Button me down and call me a traitor, but I finally got it done! Chapter 26 of this dimension is done, after long hours of staring at the screen and coming up empty. I hope I'm not boring you guys with following much of the original Potter plot, but there is a rhyme and reason to it, I assure you. And yes, you must read it if you're to understand the final battle. If I ever get around to it....ay ay ay, I should never have made it seven dimensions, I'm going to be a graduated Senior by the time this thing is through!!!

***

Chapter 26: Explain, Please

"Never...in my life!" she shouted as she pointed her huge pointer finger at me. "Irresponsible insubordination, that's what it is."
"Miss Marge, please, I don't understand-" I started, but never finished.
"Understand my foot!" She roared, knocking over her wine glass. "You went out and let your poor uncle worry sick about you-" Vernon was silently shaking in mirthful laughter at this, "-and made poor Ripper think you were abandoning him, petting that overgrown mutt in that dank alley like that!"

"Excuse me!" I shouted indignantly. "But if you are so upset over a little walk and me petting a cute dog I meet in an alley, then perhaps you shouldn't be accusing me, as you are the hypocrite!" My anger rocked the house as I stared at the woman. My ki was flaring and I knew it, but she'd gotten me so mad, my rage couldn't stand this harassment any longer.

"And another thing!" she roared louder still, but she never got the chance. Her body had begun to swell up to massive proportions and her entire body, skin, eyes, hair, clothes, and all were turning an interesting shade of indigo. I looked at her in shock, then at the furious face Harry displayed. He had done the inflating. I'd done the indigo. If this had been me reading the book and another had done this, I'd be laughing my head off. But in real life, it was no joking matter. Forgetting all that I knew once more, I dashed up the stairs and gathered my things, all of them, into a pile and put them in my Capsules. I brought the boys' stuff together and packed it all away into Capsules before any of them reached the landing.

"Was everything visible?" I asked them seriously. They all nodded, slightly out of breath, but ready and willing to go as I was. (Correction: Harry and Tom were out of breath, Trunks was just as un-winded as I was about the short trek up the stairs.) "Let's get outta here."

They followed without a word as I made my way down the stairs, going slowly. Vernon stood in my path at the base of the stairs, looking quite venomous. He was breathing unsteadily and his nostrils were flared angrily.
"Put...her...back!" he yelled at us.

"No, she deserved it," I growled back as I got to the step eye level with him. "Now move before I make you move." He growled in his throat and stood his ground. I levitated off the step and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, throwing him to the side softly. He landed with a dull thud and was knocked out cold. So much for "softly".

Tom, Harry, and Trunks raced outside and I followed them quickly. I had a small bag of my gold left in my pocket for anything we might possibly need.

"We're doomed!" Harry cried out, "We just did really serious magic. What're we gonna do, Angel?"
"Take the Knight Bus," I answered and pulled out my wand from my pocket, something that I did subconsciously now. I stuck it out and waited for a few seconds, hearing the crickets chirp. The minute I did, a rumbling sound filled Privet Drive and I dove to get Harry out of the way as Trunks did the same for Tom. I pulled Harry to his feet as the purple bus with flashing letters (Knight Bus) pulled to a rickety stop in front of us. Tom and Trunks were still scrambling to regain their footing but neither bothered to stand now that they were in absolute awe.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus," the young, eighteen-ish boy began, "Emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike and I'll be your conductor this eve-" He dropped the speech right where I expected him to and stared at Tom and Trunks. My black-haired boyfriend had managed to get to his feet finally and was trying to help Tom to his feet as well.
"Whatcha two doin' there?" he asked.
"We fell over," Trunks answered as Tom found his way to his feet and I found out why they'd had so much trouble getting back up: there was a large amount of tiny marbles on the ground from a children's game.

"'Choo fall over for?" Stan inquired.

"They didn't do it on purpose," Harry put in, thoroughly annoyed. "Did you say this bus goes anywhere?"

"Yep, anywhere you wanna go, long as it's on land. Can't do nuffink underwater," Stan answered, almost proudly.

"How much to get us four to London?" I asked instantaneously.

"Oh, let's see," He seemed to count for a moment before answering (me too!), "Two Galleons and ten sickles."

"Okay," I said, quickly taking two gold Galleons and ten silver Sickles from my pouch, "Let's go, guys. We're going." They nodded and we stepped aboard the Knight Bus.

