Dumbledore remain true to his prediction and as January drew to a close just over three weeks later, he mentioned over breakfast he would be out for the day as he had an appointment. Pomona had asked where he was going to which Dumbledore had been vague which had caused Severus to be suspicious, but as those two were almost always vague and suspicious, no one had really thought much about it. Even Remus had been a bit distracted by other concerns – specifically what the Weasley twins were up to at the Gryffindor table and whether he wanted to intervene or wait to see how it played out.
However, the conversation came immediately back to mind when Dumbledore showed up to his office early that evening. His expression gave away nothing, not due to blankness but because Remus could ascribe so many possible causes for the grim set of Dumbledore's face, it was impossible to determine which it was. "You met with Sirius?" Remus asked.
"I did," Dumbledore said. He took a seat opposite Remus. "I spoke with him at great length today. I did not initially let him know what had been the immediate impetus for my visit, merely asked him for his version of events starting with the casting of the Fidelius Charm on the Potters. He told me that at the last minute he convinced Lily and James to switch Secret Keepers to Peter. From there his story was very like the theory you proposed, with the obvious caveat that he is not aware of Scabbers."
Remus searched Dumbledore's face, but there were no answers to be read there. "Do you believe him?"
Silence greeted Remus's question. Only for a moment, just long enough for Dumbledore to briefly close his eyes and let out an exhale, but it seemed to stretch on for a century. "I do."
The words hit Remus like a physical blow. It was only then that he realized that even as a part of him wished to be right, how very much another part of him wished to be wrong. Because if Peter were dead and Sirius a traitor, then that was a tragedy, but it was a tragedy that Remus was accustomed to. It was an old wool jumper, pilled and fraying and worn, but comfortable in its own way. But if Sirius hadn't betrayed James and Lily then an innocent man, Harry's godfather, Remus's best friend – the only one alive and still worthy of the title – had spent eleven years in Azkaban. Eleven years of constant torment. And it was Remus's fault.
"I think the best option in this situation would be to move for a trial on the basis of new evidence," Dumbledore was saying. "After speaking with Sirius I feel confident we'll be able to build a strong enough case to get him exonerated. The trial itself will be as big and public as I can manage, but for now I think it best we keep things as quiet as possible, at least until we catch Scabbers and determine if he is indeed Pettigrew."
Dumbledore paused, and Remus nodded because he felt that was what expected of him. "Ah, my apologies," Dumbledore said. "We can discuss this more later if you prefer."
"Yes, thank you," Remus said. "I think I'll retire for the evening."
Kindly Dumbledore did not point out it was only half six, merely bid Remus a good night and rose to leave.
"Headmaster?" Remus said just as Dumbledore reached the door.
"Yes?"
"Lily would have been the one to first come up with the idea to switch Secret Keepers," Remus said.
"Sirius seemed quite insistent it was his idea."
"Sirius has spent…" Remus swallowed and tried again. "Sirius has spent the past eleven years in the company of Dementors. He may have changed his mind last minute and persuaded James to make the change, but I'm certain Lily would have had the idea first."
"Then I shall pass on your certainty to Sirius when next I see him. It wouldn't do for him to be blaming himself for things that aren't his fault." The irony in Dumbledore's tone did not pass Remus's notice, but he felt too tired to argue with how unwarranted it was.
"Please do. Thank you," was all he said before slipping through the door to his quarters.
He stood just inside the doorway for a minute. Dinner. Before Dumbledore had showed up, Remus had been planning on finishing up some grading and then heading down to the Great Hall for dinner. Instead he called a House Elf and had his dinner served at the small table next to his kitchenette. He ate methodically. He wasn't hungry, but the thought of food wasn't repulsive either, so he ate because that was what one did. He ate and stared at the wall and tried not to think about…
It was a good thing. He reminded himself this was a good thing. He had wanted this. If Dumbledore was right – and he usually was – then Sirius was innocent. Sirius was innocent and would be freed as quickly as could be managed, and Remus would have his friend back. Assuming Sirius didn't… They had always forgiven each other before, hadn't they? But Remus couldn't think of anything any of them had ever done nearly as bad as this, and Sirius didn't have a particularly forgiving nature. Still…
Remus finished his food. He called the House Elf back, and she took the dishes away. After a minute he decided there was no point in sitting at the kitchen table if he wasn't eating. He sat on the sofa instead and stared at the wall.
