Chapter 30

A/N: So as you all know, I do not own anything in this story. All the stuff from Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and all the stuff from The Lion King belongs to Disney.

Wow, hard to believe I'm on my 30th chapter! It's been a fun journey and it's not over yet! We've still got a lot more to cover—and I can't wait. The Quidditch Cup will take place in the next chapter and I'm thinking that the climax of third year will happen either chapter after that or the next one.

Okay, so the twins are going to take the Animagus potion. Any thoughts on their forms? I have to admit that I'd think it be funny if the twins didn't turn into the same animal but that's just me. Can't wait to see what Simba's reverse Animagus form looks like!

Thank you all for your reviews, your favorites, your alerts and of course your views! We did it everyone! As I type this, The Lion and I sits at 100,075 views—making this my most viewed fanfiction yet!

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"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? ARE YOU INSANE OR DID AZKABAN JUST REMOVE ALL OF YOUR COMMON SENSE? OH WAIT, YOU MUST NOT HAVE ANY BECAUSE ONLY SOMEONE WITHOUT COMMON SENSE WOULD PULL OFF WHAT YOU DID!"

"Sweet Merlin, you need to keep your voice down," Sirius shushed the irate lion in front of him. It had been a few days after the incident in the boy's dorm and Simba had finally gotten the chance to check in with Sirius. By check in, of course, he meant something completely different. He couldn't do what he'd done to Wood all those months ago—mainly because that would end up getting Sirius caught.

"DON'T TELL ME TO KEEP MY VOICE DOWN SIRIUS BLACK! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT! YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN IF YOU HAD BEEN SLOWER GETTING OUT OF THERE! GOING AFTER RON? REALLY? WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME DID YOU THINK THAT WOULD ACHIEVE?"

"In my defense, I wasn't going after the boy," Sirius said, trying to get Simba to quiet down. Just because they were in the middle of the Forbidden Forest did not mean they could throw caution to the wind. "I thought maybe Peter had grown tired of hiding and had scurried back to the boy's side."

Simba put a paw over his eyes in frustration. "And stabbing him with a knife would do what exactly? He can't help prove your innocence if he's dead—especially if you're the one who killed him!"

Sirius grew silent as Simba paced. "You know now that my visits are going to be few and far between right?" the lion asked after a few minutes, picking his head up and staring at the convict. "Security's super tight right now for reasons we both know so I'm not going to dive into them. The only reason I'm allowed outside is because…well, I'm a lion."

"That's a good reason too," Sirius smirked and Simba felt the anger in him subside. He couldn't fault Sirius for wanting to prove his innocence—hell, Simba knew that the sooner someone was caught, the sooner the Dementors were taken away. That would improve his sleep for sure.

"You haven't been sleeping again have you?" Sirius asked suddenly, staring at the lion. Simba shook his head. He knew that he had a ways to go before he could sleep without aid but there was a part of him that felt that he deserved the nightmares. It was a reminder of what he'd lost because of his careless actions.

"I have some Dreamless Sleep but I never have time to use it," Simba said sheepishly. "It's just easier not to sleep sometimes. Besides, someone has to be the one to let Neville inside for curfew and since I'm almost always up, I'm the one to do it. "

Sirius nodded and sat down next to Simba. "You know, your friends are going to confront you sooner or later—and if Harry's anything like his father, he's going to be leading the charge."

"I've been spending time with the Hufflepuffs. It shouldn't be a problem," Simba told him and Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Oh, that's cute. You think the Puffs will leave you alone? Simba, the Hufflepuff House is known for their loyalty—meaning if something is bothering one of them, they will not rest until they figure out what's wrong. Even if that person isn't in their house."

Simba stared at him. "You mean, I have to avoid two houses now! It was hard enough avoiding Gryffindors."

"Sorry," Sirius said—not looking sorry in the slightest. "You should probably avoid Ravenclaw as well. They're scary smart and will realize something's wrong in an instant."

"At least the Slytherins won't bother me," Simba grumbled as he made his way back up to the castle. With all the security upgrades, it was better if he didn't stay outside for too long.

0000

Simba realized one very important thing within the next few days. It was a lot easier to avoid Hufflepuffs than it was to avoid Gryffindors. Maybe it was because the Puffs were just more understanding, what with Sirius breaking in to Gryffindor Tower and standing over Ron with a knife. Maybe that's what Simba kept telling himself to get the guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach to shut up.

"You okay?" Cedric asked one day after catching Simba in the halls. "We haven't seen you in a while and Susan and Hannah were getting worried."

"I'm fine," Simba said but let out a huge yawn that proved otherwise. "Sorry, didn't sleep well last night," he told the older boy. "Tell Susan and Hannah hi for me."

Simba walked off, not noticing Cedric's frown or how the older boy walked toward the Great Hall, and more importantly to the direction of two particular Weasleys.

0000

To say that Simba was surprised to see all his Gryffindor friends gathered in the Common Room a few days after his conversation with Cedric would be an understatement. The sight instantly put him on edge, though he didn't know why.

"Simba?" Hermione's timid voice brought him out of his thoughts and he realized that she was there for the first time. She was also speaking to him as well—maybe that was what this was all about? Were they finally making up? He could live with that.

"Hey Hermione," he said with a small grin which grew as Hermione seemed to relax. Then, suddenly, she was hugging him. Why was she hugging him? No seriously, why was she hugging him?!

"Uh, guys?" he tried to get out of the embrace but Hermione had a freaking death grip of a hug. It could rival Ron's mum.

"Oh, Simba! I am so sorry for what I said at Christmas. I didn't mean it—I should have recognized the signs and helped you instead of abandoning you and leaving you to go through this—"

"Breathe woman!" Simba shouted, which caused Hermione to break the embrace. Something he was thankful for because her grip had started to hurt. "Now, what in Merlin's name are you talking about?"

