Author: Psykiapa (that's me, obviously)

Rating: Very meek PG-13

Genre(s): Romance, (is there romance yet? No, nothing major, just a warning) Fantasy, Harry Potter (duh)

Warning: This story does include slash (if you could call it that), but that is barely any part of it right now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, never will, or anything incorporated with it. I am writing this purely out of the pleasure to be filling the time between when the books come out, and I do not disrespect the fact that J. K. Rowling owns this or that Warner Bros. owns the movie(s). Don't file a suit; I'm just a humble writer. Oh, and I may subconsciously quote TV shows or movies, or be inspired by them, sometimes it's indicated, sometimes its not, but you should know that I don't mean any harm.

Chapter Three: In Which Sirius Makes a Dramatic Entrance

The hall remained silent, the confused whispers of the students and professors alike filling the edges as Harry knelt before the Death Eater, patting at his clothing, looking for any magical objects they might have on them and taking them. Finally, he removed the mask, and the adults in the room all gasped, Snape looking horrified. It was Peter Pettigrew, the one they had all thought dead. His eyes were closed; the wrinkles of his features creating a great Labyrinth of his skin. His robes had bunched up around his knees, his once curly, brown hair now balding and streaked with gray. Professor Snape stared at Harry in what seemed to be something like a newfound respect for the boy, who was no longer a boy to the world.

Harry stood slowly, weariness alight and well on his face, the candlelight dancing against his features. His face was such a striking resemblance of his father's, it seemed that they were one and the same person. His hair had once again covered his ears, the green light of his eyes had gone out with the stress of the night. When he spoke next, his voice was tortured, strained, as if the things he had said earlier in the night had poisoned his very being.

"Will you listen to me now?" Harry asked politely.

The teachers looked at each other, and Dumbledore, with a twinkle in his eyes, nodded his head for Harry to go on.

"As some of you may not recognize him, this is Peter Pettigrew. I cannot continue until I make my point very clear. This man is a murderer, not my godfather. But that is far from the beginning of his story, and if I didn't start at the beginning, you would find yourselves confused."

All eyes were on Harry, entranced, as they stared at his posture, the way he held his body, the way his green eyes glittered in the light. Suddenly, the teenager was regal, a commanding force. He had them riveted to their seats. It was not necessarily that he had a commanding voice, in fact he was quite soft-spoken. There was a calm in his aura that revealed no emotion, no fear, nothing. His eyes belied nothing, nor did his stance. There was a nobility about him that was being revealed, and they all noticed it, they all saw the change, and were awestruck at its beauty.

"I suppose it must have started when Remus Lupin became a werewolf. He was very young, and the Wolfsbane potion hadn't been invented yet. Once every month, he became a bloodthirsty monster, and he had no control whatsoever over it. When he came to Hogwarts, he had to have a safe place to stay so he wouldn't infect the students. So they planted the Whomping Willow, just over a passage into an old shack that was built just out of Hogsmeade; his screams when he transformed led to the rumors of ghosts inhabiting the old shack. Dumbledore only encouraged them, an unexpected cover-up for Remus.

"It didn't take long for him to make friends, in first year Sirius Black and this man who remains unconscious at the moment, and later, in third year, my father. It also didn't take long for them to realize that he disappeared every month, and they got suspicious. Eventually, they put it all together and realized that Remus was a werewolf.

"Now, they had a reputation to be Marauders in their own time. Rather like Fred and George Weasley now. Of course they weren't going to just sit around and do nothing whilst their friend had permission to sneak out of the school every month. Amongst them they had the future Head Boy, and, with my mother's help, they came up with a plan.

"You see, a werewolf is only dangerous to humans. So, naturally, if they had been with Remus while he transformed, they would be bitten. So who's to say they had to be human? After a year's hard work on their parts, Pettigrew needing all the help he could get (he was nearly a squib), they could all turn into animals, each with a different purpose. Sirius was a big, black dog, my father a stag, and Pettigrew a rat. They went by the nicknames of Moony (Remus), Wormtail (Pettigrew), Padfoot (Sirius), and Prongs (father). Whenever Moony was due to change, they would all get under an Invisibility Cloak, and head out to the Shrieking Shack.

"All the while, Voldemort had been getting stronger. He was searching for allies, and the young were his targets. Pettigrew was terrified of him, so when karma brought Voldemort to him, he joined in fear of his life.

"When they were done with school, my mother and father got married, but all the while there was a dark shadow on their lives. They had been the most successful Aurors, spies for the side of light. But their good friend, Pettigrew, was trapped between the sides, and eventually, his life ruled over theirs, and he told Voldemort that they were against him, and their undercover work.