The thing was, he was supposed to be brave, wasn't he? He'd been sorted into Gryffindor and Gryffindors were brave. But he wasn't. Remus had always been afraid of being a bother or a burden or upsetting people, so he'd let others take the lead. Even joining the Order, that hadn't really been bravery. James and Sirius had decided to join first and Peter had followed and Remus had gone along with the rest of them. Then when everyone had said Sirius had betrayed James and Lily and killed Peter, even though Remus should have known better, should have known Sirius would never join You-Know-Who, could never betray James, Remus had accepted their words. He had betrayed Sirius just a thoroughly as Peter had. He was…
There was a knock on the door. Remus stared at it blankly for a minute, trying to guess who it could possibly be. A well-meaning staff member he eventually decided. Remus's absence at dinner would not have gone unnoticed, and while Dumbledore was sure to have told them Remus was fine and just in need of a little privacy for the evening, someone had elected to come check on him anyway.
"Come in," he said. He didn't want to talk with whoever it was, but it seemed politer to allow them in, assure them he was fine, then request privacy rather than shouting through the door.
The door opened. It wasn't a well-meaning staff member.
"Harry," Remus said in surprise.
"Hi Remus. Er… You weren't at dinner tonight, and afterward Professor Dumbledore came up and told me that I should come see you?"
Remus couldn't help himself. He laughed. That only seemed to heighten Harry's sense of concern. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Remus assured him. "I just got some personal news this evening and it was a bit…"
"Upsetting?" Harry guessed.
"Unsettling," Remus corrected. "I think the Headmaster was right and I could do with a distraction. If you wouldn't mind joining me for a while?"
"Sure," Harry said.
"Thank you. Come have a seat. I know you just finished dinner, but I could make you some tea if you like."
Harry gave Remus an assessing look before saying, "I'll have some if you have some," in a tone that suggested Remus was being mothered by a twelve-year-old boy. It was honestly somewhat amusing. Harry really was a sweet boy.
So Remus made them both tea, pulled out a tin of biscuits, and they sat on the sofa and talked for a while. They discussed the new term and how Harry was enjoying it so far. Harry caught Remus up on what he and his friends had been up to recently, and Remus shared a few carefully selected anecdotes about the other classes he was teaching and the rest of the staff. They spent a long time dissecting the upcoming Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin and how the outcome would affect Gryffindor's chances at the cup. Remus had never been nearly as interested in Quidditch as his three friends, but he couldn't have made it through a decade of friendship without learning how to discuss the subject intelligibly.
The evening went well, and Remus found it to be a pleasant and helpful diversion from his previous train of thought. Right up until Harry was leaving, when he said… well it wasn't really about precisely what he said. It was about the way he'd said it – like he'd accepted the idea that adults around him might be interested in his well-being, but he was still baffled by the concept – that hit Remus like a punch to the gut.
"Harry, I…" I'm terribly sorry. Because in his cowardice, he had failed Harry too.
Two nights after the day of Harry's christening, Remus had sat across from Lily at the Potter's kitchen table while James had paced back and forth, gently bouncing the infant Harry. Lily had reached over and touched the back of Remus's hand and said, "I hope you know even though we named Sirius his godfather, we consider you and Peter as honorary godfathers too." James had paused long enough in his bouncing journey to clasp Remus on the shoulder and say, "Of course Moony knows that." That was what had been on Remus's mind – the touch of a hand, the clasp of a shoulder – on November 2, 1981 when he'd finally managed to track Dumbledore down and ask where Harry was.
Remus had been relieved when Dumbledore had told him Harry was safe with his relatives. And, to his shame, Remus had been relieved again when he'd been informed Dumbledore had had to offer the promise that no member of wizardkind would bother the Dursleys while they raised Harry. Remus had allowed himself to accept Dumbledore's word as absolute and his duty discharged, and had sunk deep into his own depression.
If Remus were braver, if he had behaved like a Gryffindor ought to, like James would have, then he wouldn't have allowed himself to be relieved by that. He would have refused to accept a promise Dumbledore had made as binding on his behalf, and insisted that he could be discrete and polite and behave as inoffensively Muggle as the Dursleys wished, but he was the only godfather Harry had left and he would visit him. Then maybe Remus could have saved him from those terrible people much earlier and maybe Harry never would have sounded as he had just now.
