Chapter summary:

A somewhat long overdue conversation with Arcturus.

Word count:

About 3700.

Author's note:

I'm sorry for the slight delay but last two weeks sort of got away from me between work and usual daily grind. I'm usually better at sticking to schedule (when I stick to it) but the season really got to me. I hate November, I absolutely loath it and in current weather it's just freaking disgusting.

Onto the story. I've been sitting on this one for quite a long while, as early Entropy long while, possibly even Supernova although I can't be sure. I mean, it's Arcturus and in spite taking shots (well-deserved ones) at Dumbledore he's been acting pretty Dumbledore-y over certain issues. But unlike Dumbledore he has his priorities straight…er and I didn't mean it as a dig at Dumbledore's sexuality. I have an intention to take him down a peg or two but at the moment I'm all for letting him bask in having, well not an upper hand, more like upper little finger over Sirius. Because I know that things aren't going to stay that way forever.

I promise to do better with next chapter on posting front. Part of me wishes to stick to some sort of fixed schedule but that's the tiny optimist in me. The realist knows that December is about to start, I work in retail and around the corner Christmas preparations are waiting for me to smack me in the face with a list. Just writing that down took the wind out of my sails. At the same time I really don't want to leave you with anything for two months like at the end of the summer. So…

Next chapter should be up by Christmas, most likely Christmas Eve or 23rd but I fully intend to have it up on 25th.

As usual I dedicate this story to all of you, my readers, for sticking with me for so long in spite of my shortcomings.

Your comments and kudos are and always will be welcome here because they're my motivation.

Secrets & Keepers –Contentions

Chapter fifteen: The Old Dog

Hermione Granger, September 1993, Hogwarts.

"You're an Animagus," she whispered quickly at Arcturus. "An unregistered Animagus! So is Sirius!"

"And a good afternoon to you too, Hermione," replied Arcturus with a sigh. "If I was mean-spirited I would have said that it took you long enough. But I also know that you were quite distracted in the last couple of days. Where are you now?" he asked pointedly.

"Some empty classroom on the seventh floor," she replied. "The first one I could find."

"Did you by any chance see a tapestry of a moron trying to teach trolls how to dance somewhere nearby?" he asked pensively.

She frowned. What sort of a question was that? But she closed her eyes and tried to recall how the corridor outside looked like. There was some sort of tapestry opposite to the door, she realised and the blobs on it could look like trolls. Not that she paid that much attention it, other than noticing that some sort of tapestry was there.

But just to be sure she placed the mirror on the floor, walked over to the door and peered outside. Sure enough opposite to the door was a giant tapestry that showed a wizard and a group of trolls. She closed the door and walked over to where she left the mirror.

"It's right outside of the door. How did you know that?" she asked when she picked it up.

"I used it myself, many, many times in my student years," he replied simply. "Room of Requirement it's supposed to be called. Mel speculated that it was either the founders playground or some sort of magical vortex that over centuries accepted whatever had been thrown in there. We couldn't really get it to show us its true form but we probably weren't trying hard enough," he explained. "She claimed that it was because both of us imagined it as different things. But I'm glad that you found it because it's the safest place at Hogwarts I can think of when we can have a private conversation without involving some heavy ward work."

He shifted in his seat before he added, "Sit yourself down, Hermione. Because this is going to be a long conversation."

On what precisely, she thought as she looked around. The room was completely devoid of any sort of furniture. But just as that thought passed through her mind a comfy looking armchair, much like the one in Arcturus's study appeared right next to her.

She sat down on it. Gingerly at first and after finding it both solid and comfortable she arranged herself in it in her preferred sitting position.

"You knew that Sirius was an Animagus," she said swiftly.

Arcturus grimaced and sighed before he answered, "Not knew for certain as much as suspected."

"Which for you is as good as knowing," she pointed out. "Why didn't you tell me?" she added petulantly.