"When Professor Dumbledore got word of this, he immediately told my parents that they were in danger, and should go into hiding. With the help of a much younger Professor Flitwick, they used the Fidelius Charm to hide them from sight." Professor Flitwick blushed slightly at the mention of his name, and Harry continued.

"The Fidelius charm is very complicated indeed. It is a spell where you hide something, normally a secret, deep in the soul of one person, and no body can penetrate them unless they choose to divulge the secret themselves. It is rather complicated, but when it was finished, Voldemort wouldn't have been able to find my parents if he ran into them on the street. Naturally, for such an important task, they would pick their greatest friend to be their Secret-Keeper, and their best friend was Sirius Black.

"But Sirius was scared for his own life also. It wasn't that he didn't want to be the Secret-Keeper, it's just that he would have been the obvious choice. Voldemort would have immediately known it was him. In fact, they had already figured out that someone in their close-knit group of friends was leaking information to the Dark Lord, and he already knew they were planning to use a Secret-Keeper. So Sirius made the worst choice of his life: he put Pettigrew in for the job instead of himself.

"Of course, Wormtail didn't give right away; after all, they were his closest friends. Eventually, however, he caved under the pressure, and told. He let out the secret.

"We all should know this part of the story, so I won't bother to tell it. But the part that we don't know is what happened the next day.

"Sirius, who had earlier guessed it was Wormtail when my parents had died, naturally went to avenge them. He found him in the middle of a packed Muggle street, but the conversation quickly went in an unexpected direction. Wormtail went on and on about how Sirius had killed my parents, all the while with his wand behind his back. Eventually, he blasted away half the street; cut off his finger (the 'largest part of him they ever found'), transformed into a rat, and went down into the sewers. He was claimed there by Percy Weasley, and brought to live the rest of his life in the shadows, at least, until two years ago, when he faked his own death yet again, and escaped to help Voldemort regain his power."

All eyes turned to the stirring Peter, and Harry quickly Stupefied him again. There was complete silence in the hall following his speech, until Dumbledore stood and started clapping, nodding his head grimly in respect. The rest of the hall followed, smiling lightly in confusion over what had just gone on. It is never easy to throw away what you have believed for at least three years.

"Very well said, Potter, very well said. If you will help me take him to another room, we can arrange for his arrest." The teachers sprang suddenly into action, the trance broken, and they helped move Pettigrew out of the Great Hall. Professor Snape motioned subtly to Harry to follow them out. Harry threw back his head and followed, glancing behind him, the presence of the Death Eater they had in tow resting heavily on his subconscious. They walked on until they got to a smallish room, and there they stopped.

"I will get Arthur Weasley here right away, he needs to see to this." McGonagall spoke up, giving herself a job right away. She hurriedly turned Pettigrew back into a rat, and put him in a cage he couldn't get out of. "Potter, will you stay here and make sure he doesn't leave?"

"Of course."

"Right, thank you for volunteering, Minerva, Harry, but the rest of you must be designated jobs. Severus, I need you to get a Veritaserum potion, just in case Fudge believes but no one else will. Flitwick, Binns, and Hagrid, you all will make sure that the barriers to the castle haven't been penetrated. I, myself have some other work to do. Go." The teachers quickly vanished from the room, leaving Harry alone with the unconscious rat that was the traitor.

Here there was mass confusion, but Harry was just stashed away in that small room with only a rat for company. The night wore on, the teachers going through a long list of things to do, the student body staring wide- eyed as they were ushered back into their commons, it would be much more appropriate, and important to the story, if we joined Ron and Hermione at this point, for Harry the rest of this night is extremely uneventful.

Professor McGonagall had a firm hand in ushering her charges back to the Gryffindor Tower, and Ron glanced over his shoulder as they got in. Hermione held onto his hand tightly, the grip not allowing him to move away from her. He struggled slightly against her, then asked her loudly just what she was doing.

"Ron!" She hissed. "I want an explanation too, but we aren't going to get it now. We'll just have to wait until Harry himself gets back. It didn't look like the teachers knew everything about it themselves, but we do know that Sirius will be free sometime soon. Let's just leave it at that."

"Hermione! I need answers now! That was a bloody load of confusing-" Hermione cut him off before he could swear loudly in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Listen to me, all of you!" She nearly screamed, her hair starting to come out of its bun. "You may get answers in the morning, and you may not. I don't know what Potter has in mind. For right now, the school is being checked for more Death Eaters, and we beg you to stay in Gryffindor Tower. You really won't have an option, I am going to seal the portrait, but for your own good, don't go looking for trouble. I don't know how long you will need to stay here, but be patient. If there is an over-expended amount of time spent here, you will have food delivered to you by the House Elves. That's all for now."

