Chapter 26
Dogs of War
11:38 pm 12th January 1994, London.
In an abandoned warehouse an old man and a red headed girl were laid down on the ground, drenched in sweat and blood, the old man tried to get up but fell back down which earned him some giggles from the girl, in turn the old man grunted once and snarked "Try doing any better than me then you can laugh".
Unfortunately for him the girl was more than up for the challenge; both metaphorically and physically as she sat up with the support of her elbows and then laughed at him again.
And at this moment another old man walked in holding a cup filled with a hot beverage as he chuckled at the sight before him.
The other two noticed him and shot him dirty looks which rolled off him as he gave them an amused look of his own.
And then he rubbed the salt in their wounds, "Why are you guys getting snippy with me? You quite literally asked for this, I mean Harry's more of a perfectionist than his parents combined and then some, he'll make you strong as you asked, but he'll also drive you into the ground doing so."
The redhead simply snorted and said, "Hey at least in my defence I can say that I didn't know anything about what I had signed up for until it was too late, well atleast I dont regret it."
The oldman still laid out on the ground gave a bark of a laugh as he began, "Well Ginerva you don't regret it yet, a few more sessions with me and you'll be reevaluating your stance."
In turn Ginerva hissed at him like a cat and bit out, "Black the ministry might be wrong about you being a criminal but you're definitely insane."
At this Remus sighed, the two had been sniping at each other since they met two weeks ago, it didn't help that both of them are quite similar in some ways, hot headed, loyal to a fault, insecure, naive, impatient.
And despite that they had this synergy, especially when they duelled, they would trash talk and taunt each other like there was no tomorrow, but there were no hard feelings, no bad blood between each other, just this awkward air they were trying to walk through as they interacted with each other.
Both of them wanted to get as much of Harry's attention as possible, but they understood that it doesn't work like that, especially with Harry, he does what he does and unless you have a reasonable alternative you can offer it's either his way of the highway.
But that didn't mean they couldn't take out their frustrations on each other in a well, not really healthy or acceptable manner, but one that wasn't for any purposes destructive or toxic.
After all they both understood what the other was going through the best.
And as Remus had observed the two, it wasn't simply like petulant children pouting because they were being forced to work together; oh they certainly were pouting, but there was more, he didn't miss the looks Sirius had been sending Ginny ever since the two had met, while the other three Marauders had never pointed it out to the dog animagus they had noticed the wistful looks he had sent towards his younger brother, Regulus, filled with unsaid regrets and unfair guilt, borne out of the idea that he had abandoned his younger brother to the monsters that were his, well, blood, because truly under no circumstances did most of them deserved to be called Sirius's family not when he had the Marauders or Fleamont and Euphemia Potter who had fostered him like another son when he had ran away from Girmmauld Place.
And Remus had noticed Ginny too, the way she acted around Sirius, she had become alienated from the rest of the students for a number of reasons, for instance those students who were there last year would sometimes gawk at her like a zoo exhibit after the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco, even if they didn't know the truth of the matters the rumors that were circulating along with the fact that some of the more intelligent students had managed to put together that Ginny was the student who had been taken into the chamber made the students treat her experience either as some a walking time bomb or walk around eggshells when she interacts with them, both of these situations made her close in on herself.
Of course the staff tried to treat her just like a normal student, but their concerns for her well being sometimes showed in their behaviour and this was one of the few times it was being counterproductive as she felt like she was being pitied, Remus understood it in a certain way, how own furry problem made him temperamental when people pitied him, but it was mostly only the teachers he had to deal with, the students for the most part didn't know about it except the Marauders, Lily, Marlene, Jame's parents, and well Severus who didn't pity him but feared and loathed him.
So try as he might he didn't understood her the same way as Sirius did, the white sheep of the Black family's time at Hogwarts had made him a outcast in some ways, he was a open scandal, the only Black to ever not only not be sorted into Slytherin but also end up in Gryffindor, an "Utter Shame" as Walburga Black had put it.