"Because I wasn't certain," he repeated simply. "What I knew for certain is that if Sirius was powerful enough to escape from Azkaban on his own he would have already done so ages ago. He was no more powerful than most young and talented wizards his age, most certainly he passed his magical maturity before ending up in Azkaban but he wasn't exactly a young Albus Bloody Dumbledore," he added and huffed. "And I know that because I was much like him at that age. A wizard's individual power in most cases remains on the same level as it was once they reach magical maturity. To some it's an additional and significant burst of power and to some it's just a mere smidgeon."

"Are you saying that you're as powerful as Dumbledore?" she asked sceptically.

"I wouldn't dare to be that arrogant," said Arcturus sourly. "But I'm an old man, Hermione. Old, knowledgeable and aware of my magical limitations. I probably wouldn't be able to beat him in a duel but I would most definitely be able to hold my ground against him. Maybe even sneak in a couple of well-aimed and deserved hexes."

"Then there is the ability to change shapes," pointed out Hermione, wanting him to return to the subject. "And one that wasn't registered."

"Because only a law-abiding moron masters that ability without an ulterior motive and registers themselves like a goody two shoes," he retorted. "Do I look like one to you?"

Hermione cocked her head to the right before she replied, "From a certain angle."

"Ouch," he mumbled. "I did deserve that. For nothing else if not being more upfront with you on the subject."

"Yes, you should have been," she said with a huff. "You should have told me about Sirius."

"I couldn't exactly do that," he objected. "Because I didn't know what sort of animal he could turn into. I still don't."

"But you could tell that he was an Animagus," she said.

"There's a nifty little ward that extends not only over the manor but also the grounds that alarms the holder of wards, me in this case, when an Animagi enters the premises of either of them," explained Arcturus. "It's a relic of my forefathers paranoia, quite reasonable one due to the family's book collection. Unfortunately it wasn't as finely designed to force the Animagus to reveal its form."

"Wonder why," scoffed Hermione.

"I hazard a guess that it was because the inventor of it was an unregistered Animagus himself," said Arcturus with a grimace. "And could reasonably assume that some of his descendants would like to try to achieve it too. There aren't a lot of records on the various or extraordinary magical powers of my ancestors but Transfiguration was a branch of magic that came to most of us quite easily."

"You and Sirius both," she muttered.

"Sirius, just like myself, was born with natural talent for the subject. So did James to certain extent but James from what I know used to be more adept to accepting the rules and limitations of Transfiguration whereas Sirius, just like I had, occasionally struggled with the constrains," replied Arcturus thoughtfully. "Which is quite reasonable considering their upbringing. The Potters were law-abiding citizens, that hardly ever broke rules, and almost never their own. Whereas I had a perchance for challenging some rules that I found ridiculous and didn't mind testing their bending limits."

"Like becoming an Animagus," said Hermione pointedly. "When did that happen?"

"I'm not about to incriminate myself further," objected Arcturus. "It's not really your business, my dear."

"I beg to differ," she added quickly. "I discovered not one but two unregistered Animagi and last I heard failure to register was quite heavily finned, punished with a stint in Azkaban that was concluded with mandatory register."

Arcturus snorted under his breath and muttered something that sounded like a German word. It could be anything really, but most likely it was some German expletive.

"What's your price?" he sighed after a moment.

"Teach me," she said eagerly. "McGonagall certainly won't," she added. "Won't even try to test for the potential until seventh year and it could be helpful."

"Also insanely dangerous," Arcturus pointed out. "Your mother would definitely object."

"My mother would understand the necessity and I'm sure that she would have been far more comfortable knowing that I was taught by an experienced Animagus rather than trying to achieve that on my own," she countered quickly.

"I did that on my own," said Arcturus sourly. "Right under my grandfather's nose, I should add, also against his will because he refused to teach me."

"He was one too?" she asked. "Because I checked Animagi register very thoroughly and the last registered wizard with the name Black was some fellow from the beginning of nineteenth century."