And yet, even knowing all that, Remus's attempts to apologize and explain merely clogged up in his throat and died in his mouth. "I... You… you are the most important person in the worlds to me, Harry." It wasn't an apology – and really, how could Remus ever apologize for such a magnificent failure? – but it was a promise. A promise that from this moment forward he would be brave, at least for Harry's sake.
Harry's eyes went wide. "Are you dying?"
"No! No of course not," Remus reassured him. "I just wanted you to know because it's true."
"Oh." For a moment Harry looked completely overwhelmed by Remus's pronouncement. Then he shuffled forwarded and wrapped his arms around Remus, burying his face into his robes. "I love you too."
Remus hugged Harry back and smiled to himself. For Harry, for the touch of a hand and the clasp of a shoulder and for Harry, Remus would be brave. And he knew exactly what he needed to do next.
Not more than twenty minutes after Harry had left, Remus was knocking on the door to Severus's office. He had confirmed in the staff room on the way down Severus didn't have patrol this evening, and it was early enough he might still be in his office rather than having already gone into his private quarters for the night. Luckily, after a moment Severus opened the door, only to give Remus the most withering look possible. "I have no idea what possessed you to come here of all places, but I have no desire to help you work through whatever personal problems you're having. Good evening," he said, swinging the door shut again.
"It concerns Harry," Remus said quickly.
Severus paused for a moment. Eventually he pulled the door back wide and then turned away and glided back to his desk. It wasn't precisely an invitation, but Remus assumed it was the closest thing he was going to get to one. He followed after Severus, carefully closing the door behind him before taking a chair on the opposite side of the desk. Severus regarded him with an expression that made it clear he expected Remus to explain whatever it was as quickly and with as few words as possible.
"There is a matter I have been working on, in conjunction with Dumbledore. He feels that for the moment this matter needs to remain as quiet as possible, and I agree with him. However, as it will have an impact on Harry, I feel he deserves to be told, and I wished to discuss it with you first. I was looking into it recently, and I discovered Sirius Black never received any sort of trial."
"As Harry is already aware of Black, his history with James Potter, and the exact actions Black undertook to get him thrown into Azkaban, I fail to see how the intricacies of the judicial process should be of any interest to or concern of Harry's."
"It concerns Harry because Dumbledore is beginning to process to get Sirius his trial."
"Absolutely not," Severus said.
"I'm afraid it's not up for debate," Remus said.
"You're right, it's not up for debate. Black handed Lily and Potter over to their deaths and killed Pettigrew and a dozen Muggles besides, and the only thing a trial would accomplish is giving a proven murderer a chance to walk free."
"He hasn't been proven to be anything yet; that's the purpose of the trial," Remus pointed out calmly.
"The dead bodies of your friends and the eyewitness testimony of over twenty different people isn't proof enough for you? Must you see him use the Killing Curse right in front of you to believe him guilty?" Severus demanded.
"No, but the eyewitnesses you mention were all Muggles. I don't doubt the value and intelligence of Muggles, but I do question the validity of their eyewitness testimony in a confrontation between two wizards when they don't have the knowledge or context to fully understand what they're seeing. They can't identify what curse was used or who cast it."
"Of course, I forgot. Sirius Black is too much a good-natured prankster to ever actually hurt anyone," Severus said, nearly spitting with rage. "I'm sure there was a Death Eater lurking in the bushes, and he was the responsible for the deaths of Pettigrew and the Muggles. Not fun-loving Black. And what's your explanation for Lily and Potter's deaths? Perhaps the Dark Lord tortured the information out of him, and then let Black go on his merry way afterward."
Remus waited until he was quite certain Severus was done, then answered. "My explanation, the same explanation as the one Sirius independently gave to Dumbledore when he went to see him today, is Sirius never gave away the Potter's location because he never had the information in the first place. James and Lily switched Secret Keepers at the last minute without telling anyone. When his betrayal of them instead resulted in You-Know-Who's apparent death, Peter, the actual Secret Keeper, allowed an enraged Sirius to catch him and used the opportunity to cement the framing of Sirius as the guilty one and to fake his own death."
Severus stared at him incredulously. "I know that wolves are pack animals, but I hadn't realized the lack of one had caused you to become completely delusional."
"It makes sense," Remus said. "And they never did find Peter's body, only one of his fingers."