Hermione went over to her Professor, dragging Ron behind her. She was going to find out about Harry, they deserved to know.

"Professor McGonagall! Wait!" She stopped as her professor turned.

"Yes?"

"Is Harry going to be safe?"

"Yes, of course. But if there's going to be a battle here, we'll need him, you should realize that."

"Will he come back here, or will he stay wherever he is?"

"It all depends on when Minister Weasley gets here to arrest Pettigrew, but to my knowledge no other Death Eaters have been found."

"Thank you." As the Professor walked away, Hermione turned to Ron. "See? All we really had to do was ask!"

"If you think that that's an answer, I swear you are worse off than I thought you were." Ron said, bemused.

"It wasn't an answer, but at least it was SOMETHING. Your way, we would have just gotten in trouble and we wouldn't even have the little that we do know. You have to prioritize, Ron, or you won't go anywhere."

"Are you my girlfriend, or my tutor?" Ron muttered through her hair, his arms snaking around her waist.

"At the moment, both."

"Ah." They leaned in to kiss, but got a pillow lobbed at them from across the room.

"Really, you two, you're just so VULGAR!" Seamus practically screamed. Ron angrily lobbed it right back at him, hitting him in the head and causing Dean to go into a fit of giggles, while Seamus stared at him like he had just sprouted little white hairs.

Hermione laughed against Ron's chest, not seeming to mind all that much that they had been interrupted by Seamus, who was now animatedly snogging with Parvatti Patil. Ron gently cradled her, and steered her over to a chair, where they could sit together. She was such a relief from what his life had been before. Before his father had got the promotion. When he had found out, he had been so torn. Yet another thing to live up to. Sure, Harry had gotten him through the basics, you know, like when suddenly everyone knew about everything he did, people taking pictures of him on the street, how to handle a lot of money at once, and people he didn't know just coming up to him and starting to talk, but a distance had been growing between them lately. Hermione had been a comfort in that time. She was something to devote his attention to. She was like something he had always needed, she was his lover (a/n: since the wizards are dying out as a race, they are encouraged to date earlier, and stuff like that (if you know what I mean)). Harry was just getting to be a side track, like the ice in your lemonade, or the bird in the blue sky. Still important, but his lover always came first. He didn't know how much this hurt Harry, of course, Ron isn't THAT conscious, but Ron did see their relationship needed work.

"I hope Harry will be fine." Hermione sighed, staring ahead, not looking at the shirt she was playing with.

"You sound like he's going off to war or something." Ron chuckled.

"Ron, he MIGHT just be going off to war." Hermione sat up. "Besides, I need to talk to you about something."

"What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Harry. He's our best friend, and we're throwing that all away."

"Hermione. Harry's perfectly fine with our relationship."

"He seems so, but look at how much he does without us now. His schoolwork takes up most of the time, then he has Quidditch, both obviously being overloads, but he reads now. He will just sit there and read for hours and hours, making no contact with anyone, and usually, we either have a study date or are somewhere snogging. We've left him."

"Maybe Harry likes doing things on his own." Ron was starting to get defensive.

"Maybe Harry doesn't want to interfere with us." Hermione pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember how happy Harry was when he saw that we were together? He was happier than we were about it. It was almost as if he was in love with us being in love. He was glowing, but that glow is starting to fade. He's so afraid that we will break up, that he gives us as much time alone as possible. You can't say you haven't noticed this. He doesn't want to ruin it for us." Hermione explained.

"Well, maybe he likes being alone! Maybe he has a secret relationship with some guy that is too afraid to come out!"

"Ron, if Harry were in a secret relationship, he would have a silly grin plastered all over his face all the time, not the kicked puppy look in his eyes."

"He doesn't look like a kicked puppy!" Ron was angered, what did Hermione think she knew?

"Well, I want you to at least talk to him."

"Why don't you talk to him?"

"Because I think he needs someone masculine to not be afraid to touch him!"

"All right, I'll do it!" Ron grumbled, and Hermione went into a huffy air. This would be a long night.

* * *

Harry trudged up to Gryffindor Tower, the weight of a million worries on his shoulders. They hadn't found any other Death Eaters on the premises. A bitter happiness came from knowing Sirius wouldn't have to be on the run anymore. He was ecstatic that he would live with his true godfather now, but there was the lurking knowledge that Death Eaters were able to penetrate the shield around Hogwarts.

