Dedicated to Celtic Ember, for putting up with me and writing part of this first scene when I was in desperate need of help! There are several people out there that put up with my chapterly nervous breakdowns (you know who you are) and I'm immensely grateful to them all!
Chapter 30 – The Arrival of Ger
~*~*~*~
"Brilliant!" Fred exclaimed, clapping Harry on the back when he re-entered the Common Room.
"Why didn't you tell us Prongs was your dad, eh?" George added glaring at the smaller boy before breaking into a grin. "That's bloody brilliant, Harry! No wonder you find so much trouble!"
Harry ducked away from them looking mildly disgruntled. "I don't find trouble, it finds me!" he protested. "And I didn't know who the Marauders were until third year, either!"
"You've known for two years?" Fred demanded over the top of George.
"How did you two find out, anyway?" Ron asked, looking up from a textbook. Hermione, sitting next to him and sharing the tome, looked up as well.
"Black told us, that's how," Fred grinned. "He and Myfanwy are testing out some of our joke items at the Malfoy's tonight."
"Serious business and all," George added gravely. "We wanted to make sure they could handle it."
"Come off it, George. You wanted to make sure Sirius and Myfanwy could a handle a few pranks?" Harry asked sceptically. He'd just discovered he wouldn't be returning to the Dursleys in the summer, but living with his godfather, as long as Sirius survived. However, Sirius was going to the Malfoys in a few hours and could be captured or killed by either the Aurors or the Death Eaters in attendance. The thought didn't exactly inspire confidence and Harry felt a trickle of panic thread through his belly.
"So, Harry old chap, why didn't you tell us, eh?" Fred asked, elbowing him and knocking his glasses askew.
"It never came up," Harry shrugged, feeling slightly exasperated with the twins as they began to pester him for more information. Ron watched them, looking interested. He also very carefully started to withdraw from the table. Hermione sighed and returned to her book. Ginny, curled comfortably near the fire, never bothered to look up.
"How did you find out, anyway?" George wondered. "And what made you think we wouldn't want to know?"
"And how did Black and Lupin know? What other deep dark secrets is our ickle boy wonder hiding? Huh?" Fred needled.
Harry sighed in exasperation and turned on the twins. "If you really want to know, talk to Sirius! He's Padfoot!"
"Oh come off it, Harry," George scoffed with a grin. "Next you'll tell us Lupin is Moony and Myfanwy is Wormtail!"
"Lupin is Moony. Professor Myfanwy wasn't part of the Marauders," Ginny corrected absently from behind her magazine. Everyone looked at her, startled.
"How do you know that, Ginny?" Harry asked quietly. Ginny set her magazine aside and stretched slightly.
"Figured it out," she shrugged. "Professor Lupin is "Moony" because he's a werewolf, and no one in their right mind would call a unicorn 'Wormtail'." She smiled sweetly at Harry. "Am I right?"
"Yeah, you are," he told her, nodding in surprise, "and they're going to get Wormtail tonight." Harry strode up to his dormitory, leaving a trio of startled redheads in his wake.
~*~
Sirius waited uncomfortably in the entrance hall, leaning against the tall doorframe and watching the sunset over the snowy grounds of Hogwarts. He fidgeted, pulling on the rich fabric of his dress robes. Sirius didn't really enjoy wearing dress robes, though he'd tolerated them for most of his life. He most certainly didn't like the idea of wearing them and being forced to look like Snape as well. The dress robes he could tolerate. Being turned into Snape was something he would avoid for as long as humanly possible.
The only consolation was that Morgaine - who'd bought the robes for him in London - had impeccable taste. She'd chosen non-itchy black velvet lined with emerald silk and silver embroidery. Sirius thought he looked like a Slytherin, but was happy that he didn't look like a Muggle priest.
A cloaked figure suddenly appeared on the castle steps and Sirius immediately transformed and slipped into the shadows. The figure slipped through the door, pulled back the fur-trimmed hood of the heavy winter cloak with one hand and shook out a short mane of ebony hair. A silver signet ring on the hand caught Sirius's attention. A stylised "M" glinted on the ring's surface and Sirius recognised it. Rowan wore the same ring, but made of platinum. Only two Myfanwy men existed and the young man standing in the entrance hall couldn't be older than twenty-five. This then, was Gervaine Myfanwy, better known as Ger.
Ger had the raven black hair and sharp blue eyes that seemed to be trademarks of the Myfanwy name, and had finally grown into his own. He was tall, and definitely more built than Sirius after the older man's incarceration. Tooled leather bands circled Ger's forearms under pure white robes and a dark winter cloak. White robes Sirius realised sharply, which meant Ger Myfanwy worked as an Auror for the Department of Mysteries.
