Chapter 85: Harry and the Ministry
Harry grabbed the Marauder's Map, tossed his invisibility cloak over his head, and made his way to Sirius' house in Hogsmeade. It was the middle of the day on a Thursday, but the fifth years had been given the afternoon to study for their OWLs and most were taking full advantage. No one would miss Harry (other than Ron and Hermione, who knew perfectly well where he was going).
It was Lupin who opened the door the instant Harry removed his invisibility cloak. Lupin looked a bit tired, but no worse than he often looked on the morning after a full moon.
Harry grinned and Lupin smiled back. "Sirius told me that everything went according to plan," said Lupin.
"It did," confirmed Harry.
"Is it all right if I hug you?"
Harry supposed that it was. He'd intended to demand that Sirius take him to see Lupin, after all, and here Lupin had saved him the trouble by coming to Hogsmeade. He hugged Lupin back, pleased that Lupin wasn't too terribly much the worse for wear after his time in Azkaban.
"Sirius will be back soon," Lupin explained as he guided Harry through the familiar maze of the Weasley twins' products to the only area that was empty enough for the two of them to sit comfortably. He casually summoned a bottle of butterbeer for Harry, and Harry accepted it.
"I didn't come to talk Sirius. I came to talk to you."
A puzzled look briefly crossed Lupin's face. "I see. Why?"
"I wanted to see if you were really all right. After Azkaban. Sirius said you were, but…" He trailed off, feeling foolish. Sirius had told him that Lupin was all right, and Sirius didn't lie to him. "After Voldemort hit me with Avada Kedavra, I went to a place where I wasn't exactly alive and wasn't exactly dead."
Lupin was very still and very serious now. "I'm familiar with that place. I meant to talk to you about it before you went to face Voldemort, but I was unavoidably detained."
"Did it look like King's Cross Station to you?" asked Harry.
"It looked like my childhood bedroom." He tilted his head, deep in thought. "I believe it takes the shape of a place that represents a moment of transition in your mind. For you, it was the place where you boarded the train to Hogwarts and properly entered the wizarding world. For me, it was the place where I was bitten by Fenrir Greyback and turned into a werewolf."
That made sense to Harry. "I saw a bit of it," Harry admitted. "A bit of you. You looked awful. Worse than I've ever seen you look. You were begging a woman to be allowed to go home. You asked for five hours, or five months, or five years. I guess you got the five years."
"As soon as I asked for five years, I ended up on the Hogwarts Express just in time to become your professor. As you know, I wasn't at all certain that I'd asked for something I truly wanted."
Harry understood that better than Lupin knew. It would have been the perfect time to tell Lupin about Teddy, but Lupin started to speak again before Harry could open his mouth.
"I'm a bit relieved that you saw that, Harry. I'd begun to wonder whether it truly happened. I wasn't able to show those memories to Dumbledore the way I was able to show him, for example, Sirius' death."
Harry didn't like to think of Sirius' death, or Lupin's, or Tonks', or Cedric's, or Dumbledore's, or any of it. "Who was the woman you were talking to?" he asked. It was a personal question, but Harry needed to buy time. He needed to find a way to tell Lupin that he and Sirius and Tonks and Cedric would all live, but Teddy would not.
"She was my mother. Or rather, she was a projection of my mother. My mother was a Muggle, you see, and Muggles cannot become ghosts. So they do not linger in the in-between the way witches and wizards do."
"I saw my mum too," said Harry. "At least, I thought I did. I only know her from the memories that you and Sirius showed me, so I guess I wouldn't know if she was a— projection." He hated the thought. He liked the idea that he'd been able to speak to his parents, just once.
"I've little idea what happens after we die. I imagine that it could have been your mother. She was, after all, a witch."
"She told me that she could sense me when I was in trouble. They both told me— her and my dad— they told me that they always know when it's Halloween because they feel you and Sirius reaching out to them. They thought that you were dying in Azkaban. They said you were too close to the veil."
