Chapter 12:

"I have spent hours in her company now, and all she speaks are the same words over and over. They are difficult to decipher, but I have come to the conclusion that this woman, somehow, came to Earth from another world, using the Expanse of Delusions as some sort of bridge. But how? Beings from other worlds? It seems impossible, yet there is no other explanation I can find. Why do I get the feeling there is something in her babble that I am missing? Why her obsession with the number 16? What are these Shards?"

From Albus Dumbledore's Notes; 20th Century, Earth.


Gabrielle led Ginny up the Grand Staircase with two tall redheads who'd identified themselves as her twin brothers Fred and George. As much as she wanted to be heading to Beauxbatons to celebrate Fleur, she knew that right now she was of more use helping the distraught girl to bed. While Ginny had returned to awareness, when she tried to walk, her legs started shaking horribly. So now, Gabrielle, Fred and George were helping her to the Gryffindor Common Room after Dumbledore had lifted the lockdown. Sirius Black had evidently vanished. They reached the open portrait hole and walked inside. The Common Room, which was packed with people whispering about the break-in and the Triwizard, quieted. Fred and George cleared a way through the people while Gabrielle, with Ginny's arm around her shoulders, helped her to the stairs. Ember had disappeared.

"How'd you do it? Dark magic?" a boy shouted, and several people mumbled the same thing.

"Leave her alone. She didn't put her name in," Fred snarled.

"She doesn't know what happened, and the next person who suggests she did gets on our bad side," George snapped. They reached the stairs.

"They're charmed. We can't go up. Third door on the left," Fred whispered in Gabrielle's ear. She nodded and walked up the stairs with Ginny.

"She's lying," came another voice. This time no one agreed with him. Evidently, they were too scared of the Twins. They must have a reputation for something, though Gabrielle didn't know what.

"Ron. For once in your life, use the brain our parents gave you and shut up," George said, voice low.

"No. We all know what she's capable of George. We know what she did, what she can do. Now she's used dark magic to get herself into the Triwizard Tournament underage. She's either going to lose spectacularly, or she'll do the same thing to those other champions that she did to Hermione and Justin." Gabrielle heard the sound of a fist meeting flesh, followed by a crash. Gabrielle ignored it, leading Ginny up the stairs. She reached the third door and pushed it open. Three beds had been crammed together between the door and the window. No candles burned.

Gabrielle led Ginny towards the beds, but the girl pulled her in the opposite direction: towards the empty side of the room. Gabrielle furrowed her brows but allowed Ginny to guide her. They reached the wall where a tapestry hung, and Ginny pulled it aside to reveal a small tunnel. Gabrielle's heart lurched into her throat, she drew her wand and pointed it down the chamber.

"Lumos." The spell illuminated a small tunnel leading to a bed bathed in moon-light.

"My god, Ginny. You actually sleep in there?" Ginny shrugged and crawled into the tunnel despite Gabrielle's attempts to stop her.


Harry burst into the Common Room, fuming. Ember had found and told him and Mak what she had done. Now, he was about ready to kill someone. Mak sat on one shoulder, Ember on the other.

The Common Room had dissolved into a brawl. Ron Weasley was lying on the ground, moaning. Seamus's hair was blue, and he had ginormous elephant ears weighing him down. Dean Thomas was hiding behind a couch. Somehow, his hindquarters and legs had been replaced with those of a monkey, and his face was covered in boils. Fred and George Weasley were standing guard at the bottom of the girl's staircase. Several chairs had been demolished, the paintings were all empty, and there was a large hole in the wall.

"What is going on here!" He snapped, his tiredness causing him to yell louder than he intended. Everyone winced, looking towards him.

"Well?"

"It was Fred and George, Harry," Romilda said, appearing at Harry's side with her friend's Natalie and Jimmy – both of whom were regular members of his fan escort.

"Ron, he, well, he…" Romilda trailed off, and Katie appeared from in the crowd.

"Ron insulted Ginny because of how she entered the Triwizard Tournament." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"And how exactly was that?"

