"Why did you have to tell them everything?" Harry demanded, as he and Parvati were walking toward the great hall, late to dinner.
"They're teachers," she said, confused why it would even be an issue that she'd shared the details of the entire encounter with Dumbledore and McGonagall in the interview they'd just had in the headmaster's office.
"I don't just mean the teachers. You told Percy and Penelope, too. And Lavender, so everyone knows now. The fact he could transform was all he had to let him hide. They're going to hunt him down!" he insisted.
"He says he's innocent, but what if he's not?" she argued. "People need to know that the black dog running around might not be safe. Besides… I don't like keeping secrets."
Harry gaped like a fish at that pronouncement for a moment before reminding her, "You keep that you're a sorcerer a secret from most of the people on Earth!"
"And I hate it!" she agreed. "That's also part of why I'm thinking about living here after school. So I don't have to hide who I am all the time. Isn't it better, here, where you don't have to keep secrets?"
"I keep all kinds of things secret!" he disagreed. "Things that would hurt other people if they got out, for one. Things that could get me killed if the bad guys found out about them! Things that could let the bad guys win!" he finished, thinking about the location of the Soul Stone, which as far as he knew only he, Dumbledore, and Gamora currently knew about.
"That's no way to live. Dishonestly," she said, somewhat self-righteously. If she was being actually truthful with herself, she'd realize that her take might be more nuanced if she didn't enjoy gossiping so much. It felt better to pretend that she was a proponent of radical honesty than that she just loved to spill tea.
"And yet, it's keeping me alive. Maybe not like Sirius," Harry almost snarled. They'd reached the great hall, and he went ahead. Ron was staring daggers at him, so he squeezed in as far away from the redhead as he could, using Dean and Hermione as a buffer. Parvati settled next to Lavender, looking Harry's way, hurt, not understanding why he was clearly mad at her.
Parvati had also recounted to Lavender what Harry had said to Draco about him and Ron, and Ron was clearly upset about it. It was actually impressive how much gossip she'd managed to impart as Percy was walking them through Hogsmeade to go brief the headmaster.
Before Dean and Hermione could bug him for what had happened, Dumbledore and McGonagall took their places at the head table, with the headmaster standing for everyone's attention. The conversation quickly died down, and he began, "I'm sure you've heard the rumors already," Harry quietly huffed at how even Dumbledore knew what a gossip Parvati was, "that Sirius Black was encountered outside of Hogsmeade earlier today. They are true. It is extremely likely that he stowed away on the Hogwarts Express, which explains why the guardians of Azkaban appeared. His continued presence in the area makes a further arrival of these beings likely, so remain on your guard. That said, new evidence has come to light that Mr. Black may have been framed for the crimes for which he was imprisoned. I will be writing to the Ministry to once again examine their case in light of this new information."
If Harry hadn't believed that Sirius and his father were best friends, the look of rage on Snape's face at the idea Sirius might be innocent would have convinced him. Clearly, the chemistry professor had hated his father's entire friend group.
"One thing that he is guilty of, however," Dumbledore continued, "is of being an unregistered animagus." Harry sighed at the reveal, though it obviously wasn't a surprise to most of the school, after Parvati and Lavender had spread it around. "It is my suspicion this is how he was able to escape the prison. He takes the form of a large black dog. If you see either the man or the animal, report it to your prefects or an adult immediately. While he may or may not be guilty of the crimes for which he was imprisoned, it is best to be cautious." He considered for a moment whether there was anything else to add, then said, "If you have further questions, direct them to your head of house. And now, let's eat!"
As the food began to teleport onto the tables, Harry happened to glance over and saw Draco explaining something to his housemates with great gusto: probably selling the idea that he'd retreated from a notorious murderer, rather than run screaming from a dog. He caught Harry's eye and smirked, probably certain that he'd receive no consequences from his own attack on Harry and Parvati. McGonagall had basically indicated as much, when she realized it was Harry and Parvati's word (and maybe Sirius') against Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
For all that Parvati was pitching no secrets, Harry was right on the brink of never telling the adults at his school anything ever again. It rarely seemed to work out for him.
