Chapter Seven

Going to Hogsmeade was always something Harry enjoyed. Being among people who were generally too busy to gawk at his scar and realize who he was made him feel more normal, and Harry loved that. In fact, he reveled in the feeling, wishing in vain that he could constantly be in that state of near-normality.

Of course, he couldn't completely escape the occasional inconveniences of being Harry Potter. In his third year, when everyone was on the lookout for Sirius, Harry made his first ever trip to Hogsmeade using the Marauder's Map on the sly because no one had wanted to sign his permission form for various reasons. In his fourth year, though Sirius had given him permission, he had to go under his Invisibility Cloak because he and Ron had had a fight and was avoiding being seen by him. And his in his fifth year, since everyone had thought him a liar, it was hard to have peace.

Today was more pleasant. He was still a bit wary when Professor D'Angelique brought him to Professor McGonagall to ask permission to take him there. But when the normally strict Head of Gryffindor House smiled and remarked about how fresh air might be good for both of them, his doubts were completely dispelled. He felt all comfortable when the three of them headed up to the office of Professor Dumbledore to get the headmaster's final word. In fact, by then, he was already afraid Dumbledore would say no. But, the moment the young raven-haired Defense teacher looked up at the old man and saw the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes, he knew they had a case. He just began wondering where they could have first met, seeing that they seemed to communicate faster without words than with them. Professor D'Angelique been a member of the Order? Small chance of that, really, despite the fact that she knew Neville's mother. Then she should have been seen at Grimauld Place at least once. But she did mention that she had a mentor who sounded a lot like Alastor Moody. On the other hand, in that old snapshot of Professor Moody's, she didn't seem to have been mentioned by Moody when he was naming each person in the photo and the gruesome fate each of the people met. But, if she wasn't a member of the old Order, then who was she?

Celeste looked over at Harry, who had hardly said anything as they rode one of those creepy Thestral-drawn carriages. It must be awful being able to see those things at such a young age. She herself only started seeing them shortly after Tom Riddle started taking over, when she witnessed the murder (or disposal) of Regulus Black, who she was tailing at the time at the beckoning of Sirius. Sirius--Celeste didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the memory of that man. He was always the rough and tough guy whom you thought was cold and harsh. Then he would do something absolutely different, something so wonderfully warm and loving that you began to wonder whether that man had his head screwed on right. So having Regulus trailed seemed strange, even to James Potter himself but Celeste knew Sirius well enough to do it without questioning him.

"Er, Professor--are you all right?" Celeste was startled by the voice of Harry, so startled that she hadn't had the presence of mind to hide her welled-up eyes.

"Yes, Harry, I'm fine. I apologize, I'm normally a better shopping companion than the milksop I'm proving to be right now. It's just that this place is causing so many memories to come rushing back at me. The thing is, a lot of those memories are things I've spent so long trying to forget."

Harry was surprised to hear anyone sound so sad. He began to wonder if that was how he sounded to Ron and Hermione, since they were always asking him if he was okay. As he was normally at the receiving end of words of comfort, he wasn't too sure of what to answer.

"You don't have to say a thing Harry, really. In many ways, we are alike. Yes, I imagine that Ron and Hermione find you just as cheerful as you feel I am right now. And don't worry, I don't intend to go on answering your thoughts. It's just a weird habit. Legilimency, when you've learned to use it as part of your profession, never really stops kicking in. But I must be boring you. Ah yes, we're finally here. Let's go get my robes then I'll treat you to lunch. After that, we can do whatever shopping you want to do." Practical and efficient, just like Hermione, thought Harry.

After an hour and a half of robes-searching, Harry and Celeste finally found themselves seated at the same restaurant where Harry had taken Cho Chang for that disastrous Valentine's Day last schoolyear.

"Finally, a chair!" exclaimed Celeste after they had ordered. "I never enjoyed shopping for clothes. It's always so exhausting. I really am sorry I took so long. It's just that all the robes I have that hasn't been attacked by pests are my dress robes."

That was definitely weird, thought Harry. But it does explain the Muggle clothes. "How'd that happen to your robes?"

"Well, not wearing them for almost a decade helps. That, and deliberatingly not casting any spell or using any mothballs to protect them. You see, Harry, after the time of Voldemort's first rise and fall, I never counted on coming back to the wizarding world."

"Why? What happened, Professor?"

Celeste took a deep breath as she prepared to tell a story that she somehow knew one day, she'd tell to Harry Potter. "You know about the Order, right? Well, I was a member of the old Order--"

"You were? Why--"

"--am I never at Grimauld Place? And why was I not in the group picture of the Order's members? My, my, you're a sharp one, Harry. That's perfect if you're considering Aurorship as a career path. I'll get to your questions as we go along. Oh, and if you really want me to quit reading your mind and get straight to the good stuff (I told you it was a habit), then use what Occulomency you still know. A too open and unprotected mind is very tempting.

"Anyway, I was in the Order because I was an Auror at the time, a very young one. It was the first job I ever took on after graduating from Hogwarts and I was determined to bring Tom Riddle back to earth. Of course, it helped that my friends were in the Order as well, and that my own professors were asking me to use my position to take an active role in the fight to save Tom. Yeah, I know, "save Tom" sounds weird but hey, deep inside that horrible facade is a person just like anyone of us. The guy was just exaggeratingly misled by his desire to get even with the people who made life so difficult for him. Oh, thank you (their lunch had finally arrived.)

