Chapter nine

'Everyone inside,' Remus smiled, he made sure to make eye contact with Harry who nodded back.

'Who can tell me what a boggart is?' Hermione put up her hand, so did Daphne, Malfoy and Harry, 'Mr Potter.'

'It's a shape shifter, it will take on the form of what you fear the most.'

'Exactly, ten points to Gryffindor. Now does anyone know how to repel a boggart?' Remus looked around, 'Miss Greengrass.'

'You repel a boggart by laughter, by turning it into something you find amusing.'

'Exactly, ten points to Slytherin. Now I found a boggart in the staff room, I brought it here to show you. Now when it faces you it will become the thing you fear most. You must think of how you can make it into something amusing. When you do then say Riddikulus. Now I have one concern, Mr Potter, I am unsure if it would be wise for you to face a boggart.'

'Can I ask why sir?'

'Well, I'm sure your boggart would become Lord Voldemort, I don't think it's wise for him to appear inside a classroom.'

'Actually, he doesn't scare me Professor, he's a coward as far as I'm concerned. I don't really fear anything, not that I know of.'

'Then if you are sure, I will allow you to face the boggart. Now I will give you all a few minutes to think of what scares you most and how you will make it amusing.'

'Blimey, it's going to be a spider, I know it.'

'Calm down Ron, think of the spider then think of how to make it funny, you can do it,' Harry patted Ron on the shoulder then tried to think of what he could be scared off. He wasn't scared of bugs or spiders, not snakes, but everything he thought of didn't scar him in the faintest. He wondered what the boggart would become if he wasn't scared of anything. He had heard most of the Slytherin's scoff when he said he didn't fear anything, he hoped he could prove that to them that he wasn't. He knew there might be something out there that could scare him he just didn't know what it might be.

One by one the boggart became some amazing things, from Ron's giant spiders, to vampires, even to bloody eyeballs and banshee's. When Neville's boggart turned into Snape, everyone but the Slytherin's thought it was funny. When Snape ended up in Neville's grandmother's clothes, no one could stop laughing. Harry hadn't face it yet, but he had a feeling why.

'Harry, you next.'

Harry stepped forward with his wand ready, the boggart turned towards him. Within seconds there was a loud bang and it disappeared.

'It seems you do not fear anything, I do not believe I have ever known a person not to fear something. I know you are a parselmouth, but do you like snakes Mr Potter?'

'Yeah, I do, I would do the garden at my aunts and snakes seem to find me, so I'd feed them. I was used to spiders and bugs from working in the garden. Seeing some of the things here today I figured maybe there was something, but there wasn't,' Harry shrugged.

'Well, congratulations, now five points to everyone who faced the boggart which is the whole class, ten to Mr Potter as he made the boggart explode. I believe it's the first time a student did not run out of here in hysterics, so you should all be proud of yourselves. You're earned an early break, read up on boggarts and summarise it for me before our next class. Mr Potter, could you remain.'

'Of course sir,' Harry turned to his friends, 'I'll meet you there.'

Harry waited until the class filed out, he did give Daphne a smile as she left. He turned to face his teacher.

'I wasn't sure if you had been told about me Harry.'

'I was, by my lawyer. So you were friends with my parent's.'

'I was, good friends. Now before you have a go at me which I deserve, I recently found out I had been lied to.'

'About my treatment by the muggles?'

'Yes, I was informed they cared for you but they did not want our kind anywhere near their home. If one of us turned up they would place you in an orphanage. Over the years I was kept informed, always the same, you were cared for as if you were there's. They don't know this, but your friends were talking on the Hogwarts Express, they did not know I was awake. I was asleep at first, but when they began talking I did wake. I realised I was hearing information about you and I realised I had been lied to.'

'My lawyer and I have found out a lot of people has been lied to in regards to me.'

'So is your lawyer taking care of the Dursley's?'

'Yep, he's already on it and the so called wards that were supposed to keep me safe never worked. He had an unspeakable check them, nothing, so that was also a lie. I need the truth though Professor, were you hired because of Sirius Black?'

'That is not the reason he gave me but I believe it was. So you know who Sirius Black is?'

'Yes and I know he's innocent, it was Dumbledore who talked them into switching secret keepers from Sirius to Peter and I happen to know where the rat is right now.'

'He's alive?'

