Chapter Forty-One: Serious Sirius

The whole of Slytherin House looked a little worse for wear the next morning.

"Hello, Harry," Neville pushed his bangs out of his face, revealing tired eyes with shadows etched underneath. "How'd you sleep?"

Harry sank into his seat next to Draco. "I had a god wake me up in the middle of the night to recite poetry at me," he reached for his plate. "Pass the bangers and mash, please."

Draco choked. Blaise patted the other boy on the back. All of them were staring.

"What?" Harry scooped out a steaming heap of potatoes. "You all told me to tell you when stuff like that happened. And I got a feather."

"What bloody kind of poetry? Feather?"

"Nothing like that, Draco," Harry made a face at the jams nearest to him and leaned across Neville to take the pot of raspberry jam from the girls.

"What – what –"

"Edgar Allen Poe," Harry spread a layer of jam onto his toast. "I would have thought The Raven would have been a better choice, but," he made a face and shrugged.

"Harry?" Draco settled a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"No," he answered, and it sounded short even to his own ears.

"Harry…"

"My, my," the nasal tones of Dolores Umbridge came from behind them. "I am most disappointed in you, Mr. Potter."

Harry's fork clattered onto his plate. He twisted in his seat to stare at the woman. Draco's hand did not leave its place on his shoulder.

"P-Professor –"

"It's all right, Harry," Draco cut in.

"Why, Mr. Malfoy, I'm surprised. I thought the two of you young men were not speaking to each other."

"Fat lot you know," Draco snarled back, causing Harry to flinch.

"Draco!"

"Really, Mr. Malfoy," Umbridge's smile was edged like a razor. "I should think that you should know better than to speak to your betters with such an insolent tone."

"You will never be my better, you –,"

"Mr. Malfoy," they all turned to see Professor Snape standing at the edge of their small crowd. They were beginning to draw stares from the other tables in the Great Hall.

"But, sir…"

"Enough. Dolores," Snape's mouth twisted the name. Umbridge scowled at him. "It is far too early in the morning to be attacking my student, don't you think?"

"Me? Attack? Come now, Severus –"

"Snape, Professor Snape," the Potions Master did not crack a smile. "And I will thank you to remember that."

"How dare you."

"Feel free to take a complaint to the Headmaster," Severus shrugged. "Do get away from my students now, Dolores."

"My name is –"

"I don't really care, and never have," Severus tossed his head, black eyes narrowing on the woman's face.

"I will have you written up, Snape! Mark my words!" The woman shook a furious finger in his face and marched off. Snape snorted and moved back to the watching Head Table. Harry could have sworn he saw McGonagall applaud the Potions Master as he sat down.

"What are you – mph!" Harry's irate question was cut off by Draco cupping his face and kissing him in front of the entire Great Hall.

"It's broken," Draco said when he finally drew away.

Harry blinked, and then lunged at Draco, causing his Housemates to snicker and cough around them. Harry didn't give a damn. Things were starting to look up.

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Umbridge's class was hellish – Harry snorted at the pun – but the annoying woman was too furious to do much more than snarl at them every time a person so much as shifted in their seat.

Once they were out of classes, Draco took Harry's good hand and dragged him to the Infirmary, Harry protesting the entire way.

"Really, Draco…"

"No, Harry."

"But…"

"Just come along."

Harry dug in his heels, but Draco was the stronger of them. Harry wasn't sure just what sort of image they made, storming into the Infirmary as they did, but it did send two Hufflepuff first years running from the room.

Harry bit back a sigh at the hit that would inevitably take to his already ruined reputation. At the point they were at, Harry was ready to give up on it and become a hermit.

"Mr. Potter? Mr. Malfoy?" Pomfrey paused in the middle of folding a great heap of bandages. "Whatever is wrong?"

"Harry's hurt," Draco said before Harry could think of an excuse to get them out of there.

"Hurt? Hurt where?"

"It's nothing…"

"Umbridge has been forcing detentions on him for months. It's hurting his hand, but she did some spell so we can't tell what's wrong."

Poppy's mouth thinned into an unhappy line. "A notice-me-not spell on a student? What is that woman thinking?" She set her bandages aside and motioned them forward.

