Chapter 03

• Caught •

There was a knock on the door, one Harry knew particularly well, Virginia. He opened up the door and let Virginia in. Sirius was away, he told Harry that he had to go think about some things. Harry had thought it a little unusual but well, Sirius was a little unusual sometimes.

"Guess what?" Virginia said, smiling broadly.

Slightly surprised, Harry just shook his head, "I don't know, what?"

She smiled slyly, "Ron just got his acceptance to Hogwarts."

As she finished the sentence Harry's eyes fell to the ground. He'd been wondering when he would get his acceptance letter, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't be. Because of what he and Sirius had to do to stay protected, the owl would never find him. Virginia sprawled out in one of the big chairs in the room. "Did you get one?"

"No," Harry shook his head, finally admitting to himself that he wouldn't be getting one. "I won't. Sirius puts a protection charm on us. It keeps us from being tracked, but that means no owls could find us."

Only a week ago, when Harry'd turned 11 he'd been thinking about it a lot. Sirius had seemed a little reserved though, and though it had been fun (especially when Virginia showed up) there had been something that made him act distant.

At one point Harry had said something to Sirius about Hogwarts, but soon after Sirius had disappeared leaving the children alone. The two had played Harry's new game of wizarding chess that Virginia had given him. Harry'd even taken her home and almost gotten caught by some of her older brothers who were out looking for her.

Nodding her head, Virginia draped it back over the top of the chair. Harry looked over to her and chuckled. "Why didn't you come over yesterday?"

Virginia looked up. "Fred or George pulled a prank on me, yesterday. My hair was bright green all day long."

Grinning, Harry tried to imagine Virginia with bright green hair, it wasn't pretty. "Do you want to get them back?"

"And how do I do that?" she asked curious at what Harry was getting at.

Harry laughed. "It just so happens Siri' was a prankster at Hogwarts, one of the most renowned." Sirius walked in at that time, looked at Virginia, and shook his head guiltily.

"Is it true you were a prankster?" Virginia asked him inquisitively.

Looking over at Harry and then back Sirius grinned. "Well sort of, I was in a group. We called ourselves the Marauders."

Virginia looked up at that name, "I've heard it Fred said something about a map and the Marauders."

Both of them knew what the map was. Sirius had got it taken away seventh year, he wasn't surprised that someone had it though. "Yeah, that was my idea, Prongs and Moony did most of the work. It's a map of Hogwarts, but not any old map. It shows where everyone is and the secret passages."

"That really took some talent," Virginia said, awed.

Sirius scratched the top of his head. "Well, yeah, that was why James.. err Prongs did it."

"Hey," he said, coming up with a good idea. "Why don't we leave them a present, compliments of 'The Marauders'?"

Virginia smiled broadly. "They wouldn't know what hit them. I play tricks on them, but I've never pulled a good prank on them, not like they do to the rest of us, especially me."

Sirius thought for a few moments. "I think I've got the perfect idea."

As Sirius explained they drew closer, smiling more and more as the plan unfolded. Virginia would have to run home and get some things quickly. She took off quickly, happy that she could get her brothers back.

"You like this girl?" Sirius asked, watching her sprint through the woods, a grin on his face.

There wasn't any answer that Harry could use without Sirius using it against him. "She's my only friend. I don't know though, when she kissed me... It was like a big explosion in my head, I can't really explain it. I want to be friends, I don't want to be all mushy like adults yet."

Sirius was laughing so hard that he bent over. "Harry, you're becoming a man quicker than you realize. You don't need to tell her about all our secrets, ok? I am still not so sure if we can trust her."

That was an easy answer for Harry. He trusted her almost as much as she trusted Sirius. He'd known her for well over a year now. "So where did you go anyway?" he asked.

"I was deciding something about you," Sirius frowned, remembering what it was that he'd been doing before he returned.

Harry was slightly surprised. "What were you deciding about?"

Crossing the room, Sirius disappeared into the only other room in the cabin. When her returned a few minutes later he had something in his hands. Harry was staring, and at some point while he waited, a coin had found itself in his hands and was rolling over his fingers.