Most people distrusted Sirius on the principle of his family being insane; and well their use of Dark magic, but really most people didn't objected much to the latter compared to the former, and that only escalated as the war started to escalate, and once it became known that - to no one's surprise - the Black's sided with Voldemort, even when they had joined the Order, Sirius had been far more distrusted than they had expected, it wasn't something outright but it was obvious if you knew where and what to look for.
Remus was broken out of his musings as the alarm for their departure rang, and the duelling duo got up.
He handed both of them the special portkeys Harry had prepared for them and then palmed his own as he said the activation code "Hogwarts." and transported each of them to a safe spot to go back to their respective dwellings of the castle.
11:38 pm 12th January 1994, Ministry of Magic, London.
A lone hooded figure glided through the so called Hall of Prophecy, stopping at a row that was identical as the rest in the room, but few would know of it's importance, and even fewer would've thought the sheer possibility of what was going to transpire, as the hooded figure stretched a hand towards it and grasped a prophecy from the row in bare hands; which was only possible if the person was the subject of the said prophecy, and then the luminous orb started enunciating the secrets it held to the one who was fated for it, the light in the orb died out soon after the final syllable was uttered, and a pair of emerald eyes stared at impassively, then the subject of that prophecy, one Harry James Potter, placed the orb back where it was supposed to sit and then turning his hand into a fist he rotated in front of the orb in a counterclockwise motion and a green aura enveloped both the fist and the orb, as the aura faded away the light that had been present in the orb returned with no one wiser for the better.Then he turned from there, and trudged towards the DMLE, Record and Evidence room, one would have found the very notion of anyone; let alone a child be able to break into some of the most heavily guarded places in all of magical Britain; undetected even, but for those who truly Know the child and what he's capable of would not even bat an eye at it, he had been here once before to get Sirius' old wand but now he was here to get some other things, namely the file dedicated to the dog-animagus and a few other old case files, making a copy of all of them, he went to the wizengamot courtrooms and discreetly placed a few scurrying spells on the rooms, while it was true that these rooms were warded against any modern form of known scurrying charms, there was a limit of how many spells could be countered by any ward, not to mention Arcane spells needed their individual counters which weren't practical to be applied enmasse, another added factor was the commonly accepted idea that no one would go so far as to spell the courtrooms for scurrying in such a fashion, given there are a totality of 21 courtrooms, and applying such spells in so many rooms wouldn't be possible, unfortunately for them, Harry Potter regularly did the impossible, to the point where the aforementioned people who Know him gave up trying to make a betting pool on what his next act would be simply because he had no common sense.
After that he went to the DMLE's Honourable KIA section for a little insurance, as his friends had taught him, it's best to have as many contingencies as time allows.
Then he left the ministry and went all the way to Italy, where some of his contacts; the courtesy of Shadow, had made a magically expanded crate full of custom Ferrero Rocher, a mix of magic and non-magical culinary methods to make it the best possible, he had paid a galleon for each individual piece, and the crate as a whole contained around 5,000 pieces, an overkill as some would say, but not as far as he was concerned.
With the crate in his possession he returned to Hogwarts and marched towards the sanctuary, where the girl was sleeping, Professor Lupin, Sirius and Ginerva were reading a few tomes, the former Marauders were going through some of the old Wizengamot based history they had found in the library to help the dog-animagus while the redheaded apprentice was going through a custom made (by him) tome filled with spells that would be good for her to learn not only as a general purpose defence but also because they needed a good amount of control, and situational awareness to be used efficiently hence helping her in more than one ways.
Ginny had been introduced to the girl and the Marauders shortly after Remus had been introduced to the former; which was literally 5 hours worth of difference that to because, she was at that time sleeping and had not seen a reason to wake her up, when they asked why exactly had he introduced Ginny to the girl his answer was simply that, "Should something unforeseen happen in the future which would make it untenable for me to look after the girl, I wish someone who would be able to keep her safe know about her, and she is the only one who would legally qualify as someone capable, as my apprentice she can take whatever I choose to bequeath her, and with the girl being my charge I can legally make her the next responsible party without any bureaucratic obstruction from the ministry."