"It's nothing, really," Harry shot a look at Draco, but the blond was unrepentant. "It only hurt – well, I don't have to go back anymore, so it'll heal up on its own…"

"Your hand, Mr. Potter," Poppy's tone booked no argument.

Harry sighed and extended the hand. He winced when Pomfrey touched his skin – the last detention with Umbridge had been long and the wounds were turning red and puffy.

Pomfrey muttered as she ran her wand over the wounded area. Each pass caused her frown to deepen. A sharp shake of her wand and a curt word in a language Harry did not recognize and then, then, Umbridge's spell dropped away.

Draco's strangled sound came from Harry's right. Pomfrey's hand tightened on his own for a moment.

"Oh, Mr. Potter," Poppy sighed. "Come along. It's good Mr. Malfoy brought you in when he did."

"But…"

Draco gave him a gentle push after the retreating nurse. They followed the woman into her private office, leaving the door open behind them.

"Sit," she pointed at a chair in front of her desk. Harry sat. She turned to peruse her shelves full of vials as Draco sank down into the seat next to him.

"This should do the trick," she plucked a few bottles from their shelves and turned around. "Mr. Malfoy, do go and get me that mixer on the cart, would you? I also need the strainer and the burner."

"But can't you…"

"Hurry now, Mr. Malfoy."

A muscle moved in the blond's jaw, but he hurried out of the room to get the items she needed.

A cold ball of dread had settled in Harry's stomach. "Mr. Potter," Poppy sat the vials onto her desk with another sigh. "I'm afraid I am bound by my oath as a healer to contact your guardian and inform him about this abuse."

"It wasn't abuse, it was Umbridge's detention!"

"Mr. Potter – Harry," she held up one hand. "Such type of corporal punishment is against Hogwarts' by-laws. I am oath bound to report this to the Headmaster and your guardian."

"You have to tell Sirius?"

"Yes, young man."

"But…" He slumped in his seat. "He'll go mental!"

"Who's going mental?" Draco asked from the door. He levitated the necessary items to Poppy's desk with a deft flick of his wrist.

"Sirius. He's going to blow a gasket if he finds out."

"Good," Draco snorted. "That should open his eyes a bit."

"But I didn't tell him about it!"

"And?"

Harry resisted the urge to yank at his hair. "He'll go mental, Draco. He'll be mad at me for not telling him."

"If you explain…"

"I really do need to take a report of this," Poppy interrupted. Harry slumped further into his chair and closed his eyes.

Please don't be mad, Sirius. Please don't be mad…

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The next week passed in fits and starts for Harry. Classes were gearing up for their first major tests of the winter term. Dumbledore had taken Umbridge aside the night Pomfrey had handed in her report – but the Ministry-backed woman had stayed and the Headmaster had not looked pleased with whatever conversation he had had with the current Minister about his appointed servant in the school.

Harry had breathed a sigh of relief when Ginny told him that Sirius and Remus were off on another trip – a relief that was short lived when the doors to the Great Hall slammed open that Friday next, displaying one enraged Sirius Black storming into the castle during supper.

"You!" Sirius' advance on the Head Table caused some chairs to scrape back. Harry watched, his bandaged hand hovering halfway between his mouth and his plate.

Umbridge stumbled to her feet, her chair clattering to the ground behind her. "Mr. Black, how kind of you to come. I'm sure you've received my letter –"

"Oh, I've received letters all right!" the animagus shook a fistful of parchment at the woman. A man Harry did not recognize trailed after Sirius and Remus. The werewolf was staring at the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with enough venom to shock Harry.

"Letters, you old hag, do not explain your behavior! How dare you use corporal punishment on Harry – a declared Dark corporal punishment that was banned over a century ago! You have no right, you wench!"

"My duties, as outlined by the Minister's orders –"

"You will never touch him again!"

"As my right," she continued on, glaring right back at Sirius. "I will discipline Mr. Potter as I please!"

"The hell you will!" Sirius reached back and dragged the nameless man forward. "You tell her, Fortin."