"I was deciding about you going to Hogwarts," Sirius said, his grip tightening. "Do you suppose that your little girly friend could nick her brothers letter and make a copy? Seems to me, that since you're 11 that it's about time you go. As a parents it's my job to make sure that you get a proper magical education."

Harry smiled and then frowned. "But what if you get caught Siri'?"

"Let me take care of myself. I've gotten pretty good at that," Sirius said, trying to feign a smile.

It didn't work around Harry, he knew Sirius too well. There was a unidentifiable emotion that Harry could see on Sirius's face. "Siri'?" Harry asked. "What are you going to do when I'm gone? And.. how am I... how am I going to get home next summer?"

When Sirius paled Harry knew what had been showing on Sirius's face. "I'm not going to be coming back, am I?"

Sirius paled.

It didn't take any more thought, Harry had made his decision. "No Siri'. I'm not going to go to Hogwarts if I can't come back to you."

A clunk of a metal coin striking the wood floor was followed by an awkward silence. Sirius looked torn again, as he had been feeling a lot lately. It was even harder now to send Harry to Hogwarts. He'd been fighting himself about it for the last few days, and now, when he'd finally made the decision, Harry didn't want it.

"Harry," Sirius said decisively. "You're going to Hogwarts. I know you already know some magic, but you need to go to Hogwarts. There happen to be things that I don't know, and you can learn them there. It's all very important and there's no way I can teach it all to you. What I can do is get an owl, I'll charm it so that it can find me and you can write me."

Harry felt so sad he almost started crying but he realized it wouldn't work. If Sirius was going to do something he did, it was as simple as that, Harry and Sirius both knew Harry would be going to Hogwarts.

When Virginia showed up a few minutes later, she walked right in the door. Being so distraught, Sirius hadn't bothered to lock it. When she was confronted by the two solemn faces, she was slightly confused having left them in good spirits.

"Is everything alright Harry?" she asked quietly.

Still distraught, Harry looked up at her. "Virginia, can you get Ron's letter from Hogwarts and make a copy of everything he is supposed to bring?"

She nodded. "I suppose so. Are you going to go too?"

It was her turn to feel bad, she had been hoping that maybe he wouldn't. Everyone else was leaving her this year and she hated to be alone with mum. "I can get it if you need it," she said quietly. "When do you want it?"

"We need it as soon as possible," Sirius interrupted. "I have to get it before there are a lot of people running around Diagon Alley that might be able to recognize me even with a disguise."

After Virginia nodded Harry noticed she hadn't set down everything she'd brought and so he set about preparing an area at the table. The atmosphere that was quickly building wasn't something he enjoyed much.

"Well Siri', what do you think about getting that potion brewed for Virginia?"

Everyone smiled. Fred and George were going to have a time with dealing with this potion. When Virginia talked about them she'd told them a lot. How they were always brewing something in their room, and only left to eat and other various activities that required them to leave the room.

To start, Sirius charmed a certain object (a book about spells that Virginia had nicked) so that they would be repulsed by it. She'd plant it in their room and they wouldn't be able to figure out what it was. So they'd stay away from their room as much as they could.

At breakfast Virginia'd insure they got a drink of something tainted with the potion they were making now. Within a few minutes of drinking it they'd start saying the first thing that came to their minds and it'd last for the whole day. By the end of the day, when the charm wore off on the book and the twins returned, they'd find a note, signed by the marauders, telling them to be more cautious about who they pulled pranks on.

•

The next morning Harry waited outside for Virginia. He sat on the pouch, rolling a coin and watching carefully. Sirius had gone and disappeared again, Harry assumed to make arrangements for going to Hogwarts. Meanwhile Harry had his own plans, and they were slowly evolving in his head. Peter was going to be framed, he'd be sent to jail and then new information would be found to indict him with the murder of Harry's parents.

When Virginia did show up she was bright red and panting. "Sorry," she huffed. "Ron went and followed me out this morning. Thought he'd be crafty and all. Took me a while to lose him."

Still pondering the thought of framing Peter, Harry just shrugged and followed her inside.

