Chapter 14 – Strange Meetings

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The next morning, Harry and Ron kept casting furtive glances toward the Staff Table.  They planned to raid Filch's office that night and retrieve the Marauder's Map and from the way Snape was glaring at them it wouldn't be easy.  Professor Lupin had left that morning, confiding to Harry, Hermione and Ron that he would be staying with Sirius nearby.  Though they would see him on the week of each full moon because Professor Myfanwy could not travel beyond the school boundaries and Lupin still needed the Wolfsbane potion.

The morning owls arrived in a flurry of feathers and parchment as they dropped packages and letters into the waiting hands of the students.  Harry and Ron jumped slightly as a brown school owl dropped a tightly wound sheet of parchment between them before flapping off toward the owlery.  Ron unrolled it curiously and blinked in surprise before quickly stuffing it into his bag and yanking Harry out of the Great Hall.

"Ron, what's got into you?"  Harry demanded as Ron released him and fished the roll of old parchment out of his bag.  Harry grabbed the parchment from Ron and pulled out his wand, but was interrupted by Hermione's breathless arrival.

"Where did you two skive off to?" she asked, then caught sight of the parchment.  "What's going on here?"

"Harry lost the Map last night."  Ron explained; eyes still intent on the blank parchment in Harry's hands.  "He dropped it when he and Ginny escaped from Filch."

"And a school owl just returned it?"  Hermione blinked at the odd behavior.  Her eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.  "Is that really the Map?"

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Harry whispered, tapping the parchment with his wand.  Immediately a light elegant script scrolled across the page.

Mr. Filch knows enough of the secret passages.  Stop helping him.

The short note faded, quickly replaced by the customary introduction of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

~*~

The weeks slipped by.  Snape reclaimed his dungeon and his torment of the Gryffindors while Myfanwy continued their lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts.  Quidditch season began, leaving Harry very little time to worry more over the Amulet, Merlin, or even the odd, suspicious behavior of Ron and Hermione.

During the absence of Professor Snape Harry and Ron had managed to lose only a handful of house points – usually due to Malfoy - and received no detentions.  The first week after Snape returned they'd lost fifty house points and received three separate detentions.  For the first detention they endured reorganizing the entire Potions classroom back to Snape's specifications.  The second was helping Professor Sinistra polish and realign the telescopes in the Astronomy Tower. 

Realigning the telescopes to Sinistra's standards took hours and began after nightfall.  Both boys were bone-weary by the time they escaped back to Gryffindor Tower.  Harry checked his four-poster carefully before climbing in.  They had met an almost irritable Professor Myfanwy in the hall earlier who was searching for her escaped runespoor.  Rune's escapes were quickly becoming legendary throughout the school.  It had already caused two shrieking stampedes in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory.

Finding no snake, three-headed or otherwise, in his sheets, Harry climbed in, said goodnight to Ron and drifted off immediately.

It seemed only minutes later Harry felt a tug on his sleeve and something wet and very cold pressed against his arm.  He opened his blurry eyes and bit back a yelp at the large black shape hovering next to his bed.  Harry's hands flew up, groping for his glasses and his wand.  Sirius appeared instantly in place of the dog.  "Harry, it's me!" he hissed, handing the boy his glasses to prove it.  "You're becoming as paranoid as Mad-Eye Moody!"  Harry pulled his glasses on; snapping the world and the tall, lean form of Sirius Black into focus.  "Dumbledore wants to see you."

"What?  Now?"  Harry asked incredulously,

Sirius shrugged in apology.  "Apparently some things need starlight.  Look at it this way.  Tomorrow's a Saturday.  You can have a bit of a lie in."

"No I can't."  Harry grunted, climbing out of bed and shivering slightly.  "Alicia will roust us out at dawn to practice."

Sirius laughed softly.  "Just don't fall off your broom like James used to after a full moon." he advised.  "Don't forget your wand."

"Now who's paranoid?"  Harry teased, pulling his robes on.  Sirius grinned roguishly at him.

"Not yet I'm not."  He countered.  "And trust me, you don't want to be.  I've suffered the last six months around that nutter."  Harry wondered briefly what Sirius was working on that included Mad-Eye Moody but didn't ask as they made their way down to the common room.

~*~

"Blast it all, Rune, come out!"  A soft voice hissed in frustration as Harry and Sirius entered the common room.  Professor Myfanwy crouched near one of the couches, apparently attempting to coax her reluctant runespoor out from beneath it.  Harry wondered if Professor Myfanwy had a cold; she was speaking oddly, though understandably.  He felt Sirius stiffen beside him.

Harry watched carefully, worried that Professor Myfanwy would be terrified by Sirius's presence, before stepping forward, wand out and ready to use Expelliarmus or stun the unsuspecting Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.  Her reaction was not what he expected.  She looked shocked and confused but not the least bit afraid and there was recognition in her eyes.  Looking at his godfather, Harry saw the same expression mirrored in his face.

"Sirius?  Sirius Black?" she asked tentatively, shock clearing her voice.

Sirius seemed to draw inside himself, and a slight flicker of pain crossed his face.  He nodded stiffly.  "Hello, Rowan."

She pursed her lips in irritation and her pale eyes flashed briefly.  "You don't need to act like that, Sirius.  I've already spoken to Moony.  He told me what happened."  Harry had the distinct impression that something was going on he didn't understand.

"Um, Professor Myfanwy?  Sirius?  Do you two know each other?"

The two adults jumped as though just noticing him.  Sirius chuckled.  "You could say that Harry.  Rowan, or rather, Professor Myfanwy, and I were friends a long time ago."

Myfanwy's lips lifted slightly in a grimly amused smile.   "Friends, Sirius?  We were hardly 'friends'."

Sirius blushed and stammered slightly before glaring at her in annoyance.  "Can we argue about it later, Rowan?" he asked.  She chuckled darkly but nodded and stepped aside. 

"I'll just retrieve my snake and leave then, shall I?"  She knelt and whispered something Harry didn't catch.  Amazingly, the recalcitrant runespoor slithered out and obediently coiled around her arm.

Myfanwy walked smoothly toward the portrait hole, almost disappearing before Sirius lunged forward and stopped himself just short of touching her.  "I mean it Rowan.  We need to talk."

"Perhaps."   She acknowledged coldly before exiting.  Harry watched Sirius stare dumbly into space for a full minute before interrupting.  Sirius shook himself slightly and nodded, silently leading the way out of the portrait hole and toward Dumbledore's office.

Harry shot curious side-glances at Sirius the entire way.  What Harry wanted to do to was ask his godfather what had just happened.  However, from the closed, controlled look on Sirius' face, he wasn't sure he dared.  For a few minutes earlier Harry had glimpsed the man he saw in his parents wedding photo.  Now the haunted look of Azkaban had returned and it worried Harry.

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