Disclaimer: Not mine, Not now, Not ever.

The Brotherhood

~~~ Chapter Fifteen ~~~

Sirius blinked in surprise.

"You do? You believe me that easily?" he asked.

Harry was also staring at Remus in surprise.

Remus felt awkward as the pair of them gaped at him.

"I think I never really thought you were guilty…or at least, I had hoped," Remus murmured, his eyes flickering downward.

Sirius jumped to his feet then. "But this is a good thing! We thought you'd need more proof, so we tried to catch Wormtail, but he left the Weasley house, so we picked up Ginny instead," he told his friend.

Just then, a knock on the door startled them all.

Sirius glanced hurriedly at Harry and then at Remus.

"Hide in my room," Remus suggested.

Both of the escapees rushed in that direction as Remus went over to open the door.

Once sure that the bedroom door was closed, Remus opened the main door to find Ginny standing there. She glanced past him, searching the room for a second before saying, "Did you happen to spot a large black dog around here?"

Remus knew that she was asking, in a way, if Sirius and Harry had come to find him yet.

"Indeed I have," Remus replied.

Ginny looked slightly relieved at his casual reply.

"Are they still here then?" she asked, dropping pretences.

"Yes. They're just hiding," he answered, then pulled the door open wider to allow her entrance.

Ginny entered, feeling slightly awkward at being the quarters of a teacher who had been avoiding her since the start of the school year.

Remus simply closed the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed, the bedroom door opened and Sirius came out, followed by Harry.

"I thought you were going to bed?" Sirius asked.

"I thought I had better come back to make sure you weren't getting yourself killed or something," Ginny smirked, "But, it looks like you did fine without me."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "We can do stuff without your help. We did manage to escape from Azkaban, after all."

"Yes, but you were the one who got yourself in there, in the first place," Ginny retorted.

"What is Harry's story, then?" Remus questioned suddenly. He had been watching the boy and noticed that he was particularly quiet, having not said a single word.

Sirius and Ginny turned to look at him. "You don't think he's innocent?" Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. "I think he's innocent. I always have. Harry couldn't possibly have done something like that," Remus explained.

Sirius looked at him incredulously. "You didn't believe that I was innocent, but you had known me for over ten years, whereas, you knew Harry was innocent when you hadn't even met him?" he protested.

"Look at the circumstances, Sirius. They are entirely different," Remus pointed out.

Sirius couldn't protest that.

~~~TB ~~~

The next week was spent with catching up going on between Remus and Sirius. Remus spent all of his free time in his quarters, and they talked of old times. Ginny continued going to her classes, and Harry tagged along with her, but only because Sirius had insisted he get some kind of education. Of course, Harry was under a disillusionment charm, with his cloak over that, just to make sure he wouldn't be spotted.

Harry avoided Dumbledore completely, because he remembered, from his first year, when he had found the mirror, and Dumbledore had seen through his cloak. He didn't want Dumbledore to figure him out.

However, some things just don't work to his advantage.

Harry walked down the hallway, alone. Ginny was at lunch and Harry was headed back to Remus' quarters, where he would eat. Every day, Remus ordered food from the house elves and then ate in his quarters with the two ex-prisoners. Remus made sure to only allow Dobby in his quarters, because the overexcited house elf was the only one that they were sure wouldn't reveal their presence to Dumbledore. This was proven in how much he still worshiped Harry.

Turning the corner, Harry ran right into someone, and his cloak was knocked off of him. Looking down at who he had run into, he was surprised to see Hermione, on the ground. She was staring at him, horror on her face, and he belated realized that he had forgotten to put on the disillusionment charm that morning.

Grabbing her hand, he pulled her into an empty classroom nearby. She had stumbled away from him as soon as possible, and was watching him from across the room.

For a moment they both just stared, then Hermione whispered, "What are you doing here?"

Harry frowned as he heard the fear in his voice.

"Are you here to kill me?" she questioned.

"Why would I kill you?" he asked.

"I don't know. You already murdered one of your so called friends," she retorted.

Harry winced, as he did every time someone mentioned Ron.

"I didn't," Harry pleaded.

Hermione shook her head. She would not be easily convinced.

Harry knew that it was unlikely that Hermione would ever believe his innocence. He knew that she had loved Ron, even if Ron hadn't quite admitted to loving her back. She would never forgive him for supposedly killing him.

"Why did you bring me in her then?" Hermione questioned.

"You saw me. I can't just let you leave. I know you'll tell someone," Harry replied.

"So then what are you going to do?" Hermione asked, her voice quiet.

"I don't know," Harry murmured. Hermione narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Harry wished that he knew a memory charm, but it was only Sirius who knew those, and he had never thought to ask Sirius how to do them.

"So you're just going to keep me in here forever?" she asked, glaring.

Harry sighed. "No, you can go," then he stepped away from the doorway.

Hermione looked startled.

"You'll let me go even though I'll tell?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded tightly.

Hermione's gaze softened slightly, and she looked at him, considering, but it only lasted a second, and her glare was back.

The girl walked around the room, toward the doorway, which Harry willingly moved further away from, to allow her to pass.

At the doorway, Hermione paused and looked back at him.

"Why?" she asked softly, her wide eyes studying him.

Harry shrugged. "You're smart, figure it out."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, and then hurried from the room.

As soon as Hermione was gone, Harry wrapped the invisibility cloak around him and rushed from the room. He broke out into a full out run as he went toward Remus' quarters. He had to warn Sirius and they had to get out of there immediately.