3. Meeting Harry
Remus and Padfoot left the office and went through the school and out to the greenhouses. When they found the one where the third years were, Remus opened the door. Sirius slipped in ahead, Remus followed and Professor Sprout looked around.
"Hello, Edith."
"Hello, Remus. Did you pick up a dog? He's huge!" Professor Sprout said and held her hand in front of the dog's nose to get it sniffed. Sirius licked it.
"That's Padfoot. He'll be around for a bit. – I have Minerva's permission to kidnap Harry Potter, if you don't mind, Edith. I need to have a lengthy conversation with him."
"Oh, sure – Potter! Could you leave everything to your friends and come over?"
Harry, like all others, had been looking at the huge dog. He knew that this was the dog he'd seen in Magnolia Crescent and in the Quidditch stands. It had the same strange pale eyes. He told Ron and Hermione immediately:
"Remember that I told you I'd seen that huge black dog?"
"Yes, the Grim – and?" said Ron.
"Can you see that dog over there?"
They looked and of course they saw it.
"That was it! I'm quite sure about it."
"But how does it get here and why has Lupin got it?" Ron asked.
"No idea."
Then he was called over by Professor Sprout.
"Professor Lupin would like to talk to you about something, Potter. You're dismissed!"
"Okay. I'll just get my stuff then…"
He rejoined his professor. Sirius pressed himself against Remus' leg.
"Is that your dog, Professor Lupin?" Harry asked.
"Kind of. This is Padfoot, Harry. He's big, but he's a sweetheart…"
"Like Fang then, eh?"
"Even more so, believe me. You're excused for the rest of the afternoon, Harry, would you mind coming to my flat for a cup of tea? There is quite a lot I have to tell you."
"Okay. – What is it about?" Harry asked.
"About what happened yesterday and this morning. Though you don't know anything of this morning yet."
They walked back to the castle and Remus took Harry to his chambers. He sat him down on the sofa and got up to call for a house-elf and some tea and biscuits. Not ten minutes later a fairly large tea and all sorts of foods were placed in front of them on the coffee table. Harry quickly noticed, that there were three cups.
"Your looks told me you recognised the dog here, Harry," Remus remarked.
"I think I did. I saw a dog just like this one. Scared me a bit, as it was in the middle of the night."
"Well, it was this one. We'll get to that in a minute. What has Ron told you yesterday?"
"That he found out his rat was actually Peter Pettigrew and that Pettigrew had been my parents' secret keeper. What is a secret keeper, Professor? Oh yes, and that you deducted from all of that, that Sirius Black is innocent."
"Okay, let's start with the secret keeper. Your parents knew that Voldemort was after them. We were all going through very difficult times then, Harry, and so it was decided, that an old charm would be used to hide them, called the Fidelius charm. It asks for someone who is ready to act as the secret keeper. The knowledge about where you and your parents lived was buried in one soul, and that meant that Voldemort could have stared into your living room, he wouldn't have seen you. Sirius Black was your parents' and my best friend, along with Peter Pettigrew. He was meant to be their secret keeper, but he decided at the last moment, that he was too obvious, it would be too easy to get to him. So he and Peter switched. They never told me, because for a moment they thought I might have been the spy who passed information about all of us to Voldemort. You see, Peter was a rather weak wizard, no one would have thought of him to be the secret keeper or a spy. So they switched and only a week later your parents were murdered."
"Because he gave the secret away?" Harry asked.
"Yes. Sirius of course knew it was Peter who must have given it away. Anyone of us could have gone to Voldemort and tell him, we all knew where you were of course, only he wouldn't have been the wiser, because only if he got the information from the secret keeper was it of any use for him."
"And what happened then?" Harry asked.