Padfoot cringed further into concealment and the slight movement caught Ger's eye. The Auror turned toward the large black dog and smiled when he saw him. Ger kneeled and whistled softly, stretching out a hand for Padfoot to smell. Knowing it would be very un-dog-like to refuse the greeting, Padfoot inched forward and obediently smelled Ger's hand.
Sirius almost missed the slight flicker of a wand being drawn and Ger's whispered words as an internal wrench suddenly forced him out of his animal form. Sirius Black found himself gasping slightly on the stone floor, balling his hands into fists as he looked up to see Ger's wand trained squarely on him.
"Sirius Black," Ger greeted coldly, inclining his head. "Up please." Sirius climbed carefully to his feet, not bothering to brush off his robes. Far from the twelve-year-old Ravenclaw Sirius remembered Ger stood eye to eye with Sirius now and probably weighed a good fifty pounds of muscle more even with his slender build.
Ger circled Sirius with the easy, measured steps of a sleek cat, watching him appraisingly. "You've been difficult to capture," he noted clinically. "A full two years away from Azkaban and working on a third. You're impressive, Sirius."
"Looking for points with the Department, Ger?" Sirius asked coolly.
"Oh, I don't need them," Ger laughed. Something in Sirius refused to accept the situation. They were so very close to unveiling Wormtail's betrayal and fixing everything! That the young boy who'd so idolised his almost-brother-in-law appeared to cold-bloodedly destroy everything felt supremely unfair. Another part of him cynically retorted that life was very rarely fair.
"And I wouldn't anyway." Ger continued smoothly. "Rowan would probably sic a dragon on me." Sirius blinked, trying to process this last phrase. Then he noticed Ger's devilish smile right before the younger man clapped him on the back and pulled him into a tight hug. "Welcome back, Sirius."
"No, Ger, I think I'd rather deal with you on my own," Rowan's voice commented coldly. The two men started and turned to see Rowan standing, arms crossed, at the bottom of the stairway, the ever-present Orion sitting neatly at her feet. She looked utterly furious, and incredibly beautiful.
"Rowan!" Ger yelped, paling noticeably. "I didn't know you'd come down yet!"
"Obviously," she nodded, gliding forward and pinning her younger brother with a dark look. Sirius noticed the goblet she held in her hand and wrinkled his nose.
"You're absolutely sure this is necessary?" The goblet she handed him looked more like the contents of a demented child's colouring experiment than the essence of Severus Snape. "You used his hair, didn't you?" he grumbled, staring at the mixture with utter distaste and suspicion.
Rowan sighed. "What did you want me to use, toenail clippings? Hair is a less repulsive body part than most others, Sirius!"
Sirius shuddered and decided he really didn't need that image.
"You should see your face, Sirius!" Ger chortled. Sirius schooled his features and raised an eyebrow as Ger continued. "Even on the off chance the Death Eaters believe you're Voldemort's man, the Aurors definitely will and they'll attack you on sight. That's why I'm here. I won't attack you on sight."
"That was the original idea, anyway," Rowan commented archly. Ger looked ready to protest, but she cut him off with a glare. "I'll deal with you later, Ger," she promised darkly.
Ger winced. Sirius smiled in amusement at them before taking a deep breath and gulping down the potion in two large swallows. Almost immediately he felt his insides twist and realign themselves into the lean form of Severus Snape.
A raven, one easily as large as a hawk, poked its head curiously out of Ger's cloak and clacked its beak at Sirius. "Snape," it croaked, then cocked its head curiously. "Sirius?"
Ger and Rowan sniggered. "Yes, Mordecai, that's Sirius," Ger assured the bird, pulling him gently out of the heavy cloak's folds. Mordecai fluffed his dark feathers before flapping noisily up to Ger's shoulder. He again looked at Sirius, first out of one eye, then the other, as though he didn't quite believe Sirius's appearance yet and finally cackled.
"Rat," Mordecai concluded.
Sirius reached up to stroke the bird's crest with a dark chuckle. "I always liked this raven, Ger, glad to see you still have him."
"Ready to leave?" Rowan asked, turning to Sirius.
"Miss Myfanwy, I daresay Potter would be disappointed if we didn't make a final appearance before leaving," he admonished, then grinned, ruining the impersonation. "Besides, I want to see what Harry will say when 'Snape' walks in to Gryffindor Tower."