Richie Coote, one of the few first years who didn't follow him around, piped up.

"She used dark magic." Almost everyone in the room shivered. A spell shot from the end of George's wand, colliding with the poor boy. His head immediately inflated. He screamed and started floating towards the roof.

"And, who perhaps came up with this profoundly stupid idea?" he asked. Everyone glanced wearily at Fred and George, but the pair of them remained stationary.

"Well, it's obvious. She did it before, she can do it again."

Demelza was crouched behind a chair out of the twins firing line, and it appeared her devotion to Harry was more powerful than her fear of prank spells.

Again? God, what happened to you, Ginny? He refused to ask anyone what happened, though he'd narrowed the event down to her first year. He also refused to speak with anyone who brought the subject up. He would not judge Ginny for something that she obviously deeply regretted and despised herself for. He wouldn't do it. She would tell him herself eventually.

But right now, he had to fix this. The question was, how was he going to do that? The answer was quite simple. When placed in a difficult situation, the easiest way to get out of it was to lie through your teeth.

"Well, it appears you're all idiots then, because I put Ginny's name into the Goblet of Fire." A wave of gasps echoed through the room. "I intend to test her metal in order to see if she's got what it takes to join me on my missions. The tournament is the perfect opportunity. Perhaps, if one of you had impressed me as much as Ginny has, it would be you being celebrated tonight. Instead, I come here to find you all brawling like a bunch of dumbasses!"

For once he actually thanked Dumbledore for coming up with that stupid story.

"But… but Harry. You have to know what she did…" a second year he didn't know began, stuttering through his sentence.

"Of course, I KNOW!" He snapped, and the boy fell onto his ass in shock.

"Do not presume to think that if you know something, it means that I do not. Now, Demelza, go to the Hospital Wing and inform Madame Pomfrey that we have injured here. Katie, go find Professor McGonagall and provide her with a full list of all those involved so that she can decide how many house points are to be taken from Gryffindor. All involved mind you." Both girls rapidly nodded their heads and vanished out the portrait hole behind him.

"The rest of you, I expect more from Gryffindor House. The Courageous and the Bold? More like bullies and simpletons." Satisfied that his message had gotten through even those with the thickest skulls, he advanced to the stairway the twins were guarding, snapping his fingers softly inside his pocket. They nodded to him respectfully, before moving to allow him past. Then he walked up the staircase – the one bewitched not to let any man walk up them – without breaking his stride. After all, it wasn't a certainty that the stairs would change, just a very strong probability. He reached Ginny's dorm and found the door open.

"Gin?" he asked softly. He thought he could hear crying inside.

"In here!" Came a distant voice. Gabrielle? He pushed the door open the whole way and found himself in a circular dormitory. Only, the three beds had been crammed together between the door and the window, leaving the rest of the space empty. Where was Ginny's bed? Ember jumped off Harry's shoulder and glided to a tapestry on the far side of the room. Harry, balling his fists, followed, pulling the fabric aside. Within he found a tunnel carved into the stone. Gabrielle was sitting in candlelight at the far end, a weeping Ginny cradled in her lap.

Only intense mental discipline prevented him from seeing red. Mak and Ember flew through the chamber, Harry crawling after. There wasn't room enough in Ginny's make-shift bedroom for three, so he remained crouched in the passage, head extended into the space. Her bed had been crammed – literally crammed – inside. Her trunk, shrunken, sat on the tiny windowsill. A small door that he would have to crouch to use was positioned in the wall opposite the window. He knew instantly what it was. A cupboard under the stairs. His hands began to tremble. Mak had started to glow with a blinding intensity.

"Gin? Don't you worry. We're going to get you through this. You'll come out winning the whole tournament if I have anything to say about it." Ginny just nodded her head. Her face was covered in tear stains, her eyes puffy and red.

