his bag. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He scanned the map and saw Cedric in the Ravenclaw tower, on the 5th floor. "Hermione, if I am not back in 5 minutes someone should be coming through the floo in the fireplace. Don't freak out, they are a friend."
"Harry, you can't floo into Hogwarts without Dumbledore's permission," Hermione reminded him. He waved his wand at her, and she gasped in surprise as she realized what Harry had done. "Harry you unlocked the floo network in Hogwarts? That is very dangerous!"
"No, I doubt I could do that," Harry admitted. "Unless you say this specific room, you will still get blocked, so it should be all good. Say hi when he gets here." He bolted out of the room and raced towards the Ravenclaw tower. He paused at the knocker, panting a little from his full speed run up 4 floors as he realized he didn't know the password. "Where is the painting?"
"There is no painting," a short blond girl told him. She was sitting at the wall next to the entrance with a book on her lap and a scroll and quill next to her, clearly doing homework. "You have to answer a riddle. It changes randomly, but I am good at riddles."
"Thanks. Could you help me get in?" Harry asked.
"You are Harry Potter?" The girl asked. "Your head is full of Wrackspurts. I could get them off if you like."
"Actually, just the common room would be nice," Harry said, very confused but discarding that comment immediately. He had no idea why Cedric was in the Ravenclaw tower and not the Hufflepuff common room, but he had no idea how to enter their common room either. The girl here was a stroke off luck.
"Ok," the girl said and stood up and used the knocker.
"Feed me and I live. Water me and I die. What am I?" Harry was totally baffled. Didn't anything that ate need water as well?
"Fire," the girl said, and the door swung open. Harry was about to enter but he paused, looking at the girl again.
"Thank you." She nodded and was turning back to her book when Harry interjected. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name."
"Of course you don't," the girl said. "We have never been introduced." She sat there staring off into the distance and Harry shook his head. He was about to enter when she turned to him and said "I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood."
"Nice to meet you Luna," Harry said. "If you don't mind me asking, why aren't you working in your common room? The floor doesn't seem all that comfortable."
"Well if I do it in the common room the other girls will tease me for being weird. Wrackspurts are afraid of the knocker so this is a good place to work." Harry knew that he had to get to Cedric and then hurry back to Akira's office. But he couldn't help it as anger started to bubble up in him.
"And you don't have shoes on for the same reason?" The girl didn't say anything. "Luna is it?" Luna nodded. "Can you come with me?"
"You are a good person," Luna said as she stood, folding up her book. "You would never enter the cup and break the rule. Thank you for trying to help me, but it will be dangerous. You might get in trouble for attacking other students."
"You know what I am going to do?" Harry was floored by the statement. He had indeed been prepared to cast some spells at the girls Luna identified. He hated bullying of any type, and no matter the consequences he would never let it go unpunished. He learned a long time ago that if you did not respond to bullies it only got worse, especially if the bullying was physical.
"Of course I do," Luna said. "Your Wrackspurts can't wait."
"Well let's give the Wrackspurts a show," Harry said with a grin. He stepped into the common room, Luna right behind him. "Point out the bullies to me." Luna indicated two fourth yeas that Harry knew and 2 fifth years, one with a prefect badge. "Great." He whipped out his wand and stepped out from behind the door. "Stupefy! Locomotor Mortis! Incarcerous!" One girl fell to the ground, covered in ropes. The other two fell to the ground, one of them unconscious. Harry approached the fourth girl his wand out.
He felt a spell behind him and ducked instinctively, turning and smashing down with a balled fist, catching the boy on the collarbone. The would-be-attacker fell to the ground in pain and Harry whirled to face the girl again. She was drawing her wand but it was too slow. Painfully slow, and Harry was ready.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry was precise with his aim so only the wand flew away. "Now, let's have a talk. I understand that you have been bullying this girl here." He indicated Luna. The girl stared at Harry, terrified and unmoving. Harry realized his wand was still out and slipped it back into his robe. He had been slow drawing it and realized he should get a holster so he could draw it quickly. "There, wand away. Have you been bullying this girl?"
"Who Loony Lovegood?" Harry sighed in irritation.
"That's not a nice nickname. Normally I wouldn't hit a girl, I'd just hex her. But I put my wand away, and Hermione has tried to tell me to treat everyone equally." His hand shot out and grabbed the other girl's shirt and yanked her up, staring up at the horrified girl. He glared her down and shook his head. "This will have to work for now. If I ever hear about you bullying anyone again, and that includes nasty nicknames, I will hit you with some real spells. For your own safety, I wouldn't do that." He dropped the girl and shoved her back onto the couch.
