Title: Forgetting Innocence (4/6)
Author: Fabs G.
Summary: Sequel to Faking Innocence. Harry & friends happily return to Hogwarts after the Christmas holidays, not knowing that Voldemort already has a plan between his hands.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: slight Sirius/Remus. Hints of Ron/Hermione but not until the last chapter.
Warnings: Contains very mild slash (just some kisses, people!)
Disclaimer: Lovely Joanne owns nearly everything here! All I own here is the plot, Professor Fengel and Methilda Shotclear
A/N: As always, this makes much more sense if you read the previous two fics (Judging Innocence and Faking Innocence, both at ff.net), mainly because this is part three of the Innocence series. This although, is much darker than the previous one. The basic you have to know: Sirius is free, he's romantically involved with Remus and they're both teaching at Hogwarts.
Enjoy! Review!
------------------------------ CHAPTER 4: The LuringHagrid was devastated when he knew. The marauders had been as close to him as Harry, Ron and Hermione were, so kidnapping Remus was to him as someone kidnapping Ron or Hermione.
One afternoon when Harry was doing his share of cheering up his godfather, Ron and Hermione went over to Hagrid's to do their share of cheering up.
Hagrid looked miserable. He served the tea without the tea bags and when Ron asked for some milk, he put the tea bags in the jar of milk.
Only after they assured him Dumbledore would do anything to get Remus back Hagrid stopped moping and they felt sure enough to leave him.
Professor Trelawney limited herself to say that 'the fates had informed her of the sorrowful event' and she had said it a good amount of times when Harry could not take it anymore and exploded.
"If you really knew he was going to be kidnapped, why didn't you warn him?"
"Because we are not supposed to interfere with the events, my dear"
"With that line of thought, you helped Voldemort capture him"
Apart from the usual flinch of hearing Voldemort's name, the class fell silent and professor Trelawney, for once, did not reply. Seamus, Dean, Neville and Ron cheered at him, delighted that she didn't reply with anything insane.
Defense against the Dark Arts was again being taught by Snape and now the Gryffindors had to endure having him in not one but two subjects. This time, however, he limited the number of sneers and retorts, probably owing because this time Voldemort was involved. This, however, did not make the DADA hours anything less than torture. Not one week had passed and Ron and Harry had already earned two detentions and lose 50 points to Gryffindor.
Harry's mind, however, was not occupied with Hagrid, Divination or Snape. Sirius was having one of the worst times ever, but true to his nature, did not show it past his private chamber. His classes and the humor in them hadn't changed a bit, but Harry knew better.
He cracked jokes, dripped sarcasm all over the place as usual and the girls were sighing after him as usual too. But Harry knew his eyes weren't the same. Half of the time, he didn't smile earnestly. He often went to Sirius' classes and watched him from afar, Sirius completely oblivious to this. Or so it seemed.
It was now a week Remus had been kidnapped. Harry was watching Sirius teach to Ginny's class, her flaming red head unmistakable among the rest. Many of the girls followed his every move, although Harry had the strong suspicion it wasn't because of the Elastic arms charm.
"To give you a better idea of this charm" he said "I will need a voluntary." No one seemed to want their arms stretched beyond recognition. "A voluntary such as the bespectacled young man standing just outside the doorway." Everyone turned their heads to look at a surprised Harry. "Come on, Harry, gives us a hand. Or rather an arm. Or two" he smirked as Harry made his way through the maze of desks. He knew better than getting his way out of it and even if he could have, he wouldn't have done it. One of the few things that really cheered Sirius up was charming someone so he stood in front of Sirius, resigned to whatever was coming.
"No one watches my classes without participating in them or being a test subject" he said as every pair of eyes in the room centered on either Sirius or the boy who lived. Harry tried his best to ignore Colin.
Sirius placed Harry in one corner of the classroom and then turned his head towards Ginny "Ginny, please go stand in the corner opposite Harry's. I swear your limbs won't be stretched in the least" Ginny giggled at him and stood up.
Sirius pointed his wand at Harry and said "Lastico!"
It felt as though someone was pulling him from both his arms. The nice thing was that he felt no pain and considering Harry's history that was a first.
"See if you can reach Ginny" Harry stretched his arm –which seemed a stupid thing to do, now that it was over 4 feet long and growing- but did as told. He reached Ginny easily, and made her twirl like in a dance or grabbed her hand as Sirius instructed for the others to see how the arm still had all his normal functions, only 10 feet longer.
"Bend the elbow now. See? The arm acts normally, the blood still flows and bones are still fragile. The only thing that has changed is the length"
Harry could see why Sirius hadn't stop teaching. It clearly erased everything from his mind- at least for a couple of hours. He was at ease in front of the class, and his marauder experience at charming everything that stood still for longer than a second clearly had been a great help. The girls liked him, the boys pleaded for him to teach him pranks and the rest of the kids who were still scared of him were slowly learning not to be.