Lupin was paler than usual. "It certainly sounds as if you met your parents. And I might have died in Azkaban if they'd left me there for another month, or if Peter Pettigrew hadn't demanded that they clean up the blood on one occasion—"
"Pettigrew?!" exclaimed Harry. "The rat? Scabbers?"
"I was surprised myself," said Lupin.
"Why did he do it?" Harry tried to tone down his outrage. He wanted Lupin to live— of course he did— but where had Pettigrew's concern for other people been when he'd sold Harry's parents to Voldemort and framed Sirius for the crime?
Lupin paused, though it was evident that he had thought about this before. "The easy answer is that he thought there might be something in it for him."
"But what could that be? He's going to be in Azkaban for the rest of his life. You can't change that even if you want to."
"That's true. And I do not want to change it. I think Azkaban—without dementors— is a suitable punishment for Death Eaters."
"So? Why did he do it?" demanded Harry. He didn't really expect Lupin to have an answer, and he certainly didn't think that Lupin had done anything wrong, but he was nonetheless annoyed that Peter Pettigrew had done anything for which Harry might possibly feel grateful.
"Perhaps he did it because he didn't have anything to lose. He is, as you say, likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. He didn't mind doing a kind thing when it didn't cost him anything one way or the other."
Harry didn't like that explanation very much, but he suspected that Lupin was correct.
Meanwhile, there was a crack of Apparition outside. Lupin rose to his feet cautiously, and Harry followed suit, but Sirius' voice called out as the front door opened. "It's me, Moony. The Ministry is just as hideous as always, in case you were wondering." He rounded the corner and saw Harry. "Harry, what are you doing out of school? What's wrong?"
"I fancied a chat with Professor Lupin."
"Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Studying."
"You left school alone?"
Sirius was obviously angry now, and Harry was puzzled. "Didn't you write a map and become an Animagus so you could leave school whenever you felt like it when you were my age?"
"And I ended up in Azkaban for twelve years. Is that something you'd like?"
"Padfoot, I'm not certain that we can draw a direct line between skiving off for a butterbeer on a Thursday afternoon and Azkaban," said Lupin quietly.
Sirius looked from Lupin to Harry and sat down. "I'm sorry, Harry," he said at last. "I'm not used to living in a world where Voldemort isn't a threat to you. I've never done it before."
"Nor have I," agreed Lupin.
"Nor I, I suppose," said Harry.
"As to that." Sirius dropped the roll of parchment he'd been carrying in front of Harry. "As long as you're here, you might as well sign. The Ministry will want a member of the Wizengamot confirm that you are agreeable to the arrangements in person, though."
"What arrangements?" asked Harry.
Sirius nodded at the parchment. "Perhaps you should read it."
Harry was tired of reading in preparation for the OWLs and he didn't particularly feel like reading anything else, but he unrolled the parchment anyway. The words stood out boldly across the top.
Parental Responsibility Agreement for a Minor Witch or Wizard
He looked at Sirius, who was toying with his wand.
"If you've changed your mind—" said Sirius.
"Don't be stupid, of course I haven't," said Harry. He skimmed the lengthy form and grabbed a quill to sign at the bottom where his name had been printed before turning to the next sheet of parchment.
Petition for Adoption of a Minor Witch or Wizard
"Of course I'm not going to ask you to call me your father or to take my name," Sirius continued hastily. "You know perfectly well that all things considered I'd rather take your name. But—"
Harry signed as fast as he could so that Sirius would stop talking. He was surprised that he felt no surge of excitement. He had wanted this for so long, but he had been disappointed so many times…
"Can I be on the family tree at Grimmauld Place now?" he asked. He didn't know whether the question would make Sirius laugh or make him angry, but Harry figured that either way it would be better than Sirius being nervous.
As it happened, Sirius laughed. "Yes, I am looking forward to putting you on the tree." He glanced at Lupin. "Moony, too, as soon as he marries Tonks."
"She asked?" Harry wanted to know. "She said she was going to."
Lupin's lips quirked upward. "Yes, she asked. She told me that she'd told a number of people beforehand that I would have to explain myself if I said no."
"You were married before and you wanted to go back to her when you died," Harry pointed out. "Why would you say no?"