The list was pulled out and they'd begun examining it when there was a loud creak. Harry turned quickly to the porch, and caught someone trying to peak in. With three silent steps Harry was on the other side of the room and yanked the door open. A young red-headed boy was looking through the slats in the cabin, trying to see what was going on inside. It wouldn't work though, the cabin had been charmed to make the inside look empty. Even though Harry should've let him be he was furious that he wasn't leaving Virginia alone.

"What do you want?" he growled, pinning the boy to the ground.

It was quite a surprise for the boy to be knocked to the ground so quickly and he struggled to get back up. Harry wasn't exactly strong, but he'd been taught about physical fighting with Sirius, so he didn't have much difficulty keeping the boy pinned. When the boy finally gave up he looked right into Harry's eyes, irritated. "You're Harry aren't you, the guy my sisters running around with?"

"So what if I am?" Harry said, pushing his head back to the ground when he tried to lift it.

The boy looked terrified, he had suddenly realized the position he was in. Virginia came out the door and gasped when she saw him. "Ron!"

He looked over at her, "Ginny."

Harry drew the attention back to himself, "Yeah, and I'm Harry. Now that everyone's been introduced what shall I do with you?" He'd dealt with nosy people before and knew the best way to keep them away was to scare them or obliviate them.

"Virginia, my wand," Harry said when he found that it was in her hand instead of in his side pocket.

After holding it towards him, she paused for just a second. "What are you going to do with it?"

Ron laughed and Harry looked back down. "He's a kid, I bet he can't even do anything with it."

Harry snorted and stood grabbing Ron by the collar and dragging him roughly into the house. "I can do more than you think."

"Don't do it," Virginia said, grabbing his hand. "He won't tell anyone you're here, I'll promise for him."

Ron was curious now. "Tell anyone what?"

The, he looked around again, as if examining Harry. There didn't seem anything strange about him, he did have longer than normal hair, but nothing particularly interesting. Then, his eyes locked on the object on his forehead, some sort of scar. The hair drifted back and forth over his forehead and Ron's eyes almost burst when he realized what it was. "A lightning bolt scar!" he stuttered.

It didn't take long for his eyes to examine Harry again. "Harry... Harry Potter?" his voice croaked and he looked as began trembling, his pants slowly getting wet down one leg.

"Yeah, I know," he said, smiling at the way Ron was acting. "Shall I Obliviate you now?"

Ron stuttered. "But - you can't Obliviate... My brother can't even Obliviate and he is going to be a 5th year next year,. He's even at the top of his class."

Harry raised his wand and prepared to perform the curse. "Well, I guess I'm special then aren't I?" he half snarled.

Ron looked even more scared now. Harry concentrated for a second, he didn't want to get distracted and do it wrong. "Obl..."

"Wait," Ron cut him off.

Harry looked down at him. "What?"

"If you're Harry Potter then Sirius Black..."

"Is here. Yeah, you're certainly not as stupid as you look," Harry said getting more and more irritated. "That is why I can't let you remember this. If they catch him they'll throw him in Azkaban for something he didn't do," he continued even angrier that Ron was being as annoying as he was. He wished that the kid hadn't shown up in the first place.

Ron backed up, finding some sort of locomotion control suddenly. "But he's bad," he stuttered. "He was the one that got your parents killed. Why would you want to protect him?"

Finally Virginia stepped forward, but in Sirius's defense. "He didn't do it you prat. Why do you think that Peter Pettigrew is always talking to father about what happens when Sirius is caught? He wants to make sure Sirius is kissed immediately so that no one will ever know what really happened."

Ron was confused. "Peter did it? Why would he do something like that?"

Then Virginia got angry. "You of all people..." she said, her tone getting stronger. "You know what he tried to do me last summer while everyone was gone, if you hadn't slept in and been home... I saw the mark and so did you. Why would he be a Death Eater and still be after Sirius. All the Death Eaters wanted to kill the Potter's."

Ron let her facts sink in. "I don't know Ginny. I know he is a sick man but I don't know if he could kill his best friends. He cries about them so often, even now."

Virginia looked accusingly at him. "And you don't cry when I hit you, you try and get away with making it sound like it hurt by crying about it?"