"It's convoluted, not the least because not finding a body after a massive explosion is hardly conclusive evidence of anything. Black is guilty. It's simple, straightforward, and it's the truth."
"It doesn't explain the fact that I saw Peter just the other day. Or at least I think I did."
"That doesn't count for anything; we've already established you're delusional. You expect me to believe after successfully faking his death and living in hiding for eleven years Pettigrew suddenly decided to go for a stroll in Hogsmeade?" Severus asked.
"I didn't see him in Hogsmeade, I saw him here, in the castle." Remus took in a deep breath. "Peter is an unregistered rat Animagus."
Remus had expected more dismissal and incredulity. What he received was more anger. "Why is he still an unregistered Animagus?" Severus demanded.
"I don't…"
"More to the point, if Pettigrew was an Animagus then no doubt the rest of your little gang was too, so why is Black, the man guilty of causing the deaths of your other two friends, still unregistered?"
"Sirius's form is a large dog; it's too big to aid in any attempts to escape Azkaban. I-"
"I don't care if he transforms into a beached whale, the very second you'd found out what he'd done, you should have come forward. Not doing so shows a disrespectful, reckless disregard for anyone else, and–"
"You're right," Remus said, interrupting Severus's tirade and throwing the other man completely off-balance. "I was being selfish and a coward. But I have since told Dumbledore, so if Sirius is still unregistered it's presumably because Dumbledore has a compelling reason for keeping things that way for the moment. All of which is very important, but sidesteps the point I was trying to make about having seen Peter here at Hogwarts."
"I don't care that you saw some rat scurrying in some back corner…" Severus paused as Remus watched comprehension dawn in his features. "You have been remarkably concerned about the Weasley boy's rat. You can't possibly be trying to imply you think Pettigrew successfully managed to frame Black for a crime he committed and faked his own death all for the luxury of living as a child's pet."
"I didn't say it was a reasonable course of action. It's frankly ridiculous, but under those specific circumstances it is something I could see Peter doing," Remus said.
"Fine, I grant you that Pettigrew was an idiot and a coward. However, I fail to see how that translates into setting Black free. If you're that desperate for companionship, go get yourself an actual dog," Severus sneered.
"Do you want me to admit I would like to have one of my friends, one who is neither dead nor traitor, back? Fine, yes, I freely admit it," Remus snapped. "But this is not about me. It is not about Sirius and it is not about you and your old grudges, Severus. This is about finding the certain and irrefutable truth of what happened that night. This is about James and Lily. I know you don't care about James, but Lily was your friend, your family even. Don't you want to know who the man who betrayed her is?"
Severus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, a pained expression briefly flickering past his face. "I assure you, Lupin, that much I already know." There was a beat of silence that Remus was sure said more than he would ever be able to fathom, and then Severus let out the smallest of sighs. "All right, have your trial. I'm sure Albus has already made up his mind, and I was never able to change it with regards to Black anyway. Have it, but not now. Wait."
"Wait? Sirius has already been in Azkaban for eleven years without the benefit of a trial."
"So he won't mind waiting a while longer," Severus replied. "Now is not the time for this. Someone claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin is attacking the students; despite my efforts and the sheer idiocy of the notion something like a quarter of the school suspects Harry of being behind it; Lucius Malfoy is up to something and if he is not either directly or indirectly responsible for the attacks himself, then he will certainly be taking advantage of them; and on top of all that Harry is-"
Severus cut himself off abruptly, and Remus regarded him with curiosity and alarm. "Harry is what?"
Severus looked at him for a long moment. "This does not leave this room. I neither want nor require your help with this matter, and I am only telling you about it so you understand the full gravity of the situation."
Remus nodded. "I understand."
Severus watched him a second longer, then said, "Harry is hearing voices."
"He's hearing voices? In his head you mean?" Remus asked.
"I have not yet determined if the voices are merely in his head, or if there is some external factor causing them, in part because he's only had these hallucinations twice so far. Regardless, you see now why he can't possibly be subjected to any additional stress at the moment."
"Yes, but…" Remus sighed. "I do see your point, but there will always be reasons to delay if you want to find them. There will always be something else going on, that's the nature of life. Ultimately, if the voices are being caused by something external, then I doubt any stress Harry feels due to the trial – which shouldn't really be that much as the trial is stressful as a concept, not because it requires anything of him – shouldn't worsen matters. If Harry has… mental health issues that need to be addressed, then the treating of them is likely to take a long time, time during which Harry is going to have to deal with stress sooner or later."
