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Chapter Six

When the first Hogsmeade weekend arrived, Harry sulked upset that he hadn't been able to convince the Dursleys to sign his permission slip and upset that Ron and Hermione had gone without him.

Harry had taken Bane with him down to the shores of the lake, where Harry kicked stones fiercely around.

"It's all the Dursleys' fault," Harry growled to Wolfsbane. "They never let me do anything fun, and they do anything possible to ruin my life. They said they'd sign the permission slip if I'd behaved when Aunt Marge visited…but she's such a dreadful woman! She kept insulting mum and dad, and she's not worth half as much as one of their fingernails!"

Harry sighed and sat down on the grass and Wolfsbane walked over and sat down next to him.

"I wish I never had to go back to them," Harry confided, "I wish I'd never had to even meet them. They're the worst kind of people."

Wolfsbane licked his cheek to console him and Harry buried his face in the dog's fur.

"Why would Dumbledore send me to live with them," Harry asked, "surely there was someone-anyone else that could've taken me in."

Wolfsbane snuffed and poked his nose into Harry's hair, whining softly.

"Harry!"

Harry immediately looked up and saw Professor Lupin hurrying towards him. He stood up and waited for the professor to come closer.

"Oh no," Harry sighed down to Wolfsbane, "he's going to lecture me about you again."

"I'm surprised to see you aren't in Hogsmeade," Professor Lupin said, appearing winded.

"No one would sign my permission slip," Harry sighed.

Professor Lupin appeared surprised and then said, "Well, would you like to come to my office for tea? Perhaps we could work out the details of your extra lessons?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry said brightly, and then he remembered and hesitantly asked, "shall I take Wolfsbane up to my dorm first?"

Professor Lupin seemed a bit taken aback by the question and thought about it for a moment, "It would be all right if he came along."

Harry beamed in complete happiness and said, "Well, come on, boy!"

Wolfsbane slowly slunk up behind Harry, hiding from view and Professor Lupin glared down at him.

"Have Ron and Hermione gone ahead without you?" Professor Lupin asked as they began walking back to the castle.

"Yes," Harry replied sullenly, "I wish they had stayed, but I wouldn't ask them to do something like that for me, it would be mean."

Professor Lupin smiled at him and told him, "Your friends do care about you; it's just the novelty of being able to do something they couldn't before. I'm sure that you'll be able to get someone to sign your permission slip and then you'll be able to join them soon enough."

Harry huffed, not really wanting to hear that sort of adult nonsense right now.

"You know, your father didn't go on a Hogsmeade trip until his fifth year," Professor Lupin informed him, "he always had something to do here at school on the weekends, he was constantly occupied."

"You knew my father?" Harry exclaimed in wonder.

"I was one of your father's friends," Professor Lupin replied with a wide grin. "Our times at school together were some of the happiest years of my life."

Harry was positively radiant with his happiness, and Professor Lupin told him, "You favor your father very much, but you have your mother's eyes."

Harry looked impossibly happy upon hearing this, though he'd surely heard it hundreds of times before. Professor Lupin continued telling him more about his father until they reached his office and then Lupin, opened his office door and held it open for Harry, Wolfsbane scurried in quickly between Harry's legs and hid underneath the chair that Harry would be sitting in. Well, tried to hide underneath the chair, the large dog was able to fit about half his body underneath and so his backside and limp tail were left exposed.

Harry frowned at Bane's behavior and knelt down by the dog's head and tried to coax him out from his hiding place.

"So about your problem with dementors," Professor Lupin murmured thoughtfully as he began easily preparing tea. "I've been thinking that I could teach you the patronus spell as well."

"Really?" Harry asked eagerly, looking away from Wolfsbane for a moment.

"Certainly, it will be a very challenging spell," Professor Lupin informed him, "but I think you'll be able to master it well enough to defend yourself."

"Do you think…that I'll see more of them…the dementors?"

Professor Lupin sighed thoughtfully and replied, "There are some on the outskirts of campus, on guard for Sirius Black, but they aren't supposed to come onto school grounds or into the school."

Harry pursed his lips, thoughtfully.

"Why don't you sit down, Harry, the tea will be ready soon."

Harry patted Wolfsbane on the head and then sat down on the chair, leaning forward to examine his dog's condition.

"What do you know about Sirius Black?" Harry asked curiously.

Professor Lupin paused in his tea-making and replied, "Enough."

"I've heard," Harry said haltingly, "that he wants to kill me."

Wolfsbane sneezed and nearly startled Harry out of his seat. Professor Lupin smiled in amusement before he could help himself and then placed a tray down on his desk. It held two cups and a teapot.

"I have heard that too, Harry," Professor Lupin replied.

