Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 32 – Learning the Truth
Although this second break in came only a fortnight after the first, the staff were determined that things should carry on as normally as possible, which meant that the next Hogsmeade weekend, scheduled for just over a week after Black's foray into Gryffindor Tower, went ahead. It was noted though that practically every staff member was in the village chaperoning instead of the usual two or three. Harry also noticed several aurors lurking about, trying to be inconspicuous, but failing miserably.
"Looks like the Minister's not taking any chances with your safety, Harry." Hermione said when Harry pointed the aurors out.
"He's not the only one." Harry scowled back. Hermione had insisted that he bring his father's cloak with him and made him promise that if anything happened he'd use it to hide. Harry had agreed but only after saying that he'd use it to hide all three of them, the cloak still being large enough to do so, though only just. The trio spent a pleasant afternoon in the village. It was quite a mild November this year, they were nearing the end of the month and snow hadn't even fallen yet, so they weren't left scurrying from shop to shop to escape the brutal cold of a Scottish winter. It was around lunch time when they decided to head to the Three Broomsticks for something to eat, but they weren't the only ones.
"Rosmerta, my dear, I hope business is good!" The Minister of Magic himself was in the village with two aurors, who weren't trying to blend in, following him. He was joined as well by Hagrid and Professor McGonagall, all three seeming to be heading into the pub together.
"It would be a lot better if the Ministry wasn't sending dementors into my pub every other night!" Rosmerta growled.
"Well, we have a killer on the loose. One we know to be in the area." Try as they might, the Ministry hadn't been able to keep Black's break ins at the school a secret.
"I still don't know what would bring him here." Rosmerta shook her head. "With all the extra security only a madman would come here, so why has he been here twice?" Fudge looked around, not noticing the three teens watching him, and leaned in to whisper something in her ear. "Harry Potter?!" Rosmerta didn't have the same caution Cornelius did and had spoken quite loudly. McGonagall and the Minister shushed her and herded her into the pub with Hagrid following and Harry bringing up the rear.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped. Neither she nor Ron had been expecting him to take off, throwing the cloak over himself as he went. The two rushed after him into the pub, following Hagrid who stood well above the crowd, to a set of stairs that led up to Madam Rosmerta's office and living quarters. Ron and Hermione didn't dare follow them up for risk of giving Harry away and instead nabbed a table nearby and watched like hawks for Harry to return. Harry himself had managed to push his way into the room after Hagrid, glad for the half-giant's enormous girth leaving enough room for him to slip passed under one of his enormous arms and take up a place in the corner of a little sitting room.
"Now what is this all about?" Rosmerta demanded after the door had been closed.
"Do you remember Black, Rosmerta, from his time at Hogwarts?" McGonagall asked.
"I certainly do." She replied with a laugh. "A scamp and a troublemaker he was, but he certainly wasn't evil." She sobered. "I still have trouble believing it. If you'd have told me back then that he'd join You-Know-Who I'd have said you'd had too much mead."
"That's not even the half of it, Rosmerta." Said Cornelius, helping himself to some fire whiskey. "The worst he did was never made public, and with good reason."
"The worst? You mean worse than murdering all those poor people?"
"Oh yes…" Cornelius looked troubled.
"If you remember Black, Rosmerta, then you must remember who his best friend was?" McGonagall sounded just as troubled and it had Harry on edge.
"Naturally." Rosmerta replied. "Never saw one without the other, did you? As close as brothers they were, Sirius Black and James Potter." Harry's knees went weak and it took all his strength not to slide down the wall he stood against.
"Precisely!" Said McGonagall. "Black and Potter, ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course, but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers as those two."
"I dunno." Chuckled Hagrid. "Fred and George Weasley could give them a run for their money."
"James Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends, and that didn't change when they left school." Cornelius added. "Black was best man when James married Lily."
"Dear Merlin…" Rosmerta muttered.
