Many thanks to everyone who took the time to review! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Things get a little interesting in this chapter :O but that's supposed to happen since we're nearing the end. I hope you like it,
Chapter Ten
Harry supposed he should have expected it, but he didn't.
The next morning at breakfast he noticed Professor Lupin stood up before the meal was fully over and went to speak to the headmaster. At first, the headmaster seemed surprised and then his facial expression deteriorated into something hard and icy...an expression Harry had never seen on the headmaster's face. Dumbledore then leaned over to say something to McGonagall whose face sank into a fierce look, the same one she got whenever someone was really in trouble but she didn't want to give away what sort of punishment they were in for.
Dumbledore then stood up and he and Professor Lupin went to stand in a corner where they spoke furiously to each other. Then they both looked very tired, and the headmaster looked over to study Harry and Harry knew that nothing good was going to come of this.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, touching Harry's shoulder and making him jump.
"Look," Harry told her, and she also turned to look at the two men.
"Oh no," Hermione gasped, "surely, you don't think…"
She wasn't able to finish her sentence as the headmaster began walking up to the Gryffindor table and stopped right in front of Harry.
"Mr. Potter," the headmaster said, with the tone of someone speaking to a wild animal, "would you please come up to my office? You're not in trouble, I just have a few questions to ask you."
Hermione gasped, and then threw her hand over her mouth and looked at Harry with utter dejection in her eyes. Harry felt a thick lump of dread in his throat and he stood up, and everyone at the table began whispering furiously.
"Do go wait by the doorway for me," Dumbledore told Harry gently. Then he raised his voice and announced very loudly, "Everyone, students, please, may I have your attention. All Defense Against the Dark Arts classes will be cancelled for today, and the Gryffindor Tower will be locked until dinner time. If you do not have all of your books or supplies for the whole day, you won't be punished."
The Great Hall filled with a huge roar upon hearing this announcement, and Headmaster Dumbledore, approached Harry and gently placed his hand between his shoulder blades to propel him forward. Professor Lupin slowly followed behind them, feet dragging like a toddler on its way to be punished.
Once they reached the headmaster's office, Dumbledore gently directed Harry to the seat before his desk. Then he went to the other side of the office and created some sort of soundless bubble. Then he waved for Professor Lupin to join him inside of it, and there the two men talked until Professor Lupin began yelling and gesturing furiously. Dumbledore, though, remained physically calm, but his face was hard as he spoke to Lupin. After this went on for a while, Dumbledore dropped the bubble and Professor Lupin went to go stand in the back of the office, glaring at the wall dejectedly.
"Harry," the headmaster said softly, his angry look dissolving into a more friendly expression as he sat down at his desk before Harry, "I have a few questions for you about your dog."
"You're going to take him away, aren't you," Harry demanded, not liking this situation at all.
Dumbledore's face gave nothing away and he replied, "That's-"
"I won't let you take him away!" Harry yelled, "It's not fair! Professor Lupin's had it out for Bane ever since he saw him! Besides, it's not like I'm the only one with a pet that's not on the approved list! It's just because Bane belongs to me and Professor Lupin doesn't like dogs!"
"Harry," Professor Lupin began with a sigh.
"No!" Harry yelled, jumping out of his chair, "He's a good dog, he's way better behaved than Trevor-"
"Trevor?" Dumbledore questioned in confusion.
"Neville's toad," Harry replied, "he runs away all the time! No one knows where he is and he turns up weeks later! Bane stays in my dorm during classes and never goes anywhere without me!"
"With good reason," Professor Lupin growled.
"Remus," the headmaster chided, "please control your temper, I know this is frustrating for you, but we'll get this worked out."
Professor Lupin's eyes flashed an eerie gold color and he ran his hand through his graying hair and made a frustrated noise. He turned away from both Harry and the headmaster once more and took several deep breaths.
"Harry, we'd like to make this as easy as possible, so please just answer all of my questions honestly...and do take a seat, this isn't the inquisition," the headmaster said gently. "Now can you please tell us when you got your dog?"
"I found him over the summer," Harry explained, and Professor Lupin hissed and made a weird growling noise.
"You found him?" Dumbledore repeated blandly.
"Yes, the night I ran away from the Dursley's, why does this matter?"