He nodded towards the reading trio and trudged towards the girl, taking a seat next to her sleeping form he ran his hand through her hair and simply sat there till midnight.
Then he got up and pointed towards Lupin and Ginerva, beckoning them to follow him, while nodding towards Sirius, his godfather simply returned an acknowledging nod and got up from his seated position to stay by the girl.
It was a round up they had devised when the wards of the castle had fluctuate slightly three days ago, it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, the castle's wards were; and still are, formidable, but the presence of the dementors was affecting the wards, twisting their magic to be like that of the dementors, normally this wouldn't be much of a concern as it was just a normal side effect of their presence, quite evident by the way the wards of Azkaban had adapted to their presence, though that had taken years to happen; and certainly not helped by the fact that the Dementors were the original denizens of the prison, and their magic had already seeped deeply within the very foundations of the building even before the British Ministry of Magic got their hands on it, by contrast what happened at hogwarts was simply a by product of the friction caused between the two magics, but given the fact that their sanctuary was in a magically created pocket dimension, it was thought for the best that at least one person would be with the girl at all times in case the area started to be plagued by the Dementors presence.
Solutions for potential crisis asides, the Trio walked into the Forbidden Forest, going right at the boundary where the forest ended and Hogsmeade began, this was where the dementors were patrolling, he turned to both of them and began writing in the air using magic "Professor Lupin, I've seen you cast a corporeal Patronus, and given your teaching method is an all purpose method, I was hoping that both of us can help Ginerva learn how to cast a Patronus to defend herself, while I can technically speaking cast a Patronus my method as I've been informed is something uniquely applicable to me, as such it would be for the best if someone else were to teach her Patronus; that someone being you, while I would like to suggest something as an experiment that could be useful."
Both his Teacher and Apprentice nodded at his assessment of the situation, which was quite pragmatic as usual, but both had a few questions, Remus was the first to voice his set of them, "Harry, while I would love to teach Ginny the Patronus spell, I would have to say that despite everything I've seen from her spars with all of us It'd be hard for her to make anything more than a basic shield, if that, also what is this method you are talking about? And what's this experiment you want to conduct?"
Then before he could respond Ginny spokeup with her set, "Why do I have to learn the Patronus? You're already teaching me the Vulcan fire spell that can fend off both Dementors and Lethifolds, hurt them even, and Patronus seems of little use aside from magical control practice, and that's without mentioning the Michael Spear spell you've been teaching me."
This got a raised eyebrow from Remus, while he had heard of the Vulcan fire spell in passing, it was one of the more rare magics that few knew about and even fewer who could cast, the mention of the Michael Spear spell confused him as to the best of his knowledge there was no such spell, primarily because of the spanish inquisition which gave birth to some wariness in european Magicals towards Christanity as a whole, and to the best of his knowledge the middle eastern magicals considered it a blasphemy for humans to name their meagre prowess after such revered subjects.
Harry for his part nodded in acknowledgement, first turning to Remus he began, "My method consists of deliberate production of Serotonin by stimulating the Neurological receptors of my brain, but as I've observed and been informed others cannot do so, as such I devised an alternative which is to cast patronus while consuming a piece of chocolate which would help jumpstart the serotonin production, which when paired along the traditional method of Patronus can help people even in dire situations, I came up with this solution after I read a case study about a man who drank Re'em blood for enhanced strength and then paired it with a samoan spell for physical reinforcement for further results, while it wouldn't have the same explosive results due to their differing nature it also means that the drawbacks are far more limited."