"I've made mistakes in the past," said Lupin so quietly that Sirius, who had been fidgeting with the signed rolls of parchment, became still. "I told her many times that I was too old for her, too poor for her, too sick and dangerous for her. After we were married, I left her. I told myself that I was protecting her."
Sirius' face was a mix of sympathy and disgust. Harry imagined that his own expression was similar. Lupin smiled at them both before continuing. "It took you, Harry, to make me see sense. I was grateful and I swore that I wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Of course, I nearly did. When I was in Azkaban, it crossed my mind… well, I rather thought that I wouldn't survive the last full moon. I wondered whether that would be a blessing for Dora. Whether that would let her be free from a helpless, broken, infamous werewolf. I did consider refusing to continue the relationship, but when I saw her… I managed to make a wiser decision this time."
"Good," said Harry, and he privately vowed not to tell Remus about Teddy anytime soon. He remembered Teddy's words.
He has hope. And when he loses that hope, you will know what to say to him.
Lupin hadn't lost hope, and Harry certainly didn't know what to say that didn't carry the risk of convincing Lupin to abandon Tonks all over again. They'd both been miserable when they'd broken up the previous summer, and Harry wasn't interested in seeing a repeat performance of that.
"When's the wedding?" asked Harry.
"I don't know." Lupin pulled the adoption parchment out of Sirius' hand because Sirius was toying with it again and had waved it perilously close to a stack of the twins' love potions. "This summer, most likely, unless Dora decides that she wants a wedding so elaborate that it takes a year to plan."
"I think you're safe from that one, mate," said Sirius.
Harry nodded in agreement. He didn't know Tonks well, but he doubted that she had the patience to spend a year combing through bridal magazines when she could have been out catching dark wizards.
"Enough about me, anyway," said Lupin. "How are things at school, Harry? You must be a bit overwhelmed with the Quidditch finals and the OWLs coming up so soon."
Harry shrugged. "I've been having a hard time worrying about any of that."
"Have you been studying?"
"Yes," said Harry honestly. "Everyone is studying, so there's nothing else to do."
Sirius laughed. Lupin looked less amused. "How are Ron and Hermione? I'm surprised they didn't join you here today."
"They wanted to," said Harry. "They were worried about you. But I didn't know that you were here. I thought I would have to get Sirius to take me to London or Yorkshire or wherever, and we would have had a harder time getting Sirius to take all three of us."
"I would have done it," said Sirius, sounding almost put-out.
Lupin rolled his eyes. "Did you tell Ron and Hermione what happened?"
"Yeah." Harry twisted inside at the memory. Ron had been the perfect audience and had then been willing to change the subject to Quidditch, for which Harry had been extremely grateful. Hermione, on the other hand… "Hermione cried." It had been horribly awkward. "Why do girls cry?"
"She didn't give you any sort of a hint?" Lupin's tone was the same one he had used in his classroom when he wasn't ready to give the students the answer to a question until at least one person offered up a guess.
"She said it was awful that I could have died and she wouldn't even have been able to say goodbye. She said that she wouldn't have gone to see Krum in Bulgaria if she'd known."
In truth, Harry had known exactly why Hermione had cried. He just didn't want to experience anything like it ever again.
Sirius and Lupin exchanged an annoying, knowing sort of look. Harry didn't appreciate it. "You were worried that I might die, and you didn't cry," Harry told Sirius.
Sirius smiled sadly. "I cried for your father— for your parents— many times. I would have cried for you."
Harry didn't know how to respond to that. This was the last thing he wanted to discuss. It was worse than talking about Peter Pettigrew or Teddy Lupin.
Sirius and Lupin exchanged another annoying, knowing sort of look before Sirius stood up. "Let's go," he said to Harry.
"Go where?" asked Harry warily.
"To the Ministry," said Sirius as casually as if they had been planning this for ages. "We'll formalize this today and start acting like Voldemort is gone instead of talking about what it's like to know Voldemort is gone." He held out his hand, gesturing that Lupin should return the parchment Harry had signed.