Make up names, guys, I told them in our heads, We're on the run, remember? They nodded and we sat on the two beds (no, I got it right, they're beds, not benches or seats) closest to the front. Trunks and I sat behind the driver and Tom and Harry on the opposite one.

"So, what's you guys' names?" Stan asked as he took his place behind the driver. "I never caught 'em."

"Katie Bell," I answered instantly. Trunks gave me a sideways look before answering.

"Cedric Diggory," he said.

"Neville Longbottom," Harry answered, followed by Tom's, "Marcus Flint." I think Stan must have been pretty thick, because we were all giving each other weird looks over these names.

"My name's Stan, I told ya that, but this is Ern," He pointed behind him at the driver and then settled down with a newspaper.

"That man!" Tom exclaimed with a gasp, pointing to the back of the paper.

"He was on the Muggle news," Harry said, inspecting the paper from where he sat.

"Sirius Black," he said, with a glance at the picture himself. "'Course he was on the Muggle news, Marcus, where you four been?"

We all stared cluelessly back at him.

He gave a chuckle that said all the while that he was more knowledgeable of this subject and gave me the paper. Harry and Tom walked over to our bed and sat down to look at it with Trunks and I.

The paper basically said all I knew about the man from the public's point of view. It said that he was the most infamous Azkaban prisoner (I'm not certain if I've said this or not, but Azkaban is the wizard prison. You'll soon see why everyone's scared of the dang place.) ever and that he was a danger to "anyone, magic or Muggle". It also said that Black had supposedly killed thirteen men with a single curse, which was a total lie. One was a wizard and the other twelve were innocent Muggle bystanders. That one wizard, however, was not dead, but alive, and I knew precisely who, what, how, and where he was. (I'll let you know later, you'll find out with Trunks and the others. Patience!)

"Scary-lookin' fing, inee?" Stan asked while he watched us read.

"Not really," I answered offhandedly. "I can be much scarier."
"Katie's right," Harry said, remembering my alias perfectly. "She can be scarier then scary."

***

Our ride was uneventful thanks to a few clamped mouths and whispered explanations of "I'll explain later!" and other such things. Harry and Tom finally got the picture and kept their mouths shut. Finally, we landed in Diagon Alley.

As the boys got off in front of me, I turned and thanked Stan, fully expecting him to be staring at the door of the Leaky Cauldron. Of course, he was. I was actually getting quite suspicious about this whole thing. Two years in a row now things had been going mostly my way. Mostly was the keyword, as we had lost many friends and allies, but the fact remained that things had gone almost exactly the way the books had. It was a frightening coincidence and I hoped it was not of Dirken's handiwork.

"There you are, Harry," said a voice I had been mostly expecting. Turning, I caught my first real look at Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. I played it off perfectly, however, and kept my face grim as I spoke.
"Uh-oh," I muttered. "Busted."

"Busted?" Stan gawked between the four of us. Then, his eyes widened in recognition. On me. "Wait a second 'ere, you're that Angel Galis, ain't ya?" I closed my eyes tightly and sighed.

"Busted again."

As we did not have our huge trunks in our possession, we had the great luck of not being followed by Stan and Ern. The barkeeper, Tom (not to be confused with our Tom), led the way down the hall and into a private parlor. I sighed, sinking into the seat.
"I know exactly what this is about, Mr. Fudge." I put my head in my hands and rubbed my temples like an old, old lady. At this point, I felt my old sixty-something true age rather than my thirteen-year-old one.
"I imagine you do, Ms. Galis, but I'm almost certain that your brother, cousin, and 'boyfriend' do not," Fudge's eyes twinkled merrily as I looked up at him, a tired smile on my face.

"Not exactly, Mr. Fudge."

"Well, then, you four gave us all a right fright by running from your aunt and uncle's house like that, you did. We'd almost thought...well, it doesn't matter, you're safe now." I hid a smile as I knew what they'd thought and they were actually pretty close to being right. I had met up with Black...but it had been before the turning-my-"aunt"-indigo part.

"I guess," I shrugged, taking a crumpet at Fudge's insistence. "But with my little idiot demon chasing me every which way, I doubt we'll be safe for long, even at Hogwarts."
"Yes, that's what I'm worried about...among other things," Fudge said seriously. "Well, I'm going to leave you here, I'm sure Ms. Galis can explain things to you boys. I will ask Tom to allow you to stay here at the Leaky Cauldron." With that, he left.

"Angel, what'd he mean?" Harry asked quietly, throwing a look over his shoulder.