Ron looked up at her. "It does hurt!"

Harry laughed, he found it amusing that Virginia was beating up her older brother's. Ron looked at him angrily. "It does, if she hit you would know."

Harry laughed even harder. "You mean that it actually hurt you? When she hit me last time I barely felt it. Granted she has a special place in her heart for me."

He looked over at Virginia who was blushing. Ron gasped and looked over at her. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Harry found Ron more than a little amusing, he was so childish. "Well, I am a boy and I am a friend. I guess that means I'm her boyfriend. Why, you have anything against it?"

Virginia was sitting back, mouth agape unsure what to say. Harry decided to end the games and get it over with. He raised his wand and started. "Oblivia..."

Then, before he could finish the sentence the door flew open, another red-headed boy standing in the light.This one was much older. He looked around the room his eyes locking onto Virginia. "Are you ok Ginny?"

Virginia stood and brushed herself off, "of course I'm ok Bill, why wouldn't I be?"

Bill, the second redheaded guy, looked over at Harry and then down at Ron. "You ok little brother?"

Ron, who was more relieved to see his brother than he had ever been in his life choked, he couldn't seem to say anything. Bill looked at Harry and took looked him over as if deciding how difficult he would be to tackle. "Who are you?"

"His name is Harry Potter and mine is Sirius Black," came a voice from behind Bill. "And now that all the introductions are taken care of..." Sirius paused, as if waiting for Bill to react.

Bill turned around, only to have his wand plucked out of his hand before he could react. Sirius shoved him hard back into the room and closed the door. Harry looked up at Sirius. "I'm sorry. Virginia was followed by one of her brothers," he pointed to Ron.

"I don't know where he came from." Harry pointed to Bill. "I was taking care of it though. I was about to Obliviate Ron so he won't recall being here."

Bill scoffed even though he was laying on the floor. "A little young to be Obliviating aren't you?"

"Silencio," Harry waved his wand at them, tired of listening to the two prats.

Bill's mouth kept moving but there was no noise. Sirius looked at Harry. "Ok, let's get this over with." Bill who was no longer rattling on frowned. He shook his head at Harry.

Personally, Harry didn't care what the two boys thought. He only wanted to get it over with. It wasn't as if they were killing them, simply performing a basic memory charm. As he held up his want to obliviate them he was distracted for the third time by another noise.

At first his eyes darted to the slats again, but no one seemed to be peaking in. He glanced over to Sirius for a second, who was watching the door carefully, fully aware there was another person around. There was a soft knock on the door and Harry darted forward to answer it. Behind his back he held his wand prepared.

A portly woman was on the other side of it, smiling brightly. "Sorry dear, I was just looking for my children. You wouldn't happen to have seen them, a couple of them wandered off today," she said pleasantly. "Wait, you wouldn't happen to be Harry by any chance, the darling little boy that Ginny's always telling me about."

"Yeah, I am," he said charmingly. "Tell me, what's she told you about me?"

Mrs. Weasley smiled, overjoyed to meet him apparently. "Oh, she says you are fun to play with, and love to play games with her. She seems to think you're a remarkably good person."

"I'll have to thank her the next time I see her," he said, grinning at her. "I can go look and see if I can find her for you, maybe she is with her brothers."

Mrs. Weasley nodded to him. "Well, I guess I'll go have to check the hillside again, I didn't see them there, maybe they decided to go back though."

Harry nodded and watched her leave. Then he turned back and walked into the house, where Sirius had just finished performing a memory charm on Bill. He untied him and then tapped his wand to his head, knocking him unconscious. Ron watched Sirius, fearfully. Harry didn't want to do anything to them, in part because of Virginia not wanting it. But, he knew that the only way to be sure they wouldn't say anything was if the charm was done to them.

So Harry let Sirius perform the other memory charm as Harry went to Virginia. "It was your mother," he said quietly. "She'd going to go to the hill where they play Quidditch and look for those two," he pointed at Bill and Ron. "I can help you get them down there and you can say they fell asleep."

"Did you have to Obliviate them?" she asked solemnly.