'Yes, he is and inside the castle, I plan to get him to my lawyer so he can take care of that then hopefully Sirius will finally be cleared. I need you to keep that quiet Professor, it seems with how much he is lying to everyone then he has his own agenda and one of them is to keep Sirius away from me. I happen to be emancipated so he lost his rights where I'm concerned and if he finds out about Sirius he will try to interfere with his trial.'

'So your lawyer is going to keep it quiet from the Chief Warlock, is that possible?'

'Because he is here and busy, he believes he can make sure Dumbledore doesn't find out when it will be.'

'How are you going to get Peter to your lawyer?'

'I have a way to go straight to him.'

'Ah, I believe I know how, well, if you need help then I'm here. I don't appreciate being lied to and again he did about Sirius. I know he cast the fidelius charm around your parent's home so he would know exactly who the secret keeper was. Now if you have any trouble with him or Professor Snape, remember, you can take your detention with Professor McGonagall or even asked for me.'

'Oh, I never heard about that?'

'I figured one of your friends would have told you when you returned.'

'They probably just forgot, so since I know Snape will give me detention, for breathing too loudly, I will probably see you or McGonagall.'

'I'll be available, now you should get going.'

'Okay and maybe you could tell me some things about my parent's. No one has ever bothered, until Sirius but we didn't have a lot of time together.'

'I will.'

Harry grabbed his bag and hurried to lunch, 'So what did Lupin want?' Ron asked.

'He was friends with my parent's, he just wanted to let me know. He told me about how we can go to McGonagall if we get detention from other teachers. You forgot to tell me that.'

'Sorry mate, it slipped my mind, it's a wonder you didn't notice how he only took points, there is no use giving us detention when he knows we'll do it with McGonagall.'

'At least we will only get them if we deserve it now, not like before. Is Scabbers any better?'

'No, but they said to keep giving the tonic for a month, maybe Hagrid might know of something that could help.'

'He does help with all the animals Ron, so you can ask him if the tonic doesn't,' Harry thought maybe he would get Ron an owl, it might help when he realises Scabbers is missing.

Right after dinner Harry snuck into the dorm room while the boys were having a game of chess. He shrunk the cage and stuck him inside his pocket then left a note on Ron's bed to find. It just said that he had to sneak out using his cloak, he needed to send Hedwig to his lawyer. Once that was done Harry took the port key from his pocket, activated it. Within seconds he was standing in Gellert's office.

'I wasn't sure what time you would get here but I figured it would be after curfew.'

'Yeah, Ron and the boys in my dorm won't tell anyone I'm missing and they know I own my father's invisibility cloak,' Harry held out the cage, 'I showed Sirius my memory of Scabbers, he confirmed it and I did do the animagus revealing spell, he is one, one with a missing toe.'

Gellert took the cage from Harry then cast a few spells over the cage to confirm it was a male human in animal form.

'Now there is no chance of them denying Sirius is innocent. I will take him straight to Amelia who said she would remain in her office later tonight.'

'Thanks for everything Gellert, I just want Sirius to have a life.'

'He will, Amelia has everything set so you may have your godfather by next week some time. I will let you know when the trial is.'

'Um, wait until after the trial, the way Dumbledore is watching me, I wouldn't put it past him to intercept any mail for me, since he's done it before. It's so close now, I don't want him ruining Sirius's chance.'

'Then I will let you know the moment he's free.'

'Thanks,' Harry smiled, put the cloak over himself then activated the port key. He knew one of the boys could be back in the dorm room so he didn't want them to see him arrive or there could be questions.

On Saturday morning Harry joined Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville so they could walk together to Hogsmeade. He saw Daphne walking with a girl called Tracy Davis. She was another that never said anything nasty and wondered if she and her family might also be against Voldemort.

Harry told Ron he needed to do something, that he would only be fifteen minutes, so he hurried away. Exactly fifteen minutes Harry joined the group inside Zonko's, he held out the cage to Ron.

'What's this?'

'Your early Christmas gift, I figured you should have your own owl mate. I would be lost without Hedwig and she was a birthday gift from Hagrid.'

'Then make sure you do not get me anything for Christmas,' Ron smiled as he took the cage, 'Thanks mate.'

'Anytime,' Harry grinned then he began to look around the shop. He spotted the twins which didn't surprise him, they would be stocking up on dung bombs and stink pellets ready to use on Filch or the Slytherin's.