Chapter 13

Padfoot and Books

Harry, was in the least, shocked. Dumbledore tried to take the sword, but it wouldn't be lifted off of him. Then Harry took it off with no problem, but he tried to hand it to Dumbledore, and it just floated back over his head.

"Well, there's nothing we can do then."

"So you're going to let him have a sword?" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

"There's nothing I can do. The sword won't leave him."

"Is he just going to wear it to classes then?"

"I can take it off," he said slowly, "it's just nobody else can touch it."

Very far off in the distance, a bell could be heard ringing. "Class is over. Well, Mr. Potter, I will send for you when I have some Ministry officials come to help us. You, I believe, have a meeting with Hagrid and Heather.

Harry nodded, why did Dumbledore know about that? They started out, quicker this time. It was a relief to get away from the smell. When they reached the pipe, Harry walked over to it.

He said a few sentences in Parseltounge, which was obviously more then just 'open'. Ginny started cracking up at whatever it was he said. The pipe became a stairway.

"What did you say this time?"

"Professor McGonagall would yell if I told you. You have to insult it to get it to make stairs."

Ron laughed. "If only we had known that!"

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were walking to Hagrid's cabin. Harry knocked and the door opened to reveal Heather.

"Heather," Harry said.

"Hello, love, we were waiting for you."

"Sorry, we got held up."

The four friends sat down at the table. Ginny felt slightly uncomfortable. After all, she had never really talked to Hagrid before.

"Well, now yer all 'ere. Wait a sec, 'nother Weasley?"

Ginny blushed slightly. Curse her blushing. She did it all the time.

"Hagrid, you know Ginny, she's a year younger then us."

Ginny's heart skipped a beat. It wasn't 'Ginny, Ron's little sister' anymore. It was a stupid thing to be happy about, but she hated being known through her brothers, especially by Harry.

"Yeah, I remember yeh. My firs' thought when I saw yeh was 'She looks jus' like Flower.'"

"Flower?" Ginny asked.

"Lily Potter," Heather answered.

"Hey Heather, what where you really coming into Snape's room for?"

"Oh, just to piss him off. I can't forget everything Padfoot taught me."

"Did I hear my name?" said a voice in the corner.

Heather, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid let out a scream. Harry recognized the voice immediately. He jumped up out of his seat, and looked over in the corner.

Hagrid jumped out of his chair. "Don't yeh dare come near Harry!" he roared.

Harry ignored Hagrid's shouting. "Sirius!" He ran foreword into Sirius' arms.

"Don't go near him-" Hagrid cut off, shocked as Sirius pulled Harry into a hug.

"I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Little Man."

Hagrid fell into his seat with a loud thud, completely shocked.

Harry pulled away quickly. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous!"

"Oh, come on. Since when did some danger ever stop Padfoot?"

"Why'd you come back, where were you?" Harry asked quickly. He had so many things to say. The letters had been few and short over the summer. There was only so much that he could ever say, for fear of them being intercepted.

"Slow down, Harry. I was in the States, looking for something. I came back because what I was looking for came here."

Harry was confused. "What?"

Sirius looked behind him. Heather had gone white as a ghost. She kept opening and then closing her mouth, but making no sound. Sirius walked toward her, and she tried to back away. He grabbed her arm.

"Books, it was Peter. Not me. We switched. It was a bluff. He faked his own death, turning into his rat form. He posed as Ron's pet. He was too close to Harry. I had to come after him."

Heather made no noise, then she just started crying. She collapsed into Sirius' arms "Hush, Books, it's okay."

She continued to sob into Sirius' shoulder. Hagrid had seemed to get the point that Sirius was not here to hurt Harry. Heather wiped her tears. "I- I thought I'd never see you again."

He pulled her close again. "I went to look for you. Albus told me you were in the States. I started on the east coast, and searched my way to Texas before Albus wrote me again. He told me that you had agreed to take the D.A. position. I came back right away."

"I was in California."

"Well that explains it. I started on the wrong side of the country."

"But, I, how?" Hagrid seemed to have a lot of questions he was unable to word.

"I believe I can answer that Hagrid." Dumbledore shut the door tightly behind him, and locked it with magic.

"Professor!"

"Let us all sit down, and take things from the top."

Dumbledore explained to Heather and Hagrid exactly what had happened last year. Hagrid was delighted to hear news on Buckbeak. Dumbledore said that he knew Sirius wanted to find Heather, so he had left Sirius the dog in Hagrid's cabin, asking Hagrid to watch him for a while.

Heather seemed unable to let go of Sirius, as though he would disappear if she did. Sirius' eyes fell on Ginny, and he was startled.

"Who are you?"

"Oh!" Harry realized with a jolt that Sirius and Ginny had never met. She was taking meeting a convicted criminal fairly well, she hadn't said a word. Of course that was rather tipical of Ginny. "Sirius, this is Ginny. You can trust her, she's known for some time now."