"Okay. Come on. You're staying in my room tonight." Ginny didn't seem to have the energy to disagree with him, and between Gabrielle and himself, they managed to get her out. Gabrielle grabbed Ginny's trunk on the way. Together, they led the distraught girl out of the room and down the stairs to the Common Room. McGonagall, Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey were all in the room, looking over the children. He made eye contact with McGonagall, and she nodded her head softly. Dumbledore too watched him as he turned up the boy's stairs with Ginny and Gabrielle. They reached the top and Harry pulled open the door. The Head Boys rooms consisted of a main study with a fireplace, two couches, a bookshelf and a desk; a private bathroom, and a bedroom with a double bed and a wardrobe for his clothes. They placed Ginny down on the bed and tucked her under the covers. She fell asleep instantly.

"Harry… Thank you," Ember said softly. Then she drifted down to the bed and lay on Ginny's pillow. Harry and Gabrielle went back into the sitting room and closed the door.

"Thank you for helping her when nobody else would," Harry told Gabrielle softly as he made his way to one of the cupboards, pulling out an extra pillow and sheets. "You can sleep here tonight if you want. I doubt you'll be allowed back to the Beauxbatons carriage. McGonagall saw you, so you should be fine." He pulled the cushions off the couch and quickly made up a bed. He'd pilfered the extra sheets from a room on his first night. Old habits die hard, after all. Gabrielle stared at him, blinking.

"You really care about her, don't you?" she asked softly.

"I care about everyone who gets screwed by society," Harry told her, putting the pillow in place.

Gabrielle whispered a thanks, before taking the offered place on the couch. Then she frowned.

"Where will you sleep?"

"You let me worry about that." He blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness. Then, he picked a position opposite the door, wand at the ready. Mak landed on his lap and curled up into the crook of his leg. There was no way he was going to sleep tonight.


To one who hadn't lived it, the circumstances that found the famous Harry Potter blasting holes in the wall of the Prefects Bathroom to release a mass-murderer would be completely unfathomable. Fortunately for Daphne Greengrass, she had lived through it. At least, most of it. She still had no idea why he'd stolen the Sorting Hat from Dumbledore's Office when he could have taken any number of other super expensive or important artefacts from inside.

Harry blasted the wall with another Severing Charm – wincing each time he cast for some reason – and the bricks he'd created in a second the previous night finally broke free, collapsing to the floor to reveal the unconscious form of Sirius Black, a silvery blanket, a roll of papers, and a talking hat.

"Ah! The Hatnappers! I knew you'd come back! Harry Potter is it? And Daphne Greengrass. Well, an odd combination to be sure. What is the meaning of this!" The hat seemed incredibly miffed.

Harry, rolling his eyes, slapped the hat onto his head.

"Now. You listen here, Mr Hat. You and I are going to have a conversation, and you're going to shut up long enough for me to get a word in. Is that understood?" The hat pursed the folds that formed its mouth.

"An Imagineer. Ahh… Yes, I see it now. Hello Makani, tell me, how is the Valley? I haven't seen it in such a long time." Daphne raised an eyebrow. Then, incredibly, a figure appeared in the air – four tiny transparent wings protruding from its back, fluttering rapidly. It had blue skin, blonde hair, pointed ears, and a silver dress that dissipated to mist at her feet. A faerie. Merlin's Baggy Bedazzled Boxers.

"Hi Hogs," the faerie said dejectedly, "there's nothing about the Valley you're going to want to hear." The hat frowned – if a hat could be said to frown.

"The Pact of Truth? It has caused the devastation I feared when I learned of its implementation?"

Makani nodded, and both fell silent.

"Um, what devastation?" Daphne asked hesitantly.

"The faeries draw power from the dreams and desires of humankind," Harry said softly, "The Pact of Truth banished them back to the Valley, what you call the Expanse of Delusions, and cut them off from their life source. The surviving faeries are all either dead, dying, or fleeing before they do." Daphne felt something crunch around her very soul. Humanity had condemned an entire race to death simply because they'd been considered a pest. It made her want to be sick. It was even worse than You-Know-Who's persecution of Muggleborns and Half-Bloods in her mind. At least they could fight back, the faeries couldn't.