"You're not sleeping again," Angelina told him. "We're worried about you—Oliver is as well. He wanted to be here but when we mentioned you were probably sleep deprived, he shuddered and began walking as far away as possible. Muttered something about not wanting to piss you off."

"Okay, that one event happened because of the storm and because Harry was in danger, not because of my being sleep deprived," Simba argued. "It was one time!"

"Yeah, and then there was the time where you ran into the wall twice trying to get out of the Common Room," Fred told him, and Simba shot him a look. "Not to mention the numerous times we've found you passed out somewhere in the castle."

"Once!"

"Once a week is more like it," Katie voiced her concern, getting up from her chair to join the group growing around Simba. "Simba, what's going on? Maybe we can help."

Simba growled and tried to turn around so that he could exit the Common Room. Tried being the ultimate word because Harry was standing right behind him.

"Nice try," Harry said with an amused look on his face. "But you've been avoiding all of us. Normally this would slide under the radar since you've been avoiding all of us since Christmas but Cedric came up to us a few days ago concerned since you were avoiding the Hufflepuffs as well."

"That's new," Ron chuckled, trying to be the least confrontational member of the lot. Simba assumed it was because of the newly repaired friendship between him and the redhead but that was a lot to assume. "For the past few weeks, Simba's been avoiding us by spending all his time with the Puffs."

"Okay, what the bloody hell is all this!" Simba shouted, sick and tired of trying to figure out what their angle was.

"It's an intervention," Angelina told him and Simba stared at her in shock.

"A WHAT?"

"You shout a lot when you get sleep deprived, did you know that?" Katie said as she rubbed her ear. "Merlin, now I remember why Wood was so hesitant to join us."

"Start taking your vials of Dreamless Sleep or we're going to take you to Pomphrey," Angelina spoke over her fellow chaser, though the effect she was going for was ruined as she too was rubbing her ears. "This can't be healthy."

"I'm fine!" Simba insisted as he tried desperately to hide another yawn.

"Merlin help us, another Harry," he heard Hermione mutter to Ron and had to hold back a snort. His brother really did try to insist that he was fine when he sometimes wasn't.

"Simba?" Ginny was the one to break the tension and Simba realized that she was the only one to know what it was like—to have debilitating nightmares. He just couldn't talk about them right now. Maybe when he was positive none of the gang would leave him for killing his dad.

"Give me a bloody vial," Simba growled and the group beamed. Ginny and Hermione helped him onto the couch while the Gryffindor chasers walked out of the Common Room. They said it was to warn the rest of the house but Simba was thankful that they were leaving. If the potion didn't work, that would be fewer people who knew about the nightmares.

"Hey Simba?" Fred whispered, making the motions of fluffing a pillow for the lion. "Just to let you know, George has finished the Animagus and reverse Animagus potions. Get your sleep cycle back on track okay. We want to do this."

Simba nodded, not in the mood to figure out what the reverse Animagus potion would do to someone running on maybe three hours a sleep a night. Hey, maybe this would mean that he could stop avoiding McGonagall as well. He felt horrible about doing so but the professor was a lot more observant than the students. Simba couldn't risk it.

"Open wide!" Harry said, happy that his brother might finally be getting a good night's rest.

Simba felt the potion hit his tongue and curled up as the potion took effect. He was out like a light.

0000

Apparently, it's very easy to remember to take your Dreamless Sleep potion when you have a gang of people to remind you. Simba, for once, did not mind. He was finally sleeping normally again (thanks in part to the Dreamless Sleep) and he had to admit that it was a lot of fun smiling at people and watching them freak out.

"Hey Ron?" Simba said one day as the trio was studying in the Common Room. "I'm sorry about Scabbers. I should have said that earlier."

"It's fine," Ron said, looking at Simba with an incredulous look on his face. "In fact, I'm the one who should apologize. I had no right to blame you. Hermione let me know that very clearly."

Simba smiled at that. So at least there was one death that he was not at fault for—even if the rat faked his own death. "So, are we all friends again?"

"When did we stop?" Harry asked and they all chuckled. This became the new normal and Simba loved it. He didn't feel the need to try to avoid people since his sleep schedule was almost on track—there were a few nightmares that slipped through the cracks but Simba didn't let anyone know about those.

Compared to having them every night, he could take one or two a week.

Besides, it was nice to not have to memorize escape routes every time he saw someone he wanted to avoid. It was also nice not wanting to avoid anyone as well. Well, with the exception of Malfoy but that was a given.

A couple of weeks passed until Simba remembered that Fred had told him that the potions were ready. So he did the first logical thing he could think of—stare at the twins from across the room.

"You know, you could have just come up to us," Fred said with a smirk. "You nearly caused Wood to freak out when he noticed that you were staring at us."

"Where's the fun in that?" Simba asked and Fred's smirk turned to a genuine smile. While it was clear that whatever was bugging Simba was clearly still at it, at least the lion was sleeping and getting back to his fun loving nature.

"You ready to try this out?" Fred asked, after rounding up his brother and causing half of Gryffindor to flee from the Common Room at the sight of Simba paring up with the Weasley twins. The trio remained some of the few brave souls who stayed upon realizing that the three of them were leaving the Common Room.

"So am I the only one who feels an impending sense of doom?" Harry asked as Simba began to climb out of the portrait hole.

"You say that every time I go somewhere with the twins," Simba retorted, looking over his shoulder to roll his eyes at his brother.

"That's usually because I have a reason!" Harry shouted back and Simba's laughter could be heard as he exited the Common Room. He was excited to finally try this potion out!