Then he turned to Ginny and began, "While I am teaching you both of those spells, Vulcan fire is capable of destroying both of those creatures if used efficiently, but it is quite hard to use, and there are multiple situations where using it would be inadvisable, while alternatively Michael's Spear is a spell that is meant to be used against individual opponents rather than groups or even hoards, even more so given it's taxing nature, as such it'd be inefficient against either of those species which tend to attack en masse should they feel that they cannot overpower their prey individually, Patronus on the other hand is a good alternative to use without the dangers posed by the those spells."
Ginny pondered on it for a few seconds and then nodded her acknowledgement of his points.
Remus for his part while was in agreement with what the boy had just said he also wanted some clarification on the other two spells, for one, the part of his brain that was purely academic wanted to learn, it was a straightforward drive that had seen him devour ¾ of the Hogwart's library by the time he graduated; no small feat by any means, the other part of him which was as someone who cared for these kids wanted to be reassured that they weren't biting off more than they could chew, while intellectually he knows that they - especially Harry - are more than capable of handling themselves responsibly the matter of fact that they are still children remains, as such he would have to risk antagonising himself to them; once again Remus was really glad for the fact that Harry's personality wasn't like his fathers, the deceased marauder would've taken offence at someone questioning his abilities.
Harry simply explained to the best of his ability about the spells in question, "The Vulcan fire spell was a easier to control alternative to Fiend fyre though it came with the drawback that it was difficult to maintain, of course it also comes with all the other potential issues that arise with all other fire based spells, but since the caster has an exponential control over it, the probability of encountering those issues is lower, as for Michael Spear it is a spell of my creation, it is a weaponized version of Lumos Solem, it is a spell that conjures focused solar rays to form a corporeal spear out of them to maximise the penetrative capabilities, it should be able to kill magically resistant creatures like Nundu or Chimera, and even take down all kinds of wards in one strike should the caster be powerful or skillful enough, but as I've found through trial and error, amongst the 50 people I tried teaching the spell to only three - including Ginerva - managed to use it to any practical degree, and none were able to use the spell to its full potential, their spears were misshapen or were too weak to achieve the best results, unfortunately the caster cannot use any other spell immediately after using it."
Ginny had bluntly snorted when Harry reached the end of his explanation, something that got Remus' attention, from what he had observed while the redhead didn't take Harry's words lightly she always made her opinions known and always questioned his judgement when she didn't understand it, and she always tried to help him in social interactions when he had questions about them, but he also saw that she genuinely respected his magical power and knowledge about it so the rude gesture was out of the blue, seeming to catch on to his train of thought Ginny said, "Yes everyone else can only use it once but Harry can keep using it repeatedly, Hell I've seen him fire three of those at the same time when he was teaching it to me, so that's kind of awe inspiring and infuriating at the same time."
Remus turned to look at Harry who had nothing to add for his part, and then they slowly started trying to get Ginny acquainted with the Patronus spell, they would alternatively tell her to try using the traditional form of using the spell first a few times and then after a five minute break do the same while chewing on one of the special chocolates, it went on for a whole hour by the end of which she had tried the former four times and the latter only three times, by the end of their session Ginny could make a Patronus shield while using the special chocolates Harry had gotten, while without them she could only produce a wispy light which looked like a mix between the Lumos charm and the Bluebell Flame Charm, in Remus' opinion they made quite a bit progress , Ginny on the other hand was disappointed that she couldn't form at least a small shield without the chocolates, Harry on his part simply instructed her too keep practising with Remus every other day.
As they started to depart for the day, Remus subtly held back Harry while Ginny went back towards the Gryffindor dorms. Harry made a note on having Ginny work on her environmental awareness as she was currently blocking all environmental stimulation in favour of working on her thoughts.
Slowly Remus started walking towards his quarters while beckoning Harry to follow him, as they walked in silence, the DADA professor collected his thoughts and started speaking his mind, "Harry, from one teacher to another there's something I need to tell you, I have seen how you teach Ginny usually, and even this little experiment of yours today, each lesson you craft for her is for her benefit and to make her stronger, I've never said anything till today because I wanted to make sure I wasn't acting under any misconception, so now that I am confident about what I've managed to gleam from your teaching method, While it's undeniably efficient, it's a disaster waiting to happen, your teaching style is highly spartan; which isn't a bad idea in and of itself, but you lack a human touch in your approach, by that I mean I've never observed you complimenting you encouraging her in her efforts."
