As we obviously didn't quite get there last chapter, here is the summer between second and third year, maybe even the beginning of third year itself… Witch I found dead depressing, only matched out by fifth year. But enough of my babbling.
It was the first week of the summer holidays, and Harry went to visit Jane. He knew she would be cleared today, finally leaving the hospital wing under her house. Miriam had insisted on building that when she started teaching horseback riding. He smiled to himself when he rounded a corner and saw her waiting in front of her house, smiling broadly.
"Happy to be released?", he teased.
"You bet. Being stuck in a bed and not be able to do anything, ugh.", she replied, shaking her head.
"And what do you want to do today?", he asked cheerfully. He had missed their walks, both on foot and on horseback.
"I thought you'd never ask!", she replied equally cheerfully, nearly bouncing with enthusiasm. Such a blatant display of enthusiasm was not really her thing and he was getting quite curious what they were going to do. She ushered him inside.
"We need to floo to my residence in France.", she said, still smiling mysteriously.
"And what, pray tell, are we going to do there?", Harry asked, trying to hide his smile. He was glad she felt better, both mentally and physically.
"Ah no, can't tell… It's your birthday present, and I don't think you'll mind it coming early.", she replied, passing him the floo powder. "Guests first! Just say 'ambassador's house, France'."
"Doesn't the ministry watch international floo?", Harry asked frowning.
"Ah… So glad you ask, I can show off a little. Now, I informed the ministry in Great-Britain that my sister and I would be travelling France. But off course, hardworking fresh entitled ambassador that I am, I cannot take off and leave for two months. I really need to come back each day, for an update of our esteemed Prime Minister. And my poor sister, she would not want to stay in a foreign country, on her own, when she does not speak its language very well, poor dear. So, she has to come back with me.", she said, nodding earnestly.
Harry snorted. "And your sister, has become… a boy?"
"Ah, no… Should they ask, my poor sister could not come along, and you did not want me to go alone, so you decided to accompany me, being the right gentleman, you are.", she said innocently.
He shook his head. There were times she seemed to think of everything. He flooed to her house, which seemed dark and empty. Harry frowned. Normally, she would've asked the house-elf to light some candles… He heard noise behind him, and turned around, wand already drawn. Smiling apologetically, Jane fell out of the fire. "Sorry, international floo is a bit harder…"
Harry frowned a little deeper. He had noticed nothing of sorts, and normally she maintained her balance perfectly well while flooing. Maybe she hadn't fully recovered yet, but how had she been able to hide that from the diagnostic spells? Then his blood froze, and he threw her on the ground, a spell he didn't recognise flying above their heads. He retaliated with a quick disarming spell, which was blocked but gave them the opportunity to find cover behind the fire place.
He looked at her questioningly, but that split second was enough to get disarmed. Wandless, he stood before a dark figure, half hiding Jane behind him.
"Ah, mister Moody! We have written each other, correct?", she said, coming from behind Harry with her hand outstretched ready for a hand shake.
"Drop the dagger, missy.", the dark-clad figure grumbled.
She smiled apologetically and put her dagger neatly on the fire place, stepping away from it. Harry stood still, thinking fast. If she had written this man, why did he attack them?
"If we have corresponded then you should know the password, missy.", the man grumbled. It seemed to be his natural voice; Harry reflected. He saw Jane looking confused, but her expression brightened not a minute later.
"Nice play, Alastor Moody. But there was no password, for 'each used password can be guessed by accident or is too difficult to remember, or even tortured out of someone. But off course, for you that is no problem'." She looked at him. "Smart."
"It seems to be Jane Davidson. You should have done the same, missy. Checking that it was really me.", he replied.
"Indeed. But I did."
"Oh, yes?", Moody grumbled.
"Indeed. Only a true Auror would have seen I was still armed. Using the mirror over there to make your spells rebound at us was smart, and testified of experience. That's how you suddenly seemed to be somewhere else.", she shrugged, smiling lightly to herself.
"So, you looked into me?", Moody replied, throwing them their wands. Jane lit the candles with a swash of her wand, and the three of them sat down. Harry studied Moody's scarred face, not bothering to hide it – this was a man who would know anyway.
"I would not do well to hire a tutor in Defence who did not have the know-how. I might as well safe myself the effort."
Moody nodded. "You did not tell me who you were going to bring."
"For it should remain secret. You realise there is a minimum of security here, as I did not even inform my own government, for they would not have permitted it, because they would not like to offend the British government by implicitly calling them incompetent."