"Is it true?"

Professor Lupin closed his eyes and then said, "It is difficult to understand the motivation behind what killers do. Indeed, it would be much simpler if they were here to explain why they escaped from prison after muttering threats in their sleep, and then hunted down schoolchildren," Professor Lupin then cut himself off and cleared his throat. "Just know that Sirius Black is a very bad man and should not be trusted."

Harry swallowed and looked away from the professor.

"I'm sorry if I've frightened you, Harry, that wasn't my intention," Professor Lupin said softly, "Here, have a glass of tea and I'll see if I can't find an old photo album of my school days."

Harry immediately perked up and was smiling happily while Professor Lupin quickly poured him a cup of tea, before heading back into his private rooms.

Harry then immediately turned all of his attention to Wolfsbane and jumped down from his chair, sitting on the ground in front of his dog's face.

"What is wrong with you?" Harry asked him softly, and he gently rubbed the fur between his eyes. Wolfsbane closed his eyes and then produced a high pitched whine that slowly increased in volume.

Then Professor Lupin appeared from behind the door and stared between Harry and Wolfsbane who immediately ceased his whining upon being caught.

"What happened?" Professor Lupin demanded.

"Nothing," Harry replied, "he's just really upset for some reason."

"For some reason," Professor Lupin echoed dully, and then he sighed, "well, I'll go finish trying to find that album, then."

As soon as Professor Lupin disappeared, Harry asked, "Can you tell that he doesn't like you?"

Wolfsbane didn't react and simply stared at Harry. Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration and pleaded, "Please stop hiding, Wolfsbane."

Bane snuffed and then slowly wiggled out from under the chair before collapsing onto the floor in front of it, looking like he'd been petrified. Professor Lupin returned, holding a thin book, and blinked when he saw Wolfsbane had moved, and then his eyes narrowed as he studied the dog.

Professor Lupin settled behind his desk, placing the book onto his desk. His brows were furrowed, and his expression dark. He poured himself a glass of tea, and Harry quickly returned to his seat and reached for his own cup.

Then Professor Lupin opened the album he'd located and began pointing out which were his parents and how old they were when the picture was taken and where the picture was taken.

Harry was completely enraptured by the pictures, until they got to the last one and Professor Lupin said, "This was taken right before your parents went into hiding with you."

Then Wolfsbane began whining piteously and ran over to the door and began scratching at it.

"What's wrong?" Harry demanded in alarm. "Are you okay?"

Harry set his cup of tea down and ran over to his dog trying to get him to calm down and Professor Lupin watched with that same odd expression on his face that he'd had on the train when Harry's woken up after the dementors. After a moment, Wolfsbane curled up as small as possible in front of Harry, whining softly.

"I don't know what's wrong with him," Harry said softly, looking lost.

"It's like I was saying earlier about killers, Harry," Professor Lupin said, glaring or possibly frowning at Wolfsbane, "sometimes it's hard to know the motivations behind why people do what they do, unless they're there to explain it to you themselves. Dogs, in the same way, are similarly unable to speak and so they can't explain themselves."

"It sounds like he was calling Bane a killer, doesn't it?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione when they came back that evening.

Hermione looked shocked and said, "That sounds like a really bizarre conversation!"

"And you say he knew your parents?" Ron asked, "Well, that certainly explains why he's so upset about Sirius Black. He was probably still upset from when you asked about it earlier."

Fred and George suddenly appeared from no where.

"Did you say-"

"-Sirius Black?"

"Um, yeah," Ron replied, looking to Harry and Hermione to save him. They both shrugged.

"What about him?"

"Have you heard anything about him?"

"Like about him being here?"

"What are you two even talking about?" Ron demanded, "You've been acting even weirder than normal!"

"So…"

"You haven't heard anything like that?"

"Of course not!" Ron said, clearly flustered, "Don't you think if there was a cold blooded killer running about school, they'd be doing something about it?"

"Why are you asking?" Hermione asked curiously, studying the twins.

The turned to look at each other and then one replied, "Oh, what do you know, there's Katie and Angelina!"

"Perhaps they've heard something!"

Then they nearly fell over each other in their hurry to leave.

"I should write mum," Ron muttered darkly. "They need professional help."

"They have been acting really unusual," Hermione murmured thoughtfully, "I'm going to try to talk to them."

She got up and walked over to them, but as soon as they saw her they fled up to their dorm, and she came back over to Ron and Harry looked really unhappy.

"They're hiding something," She huffed as she plopped back down into her chair. "Something serious!"

"Knowing them," Harry said," it's probably just some big elaborate joke."

Hermione looked like she would lose her temper and hex them if that were the case.