"He wasn't a real Black," replied Arcturus simply. "Not that I'm negating his right to the name rather than the family connection between us because no self-respecting Black would have just handled over a potential upper hand after just acquiring it."

"I'm a Black family ward," pointed out Hermione. "You said so yourself."

"That I did and that you are," agreed Arcturus. "I didn't say that I wouldn't teach you at all. But just like there's no one right way to transform a saucer into a cup, regardless of what the theorists and academics believe there's more than one way to achieve that. And settling on the easiest and safest for you will take me more than a couple of minutes. I will also have to test your potential, preferably in person."

"I will hold you to that," she said eagerly.

"I know you will," sighed Arcturus. "Now about Sirius…"

"What exactly about Sirius?" she asked innocently.

"Have you seen him?" he asked.

"I think I do," she admitted.

Then she devoted a substantial amount of time to reminding Arcturus of what he said about Harry spending his summer with Sirius instead of Snape, like he claimed in his letters as much as in person. She also devoted quite a lot of time to pointing out that Snape appeared to be completely unchanged and just as much of an arse as he had been in the past. Which led Arcturus to speculating how much of a good actress Nymphadora could be to pose as Snape.

"Assuming that it's her," he muttered. "It could also be Reg with an endless supply of Polyjuice Potion," he admitted. "I didn't know a lot about his comings and goings, especially in those bad years when he got himself mixed with Death Eaters but he used to have some sort of a soft spot for the man. Potentially soft enough to spare his life."

"Assuming that Snape isn't simply a real Snape," she muttered. "His mannerism is the same, his behaviour unchanged. Would it be too much of a stretch to assume that they're working together?" she asked.

"Snape and Regulus, probably not," agreed Arcturus. "Snape and Sirius though?" he grimaced. "They were too much alike as children to stand each other without adding into it justifiable animosity. Sirius did try to kill him and Snape would have remembered that even now. Then there's Sirius's assumed status of the Dark Lord's right hand that's supposed to be responsible for the demise of his friends along with those innocent people. Snape I know would have cursed first and asked questions later, Sirius too. Snape was a Death Eater, not a confirmed one when Sirius was captured but he hung around people some of which were confirmed as Death Eaters before Sirius went to Azkaban. And then there's Regulus. Where else he would have been hiding."

She had a feeling that it was in a place no one expected him to be.

Harry was exceptionally friendly and very open around little Aaron Babbling and relied heavily on Professor Babbling's recommendation even though he had yet to make it to Ancient Runes class. That could be explained by Harry latching onto the first person about his age and the accompanying him adult just to get away from Snape.

Sirius was an Animagus and almost certainly he posed as Aaron Babbling's dog that developed a strong liking for Harry. That would have explained why he rushed to Harry's rescue from half across the castle.

And Aaron Babbling himself? He was about the right size for a first year, nice and extremely kind towards Astoria and Wendy, who talked to Hermione about their classes. He was also very good student in so far even though at times he seemed extremely distracted. Even with that he still answered all of the teacher's questions right. He could possibly that good of a student.

Or he could know all what he was being taught. But how Sirius, Harry and possibly Lupin would be able to sneak a grown up Regulus into the castle if he wasn't posing as Snape. Certainly not on their own, not without help. And Snape, Snape led the sorting this year.

Arcturus could be wrong about Sirius and Snape being unable to work together. Freaking Malfoy had a sudden change of heart and mind after all. Snape could possibly have one to, especially if someone came up with a very compelling argument.

Then there were the two guests from the house at Grimmauld Place whom Arcturus couldn't identify. Lupin's name came up quite as often in his speculation, as did that of Nymphadora Tonks, the daughter of Sirius's favourite cousin.

There was someone else. Someone whose name Arcturus didn't even try to guess. But she didn't have to rely on Arcturus's information alone, she realised. When she met him for the first time Larry had said that Sirius and Miranda/Mirzam, Hermione's aunt used to look after a friend of hers and her baby daughter. The witch's name was Bathsheda Babbling and how many women of that name could be out there.