Lupin pulled the parchment out of Sirius' reach. "May I make a suggestion?"
"No," said Sirius.
Lupin pretended not to hear him. "Formalize Harry's departure from school with Professor McGonagall. Don't start your new life off with what could technically be considered kidnapping."
Sirius sneered at Lupin, who looked less than impressed but handed the parchment to Sirius. "Let's go," said Sirius to Harry.
Harry's heart sped up. He wasn't sure whether they were going to go to Hogwarts or whether they were going to go straight to the Ministry and he didn't care.
It turned out that Sirius had listened to Lupin even if he had sneered at him. Even more oddly, Sirius allowed himself to be stopped at the front gate and ushered to McGonagall's office by a grumbling Filch. Sirius had entered Hogwarts grounds so many times without permission or announcement that Harry hadn't even considered that there was an official process for making a formal visit to the school. He hadn't ever bothered to listen when those rules were reviewed at the beginning of the school year. After all, it wasn't as if he expected to facilitate a visit from the Dursleys.
"I only have a moment before my next class," McGonagall called without looking up from the parchment she was reviewing.
"This shall only take a few seconds," said Sirius.
McGonagall's head snapped up so quickly that Harry would have laughed had he not been so suddenly full of nervous anticipation.
I never have to go back to the Dursleys'. I'm going to live with Sirius for as long as I like. Sirius walked through the front door of the castle like any other parent instead of sneaking in like a fugitive. Things are going to be finalized at the Ministry.
Harry found himself looking forward to visiting the Ministry. He was even looking forward to adding his name to the family tree in Sirius' horrible family home.
"What are you doing here, Sirius?" asked McGonagall with a soft, affectionate look that always disconcerted Harry.
"I came for permission to remove Harry from school grounds this afternoon so that we can visit the Ministry and formalize my status as his guardian."
"Very well," said McGonagall crisply. Harry was glad that she didn't say anything about how wonderful it was that this was finally happening, or how pleased she was that things had changed enough that everyone agreed that it was safe for Harry to leave his relatives. "But Potter needs to check in with me personally when he returns. We need to have a conversation, Potter."
Harry nodded. He didn't know or care what the conversation was going to be about. Sirius was free; Sirius was about to become his legal guardian; Voldemort was dead. Even if McGonagall told him that he had been expelled— or, possibly worse, that he was no longer allowed to play Quidditch— Harry wouldn't mind.
Witches and wizards were streaming out of the Ministry when Harry and Sirius arrived. They were so focused on leaving the building behind that not one of them paused to gawk at Sirius, the famous Azkaban escapee, or did a double take upon catching a glimpse of Harry's scar.
"Are we too late?" Harry wondered.
"The Ministry isn't closed to the public yet, no matter how many of them are pretending that it is," said Sirius calmly. "We're better off catching them at the end of the day. They'll rush because they want to go home. No time to drag things out so they can tell their mates how they stamped the parchment that sent the Boy Who Lived home with his criminal godfather."
Harry liked that he and Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines. It was nice to be around an adult who understood him, and who understood the way the wizarding world worked, too.
They took the lift to Wizengamot Administration Services, which turned out to be located on the second floor of the massive building. Harry looked curiously at the array of papers which cluttered the table beside the information desk. There were copies of the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly, but also advertisements for legal advice (apparently no one had ever offered one of those to Sirius) and lists of nearby restaurants.
He laughed at the map which featured directions to the ten establishments serving the ten best bacon sandwiches within easy Apparition distance. The back of the map listed hours of operation, whether the establishment was magical or Muggle, and a lengthy debate about the virtues of ketchup versus brown sauce.
Harry's personal opinion was that the best bacon sandwiches were the ones Mrs. Weasley made by the dozen when they were all in a rush to get out the door to meet the Hogwarts Express, but he couldn't help imagining how jealous Dudley would be if Harry mailed him a copy of the list and claimed to have tried every one.
"Take it," said Sirius, reading over his shoulder. "We'll need to celebrate somewhere once we're done here."