The Common Room was quiet in anticipation, that much he could hear from the outside. He muttered the password to the Fat Lady, and she let him in with a few concerned words. No one said anything to him as he passed them, looking pale and exhausted. The dorm room was deserted, as he knew it would be, so there was no one to tell him to change in the bathroom. He locked the door behind him and miserably changed into his pajamas. He flopped messily down onto the bed. After a few seconds of quiet relaxing, he crawled slowly under the covers and went off into a deep slumber.

But there were two very important things he had forgotten. McGonagall had told him that she would wake him when the minister got there. He was vulnerable in his sleep; he wasn't on guard. Anyone could observe him in this natural state. The other thing he had forgotten was that his ears were still growing ever the more elongated and pointed, and his hair was in dire need of a haircut. The tips of his ears poked out from the usual shield they had of hair. Of course, the shrewd woman that Minerva McGonagall was, she took the ears into consideration before waking the sleeping Harry up. He looked so peaceful, his skin shining in the moonlight. She sighed at the task she didn't wish to complete, but knew she had to.

"Mr. Potter, the minister is here." She shook him gently, and he moaned at his need for sleep.

"I'm coming, just let me change first. Where are we meeting, again?"

"In Professor Dumbledore's office. Do you know the password? Of course you don't; it's 'Chocolate Frog.' I'll see you shortly."

When Harry was finally standing outside the gargoyle, he heard a quiet mumbling sound from inside; apparently, they hadn't wanted to wait for him. He slowly climbed the staircase, opened the door, and was met by the faces of his old teachers, Professor Dumbledore, and Mr. Weasley.

"Here he is!" Dumbledore smiled at Harry, and motioned him to sit in a chair next to him. "Come in, we were just getting started." Mr. Weasley smiled at Harry, who was looking very disheveled.

"Now that we're all here, I would like to say that I have acknowledged the arrest of Mr. Pettigrew and his honors have been stripped. We can not arrest Mr. Black for being an illegal Animagi, for he has already served much more than the one year for that kind of crime. He has been fully pardoned." Mr. Weasley stated the business.

"But there is the question: what are we to do now? There has been an attack on the school, we all thought this was the safest place for our students." Professor Flitwick spoke up.

"Apparently, You-Know-Who is getting cockier. He is making up for lost time, I think. So far, he has killed eleven people this month, not to mention all the Muggle massacres. That he would even think to attack Hogwarts at such an early stage is inconceivable. Certainly these can't be the works of someone who has planned strategically for years." Professor Sinistra spoke up.

"We do know that he is far greater than he ever was before. He has already proven that. The spell that brought him back was used to magnify his power, not just give him a body." Dumbledore informed them. Harry twisted a little in his seat.

"Are you saying that he is nothing but a madman?" Professor Sinistra asked.

"I don't think there's anything we can really do. If You-Know-Who wants to attack Hogwarts, there's no way we're going to stop him." Professor Snape muttered.

"I agree with Severus, I think there's really nothing that we can do." Professor Sprout agreed.

"Then say we sit back and do nothing. If there is another attack, then all we can do us wait for the parents to take their children out of school and we have no students left to teach anyway. Think about all the students that could have been killed tonight." McGonagall shot back.

From this came a tumultuous response, everyone started arguing loudly across the table, until the anguished voices became more frantic, rising in their din. Harry hadn't said anything this entire time, he sat and waited for everyone to stop yelling. Finally, they quieted themselves, and Harry spoke up in a quiet voice.

"Now, I agree with what I think Professor McGonagall was alluding to before we all started arguing like nine-year-olds. I think the school should be shut down at least for a short time. It was nearly shut down three years ago because there was a threat to the students, and now I think that Voldemort is a sufficient enough threat to us all. It would be too easy for him to attack the Muggle-borns and Aurors' children when they are all in one place. All he would have to do is show up here and do a round of killing, then take over the school and make it a school for the Dark Arts. If we all went home, it would be much harder for him to kill the students. They could be tutored, or given a homework schedule or something, that would need further looking into, and if they are at risk, they could enroll at another school, or go into hiding. It is too hard for us to try to protect everyone at once."

There was a deafening silence, and Harry started to worry that his idea would be less than favorable.

"I think I actually agree with Potter." Professor Snape whispered. Harry stared, taken completely aback by his old Potions professor. "The school doesn't have to be shut down for long, and it's really close to the Christmas holidays anyway. We could just plan to have an extended Christmas vacation."

"I like what Severus and Harry have said. I think we should give them enough work to have them caught up to our lessons for whenever we decide they should come back." Professor McGonagall murmured. There were general sounds of assent filling the room.

"The only thing is, we need to have the Governors' agreement before we do something like that and close down the school. I'll have to return to the Ministry soon, or owl them, or something." Mr. Weasley said.