Plenty of Bathshebas, that's certain, her daughter was named Bathsheba after all. But a Bathsheda? Professor Babbling introduced herself with that name. She also recently acquired an ingenious nephew, who had an Animagus for a supposed familiar.

Could she be that missing individual? Someone willing to put themselves in a very tight spot if they were all found? Sirius, and Hermione's aunt, did help her tremulously when she was a young, single mother with no support of her family. Was that enough to make her feel obliged to help him now?

So Harry, Sirius, Snape, Lupin, Babbling possibly. Where that left Tonks and could Regulus really be Aaron. And if he was then how a grown man could be able to turn into an eleven years old boy and remain in that form for hours?

"Isn't a knack for mastering Animagi ability the only Transfiguration related talent your family possesses?" she asked pensively.

Arcturus grimaced and sighed heavily before he answered, "Metamorphmagi. But none outside of Nymphadora hadn't been born as a true Metamorphmagus in ages, centuries on that," he paused. "Most of us possess some latent magical hiccup that makes us prone to alter certain aspects of our appearance, but it isn't something that we can consciously do. It just happens and it never changes our appearance fully. My father's eyes changed colours when he was extremely angry. My uncle, and namesake reportedly never had to shave. Walburga couldn't get her hair to straighten out even after taking a bath in Sleekeze. Sirius's hair grew out on their own when he was anxious, much like mine. Andromeda could never dye her hair properly, same as Narcissa. I can't possibly…" he stopped abruptly and breathed out. "Of course."

"Of course what?" she pressed.

"Regulus," he replied on an exhale. "He ruptured and burnt down his magical core with whatever stunt he had pulled when he supposedly died. The magic came back to him, that much I knew from finding his signature in Grimmauld Place's wards," he added and straightened himself. "But it isn't the same kind of magic he had before he ended in hospital. Not with how empty his magical core was. It wasn't significantly depleted, it just simply wasn't there. He wasn't a squib, he was a full Muggle and had been one for years."

He stood up and with his mirror still in his hands he started pacing.

"The magic returned, it nearly always does, if one survives the burnt out," he ranted. "Which he had. But because he had no magic left to begin with the magic spread itself out differently and somehow tapped to the Metamorphmagi reserve. We all had potential for that and Regulus, much like my uncle never needed to shave."

"So if I said that I think that he's posing himself as a first year student you wouldn't call me crazy?" she asked pointedly.

"Crazy? Of course not," replied Arcturus. "Genius, yes, that you are my dear."

Hermione could feel her cheeks heating at that.

"Gryffindor?" he asked eagerly. "With a familiar perhaps?"

"Solitary Gryffindor boy with an eerily familiar pale-eyed black dog," she replied.

Arcturus howled with laughter at that. He was laughing so hard that he slid into the closest seat.

"House-misplaced arseholes," he snickered. "That made my day," he snickered again. "And will keep continuing to make it," he snickered once more. "Regulus in Gryffindor, Mel would have loved that. Always told him that with the stuff he could pull off on the Quidditch field he was better suited for Gryffindor than for Slytherin. He used to hate that. She claimed the opposite about Sirius, called him, her little Slytherin beater in Gryffindor clothing. Always too cautious and too uncertain about flying on a bloody stick. Hated that too."

"And what I'm supposed to do about them?" she asked.

"What do you want to do about them?" he asked simply, he was still smiling. "You can ask them if you're right," he offered. "You most certainly are but what sort of advantage it would give you?"

"Having my friend not lying to me anymore?" she offered sarcastically.

"And are you not lying to your friends anymore?" he pointed out. "Truth is a double-edged sword, Hermione. If you out a lie without offering them an explanation how you realised that they were lying they will grow suspicious. Are you ready to offer them your own truth in this case?"