"Hmm…" the hat said suddenly, pulling Daphne out of her thoughts, "It is an intriguing plan you have here, Mr Potter. A positively Slytherin one in actual fact. I think I know now why Albus wouldn't let me sort you. Incredibly, I think you would have been a stall between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. A rare trick that!" Daphne couldn't help it. Her jaw fell open. Harry Potter: a Hufflepuff! Or, even more incredibly, a Slytherin! He hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor at all! Dumbledore had just put him there!

"It's all true, isn't it?" She exclaimed, "what you've been saying since you got here. About being homeless before Dumbledore kidnapped you." Harry raised the silver shackle on his arm.

"Duh. This place makes me want to vomit. So much foreign power. I've got a constant headache from it," he said, sighing dramatically.

"You think it's bad for him," Makani said, rolling her eyes. "I have to watch him force Enchantment through his veins. It's like drinking month-old milk!" The faerie grabbed her stomach and mimed puking.

"So, um, what's this plan?" She asked, eagerly.

Harry raised an eyebrow as he removed the hat from his head.

"You sure you want in? You could get expelled." Daphne just shrugged.

"Helping Harry Potter pull a heist over the eyes of the Headmaster of Hogwarts vs being a good little girl and doing my studies? Which would you pick?" Harry and Makani both laughed.

"Well, when you put it like that," he said with a smirk. Then he clapped once, rubbing his hands together.

"Fabulous. If that's the case. I don't suppose you know an invisibility spell, do you?" Daphne regretfully shook her head.

"There's something called Disillusionment, but it's not real invisibility, and it's not taught until the seventh year."

"Bugger," he muttered, rubbing his shackle.

"Perhaps I could provide an idea?" Hogs the hat asked, still dangling from his brim in Harry's hand.

"What?"

"The cloak of invisibility would provide a means of transporting Mr Black secretly, I imagine." Harry, Daphne and Makani all jerked towards the hat.

"The what?" They said in unison. The hat flicked its point towards the silver blanket lying on the floor. Daphne moved to pick it up. It was incredibly soft. She lifted it up, letting it fall open from the scrunched bundle, and gasped. It wasn't a blanket at all, but a cloak. She wrapped it around herself, and her entire body vanished from view.

"Woah," Harry said, reaching and touching Daphne's chest. She instantly blushed and jerked away. Harry frowned, obviously confused by her head violently backpacking. Then his face flushed red.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's fine. Not intangible, just invisible," Daphne said, pulling off the cloak and putting him at ease. Makani was chuckling to herself.

"Bloody hell, what did he do to you?" Harry whispered to himself, taking the cloak and holding it reverently.

"Do what?"

"There's a trapped faerie bound to it, that's what's powering the spell," Makani said. Daphne shivered.

"Dumbledore did it?"

"No," the hat said, "The Cloak of Invisibility, one of the three Deathly Hallows, was created several hundred years ago. Though I've spent most of my life in the Headmaster's office, I know that much." Daphne's eyes went wide.

"The Deathly Hallows?! But those are a myth!"

Harry cursed.

"What are the other two supposed to be?"

"The Elder Wand, which was supposedly unbeatable, and the Resurrection Stone, which could recall spirits from the grave," Daphne explained.

"The Wand must be the third faerie, the one he keeps on his person," Makani said.

"Agreed. That's going to make getting it very difficult," Harry moaned.

"So that's the plan?" Daphne asked, "Steal the artefacts being powered by these captured faeries, then release them? Do you know how to do that?"

Harry didn't answer. Instead, he took the cloak and tied it like a sack, then shoved Black inside. He vanished. Harry pulled the now invisible bag over his shoulder and made for the door. Daphne, biting down her annoyance, followed him.


Ginny awoke to the sound of a kettle singing. She sat up slowly, wiping her eyes. She wasn't in her cupboard under the stairs. That was odd. In fact, she was lying on a double bed – and a rather comfortable one at that. Warm sunlight filtered through a window looking out over the Black Lake. The door was slightly ajar. Harry's room.