"You should know one thing right here and right now, Harry," I answered. "Nobody wanted to tell you this because they all thought it was in your 'best interest'." I grimaced lightly. "Anyways, Sirius Black is your godfather. He was one of your dad's best friends."

"B-Black?" Harry asked incredulously, but kept the mind to keep quiet about it. "But why are you telling me this if he's out there right now?"

"They all think that-"
"Well, room 11 is free," Fudge said, walking back into the room. I sat up again and smiled innocently, and the others followed suit. "Tom will bring you four some extra beds soon."
"Don't worry too much, Mr. Fudge," Tom said politely. "Me and Harry have been sharing the same bed all summer."
"And Trunks and me, too," I added.

"Well, all the same. I must be going, much to do..."

"Sir, can we ask one more thing?" Trunks asked, speaking for the first time since we'd been dragged into the room. I stared at him, wondering what he was going to ask. "Why is it so imperitive that you catch Black?" Uh...oh...big trouble. This was not going to be pretty.

"Well...um...yes, well...he killed thirteen men with a single curse, me boy, what more reason is there? All innocents, too," Fudge answered shakily. "And the Azkaban guards are more angry than I've seen them in a while..." I joined him in shuddering violently. I did not enjoy the thought of those things.

"They won't adhere the kiss, will they?" I asked hoarsely.

"If he continues to run like this, we may have to," Fudge said gravely.
"Please, don't!" I cried, clasping my hands. "No one deserves such a horrible fate, not even one who has killed so many! Not even Voldemort himself deserves such a thing!"

"You are a brave, brave girl, Ms. Galis," Fudge said, smiling weakly at me. "I will do all I can to stop them, then. Good night to you four, I hope you have a pleasant vacation."
"Thanks, Mr. Fudge," we chorused as he left.

"Welcome, children."

And he was gone.

"All right, Angel, what was that?" Trunks growled.

"Well, they all believe that Black did it," I sighed. "The thirteen he supposedly killed, I mean. But it wasn't him."
"What do you mean, it wasn't him?" Tom asked. "There were several witnesses to it, right?"
"They saw a big explosion. Nothing more," I answered. "There were twelve Muggles there, and one other wizard. I happen to know that it was the other wizard who did that all. And that's why Black escaped, because he knows the other wizard still lives."
"What?!" screamed the room.

"Hush, hush!" I threw my arms at them quickly to signal silence. "Yes, the other wizard is still alive. They found only one remnant of him, after all. I'm not saying anything else about him, though. This time, it's worse with Dirken hanging about."
"Come along, kids," the old Tom poked his head into the room.

***

The weeks flew by in a daze of the wonderful freedom I had so much missed since my days of taking care of Dee and the rest of the house. Harry and I were both impressed by the Firebolt, the racing broom that was said to be the latest model available. We had eaten ice cream at the local parlor and had finished all of our essays for homework and had bought our new school supplies.

The weeks had flown, basically, but they had also been slow, for me. Because I was waiting for my friends to arrive there, I had completely been slowed. Which was why I was so glad to see Draco with his father three days before we would leave for Hogwarts.
"Draco!" I yelled loudly, catching the attention of the whole square. I blushed and laughed nervously as the dozens of staring people went back to what they were doing. Dashing over to where he stood, I was glad the others weren't with me to meet Draco's father, Lucius.

"Hey, Angel," Draco waved lightly, looking up at his father, slightly worried.
"Hello, Mr. Malfoy," I said, holding out my hand to shake. "A pleasure to meet you again, I'm sure. I'm sorry about your house elf, sir."
"Stop brainwashing my boy," he sniffed, dragging Draco away from me and toward the book shop. I sighed and waved goodbye to him as he disappeared again.

"See you on the train," he called back. I nodded and turned on my heel to search out the boys.

***

Well, finally, the last day of our stay at the Leaky Cauldron came. The boys had lost their spirit of seeing Ron and Hermione, but I chuckled merrily as I skipped out the door. We split up once outside, like we had plenty of times before. I headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, just in time to run into the whole Weasley crew, including Bill, Charlie, and Ginny, plus Hermione and a fussing pair of parents whom I supposed were Hermione's.

"Hermione! Weasleys!" I crowed, racing to meet them. I felt like I hadn't in years, for I knew now what was going on and that Dirken wasn't interfering yet, which was a good sign. I felt like I'd had ten cups of coffee and several pixie stix (AN-Those things are very, very, very dangerous to me...keep me away from coffee and pixie stix. WHATEVER you do.)

"Angel!" chorused several voices.