"Then Sirius tracked Peter down and wanted to kill him for this. He had just lost his best friends. He and James had grown up together, they were best friends practically from the cradle. But Peter was prepared. He blew up the street, cut off a finger and transformed into his Animagus form of a rat. And Sirius was blamed for the crime and sent off to Azkaban. He didn't even have a trial, he wasn't even allowed to speak up for himself. He just woke up in his cell."
"That must have been awful. I remember when we overheard that Hagrid was sent there last year. He came back after two months, but he wouldn't even talk about it!"
"Yes, he's gone through hell."
"And you've been a friend of my dad's, too?"
Remus smiled.
"Yes, Harry. James, Sirius, Peter and I shared the dorm here at Hogwarts."
"What house were you in?"
"Gryffindor. In James' case it was clear before he even put up the Sorting Hat. Sirius and I had both Gryffindor/Ravenclaw heritage. Both our fathers had been in Gryffindor, both our mothers in Ravenclaw. Peter was a surprise, and to this day I don't know if the hat didn't make a mistake in his case. His parents had both been Hufflepuffs. When I went up with Ron to your dormitory I was in our old dorm for the first time since school. I had the same bed you have now, in fact."
"Oh. – And which was my dad's?"
"Two beds to the left of yours. Sirius was next to me."
"That would be where Seamus sleeps. It's good to know that, Professor."
"Gives a familiar feeling, doesn't it? Well, there is more, Harry. More about Sirius."
"How was he? He can't have been that bad if he was a friend of my Dad's. The way everyone speaks of my dad he must have been a saint!"
Now Remus broke out laughing. He laughed so hard, tears came into his eyes and when he noticed Harry staring at him, he tried to contain his laughter and regain his composure. Harry noticed, that even the dog seemed to be grinning.
"Well, Harry, I don't know who you talked to, but if you ask Professor McGonagall or Mr Filch you might be surprised about what you hear. Your dad and Sirius were about the worst pranksters this school has ever seen. Nothing that the Weasley twins can bring up hasn't already been done by those two. Mr Filch had a whole drawer full of things about your father and Sirius alone."
Upon this, Sirius transformed and exclaimed:
"Would you mind, Moony! You were one of us, and only because you were the most devious one you didn't get that many detentions. Harry, be careful of this one, he's probably pulled more successful pranks than any other student in this school ever!"
Then he noticed what he'd done and said:
"Ooops…"
Harry stared at him in shock. He saw that the Sirius Black he knew from that photo wasn't the same man anymore, he already looked a lot better than that, but the sudden appearance – while the dog disappeared – shocked him quite a bit. He screamed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to give you a fright, Harry…" Sirius said quickly.
"…but that's Sirius for you, Harry. Impulsive and never thinking very far. What do you want, he's a dog after all…"
"A dog?" Harry sputtered.
"Yes. That's what I was just getting at. Your dad and Sirius were very close friends. They did everything together and when you were born, they made him your godfather. He was the obvious choice for that position. And they also made him your guardian, in case anything should happen to them."
"Actually, Harry, your mum would have preferred to have Remus as your godfather, because she always thought, he was the only one among us who possessed a thing called reason. Of course she was absolutely right about that, but there was something that didn't allow it. Still they had both of us named as your guardians in their will," said Sirius.
"Oh. – And why would it not have been allowed?"
Remus sighed. He knew that he would have to tell Harry, but it seemed such a hard thing to do. He took a deep breath, but Sirius looked at him and said:
"Should I?"
Remus nodded.