Especially since the adults weren't sharing information back. He looked up at Professor Lupin, who didn't seem at all surprised by the revelation that Sirius was an animagus. Why hadn't he mentioned that, if he legitimately thought Sirius was a murderer? And if he was still friends with Sirius, why hadn't he mentioned to Harry that the man was probably innocent?
What else did Lupin know?
He quietly caught the rest of his friends up on the events of the afternoon as he ate, not at all surprised that they already had heard most of it from Lavender (surprisingly, without much embellishment). As the dessert was cleared, he asked Dean to cover for him and slipped away in the crowd, letting his invisibility cloak drape over him as he rushed toward the back hallway where he was pretty sure the teachers exited the great hall. He managed to get there in time to see Lupin heading off with a bit of a quick-step, seemingly hesitant to be interviewed by Dumbledore. Harry caught Snape stage whispering acidly, "You must be thrilled," and swirling his black robes to stalk off toward the dungeons before Lupin could rebut.
Lupin just rolled his eyes and kept trudging toward his room, unaware of the invisible thirteen-year-old following him.
Harry would never have guessed where the professor's bedroom was, so it was good that he'd followed him. It was on the third floor, not far from the forbidden corridor that had held the convergence in Harry's first year, and it seemed like it was on the outer wall of the building. The door opened to Lupin's touch, and Harry could see that the room was small, but featured a large window that overlooked the lake.
Before he could enter and close the door, Harry allowed his cloak to return to its hidden scarf configuration, becoming visible, and saying, "We need to talk."
Lupin didn't jump, but did turn, quickly working out, "Of course you have the cloak. Yeah. Alright. Come in, I guess."
The room was even more spartan than Lupin's classroom. There were no personal effects visible, other than possibly books. He had a small table set up with a potions lab and a standard Earth spiral-bound notebook as if he was experimenting. Several chemistry and potions books from the library were stacked on the edge of the table, as well as a few other borrowed tomes on the bedside table.
Wait, perhaps there was one personal effect. Next to the books was a picture that looked like it was just a color printing on white paper of some kind of article. Harry could make out a bit of black text surrounding the photo of a dark-haired woman in a lab coat, in front of a blackboard full of chalked equations.
"Girlfriend?" Harry asked.
"It's complicated," Lupin said, sitting down on his bed, turning the photo face down, and gesturing at the stool in front of the makeshift potions lab. "I could… make some tea, I guess?" he frowned, looking at a battered teapot at the back of the lab, unsure of the etiquette required when a student invaded his bedroom.
"No thanks," Harry shook his head, taking the stool. "You were friends with Sirius. And my dad."
"Yeah," Lupin nodded. "Hold on. I may need a top up for this conversation." He reached into a robe pocket and pulled out a vial of blue potion, and Harry caught a whiff of peppermint as Lupin opened it and took a swig. His eyes unfocused slightly and he stowed the rest of the potion before saying, "Okay, go on."
"Did you know that Sirius was innocent? Did you know he could turn into a dog? Why didn't you tell anyone?" Harry demanded, a little confused by the potion use.
"Uh, maybe? And yeah. And because I'm not a snitch," Lupin gave a slight grin. "Why don't I just give you the summary? It's been a long time coming, I guess." Harry nodded, so the professor continued, "I went to school here, but I'm not a wizard. I have a… condition… that made this the safest place for me to go to school and try to get it treated."
Harry interrupted, "Do potions work on you if you're from Earth and not magical?"
Lupin nodded, "Not well. Severus has to brew them up extra strong. Anyway, James and Sirius were two of my friends while I was here. When my condition… flares up… I'm not safe to be around people. But it's much less dangerous to animals. Which they figured out, so they became animagi so they could keep me company when I was having a bad day."
"My dad was an animagus?" Harry asked.
Lupin nodded, "Stag. I think they did it as much to see if they could as to help me, though I appreciated it. But I went back to Earth for college and grad school, and I lost touch with them. I think the last letter I got was your birth announcement. Then nothing until Dumbledore contacted me a few months ago to ask me to teach. Guess he mostly wanted me because of Sirius escaping, but I didn't know anything about that. Until now, I guess."