"And I would prefer it to be later," Severus said.
"If you want to debate timing with Dumbledore, then I can't stop you. My concern is Harry be told about the trial in private by someone he trusts, not by the Daily Prophet in the middle of the Great Hall the morning after the press finally catches wind of it. He's your charge, so it's your decision to tell him or not, but if you choose not to, I will not let the matter rest until you change your mind. If you don't… have the time to discuss it with him, then I would be happy to do it," Remus said, at the last second swapping out an assertion Severus might feel himself incapable of having the discussion with Harry. Certainly Remus wouldn't be surprised if he were, but no need to antagonize the man. Not any more than he already had at any rate.
Severus considered the matter for a moment. "You will tell him, and you will do so without biasing him with regards to Black's innocence or guilt. Further, you will have the conversation with him here where I can observe you and be sure you hold to that."
The first request Remus was able to agree to readily, but Severus's second mandate had him hesitating. Severus sneered. "You have no problem agreeing to be fair and unbiased, as long as no one tries to hold you accountable to that promise? How very true to form."
It was not an entirely unfair assessment of Remus's behaviour in the past, specifically when he had been a prefect, but he had grown since then. "I have no problem with you observing or being a part of the conversation. My only reservation was your particular choice of location. Your office is private, but not especially personable. I really think this is a conversation best had somewhere where Harry can feel relaxed and comfortable. The Gryffindor common room would be ideal, if not for all the other students. I had been thinking of talking to him in my quarters, but Dumbledore's office might work, so long as we sit around the tea table and not at the desk."
"Not Albus's office. Between the both of you, there would be no chance of Harry leaving the conversations without fanciful notions of Black the hero running through his head," Severus said. "I will pick a time and location, and will let you know once I have."
Despite being the one to propose this meeting and the one to set the criteria for the location and despite being able to follow the clear chain of logic from there to the current situation, Remus still felt entirely uncertain how he ended up here. Here being sitting next to Harry on the settee in Severus's quarters while Severus sat in the arm chair opposite. It was quite possibly the last place Remus had ever expected to find himself, which was perhaps the reason he found the familiarity of the rooms so disconcerting. Save for Severus's two packed bookshelves to Remus's single still sparsely-populated one, their two sets of quarters were very nearly identical. It made sense that all the staff's quarters would contain the same basic layout, but Severus had accumulated almost nothing in the way of personal items in the over a decade he had been inhabiting these rooms. But then, that at least was honestly not that surprising.
Harry settled himself into his seat and looked warily back and forth between Severus and Remus. "Am I in trouble?" he asked.
"Should you be?" Severus drawled.
"Er… no?" Harry said. Remus watched with fascination as Severus did nothing more than stare at Harry impassively, somehow causing the boy to fidget with nerves more and more with each passing second. "It was only a prank!" Harry burst out. "And Fred and George thought it was funny! Honest."
Remus hid a smile of amusement. "Well, I suppose as long as no one got hurt, then we can probably let it go, just this once. What do you think, Professor Snape?"
"I suppose so. But I better not discover that you've been breaking school rules in the course of your pranking," Severus said, and Harry shook his head emphatically.
"No sir. Thank you. But, er… That's not actually what you wanted to talk to me about, is it?" Harry asked.
"No, it's not. We had a rather more serious matter we wished to discuss with you," Remus said. "Now Severus has told me that you're already familiar with the situation surrounding your parent's deaths, as well Sirius Black's role in that and his actions immediately afterward, correct?"
"Yes, sir," Harry agreed with a tight nod.
"Good," Remus said. This conversation would be difficult enough without having to recount all that as well. "What I discovered recently is Sirius was never put to trial for those crimes."
Harry wore a puzzled frown. "But he's in wizard jail, right? Azkaban? How could Black be in jail if there was never a trial?"
"At the time it was felt there was sufficient evidence to find Sirius guilty without need for a trial," Remus told him.
"Oh. Well, I guess that's okay then," Harry said.
"It's not," Remus corrected gently. "Maybe in the case of smaller crimes it might be okay sometimes, but these are very big, very serious things he's been accused of. They shouldn't have sentenced him without first having a trial to be certain they'd considered every reasonable explanation and knew Sirius being guilty was the correct one. In fact, Professor Dumbledore went to speak with Sirius a few days ago, and he had a different explanation that also fit what we know currently." For the third time Remus explained his theory as to how Sirius might be innocent, though this time he framed it solely as being Sirius's side of the story.