Harry nodded. "Virginia, they can't know or Sirius will get into a lot of trouble. You know Ron might tell and Bill definitely would."

"But if we explained it to them, maybe they would believe you," Virginia said, almost in tears.

Sullenly Harry shook his head. "They wouldn't, at least not now," he said, bending closer to Virginia. "I'm going to prove Sirius is innocent this year, and then it won't matter. I can stay here all summer without worrying."

With a flick of his wand, Harry had the two boys floating in the air in front of him. Virginia grabbed a hold of Ron's hand and Harry pulled Bill along as they headed down towards the makeshift pitch.

There was a dull silence for a long time until Harry decided he didn't like it. "Virginia... Gin. You know what you were talking about earlier, with Peter and all, what did he try to do to you?"

When Virginia stopped suddenly in front of him, Harry looked up to see her face contorted in disgust. "It happened just before I met you," she said quietly. "He was watching me while everyone was at Diagon Alley. Ron had slept in and didn't go with them like usual. Mum forgot to mention to Peter that Ron was here. Peter took me into my bedroom and started acting really weird. He started doing stuff to me and I didn't like it, he told me to be quiet and kept doing it, touching me. Ron came in a few seconds later and Peter stopped, I was crying. He warned us not to say anything at all or we'd be in a lot of trouble."

When she revealed the truth Harry felt as if he might puke. Every fiber of his being hated peter for what he'd done to his parents and now, somehow, he hated the man more. When Harry looked back up to her, his fist clinched, he noticed that Virginia had tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Virginia. I didn't mean to bring it up."

"I know Harry," she said smiling, but with very little feeling behind it. "I know you wouldn't do something like that intentionally."

Virginia started to walk again and Harry followed silently. He hated Peter, the rat, he was so evil, Harry couldn't believe things were like this. A minute or two later Virginia stopped and Harry saw the clearing just up ahead. He tapped his wand onto the two boys and the dropped to the ground roughly. He then took one of the glamour candies and put it in his mouth. In a few seconds, he had blonde hair and blue eyes. He tapped his wand on the two boys again and awoke them then walked away with Virginia.

If the two saw him, Virginia could just tell them who he was, her friend that they'd been trying to catch. Then, with a hug he took off. "Gin' I'll see you in a couple days. Don't let them follow you next time," he said happily.

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean to bring them," she said as he headed off

"Really, it's alright Ginny they don't remember. Just be careful."

Before Harry could get too far Virginia ran up to him and handed Harry something from her pocket. She left him alone and Harry walked back towards his shack taking the long route to insure he wasn't followed.

When he entered into the house he unfolded the parchment on it, in tiny, neat handwriting, was a list of everything he would need. He read over it for a minute and then handed the not to Sirius who nodded his head showing no other signs of what he was thinking.

"We will go to Diagon Alley Tomorrow to get everything," Sirius said.

Soon Harry would be going to Hogwarts, there he'd talk to Dumbledore. Sirius had always said he was a powerful and very good wizard. Harry wondered why Sirius hadn't at least tried to get Dumbledore to correct the mistake. "Sirius, why did you never tell people what really happened? Why didn't you turn Peter in Sirius?"

Sirius looked down at the ground. "I tried, I left notes when they found us. I even sent notes to Dumbledore several times. I couldn't very well receive anything and I never saw anything in the paper. I couldn't just give up either, I know what they wanted to do with me, if I had come in it wouldn't have been more than a few minutes before they had a Dementor. They've been sent in after us more than once."

Harry shuddered at the thought of the Dementors, they scared him ever so much. Sirius usually ended up carrying him when they showed up, he always saw his parent's dying and then Voldemort trying to kill him. Sirius had told him there was a spell that could drive them off but he didn't know it, he had only seen it once before.

Without pushing it anymore Harry just nodded. He would be the one that would take care of it, he'd talk with everyone himself. They wouldn't send a Dementor after him. Harry decided to go for a run, he needed to exercise and work out some of the stress from the day out. He moved out of the house and into some brushes before he changed. He was a little cautious, he hadn't always been so and been nearly caught twice. People thought it strange to see a wildcat running through the forests in England.

• Edited 2004.09.18 •