"Harry!" Cho rushed down the stairs, her wand in her hand. "What is going on?"
"She is the worst of all of them," Luna muttered, so quiet that only Harry could hear.
"It's a shame you are a bully too Cho," Harry told the older Ravenclaw girl. Any attraction he felt for her vanished the instant Luna muttered the word worst. "I was just teaching them," he indicated the three girls on the ground "an object lesson in what I do to bullies."
"What?" Cho was clearly incensed. "Do you mean bullying Loony Lovegood?" Harry dropped and his leg swept out in a move meant to knock Cho off her feet and she fell to the ground. As she looked up he saw Harry's wand in her face.
"Give me a reason," Harry said, and he could see the terror on her face from the anger in his. She shook her head, and Harry moved his wand away from her. He scanned the room and saw a few other students of different years. They were all staring at Harry silently, some with awe on their faces, but most were fear. "Anyone else?" Harry asked loudly. "I would hate to have to come back here another time."
"Harry?" Cedric asked, bounding down the stairs. "What are you doing here?" He saw the injured girls and his face went hard, drawing his wand. "I thought you were a nice guy. Cleary I was wrong to defend you."
"If you don't consider bullying an offense, then I guess we shouldn't be friends," Harry remarked, his wand coming up to a ready position. He really didn't want to fight Cedric, but if Cedric knew and condoned the bullying, especially since he was probably with Cho, Harry would certainly not tip him off to the dragons.
"What are you talking about?"
"I had a talk with these girls about bullying. None of them are hurt too bad… This time." Harry voice dropped a few registers as he ended his statement. "I simply explained to them that the next time they were bullies, I would do some more permanent damage."
"Cho is this true?" Cedric asked. She didn't say anything.
"Harry shouldn't have attacked them, but the Wrackspurts around his head were very persistent," Luna said, stepping out from behind him. "They don't like bullies either. He missed a few because they are not here."
"Luna?" Cedric looked surprised. Then Harry pointed at her feet, which were devoid of shoes and Cedric's face hardened. "You should have gotten me Harry," Cedric said, disgust on his face. "I would have helped." Cedric didn't bother to hold back the disdain as he looked at Cho. "I see you missed one," Cedric said, moving his wand to the Asian witch.
"Yeah, but she has a splintered shin that will take a few days to Madam Pomfrey heal," Harry explained. I figured that was enough."
"I guess that's fair," Cedric said. He was surprised by Harry's actions, even if he silently agreed with them. It was certainly not how he would have handled the situation. What really surprised him was the decisive and somewhat dangerous action that Harry had taken. One girl was even unconscious and he saw a wand in the corner that must have been a disarming spell. One boy was still whimpering quietly holding his neck. "I assume you were looking for me?"
"Initially," Harry admitted. "Luna, let me know if they bother you again. I will come back for a more…pointed lesson."
"What is to stop us from telling a professor?" The girl who could still speak asked. "You attacked us!"
"Well, then the whole story would come out," Harry said casually. "I'll get a month's worth of detentions and lose a whole bunch of house points. How bad was your bullying? I'm sure the professor you tell would absolutely LOVE to know." The girl shrunk back, clearly afraid of what someone might find out, and Harry forcefully shoved down his anger. He had gambled that the bullying was worse than name calling, and apparently he was right and then some.
"I'll stay quiet," the girl promised and Harry flashed an evil smile.
"I bet you will. But I'd more concerned about your future behavior. I'd love to get an excuse to come back. Cedric, come on," Harry said as he started walking out of the room. The door swung open as he approached it and Cedric was close behind him.
"That wasn't a little extreme?" Cedric asked. "I obviously take no stock in bullying, but 4 of them will need to go to the nurse."
"First of all, the three girls I jinxed should be fine. Simple counter curses would work just fine. For Cho, she ignored my warning. If you make a threat and don't enforce the punishment, then why would I even bother?" Harry ran his hand through his hair, straightening out a little bit. "Do you know what a Wrackspurts is?"
"Doesn't sound familiar," Cedric said, accepting the blatant subject change. "But Luna is a little odd.
"You know her?" Harry asked.
"The Lovegoods grew up right near us," Cedric explained. "A nodding acquaintance with her father. Her mom died when she was just a kid. Ever since then…"
"Huh. I guess I understand that. Still, Wrackspurts are new to me." Harry tried to think if Wrackspurts sounded familiar but was distracted by the real reason he had come to look for Cedric. "Oh right. Cedric, the first task is dragons."
"What?" Cedric looked more confused that afraid, and Harry realized he had not explained it properly.
"The task is to get past a dragon," Harry said. "I think we are supposed to steal an egg from a nesting dragon, but I don't know that for sure."