"And you are their ambassador."
"Something I can only be if I'm alive. For that, I need to be able to defend myself. And I believe it's obvious why Harry Potter should learn that. As we are friends, I thought it would be better to combine. But you need to swear, you never breathe a word of this to anyone, without his explicit permission.", she said decidedly. "I'm going to need you to sign a binding magical contract."
Moody nodded, and she handed him the contract with a feather. Harry noticed that Moody did not use the feather, but took one of his own. It appeared that this man was very careful, he thought. Witch was proven when Moody cast various spells on the contract and read it like he was about to recite it from literally. But finally, he signed.
"So… How do we begin?", Harry asked.
"We already did. Tell me what you did wrong when you countered my attack.", Moody replied.
"I did not have my wand at ready.", Jane stated simply. She had never felt the need to either. She did practise magic in this very house, but there had never been a moment she had felt she was in danger, as she had a personal guard on official business. In other circumstances, she never even left the house, except on a few occasions.
"I have a solution.", Harry replied, digging in his pockets. "Consider it an early birthday present. I owl-ordered it." She studied what he had brought: two identical wand holsters except that hers was for her left arm, and his for his right.
"Good thought. It should've been on.", Moody commented. "And you?"
"I did not follow up my disarming charm with something else."
"True. What else?", Moody asked. Seeing them look at each other in confusion, he continued. "Your environment. You used the fire place to hide, but did you consider the poker beside it? You could've simply levitated it and directed it to me. Speaking of the fire place, you hid before you knew where I was. It's good that you react immediately after being attacked, but you have to know where the threat is."
"Now here are some training dummy's, shoot as much spells at it as you can, and vary. You have a minute. Begin!"
And they began. It amazed Harry how difficult it was, deciding what spell he would have to fire. Later, when they reviewed, he noticed he knew a lot more spells than he had thought. For some, it had simply not occurred to him to use them in a duel. For others, it had been simply not having thought of them.
They had one day off, and Harry spent that day talking with Lara. Jane on her turn had been invited by the Prime Minister for an official tour on the Ministry – why he had waited with that for this long was beyond both of them, but as Jane said: "I get a headache when I try to imagine why he is doing something stupid – if I got payed each time, I'd be rich."
Whatever had happened that day, only a few days before Harry and Jane would have their last training, was still unclear. What he did know, however, was that Jane had come back pale, with eyes unfocused. She had been distracted, and had buried herself in paperwork, not breathing a word. Jane was increasingly stressed out, he had noticed. And more at work. Probably something had happened there. She had not slept well ever since, waking in the dead of the night. He had come across her on every hour of the night, when he himself woke from nightmares of what could have happened in the Chamber.
Apart from that day, they trained for the entire summer. At times, they learned new spells. But most of the time was spent duelling; Harry and Jane against each other, but also with each other. They learned to use their environment, and they learned to trust each other and play to their strengths. The end of the summer came closer and closer, and today would be their last training day. Knowing Moody, a snowball in a desert had more chance then this day being an easy last day.
They came out of the floo, as per usual Harry excited first. He noticed the candles were lit. Looking behind, he saw Jane stumbling out of the floo. She looked around and pointed to something on the floor – something red, dark that looked an awful lot like blood. They looked at each other, drawing their wands in unison. They moved to the trapdoor quietly. In the back of his mind, Harry considered the possibility that it was an exercise. Was it possible to conjure fake blood with magic? Probably, he thought. But he couldn't be sure, so he assumed it was not. Getting down the stairs, they heard voices on their right. Checking the room on their left first, they looked at each other. Jane gestured to move in quickly and loudly, hoping to stun them fast. He agreed, it was the best tactic.
And so they did. But the room was empty, except for-
"Duck!", Harry yelled, throwing Jane on the ground. He cast a quick glance to the right of the room. Half hidden in the shadows stood a dark figure, using the wall to rebound curses. Jane pulled him in cover – she had thrown a table on the ground while he was looking for the threat – and they shared a look. They sprang into action, diving from a side of the table each. Jane banished some furniture in the attacker's direction, while Harry shot a few full-body binds. But their opponent blocked their attacks with ease, and they went into cover. They shared another look, and went onto plan two. Harry sprang to the other side of the table, throwing as much curses as he could with one hand and throwing what he could with the other. He aimed them carefully – he made it look like two people were attacking. Jane sneaked behind their attacker, as what was bound to happen indeed happened: Harry was overwhelmed and hit by a knock-back jinx. And in the exact moment their opponent was distracted, wondering why both people had stopped firing, she cast a full-body bind; a perfect hit. After reviving their victim – it had indeed been Moody, and it had just been an exercise.