"It's worse than even that, I'm afraid." Said McGonagall. "Few people knew at the time that You-Know-Who was after the Potters. Dumbledore told them their best chance was the Fidelius charm, and he himself performed it." Harry knew little about the Fidelius charm, his knowledge extending only so far as to know that it was meant to be the ultimate means of hiding, with the secret of the location being bound to just one person.
"No…are you saying…Black was the Potters' Secret-Keeper?" Cornelius nodded, looking more the worse for wear than Harry had ever seen him.
"James told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were." Said McGonagall. "And up to that night I believed it."
"Black betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who. He was tired of his double-agent role, was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colors as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it."
"That filthy turncoat!" Hagrid growled. "I met him that night, must have been that last to see him before he killed all those people. It was me that got Harry out from the ruins of his parents' house…poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead and his parents dead. Then Black turns up on that flying motorbike of his, never occurred to me what he was doing there. I didn't know he'd been Lily and James's Secret-Keeper. Thought he'd just heard the news of You-Know-Who's attack and come to see what he could do. White and shaking, he was. And you know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERING TRAITOR!" Hagrid roared.
"Hagrid, please!" said Professor McGonagall. "Keep your voice down!"
"How was I to know he wasn't upset about James and Lily? And then he asked me to give him Harry, but I'd had my orders from Dumbledore. He argued a bit, but eventually gave in. Even told me to take his bike, said he wouldn't need it anymore. Thought he was being nice, but I know now it was just cause the bike was easy to trace and he couldn't take it on the run. But what if I had given Harry to him? I bet he'd have thrown him off the bike halfway out to sea. His best friend's son!" Hagrid took out a large pink hanky edged in lace and blew his nose loudly.
"But you didn't give him Harry, Hagrid." Said Rosmerta, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "And the Ministry caught up with Black the next day."
"If only we had." Said Fudge bitterly. "It wasn't us who found him, but another of the Potters' friends, Peter Pettigrew."
"Peter Pettigrew?" Rosmerta asked confused.
"That little lump of a boy, always trailing after James and Sirius."
"Oh yes, I remember him. Never let James and Sirius out of his sight."
"Never quite in their league, talent wise, though, and vastly beneath them in power." McGonagall said. "Well, he went after Black. Maddened by grief, no doubt, or he would have known it'd get him killed!"
"Black was vicious. He didn't kill Pettigrew, he destroyed him." Cornelius picked up the story. "Eyewitnesses – muggles, of course, who's memories we wiped later – told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing, demanding to know how Black could have betrayed his best friends. And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens. I was one of the first on the scene after…I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him…a heap of bloodstained robes and a finger. That's all that was left, a finger. Nothing else." Harry was as sickened as Cornelius sounded. How could his father have been best friends with a man like that? How could his father not have known that his best friend was a mad, murdering traitor?
"And now he's come back to finish what he started." Said Rosmerta. "I imagine Black would think that killing the one who defeated his master would be the best way to avenge him." Cornelius nodded.
"Exactly. I should have known something was up when I did my yearly inspection of Azkaban, not a fortnight before he escaped." The Minister shook his head. "You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark; there's no sense in them…but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored, asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Yes, I was astounded at how little effect the Dementors seemed to be having on him, and he was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, you know. Dementors outside his door day and night." The others shuddered. "Well I gave him my paper, more in surprise than out of kindness, and that very night, I'm told, he began muttering 'he's at Hogwarts.' The guards reported that finally he seemed as mad as the other prisoners, muttering to himself day and night in the dark, always 'he's at Hogwarts.' " Harry looked around for an escape, having heard enough, but they weren't yet finished.
"And that's not the worst of it." Said McGonagall. Rosmerta looked horrified.
"What on earth could be worse?"
"This. Sirius Black was, and remains to this day…Harry Potter's godfather." Harry's head had been swimming, but hearing this last bit it was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped on him. For a moment he froze, unable to think or move, or even breath.