"So this is the pretty young lady we keep hearing about," said the two strangers.
"Yes, this is Angel Galis," Hermione smiled and turned to me. "This is my mom and dad."

"Nice to finally meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," I said with a light bow. "Please forgive me if I seem rude."
"Not at all," said Mrs. Granger.

"Ron!" I shouted upon seeing him. "Where's Scabbers, can I see him, huh, huh? I wanna see the poor rat, he's probably skinnier then a dowel rod from Egypt."
"How'd you...oh, yeah," he cut himself off and handed me the poor rat-not-rat.

"Hey, Scabbers, how ya doin', bud?" I asked him, smiling. "Such a sweet little thing, isn't he? I wish Dirken was more like him, don't you agree, Ron?"

"Sure," he nodded. "At least the pink-skinned fool wouldn't be following our every move, right?"
"Right." I handed Scabbers back. "You might wanna get him checked over."

"We've got to get going," said Mr. Granger. "It was nice to finally meet you, Angel. Good luck in school."
"Good luck to you two as well," I waved as they headed back out the way they'd come. Turning back, I grinned. "So, shall we find my intrepid relatives?"

***

We spent the day catching up with each other, mostly. Once we were all alone, however, I took the moment to tell them what I'd told my "intrepid relatives".

"Okay, guys, all of you," I said to them. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy (Head Boy Badge and all), Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Tom, and Trunks. "I'm going to try and explain to you what was to happen this year, to assuage some fears-" I looked pointedly at the Weasley adults, "-and to put some of us on guard, but not for the reason you might think." I took a deep, deep breath before continuing.
"Sirius Black is innocent."
Well, that caused a whole wave of commotion right there. I won't go into details, but let's just say that there were several dropped jaws, widened eyes, and falling-out-of-chairs. "There are several things I could tell you and some I won't. I'm worried, truth be told. Dirken hasn't made a move to change anything in this world except make me lose allies. He's setting us up, setting me up for disaster. I think he's gonna keep this going along the same plot as the book until he's got me content to stay on the ball with the story, and then drop something heavy on me."
"You mean this whole thing is going by-the-book?" Harry asked, dumbfounded.

"Yup, with a few minor tweaks," I sighed. "For example, the dragon in the hall our first year. It was a mountain troll in the book. I think I gave him a major blow when I took Tom in, too. And Trunks. And Susan and Jupiter. Draco. But we've had some blows too. Pan, Chee, Susan, Jupiter. And things have still been going according to the book now. From the blowing-up-Marge, to the Knight Bus, to Fudge finding us, to us meeting outside the Leaky Cauldron, everything. This is getting out of hand by staying in hand."
"Wait, you mean this whole thing is getting chaotic by staying right on track?" Tom asked. "That makes no sense."
"I know it doesn't but it's exactly what's happening," I sighed. "He's setting us up, there's no other way."

"Either that or he's keeping it on track so we don't grow," Trunks suggested.

"What?" I looked up. It hadn't even occured to me! "Of course, if he keeps us on the ball, we don't get stronger. Sure, a little bit, but knowing everything before it happens is a weakness as well as a strength." I sank back in my chair, hands over my face. I groaned into them. "This is driving me nuts."

"Okay, what else?" Bill asked. "I mean, there's got to be some sort of logic behind this whole thing. We know that Black is innocent now, but how?"

"Ron, hand me Scabbers," I ordered him.
"Scabbers?" Ron cocked his head.

"Yeah. Scabbers. Maybe I can solve this before it even begins." He handed me the rat, who was panicking something wicked. "Well, hello, there, Scabbers."

"Angel, what is this all about?" Charlie asked. "Bill asked how Black was innocent, not whether or not Scabbers was feeling okay."
"Although he doesn't look very good anyway," Tom grimaced at the rat's poor figure. It was taking a lot to keep the squirming rat in my hands.
"Okay," I sighed. "I know this is going to sound incredibly insane, but you gotta understand...um...Trunks, can you hang on to Scabbers for me?" He nodded and took the rat, powering up slightly to hold it.

"Okay," I took a bit of paper and a pencil and drew a street and twelve Ms on it. Then I drew an S in the center of the Ms and then a P where the buildings blocked it in. "This is the scene, basically, where Sirius was said to have killed those Muggles and Peter Pettigrew." The rat squeaked at this. "Pipe down!" It fell silent, much to the other's surprise.
"Sirius was following Peter after giving Hagrid his bike to retrieve Harry from the rubble of the house," I explained carefully. "He was telling Peter about several things. Including his own innocence and Peter's deeds."
"Peter's deeds?" echoed seven people, one right after the other. I didn't know who or in what order, but it was like perfect harmony.