She grimaced. She definitely wasn't. She couldn't even bring up the subject of time-turner and she could tell that alone was making them suspicious of her comings and goings.

Then there was all of this mess with Snape being her father and likely the only person that knew her biological mother's name or capable of locating her older sister. Never mind Arcturus, another supposed dead man, and Mum and Dad and her changed status.

On the top of that was also Sirius's peculiar legal situation. She eventually conceded during the summer, that he couldn't be responsible for the death of Harry's parents or those twelve Muggles. He was still a wanted fugitive though and at the same time the head of the Black family. Arcturus was doing whatever he was doing to amend that (and without revealing too much of it to Hermione, for safety reasons). But it wasn't Arcturus who was running the Black family now. No, that was Sirius. Sirius, who proved to be pathologically paranoid and very protective of Harry.

As much as she hated that she had to admit that it was better to hold on what she knew (or suspected) for a little while longer. At the very least until she would get rid of the time-turner because Merlin only knows what they could do with it. She would definitely have to get rid of it and probably sooner rather than later.

She wasn't going to have any reservations over dropping Divination. One lesson was enough for Trelawney to get on her nerves and Harry was right about not wanting to waste his time on it. That one was a definite goner. But she would also had to drop another to return the time-turner. She loved Arithmancy and Ancient Runes seemed great. Hagrid probably wouldn't forgive her easily dropping Care of the Magical Creatures. He would have eventually understand it if she had but he would remember. Then there was Muggle Studies which as promised to a Muggle-raised, no longer Muggle-born, Hermione felt and sounded bloody ridiculous. Professor Burbage was nice but she was constantly contradicting either herself or the stuff that she was teaching.

"Now you're starting to think like a Slytherin," said Arcturus simply. "And I assure you, that it isn't a bad thing, Hermione. Take your time, observe, sort out other issues or wait for them to be sorted out. There's nothing wrong with being cautious. If nothing else it will solidify certain things."

"I don't like it," she grumbled.

"You don't have to," he pointed out. "And no one is asking you to. All that I'm suggesting is what I've been suggesting all along. Take your time to be cautious, extrapolate various outcomes. And be willing to accept that other people will certainly know better or at the very least feel that they know better."

"Like you?" she supplied. "Or Sirius?"

"Like me and Sirius," agreed Arcturus with a small nod. "That apple hadn't had fallen too far away from the apple tree. Of course, he's his own person but a lot of what I already saw in him, both when he was younger as well as now, is what I've seen in myself, still do in fact. He's the son I should have had instead of the one I got and I should have brought him up as such, Regulus too. This family would have been in much better shape if I had," he concluded wistfully.

"Don't beat yourself over that," she offered. "They seem to be doing fine. For an escaped convict leading a dog's life and a graduated wizard that was somehow forced to relieve his student years," she deadpanned.

Arcturus chuckled at that before he replied, "They both hated their first year first time around, too freaking easy they called it and too heavy on theory that they already knew. Poor Reggie has to be in actual physical pain, especially if Binns is still around to teach history. I bet you ten galleons that before the month is out he will throw a book at his head."

"He actually done so first time around?" she asked curiously.

"Fifth year, last class before OWLs and then he went up and signed for Advanced History of Magic. He decided over the summer that he wanted to pursue the subject to mastery levels so he could exorcise Binns in order to take his job," replied Arcturus with a small, fond smile.

"That's not particularly nice," Hermione pointed out. "And isn't it illegal?"

"My dear, exorcising that Goblin-obsessed spirit would have been a public service, to the school and country. History isn't an easy subject to learn and Binns students, especially those that didn't need a NEWT on the subject routinely perform badly in it. To the point that the Ministry had to come up with a special grade for turning in an empty examination sheet and that happens more often than you realise. And people wonder why one Dark Lord after another managed to sway the population to aid them in their nefarious plans. How we're supposed to not repeat history over and over if almost no one knows it…"

TBC

Next: The aftermath of the boggart incident through Snape's eyes.