Hiding at Hogwarts
~ by Healer Pomfrey ~
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
14 – Dog and Rat Meals
To Harry's surprise, Ron Weasley's voice screamed through the Great Hall as soon as he opened the red letter.
'HARRY POTTER. WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO GET MORE ATTENTION? THE ORDER OF MERLIN FOR HELPING THE GREASY GIT TO PREPARE SOME INGREDIENTS IN SPITE OF NOT BEING ABLE TO EVEN BREW A SIMPLE POTION ON YOUR OWN?
THANKS FOR SENDING SNAPE TO OUR PLACE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. DUE TO THE THINGS MY BROTHERS TOLD MY PARENTS AFTER HIS VISIT, THEY DECIDED TO SEND ME TO DURMSTRANG FROM THE NEXT SCHOOL YEAR ONWARDS.
THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT FRIEND.'
Harry listened to the voice of his former best friend in disbelief. He still sat there in shock even minutes after the other boy's voice had completely faded, unaware of the concerned looks the teachers cast at him.
"Harry?" The Headmistress was the first who spoke up, pulling him out of his reverie.
"Yes," he replied, absentmindedly playing with his fork.
"This is not your fault, Harry, and the decision of sending Ronald to Durmstrang was made by his parents, his oldest brothers and himself two weeks ago. It has nothing to do with the Order of Merlin. This is just Ronald's jealousy speaking."
"Exactly," Severus threw in.
"But if..."
"No but if's, Harry," Professor Lupin spoke up in a soft voice. "Of course I don't know your friend, but from all I heard, you have been a good friend to him and even let him in on your secrets when he came here for your birthday. It is not your fault but his own."
"Thank you," Harry replied, giving his new Head of House a weak smile, before he turned to his guardian. "Professor Snape, is there anything I could do to convince his parents otherwise? Would it be possible to obliviate Ron for example?"
"Obliviating someone is very dangerous, Mr. Potter," Professor Flitwick threw in excitedly.
"I agree with Professor Flitwick, Harry," Severus said. "However, you could write him a letter and once again explain your point of view. If he agrees to accept the situation as it his, maybe he'll be able to convince his parents to allow him to remain at Hogwarts."
"I'll try that right away," Harry decided, and as soon as the meal was over, he headed into his room and composed his letter.
To Harry's great disappointment, he didn't receive a reply from Ron, and when he asked Professor McGonagall two days before the beginning of the school year, the Headmistress told him that she hadn't heard anything either. 'So that means Ron won't come back,' Harry thought in disappointment, while he absentmindedly played with his food until Professor Lupin's calm voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Harry, there is something that we need to tell you. Have you ever heard of Sirius Black?"
Harry scrunched his face in thought. 'Black?' he mused, 'Wasn't that my father's friend of whom Severus told me a few weeks ago?' He uncertainly voiced his thoughts, noticing that his Head of House threw Severus a surprised look that made the Potions Master quickly explain what he had told him. Professor Lupin nodded in appreciation and informed Harry about Sirius Black being his parents' Secret Keeper and being locked into Azkaban for murder until he managed to flee a few weeks ago.
"Unfortunately," the Headmistress took over, "we are afraid that he might have broken out in order to get to you. Therefore, we do not want you to leave the castle on your own, and you may only attend the Hogsmeade visits in company of a teacher. Do you understand me, Harry? This is very important."
"I understand," Harry confirmed. On the one hand, he was very disappointed not to be allowed to go to Hogsmeade just with his friends; on the other hand, he was glad that the teachers had explained everything to him before the beginning of the school year. 'Maybe it's good that Dumbledore isn't the Headmaster anymore,' he thought. 'He always kept everything from me in spite of needing my help in the end.'
"Harry, on a different note, would you like to ride the Hogwarts Express, or do you want to meet your friends when they arrive here?" Professor Lupin asked kindly.
"I'd love to ride the train, because otherwise everyone would wonder where I was," Harry replied firmly.
"Very well then, in that case I'll take you with me to King's Cross, since I'm going to ride the train as well in order to make sure that everything is all right. We'll leave at ten o'clock."