"Harry, when we came here for our first year and after we were sorted into the same house, the four of us became close friends after a while. Peter wouldn't have been a natural choice for a friend, but he had no one else in the year, so we took him in and he turned out to be a very good friend – for a long time. During our first year we noticed Remus was absent. He was often absent. He gave us strange excuses, everything from his mum was ill to the death of some relative. We started to see a pattern after a while. Especially when we had plans that fell on a full moon night. He would give us excuses for that, too, and then we started to observe him. And found out he had a terrible secret. He was very afraid we'd figure it out and we did. You see, when he was a very little boy, he was bitten by a werewolf. And so he became one, too, of course. None of us had been told, they tried to keep it a secret, but James and I figured it out and then we confronted him with it. He was terrified. But he was a good friend and we loved him like a brother. So we told him we'd keep the secret with him. We also wanted to help him, but there's no cure for werewolves. We found out, that he wasn't dangerous to other animals though, so the next step in our search for ideas was how to become an animal. And found the Animagus transformation. We started to work on it, researched and spent many a night in the library, well hidden under your father's invisibility cloak. We managed it in our fifth year. Peter transformed last, and he became the smallest animal, a rat. I was the first to get through and you've seen my dog form just now. And your dad did it just shortly after me and he transformed into a wonderful stag. We were able to join Remus on the full moon nights and help him. Before he'd been biting and scratching himself and he often looked like someone had almost finished him off after full moon nights. Afterwards there were barely a few minor scratches to see."
"You did that for him? Wow, then you were really good friends."
"We were. The best, believe me. Up until that night your parents were killed. We had noticed that someone had passed information about all of us for about a year before that fateful night. It had to be one of us four. Since James was targeted, it couldn't have been him. I knew it wasn't me. Peter seemed too weak a wizard to even be considered, so for a while we suspected Remus. Of course after having switched with Peter I knew then who the traitor among us was. Worst of all was that I had suspected Remus! I'm still deeply ashamed of myself for that."
"Because he was a werewolf? I've heard that Voldemort had pulled the werewolves on his side…"
"Yes, but not Remus! Now I know that Peter deliberately worked to get us separated, and he almost succeeded. Well, he did succeed, taken the results of that awful night, but not wholly. We're together again and we're friends again."
"Mr Black, I can see that you are innocent, but what of the Ministry? I mean, there's all these Dementors out there, and…"
"Call me Sirius, Harry, please! I have been cleared this morning. Cornelius Fudge and Ashley Grover – do you know them?"
"Only Fudge."
"Well, Grover is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He was the judge, if you so want, it wasn't a real trial. They had questioned Pettigrew and then me and that was that. They are pulling off the Dementors as we speak."
"Oh, good!"
"Harry, I have also decided to claim my guardianship over you, if you would want that. I don't know, I suppose you'd rather stay with your aunt and uncle, since they're your relatives, but…"
"… you mean, come stay and live with you?"
"Yes. As soon as I've settled back in, that is…"
"Leave the Dursleys? Oh, I can't believe it, you really mean that?"
"Yes, I do. – You… you want to?"
"Of course! I wouldn't stay a day longer there! They're the worst people you can imagine!"
Sirius sighed with relief and a smile spread over his face. Harry decided, that this smile made him a completely different person.
"Actually I do know them. Petunia and Vernon that is…"
"They have a son, he's just a few weeks older than me and he's awful! They've been mean to me all my life. Call me a freak."
"Well, then I'll definitely claim my guardianship. I don't want you to suffer there one more Christmas or summer break."
"Oh, I'm staying here all the time over Christmas. Much nicer. Ron's been with me twice, too. Ron Weasley is my best friend. And so's Hermione Granger. She's the cleverest in our year, too."
"You'll have to introduce us tonight. I'll come up to Gryffindor tower and visit you there, okay?"
"That would be great."
Sirius and Remus looked at each other. The news that Harry had a godfather and that it was Sirius had gone over well, they thought. And they were pleased about that. Now all that remained was to explain to Harry that they would be a family. Remus shook his head slightly.
"Not today, Sirius, let's give him time," he said in a very low voice.
But Harry returned to the subject by himself.
"So you couldn't be my godfather because you're a werewolf, Professor Lupin?" he asked.
"Unfortunately. I still did consider myself to be one of your godfathers, and so did your parents."
"And they put his name as one of the guardians into their wills, Harry, so we'll both be your guardians, I'll see to that. Remus and I will probably be living together again, so you'll have a family now!"