"Has he ever tried to hurt you?" Professor Lupin demanded, turning to face Harry, his eyes fiery and looking like molten gold. Lupin was acting very odd, more so than usual and it made Harry a bit uncomfortable.
"Of course not!" Harry exclaimed, offended, "he'd never hurt me! He tried to protect me from the dementors!"
"That's true," Professor Lupin grudgingly admitted. "He dragged Harry away from them on the train; I'm not sure how he managed that-"
"We'll discuss that later," Dumbledore assured him, and then he turned to Harry and asked, "Has he ever tried to hurt any of your friends?"
"The only thing he's ever tried to hurt was Scabbers, but Crookshanks doesn't like Scabbers either so you can't say he's being bad!" Harry replied defensively.
"Scabbers?" Professor Lupin asked, brow furrowed in confusion.
"I believe that is the pet rat of Harry's friend Ronald," Dumbledore explained
"A rat?" Professor Lupin exclaimed in horror.
Dumbledore then looked to Harry, "I seem to recall Percival also having a pet rat?"
"Yeah," Harry replied, "Scabbers was Percy's but when Percy made prefect he got an owl so he gave Scabbers to Ron."
"A rat?" Professor Lupin said again.
"Yeah," Harry replied, thinking that this was another animal that Lupin didn't like. At least, with a rat it was easy to see what the problem there would be, "but he's not gross, well…I mean, he's been really stressed out and losing hair so he's kind of ugly…we had to put him in a cage to keep him from running off and so Crookshanks and Bane couldn't attack him."
"Get him to bring both of them up here," Professor Lupin demanded turning his fierce look to Dumbledore.
"No! You can't take them away!" Harry yelled, "Scabbers has been here since Percy's first year-no one's ever had a problem with him before! Ron will kill me if you take him away!"
Harry tried to appeal to Dumbledore, "Please, sir, they aren't causing any trouble!"
"Harry," The headmaster said, his eyes twinkling, but his tone firm, "Why don't you go and explain to your dog, Wolfsbane, is it?" At Harry's nod he continued, "Tell him that things will be much easier for him if he willingly comes here and explains himself to me. Tell him that he'd be much better off telling me than say…a group of aurors?"
Harry looked very confused and asked, "What does that even mean?"
"Tell him to bring the rat too," Professor Lupin demanded.
"And bring Ronald's rat as well," Dumbledore added gently.
"Keep it in its cage," Professor Lupin told Harry.
Harry drew himself in righteous anger and demanded, "Why do you hate animals so much?"
"Harry," Dumbledore said firmly, "do calm down. No one is in trouble and I'm sure Professor Lupin does not hate animals. Now please, Harry, just do as we've asked-please ask Wolfsbane to come here and talk to us, and bring Scabbers along. I'm sure Professor Lupin wants you to keep him in his cage so that Bane won't attack him on the way here."
"That's right, Harry," Professor Lupin agreed, sounding exhausted, "we don't want Scabbers getting hurt and we just want to talk to Bane."
"He's a pretty smart dog," Harry told them doubtfully, "but I don't think he can talk."
Dumbledore smiled in clear amusement, "You'd be surprised what sorts of things certain animals can do."
"How am I supposed to get into the tower if it's locked, though?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore looked like he hadn't thought of this and after a bit of thought finally said, "When you get to the guardian portrait for Gryffindor Tower instead of your password say 'Nitwit Blubber Oddment Tweak.'"
Harry blinked in confusion and asked, "Wasn't that your opening speech my first year?"
Dumbledore seemed to have forgotten what he said, "Wasn't what, now?"
"Um…nothing," Harry replied and he stood to go up to the tower to get Wolfsbane and Scabbers so they could talk to the headmaster and Professor Lupin.
"Harry," Dumbledore said, his voice soothing, "don't worry, it is certainly not my wish to remove Wolfsbane from you or Scabbers from Mr. Weasley. Professor Lupin and I just need to sort something out."
Harry for some reason felt like Dumbledore was telling the truth and that by the end of the day he could go back up to his dorm and do his homework with Wolfsbane's help. Harry stood up and left the office, Professor Lupin stared at him, as though willing Harry to forgive him for doing this. Harry ignored him.