Harry folded the map and tucked it into the pocket of his robes. As he did, a grumpy, grey-haired wizard appeared at the information desk and told Sirius that all of the members of the Wizengamot had left for the day and that Sirius and Harry would have to come back tomorrow.
The map burned in Harry's pocket. They shouldn't even have joked about celebrating.
Sirius' posture shifted almost imperceptibly. "That's interesting, considering that the Amendment to the Statute for Magical Justice of 1992 states that one member of the Wizengamot will always be on call during normal business hours for vital but routine administrative services, on pain of a full investigation and possible demotion of those involved."
The elderly wizard's brow tightened and his mouth hung half open. "I'll go upstairs and check," he said sullenly.
"You do that," replied Sirius.
Harry glanced at the watch Sirius had given him for Christmas. The second hand hadn't even made one circuit around the face when the elderly wizard reappeared, followed by a square-jawed witch with close-cropped grey hair and a monocle. In a loud, booming voice, she introduced herself as Amelia Bones. She nodded to Sirius. "Mr. Black."
Sirius nodded back. "Madam Bones."
Then Madam Bones turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter. Do you understand the meaning behind the forms you signed this afternoon."
"Yes, Madam Bones," Harry said.
"You presently live with your aunt and uncle, is that correct?"
"Yes, when I'm not in school or visiting friends."
"Why do you wish to make such a significant change at this point in your life?"
"Because no one offered to let me make a change before this point in my life," Harry blurted out before wondering whether he ought to have been quite so honest. "My parents wanted me to be with my godfather. I want to be with my godfather."
"Do you feel safe with Mr. Black?"
The questioned annoyed Harry just as much as it had when Mrs. Weasley had asked it. "Yes."
"Very well," said Madam Bones. She waved her wand and the parchment began to glow. Her signature magically appeared beside Sirius' and Harry's before the parchment magically duplicated itself. One copy flew to sit atop a box beside the disgruntled elderly's wizard's desk; the other copy was returned to Sirius.
"Is that it?" Harry asked.
Madam Bones smiled. "If it were earlier in the day, I would have taken you into one of the meeting rooms so we could have had a ceremony in keeping with the significance of the occasion. As those rooms have been locked for the evening, I must settle for offering you my congratulations."
"Thank you," said Sirius and Harry together.
"There is no greater honor than properly uniting a family," said Madam Bones. "Best wishes to both of you." She looked a minute longer at Harry. "And best of luck on your OWLs."
"Thanks."
"My niece is in your year at Hogwarts. She's hardly been able to speak about anything else for months."
"Susan Bones?" asked Harry. "She's in my Herbology class." He wanted to say something nice about Susan, but all that came to mind was the way she had won a bet with Parvati and Lavender about whether Lupin and Tonks were dating. He didn't think that the stern-looking Madam Bones would be very impressed with that.
Madam Bones didn't seem to expect Harry to say anything more, though, and Sirius and Harry were soon on their way to the Kitchen Cafe, which was the only restaurant on Harry's map that was both open and fully magical. Sirius and Harry were dressed in robes that would have looked out of place in the Muggle world, and Harry didn't fancy violating the Statute of Secrecy on his first night as Sirius' legal son.
The Kitchen Cafe was very small and slightly dirty, but the food was the best that Harry had ever tasted.
But then, he reflected, anything would have tasted good when his heart was singing with the knowledge that he was really, truly free of the Dursleys.
Harry returned to Professor McGonagall's office as she had instructed. "Sit down, Potter," she said, and Harry did, suddenly realizing that he was quite tired. Had only a few hours passed since he'd gone to see Lupin and ended up at the Ministry with Sirius?
"How did your visit to the Ministry go?" asked McGonagall. "Were you able to get a member of the Wizengamot to finalize the guardianship papers?"
"Susan Bones' aunt."
"Amelia Bones handled the matter herself? Not that I'm surprised that she would do her share of on-duty work, but she is the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Harry wasn't surprised. Madam Bones had definitely been the sort of person who ought to have been in charge of something.