"Harry has no idea, of course." Said Cornelius. "You can imagine how the idea would torment him." After the moment wore off, the prevailing emotion wasn't confusion and hurt, the same feelings that had had his head swimming mere moments ago, but anger. Harry removed the cloak, becoming visible once more, though he still remained unseen, for he'd chosen his corner well.
"What?" His voice drew their attention, each one of them looking shocked at his appearance.
"Harry!" Cornelius looked confused and embarrassed. "How did you-"
"Never mind that." Harry interrupted. "Did I hear right? Sirius Black was the one who sent Voldemort after my family?" Harry ignored the flinches when he spoke Voldemort's name. "He's the reason they're dead? And he's my godfather?!" Cornelius didn't answer right away but it was enough for Harry who took off, banging his way down the stairs, through the pub and back outside.
"Harry!" Ron and Hermione had been waiting for him and they ran out after him, throwing a few sickles on the table for their drinks. Harry didn't stop running until he reached the castle and then he only slowed for a moment to decide where he wanted to go. Only for a moment though, the decision wasn't hard. Harry was aware that he was bursting into a professor's office without an invitation, but given what he'd just learned, he felt he was owed a little leeway.
"Harry!" Lupin looked up in surprise, both at the sudden intrusion, and at the dark look on Harry's face.
"Is it true?" He asked, elaborating before his supposed uncle could say even a single word. "Is it true that he's the reason my parents are dead? Is it true he's my godfather?" Lupin's look of pain and sorrow was all the answer he needed. Harry kicked a nearby table in anger "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" He roared. "All this time we've been talking and you didn't think to mention that the mass murderer on the loose was my godfather? What, did that little bit of information not seem relevant to you?" Lupin hung his head, having nothing to say in his defense. With a look of disgust Harry turned and stormed back out of the room, pushing passed Ron and Hermione, who were out of breath after chasing him all the way from the village. Even so they followed him back up to Gryffindor Tower, all the while trying to get him to stop and talk to them, but to no avail. Harry barked the password at the Fat Lady, causing her security trolls to raise their clubs at the loud noise, but by the time they'd even turned around Harry had pushed his way into the common room. Ginny stood from her spot at a table with the other second-years but Harry paid her no mind as he ran up to his dormitory, slamming the door behind him. Ginny looked to Ron and Hermione, both who gasped out a semi-coherent answer in between breaths. Ginny didn't waste time trying to piece together the explanation and instead followed Harry upstairs. He was sitting on his bed, his body wracked with sobs as he looked between two pictures. As she got closer, Ginny saw that one was a copy of the wanted poster of Sirius Black, while the other was a photo of his parents' wedding.
"Harry, what happened?" She asked softly, taking a seat beside him.
"He was their friend." She heard the whispered answer and her eyes grew wide. Turning back to the two photos Harry was looking at, it didn't take long to work it out. A man in the background at Lily and James' wedding, standing beside Lupin and another, shorter man, laughed and smiled at the camera. The photo on Black's wanted poster was laughing as well, though it looked maniacal instead of happy, and he certainly wasn't smiling. The face was the same though, Ginny could see it now that she knew to look. Sirius Black looked vastly different in the two photos. In one he was healthy, happy and carefree with his friends, while in the other he looked gaunt, haunted and mad, but there was no denying that it was the same person.
"Oh, Harry." She murmured, grasping his arm, wanting desperately to comfort him.
"He was their friend and he betrayed them." Harry spoke again, his words growing stronger, his voice louder. "HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!" Ginny jumped at the sudden shout, but otherwise didn't move, for Harry had looked up at her, and in his eyes she saw anger, pain, and a desperate madness she'd never seen there before. "I hope he finds me, because when he does, I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him!" The air around Harry crackled with magic, his emotions so out of control right now that it couldn't be held back. Feeling the darkness in the magic around her, Ginny believed him.
A/N - Sorry for the delay...again. Sadly working for a living means little time to write, and lately when I do have time I don't have the brain power to write. It'll be slow going, unfortunately, but I will finish this fic! Eventually.
Review please!
