Chapter Eleven – The Truth Uncovered

Disclaimer:- I don't own them; I'm just messing with them for a bit.  I'll give them back when I get bored honest!!!!!

A/N:-  New chappie, sorry its taken so long!  I forgot when I promised it'd be done sooner, we have charity week at school this week.  All my free time has been devoted to making costumes for each day.  So far I've been a hippy and a fairy!  Tomorrow's Grease day, fun fun fun in sixth form!!!!!

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            Harry and Caz walked briskly through the halls towards Dumbledore's office without saying a word.  Both were deep in thought, wondering what could be so important that it couldn't wait until after breakfast. 

They were both absolutely shattered.  They had sat up until the early hours of the morning with Ron and Hermione, discussing the summer, Ron and Hermione's new relationship, Caz's past, and, most importantly, Sirius' freedom and the possible reasons why he had neglected to tell them about it before the whole school had found out about his teaching position.   Harry and Caz had of course felt complete idiots following their outburst in front of the rest of the student body which Ron took great delight in telling them was perfectly understandable since they looked it as well.  This had earned him a playful slap from Hermione, who had then gone on to point out that they hadn't looked completely stupid, just pretty stupid.

            Back to the current time they had reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office and it was only then that they realised neither of them knew the password.  In a hurry to get in Harry decided guessing would be the best bet.  Knowing that it would be sweet related they took it in turns to guess,

"Blood Lolly's?"

"Canary Creams?"

"Fizzing Whizbees?"

"Chocolate Frogs?"

"Every Flavour Beans?"

"Candy Floss?"

             At that the gargoyle jumped to one side.  Harry was surprised.  Candy floss was a muggle thing, he'd only had it once and even then he had taken some of Dudley's and had paid dearly for the mistake, he hadn't been fed after that incident for three weeks and for a growing six year old that was most definitely not funny.  He wondered when Dumbledore had come across the food. 

            As he and Caz ascended the staircase they both began to worry.  Was something wrong?  Why else would they have been called here?  Harry reached out and knocked on the office door but it was not Dumbledore who answered.  Instead Remus' voice yelled,

"Come in!"

            Harry looked at Caz and shrugged.  He pushed open the door and the two of them walked in.  Inside Dumbledore's office they saw Remus, Sirius, Jen and Abbi all sat around obviously waiting for them.  Dumbledore was no where to be seen.  Abbi obviously noticed Harry's questioning lance around the room because she looked to him and said,

"Dumbledore's at breakfast.  He's lent us his office because ours isn't ready yet and we needed somewhere private to speak to the two of you."

            Harry nodded t this revelation and him and Caz sat down in the two spare seats set out for them in the office.  Sirius looked to the two of them,

"There are a couple of things we need to talk to you about.  We have some things we feel we need to explain to the two of you and then there are a couple of visitors to the school that Professor Dumbledore would like the two of you to look after"

            He said this with a twinkle in his eyes that Harry could swear he had never seen before, not in Sirius' eyes anyway.  It reminded him somewhat of the look professor Dumbledore always wore when teaching one of 'life's many lessons'.

Jen was the next to speak, "First on the agenda.  Harry we feel there is something you need to know."

            Harry sensed the tenseness in the air as she said this to him and looked up at the adults waiting for them to continue.  Eventually Jen picked up where she left off, seeing she would get no reaction from Harry,

"It appears that Voldemort has an heir.  This has only come to light in the past few weeks but w…"

Harry cut her off, "Tim."

            It was one word but all of a sudden it became so clear to Harry.  The pain he had felt the second he had touched Tim, coursing through his body like a thousand cruciatius curses.  It seemed like years since the incident that night at the Dursley's, in fact it was only a little over a month ago.  It all became so obvious to him.  He realised then that it had been Tim who had killed his aunt and uncle and Dudley.  His family.  If you could call them that.  They weren't really family, just people that he had the misfortune to be related to.  Suddenly he realised something;

"But Dudley said they were friends from school.  There is no way Voldemort would send his son to a muggle school!"

Sirius soon shattered that argument, "unless it gave him a way of getting to you.  Voldemort wants you Harry, there's no easy way of putting that. If the only way of doing that was to make his son pose as a muggle then he would do it."

            Harry resigned himself to the fact that they were right.  Voldemort had an heir.  So there were two of them to get rid of now.  Great.  Just what the-boy-who-lived needed.  A second person to save the world from.