"I had many missions within the Order, including the conversion of some of Tom's followers to our side. I was mostly unsuccessful there in that many of my potential converts all kept trying to kill me. But I did have one success story and if I'm not mistaken, he's still on our side today." Celeste had a sip of her soup and reminded Harry to start eating.

Harry cut his meat and ate a small piece. "But, why did you leave?"

Celeste swallowed her mouthful and replied, "Well, I was getting to that." She sighed a bit and continued "Some time along the way, I was given the task of tailing Regulus Black. He was one of the people we had hoped would be easy to win over. I'm sure you've heard of him."

Harry avoided Celeste's eyes and said, "Yeah, he was Sirius' brother."

Celeste smiled slightly. "That's right, he was."

"Sirius didn't like him too much."

Celeste chuckled a bit. "Who told you that?"

Harry began to wonder. "Now that I think about it, I just sort of figured that out from how Sirius would talk about him."

"Well then, Harry, you were only half right. Sirius did not not like his brother. He just didn't like the choices Regulus had made. Then, they always had some amount of sibling rivalry between them. But Sirius didn't hate Regulus. In fact, it was Sirius who asked me to go after his little brother, after he started hearing rumors that Regulus was entertaining second thoughts about working for Tom's camp."

"Why you?"

At this question, Celeste blushed ever so slightly. My, what a question! "Well, er...Sirius is, uh, I mean was a very good friend. We were very close, even when we were together here at Hogwarts. That, and it was part of my job."

"Oh, then you were also one of my dad's group!"

Celeste laughed at that one. "Well, Harry, not exactly. James and I weren't that close. We just became friends because of Sirius. You see, a bit before James and Sirius formed their gang of Marauders, Sirius and I would hang out together. He was my first friend here at Hogwarts. Though he and James soon became inseparable in the middle of first year, we always stayed friends. To some extent, he was the reason why I joined the Order. It was he who convinced me that fighting alongside Albus Dumbledore was the real deal, not the "silly office work" I would do at the Ministry." Celeste sighed again.

Harry, sensing that he'd touched something very personal, kept quiet. Celeste ate a bit before continuing, "Everything about us and our lives is personal. Don't worry about me. Anyway, in chasing after Regulus, I always had to be near him. Once or twice, I actually made contact and, the second time we met, I felt it was safe for me to introduce myself as a friend of Sirius. At first, he laughed at me, saying that his stuck-up big bro would never care to have anyone look for him. He even asked me how much Sirius was paying me. To make a long story short, it was hard but I actually managed to convince Regulus about Sirius. And, I even managed to get him thinking about leaving Voldemort, especially when I mentioned that one of the Dark Lord's top men was already on our side. But his joining us was simply not meant to be. When he spoke of leaving to some of his fellow Death Eaters, which was a really stupid thing to, one of his "friends" who had ambitions of entering Voldemort's inner circle, denounced him to one of Voldemort's lieutenants and so, on my watch, Regulus was killed. I couldn't do anything then, there were just too many of them. All I could do was watch Reg die. They didn't even have the heart to use the Avada Kedavra spell right away. They just tortured him until he begged for mercy and when he did they killed him. I was trying to contact the other Order members but by the time Sirius and Severus Snape got to the scene, Reg was dead. Never in my Ministry Auror work had I witnessed that kind of thing. It really hit me hard, so much so that Severus had to give me a calming potion, and even that wasn't enough. They hauled me off to St. Mungo's and after I was let out, Albus suggested I stop for a while. That "for a while" extended into several months. Naturally, I was keeping track of all that was going on and heard of more deaths and cases like mine. Alice and Frank Longbottom entered the hospital shortly after I left it, and that really drove me further away from all things magical 'cause I felt so sorry for little Neville. While I knew that we were fighting for your generation, I was still rather shaken by my failure with Regulus that nothing that even Sirius could say could make me change my mind.

"Then one day, Sirius burst into my house saying something about little Wormtail or someone in the Order selling James and Lily Potter to Voldemort. We had to hurry over to their house and save them. I knew Sirius' devotion to James so we both rushed out and headed to where your family was hiding. Then--well, you know the rest of that story. No need to remind you of that. The part you don't know is about how Sirius freaked out when we saw you in the middle of the rubble that was your house."

Harry couldn't believe how surreal this was. Most of his life, people were hiding secrets from him, for one reason or another. He'd always wanted to get answers. Now that he was in front of someone so willing to share, he wasn't so sure he wanted to hear everything now, especially after all he'd heard.

"Wow. I didn't think he was that badly hit."

"Yeah, he was." Celeste suddenly realized how light she felt right now. She was sure glad to have had the chance to tell the story that she couldn't tell her Muggle colleagues (who had no idea she was a witch, anyway) but taking a quick look through Harry's thoughts, she wasn't sure whether she should go on.

Harry took care of that for her. "So, Professor, what happened next?" He had a feeling that Celeste was hesitating about continuing and he had to hear the rest. Sirius never told this part of his story. Heck, he never even knew that Sirius ever had other friends other than the Marauders, much less a girl.

Instead of continuing, Celeste looked at her watch and smiled. "Well, Mr. Potter, I think we've been out long enough. I hate to leave you hanging like this, but as your professor, it is my responsibility to bring you back to Hogwarts safe and sound." She laughed at Harry's dejected look. "Besides, don't you think I've told you enough already? At least for one day, I think I have."