"Oh, this is neat, I like you, Professor!"
"Thank you, Harry, I've always been very fond of you as well."
"You liked him so much, that the first thing you ever clearly said, was Moony. That's Remus' nickname, you know," said Sirius with a grin.
"And I'd like you to call me Remus or Moony outside of class, Harry…"
Harry grinned. And then sighed happily. The two best friends of his parents were now his guardians, this was almost too good to be true. They spent the time until dinner together, and then Remus and Sirius accompanied Harry into the Great Hall. Sirius had transformed again and walked between Remus and Harry. When Remus sat down he noticed there was a place left open at the table for Sirius. But Sirius waited until Albus had come down to make his announcement. Once everyone seemed to be around, Albus called for their attention and then said:
"I am pleased to announce that we have a guest at the castle. He's been incarcerated in Azkaban for twelve years for a crime he did not commit. Today the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has granted pardon to Sirius Black, as we had proof of the fact that he did not kill Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles in 1981. Please welcome him back among us! – Sirius, if you'd resume your human form, please…"
Sirius transformed, stood up and then sat down next to Remus. There was a bit of applause, shy first, then a bit more enthusiastic.
"If you meet Sirius in the corridors please pay him your respect. Thank you."
Albus sat down and they enjoyed a nice meal. Sirius found a small goblet with Poppy's tonic next to his plate. He smiled at her and emptied it. Then he ate with a healthy appetite and had second and third helpings. Remus watched him and encouraged him to eat.
"Just eat! You need it."
"I know. And it's all so delicious. After having barely survived for twelve years, almost anything warm is."
"Five meals per day, Poppy said. Just go out and train your body, so you will grow back toned and not fat," Remus grinned.
At the Gryffindor table Harry told his friends what had happened in the afternoon. He looked over at the teacher's table and saw Sirius smile at him. Then he noticed that Snape glanced at Sirius with even more hatred in his eyes than he had for Remus.
"There must be something between those two, look at Snape, he looks at Sirius with even more loathing than he looked at Lupin," Harry suspected.
"Looks like it. You'll have to ask him," Ron said.
"But your godfather seems to be fairly close with Lupin," Fred remarked.
"Yes, they were like best friends throughout school," Harry explained.
"Doesn't exactly explain the hand on the other's knee," George said and grinned.
"What?"
"Well – look! Probably he doesn't notice we can see it from here…"
"Oh. Do you think they are – er… together like love together?" Harry asked.
"Why not? Could be, couldn't it?" said Fred.
"It could… Sirius said he'd probably be living with Remus again. So that means they've lived together before, doesn't it? He said I'd be getting a family."
"Remus?"
"Professor Lupin. He was supposed to be my other godfather. And he'll be my second guardian."
"Well, you got rid of those awful Muggles, Harry! Reason to celebrate."
"Definitely. Oh, Sirius will come up to the common room after dinner. He's been in Gryffindor himself when he went to school here. And according to Remus he was a worse prankster than Fred and George!"
The group around them laughed. Katie asked:
"Is that even possible?"
"Seems so. Remus said, Filch had one whole drawer in his filing cabinet on my dad and Sirius alone. Sirius then said, that Remus was worse than the two of them taken together, but that he had been too clever to have been caught."
They laughed again. The twins started to understand why Remus had fixed that agreement with them.
"Oh, but he's devious! He took us out and said, if we didn't disrupt his classes he'd not look after us too well outside of his classroom…" George told them.
"That would be why…"
"As if we would. He is a great teacher."
When Harry, Hermione and Ron got up from their table, Sirius and Remus followed them and called:
"Wait for us?"
They joined them and Harry introduced Hermione and Ron.
"Sirius, that's Hermione Granger and this is Ron Weasley. We're best friends. – Well, that's Sirius Black."
Hermione held out her hand and shook Sirius'.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr Black."