            Harry decided then and there that wallowing in self pity was going to get him nowhere.  He looked up. 

"So what else did you have to tell us?"

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Ron and Hermione stared after the retreating backs of their friends wondering what could have them so shaken up.  They both had looked terrible as they left the great hall.  *It was so bad that neither of them had even bothered to look at their timetables!*  Hermione thought.

            It was then that Ron noticed the discarded notes addressed to their friends on the table.  He picked on of them up and read,

Harry,

   We need to see you and Caz in Dumbledore's office.  NOW.  It's really important, We have a few things to tell you, not all bad.  Don't worry, neither of you are in trouble, but please come alone.  You can tell Ron and Hermione about this later but the two of you need to hear it on your own first.  See you in a few minutes,

            Sirius, Abbi, Remus and Jen.

            Ron and Hermione both sat staring at the letter in front of them wondering what was going on.  What could be o important that they would get called off now, after all, they had defence against the dark arts first thing, followed by self defence.  It wasn't as if they weren't likely to see the four new professors at all that day.   

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            "We thought," said Sirius, "That you might like to know just how come I've been cleared of my so called crimes."

            Harry's ears pricked up at this.  Sirius was right, of course.  Him and Caz, along with Ron and Hermione had spent quite a while the previous night discussing how it could have come about, none of them coming up with anything anywhere near credible. 

Sirius continued, "Well it was actually quite a surprise for all of us.  None of us had to lift a finger."

"What??!!"  Asked Harry.  "Ho do you mean, the ministry just suddenly changed their minds?"

"Not exactly Harry."  Answered Jen.  "You see, Voldemort did it all for us."

"How do you mean?"  Asked Caz.  "Did he bribe the ministry or something?  I don't get it!"

Remus laughed.  "Hardly!  No, he either forgot himself completely, which you have to admit is completely unlikely, he's a prat but he's not an idiot," Harry snorted at the truthfulness in that comment, "Or he was just completely fed up of Wormtail.  That one is more likely and totally understandable.  Wormtail could try the patience of a saint, believe me on that, when we were at school all of us could have killed him at some point or another!"

Harry and Caz sat looking at the four adults in front of them waiting for further explanation.  So far they knew hardly anymore about Sirius' freedom, what could have happened.  It was Abbi who took over and carried on with the explanation.

"Nearly three weeks ago Wormtail sauntered into the ministry building in London with a letter from Voldemort for the minister.  Stupid prat obviously forgot the small fact of him being supposedly dead!"

"So he just handed himself over.  Just like that then?"  Asked Caz

"Basically yes.  The ministry apprehended him straight away, finally realising that there was more going on than they first thought.  They questioned him under veritaserum, partly because of the fact Dumbledore had already told them on more than one occasion that he was alive and working for Voldemort, partly because most people, when confronted with someone who has  been dead for 14 years would want some answers.  The questioning gave the answers that Dumbledore has been telling them are true for the past 18 months and they signed some forms, sent them to Dumbledore, he passed them to Sirius and there you have it." 

She took a deep breath as she finished the story and Sirius beamed at Harry and Caz who sat gaping before them, both of them speechless.  Finally Harry found his tongue. 

"So that's it?? Wormtail slipped up and that's all it took?  That's great Sirius!"


            There were hugs all round and a lot of smiles before Sirius spoke,

"That's not all we had to tell you.  There's one more thing."

            Harry and Caz looked at them all in confusion.  What else could there be?

"Turn around."  Said Jen simply with a huge smile on her face. 

            Harry and Caz did as they were told, turning slowly as if scared to see what might be behind them.  Finally Harry saw the final surprise of the morning.  He blinked a few times, trying to get his mind to register what he was seeing.  His mouth went back into goldfish mode and all coherent thought was gone. 

"Aren't you going to say anything?"  asked Remus

            To that, Harry did the only thing a boy in his position could do.  He fainted.

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A/N – so there we go.  Another chapter.  It took me a bit longer that expected, that was the third attempt at it.  I kept changing my mind, re thinking things, getting stuck.  It's done now, the next couple of chapters are outlined and hopefully with it being school holidays at the moment I can get at least one of them if not both of them out in the next couple of weeks, we'll see how it goes. 

The formatting here was a little dodgy, sorry, I was trying to get it to look right and getting nowhere fast so I just gave up in the end.  Thanx to my reviewers, you know who you are!