"Is there an echo in here or something?" I stated, annoyed. "Yes, Peter's deeds. Peter was the Potter's Secret-Keeper."
"Secret-Keeper?" echoed Trunks, Tom, Ron, Fred, George, and Harry.

I rolled my eyes with Hermione.

"Honestly," Hermione responded, exasperated, "don't any of you read?" Harry and Ron exchanged looks but didn't answer.

"I don't remember everything about it, but it's basically when a person is given a spell to hold only the whereabouts of another," I explained. "Basically, even if you looked in the window of the secret place, you wouldn't know it unless you were the Secret-Keeper. The only way you can see the person that is being protected is if the Secret-Keeper betrays the secret. The Potters decided on a lil' switcharoo in a secret between four of the original Mauraders, the little team that James belonged to. Everyone on the outside believed that Sirius held the secret, but it was Peter, in truth."

"So he sold out to Voldemort, right?" Harry asked darkly.

"You got it," I sighed. "And this is where Scabbers here comes in."
"How?" Charlie pressed.

"I was getting there," I rolled my eyes. "You know when I said Peter was still alive?"

"Yeah..."
"He's right there in Trunks' hands."
Pandemonium broke loose. If this had been anime, everyone would have face-faulted simultaneously, but of course, it wasn't, so there were only typical expressions of surprise.

"What?!" Trunks held the rat away from him. "This thing is Peter?! How?!"

"I'll show you."
With that, I transformed into my cat self, then back.

"What does your being an Animagus have to do with anything?" George (or was it Fred?) asked stupidly.

"Duh. Peter is an Animagus. He's been in this form for the last twelve years."
The rat went nuts, trying with all it's might to escape Trunks' iron grip.

"Okay, Peter," I smiled sweetly. "You can turn back into a person now. Don't worry, I won't let no one hurt you just yet. I'll let Sirius handle that bit."

"Uh...Angel?" Hermione asked. "Do you know how to turn him back into a person? We haven't covered Animagi completely yet, remember? And I haven't exactly done much research on it because I couldn't get to a wizard library until summer was over."

"Oops," I chuckled nervously. "Well, scratch that idea. So, what do we do now? Stupid rat knows now."
"I know. We can Petrify him," Trunks cheered at his own genius.
"Any ideas how, oh dubious one?" I joked.
"Nope," he shook his head mirthfully and laughed.

"Petrificus," said Mrs. Weasley behind us, pointing her wand at the rat. It immediately went rigid in Trunks' arms.

"Well, that's a load off," Trunks laughed as he pried Peter's nails from his hand. "That thing almost got the better of me."
"I doubt it, Trunks," I played off. "You would have figured out something. You always do."

"So, what now?" Mr. Weasley asked. "It's obvious that Sirius is innocent now that you've pointed out this, but what do we do with the information?"

"We keep it," I answered sternly. "Sirius is on the run, but the Muggle cops and the Ministry of Magic are all looking for a man, not a mutt. They'll never figure it out. Believe me, Sirius is one smart guy. A lot smarter then Peter, I can assure you of that."

"Angel?" Tom asked suddenly. "What's that? That there, on your wrist."

"Oh, this?" I held up the small trinket that Hagrid had sent me. "A charm bracelet Hagrid sent me. Nothing more." I felt obligated to lie, even to my own trusted brother, boyfriend, and cousin. Although I did not have much to hide by way of the bracelet, there were other things surrounding it that I did not want to be let loose. At least, not yet.

I think Trunks knew me better than that, but he kept silent. But I did manage to catch him gazing at the bracelet. It was then that I remembered that Sirius had said that Dreamer was my mother. I still wondered who Ice was, but did not think about it too long. Making a mental note to ask Sirius later, I spoke again.

"And there is one more thing that you guys should know before we hit the sack. Sirius is my godfather, as well as Harry's."
I'm not going to even go into the reactions people had to that.

***

If you think my story is good, go check out my girl Jeminie Yuy's Gundam Wing story. I mean, that girl's got imagination, good writing, and a solid plot all rolled into one! Plus, hers is complete and completely loaded. I hear she's writing a side story for it too.

Sorry about the shameless plug, but she taught me everything I know. She's new the fan fiction, but writing and drawing is a whole nother ball game.