"Likewise, Miss Granger, but please call me Sirius."
"Okay, Sirius."
"You, too, Ron. – And I'm aware that you just lost your pet. May I give you a replacement? For Christmas maybe?"
"Thank you, Sirius. – But not another rat, please, I think I've had enough of them for a lifetime."
"I can imagine. How about an owl?"
"Oh, that would be too neat! I've always wanted one."
"An owl it will be then! After all it's kind of my fault you're out of your familiar now."
When they reached the portrait hole, the Fat Lady threw one glance at Sirius and called out:
"Oh, it's you! Sirius, you're back again! In you go!"
The three teenagers stared at Sirius in awe. And he looked quite smug, when he said to the Fat Lady:
"Good evening, my lady. Yes, I'm back for a visit, but you might see me around now and then. I trust you are well?"
"Oh, I'm well enough, thank you so much!"
The portrait swung open and they got in. Remus grinned and said:
"Ever the same old charmer, Siri."
"Maybe! But as you can see, Harry, she still knows me and she still opens up without asking for the password. Don't tell McGonagall or she'll have my head!"
Harry, Hermione and Ron snickered.
"How did you get her to open without a password?" Hermione asked.
"Now, that is something I cannot tell you. You're WAY too young!" Sirius smirked.
"Whatever he did, it can't have been legal, Hermione," Remus remarked.
"It's just my charm. Remember, I never had to give her the password in our sixth and seventh year, Moony!"
"That's true. All others were in awe, and he never even bothered to keep a password. James tried to chastise her, but to no avail. He didn't go so far as to report Siri though. That would have gone against an unwritten Marauder-law," Remus explained.
Unfortunately he had been overheard by the Weasley twins who were at this moment coming through the portrait hole.
"Did I just hear Marauders?" George asked.
"And did I hear the name Moony?" Fred followed suit.
"Er – yes, why?" Sirius asked back.
"Do you mean to insinuate that you were a Marauder, Professor Lupin?" George asked on.
"Oops…" Remus made and blushed.
"No need to blush if it's true – you're our hero, do you know that? Thanks to you and your friends whoever they are we've learned more about this school than any teacher, teachers present excluded of course, could ever have taught us!" said George excitedly.
"How so?" Remus asked in his best teacher mode.
Now the twins blushed.
"Oops.." said George.
"If you tell me how this comes to be, then I'll tell you, whether I was a Marauder," Remus said and grinned.
"Well, in that case, Fred, what do you think?"
"We'd better own up, George. Will you get the item?"
"I will…"
George ran up to his dormitory and came back carrying an old piece of parchment. He looked around and said conspiratorially:
"I suppose you would know this?"
"The Marauder's Map!" Sirius and Remus both exclaimed.
"You know it, too?"
"Of course I know it, I helped draw and charm it," said Sirius and grinned, "Padfoot at your service!"
"And I'm Moony. – Now, I'm sorry, but this parchment can only have been retrieved by you in a most illegal way, George! I happen to know that Mr Filch has confiscated it from Peter Pettigrew three weeks before we finished school. So – out with it!"
Fred sighed.
"Well, when we were here all fresh and new and innocent…"
Harry, Ron and Hermione snorted.
"…and innocent! We got into a spot of trouble with Filch, er… Mr Filch. He dragged us to his office and we sat there, awaiting punishment when George saw this drawer, and it was marked with…"
"…Confiscated – Dangerous! – Of course we expected there would be something interesting, so I caused a diversion by accidentally…"
More snorts.
"…dropping a dungbomb. While Filch was busy being outside of his mind and almost trying to eat me up, Fred opened the drawer, grabbed something and hid it. We got away somehow. Then we looked at the parchment we got and – well, it took some time to figure it out, but then we found it."
"You did?" Remus said, still in his teacher tone, but obviously quite amused.
"We did."