Reviving him, they sat down to review.
The week after that, Harry had to go back to the Dursleys, as aunt Marge was coming. Jane was working late on the last day of her visit, trying to catch up with work. Staring out of the window, she suddenly heard a soft tap. Startled, she knocked her ink over her paperwork. Cursing softly – it was late, the other had retired to their rooms already – she went to check what it was. Staying in cover, she noticed a dark figure standing just outside of the light. Squinting her eyes, she thought it the figure had something beside him. Was it…? She dashed down the stairs as quick and silent as she could. Jean, her personal guard, had woken, too. Signalling for her to stand down, he went for the door. She ignored him, and threw the door open, the person behind it nearly falling on his face.
"Harry?", she asked incredulously.
"Don't move", Jean said, keeping his wand on Harry.
"What did I say when we first met?", she asked.
"Nothing. You wrote in a notebook, asking if I was all right.", he replied. "Because you were grieving."
Nodding to Jean, he stepped back. They went to her office.
"Who is the new guy?", Harry asked curiously. He looked out of breath and badly startled.
"Jean. Personal security. What happened?", she asked, gesturing for him to take a seat.
"Aunt Marge… Said something about my parents. She is… not always tactful. And I just went loose. I used magic."
"Well, that means you'll get a warning."
"I didn't wait for that, last time- "
"Last time?", she asked softly and suspiciously.
"Ah, well… When that house-elf came, he dropped a pudding to prevent me from going back to Hogwarts, and I got a warning."
"Bloody English, I swear you think you know it all. Has it occurred to them they can tag the Mark to a magical signature? Because the French can."
"Ah well it is what it is."
"So, what did you do?", she asked.
"I ran away."
She stayed silent. "Were they that angry?"
"Heat of the moment.", Harry replied, not meeting her eyes.
She nodded. "I've got news, too. You've heard of Sirius Black, haven't you?"
"On the Muggle news", he replied confused.
"He escaped from Azkaban. Officially, he's arrested for murder on thirteen Muggles.", she said, trying to sound calm.
"What does that have to do with me?", Harry asked, slightly surprised.
"They say he wants to kill you.", she said carefully. As she had expected, he showed no sign of shock or surprise.
"Why?", Harry asked.
"Because… Because he was a follower of Voldemort. Because he was a friend of your parents.", she said softly.
Harry stayed silent for a while.
"Hang on, how do you mean 'officially'?", he asked.
"You know, I was there when your parents were betrayed. I remember… It was after the I-don't-know-how-many torture session. He was asking and asking about their location and I kept silent. Someone came in, standing in the shadows. He said something like 'the Potters have appointed me as secret-keeper, my Lord. I can take you there'. And they left, after Voldemort arranged for me to stay with Death Eaters in France. My first foster parents… I remember that voice. For me, it meant all the pain and suffering and dead was for nothing. I've never felt so hopeless…"
She trailed off, trying to gather courage. "Fudge took me with him to Azkaban as a state visit. We visited Black… And he asked for the newspaper. I did not recognise his voice.", she said looking down.
"So… It was not him who betrayed my parents?"
"You know what that means? I've kept silent, and my silence has cost an innocent man twelve years in prison. Twelve years with dementors, reliving his worst memories over and over again… Never a break. Most people are insane. They're screaming, threatening, laughing like maniacs… They don't know where they are, who they are, what year or month or day it is. Dead would be more merciful.", Jane said desperately.
"But it's possible his voice changed because of lack of use, or he twisted it.", Harry said.
Stumbling to a chair, Jane nodded. "In theory, yes. But that's not why I've kept silent, and that is my point."
"It would help no one to come clean now, Jane. He is coming for me anyway, and he will get to me. You can't protect someone perfectly forever… I suppose that's why you have Jean?"
She nodded. "It'll be all right, Jane. We'll get to the bottom of it."
"You can't be hoping a mass murderer will come after you on my behalf!"
"I don't have to. Rationally, you know it's true. I'll try my best to not face him alone. But security can't be tight, not for years – and you know, one way or another, he has planned this for years."
They sat down for a while.