The events of the previous night slammed into her like a ton of bricks. Ginny Weasley: Triwizard Champion. What did she ever do to deserve this?

Hesitantly, dragging the sheets with her, she made her way to the door.

In the sitting room beyond, Daphne Greengrass – she thought she must still be asleep, because why in Merlin's name would Daphne Greengrass be in the Gryffindor Head Boys rooms – was pouring herself a cup of tea while Harry and Gabrielle Delacour held cups of steaming coffee in their hands. Both Harry and Daphne were dressed in their Hogwarts robes, but Gabrielle was wearing one of Harry's shirts with her Beauxbatons skirt. The Sorting Hat was sitting on the top of Harry's desk, beside a stack of papers and a silvery blanket. On the far side of the room was a dirty, unkempt man with scraggly hair and beard, tied to a chair. Mak and Ember were hovering beside him

"So, not a dream then?" she asked. They all looked to her. Well, all except the sleeping man.

"Afraid not," Harry said "Coffee?"

"Tea thanks," she said hoarsely, moving towards the kettle. Daphne pulled out another cup and placed it on the table for her.

While Ginny proceeded to make herself a cup, Harry filled her in on his achievements the previous night and regaled her with the story of Daphne's arrival and subsequent inclusion into his team of miscreants. She also said hi to the Sorting Hat.

Finally, once her tea was made and she'd taken a seat on the couch, Harry sighed and placed his coffee cup aside.

"Now. The elephant in the room," he said blatantly.

"I know. Harry, I swear I didn't use dark magic…"

"What?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow, "I don't care about that! I don't even know what Dark Magic is, though I imagine it probably has something to do with malicious smoke, zombies or the Nazgul. Don't worry about the Triwizard. It's small fry. Give me two weeks, and I'll have you trained up enough to win all three tasks in a breeze." His tone turned deadly serious, and Ginny gulped.

"No, Gin. What I want to know is why you didn't tell me you were sleeping in that mouse hole." He stared at her, a look of betrayal in his eyes, and she wilted under his gaze. What must he think of her? Hiding in a cupboard under the stairs. Sulking in the corner. He probably wanted nothing to do with her now. A pair of arms wrapped around her, and Ginny realised that tears had started to well up in her eyes again. Harry pulled her close to his chest and ran a hand through her hair.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll deal with it. I just don't want you to be suffering behind my back is all. I won't have you being forced into some cave because other people are too immature to deal with their problems." His words didn't help. They just made her feel worse.

"They didn't force me. I… I did it. I hid in there. I hollowed out the passage to the old bricked up cupboard under the stairs. I couldn't stand their looks. I just couldn't…" She pulled back from Harry's embrace.

"You shouldn't have anything to do with me. I… everyone is right, I'm unstable. I'm evil. I killed people, Harry. I'm dangerous." Harry didn't flinch or move back like she expected, now that he knew the truth. Instead, he just laughed.

"So have I. At least five. Maybe six, I never found out for sure." Everyone, except Mak that is, stared at him in shock.

Harry just shrugged, sitting down on the couch beside Ginny.

"The first was an accident. I was seven, and only just starting to come into my powers. I used a gravity blast to knock a man into a wall when he tried to rape a girl sleeping in the same alley as me. He died instantly. I had to move suburb after that." He sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"The second, third and fourth weren't intentional, but they weren't accidents either. I was ten years old, staking out a drug bust the police were doing in Hammersmith. We'd lost two people to the dirty drugs the people were peddling, so we turned them in. I wasn't supposed to be there, but I knew the people who died. They were my friends. So, I sat on a rooftop, watching, waiting. The sting went bad, and the cops were forced to pull out under heavy fire. One of them, a woman, had taken two shots in the leg and wasn't going to make it to the cars in time. I jumped in, slammed down into the ground so hard I left a crater in the cement, and called down lightning. Three guys died, the five others I hit all lived. I healed the woman, dragged her to the cops while their reinforcements secured the base, and vanished."