"Why didn't you tell them that he could transform?"
"Like I said… I was half convinced he'd probably been framed or something. Couldn't see him betraying your parents or killing Peter. I figured he'd need that secret to get somewhere safe." Lupin sighed and grumbled, "It was stupid for him to come back here. There were so many places he could have gone that they'd never find him. But I guess I've done dumber stuff." He sent a stray glance back at the face-down photo, probably not even realizing it.
"Yeah," Harry nodded, calming down a little. "I didn't want to tell people about it either, but Parvati told everybody. So you think he's innocent? He says Peter Pettigrew framed him."
That got a raised eyebrow from Lupin, who scoffed, "Peter? That… well, I guess he was always kind of a shifty kid, and Sirius would have known him better as an adult. I'd believe it was him before it was Sirius, for sure." He gave it a beat and admitted, "You'll never find him. He's had over a decade to go into hiding. If nobody's seen him since then, he could be anywhere. On any planet."
"Just like Sirius could have gone anywhere but Hogwarts?"
"Huh. That would be so stupid if they both came here." Lupin sighed. "But I guess maybe none of them would think to leave. Not even Lily would leave. They were convinced that they wouldn't be any safer on Earth, and at least here they'd have their wands. Part of why I'm teaching this defense course is just to try to break you all of the idea that you just have to stand and fight. Most of the time all that does is get more people hurt."
"What could my mom turn into?" Harry checked.
He shook his head, "Unless she figured it out after Hogwarts, nothing. She wasn't part of the group until senior year, though we were friends before then. She didn't really get along with your dad until he grew up a little."
Harry smiled, "I'd like to know more about her? Aunt Pepper really only knows about dad."
"Pepper? Is that Virginia?" Lupin blinked a bit and put that together. "Pepper Potts? James' sister is the CEO of Stark Industries?"
Harry shrugged and looked down a little guiltily. "Yeah. And she's dating Tony now…" he trailed off before pointing out more about his celebrity life on Earth.
"Good for them. I saw that something happened this summer at the Stark Expo, but I was a little distracted." Lupin said, "I'm sorry I never looked you up. If I'd know you were just in, what, LA? I could have come by. Well, at least when you were little. Maybe it would have even changed some things for me."
Harry almost offered that he could come by when he was back on Earth, but didn't really feel that comfortable befriending his parents' estranged schoolmate at this point. In the lull of conversation, he finally remembered the thought he'd had earlier, and asked, "Was Peter an animagus?"
"Yeah," Lupin nodded, catching on that it might be relevant if Peter wasn't actually dead. "A gray rat."
"'Never trust a rat!' That's what Sirius kept saying!" Harry put it together. "That really would make it a lot easier for him to hide, wouldn't it? We'd never find a…"
"What?" Lupin checked, as Harry was making a whole series of faces of surprise, disbelief, consideration, and disgust.
"Scabbers," Harry said, standing up. "Ron has a pet gray rat. I think his family has had it since Percy was little."
"That's a long time for a rat, but why would Peter hide as a pet rat? As the pet of friends of you and Dumbledore?"
"Because my life is dumb?" Harry threw up his hands. "Would you recognize him? We can go get him right now!"
Lupin, especially under whatever potion he'd been drinking, wasn't in the hurry that Harry had hoped. Maybe it was just because he was old. What seemed like an interminable amount of time later waiting for the professor to make it to the seventh floor, they passed into the Gryffindor dorm. "Oh, hey, I'm still on the wards. That's cool," Lupin observed, as he was able to pass through the illusory painting.
The kids still in the common room were surprised to see an excited Harry leading an adult into the dorm. Over in the corner, Oliver Wood and Alexis Marie, the prefect, quickly stopped making out and tried to look like they hadn't been. Lupin pretended not to notice, but had a wan smile for memories of his own youth.
"Where's Scabbers?" Harry demanded of Ron, as he rushed into their room as the other boys were getting ready for bed.
"Finally ready to pick on someone your own size?" Ron asked, snidely.
"It's not like– just– is he in his cage or not?" Harry struggled not to deal with that fight right then.