George pulled out his wand, tapped the parchment and said in a low voice, so only they could hear it:
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
Harry, Ron and Hermione watched with big eyes how there were a few lines on the parchment, then a green writing started and wrote:
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
Are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
Lines spread all over the parchment and after a while Harry saw that they drew a plan of Hogwarts. And what was that? There were tiny dots with labels and the labels showed names. Most of them moved, but once he found the Gryffindor common room he saw all of their names and even Crookshanks turned up.
"Wow," he said.
"So that's how you two got around all the time without being caught!" Ron said and grinned.
"Yep."
"Did you use the passages to the outside?" Remus asked.
"Noooo," Fred stressed.
"Hm…" Remus made.
"Well, yes, sometimes… but there's not many that still work. Out of these seven, Filch knows of four of them. So they're being watched. And the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor caved in last year. The one under the Whomping Willow we don't understand at all, no one can get through there, the willow would kill them, wouldn't it? So we did use the one under the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor."
"So, so… well, I'm afraid we now know your secret, so I can freely admit that yes, I was a Marauder and yes, we created this map. In fact, it was my idea."
"Which is why Moony's name is the first one. Moony researched most of the spells we needed to enchant this map. The password is thoroughly mine, though."
The teenagers grinned. Sirius looked exactly like he would have invented something like this.
"The welcoming phrase is out of Sirius' mouth, too," said Remus.
"I suppose you'll confiscate it now, Professor?" George said sadly.
"I was considering it, but I think we had an agreement, didn't we?" Remus replied with a wink.
George and Fred beamed.
"You're definitely the best teacher we ever had, Professor Lupin!" they chorused.
"Thank you. But remember: don't get caught."
"Professor, do you know anything about the passage that leaves from under the Whomping Willow? You couldn't have drawn it in if you didn't know about it…" asked Fred.
"Yes, I do know about that one, but you don't want to know, believe me. It's no use to you anyway, it doesn't lead to Hogsmeade," Remus said and sounded a bit sharp.
"Is there really a way to pass that willow?"
"There is. It's so simple you'd never guess it. But you still don't want to go there. And you know you're not supposed to get close to the willow," Remus insisted.
"Oh, but we guessed your password," Fred said happily.
"This is different."
"Remus is right! Don't even go there, please. It's nothing of interest, and the passage might have caved in, too," Sirius said.
"Okay. We won't go there."
"Good. I take your word on that," Remus said.
"Then you'd better clear the map now, George," Fred ordered.
"Yes, I think that would be better, too. – Mischief managed."
The lines and the writing on the map vanished. Sirius asked the twins if they had encountered something special when they first tried to get into the map without the password.
"Oh yes! Fairly rude remarks! We were close to giving up!"
Sirius smirked.
"Good. We were never able to test that one…"
"Who were Wormtail and Prongs? Those are very strange names, anyway…"
"Prongs was Harry's Dad. And Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew."
Katie came into the common room and asked around if anyone minded that she'd turn the WWN on. No one did, so she turned it on. It was only the news though and everyone froze, when they heard the newsreader say:
"As of today the wizarding community of Britain has an Interim Minister, because the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has been arrested this morning under the charge of having used the Cruciatus curse. There is evidence he had used this curse to retain a suspect back in November 1981. The Ministry was not willing to hand out further details as the affair is under investigation. The new Interim Minister is Arthur Weasley. Weasley had so far been working in the Office for Misuse of Muggle Artefacts. His first years at the Ministry he had been an Auror who had been active in the fight against You-Know-Who. Weasley is 55 years old, married to Molly Weasley, and they have seven children, among them the current Head Boy of Hogwarts, Percy Weasley and a former Head Boy, the oldest of their six sons, Bill Weasley. He is expected to give a first public statement tomorrow afternoon."
"Wow, your Dad's the minister now!" half of the common room cried out.