"The fifth person I killed; I did on purpose. It was a sixty-year-old rich guy from I don't know where. What I do know is that he was the reason Sammy was thrown out of her family. He raped her and got her pregnant. So, she had an abortion in secret. She was fifteen. Her ultra-religious parents threw her out when they found out, and she came to the Bunker. I drowned the man in the Thames. No powers that time."

"I'm not sure about the sixth person. He was still alive when the cops arrested us both, but I'm sure I severed his spine and broke his pelvic bone, so internal bleeding should have done the job. I never found out if he died or not. That was six months ago."

He laughed at himself.

"The moral, as I'm sure you're wondering, is this. Don't think that you're the only one whose done shit stuff. On purpose or by accident. What matters is how to carry it, and how you move on afterwards."

Everyone stared at him in silence. Gabrielle had turned green. Daphne's jaw was hanging open. Ginny? She just sat in a mixed sense of shock, awe, and… fear. Yes, it was definitely fear. He didn't sound the least bit remorseful about what he did. She supposed it shouldn't surprise her. She knew Harry's life had been hard. But killing? She had a hard time associating him with that.

"At least the people you killed deserved it," she whispered, "I killed innocents."

Harry remained quiet for a few seconds, before turning to her, his eyes sparkling.

"You don't believe that." Ginny opened her mouth to reply, but Mak came to a rest on his knee, arms folded, staring at her pointedly. Of course. The faerie could tell when she was lying. Apparently, she could even tell when she lied to herself.

"It may as well have been me. If I hadn't been so stupid, they'd all still be alive."

"Hold the Owl, Weasley," Daphne said, waving her hand in the air, "are you telling me that all the shit that happened two years ago wasn't you?"

Ginny laughed the hollowest laugh she'd ever heard.

"Oh, it was definitely me. No doubt about that."

"So, what then? You were under the Imperious?"

"If only," she said. Then she looked at Harry's face. He nodded softly and took her hand, squeezing it. Ember landed on Ginny's shoulder and gave a thumbs up.

"Possessed would be the more accurate term." Gabrielle winced.

"Possessed? By a Dark Artefact?" She nodded.

"Then you should have been exonerated by the Unknowable Consequences Act of 1813," Daphne said pointedly. Ginny frowned.

"The what?"

"The Unknowable Consequences Act of 1813. Specifically designed so people who could prove they were under the effects of an artefact with malicious intent when committing a crime could avoid incarceration." She'd drawn the rooms collective gaze now. Daphne just shrugged.

"My dad's a lawyer. You learn things." Ginny's momentary flash of hope vanished, and she slumped back in her chair.

"No good. Voldemort's Diary was destroyed. I threw it into the whirlpool in the Chamber of Secrets."

"You destroyed my life!"

"I gave you a taste of true power!"

She shook her head, dispelling the memory.

Gabrielle choked on her coffee, falling off her chair and landing on a heap on the ground. The man tied to the chair also jolted awake. He tried to break his bonds, then, when that failed, he sat rigidly straight. Then he transformed. Into a giant black dog. The ropes fell away, and the dog bolted towards the door.

"FUCK!" Harry yelled, jumping off the bed and leaping towards the dog. The front door swung open, and two synchronised calls of "Stupefy!" rang through the room. Red bolts hit both Harry and the dog, and they collapsed to the floor. Fred and George stood in the doorway, heavy breathing as if they'd just run from somewhere. In George's hand was a piece of parchment with dozens of folds.

"Ginny! Are you alright! Where's Black?!" Fred exclaimed, waving his wand towards every corner of the room.

"What's with the dog?" George asked, seemingly more controlled. Ginny, trying to quell the adrenaline that just shot threw her veins, rushed to the dog.

"Ow," Harry muttered, pulling himself from the floor sluggishly. Mak was flying in front of Fred's face, brandishing her misty sword. Ember was rolling on the couch, laughing.