"You know he likes to get a little exercise before bed," Ron leaned down to look for the rat, not sure why Harry suddenly cared about his pet. "But, actually… I don't think I've seen him since this morning… Oh, no! He's not here! Where is he!" He rushed up into Harry's face just as Lupin was getting to the door and demanded, "What'd you do with my rat?!"
"Rat's suddenly missing," Harry explained to Lupin, turning away from Ron (which didn't make Ron any less angry).
"Could have gotten eaten," Lupin played devil's advocate. "I noticed one of your friends on the train has a big orange cat?"
"Crookshanks ate my rat?!" Ron yelled. "Of course he did. He's been after poor Scabbers for months!"
Harry, still ignoring Ron's breakdown, said, "Scabbers survived Ron's whole life and then conveniently goes missing just before we might start looking for rats?"
"Why are we looking for the rat?" Dean asked.
"Peter Pettigrew could turn into a rat, just like Sirius can turn into a dog," Harry explained. "He might have faked his death."
Neville was the fastest on the uptake and said, "You mean we've been sleeping in the same room as a grown man for two years?"
"Maybe. Probably. I don't know," Harry said.
"Least we don' dress in front o' it," Seamus observed, and Ron went even redder, realizing all the times he'd been naked in his bedroom at home.
"You've never changed in the room when we weren't in here?" Dean countered. "But the rat was just in his cage on Ron's dresser?" Everyone's eyes widened at that.
Lupin pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to calm them all down. "It's probably just a rat. But I'll go talk to the headmaster. Let us know if he turns up." With that, he left the five teens to have their meltdown without him.
With the ups and downs they'd had all day, however, the hormonal teen argument didn't quite catalyze. Everyone just stood and looked at one another for a minute, then Ron declared, "Today was the worst," and went to bed.
Things didn't really get any better over the next week.
Though they noticed a bunch more magical, nonlethal rat trap glyphs set up around the school (runes class had gotten them to the point they could recognize them, if not make them), there was no general announcement about Pettigrew. Harry was getting increasingly frustrated that the chance to catch him and prove Sirius innocent was probably slipping them by: they should have done a massive search of the school, Hogsmeade, and the surrounding area before the rat had time to escape.
Similarly, there was no big announcement that Sirius was innocent. No pardon from the Ministry, admitting that they may have made a mistake. For all Harry knew, Ronan's guard could be furiously tearing up the area looking for Sirius, who'd be a lot easier to catch than a rat. And what little bad experience he'd had with the Minister almost arresting Hagrid to be seen "doing something," Harry was certain enough that there would be Ministry goons as soon as they could be organized to show up.
Socially, things were extremely tense. Neither Parvati nor Harry saw any reason to apologize to one another, Lavender had sided with Ron like she and Harry had never dated, and the rest of the girls of the study group basically felt like they had to remain at least neutral in the conflict (Hermione shared a room with Parvati, Padma was her sister, Ginny was Ron's sister, and Luna claimed she would rather observe the conflict with her journalistic integrity intact). Seamus obviously chose Ron, but thought the whole thing was stupid. At least Dean and Neville seemed basically on Harry's side, but none of the boys wanted to see their bedroom turn into a giant zone of drama so weren't making it into a war or anything.
And then, the week flashing by in a haze of simmering resentment, it was the next weekend and time for the quidditch match.
The first match of the year was usually Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. But Draco, still playing up his hippogriff injury, had gotten it switched around so he could recover. (Not at all surprisingly, he'd completely gotten away with attacking Harry and Parvati the previous weekend.) So on that heavily-overcast Sunday, Gryffindor was up against Hufflepuff. Their new seeker, Prefect Cedric Diggory, seemed like an alright guy, but Wood was worried he was really talented.
Harry wouldn't find out personally, of course, since he was only there as an alternate. This would be Ginny Weasley's first actual match, and Harry had loaned her his Nimbus-made broom so she would have one less worry (the Weasleys weren't able to afford the best brooms). That left Ron and Harry stuck together in the Gryffindor team box, suited up and waiting to see if they were needed but not expecting to do anything but watch.
