Chapter Fourteen: Returning To Hogwarts

Summary: Fourteenth chapter. Thirty-five to go. That about sums it up.

Arabella barely caught Harry in time as he leapt forward screaming his godfather's name. She quickly pulled him back and rushed to the opposite side of the street with him. His last sight of his godfather was as Sirius turned to his anguished cry. Harry had never seen such an expression on Sirius' face before. It wasn't anger or fear or even defeat. It seemed something that went much deeper. To Harry it looked as though his godfather wasn't really seeing anything around him or even reacting to the potential danger of his situation. Instead he simply turned back to the man leading him away and followed complacently after him.

By the time Arabella came to a stop across the street from the commotion, Harry was fighting her furiously.

"Let me go!" He screamed. "Don't you understand? They'll kill him. They told the Dementors they could perform the Kiss on him if he was ever caught. We have to stop them. He's innocent!"

Arabella pulled Harry back as he tried to run past her to get to his godfather.

"Harry, stop." She pleaded. "I know what's at stake here, believe me. I know. But it won't do Sirius any good to try and stop them now. They won't listen to us. And if they know we were with him we'll likely be taken in for questioning. Now, how much good can we do Sirius if we're sitting about answering questions?"

Harry seemed to see her point and settled down. "But what are we going to do, Arabella?" He cried, tears running down his face. "They're going to kill him. You know they are. We have to do something."

Arabella looked about quickly. Suddenly she saw a beam of hope. Standing amidst the other wizards in the street was none other than Mad-Eye Moody. She quickly dragged Harry back across the street and made her way quickly to the old Auror's side.

"Mad-eye Moody!" She exclaimed, forcing a smile. "It can't be."

Moody turned about in his characteristic 'constant vigilance' stance, looking like he was on the verge of attacking whoever had come up behind him. But his whole posture changed when he recognized the woman standing before him. He face broke into as close to a smile as Harry imagined it could.

"Arabella Figg! Is that you, girl?" Moody asked gruffly, looking her up and down. "You've certainly changed."

Arabella grabbed his arm and led him to the side away from the others. "Moody, I need your help." She whispered urgently.

Moody, always loving a good intriguing situation, bent closer. "But of course, girl," he whispered back in his usual gravel voice. "What is it?"

"The ministry wizards just took Sirius away..."

"Ah...right," Moody said, looking over his shoulder at where the ministry wizards stood. "Find it a bit hard to believe myself. Black. Boy was a good Auror. Had great potential....abandoning it all for......"

"Moody, Sirius is innocent." Arabella broke in quickly.

Mad-eye shook his head. "Aye, we'd all like to believe that, Arabella," he replied, "but there really is little doubt, isn't there?"

"There's a lot of doubt," Harry piped up quickly. "And he is innocent."

Moody turned his good eye to Harry, looking him up and down. "Ah, you'd be James and Lily Potter's boy," Mad-eye stated.

Harry had to think for a moment that this was in fact the first time the real Mad-eye Moody was meeting him.

"That's right," Harry replied firmly. "And Sirius is innocent."

"Sirius Black killed your parents, boy. Don't you know that?"
"Lord Voldemort killed my parents," Harry corrected, almost pleased to see that Moody was apparently one other person in the wizarding world who didn't flinch at the name. "And he did it with the help of Peter Pettigrew, who was their secret keeper and the one who betrayed them. Not Sirius."

Moody turned to Arabella. "Is the boy mad, girl?" he asked gruffly. He then turned back to Harry. "Peter Pettigrew was murdered by Sirius Black, boy. Along with a whole street full of Muggles."

"No he wasn't," Harry protested. "Peter Pettigrew is alive."

Moody looked sympathetically at Arabella, lowering his tone. "It's sad really. I didn't know the boy was...you know...not right." Moody added, tapping his head.

"Harry's not insane, Mad-eye." Arabella replied softly. "And what he's saying isn't as farfetched as it seems."

"Really?"

"Alastor, Peter Pettigrew is alive. I saw him myself not ten minutes ago."

Moody stared at the pair in front of him for a solid minute. "Right then. Confundus Charm, is it?" Moody pulled out his wand. "Easy enough to fix."

Arabella grabbed his wand hand. "Alastor! It's the truth!"

"Arabella, the man is dead. They had proof of it."

"Yeah," Harry replied. "They said they found his finger. But that was only because Pettigrew cut it off himself and then escaped without being seen."

Moody sighed quietly as he studied Harry. Finally he tucked his wand back into his pocket and, leaning on his walking stick said in a tired voice, "All right. I'm listening."

Harry tried to be as brief as he could, explaining the whole story to Mad-eye as best he could. All the while he kept thinking of where his godfather was. What were they doing with him? How much longer did they have before the ministry would give the clearance for the Dementors to administer their Kiss?

When Harry finished Mad-eye stood for a few moments staring at the ground before he turned back to them.

"Your story sounds like the biggest patch of dung I'll step in this week, boy," he finally grumbled. "But your position has one saving grace that has nothing to do with anything you've told me. The point of it is that I simply could never believe Black went over to Voldemort's side. That just never sounded like him. Trained that boy myself as an Auror. One of the best, he was. And although Black was capable of a lot of things, I never thought that was one of them. But your story seems to explain an awful lot. All right then, you say you need old Moody's help? What can I do?"

"Stop them from letting the Dementors give the Kiss," Arabella stated, "or at least slow things down. Surely there must be some way to delay that."

Moody scratched his chin for a moment as he thought. "Honestly, Arabella, don't know if there's much I can do. Not many people listen to crazy old Moody anymore, you know."

"There must be something you can do."

Moody thought for a bit more, then glanced at his watch. "They took him off about fifteen minutes ago. They'll still have him at the ministry. I can try delaying things there. Tell them I want to question Black. Believe he has some vital information on Voldemort. That won't buy you a lot of time. Ministry's probably itching to get this over with without any mishaps. Possibly be able to extend things to tomorrow morning, but I doubt any further than that."

Arabella threw her arms about his neck. "Oh, Alastor. That will be all the time I need. Just get me till tomorrow."

Moody stepped back a few feet. "Tomorrow morning, Arabella. That's all." He warned, then disapparated with a small pop.

Harry quickly turned to his godmother. "Now what?"

"Arabella gave him a small, tired smile. "Now, my Dear, we're heading for Hogwarts."