"In that case, hello Ginny. You're Ron's little sister?" She nodded, blushing slightly at being addressed directly. "You look a lot like Lily, did you know that?"

"Actually, that's the forth time I've been told that today," she said with a smile.

Sirius laughed. "Well, sit you and Harry together, switch eyes, and Lily and James would be back. Even the ages are right. If you two start dating in two years, I'll start screaming that history is repeating it's self."

Ginny turned crimson. Harry shoke his head and smiled.

"How long are you staying, Padfoot?" Heather asked.

"As long as I can. I'm hiding in the forest."

Sirius noticed the sword hanging from Harry's shoulder. "Harry, what's up with the sword."

"Oh that," he said sheepishly. He explained to Sirius and Heather what had happened.

"Huh, that's really weird." Heather looked thoughtful. Harry nodded.

Dumbledore left some time after that. After some cheery conversation among the friends, Harry turned to Hagrid. "Hagrid, how come you never told me that mum and dad were a year apart, or that dad taught here."

Hagrid looked taken aback by the question. "Well, I guess I just sorta forgot yeh didn' know, Harry. I didn' like ter bring the subject up a lot."

Harry nodded. "What else can you guys tell me?"

Sirius leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head, a grin on his face. "What do you want to know?"

What did he want to know? He wanted to know everything. He had to start somewhere. "What about my grandparents? Are any of them still alive?"

Heather answered. "I don't know how your father's parent's died, but they must be dead or you would have gone to them rather then Flower's sister. Your mother's parents were Muggles. They both died in Flower's fifth year. Her father in a car accident, her mother of a heart attack a week later. That's actually how Flower and Prongs got together."

"It is?"

"Yes," Sirius replied. "She was so close to her parents, and she was a down right mess when they died. Prongs took her, well, somewhere. Away from the school, away from everybody. They had a room somewhere that James didn't put on the map. She wouldn't talk to anybody but him. Then they left for a few days to go to Flower's house, which her parents had willed to her. I guess it would be yours now, Harry. Anyway, they were gone three days, and when they came back, they just were together."

"Something happened." Heather said. "It wasn't just Flower. Something happened to Prongs while they were gone."

"Heather," Ginny said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"The records at the Ministry say that James Potter's mother died giving birth to him, and his father died when he was twelve."

Heather, Sirius, Ron, Hermione, and Harry stared at her. She turned red, but kept going. "I went with dad to work one day, and he let me go explore. There were all kinds of records, and I looked it up."

Sirius looked at Heather. "No wonder he was always at my place."

"But wouldn't Dumbledore have done something about it?"

"Not if he didn't know. James never said a thing!"

"Lily knew!" Heather exclaimed. "No matter what, if the conversation ever turned to his parents, she would rush in and change the subject. I never thought to question it."

"That letter," Sirius said hitting his forehead with his hand.

"What letter?"

"I only remember it because it was the night before Quidditch try-outs. In our second year, a letter arrived for James. He didn't look happy about it, but he wouldn't show it to us."

"You would think his father dying would upset him," Heather said slowly.

Sirius shook his head. "Somehow, I don't think so. You girls didn't know him in our first year. He thought he was a failure, that everything was his fault. I," he paused as he seemed to draw a conclusion. "I bet his father blamed him for the death of his mother!"

Heather's head dropped. "That would have been horrible to have a parent that didn't love you."

They all heard the door close, and looked up to see that Harry had left. His figure could be seen heading toward the lake.

"Should somebody go after him?" Sirius asked.

"Let him alone for a while," Ginny replied. "He's had a very busy day. Sally's with him, and if there's anyone who can cheer him up it's her."

Harry couldn't listen to it anymore. It was scary. His father went through almost the exact same things as Harry. Never knowing a parent. Growing up in a family that didn't love you. Not knowing what love was.

'He didn't tell anyone. Not even Dumbledore knew. He was on his own from twelve. He had it worse then I do.' Harry thought.

He had always pictured his parents as very happy people with perfect lives. Lives that were only cut short because Voldemort felt like killing that day. Deep down, he had always known there was no way that was true. But it was easy to picture them that way.

'Heather said that mum was only eighteen when she had me. That means dad was nineteen. They must have been married before then, Malfoy would have told me about it if I was a bastard.'

Something in him was stirring. There was something deeper there he couldn't see. A secret, that explained why. Why Voldemort had come after them. Why he didn't kill his mother right away. Why nobody was told about James' father. Why the sword had 'chosen' Harry. Somehow, Harry knew, they were all connected. And he was determined to find out.

"Oh no. Determination. What are you up to?" Sally asked.

Harry sat down by the lake and sighed. He explained everything to Sally. There was just no point to keep things from her. She wouldn't repeat anything, and the only one who would understand her was Ginny.