After he was finished Harry sat quietly for a minute, processing the information. "Does that mean Sirius was the dog from the Prank War of 1975?"
Well. That certainly hadn't been the first question Remus had been expecting. "Yes, he was."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. "And you think Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew."
"I don't know if he is or isn't. All I can say is it's possible he is."
"Ron's not going to be happy about that. He's practically given Pig to Ginny already because he's convinced Scabbers is going to come back." Yes, and Remus was still feeling a bit guilty over that. Both about Ron having lost his pet – though intellectually he did realize if Scabbers was Peter, then Remus was hardly responsible for his actions – and about Ron's relentless optimism over Scabbers potential return. Maybe once all this was sorted he ought to buy the boy an apology gift. Not another rat though. An owl, perhaps.
"Mr. Weasley is not going to find out about it, not until after the rat has been captured or Black's trial had gone public. I am certain Lupin mentioned as much to you when he was explaining the situation just now," Severus said.
"Yeah, but I didn't think he meant I couldn't talk to my friends about it," Harry protested. "They won't tell anyone if I tell them not to. They didn't tell anyone about Professor Quirrell and You-Know-Who; Draco didn't even tell his dad about it."
Given Severus's passing comment a few days ago that Lucius Malfoy was up to something, Remus had his doubts about that, but he could hardly prove anything. What's more Severus was now giving Harry a decidedly thoughtful look. "You understand that if the rat is Pettigrew and Pettigrew is guilty, then him finding out about the pending trial prematurely would essentially eliminate any chance of catching him?"
"Yes sir," Harry agreed.
"And that further would mean not only would one of the men responsible for the death of your parents would escape justice, but Pettigrew might attempt to return to the Dark Lord, providing him with an ally and a chance to return to power once again?"
Harry quailed under that question, but after a moment nodded resolutely. "Yes sir."
"Additionally, should Draco Malfoy choose to inform his father about the upcoming trial for Black, it's entirely possible the elder Malfoy will attempt to block the trial from taking place at all."
"Because if Pettigrew is on You-Know-Who's side, then Mr. Malfoy would want him to stay free instead of Sirius?" Harry asked.
Severus snorted. "I'm very certain Lucius could not care less about Pettigrew. He would only be concerned with the Black family coffers." When Harry's brow wrinkled in confusion, Severus explained further. "Narcissa Malfoy is a Black by birth, Sirius Black's cousin, and at present the strongest claimant to the Black fortunes once Black passes. However, if Black were released from prison he might produce his own heir, or otherwise muddy the waters."
Harry nodded. "Draco's dad is pretty selfish. But Draco's plenty rich already, so I'll bet he'd be willing to forget to tell his dad about it, if I asked him to. Besides, that means Sirius is Draco's cousin; I bet he'll want to meet him too once he hears. I can tell him, right? As long as I swear him to secrecy?"
"Since, as you pointed out, the castle is not currently abound with rumours regarding the Dark Lord and Professor Quirrell, I believe you have proven your judgement trustworthy," Severus said with finality, if a small measure of reluctance.
Harry fairly beamed at the man. "Thank you!"
"Just make sure you inspect any corners for rats before you tell them, okay?" Remus added, and Harry nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Now do you have any more questions about any of this?"
"I do have one more question," Harry said. "I was just wondering if you thought Sirius was innocent." Remus assumed the question was meant for the both of them, but Harry was looking right at him when he said it, putting Remus in a bit of a predicament. He glanced over Severus, as this one the one thing Severus had explicitly told Remus not to answer, but Severus showed no inclination to interject. Harry had given Remus the rope, and now Severus was willing to see if he would hang himself with it.
"It's like I said before, the purpose of the trial is to find out the truth of what happened. That's the most important thing, figuring out the truth with absolute certainty, or at least as much as we can manage. Because of that, it doesn't make sense for us to come to any conclusions about what we think happened beforehand," Remus said.
"Oh. Okay," Harry said, clearly not pleased with the lack of a definitive yes or no, but unable to find any real fault with Remus's answer. "Thanks for telling me all this."
Remus smiled at him. "Of course."