"That's insane!" Cedric cried. "We will all die."
"Well, Krum and Fleur know too," Harry said. "Hagrid showed Madame Maxime, and Karakoff was sneaking around. I learned a little while ago. I should have told you, but it slipped my mind with my preparations."
"No, it's ok," Cedric said. Harry could tell he was already trying to come up with a plan. "I've got a few hours tonight and tomorrow to try and figure something out."
"It's not ok," Harry told Cedric forcefully. "All of the champions have had 3 days to prepare, except for you. To even the playing field, there is an idea I can give you." Quickly, Harry outlined the plan to Cedric.
"Harry, I don't want to take your idea-"
"I have some other ideas," Harry said, interrupting Cedric. "I probably can't use that idea properly. I don't have the skill. If you can then I would go with it. I know a little bit about dragons, and I think it will work." Harry turned and started walking away. "Just something to think about," Harry called over his shoulder. When he was out the view, Harry picked up the speed and dodged a few stray students. He was almost back to Akira's office when he collided with someone. He managed to grab them and spin around so that he hit the floor and they landed on top.
"Harry?!" Susan got up and offered Harry a hand up. "Where are you off to so quickly?"
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I am in a hurry," Harry said, brushing off some of the dirt from his cloak. Harry rolled his shoulders and felt a small twinge in the right shoulder. Horror descended over Harry. The last thing he needed when he was trying to get by a dragon was an injury. Maybe his surprise guest could check on the shoulder.
"Harry, is everything ok?" Susan grabbed his arm as he tried to turn away. "I know the first task is tomorrow."
"Don't remind me," Harry said with a half-laugh. "It's a nightmare. Odds are I'll probably die. I have a few ideas and Hermione has helped out."
"You know what the task is?" Susan asked. "We have to tell Cedric!"
"Literally just did." Akira's door popped open behind Susan, and Hermione poked her head out.
"Harry, you didn't tell me who…" Hermione saw Susan standing right next to him. "Oh, hi Susan." Hermione looked at Harry, a question in her eyes. "You told Susan about your godfather, right? Is she coming to meet Remus too?"
"Who is Remus?" Susan asked, but even as she spoke Harry's mind was whirling over the possibilities. Susan knew about Sirius, and she accepted it. When he had spoken to Remus, his old professor had alluded to the fact that he would pass on the story about the crazy events unfolding to his godfather. Maybe with the combined intellects of Hermione, Susan, and Remus they might be able to come up with a safe way for Sirius to stay in England.
"You know what?" Harry said, guiding Susan towards Hermione. "The more the merrier." Harry let both girls into the room and then shut the door. There was a man near the fireplace who flipped a hood up over his face as he saw Susan. Harry shook his head with a rueful smile. Remus was cautious to a fault sometimes.
"Harry?" Remus's voice called out, a little muffled from under the cloak.
"Remus!" Harry cried out and rushed across the room to hug him. Remus hugged him back, and Harry, who was now just a few inches below Remus used his shoulder to knock his hood off. Susan saw the hood go off and it took her a few seconds to place the familiar face. Her eyes widened as she recognized Professor Lupin.
"Hello Professor Lupin," Hermione said, confirming Susan's theory. Susan thought back a month ago to when Harry had trusted her with the story of Sirius Black. Remus Lupin had featured heavily in that story, and Susan looked around curiously. Perhaps she would have the chance to meet the mysterious Sirius Black. It was one thing to hear Harry tell her the story. It was another thing entirely to see the supposed madman herself.
"Looking for Sirius?" Harry asked Susan with a lopsided smile. "I doubt he is coming. Right Remus?"
"Telling everyone out secrets Harry?" Remus said. Harry blushed a little. "No, he isn't coming," Remus continued. "I was able to get in contact with him, like you asked. Unfortunately, he did not listen to my advice. It's not your fault at all, Harry. He has probably been looking for an excuse to come back and meet with you. It just so happens that your godfather now has that excuse."
"No Remus!" Harry said. "I specifically said he should not come back!" Harry's voice got higher and louder as he spoke. "It is way too dangerous with the extra security." He glanced back at Hermione. "Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you. Akira and I noticed it a few weeks ago. Obviously Professor Moody is on high alert, but there are almost always some aurors watching me. They aren't too good at it. I've made a game of slipping away from them. Makes me wonder if it is a good career path."
Remus started laughing at that statement. All three people in the room looked at him oddly, for different reasons. Harry was baffled because it seemed like a perfect career for him. Hermione was surprised that Harry was thinking about what career might suit him before career counseling in their 5th year. Susan was confused because somewhat like Harry would be much better suited for politics, and even if he hated the spotlight he must know how strong his influence on other people was. But Remus was laughing for none of those reasons.