Rowan laughed brightly, took the empty goblet and tossed it Ger before wrapping an arm around Sirius's waist. "You're enjoying this too much," she accused teasingly and pulled a metal flask from her robes. "You'd better carry this." She handed him the flask and Sirius shook it in curiosity.
"What is it?"
"Two more doses," she answered. "That gives us three hours."
"And if you're not back in three hours?" Ger asked, stroking Mordecai. Rowan stopped and looked at her younger brother gravely.
"That doesn't bear thinking about."
~*~
Harry stared out the window pensively. Full night had fallen and the snowy grounds were bathed in a soft moon glow. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione casting concerned glances at him from over her book. Ron idly played with a deck of Exploding Snap cards. Ginny merely watched Harry worriedly from her corner armchair, her book lying forgotten in her lap.
"Potter!" Snape's sharp voice cracked through the silence of the common room. Ron's cards detonated spectacularly and Hermione gave a little shriek. Harry turned and stumbled back, alarmed to find his hook-nosed Potions professor looming over him like an overgrown crow.
Snape held up a sparking Filibuster firework. "I suspect that this is yours, Potter. I found it waiting for me in my desk this evening."
Harry tried to deny it, but Snape ignored him and continued. "Just like your father," he snarled silkily. The sparking firework whizzed out of Snape's hand in a colorful burst and exploded near the ceiling. "Continually flaunting my authority!" Harry stared, wide-eyed, at Snape, only dimly registering that Snape, Head of Slytherin, had no business in Gryffindor Tower.
Then a very odd thing happened. Snape's face smiled a friendly, mischievous smile, something Harry was sure had never appeared on it before. He not only smiled but he started laughing! Harry looked around in confusion and saw Rowan and a younger wizard with a huge raven on his shoulder standing near the portrait hole, laughing.
"That's enough teasing Sirius," Rowan laughed, crossing to them and lightly kissing Snape on the mouth. Harry's mind reeled. Snape pulled back roughly and stared at her in horror. Harry heard a thud as Hermione dropped her book, followed by a bout of coughing. Harry looked over to see Ron leaning over pounding Hermione on the back.
Ger levered himself away from the doorway and walked over to Hermione, making the enormous raven on his shoulder open its wings slightly for balance. He knelt down and picked up her book. "I think you two nearly killed one of your students from shock Sirius," he grinned, handing the book back to Hermione. "Sorry about that. Sirius is something of a bonehead."
Hermione nodded distantly, but didn't reply.
"Are you all right?" Ger pressed gently. Hermione nodded again. Ron looked at and Harry shrugged. It wasn't like Hermione to be so quiet. Though her expression reminded him of the nervous blush Ron had always sported around Fleur Delacour the year before.
Then it hit him as Ger attempted to coax a full sentence out of the pole-axed teenager. Ger Myfanwy was part veela! Harry chanced a look at Ginny and saw her watching the whole thing with an amused half-smile. Harry felt an unexplainably odd sense of relief.
Everyone looked up as Remus Lupin stepped through the portrait hole and frowned slightly. "I thought you two had already left," he told Rowan and Sirius-now-Snape. Then he noticed the younger wizard still kneeling near Hermione and blinked in surprise. "Ger! When did you get here?" He glanced nervously toward
Ger smiled, rose to his feet and crossed the room to pull the older werewolf into a rough embrace. "I just arrived." Remus glanced nervously toward Rowan and Sirius and looked askance at them. Ger caught the look and grinned. "I already know. Everything." His face sobered. "Though I don't agree with this plan, I'm here to take custody of Pettigrew."
"Then you know Sirius is . . ." Harry began.
Ger nodded and smiled devilishly. "Standing ten feet from me, but as one Severus Snape. And innocent of the murders he was imprisoned for. Yes I know."
"Ger is an Auror for the Department of Mysteries, Harry," Remus supplied, apparently seeing Harry's confusion.
"You're an Unspeakable?" Ron's jaw dropped as he looked over at Ger with admiration. Ger gave Ron a small bow. "Wicked!"
~*~*~*~
Hermmes: Yes, I have read Robert Jordan, but not for about five years. And thank you so much! That's a wonderful compliment!
Confuzzler: Thank you.
Whiterose: They are very playful. It's a nice change from "hanging on to sanity by my fingernails". It is officially New Years Eve, and you shall see. ;)
Sonata: FF.net has been an absolute snipe, I agree! Thank you.
Cnorth: all fixed!
Crydwn: Yeah, it's a bit suicidal. But they want Harry to have a better life from here on out and he can't just disappear to parts unknown during the summer.
Landersh: *blushes* thanks.
July 2002