Harr listened to Remus in silence and then cocked his head towards right, after a few seconds he made brief eye contact with the man and began writing on his pad, "That is a problem I've been alerted to by some of my other friends who have seen and helped me teach Ginerva, thus far I've failed to find a solution for it, I do not know of any empiric benchmarks I can use to encourage her, and from what I understand a teacher needs to be able to empathise with their students in order to help them psychologically, unfortunately as it has been brought to my attention multiple times my emotional capability is lacking and so while I am trying to encourage her and help her self esteem by making her strong I do not know if I'm making any progress with it."
Remus smiled at the young Potter and patted him on the shoulder as he spoke up, "Well let's see what we can do, I'll try to help you where I can, and between you and me with the help of some research I'm sure we can come up with something!"
The two departed after that the DADA professor going to bed while :he young Potter went to the girl and Sirius, watching over them as they slept.
08:14 pm 26th January 1994, Sussex, England.
Sirius, Remus, and Ginny watched with not a little wariness as Harry trudged towards the door of the house they had arrived at; unannounced and uninvited to the boot, and then standing at it's door the boy gave three fast and hard raps at the door, which made the three of them exchange a look with each other and then bracing for the inevitable.
Their entire predicament began this morning when Harry told them that he thought up a plan; now while fortunately Harry's plans usually worked they were quite insanely dangerous or outrageous, after he had given them a brief outline they had stared at him with not a little wonder - which he as usual didn't notice - it was even while considering everything sane, sane in a highly relative context, relative, really the word couldn't be emphasised enough.
Which was quite funny enough as the biggest problem in this entire plan was also a Relative, Sirius' Relative to be exact, the infamous Andromeda Tonks née Black who was staring at them from her now open front door, with her face being entirely expressionless, and all the more scary for it.
Looking at them, more specifically in their eyes she must've found whatever it was she was searching for as she called out, "I believe it would be for the best that we have this conversation in the house." and then she opened the door wider and stepped back to let them in, Harry immediately went inside while the other three hesitated slightly before following Harry's lead as they had noticed that while she had granted them entry, she had very much not taken their eyes off them, more specifically off Sirius.
Harry went inside and was greeted by a bewildered Father and Daughter who became slightly defensive as they saw Sirius enter their house while being flanked by the Teacher-Student duo, the seven of them stood in an awkward atmosphere - at least five of them did, Andromeda ignored the awkwardness with a practised grace while Harry was absolutely oblivious to it - Andromeda tried to present some relief to them by breaking the ice a she spoke, "How about we become comfortable? There's no reason to have this conversation; which would be undoubtedly long, in an uncomfortable position."
They moved from the entrance hall to the living room which was decorated in a minimalistic and all the more for it charming manner, a single sofa in the centre of the room with an arm chair at the right; Sirius recognized that chair it was the chair Andromeda or Andy as he used to call her back then used to occupy to hole up in the library for some privacy before the rest of the house got up, the chair had disappeared with her in front of those seatings was a mahogany table, with a few bookshelves, Photo Frames, and a Television taking up rest of the space around the room.
Obviously there weren't enough seats for everyone so Andromeda conjured a simple wooden bench for the quartet to get seated, it was by no means a gesture of kindness, but one that spoke of her pragmatic nature, since she conjured the bench it'd be saturated with her magic, and if she felt like it she could transfigure it into some kind of weapon far faster than it'd take to transfigure any other object.
All three of the Tonks' took seat on the sofa while Harry and the trio took their designated seat, Remus made the introductions for all those who needed and then with an indifferent manner Andromeda spoke up once again, "So my cousin dearest I assume this isn't simply a social visit?"