"Harry, you would be the worst auror in the history of the department."
"Why would you say that?" Harry looked angrily around the room. Hermione shrugged her shoulders, clearly confused.
"Harry, if you saw a death eater attacking someone, would you fight them?" Remus asked.
"Of course!"
"Even if your commanding officer told you not to?" Remus asked, a sly grin crossing his face.
"Oh." Harry grimaced a little. "Yeah, I guess I am not the best at following orders."
"Harry, when you look at your life you don't follow orders at all," Hermione noted. "You are just incredibly lucky that it works out every time."
"Well, I had no business beating Voldemort at age 1," Harry replied. "I feel like my chances against dementors basilisks and Voldemort 10 years later are better. Remus, what does Hayashi-Sensei always say about luck?" Remus took a deep sigh. "Come on, say it."
"You make your own luck with hard work." Remus said. "Fine," the werewolf admitted. "You may have a point. But Hermione is right. Always breaking the rules, like going after the man who killed your family is not a good thing and an urge you would be best served to curb."
"It's not like I always go out looking for trouble," Harry complained.
"No," Hermione replied. "No, it's more like you take out a full page ad in the Daily prophecy with specific trouble in mind with a date and time. Don't be late, or I'm sure I can go out and get some more trouble?"
"Thats…" Harry trailed off as every eye in the room stared at him, "accurate."
"So maybe not auror after all," Susan added.
"Maybe," Harry admitted. Then he narrowed his eyes at Remus. "Remus!" Harry couldn't hide his frustration. "Don't try and distract me from the main problem. Tell Sirius not to come!"
"I can't do that," Remus admitted. "Sirius probably put up a mail ward, and he wouldn't listen even if we could get in touch with him." Remus walked over to Harry and put an arm around him. "It is touching you are worried about him. But Sirius knows what he is doing. If 10 years in Azkaban didn't break him, I think he can probably avoid a few auror patrols."
"Maybe he won't have to," Susan said. Everyone in the room looked at her with surprise. "Harry, I have a confession to make. Just promise you will let me tell you everything before you react. Also, I'd appreciate it if you don't kill me."
"Kill you?" Hermione asked. "Susan, what did you do?"
"Well, I told Harry I would talk to my aunt about the Sirius case. It didn't go exactly as planned."
"What happened?" Harry asked, more than a little concerned.
"Well, I might have given away a little too much when I asked my questions. My aunt is clever sometimes, and I accidentally said that I had the information from someone else." Susan told him. Harry took a deep breath. The old Harry, the one that couldn't knock out everyone in the room without a wand would have lost his temper immediately. But the deep breath calmed him down enough to realize that there was more to this story.
"That's not enough for me to want to kill you," Harry explained. "Did you say I was the one who you got the information from?"
"Please!" Susan snorted in derision. "I might have made a mistake, but I'm not an idiot. I told her Dumbledore let it slip. As it turned out that was the real blunder."
"Really? Your aunt wouldn't dare go after Dumbledore," Remus said. "Amelia Bones is brave, but that is foolhardy."
"That's not why it is a mistake," Harry said as he realized what Susan had left out. Her aunt was indeed clever, and it might have been best if she had implicated Harry. Even the head of the DMLE wouldn't arrest the boy-who-lived. She might try and question Harry, but it was unlikely that Harry would give up anything incriminating and during that question he could force some information out of Amelia Bones as well. "So what reason did you give?"
"Reason?" Harry realized Hermione was a few steps behind.
"Hermione, Dumbledore is one of the few people that Amelia wouldn't go after. But he didn't become the most influential wizard in Europe by randomly sharing state secrets. Someone else had to be in the room, someone who was ok with Susan's presence." Harry explained, but then his eyes widened as he reached the only conclusion.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I figure we can fake it for a few days when she shows up," Susan said.
"Oh God," Remus said, holding his head and sitting down.
"Ok, can someone spell it out for someone who isn't in Slytherin?" Hermione snapped.
"Remus?" Harry said, taking a seat as well.
"The only reason Dumbledore would let be in the room would be if Harry asked for her to be there. And since this is the first year she has really interacted with Harry, that means they are not simply friends. It means that he is Susan's boyfriend."
"Yikes," Hermione said.
"Look, she is coming over New Year's. We can pretend for a brief time and maybe she can get the kiss-on-sight order for Sirius cancelled." Susan shrugged. "Honestly, I'm lucky that I got her to agree to stay for only 2 days and not interrogate you about your intentions." Harry didn't even bother calling out Susan on her luck statement. There was too much going on in his head.