"And you think there's a connection between all of it?"

"I know there is. It's right there, and I can't see it."

Harry made it through the rest of the week. Friday evening, Fred and George interupted the homework Harry was doing.

"Harry, there's a party in the hall, and we're the guests of honor!"

"What?" It took Harry a minute to figure out what they were talking about. "Oh right, we have to elect new Captains. It slipped my mind."

Fred and George grinned at each other in that way that made you think they were up to something. "Well, we really think you should come."

"Yeah, I'm coming." Harry found his friends, and they all headed down to the hall together.

There was quite a crowd. Though it was only the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams being voted for, it seemed the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs wanted some say on it.

Dumbledore stood at the front. "Gadies and Lents, listen up please."

Quiet slowly desended on the hall. "I must explain how the voting works. Naturally, the vote is open to everyone, but we must tack tactics in to consideration. What we do not want is other teams voting for the person who they believe would make the worst captain in an adtempt to give their team an advantage. So this is how it works. Members of the team being voted for have a vote worth what we call a voten. Their vote is worth ten votes. It makes sence that the people on the team will know who should lead them. They are unable to vote for themselves. The members of that team's house have a votive, worth five votes. The members of that house are the ones who are most likely to vote for who they think will do good. Members of other houses have a votwo, woth two. Members of opposing teams have one vote, as they are the ones most likly to vote negitivly. The vote boxes will know who you are, so don't try to lie to them and right give yourself a new name." He let them take all of this in.

Harry realized he had a chance to vote for his own team, and for the Slytherins. His vote would count ten times, and then only once. Who would he vote for? He didn't care who won the Slytherin postion, but who on his own team? They all had their qualities. Fred and George were more leaders then the girls, but how would he chose between them?

"We'll vote on the Slytherin captain first."

About a half an hour later, all who wanted to had voted for the Slytherin. Harry didn't vote at all, as most of the Gryffindors did. They then had the vote for Gryfindor. Harry didn't vote. He couldn't decide. Did they really even need a captain? They worked so good together without instruction.

"The votes have been counted by the boxes." Dumbledore waved his wand. A large white shimering square appeared on the wall. The names of each of the six Slytherin players were written in green.

They waited with held breath to see who would win. Harry had a nasty feeling he knew exactly who would win. The numbers appeared.

"Draco Malfoy, congratulations," Dumbledore said with a knowing smile. Malfoy smirked in his conceded way, and crossed his arms.

The white square went blank. Katie, George, Fred, Angelina, Alicia, and Harry's names appeared on it in red. They waited once more with held breath. The numbers appeared, and Harry felt his mouth fall open.

He had won, by a lot. It was a surprise to say the least. He hadn't even thought about it. He was the youngest member of the team. The least experienced. He turned to Fred and George who were beside him.

"But, why?"

They grinned. "Okay everybody, Harry wants to know why! Let us count the ways." George replied.

"You're the best damn player we've ever had, for a start." Fred said.

"You know what to do, and when to do it." George and Fred were taking turns.

"You know when enough is enough, and you remember that it's a game."

"You play because you like to, and for no other reason."

"We felt like brightening your day."

"We didn't feel like doing it."

"We thought we'd add one more thing to your list of things to worry about."

"Somebody has to kick Malfoy's ass."

"And you have more right for that job then anybody."

"The girls would start fighting over who won."

"The girls would start shouting over who won."

"The girls would start killing over who won."

"The girls-"

"Enough!" shouted Katie, Angelina, and Alicia together.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walked up beside Harry. "You're the best man for the job, Harry." Ron said, and there was a distinct amount of pride in his voice.

That touched Harry. Ron wasn't jealous that Harry becoming the Captin would rule Ron out even if he ever did join the team. Ron was proud of Harry, like a brother.

"Yeah Harry," Hermoine said with a grin. "Go kick Malfoy wear it hurts!"

Ginny tugged of Harry's sleave. She pulled him away from the crowd. "Harry, this means that your first match is against the Slytherins, it's your first game as Captian, and it's the day the Pro teams come to see you."

Shock spread across Harry's face. In the mess with the Basilisk, and the sword he had completly forgotten about the Quidditch teams.

"Ginny, I forgot! I havn't picked one yet!"

"Don't worry about it. Sally brought me the papers, and I've looked through them. I've singled out your best bets, and who needs a new seeker. Meet me tonight, and we'll talk about it."

Harry nodded, clearly impressed. Ginny just took it apon herself to help him in any way she could. A year ago, he would have passed it off as hero worship, but he knew that wasn't the case anymore. Now she knew him, he was more then a hero, he was a person, and she still hadn't changed her attitude about him. "Thanks," was all he managed before the members of the Gryffindor house dragged him away for a party.