He slowly made his way through empty halls and up to the Gryffindor Tower, there was no one in the hallway and the fat lady simply sighed at him and said, "I'm sorry dear, I'm not to let anyone in, even with the password."
Harry hoped he remembered the order correctly and said, "Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak."
The portrait immediately opened, which was bizarre because it normally seemed as if the fat lady had to acknowledge that you'd given the password. The portrait closed automatically behind him and Harry went up to his dorm and found Wolfsbane asleep on his bed.
"Bane," Harry called, and he immediately woke up and then looked at Harry questioningly. Bane probably knew he was supposed to be in class, but he nonetheless jumped down from Harry's bed and trotted over to him.
"Um…Professor Lupin said something to the headmaster this morning at breakfast," Harry told Wolfsbane, "and they took me up to Dumbledore's office and asked me a lot of questions about you."
Wolfsbane stopped in his progress and waited to see if Harry was going to say more.
"They say that they want you to come with me and talk to them, which is stupid because you can't talk, and they said…what was it…that it would easier if you talked to them, instead of a bunch of aurors."
Wolfsbane slumped to the ground.
"The weird thing is that they want me to bring Scabbers too," Harry added, rolling his eyes, and Wolfsbane jumped up, tail wagging and went to wait by the door for Harry. Harry blinked in confusion and went to grab Scabbers' cage, Scabbers seemed to have found a second wind and was scurrying around the cage desperately, climbing and chewing everything he could reach, including Harry's fingers.
"Ow!" Harry yelled, shaking the cage roughly, "You'd better be nice to me, you stupid rat!"
Harry took his time going up to the headmaster's office, and spent the whole walk telling Wolfsbane just how much he loved him, even though he was a dog. The closer they got to Dumbledore's office, though the less sure Wolfsbane became. When they'd left the dorm, Bane's tail had been wagging firmly and he looked very happy, but now his tail was nearly dragging the ground and he would look over in the direction of the main entrance every so often.
"Dumbledore said it would be okay once everything was sorted out," Harry told Wolfsbane, "it'll be okay."
But Harry wasn't sure it would be.
When Harry arrived at Dumbledore's office the gargoyle automatically leapt aside and Harry and Wolfsbane walked into the staircase. Dumbeldore and Professor Lupin were waiting for them at the open door.
Professor Lupin immediately took the cage from Harry's hands and began studying the frantic rodent inside.
Dumbledore knelt down in front of Wolfsbane, a funny sight and studied the dog very closely.
"I am pleased you could join us Mr.-"
"Wolfsbane," Professor Lupin interjected firmly and Dumbledore smiled widely and agreed, "Mr. Wolfsbane, indeed."
Dumbledore held out his hand and Wolfsbane stuck his paw gingerly atop of it. Dumbledore shook it gently and said, "I must say, I am impressed with your recent…achievements…" Dumbledore began frowning a little and added, "though I do not approve of them.
Wolfsbane sneezed and lowered his head submissively.
"As I'm sure Harry has told you, Remus and I wish to ask you a few questions," Dumbledore told Wolfsbane.
"This is him," Professor Lupin announced, "he's quite sickly, older and won't sit still, but I'm sure it must be him."
"You know Scabbers?" Harry demanded in complete shock.
Remus coughed, looking a bit embarrassed, and replied, "We're old friends."
"What?"
"Now, now Harry," Dumbledore said cheerfully, "I'm sure the situation is just as confusing for you as it is for me. This has been a most interesting morning."
"I suppose," Professor Lupin said slowly, and he placed the cage containing Scabbers down on the headmaster's desk, "We should start with Wolfsbane."
Wolfsbane whined and turned to look at Harry, which confused all the humans in the room. Then Bane got up and grabbed Harry's robe and pulled him to the door of Dumbledore's office.
"Ah, yes, it appears that Wolfsbane would like to speak to Professor Lupin and I in confidence." Dumbledore declared, "If you don't mind waiting outside, we'll retrieve you when we're done."
Wolfsbane let Harry go once he was on the landing outside of the door, which closed immediately when Bane backed up a few inches into the office. Harry punched the door in anger and then let out a mangled scream of pain, and sat down on the floor to nurse his hurt hand.