As the bell rang, he gave them their homework and walked with Harry to the Great hall. It was lunchtime.
"So watching my classes, Mr. Potter?"
"I had a free afternoon"
"Harry. I saw you last week." Harry chuckled. It wasn't easy to get something past Sirius. "Something you want to talk about?"
"No. Everything's…" he was about to say 'good' "…as normal as it can get. Just-"
Sirius interrupted him. "Keeping an eye on me?"
Harry chuckled. It was unnerving the way Sirius was getting to know him or seemed to already know him. Maybe his father's hair and poor eyes wasn't the only thing Harry had gotten from him.
They arrived at the Great Hall just as an owl swept over Dumbledore's head, dropped a letter in his opened hands and flew out of the open window again. Not knowing from whom it was, he opened it in front of everyone, just as both Sirius and Harry took their places.
The letter emitted a cloud of green smoke and a small dark mark appeared and rose high over Dumbledore's white head. (The Dark Mark hovered there for hours until Snape remembered the counter spell and made it fade away.)
The letter said simply: He is still alive.
Dumbledore was fuming. He stormed out of the Great Hall and locked himself in his study for the rest of the day, trying every location spell that did not belong to the Dark Arts and owling every single one of his contacts.
That same night, Sirius paid a visit to Harry in the Gryffindor common room. Luckily, it was empty. He did not like prying eyes. Harry was close to the fire, reading a book. He was so engrossed in it he didn't notice his godfather entering.
"Boo" he said in a low voice.
Harry jumped a bit "I didn't notice you"
"Evidently. What's so good that you don't notice me?"
"Oh. Just a book Hermione recommended" he showed Sirius the book. It was Hairy Snout, Human Heart.
Oddly, Sirius smiled a sad smile. "Rem wrote that" he said in a hoarse whisper.
"What?" he said in a small voice. He unconsciously clutched the book tightly.
"In our 6th year. He spent two years writing it and modified events and places enough for anyone not to recognize him. He was delighted when it got published. He called James, Lily and me and made us read it. Only after we told him we loved it as the rest of the world had he confessed he had written it. He had the hand-written manuscripts to prove it"
"It's beautiful. I found Hermione crying over it once. I thought she was overreacting- you know Hermione- but she was right"
A sad silence settled between godfather and godson.
"He'll be back, Sirius"
"Oh I know. I know he will. He's got to. What I'm worried about is how he will be when he gets back"
"He'll be fine, Sirius" he hated seeing Sirius hurting so much. It had been enough time waiting. He knew Dumbledore was working, as Sirius was, but there was one very easy way to get Remus back. He was going to do something. Except-
"No, Harry"
"No what?"
"Don't play innocent with me, I know you more than you think. You will not go after Voldemort, hear me?"
"How would I?" He was playing the fake ignorance card again "I don't know where he is"
"That's never stopped you before." said Sirius matter-of-factly. Harry, not knowing what to reply, simply stared back at the book in his hands.
Ron woke up late the next day, a Sunday. He looked at Harry's bed, but found it neatly arranged, as though he hadn't slept there at all. Panicking, fearing that Voldemort had stricken again, he rushed downstairs in his pyjamas and found Hermione measuring an essay.
"Have you seen Harry?"
"No" she said, and turned to look at him "I thought he was sleeping. He wasn't at breakfast"
Ron looked at the far corner of the common room where Lavender was talking to Parvati Patil "Lavender" he called "You haven't seen Harry, have you?" Both girls shook their heads.
He looked back at Hermione and then got very close to her. "You haven't- you haven't seen a rat here, have you?" he asked in a very small voice.
Hermione looked to the rug in front of the fire, where Crookshanks was washing himself with the utmost dedication "Crookshanks has been chasing rats compulsively since our third year"
Ron jerked his head upstairs, and Hermione followed him to his dormitory. He opened Harry's trunk and to his very luck, found the Marauder's map in it. He grabbed his wand, opened the map and both friends bumped their heads closer, searching the map.
Sirius was in his private chamber. Snape, in his office. Dumbledore, as usual in the past days, in his own office, pacing all along the office. Filch was patrolling the third floor and Harry… Harry was in the library.
Both friends breathe a sigh of relief.
"Ron…" called Hermione. "Look where he is"
The library was big enough for them to distinguish the different sections even in the map. Harry was in an unusual corner… a corner that, if Hermione wasn't mistaken, belonged to the Forbidden section.
Ron checked the trunk once more "He's got his dad's cloak"
"Leave him to me" she said, and ran from the dormitory.
Hermione walked into the library quietly, trying to look as if she was there to just find a book. She went into a hall where one of the shelves limited with the Forbidden Section.
"Harry!" he whispered through a gap in the books "I know you're there!" The Forbidden section wasn't that big. Wherever he was, he must have heard her. "Harry! Come out! Harry!"
Someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around, fully expecting to find herself face to face with Madam Pince. Instead, she found herself staring into nothing.
"Shh!" said Harry's voice, coming from exactly in front of her. He took out his cloak and quickly stuffed it under his robes. "What is it?"
"What were you doing there, Harry?" she kept her voice in a whisper
"It's the library. What can I be doing?"
"In the forbidden section? What were you looking for?"
"You've no right to accuse me like that" he said, as though being under an invisibility cloak in the forbidden section of a library was perfectly normal.
"It's evidently not for homework or you would've asked Sirius. I know you Harry"
She had stricken a nerve. She was absolutely right on everything.
"I have to find him"
"Leave that to Dumbledore and Sirius"
"They are getting nowhere! Peter Pettigrew now has a silver hand. You do remember what silver does to werewolves, don't you? Pettigrew doesn't even need a wand to kill him. I have to do something before the full moon or Voldemort will make him bite people or kill people or unleash him on me or who knows what else" Evidently, Hermione had not thought of this. She took her hand to her mouth, horrified. "I don't want Remus going through that, it would kill him. If I want to get him before the full moon, it means I have two weeks. And If I have to use the Dark Arts for it, then so be it"
"Harry, you know the dangers of performing one of those spells. You can't-"
"Voldemort wants me, then he will have me!"
"No!" she cried.
Harry did not know why he was so angry at her, because she meant well, she was worried about him, but he still raised his voice at her, angry. "What if it was your family? What if it was your mum or your dad who was trapped in Voldemort's hands? What would you do?"
Hermione's voice became very serious. She seemed older than she really was. "Probably the same thing you are doing now, Harry. But this is not about me, it's about you. If you don't come with me now and promise me to not go back to the Forbidden Section… I will tell Sirius, Harry"
"I don't care. Tell him. Publish it in the Daily Prophet if you want" he threw the Invisibility cloak back over himself again and disappeared from Hermione's view.
She scoffed loudly as she heard his footsteps back in the Forbidden Section. After a second's doubt, she left the library and headed to Sirius' private chamber.
That night, Harry lay sprawled on his bed, writing an essay for History of Magic. Ron and Neville where there too. Ron was reading Flying with the Cannons and Neville was doing the same essay as Harry.
The door of the dormitory banged open and Sirius entered. "Ron, Neville, could you leave us alone?"
Neither Ron nor Neville dared contradict him. His expression was much too grave for this. They both rushed past Sirius, who was holding the door opened. He closed it after they left. Harry sat crossed-legged over his bed.
"Did I tell you Voldemort killed my parents?" started Sirius.
Though this surprised Harry greatly, he found himself asking something completely different "Hermione told you, right?"
He did not listen to him. "Dad was a muggle, but mum was a witch. A pretty good one, she was training to be an auror. Voldemort got them when they were at home. Killed mum, dad was merely an… extra bonus. They died when I was in my 7th year. I knew my parents very well so I won't pretend I know how you feel about yours. But I know what it is to lose people who are part of your life- I don't want it to happen again. And that goes to you. Yes, Hermione told me you are trying to find out where Voldemort is- using the Dark Arts. Harry- if the Dark Arts are our only choice, leave that to Dumbledore. He will figure out how to do it. I will not lose you, you understand?"
"It's just a spell!" How could Sirius not be any more desperate about it?
"It's a Dark arts spell! I know Remus told you about them! The power behind it might consume anyone! Specially you, you are a parselmouth because of him, because of what he put in you. Who knows what else a Dark Arts spell can trigger in you! It can change you, kill you in life!"
"I don't care. I want to find Remus"
"I do too but I will not help you with this. You have no idea where you're getting into."
"So you're just going to sit here idle hands, teaching and doing nothing?" the anger. The anger flowing through every vein in his body.
"Harry!"
"I care about him! I want him back!" he yelled "I thought you loved him!"
"I've been in love with him since I was 14 years old! I also want him back, bloody-" Both were now so angry at everything and at nothing, he stopped himself before going any further. He lowered his voice and it hurt Harry to hear all the pain there was in it "I know what it is to lose someone when you least expect it. I knew it with my parents, with my best friends and now the man I'm in love with. If Dumbledore and I leave to rescue Moony, Voldemort will come to you. If I stay, Voldemort will either kill Moony or make him make things Moony would rather commit suicide before doing. I'm in a tough position, Harry. Don't make it any worse." He turned to leave, opened the door and looked back at Harry "Madam Pince has been warned. She's put up a shield. So I suggest you not go back"
Harry breathed deeply. Anger still flowing through his body, he wiped his bed clean of parchment and quills, spilling his inkbottle all over the floor. Not caring in the least, he closed the curtains of his bed and threw himself flat over his stomach. He didn't care. Let Dumbledore put a thousand shields if he wanted.
He had already found the spell he needed.