The startled man drew himself to his full height and straightened his robe. "As per the by-laws of the Ministry's Dark Arts Law, subsection 302, paragraph J, I am hereby delivering to you your cease and desist letter, as well as a restraining order, to be viewed and judged by his Honor Brackcourt on the twenty-fifth of this month."

"You wouldn't dare!" The woman shrieked.

"Oh, you bet I dare!" Sirius roared right back.

"Judge Brackcourt hasn't tried a case in a decade!"

"Tough!" Sirius planted his hands onto the Head Table with enough force to make the teacher's plates jump. "Now, move."

"I will not, I am a professor here –"

"As per the writ of protection," the law wizard cut in. "You have no other recourse but to leave. The law will not allow you to stay in the same residence as the victim. You may, of course, file a complaint, but until the court date on the twenty-fifth, you must abide by the Ministry's law."

"Victim? Victim? That lying little scamp isn't a victim, he's the one hurting others, he's the one putting us all into mortal peril and our souls into –"

"Enough!" Sirius roared, shocking the room to silence. "Move," he snarled. Umbridge fled. Dumbledore rose from his seat, giving Sirius a troubled look as he trailed after the fleeing woman.

Sirius spun on his heel. "You," he stabbed a finger at Harry. "Come with me, now."

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Harry followed the animagus out into the chilly hall as Remus saw the law wizard to the apparition point of Hogwarts. Harry wished Remus had stayed – Sirius was livid.

"You – you – you," Sirius ran a hand through already messy hair, pacing the width of the hall. Draco had been told by an irate Sirius to stay where he was. None of the Slytherin table had taken that well. Ginny had also been told to stay behind as well. "Harry, you're supposed to tell me these things!"

"But I couldn't."

"You were being injured by one of your professors and you never said anything! Harry! You're not supposed to hurt yourself like that!"

"But I couldn't…"

"And you were sitting with Malfoy! Don't think I didn't see that, young man! How you got Ginny to cover for you, I don't know, but it will stop, this instant, do you hear me? Merlin knows what kind of crap he's convinced you of –," Sirius turned on the ball of his foot, causing Harry to shrink back as the animagus rounded on him. "Was he the one, Harry?'

"He, who – what?"

"Did Malfoy tell you not to tell me about being hurt? Did he fill your head with some sort of persecuted nonsense –"

"Of course not!" Harry cried.

"Then why didn't you tell me!"

"Because you wouldn't have believed me!" Harry rocked back onto his heels at the words that came out of his mouth.

"Of course I would have!"

"No," Harry shook his head. "You wouldn't have been able to see it, you would have said I was lying again." His eyes felt hot and his throat tight. "You would have threatened me with Fondorn again."

"Threatened you? Harry, what kind of nonsense –"

"You were supposed to believe me!" Harry shouted at the man. "Not that bloody Healer who doesn't know a damn thing, me! Your godson. My word was supposed to be better than his, but you never listened!"

"Harry Potter, that is enough!"

"No! I refuse to shut up!" Harry was shaking, light headed from rage and relief. He refused to be silent. Not anymore. "I see gods, Sirius! I meet people, creatures, legends in the Otherworld! I've been there and you think I'm lying! I keep trying to tell you something is wrong, but you won't listen! You won't listen and you make that idiot treat me, and make me worse and I won't do it anymore!"

"Harry," Sirius looked stricken.

"You never ask about the dreams where I wake up screaming," Harry felt hot tracks on his face, but didn't care. "You never asked what the Dursleys did to me – no, it was always the Malfoys who did this to me – they were the ones who helped me! They were the ones to get me out of the hell that was the Dursleys! They treated me normally, like I wasn't some freak! They –"

"Enough," Sirius raised one shaking hand. Harry's heart squeezed, both in hope and dread. Sirius was so pale…"Harry…what have they done to you?" Sirius shook his head. "Oh, Harry…You're not a Seer, Harry, your family has never had the trait." He took a hold of Harry's shoulders as the younger man stared up into the animagus' face. "You went through a terrible ordeal, and I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, kiddo. But I promise, I promise, we'll figure this out, okay? Everything – it's all just – I'll help you, Harry, I promise…"

That was the last thing Harry heard before the pull of the portkey yanked his feet out from under him and the world went dark.

End Chapter Forty-One