"The dog is Black!" Daphne exclaimed, reaching the mangy dog before Ginny could and immediately casting a spell on it. The dog's form flickered, and it transformed back into Black.

"Animagus," she muttered as Ginny reached her side. They pulled the unconscious man up and threw him back into the chair as Fred apologised to Harry, pulling him up. Gabrielle, who had spilt her coffee all over herself, finally finished spraying herself with water. She huffed indignantly and began drying herself with her wand.

"Incarcarus," Daphne said, retying the ropes around Black.

"Those aren't going to hold him," Ginny noted.

"Well, I don't know any anti-Animagus charms. Do you?" she asked dryly. Ginny conceded that she did not.

"Um, care to explain why there are three girls in your room Harry? Including why one of them is a Slytherin and the other is a Veela from Beauxbatons?" George asked, innocently. Harry punched Fred in the face.

"Crap!" he exclaimed, releasing Harry and falling to the floor. Then he advanced on Black and slapped him across the face. The murderer slowly came too, then instantly brightened up.

"Prongs! You're alive! It was all a dream! I knew it!" he exclaimed.

Fred and George both made whimpering sounds.

"Don't know any Prongs. Sorry. My name is Harry Potter. Apparently, I'm kind of a big deal around these parts. But, then again, so are you. Always nice to meet a fellow celebrity." Gabrielle – now dry – came up next to Ginny and Daphne.

"By, ah, Voldemort, I assume you mean… you know, Voldemort, Voldemort don't you?" Ginny nodded, eyeing the girl

"You can leave if you want," she said, feeling that flame of irrational jealousy flare up again. After having been doused in coffee, soaked, then wand dried all in the space of five minutes, Gabrielle still looked like she'd just won a beauty pageant.

"What? No way! I was just going to say wow." Gabrielle explained, blushing.

"Wow?"

"Yeah. He was like, super-powerful right? Must take one hell of an eleven-year-old to fight him off." Ginny didn't quite know what to say to that. So, to hide her blush, she turned back to Harry and Black.

"Harry?" Black slumped in his binds, "Not a dream then. I… I hoped so much…"

"Hoped for what?" Harry asked softly, keeping a grip on Black's arm.

"If you were still a baby, none of it would have happened." His voice was hoarse as if he hadn't used it in a very long time. Tears were leaking out of his eyes. He was definitely not mentally stable.

"What happened?" Harry asked, rubbing Black's wrist like he was consoling a child.

"All of it. James, Lily, Remus, Peter… PETER!" His demeanour changed from demure to enraged in seconds, and he began to thrash. Harry grabbed both hands, pinning them to the chair arms.

"Who is Peter?" Harry asked, his voice changing from soft to commanding. Ginny began feeling at the pockets of her school robes – which she still wore from the previous night – and found her Aunt's old wand. She drew it and pointed at Black. The twins were both doing the same thing. Gabrielle and Daphne were watching with interest.

"Peter Pettigrew. One of your parent's friends Harry. Black killed him," Daphne clarified.

"I tried to," Black snapped, "but that slimy worm got away from me. Transformed into a rat and dove into the sewers and…"

"Ah, fuck!" Harry exclaimed, "You came to the castle looking for him? Why? How did you know!?" Ginny's heart began jackhammering in her chest. The man was clearly mad, but could mad men fabricate stories? Maybe it was something he clung to in Azkaban. The delusion that he was innocent.

Black was no longer listening. He was instead muttering about rats and worm tails and how he would kill them for what they did.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Harry grumbled. He snapped his wand into his hand from the holster on his wrist, pointing it at Black.

"Stupefy." He crumpled into silence. Harry slid his wand back and began rummaging through Black's tattered clothes.

"Harry?" Ginny asked, taking a hesitant step forward, "what are you…"

"Got it," Harry said, pulling an old piece of paper from the man's pocket. It was the front cover of the Daily Prophet. Displayed on the front was a picture of Harry and Ron. Poking out of the pocket on her brother's robes, was Scabbers. The penny dropped.

"Oh, merciful Merlin."