As the weather got darker and darker, and rain started to drip upon the miserable-looking players and audience, Ron broke first. This was his first access to Harry as a captive audience all week, without friends to interfere. "You don't think much of me, do you?" he asked.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Harry said, having realized that he probably was in the wrong on that one. "It just popped in my head as a funny way to put Draco down, but I didn't mean it."
"You did, though," Ron insisted. "Or it wouldn't have just popped in your head. We were supposed to be the Warriors Five! Maybe the Warriors Eight if you include the girls. And, fine, maybe you're Thor, and we're just your companions?" He waved off Harry's attempt as self-deprecation, saying, "I'm man enough to admit you're more epic than me. But the thing is, you don't even think the rest of us are good enough to even be your—what do you call 'em on Midgard? Sidekicks! Except maybe Dean."
Harry almost popped back with a simple denial, but a rumble of thunder in the sky stopped him long enough to think through and try, "I feel like if I said, 'No, Ron, I definitely think you're my sidekick,' that still wouldn't make you feel better."
"Feels better than being told to go play with Malfoy like we're little kids that are annoying you," Ron grumbled. "You didn't even take me to Niflheim! I would have helped you fight the serpent!"
"We thought you were mind controlled!" Harry insisted. "Neville could have gotten to you at any time, and you took me to the book that time in the bathroom. We didn't know who to trust."
"And if you were sure I hadn't been, you'd have taken me?"
Harry could have easily said that he would. And maybe that would have mollified Ron. But as the rain began to pelt down (the team box wasn't any more covered than anyone else, and they were getting soaked), and somehow all his darkest impulses were bubbling to the surface, he felt like it was a great time for the brutal honesty that Parvati evangelized for. "You know what? No."
Ron had also been expecting to get the simple conciliatory answer and was gobsmacked. All he could think to ask was a slightly pitiful, "Why?" His voice cracked as he asked it.
"You don't practice, Ron!" Harry yelled over the sound of the howling wind of the storm, gesticulating to make his point. "When Dean, Hermione, and I are out every spare moment we get practicing martial arts, swordfighting, and wandless magic, you're inside with Seamus playing chess or cards. You barely even practice magic with your wand."
"I'm out here, practicing quidditch!" Ron insisted.
"I still managed to practice all that stuff when I was primary on the team," Harry scoffed, inadvisably turning that knife. "And how is being good at being keeper going to make you useful in a fight against a giant snake on a planet where your wand doesn't work?"
"Tactics and strategy!" Ron yelled back. "Bet you were just running around without a plan, hoping that your skill would get you through. Total seeker mindset! Maybe you'd do better if you had someone to watch your back and call the plays. It worked against the trolls, right? Both times!"
"Are you going to hang back and call the plays?" Harry said in disbelief. "Or are you going to rush in thinking you're the hero of the story and get someone hurt trying to save you? Or get yourself eaten by a giant snake and then your family is like, 'We hate you Harry. Ron wouldn't have died if you hadn't convinced him to come with you.'"
"That's not up to you!" A particularly-timely lightning strike really underscored Ron's point. "You aren't responsible for everyone else. If I choose to fight for something I believe in, that's my decision. If you spend forever cutting people out because you're afraid you're going to get blamed if they get hurt, then you're going to wind up alone." It was Ron's turn to twist the knife, "Just like you cut out Parvati the first time she did something you didn't like."
Harry opened his mouth to try to rebut, but his head felt fuzzy and he wasn't able to come up with a good counterargument. He made a couple of sounds like he was trying to, but nothing was coming to him other than the faint sound of… a woman begging for his life?
"Can't argue against that, huh?" Ron yelled.
Finally, Harry found enough of his voice to say, "I really want to, but I think we need to worry about them right now."
Ron turned to see what Harry was pointing at. Through the driving rain, they could see dozens of baleful red eyes at head height. The Mindless Ones were marching onto the field.
Hello friends! This site's view tracking seems to have been down for every author for over a week now. Now is an excellent time to leave reviews, since otherwise I have no idea how well I'm doing. Let me know what you're enjoying, what you'd like to see more of, any threads you think I've forgotten, and where you think things are going.