All five Weasley children were frozen on the spot. They all looked at each other and wondered how this came to be. Sirius and Remus looked at each other. They knew of course, but they kept it to themselves. It was time for them to leave anyway. Remus turned to Hermione and said:
"I was going to grade your essay, when I got Sirius' letter yesterday, but I'll do it tonight, Hermione, okay?"
"Thanks, Professor Lupin."
"You'll get extra credit. And we'll get to treat werewolves still, but only at the end of the year."
Harry shuddered. Werewolves had not been a subject until now, but they had seen and heard things before and all of these things were ugly. How vicious werewolves were supposed to be, constantly lusting for the blood of humans and never ever to be trusted. Now he knew one and what he knew about Professor Lupin only told him that some people seemed to spread lies. He decided to ask Hermione what she had written in her essay later on.
Sirius and Remus said good night and left the common room. Harry remained silent after they left. The Weasleys, even Percy, had started an impromptu celebration and the whole common room was in uproar. Hermione noticed Harry to be so quiet and sat down next to him.
"What's wrong, Harry?"
"Hermione, what did you write in your essay?"
"The werewolf essay? Well, how to recognise them, about them transforming at full moon, how they are, how they are supposed to be killed, silver or aconite are the things. And some of their behaviour patterns. Why?"
"Might be that you are hurting Remus a lot with it, you know…"
"Because he's a werewolf himself, you mean?"
Harry stared at her.
"You KNOW that?"
"Well, it wasn't hard to guess. He missed classes beginning of October and beginning of November. Both times the full moon was up. Then when we fought that Boggart his Boggart became a full moon. It's what he naturally must fear most, isn't it?"
"Oh, that's what it was then. I was wondering, too, and then Lavender wondered why he was afraid of crystal balls. I thought maybe Trelawney had prophesised his death once too often, too," Harry said lightly.
"Anyway, I figured it out, but I thought it better not to start a panic. So he told you, hasn't he?"
"Yes, he told me today. He didn't ask me to, but I'm not going to tell anyone. Are you afraid of him now?"
"No, why should I be? I'm sure he's doing something to keep us safe from himself. Dumbledore wouldn't have hired him if he thought he presented a danger…" Hermione said.
"Maybe Dumbledore doesn't know?"
"I can't imagine that. Okay, he probably didn't know Quirrell was a servant of You-Know-Who, but he usually knows most everything going on here. And I'm sure, Professor Lupin wouldn't have told you if Dumbledore didn't know."
All of a sudden Ron stood before them.
"Hey, aren't you celebrating with us? Don't you think my Dad will make a good minister?"
"Of course, Ron, he'll do a much better job than Fudge, I'm sure of that," said Hermione.
"Then come out of this corner, stop being so boring!"
"We're coming," said Harry.
He didn't feel much like celebrating though, there was much too much going through his head right then. So he told Ron a bit later, that he wanted to go to bed.
"Sorry, Ron, I'm very happy for you and all, but there was so much I heard this afternoon, I just have to mull it all over in my head. I'm going up to the dormitory."
"Okay, Harry, I think I understand. Will you tell me, when you're ready?"
"I'd tell you right now, as parts of it is also very good news and I'm very happy right now, believe me, but you have every right to have some raucous celebration going on. You'll hear soon enough!"
"Well then, good night, Harry."
"Good night, Ron."
Harry went up the stairs to his dorm. No one oversaw Hermione follow him just a minute later. She caught up with Harry and asked him quietly:
"Are you just going up or are you going to bed?"
"I felt like being alone. Or with someone quiet like you, actually, because that's too boisterous down there for me at the moment."
"I can understand that – can I come with you then?"
"Sure. Come in!"
They went into the room and Harry turned on the candles.
"Let's sit on the window seat," he suggested.
"Yes, that's a good idea. It's much more crammed in here! Our dorm only has three beds, so that gives a lot more space for us."
"It's quite okay though. Remus told me this was his and my Dad's and Sirius' dorm, too. Seems I have his bed."