Susan sat there looking at all the reactions. Harry and Professor Lupin just looked like someone had told them their dog had died, which wasn't entirely an unfair reaction. Sirius was a dog Animagus after all, and it was very possible that her aunt arriving and putting Harry under a microscope would mean that there was a good chance Sirius would be discovered. Hermione came to the same conclusion and the look she gave Susan was best described as loathing.
None of this affected the young Ms. Bones. She hadn't lied, just left things out. She had not intended for the situation to play out the way it had. But all of this had happened recently. More specifically, one thing had preceded all of these events that changed everything. Susan wasn't pleased that Daphne was going to be his date to the ball. She was even less pleased that Harry was seriously dating her, and from the look of it was in the process of falling in love with her.
Susan didn't like Harry in that way, not yet. But that did not mean that she was more than happy to have Daphne dating him, for 2 key reasons. First, Susan wanted to keep the option open to pursue Harry, who was interesting and surprisingly smart and funny in a way no other guy she had met was. He also understood something no one else, not even Hannah could. The death of parents at early age was a weird thing to build a relationship on, but Susan preferred to have that out of the way early.
Susan had no problem admitting her first reason was selfish and a little immature. Her second reason would be much more acceptable in public. Daphne and Harry were both incredibly strong-willed individuals. They were a decent couple, but Susan could see them breaking up and unconsciously forcing their friends to take sides. To Susan's surprise, Daphne had been become quick friends with Hermione. Susan suspected that Harry had encouraged Daphne to be more friendly, and Hannah had become friends with Daphne as well.
Susan had a bunch of friends in older years who complained about breakups and how breakups ruined friend groups. Susan would be angry and frustrated if a breakup between Harry and Daphne fractured their group, which would be inevitable. But Hannah was finally starting to make real progress with Neville. A week ago Hannah had confided in her that Neville had finally kissed her. It took another 3 days Neville to find the courage him to talk to Hannah again, but susan's best friend was happier than she had ever been.
If Daphne and Harry broke up in a nasty way, Neville would choose Harry and Hannah would choose Daphne. Neville and Hannah's relationship was far too fragile to withstand the stress that would come from these issues. Harry and Daphne would hurt a lot, and would need their friends. If Neville and Hannah had to spend a lot of time away from each other, not only would their relationship crumble, but it would never be in a position to resume after a break.
With all that in mind Susan had created a scenario where Neville and Hannah could get back together for a brief period of time during winter if Daphne and Harry had a nasty split. If Daphne and Harry were still together, Neville and Hannah's relationship would be strong enough to survive time apart. The fact that Daphne would not like Harry pretending to be dating someone else and would not understand because Harry really did not want to spread information about Sirius around only sweetened the deal.
"Well, this is a lot to wrap my head around," Harry admitted. He looked at his watch and groaned. "I have to go dance with death at 2pm tomorrow. I'd like the chance to sleep 12 hours, and practice, and we are getting awful close to a time when I can't do that.
"Bed?" Hermione said?
"Bed," Harry said and slunk out of the room, clearly exhausted. Hermione almost had to put an arm under his arm to get him up the stairs.
"Ms. Bones, a moment?" Professor Lupin called. Susan hung back.
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt about your intentions towards Harry. This is neither the time or place to get into the complexity of this situation, especially as I am given to understand Harry has recently started dating someone who is not you."
"What would you like to discuss then?"
"I will not pretend to be very close to your aunt. However, she was only a year behind us in school. I was not close to her, but Sirius always had a thing for smart girls from Hufflepuff. Until our 7th year. I thought he was just maturing. But the more I think about the end of our final year, I see him as sad rather than mature. I don't think you get to the head of the DMLE by ignoring a direct order, even if it is wrong."
"Are you asking if Amelia and Sirius were more than friends?" Susan asked.
"No," Remus said. "I am confident in that fact. My question is whether or not Amelia would let her feelings affect her job."
"That depends," Susan said. "If she gets a chance to speak him in private, maybe. If it is a public confrontation, she'll take him into custody and it doesn't sound like he would fight back."
"Well, this is a fun mess we have found ourselves in," Remus said. He was in yet another impossible situation with Sirius. He would have to tell his friend the head of the DMLE was coming to Hogwarts over New Years. If Sirius hadn't been involved with Amelia, then he would probably relish the challenge of tweaking her nose. But it seemed more likely that Sirus had been involved with her.
"Ms. Bones, you should probably go to bed. Try not to get caught by any professor's after curfew," Remus said. Susan walked out of the room. Remus stared at the fire for a few minutes, and then closed his eyes. What was he getting himself into?