Things quieted down for a while after that, as unlikely as it seemed given all that was going on at the moment. Granted there were still the odd mishaps here and there – the fiasco that was Gilderoy's Valentine's surprise for one – but they were all isolated incidents unrelated to any of the larger issues at hand. The preparations for Sirius's trial and the efforts to actually secure him a trial had been taken over by Dumbledore, so Remus attempted to take the advice he had given Harry and not worry about it for the moment. Surprisingly, and despite Scabbers still being at large, he was mostly successful. It did help he received regular updates from Dumbledore, frequently enough to reassure Remus positive progress was being made without being so frequent to keep the matter constantly top of mind.
He was also probably helped by the hopeful air that had begun to grip the school at large. As winter gave way to spring which inched ever closer to summer, there had been no new attacks. Pomona's mandrakes were getting closer to maturity all the while, and the students had decided these two things meant everything was all right now and would be completely back to normal soon. Most of the staff, Remus included, knew they ought to be more realistic about the situation, since they had as yet to determine who was behind the attacks and how they were pulling them off, but the optimism of the students was incredibly infectious.
Perhaps that's why it hit them all so especially hard when Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater were found Petrified.
The evening after the attack found Remus sitting in his office putting together personalized lesson plans. When he'd heard about the attack, the first inane and irrelevant thought to cross his mind was those two were going to be so upset at missing classes. He'd dismissed it as unimportant at first in comparison to the larger issue of children continuing to be attacked, but there was nothing he could do about the larger issue. All he could do was put together study guides for the four students in the Hospital Wing, in the hopes they wouldn't have to repeat the school year.
The door to his office suddenly opened and shut to no one. Remus whipped his wand out in front of him, only to nearly drop it in surprise a moment later when Harry emerged from beneath James's old cloak. "What in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Remus demanded. He strode over to Harry and had to hold himself back from physically inspecting the boy for injuries. Harry was very obviously not Petrified, and none of the victims had shown any evidence of harms done beyond that.
"I have something I need to tell you about. Well, actually I was going to tell Uncle Severus, but then I remembered your office was a lot closer to Gryffindor Tower, so I thought it'd be safer if I came here to tell you instead," Harry said, his tone of voice suggesting that Remus ought to commend him for this very small measure of sense.
"You shouldn't be out to see anyone," Remus said. He plucked the Invisibility Cloak out of Harry's hands, folding it up neatly and placing it on a side table. Harry could have it back once he proved he wasn't going to be spectacularly reckless with it. Harry made a small noise of protest at that, but was smart enough not to actually argue. "Now I am going to escort you back to your dorm, and tomorrow morning at breakfast you can approach Severus at the staff table and ask for a private word."
"But it's important!" Harry protested. "It's about the Chamber of Secrets."
"What about the Chamber of Secrets?" Reus asked. A large part of him was sceptical that a twelve-year-old might know something the rest of the staff had overlooked, but he reminded himself it had been Harry and his friends that had tipped Dumbledore off about the attempts to steal the Philosopher's Stone last year.
"I know who opened the Chamber last time. And it's definitely not him this time! But I thought, you know, maybe if Professor Dumbledore talked to him, then maybe that would help figure out what was happening this time," Harry said. That begged the question of how Harry knew that, but Remus doubted he'd get a truthful answer if he asked.
"That's a good thought, but I'm certain Professor Dumbledore already knows who opened it last time. He was already here at the school teaching back then," Remus told him.
"Oh, right," Harry said, looking crestfallen. Then he perked back up again, a determined glint in his eye. "But what if he doesn't know? The old Headmaster tried to cover it up didn't he? What if he didn't even tell the professors what really happened? It can't hurt to tell him, can it?"
Remus regarded Harry. Hermione was one of Harry's closest friends, he reminded himself, and there was nothing Harry could do to help her. Nothing but pass on a bit of information that he almost certainly already knew was going to be of little help. "All right," Remus agreed. "I'll take you to Dumbledore's office and you can tell him what you know. But then we're going back to Gryffindor Tower, and you will stay there and not sneak out and put yourself in danger again, do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Harry said quickly. "Thank you."
Remus walked Harry to the Headmaster's office, but before he could give the gargoyle the password, it jumped aside of its own accord to let out Dumbledore and the Minister for Magic.
"What's this? I thought you said the students had been put on curfew," Fudge objected.