Hermione smiled.
"You seem to really like him."
"I do! I like him as a teacher and this afternoon – well, he was just so nice and I think he and Sirius are really good friends. They also told me he was supposed to be my godfather, but they wouldn't allow it because he's a werewolf. It must be hard to live with that, Hermione."
"Yes, I think so, too. Now I'm almost sorry he is going to grade my essay…"
"You did all the work, he probably thinks it's not fair to just throw that away."
"He's always so kind. The books I checked for the essay all say that werewolves are just brutes and that one can see they are brutes. He has nothing of a brute, he's so frail and he has such an aristocratic face. I think, some of these authors didn't even know what they were talking about. He's quite good looking, don't you think?"
"Can't judge I guess… remember Lockhart, Hermione!"
"Oh, that was evil, Harry Potter! To remind me of this embarrassing thing!"
He laughed. She grinned though and knew he was only teasing. Then she said:
"That dog is quite impressive, don't you think?"
"Yes, he is. But so friendly! Oh, that's why Sirius is an Animagus, by the way, he, Dad and Pettigrew wanted to do something to help Remus. As animals they were able to stay with Remus through the night. They told me that before that he would be locked into the Shrieking Shack – hence the passage under the Willow – and in the morning he went to Madam Pomfrey. She had to patch him up, because he often bit and scratched himself badly. Sometimes she even had to go and get him, because he couldn't go back to the hospital wing on his own."
"Oh my! That sounds terrible."
"It does, doesn't it? So when he was joined by the other three they formed like a pack. They had fun together and Remus wouldn't hurt himself."
"But what if he bit any of the others?"
"They were animals. He bit them quite often in play, I think Sirius got most of it, because he's a dog, but nothing happened to them but a few bites and scratches. He didn't curse them."
"Wow. – Do you think, Sirius would be willing to teach me how to become an Animagus? I'd love to learn that! And I'm not so sure whether Professor McGonagall would be willing to teach me. Not yet in any case."
"Well, ask him. He might. He was something of a rogue, if I got that right."
"'Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers' – how much more need I say?" Hermione grinned.
"You know, you're not that bad in making mischief yourself! Need I say Polyjuice Potion? Or Mountain Troll?" Harry teased.
"No, you needn't. Need I remind you that you were deeply involved in all of these events? And what about the Chamber of Secrets, eh?" she teased right back.
"Oh, you're so easy to tease, Hermione," he said and gave her a peck on the nose.
Both of them froze. Then they laughed and finally Hermione took her leave. He asked:
"Do you want the cloak? I could come down with you and release you on the other side…"
"Yes, that would be great. Otherwise I'll get teased even worse!"
Harry picked the cloak out of his trunk and draped it over himself and Hermione. They were getting very close, so they were covered completely and then they slowly moved down the stairs and even more slowly across the common room. They managed though and as soon as they were around the corner, Harry let her out of the cloak. Hermione went up to her dormitory. He looked after her and wondered what that peck had meant. Then he had to concentrate to get back to his own dorm. He moved stealthily through the crowd and finally got to the staircase. From there he was back in the dorm quickly and after putting the cloak back in his trunk he went to bed.
Lots of thanks and some replies to the reviewers:
kungzoune: you're getting your wish -)
dede100pour100me: Idon't know if Sirius in PoA was aware of Remus being in the castle and from on what point he was aware of the fact. So I figured if he loved Remus and if he realised Remus was the one person who would know how and where to find him, then he should rather be the one to come out first. The chances of a positive result were much higher this way. Even Sirius in his reduced state of mind would realise that. As for prettiness… you'll have to wait and see. No one gets pretty after looking the way Sirius does after twelve years of no physical care at all. I thought I had made him still better looking than he probably was in JKR's eyes, LOL
Shadow Cat17: Glad, you like this story, too. Mine usually all turn around a possibility to free Sirius and get him back together with Remus -)