"Thank you, Professor Lupin," Harry said in a soft voice. 'I'm so glad that everyone is going to come back, but it'll be sad without Ron,' he thought, unaware of the fact that he would regret boarding the train two days later.
When Dementors searched the train for Sirius Black, Harry heard a strange voice and fainted, which made his Head of House, who unfortunately witnessed the scene, take him to Madam Pomfrey as soon as they arrived at Hogwarts, after he told Hermione that the Headmistress wanted to speak with her before the Welcoming Feast. When the Mediwitch instructed Harry to stay in the hospital wing overnight, Professor Lupin saved him by suggesting that he could spend the night in his own rooms, where Severus could keep an eye on him.
'Professor Lupin is a good Head of House. Somehow he seems to be more personal than McGonagall, although I like her too,' Harry thought, while he scrambled into bed with a huge pile of chocolate next to him on his night table. 'As much as I preferred to spend the evening in Gryffindor with my friends, it's better to be here than in the hospital wing. Gryffindor will be so quiet and sad without Ron though. I wonder if he likes it in Durmstrang. I don't even know where that is. I've never heard of it. At least I can ask the twins to tell me if they hear from him.'
"Harry, don't fall asleep without eating all of your chocolate," Helga's stern voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he saw the mini portrait that was standing on the night table glare at him.
~ 100 days later ~
It was a few months later, on the first day of the winter holidays, that Harry received a letter from the twins, while he was eating breakfast in the Great Hall together with the teachers.
'Dear Harry,
As you know we have made all kinds of effort to talk Ronniekins into trying to make our parents let him come back to Hogwarts the whole time, and now something happened that might make him agree.
Do you remember his rat, Scabbers? Anyway, a black dog, according to our small brother it looked like a grim, came and ate his rat. We have no idea what Dumstrang is like that dogs can easily enter the school. Ronniekins is devastated and doesn't want to stay there anymore, especially as everyone seems to laugh about him, once they heard that he had transferred from Hogwarts.By the way, we hope that you and your guardian will come and visit us on Christmas Eve. Our mother is going to write an invitation to Professor Snape. We can try out our new invention.
Gred and Forge'
Harry let the parchment sink and chuckled, before he told the teachers, who were throwing him questioning looks, about the black dog that had eaten Ron's rat.
"A black dog has eaten the rat?" Professor Lupin asked in an uncharacteristically sharp voice. "Harry, do you know what kind of rat it was?"
Harry let out a thoughtful, "Hmmm, I think it's a normal garden rat, and everyone is wondering how it could live so long. Oh, and it's missing a toe. It was an ugly rat, but Ron loved it."
"That was Peter Pettigrew," Lupin said, sounding terrified, provoking a heated conversation between the teachers that Harry wasn't able to follow.
"If Pettigrew was alive, he must have had a reason to not show himself to anyone. Could it be that the Potters changed their Secret Keeper from Black to Pettigrew, and that Black escaped from Azkaban, which shouldn't be a problem in form of a dog, to get his revenge?" Severus finally asked, leaving everyone to quieten down in shock.
"That could be possible; however, if so Lily and James didn't tell anyone, not even me, and I was very close to Lily," Minerva finally spoke up pensively.
"Right, you always babysat Harry," Madam Pomfrey threw in, smiling at Harry.
"Severus and Harry, this is only a suggestion, but I'd like to suggest that the two of you, and I am very willing to help, search the Potters' vaults for any information concerning the Secret Keeper," Lupin said gently.
Severus and Harry exchanged a quick look, before they agreed, and the two professors and Harry decided to head to Gringotts first place in the morning.
"I wonder what's in the vaults," Harry mused aloud when he was having tea together with Severus later that evening. As much as he loved being in Gryffindor, he was glad that he could spend the holidays in his own quarters together with his guardian, who had completely changed his behaviour during the last six months and was like the father he never had.
"There will be many old, dusty items," Severus smirked, "but those are the most interesting. I doubt that we're going to find the information we're looking for though."
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews - you're wonderful readers! I'll try to update sooner this time!