"They have. I'm sure it's only an exceedingly urgent matter that has brought Harry here to speak with me now," Dumbledore said.
"Well I don't…" The objection had come from Fudge automatically, but then he stopped. His gaze swept up to Harry's forehead, and he immediately lost his bluster and took on an understanding and almost sycophantic cast. "Well if you feel you need to talk to the boy, I understand. I'll just go on ahead."
"I don't think that would be a good idea," Dumbledore said. His tone was mild, but there was an unmistakeable warning there. "Harry, Professor Lupin, if I may prevail upon your patience, the Minister and I have matters to attend to. You both may wait in my office and I'll be with you as soon as I can.
"But Professor, it's about…" Harry's eyes darted over toward Fudge and he licked his lips. "It's about the Chamber."
"Oh is that all the fuss?" Fudge said with an overwhelming show of geniality. "You needn't worry Mr. Potter. As your headmaster alluded, I'm the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge. I've come here this evening to personally bring in the man responsible for the attacks in." There was something about that, or perhaps it was everything about it, that rubbed Remus the wrong way. He found himself placing a protective hand on Harry's shoulder without any really idea of what he was protecting Harry from.
"Is that true? You've caught who did it?" Harry asked. He was looking at Dumbledore rather than Fudge, which was really only proof that Harry was a rather clever child.
Regardless, Fudge was the one to answer. "We have a very strong suspicious and we're going outside right now to– "
"Hagrid didn't do it!" Harry shouted angrily. All three adults looked at him in surprise.
"I don't know how you got that name, but I assure you we have every reason to believe Rubeus Hagrid is the guilty party," Fudge said. "He was found guilty of the crime the last time."
"I bet he didn't get a trial either," Harry muttered darkly.
Luckily the word "either" slipped beneath Fudge's notice, but the sentiment had not. "I don't have to explain my actions to you. The Ministry is not answerable to a schoolboy," he blustered.
"No you aren't" Dumbledore said, his words suggesting agreement, his tone anything but. "However, as you are in my school attempting to arrest a member of my staff, you are answerable to me. And as headmaster, I am answerable to my students with regards to providing them with a positive learning environment. Which I believe to include listening to their concerns." Fudge looked near-apoplectic, but his sputters failed to form any sort of coherent sentence, and Dumbledore ignored him. "Now Harry, I presume what you came here to tell me was regarding Hagrid?"
"Just that he was the one who opened the Chamber the last time," Harry said.
"I see. Is there anything else?"
"No. Er, wait, yeah, there is. Hagrid didn't do it. Maybe it was him the last time, before he knew the monster was dangerous, so he was letting it out sometimes just to be nice. But he wouldn't keep doing it after people started getting hurt."
"A very astute assessment of Hagrid's character," Dumbledore said. "Thank you for bringing your concerns to me; I will take it from here. Professor Lupin, if you could escort Harry back to his common room."
"Of course," Remus said, and he steered Harry away to the backdrop of Fudge's continued protests and Dumbledore's deft handling of the man.
"I don't want Hagrid to go to jail," Harry said once they were well out of earshot. "He didn't do anything wrong."
"I'm sure the Headmaster agrees with you," said Remus.
"Yeah," Harry said glumly. He didn't seem especially confident Hagrid's innocence would grant him any mercy. Under the circumstances, Remus could hardly blame him.
"Hagrid was the first friend I ever made," Harry continued. "I mean, I know I met Neville and Ron when I was a baby, but Hagrid is the first friend I made after I was old enough to remember. He was at Gringotts when Professor Snape took me the first time. Oh! I know I met Uncle Severus first, but he's…"
"He's your uncle. It's not the same thing."
"Exactly," Harry said, sounding so relieved that Remus suspected Harry had thought he had implied he didn't care for Severus. As though anyone who knew the boy could believe that.
The relief didn't last, his expression turning morose again. "If the Minister does arrest Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore will make sure he gets a trial right? Like he's doing for Sirius?"
"I'm sure everything will be fine," Remus said. Even though he knew that at twelve Harry likely considered himself too old for such a thing, Remus couldn't stop himself from reaching over and taking Harry's hand.
Harry startled, but after a moment, he squeezed back tightly. He didn't let go the whole way back to the Tower.
The following morning both Dumbledore and Hagrid were gone. Despite knowing it wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could have done, when he saw Harry's face fall, Remus had never felt more like a failure.