Sirius nodded in acknowledgement and then glanced at Harry for once, he wasn't labouring under the delusion that his wunderkind of a godso would really be much of a help in this situation, but the boy was trying and doing his best and then some, so after taking a deep breath he began telling his favourite cousin about everything, Starting with the Marauders and ending his account of things tll just before this morning.
All the while he had been explaining he observed the ways both the Tonks father and daughter's emotions being expressed in a panoramic scenery on their face while Andromeda's expression didn't change a bit - honestly he had expected this, Andromeda while incredibly caring also had a remarkable self-control, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration by any stretch of measure that not only was she the Parent of the Black siblings in his generations, but also that she's the main reason why no one ended up dead till she had been with them, impulsiveness was a big factor of the infamous Black madness and luckily Andromeda had dodged that spell, and she had also tried to save her siblings from it, but there was only so much a single person could do, and then as it always happens there came a point that she had to choose between herself and her family, and she thankfully rightly chose herself, he couldn't possibly blame her for it, she demonstrated courage to do what he couldn't.
Sirius' train of thought was interrupted as Andromeda's posture changed from being indifferent to grim and curious, she began, "Sirius, let's say for a minute that I believe you, what exactly do you expect here? I would do anything I can for you but everything you've said thus far would be hard to believe for others; that too even if we get a chance to say our piece in the first place, the ministry wants your head on a pike, what little contacts we do have won't stick their necks out for us until we can give them some solid proof of your innocence, of which we don't have any and nor do we have any form of clout in the wizengamot to make them listen to us, all the former allies of the Black family would also rather see us dead, especially Malfoy."
Nodding at this point Sirius removed a manila folder and passed it to her, she cautiously took it and went through its contents, it was a testament of her self control that the most explosive reaction from her was an arched eyebrow, unlike her daughter who thanks to her metamorph abilities had her jaw hitting the floor,unfortunately Ted seemed t have frozen from shock upon seeing the contents of the folder.
Setting down the folder Andromeda asked, "Where did you get it from? If you have something like this why not simply go to someone like Amelia Bones or Dumbledore? Why come to me?"
Sighing Sirius began, "Like grampy Arcturus used to say, "In the hands of a fool even the Elder wand is but a useless twig" of everyone we know you're the most capable person in these political situations, you'd know whom to approach and when, and trust me Andy if I had any other option I wouldn't have put your family in potential danger like this. As for where I got it from well…" he finished as he pointed towards Harry who looked absolutely unbothered, even while Sirius pointed at him and the entire Tonks family stared at him.
Andromeda took a deep breath and then pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling loudly she began, "I'll give it some thought…" only to be interrupted by Ted speaking over her, "We'll do it!"
Andromeda instantly snapped towards him and started staring him in the eyes, almost like a challenge, Ted met her eyes with a profound calm, and like all loving couples they held an entire dialogue without speaking a single word.
Turning to Sirius she said, "We'll do it, but let me be very very frank here Sirius, we'll be doing as I say, unless you have a solid reason to avoid doing anything I've thought up of; and when i say solid reason I mean it by my standards, is that clear?"
As Sirius nodded in acknowledgement Ted got up from his seat and Announced that he'll be bringing over some dinner for everyone in a few minutes, which earned a grateful nod from nearly everyone, and then at the same time Sirius got up from his seat placed a foot on the mahogany table and declared, "Cry 'Havoc!' And Let Slip The…" was as far as he got before Remus facepalmed and Ginny kicked off the table and onto the floor while their host laughed at the antics of the dog animagus.
A/n :- I'm so so so sorry for being absent, To put it simply life got in the way but now I'm back and hopefully will stay so, also something I want to point out is that the idea of Andromeda being the "Parent" child between the Black siblings comes from a tumblr headcanon, unfortunately I cannot for the life of me remember who gave us this precious piece but I'd like it to be stated on record that it wasn't an original idea.
Thank you for reading!