"But why now?", Harry asked suddenly.
"What?", she asked vaguely, still drowning in guilt.
"Why escape now? What changed? What is different this year from the twelve years before this? Was it a lack of security, or did something happen?"
"Why is that relevant?", Jane asked frowning.
"Because, if we know why he escaped, we know what he is going to do."
"We are not going after him!", Jane exclaimed.
Harry gestured for her to be a little quieter. "Why not? You rather wait until he has found one of us?", he demanded.
"Because Aurors will catch him."
"And if they do, why not escape again?"
"They say it was exceptional, dark magic."
"Then why not use it again? Why is Black the only one using it? Is he the only one who learned, or the only one sane enough to use the magic? Because if not, others will escape. Then we are looking at a ticking bomb."
"Bloody hell.", she whispered. The thought had not even crossed her mind yet.
"See, this is why it is necessary to know. Fudge won't do it. He wants to protect his name."
They stayed silent. "What did you think about the investigation?", he asked.
"From what I've seen, they went the wrong way. They arrested him and then the investigation started. They already declared him guilty; another suspect was never in sight. All the evidence should be looked at in a neutral way, not like 'he's guilty and all this has to prove it'-way."
"And what if we do that?", Harry asked calmly.
"It's been twelve years.", Jane pointed out.
"Indeed. Cold cases exist and are solved, you know."
"Okay… We start the night of your parent's dead. Sirius Black did not rat them out. Who did?", she asked herself.
"Who do you ask such an important task?", Harry asked rhetorically. "Good friend… Probably from Hogwarts."
"I looked into it: your father had a friend group of 3 friends."
"We should talk to them…", Harry mumbled, look perturbed.
"Well… Peter Pettigrew was killed with the Muggles. Remus Lupin is alive, but withdrew from public live; there is no trail of him."
Harry looked at her questioningly. "I needed to know for myself, but… I thought you might not want to know, and I didn't want you to do this because of me." He nodded.
"And my mother's friends?", he asked.
She shook her head. "Most of them had children themselves; I can't see your parents asking for such a thing. You know, the location can be tortured out of someone, if they are in such pain they need to give up, because they would go insane. Your parents would not ask such a sacrifice of people with young children."
"So… We should look for Remus Lupin then."
They looked at each other, and sighed.
"But how did he escape prison?", Harry asked frowning. "You make it seem like there was never an outbreak before."
"There wasn't. But according to his OWLs, he was very gifted."
"Not to mention, he had a goal in mind.", Harry said nodding. He knew he had the same tendency.
"You should head back now.", Jane said.
Harry sighed. "And where have I been for all this time?" He was right, Jane realised. About half an hour had passed.
"Walking?"
"No one saw me. No… I think I'm heading to Gringotts. I'll be recognised, they call in the ministry and I'll be 'found'. No questions, because I've travelled rather long. No need to bother the Muggles either."
"Take the Knight Bus then.", she said, slightly exasperated. Walking, come on now…
"Just hold your wand arm and it'll come. It can bring you everywhere, and its whereabouts are logged by the Ministry. Probably, someone'll be there to collect you."
"Thanks, Jane", he said, giving her a hug.
"Travel safely."
Harry took the bus without problem. He did notice the dog following him around, until he got on the bus. He was surprised the Prime Minister was the one collecting him. He'd never thought the man would risk being out for him, and he felt touched; until he realised it was probably only for publicity's sake. But against his expectations, no picture of him was in the papers. He met the Weasley's and Hermione in Diagon Alley, and heard the Weasley parents discuss whether he should know. He couldn't understand why miss Weasley did not want him to know – honestly, had he been such a cry-baby? – but at least her husband had more confidence in him. All in all, he was glad to board the train on the first of September, though he was disappointed Jane and Lara had decided not to come for another year, so as not to increase the risk of Sirius Black attacking them. After all, he thought, she was the only witness who could possibly tie him to betraying his parents, if he was guilty. Harry changed his opinion about Black being guilty all the time. He just couldn't imagine why the man never had said something about his innocence, but the alternative was even scarier: had he claimed to be innocent, and had no one investigated?
On this rather dark note, I'm going to call this chapter to an end. Next chapter will hold a surprise, and the first important deviation from canon (apart from the MC). Please, if you are reading this, leave a message. I'm… Quite down, to be honest. I feel like no one is reading this, and if so, who am I writing for? So, if you feel I should continue, let me know. Stay safe and healthy!