"Perhaps you'll feel it's too late for this question, but I need to ask you when your godfather isn't present. Is this was you truly want? A life as Sirius Black's heir and ward?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
"In my case, it's required, Potter. As your Head of House, I am sworn to make certain that any change in your living arrangements is free from coercion."
"I haven't been coerced!" Harry snapped. Mrs. Weasley didn't like Sirius; Amelia Bones didn't appear to know Sirius, at least not very well. But he'd thought that Sirius had been one of Professor McGonagall's favorite students.
"I didn't believe that you had been."
"I wish someone had cared about whether I was happy to spend ten years with the Dursleys," Harry muttered. "Sirius could be as reckless and crazy and dangerous as everyone thinks he is, and he'd still be better than the Dursleys."
"I quite agree," said McGonagall. Her beady eyes were bright.
"Did you ever meet the Dursleys?" Harry asked curiously. Her underlying disgust told him that she probably had.
"I never precisely met them. I observed them on the day after your parents died. I… I asked Dumbledore whether there wasn't any other way, but he was insistent."
"He thought it was the only way I would be safe." Harry had heard this story before. He didn't like it, but he knew from experience that it wouldn't do to dwell on it. If he hadn't spent so much time dwelling on the decisions Dumbledore had made about his early childhood last year, Igor Karkaroff might never have been able to threaten Cedric and Ginny and Tonks.
"I'm happy for you and for Sirius," McGonagall continued. "Now that that's sorted, we need to have a discussion about your career development. The Headmaster asked that you be temporarily exempt because of certain… external demands on your time this spring."
"You mean that I needed to get rid of Voldemort so the Dursleys could get rid of me."
"None of it was ideal, but we cannot compound any errors we may have made by sending you into your sixth year without proper guidance."
Harry had steadfastly ignored the pamphlets that had littered the common room and had only half-listened when Hermione had chattered on about her plans to make a career out of SPEW. But he didn't think he'd needed to pay attention, anyway. "I've only really thought of being an Auror," he told McGonagall. "I've talked to Mad-Eye Moody and Tonks about it, and they told me I had to continue on with Potions whether I liked it or not. They said Snape only took people who got an O on their OWL into the NEWT-level class, but Professor Slughorn says he's sure I can do NEWT-level work. I don't think I'll have any problem continuing on with Charms, Defense, Herbology, or Transfiguration. Sirius said I should take the core classes at the NEWT level regardless because it was better to have qualifications I didn't need than to need qualifications I don't have."
Her mouth twisted and her brow creased. Harry was privately delighted that he had, however temporarily, rendered her speechless. "I'm pleased to see that you've put so much research into this. And even more pleased to see that your godfather has given you such good advice." She ran her finger down the edge of a square of parchment. "You're correct that you should have no trouble achieving the requisite qualifications in Defense and Charms. I've been more than satisfied with your work in Transfiguration since Sirius entered your life, but your performance has slipped in the past few months. As understandable as your reasons may be, that cannot continue."
Harry nodded. "It won't."
"Good. Spend your last few weeks of studying focused primarily on Potions, secondarily on Transfiguration and Herbology."
Harry nodded again. "I will."
"This will be the first and only time you will ever hear me suggest that you put Transfiguration second."
Harry grinned. For an instant, he was almost looking forward to the challenge of NEWT-level work. "I won't get used to it."
To be continued.
Author's Note: My apologies for still not being caught up on review replies. The reviews/favorites/follows are appreciated!
Recommendation: This Calls for a Toast, So Pour the Champagne by tinyporcelainehorses. It is story number 13554097 on this site.
Summary: Dudley Dursley reluctantly accepts an invitation to his cousin's wedding. While there, he discovers some wonderful wizarding adult beverages and meets Cho Chang, who has her own reasons for drinking heavily at Harry Potter's wedding. In the months to come, this unlikely encounter will make him rethink his attitudes towards the magical world and change his life forever.
My soft spot for Dudley redemption fic being what it is, I have to recommend one every time I name-check Big D. :) This one has the added bonus of giving Cho the fair shake she doesn't often get. And the first chapter's description of experiencing a wedding you don't really want to attend is spot-on. Mind that this story is rated M.